Snow

I love the line in White Christmas when Danny Kaye is trying to convince Bing Crosby they should go to Vermont because as he puts it "it should be wonderful this time of the year, all that snow".  I especially like it right now because as I sit in our sons home in Murfreesboro, Tn the forecast for tonight is snow.  However, while I would love to wake up to all the white stuff on the ground in the morning, it will keep my dad from traveling from Georgia tomorrow to see us and I dont want it still on the ground come Monday when Karen and I need to make our way to Springfield, Missouri to see our daughter and her family where they have already an abundance of snow.

Then as I was driving to pick up my granddaughter from school today I passed a church that had one of those supposedly 'witty' sayings on their church sign.  I have seen it everyday and and everyday it reminds me why I do not want a church sign that has the ability to post those 'witty' sayings because those sayings turn into 'corny' sayings.. This sign said "Jesus loves you 'snow' much"  ...

Well..with the forecast for snow and a sign that reads like that, I got thinking about what the Bible says about snow.  I would encourage you to do a search for the word snow in the Bible. You will find some really neat uses of the word. Psalm 51:7 speaks of the kind of cleansing that David desired from God. Isaiah 1:18 declares that though God's people's sins were as red as scarlet, God would make them white as snow. Isaiah 55:10-11 describes how Gods word doesn't return void, but accomplishes what it intends, the way snow waters the earth.

So in many ways, snow preaches the Gospel! All of these verses were written before Jesus was crucified, how much more do they ring true with the perfected work of the Word made Flesh applied to our lives?! His blood, His suffering, His pain, His death, washes us and cleanses us so that we are whiter than snow and this word, this Gospel, will not return void, but will accomplish what God intends. We now not only stand forgiven in God's sight, but righteous, white, clean, pure, blameless, justified.

The Importance of Evangelism

Since my wife almost went home to be with the Lord on Feb. 6th the Lord has been teaching me a lot of things. For one, the importance of eternity and reaching people for Jesus Christ. Life is short, heaven and hell are real and people need Jesus.

While in Jacksonville, I heard a sermon by Dr. David Platt. In that message he pointed out these facts. He said, there are about 6.8 billion people in the world, 1/3rd of those are assumed to be Christian (but in truth many are not and that word 'Christian' is often used socially and politically ). But if 1/3rd were Christians, that would still leave around 4.5 billion people who do not know Christ as Savior. That is an astonishing number. Now neither I nor my church can even begin to think about reaching that many people. Not even the mega churches could do that. However, we can do our part to fulfill the Great Commission. We can do and must do our part in fulfilling our responsibility as a church, people and pastor to reach not only those across the sea, but those right here at home. Smith River, Crescent City and Brookings Oregon is my home mission field and I want God to use me here. My prayer is that the Lord would help me become more passionate about people’s spiritual lives. My prayer is that the Lord would help my church become more passionate about others. That we would spend the time we have left on this earth for His glory and to fulfill His purposes and the purpose He has left us to do.

A few weeks ago I came across a great article in a blog written by Thom Rainer the CEO of Lifeway. Here is the link, I hope you will go to it, scroll down to the article on Seven Characteristics of an Evangelistic Christian.

People need the Lord. It is not just some song from the 80’s, it is a fact of life

http://www.thomrainer.com/