Monday: Christian Witness

Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters ... It is a beautiful day here at the Southern Location of the North Pole. Monday is the day we pray for our Military, our police and firefighters and all others who keep us safe ... Also the day we pray for our leaders ... Federal, State, Local ... Also pray for Don Saylor as he has cancer surgery on his bladder and for our daughter Leann as she is having bladder tests, and for Dolores as her pain just keeps growing and spreading ... she has a doctor's appointments today. Please pray also for Vicki, and brothers and sisters, she need to be in our daily prayers regardless if I list her or not ... She has a plate full ...

Today a little side trip in our walk with Jesus from when Mary was told of the carrying of Jesus in her womb, to his death on the cross and beyond the grave ... Just a side trip today to talk to you about your Christian Witness ... First this question: Do you have a Christian Witness? Just going to church is not being a Christian Witness, just like staying away from church would block you from being that Christian Witness ... Being a Christian Witness starts with the fact you take Jesus into your heart and start living daily for Him ... Being a good Christian goes beyond just loving Jesus, you must really live for Him ... I mean what kind of witness does one make who goes to church each week, maybe sings in the choir, but then stands at the water cooler and talks about others? A good witness stays away from those things and tries their very best to live to please Jesus.

But now lets go and look at Mark 16: 15 He (Jesus) said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation." (NIV)

This a commandment from our Lord Jesus is not asking us to go, it is telling us to go, an order so to speak ... The order tells us we need to take the word to the world ... Brothers and sisters, your next door neighbor, the person across the street, those down the street, all like you and I live in the world ... Now if you are like me, I got a late start on working for Jesus, I really did. I did that big old walk about as many have, and I have come back. Once in a while someone will hear about me singing, preaching, and teaching for Jesus and they will start to tell others of my past ... Folks, when you go to Jesus and ask for your sins to be cleaned from your past, they are gone, done over, zip... Those who bring them up, more than likely do not have Jesus in their own heart or they would understand this ... Although the Christian Army does tend to try and kill off their wounded instead of picking them up. Ok, I got off subject a tad ...

Being a Christian Witness does not mean you need to be a pastor at a mega church, or be a Charles Stanley or Benny Hinn and have a big TV show ... Soul-winning is done one at a time for the most part and it is the workers, the daily workers in the fields of Harvest, that get this harvest work started.

You can have all the mega churches you can build, but if no one goes out to tell folks about Jesus and about those churches, then the seats will be empty ... I think sometimes we should think small ... Small local churches, small settings, sometimes reach the heart for Jesus better ...

On Friday night I went to a small church to hear a gospel singing group that has been around a long time. These old men called the Jacobs Brothers are rock solid in the Lord, and do so much more than just sing ... They have a camp for kids, and many a teen has found the Lord there ... They also sing in small churches as well as large, they go where God sends them ... Most groups do that, but some of the better known names wanting the big bucks only sing for the large crowds ...

Now let me get back to that little church in the valley, the one where the singers were at ... Glenvale Church of God. What a family-friendly little and growing church. Just yesterday this same church sent their youth group to The Bridges (where I pastor). These kids sang their hearts out for the Lord ... And folks, all were in the choir that wanted to be in it. At a mega church they have tryouts for a choir, at the little churches if you want to sing, it does not make a difference if you hit an off note ... You sing ...

I think sometimes we make too much out of all the big things ... In the service station business I took care of my customers and did it well, we had a great business, but not the biggest ... I was told then by Exxon and others that in business you had to grow or go ... Well that was true for the little gas guys are gone and the mega gas stations are in. .. and they are just that, gas stations, NOT SERVICE stations.

Applying this same thinking to our very own singing ministry, Carry The Light, I have always liked going into the bigger retirement homes where you would sing to a larger crowd ... but there is also something very special about going into a home and singing to a dozen or less people ... A great Christian Lady, the late, Norma Beitzel was the activity director at a very small nursing home and we sang there a lot ... It was wonderful. Oh how I love her and her witness, now being carried out by her son Tim (Couriers) ...

Brothers and Sisters, when you work for the Lord remember each person needs to be taken to the feet of Jesus, and most often it is one-on-one when it happens ... and remember to get into heaven, it is not a group thing ... LET ME SAY THAT AGAIN, to get into heaven it is not a group thing, a big group or small, it is a ONE-ON-ONE personal relationship with Jesus ... And someone said Amen!

Today, Lord, let us think one-on-one, one-on-one between You and me, between You and each person as one on this line ... Today we are thinking in smaller numbers, not bigger ones ... Lord, it does not mean a thing if this daily goes to ten thousand or one as long as it gets to the one who needs it ... Lord, I pray today for our leaders, for our President and other leaders. I pray for our military and all those who have served and still serve, I pray for our police and firefighters and all who work to keep us safe. Bless them all, Lord ... I pray for Don, Vicki, Leann, and Dolores and ask Your healing hand on them. In the name of Jesus, I pray, Amen ...

Go forth sharing your blessings with others ... now you can think big on this for God surely will replace them over and over again ... love ya, dan.