Wednesday, February 23, 2011

EXCUSES

“When you start to make excuses for your walk with God, soon, any excuse will do.
But when you really get serious about your walk with God, when He becomes the most important person in your life, you no longer make excuses, you just produce fruit!”
Randy Wilson

Thursday, February 17, 2011

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

So, at church I have challenged everyone to write their personal testimony out, it's not as easy as you may think. Before I went to Belize in 2007 I had to write out my personal testimony, only it had to be a certain length, because it was published in pamphlets that we used and handed out. I remember how I struggled with mine, there were a lot of details that I wanted to go into but didn't have the space, also I had to have all of the information about myself so that people in another country could understand who I was and where I was from. But it also had to be simple so that it would not confuse anyone. I added some scriptures on salvation so that if someone found on of the pamphlets they could find Christ through what I wrote.
Tommy Duffield started this by challenging the youth to write theirs, I took his idea a step further and challenged the whole church. Many people at Carey Baptist have stepped up to the challenge. Could you?
Here is my personal testimony....

Hello, my name is Randy Wilson; I am from Childress, Texas in the USA. You have most likely never heard of Childress Texas before and just so you know it is a long way from any large city that you might have heard of.
I am happy to be a guest in your beautiful country. We have come here to tell about Jesus, God’s only Son.
Before I trusted in Jesus I lived life as any other kid my age. My family always went to church; my mother took us to church and made sure that we were there. I wasn’t a bad person, I never did anything that would be considered bad, I was basically a good kid.
When I was a young teenager I went to church camp, church camp is a week long and young people go with their church and learn about Jesus. They will have music for the youth and speakers that know how to talk to them. I had been feeling that something just wasn’t right, and while I was at this youth camp and the preacher was speaking, I realized that I was lost and going to Hell. I knew that Hell was a lake of fire and I also knew that I didn’t want to go there. I knew that sin was anything displeasing to God, and I also knew that I had sin in my heart. I realized that night that just because my mother was going to heaven, that didn’t mean I was. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I knew that night that I had fallen short.
Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I knew that I wanted that free gift that gives eternal life. Through the prompting of the Holy Spirit I went forward that night and asked Jesus into my heart. I asked Him to forgive me for all of the wrong that I had done. Romans 10:9 says “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Being a Christian and living for Jesus means more to me than anything in life, it means more to me than life itself.
I would like to ask you to accept this free gift today.

Well, what do you think? Let me hear from you.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

MIXING RELIGIONS

What is your first reaction when you think about mixing religions? What would you say if I said there are some who are mixing Christianity and Islam? They are calling it Chrislam!
According to a recent blog post from The Last Crusade, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, along with other congregations in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit, preached sermons and held Sunday school lessons on the founder of Islam, Mohammad, whom Muslims consider a prophet. Qurans were also placed in the pews next to Bibles.

Proponents of the movement, which has been dubbed "Chrislam," claim that Christians cannot love their neighbors without having a relationship with them.

A question, why is America running to embrace the very religion that attacked us on 9/11? With all of the violence in Egypt being caused by Muslims, and if these people take over we will lose an ally, if the wrong people (Hezbollah) are in control of Egypt, Israel will be in ever more danger. So why are so many Americans embracing it? The simple answer is that Christians have not shown Christ the way we should!

So should we mix Christianity and Islam? Chrislam?
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (ESV)

We cannot serve Jesus and Mohammad, we cannot place them on the same level, Jesus is Lord!!! The Bible and the Quran on the same level, the Holy Bible is God's Holy Word!!! We cannot mix Christianity with any other religion, Christianity stands on its own, to mix it takes away from what we stand on. Paul faced the same thing in his day with people who were trying to say that you needed Jesus plus.... in order to really be saved. But Jesus said "IT IS FINISHED!!!" Nough said.

Join us this Sunday as we begin to take a look at the book of Galatians. See you at 10:45am.