Thought 350: Evangelism from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

 

 

Thought 350

Evangelism

Simply live and share your Faith in Jesus.     

 That is evangelism in a nut shell.

 

Why evangelize? Because Jesus said to.

 

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” Matthew 28:19-20 KJV

     Evangelism as displayed in Acts is simply following the prompting of the Holy Spirit to share Jesus. Christ is asking, “Will you allow me to use you? You are just the instrument that I want to work through in ________ particular instance, but I won’t force you to do the job: you must willingly choose to.”

Are you willing, but don’t feel effective?

        Don’t worry about what you can see. God can use you without your knowledge. It may appear that your obedience is fruitless, but God can still work! Some sow, some nurture the growing seed, and some harvest. If your desire and actions are to spread the message of Jesus, just keep on diligently working.

Feel paralyzed by fear?

        Ask the Lord to give you His strength and opportunities to share your Faith. Then be obedient as the Holy Spirit prompts you—you may be asked to move out of your comfort zone, but that is a way that you will conquer fear. We are in a battle against the World, the Flesh, and the Devil so it will not always going to be easy to obtain victory. Sometimes, perhaps, but be prepared and ready for challenges that require Faith, Patience, Longsuffering, and Intense Battle.

 

Thought 305: Fear from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

Thought 305

Fear

Fear comes in many forms that are considered “ok” by society and even Christians. Jesus said not to worry and the Bible says “Do not fear 365 times. I can’t quote all of those verses for you; but nervousness, embarrassment, doubt, suspense, etc… are forms of fear. The words spoken all around you in day to day life may be teaching you to be a child of fear rather than a child of God.

Sometimes the things that embarrass us are the very things that God wants us to discuss and (or) do.

 

Thought 238: Black Out from Ryan's devotional book series Thougths

Thought 238

Black Out

  Have you ever come close to blacking-out?  I almost did one day when needles were mentioned. So here’s the story: one day I was mowing up by the road at the corner of my parent’s property and was stung four or five times by a yellow jacket. Most of body swelled up with hives and my mom called an ambulance. When it got there they said I was stable and they could take me to the hospital and give me an IV, but there wasn’t any real need to. I am scared ‘to death’ of needles; I hate shots and the mention of needles made me start to turn white. I made some excuse to go to the bathroom right after they said that, but halfway there my vision was narrowing steadily. I turned around and made it back to the kitchen where the paramedics and my mom was. My lips were white when I came back and I ended up laying down to regain my vision—I came awful close to passing out. As I was recovering on the floor, the paramedic said that he “was just waiting for me to drop” because I looked just like the people that are afraid of needles and pass out when they are given an IV. Long story short, if you have ever come close to blacking out, you know just what it is like to have your vision constricted because of fear. Likewise, when fear is dominating our lives it becomes increasingly harder to steer away from the temptations and the broad paths which so often stem off of the straight and narrow. 

When you are blinded by fear you are cut off from freedom.

Thought Provoker

V  Think hard, are you ensnared in any fashion? Is a spiritual ‘black out’ drawing nigh? Or are you already so blinded that you don’t even realize it (lukewarm), because the blindness has been the norm for so long?

   If you are ensnared, Pray and ask the Lord to remove the shackles of fear, and ask Him to open your eyes to what wicked and ugly things (though sinful things are lustfully beautiful at first) ensnare you.

Thought 227: My Fears, Your Fears from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

Thought 227

My Fears, Your Fears

  There is only one Biblically grounded fear and that is the Fear of the Lord. We should fear the judgment and wrath of God—we should tremble at that reality. However, any other fear is not right. Satan wants to strike fear into us and use it to diminish our effectiveness as Christians. But the Lord does not want us to fear, repeatedly having his Angels declare “Fear Not” when they deliver His direction.

We are human and Satan knows how to encourage us to be afraid. But, amidst the attack of fear, we need to quote Scripture, pray, and stand strong in the Lord. We have to wage war against the Enemy! The Enemy can never prevail against the Lord and we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us. Satan and his demons can only do what God allows them to do—no more, no less. Next time we are tempted to be afraid, let’s remember that God wants us to stand against Satan and his tools of destruction.

Read Ephesians 6:10-20

Satan comes after your faith, sowing seeds of doubt, fear, and worry. All his weapons are interconnected and are pointed toward accomplishing that goal. Example: Eve- “Did God really say?”

Thought 206: Your Deepest Fear from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

Thought 206

 Your Deepest Fear

     One of my greatest fears has been dying a slow and painful death in a hospital with needles pocked into every square inch of your body. But I can’t just remain afraid because the Bible says not to fear the things of this earth. We must battle these fears and we must look to Christ as the bearer of the ultimate pain and the worst fear possible–being shunned by God because of sin. Even if our worst fears are do come to pass we must still look to Christ as our source of strength. No matter what your deepest fear(s) are, Christ is still the only source of strength that you need. Turn to Him and ask Him to teach you how to cast your cares upon Him. He will listen and help those who come to Him.

“Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28 KJV

Thought 189: Fear from Ryan's devotional book series Thoughts

Thought 189

Fear

Will you let fear control you?

Can you stop it from controlling you without clinging to Christ the Redeemer? (No)

Just as day was dawning, Paul urged everyone to eat. "You have been so worried that you haven't touched food for two weeks," he said.  Acts 27:33 (NLT)

Have you noticed the word suspense anywhere recently? It is on bill boards, movie promos, etc… What is suspense? Well it is anxiousness, an “on-the-edge-of-your-seat” experience, it is a FEAR. Fear of a storm kept these men in Acts 27 from eating for two weeks! The suspense was on for quite a while! Based on what human survival experts say you can only live for 3 to 5 days without anything to eat and if you just consume fluids you can last around sixty days, but you become very, very weak; yet they hadn’t eaten in two weeks! Euroclydon had struck their lives.

But not long after there arose against it a tempestuous wind,                         called Euroclydon.  Acts 27:14 (KJV)

Did you catch that word? Euroclydon. I urge you to remember that word.

  I once was in a Frontiersman Camping Fellowship (FCF) service in which the man preaching taught on Euroclydon. Euroclydon is an intense storm, the most feared by the sailors of Paul’s day. The speaker said that he knew boys that where going through Euroclydon—the most intense storm of their lives. Remember that this great storm was feared by so many, yet Paul, a man of God, was there with the unbelievers at this time and he encouraged the people to settle down and eat somthing. He was also able to offer hope because the Holy Spirit spoke to him concerning the outcome of the their destinies. Be the man or woman of God you are called to be. In the hard times, just take life second by second, because that is all we can endure—we are not called to worry about the future, that is sin.

 Amen. May God bless you as you are fighting the good fight and running the race set before you.