There’s Work For All

If you cannot be a preacher
And hold millions in your sway,
You can be a faithful witness
Preaching by your life each day.

Perhaps you are too old or weary
To climb the mountains steep and high,
But you need not from the valley
Be indifferent as men die.

God has blessed you with His bounty,
So there’s something you can do.
You can be a faithful steward
And help the lost find Christ through you.

If you cannot be His servant
Preaching on some distant shore,
Then at least you can be faithful
To witness to the man next door.

Do not wait for call or vision;
There is work for all today.
Let us all then join God’s army
And do our best without delay.

Though you cannot go in person,
You can go in purse and prayer.
If you have a heart to serve Him,
You can serve Him anywhere.

–Author Unknown

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Why Are People Faithful To God?

“He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” John 14:21

“So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.” John 21:15

“If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha.” 1 Corinthians 16:22

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Our Need Of The Holy Spirit

“God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” John 4:24

OUR OWN INTERESTS AND ATTITUDES FALL WAY SHORT:
—Jeremiah 10:23  “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.”
—Proverbs 16:25  “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”
—Romans 3:10-12  “As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.”
—Romans 7:18  “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

We know what this means for an unsaved person. They must become convicted of their sin condition unto the point of repentance = having a complete change of mind about themselves before God, unto turning from what they are unto God, to be saved by the power of His grace.

But also after we are saved, we still must have the conviction of our personal sin condition to override everything about ourselves, as Paul said in Romans 7:18 “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.”

WE NEED THE HELP OF THE HOLY SPIRIT TO DO GOD’S WORK:
—Acts 1:8  “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
—John 16:13  “Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
—Galatians 5:22-23  “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
—Acts 4:31,33  “And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all.”

“Seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you.”

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Spiritual Direction Needed In The Home

(Adapted from an article by Pastor Troy Calvert)

“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it” Proverbs 22:6

The emphasis is on starting when God gives us the child, and not waiting until they are older. Children learn the way they live, thus they must be trained in the way they should go.

Giving discipline and direction is all important. The Bible teaches that all (our children included) inherit a sinful nature from Adam. Thus, discipline or structure in the home, in the form of rules, must be enforced if our children are to learn the life-lessons they need. “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.” Proverbs 29:15  Parents must not fail their children’s need of proper training by parental inconsistencies in this area of structure and discipline. The right demands must be placed upon the child to achieve the right conduct on their part. A child’s development is according to what is being required of them on a consistent basis. This is what training is all about.

Teaching a child to meet your requirements (obedience) is the key to their understanding the need to be obedient to God’s Word. As we put into practice the principles that we find in God’s Word, we can find the direction that is needed for living.

Are you training your children to use God’s Word in order to make wise decisions? This training provides your children with the needed spiritual offense. Ephesians 6:10-18 teaches us that our defensive and offensive weapon is the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. If you want your children to be able to resist the devil, to deny their own flesh, to fight off the world, and to fight the good fight of faith in laying hold on eternal life, impart to them the training according to God’s Word. Help them to see there is only one way in which they should go and it is God’s way.

Children have to be taught the scriptures and trained to live according to the ways of God’s Word, for the wisdom of God’s Word to be their focus. When children have been taught and trained unto knowing and understanding the wisdom of God’s Word, this will enable them to relate to parental guidance that is according to Biblical reasoning. “That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.” Psalm 78:7

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Higher Ground

James 2:13 “…and mercy rejoiceth against judgment”

Christian causes and accomplishments are properly advanced through actions of wisdom being chosen over actions of judgment.

To have perfect judgment, there must be a perfect judge with perfect knowledge, insight, authority, and motives. Thus, we do not qualify to be the judge of other men.

When a person is having a problem, they should only be burdened with the task of finding the right answer for their problem. Wisdom shed abroad by another will greatly aid this. But imperfect judgments passed by imperfect judges against them, leaves them in the impossible position of coming up with the many answers required to satisfy all the suspicions, doubts, accusations, rumors, and bad feelings that the judgments of others have raised against them. Thus they have no peace or opportunity to find the one answer they really need. The best way is to shed light abroad for others to be able to see.

Once we pass judgment on someone, we develop a mindset toward them based on our judgment of them. This mindset limits our actions towards them to that which satisfies our feelings of judgment concerning them. So this shifts our response toward them from really doing what could be a help to them, unto an action based on what is pleasing to our judgment of them, no matter how imperfect that may be.

Such is the case in the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37.) The priest (Luke 10:31) and the Levite (Luke 10:32) both passed by the victim because of what their own judgment of his situation was. But the Samaritan, without limiting his response to any judgments he would make as to why the victim was naked and wounded on the wayside, chose to use wisdom to see what was needed and to choose the wisest course of action to meet that need. The Lord credited him as being the only one of the three men who rightfully fulfilled his neighborly duties.

Christ’s command is to love one another as He has loved us – John 13:34. We will miss the mark here if we give ourselves unto the responses that our imperfect judgment of others would call for. Rather, we need to exercise mercy instead of judgment, so that we remain free to prescribe the unsearchable riches of the wisdom of God’s Word and to have no dictates, other than seeking and finding more wisdom from God.

We should require of ourselves to exercise mercy, rather than judgment when we think we have seen fault and failure in our brethren. Thus, resisting doing the things that the feelings of our judgment would cry out for, we purpose to do only those things that will shed abroad greater light and understanding from the Lord to enable our brother to see and act in faith and hope.

Judgment will incline us to fixate on the problem. Mercy will wisely employ us in striving for the right solution for deliverance.

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