Forgiveness is Paramount

After food, clothing and shelter the next most important blessing received at the Gospel Center Rescue Mission is forgiveness.

Food, clothing and shelter nourish the physical, while forgiveness nourishes the person's spiritual, psychological and social well being. Without forgiveness life is rarely worth living.

Clients need to experience the forgiveness of God, forgiving themselves and being forgiven by others.

Forgiveness raises the terrible clouds of doom and lets the sunshine of love into an addicts life. Cleansing occurs. Hope returns. Things seem possible again that were long ago dismissed as impossible or not worth the effort.

Like every Christian, I am personally grateful for forgiveness, especially spiritual forgiveness in my own life. The Rescue Mission client's first need for forgiveness is usually expressed in their need to seek forgiveness from a wronged relative or to be able to forgive themselves. In the process they discover forgiveness originates with God. The greatest revelation is to learn that God in Christ has already forgiven them. All that remains is for them to accept it. The next revelation is realizing that if God can forgive me and all of my past, perhaps I can forgive myself and forgive others. Perhaps those I have hurt will even forgive me.

So, you can see that forgiveness opens the floodgates. The dirtiness of a person's past flows away; ultimately into the deepest part of the ocean, never to be resurrected again by God in Christ or by obedient fellow Christians and often not by the significant others in the addicts life.

The first phase of change is complete. A new life is begun!

Panhandlers

The purpose of this and future blogs is to further the work of rescuing the homeless and addicted in Stockton and San Joaquin County.


I will discuss with you relevant, current homeless and homeless related issues as well as scriptural mandates concerning the homeless and indigent.


Panhandling, panhandler

The term pan and the handling of the pan create in our mind an instrument of the home and the hearth. Along with it, in the context of homelessness, come images of a wife and children in rags with empty stomachs. Our reaction ranges from rushing to their rescue to running from their plight.

But, is this the reality?

Panhandling and panhandlers are a complicated issue. Studies available today indicate that the typical panhandler is one who has recently become homeless through falling on hard times, or the opposite extreme- the professional panhandler who makes several thousand dollars a year from unsuspecting, caring people while living comfortably in a home and driving a car. Its just that panhandling is their chosen occupation.

Scripture tells us:

You will have the poor (and the fraudulent) with you everyday for the rest of lives....  Matthew 26:11, Msg.

The poor are typically so due to circumstances beyond their control, as a result of bad personal decisions or a combination of both. My observation of the newly homeless/poor over the years from my vantage point at the rescue mission is that most victims of either scenario usually learn from their experience, turn to family and friends for temporary help and rebound quickly. A small percentage, however do not.

From this smaller group ultimately come the panhandlers.

In future blogs we will look more closely at the panhandler, his/her use of gifts they receive and our appropriate response to the panhandler.

I invite your comments, and I hope you will share your experiences.

panhandle
vb
US and Canada informal to accost and beg from (passers-by), esp. on the street