How to Receive the Good News

A Shepherd’s Story

Love INC of the Kenai Peninsula December 2009 newsletter

Almost everyone knows the story: “And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night.” (Luke 2:8 NIV) We realize that they were the first to receive the Good News – a supernatural, glory-filled announcement of the birth of Messiah! We wish we could have been a shepherd that night, taken by surprise by the appearance of angels and hear the multitude announce Christ’s birth.

But we don’t often think about the kind of life shepherd lived at the time of the Savior’s birth. They were not the envy of society! They often slept with their animals to keep them safe from harm. That’s admirable, yes, but implications include cold nights, fleas and other vermin. Shepherds were poor, and didn’t know how to do much else.

Most of us don’t think about the poor any more than we do about the shepherds. We may have a fleeting concern when we see someone walking along the road on a cold day; or someone shivering, without a coat in a store parking lot. Although we live in a warm climate, but for the poor – a slight drop in the temperature is a lot. We let the concern dissipate quickly when we say a fleeting prayer and continue our business at hand.

That’s not what Jesus did. Jesus’ concern for the poor far outweighed his concerns for people who, like most of us, live in abundance. If he had chosen to be born in this day and age, he would not give us as much attention as the poor around us.

“Wait a minute,” you might be thinking, “of course he would have reached out to us, he loves everyone equally and unconditionally, how did you come up with that idea?” Would you be surprised to learn that it comes from scripture? Consider the following:

"The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…..” (Luke 4:19, quoting Isaiah 61:1)

"The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Matthew 11:5b, Luke7:22b)

So while it’s true that God loves us all, he wants to especially bless those who have a heart for the poor, and who walk in obedience:

“All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do.” (Galatians 2:10)

“If you love me, you will obey what I command…Whoever hears my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him…If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him” (John 15:15, 21, 23)

The Christmas account relates that “…when they [the shepherds] had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them.” (Luke 2:18) We can all be shepherds. We can all receive the Good News and tell others. We can reach out to the poor in many ways. Love INC offers many avenues to do just that. Call to find out how – who knows, you may be God’s answer to our prayers!

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Proverbs 19:17

If you help the poor, you are lending to the Lord— and he will repay you! (New Living Translation)

Why Do We Call Them Love Stories?

Periodically, we publish stories of Love INC clients and call them Love Stories. Someone asked why we called them that, when that name could so easily be misunderstood. You could see that the person was thinking in terms of Love Story magazines, etc.

The answer is easy. It is because Love Stories is exactly what they are --- but stories of the only kind of true and lasting Love there is --- the Love of Jesus, shown from Him to us and then through us to others.

They not only illustrate what Love In the Name of Christ does and how the ministry helps churches to help people in need, but they also illustrate changes that this Love makes in the recipients’ lives.

The following is a Love Story waiting to happen:

A school counselor called the Love INC office saying a family needed “some” help. Love INC staff asked him to encourage the couple to call so that the application process could start. This is about a young couple who purchased a travel trailer and are trying to turn it into a home for themselves, their 3 children and the one on the way. Recently the mom developed some complications in her pregnancy and the dad’s hours were cut to 15 hours a week. The need is greater than the school counselor imagined. The one project (of several in progress) they most immediately want to finish is the shower. They have been unable to purchase the shower board and fixtures. An estimated cost of needed materials is $ 50-75.

Are you willing to be mobilized to transform lives?

Shower board & Fixtures needed for shower














fuse box












Where the sink will go

Modeling a Servant’s Heart for Your Children

Excerpt from

Love INC of Mecklenberg County Winter 2009 newsletter

There is a poem entitled “Children Learn What They Live” by Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D. The poem reminds is whatever a child lives with (sees, hears and experiences) is what they learn. In other words, it’s one thing to tell a child we are serving the Lord, it’s quite another for them to see us serving and joining us in that service! Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and don’t forbid them for the Kingdom of Heaven is made up of ones like these!” (Luke 18:16 NLT) How are they to learn about their importance in the kingdom of God if they don’t see for themselves your importance in the Kingdom?

Whenever you give “a cup of cold water” in the Name of Christ they should be involved in some small way and see you ministering. By your example, you are teaching them that everyone has worth to God and can serve Him. You are modeling Christ’s directive to care for the widows, the poor, the elderly, the disabled and the little children. You are following His command to love God and to love your neighbor as yourself. You are “diligently teaching your children when you talk to them, when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down and when you rise up.” (Deut. 6:7 NKJV) You are letting them learn to do and not only as you say. You are helping them to find their place in God’s work. You are modeling a servant’s heart in the Name of Christ!

Mo Leverett, founder of Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans, LA, writes on this subject: “A lot of people use their children as an excuse for not entering into the work of mercy and justice, thinking that your primary objective is to protect your children. But your primary objective as a parent is not to protect your children. Your primary objective is to raise your children in the nurture and admonition of Christ. And what is the best context for that? It is where you are obeying Christ. Our children learn from our example and when we wall ourselves away from the problems of poverty, they learn. They think that Christianity is about sheltering yourself from these problems.”

Be merciful, just as your

Father is merciful.

Luke 6:36 (NIV)