Announcing the "Salvation" App for iPhone & iTouch users!

Click to download

Click to download

The "Salvation" app will be the perfect application to add to your iPhone or iTouch to assist you in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ or to accept Him as Lord yourself. It’s been said that 85% of believers do not know how to share their faith. Through the use of this application you will no longer fall into that percentile and you will be fully convinced of the truth that is found in the greatest selling book of all time, the Holy Bible. You will obtain a greater understanding of Christ and equip yourself with all the tools necessary to share the undeniable truth of the Gospel confidently and competently, conveniently at your finger tips.


At present the Salvation App is being used in the US, Great Britain, France, Canada, Mexico, South Africa, Russia, Germany, Australia, Switzerland, and Italy! It is a resource that is perpetually growing and reaching more and more people across the globe.

With features like:

• The Plan of Salvation
• Romans Road to Salvation
• Prayer
• Discipleship training materials
• 8Study Guides sections including 100's of devotions
• Helpful Verses dedicated to specific needs
• Opportunity to make a Public Profession of Faith
• Websites, contact tools, videos, & blogs to assist your witness

There are millions of iPhone and iTouch users around the world.  Imagine if each one downloaded this App and used it to share gospel with someone else.  We could change the world!  Encourage others to download it, but most importantly USE IT!!

Obey the call of the Lord to, “Go”.

• Go and tell others
• Make disciples
• Baptize them
• Lead the life your called to lead
• Develop a real relationship with Christ

Through this App you and others will be inspired and enabled to share your faith and to deepen your knowledge of the word of God.


Current Partners& Contributors to the Salvation App Are:

Tim Hawkins

Serving Christ by Serving You, 


Bryan Taunton 
Executive Director FootWash Ministries
FootWashMinistries.org 
btaunton@FootWashMinistries.org

The Grace Card

We as Christians like to use the "Grace" card.

Rom. 6:1 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?"   


Often we seem to live our lives as though we allow sin so that the evidence of Gods forgiveness is proven. Do we push the envelope to far? Often it seems that we push away from holiness by relying on grace, rather than seeking to be holy.


John 8: " (10)When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? (11)She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.(12) Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."


Christ doesn't condemn us, because if we do not obey we are condemned already. The truth is Christ calls us to live a life of sinlessness. Our problem is instead of waking up to a day of sinlessness we wake up expecting to sin and to rely on His grace. Christ calls us to be light in darkness and to be the salt of the earth. We are the catylist of change. We are to make things different! We are to be in the world but not of the world. His instruction to the adulterous woman was to "go and sin no more..." He didn't say, "I'll see you later don't worry about it, I gotcha covered." He desires us to seek perfection!


1 Cor. 9: "(24) Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.(25) And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they [do it] to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.(26) I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:(27) But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway."


Have you ever watched a motorcycle race? Have you noticed how they outline the track with hay bales? Think about that for a moment. The hay bales represent Grace. We are to strive to win the race not to abuse His grace! Grace allows us to finish the race. The idea is not to hit the hay bales. We don't run a race to hit the hay bales, we run the best line that we can. The Hay bales are there to catch/ help us when we crash. This is Grace. The hay bales allow us to live to get back in the race.


By using the "Grace cards" we teach others how to run a very sloppy race. If we're going to enter the race, run the race for the prize!  If I'm not careful playing the "Grace" card too wildly may make me the joker in the deck. His Grace is not our license to sin!

Heb. 4: "(1)Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left [us] of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

Some will fall short and miss the promise. To think that God's grace is so easy as to allow one to go on sinning and be covered by grace is the same as saying "God approves of sin, he gave me salvation anyway."

This is a very dangerous misconception. The argument is if an individual truly has a relationship with Christ then why would they accept sin in their lives and openly accept it so easily. Grace can be measured by the outward reflection of Christ in an individual life. How much of God are you reflecting to the world around you. This is your true measure of grace in your life.

1 Thes. 4: "(7) For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness."

Don't be made the joker in the deck by thinking you've got the Grace trump card.

This text does not reflect on personal liberty. While it is true there are individual sins that are personal, there is much more that is openly sin at which we engage in. For example Christ command, "Love thy neighbor as thyself". How many can truly attest to that? Answer, very few. Why? Because we do not seek to.

Let us live to be examples of His grace by putting it on display in our lives in love and obedience to His word. Let us endeavor to keep from the very appearance of sin, even if we don't see it as sin but others do. Let us not seek to cause offense.

Giving Him the Glory,

Bryan K. Taunton
President & Founder FootWash Ministries
www.FootWashMinistries.org

What Is Relevant?

There is a great buzz word that has been gaining favor in the Christian community over the past 8 to 10 years. Every day this word is heard in regards to how it compares to this subject or that subject implying that it is the measure of excellence, aptitude, and etc. for the day. That word is “relevant or relevance”. The great idea is that a ministry seeks to be relevant in today’s society. There are magazines, webzines, podcast, radio shows, ministries, groups, and like media all seeking to point to what is relevant or who is relevant to you the reader or listener. An advertiser’s job is to determine for its client how to prove their product relevant to a prospective buyer.

If you would bear with me for a spell, I would like to take a deeper look at this word and its application to our personal lives. How do you determine what is or is not relevant in your life? Well, first let’s look at the word “Relevant” and its meaning. The word relevant can be defined as having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand; affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion (www.merriam-webster.com). The word demonstrable stands out to me in this definition, demonstrable meaning to be capable of being demonstrated. If I can demonstrate something and my intentions are to prove something then I must be sure that I am absolute in my motives and in the purpose of the demonstration. For this reason let’s begin to look at the term relative as a demonstrable absolute truth. I don’t think I’m taking anything out of context here but please bear with me as I utilize my liberty.

Now, if you begin to look at something as being relative in these terms then things begin to take on a fresh, new, albeit simple meaning. There are some absolutes in this life that I know that I must adhere to. Gravity for example is an absolute and we all adhere to it or suffer the consequences. There are other absolutes, such as water has more hydrogen than oxygen therefore if I try to breathe it I will drown. Water is heavier than oil, the earth is round, and etc, etc… O.K. so you say “Well, this is all well and good Bryan but how does this apply to my life.” Here is the question again, what is relative? You say, “I don’t know it depends on what we are talking about.” You now have the entire point of this essay or blog. You see we want to say that, “To be relative is subjective.” It has to do with whatever subject is at hand. This is true to a certain extent but I would rather put this in the category of relevantism. Relevantism is when we begin to say that all truth is subjective to circumstance, personal taste, historical interpretation, personal perception, and etc. For example, I say that chocolate ice cream is the best, yet you say vanilla ice cream is the best; both are true statements. This is what I call relational perceptive truth. In that, how I view something as according to my personal perception is what is true for me and this is relevantism.

Relevantism is a great danger to society when it begins to co-exist in the presence of real relevance. This is what has happened to religion in America. Society has promoted that all religions are relevant. Because they have a right to exist and have massive amounts of followers then they are viewed as relevant. We’ve created the notion that religion or spiritualism is much like ice cream and whatever flavor you choose is relative. You alone have that choice and that choice is perfectly fine because you have that right. This is a relational perceptive truth, in that many are being led down false trails of relativity because they have perceived a false truth through some relational outlet that they were led to. Because of this they are on a path of which the only relevant fact is how it relates to true relevance.

What is relevant? Absolute truth is relevant! The only absolute that we have in this life is that God is God, the Alpha and the Omega, Jehovah, Abba Father, the creator; and that He sent His son Jesus Christ as the propitiation for our sin (1Jhn 4:10). That God loved this world/ His creation so much that he gave His son that we might have salvation (John 3:16). Everything else including gravity could change at any given moment compliant to God’s word and command. Having said this how do you determine what is relevant?

There is only one way the question of this article may be answered and that is first through the admittance and acceptance of the one true absolute fact that was mentioned in the prior paragraph. If we are going to measure our personal relevancy or the relevance of anything else, the first question must be does it have relevance in the truth of the gospel? When you begin to measure things by this standard suddenly this great word to be “Relevant” takes on an entirely new meaning or at least we’ve certainly raised the bar. If I am to be relevant then I must be a follower of Christ. In survey after survey to “Christians” the followers of Christ 30% or better will say they believe that Christ was who he said he was yet there may be other avenues to God. We are seeing these same numbers through our Insight surveys we are currently running. What has happened? What has and is happening is that we the “Church” have gotten caught up into societal relevantism and have allowed society to have a greater influence over our views and opinions than we have over it. In a recent Insight survey 95% Christians agreed that Jesus was the messiah and exactly who He said He was. Yet, in the same survey when asked the question about their faith 30% agreed that Christ might not be the only way. Christ position is the only relative point in this discussion in that He said, “I am the way the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me.” (Jhn 14:6)

Now that we’ve established what being “relevant” is, how do you use it? Christ asked the question, (paraphrasing) “Who do you say that I am” to Peter. Peter’s reply was that Christ was the Son of the living God. Christ reply to him was that upon this rock He would build His church. He wasn’t referring to Peter as the rock but rather the truth of what had been revealed to Peter. If we are to determine whether something is relevant or not then we must determine how it stands in truth. For example you may ask the question, “Is what I do for a living relevant?” The answer would depend on how you reply to the question. If you said, “My job is relevant because it provides for my family”, then your answer would be wrong. If on the other hand you said, “My job is relevant because it serves as an opportunity for me to provide for my family, as per God's directive and for the finance of the gospel” then yes your job is relevant. Now this is a harsh reality. We must move from a state of allowing our “jobs, hobbies, and etc.” define who we are. Rather Christ, must be the true and final determination in your relevance. When everything in your being is concentrated on the provision of the gospel in your life and to the world you then become relevant to those around you. You are relevant in Christ eyes, but do you not have a greater calling? I know this sets a high bar and no you aren’t going to comply with this at all times because we are human and of a sinful nature. I believe this is what is implied when we come to that place of praying without ceasing. You realize that you are always in God’s presence and that He is the reason and rationale for everything.

Simply stated something is relevant in your life when it is based in absoluteness. That absoluteness is Jesus Christ. So when you are trying to determine the relativity of something be it personal, an individual, a church, or even ministries take a long look at how it stands along side the absoluteness of Christ and the word of God. If it is relative to you then your determination must begin here.

There is much more to come on this subject. I intend to do at least a three part series on our podcast “The Basin Broadcast”. The first installment will be out by the 3rd of April. I would invite you specifically to subscribe to our podcast by searching for the title through iTunes. It’s free to subscribe. This way you can be sure to get all three installments on this series and all other future podcast. Download them to your iPod and listen to them on the go, listen to them on your computer, or lay them on a CD to listen to at your leisure. Anyway you so choose, I hope that you will listen in. I’m sure God has something special in store for you

A New Work

A new work… a new vision… a new heart… a new trust…. a new start…. What is it that you need today? For many it’s time for something new. The definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. We pray the same prayers, we do the same things, we see the same people, we go through the same motions, and we expect something to change.

There are many…if not most who have reached a plateau of faith, hope, love, desire, fulfillment and these same people feel that they have gone as far in their lives and in their spiritual walk as they can go. God expects us to change and to grow continuously.

We need to begin a New Work!

John Ch. 13… Christ washes the disciple’s feet… Peter begins a new work… rather than Lord you can’t wash my feet….to Lord give me a bath….lol. We need this same appreciation for personal cleansing and new energy. We need this great desire to be a part of the body of Christ and the service He has called us to.

Lev. 23:16 “Even unto the morrow after the seventh sabbath shall ye number fifty days; and ye shall offer a new meat offering unto the LORD. “

God desires that which is new and fresh for his sacrifice. In other words, He desires our offering to be of the first fruits. Why not? He is God. He has given so much, is He not deserving? We’re not simply discussing tithes here, what about our time and service. Some say, “Well you can’t teach and old dog new tricks”. I beg to differ. We are to be constantly learning and growing. Spiritually we never grow old we are eternal! We simply get wiser. But unfortunately, we don’t see the spiritual growth in individuals that we would love to see, thus the ever present problem of dealing with the same old recurring issues. We simply need to make some changes and take some new steps. Sometimes to freshen something up we’ve got to change our approach. We can change our approach just by looking at things in a different way.

Why is it that we seem so bored today when we have the greatest story ever told? It’s the greatest because it’s all true! It’s the greatest because it’s so incredible! Have you read all the stuff that’s taken place in scripture? Do you realize that in all actuality the Bible is not just a book of faith it is a book of history. This is an important distinction. If we truly believed scripture as known relevant fact….somehow I think our approach to life might be somewhat different.

I think we often resist beginning or allowing a new work because we are so intimidated by change or we are so lazy and comfortable in the way things are that we refuse to move. The truth is that as long as there is breath in this body our job is to serve Him, by leading others to Him.

Question: How many reading this have ever lead one person to Jesus Christ? Ask yourself; have I ever personally been used by the Spirit of God as the primary operating agent in the acceptance of Christ as Lord and Savior of another individual?

That’s a lot of pressure isn’t it? Well, I just don’t know… uh I can’t do that…uh I’m no preacher… that’s not my job. Fact: It’s your first priority and your first calling. Lose the pressure relax and just believe the incredibleness of our God and the scripture.

Look! Sharing your faith doesn’t mean you have to preach a sermon. It’s simply means that you believe enough, know enough, and are confident enough to tell. If you can’t do that… then we need to examine the realities of your personal faith. What do you really believe?

If what we read in scripture is true… how can we not share these things? The problem is we think we have to have the plan of salvation memorized and while that is good it’s not entirely necessary or we think we’ve got to pound someone over the head with the word to convince them. Listen up! You do not have to have the Romans Road memorized to lead someone to Christ!!!!!

Mat. 10:16 “Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

This scripture is relevant to how you go out into the world today, as believers. Christ gave the example of how to approach the world. This is a very potent passage of scripture! First Christ warns, be alert because the world hopes to consume us. There is a clear and present danger. Second, be wise as the serpent. This second part of scripture is very, very relevant. Let’s look at the characteristics of the serpent:

• Is Camouflaged it looks like the world, is in the world, but not of the world, it is really different.
• Is silent until backed into a corner
• Does not seek a fight
• Is patient
• Is cautious
• Does not seek to bring attention to itself
• Sit’s in waiting
• Moves to fulfill its needs
• It is cautious
• It knows its quarry
• When it strikes it rarely misses
• It swallows wholly
• It grows and sheds its old skin
• It is determined
• It is focused
• It is resilient

There is a book in that ….. so don’t use it…lol Wow, have you ever thought of the power that Christ made in telling us to, “be wise as the serpent”? How different would this world be if we operated in this fashion?

Thirdly, He tells us to, “be innocent”, do not seek to cause harm rather be blameless. To be blameless then we can’t generate a direct attack or retaliation unless redemption is the goal. Redemption can only be purchased through love and not accusation.

John 3:16,17 “For God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in Him would not parish but have ever lasting life. God sent not His son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.”

By Christ example we are to begin a new work. It’s a process of multiplication

Luke 19:12-27
(12) He said therefore, “A nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and then return. (13) “Calling ten of his servants, he gave them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Engage in business until I come.’(14) “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’(15) “When he returned, having received the kingdom, he ordered these servants to whom he had given the money to be called to him, that he might know what they had gained by doing business.(16) “The first came before him, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made ten minas more.’ has made ten minas more.’ (17) “And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant!] Because you have been faithful in a very little, you shall have authority over ten cities.’(18) “And the second came, saying, ‘Lord, your mina has made five minas.’(19) “And he said to him, ‘And you are to be over five cities.’(20) “Then another came, saying, ‘Lord, here is your mina, which I kept laid away in a handkerchief;(21) “‘for I was afraid of you, because you are a severe man. You take what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’(22) “He said to him, ‘I will condemn you with your own words, you wicked servant! You knew that I was a severe man, taking what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow?’ (23)“Why then did you not put my money in the bank, and at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’(24) “And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to the one who has the ten minas.’(25) “And they said to him, ‘Lord, he has ten minas!’(26) ‘“I tell you that to everyone who has, more will be given, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.(27) “‘But as for these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slaughter them before me.’”

In this passage who do you think the Lord of the Land represents?

What happened to those who sent the messenger to say, “We don’t want you to rule over us.”

Does the slaying of these enemies, create a sense of urgency within you?

What are you expecting?

What is your desire?

Will you continue on as is… or are you ready to begin a new work?

What return are you going to give God on his investment?