My sons and their children and dogs will begin departing today and by tomorrow sometime, all will have returned to their homes. We’ve had a wonderful time consisting of kayaking, boating, fishing, shooting sporting clays, hunting, riding horses and four wheelers, kids playing with toys of every description, attending church together, and near constant eating that has left us all bloated and ready for fasting and diets.
After the storm has passed our house will no longer be strewn with toys and return to its OCD-clean state. The bedlam will be replaced with eerie quiet and my wife and I will talk about how much we miss our kids and grandkids.
We aren’t unlike other families all over the country at this time of year; however not all. Some are struggling just to stay warm and have a roof over their heads. A couple of weeks ago I wrote about a family that was really suffering. One child agonizes from a debilitating disease which has resulted in several brain surgeries and will soon need both hips replaced. It turns out that the mother and the other child have now developed the same disease. The mother works part time at a restaurant and makes a very small salary and they had no money to buy food or gifts for the kids for Thanksgiving or Christmas.
Our church organized a food drive to give unfortunate families a nice Thanksgiving dinner which we did and then Christmas was upon us. We organized another food drive and bought presents for the kids with money raised in our tiny church and by you, (the readers of Words for the Day). Two of our church members came by our house to pick up the last of the canned goods and food to take to them on Christmas Eve
We were all feeling good about it until we discovered that this same family’s electric bill had not been paid and their electricity was going to be shut off and the same with the rent and they were facing eviction. (How about that situation for a wonderful Christmas . . . )
So we started scrambling and looking for funds to help them, but it was looking pretty hopeless. My wife pulled me aside yesterday and told me that our church benevolence fund had been depleted and it appeared as though we would not have enough money to pay their electric bill and the rent. She’d just called our pastor to discuss the dire circumstance but he was beaming. He proudly told her that one of the readers of Words for the Day had just sent a check designated for this family that happened to be the precise amount of money that we needed to pay their electric bill and take care of their rent which will keep them warm and a roof over their heads at least for a while.
Praise God and THANK YOU!
The Bible states that we should help the poor and downtrodden. As I’ve studied the life of Jesus, a repeating pattern of behavior is quite evident. I’m writing a little book/booklet about that subject now entitled: “A typical Day in the Life of Jesus”. Jesus woke up in the morning and the first thing He did was pray; and then throughout each day He witnessed, He discipled, and He helped everyone He ever encountered that needed help and engaged in what I call “compassion ministry”. Jesus was perfect in every way. We know that we should strive to emulate Him in every way. The closer we come to succeeding, the more we will be blessed.
To those of you who participated in this work, (and others), listen to the Spirit of God:
1 John 3:17 – If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion–how can God’s love be in that person?
James 2:16 – If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself . . .
The love of Christ and our faith in Him is expressed by following His lead with action and not merely by words. Mother Teresa was once tenderly holding a dying leper in her arms and softly comforting him and was asked how she could deal with the horror of it all, and she replied that when she looked into their faces she saw the face of Jesus.
Though we cannot help everyone in the world, we can do our part to help someone. In case you have not discovered it yet, that someone is Jesus. Think about it during this special time of celebration and then after the last of the tail lights disappear and things return to normal, and then find YOUR opportunity and MAKE IT HAPPEN! You won’t be sorry, but if you do nothing, according to this passage you might be truly sorry . . .
Matthew 25:40
Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ “Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
December 31, 2014 – Click here to listen