The Church

Let churches do less in criticizing their minister, and do more in praying for him; let them expect less from him and more from God; let them, as a whole, arise and put on strength; let them have no strife but which shall best serve the brotherhood to edification, and they will yet see the windows of heaven opened and a blessing poured out upon them unspeakably beyond their largest hopes. "The same God over all is rich unto all that call upon him." He is a sovereign, but yet he acts according to recognized rule, and when a people are loving, living, laboring, and longing for his presence, that presence will be vouch-. safe. When church fellowship is not a mere name, but a blessed,. joyful, active reality, when those who are called "brethren," are really so, then may we look for the blessing which maketh rich. Only the Lord can give to a church the condition requisite for success, but when he gives it he will not fail to send the corresponding increase. Churches need to be more loving within if they would be more powerful without. They must be more hearty, and more like a family; the shepherd and the flock must be on more tender terms, and brotherhood must be brotherhood indeed, and then shall we see greater things than these. C.H. Spurgeon
We all have our problems at our churches, who doesnt. It could be music, activities, dress or casual, building, money, preachers,deacons, elders, and so on. It is how we deal with them that counts. We should put it in the Lord's hands by prayer. We have all said things are not going fast enough at church and if it doesn't change in a certain amount of time I'm gone. You know what you just did, you told God that it's not His time something should happen but your time that matters. Just because you pray for something doesn't mean God will let it happen. He has it figured out, we don't. I am glad God has not went by my timing in the past. What does the outside world see in a church today? We get so caught up in arguments that the real work of the church is neglected. How does the church of today reflect Christ in its love for others? Are we to fight and talk about members and then tell the world how to behave and love each other? When things at church are not going the way we want them to go we blame everybody else, we never look at ourselves but that is the first place we should look. In Proverbs 15:18 it says "A wrathful man stirs up strife, But he who is slow to anger allays contention." Also in Proverbs 26:21 "As charcoal is to burning coals, and wood and fire, So is a contentious man to kindle strife."We all have a choise when it comes to the fire of gossip. We can add gas to it or we can throw water on it, it's your call. Instead of complaining about everything, pray to the God that can do anything. If you say your not getting anything out of church try putting something in, you cant make a withdrawal without making a deposit. If we would pray as much as we complain, WOW, what a glorious thought. All family's fuss and disagree but the ones that work are the ones that come together as one. We as Christians need to trust Christ in ALL , not just some things. There will always be a better church than yours out there. But one thing is for sure, there WILL NEVER be a better Jesus Christ and if we keep our focus on him we will overlook the earthly church and focus on the church of Christ. Just remember, the worse things go, the greater Gods grace will be.

Read Your Bible

If you wish to know God, you must know his Word. If you wish to perceive His power, you must see how he works by his Word. If you wish to know His purpose before it comes to pass, you can only discover it by His Word.Defend the Bible? I would as soon defend a lion! Unchain it and it will defend itself! Charles SpurgeonI hear many people say they don't have time to read their Bible.A better way for them to answer is they don't want to read their Bible. The most important book ever written, the book that we put our hope and salvation on, the book that tells us right from wrong, the book that tells us about the beginning and the end of time, and we cant find time each day to read it. God sent us 66 books to read ,not put up on a shelf and collect dust. As Spurgeon said," There is enough dust on many Christian Bibles that the word damned can be wrote on them. Whenever we buy anything in this world we get a instruction book with it. What happens when we don't read it? It usually doesnt work, because we think we are smarter than the creator of the product. The Bible is our instruction book for life on this world. If we don't read it, life will not make sense, we will not know how to come to the Lord and how He wants us to obey Him. We are saying we are smarter than God and we can figure it out ourselves when we do not go to His word. Read your Bible daily. If you can't find time in the day get up early or stay up later. We can find time to do what we want to do but we can't find time do what God tells us to do? How can we tell others about Christ if we don't know what to tell them. When they ask us questions we don't know the answers because we don't study His word. If you were a non-christian and you asked a christian about his faith and he could not tell you anything about it, what would you think about him or his faith?
B. Basic
I. Instructions
B. Before
L. Leaving
E. Earth

Your Mouth

If the Lord has opened your mouth, the devil cannot shut it; but if the devil has opened it, may the Lord shut it up!"Charles SpureonOne of the excuses that people us why they don't share their faith is they may not know the answers to some questions. First, if you share just one small thing about Christ to a lost person you did more than the majority of your fellow Christians.Second if you ever find out you don't know a answer, tell them that that is a good question and can you talk to them again when you find out the answer. You will find out people will start to open up to you more about the spiritual things if they know you are open to talk about them. The key to any conversation is to trust that the Lord will speak and work through you. I pray every day for God to give me people to talk to about Christ and that He will give me the words that that person needs to hear. If I try to do it myself I WILL crash and burn. It is amazing how God works and how a simple question you start with someone can lead to them coming to know their savior. But you first have to start that conversation about the Lord. Pray everyday that God will give you people to share your faith with and keep your eye's open to see them. God will not put a flashing sigh over their head for you but you will know them when you speak to them. Pray for wisdom and knowledge of God's word every day. He says in the Bible that He will give it to us if we ask for it, but you must ask for it. I never pray for people to see it my way but to see it the Lord's way, not my will but his will be done! I can be wrong but He never is.

Value of the Soul

And if you have once known the value of your own souls, and know what it is to be snatched as brands out of the burning fire, you will be solicitous that others may be brought out of the same state."It cannot be easy to see souls in the highway to destruction, and not use our utmost endeavors to bring them back from sin, and show them the dreadful consequence of running into evil. Christians cannot bear to see those souls for whom Christ died, perish for want of knowledge.-George Whitefield If we see a child go sit down on a busy highway, what would we do? Would we say, someone should save him, go get someone who is trained to do this kind of work, or the child looks happy and If I bother him he will get mad at me. I would hope not. As a Christian we should see the lost on the highway of destruction and use the gospel of Jesus Christ to snatch them off before the truck of hell runs them over.C.H. Spurgeon said, "If you have no wish for others to be saved, then you are not saved yourself, be sure of that."We go through our daily lives meeting hundreds of people. We talk about many things but the most important subject, Jesus Christ, we shy away from. As a Christian we should be always seeking the lost. There are only two kinds of people on this earth, the saved and the lost, and that is how we should look at people. If the are saved ,we fellowship with them and give glory to God for everything He has done in our lives. If they are lost, we are to share Christ with them and show the love of Christ, even if they treat us like dirt.Don't ever get mad at someone who is lost. Don't talk about them, put them down, or degrade them. Pray, Pray, Pray that they will come to know the savior Jesus Christ and always show love and compassion for them, Christ did for you and me.

Love is Kind

Life is too short; Love is too sacred(J. R. Miller, "About Temper", 1912)
"Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance." 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 The ideal Christian life, is one of unbroken kindliness. It is dominated by love—the love whose portrait is drawn for us in the immortal thirteenth chapter of First Corinthians. We have but to turn to the gospel pages, to find the story of a Life in which all this was realized. Jesus never lost his temper. He lived among people who tried Him at every point—some by their dullness, others by their bitter enmity and persecution, but He never failed in sweetness of disposition, in long-suffering patience, in self-denying love. Like the flowers which give out their perfume only when crushed, like the odoriferous wood which bathes with fragrance the ax which hews it—the life of Christ yielded only the tenderer, sweeter love to the rough impact of men's rudeness and wrong. That is the pattern on which we should strive to fashion our life and our character. Every outbreak of violent temper, every shade of ugliness in disposition, mars the radiant loveliness of the picture we are seeking to have fashioned in our lives.The perfect beauty of Christ, should ever be envisioned in our hearts, as that which we would attain for ourselves. The honor of our Master's name, should impel us to strive ever toward Christlikeness in spirit and in disposition. We represent Christ in this world; people cannot see Him, and they must look at us to see a little of what He is like. Whatever great work we may do for Christ, if we fail to live out His life of patience and kindness, we fail in an essential part of our duty as Christians. "The servant of the Lord must be gentle." Only as our own lives shine in the brightness of holy affectionateness, and our hearts and lips distill the sweetness of patience and gentleness, can we fulfill our mission in this world as Christ's true messengers to men. Life is too short to spend even one day of it in bickering and strife. Love is too sacred to be forever lacerated and torn by the ugly briers of sharp temper. Surely we ought to learn to be patient with others, since God has to show every day such infinite patience toward us. Can we not, then, train our life to sweeter gentleness? Can we not learn to be touched even a little roughly, without resenting it? Can we not bear little injuries and apparent injustices, without flying into an unseemly rage? Can we not have in us something of the mind of Christ which will enable us, like Him—to endure all wrong and injury and give back no word or look of bitterness? There is no temper so obdurately bad—that it cannot be trained into sweetness. The grace of God can take the most unlovely life—and transform it into the image of Christ!

I looked at this quote to get a few lines for my daily thought but I could not fine one or two lines to use. I had to use the whole thing. God does not use dirty tools to do his holy work, he uses only holy instruments for the accomplishment of his work.
If we teach one thing with our lips and another by our lives, those who hear us will call us hypocrits. Your life must reflect what you preach. You say, 'Repent.' Where is your own repentance? You say serve God, and be obedient to his will.' Do you serve him? Are you obedient to his will. You say, be humble, were is your humility?

"He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water" (John 7:38). When the holy spirit is in you, He will rise from you like rivers of rushing water that others may come and be part of the Spirit's gracious influences.
God will not use dead tools for working living miracles. Don't be a dead tool. Get out in this dying world and let the light of Christ shine from you. Let the waters of the living Christ flow from you as if a mighty dam had given way. Finally, praise God in all that you do so that He may have all the glory.

Go, serve your King,
Dustin