Never Ever Get Tired of Doing Good

“Brothers and sisters, never get tired of doing good.”
‭‭2 Thessalonians‬ ‭3:13‬ ‭ERV‬‬

Guess what I had my last week before retiring ...a “chicken biscuit” day! If you don’t what that is, my son sometimes buys an extra chicken biscuit and gives one away to a homeless person on the way to work. He just rolls down his window and hands it out at a red light.

Every day on my way to work, I pass by a girl that is waiting at a bus stop on Hulen Street. She is there at exactly 6:55 AM. She is dressed in an outfit that one might wear to a fast food restaurant. She always, always looks down and tries to be invisible. I have passed her for several years. I have imagined how I could bless her. Since Friday was my last day, I was running out of time.

I have tried to time the stop so I could talk to her when the light was red. I have tried turning down the street next to her but cars turned in as well behind me. She would get on the bus.

I saw her at the bus stop and turned into the street and did a u-turn. I yelled out the window, “Hey!” She turned and looked. I said, “Please come over here.” She had courage to run over to a total stranger and take a chance of missing her bus. But she did. I told her that I pass her everyday and pray for her. She smiled so big. She said, “My name is Joanna.” I told her my name was Pat. I gave her some money and told her to spend on whatever she needed.

How can we encourage each other to not be weary in doing good? I looked up ideas of things to have in my car to give away when I see a needy person. The only thing that would stop me is courage to do this

Love to Your Fellow Believers

I was reading a great article that my sweet friend, Michelle Myers wrote about how we are quick to criticize our sisters in Christ. I have been thinking about this and this morning I read this verse.

“One of the Pharisees asked him over for a meal. He went to the Pharisee’s house and sat down at the dinner table. Just then a woman of the village, the town harlot, having learned that Jesus was a guest in the home of the Pharisee, came with a bottle of very expensive perfume and stood at his feet, weeping, raining tears on his feet. Letting down her hair, she dried his feet, kissed them, and anointed them with the perfume. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man was the prophet I thought he was, he would have known what kind of woman this is who is falling all over him.””
Luke 7:36-39 MSG

The Pharisees were quick to accuse Jesus and one had the nerve to say, "if he was the prophet I thought he was." I thought about how I am quick to find a fault in my fellow sisters in Christ. I judge them quicker than I do a non-Christian and I bet you do too.

Today i am going to give more grace and love to my fellow believers. Think about it...you are going to spend eternity with them:):):).

Kindness to People Who Serve Us

“When you come across a bird’s nest alongside the road, whether in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, don’t take the mother with the young. You may take the babies, but let the mother go so that you will live a good and long life.”
Deuteronomy 22:6-7 MSG

I have been stressing over these two verses for a long time. I couldn't figure out what they meant. If you haven't figured this out yet, the book of Deuteronomy is full of ways to understand the 10 commandments.

Actually when you read a verse, anywhere in the Bible, there is a principal behind that verse. It helps you understand something. I would encourage you to sit on that verse and try to see the principal behind the verse. Ask yourself,"Why was this verse written?"

Sometimes we just ignore the verse because we think it only applies to the people living a long time ago. That is a dangerous assumption. If we do that, we will pick and choose only the verses that we think are important.

Back to this commandment about the birds.Taking the mother bird means that you are harming the mother. Letting the mother bird go means you are allowing them to live and actually valuing even a bird. Perhaps this is why it is written in the Bible.

There are a lot of people that I meet that I call "service people." They fix my appliances, they work at the desk at the YMCA, they take up tickets at the stadium, they clean my board at school and empty the trash, etc. The service or "eggs" is the part I am after and the provider or "mother bird" is disposable to me.

Actually to some people, I am the service person. I teach their kids and to them the kids are all that matters and I am "disposable." How does that make you feel when the person takes what you provide but they discard you?

That is like getting the eggs from the bird and eating the eggs but throwing away the mother bird. Gracious! Today as I run my errands, I want to make the provider more important that the provision.

Place of Refuge

“Then GOD spoke to Joshua: “Tell the People of Israel: Designate the asylum-cities, as I instructed you through Moses, so that anyone who kills a person accidentally—that is, unintentionally—may flee there as a safe place of asylum from the avenger of blood.

“A person shall escape for refuge to one of these cities, stand at the entrance to the city gate, and lay out his case before the city’s leaders. The leaders must then take him into the city among them and give him a place to live with them. “If the avenger of blood chases after him, they must not give him up—he didn’t intend to kill the person; there was no history of ill-feeling. He may stay in that city until he has stood trial before the congregation and until the death of the current high priest. Then he may go back to his own home in his hometown from which he fled.””
Joshua 20:1-6 MSG

if you ever have read through the Old Testament, these verse were probably some that you skipped:):):). God commanded them to create cities that provided a place of protection if someone killed someone by accident.

I was thinking about the principal behind this verse this morning and a comforting thought came to me. As Christians, we need people who provide a place of refugee when we really mess up unintentionally. I have done this many times. Maybe I was so tired, I said something without thinking that hurt someone's feeling. Perhaps I did not know all the facts and I made a terrible choice. Last month at school, I walked out at 4:00 and totally forgot the faculty meeting. Totally forgot!

When that happened, it is nice to know that there may be a friend, family member or co-worker who will defend my innocence and not crucify me with gossip.

Works both ways-I can be a place of refugee to someone. I can be a person they will run to and I can help until their innocence is declared. I can stop the gossip mill by not adding to the accusations.

Lord, thank you for providing places of refuge when I need it. My sisters, friends and co-workers are a gift to me. Remind me to be that for them when they need it.