The greatest role I have as a pastor, in my opinion, is to introduce people to the life-changing message of Jesus Christ, help them learn the truths of His Word, help them become growing followers of Christ (disciples), but then allow God’s Spirit to change their heart, which will ultimately change their life.
What is your legacy? There is an old song Christian artist Steve Green sang called “Find us Faithful”. A line in the song says, “When your children sift through all you’ve left behind, will the memories they uncover…?” I recall hearing that song when my boys were young and I was always convicted! I was concerned about the memories I would leave behind for my boys.
Elisha told the widow and her family to be alone. Sometimes, especially during the darkest days of life, we just need to be alone…with our God! Are you in one of those times today?
Ultimately the goal of the believer should be to become a disciple, a follower of Christ. When one truly sets his or her focus on being like Christ he or she will become a “self-feeder” and seek after the deeper truths of the faith, more intimacy with Christ, greater fellowship with other believers and a more intense love for others. We believe following this strategy of Gather/Commit/Serve is the best we can offer to help a person become a disciple.
Here’s a quick encouragement to help you have a great week.
Spend the first 30 minutes of your workweek pre-planning for the week. Follow these steps:
As a part of my Master’s in Organizational Leadership from Eastern University I am to conduct a qualitative research project. I wrote about the master’s program in yesterday’s post. Read it HERE. I decided to survey the spiritual health of our church by asking a cross-section of people questions about their own spiritual maturity and growth.
I think Paul is saying to the Corinthians, “You see the immoral culture around you. You don’t have to participate. You can’t choose to be different. You have the ability to flee temptation.” I believe we can love the people of the culture without falling into the sins of the day. It’s a challenge, one that I struggle with daily, but one that is made possible by Christ’s power working in us.
Jesus told this parable, not so much about a boy, foolish in his youth who squanders away all his wealth and then comes cowering back to an expectant father. Even though that is what occurs in the story, this story is about you and me.
An often-confusing term concerning the Biblical character of David is the term “man after God’s own heart”. Have you ever wondered what that really means? What does that kind of heart even look like? This morning I read a verse from the writings of David that I believe perhaps best captures the meaning behind this phrase.
Even today God knows that there will be times in our life that cause fear to be our lead emotion. He sees the trouble before it comes. The One who MADE the disciples get into a boat and face the raging sea often allows the storms to come in our life.
