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Mark's Sunday School Review
Compassion Takes More Than Just Words…It Takes Action It’s Up to You to Determine What Those Actions Will Be
This past Sunday was Mother’s Day. Motherhood involves both compassion and action. One mother shared her recipe for iced coffee.
This humorous story is a good example of how busy life can get. We need to remember to enjoy the coffee…iced or hot. A lady slipped on the ice as she walked across a parking lot. A driver stopped and asked if she was hurt. The lady responded that she was alright. The driver then asked, “Can I have your parking space? Compassion is something that requires more than just saying, it takes doing. Compassion literally means “to suffer together.” It is defined as the feeling that arises when you are confronted with another’s suffering and feel motivated to relieve that suffering. Compassion is not the same as empathy or altruism, though the concepts are related. While empathy refers more generally to our ability to take the perspective of and feel the emotions of another person, compassion is when those feelings and thoughts include the desire to help. In Acts 9:36-43 we find out about Tabitha, she was compassionate. Many widows of the time struggled. Tabitha helped them by making clothes for them. She showed her compassion by doing. In the same way when Tabitha died the widows sent for Peter. Peter went to Tabitha and told her to get up…and she did. Peter was also a doer. Dr. Martha Myers is a good example of compassion with actio Called as a little girl to missions, she served in One woman went home and told her husband that she had never been treated with such love and compassion. This man was so angered that he burst into the Jibla hospital and gunned down Martha and two colleagues in hopes of keeping Christianity out of his country. Instead, her grave stands today as a testimony to the love of Christ for the Yemeni people. Former IMB President Jerry Rankin said, “Martha’s colleagues said the gunmen did not take her life. She lost her life to Jesus Christ years ago when she trusted Him. Martha was not living for herself, but to serve others.” Too much of the time we’re scared so we don’t do. We tell ourselves; I don’t have the skills for that. Someone else will do it. We’re too busy, we don’t have time. And the excuses go on. This doesn’t mean that we all have to be a missionary doctor in Compassion is often dismissed as a touchy-feely or irrational emotion. Not so… It takes courage to care.
The world will be better if we lose our lives to Christ and show compassion through action.
Timber Creek Construction
14280 52nd Road
Rock, Kansas 67131
620-229-0436
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