We had the honor of having Kelli Canfield with us tonight for devotions. We are still working on understanding how our time has been given to us and we are to manage it for the glory of God. Tonight we looked at Scriptures that point out that salvation is not a matter for procrastination. Jesus did not have to condemn us because we, before salvaiton, are condemned already. The bible is plain that now is the accepted time to get saved.
The urgency of time when it comes to salvation is of the utmost importance. We cannot allow days to go by and not tell our friends about Jesus. These are simple lessons but very powerful.
Tonight’s devotion was powerful and convicting. It was a combination of letting distractions keep you from using time wisely and also procrastination. The one-two punch when it comes to time wasting. Jesus was concerned about the woman at the well and about her needs. The disciples were concerned about the physical needs. Hunger is a major distraction for me. Others include, being tired, being busy with work or being focused on liesure.
We discussed as a family that no amount of ministry, be it cooking and cleaning, music, teaching, treasurey, or anything else can take the place of witnessing and inviting. Even though they are all good ministries they do not excuse or take the place of our witness and testimony. We all made a committment to invite someone to church Sunday.
If you are not doing these, you are missing out.
Speaking of missing out, do not miss out on the revival with Lou Rossi which starts a week from Sunday.
The time choice for us as a family to meet for #4 was either 5:00 a.m. (when I am usually leaving the house) or 10:15 p.m. when the last of us (in this case Kristen and Kathryn) got home. I had very few votes for 5:00 a.m. so we went with 10:15. I was happy to see that everyone was ready with their time sheet for the last 24 hours. That was from devotion #3 where we were going to make an account of all that we did to find out where we might be wasting time. We didnt review them because the excercise had already had its effect. When you measure what you are doing, you waste less time because you are aware of the minutes and the tasks, plus you fear that in being accountable you will be found to be a time waster. So i didnt even ask to see them.
Devotion #4 taught us to measure our days and understand our own fragile lives. We determined that there was enough time between now and next Thursday to find a person that does not know Jesus Christ and tell them about Him. We also determined that there was enough time between now and Sunday for us to invite a new person to church. Measuing our days and knowing our end will help us walk wisely.
Do not miss out on Stewardship month.
Do not even think about missing our revival. January 13-17th. Regular service times on Sunday, 7:15 p.m. Monday through Thursday.
Being accountable for our time and finding those areas of time that we waste is probably one of the hardest things in the world to do. We rated our time tonight first in order of those things we spend the most time on. The next part was to rate the things that were the most important use of our time. Then we found out that we had been tricked into admitting that the things that are most important do not get most of our time. That was a cold smack in the face. We are charting our time on paper for the next 24 hours and going to review it together at devotion time tomorrow night. I will admit, there was some resistance to this from the other devotees, but they soon came to see the wisdom behind my request.
Redeeming the time is vital to our work for the kingdom. Since we are not promised of tomorrow, we need to stop wasting today.
Thanks Tony Howeth for these great devotions on time.
Don’t forget to visit us for revival with Lou Rossi. We could dub this, “Revival on the Northside.”
Well we just finished our second family devotion for stewardship month. We are contemplating how short our life is if we get the full amount of the strong man, 80 years. My life according to that timeline is already more than half way finished. We determined tonight that we should be asking ourselves if each of the things we are doing are a wise use of our time. Psalms 90 verse 12 tells us to number our days so that we can apply our hearts to wisdom.
These take 10 minutes at the most including prayer time. I want to encourage everyone at Vision to make full use of these devotionals.
Dont forget to put the revival with Lou Rossi on your calendar for January 13th through the 17th.
I have been a church treasurer for 25 years and have had a mountain of neat experiences. Today was one of those.
We all beleive that God will supply things for His church and His work and we trust Him to do it. Then there are those days when real checks and real money have to be there to pay real church bills. Today was one of those days when real checks were being written and while I was long on faith we were short on money. The minute I realized we were short I started thinking of ways to re-arrange bills or some other creative way of handling the problem. At that same moment, a lady showed up at the door of the church with, you guessed it, just enough to cover the bills. Well glory! Had to share that one.
Hath He said, and shall He not do it? Or hath he spoken and shall he not make it good? Numbers 23:19
We started our stewardship month family devotions tonight. Sandy, Kristen, Kathryn and I met together for 15 minutes for devotion one. It was on being a steward of our time. We have always done personal devotions but not always done family devotions. We are committed to doing them as a family for January.
One of the things that we determined we would do is pray once every week as a family for our church, pastor, leaders, and those that need to hear the gospel. The whole devotion took 15 minutes including the prayer time. I want to encourage all the families of the church to be involved daily with the devotions. Its great family time with God and is a great way to jump start your Bible reading and prayer.
Other great questions like that were on my mind last night as Jared and I worked on the bob sled for Christmas on the Northside. I have graduated from pulling the sled to pushing the sled. It actually works better that way as I now have brakes and steering. The engine is still lacking.
Check out the pictures.
My neighbors were not used to seeing strange sights in their neighborhood. Until we moved in. Yesterday was one of those days. If you drove by the house at 11:55 in the monring you could see me running (no kidding) up and down the driveway pulling Jared McKinnon on our newly built bobsled. We are not completely finished yet but we had a great time test driving the chasis. We need brakes and the steering is a little un predictable but Jared was smiling and I was huffing and puffing. We are looking forward to seeing the kids have a great time on this after a great service we will be having at Vision Baptist church on December 23rd. Its called Christmas on the Northside.
You do not want to miss this one. December 23rd at 5:00 p.m.
You would have had to be in the service this morning to appreciate how powerful a message brother Tony Howeth preached. I don’t know of a greater sermon I have heard on handling life when the load is overwhelming. The response was tremendous, the altar was full and most of the conversations I had with people after the service were about how the message was just what they needed.
Brother Tony has been a long time friend and help to me and is one of the greatest preachers I know. It would be hard to count all the men that have been helped through his ministry. Brother Tony works with Macedonia World Baptist Missions. He is a true leader and trainer of men. Check out his deputation tips.
