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Monday, December 26, 2011

Merry Christmas

Merry CHRISTmas!! I think it is amazing how quickly this year has gone and as I look back I see a year that was full of Christian challenges. With every day the freedoms we have as followers of the God man are challenged on multiple fronts. As we pray for our leaders to walk with the Lord, I would challenge each of us to get active and quite settling for second best. Commercials ravage our screens with a catholic priest bringing donuts to a Jewish rabbi and a Muslim. The theme, "we have more in common than we realize". I agree!! They are all lost and have missed the boat on salvation. Its time to quite being "politically correct" and stand up for the principals that scripture teaches us that we as "a new creature" should be practicing. Partner with like minded people regardless of their man made denominations, leave the politics behind and serve the King of Kings. No new years resolution, lets just do it. We should filter those who claim to be "one of us", and as scripture teaches, test the spirits. If they claim to be Christian, ask them when they surrendered to Christ and confessed their sins. Inquire when it was that they realized they were hopeless and helpless and could do nothing on their own to change this situation. Discern if they are a slave of the Most High and if not share the gospel with them.
Let me pause here and ask you a life changing question; How many people did you share the gospel with over this last year? I don't say that to condemn you but to open our eyes to the realty that we are more focused on switching fish from one tank to the other. Most church growth is from people switching churches or moving and not from new converts. Why is that?
No more excuses!! This is the year to really serve the Lord with all your heart. After all if your not serving the Lord, your serving the enemy if nothing else by neglect. I would suggest confessing and asking for forgiveness for not putting His Will before ours and then seek the Lords guidance as to "how to be more effective".
Don't let another year go by without using the days wisely, the enemy most certainly is taking advantage of the time that is left and understands the prize. He doesn't want you to ever receive that prize.
May God be with us as we seek to build the kingdom through His Spirit and win souls for Christ.
"The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls", Proverbs 11:30
In it with you,
Mark

Monday, December 5, 2011

Lots of Changes.

What a whirlwind of events. We are making progress on updating our blog and are so excited about some of the things coming. For instance we started our own channel on YouTube with our 4E Media face. I'll announce more on this later:-) I have been debating areas of study to begin and will announce that soon as well. As I have been preparing for Christmas it seems almost bitter sweet. It seems as though I read in scripture of the many prophecies and then in the New Testament read about the arrival of the Saviour only to look at the news and observe the greed and materialistic mobs on good Friday. Yes I must admit, I was in line at Wal-Mart waiting for an x-box 360 that Mason had been saving for.This was my first "black Friday" experience and am still somewhat confused that it was at 10pm on Thursday that we were there. Consider it a sudo-experience. Anyway as I am seeing people pushing and shoving and jockeying for the best position you could not spot any Christians, from my angle at least. "How do I know" you might be wandering. You see I have a theory that Christians reflect Christ, although that almost sounds to cliche, I really believe it. Christians have a priority of seeking God and honoring Him with their lives. Though we mess up it is noticeable in a mob setting like this, or at least should be. The reality is statistically speaking most of the crowd would profess to be Christian and yet live like the world. I found it amazing that a young lady by herself in front of us and a middle aged man also in front of us, stood in line by themselves engrossed with their techie phones. All it took is for me to ask where they were from to begin an hour of conversation that not only revealed that these two had lived just miles from each other in a southern state, but they both had common acquaintances. As we neared the pallet that brought us together it was easy to see that the Lord had intended for our paths to cross. Upon leaving the gentleman said that after one and a half years here this is the first conversation they have had of any value of getting to know someone. The young lady quickly agreed and commented that once people found out they weren't from this area they were treated extremely rude. We parted ways with a thankfulness and allegiance that local or not people want to be accepted and belong. This Christmas use every opportunity you can to show who you are in Christ and share it, without hesitation, boldly, that you might be used to change a life. Talk to you soon! I'm going to play x-box.