Monday, April 11, 2011

The Power of Boldness

Have you ever heard a message in church that just speaks to you?


Well yesterday I did. Our church is amazing. Pastor Van preaches straight out of the bible after lots of prayer and consideration. We truly get messages that God has planned out for our church. It is real and raw, powerful stuff. Last week he talked about heaven.

He told us that a majority of people polled believe in heaven, and that they are going there. However, the Bible said the path to destruction is wide and many are on it, but the path to heaven is narrow and hard to find.

Yesterday we covered hell. It's a topic that 2/3s of the population doesn't even believe it exists. How do they believe in a heaven, but no hell? In fact Pastor V had copies of message board comments where people call discussing hell "UnChristian like". That if our God is the God of love, why is there a hell. They don't buy into it. People don't like to talk about it. Why? Because we are for the most part selfish people, and we don't want to believe that living an I did it for myself life doesn't result in heaven.

However, it's in the Bible over and over. It's a real place. It exists. It's filled with eternal anguish, gnashing teeth, worms that won't die...we are talking eternity here. Can you even imagine eternity? The Devil wants us JUST as much as Jesus wants to know us.

And the only want to God is through Him. Does Jesus know you?
So after the sermon, Pastor Van brought up boldness. I knew I was supossed to blog about this. I thought maybe it was just in my mind, but after going to a night sermon on Evolution vs. Creation (awesome by the way check out creation.com) I came home. I was telling Jade all about it and trying to find a verse for him in the Bible. When not once, but twice...I ran into the word boldness. I'm learning that God speaks to me, and I just never realized it before.

You see God wants us to be bold in his name. He wants us to win people into his kingdom. He wants their names in the Book of Life. He doesn't want us to be cowards when it comes to our faith. It says to pray in the bible for courage to be bold.

I've never been bold for God before. In fact if you knew me, you'd know I've been a believer, but not a practicer. I hadn't truly given my life to the lord as I believed that I had. So this is me being bold. Easter is approaching. I urge you if Jesus doesn't know you personally, find out about him. Read your Bible - it's the way to the truth. Be bold for the Lord, & win souls for his team. It is what he calls us to do.

8 comments:

  1. For those interested in listening to said service, here is a link to our church home page http://www.newhopeineffingham.com/ the mp3 version of the sermon covering hell is there in the left lower hand corner where it says Listen to Message

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  2. you make me proud..it is all I ever wanted for you girls ... to know Jesus and walk with HIm.... everything else comes through that.

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  3. Love this post! Sounds like the book Crazy Love by Francis Chan that I'm reading. He talks about all this in the book. Sounds like an awesome sermon!

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  4. God IS love! But the Bible tells us there is a real punishment for our actions also. Give your life to Jesus! You will still have trials, but He will see you through them!

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  5. Way to go Annie!!!! I think that all of us believers are on a journey to become more that just believers. I am so excited for you!! You have a friend here so if you ever feel you need someone to pray with you or encourage you, just send me a message.

    I love that your first step of boldness encourages in such a gentle way. But can I just tell you that you have shown yourself faithful and a child of God through your blog.

    Much love

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  6. Preach it sister! So proud of you and your family and your newfound boldness!! LOVE LOVE LOVE It! Its a challenge for us all to be more bold and vocal about the awesome God we believe in. Thanks for the reminder

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  7. I think this "bold" message must be one God is trying to get to His Church! I just heard it somewhere else in the last day or so. Oh, Annie. Keep it up! Live for Jesus. That's all that matters.

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Thank you so much for your kind words & support! I love hearing from you & read each and every comment you leave for me! ~Annie

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