There is not one of us whom will ever be perfect. I, for one, am very imperfect, probably more so than most. Just because I am a Christian Believer will never make me perfect but it makes me to want to CHANGE things within my life to become more like HIM (Whom is perfect and no sin was found in Him). His name of whom is the center of my enter Universe is God the Father, Jesus (His only begotten Son) whom sits at the right hand of God the Father interceding for me and you, and the Holy Spirit whom works amongst us NOW. As long as I live in this flesh earthly body - I will never be PERFECT... but as long as I live on this earth I want to become more and more like JESUS my Lord and for my heart to CHANGE in the way the heart of JESUS was and is toward us.
For two decades From November 1881, Crosby also supported the Bowery Mission at 36 Bowery (between Canal and Bayard Streets), Manhattan, which had been founded on November 8, 1879, by Albert Gleason Ruliffson (born April 1, 1833; died May 2, 1896), and his wife, and assisted by J. Ward Childs, as "a Christian Gibraltar amid the swelling tides of sin that dash it on all sides" in "the very center of vice and crime and degradation". As the Bowery Mission welcomed the ministry of women, Crosby worked actively at the Mission, often attending and speaking in the evening meetings. Crosby's involvement in the Bowery Mission was described soon after her death in 1915:
On more than one occasion she visited the Mission hall in New York, and such visits were marked by great outpourings of the unemployed and destitute, who almost worshiped the blind hymn-writer, and sang her songs in her presence with an energy and earnestness that she used to say "almost carried me off my feet." Regularly as her birthday came around, the men of the Mission remembered her with some kindly souvenir, to which she would respond with a helpful letter or a poem. When she spoke at the Mission, which she did at times, the rough audience was hushed, so that they might not miss a syllable of the feeble voice they loved to hear.
Each year until the Mission's building was razed in a fire in 1897, Crosby addressed the large crowds who gathered each year to attend the anniversary service, where she would also recite one of her poems written for the occasion, many of which were set to music by Victor Benke (July 1872, Ratibor,Germany; died July 15, 1904 in New York City), who was the Mission's volunteer organist from 1893 to 1897. Among the songs Crosby and Benke collaborated on were six songs published in 1901: "He Has Promised", "There's a Chorus Ever Ringing", "God Bless Our School Today", "Is there Something I Can Do?", "On Joyful Wings", and "Keep On Watching".
September 18, 1884, Crosby was inspired to write a prayer later included in rescue song books:
Lord, behold in Thy compassion
Those who kneel before Thee now;
They are in a sad condition
None can help them, Lord, but Thou.
They are lost, but do not leave them
In their dreary path to roam;
There is pardon, precious pardon
If to Thee by faith they come.[644]
The Door of Hope welcomed women who had been rejected by all other institutions and readmitted them no matter how often they stumbled, as Whittemore, who had initially resisted working with prostitutes, believed that "love was the only means to draw these women into the kingdom of heaven". At the time of Emma Whittemore's death in 1931, the Doors of Hope Union operated 97 homes in the United States, Canada, Great Britain, Germany, Africa, Japan and China, providing "housing, food, clothing, medical care, spiritual challenge and training in skills such as sewing, dressmaking, and cooking" for unmarried mothers and women seeking to escape prostitution.
Crosby, who had met the Whittemores at the Cremorne Mission, supported the Door of Hope, despite her proclivity to rescue alcoholic men.
Crosby's approach to mission work
Fanny Crosby speaking Crosby continued to be involved actively in mission work for decades. Sometimes Crosby would address those gathered at the mission service, but often she would ask God to direct her to the person with whom she could have a redemptive conversation. Crosby did not believe in pointing out people's faults to them, saying: "You can't save a man by telling him of his sins. He knows them already. Tell him there is pardon and love waiting for him. Win his confidence and make him understand that you believe in him, and never give him up!" Speaking of city rescue missions, Crosby said: "It is the most wonderful work in the world and it gives such
an opportunity for love. That is all people want — love", and "love counts more than anything else", Crosby would use of the strategy of conversational evangelism: she would "sniff out the worst smelling man and sit next to him", and considered each man "one of her boys" whom she would endeavor to love to Jesus.
In a poem written before 1851 that much later became a hymn, Crosby outlined her approach to mission work:
Speak not harshly when reproving
Those from duty's path who stray:
If you would reclaim the erring,
Kindness must each action sway.
Speak not harshly to the wayward;
Win their confidence, their love,
They will feel how pure the motive
That has led them to reprove.
***********************
I share this next story - for how often have we been GUILTY of this within the CHURCH BUILDING... we push out, REMOVE, REJECT, and WALK BY hurting/broken people in our midst - because we don't have time for damaged goods and we only want the GOOD of LIFE, and we only want to be around people whom we are comfortable with, or whom make us always feel good....
Sadly this is a PHARISEE/RELIGIOUS attitude of heart and not a GOD LOVING HEART....
As you read this story - think of the times inside your church building that you have done this to someone in your midst (especially to brothers or sisters whom also love the Lord Jesus, but because you were not comfortable with them - you reject them because you do not want to become involved with anyone else's pain or suffering...
Does this not remind you of the Good Samaritan, in God's Word:
Luke 10:32-34
32And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.33But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,34And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
PEOPLE WALKING BY
Do you realize that the Samaritans were hated and were made up of fugitives and outlaws (In other words the 'church people' would also probably REJECT the Samaritan people and often would ask them to LEAVE for they were criminals and had too many problems...)
Question: "Who were the Samaritans?"
The Samaritans occupied the country formerly belonging to the tribe of Ephraim and the half-tribe of Manasseh. The capital of the country was Samaria, formerly a large and splendid city. When the ten tribes were carried away into captivity to Assyria, the king of Assyria sent people from Cutha, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim to inhabit Samaria (2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:2-11). These foreigners intermarried with the Israelite population that was still in and around Samaria. These “Samaritans” at first worshipped the idols of their own nations, but being troubled with lions, they supposed it was because they had not honored the God of that territory. A Jewish priest was therefore sent to them from Assyria to instruct them in the Jewish religion. They were instructed from the books of Moses, but still retained many of their idolatrous customs.
The Samaritans embraced a religion that was a mixture of Judaism and idolatry (2 Kings 17:26-28). Because the Israelite inhabitants of Samaria had intermarried with the foreigners and adopted their idolatrous religion, Samaritans were generally considered “half-breeds” and were universally despised by the Jews.
Additional grounds for animosity between the Israelites and Samaritans were the following:
1. The Jews, after their return from Babylon, began rebuilding their temple. While Nehemiah was engaged in building the walls of Jerusalem, the Samaritans vigorously attempted to halt the undertaking (Nehemiah 6:1-14).
2. The Samaritans built a temple for themselves on “Mount Gerizim,” which the Samaritans insisted was designated by Moses as the place where the nation should worship. Sanballat, the leader of the Samaritans, established his son-in-law, Manasses, as high priest. The idolatrous religion of the Samaritans thus became perpetuated.
3. Samaria became a place of refuge for all the outlaws of Judea (Joshua 20:7; 21:21). The Samaritans willingly received Jewish criminals and refugees from justice. The violators of the Jewish laws, and those who had been excommunicated, found safety for themselves in Samaria, greatly increasing the hatred which existed between the two nations.
4. The Samaritans received only the five books of Moses and rejected the writings of the prophets and all the Jewish traditions.
From these causes arose an irreconcilable difference between them, so that the Jews regarded the Samaritans as the worst of the human race (John 8:48) and had no dealings with them (John 4:9). In spite of the hatred between the Jews and the Samaritans, Jesus broke down the barriers between them, preaching the gospel of peace to the Samaritans (John 4:6-26), and the apostles later followed His example (Acts 8:25).
*******************
A story of a homeless veteran whom was stabbed and 25 people walked past him doing nothing as he was dying:
A heroic homeless man, stabbed after saving a Queens woman from a knife-wielding attacker, lay dying in a pool of blood for more than an hour as nearly 25 people indifferently strolled past him, a shocking surveillance video obtained by The Post reveals.
Some of the passers-by paused to stare at Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax last Sunday morning and others leaned down to look at his face.
He had jumped to the aid of a woman attacked on 144th Street at 88th Road in Jamaica at 5:40 a.m., was stabbed several times in the chest and collapsed as he chased his assailant.
In the wake of the bloodshed, a man came out of a nearby building and chillingly took a cell phone photo of the victim before leaving. And in several instances, pairs of people gawked at Tale-Yax without doing anything.
Later, another man stopped, leaned over and vigorously shook Tale-Yax’s body. After lifting the victim’s head and body to reveal a pool of blood, he also walked off.
Not until some 15 minutes after he was shaken by the pedestrian — more than an hour and 20 minutes after the victim collapsed — did firefighters finally arrive and discover that Tale-Yax, 31, had died.
Firefighters were responding to a 911 call of a non-life-threatening injury at 7:23 a.m. when they found his body. Cops said they received four 911 calls at around the time of the attack reporting a woman screaming, but found nothing. They received no other 911 calls.
The indifference of the pedestrians echoed the infamous 1964 murder of Kitty Genovese in Kew Gardens, Queens.
Her desperate screams after being stabbed failed to rouse assistance from the dozen or so people many neighbors who heard them. "That’s unacceptable," said a woman who lives in the building near where Tale-Yax was killed.
"How can you be so heartless?
If he’s dying, he might’ve been saved. If you don’t want to get involved, call 911 and leave."
Another area resident, Ramon Bellasco, 46, said: "It’s no good. They needed to help and call the police. I don’t get it."
George Subraj, owner of Zara Realty, which owns the building next to the murder scene, also gave surveillance footage to the NYPD for its investigation of the case.
The video shows an unidentified woman, standing about 5-foot-3 and wearing a jacket and skirt, walking down 144th Street near 88th Road with her cell phone in hand until.
As she walks under a protective scaffolding next to a building, a man is following her. He is described as 5-foot-6, wearing a green short sleeve shirt and dark pants with a green hat. As that man accosts the woman under the scaffolding, Tale-Yax walks toward them.
The grainy video shows a scuffle, but most of the action is out of the security camera’s field of vision.
Within seconds, the killer is seen on the video running out from the scaffolding and up 144th St, as the woman heads off in the opposite direction.
Tale-Yax then chases after his murderer, who had stabbed him several times in the torso with a knife, but immediately collapses face down onto the sidewalk.
Within a minute or so, the first of a long series of people begins walking by Tale-Yax without going to his aid.
That man, carrying a small bag, gave the dying Tale-Yax a glance before continuing on his way.
The victim’s body was claimed by someone whom the Medical Examiner’s Office declined to identify, and taken to a Brooklyn funeral home.
No arrests have been made, and the police have been unable to identify the woman Tale-Yax was trying to help.
Read more:
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/passers_by_let_good_sam_die_5SGkf5XDP5ooudVuEd8fbI#ixzz1STgdeErR
**********************
As a Christian you may say "I WOULD NEVER DO THIS TO A DYING MAN AND WALK AWAY"... but sadly to say 'we have ALL been guilty of doing this to others in our midst.
Even with BROKEN people inside our own church walls, we pass by and do not want to become involved.
CHURCH should always be a HOSPITAL for BROKEN PEOPLE...
If JESUS came amongst us today (even within church settings). He probably would not even be noticed as people were too busy with their church programs or their own lives.
We need to treat each other as we would want to be treated ourselves.
JESUS always accepts us just where we are at TODAY? Likewise we should ACCEPT each other just who we are TODAY (even if it is good, bad, and ugly)...Or do we treat our own sisters/brothers in the Lord whom struggle inside with:
If we do not LOVE our brothers and sisters just where they are at in TODAY and we expect them to have it all together or be perfect - than how can we love our enemies or minister to those outside our walls - if we can't love each other just the way we are TODAY....
Remember though you perform all these miracles of GOD and show great signs of GOD - if you have NOT LOVE one to another - you have done nothing in the sight of GOD... I Corinthians Chapter 13....
Don't live in a SMALL HEART WORLD of comfort and only accept people or things that make you feel comfortable, or people that only make you feel good and positive - but live in a JESUS GLOBAL WORLD that includes everyone to LOVE - for LOVE CONQUERS... and LOVE CHANGES hearts....
Following JESUS and LOVE is not seeking after COMFORT as LOVE sometimes does not bring COMFORT (as it was for JESUS when He suffered because of LOVING US as sinners and smellng our stench from our SIN... but this STENCH is a beautiful aroma of LOVE for GOD for GOD sniffs out the strongest smell of STENCH upon a person).. John Chapter 3 - God so loved this world that He gave His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON (JESUS) so that NO ONE WOULD PERISH but ALL would have eternal life in Him (But it is up to us if we embrace this love.)
JOB had went through being REFINED IN GOD... while his friends stood beside him with bringing condemnation, judging, and speaking SHAME to JOB rather than just walking with JOB during the PROCESS OF BEING REFINED IN GOD....
There are NO SET FORMULAS , as everyone is different and GOD brings healing differently for each individual.
Learn to LOVE - God's way....
To truly LOVE and FORGIVE - it comes with a great cost (just as it was for JESUS loving us so much that he gave up his life so we could live) LOVE comes with great cost for others.
***************
Are you WILLING to allow the LORD to truly LOVE those whom are strangers, whom are lonely, whom do not make you feel comfortable but whom are truly hurting….
Are you willing to NOT WALK by someone whom is DYING INSIDE and needs you for a friend to walk them through….
Treat others as you would want to be TREATED. Remember when you were possibly BROKEN or really HURTING – and if a person walked you through and did not give up on you through the good, bad, and UGLY of you….
Treat others with the same kind of love, patience, and mercy….
As others have been patient with you – BE PATIENT TO OTHERS whom are broken
As others have shown mercy to you – Show MERCY TO OTHERS who are broken
As others have accepted the good, bad, and ugly of you – Do the same toward others who are broken…
Don’t walk away, or kick them out, because you are not comfortable with them, or you lose patience with them, but help them to walk through to HEALING …
and truly be their FRIEND…
Fannie Crosby - Famous hymn writer. She was a Puritan.
No comments:
Post a Comment