Go and Preach

“Preach abroad….It is the cooping yourselves up in rooms that has dampened the work of God, which never was and never will be carried out to any purpose without going into the highways and hedges and compelling men and women to come in.” - Jonathan Edwards
This comes from one of the great open air preachers of the past. In todays time we think that someone has to come into the church before we can share the gospel with them. We are to go where the sinners are. We don't go to the pasture to go fishing, we go to the pond, where the fish are. The preachers of old, Wesley, Whitfield, and Spurgeon, would go into a town and preach on the corner of a street so that everyone could hear the gospel. They went were the fish gathered. Another way to put it is, criminals are not going to walk up to the jail and tell the cops to help them stop committing crimes just like the lost sinner is not going to walk into the church and tell the church to keep him from living in the ways of the world. The cop must go get the criminal just like the saved must go get the lost. Sometimes a lost person may walk into a church by himself just like a criminal may turn himself in, but what would this world be like if the cops waited for all the criminals to turn themselves in? The same goes for Christians, what if we wait for the lost to turn themselves over to Christ? Go tell someone about Christ to day like their life depended on it, because it does.

Live it

"Know your book, live it, believe it, and obey it. Hide God's word in your heart." Smith Wigglesworth
The book that we all should know front to back is the Bible. When we studied for a test in school we would do our homework so we would know the answers to the questions. If we didn't study we would not do so well. It is the same with the Bible, if you want to know how to get through the test of life, read the instruction book. How do you think you will pass the test of life if you don't study. So many people will stay up late at night to cram for test and classes that will not matter on the day they die, but won't even take a few minutes to open Gods word every day. Shoud we not be cramming for the biggest test of our lives, which is eternity. We will have no excuse when we are face to face with God one day. He gave us the instuction book for life, have you studied it latley?

BE THE CHURCH

The church is like manure. Pile it up, and it stinks up the neighborhood. Spread it out and it enriches the world." Luis Palau
This is sad but true all to many times concerning our churches in today's time. When we sit in our churches and do nothing for the world to see, we become hypocrites. We tell each other that the world needs Christ but we don't tell the world. We help each other, but we don't help the world. Christ did not sit up in some building and preach only to His twelve disciples, He was in the streets, courtyards, and everywhere the lost were. Don't just sit in the church on Sunday, be the church everyday!

Idle

Now, recollect, those are always coldest that do not plough, for those that plough get warm. I have always noticed that the people in a church, who quarrel, are the idle ones. Those that do nothing always grumble. Charles Spurgeon

Isn't it funny how after all these years people are still the same. Spurgeon was a preacher in the 1800's and he had the same problems as we do today. If we are busy seeking the lost in this world and doing God's business we don't have time to complain. Put yourself to work for the Lord and he will brighten and warm your heart.Do nothing and you will become cold and bitter.