We all wear and have worn at some time one or all of the different faces of humanity. The widow, fatherless, stranger, prisoner, poor and sick all have their spiritual parallel which represents the nature of man, the condition of man and the heart of man. It is a state of the heart as a result of sin; the pain of the heart caused by sin, and the strain on the heart, the weight of sin. You will notice that these all have something in common; they are lonely, they are all in pain and they all suffer from a loss and deprivation of some sort. The gospel is for these. We are to reach out to all that wear these different faces of humanity. The face of the widow, alone and afraid of what tomorrow might bring. The face of the fatherless and orphan left to fend for themselves by no fault of theirs and deprived of love. The face of the stranger who is riddled with various fears because he finds himself in a strange land, away from his own people, lonely and totally alienated. The face of the prisoner, subject to indignity and shame, lonely and in pain; pain caused by loss, loss of freedom, and loss of pride. The face of the poor, hungry and thirsty, trampled on and ignored, a non-entity and an outcast. The face of the sick, suffering, alone in a world of pain that others can’t understand. What faces the Lord has come to change! The Lord relates to them all. He visits them all because He loves them all. He is the Husband of the widow Isaiah 54:4-5, the Father of the fatherless Psalms 68:5, the Friend of the stranger Matthew 25:34-46, the Companion and Redeemer of prisoners Isaiah 61:1, the Lifter up of the poor Psalms 113:7, and the Nurse and Healer of the sick Exodus 15:26. What a Savior! What a gospel!
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