Thursday, April 21, 2011

Angels are rejoicing

You are never too far away from the saving grace of Jesus Christ. No matter what you have done or where you are at, Jesus will forgive you and give you eternal life.

We witnessed that tonight at the Love In Action Ministry Center. The topic of tonight's Bible study was the passion of Christ and came from "The Passion of The Christ, A Biblical Guide" by Greg Laurie. We looked at the "Four Reasons Why Jesus Had to Die on the Cross" and the "Seven Statements from the Cross."

It was a powerful study, and as always, there was good discussion and some great thought-provoking questions. At the end of every Bible study we always have a time of prayer. There is not a lack of prayer requests. But before we prayed for those requests, I asked if anyone was saved. There were two who wanted to make sure they spent eternity in Heaven - a young homeless woman and a man from community corrections work release who wanted a personal relationship with Jesus.

Those who follow this blog and our Love In Action Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/lia.ministries) have read a little about this young homeless woman. I won't go into her story again, but she has gone through a lot. She needs to know that God loves her and that there is a group of people at Love In Action who love her and want to help her.

The change in her since we first met her a few weeks ago is great. It's amazing how showing the love of God to people and giving them encouragement can make such a huge difference. She was all smiles tonight, and she told us, "Y'all give me strength." That is from the love and encouragement.

See, she felt like she wasn't worthy of real love. She didn't believe she deserved to be treated with respect. She had no self worth at all. Now, she knows Jesus as her Lord and Savior. She knows she has hope. She still has a long ways to go, but she is on the right road now and is actually making some plans to keep moving forward and improving her life. God's love can change anyone's life.

The young man who accepted Christ tonight has been down many wrong roads. But he knows that God loves him any way. He has many tattoos and he has been judged by others because of them. The first thing he noticed about Love In Action was we didn't judge him or making any comments about his tattoos. It's what's on the inside that counts. Jesus looks at the heart.

Tonight, he is a born again, forgiven child of God. No tattoo can keep Jesus Christ away.

There is a big party going on in Heaven tonight. What? A party in Heaven? Yes, you don't think Heaven will be boring do you? And tonight they have plenty to celebrate. In Luke 15:10, Jesus says, "... there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”


There were two who repented tonight. Just imagine the celebration that's going on. Praise God!


It doesn't stop here, though. Now discipleship must take place, and we will be following up and teaching them the Word of God and helping them any way we can.


But tonight, we celebrate with the angels. God is so awesome!

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