Advice and solutions

[A239]

This thread is designed to help others along the road to righteousness, not to condemn them to hell. This is a joint effort to better ourselves and each other. We all have faults and failures, and with positive responses such as, "when your going through hell, don't stop. Just keep on going and God will bring you through." And, "think of Job. Although he went through so much, he was rewarded in the end. You won't go without reward." Things to encourage people to continue on with their walk with God, rather than discouraging them from church. God will convict them, and when people come to us, it is our job to show them the way to righteousness.

This thread is for anyone to share encouraging testimonies, words of faith, to seek advice, and to give advice. All are welcomed to participate.

[KeptByTheWord]

I think this is a great idea, JacobS., to start a thread where people can share verses or thoughts of encouragement for each other. I would like to share a passage that always encourages me:

1 Cor. 15:57-58
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

[A239]

Advice for being a better witness:

The Rock, The Tower, and The Light
Luke 19:37-40.

Jesus said that if people were to be silent stones would cry out. The rocks would stand in their place. They wouldn't just sit there like normal rocks. They could cry out to God. We need some spiritual rocks, rocks that will cry out for the world with no voice, rocks that are not afraid to do more then just sit there like all the others, rocks that are willing to cry out, even when no one else is. Those rocks should be us. Crying out for this lost and dying world. We need to protect and save the world.

Psalm 61:2-4 reads, " 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. For you have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of your wings.

There needs to be strong towers to shelter the world from the enemy. Towers that won't fall, and that won't sway. Towers that protect the wounded, towers that shelter those in need, and hide them from the enemy. The world needs towers. They need us, to be those towers. But how do they find these towers and rocks?

In Exodus 34, God Let Moses see the back of him after receiving the 10 Commandments and walk down the mountain. Moses noticed noticed that he was shining and so did a few of his friends. Moses thought everyone would think he's weird if his face glowed, so why he was with his friends, he covered up that glow. He had it with the veil, but when he went before the Lord, he would uncover his face. "Wow look at this awesome blessing you gave me God" he would say.then he would walk out to his friends and cover it back up. God brought us Out of the world, set us up on a mountain in his glory, and sent this back into the world to let our light shine.

I'd like to challenge each and everyone of you to let your lights shine. Without your light shining, no one can see your lighthouse, and the lost ships will never be found.

[votivesoul]

An encouraging thought that came to me the other day:

Romans 11:15,

For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

In a recent despair that God's church is never going to be restored to full (since God has to deal with unwieldy, stubborn men and women addicted to their traditions), the above verse came to me and picked me up.

The suggestion is on this wise: When the Lord returns to the Jews and brings them into the New Covenant, this "life from the dead" will be the restoration of all things, including the church.

Such a sentiment gave me hope.

[A239]

My life:

Nine months prior to being born, I was hooked to several drugs. The day I was born, I was taken away from my birth family, and placed with, and adopted by a new family. Growing up in my new, half Mexican half white(had black hair) family, I never realized that I was the only one with blonde hair, until I turned 12. That year in science class, we learned how genes were passed down, we had to bring in a picture of our mom and dad, and try to see what traits we got from each parent. Nothing matched up for me. I began to question my parents and eventually that told me. I started to try and find some of my family, and two years ago, I did. I have seven older brothers and sisters, my brother is an associate pastor of a UPCI church, my cousin is a pastor of a UPCI church and my birth family was UPCI before they backslid. I got word from my cousin that my birth dad divorced my birth mom, and was back in church. I had never met him but I was gonna try to soon. My plan was to surprise him at his church the next Sunday. Monday of the week before, he had a heart attack. They released him from the hospital Friday and said he could go back to work Saturday. Him and his new wife prayed Saturday before he left, and he spoke in tongues, the first time sense he has been back in church. He was a tree cutter, and that day he had a heart attack, fell from a tree, and landed face first. I never got to meet him, until the day I buried him. The next year, I met a girl at youth convention. I've "dated" many girls by this time, but there was something different about her. I started asking her questions, because I felt like I knew her. Turn out, I did. She was the one who prayed me through four years ago at church camp. When me and my friend first saw her at convention, he told me to try and set him up with her, but I ended up accidentally setting myself up. We talk for a month before I asked her out. That year at camp, we were praying, and a minister walked up to me and said, "you and your girlfriend now, are gonna have a church later in a place far from here, and there will be over 175 regularly attending your church you start within afew months." I looked at him with a smile thinking to myself, "yeah, sure I will." When I got home, I asked my pastor about it, and he said he had been waiting for someone else to tell me that because he had been feeling the same thing. So, I began to pray. I asked God, "if I'm to be a pastor of a church somewhere far away from home, where?" And God answered, "Quebec City." I didn't think that was right. I live in a small, country hick town in Missouri. How was I going to last in a big city like that? Well, I had my girlfriend pray about where God wanted her to be at when she gets older(at this time she didn't know about the prophesy). Same answer. So I told her. She said, "let's wait for at least one more thing to confirm it." NAYC came, and if you were there, you knew that several times Quebec City was mentioned saying it needed a church, that there was no UPCI churches there. And several times, it was said that you need to find your spouse at the altar, but that wasn't the case for me, she prayed me through at the altar. Over the past 11 months, God has done many things in both of our lives, only bringing us closer to each other, and to him. I've been studying the word, and I have found for myself my beliefs, and they just happen to go along what UPCI believe. Being born into an exUPCI family with several UPCI minsters in it, and then being placed into a UPCI family at random, and all that has happened to me, all lead me to believe in this book, and this doctrine.

[KeptByTheWord]

That's a pretty amazing story, Jacob! It is great to see the dedication and desire you have to surrender your life to the Lord. Continue to seek and search after Him.