Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts

Thursday, 5 December 2024

Using your gifts

Using your gifts

The apostle Peter wrote,

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." 1 Peter 4:10.

Do you use the gifts you have received for God? Do you believe you have any gifts God can use?

Sadly there are many within the church who don’t think they have any gifts God can use. Which is sad because if you are willing God will use you for the furtherance of His Kingdom.

I knew a young woman named Sharon who thought she had no gifts. She came from a poor background. People in the small town where she lived looked down on her and her family.

She wasn’t well educated. She certainly couldn’t preach from the pulpit. She didn’t communicate things well and she was “socially awkward”. Unsure how to act in certain circumstances. 

When I met her she was sweeping floors and cleaning tables at a Christian coffee shop outreach where I was performing.

Long story short. Within two years of my meeting her we were married and we were living along way away from here home town, where people didn’t know her.

Our marriage changed her life in many ways. We got involved with a good church, where she became a volunteer librarian. Additionally we hosted a bible study in our apartment.

During those early years we also moved around quite a bit before a series of events brought us to a small Canadian city where we settled down and joined a church.

Again Sharon volunteered as a librarian. At the same time she got involved with various Christian women’s groups both with our church and outside.

At the same time we opened our house particularly on holidays. We’d invite people who were going to spent the holidays alone to come. An event Sharon liked hosting.

Now Sharon never became a great preacher, teacher, or evangelist and her name will one day be lost to history. Still that doesn’t matter. She is known to God and she gave what she had for God to use and he did.

When she passed away after a long illness over a hundred people came to her funeral. All of whom had been touched by her life in one way or another.

Sharon had always called herself “ordinary”. With very little for God us use. Yet she gave what she had and blessed many by doing so.

So my point here is if God can use Sharon a poor girl from a small Canadian village. He can use you. You may not become a world renowned evangelist. But then very few who work for the Lord are.

The important thing is, as the apostle Peter wrote,

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, 

faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." 

                                                                                                   1 Peter 4:10.

Are you doing this?

Please think about it.

Sunday, 23 June 2024

Do the work of an evangelist

  Do the work of an evangelist

The apostle Paul writes,

“Keep your head in all situations, 

endure hardship

 do the work of an evangelist.”

                                                        2 Timothy 4:5.

I was until my retirement a professional clown. One day I commented that an evangelist was someone who wears a red nose and tells people about Jesus. My point being anyone can do the job of an evangelist.

When I taught Sunday school. I use to tell ten year olds that they could be evangelist. I noted they may not know a lot of scripture but they could invite people to Sunday school or church, where others could tell those people about Jesus.

As believers in Christ Jesus we have an obligation to God to tell others of the saving grace that comes through Christ Jesus.

It may not always be easy. In some parts of the world when a person becomes a Christian their family rejects them. Some even have to move away from the villages or towns where they were born. Some are even put in prison or suffer physical abuse.

For those of us who live in the western democracies telling people about Jesus may be easier, but may also mean being rejected by family and friends.

Still we are called to do the work of an evangelist in word and in deed.

The apostle Paul tells us,

"Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship" Romans 12:1.

Do you do the work of an evangelist?

         Is your life a living sacrifice to God?

Please think about it.

Friday, 20 September 2019

A Matter of Faith

A matter of Faith.
The Psalmist writes,
“The heavens declare the glory of God; 
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.” 
                                                       Psalm 19:1.
We may not be able to see God but that does not mean he does not exist. Astronomers have for a long time theorised that black holes exist yet they could not see them. They realized that black holes existed because of what they observed.
So it is with God. We only have to look around us to realize that this world, this universe we live in has to have a creator.
As I have said many times in my blogs over the years I cannot believe that the universe in which we live just formed from randomness. There has to be a creator behind it all.
We live in a part of the universe that has been called the “goldilocks zone”. An area of the universe that is just right for life as we know it to exist.
Whether there are more of these zones within our universe is irrelevant  to my belief in God.
The key to my believing in God is my faith.
Just like Albert Einstein and many other scientist went to the grave believing in their theories. So it is with believers in Christ Jesus.
Believers in Christ Jesus are willing to go to their graves believing they will meet God after they pass from this world.
Thus my question to you is do you believe in God?
The writer of the book of Hebrews states,
“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for
 and certain of what we do not see.”  
                                       Hebrews 11:1
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, 
because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists
 and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” 
                                                                            Heb