There is a song by one of my favorite bands, Delirious?, called History Maker that explains our mission as believers. 

Yes, it’s true today that when people stand
With the fire of God, and the truth in hand
We’ll see miracles, we’ll see angels sing
We’ll see broken hearts making history
Yes, it’s true and we believe it we’re living for You

I’m gonna be a history maker in this land
I’m gonna be a speaker of truth to all mankind
(History Maker, by Martin Smith of Delirious?)

What a message!  What a calling!  You and I are meant to be history makers.  Note the line that said that we’ll see broken hearts making history.  Everyone of us has a story.  We all have something that has affected our lives, but God has created each of us to be History Makers.

God is not limited because of where you have been.  His hands are not tied because you have made mistakes in your life.  His purpose for you is unchanged no matter where you have been or what you have gone through.  You are to be a history maker!

Think of the rough shod group that He chose as disciples.  They all deserted Jesus when He was arrested.  They ran away like cowards.  Thomas doubted. Peter denied. The rest departed but yet they were His disciples.  This was the lot that He chose to represent Him.  After the resurrection and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit this roughshod group of disciples became fire-baptized History Makers.

My favorite verse in all of the New Testament records, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too."  (Acts 17:6)

They can run but they cannot hide.  The world changers had come there to that town too.  Oh, if it could only be said of today’s believers that we have turned the world upside down.  It would be an awesome thing if the world would be a little intimidated because of the church’s power. 

You have the ability to make history wherever you are.  On your job you can turn them upside down. In our community you can make a difference.  You can change the world one life at a time.  Child of God, you are a history maker!

Let’s go out and win the world for Christ.  Let’s look at the opportunities God has placed all around us and work for the furthering of the Gospel. 

Is your heart in your worship?

Psalm 9:1 says, “I will praise You, O’ Lord, with my whole heart; I will tell of your marvelous works.”

There are a couple of things that we can learn from such a powerful Scripture.  First is the heart of praise.  Often when we praise God we do it only half-heartedly.  We come to church shackled with our problems and our cluttered minds and only give a portion of ourselves in worship.  In our time of prayer at home we move quickly past the praise and worship to the ask and receive mode. 

The thing about praise is that if you will do it long enough your troubles will seem to vanish.  Yes, they are still there but your perspective changes.  After lifting up the magnificent name of Jesus you can’t help but have faith that He will bring you through.  Praise is the catalyst that propels you past the circumstances of life, past the hum drum of routines in life, past the endless deadlines.  Praise helps us focus on an eternal God that is concerned with our daily needs.  We have a tendency to think that if we praise God He won’t answer our prayers.  We feel like we have to tell God our problems for Him to know about them.  Friends, I believe in bringing our requests to God, but we must praise Him with our whole hearts.

I can guarantee  that if you will praise Him with all you have, He will show up to meet your needs.  The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of His people.  Selfishness keeps us focused on our problems instead of on the God who has the answer to those problems.  I challenge you today to praise God with your whole heart and see what happens.  You don’t have to be at church to praise God you can do it wherever you are.

Second, We must tell of His wonderful deeds.  Why must we tell of God’s marvelous works?  Of course, because He deserves praise but especially because when we tell of His marvelous deeds it causes us to believe that He will do it again.  I don’t know about you but everyone has a story to tell.  Everyone can look back at how God acted on their behalf at one time or another.  Thanksgiving helps us focus on what God has done rather than on what He hasn’t done.  God’s ways are marvelous.  His works are beyond compare.  Some may say, “He hasn’t done anything for me.”  If God doesn’t do anything else for me, He has already done enough by saving me from sin.  There is always something to be thankful for.

If the church was full of perfect people there would be no need for church.  The fact is that even as believers we make mistakes.  We fail God more often than we would like to and so many times we hang our head in shame and condemnation.

As disciples of Christ we seek to live holy and righteous before Him, desiring to please Him with our lives.  The fact of the matter is, however, that even as disciples we mess up.  Looking at the failures of those closest to Christ, this notion is not far fetched.

Peter denied Christ three times…
Thomas doubted…
James and John wanted to be the greatest (pride)…
At Jesus’ betrayal all disciples forsook Him…

Sounds like a group of men who needed grace!  Child of God, we have not obtained perfection yet.  We are still in need of God’s grace.  Grace means God’s unmerited favor.  You can do nothing to earn it.  It is free!  If we could have earned it there would have been no need for Christ to die on the Cross.  We would still be shedding the blood of goats.  Now, God extends grace to those who sin.

Do not misunderstand me, this is not cheap grace.  This is grace that cost our Savior His life.  We are not to live the way we want and indulge in sin and expect God’s grace to forgive us.  We must strive to live right.  We must flee temptation.  We must desire to be holy, but when we mess up God is there to forgive.

The key to forgiveness is repentance.  James said, "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."  Our avenue to grace is by coming to Him in humility and admitting failure.  "Lord, I am sorry for blowing my top today.  Help me not to do it again."  We must come to God in an attitude of repentance and willingness to change.

Jesus’ disciples were a group of men who humbled themselves after their failures.  Peter didn’t deny Christ again.  James and John humbled themselves.  Thomas believed.  All the disciples but one died a martyr’s death, they never forsook Christ again.  The moral of the story here is that even though they failed they didn’t continue to live in their sin.  In our lives we should accept God’s grace and move on.  Leaving those things which are behind, I press on!

There will always be struggles with temptations in our lives.  We will fall again.  But when we do, we can come to Christ and He will forgive us.  I John 2:1, "My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin.  And if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous."  I hold on to this verse because it shows me that Christ is our Advocate.  I desire to live a holy life, but when I fail I can count on the grace of God to cover the multitude of sins. 

We have hope today in the fact that we do not have to live in shame and condemnation over failures.  Christ died for our sins.  Don’t let the devil tell you to give up.  Accept the grace of God and overcome. 

Do you get sweaty palms and knots in your throat when it comes time to witness to someone?

Fear instantly grips most believers when it comes time to share their faith with someone they do not know very well.  Excuses flood our minds of why we shouldn’t do it.  When the Holy Spirit compels us to witness we think it is the devil trying to make us fail.  Let me give you a prophetic word, the devil tricks no one into witnessing about Jesus.

He does, however, cause us to fear failure.  Failure is not possible when it comes to sharing our faith.  We may not see the results right away but we NEVER fail. 

We were destined to be witnesses.  We were created for such a time as this to share our faith.  I like what Paul says to Philemon:, "that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus."

It is already in you, you just have to acknowledge it.  You are a witness. You just may not realize it yet.  Look at yourself in the mirror every morning and say, "I am a witness" three times."  Well, maybe you don’t have to talk to yourself in the mirror, but get this within your Spirit.  You are a witness and were created to witness.

Lay down your fear!  I have heard alot of people talk about this crazy show Fear Factor.  Although I have never seen it I have heard the things they do.  Eating raw bugs (like eating cooked ones would be any better), risking their lives to cross canyons on ropes and much more.  People are excited to see people face their fears.  Maybe they should put all of US spiritual cowards on the show and watch us  go out and witness.  That is a major fear factor.

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of POWER and of love and of a sound mind.  Fear means timidity.  You don’t have to be timid…be bold.  God has already given you every thing you need to witness.  JUST DO IT!

For many years I have cherished the writings of Solomon in the book of Proverbs.  There is immense guidance and wisdom for life found in these 31 chapters.  God has granted us a playbook for the game of life and we can learn from the experience of the ancient Solomon.

Starting March 7, we will begin a new series, Wisdom For Life.  We will be looking at many subjects from the book of Proverbs.  God’s Will, Wisdom, Success, The Tongue, The Heart, Parenting, Diligence vs. Laziness and Righteousness.  It will be a series  that will carry us through a couple of months.  We normally do not dive into a series for that long on Sunday mornings, but you cannot get through Proverbs quickly.  Join us on these Sunday mornings to help you gain Wisdom for Life.

Read this article on Mark Batterson’s blog.  It gives us an amazing picture of the price that has been paid to ensure that the Bible continues to go on.

Batterson writes, “As we kick off our Garden to City Bible reading challenge, we’re giving away free Bibles to anyone that doesn’t have one or can’t afford one. It’s the right thing to do, but honestly, I think it might be one reason why we don’t appreciate the Bible like we could or should.

In 301 AD, an edict by Emperor Diocletian set the wages of scribes at 25 denarii for 100 lines of first quality writing and 20 denarii for second quality writing. According to the computation of Rendel Harris, the cost of producing one copy of Scripture was 30,000 denarii. It’s tough to know the exact exchange rate, but if 1 denarius = 10 dollars, then one copy of Scripture cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $300,000. And that’s just labor, not parts or parchment.
Makes you appreciate it a little more doesn’t it?

Hopefully this will too. Scribes spent their days in scriptoriums listening to lectors read from the exemplar texts while the scribes wrote what they heard. It was mentally and physically exhausting work. Part of the reason why we know that is the colophons or notes that scribes wrote at the end of their books. One of my favorites, in light of our recent weather, is an Armenian manuscript of the Gospels that complains about the fact that this copy was made during a heavy snowstorm and his ink literally froze and his hand became numb and the pen fell from his frozen fingers! One common colophon amongst scribes was this: “As travelers rejoice to see their home country, so also is the end of a book for those who toil in writing.” Others would simply say: “The end of the book; thanks be to God!”

Scribes would take an entire year making one copy of Scripture. And some scribes took longer. One group of scribes, the Masoretes, were so meticulous in the copying standards that they would count ever letter, every word, and every verse in the OT to insure it’s accuracy!”