EDIT: Javier has been sponsored! Wow wow! Thank you, Mattyb, & God bless you both!
Today, we meet Javier, an eight year old boy in Honduras who has been waiting over six months for a sponsor! His birthday is this month as well — what a great gift it would be for him to finally get a sponsor before his birthday (only $32/month)!
Javier makes his home with his father and his mother. Making beds, running errands and cleaning are his household duties. His father is sometimes employed as a farmer and his mother maintains the home. There are 3 children in the family.
As part of Compassion’s ministry, Javier participates in Bible class. He is also in primary school where his performance is average. Art, playing ball games and bicycling are his favorite activities.
Your love and support will help Javier to receive the assistance he needs to develop his potential. Please pray for him. This child has been waiting for a sponsor for more than six months. (from Compassion International)
I think so often we search for feelings & experiences, forgetting that the truth of God’s Word needs to be looked to FIRST. We can only gain the knowledge & discernment we need through studying His Word, not basing our relationship with God too greatly on feelings or experiences. Our own feelings cannot be trusted–they change faster than the weather at times & are often the result of missed perceptions of people, situations & experiences.
Truth can rarely be known based solely on our feelings. We must continue to be in His Word, being sanctified by Him & surrendering to His will each day so that we can share the Good News & God’s truth with those who do not know Him. Then we can share the Gospel while truly being examples of how God is changing & growing us to be more Christ-like, & also grow in discernment as we study His Word.
We should be being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:1-2), not giving only to get more, chasing after every feel-good speaker or anointing we hear about to gain artificial highs, or refusing to change from our pre-salvation selves thinking it doesn’t truly matter since we’ve been forgiven (see Romans 6). How can we be witnesses by our lives to the Gospel & how the truth of His Word renews our minds if we do not continually put off our old selves & actually renew our minds (Ephesians 4:21-32 & Colossians 3:1-10)? Nonbelievers will see & hear us, but not care a bit when we share the Gospel because our lives will look just like theirs. Instead they might say, “Well, I must be fine like I am because these Christians aren’t any different from before they became Christians.”
We should ache to share His love — because WOW! How He so loves us to have died for our sins — but a big part of being in a right relationship with Jesus Christ is making Him our Lord & Savior: We must wholeheartedly repent of our sins in order to do so. In turn, a desire should grow in us to do what God requires of us to grow this relationship through His Word & doing our part as He makes us more like Christ, also being obedient to share the Gospel with those we encounter in our lives as God leads us.
Something I heard spoken about recently was calling ourselves Christians & yet not living this label:
Christian. That’s our name — a word which has root in CHRIST. Sometimes I wonder if this label should be changed. Instead let us change ourselves as we deliberately strive to become more like Christ Jesus, Who gave His life for us. Let us grow closer to God through studying His Word, & grow greater in love & unity each day of our lives on this earth, seeking to be witnesses for Christ in all of ourselves — word, deed, mind, heart, soul & strength.
It’s Compassion Friday again, & this week, I present to you Viviane, an eight year old girl in Rwanda. She has been waiting over six months for a sponsor! For only $32/month you can sponsor this young lady & write her encouraging letters as well. Is God prompting you to help?
In her home, Viviane helps by carrying water and cleaning. She lives with her father and her mother. Her father is sometimes employed as a farmer and her mother is sometimes employed as a farmer. There are 8 children in the family.
Jumping rope, playing ball games and playing group games are Viviane’s favorite activities. In primary school her performance is average and she also regularly attends church activities.
Because of your sponsorship, Viviane will have new opportunities to learn and grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. Thank you for your concern and prayers.
This child lives in an AIDS affected area. In Africa, the disease has impacted the entire continent, creating a generation of orphans and vulnerable children. God can use you to help ease the pain of a child in desperate need.
This child has been waiting for a sponsor for more than six months. (from Compassion International)
Christians Summoned to Day of Repentance:“…gathering the body of Christ together in unity, humbly coming before our Lord, seeking His face and … asking for Him to be placed back in the center of our lives and our nation…”
Join in praying today for repentance & revival in our nation, for our leaders, & that God will begin with each of us, as millions will do at the National Mall in Washington, DC, & other locations around the US & the world. Feel free to pray of your own accord or similarly to what I prayed specifically below. I pray that God will use each of us & that His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven!
Lord, I pray that You will create in me a clean heart, a heart that seeks only after You & Your will. Help me to put You upfront & center in my life above all things, & forgive me for the times I have failed You & failed to put You first. I ask Your mercy on all people, in our nation & elsewhere, & pray for our leaders as well. I pray that we will come to the cross, & seek You through the sacrifice Jesus made for us on the cross, that we will take up our crosses daily, & seek first You & Your Kingdom. In the name of Jesus.
Driving around in our city shows me time & again just how intensely hungry the inhabitants are for God. They don’t even know it, but they are so hungry for Him — it’s seen in how they seek after ways to fill the God-shaped hole inside of them, not knowing that only God can bring the wholeness they desire.
As I drove through our city today, I felt the ripeness that is here, all of the people so ripe to know God if they only realize it is He Who can fill them! At any time now I think God will do a restoring work here. This place’s Christ followers will be revived, & the city’s nonbelievers, pagan & New Age followers will discover Who can truly fill them as they search, hunger & thirst for God without realization.
I pray that a true revival will come to our nation & people will seek God alone in it & begin to put Him first as He should always be. I pray that God’s will alone will be done, that people will come to know Jesus Christ as Lord & Savior! I pray that believers will become bold & more able to hear God’s Spirit as He speaks to them, & that they will not only hear but be obedient in following whatever God instructs them to do in accordance to His will.
Make me a vessel for You alone, Lord. Open my spiritual senses so that I may follow You with all that You have made me. Show me & lead me in what You would have me to do. Help me to follow Your guidance in seeking first Your Kingdom & doing Your will whenever, however, & wherever You want me to & to follow hard after You with a boldness that comes only from You.
I’ve been posting a Compassion blurb for these children in need of your help each Friday, but Oscar still has no sponsor from last week! I’m posting now in hopes that he will receive a sponsor before I post again tomorrow afternoon, in hopes that we can feature yet another child in need of someone like you to sponsor them & celebrate that Oscar has been sponsored.
Also, you can write letters to the child you sponsor, showing love to them in this way & reminding them that someone out there cares & is praying for them. They love receiving gifts such as photographs, postcards & stickers from you! & you can also send monetary gifts so that Compassion can provide extras to them — such as new garments, socks & other things that are rare to them, believe it or not for those of us to whom such things are easily attainable!
Think about sponsoring Oscar or otherchildren in need through Compassion - one of the best ways those in poverty are being reached in the mighty name of Jesus!
Last night at small group, I feel like God brought a great metaphor to us that I thought was worth sharing here.
We interpreted what it felt like God was impressing upon us as our needing to truly empty ourselves of all things that hinder our relationship with Him to make room for all that He wants to fill us with.
We need to empty the basement or attic inside of us of all burdens of worry, unbelief, sin or other things that hinder us from truly blossoming in our relationship with God. We need to clean ourselves out so that God has an empty vessel ready to be filled. Then, He can turn our figurative basements full of junk into beautiful gardens blooming with flowers of all kinds in every season. He wants to fill us with the fragrant aromas of all He has to pour into us, that will may then blossom in & through Him! In essence, He wants to renew our minds (Romans 12:1-2), filling us with His Word, His Truth to bring us life as His children.
Lay all burdens & other hindrances to your being closer to God at His feet, & refuse take them back up again (as we often try to do)! Then let God renew your mind through His Truth, letting yourself blossom as He grows a garden of His love, truth, grace & peace in your heart & renews your mind with His Word! He wants to take every burden you have (1 Peter 5:7) & have you just rest in Him (Psalm 46:10), growing you closer to Him & living in His Truth. Let the garden of your heart blossom! Let the flowers grow!
