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Key Bible Verse: "To those I called 'Not my people,' I will say, 'Now you are my people'" (Hosea 2:23). Bonus Reading:Psalm 146:5-9

You bigots want to condemn everyone else to hell," the voice snarled. My radio host was taken aback, but I recognized the voice.

"Mike," I said, "I know it's you." Mike had heckled at our meetings, harassed our street evangelists, and hurled legal and physical threats our way.

"Well, yeah…" the voice spluttered, "What you gonna do? Get all your homophobe friends to pray for me?"

"This is the former president of a militant homosexual group here in Houston," I told the listeners. "Mike has AIDS and some financial difficulties. But, Mike, your group hangs together, doesn't it?"

"You bet. We'll keep fighting to shut you Christians up."

"Then who paid your electric bill last month?"

"How do you know about my electric bill?"

"Because we paid it for you, Mike."

We knew the pattern. AIDS patients' finances dwindle as they seek treatment; they lose energy, and their organs malfunction till they can't care for themselves. So Christians were there by his bedside when Mike needed help, then, as he cried, led him to Christ. Within hours he left this earth for the arms of a Savior whom he'd hated but who loved him in his sin.

—Doug Stringer in Somebody Cares

My Response: How do I respond to my attackers?

Thought to Apply: Tell me how much you know of the suffering of your fellow men, and I will tell you how much you have loved them. —Helmut Thielicke

Adapted from Somebody Cares (Regal, 2001) by permission.

Copyright © 2003 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Thank you, God, that Your purity never blocked Your mercy. Show me how to model Your compassion for the hurting.

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