Chris' Christian Blog

November 2, 2019

"November 2, 2019" 

"Prompt: November is Native American Heritage month. Please use the following quote as your inspiration. "Everything on the earth has a purpose, every disease an herb to cure it, and every person a mission. This is the Indian theory of existence." – Mourning Dove Salish"

While I disagree with Native American spiritualism, I do agree with this quote. Somebody said once that truth can be found almost anywhere. It is true that we all serve some purpose. I don't believe there is any such thing as a wasted human being. Some humans make themselves into a waste, but we all have value and serve some purpose. My purpose right now is to be the floor leader of my domitory and to be a Salvation Army soldier and community outreach coordinator for my corps. I will also be working as a peer support specialist with the Salvation Army starting November 5, 2019 though I am already serving in that capacity unofficially. Our grand opening is November 5, 2019. I think it has actually been changed to November 6, 2019 to coincide with the first official day of our kettle season. This is red kettle season for the Salvation Army. Be sure to drop something in the kettles when you see the bell ringers this year! Trust me when I testify that 100% of your donations goes to help the needy. I would not wear the Salvation Army uniform if I did not believe it was 100% legitimate! I love serving others and I have a chance to do so all the time as a soldier in the Salvation Army. Mourning Dove is 100% right. We all have a purpose. Our purpose is to serve God and serve our fellow man.

We also have a second purpose in life. Our purpose is to serve and to love Jesus Christ. God did not originally make man self-centered. Sin entered into the heart of Adam and self-centeredness became the nature of all men who followed. We were originally made flawless and innocent however. We served God and had direct fellowship with Him. Then Adam sinned and man fell. Jesus came as a human and died for us. If anybody does not know about Jesus Christ hit me up and I will tell you the greatest news you have never heard. Most people reading this have a passing knowledge of Jesus. Many do not have a personal relationship with Jesus or if they do it is not a kindled, on fire relationship. The love of Good reigns in my heart. I know this because I actively seek opportunities to give to others. I don't have much money but when I do have money I often give even that. What I give is my time and my service. I get up every morning looking for opportunities to serve. I became the floor leader or basically what colleges would call a resident assistant here on my floor at the West Virginia Veterans Home so I can have the opportunity to serve the men here. The job does pay $85.00 per month, but believe me there are much easier ways to earn a little cash. It requires me to get up at 0430 every morning to make rounds with the nurses at 0500. I also have the dubious honor of cleaning up any body fluids the guys spill if housekeeping is not available so it isn't worth the $85.00! What makes it worth it is that I get to serve. Jesus put me here to serve others. If I am not actively seeking a way to step outside oof myself and serve others then I am missing my purpose in life. Mourning Dove nailed it by saying our purpose is to serve.

Mourning Dove added that every plant has a purpose and that there are herbs for healing. I will agree with that. I believe we have probably destroyed the cure for a lot of ailments with the rain forest we are destroying. Man is often his own worst enemy. Plants hold the key to many problems if we know where to look.

Prompt: "When did you first know you were truly loved?"

I know you are looking for a romantic answer to this prompt, but the answer you are going to get from me is going to be based on my faith. I am in love with Jesus Christ. I love Him intimately and I know that He loves me way more than I can ever possibly love Him. I know this because He chose to leave the glory and privilege of Heaven and the fellowship He had with the Trinity to become a baby, grow into a man, and die the death of crucifixion for me. I know He died for the entire human race but if I had been the only person whom it would save He still would have done so. Why? He would have done so because love compelled Him to do so. I didn't understand that love initially. I have grown to catch just a glimpse of it. I feel it every day in my heart. I serve as a soldier in the Salvation Army today. I serve because I have the heart of Jesus and that heart aches for the downtrodden, the lost, and the forsaken. Homeless people are a population I work with a lot. I wouldn't have it any other way. Getting up in the morning and putting on my uniform is a special time for me because the uniform means something to me. It makes me a part of a movement that started at the cross 2000 years ago. Yes. I know the Salvation Army itself was started in 1865 by William Booth. The benevolent side of the church was started at the cross though. It started actually in the Garden of Eden. The cross was the culmination of God's love for man. My prayer today is that God continues to feed His love to my heart and continues to let me express thst love to others. Next week I officially take my position as a peer support specialist/case manager with the Huntington WV corps of the Salvation Army in our Pathways of Hope center. Pathways of Hope is a center we built to help break the curse of generational poverty by helping individuals and families find housing and gainful employment. We will do that by meeting basic needs and arranging for education, training, and whatever is necessary to become independent and dependent on Jesus Christ. It is quite an undertaking and as far as I know the only program of its kind. I am elated and humbled to be part of it. I could not and would not be part of it if I had not been loved by Jesus first. Jesus is my best friend and my Master. I am happy to call Him "Master" even though slavery has such a negative connotation. I am happy to be a slave of Christ because whether we accept it or not we are all slaves. We are either slaves to Satan and sin or we are slaves to Christ and righteousness. There are no other ways. People can deny Christ if they want to. I did the research. I have checked out the sciences:physics, archaeology, astronomy, and many others and I am convinced that the one fact that history supports more than any other is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Romans witnessed it, Josephus mentioned it, and many other historical documents prove it to be true. Denial is a sure way to separate oneself from God. People will ask how a loving God could send anybody to hell. A loving God is not sending people to hell. A loving God sent His Son to die on a rugged cross so that nobody would suffer in hell. If anybody goes to Hell it is because they chose to go there by denying Jesus Christ and the resurrection!