In Matthew 25 it says, " 34"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.' 37"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?' 40"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me. ' "

Too many times have I looked back at a situation and think," boy what I could of done differently now". I see many great opportunities and yet I let fear or excuses in general take over. Take for example the time that Monte Baugh and myself were coming back from Mississippi and we stopped in Montgomery in a bad part of town to get gas. A man walks up to us as we are chatting and gives us a hardship story about his car broken down. He says he needs some money to get a tow truck. Now I sit there and say I have nothing (which wasn't true) thinking to myself that I'm not supporting his bad habits. Now Monte reaches out of his wallet and hands him a 10 dollar bill. Another example, a group of us military folks are getting ready to go through security at the airport to head home from Australia. We are in Atlanta and we are hungry so we get in line to get food. As we do so a man stands there asking for money and well once again I look away and a friend of mine doesn't think twice. Instead of giving the man money, my friend buys his breakfast. So whether this man was homeless or lazy, he at least gets to eat breakfast that one day.

I think we take too many things for granted. Are we blessed for our own benefit or are we blessed so we can do God's will? You may ask yourself how you are blessed, but look above its two examples of how simple it is to bless another person with love. Last night in Home church we talked about doing more for others. How our actions speak louder than our words. Looking back to Matthew 28: 19-20 it says, "Therefore GO and MAKE disciples of all nations, BAPTIZING them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and TEACHING them to OBEY everything I have commanded you." Notice the verbs in all caps. We are to GO (which requires you to do something) and to MAKE (that too is an action). Then we are to BAPTIZE (immersion is an action) and to TEACH (which you need knowledge of the word to show others the wonderful news) and OBEY (now I believe it's meant for those we teach and for ourselves as well. Now re-read the scripture and notice the love we'd have to show others to do what we are told to do?

Is this hard to do? For some of us this might be so difficult that we will refuse to do it. Of course if your refuse to do this you could always go on the left side of the father, Matthew 25, "41"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.' 44"They also will answer, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?' 45"He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.' 46"Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.""

I'm not one to judge, but is it impossible to help others? Sure most of us don't have the money to do much help for a lot of people. However how much does lunch cost? Also what do we not have an abundance of? We have the ability, we have the time (sure most wouldn't think so but you could make it if you had too), we have the know how, we know who needs help, and for most of us we already have the love. All we have to do is take action. Remember GO, MAKE, BAPTIZE, TEACH, and OBEY. All these actions are ones that we have the ability to work with. I hope this finds you enjoying the holiday season and sorry I didn't get anything out to you last week. This week I'll provide two for your reading enjoyment.