Friends

Friends

Our Family Freedom Walk will be held this year on Saturday, May 7, 2011. Diane Hunt, our Director of Development and Addiction Recovery thinks that she can get the gals who read Victory Call to out give the men who read Freedom Fighter. I don't think that is possible ... so I need your help today. Make your pledge to support this ministry and join the fight by giving financially click the link below!  www.americaskeswick.org/givenow

If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Ecclesiastes 4:10

We live in such a busy world that sometimes we as men don’t do friendships well. We have many acquaintances, but we don’t have friendships that go deep and are real.

I read a cool story this weekend that was a good reminder of the importance of friendships. Paul David Leopoulos received a call from his wife asking that he go to their local hospital. Their 17-year old daughter had been hit by a drunk driver and was in serious condition. Before he made it to the hospital, she died.

The town was shook by this tragedy and kids started showing up from everywhere to comfort the family within 45 minutes of Thea’s death. On the hour, Paul David received a call from one of his closest friends. His friend was a very high profile individual and Paul was amazed how quickly he had heard the news. His friend told him that he would be there just as quick as he could.

A few hours later, his friend walked in the door. He stayed and did all he could do to comfort his friend and their family. When Paul asked his friend where he was when he received the news. His friend shared with him that he was in an airplane halfway to Japan when he received the news. He cancelled his calendar, turned the plane around and immediately went to be with his friend.

Pretty amazing story of a deep friendship.  By the way, the friend? President Bill Clinton.

Over the years I have been blessed with good friends. I will never forget the day that we had a tragedy at America’s Keswick and two of my dearest friends, Pastor Matt Reed and Jim Shields dropped everything to come and support me. It meant more to me than they will ever know.

Don’t miss important opportunities to be a friend to someone today. Maybe you have a friend that you’ve not communicated to recently. Why not pick up the phone, drop him an email, or better yet … maybe it’s time for a visit. – Bill Welte is President and CEO of America’s Keswick

GPS – God’s Positioning System: Judges 16-18; Psalm 88; Proverbs 5

Compass Pointers: “It is rare that Christians earnestly seek the Lord’s face when things are going swimmingly, when material blessings abound and we seem to be protected from the vicissitudes faced by others. But in the blackness of discouragement, when we are harassed and downcast, we may indeed turn to the Lord and acknowledge our helplessness apart from his grace; we may do so knowing that God is a compassionate God and that Jesus’ compassion was particularly directed toward the harassed and the helpless.”D A Carson

Navigation Rules to Memorize: Level 1: Proverbs 14:29; Level 2: Proverbs 14:25-30

Anchored to the Rock: "If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.  Martin Luther