Jesus loves me, this I know. This category is about Jesus, the Living Word, my prayers to Him, my worship of Him, His relentless pursuit of my heart and His invitation to me to come to Him in Sabbath, my Savior, my Rest.
On yesterday’s post, about the NYPD officer who bought boots for a shoeless, homeless man {click here, or scroll down}…I contemplated Jesus’ words in Matthew 25 and so when you look at the photo, you have to ask:
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ Jesus’ teachings in Matthew 25
Ok, I have been thinking about one of my all-time favorite 1980s movies recently and I feel like I am having some amazing thoughts about the love of God from the movie. You probably have seen it a few dozen times: “An Officer and a Gentlemen” starring Richard Gere and Debra Winger.
So, I may be writing about that soon. And I had the thought I wanted to say to my single girl (the baby, whose shall remain nameless at this juncture), make sure-make sure-make sure if you get an officer (some wonderfully awesome guy who is at the top of game and powerful in his field), that he is a gentleman, too. I want that for her. :)
Then this!
The story of a police officer in New York City who came across an older homeless man who was barefooted on a cold, cold night. The police officer went to a Skechers store and bought him a $100 pair of boots and some nice socks and went back out to the man and gave them to him.
And a tourist caught the image of it and everyone is incredulous, surprised, warmed, taken off guard. We RARELY see these types of stories.
It is so heart-warming, it could practically be a storyline off the popular Friday night TV show, “Blue Bloods.” But it is a real life story of a real life NYPD officer who was on counter-terrorism duty in Times Square and he just cared. He was a flesh and blood caring person who took time to treat another human being with dignity, like we all should be and do.
I am ashamed to say there have been times and seasons in my life where I’d have been wary. I might have said, “The guy was sitting there trying to get people to buy him shoes.”
But the people in the Bible who needed healing sat as close to the healing waters as they could. It is where they needed to be. Or those who were so crippled they had to beg for a living – they begged at the gate where people walked by who could help them. It makes sense, now, sure.
In times of distrust of people’s hearts and motives, though, I might have wondered aloud if this particular cop, who has only been with the department for 3 years, would still have been so soft-hearted with a few more years under his belt, more scarred over time having been used, abused and lied to and fed up with those who can’t seem to help themselves? Because, haven’t all of us middle-America, middle-incomed types pretty easily reasoned aside the example of Jesus to see needs and meet needs (spiritual AND physical) among the people we pass daily? I know I have.
But this police officer, a couple of weeks ago, saw a man and was moved with compassion. He went to the store and got nice boots and warm socks and then he went back to the man got on his knees and put socks and boots on those cold, homeless feet.
Where have you seen that imagery before, you wonder? Something about Jesus tying a towel around His waist and getting on His knees and washing the disciples’ feet?
NYPD Officer Lawrence DiPrimo – he is an Officer AND a Gentlemen. And he was the closest thing to Jesus that man met that night, I will guarantee you! Bravo, Officer DiPrimo!
JESUS SPEAKING (Matthew 25) // “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
SOAPbox:
I keep seeing graphics all over Pinterest and Facebook and in emails where my spiritual-family, that big, crazy Family-of-God bunch, is admonishing people to “KEEP CHRIST IN CHRISTMAS.
I say: BE Christ in Christmas. That’ll keep Him there better than all your militant internet graphics and email forwards will.
‘Cuz hey look! A secular news agency called the policeman’s act “showing the Christmas spirit.” If he can do it and they can say it, we can live it, too!
Tara may or may not have remembered to tell us (she did not) that Megan Isaacson recorded her song, “Broken,” last year (may be purchased on Amazon here) and now CNBC has asked Tara’s permission to use some of it on a story they are doing.
It is an amazing song. I totally remember when she came in and just sang it in my family room (September 2009), no instruments – it was heaven coming to earth in the purest prayer ~ a really honest and good prayer of surrender.
Stephanie has sung it live, Rocky has, Tara and Rocky have sung it, Tara and Dave, a bunch of different worship leaders have used it. But I didn’t know it had ever, finally gotten recorded (yeah, Megan Isaacson!). Still waiting on Tara and Dave to record it, too!
The night, darkest, they say, just before dawn, drapes over me in warmth like a heavy old quilt. The lightlessness almost paralyzing, pushing me into deeper slumber.
Then the disintegration of the blackness begins. And in one {breathtaking} moment, like cracking an egg over a bowl, a severing of its’ power for what is to be – there it is. Light. Night is over. Bright.
The darkness of night cannot remain, cannot overcome the morning sun. It just rose in an instant and took its’ regal place ~ one moment longed for, disconsolate, the next, a done deal.
Morning has, indeed broken.
Cat Stevens* really knew.
Arise, shine;
For your light has come!
And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.
For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,
And deep darkness the people;
But the Lord will arise over you,
And His glory will be seen upon you.
The Gentiles shall come to your light,
And kings to the brightness of your rising. Isaiah 60.1-3 NKJV
The night {your night} cannot last forever. Every night will be broken by a day. Every blackness will eventually meet its’ match in a sunrise that will be seen upon you. You will be bright in your rising and you will be where His glory is seen again.
Jessica Ridgeway’s justice is coming. An arrest was made today. Glory, hallelujah.
But the boy was 17 – barely past being a child himself. What on earth???
Rest in Peace, little Jessica. And I am praying for her family, too….
And just yesterday brothers, ages 15 and 17, were arrested in New Jersey for killing a 12 year old girl and stuffing her body into a recycle container.
We need to be crying out for the children, for all of them. Life, life! May they know and understand the sanctity of life, and choose life. And LORD, help us show them hope. Wake us up as parents and adults to be examples of taking responsibility for our actions and not living in a state of entitlement that makes everything about ‘me-me-me’. Lord, help us turn back the tide. Help us step up and do the repenting it takes (as YOUR people) to heal. our. land!
When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer made in this place. 2 Chronicles 7.13-15 NKJV
I found this from a blog post I wrote in 2008 {click here}.
I and my Third-Thursday-besties were reading and writing our thoughts from A Sacred Romance by Brent Curtis and John Eldredge.
“Once upon a time were Father, Son and Holy Spirit – the kind of home we’ve been looking for all our life” (page 74, The Sacred Romance).
Sometimes it happens, it may be fleeting, but occasionally you get to experience it: rich moments of holy laughter with family, a good meal shared in love while kind memories flow and encouraging words of appreciation are being expressed. And when it happens, you know you are on holy ground. You know you are experiencing something of the divine. You understand the table of fellowship in heaven.
I had one such evening last night. It was the first time we had gathered the whole family from all our travels to celebrate Mother’s Day and the birthdays of my two eldest daughters, Tara and Stephanie. And time and space and life being what it is, you always hope everyone can come in and shed the stress and distractions and enjoy the company, but we are no different than other families. It does not always happen that way. But last night I could sense the joy of the Trinity, the sense of “we are complete,” and “we are one.” I breathe it in with deep appreciation, even now.
Today’s thought: Loving these people comes naturally, from a fulll heart, because they are of me, in my likeness. I absolutely have love-filled thoughts of them everyday, all day long.
And because I am the matriarch of this family, because I actually birthed these incredible human beings, the joy-seed of my love with Dave, I can understand better the heart of God toward us. Because, omygoodness, my heart toward my children and their children is so full of love and goodness and purity and mercy. I haven’t done it all right or even very well (which God of course, has), but whether they have yet realized it or not: my kids can trust my heart towards them. I will always love them. I will always think the best of them. I will always be their biggest fan. They should never have to fear me or rejection from me. So why do I with my Romancer?
“Once upon a time we lived in a garden; we lived in the place for which we were made. There were no Arrows, only beauty. Our relationships weren’t tainted with fear, guardedness, manipulation, quid pro quo. Our work was rewarding, we received more than we gave…We were made for the garden, but now there is affliction also, and that is because we live East of Eden. The Arrows seem the truest part of life, but they are not.”
And in the spring when I put my hands into the soil and help the chubby fingers of grandsons push seed into the ground, it is almost like I can hear God calling me like He once called Adam, “Jeanie, Jeanie, where are you?” He knows where I am, but He asks so that I’ll take stock at where I have gone, to make sure I know where I am…
Today I am adding: I love that time after time, year after year, disaster after disappointment, He keeps watching for the real me, keeps prompting me to look for the me I was created to be, regardless of how much I try to hide from the very One who heals…amazing Love.
Isn’t the great paradox that “we long to be known and we fear it like nothing else“? We believe things about ourselves that aren’t true (Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will really hurt me) and we run from the Pursuer thinking He believes those things are true, too. Yet, His own Word calls us: “…the Holy…the Redeemed…the Sought-after…”
“This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us…” (1 John 4.10).
I am my Beloved’s and He is mine. Here I am, Lord…
Just like with the family God has given me. I watch over them with complete rapture and admiration, so unique and treasured they are to me, as does Father-God with me. Still figuring it all out, that depth of amazing Love towards me. Me. ???
“It doesn’t matter how great the pressure is; what really matters is where the pressure lies – whether it comes between you and God or presses you nearer His heart.”
– Hudson Taylor, Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secret
The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous,
And His ears are open to their cry.
The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears,
And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart,
And saves such as have a contrite spirit.
Many are the afflictions of the righteous,
But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
He guards all his bones;
Not one of them is broken.
The Lord redeems the soul of His servants,
And none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.
Late summer 1977, a girl about to enter her senior year of high school, sits in her room singing and praying this song over and over,
Lord, let me have a dream without being a dreamer
And Lord, let me have a vision without being consumed of it
And let me work with diligence always knowing that You’re the start and end of it
Oh Lord, let everything, everything I do remind me of my love for You.
Lord, teach me how to love for so many are in need of it
Oh Lord, teach me how to give for it’s in giving that we learn how to live
Let me work with diligence always knowing that You’re the start and end of it
And oh, Lord, let everything, everything I do remind me of my love for You.
Let everything-everything-everything that I do
Remind me of my love for you.
Here is what that girl didn’t know then
She will struggle her whole life to avoid workaholism in favor of whole-hearted devotion, which is pleasing to the Lord, just like Hezekiah.
She will battle, having been raised with a strong work ethic and disdain for laziness, a propensity for overwork and have to be reminded that rest is a built-in (work 6, rest 1) and an invitation from Jesus Himself, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.] Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls. For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good—not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.” Matthew 11.28-30
She will throw herself into things (good things and causes and righting injustices and getting the job done when no one else will and even “work for the Lord”) with zeal and passion and intense diligence (body-soul-and-spirit) and will need to be reminded that the Lord is the start and the end of the things He calls her to. It doesn’t depend on her. It is His.
She will have to re-learn, time and again, that the vision, though energizing and life-giving, is not meant to consume the whole of her.
And again and again she will repent before the Lord that she is doing many things for many-many reasons (even for Him, in her mind) and that it is time to get back to it being above her love for Him, in unforced rhythms of grace.
Another trip around the proverbial block. :/
Note: Danniebelle Hall was a FAV of mine, both whn she toured with Andrae Crouch and during her solo career. And yes, the words are poignant to me, from then and for now, an anthem for a do-er. Teach me to love, teach me to give…
Any Friday you cut into fresh lemons and squeeze the juice from them (the greater percentage of it hitting the target receptacle, but lots of tiny sprays go every-which-way, too), well, that is a day you have released sunshine right into your kitchen and brain and life.
Try it. Even if a recipe isn’t calling for it. Just unleash a lemon on your day.
Verse of the Day from BibleGateway.com
“The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the presence and fellowship (the communion and sharing together, and participation) in the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen (so be it).” 2 Corinthians 13:14 AMP
Officer DiPrimo, “I knew I had to help.”
