Welcome to the El Camino Baptist Church blog. We wanted a place where our ministry leaders could share things that God has laid on their hearts. Please feel free to comment and join in the discussion as we share how God is moving through His church.Other places to find us on the web are our website, Youtube, and Facebook. You can also check out Hoss' music blog at hosshughes.com.









Friday, August 27, 2010

Priorities

Today is my day off. I love days off. It has been a wonderful week, extra busy, but wonderful!

Tomorrow we have our Back 2 School Volunteer Rally. It is going to be a great weekend! Today after I take some missionary friends to the airport, I have a few details to attend to for the training. Then I have the rest of the afternoon and evening free. I can spend it any way I choose. Therein lies the dilemma quietly, gently nagging at my heart.

My husband and I have been praying diligently for our next door neighbors, some family members, and a few specific friends. They do not have a personal relationship with Jesus…yet. We love them dearly and want them to spend eternity with Him. But, how will they know unless someone tells them?(Romans 10:14) We have been praying for them since at least January, and for many of these people, much longer, yet have made no conscious effort to share the life giving gospel with them.

It is so easy to justify our lack of follow through. We are legitimately busy people, serving God in many ways, and still periodically investing in the lives of our growing children and aging parents. Plus, we are thoroughly enjoying this new stage of freedom in our marriage of having grown children. It is so easy to make pleasurable choices with our discretionary time. And that is exactly what we tend to choose.

“Lord, You have placed these people in our lives because You trust us to share Your plan of salvation with them. Please give us Your heart for these precious, perishing people. Burden us with thoughts of what their eternity apart from You will be like. Help us to care more about their eternal destiny than our momentary pleasures. Remove our laziness. Motivate us to take the initiative to get together with them, to enthusiastically invest in their lives in meaningful ways, to purpose to share you directly, clearly, boldly, lovingly…soon. “

5 comments:

  1. Great lesson! Something we all need to hear and think about. How about combining pleasure with ministering to others...invite them out to dinner with you guys, or go to a movie together and then have some 'talk' time after. Finding the balance is the hard part! :)

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  2. Awesome reminder, I've been praying for several familes for awhile, but rarely break out of my comfort zone to invite the, or directly engage in conversation about coming to church and knowing Jesus. TIme to make that a priority this week. You should repost a reminder later so we can all post how our follow up efforts went.

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  3. Great ideas Kristin! And Vickie, let's check back with each other soon. I love watching God at work!

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  4. I invited bthwo of my prayer list people to the Beth Moore event. Hoping they come with me. I also invited someone I hadn't been praying for and she's trying to clear her schedule to go, You never know how God will work!

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