A Picture is Worth a 1000 Words

Jesus sees each one of us as beautiful.

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We are all familiar with the cliché, “a picture is worth a 1000 words.” The understanding is that sometimes nothing needs to be said in order to communicate a thought. I think this is absolutely appropriate when describing this year’s first “Hope Portrait” event at Living Word Baptist Church in Lebanon, Ohio. 

The purpose of this event was to provide the financially challenged around Living Word Baptist Church with a professional portrait of themselves. We have found that many families don’t have the extra money to have their portraits taken. This event gave us the opportunity to share with our community something that could not be expressed with words – a beautiful photograph of themselves and in turn provided an opportunity to speak to them about how Jesus sees each one of them as beautiful. One of my favorite things about Jesus is He is willing to demonstrate how He feels about us. In fact, He demonstrated how much he loved us “that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8) This Hope Portrait event went beyond words and demonstrated to many people that we really do love them.
A very special thank-you to everyone who helped to make this a huge success. Most importantly we praise King Jesus for allowing us to love others for Him.

Passive Spectators or Active Participants

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The Lord has galvanized the body of Christ with one mind and one purpose
—to make disciples of all the nations and to preach the Kingdom of God. 



One of my new favorite phrases is Today counts forever.  This means that the decisions we make today have eternal value. In James 1:22 God warns us to “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” In God’s eyes faith is followed by action. It’s not the action that proves our faith, rather our faith should motivate us to action out of our love for Jesus and for others. Urbancresters this year demonstrated their beliefs by mobilizing and helping others less fortunate. We are not satisfied being passive spectators when the Lord has called us to be active participants.

 Less than 30 days from our Thanksgiving Baskets of Hope event, we turned around and hosted our Christmas Baskets of Hope for the community. This year we gave baskets and toys to 309 needy families. Most importantly we shared the hope of Jesus at two church locations where 11 people responded with professions of faith. Many others asked for prayer. The encouragement to our community was far reaching and the impact will count forever. Many people expressed their heart-felt thanks for these baskets and we even had two people contribute to this event as we were checking out at the grocery. I suspect that we will never know how many lives we have touched through this ministry—all for the glory of God.

This year, as you enjoy Christmas dinner with our family and open gifts from loved ones, remember that 309 families in the Lebanon area are doing the same because of your efforts. The Lord has galvanized the body of Christ with one mind and one purpose—to make disciples of all the nations and to preach the Kingdom of God. Thanks again to all who actively participated and thank you Jesus for bringing Hope to us all.