(September 7, 2011)

Prayer House News!

This coming Sunday will be the tenth anniversary of the 911 tragedy. Our service is going to have a special focus on it. I’m looking for to sharing it with you. Now that the Band Shell service is over we will be back to our regular schedule of 8:30 and 10:30. Hope to see you at one of those services.

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This week is not only Family Week for us – it’s also our All-Church Clean. If you have signed up to help us – don’t forget!! Saturday will be the big day as we put the sanctuary back together and clean up the east edge of our property. Dave Dennee is bringing his trailer and we are going to load it with all the brush and weeds we take down. See you around 9:00am.

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Devotional

Doing What is Good

So we have these two issues before us. Living a life of righteousness, and winning souls. Lets go back to our opening verses.

(1) Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, (2) to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men.

This has to do with righteousness. Righteous living is basically living in a way that causes others to see Jesus. Godliness has to do with our relationship with God, righteousness has to do with my relationship with others. Righteous living is living is a way where you do for others what you believe God has done for you. Be peaceable, be considerate, show humility, and be obedient. These are things we are to do for the sake of others seeing the nature of God in us. This has nothing to do with our own personal salvation. We are saved by the blood of Christ. That is what washes away sin. I am not saved by being humble, or considerate. We do not do these things for our own sake. We do them for the sake of those around us that have not yet had a clear revelation of who God is.

Proverbs 11:30 says, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.

Fruit means, that which you produce. Fruit is what grows. So the fruit of the righteous, or that which the righteous gain, as their harvest, is a tree of life. In other words, righteous living is going to result in winning people to eternal life.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

High Ways

It had been a quiet night at the local bar so far, but then

the door was thrown open and an interstate highway strode

in.

"I'm an interstate highway," he declared. "I stretch from

coast to coast and have at least four lanes, shoulders, and

a median almost my entire length. I have the highest speed

limit of any highway. I'm the best of the highways, and I'm

afraid of no highway and no road."

He then strode up to the bar, ordered a beer, and began

drinking it while looking around.

A short time later, a four-lane highway came in, went to the

end of the bar, and ordered a beer.

The interstate looked him over and walked over to him. "I'm

an interstate highway," he declared. "I stretch from coast

to coast and have at least four lanes, shoulders, and a

median almost my entire length. I have the highest speed

limit of any highway. I'm the best of the highways, and I'm

not afraid of you."

The four-lane highway said, "I agree that you're the best. I

don't want any trouble with you. Let me buy you a beer," and

he did. They drank their beers and discussed their

engineering specifications.

After a half hour, the door opened again and a two-lane road

came in, went to the other end of the bar, and ordered a

beer.

The interstate looked him over and told the four-lane

highway that he had to take care of the new arrival. He

walked over to the two-lane road and said, "I'm an

interstate highway. I stretch from coast to coast and have

at least four lanes, shoulders, and a median almost my

entire length. I have the highest speed limit of any

highway. I'm the best of the highways, and I'm not afraid of

you."

The two-lane road quivered a bit and said, "You're

absolutely right. You are the best of the highways. I'm just

a lowly two-lane road. I don't want any trouble. Can I buy

beers for you and the four-lane highway?"

The interstate motioned the four-lane highway to come over.

The two-lane road bought beers for each of them, and the

three of them drank their beers and discussed the merits of

various paving materials.

After another half hour, the door opened again and a strip

of asphalt about eight feet wide came in. The interstate

highway ducked behind the bar and hid there quivering

quietly.

The bartender was shocked.

After serving the asphalt strip, he walked over to where the

interstate was hiding. "I watched you stand up to the

four-lane highway and the two-lane road. You said you

weren't afraid of any highway or road. Why are you hiding

from that little asphalt strip?"

The interstate replied quietly, "It's true that I'm not

afraid of any highway or road, but he's a cycle path."

(By Bill McCray)

(September 6, 2011)

Prayer House News!

This week is not only Family Week for us – it’s also our All-Church Clean. If you have signed up to help us – don’t forget!! Saturday will be the big day as we put the sanctuary back together and clean up the east edge of our property. Dave Dennee is bringing his trailer and we are going to load it with all the brush and weeds we take down. See you around 9:00am.

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Devotional

I think the phraseology of the Bible is quite interesting from time to time. The word, “win,” indicates a contest or a competition. Proverbs 11:30 says, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. In a certain sense we are in a contest over the souls of men. When it comes to a man’s life these is a definite beginning and a definite ending. That which is in-between is called the race of life. In this race, “to win” means eternal life – “to lose” means eternal death. So it is the most important race a person will ever face.

Acts 20:24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me-- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

2 Timothy 4:7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

Hebrews 12:1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

So the apostle comes along and says, “Don’t forget what the calling on all of our lives are. It’s to win people to Christ. It’s to win their souls from destruction.” Paul says, “My life means nothing except to complete the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace – so that I may win souls to Christ.”

Look at this verse again Proverbs 11:30 says, The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise. There are two parts to this verse. 1. Living a life of righteousness. 2. Winning souls. These two things are always connected. If we don’t live the way we should we will greatly hinder our ability to win people to Christ.

We must always keep in mind that we are seeking to win people to Christ. When we share our faith, it is often interpreted that we are simply trying to get people to join the church. Joining the church is the “after” issue. Joining the church is not the critical issue. Winning their souls is the critical issue. After that has been accomplished then I believe they need to get involved in a church for the sake of growing in the things of God. But first and foremost is their souls.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Smart Phone Terminology

A mother was determined to break through the generation gap

and have a meaningful conversation with her pre-teen about

her first day back at school.

The mother asked, "Did you have a good day?"

The daughter responded with, "Yeah."

Trying to prod a more detailed response, the mother

inquired, "Do you like school this year?"

The daughter said, "Well, sort of."

Again pressing the point, the determined mom asked, "Well,

how much did you like it?"

As a sign of the way smart phones have changed the way young

people think, the daughter replied, "I like it. But, I only

like it about two bars."

(September 5, 2011)

Prayer House News!

It’s Labor Day! I hope you get to spend some family time together. Yesterday we had another Band Shell service. The weather was perfect the Word of God was even better than that as Pastor Josh from the Vine A/G preached. Then we had a picnic. It was a good day.

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This week is not only Family Week for us – it’s also our All-Church Clean. If you have signed up to help us – don’t forget!! Saturday will be the big day as we put the sanctuary back together and clean up the east edge of our property. Dave Dennee is bringing his trailer and we are going to load it with all the brush and weeds we take down. See you around 9:00am.

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Devotional

Doing What is Good!

Titus 3:1-5

Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, (2) to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, and to show true humility toward all men. (3) At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. (4) But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, (5) he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Paul was an apostle. An apostle is one that travels around and instructs churches that he has charge over. I believe in the office of the apostle today. When I was on staff at First Assembly of God in Honolulu I became very familiar with Rick Seward’s ministry in Singapore. Pastor Rick has a church of several thousand people in Singapore. His church has mothered dozens of churches around the world. They raise up young men and women in order to send them out to start churches. They have started around 60 churches world-wide. Pastor Rick now basically travels full-time from church to church in an instructional mode giving guidance to these churches. I believe he is very similar to what the bible calls an apostle.

Paul the apostle was instructing Titus in these verses. He says to Titus, “Remind the people.” However, that which he reminds them of is what we are going to focus on this morning. We are talking about our fourth core value today. We have established our church on six core values, or beliefs. These values are the bedrock of our church. So far we have talked about the core value of Intimacy with God, A Knowledge of God, and last week our focus was on Worship. This weeks core value is Evangelism. Simply put, evangelism is that of winning people to Christ. However, in America we are struggling with this. We are not winning people to Christ the way we should be.

Everyday more people are born into the world than are born-again into the church. And that’s in a “Christian society.” Not only is Christianity not meeting the natural birth rate – it’s actually losing ground. There are currently 62,000 churches that have no pastors in America. Yet around the world the church is growing by leaps and bounds.

Latin America

v Since the sixties evangelical (Protestant) Christianity has been mushrooming in Latin America . Last year the Foursquare Church in Brazil reported 115,000 conversions. Now Brazil alone has 56 missionary-sending agencies and some 2,040 missionaries.

v In Argentina an estimated 3 million people prayed to receive Christ following a TV presentation of the Gospel, 40 percent of the viewing audience.

v An Assemblies of God leader in Cuba said he is seeing the greatest move of God in his lifetime, thousands flocking to the churches, many of them communists. Every Home for Christ lists 87,000 responses to the Gospel in Cuba since 1989.

Africa

Since the 70’s the Church has been growing at a remarkable rate in Africa. An Assemblies of God superintendent from Burkina Faso, Africa, told the 16th Pentecostal World Conference in Oslo, Norway recently that though his church gained only 22,000 members in the first 50 years, there are now 350,000 members. AG field director for Africa, Don Corbin, said there were 108,000 AG African believers in 1970, now there are over 2.8 million in nearly 14,000 churches. The continent of Africa is seeing over 20,000 converts a day.

Asia

v In one Vietnamese highland village where 6,000 came to Christ last year, Communist Party cadres held a “re-education campaign.” An official wrote on a blackboard “Against Christ” and “For Christ” and asked the people to write their names in the appropriate column. The people sat motionless for 20 minutes, then an elderly woman rose and said, “For twenty years I have followed Marxism…and served as your leader here. A few months ago, however, I came to realize that Jesus Christ offers a better way.” She then signed her name under “For Christ” and as chagrined cadres watched, the entire village followed suit.

v Korea has become the model of a praying church for all of us and now has twenty of the world’s largest churches.

Citing David Barrett’s 1991 statistic of 15,000 Christian baptisms per week in India – which some think is very conservative – Rev. Valson Abraham of India Gospel Outreach says nearly 80 percent are coming to Christ through some kind of supernatural encounter.

The Muslim World

v The August 92 Pulse reports that as many as 25,000 people have made personal decisions to follow Christ over the last six months in a revival among 150 Assemblies of God churches in Egypt.

v In Iran there were only 2,700 evangelical Christians 15 years ago. Now there are about 12,000, with another 12,000 scattered throughout the Western world The annual church growth is about 12 percent though Iranian Christian leaders continue to be incarcerated, tortured and executed.

Conclusion

v When Jesus left this earth there were 200 million people, one Christian for every 17 million. In 1430 it was one for every 100, in 1970, one Bible believing Christian for every 20, and in 1993 it is one for every ten. The Church is increasing by over 260,000 new souls every day. The work force for taking the Gospel to those who have not heard is exploding.

The church is growing by leaps and bounds world-wide with the exception of three areas – America – Japan – Western Europe, the three materialistic societies. I think there is a basic reason for this. We have given up on the race for souls. We have become self-focused.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Mary Poppins

Mary Poppins decides to grow some vegetables. When she picks

her crop in the autumn, her carrots, potatoes, onions, and

spring beans have all failed, but her cauliflowers have

grown a treat.

She picks them, cooks some for Sunday lunch in a cheese

sauce, and they taste wonderful.

After eating them for a week she notices two things.

Firstly, her lips are full and glossy, unchapped, uncracked,

and require absolutely no lip gloss to make them look full

and pouty.

Secondly, she has really awful bad breath, and even her cat

won't come near her.

Pleased with her lips, however, and spotting a money-making

idea, she contacts a big cosmetics company and explains

about the lip-enhancing qualities of her cauliflower crop.

After a month of testing, the company buys the entire crop

of cauliflowers for a phenomenal amount and requests that

Mary grow some more as soon as possible.

The company proceeds to make lipstick out of them but

experiences problems in the the final product manufacture.

The lipstick does not gel correctly into a solid stick and

ends up crumbling upon application. Quality controllers also

find that, even as a lipstick, the bad breath remains and

have to put it down as an unfortunate side effect.

As they are nearing their production deadline and adverts

for this new wonder lip enhancer have hit the streets, the

cosmetics company has no choice but to produce the packaging

with the following caution.

Poppins' Pop-up Lip Enhancer:

SUPER CAULI, FRAGILE LIPSTICK - EXPECT-HALITOSIS