So I was heading to Jesup this weekend and had to stop at a gas station to get gas....when I talked with the guy at the pump across from me, I found out he was a mormon and he actually stated that he didn't have the same beliefs as I did! Most mormons will say they believe the same thing....but the truth is, they don't. Anyway, I told him about how Lee Strobel in his book "The Case for Christ", was trying to look up evidence for the Book of Mormon outside of it and could find none....so he went to the Smithsonian Institute and asked them if there was any evidence whatsoever for the Book of Mormon to be true and they said no, there is no evidence for any of the people to have ever lived, any of the places to have ever existed, or any of the situations to have ever been authentic! Anyway, I told him this and said to go look up the evidence before you believe in something that could just determine your ETERNAL destination and he said that was true and he would. I pray that he would. As I was about to leave, I saw a biker couple sitting over there near their bike at the station and I had to talk to em. The guy said he didn't know what happened after we die and was wearing a leather vest with a middle finger up on it, he also had tattoos all over him and looked like he could break me in half with his pinky finger. The woman was his wife and she said she grew up Baptist and said you must accept Jesus to go to Heaven, but she didn't want to talk about eternity right now. The guy was very humble and interested, but the woman didn't like me being there! It seems that this would make no sense if she said she believed in Jesus and someone talking about her supposed Savior talking to her was annoying her?!!! I handed them a million dollar bill tract and told them to look over it and the man was very thankful. I pray that they will be radically transformed and see God's plan for the salvation of their souls and be turned from whatever lies they have come to believe about just saying a prayer and living like the devil all your life. People need the Lord, and we are the ones they can get Him by....lets get real and serve Him with our very lives. I turned on the radio after I left and it was a station with the message that confidence and courage are 2 different things.....courage is what the Bible calls us to have, not confidence. Courage is making yourself step out into a very uncomfortable situation trusting the Lord with it, whereas confidence is our own and we are called to have courage.
Many times I’ve sat on the front pew just prior to the sermon time looking at the steps to the pulpit. In these moments each Sunday morning I’m reminded of the great task with which I have been entrusted and my own weakness to perform it. After hours of painstaking study and prayerful preparation, I still stare at those steps and feel under qualified, knowing I’ve only scratched the surface of the message. There is a certain holy trembling a preacher feels before climbing those steps to proclaim God’s eternal Word. In centuries past, preachers like Charles Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones had to climb winding staircases to reach the “sacred desk”, but many pulpits today are just a few steps above the floor. Whether you have many steps or none at all, it is an other-worldly task we have been given. The following are a few practical steps preachers can take before climbing the real ones on Sunday morning... 1. Get in the Word We must immerse ourselves in the text at the outset o
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