United Church of God

Letter From Dan Preston - January 10, 2020

Letter From Dan Preston

January 10, 2020

Good evening brethren, last week's memory verse was Genesis 1:31 (NKJV), "Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. So the evening and the morning were the sixth day."  Read this week's letter below for clues to this week's memory verse.

In case of emergency...

Have you ever been in a large crowd, a great multitude perhaps, when there was an emergency of some kind?  Maybe a child gets lost, or there is someone has a medical emergency. No matter what the occasion - a concert, a baseball game, whatever, there is usually a collective show of compassion to the person in need.

This is as it should be.  We should have compassion on others who are in need.  But should that compassion be limited only to those in physical danger?

Everyone needs it

You've likely encountered people who have been hurt before.  Not just bumps and bruises, but emotional scars. These people need compassion as well.  But the need for compassion doesn't stop there. Many are looking for a deeper meaning in life.  They wander, to and fro, like a sheep without a shepherd, trying to understand their purposes. People need spiritual compassion as well!

While we understand this need, too often, we fail to show it.  Instead of giving compassion, we have a tendency to try and start giving advice, or correcting or teaching.  As difficult as it might be, sometimes we need to just be quiet and listen!

The Perfect Teacher

While we can't solve everyone's problems, we have a Teacher that can.  That Teacher of course, is Jesus Christ! It is by His example we see the need to give compassion to people in every aspect of life - physical, emotional and spiritual.

While you and I might fall short when it comes to compassion, we have the Shepherd, Jesus Christ, that not only shows compassion, but can and does offer perfect teaching to help us through whatever our trials might be!