Tuesday night/feed the homeless/prayer/a miserable drizzling cool night/keep the food dry/listen to men whose hearts are crying/somebody new from the Plant joined us tonight-his eyes are opened and he is humbled/my friend Bill still looking for a job and running out of time or he gets kicked out...
It's another Cleveland night and it seems lately after I do this ministry I am inspired to write another blog for Project 52. We're about serving and there is great joy in doing it. The above paragraph is all the stuff running through my head as I try to close the evening out.
And I continue to think of Jesus and His Word in John where He said I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. He is the way when there seems to be no way in your life. Maybe you feel like you have come to a dead end, or you are at the end of the line or its the last straw. Jesus is telling you that He is the way. We all need someone or something to show us the way to heaven. Because this life will end and its either heaven or hell. That Someone is Jesus and He is not only showing us the way He is the way!
He paved the path to heaven with His blood that spilled from the cross. And the empty tomb means there is hope for you and for all the Bill's out there! I prayed with Bill tonight and I'm not sure if we will see each other again in this life. But I know that we will see each other again one day because he knows that Jesus is the way to heaven.
As if being shown the way to heaven isn't enough joy for me, I had the joy of sharing that way with another man whose way in this life is unknown. But he has Jesus and God loves him more than I ever could.
That helps me as I wrestle with another Tuesday night in Cleveland.
Next blog-Jesus and Truth!
In Christ,
Pastor John
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
You Have Value
I started what I call my war series at The Plant. It is a sermon series based on 2 Timothy, the last letter Paul wrote before he died for his Savior. In it he talks about being a soldier for Christ. I showed a clip from the movie Gettysburg. In it Jeff Daniels as Colonel Chamberlain gives a moving speech on the call to be a soldier. He talks about how every man has value and that we are fighting to set men free.
If the church, or any Christian as far as that goes, could truly grasp this concept what a difference it would make in answering the question, why are we here? We are here by God's grace and His Spirit has given us the knowledge of Jesus as our Savior. And now our Commander has issued the order to go and bring others into His army and save them from hell. We truly are in a war to set people free from an eternity without Him.
Tonight I was in downtown Cleveland feeding the homeless and those living in temporary housing while trying to get their lives back on track again. I was asked to say a few words and then pray. I had no idea I would be asked. What do you say to a bunch of guys standing there wondering where their lives are going? What do you say to the guy you know has been looking for a job and can't find one? What do you say to the guy who has been recently divorced and left with nothing and trying to find his way again? Picture it. Their faces looking hungrier than their stomachs.
In a nutshell, I told them that they have value. That I too was once lost and that God loved us so much that Jesus died on a cross for all of us. I told them what a privilege it was to come and serve them and that we do it because Jesus served us with His life.
ALL MEN HAVE VALUE, WE ARE FIGHTING TO SET MEN FREE! A couple of guys talked to me afterward. A relationship is forming. Will you pray to God about these and so many others like them? Will you pray to God to have Him use you?
Tonight the streets were my pulpit and there's nothing like looking in the face of another human being and telling them that they have value.
If you ever personally need to hear it, e-mail me, its part of what Project 52 does because we are in a war to set people free from the junk this world throws at them.
In Christ,
Pastor John
If the church, or any Christian as far as that goes, could truly grasp this concept what a difference it would make in answering the question, why are we here? We are here by God's grace and His Spirit has given us the knowledge of Jesus as our Savior. And now our Commander has issued the order to go and bring others into His army and save them from hell. We truly are in a war to set people free from an eternity without Him.
Tonight I was in downtown Cleveland feeding the homeless and those living in temporary housing while trying to get their lives back on track again. I was asked to say a few words and then pray. I had no idea I would be asked. What do you say to a bunch of guys standing there wondering where their lives are going? What do you say to the guy you know has been looking for a job and can't find one? What do you say to the guy who has been recently divorced and left with nothing and trying to find his way again? Picture it. Their faces looking hungrier than their stomachs.
In a nutshell, I told them that they have value. That I too was once lost and that God loved us so much that Jesus died on a cross for all of us. I told them what a privilege it was to come and serve them and that we do it because Jesus served us with His life.
ALL MEN HAVE VALUE, WE ARE FIGHTING TO SET MEN FREE! A couple of guys talked to me afterward. A relationship is forming. Will you pray to God about these and so many others like them? Will you pray to God to have Him use you?
Tonight the streets were my pulpit and there's nothing like looking in the face of another human being and telling them that they have value.
If you ever personally need to hear it, e-mail me, its part of what Project 52 does because we are in a war to set people free from the junk this world throws at them.
In Christ,
Pastor John
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