Christ Indeed Is The Only Way

Since Christ is indeed the only way, then all other ways are wrong and headed for hell. With that being said, those who are convinced that Jesus is the only way will be those who are most fervent about evangelism. Those who are soft when it comes to evangelism are typically those who are not nearly as convinced that Jesus is the only road. I know this is a hard saying, nevertheless it is true. If we really believed in hell, we wouldn’t want anyone to go there. There is an old adage that says “the road to hell is pave with good intentions.” You can take it from there and fill in the blanks.

Saturday a man was killed on 95. He knocked of his motorcycle and survived. When he got up he was disoriented and wandered into the street and a another car hit him. He still was not dead. He got hit a third time and then he died.

My friend that is a pastor talked to this man that morning, told him about Jesus and invited him to church. The guy said maybe one day but he was not ready then. The pastor then asked could he pray with him and the guy said he didn’t have time. He needed to get going. Later on that evening he was killed.

God in His mercy, sent someone to witness to that young man the day he died. No one knows what happened after he left. Maybe he had a talk with Jesus. I pray that he did. The Fathers’ wish is that none would be lost but have everlasting life.

The road to eternal life is a narrow road that most reject, but it is a road that Christians had better stand firm upon and one to which we must call others to travel. As 1 John 5:12 says, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.” Jesus is very plain when it comes to who is in and who is out. Those who receive Him as God, Savior, and Lord are in, and those who reject Him are out. We should also note that “life” is singular. It is not “a life” but “the life,” and the answer is not “a Son” but “the Son.” Clearly, the teaching of Scripture is undeniably that Jesus is the only way.

Should this surprise us? It ought not to, seeing that Jesus is the only individual to ever walk this earth and not sin. He also is the only Person ever to die and rise again of His own power. All other founders of religions such as Budha, Mohammed, Joseph Smith, and Confucius, for example, are dead in their graves. Christians do not travel to a gravesite to pay homage because our Savior is not there, for He is risen.

The Thing that gets me is, most if not all world religions deny Jesus as being God. Some say that He is a son of God, but only Christianity believes that He is God. Some say that He was just a great teacher, a prophet, or some deluded lunatic. Yet how great was He if He was deluded about His own identity, thinking He was God when He really wasn’t, as they claim? And how can He be crazy if all of His claims came true?

It is obvious that the evidence points to the fact that Jesus was indeed Who He said He was- which is God. Christianity is the only “religion” based upon God drawing near to man rather than man working to come near to God. Religion by definition is, more or less, a working to be holy or to please a deity. This is why Christianity is more than mere religion. Christianity is a relationship regained between man and God because of the love of God in sending His own Son to die for our sins.

In reality it is not a stretch to say that Jesus is the only way. He is far different and very unique when compared with other religious figures. He performed miracles, He cast out demons, He gave up His life for those who rejected Him, and He conquered death, rising from the grave. Who else is like Him? It only makes sense that He is unique among the various paths of spirituality. No man comes to the Father but through Him and by Him. He is the door (John 10:9), the only point of entry to heaven.

What do we do if we don’t like this truth? Just like the guy I wrote about that was a Christian and turned to new age, He didn’t like this truth. We don’t have a choice because it is the truth. It is tough to come to the realization that so many are going to hell because they reject Jesus, but Jesus Himself said that the way to destruction is wide and that many go that way (Matthew 7:13). The answer is not to rewrite what Jesus said or to say that there must be other ways. The answer is prayer, brokenness over the state of sinners, and a bold and loving evangelism.

God wants none to perish, and He is merciful, giving us time to evangelize. Yet Christians must first be firm in our belief of the exclusivity of the Truth of Jesus so that we can then evangelize with the fervor that the first Christians had. Most of them had either witnessed the events of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, or knew someone who had. They knew He was God and that none could compare; thus, they had a bold and unstoppable will to evangelize. We need the fervor, conviction, and commitment that the first Christians had, and it starts with a firmness in our belief that Jesus is the only way to heaven.

Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection didn’t happen behind closed doors. It was for all the world to see, which was fitting, since He died for the sins of the whole world. Jesus is the only path to God, but He is also willing to accept all people, unlike many other religions which discriminate or only allow a certain number to attain to the next life. He doesn’t discriminate based upon age, wealth, class, status, gender, education, race, or any other means. He wants everybody, and all will be received if they receive Him.

Christianity, though it is exclusive when it comes to the means of salvation, is the most open of all religions in that it invites all people to be saved. If we want to see fewer people go to hell and more people go to heaven, then we need to take them to the only road that can get them there- Jesus Christ. Other gods may reject them, and other religions might exclude them. But Jesus, because of His great love for all, promises that He won’t turn them away. May we direct people to the only Door that leads to life.


www.candacehouse.org


2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved.

OJ Simpson Should Really Act His Age

Over the last several days I have been watching the OJ Simpson saga. It is like a bad B movie that you watch over and over again, hoping the outcome is different. You know the kind of movies where you can’t believe the main characters are so stupid!

In the case of OJ Simpson a bible verse comes to mind that is apropos. ” When I was a child I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man I put away childish things” 1Cor 13:11.

My husband has a saying that he is known far and wide for. It goes a little something like this,” if you are going to be stupid then you had better be tough.” This sums it up in a nutshell.

According to Fox News, Simpson was arrested Sunday after a collector reported that a group of armed men charged into his hotel room and took several items the former NFL great claimed belonged to him.

According to the charges filed Tuesday, Simpson and the others went to the room under the pretext of brokering a deal with the men. Once in the room, Simpson prevented one of the collectors from calling emergency authorities on his cell phone “by ripping it out of Bruce Fromong’s hand” while one or more accomplices pointed or displayed a handgun.
The complaint does not specify which of the men involved was carrying the weapon.
Simpson’s lawyer, Yale Galanter, said he planned to ask for Simpson’s release on his own recognizance.

“If it was anyone other than O.J. Simpson, he would have been released by now,” Galanter said.
Simpson has insisted he was not armed and that he went to the hotel simply to retrieve property that had been stolen from him.

“You can’t rob something that is yours,” Galanter said. “O.J. said, ‘You’ve got stolen property. Either you return it or I call the police.”‘

Witnesses and authorities have said that they don’t believe Simpson had a gun but that some of the men who accompanied him during the confrontation were armed.

Everyone knows they have been trying to get Simpson for years after being acquitted for murder charges in 1994. How arrogant to think you are above the law. The Bible says “Pride goes before a fall.” OJ ‘s sitting in jail is a testament to how far he has fallen.

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved.

The Rosie O' Donnell You Don't Know

Have you ever looked at the behaviour of some people and said what in the world made them turn out this way? Well I have often wondered it about Rosie O Donnell. I have never cared for her because she was always brash and uncouth. Her mouth is filthy and she doesn’t care how she conducts herself in public. Let alone privately.

I often wonder when I see people who do not have regard for others, what has happened in their life to make them so callous. My granny always told me never to look at the surface of an individual. She said ” what is on the surface is a product of what is on the inside. ”
With Rosie O’Donnell that is certainly the case. Her new Book “Celebrity Detox” leaves us some clue as to why she acts the way she does.

According to Fox News Rosie O’Donnell used to break her own limbs with either a baseball bat or a wooden hanger when she was a child.

This revelation, as well as many about her experiences on “The View” last year, is contained in a new book she’s written due shortly called “Celebrity Detox.”

This personal memory, so shocking, is almost thrown toward the end of what is better described as a long essay than a short memoir.

All the proceeds from “Celebrity Detox” are going to Rosie’s charity, by the way. So it’s not like she’s putting her most painful personal memories on sale for self-aggrandizement.
But reading this passage is heart-breaking. Rosie, who lost her mother at age 10, felt she couldn’t get attention or sympathy otherwise.

She broke her own bones, she recalls, “my hands and fingers usually. No one knew. It was a secret.” She used a Mets baseball bat she got on bat day or the hanger. Why? It was “proof I had some value, enough to be fixed.” She recalls that she was no longer sad about her mother’s death, but “distracted.”

Rosie also dangles another clue about her childhood in two sentences. “There were many benefits to having a cast. In the middle of the night, it was a weapon.”

We will certainly keep Rosie in prayer, because there is more here than what meets the eye.

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved.

Bishop Weeks Denies Abuse of Juanita Bynum

Last Night I watched the press conference given by Bishop Weeks and was disheartened. It was very painful to watch. I wondered if maybe his mind was gone. I don’t know. Sometimes people who are in a rage really don’t remember what they did while in that state. I hope that is the case with him. Because the alternative is too ugly to contemplate.

According to the Atlanta Journal Constitution“Thomas W. Weeks, 40, also a preacher, said he felt compelled to speak his peace after his famous wife announced to the public recently that she was “the new face of domestic violence.”

Weeks, who face felony charges for allegedly beating, choking and stomping his wife to the ground at a hotel parking lot on Aug. 21, said there are “two sides to every story.”

“I want to be clear in saying I do not condone in any way, shape or form violence of any kind towards women,” said Weeks in a conference room at Global Destiny Church of Duluth. “My role has always been to operate as a protector and not as an aggressor. I have walked away from many situations between the two of us, just like I walked away that night.”

“Weeks said he and Bynum, 48, were trying to reconcile the night before the alleged attack. They separated in June.”

According to Fox News, Mr. Weeks has been accused of having a previous physical altercation with a female within the church.

ATLANTA (FOX 5) — “Two faithful followers of Bishop Thomas Weeks, III said last week’s alleged attack against his televangelist wife, Juanita Bynum was not the first time Weeks has shown violence against women. Aungelique Proctor reports.According to the news report, Weeks assaulted a worker by the name of Lorraine Robinson. Ms. Robinson failed to go to the hospital because the two women she confided in and supposedly Juanita Bynum herself discouraged her from doing so.”

The one thing that is glaringly obvious to me is that Bishop Weeks needs serious prayer. I am not saying this to be facetious, I am so serious. From my observations he has given himself over to another spirit, not the Holy Spirit. For a man to lay hands on a woman is reprehensible! But then he goes a step further and lay hands on one of his church members.

Signs were there that he needed help 8 months prior to him jumping on Juanita Bynum. People however over looked them and said that God would work it out. Well He did. He allowed it to come to the forefront.

You want to make sure you “work out your own soul salvation according to the Word of God with fear and trembling.” What does that mean? It means there is a price to pay for at the end of the day for un-confessed sins. There is an accountability factor involved here. And you will give an account of all you do in this body. The scripture goes on to say “Be sure your sins will find you out.” And “what you do in the dark will come to the light.”

There are deep seated issues that the Bishop hasn’t dealt with. And in all of this he is still in denial. They have irrefutable evidence that he did it. But yet and still he denies it. The prosecutor’s office says they have more than enough evidence to proceed with this case. So how could he hold that press conference and make the statements he did?

The bottom line is Bishop Weeks needs to come clean and get help. First he needs to repent. Then he needs to get professional counseling for his rage and bitterness. This is not just an anger management situation. This case is much deeper than this. For someone to go to the level he went to is so beyond simple anger.

For those in the church that wants to sweep this under the rug shame on you. This has been allowed to on too long as it is. Until we the church get right how in the world can we help someone else. For those that are blaming Juanita Bynum for going after her husband thereby getting her self beat up shame on you! How asinine is that statement? That is the reason women don’t come forth! Because they have been told by both the perpetrator and society somehow she was at fault. The woman then becomes to believe the lie!

The church needs to stop hiding behind religious piety and start being the church Christ has called you to be. Back in the day, both Jesus and John the Baptist laid into those that were overly religious. They both referred to the leaders of that day as vipers, vultures, hypocrites, liars and thieves.

They called them to task for putting burdens on the people and being unfair in their dealings with them. They hid behind their authority to and so called knowledge to place undo weights on the people.

The same thing is happening today. Along came Jesus on the scene and said “ He was sent to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive, recover sight to the blind, and to set at liberty all who were oppressed. Does this sound like what the church is doing today? I venture to say a resounding NO!

Let us get back to being the church that Christ died for. Let us love our fellow man enough to help him. Let us not ignore wrongdoing and do nothing. Let us let our light shine so that others may see it and want to come to that light. As it stands you find so many that do not want to have anything to do with Christ, because of the representation of Him.

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2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved.

When The Word Of God Isn't enough

There is an interesting passage of scripture I overlooked in Luke 16. I was reading the story that involves Abraham, Lazarus the beggar, and the rich man. This morning I had a things that make you go hum moment.

Everyone that is saved for any length of time has heard this story or read it. Well sometimes we can read the Word or hear it numerous times that it becomes too familiar. We already go into reading or hearing a particular scripture with preconceived notions of what that passage is saying.

This morning the Lord showed me something that I hadn’t paid attention to even though I had it highlighted! So my spirit grasped it then. But there was an appointed time for me to consciously lay hold of it.

According to this story, there was a certain rich man who had more than he ever wanted Or needed. He lived his life for himself, in selfish indulgence, not caring at all about the poor. Lazarus was a poor beggar who like a dog desired to be fed the crumbs from the masters table, though it is not clear if he ever was fed by the rich man.

After they both die, we get a glimpse of their situations in eternity. Lazarus is with Abraham, symbolizing that he is grafted into the family of God by faith in Christ. He is in heaven. The rich man is in agony in the burning flames of hell. Between the two a great divide which cannot be crossed is fixed.

A conversation is said to take place between Lazarus, the rich man, and Abraham. The rich man knows that his five brothers are as wicked as he was and without a doubt end up in torment as he is, so he begs Abraham to send somebody, even Lazarus, to his brothers. He thinks that if his brothers see a person raised from the dead that they will repent and put their faith in God.

Yet Abraham explains that unless they hear the law and the prophets, which they already have available to them, they will not repent.

Abraham’s statement, told by Christ as He gives this story, is emphasizing that the Scripture is sufficient.

Unless a person hears what they already have in the Word of God, they cannot and will not be saved. Even if some miraculous sign happened for the rich man’s brothers or for any man for that matter, they would still not believe.

We can deceive ourselves into thinking that if only Jesus came and appeared
to all men that they would trust Him. We can think that we can come up with some other means to woo somebody to church or to Christ. The reality is that the greatest sign of all time has already taken place. Jesus Himself rose from the dead and people reject that, despite the overwhelming evidence of its historicity.

The Lord knew this and was foretelling in this story that even His death burial and resurrection would not be sufficient to bring some people to repentance. Christ Himself knew that only the Word of God could change a person’s heart. If Christ even by performing the greatest miracle of all time couldn’t convince a person to believe, what really do we have to come up with?

The Church has so many programs and works that they perform all to bring people to Christ. They are working themselves to death trying to come up with ways that will attract people into the household of the Lord.

Programs, skits, musicals, bazaars, fairs, workshops, auctions, giveaways, you name it the Church tries it. I look at all of the churches with theatre props, book stores, coffee houses, gyms, empowerment & business centers, soup kitchens, credit unions, colleges, schools, daycares, restaurants and so forth and so on. We here in America have made the Word of God secondary in comparison to all of the wonderful things we are doing for Him. Churches are not willing to preach the full counsel of the Word for fear of losing members. They have listened to polls that say people’s attention spans cannot absorb a sermon over 15 minutes. So the Word becomes secondary and the programs are first.

Don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against a lot of this stuff as long as it is in its proper place. What has me concerned is the mindset that the Word of God is not enough to get people saved.

The Word of God can stand on it’s on. It doesn’t need any help. The only thing God put His full backing on is His Word. The Scripture is the Power of God in written form. It is only through hearing and appropriating the Scriptures can sanctification take place.
Good works, community service, and theatrics can have their place. The issue is whether they are sufficient to be able to stand on their own apart from the Word of God.

The Body of Christ needs to study, memorize and meditate on the Word of God. I am very concerned for the Church here in America because of what is coming down the pipeline for this country. The scripture says “Who have believed our report?” Isaiah 53:1. You have to first know the report in order to believe it.

Remember man cannot live apart from taking in the Word of God. He cannot be saved apart from hearing the gospel, and he cannot be a mature Christian without instruction from the Scripture. We already know from Romans 1:16 that the “gospel is the power of God unto salvation.” We know from 2 Timothy 3:16-17 that “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” Romans 10:16 says that “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” John 17:17 says, “Sanctify them in the word; your word is truth.”

All of our progress in being sanctified into the image of Christ is due to our being immersed in the truth of the Word of God. There is no short cut to this thing called Sanctification.

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email info@candacehouse.org for permission to use.

Paula White & Divorce In the Church

Today my co-host Lisa Darel and I talked about The Paula White story and divorce in the church. Leadership leads by example, or so we have always been told. In this case the leaders of Without Walls International is setting a very poor example for us to follow.

When leadership falls it causes others to stumble as well. Single women everywhere are questioning if a happy marriage is on the horizon for them. Many have lost hope because their Icon has fallen. That is why it is so important to not look to man. Because man will fail you everytime.

Subscribe to the RSS feed of the show Todays Breathing Room.to down load the show concerning Paula White. If you would rather hear the show now you can listen to the archive by clicking here.

Here is a quote from Christian answers concerning how the Lord feels about divorce.

God Hates Divorce

If anyone wonders whether there can be life and grace after divorce, it is worth meditating on a statement in Jeremiah. Often in the Bible, the main metaphor used to describe God’s relationship to Israel is a marriage. Likewise, the main metaphor for idolatry is adultery. So, through the prophet Jeremiah, God says, “I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce, and sent her away because of all her adulteries” (3:8).Many people know that in Malachi God says, “I hate divorce.” But they may not know why: God has been through it. He knows the humiliation of rejection and betrayal—from hard-hearted people like me.

God hates divorce because God is a divorcee. So he invented the first divorce recovery program. It started at a place called Calvary. The price was a cross. The program is still underway.

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved.

THE SEED

A successful Christian business man was growing old and knew it was time to choose a successor to take over the business. Instead of choosing one of his directors or his children, he decided to do something different.

He called all the young executives in his company together.
"It is time for me to step down and choose the next CEO," he said. "I have decided to choose one of you."

The young executives were shocked, but the boss continued. "I am going to give each one of you a seed today - a very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from the seed I have given you. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next CEO."

One man, named Jim, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed.
He went home and excitedly, told his wife the story. She helped him get a pot, soil and compost and he planted the seed.

Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other executives began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Jim kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew.

Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Jim didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.

Six months went by - still nothing in Jim's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Jim didn't say anything to his colleagues, however. He just kept watering and fertilizing the soil - he so wanted the seed to grow.

A year finally went by and all the young executives of the company brought their plants to the CEO for inspection. Jim told his wife that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But she asked him to be honest about what happened.

Jim felt sick at his stomach. It was going to be the most embarrassing moment of his life, but he knew his wife was right.

He took his empty pot to the board room. When Jim arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other executives. They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Jim put his empty pot on the floor and many of his colleagues laughed. A few felt sorry for him!
When the CEO arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted his young executives.
Jim just tried to hide in the back.

"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the CEO.
"Today one of you will be appointed the next CEO!"

All of a sudden, the CEO spotted Jim at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered the financial director to bring him to the front.

Jim was terrified. He thought, "The CEO knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me fired!"
When Jim got to the front, the CEO asked him what had happened to his seed. Jim told him the story.

The CEO asked everyone to sit down except Jim. He looked at Jim, and then announced to the young executives, "Here is your next Chief Executive! His name is Jim!"
Jim couldn't believe it. Jim couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new CEO the others said?

Then the CEO said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone in this room a seed.

I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds; they were dead - it was not possible for them to grow.

All of you, except Jim, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.
"When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Jim was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it.

Therefore, he is the one who will be the new Chief Executive!"

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust

If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.

If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.

If you plant perseverance, you will reap contentment

If you plant consideration, you will reap perspective.

If you plant hard work, you will reap success.

If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.

If you plant faith in Christ, you will reap a harvest.

So, be careful what you plant now; it will determine what you will reap later.

Two thousand years ago Paul wrote to the church at Galatia the same story but with fewer words, "What you sow, so shall you reap" (Gal. 6:7).

"We are grass that will wither and die but the incorruptible seed of God's Word will live forever - sow it daily into the life of your family! (1 Peter 1: 23 - 25).

--Author Unknown

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Domestic Violence Has A New Face - Juanita Bynum

Last night I watched a True Lady. This woman displayed so much grace and integrity it was such an joy to watch her. I am talking about Juanita Bynum. This is truly a woman of character. I watched her last night on TBN and the one thing that struck me was her grace under fire.

I have always admired this woman of God and have prayed for her over the years. But I have never witnessed what I did last night. There is a pliableness for lack of a better word to her.

There is a different type of anointing on her. It is the anointing of a warrior and and a defender of the weak. A champion.

When she was abused so horribly I was enraged! Why? Because this should not have happened. I personally wanted to go and tear Bishop Weeks from limb to limb. Instead I sat down and wrote about it. Juanita Bynum exemplified every woman, every where that was dealing with being abused. Surely now something would be done about this!

One of the things that struck me was, the enemy had no idea what he set in motion. Because of this public display of humiliation out the ash heap rises a victor and not a victim. Last night I saw a Champion. I wait in anticipation to see how the Lord uses her in this next dimension of ministry.

Go to TBN and watch the archive of the two hour talk show with Juanita Bynum and guest which aired Tues, Sept 04, 2007.

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has some excerpts from the show;

Bynum appeared Tuesday night as a special guest on TBN’s “Praise The Lord” program, a Christian talk show featuring ministers, gospel artists and other newsmakers.

On the show, Bynum said she had no bitterness toward her husband.

She would not say anything negative about Weeks. “Nobody could give me enough money,” she said. “As long as he’s my husband I won’t break that covenant.”

Also on the show, she said the church would help people by preaching more about personal experiences such as her own.

While interviews other guests, an emotional Bynum said, “I came here tonight to declare that I can bear it, I can bear it, I can bear it.”

Before the television appearance, in a room with flashing cameras, Bynum said she has forgiven Weeks for the alleged attack and that her ministry will take a new twist because of the pain she has suffered.

“Today, domestic violence has a face and a name and it is Juanita Bynum,” said the pastor.
“This is such a difficult moment for me,” Bynum said. “First, I want to go on record and say I forgive my husband and I wish him all of the best.”

The pastor said while some of her supporters have kept quiet about the incident, she does not intend to move on with her ministry as if the attack never happened.

“Relationships are what they are, [they] have their difficult moments,” she said. “… This has changed my life forever.”

Bynum said that after the alleged attack she was holed up with family feeling “weak and helpless.”

But Tuesday she said she won’t keep quiet on the issue of domestic violence.

“This isn’t a religious issue, it’s a social issue,” she said.

Bynum would not say whether she would participate in the prosecution of her husband or discuss her feelings about him. She said she is focusing on her new ministry. “Instead of a victim,

I want to become an advocate,” she said.

Let us continue to lift Prophetess Bynum in prayer as well as Bishop Weeks.

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved.

No Unsung Heroes

This morning I started thinking about an incident that happened to me. I was reading a verse of scripture when this came to mind.

“God is not unjust; He will not forget your work and the love you have shown Him as you have helped His people and continue to help them.”
—Hebrews 6:10

I remember when I implemented a program in a former church years ago to have a variety store for the poor. I went and set up an account with Second Harvest, a food warehouse where you pay pennies on the dollar for items. I solicited the help of my best friend who was a minister in the church as well. We asked the pastor for space in an industrial park the church owned to set up a free store. He said yes.

We stocked it with food, medicine, personal hygiene products, clothes, furniture and toys. My girlfriend and I were the ones who went and picked the items up and unloaded them. Furniture and heavier items we had delivered.

We worked the store 2 days a week. We also traveled 2 hours one way to pick up food for a couple of years before they would send a truck our way. Never asked for gas money, and half the time paid for the food. We did this at least twice a month.

We made these items available to people that had fallen on hard times for free. People that came in for assistance traded time working in the store for items given. It made them feel good to be able to contribute. During this time we had the opportunity to share the Love of the Lord with them.

Many came to the Lord through this outreach, and joined the church as well. After a year the pastor wanted to re-evaluate whether we needed to continue with this project and if it brought "any value" to the ministry. After fighting with him on this issue, at the end of two years we handed it back over to him to do with as he wished.

Someone else joined the church a little later with like vision and went to him and said how the church could get publicity for the store. He went for it. Mind you the church had been getting publicity all along on a local level. He wanted "his" "name" recognized regionally.

When it was all said and done, the pastor credited this person to the media for piloting the program and doing all of the work. My girlfriend and I were never mentioned.

I don't know if you have ever experienced this before: you do the work and turn in a great performance someone else gets the credit. They may not have done all that much to earn it, they were just there at the right time or simply knew how to "suck up" to the “people that matter.” They get the credit deserved by others who end up forgotten.

As Christians, this leaves us in a tough position. We don’t want to be selfish and egotistically toot our own horn. But it hurts. It’s not fair. It can lead to discouragement, anger, and resentment. I know it did with me for about a year I held on this.

When we find ourselves in this situation, I believe it is helpful to remember two things. First, we don’t work for our employer, teacher, manager, or boss or pastor: we ultimately work for the Lord. (see Ephesians 5:6-8)

If He is pleased, then we should be proud of our work and feel our goal has been accomplished even when we are not pat on the back. Yes, we all need some affirmation for a job well done, but sometimes it doesn’t come until the Father says, “Well done my good and faithful servant.”

Second, God who sees will not forget what we have done. He knows who really did the hard work and who deserves the credit. He will be the one to reward us for doing His work for His Glory even if no one else knows or cares. So if you’ve found yourself in this situation, IN GOD’S FAMILY, THERE ARE NO UNSONG HEROES!


Shalom,
Candace

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email info@candacehouse.org for permission to use.

Sleeping Through The Storm

Years ago a farmer owned land along the Atlantic seacoast. He constantly advertised for hired hands. Most people were reluctant to work on farms along the Atlantic. They dreaded the awful storms that raged across the Atlantic, wreaking havoc on the buildings and crops.

As the farmer interviewed applicants for the job, he received a steady stream of refusals. Finally, a short, thin man, well past middle age, approached the farmer. "Are you a good farmhand?" the farmer asked him. "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows," answered the little man. Although puzzled by this answer, the farmer, desperate for help, hired him. The little man worked well around the farm, busy from dawn to dusk, and the farmer felt satisfied with the man's work.

Then one night the wind howled loudly in from offshore. Jumping out of bed, the farmer grabbed a lantern and rushed next door to the hired hand's sleeping quarters. He shook the little man and yelled, "Get up! A storm is coming! Tie things down before they blow away!" The little man rolled over in bed and said firmly, "No sir. I told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."

Enraged by the old man's response, the farmer was tempted to fire him on the spot. Instead, he hurried outside to prepare for the storm. To his amazement, he discovered that all of the haystacks had been covered with tarpaulins. The cows were in the barn, the chickens were in the coops, and the doors were barred. The shutters were tightly secured. Everything was tied down. Nothing could blow away. The farmer then understood what his hired hand meant, and he returned to bed to also sleep while the wind blew.

Where to take it from here......

When you're prepared, you have nothing to fear. Can you sleep when the wind blows through your life? The hired hand in the story was able to sleep because he had secured the farm against the storm. We secure ourselves against the storms of life by grounding ourselves firmly in the Word of God.

Author Unknown

http://www.candacehouse.org/

2007 Candace House, All Rights reserved. Email info@candacehouse.org for permission to use.