July - August 2006
II
Thessalonians 3:1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may
have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
We
have wonderful news of the salvation of a young man in our church during the
month of July. He has been coming
for sometime now and at one time made a profession of faith.
After a service several weeks ago he was broken with the Spirit of God
and confessed that he had never been saved.
He prayed for salvation and has shown much evidence of a changed life
over the past couple months.
He sang a solo “I’ll Dare to be Different,” in the church service
last Sunday night. I gave him some
good Gospel music to listen to and he has enjoyed it tremendously.
It was a blessing for the whole church.
We also witnessed the return of a man to our church that has been out of
fellowship with the Lord for around nine months.
He was saved at the church back in 2004.
At one time he felt the hand of God on his life to preach the Gospel.
I had him to preach a couple times and he did excellent.
I felt he had the sincere touch of God on his life.
We recently had a special youth night at the church on a Friday night.
We ended up having more adults there than youth.
We had around fifty in attendance with half of them lost.
The Lord changed the program in mid-stream and I was able to preach the
Gospel right before we went home. We
had people there that I have invited to church time and time again, but never
had come. God opened up a
mighty door of utterance and we walked right through it.
These have been encouraging weeks for us on the field.
We have had great opportunities for witnessing, we have had several first
time visitors at the church, and we have had several new teen-agers to start
coming to the church.
In saying all that, I have to also say that during the encouraging times
the devil is always on the prowl. It
has been said, when you are doing something for the Lord, you can be assured
that Satan will do everything to discourage you and to cause havoc in the
ministry.
This he has done with every effort in the ministry that we have taken
over the past year back on the field. Many
plans have went pear shaped, but we have kept plowing right along.
Many projects have turned sour, but we have continued with the program.
We have scripture to look to and to receive guidance from and we have
many truths to cling to. I am reminded of John 10:10 where we are reminded that
Satan’s objective is to steal, kill, and destroy.
I also remember an old preacher saying, “That is what he came to do,
but Jesus didn’t say he was going to let him.”
We know he like a lion seeking whom he may devour.
We also know that Christ came to give us life and to allow us to have it
more abundantly. We know also that Christ is not a roaring lion seeking to
destroy, He is the Lion of the
Tribe of Judah wearing the Victors Crown.
We praise God in the good times and rejoice in the encouragement that He
gives. We also remember we are in a
battle. We are fighting the “Good
Fight.” We also remember
that we have a multitude of people praying for us on a daily basis.
Praise the Lord!
Until we write again, until we meet again, let us remember each other in
prayer and ask the Lord to give His Word free course in our witnessing and
preaching.
Thank you,
Ronnie
Smith and Family in Northern Ireland.