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A Parable of Faith Activation

02 Saturday Aug 2014

Posted by blogsense-by-barb in America, Articles, Attitudes, blogsense, censorship/political correctness, Character, Christianity, citizenship, Civility, Opinion, Parenting, religion, Women's Issues

≈ 3 Comments

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aide, community-service, compassion, faith, fear, government, government-programs, help, people, personal service to others, Self-sacrifice, service, The Little Dutch Boy, unselfishness, volunteers

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but YOU {emphasis bjb} do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.” James 2: 14- 17

Hans Brinker

A Parable of Faith Activation

“The dam is breaking! The dam is breaking! Emergency!!!” The screams of the people of Borderville frantically scurrying to get out of harm’s way echoed from the hillsides surrounding the town. Chaos everywhere! People watched in horror from hilltops and housetops as a wall of water rushed down the ravine sweeping over everything in its path. Thousands of homes gone in a moment. Families swept away. Utter and complete devastation in the wake with more tragedy ahead in its path.

Warnings had been given prior, but no one listened. There was a lot of talk, several plans were put forth, money had even been allocated, but nothing was done. Now, it was too late.

Emergency broadcasts flooded the airways urgently notifying people to seek higher ground. There was a cry, too, for volunteers to help tend the wounded and homeless.

It wasn’t long before the government issued a “warning” to local residents, and they began to organize shelters and supplies for the many victims. The Governor sought Federal assistance asking it be declared an “EMERGENCY!” Thousands of homes had already been destroyed. Many lives had been lost, and still the enormity of this tragedy was only beginning.

The water surged downhill wiping out everything in its path. Homes, schools, churches … businesses. It was ruthless.

Within a half hour of the breach, three or four helicopters peppered the sky. Whether journalists reporting the story or government agencies looking at the devastation was unclear. News bulletins resounded across the nation.

The hours began to roll by. The path of tragedy grew. The cry for help continued. Checks began to pour in from the American public. Emergency “#800” phones were organized. Government agencies brought supplies to nearby make shift shelters. Piles of blankets and cases of water grew.

The following weekend, pleas issued from pulpits in churches, tabernacles, mosques, as well as community outreach programs. Tons of building and survival supplies were quickly being gathered at points from coast to coast.

Hollywood celebrities and politicians issued calls for help from their walled-in mansions and executive offices. Photos flashed across TV screens and computer screens of the gorgeous celebs at fundraisers supporting the victims relief effort.

Hours and days passed. The flood continued to demolish town after town, home after home. Politicians chose sides: some pleaded for more money and supplies to tend the victims, and others wanted, first, to repair the dam.

“Oh no, we must let the water go and take care of the people first! That is the compassionate thing. To repair the dam is taking food out of the childrens’ mouths!” they said.

A handful of volunteers gathered at the local Red Cross. The size or their task was immeasurable. Money was plentiful. Supplies from the government were available, but volunteers were scarce. Seems everyone had a reason not to lend a physical hand to help the distraught and displaced survivors.

* ~ * ~ * ~ *

There is a children’s story I recall – The Little Dutch Boy, by Mary Mapes Dodge. Peter Miller writes this synopsis of the tale:

    “Dutch legend has it that there was once a small boy who upon passing a dyke (or dam) on his way to school noticed a slight leak as the sea trickled in through a small hole. Knowing that he would be in trouble if he were to be late for school, the boy poked his finger into the hole and so stemmed the flow of water. Some time later a passerby saw him and went to get help. This came in the form of other men who were able to effect repairs on the dyke and seal up the leak.

    “This story is told to children to teach them that if they act quickly and in time, even they with their limited strength and resources can avert disasters. The fact that the Little Dutch Boy used his finger to stop the flow of water, is used as an illustration of self-sacrifice. The physical lesson is also taught: a small trickle of water soon becomes a stream and the stream a torrent and the torrent a flood sweeping all before it, Dyke material, roadways and cars, and even railway tracks and bridges and whole trains.”

The Bible teaches God is a personal God. He is interested in our individual growth and character. In America, and in our world today, there are several “dams breaking.” We have agency upon agency duplicating tasks and spending obscene amounts of money, and accomplishing little. President Johnson back in the 60’s declared a “War on Poverty,” establishing “Social Security (creating medicare & medicaid) and “Food Stamp Act.”

As noble as the “War on Poverty” idea is, we have MORE poverty today, not less. We’ve lost the “War on Poverty!” Look around! If these programs actually worked, wouldn’t the percentages decrease and the numbers of thriving Americans increase? Service programs abound, but people willing to volunteer their time and talents are few. Government not equipped to tend the needs of individual families or communities. Government cannot empathize or feel compassion. We can!

Service_To_Others_Quote

See, only we, as individuals and neighbors know the specific needs of one another and have the ability to feel compassion. The thing about helping others … not only does serving one another help them, the victims, but it activates us! There is something reciprocal that happens when we reach out to “care” for another human being. I’ve heard it from missionaries to go with the warm intention of helping others, but they return feeling more a recipient than a giver.

It’s about people, a “People Connection” that opens our hearts and drowns the fears we have of people, of strangers. We are free to serve, yes, but only in doing does the reverse become true – our service frees us! Only in service to our neighbors does our faith become activated. Regardless of whether our religion is Judaism, Islam, Christianity, Buddhism … it is our personal service to others that confirms, affirms, and activates our Faith.

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♫ Like a Rock ♫

03 Friday Jan 2014

Posted by blogsense-by-barb in American, Attitudes, blogsense, Character, Congress, Culture, Current Events, FREEDOM, Issues, life, Lifestyle, music, People, politics, Women's Issues

≈ 3 Comments

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Bob Seger, character, community-service, compassion, goodness, Helping others, homeless, integrity, kindness, Like a Rock, mentally ill, music, neighbors, service, stand, take stand, truth

quote-Alexander-Hamilton-those-who-stand-for-nothing-fall-for-687

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Popular approval of Congress has reached an all time low as Americans reel under the vast scope of myriad scandals and lies perpetrated by this Administration. Yes! We have seen corruption before. Yes, we’ve been lied to before. Yes, we’ve even seen huge character flaws in our leaders before, but never … NEVER to the depth and scope to which we’re seeing today.

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Why? What has changed? What has happened to allow or facilitate such widespread corruption?

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Will a building stand if its foundation is compromised?

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Will a traveler reach his destination without first plotting his course & naming his destination?

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Can a nation long survive which has shredded its moral compass and floats aimlessly on sentimentalism?

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Perhaps innocently, perhaps with vile intent, social mores held firm throughout global civilizations over thousands of years, have suddenly (over the past few decades) come into question. GOD was declared dead April 8, 1966, and since that time, little by little, the once universal boundaries of Right & Wrong, have blurred. What was once, not more than generation ago, accepted behavior, has become “Old-fashioned” and “intolerant.”

Funny thing is, GOD is no place defined in our Founding documents, and the early Framers each held different personal beliefs. They intentionally kept all reference to GOD ambiguous so various individual beliefs might be adapted and accepted.

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Values2

  • The point is CHARACTER.
  • The point is GOALS … self-improvement … serving others.
  • The point is standing for something bigger than yourself.
    The point is growing in personal integrity and service to the community… by choice, rather than by mandate.
  • The point … is standing firm on some defined principles that are other aware.

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Without a firm foundation to stand on, the tides of political correctness too easily blow us around until we find ourselves … surrounded by Corruption. Like so many of our political leaders, bought and sold to the highest bidder, we, too, succumb to the popular trends and thoughts, victims of popular opinion.

How did we get here? We allowed it by our own compromise.

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Take a stand for GOODNESS
Take a stand for KINDNESS
Take a stand for TRUTH
Take a stand for COMPASSION
Take a stand for your Neighbor, for the Homeless, for the mentally infirmed … to be personally involved!

♫ Like a Rock ♫

Find something bigger than yourself worth STANDING FOR, worth giving your life’s passion to support, worth working toward and Take a Stand.

“We must stop acting like children.
We must not let deceitful people trick us by their false teachings,
which are like winds that toss us around from place to place.”

Eph 4:14 CEV


♫ Like a Rock ♫

Words and music by Bob Seger

Stood there boldly
Sweatin’ in the sun
Felt like a million
Felt like number one
The height of summer
I’d never felt that strong
Like a rock

I was eighteen
Didn’t have a care
Working for peanuts
Not a dime to spare
But I was lean and
Solid everywhere
Like a rock

My hands were steady
My eyes were clear and bright
My walk had purpose
My steps were quick and light
And I held firmly
To what I felt was right
Like a rock

Like a rock, I was strong as I could be
Like a rock, nothin’ ever got to me
Like a rock, I was something to see
Like a rock

And I stood arrow straight
Unencumbered by the weight
Of all these hustlers and their schemes
I stood proud, I stood tall
High above it all
I still believed in my dreams

Twenty years now
Where’d they go?
Twenty years
I don’t know
Sit and I wonder sometimes
Where they’ve gone

And sometimes late at night
When I’m bathed in the firelight
The moon comes callin’ a ghostly white
And I recall
I Recall …

Like a rock. standin’ arrow straight
Like a rock, chargin’ from the gate
Like a rock, carryin’ the weight
Like a rock

Like a rock, the sun upon my skin
Like a rock, hard against the wind
Like a rock, I see myself again
Like a rock

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Take Your Pick — A Variety of Ways to Help Put a Smile on Every Service Member’s Face! (via Operation Gratitude Blog)

01 Monday Aug 2011

Posted by blogsense-by-barb in Uncategorized

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Tags

Afghanistan, Army, cards, care-packages, charity, combat, community-service, crafts, crochet, deployed, donate, donations, facebook, gifts, hats, heroes, Iraq, knit, letters, Libya, marines, middle-east, military, military-care-packages, military-support, morale, navy, patriotic, sailors, scarves, service members, troops, twitter, uncategorized, usaf, usmc, veterans, volunteer, war

Lots of ways to help … PICK ONE or two! 🙂

Take Your Pick -- A Variety of Ways to Help Put a Smile on Every Service Member's Face! We hear from people all across the country who want to join in to support deployed service members and our patriotic cause — but because they live far from our Los Angeles-area location, they think they can't. Not true! There are many, many ways to take part! For starters, check out these flyers for great ideas: Ten Easy Ways to Support the Troops Letter Writing and Letter Writing for Teachers Handmade With Love: Scarves, Hats and Cool-Ties Girl … Read More

via Operation Gratitude Blog

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