WWJD

"Tell where you went today, Mom." said Peter. So I told him part of what we did.

It was down to Amy's yellow house of hope again for another radical Bible study. On the way there Sherry and I talked about how to really Do Something for the folks in Amy's neighborhood. She had brought along a birthday card for one lady who has been knocking on Amy's door a lot lately.

It was her birthday, and Sherry thought she would appreciate a phone card. No point in giving her a Wal-Mart gift card. She has no way of getting to Wal-Mart. She really lives on very little anyway, but needs to mend relations with her kids. Hence the phone card, a gentle hint that she call them.

The card is addressed to her prison name, but Amy says, "Use her real name, not the nick name from jail," because she is believing for a whole new life for Janet.

Amy's family had thrown a birthday party for Janet, who had been amazed and happy with the cake and all. She is still hesitant to trust anyone, even Jesus, because so far everyone who she has ever trusted has stolen from her, beat her up, or worse. Soon, though, she will open up to Jesus and let go of her life in the tiny, filthy room she and her boyfriend share.

She may do so soon, too. Yesterday she was literally kicked down the steps of the building and out onto the road. That is how they treat tenants, who do not pay rent at a house of ill repute.

Now, this life is not what Janet planned. She did not decide one day she would become a dope addict. But now that she is in this deep pit, she will need Jesus to get her out.

Janet is like so many. They cannot break out of the cycle, because to do so, to get a job at Waffle House, they need a Social Security number or driver's licence. If they applied for one they would be arrested for all the crimes they have commited because they have no job at Waffle House. So Janet, like the other women, sell themselves or are sold.

Janet's problem is not a people problem that can be fixed by people solutions. Her issue is a spiritual problem, first and foremost. Any other solutions we offer will ultimately be of no avail to her. Why? Because she firmly believes she has absolutely no value, not 50 cents' worth. To cure that will take lots of prayer, love, and a flash of insight from the Holy Spirit Himself.

Richard told us today how he had one such flash. Richard was a bartender in New Orleans French Quarter for 25 years, and he knows. One day he was driving north on Highway 49, and he heard a Voice in his car. It said, "I am Jesus."

He thought he had had a stroke, but instead, in a flash he was a changed man. No one deserves such kindness. Not the prositute ladies or the lesbians or the the rich church ladies. But Jesus still would have died for our sins anyway. He loved us all that much. None of us is worthy of His dying, but there you are.

A few days after this happened, Richard was feeling so funny and fine that he remarked to a friend, "I feel as though I was born over again.... Oh, my, I have been born again! That's what happened to me! Dear God, now don't make me a Baptist!

Well, God didn't, but Richard has been to India and Malowi telling people there that Jesus is real and He can do everything He says He can do. The ladies in downtown Jackson need to hear that too. We all do.

Richard will tell us more when he comes for supper Saturday. And he says he will bring some of his interesting friends with him. He would love meeting our family and be really happy to answer some of our James never-ending questions.

I have a feeling our lives are going to be shaken up a little Saturday at suppertime.

Praise God. We can all use a bit of shaking.