MEM

NEIGHBOR, n. Webster (1828)

One of the human race; any one that needs our help, or to whom we have an opportunity of doing good.

The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37)

Luke 10:36 "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" 37 And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." And Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

Rom 13:9 For the commandments, "You shall not commit adultery," "You shall not murder," "You shall not steal," "You shall not bear false witness," "You shall not covet," and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."

Rom 15:2 Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification.

Isa 41:6 Everyone helped his neighbor, And said to his brother, "Be of good courage!"

From Anne Schmidt

May 21^st, 2020

It is with an urgency in our spirit and groaning in our heart that we continue to be a voice in the wilderness crying out for our country, namely the church, to wake up, wash up, and stand up. The times we are living in are indeed the ones this ministry has been warning of since the 1980’s. The measure of mercy that God has given us to be living in 2020 shows the magnitude of His grace, yet there comes a time when the stench of wickedness, perversion, and idolatry can no longer be tolerated from a Holy God. (MEM Ref: 2Chron 36:15-16)

While in the Word today, I was brought to Micah chapter 6, and found the correlation between the people of Samaria in Micah’s day and us in America today uncanny. While Micah’s word to the people was also one of judgement, the requirement given to the people from the Lord still stands for us today. What is required of us?

Mic 6:8 KJV He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Paul said it well when he wrote a letter to a group of Christians he had founded in Corinth, Greece:

1Cor 16:13 NIV Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong.

Paul’s words are for us today: stand in the fight! Be watchful! Never give up! With the forces of evil at work through people who are posed and specialists, helpers, and authoritarians, you who are wise and full of discernment must watch, stand, fight, and be strong!

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Why the Hand of Help Ministries? They are a group that expends their resources and time to minister to those in the founder’s native country of Romania. There they have an orphanage and have an outreach to those with extreme needs; because they are mainly poor. Even reaching out to the war-torn eastern Ukraine.

The Hand of Help Ministries founder (Dumitru Duduman) and his family were expelled from Romania to America during the Communist era in Romania. With his grandson (Michel Bodea Jr., as translator) he preached the coming judgement of God on this nation, unless we (the church) repented of our ways and turned wholly to our Creator.

Check out the Hand of Help Ministries @ https://www.handofhelp.com/

Matt 19:21 Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed;

Luke 7:22 Jesus answered and said to them, "Go and tell John the things you have seen and heard: that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, the poor have the gospel preached to them.

Gal 2:9 and recognizing the grace that had been given to me, James and Cephas and John, who were reputed to be pillars, gave to me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we might go to the Gentiles, and they to the circumcised. 10 They only asked us to remember the poor -- the very thing I also was eager to do.

The following is the latest Hand of Help Ministries editorial from Michael Boldea, Jr.

Ps 112:1 NKJV Praise the LORD! Blessed is the man who fears the LORD, Who delights greatly in His commandments.

Ps 112:6 Surely he will never be shaken; The righteous will be in everlasting remembrance. 7 He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the LORD.

If the last forty-five years have taught me anything, it is that life can change in an instant. It hasn’t only happened once or a handful of times, but looking back, I can pinpoint countless moments when life made a heel turn, and every plan I had for the foreseeable future got decimated. I’ve learned to expect the unexpected, so much so, that whenever something new comes along, that throws a wrench into the works, I take a deep breath, remind myself that God is on the throne and in control, and press on. We can either be paralyzed by the new paradigm, give into fear and panic, or analyze, improvise, adapt, and overcome.

It’s not as though we as children of God were ignorant of the fact that change was coming upon the earth. It’s not as though we went about our lives, believing it would be smooth sailing until Jesus appeared in the clouds. We knew dark days would visit the earth, and although some are already trumpeting the notion that this is the end, I dare say what we are seeing is merely the beginning of the beginning of the end.

If this has caused your heart to be troubled, if this has allowed fear to worm its way in to steal your peace, what is yet to come upon the earth will likely shake you to your very core. God warns His children of what the future holds, yes, even the ugly, chaotic, tumultuous bits, for the explicit purpose of not being afraid. When you see something coming or live with the expectation of it, you brace yourself and prepare the best way you know how so that when what you we are expecting finally materializes, it lessens the impact.

It’s one thing to know a punch to the face is coming; it’s another to get sucker-punched out of thin air. When you know it’s coming, you grit your teeth, you close your eyes, you hold your breath, and absorb the blow differently. I’m not saying both don’t hurt. The pain will be there whether you see it coming or not, but you recover much faster when you know it’s coming. When you see it coming, there is no what just happened fog.

This will pass, as such things always do, worse will come, and this too will pass only to be replaced by something different. It is the way of life, an undeniable reality of the times we are living in. What we cannot do is fail to learn and grow our trust in God through such experiences.

Throughout this entire ordeal, there are two lessons with which I’ve been reacquainted. Simultaneously simple and profound, they are lessons I hadn’t forgotten, but that had been dulled over time. The first lesson was that what we miss the most is what we took for granted the most, therefore we should nevermore take anything for granted.

From something as simple as going out for breakfast once a week with the girls to being able to attend church service and sit in a comfy pew, these were so prevalent in our life that they were taken for granted. We assumed they would always be available to us, permanent and immutable. Yet, within days we’re watching church services over the internet, and the only places you can go to that are still open are the gas station and the grocery store.

The second lesson I was reacquainted with was that if you walk with God during the good times, He will be there in the bad. You won’t have to go searching for Him when everything is falling apart; He will be there holding your hand, because you are on the journey together, and He will be with you every step of the way until you reach your destination.

Recent events have proven that everything of this earth is not permanent. Everything of this earth can be shaken. Save for God, whatever men have placed their faith in has failed them, and very soon, there will be a glut of souls looking for hope. There may never be a better opportunity to point the way to Christ and the cross. There may never be a better opportunity to shine bright the light of love and hope and peace and joy so that those in the darkness might be drawn to it.

Now that I think about it, there’s a third lesson I relearned these past few weeks, and that is life is short, time is fleeting, and no matter how much one might want to, you will never get back your yesterdays.

You are in our prayers and on our hearts, and as we navigate these uncharted waters, it is comforting to know that you are praying for us as well. We serve a God who knows the end from the beginning, and we trust in His mighty arm to guide us through. May you have peace and joy abundant, be still, and know that He is God.

Ps 42:5 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him For the help of His countenance.

Ps 42:11 Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.

Matt 19:21 Jesus said to him, "… and give to the poor …and come, follow Me."

Proverbs 14:20 The poor man is hated even by his own neighbor, But the rich has many friends. 21 He who despises his neighbor sins; But he who has mercy on the poor, happy is he.

Proverbs 14:31 He who oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker, but he who honors Him has mercy on the needy.

"If all were perfect, what should we have to suffer from others for God's sake? But God has so ordained, that we may learn to bear with one another's burdens, for there is no man without fault, no man without burden, no man sufficient to himself nor wise enough. Hence, we must support one another, console one another, mutually help, counsel, and advise, for the measure of every man's virtue is best revealed in time of adversity -- adversity that does not weaken a man but rather shows what he is."
― Thomas ΰ Kempis, The Imitation of Christ

Not all items verified by MEM

November 02, 2005

Subject: Weather Bulletin

For those of you who are not aware, North Dakota and southwestern Montana got hit with their first blizzard of the season a couple of weeks ago (2005).

This text is from county emergency manager out in the western part of North Dakota after the storm. 

Amusing to say the least... These tough old birds are indicative of how the West was won.

WEATHER BULLETIN

Up here in the Northern Plains we just recovered from an Historic event - may I even say a "Weather Event" of "Biblical Proportions" - with an historic blizzard of up to 24" inches of snow and winds up to 50 miles per hour that broke trees in half, stranded hundreds of motorists in lethal snow banks, closed all roads, isolated scores of communities and cut power to tens of thousands.

        George Bush did not come....
        FEMA staged nothing....
        No one howled for the government...
        No one even uttered an expletive on TV...
        Nobody demanded $2,000 debit cards.....
        No one asked for a FEMA Trailer House....
        No news anchors moved in.
 
We just melted snow for water, sent out caravans to pluck people out of snow engulfed cars, fired up wood stoves, broke out coal oil heaters and Coleman lanterns and put on an extra layer of clothes.

Even though a Category "5" blizzard of this scale has never fallen this early, we know it can happen and how to deal with it ourselves.

Everybody is fine.

How are you?

Modern communications allow you to receive news from afar. Do you find this to be a distraction? For you have constant access to reports of great disasters, calamities, wars and rumors of war. The senses God has created us with allow us to see things near at hand. These are the things that influence you, and that you can also influence in turn. If you are called to go or to give in response to a great distant need, then be obedient to that calling. Otherwise, focus your attention nearby, where you are able to help. In time of trouble, better is a neighbor near at hand, than a brother far away. Yet you can be a brother to your neighbors.

(Adopted from a blog post by Dale Cresap)

Blessed be YHVH (Genesis 14:20 And blessed be God Most High…)