The job of the evangelist is not done until the evangelized becomes the evangelist.
Free faith-sharing tools for horse lovers
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
John 3:16-17 KJVR

Evangelism is nothing more than one beggar telling another beggar where to find food.

Free faith-sharing tools for the workplace

Monday, November 29, 2010

Brothers building Brothers - 11/29/10

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.  For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said:  Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your heart as in the rebellion.”  Hebrews 3:12-15

Beware is a word designed to get our attention.  Most of us are tuned to words like, CAUTION, ALERT and DANGER.  In the bible, “beware” is one of those words.  Caution, there is something dangerous that you need to (be aware) of; beware!  So what is it that is so important that we need to be startled to attention?  The writer of Hebrews is warning us about the dreaded heart of unbelief.

I fear that most of us are not as keenly aware of this problem in our lives as we should be.  Being bombarded by media as we are in this generation, our minds are constantly at work accepting and rejecting information as worthy or unworthy of belief.  The news media, education, religion and even science have proven to be unreliable and even, it seems, deliberately skewed to distort the truth.  So when we come to the bible many times we are still picking and choosing what we will believe and what we will reject.

The problem in our lives that causes us to reject those difficult parts of the bible is sin.  The text calls it deceitful and warns us of a hardening effect that it can have on our heart.  It’s a gradual thing that can start with something as simple as hurt feelings at church.  It is amazing how unfulfilling the worship experience can become when someone has rubbed you the wrong way; or how dry and long those sermons can get when the pastor hasn’t lived up to your expectations.  Sin is deceitful and it is the source of the evil heart of unbelief.

So what does the writer say is the solution?   Because sin is so deceitful and because our hearts are desperately wicked; (so wicked in fact that sometimes we can’t even know them), God has given us each other.  The unclouded eye of a brother is sometime all that stands between us and shipwreck.  “Exhort one another daily while it is called “Today”.  Of course if we would do it daily we wouldn’t find so many of our brothers broken on the rocks of unbelief and despair.  Exhort someone today in love and, O yes, remember to accept exhortation humbly yourself.

Your needy brother,
Jack

Monday, November 22, 2010

-James Madison, Federalist No. 57, 1788

The house of representatives ... can make no law which will not have its full operation on themselves and their friends, as well as the great mass of society. This has always been deemed one of the strongest bonds by which human policy can connect the rulers and the people together. It creates between them that communion of interest, and sympathy of sentiments, of which few governments have furnished examples; but without which every government degenerates into tyranny. -

Friday, November 19, 2010

What is the cost?

“If there existed only one man or woman who did not love the Saviour, and if that person lived among the wilds of Siberia, and if it were necessary that all the millions of believers on the face of the earth should journey there, and every one of them plead with him to come to Jesus before he could be converted, it would be well worth all the zeal, labour, and expense. If we had to preach to thousands year after year, and never rescued but one soul, that one soul would be full reward for all our labour, for a soul is of countless price.” 

~Charles Spurgeon~

Friday, November 12, 2010

Brothers building Brothers - 11/12/10

A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.         Proverbs 25:26

How many times I have faltered in the middle of the battle.  Solomon, through the leading of the Spirit of God captures in one line of type the perfect picture of me when God gives me an opportunity and I falter.

Having begun my cowboy career in the Sonoran Desert of Southeastern Arizona, I know what it is to be dry.  There is a keen disappointment one feels when you ride miles out of your way to get a drink at a seep you know about a few canyons away only to find that the cattle have been there first and tromped it to oblivion.  You get off your horse, get down on your knees and begin to look for where the water is exiting the earth.  There is muddy water everywhere but if you lucky somewhere in the brown soup you find this little rivulet of clear water making its way to the surface.  Hopefully there is enough so that you can position you lips carefully over the opening that the clear water makes in the murky muddy slop, and while avoiding the other things the cattle have dropped in your way, you carefully suck in the thirst quenching, life giving water.

As a righteous individual, I have the privilege of being a source of God’s fresh, pure water of life.  When the moment comes to speak a word for my Lord I must be clear and precise and without hesitation or the water becomes murky and polluted and without benefit for the thirsty soul. 

Lord, how many times I have faltered before the wicked.  I pray that today I will be prepared and alert and a source of the pure water of life.

Brothers let me encourage you to do whatever it takes to be prepared for the battle today; the water you have to offer is precious, don’t falter!

Your brother Jack

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Brothers building Brothers - 11/11/10

Then he arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.  But He said to them. “Why are you so fearful?  How is it that you have no faith?”  And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and sea obey Him!”  Mark 4:39-41

Even though I have God the Holy Spirit living inside me I, like the disciples often prefer to believe my circumstances instead of the truth of God’s word.  Father, forgive me for looking at the storm around me rather than looking to you who brings me peace.  Why am I so fearful? Jesus nails it, it is lack of faith.  I am unwilling; not just to believe God’s promises but to believe in such a way that I can act in accordance with His promises.

Well did Isaiah prophesy of me, this guy honors Me with his lips but his heart is far from me. Mark 7:6b (Jack’s personal version)

Brother or sister, if you are struggling with a fearful heart today remember the truth of God’s word and believe it.

Sometimes trembling, Sometimes believing, Your brother Jack

Monday, November 1, 2010

Brothers building Brothers - 11/1/10

Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”  And he said, “It is right for me to be angry, even unto death!”  But the Lord said, “You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.  And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left – and much livestock?”  Jonah 4:9-11

Too many times I have placed more value on things than on the souls of the lost.  I don’t remember ever being angry because God saved someone but that is small consolation when my concern for the lost is so often eclipsed by my desire for personal comfort.  I look at Jonah’s reaction to Nineveh’s redemption and I am shocked and dismayed and yet at the same time there is a glaring inconsistency in my life.
I do not consistently value the lost above my job or my reputation or my physical comfort. 

Immediately I hear someone say, (or was it my own sinful heart), “You don’t really expect me to risk my job for some person’s eternal soul do you?  After all I must keep food on the table for my children.”  Or, “If I become known as a religious freak, no one will listen to me; I can’t risk my reputation.” Or, “You know, pointing out to someone that they are a sinner makes me so uncomfortable I don’t see how it can possibly be what God has called me to do.”

I can imagine that some or all of these arguments might have been in Jonah’s mind as he fled toward Tarshish.  We need to take whatever fear, or “logical” argument we are making to ourselves that is keeping us from opening our mouth for Jesus, and place it beside the specter of an eternity in the Lake of Fire.  That trumps all the excuses.  What value do we place on a soul? 


For His Glory
Your brother Jack

Harvest Festival

Had a wonderful time at the harvest festival last night.  The RA booth was able to hand out hundreds of magazines and mission information to the kids and their parents.  Looking forward to the Thanksgiving / Christmas season.