Christmas is coming...

Fair warning...I will soon be asking for money.

Blatantly, unapologetically, asking for money.

I am going to be a Christmas Warrior for a child with Down syndrome, maybe even the beautiful girl above.

Each Christmas Warrior has a goal of raising a minimum of $1000 for their child as a means of helping that child get adopted because money is usually the biggest obstacle adoptive families face.

Why should you stick around instead of running away from my blog, screaming and yelling NOOOOOO!

Glad you asked!

Isaiah has a wonderful answer, spoken by the Lord, in the 58th chapter of his book:

⁶ "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen:

       to loose the chains of injustice

       and untie the cords of the yoke,

       to set the oppressed free

       and break every yoke?

 ⁷ Is it not to share your food with the hungry

       and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—

       when you see the naked, to clothe him,

       and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

 ⁸ Then your light will break forth like the dawn,

       and your healing will quickly appear;

       then your righteousness ^[a] will go before you,

       and the glory of the LORD will be your rear guard.

 ⁹ Then you will call, and the LORD will answer;

       you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.

       "If you do away with the yoke of oppression,

       with the pointing finger and malicious talk,

 ¹⁰ and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry

and satisfy the needs of the oppressed,

then your light will rise in the darkness,

and your night will become like the noonday.

Jesus also had something to say about it in Luke 14:

¹²Then Jesus said to his host, "When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

I don't know about you but I think it sounds like an incredible promise to be repaid by GOD at the resurrection of the righteous. He gives some pretty amazing gifts.

Luke 6:38~~Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."