Speak the Truth

So many times I hear Christians say that they witness to nonbelievers by their lifestyle- by being kind, by doing good works. The prevailing attitude seems to be that witnessing is more about actions and relationship than about speaking words of truth. Now, I do believe that Christians should live exemplary lives of kindness and service to others. But, if we do not distinctly and verbally present the gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost, our acts of service and kindness are in vain.

Thanks to Vee at Living Journey for sharing the following link to
"They Know I Am A Christian" by Mark Cahill at Mark Cahill Ministries

When Jesus told us to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature, He meant that. Tell them the truth about Jesus Christ.

When Romans says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, that means someone heard or read the word of God.

When Philip witnessed to the Ethiopian eunuch, he did it with his mouth and not his actions.

When Jesus witnessed to the woman at the well, it was a verbal conversation. You never see Him getting the water for that woman.

Early Christians died for proclaiming their faith. They were not martyred for living lives of kindness and service (which was a fruit of their faith); they died for telling people that they must repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. They took Jesus seriously just as Peter said in Acts 10:42,43 (NIV), "He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the One whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His Name." The results of Peter's proclamation were immediate. Acts 10:44 (NIV) says, "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message." The people that Peter was speaking to did not respond because of acts of kindness; they responded to the words that were spoken. Lost people need to hear the truth of the Gospel. We need to speak the word with boldness which is the ultimate act of kindness to a lost and dying world.

Requesting God's Specialists

In the foreword "Why Revival Tarries" by Leonard Ravenhill, A.W. Tozer wrote:

"Great industrial concerns have in their employ men who are needed only when there is a breakdown somewhere. When something goes wrong with the machinery, these men spring into action to locate and remove the trouble and get the machinery rolling again. For these men a smoothly operating system has no interest. They are specialists concerned with trouble and how to find and correct it.

"In the Kingdom of God things are not too different. God had always had His specialists whose chief concern has been the moral breakdown, the decline in the spiritual health of the nation or the church. Such men were Elijah, Jeremiah, Malachi and others of their kind who appeared at critical moments in history to reprove, rebuke, and exhort in the name of God and righteousness.

"A thousand or ten thousand ordinary Old Testament priests or New Testament pastors and teachers could labor quietly on almost unnoticed while the spiritual life of Israel or the Church was normal. But let the people of God go astray from the paths of truth and immediately the specialist appeared almost out of nowhere. His instinct for trouble brought him to the help of the Lord and of Israel.

"Such a man was likely to be drastic, radical, possibly at times violent, and the curious crowd that gathered to watch him work soon branded him as extreme, fanatical, negative. And in a sense they were right. He was single-minded, severe, fearless, and these were the qualities the circumstances demanded. He shocked some, frightened others and alienated not a few, but he
knew Who had called him and what he was sent to do. His ministry was geared to the emergency, and that fact marked him out as different, a man apart."


Lord, please send specialists to Your Church today---men and women who are not afraid to speak Your Truth no matter the cost.

Children Are Blessings

Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD; the fruit of the womb is a reward. - Psalm 127:3

Parents can only give good advice or put them on the right paths, but the final forming of a person's character lies in their own hands. - Anne Frank

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking outside your body. - Elizabeth Stone

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. - Franklin P. Jones

If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do well matters very much. - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

There are only two lasting bequests we can hope to give our children. One is roots; the other, wings. - Hodding Carter

While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is all about. - Angela Schwindt

There's nothing that can help you understand your beliefs more than trying to explain them to an inquisitive child. - Frank A. Clark

Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing. - Phyllis Diller

Anyone who thinks the art of conversation is dead ought to tell a child to go to bed. - Robert Gallagher

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. - Frederick Douglass

If you want your children to improve, let them overhear the nice things you say about them to others. - Haim Ginott

Too many parents make life hard for their children by trying, too zealously, to make it easy for them. - Goethe

The Call

"Not called!" did you say? "Not heard the call," I think you should say. Put your ear down to the Bible, and hear him bid you go and pull sinners out of the fire of sin. Put your ear down to the burdened, agonized heart of humanity, and listen to its pitiful wail for help. Go stand by the gates of hell, and hear the damned entreat you to go to their father's house and bid their brothers and sisters, and servants and masters not to come there. And then look Christ in the face, whose mercy you have professed to obey, and tell him whether you will join heart and soul and body and circumstances in the march to publish his mercy to the world.

--William Booth (April 10, 1829 - August 20, 1912) was a British Methodist preacher who founded The Salvation Army and became its first General (1878-1912).

Lukewarm & Loving It

Sermon by Francis Chan of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, CA from October 1, 2006.