Welcome to my randomized study & miscellaneous thoughts about the Awesome God of the universe, who He is and what He wants us to be.

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Verse of the Day

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Today's Quote

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Go, Teach and Baptize

Matt 28:19-20 "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." (NIV)

God is a sending God
Therefore go

I wrote a letter to all of you the other day, placed them in envelopes, addressed them and put stamps on them. Did you all read my letter? Well that is odd, after stamping them all I put them on my bookshelf for safekeeping. I was sure praying that you would all get yours!

God loves and accepts us as we are and where we are, but He loves us so much that He does not allow us to remain that way.

Gen 12:1 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. (NIV)

Abram did not know where God was sending him. He did not have a job and home lined up in a new city. God doesn't always say where He's sending us. He wants us to follow Him and trust His leading. God did not debate or argue with Abram. He sent him.

Likewise, today, He sends us into different parts of the world, country, city and even into different homes or jobs to further His Kingdom and spread the Gospel

John 3:17 teaches that God sent His Son to the world to offer not judgement but salvation. Jonah was sent to Nineveh to call for repentance, Moses was sent to Egypt to lead the Israelites to freedom and Gideon with 300 men was sent into battle to defeat the Midianites. Unlike my letters, these men all followed through - the message was sent, not left sitting unread upon a shelf somewhere getting dusty. Stop for a moment and think about all the folks that you know that have not accepted Jesus Christ as Saviour. Think about where they will be sent. We have a choice and a chance to follow the examples of Jonah, Moses, Gideon and others. Allow God to send you! To whom is He trying to send you today?

God is a planting/growing God
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit

Two farmers lived next door to each other. . . One planted the other did not. One reaped and the other did not. Were they both really "farmers" then?

I have to believe that everyone here has had some experience attempting to grow something. We all know that we dig a little hole, place the seed tenderly inside, cover gently with soil, fertilize and water as needed, allow the appropriate amount of sunlight and weed as necessary. Finally, we harvest the fruit of the plant. If we skip any of these steps, at best our plant will struggle to grow and at worst - it will die. Sometimes the ground is hard or rocky. These must be tilled and cleared before they can even be thought to grow anything.

We have the opportunity to help plant something today. In the past 5 years, the Arizona State Association of the Church of God has had funds to plant five new congregations. Like our plants they all do not prosper. One closed her doors after 4 years and another is struggling to maintain growth. These plants added approximately 350 people who were not attending previously. That's exciting news!

BUT, as Jesus stated in Matt 9:37-38
Then he said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.
Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field." (NIV)

Pastor Jerry Dickinson from Westside Church of God in Glendale, AZ, Chairman of the Division of Church Planting, informed me that there is a site, money and a mothering church to plant a congregation northeast of Tucson. The problem is, he stated, that we don't have a church planter to take it on as pastor.

We have a choice and a chance. Allow God to plant and harvest through you.

God is a teaching God
teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

There was a man who became a father to a son. We'll call the son, Zachary. Anyway, the son was born very ignorant. The father had to show the son many, many times how to do something before the son would be able to do it correctly. Often the young son would grow tired, weary and discouraged at his inabilities. Still, the father knew that if he just kept trying, he would succeed in the end. One thing the father enjoyed greatly was singing with his son. They sang many, many songs together. At first the boy sang loud, funny noises. But today, many words are not only loud but they're also clear and correct! What a blessing and joy the father gets every time he hears the son sing. He does not sing as he used to, but as he has been taught to.

On a Sabbath day in Nazareth, Jesus went to the synagogue. Once inside, he opened up the scroll and read the following written by the prophet Isaiah:
Luke 4:18 "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach
good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and
recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, (NIV)

We all have the opportunity to teach. We still have in the world multitudes of poor, masses of people imprisoned to sin, an abundance of blind and scores upon scores of oppressed. But what shall we teach them? Shall we say, "I'm not gifted in that area?" "Others are more skilled at teaching than I, let them do it." Where can I teach? To whom?

I could give a smart comment and say, you can teach anyone, anywhere, but most of us would leave here today not believing that statement. So let's try this. Let's allow God to teach through us what we know of Him. Let's teach the same way Stephen, Peter and Paul taught. Let's tell others we've seen of God's grace and love and power.

For anyone here who does not know God, has not asked Him to forgive your sins and allowed His Son Jesus Christ to become Lord of your life, my version, with God's help, goes something like this:

1. We're all sinners. Even we "good" people cannot measure up to God's requirements for holiness and righteousness.
Rom 3:23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (NIV)

2. Because of our sin, we are doomed to "death." Translate that to mean eternity separated from the goodness of God. Commonly we call this hell.
Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NIV)

3. Thankfully, God loves us, you and me. He provided the way to save us from our own sins that we could not do. He offered this in His Son Jesus, a real man, who was born and walked this earth facing the same temptations we face.
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)
Rom 5:8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (NIV)

4. If you sincerely want Him to be Lord of your life, all you must do is ask and believe.
Rom 10:9 That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. (NIV)

5. His power and love release the bound, unshackle the chains and clear the blinded eye!
John 8:36 So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. (NIV)
Rom 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, (NIV)

The author of Romans shows us a promise of God in Chapter 10, verse 13 which states " for, Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

He then continues in Romans 10:14 and 15 with the obstacle that we face:
How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?
And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!" (NIV)

We are blessed to live in a land today which gives us many choices and chances. I thank Jesus for the saints who came before us who planted this church in which so many have come to know the Lord. I pray diligently that we will be known as a people who loved to obey God and spread His message by being senders and sending, planters and planting, teachers and teaching. We have a choice today.


May God continue to richly bless you, shalom!
Dr. Larry
Visit us at: The Rickity Rack Shack
Visit my father-in-law's website at: Handicappers Outreach For Christ, Inc.



scribbled with crayon by dr. larry at 4:38 PM