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John 15:13 ” Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.”

DAILY READING • • Luke 3:1-20; Ezekiel 40-41; Isaiah 62

The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) has been one of central Africa’s cruelest armed groups over the past 30 years. It has brutalized communities since its inception in 1987. The LRA has abducted over 67,000 youth, including 30,000 children, for use as child soldiers, slaves, and porters.
As the atrocities of the LRA raged and the lives of many children stood at risk, one American preacher felt compelled to do something.
Sam Childers was a former gang biker and drug dealer from Pennsylvania. But after serving a prison sentence for his crimes, his life took a new turn when he got born again. In a miraculous way, God arrested Sam and totally changed his focus.
After attending Bible college and becoming a Pastor, Sam became passionate about going to missions in Africa.
In 1998, Sam Childers made his first trip to Sudan and was exposed to the atrocities of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA].
When Sam found that large numbers of Sudanese children were being kidnapped and forced to become child soldiers by the L.R.A, he felt compelled to rescue these children. In collaboration with the government, he began leading armed raids against the LRA and successfully saved many lives.
Today Sam Childers dedicates his life and resources to the rescuing of children in the war zone countries and runs an organisation called ‘Angels of East Africa (AOEA).
His ministry houses these rescued children and takes care of their education.
Sam has been internationally celebrated for his heroic efforts that has saved the lives of thousands of children.
Sam Childers details his story in his book titled ‘Another Man’s War’, which has been turned into a movie ‘The Machine Gun Preacher’.

Though many people see Sam as a hero for risking his life to save kidnapped children, he only sees himself as obeying the call of God to serve.
The truth is that the world is full of hurting people, and sometimes it becomes necessary to go beyond the walls of the Church and do something practical to help.
We are called to practically impact the lives of men.
Jesus said in Matthew 25:42 “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.”

This verses shows that Jesus expects us to practically show love.
Practical love gives food to the hungry, clothes the naked, goes into hospitals to pray for the sick, visits prisoners and goes the extra mile to help the lost and dying.
Practical love is what Jesus Christ revealed to the world from the cross, when He shed His Blood to rescue us from death and destruction.
And just as we have been redeemed by His love, Jesus is calling us to go into the world’ and spread His love to others.
We are the hands and feet of Jesus and wherever we go we need to let the world see Christ’s love through us. .
Today, everywhere you look in the society people are plagued with pain and problems. Our purpose is to reach out with hope and healing to a hurting world.
It is not just enough for us to warm the pews in Church, our lives must burn with passion towards impacting humanity with the love of Christ.
On this last day of August, let us receive the grace to henceforth be more practical in sharing the love of Christ.
Certainly, as we passionately seek to make a difference in the world through service in God’s kingdom, our lives will supernaturally overflow with divine rewards and abundant blessings..

PRAYER: Lord, please grant me the grace and passion to practically show Your love to the world around me. As I seek Your kingdom first, certainly everything other thing shall be added unto me in Jesus Name.
QUOTE;
God protects and shields us when we are being led by Him. – WORDBITE 222.