God Knows What He is Doing
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CHICAGO (CBS) — It started with one woman’s act of kindness – putting up homeless people in a hotel during this week’s dangerous deep freeze. Then it snowballed to a lifesaving effort by a group of strangers on the city’s South Side.
Many people from “Tent City” on Roosevelt Road near the Dan Ryan had to abandon the area after a propane tank used as a source of heat exploded Wednesday morning.
Volunteers dug deep into their pockets and picked up the tab for 60 hotel rooms for homeless men and women during the cold snap.
Volunteers dug deep into their pockets and picked up the tab for 60 hotel rooms for homeless men and women during the cold snap.
They worked together like a family, turning a hotel bathroom into a makeshift kitchen.
They worked together like a family, turning a hotel bathroom into a makeshift kitchen.
The volunteers are also gathering donations to help replace the items that were lost.
And they’re all building lifelong friendships even though most of them just met.
“All of us don’t know each other,” said Candice Payne, a good Samaritan.
Candice Payne started it all, impulsively charging 20 hotel rooms on her American Express card after realizing how dangerous this week’s sub-zero temperatures would be for the Chicagoans without homes. She posted about it on social media and soon the donations and offers to help bring food came flooding in.
“Maybe they didn’t know how to or where to start to help, so I’m glad that I was able to be that vehicle,” she said.
Jermaine and Robert call Candice their angel.
When they got the offer for a warm bed they were getting ready to sleep on the street or to be charged with trespassing in their attempts to escape from the cold.
“We don’t get that type of help,” Jermaine said. “I really needed them at that point, so they came right in time.”
They hugged and said thanks, touched by all the kindness, the like of which, they say, they’ve never seen before in their lives.
“We hear about that on the news and other places but I seen it up close and personal today, and I really want to thank y’all for looking out for our people,” Robert said.
So far this group has been able to cover three nights at the hotel for approximately 80 people. They’re hoping to continue working together to help provide a more long-term solution for these people in need.
Megan Hickey is a general assignment reporter for CBS 2.
Lord God, bless Your Word wherever it is proclaimed. Make it a Word of power and peace to convert those not yet Your own and to confirm those who have come to saving faith. May Your Word pass from the ear to the heart, from the heart to the lip, and from the lip to the life that, as You have promised, Your Word may achieve the purpose for which You send it, through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
What Christ does flows out of who He is
What Christ does flows out of who He is
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
In Luke Chapter 4 we see Jesus begin publicly living out His vocation as the Son of God. At the Jordan River, God the Father declares as God the Holy Spirit ordains Jesus, God the Son to His Messianic Office. Before this moment, Jesus was, in terms of His being, God the Son, and as such, ruler over all creation. With this moment, He enters into His purpose. That purpose next sends Him into the wilderness to be tested by the devil for 40 days, before He returns to His nation to proclaim the inauguration of the Kingdom of God. For a short time, He works in the same area as His cousin, John the Baptizer, but then He heads to Cana where he did His first miracle/sign, after having gained Andrew, Peter, Philip, Nathaniel, and one other, unnamed individual as disciples (). He then goes to Capernaum, where He apparently does some miraculous things while preaching on the Kingdom of God, then goes to His hometown of Nazareth where He begins to preach the message of the Kingdom in the synagogue, only to be rejected by the residents on the basis of their familiarity with what they think is His story when He does not perform a sign as proof for them similar to what things He is reported to have done in Capernaum().
31 And he went down to Capernaum, a city of Galilee. And he was teaching them on the Sabbath, 32 and they were astonished at his teaching, for his word possessed authority.
The God of Design and Concern: the Plan
The God of Design and Concern: the Plan
D.L. Bock, writing about the Gospel according to Luke in the New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, had this to say:
“Jesus’ mission statements outline his task. Jesus preached good news to those in need (4:18–19, 43-44), taught concerning the Kingdom (4:31-32), cast out demons (4:33-37, 41), healed the sick (4:38-40, 5:30–32) and was to be heard, whether his message was communicated through him or through his representatives (10:16). He came to seek and save the lost (19:10).”
D. L. Bock, “Luke,” ed. T. Desmond Alexander and Brian S. Rosner, New Dictionary of Biblical Theology (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000), 274.
Jesus’ actions are not haphazard, nor are they simply done out of sentimentality, on the one hand, or for the sake of publicity on the other. Whatever Jesus’ opponents might have said about Him, no one could say that He tried to compete with them. When we allow a competitive spirit to motivate us, we are acting apart from Christ.
1 So if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, 2 complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. 3 Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.
What we do in Witness - Mercy - Life Together, out of our union with Christ through His Holy Baptism, is consistent with who we are in Him. They are done as elements of His Divine Mission and Purpose. That is the motivation behind His teaching, His discipleship, His signs and wonders, and His sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus came with a plan (), He prepared to execute the plan (Luke 3:49-52), He fulfilled the plan:
They are done as elements of His Divine Mission and Purpose. That is the motivation behind His teaching, His discipleship, His signs and wonders, and His sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus came with a plan (), He prepared to execute the plan (Luke 3:49-52), He fulfilled the plan:
They are done as elements of His Divine Mission and Purpose. That is the motivation behind His teaching, His discipleship, His signs and wonders, and His sacrificial death on the cross. Jesus came with a plan (), He prepared to execute the plan (Luke 3:49-52), He fulfilled the plan:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Ask Me How I Know
Ask Me How I Know
We know the significance of Christ’s death and resurrection, and so did He. We know it because He made it known to us through the preaching of the Gospel. Every miracle that Jesus did was done under the shadow of the Cross, every teaching He uttered was in the shadow of the Cross. Every immediate victory over His foes, people’s woes, or Satan’s throes, took place in anticipation of the eternal victory over death, the grave, and the Lake of Fire that He accomplished at the Cross.
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Paul summed up the power of the Cross of Christ in
8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Hostility didn’t deter Jesus, ignorance didn’t deter Him. Our fears of failure didn’t deter Him, nor did our sin. He took all of that with Him to the Cross and overcame it all by His obedience. Through the Holy Spirit, we have become partakers in the divine nature, as it is written:
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
What we do in His name is part of that same Divine Mission, and we are empowered by the same Spirit that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Just like that authority was evident in what Jesus began to preach and teach, so it is evident as we go in Jesus’ name.
“He will never fail you, You can believe what He said ‘cause it's true
Hear you when you call - Catch you when you fall
Catch you when you fall Just have faith, He'll be right there There is no failure There is no failure in God
Just have faith, He'll be right there
There is no failure - There is no failure in God.”
ere is no failure There is no failure in God
What we do in His name is part of that same Divine Mission, and we are empowered by the same Spirit that raised the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. Just like that authority was evident in what Jesus began to preach and teach, so it is evident as we go in Jesus’ name.
There is no problem in your life that He cannot handle; there is no problem in your home that He cannot handle. There is no problem in our community that He cannot handle; there is no problem in our country that He cannot handle. Whether you think that you’ve got it going on, or you think that you aren’t going anywhere, God’s purpose concerning you remains. As we remember our history this month, we remember that “through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God. Through it all, through it all, I've learned to depend upon His Word.”
What has the Holy Spirit laid upon your heart to do in Jesus’ name? May God give you His strength, not only to begin it, but to do it.
What has the Lord equipped you to do in the power of the Holy Spirit? Don’t let the devil abuse you; let the Lord use you!
Who told you that you can’t? God says “Yes you can!”
Some said that “you all can’t maintain this church,” but Jesus says “Yes you can!
Someone said, “you can’t open no school,” but the Lord says “Yes you can!”
Someone said, “you can’t resist that sin,” but the Holy Spirit says “Yes you can!”
Somebody said that you can’t be triumphant in the midst of suffering, but the Word of God says
13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.
5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There may be suffering or setbacks, but that isn’t the end. There may be bumps, but that isn’t the end. We may - no - we will face resistance, but that isn’t the end.
Beloved now we are, the sons of God.
Adopted by His Blood, we've been redeemed,
We've been made joint heirs with Jesus, and to reign as priests and kings, What do we say to these things?
Since God is for us, Who can be against us; Since God Is On our side, how can we be denied?
In all these things we are, More than conquerors thru Jesus Christ our Lord, And nothing can separate us, from the love of God.
There may be suffering or setbacks, but that isn’t the end. There may be bumps, but that isn’t the end. We may - no - we will face resistance, but that isn’t the end.
What is the end? He is risen, He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
Justice will roll like a mighty river, because He is risen, He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
The high places will be brought low, and the crooked places will be made straight because He is risen, He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
Sickness won’t stop me, and death won’t defeat me because He is risen, HE is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
Sin won’t conquer me, and the devil won’t hold me down because HE is risen, He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
Ask me how I know? and I’ll tell you so,
Because He is risen, He is risen indeed, Hallelujah!
So let the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus our Lord, Amen.