Especially His: May 2016

Monday, May 23, 2016

THE King is Coming...the kings are going.

"And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, standing at a distance because of fear of her torment, saying, 'Woe, woe, the great city, Babylon, the strong city! For in one hour, your judgment has come.'" Revelation 18:9-10

"And Elijah came near to all the people and said, 'How long will you hesitate between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him.' But the people did not answer him a word." I Kings 18:21

There are 44,686 books about leadership listed on Amazon today.

A Google search for leadership gives you 765,000,000 results in the first 0.53 seconds.

Do you know why there are so many? Because being a leader is not easy.

To be a leader you must be humbled to realise that others may trust and follow you -- that they will rely on you and respect your guidance because they hope you are trustworthy and honest in a world so filled with anything but trustworthiness and honesty.

Leaders have foundational morality and ethics. They have unwavering and apparent values which are admirable, not based on selfish ambition or the political correctness of the day.

Leaders have demonstrable wisdom and resolute clarity of vision for those around them. They have the courage of integrity to help others see a vision and walk with them toward it.

Leaders are not managers and they are not dictators!

In the passage of Revelation above, the kings of the earth who have grown undeniably strong and rich under the leadership of the evil one, gather. They got what they wanted and did it their own way no matter who tried to oppose them.

Only their opinion counted and they dictated the future, doing what was right in their own eyes and for adulation and unquestioning loyalty.

They never cared about those who were relying upon them. They only cared about winning and consuming and being obeyed. They have been redeveloping the decadent city of Babylon to spite God. They believed it would be their impenetrable bastion of safety against all comers.

Satan has taken his dragon and is heading for Har-Maggedon for the final battle and the kings reluctantly must also join them. You see...

THE King is coming and they are but dust. The battle for ultimate leadership is already written.

When you are called upon to choose if God be God...choose well and lead others to Him!

Intro Statement of Faith

Why "Especially His"? It comes from a closing statement in the WeakDay Devotions that I have been writing nearly every morning since 1999. Each day I close with this:

"Take care with love, especially His"

Although it is shared with many others around the world now, it seems each day's entry is written specifically for me and for what I am experiencing because I am, as the closing says, "especially His".

Over my lifetime I have been writing and teaching Bible-based studies and wanted a way for these teachings to reach a wider audience -- and hopefully be my legacy to a future generation. We all benefit from fellowship and good teaching and motivation that comes through prayer and reading our Bibles!

On this site you will find a variety of Bible-based and Christ-focused materials. My prayer is that they will help you grow and help you as you help others grow.

Modern-day Evangelism

Something amazing I learned as a young follower of Jesus Christ was that most of the efforts of modern day evangelism have little lasting effect, other than exposing an increasing number of people to God's Word. And as it says in Isaiah 55:11:

"So Shall My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it."

Yet, many are not ready, have hard hearts, are surrounded by influencing family or peers and they slink away into the warmth and darkness of unexpected despair.

We Need Ways

I do not minimise the value of canned methods or fancy printed tracts or little gimmicks like colourful beads strung on a leather bracelet or origami-folded coloured cards. We all need to have a way to share our faith in a way we are comfortable using.

I myself, was brought to the Cross through a tract called "Peace With God" published by the Billy Grahame Evangelistic Organisation, and I have trained in most of the methodologies for sharing my faith with another. I even wrote one that focuses on how Jesus evangelised and is based on the four Gospels.

But while being discipled under a wonderful Navigator couple (Don and Elaine Lanier) I also learned a statistic that makes so much sense. It goes like this:

"If each one of us, won one person per year to Christ, and we spent that one year discipling them in the basics, every person in the world would hear the Gospel message of Salvation in just thirty-three years."

Earmarked from the Beginning

Our lives are drawn to deciding to or not to follow Jesus from the moment we are conceived. This journey is as unique as our DNA (yes I do know about identical twins).

The journey after we come to understand the grace of the Father is furthermore unique until we die and begin eternity with our heavenly Father.

Statement of Faith

There is more to come, but want you to know just the core basics of my beliefs.

1. I believe God made man in His image and loves him and desires fellowship with him (Genesis 1:26-27, I John 4:10, John 3:16).

2. I believe there is no other way to Eternal Salvation than through knowing I am helpless against my sin nature and choice of sin. (Romans 5:6-8; 6:23).

3. There is nothing I can do to be acceptable in Heaven (Romans 3:20).

4. The only possibility is to accept the freely-offered gift of Jesus Christ paying the price for my sins by His death and resurrection. (I Corinthians 15:3-6; John 14:6).

5. I believe that the gift of Salvation is just that a gift and it is a gift by grace alone (Ephesians 2:8-9) and because this is a gift of grace, there is nothing I can do to make God love me more than He does once I accepted His salvation and there is nothing I can do to make God love me less.

6. That my salvation is not transitory according to my behaviour and that He holds me firmly in the palm of His hand (John 10:29).

7. That from the moment of Salvation, my life is a personal journey of growth that He has designed just for me (Psalm 139).

8. That the Bible is His Word to help me grow daily. II Timothy 3:16. (The translation I use for all quotes, unless otherwise specified, is The New American Standard Bible, ©The Lockman Foundation.)