Getting started on this blog- from Maxx

As we get started on making this blog a useful tool to equip and encourage the SWAT Team, I just wanted to post my speechless gratitude to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for being so faithful to us, to give us the desire, will, and strength to talk about him to people we have never met before.  

This amazing grace He gives us is, I believe, the strongest proof of His existence to those we witness to.

I'd like to share what I call my life verse, which is a key verse that defines my focus while I walk this earth:

"But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry."  2 Timothy 4:5

There are four main elements to this directive that Paul gives to Timothy, which I also believe Christ is giving to me:

1) "But watch thou in all things..."   For me, this includes being a Berean when it comes to learning the Word of God (Acts 17:10-11), but also being like the sons of Issachar (1 Chronicles 12:32) when it comes to understanding the times we are living in.

2) "...endure afflictions..."  Pretty straightforward; living as disciples of Christ ,we are to expect afflictions (John 16:33), and from many directions.

3)   "...do the work of an evangelist..."  Okay, got it, Lord!  (Mark 16:15)

4) "...make full proof of thy ministry."  The Greek word for proof means to make full or accomplish something.  Here is where I remember that my ministry is first to Christ, then to my wife and children, then to other family and friends, then to those who have not yet become my friends or family.

My prayer is that God will be glorified through this blog, and that we can rest in the assurance that we belong to Jesus Christ and that He has overcome the world, even now.

So let's get started!  God bless you.

Maxx