What is the condition of your city? What I mean by this is how is it's acceptance of the homeless and the poor? Often we find some American Cities with a negative attitude toward the homeless and the poor. Laws regarding outdoor feeding programs to possess and purchase permits each time they serve the homeless a meal, panhandling laws and more. First we need to remember we live in America...where we believe all men are created equal but to be treated equal. This morning I saw a homeless man downtown before anyone was out looking for leftover tobacco in the streets and on the sidewalks from the clubs activities from the night before. This was on a Sunday Morning when no one was around. Today I poured out my heart with the Cities homeless ...assuring them of the Grace of God and His compassions. Gods love is for the poor and the way we treat them is very important. For the Lord is the creator of us all. We must also keep our Faith in a part of the solution and approach to our cities homeless. We need leadership in our city that has compassion for the poor and sees them as a part of the community and not a problem to our community. For it is the Poor that remind us to keep our hearts motivated in our compassion and caring in our community. A community without the poor can hurt our Faith , Our Compassion and acts of Faith. Therefore let us remember that our Highest and most Nobel calling is to our Christian Faith and its founder in Heaven who watches over us all. Without the poor our Faith is inactive. We are in a community where our Faith and Compassion is made for our fellow citizens and the homeless. There is a reason we all live together in a community. As we approach the Holiday season let us allow the love of God to motivate our compassion and commitment to all his children in our city ...when we see the homeless let compassion compel us and not distance ourselves from Gods inheritance...for not all who wander are lost. Let us care for those who live on the streets, railroads, abandoned buildings, concrete slabs, and the wooded areas of our community. And may we remember that we all have a common bond ....the Lord is the Maker of us All.


For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. II Corinthians 8:9

May this Holiday Season give Hope to the Homeless and help us to see the Greatness of the Grace of God.

Brian

The Cross and our Faith...I am pondering today the Centurian Soldier who was at the Cross when Christ Died. When he saw Jesus die he said, "Truly this man was the Son of God". I ponder our society today as this Roman was brought up in no religion or especially ones we know today but was essentially a pagan. Or he may have believed in Roman Gods. There was something about the Death of Christ on that Cross that made this man reflect in his own heart and confess that Jesus was the Son of God. Our nation needs this today. Our communities need this today. A recognition of Christ and a newness of our Faith. The Centurion Soldier was moved to believe and make his declaration. Are we moved today to believe? In the heart of the homeless community the cross of Christ is being presented to people that they can believe. This is why we must keep our Christian Faith at the Center and front of our charities in the community. You cannot sell out for money or opportunities that may present themselves from Federally tagged grants. If a homeless person cannot know Christ in the midst of thier poverty, hardship and homelessness then what kind of Hope are we giving them? Our homeless shelter not only looks at helping them find a place to live in our community but we offer them the greatest hope of all and that is eternally to be with Christ. This is the kind of charity provider our community must have and keep. Charity without Christ is simply socail services. Socail Services are important but I have never seen our Priest or Pastors sharing the greatest social services of all in any of our state or federal buildings. Our Charity offers both. Stand with me as we keep our Faith in our community and our Christ centered Charity in our Community. This is what is most important. You can build buildings, provide social services but without Christ at the Center and His heart being revealed to the people we are nothing....perhaps it is as Paul said to the Corinthians..."If I give all I possess to the Poor yet have not Love, I am nothing"....Or perhaps if we give all to the poor and we have not our Lord Jesus the greatest example and demonstration of Love...we have nothing. Keeping Christ in our Charities is the most important thing of all....For the Greatest of these is Love and my friends...God is Love.

Brian

With Homelessness and Poverty  a problem in our community and the recent revelation of one of the Highest Poverty rates our country has seen since the 1960's. We are sad to say that the Homeless Prevention Program in our community has had to cut and remove people from its program. This was money recieved from the Recovery Act.  Fort Smith was awarded 1.3 Million dollars  for Homeless Prevention and has currently spent 473,000. Those running the program were informed they were now out of money until they recieve more funding in July of 2011  this means that those who were in the program will be dismissed. Many have already been calling us telling us it was their last month for housing asking to return to the Community Rescue Mission. While this concerns us there is a deeper problem here. Not the Government funding Housing but the lack of opportunities for people to be employed. Where are the jobs in our community? Good companies have shut down. Others have moved assembly lines to other parts of the nation or world.  While our community is very charity conscious and alway helping those in these situations. We need to create our own recovery act and stimulas plan for our community. We have to find places to work.  It may have all started on Wall street but it certainly has reached our local area. There is a shift of opportunities in our community.  We need employment strategy and jobs for the community. Most of the stimulas money  in our community hasnt created jobs but has only kept jobs through projects designated. Keep all the homeless and poor in your prayers and let us find ways to recreate a good economy in the River Valley.

Brian

Faith Based Charities verses Federal or HUD funded Homeless Care.

It is sad in our nation that these two entities for what they represent have never been able to meet in the middle or endorse each other in fullness. For instance a Faith Based Organization can only receive funding if it is willing to make all of its Faith Programs Optional. This includes something as simple as praying with a client or praying before a meal is served. Christian Organizations must compromise to meet federal codes. There is another problem involved in that the Federalization of Homeless care in any city creates another Government Mecca that empowers people to not pursue initiative to change. In other words Federal Homeless Care empowers or encourages people to remain homeless or basically to not have to change bad behaviors because the government is now fully involved in paying for their care and cannot empower them to change. Basically it creates another branch of welfare in a community. The Faith Based Organization however can challenge them through their Faith to pursue Hope and a Better life. One of the greatest problems is: “Where there is no vision the people perish“, or properly said where there is a lack of vision to change we remain the same and cannot rise to a greater potential that is rooted in the depths of all of us through our Faith. Faith empowers vision and perception of ones self. One weakens while one empowers. Please understand I am not opposed to care beyond measure to those who need it but I am opposed to the inability to share the meanings and purpose of life as proposed by our Creator in His Holy Word. Faith will create a deeper vision within the soul giving it hope to change. We cannot as a society afford to lose the very foundation upon which all things consist. So I challenge us today to realize we are on two paths in our community. The secular and the sacred. Not only to say that the Federalization of Homeless care will also deepen the burden of the states in the provision of its multiple Medicare programs especially for border cities. These are things we must consider. Government creates government, while Faith creates independence and freedom. It was Faith that caused pilgrims to seek a new country and a better life while leaving the comforts of Government. I challenge us all to look deep into the roots of our community and nation and ask ourselves do we want Faith to continue or do we desire the rise of a new kind of care and commitment in our community in the expansion of Federal Government controlling and developing homeless care. Which is greater Faith and its effect or the secular and its new society it will create in our community. Our Methods must match the Message. We must provide Faith, Hope and Love. 

May God give us discernment as we face these issues in our community.

　

Brian

You may feel that there is nothing you can really do to help the homeless or the poor. Just remember something as simple as donating bottled water helps the homeless in our Summer Heat in our community. It may seem like something small but it is actually a blessing. Serving can be made simple with the homeless. Donating small items can mean a lot. We have now passed the 30,000 meals served mark for this year. You may want to think about donating canned vegatables to the shelter or organizing a canned food drive at your place of work, or talk to your childrens school. All of us working together can make a difference. Hope you have a great summer.

Brian

Many Times as the Summer heat begins to beat down in our state and city many of the homeless become dehydrated and can suffer from heat stroke in our community. Last year I called the ambulance twice on individuals who came up to our Mission from the Arkansas River suffering from dehydration or heat sickness. This is why I ask that we all remember the hardness on those who are living on city sidewalks, concrete or asphalt. Cities are known to be hotter because of the concrete and buildings. And how hot it can become with temperatures drawing close to the century mark coming soon. Please remember to collect Bottled Water, Gatorade and other items. Go to our website: www.fscrm.org and look at our Summer Needs. Lets work to gether to keep people safe in the Heat, as we have already lost one homeless person this month as it begin to become hot.  Thanks for all you do for the Community Rescue Mission. Your Charity at work in the Community you care for.

Brian

Today let's remember the homeless and what we can do to help them. We just celebrated Earth Day a couple of weeks ago along with the celebration of the EPA being created to help control enviromental issues. Let's remember all of those who work with the homeless to try to help create a better standard of living and or an enviroment for them. Homeless people can have Hope in America. Our nation can help through its citizens to help the homeless living in camps, shelters or other places. Let's not fight the good in our communities helping these individuals but let us all see that by having compassion we are giving Hope to the poor. Be Charitable.

God Bless
Brian

Things Christ tells us to Do

 

Matthew 5: 13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

 15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

 17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

 18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

 19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

 20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter

 

 23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;

 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

 

 42 Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away.

 

7:13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

 

 

I. Practice your Faith: No one lights a candle to put it under a bushel...you should not hide your Christianity. Jesus is saying here that if you are a believer then you aren’t to hide it from the world or people you are around or interact with. You are called light. Light exceeds darkness the Bible says and will always shine in dark places. Today I want to challenge you to let your Christian influence be felt by those around you. If the Bible says to love then I want you to love, if it says to forgive then I want you to forgive. We are to be Christ like to those in our community and in our part of the world. You cannot hide your Christian witness or its ability to influence others. People sometimes become Christians by seeing Christ in you. The Bible says that Christ is the hope of Glory…and Christ in you and working through you is to give hope to those around you. These three abide forever the Faith, Hope and Love. Today do you reflect Faith, do you reflect Hope and do you reflect Love to those who are around you and are hurting or in need. We don’t need more hate we need more love , care and commitment in the world. And we are to be the witnesses of the grace of God to those around us. I want to encourage you today to live for Christ and God and let others see his Grace in you and desire what you have. It doesn’t mean that you are perfect, or have it all together but that you are simply doing your best to do what Gods words tell us. We make mistakes but Gods word teaches us that if any man or person does sin and we confess our sins that he is faithful and just to forgive us all our transgressions or sins.  Let God love through you and Christ reach out to you.

 

II. Practice Forgiveness: It states that if you know there is a person or persons whom you have offended or perhaps they have offended you that you are to do your best to make peace with them. Forgiveness is essential for our hearts to be healed and feel healthy in our Christian walk. The bible teaches to practice or walk in forgiveness with men or others and then come to God. How many of you know God may not want to talk if he knows you have issues with forgiving others. Forgiveness is important to let others go for past harms or hurts. Open you heart to help others and yourself by forgetting the past and those things which are behind you. Today allow the Holy Spirit to influence you and do his work in your heart and reach out to your brother or sister for whom Christ died and offer them love and hope. You then are being Christ like and whether they receive this from you is their problem. You have fulfilled the royal laws of Christ in that you have loved and offered them forgiveness. You say you don’t know how. I understand that is why it must be Gods love working through you to them. God will help you and assist you in forgiving others. It was while Jesus was being crucified that he stated Father forgive them for they know not what they do. While being murdered he ask God to forgive those carrying out his execution. This is forgiveness. My friends if we expect Christ to forgive us then we also must practice mercy, judgment and truth. We must fulfill the more important aspects of Christianity and that is to forgive and practice what Christ preached and offers to us. We can be so hypocritical in that we say Lord forgive me, yet we wont forgive someone who owes us 20 dollars or more. It takes Christ to Love and to Forgive. We are to forgive Because God for Christ sake has forgive you. Do you forgive others…Do you know it was the work of God in the cross that offers you forgiveness. When God forgave you for your sins were you perfect or a sinner? We must practice mercy, love, truth, forgiveness, and proper judgment. There is no room for the wrath of man in Gods eternal Kingdom. Love God and those around you. Not only are we to forgive…

 

III. Practice Giving: give to him that asked thee. We are to carry the attributes of Gods kingdom in our hearts. God loves charity and practices charity every time he answers a prayer or does something for you. Today do you want to be like God and give. If God hadn’t given the Gift of his son then none of us would be here today? God has given his very best and daily gives to us our daily bread or food, shelter and basic needs. Charity is the art of God, and our good works are to glorify God and point people to Christ. Giving is the opposite of our society. Greed verses Giving. Greed is the heart of the wicked who shall stand before the throne of God for not helping the poor and needy but have been self centered in this life. They remembered not the poor or as Jesus said if you have done it unto the least of these you have done it unto me. Greed never meets the need…but Giving makes life worth living. Today let us all become more charitable in our consciousness and to those around us. That is why the bible says if you have two coats give to him who has none. We are to do what society will not do. That is to give hope , love and the things that others need. You see sometimes just the spiritual answer isn’t good enough. To say God loves you but it is within your power to Bless them with what they need and don’t that isn’t right. If you have the ability to help a person then do it. This is another one of the royal laws of Christ. Give to him that asketh thee. Give to him that asketh thee. Has anyone asked you for help and you could help but didn’t. Let our hearts become more generous. For the generous souls shall be made fat the scripture says. God loves a cheerful giver the Bible says. Do all things as unto the Lord. And you shall be blessed. God gives to the poor and needy and let us do the same as we have the ability. Let us Bless humanity in whatever way we can. It may be volunteering to sweep, mop, or help in the kitchen or whatever but we all can donate to a greater cause …this too is giving. Let us give because God did give to us the greatest gift of all even when we didn’t deserve it.

 

IV.   Practice the Path:  Jesus said to enter into the strait or narrow gate. We are commanded here to make the right choice in life and to walk into the will of God for our salvation. Jesus is the door to heaven and we are commanded to walk through that door and down that path. Today have you chosen Christ as your path in life? Have you chosen Jesus as your salvation? Do you want to be redeemed and preserved from the wrath of God and his judgment? Then you need to step off the broad road that the majority travels and go down the narrow road that the minority travels. The pleasure of sin is for a season but eternal life is just that eternal. Jesus said he who comes to me will never thirst again. It is time for some of you to make a choice about life. And commit to Christ in Life and follow him. Jesus said Follow me and I will Make you…make you into a person you never knew before, a person who can give, and love, and forgive. Today I ask you to step off the path of destruction and step onto the path of life. Scripture says the steps of a righteous man are ordered of the Lord. Do you need Gods divine path in your life? Has your road left you weary and heart broken. Then today step into Christianity and the Faith of God and into His Son the Lord Jesus and you will be saved and experience salvation in a way never known. Get off the path of destruction and onto the path of construction and better yourselves, save yourselves. If you saw a warning or danger sign most of us would respect it. Today the cross of Christ is both your warning sign and your saving or salvation. You are warned of damnation in scripture and Christ is your savior. Today the straight and narrow is the way to go. Better you lives, your families, yourselves and spare yourself. And find hope and peace in Christ today. Can you do that? It is so simple. Today let us reach out to the throne of God and ask for his mercy and love…and you will be forgiven. Christ is your answer to your needs today and may he help us all to love him and follow him in our lives today. May His grace bless and change your lives today. And may all that God offers to you be found. May we all be blessed today in our Saviors grace.

Sorry for the downtime! A quick update on the homeless situation. Fort Smith is doing well in taking care of its homeless. This past month we took into our shelter 65 individuals, this includes families with children. We are doing our part for the community. This morning we held our first meeting in our chapel for homeless individuals to recieve job training. We partnered with Firelight's Fresh Start Educational Program which do an excellent job for us and for the homeless. This couse is for individuals who have signed up to recieve housing with HPRP- Homeless Prevention Rehousing Program. All our clients who have signed up for this course will be required to attend our classes in our chapel each Tuesday. There are 22 courses. We want to thank you as a community for your prayers and support. God Bless you as our Lords Passion  is upon us this Easter.

Brian

Devotion to Community and God

 

Acts 10:1 There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of the band called the Italian band, 2 A devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always.  3 He saw in a vision evidently about the ninth hour of the day an angel of God coming in to him, and saying unto him, Cornelius. 4 And when he looked on him, he was afraid, and said, What is it, Lord? And he said unto him, Thy prayers and thine alms are come up for a memorial before God.

 

 

I. Cornelius…his name alone tells you that he was a person that wasn’t in his environment. He was a soldier of the Roman Army in a land that they had occupied. He was stationed in Caesarea just north of Jerusalem in Israel. Here was a Roman in Israel. His belief since he was a child to be acquainted with all the gods of the Romans. He was taught a different religion all of his life. One that didn’t ever connect him to One true God…or as scripture states there is One Lord, One Faith and One Baptism….for the first time the worship of the Jewish people had intrigued him that there was one God to worship and that they had temples dedicated to this God. His spirit began to hunger and to thirst for the true God and his mind began to think is there more than what I have had? Have you ever wondered if there was more to life than what you have experienced? All his earthly needs were met, yet he still hungered for a deeper spiritual life, a yearning within that couldn’t be satisfied with the accomplishments politically in the Roman empire or in his own accomplishments. He asked himself the question …is there more….so he even did more… look at what he did.

 

II. He gave much alms or charity…out of his curious search for moral correctness and a relationship with God it made him a charitable man. He didn’t just tip the community he was generous with the community. Here he was a man that was linked to the Romans who collected taxes of the Jewish people giving more to the community out of his heart. He gave money that helped the poor, he gave money that helped build synagogues and Jewish temples he gave to the causes that he saw before him in his world that effected the people he was with and the ones he was involved with. His charity impacted his immediate community and the community viewed him as a different kind of Roman. Charity is a powerful gift to a community and it was out of his generosity that it even deepened his heart to know more about God….His compassion to the community created within him a desire to pray. Not only was he generous but he was also praying.

 

III. He prayed to God always…he was effected by what he saw in Jerusalem, he saw the oppression of the people by the government and his own people he identified with the suffering. The suffering caused him to seek God and a God that could do something for the people and the community. Compassion is a powerful thing that will even cause you to pray for those that are hurting. Cornelius saw suffering and began to pray. His prayers were to uplift the community. To help the world in its current conditions. I am sure he was a world thinker as he was in an empire with world domination and influence but he saw things differently through the eyes of compassion. Oh that the whole community could view the homeless situation as suffering and not certain individuals trying to figure out ways to remove and channel or pass laws to reduce it. The community that fails to assist the Lord is the community that fails. We must be Faith based , we must be charitable, we must seek to do the will of God without harm. You know you can be Faith Based and never say a word about Christ as some organizations have opted to received Federal money. He was an official of the government but he knew he didn’t have the answer alone so he prayed. He prayed for change, he prayed for hope, he prayed for more, he prayed that oppression of people would cease to exist…He was faithful to God yet there was more for him…notice because he was concerned what took place..

 

IV. The Angel of the Lord…the Angel appears to him and tells him specifically to call for Peter, the Apostle unknown to him that at the same time the Lord spoke to Peter that three men would seek him to go to the house of Cornelius. This is truly a divine moment. The angel tells Cornelius that your giving and your prayers have come up before God as a memorial….that God himself recognizes such things and causes him to remember and pause about the person doing such things in the earth. The angel directs him to Peter and Peter in return goes and visit’s the household of Cornelius…Cornelius gathers all his household to listen to the words of Peter as Peter in obedience went to Cornelius home afraid and concerned because he wasn’t Jewish but was a Roman Soldier…but God had different plans….Peter began to open up and share with him what had happened to the Lord Jesus. How he was taken by wicked hands and by Herod and Pontius Pilot was tried , falsely accused and was crucified. Peter shared the Christian faith with Cornelius from the moment of its conception to the current events. As Cornelius listened the Holy Spirit entered his house and the Blessing of Christ came upon them and entered their hearts. There was a moment of joy and blessing a God moment in the life of Cornelius that God had honored his heart and sent his Apostle to guide him into a relationship with his Son the Lord Jesus. Cornelius received this truth this teaching this wonderful news and God confirmed it through his holy spirit. Oh that today we would all be open to the words of life and the love of Christ. This is a time that if God was fulfilling this promise in the days of the roman empire, he is still today fulfilling this promise in our times. For listen to this verse about the times of the Gentiles…(Cornelius was a gentile)… Luke 24 And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled…(you know from that moment the Faith and Gentiles receiving it spread) listen to this verse: Romans 3: 29 Is he the God of the Jews only? is he not also of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also:

 30 Seeing it is one God, which shall justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision through faith.

 

Cornelius was a Gentile, and his time had come…according to scripture he was the first convert recorded who was a gentile.. Our moment has come and it is time for us to cease the time of our salvation. May we all have an experience with God that leads us into a relationship with him.

 

The Lord Bless you today.