Below are some helps on how to stay focused on the right ministry.

1.  Align yourself each morning to the Word of God. Seeking God and getting your mind and heart in line with His is a must.  Let Him speak to you and reaffirm the direction He has given you.  Knowing about God and knowing God are two drastically different things.  Learn to listen to God.

• Remember that doing your devotions is not sermon preparation though a sermon may come from your devotions.
• Be open and teachable so that God can mold you to be more conformed to the image of Jesus Christ.
• Spend enough time with God to “fill you” so that He can pour you out through the day in ministry.
• Be sensitive to the Spirit.  He will lead and guide you as your serve and seek Him.
• Seek to genuinely understand what God is saying rather than reading into Scripture what you would want it to say.

2.  Have clearly defined objectives. There is a difference in “doing ministry” and doing the ministry God has for you.  God has a specific plan for you in His work and in this world.

• Are your objectives in line with God’s Word?
• Is what you are doing going to fulfill the objectives?
• Are “new” ministries going to add to or take away from the objectives?
• What unique contribution does God want you to make to His work in this world?
• Do you have any specific strengths, abilities, opportunities, or desires that you could use to glorify God?
• Will your ministry reproduce itself through disciples?
• Are you following the II Timothy 2:2 model?

3.   Evaluate your ministry regularly. As time progresses, ii is easy to fill your life with “busy work” but not the right work. Some questions to help you evaluate what you are doing in light of your objectives would be:

• How much of your time, energy and resources are invested in your objective?
• Is what you are doing now yielding the fruits necessary for your objective to be reached?
• Are there “good things” that need to be done away with because they are crowding out the best things?  (this one is difficult to do!)
• Would a friend agree with your assessment or would he say you are being blinded by your conclusions.  The need for honesty in evaluation is paramount.
• Do you have a mentor in your life that you can get honest feedback from in evaluating your ministry.  This is so vital for healthy growth and direction.

Find more helpful articles at bcwe.org

One of the greatest things that must be remembered is focus.  What is it that God has placed upon your heart to do on the field and is what you are doing right now going to accomplish that?  It is so easy to get in the rut of the same few members, the same problems and mounting frustration.  If you are not careful, everyone will tell you what ministry you are to have, and what you are to do.  Ask yourself the following questions:

• What did God put in your heart?
• Is the energy being exerted going to help that dream become a reality?
• Where is the majority of your time being spent?
• Is it where the majority of your times should be spent?

To accomplish what God desires for our lives and ministry demands focus. It demands staying in tune on a daily basis with what God has put into our hearts to accomplish.  One book said that good is the enemy of great.  The Bible states that we are to approve those things which are excellent.

• Has your vision become blurred?
• It is hard to see clearly the direction God wants?
• Have you got so caught up in “church as usual” that you have lost your vision of training men, raising up preachers and starting churches?

Focus.  Focus.  Focus. Today you may need to realign your ministry, focus, time and energy.  God gave you a dream.  Do not let it die in the land of mediocrity.  Let it burn once again.  Let it burn so brightly that it burns away all the little foxes that have stolen your dream and vision.  Let it burn so that those around can not help but be affected by it.

We get so busy doing many so called “good” things that we lose sight of “this one thing I do.”

I love you and pray that our ministries today would be more focused than ever.

Find more helpful articles at bcwe.org.

The beginning of excellence is the elimination of foolishness. You can ramp up your speaking performance by analyzing your last presentation with these seven questions:

1. Did I stick to my allotted time? (As a missionary, whatever time the pastor gives you, take a little less!)
2. Did I develop and present purposefully? (Do you have passion and urgency? )
3. Was I thoroughly prepared? (Were you looking for nails or driving one home?)
4. Did I capture attention at the very beginning? (How many seconds passed between your introduction and actual speaking? Many times our beginning is the sound of silence…not good.)
5. Did I positively influence listeners? (Were they ready to love God more, serve more, and go to the field with you?)
6. Was I appropriately entertaining, or at least not boring? (We do not seek to entertain but you can ask yourself, or someone who will be honest, are you boring?)
7. Did I end only once? (o.k. I am leaving the computer to get some tissue, my nose is bleeding!)

This is a daily resource from a man that was on the mission field for 20 years that God used greatly. He will give you something every time you listen. Go to the following link and check it out. I think you will really enjoy it.

http://bcwe.org/bcweblogs/world-evangelism/

May God use you greatly for His glory.

This week I had the opportunity to preach at “Camp Break Out” for Victory Baptist Church and Vision Baptist Church. Several young people accepted Christ as their savior and many others made commitments to serve God. What a joy to see young lives surrender to the Lord.

This Saturday and Sunday I will be in Rossville, Ga with Mt. Moriah Baptist Church. Preaching a special youth service Saturday and Missions Day on Sunday.

Thank you for your prayers.

I want to thank Kevin and Beth for their sweet spirit and hospitatlity toward Stacey and I. They have gone WAY out of the way to make our stay enjoyable. We just finished another bowl of Tortilla soup…..I could get used to this!

Please keep us in your prayers as we finish the Conference Saturday evening. I will then preach on Sunday as well.

May God bless you greatly.

May God bless you greatly as you serve Him.

Great quotes from Leonard Ravenhill:
[Concerning one of the new “movements” in the church that was
causing a stir among Christians:] “There’s also a stir when the
circus comes to town.”
When there’s something in the Bible that churches don’t like,
they call it ‘legalism.’”
[Concerning the fixation that today’s church has with numbers,
with growth at any price:] “The church has paid a terrible price for
statistics!”
“If the whole church goes off into deception, that will in no way
excuse us for not following Christ.”
“I doubt that more than two percent of professing Christians in the
United States are truly born again.”
“Many pastors criticize me for taking the Gospel so seriously. But
do they really think that on Judgment Day, Christ will chastise me,
saying, ‘Leonard, you took Me too seriously’?”

Hebrews 10:24 “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works”. In 2 Corinthians 9:2 “For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal hath provoked very many.”

The word provoke means to stimulate. Do we stimulate others to read their Bible, pray, give, serve, love, etc..? It is my prayer that when you go into churches that they are provoked and stimulated to love, serve and give to God’s work more than ever before. May you provoke and influence many for the kingdom of heaven.

If your zeal has cooled off, get alone with God in prayer and the word and become a blazing ember for His honor and glory. As you set yourself on fire, people will come watch you burn. May God use you to provoke many for God’s glory!

“Looking unto Jesus.”-Hebrews 12:2
It is ever the Holy Spirit’s work to turn our eyes away from self to Jesus; but Satan’s work is just the opposite of this, for he is constantly trying to make us regard ourselves instead of Christ. He insinuates, “Your sins are too great for pardon; you have no faith; you do not repent enough; you will never be able to continue to the end; you have not the joy of His children; you have such a wavering hold of Jesus.” All these are thoughts about self, and we shall never find comfort or assurance by looking within. But the Holy Spirit turns our eyes entirely away from self: He tells us that we are nothing, but that “Christ is all in all.”
Remember, therefore, it is not thy hold of Christ that saves thee-it is Christ; it is not thy joy in Christ that saves thee-it is Christ; it is not even faith in Christ, though that be the instrument-it is Christ’s blood and merits; therefore, look not so much to thy hand with which thou art grasping Christ, as to Christ; look not to thy hop e, but to Jesus, the source of thy hope; look not to thy faith, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of thy faith. We shall never find happiness by looking at our prayers, our doings, or our feelings; it is what Jesus is, not what we are, that gives rest to the soul. If we would at once overcome Satan and have peace with God, it must be by “looking unto Jesus.” Keep thine eye simply on Him; let His death, His sufferings, His merits, His glories, His intercession, be fresh upon thy mind; when thou wakest in the morning look to Him; when thou liest down at night look to Him. Oh! let not thy hopes or fears come between thee and Jesus; follow hard after Him, and He will never fail thee.
“My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesu’s blood and righteousness:
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.”