by: Pastor Lonnie Phillips
​Joshua 4:6 that this may be a sign among you. When your children ask in time to come, 'What do those stones mean to you?' 7 then you shall tell them that the waters of the Jordan were cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it passed over the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. So these stones shall be to the people of Israel a memorial forever." (Jos. 4:6 ESV)
Do you and I have markers in our life where God has met us powerfully, making His presence known to us? These markers become testimonies of God’s love and kindness for the next generation.
When I went to Asbury Seminary, I had a professor, Dr. Kallas, who shared that he would go to his hometown once a year as a retreat to be reminded of God’s goodness and grace in his life. This past month of July, I went on sabbatical for a month and sensed that the Lord was wanting me to spend a couple of days in my hometown of Friona, Texas. Honestly, I was thinking about going on a personal retreat to the ocean or mountains but the Lord kept bringing up Friona to my mind, so I went out of obedience.
It was really the first time of being in Friona, without just passing through, since 1989, 32 years ago. I did a lot of walking around town and going to those places where God met me and made Himself known to me. The two pictures that I share are two markers in my life:
1) While attending a Sunday Service with my parents, when I was ten years old, I left the service to wander the halls and found my way to this little chapel. As I sat in the chapel, I became aware of God’s Holy and manifest presence. It is hard to describe the experience other than I knew that I was known by God and that He was Holy. I became afraid and ran back into the sanctuary to join my parents.
2) The second picture is of the football field where I played during my high school years. It was my junior year and it was the first time that I had ever prayed before a game that God would be glorified through my play. During that specific game, I experienced God make himself known to me, during a run that I made, which I knew was not just in my strength alone. As I stood on this football field years later, that specific run I remembered and was reminded that God was and continues to be my strength.
Markers are important for us to have in life. Christ not only uses these markers to encourage us, on occasions, but these markers are to be used to testify of Christ Jesus and His goodness to the next generation.
What are your markers and are you sharing them with your children?

Marriage is a sacred gift of God and not the invention of humankind.
There are some within the Christian faith that are trying to teach that humankind gets to determine what marriage is and isn't.
God declares in Genesis 2:24 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh."
His Son, Jesus Christ, declares in Matthew 19:4-6 to the religious leaders of the day, "Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate."
Whoever is teaching Marriage outside of what the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit established at creation, is not teaching from the throne of grace but from their own throne of flesh. They are teaching from the perspective of sinful humanity and not from the perspective of the Divine and what He has gifted to humanity.

​When giving opinions on the morality of our society, we do so from a place of authority. The question becomes from what authority are we speaking? Are we speaking as the one in authority and the moral judge or are we speaking as an ambassador on behalf of the One who sits as the Righteous Judge and has been given all authority?
An Ambassador of a nation doesn't get to pick and choose what they say but they are instructed concerning the issues and the stance they are to take by the One in authority.
The one who confesses Jesus Christ becomes an Ambassador of Christ. When we read the book of Romans are we reading Paul or are we reading the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul? When we read the Gospel of Matthew are we reading Matthew or are we reading the Holy Spirit speaking through Matthew.
We live in a time where there are pastors, teachers and prophets who are picking and choosing the Scriptures they like while dismissing the passages they don't because it fits their belief system.
If the word of God is not calling us to change our mindsets but we are using it to back up our own mindset then we are not walking as His Ambassadors but as the ones in primary authority.
Paul, when addressing Jews in Rome, said, "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet..."(Acts 28:25) Paul never spoke as the one in authority but always as an ambassador of Christ Jesus, the Lord.(2 Corinthians 5:20)

​James 4:14 Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. (Jas. 4:14 NAU)
It is a very sobering thought that our lives are like a vapor, we are here one day and gone the next.
We live often as though we have all the time in the world and will always be around and yet we know that is not true. Therefore, what you and I do with our time not only matters, but we will all one day give an account before the One who brought us into this world.
We are not accidents nor is it the Universe that brought us into existence but it is the One who created the Universe and who wonderfully and fearfully made us in our mother's womb that gave us life.
When Jesus said in John 10:10 that He came so that we might have life and life in abundance, He is speaking of a full and meaningful life in Him that is for us today and that extends into eternity when our life is over.
Jesus who came to give purpose in life is also the righteous Judge who is coming one day to judge the living and the dead (1 Timothy 4:1). Are we intent on following Jesus who is the Savior and Righteous Judge and walk in His ways and not our own?

​When we are faithful in following Jesus, the world will not applaud.
John the Baptist was thrown into prison and eventually beheaded because of His faithfulness. "John had been saying to Herod, 'It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.' And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death"(Mark 6:18-19)
If we are looking for the applause of the world instead of the applause of Heaven, we will not stay the course in proclaiming the full Gospel of Jesus, which goes counter to the culture.
When we yield ourselves to the Holy Spirit and walk in the plans and purposes that God has for us, there will be opposition. There will be those that hold a grudge and will not like us. There may be family members that reject us or co-workers talking behind our back.
In our society there are too many people that want to be offensive and want to say things that will cause people to take notice. This was not John's motivation. His motivation was to follow God and be faithful in the mission God had called him to. The things he said were not offensive because John was trying to be offensive but because the Spirit of God was saying those things through him.
Is our motivation to minister in and through the love of Christ and to speak the truth in love? If that is our motivation, there will be times of rejection and being opposed, but it will never be without purpose and without the favor of God.