“Stay alert, stand firm in the faith, show courage, be strong. Everything you do should be done in love…. Greet one another with a holy kiss….The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.” (1 Corinthians 16: 13,20,23)
This morning we read the last chapter of Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth and his closing words of encouragement to the church. I read his words this morning and I apply them to The Church today. As I read them I wonder how much “staying Alert” is part of the daily life of the average church goer today as they walk out their door to begin another week. To walk out your door “staying alert” you first have to know, understand, recognize, and watchful of the spiritual warfare and battle you are walking out into. You have to care enough to “be alert” that you have prepared yourself by intentionally spending time reading Scriptures, in discerning prayer, claiming the presence of the Holy Spirit in you, and time spent in gatherings with other Christians equipping, strengthening, and encouraging yourself and others so you will be prepared and willing to enter into and embrace the darkness, (which is a metaphor for pain) you are alert to see and encounter.
It is only in such preparations that you can have any chance to “stand firm in the faith.” It is only in such preparations that you will have the and “show courage” to stand up against any evil, oppression, injustice, hate and have the courage to step out and be the extraordinary love and grace that is required. It is only in such preparations before you step out your door, (like the required time spent in a gym to become physically strong) that you can “be strong” spiritually and in in your faith. It is only with such preparation that you can do everything, not some things, not occasionally, but everything you do “be done in love.”
Paul encourages us today in the church with these same words, “Stay alert, stand firm in the faith, show courage, be strong. Everything you do should be done in love.” Because the situations we see and will encounter in the world if we are “alert” to what is going on around us desperately needs a church that not only sees what’s going on and comments on it in social media posts and in pews, but is prepared and willing to enter into these situations and stand firm in the faith, show courage, be strong, and be the presence of the sacrificial love, hope, and grace of their Lord Jesus Christ whom they claim to follow.
My family, I pray you will meditate on and take to heart Paul’s words of encouragement before you walk out your door and begin a new week, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections or experiences in “saying Alert” in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community
Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.Become our partner and support us in our ministries by becoming supporting us monthly or with a one-time gift. Thank you!
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Good morning, Lord Jesus. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit -- help me sense Your presence, hear Your voice, and follow Your leading, as I begin my day seeking You. ...
"For this perishable body must put on imperishability, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When this perishable body puts on imperishability, and this mortal body puts on immortality, then the saying that is written will be fulfilled: 'Death has been swallowed up in victory.' 'Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?' This sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).
In the past years I have lost family members and dear friends of mine: my mother, my father, my brother-in- law, and some close friends. All were unexpected a few years ago. They passed on from this side of eternity to the next. And in their last breath of their last battle here on this earth, death had no victory and death had no sting. They were delivered through death into eternal life in You, the One who is "the Resurrection and the Life" (John 11:25). Truly they have "fought the good fight" and received his eternal reward in the fullness of Your presence (1 Timothy 4:7; 2 Corinthians 5:8).
So I join with my friend’s families, and families who have lost someone and all who love them dearly to both celebrate their victory and their life in the Spirit with Christ in heaven, even as we also mourn and grieve our loss of their lives here in the flesh with us on earth. Thank You that in You, we do not have to "grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have died" (1 Thessalonians 4:13-14).
Through Your victory of the resurrection, we will all rejoice with You and with one another again. In that way, even through hard times like this when our hearts are both full of hope and sorrow at the same time, we hold fast to the promise of Your Word, "Weeping may linger for the night, but joy comes with the morning" (Psalm 30:5). My dear family members and friends are experiencing the healing of the resurrection; and at the same time, we need the comfort of Your resurrection love here in our hearts as we celebrate their victory in You.
Holy Spirit of God, comfort us and strengthen us through the night times and hard times we endure through the battles of this world, as we look forward to that glorious morning to come. "Thank be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!" In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you are strengthened and comforted through every battle you'll face through the night time, knowing joy comes with the morning in the resurrection love of God in Jesus Christ, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I shared my insights and prayers from todays passage with you. Please share your insights and prayers with me and others in the comments box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
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I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
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Good morning, Lord Jesus. In worship and prayer, I wait you're your leading as I seek Your face and listen for Your voice -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. ...
"For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known" (1 Corinthians 13:12).
I look forward to the day when I will see You "face to face." Not just a fleeting glimpse, not just a reflection in the corner of my eye, not just an indirect glance as though looking through a dark mirror dimly, but "face to face." My eyes looking directly into Your eyes and Your eyes looking directly into mine. My heart completely unveiled to Your heart and Your heart completely unveiled to mine. Nothing between us, nothing of the sin or shame, the fears or failures, the doubt or unbelief -- but fully present in Your presence. "Face to face."
That day will come. "Se we are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord -- for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please Him. For all must appear before the judgment seat of Christ" (2 Corinthians 5:6-10).
But before that day comes, You've given us Your Spirit, who moves in our hearts to long for a deeper, more intimate experience of Your presence now. "He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee" (2 Corinthians 5:5). Your Holy Spirit stirs in our human spirits with a longing, yearning hunger for more, "longing to be clothed with our heavenly dwelling" as we're longing to encounter Your heavenly embrace.
You've created us to seek You, to pursue You, to be willing to settle for nothing less than You. You are drawing us near to experience You as closely as we possibly can in our hearts. Moses experienced you. "The Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to a friend" (Exodus 33:11). Abraham did. "When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to Abram, and said to him, 'I am God Almighty, walk before Me, and be blameless" (Genesis 17:1). Jacob did, even as he sought to wrestle You until You blessed him, saying, "I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). Doubting Thomas did, as You changed his doubts into faith in his deeply personal encounter when he cried out the highest declaration of Your Deity in all the Scripture, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28). Paul did, when You confronted his hardened heart to forever change his life on his Road to Damascus experience (Acts 9:5).
You've put it in our hearts to pursue You and seek You, even to seek Your face, even knowing "No man can see (God) and live" (Exodus 33:2). There's something in us that must die, for us to see You. And there's something You're speaking to us about pursing Your presence when You say, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God" (Matthew 5:8). "Who will ascend the hill of the Lord? And who will stand in His holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts.... They will receive blessing from the Lord.... Such is the company of those who seek Him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob" (Psalm 24:3-6).
I don't yet understand how it all fits together -- how I'm stirred to seek Your face and pursue Your presence, as those before me have, while yet no one can see God and live. Right now, on the one hand, I can only know in part (1 Corinthian 13:9) and "see in a mirror, dimly" (1 Corinthians 13:12). But on the other hand, at the same time, I'm moved to passionately pursue You as deeply, as personally, as intimately as I can on this side of heaven, as with the heart of David: "One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple... I believe that I shall see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living" (Psalm 27:4-13). By the grace of God, I will settle for nothing less. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, may you settle for nothing less in your passionately pursuit of the Lord than the most intimate encounter you can have with Him on this side of heaven, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your reflections or experiences on silence and prayer in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community
Please support and partner with my self and my family as we serve those God crosses our path with in our community with your one-time or monthly financial gift by clicking link below.Become our partner and support us in our ministries by becoming supporting us monthly or with a one-time gift. Thank you!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Lead me by the heart into Your will for my life today.
“Now you are Christʼs body, and each of you is a member of it. And God has placed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, gifts of healing, helps, gifts of leadership, different kinds of tongues” (1Corinthians 12:27-28)
Father, You've given me the gift of Your Holy Spirit. And at the same time, along with each of Your children, You've given me spiritual gifts to express Your heart and dimensions of Your nature through my life as Your son (1 Corinthians 12:7).
"Do not neglect the gift that is in you, which was given to you through prophecy with the laying on of hands by the council of elders. Put these things into practice, devote yourself to them, so that all may see your progress" (1 Timothy 4:14-15).
Stir up Your gifts within me; fan them into flame, as You "rekindle the gift of God that is within (me)" (2 Timothy 1:6). Let them flow out of a secure and confident identity in You as a child of God, called by God and gifted by God, with Your good gifts bearing Your good fruit through my life for the glory of Your good name (John 15:5). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray that our great God will stir up and fan into flame His good gifts within you to display the glory of His name through your life today. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
I am going to give the devotion this morning and I an going to reflect on the Lord's Supper. My reflections from my time in 1 Corinthians 11 that I will use as the center of my devotion.
"Now in giving the following instruction I do not praise you, because you come together not for the better but for the worse. For in the first place, when you come together as a church I hear there are divisions among you, and in part I believe it. For there must in fact be divisions among you, so that those of you who are approved may be evident. Now when you come together at the same place, you are not really eating the Lordʼs Supper. For when it is time to eat, everyone proceeds with his own supper. One is hungry and another becomes drunk. Do you not have houses so that you can eat and drink? Or are you trying to show contempt for the church of God by shaming those who have nothing? What should I say to you? Should I praise you? I will not praise you for this!
For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lordʼs death until he comes.
For this reason, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself first, and in this way let him eat the bread and drink of the cup. For the one who eats and drinks without careful regard for the body eats and drinks judgment against himself. That is why many of you are weak and sick, and quite a few are dead. But if we examined ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned with the world.“ (1 Corinthians 11:17-32)
At the Lords Supper, Christ brings His passion to our remembrance and draws us into wonderful communion, Holy Communion, with the Father and with Himself and one another, proleptic of our life in the Kingdom of God, nourishing our faith “till He comes” (Lk 11:2). "Proleptic" is a word we do not use much in our conversations. It means, if you do some thing then it will cause something else to occur and or enter in. Also a future event to be manifested in the present. Example: Say there is a road with 45 MPH speed limit and a half a mile down the road is a speed trap and a billboard with a police car behind it waiting. If I tell you, "If you go 65 MPH down that road you will get a ticket." It is a proleptic fact of a future event that will take place if you do a present action." A police car will enter in and you will get a ticket. Jesus words to us will proleptic, If you do this, share in the Lord's Supper, then I will enter in and so will my kingdom.
In the Lord’s Supper we remember. Jesus said to His disciples, “I will pray to the Father and he will give you another Comforter… and He will bring all things to your remembrance” (Jn 14:26). At the Last Supper, Jesus said, “Do this in remembrance of me” (Lk 22:19). We remember in such a way that we see our participation in the past event and see our destiny and future bound up in it. We remember in such a way that we know by the grace of God we are the people for whom the Savior died and rose again; we are the people whose sins Jesus confessed on the cross; we are the people with whom God has made a new covenant in the blood of Christ; we are the Israel of God to whom God said, “I will be your God and you shall be my people” (Ex 6:7). The work of memory, of realizing our participation and fellowship in the sufferings of Christ, is the work of the Holy Spirit. We remember Christ, yet it is not so much we who remind ourselves of these events, but Jesus Christ, who brings his passion to our remembrance through the Holy Spirit, as our ever-living and ever present Lord.
Jesus said of the Lord's Supper, 'Do this often...." I pray you do. I pray you will today. I pray you will remember in a proleptic way today and allow Jesus through the Holy Spirit in enter into your life and situation and allow you to tangibly enter into his kingdom, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and thoughts on the Lord's Supper below.
Grace and Peace
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. You are One with the Father, One with the Holy Spirit, be One within me today. ...
"The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we, though many, are one bread and one body; for we all partake of that one Bread" (1 Corinthians 10:16).
Jesus, in these days of division and strife, even in The Church, remind us that we are one in You. Though we are many, we are also one. Though we may have different forms of worship, different traditions of expressions of our faith, even different understandings and interpretations of Your Word at times, we are also one. There is "one bread, one body," united through the body and blood of one Savior, our Lord Christ.
"There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist" (1 Corinthians 8:6). And in You, we "have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as (we) were called to the one hope of (our) calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:1-6).
Come, Holy Spirit. Unite us in the oneness of Christ as the sons and daughters of our Father God we are created and called to be. May the bond of Your peace break down our walls, heal our divisions, and set things right in our hearts for the sake of our witness to our world. Lord Jesus, may Your prayer from Your last days before Your sacrifice as the Son of Man on this earth be answered in us: "That they may all be one. As You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, may they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. The glory that You have given Me I have given them, so that they may be one, as We are One, I in them and You in Me, that they may be completely one, so that the world may know that You have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me" (John 17:21-23). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray may you be one in Christ and seek to be one with the body of Christ throughout the world and all generations as a witness of our Father's love in our world by the bond of peace in the unity of the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Lord God, I thank you for your love, grace and mercy.
“yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we live, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we live.” (1 Corinthians 8:6)
This weekend my wife and I have another one of the 7 all-day Kairos Team meetings to prepare for the four days we will serve going into Tutwiler Women’s correctional Institution in September. I have been blessed to serve on many Kairos weekends of going into prisons for four days like the onecoming up in September. During this time we spend in the prison it includes sharing meals, our life stories, listening to those of the inmates, sharing our love for them and sharing the love of Jesus. All the men or women in the prison are suffering the consequences of bad decisions they made in their life.
In the sharing with the inmates, one theme is always the most prevalent in the inmates stories; love, or the lack of love. Almost all of the men or women, with hardened hearts have built up walls of strength around them as required to survive in prison. They end up with tears running down their face said they had never experienced love like this shown to them during the weekend before in their life. Or they said they had forgotten for a long time ago what real love felt like. They also said they wish they had a person show them this kind of love when they were growing up, a mentor, someone to look up to who showed them love and taught them how to model love and Christian values. They probably would not be in prison now if they did.
Unfortunately, there are so many children, young men and women, single mom’s, children of single parents, and single men in our communities that have not experienced love or have a mentor in their life. You could be that person that “if only someone had shown me love and taught me how to love” that changes the direction of a person’s life. We may not all be called to write letters like Paul, launch a church planting network or lead a church congregations, however we are all called and capable to open our hearts, our homes, and invest margins of time to love and mentor one or two men or women who need role models. The only way we will stop having to spend weekends going inside prisons to reach men in women imprisoned there and share with them love and the Gospel of grace in Jesus Christ, is to start spending time on weekends to reach men or women outside in our neighborhood and community and make time to embrace them, mentor them, and share the Gospel with them, and change the direction of their lives.
My family, I pray for the Holy Spirit to lead you to the one or more persons you can simply love, listen to, share life, mentor and intentionally invest time in their life as a tangible presence of the grace and hope of of Jesus Christ, in Jesus name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
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I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
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One of my passions is helping churches or small groups understand and embrace their call to be disciples of Jesus in their community.. I offer and lead discipleship trainings in person and on-line. If you are interested I would love to talk to you bout it. Email me at garyl@onedirection.community.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning Lord Jesus, drench me in your love and peace this morning!
“Let each one remain in that situation in life in which he was called…. Do not worry about it…. You were bought with a price. Do not become slaves of men. In whatever situation someone was called, brothers and sisters, let him remain in it with God.” (I Corinthians 7:20-24)
In writing this Paul did not mean that a Christian should take a fatalistic view of life and regard his or her condition as something he or she should definitely remain in forever. If we have the opportunity to improve ourselves for the glory of God, we should do so. If we do not, we should not fret about our state but bloom where God has planted us. We should regard our call to Christ as sanctifying our present situation.
In our day today upward mobility has become a god to many Christians. Our striving for and belief we deserve and are entitled to a bigger home, fancier car, nicer cloths, more things has become a form of worship, and as Paul declares its worship has polluted the church. We need to be content to serve the Lord, to live out our calling, whether in marriage, singleness, a white collar or blue collar job, or whatever socioeconomic condition we may occupy. Our calling as Christians, to bear witness to Jesus Christ, is more important than our calling in life, namely, the place we occupy in the social, economic, and geographical scheme of things. It is unfortunate that many Christians today choose to focus on their limitations rather than on their possibilities as representatives of Jesus Christ. We should use the abilities and opportunities that God gives us rather than feeling sorry for ourselves because we do not have other abilities or opportunities.
Another example of this principle Paul addresses would be on a person’s striving for head knowledge about God above experiencing God through the serving of God. Those in the church in Corinth were valuing education about God over obedience to serving God. This is true in the church today. Paul believed, and I also believe that studying God’s Word and spend time in prayer are very important. If I did not believe so I would not be spending time writing these reflections every morning or leading a house church gathering in my home on Wednesdays or a men’s Bible study on Thursday nights. However, like those in the church Paul was writing to back then, those in the church today place an unbalanced emphasis and preference on Head knowledge about God over obedience to serving God. They spend time daily and numerous hours weekly in devotion times reading their Bible, in prayer, attending Sunday church services and other gatherings, watching on-lines services and teachings, and attending small groups. Head knowledge. All of this is Good! However, they only show up to serve the Lord for an hour a month if that in some ministry, they do not prayer walk their neighborhoods or spend as much time sharing their knowledge and faith as they do studying it. And they do not prioritize and intentionally set aside time daily and weekly, put in their calendars as they do for their devotion and worship times, to serve the Lord and share the Gospel. That is why marked in my calendar is also everyMonday to serve at Manna House for 4 hours, every Saturday morning serving at House of the Harvest for 3 hours, and why I go to the Waffle House every morning to have an opportunity to share with people.
Obedience. Paul stated that time spent seeking head knowledge about God and time spent obediently serving God must be balanced and equal.
My family, Paul speaks into the practical, day to day application, practice and sharing of a person’s faith. I pray today you will allow the Holy Spirit to guide you in reflecting on areas of discontent in your life that should not be there, were you are striving for and worshipping things you should not, and the unbalances of head knowledge and obedience in your walk with Christ, in Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God Bless you my friends!
I would love for you to share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them
I could use you’re the gift of your financial support for my family and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support my family and ministries through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, 102 Champions Green Drive, Madison, Al 35758.
Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Thank You for the invitation to abide in You as You abide in me, beginning my day seeking Your face and listening for Your voice. ...
"Anyone united to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.... Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you were bought with a price; therefore glory God in your body" (1 Corinthians 6:17-20).
Unite my heart with Your heart, my thoughts with Your thoughts, my desires with Your desires. I abide in You, as You abide in me (John 15:4). In the holy of holies of my heart, reveal and remove everything in me that is a hindrance to my communion with You, that You can replace it with the Presence of Your Spirit (Exodus 26:34; Hebrews 9:3). Make me one spirit with You--more and more every day.
As You are, so am I to be (1 John 4:17). "(We) have been anointed by the Holy One.... Let what (we) have heard from the beginning abide in (us), then (we) will abide in the Son and the Father. And this is what He has promised us, eternal life.... As for (us), the anointing that (we) received from Him abides in (us).... And now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He is revealed we may have confidence and not be put to shame before Him at His coming.... When He is revealed, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. And all who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure" (1 John 2:20-3:3). In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may become one spirit with the Lord, more and more every day, abiding in Him as He abides in you in the holy of holies of your heart, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same of me. God bless you, my friends!
I would love for you to please share your reflections with myself or others using the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
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My wife Nancy and I are in a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!
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“I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people. In no way did I mean the immoral people of this world, or the greedy and swindlers and idolaters, since you would then have to go out of the world.” (1 Corinthians 5:9-10)
For over 5 years now I have been leading a Thursday evening men’s Bible study and accountability group we named Brothers, Bibles, and Beer (B3). We are a group og guys from various church backgrounds, some none, who meet at local breweries in the Huntsville/Madison area. We share life, our successes and struggles, read and discuss a passage from the Bible seeking advice and encouragement over our lives and marriages, and we pray over each other.
Last night we met at our “regular” brewery we frequent the most. The bar tender, staff, and some of the regulars are “colorful” people. They are adorned with tattoos, piercings, alternative hair styles and colors, and some alternative life styles as well. The bands that play there are rage metal, goth, and punk and the crowd of youth that attend are all dressed in black with tattoos, piercings, hair colors, and explicative slogans on their shirts. While we are meeting at our table in the conversations we over hear around us “F bombs” and other explicatives are frequently dropped. It would be safe to say most of them would never attend a traditional church. Our B3 group of men do not dress or look like them. When I was asked what I do for a living I did not throw out the pastor card, but told them I do “Community Development.”
The first few times we met there they watched us. They heard us read the Bible out loud, talk about Jesus and our faith, and watched a we all bowed our heads and prayed for each other. Our life style seemed as “radical” and different to them, as there’s did to us. At first they did not know what to think about us. However, as we kept coming back, we always treated those we met with love and respect. We smiled as we greeted them, did not pass judgement on them, asked about their lives and day., and listened to their responses. The young bartender and staff in their 20s now all say “Hello Mr. Gary” when we walk into the brewery and “We hope to see you next Thursday” when we leave.
So God has given us access into the lives of these youth and regulars in which we can talk into their lives and ask how we can pray for them. We are only there a couple of hours, one day a week, but at least for that short time they are exposed and have access to our faith, Jesus is spoken out lord and prayer takes place in that place. And myself and the other men who attend are learning and being blessed by our interactions with them.
Paul tells us earlier in Romans 10:14-15, “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.” But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it?” There are so many people, so many young adults in our communities who do not know who to call out to, who to trust, because no one is entering their space to be trusted enough to share with them whom they can trust.
My family, I pray as we head into a weekend you will ask the Holy Spirit to reveal and guide you to the “brewery”, whatever that place may be or look like, where you can be a trusting source of the love and grace of Jesus Christ. Please pray the same for me, God Bless you my friends!
Please share your thoughts and comments below. Also share and encourage us with examples of your “brewery” experiences.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
“I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I urge you, then, be imitators of me. That is why I sent you Timothy, my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, to remind you of my ways in Christ, as I teach them everywhere in every church.” 1 Corinthians 4:14-17
Jesus’ life was one of discipleship by allowing people to have access to his life to be able to model it and become disciples themselves. Jesus’ Great Commission to us at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, vs. 28:19, is “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations….” Discipleship, becoming and making disciples is at the heart of out Christian faith. The word “disciple” is contained throughout the four Gospels and all through The Book of Acts of the Apostles up until chapter 21:16, then the word “disciple” never appears again in the Bible. Paul never uses the word once in his letters. Neither does the word “disciple” appear in John, Peter, Jude or James’s letters, or Hebrews or Revelations. Did making disciples cease to be important to Paul and others? Absolutely not!! His whole ministry and journey in life was creating disciples!
Paul however, was focusing and sent to converting gentiles, non-Jews, to faith in Christ. These non-Jews did not know the word “disciple” in the way the Jews and we do. The Jews back then, and we in the church today have heard this word most of our lives. The gentiles did not. They did not know of the Rabbi-student process of modeling and imitation. So Paul used words, terms and action familiar to these non-Jewish people. I posted above 1 Corinthians 4:14-17. Read it again. Paul does not use the word “disciple”, but it oozes of discipleship. “be imitators, remind you, my ways, teach them, guides, in Christ, father, beloved children” all these speak and model discipleship in ways those listening could understand. Paul urged them to “imitate me.” For him to urge this of people means he had to have given them access to his life where they could walk with him and observe his life and his daily rhythm, to be able to imitate it.
When I meet someone out in the community at the Waffle house of somewhere and someone asks me what I do for a living, I rarely answer I am a “Church Planter”, “Elder”, or “Pastor.” They of loaded words that carry allot of baggage and that only have meaning in a church gathering. I usually reply I am in “Community Development.” And then through sharing and giving them access to my life I bring the conversation around to their story and the Gospel story in a way that is relevant and they can understand. I firmly believe that Christians failing to allow non-Christians and those in the church access to their lives in real tangible ways is why creating disciples in the church is such a struggle.
Church leaders, Sunday school teachers, and others in church services and Bible studies use the word “disciple” and give listeners massive information, definitions, and theologies on “Disciple.” But they never allow people real access into their daily lives, their daily rhythms and walk as a model and allow them to imitate it. So people leave those church gatherings full of information and knowing where in the Bible to find the verse on “Love your neighbor” without ever seeing or experiencing what it is like to actually “love your neighbor.” The church gives people vast information on Sunday, and expects them to be disciples and innovators on Monday. The church lives on the tread mill of new information. If people can just get enough information, hear the word “disciple” enough times in sermons, read it in power points, newsletters, mission statements and various other ways, it will promote transformation and create disciples.
Discipleship however does not require simply access to information, it requires access to imitation. Moving from downloading of information to imitation of a person, mentor, teacher, or parent who gives them access to their lives; their morning, day and evening routines, rhythms, characters, and competencies. Timothy was a disciple of Paul, an imitator of Paul, because Paul gave Timothy access to him, and Timothy went on to greater things than him. We in the church have to give people access to out lives.
Read I Cor. 4:114-17; Acts 17:16-23, heck read the Gospel stories of the life of Jesus.
My family, I pray you then reflect on this in the presence of the Holy Spirit, “Who am I giving access to my life?” To where and to whom am I intentionally stepping outside of my home (and going to church does not count) and inviting into my home to allow others to be exposed to my life, see it, and have discipleship modeled to them so they can imitate it? Who are your Timothys? Also, who is your Paul? Who are you intentionally spending time with to help module your life after Christ? Jesus’ great commission began with the word “go.” He knew for the people to make disciples, they had to go and give people assess to their lives.
Please share your thoughts and comments below. Also share and encourage us with examples and ways you intentionally create margins in your life to allow others to have access to your life.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Let Your kingdom come and Your will be done -- here in my heart and every moment of my day -- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of God. ...
"For the kingdom of God is ... righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit" (Romans 14:17).
When You rule as King in my heart, there is righteousness in the Holy Spirit. You're setting things right -- right between me and my God, right between me and others, and right within myself.
When You rule as King in my heart, there is peace in the Holy Spirit. It's Your peace, not the world's peace -- peace between me and my God, peace with others, and peace within myself.
When You rule as King in my heart, there is joy in the Holy Spirit. It's the fullness of joy You desire me to have when my joy is made complete and the joy of the Lord is my strength -- joy between me and my God, joy with others, and joy within myself.
You said, "The kingdom of God is within (me)" (Luke 17:21). I need more of Your kingdom within me. I need more of Your righteousness, more of Your peace, more of Your joy. I need more of Your Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). I need more of You ruling and reigning as King in my heart.
So come, Holy Spirit. You are the One who moves in my heart to manifest and advance the fullness of the kingdom of God within me the kingdom of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit within me. The more I yield and surrender, embracing Your Presence and Your plan, entrusting my heart to You and Your will, the more the kingdom of God advances in me. That's how Your kingdom comes and Your will is done, on earth (and right here in me) as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
Father God, let Your kingdom come, let Your will be done. Fill me afresh with Your Spirit, with Your righteousness and peace and joy. I open my spirit and bow my heart before You, " Let the kingdoms of this world and the kingdom of my heart "become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!" (Revelation 11:15) In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray the fullness of the kingdom of God comes in you in a fresh filling of the Presence of God with His righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, in Jesus' name! May the King of glory come into you and every area of your life! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community, my family, and those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!
“Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13: 8-10)
This coming Friday we will celebrate July 4th, Independence Day and all the freedoms, opportunities, and blessings this country makes available to each one of us. One of those rights, freedoms, and choices made available to us is we have is the choice to love our neighbors. As citizens of the USA we also have the freedom and choice not to love our neighbor. However, Jesus, as our Lord of Lord’s and King of Kings You did not give us this freedom or choice. We all, as citizens of the kingdom of heaven are not given the option but the command to love our neighbors.
Yet most of us spend more time avoiding our neighbors than loving them. We get in the car in our garage in the morning, hit a garage door opener and pull out and head to work or whatever is on our agenda for this trip. We drive past our neighbors. We drive past the poor and the homeless and we pretend not to see them. On the way back home later in the day we repeat the same drive, ignoring and avoiding our neighbors. We push the garage door opener and pull into our garage and close the garage door behind us “successfully” avoiding our any contact with our neighbors, and never even stepping foot in our neighborhood. And if we go outside that evening it is on our back deck of our fenced back yard away from our neighbors.
We know the commandment to love our neighbor. We know that in the final judgment Jesus will separate the sheep from the goats, those who loved their neighbors from those who did not: “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world….‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me… “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.” (Matthew 25:34, 40, 41, 45)
We know this, Yet we fence in our yards, build back decks, do not open our homes and host Bible studies or other gatherings, and structure most of our lives to avoid our neighbors. We even call where we worship on Sunday’s “Sanctuaries” from the world. Loving your neighbor does nor “just happen.” Loving your neighbor takes intentionality. You have to intentionally set aside and prioritize margins of time in your day and week to love your neighbor. Again, on July 4th we celebrate Independence Day and all the freedoms, opportunities, and blessings this country makes available to each one of us. One of greatest blessings this country has provided each one of us is with houses and apartments to live in. Each one of our homes comes equipped with front doors. Doors that can used to be generous and opened up to welcome and love our neighbors. Or doors that can be used to shut off neighbors and keep them from entering.
Let us recommit to Jesus’ command to love our neighbors! Christians hang on their walls pictures and paintings containing the words from Josua 24:15, “As for me and my house we will serve the Lord.” When in reality they use their homes to only serve themselves and are not using their homes at all to serve the Lord and to obey His command to love their neighbor. You can commit to prayer walking your neighborhood and start a Bible study, prayer group, or other gathering in your home. Invite a different neighbor every other week over for dinner. And join in with other ministries who :love their neighbors” by volunteering at the Manna House, Downtown Rescue Mission, First Stop, House of Harvest or other ministries in your community. “Love is the fulfillment of the law.”
Just like planning a dinner party with friends takes intentionality: setting a date, setting a time, making a guest list and inviting, and planning a menu, loving your neighbors takes the same intentionality. If you do not prioritize dates and times in your calendar, if you do not pray over your guest list and unite, it will never happen.
Take 3 minutes to watch this short video.
My family, watching this video breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. I pray it touches your heart as well. I pray today in remembrance of celebrating Independence Day, in all the freedom provided to you by the country, and out of love for God and your neighbor, you intentionally pray on how and where you can add margins of time to your life to love your neighbor. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Us Help Them!
My wife Nancy and I are in a new season of our ministry of pouring completely into planting and growing simple house churches in our neighborhoods, and having “boots on the ground” serving in our community.. Please pray over this season in my life and that of my family. Please partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You Thank You!
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be at the center of my heart and every moment of my day. ...
As I wait for Your leading, this Scripture comes to mind:
“Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality.
“Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.
“Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. Therefore
‘If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him a drink;
For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.’
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:9-21).
As I read this passageI think, Why isn’t this love more present in our world, and even our church? It is because this kind of “love without hypocrisy” requires our obedience to Your Word to be an expression of Your Heart in our world. Yes, it is hard. In fact, it’s impossible -- impossible in our own power or wisdom, even with our best determination and religious effort.
But it’s not impossible for You Jesus. And with Your Holy Spirit abiding in us, it’s no longer impossible for us. “Christ in (us), the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). “(We) are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in (us).... If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in (us), He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to (our) mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in (us)” (Romans 8:9-11). “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). In fact, just as You said, “all things are possible to him who believes” (Mark 9:23).
So even living like a Christian is possible for us. Even when we’re mad at the evil around us, even as we “abhor what is evil” and fight against it with our prayers and our voices and our votes. But we are desperately dependent on You, You Word, Your Holy Spirit. Apart from You, we can do nothing but just be overwhelmed and overcome by this broken and fallen world in hopeless despair (John 15:5).
But we are not apart from You! You are in us! And Your Word and Your Spirit and Your Faith and Your Hope and Your Love abide in us. So by the power of Your Grace at work within us, we can overcome as we choose to obey and express the power of Your Love in our world.
Prioritizing time daily reading your Word, in prayer, and connecting deeper to Your presence in us is the only way we can have joy in the face of the evil we abhor. It is the only way we can be part of what You’re doing in our world and truly make a difference -- not listening to voices of hate on the internet, shouting and screaming, rioting and raging; not getting sucked into overcoming evil with evil -- but overcoming evil with good while both being diligent in action and fervent in spirit, continually steadfast in prayer and abiding in the power of Your love that conquers all, for Your “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8). In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family, I pray you may be empowered with the Love that never fails, abiding in you and overcoming the evil you abhor in this world, in Jesus' name. God bless you my friends!
Please share with my your thoughts or prayers with us in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
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Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
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Good morning, Lord Jesus. King of kings and Lord of lords, come rule and regain in my heart and life today. ...
So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace.So I ask, God has not rejected his people, has he? Absolutely not! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew! Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars; I alone am left and they are seeking my life!” But what was the divine response to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand people who have not bent the knee to Baal. So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace. (Romans 11:1-6)
As I hear these words “Remnant Chosen By Grace” in my heart Your Word comes to mind:
So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. As I listen for the leading of Your Spirit and ponder Your Word in my heart, I hear a cry in my heart rising up in my prayer: Lord, I want to be found faithful to You. I want to walk in Your Light, even as the darkness of this world closes in. I want to be filled with faith and hope and love, despite the challenges we face and the testing we endure on our journey through this broken and fallen world, where You are making us more like You each day. (Romans 8:29). I want to be part of Your remnant chosen by grace, who don’t give in, who don’t back off, but who press in for the fullness of all You say we are and all You’ve created us to be, with our eyes fixed on You and our hope resting in You.
Lord, You don’t back off of Your calling to me. Give me grace to not back off of my commitment to You. “For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Romans 11:29). Give me grace to keep trusting and believing, with a sure and confident hope in You and all that You say I am and have for me to honor You with my life (Romans 11:20).
According to the warnings of Your Word, there will come a day when “many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved” (Matthew 24:10-13). “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will renounce the faith by paying attention to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons, through the hypocrisy of liars whose consciences are seared with a hot iron” (1 Timothy 4:1-2). “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths” (2 Timothy 4:3-4).
Your Word warns us, “Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end” (Hebrews 3:12-14). “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability” (2 Peter 3:17).
Lord, give me Your grace that my love will not grow cold, but will burn with increasing passion for You, with unwavering commitment to You. Give me grace that I would never surrender and never retreat before the enemies of the cross or the lawless darkness of this world. Give me grace to “be found faithful” to the end (1 Corinthians 4:2), to “fight the good fight of the faith (and) take hold of the eternal life to which (I have been) called” (1 Timothy 6:12).
“Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love Him” (James 1:12). By the power of Your grace at work in every heart turned to You, pressing in to You, “we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls” (Hebrews 10:39).
Yes, Lord. Give me grace to be a part of Your “remnant chosen by grace.” In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My family,, may you be found faithful in the Lord, part of His "relentless remnant" in the earth by the power of His grace at work within you and shining through you in the midst of the darkness and lawlessness of our world, in Jesus' name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Here’s my heart Lord, speak what is true..
“because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, who richly blesses all who call on him. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:9-13)
To this I say amen! And Praise God! “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) Salvation is in Jesus and available to all who confess Jesus as Lord is the message of the cross.
Then Paul, after stating these powerful truths about and salvation in Jesus, turns his conversation towards us, the church. Those of us who are saved In Christ, who have confessed Jesus as Lord, who have “tasted and seen that the Lord is Good” (Psalm 34:8). He looks at us, and he looks at those in our community who do not know Jesus. Then Paul has us in the church to look at those who are lost Paul and he asks us,
“How are they to call on one they have not believed in? And how are they to believe in one they have not heard of? And how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How timely is the arrival of those who proclaim the good news.” (Romans 10:14-15)
Paul asks the church, he turns and looks you and I in the eye and asks us, How our the lost to call on and confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord, unless you have a conversation with them about Jesus? How are they to believe in their heart that Jesus is raised from the dead if they have not heard that spoken in love to them by you? How are they to accept the Gospel, the “Good News” of salvation unless you take the time and in a timely manner without delay share the Gospel with them?
Paul is directing his words to you and I and he tells us to look at our family, friends, co-workers, classmates, neighbors and those in our community we will cross paths with today who do not know Christ and need someone to share the good news about Jesus with them. And he asks us who have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, “If not you, then who? If not today, then when?”
My family, I pray this morning after reading Paul’s words you will hear the Holy Spirit say to you, “If not you then who, if not today, then when?” And you will be the person who arrives in timely manner and shares the good news of Jesus today with someone who will perish without you taking time to speak to them about Jesus in love and let them hear it from you. You may have to confess that is has been weeks, or regretfully months or years since you stepped out and had a conversation with someone who does not know Jesus about Jesus It may have been weeks, regretfully months or years since your church had a baptism. Please do not let this week be added to that time of regret. You have your car, your feet, your phone, your email, the internet; so you are without excuse, In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Lord take me back, back to the beginning, when I was young, running through the fields with you…
“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption as sons, and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the temple service and the promises, whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.” (Romans 9:1-5)
I read Paul’s lament and heart breaking for his fellow Israelites who do not believe in Jesus as their Lord and have not received the salvation of His grace. Paul says he has, “great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart” (v.2) over his friends, neighbors, and the people in his community both that he knows personally and does not know who have not heard the Gospel, do not love Jesus, and will enter into an eternity absent from Christ. His heart breaking for, and love of the lost is what drives his ministry, orders his day, and is the motivation for his mission journeys to the Gentiles, the people who do not know Jesus. He is a missionary, and the definition I use for a missionary is a “A person who is willing to sacrifice everything except the Gospel, for the sake of the Gospel.”
When you and I accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and entered into salvation through and in His death and resurrection, we also were made missionaries. You and I were called to be a person who is willing to sacrifice everything except the Gospel for the sake of the Gospel. The word “missionary” is not even in the Bible. That is because all the authors who wrote all the books and letter contained in the New Testament assumed and intended “missionary” and “disciple” to be one and the same. Jesus said, “Just as you sent me into the world, so I sent them into the world.” (John 17:18). Christians are to be “sent ones” and “church” was designed to be a movement, not a location.
To claim you are a Christian is to claim you are a missionary. So when was the last time you grieved over your friends and co-workers that do not know Jesus? Can you remember the last time your heart ached over those in your community, those you know and those you do not know who are absent from Christ? Can you think of the last time you woke up unable to sleep, feeling accursed with your heart breaking for the lost so that the next morning you planned your day and walked out of your door with reaching the lost with the Gospel as your main agenda for that day? You calendar for the upcoming month of July is filled with reminders of holidays, important meetings, appointments and events for the month. When you open your calendar for July, August, September….How many days of the month do you have written in”Go share the Gospel” as the main event for that day? When was the last time you lived into your call to be a person who is willing to sacrifice everything except the Gospel for the sake of the Gospel? This is what we are called to do! This is what we were saved for! This is at the heart of calling ourselves a Christian. This is why Jesus birthed The Church.
Lord have mercy, Christ hove mercy, Lord have mercy.
We are challenged with re-launching our ministries and the ministries of our churches into being relevant outposts of the Kingdom of God in our communities.. We are called to drawing people back into the church, not so we can count them in our pewes, but so we can disciple them and send them back out as disciples, missionaries into thier communities, places of work, and schools. We will not succeed in this challenge unless we are prepared ourselves to recommit our purpose as Christians and conform our lives to imitate The Greatest Missionary, Jesus the Christ.
My family, I pray you will pray and ask the Holy Spirit to instill in you a heart that grieves and breaks for the lost, which is a heart after Jesus.’ I pray you will accept your call and responsibility, as one who was lost and saved by the grace of Jesus, to share the saving grace of Jesus with those who are lost. In Jesus’ name. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my friends!
Please share your reflections and prayers with us on this blog in the comment box below.
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website:https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Good morning, Lord Jesus. Be at the center of my heart and every moment of my day. ...
This morning I’m reflecting on the goodness of God and the closeness of His amazing love for me as Paul describes in Romans Chapter 8. Listen to The Message Version:
“So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose? If God didn’t hesitate to put everything on the line for us, embracing our condition and exposing Himself to the worst by sending His own Son, is there anything else He wouldn’t gladly and freely do for us? And who would dare tangle with God by messing with one of God’s chosen? Who would dare even to point a finger? The One who died for us--who was raised to life for us!--is in the presence of God at this very moment sticking up for us. Do you think anyone is going to be able to drive a wedge between us and Christ’s love for us? There is no way! Not trouble, not hard times, not hatred, not hunger, not homelessness, not bullying threats, not backstabbing, not even the worst sins listed in Scripture: They kill us in cold blood because they hate you. We’re sitting ducks; they pick us off one by one. None of this fazes us because Jesus loves us. I’m absolutely convinced that nothing--nothing living or dead, angelic or demonic, today or tomorrow, high or low, thinkable or unthinkable--absolutely nothing can get between us and God’s love because of the way that Jesus our Master has embraced us” (Romans 8:31-39 MSG).
Yes, Lord. With God on our side, how can we lose! “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us!” (Romans 8:37).
And that gives me courage. That gives me confidence. That fills my heart with joy, fills my eyes with tears, fills my heart with love, and fills my mouth with praise! In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
My Family,, I pray you may be filled with love in your heart, tears of joy in your eyes, and the praises of God in your mouth, as you know God’s powerful, unending, unimagiginable love for you, in Jesus' name! Please pray the same for me. God bless you, my friends!
Please share your thoughts and reflections in the Comments Box below..
Gary Liederbach- Lead Follower
One Direction Community
Email: garyl@onedirection.community
Website: https://www.onedirection.community
Facebook: One Direction Community-ODC
Help Me Help Others Out Of Their Graves!
Help Me Share The Gospel!
I could use your financial support for One Direction Community and my family to jump down into the pits and help lift up those on the margins God has placed in my path I refuse to walk around. Please commitment to partner and support myself and One Direction community through setting up a monthly donation or a one –time gift by clicking the link below. Donation checks can be made out to ODC, PO Box 1293 Madison, Al 35758. Thank You!!
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