welcome to today's encouragement from our daily bread
 I'm like Whitmer by titled are reading people who need people
 get his Hall of Fame career as a sports writer Dave Kindred covered hundreds of major sporting events and championships and wrote a biography of Muhammad Ali growing bored in retirement he started attending girls basketball games at a local school soon he began writing stories about each game and posting them online and when Dave's mother and Grandson died and his wife suffered a debilitating stroke he realized the team he been covering provided him with a sense of community and purpose he needed them as much as they needed him
 Kindred said this team saved me my life had turned dark and they were light
 how does a legendary journalist come to depend on a community of teenagers the same way a legendary Apostle Linda in The Fellowship of those he met on his missionary Journeys did you notice all the people Paul greeted as he closed his letter to the Romans greet andronicus in Judea he wrote my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me preet imply it has my dear friend in the Lord he mentions more than 25 people in all most of whom are not mentioned in scripture again
 appalled needed them
 who's in your community the best place to begin is with your local church
 anyone there whose life has turned dark
 as God leads you can be a light that point them to Jesus
 someday they may return the favor
 today's our daily bread devotional scripture reading is from Romans chapter 16 verses 3 through 16
 greet Priscilla and Aquila my co-workers in Christ Jesus they risk their lives for me not only I but all the churches of the Gentiles are grateful to them
 greet also the church that meets at their house
 read my dear friend up Anita's who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia
 greet Mary who work very hard for you
 greet andronicus in Junia my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me they are outstanding among the apostles and they were in Christ before I was
 Greece and play Titus my dear friend in the Lord
 greeter bandhas our co-worker in Christ in my dear friend status
 greet apellis whose Fidelity to Christ has stood the test greet those who belong to the household of erised opulus great herodian my fellow Jew
 retails in a household of narcissus who are in the Lord
 Greek tryphena's and tryphosa those women who work hard in the Lord my dear friend persis another woman who has worked very hard in the Lord Rufus chosen in the Lord and his mother who has been a mother to me to greet asynchronous fledge on Hermes patribots hermis and the other brothers and sisters with them
 grease philologus Julia de Reyes and his sister and Olympus and all the Lord's people who are with him
 greet one another with a holy kiss all the Churches of Christ send greetings
 let's pray
 father what a friend we have in Jesus your son
 may we be that kind of friend to others in Jesus name we pray amen
 today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries