As followers of Christ, we should never judge and we should never be quick to anger. Read this below as a reminder and give someone a big smile today instead :)
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Help us to remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day, that she is rushing home to cook dinner and help with homework, to do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who takes forever at the checkout stand, is a worried 19-year-old college student, who is balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
Remind us that the scary looking bum, begging for money
in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!)
is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow
through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
Let us be slow to judge and quick to forgive.
Let us show patience, empathy and love.
Open our hearts not to just those who are close to us,
but to all humanity.
Remind us each day that of all the gifts you give us,
the greatest gift is love.
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Encoragement when i need it
We Need It the Most"
"They helped every one his neighbour: and every one said to his brother, BE OF GOOD COURAGE". Isaiah 41:6 KJV (Capitals are mine for emphasis)
A GOOD HABIT I HAVE ENDEAVORED TO DEVELOP OVER THE YEARS
No matter who we are, all of us are going through something, and need a word of encouragement. A good habit I have endeavored to develop over the years is to find something good about everybody, and compliment them on it. There are enough people with toxic personalities injecting their poison wherever they go. When people spread gossip and evil reports, don't you feel dirty, and like you need to take a bath? These kind of conversations are non-productive and only serve to drag down those who engage in such practices.
REACH OUT TO THE DOWN-AND-OUTERS AND GIVE THEM A BOOST
When we receive a good report of encouragement it produces the desired affect of lifting us up. There are enough "downers" in this world already without us adding insult to injury to the list. Jesus came to our planet not to push people down further than they already were, but to reach out to the down-and-outers and give them a boost. In my mail it is not unusual to read words such as, "Some days I do not want to live anymore". This does not come from those who do not know the Lord, but from Christians who have been serving the Lord for a long time. They have been so continually put down, that they are despairing of life itself.
THE LORD SEEMS TO ARRANGE FOR GOOD REPORTS TO COME TO US FROM ALL DIRECTIONS
When we need it the most the Lord seems to arrange for good reports to come to us from all directions. Recently friends in Oklahoma and Missouri surrounded me with hospitality and godly love. This included a couple I have known for 30 years, and two professors who were in my meetings about 40 years ago, and the pastor of the mother church of Pentecost on the West Coast, USA, whose life was changed dramatically when he was a teenager in one of the spiritual renewals I preached. Happily they shared with me during a time I needed to hear good reports.
ONE LITTLE WORD OF ENCOURAGEMENT CAN TIP THE SCALES
Have you encouraged someone lately? It could make a difference which would make one feel like a failure or a success. People need to feel worthwhile and as though they are needed and appreciated. The devil knows that his time is short and he is pulling out every trick in the book to bring discouragement to those on the front lines of battle of spiritual warfare. One little word of encouragement can tip the scales favorably to be a catalyst to propel one over the top to be the best they can be for the Lord.
Bishop Marvin Schmidt
World Changers International
"Making a Difference in Our World"
Bishop_Marvin@WCI888.com
"Your First Source of Inspiration and Information"
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Marvin Schmidt
Friday, June 17, 2011
MIRACLE!!! MIRACLE!!! MIRACLE!!!
1 Corinthians 13
1IF I [can] speak in the tongues of men and [even] of angels, but have not love (that reasoning, intentional, spiritual devotion such [a]as is inspired by God's love for and in us), I am only a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.2And if I have prophetic powers ([b]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God's love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).
3Even if I dole out all that I have [to the poor in providing] food, and if I surrender my body to be burned or [c] in order that I may glory, but have not love (God's love in me), I gain nothing.
4Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily.
5It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God's love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].
6It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail.
7Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening].
8Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. As for prophecy ([d]the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), it will be fulfilled and pass away; as for tongues, they will be destroyed and cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away [it will lose its value and be superseded by truth].
9For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect).
10But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded).
11When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; now that I have become a man, I am done with childish ways and have put them aside.
12For now we are looking in a mirror that gives only a dim (blurred) reflection [of reality as [e]in a riddle or enigma], but then [when perfection comes] we shall see in reality and face to face! Now I know in part (imperfectly), but then I shall know and understand [f]fully and clearly, even in the same manner as I have been [g]fully and clearly known and understood [[h]by God].
13And so faith, hope, love abide [faith--conviction and belief respecting man's relation to God and divine things; hope--joyful and confident expectation of eternal salvation; love--true affection for God and man, growing out of God's love for and in us], these three; but the greatest of these is love.
INSTEAD OF LOVE PUT YOUR NAME AND SEE THE MIRACLE!!!!
Thursday, June 9, 2011
CELEBRATING GODS GRACE
May 2011: Celebrating 54 Years in the Ministry
June 2011: Beginning of Year 55
"The Comeback Kid"
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| "For A JUST MAN FALLETH (is knocked out; fails) SEVEN TIMES, and RISETH UP AGAIN: but the wicked shall fall into mischief". Proverbs 24:16 KJV (Capitals are mine for emphasis) |
Bishop Marvin Schmidt
World Changers International
"Making a Difference in Our World"
Bishop_Marvin@WCI888.com
"Your First Source of Inspiration and Information"
| |
Marvin Schmidt
"The Only Sermon My Grandmother Ever Preached"
”He endured the cross, despising the shame..Heb. 12:2
My Grandmother’s name is Rose Moore, I surely love her! I will never express my love for her in the past tense, because true love is eternal and I know there is coming a Day when I shall once again see, hear and feel her loving heartbeat as she welcomes me home!
The greatest thing about my grandmother, and I believe ones like her, is their TRULY UNCONDITIONAL LOVE!!
There was a time when all the other members of my family (Preachers, Prisoners, Rich & Poor) had given up on little Stevie, (wow, how I hated that name)! They wouldn’t answer their phones, wouldn’t open their doors, wouldn’t invite me to church, or to come over for Christmas or Thanksgiving. I had one uncle who took me off his visitors list while he was in prison (now that's sad), and there were some who didn’t even want me to be at my Grandmother’s funeral!
The only time I ever remember seeing her angry (and I realize now it was righteous indignation) was when the family had gather for an intervention to talk about how some ‘TOUGH LOVE’ program was the only thing that could help little Stevie, and Oh how they loved to quote:
1Cr 5:5
"To deliver such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus."
I remember her small frail frame rising to it’s feet that day in the middle of our living room with my Dad, Mother, Uncles, and Aunties, all sitting around as if they were members of the Great White Throne Judgement
Then it started; The only sermon my Grandmother ever preached!
"Let me tell ya’ll something about “Tough Love’;
TOUGH LOVE; is leaving the very throne room of God to come and dwell among men!
TOUGH LOVE; is being despised and rejected by all mankind!
TOUGH LOVE; is bearing the sins of the whole world upon your shoulders!
TOUGH LOVE; is receiving the stripes of affliction for all humanity!
TOUGH LOVE; is asking someone to pray with you in your darkest hours and they all fall asleep!
TOUGH LOVE is having soldiers cram a crown of thorns upon your already beaten head!
TOUGH LOVE is having spikes driven into your hands and feet as they hammer you onto a tree!
TOUGH LOVE is then carrying that cross up Calvary’s Hill while being spit upon, mocked and lashed with cords of bone and glass!
TOUGH LOVE is being raised up high and a spear pierced into your side!
TOUGH LOVE is during all this pain and shame to still be able to say “Father forgive them for they know not what they do”!
TOUGH LOVE is the lonelines you would feel as your own Father turns His face away!
TOUGH LOVE is crying out from the depths of your agony ‘My God, My God why hast thou forsaken me!!
She stopped! Silence Reigned! There were no Amens to be heard, no hallelujahs filled the house, no offering plate was passed, no, not even an altar call was made!!
From that day forward, never again was I called little Stevie, but Stephen!
From that day forward, ever phone call I made was quickly answered!
Every door was opened whenever I knocked!
Every Thanksgiving I was handed the first plate of Turkey and Dressing!
Every Christmas I was asked to open the first present!
When my uncle was released from prison, he called me to come pick him up!
When my Grandmother passed on, I was asked to give her Eulogy!!
As I was pulling away from the grave side service on that cold rainy day, I looked back for one last time, and there Saints, the brightest Light I have ever seen, piecred the darkness of those clouds and shined directly upon her grave, but then as suddenly as it came, it receded back into the heavens, leaving behind, and filling my car with the sweetest fragrance of Roses I have ever smelled.!!
“Tough Love”
That was the title of : The Only Sermon My Grandmother Ever Preached!!
Think I'll preach it Sunday, if that's OK with you Grandmother? I LOVE YOU!!
Thursday, May 12, 2011
"Confessing Life While
Confronting Death"
"I SHALL NOT DIE, BUT LIVE, and declare the works of the LORD". Jesus singing the Great Hallel--Hallelujah. Psalm 118:17 KJV (Capitals are mine for emphasis) Capitals are mine for emphasis
HE HAD TO LIVE IN ORDER TO DECLARE THE WORKS OF THE LORD
Jesus sang this Psalm with the 11--Judas had already left after being identified as the one who would betray Him--at the last supper. The prophetic Great Hallelujah song is found in Psalms 113-118. As he faced agonizing suffering and certain death to deliver us from our sicknesses and sins, He sang of His continuing life. He had to live in order to declare the works of the Lord. Even though His demise was eminent, and there was no way out, He could still confidently sing these words set to music that no matter what happened, eventually He would live and fulfill His ministry.
WHAT WAS "THE JOY SET BEFORE HIM"?
The movie, "The Passion", only tells part of the story, the part about His intense pain and suffering. But, it certainly does not tell the whole story. He went to the cross "for the joy that was set before Him", singing about His resurrection life. What was "the joy set before Him"? It was the knowledge that He was about to defeat Satan, purchase our salvation, and pay the price for our healing. While He was in the process of dying, "He had you on His mind".
BEFORE JESUS CONQUERED "THE LAST ENEMY"--DEATH--HE SANG
Our Savior and Lord is our Example showing us how to react when we are confronted with death. Either we believe for a miracle of healing to extend our life, or we anticipate the continuation of our eternal life beyond the grave. Each of us has been called to "declare the works of the Lord". This is the primary purpose of our existence. Before Jesus conquered "the last enemy"--death--He sang. No matter what we are now facing, the best way to deal with it is to sing, and confidently decree, "I shall not die, but live".
Bishop Marvin Schmidt
World Changers International
"Making a Difference in Our World"
Bishop_Marvin@WCI888.com
"Your First Source of Inspiration and Information"
| |
Marvin Schmidt
"If You Don't Confront the Serpent in Your Life Now
You Will Face a Bigger Dragon Later"
" . . . THE SERPENT BEGUILED ME, and I did eat". Eve trying to excuse herself, and blame someone else for surrendering to temptation, Genesis 3:13b KJV (Capitals are mine for emphasis)
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| "And THE DRAGON WAS WROTH WITH THE WOMAN, and WENT TO MAKE WAR WITH THE REMNANT OF HER SEED (children and offspring) . . . " Revelation 12:17a KJV (Capitals are mine for emphasis) |
Bishop Marvin Schmidt
World Changers International
"Making a Difference in Our World"