Love – FBCF Youth

Along with our new Cross Training series that’s beginning this Sunday morning, we’ve decided as a Sunday School class to sponsor an orphan through Compassion International‘s sponsorship program (we got the confirmation today!). Y’all know that it’s extremely easy to go through every day of our busy lives and forget that there is a huge world out there that Jesus loves just as much as he loves Fairdale, Ky. In 3 John 1:4, the apostle John says that he has “no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth.” John shows the rest of the church what God’s heart is for all people — to walk in the truth, by worshiping Jesus Christ as risen Savior and King. Children in particular have a special place in Jesus’ heart and so they should have a special place in our hearts as well. When the disciples tried to stop a group of little children from getting to Jesus one day, he rebuked them saying “”Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 19:14) I hope and pray that as a class and as a Church this step in serving and loving “the least of these” will set fire to our hearts, and give an unrelenting passion to love well, love often, and love for the glory of Christ.

‘Hank

P.S. – Youth, don’t forget: bring 50¢ to Church on Sunday so we can start raising our money for this month!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjJv7SQ9Wvg]

If you’re ever looking for some good reading choices to strengthen your faith and encourage your Christian walk, picking up a good Christian biography is definitely a good bet. There are a host of good biographies out there on missionaries, preachers, Christian farmers – soldiers – and even Christian home-makers. John Piper even does a series of sermons that are Christian biographies that are absolutely amazing.

In a biography on the famous Christian writer and literary critic G.K. Chesterton, I found an awesome testimony on the kind of “givers” we should be for the Lord Jesus Christ. It ties in perfectly with the very thing our pastor is talking about this week on his blog. The author writes this about how Chesterton gives money to beggars:

“He seems so frivolous and so careless, but he gives money to beggars, not friviously or carelessly, but because he believes in giving money to beggars, and giving it to them “where they stand”. He says he knows perfectly well all the arguments against giving money to beggars. But he finds those to be precisely the arguments for giving money to them. If beggars are lazy or deceptive or wanting a drink, he knows only too well his own lack of motivation, his own dishonesty, his own thirst. He doesn’t believe in “scientific charity” because that is too easy, as easy as writing a check. He believes in “promiscuous charity” because that is really difficult. “It means the most dark and terrible of all human actions — talking to a man. In fact, I know of nothing more difficult than really talking to the poor men we meet.” He says that if we really believed in democracy, we would not be debating about what we should do with the poor; the poor would be debating about what to do with us.” – from Common Sense 101: Lessons from G.K. Chesterton, by Dale Ahlquist