Remember and Respond

Daily Reading: Hebrews 13

Scripture Focus: Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13.3)

Devotional Thought: There is a growing prison ministry at Bethel Nazarene Church.  What started out as a weekly letter and bulletin sent to an inmate from our local church, has turned into weekly correspondence, shoes, underwear, study Bibles – and in some cases visits – to almost 100 inmates in Kentucky and Ohio.  They are trying to "remember those who are in prison."

There is a ministry at the church in which donations are received weekly, and then help is provided for those who are “down on their luck.”  They help with food, utilities, rent and even gas to get to work.  It’s called S.O.S. for Sharing Our Savior.  They have helped hundreds of people who have been “mistreated” by life, or even by their own poor choices.  They try to help them as if they themselves were suffering.

Very often, we in the church are segregated from the problems of society.  Oh, we will see an occasional beggar on the street corner with a sign claiming to be sick or homeless.  Or, maybe we see the public road work being done by inmates in those orange suits from the local jail.  But, that is about the closest we get to those needs.  The church needs to change!  We need to get involved!

It starts with remembering.  You may say, “Well, they are there because of their own bad choices.”  That may be right (It may be wrong, too!), but they still need help.  They still need Jesus.  They still need to “return to the Father”, as did the prodigal son in Luke 15. 

Will you find a way to get involved in the compassionate work of your church or community? 

Prayer: Lord Jesus, you told me that if I feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, clothe the naked, and visit the sick and imprisoned - that I have done those things to you.  Forgive me, Lord, if I have turned a blind eye to you, and help me respond to all the needs around me.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 50.16-23

16 But to the wicked God says: "What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?

17 For you hate discipline, and you cast my words behind you.

18 If you see a thief, you are pleased with him, and you keep company with adulterers.

19 "You give your mouth free rein for evil, and your tongue frames deceit.

20 You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother's son.

21 These things you have done, and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you.

22 "Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I tear you apart, and there be none to deliver!

23 The one who offers thanksgiving as his sacrifice glorifies me; to one who orders his way rightly I will show the salvation of God!"