SHARE PROMISE

Have you thanked Him?

Have you praised Him?

Have you made it your priority to agree and cooperate with Him today?

Have you taken that deep breath and listened for what He has for you today?

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.

This past weekend was HOPE OVER HEROIN Columbus.  It was sandwiched between HOH Dayton and this coming weekend’s HOH Norwood.  

Please continue to pray for this work.  It is making a positive impact!

For while this was my 6^th HOH, it continued to reinforce the dramatic need for JESUS in our communities. For again the addicted, the homeless, the mentally rickety, kids, older folks, hungry folks, vacant folks made their way this time to the grounds of Dodge Park.

And while there I was drawn over and over again to something that I have shared with several people during this year of traveling that had Jesus come to earth in 2016 Matthew 25 could have read…

… I was hungry and you fed me; I was thirsty and you gave me water; I was a stranger and you invited me into your homes; naked and you clothed me; sick and in prison, and you visited me.’ – Matthew 25:35-36 (LB)

I WAS ADDICTED AND YOU HELPED ME RECOVER.

HOH Columbus saw more than 50 churches and ministries come to meet those commands whether directly as we are working to connect individuals to treatment and recovery, by feeding hungry families, and passing out a bottle of water or indirectly by just engaging the “strangers” with hope.  100’s of volunteers did their best to do touch Dodge Park’s “least of these”.

And while there are countless stories of addiction, peril, hurt, poverty, and pain I could share with you, I wanted to tell you about a 90-second conversation with one man.

He wandered up with a hamburger literally hanging from his lips.  No hands on the burger because they were holding another burger and an almost empty bottle of water.  The shirt he was wearing was on day 13 or 14, the pants didn’t fit, his breath was a cacophony of charred meat, alcohol, and homelessness.  His eyes bloodshot, his hair askew.

He looked over our Refuge information while pausing to finally chew and to take a minute keep his oversized pants from falling down.

You see I try to put a few helpful books on our Refuge display each time I do an event and a brand new one I just added to the display caught his eye…

“GOD’S PROMISES FOR WHEN YOU ARE HURTING” by Dr. David Jeremiah.

It is just a little leather-bound devotional.  Given his condition and appearance, I was a little taken back by what happened next.  After a hard swallow and a swig from the last of the water, he said, “Are those promises true?”  It was so noisy that I had to ask him to repeat the question and then I asked one of my own, “Why do you ask?”  And then with staggering articulate clarity, he said: “Will they work for me because I am really hurting.”  “You have no idea how bad I hurt right now.” “Wife gone, job gone, home gone.”

Normally my books are just for show or occasionally I will order one for someone or point them to AMAZON, but GOD laid this little book at the right place at the right time for my hurting friend.  For in it he will discover promises like:

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. - Psalm 147:3 (ESV)

The Lord … saves the crushed in spirit. - Psalm 34:18 (ESV)

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him…Job 13:15 (NIV)

As we both held the book and prayed together that Matthew 25 passage came to mind again.  Hungry? Fed.  Thirsty? Refreshed.  Hurting? HELPED.  He walked off with book and promises in hand.

I know in the grand scheme of things, a little book for one so broken is “not much”, but I know that the PROMISES in it ARE enough to give him hope for one more day and open his eyes to the GOD who will heal his wounds.

Around you today is someone who is hurting. I guarantee it.

They may not look like my encounter, but perhaps they need a promise or two; a prayer or a touch? 

The question is are you ready to share promise? 

“Once I knew the depth where no hope was, and darkness lay on the face of all things... But a little word from the fingers of another fell into my hand that clutched at emptiness, and my heart leaped …”

― Helen Keller

I love you ALL!

Opportunities for Hope (Champions Charge)