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

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

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 Big Lesson In The Big Easy

I had the privilege of going to New Orleans on a short term mission trip this past week. I learned a few valuable lessons on this trip that I want to pass on to you.

• It’s not so much about the what but the why

let me explain this for you I know all this but for some reason I got consumed with the job at hand & forgot somewhat about the reason I was here. Which was to be an ambassador for Christ

• Its about the eternal not the temporal

what I mean is the work we done will one day be gone or destroyed again but the eternal is the lives we touched & even the lives of other team members

• Even if we don't have everything we want there is someone who is more in need than you

 

So that is just a few things I brought back from this trip & in the next few lines I will give you a brief summary of our trip.

We left Thursday morning & traveled nearly 12 hours before arriving in New Orleans.. After getting settled in we ate at the best Pizzeria I have ever ate at. Once we got back to the church we went to bed. The next morning got up & left for the orientation one of the vehicles had a flat tire so that put us back a little. Finally we got our job assignments two jobs one was installing some sheetrock in the ceiling we had to finish it to. Its ready to paint now. The other job was laying tile & a few odd tasks in that home. Friday night we went to Bourbon St. & the downtown areas. Saturday night we went to the ninth ward one of the hardest hit areas it is still devastating to see homes still destroyed, vacant lots, torn communities & it’s been 5 years since Katrina. So that's brief but we had fun, worked hard, & left our impression on a city that so desperately needs Jesus.

Oh yeah one more job the girls got to go to was a clean up job but what's so neat was that God showed up & used these girls my fiancé’ included they got to minister to a 72 year old woman who was lonely but still had her joy they laughed together, cried together, they just had church in the middle of the day & really blessed that dear woman who had nothing but God but kept her faith. So it was worth it all for this moment alone.

Thanks for all the prayers & support could not have done this without you.

I will post pictures on here later so until then God bless 

CHURCH (RELIGION) V/S COMMUNITY (RELATIONSHP)

I have been asked many times why the crude title (church Sucks).

1. It gets your attention
2. how man does church really sucks
3. it’s my blog right

 

I am a locally licensed minister & I love Jesus with all my heart & I love the church in its purest form. All the things that man has made the church makes me sick. In the New Testament the church was the community. & somewhere down the line man has separated the two.

The two are constantly at war with each other it should never be this way. Lets look at what the bible says about what the church should be.

Act 4:32-35 NIV - All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales  and put it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need.

Now you see in the New Testament church they were more concerned about relationship and community than religion or religious activities.(church)

I want to warn you I know the dangers of becoming to social minded and not spiritual minded I know but first and foremost we should be able to build relationships. I dont care how spiritual you are if you cant connect with the people then how will they know how great God is.

I told my girlfriend the other night it’s not the product you sell it’s yourself you sell. If people like you they will listen to you. If you connect with people you must have sold yourself to them first.

If we will make our church  community and our community church we will see greater results because of three areas

1. Unity
2. unselfishness
3. more resources

remember the bible said that no needy person was among them

so my prayer is that we will be more community minded or kingdom minded and not just worried about this church or that church but about THE CHURCH

UNITY IN THE BODY

Last night I got to be part of something truly amazing. It was not a miracle or it wasn't even unthinkable but it just does not happen much. OK OK you say well what is it Ron. Two local churches got together last night and decided to combine their resources to reach our community. I am sorry actually it was three churches. My church the Believers church & Place of Grace. During our meeting we had some great discussions and really worked as a team. That got me to thinking about how powerful the BODY would be if we would have the same mission in life. Jesus said that we should go and make disciples of all nations. I tell you what would it look like if we truly was the body. Just say one church does food banks well another does a clothing ministry well, and say still another church they really help the elderly out. OK but what if the church with the food bank tried to clothe the people too instead doing their part. Remember the body the foot needs the leg the hip needs the torso and so on we work together to function as a true unit. So as we walk by faith in this area it will have some growing pains but also we will have some great benefits as well. Who knows maybe we will inspire other churches to join us and lets blow this thing up and reach the lost for Christ. as I am getting ready to close I want to share a scripture with you Eccl 4:12 12 And one standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer; three is even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken. TLB this came to me about a year ago God showed me a rope in my minds eye and it was hard to break it. Not knowing at that time it was scriptural. So heres my final thought other churches are not competition but covenant partners