Sunday and I am headed to church. But not before I have a large cup of Door County Totally Nuts Coffee.
Psalm 118:6
The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Today is the last day in our three part series titled "The Least of These". To recap, the lyrics to this song were given to me to use by a young music composer. If you joined us today for the first time you really should go back and absorb all three messages.
Verse Three
The Least of These
They didn't ask for this.
This wasn't their dream.
Raised in the hood, they've done all that they could, just for some peace.
No Father who comes around.
And Mom's smoking weed
The streets are their lives, the guns and the knives.
And gangs are their family.
Chorus
And they are the least of these.
He has his own name.
He's someone that God's only Son came here to save.
What are we doing to reach him?
How are we meeting his needs?
Cuz whatever we do for him we do for our King
All three verses of this song ask us to stretch and reach those who some have called "beyond help".
Sometimes we lack reaching out because of fear. We are not to fear. We are to hope and reach the lost. I want you to read the account of Nicky Cruz. I had the privilege of working in one of his restoration camps in Peru. We need to reach out without fear. The Holy Spirit does the rest. I can only say that it was an amazing experience to hold a dinner for the "drug addicts and criminals" that day. Some of the most hardened people you have ever met. We did this with a group of teens and a few adults. I never felt safer and we were treated with the utmost respect. The men were told to listen as we preached and shared Jesus after feeding them the first beef they had tasted in months. During our altar call we saw grown men cry and reach out and accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Oh by the way that group of teens was 90% girls.
Nicky Cruz
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nicky Cruz | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 6, 1938 Las Piedras, Puerto Rico |
| Occupation | Christian Minister |
| Nationality | Puerto Rican |
| Notable work(s) | Run Baby Run,One Holy Fire,Soul Obsession. |
nickycruz.org | |
Contents[hide] |
Early life
Cruz was born in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico where he was raised by his parents. His parents practiced brujeria and were followers of spiritism ("espiritismo"). They mentally abused him; his own mother would call him "Son of Satan". The neighborhood in which he lived was one of the worst in Puerto Rico and Cruz was always getting into trouble. According to his book Run Baby Run, his parents sent him to live with his brother in New York City when he was 15, and Cruz soon ran away and started living on the streets of the city. He became a member of the Mau-Mau street gang, and about six months later Cruz was elected Warlord of the gang. He quickly rose to be their leader.[Conversion
Shortly after Cruz's ascension to leader of the gang, David Wilkerson was preaching in the neighborhood when Cruz encountered him. The preacher told Cruz that Jesus loved him and would never stop loving him. A shocked Cruz responded by slapping Wilkerson and threatening to kill him. Wilkerson looked Cruz in the face and said that he could cut Wilkerson into a thousand pieces, but every piece would still say Jesus loves him. Wilkerson said that no one can kill love, and that God is love. That afternoon the preacher showed up at the Mau-Mau's headquarters to repeat his message, and was slapped again by Cruz. Wilkerson just smiled, and then prayed for Nicky.Two weeks later, Wilkerson had an evangelistic meeting in the neighborhood. When Cruz heard about it, he decided to go and teach the preacher a "lesson" and, with some of the members of his gang, he headed for the boxing arena where the rally was being held, on a bus sent specially by Wilkerson. According to Cruz, when he arrived at the arena, he felt guilty about the things that he had done and started to pray. Wilkerson preached, then asked the Mau-Maus to take up a collection. Nicky sprang to his feet and led a group of the gang through the crowd insisting on people giving money. Going backstage, he saw an exit, but was struck by the fact that someone had actually trusted him. He gave the money to Wilkerson on stage. Later, Wilkerson gave an altar call, and many gang members responded. Wilkerson prayed with Cruz, and Cruz asked God to forgive him.
The following day Cruz and some of the gang members who converted went to the police and turned in all of their bricks, handguns and knives, shocking the police officers in the station. They said that if they had seen the group approaching, they probably would have shot them down. Cruz began to study the Bible and went to Bible College. He became a preacher and returned to his old neighborhood, where he preached and persuaded some of the Mau-Maus to accept Jesus, including the gang's new leader, Israel Narvaez
Now how can you argue with the fact that we need to go and love on people that seem hard to love? Nicky reaches thousands each year. What's our excuse?
God bless,
Marty
So,in essence, never give up on your love for people that God has instilled in you. Once you are blinded but now you can see......................................
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