Who Wants to Join the Preservation Society?

Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth."

I think I may be getting "on my soapbox" today. So I warned you ahead of time and you can bail out right now. If my rantings become too much for some of my readers - I will NOT apologize for it. I've told you all that I'm brutally honest or as I've recently found out "honest to a fault". What a compliment to have though. At least you won't catch me lying to you. Anyway back to my topic...

Who wants to join the Christian Preservation Society? This one isn't about keeping anything pretty either. I'm being sarcastic! And this time it isn't funny.

Yesterday I had the privilege of hearing Dr Wade Akins and got to personally meet him and pray with him. He has been a missionary for 26 years in Vietnam and Brazil, traveled to over 59 countries worldwide preaching & teaching nationals in evangelism & church planting. In the morning service yesterday he shared Acts 1:7-8,"He said to them: 'It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth'." Dr.Akins pointed out that this was Jesus Christ's last words ever spoken. I did not know that Jesus' final words were about missions! MISSIONS! I get upset b/c I've had road blocks in my life keep me from what God has called me to and they weren't my children.

I would tell the story of how I wanted to do a Volunteer in Missions trip in 2003 but I'll save the boring details. I will be able to do that trip again b/c I didn't get to then. God knows my heart and He knows that I've been called by Him since I was 14 to the foreign mission field. I will do what my Father in heaven has commanded I do. I can't wait to show the Muslim people of the middle east the love of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Luke 9:23, "Then he said to them all: 'If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me." He didn't say follow me when things are good. He said, "FOLLOW ME". I loved the question Dr.Akins asked,"Have you come to a point in your life where you have surrendered everything?" He said in the evening service about a deceased IMB Philippine missionary, "Bill was the real hero b/c he said,'I'm willing to take up my cross and die if I need to." See Jesus paid the ultimate price for dying on the cross, His cross, as payment for the world's sins. Then after my acceptance of Jesus as my Lord and He saved me there is a cross for me to die on, one of spirituality, self, and physically if I have to.

It is better to go to a house of mourning
than to go to a house of feasting,
for death is the destiny of every man;
the living should take this to heart.
Ecclesiastes 7:2

I'm not suggesting or promoting anything morbid. I guess I see evidence of selfishness every day. Even in my own heart which I've asked God to keep me from being a selfish person. In 2 Timothy 3:2-9 the Bible talks about such wickedness in people. I'm warning you now, God's Word is powerful. "People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth - men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone."

Be very careful how much you hope to preserve this life. God has a beautiful plan for your life if only you would DIE TO SELF and give Him complete control of your whole life.

Isaiah 43:2 is picture of how it feels to glorify God in life and to glorify Him in death. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire, you will be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.