Women's Focus Ministries: Writing 4 Monday...7/6/20..."Touching the Lives of Others"

Good Morning,

The theme for the writing for Monday concerns the responsibility of all Christians to reach out and share their knowledge of God and then lead them to a ways to serve the Lord. There are people in every location through which we walk during the day or evenings. They are in great need of someone who will reach out to them and mentor them.Today's author is Sylvia Nibasi who lives in Cameroon, Africa. In this writing "Touching the Lives of Others" Synthia shares what needs to be done when we are counselling others. Here is a quote from Synthia's writing, "People are yearning to be loved and listened to, to be catered for. We are called upon to be like Jesus, ignoring all sorts of barrier's (racism, religious beliefs, tribal differences, etc.) that separate us from others."

I pray that you will enjoy this lesson and be able to utilize the skills shown here.

Corinne Mustafa

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Today's Devotional
"Touching the Lives of Others"

Written by Synthia Nibasi

(Please read John 5:5-42)

As Christians, our lives are not measured in years but are measured in the lives of people we touch around us.

In our writing today we read the story of a time Jesus touched a life. It was the life of the Samaritan woman. It was not easy for Jesus to touch the Samaritan woman's life. Jesus had to go through a lot in order for the Samaritan woman's life to take a u-turn that was was a blessing. He went an extra mile in spending time with the woman, breaking religious beliefs of Jews and Samaritans etc.

Jesus answered and said unto her

"if thou knows the gift of God, and who is that saith to thee,
give me to drink, thou wouldn't have asked of him,
and he would have given thee living water".

John 5:10

These were the impediments Jesus had as He reached out to the woman...

Jesus was a Jew--- the woman was a Samaritan.
He was a man-- she was a woman. Men and women did not socialize with each other.
He was the Son of God-- she was a nobody's daughter.

And yet, here was Jesus overcoming all their differences, barrier's and religious beliefs to touch a life, to give living water to a mere woman, someone he was not even supposed to hold hands with, and yet Jesus finds a way to touch and transform her life.

Dearly beloved in Christ, just like Jesus, we are challenged to practice the "life touching" part of the Gospel. We are called upon to break barrier's, obstacles, beliefs, and standards, to reach out to people especially those in difficult situations and touch their life's positively.

Around us we have…

Sick
Needy
Homeless
Less privileged
Lonely etc.

We should pray for them, but we should also be willing to lend a helping hand to them. Let's be the reason: someone smiles. Our helping hand could be the reason someone doesn’t goes to bed hungry. An even more important achievement is when you help someone who comes to know God and to worship Him and experience the life giving water from Jesus through our reaching out.

To touch someone life we should:
Ignore all restrictions concerning the said person.
Treat others like a "people with value"
Let others know you care about them.
Don't condemn anyone but with love draw them closer to Jesus
Create time to meet them were they are, in the markets, job sites etc. And share the word of God with them

Conclusion:
There are many people in the world today who are like the Samaritan woman…people who are yearning to be loved and listened to, to be catered for. We are called upon to be like Jesus, ignoring all sorts of barrier's (racism, religious beliefs, tribal differences, etc.) that separate us from others.

Will you join me in reaching out to them with genuine love and concern?

And we are also invited to be like the woman at the well,

responding to the loving touch of Jesus by telling others
about the one who has touched our lives.
Amen

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Casting Crowns

Singing

"THRIVE"