Pace 7:4

In honor of the worldwide 5th Sunday focus on sharing the gospel, I am going to keep this weekly solely focused on the gospel! No updates at all  This has nothing to do with the fact that I dont really have many updates and I didn't take any pictures 

I want to start by sharing a few thoughts on how sharing the gospel is like a barrel of monkeys   Yesterday (I say yesterday because I only send this email to my mom who forwards it out to all of you, I'm lazy don't judge me, so I have no clue when you will get this but today is Monday) anyways yesterday my comp had to share a message during our church service and while he was writing that talk, Sunday Morning , I was looking at the barrel of monkeys on my desk. Naturally I started playing with them. As I did I was taken up to an exceedingly high mountain  jk but I got to thinking and came up with a couple principles. 

Principle 1- The monkeys can't do anything to help their fellow monkey brothers and sisters make it back to the safe confines of their barrel until one of the monkeys is used as a tool in the hands of the player. Similarly we can't do anything to help our brothers and sisters come into the safety of the church unless we allow God to use use as a tool in his hands. Having the spirit abide in you is the first step in sharing the gospel. Without the spirit we are useless, lifeless orange plastic monkeys. Think on that for a second, do you want to be an orange plastic monkey?

Principle 2- every monkeys is shaped so that there arms are designed to grab any of the other monkeys. Imagine if all the monkeys in the barrel had straight arms. It would be impossible for the player to use monkeys to grab hold of one another. That would be the most boring game ever! Nevermind I take that back, at least it doesn't have 9 innings like baseball Sorry to any baseball fans reading this but you know it's true. To be an effective tool in sharing the gospel we must always metaphorically have our arms curved or else we become ineffective tools in God's hands. What I mean by having our arms curved is being always ready to share the gospel. Examples of a straight armed monkey would be passing by that old lady carrying a heavy box, ignoring the person sitting alone at school or work, or passing up an opportunity to have a gospel discussion or invitation because it would make you feel uncomfty. Don't be a straight armed monkey, they are boring

Principle 3- Just how the arms are designed to grab other monkeys, they are also designed to be grabbed. The player could be holding a fine, well designed monkey in his hands but he still wouldn't be able to pick up a monkey with straight arms. Sometimes we do all we can to invite others to come unto christ but others just aren't ready to accept our invitations yet. 

Warning!!! Do not get discouraged when you are doing all you can to share the gospel and you don't seem to see any results. Sometimes it takes time for our friends to bend there arms, but I promise that there are monkeys out there with their arms curved waiting to be picked up! If you are doing all you can do, that's all you can do!

Work hard play harder. Its P-day (play harder time) So goodbye my little monkeys