“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved …. “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”[c]” Romans 10:9-10 & 15b NIV (emphasis mine) Read full chapter
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
The following quote was not made to get a chuckle based on obvious things we all know about children but based on the psychiatric examination of convicted murderers who experienced abuse in childhood.
Children need love, especially when they don’t deserve it.”
Harold S. Hubert
Hulbert, a leading psychiatric expert witness of his time and a child psychiatrist, knew the potential magnitude of the effects of being a child unloved. He testified in the murder trials of men affected by such abuse.
So, what does this mean to us? One doesn’t have to go far to find children who need love. The foster care system in America is overflowing with abandoned children who need love.
Over 390,000 children are in foster care. 25% of these children will attempt suicide.
For the 23,000 young adults who age out of foster care each year,
80% of males will become incarcerated.
40% will be homeless within 18 months.
97% will immediately enter into chronic poverty.
Poverty creates hungry children that need love. Drug abuse produces neglected children who need love.
According to the National Institute of Children’s Health Quality, Over 20,000 babies are born each yeardependent on illegal or prescription drugs and suffer neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS), a type of opiate withdrawal. That’s the equivalent of one baby born every 25 minutes with drug addiction.
To find opportunities to cuddle drug-addicted babies, google “Cuddle drug-addicted babies”.
Children who need love are in our towns and in our schools. These children may not be in your neighborhood, but they aren’t far away.
Jesus said, “See that you do not despise one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.” Matthew 18:10 NIV
Is the Holy Spirit speaking to your heart? What is God asking you to do? More than likely, it is something small. Help in your Vacation Bible School? Teach in your Mission Church? Volunteer in a local school as a mentor, or in a hospital for drug babies? Volunteer for CASA? Give a small amount of money to a worthy cause?
Whatever you do, don’t close your eyes to the desperate need all around us.
“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress …” James 1:27a
There are many ways you can give God’s love to children. All you have to do is ask Him to show you. And remember this:
“In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” Acts 20:35
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
All Scripture references are from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
“As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and keeps my way secure. He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights.” Psalm 18:30-33 NIV
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.” Proverbs 3:13-15 NIV
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
“The Christian life is not a constant high. I have my moments of deep discouragement. I have to go to God in prayer with tears in my eyes, and say, ‘O God, forgive me,’ or ‘Help me.’”
– Billy Graham
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
“When I said, My foot is slipping, Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, held me up. In the multitude of my [anxious] thoughts within me, Your comforts cheer and delight my soul!” Psalm 94:18-19 AMPC
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
“When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise— in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me?” Psalm 56:3-4 NIV Read full chapter
In His Love, Cindy
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
About a year ago, I found this intriguing story, and not sure how I might use it, I filed it away for future use. Today, it hit me! Could I find it again? I did! Read the story below.
The Clay Balls
As a man explored caves by the seashore, he found a canvas bag full of hardened clay balls. Apparently, someone had rolled the clay balls and left them out in the sun to bake. They didn’t look like much, but intrigued, the man took the bag.
As he strolled along the beach, he threw the balls one at a time out into the ocean as far as he could. He thought little about it until he dropped one and it cracked open on a rock. Inside was a beautiful, precious stone!
Delighted, the man started breaking open the remaining clay balls. Each one contained a similar treasure. He found thousands of dollars worth of jewels in the 20 or so balls he had left.
Then it struck him. He had thrown maybe 50 or 60 balls with their hidden treasure out into the ocean waves. Instead of thousands of dollars in treasure, he could have taken home tens of thousands, but he had just thrown it away!
The clay balls are like the Scriptures. A man goes through his whole life without realizing the value of what he possesses. He has several copies of the Bible, but they mostly remain on a dusty shelf, unread.
Then one day, he finds himself in crisis. In desperation, he opens his Bible, searching for answers. He finds a treasure inside. It’s the answer he needs! It is the hope he needs! It is the comfort he needs! It is the guidance he needs!
He suddenly realizes that just like the man in the story, he has carelessly thrown away the treasures he could have had: wisdom, joy, encouragement, faith, comfort, understanding, and hope. If only he had known what treasures were within his dusty Bible.
Now an old man, he realizes he could have known the wisdom of God in all of the trials and hard times of this life.
“Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding, for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold. She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.” Proverbs 3:13-15
The Bible is a bottomless treasure chest of beauty and wonder… inspired, true, authoritative, clear, sufficient, powerful, Christ-centered, and precious. May God help us to treat it as such.”
Matt Smethurst, Pastor
“All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.” 2 Timothy 3:16-17
“The unfolding of your words gives light; it gives understanding to the simple.” Psalm 119:130
“Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves,” the apostle James writes. “Do what it says” (James 1:22).
Happy is the man who possesses a Bible! Happier still is he who reads it! Happiest of all is he who not only reads it but obeys it.”
J.C. Ryle
Peter says God has given us “everything we need for a godly life” through the knowledge available in the Scriptures (2 Pet. 1:3).
For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope. (Rom. 15:4)
Do you want to know more about Jesus? See my page Who Is Jesus?
All Scripture references are from the NIV unless otherwise noted.
Source: 8 Things Your Bible Says About Itself by Matt Smethurst, lead pastor of River City Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia; editor at The Gospel Coalition
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