by donfinto | Sep 27, 2017 | The Good Report
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
Matthew 22:39
I love the fact that, though Jesus rarely answered questions outright, usually
responding with a question, there was one occasion when this was not the case. “Which is
the greatest commandment?” He was asked, and immediately responded, “Love God, and
love others” (my paraphrase).
Love overcomes. We don’t have to agree with the faith or the lifestyle of the
other. Our role is to love.
I love when the Holy Spirit suddenly calls us to act counter to our natural bent –
like the time the transvestite came to our Saturday night assembly, and I started to nudge
someone and tell them to look, but the Lord arrested and sent me to him with total joy in
order to welcome him.
I also love when the Holy Spirit surprises us with words we never could have had
on our own – like the time when the stripper came up to me following an assembly at
Belmont and said, “I take my clothes off for a living. Can I be a Christian?” to which I,
with no forethought, looked straight into her eyes and responded, “Honey, you turn your
life over to Jesus. He’ll tell you when to put your clothes on and when to take them off.” I
walked away smiling, “Lord, that was brilliant! I never would have thought of that!”
Recently I was feeling all holy and disturbed about the lifestyle of someone I love
very dearly. And then the Lord reminded me, “You are not the Holy Spirit. Your role is
to love. My role is to convict.”
I am challenged. I want to love God more. I want to love others better. I want to
love people into the Kingdom.
Want to join me? Let’s do it!
by donfinto | Sep 20, 2017 | The Good Report
Don’t know why I was so struck recently with those last words of Jesus when He said:“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (Matthew 28:18).
ALL! In heaven! On earth!
He’s ultimately in charge of everything!
That’s the reason He can assure us that in the end, for His followers, everything works for our good.
Jonathan Cahn has this exceptional book called The Book of Mysteries. In one of the segments he tells about a man who was hated by his family, sold into slavery, taken to a foreign country, and put into prison for a crime he did not commit.
What kind of story would that be? A tragic one of course.
But then that man was ultimately released from prison, elevated to a place of honor by the world’s major power, was used of God to save that nation and his own family from starvation, and was wonderfully reunited with his family.
Now what kind of story is that? One of triumph and victory.
So also with your life and mine. We are assured victory in the end. The lives of none of us who follow Jesus ultimately end in tragedy. They end in triumph and victory.
Jesus has ALL authority so that He is able to accomplish this.
Have a good life!
by donfinto | Sep 13, 2017 | The Good Report
“Now then, tell my servant David,” God told the prophet Nathan, “This is what the Lord Almighty says: I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone” (1 Chronicles 17:7-8).
In other words, “David, don’t ever forget where you came from, that it was I who chose you to do what you are doing!”
In some ways, we need to forget the past, at least not “dwell on the past” (Isaiah 43:18), yet we need never to forget how the Lord Himself has redeemed us.
Late in Paul’s life he describes his past as “the worst of sinners” (1 Timothy 1:16). With Peter, I don’t think he ever forgot how he denied the Lord, or how unbelieving Thomas was about Jesus’ resurrection. Paul listed a catalog of sins when writing to the Corinthians saying, “Such were some of you” (1 Corinthians 6:11), and John said that one of the ways we triumph over the enemy is “by the word of [our] testimony” (Revelation 12:11).
Testimonies are powerful evangelistic tools. Testimonies like Dennis Jernigan and Rosaria Butterfield (both of whom came out of homosexual lifestyles) or Tass Saada’s Once an Arafat Man, or Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ (coming to faith from atheism) are greatly used of the Lord.
But you, too, have a testimony. Don’t forget who you were before Jesus captured your heart, or who you would be without Him. Think about them. Write them down tonight. And don’t hesitate to share it if it can help others.
