PERSONAL!
Dear Friends of the Gospel, September, 2016
It is with joy that I greet you in the matchless Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, realizing that we are living in the closing days of time and our Lord will soon return, as He promised. (John 14: 1-3)
St. Paul wrote: "Remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and your labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God..." (1 Thes.1: 3).
He commended them for their diligence in serving God in a hostile and pagan land. The Gospel had been proven to work as he had declared, to bring such good fruit among them.
Faith, Love and Hope are the necessary elements needed to changed the hearts of the sinner. The work of faith is pouring oneself into the Lord's work. The labour of love goes beyond natural ability and farther than the norm! And the patience of Hope believes because the heart understands God, even if it seems unrealistic in the natural!
The reason that this spiritual fruit was so enormous was because of St. Paul's powerful message and ministry: "For our Gospel came not unto you in Word only, but also in Power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much Assurance."
They became followers of the Apostles and of Jesus Himself, "having received the Word in much Affliction, with joy in the Holy Ghost."
HOW FAR WE FALL SHORT!
HOW FAR WE FALL SHORT!
O' that we could have such congregations today in Canada and elsewhere! How far short we fall when we compare ourselves to these early Church believers, who believed in Christ and served Him with such zeal even during perilous times!
"For from you sounded out the Word of the Lord not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith to God-ward is spread abroad..."
These new believers in Christ had, "turned to God from idols, to serve the Living God. And to WAIT for His Son from Heaven, Whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." (1 Thes.1: 4-10)
May the Lord stir our hearts and lives today to serve Him acceptably in this perverted generation and may we stand in the gap for a diminishing, lukewarm and compromising Church! So, help us God!
Thank you my beloved friends for your letters, prayers and gifts of love to further Christ's Gospel to the ends of the earth. Please write for literature, cds and dvds. And send us your prayer requests!
And may His saving, healing and delivering power fill your entire being with the Faith of Jesus and the life of the Resurrected Christ. Amen.
Your servant for Jesus' name,
Pastor Max Solbrekken
