Ministry Note - (Measuring Viewership)

I have been publishing the Straight Ministry Blog for 7 months now, and find it difficult to measure viewership. I need to know if the blog has been or is a blessing to you. I spend a considerable amount of time writing these articles and publishing this blog.  I would surly appreciate some feedback.

The best way to let me know is to provide a short comment in the appropriate (comment) section at the bottom of each printed blog article (whether devotion or any other Ministry Article – Information).

Presently the blog only shows 6 members (Followers) who have joined the membership of the blog. I encourage you to become a member today.

Thank you for your consideration.

Ron & Peggy

Thank God we belong to Him – Part 4

If you recall the last time we looked at:

Thank God for Difficulties – Part 3

What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19

       "There is no such thing as a private life—‘a world within the world’—for a man or woman who is brought into fellowship with Jesus Christ’s sufferings. God breaks up the private life of His saints, and makes it a thoroughfare for the world on the one hand and for Himself on the other.

       "No human being can stand that unless he is identified with Jesus Christ. We are not sanctified for ourselves, we are called into the fellowship of the Gospel, and things happen which have nothing to do with us; God is getting us into fellowship with Himself. Let Him have his way, if you do not, instead of being of the slightest use to God in His Redemptive work in the world, you will be a hindrance....

      "The first thing God does with us is to get us based on rugged Reality until we do not care what becomes of us individually as long as He gets His way for the purpose of His Redemption. Why shouldn’t we go through heartbreaks? Through these doorways God is opening up ways of fellowship with His Son.

      "Most of us fall and collapse at the first grip of pain; we sit down on the threshold of God’s purpose and die away of self-pity, and all so-called Christian sympathy will aid us to our death-bed. But God will not. He comes with the grip of the pierced hand of His Son, and says—‘Enter into fellowship with Me; arise and shine.’

       "If through a broken heart God can bring His purposes to pass in the world, then thank Him for breaking your heart."

Next Time we will look at:

Thank God for working into us the Nature of Jesus – Part 5

Thank God for Difficulties – Part 3

If you recall the last time we looked at

2. Thank God for His strength in our weakness!

“Enter you in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leads to destruction, and many there be which go in there at: 14) Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it”. Matthews 7:13-14

      "If we are going to live as disciples of Jesus, we have to remember that all noble things are difficult. The Christian life is gloriously difficult, but the difficulty of it does not make us faint and cave in, it rouses us up to overcome. Do we so appreciate the marvelous salvation of Jesus Christ that we are our utmost for His highest?

       "God saves men by His sovereign grace through the Atonement of Jesus; He works in us to will and to do of His good pleasure; but we have to work out that salvation in practical living. If once we start on the basis of His Redemption to do what He commands, we find that we can do it. If we fail, it is because we have not practiced. The crisis will reveal whether we have been practicing or not.

       "If we obey the Spirit of God and practice in our physical life what God has put in us by His Spirit, then when the crisis comes, we shall find that our own nature as well as the grace of God will stand by us. Thank God He does give us difficult things to do! ... Jesus is bringing many 'sons unto glory,' and God will not shield us from the requirements of a son. ...  It takes a tremendous amount of discipline to live the noble life of a disciple of Jesus in actual things."

Next Time we will look at:

4. Thank God we belong to Him!