Remember Who You Are and Who You've Been

Surgery Day!!!

Once, about a year ago now, a young man began coming to The Next Door Bible Study. He was invited by a friend. Soon after, these two young men were involved in an altercation that almost cost both of them their lives. In fact, one young man was hit in the head with an axe. He was fine after a stay in the hospital and stitches. We made a visit to his home. God supernaturally supplied his need for food through our group. He apologized as soon as we walked up for his home and the fact that people were smoking. As we entered his house, beers went behind chairs, and the sarcastic grins appeared. They warned us about his mother. Too late! She got up, drunk, cussed us all out and retreated to the bedroom just in time for the police to arrive to see what everyone was doing there. We decided to leave. We made sure he had his birthday gift of a Bible. Then he and his pregnant girlfriend were thrown out of the house.

There was so much happening at once you could scarcely take it all in. The kids were awesome and never flinched. They stood by this young man and his girlfriend. I remember being afraid for them and questioning if I was right for this ministry. Maybe God intended for it to be a man. I remember that I had forgotten what it was to be lost and have the absence of Peace. They had no peace and no hope. They were miserable.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 2:1,5 that we were dead in our trespasses and sins but we were made alive in Christ. We WERE DEAD. You can't get clearer than that. These people were dead and I had been also. I suddenly remembered with clarity what my home was like before I knew Jesus. The opposite of what I had now even though I lived alone. I remember the fear and embarrassment in their eyes.

That moment I realized the importance of not forgetting where we came from. We are lavished with gifts from God but they are not to keep as our own. We are to share everything so that no one in the body has a need. Even our rights and our wills we are to surrender, how much more our possessions! If you cannot remember what it is to want and to need, friends you have too much. If your children cannot understand that they are blessed and have pity on those who are poor you do them a serious disservice. They have too much and THEY will be the poorer for it!

Sure signs of our downfall is that our love for one another will wax cold and we will forget the poor! It is not the governments' job, but ours to have charity or love. It is an action not an emotion. The complexes we will be going into are full of sweet people who need encouragement and fellowship. However, there will be some, and we have met some already, who are without Peace. They are angry and abandoned and without hope. They can be dangerous. So was I. They are the walking dead and without Jesus they will perish forever.

If you do not know Jesus, please know that you are that person. You need a Savior because your sin has come before a Holy God and He cannot tolerate it as the perfect Judge. Something has to die in your place. Jesus did that for you. He died for you so that you might live and He rose again to conquer that death so you can live forever, if you believe that He did this for you. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All of us have to surrender to Jesus' authority by praying for forgiveness of sins and to make Jesus the King of our lives. Do this today and then tell someone you did. Then read your Bible and find a church where they actually use the Bible. If you need help, contact us. Jesus loves you, He wants to save you. I pray you will.

In Christ,
Jamie