Crossroads Ministries Inc.

This is the day the Lord has made.  Let us rejoice and be glad in it!  Greetings!  I am praying that as you read this you are experiencing great days, filled with blessings of health, financial security, love, joy and peace.  However, if that is not the case and your days have been filled with trials and difficulties, please know that you are not alone.  So many of us have been experiencing a season of difficulties.  Some are facing unimaginable hardships and each day to them feels like years as they wonder how in the world they can carry on.

Dear Friend, Sing praises to God if you are having good days. To those of you who are going through the trial of your life, you need to praise him even more.  James 1:2-4 clearly speaks to us.  It reads, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  So, it instructs us to count our situation as pure joy.  Why?  We are to praise God because all these difficulties are working towards making us mature and complete children of God by producing in us perseverance (patience).  Hooray!  (Smile)

None of us enjoy going through hard times, but  we do want to be all God has created and designed for us to be, don’t we?  This is what life at the Crossroads is all about.  It is where the rubber meets the road.  It is where we live out God’s word daily with his help and by his grace. Isn’t that what we want?

While this has been a difficult season for me with Joe’s health issues and related financial challenges,  along with ministry and family responsibilities as I recover from Kidney transplant surgery, each day, I get up, dress up and show up, trusting in our faithful Lord to be with me as he has promised.  No matter what life throws our way, we serve an awesome God.  He loves us and has promised never to leave us or forsake us.  He is with you.  You are not alone.   This is the day he has made and he knew everyone of your days before there was one of them.  Here are a few scriptures to consider as you face your day:

When you feel like God is taking a long time to deliver you from an overwhelming situation – But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. 2 Peter 3:8 NIV

When you are tempted to worry – Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:34

While each day has enough trouble of its own, please know that God has not left you to face it alone. – For in the day if trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Psalm 27:5

God knows what you are going through and is able to replace your afflictions with gladness as revealed by this prayer – Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. Psalm 90:15

God is good all the time.  No matter what your days have been like recently, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5-6

Eartha Pinder Harris, President

Preaching the good news (gospel) to the poor is an important part of what we are to do in Jesus’ name.    Isaiah 61:1, the Messianic prophecy that Jesus fulfilled and pointed to when responding to John the Baptist when he sent his disciples to question whether or not Jesus was truly the Messiah they were waiting for, starts by proclaiming that ” The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.”  Jesus had already plainly declared this early in his ministry.  In Luke 4:18, he stated, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free …  After reading this in the Torah, he clearly told everyone present that this prophecy was even then being fulfilled in him.

Friends, I believe the Lord wants us to continue his ministry of seeing that the good news of the kingdom is preached to the poor.  The message of God’s love revealed to us in Christ Jesus is good news.  The message that God loves even the poor so much that he gave his one and only son so that if they will just believe in Him they will have everlasting life is good news.  Further, the message that God has granted that to as many as receive Jesus he has given them the right to become children of God is great news.  Let’s let everyone know and let’s be sure that we are faithful to preach the gospel to the poor.  They need to hear some good news.  I have been sharing this good news for almost 37 years and continue to do so, because I believe it is a very important part of what we are to do in Jesus’ name.

He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.  John 15:2 NIV

Hi, I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today.  My mind is pondering the past 32 years.  I can hardly believe it but it was over 32 years ago when God called Joe and I to found Crossroads Ministries, Inc.  As I sit here today and look back at what the Lord has done, I stand amazed as I reminisce over those years. Think about it with me for a moment.   God sent a young couple from the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland to Worcester, MA to reach out to the homeless and hurting there.  We left Cambridge, MD in February 1984, wondering why God would send us to Massachusetts when there were so many in our own community that were hurting and needed to know about his love and grace.

We obeyed God and moved to Massachusetts, knowing no one there except Rev. Samuel R. Perry, who had been a spiritual father to me.  Needless to say, when we arrived in Massachusetts, the Lord opened many doors for us. We were adopted by the Stratton family and lived with them as we begin sharing the vision God had placed in our hearts.  Through prayer and faith in an all powerful God, we were empowered to open up Crossroads Coffeehouse in November 1984 and eventually even Crossroads Home for men.  In the process, God also used us to encourage unity among the churches and Christian community for the purpose of effective evangelism and lead major city-wide outreaches, while ministering to troubled youth through Children’s Church, and the establishment of a mission school.  For 18 years we watched God do one miracle after another in reaching the homeless, hurting and even those in the churches with his love and grace.  Crossroads proved itself as an effective missionary ministry in Worcester, MA.  To God be the glory!

Then in February 2002, we left Worcester, MA to return to the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland, (18 years to the day)  as Joe had been in poor health since 1998, and wanted to be closer to home.  The Lord has given us John 15:2, so we understood that the move would be a pruning process for us and for the ministry of Crossroads.  Our very successful ministry was pruned back substantially.  We felt as if there was not much left.  Even though we planned to continue ministry through Crossroads while in Maryland, ministry opportunities seemed to be far and few in between.  We felt God had forgotten about us and simply placed us on a shelf.  That was difficult after having such a dynamic ministry in Massachusetts. While Crossroads continued to function on a minimal level, reaching out to the homeless and needy in tangible ways, there was no comparison with its ministry in Massachusetts.

Then in 2011, while working with victims of domestic violence and sexual assault,  I became involved with Hope and Life Outreach (HALO) Ministry, a relatively new outreach to the homeless and hurting in Salisbury, MD.  Through my relationship with that ministry, God once again provided a solid connection with the homeless community.  Now, by His amazing grace, Crossroads is once again able to effectively minister to the unique spiritual needs of hundreds of homeless and hurting men, women and children from all over the Lower Eastern Shore on a regular basis.  I stand amazed at the Lord!  Through his pruning, we now do so much more with so much less. HALO provides shelter so we no longer need to do that.  They feed some 300 a day so we do not need to do that, either. We are free to serve God in the midst of this community focusing  all of our energies on sharing God’s love and his Word, bidding all to come to Jesus and teaching them how to walk in a manner worthy of him.

So here we are.  Jesus Christ remains alive and well at Crossroads Ministries.  He took us from Maryland and returned us here.  He taught us much and we have seen him do miraculous things and then he pruned us back to nothing so he could make us even stronger and better able to serve him.  What a mighty God we serve!  Looking forward to see what he has in store in this next season of our ministry here through Crossroads.  Stay tuned and plan to be amazed by God!

Eartha Pinder Harris, Chaplain at HALO Ministry                                                                                 President, Crossroads Ministries, Inc.

It’s 88 today and very humid.  Most people recognize it a summertime, but I am wondering if you know what season it is in your life spiritually.  I was pondering this scripture: