8.13- I am enjoying hearing stories of love and compassion from around the world each week.

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 8.13-

I am enjoying hearing stories of love and compassion from around the world each week.
I attend several congregations online in addition to my own home churches. I like to visit where my family members attend. This week in London I heard this story.
The story of the friendship of Naomi and Ruth was used to illustrate what friendship means. The most famous verse says " where you go i will go, where you live i will live and where you die i will die and there i will be buried". That's Ruth's comitment to her mother in law, Naomi, who had nothing to give her except her presence.
Our God gives his friendship and presence in our hardest moments. We come with empty hands and he fills them with what we need.
The minister illustrated this by telling of a time twenty years ago when his best friend experienced the death of a newborn baby. He didn't know anything to do but go over there and grieve with them.
His friend moved to another area and they lost contact. 20 years and they met at church. They had several grown children. They remembered he came to their house daily for a month. Friendship is presence in hard times..

2 Timothy 1
16 May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains. 17 On the contrary, when he was in Rome, he searched hard for me until he found me. 18 May the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! You know very well in how many ways he helped me in Ephesus.

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