Livestream: A Night of Hope and Healing Concert
You can find it here: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/327121/NightofHopeHealing
A Night of Hope and Healing for Newtown, CT
A host of award-winning Christian bands, artists and speakers will be on hand sharing God’s message of Hope and Healing on Tuesday, January 15, 2013, from 6pm to 10pm at the Webster Bank Arena, 600 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT.
This is not a fundraiser, it is a FREE EVENT to showcase love, worship, prayer, and healing to the surrounding communities via Christian pastoral speakers and live musical performances by the industry’s top artists.
The evening will include prayer, music and a message of God’s healing love in the midst of the Sandy Hook Elementary School tragedy.
Appearances by Max Lucado, Mary Beth Chapman and Louie Giglio. Worship music to be provided by Building 429, Steven Curtis Chapman, Casting Crowns, Mandisa, TobyMac, Laura Story and Chris Tomlin.
Families and children are invited to attend. Tickets will be available free of charges on January 2, 2013 at ticketmaster.com and at the Webster Bank Arena box office. You will need a ticket to attend the event.
For more information, please visit the event Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/315827618517428/
Homeless – Until He Moved in With Jesus
Re-posted with permission from Darrell Creswell’s blog: http://darrellcreswell.wordpress.com
Experts estimates that at any given time there are between 1 to 2.5 million people who are homeless in America.
Years ago, I traveled quite frequently and on this cold winter night in 1985, happened to be in downtown Chicago. I was staying in a hotel downtown and wanted to take a short walk before retiring for the evening. I stepped outside and saw a gentleman slowly walking toward me. He was a haggard soul, wearing a hat, walking with a cane and humming a gospel song that I recognized from my days as a young man at camp meeting in Texas. As he approached, I asked him how he was and he said “Blessed, I am blessed”. I asked him his name and he replied in the most curious way—he said to me, “I have no name, I have no face, I am but an ordinary man, but God put me here to spread love and cheer and I am doing the very best that I can. If we would but give our hand to our fellow man this world would be a much better place.” He then tipped his hat, pushed off with his cane and walked away with a smile on his face, humming that same song. I stood there for a minute, trying to take in and absorb what this 70+ year-old man had just told me when I decided to catch up to him and give a few dollars to help him along his way. I rumbled in my pocket and pulled out six or seven single bills and handed them to him, and he said to me, “the Lord thanks you”. Again he tipped me his hat, put down his cane and walked off still smiling and humming that song.
I watched him as he walked along that frozen sidewalk on that cold, blistery winter night—stopping every time he saw another distressed individual on the street, and he would share with them some of the money I had just given him. As I walked back up to the hotel, I asked the doorman who had witnessed my encounter, “do you know him?”—the doorman replied, “I know who he is, but don’t know his real name, we all call him Holy-Roller Sam”. He said none know much about him, where he came from, or how he got here, but he walks around always smiling, humming that same song, saying the same thing to everyone he meets. “ I have no name, I have no face, I am but an ordinary man, but God put me here to spread love and cheer and I am doing the very best that I can. If we would but give our hand to our fellow man this world would be much a better place.” The doorman went on to tell me that Holy-Roller Sam regularly shares with all the homeless who are most desperately in need of the funds people give him on the streets. I went to bed that night, and could not get Holy-Roller Sam off of my mind.
The words he said to me kept echoing through my brain over and over—“I have no name, I have no face, I am but an ordinary man, but God put me here to spread love and cheer and I am doing the very best that I can.” In this one instant, all that I thought I was and all that I thought I could be seemed to dim in comparison to who I knew he was in God’s eyes. I wanted to know more about him, and so I decided to venture out that next night to see if I could find him, and talk to him. For about an hour or so, I walked up and down the block hoping to see him—but no Holy-Roller Sam.
I saw the doorman and walked over to ask him if he had seen Holy-Roller Sam—it was then that the doorman told me that Sam had been struck by a driver and killed earlier in the day. I stood there stunned for a moment, and I slowly walked back to my room—amazed by the tears that had welled up in my eyes. To this day, I ask myself, if only I had shared with him more than a few bucks from the thousands I had in my wallet—if only I had of gotten him a room for a night or two . . . perhaps I could have changed the course of his demise.
Since my chance encounter with Holy-Roller Sam, I see the homeless in a different light—and I always will. We are a society overly obsessed with our looks, and I am just as guilty—or more than many—always wanting to look my best. I used to be more so, always making sure that I looked absolutely perfect. I paid special attention to my face, ensuring it was perfectly pampered . . . all until that fateful day when I met a man who said that he had no face—no face, no identity, no pretense, no vanity, no airs—only an ordinary man giving his hand to his fellow man from the crumbs he collected from strangers. As I look in the mirror each day I see the wrinkles that have formed on my face over the years, and I remember the man—Holy-Roller Sam—who told me he had no face, and my concern turns to a smile, letting me know I’m okay with a few wrinkles.
That chance encounter with Holy-Roller Sam on that cold Chicago winter night forever affected my life for the better. Holy-Roller Sam was homeless until he moved in with Jesus.
And by the way the song he was always humming is the song I shared in my last blog (Unworthy – God’s Love – He Made Me Worthy)– I find myself now even at this moment tearing as I write.
Unworthy, unworthy, a beggar; In bondage and alone
But He made me worthy and now by His grace,
His mercy has made me His own.
Newtown Connecticut: Back to Normal?
On Friday, a mass murderer broke his way into an elementary school in Newtown, CT, killed 20 children and 6 unarmed adults before killing himself. We’ve all struggled with this tragedy and prayed for the families. We’ve wrestled with the reason for it, and how it should have been avoided, while contemplating how we can prevent it in the future.
Today, is Monday, and many of us go back to work and to our normal lives. It reminds me of a discussion my wife and I had with a friend who lost someone very close. She said, ‘I was outside the other day and everyone is continuing as if nothing happened!’ The surprise and shock in her voice was obvious and genuine. We didn’t doubt it, because we had the same thought years earlier when our 2 year old daughter went on ahead of us to heaven.
It is true, the world continues and God is patient. I have to think that out thoughts in that moment were closer to God’s than our own. I wonder if He is in awe when it comes to our robotic and occasionally thoughtless way of going through life. The Bible says:
“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed.” – Romans 13:11
brotherjohn.org
Even though, His grace is new every morning, we are one less morning away from our last. May God continue to be patient with those that haven’t taken the time to know Him. I’m thankful that He continues to hold out his hand to all that will accept it.
“I (God) have stretched out My hands all day long to a rebellious people, Who walk in a way that is not good, According to their own thoughts; A people who provoke Me to anger continually to My face” – Isaiah 65:2-3a
We have hope because our eternal Father sent his Son, and His hands were pierced and He was crucified for us! Our father now looks at us and says ‘how can they continue as if nothing happened!’ May we all wake from our sleep, before it is too late.
Newtown Connecticut: Back to Normal? by Westchester Men’s Ministry is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Christian Suffering … Hope!
Great post for 9/11 by Doug Plank at Crossway Life
In the middle of one of the most incredible chapters in all the Bible sits a very unsettling verse. Romans 8 comes at us with a torrent of promises and reveals to us the heights of Christ’s love and the depths of God’s immovable purposes. The Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of God the Spirit pens this treasure of a chapter. At the end of the chapter we read the following:
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (8:35)
Beautiful. I’m with you, Paul. This is a great hypothetical question that obviously is answered by a resounding “no!”
Then comes verse 36:
As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”
Many times when I’ve read this chapter and get…
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The Humblest Man Alive
We have seen commercials about the ‘most interesting man alive’ but I think the most interesting man alive would also be the humblest man alive.
So, who comes to mind for you? Hopefully you don’t think of yourself! Maybe your father comes to mind, or another relative, neighbor or friend. You probably remember a time that stands out where they were very generous, thoughtful and humble.
But, we are talking about the humblest man alive! I would argue that for this label the man would have to be of great significance, a man of great character and power, so that being humble would be out of place for a person of his stature.
Imagine a king, not any king mind you but a king that was not only capable but also deserving of his throne. I think maybe of a king that fought and led many victories in battle to win the freedom of the kingdom. His position was rightly earned and he was very suited to be king of a great kingdom.
Now imagine that king, due to the love he had for his people, longing to have his 
people know him, and his love. So he steps down from his throne and puts on everyday clothes. The clothes are old, slightly ripped and smell. He then leaves the castle without any security or money, to live among his people.
He tells them that the king loves them but they respond quickly ‘we are our own king!’ They then say, ‘we won our freedom on our own.’ Astonished by this lie, the king attempts to show them the truth but is hastily shut up. Finally the kind reveals his identity and says that he loves them very much.
The people only get mad and abuse him. He doesn’t defend himself and is beaten until he dies a horrible death.
The people actually kill the man that led them to freedom, a man that was the most capable and gentle king they will ever know. They will now have kings that will abuse them and never let them forget that they are slaves to their royal demands.
Jesus is our worthy, mighty, loving and humble king. If we submit to Him, we will never have want for another!
“Christ Jesus, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave .. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.’ – Philippians 2:6-7
This week, won’t you consider the love of your proper, holy and loving King?!
Hymn by William Bathurst
michaeldavidrawlings1.blogspot.com
Holy Spirit, from on high
Bend over us a pitying eye;
Now refresh the drooping heart;
Bid the power of sin depart.
Light up every dark recess
Of our heart’s ungodliness;
Show us every devious way
Where our hearts have gone astray.
Teach us, with repentant grief,
Humbly to implore relief;
Then the Savior’s blood reveal,
And our broken spirits heal.
May we daily grow in grace,
And with patience run the race,
Trained in wisdom, led by love,
Till we reach our home above.
>The Sun Will Rise!! Indeed!
>Our dog was saved by Danny and Ron. Please check out this moving slide show and consider giving to their efforts. Thank you!
Amazing Grace
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Video Courtesy of The Salvation Army
Westchester Men's Ministry 