The Ambassador of Christ

This is a true story about being a good ambassador of Christ in every situation and representing Him well wherever we find ourselves.

Several years ago, a preacher from out-of-state accepted a call to a church in Houston, Texas. Some weeks after he arrived, he had an occasion to ride the bus from his home to the downtown area.

When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him a quarter too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself, “You’d better give the quarter back. It would be wrong to keep it.”

Then he thought, “Oh, forget it, it’s only a quarter. Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company gets too much fare; they will never miss it. Accept it as a ‘gift from God’ and keep quiet.”

When his stop came, he paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the quarter to the driver and said, “Here, you gave me too much change…”

The driver, with a smile, replied, “Aren’t you the new preacher in town?”

“Yes,” he replied.

“Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about going somewhere to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change. I’ll see you at church on Sunday.”

When the preacher stepped off the bus, he literally grabbed the nearest light pole, held on, and groaned, “Oh God! I almost sold your Son for a quarter!”

Our lives are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is a really scary example of how much people watch us as Christians, and will put us to the test!  Always be on guard – and remember – you carry the name of Christ on your shoulders when you call yourself  ‘Christian.’

– Author Unknown

Meditation: So we have been sent to speak for Christ. It is like God is calling to people through us. – 2 Corinthians 5:20 (ERV)

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

How You’re Forgiven

Author Unknown

Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

– Isaiah 1:18

One rainy afternoon, I was driving along one of the main streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when the roads are wet and slick.

Suddenly my daughter spoke up from her relaxed position in her seat. “Dad, I’m thinking of something.”

This announcement usually meant she had been pondering some fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that her six-year-old mind had discovered. I was eager to hear.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“The rain!” she began, “is like sin, and the windshield wipers are like God wiping our sins away.”

After the chill bumps raced up my arms I was able to respond. “That’s really good.”

Then my curiosity broke in. How far would this little girl take this revelation? So I asked…

“Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming? What does that tell you?”

She didn’t hesitate one moment with her answer: “We keep on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us.”

I will always remember this whenever I turn my wipers on.

The truth is God is more interested in pardoning our sins than in keeping the record of our wrongdoings. He is not judgemental of our actions, neither does He set out to dog our steps until we commit a sin so that He can pounce on us. That is not God.

Even when we reject His counsel and do things our own way, in addition to the agony of our rejection, He is also more pained by the consequences of our sins than we can ever be. That is why He is ever eager to forgive anyone who comes to Him with a sincere and repentant heart.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Where Do You Seek Help?

Challenges and trials are part of life, only the dead and inanimate don’t have them. We face various life situations that test our faith, maturity, endurance, skills, and expertise. But when the storms of life come billowing, do you fight or take a flight? When the vicissitudes of life become overwhelming, where do you turn for help?

Our answers to these questions are critical to how we fare in life: if you are the type that analyses a challenge and then tackles it headlong, rather than avoiding or running away from it, each encounter will certainly build up your maturity, spirituality, dignity, fortitude, and confidence; whereas, each time you take a flight and avoid a challenge constitutes a debit from your confidence and self-esteem. So, the best course to take is to fight it out. But, ensure you take the time to first analyse the situation, know how best to confront it, when to take it on, and what resources you need to realistically achieve your aim.

In the event where you are overwhelmed by the vicissitudes of life, such that you are feeling drowned, it is always good to look beyond yourself and reach out for help. While it is advisable to seek help from experts in the area of your challenge or from an enlightened significant other, you should not discountenance also seeking the help of God. In the case of humans, you can only be helped to the extent of the resources available to the person you run to. But God has unlimited resources and He has monopoly of solutions. He had solved innumerable challenges since humans started becoming conscious of them; and He hasn’t stopped. So you get the advantage of experience, expertise and formidability when you run to God. Nothing fazes Him; everything thaws in His presence. He is just a prayer away; why not tell Him about the issue now?

Meditation: Hear my cry, O God; attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You. When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. –Psalm 61:1-2

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

How You’re Forgiven

Author Unknown

 “Come now, and let us reason together,” Says the Lord, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

– Isaiah 1:18

One rainy afternoon, I was driving along one of the main streets of town, taking those extra precautions necessary when the roads are wet and slick.

Suddenly my daughter spoke up from her relaxed position in her seat. “Dad, I’m thinking of something.”

This announcement usually meant she had been pondering some fact for a while, and was now ready to expound all that her six-year-old mind had discovered. I was eager to hear.

“What are you thinking?” I asked.

“The rain!” she began, “is like sin, and the windshield wipers are like God wiping our sins away.”

After the chill bumps raced up my arms I was able to respond. “That’s really good.”

Then my curiosity broke in. How far would this little girl take this revelation? So I asked…

“Do you notice how the rain keeps on coming? What does that tell you?”

She didn’t hesitate one moment with her answer: “We keep on sinning, and God just keeps on forgiving us.”

I will always remember this whenever I turn my wipers on.

The truth is God is more interested in pardoning our sins than in keeping the record of our wrongdoings. He is not judgemental of our actions, neither does He set out to dog our steps until we commit a sin so that He can pounce on us. That is not God.

Even when we reject His counsel and do things our own way, in addition to the agony of our rejection, He is also more pained by the consequences of our sins than we can ever be. That is why He is ever eager to forgive anyone who comes to Him with a sincere and repentant heart.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!

Who will Read You Today?

Several years ago, a preacher from a distant town accepted a call from a church in Leeds. Some weeks after his arrival, he had an appointment that made him board a bus to another part of the town. When he sat down, he discovered that the driver had mistakenly given him his balance in excess of 50 pence.

As he considered what to do, he thought within him, ‘You’d better give this money back. It would be wrong to keep it’. Then another thought came, “Oh, forget it, it’s only 50p; who would worry about this little amount, afterall the bus company makes so much money on fares; they will never miss it. Accept it as ‘a gift from God’ and keep quiet.

When he was getting down from the bus, he paused momentarily at the door, and then handed the 50p to the driver and said, ‘Take; the balance you gave me was in excess’. The driver, with a smile, replied, ‘Aren’t you the new preacher in town?’  ‘Yes I am’, he replied. ‘Well, I have been thinking a lot lately about where to go to worship. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you a balance in excess. I’ll worship with you at the church this Sunday.

When the preacher stepped off the bus, he grabbed a nearby electric pole, looked up and said, ‘Oh God, I almost sold your Son for 50 pence!’. Our lifestyles are the only Bible some people will ever read. This is just a subtle example of how much people watch us as Christians, and will put us to test!

Always be on guard — and remember — You carry the name of Christ on your forehead and shoulders, once you say you are a Christian. ‘Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny’.

Let our lives model Jesus Christ as we journey through life.

Meditation: Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. – 1 Tim 4:12b (NLT)

You will succeed because Jesus loves You!!!Always be on guard — and remember — You carry the name of Christ on your forehead and shoulders, once you say you are a Christian. ‘Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become your character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny’.

Let our lives model Jesus Christ as we journey through life.

Meditation: Be an example to all believers in what you say, in the way you live, in your love, your faith, and your purity. – 1 Tim 4:12b (NLT)

You will succeed because Jesus loves You!!!

Have a Blessed, Squeaky Clean Day!

Author Unknown

There are five sponges laying on your kitchen counter top. Each member of your family has been cleaning up different areas of your home, but all the sponges look the same. You are curious as to what was cleaned in your home, but you can’t tell by looking…they all look the same….so what do you do?

You squeeze each sponge to see what comes out. As you squeeze the first sponge, you see that cola comes out, and so you decide that someone cleaned the kitchen with that one. Upon squeezing the second sponge, you find tub and tile cleaner – that one was used to clean the bathroom.

Next, in the third sponge, you find motor oil — hubby was cleaning the garage!

In the fourth sponge, baby powder puffs out when it is squeezed – yep the baby’s nursery was done with that one!

And finally, in the last one, is floor wax — that was the one you used on the hall floor!

As you lay the last one down, you look again at their similarity – and they all look the same until they’re squeezed.

Christians are the same way. As life squeezes us, different things come out – anger from one, a need for revenge from another, tears from one, remorse from yet another – also greed, untruth, lust – and finally, from one saint, pours forth the love of Christ.

Just like the sponge, we can only squeeze out what is put in – stay in the Word daily, and be in continuous prayer, so that when life puts the squeeze on you (and it WILL), Jesus, and Jesus ALONE will shine forth from you!

Have a blessed, squeaky clean day!

Meditation: As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man. – Proverbs 27:19

You will succeed because Jesus loves You!

How To Sustain Success

Success means different things to different people; the same way the mode of approaching it is different from one individual to another, not minding the myriads of literature in the public domain on how to achieve it.

There are two angles to success; the first is exploring how to accomplish it and, the second, how to sustain it. Achieving success in life might seem a very arduous feat that places a lot of demand on one. That is rightly so, as not everyone can lay claim to being successful. However, sustaining success at whatever level is more demanding than the process of achieving it.

The passage above gives us an insight on how to sustain success so it doesn’t slip out of grasp or dim out with greater speed than it came. It takes discipline to retain success, that is what the writer of the proverb describes as “ruthless” in the passage above. A measure of ruthlessness is needed to sustain or scale up any kind of success. You have to be ruthless on yourself in terms of how you use time, manage resources, what you tell yourself, as well as how you interact with yourself and others.

Discipline must be your watchword if you want to sustain success; you cannot afford to do what everyone else is doing if such will not further your cause. You cannot live the way your friends live, think the way they think, say what they say and indulge in what they indulge. Successful people are usually hard on themselves and that transfers to the way they relate with others. They are not afraid to break out of the mould and be different. They are strict and disciplined because that is what it takes to sustain success.

You will succeed in Jesus Name!