I guarantee to meet your needs…

isaiah 50.8 (ncv) says, if you feed the hungry and take care of the needs of those who are troubled, then your light will shine in the dark and the LORD will always lead you and HE’ll satisfy your needs in dry land. and you’ll be like a spring that never runs dry.

listen, when you assume responsibility for the needs of hurting people around you,” GOD says, “I guarantee to meet your needs.” what a deal! GOD says, “when you take on the needs of other people around you, I guarantee that your needs will be met by me, GOD.” you can’t beat that. HE says, “I'll lead you, I'll bless you, I'll take care of your needs.”

proverbs 11:17 (nlt), your own soul is nourished when you are kind. GOD has promised many, many great benefits for kindness.

galatians 6.10 (ncv), says, whenever we have the opportunity [and, by the way, you’ve got it right now] to help anyone, we should do it. but we should give special attention to those who are in the family of believers. who’s the family of believers? it’s your church family. the bible says be kind to everybody but give special attention to the family of believers who need your help.

who needs your kindness this week? susan kidd wrote this: “it happened years ago on one of those raw december days that make people wish they’d done their CHRISTmas shopping in july. snowflake winds whipped through the street, and hunched on a sidewalk bench sat an unshaven man. he wore a threadbare jacket and shoes with no socks. he’d folded a paper bag around his neck to keep out the biting wind. a shopper paused, saddened by the man. ‘such a pity,’ she thought. but there was really nothing she could do. while the shopper lingered there, a little girl, maybe 11 or 12, walked by and spotted the frostbitten figure on the bench. wrapped around the girl’s neck was a bright woolen scarf. she stopped beside the old man, unwrapped the wool scarf and draped it tenderly around his neck and walked away. the man rubbed the warm wool. then the shopper crept away, wishing that she had been the one to give the scarf. i was that shopper. and GOD taught me something that day. wherever i am, whatever i possess there is always something that i can give – a touch, a smile, a prayer, a kind word, even a scarf.”

will you grow in kindness?

just a thought from the front porch…

why be kind?

in luke 10.34b-35 (nlt), it says, then the man put the man on his own donkey and he took him to an inn where he took care of him. the next day he handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver and he told him to take care of the man. “if his bill runs higher than that,” he said, “i’ll pay the difference the next time i’m here.”

this guy, the good samaritan, did all he could to take care of a total stranger. first, he ministers to him, administers first aid at the scene of the crime. he then takes him to a motel. he puts him on his donkey, which by the way means that he walked. so he had to walk the 20 miles to jericho because he put a hurting man on his donkey. he gets him to a motel. he checks him in. he nurses him through the night. he provides for his care. and then he pays the bill. then he says, by the way, i'll be back this way in a little while, put it on my tab and we’ll put it on my american express. this guy did whatever he could to help, whatever it takes.

what did he gain from this? nothing. he didn’t even know this guy. he’s a total stranger. he gains nothing back from him.

kindness is when you do something for somebody without expecting anything back. so why be kind? why should i be kind if people aren’t always going to repay me?

there are many, many reasons why the bible says you should be kind and the benefits of it. i should be kind because...

• GOD has been kind to me. and, by the way, it wasn’t some miniature favor, some casual favor. it was extravagant kindness that GOD has shone you.
  
• the bible says kindness is an act of worship.
  
• the bible says kindness honors GOD.
  
• the bible says kindness makes you happy.
  in fact, the bible says kindness makes you attractive. proverbs 19.22 (living bible), kindness makes a man attractive. there’s hope for us guys! you could be a spiritual brad pitt! just start being kind.
  
• the bible says kindness makes other people want to be kind to you.
  
• the bible says GOD blesses kindness. in fact, over and over again in scripture, GOD says, i will repay you for any kindness you do to others.
  
  

just a thought from the front porch…

there are legitimate fears

if you’re going to be kind you must be willing to take risks and you have to look at your fears. such as what if he asks me to do something that i can’t do? then i’ll feel inadequate. i'll feel dumb.
there are all kinds of legitimate fears.

there’s one big fear we don’t like to talk about, but i need to mention it. we often don’t want to get involved in other people’s pain and brokenness because it reminds us of our own pain and brokenness. we’ve got the pain in our lives pushed down, and we think we’ve got a lid on it. but it’s bubbling under the surface. but i’m afraid to ever get close to anybody else, because if i start dealing with their pain, all of a sudden mine’s going to bubble out. on the other hand, if i can ignore your pain and your brokenness, then i can pretend that i don’t have any pain or brokenness. i don’t have to face mine if i don’t have to face yours.

on the other hand, dealing with somebody who’s broken might cause me to see my own brokenness. maybe i don’t want to deal with that woman whose husband just walked out because it brings back the pain of my husband who walked out. i don’t want to deal with that person who just had a miscarriage because i don’t want to deal with the pain that i haven’t dealt with in my miscarriage. i don’t want to deal with that guy who lost his job because it reminds me how inadequate i felt when i lost my job.

the truth is: it’s fear that makes us unkind. we need to deal with others, and we need to let GOD deal with us in love. the bible says, there is no fear in love. perfect love casts out all fear.

JESUS said it like this in matthew 7.12 (jb), always treat others as you would like them to treat you. that of course is the golden rule. always treat others as you would like them to treat you.

also if you want to become a kind person, another thing the good samaritan did was to spend whatever it takes. start seeing the needs of others, sympathize with their pain, seize the moment to be kind and spend whatever it takes.

there is always a cost to kindness. there is always a price tag. it inevitably causes you to sacrifice time or money or energy or reputation or something. privacy maybe, to sacrifice that. it costs to be kind.

in luke 10.34-35 (nlt), it says, then the man [the good samaritan] put the man on his own donkey and he took him to an inn where he took care of him. the next day he handed the innkeeper two pieces of silver [these were denari, which were about two months worth of wages.] and he told him to take care of the man. “If his bill runs higher than that,” he said, “i’ll pay the difference the next time i’m here

just a thought from the front porch…

you must be willing to take a risk…

if you’re going to be kind you must be willing to put up with interruptions, you must be open and you must be willing to take risks. to be kind, you must be willing to take a risk.

many times, the one thing that keeps you from being kind is your own fears. the most cruel people are the most fearful people. so you have to look at your fears. just imagine the fears the good samaritan could have had. they were all legitimate.

he could have said, “what if i go over and help this guy who’s beaten up, naked, laying at the side of the road dying, what if the robbers are still here? i could lean down to help this guy, and they’ll beat me up – take my clothes, take my donkey, take my riches. legitimate fear.

he could have said, “what if i go over and help this guy and it’s a trap? he jumps up and he beats me up and takes all my possessions and leaves me beside the side of the road. what if it’s a trap? a decoy.” a legitimate fear.

what if i go over to help this guy, and he rejects my help. he says, “i don’t want your help! leave me alone. you’re a samaritan.” jews and samaritans were mortal enemies. they were divided by race, religion and politics. and they hated each other deeply. for a samaritan person to help a jewish person was unheard of! “what if he rejects me, and then i'll feel stupid? i'll feel dumb. what if i go over to help this guy, and i kneel down to take care of him and other people come along and they think i did it? they’ll haul me off to jail. it’ll take a long time to explain that i wasn’t the guy. i was just trying to help.”

today, we’d say, “what if he sues me?” legitimate fear.

“what if i go over to help this guy, and i can’t really help him. i don’t know what to do. i don’t know what to say. i’m not trained in first aid.” how many times have you not helped somebody because you thought, “i don’t know what to say.” maybe you don’t need to say anything. maybe you just need to go over and say, “i know you’re hurting, and i care.” that’s all you need to say.

just a thought from the front porch…

spontaneous kindness…

proverbs 3.27-28 (tev & ms) says, never walk away from someone who deserves help. your hand is GOD's hand for that person. never tell your neighbors to wait until tomorrow if you can help them now. notice the word never twice in that passage. never walk away from somebody who deserves your help.

the world is full of wounded. i wonder how many people in your life you walk around with who are wounded – the walking wounded. they may not be wounded physically, but they’re wounded emotionally. they’re wounded spiritually. they’re wounded relationally. they’re wounded financially. and they need your love. they need your kindness. you don’t wait for better conditions. you don’t say, “i'll call them in a few days.” you do it now.

when someone loses a loved one, you don’t say, “i’ll wait a while, and then i'll contact them.” when someone you work with gets fired, they lose their job, you don’t say “i'll wait a month, and then i'll contact them.” when someone has a miscarriage, you don’t say, “i'll wait a while, and then i'll contact them.” no, you do it now! spontaneous kindness. seize the moment.

the good samaritan shows that if you want to genuinely become a kinder person, you must be willing to first of all be interrupted. kindness doesn’t happen on your schedule. it happens on their schedule. that’s why they need kindness. at that moment, you’ve got to drop everything you’ve got.

have you figured out that love is often inconvenient? this guy probably missed his sales meeting he was going to in jericho. maybe he lost a big deal because he stopped to help a stranger. love is often inconvenient.

think of the excuses this guy could have given. he could have said, “i’ve got my own problems to think about. my business is important. i’ve got important business to care for. besides – the guy’s probably already dead. i probably can’t help him anyway. it’s probably a lost cause.”

anytime you want an excuse for being unkind, the devil will be right there to give you one. he will gladly give you a thousand excuses on why you don’t have the time, energy, money, effort, whatever to do what needs to be done.

just a thought from the front porch…

just do what you can...

if you’re serious about becoming a kinder person, step one is start seeing the needs of the people around you. step two is to sympathize with them emotionally, with their pain. and then three, seize the moment.

seize the moment to be kind. don’t wait. don’t delay. don’t procrastinate. do what you can at that very moment. this is the third thing that the good samaritan did.

luke 10.34a (nlt), kneeling beside him the samaritan soothed his wounds with medicine and bandaged them. he took action.

love is something you do. he didn’t just say, “i’m sorry for this guy. isn’t it a shame? isn’t that too bad?” he actually did something.

notice, he stooped down. in other words, he got on the man’s level. he didn’t pretend he was superior, and he didn’t talk down to him. he gets eye-to-eye contact. important for kindness. he gets down on his level.

second, he uses what he had. other translations say he dressed the man’s wounds with wine and oil. why? that’s what he had on his donkey. the wine worked ok because it’s alcohol. it’s an antiseptic. the oil worked ok because it would be soothing to the wounds that he had.

then it says he dressed him with bandages. where did he get the bandages? obviously this guy’s not a doctor. he doesn’t have a first-aid kit. and the man has been stripped naked so he didn’t have any clothes. the bandages are the samaritan’s own clothes. he takes his shirt off, rips it up and starts bandaging this poor unfortunate victim.

the point is: he did what he could with what he had at that particular point. he didn’t call a professional. he didn’t dial 911 on his cell phone. he says, “i'll take care of this guy’s needs. i'll move into action right now.” and he did what he could with what he had at that particular moment.

just a thought from the front porch….

kindness and sympathy...

sometimes kindness is just listening. in fact, advice giving can actually be counterproductive to kindness. joe bailey wrote a book on grief, on losing a loved one. he called it a view from the hearse. he says this from his experience: “i was sitting, torn by grief, and somebody came along and talked to me about GOD's dealings of why it happened, of hope beyond the grave. he talked constantly. he said things i knew were true. but i was unmoved, except to wish that he would go away. and he finally did. then another one came and sat beside me, and he didn’t talk at all. he didn’t ask me any leading questions. he just sat beside me for an hour or more, listened when i said something, answered briefly, prayed simply and left. i was moved. i was comforted. i hated to see him go.”

sympathy involves the ears. listening is a form of kindness.

sympathy does two things. it meets two of your basic needs: the need to be understood and the need to have your feelings validated. and both are human needs.

the bible says it like this, galatians 6.2 (nlt), share each other’s troubles and problems and in this way obey the law of CHRIST. what is the law of CHRIST? it’s called the great commandment. love GOD with all your heart and love your neighbor as yourself. do you like sympathy? of course you do. do you like people to sympathize with you when you’re hurting emotionally, physically, whatever? of course you do. the bible says do the same to others.

GOD often allows problems in your life just to teach you to be sympathetic to others. some of the things that come into your life, you wonder, “why is this happening to me?” i'll tell you why it’s happening. GOD sometimes specifically allows certain problems into your life so you can be sympathetic to other people when they go through them and you don’t say things like, “why don’t you just get your act together? why don’t you just straighten up? if you’d just change your beliefs or change your life …” you’ll be
sympathetic to where they are.

2 corinthians 1.4 (lb), GOD comforts and strengthens us in our hardships and trials so that when others are troubled, needing our sympathy and encouragement, we can pass on to them this same help and comfort that GOD has given us. so every problem you go through is an opportunity to learn how to be more sympathetic.

just a thought from the front porch…

learning to listen is the secret...

the second thing the good samaritan did was sympathize with people’s pain. it’s not enough to just see their need, you must feel their emotions. you must sympathize with their pain.

the bible says this in luke 10.33 (tev), when he saw him, his heart was filled with pity. first, his eyes kicked in. then his ears and his heart kicked in, and he’s filled with pity.

the bible tells us, weep with those who weep. in other words, share their sorrow. enter into their emotion. feel what they feel.

how do you do that? how do i increase my ability to be a more sensitive and more sympathetic person?

if sensitivity begins with your eyes, sympathy begins with your ears. it’s learning to listen. learning to listen is the secret of genuine sympathy. the better listener you become, the more sympathetic you become. sometimes kindness is just listening.

there was this ad that said, “i'll listen to anybody speak about anything for 15 minutes for 20 bucks.” i bet that guy’s making a good living. people are dying to have someone listen to them. that’s why social media is exploding. they want somebody to listen to them.

someone said “when i ask you to listen to me and you start giving me advice and you’ve not done what i’ve asked, when i ask you to listen to me and you begin to tell me why i shouldn’t feel that way, you trample on my feelings. when i ask you to listen to me, and you begin to feel you have to do something to solve my problem, you’ve failed me, as strange as it seems. just listen. please. just listen to me. advice is cheap. fifty cents will get you both dear abby and billy graham in the same newspaper and i can do that for myself. i’m not helpless. i may be discouraged. i may be faltering, but i’m not helpless. so please. just listen to me. and hear what i have to say. and if you want to talk, wait a minute for your turn, and i'll listen to you.”

just a thought from the front porch…

it starts with sensitivity...

1 corinthians 10.24 (ncv) says, look out for the good of others.

the first step to kindness is to ask GOD to give you SPIRITual radar, that you would be on the lookout for people in need around you who are hurting emotionally, SPIRITually, physically and in any other way.

some of you don’t need this reminder. you were born sensitive. you automatically sense when people are in need around you. it’s not that you’re more SPIRItual than the rest of us. you’re just wired that way. you’re just naturally sensitive to when people are in pain or whether they’re in hurt.

on the other hand, the rest of you have SPIRITual a d d. it’s easy to get distracted. it’s easy to be task focused and not be sensitive to what’s happening around you.

my wife, margaret is a nurse and a great nurse has the ability to anticipate pain in the patient and then help them.

i thought, that’s the essence of kindness – the ability to anticipate pain, hurt, brokenness, woundedness and then be able to move in and do something about it.

we work with people all the time whose lives are crumbling, but we don’t know anything about it. kindness starts with sensitivity. kindness starts in the eyes. it starts with awareness, observing what’s happening in people’s lives.

we need to start seeing and stop ignoring. the bible says this in galatians 6.8 (the message paraphrase), the person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others, harvests a crop of weeds. all they have to show for his life is weeds.

the fact is, it’s not always easy to see the needs of other people, especially when they’re on the other side of the road. but it’s the starting point of kindness. kindness starts with seeing the needs of the people around you. it starts with sensitivity.

just a thought from the front porch…

if you are aware then you can care…

now in the story that JESUS tells in luke 10, the good samaritan did some things that we need to do if we’re going to learn to be kinder, loving people. if you want to become a kinder person, a great lover...

you must first see the needs of people around you. kindness always begins with the eyes – the way you look, the way you see. it always begins with your vision, the way you observe things. if you’re not aware of needs, you can’t care about those needs.

the bible says in luke 10.33b (ms), when he saw the man’s condition, his heart went out to him. notice when he saw. that is the starting point.

there are wounded people all over your world but you don’t just see it. why? one word – busyness. hurry is the death of kindness.

listen. if you’re going to learn to be a kinder person, you’ve got to slow down. you don’t see it unless you slow down.

let’s say you’re going to take a trip across country. you’re married, you’ve got a family, and you want them to see what your country is really like. you’ve got a lot of different opportunities for transportation. you could take the plane. that would get you to other side faster, but you won’t see much of the country. because the faster you go, the less you see.

you could take a train, which would be slower than a plane. you would see definitely a lot more because you’re going slower. on the other hand, if you took a car trip with your family, you’d go even slower than a train and you’d see even more. but if you really wanted to see the country, you’d walk. if you’d walk, you’d see more of your country than if you took a plane.

if you want to see it, you’ve got to slow down. the slower you go, the more you see.

the bible says this, look out for the good of others. 1 corinthians 10.24 (ncv). notice look out.

the first step to kindness is to ask GOD to give you SPIRITual radar, that you would be on the lookout for people in need around you who are hurting emotionally, SPIRITually, physically and in any other way. those who need help. those who need encouragement. those who need concern. those who need a hug or a pat on the back.

just a thought from the front porch…

three attitudes toward people...

luke 10:30-31, there was a man going down from jerusalem to jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, beat him up and left him half dead. it so happened that a priest was going down that road. but when he saw the man he walked on by the other side.

JESUS says here that these three men represent your three choices in life. you’re going to go through life with one of three attitudes toward the people around you, particularly the people in pain.

the first attitude, he walked on by the other side. is keep my distance. this guy says, i'll just keep my distance and go on my business on the other side of the road.

the second is what can be called the curious but uninvolved. luke 10.32 (tev) says, in the same way a levite also came there. a levite was not a jeans salesman. he was a temple assistant. he went over, looked at the man and then walked on by on the other side.

this guy’s even worse. he walks over across the street, sees this guy laying there, beaten half dead, naked, bleeding to death, looks at him and then walks back to the other side and keeps on walking.

i was feeling pretty self-righteous about this until i realized i do this all the time on the freeway. so do you. we like to stare at accidents, but we don’t want to stop at them. my guess is that everybody reading this has done this. traffic always slows down with an accident because of the gawkers. we want to stare. what’s happening over there? is it a fender bender? did anybody get hurt? did anybody get killed? but does anybody want to stop? no. we want to stare but not stop. this is the curious but not involved.

have you noticed it’s a lot easier to gossip about people’s problems than it is to help them with it? we love to talk about other people’s problems, but we don’t want to do anything about it. curious but uninvolved. aware but apathetic.

are you curious but uninvolved. i know i am sometimes but that isn’t loving.

the third response is the response of the good samaritan. treat others how i want to be treated. the bible says in verse 33 (tev), a samaritan who was traveling that way came upon the man and when he saw him his heart was filled with pity.

if you want to grow in love – and that’s what we’re talking about, how to built authentic relationships – then you’re going to have to learn the lifestyle of kindness.

just a thought from the front porch…

love in action...

the bible says, love is kind. as we go through, verse by verse, this great chapter on love – 1 corinthians 13 in verse 4b (niv) – the bible says that we need to be kind.

so what is kindness? kindness is love in action. we said earlier that love is not a feeling. it is something you do. it creates feelings. it produces feelings, enormous emotions. but love is not a feeling; it is an action. the bible says that love is kindness in action.

now JESUS once told a story of three men who are traveling on the road from jerusalem to jericho, which is a very notorious road, known for muggers and thieves and they all come upon a crime scene and each of these three men responds to the crime scene in a different way. JESUS says these three men represent your three choices in life. you’re going to go through life with one of three attitudes toward the people around you, particularly the people in pain.

the first attitude is the keep my distance attitude. luke 10.30-31 (tev) says this: there was a man going down from jerusalem to jericho when robbers attacked him, stripped him, beat him up and left him half dead. it so happened that a priest was going down that road. but when he saw the man he walked on by the other side.

he walked on by the other side. this is the lifestyle of avoidance, or keep my distance. don’t ever get close to people because they might ask you for help. don’t ever get close to people because you might be needed by them. keep all your relationships superficial. keep them shallow. keep people at an arm’s length because if you get close, you might get involved. and if you get involved you might get hurt.

this guy says, i'll just keep my distance and go on my business on the other side of the road.

in your relationships is that your attitude, you keep your distance? that is not love.

just a thought from the front porch…