Faith, Don’t Leave Home Without It

Weekly Ministry Tip #13 Fall 2013

Faith, Don’t Leave Home Without It

The Bible is filled with examples of faith. It is encouraging to read how people trusted in Jesus during His active 3 years of ministry, as recorded in the Gospels. Read this event in the life of Jesus as chronicled in the Harmony of the Gospels[1]

John 4:46–54

⁴⁶So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” ⁴⁹The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. ⁵¹As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. ⁵²So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” ⁵³The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. ⁵⁴This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.

The request by the official was probably prompted by previous miracles he may have witnessed or heard about when Jesus was in Cana. From an initial look at this passage, it seems Jesus doubted the belief of the official when he said,  “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” But in fact, His plan by making that statement was to help bring the official into a deeper faith in Himself.

The official was desperate as his son was at the point of death. Jesus said, “Go; your son will live.”  His response to Jesus’ words becomes one of the main lessons in this story – “The man believed the word Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.” That is faith! The result – he and his entire household believed in Jesus. His miracles brought glory to God and helped people to believe in Him.

Do you sometimes shy away from bringing your requests to Him no matter how big or small? Step out in faith and ask Him. We serve a Savior who wants us to trust Him more, to abide in Him, and to be fully dependent on Him. He sees the big picture of our lives; He knows what is best for us. We just need to follow Him and say, “Jesus I believe you will somehow work in my life, my ministry situation, and even my smallest cares.” Prayer is leaving our requests to Him in Faith. Don’t leave home without it.

Take A Look At Your Ministry – Some Points To Consider

Autumn is going very quickly! (At least for me it has.) To stay on track with important strategies for your ministry situation, it is always good to ask some questions to help evaluate how you can have an even more fruitful ministry whether on a college campus, high school, inner city, community setting, or reaching a special segment of your culture. Ask yourself these questions and how they might fit in with where God has you:

1. Is there anyone who has not shown up to your meetings for a while that you need to call and visit? We want to make sure people do not fall through the cracks. Make that phone call this week, it could make a big difference in his or her life.
2. Are your weekly meetings and/or Bible studies on target with what you’re hoping to accomplish? If you are on a school calendar, you have a very limited number of weeks to train your disciples. Be sure to cover the foundational principles of the Christian faith first. Our goal is help you multiply your ministry by teaching studies you can model to others. Check out this past weekly tip – http://www.benrivera.org/2012/09/05/which-bible-study-will-you-use/
3. Is everyone trained in sharing his or her faith? Have all the new people gone through the training on the “Big Six” and using the “Knowing God Personally” booklet? This is foundational, take all your new people through this training before the end of the fall term. http://crupressgreen.com/the-big-six-questions-clarifying-the-kgp/ and http://crupressgreen.com/videos/crupress-presents-the-big-six/
4. Continue to actively recruit for the Christmas/Winter Conference – http://cruoncampus.org/go/winter-conferences/
5. Be sure you have solid leadership in place for the Spring ministry term. Begin now to fill any vacancies in your leadership team. http://crupressgreen.com/building-effective-teams/
6. Finally, be sure to help all your disciples walk with God, and have good devotionals now and for when they go home for the Christmas break. Here are some resources that will help you: http://crupressgreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Invitation_to_Intimacy.pdf  http://crupressgreen.com/how-to-study-a-passage-of-scripture/

Keep your eye on the calendar. Fall is quickly coming to a close.

Talk to you next week,

Ben with Cru

Orlando, FL