Fire! Sound the alarm! The church is on fire!
While the book of James cautions us against unwise and painful words as they are as a match in dry timber, what if we reversed the thought for good? What if we set the church on fire in a positive way? I think we can....and do.
Our words are small sticks of dynamite. They are charged with life. As the Creator created with words...and the Son became the Word...we are capable of reversing negative tendencies among us by our super hot....words!
Last night I interviewed our elders, for one fundamental reason, before our Wednesday night class. I wanted the church to hear their words. That's it. Why? Our guys speak life. What happens when your shepherds speak words that give life? The church is set on fire.
I work with two remarkable secretaries. I "tell" them every day in some way how they are the best. I want our staff to believe they could not find a place more appreciative of their strenuous labors. How do we accomplish such? We "tell" them how good they are.
Do this today; go around being Smoky the Bearable. Speak words that sets others' lives on fire. Catch them doing something right and then "tell" them so. After all....isn't even the Great Commission's strength in the "going and telling"?
You are a good egg....so tell of your joy over others!
3 comments:
I am a Brother of Jesus Christ, my personal Lord and Savior. It has been such a relief to know this the way I now know it as the last 4weeks of my life have been fully filled w/ Him more so than at any other time in my life of 46 1/2 years. I hope too that you are my brother or sister in Christ, and if you are not I pray the Holy Spirit would indwell your life, engulf your life with the Spirit's presence! First you must meet Jesus and that basically comes about thru circumstances, events, the reading of the Bible, other people, and the Holy Spirit! This is sort of an introduction to Jesus! This meeting comes about by way of what could be called divine intervention or divine appointment. When the Spirit intervenes and touches your life by one of the above methods then you have a choice to respond.
to be continued - don't want to lose so i am sending it in parts!!!
God bless, jim cooke
Matthew 7:7-12
Ask, Seek, Knock
7 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Ask
Seek
Knock
When the Spirit intervenes and Jesus enters in - the Holy Spirit will stay as long as you nurture the relationship that has started now between you, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
Getting there doesn't mean you are done though - the Bible says we are to work our our own salvation and as this is done thru various means of study then there takes place a continual growth process that we should all hope ends in full maturation.
Ephesians 4:1-16
Unity in the Body of Christ
1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
7 But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. 8 This is why it[a] says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."[b] 9(What does "he ascended" mean except that he also descended to the lower, earthly regions[c]? 10He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) 11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
Every believer should show thru growth that he or she is going somewhere, not stagnating!
end of art 2, jim cooke
God is good and is good always. Every good and perfect gift comes from above
James 1:16 Don't be deceived, my dear brothers. 17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. 18He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.
Where you are today isn't where you should end up tomorrow - every believer can experience daily growth by abiding in Him thru fellowship with Him, The Vine and the Branches
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
9 "As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. 11I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.
Where you are today isn’t where you should end up tomorrow – every believer can experience growth by abiding in Him daily thru fellowship with Him,
And lastly, do you really want to know Him?
Philippians 3:7 But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 10 I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.
In the love of Christ Jesus, my brother and yours if you have received Him, God bless, jim cooke
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