Open or Closed Doors?

God leads His children. 

“For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Rom. 8:14)

Sometimes, as He leads, we clearly understand that He has opened a door:

“…for a wide door for effective service has opened to me, and there are many adversaries.” (I Cor. 16:9)

This Sunday we will look at how God led the Apostle Paul as he began the Second Missionary Journey.  There are clear examples of open doors…and closed doors. 

Pray for God to speak to His people.  Next week, I’ll update this site with our observations of how God led Paul and review the ways God opened and closed doors… and how He might be leading you.   

 

Weight of glory?

Earlier this week we attended a conference for NC Baptist pastors.  The speakers were fellow pastors who opened God’s Word and encouraged our hearts. 

Ed Litton, pastor of FBC North Mobile, shared from the heartache of his wife’s accidental death a few years ago.  He opened up his life and challenged the pastors to seek God’s presence in the midst of our storms by:

(see 2 Cor. 4)

1.  Renewing the heart daily  (“…being renewed day by day.” 4:16 )
2.  Seeing the unseen (spiritual warfare of 4:1-6)
3.  Focusing on eternity (4:18)

Hearing these things applied from a heart that has suffered moved me deep within.  Paul called incredible earthly hardships “light afflictions” when compared to the “incomparable eternal weight of glory.” (4:17)

I have a lot to learn about the eternal weight of glory!

Christmas Gift and International Missions

Our church focuses on International Missions at Christmas time–makes sense.  At Christmas we celebrate God giving the gift of His Son.  Why not give a gift so others can know this Gift of eternal life?

This year we are taking the lead in this emphasis by offering a way to multiply our gifts.  KK and I have purchased 500 devotional books. We came up with this idea earlier in the year when I was asked to be a contributing author for this book. We believed that you might want to give someone this book as a Christmas gift.

If you would like to multiply our Christmas offering….pick one up on Sunday and throw $20.00 into the basket. This will allow us to start off our International Missions offering with $10,000 and you can give a family member or friend a leather-bound book that will encourage their walk with God during 2010. 

Although the book has a list cost of $23.00, it appears you could buy it cheaper “on sale” at LifeWay. However, you can’t multiply the gift in a better way!

Click here to check it out.

BIG lesson on “Partnership”

 

God is giving us a great opportunity to learn more about Partnership in the Gospel. 

When Paul wrote to the Philippian Church,  he spoke of their fellowship (partnership, participation) in the Gospel (see Phil 1:5).  Because they had connected their lives to Paul, they could sense they were a part of his ministry as he poured out his life to spread the Good News of Christ.  We have new friends who are prepared to pour out their lives for the Gospel and we must connect our ministry to theirs.

This new partnership follows a path that looks like this:

Our Missionaries-in-residence, Steve and Ruth Nolen, direct an organization called Conexion 10/40.

Our relationship with Conexion 10/40 has helped us to develop a partnership with the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba  (Convención Bautista de Cuba Occidental)

Through this partnership we are able to join Cuban Baptists in sending their first two missionaries to the 10/40 Window. (if you are not familiar with the 10/40 window click here)   

Sunday, October 25^th, we celebrate this partnership by welcoming the leaders of the Baptist Convention of Western Cuba in our morning services.  We will join together in thanking God for this missionary partnership.  As these first two missionaries prepare to leave for the South Asia, I pray you will understand this historic moment and rejoice in the hand of God making it happen!

God is moving us to learn more about partnership.  God is moving the Cuban Baptist to see the lost Peoples of the 10/40 Window…like never before.

This partnership helps us see the WHOLE more clearly:  The Whole Church, the Whole Gospel, The Whole World. 

We are learning more of how God intends for the People of God to partner together to reach the Peoples of the World.

Divine Appointments?

Do I really notice how God is moving the Message of Messiah? 

Am I expecting that God is at work in the lives of people I meet every day? 

Do I see His hand at work?  Do I sense Him arranging opportunities for me to be His representative?

Do I expect Him to place people in my path who need Christ? 

Do I notice the deep needs of people I  encounter?

Do I notice how God is already working in their lives?

Reading Acts 8, and the account of Phillip and the Ethiopian stretches me!  Although we are not expected to reproduce what happened to Phillip on the desert road, we can pray for our lives to demonstrate the qualities we see in him.

When true believers look at Phillip it stirs a sense of anticipation that God is at work.  We do know that He is working in the hearts of people we encounter everyday. Right? We are anticipating that God may put someone in our path…  someone like this Ethiopian who is hungry to know Jesus. Right?

Join me in asking God to:

• Give us a burden to be His representative
• Give  us eyes to see and ears to hear those we will encounter this week….people who have already experienced the stirring work of God in their lives
• Give us the boldness to ask loving questions when we recognize a Divine Appointment He puts in our path