Matthew 10:29-31

ANAPAUŌ – CHILL OUT!

(July 31, 2023) Robert McQuillan encourages…

Odd name for the title of an article, isn’t it? Let me explain…

An old friend called recently and happened to ask how I wrote articles, how I got my inspiration and so on. My answer was twofold… like sermon preparations where I’d have an idea of what I wanted to preach/teach, it would come together as I typed.

The second way is similar… and I say this humbly, not spookily – I’d start to type and find that I’m immediately being led by the Spirit and ‘words just come about through my fingers.’ It’s called ‘Being Spirit led.’ And that’s what’s happening here, even as I type this!

Now I’d already researched so many scriptures in respect of something I thought I’d be writing about… but now I find the blessed Holy Spirit taking me in a different direction – even an embarrassing one!

And that okay… I’m His to be directed and used as He wishes… as we all should be! And that’s a threefold principle all Christians should remember every day…

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JESUS CARES…

(May 19, 2021) Carol Round shares great truths from her heart…

Stopped at a busy intersection in a large city recently, I noticed a large, scribbled message on one side of a large grey utility box. In black permanent marker, someone had written, ‘Nobody cares.’

On another side of the metal box, in bold black block letters, someone else had written neatly ‘Jesus loves you.’  

I’m positive the first message, scribbled in haste, was written first. The second appeared to be an answer to the first person’s cry for help, an encouragement to whomever had desperately penned the heart-felt words, Nobody cares.

At the base of the utility box was a pile of belongings – what looked like a bag of clothing, a dark green sleeping bag, and what appeared to be a grocery sack of food. Conspicuously absent was the person who’d left the belongings behind. Was it a homeless person or had someone who cared left the supplies behind for the person who believed no one really cared about their plight?

God wants us to do our part
Throughout the rest of my week, I couldn’t get this snapshot of humanity out of my mind. I still wondered about the person who’d penned the first message. My heart ached for someone who is probably homeless.

I also wondered, ‘Did the homeless person abandon his/her few possessions?’ Why? Had the individual given up on life? Or, had a caring person purchased the goods and left them there – maybe the person who wrote, ‘Jesus loves you.’

I almost wished the homeless person had been present while I sat in my car, waiting for the light to change. My curiosity needed satisfying. I wanted to do my part and offer the person some money. Even more importantly, I wanted to feed his soul with an encouraging message from scripture.

Caring for others is part of reaching out in Jesus’ great commission of Matthew 28:18-20!

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