Thinking This Week

WATCH OUT I

It’s good for us to be careful walking as a child of God in the midst of a sin-filled world. It’s not unlike being careful standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon.

I remember a story from a number of years ago about a little four-year-old girl who fell off the side of the Canyon and died. Can’t you just hear her parents shouting, “Watch out! Move back! Be careful!” A very sad story indeed.

Where in your life are you playing alongside of a canyon’s cliff? Where in your life do you need to hear God calling you back to safety? What cliff are you on?

• Are you involved in sexual immorality or pornography?
• Have you gotten so busy that you no longer have time for worship, regular Bible reading and prayer?
• Have you come to think the value of and security in life is measured by how large your bank and retirement accounts are?
• Are you becoming more interested in someone who is not your wife or husband than you are in your wife or husband?
• Have the world’s ideas of pride, relativism and coarseness started to infiltrate your thinking?

Hear this gently. Hear this kindly. But hear this: “Watch out!”

WATCH OUT II

This week I attended two very different but related conferences. Both focused on the opportunity we Christians have to be used of God to make a difference in the lives of others. To share the name, the person and the love of Jesus with another makes for a powerful… and eternal… difference.

Let’s all watch out for an opportunity to share Christ. Here are some things to watch for:

Develop friendships with people far from God.

• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be concerned about all of the people God created
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you to look past the obvious flaws in peoples’ lives and envision who they could become if the power of God were released in their lives.
• Ask God to use you in some small way to help others find their way to Jesus the Savior.

Discover the other person’s story.

• Ask God to give you patience to get to know other people better – especially those who are without salvation.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to help you accept these people outside your “Circle of Comfort” and not condemn them.
• Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you with courage to take the risk to learn what you have in common with people who are far from God, e.g. workplace, community, mutual interests.

Discern when it’s appropriate to take a next step.

• Ask God to make you a “Resource Provider” at the appropriate time by sharing a book, giving a helping hand, offering a listening ear, inviting them to dinner or a party. Be a witness not a “Salvation Salesman.”
• Ask God to give you the courage to “be with” others outside your Circle of Comfort, sharing yourself with them and building friendships. (Don’t forget that existing relationships are fertile ground for God to do some serious “seed-sowing” through you.)

Keep in mind that seeing the truth of Jesus a work in your life will help them to see the truth of Jesus for their life.

Here is a website that can help you to be an everyday missionary who “just walks across the room.”  https://missionnationpublishing.com/

WATCH OUT III

It is a too frequent habit of Christians to wring their hands about “what’s going on in the world.”

What do we expect? It is a broken world and Satan, the adversary of God, continues to twist and distort truth. How work results in hatred, death, error, rebellion.

But God continues to extend his kingdom, his reign and realm of glory, through the Church and her proclamation of Jesus. His work by the Spirit results in life, joy, hope, peace.

As you give yourself over to the Word and prayer, watch for God to be at work. He promises in Isaiah that like the rain and the snow don’t fall without making an impact, so his Word works.

As you read, believe, study and share Jesus, the Word made flesh, watch out for God to do great things. Watch as his kingdom comes.