I was listening to a well known conservative commentator on the radio and if you know of whom I am referring you know he can be a bit excitable. Agree or disagree it is so obvious this guy loves what he does and believes what he says and he’s not afraid to tell you. What makes him a success is his great material, insights and overflowing passion for telling us about…anything?
Why aren’t Christians like that? We have the best material. Rock solid, historically based, information and insights from eye witnesses, world famous scholars, and people next door; we have audiences that love to hear it and others who want to debate it or silence us; but regardless, people are listening, so why do we lack the passion and shear excitability of political columnists?
Following a five minute rant this guy on the radio said, in the form of an apology:
“I liked what I was saying so much I just kept wanting to hear me.” I love it!
I want to be that way when someone gets me talking about Jesus. I should love to hear myself praise the Lord! I love to hear YOU praise the Lord. I love to hear ANYBODY praise the Lord! I write because I’m not good at conversation. It takes me hours sometimes to write one page. I sit for ever trying to come up with the right words but when I do get talking about Jesus it’s hard to shut me up because I like what I’m saying.
Psalm 98:4 “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.” It’s a joyful noise we make when talking about our Lord. It’s a testimony to the Creator and a witness to His power. We do the King’s beckoning; we plant the Master’s fields.
Come on, we’re the body of Christ, don’t we have a mouth? Not all of us are made for public speaking but if your faith isn’t worth talking about you better rethink your faith. Satan is out there spewing his lies if WE don’t get excited about the truth who will?
I saw a sticker in a store that read: “I’m always disappointed when a liars pants don’t actually catch on fire!” It got me thinking and wondering what would stop a liar? A growing nose didn’t stop the wooden kid from telling whoppers but maybe flaming britches would! One wrong word and stick boy would be a campfire.
Revelation chapter 20 tells us Satan will get “fired” in that brimstone lake for all his lies but so will a lot of people. They need to see us running off at the mouth about Jesus. We need to counter the lies and rejoice in the truth. They need some Good News from loving people who are glad to hear themselves say it.
All you who take the name of Jesus, do you take His name with honor, rejoicing, or do you take His name in vain? My daughter got married last summer and she couldn’t wait to tell the world she had taken the name of the bridegroom. Jesus Christ is the Bridegroom, who have you told with gladness that you have taken His name? Be happy about it and love to hear yourself use His name!
1 Corinthians 13:1 “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” Speak with love but love what you’re speaking.
Big God = Personal God
Former Arkansas Governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee has a radio spot where he briefly discusses issues of the day. He mentioned in one report that the New York Times ran an editorial captioned Big Storm Requires Big Government, taking issue with the republican promise to reduce the size of government. But Huckabee wanted us to know it was not big government meeting the needs of the storm victims now, it was volunteers, doing what they do best, helping one person at a time, proving that big governments may be able to tackle big storms but humanitarian aid requires humans.
The rain cleans the air one drop at a time. The sea forms the shoreline one wave at a time. Snow covers a whole mountain flake by flake and we change the world one smile, one touch, one man, one prayer at a time. We have a God of change, but He doesn’t change you to make you lovable, He loves you to make you changeable.
While special interest groups set out to conquer the world by successively bigger steps through the courts and bureaucrats and political lobbying our God has approached the human race one heart at a time offering us hope in the storms of life. While divergent groups cry to the masses demanding love and tolerance and co-existence Jesus says to the deviant of mankind one by one “Receive Me, I want so much more than this for you.”
Our president promised us hope if we believed in him and we’re giving him four more years while we hope. Jesus promises hope if we believe in Him. That little itinerant preacher changed the world more than any man in history. We listened to Him for just three years and nailed Him to a cross.
Our God has never been the God of the masses, He is the God of the man and woman and child. He can handle our dissention; He has already shouldered our lawlessness and forgiven our rebellion.
In the democratic process personal choice is overwhelmed by the majority. In God’s process the personal choice is the only thing that matters.
Man’s world exists between two dates. You’re born nobody, you die nobody, and in between we think we’re somebody. God’s world exists beyond both those dates and God’s word says you, me, and the president will all stand before the Throne one day and give an accounting for our actions between those dates. It is on that day that our vote will count. What we were in favor of and what we opposed will matter then regardless of the outcome of the election.
Ladies and gentlemen what we do matters. One at a time we matter. If you set off a bomb no one has time to examine their hearts they are to busy running for cover. But a word, just one little word, can change the world one heart at a time.
A recent cell phone commercial claims their product, though made for the masses was made with the individual in mind. God’s Word has never had anyone but the individual in mind. A powerful army can save a whole country but saving yourself for eternity is between God and you.
But we can help each other. We can quote the word, give instruction, give encouragement, and pray for one another. As a whole we are lost; as an individual we can be found. John 3:16 says God so loved the (whole) world that He sent His Only Begotten Son so whosoever believes may have eternal life. He loved the whole world and sacrificed for the whole world so that the “whosoever” could, each of his own accord, believe.
John 1:9-12 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name”
He came into the world, He came for the world, He came to His own and was rejected. Yet one by one, as many as would receive Him and believe on Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God. A God, big enough for all mankind is waiting patiently for you to say “YES, Lord Jesus!” one at a time.