Encourage one another

When we read many of the openings to Paul's letters, they often begin with thanksgiving and encouragement. And my main question is: Do we exemplify this today in our lives? How often do we really take the time to express our love, thankfulness, and encouragement for the people in our lives. How often do we take the time to write letters, or just stop someone in church, and just lavish them with Christian, brotherly encouragement. Because my guess is that a lot of people could use it. It's amazing what just a couple words by a random person in my life can mean to me. God uses what might seem insignificant to you, to mean a lot to someone else. And why not want to bless our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ? What an incredible strengthening would occur in the church if we invested ourselves more into their lives, and showed that we cared.

Maybe I'm being too sentamental, but I just want to thank each and every person in my life who's been an encouragement to me. You are being Christ to me, and really appreciate more than words can express. So I encourage anyone reading this, to make a sincere, purposeful effort to show love and encouragement to other people in your life. My guess, is that if you randomly wrote a letter of encouragement to someone in Christ, that they would be blown away, and maybe even encouraged to do the same. There doesn't have to be an occassion for it. Just show them how much your fellowship with them in Christ means to you, and how much you desire for them to honor God in everything they do. I'd love to hear any feedback on how that goes by the way...^_^

Another thing God has been showing me recently is that we have two options in every situation. We can either choose to sin, or to love Christ. Every single circumstance in your life is an opportunity; and too often, we don't take hold of them. And it's not that this is legalistic or anything, on the contrary, God wants us to take hold of these opportunities for our own sake (and of course ultimately for His glory). But every circumstance, every crossroad, every decision we make is a chance for God to mold us a little more into the image of Christ. My question is, how often do you "see" the opportunities. More and more God has been revealing the opportunities to me. It's like God stops time for me, and says, "here Mark, what will you do, which path will you take? Will you let me work in and through you?" God has been speaking to me much more loudly recently, and I am deeply thankful for it.

That's all for now. As always, your prayers are always welcome for me, and I once again, appreciate all the encouragement and support I've recieved from everyone!

By the way, I just listened to a sermon by Anthony Bradley today! A rockin' sermon at that. I love his enthusiasm for Christ, and his willingness to be bold for the sake of the Kingdom. Check out his sermon: http://www.summitfamily.org/audio/node/1524