Momma called

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A Momma Called Preacher

1 Samuel 3:20

"And all Israel from Dan even to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD."

One of the greatest crisis' that is coming to America is a lack of preachers. This may sound strange, but the fact is fewer young people are going into full-time service than what we have ever had. This crisis is due to the parents, pastors, and Christian schools not having the proper vision for our youth. God always uses men of God to help save a nation. With fewer young people going into full-time service, there will come a day when there won't be enough men of God to fill the pulpits of our churches. Don't get me wrong, I believe there will always be a remnant of preachers to proclaim truth, but there will not be enough preachers to reach every city for Christ.

The life story of Samuel is a great example of what to do to produce men of God. It says in the verse above, that all Israel "...knew that Samuel was established to be a prophet of the LORD." It was obvious to everyone that this young man would one day be a prophet. However, what brought Samuel to the point that everyone knew he would be a prophet is the same thing we must do today if we are going to produce preachers for our nation. Let me show you several things that made Samuel a prophet of God.

First, it took parents who wanted him to become a preacher. Before Samuel was even born, his parents had given him to God to become a preacher. Yes, he was momma called! I am weary of this mentality we have in Christianity that parents shouldn't tell their children that they want them to go into full-time service. It is amazing that we think it is fine for Christian parents to tell their children that they want them to take over the family business, or to make a career in sports or the business world, but we don't think it is right for parents to rear their children to be preachers. THIS IS ABSURD, SELFISH AND IRRESPONSIBLE! If it is perfectly fine for parents to tell their children to follow a certain career, then it is perfectly fine for you to rear your child to be a preacher.

Second, it took parents who were willing to give their child to God. Samuel was barely weaned from his mother when his parents completely gave him to God. Parents, there needs to be a time when you give your child completely to God for His use. I don't know what God wants for your child, but I do know that you should give them to God at an early age. Your children are not really yours, they are simply on loan to you from God. Therefore, giving your child back to God should not difficult.

Third, it took parents who involved their child in God's service at a young age. If you want your children to have a heart for God and His work, then you need to get them involved in serving God at a young age. Don't wait until they are teenagers to start serving God, but start bringing them with you at a young age as you serve Him. This will help create a heart in them to want to serve the LORD.

Finally, it took a preacher who had the same vision that the parents had for the child. One of the mistakes I see in our churches today are preachers who really don't want their young people to leave the church to become preachers because they are more interested in building their own kingdom. If our young people are going to go into full-time service, then the church leaders are also going to have to point the young people towards full-time service. When both the parents and the church leaders are going the same direction, then you will have a better chance of your children serving God full-time.

Parents, don't be selfish with your children. The greatest thing that your child could do with their life is to serve God full-time. Make it your desire for your children to be full-time servants of God, and then make that desire known to your children.

Model

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You Are a Model

Leviticus 21:21

"No man that hath a blemish of the seed of Aaron the priest shall come nigh to offer the offerings of the LORD made by fire: he hath a blemish; he shall not come nigh to offer the bread of his God."

The position of priest was a very sacred position. This position was sacred because those who filled that position were a picture of Jesus Christ. That is why God gave such stringent requirements for the priest. The verse above says that the priest was to have no blemish. The reason is because Jesus was the sinless Son of God, and the priest needed to live his life in such a way that it would mirror the life of Christ. The priest was a picture of Jesus Christ to Israel.

Likewise, if you are saved you are a model of Jesus Christ to the world. 1 Peter 2:5 says, "Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ." Notice that when you got saved you entered the priesthood of the believer. In other words, you are now to live your life as a picture of Jesus Christ to the world.

Because you are a picture of Jesus Christ to the world, that means that the world is closely watching how you live. Hebrew 10:33 says, "Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used." The word "gazingstock" means, "an object of curiosity." In other words, the world watches your life with curiosity wondering why you would live your lives in the manner in which you live.

I ask you, as the world looks at the picture of your life, does your life show blemishes of Christ to the world? No, Christ has no blemish, but the world looks at how we live and perceives Christ to be the same. You are the picture of Christ to the world, and everything you do will either place a blemish on that picture, or it will reenforce what the Scriptures say about Him.

Because you are a picture of Jesus Christ to the world, you need to be careful that you don't place any blemish on Christ in the minds of those who watch you live. When you go to the restaurant, you are a picture of Jesus Christ. When you drive down the road, you are a picture of Jesus Christ. When you go to work, you should work hard so that you don't put a blemish on the picture of Jesus Christ. When you go to school, you are a picture of Jesus Christ. You are a picture of Jesus Christ in the neighborhood in which you live. Everywhere you go you are a picture of Jesus Christ. Be very careful with what you do and where you go so that the world will get the right picture of Jesus Christ from your life.

I ask you, have you placed any blemishes on your picture of Christ to the world? If you have, now is the time to change that picture and make sure there are no blemishes on it. No, you cannot change your past, but from this day forward you can live your life in such a way that people will get the right picture of Christ from your life.

Before

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Before You Can Help Others

Leviticus 16:6

"And Aaron shall offer his bullock of the sin offering, which is for himself, and make an atonement for himself, and for his house."

The key to being happy in the Christian life is keeping God first, others second and yourself last. When you realize that helping others is where fulfillment comes from, then you will find the true joy and happiness that you desire. However, you cannot help others without helping yourself first. Let me explain.

When God told Aaron to offer a sin offering, He told him to "...make an atonement for himself, and for his house." Notice that before Aaron was to atone for his house he had to atone for himself. Again, when God told Aaron to offer a sin offering for the people, He said in verse 24 to "...make an atonement for himself, and for the people." In both instances Aaron had to take care of himself before he could help others. Yes, the goal was to help others, but until he got himself right he could not help others with their sins.

Likewise, you will never accomplish helping others without getting yourself right. No, you will never be sinless, but you must work on yourself before you have the authority to help others. For instance, it would be hard for me to tell someone how to lose weight if I was overweight. The greatest way I can help others lose weight is to make sure that my weight is healthy. Your ability to help others comes when you get right first.

Before you can help your family, you must get yourself right. Too many family members try to correct the problems in their family when they have their own issues that they need to correct. Parents, yes you are to correct your children and lead them in the right paths of life, but you will have a hard time helping them put their life together if yours is falling apart. When your marriage is on the brink of disaster, you will have a hard time helping your children do right. This is why you must keep your marriage strong and be sure to get help when your marriage is struggling. If the husband wants to lead the home, then he needs to lead himself to do right. If the wife wants to have a positive influence on her husband and children, then she needs to be sure that she works on correcting her problems first. If a youth wants to have a positive influence on their family, then they need to be sure they do right before they start preaching to the whole family.

Furthermore, before you can help others, you must be sure you are right. Many churches are filled with people trying to help others get out of sin, when those who are helping are still living in sin. I'm all for you trying to help others get their lives together, but you need to be sure you have everything right. You will never be the Sunday school teacher, bus worker, youth worker or pastor that others need you to be without focusing on getting yourself right.

Before you can help others, you must work on getting yourself right. I am not saying that you should never go soul winning or try to help others because you aren't perfect, but I am saying the greatest way to help others is to be sure you work on yourself first. When you work on yourself, then others will see the improvements in your life, and that will give you the credibility to help others.

Let Me Alone

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Let Me Alone

Exodus 32:10

"Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation."

What an interesting statement we find in this verse when God tells Moses to "...let me alone,..." This is the all-powerful God telling a weak human to leave Him alone. This is the Creator of the Universe saying to the created to leave Him alone. This is Jehovah God telling mankind to leave Him alone. God was saying that He wanted to destroy Israel for their sins, but Moses was hindering Him from doing so. In other words, it was finite man who was keeping an infinite and all-powerful God from destroying a nation. What power man must have over God! Yes, God is more powerful than any person, but God is teaching us that we have the power to stop Him from exercising His judgment upon a nation or person if we will intercede for them.

God said in Ezekiel 22:30, "And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none." Israel can thank God that Moses was the one who stood in the gap on their behalf to keep God from destroying them in the wilderness. If it were not for Moses who stood in the gap, then Israel would have been destroyed.

You will notice that it was not Moses' preaching that kept God from destroying Israel, but it was his prayer life that kept God from destroying Israel. It was not his status in society that kept God from destroying Israel, but it was the fact that in his prayer life he stood in the gap to keep God's judgment from falling upon his nation. It was not the buildings that Moses built that kept God from destroying Israel, but it was his interceding prayer to God that kept God's judgment from falling. Moses decided that he would bother God until he could stay God's judgment from falling.

Every nation needs a Moses to stand in the gap and hinder God from judging it. I ask you, is God asking you to leave Him alone from judging your nation? Are you that person who is standing in the gap with prayer asking God not to destroy your nation? If God decided to send His judgment upon your nation, are you standing in the gap and keeping Him from exercising His judgment? Christian, your nation needs you to get serious about hindering God and asking Him to stay His judgment. It would be sad if you were too busy with worldly affairs to hinder God from destroying your nation.

Furthermore, there are people who are about to face God's judgment that need you to hinder God from doing so. Are you like Abraham who hindered God for a short time to keep Him from destroying Lot and his family? Griping and complaining about how your spouse is living is not the answer. The answer is for you to stay at God's throne asking God to speak to their heart and change them. The answer is not for you to constantly preach to your backslidden child every time you see them. The answer is for you to hinder God by begging Him to change their heart. The answer is not for you to gossip about what is happening in your church. The answer is for you to hinder God to change the hearts of those who have the power to make the changes.

How we need people to hinder God for their nation, church and family. It would be sad that God judged your nation, church or family because there was no one who would stand in the gap to hinder Him. Would you be that one like Moses to hinder God for your nation, church or family so that He would have to ask your permission to get out of the way so He could judge them? Become that one today that intercedes to God on behalf of your nation, church and family.

A Time Away

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A Time Away

Exodus 24:14

"And he said unto the elders, Tarry ye here for us, until we come again unto you: and, behold, Aaron and Hur are with you: if any man have any matters to do, let him come unto them."

One of the missed principles in the Scriptures is the principle of getting away. With the hectic schedules that life brings, God knew it was important for people to get away. The time away from something always helps to keep your mind and body fresh so that you can do a better work. As busy as Moses was with his schedule, he found time to get away. If he wouldn't have found time to get away he would not have lasted for forty years. The pressure of leading millions of people through the wilderness would have eventually broke him down mentally and physically. I find in the Scriptures there are three reasons to take time away.

First, take time away to rest. Mark 6:31 teaches that Jesus commanded His disciples to take time away to rest. Jesus said, "...Come ye yourselves apart into a desert place, and rest a while:..." Jesus understood that the pressure of the crowds following them would eventually destroy the disciples. You will notice that right after they had time to rest that Jesus had a great revival meeting at the feeding of the five thousand. This may have never happened if they didn't take time to rest.

Every week you need to take time to rest. In other words, take a day off every week. God Himself showed us this example when He created the world. Six days He worked in creating the world, but on the seventh day He rested. You will notice that one-seventh of His time was used to rest. I believe that God was showing that you will physically perform at your peak by taking one day off a week to rest.

Furthermore, I also believe you need to take a little time off every year to have a vacation. Though it may sound spiritual to never take time off, the fact is that it is unspiritual. You are setting yourself up for physical stress that will eventually destroy your health. You need to have a vacation every year so that you can physically recover from work, and so that your family can have some personal time with you away from the daily grind.

Second, you need to take time away to pray. In our text verse above, God told Moses to get away from the crowd to spend time with Him on Mount Sinai. It is vitally important for your Christian life that you have time every day to get away and pray. You will accomplish more by taking time to pray than you will by trying to do everything in your own strength. Your Christian life will never survive if you don't take time away to pray.

Third, take time away to think. Genesis 24:63 says, "And Isaac went out to meditate in the field at the eventide:..." Meditating is thinking. In 1 Timothy 4:15 God commands us to meditate. In other words, God wants you to get away and take time to think. This is where you will get your ideas. Every day you need to take a little amount of time where you get away from people and phones just to think. This will keep your work fresh with ideas.

Finally, let me remind you that you will have to purposely take time away in each of these areas. If you don't put it in your schedule to take time away, then you will find that you will never have time to do these things. When it is time to get away to do these things, don't let anything stop you from doing it. These things are important for the health of your body, mind, spirit and life's endeavors.

Alone?

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You Can't Do It Alone

Exodus 17:12

"But Moses' hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun."

The battle with Amalek revealed to Moses something that every leader must learn at some time. It revealed that he could not do everything by himself. While the men were fighting, Moses lifted his hands to encourage the troops that they were winning. However, his arms got tired and he lowered them until they were rested. The problem with this was when he lowered his arms the troops thought they were losing the battle. Aaron and Hur came and lifted his arms until the battle was over.

As a leader you must realize that when you try to do everything by yourself you are hurting the very organization that you want to help. There is no way that you can do everything by yourself. You are human! Too many leaders try to do everything by themselves only to burn themselves out in the long run.

Learning to delegate duties to others does not make you a weak leader, rather it actually makes you stronger. When a leader tries to do every duty themselves they frustrate those who want to help. If Moses would have told Aaron and Hur to leave him alone and let him keep his arms up by himself, then he could have caused men to die in the battle. Likewise, a leader who will not delegate is hurting the lives of people. God gave people to you so you can accomplish more. You become a stronger leader by learning to delegate.

However, when you delegate, be sure to let those to whom you give responsibility the freedom to do their tasks. Often a leader will think they have delegated, but because they won't keep their fingers out of the tasks, they frustrate and limit the ability of the one to whom they gave the task. Micromanaging hurts morale and limits the growth of followers. Yes, you must oversee what they are doing, but you must give them the freedom to do the task themselves. If you have to tell and show someone how to do something all the time, then you don't need them. Though they may not do it to the level of your ability, they will grow into the task.

Every leader must learn that they cannot carry everything by themselves. I know it may be hard to give something up, but for your sake and the sake of the growth of your followers you need to give up some tasks for the furtherance of the work. The potential of a leader, follower and the work will be determined by how much the leader allows the followers to help. If they do everything by themselves, then the potential of the work will be limited and the followers will become frustrated. However, if the leader delegates and allows the followers to grow into these tasks delegated to them, then the potential of a work is great.

If you lead in some area, get others involved in helping you do your tasks. You cannot do it alone, so use your leadership skills to challenge others to grow with you by helping you do the work God has given you to do. If you are not leading in some area, then ask your leader how you can help. Your help will both grow you and your leader. Don't sit and watch your leader's hands get heavy with the tasks because nobody will help, instead get involved so the potential of the work will increase.

Prepared?

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Are You Prepared?

Exodus 12:29

"And it came to pass, that at midnight the LORD smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle."

The first Passover was certainly a night that every Israelite would never forget. This night was the beginning of their freedom from Egypt. For four hundred years they had been captive to the Egyptians, and now God provided a way for them to be free. What was this way? This way was through the blood of a lamb or goat being applied to the doorpost of their house. If the blood was applied, then the Death Angel would pass over their house and the firstborn would not be killed. This night would never leave the memory of every Israelite who was alive at that time.

Likewise, every person who is saved will not forget the time when the blood was applied to their account. This happens when a person accepts Christ as their Saviour. At the writing of this devotional, I have been saved for over thirty-eight years, and I still remember the night that I got saved. What a night it was for me, and I'm sure it was a great night for you as well. In the story of the Passover, we learn several things about salvation.

First, it takes the sinless life of Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of mankind. Exodus 12:5 shows us that the penalty of sin required a lamb "without blemish" to shed its blood for their sins. Jesus Christ is our Lamb. He lived a sinless life and died for you and me so that we could go to Heaven. If Jesus would have sinned one time, then everyone would be on their way to Hell. Salvation's price was paid by our spotless Lamb, Jesus Christ.

Second, a person must apply this sacrifice to their account to be saved. Exodus 12:7 shows that the people had to take the shed blood and apply it to the doorposts of their house. It was not enough just to shed the blood of a lamb, but that blood had to be applied. Likewise, Jesus dying on the cross for your sins is not enough. You must accept His sacrifice as the payment for your sins. Knowing that He died for your sins won't save you. You must personally accept His payment for your sins to be saved.

Third, the blood only has to be applied one time to your account. Exodus 12:10 says, "And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning;..."This is showing that once the blood is applied to your account it will never again have to be applied. Christian, that means that once you get saved, you will never lose your salvation, for the penalty of your sins was paid forever on the cross of Calvary. Once you get saved, you are saved forever.

Fourth, Jesus is coming to rapture those who have the blood applied to their account. Exodus 12:12 says, "For I will pass..." Yes, Jesus is coming again! He is coming for those who have accepted Christ as their Saviour.

Last, you are to tell others how to get ready. Exodus 12:26 shows us that those delivered from Egypt had a responsibility to tell everyone else how to get the blood applied to their account. If you are saved, then you are commanded by God to tell others how to be saved.

Let me ask you, are you saved? Have you accepted Jesus' payment on the cross to be the payment for your sins. If not, email me so that I can tell you how to do this. However, if you are saved, have you witnessed to someone this week? You are obligated to tell others how to be saved. Don't let any week go by without telling someone how to be saved.