Life Goes On

The time has come for Christians to realize that they have weapons available to them that can change the world.  One of those weapons is Intercessory Prayer.  I posted on our church's FB account today a definition of Intercessory Prayer that I heard years ago from Bible teacher Ronn Dunn.  He said, "Intercessory Prayer is like an ICBM (inter continental ballistic missile) that can be launched from a pad no larger than your knees, travels at the speed of thought to anyplace on earth, be absolutely on target and there is no defense against it." With the events in Nepal (earthquake) Baltimore (riots) and the Supreme Court (decision on same-sex marriage) Christians should be "carpet bombing" these areas with prayer.  Find out all you can about each situation and the needs there; ask Holy Spirit to guide you as you pray...it is one of His specific assignments; pray, pray, pray until God answers (Matt. 7:7-8) Rather than listening to the "talking heads" on T

Yesterday started out as a normal Sunday. We had a glitch in the volume of the track that the choir was singing with; I was somewhat less than dazzling in my sermon, the crowd was down because so many "snow birds" have gone back up north...and then God showed up! When the time of response came, a young man with whom I had met this week stepped out to come forward to profess his faith in Christ, but before he got to the front a family of 3 stepped out just ahead of him coming to join the church. What a blessing! God surprised us by increasing our family by 4. For a little church like ours, that is monumental. I can remember going almost an entire year without as many as four joining our fellowship. God is like that. If we remain faithful in sowing the seeds of the gospel, there will come a time of harvest. What this does for me is give me a sense of anticipation each week. I can hardly wait for what God is going to do next. We capped this wonderful service with a &qu

It happens almost every Sunday. Someone comes by in the foyer after service and comments, "Pastor, I've never heard a message on that before." I'm always amazed because I preach expository messages from a particular book. Currently we just finished 2nd Corinthians in the morning services and are a little over half way through Mark in the evening services. It makes me wonder if they really haven't heard such a message, or if the message they heard didn't stick in their memory. I often tell people that I purposely read a lot of scripture during service because God has promised to bless HIS WORD, not mine. In addition to being amazed that many people have not heard messages on particular scriptures, I'm gratified that God led me to preach/teach on that passage. It isn't always comfortable or even exciting, but I find that God always blesses when I don't skip difficult passages. I'm just simple enough to believe that God intended every word

Most of us grew up on the 3 R's, Reading, 'riting, and 'rithmatic. I'd like to propose a re-thinking of the 3 R's that will enable everyone who embraces them to live life to the fullest here and now and spend eternity with Jesus. This all came together for me as I wrote a funeral message recently. I wanted to communicate with the people present that with the uncertainty of life they needed a plan, a path to follow that would insure the quality of life now and the destination of their immortal soul later. Here is the plan I proposed to them. RECOGNIZE : It is absolutely vital that every person recognize that they are separated from God from the moment they exert their own will against the will of God. The Bible calls this sin. We are born with the "bent" to sin, and if left alone, will progress to the willful life of sin. Normally we define sin as some heinous crime against mankind, or the use of drugs and alcohol, or sexual promiscuity, or murder.