Who are the 'poor'?

I have gone into this topic before from the standpoint of offerings and tithing and looking at the example of the family with nothing that gave and how we should be cheerful in giving them.

In this thread, I am asking, who really are the poor? That family never felt itself to be poor in any way, in fact they felt rich in Gods love and blessings and never felt they had any needs that God could not provide.

Well on vacation, I came across something that made me question who are the poor. Some of the friends that went with us took us to some of their relatives that lived way back in the hills. We stayed in a clean nice concrete house with no frills where the water came on only during the day and air conditioning was by nature. On Sabbath morning we went over to see another relative, whose house was much 'poorer' by my estimate, it was a wooden shack basically and had a tin roof with tiny rooms and bare light bulbs and gas stove. They cooked us 'mofongo' which is fried plantain bannana balls with eggs and juice all from their back yard garden. They treated us a family and had no feeling or sense of being 'poor'. They then got their Sabbath School lesson and prepared for church as any Adventist would, happy to have shared with us what food and fellowship they provided.

Were they 'poor', maybe from my perspective, but from theirs, they felt very rich in the love of Christ and Gods blessings...

So who truly are the 'poor'...?

And this commandment have we from him, That he who loveth God love his brother also......

This question reminds me of a similar one- who is my neighbour?

In my mind the answer is, Anyone who needs our help.

Hai,

I suppose the sermon on the hill by Christ.. the one saying blessed are they that bla bla .. are speaking of different types of poverty and how they will be blessed because of it. Perhaps that could be of further definition to the poor.

God bless,
Raphael

"The poverty threshold, or poverty line, is the minimum level of income deemed necessary to achieve an adequate standard of living in a given country... Determining the poverty line is usually done by finding the total cost of all the essential resources that an average human adult consumes in one year."


"David Gordon's paper, "Indicators of Poverty & Hunger", for the United Nations, further explains that absolute poverty is the absence of any two of the following eight basic needs:[2]

• Food: Body Mass Index must be above 16.
  
• Safe drinking water: Water must not come from solely rivers and ponds, and must be available nearby (less than 15 minutes' walk each way).
  
• Sanitation facilities: Toilets or latrines must be accessible in or near the home.
  
• Health: Treatment must be received for serious illnesses and pregnancy.
  
• Shelter: Homes must have fewer than four people living in each room. Floors must not be made of dirt, mud, or clay.
  
• Education: Everyone must attend school or otherwise learn to read.
  
• Information: Everyone must have access to newspapers, radios, televisions, computers, or telephones at home.
  
• Access to services: This item is undefined by Gordon, but normally is used to indicate the complete panoply of education, health, legal, social, and financial (credit) services."

Source:wikipedia.org

I believe that being poor is a state of mind, or it can be defined by the level of one's income by Shane's post, or defined by comparison. Go to third world countries and you will soon conclude that the "poor" people in the USA are rich compared to them. I'm a pauper compared to Warren Buffet or Bill Gates, but living like a king compared to most third world people.

Gerry

I believe the poor are those who are intolerant of others, who seek power in thier church families and who have thier own identity instead of Christ's. God Bless jan

Some thoughts on the Poor ...

I thought I knew what poor was. Then I started doing mission work in the Philippines. I will not tell you all I saw. Many don't have the stomach for it. I dislike those pictures of deformed children. But I now have a completely different viewpoint.

I saw cripple people with no crutches crawling on the ground.
I saw babies with no clothes because they were to poor for baby clothes. Lots of them.
I saw a mother of 5 die from a tooth abscess because she had no money for dental care.

I could write for hours.

I now know who the poor are.