I want to be like Martin in promoting PEACE, a true to life, and in death, Spark in the Dark. He’s a great example of “What Love’s Got To Do With It“.
Blessings,
Martin
Sparks in the Dark
Category Archives: Leadership Development
Cliche: What’s LOVE Got To Do With It?
“What’s Love Got To Do With It? Well, pretty much everything!
Nearly every life story we get involved with comes down to a search
LOVE !
for , loss of, or grand expressions of, LOVE !
Following are a few ways to love with temporal and eternal sustainable merit. Please feel invited to add and share your own ways!
Some WAYS TO LOVE
1) Listen without interrupting (Proverbs 18:13)
2) Speak without accusing (James 1:19)
3) Give without sparing (Proverbs 21:26)
4) Pray without ceasing (Colossians 1:9)
5) Answer without arguing (Proverbs 17:1)
6) Share without pretending (Ephesians 4:15)
7) Enjoy without complaint (Philippians 2:14)
8) Trust without wavering (1 Corinthians 13:7)
9) Forgive without punishing (Colossians 3:13)
10) Promise without forgetting (Proverbs 13:12)
OK! Let’s all get out there and share the LOVE !
Follow this link for more ways to engage with Agape LOVE, in practical ways! CLICK HERE
Blessings & Much LOVE ! JD Smith
Rick Warren
Our prayers are with Pastor Rick Warren and his family in the loss of their son, Matthew.
Mental illness knows no limit to whom it may strike and the devastating losses it wreaks in havoc upon families’ lives.
Reach out and love someone near you today and seek to befriend those who have family who suffer.
Peace to you,
JD Smith
No Time to Die
Ecclesiastes 3 “There is a time for everything,and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die,..”
Meet Tim Davis! A few months ago, I met Tim and his wife Pam during CitiIMPACT’s earliest First Response efforts for Hurricane Isaac in La Place, Louisiana. I shouldn’t have met Tim at all. Tim is supposed to be DEAD. 
Friday night March 8th around midnight, while waiting with Tim for an overdue tour bus full of college students, I learned that about 20 years ago Tim was given 2-5 years to live due to a catastrophic lung ailment. His life changed dramatically from a highly paid contractor for a major oil refinery to near death and poverty. Tim and his wife, Pam, had four little children and what seemed to be no hope….but God..
At the bottom points of their lives, they discussed the nearing end. At that moment, by faith alone, Tim decided, with encouragement from Pam, to live every day he had left for the glory of God, rather than lay down and die; to believe God wasn’t finished with him rather than merely believe the fatalistic but real doctor reports. That’s been about 15 years ago now. Tim no longer contracts nor makes a six figure salary, he doesn’t even have insurance. He has raised his kids. He serves in a local church in La Place Louisiana as the maintenance supervisor. I call him The Maintenance Missions Minister. I have yet to meet anyone in Louisiana who can keep up with the pace Tim has everyday as he serves, with less than half a lung. How many times I’ve heard Tim say, “JD, I can rest in heaven, people need HOPE.”
Your Missions Team can be served with HOPE, too!
As we all go through our lives, we have the awesome opportunity to live every day for the glory of God, or just wait to die. It may be less obvious a decision than Tim made, possibly not as overt. Yet, the decision must be made. Tim and Pam have experienced the grace of God for real in their lives and give Him all the glory for that. They have served about 200 Mission Teams in the last 7 months alone, who have come to the area to bring HOPE and HELP to families overcoming Hurricane Isaac. Those teams have received the same amount of real life HOPE as they have brought, from such people as Tim and Pam.
What ways are you deciding to live daily rather than die?
HOPE given on Staten Island by college women!
When have you met God at a dead-end and received new HOPE in life?
You can be part of giving HOPE and receiving HOPE in places torn by tornadoes as in Henryville IN, West Liberty KY, Hattiesburg MS, Petal MS, Tuscaloosa AL, Joplin MO.
AND in places like Hurricane Sandy. Hurricane Isaac and other disaster occurrences in life, like the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting.
My prayers for God’s richest Blessings and HOPE for all of you as you LIVE! JD Smith
2 Things in common: Liberia and Myrtle Beach
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Volunteer Updates for CitiIMPACT Missions
Christmas LIGHT in light of Recent Events
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Merry Christmas to all of you as we celebrate THE LIGHT of the world, Jesus Christ.
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How Do We Go On?
Matthew 7:12 “So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
There are many questions & few real answers. Following are just a very few thoughts.
Tragedies people suffer as in the Sandy Hook Elementary slayings or the Portland Mall shootings leave us all heartbroken, angry and in mourning. We’ll search for the reasons, look to write or improve laws to protect the innocent without taking away the freedoms of those who are not guilty of crimes.
Yet, one law is truly all that is needed, the law of grace and love in our hearts. Perhaps our actions of love will overcome more than anything else the great evil that envelopes our world on any given day. Grace abounds beyond all evil.
Matthew 22 :37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’[d] 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[e] 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Hug your kids today a little tighter. Forgive those whom you should, receive forgiveness from others, too.
Love your neighbors as yourselves.
Merry Christmas HOPE is Possible
At this time of year the world, not just America or your neighborhood or CitiIMPACT, is focused one way or another upon the long ago first arrival of Jesus Christ. See our video thank you for 2012 and read on please!
His arrival was highly regarded at the time, rightly so, to be the Messiah; the long-awaited HOPE. Enslaved, impoverished, forsaken, and forgotten people hoped against hope with the seeds of faith they had for a soon coming King who would free them. He was also highly hated by those who saw the reality of His power and love, and the threat He posed to their established control.
So much like He always does, the only true and living God looked past the cries of the people for hope, and granted HOPE! He granted through His son Jesus Christ eternal HOPE well past any temporal hope they may have desired, and temporal hope as well.
So it is this season every year, that by the design of the great and mighty God, Jehovah is His Name, that we celebrate his first arrival with an eye upon His Second Coming.
We wanted to take a moment to thank you for your partnership this year. This simple video clip doesn’t rightly share all the impact that you have had through our serving together. We hope to hear from you again soon about how we can serve you as together we Bridge HOPE to a lost and dying world.
Blessings, JD Smith CitiIMPACT Missions Leadership Development
No Home for Christmas
As Christmas 2012 approaches, many are not going to “Be Home for Christmas”, as they have NO Home for Christmas.
Tens of thousands across the USA have NO HOME.
CLICK HERE to read a recent post on this subject from our CitiIMPACT Missions group, as they share information about CitiIMPACT Disaster Response or read on below.
Testimonials of how you have been or can be part of reaching tens of thousands with HOPE here:
Video Reports and HERE and HERE.
As we continue on together in reaching the at-risk kids through local churches and ministries, be prayerful and active with your continued participation; for which we are so filled with gratitude. Blessings, JD Smith
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