Christian Tours of Delight

“I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18).

Today as I have traveled around, several things have taken place. I want to share them with you. Is that okay?

A lady that I have prayed for, been in her home and prayed with both her husband and family, a lady in whom you have helped financially, told me some exciting news: she and her husband have been born again, and that just recently! Whoa, Nellie!  Someone hold my mule while I shout!

Also, another gentleman came up to me and sat down with me while I had a quick breakfast with the Lord while reading a chapter in a book. This fifty-eight year old man spoke to me of his pain–physical and emotionally. We will get together soon. We spoke briefly and I had prayer with him. He was encouraged as I was. I heard and saw the inward grief and pain.

Then I met a couple. I began to inquire of where they were from, what church they belonged to, and where they are at this time in their life. It was a good ten-minute fellowship. I felt God had used me as a link in the chain to bring them closer to the cross. Mind you, it was not me, it was Christ in me. I was just the body He was using.

This morning, also, I had the opportunity to speak to someone by phone. He called me and we talked, and we prayed, and we encouraged each other. You will hear some of his testimony Sunday morning. I was glad for God’s saving grace in this fellow laborer.

Isn’t God good? He is the invisible God who makes Himself visible through His people. The lady that I spoke of in the first paragraph told me, “This is the greatest adventure I have ever been on.” Friend, being in Christ is the greatest adventure. It is life and having abundance of grace all thrown in.

No matter the difficulties you are having, you have a God who can. Read the Bible, pray through the Scriptures, and allow God to give you His mind and His will. You will find peace in the middle of a storm. When we praise God we are revealing God’s glory to the world around us and below us and above us. Let the angels see us praising God. Verbalized praise from a heart overflowing is wonderful and freeing. And it brings a walk with God that is lasting.

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  • Tempered Steel

    “Then he {God} chose David, his servant, handpicked him from his work in the sheep pens. One day he was caring for the ewes and their lambs, the next God had him shepherding Jacob, his people, Israel, his prize possession” (Psalm 78:70-71).

    Financial reversals, betrayal, depression, family difficulties, and the consequences of poor personal decisions can wreck a person’s life.  David left tracks for us to follow. Just read the book of Psalms and you will see that David encountered being knocked out of the saddle many times. But David found God to be faithful. The dismal swamps were also seen and David was weighed down, but he also felt the fresh, exhilarating winds on the mountaintops of accomplishment.

    God works strangely. He often enriches by impoverishing. King David was a man taken from the pasture tending sheep to the palace leading a nation. How did God get David in the place of shepherding a nation? He used trapdoors and pit stops. He used transition. God used anointing by the hand of Samuel in secret, of course, but God used anguish by the hand of Saul in public to train and teach David the leadership God had for him.

    You don’t ascend to the status of an All-Star overnight without difficulties and obstacles. Many of us have forgotten that many people go through trials and difficulties, fall through trap doors, and face many pit stops in their lives. We forget that God is working for them and in them.

    Look around and see if you are caring and carrying these “misfortunates” in your prayers and actions. See if the Lord is first place in your hearts for them? Ask yourself do you really care? Sometimes we spend so much more time in other pursuits that we forget how good God has been to us. There is a trail. There is a path God has designed for them and for us. And it would be great if we recognized them as the hand of a merciful and good God.

     

     

     

     

  • Either Change Your Message or Change Your Address

    “But first must he [Jesus] suffer many things, and be rejected by this generation” (Luke 17:25).

    The prophets of the Old Testament met great opposition. Ministry is nice when it’s a suburb and, manicured, quiet, well-kept place to come and wash feet. It’s nice when there’s fruit. When there’s encouragement. When there’s hope. When there’s appreciation. When there’s spiritual hunger. When there’s a readiness to change. When there’s a passion for Christ. When it’s yours and God blesses and blesses and blesses. It’s nice, isn’t it?

    Jeremiah was told by Jehovah God, “Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken to thee; thou shalt also call unto them, but they will not answer thee” (Jeremiah 7:27). Jeremiah was told by the people to either change your message or change your address. They would not hear or listen to his warning.

    This was Main Street in Dodge City at high noon. This was the greatest of all fights. But Jeremiah stood his ground. Most people don’t. They run. They hide. They say, “I never signed up for this course.” There is a great gulf between heaven and hell. When people choose to serve themselves, their self, and refuse God’s glory then there is hell on earth. And Jeremiah felt the heat of it!

    What about us? Do we yearn to quit? How far will we walk away before we turn back? Many serve God with strings attached. Jeremiah was disappointed but He did not get tangled in the strings. He was committed to God’s calling upon his life. People want to go where it is easy, while the thrust of ministry is not easy. Jesus promised it! If it was not simple and easy for the Lord Jesus then why do we think it would be for us?

     

     

     

     

  • How Do You Stay in Shape?

     

    “…let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” (Hebrews 12:1).

         In these days of exceptional evil, are we doing something exceptional? You and I are called upon to complete the race that God has called upon us to run. How do we do that?  Prayer! Prayer is to the soul what exercise is to the body. A man who prays consistently (1) eats the nutritious diet of the Scriptures; and (2) he consistently spends time in kneeling at the feet of the Father.

         There are three assumptions when it comes to the Christian life. Assumption #1: The Christian life is not a 100-yard dash. It is a marathon. Assumption #2: In the Christian life, it’s not how you start, it’s how you finish. Assumption #3: Spiritual self-starters train.

        The man or woman who studies the Bible without praying will develop a good mind with a cold heart. The man or woman who prays without knowing Scripture will consistently pray outside the will of God, for that is where God’s will is revealed. Scripture with prayer is the road to travel that leads to a good finish.

  • Scattered Word

    “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word” (Acts 8:4).

    In earlier days the Bible was maligned by even the religious establishment.  The church itself was against the translation of the Bible into languages of the people.  There were some who wanted the Bible, the Holy Scriptures, for themselves, for their own personal reading.  This evoked bitter and awesome persecution.  This privilege was denied the people for hundreds of years.  Martin Luther was a grown man when he said, “I have never seen a Bible,” and he had been in church all the days of his life.

    John Wycliffe translated the Bible into the language of the people.  He wanted it to be possible for anyone who wanted to know the Word to have it.  He said, “I’m going to make it possible that a plowman will know more of the Word of God than the priest himself, than the king himself.”  John Wycliffe died before men could burn him and try him.  But even after his death they exhumed and publicly burned his body, then cast his body as ashes upon the River Swift.  If anyone was found with a Wycliffe Bible , the Bible was hung around his neck and he was publicly hanged and burned.

    What the English inquisitors did not realize was that when they burned the body of Wycliffe and scattered his ashes on the River Swift, that river flowed into the Avon, and Avon flowed into the sea, and the sea loved the shores of the continents of the world, including the new land of America.  Wherever the sea carried the ashes of John Wycliffe, there God scattered the truth of the Word of the Living Lord.  Isn’t that glorious?  Over the whole face of the earth the Word of God has traveled.  That’s God!

  • A Personal Question About Danger

    “And he said unto them, Go, and tell that fox, Behold, I cast out demons, and I do cures today and tomorrow, and the third day I shall have finished” (Luke 13:82).

    Herod had threatened to kill the Lord Jesus. The Pharisees wanted Him dead as well. What would the Lord Jesus do? Would He run? Would He hide? No, for He was under divine appointment. His Father and the Spirit of God was leading Him to Jerusalem.

    Herod nor the Pharisees had any control over God’s anointed One. Our Lord was not afraid of any danger. He followed a divine timetable and nothing could harm Him until He gave Himself over into the hands of His enemies. He was on the Father’s schedule.

    There are a lot of Herod’s running around today. A lot of Pharisees who do not have your best interest in mind. A fox was not held in high esteem by the Jews. A fox was known for its cunning ways and it was known to hunt at night. Holy sarcasm was used here to describe the enemies of God.

    My friend there is a God and He has work for us today. We have today, we have tomorrow, and the third day if the Lord wills.

    We have a work to do, a class to teach, people to reach, and others to minister God’s good hand. And we have a family to pray for, sons and daughters to love, and enemies to pour out God’s love upon. There is a world to reach, much money to give, prayers to pray, and God has it planned out for us. Let’s walk in the light while it is still day. Don’t fear the sound of Satan nor the breath of unbelievers.

  • Can Revival Happen?

    “Run to and fro through the streets…and see now, and know, if you can find a man…that seeketh the truth…” (Jeremiah 5:1).

    There is a great problem today as it was in the days of Noah and Lot. Many do not believe in the existence of God, or the biblical God that we serve. Also, there is not a  respect for Scripture as authoritative and lawful. There is another quandary as well, it is the problem of a guilty conscience over personal sin.

    Throughout the history of the church, there have been episodes of revival and reformation within and through the church. But upon closer observation, the people revived and the sinners converted, already had, for the most part, a belief in the evidence of God, which is described in Scripture as a respect for the authenticity and authority of Holy Scripture, as well as the presence of a guilty conscience over one’s own personal sin.

    We must turn back to the doctrines of Scripture found in the only Book that shows us who God is and what we are. We are totally depraved–mankind is not lightly sinful-we are totally, entirely sinful. We sin because we are sinners. And because of this fact every unbeliever is headed for a future damnation. Society is ignoring this truth, but more than they, the church is ignoring the warning of the Bible.

    Pleasing God is better than feeling good. Truth hurts before it heals. There is coming judgment wherein a judgment day appointed by God. The payment for sin is death–an eternity in hell, instead of heaven. May we tell and may we tell someone soon.