(February 5, 2010)

Prayer House News!

It's Friday! Isn't that something - I think it is. I'm really looking forward to gathering together this weekend to share about the good things God has been doing in our midst.

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Heath Young spoke for my brother Barry on Wednesday night. They had another powerful meeting praying with people until midnight. Barry said they saw a number of wonderful healings.

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Our pre-service prayer meetings during our special meetings really set the pace for our meetings. Let's keep up the momentum and show up for prayer this weekend.

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Gone in 60 Seconds

continued from yesterday

Once a person has repented he has changed his mind regarding a particular action or sin hasn’t he? If a person’s mind has been changed there is nothing left to debate? It’s over! And now that it’s over we are open to a different life – correct!

Matthew 4:18; As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.

Jesus is walking beside the Sea of Galilee preaching the message of repentance when he sees Peter and Andrew. Do you remember how last week we said that God tests us to see what is in our hearts? I sort of wonder if Jesus already knew what was in the heart of these two when he approaches them and asks them to follow Him, because instantly they change their minds.

Matthew 4:19-20 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." At once they left their nets and followed him.

They were gone in sixty seconds. Jesus said, “Come,” and they were gone. That has to be one of the most intriguing incidents in the scriptures. How does a man change his entire career all of a sudden? Then it happens again.

Matthew 4:21-22 Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.

Not only do they follow immediately, they also leave their father standing in the boat. They walked away from their net income, which some of you might consider gross. Repentance brings change – change brings revival, first in your own heart, but ultimately to the kingdom of God.

Let me ask you this; to what ends are you willing to allow Jesus to lead you? If the spirit of God prompted you today, would you be gone in sixty seconds? I would venture to say that the only thing keeping us from an immediate response to the prompting of the Holy Spirit is some un-repented sin. What else could it be? When the air is clear you have all the freedom in the world to respond.

I believe Jesus chose the ones he did to be apostles because he knew their hearts beforehand. It’s very possible they had been tested many times in their life – long before they ever met Jesus. In fact in one of the other Gospel it talks about how they had been fishing all night long and had not caught any fish. Jesus tells them to cast their nets on the other side and they hauled in a record number of fish. Matthew does not give us that detail.

God knew their hearts and when prompted they responded. Lest you think less of yourself than you should, you need to realize that to a certain degree you did just that when you were saved. When you gave your life to Christ you opened yourself to his leading.

Many of your lives changed radically upon the acceptance of Christ as your savior. Some of you even had to leave your families (at least spiritually). Mom and dad – don’t make your children leave you – release them before hand so they have a freedom to do whatever God wants them to do.

As Jesus called Peter and Andrew he said to him, I will make you fishers of men. I don’t really believe they understood what that meant at the time. The whole concept of giving your life to the Messiah was a new one.

I believe they felt something when Jesus talked to them. Their hearts burned within them as he talked. They were in the presence of God and it changed their lives immediately. The same thing happens every time a person meets Christ for the first time. Last week was my spiritual birthday.

34 years ago I gave my life to Christ. I’ll never forget the day I gave my life to him. I responded to the altar call my pastor gave. I knelt down and an old German man – Bro. Hienneman came and prayed with me. Bro. Hienneman was an old man who come here from Germany.

He knelt beside me and asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted to get saved. He said, “Then you must give your heart to the Fadder.” I said, “I have to give my heart to what?” He said, “The Fadder, you know - Got.” I said, “Oh you mean God the Father,” he said, “That’s what I said, Got the Fadder.” So once I was saved, I got the fadder.

The moment I prayed for Jesus to come into my life – I was gone in sixty seconds. I confessed everything I could think of. I did not come up from the altar the same person I went down there as. Everything was different for me. I still worked in the same place, but I was not the same. So in a very real sense – I was gone. I was a new person, a new employee.

I don’t think you can really have a true revelation of your salvation until you first have a revelation of your lost-ness. I came to the full revelation that I was not going to heaven and that I needed a savior – to save me from the hell I deserved. Once I realized what Jesus did for me – I was more than willing to become a fisher of men. The only thing I could think to do was to live in such a way that others would see their need to be saved. That’s what it is to be a fisher of men. We try to hook them any way we can.
END

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Shhhh!

On a visit to the library I happened to notice a man and awoman, both deaf, signing with intense gestures, apparently in a heated debate.

The man said something; and the woman seemed upset. She started signing her reply very fast, to the point where the man couldn't understand a word; she also signed in big, wide gestures, which is the equivalent of volume.

Finally, looking strained, her companion took her hands,"silencing" her. Then he signed, very small and slowly: "You don't have to shout,

I'm not blind."