Encouragement

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With so many new churches springing up, it is very important that we know....
'How to measure a church'.

Ignorance is not 'bliss', but it can be laziness when it comes to Bible Study.

As a child in her Girls Auxiliary Group at church, La Moyne memorized Psalm 119:105:
"Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my path."
Though blinded in infancy, Fanny J. Crosby wrote this beautiful chorus, 'Thy Word'.

'Thy Word'
(by Fanny J. Crosby)

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. (repeat)

When I feel afraid think I've lost my way
still you're there right beside me.
And nothing will I fear as long as you are near
Please be near me to the end.

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. (repeat)

I will not forget Your love for me and yet
my heart forever is wandering.
Jesus be my guide hold me to your side
and I will love you to the end.
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Please use your Bible and 'dig for gold'.
Romans 12 is a great chapter for that, so I'd like to give a study outline.

In Romans 12:1-2: Paul said, "I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God".

I: IS JESUS LORD OF YOUR WORK? (vs. 1-2)
a) Presentation and not reservation (vs 1)
b) Transformation and not confirmation (vs 2a)
c) God's Will and not your will (vs.2b)

'JESUS IS LORD' MEANS THAT I AM.....
1) Abandoned to Him
2) Available for Him
3) Accountable to Him

II: ARE YOU PART OF A TEAM...UNDER THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST? (Vs. 3-8)
1) No stars or hotshots on God's Team (vs. 3a)
2) Sober thinkers needed (vs. 3b)
3) Grace and Faith are 'musts' (vs. 3c)
4) Gifts used in our work (vs. 6-8)

III: IS CHRIST-LIKE LOVE THE MOTIVE AND MISSION OF YOUR WORK? (vs. 9-18)
1) Love for the saved (vs. 9-13)
Christ-like love is so scarce that it is always in danger of substitutes...
and no substitute is more sickening than 'love substitutes'. (See I Cor. 13)

2) Love toward the lost (vs. 14-18)
Get people on your heart...
in your prayers...
and a part of your work-witness.

CONCLUSION:
If gratitude to God for His mercies does not compel our devotion to Him, nothing will.

Service, Work and Ministry that do not grow out of our love for God, have to refuel at 'flesh-pumps'.

We MUST refuel at Spirit Pumps (John 7: 37-39)

My Prayer for all of us is:
"May all we say and do...
Be said in Jesus' Name....
for the glory of God...
out of a motive of love....
for the sake of lives and souls.

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