Life transformers: Very caring people

LIFE transformers What motivates some people to be caring?

By Vincent Kituku

“I just want a poor child to have a chance for a better tomorrow,” said my friend, Mary. Because we had not seen each other for about five years, and we had a lot to catch up on, the impact of that sentence didn’t register immediately.

Mary was forced to retire due to a work-related injury involving her foot. She also suffers from unspecified stomach illnesses that affect her appetite and what to eat. Her ailing mother reached a point where she had to be taken to a nursing home. One of her brothers, the closest one to her, has been suffering from a myriad of health issues, including Parkinson’s disease.

Mary’s ordinary day includes visits to doctors, spending time with her mother, which is often a challenging experience, and visits with her sick brother. She also has her own children, and a close-knit relationship with each. She checks on how they are doing regularly.

All that might not be unusual. What is unusual, and sets people like Mary apart, is that she has been saving whatever spare change she gets just to be able to pay high school tuition through Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope for a child in Kenya who has lost her parents to AIDS. This year, Mary informed her family and friends that she would be donating the money that she intended to invest on their Christmas presents in order to educate a child.

Over the years, Mary has sent me notes or emails expressing her willingness to contribute something even though her financial circumstances were not favorable. But that didn’t stop her from championing the needs of orphaned children and those from poverty-stricken homes through social media. She posts positive comments that encourage people to learn more about Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope. Mary has inspired her children to be just as kind, and to give what they can.

I cried after our brief visit. Here is a woman whose leg will be amputated soon, her mother is on her sunset season of life, and the prospects of her brother’s illnesses are not promising.

Yet she has a great desire to save a needy girl from being forced into early marriage, prostitution or child labor. She had saved $725, which will cover one year’s school fees, room and board. Mary’s kindness and personal challenges have occupied my thoughts for days. What is it that motivates people to be kind and generous? Must they have the means, the financial capability, before they can offer help? People who transform the living conditions of others have the quality of empathy within their being. They make other people’s pain their own. They don’t have to have the financial means in order to help. They can pray, Vincent Kituku share the stories of others with their family and friends or give whatever they can afford to – be it used clothes, a can of food, time to visit the sick or those who are grieving or in prison. The key factor that triggers kindness and generosity is awareness of a cause and belief that what one person can do matters. There is also an intrinsic factor: the desire and commitment to make a difference. People who transform lives normally start by caring for those who are closest to them. I have yet to see someone who is unkind to his/her own mother but relishes the chance to protect and save young girls to whom he/she is not related. Mary has cared for other needy children and adults in this country but when she talks about her family, even with the up and down dynamics that are experienced in all families, you can tell that is where she hatched her caring spirit. n © By Dr. Vincent Muli Wa Kituku, motivational speaker and author of “Overcoming Buffaloes at Work & in Life,” is the founder and executive director of Caring Hearts and Hands of Hope, a non-profit organization that raises tuition and fees for poor orphans and other children from povertystricken families in Kenya. Contact him at vincent@kituku. com or 208-376-8724.

DESTINED for Victory Why Paul asked, ‘But what does it matter?’

By Pastor Paul Sheppard

In Philippians 1, Paul explains how some people are preaching Christ with wrong motives, out of envy and rivalry, with selfish ambition, causing grief for Paul who is in chains. You have known folks like these, who try to take advantage of you when you’re at your lowest, to better themselves while causing you a lot of pain.

Paul might have lashed out against those who are causing him trouble. Instead, he says:

But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice… – Philippians 1:18

I love how Paul says, “But what does it matter?”

I pray that each one of us takes that simple phrase to heart. When folks set out to do you harm, remember this phrase recorded in Paul’s letter to the Philippians.

But what does it matter?

Too many Christians are making people famous, saying, “Why I never! Do you know what they did to me?” Stop giving publicity to your enemies! Learn to say those five words, “But what does it matter?”

God has not put your destiny into the hands of your enemies. While your enemies are running their mouths, stay focused on running your kingdom business. Just do what God has called you to do and be who God has called you to be. With or without them, God will be glorified.

But what does it matter?

They can talk all they want. What does it matter? They can lie all they want. What does it matter? The important thing to know is that in every way – whether from false motives or true

– Christ will be glorified. People may be out to destroy you, but God’s Word assures you: No weapon formed against you shall prosper. – Isaiah 54:17 (NKJV) You might get upset at God when your enemy starts forming weapons against you. This passage doesn’t say they won’t be formed. They may even shoot that weapon, but it won’t be able to kill what God is doing in you. No weapon formed against you shall prosper. Earlier in Philippians 1, Paul assures us: … being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – PhilipPastor Paul Sheppard pians 1:6 No matter how many weapons are formed against you, God will still bring His good work to completion in you. The enemy is just wasting bullets. God is with you, accomplishing His purposes. He will never forsake you. He is taking you through the valley. If you find yourself in the valley of the shadow of death, don’t camp out there. Just keep moving. Don’t pitch a tent. He has prepared a better place for you, accomplishing His purposes. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies… – Psalm 23:4-5 Notice how the place God prepares for us is “in the presence of my enemies.” Don’t freak out when you see your enemies gather. Why? Because it’s a sign that you are close to your prepared place; you know you’re about to get blessed. When you see your enemies coming, say, “Great! My banquet table is somewhere around here.”

Greenleaf Friends Academy

Christ-centered • Joyfully Classical Academically Excellent

• Daily bus transportation from Eagle,

Star, Middleton, Caldwell and Greenleaf. Soon to open a bus route in Nampa.

• Affordable tuition with no additional fees

• Small Class Sizes

Enrollment for the 2022-23 school year is now open for our Daycare and Junior Kindergarten program as well as K - 12.

But what does it matter, when troubles come? Know that God is doing great things in your life. Paul is clear that no matter what people’s motives are, God is glorified. Then in verse 18 he says, “And because of this I rejoice. Yes, and I will continue to rejoice.”

Rejoicing is an ongoing decision. You need to make up your mind to rejoice. Then when you get started, keep on rejoicing until you get to your prepared place. Keep the main thing the main thing. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Keep praising God. Abide in Him, and He will abide in you.

You might be crying out to God, saying, “You don’t understand! This isn’t small! It’s crushing me. It’s breaking my heart.”

Know that God’s perspective is very different from ours. In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul writes: Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. – 2 Corinthians 4:16-17

If we could only see our troubles from God’s perspective, we would know that they are “light and momentary.”

If I put a brick on one side of a balance, it would weigh the scale down because it’s heavy. But when God shows up with a cinder block and throws it on the other side of the scale, everything changes.

Invite God into your troubles with His cinder block of blessing, His cinder block of provision, His cinder block of miracles, His cinder block of possibilities. As soon as God shows up on the other side of the balance, miracles begin to happen. You look up into the sky and see your burden that seemed so heavy flying into the clouds, and you say, “Praise God. That wasn’t anything but a light and momentary affliction.”

I know your troubles don’t feel small right now, but be encouraged. God assures you that it’s the small stuff. The main thing is that He will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5). The main thing is that God is being glorified and His purposes are being accomplished in and through you.

God is going to bless your life. He is going to answer your prayers. He is going to meet your needs. He is going to help you through your troubles. He will bring you to the beautiful place He’s prepared where you will say, “I’m glad I went through that time, because if I didn’t go through that, I wouldn’t be where I am now.”

Know that your small trouble will get balanced out by a large victory. Let not your heart be troubled. God is working all things together for good. n This is an excerpt from the series “Keeping THE Main Thing the Main Thing” by Pastor Paul Sheppard. You can hear Pastor Paul’s radio show, “Destined For Victory,” weekday mornings at 9 a.m. MST on 94.1 FM or online at www.941thevoice.com. For more information, consult www.PastorPaul.net.

5090 N. Sawyer • Garden City, ID

Furnace & A/C Service - Maintenance - Replacement

Maintenance Plans Includes Furnace And AC Maintenance $19.50 /Month 100% Money Back Guarantee Celebrating 20 Ye s in Business!

24/7 Service

208-378-6624

www.DiamondHeatingandCooling.com

HISTORY, Culture & Faith The pain of once-patriot Thomas Paine

By Dr. Rick Chromey

In 1776 Thomas Paine was a “rock star” among American patriots. His writings inspired a loosely united 13 colonies to revolt against the great British Empire. But Paine lived down to his name. He’d die a “penniless drunk in Manhattan,” scorned by most of the Founding Fathers. Only six people attended his funeral.

It’s a morality tale we must learn.

Thomas Paine was always a

radical revolutionary. He loved to challenge the status quo politically. It’s why his writings, like the best-selling “Common Sense” (1776) and “The American Crisis” (1776-1783), were popular among American patriots. Few people were more famous than Thomas Paine during the Revolutionary War.

But Paine also had a way of wearing out his welcome. He lived in America only 13 years (arriving in 1774) before returning to his native England. In 1791, when his writings on the “Rights of Man” created British controversy and eventually charges of sedition, Paine fled to France.

That’s where his notoriety caught the attention of French Revolutionaries. Paine was immediately granted honorary citizenship and elected to the National Assembly. But his French honeymoon also proved short. He “agitated” the wrong people, got arrested and sentenced to death. If it hadn’t been for French ambassador and future president James Monroe, who negotiated Paine’s release, his story would’ve end with the guillotine.

But Paine’s real agitation was just beginning. While in prison he began writing his skeptic’s view of religion titled “The Age of Reason” (published in three parts between 1794 and 1805). Thomas Paine was a skeptic, but no atheist. He still believed “in one God” and the “equality of man.” Nevertheless, Paine rejected every human religious creed, including Jewish, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant.

“My own mind is my church,” Paine wrote. It turned out to be a church few attended.

Back in Christian America, Paine’s radical irreverence, secular propensities and open embrace

of Deism sparked controversy and opposition. His friend Ben Franklin begged Paine not to publish “The Age of Reason” and warned: “I would advise you, therefore, not to attempt unchaining the tiger, but to burn this piece before it is seen by any other person; whereby you will save yourself a great deal of mortification by the enemies it may raise against you, and perhaps a good deal of regret and repentance.”

But the insolent Paine didn’t listen to Franklin’s counsel. Instead, he became even more antagonistic. In 1796 he maliciously attempted to impugn the character and competence of George Washington in a public letter. At the time no one was more popular in America than George Washington. In fact, many Americans desired to make Washington “king.” Consequently, the public response was swift.

Thomas Paine was criticized, censured, condemned...and cancelled...by the people.

Nearly every Founding Father called him out, from John Adams to John Jay. “The Age of Reason” was “blasphemous” (Charles Carroll), “absurd and insidious” (Benjamin Rush), “puny” (Patrick Henry) and “ignorant” (John Witherspoon). Founder Elias Boudinet was so incensed he penned his own refutation titled “The Age of Revelation” (1801).

Samuel Adams wrote Paine: “When I heard you had turned your mind to a defense of infidelity, I felt myself much astounded and more grieved, that you had attempted a measure so injurious to the feelings and so repugnant to the true interest of so great a part of the citizens of the United States...Do you think that your pen, or the pen of any other man, can unchristianize the mass of our citizens, or have you hopes of converting a few of them to assist you in so bad a cause?”

From that point forward, the irreverent, secularist Thomas Paine lived as a social outcast. He spent his final years largely in seclusion, nursing a flask of booze. And while his early works reflected “common sense,” Paine’s commitment to French enlightenment “wokeness” and secularism – something most people embrace today as normal and mainstream – was completely out of step in early 19th century America.

Paine’s secularism cost him everything. He literally reaped his surname: pain.

Thomas Paine died June 8, 1809.

But not a single cemetery in America would accept his corpse. He was eventually buried, without ceremony, by a few friends on his farm outside Rochelle, N.Y. Ten years later his remains were exhumed by a journalist named William Cobbett and shipped back to his native England. Cobbett wanted to give Paine a heroic reburial, but it never happened. Paine’s bones ended up in his closet and eventually disappeared. Continued on page 35