LOOKING INSIDE? or OUT!

 

Wow! has it been a crazy 24 hours. Rain, rain, and more rain. Our sanctuary was flooded for the second time in about 6 weeks. Fortunately, Serve Pro arrived early yesterday and started to dry us out. Some reports put us at over 10 inches of rain. As I was thanking the owner of our local Serve Pro, we were talking about how swamped he was with calls. But, he said, sadly, he cannot help most of the people because their insurance won't cover the cost and these residents cannot afford to pay for the estimated costs. They are stuck with a very bad situation. It was at that point in the conversation I realized how fortunate we are. Here at SMDCOG we are blessed and we have the money to pay for the extremely costly  process of drying out our sanctuary. We have been blessed with FAITHFUL SUPPORTERS of this ministry. 

There are so many HURTING PEOPLE in this world. What are we doing, what are YOU DOING to meet the needs of those people who are in bad situations through no fault of their own. As a CHURCH what are WE DOING? Are we HYPOCRITES? ARE WE JUST LOOKING INSIDE our own flock to serve others

I was reading in the book of 2 Chronicles 28 today and ONE VERSE, one question asked by Obed the profit, really struck me:

"And now you are planning to make slaves of these people from Judah and Jerusalem. WHAT ABOUT YOUR OWN SINS AGAINST THE LORD YOUR GOD?" (2 Chronicles 28:10, NLT, emphasis added)

Yesterday morning, I was moping and mourning our woah's from the rain storm. In reality, we have been blessed far beyond anything we could ever ask for. Yes, we are going to pay out a lot of money that could be better used for something else. Yes our lives are affected, but so many more people don't have the resources we do and are worse off than we are. We need constant reminders that we are not to JUST LOOK to our OWN NEEDS. We are called to be good neighbors and meet the needs of others as much as we can because God has blessed us abundantly more than we deserve. 

Heavenly Father forgive me, forgive us, for our selfish attitudes. Forgive us for constantly focusing inward instead of at others who need our help. Help us, Lord, to always be focused on sharing your love with others and not just within our own flock! Amen!