Too many are substituting showing a good life for sharing the Good News, which is an announcement of saving truth, not merely a demonstration of moral living.
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My brother pastors, our people need more than to hear words of truth from us - they need to see love for and effects of the truth in us. (1 Timothy 4:6-16) All clever approaches to witnessing must give way to simple, straight-forward speech when the sinner must face the truth of God's imminent judgment on his sin, the ominous penalty for his guilt, and the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross. Without this realization and a repentant response to it, there is no redemption. In your witnessing, you must speak the specific and definite language of Scripture to show sin as grotesque as God sees it in being offended by it, and to show salvation as beautiful as God's Son offers it. Regarding the Nepal earthquake, may God remind us of His complete sovereignty over it, and demonstrate His compassionate providence in the aftermath of it. Prompted by the tagline of a Twitter follower: If you don't have beliefs you would die for, for fear of being wrong, you definitely are wrong. Nothing that gratifies the body to the dishonoring of God can have a place in the will of God. To be Spirit-filled is to live a Christ-conscious life, and there is no shortcut to that. You can't go and get yourself super-dedicated to live a Christ-conscious life. The only way you can be saturated with the thoughts of Christ is to saturate yourself with the Book that is all about Him. And this is God's will, than you not only be saved but that you also be filled with the Spirit. You say you do not know what God's will is, but I'll tell you what it is. Above all it is that you know Christ and then that your neighbors hear about Christ. That is His will. So often we sit around twiddling our thumbs, dreaming about God's will in some distant future when we are not even willing to stand up on our own two feet, walk down the street, and do God's will right now. Herein we have a great loss; but the remembrance of the remarkable appearances of piety in her, from her childhood, in life, and also at her death, are very comfortable to us, and give us great reason to mingle thanksgiving with our mourning. I desire your prayers, dear Sir, that God would make up our great loss to us in himself. |
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