Today, they call them homeless.And they are people living in tents, or just pieces of plastic put together somehow and I feel so sorry for them. But I feel anger for some of them too because they are tearing up our streets and parks. The city doesn’t know what to do about this huge problem. They would build and revamp some buildings and try to get themto move in but many of the people don’t want to live in them. We all try to help them by giving them food, blankets and clothing, but that doesn’t seem to help much either. They need a complete change in their thinking. They need God more than anything.Folks have tried to talk to them, telling them God loves them and there is a better way to live. The sad thing is, I have seen children running around there too. There must be something we can do.

We had plenty of bums in the Thirties. They built their camps near railroads so it would be easy to jump on one of the railroad cars to get to another camp. Mama would tell us never to go near the bum’s camp but we went anyhow. Their camp was always neat. In the middle of the camp was a huge campfire where they cooked their stew. My girlfriend and I tasted one of their stews once and it was very good. Around the fire a private place was set for each person’s bed and a box for belongings. They often sang songs and told stories. We always joined in. most of them were songs of the Cival War.

How did the bum’s get the vegetables to make the stews, you ask? Well, they went around to homes that had a big garden and asked if they could work in the garden for some of the vegetables. Daddy was always happy to have someone work his garden! Then they would take the vegetables back to the camp where they made their stew. Sometimes, they asked if there was some work they could do for a meal. Farmers brought us logs of wood in the fall of the year. Daddy was the Pastor of the church, and the farmers couldn’t pay money to the church, so they brought enough logs to heat the church and our parsonage. Daddy was happyto have the bum’s come and saw some of the logs too. He thought sawing wood was really hard work.

One time Daddy was not very happy with the bums. We were leaving on a vacation so he put his preaching clothes neatly hanging in his closet. While we were gone, a bum took his preaching clothes and left his old clothes hanging just as neatly as Daddy had. That has always been a story Daddy told in his sermons.

Times have really changed, haven’t they? Oh, I suppose we wouldn’t want to leave our handy gagets in order to go back, but I believe it wouldn’t hurt to change some of our thinking, don’t you? First of all, we need to think those homeless people are just as good as we are. the New Testament in our Bibles tells us that a man, who was an enemy of the country, was left in a ditch, beat up badly by some men who didn’t like him being in their country. A priest and a well dressed man walked by, seeing the tortured man, but walked passed him. A countryman came by, picked the man up, put him in a hotel and told the hotel manager he would pay all the costs for the man when he returned the next week. That’s the way we should be. Jesus says we should love our neighbor as ourselves. And He meant everybody. Let’s start there, shall we?

I imagine the story in Jeremiah 18 will have been read in many churches this week because of it being Labor Day weekend. I began listening as the lady read Jeremiah 18: 1-11 in church last sunday. The Lord was talking to Jeremiah about a man who was working at his potter’s wheel making a jar but it wasn’t turning out right, so he smashed the jar into a lump of clay and started over again. there must have been a little time when nothing was said because Jeremiah said, Then the Lord gave me this message: “Can I not do to you as the potter has done to this day? As the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand. If I announce that a certain nation is to be uprooted, torn down, and destroyed, but then that nation repents, I will not destroy it as I had planned!

That sounds like America! I thought. I hope He has never made a statement like that. But if He has, I’m glad He will not destroy America if we repent of the evil in our country! But are we doing that? We are still killing babies. It isn’t safe for anyone to walk outdoors after dark. Our children are learning terrible things in school. We don’t follow our laws. We don’t follow our constitution anymore. Our prices are going up so bad that many families are having deep trouble making ends meet. Oh, I could go on. Shouldn’t God destroy us as He said?

If we repent of our evil ways, He said. I would say we are trying, wouldn’t you? Millions of people are flocking to churches and tents and so many are accepting the Gospel. I heard Marcus Marilo speak, the other day. It was raining when he was driving up to the tent which held thousands of people. The cars were lined up miles from the tent. The tent was filled up two hours before the time for service was to start. When they did start the service, there were more people standing out in the rain then there were in the tent. And, they did not leave!

We still have a long way to go. Please pray every day for our beloved country. Prayer will go a long way. and wouldn’t it be great if He said “I will not destroy America. I will build it up, making it strong and great!! our Bible is always true. Just turn to Jeremiah 18: 1-11.