The Power of God!

I’ve gotta say what a wonderful and awesome weekend this past weekend was. It’s always amazing to see God move and change someone’s life. Taking them out of darkness and bringing them into the light. Taking their heart of stone and turning it into a heart of flesh. You know it’s God and only God when someone is saved from the ways of this world and reconciled with Him. You know it’s God and God alone that does this. Romans 1:16 states …”for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…” You know it’s God when a devout Buddist who’s told you he’ll never even step foot in church all of a sudden show’s up at church, you know it’s God when this devout Buddist see’s his sin and know’s he needs Jesus. You know it’s God when this devout Buddist is reconciled with a just and holy God and no longer will suffer His wrath but will spend eternity with Him. You know it’s God when this man is no longer a devout Buddist but now a child of God. You know it’s God when this man renounces his Buddist ways and professes Christ as his Lord and Savior. Praise God, the kingdom is a little more crowded now!

Why do I mention this? First, to give all glory to God it was Him who saved this man and nothing that I or anyone else did. God used us to give the gospel to this man and show him the love of Christ. It’s the power of the gospel which reaches people and show’s them their need for a Savior. We could have gone and told this man what a wonderful life he could have, what great things God would provide for Him, but what would that have done? Nothing. This man could care less about material things. It was his sin that was keeping him from God. It was hearing the gospel that showed this man how sinful he was just like all of us are and that without Christ he would suffer the wrath of a just and holy God. That God loves us so much that He sent His Son to die and suffer His wrath to pay the price for the penalty we deserved.

Now that this man is saved from God’s wrath, the discipleship process begins. Praise God!

Why so wimpy?

2nd Timothy 1:7 "For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self control."

We see three things that are given to us by the Holy Spirit when we become a child of God but we also see one thing we don't have.

Fear: The Greek (deilia) in extrabiblical literature refers to one who flees from battle, and has a strong pejorative sense referring to cowardice. Boldness, not cowardice, is a mark of the Spirit.

Proverbs 28:1 "The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are bold as a lion".

Fear is the number one reason that we don't share our faith. Fear of what someone will think, fear that we will be rejected, fear that we don't "know enough", fear because we don't want to offend anyone. But you see, our focus is to be on Jesus, not ourselves. Fear is not in us! The spirit that is within us is not of fear but of power, love and self-control.

If you're a child of God trust Him, not yourself. When we trust ourselves, then we find all of the excuses not to witness to someone about Jesus who gave His life so that all who repent and believe in Him alone for salvation will be reconciled with a just, righteous, and holy God. When we trust in ourselves we have fear, but God gives us power, love, and self-control.

So what's in you? Fear or power.