"Elijah was giving God a rundown of his feelings.

The emotions were big.

He gets just about as real as it gets:

"I've had enough. I want to die!"

(We love our drama)

"I'm the only real Believer left."

(We love our self righteousness)

"Look at what I did!"

(We love our accreditations)

"There's nobody I can trust!"

(We love our alienation)

"I feel like nobody cares if I die!"

(We love our loneliness)

"There are people who hate me!"

(We love our fears)

Does any of that sound familiar?

Granted, Elijah was undeniably between a rock and a hard place.

God seems to do some good work in those places, doesn't He?

While giving up was what seemed

to be his only option, God simply will

not have it.

Not in Elijah and not in me."

Ann Stewart Porter.

The following quote is about the Holy Spirit and how He gives us words to speak and deep insights into others. 

“There is no human being to whom we look with so true a faith, as to him who shows himself deep-read in the mysteries within us; 

who seems to have dwelt where Omniscience only had access, 

who put into words weaknesses 

which we had hardly dared to confess in thought; 

who appears to have trembled with our own anxieties, and wept our very tears.

 This initiation into the interior nature is the quality which, above all others, gives one mind heavenly influence over another, and only comes from the Holy Spirit. 

If it comes upon us from someone, with the living tones of a friendly voice, we listen as to the breathings of inspiration; 

That a being, perhaps, distant and unknown, should have so penetrated our subtlest emotions, 

and caught our most transient attitudes of thought, should have so detected the excuses we give to our conscience, 

and witnessed the miseries of our temptations, 

and known the sacredness of our affections, 

that we appear revealed anew even to ourselves, truly reveals the heart of God and His power to save. 

 It is a triumph peculiar to those who Christ has taught to love the sympathies of their kind, and because they love them, instinctively appreciate and understand them. 

It is essentially the triumph which Christ won when the minions of tyranny and hypocrisy shrunk back from him in awe, saying, 

'Never a man spake like this man.' 

 

“For my sword shall be bathed in heaven.” Is. 34:5

“We cannot live in a tumultuous world of inner rage and nurse a root of bitterness against our enemies and consider our sword bathed in heaven. 

Our weapons must be spiritual, 

not lending themselves to hostile, 

spiteful, 

venomous thrusts at our adversary: 

These weapons will hinder and delay the cause of righteousness.

The sword of righteous indignation must be, “bathed in heaven.”

“If our enemy pollutes our society, infringes on our freedoms or defames our religion, we must still, love our enemies, pray for our enemies, and confront always as Christ taught us of himself, “learn of me for I am gentle and humble at heart”. If we fight evil with evil, sin with sin, we are not using the 

“Sword bathed in heaven.” 

 

I met with the supervisor of the men at Union Gospel Mission today.

We were joined by one of the men in the program that asked if I could be his mentor.  So the three of us went out to lunch to talk.

The Holy Spirit opened the hearts, and the conversations we had, and the meeting went so well.

When lunch was over, we walked back to the mission having set up a time for the next meeting between just the two of us. We all shook hands and hugged as we said our goodbyes.

I began walking back to my car when a man, who looked like a dock worker, short in stature, probably late fifties, missing every other tooth, smiled and said to me, “I’d like a hug too!” I smiled back and said sure. So the two of us, complete strangers, gave each other a hug.

He said, “That felt good!”

Now I’m not usually a huggie kind of guy, but that hug did feel good! I agreed with him, we both smiled and went our separate ways.

When I got back to my car I wondered about how warm and heartfelt that hug felt; and I couldn’t help but wonder if I just hugged an Angel unaware?

Jesus always, and I do mean always, floods me with His presence when I do anything, no matter how small, with the hurting in crisis. 

His approach to me was so unusual that it left me wondering. As I was driving home, I second guessed myself and thought, maybe I should have engaged him in conversation? But as I was walking away from him, I turned the corner and there was a young woman, probably late twenties? And she was in an alcove with her face right up towards the wall. She was talking a mile a minute and at first I thought she was on a phone but her body language was like she was tweeking, and the alcove had such a strong smell of urine I knew no one would normally stand there. The walls were painted black, symbolic of the moment. I parked right where she was, and I sat there considering what, if anything I could do. 

Experience has taught me approaching a woman in circumstances like that rarely have a good outcome. So I sat there for a minute, feeling impotent; then I drove off, heart longing to help but.......

 

"We don't mean to completely sever men from others in the church or organization in the area of well doing, for we have said there are many good deeds which can only be accomplished by numbers. 

But generally speaking, we can do the most good by individual action, and our own virtue is incomparably more improved by it. It is vastly better that we should give our own money with our hands, from our own judgment, and through personal interest in the distresses of others, than that we should send it by a substitute like a church. Second-hand charity is not as good to the giver or receiver as immediate personal help. 

When we are personally involved we will almost certainly put forth more of our intellect and heart, more of sympathy and strenuous purpose, and shall awaken more of virtuous sensibility in those whom we relieve, than if we were to be a part of a multitude in accomplishing the same end. 

One good action, springing from our own minds, performed from a principle within, performed without the excitement of an urging and approving voice from abroad, is worth more than hundreds which grow from mechanical imitation, or from the heat and impulse which a group or persuasive speaker can give us.  

 

 This is a recent photo from the streets of Spokane Washington.  

What a nightmare! We watch our country, ravaged by drugs and alcohol, descend and implode. What can be done? 

I often hear Christians say, "You can't help people in addiction until they are ready to help themselves." Or, "You are wasting your time until they want to stop." 

But Jesus didn't take that approach, rather, He said, 

 "You have heard others say, be patient, we have four more months to wait before the crops are ready for harvest. But I say, take a closer look and you will see that the fields are ripe and ready for the harvest."

For a Christian to sit and watch the gates of hell pour into our streets and say, 'Be patient, we can do nothing, it's too early, the harvest isn't attainable yet.' That contradicts every thing Jesus did and the Apostles after him, that went to barbaric countries, tribes and cultures where even greater evils than we face, dominated. 

We can all pray, and some of us can spark hope that change can happen by simple acts of kindness. Another may help spark hope by sitting with them and praying for them; another may share a timely word from scripture; another may help strengthen their resolve; and other guide and teach the way to overcome; another to help point out triggers to prevent relapse; another to support inner city missions. 

We can all do something, but to do nothing is not the way of Christ's kingdom. 

 

 

“Take a careful look at my servant, my chosen one. 

I love him dearly and I find all my delight in him. 

I will breathe my Spirit upon him and he will decree justice to the nations. 

He will not quarrel or raise his voice in public. 

He won’t brush aside the bruised and broken. 

He will be gentle with the weak and feeble, 

until his victory releases justice. 

And the fame of his name will birth hope among the people.”

‭‭Matthew‬ ‭12‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭

This passage describes the ministry of Jesus, and the ministry we are to continue. 

  

 "One of the wonders I witness in the work of God’s Holy Spirit, is the call to adventure that is awakened in those where He is moving. 

I see and hear it in word and song. Every note, lyric and verse is a key unlocking a door to some new possibility. 

Every prayer, touch and tear an opening to becoming someone we’ve never fully knew we were meant to be, or doing something we didn’t imagine we would do. 

It’s a daring act to open any door, talk or listen to a stranger or sing a song that calls upon the Divine. 

Adventures unfold in unexpected places, moments and faces. In the realm of God a mere confession, plea, loving intercession, an embrace or holding the hand of one trembling in the awakening of spiritual Light and Life, is a step into the wild and unknown journey God is calling us to begin. 

These adventures can unravel our seemingly neat and tidy lives or bound and broken souls. Whatever our habitations may be, we all can discover we’ve become too comfortable and are in danger of attracting wandering wizards with unexpected invitations. 

“Jesus replied, “If you only knew the gift God has for you and who you are speaking to, you would ask me, and I would give you living water.” (John 4:10)

“If you only knew…”

What a line. 

One sip of living water and everything is about to change. 

It’s a dangerous thing stepping outside the door of your normal routine. God is on the move and he’s searching for someone whose “apparently settled down immovably” but is actually a perfect choice for an unexpected journey. 

You’ve been warned." 

Pastor Eric. 

 Some feelings have no words, they are too deep to fully disclose. 

The moving of the Holy Spirit among the poor and downcast, touching us with their pain, falling on us, within us, defies explanation, but it creates a throbbing hunger and thirst to be more like Jesus. 

Simple deeds, the very briefest encounters, can be so meaningful, they leave an indelible mark. To see all my sons working with the downcast, the maimed, the heartsick and oppressed, leaves me with a heart filled with unspeakable praise.                                                                                                               

Rick Warren's wife Kay defined this captivity of the soul this way, she called it a - 

"Dangerous Surrender, where we are gloriously ruined and seriously disturbed."