Thursday, April 05, 2007
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
God is looking for ordinary people....
God is looking for ordinary people to do extraordinary work.
I had the opportunity to do street ministry in Houston Texas. I was called into street ministry early in life when I was in my 20’s. God taught me some tough lessons by allowing me to live on the street for a short amount of time. You could say I was stubborn, bullheaded and very rebellious. I had the Burger King mentality of having it my way. Trust me when I tell you that if you are a child of the king HE knows what motivates us and makes us tick. God will allow you to be your own person even if that means that you chose to live in rebellion to his word and purpose for your life. God will also chose to chasten you and get your attention. It took a 45 day visit to a county jail and 45 days in a street rescue mission to get my attention.
One of the things that I told God when I saw the street people sleeping in front of the Star of Hope Mission is that “ I am better than those men”. God showed me that I was no better than those men even if my issues were slightly different than the issues that they were facing. In other words what brought me to the side walk in front of the Star of Hope Mission was not alcoholism or drug addiction. What brought me there was my rebellious spirit and my desire to do my own thing. I kept asking God, why me Lord, what have I done to deserve this? God kept telling me that it was not what I had done but what I had not done. Once God drilled this lesson into my brain and spirit I was able to shut up and start listening to His plan for my life and to repent of my rebellious spirit.
I spent 45 days listening to God’s word three times per day and through the process of lots of prayer, counseling and talking to Gods people I came to the realization that God did have a purpose for my life and that He wanted to use even me. God taught me that He loves everyone and that includes the people that live on the street and the prisoner that is locked up behind bars. None of us are worthy of Gods grace and love. It is only because of His love do we have access to His grace and mercy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags in Gods nostrils.
I learned that God can and will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I am one of those people. God picked me up, spanked me, cleaned me up and gave me a new purpose. He filled me with His spirit and forgave me of my sins. He loved me despite of who I was and still am. He is not finished with me yet and I praise him for that on a daily basis.
One of the things that I constantly had to remind folks of when I was involved in street ministry is that God is not looking for us to be the next Billy Graham. I belonged to the largest Baptist church in Houston Texas that had a singles department with thousands of active singles. It took me 60 days in advance to find ONE single person who would take 30 minutes out of their schedule to tell folks what the bible means to them, what church means to them and what God means to them. One of the hurdles that I had to overcome with these folks is that they all felt as if they were not worthy of standing before some men at a street rescue mission and tell them how God has changed their lives from the inside out. I told them and I remind us all that God has created us in HIS image. He loves us and wants fellowship with us every single moment of every day. He has a purpose for our lives and that is for us to tell the people in our world of His wonderful life changing love for them. God wants us to tell people that there is something better than what this world has to offer. There is more to life than the finite time that we have to spend here on earth. Yes, God can and will use YOU to spread this message. He will take your life, clean it up and empower you to share your story with those that desperately need to hear it. Be encouraged today and know that you are special to God and that He has someone in your sphere of influence that you can share the good news with.
May God bless and keep you in his loving arms….
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
I had the opportunity to do street ministry in Houston Texas. I was called into street ministry early in life when I was in my 20’s. God taught me some tough lessons by allowing me to live on the street for a short amount of time. You could say I was stubborn, bullheaded and very rebellious. I had the Burger King mentality of having it my way. Trust me when I tell you that if you are a child of the king HE knows what motivates us and makes us tick. God will allow you to be your own person even if that means that you chose to live in rebellion to his word and purpose for your life. God will also chose to chasten you and get your attention. It took a 45 day visit to a county jail and 45 days in a street rescue mission to get my attention.
One of the things that I told God when I saw the street people sleeping in front of the Star of Hope Mission is that “ I am better than those men”. God showed me that I was no better than those men even if my issues were slightly different than the issues that they were facing. In other words what brought me to the side walk in front of the Star of Hope Mission was not alcoholism or drug addiction. What brought me there was my rebellious spirit and my desire to do my own thing. I kept asking God, why me Lord, what have I done to deserve this? God kept telling me that it was not what I had done but what I had not done. Once God drilled this lesson into my brain and spirit I was able to shut up and start listening to His plan for my life and to repent of my rebellious spirit.
I spent 45 days listening to God’s word three times per day and through the process of lots of prayer, counseling and talking to Gods people I came to the realization that God did have a purpose for my life and that He wanted to use even me. God taught me that He loves everyone and that includes the people that live on the street and the prisoner that is locked up behind bars. None of us are worthy of Gods grace and love. It is only because of His love do we have access to His grace and mercy. Our righteousness is like filthy rags in Gods nostrils.
I learned that God can and will use ordinary people to do extraordinary things. I am one of those people. God picked me up, spanked me, cleaned me up and gave me a new purpose. He filled me with His spirit and forgave me of my sins. He loved me despite of who I was and still am. He is not finished with me yet and I praise him for that on a daily basis.
One of the things that I constantly had to remind folks of when I was involved in street ministry is that God is not looking for us to be the next Billy Graham. I belonged to the largest Baptist church in Houston Texas that had a singles department with thousands of active singles. It took me 60 days in advance to find ONE single person who would take 30 minutes out of their schedule to tell folks what the bible means to them, what church means to them and what God means to them. One of the hurdles that I had to overcome with these folks is that they all felt as if they were not worthy of standing before some men at a street rescue mission and tell them how God has changed their lives from the inside out. I told them and I remind us all that God has created us in HIS image. He loves us and wants fellowship with us every single moment of every day. He has a purpose for our lives and that is for us to tell the people in our world of His wonderful life changing love for them. God wants us to tell people that there is something better than what this world has to offer. There is more to life than the finite time that we have to spend here on earth. Yes, God can and will use YOU to spread this message. He will take your life, clean it up and empower you to share your story with those that desperately need to hear it. Be encouraged today and know that you are special to God and that He has someone in your sphere of influence that you can share the good news with.
May God bless and keep you in his loving arms….
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
Monday, April 02, 2007
Keeping in Real
My life helps paint my neighbor's picture of God.
That is the quote at the bottom of my daily bread. I actually took time out to read todays morsel from God's word. Yeah me!! I am like you in that I get very busy with this and that here at work and life just seems to consume me.
Just the other day at work I characterized the waiters at LaHacienda as "bean burners" in front of my non christian boss and one of my christian co workers. I had eaten lunch at LaHacienda and got a tea to go as is my normal routine. Several hours later I looked in the bottom of my cup and found a rumpled up lump of something or the other. I fished it out to find out it was a receipt that had accidentally gotten thrown in there. I went back to LaHacienda and showed it to them and they promptly refunded me the funds for lunch and were pretty nice about it.
As I recounted the story to my co worker and my boss I did not need to label the waiters as "bean burners". LOL... In my mind I was not trying to be ugly or offensive however my labeling these workers in such a way was not very Christ like. My christian friend was sure to remind me of this after my boss left our presence and I realized how it sounded. I was not reflecting christ like values in my conversation which means that I was not filtering my conversation through Phillipians 4:8. The picture I was painting for my neighbor "boss" was not very flattering to say the least.
My life helps paint my neighbor's picture of God.
As we live our lives today ask God the Father to give us the ability to filter our actions, thoughts and deeds through Phillipians 4:8 which says
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things
If we can do that then perhaps our neighbors will see that difference in our lives that will not only attract them to the Lord but also bring glory and honor to Him whom we call Christ.
God bless
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
That is the quote at the bottom of my daily bread. I actually took time out to read todays morsel from God's word. Yeah me!! I am like you in that I get very busy with this and that here at work and life just seems to consume me.
Just the other day at work I characterized the waiters at LaHacienda as "bean burners" in front of my non christian boss and one of my christian co workers. I had eaten lunch at LaHacienda and got a tea to go as is my normal routine. Several hours later I looked in the bottom of my cup and found a rumpled up lump of something or the other. I fished it out to find out it was a receipt that had accidentally gotten thrown in there. I went back to LaHacienda and showed it to them and they promptly refunded me the funds for lunch and were pretty nice about it.
As I recounted the story to my co worker and my boss I did not need to label the waiters as "bean burners". LOL... In my mind I was not trying to be ugly or offensive however my labeling these workers in such a way was not very Christ like. My christian friend was sure to remind me of this after my boss left our presence and I realized how it sounded. I was not reflecting christ like values in my conversation which means that I was not filtering my conversation through Phillipians 4:8. The picture I was painting for my neighbor "boss" was not very flattering to say the least.
My life helps paint my neighbor's picture of God.
As we live our lives today ask God the Father to give us the ability to filter our actions, thoughts and deeds through Phillipians 4:8 which says
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things
If we can do that then perhaps our neighbors will see that difference in our lives that will not only attract them to the Lord but also bring glory and honor to Him whom we call Christ.
God bless
James Moffitt
http://www.lightourworld.com
http://moffittjc.blogharbor.com/blog
james.moffitt@comcast.net
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