Weekend Words

From Beside the Still Waters...

What do You Need? - Read Isaiah 58

"There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt." (Ecclesiastes 5:13)

What do you really need, (not want), that money can buy and that God has not already given to you?  The Bible says, "Having foods and raiment let us be therewith content" (1 Timothy 6:8), but the majority of us have far more than this minimum, and too often we still are not content.  What about my neighbor who does not have all he really needs, not even food and raiment?  He may live in India, Syria, or the Congo, but he is still my neighbor.

I first met little Nguyen Quang when her mother carried her into the Mekong Delta village where our team was conducting a medical mission.  About 6 or 7 years of age, she weighed only 14 pounds and was in such a desperate physical condition that we decided to immediately medevac her by our river boat to the nearest hospital.  When we later returned there, the hospital staff informed us that they had discharged Nguyen Quang shortly after her admission.

"The child's problem is a dietary one not a medical one.  She is simply starving.  We can only treat medical problems, not nutritional ones."

"But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion, from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?" (1 John 3:17).  Will I stand guilty before the Lord because of indulging myself with the material and spiritual blessings He has entrusted to me, instead of using them for the relief of the poor and the lost?  An estimated160-180 million people have no Scripture in their native language.  About 854 million people go hungry each day, and 21,000 die of hunger.  Especially in this season of widespread gift giving, let's ask ourselves: What do we really need? 

Pete Lewis - Halsey, OR

"Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." - James 4:17

From A Year's Journey with God...

Almighty

"I am the Alpha and the Omega ... the Almighty." - Revelation 1:8

Can you picture a lonely prisoner in his cell?  His mind is full of memories of the past - but the worst one returns often.  He is standing by a cross, watching his best friend die in agony.  Suddenly the terrible memory is replaced by something amazingly different!  He gasps as a vision of the future floods his mind with glory.  He sees the friend, whom the world has rejected, coming back again surrounded by angels and golden clouds.  This time no one could ignore Him, and the soldiers who callously tortured him quake in terror.  As the Holy Spirit pulls back the curtains of time, John glimpses the carpenter, who had been his friend, gloriously transformed, enthroned forever in heaven.

At this time of year, which the church has christened Advent, we are not only preparing our hearts for the coming of the baby in a manger; we are also focusing our eyes of faith on the second coming of our King.  This amazing event was not just an old man's imagination - it is real (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).  Most of us probably wish we could have been in that Bethlehem stable on the first Christmas Eve, but nothing is going to stop us being present the next time Jesus comes!

"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God.  And the dead in Christ will rise first.  

Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.  And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

Therefore comfort one another with these words."

1 Thessalonians 4:16-18