Day of Praise

Tu, 04/08/14, "Day of Praise"

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 - "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!"

I have a dear friend who's always said that the church is notorious for killing its wounded. In other words, when someone is hurting, the church is notorious for heaping additional burden on the hurting person by way of heaping additional blame or neglect or accusation or withholding forgiveness or lack of compassion.

I am pleased to say that I saw many examples today that bucked the trend. Today, I saw the church care for its wounded. I saw one person rush to a hospital to sit for hours with a person who'd fallen and broken bones. I saw another person take a surprise gift of thousands of dollars to an inner city ministry for at risk kids that operates merely on pennies. I saw a single parent minister patiently to his son who vomited repeatedly to soak through the bedroom carpet. I saw a few men and women minister to another by trusting the spirit to guide an extremely difficult conversation.

And so it is true, as noted today in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!"

Dear Friends, in the strength of Christ let us love and lift up one another.

Praise God!


Pastor Chris
"The gospel is the story of Jesus [what God's only Son has done for us that we can't do for ourselves], spoken as a promise." - Robert Jenson