Monthly Blog: Embracing Where God Has Placed You

 

Rather than racing into the limelight, we need to accept our roles in the shadows. I’m serious here. Don’t promote yourself. Don’t push yourself to the front. Don’t drop hints. Let someone else do that. Better yet, let God do that.

Today would be a good time to resist going through life and ministry trying to live according to your own understanding—thinking if you can just climb one or two more rungs, you’ll be there. Then you’ll have what you need. Your family will be (what’s that word we like to use?) . . . comfortable. You know what your family needs most? They need you to be right with the Lord. That takes humility . . . especially as pastors.

If God is pleased to expand your ministry, trust me, the word will get out. You’ll be found . . . in God’s time. If you’re necessary for His plan, God will put you in the right place at just the right time. God’s work is not about us. It’s His production, start to finish. So back off. Let Him pull the curtains and turn on the stage lights.

Or He may choose you to be one of the nameless, lesser-known individuals who make the difference for someone else. View either path as a privilege . . . because it is.

Your part, pure and simple: humble yourself. Go there, my friend, and stay there.

 

The Pastor's Blog: Chuck Swindoll

Trash Day

 The day has finally come, you have been sifting, rearranging, cleaning up and now you have a large pile of trash-which includes broken items, old and outdated, that are no longer usable, items that have been sitting far longer than anticipated and taking up space.

 This day has been a long time coming, and it is amazing to witness and watch how when the day has finally arrived seeing the eagerness to want to get all that trash removed and cleaned up and to finally have this done. It was equally amazing to witness the perplexity of some on the trash day. The same ones who were eager to complete this task, now suddenly started to have second thoughts and wanting to keep the pile of rubbish.                                                                                          

 I could not believe what I was witnessing and hearing, it was at that moment I started thinking about what I have been witnessing on a spiritual level, and I wondered how many of us do this in our spiritual walk with our Lord Jesus, as we grow and mature in our faith walk and commitment to Christ.

When we are walking with the Lord and he points out the things that are rubbish and old and broken items that we are still holding onto from our old lives before we accepted Christ, and even the things that we have collected while walking with the lord that we have picked up along the way, just like children do. 

These items are to be thrown away and we should be eager to do this for the love of Christ. But when that trash day comes, do we toss it immediately or do we keep it?  Are we trying to find some nostalgic memory/feeling towards it to hold on to?  

We know that the Lord is telling us to purge this from our lives, for it has been here long enough, it needs to go. Do we listen or do we hold on? 

 {Apostle Paul tells us in Philippines 3:7-8} “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus My Lord for whom I have suffered the Loss of all things and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ.”

 Our Lord also tells us in {Luke 9:62} ”… but Jesus said to him no one after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

 Let us take Lots wife as an example of desiring the old {worldly goods} the trash/rubbish looking back on Sodom and Gomorrah because she desired the things of the world over the things of God. And she was turned into a pillar of salt. {Genesis 19:17 and 19 :25-26} and Jesus reminds us in {Luke 17 32-33} “Remember Lots wife, whoever ever seeks to keep his life will lose it and who ever loses his life will preserve it.”

 Let us remember that there is a spiritual consequence to holding onto the worldly rubbish, and letting our fleshly desire of nostalgia that keeps us desiring what is behind, instead of us always looking forward to desiring the new things in Christ.  

 Every old thing that we hold on to is robbing Christ from filling that space with his spirit.

 THE TIGHTER WE HOLD ON TO SOMETHING IN OR OF THIS WORLD THE MORE IT WILL HURT WHEN IT IS TIME TO LET GO!

 

                                                                                 Br. Steve Hoffner

Squirrels in the Church

A TIME TO WEEP, AND A TIME TO LAUGH; A TIME

TO MOURN, AND A TIME TO DANCE.       ( ECCLESIASTES 3:4 *NKJV )


    Well you are in luck, for today is a time to laugh!  
So sit back and enjoy the following message, which
was sent in to me by one of our Sister's in Christ.

    Soon you will be saying: THEN OUR MOUTH WAS
FILLED WITH LAUGHTER, AND OUR TONGUE
WITH SINGING. And just as Sarah said when
God told her she would have a child at her advanced
age.  You will be saying: "GOD HAS MADE ME LAUGH,
AND ALL WHO HEAR WILL LAUGH WITH ME."
( PSALM  126:2 )  &  ( GENESIS 21:6 )


    A small town had only three Churches in it but they all
suffered with the same problem.  You see, all three had a
serious problem with squirrels getting into the Church.

    Now each Church, in its own fashion, had a meeting to
deal with the problem.

    The first Church congregation decided that it was
predestined that the squirrels be in the Church, and that
they would just have to live with them.

    The Second Church decided they should deal with the
squirrels lovingly . So they humanely trapped them and
released them in a park at the edge of town.  However within
3 days, they had all returned and were all back in the church.

    The Third Church came up with the best solution. They
voted the squirrels in as members.  Now they only see them
at Christmas and Easter.

    The moral of the story is: Don't be a Squirrel, attend your
Church regularly!  (Smile)

God's Minute

Answer the Charge

Paul

wrote with urgency, “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction” (2 Timothy 4:1–2). In other words, stick with the preaching plan God has promised to bless and use: preaching the Word. Deliver the biblical goods! Be a man of the Book!

Did you notice something here? This exhortation is not addressed to the hearer; it’s for the speaker. The one who is to obey this command is the one proclaiming the message. That’s you. That’s me. That’s all who are called to stand and deliver.

We’re to be ready to do it in season and out of season. Being ready implies being prepared both mentally and spiritually. Don’t try so hard to be so creative and cute that folks miss the truth. No need for meaningless and silly substitutes for God’s Word. They may entertain but rarely convict the lost or edify the saved. Teach the truth.

In essence, Paul says, “Don’t be lazy. Do your homework. Don’t stand up and start with an apology that you didn’t have adequate time to prepare. That doesn’t wash.” And prepare your work faithfully—when it’s convenient and when it’s not.

Sadly, in an alarming number of churches today, God’s people are being told what they want to hear rather than what they need to hear. They are being fed warm milk, not solid meat. A watered-down gospel will attract large crowds (for a while), but it has no eternal impact. I’ve not been able to find any place in the Scriptures where God expresses the least bit of concern for increasing numbers. Satisfying the curious, itching ears of our postmodern audiences is an exercise in futility.

The task of the ministry is to deliver truth. Frankly, I intend to continue doing just that, by God’s grace, until the day He calls me home. I believe that’s your passion as well. That’s why you became a pastor. Thankfully, there is an ever-increasing body of believers who long for nourishing messages based on the Word of God, not human opinion.

Will you answer the charge?

Jesus said, “Go and make disciples of all nations. . . . And surely I am with you always” (Matthew 28:19–20 NIV). There is no greater challenge and no more comforting promise. Believe it. Trust it. And by the grace of God, just do it!

I’m right there with you.

The pastor's Blog - Chuck Swindoll