Today we are starting a series of studies on the compassionate nature of our God, He is an ever-present help in times of trouble and we take comfort in knowing that we can turn to Him.
Every day He gives us more and more reasons to trust Him, that have been plainly written for us.
His intentions towards us are clear, His promises plain and waiting to be accessed, if we would lay hold of them and believe that He is for us.
Psalm 145.14 tells us that;
The Lord Yehovah (Messiah Pre-Incarnate) upholds all that fall and raises up all those that are bowed down.
The Lord does not condemn, but lifts up the fallen.
How many of us met Him when we were indeed in this condition and His saving hand reached out to catch us and lift us up?
I know that I certainly was one of these!
What is our response to sinful and broken people?
Do we follow His pattern?
He helps those who fall to get back up.
Do we also offer an extended hand to help up those who have fallen into sin or hard times?
God asks us to act with compassion by His example.
His heart is always to restore and rescue, to bring those in danger of falling into the eternal safety of salvation.
And I for one am glad that there is room for me in God’s family!
Psalm 68.10 it says, “You, oh God, provided from your goodness for the poor.”
And in vs 19 we can say along with the Psalmist, “Blessed be the Lord who daily loads us with benefits!”
How glad we should be as children of God, we have all benefitted from His goodness!
His eyes run to and fro throughout the earth to observe and help His people, He offers fatherly providence and care when we are in distress and He provides social blessings.
He wants us to know that whatever our state, we can trust Him.
He is constantly urging us to trust in Him, backing it up with reassurances.
Cast all your care on me, come to me all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.
There is rest in trusting in Him.
Five Star Tony
When we were in Pattaya we used to have Life-groups every week, where everyone was welcome to come and we knew a homeless farang (foreigner) from the Netherlands, who was an alcoholic.
He used to come to church and was invited to one of our life-groups, when they were being held at Gary and Elyn’s house.
We had food and fellowship and Tony, or “Five Star Tony”, which was his nickname, became a regular part of the family.
As we said, Tony was homeless and used to try and raise a bit of money for himself on Beach Road, selling razors to the tourists.
As Tony came to the church, he became a bit of a modern-day Robin Hood and would proudly tell us that he’d stolen some cheese from a 7/11, and then given it to his homeless friends!
Tony loved being part of God’s church and he received a lot of grace while he was with us.
He desperately wanted to believe that he could be accepted by God, but there was always a part of him that thought that he needed to do more.
Tony had been married in Thailand, to a Thai lady and had children, but they got separated and he lost touch with his children, and after they broke up, his alcoholism took over.
It was not until he came to the church that he began to accept that he could be loved and his heart started to change.
We have seen many people that have come to Pattaya, young and idealistic, only to make a shipwreck of their lives in the bars.
Young, intelligent people, I believe Tony even had a degree, he had come to Pattaya at the age of 29.
But God can pick up the pieces of broken lives and put them back together.
Tony was not a person who ever really “got it all together”, but he knew that he was loved by God and His people.
The Downward Slope
After a while, things started to catch-up with Tony.
Soon the mafia started to put pressure on Tony and so he moved to Bangkok, to try and patch things up with his family, but he would still risk coming back to Pattaya every Friday, so that he could come to life-group.
Soon Gary noticed that he hadn’t been for a couple of weeks and began to make inquiries.
Eventually we got a call from a hospital in central Bangkok.
Tony had been brought into hospital, with pneumonia, but he didn’t have his passport.
The hospital needed his passport so that they could get in touch with the Dutch Embassy and inform his next of kin, and, as we had been looking after it in the church safe, they needed us to bring it to Bangkok.
Protests in Bangkok
This was at the time of the military coup in Bangkok, and there were protests and fighting going on in areas of the city.
Dave called our friend Joe for advice and he told us that when we got off the Sky-train, if everything was calm, with a party-like atmosphere it would be okay, but if there was tension or fighting, to get back on the train.
The hospital was next to the Victory Monument in the centre of Bangkok and things could turn on a dime.
So we went to Bangkok, and fortunately everything was calm.
On Death’s Door
When we got to see Tony, they told us that he had been unconscious for the last 2 days.
He was on a ventilator, with a big tube over his mouth, but when we came, he was just able to open his eyes and acknowledge our presence, but he couldn’t speak and made spluttering noises.
The hospital called us a couple of days later to tell us that Tony had passed away.
Tony’s Brother Visits
A little while after Tony passed away, his brother and his friend flew to Thailand, to collect Tony’s ashes.
“We’re taking Tony to say goodbye to his favourite watering holes,” his brothers told us, when they came into the church office and asked to talk to us.
“We were talking on the way over in the plane,” they said.
“My Mum and Dad are 80 years old, and they’ve been elders in the church for all these years, we can’t understand what happened to Tony, it’s broken their hearts, how could God do this to them? We almost stopped believing in God, if He can let this happen.”
We told them how Tony had been coming to the church for the last couple of years and how he had found a family in the church, even coming from Bangkok to be with us.
His brother broke down in tears right there in the reception and thanked us, “You will have made an old couple very happy,” he said, “to know that Tony was seeking the Lord!”
Tony’s Memorial Service
In Pattaya we held a memorial service for Tony and about 60 people turned up to remember him.
We were also contacted by a reporter who wanted to know his story, as Tony had once been interviewed for a Youtube programme on homeless foreigners in Pattaya, but we told the reporter, that it was none of our business and if he wanted to know anything, he should speak to his family.
Back in the Netherlands, Tony’s family had held a funeral there, in his family church in his village and, due to his Youtube fame, 600 people had turned up to pay their respects and send him off.
Tony may not have had a perfect life, or even a perfect end to his life, but he knew that he was loved by God and His church.
God had honoured Tony’s family’s prayers for bringing him up in the faith.
Tony once told us that he had tried going back to live back with his parents, but he could not kick the drink.
He didn’t want to inflict his drinking on his parents, so he came back to live in Pattaya and it was here that he saw out the rest of his days.
You could say that he had come to Pattaya after university, at the age of 29, a man with a degree, but Pattaya and the devil took him up and spat him out and he died at the age of 44.
That could have been the end of his story, but Jesus lifted him up even in his fallen state.
It may have been too late to save Tony’s body, but it was not too late to save his soul and he found rest in and redemption in Jesus.
Jesus takes up the cause of the most humble in society, those who know that they need Him, need His grace.
Those whom society is most disposed to despise and overlook, He is the defender of the oppressed and downtrodden.
He does good and not evil.
If there is hope for him, there is certainly hope for you and I, whereever we have fallen and need help getting up.