Praise the Lord for this new day. Praise the Lord for the Good News that Jesus our Lord came to seek and save the least, the lost and the last. He came to rescue both rich and poor. In Mark 2:17 we read On hearing this, Jesus said to them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (NIV). Jesus befriended the despicable. In his book, The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Tony Campolo talks about an experience he had late one night in Hawaii. He was in one of those sleazy places that deserves the name “greasy spoon.” The fat guy behind the counter, came over and asked him, “What d’ya want?”
Tony Campolo ordered some coffee and a donut, and while he was sitting there at 3:30 in the morning, to his discomfort, in marched 8 or 9 rowdy prostitutes. Their talk was loud and crude, and he felt completely out of place. He was just about to make his exit when he overheard the woman beside him say, “Tomorrow’s my birthday. I’m going to be 39.”
When Tony heard that, he made a decision. Instead of leaving, he sat and waited until the women had left. Then he called over the fat guy behind the counter, and asked him, “Do they come in here every night?”
“Yeah!” he answered.
“The one right next to me, does she come here every night?”
“Yeah!” he said. “That’s Agnes. Yeah, she comes in here every night. Why d’ya wanta know?”
And then Tony Campolo told him, “I heard her say that tomorrow is her birthday,” and he suggested that they throw a birthday party for her. He promised to return at 2:30 the next morning and decorate the place. The man and his wife, the cook, liked the idea and decided to bake a birthday cake.
So at 2:30 the next morning, Tony Campolo was back at the diner. He had picked up some crepe-paper and had made a sign out of big pieces of cardboard that read, “Happy Birthday, Agnes!” Word must have gotten out on the street, because by 3:15 every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place.
At 3:30 on the dot, the door of the diner swung open, and in came Agnes and her friend, and they all screamed, “Happy birthday!” Agnes was stunned. Her mouth fell open. Her legs began to buckle, and her friend grabbed her arm to steady her. As she was led to sit on one of the stools along the counter, they all sang “Happy Birthday” to her. Then they brought out the birthday cake, and that’s when Agnes just lost it and openly cried.
Unable to compose herself, she excused herself and went home with the cake. When the door closed, there was a stunned silence in the place, and Tony Campolo, not knowing what else to do, broke the silence by saying, “What do you say we pray?”
So he prayed for Agnes, and when he was finished, Harry, the fat man behind the counter, leaned over and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, “Hey! You never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to?”
Tony replied, “I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning.”
Harry waited a moment and then almost sneered as he answered, “No you don’t. There’s no church like that. If there was, I’d join it. I’d join a church like that!” Well, that’s the kind of church Jesus came to create – a church that throws birthday parties for whores at 3:30 in the morning? (Tony Campolo, The Kingdom of God Is a Party, Word, 1990)
Jesus calls us to touch the untouchable, forgive the unforgivable, and befriend the despicable.
As the song-writer (Charles F. Brown) put it…
Reach out and touch a soul that is hungry;
Reach out and touch a spirit in despair;
Reach out and touch a life torn and dirty,
A man who is lonely – if you care!
Reach out and touch that neighbor who hates you;
Reach out and touch that stranger who meets you;
Reach out and touch the brother who needs you;
Reach out and let the smile of God touch through you.
Jesus help us,
In Him,
Brown
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhoZYci-_ro
Doctor, take a look at me . .
This woman rushes to see her doctor, looking very much worried and all strung out. She rattles off, "Doctor, take a look at me. When I woke up this morning, I looked at myself in the mirror and saw my hair all wiry and frazzled up, my skin was all wrinkled and pasty, my eyes were bloodshot and bugging out, and I had this corpse-like look on my face! What's wrong with me, Doctor?"
The doctor looks her over for a couple of moments, then calmly says, "Well, I can tell you one thing...there ain't nothing wrong with your eyesight."
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