Shellie Purdy just went home to be with Jesus after a long struggle with cancer. She was a fighter and refused to give up. Some of us may know that she wrote a book on her struggles with doubt and how God carried her through adversity called ‘Knocked Down by Life, Lifted Up by God’. Its pretty encouraging.

Although she had battles with sickness and weakness, she attended church whenever she was able. And she was always an encourager. She was adamant that she was going to beat this battle and refused to allow anyone around her to talk about death, even up to the end. The great healing evangelist, Oral Roberts used to say that death is the ultimate healing. She today has her new body and no more pain.

I remember when they first began attending New Hope that she asked for prayer for her situation. After, her husband, Terry, was in the foyer and mentioned a bad back. A couple of men prayed for him and the pain immediately went away. It was a healing for Terry and encouragement of God’s ability to Shellie.

What will you remember about Shellie?

When I was a teenager my grandfather died and our family moved into his house in Butler. There was a barn behind the house where horses had been boarded for years. The barn was a magnet for rats. So, I took it upon myself to rid the place of rats. I hate rats. Dad had a few old rusty muskrat traps that I decided to put into action. There were a few holes, cracks and places where rats had crossed, so those were my points of ambush. I dipped the rusty metal traps in hot water to remove my scent (yes, I smelled like a teenager). Using gloves, I carefully placed the traps so that a passing rat would have to step into it.

But, I learned that a rat won’t knowingly step on a trap. You have to hide the danger. So, with a small amount of straw strewn over it, it had been masked. And, to my delight, I caught rats. And I learned an important lesson on Christianity. No one knowingly steps into a trap. But, when its covered up and looks enticing, even the most spiritual of us will step right into that trap. We forget how deceitful Satan is. Satan doesn’t care how prosperous or well-liked we are; he only wants to wreck our testimony, our marriage, our witness for Christ. And his traps are beautiful and exciting and full of promise…until he springs the trap.

My heart grieves at my brothers and sisters who have been caught in Satan’s spiritual trap. They have lost their financial security, their marriages, their Christian witness, and their sense of being pure in God’s eyes. Through beauty they ended up ugly and broken. Yes, God gives second chances, but oh, how much we can lose before the second chance begins.

“By smooth words and flattering speech [they] deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:18). That’s a word for somebody today.

In 1986 New Hope sent Anita and I on a trip to the Holy Land. It changed our lives. One day we entered the famous Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem. Before you can enter the museum, you have to walk down a boulevard called “The Avenue of the Righteous Gentiles”. It is lined with hundreds of trees planted in honor of people who sheltered or in other ways assisted Jews during the Nazi regime. At the base of each tree is a metal plaque bearing the name of a man, woman, or family who risked their lives to help the Jews during the Holocaust of World War 2. Some of the names are familiar, like Corrie ten Boom and Oscar Schindler. But most are not. We will not recognize their names.

They were ordinary people who just cared about helping their neighbors in a tough spot. Have you helped a neighbor recently? Have you demonstrated the love of God so others can see it? Have you prayed for someone? Stood up for someone? Paid a bill for someone? If you have, chances are they haven’t forgotten it.

Paul said, “Greet Priscilla and Aquilla,…who risked their own necks for my life” (Romans 16:3-4). Go plant a tree today.

When I was a zit-faced teenager I was plagued by nose-bleeds. There were times I was late for school because I couldn’t get it stopped, and times I was dismissed from class to the restroom with my nose dripping blood. How embarrassing!

When I was 16 I broke my nose in a farming accident. It was painful and I was ugly for a week or so, but I never had a another bloody nose. Being broken was the cure. And that seems to be a biblical pattern: Brokenness heals.

• Jacob’s stubbornness had to be broken before God could bless him (Genesis 32:22-32).
• Gideon’s 300 soldiers had to break their pitchers before God struck terror in their adversaries (Judges 7:19-25).
• Mary of Bethany had to break her alabaster box before she could anoint Jesus with ointment (Mark 14:3).
• Jesus had to break the five barley loaves before He could feed the 5,000 (John 6:1-14).
• Jesus’s body had to be broken by thorns, nails, and a spear before you could be healed of your sin (Matthew 26:26).

Is this a surprise to you? You must be broken. And you must be healed of that brokenness. Anonymous once said, “Broken things can become Blessed things if you let Christ do the mending.”

I was pleased to hear that Melania Trump, about to become our First Lady, will focus on stopping media bullying on Twitter and Facebook. Great goal, and I admire her taking this on. Too many of America’s children are being intimidated and bullied by classmates who only want to force their own perspectives down other people’s throats. Not cool. I wonder where these kids picked up such a crazy idea as to shame others into compliance with their social view?

Perhaps they learned it from their parents on Twitter and Facebook who re-post hate-filled and disparaging posts about the people who would soon become leaders of the United States. Isn’t that what veterans fought against in Europe 70 years ago? Paul said, “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29).

So, I’m cheering for Melania. I wish her success on her new goal and hope her first successful project is her husband.

I have a granddaughter who is in middle school in Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is truly an international city with residents and immigrants from all over the world. They are mostly hard-working, middle-class, law-abiding people. The day after the election the schools were in chaos. My granddaughter’s classmates were in tears fearing their families would be deported. Teachers were doing their best to calm these kids’ fears. I’m sure this is occurring in cities all over America. This shouldn’t be happening to kids in America.

This immigration crisis has been growing for decades under both Republican and Democratic administrations. It is a problem we have all created, and its not the kids’ fault. America prides itself in being a secure place, but our children aren’t feeling it. President-elect Donald Trump needs to take action steps to calm the fears he has generated. He has made promises that voters will hold him to. And he needs to fix the problem American voters want him to fix. I’d say this new administration is going to need the prayers of praying people.

My prayer is that God will give these new leaders wisdom to bring responsible change without destroying America’s sense of fairness and reputation in the world as home of the free.