Let's shine brightly for Jesus

I often hear people say, "How can I pay you back for all you've done for me?" My answer is always, "Live for Jesus." That's it. 

That's why we do everything that we do at Love In Action. We want to lead people into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. There is no amount of money or anything else that is better than seeing a life transformed. 

Sometimes we lose track of people we minister to. The reasons vary from they moved away, are in prison, a rehab, or many other things happened. What is great is when we run into them during our community outreach, and we see their lives are turning around. 

We started going to some different mobile home parks in the rural Houston County last year for our community outreach. On our first visit we knocked on a door and a young woman answered. We first met her when she was homeless, and she would come to our campus for a shower, food, clothing, and other needs. 

"I don't know what I would have done without y'all," she said. "Y'all were a lifesaver." 

This past weekend we encountered another former homeless person. Martha and I knocked on a door in a mobile home park in Cowarts. A woman answered. We knew her because she gave her life to Jesus the first time we visited there last year. 

As we said our hellos, I heard a man ask, "Is that brother Ken?" Years ago, we met him when he was homeless living next to a dumpster. Today he has a home, his own car, and a job he has worked consistently for the past year. Praise God! 

“I wouldn’t be here if not for y’all,” he said. To God be the glory! It was all Jesus, not us. That made our day. He has an interest in singing and wants to sing for Jesus, so we encouraged him in that. 

Seeing him reminded me that we don't always see the difference any of us can make in a person's life. If we will just follow Jesus and let Him love through us, He will work through us to touch lives. We don't always see it, but when we do, it does something to us. 

It makes me want to serve harder and love deeper. To see people successfully come out of homelessness is exciting. To see people surrender to Jesus and live for him is powerful. 

I've said the following over the years because it's true. The ones who truly surrender to Jesus and live for Him are the ones who successfully come off the streets. 

Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:16 to, "let our light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven." 

When we let the light of Jesus shine through us, darkness flees, and people can see that Jesus loves them. When they truly see the Light, their lives are forever changed, and our Father in Heaven is glorified. 

Let's shine brightly for Jesus everywhere we go. When we do, lives are changed.

An encouraging start to 2022

This new year is off to a great start. It's been a very encouraging start of what I'm expecting to be another tremendous year of growth in spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ, making disciples, and meeting needs of the homeless and poor.

God knows how to encourage us, and that's what He did in the first week of 2022.

Let me start with a young man He directed to Love In Action for the first time. Abdul Karim is originally from the country of Turkey. About two years ago someone in North Carolina told him about Jesus and led him to give his life to Jesus. However, that was it. There wasn't and hasn't been any teaching about what to do next or how to live this life for Jesus.

Bro. Suhail started talking with him and teaching him about Jesus. Suhail told him about baptism and he immediately said he wanted to be baptized. I was in the warehouse at that time, so Suhail brought him to see me. This young man was excited to be learning about Jesus, and when I said let's fill up the baptismal trough and baptize him, he started clapping his hands and saying, "Yes! Yes!"

I told him I wish everyone was as excited as he was about following Jesus in baptism. Suhail and I baptized him. I believe in baptizing as soon as possible, and since he understood and was so excited, there's no way I could put his baptism off. He had gone two years without knowing anything other than he prayed to surrender his life to Jesus.

He is excited about starting discipleship classes and going with us on outreaches to learn how to pray with others and share Jesus with others. Please keep Abdul Karim in your prayers. He is homeless, but he has a car and is excited about getting a job and moving forward in Jesus. And, praise be to God, he was hired for a new job yesterday.

One More Soul came to Jesus and was baptized yesterday (Tuesday, Jan. 11) at Love In Action. Praise Jesus! After he prayed to surrender his life to Jesus, Bro. Suhail talked to him about baptism. Our new brother, Abdul Karim, encouraged him by saying, “You need to be baptized today!” Abdul Karim is so excited about Jesus. He is telling others about Jesus and says, “I love Him so much.” He even helped in the baptism yesterday.

God is touching hearts and lives are being transformed. This is another reason we are remodeling Suite 1 to turn it into the Love In Action School of Discipleship.

Then on Thursday God encouraged me again with two individuals who are at The Ark. We hold our Samaritan Clinic for the homeless on Thursdays, and on the first Thursday we start with patients from The Ark. These men and women are trying to put their lives back together, and it all starts with a solid foundation built on Jesus Christ. So, to further encourage them, we set a day and time aside for them.

As I walked out of Suite 6 last Thursday, I heard, "Bro. Ken." It was a man I knew from the streets. He had been homeless, and like so many of our homeless friends, he was spinning his wheels trying to do things his way and not taking the time to let Jesus transform his life.

He said, "I've finally made it here." I am so thankful. We encourage our homeless friends to go to The Ark, which is a Christian ministry with a 12-month in-house program. I hugged him and encouraged him to stay with the program and let Jesus do a great work in him."

Then, there was a woman who we knew for the past 3-4 years. She had been in and out of homelessness. We had encouraged her several years ago to apply for The Ark's women's program, but she didn't. Thursday was the first time I had seen her in a long time, and it was so good to see she made the decision to get the help she needed.

Both, the man and the woman, thanked us for all we did for them while they were homeless. They remembered everything, even what we might think are little things. It was a reminder that everything we do matters. Everything we say and do should always bring glory to God and give grace to others.

Goals for 2022

Have you set any goals for 2022? I'm not much on New Year's resolutions. Those are made to be broken. What's the use? Goals, on the other hand, are achievements we strive for ... something we are intentional about, put effort into.

I have set some personal and ministry goals for 2022. One of those is this blog. It's been a while since I've been intentional about writing blog entries. Why is that a goal? It's two-fold. I studied journalism and graduated with a degree in it from Troy State University. I know the "State" isn't in the institution's name any longer, but it's still on my diploma. 

I pursued a career in journalism afterward, and enjoyed a 22-year career in a field where I wrote and edited stories daily. Writing is in my blood. It's also therapeutic. I'm just weird that way.

Secondly, this blog helps further shine the light on what God is doing in and through Love In Action. It can give more insights to the move of God, upcoming events, and needs of the ministry.

Other personal goals include seeking and knowing God more and more throughout the year. To accomplish that I'll be even more intentional in my daily Bible reading. I read God's Word daily, but I desire to study it more. I've read through the Bible a number of times. That's a great thing to do, and I encourage it. But, it's also good to slow down and take your time going through books of the Bible.

My friend Dr. Dave Smith, professor of Bible at Indiana Wesleyan University, presents a challenging way to study the Bible. He encourages and teaches that we should make time to read entire books of the Bible in one reading. Some books are more challenging to read through in one sitting than others. You can try to impress others by telling them you read the entire letter of Jude without taking a break. As long as they don't know Jude is only two pages they'll be impressed.

My goal is to take each book of the New Testament and read them all, one at a time, in one reading. You better understand the context of the Word doing that. Digging deeper and deeper into God's Word is my forever goal. We can never dig too deep.

Other goals are a stronger personal time of prayer, leading more people into a relationship with Jesus and making more disciples who make disciples. In other words, to be even more intentional on living out my Lord's Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20 and Mark 16:15)

My prayer life is something I really need to be intentional more about. I pray all the time. Often very short prayers throughout the day. The Apostle Paul tell us to pray without ceasing (1 Thess. 5:17). That's having a mindset of prayer throughout each day and praying often. What I need to work on is spending more time in prayer; talking and listening for longer periods of time with my Abba Father. 

You notice my personal goals all deal with spiritual growth. Material things are inconsequential. As my pastor, Ralph Sigler, says, only things that we do for God last for eternity. So, I choose to focus on the eternal. Of course, if Alabama wins another national championship I'll be good with that, too. LOL

Goals for Love In Action include reaching more people locally and around the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to see more people enter into a life-transforming relationship with Jesus Christ. As they do, I desire for us to make more disciples who can make disciples. That's why we have started the Love In Action School of Discipleship and are currently remodeling suite 1 on our campus to host this school. I'll write more about that in another blog.

I believe God is wanting to further expand our food ministry to meet many more needs. You might not realize it, but there are a lot of people out there who have very little to no food. I'll blog more about the food ministry expansion later.

I also believe God is leading us to do more with video blogs and video testimonies. People engage with videos. That's our culture. Being able to show what God is doing through videos will add another layer on shining the light on what God is doing. I think it encourages people to see and hear life-transforming testimonies. I pray God will use those testimonies to lead people to Jesus. 

We are going to be more intentional about prayer at Love In Action. Within our School of Discipleship will be a prayer room. We will have focused times of prayer, strategic times of prayer. Prayer is too important, and as the family of God, we need to be more focused on praying together.

I'll end this blog entry here. It's already getting long. If you haven't already, I encourage you to sit down and make goals. Pray about them. Make them realistic, but also challenging. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can do this.

Happy New Year, everyone. May it be a year of knowing Jesus more, sharing our faith with others, and making disciples who can make disciples.