Let's Set Up Our Banners!

"May we shout for joy over your salvation, and in the name of our God 'set up our banners'! May the Lord fulfill all your petitions! Now this I know: The LORD saves..."!! Psalm 20:5-6 (ESV)

Please look at Jaye's post from yesterday if you would like to post a gifted2go "banner" on your facebook! As we look at the gifted2go banner, please pray for this great opportunity to make facebook pages evangelistic! You are invited to use the gifted2go banner, or possibly you may feel led to make an evangelistic facebook banner of your own creative giftedness from God! We would like to encourage you to look for opportunities to share Jesus through your social network of friends that God has gifted your life with for His purpose!

We would like to share with you the simple yet powerful meaning behind Gifted2Go that includes: an empty box, the cross, and a bow! This is a simple way to share Jesus with others! (If you would like to print on your own printer these free witnessing business cards that includes this powerful plan of salvation, please let us know! We would be glad to send you the printer ready copy:-)

Empty Box = Empty Life that we all have without Jesus Christ! We were born "separated from Christ, alienated...and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world" Ephesians 2:12b ESV (this very week, when I saw a news report of a 2011 famous singer arrive at an awards show in an egg, then she was hatched out to that egg as she sang a song about how she was "born" this way...I was compelled to PRAY for this precious young woman that is needing to hear from someone about how JESUS can fill up her EMPTY LIFE that is searching for true answers/purpose that is only found/fullfilled in JESUS CHRIST!! Please join me in praying for someone that I know God must be using to reach the "trend setters" of Hollywood that are "alienated" from the promises of God, can you imagine with me what will happen when this young woman that is very popular in today's culture "is born again" WOW!! This leads me to what must fill up our empty life....

The Cross = Jesus!! "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16) God sent JESUS to die on the cross for you and for me!! We must received Him into our empty lives to be SAVED and to have HOPE for now and HOPE for the future!! When we turn to God and believe that He died on the cross for our sins and accept His forgiveness, HE enters our life and FILLS the VOIDS of our empty life!! God not only FILLS our life/box because of the CROSS the day that we believe, He stays in us and with us FOREVER!! This leads me to the beautiful bow that is on top of the most beautiful cross...

The Bow = Eternity!! F O R E V E R!!! "...because God has said, "Never will I leave you; Never will I forsake you."! Hebrews 13:5b How many people in our lives are looking for someone that will NEVER leave them, NEVER let them down, NEVER reject them, NEVER misunderstand them, NEVER hurt them, NEVER lie to them, NEVER NEVER NEVER?!!! The BOW of ETERNITY is one of the most beautiful parts of a "GIFTBOX"!! JESUS is A FREE GIFT you and I are given to make an ETERNAL difference in our lives and for us to "GIVE" to others so that they too can be SAVED!!

When we ask for forgiveness, accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, and turn to the life that He has for us to live, isn't it AMAZING what God can do through an " empty box, the cross, and a bow"...God desires to change the world forever through YOUR LIFE because now you are Gifted2Go!!

"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the GIFT of GOD, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them"!! Ephesians 2:8-10 (ESV)

are you empty?

“See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8, ESV).

Empty. Dictionary.com defines empty as "containing nothing; having none of the usual or appropriate contents: an empty bottle." Empty is void. To be empty means that something is missing. Isn't it interesting that a life can be so full...yet empty?

What does life without Christ (darkness) look like? How can one's life be full of things, yet never full of the one right thing- Jesus Christ? I don't think we talk enough about what it means to be lost.

Yesterday, we had lunch with our friends, Lisa and Bill. Lisa lost one eye to cancer 20 years ago. They have just removed invasive cancer from her other eye, yet were able to preserve the sight this time. In order for the eye to heal, Lisa's eye is stitched closed which means she will be blind for 6 weeks. We watched in amazement as she manueved things at church and lunch...all with a great attitude. She had to be led through the obstacle course of halls full of people, the restaurant at lunch, and trying to find food on her fork (carefully placed there by her husband). She has to depend on others for everything because she is in darkness. What we can see, she can't see. Oh, we take so much for granted.

That's how it is with someone who has an empty life. They can't see the obvious answers, the obstacle course in front of them, and can't even see the food on the plate. Their lives are full of things but those things have no meaning. They need someone to interpret them, they need someone to show them the way. They need someone to help them know what a full and meaningful life with Christ looks like.

This year, let's talk about what it means to be lost. And let's commit to helping those with empty lives to fill them with the right thing - the love of Jesus Christ. Let's be gifted2go!

Will you join me?