POWER

POWER     “WORTH CONSIDERING”    4/26/19    (Across my desk this morning from Joel.)

Today’s Scripture
“He gives power to the faint and weary, and to him who has no might He increases strength [causing it to multiply and making it to abound].”  (Isaiah 40:29, AMPC)

He Increases Strength
Whatever you need today, know that God is your source and supply. You may feel tired and weary from a long spiritual or emotional battle. God promises that He increases our strength and causes it to multiply. One of the ways God fills us with His strength is by giving us His joy. When we have joy, we have strength to overcome. Joy is a supernatural empowerment that is deposited on the inside of you. As you meditate on the goodness and faithfulness of our God, you won’t be able to help but feel His joy. Like rivers of living water, joy will flow forth from you, refreshing and strengthening you so that you have the power to overcome every obstacle you may be facing. If you feel faint or weary, remember, there’s a harvest of blessing in store for you. Let faith rise in your heart as you meditate on His promises. Let Him fill you with His peace and joy so that you will have an abundance of strength. As you do, you will be empowered to live the life of victory the Lord has in store for you!

A Prayer for Today
“Heavenly Father, today I come to You and ask that You fill me with Your peace and joy. Let Your strength rise up on the inside of me so that I can embrace the victorious life You have planned for me. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.”

My Thoughts:
In the great commission, Matt.28:19 we are commanded by our LORD,  Christ Jesus to go teach all nations to observe all things that HE commanded of us and that HE would be with us in the effort.  So really the quest for power should be focused in fulfilling HIS Great Commission.   God’s Power is not grated to us for the building of a personal kingdom.  It was granted to bring us into having loving Unity, John 17:21, so that the world would fall in love with Jesus,  Eph.4:11-16.  Basically the church at large has forgotten this commandment and has been busy building divisions and denominations of God’s Chosen Frozen dedicated to the preservation of the stuff.  I found the following article most interesting.  So it would seem that only 3% who are called Christian are in obedience to our LORD in  Great Commission?

If in Kona,  hope to fellowship with you tonight (4/16/19) our our little house church at my home.
85-4554 Mamalahoa Hwy.   (look for the Costco Tents)   So. Capt. Cook,  HI 96704   (808-896-8937)
Yours,  in HIS great love and wonderful grace and mercy,   Ken<><   www.Trinity-Aloha.org
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CHRISTIAN EVANGELISM:
More than fifty percent of Protestant church attendees have admitted to not engaging in evangelism in the past half a year, according to a recently released report by Life Way Research.  When asked how many times they shared with somehow “how to become a Christian,” 55 percent of respondents answered zero.  24 percent of respondents said that they had shared how to become a Christian to someone 1-2 times, 12 percent responded 3-5 times, 5 percent said 6-10 times, 1 percent said 11-15 times, and 3 percent reported 16 times or more.  Scott McConnell, executive director of LifeWay Research, said in comments released Tuesday that evangelism “does not appear to be the priority of churchgoers.”  “The task of making disciples of all nations has not been fully embraced in the American church — especially by the majority culture,” stated McConnell.  “This is in spite of the convenience of having other ethnicities and immigrants from other countries often living in the same neighborhood.”  Data for the LifeWay report came from an online survey of 2,500 Protestant churchgoers performed Jan. 14-29 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.  Although the report found less than half had engaged in evangelism in the past six months, it also found that most respondents had invited an unchurched person to worship in the past six months.  Among ethnic groups surveyed for the report, Hispanic respondents were the most likely to have talked to someone about how to become a Christian within the past six months, with only 32 percent reporting that they had not done so.   
Hispanic churchgoers were also the ethnic group most likely to have invited someone to church, with 71 percent of Hispanic respondents saying they had done so.   Life Way also found that respondents aged 65 and over were the least likely to have had no evangelistic conversations within the last half year.  “Recently, there has been much discussion about young adults participating less in evangelism. That’s not the case, however,” noted McConnell.  “In fact, young adult and middle-aged churchgoers are more likely to have shared with someone how to become a Christian in the past six months than older churchgoing adults.”  In February, the Barna Group released a report commissioned by Alpha USA indicating that nearly half of Mllennial-aged Christians believed evangelizing was wrong.  “Almost half of Millennials (47%) agree at least somewhat that it is wrong to share one’s personal beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will one day share the same faith. This is compared to a little over one-quarter of Gen X (27%), and one in five Boomers (19%) and Elders (20%),” read the Barna report.  “Younger Christians tend to be more personally aware of the cultural temperature around spiritual conversations. Among practicing Christians, Millennials report an average (median) of four close friends or family members who practice a faith other than Christianity; most of their Boomer parents and grandparents, by comparison, have just one.”