Saturday, November 24, 2012

Gospel tract SALE & GIVEAWAY!!

All of our Christmas and New Years Gospel Tracts are 20% off. 
This Saturday & Sunday ONLY.
This is a great time of year to spread the glorious news of the gospel. 

Get 1000 business card sized gospel tracts for $40!!! That includes shipping within the continental U.S.!! 

Be sure to come over and press "LIKE" on SeedShakers Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/seedshakers

SHARE THIS IMAGE above and tag @Seedshakers Gospel Tracts on your Facebook wall for a chance to WIN 1000 Christmas tracts of your choice! 










Friday, September 28, 2012

The Vantage Point That Christians Have Over Halloween






Matthew 10:16 states “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves." These words of Jesus are in the context of persecution and missions (I encourage you to read the whole chapter). Every Christian is on mission whether he or she is abroad or here at home. We are called to be intentional about our faith. Being on mission does not mean that you should quit you job and evangelize full time (Although, Jesus does call some people to this). Being on mission is the Christian life. The mission field is the world and the workplace is just one of many areas to exemplify Christ's work ethic.


As Halloween approaches we should be focused on how to relate the gospel to the situation. We need to be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. Halloween is a perfect time to engage people in conversation about the gospel. Skeletons, ghouls, goblins, and zombies are a good reminder of death, which comes to all people. If you see someone with halloween costumes and trinkets, this is your springboard to strike up a conversation. Remember, your aim is the gospel, not to get into a debate. You could say something like: "I couldn't help but notice that skeleton you have there and was wondering what you think about death? What do you think happens after someone dies?" Bingo, you're now into a conversation and you have a goal--to explain the truths of the gospel. Ask something like, "Would you consider yourself to be a good person?" "Do you think you've kept the 10 Commandments?" Then take them through some of God's commandments to "bring the knowledge of sin" as Romans 3:19-20 reveals. Show them that God even sees their thought life just as Jesus told us in Matthew 5:28 that lust is counted as adultery. Reveal to them that God must punish unforgiven sinners in hell and that place is as real as the ground their standing on. Ask them, "Do you think God should reward you with heaven or hell for the life you've lived?" If they think heaven, point out the fact that criminals must pay for their crimes and that God is the just judge of all the earth. He must punish you for breaking His laws. Then, give them the good news that Jesus died on behalf of those who will humble themselves enough to turn from their sins (repentance) and place their hope in Jesus--the one who lived a perfect life, keeping God's laws, and then dying on the cross as a substitute for sinners. Three days later Jesus rose from death. He has the power to cleanse you of a guilty conscience and your sins, and restore you to a right relationship with God.

Now's a good time to encourage them to take seriously what they heard. Admonish them to attend a church to hear the word of God preached on a regular basis. Give them a Bible if they don't own one. You can also give them a gospel tract to remind them what they just heard.

If you are too timid to speak up you can do something just as brave--walk up to someone and say, "Hello, did you get one of these?" And hand them a Halloween gospel tract this year.

Another option is to leave your light on this year and hand out great snacks (that children will remember you by) and attach a gospel tract to the treat. Doing so is a great way to send out the gospel! What other night do you have lots of people coming to your doorstep? Be wise as a serpent and innocent as a dove.

If you don't already have some biblically sound gospel tracts, I have some at www.seedshakers.com
You can share them with other Christians to help you pass them all out.

Wednesday, September 26, 2012

And The Walls Came Tumbling Down


At first reading of the title you would think this is about Jericho, when the Israelites marched around the city for 7 days and followed the instruction of the Lord. No, it's not about that but it is about the after effects of a city without walls. "A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls" [1]. This is a golden nugget of a proverb. There is a lot of spinach here to chew on. It's good for us to dwell on challenging verses in the Bible, especially this one, which seems to not make a lot of sense on the surface. But with a little thinking power, the truth of the proverb sets in and causes us to rethink our lives.

What does Solomon mean by it? A man who has forsaken discipline is like an ancient city without walls--it remains defenseless and open to attack from the enemy.

Where are you lacking self-control? The enemy you need to worry about first and foremost is yourself. I'm not denying that the world system of autonomy and the devil are your enemies, but if you can't defend against attacks from your old way of life (pre-regenerate days), you certainly can't fight against those other two beasts [2]. Your depravity--your old nature--as Paul explains in Colossians is to be put off and its practices sentenced to death. The new nature you received when you became born-again, is what Paul reminds his readers about. Because you were granted a new self by God, you are to bring forth fruits of the new nature [3]. Self-control is one of those fruits, which brings us back to a man without self-control, he is like a city broken into without walls. A man who lacks this fruit of the Spirit is living as an unbeliever in particular areas of his life and basically saying that God has no jurisdiction or authority over those areas. The city has holes in its walls. What holes do you have in your walls? In other words what do you know you need to get control over in your life?  

This proverb applies to every area of your life, not just "spiritual" matters of reading your Bible, going to Church, evangelizing, and doing ministry. Actually, every thing you do is spiritual, you can't escape from this reality. All of life is to be under God's authority. Doing church or reading your Bible is no more of a spiritual exercise than going to work or eating dinner. We are to do all things to the glory of God! How you go about completing tasks, duties, and even enjoying pleasures is what makes it a spiritual issue. That's key: How you go about doing something. A pastor can do his work in either a Christian way or he can do a poor job that wouldn't be classified as very Christian like. Same goes for the plumber. He can do his work in a Christian manner or he can do it in a non-Christian like way. How you go about doing something reveals the spiritual quality, you might say, of your thoughts, words, and actions. Am I thinking and acting like a Christian? If I read my Bible but I'm not a doer of the word, what does it say about me spiritually? Or what if I eat dinner but complain and murmur about the food placed before me? I'm not being very Christian like, huh? Or even, what if I have bad eating habits that cause my body to deteriorate in an untimely manner, what does it say about me spiritually? Am I living this particular area of my life as a Christian is suppose to? Let's be careful not to leave compartments or areas of our life untouched by the authority of God's word, for a man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.





[1] Proverbs 25:28
[2] The autonomy of the world is the natural impulse of the unregenerate. They seek to be their own gods and have their own rule (autonomy) apart from God's rule and authority (theonomy). The world system that John speaks of is the system of thoughts and actions contrary to God's law. The autonomous world system is the continuation of that first original sin of Adam and Eve, the desire to rule their own lives. We see where it got them and their posterity--curse and judgment--they received negative sanctions for refusing to submit to God's law. Adam and Eve lacked self-control and opened themselves up to attack, they were as a city without walls, they were open to the attack of deceit that came from the devil. "Be self-controlled;" Peter tells us, "be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." Peter goes on to say that you are to resist the devil, firm in your faith. Being firm in your faith is not a passiveness on your part and an asking of God to have pity on you, but rather, it is a call to action--a call to stand with self-control, to rebuild the crumbled walls that you have let fall.  1John 2:15-17, 1Peter 5:8
[3] The fruit of the Spirit - Galatians 5:22-23

Friday, May 4, 2012

Making the Most of Life

Making the Most of Life
The Meaning of Opportunities

Excerpts from J.R. Miller


The real problem of living, therefore, is how to take what the hours bring. He who does this, will live nobly and faithfully, and will fulfill God’s plan for his life. The difference in men is not in the opportunities that come to them, but in their use of their opportunities. Many people who fail to make much of their life, charge their failure to the lack of opportunities. They look at one who is continually doing good and beautiful things, or great and noble things, and think that he is specially favoured, that the chances which come to him for such things are exceptional. Really, however, it is in his capacity for seeing and accepting what the hours bring of duty or privilege that his success lays. Where other men see nothing, he sees a battle to fight, a duty to perform, a service to render, or an honour to win. Many a man waits long for opportunities, wondering why they never come to him, when really they have been passing by him day after day, unrecognized and unaccepted.


"They perish, and are set down to our account”

There is something truly startling in this irreparableness of the past, this irrevocableness of the losses which we have suffered through our follies or our sins. About two centuries ago a great sun dial was erected in All Soul’s College, Oxford, England, the largest and noblest dial; it is said, in the whole kingdom. Over the long pointer were written, in large letters of gold, the Latin words, referring to the hours, “Pereunt et imputantur.” Literally the meaning is, “They perish, and are set down to our account” or, as they have been rendered in terser phrase, “They are wasted, and are added to our debt.”

It is said that these words on the dial have exerted a wonderful influence on the boyhood of many of the distinguished men who have received their training at Oxford, stimulating them to the most conscientious use of the golden hours as they passed, and bearing fruit in long lives of earnestness and faithfulness. The lesson is one that every young person should learn. In youth the hours are full of privileges. They come like angels, holding in their hands rich treasures, sent to us from God, which they offer to us; and if we are laggard or indolent, or if we are too intent on our own little trifles to give welcome to these heavenly messengers with their heavenly gifts, they quickly pass on and are gone. And they never come back again to renew the offer.
On the dial of a clock in the palace of Napoleon at Malmaison, the maker has put the words, “Non nescit reverti”; “It does not know how to go backward.” It is so of the great clock of Time – it never can be turned backward. The moments come to us but once; whatever we do with them we must do as they pass, for they will never come to us again.

"Then privilege makes responsibility."

We shall have to give account to God for all that he sends to us by the mystic hands of the passing hours, and which we refuse or neglect to receive. “They are wasted and are added to our debt.”


Tuesday, April 10, 2012

It's a New Day!

Just some thoughts from my journal

It's a New Day Indeed! 

Every morning God renews his mercies to us. And I am not going to worry because God is in control. I think I now know what it means, if not what it means at least one reason why it is necessary to meditate on God's word and speak it to yourself. Doing so produces a steadfastness and hope in Jesus, overcoming worries, anxiety, and the contemplation of negative thoughts. Thank you Jesus!

Taking Captive My Thoughts

If I allow my negative thoughts of doubt, discouragement, and pessimism to control the better portion of the day, I'm surely not adding even one hour to my life. But if I take captive my thoughts for Christ and preach to myself what God calls the Christian to meditate on, all my anxiety, fear, and worry will be banished into everlasting darkness where it belongs. 

Light Has No Fellowship With Darkness

What fellowship does darkness have with light? Absolutely none! I am not allowed, get that, NOT ALLOWED to let my negative thoughts of doubt, discouragement, and pessimism reign free. If I do I am disobeying God. He tells me to meditate on His word day and night. This includes preaching to yourself by thinking, talking, writing, sharing, singing, and any other form of communicating. This does not mean that you are not allowed to say or do things that you need to do for work or other activities as long as they are in accordance with God's law. Whenever negative thoughts start to manifest themselves, it is then and there that the law of God comes down and chops the head off of worry, chops the head off of doubt, chops the head off of anxiety, chops the head off that beast of pessimism. God is victorious in putting to death our darling sins. Don't cling to your sins of unbelief! Take the sword of the Spirit, the law/word of God, and slay your sins. Preach the word, use the sword of the law to accomplish victory in the name of Christ. Overcome by the blood of the Lamb. Victory in Jesus, Victory in Jesus is the SHOUT! Amen and Amen!

Salvation Is Today

Today God will deliver me from all my enemies! Today is the day of salvation. I'm not allowed to worry! Jesus evidently thinks this is important or else it would not have been in the sermon on the mount. When I worry, what I am saying is that worry and anxiety are my gods. Worry and anxiety are bad task masters. They are a work of the flesh and God calls me to take up the sword of the Spirit and hack them to pieces just as Samuel hacked Agag to pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.