{"id":720,"date":"2020-11-05T16:59:08","date_gmt":"2020-11-05T21:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/?p=720"},"modified":"2021-09-02T05:32:17","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T09:32:17","slug":"september-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/september-2\/","title":{"rendered":"September 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"font-size:14px\"><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">Romans 13:11<\/span><\/strong><br><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-red-color\">You must understand the urgency and context of time; it is most certainly now the hour to wake up at once out of the hypnotic state of slumber and unbelief. Salvation has come. (Mirror Bible)<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-purple-color\">Are you taking advantage of the time?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have you ever decided you were going to witness to a person and heard these or similar statements in your head: \u201cI\u2019ll do it later.\u201d, \u201cI don\u2019t want to seem pushy.\u201d Or \u201cI have to get myself together first.\u201d? What did you do? If you did nothing, then you know you were being disobedient, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">James 4:17 So if you know of an opportunity to do the right thing today, yet you refrain from doing it, you\u2019re guilty of sin. (The Passion Translation TPT)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You may have called it procrastinating. Actually, you put off witnessing until a later time, as if time was in your hands. Maybe you didn\u2019t obey because you didn\u2019t feel comfortable, or you didn\u2019t want to do it, or because you found something else to do, etc. The next time you have the chance to witness, here are some statements you might want to say to yourself, out loud, if necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul><li>\u201cDo I really want to disobey God?\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cI can\u2019t act like time is on this person\u2019s side.\u201d&nbsp;<\/li><li>\u201cThe devil likes it when I fail to witness, another soul stays within his grasp longer.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cI don\u2019t want some dramatic event to happen before they cry out to the Lord.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cGod has a blessed life planned for them. I don\u2019t want them to wait and possibly get saved in the last moments of their lives.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cThere is too much at stake. I need to tell them, the time is now.\u201d<\/li><li>\u201cWhat if someone had not witnessed to me?\u201d<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no guarantee the person you witness to will accept the Lord, however, you don\u2019t want to miss the opportunity to share the gospel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span class=\"has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color\">Ephesians 5:15-16 So be very careful how you live, not being like those with no understanding, but live honorably with true wisdom, for we are living in evil times. Take full advantage of every day as you spend your life for his purposes. (The Passion Translation TPT)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Don\u2019t wait; do it now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Please agree with me as I pray:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p><em>Father, I thank You for this reminder. I know there are plenty of times I used an excuse instead of witnessing to someone. I repent for every witnessing opportunity I let pass by. I have often said, I will talk to anyone about the Lord who wants to talk. What if I am not approached? Help me be the one who approaches. I don\u2019t want to pass up anyone in need of You. I want to take advantage of every opportunity You give me to lift Your name and to tell someone about You. Help me be strong in my determination to witness and let men see my passion for You. Use me, Father. Give me the words to create an understanding of need in the people I witness to. Help them see they don\u2019t have as much time as they think. The strength of my conviction makes me willing to witness. I don\u2019t want to die not having shared the good news with every person I could have shared it with\u2026<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>&#8212;&#8212;&#8211;<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Ask the Lord what He wants to say to you about today\u2019s devotional and journal His response as described <\/em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/journal\/\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Romans 13:11You must understand the urgency and context of time; it is most certainly now the hour to wake up at once out of the hypnotic state of slumber and unbelief. Salvation has come. (Mirror Bible) Are you taking advantage of the time? Have you ever decided you were going to witness to a person [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[11],"tags":[264],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=720"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2274,"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/720\/revisions\/2274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pamelarussell.org\/teach\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}