Have you ever cared about someone so much that in times past in which they have hurt you or turned on you or in moments when they have disappointed you or let you down, or even when they have made a great mistake that was a detriment not only to you but to themselves also, that instead of feeling angry, the feeling you really experienced was being heartbroken? Have you ever been emotionally tied to someone who you see going down the wrong path or has suffered great earthly trials that you empathize with their struggle and it hurts you to see them go through their trials? And sometimes you want to reach out and help and assist them and pull them out of the hole that they are in, to pull them out of the traps and snares set by the enemy and help them out of their blue funk, but you find that they either refuse to be helped, because some people don’t want to be helped or have become so far gone and reprobate that they can’t realize that they need help or you are powerless to do so due to circumstance beyond your influence and control. Sometimes the feeling of powerlessness does stem from our inabilities or ineffectiveness to help due to the wall the person we care about has put between us and them. But a truth to their failure in deliverance does come from our turning a blind eye and shutting up the bowels of compassion for those we love or those who are in need. The bible says in 1 John 3:16-17, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and see the his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” I heard David say,in Psalm 69:20, “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” After we finish preaching heaven down from the pulpit, where is the church to ease the reproach of men’s broken hearts? After we finish sing and dancing and shouting, where is the church to lighten the heaviness in men’s hearts? When we leave the church parking lots in our Bentley’s, BMW, Mercedes, and Sebrings, and Ford Focuses, and minivans,where is the church to extend pity to those in distress? When we take off our big hats and sharp suits, and collars and ropes and habits, where is the church to bring comfort when there is none else to be found? We spout off at the mouth and talk about the love of God, but when there is a real need that someone has that comes to our door, we close our door and hearts to them and they go away with the mindset that the church doesn’t care and the love of God becomes nothing more than verbal diarrhea out of our mouths to the ears of our hearers because some of us in the church have forgotten that the love of God is actually realized through personal sacrifice. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts should be expressed by sincerely helping persons in ‘real’ need and not only giving lip service! Jesus said, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” What have you done for Jesus lately? Now, I encourage you to develop a great compassion for sharing the love of God to meet the ‘real’ natural needs of your fellow man and be heartbroken that others are suffering in this life. It’s good that your faith is wrought with works! It’s good if you are compassionate enough to want to: · Feed the hungry. · Clothe the naked. · Visit the sick. · Take care of the widow, orphan & stranger in the land. But God doesn’t only want you to show compassion and stop at the works that meet the natural man’s needs! God wants you to also become heartbroken like Him of the reality that people have rejected and will reject the gospel of Jesus Christ and their souls are being lost for all eternity. For I heard the bible say in 2 Peter 3:9, that God “is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And when your heart breaks, I hope it drives you to open your bowels of compassion and reach out and lead someone else to salvation because your fellow man is in need! Can you become heartbroken as you see someone going down the wrong spiritual path? Is your heart aching as you realize the spiritual torment that someone is suffering at the hands of the devil? Can you weep for your fellow man because their faith in God is shattered and they can’t seem to reclaim it? The bible says, in John 11,that when Jesus came to Bethany after Lazarus had died and seeing Mary, Martha and others grieving for Lazarus that he groaned in His spirit & Jesus wept. The emotional impact of Jesus’ dear close friend displays Jesus’ humanity, but Jesus was not only grieving because his friend had died. He was also grieved and heartbroken by the limited faith everyone displayed even though he, the resurrection and the life, was in their presence who had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead. The people stated, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” They believed Jesus could have performed a miracle while Lazarus was sick, but believed all was lost now that death had claimed him. Heartbreak came to a head for me last Wednesday night when I received word about a young man who was in transition that I’ve been ministering to for about a month and had been coming to church for about two weeks. In our discussions, he said he was trying to change his life and moved to Westminster to stay out of trouble. I could surmise he was searching for something better but his urgency of salvation wasn’t sinking in his heart and he took the new opportunities God had given him for granted and on an early Wednesday morning after Mother’s Day he laid in an apartment stairwell close to death, a victim of a gunshot to the stomach, a victim of an assassin’s bullet meant for someone else who is now lying in shock trauma fighting for his life. He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time,hanging around the wrong people. My heart breaks because he represents a large number of people in Westminster whose urgency of salvation isn’t sinking in their hearts. Like ships without a sail, they are stuck in transition with no direction, beaten up by the world and walking around chasing after crumb government crumbs without any hope of an abundant life, yet refusing to accept the new abundant life offered by Jesus the Christ. It is my spiritual discernment,that the city of Westminster can have all the festivals and carnivals it wants in town and can conduct all the community projects it wants; the city can cover it’s streets with pretty flowers and dress its buildings with colorful paint and colorful banners and it can build all the community centers it can in Westminster. The churches in Westminster can feed all the elderly and the homeless and children that they can reach; the churches can have all the Christmas concerts and Easter egg hunts they want, but until we stop being in denial that there is a spiritually demonic undercurrent in this city and until our heart brakes to the point that we are compelled to reach out and meet the needs of the spiritual man, this city is still going to be dressed and adorned with the heaviness of the spiritual chains that bound its citizens hearts! The bible says, in Romans9:1-5, that Paul expressed this ‘heartbreak’ we should experience as it related to the election of Israel and their rejection of Jesus Christ. He expressed that he suffered great heaviness and sorrow in his heart and Paul wished he would be separated from Christ for his brethren sake. Does the church really have the same attitude as Paul? Is there great grief and heartache at the center of the church’s emotional being? Are saints willing to suffer for the salvation of others? What are you willing to give up so that someone else might be saved? Please don’t take my statements as a condemnation of the church. It’s only something for us to contemplate as we minister to those in the twenty first century, for Jesus is surely to soon come or he will surely call us into eternity. As always, be blessed! Pastor Daniels |
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
CategoriesChristmasThanksgiving
|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||
    |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||
