vassal of the King

Some Ideas: Practical Ways to Evangelize.  Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church  God commands every Christian to “proclaim the excellencies of Christ.” And this command from the King is a delight to blood-washed slaves! We love to speak of our Lord! We don’t need to be coerced or manipulated or guilted into proclaiming Jesus. True Christians love to speak of their heavenly Lord and Savior. To evangelize, by definition, means to communicate the message of the gospel. So you can't evangelize by just showing Jesus with your good lifestyle . You need to communicate the biblical message of the gospel and call the sinner to respond.  Here are some practical ideas for you to consider in sharing the gospel.  Hand a gift bag with an enclosed tract to someone who is on the side of the road begging (often, at a stop light at a busy intersection). As you roll down the window to give them the bag, give them a verbal expression of care and compassion with a 30-second gospel expla

My pastoral prayer  Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church (St Louis, Missouri) O Mighty God, Make me a man of of holiness.  Make me a man of...    1. Proclamation  O Truthful God, make me a man who proclaims the Word —   your Word — with greater power, passion, force, authority, and fidelity. I long to be used of the Lord as a faithful spokesman for His Word. I want to be a man full of the Word, endowed with the Spirit, and enflamed with holy love as I herald forth the Word of God, the whole counsel of God.     2. Power O God of might and power, make me a man of indomitable power. Enable me to do what I cannot do on my own. Take me to places and put me in situations where I am weak and impotent in myself and yet I find your all-enabling grace and divine power more than sufficient for my needs. Make me a man of power as I study, pray, preach, counsel, shepherd, visit, evangelize, and disciple. Make the ministry a powerful, unstoppable, effective, faithful ministry.    3. P

Four Reminders of My Pastoral Ministry.  Geoffrey R. Kirkland,  Christ Fellowship Bible Church  1. The motive - know Christ & preach Him The motive of my heart consists in knowing Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul said: I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This passion consumed Paul. His heart throbbed with the glory of God and the knowledge of Christ. He pursued the Lord intimately and lived for God fully. The driving force and the compelling purpose of the life of a shepherd must be to know Christ and make Him known to others. Nothing less will keep a man going strong. The ultimate motive must continually consist in a relentless, unshakeable, and deepening knowledge and love for Jesus Christ.  2. The mission  - to preach the WORD (full counsel) My mission, given by God and clarified by Scripture, demands that I preach the Word of God. I am called to herald forth God’s Truth. To herald means that I cry out passionately, clearly, urgently

  HOW YOU CAN ACTIVELY CARE FOR YOUR FELLOW MEMBERS AT CHURCH Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church When the church welcomes in new members, we have another opportunity to express biblical love toward the saints. How can we practically and actively show loving care toward our fellow members in the local church?  What are some practical pieces of advice by way of implementation?  I’ll present five pieces of counsel. Print it & pray thru it. — When you receive the email with the updated membership directory listing all the names of the current members, you have a wonderful opportunity.  I would encourage you to print off multiple copies of the names of the members. When you print the list, you can put one copy in your Bible or by your desk for your morning Bible reading & prayer time. Perhaps you could put the other copy by your desk at work or in your car as you commute. God calls us to pray for the saints, all the saints. We are to show genuine love toward each o

WHEN A KID PROFESSES FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST: WHAT DO YOU DO?  Geoffrey R. Kirkland  Christ Fellowship Bible Church,  St Louis, MO   Maybe you're a parent begging God to save your children. Perhaps you have children in the home that you've been teaching, training, exhorting, disciplining, and pointing to Christ regularly for years. And your earnest heart-cry is for them to be drawn to Christ savingly so as to know Him, love Him, enjoy Him, and glorify Him with their lives!  You also recognize that you cannot save them and achieve this work for them. God must save their souls. But, what if a child does come to you and profess faith in Jesus Christ? Then what? What do you do? How do you respond? You respond with immediate excitement and joy but you also recognize the importance of true submission and surrender to Christ. Yes, a devotion to following Him is essential! What are some pastoral "helps" that could guide you when a kid professes faith in Christ?   Here are some

  Deny Yourself and Attend Your Prayer Meeting Prayer meetings often require a measure of self-denial.  Attending prayer meetings is not particularly difficult in most cases.  Yet prayer meetings are the worst attended meeting in most local churches.  However, they are by no means an optional ministry of the church.  Through her prayer meetings, the Church procures the blessings of God’s Spirit on the preaching of the Word as she does in no other setting (John 14.12-14; Acts 4:23-31).  In prayer meetings, believers actively pursue the glory of Christ and fervently plead with the Father to bring people from the nations into His family. Many people do not attend prayer meetings even though they are willing to come to hear teaching.  However, in the Bible prayer almost always precedes the blessings of God upon the church (e.g. Acts 4).  Are you willing to take the trouble to attend the prayer meeting?  Are you willing to forego other conveniences or to make an extra trip to church in orde

 Training your children in the home to sit still in the pew Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church There are many churches that encourage families to worship together on Sundays in corporate worship. There are those with the perspective that it behooves children to learn to sit still, sit quietly, hear the preaching, and observe God’s people worshiping the Living Savior. For those who go to church with children (even small children!) with the hope and desire of seeing them sit still in the pew, the question might be asked: how do I do this? What’s the magic trick? Honestly, there’s not one. But there are some practical tips that I can offer that may help those who choose to bring their small children into corporate worship so that they can train their children in the home to sit still in the pew. In this essay, I’ll provide some practical tips and helps for parents in this regard. 1. Treat family worship in the home as preparation for corporate worship with the church.  —

  How to practically cultivate humility Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church How do you put on humility? What steps can you practically take to walk in humility each day? In this brief write-up, I’ll provide 3 helps to “cultivate humility.” 1. Contemplate Christ’s humility. The first practical help to cultivate humility begins with looking to Christ. No one but Jesus ever held such a high and holy office in heaven and then condescended to earth to be born in a world that He created! Ponder how He said to those who followed Him that He is gentle and lowly of heart. He was despised, rejected, not esteemed and rejected by men. Indeed, Christ in His divine glory received such scoffing by men whom He made. And He remained humble, fully submissive to God’s plan and design for Him. He always did what was pleasing in God’s sight. Let the humility of Christ capture your heart and seize your affections so that you would emulate Him carefully. 2. Contemplate God’s majesty. The maje

This is a brief writeup providing a brief meditation on communion. In considering this blessed feast, I'll put the thoughts together in 3 points: Reflect!   God calls His people to carefully consider and remember Him in this Feast of communion with our risen Lord. The Lord’s Supper is an earthly encounter with the heavenly Lord. We do well to thoughtfully engage in God’s Truth and eagerly fellowship with our Savior and with our fellow believers in this meal with our Savior. reflect in preparation - During the week leading up to communion Sunday, prepare your heart in some of the following ways. Confess your sin and come clean before the Lord. Adore the power and greatness and love of your great King. Recognize and bathe in the sufficient work of Jesus Christ on the cross as He took your place by expiating your sin and propitiating God’s wrath!  reflect in elements — Eating bread and drinking the cup are tangible elements to remind us of the importance of imbibing Christ and taking

 How to encourage your elders. Geoffrey R. Kirkland Christ Fellowship Bible Church   I serve alongside some great men. God has graciously put me in a church body with godly people who love Christ and a solid leadership team firmly committed to His Word. In some recent reflections in my own mornings of Bible reading, I have tried to think of some practical ways that Christians can encourage all of their shepherd-elders. With some intentionality, creativity and proactiveness, you can bless those men that God has put over you to care for your souls.  Here are just a few ideas to help get you started. OBEY them  — Perhaps the clearest and most heartfelt way you can serve your shepherds is to simply obey them. By submitting yourself willingly and cheerfully under their authority, you honor the Lord who sovereignly put them over you to have charge over you in the Lord and to give account for your soul one day in glory. Submit to them. Obey them. Honor them. Make their leadership duties a joy

  Marital Sex  This blog seeks to provide helpful counsel to believers regarding the joy of sexual intimacy in a marriage between one man and one woman. May the practical helps be profitable as you seek to honor the Lord and grow in your selfless service to your spouse -- all for God's great glory.   Sex must be: Covenantal  (only after a man/woman are married) — Before sin ever entered the world, God beautifully designed the covenant of marriage as an exclusive union only between one man and one woman. And in that covenantal union of marriage, God blesses and gives the happy union of sexual intimacy. In His gracious and good and wise design, God gives sexual pleasure and all sexual activity to be enjoyed, frequented, and overwhelmingly pleasurable only within the context of a marriage between a man and a woman.  Selfless   (not self-absorbed/ self-pleasure) — The wonderful act of sexual intercourse and all sexual acts should only take place in marriage in a selfless, humble, oth

  The Sunday Gathering  What sweet kindness we enjoy when we gather with the saints on Sunday. God’s people assembled together is a meeting unlike anything else in this world. The unity, the likemindedness, the focus on Christ, the heartfelt singing, and the study of the Word of God lifts the believer’s heart, informs the Christian’s mind, and increases the saint’s love for God. How unique and blessed are these assemblies! Specifically, the Sunday gathering is a time of: Refreshment  (unlike the world) — The Sunday gatherings are refreshing times because no other worldly gathering of people can compare with the corporate pursuit of Christ that Christians enjoy. We have meetings during the week. Work demands call for our attention. Lots of gatherings exist for sports, entertainment, arts, music, or academics. But none can compare with the glory and delightfulness and refreshment of God’s people meeting in the House of God. When we gather on Sundays, it is so   unlike   the world that i