by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Testimonies
I never served in the military, but have had the privilege of meeting many current and former active duty soldiers at different stages of my life. I often feel like a “thank you for your service” is not nearly enough to express how grateful I am for their commitment to keeping our country safe. In many cases, you hear stories about long deployments that kept them away from their families, assignments that placed them in harms-way where they were permanently injured; or even times where they were constantly threatened in a foreign land where they were sent to protect the local residents. The life of an active soldier seems to be filled with opposition. The life of a disciple of Jesus often follows a similar pattern. In 2 Timothy 2:3-4, right after Paul reminds Timothy that he wants him to share what he has learned with others, he points out the fact that Timothy will “suffer hardship with as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. He follows it up with, “No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.” For the follower of Christ, avoiding entanglement is critical to fully and completely letting Jesus be Lord of our lives. But what entangles men? What are some of the daily battles we fight and how can we gain victory over these areas of our life that can derail our “active service” for the Lord? Different parts of the world provide their own unique challenges for followers of Jesus who are engaged in active ministry. In first world...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | What Do You Think?
Mark 9: 38 John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” 39 But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. 40 For he who is not against us is for us. 41 “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. (Observation) Jesus tells His disciples not to “hinder” anyone working a miracle in His name. Jesus follows with the principle ‘he who is not against us is for us.” The one who assists a follower of Christ “will not lose his reward.” (Interpretation) Someone who ministers in the name of Jesus Christ, whether his service be spectacular or mundane, “will not lose his reward.” Therefore, why should a fellow servant “hinder” those good works? he should not. (Cross-reference) 2 Corinthians 9: 7 Each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; (Testimony) When I was aged 16 years and 2 days my father died, without warning, of a heart attack. Cash was in short supply. Dad’s friend and our veterinarian R. J. Peglow came to the farm the same day and instructed my mother,...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles, Testimonies
Several years ago, I moved my young family from Colorado Springs to Salida. I had taken a new position with a company that wanted to establish an outpost there, along the upper Arkansas River valley. My wife and I finally found a home we felt was affordable, just outside of town and we put it under contract. The process went smoothly and in a few weeks, we were closing in on our new place and packing to move. I had started with the new company while living in the Springs and things were going well. We had a plan and it looked, for all intents and purposes, that GOD was directing us to make the move. We shuttled our belongings to a storage facility in our new town and took up residence in a dingy little motel that agreed to let us rent a room for a few weeks, just until we closed on our new place. It was cramped and less than ideal, but the four of us endured it. We avoided any major conflict, opting to walk across the highway to a small city park and “get some air,” rather than arguing with one another. I must admit, the last three weeks of our six week stay entailed many park visits. Then came the day that I received a phone call from the headquarters of my new employer, back in New England. I had crossed swords with the secretary of the owner of the company, in defending one of my support staff from an unprovoked attack. When the smoke cleared, the woman at the home office had...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles, Testimonies
A good friend of mine shared a story with me that has stuck with me ever since. He lived many years under the influence of alcohol, and indicated that even as a non-believer, he had a conversation with God every day. It was a simple conversation, but a profound one nonetheless. It went like this: each day, God would quietly ask him in the depths of his heart “Today, John?” To which he would reply solemnly, “No God, not today…” This conversation continued for years as this man’s life self-destructed around him. God, ever faithful, kept asking the question, and he kept answering in the same manner until the one day when God took him down to rock bottom and asked the question “Today, John?” And John answered “Yes, God, today.” Twenty seven years of sobriety later, my friend looks back on that time and reflects on two thoughts. The first is what a waste of precious life that yielded nothing but heartache, pain, despair, and damage to him and those around him that he loved. He drank fully of the deceptions the world offered up to him and received nothing of value in return. The second thought is how thankful he is that God kept asking him the question. At any time, God might have said “Fine, I will no longer ask – you are on your own.” As I reflect on what I’m going to tell my accountability partners on our next call a week from now, my friend’s two thoughts hit home for me. I have committed to certain things and have routinely reported to my...
by MIMADMIN | May 7, 2015 | Articles
Hebrews 13:17 Obey those who rule over you, and be submissive, for they watch out for your souls, as those who must give account. Let them do so with joy and not with grief, for that would be unprofitable for you. If you are like me, the older I get, the more I fatigue. Fatigue in turn wreaks havoc on my spiritual discipline and my ability to run the race well. Paul states that he disciplined his body and brought it into subjection lest when he had preached the Gospel to others he should become disqualified (1 Cor 9:27). The last thing in this world I want for myself is to be disqualified in this race for eternity. I know this race is a battle against my flesh (Gal 5:16-17) and against principalities and powers (Eph 6:12), a race in which my very life is at stake. This sobering thought has led me to contemplate my predicament with fatigue. As I have done this, the idea of accountability to other men has become increasingly logical and even vital in my life. Obviously, we will all be held accountable to Christ in the end equation (2 Cor 5:9-10). But, at times, this accounting seems distant and surreal, especially when you are getting battered in the crucible of life. Being accountable to other men is more immediate and can be just as powerful. Most of the time we tend to think of accountability in the “do not’s” of the Bible. For instance, many men use accountability groups to help them with their sexual purity, “do not look at a women to lust...
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