Thursday, July 17, 2014

Say "Yes" to Ministry.

Last night I watched two videos that I shared on Facebook.  The first was an interview with Dr. Stanley Horton, the most prominent Pentecostal theologian of the 20th century.  The second was a sermon by C.M. Ward, the speaker for the Assembly of God radio broadcast Revivaltime, which aired across the nation and around the world on hundreds of radio stations, until the early 1990s.

In both videos by great leaders of the church in one of its fastest growing seasons, the same encouragement was given.  If you are called to ministry or if you want to get closer to God, start serving in your local church.

Dr. Horton, like many other great ministry scholars I have befriended over the years, was not only a vocational minister or scholar.  He was a Sunday school teacher in many of the local churches he attended in the course of his life.  Dr. David Bundrick (Adult class), Dr. Richard Hammar (4th Grade Sunday School), and Dr. Charles Harris (Sr. Adult Class) are all great academic ministry leaders who I have observed as they volunteer in their local church.

If you want God to use your life, start letting him use you now.  Lead a small group or be willing to teach kids classes.  Say yes to everything your church needs and God will begin to develop a gigantic leader within you.

Friday, July 4, 2014

Happy 4th of July.

Today I am reminded that freedom is not free.  Men and women have fought for their freedom over the last 238 years.  The freedoms they secured have been handed to us.  Every generation is granted the right and responsibility to guard and enrich those freedoms as Americans.  Some fought on the shores of foreign lands.  Their willingness to sacrifice all deserves my thanks today.  Others have fought battles at home in factories, city councils, pulpits and in courts to keep their, and our, individual liberties.

Let's remember that there are three battles for freedom that every generation must fight.  The physical battle to defeat the enemies of freedom that threaten our safety.  The intellectual battle to maintain a society that builds upon our freedoms rather than using freedom as an opportunity for laziness or wickedness.  The spiritual battle we fight in prayer to overcome the powers of Satan that threaten us from without and from within. 

As we fight for individual liberty, we must also fight for individual safety, individual productivity and individual goodness in the eyes of God.  Happy 4th of July to you.