2026-02-23 Lent - Day 6 Lent 1st Monday of Lent Good morning! We have a beautiful scripture today! Matthew 25:40 40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ This is a scripture that describes Jesus separating the sheep from the goats. He basically He is telling the greedy that they have no place in the Kingdom of God. Scary thought! But he tells the flock that lived their lives with a Servant’s heart that they will receive their just reward in the Kingdom of Heaven. This is also a deep scripture about love. Who are we supposed to love? How do we put our love into action? We are commanded to love EVERYONE!!! When I first began my training to be a pastor, I was given an assignment by the Holy Spirit. Long story, but I’ll save it for another time. Basically, I was instructed to find something that would help a group of people described in the scripture above. “What you did for the least of these, you did also to Me”. This is where the Circle of Faith Ministry began. It has been many years ago that I kicked this off, but it developed into a wonderful GED program. I’m not smart enough to teach the class, but I knew a lot of people smarter than me that could help me implement the ministry. Smarter than me? I know, the bar was low! LOL! But it first began in Chandler with Ben Imel. Ben has since passed away and is now receiving his reward, but he developed a GED ministry that was phenomenal! We advertised and Ben started teaching people and preparing them for the GED almost immediately after we implemented the ministry . Many of these folks were struggling and Ben was the perfect fit. The key to the success of the ministry was simple. Show these people they are valued and loved! A lot of them had been beaten down their whole life. Their confidence and self esteem were non existent. Ben began to instill confidence in them and TELL them they CAN do all things through Christ! Guess what? Ben did it!!! He had dozens of folks go through the GED ministry and tons of them got their GED! Several went on to college! That kicked off in 2012 and I have no clue how many since then have gotten their GED, but it’s a lot! It has since moved to the Luther FCC, but it’s still going strong! A Christ/love based ministry will always succeed! Love the poor! Love the sick! Love the homeless! Love the prisoner! Love everyone as Christ did and YOU will be blessed more than you can fathom! Blessings,