Thanking God for 2017...Seeking God for 2018

Today is Sunday, December 31st.
We normally meet with the brethren at Solid Rock Bible Church this morning, but due to the extreme cold temperatures and snow (see the screen shot from my weather app taken this morning), our pastor sent out word yesterday that we would cancel the meeting today. Many of the church live out in the country, and here in Iowa that means gravel roads, which can get icy and drifted over. A lot of us drive some distance to get to the church meeting, so Adam decided on caution and asked everyone to stay home, warm, and safe.


I posted the Bible reading plan I use here on the Iowa Seed Sowers website in one of the tabs in the header, as a downloadable file for anyone interested in using it.

Today takes me through the end of the Old Testament for the year, Malachi 1-4, through the end of the book of Psalms for the second time this year, Psalm 150, and through the New Testament for the second time this year, Revelation 22.

Malachi 4

I'm not suggesting this is some great accomplishment:  it's really not that much time in the word to follow this plan, and plenty of people spend more time and go through more scripture in a year than this. But it is a way to stay in the word - to stay disciplined like anything else that's important - and as I reflect back on 2017 I'm thankful for the privilege to have, read, and meditate on God's word. Some don't have it, and long for it.  

Mary & I got to spend some time by the fire last night, praying for all the witnessing opportunities we had in 2017, and that people might come to understand the gospel and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ through it. We prayed for people, lost and saved, and also for what the Lord would bring for us in 2018.  It reminds me that we are all living on borrowed time: the prophet Daniel tells me that not only Belshazzars' breath, but mine as well, are in God's hand (Daniel 5:23), and God can take it away any time He sees fit.

Revelation 22

I hope you, too, can look back on 2017 and thank the Lord for the treasure of His word, and maybe for witnessing encounters and evangelism outreach where you live. And in 2018, let's provoke one another - challenge one another - to even more love and good works, the ones we are commanded to walk in as born-again followers of the Lord Jesus (Hebrews 10:24, Titus 2:14, Ephesians 2:10), filled with love & humility, and by God's amazing grace.

Interruptions?

I heard a well known evangelism teacher in a Q & A session reply to a comment someone gave him for why we don't go out of our way to witness to strangers. The reason was that we feel like we are interrupting this person's life when we try to engage in a conversation with them
.

His response, I thought, was excellent. It went something like this:

"Okay, you are interrupting this person. But let me tell you, Satan throws interruptions into our lives all the time. We get sexually explicit junk email, we get interrupted by the trashy magazine covers in the supermarket checkout lanes, songs on the radio, billboards, and banner advertisements on our computer websites.

Those interruptions are for evil. I just want to make sure my interruption is a good interruption - that it is an interruption for God."

You know, that rings really true with me. I fight through that line of reasoning in my mind when I am out purposely trying to reach my neighbors & fellow townsfolk with the hope of the gospel. And, that thought about Satan's interruptions - that is exactly right! It happens all the time, and in places and ways that would be unbelievable, but for the facts we are warned about in the Holy Bible:

2 Corinthians 2:11 

Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.

Ephesians 6:11-12 

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Seems like Satan's interruptions are everywhere!

I'm glad that through the grace of God, I had many "interruptions" in my life that I can see were from God and for God, when I look back over the years. I could give you a list of them, especially in the 10 year period from the time I rejected the concept of God & religion in my early 20's till the day I came to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And you know what? I'm thankful for that kind of interruption.

And that's the kind of interruption the Lord has asked us to be living for, according to Acts 1:8.

The Evenings Rejoice

Psalms 65:8

 "They also that dwell in the uttermost parts are afraid at thy tokens: thou makest the outgoings of the morning and evening to rejoice."

Downtown Marshalltown, Iowa looking west down main street, around 5:00 PM, December 18, 2017

Beautiful sunsets, beautiful sun rises...this verse comes to my mind when I see these around me. Especially those more unique to later fall & winter in the Midwest: soft pinks and shades of baby blue. God is so beyond my ability to comprehend, yet he has revealed some of who he is in the beauty of his creation, though fallen now and far from what it was in the beginning when God declared all things "very good." (Genesis 1:31)

This last week of work before our Christmas and New Years holidays, I stopped downtown to give out gospel tracts, parking my car here. I snapped this photo before heading home. If you got one our our Iowa Seed Sowers tracts, we hope you come to know the God that created all this beautiful, miraculous universe all around you. You can, you know...not through religion, but through Jesus Christ & faith in him. Someone said, "The Son of God became the Son of Man, so that son's of men may become son's of God."  We pray for everyone who took some gospel literature, that this will become true for you. John 17:3)

Depression, Suicide, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ

Living Waters has produced a short movie on depression & suicide, called "Exit: The Appeal of Suicide." I've embedded the movie on the side bar to the right. Please take the time to watch this. If you are struggling with depression & suicidal thoughts, let me tell you:

THERE IS HELP!

YOU ARE NOT AN ACCIDENT.

GOD DID NOT MAKE A MISTAKE WHEN HE CREATED YOU, AND YOU ARE NOT LOST FROM HIS SIGHT.

YOU ARE LOVED.

YOU ARE HERE FOR A PURPOSE:

TO KNOW YOUR CREATOR & TO LIVE IN A FAMILY RELATIONSHIP WITH HIM AS HIS CHILD-FOREVER!

JESUS CHRIST CAME INTO THIS WORLD 

TO SET YOU FREE!

If you have friends or family members struggling with this, would you please share this with them? And pray that God would use this movie to help those who are overcome by depression & suicidal thoughts or actions, that they may come to know Him as Abba Father, through faith in Jesus Christ.

I Found A Tract!

I was in Wal-Mart with Mary the other day, picking up a birthday present for our son. Mary needed to stop off somewhere, so I went over housewares/furniture section to wait for her. I found some bookshelf units we were thinking of buying, and I was browsing around at other stuff when I noticed it: someone had left a gospel tract on the shelf. No way!

I picked it up to check it out: not from The Watchtower, not from the Mormons, not some other cult. Just a simple Christian gospel tract with the gospel of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. COOL!

I was excited. Why? Because some brother or sister in the Lord was doing something to reach the lost in my community for Jesus Christ! Think that's not a big deal? Trust me, it's huge. Most Christians do not regularly engage in evangelism with strangers; it's something like 2% or less in the professing church who regularly share their faith with strangers.

Leaving a gospel tract in a place like Wal-Mart is a good stepping stone to handing a tract to a stranger, which leads to actually talking to a stranger about Jesus Christ and the gospel message they desperately need. I drop tracts in various places all the time: ATM machines, the credit card slot in gas pumps and Red Box machines, on parked cars while out walking around. If you think its silly, what did you do today to reach these men and women who do not know Jesus Christ?

Now the location where I found this tract was a little obscured - back behind some items on an end cap. So, I stuck it on an island display, hanging out into the main aisle where it could not be missed.

God bless the person who left that, and may God get that into the hands of someone who needs it. Thank you for your boldness. If nothing else, unknown brother or sister in the Lord, you got me fired up!

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:"

Hebrews 10:24