August 10, 2003:

Jesus' message is remarkably simple. Give all your possessions to the destitute and follow me. Don't worry about making a living. God will take care of you.

In my mind the picture this paints is very much like the wandering monks of Thailand. In orange robes they walk barefoot from town to town, eating the food people leave for them. People's houses have little wooden boxes out front near the roadside which look like country mailboxes in the U.S. Inside they leave small bowls of rice or vegetables as offerings for the mendicants. This is how they live.

In American society today there's one group who live in a way which somewhat resembles Jesus' call. They are, of course, the homeless.

Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. — Matthew 8:20

If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. — Matthew 19:21

So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has, he cannot be My disciple. — Luke 14:33

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Consider the ravens, for they neither sow nor reap, which have neither storehouse nor barn; and God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds? — Luke 12:22 & 12:24