This free church bulletin article was written by Brian Humek from Irving, TX. You are free to use this in church bulletins, church emails and on church websites. No credit needs to be given. Simply clicking the book link at the end of this free bulletin article will help more content to be placed on this site. Donate your own bulletin article here.
Bible Passage: Mark 2:17
Sunday, a return guest to our congregation was having problems. Like her previous visits, she sat on the back row near the door. She came for a quick dose of encouragement and an even speedier escape. There are many folks who attend church each week with this same plan in mind – hear some good news and encouraging words and then make it out the back door before they can be engaged in conversation. Some people just want to be anonymous. With God’s help, I prevented her from leaving anonymously. I found out that she was having some bad problems. I prayed with her. I talked with her. She made me realize the truth in the statement, “Each week someone walks into our churches barely hanging onto life by a thread.”
Many of you who read this attend church. Some of you do not attend anywhere. I am glad this devotional reaches all types of people. I think the situation described above can be helpful to everyone. To those who attend church, remember that there are people barely hanging onto life by a thread in each of your church services. These individuals need to be found and engaged in conversation. These individuals who are having problems do not need to be judged. Our guest Sunday had one big concern. She didn’t want me to look down on her because she is functionally homeless at this time. Being judged was her big concern. That is the biggest concern of all who are struggling. We’ve got the misconception that those in the church need to be perfect or pretty close to perfect. How wrong and shameful for us to ever think that way. To those of you who do not attend church or who are pre-Christians, remember that if you are barely hanging on to life by a thread, a congregation of believers should make you feel welcome and help you. If it doesn’t, I don’t think that congregation is doing its job.
Jesus ate with tax collectors and “sinners.” We need to show that face of Jesus to the world. We need to eat with the tax collectors and “sinners” too. I would call such people “the hurting” and they include both those inside our churches and those who simply wander in from time to time. And don’t even get me started about going to the hurting…. I’d be sitting here for weeks typing away.
Please pray for our guest. I am sorry to not name her, but God knows her by name. She needs so many prayers at this time in her life. And after you pray for her, think about someone else you know who is hurting and pray for them.
—> Support our free content ministry by purchasing the 5 Star rated Leave it to God on Amazon today.
Related posts:
Bible memorization is not a strong point of mine. Recently, my wife and I have made a point to begin practicing this skill. We began with Psalm 117. It’s short and easy to remember. In fact, here it i...
No matter how much pity we want to party with, there's no such thing as a Christmas without gifts. Seriously, I thought we were having a giftless Christmas one time, actually more than one time, but I...
One day in the mountains, a man went for a peaceful walk or so he thought. Unknown to him, a mountain lion was prowling around waiting to devour him. The man was attacked. He survived and is now a lot...
You may have never heard of Chen Si. He is a man on a mission. I think he is a great example for Christians everywhere. He works a full-time job selling billboard advertising in Nanjing, China. Then ...
How is your prayer life? Do you tell folks you’ll pray for them and never do it? I plead guilty to that sometimes. Mostly, that has been in my past prayer life. Today I called a gentleman from church....
God knows it was not good for man to be alone. Because of this, he created woman. God knows it’s not good for anyone to be alone. Because of this, he created friends. Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 says so much ...
Husbands or males in general, have a bad reputation. There’s something that we usually do that gives us that reputation. O.k., maybe there’s more than just one thing that gives us that bad reputation,...
Christianity, to some, has come to be thought of as a religion of comfort. Christianity makes us feel good and should. The assurance of God’s love should overwhelm us with joy! However, Christianity i...
