Prayer and Medication

2012-01-29T23:02:00.002-06:00

(January 30, 2012)
Prayer House News!
The Spirit of God was moving again in our services as we talked about the Moral Glory of Christ. There seems to be a growing spirit of repentance in our church. God must be up to something and we want to be a part of it.
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RPM is going to be powerful again this Wednesday. I hope you can join us as we seek the face of God.
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My message will be the devotional for this week (the whole message is attached also)
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Devotional!
The Moral Glory of Christ
I’m going to start off today looking at a verse from some of our reading last week and then eventually get into this weeks reading. Next week we start in John 17 with Christ’s priestly prayer. That should be interesting. In John 12:41 there is a verse that can easily be overlooked.
John 12:41 Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
Just prior to, as it says in verses 36 & 37 he had performed many signs and wonders in the presence of many people, especially the Pharisees and yet they did not believe him. So in order for Isaiah’s prophesy to be fulfilled he hid from them. But the point I want to make is what Isaiah said about the glory of God. He saw his glory.
Let’s look at the event in Isaiah’s life that Jesus is referring to.
Isaiah 6:1, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
This must have been a very solemn, soul-subduing sight. It is always a serious matter whenever man stands before the throne of God with all the demands and standards of that throne bearing down upon his conscience. Isaiah found this to be true for him. This is why he cried out “Woe is me! I am undone.” The light of the throne revealed to him his true condition. And that light is called the Moral Glory of Christ.
So this presents us with our struggle. It’s a battle between the glory of God and the glory of man. Let’s go back to John 12:42
John 12:42 Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue.
When this verse starts with the word “nevertheless” it’s referring back to the fact that Jesus hid himself from men. Nevertheless, many believed in him. But then notice the conflict man has. Because they feared the Pharisees they did not confess the fact that they believed Jesus is the Christ, which describes our struggle. It’s a battle between the glory of God and the glory of man. The next verse tells us why they did not tell the Pharisees that they believed Jesus was the Messiah.
John 12:43 for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
This scripture could not be any clearer. They chose the glory of man over the glory of God. The approval of man meant more to them than the approval of God – even though they believed he was the Messiah. That is really amazing isn’t it? It is until you give it just a little thought. How easy is it for us to profess our love for Christ and our belief that he is the Messiah and yet still choose the profane over the holy? Our fear of sharing our faith is one example of choosing the glory of man over the glory of God. We get overly concerned about our image and reputation and begin to fear what might happen if we talked about the fact that we actually love Jesus.
Man is self-centered by nature and subsequently loves to bask in his own glory. So the challenge becomes that of exchanging the glory of man for the glory of God. What this begins to speak of is presence. Presence determines which glory we prefer, man’s or God’s. Man will choose his own presence – his own glory – whenever the presence of God is not strong in his life. Isaiah talked about seeing the moral glory of Christ and it instantly changed him.
John said that what Isaiah saw at the throne was the moral glory of Jesus. Christ is the perfect standard by which every man will be measured. Our own perception of ourselves or even how others perceive us does not matter. The question is; what do I look like in the presence of Christ? This is what the throne of God does; it reveals! The law tells us what we need to be; our conscience may tell us what we think we are; but it is only when the bright beams of Christ’s moral glory shine upon us that we are enabled to form a true estimate of who we are.
So if the presence of God is going to become stronger in our lives than our own selfish desires we must spend more time with Him. However, it’s not just a simple matter of spending time in prayer but rather – it’s that the practice of prayer brings us before the throne of God. And in the light of the throne of God Isaiah saw himself a helpless, ruined, guilty sinner, at an immeasurable distance from that throne and from the blessed One who sat on it. He heard the cry of the seraphim, “Holy, holy, holy;” and the only response which he could send back from the depths of a broken heart was, “Unclean, unclean, unclean.”
If man had a greater revelation of the filth of his own righteousness he would want to make a change. But the only thing that reveals that is the moral glory or light of Christ.
Now we can get into the chapters we read for this week. In John 13 Jesus knows he is about to go back to his father.
John 13:3 Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he had come from God and was going back to God.
He understood that his time was short on earth so he begins doing some things and telling them some things about his departure. And he starts by washing their feet. His disciples were confused about this initially. Peter proclaimed in verse 8 that Jesus would never wash his feet. But Jesus said something to him that shook him.
John 13:8 Peter said to him, “You shall never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no share with me.”
Peter responds, “In that case wash everything.” Jesus was trying to get them to understand that without him – they were unclean; their righteousness was as filthy rags.
The thing that struck me the most about chapters 13 & 14 was that they are a type of farewell. Jesus knew he was about to leave them but they did not have the full revelation of it yet. So he starts to talk to them about the challenges they are going to face and some of those challenges are going to deal with the glory of God. Of course they don’t fully understand yet that he is referring to his own death. Then in verse 37 Peter makes a statement.
John 13:37 Peter said to him, “Lord, why can I not follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”
Here is Peter confessing his love for Jesus and how the glory of God was more important to him than his own glory and how he would even die for him – but when push comes to shove – Peter couldn’t do it and Jesus knew it.
John 13:38 Jesus answered, “Will you lay down your life for me? Truly, truly, I say to you, the rooster will not crow till you have denied me three times.”
I would imagine most of us would want to think that we would die for Jesus. So if that’s the truth why do we keep giving into temptation? Resisting temptation is a form of dying to our own glory so that the glory of God can shine through. Giving into temptation is proof that we aren’t much different than Peter – we do love Jesus but the flesh is still quite strong.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Two Mexican detectives were investigating the murder of Juan Gonzalez.
'How was he killed?' asked one detective.
'With a golf gun,' the other detective replied.
'A golf gun! What is a golf gun?'
'I don't know. But it sure made a hole in Juan.'

2012-01-26T23:04:00.002-06:00

(January 27, 2012)
Prayer House News!
Tonight is the kick-off for OUTCRY! There are dozens of college aged young people signed up for this event. It’s going to be great with worship and a message from Chris Marvin, lead singer for the “Spark.”
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My message from Sunday is the devotional for this week.
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Devotional!
Come Forth!

John 11:43-44 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” (44) The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Just think of Lazarus in the tomb. He’d been in there for four days – just dead. Just lying there when suddenly life comes back to him and he hears Jesus say, “Lazarus, come forth!” He came out still wrapped in his grave cloths. He didn’t fix himself up first – it seems he didn’t take any time to catch his breath – he came out just as he was. How would you respond to that? How would you respond to God performing a miracle for you?
Here is my point – some people might not really want to receive the miracle they are asking for because by now they are known for their request. They are known as the person with that disease, or the person with that mate, or the person with that troubled home – and that becomes their identity. They get to walk around with a – woe is me – persona and if God really answered their prayer it would change everything about them. Some people desperately need a miracle but have come to affectionately embrace their situation and their lot in life.
Since my first book came out, Prayer Can Change Your Marriage, I can’t tell you how many women I have counseled about their ungodly husbands – only to find out once their husband got saved – they didn’t know how to handle it. Some of them actually struggled with it. They used to be the spiritual leader – how are they going to give that up. They use to be the only one who would take the kids to church. They used to be the martyr in the home – now they’ve lost that identity too. Now they have to listen to their husband give the family devotions each day – and what does he know.
At some point Jesus said to these women – Come Forth, and he brought life to their situation – he raised up a dead husband and he came to life in disarray, still having his grave cloths on – ready to move on with life in Christ. But the wife is not ready to come forth – because her hair is a mess, she feels scruffy; she needs a little time to figure out how this is going to work before she can just come forth. She begins to give all sorts of excuses as to why she can’t really receive this miracle. Jesus says, “Just die to your reputation, and get out here, come forth. Do you want to be healed? Do you really want this thing you are asking for?”
Jesus said to Mary and Martha – if you believe you will see the glory of God. Just believe – stop making excuses – stop trying to figure it out – just believe. The only way we can receive the very thing we need is to set aside the excuses and believe. Your circumstances do not matter to God. He has never been hindered by anything other than unbelief. And in those cases he chose not do to any miracles because God would not have been glorified through them.
So he says to us believers – if you believe you will see the glory of God. This is all about God’s glory. It’s not about the miracle; it’s about the glory of God.
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Medication: A Merry Heart

Mr. Clark, I have reviewed this case very carefully,' the divorce Court Judge said, 'And I've decided to give your wife $775 a week,'

'That's very fair, your honor,' the husband said. 'And every now and then I'll try to send her a few bucks myself.'

2012-01-24T22:34:00.002-06:00

(January 25, 2012)
Prayer House News!
Tonight is RPM! If you want to be blessed – come and seek God with us. Each meeting has been a powerful time of worship, prayer, teaching, more prayer, and then we end with praise!
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Awana’s start at 6:15pm
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My message from Sunday is the devotional for this week.
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Devotional!
Come Forth!

Mark 6:5 And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them.

There is both the word “miracle” and the word “heal” in this verse. Jesus did not do a miracle in their midst but he did heal some. You have heard me say many times that there is a difference between these two items. The word “healed” in this verse is the Greek word, therapeuo (ther-ap-yoo'-o). It’s where we get the word therapy from. But there are deeper meanings to the word. It means to wait upon someone to relieve them of disease.

The picture it paints would be like a nurse or a mom – one who waits on someone to relieve them of disease. However, that is quite different than what the word miracles means.

MIRACLE is the word dunamis (doo'-nam-is) which means force. It’s where we get the word dynamite or power from. A miracle rarely relates to what the word healing means. Many of the times when we read of Jesus praying for someone and healing them – it doesn’t really relate to something that happens in an instant. It relates to a healing that comes through the natural process of time – therapy. Jesus calls those things that are not as though they were – so when Jesus prayed for them he called them healed even if it took some time for it to take place.

A miracle is something much different than a healing. A miracle is instant – it violates the natural order of things whereas therapy follows the natural order of things. Miracles are powerful. Many times we are asking God for a healing when we really need a miracle. If I break my finger and ask God to heal it – then it will gradually get better – because all healing comes from God. But it I take my broken finger and present it to the Lord and it is instantly healed – that’s a miracle.

Jesus didn’t do any miracles because of their unbelief but out of his mercy he did a few healings. Healings are not so controversial because people don’t have to believe they come from God. You can go to your doctor and proclaim that Jesus healed you and he’ll condescendingly agree with you until you leave the room. However, miracles force them to consider the fact that Jesus is Lord.

So it’s one thing to not believe as a non-believer. But when believers struggle with believing – that complicates the matter. In the case of the non-believer they are dealing with believing for their salvation. With the believer our struggles come with believing for miracles not our salvation, we have already believed for that.

I’m going to sight two instances in the chapters we have read so far. The first one has to do with our text for today.

John 11:21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.

John 11:32 Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

Now we are going to go back to some verses from last week. In John 5 there is the account of the lame man who had waiting by the pool for 38 years in order to get healed.

John 5:5 One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. (6) When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be healed?”
What an interesting question. Do you want to be healed?

John 5:7 The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.

He just gives excuses as to why he can’t be healed. There is no one to put me into the pool – others always get there before me, etc. etc. When he comes to Mary and Martha they both said, “If only you had been here.” They too had their reasons of why their brother died. They had faith for the past. If only you had been here, if only that accident hadn’t happened, if only my dad had raised me differently, if only me schoolmates had treated me differently – things would be different today. Faith for the past is easy.

They also had faith for the future. We know that one day in the resurrection everything will be good again. One day I’ll be over this problem, one day I’ll be able to get my mate to do this or that and life will be better. One day my neighbor will stop kicking my dog and life will be good again. Faith for the future is easy.

Faith for today is what Jesus is dealing with in both of these cases. But instead of faith we give excuses as to why it won’t work. Another word for unbelief could be the word excuse. We continually make excuses as to why we can’t be healed or receive the miracle we need. We believe in Jesus as our savior but we are struggling with believing for the miracle we now need.
We are double minded.
James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (7) For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; (8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James says the double minded man will not receive anything from the Lord. Double-mindedness relates to having two minds at the same time. When Jesus said to the lame man, “Do you want to be healed” don’t you think in his mind he was saying, “Yes, that is why I’ve been lying here for 38 years hoping to get into the pool when it is stirred.” He is of two minds, he wants to be healed but at the same time he is telling Jesus why he can’t be.

Mary and Martha do you want to see your brother again? “Yes, Lord we do, that is why we are saying if only you had been there.” In both cases Jesus was trying to get them to believe. If you believe you will see him rise from the dead. To the lame man, “If you believe you can just take up your bed and walk.” But you must believe without excuse.”

Jesus comes to us and says, “Do you believe I can take care of you financially?” We say, “Yes, Lord,” while in the back of our minds we are thinking of our rich uncle we can go to for help, or that small loan we can take out. That is being double-minded. It’s faith for the future but not necessarily for the moment.
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Medication: A Merry Heart

Cute Baby

When we brought our new-born son to the pediatrician for his
first checkup, the doctor said, "You have a cute baby."

Smiling, I said, "I'll bet you say that to all the new
parents."

"No," he replied, "just to those whose babies are really
good-looking."

"So what do you say to the others?" I asked.

"He looks just like you."

2012-01-22T23:58:00.003-06:00

(January 23, 2012)
Prayer House News!
We had a powerful service yesterday! The spirit of God was doing some amazing things in our hearts. Our altars were filled. At one point I looked out to only see a handful of people NOT at the altars. We also took in new members and listened to Osmar Agiluar challenge us about missions. It was a good day!
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My message will be the devotional for this week.
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Devotional!
Come Forth!
We are going to look at a number of verses today so you will want to keep you bible handy. I’ve titled this message “Come Forth” – can you guess why. Those were the very words Jesus spoke as he raised Lazarus from the dead.
John 11:1-3 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. (2) It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. (3) So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.”
I just think this is so revealing of human nature. Here are the sisters of Lazarus saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” Isn’t it typical to think that God likes us best – or at least our children or family? “Lord, please touch my grandchild – you know who I’m talking about – she’s the smartest, cutest, godly grandchild ever – and I’m not just saying it because she’s my grandchild. You know her; she’s the one you love more than the other little children in church.” I find that Jesus’ response to this request almost funny.
John 11:6 So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was.
If you didn’t realize that God has purpose in all that He does and nothing is done just to be funny – you’d almost think that’s what he did here. However, he explains himself in verse 14.
John 11:14-15 Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, (15) and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Now we start to get to the crux of the matter. Jesus wanted to make sure Lazarus was good and dead before he got there so that there would be no way to mistake what was about to take place. When he asked them to roll away the grave stone they said to Him – “by now he was been dead so long that he stinks, (v.39).” Jesus was doing all he could to get people to believe he was the Messiah.
The whole idea of faith is based on believing. It’s the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Our salvation is faith based. Our sustenance is faith based. When we pray in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” that is an expression of faith acknowledging that God is ultimately our source even of the food we eat. It’s seems that everything Jesus focused on in these first few chapters dealt with believing.
At RPM last Wednesday night I spent a little time dealing with John 6:29 during our prayer time, Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” What is there within, what we call the work of God that does not relate to believing? Everything we do is to help people believe. If all men everywhere would believe on the name of Jesus Christ to be saved – there would be no work to do – outside of some discipleship.
Not only does it take a simple belief in the Son of God to be saved – there is a continuing need for us to believe for every other aspect of his kingdom. Healing requires believing, peace of mind requires believing, we believe God for our finances, we believe God for our marriages, we believe God to take care of our children. Everything comes down to believing. Jesus spent his entire ministry on earth trying to get people to believe that he was the Son of God. What is more critical than a man believing Jesus for his salvation?
There are two facets of believing I want to deal with. One has to do with non-Christians and the other has to do with Christians.
We are not forgetting this account in John 11 concerning Lazarus but I want you to see something else regarding believing first.
Mark 6:5-6 And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands upon a few sick people and healed them (6) And he marveled because of their unbelief.
As I was studying John chapter 11 I got looking at some other instances where Jesus healed people – I found these verses quite interesting. At first glance it would appear that the people’s unbelief was blocking his ability to do miracles. It says he could do no miracles there. However I believe the answer is found in the Lazarus account. After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead some believed and some didn’t.
John 11:45 Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, (46) but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.
I think it is so incredible that some of those who just witnessed one of the greatest miracles of all time – a man being raised from the dead – not just a newly dead man but a man dead long enough to stink – has his life returned to him. Some believed – some ran and told the authorities on him. His life was now threatened because of the miracle. Can’t you just see the type of person that cannot shake himself away from the law – even in the midst of a miracle that proves who the Son of God is? “Nope, nope, nope, I cannot accept that – it goes against the law – I’m telling on you.” They are so hung up on how it is supposed to be that they simply cannot see grace or mercy. Mercy is what made Jesus so controversial. His acts of mercy seemed to be contrary to the law which subsequently was used against him in order to justify crucifying Him.
So here is what I concluded: When it says he could do no miracle in Mark 6 it’s not referring so much as to his ability to perform a miracle as it relates to how useless it is to do these great acts in the presence of those who do not believe. I don’t believe it would be proper to suppose that his POWER was limited by their unbelief; but that they were so "prejudiced," and so set against him, that nothing would convince them. They would have charged it to derangement, or sorcery, or the devil.
When Jesus told them in John chapter 10 that he was the only way into the kingdom of God they accused him of having a demon.

John 10:20 Many of them said, "He is demon-possessed and raving mad. Why listen to him?"
It would have been of no use in proving TO THEM that he was from God, or to have worked miracles – subsequently he simply healed some of them.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Places I've Been and Haven't Been
I have been in many places, but I've never been in Cahoots.
Apparently, you can't go alone. You have to be in Cahoots
with someone.

I've also never been in Cognito. I hear no one recognizes
you there.

I have, however, been in Sane. They don't have an airport;
you have to be driven there. I have made several trips
there, thanks to my friends, family, and work.

I would like to go to Conclusions, but you have to jump, and
I'm not too much on physical activity anymore.

I have also been in Doubt. That is a sad place to go, and I
try not to visit there too often.

I've been in Flexible, but only when it was very important
to stand firm.

Sometimes I'm in Capable, and I go there more often as I'm
getting older.

One of my favorite places to be is in Suspense! It really
gets the adrenalin flowing and pumps up the old heart! At my
age I need all the stimuli I can get!

I may have been in Continent, but I don't remember what
country I was in. It's an age thing.

2012-01-16T00:01:00.005-06:00

(January 16, 2012)

Prayer House News!

Greetings from beautiful Estero, Florida! Dean and I started a Jesus-Sensitive Conference here yesterday. Once again we had a powerful beginning with several people receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I’ll be back on Wednesday for RPM. I’m excited about our new prayer thrust and trust you will be able to be there.

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Devotional!

Psalms 119:162. I rejoice in your promise

like one who finds great spoil.

David was both a ruler and a warrior. He knew the thrill of collecting the spoil after the battle. Few things could compare to walking through the camp of the defeated to gather up for themselves anything they wanted. However, David knew the true treasures of life were not in the spoil of the enemy but in the promises of God.

Often we are so earthly-minded that we are no heavenly good. I once had an opportunity to be in the same town that was hosting an international triathlon event. The contestants swim for 2 1/2 miles, then they bicycle for 110 miles, and finally they run for 26 miles. They do all this in one day. I learned how one contestant has a regular routine of exercising eight hours every day for this. It is possible in these situations for their body to become their god.

In 1 Timothy 4:8 we read, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” There is nothing wrong with physical fitness. However, it only benefits this life. Godliness on the other hand, benefits not only this life, but also eternity. Physical fitness allows us to gain some of the treasures of this life, but that is all.

The promises of God effect eternity, while the spoils from battle only effect this life. The only time eternal truths truly cause us to rejoice is when we see more than just this life. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). What kind of relationship with God would we need to be able to say that God’s promises mean as much to us as attaining those things that benefit this life only? We would need a relationship like David’s.

Taken from “The Heart of the King”

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Piano Tuner

The doorbell rang and the lady of the house discovered a

workman, complete with tool chest, on the front porch.

"Madam," he announced, "I'm the piano tuner."

The lady exclaimed, "Why, I didn't send for a piano tuner."

The man replied, "I know you didn't, but your neighbors

did."

2012-01-12T22:57:00.002-06:00

(January 13, 2012)
Prayer House News!
It’s Friday the 13th. Aren’t you happy that greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world? I was very pleased with RPM on Wednesday. We had over 80 people show up for a prayer meeting. Now that’s exciting! We are going to move to the 100 people mark soon.
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Devotional!
In the book of Luke there was a group of people who had been out doing spiritual battle.

Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." So if the 70 returned with this girl named joy – that would make a group of 71. They come back and they’re very excited about the power they have over demons. They found this new power and it was capturing their hearts. Look at how Jesus responds to them about this new discovery.

Luke 10:18-19 And He said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. (19) "Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.

The 70 come back and say they have all of this power and their ability to perform miracles, but Jesus basically says, “Big Deal! You wanna take about spiritual battle,I was there for the big one, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, in fact I’m the one who pushed him. I’ve seen more battles than you have understood were going on. Plus I’m the one who has given you the authority to trample on serpents and to do all these things. You’re impressed with power? If it wasn’t for me you wouldn’t even have power” Jesus wasn’t putting down their new found power – he was trying to get them to see that what they just experienced should be the norm for the life of the spirit filled believer – but not something they worship or even rejoice in.

Luke 10:20 "Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven."

Again Jesus brings it back to Himself. They’re all taken up with the power they have to do spiritual battle so Jesus says, “If you are going to rejoice about something – rejoice over the fact that you are I are going to spend eternity together. Rejoice over the face you’re your name is recorded in heaven.” There’s an imbalance in what we are taken up with – we seek power and try to make Jesus prove himself through the exercise of that power while forgetting the truly critical issue – our salvation – our eternity with Him. When we are taken up with the power we have over the enemy, like the 71 were, then things get out of perspective and the tendency is to no longer make Christ our pursuit but rather power and miracles.

A pursuit of miracles over Christ can lead to yet another problem. We can actually end up hurting the kingdom more than helping it.

Now, back to Matthew 12 look at what Jesus continues to address of the 70 who rejoiced more in their power than in him. He is referring to the demons they found out they could exercise.

Matthew 12:43 "Now when the unclean spirit goes out of a man, it passes through waterless places, seeking rest, and does not find it.

There is power in the name of Jesus. The ungodly can even use the name of Jesus and accomplish certain things. Here it says that even the adulterous generation has the ability to deliver someone by using the name of Jesus. Because the adulterous generation seeks power more than Jesus Christ, they can take that power and do the work of God by casting out a demon, but because they are adulterous and Christ is not the first love of their lives, they do not have the ability to create a hunger or thirst for Christ in the ones they just set free.

Matthew 12:44 "Then it says, 'I will return to my house from which I came'; and when it comes, it finds it unoccupied, swept, and put in order.

(45) "Then it goes, and takes along with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first. That is the way it will also be with this evil generation."

When a demon is cast out it looks for someplace else to dwell. If it cannot find another place it goes back to see the place where it once was. When it comes back, if it finds that house clean and swept, but not filled up with the presence of Christ, it comes back 7 times worse. Subsequently a man formerly delivered could worse off than before he was delivered because those who delivered him (the 70 rejoicing over power) cannot create a hunger for Jesus in their life because they lack it themselves. Our disciples become what we are.

There is another incident I want us to look at in Matthew chapter 7.

Matthew 7:21-23 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. (22) "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' (23) "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'

Jesus says many will fall into this category of claiming to know him without a real relationship. This sounds like a bunch of Pentecostals. We prophesied in your name, we cast out demons in your name; we even did many miracles in your name. Yet Jesus says, “Prophesying, casting out demons, and doing miracles, has very little to do with having a relationship with me.” Each one of those acts can be found in the scriptures being performed by people without any relationship with Jesus. You can prophesy without being baptized in the Holy Spirit. They did it all through the OT. This can also be referring to false prophets. There are plenty of those in the bible also. We see the sorcerers performing miracles in the OT also. Simon was a magician in the NT called the Great Power of God because of how he could wow the people with what appeared to be miracles. The fact that these things were done is not the issue. The issue in Matthew 7 is that they were claiming to know Jesus personally and their proof of that was the signs and wonders they performed.

Jesus was not impressed at all with what they performed. When we get to heaven we are not going to find that our entrance into heaven has anything to do with the miracles we performed but rather whether or not we obeyed the word. Did you surrender your heart to that Word which became flesh, Jesus? If you are going to rejoice in anything – rejoice that your name is recorded in heaven.

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Medication: A Merry Heart
STUDENT WHO OBTAINED 0% ON AN EXAM
________________________________________________________________________________
Q1. In which battle id Napoleon die?
* his last battle

Q2. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?
* at the bottom of the page

Q3. River Ravi flows in which state?
* liquid

Q4. What is the main reason for divorce?
* marriage

Q5. What is the main reason for failure?
* exams

Q6. What can you never eat for breakfast?
* Lunch & dinner

Q7. What looks like half an apple?
* The other half

Q8. If you throw a red stone into the blue sea what it will become?
* Wet

Q9. How can a man go eight days without sleeping ?
* No problem, he sleeps at night.

Q10. How can you lift an elephant with one hand?
* You will never find an elephant that has only one hand..

Q11. If you had three apples and four oranges in one hand and four apples and three oranges in other hand, what would you have ?
* Very large hands

Q12. If it took eight men ten hours to build a wall, how long would it take four men to build it?
* No time at all, the wall is already built.

Q13. How can u drop a raw egg onto a concrete floor without cracking it?
* Any way you want, concrete floors are very hard to crack.

2012-01-10T22:01:00.001-06:00

(January 11, 2012)
Prayer House News!
Tonight is the big night! RPM begins at 6:30pm. It’s going to be a powerful prayer meeting. Come and seek God with us.
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Awana’s starts at 6:15pm.
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Devotional!
I think Jesus was a little frustrated over the fact that it took a miracle for them to believe rather than just taking him at his word. He is the Word of God made flesh. All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being. It is the word that will never fail or fade, everything else will.

Later in Chapter two we find Jesus entering the temple only to find it filled with money changers and thieves. So he turns over the tables and the seats of those selling doves and basically tells them to quit and get out. At that point his disciples recalled,

John 2:17 His disciples remembered that it was written, "Zeal for Thy house will consume me." Ps 69:9 for zeal for your house consumes me.

I stopped there to pray a little. Zeal for the house of God consumed Jesus. I meditated on that. This is the son of God telling us that zeal for his house is a good thing. The church today is often criticized by the church that we are too into church. The “in” thing today is anything that does not look churchy. I don’t know if we can separate our relationship with Jesus from participating in what we call, “church.” Granted there might be some aspects of the modern day church that don’t line up with scriptures – but for the most part the problem is not within the church as it is with a current attitude – coming from Christians – that it’s not good to be churchy.

I was just talking with someone about this. There is a growing trend today among young people who are going back to those things that are stable in our society which includes the church. Whenever there is chaos the tendency is to look for stability. Isn’t it ironic that after the 9/11 attack on our nation by radical Muslims – the Islam faith began to grow in our nation while the Christian church declined. That just seemed so contrary to how things should be until you begin to think about it for a moment.

The Muslim faith laughs at the Christian church in America because we are convinced that the way to save the world is to look like the world. So we are offering anything but stability to them. When you offer them what they already have – they have no need for us. And now the complete opposite of what we wanted to happen is happening. Instead of drawing the world to us through our trendiness – we are drawing our church kids to the world. We are ending up with a bunch of worldly church kids while the Muslim faith makes their kids toe-the-line. It is filled with structure and adherence. Structure is always attractive in the midst of confusion.

Granted we don’t worship the church building. I don’t believe zeal for the house of God has as much to do with the physical aspects of the building as it does with the whole atmosphere of what we call church. I love church. I love it’s the family feel, its common bond salvation brings to us, and its discipleship. I love the fact that – as Christians – we should life a certain way because without that we have no real purpose. But above all those things we are to love the worship of God that the church affords us.

Jesus had great zeal for the pure worship of God. He was consumed with this, which means his entire attention and affections were given to this. This zeal surpassed all other feelings because he wanted God to be glorified. And when we gather together – what is our meeting based upon – the Word. We gather to hear the word, to study the word, to learn how to live out the word. Miracles, signs and wonders are frosting on the bread of life. They are the things that I believe should be a regular part of our life as Christians – but not necessarily the things we pursue. Miracles seem to happen when the presence of God is thick. If we should seek anything it should be His presence so that he might be glorified in our midst.

John 2:23-24 Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, beholding His signs which He was doing. (24) But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men,

This is quite remarkable. Jesus was developing a following because of his signs (and wonders) but he was not entrusting himself to them yet. He knows the heart of man and knew they were not really taken up with the Word as much as they were experience. Experience always seems to win out. Anything emotional takes precedence over the status quo. I sometimes wonder if the reason revivals eventually die out is because we get so taken up with the miracles and manifestations that we give the Word a secondary place in the midst of it. We come to the revival meeting and sort of put us with the Word so that we can get to the real stuff – the miracles. Even in Chapter four we see Jesus dealing with this problem of men wanting experience over the Word.

John 4:48 Jesus therefore said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."

Being Pentecostal, I believe in signs and wonders. They are a big part of our history. I believe they still happen today. Jesus is obviously not opposed to them or he wouldn’t have performed them. The problem is not with signs and wonders – the problem is with our fickleness and our apparent need for Jesus to keep proving himself to us rather than us simply believing the word of God. People have lost their faith over the lack of getting God to do some kind of miracle for them, whether that meant a healing or some kind of material provision. It would seem that what Jesus is getting at in these first few chapters is that of simply believing the Word regardless of what we see.

I think there is a potentially huge problem with why we follow signs and it can relate to who or what it is we worship. Jesus was consumed with zeal for the house of God – or the pure worship of his Father. As I said earlier there is the possibility of supplanting Jesus with miracles. Jesus calls that adultery. Remember we are the bride of Christ and if we become completely taken up with something other than Him – that is equivalent to having another love.

I’m going to key off of this verse in John 4:48 where he criticized them for needing signs and wonders before they would believe to go over to the book of Matthew to a similar account in chapter 12 where he calls them adulterers because of that.

Matthew 12:38-39 "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." (39) But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign shall be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;

The relation of the Jews to God was often represented as a marriage contract-God as the husband, and the Jewish people as the wife, (Isaiah 57:3). Of course in the New Testament the church is referred to as the Bride of Christ in Ephesians 5 and Jesus is the husband.

Jesus refers to those who are taken up with signs as adulterous, but the only sign he will give them is the sign of Jonah. The sign of Jonah is “repent.” The adulterous generation does not see Jesus as their primary pursuit, that means they have another love subsequently they need to repent of that. Repentance is what’s being referred to as the sign of Jonah. Proof of that is found in the next couple of verses.

Matthew 12:41 "The men of Nineveh shall stand up with this generation at the judgment, and shall condemn it because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, something greater than Jonah is here.

These are the words of Christ. He’s saying, at the judgment, the men of Nineveh will rise up and point a finger at the adulterous generation and condemn them because they repented at the preaching of Jonah. And then Jesus brings the focus back to Him when he says, “And someone greater than Jonah is here,” which is Jesus Christ. He was saying in essence, “The men of Nineveh repented when Jonah preached but you aren’t repenting at my preaching even though I’m much greater than Jonah.” So that’s the sign that will be given to the adulterous generation. Repent of your infatuation of miracles and go back to your first love of just Jesus.

There is nothing wrong with signs and wonders until they mean more to us than Christ himself.

===========================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Quote of the Day

If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague

I'm not a complete idiot; some parts are missing.

Ever wonder what the speed of lightning would be if it didn't zigzag?

I want to be very, very, very, very, very brief.

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

If you're gonna look back one day and laugh, it's probably funny now.

I am a victim of my own apathy.

Why don't you ever see the headline, "Psychic Wins Lottery!"?

Do not follow the path. Go where there is no path and leave a trail.

Promise only what you can deliver, then deliver more than you have promised.

2012-01-08T22:56:00.002-06:00

(January 9, 2012)
Prayer House News!
What a great start to the new year! We had a powerful time in the presence of God yesterday! It was the first Sunday preaching along with our bible reading project. I’m really excited about our RPM (Revival Prayer Meeting) starting this Wednesday. We are going to have a big crowd for this meeting. I’m believing God for some exciting prayer times.
----------------------------
If you are becoming a new member you need to be at our meeting at 5:45pm on Wednesday
with your completed booklets.
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Devotional!
Live By The Word!
I trust you are all enjoying going through the New Testament. I found it quite interesting to methodically read, study, and pray over these first four chapters. It would be very interesting to see how many of us were struck with the same things, but since you are not the ones preaching I get to tell you what I was struck with. My title says it all. How can you get away from the first few verses which I believe sets the pace for the whole book as well as the whole New Testament.

John 1:1-3 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.

I don’t know how many of you caught the same thing I did but it seems that Jesus is trying to establish himself as trustworthy in these first few chapters. That may not be the best word to use but basically nobody really knew who he was initially so it would be quite natural for men to question Him.

In the first chapter of John, John the Baptist was testifying about Jesus, he baptizes him. And then Jesus starts gathering his disciples. In the second chapter Jesus does his first miracle by turning water into wine.

John 2:3-5 And when the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to Him, "They have no wine." (4) And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what do I have to do with you? My hour has not yet come." (5) His mother said to the servants, "Whatever He says to you, do it."

I think this scene is rather funny. It’s almost as though Jesus would not have performed this miracle if his mom would not have been there. She was just being a good Jewish mom seeing a need and taking control. I heard of a singles ad in the paper that said, “Nice Jewish young lady, looking for a nice Jewish young man – with a dead mother.” Mary comes up to Jesus and says, “They need a miracle!” His response almost sounds like a put down. “Woman, what do I have to do with you?” In other words, “Mom, leave me alone, it’s not my time yet.” Then in a very Jewish, motherly, manner she turns to the servants and says, “Look guys, my son’s going to need your help – do what ever he tells you to do.” Isn’t that funny? Jesus in essence says, “Mom!” She looks at him - and with her eyes she says, “You’ll do it.” And then she turns to the servants and says, “He’ll do it, so help him.” The funny thing is – he does it! Even after telling her it wasn’t his time yet. That’s the power mom’s have over their sons, even if that son happens to be God.

The more you read and meditate on each verse – the more you see the human side of Jesus. And I wonder if that was part of the problem of people really believing in Him. However, after the miracle they began to believe.

John 2:11 This, beginning of His signs, Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

It took a miracle for them to believe. I wonder if that frustrates the Lord a little – even today. We still want to see miracles. I don’t believe there is anything inherently wrong with wanting to see miracles but I wonder if there could be a danger in them becoming more exciting to us that Jesus himself. I have often said, seek the healer rather than the healing, seek the giver rather than the gift etc. etc. It’s possible to fall into the trap of worshiping the work of God over God himself. Pastors are more subject to this than others. We often want to see God move, more for the sake of the work, than for his glory. Look at how verse 11 ends; “and manifested His glory.” Jesus did not do the miracle for any other reason but to bring Glory to God. He didn’t do it just to make the party better.

If we seek miracles for the purpose of bringing glory to God then we are on solid ground. If we seek miracles merely for the sake of drawing people to His work – though you could have proper motives in that – we are on much shakier ground because the pursuit of the success of the work of God can replace a pure pursuit of God. We tend to get our glories mixed up. We should be doing all things for the glory of God but sometimes we get seeking a little glory for ourselves also. When we seek the miracle rather than creating an atmosphere for his presence then we are supplanting Jesus for the miracle. We are supplanting the word for a manifestation. Miracles don’t just arbitrarily happen. I don’t believe that God sits in heaven and simply passes them out without purpose.

I can’t imagine Jesus walking along with his disciples showing off his power. I can’t see him saying, “Hey guys watch this,” and then he points to a tree and it withers, and they all laugh. The one time that did happen in Matthew 21, it was because that tree represented a Christian who was not producing anything of any value in the kingdom. Every miracle that took place had purpose and intent.

============================

Medication: A Merry Heart

This World Is Full of Complete Idiots

1. Police in Wichita, Kansas, arrested a 22-year-old man at
an airport hotel after he tried to pass two (counterfeit)
$16 bills.

2. A man in Johannesburg, South Africa, shot his 49-year-old
friend in the face, seriously wounding him, while the two
practiced shooting beer cans off each other's head.

3. A company trying to continue its five-year perfect safety
record showed its workers a film aimed at encouraging the
use of safety goggles on the job. According to Industrial
Machinery News, the film's depiction of gory industrial
accidents was so graphic that twenty-five workers suffered
minor injuries in their rush to leave the screening room.
Thirteen others fainted, and one man required seven stitches
after he cut his head falling off a chair while watching the
film.

4. The Chico, California, City Council enacted a ban on
nuclear weapons, setting a $500 fine for anyone detonating
one within city limits.

5. A bus carrying five passengers was hit by a car in St.
Louis, but by the time police arrived on the scene, fourteen
pedestrians had boarded the bus and had begun to complain of
whiplash injuries and back pain.

6. Swedish business consultant Ulf af Trolle labored 13
years on a book about Swedish economic solutions. He took
the 250-page manuscript to be copied, only to have it
reduced to 50,000 strips of paper in seconds when a worker
confused the copier with the shredder.

7. A convict broke out of jail in Washington, DC, and then a
few days later accompanied his girlfriend to her trial for
robbery. At lunch, he went out for a sandwich. She needed to
see him and thus had him paged. Police officers recognized
his name and arrested him as he returned to the courthouse
in a car he had stolen over the lunch hour.

8. When two service station attendants in Ionia, Michigan,
refused to hand over the cash to an intoxicated robber, the
man threatened to call the police. They still refused, so
the robber called the police and was arrested.

9. A Los Angeles man, who later said he was "tired of
walking," stole a steam roller and led police on a 5-mph
chase until an officer stepped aboard and brought the
vehicle to a stop.

2012-01-05T23:31:00.002-06:00

January 6, 2012
Prayer House News!

Jim Roemer had a couple more internet sites to use while reading/studying your four chapters each week.

http://www.biblegateway.com/

You can choose a huge amount of versions.
You can also create as many parallel versions across you page as you like. (very cool)
Best of all, you can take off the cheater glasses and pick your font size.
On the bottom of the page just jump to next chapter.

For free commentaries:

http://www.biblestudytools.com/commentaries/

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If you have a membership series of CD’s your booklets will need to be filled out and turned in at our membership class on January 11th.

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Diane McGahan’s wake will be tonight at Proko Funeral Home from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. The funeral will be at our church at noon on Saturday.

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Devotional!
Psalms 119:162 I rejoice in your promise
like one who finds great spoil.

David was both a ruler and a warrior. He knew the thrill of collecting the spoil after the battle. Few things could compare to walking through the camp of the defeated to gather up for themselves anything they wanted. However, David knew the true treasures of life were not in the spoil of the enemy but in the promises of God.

Often we are so earthly-minded that we are no heavenly good. I once had an opportunity to be in the same town that was hosting an international triathlon event. The contestants swim for 2 1/2 miles, then they bicycle for 110 miles, and finally they run for 26 miles. They do all this in one day. I learned how one contestant has a regular routine of exercising eight hours every day for this. It is possible in these situations for their body to become their god.

In 1 Timothy 4:8 we read, “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” There is nothing wrong with physical fitness. However, it only benefits this life. Godliness on the other hand, benefits not only this life, but also eternity. Physical fitness allows us to gain some of the treasures of this life, but that is all.

The promises of God effect eternity, while the spoils from battle only effect this life. The only time eternal truths truly cause us to rejoice is when we see more than just this life. “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God” (Col. 3:1). What kind of relationship with God would we need to be able to say that God’s promises mean as much to us as attaining those things that benefit this life only? We would need a relationship like David’s.

Taken from “The Heart of the King”

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Two Hearts
A man has a heart attack and is brought to the hospital ER.

The doctor tells him that he will not live unless he has a

heart transplant right away. Another doctor runs into the

room and says, "You're in luck -- two hearts just became

available, so you will get to choose which one you want. One

belongs to an attorney and the other to a social worker."

The man quickly responds, "The attorney's."

The doctor says, "Wait! Don't you want to know a little

about them before you make your decision?"

The man says, "I already know enough. We all know that

social workers are bleeding hearts and the attorney probably

never used his. So I'll take the attorney's heart!"

2012-01-03T23:06:00.002-06:00

January 4, 2012
Prayer House News!
How you doing with the new reading plan? We are reading the first four chapter of John this week. Aimee Robinson found an excellent internet commentary that guides the reader to make their own conclusions. Click on the link below and see if you like it.

http://www.freebiblecommentary.org/pdf/EN/VOL04.pdf

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If you have a membership series of CD’s your booklets will need to be filled out and turned in at our membership class on January 11th.

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No Mid-week service this week because of Family Week. Next week we launch RPM (Revival Prayer Meeting) our all church prayer meeting. It’s going to be great.

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Pray for Don Smith. We will be having Kidney Stone surgery on Thursday.

Diane McGahan’s wake will be Friday at Proko Funeral Home from 5:00pm to 7:00pm. The funeral will be at our church at noon on Saturday.

==================================

Devotional!

Psalms 119:157 Many are the foes who persecute me,
but I have not turned from your statutes.

“Statutes” are explicit laws. They distinctly mean laws that God has laid down and to which He expects obedience under any and all circumstances. This is especially important in light of what David is facing. He is being persecuted, yet he has not turned from God’s statutes. In 1 Samuel 24:4-6 we read, “Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Afterward . . . He said to his men, ‘The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lift my hand against him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.’ ” David knew that even if it meant his own life, he could not turn from God’s statutes.

When we are persecuted, we feel quite justified in turning from God’s way of doing things. After all, we are being persecuted. This will always be a problem for the person who thinks his life is more important than God’s life. David loved his Lord more than he loved himself. Therefore, he could remain obedient even in the face of persecution.

In Communist China an elderly man was persecuted for being a Christian. Since he was also a musician, they took his fingers and sliced them with a razor blade. Then they held them in a fire so he would never be able to play the cello again. In our way of thinking, that would be grounds for retaliation. Listen to the words of this old man: “If I had a thousand hands with a thousand fingers on each hand, I would gladly do it all over again for Jesus. I once used these fingers to bring music. Now I have Jesus and I am music.”7 His life has become a song that all should sing.

Taken from “The Heart of the King”

=====================================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Three Texans

Three Texans go down to Mexico and through a strange turn of events find themselves on death row
though none of them can remember
what they did to deserve this punishment.

The first one is strapped into the electric chair and is
asked if he has any last words.

He says, "I am from the Baylor School of Divinity, and I
believe in the almighty power of God to intervene on behalf
of the innocent."

They throw the switch and nothing happens, so they figure
God must not want this guy to die and they let him go.

The second one is strapped in and gives his last words: "I
am from the University of Texas School of Law, and I believe
in the power of justice to intervene on the part of the
innocent."

They throw the switch and again nothing happens. They figure
that the law is on this guy's side, so they let him go too.

The last one is strapped in and says, "Well, I'm a Texas
Aggie Electrical Engineer, and I'll tell you right now you
ain't gonna electrocute nobody if you don't connect them two
wires."

2012-01-01T23:35:00.003-06:00

January 2, 2012

Prayer House News!

We had a wonderful start to the new year. There was a good spirit in church yesterday. We are expecting God to do some big things in our midst this year. This is Family Week for our church which means we don’t have any mid-week services.

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If you have a membership series of CD’s your booklets will need to be filled out and turned in at our membership class on January 11th.

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I have included my entire message as today’s devotional. It’s a vision casting message. If you were not able to be in church yesterday please take some time to read it. It’s going to help set the pace for the new year for Prayer House.

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Devotional!

Read, Pray, Go!

It’s 2012, what are you going to do for God this year? Don’t you think that should be our objectives more so than what you are going to do in your careers, your health, your homes, or your schooling? Seriously, if we put God first the rest of the other things will fall in place. If we determine that this year is going to be the year we do something different, something exciting, and something daring for God, just watch what God does for your career, your health, your home, or schooling.

I have been praying and meditating on our spiritual project for this year and I’m getting fired up over the potential it has to make a huge difference in our lives and in the effectiveness of our church. I think the video we just watched is a great introduction to our subject today. The word of God is the most potent thing you can read. Last year I bought a kindle. This thing allows me to buy books at a relatively cheap price. It allows me to carry a bunch of books with me. And I can put my sermons (word documents) on it so this is what I preach from.

But I would have to say that the most important book I have on here is the Word of God. I have about four different versions loaded on this. Our challenge to our church this year is to read through the New Testament – and to take a whole year to do so. That is one of the unique things about God’s word. You will never exhaust its meaning no matter how much you study it. You will always find new truths as you dig into its deeper meanings and applications.

What I announced to the church in the beginning of December is that we would take 3 chapters a week – read them – study them – and pray over them. However, three will not be enough – you will need to read four chapters a week in order to finish it this year. And that is with starting in the Gospel of John and not even doing the other three Gospels.

Here is what we are asking you to do. Read along with the rest of us for the week. Get a bible commentary and study the chapter. Make notes of what you are reading that week and the things that strike you. After you focus on those four chapters that week – then something from those chapters will become the basis for the Sunday morning messages throughout the year.

Going back to the video we watched about the word of God there is a point when the narrator said, Let the Word of God, Fill the Mind, Rule the Heart, and Guide the Feet. That just struck me when I heard it because it tied in so perfectly with what we are hoping to accomplish this year.

So let’s look at these three issues. The first one is for the Word of God to fill our minds. That is the reading/studying aspect of our challenge. There is no way for God’s word to fill our mind without us taking into our minds. Reading it – studying it – and meditating on it, are all powerful exercises that help transform us.

Romans 12:2 be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Nothing transforms a man quicker than God’s word. When we renew the mind with the written word of God it transforms us.

The second part of that challenge was to allow the word of God to rule the heart. That speaks of prayer. Its one thing for us to take God’s word into our minds but everything needs to get from the head to the heart. That is why we are challenging you to read/pray through the New Testament this year. To read/pray you go through each chapter methodically, precisely, and carefully. When a verse or a paragraph speaks to you just stop and pray over it. There is no rush to get through your chapter – you are only reading four of them in a week. So what if you spend two days on one chapter – studying it, praying over it, meditating over it. That really is how our life should be.

We Americans have so convinced ourselves that we deserve our entertainment - that we think God will understand if we don’t spend that much time in His word or His presence. Insight comes from study; revelation comes from praying over the word. The church used to be filled with men and women of God who spent their evenings around the word of God. Today it seems we rarely even think in those terms. We relegate it down to a certain part of the day and then we are through with it. I had my prayer time – I had my study time – now I’m free to do whatever I want. How many of you wives feel that way about your marriage. If the husband says, “I talked with my wife at the breakfast table and then I texted her several times throughout the day so I’m good. Tonight I won’t be obligated to spend any time with her at all,” are you going to accept that? Yet we do that with God all the time.

I’m talking about these things on two different levels. One is your personal devotional life. The other is the culture of the church. Reading the word and praying should be a part of your daily routine. However, that should be the norm for the life of the church as well. That is partially why we are going to use what you have been reading and studying for the week as the basis for our Sunday messages. That however, brings us to our Wednesday night meeting.

The pastoral staff and I have been talking and praying about this for some time now. A few months back God really began to deal with me about the prayer life of the church and the days we are about to face as a nation. We don’t need these spiritual exercises merely to build ourselves up – but rather – we desperately need to prepare ourselves for what is coming to our nation. We need it personally and we need it collectively.

I believe people are going to start looking for something that has stood the test of time. They are looking for something stable in an unstable world. The church should stand as that bedrock. However, when they come to the church – they will need something more than just churchy sayings and pats on the back – they are going to need to feel God. I’m going to read a quote from my latest book, The Jesus-Sensitive Church. It’s from a chapter called “The God church vs. the Good church.”

The God church, the church that calls sin “sin,” is looked down upon today by most other churches. It is not a “spiritually-correct” church. If it catches you doing something wrong it will say, "Repent!" If you persist in your sin it may even "put-you-out of the church,” so that on the day of the Lord your soul might be saved. Initially this seems harsh and un-caring when in reality, it is the most caring church in town.

The good church cannot offer you God. It can only affirm you in your own goodness. The problem is - we are not good. The Bible says no one is good except God. So eventually our own goodness will run out and in a time of need we will have nothing, and we will know that we have nothing. Do you know what we will do then – we will seek a God-church.

A minister from a main-line church recalled in a magazine article how his church had tried to help a spiritually needed family. The father - an abusive husband - had thrust his home into turmoil. The church staff took his children to camp and a women's group reached out to the man's wife in efforts to restore the family. But nothing seemed to work.

Months later the minister saw the man on the street. His countenance had radically changed. Bubbling with excitement, the former rabble-rouser described attending a Pentecostal church.

"It's wonderful," the man enthused. "I've been saved and received the gift of the Spirit."

"I can tell," nodded the minister. "You look totally different."

"I am," the man said.

The preacher responded, "I'm sorry our church couldn't help you."

"Preacher, you were offering aspirin, and I needed chemotherapy," said the man.

God has been dealing with me about the need to offer chemotherapy instead of just nice warm feelings about God. You can get aspirin in almost any church but can’t always get what you really need.

In an effort to do that we are changing up our Wednesday night meetings. The kid’s ministry will stay the same (bty – they are starting at 6:15). The rest of the groups (Adults, Swat and Reveal) will be meeting here in the sanctuary for an all-church prayer meeting. One of the things we discussed was how this thing needs to be promoted. We need buy-in if this thing is going to work. We need this spiritually. And because it’s a genuine need then we are going to shut everything else down on Wednesdays and give ourselves to this one thing. We need a spiritual breakthrough as a church – and many of you need a personal spiritual breakthrough. We are not shutting down SWAT or Reveal – those groups will continue to meet – but in the sanctuary with the rest of us.

We need to storm heaven for families – we need to storm heaven for health issues – we need to storm heaven for employment – we need to storm heaven for souls. If you have any of those needs and all you do is sit around and watch TV on Wednesday nights instead of joining with the rest of us – don’t blame God for not doing anything for you.

We are going to pattern our prayer meeting after the Brooklyn Tabernacle style with live worship music. Pastor Nick is putting together a Wed night praise and worship band. We will start off with worship, we are going to turn the lights down – we will combine that with a time of testimonies, and a short devotional teaching and then back to prayer. We’ll go from 6:30pm till 8:00pm.

The prayer time will be led. We are not just going to tell you to kneel at a chair and pray. It will have structure similar to the structure Dean Niforatos led us in for our World Missions Prayer Meeting. We are calling it RPM (Revival Prayer Meeting). RPM will no longer meet on Thursday’s. Mighty Men will continue to meet though.

Also in January the pastoral staff is setting aside nine days to fast. Starting on January 10th, which is a Tuesday – we are fasting the middle of the week of those three weeks. We will be spending extra time in prayer on those days, and we encourage all of you to join us. The prayer room will be open any time during normal office hours.

There is yet one last thing I want to deal with this morning. It’s the issue of going. Read, Pray, and Go! It is one thing to read and study the Word of God. It is another thing to be a person of prayer. But is that enough? Is that all God wants of us? The “Go” aspect of this challenge is that of God getting us where He wants us regarding his kingdom. It’s not always or only pertaining to the Great Commission – though that could certainly apply here. I’m talking about where you feel God is leading you in life also. Too many of us are students of the word and pray-ers but not goers! We tend to get stuck in our comfort zones.

We are going to look at an event in Abram’s life that I think applies to this quite well.

Genesis12:1 Now the Lord said to Abram, "Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father's house, To the land which I will show you;

So Abram departed, as the Lord had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy five years old and when he departed out of Haran. It was several years before this that God first told him to leave Ur of the Chaldees. Then he came to Haran, which is about half-way between the valley of the Euphrates and the valley of the Jordan. God had called him into the land of the Canaanite, but after he came half-way, he stayed there probably about five years.

It seems there are many Christians today who are what might be called Haran Christians. They go to Haran, and there they stay. They only half obey. They are not quite sold-out for Jesus. Reading and praying over the word is one thing – but following God in complete obedience is yet another thing. Once we fill the mind with God’s word – and it sufficiently rules the heart – the next natural thing would be to Go.

Just think of what it took to get Abram out of Haran. His father died. The first call was to leave Ur of the Chaldees and go into Canaan, but instead of going all the way they stopped half-way, and it was affliction that finally drove Abram out of Haran.

Is it possible that many of us bring affliction on ourselves, because we are not sold-out for the Lord? We do not obey Him fully. God has plans He wants to work out in each of us but He cannot do that as long as we are stuck in Haran. After the affliction came, he left Haran, and started for the Promised Land.

Genesis 12:4 So Abram went forth as the Lord had spoken to him; and Lot went with him.

Notice that there is just one word about Lot—“and Lot went with him.” That is the key, you might say, to Lot’s life. He was a weaker character than Abram, and he followed his uncle. A little while later they part ways. Abraham gives his nephew the choice of land that he wants.

Genesis 13:10 And Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere — this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah — like the garden of the Lord,

Now we see Abram’s character. He could have easily said that he had a right to the best of everything, because he was the older, and because Lot would probably not have been worth anything if it had not been for Abram’s help. But instead of standing up for his rights, to choose the best of the land, he surrenders them, and says to his nephew: “Take your choice. If you go to the right hand, I will take the left; or if you prefer the left hand, then I will go to the right.” Here is where Lot made his mistake. If there was a man under the sun that needed Abram’s counsel, and Abram’s prayers, and Abram’s influence, and to have been surrounded by the friends of Abram, it was Lot.

Lot was influenced by the lust of the eye; he walked by sight, instead of by faith. I think that is where many Christians make their mistake—walking by sight, instead of by faith. If he had stopped to think, Lot might have known that it would be disastrous to him and his family to go anywhere near Sodom. Abram and Lot must both have known about the wickedness of those cities on the plains, and although they were rich, and there was a chance of making money, it would have been better for Lot to keep his family out of that wicked city. But his eyes fell upon the well watered plains, and he pitched his tent towards Sodom, and separated from Abram.

I believe that you can find five thousand Lots to one Abram to-day. People are constantly walking by sight, lured by the temptations of men and of the world. Parents today – even Christian parents are very anxious to get their children into lucrative positions in life, even though it may be disastrous to their character; it may ruin them morally, spiritually and in every other way yet that seems to be the push rather than pushing them towards the will of God for their lives. Is that because mom and dad are stuck in Haran themselves?

What will it take for God to get us from half-way obedience to “GO” all the way into his will? Every one of us, in life, will be met by two different princes. Both the prince of this world and the Prince of Peace will come to us. The prince of this world tempts us with wealth, pleasure, and ambition. But Jesus, the Prince of peace offers us things of another world. He offers us stability in the midst of chaos. He offers us strength when tempted, he offers us love in the face of hatred. He offers us character – and character is what pulls us through this life.

Let me give you a couple of modern day Abraham and Lot scenarios. The first one has to do with Katy Perry and her parents. Katy Perry came out of nowhere and has become a very popular singer. She was just voted MTV very first music artist of the year. Her parents would represent Abraham and she would represent Lot. Her parents guided her through life with the gospel. They were traveling ministers. Her first recording was a gospel song. But when confronted by the prince of this world she chose his way. I watched a video interview of hers just to confirm what I’m about to say. In her video she was asked how she got where she is today. She explained that she grew up around Christianity and that she tried gospel for a while but it didn’t get her anywhere, and then she said, “So I sold my soul to the devil.” Just two days ago she announced that her 14 month marriage to Russell Brand (an avowed sex addict) is ending. She is now firmly established in the Hollywood culture.

It appears she went half-way into God’s will – got comfortable there and then settled for her own will over God’s. That is the danger of not going all the way into the will of God.

Then we have another example of a modern day Abraham and Lot but with a different outcome; Murray Jackson and his son Bryan. Murray would be a type of Abraham and Bryan a type of Lot. Bryan spent many years as a young boy in Africa following his dad’s ministry. However, later in life – when given the choice - Bryan did not choose the plush green pastures of life in America. Bryan gave up a good job to go to the mission field and live by faith. Last Sunday when we tried to Skype Bryan and Mindy our connection did not last very long at all and we didn’t get the full story. The reason he was wearing a hat in his house was because it was only 30 degrees in their home. He said that a lot of people die in that country each winter because they don’t have furnaces. They are there with 5 kids – just wanting to do something for God.

The same could be said of Kate Alderks would chose God’s path for her life rather than the plush green pastures of America she is serving him in Myanmar.

Like I said earlier – Go-ing may not mean the mission field for you – but God definitely has something he wants to accomplish in you. Let’s get God’s word into our heads through studying it. Then let’s get it from our heads to our heart through the prayer life – and once those two things are accomplished – we should be ready to leave Haran for the promised land.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Whenever I go to Barnes and Nobel I go to the Autobiography section. I open the book and turn to the back page where it says, About the Author. I take a couple of minutes to read it and then put the book back on the shelf. That was an easy read.

2011-12-22T22:13:00.004-06:00

(December 23, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Celebrate Christmas with Your Church Family!
Christmas is on Sunday this year and what better gift to give Jesus on HIS birthday then to gather together with the saints and worship Him? There will be only one service on Christmas day at 10:30am so it's late enough that everyone should have time to wake up and open those Christmas presents (especially if you have little ones who wake you up at 5am to do so) and maybe even sit down to a nice family breakfast, if that is your tradition, before dressing in your Sunday best and coming to a real CHRIST MASS! Because of the family nature of Christmas, we will not have Kids Church, but we do have a special gift for every child who comes Christmas morning with mom and dad, so don't let them stay home with their new toys! Take a short break and explain to them that, like the shepherds and magi, we are going to go and worship the King. (Thanks PK)
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We need a church van driver! God is sending us families that need a ride to church. We want to minister to these folks but we need to help get them to church. Pastor Kevin is volunteering his van each Sunday. If you feel God directing you to pick up this ministry please let us know. Each Sunday you would come to the church – pick up the van and then go pick up the families. Please contact the church office if you are interested.
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Devotional!
Psalms 119:152. Long ago I learned from your statutes that you established them to last forever.
Statutes distinctly mean a law laid down. It means an explicit law. It has to do with the divine order of things. David learned in his youth the need to obey God’s divine law. He had gone through many different trials because he did not explicitly obey the statutes of God. Now he refers back to days gone by and says, “Long ago I learned from your statutes.”
As wise as David’s son Solomon was, he lacked the heart of his father. David was unique in that his heart was one of conviction. Solomon had wisdom, but not the same conviction his father had. In 1 Kings 3:3 we read about Solomon, “Solomon showed his love for the Lord by walking according to the statutes of his father David, except that he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the high places.” The high places are the altars of idols. Solomon did what his dad did. He walked according to God’s statutes. However, he would not tear down the high places. He mixed godliness with ungodliness.
Because Solomon lacked the same kind of intensity David had for pursuing God, his heart lacked conviction. He followed tradition. When a person follows tradition, he does things the way Mom and Dad did things. However, he also allows all types of other things in his life because he doesn’t have the same purity of heart.
All of Solomon’s wisdom could not cause him to develop a heart like David’s. David’s heart developed out of a love for God and God alone. He was not taken up with lifestyle; he was taken up with the Author of life.
Taken from Ron Auch’s book, The Heart of the King
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Dog property laws:

If I like it, it's mine.
If it's in my mouth, it's mine.
If I can take it from you, it's mine.
If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.
If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
If I'm chewing something up, all the pieces are mine.
If it just looks like mine, it's mine.
If I saw it first, it's mine.
If it's broken, it's yours.

How dogs and men are the same:

Both take up too much space on the bed.
Both have irrational fears about vacuum cleaning.
Both mark their territory.
Neither tells you what's bothering them.
The smaller ones tend to be more nervous.
Neither understands what you see in cats.
Neither does any dishes.
Neither of them notices when you get your hair cut.
Both like dominance games.
Both are suspicious of the postman.

How dogs are better than men:

Dogs do not have problems expressing affection in public.
Dogs miss you when you're gone.
Dogs feel guilty when they've done something wrong.
Dogs admit when they're jealous.
Dogs are very direct about wanting to go out.
Dogs do not play games with you except fetch (and they never laugh at how you throw).
You can train a dog.
Dogs are easy to buy for.

2011-12-20T21:53:00.001-06:00

(December 21, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Tonight the adults will finish their study on the book of James. Awana, SWAT and Reveal (at 8:30) will all be up and running as well.
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Remember we are not having a service on Christmas Eve – BUT we will be having a Service on Christmas day at 10:30am
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Devotional!
Psalms 119:151 Yet you are near, O Lord,
and all your commands are true.

This is the continuation of the previous verse. In it David said the wicked are near. In this verse he states, “Yet you are near, O Lord,” Romans 5:20 put it this way, “But where sin increased, grace increased all the more.” When the wicked seem to be overwhelming us, the presence of God becomes all that much more powerful. David put everything into perspective. He said the wicked were near, but they were far from the law of God. God is near also, and His commands are true. The wicked plan schemes which are ultimately false; the commands of God are true. We can put our trust in God’s plan.
A command is an uttered expression of God’s will, which is to be obeyed. When we obey His commands, we no longer have to live in any fear of the wicked. Some may ask, “Why does God demand so much obedience?” The answer is He wants to protect us from the schemes of the wicked. God doesn’t demand obedience so He can show himself as some type of tyrant or mean-spirited dictator. Obedience to Him works to our benefit. It becomes our protection. All the promises of God are conditionally based on our obedience to God. When we come to the full revelation that God’s commands are true, we need never live in envy of the success of the wicked.
“You are near, O Lord.” David knew the true fountain of life came in the form of God’s presence. The presence of God is experienced through following the commands of God. Whether or not we obey God is determined by our love of His presence. Are you content with the presence of God, or must you have more? When you MUST have more, you are in danger of falling into the schemes of the wicked.
Taken from Ron Auch’s book, The Heart of the King

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Name Your Benefits

Reaching the end of a job interview, the human resources
person asked a young engineer fresh out of MIT, "And what
starting salary were you looking for?"

The engineer said, "In the neighborhood of $125,000 a year,
depending on the benefits package."

The interviewer said, "Well, what would you say to a package
of five weeks' vacation, fourteen paid holidays, full
medical and dental, company matching retirement fund to 50%
of salary, and a company car leased every two years - say, a
red Corvette?"

The engineer sat up straight and said, "Wow! Are you
kidding?"

And the interviewer replied, "Yeah, but you started it."

2011-12-19T08:04:00.002-06:00

(December 19, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a great weekend. Saturday night a bunch of couples got together for pizza and a movie (Christmas with a Capital C). It was great fellowship. Then yesterday our Christmas program featured Christmas music from both our adults and kids. Both groups did a wonderful job. It’s a service I look forward to each year.
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Remember we are not having a service on Christmas Eve – BUT we will be having a Service on Christmas day at 10:30am
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Devotional!
Psalms 119:150 Those who devise wicked schemes are near,
but they are far from your law.
The word “law” means teaching. Wicked schemes are the opposite of the teachings of God. Those who devise wicked schemes seem always to be successful. In Psalm 10:2 we read about schemers, “In his arrogance the wicked man hunts down the weak, who are caught in the schemes he devises.” The next few verses say the wicked man blesses the greedy and reviles the Lord. Because of his pride, he does not seek God at all. Verse 5 says, “His ways are always prosperous; he is haughty and your laws are far from him.” We are often upset at the prosperity of the wicked. However, what would be better: to be prosperous and far from the teachings of God, or to be humble and a follower of God?

To fall into the schemes of the wicked does not necessarily mean our material ruin. However, being far from God’s laws will ultimately mean our spiritual ruin. The key is discernment. What it teaches us is that not all material blessings are of God. The wicked are often prosperous. First Timothy 6:5 teaches us that godliness does not always result in material gain. “Men of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.” Godliness only guarantees spiritual gain.

Ephesians 6:11 teaches us, “Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” The devil has trapped many spiritually weak people under the guise of material success. All the Scripture is teaching us is to put on the whole armor of God so we can discern whether something is of God or of the devil. David said in this verse that the wicked were near and were often successful from a fleshly perspective, but not from a spiritual perspective for they are far from the law of God.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Musical Instrument

My wife and I were browsing in a crafts store when I noticed
a display of country-style musical instruments. After
looking over the flutes, dulcimers and recorders, I picked
up a shiny, one-stringed instrument I took to be a mouth
harp. I put it to my lips and, much to the amusement of
other shoppers, twanged a few notes on it.

After watching from a distance, my wife came up and
whispered in my ear, "I hate to tell you this, honey, but
you're trying to play a cheese slicer."

2011-12-15T22:55:00.002-06:00

(December 16, 2011)
Prayer House News!
This Sunday will be our Kids Christmas program. It will include lots of special Christmas music from both our kids and adults. It’s going be a great day!
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. The Devotional for this week is taken from my message from Sunday.
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Devotional!
Religion vs. Relationships

John 7:10 But when His brothers had gone up to the feast, then He Himself also went up, not publicly, but as it were, in secret.

Apparently Jesus was just milling around the festival – probably taking in the sights and sounds, most likely asking his Father to have mercy on all those lost sinners. But about half way through he goes to the temple.

John 7:14 But when it was now the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and began to teach.

The midst of the feast is referring to the fourth day. So he had been there for four days. Then for the next four days he is teaching in the temple. You can read the whole controversy from verses 14 through 36. Finally we come to the last day of the festival.

On that day Jesus is observing the ceremony of drawing water from the fountain of Siloam. He observes their make believe joy as they pour the water on the sacrifice. He sees the solemnity with which the priests drew the water; he heard the three trumpet blasts which accompanied the ceremony. Finally it says he cried out in verse 37 with a loud voice. If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. Can you imagine what it means to Jesus to see people going through the motions without it really impacting their hearts – hoping their ceremony can help them earn their salvation? Wouldn’t that be similar to people who only come to church to worship Jesus on Christmas day? Hoping their tradition or religious act will be seen by Jesus as a true love for him.

Jesus was trying to tell them that their ritual was not getting them any closer to God than they were at the time. Can you imagine the picture here? Here we have the Son of God, the Messiah, the one they were all waiting for, standing in their midst, crying out to them and yet they cannot hear him above their customs.

Have you ever heard the phrase, “they were very close to one another?” Usually you hear that at funerals. When people are talking about relationships they often use that phrase. What does it mean to be close to someone? Does it mean they would stand shoulder to shoulder whenever they were together? No, it means they had a blending of spirits, they felt good in each other’s presence. Closeness to God means more than just performing certain religious acts. Closeness is having him in your heart. Yet that’s merely the beginning of a relationship with Him. You can have Jesus in your heart and yet not have much of a relationship.

We have a situation here in the book of John where they were in close proximity to God but not near Him at all. They had all the religiosity they needed. How ironic to think that they were doing what they were in an effort to get close to God while God was right in their midst saying, “None of these things mean anything to me.” I’m the well of salvation you should be drawing from.

Ritual blocks revelation – they could not see the real thing because it was different than what their ritual indicated it would be. I had someone in my office recently who was telling me of their religious background and how they put a strong emphasis on doing things the right way and saying things the right way and yet in the midst of all that they never did actually see, or have a revelation, of the true Christ. This person was telling me that they finally came to Christ through brokenness. Can you image that? Brokenness slaps the face of religion. Brokenness is neither the law nor levity. Brokenness is descriptive of what the word “relationship” means. Just try to develop a relationship with someone without revealing who you really are. And the revelation of who we are is humbling, brokenness. The only way to get close to Jesus is to bow our knee in his presence and say, “I’m the one at fault, forgive me of my sin.” Church attendance alone won’t do it. Jesus is not in this building. Jesus is in this temple (heart). He is not impressed with how much you go to church; or how free you are to not go to church. He’s impressed with your great desire to learn of him. That is why we come and worship Him.

Jesus was standing in the temple crying out for their hearts. Do you want to get near Jesus – then go where he is! He’s in the temple ever living to make intercession for you. He’s in the temple crying out for your heart. He’s in the temple saying, “Won’t you come to where I am. I want to be near you.” This is a heart issue. Jesus was in the temple during most of the festival – teaching – encouraging – challenging.

Just think – while he was in the temple there were three groups of people represented. There were the Pharisees listening to him. They were the law abiders who would never think of being anyplace other than the temple. There were the partiers who were still out celebrating the feast of tabernacles happy to be free from the religious trappings the Pharisees were subject to. They were the levity group who were not in the temple. But then was another crowd of people who were there to be taught. They don’t seem to have been there out of obligation. They were just there to draw from him.

John 7:30-31 They were seeking therefore to seize Him; and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour had not yet come. 31 But many of the multitude believed in Him.

Those who were trying to seize him were the Pharisees. Interestingly enough they couldn’t get to him even though they wanted to – because it wasn’t God’s time for that to happen yet. Then it says, “Many of the multitude believed in Him.” They were the group that came near to him. The Pharisees, and the partiers remained in close proximity but were not near him at all. We need to have the same heart that the multitudes who believed had. Something was going on in the temple so they went. Not out of obligation like the Pharisees because whenever we go out of obligation then we go with preconceived ideas of what it should be like and generally ritual blocks revelation.

Those who believed that day were simply there. They weren’t like the partiers who would never think of doing anything that resembles any adherence to the law. The partiers were so far removed from what was happening that they could not even hear the words of Christ.

This all comes down to relationship. It’s not about obeying the law to the letter, nor is it about being so free that we go to the other extreme of levity. It’s about relationship. And because of a right relationship with Christ we do want to honor him during this time, it’s the celebration of his birth. But it’s not about doing something to be seen by God with the hopes that he will have favor on us. Peace on earth – good will toward men should be the normal lifestyle of the Christian not just during this time of the year.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Summary of Life

GREAT TRUTHS THAT LITTLE CHILDREN HAVE LEARNED:
1) No matter how hard you try, you can't baptize cats..
2) When your Mom is mad at your Dad, don't let her brush your hair.
3) If your sister hits you, don't hit her back. They always catch the second person.
4) Never ask your 3-year old brother to hold a tomato.
5) You can't trust dogs to watch your food..
6) Don't sneeze when someone is cutting your hair..
7) Never hold a Dust-Buster and a cat at the same time.
8) You can't hide a piece of broccoli in a glass of milk.
9) Don't wear polka-dot underwear under white shorts.
10) The best place to be when you're sad is Grandma's lap.

GREAT TRUTHS THAT ADULTS HAVE LEARNED:
1) Raising teenagers is like nailing jelly to a tree.
2) Wrinkles don't hurt.
3) Families are like fudge...mostly sweet, with a few nuts
4) Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground...
5) Laughing is good exercise. It's like jogging on the inside.
6) Middle age is when you choose your cereal for the fiber, not the toy..

GREAT TRUTHS ABOUT GROWING OLD

1) Growing old is mandatory; growing up is optional...
2) Forget the health food. I need all the preservatives I can get.
3) When you fall down, you wonder what else you can do while you're down there.
4) You're getting old when you get the same sensation from a rocking chair that you once got from a roller coaster.
5) It's frustrating when you know all the answers but nobody bothers to ask you the questions...
6) Time may be a great healer, but it's a lousy beautician
7) Wisdom comes with age, but sometimes age comes alone.

THE FOUR STAGES OF LIFE:

1) You believe in Santa Claus.
2) You don't believe in Santa Claus.
3) You are Santa Claus..
4) You look like Santa Claus.

SUCCESS:

At age 4 success is . . . . Not piddling in your pants.
At age 12 success is . . . Having friends.
At age 17 success is . . . Having a driver's license.
At age 35 success is . . . Having money.
At age 50 success is . . .. Having money..
At age 70 success is . . . Having a drivers license.
At age 75 success is . . . Having friends.
At age 80 success is .. . . Not piddling in your pants.

2011-12-14T08:30:00.003-06:00

(December 14, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had our annual elder/staff Christmas celebration last night at the church. It was really a nice, blessed time. Pastor Nick sees to it that everything is taken care of. Tina Krueger decorated, and Elise, along with her kitchen crew worked all day on the excellent meal. I look forward to this event every Christmas season.
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Tonight we will have our normal schedule of classes starting at 6:30pm.
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. The Devotional for this week is taken from my message from Sunday.
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Devotional!
Religion vs. Relationships
I believe the birth of Christ is an incredibly important event and deserves our attention – however, because of its significance it shouldn’t be something that is merely factored into our worship once a year. It should be one of the overarching facets of our relationship with Him. The same is true of his death, it should be something that we consider more than just at Easter time. Here is my point. There is nothing wrong with us celebrating the birth of Christ in fact I encourage it however, if it’s the only time I give special attention to the meaning of his birth – that would be like me being nice to my wife only on her birthday. Isn’t it interesting how we are very kind to people of their birthdays? I’ll hear one of you married couples talking about having gone out to an expensive restaurant and I’ll ask what the occasion was. They’ll say something like, “It was my wife’s birthday so I spent a lot of money on her.” Nothing wrong with that at all! However, that sort of gives us license to not treat them special the rest of the year.

“Yeah, my wife and I just got back from McDonalds.” “Wow, that’s kind of cheap of you.” “Well it’s not her birthday or nothing like that.” “Oh yeah, that’s right – we don’t have to treat them special on off days. I need to remember that. I’ve been overly kind and for no good reason.” That’s the point I’m trying to make about how we look at Christmas. Because it’s Christmas we get more religious – feeling almost spiritually smug about our special focus. The religious view would say, “Hey it’s my wife’s birthday – what would you expect me to do but to treat her special.” The opposite view is, “Look it’s only my wife’s birthday she has one every year; we are so in love we don’t even acknowledge each other’s special days.” “Beside, her birthday happened to fall on my golf day – I’m sure she will understand that I can’t really set aside time for her, we’re that close.”

So we have this dilemma called balance. It’s right to both set aside time to worship him during the Christmas season – even in some special way, and it’s right to understand that special worship is not making us more right with God after all we are saved by grace.

In that light I want us to go to Isaiah 12 and see how man tends to make more out of something – in an attempt to get right with God or to stay right with God, than is necessary. We are going to shift away from the issue of Christmas for a little bit - but hopefully you will see more of what I’m trying to say here.

Isaiah 12:3 With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

This verse really qualifies as a prophecy of the Messiah and how He will be merciful, and how they will be able to freely draw from the wells of salvation. Or in other words, Jesus is our fountain of life. A further idea here is, that they will be able to partake abundantly of the mercies of salvation; and that it is free, overflowing, and refreshing. It’s like water to weary pilgrims in the desert, and that their partaking of it would be with joy. It would fill the soul with happiness. That is the essence of this verse, it is the essence of the feeling salvation gives us.

Apparently the Jewish nation took this verse and made a little more of it than what God intended. They felt that God had placed high honor upon the water of the fountain of Siloam. During the feast of tabernacles, a priest carrying a golden pitcher would collect 6 or 7 pints of water from the pool of Siloam and lead a procession back to the Temple. On the way, they would sing the Psalms of Ascent arriving at the court of priests at the close of the morning service. Three blasts on the trumpets would welcome the bearer of the golden pitcher as he entered through the water gate, where another priest bearing a pitcher of wine for the drink offering joined him. The two priests ascended the rise of the altar one going left and the other right, to pour out the offering, through funnels, to the foot of the altar. They ended by singing.

In actuality the Jews, missed the point of this verse and developed an elaborate ritual (religious act) of drawing water from the fountain of Siloam which was meant to show God their desire to get close to Him. They would do this with great rejoicing just like the verse said, “With joy you will draw water.” What’s interesting about this is that this custom was not required by Moses. This was not written in the Law anywhere that they should do this. They ritualized a verse assuming that through their ritual they could bring themselves near to God.

Isaiah 12:3 is to be applied to God as an overflowing fountain, suited to supply the needs of all his creatures. Generally, in the Scriptures, streams, fountains, and rivers, represent the abundant fullness and richness of the mercies of God. So with joy you will be able to go to God and draw from his well of salvation.

Now I want us to see how this tradition played out in Jesus’ day.

John 7:1-2 After this, Jesus went around in Galilee, purposely staying away from Judea because the Jews there were waiting to take his life. (2) But when the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles (booths) was near.
This setting in John 7 revolves around the Jewish Feast of Tabernacles. Jesus was purposely staying away from it.
John 7:3-5 His brothers therefore said to Him, "Depart from here, and go into Judea, that Your disciples also may behold Your works which You are doing.
These were Jesus’ actual flesh and blood brothers. The tradition was that families or villages would walk to the feasts together rejoicing along the way. Jesus did not want to go with them because the authorities knew his family and they were looking for him. However, his brothers did not yet believe he was the Messiah so they were being factious saying, “Go show everybody your “miracles.”
(4) "For no one does anything in secret, when he himself seeks to be known publicly. If You do these things, show Yourself to the world." (5) For not even His brothers were believing in Him.
If you do these things! Don’t you think they felt foolish after the resurrection! If you really do these miracles why don’t you show everybody, not just your disciples. How do we know you do these things? A prophet is not without honor except in his own home.
John 7:6-7 Jesus therefore said to them, "My time is not yet at hand, but your time is always opportune. 7 "The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.
“You can go to anything you want,” Jesus said to them. “You can do anything you want – because you are a part of this world. The world can’t hate you because you represent who they are. However, it hates me because I testify that its deeds are evil.” Currently there is quite a controversy going on about Tim Tebow. He is an outspoken Christian as well as the quarterback for the Denver Bronco’s football team. The controversy is not over the fact that he is good – it’s over the fact that he openly talks about his love for Jesus.

This is a quote from a publication called the Huddle

Jake Plummer said in a radio interview that he wished that Tim Tebow, would curb his references to Jesus Christ and his faith, Tebow responded. "If you're married, and you have a wife, and you really love your wife, is it good enough to only say to your wife 'I love you' the day you get married? Or should you tell her every single day when you wake up and every opportunity? "And that's how I feel about my relationship with Jesus Christ, it is the most important thing in my life. So any time I get an opportunity to tell him that I love him or given an opportunity to shout him out on national TV, I'm gonna take that opportunity. And so I look at it as a relationship that I have with him that I want to give him the honor and glory anytime I have the opportunity.”

You should see all the comments about how they hate him because of that. It’s really quite funny to watch. He is winning games for the team which means they are making a lot of money off of him but at the same time they are really struggling with the fact that he is a Christian. Many people just cannot bring themselves to accepting him because his life testifies to the world – that it is evil.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Name Change Needed
Little Benjamin came running into the kitchen where is
mother was working.
"Mom, can I please change my name right now?" he asked.
"But why would you want to do that?" replied his mom.
"Because Dad said he's going to spank me as sure as my
name's Benjamin!"

2011-12-11T23:29:00.000-06:00

(December 12, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Another Monday!! What would we do without them. Our Staff/Elder Christmas celebration is taking place on Tuesday evening. God has given us a great group of guys on both our staff and elder board. It’s great to be able to get together with our wives and worship our king.
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Wednesday night we will have our normal schedule of classes starting at 6:30pm.
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. The Devotional for this week is taken from my message from Sunday.
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Devotional!
Religion vs. Relationships
Last week a news commentator on TV said, “Christianity is not a religion.” (Bill O’Reily). Someone challenged him and said, “Christianity is a religion, just like Judaism is a religion.” So the commentator countered with, “Christianity is a theologically based philosophy but it’s not a religion. Methodism is a religion, Lutheranism is a religion, Catholicism is a religion, but Christianity itself is not a religion even though Christians often practice some form of religion.”
I decided to do some research about the word “Religion.” It comes from the Latin word “religio” which basically means to reconnect or to bind. Religion is man’s attempt to bind himself to God or to reconnect himself to God. The problem with that is no religious act can save a man. Men are saved by grace. Religious actions may follow our salvation – but the act itself is meant to be an expression of our relationship with Christ – not the source of our salvation.
God has always sought a relationship with his children rather than just religion. However, our natural tendencies move us towards religion. It must come from our sense of gaining acceptance from God based on merit. The problem we often encounter in religion is how something that which was meant to remain simple tends to become complex. Our Christmas celebration is an example of that very thing. Christians use the fact that the three wise men brought gifts to Jesus to justify our craziness in buying gifts for others. Do you think that is anything like what God had in mind for the Christmas celebration? First of all they brought gifts to Jesus. We rarely think about what we could give Jesus do we? Something that is supposed to focus on him has become all about us.
Christmas is on a Sunday this year. For some people that is cause for a real conflict, for others it’s not even an issue. For some families – us having church on Christmas day and then a week later having Church on New Years Day really cuts into their traditions, and as we all know, traditions become sacred. I would call these folks my non-religious partiers. Sometimes that’s good – sometimes that’s not so good.
Then we have the other group who would never even consider missing church because that’s what we do – we are a Christian family and we go to church. I would probably fall more into that category. However the interesting thing about these two perspectives is that they can both be right and they can both be wrong because both of them can simply be an overblown act of religion rather than a perspective that comes from a relationship with Jesus. Everything we do regarding our worship – should come out of our relationship with Jesus, it should come out of a sense of what the relationship needs at the moment. Without a loving relationship our tendency is to turn to religion or religious acts in an effort to feel good about what’s actually missing in our relationship. Some people have such a poor relationship with Jesus that the only time they come to church is Christmas and Easter. Why come on those days? It’s an effort to make up for what they know is missing in the relationship.
Years ago I preached a message called, Legalism vs. Levity. It dealt with two extreme views of Christianity. A person can become so legalistic that they would never ever not do what a Christian is expected to do. “Of course we’ll be in church, it’s Sunday!” The other extreme is levity which is the opposite side of the pendulum. It takes such a relaxed view of the relationship with Christ that it would never ever do anything that might have a tinge of legalism to it. It’s an abuse of grace. “We might be in church – we might not – depends on how we feel.” Right in the middle of these two perspectives is relationship. It has some of each view within it but it is based on what the relationship needs at the moment rather than being adamant about any particular religious act.
It seems every year at this time us Christians try to make up for what’s missing in our relationship with Jesus by making good and proper statements about Christ’s birth. While we are out shopping we make statements about how materialistic the world is today and how their bag of goodies is much bigger than our bag of goodies. We emphasize how Jesus is the reason for the season while we get swallowed up in the secular spirit of the day. I wonder how many thousands of sermons will be preached – even today across our country – about how it’s wrong for us to forget about the real reason for Christmas. Is it wrong for that to be preached? No! Not really. However, it might just be an effort to make up for something that was missing the rest of the year.
It’s certainly not wrong for us to re-focus periodically however; I wonder how much of that is merely religion? Relationships are different than religions. Religion is an attempt to re-connect, to tie back or to bind. Relationships are a continual state of connection.
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Medication: A Merry Heart

Laundry

A young couple moved into a new neighborhood. The next
morning while they were eating breakfast, the young woman
saw her neighbor hanging the wash outside.

"That laundry is not very clean," she said. "She doesn't
know how to wash correctly. Perhaps she needs better laundry
soap."

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

Every time her neighbor would hang her wash to dry, the
young woman would make the same comments.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see a nice
clean wash on the line and said to her husband, "Look, she
has learned how to wash correctly. I wonder who taught her
this?"

The husband said, "I got up early this morning and cleaned
our windows."

2011-12-08T23:27:00.002-06:00

(December 9, 2011)
Prayer House News!

It’s Friday and there is still no snow on the ground. Isn’t that something! I think it is. That also means we are only a couple of days away from worshipping God together once again. I look forward to seeing you on Sunday.
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. The Devotional for this week is taken from my message from Sunday.
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Devotional!
Jesus’ Purpose
Let’s talk a little more about Jesus’ Purpose in coming to earth. Christmas so focuses on the baby Jesus and the manger scene with all of the animals and the wise men – the shepherds and angels singing about his birth when in reality – this was a very serious event. Jesus had to come to earth because man with his free will was making wrong choices. Though he had the power to make right choices he was primarily making bad choices. Man had become what his mind told him he was.

I don’t know if we fully understand the signigicance of a free will. Some of it is brought out in Proverbs 23:7 which says, For as he thinks within himself, so he is. A man is what he thinks he is. This verse could basically say, A man is what he wills himself to be. (James Allen’s book, As a Man Thinketh).

The power of the mind is incredible. It gives us just a glimpse of the power God gave us. What the scriptures teach us is that we are attracted to those things we secretly harbor. The things we love and also the things we fear. Our outer world of circumstances shape itself to the inner world of thought. Circumstances do not make the man. The tendency today is to blame the circumstances of life for our unhappiness when in actuality the circumstances are the result of who we are. We don’t attract what we want, we attract what we are. Everyone wants a better life but it seems the circumstances of life won’t allow it. Not true. Regardless of what you want out of life you are attracting the kind of lifestyle that defines who you are.

That’s exactly what Proverbs 23:7 is saying – As a man thinks (or you could say, as a man wills) so is he. You might say, “how do I change my will. I’ve tried but I just can’t.” You are right you can’t in your own strength so what you do is surrender your will to the will of God. That’s all salvation is. Salvation is saying – not my will but yours. I give you my heart (will). Remember, Jesus had the same free will that you and I do and yet he did not sin because he surrendered it to his Heavenly Father.

Men often want to improve their circumstances but are unwilling to improve themselves subsequently they remain bound. To this end Jesus came to earth. He came to teach us how to speak to God once again. If the scripture is true that a man is what he thinks that can work to our advantage as well. However, because man had lost the capacity to talk with God something had to happen. God had to reveal himself to man in a unique way. He did so through the birth of his Son.

Because a man is what he thinks he is the scriptures tell us to set our affections – our mind – on things above not on things on the earth. Be transformed by the renewing of the mind. These are things that are only possible through the spirit of God.

The spirit of the day we are living in is totally different from the spirit of God. Suppose you have a man who is poor and he is extremely anxious about his condition but is living according to the spirit of the day rather than the spirit of God. His home and comforts should be improved yet on the job he shirks his duty, and considers himself justified in trying to deceive his employer on the grounds of his insufficient wages.

That man does not understand the simple rudiments of the biblical principles of prosperity and how God honors a strong work ethic. Not only is he totally unfit to rise out of his own dilemma but he is attracting to himself a still deeper problem by dwelling in and acting out lazy, deceptive, and ungodly thoughts. A man is what he thinks.

Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. This is saying that nothing can come from corn but corn. Nothing can come from a grain of wheat but wheat. Men understand this law in the natural world, but few understand it in the mental and moral world and therefore, do not co-operate with it.

Consider this; Eve was deceived Adam was not. The woman chose unknowingly. The man chose with open eyes. Man can throw no stones at woman. If the woman failed God that day, the man failed both God and the woman. If it is true that through her came the beginning of the world's sin, through her, also, came that which was far greater--the world's Savior.

The choice was made. The forbidden fruit taken, the act was done. That simple act was equally tremendous! Just think of what happened! Gordon says, “No fathoming line can find its depth. No measuring rod its height nor breadth. No thought can pierce its intensity. That reaching arm went around a world. Millenniums in a moment. A million miles in a step. An ocean in a drop. Volumes in a word. A hell of suffering in one act. The depths of woe in a glance. The sharpest pain in the softest touch. God mistrusted. Satan embraced. Sin's door open. Eden's gate shut.” Jesus came to earth to re-open Eden’s gate.

Adam sinned and though he felt shame for it, sin could not be allowed to stay in Eden. Sin had now become a part of man. The man and sin were now interwoven. They were inseparable. Sin has such a tenacious, gluey, sticky touch! It could not be taken out of the man without his being taken out also. So man had to be driven out for his own sake to rid Eden of sin. However, the man was driven out so that he might come back one day --changed. Love drove him out so that later it might let him in. The tree of life was kept from him for a time that it might be kept for him for an eternity. When he had changed his spirit, and changed sides in the fight with evil, and gotten victory over the spirit trying to dominant him, then he could return. Whenever the stain of his choice is taken out of the fiber of a man it becomes his right to retrace his steps, and reenter his heavenly home. He can once again talk with God and walk with God. This is Jesus’ Purpose. He came to this earth to ultimately pay the price of our bad, sinful choices, so that we will one day be able to enter into his presence and come boldly before the throne of Grace – there to worship our creator.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Faults

Just think: If it weren't for marriage, men would go through
life thinking they had no faults at all.

2011-12-07T06:08:00.000-06:00

(December 7, 2011)
Prayer House News!
On this Day in 1941 the attack on Pearl Harbor change America forever.
Let’s take some time to thank God for those who defended our nation.
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This is Family Week for our church. Take some time to meet with other families or spend more time with your own. There are no services at our church tonight!
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. The Devotional for this week is taken from my message from Sunday.
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Devotional!
Jesus’ Purpose
We were made to live in closest touch with God. That is the native air we are to breathe. Outside of that air our lungs are badly affected. The air of this world is too heavy. It's full of disease, and gases and dust. In it we choke and gasp. Yet man does not know why. A man without Christ gropes about in the night made by his own shut eyes. He doesn't seem to know enough to open them. And sometimes he will not open them because the hinge of the eyelid is in the will. And having shut the light out, he gets tangled up in his ideas as to what is light. He fulfills the prophet Isaiah’s words about those who put darkness for light, and light for darkness.
No one has suffered criticism like God has. Men who have the smallest insight into who He is and the world-wide plan of salvation he has for mankind will challenge him for not doing what they believe he should do.
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
The bible tells us that even we who know God and have surrendered our hearts to him barely know him. Our insight is no more than what it would be if we were to look at everything through smoked glass. As Christians we gain a faded glimpse of what He is like but we still know very little – and yet we will challenge God and question his motives. We keep trying to bring God down to our level of understanding and make him accountable to us. That is shameful – it is shameful to accuse the one who died for us that he doesn’t really care for us.
If that is how it is for those of us who know God just think what it must be like for those who by their own will refuse to bend their will to His and open their eyes.
At one time man knew God well; close up. And that means he was loved, openly, and without restraint. But one day a bad choice was made. And the choice made an ugly kink in his will. The whole trouble began there. A man sees through his will. That is his medium for the transmission of light. And that applies to Christians and non-Christians. And within a man’s will he is sovereign. This is why we preach and teach and reach out to people; it’s with the hope that they will bend their will - open their eyes - and once again hear the word of God. If they refuse to bow their will to God’s there is nothing God can do to keep them from an eternity without him.
Man came into being by the breath of God. God breathed Himself into man. The breath that God breathed out came into man as life. The very life of man is a bit of God. Man is of the essence of God. Every man is a presence-chamber of God. God is a Spirit. Man is a spirit but he lives in a body. He thinks through a mind. He is a spirit, using the body as a dwelling-place, and the mind is his sharpest instrument.
Because of his free will God has put some checks in place.
Proverbs 20:27 The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the innermost parts of his being.
Our spirit, our gut feeling, our inner sense is actually the lamp of the Lord. It searches our innermost parts and it speaks to us. It’s a part of God’s attempt to get us to open our eyes – or to bend our will – to see what He sees so that we can once again hear him speaking to us and learn to walk as he walks.
Every sin first lives in the imagination. The imagination is sin's brooding and birth-place. A picture created in our mind, a lingering glance, a wrong desire, an act--that is the story of every sin. The first step was disobedience. That opened the door. Typically the very first thought of sin shocks us. That is in part the workings of the lamp of God within us. (pray) We are shocked at what our minds are capable of but that shock or shame is actually meant to be a safety valve. Shame (which is a work of the Holy Spirit) is the recoil of God's image. When we do something shameful we feel the Spirit of God withdraw from deep within.
Genesis 3:10 And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."
The Hebrew word, yare' (yaw-ray) is the word for “afraid.” and it means to fear but it is connected to morality – it’s to fear morally. You could use the word shame here also. Shame comes from an understanding that what we are thinking of or doing is morally wrong. After Adam had sinned they heard God walking through the garden wanting to talk to them as had been their custom but they hid from him because they were morally afraid or ashamed of what they had done. Shame is sin's first checkmate. It is man's opportunity to turn from sin. Shame works to our advantage as long as we heed its counsel.
There are only two places where there is no shame: 1. where there is no sin;
Where there is no sin there is nothing to be ashamed of. Where there is not sin there is nothing to be afraid of. If Adam had not sinned he would have welcomed the presence of God he would have run to him when he called instead of hiding from him.
The only reason man fears death is because of sin. When there is no sin or when our sin has been eradicated by the blood of Jesus there is no fear of death. So the first place there is no shame is where this is no sin. The second place where there is no shame is 2. where sin is deeply imbedded. Man by his own free will and continual refusal to acknowledge the lamp of the Lord searching the deepest parts of his heart – can quench the Holy Spirit to the point of no longer feeling any shame for his sin. At that point he will indeed feel there is nothing wrong with his life the way it is, while the whole time being blind to all the death and dirt around him. There is no shame once sin has gotten so deep within the heart of man, or once a sin has been committed so often that he no longer has any sense of the spirit of God, the lamp of God searching him. That indeed is a dreadful place to be.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Intelligence

Two goobers were digging a ditch on a very hot day. One said
to the other, "Why are we down in this hole digging a ditch
when our boss is standing up there in the shade of a tree?"

"I don't know," responded the other. "I'll ask him."

He climbed out of the hole and went to his boss. "Why are we
digging in the hot sun and you're standing in the shade?"

"Intelligence," the boss said.

"What do you mean, 'intelligence'?"

The boss said, "Well, I'll show you. I'll put my hand on
this tree and I want you to hit it with your fist as hard as
you can."

The goober took a mighty swing and tried to hit the boss's
hand. At the last second, the boss removed his hand and the
goober hit the tree. The boss said, "That's intelligence!"

The goober went back to his hole. His friend asked, "What
did he say?"

"He said we are down here because of intelligence."

"What's intelligence?" said the friend.

The goober put his hand on his face and said, "Take your
shovel and hit my hand."

2011-12-04T22:57:00.001-06:00

(December 5, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a good Sunday with a number of people raising their hands in brand new commitments to Jesus! That’s what it’s all about.

I trust you had an excellent weekend also.

This is Family Week for us. That means we allow you to stay home on Wednesday night with the hopes that you will spend more time with your family or even fellowship with some other families.
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. The Devotional for this week will be my message from yesterday.

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Devotional!
Jesus’ Purpose
Don’t you just love Christmas! I love the season, I love the reason for the season, I love the music; it’s just a great time of the year. It does get a little tiring though with all the special events and parties that take place and usually by the time New Year’s Day is over I’m ready to get back into my normal routine. But since it is the Christmas season I thought it would be appropriate to focus on our Lord, because after all – if it were not for the birth of our Savior there would be no black Friday and our retail stores would have to come up with a new reason to get us to buy stuff.

I’ve been reading SD Gordon’s book called, Quiet Talks About Jesus. In it he throws out an idea about why Jesus came to earth asking the question, what was his purpose? What is the true purpose or idea behind Christmas? Gordon suggests that God is spelling Himself out in Jesus.

“Jesus is God spelling Himself out in language that man can understand. God and man used to talk together freely. But one day man went away from God. He left his native land, Eden, where he lived with God. He left, and in leaving he lost not only his native tongue but also how to walk with God.

Have you ever tried to learn another language? I remember back in the ninety’s’ I was going to Spain on a regular basis. Lou and I have been in many different cities throughout Spain as I was traveling and speaking at conferences. I was gradually learning the language. I could at least greet people and ask where the bathroom was. I remember trying out this new language once while I was preaching. I had noticed that on the men’s room door it read “caballero” (which means gentlemen). I thought that men were called caballeros. It’s actually pronounced cab-ee-yare-o. So when I got up to preach I told them that I was a bien caballero. I messed it up pretty bad. Well when I got done my interpreter told me that I just told them that I was a fine horse (caballo [ca-buy-o]). Talk about putting your hoof in your mouth. Anyway I eventually picked up several words because I was going there often enough to use them. The more you use a different language the more fluent you become in it. However, now that I don’t go there very often I have forgotten most of those words.

Adam left his native land and through going away he lost his native speech. He was no longer talking to God on a regular basis. He no longer walked with him like he once did and subsequently forgot the sounds of His words and the look of his footsteps. His ears grew dull and then deaf. Through lack of use he lost the power of speaking the old language and the effects of walking as God walked.

The scriptures indicate that God has always been eager to talk to man. The silence is hard on him. God is hungry to be on intimate terms again with his children. So he decided on the only language man could understand. He decided to send his son to earth as a man, a man who would speak both the language of the day as well as reintroduce the language of Eden and the stride of God. Jesus is God spelling himself out so man could once again understand who He is.

Let’s think about Eden for a moment.

Genesis 1:26-27 Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." (27) And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

In this picture we see man fresh from the hand of God. A spirit, in a body, with unending life, partly infinite, like God in his capacity for love, for holiness, and wisdom, with the gift of sovereignty over the lower creation, and in his own will. Like Him also in his capacity for fellowship with God. For only like can have fellowship with like. Men do not have fellowship with animals. We can love a pet but they cannot meet the needs we have for fellowship in our lives. It is only in that in which we are alike that we can have fellowship. So we have these two in Eden, God and man, walking side by side, working together, friendship in spirit; and partnership in service. This man is in a garden of trees and bushes, with fruit and flowers and singing birds, roses with no pricking thorns, soft green grass with no weeds, and no poison ivy, for there is no hate. He is walking with God, and talking with Him as His chosen friend.

Genesis 2:19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name.

God brings His created beings one by one to man to be catalogued and named, and accepts his decisions. What an endearing picture. These two, God and a man in His likeness, walking and working side by side; likeness in being; friendship, fellowship in spirit; partnership, solidarity in service. And this is God's thought for man!

We all understand that God is Sovereign--the sovereign of this world and all worlds. However God created man to be a sovereign in the realm of nature, and over all the lower creation. He was given dominion, kingship, over all the earth-creation. Man is a king. He is of royal blood. He was made to command, to administrate, to reign.

But there is more here. The chief characteristic of an absolute sovereign is the regal power to choose, to decide. Man was made a sovereign in his own will. God is the absolute sovereign. However, He has made man an absolute sovereign in one realm, his will, his power of choice. There is one place where man reigns alone, an absolute ruler, where not even God can come save as He desires and that is in the will of man.

If that bothers you, remember that it was God's sovereign act that made it that way, subsequently God remains sovereign in making man a sovereign in the realm of his will. There every man sits in regal solitude. If man did not have a free will then there would have been no reason for the Son of God to be born a man - to come and save us from the choices we have made because without a free will we would have only made the choices he desired for us. Without a free will Adam and Eve would never have eaten the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Without man having a free will God would never have had to instruct him to only eat from the tree of life. When they took of the fruit – they exercised their will over God’s will. If that is not the case then we would have to say that God willed for Adam to sin which would be a complete contradiction of his character.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
A preacher was standing in front of his congregation one Sunday, when an angel of the Lord appeared to them.
He said to the pastor, "You've done such a great job leading this congregation, I'm here to grant you one of three things. You may have wealth, wisdom or great fame."

The pastor said, "I don't even need to think about that one...I'll take wisdom."

The angel waved over the preacher and *Poof*. The preacher stood dazed a bit, and after a moment, someone yelled, "Say something wise."

The preacher said; "I should have taken the money."

2011-11-29T23:42:00.001-06:00

(November 30, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Tonight all of our classes will be up and running. I will be teaching the adult Bible Study as we continue with our study of James Chapter Three.
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Devotional!
Be Still and Know

I fly most places that I go, and quite frankly, getting on the airplane is not the most settling thing I do. I’m still kind of up in the air about the whole issue, and one day I had been the road, and was headed home, when I got on the airplane, and sat down, and said “Lord, just get me home safe.” And God said, “Which home? You have relatives in both places.” That really spoke to my heart. Basically, God was saying, you have a home in heaven and you have a home in Wisconsin. Where do you want to go? I thought to myself and said, “I guess you’re right; I have family in both places. I guess it doesn’t matter who I see first.” Some might think that that attitude is a little uncaring for my family living on earth and given the choice, I will always choose not to die in a plane crash. My first choice is to always land safely in Wisconsin so I can see my wife. But the point is - the most caring thing I can do for my family is to put them into the hands of God. The least caring thing I could for them is cause them to find their security in me.

I had a friend years ago who died of inoperable cancer. He had a brain tumor that the doctors couldn’t do anything about. He was a young father who had a family. He had three kids, all under the age of 6 years old. While he was in the process of dying, (he was in this for a few years), he finally came to the place where he simply wanted to go to heaven. He told me he couldn’t share that with his family, but he had come to believe that God is everything He says he is, that the Bible is everything it says it is, and that heaven is everything that it says it is. He said he was ready to go to heaven. Someone asked him, “Well what about your family, your kids that are so young, and your responsibilities?” His only answer was, “I believe God is everything He says that He is.” What he is saying is that God is more caring than he could ever be and leaving them in God’s hands is not a frightful thing.

He was being still. He came to place of knowing that God is God. Be still and know that I am God. That’s a level of faith that we don’t often relate to because we talk about faith in terms of gaining, and he was talking of faith in terms of giving. He said he had enough faith to give his life over to the Lord.

I used to have a teaching called the faith of Jesus. The faith of Jesus was displayed in his ability to die. In dying he put his eternity in the hands of his father knowing that he would raise him from the dead. That is exactly what you and I are going to do when we finally find ourselves on our death bed. Our faith will be put in Jesus’ hands. We will die knowing that Jesus will raise us from the dead.

If we use faith merely to gain, then we remain insecure because we keep trying to gain for ourselves thinking that’s where our security comes from. In reality, security comes through what we can give to God. The secret to the kingdom of God is not how much of God you can get, but how much of you God can get. We are in the midst of giving ourselves to the Lord. We are not in the struggle to get God. We can have all of God we want. God is a giver by nature. God gave His own son. God does not withhold. Getting God is not the problem; the problem is God getting us.

This is all about dying unto the Lord. As the Psalm says, we can be as the raging river, which is the result of its world falling in on it, the mountains crumbling and causing all this mess, or we can be this river that flows out from the throne of God. There is a river, whose streams make glad the city of God. It’s river that flows out of a relationship with God. It doesn’t panic, it doesn’t push; it simply flows in peace.

The prayer life is what develops a peace in your heart about God. It causes you to fully understand that God is more caring for you and your family than you are. It seems that many Christians have knowledge about God, but don’t really know God. There’s a big difference in knowing about God and knowing God. Being a Christian alone does not mean I know God. It means I have a greater knowledge of God than others.

The word “know” has to do with intimacy. It comes from the Hebrew word “yada.” Yada is the word used in Genesis 4:1, where Adam knew Eve and she conceived. That’s the biblical meaning for knowing something intimately. It’s root word is “yad”, which means hand. When you add an “a” to the word and get yada it’s referring to the roll the hand plays in intimacy. On a very simple level, we shake hands in greeting or we hold hands, we give hugs, and the hand plays a roll in forming intimacy between husbands and wives. If you add another letter to that, an “h”, then it’s “yadah” and that means to know God.

In Daniel 11:32, “The people who know (yadah) their God will be strong and do exploits.” Yadah means the hand extended in praise. What its saying is the lifted hand, which is the symbol of worship, and praise, and prayer; that is our means of knowing God. Outside of intimacy, outside of prayer, outside of worship, there is no knowing God, there is only knowing about God.

So, in essence, without a prayer life, you can know about God, but you cannot know God. Knowing about God is not sufficient because we live a world of insecurity, a world falling in on itself. We have to know Him. I think it’s interesting that in the midst of a world that is falling apart, God’s call to the bride is that of intimacy. He is wooing His bride to himself. Verse 6 says, “Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.” That describes our society today and yet in midst of our world falling apart, God says “Be still and know that I am God.” Prayer is the only activity that will develop this kind of strength in God. I think it’s interesting that in a day, where we feel like we’ve been spiritually enlightened concerning spiritual warfare, where we feel we have learned about breaking Satan’s grip; our world continues to get worse and worse. If our methods are effective, by now, we should be having revival. There’s something wrong.

We’re not seeing a great move of God in our nation because our lifestyle has come to mean more to us than our God, and we are far more interested in our comfort than character. This can be somewhat confusing, because there are many individuals who are very involved in spiritual warfare and they believe its all based on prayer. So they say that there is a lot of prayer going up. However, that type of praying is to get something; to control something. Subsequently, no security comes out of that. They may be spending time in prayer, but security comes out of a relationship, and if all they do is ask for something all the time, they will not develop an intimate relationship with God even though they spend time in prayer.

If the only time I approached my God, and the only time I communicate with Him is when I want something from Him, it wouldn’t take very long for Him to feel used. I think he would say that this isn’t very much of a relationship. Even If I get what I want there still would be no intimacy or heart to our relationship. Security, with the Lord, doesn’t come from what we can get from God; it comes from what God can get from us.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Illegal Turn
A man, in a hurry taking his eight-year-old son to school,
made a turn at a red light where it was prohibited.
"Uh-oh, I just made an illegal turn!" the man said.
"Aw, Dad, it's okay," the son said. "The police car right
behind us did the same thing."

2011-11-27T23:20:00.001-06:00

(November 28, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a good day yesterday. It’s always good to worship with the family of God.
My message from Sunday will be the devotional this week.
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Devotional!
Be Still and Know
This morning I’m going to talk about something I wrote about several years ago in my book, “Taught by the Spirit.” The reason I told you that is because I don’t want to be guilty of self-plagiarism. Plagiarism is when you use someone else’s material without giving them credit. Self-plagiarism is when you use your own material and don’t tell anyone where you got it. I have self-plagiarized many times in the past – so I’m thinking about suing myself. If I had any money I’d try to get it from me. Actually this material addresses some current events and issues that we all face from time to time.

Psalms 46:1-11 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. (2) Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; (3) Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. (4) There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. (5) God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. (6) The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. (7) The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. (8) Come, behold the works of the Lord, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. (9) He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. (10) "Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (11) The Lord of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. NASB

There is a continual theme that is running through the scriptures and that’s that God wants us to see Him as our strength, as our refuge, and an ever present help in times of trouble.

We live a day of trouble, don’t we. We live where nations are in an uproar and where countries are falling, and we live in a day of great spiritual attack against the church. So, what does the Psalmist say we should do about it? We should be still and know that God is God. Instead, in some ways, the church is running around like a chicken with its head cut off. We know we’re going somewhere, but we can’t quite see where it is.

The church can often be like the waters in verse 3: “its waters roar and foam”. There is a lot of anxiety and concern about that which is taking place in the world. For the people who don’t know God, that would be expected, but to people that know the Lord, there is supposed to be a calm assurance. I think, in some ways, we have become overly anxious concerning spiritual battle; not because I don’t think spiritual battle is much of an issue, but I think it’s a rather serious issue. However, spiritual warfare has been taking place in the heavens for a very long time. Typically, by the time we recognize that a battle has been going on - it’s been going on for quite some time. How is it, God has been able to handle it up to the time of us finally realizing its happening? One of the points I want to make this morning is the fact that the battle truly is the Lord’s and not ours. Often a person’s anxiety regarding spiritual conflict is from taking all the responsibility on them self. Certainly we have a role to play in spiritual battle, but the battle is the Lords and that’s what we have to keep in mind.

I’m quite concerned about the militancy of the church, not the fact that we are taking a militant stand against the enemy, but our method of attack. Militancy is typically the result of the lack of intimacy. Down through church history, you can see when the church stops praying, she becomes militant. She attempts to control society. That’s because our security comes out of our intimacy with Christ, and when we lack intimacy, we lack security, and when we are insecure, we work hard to control our world. Our security then comes from our ability to control society, subsequently when society seems out of control – our anxiety levels rise.

The church is the bride of Christ, and when the church doesn’t have intimacy with Christ, her typical response is to go over to a social gospel and start preaching the issues of the day, because her security is coming from her ability to control society. Our anxiety is really a commentary on our lack of spirituality. We seem more interested in social issues than the salvation of men. We’re far more interested in the economy than we are our neighbor’s souls. We’re looking at the economy with great interest because we want to continue living securely, but we are trusting in the wrong things.

Insecurity always makes demands and we have become very militant because of that, and very demanding. We’ve even tried to threaten Satan with our prayers. Understand this, prayer is a threat to the enemy only because of the relationship that is developed, by the pray-er, with Christ. Prayer is not meant to be a weapon. The word of God is the sword of the spirit; the word is the weapon. Prayer is not a weapon; it’s for drawing close to God.

We seem to be insecure to the point of trying to dispatch angels for spiritual battle, and yet, we don’t have a single incident, in any of the scriptures, of man is instructing or directing angels. I just heard of a nationally known preacher encouraging his congregation to use angels almost like personal servants giving them directions as to what to do for them. However, when we look into the scriptures, all of the incidents of men and angels are angels giving men messages from the Lord. That’s what angel means; “angelos,” in the Greek, means messenger. They are God’s messengers to us. But never is there an incident in the scriptures where man gives instruction to the angels.

Let me read some scriptures about this.

Matthew 4:6, “He will command his angels concerning you.”

Matthew 13:41, “The Son of Man will send out his angels.”

Matthew 26:53, “Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve thousand legions of angels?”

While it is true that Hebrews 1:14 says that angels are ministering spirits who have been sent to serve those who are inheriting salvation the administration of angels is God’s work. It is not our work. We are to learn to rest in God’s ability to care for us. We are to be still and know that He is God.

Even in the parable of the lost sheep, Jesus says in

Matthew 18:10, ““See that you do not look down on or despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.”

Jesus says in essence, “Don’t despise these little children because they have guardian angels.” Apparently guardian angels are always standing beholding the face of the Father. In other words, all their instructions come from the Father. The Father says to the angels, put out your arm of protection, they will obey, but the administration comes from the Father, not from you or me. I have had people ask me, “Is it wrong to ask the Lord to send angels to do a certain task?” If you trust god then it’s wrong. If you don’t trust him I suppose you could make sure the angels are doing everything they need to do to protect you.

The question we should all ask ourselves is; “Will God always watch over me and protect me?” And the answer to that is found in Psalms 121.

Psalms 121:2-8 My help comes from the Lord, Who made heaven and earth. (3) He will not allow your foot to slip; He who keeps you will not slumber. (4) Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep. (5) The Lord is your keeper; The Lord is your shade on your right hand. (6) The sun will not smite you by day, Nor the moon by night. (7) The Lord will protect you from all evil; He will keep your soul. (8) The Lord will guard your going out and your coming in From this time forth and forever. NASB

The point is, as the children of God there is really nothing we should be overly anxious about. Our life is in God’s hands but if we get to where we live in this realm of control, trying to dispatch angels, fighting directly against Satan, and seeing demons everywhere we turn, then we will always remain insecure because we really are not equipped for that type of battle – so we end up studying things we don’t need to know anything about. The battle is the Lord’s.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
A tourist parked his car in downtown Washington, D.C. He
said to a man standing near the curb, "Listen, I'm going to
be only a couple of minutes. Would you watch my car while I
run into this store?"

"What?" the man huffed. "Do you realize that I am a member
of the United States Congress?"

"Well, no," the tourist said, "I didn't realize that. But
it's all right. I'll trust you anyway."

2011-11-25T23:45:00.002-06:00

(November 25, 2011)
Prayer House News!

I hope you all had a great THANKSGIVING! We got home last night! It will be good to worship with you on Sunday.
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Devotional!
Repent – Return – Restore

So after the Shunammite woman returns the boy to the place where he found life originally – life returns to him. Her first love has returned. We are going to go back to our reading of this account in Chapter 8 – it’s after the famine now.

2 Kings 8:3-6 And it came about at the end of seven years, that the woman returned from the land of the Philistines; and she went out to appeal to the king for her house and for her field. (4) Now the king was talking with Gehazi, the servant of the man of God, saying, "Please relate to me all the great things that Elisha has done." (5) And it came about, as he was relating to the king how he had restored to life the one who was dead, that behold, the woman whose son he had restored to life, appealed to the king for her house and for her field. And Gehazi said, "My lord, O king, this is the woman and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life." (6) When the king asked the woman, she related it to him. So the king appointed for her a certain officer, saying, "Restore all that was hers and all the produce of the field from the day that she left the land even until now."

Do you see what happens when we first repent and then return to our first love? Everything that was lost in the famine is restored to us. God restores everything back to us as though we never lost a thing.

One final point I want to make, as I was reading 2 Kings 4:16 it says the prophet told the Shunammite woman that she would embrace a son. I got looking into the word embrace because I read that some of the ancient rabbis connect the boy with the prophet Habakkuk. They believe the boy in this account eventually becomes the prophet Habakkuk – one of the minor prophets. The reason they make the connection is because the prophet told the mom that she would “embrace” a son and the name Habakkuk means embrace. Isn’t that an interesting thought? Couldn’t you just see the Shunammite woman naming her son after the promise the prophet of God gave her. You are my embrace of the Lord.

But even more important than that is how we see the prophet Elisha transferring his life into the boy he prayed for him breathing life into him. He possibly became a mentor to the boy as he would continue to use the room made for him. The boy grew up in the shadow of this great prophet of God and eventually became a prophet himself.

Here is how this applies to you and me. Jesus has breathed life into each one of us who are born-again. He now expects our lives to reflect him. He expects us to grow up in his shadow as he mentors us through our prayer lives and word life.

There is one more final point I want to make here. We are going to go back into this account again – back to where the prophet prayed for the boy.

2 Kings 4:32-36 When Elisha came into the house, behold the lad was dead and laid on his bed. (33) So he entered and shut the door behind them both, and prayed to the Lord. (34) And he went up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself on him; and the flesh of the child became warm. (35) Then he returned and walked in the house once back and forth, and went up and stretched himself on him; and the lad sneezed seven times and the lad opened his eyes.

I was meditating on this account and was asking God why the prophet laid on the child (he didn’t just kneel at the bed side), put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands. Today the prophet Elisha would be arrested for doing such a thing. But as I was thinking this through the Lord just spoke to me about him becoming what we are in order to heal us.

Philippians 2:6-8, “although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

These verses talk all about form. Jesus started off in the form of God but he did not let that form keep him from taking on the form of a human and going to the cross in that form.

The prophet Elisha was taking on the form of the child, prophetically showing us what the coming savior would do to bring us life. He was mouth to mouth, eye to eye, and hand to hand in order to bring life to the child. We were dead in our sins – our human form was one of death – but Jesus took on that form in order to bring life into us.

Whatever form you are currently in, whether that’s depression, a serious illness, anger, marriage in trouble, or simply burned out – Jesus will assume that position with you – if you will repent (make room for Him) and return to your first love, He will breathe life back into you and restore you to fullness.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Lobster Fisher
After a day fishing in the ocean, a fisherman is walking

from the pier carrying two lobsters in a bucket. He is

approached by the game warden, who asks him for his fishing

license.

The fisherman says to the warden, "I did not catch these

lobsters; they are my pets. Every day I come down to the

water and whistle, and these lobster jump out and I take

them for a walk, only to return them at the end of the day."

The warden, not believing him, reminds him that it is

illegal to fish without a license. The fisherman turns to

the warden and says, "If you don't believe me, then watch."

He then throws the lobsters back into the water.

The warden says, "Now whistle to your lobsters and show me

that they will come out of the water."

The fisherman turns to the warden and says, "What lobsters?"

2011-11-23T08:01:00.000-06:00

(November 23, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We will be having our normal mid-week services on Wednesday even though this is Thanksgiving week.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
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Devotional!
Repent – Return – Restore
We began this year relooking at the Core Values we established our church on. We have five core values and took 5 month to focus on them (one month for each). In the midst of that we called you to prayer and fasting in January as we looked at intimacy with God. Bryan Darrell challenged us to read the New Testament in one month in February as we looked at our knowledge of God. In March Pastor Brad focused on our Connect Group ministry challenging us to get into a small group. In April Pastor Nick led us through a month of worship ending with a Sanctuary night. And finally in May Pastor John brought us face to face with evangelism which culminated with an outdoor band shell service with Dean Niforatos along with a baptismal service that evening. It was a great wrap-up.
In retrospect I realized that those months were intense spiritually. They were a call back to our original purpose as a church. Going back to the basics is what revival is. When a church is in need of revival it basically goes back to what it once was in order to accomplish that.
Suffice it to say that the enemy fought us during this time. It was a battle – and then finally in June it was over. At the time I never really noticed anything but looking back I can see that I burned out somewhat. I really lost my spirit and passion for what I am doing. I talked with Lou about retiring and going back on the road (which I believe I will ultimately do). The staff pastors and my elders know that I just was not myself.
I know now that some of the conflict revolved around my health. I had not felt well for quite some time. Then in August the Lord began to really deal with me concerning both my health and my church. He asked me to remember where I came from and to go back to doing the things I did at first.
Go back to doing things in the way you did them at first. For me – that was a call back to my prayer life. Confession; as I began to assess my prayer life I must admit that it had become more rote than anything else. I was praying more out of duty than desire. I was very much like Ephesus – I was still doing many things for the Lord but I must admit that I had lost my passion – or my first love for prayer. Then God challenged me to go back to what I did at first.
Look at what the Shunammite woman did once she lost the life God had given her. Remember, her boy died in her arms. Once he died she took him back to the room she had made for God.
2 Kings 4:21 And she went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, and shut the door behind him, and went out. (Return)
She took him back to the room that she had built. She went back to what she did at first. If you feel you have lost something in your relationship with Jesus the only way to regain that is to go back. Going back to how it was when we first met Jesus is what I believe our church needs to do. We need to go back to simply having Jesus – loving Jesus and worshipping Him with a pure heart.
We have maintained a busy schedule regarding the work of God – no one could accuse us of being lazy about the kingdom of God – but God could possibly say to us – I hold this against you – you have forsaken your first love.
One evening I told Lou Ann I was going to come to the church to pray. When I got here there was some sort of meeting going on and the building had people in it. So I decided to do what I periodically do; I will drive around Kenosha as well as Racine to pray over our communities. I make a huge loop around our two communities. Often I stop at each of our elders homes and pray for them. I will go up Hwy 31 north to Matthew St and stop at the Krugers (in front of their house) and pray for them. Then I continue the loop along the lake front and ultimately end up at each of their houses to pray for them.
This time –as I began to drive and pray the Lord said, go back and do what you did at first. Lou and I moved to Kenosha in 1980. It was in that same year that I was introduced to the life of prayer. Prayer has always been the distinguishing mark of my ministry, all the books I have written deal with the prayer life – and it all started here in Kenosha. So I drove to three different places where God impacted my life regarding prayer. I went to the old First Assembly of God building, now called Emmanuel Baptist; I sat in their parking lot and recalled how that was the building where God first got a hold of my heart regarding prayer. They had a prayer room there and I would go in there for hours at a time praying and many times, fasting.
Then I went over to a townhouse Lou and I rented for a while because that is where I learned how to pray through the night. We had a spare bedroom which became my prayer room. I would go in there and on a consistent basis I would pray the night through. I was just starting Pray-Tell Ministries, I determined to live by faith, to travel and teach on prayer, but like most beginning ministries I didn’t have very many meetings. So I would spend nights in prayer asking God to help me pay the bills. I can’t tell you how many miraculous answers to prayer we received.
I adapted a schedule there where I would go to bed at 10:00pm and sleep until 3:00am. (5 hours of sleep). Then I would get up and pray for two hours. Then I would go back to bed at 5:00am and sleep until 8:00am. That’s a total of 8 hours of sleep. I sat across the street from that townhouse for some time recalling the powerful times of prayer I had there. Then I went to my wife’s former home on 25th Court. We were living there shortly after our son was born. They had a walk-in attic. That will always be a special place for me. I spent multiplied hours in prayer there.
At each place where I stopped to pray I asked God to restore my prayer life back to what it once was. I’m not talking about the amount of time I spent in prayer but rather – restore the heart and passion I had for prayer. The amount of time we spend in prayer is relative to our passion for Jesus. Folks – I don’t love prayer. Prayer is nothing but a means to something greater and that is Jesus. I love Jesus! Jesus is what this is all about.
The Shunammite woman first repented and built a room for God. After a period of time she lost the life that she had gained through her repentance so she returned it to the place that gave it birth. She returned to her first love. I’m going to come back to this part of the story but to make a long story short, Elisha returned to her home and through prayer, brought life back into her son. Shortly after this event there was a famine in the land.
I’m going to inject my own thoughts here about what typically happens to those who forsake their first love, and that’s that they go into a time of famine. It’s usually a spiritual famine. Typically they start very gradual. Rarely does anyone who loves Jesus make a decision to grow cold in the relationship it’s a gradual thing. Keep in mind that forsaking your first love differs from backsliding where a person makes a conscious decision to turn from their faith. Forsaking your first love is usually something that happens over a period of time. It’s a subtle allowance of things into our lives that initially seem innocent but can grow into an infatuation. For the most part there probably isn’t anything inherently evil with the activities we allow ourselves to get involved in. In fact the issue is not so much the activity as it is what it takes us from.
Take the activity of reading. Reading is not an evil activity. I think more of us should read. Suppose all you ever read are Christian books. Certainly there is nothing wrong with that, that would seem like a harmless activity – until you begin to realize that you no longer have a prayer life because all your free time is spent reading and you rarely include the Bible as part of your reading, you never fast or even have any spiritual desires. You could apply this to literally anything that ultimately takes us away from the passion we used to have just for Jesus. It could be sports or any type of “harmless” entertainment.
Earlier I said I had fallen into praying out of duty rather than desire. I was still maintaining the activity of prayer but I doubt that I was getting much done for God because the passion was no longer there.
Dean made an excellent point in the conference we just finished. He said in essence that when we are in the midst of revival it is so much easier to do spiritual things than when we are just following the status-quo. Status quo Christianity will never accomplish great things for God because there is no motivation to do so. An attitude that says, “I tried that once before and it didn’t work so I gave up on it,” will never push itself for more. However, when we are in the midst of a revival spirit (which I believe is the same as a first love spirit) you don’t even consider the price you have to pay to do things.
I can’t tell you how many times in our Jesus-Sensitive Conferences that Dean and I encounter many upstanding, fine, and godly families in the church who no longer have prayer lives, who have never led anyone to the Lord, and only go to church out of obligation. They drifted into a spiritual famine and didn’t even know it because this type of famine relates to passion not works. They tend to access their worth by their “Christian” activities and by that measure they believe they are doing fine and yet that is exactly what Jesus warned the church of Ephesus of – you work hard, you persevere, you don’t tolerate wickedness – BUT in it all you have forsaken your first love – you have lost your passion for me only.

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Turkey Riddles

So bad, they're good...

What did the mother turkey say to her disobedient children?
If your father could see you now, he'd turn over in his
gravy!

Why do Pilgrims have trouble keeping their pants up?
'Cause they wear their belts on their hats!

What is the difference between a chicken and a turkey?
Chickens celebrate Thanksgiving!

What is the turkey's favorite black-tie celebration?
The Butter Ball.

What do you get when you cross a turkey, the beach, and
Broomhilda?
A turkey sand-witch.

What kind of music did Pilgrims listen to?
Plymouth Rock.

Why do turkeys eat so little?
Because they are always stuffed.

What key has legs and can't open doors?
Tur-key.

What sound does a space turkey make?
Hubble, hubble, hubble.

How do you keep a turkey in suspense?
I'll tell you at Christmas.

2011-11-17T22:06:00.002-06:00

(November 18, 2011)

Prayer House News!

Can you believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away! Seems like it should be a week and a day – doesn’t it? I am really looking forward to preaching on Sunday. God has given me a word for our church. I trust you will come prayed up.

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Devotional!

You Shall be Holy

1 Peter 1:15 “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.” We do have a certain obligation to do our best to live like our Father. We are to be holy in all our behavior. I remember the testimony of Missionary Calvin Olson once. Calvin was a godly man, known for his prayer life. He was telling us once about how he was traveling from Africa, where he had ministered for many years, and he had a lay-over in London. He got a room for the night; it had been a long time since he had even seen a TV so he turned it on and was watching it. Shortly after he started watching the spirit of God said to him, “Have you forgotten who you are?” He realized that he had allowed himself to start watching some worldly program when suddenly it came back to him that he was a child of God and had no business watching such stuff. I’m just telling you his testimony. Today we would scoff at such things and call him a legalist. However, because of his separation he accomplished more for the Lord than probably this whole room put together.

Here is where I think we make a mistake. We tend to think that holy living somehow relates to our salvation – that we must live holy so that we can one day go to heaven. And that’s not true, if you are going to heaven it’s because of the blood of Christ, which was applied to your hearts when you made him your savior. However, that does not mean we are not to live a holy life. God wants us to live holy so that we can become more effective for him today. As far as completing our holiness – that is something only God can do and it appears that He is not going to do that until we are with him in heaven one day. That is when we shall be holy because then we will be like him and he is holy.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known.

We don’t see things very well today because this world so clouds everything. We see everything from our sinful, carnal, state. However, one day, when we see him face to face we will then see ourselves in the way that God sees us now. God sees us as redeemed. We see ourselves as struggling with the world. He sees us as his child, we see ourselves as barely making the grade. Today we know in part – in heaven we will fully know.

What this verse is talking about is how nothing will be fully complete on this earth. Only after our flesh dies will we be everything that God says we are now. Even though we are to live holy today – it is still not a matter of attaining a certain level of holiness before we can get to heaven.

Some might say, “What about the verse that says, ‘without holiness no man will see the Lord. Isn’t that calling us to live holy so that we can make it to heaven?’” Well actually, “no.” Let’s look at that verse. It’s one of my favorite lessons.

Hebrews 12:14 Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord. (NAS)

Hebrews 12:14 Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. (NIV)

Keep in mind what 1 Peter 1:15 says, “but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior.” Be holy in all your behavior. This relates more to how you treat others than it having anything to do with your personal salvation. Hebrews 12:14 starts off with something similar; pursue peace with all men. In the context of these verses the writer of Hebrews is talking about how it is difficult for us to be disciplined.

Heb 12:11 All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.

The discipline being referred to here is separation. Separation requires discipline. There are times when God asks us to separate ourselves from what others are doing to teach us discipline. The reason for that is stated in verse 11. Once we have been trained by discipline it will yield the fruit of righteousness.

Righteousness bears fruit and that fruit is the salvation of others. I have said it before (by now you should all know this), righteousness deals with our relationship with men; godliness deals with our relationship with God. Righteous living generally refers to the right treatment of other men. It’s treating others the way God has treated you. Therefore, anything you do for someone else in the name of Jesus is an act of righteousness. So the discipline referred to in these verses is that of doing everything we can to show others who Christ is. That separation is called holiness. So he says, Pursue peace with all men (that’s rightousness) for without holiness (without treating them the way God would treat them) no man (your neighbor) will see God.

People misapply that verse all the time thinking it says that they must be holy in order to see God one day, when in reality, the issue of holiness in this verse has nothing to do with our own salvation – it has every thing to do with their salvation. Without us living holy – no man will ever get a clear picture of who God is. Without holiness, no man will see the Lord. We are going to see God one day because we are saved – not because we never sinned while on earth.

It’s because of this misconception about the requirements of holiness that we live thinking that we will never make it to heaven – all the while – knowing that anything that adds to the work Jesus did on the cross – nullifies his work. Isn’t it ironic how we believe in salvation by grace while we spend most of our time thinking we must measure up to an impossible standard?

Think of Moses – one of the men holy enough to appear with the Son of God. His primary objective in life was to lead the Israelites into the promise land. He is a type of Christ – delivering God’s people out of bondage. However, just before they got to the promise land Moses loses his temper, strikes the rock twice, and dies before he ever gets to the promise land.

Numbers 20:8 "Take the rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink."

He is instructed to speak to the rock.

Numbers 20:10-11…"Listen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?" 11Then Moses lifted up his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and water came forth abundantly.

Instead of doing what he was supposed to do (speak to the rock) he strikes it twice.

Numbers 20:12 "Because you have not believed Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them."

In his own mind he was probably the biggest failure of all. He didn’t get to do the one thing God had called him to do, and then he dies. Just think of it. Moses did something so unholy (not treating God as holy) that he is not allowed to bring his flock into the promise land. Yet he gets picked to appear with the Son of God on the Mount of Transfiguration. Why is that? The answer is simple. His heavenly Father is holy and subsequently, when Moses entered into the presence of his father he became like his father.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Groaner: Clones

A blonde I know decided to have twelve clones made of

herself. When she went to the clinic, she found it was a

bleak brick house without any windows. When she asked the

clone arranger why there were no windows, she was told that

people in glass houses shouldn't grow clones.

As the clones were growing up, she would never be allowed to

take them out for a walk, as you'll never walk a clone.

What disturbed her the most was that every time she would

visit them, they all would be yelling at the top of their

lungs. When she asked why they yelled so much, she was told

that this was to be expected, as she had ordered a dozen

I scream clones.

2011-11-10T23:16:00.000-06:00

(November 11, 2011)

Prayer House News!

The weekend is upon us. Are you excited about worshipping your Lord? I am.

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Today those of you who purchased a ticket to the Gaither’s Homecoming concert will be meeting at our church at 3:00pm. Should be a great time.

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Today is also Veterans Day. Take some time to pray for our soldiers who are currently fighting wars as well as for all those who wear one of our armed services uniform.

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Devotional!

Psalms 119:149 Hear my voice in accordance with your love;

preserve my life, O Lord, according to your laws.

If God hears us in accordance with His love, then we can rest assured He always hears us. What a wonderful thought. “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us — whatever we ask — we know that we have what we asked of him” (1 John 5:14-15).

God’s love is the same as His will. The love of God insists on mercy. The will of God, in all things, is to have mercy. To pray according to God’s will is to pray with mercy as the motive. If we pray for anything with the desire for God to be merciful, we pray according to His will. If our heart is sincere, when we pray for God to bless our life so we can continue to bless others, that is a prayer of mercy. If we pray for God to bless our life so we can heap upon our lust, we pray outside the will of God. James puts it this way, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with the wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures” (James 4:3). Mercy is our source of life. The mercy prayer is a prayer of life. We have life because God chose to have mercy on us. When we pray asking God to have mercy on others, we are in essence asking God to life that person, or to bring life to that person. When we have a desire for others to have life, we continue to receive life ourself. The merciful continue to get mercy (Matt. 5:7).

David in essence is saying, “Hear my voice in accordance with Your love, and life (preserve) me.” When we pray out of a merciful heart, that prayer becomes our very source of life. God will life us. He will put us to life through this simple prayer, “Lord have mercy.”

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Time Is Relative

A fellow went to the doctor, who told him that he had a bad

illness and only a year to live. So the fellow decided to

talk to his pastor. After the man explained his situation,

he asked his pastor if there was anything he could do.

"What you should do is go out and buy a late 70's or early

80's model Dodge pickup," said the pastor. "Then go get

married to the meanest woman you can find, and buy

yourselves an old trailer house in the panhandle of

Oklahoma."

The fellow asked, "Will this help me live longer?"

"No," said the pastor, "but it will make what time you do

have seem like forever."

2011-11-06T23:31:00.001-06:00

(November 7, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Our Missions Convention is over and it was a huge success. The spirit of God was working through Dean Niforatos with a specific word for our church. It’s going to have a long lasting affect on us. If you were not able to be there you would benefit greatly by getting the CD of the service.
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We will be having all of our mid-week classes on Wednesday. See you at 6:30pm.
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Devotional!
Psalms 119:147. I rise before dawn and cry for help;
I have put my hope in your word.

There was a determination in David’s life that shames most of us. He had an aching in his soul for the Word of God. Because of the hope he had in God’s Word, he would rise early just to hear from Him. David said, “I have put my hope in Your word.” The hope of our life lies not only in God’s written Word, but also in His spoken Word. Whenever and however God speaks to us, it is a powerful and moving experience.

That which determines whether or not we “hear” from God is our love for the Word. Our love for the Word is tested by our obedience to it. If we are not obedient to it, if we do not have the kind of resolve David had, we will be open to deception.

In Deuteronomy 13:1-4 we read about the power of the false prophet. The account tells us that they can perform miraculous signs and wonders. However, in verses 3-4 it says, “You must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The Lord your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart. . . . It is the Lord your God you must follow. . . . Keep his commands and obey him.” Those who love God and keep His commands will not be taken in by the miraculous power of the false prophet. This “testing” sorts out the true bride of Christ from those who are simply church-goers.

The “test” of the Lord comes in the form of experiential Christianity versus biblical Christianity. Today, it seems we are trying to prove whether or not something is from God by our experience rather than by the Word of God. If we are a biblically uninformed society, then anything that appears miraculous will be considered to be from God. The problem with this is that not all things miraculous are from God.

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Friendly Pastor
After the birth of their child, an Episcopal priest, wearing

his clerical collar, visited his wife in the hospital. He

greeted her with a hug and a kiss, and gave her another hug

and kiss when he left.

Later, the wife's roommate commented, "Your pastor is sure
friendlier than mine."

2011-11-03T22:49:00.001-05:00

(November 4, 2011)
Prayer House News!

We had a great start to our Missions Convention. Renae Pilsing did a great job. Lot’s of people were touched by the spirit of God – many were healed. There was a powerful presence of God there. We will continue with the convention on Saturday night at 6:30pm with Dean Niforatos and a World Missions prayer meeting.
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Keep in mind that Daylight Savings is this weekend. We get an extra hour of sleep, isn’t that something....I think it is, so set your clocks back on hour before you go to sleep. I’ll see you in church Sunday for our 10:30 ONLY service.
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Sunday morning will be the big wrap-up of our convention. I trust you are praying about your Faith Promise Pledge for Missions. We will be collecting your cards in church.
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After church on Sunday (after lunch) Dean and I are going to Rio, Wi to my brother Barry’s church. Dean will be speaking there in the PM service. If any of you want to go with us let me know. We will be returning Sunday evening. May not get home until around 11:00pm.
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Devotional!
Commit
The last part of the Missions Theme is Go. Pray, Give and Go.

Numbers 15:40 in order that you may remember to do all My commandments, and be holy to your God.

Often when we read of being holy to God we relate it to our life style. We are to be holy; therefore we refrain from certain worldly activities. The old saying was, don’t drink, don’t dance and don’t go with girls who do. That saying has long been shelved by the church but it sort of describes the perspective the church used to have on holiness. I want to suggest another perspective on holiness. The word “holy” is derived from the word sanctify which basically means separation. To live holy we are to live separate from the world. The same would be true of anything that is sanctified; it is something set apart.

Holiness has a lot to do with being willing to go. We are to Commit to pray, give, and go. But going forth into the all the world with the gospel basically refers to the life style change required to do such a thing.

Kate Alderks - is a little homesick today. Saying goodbye to dear friends (Pastor Alonzo and Brian) was hard but the reminder of all the family and friends back home is what hurts. Miss you and love you all!

When a missionary commits to going forth with the gospel they simultaneously commit to separation from all the comforts they knew all their lives, especially family. That is a part of what it means to be holy. When a person commits their life to Christ they also commit to separation from their old life. You might ask – why is that. Why does it have to be that way? It’s because we are compelled by a love for Christ that out measures our love for our former lifestyle. We do not lose our love for our family by any means – it’s just that our love for Christ is stronger than any other bond we have.

So whether we are talking about going forth with the gospel to another country or simply separating ourselves from our former lifestyle by not doing the things we used to do – in either case – it serves as a testimony of the love we have for Christ.

So here is my question to you. Will you go? Will you do something radical for God? I’m going to read something that Oswald Smith wrote about a man named Alexander Duff.

Alexander Duff from Scotland was a missionary to India. He had served most of his life there. He eventually returned to Scotland as an old man to die. He had an opportunity to speak to his church organization. He made his appeal for men to go to India as missionaries – there was no response. In the midst of his appeal he fainted – as a doctor tended to him he opened his eyes and said, Where am I, where am I. The doctor said, you have had a heart attack you must lay still. Alexander said, but I haven’t finished my appeal – take me back. Against the doctor’s orders the old warrior struggled to his feet and went back to the pulpit.

He said, “When Queen Victoria calls for volunteers 100’s of men respond – but when King Jesus calls no one goes.”

He paused and then said, “Is it true that the fathers and mothers of Scotland have no more sons to give for India? Silence.

Very well, then aged though I am I will return. I will lie down along the bank of a river in India and I will die. I can then let the people of India know that there was one man from Scotland who loved them enough to give his life for them.

Missionary Dick Brogden wrote in response to this challenge – “In our country today – the government can call for help and many young men respond – but when King Jesus calls his church today – there seems primarily to only be a few brave young women who will answer the call.

Is it true that the families in our churches today have no more sons to give to the nations? “

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Medication: A Merry Heart
One-Liners
** If marriage is outlawed, only outlaws will have in-laws.
** Birthdays are good for you - the more you have, the
longer you live.
** Constant change is here to stay.
** Buy one for the price of two and get another one free!
** Vanna White's in a rehab center. She's hooked on phonics.
** A watched clock never boils.
** A word to the wise is unnecessary.
** All generalizations are dangerous, even this one.
** I'd like to go to an assertiveness training class. First
I need to check with my wife.
** The teacher asked my son, "If you have five apples and I
ask you for one, how many will you have?" My son answered,
"Five."
** Money isn't everything. There's Mastercard & Visa.
** Success is a relative term. It brings so many relatives.
** "Your future depends on your dreams." So go to sleep.
** There should be a better way to start a day than waking
up every morning.
** God made us relatives; thank God we can choose our
friends.

2011-11-01T23:31:00.002-05:00

(November 2, 2011)

Prayer House News!

Tonight we start our missions convention with Renae Pilsing. I hope you can be there at 6:30pm. Everyone will be in the sanctuary.

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The schedule for our convention is as follows: Wednesday at 6:30pm with Renae Pilsing. Saturday at 6:30pm with Dean Niforatos for a world missions prayer meeting. Sunday at 10:30am our Main service with Dean Niforatos.

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Thanks to all of you who have been praying for me. I have a stress test and a couple other tests to go through Wednesday morning.

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Devotional!

Commit
The second part of the missions theme is to give. Pray, give and go.
Mark 12:41 And He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the multitude were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. (42) And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. (43) And calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury;

(44) for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on. "

I would imagine you have heard a hundred sermons on the widow’s mite and how she gave more than all the rich people did because she gave out of her poverty whereas the rich people gave out of their surplus.

I was very intrigued by the idea of Jesus observing their giving. He sat down opposite the treasury, and began observing how the multitude were putting money into the treasury. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine going to the temple to pay your tithes and suddenly see the Lord Himself sitting there watching how much money you are putting in? What if that actually happened today? What if when you put your money in the offering plate, or while you are filling out your faith promise card, you find that Jesus is standing there watching you? Before you drop your envelope he picks it up and looks at the amount. And then he compares that amount to what he knows you bring home each week. How would you feel about that? Would you even continue to attend a church where Jesus was the usher?

Do you see what all is going on in these verses? These verses are showing Christ as the observer and judge of human actions. Christ observes all men and all things: all our actions are before his eyes; what we do in public and what we do in private are equally known unto him. He observes the state and situation we are in: his eye was upon the abundance of the rich who had given much; and he was well acquainted with the poverty and desolate state of the widow who had given her all. God sees every penny we possess, and constantly observes how we lay it out. What an uncomfortable thought for those who struggle in supporting his work.

Christ sees all the motives which lead men to perform their particular actions; and the different motives which lead them to perform the same action: he knows whether they act through vanity, self-love, self-interest, hypocrisy, or whether it’s through love, charity, zeal for his glory, or just a simple desire to please him.

Jesus shows us by this that all men are in a state of equality; for though there is and ought to be a difference in outward things, yet God looks upon the heart, and the poorest person has it in his power the ability to make his mite as acceptable to the Lord, by simplicity of intention, and purity of affection, as the millions given by the affluent. It is just in God to rate the value of an action by the spirit in which it is done.

There are two important lessons to be learned from her conduct:

1. A lesson of humiliation to the rich, who, by reason of covetousness and greed on the one hand, and luxury on the other, give very little to God and the poor.

2. A lesson of reproof to the poor, who, through distrust of God's providence, give nothing at all.

The widow gave sacrificially and Jesus did not stop her. She gave everything she had and Jesus did not step in and say, “Hold on there – you don’t have much you better keep this.” Sacrificial giving is an acceptable thing to God because it’s an indication of the spiritual condition of the heart.

I remember several years ago sitting in a missions convention when the speaker challenged us to give sacrificially. I was a seminary student at the time and yet that hit me so powerfully and I realized that I didn’t have that kind of heart – but needed one. Sacrificial giving is different than giving out of our abundance. It actually hurts to give sacrificially.

I struggled with whether or not I should share this but the bottom line is that we are coming into some tough times in our nation and if we don’t learn how to give to God sacrificially we are going to have a very difficult time. As a minister with the Assemblies of God I am required to send my tithe to the district office. All of our pastors credentialed with the A/G have to do this. Lou and I determined a long time ago that we would send our tithe to the district and then give an additional 5% of our income to the church. We have been able to increase that to where today our total tithe is 18%. That’s our tithe – for missions we give over $400 a month – that is on top of our tithe. We all owe God our tithe that’s why God said in the book of Malachi

Malachi 3:8-9 "Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, 'How have we robbed Thee?' In tithes and offerings. (9) "You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me,

Tithes and offerings are two different things. We are not to take from the tithe and give part of it to missions. Missions and love offerings are over and above the tithe.

I didn’t tell my wife that I was going to share this info because she probably would not have wanted me to do so. However, I want you to know as that your shepherd, I too give and sacrifice for the kingdom of God. I don’t ask you to do something I do not do.

Some might say – you have it so it’s easy to give it. I say – we have it because we give it. If we won’t give it then we won’t have it. This is a matter of trust. Can God trust you with a financial blessing? When He blesses you are you true to Him.

If God is going to be successful in bringing us into all He wants for us, our hearts have to want what He wants. If our hearts want what He wants we will give sacrificially. After this incident I would imagine Jesus would trust the widow, who gives sacrificially, with a financial blessing much sooner than he would the Pharisee who only gives out of his abundance.

These verses deal more with the widow’s heart than her mite. We need the widow’s heart. We need the same spirit in our church that she possessed. We need to be completely comfortable with Jesus looking directly into our hearts and seeing exactly what we are offering Him.

I have often heard pastors talk to their congregations and tell them that their offering was a part of their worship. I sort of understood what they meant by that but there always seemed to be something missing. As I was putting this message together and I came upon the phrase that Jesus purposely sat and observed what they were giving I finally made the connection. What we give the Lord is a measure of what’s in our hearts.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

BABY BOOMER TEST
(Have a paper and pencil handy to record your answers... Your mind isn't as sharp as it once was!)

This is NOT a pushover test. It's a Baby Boomer Era test!

There are 20 questions. Average score is 12.
This one will be difficult for the younger set..

Have fun, but no peeking!

Good luck, youngsters,

1. What builds strong bodies 12 ways?
A. Flintstones vitamins
B. The Buttmaster
C. Spaghetti
D. Wonder Bread
E. Orange Juice
F. Milk
G. Cod Liver Oil

2. Before he was Muhammed Ali, he was...
A. Sugar Ray Robinson.
B. Roy Orbison..
C. Gene Autry.
D. Rudolph Valentino.
E.. Fabian.
F. Mickey Mantle.
G. Cassius Clay.

3. Pogo, the comic strip character said, 'We have met the enemy and....
A. It's you.
B. He is us.
C. It's the Grinch.
D He wasn't home.
E. He's really me and you.
F. We quit.
G. He surrendered.

4. Good night, David.
A.. Good night, Chet
B. Sleep well.
C. Good night, Irene.
D.. Good night, Gracie..
E. See you later, alligator.
F. Until tomorrow.
G. Good night, Steve..

5. You'll wonder where the yellow went...
A. When you use Tide
B. When you lose your crayons.
C. When you clean your tub.
D. If you paint the room blue.
E. If you buy a soft water tank.
F. When you use Lady Clairol.
G. When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent.

6. Before he was the Skipper's Little Buddy, Bob Denver was Dobie's friend...
A. Stuart Whitman.
B Randolph Scott.
C. Steve Reeves...
D. Maynard G. Krebs.
E. Corky B. Dork.
F. Dave the Whale.
G. Zippy Zoo.

7. Liar, liar...
A. You're a liar.
B. Your nose is growing.
C. Pants on fire.
D. Join the choir
E. Jump up higher.
F. On the wire.
G. I'm telling Mom.

8. Meanwhile, back in Metropolis, Superman fights a never ending battle for truth, justice and......
A. Wheaties.
B. Lois Lane .
C. TV ratings.
D. World peace.
E. Red tights.
F.. The American way.
G. News headlines.

9. Hey kids! What time is it?
A. It's time for Yogi Bear.
B It's time to do your homework.
C. It's Howdy Doody Time..
D. It's time for Romper Room.
E. It's bedtime.
F... The Mighty Mouse Hour..
G. Scoopy Doo Time..

10. Lions and tigers and bears....
A. Yikes.
B. Oh, no..
C. Gee whiz.
D. I'm scared...
E. Oh my.
F.. Help! Help!
G. Let's run.

11. Bob Dylan advised us never to trust anyone....
A. Over 40.
B. Wearing a uniform.
C.. Carrying a briefcase.
D. Over 30.
E. You don't know.
F. Who says, 'Trust me'..
G. Who eats tofu.

12. NFL quarterback who appeared in a television commercial wearing women's stockings...
A. Troy Aikman
B. Kenny Stabler
C. Joe Namath
D. Roger Staubach
E. Joe Montana
F. Steve Young
G. John Elway

13. Brylcream...
A. Smear it on.
B. You'll smell great.
C. Tame that cowlick.
D. Grease ball heaven.
E. It's a dream.
F. We're your team.
G. A littl e dab'll do ya.

14. I found my thrill...
A. In Blueberry muffins.
B. With my man, Bill.
C. Down at the mill.
D. Over the windowsill.
E. With thyme and dill.
F. Too late to enjoy.
G. On Blueberry Hill.

15. Before Robin Williams, Peter Pan was played by...
A. Clark Gable.
B. Mary Martin.
C. Doris Day.
D. Errol Flynn.
E. Sally Fields.
F. Jim Carrey.
G. Jay Leno.

16. Name the Beatles...
A.. John, Steve, George, Ringo
B. John, Paul, George, Roscoe
C. John, Paul, Stacey, Ringo
D. Jay, Paul, George, Ringo
E. Lewis, Peter, George, Ringo
F. Jason, Betty, Skipper, Hazel
G. John, Paul, George, Ringo

17. I wonder, wonder, who.
A. Who ate the leftovers?
B. Who did the laundry?
C Was it you?
D. Who wrote the book of love?
E. Who I am?
F. Passed the test?
G. Knocked on the door?

18. I'm strong to the finish...
A. Cause I eats my broccoli..
B. Cause I eats me spinach.
C. Cause I lift weights.
D. Cause I'm the hero.
E. And don't you for get it.
F. Cause Olive Oyl loves me.
G. To outlast Bruto.

19. When it's least expected, you're elected, you're the star today.
A. Smile, you're on Candid Camera.
B. Smile, you're on Star Search.
C. Smile, you won the lottery.
D. Smile, we're watching you.
E. Smile, the world sees you.
F. Smile, you're a hit.
G. Smile, you're on TV.

20. What do M & M's do?
A. Make your tummy happy.
B. Melt in your mouth, not in your pocket.
C. Make you fat.
D.. Melt your heart.
E.. Make you popular.
F. Melt in your mouth, not in your hand.
G. Come in colors.

Below are the right answers:
1. D - Wonder Bread
2. G - Cassius Clay
3. B - He Is us
4. A - Good night, Chet
5. G - When you brush your teeth with Pepsodent
6. D - Maynard G. Krebs
7. C - Pants on fire
8. F - The American Way
9. C - It's Howdy Doody Time
10. E - Oh my
11. D - Over 30
12. C - Joe Namath
13. G - A little dab'll do ya
14. G - On Blueberry Hill
15. B - Mary Martin
16. G - John, Paul, George, Ringo
17. D - Who wrote the book of Love
18. B - Cause I eats me spinach
19. A - Smile, you're on Candid Camera
20. F - Melt in your mouth not in your hand

2011-10-30T22:59:00.002-05:00

(October 31, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had another powerful service yesterday. It was the beginning of our missions convention (it officially begins on Wednesday). God was in the house challenging us to Commit!
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The schedule for our convention is as follows: Wednesday at 6:30pm with Renae Pilsing. Saturday at 6:30pm with Dean Niforatos for a world missions prayer meeting. Sunday at 10:30am our Main service with Dean Niforatos.
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My message from Sunday will be this weeks devotional (below).
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Devotional!
Commit
I want to talk to you this morning about what it means to commit to something. It seems we live in a day of flux. Everything seems to change so easily that it’s difficult to stay committed to anything.
Mark 12:38-40 And in His teaching He was saying: "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes, and like respectful greetings in the market places, (39) and chief seats in the synagogues, and places of honor at banquets, (40) who devour widows' houses, and for appearance's sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation. "
In this setting Jesus came into a well established religious organization and upset the applecart. Just think of what He was doing in this setting. He is criticizing a group of people that had never been criticized before. The Scribes and Pharisees were essentially free to do what ever they wanted to do. They had established a religious system that basically put them above criticism, making those “under” them too inferior to say anything.
One verse earlier in verse 37 it says; ",,, And the great crowd enjoyed listening to Him.” Jesus had been teaching in the temple and the crowd was enjoying him. They had never had anybody really stand up to the religious standard of the day before. His comments were quite refreshing to them – until he turned the spotlight on them. It’s always easier to rejoice when others are corrected than when we are the ones being corrected. Change is always more acceptable for others than for ourselves.
However, Jesus did not simply criticize for the sake of pointing out their error. He was attempting to provoke them to examine themselves. He starts off by saying, "Beware of the scribes who like to walk around in long robes,.” The long robes had religious significance to them. Numbers 15:38 "Speak to the sons of Israel, and tell them that they shall make for themselves tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and that they shall put on the tassel of each corner a cord of blue. (39) And it shall be a tassel for you to look at and remember all the commandments of the LORD, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes, after which you played the harlot, (40) in order that you may remember to do all My commandments, and be holy to your God.
The Lord commanded the people of Israel to add blue tassels to the corners of their outer garments (robes), as reminders to obey His commandments. Eventually this custom degenerated into a mere outward show of piety, some of them even lengthened the tassels so that they would be more obvious, and here in Mark 12 we find this practice being condemned by Jesus.
The robe itself with its bright colors and tassels was meant to be a reminder of their dependency upon God. It was meant to humble them. As they looked upon it they were to be reminded not to go after their own heart but to remain holy unto God. Instead it became a symbol of prestige and power. The robe was worn as a badge. It became an outward statement of something that was meant to be an inward reminder of their need.
Our obedience to God is not something that we are to take pride in. Just think of it! Obedience basically means we cannot make it on our own. The reason we have to be obedient to God is because we don’t possess the means to make it to heaven – we need help.
Today, we don’t wear religious robes. We have other things we can take pride in though, for instance, (since this is the beginning of our missions convention) our wall of missionaries in the prayer room. We have visiting missionaries and pastors all the time who see our wall and talk very favorably about all the missionaries we support, and that’s good – I’m glad we support many missionaries, but it can also become a point of pride - our missionaries could become our long robes. It would be very easy to boast of how many people we are helping to send around the world.
Rather than looking at all of the money we spend to spread the gospel through these missionaries as something to take pride in, something we could actually wear as a badge of honor, we should view our need to send people around the world with humility realizing that billions of people still need Jesus. We have not yet fulfilled the great commission. How can we wear as a badge the fact that we have not fulfilled the great commission!
Jesus could come into our prayer room and say something similar. He could say, “All these missionaries are wonderful however, my heart breaks over the fact that the world still does not know. My heart breaks over the fact that the world still needs so many missionaries” The only way for us to stay committed to the original purpose of sending missionaries is to come from the same perspective. Our hearts must be in what we are doing so that it does not become an issue of pride.
We focus each year on a faith promise pledge however our purpose is not just to see how much money we can raise – our purpose is to engage in the great commission and to do whatever we can to help. I would imagine that initially the Scribes and Pharisees were committed to the work of God but as pride in their position grew their passion changed over to self-exaltation rather than staying true to their original purpose. So Jesus comes along and says – these long robes mean nothing unless the heart is right with God. When the heart is right with God these things become a symbol of dependency not pride. We are completely dependent upon men and women who will pay the price to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
The missions theme this year is Commit: to pray, give, and go. There are a bunch of verbs here. The verb “commit” means to give oneself entirely to a specific cause. So this year’s theme is challenging us to fully engage in the spread of the gospel in three different ways, pray, give, and go.
So the first area is prayer. If we are going to be committed to this cause – then we must commit ourselves to praying for our missionaries. If you need a reminder throughout the year – all of them are posted in our prayer room and can be viewed during each and every prayer meeting that is held in there.
However it’s not just a matter of prayer – it’s a matter of the heart. Prayers must be heart-felt if you really want to get God’s attention. I think it’s interesting how he first talks about their long robes and then he talks about their long prayers.
Mark 12:40 “,,,and for appearance's sake offer long prayers; these will receive greater condemnation. "
This really is not an issue of anything being long – it’s an issue of pride. There is nothing wrong with the long robes. We just read from the book of Numbers how the robe was God’s design. Prayer is God’s design also. So it’s not that God is upset with either a long robe or a long prayer. It’s what motivates these things that God is looking at.
I have said this many times before. God is not impressed with the act of prayer as he is with what motivates us to prayer. In the Pharisees’ case they prayed long prayers just so they could get the accolades of those around them. Their hearts were not into it – they were praying long prayers merely to impress those around them with their spirituality.
I remember one time when I was still in Bible College that I was invited to speak to the youth group in my brother’s church in Rapid City. After the Sunday evening service I called people to come around the altars to pray. While everyone was praying I noticed one man – probably in his early 20”s – praying with one eye open. As he prayed he would sort of look around to see who else was praying. I quickly realized that he was determined to be the last one to leave the altar. And the longer he prayed the louder he got. Finally it was just him and one other person.
He was doing what Jesus suggested – he was watching and praying. He would watch to see if anybody was left and then he would pray more. Finally the other person left the altar leaving the guy watching and praying as the last one - within about 30 seconds he also was finished. It was actually pretty funny – not. It was actually kind of sad because this guy apparently was trying to impress someone with his long praying.
Our missionaries need more than just lip service. They need those who will sincerely pray and ask God to bless and help them. It’s not a matter of how long you pray – it’s a matter of how heart-felt your prayers are.
Missionaries face unique challenges. Not only are they charged with spreading the gospel – they must often do it in a foreign culture (with the exception of our home missionaries). One of the things we need to pray for them is that they would remain full of the spirit of God so they can be led by the spirit of God.
I remember reading a few years ago about Jackie Pullinger’s ministry in China. She was working among the worst of the worst. She was working in an area where the police wouldn’t even go. She had labored for some time with no effect. Eventually she met another missionary couple from the States (she is from Britian) who were spirit filled. They convinced her of her need to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. After she was baptized her ministry really took off. She started leading one person after another to the Lord.
Her own comment about what had happened to her was very enlightening. Once she began to pray in the spirit she felt that the Lord was leading her to the people who were ready to listen; prior to that she randomly picked who she would witness to but now – under the spirit’s direction she broke through spiritually and saw many salvations. She really impacted her corner of the world after she came into the spirit filled life. We need to be committed to pray.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Manicurist
My friend was at the beauty parlor when she overheard
another woman rattle on to the manicurist about the sad
state of her marriage. "Things have gotten so bad," she
said, "I think I might ask for a divorce. What do you
think?"
"That's a serious matter," came the reply. "I think you
should consult another manicurist."

2011-10-27T23:10:00.000-05:00

(October 28, 2011)
Prayer House News!
It’s good to be back home! We are heading into an exciting time for our church as we focus for the next week on Missions! Along with the ministry of prayer, missions is at the heart of our church. We must always look beyond ourselves if we are going to continue to move the kingdom forward.
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Devotional!
Psalms 119:163 I hate and abhor falsehood but I love your law.

Truth represents God; falsehood represents Satan. The reason we should hate and abhor falsehood is because it is a misrepresentation of God. We should be as absorbed with this as David was. We should literally hate anything that is not a true representation of our God. Sometimes I think we don’t fully understand how important this is. What is more important than our God? Who is more important than our God?

Anything that distorts who He is should be hated, especially by those who profess to love Him. The law of God is truth. It leads people to life. Falsehood leads people to death. It is interesting to see how we allow certain falsehoods in our lives as adults, but get very upset when our children allow the same ones in their lives! We often allow the falsehood of this world in our lives. We allow the world to entertain us. We allow worldliness to set our standard of dress. However, when our children begin to reflect some of the things this world stands for, it upsets us as parents. Why is it upsetting us? Because it is a falsehood that is leading them to death. It’s leading them to an existence without the presence of God. Too often we tolerate evil rather than hate it.

“Keep falsehood and lies far from me. . . . Otherwise, I may . . . say ‘Who is the Lord?’ ” (Prov. 30:8-9). The attitude here is, “Who does God think He is?” Falsehoods keep us from the truth of who God is. I believe we have lost a true sense of the glory and majesty of our God. We, too, have this flippant attitude of “Who is God anyway?” The influence of falsehoods have convinced us that we can live a wholesome life without fully honoring God. That is a lie and anyone who has believed that lie lives in great danger of eventually not sensing any need for sanctification or holiness. Hebrews 12:14 says, “Without holiness no one will see the Lord.”

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Groaner: The New Russia

With the break-up of the Soviet Union and the upheavals in
Russia leading to new-found openness, some members of the
government decided to break with tradition and clean up some
of the memorials and exhibits around Red Square.

When they opened the Lenin mausoleum for the first time,
they found him caked with filth from years of public
display, and it was extremely odoriferous.

This action caused such a stir among the citizenry that some
well-intentioned Russians found themselves kicked out of
office. It goes to show that even with the new freedom in
Russia, you can't air your dirty Lenin in public

2011-10-21T09:35:00.001-05:00

(October 21, 2011)

Prayer House News!

It’s going to be another great weekend at Prayer House. I hope you are praying for God to get his will done in our lives.

==================================

Devotional

Understanding the Times

Matthew 24:4-14 Jesus answered: "Watch out that no one deceives you. (5) For many will come in my name, claiming, `I am the Christ,' and will deceive many. (6) You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come. (7) Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (8) All these are the beginning of birth pains. (9) "Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. (10) At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, (11) and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. (12) Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, (13) but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.

Jesus tells us in the beginning of these verses why it is critical to understand the times we are living in. “Watch out that no one deceives you.” That alone should be enough of an answer as to why it’s important to understand the times. If you don’t understand what is happening spiritually you could easily be deceived. Look at verse 10, “At that time many will turn away from the faith.” People who do not understand the critical hour in which we live could possibly turn away from the faith. If you don’t understand that “such things must happen” (v. 6), you could develop a bitter heart toward God.

Look at verse 13, “He who stands firm to the end will be saved.” This is the up-side. If you do understand the times then even through famine, earthquakes, persecution and even death you will stand for Jesus – subsequently you will be saved.

How do we understand the times?

Understanding the times is really that of understanding God, and His plan for us. Understanding God comes from seeking Him with all our hearts.

Jeremiah 29:11-13 For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. (12) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. (13) You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Understanding God’s plan is understanding the times. God’s plan for us is to prosper us, not to harm us. He wants to give us hope and a future. The word “future” here is quite interesting in the original language. It’s the Hebrew word (akh-ar-eeth'); it deals with the last or the end, hence, the future. In other words the end is the future.

It comes from the root word (akh-ar'); which means “the hind part,” or the rear part. Here is the picture this word paints. It’s like those who are rowing a boat. Have you ever watched a rowing team compete with others? The row-ers all sit in the boat with their backs to the front of the boat. As they put the oars into the water and pull back on them, the boat goes forward but they are sitting with their backs toward the direction the boat is going. They are moving toward a future goal or an end but the quickest way to get there is by keeping their eye on the one guiding the boat whom they are all looking at. You see, in the rear of the boat sits another person who is actually guiding the boat. He will direct it where it needs to go. All the row-ers need to do is keep their eyes on him.

The only way for us to know the future is by keeping our eyes on Jesus. In fact we really don’t need to know the future if we know Jesus however, knowing Jesus is the same as understanding the times we live.

One of the coaches at the conference I was at last week talked about his pet dog. He said the dog is really his wife’s but he plays with it. He says it’s just amazing how that dog will jump up and down, wag his tail, and lick him whenever he walks into a room where the dog is. He says it really doesn’t matter what time of day it is – the dog is always happy to see him with one exception, it’s when his wife has set a piece of bacon on the nose of the dog. She has taught him to wait until she gives the signal before he can eat the bacon. When she gives the signal he snaps up the meat immediately. He said he can walk into the room while the dog is sitting there with the meat on his nose and he pays absolutely no attention to him. Any other time the dog would come running to him. He can call out his name, he can try to get his attention by walking in front of him, but the dog will not be distracted. In fact he won’t move a muscle, he sits with his eyes glued upon his master. He knows his master has a plan to prosper him, and feed him, but he must seek him with all his heart – he won’t take his eyes off of his master. The only way for the row-ers to win the race is to keep their eyes on the one steering the boat. If they get distracted about where they are going, to the point of turning around and looking – they will get all nervous and lose focus.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to help you win the race, and not to cause you to row into the rocks, plans to give you hope. Look to me and pray to me. And you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.

What then?

Keeping ourselves fully focused on Jesus and seeking Him with all of our hearts, will eventually cause us to become people who understand the times. You might ask, “What is the value in understanding the times?” If we go back and look at the men of Issachar we will remember that they were involved in the establishing of the throne of David in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of other men were involved also, but the men of understanding were the chief leaders among them.

All through the word of God we see God using men of understanding at the fore front of His work on earth. Men of understanding are doing more to establish the kingdom of God on earth than all the others put together. Where are you spiritually? Are you a person of spiritual understanding? Do you see what is coming on earth? Do you understand the times and know what America needs? Not unless your eyes are focused on your Savior. Look at Him like you have a Spot Cheeseburger on the bridge of your nose – but you can’t eat it until He gives the signal. Don’t let anything else distract you. The times demand this.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

In Hot Pursuit

Two Alabama State Trooper patrol cars were in hot pursuit of a Camaro heading east toward Georgia on I-90.When the suspect crossed the Georgia line, the first trooper pulled over immediately. The rookie trooper pulled over right behind him and asked, "Sarge, why'd you stop?""You dumb rookie," replied the sarge. "He's in Georgia now.They're an hour ahead of us, so we'll never catch him."

2011-10-17T11:33:00.001-05:00

(October 17, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a beautiful time in the presence of God yesterday. That is always good!

--------------------------------------------
Tonight is the visitation for Ray Fliess – Margie Brandes dad – will be at the Piasecki/Althaus funeral home from 5:00 – 8:00pm. Funeral will be tomorrow at 11:00am in Racine, St. Paul Catholic Church.
==================================
Devotional
Understanding the Times

I want us to look at what it means to understand the times that we live in.

1 Chronicles 12:32 “men of Issachar, (is-a-kar) who understood the times and knew what Israel should do.” The men of Issachar understood the times and knew what their nation was supposed to do.

In 1 Chronicles 12:23-40 we have an account of those who were active in perfecting the settlement of David upon the throne. All the tribes of Israel came, either themselves or by their representatives, to Hebron, to make David king. In these verses here we have an account of the quota which every tribe brought in already armed for war, in case there should be any opposition.

Right from the beginning we should be able to see a similar role for us here. We have come together to proclaim the Lordship of Christ. We are attempting to establish his throne on earth however, there is opposition. We are fighting many forces all the time, some of them are spiritual, some of them are carnal.

Judah sent 6800, Simeon 7100, Zebulun brought 50,000, Asher 40,000, and the combination of the tribes on the other side of the Jordan brought 120,000. The Levites themselves, and the priests were ready with 4600, if there were occasion, to fight for David, as well as to pray for him, because they knew he was called of God to the government.

It is said of most of these that they were mighty men of valor or brave warriors. They were expert in war and could keep rank. They were governable and subject to the rules of order.

However, the men of Issachar were the fewest of all, only 200 chiefs. Yet they were as valuable to David's interest as those that brought in the greatest numbers. They were the commanders of the tribes. 1 Chronicles 12:32, “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do-200 chiefs, with all their relatives under their command;

They were men of great skill above any of their neighbors, men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do. They understood the natural times, they could discern the face of the sky, they were weather-wise, they could advise their neighbors in the proper times for plowing, sowing reaping, etc.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

A Few Quick Ones

Know why a room full of married people looks so empty?
There's not a single person in it.

Don't spend $2 to dry-clean a shirt. Donate it to the
Salvation Army instead. They'll clean it and put it on a
hanger. Next morning buy it back for 75 cents.

Why do Eskimos wash their clothes in Tide?
Because it's too cold "out tide!"

What do you call a boom-a-rang that doesn't come back?
Answer: A stick!

2011-10-14T05:51:00.002-05:00

(October 14, 2011)
Prayer House News!
It’s Friday, are you ready for some,,,,,,weekend! Let’s all be in prayer for a real move of God this coming Sunday.
==================================
Devotional
The Throne and the Altar

Let’s go back to Abraham and look at a very special altar in his life.

Genesis 22:1-2 Some time later God tested Abraham. He said to him, "Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. (2) Then God said, "Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love, and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about."

What a test Abraham faced. Here God has asked him to sacrifice the very one that the promise of God was going to come through. God told Abraham that through his son Isaac his descendants would outnumber the stars of the sky and now all of that is about to be lost if he is to sacrifice Isaac.

Genesis 22:3-5, Early the next morning Abraham got up and saddled his donkey. He took with him two of his servants and his son Isaac. When he had cut enough wood for the burnt offering, he set out for the place God had told him about. (4) On the third day Abraham looked up and saw the place in the distance. (5) He said to his servants, "Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then we will come back to you."

Early the next morning Abraham got up and left to fulfill this request from his God. He did not hesitate, he did not rationalize; it was blind obedience.

Genesis 22:6, Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on his son Isaac, and he himself carried the fire and the knife. As the two of them went on together,

He is where we begin to see some typology. Isaac is a type of Christ. He is going to become a sacrifice. The wood of the offering was placed on his back similarly to how Christ had to carry his wooden cross. All of the promise of salvation was in the Messiah and yet now he was going to be put to death. All of the promise of Abraham giving birth to a great race of people was on Isaac but now that dream was going to die.

Genesis 22:9-10, When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. (10) Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.

Abraham built an altar. Abraham had first been at the throne of God when he heard God ask him to sacrifice his son. So first you have the throne experience and now the altar.

In Gen. 22:6, it says that Abraham brought the wood for the altar, took a knife, and he took fire in his hand. The fire he took would have been in an apparatus that carries live coals. You have the wood, which symbolizes the cross that Jesus was laid upon. Isaac was laid upon the wood on the altar. Then you have the knife to kill the sacrifice which is similar to the sword that was thrust into the side of Jesus as he hung on the cross. And you have the fire of the Holy Spirit which cleanses the soul.

Genesis 22:10-13 Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. (11) But the angel of the LORD called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham!" "Here I am," he replied. (12) "Do not lay a hand on the boy," he said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son." (13) Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.

At one point in this scenario Isaac ceased being a type of Christ and became a type of you and I, the sinner that should have been crucified, but instead the Lamb of God took our place. Rather than making Abraham sacrifice his only son – God sacrificed His only son.

At the throne of God it is revealed that we are lost. If we are willing to lay ourselves on the altar then instead of our lives begin taken the Lamb of God comes and takes our place. We take the lamb into our hearts and our names are written in the Lamb’s book of life, keeping us from needing an altar at the great white throne judgment because our souls have been saved by the Lamb of God.

As awe-filled as the throne of God is, as revealing as it is, we still have great hope because today we have the altar.

===================================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Senior Citizen Discount

"$5.37." That's what the kid behind the counter at Taco Bell

said to me.

I dug into my pocket and pulled out some lint and two dimes

and something that used to be a Jolly Rancher. Having

already handed the kid a five-spot, I started to head back

out to the truck to grab some change when the kid with the

Elmo hairdo said the hardest thing anyone has ever said to

me. He said, "It's OK. I'll just give you the senior citizen

discount."

I turned to see who he was talking to and then heard the

sound of change hitting the counter in front of me. "Only

$4.68," he said cheerfully.

I stood there stupefied. I am 56, not even 60 yet. A mere

child! Senior citizen?

I took my burrito and walked out to the truck, wondering

what was wrong with Elmo. Was he blind? As I sat in the

truck, my blood began to boil. Old? Me?

I'll show him, I thought. I opened the door and headed back

inside. I strode to the counter, and there he was waiting

with a smile.

Before I could say a word, he held up something and jingled

it in front of me, like I could be that easily distracted!

What am I now? A toddler?

"Dude! Can't get too far without your car keys, eh?"

I stared with utter disdain at the keys. I began to

rationalize in my mind. "Leaving keys behind hardly makes a

man elderly! It could happen to anyone!"

I turned and headed back to the truck. I slipped the key

into the ignition, but it wouldn't turn. What now? I checked

my keys and tried another. Still nothing.

That's when I noticed the purple beads hanging from my rear

view mirror. I had no purple beads hanging from my rear view

mirror.

Then, a few other objects came into focus. The car seat in

the back seat. Happy Meal toys spread all over the

floorboard. A partially eaten doughnut on the dashboard.

Faster than you can say ginkgo biloba, I flew out of the

alien vehicle.

Moments later I was speeding out of the parking lot,

relieved to finally be leaving this nightmarish stop in my

life. That is when I felt it, deep in the bowels of my

stomach: hunger! My stomach growled and churned, and I

reached to grab my burrito, only it was nowhere to be found.

I swung the truck around, gathered my courage, and strode

back into the restaurant one final time. There Elmo stood,

draped in youth and black nail polish. All I could think

was, "What is the world coming to?"

All I could say was, "Did I leave my food and drink in

here"? At this point I was ready to ask a Boy Scout to help

me back to my vehicle and then go straight home and apply

for Social Security benefits.

Elmo had no clue. I walked back out to the truck, and

suddenly a young lad came up and tugged on my jeans to get

my attention. He was holding up a drink and a bag. His

mother explained, "I think you left this in my truck by

mistake."

I took the food and drink from the little boy and sheepishly

apologized.

She offered these kind words: "It's OK. My grandfather does

stuff like this all the time."

All of this is to explain how I got a ticket doing 85 in a

40. Yes, I was racing some punk kid in a Toyota Prius. And

no, I told the officer, I'm not too old to be driving this

fast.

As I walked in the front door, my wife met me halfway down

the hall. I handed her a bag of cold food and a $300

speeding ticket. I promptly sat in my rocking chair and

covered up my legs with a blankey.

The good news was I had successfully found my way home.

Author unknown.

2011-10-12T22:51:00.002-05:00

(October 13, 2011)
Prayer House News!

Tonight the Mighty Men will be meeting at 7:00pm at the church. Come for a great time of fellowship, coffee, bible discussion
and prayer at 8:00pm (RPM)
==================================
Devotional
The Throne and the Altar

All of us who have ever stood before that same throne have given utterance to the same confession. That’s why I said earlier that if your “salvation experience” did not include the revelation of the depravity of your own soul – no salvation took place. Salvation is not just forgiveness of the past – it’s the healing of the soul’s condition. The revelation of our need is in direct proportion to our experience of the light of the throne. The throne and the altar invariably go together in this day of grace. However, there is a day of judgment coming where there will be no altar.

Revelation 20:10-15 And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. (11) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them. (12) And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books. (13) The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done. (14) Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death. (15) If anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

John the revelator saw a great white throne. This is judgment day, when all men, who ever were and ever will be, will be judged for the life they lived. Here you have a throne with no altar, no remedy, at this point it is too late to change anything. There will be no grace then. This time a man’s ruin will be seen in light of the throne of God but without the remedy. This time when he calls out in the presence of the great white throne, “Woe is me, I am undone,” it will stand just as he says. Beware of having to meet the light of the throne without the provision of the altar.

Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of the altar. Go to the altar today, before the great white throne judgement. If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. However, those who overcame long before the judgment day, those who took Jesus into their hearts, those who allowed their soul to be cleansed will find their names written in the book of life.

Revelation 3:5, He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.

Young people on judgment day you won’t have mom and dad to run to. You will stand before God all on your own. There will be no protection for you except through Jesus Christ. Today is the day of the altar. Today is the day we get right with God. You never want to face a throne without an altar. Today we have an altar – it’s called prayer, it’s called confession, it’s called repentance. Go to these altars. Do like Abraham, be a person of the altar.

===================================

Medication: A Merry Heart
Rap Music
It's official: Rap music does cause crime.
Research shows that in over half the shootings that occur on
the street, the gunman is aiming at the boombox!

2011-10-12T05:52:00.000-05:00

(October 12, 2011)
Prayer House News!

Tonight all of our mid-week classes take place at 6:30pm. The adults are going to continue with a new gifts evaluation. Find out how God had designed you and what you need to do to develop in all the gifts.
==================================
Devotional
The Throne and the Altar

Whenever Abraham met with God he built an altar. The altar is the remedy of the condition the throne reveals. The moment Isaiah gave utterance to the deep conviction of the depravity of his soul, he was introduced to the divine provisions of God’s altar.

Isaiah 6:6-7 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. (7) With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

Now we see the rich provisions of God’s altar, which is seen in immediate connection with His throne. The two things are intimately connected in the history and experience of every convicted and converted soul. The altar removes the very guilt the throne detects. God himself has provided a remedy for all the ruin, which the light of his glory revealed.

Then one of the seraphs flew to me. The rapidity of the movement of the seraph speaks volumes. It tells us distinctly of God’s intense desire to soothe the convicted soul. Can you imagine this scene; One of the seraphim that, with veiled face stood above Jehovah’s throne crying, “Holy, holy, holy,” passes from that throne to the altar, and from the altar down to the deep depths of a convicted sinner’s heart, there to apply the virtues of a divine sacrifice. No sooner had the arrow from the throne wounded the heart, than the seraph “flew” from the altar to heal the wound.
===================================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Shrinking Patient

A man rushed into the doctor's office and shouted, "Doctor!
I think I'm shrinking!"

The doctor calmly responded, "Now, settle down. You'll just
have to be a little patient."

2011-10-10T23:04:00.001-05:00

(October 10, 2011)
Prayer House News!

Continue to pray for Margie Brandes and her family as they make the decision to stop life support for their father. There is no brain activity at all after his bicycle accident.
--------------------------------------------
Our ladies and pastors will be praying this morning for our church. If you have a request please call the church office with it.
==================================
Devotional
The Throne and the Altar

John 12:41, Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.

Christ is the perfect standard by which every man will be measured. Our own perception of ourselves or even how others perceive us matters not. The question is; What do I look like in the presence of Christ? This is what the throne of God does; it reveals. The law may tell us what we need to be; our conscience may tell us what we are not; but it is only when the bright beams of Christ’s moral glory shine upon us that we are enabled to form a true estimate of who we are.

You might ask, “What do you mean by the moral glory of Christ?” It is the revealing that came forth from Him when He was down here in this dark world. It was this light that detected man, that disclosed what He was, that brought to light all that was in him. It was this very light that man determined he needed to put out. It was impossible for anyone to escape that light. It is a light so perfect and so pure that the seraphim could only cry out, “Holy, holy, holy.”

When he saw himself in the light of that glory he cried out,

Isaiah 6:5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! (I am undone) For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

He says, “I am ruined, I am undone,” he doesn’t say, “I am not what I ought to be,” he goes deeper than that. He stood revealed in the power of a light which reaches to the most profound depths of the soul and reveals, “The thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Isaiah had never before seen himself in such a light, nor had he measured himself by such a rule, or weighed himself in such a balance. He now saw himself standing in the presence of Jehovah’s throne without any ability whatever to meet the claims of that throne. He saw himself a helpless, ruined, guilty sinner, at an immeasurable distance from that throne and from the blessed One who sat on it. He heard the cry of the seraphim, “Holy, holy, holy;” and the only response which he could send back from the depths of a broken heart was, “Unclean, unclean, unclean.”

Isaiah was totally engrossed with the thought of his own utter ruin. He felt himself a lost man. The question before his soul was not as to the evil he had done or the good he had left undone. It was something far deeper than that. He was occupied not with his acts but with his condition. We often try to base our standing with Christ by our actions. We convince ourselves that there is nothing we need to really address in our lives because deep down we are really a good person. That is the kind of rational that comes from being separated from the throne of God. The presence of God does not deal so much with out outward actions as it does with our soul’s condition. The moral light of Christ’s glory breaks in upon the root of the problem. So Isaiah says, “Woe is me!” Not because of his conduct but because his nature has been revealed.

This is what I mean by the moral light of Christ, when he said to think murder is to do murder, He was revealing our souls condition. He wasn’t talking about our actual deeds – he was talking about our souls condition. We look at ourselves and say, “Well, I’ve never killed anybody so I’m not that bad of a person.” Jesus comes along and says, “it’s not your actions and past sins that concern me it’s the true condition of our soul that I’m concerned with.” “If you think it – it’s the same as doing it,” which means there is a problem with the condition of your soul. In that light, Isaiah says, “I’m undone.”

The only thing revealed in this light is self. The light does not point to actions and specific sins – it points to self. When you are saved you don’t need to remember absolutely every sin you ever committed because that is not the issue as much as the condition of your soul is. When the moral light of Christ’s glory shines upon us all we can see is our souls need to be cleansed. If the light of Christ does not shine on us on a regular basis then we tend to justify all types of worldly activity on the basis that we don’t see your actions as being all that bad. This is why the salvation experience was always meant to be more than just cleansing you from past sins. It’s meant to heal your soul, it’s meant to change the condition of your soul so that you no longer want to sin. I would venture there are those in this congregation that have gone through the motion of asking Jesus to forgive you, and to cleanse you from your past sin, but have yet to enter into the fullness of salvation because you cannot get past your past. Jesus is saying it’s not your past that I am saving you from. I’m forgiving you of your past but I’m saving your lost soul. And that’s what brings us to the altar. We have talked about the throne of God and it’s power to reveal, now I want to talk about the altar.

===================================

Medication: A Merry Heart
Shakey
"Doc," Shakey said, "I've got trouble. Every time I get into

bed, I think there's somebody under it. I get under the bed,

I think there's somebody on top of it. Top, under, top,

under. You gotta help me; I'm going crazy!"

"Just put yourself in my hands for two years," said the

shrink. "Come to me three times a week, and I'll cure your

fears."

"How much do you charge?"

"A hundred dollars per visit."

"I'll sleep on it," said Shakey.

Six months later, the doctor met Shakey on the street.

"Why didn't you ever come to see me again?" asked the

psychiatrist.

"For a hundred bucks a visit? A bartender cured me for ten

dollars."

"Is that so! How?"

"He told me to cut the legs off the bed!"

2011-10-09T23:03:00.001-05:00

(October 10, 2011)
Prayer House News!
This going to be a great week for us. I’m not sure why – just a statement of faith!
---------------------------------------------
Continue to pray for Ray Fleece (Margie Brandes’ father). He was hit by a car while on his bicycle. He has brain damage and a broken leg. He is 88 years old and needs a miracle.
--------------------------------------------
My message is attached.
==================================
Devotional
The Throne and the Altar

Genesis is one of the most interesting books in the Bible. It covers all of the creation as well as the great Patriarchs of the faith. As I was reading this week I became aware of something quite interesting about the life of Abraham. He built a lot of altars.

Genesis 12:1-7 The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you. (2) "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. (3) I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." (4) So Abram left, as the LORD had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran. (5) He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot, all the possessions they had accumulated and the people they had acquired in Haran, and they set out for the land of Canaan, and they arrived there. (6) Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. (7) The LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built an altar there to the LORD, who had appeared to him.

The Lord appeared to Abram, so he built an altar there to the Lord.

Gen 12:8 From there he went on toward the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. There he built an altar to the LORD and called on the name of the LORD.

Gen 13:4 and where he had first built an altar. There Abram called on the name of the LORD.

Gen 13:18 So Abram moved his tents and went to live near the great trees of Mamre at Hebron, where he built an altar to the LORD.

There is an association between the throne of God and the altar I want us to grasp today. Whenever men come before the throne of God they tend to build altars. By definition, when I talk about the throne of God I am basically meaning that of coming into God’s presence. The accounts we have in scripture are that either God shows up first, the way he appeared to Abraham, and then men build altars, or men, desiring the presence of God, first build an altar and then enter into his presence.

These two items are critical to our lives. The throne of God reveals what we are not, but the altar is the remedy for that. The thing we should fear more than any thing else would be that of standing before the throne without an altar.

We are going to leave Abraham for a few moments but we will come back to him a little later. Now I want us to go over to my favorite Prophet, Isaiah. One of the most significant chapters in this book is chapter six. The entire scene in the first 8 verses is filled with interest and instruction.

Isaiah 6:1, In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

This must have been a very solemn, soul-subduing sight. It is always a serious matter whenever man stands before the throne of God with all the demands and standards of that throne bearing down upon his conscience. Isaiah found this to be true for him. The light of the throne revealed to him his true condition. And what is the light that comes from the throne of God? It is the moral glory of Christ.

===================================

Medication: A Merry Heart
Some questions to keep the "gray cells" active !!!!

1. Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child's name?

2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?

3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?

5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly?

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet his birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?

7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?

8. What was the President's Name in 1975?

9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?

10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?

11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?
-----------------------------------------------------------
Here are the Answers

1. Johnny's mother had three children. The first child was named April. The second child was named May. What was the third child's name?

Answer: Johnny of course

2. There is a clerk at the butcher shop, he is five feet ten inches tall, and he wears size 13 sneakers. What does he weigh?

Answer: Meat.

3. Before Mt. Everest was discovered, what was the highest mountain in the world?

Answer: Mt. Everest; it just wasn't discovered yet. [You're not very good at this are you?]

4. How much dirt is there in a hole that measures two feet by three feet by four feet?

Answer: There is no dirt in a hole.

5. What word in the English Language is always spelled incorrectly?

Answer: Incorrectly

6. Billy was born on December 28th, yet her birthday is always in the summer. How is this possible?

Answer: Billy lives in the Southern Hemisphere around the equator.......

7. In California, you cannot take a picture of a man with a wooden leg. Why not?

Answer: You can't take pictures with a wooden leg. You need a camera to take pictures.

8. What was the President's Name in 1975?

Answer: Same as is it now - Barack Obama [Oh, come on ...]

9. If you were running a race, and you passed the person in 2nd place, what place would you be in now?

Answer: You would be in 2nd. Well, you passed the person in second place, not first.

10. Which is correct to say, "The yolk of the egg are white" or "The yolk of the egg is white"?

Answer: Neither, the yolk of the egg is yellow [Duh]

11. If a farmer has 5 haystacks in one field and 4 haystacks in the other field, how many haystacks would he have if he combined them all in another field?

Answer: One. If he combines all of his haystacks, they all become one big stack.

You can go back to sleep now ....

2011-10-07T06:38:00.001-05:00

(October 7, 2011)
Prayer House News!

RPM was good last night. It’s always good to meet with people for prayer. I trust you are praying for our services on Sunday. We are expecting to meet with God once again.
==================================
Devotional
I Have Prayed For You
Look at Job. Job lost his home, his children, and his ability to make money all in the same day. I would consider that a shaking, wouldn’t you. However, in it all Job does not waver in his faith. He even attempts to set his wife and comforters straight. Job’s trial becomes his testimony. The book of Job is the oldest book in the Bible. How many millions of people have drawn solace from it? How many have been taught about life through this book? How many people have gained a more balanced perspective of life through this book?

Could any of this have been possible if he had not gone through what he did? In that light, was his trial an injustice on God’s part? All we are are created beings with an assignment to bring glory to our God. If we have become bitter about our personal situation then our faith has failed. Jesus does not want that to happen - so He prays for us.

When Jesus prayed for Peter He did not pray that Peter would never face a trial. He prayed that whatever Peter was going to go through, he would go through. He prayed that his faith would not fail in the midst of the trial. Jesus didn’t pray that Peter would never face a trial; Jesus knew that Peter would face many trials and eventually die as a martyr. His prayer for Peter is that Peter would not give up in the midst of the trial.

When its Jesus saying, “I have prayed for you,” how does that strike you?

===================================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Pizza Delivery

I deliver pizza to help cover my college tuition. Once I
called on customers who sent their seven-year-old son to pay
me. As he approached the screen door, I noticed he was
carrying a check in one hand and two dollars in the other,
which I assumed was my tip.

To my dismay, he pocketed the bills before handing me the
check, which was for the exact cost of the pizza.

"Could that have been a tip?" I asked, trying not to sound
accusatory.

"Yep," he replied proudly. "Not bad for just a walk from the
living room and back!"

2011-10-05T22:50:00.002-05:00

(October 6, 2011)
Prayer House News!

Tonight the Mighty Men meet at 6:30pm at the church. Come for a time of fellowship, bible study, and coffee. Following Mighty Men will be RPM at 8:00pm.
==================================
Devotional
I Have Prayed For You
Consider Daniel’s life. Daniel had a testimony of being a person that sought God. Because of his favor with God, Daniel was growing in influence. Daniel was one of three commissioners appointed to watch over the 120 satraps. A satrap was in essence a king or governor over slaves who had great authority.

“And over them three commissioners (of whom Daniel was one), that these satraps might be accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss.” Daniel 6:2

Daniel’s influence with the king was making the satraps jealous so they determined to snare Daniel by designing an injunction making it illegal to pray to any god. They convinced the King to sign the injunction. Daniel learned of the injunction but it did not keep him from praying. He knew that it would endanger his life to pray to his God, but he continued on.

“Now when Daniel knew that the document was signed, he entered his house (in the roof chamber he had windows open toward Jerusalem); and he continued kneeling on his knees three times a day, praying and giving thanks before God, as he had been doing previously.” Daniel 6:10

Daniel’s perspective of faith was different from that which is common today. He did not see faith as something that would keep him from all harm.

We see in verse 11 that the satraps caught Daniel praying, “Then these men came by agreement and found Daniel making petition and supplication before His God.”

Because of this, the king was forced to put Daniel in the lion’s den. Then the king gave orders, and Daniel was brought in and cast into the lion’s den. The king spoke and said to Daniel, “Your God whom you constantly serve will Himself deliver you.” Daniel 6:16.

Daniel’s God did deliver him! However, isn’t it interesting to think that it was a direct result of Daniel’s prayer life that he came into this trial? His persecution/trial came because of the fact that he sought God. However, it was also a direct result of his prayer life that Daniel was able to walk out of the lion’s den. Daniel’s pursuit of God did not assure him a comfortable life. It actually brought trouble to him. However, neither did Daniel panic over the thought of something not going right.

Our perspective of faith is what is making the church just as neurotic as the world. Faith is being taught as the thing we exercise to keep us from anything negative. All things must be positive, all things must be healthy. When we see faith as the thing we exercise to keep us from any kind of trial or trouble, we will always live with instability, because that’s not real life. The Bible is filled with illustrations of real life. James says, “Count it all joy when you come into trials.”

If, on the other hand, we see faith as the thing that will deliver us from any situation we may get into, we then live with a wonderful freedom that expresses it’s trust in God’s ability to care for us under all circumstances. Daniel’s faith was like that. He said in essence, regardless of what I go through, I know I will go through, and I will come out on the other side still a believer.

=============================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Random Acts of Thinking

I want to become a vegetarian, but I'm not sure I can quit
eating meat cold turkey.

I wear glasses. Doesn't that mean that *everything* I see is
an optical illusion?

I paid my psychiatrist with a reality check.

Do fishermen live in the reel world?

You want to know a really, really hugely annoyingly bad
habit? Over-exaggeration.

I may not be a great artist, but I am really good at drawing
a blank.

My wife and I love each other. I rub her back and she
massages my ego.

You can't stop progress, but you can unplug a good

chunk of it.

A chrysanthemum by any other name ... would be easier

to spell.

Some days the best thing about my job is that

the chair spins.

My life no longer needs an extreme makeover. Now it just
needs a complete do over.

A friend of mine has a nose ring. She keeps the volume
pretty low, though, and sets it to "vibrate" at the movies.

Yesterday I pushed my luck. It was clearly too weak to move
by itself.

2011-10-05T08:30:00.001-05:00

(October 5, 2011)
Prayer House News!

Since this is Family Week at our church there are no mid-week services. I have heard of some of our church families inviting their neighbors over for a meal. Praise God – that is what family week is all about.
==================================
Devotional
I Have Prayed For You

Rev. 4:11, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being."

This verse brings out the fact that we were created to bring glory and honor to our God. This is why anything that does not glorify Him is basically sinful. Who are we to think we can live however we want when we are nothing more than created beings - created to glorify Him. So when God says, “I have need of you,” the only proper response is, “Here am I Lord, use me.”

This is a part of why Paul talked about being torn between two things.

Philippians 1:23-24; I am torn between the two: I desire to depart and be with Christ, which is better by far; (24) but it is more necessary for you that I remain in the body.

We all really should have this same attitude. We should have a longing to be with

Him, and yet at the same time, we should desire to be used by Him. If He still has a need for us, we should rejoice. Sometimes we don’t understand why certain people seem to live with no apparent purpose (like someone in a nursing home). It’s very possible He has need of them still.

As I continued my conversation with this man who had been healed he said, “Jesus is not in the healing business, He is in the saving business.” I could not agree more with him. Even though I believe it is perfectly correct to pray for a person’s healing, that is not what we should ultimately be obsessed with. We need to be obsessed with the salvation of souls. Instead we have become neurotics about healing. We have developed an entire industry within Christianity that deals solely with healing. If somebody gets sick we get them reading every book there is about healing, we get them listening to everything they can about healing to the point that they believe God owes them a healing.

Listen to this, God does not owe you a healing any more than He owed you your salvation. He saved you because, first of all he loves you, and secondly, because he has need of you. If we are going to obsess over something it should be the saving of souls. Let the Holy Spirit and those whom God has gifted in this area, concern themselves with healing your body. We must give ourselves over to His work.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

TOP TEN THINGS ONLY WOMEN UNDERSTAND
10. Cats' facial expressions.
9. The need for the same style of shoes in different colors.
8. Why bean sprouts aren't just weeds.
7. Fat clothes.
6. Taking a car trip without trying to beat your best time.
5. The difference between beige, ecru, cream, off-white, and eggshell.
4. Cutting your hair to make it grow.
3. Eyelash curlers.
2. The inaccuracy of every bathroom scale ever made.

AND, the Number One thing only women understand:

1. OTHER WOMEN

2011-10-04T06:51:00.000-05:00

(October 4, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Tuesday is prayer day! Morning prayer is going on right now – soon the pastors will meet to pray together and the our ladies PUSH & praise prayer meeting will be going strong.
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Tomorrow night is the True Freedom prayer meeting at Second Baptist church at 7:00pm. Feel free to join us there.
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The week is Family Week at our church.
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Devotional
I Have Prayed For You

Consider how Jesus prayed for Simon.

“Simon, Simon, behold Satan has demanded (permission) to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” But he said to Him, “Lord, with You I am ready to go both to prison and to death.”
Luke 22:31-33

In this setting Jesus is about to go to the cross. Peter says that he is ready to even die for Christ. Interestingly enough, even though Jesus prayed for Peter, Peter still denied Christ. He was not ready to die for Christ. Christ’s prayer was not that Peter would never face a trial, but that he would never, ultimately, lose his faith. Jesus knew Peter was going to betray him. He even predicted it by saying, “When once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Jesus knew that Peter would face many trials.

Neurotic

It seems that believers in America have become quite neurotic about their well-being. I’ve been worried to death about this very issue. If something negative happens to us we don’t know how to handle it. We purchase books addressing the issue. We read everything we can. We talk to everybody we can about the issue. We are in a complete panic. We attempt to use faith in a way that will keep us from anything that even remotely resembles a trial. I believe we have developed a false notion concerning God’s desire for us. We have come to believe that God is more concerned about our personal comfort than He is our personal testimony.

I once was able to spend some time with a man who has brain cancer. I’m not going to go into all the details of what happened to him. He believes God has touched him, the doctors feel they did it. In the midst of our conversation he shared with me something that I thought was quite profound. We were talking about why God heals some and not others. First of all let me say that the bottom line to healing is that nobody has it really figured out. Who can really answer why God touches some and not others.

As he was seeking the Lord and praying about what had happened to him God spoke to him about when Jesus made the triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Jesus needed a donkey to ride on to make his entry. He tells his disciples where to find the donkey. Then he tells them that if the owner asks you what you are doing with the donkey, just tell them, “The Lord has need of it.” As he read that God spoke to him and said, “I have need of you.” He then realized why he has not yet died. He believes his healing came because God still has need of him. It’s not because he was more worthy than others, it’s not even because he is more special to the Lord that others, it’s simply that God still has need of Him and his trial will become a part of how God will use him.

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Medication: A Merry Heart

"ESTROGEN ISSUES"
10 WAYS TO KNOW IF YOU HAVE "ESTROGEN ISSUES"

1. Everyone around you has an attitude problem.
2. You're adding chocolate chips to your cheese omelet..
3. The dryer has shrunk every last pair of your jeans.
4. Your husband is suddenly agreeing to everything you say.
5. You 're using your cell phone to dial up every bumper sticker that says: "How's my driving".
6. Everyone's head looks like an invitation to batting practice.
7. Everyone seems to have just landed here from "outer space."
9. You're sure that everyone is scheming to drive you crazy.
10. The ibuprofen bottle is empty and you bought it yesterday.

2011-10-02T23:21:00.000-05:00

(October 3, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a powerful move of God yesterday! What a great time we had as the Spirit of God rushed upon us and pushed us to the next level. My message is attached.
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The week is Family Week at our church.
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Devotional
I Have Prayed For You
There are many things the Bible tells us that we can expect as a result of prayer. Many of the testimonies we hear have to do with the Lord blessing us materially. However, there is another aspect of prayer that we must consider also and that is what prayer prevents. We rarely look into what prayer prevents. We primarily look into what prayer causes, rather than looking into what prayer has done to prevent even more serious consequences from happening.

I believe prayer prevents much more than it causes. The problem with this aspect of prayer is that it is not as visible as answered prayer is. Subsequently, we don’t focus on it very much. We can measure answered prayers. Some people carry a prayer journal where they list all of their requests and then in a column beside the request, they list the answers as they come. A person can look back at that weeks, months or even years later and see the answers to their prayers. Those answers provide them with something tangible. However, that which prayer prevents cannot be listed this way. We have no way of knowing how the prayers of our parents kept us from disaster when we were young. There is no way of knowing how the prayers of a mate have kept their spouse from temptation.

In Hebrews 7:25 we read; “Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Jesus ever lives to intercede for us. Our Savior prays for us. How many times have we avoided tragedy because of the prayers of our Savior?

I want us to consider an interesting perspective on tragedy. Often we relate tragedy to the loss of health or material things. Those things could certainly qualify as tragedy to the non-believer. If their house burns down or they lose their job they have nothing left because they do not put their trust in the Lord. Material things are their whole world. However, the believer is to live by different standards than the world. If a believers house burns down or he loses his job, he is to consider those things as major adjustments in his life, but he should not consider the loss of those things as the end of his world. When Jesus prays for us, he prays that our faith will not fail. He doesn’t pray that trials will never come into our lives but that we will continue to have faith in the midst of it. Spiritually speaking, tragedy is the inability to believe Jesus.

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Medical Info Women Should Know

PREGNANCY Q & A

Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q : I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q : What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.

A: So what's your question?

Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.?

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?
A: Not unless the word "alimony" means anything to you.

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.

Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college.

2011-09-30T05:35:00.002-05:00

(September 30, 2011)
Prayer House News!
It’s been a good week at Prayer House. Lots of things were accomplished for the kingdom of God. Let’s all be in prayer for our services this weekend. Come expecting!!
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Devotional
Psalms 119:123. My eyes fail, looking for your salvation,
looking for your righteous promise.

The previous two verses reveal that David is going through a time of oppression in his life. What he speaks of in this verse is typical of us all; we look for deliverance. He is looking for God’s salvation, His righteous promise. He feels that he has been looking for so long that his eyes are failing him. David was looking for the Messiah’s first coming. We look for His second. It is very much a part of our born-again nature to look for His return. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ ” (Rev. 22:17). Come, Lord Jesus!

It is uncharacteristic of a bride in waiting to not live in great anticipation of the groom. It seems in some ways the church has lost the natural characteristics of the bride of Christ. What groom would be content with a bride who does not have a deep longing just to be with him?

Today, we should not look for His return as a deliverance as much as a longing for Him. He is our deliverance already! When troubles come, we go into Him. Much like Noah’s Ark, Jesus can carry us through the time of trouble. However, we must go “in.” God would like to develop an inwardness in all of us. When our outside world falls apart, we tend to, or at least should, go inward. We tend, in times of trouble, to look at ourselves in a different light. When we look inward, we find Jesus. He lives inside, but He is meek and lowly, and He speaks with a still, small voice. He is not boisterous and aggressive. He must be sought out. When He is found, we will have our deliverance. Since Jesus is already our deliverance, our desires for Him, the crying of our heart and spirit which says, “Come!” should be based on a longing just to be with Him.

(Taken from; The Heart of the King)

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Orangutan

One day the zookeeper noticed that the orangutan was reading
two books: the Bible and Darwin's Origin of Species. In
surprise he asked the ape, "Why are you reading both those
books?"

"Well," said the orangutan, "I just wanted to know if I was
my brother's keeper or my keeper's brother."

2011-09-29T07:02:00.001-05:00

(September 29, 2011)
Prayer House News!
We had a full house last night. All of our classes were full. Spiritually speaking, it’s great to be into the Fall season. God is doing some exciting things in our midst. See you Sunday for another great time of worshipping our King together.
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Devotional
Psalms 119:122
Ensure your servant's well-being;
let not the arrogant oppress me.

This must have been a time in David’s life when he was insecure in his relationship with God. He is challenging God to prove himself. “Ensure my well-being,” he cries. The Hebrew meaning of “ensure” is to give a pledge or token in times of trouble. The verse could also read, “Be bail for your servant,” or “Pledge yourself for me, so I can know that You will pronounce me safe on the Judgment Day.”

Have you ever come to the place in your relationship with God where you have said, “God, if I’m going to make it, it will be because of You and not me”? In this verse, as well as the previous one, David is feeling oppressed. He seems to be expressing dismay over how the arrogant are oppressing him. His heart is crying, “Prove to me again that You can keep me, and that You have pledged yourself to me. Be my bail.” When the oppressor comes on strong there are times when we sit back and wonder if we really know God.

If you are on a path “into” God, the common thing will be to experience oppression. Whenever God is calling us inward, it seems our world falls apart. Our “world” tends to be something we have created. We have worked hard. We have gained many things. We have a status and a reputation. We know our limits, and we tend to be happy with our world as we have designed it. Then God calls us “into” Him. In order to enter into His world, ours must fall apart. We must see that there is absolutely nothing we can do to gain Him through our design. Our plans, our goals, and our objectives must all die so we can take on His plans, His goals, and His objectives. During that time of death, we fully realize the only reason we are going to make it is because He has become a surety for us.
(Taken from; The Heart of the King)
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Jumper Cable Necktie
A guy goes into a restaurant/lounge wearing a shirt open at
the collar and is met by a bouncer who tells him he must
wear a necktie to gain admission. So the guy goes out to his
car. He looks around for a necktie and discovers that he
just doesn't have one, but he sees a set of jumper cables in
his trunk. In desperation he ties these around his neck,
manages to fashion a fairly acceptable-looking knot, and
lets the ends dangle free.

He goes back to the restaurant. The bouncer carefully looks
him over for a few minutes and then says, "Well, OK, I guess
you can come in - just don't start anything."

2011-09-27T22:58:00.001-05:00

(September 28, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Today is is the See-You-At-The-Pole event. Thousands of young people will be praying around the flag poles of their schools. Let’s pray for God to us this to speak to many of the students who will observe what’s going on.
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Tonight is our mid-week classes. I’m excited to continue our Motivational Gifts class. Reveal (college), SWAT (middle and high school) and AWANAs (Kids) will all be starting at 6:30pm.
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Devotional
Psalms 119:121. I have done what is righteous and just;
do not leave me to my oppressors.

Everyone who has the Spirit of Christ in him has a sense of justice. That can cause conflict in our attempts to understand how God deals with us. Justice says, “If I keep up my end of the bargain, you must keep up yours.” The problem for us is we feel that God treats us this way, also. Subsequently, we try to earn His blessings. We tend to expect God to be good to us when we have been good. Make no mistake, being “good” is God’s objective for us. However, grace sees beyond our actions, forgives us, and grants blessings even when we don’t deserve them.

It helps our ego to think we have earned something. It’s humbling to receive something we don’t deserve. David displayed this mentality when he said, “I have done what is right, therefore deliver me from my oppressors.” The Kingdom of God belongs to those who are poor in spirit. The poor in spirit are those who have been reduced to the lowly position of asking (Matt. 5:3).

“What does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Mic. 6:8). God does want us to live just the way David did. He wants us to do what is right. He wants us to treat others justly. However, our personal motivation should not be that of doing these things so we can get something from God. These things should be a part of our nature now that we have Jesus in us. The reason God delivers us from the oppressor is so we can continue to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God. God delivers so we can continue to be a blessing to others.

(Taken from; The Heart of the King)

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Medication: A Merry Heart
No Work

"I'm never going to work for that man again."
"Why? What did he say?"
"You're fired!

2011-09-27T07:07:00.001-05:00

(September 27, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Today is our prayer day! We already began at 5:00am with our daily morning prayer time. At 8:00am the pastoral staff will be praying – for you! At 9:00am our ladies PUSH & Praise will continue praying for you! Isn’t it great to get prayed for!
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Devotional
Psalms 119:120. My flesh trembles in the fear of you;
I stand in awe of your laws.

Who can stand in the presence of God? Only the forgiven. It is difficult to fathom that one day we will stand in His presence. It brings a certain chill and wonder to think of that day. However, when that day comes every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess He is Lord. What an awesome day that will be! David said his flesh actually trembled in reverence of his God. David knew that God is a just and holy God and that He requires truth in the innermost parts (Ps. 51:6). God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (John 4:24).

The assurance we can gain is through an interest in God’s mercy. That alone will save us from the overwhelming fear of one day standing in His presence. Our God is an awesome God, and were it not for mercy, we would have no hope. If the whole earth were not full of His mercy, we would be crushed under the weight of our own sin.

It’s from an understanding of mercy that our fear is transformed to reverence. Prior to understanding mercy, one is actually fearful of God. A true concept of God’s judgment and mercy creates reverence. Man uses power to destroy and manipulate. God uses power to create. Knowing that God could destroy us with a single breath of His nostril creates a certain fear of God until we fully realize that God is full of mercy. Mercy is a life-giving force. The realization that God could destroy us, but won’t, should cause us to bow in reverence to Him.

If we will bow our knee to Him today we will one day be able to stand in His presence. Only when we purposely bring ourselves down or humble ourselves does God lift us up. “Let another praise you, and not your own mouth” (Prov. 27:2).

(Taken from; The Heart of the King)

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Medication: A Merry Heart
Ketchup Trouble

A woman was trying hard to get the ketchup to come out of
the bottle. During her struggle, the phone rang, so she
asked her four-year-old daughter to answer the phone.

"It's the minister, Mommy," the child said to her mother.
Then she said to the minister, "Mommy can't come to the
phone to talk to you right now. She's hitting the bottle."

2011-09-26T17:18:00.000-05:00

(September 26, 2011)
Prayer House News!
Just got back today (1:00am) from our Cruise. Had a great time! Now I’m refreshed and ready to get back to the work of the kingdom. Speaking of which, I will be continuing the series on the gifts this coming Wednesday night. I look forward to going through that with you.
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Devotional
Psalms 119:119. All the wicked of the earth you discard like dross;
therefore I love your statutes.

The Word of God is the only truly pure thing in the world. It is without hidden motive; it is undiluted love. Throughout this Psalm we find David expressing his love for God’s Word. In this case, it is God’s statutes. In other places David spoke of his love for God’s commands, precepts, testimonies, or judgments. David tells us that every facet of God’s Word offers a cleansing. The more of God’s Word we have in us, the purer we are. The Word serves as a refiner’s fire; it removes any dross. As believers, we are to subject ourselves to this fire willingly. To pray for a pure heart is healthy, even though it may hurt us to gain it.

The wicked will not willingly subject themselves to God’s refiner’s fire. Subsequently, their lives are full of dross. Dross is defined as scum, waste, or foreign matter. Only the pure in heart see God (Matt. 5:8). The wicked have no purity of heart because they will not allow God to inspect their lives. We are wise to openly ask God to inspect our lives and to take us through the fire. The whole idea behind a trial is to purify our lives. The trial is the fire. Before we pass through the fire God works to remove the dross from our lives through His Word. That’s where the inspection comes in. Before metal can pass through the fire, the scum at the surface is swept off. If it is not swept off first then it would melt into the metal as it passes through, and would not be pure in the end. Prior to the fire the wickedness of our lives is discarded. That is the inspection or confession process. Then comes the trial or the test to see if we were sincere in our confession. The trial is the final cleansing process.

David said he loved the statutes of God. David realized that through following God’s statutes he was preparing (cleansing) himself for any trial that may come his way.

(Taken from; The Heart of the King)
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Pack a Parachute

A photographer for a national magazine was assigned to take
pictures of a great forest fire. He was advised that a small
plane would be waiting to fly him over the fire.

The photographer arrived at the airstrip just an hour before
sundown. Sure enough, a small Cessna airplane was waiting.
He jumped in with his equipment and shouted, "Let's go!" The
tense man sitting in the pilot's seat swung the plane into
the wind and soon they were in the air, though flying
erratically.

"Fly over the north side of the fire," said the
photographer, "and make several low-level passes." "Why?"
asked the nervous pilot. "Because I'm going to take
pictures!" yelled the photographer. "I'm a photographer, and
photographers take pictures."

After a long pause, the "pilot" replied: "You mean, you're
not my instructor?"

2011-09-15T22:55:00.001-05:00

(September 16, 2011)
Prayer House News!
The Mighty Men group met Thursday night as they kicked off the Fall thrust. It was good to see over a dozen guys fellowshipping, studying the Word and eating Mexican Food. They will be meeting each Thursday night at 6:30pm from now on. Join us!
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Please Pray for Berta Hernandez. She is in need of prayer. The doctors told Tia that her kidneys are beginning to fail.
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There will be no Prayer and Medication next week because I will be on vacation! Pray for Lou and I as we relax and refresh on a Caribbean Cruise!
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Devotional
A Refuge City

Earlier I talked about the eight-year-old Israeli boy that had a very clear mind about his life and about why his parents both died. I don’t think we are very clear minded yet in America. We are more interested in the quality of life we have here in our city of refuge than we are in keeping the path clear to the Savior clear. We are living in the last days. The whole world is a tinder-box right now. So what should we do? The Bible does address this.

1 Peter 4:7-11 The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled (sober) so that you can pray. (8) Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. (9) Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. (10) Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. (11) If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

We are to do two things. Be clear-minded and pray. Being clear-minded is that of understanding the times and realizing that the most important thing we have to do is to bring others to Christ. How do we do that? Love them, that covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality without grumbling (bring them to your Growth Group, have them over for a meal). Use whatever gift you have received to serve others. And pray for them. Stand in the gap for them against the avenger of blood. As I see it folks, we don’t have much time left. The end of all things is near. Peter said that 2000 years ago, so I can say it today and even be closer to it than Peter was.

Let me read something from Thomas a’ kempis. He who gives himself up entirely to enjoyment acts very unwisely. He forgets his former helplessness and dreads losing comfort. Nor is he very brave or wise who becomes too despondent in times of adversity and difficulty and thinks less confidently of God than he should. He who wishes to be too secure in times of peace will often become dejected and fearful in times of trial. If you were wise enough to remain always humble and small in your own eyes, and to restrain and rule your spirit well, you would not fall so quickly into danger and offense during times of testing.

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Medication: A Merry Heart
On the Tarmac

One night at McChord Air Force Base, I was dispatched to

check out the security fence where an alarm had gone off.

The fence was at the end of the base runway. When I got to

the scene, I found a raccoon was the culprit, so I ran

around and flapped my arms to scare the animal away.

Suddenly an air-traffic controller came over the

public-address system and announced loudly, "Attention to

the airman at the end of the runway. You are cleared for

takeoff."

2011-09-15T00:10:00.000-05:00

(September 15, 2011)
Prayer House News!

Pastor Nick’s “Reveal” group launched last night. They had a great time. Look for good things to come out of this group.
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We are starting a new class on Sunday’s at 9:30am called, Journey. It’s going to focus on the basics of Christianity. If you are new to the faith or just want a refresher course this would be a great class for you.
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Devotional
According to rabbinical teaching, it was the Sanhedrin’s job to aid the fugitive by keeping the roads leading to the cities of refuge in the best possible repair. No hills were left, every river was bridged, and the road itself was to be at least thirty-two cubits wide. At every turn were guideposts bearing the word "Refuge." Typically two students of the law (Sanhedrin) were appointed to accompany the fleeing man and to pacify, if possible, the avenger, if he should overtake the fugitive while on the way. Those who were helping someone find his place of refuge was to do two things. 1. Accompany the fleeing man on his way (witness), 2. Pacify the avenger (stand in the gap - intercession).

So up to this point we have Jesus the refuge and us, the Sanhedrin, as residents of the city. We are the students of the law. We are supposed to be the ones assisting others in their journey towards Christ. But we have a problem. As the ones in charge of the path to Christ we have possibly failed in our responsibility.

This is perhaps the reason Jesus was so upset with the Sanhedrin. They did not maintain the road to our refuge – Jesus. So the Lord sets an example in the midst of the problem named, John the Baptist. What is John the Baptist known for: making straight a path in the wilderness? The path to our refuge had become so unmaintained that no one was able to find it and the Sanhedrin themselves were so corrupt that they merely complicated what was supposed to be a simple matter.

Mark 14:55 The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were looking for evidence against Jesus so that they could put him to death, but they did not find any.

Mark 15:1 Very early in the morning, the chief priests, with the elders, the teachers of the law and the whole Sanhedrin, reached a decision. They bound Jesus, led him away and handed him over to Pilate.

The very ones appointed to lead people to the city of refuge killed the very essence of refuge. All John the Baptist was doing was the job of the Sanhedrin. That’s why they despised him. That’s also why America is despised. The path to Jesus is clearer in our nation than any other nation on earth. The avenger of blood is trying desperately to shut down this road before too many others find their refuge.

So what should we do about it? What should be the Christians response to what has happened in our nation – our nation of refuge? First of all we need to rest in Christ. God said that anybody that harmed Cain would receive vengeance seven times greater. Those who attacked our refuge nation will receive whatever God chooses for them to receive, it could be seven times greater than what happened to us.

As individuals, as the Sanhedrin, we are to do one primary thing. Keep the path to our refuge open. Make it as easy as possible for people to find Jesus. We do that two ways, we witness, and pray.

Medication: A Merry Heart
Ants

A hacker hit his drive out of bounds and the golf ball came
to rest in the middle of a large red ant bed. He figured he
would hit it from that lie, so he took his stance, took a
big swing, missed the ball, and ants went flying everywhere.
He tried again, and same as before, he missed the ball and
ants were flying everywhere.

After the third gigantic swing and miss, one ant said to
another one, "If we're going to save ourselves, we'd better
get on the ball."

2011-09-14T00:58:00.002-05:00

(September 14, 2011)

Prayer House News!
Tonight is the big Fall Kick-off for all of our classes. I’m looking forward for a great Adult class as we look into the motivational gifts. Everything begins at 6:30pm.
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We are starting a new class on Sunday’s at 9:30am called, Journey. It’s going to focus on the basics of Christianity. If you are new to the faith or just want a refresher course this would be a great class for you.
==================================
Devotional
A Refuge City
Cain was the first man to establish a refuge city. So often we look at Cain in a negative light because he was the first man to kill another man. However, remember our God is a merciful God, and if someone actually repents of his sin and seeks forgiveness, God, in His mercy, grants it to him.

Genesis 4:13-17 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. (14) Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." (15) But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. (16) So Cain went out from the LORD's presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden. (17) Cain lay with his wife, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Enoch. Cain was then building a city, and he named it after his son Enoch.

Cain was building a city of refuge because prior to this there was no safe place for him to live. Plus since God put his mark on Cain stating that anyone who brought harm to him would receive vengeance seven time over, the city of refuge became a means of protecting others also. The root meaning of the Hebrew terms for "city," means "to keep watch for the approach of an enemy." That was the primary reason cities came into existence. The leading purpose of gathering into towns was security against marauders.

Within the network of cities were certain ones appointed as cities of refuge. A city of refuge was a place where someone who had committed a crime could go to be safe from those seeking revenge. In the ancient Middle Eastern countries if a person were killed, it was the custom that the nearest relative of the slain one would became the "avenger of blood."

Numbers 35:19 The avenger of blood shall put the murderer to death; when he meets him, he shall put him to death.

It became his duty to slay the slayer. He had every right to do it – unless the one who committed the crime made it to a city of refuge before he could get to him. Then he was safe – for the time being. The city of refuge was a type of what we call in our justice system – innocent until proven guilty.

The person who committed a crime could find sanctuary in the city of refuge until it was time to hear his case. The courts would then take the accused one back to the scene of the crime for his trial. If it could be proven that what happened was truly an accident then the accused could go back to the city of refuge and live as a free man within the confines of that city for the rest of his life or until the High Priest of that city died. Then he was free to return to his original city.

Do you see the typology here? Jesus is our refuge. He is our strong tower. We go into him for protection. We all have committed the crime of sin. There was a sentence of death upon us. But we made it to our refuge. If Satan could have killed us before we made it to our refuge then we would have died in our sin. Once we entered into our place of refuge we became safe from harm. However, if a person left the city of refuge before the death of the high priest, he then became subject to death at the hands of the avenger of blood.

In other words if we remain in Christ we are forever safe. Nothing can pull us out of the city. And our High Priest will never die so there will never be a need to leave. But if the formerly forgiven one decided to leave the city, which was an option he had, he then became subject to death at the hands of the avenger of blood. This is where we get some of our theology on the subject of back-sliding. He was safe as long as he remained in the city – but he had the option of leaving.

Medication: A Merry Heart
Custer

Eighty years after Little Big Horn, an East Coast journalist

began research on George Armstrong Custer. A friend told him

that an Indian who lived through that experience was still

living and furthermore remembered EVERY event of his long
life.

The journalist visited Chief Big Eagle, who now lived in a

small town in Pennsylvania. When he arrived and stated his

purpose, the Chief agreed to answer his questions.

"On what day of the week did the event take place?" the

reporter asked.

"Wednesday," replied the chief.

"What was Custer wearing?"

"Black uniform ... ceremony sword ... old hat."

"What did Custer eat for breakfast?"

"Eggs." The journalist was skeptical and figured anyone

could make up these answers. He left and never published his

article.

Ten years later, the journalist was driving through the same

small town. He decided to see if the old chief was still

living. To his surprise, the chief was.

As the journalist walked in, he raised his hand in the air

to the chief and said, "How!"

The chief replied, "Over easy, potatoes on the side."

2011-09-12T23:54:00.002-05:00

(September 13, 2011)

Prayer House News!

Our conference has been very powerful. The presence of God last night was overwhelming. I love these conferences. If you want to go on Tuesday for the final session we are leaving from our church at 2:00pm. If you want to go just call the office before 2.

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This week we begin all of our Fall classes on Wednesday evenings. I’m looking forward for a great Adult class as we look into the motivational gifts.

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Devotional

Some of the leaders of the Vietnamese people who came to America after the war in Vietnam have been making some bold statements to the Afghanistan leaders. They are saying, “You don’t attack a refuge nation.” America is a refuge nation. Its borders have always been open for anyone seeking safety from an oppressive government. Obviously we have had some struggles with illegal aliens but the word “illegal” defines that problem. There is an accepted way to become a citizen of our nation and we have always been open to anyone. Everyone wants to come to America (at least they used to).

I believe there are two primary reasons why the Arab world is turning on America. 1. Our foreign policy. When they say it’s our foreign policy what they are actually referring to our foreign policy as, is our support of Israel. I pray that America will always be pro-Israel. My concern is that many of our younger non-churched citizens, don’t have a clue as to why we support Israel. Just the other day an eight year-old Israeli boy, whose parents were killed recently by a car bomb in Jerusalem, was asked why it happened. He said that it was because of his country’s fight for independence, it was because of the Messiah and being the people of God. How many of our eight year-old children have any understanding about why the terrorist attacked us? If our convictions are not based on our religious beliefs then we will eventually find no good reason to continue to fight the fight.

Initially our support of Israel came from our allegiance to Christ. Israel is God’s chosen people. As Christians with the Messiah living in us we become “spiritual Israel.” We are now a part of the chosen, having been grafted into the family of God. We are told to pray for the peace of Israel.

2. Secondly I believe it’s because as a refuge nation we become a type of Christ for the world. So we are right in the mix of spiritual conflict. We too become a target of Satan because of our testimony to the world that in Jesus Christ you are protected you have a place of refuge.

==============================

Medication: A Merry Heart

Home Canning

On the farm where I was raised, home canning was a big

thing. Most folks had a garden and ate out of it all summer;

the surplus was put up in bottles for the winter.

The common saying was: "We eat what we can, and what we

can't, we can."

2011-09-11T23:43:00.002-05:00

(September 12, 2011)

Prayer House News!

It was another great day yesterday. It started off with our worship service focusing on the 9/11 tragedy and ended with me traveling to Woodstock, Ill for another Jesus-Sensitive Conference.

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This week we begin all of our Fall classes on Wednesday evenings. I’m looking forward for a great Adult class as we look into the motivational gifts.

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I’ve attached my message from Sunday.

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Devotional

A Refuge Nation

In light of the recent events in our nation and world I thought it might be quite interesting to see America’s role in the last days. The fact is, most prophecy teachers cannot find much of what they would consider a reference to the United States in the Bible. While that may be true, it is might be possible to see what America is. How many of you believe we are in the last days?

So we are in the last days and our nation is only 200 years old. In the greater picture of world history we are relatively insignificant. I was on an airplane flying from London to Entebee, Africa once. I began to talk to the girl seated beside me. She was from London. She expressed an interest in visiting America one day. I had been in Boston just a few days prior to this flight so I said to her, “You would probably really like the Boston area, there is so much history there.” She looked at me and said, “You think you have history in your country? We have church buildings that are centuries older than your entire nation.”

So in the big picture America may only be a little blip on the screen of world history. We are probably a lot more self-important than we really are. However, the modern-day missions methodology did come from America. Obviously the idea of missions did not originate in America. Paul had many missions trips in the Bible. But if we were to look at our history we would find a missionary to the American Indians, David Brainerd, who wrote a diary of his ministry amongst the Indians titled, “The Diary of David Brainerd.” His diary has gone on to inspire some of our greatest Christian leaders. Jonathan Edwards (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God) was greatly inspired by this diary. Johathan Edwards was one of the key figures in the last Great Awakening in 1857. In fact, David Brainerd was engaged to be married to Edwards daughter when he died at the age of 28.

William Carey decided to go into missions as a result of reading this diary. He started the whole Moravian missionary movement which gave birth to the modern day missions movement we know today. So America has done some significant things as far as the gospel is concerned. However, is it possible that we are not mentioned in Scripture because we aren’t quite as important as we think we are? History does not necessarily revolve around America. We only think we are the center of everything. While it’s true that America has done much to spread the gospel around the world there might be even a greater significance than that for us.

This is why I also don’t put a lot of interest into end-time prophecies that are based on what is happening in America. Did you know that when Communism took over China in the 1940’s which forced the church to go underground, and many Christians were persecuted and killed, that most Chinese Christians fully believed that they were just months away from the return of Christ. They related their struggles as Christians to the very last days. The same is true of Romania. It’s quite interesting how when any church faces persecution they believe that they are just moments away from the return of Christ. That just shows us how we tend to think everything revolves around us.

The truer measure of the end times is that of what’s happening in Israel. History does revolve around Israel. Isn’t it interesting that all of these very large Arab nations are not simply concerned with a Palestinian state but also the annihilation of Israel? They are flat out calling for the eradication of all Jews. This really should not surprise us. The heart of spiritual conflict has always been the complete destruction of God’s people on earth. If Satan were able to actually kill all of God’s people then this earth would become his dwelling place. God would no longer have a witness on earth. If you want to know how close we are to the very last days – watch Israel.

Medication: A Merry Heart

The Accident

With the weather sunny and warm, a driver was cruising down

the interstate highway when a huge truck crashed into the

side of his car, severing his arm at the shoulder. Two

teenagers, observing the accident, volunteered to rush the

severed arm to the local hospital for considered

restructuring to the driver's shoulder.

Several hours later, with the driver at the hospital and no

sign of the young teenagers or the man's arm, the police put

out an APB for the teenage drivers saying, "This is the

worse case of arm robbery in police history."

2011-09-09T00:12:00.002-05:00

(September 9, 2011)
Prayer House News!
I had a great time teaching last night at Risen Savior A/G in Chicago. Some of our college aged young people went along with me. I had to buy them supper to get them to go with me, but it was worth having them with me.
.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.
This Sunday is also our Food Pantry collection Sunday. Bring any non-perishable item to church with you and put it in the shopping basket in the foyer.
____________________________________________

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
The apostle John lay close to the heart of the Master, and then closer still, until Jesus revealed the awful anguish that was breaking His heart - that one of them would betray Him. The closer we draw to His heart, the more we shall share His sorrows. It is not our broken heart; it is God’s broken heart that we need. It is not our sufferings; it is Christ’s we are partakers of. It is not our tears with which we should admonish night and day, it is all Christ’s.
Why should we win souls? We should win souls because our Savior died for the salvation of man. This has to be one of the bedrocks of this church. We are not here merely to provide a nice place for you to come on Sundays. We are here because the Son of God died for our souls and the souls of our neighbors.
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Medication: A Merry Heart
Men's Logic
The following is perfectly logical to all males.
A wife asks her husband, "Could you please go shopping for
me and buy one gallon of milk, and if they have eggs, get
6."
A short time later the husband returns home with 6 cartons
of milk.
The wife asked him, "Why did you buy 6 gallons of milk?"
He replied, "They had eggs."

2011-09-08T00:22:00.001-05:00

(September 8, 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.

________________________________________________

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

One of my favorite stories is from the life of John Hyde. He gained the nick-name of, Praying Hyde because of all the time he spent in prayer. Hyde was a missionary to India who decided at one point to simply give himself over to prayer completely. He had labored in India for several years without any fruit – no converts. The work in India was very difficult.

At one point Hyde decided that the only thing left for him was to pray. He began to give himself so completely over to prayer that he would often spend 36 consecutive hours in prayer. He would give whole months to prayer, sleep at night, pray all day. He began to enter into a life of righteousness. Hebrews 7:25 says that Jesus is spending all of His time in prayer for us. In other words, Praying Hyde began to do for others what Christ has done for Him. That’s righteous living! The fruit of righteousness is a tree of life. Or in others words – the wise man wins souls.

Praying Hyde began to feel compelled to win souls. After he had spent literally months in prayer, He decided to win one person a day to Christ. At the end of his first year he had led over 400 people to Christ. He did this in one year after having spent years on the field with no converts.

He then began to feel compelled to win two people a day to Christ. Then three people to Christ each day. At the time of his death John Hyde was leading over 4 people a day to Christ. John Hyde is buried in Carthage, Il. in a small cemetery with no great head-stone. He had a heart like Paul that said,

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.

Here is what I want us to consider in this matter. John Hyde’s philosophy of soul winning was based on this same principle we are dealing with here in the scriptures. The first step in winning souls is righteous living, do for others what God has done for you. Hyde’s philosophy was this: “I must get so close to Christ through prayer, that Jesus in me will simply draw people to himself.”

If Hyde ever came to the point where he was ineffective in winning souls he didn’t go out and hit the streets more – he went back to the prayer closet. He said, “If I am not able to win them it’s because they no longer see Jesus in me. Therefore, I must spend more time in prayer if I am going to continue to win them.” His whole method of soul winning was based on Christ-likeness. He wasn’t just skilled. He was Christ- like.

Hyde once said, “When we keep near to Jesus it is He who draws souls to Himself through us, but He must be lifted up in our lives; that is, we must be crucified with Him. If we are not buried with Him, the stench of the old man will frighten souls away.”

So Hyde says, “If you are going to win people to Christ you must look like Christ.” Compare that philosophy to the current philosophy that says, “If you are going to win people out from the world you must look like the world.” That is the accepted philosophy of soul winning in America today and yet we are losing the battle. The church is losing ground everyday.

Isn’t it interesting to think that the Bible says that righteous living will produce a tree of life and yet we have convinced ourselves that we need to be more avant-garde if we are going to win the world. When we allow ourselves to be motivated from a self-centered perspective we then become selective in whom we witness to. We start to look for the “right” type of people.

Lets go back to our opening verse and look once again at what it says,

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.

Who are we to be picky about whom we want in the church? We are no better than anybody else. You may be a Christian today – you may have been living for the Lord for some time now so that your life looks like it is together but the Bible says that prior to you being saved you were – foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, full of malice, envy, and hatred. 3 Things to Remember; 1. Remember the Pit, 2. Refuse the Praise, 3. Rely on the Power.

In those days when John Hyde was compelled to win four souls a day to Christ he said that if there was a day when four souls were not brought into the kingdom, at night, there would be such a weight on his heart that it was positively painful, and he could not eat nor sleep. Have you ever had any sense of sorrow at the failure to win someone to Christ?

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Medication: A Merry Heart

Welcome

I recently asked my friend's little girl what she wanted to

be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President

some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were

standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President, what

would be the first thing you would do?"

She replied, "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless

people." Her parents beamed with pride.

"Wow...what a worthy goal." I told her. "But you don't have

to wait until you're President to do that. You can come over

to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and sweep my

driveway, and I'll pay you $50. Then I'll take you over to

the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you

can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me

straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy

come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the

$50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents still aren't speaking to me.

2011-09-07T06:08:00.001-05:00

(September 7, 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

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)

2011-09-06T06:27:00.001-05:00

(September 6, 2011)

Prayer House News!

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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."

2011-09-04T23:01:00.001-05:00

(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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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