September Blog Challenge - Day 28

Question 28: If you died today, how would you want to be remembered?

Answer: I would want to be remembered for being a godly example and following the Lord. Hopefully, I'll be remembered as being a bright and cheerful person.

~ Emi ♥

Christian Disneyland

What in the world would that be? Christian Disneyland? What does that mean? 

Well, I happened to hear Jim Walker, an evangelist who comes to our church about once a year, say The United States was Christian Disneyland. You see, while people in other countries are dying for their faith and for spreading the gospel, we in the USA sit in our easy chairs and complain about the temperature or how bad our government is. Yes, it's bad. But it's not as bad as it could be. We play games with our faith. Most Christian's don't take it seriously at all.

We have the freedom to tell people in this country about Christ and spread the gospel. But what do we do? Nothing. We're too afraid of getting cussed at or just yelled at so we sit there and say nothing at all.

We need to get moving on this! Our rights one by one are being taken away and the first amendment will definitely be soon to go. If we don't do it now when it's easy(er), are we going to do it when things get tough? Most likely not.

Honestly, what excuse do we have to not spread the gospel and tell everyone we can about Jesus Christ? We really don't have one at all. Not a valid one. Yes, we can show by example. We should show the world what a Christian ought to conduct themselves like as a representative of Jesus Christ. But we need to tell them about Him and what He did for them.

We're down to the end of this thing. I believe that God's going to call us up out of here soon. We need to do what God told us to do. There are so many people that need reached. Everywhere.

We need to stop looking at the outside of a person, the color of their skin, tattoos, etc, and see a soul. There are only two kinds of people in this world: saved and lost. Every one of us needs Jesus Christ. And as Christians, it is our duty to go tell them.

It's not hard to do. It has it's hard times. But nothing comparing to the rest of the world. Our government may be bad. But this is still the best place to live as a Christian.

So these are some ways I witness or plan to start witnessing:

1. Pass gospel tracts out everywhere. And I really mean everywhere. You can put them in bathroom stalls. You can put them in telephone booths (not that you'll find many of those anymore). Just everywhere you go.
2. But don't just lay them down places, hoping someone will pick them. Pass them out directly to people too! It's best to have someone with you when you do this. Two are better than one in this case for the most part. But if you can't find anyone to go with, do it yourself.
3. Have your bible with you as often as you can and look for opportunities to get a word in for Christ. This is the hard part for me, I think. I feel like I might mess something up. So I don't open my mouth in the first place. But I still need to do this. Co-workers, friends, anyone you talk to. They need Jesus Christ too.

I'm sure there are more ways. But you can get creative and think of different ways to get the gospel out. Just get it out there somehow!

I know this is very important and it's sort of become one of my passions. Although, I think I've felt more strongly about this than anything else. We need to pray for our country and for sinners. We need to see people as they really are: Sinners in need of a Savior. In the end we're all beggars. Let's go out and tell some other beggars where the bread is.

~ Emi ♥

P.S. If you would like to hear Jim Walker talk about this, here's a link to his sermon:

Jim Walker - Evangelism

September Blog Challenge - Day 6

Question 6: Do you think you have a good church? Why?

Answer: Ok that's two questions. But whatever. Anyways, I think my church is the best church ever. Why? Because my pastor doesn't try to organize to the point where he limits God. We don't even have a bulletin because we don't have a certain order of service that we have to stick to. He calls up to sing who he thinks God wants to sing and orders the rest of the service the same way. I could ramble on about this but you probably get the point. :P

~Emi

September Blog Challenge - Day 5

Question 5: What is your favorite hymn?

Answer: Yes, that is a hard question too. I would say For the Beauty of the Earth or Be Thou My Vision (Celtic style :P)

Go ahead! Tell me yours!

~Emi

Do You Have a Legacy?

What would people think of you?

Our pastor's wife passed on last week. She was a really special person. Things that people said about her afterwards just got me thinking about this.

If I died tomorrow, what would people remember me for? Would they remember good or bad things? What kind of legacy would I leave? I know I'm young but I can still have made an impact for good while I'm here.

What's more important would be this: What am I doing to leave a good legacy behind if I die later?

A major thing that was said at her funeral was that she was faithful even though she didn't do something out in front of people. She was faithful to what God wanted her to do no matter what it was.

I realize that I do a lot around our church. But it's not what a person does. It's the attitude they do it with. So I need to think about the attitude I work with.

Someone said, "The life you live is the life you teach." I can say that she was a wonderful, amazing teacher. She took time to make sure you were alright when you knew she was barely able to get to church. She carried oxygen and went through so much. But she would still come. We knew that if she missed church, she had to be doing really bad.

Which would lead me to the next thing. She put God first, no matter what. She put Him above her comfort. I'm sure it would have been more comfortable to stay home. Especially when she was so sick. But she came anyway.

She loved her family and friends so much. Even when she was really sick she wanted to be around her family and give things to her grandchildren. She wanted to cook for everyone.

She was definitely a virtuous woman. Everything in Proverbs 31 matches her completely.

I just hope I can live a life like that. I know that being close to the Lord and living the kind of life that she lived doesn't come without trouble. But I know that when I die, I want to have done some good for God and not just been another average Christian.

~ Emi ♥

Did I Mention

Did I Mention is one of my favorite songs. I love it so much. So I thought I would share it with you.

Did I Mention

David sang the praises of the glory of Jehovah
Paul preached that all is loss save knowing Christ
John said, 'He is precious.' by leaning on his bosom
So for a moment, may I humbly testify

Chorus:
Did I mention that I love Him
How I worship and adore Him
When I can see no way
He makes a way
Did I mention He's been faithful
To every promise He's ever made me
I love Him
That's all I want to say

How many sermons can be preached about this Jesus
How many songs can be sung about God's Son
There are not enough words, enough notes in the music
to tell the story of all the savior has done

Chorus:
Did I mention that I love Him
How I worship and adore Him
When I can see no way
He makes a way
Did I mention He's been faithful
To every promise He's ever made me
I love Him
That's all I want to say

Rochesters singing Did I Mention:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D9t6AIalpA

God's View of Us ♥

Why in the world would God think anything about us? We're only his creation. What could we possibly have done to get his attention?

This thought isn't from me. It's actually from an evangelist who came through our church: Craig Cobb. The message God gave him helped me more than any other message I think.

I'm the person who's insecure about themselves to the point where it becomes a sin. I'm thinking of the negative about myself (which is already not good) so much, that I don't think of anything positive. So I'm going to give you this and hope it helps you as much as it did me.

Luke 12:6-7 says:

6 Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? 

 7 But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows.

Value. Worth. When Christ saved us with His blood, our worth went up before the throne of heaven. We can't be worthless because God said we're not. He told us we have a purpose. And that purpose is to please and glorify Him according to Revelation 4:11. That's the purpose for everyone on this planet. So none of us our worthless.

In John 15:15 Jesus called us friends. He said, "...but I have called you friends.."

So when you're friends with someone, you want to spend time with them. Jesus desires to spend time with us. It's not required of Him. He wants to! That very thought by itself blows me away!

There something else. When your friend is able to, but doesn't come spend time with you, how do you feel? Doesn't it hurt? Well, I know it hurts me. But guess what. When we don't spend time with God everyday, HE FEELS LEFT OUT! Put that in your pipe and smoke it! Isn't it fantastic? I can't comprehend that! But yet, it makes sense. If Jesus says we're His friends, why shouldn't He feel left out when we don't spend time with him? Hold on a minute and read the definition of friend.

Also: One reconciled after enmity

I'm so glad I'm reconciled by the grace of God. When you're reconciled and you remember that, why should you get discouraged or defeated?

Not only are we Friends but we're Saints, according to Romans 15:25.

Saint - a person who has been sanctified

See? We don't have to wait until we're dead before we're saints! He sanctified us and He calls us Saints because He wants to remind us of that. We shouldn't forget where we came from. No matter how bad or 'good' your life was before Christ, we were all headed for hell. Praise the Lord we don't have to go!

God also, of course views us as Children.  Galatians 3:6 says this: For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

Now there are three ways you can be put into a family.

1. Through birth
2. Through marriage
3. Through adoption

We got all three!

When we were saved, we were both born and adopted into the family of God. And when we get to heaven there's going to be a marriage. We are the Bride of Christ. And to be honest, I can't wait. I'm ready to go now!

Ephesians 1:6 says: ...wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

First of all, He made us. We don't need to feel insecure about ourselves. The way He made us is the way He made us. And if we're supposed to glorify and please Him, it shouldn't matter that much! And guess what! GOD CHOSE TO LOVE US! Just the way we are. Think about that for awhile. Seriously. It's healthy.

Second of all, we're accepted. We fit in. There's no need to feel out of place with God.

Now we hear a guy say that his girlfriend/fiance/wife completes him. But seriously, the only way you can be complete is through God. He makes us complete. Colossians 2:10 says that we're complete in Him. We don't need anything else.

Now one more thing and then I'll shut up.
Psalms 139:17-18: 17 How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them! 
 18 If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.

God thinks about us all the time! I don't know about you, but that gets me excited. The times he thinks of us are more than the sand. Now I haven't counted all the grains of sand on a beach, but I can tell you that we probably don't even have a number for that.

That causes me think reflect on how many times I think of Him. I know it certainly doesn't equal that. But seriously, I think we could all do a little more thinking on Him. He is the One, after all, who redeemed us. Who sanctified us.

So that was just some stuff I got from his message. If you want to listen to his message you can find it here: Living in Victory or How God Views Us - Craig Cobb

Emi ♪