Vision provides a clear picture of a preferred future according to God's will for an individual, team, church, or organization. A godly vision is described in Ephesians 3:20--God's desire is to bless his people. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, we receive specific instructions for engaging in activities of compassion and justice.

Isaiah 58:7-11
Share your food with everyone who is hungry; share your home with the poor and homeless. Give clothes to those in need; don't turn away your relatives. Then your light will shine like the dawning sun and you will quickly be healed. Your honesty will protect you as your advance, and the glory of the Lord will defend you from behind. Give your food to the hungry and care for the homeless. Then your light will shine in the dark; your darkest hour will be like the noonday sun. The Lord will always guide you and provide good things to eat when you are in the desert. You will be like a garden that has plenty of water or like a stream that never runs dry. (CEV)

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world. (NIV)

Luke 14:13, 14
When you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. They cannot pay you back. But God will bless you and reward you when his people rise from death. (CEV)

Matthew 19:21
Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell your possessions, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." (NRSV)

Colossians 3:12
Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (NIV)

Amos 5:24
But let justice and fairness flow like a river that never runs dry. (CEV)

Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (NRSV)

Matthew 23:23
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill, and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy, and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. (NIV)

Jesus preached the good news of salvation and demonstrated it with actions. His identification with the poor for the sake of their salvation is portrayed throughout scripture, and serves as a model for our ministry.

John 1:14
The Word became a human being and lived here with us. We saw his true glory, the glory of the only Son of the Father. From him all the kindness and all the truth of God have come down to us. (CEV)

2 Corinthians 8:9
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (NIV)

Matthew 14:14
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (NIV)

Mark 6:34
When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things. (NIV)

Just as God is working through us to transform the lives of others, we are also being spiritually formed as His disciples. This process is normally not comfortable or easy, as the Philippians passage states, but the reward is to truly know what it means to be saved.

John 13:35
If you love each other, everyone will know that you are my disciples. (CEV)

Philippians 2:12-14
My dear friends, you always obeyed me when I was with you. Now that I am away, you should obey even more. So work with fear and trembling to discover what it really means to be saved. God is working in you to make you willing and able to obey him. Do everything without grumbling or arguing. (CEV)

2 Timothy 2:2
You have often heard me teach. Now I want you to tell these same things to followers who can be trusted to tell others. (CEV)

Ephesians 3:20
I pray that Christ Jesus and the church will forever bring praise to God. His power at work in us can do far more than we dare ask or imagine. (CEV)

Luke 6:20, 21
Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled." (NRSV)

Matthew 25:31-46
When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. Then the King will say to those on his right, `Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' Then the righteous will answer him, `Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' The King will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.' Then he will say to those on his left, `Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' They also will answer, `Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' He will reply, `I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. (NIV)

Additional references have been compiled by other organizations and may be found at a number of websites. A comprehensive one called "God is Full of Compassion and Mercy" can be found at http://www.seekgod.org/bible/godscompassion.html using the NIV translation.

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Note: Three translations of the Holy Bible were used in this document: the New International Version (NIV), the New Revised Standard Version (NRSV), and the Contemporary English Version (CEV) for the purpose of optimal communication of the scripture to a wide audience and to reflect the variety of texts used in our Covenant churches today.