How Excellent are You O! Lord. You are the King of kings, the Lord of lords, You are bigger than we can ever imagine, how wonderful are You, God. We reverence You O! King of Kings. Receive all the glory, honour, adoration in Jesus Name.
Beloved, Are in the Lord’s army? You will either answer a yes or a no. There is no confusion here, if you are among you know, if not, you know also.
Listen my dear, wanting to be blessed, there are conditions, one of them is “the great commission”! Looking around, you will agree with me that a lots need to be done in terms of evangelizing the gospel. More gadgets are at our disposal unlike before.
You can use those gadgets to win souls or to destroy them. The enemy knows that he cannot stop us from going to church but he can stop us from paying attention to what is begin said or teach. He also knows that if you are not comfortable you can engage in prayers so he try to make you feel seemly comfortable so that you will be too relax to respond to the urgent need of “Soul Winning”.
There is an important question I will like to ask you below?
Are You Engaged Or Entangled?
“No one engaged in warfare ENTANGLES HIMSELF with the affairs of this life, that he may please Him who enlisted him as a soldier.“(2 Timothy 2:4)
You and I have a challenge before us: “How to be ENGAGED in fulfilling our earthly responsibilities and yet remain UN-ENTANGLED in the affairs of life in order to fight Christ’s battles.”
What is the difference between being ENGAGED and ENTANGLED?:
- The trolley cars in San Francisco are ENGAGED in the cable beneath the surface of the street.
- The bird is ENTANGLED when it cannot get its foot out of the trap.
How do we know when we are ENTANGLED?
- When we are irritated or consumed over our situation.
- When we fail to see God in control of our circumstances.
Strategically, we become ENTANGLED when we make the pursuit of the secular our primary focus, and then try to fit the spiritual around it. Remember the aspiring disciples of Christ in Luke 9:57-61 who expressed interest in following Him? “But first” they had to attend to their private affairs and interests.
When the “but firsts” dominate our lives, we are entangled. Jesus allows us no such privilege:
“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.“(Luke 9:62)
Let me ask you:
- When you open your Bible to spend time with God, is your mind easily distracted?
- Would you be free (within a reasonable period of time) to uproot and move to another part of the world to minister, if God were to call you?
- When spending time with your spouse or children, are you there 100% or are you just putting in an appearance?
Whether we are ENGAGED or ENTANGLED is a question of focus, values and priorities. It is a question of whether we WANT to invest in the eternal, or simply expend our lives on the temporal.
Beloved, we are not to worship God at our convenient but out of reverence and demand. You get to hear someone saying, am not in service because it was raining. The same follower was in the office all through the week including party the day before Sunday worship. Some will say I don’t have a cloth to wear to church. Funny as it may sound, but you hear this things and you begin to wonder were these generation is going, may God show us mercy. If the managing director of their company or the president of their country is coming around, you can figure out the rest of the story.
Beloved, once again are you in the Lord’s army? If you are, the next message will be of a great help to you, and if you are considering to be enlisted, the message below is a good tool for a successful outing. Come along with me for a grand discovery:
Understanding The People We Are Seeking To Influence
How do we communicate the Gospel in a society where God is increasingly perceived as irrelevant and Jesus Christ is little more than a vacation school character or a swear word? A good place to start is to try to understand current cultural shifts and respond accordingly. Consider the fact that:
1. THE PEOPLE AROUND US ARE BUSIER TODAY THAN THEY WERE IN THE 1980’s ; working harder and longer for less.
Therefore: We need to declare the truth in short sound/time bytes. Like it or not, longwinded, complicated, or arduous approaches to communicating the Gospel no longer work.
“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible… I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.“(1 Corinthians 9:19, 22)
2. THEY ARE MORE BROKEN AND “DYSFUNCTIONAL” – individually, socially, and in the family.
Therefore: The process of winning and healing will generally take more patience and a longer period of time then it did previously.
“We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves. Each of us should please his neighbor for his good, to build him up.“(Romans 15:1, 2)
3. THERE IS A NEW INTEREST IN UNSEEN AND SPIRITUAL THINGS, and willingness to talk about them. However, this interest does not necessarily extend to the Bible or Jesus.
Therefore: They need to see in us the authentic love of Christ in such a way that validates true Christianity over New Age and other ideologies — particularly those in the metaphysical realm.
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.“(John 13:34, 35)
4. MANY HAVE A MARGINALIZED VIEW OF CHURCH AND RELIGION.
Therefore: We must model and proclaim Christ to them in their world, rather than expecting them to enter ours.
“Therefore we are Christ‘s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ‘s behalf: Be reconciled to God.“(2 Corinthians 5:20)
Good material for discipleship you will agree with me. Now, that you have read it, equip yourself to have a wonderful fishing experience.
GO FISHING!
A wonderful weekend we wish you till we come around again next week. Jesus loves you.
Remain blessed in the Lord.
