One of the hardest things I've realized in my Christian walk is when I come home to my family and see that our neighbors are still lost, we are the ones to share with them. The week before school started, God laid it on my heart to pray for my neighbors for an oppurtunity to share the Gospel with them. I prayed that God would allow it and sure enough, that same day my neighbor calls and says she needs me to come help her change her air filter. She has a son who in high school and a daughter in college. I went over there and my mom decided to go too. After I changed the air filter, I went up to hang out with the high school boy. We played video games for a few hours and just talked about stuff. Finally, I got up the courage to ask him...."If you died tonight, where would you go?" he said that he hoped Heaven, but wasn't sure. After that, I got to share the clear Gospel with him and he understood that he needed to turn from his sin to Jesus in order to be made righteous in God's sight. I tried to knock on my other neighbor's door three different times that day, but they didn't answer. Just a few nights ago, I was home again for labor day weekend and we get a knock at the door.....guess who it is....my neighbor who wasn't there before. He is a senior and high school and had brought beer over to my dad because his mom found it in the house and said to get rid of it. My brother and I invited him into the sunroom and we talked about what he was doing now with his life. He explained how he was into all this trouble with the law and loved partying and drinking and had done some drugs and had a filthy mouth. My brother and him got to talking about people they both knew and I could tell the conversation wasn't leading to Spiritual things. I went to the bathroom and got on my knees in prayer that God would speak through me to share the Gospel with him that night. I went back down and sure enough, I noticed a bridge to take and took it. I got to share the Gospel with him that night and asked him where he would go if he died.....he said Hell. I said, that concerns you right? He said yeah. I told him that we all must repent (turn from sin to the Savior) and trust in Jesus in order to be saved from God's wrath. He said he wanted to do that before he went to bed. After this, we talked about different things, but at the end he said thank you for telling me this. He went back home and I prayed with my mom and sister later that the seed would be watered and that God would provide the increase. Then, last night.....my uncle came to the house, who doesn't seem to be pursuing the Lord with his life. My family sat and talked with him about different things, but no one took the conversation to spiritual....I backed down like a fool, though I had the chance. After he left, I talked with my mom and sister again about the urgency of the situation and how we must reach our lost family members for the Lord. We prayed that night that God would use us to reach them and if we back down, that He would use someone else. I pray that God will work in each of our hearts to love all of our family members to the point of telling them about eternity and God's judging of them. God is good and is paving the way for all of our family members and freinds to know Him personally.
An old country song goes like this: “Lord, it’s hard to be humble, when you’re perfect in every way.” Most of us would not put it so bluntly, but we all find it hard to be humble. The problem with us is that we forget who we are in the grand scheme of things. We must remember that we are but dust created in the image of God and made to display His worth. One particular passage of Scripture is thoroughly helpful in turning our eyes off our own navels and onto God’s glory: Philippians 2:5-11. By meditating on the gospel in this text, even the most prideful among us will be leveled low. To stay in a humbled position... 1. Feast your eyes on the matchless glory of Christ (vv. 5-6) “ Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped …” Paul ascends to breathe the air of Mount Everest in this ancient hymn of the church. He speaks of Jesus’ divinity and equal status as God ...
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