Lucille Yuen

“You can use my phone card. I know you won’t be on that long,” my friend said. Our hubbies were at a getaway so remote that cell phones wouldn’t work there. I was stunned. She’d let someone other than her family use her phone card? I wouldn’t abuse her kindness, but still…

I was seeing another example of my friend’s ability to be generous. Earlier this summer, I had watched her share her “peach skin” tomatoes that we’d found at a farmer’s market. These were small, orange colored, peach-fuzzed tomatoes—sweet and non-acidic. We’d just made our purchases when three girls from our church greeted us and after a brief exchange, my friend told them about these interesting tomatoes we’d bought and offered samples to them. Interesting…

I remember other acts of mercy by a couple of other women that humbled me. The summer we moved to our current home, while hubby was gone to close the other house out of state, I got sick with the flu. I was so sick, I couldn’t lift my head off the pillow. Fortunately, we had selected a doctor before I got so sick. He phoned in a prescription to the drugstore down the street, but I couldn’t get to the store.

I had just met the neighbors on either side of us, but when the lady to our right learned I was too sick to go get the medicine, she immediately jumped on her bicycle and peddled to the pharmacy. Her car was in for repairs, but that didn’t stop her. Then later that day, she came over with delicious hot soup and rice so that our little family had something to eat. It was more than I had ever expected, and was a lesson in mercy.

The next most impactful act of kindness, because of its unexpectedness, happened last Christmas. A group of ladies who traditionally get together for lunch during the holiday, met at a tea house and exchanged gifts. I had participated in the gift exchange before, and each time, I’d draw the name of the young woman who’d always bring a cheap present. I’d always selected a very nice gift of the price level the group had agreed upon. This time, I decided I wouldn’t participate in the gift exchange. Well, the lady who’d invited me surprised me with a bottle of nice smelling lotion. Sometimes, when your heart has been through a winter, a simple act of thoughtfulness like this can change your mind about things dramatically.

Everybody’s hearts need to be treated with respect and consideration—it’s called love, folks. So often, we meet people we don’t know. They may be good people or bad, but it doesn’t matter. We may not have presence of mind to treat them as the special folks they are. We may even have to be guarded because they’ve learned to return suffering for suffering. We also take our families for granted. They are the ones we should know how to love the best, yet we may be oblivious to the hurt we cause them. People who would be friends, we forget to cultivate with love, instead we may find something they do or say irritating, and we withdraw from potential life-long friendship. How foolish is that? And how obvious is it that we may need forgiveness?

Our Precept Bible class opened this fall with a study on forgiveness. Forgiveness is love in action. I know I have to practice it. An incident with hubby, or anyone for that matter, can lead to dispiritedness and instead of nursing anger, I am reminded to choose to forgive. “Forgive?” I say to myself, then in another split second, I know that is my ONLY option. “Give me a second,” I say to myself as I get a grip and deliberately move my feelings toward “forgiveness.” Yup, and in a little while, I laugh at myself and think, “Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? …well, yeah, it was hard. But it is nice to know in a little while, anger and the desire for vengeance can be replaced by love, obedience and peace. By His grace at work in me, I can choose God’s way—to “love one another, forgive, be kind, tenderhearted,” you know, see the other guy as loved by God and worthy. Wow. I’m making progress.

As we have delved more into the study, I have been reminded that at the heart of mercy is love. There’s the parable of the king who forgave his slave 10,000 talents in Matthew 18:23-35. There was no way that foolish servant could have paid the debt, and the consequence would have been the sale of his wife and children and himself, the break up of his family.

We looked at what was behind forgiveness of indebtedness—and that was compassion (v. 27). We are called into salvation by the God of agape love. We’ve known what it is to be truly loved, forgiven of an impossible debt of offense to the Creator and Savior of mankind, the Sovereign of the universe. We’ve known what it is to know His kindness—His work of grace in our hearts—the transformation from being sin-locked self-seekers to cleansed people capable of love, good works, and grace in our relationships. That’s big. He’s given us a changed worldview. God orientation vs. selfishness.

So when we’ve been given so much, including daily guidance for thought and circumstance, can we not give some of that back to our fellow man in emulation of our King’s mercy? And isn’t this system of values and belief worth preserving in the society in which we live and move?

Because of Jesus, I choose mercy, forgiveness and generosity to characterize my life. It helps my heart to let down and preserves my body and mind. Thank you, Lord. You did this.

You let people pass through my life to teach me by example, and You cause me to want to do likewise. You ARE worthy of praise and adoration.

You know the blown art studio glass ornaments we call Christmas ornaments? The wicca (witches) crowd is now claiming them for themselves. I suppose it’s because they are pretty to look at and catch the sunlight. They are Christmas kugels (balls), according to the German people. When these type of blown glass balls were introduced to the market, they were called Christmas ornaments. Witches are calling them wicca balls to divert attention to their demonic system, but I’ll make a point of it to call them Christmas ornaments everywhere and anytime; neither will I buy them from anyone who calls them “wicca balls.” You betcha. Witchcraft is an abomination before God.

And I won’t be the only one to claim them for Christmas, either. I will also wish people “Merry Christmas,” (with a smile) whether they think it’s vogue or not, to keep the commemoration of Christ’s coming.

We sense the change in the air, do we not? Is the younger generation ready to impact for Christ in this day of challenge? Or have the minds of those in their forties and younger been so compromised by the preaching of evolution, false gospels, the seduction of advertising and materialism, the deliberate infection of the eye and ear gates with immorality, and the constant pushing of evildoers to silence the truth of the Bible that those who must take up the standard and lead, lack the will? Well, I hope not, because there’s coming a day when all the secrets of the heart will be examined publicly in the light of righteousness. You see, we have the Bible.

Do I seem cranky? Am I “hateful” in my speech? Let me explain. There are things people are doing today that are an abomination to God. There is no real justification, only lame excuses for following the lead of sinful human inclination. My comments are founded in fear for my country’s soul and future, and for the people, individually. This nation had an awesome beginning, and we will end in infamy if we mold a society without a conscience toward Christ. He is the only Savior from sin and man’s only hope for regeneration. It saddens me to know that many are making choices that will eat them alive.

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Today was a good day. The weather was fair and comfortable, I was a model in a fashion show, and I was in the company of energetic, positive, friendly and welcoming people. My hair even turned out. I know. Every day is a good day with attitude adjustment. But sometimes the elements of a day make it easy to feel good about it, n’est pas ?

This morning, as I looked over the attenders and members of the Womens’ Connection West, formerly known as the Christian Women’s Club (and I won’t go into how I feel about the change of name!), and listened to the testimony of the key speaker, I thought, “Even though there is a definite move in the wrong direction making itself felt in this country, there is also the strong positive front for Christ that is pushing back against the darkness. That spiritual battle takes many forms, which when seen in its breadth, comforts, strengthens and encourages me.”

Really, I suppose it’s always been this way, no matter the period in history. But getting down to particulars, when I consider America’s history for the last 100 years, this nation, whose character was shaped by the teachings of the Bible, has been losing its soul. That’s a negative, not a positive, folks.

Last night, I led my first easy, no-homework Kay Arthur Precept Bible study class for this year. It was about forgiveness and will last 6 weeks. Three excited, verbal, thoughtful ladies came and the time was fulsome. You could tell that the newest student, who led in closing prayer, really felt her thanks for the class.

I also researched for 3 hours for a grant to help a minority person start up his business, and found nothing. Nothing. I guess I’ll look for government guaranteed loans and see what that yields. I’m going to look at my reference materials from when I was working at my last job and see what those tell me. According to the librarian who teaches grant seminars, the government used to set aside money for grants to help minorities start businesses, but she doesn’t think it is doing that anymore. Fair enough. However, I had hoped I’d end the day with the perfect cap.

Dr. Dennis James Kennedy, the founder and pastor of the Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida since 1960, died in his sleep at home on September 5, 2007. He was a great man.

The secular media chose not to acknowledge the passing of one of America’s best citizens and patriots, but he is for a fact, enjoying face-to-face fellowship with the King of Kings, Jesus Christ right now. And he will return with Christ’s entourage when Jesus comes to take all His own to Heaven and again when He returns to finish off the rebellion that has cursed the earth. The media will report the events that lead to the return of Christ, however, because it will be all bad news.

God had a simple plan that would effectively change man from his heart out. How that change is accomplished is inexplicably complex, but the plan itself is simple and easy for man to understand. Dr. Kennedy devised an approach known as “Evangelism Explosion” (EE) to explain the Gospel, and millions have come to faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior as a result.

I remember training in the Evangelism Explosion (EE) method in the 1970’s when Sanvus was the Outreach pastor at Willow Rancho Church in Sacramento, California. He and I reviewed EE again during the 1990’s at Emmanuel Baptist Church in Toledo, Ohio.

Dr. Kennedy preached God’s Word to millions through radio (Truths That Transform) and television (The Coral Ridge Hour). In the last year of his life, he used his television advantage to refute evolution and to teach the truth about America’s Christian heritage on the Coral Ridge Hour. He is such an intelligent expositor, I could have jumped and down for the gladness I felt!

Dr. Kennedy should be remembered among the great men and women in these latter days who are fighting—yes, fighting—to restore Christianity as the ideological foundation of America. Salvation of the lost and preservation of the testimony and influence of Jesus Christ on this nation’s culture has always been at the heart of the efforts of these patriots.

Pastor, Bible teacher, and best-selling author John MacArthur has said that America’s slide into pornographic mindedness and sexual deviancy, worldview shift, rejection of basic biblical morality, the banning of Jesus Christ from the public square and the anger against those who strive against evil practice is evidence that God has turned away from America. This is truly frightening if it is so, because that means that He will let America disintegrate from within and then judge the wickedness that paved the way to ruination.

If America doesn’t turn, the people of this nation, and its very existence are on a collision course with Almighty God. What tragic crisis will hit the soft belly of this nation? More to the point, if it gets worse, will I have to be here to experience it? I really don’t want to be when the bad stuff hits the fan.

I thank God for Dr. James Kennedy’s example of faithfulness to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was given great gifts and was, in fact, a gift to the Church. He will be missed.