A Fresh Start For A New Year

The Lord's loving kindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness.  "The Lord is my portion," says my soul, "therefore I have hope in Him."  Lamentations 3:22-24

Have I ever told you how bad of a golfer I am? Well, it is true. I am inconsistent off the tee box, can’t chip to save my life, and putt like Herman Munster. That mixture of problems typically results in bad scores. Sometimes I just give myself an “F” for “fun” on the scorecard.

I remember one day I was playing golf with a friend. It was a typical day for me on the course, a few good shots and a lot of bad shots. After we made the turn for the final nine holes, however, something happened. I started to play better! It was like a scene from Invasion of the Body Snatchers. I am sure my friend was wondering, “Who are you and what have you done with my friend Jeff Schreve!” I was on fire!

We got to the last hole. If I shot par on that hole, I would have finished the back nine with a 40, my best score ever for nine holes. Unfortunately, as I stepped to the tee box, the body snatcher left me. The old Jeff was back, and it wasn’t pretty. I hit tree after tree on my way to a quadruple boogie. UGH!

It's God's Will to Heal You

Written by Mark Brazee

And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed. (Mark 1:40-42)

The average Christian is in the same position as this leper was - not knowing whether it is God's will to heal or not. The believer may think, I know God is able to heal. I just don't know whether or not it's His will to heal me.

The leper knew the ability of Jesus. He came to Jesus and said, "Lord, if You will, You can make me clean." I've heard the same thing from people in prayer lines. They stand there praying, "Oh, Lord, I know You're able to heal me."

Compassion in Action

"But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd." (Matthew 9:36)

Compassion. That's the one thing people need more than anything else in this world. They need someone to reach out to them with the compassion of God.

Compassion is a deep yearning that responds to the needs of people. It's much deeper than sympathy. Sympathy can just sit around feeling sorry for people. Compassion has to do something for them.