Manna from John for lunch or dinner or whatever you call it :)

(ESV) John 3:25 Now a discussion arose between some of John's disciples and a Jew over purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, "Rabbi, he who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you bore witness—look, he is baptizing, and all are going to him." 27 John answered, "A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves bear me witness, that I said, 'I am not the Christ, but I have been sent before him.' 29 The one who has the bride is the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease."

What an amazing thing for a human being to say...He must increase, but I must decrease... Those words do not just fall off of the tongue of a fleshly man, the Holy Spirit was at work in John. Whenever I am obedient to the Holy Spirit and do something and receive any sort of a compliment, it is hard to glorify the one who did the work through me, but you cannot own the work or the results. If you yield to the Spirit and witness to someone who curses you out, it is no less successful than when you have the priviledge to pray with someone to receive Christ as their savior. Always remember to yield the floor to the one who deserves the recognition for the work. John's disciples seemed a little upset with "all" going to Jesus instead of John.

I think that attitude is where the competition comes between our local churches. Some tend to downgrade another local body because they do or don't have drums, or they preach out of this Bible or that Bible. The only serious disagreements should come from critical theological issues concerning God, Jesus or the Word. At the end, we all have the same head coach and the same playbook, but we are all not playing the same game. With our finite minds, we can only sell out to one game at a time, just play hard, play disciplined and let God be glorified in everything we do and be joyful when God uses someone else mightily to bring more brothers and sisters into the family.

Have a blessed day,
Steve

Steve Amos

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