The Lord's Room

Legalism

There are some people who have come to believe that if they don’t get back to their Jewish roots they miss the boat. I am talking about those who aren’t Jewish, people who want to get back to the law and make sure that it’s the only way to salvation. In this context it’s Christians who have come to think it’s better to go back.

A conversation went on for a good period of time and I was given verses that showed how the law had to be followed to be in the will of God. I explained that we were not to push the Law aside because Jesus said He came to fulfill the Law not change it.

That did no good because apparently I still missed the point. And the Law was given as the only answer. My response was very simple. Jesus came and paid the price on the cross because we are incapable of being good enough to satisfy the Law. It was only through Him that we are able to receive God’s grace.

Conclusion: my comments were deleted because of my answer. I was not aware that some who came to Yeshua hate Jesus. Really blew my mind.

Here’s what this is all about If you think your going to make “points” with God because you all of a sudden become legalistic then you have missed the reason Jesus came in the first place. If you think you can be good enough to get to heaven you don’t understand that if it were true… Jesus wouldn’t have had to die on the cross for you.

Pure and simple fact your a sinner just like everyone else, you are condemned because you were born in sin. You can’t fix that by yourself, you must go through Jesus alone. John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Many people try to twist that or change it and allow for any other means, but the truth is their liars and if you follow their lead, it will lead you directly into damnation.

“O you legalists who are looking to yourselves for some arguments
with which to prevail with God! O you who look to your sacraments,
to your outward forms, to your pious deeds and your almsgivings
for something that will move the heart of God–know this, that
these things are no lever that can ever move Him to love!
Nothing but your sin and misery can ever stir His mercy!
And you look to the wrong place when you look to your merits
to find a plea why he should show pity upon you!” Charles Spurgeon

God bless, Dan Beliveau

“Made in the Image of God”

We know God by His Word, [the Bible]. We also know Him by personal revelation. Sometimes God will give an individual a message. That can take different avenues, an impression, a vision, or rare times a voice. When we are of the Body of Christ every person is given at least one spiritual gift by the Holy Spirit. Sometime like the gift of discernment having knowledge of truth.

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them”

Many times people interpret it to mean His physical body. But look again at what it says. Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness”. It’s important to remember God is Spirit. we must also worship in spirit, the Godhead is spirt, and even though heavenly angels have bodies, they are spiritual bodies. When Jesus came back after the resurrection He had the body everyone will have, the same eternal {flawless} body. John 4:24 God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Our image of God is of spiritual nature. Because God is spirit we must relate to Him on a spiritual level. Our being must seek Him on that level. God created us differently than anything else in the world. Since we are just below the angels more is expected of us than the animal kingdom for instance. This scriptural passage does not mean that God is in human form, but rather, that humans are in the image of God in their moral, and spiritual, and intellectual nature. Hebrews 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone.

The more we study, the more we pray, and the more we seek Him the more we learn about that image. If you have been given a spiritual gift, you can gain more of it {stronger} through studying His Word and Prayer.

If you have a spiritual gift, don’t boast about it, but in humility use it to serve and always to honor Jesus. Psalms 16:1 Preserve me, O God, for in You I put my trust. ² O my soul, you have said to the Lord,
“You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.”
³ As for the saints who are on the earth,
“They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

When we really think about what it means to be one with God. We need to look at what Jesus has said. We must remember that God Himself became human and told us what was important, and showed us how much He loves us….

  Be still and know that I am God. Psalms 46:10 * In essence meditate about who we are in relationship to Him. As God, He is sovereign, faithful, omnipotent and unfailing.

God bless, Dan Beliveau

Videos and images

Hollywood Will Regret Treating Satan Like a Joke…

https://www.facebook.com/plugins/video.php?height=314&href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2Flwwotm%2Fvideos%2F847020826682755%2F&show_text=false&width=560&t=0

Paul Washer

Prophetic Warning to The Church https://www.facebook.com/aocnetwork/videos/994658391464529

The Great Apostasy https://versebyverseministry.org/videos/lesson-3-the-great-apostasy

https://versebyverseministry.org/videos/lesson-9-the-resurrection-of-the-bride

What is our path?

Why are so many preachers afraid to tell people the truth?. As anyone can see by the news stories the U.S. is under siege, maybe not by a uniformed army from another country. But by a spiritual army straight out of hell.

If you want the answer to why evil is expanding, read the book of Hosea showing what happened with Israel and apply it to the U.S. of today. We are doing our best to kick God out of our lives and our nation and are seeing the results of our decisions.

America has been blessed more than any nation in history and now we have become to important to show respect or the proper praise to the One who gave it to us.

Start looking at our National illness! We are kicking God out everywhere and yet we wonder why He’s rejecting us. We have to get on our knees and beg His forgiveness before it is too late. The Church is turning it’s back on the ways of God and will see His displeasure. When a Pastor says things like people are born that way, that preacher is denying God’s truth. Everyone will be accountable for what they do. Preachers and teachers more so.

On the political front many “Christians” are just falling in line instead of asking what God would want from us. Can a Christian support abortion for any reason? Isn’t it life from conception? Do we have the right to disregard all other opinions without at least considering them first? Nobody is perfect, but we should always seek God’s way.

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19. because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. 20. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21. because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22. Professing to be wise, they became fools, 23. and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. 24. Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, 25. who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever.

It’s not too late, but we have to humble ourselves. Because if we don’t Satan will win. The Socialists will decay more and more of our national values. Islam will get a bigger stronghold and the God we once honored will be pushed aside even farther.

If nothing else remember that we have God’s Word. In scripture God explains to us what He expects. You are the one who decides what path you take. God is asking you to come to Him, but remember after this life there is no do over. We can’t ignore what the Socialists in America are doing and keep saying it’s not your fault if you close your eyes. Our future depends on what path we pick.

God bless

Religious Freedom

This great Country {US} has gone from basically being a Christian based Nation, to quickly becoming a Nation of anything else. The pilgrims came here for a lot of reasons, but one of the main ones was religious freedom.

They wanted to have a way to worship, without being told what to believe. Meaning that they didn’t want the State to control which form of Christianity they chose. Nor did they want the State to control how we worshiped, like in England, Italy, France, etc.

When the U.S. was first founded, the Founding Fathers gave us a constitution, which was passed into law to provide for our rights. It was done to secure them, so that the Government or the Courts couldn’t take certain freedoms from us. They are supposed to be guaranteed.

This freedom was also guaranteed to people of other faiths, even those who believe in the Religion of Evolution, or those who didn’t have a belief in any religion.

The Constitution guaranteed freedom of religion, not freedom from religion.

But, somewhere between then and now, somebody came up with the idea of the “Separation Clause”, which doesn’t exist !!! Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof; *But, our Supreme Court has agreed with this non-existent part of our Constitution.

Since I wrote this article, schools across the US have been teaching about Islam. This is under a program called Common Core backed by CAIR an Islamic Jihad front disguised as being peaceful.

Some decisions:

Freedoms of speech and press are guaranteed to students and teachers, unless the topic is religious, at which time such becomes unconstitutional.

If a student prays over their lunch, it is unconstitutional to pray out loud.

It is unconstitutional to teach Creation Science [creationism].

If posted copies of the Ten Commandments are to have any effect at all, it will be to induce the school children to read, meditate upon, perhaps to venerate and obey the commandments. This is not a permissible State Objective under the establishment clause.

“In 1980 The Supreme Court considered the Ten Commandments irrelevant in today’s society.” Daniel Johnson

So, instead of promoting morals among our youth in our society today. We see the blatant increase of Greed, Lust, Murder, Theft, etc. Anything that promotes godlessness.

Recently I was watching the TV show – Fighting for America. He reported that in 2007, seven Christians where arrested and convicted of disorderly conduct. Their crime was praying silently in a park, during a Gay Pride rally. [This show is no longer on the air].

How in the name of the Holy God can people in this country be arrested for praying silently? Have we lost all sense? If this blatant abuse of our rights as citizens of this nation are continualy eroded, Do you think that some day you can’t be arrested for telling someone that there’s only one way to salvation? Or worse yet, Jesus loves you.

Now here’s my take on this: What you do is your business, unless what you do harms another person against their will. Anything concerning Murder, Adultry, Homosexuality, Arson, Kidnapping, Abortion, etc, are covered in the Bible, you can make your own decission about these issues. Im not talking about the law, just His position.

Please don’t contact me too tell me your stand on this subject. If you disagree, take it up with God, He wrote the book.

“Satan’s subjects will always despise our King, twist His truth, and hate His people, Why should we not expect opposition?” Author unknown to me.

Weather your a christian or not, if we don’t stand up and be heard about issues like this or freedom of speach. One day [very soon], we’ll be no different than China, or any other nation that tries to control every aspect of peoples lives. If you love this country you have to take a stand, it’s too late to just sit by and let someone else do it. Evil people in our nation are trying to control too many of our rights.

ONE LAST THOUGHT: IF YOUR A PUBLIC OFFICIAL IN ANY CAPACITY; SANITATION ENGINEER, CITY COUNCIL MEMBER, MAYOR, JUDGE, ATTORNEY GENERAL, GOVERNOR, MEMBER OF THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., MEMBER OF THE APPEALS COURT OR U.S. SUPREME COURT, WHATEVER. IF YOU SWORE AN OATH TO THE U.S. CONSTITUTION, AND YOU STAND BY AND DO NOTHING WHILE OUR RIGHTS ARE BEING TAKEN AWAY. Shame on you!

To my fellow Americans if you continue to put these people in office, and some day your arrested and convicted for not joining a certain party. Or daring to vote the wrong way. Remember we allowed this to happen. Then who do you seek when it truly is in your face?

* This story wasn’t covered in the mainstream press

Six people peacefully protested the Obama administration’s mandate requiring employers to provide contraceptives, sterilization, and abortion-producing drugs by kneeling in prayer in front of the White House, and they quickly were arrested and whisked away by U.S. Park police.

Since I first wrote this over 5 years ago, the Supreme Court has made a ruling that homosexual marriage is legal in every state.

The President [Barak Obama] has publicly declared that if he disagrees with the Constitution, he will ignore it and write Executive orders.

The Congress of the United States for the most part refuses to stand up for whats right.

Islam is no different in the aspect that during the Dark Ages the Catholic Church forced people to accept their domination.

People were put in prison, beat, burned at the stake and so much more. Many people were killed for just putting the Bible into other languages.

It should also be noted that in the Common Core program they are introducing children to Islam.

Learning the 5 pillars, etc. You should know that religious freedom is different for Christians because it’s acceptable to hate us. Where almost any other religion is acceptable.

People need to learn the truth about Islam and why it’s so dangerous to religious freedom everywhere.

in 2022 our nation has gone deeper into depravity. Examples of that are the Critical Race Theory CRT, Transgenderism and Gender identity being taught in school. I’m not sure America has much time left. Socialism is taking over.

Dan Beliveau

Progression of Great Nations:

From:

1. Bondage to Spiritual Faith 2. Spiritual Faith to great courage

3. Courage to Liberty 4. Liberty to Abundance

5. Abundance to Complacency 6. Complacency to Apathy

7. Apathy to Dependence 8. Dependence back to Bondage

Originally posted 2015

May I plead with you

I have been thinking about this for awhile. I’m going to share a little of my background. I was born in North Dakota in 1954. My father was in the Navy before Pearl Harbor. His ship the USS Marblehead was almost sunk. He was wounded but stayed on it for the voyage back to the US. He died in a car accident in 1955. I was 8 months old, but I have a lot of information about him.

Because of my health I’m not sure how much time I have left. The purpose of this post is my hope that what I share might help others find their way.

I could spend a lot of time going over what happened to me growing up. But that is not the real purpose of writing this.

I was raised in the Catholic Church as a kid. It was an on and off relationship. Including being ordained when I was very young {16, not valid}. For some time I did very little in that area. I went back and forth until I joined a Southern Baptist Church. I went through a lot of religious changes. Including waking up one Sunday in April in Ohio and knowing from the Holy Spirit I had to be baptized that day. No I didn’t hear His voice or see Him, I just knew it. I looked and found a Church of God in a small town and the Pastor agreed and baptized me in a river after the service. His last name was Angel {ironic}.

Since then I have read the Bible more times than I can count. I also have a degree in Biblical Studies, I count that as a blessing to know His Word, not to brag about. I have been an adult Bible teacher, but because of my health I don’t go anywhere much. I am in a wheelchair and my heart works at 30%. Now I spend my time trying to reach people for the Lord. Both with this site and on a Christian Facebook Group I belong to.

I have come to know with my total being that the only acceptable path is to surrender to Jesus. We must repent and ask for forgiveness. When we repent it doesn’t mean what we have done in our past has gone away. It means God has forgiven you and your sin is covered by the blood of Jesus. Please see the Salvation link, if you don’t know Jesus then your missing out on the purest peace your spirit will ever know. No matter how wonderful your path may seem right now, without Jesus it will end in damnation!

God bless you, Dan Beliveau

https://thelordsroom.org/2022/04/04/salvation-a-choice/

Some thoughts

I keep seeing comments about how evil White people are.

We came to this continent and murdered the indigenous people to steal their land. Then we bought Africans and enslaved them.

After 300 years slavery was ended but, all black people were still treated as slaves and that continued over 100 years. In todays society it is presented that all minorities are still treated by whites as if their inferior.

I think that about sums up what I see in much of societies attitude about white people.

Lets look at some facts.

Yes this hemisphere was invaded and the land was taken. I can’t make excuses for any of those things. Mankind has always been evil towards each other. Nobody can excuse slavery or any other evil deed.

There is not one part of the world that wasn’t taken over by some invader. Look at how China became so powerful, or how Islam grew. Africans enslaving other Africans and selling them. Even now Russia is committing destruction and murder towards Ukraine, as they invade it. Not an excuse for what has happened, but the truth.

The U.S. Has done bad things, but we have done much to correct it. Every citizen has the right to vote and the freedom to pursue any legal path they choose.

If we continue to push things like CRT {Critical Race Theory}, our nation will never fully heal. We have to stop looking back to the bad things and instead of always looking for whatever free stuff we can get, our nation needs to look for ways to make it better. Now it’s becoming the norm to excuse breaking the law.

The very survival of our nation is at stake. We need to look to God and plead with Him to cleanse us of this evil spirit that is taking over. 2 Chronicles 7:14 “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will heal their land.”

Please consider what I’ve said and pray about it.

God bless, Dan Beliveau

Spiritual Gifts

This is from a test I took

Spiritual gifts are tools God gives Christians to do the work of the ministry — to fulfill the Great Commission to reach, baptize, and teach and to minister to one another. Every Christian receives at least one gift at the moment of salvation. Spiritual gifts are not rewards, are not natural talents, are not a place of service, are not an age-group ministry, and are not a specialty ministry. They express themselves through various ministries which, in turn, accomplish a variety of results. A spiritual gift is the primary channel by which the Holy Spirit ministers through the believer. It is a supernatural capacity for service to God — and He gives you a supernatural desire to perform the duties of that gift. Spiritual gifts are tools for building the church. They are a source of joy in your Christian life and influence your motives. A spiritual gift is a divine calling with a divine responsibility, because what God has gifted you to do, He has called you to do, and what He has called you to do, He has gifted you to do.

Three categories of spiritual gifts exist. CATEGORY ONE: The Miraculous Gifts, generally known today as Charismatic Gifts (apostles, tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing, and miracles). CATEGORY TWO: The Enabling Gifts, which all Christians have the ability to develop (faith, discernment, wisdom, and knowledge — qualities possessed rather than activities performed). Many scholars combine these gifts with others, based on the similarity of these gift characteristics and the synonyms used by Paul to describe them in Scripture. For example, some scholars combine Discernment with Prophecy, Knowledge with Teaching, Wisdom with Exhortation, and Hospitality with Serving. CATEGORY THREE: the Team Gifts, which are service-, ministry-, task-oriented or are activities performed such as teaching. The Team Gifts are functional and involve speaking or ministering. Chances are, you have several of these gifts that vary in degrees and intensity. In many cases, spiritual gifts may complement your secular employment. The Spiritual Gifts Analysis you took identified your dominant TEAM GIFTS, which will help find your place on God’s team in your church. Prayer and serving God will also help you see where God wants you to serve in ministry in your church and daily life. This profile gives you a simple bar graph showing your strengths (higher scores, longer bars) and weaknesses (lower scores, shorter bars) as related to spiritual gifts, and analyzes in-depth your dominant and secondary team gifts which are the ones that will have greater influence in your life. These are the areas where you are gifted to be most effective and efficient and in which you will find it easiest to excel.

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Your dominant gifts are Evangelism, Shepherding, Prophecy

Evangelism

That does not necessarily mean you are supposed to travel the world, preaching the Gospel. The Greek word “Euangelistes” means to proclaim glad tidings, a messenger of good. It denotes a proclaimer of the Gospel. The evangelist can either be a preacher who stands before a crowd, imploring them to be saved, or perhaps an individual sitting in a living room or on a plane, trying to persuade someone to accept Christ. As an evangelist you have the Spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by leading people who are beyond your natural sphere of influence to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. You are sometimes classified as the aggressive soulwinner who seeks the lost. As an evangelist you are likely very outgoing and personable. You compliment even strangers and are not afraid to ask them questions about their lifestyle – such as where they work, what hobbies they have, what’s their favorite sports team, where they were born, and do they attend church. This opens the door to talk about their relationship with Jesus Christ – something you’re just itching to do. Be careful not to be too overbearing or you may push some people farther away from Christ. You have great joy in seeing people come to Christ and are often consumed with the desire to confront sinners with the Gospel. You urge other Christians to do the same by directly telling them they must win souls or by encouraging them by telling about your most recent experience. However, you must be careful not to belittle them or make them feel unspiritual because they do not have the burden for lost souls like you do. You probably have memorized Scripture so you are not caught “empty-handed” while witnessing. Rather than waiting for opportunities to present the Gospel, the evangelist often makes opportunities. Since you will influence so many people, you must be careful to live in such a manner that you do not bring reproach upon your message. For instance, if you influence 30 people and only one of them accepts Christ immediately, the other 29 are left to be harvested later (by you or someone else). If you were to fall spiritually, your life\’s witness may negatively influence those 29 onlookers against Christianity. If you are a new Christian, you may want to begin using your gift by providing prospects to seasoned evangelists and giving testimonies to those you knew before you were saved. Perhaps you could pair up with an experienced evangelist to follow up on prospects and visit strangers for the purpose of reaching them for Christ. If you are a more mature Christian, with experience in evangelizing, take a new Christian “evangelist” under your wing. Share your experiences with him or her and provide encouragement. Continue to look for opportunities to share the Gospel and lead souls to Christ. Other people may tend to think you are pushy, that you are more interested in numbers than people, and that you judge their spirituality by the number of souls thay have won. Beware that Satan can attack your gift by causing pride in your number of converts, causing failure to grow and learn, causing you to see people as numbers rather than people with needs, causing discouragement when converts are few or infrequent, and causing a lack of concern for Bible passages that cannot be used as “soulwinning texts.” How can you use this gift? There are many avenues in which you can carry out the gift of evangelism. Visitation programs are the most obvious. You may enjoy visiting juvenile detention centers or jails, going door-to-door, going to orphanages and shelters for women or the homeless, and of course, following up on visitors in their homes. Your gift is a plus for leading people to Christ during an invitation or altar call. You could participate in special evangelistic efforts, such as fairs and other events. Your gift also fits well in church planting, on Gospel teams, immigrant ministry, men’s or women’s conferences, and many public speaking ministries.

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Shepherding

The Greek word “poimen” means pastor. In Paul’s spiritual gifts listing in Ephesians 4:11, this term is translated “pastor.” Although the word “poimen” is translated pastor only one time in Scripture it is used sixteen additional times. The remaining sixteen are all translated “shepherd.” Therefore, we are actually discussing the GIFT of shepherding, not the POSITION of pastor. Though a good pastor must have the gift of shepherding, everyone who has the gift of shepherding is not called to be pastor. The gift can be used in many positions in a church. As a gifted shepherd, you have the Spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by overseeing, training, and caring for the needs of a group of Christians. You are usually very patient, people-centered, and willing to spend time in prayer for others. You tend to be a “Jack of All and Master of ONE,” meaning you are usually dominant in one of the speaking gifts (evangelist, prophet, teacher, exhorter) as well. You are often authoritative, more a leader than a follower, and expressive, composed, and sensitive. Your pleasing personality draws people to you. You have a burden to see others learn and grow and are protective of those under your care. You want to present the whole Word of God and do not like to present the same materials more than once. You are willing to study what is necessary to feed your group and are more relationship oriented than task oriented. You are a peace-maker and diplomat – very tolerant of people\’s weaknesses. You tend to remember people\’s names and faces. You are more concerned with doing for others than others doing for you. You are faithful and devoted and may become a workaholic. You can become an all-purpose person in order to meet needs. People with the gift of shepherding make the best Sunday school teachers and group leaders because their desire is to go beyond just teaching or leading, to shepherd and minister to the daily needs of their students. The position of Sunday school teacher or group leader is an extension of the pastoral ministry in the church. These groups should be shepherded on a small scale the same as the pastor shepherds the whole congregation on a large scale. Be careful to involve other people; don’t try to do it all yourself. Work on making people accountable. Do not be overly protective of your “flock.” Because of these potentially weak areas, other people may think it is your job to do all the work; they rely too heavily on you. You may be expected to be available at all times, know all the answers, and be at every function. Learn when to say no. Beware of Satan’s attack on your gift. He will cause discouragement when the load gets heavy, and pride because your “sheep” look up to you. You may develop family problems because of too little time and attention. You may become selfish when “sheep” feed in other pastures. How can you use this gift? This gift is a great help in many areas. You may serve as a Sunday school teacher, small group leader, pastor or assistant pastor, bus captain, special ministry leader (such as youth, children, men, etc.), nursery worker or as a half-way house or other type shelter volunteer. You may consider serving as a dormitory leader in a college, orphanage, children’s home, etc. Scout troops would appreciate your assistance as a den leader.

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Prophecy

That does not mean you are supposed to have visions of the future. It means you are a “forthteller,” telling or “speaking forth” the mind of God: boldly preaching, speaking, and teaching God’s Word. You are very discerning; one who points out sin with the goal of making people aware of sin in their lives so they will repent. A prophet in full-time Christian service may be a preacher, often traveling to churches, evangelistic events, and on missions trips. You have the Spirit-given capacity and desire to serve God by proclaiming His truth. As a prophet you have an ability to see that which is wrong. In fact, you tend to easily spot what is wrong and have to look to find something right. You probably spend much time praying and even weeping over the sins of the church and for those who have yet to accept Christ. You have a great burden over the sinful condition of the world around you. Because of this, you take every opportunity to proclaim that everyone must repent or perish. You have a strong sense of duty and are very opinionated, impatient, and likely more depressed or serious than lighthearted about life. You enjoy being alone, but would rather be in a group than relate to people one-on-one. You desire to speak publicly. You are able to make quick decisions and want things done right. You do not like in-depth study. You are likely hard-working, devoted, able to discern people\’s motives and character, and willing to stand up for what is right. Other people may think you are demanding, that you enjoy hurting people\’s feelings, and that you have no understanding. One of your greatest challenges is to keep a spirit of love. Remember to “speak the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) and not to be judgmental. If you keep a tender, loving heart, you will be a blessing in your home, church, and to individuals. You can make a real impact on their spirituality. Be careful to let the Holy Spirit convict people, rather than trying to convict them yourself. Work on being positive, patient, and tactful. Beware of Satan’s attack on your gift. He may try to cause a lack of compassion and forgiveness, bring discouragement because of unrepentant attitudes by others, entice you to fall into the very sins you speak against or cause pride and self-righteousness over lack of certain sins. How can you use this gift? There are several avenues in which to carry out the gift of prophecy. Revival speaking is certainly a fitting ministry. You can pastor well IF you have a secondary gift of pastor/shepherd. You are a great help in problem-solving for a church with a sin problem. You could also serve in teaching on Gospel teams, in prison ministry, in migrant ministry, and in counseling to help bring awareness of sin in a person’s life. You could speak at conferences and retreats. You would serve well as one who promotes causes you believe in, stands up for those who have been wronged, teaches God’s Word, provides counsel to others. Depending on your secondary most dominant gift and your abilities, you may serve as one who initiates action, plans events, leads an evangelism or missions team, acts as a mediator to get to the points and come up with a plan of action, counsels those who have fallen away and need help getting on track, helps raise funds and speaks for humanitarian organizations, or works as an advocate for children or victims of crimes, as a committee member for ministry planning, as a prayer and accountability partner, or as a Bible teacher.

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Building an effective team in your church depends on putting the right people in the right places. The best way to determine what place each person belongs in is by determine everyone’s spiritual gifts. But, just discovering your spiritual gift is not enough.

Here’s the real challenge. Many Christians are asking the question, “What is my spiritual gift?” When in reality they need to be asking, “What is a spiritual gift?” They do not understand the relationships of spiritual gifts. That is, they don’t understand how a spiritual gift relates to their life, how it relates to the will of God for their life, how it relates to the lives of those around them, how it relates the local church, or how it relates to the body of Christ as a whole. To give John J. Christian an additional name and make him John J. Exhorter Christian is only doing him an injustice. Having a new name or title does not make you a more effective, more fulfilled, or a better Christian, nor does it give you any more understanding of yourself or those around you. Most contemporary material written on spiritual gifts does an adequate job in helping you recognize, discover, and define what your spiritual gifts are. Also, many do a fine job of teaching on the individual parts of the body, but few complete their teaching by assembling the body, thus showing how church members can work as complementing, effective, and efficient team. Thus, teaching a person only what their spiritual gift is without teaching them what a spiritual gift is, is like giving someone a new tool without giving them the operator’s manual. They will never understand it fully nor will they be able to use it to its maximum potential. The same is true with your spiritual gifts.

God bless, Dan Beliveau

Take the test: https://gifts.churchgrowth.org

Leadership and conviction:

Recovering the vision History reveals the role of leadership for great good, and for great evil, but there is no way to remove leaders from the center of the action.

BY R. ALBERT MOHLER JR.

The secular world thinks of leadership as a sociological necessity. Given human nature and the complexity of human society, we need leaders in order to organize human effort into productive channels. History reveals the role of leadership for great good, and for great evil, but there is no way to remove leaders from the center of the action.

In more recent years, leadership has become a secular preoccupation. An entire industry has grown up around leadership, with literally thousands of book titles, countless seminars and personal leadership coaches for hire. Colleges and universities offer leadership degrees and just about every major corporation offers leadership training.

As is often the case, the church has been deeply influenced by this secular conversation. Leadership has become a major focus of evangelical concern, even as it seems that many evangelicals are uncertain about how Christians should think about leadership 01 2 ESSENTIAL READING ON LEADERSHIP as a calling and as an art.

Throughout the last century and more, American Christianity has been deeply influenced by the business culture. Early in the 20th century, this was reflected in the emergence of a concern for “efficiency” in ministry, adopting the term that was then at the center of business concern. Later, churches adopted models of organization and management that seemed, oddly enough, to make many churches look like American corporations in terms of structure, culture and even vocabulary.

More recently, the concern about leadership has been linked to the large business culture, along with its pragmatism. In too many cases, Christians have just imported models and concepts of leadership from the secular world. Much of the supposedly “Christian” literature about leadership is just secular thought with a few Bible verses printed alongside.

This can lead to the importing of unbiblical models of leadership into the church, and it has produced an evangelical culture of pragmatism that is subversive of both the gospel and of the church itself. Thankfully, the coming generation of young pastors has generally rejected that model of ministry and leadership. They want nothing to do with the doctrinal minimalism and pragmatism of the secular models and their evangelical counterparts.

They have rejected the absence of theology and the marginalization of biblical ecclesiology that has marked so much of the mainstream church culture in the United States. And yet, as much as I am encouraged by this rising generation’s diagnosis of the problem they see, they still have to lead.

If the secular world knows that leadership is necessary because of sociological realities, the Christian knows that leadership is necessary because of biblical categories. We are taught in Scripture that God’s people require leadership — and urgently so. In the Old Testament, we read honest accounts of the patriarchs, judges, kings, and prophets who led Israel. In the New Testament, we find the church led by apostles and teachers, who both served and led as the church followed Christ.

The tasks of ministry today require leadership skills that would humble a Fortune 500 CEO. But, even as some of the skills and competencies of leadership are common to all contexts of leadership, the minister of the gospel is called to a very specific form of visible leadership — leadership by conviction. Conviction — the knowledge of truth that transforms — is the bedrock of Christian leadership.

The Christian leader is driven by gospel convictions and a passionate love for the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The art and science of biblical leadership flow out of the minister’s first and foremost arena of leading — and that is the role of teaching.

The minister leads, most importantly, by the faithful teaching and preaching of the Word of God. The New Testament reveals a model of ministerial leadership that is based on biblical convictions and driven by a passion to see Christ’s people follow in faithful obedience. Thus, authentic Christian leadership is deeply doctrinal, inescapably theological, unrelentingly biblical and, by virtue of the Bible’s authority, unavoidably practical.

The Christian pastor does not lead by title, or by his own inherent authority. He leads by the preaching and teaching of God’s Word. His leadership credibility is established by his exposition of the Bible and by his presentation of biblical truth. He is able to move believers to action, not because he holds an office, but because he fulfills that teaching office with both skill and deep conviction.

Authentic Christian leadership becomes evident when God’s people are led to know and to obey deep truths from God’s Word when their intuitions and patterns of thought are brought into conformity with the truth, and when believers then go out into the world in faithful obedience to Christ. And we must never forget that true Christian discipleship is always practical but never merely pragmatic.

Thus, the Christian pastor must learn the skills and competencies of effective leadership LEADERSHIP AND CONVICTION ESSENTIAL READING ON LEADERSHIP as an extension of his pulpit ministry, not as a substitute. The biblical formula is simple to understand and impossible to refute. We live and operate out of our genuine convictions. We do live as we believe. Christians are faithful only when our convictions lead to the right actions, and leadership that rises up from authentic biblical convictions will produce a church that will be taught to live out those convictions in every dimension of life.

In other words, if the church is under led, it is because the church is underfed. Leadership by conviction is the only model of leadership that is worthy of the Christian ministry, and what the church desperately needs in this age is a generation of preachers who are driven by the conviction to lead.

Is this the correct worship?

I have come across a few situations that make me wonder where some people get their biblical knowledge and or training.

A few years ago my wife and I were living in the country and I was looking for a Church to attend. Down the road was a sign from a community church that read “Everyone Welcome”

One Sunday I went to a service and from the beginning I felt uncomfortable. People wouldn’t really look at me and nobody welcomed me. I didn’t know it was their homecoming weekend. After the service I asked a lady where the restroom was. When I came out, the hall was lined up with people waiting to get into the fellowship hall. I had problems getting back into the Sanctuary because of all the people. I walked in to get my Bible and leave. When I got close to the Pastor he turned his back to me. I think it may be so he didn’t have to speak to me. I hadn’t planned on talking to him, but just leave.

I am seeing a lot of messages in many social sites. The post will be about someone who has problems of some kind [physical, financial]. Then they will say “type Amen and God will bless you”.

There are many more examples I could list, but these two are enough.

Please don’t call yourself a Christian if you aren’t willing to share His love with others. Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Jesus is the reason anyone is saved from judgment. His love will reside in us if we belong to Him. You can’t hide from others in a group or by yourself if you belong to Him. therefore go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matthew 28:19

Either saying something like type Amen for a blessing, means your not really studying your Bible. Neither does it come from pledging a large amount of money and thinking God owes you. Our blessings don’t come from our works. We receive them when we repent and are saved. Then also when we do things to honor God, not looking to be praised.

Matthew 6: “Take heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. ² Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. ³ But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.

God tells us to worship Him alone. To worship Him is to totally surrender your life to Him and love Him with all of your heart, soul and mind. Total surrender to God as a living sacrifice leaves no room for serving other gods or idols. We must eliminate idols from our lives through the Spirit’s power

PLANT A SEED OF HOPE!

God bless, Dan Beliveau