Dr. Richard Blackaby is posting to his own weblog, where he writes about God's activity in BMI, as well as his own spiritual reflections as he spends time with the Lord.
Monthly Bible Study Dr. Blackaby teaches a monthly Bible study called God in the Workplace where he focuses on helping people know how to practically walk in a real and personal relationship with God in their work place.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: "In those days ten men from every language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying, 'Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.' " (Zechariah 8:23)
God’s desire is to fill His people with His Spirit so that others recognize His powerful presence in them. The presence of the Lord in a believer’s life ought to be obvious. When the Spirit of almighty God fills a believer, the believer cannot go on living as before. Others will see God.
God told His people through the prophet Zechariah that His presence ought to make a difference in their lives. If God’s people walked closely with Him, people from every language and every part of the world would hear that they were a people who knew God. People would come from every nation on earth to find the true God among His people. If the people saw a child of God, they would long to be with him or her because in so doing they would be with God. God gave the vivid picture of ten people clinging to one believer, hoping to find God.
Christ’s presence ought to be so evident in your life that the people around you are drawn to you. They should want their children to be with your children because your children are being raised with a godly influence. Employers ought to want you in their workplace; people should seek you for their leader because they know you as someone of integrity before God. Your life and your home ought to be a magnet for people as they sense God’s presence with you and your family. The more you allow Christ to make His presence evident in your life, the more people will draw near you and find Him.
'Great Commission Resurgence' must be Fueled by Relationship
by Mark Kelly (Baptist Press)
If Southern Baptists want to see a "Great Commission Resurgence," Henry Blackaby believes they need to focus on the relationship between disciples and the living Lord Jesus, not launch a new emphasis on evangelism.
"I have felt for a long time that Southern Baptists have focused on evangelism and missed discipleship," Blackaby told Baptist Press May 11. "The most important part of the Great Commission is 'teach them to practice everything I have commanded you.' That's discipleship and that's the heart of the Great Commission. If we want to have a resurgence in the Great Commission, there's got to be a refocusing on the priorities of Christ for discipleship."
Blackaby, a longtime pastor, college president and coauthor of the "Experiencing God" series of Bible study materials, said declining baptism and membership statistics in the Southern Baptist Convention reflect not so much a lack of passion for Christ's command to make disciples as a lack of relationship with Jesus Christ.
