Love your enemies

It's Friday!! Yeaa! How was your week? Was God good? Of course He was, but did we listen?

I was out of town Saturday, but the work of God never stops, so things were going on as usual. Basketball practice, bread wrapping, garden work, construction work, youth activities, visits to our friends homes, all continue through the hearts and dreams of all of you.

We continue to work in and around the center to get it back in shape. Things are looking better but still a long way to go. If you are looking for something to do, we could always use your help. Come by in the afternoons and find Joey to see what work needs to be done.

Tuesday evening, Rickie led our men's Bible fellowship reading from Luke 6 starting in verse 27, love your enemies. Ouch, sounds good but hard to do. How can we love someone who does us wrong?! Not natural, not possible? Only through the Holy Spirit working in us, will things happen.

Also on Tuesday evenings, you will find Vickie, Matt and Chuck surrounded by a group of young boys learning what it is to feel lvoed. What a great sight to see the boys engaged in conversations, learning team work and having a good time. They can always use your help, come by and see what you could do to help out.

Thursday evening got started off by a standing room crowd of chapel folks, singing with Ms Abbie and listening to the Word shared by Brother Chester. We were treated at the end of chapel by one of the community standing up, singing and praising God for bringing her back to life! What a special time. Pastor George's church helped with the meal and the serving. The clothing room and the Market were busy all night long.

Common Ground was one of 3 non profits chosen to participate in a Non Profit Board training program. The sessions are happening on Thursday evenings, so some of our leaders will be gone. We can always use your help, please come.

Prayers for Cari Bolinger fighting an infection and hospitalized at the moment. Continued prayers for Lisa's mom. She underwent a heart stint procedure this past week and still not feeling as good as everybody would like.

We talked about loving your enemies on Tuesday evening, Brother Chester led off his talk Thursday by saying we need love those who do us wrong, so I guess God is trying to tell us, lvoe, lvoe, lvoe is important.

It is easy to love someone who does you no wrong, looks like you, dresses like you, goes to the same church as you. In verse 32, Jesus says, "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them." But God, don't ask us to love someone who cusses us out, talks behind our backs, does not do what we want, asks for more than we can offer, is disagreeable, hard headed, takes advantage of us. God, we can't do it! It's too hard! Won't make a difference! Please God don't ask!

In verse 35, Jesus says, " But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great and you will be children of the most High . . " Some of us in our journeys got started late in life. We did things then we are not proud of now. But when everybody else turned against us, who welcomed us with open arms?! If God can lvoe us, why can't we lvoe others the same way? If we do, then our reward will be to get to play with Jesus in heaven! Won't that be fun!

No better place to emphasize the spelling of "lvoe" we use in our community. We can not love our enemies, turn the other cheek, give them our shirt, expecting something in return on our own. Only through the Holy Spirit working in and through us will God's "lvoe" shine and allow us to do good to those who hate us. It is not us loving but God lvoing others through us. That is why God put the Holy Spirit in us to do the impossible! The world needs to see how this remarkable lvoe can change hearts and change the world. Amen!

Let's pray to God this week in a mighty way, to help us lvoe those who do not like us and let's see how God can change their life through us! What a testament to God's unfailing grace it will be! Have a great week. See you around the center.

God provides

Hope your week was a good one! God is full of blessings and grace for us all to enjoy!

We visited our friends who live outside Saturday. Hard to imagine living in surroundings where you never cool off or never stop swatting the mosquitos. The ice water is a welcome addition to their gathering of items. It helps defer some of the tough conditions of living outside. Joey put out a plea in chapel for help with our bread wrapping activities and one of our community members came. It is a start, a welcomed addition to our group. Momma T and Tim were busy early in the morning in the garden trying to beat the heat. Then Momma T moved inside and worked with the girls making t shirts, a fun morning. Lunch for the basketball team was being prepared as we were leaving the center. Lots going on Saturdays, won't you come and join in.

During the week, in the afternoons, you will find Dawn, Joey and Alan working in and around the center. The center needs lots of attention, so they have begun helping out all around the building. You should notice a nice change in it's appearance, let them know what a great job they are doing. If something needs to be dropped off, you can just about find someone there from 1 - 5, Monday through Thursday.

Tuesday evening, Noel led the community Men's Bible fellowship. Always a good evening of laughter, surprises and conversation on how God is working in the lives of our men.

Thursday activities got started off by Willie and Wes sharing their gifts of song and word. It is great to see Willie walk over to Wes and say, the Holy Spirit wants me to sing this song instead of what we have prepared. Wes, says ok, Willie goes to singing and Wes goes to playing. Always magical in seeing the Holy Spirit working in these men. We had a couple of new churches provide us with our meal. The Market was busy as usual. An added bonus this week, was the giving out of back packs to our children. Great to see them walking around the center with their brand new backpacks on their backs, big smiles were everywhere! It was a great evening.

Prayers for Lisa and her mom. Her mom fell and surgery will be needed, happening this morning. Prayers for those who are traveling. Prayers for my sister's family in California. My sister has been battling cancer for two years and late Wednesday evening, she lost the battle. She was the leader of her family and her children will be struggling for awhile to cope with loosing their mom. Prayers for Ginellen's mom, she fell and hit her head, ending up with 19 stitches across her forehead. Prayers for Willie as he in going in this morning to have a stint placed in his arm for possible dialysis in the near future. Prayers for our community. Prayers for the direction God is leading us.

God provides. How many times have we said that expression? God provides.

We go through life trying to make ends meet and in the end, God provides. Just when you think there is nothing left, all hope is lost, God provides. How many times, does it look like there is no light at the end of the tunnel, God provides. We are faced with all sorts of storms, so many obstacles we wonder if we will ever survive, but we do because God provides.

Several stories this week, I have been blessed to see and hear, reminds me of God providing for us. Momma T takes her granddaughter to a new school. Lots of emotion and anxieties going to meet the granddaughter's teacher. She walks in and sees Terry Strain in the same classroom? Momma T's first thought, does Terry have a granddaughter attending the same class. Then she realizes, her granddaughter's teacher is Terry's daughter Hanna. Momma T was a big part of Hanna's life growing up at Grace. Now Hanna will be a big part of Momma T's life as she takes care of her granddaughter! God provides!

Several of us have been receiving calls from other organizations about school supplies and backpacks. We have been blessed in the past of Grace supplying us with back packs and supplies. This year we were blessed to receive some backpacks but very little supplies. Lisa was wanting around 90 backpacks to meet our needs for the community children. The numbers of back packs we received we not nearly enough to meet our obligation of giving away the backpacks this past Thursday, our anxieties began to increase. Then Lisa started getting phone calls from people, saying I have back packs, do you want them? Lisa goes back to Grace Wednesday afternoon and finds a bunch of backpacks that were in a different place adding to our total. Folks we had not heard from in awhile, calls and says, I have school supplies can I bring them by. We were able to pack the bags with pencils, pens, notebook paper, folders, glue and more! After we gave away the bags to all the children Thursday, we still had a few bags left! God provides!

We had air conditioning problems a couple of weeks ago at the center. We were able to get the units running before Thursday, God providing again. But this Thursday, one of our main units in the dining hall was not performing up to it's capacity. It gets hot in the room when you have 125 people in there! Ardis comes to me beside herself with frustration of the room not getting any cooler. I say to her, I guess we need to call our electrician to see if he can come by to see what the problem is. I walk into the dining hall and guess who was sitting down at the table visiting with the community?! John and our new Jim had just walked in. They finished their meal and immediately went to find our problem. They did and are working on getting our unit working back at full strength! God provides!

These are just the stories from this week. Stories like this happen everyday to everybody. We need to share our stories with others to let them know there is a God who lvoes us, cares for us and watches out over us. The world is full of negativity, hurt and confusion. Willie shared in chapel, people of faith need to share our stories of lvoe, compassion and faith with others. As Willie pointed out in Philippians 2 verse 2, Paul says, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. As Christians, we don't need to let the world bring us down. We need to have joy in our hearts knowing there is a God providing for our every needs! Amen.

Wonder what God providing stories will happen this week for you? Be able to share with others, share it with us. Have a great week. God will provide because God is good!

Came to seek

Baby it's hot outside! I think every day this week the temperatures have been at 100 degrees or hotter!  Hopefully in your part of the world it has not  been as bad. How did God bless you this week?!

Being out of town this past Saturday, have not heard what went on. We are gearing up for the start of school and the fall basketball season. Always lots of activities going in and around the center, come by one Saturday and check it out.

With summer camp coming to an end, it is time to give our center a much needed face lift. Kathyrn, our cleaning expert, has done a great job in getting the floors looking brand new again. Still lots to be done, we could use your help.

Tuesday evening, Rickie led our men's community Bible fellowship reading from Luke 19: 1-10. Reading about Zacchaeus the tax collector, wanting to see this man called Jesus so he climbs up a tree to do so. What do we do to see Jesus?

With school starting next week, we will begin preparing for our afternoon reading activities. Allison will be taking over the leadership role for us this year. We had a great year last year. Looking forward to meeting our new group of children. As dates and times become available, we will let you know how to get involved.

Joey will be hosting prayer time in the chapel every day this week starting at 9am. No better way to get through the day, than spending time with Jesus.

As the temperatures hovered around 100, we got our Thursday activities started by listening to Ms Abbie and Joey in chapel. We had a large crowd, being the first of the month. All our ministries were busy, clothing room, market and the dining hall. It was great to see old friends and meet new ones.

Prayers for a police officer's family in Shreveport who was killed in the line of duty Wednesday night. We need to develop a better relationship between our police staff and the community. Prayers for our friends living outside. This oppressive heat wave is making for short tempers. Prayers for our community children as they return to school.

Verse 10 as stuck with me this week, For the Son of Man came to seek, and to save the lost. Jesus walks to the streets, meeting folks and going into their homes. Jesus is doing what the church needs to be doing.

Zacchaeus, the tax collector, one of the most hated men of his time, stops what he is doing and climbs a tree to see Jesus. Jesus, who is always watching out for us, spots this man, recognizes him and says, I must stay at your house today. Jesus is wanting a relationship with us, we don't have to climb a tree, just open our hearts up to Him.

When the people on the streets hear Jesus saying, I must go to the tax collector house, they start to grumble. How can a man like Jesus go to a sinner's house?! The church opens the doors and hopes people will come. We welcome those who come who look like us, but do we do the same for someone who does not?

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. We need to constantly be going out. It is very easy for us to drive to the center, walk inside, get comfortable in our surroundings and leave. We need to get out of our comfort zones and go out and seek. We need to build relationships with our community in their homes. We need to go to their schools. We need to go to their churches. Jesus walked the streets most of His time on earth, spending very little time in the synagogues.  We need to do the same. As Joey, said in chapel, we are stronger together than we are separate. We have found Jesus, we need to go out and do the same for others. Amen.

Hope your coming week will be a good one. Let us, say a prayer, put one foot in front of another, and go out and seek. Amazing things will happen when we follow Jesus!