Happy Thursday

Life Examples

For this reason I am sending to you Timothy, my son whom I love, who is faithful in the Lord. He will remind you of my way of life in Christ Jesus, which agrees with what I teach everywhere in every church. - 1 Corinthians 4:17

When we talk about spiritual leaders who train their successors, you might be saying, "I can barely get my own work done every week. How can I train someone else?"

Let me offer a couple of suggestions. First, involve someone in your ministry, whatever it is. If you teach Sunday school, ask someone to assist in what you're doing. That gives him or her a chance to observe you in action--and to help.

Second, get involved together in things other than spiritual activities. Throughout the books of First and Second Kings, we see Elijah and Elisha involved in training the young men in the schools of the prophets. But we also see Elijah investing himself in one man, Elisha, who would carry on the ministry when he was gone.

Moses and Joshua, Elijah and Elisha, and Paul and Timothy must have enjoyed a tremendous friendship that developed over years of shared experiences. A lot of principles of Christian living are caught rather than taught.

If you feel that your life isn't good enough to be observed and imitated by others, join the club. No one does. By the grace of God, we can be challenged to a deeper walk with the Lord as we seek to help others. Our lives are honed as we share our victories and defeats and grow together.

Whatever your ministry, let me challenge you to include someone young in it, and you will prepare someone who will keep on serving the Lord in the generation to come.
Prayer
Lord, with Your help, I want to invest the life You're working in me with others. Amen.

As Jesus spent time with the disciples, they internalized a message that would turn the world upside-down.  

I Come To The Garden Alone Hymn

I come to the garden alone
While the dew is still on the roses
And the voice I hear falling on my ear
The Son of God discloses.

Refrain
     And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
     And He tells me I am His own;
     And the joy we share as we tarry there,
     None other has ever known.

He speaks, and the sound of His voice,
Is so sweet the birds hush their singing,
And the melody that He gave to me
Within my heart is ringing.

Refrain
     And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
     And He tells me I am His own;
     And the joy we share as we tarry there,
     None other has ever known.

I’d stay in the garden with Him
Though the night around me be falling,
But He bids me go; through the voice of woe
His voice to me is calling.

Refrain
     And He walks with me, and He talks with me,
     And He tells me I am His own;
     And the joy we share as we tarry there,
     None other has ever known.

Daily Smile:

From Emily, 3 years old, at my house 

What is a cat’s favorite dessert in the summer?

 

A mice cream cone!

 

In The News:

Top Southern Baptist Official Breaks Pledge, Endorses Romney
Breaking a longstanding personal pledge, Southern Baptist leader Richard Land has endorsed GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney, saying next week's election is the most important since Abraham Lincoln's win in 1860 and he can no longer stay silent, the Religion News Service reports. "America is at a fork in the road and must choose between a President Barack Obama who wants to remake America in the model of a European welfare state and a Governor Mitt Romney who wants to restore a more economically vibrant and traditionally moral America," Land wrote in an Oct. 26 column in the Christian Post. Land, who is executive editor of the independent Christian Post and the top public policy spokesman for the SBC, said the "stark and revealing" differences between the Republicans and Democrats on abortion rights and same-sex marriage guided his decision. "For Christians of traditional religious faith, there cannot be more fundamental issues than the protection of the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death and the defense of marriage as a divinely-ordained institution between one man and one woman," he wrote.

Polls Show Conflicting Early Voting Numbers
A Reuters/Ipsos survey found that Barack Obama is leading Mitt Romney among early voters 54 percent to 39 percent, but a Gallup survey found just the opposite -- that Romney is currently leading Obama 52 to 45 percent. According to Gallup's Oct. 22-28 tracking polling, Romney is leading Obama 51 to 46 percent among all likely voters, but the race is tied at 49 percent among those who have not yet voted but intend to vote early. Early voting is now available in all 50 states, and according to WORLD Magazine, as many as 40 percent of all ballots cast this year will be by early voters.