Good Works for 2017

In the Word of God nothing is clearer than the longsuffering of God which seeks and waits for individuals to repent of their sins before His holiness requires judgment for those sins. He rises to judgment only when iniquity is full. Pray daily that many sinners will find cleansing through the blood of Jesus Christ. Intercede earnestly for unsaved individuals that they will come to God by the “new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20). Pray for the SMS missionaries that they would rise to any occasion to proclaim the Good News “that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15).

What God has in mind for Slavic Missionary Service in 2017 is positively clear. “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). God has planned what He desires SMS to accomplish this coming year. In His program, He has a specific place for each of us.

Of one thing SMS can be certain: what God has planned for us is “good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2). God wants us to know what these good works are. He desires that we “may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding” (Colossians 1:9). Being obedient to His call as children of God, SMS can be confident that God is working “all things after the counsel of His will” (Ephesians 1:11).

SMS must now acknowledge and accept that counsel from the Lord and act appropriately. “Walk as children of light… proving what is pleasing to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:8-10). Walking in the will of God is well worth it! The best for today and the best for the ages to come are wrapped up in the good works that God has planned for us to accomplish.

And for this purpose, SMS will “labor, striving according to His power” (Colossians 1:29), which is working mightily in each of our domestic and national workers. Pray that the workers of SMS may be “prepared for every good work” (2 Timothy 2:21) and “equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:17). God truly desires His children to be “bearing fruit in every good work” (Colossians 1:10).

Let us also pray that many souls this year may receive “redemption through His blood” and the forgiveness of sin “according to the riches of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7). Then, we can rejoice that “in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:7).

Until the Lord Jesus Christ comes for His church, “my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 15:58).

You are my refuge and my shield; I have put my hope in your word.

Psalm 119:114

Take it or leave it. There is no other alternative. Christianity is not complicated. Either God has spoken or He has not. If He has, that settles it. Either we have salvation through the voluntary sacrifice of Jesus Christ or we have no salvation at all. The Gospel is good news. Take it and be saved, or leave it and be lost. Eternal life or eternal judgment: the choice is yours. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:16, 18).