Baptist City Blog

 

What's Warming You?

John 18:25

"And Simon Peter stood and warmed himself. They said therefore unto him, Art not thou also one of his disciples? He denied it, and said, I am not."

 

When God created us, He created us with the emotion of excitement.  This excitement that God gave us can be stirred or warmed by different things or people.  Though God gives us a choice as to what we allow to stir or warm us, He wanted us to let Him be the One Who warms our hearts.  God would like to be the One about Whom we get excited. 

In the verse above, we have the story of the Apostle Peter standing at a distance as Jesus was being tried before Caiaphas, the high priest.  Apparently, it was a cool night and the people started a fire to keep warm.  Peter, seeing the fire, went over and warmed himself at the same fire as those who were trying to have Jesus killed.  Even though Peter needed to keep himself warm, he had no business trying to stay warm with people who were against Jesus. 

In our lives, it is either a who or a what that will warm our hearts.  For some people, it is a thing that stirs their heart.  For other people it is a person who warms their heart.  What I mean by this statement is there is a hot button that gets people excited.  That is that thing or person that when you begin to talk about it or them, this person lights up and gets passionate in the conversation.  Normally it won't take you real long to find out what that hot button is with most people. 

I ask you, what is it that you get passionate about?  Who is it that when you talk about them you become passionate because the thought of being around them excites you?  In other words, who or what warms your heart?  Though there is nothing wrong with being passionate about things you have in life or people you enjoy being around, nothing should warm your heart more than Jesus Christ. 

When you start talking about Jesus and the truths of the Scriptures, is your heart warmed and your feelings excited?  I watch Christians get bored when you preach the Word of God, but when you talk about their hobby or some money making project, they light up and will talk with you for hours. 

There is only one thing that will cause something other than Christ to warm your heart; it is the crowd with whom you run.  Peter warmed himself with the wrong crowd, and it is the crowd with whom you run who will determine what warms your heart.  Be careful whom you choose to be around.  Purposely get around those who are on fire for God, and you will find that your heart will start warming towards the things of Christ.  Your goal should be that nothing warms your heart more than the things and name of Jesus Christ.

Allen Domelle Ministries | PO Box 19 | Inwood | WV | 25428

Division

1 Chronicles 26:1
“Concerning the divisions of the porters: Of the Korhites was Meshelemiah the son of Kore, of the sons of Asaph.”

One principle that must be followed in order for growth to occur is the principle of division.  If a person doesn’t learn how to divide, they will never experience growth in their Christian life.  Without a church learning to divide, it will never experience numerical growth or spiritual growth in its members.  

It is interesting in the verse above that God shows us how much He believed in this principle by leading David to divide the duties in Israel.  When you read through this whole chapter, you will see there were many people involved in the LORD's work because David divided the duties.  This division of duties involved participation of more people, which resulted in the spiritual growth of more people.  

Division is an important part of growth.  Without a church or people learning to divide, growth will never occur.  Yes, you may see a little growth, but the potential of growth will never be realized without a person or church practicing the principle of division.  

Division will multiply the attendance of a church.  This is why an aggressive Sunday school is important in every church.  If a church will regularly practice dividing its Sunday school classes, then a church will continue to see numerical growth.  Every time a class is divided, and a new class is started out of the division, you will see the attendance pick up because we multiply by dividing.  

Furthermore, division will multiply your strength.  I am talking about a person learning to delegate their duties to others.  There comes a point in everyone's life when they can't handle every duty.  The best way to increase your capability to accomplish things is to learn to divide your duties by delegating them to others.  This allows for more things to be accomplished.  

Division is important for the growth of people.  The more people you involve in the LORD's work, the more people will grow.  If only a few perform duties and teach in the church, only a few will grow spiritually.  But the more a church divides, and the more a person delegates their duties, the more people you involve, which will cause more people to grow spiritually.  

I say all this because, in order to divide, you must step up your willingness to grow.  It takes people who have stepped up their personal standards and involvement in order to have the capability to grow.  Your willingness to step up so that your church can divide will cause others to grow.  If you are one who has a class or responsibilities in your church, be willing to divide so that others can grow spiritually.  If you are one who is being taught and have no responsibilities in your church, step up your personal standards and involvement in your church so that when the division happens, you are one whom the pastor can use.

The potential of growth in your church and personal life will be determined by how much each is willing to divide.  The more that each of these divide the greater the potential that each has.  Be sure you are a part of being actively involved in helping your church divide.  Don’t become selfish and want to keep everything, division will grow people and the church, and this is what our ultimate desire should be.  

To contact Evangelist Allen Domelle, send an email to contact@oldpathsjournal.com.