Good Monday everyone!
A little humor. From my youngest brother, who is now an older man, he forwarded what is called Dick Vitale's Popalooza 2005. It's like the brackets we saw for the NCAA Final Four, but this features "The Sweet Sistine," "Ecumenical Eight," "The Flagellant Four," and of course, the "Diocese Duo." It breaks down the top contenders for the April 18th vote, featuring the top four from Italy, the top four from Latin America, four from Europe, and three from Africa-Asia with DUKE thrown in to complete those four! This was sponsored of course, by "The new low-carb communion wafers, 'I can't believe it's not Jesus!'"
Today's verse comes from Luke 6:38, "Jesus said, 'Give, and it will be given to you.'"
What a long weekend it was for this aging pastor. On Thursday a family commitment took us to Galveston, back to Houston, then to Galveston where we arrived at about 1 a.m. We, my wife and our daughter, Nellie, slept until about 8, we hit the road back to San Marcos where I needed to be before 3 so we could pick up the van that we were renting to take our university students on a service project down to Harlingen. Rev. Michael Miller of the Campus Christian Community and I were to be co-drivers and we packed in the six students that didn't chicken out at the last minute as did some. And by about five p.m. we were on the road to the Valley. We arrived in Harlingen at about 11:30, we were assigned our rooms and we dropped dead until 5:30 or so and by 7 a.m. we were at The End of the Road Ministry, the homeless shelter run by Rev. Ralph Morales, one of our newest members here at First UMC. He plans to retire at the end of May and come join his family in SM. We arrived in time to eat breakfast with the handful of the homeless folks that stayed in the shelter and chose to eat. After breakfast the guys were assigned to do the repairs to the women's dorm and the gals were asked to do kitchen duty (along with the two old men!). I was very proud of the group and all they were able to accomplish in one morning with this very important ministry.
What struck me was hearing about the lives these homeless men led prior to coming to this shelter that is very much faith-based; they have Bible study and prayer time and on Sundays there is worship. Most of the men are ex-cons recently released from prison. Most have had their share of drug-related problems. At noon the man serving the drinks sat with Pastor Ralph and myself and in starting a conversation with him I discovered his wife is in prison pregnant. I asked when she would deliver and he said probably right before coming out in July. She's in for parole violations. I innocently asked, "Is this your first child?" He replied, "My tenth." "With this same woman?" "Yes." He then went on to say that he had lost his other nine kids to the state because of his drug problems. In fact, his ministry is now to talk to drug users on the street to warn them what they stand to lose if they don't give up the drugs and come to Christ. What hurt was hearing this man very emotionally say, "I've never heard the word 'daddy' from any of my nine kids and that's what hurts the most. And I'll probably lose this tenth child to the state as well."
This homeless shelter is but one of many examples of how we give to the work of Christ Jesus in the world. It is in visiting and donating time with this type of ministry that we see the faces and families that our offerings help. Too many times we wonder if we should even give "offering" at all, thinking that a small wad of bills will do the trick, never realizing that as we worship God, if we would give in proportion to our income, we would be blessing so many ministries that reach out and continue to give in ways that many of us can't.
What did we receive? That new lives are made through our offerings. This drug addict who is now in a faith-based program that makes disciples, is giving on our behalf to those who need it so desperately. This in a small South Texas town that very blindly said some fifteen years ago that there were no homeless or drug problems on its streets. Wrong.
What are you giving? We can all and should all contribute financially. But we should also give of ourselves if for nothing else than to visit those shelters and ministries where our money is at work on our behalf. But if we hold back, we're hurting others and we're hurting ourselves and limiting what could be wonderful and rich blessings for us.
PRAYER: Thank you dear God for using our offerings, tithes and gifts to further Your work. Thank you for raising up leaders and pastors willing to work among those where others are simply afraid to even visit. Open our hearts and eyes to see where You might be leading us today. We pray in Christ Jesus. Amen.
Have a blessed day!
e.v.
