I have to be the biggest slacker around... I never finished my croatia trip journal and haven't posted anything on here in months. Sorry, I discovered Facebook and well, moved on from this wonderful blog world haha. 

I will revise and continue my journal entries from Croatia ASAP. Thank you for your patience and interest in ALL that God is doing!

Praise Christ!

08-28-08

Making a Difference for Time and Eternity

An Article by Dr. P. David Nicholas
CEO and President,
Knox Theological Seminary

One of the joys of belonging to Christ is knowing that your life counts for time and eternity. That concept was not part of my thinking when I was a salesman for Hallmark Cards; later, when I sold welding equipment for the Lincoln Electric Company, my thinking had not changed. Everything I did was for the here and now, with no expectation of anything more. I had no higher purpose in life; it was just a matter of “putting in my time” and (hopefully) retiring in comfort. Then God took me from death to life. He opened my mind to what Jesus Christ had done for me through His death and resurrection. It was then that my life became meaningful for time and eternity.

I enjoyed the business world, but God called me to serve Him full time and to plant Spanish River Church in Boca Raton, Florida. After 41 years in the same job, I can state with tremendous enthusiasm that there is no greater calling and no greater source of joy than being part of what God is doing in this world. I have watched in awe as God works over and over again through His gospel and by His Spirit. Let me relate one story.

A few years ago, a young Jewish lady named Allison was invited to Spanish River Church. She began attending, heard the bad news of sin and death and the good news of what God has done about that through Jesus Christ, and placed her trust in Him as her Savior and Lord. Allison radically changed and grew rapidly in the things of the Lord and eventually joined our staff. She began going with a group of our women in a ministry outreach to a local prison.

I received a letter from a female inmate at that prison. She had been convicted of murdering her boyfriend, who had beaten her. She was pregnant with the man’s baby at the time. She had been sentenced to die in the electric chair, but the sentence was commuted to life in prison. Her life, as she had known it, was over, and she was filled with hatred and bitterness. But for some reason she attended a chapel service that was led by Allison and the women from Spanish River Church. This young inmate heard the story of God’s love for sinners and placed her trust in Jesus to forgive her sins and redeem her from eternal condemnation. God raised her from death to life and adopted her into His family. Her life was changed forever.

I recently received a second letter from this young lady, telling me that she has been transferred to another prison. She related how difficult it was, but vowed to stay strong in the Lord. She is 21 years old. And she wrote about the ministry she is now providing to other women in prison, joyfully proclaiming the glorious truth that freedom from sin, despair, and death is available to all who come to Christ.

I never tire of thanking God for the privilege He has given me to pastor Spanish River Church. Our local church has been used by Him to plant more than 200 churches in various parts of the world, ranging in size from small houses of worship (40-60 people) located in tribal villages in Mexico to sprawling congregations of 2000 - 5000 people in Portland, Oregon, New York City, and Les Caye, Haiti. We have learned that church planting is one of the most effective ways to reach people with the gospel—statistics show that more people come to know Christ in church plants than in older, established churches.

God has now called me to be CEO and President of Knox Theological Seminary. Knox Seminary was founded by Dr. D. James Kennedy, a great man of God who had a burning passion for sharing the gospel, who loved training people to share the gospel, and who rejoiced to see people all over the world being taken from death to life by the love and power of Jesus Christ. He never tired of declaring and defending the Christian’s high view of Scripture in the Reformed tradition—the divine inspiration, authority, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Word of God. Dr. Kennedy had a vision for a seminary that would equip pastors, missionaries, church leaders, and men and women from all walks of life who would boldly, passionately, and winsomely proclaim the whole counsel of God to all the world. This is my heartbeat and passion as well. Please rest assured that I take very seriously the calling to train God’s people for a life of ministry that makes an eternal difference.

I ask you to join me in beseeching God’s blessing on Knox Theological Seminary as we labor to communicate that vision and carry it forward to generations to come. We are making a difference for time and eternity by the grace and power of God alone … to the glory of God alone.

"Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen." — Ephesians 3:20-21