Feb. 5, 2012 –  Can One Person Make a Difference?

This is a common thought, especially since we are often bombarded with problems that seem at times overwhelming or insurmountable. Our spiritual condition, rooted in our understanding of who is really in control, will make all the difference in how we handle these situations.

Often we are faced with numerous pleas for help every day of our lives. Children, parents, friends, co-workers, pastors, employees, employers, teachers, elected officials, etc. all make demands on our time, attention, and resources. Sometimes you may feel overwhelmed by these demands for time and attention, so what can we do to make certain that we are hearing the Lord, and being led by Him, concerning these matters?

First and foremost, we need to ascertain whether or not we are meeting our primary responsibilities of doing that which is right in the Lord’s sight. While God always wants us to “do the right think” in all circumstances, regardless of our motives, the ideal still remains that we should “do the right thing, for the right reasons.” That requires a simple motives check, a short trip inside to discern God’s will in the matter. 

Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified, II Cor. 13:5-6. 

Paul asked the believers at Corinth to examine themselves to see if they are operating in faith or not. This is not only a test of their salvation, but also a test of their true motives. God always wants us to “do the next right thing;” however, it is important to Him that our motives are kosher as well as our actions.

Feb. 12, 2012 –  Doing the Right Thing for the Right Reasons

There are ways to determine if we are doing what God wants us to do for the right reasons. This is the “motives check” Paul instructed the believers at Corinth to apply to their lives,  Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? II Cor. 13:5a.

There are three brief self-checks that we can put in place in order to keep our motives pure. This will prevent our carnal nature from becoming the dominant influence in our lives. Remember that our carnal mind is that of a self-righteous religious hypocrite, but the Bible teaches us that the new creation we are in Christ, II Cor. 5:17-21, has the mind of the Messiah, I Cor. 2:16b.

The three self checks are:

1) Consider the situation. Prayerfully discern what is really going on. Things are not      
always as they seem, Is. 55:7-9; Jer. 29:11-14. 

2) Consider your own actions & behaviors, II Cor. 13:5; Phil. 2:12-13.

3) Check your own feelings, e.g. Biblical Self Awareness (BSA), Matt.7:1-5; Luke 6:45,
means that we trace our emotions back to the thoughts that generated them. Our
thoughts are connected to our emotions and our emotions are the motivating factors
concerning our actions, i.e. what we will do in any given situation.

These three easy steps can be used to prevent us from falling into a carnal mindset. Something that we are susceptible to because we have this treasure of the new creation in an earthen vessel, II Cor. 4:7. We can use these simple self-checks to insure that we are still going about our Father’s business by grace through faith, Eph. 2:8-9; Col. 2:6.

Feb. 19, 2012 –  Little People (by worldly standards) Who Made a Big Difference

“It was July 1, 1885 when Edward Kimball felt the tugging of the Spirit to share his faith with a young shoe salesman he knew. At first Kimball vacillated, unsure if he should talk to the man. But he finally mustered his courage and went into the shoe store. There Kimball found the salesman in the back room stocking shoes, and he began to share his faith with him. As a result, the young shoe salesman prayed and received Jesus Christ that day. That shoe salesman's name was Dwight L. Moody, and he became the greatest evangelist of his generation.

But the story doesn't end there. Several years later a pastor and well-known author by the name of Frederick B. Meyer heard Moody preach. Meyer was so deeply stirred by Moody's preaching that he himself embarked on a far-reaching evangelistic ministry. Once, when Meyer was preaching, a college student named Wilbur Chapman accepted Christ as a result of his presentation of the gospel. Chapman later employed a baseball player to help him prepare to conduct an evangelistic crusade. That ballplayer, who later became a powerful evangelist himself, was Billy Sunday.

But the story doesn’t end there. In 1924, a group of businessmen invited Billy Sunday to hold an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte, North Carolina, which resulted in many people coming to Christ. Out of that revival meeting a group of men formed a men's prayer group to pray for the world. They prayed for Charlotte to have another great revival. God sent another evangelist named Mordecai Hamm. Hamm went to Charlotte in 1934 to hold a crusade. Ham's crusade went well, even though it did not have many converts. On one of the last nights under the big tent one tall, lanky young man walked up the aisle to receive Christ. That man's name was Billy Graham.

Richard Wurmbrand was the founder of Jesus to the Communist World that later became Voice of the Martyrs after the fall of the Iron Curtain. He recounts that while giving his testimony one day after he was imprisoned by the Russian communists for being a pastor in the underground church, a prisoner in the back of the room began to weep. Richard was telling his fellow prisoners about how a Gentile shop keeper in 1938 Romania lead Richard, a young and worldly Jewish man, to his Messiah prior to WW II. Richard recounted how the one prayer this shopkeeper repeatedly asked God to answer was that before he died he wanted to lead a Jew to Jesus. Curious about this sobbing prisoner, Richard asked him why he was so moved by his (Richard’s) testimony. The prisoner replied, “I am the man that prayed with that shopkeeper to receive the Lord all those years ago.”

Sometimes we hear human interest stories about how one person or group, e.g. Big Brothers and Big Sisters, etc. made a huge difference in the lives of people who are not famous. Denzel Washington, who today credits his mom and Boys Club of America for his success, is just one example of a life impacted by family and ministry. [The first Boy’s club was founded in 1860 in Hartford CT. In 1906, 53 independent Boy’s Clubs came together in Boston and formed the national organization which in the 1990’s included Girl’s Clubs in their name as well.]

We should never think of ourselves as incapable of being used by God wonderful ways. Our calling indicates that God has great plans for His children. He says concerning us:

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation… and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God. For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him, II Cor. 5:17-21.

Feb. 26, 2012 –   Small Saints Who Became Giants in God’s Sight   

The Bible is filled with examples of small, and seemingly insignificant, people being used of God to do great things. Here are a few examples. We should remember that we too are listed among them, (that is if you have trusted in Jesus of Nazareth as your Messiah).

• Rahab – A Gentile prostitute who was used of the Lord to conquer the most powerful city-state in the Promised Land. A great woman of God who became a matriarch of Israel in the lineage of the Messiah, Joshua 2:1-24, 6:17;  Matt. 1:5; James 2:25; Heb. 11:31.
  
  
• Noah – The one and only man who found grace in the sight of the Lord, thereby escaping the judgment of God during the Flood, Gen. 6:8, 7:1; Heb.11:7, and preserving mankind, II Peter 2:4-6.  
  
  
• Abraham’s servant – This faithful man of God is not even named in the biblical account. He is chosen by Abraham with the important task of finding the wife for Isaac, not from among the Canaanites, but a wife from Abraham’s own family in Ur of the Chaldees, Gen. 24.
  
  
• Jonathan’s Armor Bearer – This young man goes unnamed, yet in the exploits of Jonathan and this servant plays an important part in the life of Jonathan and Israel’s victory over their enemy. This is a young man of great faith and courage, I Sam. 14:4-14.

And what of our own lives? Who among us can truly disregard the following promises, originally made to the children of Israel returning after the Babylonian Captivity. 

For I know the thoughts that I have toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you to the place from which I cause you to be carried away captivity, Jer. 29:11-14.

We should all strive, by grace through faith, to make a difference. That is our destiny as God’s workmanship, Eph. 2:8-10. We are His “good works in progress” created to perform created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.