How to Help People
by Pastor Jay Pankratz

From time to time I like to review and reflect on the message from the weekend that was delivered by my pastor. I think this is one of those days that deserve a reflection and review. This past weekend Pastor Jay uses Acts 13:15-52 to exemplify how we can help people.
All of us have friends and family in our lives that rely on us for advice and assistance. What do we do when they come to us for help? Often times we try to give them our own advice or what we think they should do. Instead this brief lesson will show you how you can help others in need:
Let's begin.
1. Utilize the word of God as your solid foundation. Fully embrace the Word of God tohelp people. Repeeatedly quote the Word of God to help people. Instead of interjecting our own opinions and advice, use the Word of God. Acts 13:1-52, 2Timothy 3:16-17,Acts 20:35, Psalm 119:50,Psalm 119: 105

2.Focus on the Son of God as your central messsage. Focus on the death and resurection of Jesus to help people. Focus on forgiveness and justification for repentence to help people.
To forgive means to release a debt and is a change of a condition. Justification means to be judged as righteous and is a change of position. Let them know that God doesn't see your sins when you accept Jesus into into your life. And only Jesus can remove the guilt that you feel in your life. Let them know that no religion or good works cansave you from your sin, only Jesus.Acts13:26-41, 1Corinthians 15:3-6, 11 Peter 3:18, Psalm 51:3-4

3.Trust the Spirit of God to make a mighty impact in the lives of others. Trust that the Spirit of God can empower the word of God to bring people to God. Trust that the Spirit of God can give you the strength of God to overcome the opposition of the world. Relay these messages and thoughts to those that you are helping. Acts 13:42-52, Isaiah 55:11, Jeremiah 23:29

Now what step do you need totake to make Jesus and the Word of God a Central Focus in your Life?

I need to memorize Bible verses. I want to do this not to impress people or just for the sake of memorization, but instead for the sake of helping others. If I can recall a verse or passage from the Bible that relates to a person's situation when they come to me for help then I can really start to impact their life with the Word of God.

What about you, what are you going to do the next time someone comes to you for help? Are you going to rely on your own thoughts and ideas or are you going to refer to the Word of God?

My Family and my my walk with Christ

It is very important to me to balance my time with my family with my walk with Christ. Although on my priority list God comes first, then my family (husband and then kids), I feel as though I am not spending enough time with my family. I recently been evaluating everything on my plate, my plate of life that is. To help me understand what I should cut out and what I should leave as is. All of a sudden it dawned on me during our parent dedication class what I should do. Actually in all honesty it didn't dawn on me, Pastor Emory shared with the class the ifference between your walk with God and ministry. He informed us that many times get confused about their walk with God and think that being involved with ministry is NECESSARY and comes before their family. This is a misconception. Although God should be your first priority, you don't have to be involved in ministry to walk with God. He went on to further explain that may times families are torn apart because one member wants to devote themselves to ministry while neglecting their own family.

As I sat and reflected on that, I really began to think about how much time I was putting into ministry and thought that I may need to take a break or pull back just a little bit to make sure that I was giving my family their proper time. Although I want to grow in my walk with God, I don't want to neglect my family in the process. And I think there is a unique skill that we all must learn to help us balance the two and it is called TIME MANAGEMENT.

With that said, my goal is to make sure that I am being consistent in ministry, but not at the expense of my family. I have been praying every morning about making my family a priority. Make sure you are making your family a priority as well.

Am I walking with God?

Every Wednesday for the past 6 weeks I have been attending Bible study at my church. The Bible Study is entitled God's Story. It is a study and video based on Anne Graham Lotz.

Today in class we watched the video dealing with Genesis 6:1-8:1. This particularly deals with Noah's Ark and his committment to God. During this video, I was forced to ask myself: Am I walking with God? Throughout my journey of building my relationship with God I want to continue to evaluate myself and during this video session I did.

Anne identified some keys areas that would help me assess if I was truly walking with God:
1.Have I surrendered my will to God
2. Am I obedient to God?
3. Do I trust God?

These were the key questions that I asked myself while I was listening to the video. And I have to say it is tough being completely honest with myself. I would like to say yes to each of these questions, unfortunately I cannot. There are times where I beleive I could say yes to each one individually, but can I confidently say yes, I have surrendered my will to God. No. There are times when I want to do things "MY WAY" because I think it may be more convenient only to find out that I have caused myself more heartache.

Am I obedient to God? No, not always. Again sometimes I like to do things my way and not God's way.

And lastly, do I trust God. Naturally, I want to say yes. But do I trust God when I am going through the difficult times? And again, I must say yes. This is one area I think I am doing pretty good in. However, since I am human, I must say that I do have my doubts from time to time.

So in dealing with these challenges I need to spend even more time in prayer and God's word. The more I depend on His Word the easier it will be for me to walk with God.

Proverbs 18:13

"He who answers before listening, that is his folly and his shame."

How many of us are guilty of this? I know I am. Many times I will try to give a response to someone without fully listening to their request. This can be very arrogant to think that we know what an individual needs just by looking at them or listening to them partially.

I want to be a better listener. I want to not just listen to someone to give a response, but truly listen to what they are saying to me without lining a response up in my head. A lot of times, I am so concerned about responding to a person's comment that I may not listen completely to their entire statement. I listen to what I want to hear and then begin tuning them out so that I can prepare my response in my head. This is a habit that I want to break quickly. Being a mother, I want to be able to listen tomy son without prejudging him and without trying to quickly solve his problems with my advice. Sometimes it is better just to listen...and this is what this proverb is instructing us to do.

Reflection:Thank you Lord for listening to me entirely when I call on you.

Inspired by the Bible Experience

I know I have mentioned this CD collection of the New Testament before, but I've just gotta rave about it a little more. I have been listening to it in my car while running errands and at home while doing housework. I absolutely LOVE it. Listening to the CD really helps me to visualize what is going on. I am a multi-sensory learner. I have to hear it, see it, and sometimes do it to fully comprehend what I am being taught. That's why the The Bible Experience CD is so awesome for me.

Listening to the CD helps me recall the information that I previously read. It also give me an opportunity to reflect on the message as I visualize it. If you have not bought this collection of CDs yet, it is well worth it.

I just finished listening to part of Acts. I remember reading about Pauls "acts", but now that I am listening to it, I can vividly see what went on during this time frame. It is exciting to gain a little piece of the puzzle each time I read and listen.

Proverbs 16: Commit to the Lord

I learned that proverbs were written primarily for instruction, insturction for one's life that is. They were written in the form of commands for us to take action or take heed to certain behavior.

According to the prologue (1:1–7), Proverbs was written to give “prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young” (1:4), and to make the wise even wiser (1:5). Well I surely need knowledge. So I feel releived that I can turn to proverbs and gain a lil wisdom.

Although Proverbs is a practical book dealing with the art of living, it bases its practical wisdom solidly on the fear of the Lord.

Keeping this in mind as I read proverbs 16, the verse that caught my immediate attention was proverbs 16:3, "Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed."

I seem to be so busy at times with the things of this world, but this verse stood out because it reminds me that if I a seek God first that everything else will fall into place. This is something that I constantly have to remind myself. I feel a sense of peace when I take time for my devotions or listen to my Bible CDs or even blog my reflections. So this verse really is something that I need to reflect on everyday. As a matter of fact, I think I am going to write it on a notecard right now and place it on my mirror in my bathroom and on my refridgerator.

Proverbs: The book of Wisdom

I am now reading in the book of proverbs. There is so much wisdom in this book. I wanted to read this book to help guide me through some decisions that I need to make. I am trying to meditate on a verse each day that jumps out at me and really speaks to me. Today the verse that really caught my attention was: Proverbs 15:29 " The Lord is far from the wicked, but hears the prayers of the righteous."

Reflecting on this passage help me to understand that through prayer I can always call on God if I stay righteous in my actions. So no matter what I am going through, I need to pray in order for God to hear me. Although He might now answer my prayer right away or in "my time", I must remember that God is always "on time".