A Heart Of Sacrifice

A heart of sacrifice

i. ((Lk 10:34-35) "He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’"

Pastor David Jeremiah tells a story about Bob Pierce.

Pierce had advanced leukemia. But he went to visit a friend in Indonesia before he died. As they were walking through a small village, they came upon a young girl lying on a bamboo mat next to a river. She was dying of cancer. And she only had a short time to live.

Bob was upset. He said, "Why isn’t she in a clinic? Why

isn’t someone taking care of her?" But his friend explained that she was from the jungle. And she wished to spend her last days next to the river, where it was cool and familiar.

As Bob gazed at her, he felt such compassion that he got

down on his knees in the mud, took her hand, and began

stroking it. Although she didn’t understand him, he prayed for her.

Afterward she looked up and said something. "What did she

say?" Bob asked his friend.

His friend replied, "She said, ’If I could only sleep again, if I could only sleep again.’"

Bob began to weep. Then he reached into his pocket and

took out his own sleeping pills, the ones his doctor had given him because the pain from his leukemia was too great for him to sleep at night.

He handed the bottle to his friend. "You make sure this

young lady gets a good night’s sleep," he said, "as long as these pills last."

Bob was ten days away from where he could get his prescription refilled. That meant ten painful and restless nights.

From Scott Cody’s Sermon: A Good Samaritan’s Heart