Truly Helping Others Must Point Them to Jesus.

Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

John 15:8 By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

Maybe there was a time when our good deeds were enough to let others know we were followers of Jesus. We certainly wanted to believe that because then that released us from the difficult part of actually sharing our faith verbally with others, something that scares the daylights out of most. But we must face the reality that we can no longer assume that the people around us believe in the one true God. In the electronic social media age we are now in everyone in bombarded by mixed messages. Now when someone lends a helping hand they are called a "nice" person or if someone donates a lot to a cause they personally are held in high esteem. Even if we serve passionately with Jesus in our hearts if we do not let the recipients know that it is the love of Jesus reaching out to them at these moments then our efforts could be in vain, maybe even misleading!

The reason why I say misleading is that those who serve Satan use the excuse that people do not need God to do good things, most people are truly good inside, that is the nature of things. The other false perspective is that those that are rich can afford to share some of their "extras" or "leftovers" with those less fortunate, come to be expected you might say. They are totally missing out on the real message! That we all are sinners in need of Jesus. No matter who we are, rich or poor, where we are from, what we may have done or left undone, we all stand guilty before God. But we can have great joy; we know true peace and experience true love because we are filled with the Spirit of the Lord. It is out of this fullness of life from within every believer comes the burning desire to put their time, talents and treasurers into service for His glory. Everyone that is called has uniquely special gifts that serve to make the body of Christ, His church, a powerful & glorious force.

But if we do not openly declare this then there is little chance in our world today for the real truth to be known. We know Satan is making it harder and harder for us. This has caused most of us to just turn our faith inwardly, but that is just playing in Satan's hands. What Satan is powerless against is God's Spirit working through loving acts of kindness shown to the everyday people of our communities. In our cold society, made even worse recently by "social distancing" simple surprising acts of kindness most certainly grabs the attention of passersby. Who does this sort of thing these days? Well, Jesus does! We perform the helpful service or give the simple but practical gift and the Connect Card lets the recipients know that it is from Jesus. An expression of His love and a taste of what His grace is like as neither can be earned or bought at any price. On the back of that card invite them to your church/school/youth activity and so on. Places where they can experience more of this love that Jesus has for them. We call it PACK (Planned Acts of Christian Kindness). We have been doing monthly events out in busy places of our community for over 25 years. God shows up in some very powerful ways through everyday people, testimonies and unimaginable timing! The PACK program is totally free and currently at work in 113 countries. No catch, no donations and no spam. Just go to: www.acts18.org for the free download. God bless!