Becoming all things to all people does not mean that you us a “shotgun” approach to reach everyone. it means that you attempt to understand the culture, the language and the mindset of the people you are trying to reach in that moment

Craig Walker

Holy Spirit, my Counselor, thank You for enabling me to take my sins and failures to the Cross. I praise You that my sins are forgiven, forgotten, forever!

from todays scripture union encounter with God

Put those pants on!

The Gift p.11 Love Wins

Rob Bell says that if you have to do something it is not a gift. So Salvation is not a gift if we have to do something and somehow someway we are all just magically going to end up in heaven because it cannot be a gift if we have to do something.

Ok, I would like to pose a scenario. Have you ever tried to give someone something and they refused it? Yes right? That is an action. Have you ever given someone something and they took it and did nothing with it? That is an action. Have you ever given someone something and saw him or her use it all the time? Either way you look at a gift you can do three things with it. Accept it, refuse it, or take it and do nothing with it. Those are all actions. So we see that gift is free but action of some sort is still required. If you give me pants and I say thank you but walk out the door without them on then I did not take the action to put the pants on right? If something is wrapped you must open it right? I can’t just cover my unflattering parts with the box that has pants in it and say that I’m wearing them can I? No. I take them out of the box and I put them on. When Christ is offered, it is one action that accepts the gift. Whether it is verbal or physical, we do something to accept the gift, usually in the form of prayer. Salvation is still a gift, you just have to unwrap it and put it on.

Guilt causes the very best of Christians to avoid Christ and ignore their best friends. It stalks the heart of all relationships, Divine or human

Calvin Miller

some good quotes

Oh that God would make us dangerous -Jim Elliot

I pray that when I die, all of hell will rejoice that I am no longer in the fight -C.T. Studd

I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell -C.T. Studd

You may have a title…or no title at all, but thats not the point.
You might get paid a ton of money, have a large staff, enjoy a nice office, get many weeks of paid vacation, and have a bunch of benefits. Or, you may receive no compensation at all. Ultimately it will not matter. What will matter is if you have faithfully carried out the assignment God gave you.
Real ministry is simply doing your part.

Dave Earley

Were the works of God readily understandable by human reason, they would be neither wonderful or unspeakable

Thomas A. Kempis

WHO can take away suffering without entering into it? The great illusion of leadership is to think that others can be led out of the desert by someone who has never been there.

Henri Nouwen author of the Wounded Healer

Kind of a funny situation… random post :)

[23] Elisha left Jericho and went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, a group of boys from the town began mocking and making fun of him. “Go away, baldy!” they chanted. “Go away, baldy!” [24] Elisha turned around and looked at them, and he cursed them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of them. [25] From there Elisha went to Mount Carmel and finally returned to Samaria.

Imagine this today, if we were mocked for how we looked and had bears eat our mockers!!! yikes

2 Kings 2:23-25

If you died with the Messiah to the elemental forces of this world, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations: “Don’t handle, don’t taste, don’t touch”? All these [regulations] refer to what is destroyed by being used up; they are commands and doctrines of men.

Col 2:20-22 HCSB