Homeless Ministry Text Version



Chapter 1
Growing in Christ


This section encourages the new believer to read the Scriptures; be challenged to continually believe; turn from sin; and accept Christ's forgiveness along the journey to heaven.

Luke 15:7
"I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth..."
KJV

We rejoice with you and all of heaven rejoices with your decision to follow Christ and make Him the Lord of your life. Christ has great hope for you and will be as close as a friend through the Holy Spirit. Learn to yield to the Holy Spirit's influence upon your life and listen to His voice as He speaks to your heart. The Word of God contains the voice of God. Begin this new journey by reading the Scriptures in the New Testament. As Christ speaks to you through the Scriptures, He will give you hope and strength for the journey that will lead you someday into heaven itself!

At the moment you accepted Christ as your Lord you yielded to the Holy Spirit as He gave you the faith to believe. One night, a jailer asked the Apostle Paul and Silas what he must do to be saved. They told him to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and he would be saved. This simple response contained the very words he needed to follow and that is to believe. This word 'believe' is not for the moment only but it is a way of life.

As we continue to yield to the Holy Spirit we will continue to grow in faith and assurance of Christ. As you bring your life closer to God through your obedience and trust in Him, He will bring His life closer to you.

We must yield our life to Him and turn from sin's influence upon our life.

On the journey ahead of us we will have many decisions as we seek to turn away from sin's influence. The choice has been left to you and you alone. Each of us is accountable to God but He has chosen to be with you and help you all along the way. The greatest hope for you is to follow Him. Let Him be your strength and your forgiveness. If we fall short, accept His forgiveness and continually walk toward Him as you cannot do this without Him. There are no limits to His forgiveness and love for you!

Psalms 71:15

"My mouth shall tell of Your righteousness And Your salvation all the day, For I do not know their limits." NKJV

Chapter Two
The Journey Ahead


This chapter describes the journey that is ahead of all of us as we go through life. Do we let the struggle determine our walk or do we overcome the struggle with an awareness that at the end of the journey is heaven's reward for you?

Isaiah 33:2
"O LORD, be gracious to us; we long for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation in time of distress." NIV

I remember one day when I was driving on the interstate to St. Louis, Missouri that I became distracted when I reached to the floor of the car to pickup something I had dropped. I heard the sound of the road's warning track on the edge of the road and I was able to recover the car at the last moment from running off the road. As I continued a few hundred yards down the interstate, I noticed a small white wooden cross at the road's edge marking where someone had died. I looked at the edge of the road's surface and there was no warning track. I began to wonder if my life had been spared and another died because of no warning.

I had known the risks and had let a simple distraction on my journey nearly destroy my life. I believe this story relates to our lives in several ways. Along our walk with God there will come temptations, distractions, and many other things that will bring us to the edge of the road as an analogy. The Holy Spirit of God serves as that warning track to remind us of the risk before us. He seeks to intervene in our lives in so many ways.

God is speaking, but are we listening with our hearts?

We must ask ourselves, if we are hearing His voice then why do some still yield to our past sin nature and limit His access into our lives? Storms like this come into our lives and we must not ignore the warnings. When God speaks to us we must not forget to make our lives accountable unto Him. Our life does not have to consist of the struggle as we are not helpless to overcome our past or sin's influence.

While in Boston I looked out the window of the fifth floor hotel room and saw a man that appeared to be homeless. I changed my clothes, grabbed some trail mix snacks and witnessing materials, went outside, and sat down beside him on a park bench. I introduced myself and asked him to tell me his story. He shared that he and his sister had been molested when they were very young. He said that he could not overcome the memories and went to Vietnam hoping that this would help. He said that the war only filled his heart with more bad memories. It broke my heart to learn his life consisted of such experiences, yet he loved God and had accepted Christ into his heart many years before. I took time that night to help him to know how to follow God's will in His life and how God can heal and forgive the past. That night, he became my friend and when I handed him the trail mix he said it was his favorite brand. We must overcome the past and let God intervene in our future through trust and obedience in Him.

Proverbs 28:13
"He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whosoever confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy."

Some forget the times they promised to live for Him. Some forget the love they felt from Him as He gently speaks to our heart. If we yield to the world's influence it can set our course on the wrong path and before long we are no longer thinking about eternity or our relationship in Christ. Always follow the gentle voice of the Holy Spirit and let Him help you along the way.

Our pursuit of God consists of following the path He has placed before our lives in His Word and in your heart.

Follow Christ further with water baptism, fellowship with other Christians, prayer, and a closer walk with Him through your actions and study of God's Word. These steps on your journey with Christ will help you to maintain the closeness you felt when you accepted Christ as your Lord and Saviour.



Chapter Three
The Way Home


This chapter describes how Christ will lead us home, as He helps us and is ready to forgive us and teach us to walk and trust in Him.


John 14:6
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
KJV

Oftentimes as I share Christ with others in the streets, I will point to the lines from cracks in a sidewalk. I will ask, "If those lines were the journey of your life, then which one leads to heaven?" When they see all the different directions of the cracks in the sidewalk they realize they cannot find their way alone. Then, I tell them that the Scriptures tell us that Jesus is the way and He wants to be in your heart. So many people respond to this simple illustration by accepting Christ into their heart and making Him Lord of their life. It seems that when someone really thinks about eternity and the uncertainty of life that they realize the need for help beyond themselves through Christ. While in this life we may struggle with many things, we must know that at the end of this life Christ is leading us the final steps home if we know Him as our Lord.

Psalms 16:25
"There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death."

Some people passing through life will never know the journey they are on is leading them to eternal destruction.

Many seek to do what is right and others simply don't care and yet both face eternal destruction if lost and without Christ. We must know the way that God would seek for our lives and no one other than Jesus Christ can set our journey on the pathway that leads to heaven itself. Respond with your heart and yield your will to Christ.

There are people searching for the path to righteousness as they discover they cannot make it on their own. As you reach out to find the path that leads to heaven, call upon Christ to lead you continually as you yield your life to Him. For those who know Him and follow Him, reach out to others and help them on the same path of righteousness through Christ.

Proverbs 12:28
"In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death."
KJV

Chapter Four
Run the Race



This chapter describes the grace that is extended to those that would simply seek Him.


Romans 5:8
"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." NKJV

Without the grace and mercy of God extended to our lives we could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. God in His love for His creation sent His love into this world through His Son Jesus Christ. When you receive Christ into your heart then you received that same love of the Father that is in Christ. He forgave your sin as you opened your heart that He may extend His Mercy to you. Could it be that He is more interested in us to run the race than to fail to enter? He has promised that if you run the race of life in Him that you will finish.

Matthew 19:30
"But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first."
NIV
Christ shared a parable that gives us an insight into His own thoughts and the judgment of God. It is His will that those that seek Him will find Him and spend eternity in His Kingdom.

Luke 18
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men robbers, evildoers, adulterers or even like this tax collector.
12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
NIV

We need help on this journey and should call upon Him. The Father seeks those that would follow Him.

As Jesus was sharing the Principles of the Kingdom of God we can see that He was willing to wait for us to grow spiritually and will even extend this grace further.

Luke 13
6 "Then he told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any."
7 "So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?'"
8 "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it."
9 "If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"
NIV

Jesus is saying that He is willing to forgive us as much as necessary. However, this does not give Him pleasure in our walk with Him. It is His hope that we follow the will of the Father in all that we do.

Matthew 18
21 "Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times ?"
22 "Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times , but seventy-seven times."
NIV

I often wonder why is the race so difficult to run when God supplies the strength and helps me along the way. If I fall, He picks me up and renews my strength to continue. Soon, I realize that He is my help and my reward on the journey.

If you fall, then reach out for the strength to finish the race.

Chapter Five
Assurance Came From Heaven


This chapter describes the assurance of salvation and the responsibility of the believer to search the Scripture and listen to the voice of the Holy Spirit in their walk with Christ.

Assurance came from heaven through the Words of Christ. This assurance is for every believer to understand and to enjoy in their walk with Him. The voice of a friend brings comfort and assurance. The same is true for Jesus as He will speak to your heart. His Words and love for you will make its deposit into your heart to be a constant reminder that you are not alone on the journey to heaven as He helps you all along the way.

Jesus has trust in you and confidence that what He has sown into your heart will keep you and guide you to His home in heaven.

Let Him continually speak to your heart. In His own Words He said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
John 10:27-28

The assurance we seek has a name and His Name is Jesus. He is the One the Scriptures testify of that came to seek and save the lost. Always remember that salvation is His work in your life. Salvation is the gift of God that extends to those that would accept Him into their heart. The Scriptures tell us, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God."
Ephesians 2:8

He not only extends salvation to us but the faith we need to believe. Faith finds its way into our life as we read His Word. The Scriptures say, "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Romans 10:17 He not only extends salvation to us but the faith we need to believe.

As we explore the depths of the Word of God, we find the simplicity of the Words of Christ. When these Words establish into your heart and make its deposit, the very Kingdom of God is extended into your heart. Your actions and your thoughts will begin to be transformed as you yield more of your heart to Him. Through your heart He gives you the ability to believe and to receive what He so much wants to give you. With His presence in our hearts, we find ourselves speaking His Words into our lives and the lives of others as the Scriptures say, "I believed, therefore have I spoken..." Psalms 116:10

Did you know that all along the Father was in search of you? This reminds me of a story of a man named Mack. Both Christ and Mack were in search of each other. One night on a dark road they met as I introduced them to each other. Mack's own words testified to this truth. Mack lives His life in poverty but has everything that heaven has as he continues the journey with assurance that his Friend (Jesus) is with him.

Let your Friend (Jesus) be that assurance through your trust in Him.


Chapter Six
The Words of Christ

This chapter contains the Words of Christ that He shared with mankind in hopes that all that would come to know Him as Lord and Saviour.

John 14:1-6
"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you." I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going. Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?" Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Luke 19:10
"For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."

Romans 6:23
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Romans 10:13
"For, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.""

John 14:6
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

Acts 16:30-31
He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved you and your household."

Acts 4:12
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Psalms 62:1-2
My soul finds rest in God alone; my salvation comes from him. He alone is my rock and my salvation; he is my fortress, I will never be shaken.

Scripture quotations marked "NKJV"; are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.


Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION ®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

It is my prayer that God will establish your heart in Christ as you yield your life to Him. You are not alone as the Holy Spirit will be with you as promised in God's written Word. May God bless you in all that you do for Him.