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"Cardboard Christianity"

I recently heard a man on the radio talking about cardboard Christianity. Have you ever seen a street person holding up a cardboard sign? That sign sums up his existence in a few short words, maybe something like - "homeless, need food."

In cardboard Christianity, church members hold up a sign that says something about their lives, then they flip it over and it tells what Jesus did.

I knew immediately that mine would say, "I will never be loved." I often wonder how I had allowed just one line, spoken to me in spite, to affect my entire adult life.  I had allowed it, (by a person who delighted in being cruel), to influence my life even after he was gone.

Has anyone ever said something to you that stuck so deeply it affected your entire life? Whether or not the person had intentionally meant to hurt you didn’t matter. It was as though an arrow had pierced your soul, and it was always there, affecting your life and actions.

That person had unknowingly planted a seed in you, then later brought it into the light where it could grow; and, like a wild vine, it had managed to strangle you for years.

In my early twenties, I developed a five-year relationship with a man; but it was not good. Finally, after years of abuse, I gathered enough courage to leave. His parting words to me were, "no one will ever love you!"

Considering the source, his comment should have rolled off me like water, but deep down there had been a seed lying dormant, all it lacked was a little light and water, and at some point, it began to grow.

In the years that followed, relationship after relationship failed, and nothing I could do would make anyone love me. Nothing "I" could do, emphasis on I; then I found Jesus, and He began to heal me from the inside out.

How often we give power to others over our lives, power that does not belong to anyone but God. The Bible tells us, that if we think on things that are just, pure, lovely, and of a good report, the peace of God will guard our hearts and minds, (Phil 4:7, 8).

When we allow the fiery darts of the enemy to enter in, and then begin to dwell on them, we are allowing someone else to control our lives, (instead of God). We need to realize how important we are to God, and that He loved us enough to let His son die for us.

His opinion is the only one that counts, and we know that whatever He says to us is said in love, not cruelty.

Now, when I flip my cardboard Christianity sign over, it says, "Jesus loves me!!!"

Below is a link to a good video about cardboard ministry:

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"Lets Teach Our Children to Love"

Why is it so difficult for our educators and society, in general, to understand that love and respect for one another taught from a young age can solve much of the world's hostility and social problems!

"Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it" (Prov 22:6).

Love is the answer!

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True loyalty springs from the heart and is wrapped in love. It is often in our most private moments that true loyalty, or the lack of it, is made known.

Cardboard Christianity