Twenty things I believe

Truths

1. 1. God is on a mission to reconcile a lost world to Himself.
   2. God alone is sovereign.
   3. God uses all things to advance His mission.
   4. God’s timing is not my timing.
   5. God's thoughts and plans are higher than my thoughts and plans.
   6. Jesus' death on the cross is sufficient payment for my sins.
   7. My body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
   8. The Bible is true.
   9. Heaven and hell are real.
   10. God’s way is better than my way.
   11. God wants worship and then service.
   12. God is always at work.
   13. I want to serve God where He is working.
   14. Success is allowing the Holy Spirit to work through me to accomplish the plan that God has for my life, reflecting God’s grace daily.
   15. How I react to life’s trials and temptations is important.
   16. Jesus wants a personal relationship with me and not a list of principles I follow.
   17. Satan never encourages me to do the right thing.
   18. Showing God’s grace through my life influences others.
   19. I have a story that I should update and tell often.
   20. God has shaped and continues to shape me for His work through me.

Glorify God

The Bible tell us to glorify God. We are to make others aware of God's splendor in everything we do. For example:

1.  I glorify God when my everyday life - working, playing, eating....everything I do, is for His honor and His benefit and not for me.

2. I glorify God when I share the good news about i.)  the salvation He made possible with His sacrificial death as payment for my sins, ii.) His resurrection  and iii.) His continued advocacy on my behalf with God.

3. I glorify God when others accept Him as savior and lord as a result of me sharing the gospel.

4. I glorify God when the Holy Spirit works through me to accomplish the plan for my life that God shaped me to complete.

5. I glorify God when my answer is "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Thoughts from Jesus' Prayer in John 17

Jesus prayed. Often. Different times of the day. Sometimes He prayed in private; other times He prayed so that people could hear Him and we could read Him. His longest and most intimate prayer is recorded in John 17, when He prayed the night before His crucifixion. This prayer encourages us today.

1. Our greatest desire should be to glorify God in everything we do. At the end of His ministry, and facing the cross on the following day, Jesus' desire was to make known the splendor of the Father.

2. Prayer is more about a relationship with the Father than a checklist of physical requests. Jesus' prayer was a conversation with His Father.  As believers, we can have a conversation with the Father, because we are the adopted children of God.

3. The best way for us to glorify the Father is to finish well the work He has for us to do. Not my work but His work.  Jesus said, "I have finished the work you gave Me." Our desire should be to live on mission, making disciples wherever we are so that at the end of our life, each of us can say, "I have finished the work you gave me to do."

4. We should live life with an attitude of humility and a focus on eternity. Jesus lived in submission to the Father.  His focus was on eternal life, which he defined as knowing God and Jesus, the Messiah.

5. We have courage, confidence and assurance, knowing that Jesus prayed specifically for us, by name, 2000 years ago. His prayer for me is even more meaningful when I remember that He shaped me for a unique mission, prayed for me in advance and now advocates on my behalf with the Father.

6. The character of God, His perfect attributes, will keep me protected from Satan. My eternal life is secure, and my life on this earth is within God's sovereign will.

7. I have a unique mission from God.  Just as The Father sent His Son to earth with a mission, He has given each believer a mission.  That mission is in the world, a place that is at enmity with God. Although my mission is in the world, I am not to be of the world.  My mission is to practice disciple-making wherever I am.

8. The truth, the Bible, is what sets me apart from the world.

9. Unity among Believers is the identifying characteristic of true believers.

10. I should pray, "thy kingdom come" for fellow believers, for this earth and for future generations. 

Living in the World but not of the World

Yesterday was a routine day.  I went to a local store to buy weed killer and talked to two people - one who helped me find the week killer and the clerk who checked me out.  There were other guests in the store, but I did not really pay attention to them.

Mary and I walked in the neighborhood and waved to a couple of people we did not know. We did not stop to talk to any of them.

At Read and Feed, I welcomed parents and students as they arrived.  "Welcome and come on in." I spoke to most of the other volunteers. 

We ate dinner at a small fast food place.  I spoke to one person who took my food order and nodded to several other customers who were also in the restaurant. 

So during the day, I probably saw a total of 50 people.  

The Bible says that I am to be in the world and not of the world. It also says that I am to be prepared to give a witness for the hope that is within me.

My question: Could there have been someone within the 50 people that I should have spoken to?  Was I not intentional enough to hear the Holy Spirit speak in a still quiet voice? What does it mean to live intentionally in today's world,

..........just thinking.

Walking down memory lane. . . .9

The journey began in September 1964.  

I had never been out of my home state of Arkansas, unless you count Memphis as out of state.  In fact, I spent most of my first 18 years within 25 miles of my home in Pine Bluff Arkansas. The late Roy Hunter encouraged me to apply for scholarship in Pulp and Paper Technology at State College. I receive a scholarship, along with four other high school seniors from the Pine Bluff area, and the rest is almost history.

I arrived on campus via the bell tower entrance the week before Labor Day and remember thinking, "this is a big place." I had never been on a college campus before and had never heard of NC State or Carolina, for that matter.  I owned three pairs of wheat jeans, six shirts and a pair of shoes and I was ready! Extremely shy and with few social skills, I began college life in Tucker Dorm.

The right way to complete income taxes

There is a right way to do just about everything, including preparing the tax return for the preceding year.  For example there is a right way to load a dish washer and a right way to fold men's tee-shirts.  If you are  interested I am willing to teach you.  But don't dare ask Mary because she has flunked the course every time she has taken it.  

Since you asked, I will give you the guidelines for preparing tax returns - free of charge:

1. During the tax year, give enough to churches and other worthwhile causes to reduce your tax liability to 5-10% of gross income.
2. File an extension in early January.
3. On April 8 begin preparing the return.  Be sure your wife is out of the house.
4. On April 15 (or 18 this year) head to the post office with your forms at 11:30 pm.
5. When you return home reward yourself with a big bowl of ice cream topped with orange slices.

When our kids were younger, I could convince them that it was fun to go to the post office close to midnight.  Those days are long gone.  But my tradition continues. I just finished my bowl of ice cream and orange slices.

A few words can say a lot

There are many instances in the Bible when just a few words triggered a response that changed lives. A targeted few words from the Bible today can have the same impact.  Because the words are from God.

What do you want?  Jesus asked the crowd what they were seeking in John 1:38.  And he asks us that same question today.  What are you looking for?  What is your purpose in life?  

And then a few verses later, he tells the crowd, Come and See. To us, he says, See if what I have to offer satisfies your purpose in life.  Check out the Bible.  Talk to believers to hear their stories.  Come and see if the gospel is what you are looking for.

Them the invitation: Follow me.  Commit to the gospel; we believe with our heart and confess with our mouth.  And continue to follow Jesus from now on.

Near the end of John, Jesus asks Peter a question, that he also asks us, Do you love me?  If we truly love Jesus, then we will obey Him.  We will make disciples because the only command He gave His church is Go and Make disciples; make disciples as you go.

Paul asks a question in Romans 13, What season is it?  It is later than we think, and Paul says wake up.  Go to work.  Go to work making disciples wherever you are.  Wherever you go. 

Our response must be like Isaiah, Here am I.  Send me.

I am Unique

No two individuas are the same.  Even identical twins have unique hertbeats and fingerprints.

I forget our uniqueness until I visit my grandchildren and am reminded that God individually shapes us (beginning long ago in eternity) to successfully accomplish His plan for our lives.  

We need to give one another some room to be flexible to be the servant that God intends. 

And, we need to work together through a local church so that Jesus' assembly builds up the church  and carries the gospel of Jesus throughout the world.

Looking forward to the River Trail

2016 is going to be a fantastic year. But in ways we don't understand.  Things will occur in God's timing, and we will not always understand the why nor the how. God is in control.  Our purpose is to work where He is working and where he wants us to work.  

The River Trail is the exciting trail - full of adventure but unknown difficulties.  In our hearts we know that God wants us to take the River Trail.

But God in His mercy, allows us to make choices.  He allows us to go to the Parking Lot and do nothing. The choice is ours to make: take the River Trail or go to the Parking Lot.  Matthew 28:18-20.

Helping God

Some of the biggest mistakes in life are made by well-intentioned people trying to help God. Think Abraham.  Think Moses.

God doesn't need me or anyone to improve His plan.  His timing is perfect. His plan is perfect.

Authority Behind the Great Commission

Many of us can quote the Great Commission, Matthew 28:19-20.  But, notice verse 18.  "All authority is given to me (Jesus.)" 

The power of the Great Commission lies in the one who gave us the charge, Jesus.  He has all authority.  Not just a little. 

And He promised

1. The gates of Hell shall not prevail against the church.
2. I will be with you always.

With these two promises, given to us by the one who has all authority, do we really have any reason to fear failure?  Any reason to fear anything?  No and no.