The Power of the Gospel

Satan sometimes shames seekers when they begin to take God and His word seriously. The enemy plants seeds of doubt related to intellectual honesty and the fear of being labeled a religious fanatic. The devil wants Jesus' believers to be apologetic and embarrassed to live for the Lord, not declaring His teachings as the gospel truth. But, there is no shame in standing up for Christ and His commands. Faith reveals His fame. We are facing a challenge concerning the strength and tenacity of our faith. There is a battle raging between the truth and the lies of deceiver. The deceiver seeks for the church to "mingle" the truth with the various religious messages of our world. BUT we must resist that temptation and remain true to the message of Truth that Jesus declared. Jesus still remains "the Way, the Truth, and the Life." I am glad that I took heed to the Word of God and received Christ as my Savior. A line from an old song declares, "...Hold to God's unchanging hand..." Each of us need to live out that desire on a daily basis so that the name of Christ can be exalted and lifted above the "gods" of this world.

Moving Forward

I participated in a meeting of leaders this past Sunday night. Isn't it true that leaders are always looking to improve their ability to lead and serve? We could say that we "are looking for an edge" against our adversary. We realize that satan is our adversary and we are committed to the defeat of that adversary. We are always looking for creative ways to share the message of the gospel with those we contact on a daily or weekly basis. But there is one characteristic that we can not afford to lose and that characteristic is consistency. We must not lose our focus on the intended goal and we must stay committed to finish that which we started. I want to share a story from the Peanuts Comic strip that I believe summarizes the attitude that we must practice day by day. Charlie Brown: "Our first game of the season! What do we need to do to win? Lucy: "Courage, Fortitude, and Dedication! Charlie Brown: "How did you know that?" Lucy: "I wrote down what you said last year." Moral: Some things never change from year to year. We will need courage, fortitude, and dedication if we are to be successful leaders in the work of the kingdom of God!

Our View vs. God's View

Isaiah 55: 8-9,  "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.  For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts." (KJV)

Each of us battle the problem that this passage identifies today.  We face the temptation to allow the perspective of our human thinking to override our confidence in the presence of God to meet our needs and direct our path.  I truly believe that satan can use the human thought process as a weapon against us.  Isn't satan's true purpose to overthrow our faith?  We may be strong enough to resist the temptation to give up completely yet his tactics can hinder our faith if we allow them to have free reign in our minds.  The enemy wants us to place our hopes, confidence, and trust in the things of man.  It is difficult for us to fully fathom the greatness of the things of God in comparison to the things of man.  But we must learn to turn our focus away from the ways and thoughts of man and look for the ways and thoughts of God.  The initial effort of the enemy may not cause us to look completely away from God but he does have a plan for our demise when he begins to sow the seeds of doubt, fear, insecurity, etc. in our hearts.  Satan may not cause us to have demonic or satanic thoughts BUT he does seek to influence our thought process.  Faith will call us to look at the ways of God versus the ways of man.  Faith will call us to look at the thoughts and plans of God versus the thoughts and plans of man.  Faith will cause us to look away from the strength and ability of man and look to the strength and ability of God.  Faith will call us to look away from the infidelity of man and look to the fidelity of God.  Each of us must remember that the ways and thoughts of God are HIGHER than our ways and thoughts.

Personal Reflections

I continue to sense a call from God concerning the message of the cross.  I believe the message that comes from the cross and comes through the cross is the message that our culture needs to hear at this time in our history.  We hear such conflicting messages from various sources today yet the message of the cross has remained the same throughout the ages.  There have been times that the message of the cross has been diluted and in some cases even hidden by the opinions and ideas of humanity.  Yet the cross continues to reflect and declare the true love of God for humanity.  Humanity looks for the complicated and God has given us the simplicity of the Gospel.  Humanity is given the option to believe the truth and as we release our faith we are able to receive the forgiveness of our sins through the Mercy and Grace of God.  It is no wonder that we can celebrate the "amazing Grace" of our God that was revealed and released through the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Would you join in the celebration with me today?  Would you join me in encouraging others to declare that marvelous message?  And would you practice the reality of that message among your friends and family?  The message of the Gospel can and will make a difference in your journey through life.  

Grandchildren

Ann and I are blessed with four grandchildren.  They range in the ages of eleven (11) to five (5) years old.  Our oldest son and wife have two sons and our youngest son and his wife have a son and a daughter (let me add that she has already learned to play the gender card with comments such as "Poppy, you know that I am your only granddaughter.").  Each of these grandchildren have their own gifts, talents, abilities, and personalities.  We have been blessed with the privilege to watch the development of their individual personalities.  We have watched them grow physically, emotionally and spiritually.  I have been privileged to have baptized the three oldest grandchildren and I am already looking forward to baptizing the younger one.  Why am I going into so much detail regarding the changes that have taken place in their lives?  It is more than just the words of a proud grandfather; it is the realization that our Heavenly Father is aware of our daily development concerning our walk with Him.  He was aware of us before our conception and before our birth.  He has been aware of every day of our lives and He will be aware of the remaining days of our lives.  He has planned for us to spend eternity in His presence as we are called to gather with the other members of our spiritual family.  He created us with our various gifts, talents, abilities, and personalities.  He is aware of our strengths but also our weaknesses; yet He has never given up on us.  He has watched our spiritual development and He is aware of those days that we struggle with the onslaught of the adversary.  We can rest assured that the love of God is a daily presence in our lives and we can find comfort and hope in the fact that God has a plan for our lives and that He promises always to be with us.  I can not adequately describe the love that I have for our grandchildren and neither can I adequately describe the love that God has for each of us.  But by faith I accept the fact that God has made His declaration of love over my life and I can walk in the strength of that declaration.

The Power of Gospel

The past few weeks have been challenging me to reflect on my desire to be known as a "Gospel Preacher." Many different titles are attached to a preacher but in my opinion the one that describes our call and purpose is the title associated with the Gospel, or the "good news" message. We witnessed the intended result of the Gospel message this morning as two young people surrendered their lives to Christ. I am convinced that the Gospel is the message that the world needs to hear. There are many "messages" being declared across our nation today but there is only ONE message of truth and that is the message of Jesus Christ. I firmly believe that the Holy Spirit is calling each of us to a renewed commitment to a faithful declaration and support of the message that Christ purchased at Calvary. This commitment is one that has to be a spiritual recognition and not just a mental recognition of this call from God. We must respond to this call in a manner of faith as we see God directing us into the mission field. The fields are ripe for the harvest and we are being called to present ourselves to God as laborers in this end time harvest.

Successful Ministry

Success can be measured in many ways and from many different standards.  There are times that ministry success may be measured in the size of a building, the number of people who attend that particular ministry, or even the size of a budget for a particular ministry.  But is it possible that true success should be measured through our recognition and dependence on Christ to be the leader and director of our ministry?  After all it was Christ who gave His life that we might have a message to declare.  If we would be honest with ourselves we would realize that we don't have a message outside of the message of Christ.  Christ is the MESSAGE and He gives us the awesome privilege to share that message with sinful humanity.  We must be careful and not allow carnal or fleshly attitudes to attach itself to our ministry efforts (and I am not just referring to preaching, singing, teaching, etc.) so that we fall into the trap of taking credit for those things that have been accomplished.  Pride in who we are or pride in what we have accomplished can lead to the downfall of not only the ministry effort but it can contribute to the demise of our personal relationship with Christ.  I believe the Apostle Paul showed us the appropriate way to be successful in ministry.  On many occasions He made sure that he kept pointing people to Christ and away from himself.  Although history reveals that Paul was "successful" in his Apostleship I believe that he was always careful in making sure that the credit and recognition was given to Christ.  I desire for my life to reflect the greatness of God that is at work and not just recognize the human contributions to the process of ministry.  There are times that we recognize the human side of ministry and fail to recognize the Divine side of ministry.  We will all fail without the Divine side of ministry being evident in our attempts to reach people with the message of the Gospel.

Warren Wiersbe shares his definition of ministry: "Ministry takes place when divine resources meet human needs through loving channels to the glory of God."  I think the key words of that statement are contained in the portion that reads: "...divine resources meet human needs..."  We must remember that we can not meet the needs of our fellow human beings but Christ can.  Can you sense and feel the involvement of Christ in your life?  If not, then you need to turn from yourself and turn to Christ and allow Him to have complete and full sway over your life.