{"id":34446,"date":"2022-10-22T03:30:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-22T10:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=34446"},"modified":"2022-10-21T16:06:07","modified_gmt":"2022-10-21T23:06:07","slug":"october-22-2022","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2022\/10\/22\/october-22-2022\/","title":{"rendered":"October 22, 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Refused Mercies<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThrough the Lord\u2019s mercies we are not consumed because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, says my soul. Therefore, I hope in Him.\u201d <\/em>Lamentations 3:22-24<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>My heart is breaking this morning for an elderly aunt in her 90\u2019s who is suffering in deplorable conditions, yet will not allow anyone to help her. Her daughter seems unable or unwilling to care properly for her aged mother. When the crisis reaches intolerable limits, a call goes out to my sister who arrives like the cavalry to save the day, but she can only provide temporary measures because long term solutions are vehemently denied to her by everyone in the dysfunctional household. And so, in addition to the disturbing anguish over my aunt\u2019s condition is the emotional toll on my sister who is tormented with the thoughts of our aunt\u2019s suffering.<\/p>\n

I am praying daily over this situation.\u00a0We are looking for interventions. In this particular state there seems to be no effective agency for elder abuse or anyone who can force the issue. The ambulance staff has been told to get out of the house in rather angry and colorful language. The police say they cannot take her out unless they arrest her.\u00a0What would they charge her with?\u00a0Being old and stubborn? The Social Services agencies have been out to the house and say there is nothing they can do.\u00a0Really?!<\/p>\n

Have I mentioned I am praying daily over this situation? What is the answer when there seems to be no answer? Where is God?<\/p>\n

I know He sees and knows all that happens and all that doesn\u2019t happen in that little house. The thinking there is childish, foolish, self-involved, and reality is far distant from decision-making. What can we do when we are denied at every turn?\u00a0Help is at the door and yet my aunt will not leave, will not get proper care, and remains adamant about maintaining the horrific status quo.<\/p>\n

I know that God Himself has been in this position since He created man.\u00a0He knows how this feels. He weeps with us. He has always wanted so much more for those who bear His image and yet we have insisted upon things that bring about our own destruction and pain.\u00a0We reject His help, His love, and His perfect solution to our crisis of sin and death.\u00a0He has cried out, \u201cWhat more can I do?\u201d Salvation knocks at the door, but He hears rejection, denial, and refusal to be saved, to be set free, to be made whole. It breaks His heart.<\/p>\n

Father, we look to You to do those things that are beyond us.\u00a0You are the hope we hold onto. Break through the illusions and lies and bring kindness and care into this situation that seems so frustratingly hopeless. In Jesus name, Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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