One More soul!

This article is a little different than the ones that I normaly leave because I just want to issue you a quick word of encouragement as I am traveling on the road. I have been at the Assemblies of God General Council this past week and had a great time. I heard some outstanding speakers such as Herbert Cooper, the pastor of People's Church in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. I am going to sum up what he talked about here because I think he put the nail in the coffin.

The title of his message was One More! He talked about how our focus individually and as a church should be to reach one more always. There is always one more person out there that needs the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and it is up to us to extend that knowledge to them. We need to get to the point where we stop joking homosexuals, rapists, killers and anybody else that has sinned. (Well, that would cover everyone) But his main point was that in churches, we need to lose the legalism that many of us have without even realizing it. The question often comes up in churches like, "What should we do if a homosexual couple comes in and holds hands or hugs during the service?" Well, here was Cooper's response which I believe is the proper Biblical one. What better place could there be for a homosexual couple to enter. The church is not for the church because it is the church. The church is for the lost. So really, we should want out churches filled with mollestars, homosexuals, killers, and anyone else with any other sin out there. Christ saved us as we were. As Christians, we need to accept everyone as they are and then allow the Holy Spirit to change them. And what better place is there than in the House of God. So my challenge to you is, invite one more. Tell one more. Help one more. Share the SAVING KNOWLEDGE OF JESUS CHRIST WITH ONE MORE SO THAT THEY CAN COME TO KNOW GOD. Remember, Jesus Christ died for them just like He did me and you. Homosexualls are not the world's trash. Rapists are not beyond salvation. Those people are not trash, they are someone's dad or brother or sister. So lose the legalism and accept them as they are so that the Holy Spirit can change them in a way that will reflect the name of Jesus Christ. Who are we to say that God will not use that homosexual to change the world for Jesus Christ. He used a killer to write half of the New Testament. God bless you!

Da Devil Ain't Gunna Steal My Joy!

As Christians, we should be the happiest people on the earth. I mean, we have the true joy of the Lord that is more than enough to sustain us from day to day. "The joy of the Lord is our strength" is the way the book of Nehemiah puts it. So why then do we let the little things of this world that are temporary and are of little importance get to us when the "joy of the Lord" should be our strength. As Christians, we need to make a commitment each and every day of our lives that we are not going to let the things of this world get to us or let the devil get us down. When the devil attacks us, we do not need to get all sad and "woe me, my life is so bad." Forget that mentality. As Christians, we should expect the devil to come at us because the Bible tells us he will in 1 Tim. 3:12. Really, we should praise God during those times because obviously the devil considers us a threat otherwise he would leave us alone. He already has the nonChristians, so the people he goes after are the Christians. But we serve a God that is greater than the devil is 24/7, 365 days a year. So lets take a look at a Scripture from Psalms and dive further into why we need to have the joy of the Lord as our strength and foundation.

Psalm 51:10-13 says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You."

Those 4 verses are pretty powerful verses that each and every one of us should apply to our lives. But there is an order in those verses of the way things are done. First of all, we have to have a clean heart in our own lives. We have to be living a life of repentance so that our hearts and minds will be ready to hear from the Lord. The joy of the lord and the hope in His salvation for our lives also must dominate the way we think. When we think with that mentality, we will not let the little things of this world get to us so that they will not become a distraction. It is when these things dominate the way we think and form our mindset that verse 13 will take place. After the things we just talked about happen in our lives, verse 13 says, "THEN I will teach sinners Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You." We will not be able to let our joy in Christ overflow into other people's lives if we do not have it because of the problems that we will have in this world. We as Christians cannot afford to let the things of this world get to us because it could put people's souls at stake. How will we effectively share the Gospel with people if we are doing it with a down in the mouth attitude. We will fail because we are not trusting in God. But when we trust in God and let Him sustain us day to day, God will use us to convert sinners to His ways. God bless you!

Prayer is a 2 Way Communication

This blog was inspired by my grandfather who preached on this very subject this past Sunday. The funny thing is that this topic is essential for a Christian's growth yet it is rarely talked about from the pulpit.

Prayer is something that we hear about all the time during sermons and various others activities in which it is promoted. This is rightfully so; however, generally, all we hear is that we should talk to God as much as possible. But we rarely hear that we need to let God talk to us in our times of prayer. This means that if God is talking to us, we are being silent and listening for Him. So really, prayer should have two parts: us casting our cares upon Him and us listening to hear His voice.

When we meet a new person or friend, we want to get to know them. But if we want to know more about them and about their character, we don't always talk and not let them tells us anything about themselves. The same goes with talking to God. Yes, He wants us to cast our burdens and cares upon Him. 1 Peter 5:7 says, "Cast all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you." We should do this continually too. 1 Thess. 5:17 says, "pray without ceasing." But during our prayer time, we should spend as much time listening to God as we do telling Him things so that we can hear His voice and what He wants to tell us. If we are doing all the talking, we will not be letting Him talk to us.

I will end with this story that is true. The worlds largest church is in South Korea and now has over 1 million members. But when it was still a small 300,000 member church, the pastor had another pastor come to Him from another local church that had 3000 members. The pastor of the 3000 member church asked the pastor of the largest church in the world why his church had so many more people. This pastor responded by saying that it came down to not only the amount of time they spent talking to God each day, but the amount of time they allowed God to talk to them. The 3000 member pastor prayed to God for 30 minutes daily but did not allow much time for God to talk to him. The pastor of the worlds largest church prayed 1 to 3 hours a day but split the time between Him talking to God and allowing God to talk to Him. This was the difference between the two. And if you want to see God really change your life, continue speaking to Him but also allow Him to speak to you. God bless you!