First day of April.  First day we can have open burning inside the City.  Carla has a number of piles of weeds she needs to burn so we can get the garden ready for planting.

She is out there right now, trying to get some burned before the wind picks up and makes it too dangerous – the wind is predicted to blow pretty hard, up to 35 mph, so her time out there is limited.

I am still hampered a bit, but I let her do the burning regardless, too much ‘stuff’ in the smoke for my allergies.

We are supposed to be the hot spot in Oregon today at about 59 degrees.  The rest of the week is more of the same – with some rain.  Far cry from last week.

Her transplants are thriving.  The peppers and tomatoes are doing well and the fuchsias are up from the basement and have some new starts.  She brought the Begonias up last week and they are all in pots, doing well.

She is one happy gardener with a big smile on her face and a jaunty step in her gait!

Mathew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

¹⁹ Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

²⁰ 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.

Too often we let others teach while we sit back and do little.

This commission from Christ was to every Christian; not just the Apostles, Ministers, other religious leaders or teachers.

We are in the world, surrounded by sinners in some way every day. We are working, playing, talking, shopping with people who have never seen the inside of a church – or if they have it was a long time ago.

Their interests are far from the spiritual.  They focus on their work, family, hobbies and things that money can buy whatever their personal needs may be.  Many don’t even realize the need for their spirit to have communion with God.

But man was created to have communion with God and even if he may deny that aspect of his being, it is still there and will come forward in times of need. 

It is these times man is vulnerable to ungodly spiritual advice – but also willing to listen to a Christian that he knows and has learned to trust.

We live for Christ.  We can reach people that others cannot reach.  While a person may reject a minister’s call they reach out to the Christian they know and respect – even if they have ridiculed that Christian in the past.

Christianity is called a religion; I would say that it is more correctly termed a personal relationship with God through Christ. 

Religion, to me, denotes certain mandates and ceremonies while there are doctrines we need to be aware of, as Christians we must stress our relationship with God. 

It is that relationship with Him that enables us to have a relationship with others.  It is that relationship that allows us to be able to help the Holy Spirit touch other people.

We have contacts, outside the church that will only be reached through us or some other Christian within these contacts’ circle.

How we live our life, how we do our job impacts others.  They may belittle us for our beliefs, but they can come to respect our stands.

When they are exposed to challenges in their lives – illness, children with problems, marital problems, etc. they are often drawn to us to talk to us about these things.  They are seeking solace and they come to realize we can help them find it.

As a young Christian I didn’t always understand that.  I was pretty vocal in my witness and had many conversations with people that challenged it.

However, when people came to me and started talking about their problems I didn’t realize they were actually searching for God and needed a listener, not a ‘preacher.’

I can’t fully explain that, I didn’t understand that by listening to them I was helping them.  I would – and unfortunately still do – start giving them advice without hearing them out.  I want to help, I want to correct the problem so they can rest, but it is God that does that not me.

Sometimes we must be a sponge and just listen.  We have the answer, they know we have the answer, but they aren’t ready to actually receive the answer when they first come to us.

Giving them advice from the start isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but we must seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance.

We are not trained counselors – or at least most of us aren’t – but we have the ability to listen.  As we listen we can also ask God’s guidance in helping them.

I do remember one young man that came to me and wanted me to help him.  As we talked I could tell he was being reticent. 

We were at work, off work, but still at the store.  At the time I had the key to our church and I asked him if he would feel better talking there, he said yes.

We went there, we talked and he accepted Christ.

We don’t have to be in church to spread the gospel, as a matter of fact those in the church are most often the ones that need to spread the gospel so we are ‘preaching to the choir’ as the saying goes. 

Our mission field is where we work and play.  In this particular incident I was guided by the Spirit to take him into the church to council him, but as far as I can remember that was the first and only time.

I would talk to people, I would invite them to our church, I saw some of these go down to the altar and I joined them in prayer, but that was the first and only time I deliberately opened the door of an empty church and talked to a person.

Our ‘church building’ is wherever we are at the time we are there.  It is whatever building or open area we are at when we talk about Christ to others.  We sometimes forget that and wait until we can get them into an actual designated church building before we expect them to surrender to Christ.

We spread ‘a’ gospel wherever we go.  It is either the true Gospel of Christ, demonstrating our love for Him and commitment to His service, or a corrupted version that minimizes God’s importance in our lives.

People watch us.  They want to see if our dedication to Christ is genuine, or not.  They watch to see how we react to stressful situations, how we handle fellow employees or neighbors – both those that we get along with and those we don’t.

They watch how we treat other people, how we work and how we play.  They note if we are honest, or if we cheat and even cheating, even ‘just a little,’ at a simple game can cause them to doubt us.

We are going to make mistakes, we are not perfect, but we also know that God will forgive and still help us.  However, not everyone understands that, especially if they are looking for a way to escape from having to confront their sins. 

They will feel that we – and therefor all – Christians are just hypocrites and they want nothing to do with our ‘religion.’  That is just one of the reasons we need to strive for perfection in Christ.

But, how we handle our mistakes can often be the softening touch that breaks down the barriers.  When people see that we admit our mistakes and move on – and as they watch to see if we are truly sorry enough to change actions then credibility can be re-established.

There are going to be those that we cannot reach.  Either we have damaged our credibility in some way with them, or they just plain don’t like us.  That doesn’t mean that someone else cannot reach them. 

If they are family, if they are people whom we have a heartfelt desire to see come to Christ because of our love for them, then it may be best to accept that they won’t listen.  Live our life as we know we must, and ask God to send people they WILL listen to into their life.

Perhaps the most beautiful thing about God’s mandate and Christ’s plan and authority is that we are not alone.  We have millions of brothers and sisters who reach others; we are not the only one that is seeking God’s guidance in our lives and our ability to lead others to Christ. 

We are not dependent on a minister or leader of the church to preach salvation to sinners – we all have that mandate, we all have the ability to witness of God’s Grace to others.  We are not alone in witnessing to others about God.

There are times in our life that we feel alone, particularly when we are undergoing spiritual warfare and tribulations; when we are being pressured to do things we know are contrary to what God’s Word tell us to do.  If there are no other Christians around us who we can confide in and gain support from we feel even more isolated from God.

But we are never alone, Christ is always with us “I am with you always, even unto the end of the world”   once we really do realize and accept that truth we can stand for Christ and not wither under the pressure to conform to the world’s standards.

We don’t have to be forceful to witness to others, we just have to be a Christian who is in love with God and wants to serve Him in whatever way He directs us.

Later, Art :-)

From the ColumbiaRiverGorgeous
May Our Good Lord Bless and Keep YOU....’til we meet again