Do you Measure Up?:
When I was studying Mechanical Engineering in College one of the clases that we had to take was called quality control. It was a class that taught how to maintain the quality of a product in the manufacturing process. The process was to take one out of every 20 or 50 in the production line and measure it and record the measurements on a graph chart. This showed even the slightest problem in the process if the product was a little larger or smaller each time. The adjustments could be made and that way the quality could be maintained.
As I was thinking back about this class one day I realised that it is much the same in our spiritual lives. We should be taking measurements on our Christian walk on a regular basis to see if we are failing in one area or another. We should be asking ourselves, “How is my devotional time reading my Bible and praying?” or “When is the last time the Lord really spoke to me through the preaching?”. We should constantly be taking these measurements to see if we are failing in our Christian lives and make the necessary adjustments. So how can we take these measurements to make sure?
1. Pray
When we pray we should ask the Lord to show us where we are failing.
2. Reflect
Be Honest with Yourself
3. Compare
We must not compare ourselves to others but to the Word of God.
4. Ask
It is much easier for someone else to see our faults than for us to see them many times.
Overall the key is to be attentive to how you are doing and take time every little bit to take a spiritual measurement to make sure you don’t get off track.
Reaching Fathers:
This past month we celebrated Father’s day here in Bolivia so we had special activities at church. Although Father’s day is no where near as celebrated as mother’s day here we wanted to do something special for them. On Saturday we showed the first of the Sherwood movies called Flywheel. This is the same group that made Facing the Giants and Fireproof. The movie wasn’t specifically for fathers but it showed a man that learned the lesson about being a person of integrity and example for his family and others. We had close to 60 that came with 4 or 5 visitors and one man that made a profession of faith. Then on Sunday we started out with all kinds of sweets that the ladies of the church brought to serve between Sunday School and church. For the service we prepared a short video where we filmed the kids thanking the Lord for their fathers and saying Happy Father’s Day. Along with that we gave a small set of screwdrivers to each of the fathers and the children made a handprint art project for them. Then on Sunday night we had with us Pastor Garvan Walls from Mt. Pisgah Baptist Church to preach and Bro. Ken McCoy and Robert Franklin visiting. The message was titled “Who is in your Basket?”. It was a great blessing to us and the people to have him with us. In all we had a truly blessed weekend with several visitors and four people that made a profession of faith. Our prayer is that the Lord will raise up fathers that will stand up and be spiritual leaders in their home.
Prayer Requests:
1. Pray for us as we look at several perspective pieces of land for our church.
2. Pray for the new work we are starting in Quillacollo as we look for a place to rent.
3. Pray for the activities this month for Children’s Day.
4. Pray for the guys studying in our Seminary.