Tag: Evangelism

Worth Living For?

by crossroadsministriesmass, posted in Christian, homeless, suicide, Uncategorized

“Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?”

Leonard Ravenhill

While pondering this quote by Leonard Ravenhill, my mind traveled back to when I was twelve.  I hated my life and can remember spending much of my early adolescent years seriously assessing it. I carefully considered the hand life dealt me and weighed my options. To me, life felt totally unfair.  To be forced to live a life I did not ask for or want was just wrong. I had experienced a lot of bad things and had no hope that anything good could or would come from my life. All I could see was what I perceived as my deficits, those of being poor, being Black and being emotionally scarred from growing up in a dysfunctional family while living on Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore in the 1960s.  No matter how hard I tried, I could not understand why some people got to be born into families where they were loved, wanted, cared for, protected and provided for, while others, like me, struggled just to survive.  I felt it all was random, unfair, unjust and unbelievably cruel! 

As I mentally processed this, I asked myself questions like, “Since you did not choose or ask to be born, why are you alive? Since you’re miserable and hate your life so much, why suffer through it? And since you are doomed to fail in life without anything good, why continue going through all this agony? Why do you have to continue living it?  Why live a life of misery without hope?” Then I answered, “I don’t!” And I decided to kill myself. I was twelve. Please hear me! By the time I was 12 years old, I had taken a careful assessment of my life and concluded that it was of no value. The pain and suffering I had experienced in childhood and early adolescent years coupled with the fear of being trapped into an unjust and hopeless future without escape, eclipsed every other thought in my young mind.  Continuing to live the life handed to me with no way out of it was unthinkable, so when no one was around, I grabbed the pills I found in the medicine cabinet, downed them all, and went to sleep, hoping to never live another painful day.   

When I woke up from my intentional overdose, my head was spinning, everything was fuzzy.  At first, I thought my suicide attempt had been successful, but as my head cleared, I realized that I was still very much alive.  Devastated and angry, I called myself every demeaning name I could think of. “You dummy, you’re so (screwed) up, you couldn’t even kill yourself.” I had failed to end my misery.  I lied there defeated. Then, I heard, “You cannot die until I say so.”  I looked around.  Who was talking to me? I was alone. Even though it was not audible, that voice was real. One would think I would be awed or something, but no, instead, I was irate!  Who had the nerve to tell me that I could not end my own life? until they said so?  Who felt they had enough power to keep me alive when I was determined to die; To keep me living a life I did not want to live? I now know Almighty God did. I did not know Him then and it made absolutely no sense to me. Why did anyone care whether I lived or died. One of the reasons I had chosen to die was because I did not believe anyone cared. You see, I had picked up the responsibility for my life when I was eight.  I trusted no one, and I felt no one cared about me; so, this was confusing. Someone that had power over my life cared about whether I lived or died.

How does this relate to Leonard Ravenhill’s quote?  “Are the things you are living for worth Christ dying for?” By twelve, I felt there was nothing in my life worth living for. The fact that I am alive today is a miracle of God’s grace. I know, without a shadow of a doubt, I would be dead today had it not been for God’s intervention.  As I correctly assessed at twelve, my life has not been an easy one, but even though checking out of it crossed my mind sometimes during its most difficult seasons, I never again attempted to kill myself. The one who holds my life in his hand has used those hard times to reveal Himself to me.

Now, in my seventies, I can joyfully say “For me, to live is Christ.” God touched me at the local Baptist Church that same year and gave me the grace to believe in Jesus and to get baptized. I was able to understand that Jesus Christ died for my sins, and He rose from the grave signifying that God had forgiven me for the bad things I had done, but that was about all I knew. Not much changed in my life. Years later after being devastated by my failed marriage, I started reading and studying the Bible. That was when I began to understand what Jesus Christ died for. That was when life began to make sense and that was when I got a glimpse of what I was living for.

The God of the Bible, the God that created us in His image and likeness, loves us.  Remember John 3:16-17: “ For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” Jesus died so we would not perish but have eternal life. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us he came and died so that we (you and I) would have life and have life abundantly.  It became clear to me that Jesus Christ died to redeem our lives from destruction, deliver us from the power of death and give us life overflowing and eternally. In short, Jesus died so we could live the life God created us to live! Our “LIVING” is what Christ died for!  

Romans 5:8 tells us that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus died not only that we would have a full life and eternal life, but also that we would be able to receive the joy of knowing Him and knowing how deeply we are loved. Knowing, not just being told He loves us, but by Him dying to demonstrate His love and the Father’s love for us. Since coming to know our precious Lord and His love and being blessed to experience the life He created me to live, my heart and life overflow with gratitude. All I can do is thank God for loving me and giving me life to live it with and for Him.

So, what things are you living for? Is it riches, fame, romance, status, material things?  Are they worth Christ dying for? Thank God, I now joyously choose life and answer, “YES,” by God’s grace and with his help, I choose to live my life fully for Him. He is worth it.  He is the only one worth it.  He is worth everything I have ever gone through, no matter how difficult, embarrassing, humiliating, sorrowful or painful it was.  He is worth all that I am, everything I have, and all that I ever hope to be or have.  He is worth living for, and because of Him I live today.  I pray that Jesus Christ is what you are living for, as well.  To me, it is the only thing one can live for that is worth Christ dying for.  “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” (Galatians 2:20 NASB) What about you?

Eartha Harris

Thanking God for John Mattrick

by crossroadsministriesmass, posted in Christian, Uncategorized

“By this all people will know that you are My disciples: if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35 NASB)

John J. Mattrick

One way the Lord has blessed us at Crossroads has been through the men and women of God he sent to partner with us in this home mission ministry. John Mattrick was one such person. We remember John with love having recently learned he finished his race and has gone home to be with our Lord.

We were truly fortunate to have had John as a friend and a true Christian brother. He was as genuine as they get. John, an accountant, volunteered at Crossroads by donating his accounting services. He ensured that our financial records were accurate and always up to date. Additionally, he faithfully served on Crossroads Financial Advisory Board, along with other business professionals, providing financial insight and oversight. John, also, donated 50% of any tax preparation revenues he received from a Crossroads’ supporter back to Crossroads.

As a dedicated boy scouts troop leader, John was warm and friendly, imparting nuggets of quiet wisdom whenever given an opportunity to do so. One bit of wisdom he shared that remains with me is, “If you don’t have enough time to do something right the first time, when will you ever find enough time to fix it?” I don’t know whether or not that is an original quote, but it will always be a John Mattrick quote to me. While he was not one to seek the limelight, John was very comfortable serving in our street outreaches, such as troubled neighborhood adopt-a-blocks. In this picture, you can see John in the green pleasantly engaged in conversation while preparing to man a grill at one of those events.

John and his wife Lynn sometimes made their lake cabin available to Crossroads for baptisms and out of the city outings. Here is picture of Joe (upper right) and Ernie (upper left) with a group of freshly baptized brothers and sisters in Christ outside that cabin.

We thank God for the gift he gave this world in the person of John Mattrick. He cared deeply and took Jesus’ command to “love one another as I have loved you” seriously; so he opened his heart and loved deeply all those God sent his way. My last conversation with John was about the changes in church attendance post COVID. He shared how painful it was for him personally when people left the church. He said, “I feel like they are leaving me when they leave.” That was John. We are so grateful for the privilege of knowing, loving and being loved by Him. May God be with his wife, Lynn, their three children, Karen, Jill and Keith, their five grandchildren and his other family and friends as they endeavor to navigate this life without him.

40 Years & Remembering Priscilla

by crossroadsministriesmass, posted in Christian, homeless

Wow! Crossroads is entering its 40th year of ministry. To God be the glory! Great things he has done. 

Priscilla Stratton

As we prepare to celebrate 40 years of ministry through Crossroads, we must pause to remember those that were so instrumental in nurturing this God ordained ministry to the homeless, the marginalized and those battling life controlling addictions while in its formative years One of those people was Priscilla Stratton. We met Priscilla and her family mid January 1984 when we (my late husband, Joe Harris and myself) first visited Massachusetts. We arrived there on January 11, 1984, to spend prayerful time with Rev. Sam Perry, our dear friend and my spiritual father. While visiting with Sam, he introduced us to several of his Christian friends, including Priscilla and her family. Upon meeting Priscilla, there was an undeniable bond in the Spirit noted and the Lord’s Spirit knit our hearts together in His love. 

Even though Priscilla had been abandoned by her husband years before and had been struggling to raise their five children alone, she loved the Lord with everything in her, clung to him, trusted him wholeheartedly to care for her family and faithfully served Him. While she had very little money, she had a heart of gold. As a little Greek momma, struggling financially to put food on the table for her own family, she was generous and hospitable, sometimes possibly to a fault. Priscilla discerned the call of God upon our lives to launch Crossroads in Massachusetts, so she invited our family (Joe, Michael and I) to move in with her and her family until we were able to get Crossroads established. Who does that? Who as a financially overburdened single mother invites a young Black family she had just met to come and live in her home with her family? Even though she only knew us by the witness of the Spirit of the Living God, Priscilla trusted the God she loved and served, and to our surprise and amazement, she opened her heart to us and freely opened her home to us, as well. 

And without faith it is impossible to please Him,
for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists,
and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.
Hebrews 11:6

We cannot thank God enough for Priscilla Stratton. She was an amazing mother, oozing out her mother’s love in everything she did and everything she said. She raised her children to serve the Lord, encouraging, exhorting and supporting them as they blessed the local body of Christ through their anointed music ministry. She mothered Joe, Michael and I, as well, welcoming us as a part of her dearly loved family. I remain so very grateful to have been a beneficiary of her love.  God used his love flowing though her mightily to heal the many torn down and broken places inside of me that desperately needed the love of a godly mother. 

Priscilla left us in 2009 to be with our Lord, and is now lovingly serving him in Glory. While we miss her dearly, her legacy remains through her children, grandchildren and all that were the benefactors of her momma’s love. Crossroads Ministries, Inc. shares in being a part of her godly legacy, as it was at Priscilla’s home in 1984, 40 years ago, that this ministry was birthed. Even though God had given Joe and I the vision for Crossroads prior to our stepping out in faith, leaving our home state of Maryland, moving to unfamiliar Massachusetts to live with virtual strangers, it wasn’t until we did those things that God breathed on that vision and gave it life.