Obedient Rewards

So tonight at our Upper Room service Pastor Karen was sharing about "what is our witness" and what do we do to show and share our witness. We talked about what it looks like, it was a great service and included audience participation about ideas and what people thought.

Well then Pastor Karen went on to talk about how a friend of hers had inspired her after reading his blog. She then went on to read excerpts from my blog post - my cross. She kept me nameless and you could see how moved people were, some were moved to tears including myself. As I sat behind my sound board I felt so utterly blessed that I impacted someone through an act of obedience to go stand on a corner with a cross. I had no idea that a church service would be inspired and shared with those in attendance from my standing on a corner with my cross. To think I was afraid of man, man's response to me being faithful to my God.  So many others have this fear of man, that's why people don't step out and share mostly. They are afraid of what people are going to think how they will act to them speaking about their Creator.

What happened next was Karen showing a short clip of Tony Miano on the corner with his cross. It was really amazing!

You see last Wednesday Karen worked with the youth to build crosses after reading this blog about my cross, and God gave her a plan to encourage Upper Room attendees to go public as a testimony of God, get out there and be bold for Christ!

So thats exactly Karen did, she showed pictures of the kids crosses and challenged the congregation to be a witness and take a cross home and go somewhere public and stand for the Lord, take your cross and follow Him. It didn't take long, one man was quick to take that cross and will report back his experience.  Upper Room is going to track cross walking testimonies through a Facebook page.

Well folks that's all for now, next time you think about bailing out on something for God, because you are afraid of what others will think, think about what God says about being ashamed of Him - Mark 8:38, think again, your obedience can be used by God however He sees fit but only if you answer the call. He chose to use one person to impact many and challenge others to be bold

and conquer their fear. What will happen when all of us are obedient?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Upper Room

Commitments?

At some point in your life you may have heard the results given about how many people got saved at an outreach or a crusade. "90 bazillion people showed up and 8 bazillion of them made commitments to Christ." There's a good chance that the biblical gospel was never shared. The evagngelist may have gone up there with a message of a wonderful plan, filling a God shaped hole in your heart, or even promises of Gifts of the Spirit and a better life. That will get numbers if that's what you are looking for. Inevitably, if you run into one of these people who have made a "commitment" based on a non biblical gospel, which is no gospel at all, they will tell you that they aren't living like they should, or that they need to get back to church, or something like that. The problem is that people are being told, "Just make a commitment" or "ask Jesus into your heart" or "accept Jesus." Walking with the Lord is not as easy as that and Jesus accepts us, we don't accept Him. Not only that, people can't appreciate what they are being saved to because they haven't heard what they are being saved from. If the biblical gospel was preached, not leaving out sin, future Judgment and punishment in Hell, you may not get numbers. Why? Because people have to humble themselves and admit they are not a good person. They have to concede they are sinful and ask for forgivness. That's nowhere near as easy as making a commitment to a wonderful plan for their lives. Let's look at this from another angle. Say you get married. That's a commitment to your spouse. If you are out with your friends all the time, away from home, or looking at other people with lust, if you act on your lust by cheating on your spouse, or if your spouse feels unloved, the initial commitment is worthless. In the same way, if you are not born again, repentant and soundly saved; if you are not spending time with God in His word and in prayer; if there's no evidence of your faith by your works; what's the point of the commitment? What's the point of getting others to make this same superficial commitment? To pad your eternal resume? To have Jesus as an insurance policy of salvation in case it's all real? Let me tell you, He is real and He should be our example. He came to seek and save that which was lost. He came to save sinners, which I am the worst. We are called by Him in Mark chapter 16 to make disciples. Is that anywhere on your list of things to do today? How important is your commitment when you won't even obey one of God's greatest commands to His followers. Maybe you are sharing your faith. Are you doing it biblically? Are you going for numbers or commitments? If you are going for numbers and decisions please don't bother. If you are doing it biblically and in loving obedience to the Lord, keep up the good work. We don't want to make backsliders with a commitment based on promises that may not come true and I'm pretty sure we don't want to be false converts who are told, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!' Whatever you do, do it for the Lord. If you are doing it for the Lord it should be done biblicaly, including sharing the gospel. Go for planting the seed. That is a success. False numbers and false converts are not a success at all. If you are a follower of Christ, make a real commitment today. Make a commitment to see your sin as exceedingly sinful so you can truly appreciate the Hell you were saved from and to share with other Hellbound people this truth without compromise. If you are not saved today, I will not tell you to make a commitment. I tell you repent and put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ who died for every lie, theft, lustful look, and hateful thought you've ever had. He rose again on the third day defeating death to give those who repent and trust in Him eternal life. We don't know when we will die. If you wanna call repenting and trusting in Christ a commitment, go ahead. Call it what you want to but do it today before it's too late. Do this because you feel truly sorry that you've sinned against God. Don't do it as a backup plan while trying to live life as a good person. Don't do it because you think it could be one of the ways to Heaven, do it because He is the only way to get to Heaven. Do it because He nailed His commitment to you to the cross.

John 14:6 (New International Version)
6Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.