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This is going to sound silly to some of you who read this or just down right crazy. I’m okay with that because I am a self-described weirdo. I’m really excited because I just bought 50 copies of The New Testament of the Bible in the New Living Translation for the low low price of $1.14 per copy. What will I do with all those New Testaments, you ask? Share them! I have to, I am compelled to, I want everybody I meet to be able to read the story of my Savior for him/herself. You know He died to save the whole world, right?

The Great Commission
Matthew 28:18-20
 18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations,[b] baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Jesus commanded us to share the Gospel and that is just what I will do. He saved my life and this is the least I can do for Him!

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This morning I woke up feeling particularly discouraged. This is the day I serve at “the Refuge”. My heart was just not into going. Last week I was filled with thoughts of people there not liking me, thoughts of my not living up to their standards and I know these thoughts are the lies of the enemy. I cried out to God about these thoughts and He filled my head with scriptures.

Romans 8:31
What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?
Proverbs 29:25
Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD is kept safe.

And so this morning, the enemy tried to crawl back into my head again by making me remember these lies, filling me with discouragement. But in my heart I knew it was a lie and I knew God wanted me to be at “the Refuge”. So, despite the discouragement, I picked myself up and made myself go and I was ultimately blessed because I saw and spoke to and prayed with a woman who hadn’t been there in a couple of months! Even in the middle of God’s glory, the enemy was at work, wreaking havoc, causing people to fight with each other and the discouragement came flooding back into my mind. But again, perseverance in times of trouble lead to blessing. I was introduced to a poor young guy who came down here from New York City in hopes of finding a job based on somebody’s “promise” of a place to stay. He is a fella who loves the Lord and was discouraged (by the enemy, no doubt) because it all fell through and he came with no money and so now, for the first time ever, finds himself homeless. I prayed with him and, along with a brother, filled him with encouragement from the word of God and introduced him to a married couple who love the Lord, who is also homeless, and together will look after each other until tomorrow when he will come back to the coop and find a ticket bak to New York City, where he has a place to live. God is good all the time! To think of all the blessings I would have missed out on today if I had believed the lies of the enemy, who, by the way, is defeated!!

Revelation 12:8-10 8
but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them[a] in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

So, what is the lesson I learned from all this? I love to encourage people, build their spirits up, tell them how much God loves them. I was thinking I could do this anywhere and why should it be at “the Refuge”? To look around at how broken this world is can be so discouraging, but to find even one person out there who needs to hear the Gospel and be encouraged by how God loves him and takes care of him and never leaves him or forsakes him, is just enough encouragement for me from the Holy Spirit to realize that my obedience to His call is, in the end, as much to bless me as to bless that one person He loves as well and gives me the strength to persevere and not fall for the lie. Praise God from whom all blessings flow!!