The Beginning

Acts 1:2  Until the day in which He (Jesus) was taken up, after that He THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST
HAD GIVEN COMMANDMENTS UNTO THE APOSTLES...

Matthew 28:20 Teaching them (all nations and new believers) to observe all things whatsoever I (Jesus) have commanded you (Jesus' Apostles):  and, lo, I am with you  alway, EVEN UNTO THE END OF THE WORLD. Amen.

Mark 16:15  And He (Jesus) said unto them (Apostles), Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to EVERY creature.

Luke 24:46  And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, BEGINNING AT JERUSALEM.

Welcome to the blog.  I know I said we would start memorizing the scriptures that are termed the Roman highway, and I promise that I will.  But, I feel the Lord has put it on my heart that I need to lay a little bit of a foundation for us to build on first.  When I speak to Christians about witnessing, it is interesting that the majority of them don't see or feel that it is their responsibility to witness to the lost.  So I want to take a minute to share why I feel that it is everyone's responsibility to share the Gospel.  In the first verse above we see that Christ gave commandments to the Apostles and He gave the commandments THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST.  In other words, He wasn't just running around the country coming up with some cool commandments that sounded good.  He was listening to and obeying the leading of the Holy Ghost clear up to his death on the cross.  He was obedient unto His death.

Then Matt. 28:20 says that He taught the Apostles to teach us to observe everything He had commanded them.  He didn't say, Everything I suggested.  He said, commanded.  It was a command. They weren't commanded to only observe it themselves but they were commanded to teach us to teach others, Jesus' commandment.  Its almost like the first multi-level marketing plan long before Amway was ever thought of.
He promised that He would be there with everyone who obeyed those commandments unto the end of the world.  I take this to mean that these commandments were to be observed and taught to everyone who believed in Christ until this world comes to an end.  I don't get the impression here that these commandments were to be observed only until all the Apostles died.   Because in the next two verses, Mark 16:15 and Luke 24:46 we see two examples of what He commanded.  Go into all the world and preach,  and preach that Christ suffered and died and rose from the dead and preach REPENTANCE and remission of sins.  Also, He commands that the preaching begins at Jerusalem.  I could blog on this subject alone for days because it is so important to be taught and yet so much of this teaching is being missed by most of our churches today.
Brethren, we have all been called to the great commission given to us by Christ.

I bring this up because I have talked to so many Christians who will say things like, "I don't feel that I have to go out and try to witness, after all, the Bible says that we aren't all pastors or evangelists...",  "Witnessing is my pastor's job....", "I witness by supporting missionaries financially....", "I believe my ministry is to pray that God will raise up laborers", etc. etc.  To me its sad.  I have heard these kind of things from members of churches who only have 20 congregants and then gone back to that church 15 years later to visit and they still only have around 20 members!  I have lived in California, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Montana, Florida and New York and the sermon I have heard preached in almost every church I've been in is on Tithing and how God loves a cheerful giver and the prayer request I have heard most is to pray for Revival because God wants to bring another Revival to America!  In Revelation 3:15,16 Christ says to the church of the Laodicians, "I know thy works, that thou are neither cold nor hot, I would thou wert cold or hot.  So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth".  Strong words to hear from a Lord and Savior and I don't want to judge any church and say they are lukewarm.  But, I can't help saying the old saying, "If it looks like a duck, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck.  There is a 99.99% chance it's a duck.

Let me close this by saying this about me so I don't leave any false impressions about myself.  I have been guilty of all of the above.  Just the other day I came out of a building and there were two men sitting on a bench and I instantly felt this voice say, "Witness to these guys".  Reading this blog you probably think that I had no problem at all marching right up to them and telling them about how they need Jesus.  Quite the contrary.  I was immediately filled with fear, the verses that I am going to teach you, were gone from my mind. It was like I had a blank page and I immediately was making excuses to myself to justify my not wanting to talk to them.  When I convinced myself to leave without talking to them, I was just filled with guilt and that night when I was praying, I was so ashamed to come before God.  That isn't the first time that has happened.  Then ironically, a couple days later, I went into a barber shop I'd never been in before to get a haircut.  The barber was a hairs width away from physically throwing me out of the shop because I wouldn't shut up even after he told me he didn't want to talk about it.  Through my years of Christianity, I have had periods where I have been fervently hot, I've had periods where I have been colder than a winter in Montana and more time than the cold and hot put together I have been lukewarm.  I tell you this so that you don't think, or think that I think, that I am a modern day Spurgeon, Finney, Hudson Taylor or Dietrich Bonhoeffer because I am writing this blog.  I am doing this blog because my mind for years has been obsessed with the idea and I have come to believe that the obsession is of the Lord. I am 100% human and imperfect yet forgiven just like everyone else.  Please pray for me to be obedient and I will pray for your obedience to the scripture as well.
Here is the first Roman Highway verse and I will explain a memorization technique in the next blog:
Romans 3:10,  As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one.

God bless your daily walk with Jesus.
Brother Bill

Please feel free to read my other blog about growing up outside of Yosemite on the Merced river.  The web address is www.yosemiteriverrat.com but you can reach it by going here.  If I don't see you on this side of heaven, hopefully, I will meet you on that beautiful shore.