Merrry Monday with Parris Bailey
WHY BETHESDA COMMUNITY
In the Gospel of John vs 5:25 says; “ It’s urgent that you get this right: The time has arrived—I mean right now!—when dead men and women will hear the voice of the Son of God and, hearing, WILL COME ALIVE. Just as the Father has life in himself, he has conferred on the Son life in himself.”
Last week while cooking supper I heard on the US NEWS that Opioid use has killed more than 33,000 people in 2015 alone. Overdose deaths nearly equal the number of car fatalities. Also the first time in our history heroin overdoses alone surpassed gun homicides. It is reaching epidemic proportions. Right outside our doors the interstates are filled with trafficking this lethal drug. We need to realize that this isn’t happening in some dark alleyway in shantytowns. Addiction has gone mainstream hitting every small town, big cities including the social elite. We can try to blame the person but in reality this world can’t handle their hurts. The prison systems are failing, and prescribing more meds simply isn’t working.
There is another way! Now after ten years running a restoration center working with women, I still find myself searching for more ways to bring hope and recovery to anyone that darkens the door. The intake requests never stop and the back door to use again never closes. Once a drug user myself, I learned from personal experience to never “leave the community” or in my case the kingdom of God. We can never underestimate the power of redemption. Jesus still saves, baptizes and delivers. Jesus is still walking the halls of institutions and the alleyways.
The good news is the message of God gives life where the dead are. Matthew Henry says, “He is to his creatures the fountain of life, and all good; author of their being and well-being; the living God, and the God of all living. It is by the voice of the Son of God that souls are raised to spiritual life; it is wrought by his power, and that power is conveyed and communicated by his word: The dead shall hear, shall be made to hear, to understand, receive, and believe.”
The Bethesda Community exists to show forth redemption to a fallen world. The Bethesda Community will use the model Jesus used with his disciples. They lived, prayed and ate together for three years. These twelve men changed the world after the resurrection, preaching teaching and baptizing in the name of Jesus. In Acts 2:46, you hear community again when we read, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart”.
This coming June we are launching of our new Discipleship Training School. it will consist of a one year program for ages 18-25 who will enroll for a small fee and have hands on training, learning missions, inner city evangelism, and attend our Bethesda School of Ministry. They can also elect to further their college education while living here. The Campus will provide a Christian atmosphere or safe zone, so to speak, to study, be discipled, and live a deeper life.
It is our goal to raise $80,000 to equip each 8 two-bedroom apartment with furniture, finish out the apartments with needed appliances, plumbing and electrical work. Please pray for us as we impact the next generation.