Reasonable Service

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

Paul lived for death. He put it all on the line. He kept nothing back. Paul lived with an eternal paradigm unlike anyone else we read about in the Bible other than Jesus Himself.

It is a bold statement to make but I really believe in light of what we read in the Bible, especially this verse, that if we were to suffer every moment of our lives on earth it would not be worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us in the life to come!!!

This means we have to quit worrying about our comforts, and quality of life here on earth. We must stop listening when the statement, “you have is so rough,” is whispered into our ears. These are the words of a man that lives with a temporal paradigm, one who lives as if this is the only life that matters.

If a Christian were to suffer every passing moment of his/her life on earth with a horrible disease, in hindsight, a million years from now in Heaven those years would be remembered about like you and I remember a sneeze we sneezed twenty years ago on the most insignificant day of our life. I am not trying to make light of the heartaches we go through now but simply encourage you to know that this will all pass away. These sufferings on earth during this life cannot compare with how wonderful the next life will be. Remember this life is preparation for the next. This is not the end. You and I are on a journey to a better country. The road may get very rough at times but you will make it. Don’t make the journey your home!

We thank the Lord for using Pastor Criswell and his congregation in Ringgold, GA to give us $400.00 more dollars today to help us in buying a church building in South Africa. We are inching closer and closer to getting the needed funds. Please keep praying for this need. Also, thanks once again for all of you who have given up to this point.

FOR GOD IS MY WITNESS -

Romans 1:9 -”For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;”

This is one thing that we would all do well to get nailed down and that is that “God is Our Witness.” Paul lived for God’s glory, under God’s authority, by God’s grace, and with God’s Power. Paul realized that it did not matter what others thought about him, or saw him do because God was his ultimate witness and God would ultimately set the record straight! God is your Witness…

I. He is Witness of What Kind of Spirit You Serve Him With. - v.9 - “…Whom I serve with my Spirit”

II. He is Witness of My Prayer Life - v. 9 - “that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers”

God knows your heart. He knows if you are serving him with the wrong motives or in the flesh. God knows how much your pray, how you pray, and what your pray for no matter how beautiful your public prayers may be. Paul realized that God was his witness even in the things that could not be seen by the human eye. God is our Witness!!! Let us stop seeking to please people and begin serving the real witness of our life, God almighty!

Here are some thoughts that might help you and I to be more thankful this holiday season.

Read Luke 17:11-19 - Here we find the story of the ten lepers that were cleansed. After their cleansing only one turned back to glorify God and thank Jesus for his healing. We look at this story and think how rude and ungrateful were those other nine for not falling at Jesus’ feet and thanking him like the other man.

I hate to say it but many times many of us fall into the “other nine” category. We fail to thank God for our salvation the way we should. We should in fact be like that one leper and fall at the feet of Jesus everyday thanking Him for His grace and mercy. But many of us go on about our life as if it were a small thing to leave a Kingdom, die on a cross, and then to top it off by crushing death.

If you have nothing else to be thankful for this holiday season thank Jesus for dying on the cross for you.

In I Thessalonians 5:18 the Bible says, “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Notice what the scripture says, “This is the will of God concerning you.” What can you do today to be in the will of God? GIVE THANKS IN EVERYTHING - in the good, the bad, the ugly, and the painful - GIVE THANKS!!!

Here is another question from this scripture. If you spend all your time and in everything you give thanks, how much time does that leave or what does that leave over to complain about?

NOTHING AND NO TIME!!!

As Christians we are to give thanks in everything and all the time. The first necessitates the second.

Whether or not we are content has a lot to do with whether or not we are thankful. The key to contentment is found in what determines the greatness of our lives. Is it you and your accomplishments or Christ?

If you are the determining factor it is going to be hard to live in a state of thankfulness and contentment. This in turn will get alot of other areas in your life messed up. For instance, instead of loving your neighbor as Christ commanded you will find yourself loving what your neighbor has.

“Contentment is not found in having everything but in being satisfied with what we have.”

We have Christ and all of His accomplishments. We have been saved, we continue to enjoy His benefits daily, and we will one day live with Him in perfection. Learn to find your identity and contentment in Christ.

Here is another great scripture to help us be thankful and content.

I Timothy 6:7-8 - “For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out. 8 And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.”

Anyways I thought this was encouraging on being thankful.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We just finished a tremendous missions conference in Lyons, GA. That concludes three weeks of consecutive missions conferences.

The first one was in Lapeer, MI, with my good friend Pastor Nathan Gregory. He is just getting started at the church but and great things are happening there. They gave us a tremendous love offering and put on a great conference.

From there we went on to Cuba… Missouri. This is the church of a pastor that started supporting us from a church in Cleveland, OK. He had since resigned that church and started a new church in Missouri and asked us to be a part of their conference. It was great to be with them and they were wonderful to us.

Then as I said we just finished a conference in Lyons, GA with another friend of mine, Pastor Michael Plowman. We went to school together at Crown College. It was a tremendous time and they spoiled us to death. Everyday was a time of fun and fellowship. On Sunday they had Christmas for us where we received all kinds of wonderful gifts. On top of the great gifts we all received someone in the church anonymously gave a monetary gift for our church building in South Africa to the sum of $6,200.00!!!!!

We are getting very close now to getting all the funds we need in order to buy the building. I believe we only need $22,000.00 and we will be finished.

We just finished a missions conference in Michigan on Wednesday. I had the opportunity to preach for my old friend Nathan Gregory, who is now the pastor of Faith Bible Baptist Church in Lapeer, MI. It was a great conference. The church was super hospitable and great things are happening in this ministry. I ask you to pray for Pastor Gregory as he leads this ministry.

We headed down to Missouri yesterday. On the way down I was meditating (sleeping) and I was awakened to the sound of screeching tires as we were driving 70mph. That is not a nice alarm clock sound. As I raised up and glanced behind us I saw a mini van veer away from our car and go flying into the concrete wall to our right. Then as he had come to a stop a semi-truck came blasting into his side. It was not a pretty site.

I say all of that to say this, God has really taken special care of us as we travel the roads weekly. We just want to publicly thank Him for that.

MOST IMPORTANTLY****Also please keep Ethan Howeth in your prayers. He is the son of missionary Tony Howeth. He was accidentally shot in the leg and the doctors and family are at the moment making the decision of whether or not to save the leg.

I must say that this family has had a tremendous impact in my life and now they are in need of others making a financial impact in theirs. The Howeths are going to have some high medical bills to deal with once this is all over with. If you would like to help this dear family during this crisis you can send any donations to Macedonia World Baptist Missions. The details are as follows.
P.O. Box 519
Braselton, Ga 30517
Designation: ” Tony Howeth Medical” #181-020

Any contribution would be a great help. If this were your son and you were in this situation the last thing you would want to be doing is fretting over the medical bills.