10/31/2021

Words that we use, are we using them in a way that other people can understand what we mean? Some times we do and others we don’t. I remember fifty years ago I used the phrase that some people understood and others said, “huh?” It was: See you Tuesday week. This meant that I would see you one week from Tuesday. It was a type of phrase that was used in my family and my class mates had never heard it, therefore they did not understand what I meant.

Nowadays, church people have joined the politicians as well as people of other “faiths”. Words are used to educate, confuse, show a sense of belonging, and to hide your true meaning. I know people are changing the meanings of words all the time. Remember when the word cool meant the temperature was not hot, then it meant that you were doing something that they really liked and now when I hear that word, I am not sure what it means. The following link gives other examples.

It quotes Abraham Lincoln and I like what it states: “How many legs does a dog have if you call his tail a leg? Four. Saying that a tail is a leg doesn’t make it a leg.”

As Christians we need to be very careful of the words we use, they could come back to harm your Christ-like reputation. We need to know what the Bible states and be able to understand it, with the ability of telling others what it means. If we are not careful to use the correct words the person you are witnessing to may get the wrong impression.

We should always ask God to help us daily in what we do as well as what we speak.

Lord help us be the witness that You want us to be so that we might win the lost for You. Give us strength and wisdom to do your work. Amen.

C.I. Wilson

https://www.foundationsoftruth.com/post/words?inf_contact_key=2cc99f71d427d7fed2af187f5335b2301b0a3f0fd3ee5d9b43fb34c6613498d7

10/24/2021

Recently I received this email and thought you might get something as I did by reading it. Here is the article with the website below.

C.I. Wilson

The past two years have taught people the value of comfort and the distressing feeling of discomfort. The discomfort barometer ranged from the lack of toilet paper to fear of death and everything in between. Is the Christian perspective prepared to embrace the idea of discomfort as God building character in us?

We see many of God’s own in the throws of uncomfortable character building. Noah, most likely, received unending criticism of his gigantic construction monstrosity. He worked for years and years on an Ark and a promise. He was 600 years old when the flood waters began. (Genesis 7:6). That’s plenty of time for character building. Joseph was imprisoned for a crime he did not commit. Yet, “the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor” (Genesis 39: 21) The Lord was with him? Can you escape character building if the Lord is with you? Was Joseph faced with discomfort? I’m reasonably sure of it, based on what a prison of the day would be like. Would Joseph have become the leader he became if he had not faced the trials of being wrongly convicted and jailed? Yet, the Lord was with him through it all.

What did Christians learn during the past 2 years of discomfort? What did we spend our time on? Many of us did not have a daily commute to work. Did we eat our way through the shut down? Did we sleep more and watch television? According to an American Time Use survey, after sleeping, Americans spent most of their time watching television.[i] Was the Lord with us during those television hours?

Church going was halted during the Pandemic, with many churches going to online services. Church leaders rallied to bring worship to at-home congregations. A poll taken in April of 2020 reported “one-quarter of the U.S. adults overall, 24% say their faith had become stronger because of the coronavirus pandemic”.[ii] Does that sound like a low percentage? Should not all Christians be in a state of growing stronger daily in good times and in hardship? Proverbs 24:10 predicts “if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small.” (ESV)

How do we examine personal character building? What test can we take to know if we have grown? James 1:2-4 speaks of trials as being a test that produces steadfastness. Our reward is to be “lacking in nothing.”[iii] That is the complete opposite of how we would consider Pandemic life wherein we felt “lacking in much”. Were we steadfast in our faith? Did we take the Lord with us? Did we develop character that will take us to great leadership as the world sheds the cocoon of the past two years and begins to spread its wings? Those are the questions we can ask of ourselves and prayerfully consider our desire for growth in character over comfort.

Foundations of Truth hereby waives all claim of copyright (economic and moral) in this work and immediately places it in the public domain; it may be used, published, edited, and distributed in any manner whatsoever without any attribution or notice to Foundations of Truth.

[i] https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-07-22/americans-spent-more-time-watching-television-during-covid-19-than-working [ii] https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/30/few-americans-say-their-house-of-worship-is-open-but-a-quarter-say-their-religious-faith-has-grown-amid-pandemic/ [iii] https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=James%201%3A2-4&version=ESV

https://www.foundationsoftruth.com/post/character-over-comfort

10/17/2021

This weekend I attended a Women’s Conference and one of the speakers was giving an illustration and God sent me down another way. With these two questions.

How do you see your life? How does the Lord want your life to be?

She gave the illustration of when women think about how they wished their life was, especially while doing the tasks that never seems to end; like washing dishes, picking up after the family, doing the laundry and cooking. Instead of doing all the work, she sometimes dreams of living a life where she lives in a large house with lots of servants at her beck and call to do all the tasks in her life.

As she was describing this wishful life, God gave me a vision of the lowest servant in that household going about her job of cleaning with a smile on her face and singing. The song she was singing was how happy she was since Jesus came into her life.

The Lord filled me with the knowledge of how this was the way He wanted His people to be. He wants us to live as if we the lowest of the low and still be praising Him all the time.

To God it matters not what type of life we live; it matters how we life that life. Yes, He wants us to live our lives with a smile on our face knowing that we are saved, and on our way to Heaven. He wants us to be an example that others might see Jesus in our lives. Where people will see all the hard things in our lives and wonder how can we be so happy with our lives. Then when they ask us; what makes us different, we can tell them the wonderful story of how living for Jesus makes all the difference.

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for Your Saving Grace. You are the source of our joy. I ask you to help each person that reads this to reach out to You for the peace and joy that you, Lord Jesus bring into our lives. Help those who are struggling with the present in their lives and show them the way to have that peace and joy that only You can give. Amen

C.I. Wilson

10/10/2021

How mature do you feel you are spiritually? Recently I got ahold of an e-book by Doug Paul which got me to thinking.

When I accepted the Lord as my Savior fifty plus years ago, I needed a lot of help from my parents, Sunday School teachers, pastors, and all the Christians in my local church. You know the old saying that it takes a community to raise a child. Well, it takes a church to raise a new Christian into a mature Christian. That means we all have our jobs cut out for us.

First, we need “Parents.” These are people who witness and lead sinners into a personal walk with Christ. Everyone that professes to be a Child of God can and should throughout their life become a “Spiritual Parent” on more than a few occasions, we should become the “parents” of a multitude of God’s children.

After a person becomes a Child of God, it takes many “Spiritual Parents,” and they can be anyone that has been walking with God, growing with God, and most importantly maturing in God. As we mature or grow in our walk with God then we need to also become “Spiritual Parents.”

Some of us are in a person’s life for short periods of time and others for a long time. There are people that at one time I was more spiritually mature than they were and now they show signs of being more mature than I in certain areas of their life. It does not matter what level of maturity you are if you keep letting God use you to bring sinners to a personal relationship with God and help them grow into the person God wants them to be.

Therefore, look around and ask God to show you people that you can help grow.

C.I. Wilson

Heavenly Father, thank you for using Your children from infants to seniors. Show us how to become better followers of Your will. Amen.

10/3/2021

Years ago, my daughter bought a CD with Ray Boltz singing the song “Thank You” and I was listening to it while driving yesterday. It got me to thinking about our missionaries. Who are our missionaries? Thank about it and see if you know.

This song talks about the Sunday School Teacher who leads an eight-year-old to the Lord. Then it talks about how someone in in church heard a missionary talk and gave in the offering. Then the missionary wins this person to the Lord and he meets him in heaven and tells him “Thank you for giving.”

We have our traditional missionaries, the ones that travel to foreign lands and learn new languages so they can preach to the “Heathen” overseas. Then we have many other missionaries, some we know in our local churches and some from foreign lands come to America to lead the lost to Jesus just to name a very few.

Are you a missionary? Do you go out and witness to the lost? Do you give in your church to missionaries to go overseas? How about giving to Christian organizations that help people all around the world to hear of Jesus and how much He loves them.

Lord help us know how we can help the people who are out there witnessing to the lost fields of humanity. As Jesus said in Luke 10:2 (KJV), “The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.”

God needs our help to get His message to the world.

John 3:16-17 (KJV)
¹⁶  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
¹⁷  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.