Acts 15:26 (nasb) --- men who have risked their lives for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 16:4 (nasb) --- who for my life risked their own necks, to whom not only do I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles ;
Two verses that I hold close to my heart. Why? Because the people they are talk about are typical, every day kind of folk. Kind of like you and me. All they did was step out in faith. They lived what God said, and other people got caught in the mix. That is what happens when you take risks. It leads to results.
Sunday afternoon one of my best friends called. He lives in the deep south (and I miss his family much). Some months ago he took a risk and begin to reach out of a teen guy having some serious, I mean serious, issues. It has been a long journey with lots of pain and little progress.
Well, back to the call. My buddy called Sunday and told me that he was handing his phone to this teen guy. In the next couple minutes this 17 year old dude told me that on Saturday, he asked Jesus into his life. He felt refreshed and was beginning to understand his situation a bit better. He talked about how different going to church was, and how there seemed to be freedom and relief. That is it.
Take some risks. Get some results. Yes, we take the risks, and God produces the results. (Kudos, to my friend....I am proud of you).
One step. One decision. One conversation. Or it may be many. Yet the risk may just change a life or many lives for eternity. Are we willing to take some risk?
Sunday I shared a message about Taking Risks with The Community Fellowship continuing our Chase the Lion series. Here are just a couple of the thoughts from the talk:
If you notice Success in genealogy it can be traced back to one or two risks that were taken.
Risk may be one of the most spiritual acts we can take.
Faithfulness is risk and risk is faithfulness. We have the tendency to think of faithfulness in defensive terms...maintaining.
The master expected a return (speaking of Jesus' parable of the talents in Matthew 25) on what He invested (and so does our Master). What are we doing with what God has given us?
What will be our regrets at the end of our days? What we did or what we will not do? Most of the time the regret of what we did not do will haunt us the most. Ask yourselves some questions: Selfish or selfless? All of me or all of God? What is holding us back from taking risks?
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