The lonely

My son plays Javier foosball

Inviting the lonely over is my joy. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, we hosted people from the church who had no where to go. My heart goes out to the hurting. All throughout junior high and high school, I was lonely.

Now it is richly rewarding to ease others’ pain. Human beings need contact, friendship, acceptance, affirmation. This is the way the church works and builds.

When rejection takes the place of acceptance, the church becomes dysfunctional. Jesus dined with the hated and the outcasts — with prostitutes and tax-collectors. He touched the untouchables — the lepers. He condemned the Pharisees, who condemned everybody but themselves. We should take a note from the Bible and not become like the Pharisees.

At Christmas they gave me a mini-foosball. (To me!? A 48-year-old man, they gave a toy??) And you know what? It’s pretty fun. Who’s up for a match? Come on over. You are welcome here.

When you reap what you didn’t sow

Money is a problem for us, not for God. We quote to our kids that money doesn’t grow on trees or appear out of thin air. But for God it does. He can make money appear from nowhere.

I harvest crops I didn’t plant and gather crops I didn’t cultivate. — Matt. 25:26. Many know God as the “God of the Harvest.” But do you know that He is also the “God of the Harvest that He did not Cultivate” and the “God of the Harvest You did not Cultivate.”

He can bring a windfall at any time — usually just in time (it always seems late). The word “windfall” is derived from the Middle Ages, when peasants were forbidden to chop wood for cooking. When a wind whipped up, it often blew down the necessary firewood. It was called a “windfall.”

God’s Wind, his Holy Spirit, will blow finances your way. Just pray. God’s harvest of unknown origins will be reaped into your barn. Just pray. Don’t chafe under the mounting bills. Trust and keep working for souls.

Unseen resources

Are we blinded by despair? The resource was there all along. Hagar cast her son under a bush in the desert and wandered off howling. She refused to see her son die. God responded with mercy. He didn’t CREATE water — say, out of a rock. He simply SHOWED her the water that was right under her nose, so to speak.

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink. — Gen. 21:19 NIV

Is the resource you’re desperately crying out to God for, right under your nose? It may very well be. You are driven to despair and can’t see any way out of your problem. The compounded frustration blinds you to the solution. You have the resource — God has provided. But you can’t see it.

Don’t pray today for resources. Pray that God opens your eyes to see the resource you already have and are not using.

Hagar’s son, Ishmael, was saved. He went on to become a great nation. And contrary to condemnations from all sides, he was blessed by God. Somehow, he formed part of God’s plan. His descendants, the Arabs, need salvation just like every other sinner in the world.