“Going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile.”
― Billy Sunday
Today is The Lord’s Day. Most Christians go to church on Sunday to worship The Lord, but what about the other 6 days.
Going to church does not make you a Christian. You must be born again.
John 3:3
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Today we will be attending a funeral of a sweet, elderly, Christian friend. Joanne always had a smile and a kind word for everyone. She will be missed by her husband, family and friends.
Yesterday we were asked to pray for a couple in our church whose 13 year old daughter died suddenly. Her parents, family and friends are grieving.
These two Christians are now home with The Lord, but their families need prayer.
We weep over our departed loved ones, but as children of God we are not left without hope.
The ultimate healing is to be in Heaven with our Savior, Jesus.
This is one of my favorite Bible verses:
Psalms 116:15
Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of his saints.
In Plant City, Fl one of the big events is Strawberry Festival. SOS has a booth in the festival every year for the past 10 years. In that time there has been over 2500 souls that made decisions for Christ.
This year the event is from February 28-March 9. We have volunteers who work for 4 hours in the booth winning people tp The Lord. It takes 12 people per day to man the booth.
If you are in this area and would be interested in joining us at Strawberry Festival give our office a call at 813-494-7927 or 813-494-7512 to schedule training and a slot to work the booth.
It is fun, simple and rewarding.
Matthew 9:38
Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.
My husband and I were packed and ready for our vacation. He felt he should call his brother before we left. After he hung up the phone he told me that something was not right. He didn’t sound well. We decided to drive to his house and visit him.
He lived alone for years and we had not seen him in over a week. When we arrived we could not find him immediately. He was in the upstairs bedroom and looked close to death. He had not eaten or had any water in four days. The ambulance was called and the doctor at the hospital told us that his kidneys had shut down. They believe his dementia was the cause of his not consuming food or water.
Before the ambulance arrived I spoke with my brother in law about eternity. I explained the three things that God cannot do. I asked him if he wanted to be 100% certain he was going to heaven. He said he did not.
A week in the hospital saw his rapid recovery. Even the doctors were amazed considering his age of 81. Throughout his hospital stay, onto rehab and finally admission to assisted living, I asked him if he would like to receive Christ using the “3 things” tract. The answer continued to be “no”.
Well,I did my part right? We are supposed to tell. I did. Multiple times. I could not give up though. I love my brother in law. I decided to use the picture frame size “3 things” board supplied by SOS Ministries. I told him my testimony again and asked if he would like to see something really interesting. He agreed. After going through the “3 things” board and asking how sure he was he was going to heaven, he said no one can be sure. I explained that he could be and asked if he wanted to be sure. This time the answer was YES!
On Thursday, January 16 at 6:15 PM, the angels in heaven rejoiced as my brother in law asked Jesus forgiveness and had his name written in the book of life. I believe the use of the “3 things” picture frame board as a visual was the key to his understanding of the simple gospel message. I was able to carry it in my purse into the facility and use it easily. Without that tool, prayer, and my heart burdened for him, I think his destination would not be where it is today.
Psalm 90:12
Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Email received from a committed soul winner.
Tom and I had many things to do on Sunday so we decided to go to the early service at church.
After church we had about one hour before our appointment so we had time to go to the gas station to fill up and stop for a cup of coffee.
When we got to the gas station it looked busy so we went for coffee first.
Returning to the gas station, every pump was in use so we had to wait.
Finally there was a pump free so as Tom pulled up, I got out to pump gas. (Tom has a harder time getting in and out of the car because of a bad knee)
We have a sign on the back of our window that says “DO YOU KNOW THE 3 THINGS GOD CANNOT DO?”
A man was at the next gas pump and asked, “Do you have a church?”
I replied, “No, but we do have a ministry that tells people how they can go to Heaven.”
After he asked a few more questions, I told him the “3 things.”
1. GOD CAN NOT LIE. 2. GOD CANNOT CHANGE 3. GOD CAN NOT LET ANYONE INTO HEAVEN UNLESS THEY ARE BORN AGAIN.
“Are you 50, 75 or 100% sure if you died today you would go to Heaven?”
He was not sure but wanted to be so as I explained how he needed to A. Admit he was a sinner, B. Jesus died on the cross for his sins and C. He needed to call on The Lord to save him.
I wanted Tom to pray with Emile, so I motioned for him to get out of the car as I asked, ” Would you be willing to call on The Lord with me right now?”
His answer was affirmative, so the 3 of us held hands and Tom led him in a prayer for salvation.
Emile was wonderfully saved.
He is a businessman who travels all over the world and his home country is the Ukraine. God brought him to that gas station at that time so he could hear the Gospel and be saved.
Psalms 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord:
and he delighteth in his way.
I received the following obituary from a friend.
Maybe the founding fathers were right to only allow land owners to vote. Maybe people that are on the government dole should not be allowed to vote. Scary thoughts!
Important historical information to read regardless of who you voted for in 2012.
Interesting Obituary
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh , had this to say
about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior: “A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”
The Obituary follows:
Born 1776, Died 2012 – It doesn’t hurt to read this several times.
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Obama: 19 Romney: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 Romney: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million Romney: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 Romney: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory Romney won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.
Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…”
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase..
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals – and they vote – then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years.
Apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom……
1 Corinthians 15:34
Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God:I speak this to your shame.
I do not have a TV NEWS program. If I did I WOULD TELL AMERICA THE TRUTH ACCORDING TO GODS WORD. Evil has taken over our goverment . THE PRESIDENT LIES. EVERYONE IN GOVERMENT IS OVER PAID. THEY DO NOT KNOW That it is sinful to mislead Americans with promises that are untrue. GOVERNMENT LEADERS HAVE TURNED FROM OUR MILITARY. OUR PRESIDENT AND SECRETARY OF STATE ALLOWED GOOD AMERICANS TO BE KILLED.
SOS Events ministry has people all over the UNITED STATES telling people how to know they will go to heaven. Soon it will be too late because Christ will take the christians out of the world. The evil people will remain and their friend satan will rule all. If you do not believe this and have not trusted Jesus to save you, I assure you WE WILL NOT SEE YOU IN HEAVEN. WAKE UP NEWS PROGRAM PRODUCERS AND DIRECTORS. WAKE UP CHURCHES. WAKE UP AND STAND UP CHRISTIANS.
Tom Curtis
Romans 13:11
And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep:for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.
God answers prayer. One of the great things about God is that He cares about the little things in our lives.
Sometimes we think He only answers in a crisis or a big problem but if we are truly following His leading He loves to give us what we ask.
SOS participates in a big event every year, the Strawberry Festival in Plant City, Fl. It takes many people to witness in the booth over a 11day period. Many churches are invited to send a team to help.
Tom and I were delivering DVDs about the festival to the area churches for the congregation to watch and it was important that each DVD was given to a responsible person at every church.
The first church we went to, no one was there, so we continued on to other places.
About 2 hours later, I prayed and ask The Lord to have someone at that first church so we could finish our deliveries.
We arrived at the church and there was a car there. It was the pastor’s wife.
She said, “I am never here this time of day, but my husband ask me to meet him here today and I have no idea why.”
I told her about the prayer and we rejoiced together, knowing that God answered a specific prayer.
Matthew 21:22
And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.
The Radio Shack Salvation story from yesterday is not finished. There were two clerks in the store when Tom went in and talked to the first girl that got saved. At that time there were other customers in the store so he was unable to talk to both girls. Then when I, Carolyn, went in to meet the one young woman that had just got saved, Tom had opportunity to witness to the other clerk.
No other customers came into the store the entire time that we both were in there. The second girl gladly received Christ also.
What a great blessing to have the privilege of giving the Gospel to these sweet young women and to have both of them trust Christ as their Savior.
Romans 1:16
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
