I am so glad I got my flu shot last fall! So many people are suffering the effects of the flu… chills, fever, muscle aches, deep congestion in chest and sinuses, and constant coughing.
Oh wait... that is exactly what I have been suffering for the last week! I was in bed for more than two days. I haven’t been that sick in a long, long time. If it hadn’t been for bowl week I would have gone berserk! I have no idea where I picked up the flu virus. I have tried to wash my hands a lot. I don’t know anyone in the family who has had the flu recently. I am told there are basically four different strains of this flu. I guess I had the wrong type of vaccine. Who knows where this “bad infection” came from?
C.S. Lewis talks of another infection. “He (Jesus) came to this world and became a man in order to spread to other men the kind of life He has—by what I call ‘good infection’. Every Christian is to become a little Christ. The whole purpose of becoming a Christian is simply nothing else.” (Mere Christianity)
I guess there are many ways to spread the “good infection.” There are church sermons, evangelistic revivals, street preachers, and Bible studies etc. What I think Lewis was trying to communicate was the “good infection” is best spread by each one of us living out the life that Christ has put into us by His Spirit. This infection is best spread person-to-person.
The ministry ofYoung Life talks about the best way to share the life of Christ with others is the “process” of personal relationship evangelism. They have the descriptive progressive relationship phrase, “Face-to-face, friend-to-friend- heart-to-heart.” They talk about “winning the right to be heard” through personal friendship “a life on a life.”
Am I becoming a “little Christ” as Lewis challenges us? Am I seeking to allow Christ’s Spirit free reign in my life to mold me into Christ-likeness more and more in order to spread the “good infection” to those within my sphere of influence?
It has taken me almost a week to recover from the flu or “the bad infection.” I pray I can be an effective “carrier” of the “good infection: and continue its spread for the rest of my life. I only hope that this “good infection” gets more pervasive.
MINISTRY NEWS AND NEEDS:
Please don’t forget! When you purchase something from Amazon, please go to www.smile.amazon.com and put in: Net Work Ministries, Inc. Amazon contributes a portion of each sale to our ministry!
As I begin our 27th year of ministry though Net Work Ministries, I would desire your prayers for wisdom, provision, endurance and renewed vision for new and exciting ways that God can use this ministry.
I plan to continue meeting individually with men for counsel and encouragement.
I plan to continue my ministry as volunteer pastor to the staff of Young Life in the Southeast Region.
I remain open to lead new weekly men’s groups and to facilitate men’s retreats.
I am so very grateful to each one of you dear friends who have offered prayer, words of encouragement and financial support over the past year. I pray that I may be found worthy of the same in 2019.
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