Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:14-17

At the count of the last census, Los Angeles County has 44,000 homeless residents.  About 17,000 of them live in Skid Row, 8,000 of them stably.  For more information on how to volunteer for homeless services, talk to Ray or John at info@lifebaptist.org.

From O Hallesby, Prayer (classic in prayer from Norway, lived during the world wars):  “The work of the Spirit can be compared to mining.  The Spirit’s work is to blast to pieces the sinner’s hardness of heart and frivolous opposition to God.  The period of the awakening can be likened to the time when the blasts are fired.  The time between the blasts are the times when deep holes are being bored with great effort into teh hard rock.  To bore these holes is hard and difficult and a task which tries one’s patience.  To light the fuse … is easy.  One sees “results” from such work.”  The conclusion of this section is:  “It takes trained workers to do the boring.  Anybody can light a fuse.”

Thinking about this week in between retreats and the holiday season coming up, I realize that this is a time when we can get really busy, and we wonder what happened to whatever we got from the retreat.  Actually, instead of getting depressed about how quickly the retreat has faded, I want to take this “in between” time to bore more holes.  So, as we prepare, we pray, and then let the holidays be a “blast!”

Ok, have to put Josh to bed.  Will post on the other two books later.  (Can you believe I am posting this on my own?  The previous post was actually from an email which I asked Ray to post bc I didn’t know how to work it.)

Sarah