How important are other peoples lives, Written by my brother Tom Calton

I received this letter from my brother , Tom and felt inspired to share it with those whom read this blog may it lift you as it did me.

"So let us be thankful, because we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. We should worship God in a way that pleases Him with respect and fear, because our God is like a fire that burns things up"-Hebrews 12:28,29

Before we start each shift at work we all meet in the break room so the boss can inform us of important items of safety and repairs that are happening on each piece of equipment. We also find out where we will be working for the next 8 hours. The other night I was asked to start cleaning the equipment because we had the board members of our Chinese plant coming in for a tour. I gladly accepted my assignment and headed out on the floor. The comment was made by several people that this was extremely important and "we needed to make everything look like we didn't even work there". Anyone serving in our armed forces has participated in an event like this when a high ranking commander or official was coming by. I myself was volunteered once to paint rocks along the main road of the base only to turn the rocks over and paint the other side so we didn't miss anything and make the rocks look as though they appeared from the ground perfectly white and they were just there when they built the Air Force base.

How often do we make our lives with Christ appear as though nothing is wrong or it is perfect? Do we go out of our way for fellowship? Obey every word in the bible? Do we reach out for help in our small groups? At church? With our closest friends? Do we pray every day? Why are we so afraid sometimes to tell our Creator the things we have done or what we are afraid of? Did He not hear or see us and we got away with it?

1 John 1:6,7 says "So if we say we have fellowship with God, but we continue living in darkness, we are liars and do not follow the truth. But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God's Son, cleanses us from every sin."

So why don't we reach out when we are struggling? What about when we see someone else struggling? We should be reaching out to each other and the person on the other side of the sales counter, no matter if they are reaching back or not. We should be praying for the lost world and each other deeply from our hearts. He will hear us. But what do we do? We hide in our shell or take care of it ourselves, we can fix it right? No, let us reach out to one another for help and prayer. Isn't that what we are there for? "Now that you have made your souls pure by obeying the truth, you can have true love for your Christian brothers and sisters. So love each other deeply with all your heart."-1 Peter 1:22. I struggle with that, don't you? .......Sometimes I only want to care about myself..........I don't have time to listen, I have to be somewhere....... It's hard to love and care sometimes. We don't want to admit we can't fix it, our pride and arrogance takes control, instead of Jesus.

It's the start of a new week. Lets reach out and help each other, support each other, and strengthen and lift up each other. "Strengthen yourselves so that you will live here on earth doing what God wants, not the evil things people want."-1 Peter 4:2. Love. Compassion. Share our hearts. "But dear friends, use your most holy faith to build yourselves up, praying in the Holy Spirit."-Jude 20

Let God consume every square inch of your life with His holy fire! Trust Him. Obey Him. Talk to Him. Pray!! Stay focused on our Lord and Saviour so we can ask for help and be there for others. Read your bible, let God talk to you. Give Him all your praises and don't complain. Put God first in everything, He will never let you down.

"Here on earth we do not have a city that lasts forever, but we are looking for the city that we will have in the future. So through Jesus let us always offer to God our sacrifice of praise, coming from lips that speak His name."-Hebrews 13:14,15

Thank God for this day we have; He made it for us.