Will You Do Your Part?

I was having a conversation with a friend and we were talking about the global Church. Particularly world evangelism and  what we could do about it. Then a great revelation occurred to me during our little chat. This is a big problem no doubt, but it’s not impossible.

Scripture tells us that with GOD nothing is impossible. I believe it’s this kind of childlike faith in GOD that we need especially to witness to a dying world. That’s not all we need but it needs to start there.

Let me move on. As we were talking about this problem I heard in my spirit “remember Nehemiah”. I thought of his story, and what he did. You may be asking how in the world does this relate to world evangelism. Let me explain, we find a beautiful story in Nehemiah 3 about the people rebuilding the walls. What is really neat about this story is the way in which they did this.

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28 Above the Horse Gate, the priests made repairs,

each in front of his own house

29 Next to them, Zadok son of Immer made repairs

opposite his house.

Next to him, Shemaiah son of Shekaniah, the guard at the East Gate, made repairs.30 Next to him, Hananiah son of Shelemiah, and Hanun, the sixth son of Zalaph, repaired another section. Next to them, Meshullam son of Berekiah made repairs

opposite his living quarters.

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What you see above is the idea I want to share with you. Notice how all the families or groups took care of what was in front of him. Don’t misunderstand me either I am totally for world missions and plan to become a missionary. What I am trying to show you is that we need to concentrate on what's in front of us.

The people in Nehemiah’s story were all concerned about the wall as a whole, but they knew they had to take care of their section in order for the wall to stand.

It’s true that Christianity is on the decline, but it’s

OUR

responsibility to see that this trend stops.

On that let me issue you a challenge Church. “I urge you to never give up on winning souls and do your part in world evangelism, and that you have a burning passion for the lost like never before.”

My prayer is that we as the church will pray for the lost, live in unity, and also that the laborers will be plentiful in Jesus name.

Remember nothing is impossible with GOD. We will see this trend reversed if we will RISE UP Church.

RISE UP Church

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My dear friends I love you and I ask you to accept this challenge with me. Lets do our part and LOOK HIGHER for help.

Love ya,

Ron

Are You Busy?

We are all busy, but what are we busy doing? We will see in a moment the story of two people that are both busy.

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(Luke 10:38-42 NIV) - As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things,42 - but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

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As you see the contrast in this story you have Martha and Mary both are busy but only one is busy doing what is “better”. 

Martha on one hand who is busy trying to get every thing done for the meal. Then you have Mary who was at the feet of Jesus.

We all lead very busy lives, and as leaders we have a responsibility to the people that follow us. But are we so busy taking care of others we neglect those times when GOD is calling us to do something else.

My pastor calls these times DIVINE INTERRUPTIONS

Are you like Martha, to busy doing “stuff” that she missed her blessing.

Or.

Are you like Mary, soaking up every bit of Jesus that she could.

I want to encourage you leaders out there to really focus on hearing God’s voice in all you do.

We are all very busy but are we “about the Father’s business”

As I leave you, I want you to remember you don’t have to do it alone LOOK HIGHER for help.

love,

Ron

Be A Servant Not A Sitter

Well it’s been a few days since we have spoken, I have been really tired and busy. This week looks to be another busy one as well.

I am privileged and honored to be a team member on a student ministry team here at Emmanuel College. We are called Safe House Outreach and our ministry is in Downtown Atlanta ministering to the homeless. Now I love everything about college but this is my favorite part, mostly because I get to serve God’s people in a tangible way. I told you all of that to set the stage for what I want to share today with you.

My heart in ministry is geared toward the less fortunate and serving them in whatever capacity I can. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 25:31-46 and this is the verse that speaks to me

40 "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

As Christians we are called to be servants and I want to be the best servant I can be. I often hear people talking about things like “what can you do for me or what will you give me for doing this” … It hurts my heart to hear the Church talk this way Jesus is very clear on this matter it’s about serving others and not about getting “yours”.

This scripture is how I model my life.

26 Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,27 and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

If Jesus came to be a servant then we should too and I want my life to be a life of servant hood.

May I encourage you today if you are feeling like you are far from God, or feel like you just need to do something for the lord think simple and get out there and serve God’s people.

I love you in the Lord and remember LOOK HIGHER

With Love,

Ron

From My Perspective

I recently taught on the subject of perspective and I want to share a part of this with you.

What is perspective?

1. a way of regarding situations, facts, etc., and judging their relative importance 2. the proper or accurate point of view or the ability to see it

Look with me at this story from Luke and I encourage you to read the whole story here

15 As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them;16 but they were kept from recognizing him

30 When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them.31 Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight.

Notice how in the story at first they were kept from recognizing Jesus, and then at the end of the day their eyes were opened to the savior. I have a few thoughts to share with you about why they couldn’t see Jesus at first. I pray this will help you to see Jesus or the activity of Jesus in your life.

1) They were not looking for HIM

2) Sometimes we get used to seeing the same things over & over

3) They were to busy focusing on THEIR problems

I have a few pointers to give you to overcome these above mentioned circumstances.I pray this will help you to see Jesus or the activity of Jesus in your life.

1) What we see is not always what we get

2) We need to be ready to see/hear from God

3) Sometimes we need to step back & get a fresh perspective on our situation

4) We have to be in position to see/hear God

As always I love you all and remember to LOOK HIGHER for help.

Love,

Ron

Patience

PATIENCE Patience patience we all need it, but few master it or even attempt to. I was walking to the library this afternoon when a brisk rush of arctic air hit me. Just as the air hit me a thought did as well. I thought to myself of how I am tired of Winter, and how nice a Summer afternoon would be. As God always does, HE spoke ever so softly to me, and whispered the word patience to me.
 
Apparently God didn’t like my previous thought. As I chewed on that single word for a moment, a familiar scripture came to mind. I say familiar because this is the verse that was etched on my fathers grave. It was like God was telling me even during the seasons of life especially our Winter to be patient Spring is coming. I feel like HE is saying to us that in the Spring the “thing” that was planted during the Winter will come forth in the Spring of our life.

Psalm 40:1  I waited patiently for the Lord;
he turned to me and heard my cry.

My word for you today is wait patiently on God, and HE will hear your cry. So hold on a little longer for HE is doing a NEW thing in our lives, and remember LOOK HIGHER for help.

with love,
Ron

A simple life pt. 5

As I was sitting around last night a thought came in my mind. I was pondering on the whole idea of simplifying life and stumbled across a great revelation. It had slipped my mind in earlier post. I guess because it’s like second nature to me. Anyways we as people get so consumed by the hassles of life that we tend to forget about having fun.

CONCEPT # 5:  Have fun and enjoy the simple things.

In the Bible we read the very words of Jesus’ you are worried and upset about many things’

Luke 10:38

At the Home of Martha and Mary

38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him.39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said.40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!"

41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things

Just as Mary knew what was important, we know what's more important as well.  It wasn’t all the preparation but it was about enjoying the little things in life (though I know Jesus wasn’t little HE sure seemed that way to Martha).

In my life I do get concerned about things but more importantly I focus on Jesus and try to have fun. If I could say only one thing to you it would be to have fun and make the most out of the little things.

 

As I conclude this blog may I challenge you to simplify life because life is not as hard as we make it out to be and remember to always LOOK HIGHER for help. GOD is faithful!!!!!!

with love,

Ron

A simple life pt. 4

As I continue this 5 part blog series I want to say thank you to all who read this and/or inspire me. To many names to mention but the one I was inspired the most by was my pastor John Price. I used to blog pretty faithfully until I cam to college. Because of him starting a blog it really challenged me to blog again so here I am. I said that to tell you if you enjoy my blog check out Pastor’s blog and leave him a comment and follow him a true man of God. 
Now on with our series A Simple Life. I will review real quick for you and you can always click on the links and go back to read them.
Part 1 we discussed Choosing to cheat 
Part 2 we discussed quality not quantity
Part 3 focused on relationships
Today I want to talk about another valuable and real practical concept to keeping life simple. I believe this is what has changed my life the most. Are you sitting down, well hopefully you are because the number one way to make life simpler is to Look Higher. Yes look higher because we cant do it on our own we need God’s help. That’s right all you men out there me included that think we can do it all we can’t we need HIS help. In Psalm 121 scripture tells us that our help comes from the Lord. I realize that some who are reading this may be pastors or Bible scholars but too often that is a bad thing, because we tend to not focus on God in the simple things. I know that sometimes in my life I used to think I had the exclusive to God because I was called to do HIS work…wrong. So no matter who you are Look Higher to Him. He will always show you the way if you will allow HIM.
In my final words I would like to encourage you to stay focused on GOD and LOOK HIGHER for help.
With love ,
Ron

A simple life pt. 3

I have stated in the two previous blogs some tips I use to keep life simple. In part one I talked about choosing to cheat something in your life to spend more time doing what you love to do. Next in part two I talked about quality not quantity and now in part 3 I want to talk to you about simplifying life by choosing relationships wisely.

I want to apologize for not posting last night but I was extremely tired. So I am going to talk briefly about our relationships and the way they effect our life. Part of a simple life is having those relationships that are life- giving. Also we must be that person who gives life too. 

Here is a passage that has really blessed me over the past few hours so take it in and chew on it. I believe this is how we should act as a life-giving friend.

 

Philippians 2:1-4 If you’ve gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care—2 then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends.3 Don’t push your way to the front; don’t sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead.4 Don’t be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand

Have a great day love,

Ron

 

A simple life pt.2

As I said last night I will say it again. How many times do you ever say to yourself I wish I could live a simpler life? I used to ask that all the time & would always come up short on answers. Over the next few days I plan to add a post a day about some of the things I do to simplify life. Tonight I would like to talk about something I do to really simplify my life.

I know sometimes even though we should pray as humans we tend to get busy right? Well I do to and then what happens you say well I will pray in the morning, but the alarm doesn’t go off loud enough and you oversleep. Well then you say I will pray later and on and on it goes. Well I have found that if I will take a few seconds and pray even if it’s while walking it’s still effective. We have been taught the mindset of praying more is better, but I believe it’s about quality and not quantity. I would rather pray for ten minutes with a pure heart than an hour just to fill time. It does not have to be hard it’s the simple things that matter. In my life that’s how I operate I keep a humble heart and don’t worry about legalism.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. NIV

http://bible.us/Jas5.16.NIV

Have a blessed day and remember to look higher in your time of need!!

Ron

A simple life

How many times do you ever say to yourself I wish I could live a simpler life? I used to ask that all the time & would always come up short on answers. Over the next few days I plan to add a post a day about some of the things I do to simplify life. So tonight I plan to share a very simple concept with you I say simple but it will only be simple if you let it.
Brace yourself this is going to floor you but it’s a concept I learned from reading Andy Stanley's book “Choosing To Cheat”. The concept is very simple you must CHEAT yes CHEAT. If you are a busy person like me you get so consumed sometimes that you end up cheating the things that mean the most to you. So whether you choose to or not something is getting cheated. May I offer you some advice those things we stay so focused on will still be there tomorrow so choose what you will cheat. Remember folks when you cant figure it out just LOOK HIGHER.
Psalm 25:1 In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust.
http://bible.us/Ps25.1.NIV
Love, Ron