Unless You Believe

WOW! What a weekend. I have had a great and exciting past few days. And they could not have been timed any better. With state tests coming the next few days at work, I really needed the pep up. My daughter turned 1 and we had two birthday parties for her. One on Friday, and the other on Saturday. On Monday, we celebrated the holiday with friends with a cookout and fireworks. All of these were great in themselves, but I have to say that Sunday afternoon was the best pick-me-up of the whole weekend.

Sunday afternoon at church, we had a guest speaker come to our church to do an evangelism/apologetics workshop. His name is Marty Minto, and he has a Christian talk show on 100.9 out of Fairmont, NC. He by far is one of my favorite speakers. But in a way that may be different from some. It is not how he presents the Word to us, but how he dissects the Word to give accurate teaching. The name of the workshop is Unless You Believe. And it stems from this verse.

John 8:24
"...for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

Now, I know that I have my issues with witnessing to those around me. But, I was eager to learn his point of view. I thought that I could get a few things to add to my "toolbox" so to speak. I was blown away by what I learned. Almost every time that I try to witness to someone, I spent most of my time defending all the scriptures. The main focus of witnessing should be sharing the gospel. The ins and outs of how a church should be run, and what makes my church different has nothing to do with the gospel. I had taken a man-centered approach to witnessing, instead of a Christ-centered approach. It's not about church, or how we stand on certain issues. It is solely about Christ. Once the gospel of Christ is heard, and salvation occurs, then the rest will come. You see, man cannot understand the ways of God without salvation. And even then, we will never be able to comprehend it all.

1 Corinthians 1:18-25
"For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, “ I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And the cleverness of the clever I will set aside.” Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

So, how do I go about now with witnessing to others?

1. I need to understand that the world is lost. At one time I was in the same shape. I did not have the understanding that has been given to me since I have been saved. Jesus died for their sins, just like He did mine. The things people do are a result of the sin in their life, just as I had.

2. I need to understand that those in the world will not understand. There are many people on this earth who have never heard about Jesus. They have never had anyone tell them about them. I cannot expect them to become truly saved after spending two or three minutes with them. And I have to accept the fact that they may not respond the way I think they should.

3. I need to stick just to the gospel. My entire focus needs to be on the life of Christ. I need to share with them about His birth, life, death, and resurrection. That in itself is the gospel message. I do not need to get caught up in other debates, because they will not understand where I am coming from. I just need to focus on telling them who Jesus is. I just need to plant that seed and trust in God with the rest.

4. I need to pray for the lost daily. I need to pray for those that I come into contact with that I know are lost. I need to pray that God will open their eyes to the gospel. I need to pray that I will have the right words to say to them when their path is laid before me.

I have learned so much from this study about how to witness to people. I have also learned once again that I still have a lot to learn. It is my prayer, that I become more effective in my witnessing to others.

Thanks for reading, and God bless you all this week!

Band Aid to a Broken Heart

I am blessed beyond what I shall ever deserve. I have a beautiful family, a wonderful church, a job doing something that I love, and the list could go on forever. However, today I want to focus on just one of the many blessings I have in my life, my daughter Lauren. I am devoting this week's post to her and her 1st birthday Friday. She is a band aid on a broken heart.

Back in 2008 when our oldest daughter, Morgan, was born, we were not sure if we wanted to be done having children. Along with our son, Keith, two children were a blessing in and of themselves. Our family was growing, but was it time to stop? My wife and I pondered and prayed about this for a long time. Finally we decided that one more might be a good finish if the Lord was willing to grant us that. I remember the day that my wife found out that she was expecting our third child. We were so happy and excited about the newest member of our family. We even went as far as to pick out names that very night.

Then, a few days later, a tragedy occurred. My wife was in the process of a miscarriage. It was the first time she had lost a child. There are no words to describe the pain that my wife and I felt. We were so happy about another child, that we had not entertained the thought of losing one. We were devastated. My wife and I prayed for comfort and peace. Was this a test of our faith? A couple of verses came to mind.

Romans 8:28
" And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose."

Romans 8:37-39
"But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

So we made it up in our minds that we would glorify God no matter the circumstances. We gave our sorrows over to Him, and trusted in Him that He would see us through.

Philippians 4:13
"I can do all things through Him who strengthens me."

We cast our cares upon the Lord about our suffering and the question as to was our family complete. And several months later, we had what we believed to be an answer to prayer. Jenny was expecting again. We were so elated at the thought, however, more cautious after what happened with the last pregnancy. Still, it was hard to suppress the excitement. Was this to be our reward for being faithful to God through a great tragedy? Then the news came. We lost this child too. Our hearts were broken. Our spirit was greatly weakened by this next loss. Was it meant for us to even have another child? Why was this happening again? The depression was so much greater this time. Two miscarriages within one year. My wife blamed herself, and I prayed for forgiveness thinking this may be some form of discipline from the Lord. But we still prayed. We gave this to the Lord as well. Every time that we faced this loss again, we prayed for comfort from our Lord.

Psalm 73:28
"But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord God my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works."

I was amazed at the chance that these situations gave us to witness to others. Many that I come into contact with were amazed at how at peace we were. They were amazed that we were not angry at God and turn away from our faith. Did we want to try again? Were we afraid of what would happen if we lost another one? What would we do? Around Christmas of 2010, my wife began to be sick. Not sure of what was going on I took her to the doctor. She was pregnant. This one was unplanned. We were not trying to get pregnant again. But, here it was. Fear struck us when some of the tests performed were not so good. We were at the point of extreme despair. We cried all night that night while we waited for the last test results to come in. I remember the chills I felt when the phone rang.

In May, my beautiful daughter Lauren was born. Words cannot describe what this blessing has been to us. Our hearts were broken at the loss of two babies that we will never see on this earth. But, God provided us with a band aid for our broken hearts in the angel that was born almost a year ago today. Not a day goes by that I do not praise God for blessing me beyond what I deserve. Was this a reward for our faithfulness through our time of suffering? I don't know. It sure feels like it though. Watching her grow has been a heart warming experience. Her first tooth, watching her crawl, her first steps on her own, and the first time she called me Da Da, burn in my mind.

I will do everything in my power to be the best Dad I can be to Lauren. I will never forget what she is to my wife and I. And I will never forget to give God the glory, honor and praise for sending her to us.

Lauren, for all that you are now at this age, for all that I hope you to become, know that your Daddy will love and cherish you always.

Happy Birthday.

Thanks for reading, and God bless you all this week!