Are you equipping each of them for useful Christian living? Do you have a personal Timothy whom you are preparing for the Lord's service? (Google image, Young people)
How many of your youth have no adequate goals in life? How many lack adequate parental guidance or encouragement to prepare for great usefulness? God wishes to use you to challenge them with God's possible call for some form of Christian service.
If you have eyes to see the youth about you and ears to hear God's guidance to you, you may be used by God as Paul and other leaders have been, to be part of God's process of guiding many young people into kingdom service.
Wherever Paul went, he seemed to discover potential team members, found ways to involve them, and then helped them with a shorter or longer time of in-service training.
Find your Timothy, Titus, Luke, Onesimus, Aristarchus, Sosthenes, Mark, Silas, Priscilla, and Aquila. God will help you find them and guide them into God's will for their lives.
As leader, you are responsible to challenge your people with God's call. Teach them to pray regularly for more workers to be sent out into God's harvest. Twice during his ministry Jesus commanded His followers to pray for Christian workers (Matt. 9:37-38; Luke 10:2).
He gave the urgent parable of idle potential workers (Matt. 20:1-6). How many people will be called into His service because of you?
THE STEWARDSHIP OF POSSESSIONS
The whole earth belongs to God. He created it; He has lent it to us. He is our landlord. We are in debt to Him for everything we use or have. Our homes are made of materials on loan to us. Our clothing, our every possession is a kind of loan from Him.
Our life belongs to God. He has protected us and provided our needs. If He had not surrounded us with mercy we would have succumbed long ago to the millions of disease germs all around us. We owe Him our life and breath.
Our salvation—God's forgiveness, presence, and power in our lives and God's promise of heaven is our through God's grace. We are in debt for Calvary. We are debtors for all we are and all we have.
God asks us to give Him a significant portion of our income and our possessions. In the Old Testament dispensation God required one-tenth of the income and produce of the people. We owe God for even more than they did.
It would not be surprising if God asked a fifth, or a fourth, or even a half from some of us. The least we can do is to give our tithe and additional love offerings. Giving To God is one way of showing love to God.
When they consider the rewards they could have received had they invested more in God's cause, some Christians may be shocked to find at judgment day that reward-wise and comparatively speaking they are eternal paupers.
You as the leader are responsible to train your people to give. To fail to do so is to hinder the church and the advance of Christ's kingdom. To fail to train in giving is to rob people of the reward they will have in heaven if they do give.
The more they sacrifice in giving, the greater their eternal reward. Shame on you as a Christian leader if you do not train your people to give generously and thus invest in eternity.
You as leader are responsible to teach every believer the stewardship of life, time, money, possessions, strength, and the best way to invest for eternity. No one is a faithful shepherd if he robs his people of heaven's rewards because he did not teach him to give possessions, time, and self.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Used by permission of the author and Duewel Literature Trust, Inc., Greenwood, Indiana. Creative reading style by Jean.
Ablaze for God
#64 The Stewardship of Life & Posessions
by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
(pp. 191-193) ZondervanPublishingHouse
Father, we do not know how many of our young people from our church(s) will receive a call into Christian service.
But help us equip and pray for each of them through our various programs ment especially for them.
It may very well be that many of our church youth don't have the guidance or encouragements needed to challenge them to pursue God's possible call on their lives for Christian service.
Our very lives are Your gracious provision. Our salvation is from Christ's sacrifice of His life for us.
We owe much, and it is important to understand that to give Christ honor through our time, efforts and possessions is only right. May we actively give You thanks for Your goodness to us each day.
May we be examples to our young people in what we say, do and participate in for their sakes. Hopefully some of them will be called into Christ's service because of our reaching out to encourage and training them.
We pray this in Jesus' name, and for His honor. Amen.
But help us equip and pray for each of them through our various programs ment especially for them.
It may very well be that many of our church youth don't have the guidance or encouragements needed to challenge them to pursue God's possible call on their lives for Christian service.
Our very lives are Your gracious provision. Our salvation is from Christ's sacrifice of His life for us.
We owe much, and it is important to understand that to give Christ honor through our time, efforts and possessions is only right. May we actively give You thanks for Your goodness to us each day.
May we be examples to our young people in what we say, do and participate in for their sakes. Hopefully some of them will be called into Christ's service because of our reaching out to encourage and training them.
We pray this in Jesus' name, and for His honor. Amen.
Today's Bible verses-
1 John 1:1,2 (KJV) "That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled,
of the Word of life; (2) (For the life was manifested, and we
have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that
eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested
unto us).
1 John 2:15 (KJV) "Love not the world, neither the things
that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love
of the Father is not in him."
the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me."
any man wealth and possessions, and enables him
to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his
work—this is a gift of God."
Today's quote-
~ Max Lucado- "And if we never agree, can’t we agree to disagree? If God can tolerate my mistakes, can’t I tolerate the mistakes of others? If God can overlook my errors, can’t I overlook the errors of others? If God allows me with my foibles and failures to call him Father, shouldn’t I extend the same grace to others?
One thing’s for sure. When we get to heaven, we’ll be surprised at some of the folks we see. And some of them will be surprised to see us."
Today's popular post-
Dr. Wesley L. Duewel: "Spiritual vision is based on natural eyesight but goes above and beyond material things. Spiritual vision sees what your eye cannot see . . . "
Today's question-
What are the dangers of listening to the wrong spirits?
Not all men have knowledge of the truth about Jesus and His message. Those who know Him and His Word need to be careful to examine what they hear against the Bible's teaching.
The danger of listening to wrong teachings of these spirits is that we'll begin to listen to lies which will break our fellowship with God and others.
The apostle John spoke of Who Jesus was from a first- hand experience, which made him able to give truth to his teachings being circulated in the churches.
The teaching of Jesus being in the flesh is important to the gospel, as God had to have a sinless person to suffer a human's death for our sins. The blending of both truth and love is important as that is what God is. It's what saves us!
It was important that John warned the early believers of the teachings of some, so they could not only be on the alert, but to also be reminded of what the truth is. This is just as good for us today. (Taken from some of my notes).
What are the dangers of listening to the wrong spirits?
Not all men have knowledge of the truth about Jesus and His message. Those who know Him and His Word need to be careful to examine what they hear against the Bible's teaching.
The danger of listening to wrong teachings of these spirits is that we'll begin to listen to lies which will break our fellowship with God and others.
The apostle John spoke of Who Jesus was from a first- hand experience, which made him able to give truth to his teachings being circulated in the churches.
The teaching of Jesus being in the flesh is important to the gospel, as God had to have a sinless person to suffer a human's death for our sins. The blending of both truth and love is important as that is what God is. It's what saves us!
It was important that John warned the early believers of the teachings of some, so they could not only be on the alert, but to also be reminded of what the truth is. This is just as good for us today. (Taken from some of my notes).
Upcoming posts-
Constant Communion
23rd- Saturday's post by Lee Forbes
#65 Help Your People Discover & Develop Their Spiritual Gifts
26th- Tuesday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
#66 Train Your People for Witnessing & Soul-wining
28th- Thursday's post by Dr. Wesley L. Duewel
The Touch of God
30th- Saturday's post by Max Lucado |
| Mountain-lake-flowers |
Jean's published book Paper back $7.95
(Be sure to "look inside" to see contents
through the 2nd devotion)
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