I recently had the opportunity to speak with a high-ranking government official. During the course of our conversation he said something that I will never forget.

We once had what we called “general cleaning” at our Bible college. Everything on the property was thoroughly cleaned. Some of the students did “general cleaning” on what little grass, plants, and flowers we had.

God intends for church planting work to begin in our Jerusalem and continue systematically outward to our Judaea, our Samaria and then finally to the uttermost parts of the earth.

Sermon outline: This is an abbreviated outline with the complete sermon downloadable at the bottom of the post.

I believe that every church should have organized soulwinning opportunities for its members to participate in. It is an excellent way to provide hands on training for new or inexperienced soul winners.

Excellence may become the forgotten attribute in our casual-obsessed culture. We seem to be mired in a mundane malaise of mediocrity.

The Philippine Islands are a main source for expensive pearls including “The Pearl of Allah,” which was proclaimed to be the world’s largest pearl at the time it was discovered.

Child training is the most obviously neglected element in raising children today. To be more precise, intentional and purposeful training is the most neglected element. The truth is every day through every social interaction with our children, we are training them in ways good or bad. By what we allow and or do not allow, we are conditioning and building habits and character traits into the lives of our children. The question is not if we are training, but how we are training. Sometimes, the question may even be: Who is training who?

A few days ago I received a call from my credit card company’s fraud department. As I spoke with the representative, he began to verify some recent activity on my account. As he went through the list, there were two charges that I did not recognize. One was for $1.75, it was an online purchase from some company in the United Kingdom and the other was also an online purchase of over $1,200.00 to some construction company. I assured him those were not mine and he informed me that I was the victim of credit card fraud and my number had been stolen. He then immediately shut down my account and had new cards sent overnight for my wife and me.

I believe it is the goal and desire of every Christian parent to raise children who will love the Lord, the church, and mom and dad. Certainly this is no easy task and requires much prayer, grace, and deliberate effort.