Dr. Tom Dannals in Huntington, West Virginia, is on a mission to do everything he can to bring better health to that city. West Virginia leads the nation in heart disease which is the number one killer in the United States.
Most heart disease is preventable and can even be reversed through proper diet and exercise. Dr. Dannals introduce the city to the Dr. Dean Ornish program of heart disease prevention and reversal. Dr. Dannals also founded HealthyHuntington.org along with founding and directing the annual Marshall University Marathon, half marathon and 5k held on the first Sunday of November every year. It’s a wonderful marathon with a stadium finish.
Through these processes, Dr. Dannals is using his life to bring healing to that city and is saving countless number of lives from the grip of heart disease. God is using Him. People are being touched at their point of need.
I’m so thankful for medical professionals. They minister at the point of need. Sure, many do not realize it and some are in it just for the monetary rewards, but God uses them nevertheless to bring the healing needed.
I’m fortunate to have a sister-in-law, Shelia, who has been a nurse taking care of the ill and ministering at their point of need for over 20 years. She now teaches nursing. The beautiful part is that her daughter Kristen was one of her students and is following her mother’s steps in using her life to help others. It thrills my heart. I’m also fortunate to have a cousin, David, who is a surgeon. I’m sure that you also have friends and family in the medical profession. God is using each of these to bring much healing and ease of suffering.
My sister, Ramona has been battling Lupus for over two decades. There is no cure and the disease has caused so much damage to every part of her body. She has had multiple strokes in her young life and has trouble getting around, but she doesn’t have trouble meeting the felt needs of others. She ministers the love of Christ to everyone she comes in contact with. She cooks meals and she and her husband Chuck takes food to people. They have provided my family with manna many times and God has used them to sustain us in ministry over and over again. These are Christ followers who get it and they are revealing the Kingdom of God to so many through taking care of their felt needs.
I was fortunate to be raised by Christ following parents who used their God given abilities to minister at the point of need and take care of felt needs just as Jesus did. I grew up seeing them do without and give of their time, talent and treasure so that the needs of others would be taken care of. I’m glad that they did not teach me to leave the needs of others in the sovereign hands of God. I am glad that Jesus did not teach us to leave the needs of others in the sovereign hands of God. I am glad that so many people get it and are continuing the point of need ministry of Jesus and not just merely attending a church service expecting God to take care of people.
Mom and Dad are now in their senior years of life and I will take care of them and their needs. I will do it out of my love for them and in obedience to Scripture, just as they taught me by example.
But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. (1 Timothy 5:8 ESV)
In the paragraph of Scripture as given to us in Acts 7:54-60, the religionists break the Roman law which prohibits them from executing a death sentence. As a mob, they react to Stephen’s stand for faith and justice. They kill the messenger and God’s instrument of grace. Instead of making the right choice, repenting of their religious ways and following Christ, they make the wrong choice and choose religion over Christ. Their actions show how religion is full of anger and leads to death and not life.
As I read this paragraph of Scripture, it is Stephen’s reaction that catches my eye and speaks volumes into my life. Notice with me:
Stephen the Christ follower, even in death, kept his eyes fixed on Jesus who is the author and perfecter of faith (Acts 7:55).
Stephen the Christ follower left this world praying to Jesus and releasing himself to Jesus’ care (Acts 7:59).
Stephen the Christ follower prayed for his enemies as they violently attacked and killed him (Acts 7:60).
If to be feelingly alive to the sufferings of my fellow-creatures is to be a fanatic, I am one of the most incurable fanatics ever permitted to be at large.
Sean and Rebecca Lawrence are precious Christ followers who love God and people with a genuine authenticity. Sean is student of God’s Word and a gifted teacher.
Last month Sean Lawrence was credentialed as a licensed minister under Loving God Fellowship. Becky and I traveled to Middletown, Ohio, yesterday to attend a Bible study that Sean conducts on Wednesdays from noon to 1pm at the public library there. We were blessed and recognized God's hand upon Sean and Rebecca as they ministered to all who were present there.
Sean and Rebecca also minister on Sundays in the basement of a local church providing a meal and message for those in the community. They minister at the point of need as unto Christ and reflect through their words and actions what Loving God Fellowship is all about. Becky and I are so thankful that God has added them to the Loving God Fellowship team.
Please uplift Sean and Rebecca in your prayers. Pray for the people of Middletown, Ohio – that they will experience the love of God firsthand through loving Christ followers such as Sean and Rebecca Lawrence.
What is it to serve God and to do His will? Nothing else than to show mercy to our neighbor. For it is our neighbor who needs our service; God in heaven needs it not.
Cowardice asks the question: Is it safe? Expediency asks the question: Is it politic? Vanity asks the question: Is it popular? But conscience asks the question: Is it right? And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular -- but he must take it simply because conscience tells him it is right.
- Martin Luther King Jr.,
from his address, "To Chart Our Course for the Future" (1968).
I just finished reading Once Blind: The Life of John Newton . Author Kay Marshall Strom details the life of John Newton in a story like readable fashion.
Newton was a living testament to the power of God's transforming grace. In his early days, He captained slave ships bringing slaves from Africa. After experiencing God's amazing grace, he became a minister and worked in abolishing the slave trade along side William Wilberforce.
Newton wrote the great hymn "Amazing Grace" that has been sung in churches across the land. If you were raised in the church like I, you will have at least a portion, if not all, of the great hymn memorized.
Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
That sav'd a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
'Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears reliev'd;
How precious did that grace appear,
The hour I first believ'd!
Thro' many dangers, toils and snares,
I have already come;
'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far,
And grace will lead me home.
The Lord has promis'd good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be,
As long as life endures.
Yes, when this flesh and heart shall fail,
And mortal life shall cease;
I shall possess, within the vail,
A life of joy and peace.
The earth shall soon dissolve like snow,
The sun forbear to shine;
But God, who call'd me here below,
Will be for ever mine.
In 1962, slavery was finally made illegal throughout the world, but yet slavery still exists in our day through sex trafficking, bonded labor and child labor. According to Strom's research and documented in the epilogue, it is estimated that there are 12 million slaves today. The U.S. Government estimates that there are 15,000 to 18,000 trafficked into America each year.
In the epilogue of Strom's well written book, she informs how we can be twenty-first century abolitionists. I recommend you read this book and get involved in being a twenty-first century abolitionist. We can make a difference in our day just as Newton did in his day.
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. We must learn to live together as brothers, or perish together as fools.
One day we will learn that the heart can never be totally right if the head is totally wrong. Only through the bringing together of head and heart – intelligence and goodness – shall man rise to a fulfillment of his true nature.
- Martin Luther King Jr., fromStrength to Love, a collection of Dr. King's sermons
In what ways we can bring together intelligence and goodness?
Fear is a powerful deterrent to progress. Fear left unchecked will overpower hope. Some people use fear as a tactic to get their own way, promote their own ideology, or to keep the status quo.Do you know those that use this tactic?I have met many.I have seen this tactic used by unlikely sources such as teachers, bosses, pastors, religious leaders and politicians.
It’s important to understand that fear is not from God.God will never use fear, but Satan will.The ultimate source of fear is always evil and if one succumbs to it, they can become a slave to it.The Apostle Paul wrote “For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, "Abba, Father." The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children.”-- Romans 8:15-16
Hope is of God and hope never deters progress.In fact it is hope that drives progress and brings peace.
Hope is the strongest driving force for a people. Hope which brings about change, which produces new realities, is what opens man's road to freedom. Once hope has taken hold, courage must unite with wisdom. That is the only way of avoiding violence, the only way of maintaining the calm one needs to respond peacefully to offenses. - Oscar Arias Sanchez, excerpted from his 1987 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech.
I refuse to be a person that uses fear as a tactic or do anything that will propagate fear.If I do, I will be an instrument used by evil and not an instrument used by God.No, I prefer to be a person of hope.
There are a lot of people that are always willing to use the resources available to them to help others. I'm sure that you know some. I know that I have people in my life that, if I would call upon them for help, they would help in every way possible. I thank God for them. These people are gifts of God’s grace that He places in our life to reflect Him.
O Lord, you are so good, so ready to forgive, so full of unfailing love for all who ask for your help. ~ Psalm 86:5, NLT
Heavenly Father, I thank you for all the people that you have placed in my life that reflect you. Forgive me for the times I have not been ready or made myself available to help others. Help me be more like you so that others may come to know you and your goodness I pray. Amen.
I’m going to take some time today to send a few notes of thanks to those that God has put in my life to reflect Him.
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. (Heb 12:1-2 ESV)
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. Author Kay Marshall Strom details the life of John Newton in a story like readable fashion.
, a collection of Dr. King's sermons
