Dear Friends,
As 2023 draws to a close, we want to thank you for your prayers and support. We appreciate the continued financial support from many of you and are eternally grateful. We pray the Lord opens many doors in 2024 for open-air preaching opportunities and robust health to deliver the Good News. If anyone you know is skeptical about how or even in sharing their faith at all, have them read the following devotional by Oswald Chambers. It’s convicting and encouraging at the same time. If you are like us, you are always wanting to help others around you in a God-honoring way; to your neighbors, your children, your friends, your spouse, your co-workers, and family members. The question is, are you giving the right kind of help?
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“And I, if I am lifted up…will draw all peoples to Myself” (John 12:32)
Very few of us have any understanding of the reason why Jesus Christ died. If sympathy is all that human beings need then the Cross of Christ is an absurdity and there is absolutely no need for it. What the world needs is not “a little bit of love,” but major surgery.
When you find yourself face to face with a person who is spiritually lost, remind yourself of Jesus Christ on the cross. If that person can get to God in any other way, then the Cross of Christ is unnecessary. If you think you are helping lost people with your sympathy and understanding, you are a traitor to Jesus Christ. You must have a right-standing relationship with Him yourself, and pour your life out in helping others in His way-not in a human way that ignores God. The theme of the world’s religion today is to serve in a pleasant, non confrontational manner.
But our only priority must be to present Jesus Christ crucified-to lift Him up all the time (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). Every belief that is not firmly rooted in the Cross of Christ will lead people astray. If the worker himself believes in Jesus Christ and is trusting in the reality of redemption, his words will be compelling to others. What is extremely important is for the worker’s simple relationship with Jesus Christ to be strong and growing. His usefulness to God depends on that, and that alone.
The calling of a New Testament worker is to expose sin and to reveal Jesus Christ as Savior. Consequently, he cannot always be charming and friendly, but must be willing to be stern to accomplish major surgery. We are sent by God to lift up Jesus Christ, not to give wonderfully beautiful speeches. We must be willing to examine others as deeply as God has examined us.
We must also be sharply intent on sensing those Scripture passages that will drive the truth home, and then not be afraid to apply them. -Oswald Chambers
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Let’s make it a priority to give the right kind of help and lift up the Name of Jesus as we go through our day, not discreetly (-in a careful manner, especially in order to keep something confidential or to avoid embarrassment), but directly as the Lord gives boldness. Keeping in mind this cannot be done without a right-standing relationship with Jesus Christ. Fight for your quiet time with the Lord, fight for your devotional time with your family, wrestle before the Lord in prayer, and then go into all the world lifting up the name of Jesus.
Peace and grace be with you all,
Jeff & Pearl Rose