• Welcome
    • Purpose
    • Statement of Faith
    • Prayer Request
  • My Apology
  • TESTIMONY
    • English
    • Chinese Translation
    • Dutch Translation
    • French Translation
    • German Translation
    • Hebrew Translation
    • Italian Translation
    • Portuguese Translation
    • Russian Translation
    • Spanish Translation
    • Turkish Translation
  • READY OR NOT...
    • 22 Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled From the Tanakh
    • Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus
    • The Rapture
  • My Story - Videos
    • My Life Story Video - "In His Own Words"
    • Video Interviews
    • Written Interviews
    • Son of Hope Gospel Tracts
  • Journal
    • 2023 >
      • January 2023
      • February 2023
      • *March 2023
    • 2022 >
      • January 2022
      • February 2022
      • March 2022
      • April 2022
      • May 2022
      • June 2022
      • July 2022
      • August 2022
      • September 2022
      • October 2022
      • November 2022
      • December 2022
    • 2021 >
      • January 2021
      • February 2021
      • March 2021
      • April 2021
      • May 2021
      • June 2021
      • July 2021
      • August 2021
      • September 2021
      • October 2021
      • November 2021
      • December 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017-2005
    • 2004-2003
  • Updates
  • Parole Hearing Transcript 2016
  • For Parents, Teens, and Students
    • General Advice for Parents
    • Advice For Troubled Teens
    • Stopping Teen Violence
    • School Projects
    • Jailhouse Interview
    • A Letter to David from Youth Minister Dan Bailey
    • Suicide is Everyone's Business
    • What is Prison All About?
  • For Satanists
    • A Letter to a Satanist
    • Satan's Bible
    • Famous Satanists' Last Words - Quotes
    • Carl Sartor's Story
    • A Satanist Has a Vision
    • Jailhouse Interview
  • A Letter to a Soldier
  • Ministry Tools
  • Insights and Miscellaneous
    • A Letter to North Shore Baptist Church
    • Jesus Christ, the True Treasure and Pearl of Great Price!
    • He Knows Your Name
  • Inspirational Testimonies
  • Friends
  • Contact
  • Welcome
    • Purpose
    • Statement of Faith
    • Prayer Request
  • My Apology
  • TESTIMONY
    • English
    • Chinese Translation
    • Dutch Translation
    • French Translation
    • German Translation
    • Hebrew Translation
    • Italian Translation
    • Portuguese Translation
    • Russian Translation
    • Spanish Translation
    • Turkish Translation
  • READY OR NOT...
    • 22 Messianic Prophecies Fulfilled From the Tanakh
    • Prophecies Fulfilled by Jesus
    • The Rapture
  • My Story - Videos
    • My Life Story Video - "In His Own Words"
    • Video Interviews
    • Written Interviews
    • Son of Hope Gospel Tracts
  • Journal
    • 2023 >
      • January 2023
      • February 2023
      • *March 2023
    • 2022 >
      • January 2022
      • February 2022
      • March 2022
      • April 2022
      • May 2022
      • June 2022
      • July 2022
      • August 2022
      • September 2022
      • October 2022
      • November 2022
      • December 2022
    • 2021 >
      • January 2021
      • February 2021
      • March 2021
      • April 2021
      • May 2021
      • June 2021
      • July 2021
      • August 2021
      • September 2021
      • October 2021
      • November 2021
      • December 2021
    • 2020
    • 2019
    • 2018
    • 2017-2005
    • 2004-2003
  • Updates
  • Parole Hearing Transcript 2016
  • For Parents, Teens, and Students
    • General Advice for Parents
    • Advice For Troubled Teens
    • Stopping Teen Violence
    • School Projects
    • Jailhouse Interview
    • A Letter to David from Youth Minister Dan Bailey
    • Suicide is Everyone's Business
    • What is Prison All About?
  • For Satanists
    • A Letter to a Satanist
    • Satan's Bible
    • Famous Satanists' Last Words - Quotes
    • Carl Sartor's Story
    • A Satanist Has a Vision
    • Jailhouse Interview
  • A Letter to a Soldier
  • Ministry Tools
  • Insights and Miscellaneous
    • A Letter to North Shore Baptist Church
    • Jesus Christ, the True Treasure and Pearl of Great Price!
    • He Knows Your Name
  • Inspirational Testimonies
  • Friends
  • Contact
AriseandShine.org

June 2005

Simple Things

6/30/2005

 
For whosoever shall give you a cup of water to
drink in My name, because ye belong to Christ,
verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward. 
Mark 9:41


Mike’s Sister Dee* is dying... 
She’s forty-five years old, living in an apartment in New York City, and has AIDS. Several weeks ago, he had asked me to write his sister to try to encourage her. So I sent a letter to Dee urging her to continue to trust in Christ, and that no matter how sick she feels, to never lose faith in the Lord.

Back in the late 1990s, some of Mile’s family members rescued Dee from a crack house. She had been missing for a few days, and they were finally able to track her down. When they found her, Dee was semiconscious and sprawled on a tenement floor. They had to carry her back home. But the years of being an addict and using intravenous drugs in addition to sniffing crack, all came crashing down on her life when she began to get sick. Then came the doctor’s diagnosis.

Dee’s tragic story is typical. Succumbing to the temptations of the streets while growing up in Harlem, she’s now on her way to an early grave. A life once full of hope is eternally detoured.

Mike told me that his sister may not have much longer. She’s gravely ill and, most of the time, too weak to attend church. But it is in reading out to people like Dee, however, that God has been showing me that value of simple things. There is everlasting worth in acts of kindness. It’s the small things we can do that will make a big difference in someone else’s life. And as I travel on this spiritual journey with its many times of trials, tests and temptations, I rejoice at the opportunities to touch needy lives in the same way that God has so often touched and helped me.

I am thankful, too, for the occasions when I could help another man by writing a letter for him, or by getting him an item from the prison’s commissary because he’s broke, and he cannot afford anything.
Then there are the times when I am able to pray for a man who’s sick or feeling stressed out.

It is a joy doing what I believe Jesus Himself would do. I am certain that God takes notice of these simple things, as well as every kind deed.

D.B.


*Dee is not her real name. 

Comments are closed.

    Author

    David Berkowitz
    Copyright © AriseandShine.Org

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly