God gives the increase

Our weekly bible study at a local mall was increased by two people today. The beautiful thing was that it was truly God that brought them to us.
When I arrived a few minutes before the 4pm starting time, I noticed a lady sitting close by filling out a job application. Soon another brother arrived and we shared about what God was doing this past week. After about 10 minutes, the lady looks over at me and says, “hey, aren’t you the guy that I met a few weeks ago preaching?” I said where was that. She explained that we had met at the train stop by the park. I said, “really, would you like to join our study?” She said, “yes I would”. So for the next hour she stayed and participated in our study.
One of the brothers in our group noticed a young lady walking by us and he yelled out, “hey would you like to join us?” She inquired as to what we were doing. After we explained, she said sure. So there we were with two new people in our group that God sent along. Praise Him!
I would like to encourage others to pray about starting up a bible study in your local mall. Malls usually have some chairs, couches etc. that you can use. It’s a good place because there are lots of people around that God can bring your way.

Where there is people, there is God.

Take personal responsibility

For your own spiritual condition before God. We can no longer blame someone or something else for our lack of desire towards God and the things of God. It high time to take a hard look into the mirror and face reality.
All of us have had big disappointments in life. Some have had a lot worse than other’s. Some of the problems have definitely been self inflicted, others have been to no cause of our own. In any case, we much look to God for our needs. We must go to Him for the victory.
We can no longer blame. We must take responsibility for our present spiritual condition. We are the one who will stand before God one day and give an account. It won’t matter if we give God all the excuses in the world. He will still ask why we didn’t give it all to Him. Why we didn’t trust completely in Him.
In the end it will be very personal, us and God, one on one.

Losing our focus on God’s Kingdom

If this has never happened to you, consider yourself one of the few. Most of us at one time or another have drifted off course and lost our focus on what really matters.
I am not talking about a day or week or even a month, where you have strayed. I am talking about month’s and maybe even years. It starts real slow. A slow but steady drift from where you once were in God’s Kingdom.
I personally strayed for about five years. During this time I was starting a business and for two of these years, I was working hundred hour weeks. I was a true walking burn-out. I had become very cynical and arrogant. I was getting anywhere between two and five hours of sleep a night. I had no time for God or family. I was on a one-way track headed for destruction.
But God in his mercy saw fit to keep pursuing me with his love. His love worked in ways I could have never of imagined looking back at it.
If I have learned one thing in this life and that is, that it does not pay to be disobedient to your heavenly calling. Whatever plan and purpose that God has for you is to you personally and it is meant to be followed at any cost. If more Christians would seek God and find out what it is that they were created for, then we would see the power of God move here more in America.
When we loose our focus on God’s Kingdom and the purpose for which we were created, God is offended. He is a jealous God. He will continue to unleash His love upon us, and it may well come in ways that we never dreamed of. His love is often “tough love”. He sees all of eternity and desires that you and I do what it is that He has planned since the foundation of the world.
We were not just put here on this earth to eat, sleep and work. He is about people and His Kingdom. Whatever He has called you to, it has to do with people. If we get our eyes off people, we have done lost it. We have lost our focus. It then becomes about me and my kingdom.
The bottom line is, where is your focus? Is it my kingdom or God’s Kingdom?

The charge of the Lord our Master

I came across this quote this morning while in study.

“Charles Wesley was so moved by Matthew Henry’s comments on Leviticus 8:35 that he based one of his most famous hymns on this.” (which one, I don’t know)

Henry had written: “we have every one of us a charge to keep, an eternal God to glorify, an immortal soul to provide for, needful duty to be done, our generation to serve; and it must be our daily duty to keep this charge, for it is the charge of the Lord our Master, who will shortly call us to an account about it.”

I hope you are blessed by this.

Don’t forget the un-obvious ways to share the Gospel

Thanksgiving day I received a text that said “happy thanxgiving”. I looked at the incoming number and did not recognize it, so I checked my address book. Huh, I thought. Who is this?

Then it went “click”. Ah, a chance to share Christ again. So I text him back and said also “happy thanksgiving” and mentioned Christ. I never heard back from him. But the awesome thing is that once again he (or she) got to be reminded about Christ. On that day there will be no excuses such as, “I never heard about Christ”. He will play back the DVD (or something that will be out of this world) and show them all the times they had opportunity.

What about the telemarketing person that calls and tries to sell you something? That is a human being that God loves and gave his Son for.
How about the person that knocks on the door selling something?
The tow truck driver coming to retrieve the locked in keys?
The person that just backed into your car?
The cable man that just showed up to install the Internet?
The service person that has come into your home to fix your appliance?

The list can go on and on. The main thing is don’t forget the opportunities out there in one given day. And be ready at all times. It might be an un-obvious opportunity.

God bless you as you get ready!