Happy Wednesday!

Prayer: “Father, I bless Your name for the way You have demonstrated Your love, mercy, and grace to me. Help me demonstrate that same love, mercy, and grace to others so they can see You. In Jesus’ name. Amen”

Jude 20: 21 “You, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.”

Would you invite a stranger to your home if you found out that this stranger, just looking for a bed for the night, had been in prison? I know it is a bit farfetched, but just follow this line of thinking. Would you throw this weary soul out because of his past? There is an old legend of a pastor who invited a nearly 100 year old weary traveler into his home to rest for the night. When the pastor asked the elderly gentleman about his religious beliefs the traveler answered “I am an atheist.” The pastor arose from his chair and ordered this tired, elderly soul out of his home because he was an atheist. The man walked out. The pastor went back inside his house to study scripture when he heard a voice ask, “Son, why did you throw that old man out?” The pastor answered, “Because he was an atheist and I cannot endure him in my home.” The voice replied, “I have endured him for about a hundred years.” The pastor went outside, found the gentleman, brought him back into his home and treated him with kindness.”

When we treat others unkindly we are not serving God. God wants us to love others the way he has loved us. The verse today calls us to keep ourselves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. God finds in His heart of hearts to be kind and merciful to each of us even when we do not deserve it. God treats us with compassion, but there are those we do not treat with compassion. God has called us to this depth of love for others because that is the depth of love He has for us. We can love sinners while not liking their sins. We are sinners, and yet God still loves us. We receive abundant mercy from God and that should motivate and remind us to be merciful to others.

This weekend God’s love will walk into a maximum security prison in the form of a Kairos Prison Ministry Team. None of these free world men are perfect and all have sinned. Their job this weekend is to share the love, compassion, forgiveness and tender mercies of a loving God with 42 brothers in white (inmates) no matter what sins the inmates have committed.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. . Thank you mighty and faithful prayer warriors we love you lots, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

Please pray for Bruce, the Kairos Prison Ministry Team and those who are incarcerated who are going through the weekend event. Continue your prayers for little Tatum, Uncle Gene, Sheena’s sister Sheila, her family and all of our family