Month: April 2019

Would Jesus Visit a Nursing Home?

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Nursing home ministry is recognizing that we are a part of a community rather than a calling – like being called to be a missionary. When Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself” a lawyer tried altering the meaning of neighbor in order to skip out on loving those he didn’t feel comfortable with. The question isn’t whether we are called to visit those in long term care; but what each of us can do when we get there!

pastorpete51's avatarWalking With Lambs

Though there were no institutions like nursing homes in the days of Jesus, there definitely were the same kinds of people who lived in them. That society had no social security, government health insurance or orphanages. The poor and helpless either were cared for by family or were thrown out to beg on the street. In the Bible we read a story of one woman we will call Rosemary, who teetered on the edge of destitution. Rosemary was a widow being supported by her only son. Then the worst happened. That son was struck down by some disease or accident. The morning as she followed his coffin on the way out of the city she wept not only for the loss of her child, but also because her future seemed dark and foreboding. Then Jesus came!

Soon afterward he went to a town called Nain, and his disciples and a great…

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Hope of Victory

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But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ                       1 Corinthians 15:57 ESV

Sometimes when we are facing a crisis the whisper comes in the dark of night that there is no longer any hope. We feel like a rowboat caught in the tidal wave of serious illness, family turmoil or the death of a loved one. That is exactly the situation which the disciples faced as they accompanied Jesus to the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus had asked them to pray with him for one hour but the Bible tells us that

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And when He rose from prayer He came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow. Luke 22:45

They were overcome by sorrow, but not their master. Jesus had prayed till His sweat fell like drops of blood. Jesus had continued interceding even when they felt defeated. In the same way He is interceding in heaven for you and I today. Neither our sorrow nor our despair will cause Him to abandon us. He will come and awaken us. He will carry our burdens. He chose in that dark garden to pay the full price for our sin to give us hope. It is that hope which lies behind the cry:

O Grave where is your victory? Death where is your sting? 1 Corinthians 15:55

All The Things He Can

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During the last week of my Dad’s life I learned more from him than all the years before. The reality of God’s love reflected in his concern for my getting meals even though he only received his through a tube. He worried I was missing sleep at a time that he spent his night in the ICU. Most of all, dad loved having me and his nurse read the Bible to him. And that week he often quoted his favorite verse

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

Those last seven days with my dad along with his verse helped carry me through the sorrow threatened to overwhelm me with his death. Just after the death of Jesus it was the same for His disciples, His family and especially His mother. They hardly dared to recall the joy of those last three years seeing lepers cleansed, storms calmed and the dead raised. All that changed the night of the betrayal by Judas. That was followed by the arrest and false charges by the religious leaders. Finally the Romans sentenced Jesus to be crucified between two criminals and die a horrible and degrading death.

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But in the pre-dawn of hours of the third day everything changed. The stone sealing the grave had been rolled away. The women who came early to the tomb were met with men in white clothing who told them that the Lord was not there – He had risen. The bitterness and loss that they felt was quickly replaced by wonder and new faith as they encountered the risen Christ. Once we have invited this same risen Lord Jesus to rule our hearts we will discover that our lives are no longer defined by the many things we cannot do but by all the things He can!