Look at this man in the photo, this fool! This pathetic specimen of weakness! He has reduced his life to an insignificant, lowly point that is detestable and despised as worthless! He has wasted his life and chosen to reduce it to less than nothing! He makes us avert our eyes, or look at him with contempt!..........Oh, but not to all.

For I see someone coming without a degree in psychology, without excellent speech or superior words of wisdom, but rather trembling in weakness, fearing for the very life, but armed with the power of God's love, demonstrating the mercy and hope of the Spirit, moved by faith declaring Christ raises the dead! Christ performs cures and casts out demons!

And do you not know that many of us see ourselves in this photo before Christ's messengers sought us out.

Photo by Cedric Hayes

 "When I used to exclaim to my love, "You make me very happy!" 
Matthew didn't usually let me get away with it. He would reply quietly, "You make yourself happy. I am simply part of it." 
That half pleased me with its scent of wisdom, for stirring my mind awake was characteristic of his impact. He would rebuke me kindly, "Say that you are happy - that pleases me, but not that I make you so. Your happiness is not mine to give or withhold and I decline to have it. That would falsify all our dealings." 
I could so easily have fallen into the premise that it was Matthew's business to make me happy. His business was to be himself, a whole person, with or without me, as it was mine to accomplish my being. Only out of this is anything like love possible. 
  I have come to believe that love is not so much an event as a disposition, not something forthcoming from others but within one's own power to pour out. We deserve the kind and amount of love we get, not in any moralistic sense but by the quality of our being. 
  In the nature of things, we meet and marry long before we are full-scale identities, but that is no excuse for staying incomplete. We love those most who make us fulfill whatever greatness lies in us, not those who induce us to resign it. 
Remember how it was at first, how you went around pouring out, and refill your reservoir from the same springs as before you met, for that is what brought love to your door."  Ms. Michael Drury. 

I like that, no, it's not gospel and it doesn't cover every circumstance, but as a generality I think it contains a lot of truth. 

  I'm reading Val Walker's book titled The Art of Comforting, and I really like it! At the end of each chapter she summarizes her main points.

  
   When I saw the look on this conductor's face, the gravity, the earnestness, it reminded me of Paul's strong exhortation for us to UP OUR GAME in these perilous times. 

"And then this do, knowing the time, that it is already the hour for you to awaken from sleep..... the night is almost gone, the the day is at hand." Ro. 13:11&12 

  In the normal flow of life the good outweighs the bad. But life has it's seasons of struggle, and sometimes they are whelming and relentless, and then, periodically, we simply have no idea how we are going to make it. But then we see the prints of others that have passed and succeeded in the way, so we dig even deeper, keep trying and find that we too, can get through this.
“I have told you these things, so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” John 16:33

  When Hurricane Katrina tore through New Orleans in 2005, Sergeant Mike Maroney saved a three-year-old girl named LayShay Brown. In 2015, Maroney launched a social media campaign to find Brown. The post went viral, and they reunited and took this photo together. Now, the two have become friends, and Maroney even went with Brown to her JROTC ball!

  This woman with cerebral palsy decided she wanted to get a manicure, and so she headed over to her local nail salon. The workers there told her they couldn't serve her because she "moved too much." Devastated, the woman went to her local Wal-Mart to buy nail polish. She told the workers there what happened, and one worker quickly volunteered to paint the woman's nail on her lunch break. 

 "There is comfort concerning such infirmities, in that your very sins move him to pity more than to anger. . . . For he suffers with us under our infirmities, and by infirmities are meant sins, as well as other miseries. . . . Christ takes part with you, and is so far from being provoked against you, as all his anger is turned upon your sin to ruin it; yes, his pity is increased the more towards you, even as the heart of a father is to a child that has some loathsome disease, or as one is to a member of his body that has leprosy, he hates not the member, for it is his flesh, but the disease, and that provokes him to pity the part affected the more. -Thomas Goodwin

Here I am Lord, 

Send me to the nursing home

Send me to children's ministries

Send me to volunteer at Salvation Army

Send me to Boys clubs of America

Send me to Big brother program

Send me to Foster Care

Send me to the downtown missions

Send me to organizations helping the emigrants

Send me to the jails and prisons

Send me to Samaritan's Purse

Send me to Mercy Ships

Send me to International Justice Missions

Send me to one of the 1,570,000 registered nonprofits in the United States.  

Considering divorce?

The biggest decision we ever make will be to marry, and likewise, the decision to divorce is equally grave and important. I hesitate to say this because many of us have divorced, but it needs saying. Make no mistake, divorce dims the light in a child's eyes. These two photos are not an exaggeration of that reality. Here are some facts to consider: Children of divorce are at high risk for drug abuse, suicide, depression, lower grades, lower income, risky behavior, failed relationships, five times more likely to be in a lower income home, experience illness more frequently and recover from sickness more slowly; children of divorced parents suffer more frequently from symptoms of psychological distress and divorce shatters this basic safety and belief concerning the parents’ abilities to care for them and to make decisions that truly consider their well-being. When the Lord said He hates divorce, these are some of the reasons why. Do all you can, get all the help you can to prevent divorce. I could say so much more but I'll leave it at that and I know many of us here can testify to the truth of this.

  Tell me God doesn't exist! 

  This happened during the Spanish flu of 1918. What we are experiencing now is nothing new under the sun. Keep your faith in Jesus and use what means you have to serve Him and spread His truth.

  I ran across this illustration yesterday, and I hate to think it's true. 
No doubt we all lose the heart of a child as we are pummeled with adversities and afflictions, but as Christians I believe God would use those trials to tenderize our hearts and grow our compassions. 
Now I don't know where I fall in this illustration, but I will resist its conclusion with all my heart, whatever remains. 

 Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth."

In my opinion what "Salt" means is love. God's love dwells in us through Christ, and He has chosen to reveal that love to the world through us. Whoever we come in contact with, we are to love and be faithful to, to show kindness and mercy to, and console and sympathize with; to aid, support, encourage and help bear their burdens; also to forgive and bear all things, believe in and encourage, as well as weep with and rejoice with.

If we think "Salt" is "truth", and we are here to purify the world, and we are here as the worlds teacher, we elevate ourselves and extinguish the nature of Christ, which is gentle and lowly associating with the downcast. 

  If you bear the name of Christian and rely on the Bible and boast in God and say you know His will and approve the things that are essential, being instructed out of the Bible, and you are confident that you are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of the immature and have the Bible as the embodiment of knowledge and truth but fail to love, you have become "salt that has lost its savor, and are no longer good for anything except to be cast out and trampled under the foot of man."

    "Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds." Heb. 10:24