In today's episode, I'm going to be going over how disasters bring people together.
Last week I went into God's protection and I shared my personal experience with the tornadoes that hit my hometown in Kentucky on December the 11th. So if you haven't checked out that episode yet, go check it out. But for this episode, I'm going to be going into how the disaster of those tornadoes that hit on December 11th brought our community together and how so many people came together to be the hands and feet of Jesus.
First I want to say a quick prayer... Lord, I pray that you lift up every single person listening to this right now. Please open up our eyes, our ears, our minds, and our hearts to you. Lord, I thank you for your protection and for every single thing that you've done. I pray that you just continue to be with everyone that's been affected by the tornadoes that hit my hometown in Kentucky and I pray that you continue to be with everyone that's dealing with their own storms in their lives and their own hardships and struggles. I pray that for each person that is listening to this, that they receive whatever it is that they're supposed to receive from this episode and they implement it in their daily lives. I love you with every ounce of my being. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Alright now, let's go into some scripture:
"We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;
persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed."
-2 Corinthians 4:8-9
"Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."
-Matthew 11:28
"He has delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will continue to deliver us," -2 Corinthians 1:10
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." -John 15:12-13
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." -John 17:20-23
So from all these verses here, we see that the Lord will deliver us, and disasters are inevitable to happen. There are disasters that happen all the time, but the Lord will deliver us, our hope has to be in him, and Jesus commands us to love each other as he has loved us. Jesus prayed to God the Father that we as believers will all be one in complete unity, and that's what I've seen in this past month and a half or so since the tornadoes hit my hometown in Kentucky. It's been so amazing to see how this community has came together and helped each other. Especially at the beginning, it was insane all of the donations and different things. There were schools that were shelters for people that have lost their homes and different things like that, and there were a lot of donations to those schools of clothes and different things that people needed. And it very quickly, I mean within like a day, there was no need for donations anymore because so many people had given donations. It was insane.
My church has a team called the "Reach team," and I'm a part of the Reach team, and they send out texts with certain needs. The Reach team just helps out the community with needs. You know, whatever the community needs, we help them out. But it was insane with the texts that I received after the disaster happened with the tornadoes and people were needing different things, within minutes those needs were being fulfilled. Like I've never seen it go by that quickly. Usually, we'll get a text of the church needing volunteers to serve food or do different things and it may take a while for those slots to fill up, and during those first few weeks and it's still happening like people are still needing things and it's still going very quickly, but especially during the first few weeks, it was like within minutes. They would need 20 volunteers and then 10 minutes later they didn't need any more volunteers. It was just crazy.
There were people jumping out of their trucks and their cars with chainsaws and different things, just looking at houses that needed help and just going and helping without being asked or anything. It was so crazy. My preacher was talking about how there were donations being made at a place and this guy was donating different things, clothes and different things like that, and he actually took off the jacket off of his back and said "Here donate this too, I'm sure someone needs it more than I do," and that was just amazing to hear. Someone literally just took the jacket off their back and said "Here." I mean if that doesn't show the love of Jesus then I don't know what does.
There is still a lot of destruction. Whenever I drive through certain places in my hometown, there have been a lot of things that have been done, but there are also a lot of things that still have to be done. I mean no telling how long it's going to take for all of this, there was just so much destruction and there's still a lot of destruction.
Oh hey, friend, sorry to interrupt this blog post, but I just wanted to remind you guys that "Christ Transforms Me," my 90-day journal is available for purchase on Amazon. And until further notice, all of the money that I receive from the purchases of that journal will be donated for the disaster relief of the people that were affected by the tornadoes that hit my hometown in Kentucky. To learn more about the journal or to purchase one, go to www.faithfuelsmyfire.com/journal
It has made my heart so happy just to see how this community has come together for each other and how the church has come together. I'm not specifically saying my church, I'm saying Jesus' people, the church, we are the church, we as Christians are the church, and we have come together to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to serve and love others. I've seen people that are complete strangers help each other and just show love to each other and do whatever it is that they could possibly do to help the other person, and that's what it's all about. We have to love and serve each other, just how Jesus loves and serves us.
It's great how the disaster has brought this community together, but also I feel like we shouldn't have to have a disaster for the community to come together like that. We shouldn't have to have something horrible happen in order for us to show love, kindness, and compassion to others and this is something that is so important.
We should always love and serve others and help them in any way that we possibly can. Even if we're going through it ourselves, or no matter what the situation is, it's so important for us to show that love to others and let our light shine through to others.
Having the community come together can start with us. If you see that in your community a lot of people are just not very kind to each other or they just don't really do anything to help each other out, or maybe you live in a big city and it's just full of chaos and people just aren't very friendly to each other, just by you being that light, you being friendly, you loving and serving others, you helping someone in need, or just doing whatever you can for the person on the sidewalk or the person walking down the street needing help with their groceries or whatever the case may be, just by you doing that can cause a trickle effect and can cause other people to see that light and love that you've shown and want to spread it to other people. And even if they don't want to spread it to other people, you're still helping make someone's day and you're still showing the love and being the hands and feet of Jesus.
So I just wanted to share how disaster brings the community together and also just shed some light that this is how God intends for us to always be. He intends for us to have a cheerful giving heart, love and serve others, be kind to others, and reveal the fruit of the spirit to others. Sometimes we need a wake up call or disaster to happen to bring us back together, but we can always start having a loving heart and serving others no matter what.
So I challenge you today to do something kind for someone. It could be something small, whatever you want to do, just love someone and serve someone today and portray the fruit of the spirit to someone today. Actually, I challenge you to not only do it today but for the next week and just see how you feel because of it. Because whenever you let your light shine and you do things to help others that also will lift your mood and help make an impact in their life. So I challenge you to do that for the next week. Just do something every single day to show kindness to others, to love and serve them, and to help them in some way. Just one thing every day for a week and see how you feel and see how you can make an impact in just doing one thing a day for a week.
So I hope this episode helped you guys, I hope that you accept my challenge and that you really do those things each day for 7 days, because I know it'll make you feel a lot better and it'll help make an impact on those people's lives. Next week, I'm going to be talking about God's timing, so make sure you stay tuned for that.
I love you guys so much.
Never forget to choose faith over fear.
-Lorena Camille (Faith Fuels My Fire)
p.s. If you'd rather listen to Faith-based, spiritual growth, mindset, and mental health tips, then check out my podcast. There I will share my personal experiences, stories I've never told before, and bring you along with this hot mess life of mine. New episodes every week.
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Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights
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