By Melissa Reid

 

 

 

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Melissa Reid is associate editor for Liberty Magazine

 

When you read these verses and look at the world around you, it is easy to recognize the times in which we live. As nation rises against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, it is inevitable that some of our members will join the military and serve their country in special times of need.

 

So how can pastors support their members who serve in the military? Here are seven suggestions:

 

 

 

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Chaplain Garry Losey recently retired from the US Army Reserves

Joe was a drunk who was miraculously converted at a rescue mission. Prior to his conversion, Joe had a reputation for being a miserable, dirty wino from the ghetto for whom there was no hope. Following his conversion to a new life with God, everything changed. Joe became the most caring person those at the mission had ever known.  

 

Joe spent his days and nights hanging out at the mission doing whatever needed to be done. There was never any task that was too lowly for Joe to take on. There was never anything that he was asked to do that he considered beneath him. Whether it was cleaning up vomit left by a violently sick alcoholic or scrubbing the toilets after careless men left the bathroom filthy, Joe did what was asked with a smile on his face and gratitude for the chance to help.

 

One evening when the director of the mission shared his evening evangelistic message with the usual crowd, a man came down the aisle to the altar and knelt to pray, crying out for God to help him to change. The repentant drunk kept shouting, "O God, make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe! Make me like Joe!"    

The director of the mission leaned over and said to the man, "Son, I think it would be better if you prayed, 'Make me like Jesus!'"    

The man looked up to the director with a quizzical expression on his face and asked, "Is He like Joe?"

 

 

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Bruce Nicola is the associate pastor for visitation and senior ministry for the Paradise Church in Northern California

NAD Announces the Release of a New Parenting Resource:

Help! I'm a Parent: Christian Parenting in the Real World

 

What if someone gave you a block of the finest marble with the task of creating a masterpiece that would be displayed in the most prominent place for all the world to see? Unless you are a gifted sculptor, and hiring one is not an option, what would you do? And what if you were given only seven years to create this monument which will last a lifetime?

 

Parenting is like that, except that instead of a block of hard, cold marble we are given the delicate life of a child for us to begin to shape and mold so they can become lifetime disciples of Jesus Christ. What an awesome task and responsibility! Where do we begin? When you face this momentous mission, do you feel like screaming, "Help! I'm a parent?" Read More. 

 

 

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Claudio Consuegra is director of the NAD Church Ministries department and Pamela Consuegra is the associate director of the NAD Church Ministries department.

Join our Best Practices conversation. Share your best sermon illustrations. Tell us the subjects you'd like us to talk about. Float an idea you would like to write about. Raise a question that you would like answered by a seasoned pastor. Contact us today!

 

In Pornography: The New Narcotic and Hijacking Back Your Brain From Porn, John Piper, the pastor for preaching at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota tells us that pornography is just as addictive as cocaine and heroin.

Like cocaine, pornography is a stimulant that increases the dopamine levels in the brain. Like heroin, pornography is an opiate, which conveys a relaxing effect. Pornography delivers both chemicals in a single punch with the power to actually change the physiological makeup of the brain.

The good news is that when we fix our eyes on Jesus, we are equipped with spiritual weapons that are more physiologically powerful than porn. The presence of Jesus in our lives will renew the entire life and reroute our neural pathways for true intimacy.