14 Do all tings without complaining and disputing,
15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation among whom you shine as lights in the world.
One of my biggest pet peeves is complainers. but last night as I sat reading this i was having a complaining spirit of my own. For what i will not say. But I will try to have a much better focus today! And for the rest of the week. I will “suck it up and deal with it” if you will.
I try not to complain and/or feel sorry for myself. It’s not something I find attractive in other people and though I don’t think I was sinning in my thought life last night i could see that i was treading on dangerous ground. I don’t think that most people realize how awful they sound when they get self-absorbed . Last night I was focused on me. My hurt feelings my struggles and when we start saying “I” so much we loose sight of other people. So where I was hurt because other people were dwelling in the “I” zone “I” started to feel left out!!!!
When we get caught in the “I’ zone we get tunnel vision and don’t care who outside of our veiw finder we run over and trample!
For this new site there are a few things I would like to bring you. One is the Meme MY WALK MONDAYS hosted by Scrapping Servant. Another thing I would Like to do is write some book reviews. This week I am going to combine the two. The one thing I won’t do though is write about Christian Romance novels. The reason stems from the fact that i don’t and won’t read them. I have very specific convictions about them and I will write those in a a later post. So the book for today is One Lady at a Time by John Benton John Benton is the Founder and President of the Walter Hoving Homes Located in garrison Ny and Pasadena California. This is john’s 40th Book. The ministry reaches out to women who are addicted to drugs and alcohol and who are Prostitutes. They bring them into the home once they choose to leave the life they have been lining. they enter the home for either a 6 month or 12 month recovery prograam where they are introduced to Jesus Christ. There are many stories just like this one:
Like the time I wanted to rescue a girl from her vicious pimp . . .
When we were on the streets some of the ladies had told Elsie and me that Teresa was in great danger. They had seen her pimp beating her up even while the cars whizzed by. Teresa was screaming for help, but in that part of town no one stops to help. They stop for nothing.
I decided to try to find Teresa. I took two of the staff with me. I found out through the years that you can easily get killed if you travel alone. (I don’t know if taking the staff into a dangerous situation was wise, but these two staff were very courageous!)
We kept searching for Teresa. It was getting close to midnight and we were just about to give up when I saw her!
Teresa was in a dirty, greasy fast food joint. Sure enough, there was her pimp. As I stopped the car and looked in, it was obvious they were arguing.
I knew one of two things would happen if I were to walk in there. Either Teresa’s pimp would go after me, or he would beat Teresa if she attempted to leave him.
There seemed to be only one way out. Somehow Teresa had to leave that place and get out on the street alone so we could talk with her.
Teresa and her pimp kept arguing. We waited for almost an hour and still they didn’t come out.
As we were waiting in the car, I heard somebody yell. Sure enough, two guys were mugging a man on the street. This was the one area the vice squad had told me to stay away from.
A guy walked over to our car to talk to us. That gave me an idea. I explained who we were and asked him to persuade Teresa to come out to talk. He said he’d do it for $2.00!
I gave him the $2.00.
I watched him go inside. A while later he returned and said Teresa wasn’t coming out.
I whispered a prayer asking the Lord what to do. My first impulse was to go talk to Teresa myself, but decided against it. Who knows what would happen?
When the guy came back I gave him my card and asked him to slip it to Teresa when he got a chance. I thought it best that we head back home.
When I got home late that night I was really troubled. Should I have gone in after Teresa? We continued to pray for Teresa that somehow something would happen that she would make contact with us.
And something did happen. Teresa got arrested!
But this time, when she was ready to get out, she called us.
I picked her up. She came to our Home, went through the program and graduated.
Today, praise the Lord, Teresa helps us here at the Walter Hoving Home with our bookkeeping responsibilities and is doing a fantastic job!
This man has a tremendous amount of faith and it really challenged mine! A man who risks his life out on a street in NYC or in LA to just get another druggie/prostitute off the street. The love that he and his wife Elsie have for these girls amazes me and challenges me to love the unlovable! Just as Christ did. I can’t say enough about this book and it was more than well worth the 10 cents I paid for it! For more information on the Walter Hoving Homes Click here.
I guess if you haven’t been keeping up on my blog you didn’t know that our family has hit some trying Times. Canidating hasn’t gone well and we had one of the biggest set backs this last week. We have also had our Sister-in-law hit by a car (she’s fine) and the same day that happened a dear friend of our had a devastating car accident that would eventually leave his wife a widow and his children fatherless. So hubby flew to Utah this past Wednesday for the memorial service. Friday has he was driving to said family’s home he himself was in a car accident! He also is fine! In the midst of all this Chaos I had the opportunity to attend something called the Ladies Advance held here in New York! the first speaker whom I kow personally really impacted me the most. She first spoke on psalm 62 in her main session and then on Psalm 57 in her workshop. I learned something so very important from that workshop. So many times people tell you not to pray for the same things over and over again…however in this Psalm we learn that David prayed for something over and over and over again. In the Gospels we learn that Christ Himself prayed not once but 3 times that the burden of the cross be taken away from Him! Remember He was fully God and FULLY Human too! He didn’t WANT to die like that. but at the end of it all his ultimate desire was to do God’s will. And finally the one Mrs Arp forgot was the Apostle Paul who prayed numerous times that his “thorn in the flesh be removed from him.” We don’t know what exactly that thorn in the flesh is but many speculate that it has something to do with his eyes. perhaps a lasting reminder of the blindness he experienced on the road to Damascus. that being said God wants us to tell him all my thoughts and desires. And though he knows my innermost thoughts He longs for me to share them with Him. I have always struggled with Prayer but this lesson that I have learned has pushed me to become a better Prayer warrior and to not give up praying about what I am going through!! Thanks Mrs. Arp!! ((HUGS))
I have been wanting to do “my walk Mondays” for a while now but today is such a sad day.We have put our heart and soul (and a lot of money) Into finding a church. What a disaster. In our heads we know we are called into ministry as a pastors family. We work hard for the end. but so many things have flopped. This last place was great, we loved it and they loved us! So last night they voted. A few people showed up who didn’t take advantage of all the options the pulpit committee had set up for people to ask us questions and to meet us. they came into the meeting and raised some questions that we could have answered but therefore put some questions into the minds of the people who did meet us! Needless to say they voted us down by 2 votes! The pulpit committee was crushed they thought we were the ones. We were the best match! We thought so too! I know that in Romans 8:28 it says that “All things things work together for good” I know that in Jeremiah 29:11 God tells us “I know the plans that I have laid out for you” I just wish I knew what they were too. It’s so silly that you think you have the right place and then you find out that a few troublemakers spoiled the whole thing. And you can’t help but wonder if that was God’s will and they chose to be disobedient! I can’t figure out what exactly we are missing here! We are in prayer daily and we are open to anything! So then we have also been given mixed messages. We have been told by 2 churches that we need to take and Associate position because we are too young and inexperienced, then by two other churches we have been told that they can’t understand why we would consider their church because we are over qualified! This last church thought we were a perfect match! If you are preparing for ministry be sure you are ready to drag your families hearts with you. they will make friends that they may not get to keep! You may make connections with people that you so want to be a part of their lives to help them grow and get comforted! Our hearts ache to serve. What is God’s plan. One only knows!
