2 Corinthians1:4
"who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God." 

"The comfort God has given us allows us place that same comforting love of Jesus Christ into the hearts of others." 

   This week we consider God's children who live on the fringes of society. These individuals can come from all walks of life. We meet them every day and often a number of times a day. 
   To live on the fringe of society is sometimes obvious like a street person without money or a place to live. It can also be not so obvious and closer to home in the lives of people who have an outward appearance and behavior that just doesn't seem to fit in. This can be due to such things as weight problem, physically unattractiveness, shyness, clothes, haircut, etc. 
   Many times there are inward and hidden appearances that place people on the fringes such as depression, past hurts, guilt, unfulfilled dreams, and hidden signature sins. 
   A poor person can be the most happiest or a rich person can be the most depressed but that may not appear to be so on the surface. 
   To minister to people on the fringes of society we need to reach out past the superficial and know their heart. In the eyes of God we are all the same. We are sinners and God looks only at the heart. 
   Jesus specialized in reaching out to people on the fringes of society and scriptures shows us many examples. Without hesitation Jesus would look past the superficial appearances and reach out directly to the person's heart and extended His hand of unconditional love. 
   Jesus commands us to follow him. To follow the King of Kings and Lord of Lords we must allow Him to enable us to see past the superficial appearances and extend the hand of Christ's love to the heart of others. Jesus expects us to pass on the comfort and love he has extended to us. It's not ours to keep and hoard but we must pass it on, especially to people on the fringes. 
   Our natural inclination is to shrink back from extending that hand of love to God's children on the fringes and when we do extend it we tend to do it because we feel obligated or we do it out of sympathy. All these come from self serving motivation and not from a God centered motive. A God centered motive based upon faith and a strong relationship with Christ and studying his word extends the hand of Jesus unconditionally to the heart of those who live at a distance on the fringes.   I've been there on the fringes and when someone extended their hand to me with the unconditional love of Jesus a warmness welled up within me because of the presence of the love of Jesus. Pray right now that you too, like Jesus did, pass on a warm Jesus hug to a person on the fringe.

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