To Give of You

To Give of You 

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. 1 PETER 4:10 

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Ministry and service are from the same Greek word and mean essentially the same thing. There is no ministry apart from service. No one can have an impact in ministry who is not also willing to serve or to be a servant. There is always a price tag attached to service. It might be health; it might be convenience; it might be aggravation; it might be humility. Whatever the cost, it is what adorns the neck of those who minister. Ministry in the church is like being a parent. The most successful parents are those who learn to sacrifice for their children. And while we parents think our children are never going to realize what we have sacrificed in service to them, they eventually do. And what we have sacrificed for them comes back to us as the fruit of a close and intimate relationship with them. And it’s the same way in ministry in the church. The more we give of ourselves in ministry to others, the more we will get back in return. I heard the speaker John Maxwell say once, “If you are going to go up, you have to give up.” There is no way to advance in ministry without giving of ourselves.

Dr. David Jeremiah Morning and Evening 

Dreams for your future are probably good to have but care must taken as to what direction it goes. 

Me? Oh yes I have had dreams of this life and what I was wanting out of it. Had my own ideas of what would make me happy and where that would be. Growing up, for me, it was the space program. It was NASA. I was also heavily into science fiction. Lots of science fiction went into science fact. You had to be a dreamer to create things they would need in the space program. 

It got my imagination going. I added writing to my dreams. Had a notion of writing a book. 

Honestly have began dozens.  Still have most all of them. 

This motivation was there to be an electronics technician, maybe even an engineer. After all Scotty was a Chief Engineer on a Starship in the world of Star Trek. 

See a dominant pattern going the wrong way yet? Where was God in all this?

In the 80's I was introduced to computers and the world seemed to open up for my dreams. But again God was but was not there yet.  I had been hearing of evangelism and after how hard my start was with life after coming to Christ, I was going to reach people for Christ online!  Again, my ideas, not God's.  It was a disaster in a very short period of time. 

I kept struggling with my dreams. Kept failing at my attempts at living them out. 

It wasn't until some rough times in my life that I finally stopped looking at what I wanted and asked Jesus what He wanted that life began having meaning. My dreams still existed, just were not going to take the direction that I thought. 

It wasn't until I gave up, became a quitter on my wishes, and followed Isaiah's words of "Here am I send Me!"  God began fulfilling some parts of my dreams but not others. They weren't necessary for reaching people for Christ.  

My dreams of the space program...I have helped build things on the International Space Station. Built parts for all the Space Shuttles. Even on ships that went to Mars.

My Dreams of reaching people for Christ online and writing were merged. God told me years ago that He would give me things to write and it was upon me to obey and write. He would take those words places no book ever could go. Which He certainly has done. This blog came out of that. 

My first response to life over 40 years ago was not the right one when God wasn't in the plans.

We have a limited amount of time before Christ returns. We who are in Christ have a role in the plans of God to reach people. When the last person to be saved is saved in this Church age, the Rapture of the Church will happen. Millions will vanish. Trillions of dollars in global damage will happen. Millions will die as a side result of the Rapture.  Our dreams must start with God's plan to reach people. Jesus had said He was sent to seek and save the lost. The Great Commission is the same message.  It's not about living a life about what we can get out of life to make ourselves happy. It's about denying myself and taking up my cross and following in Christ's footsteps. 

How about you? Are you only living your life your way? Is there no sense of the urgency of the hour that Jesus is returning? Is there only your own selfish desires at play?

It's time to get real about life and what really matters. Declutter your life and start looking for that last person who needs Christ's free gift of Salvation. For what will it profit a man to gain the whole world and yet lose his soul? Satan wants us to be selfish about life in all kinds of subtle ways. From big to small.  There's all kinds of flashy signs on this road of life and he owns them all. He is doing whatever he's been permitted to do to ruin lives and distract people from being saved. Trying to delay the inevitable last person who is to be saved in this age.