REVIVE BLOG

Born To Die

2009-12-25T20:32:00.004-06:00

December 24, 2009

I have just one question. Where did 2009 go? So many things happened in such a short amount of time I can hardly believe a year has come and gone. As with any year, we had the good and the bad as always. But lots of big events took place this For starters we sold mom’s house in Texas. This obviously was a very hard thing to do. Not physically, but emotionally. Initially we thought that a friend of moms was going to buy her house, so she didn’t bother with putting the house on the market and instead focused all her attention on doing some packing and retiring from the Texas school system. But, just before it was time to move, plans had changed and mom needed to locate a Realtor.

We put her house on the market and would you believe that the house had a contract on it in just 3 days! The LORD took care of that one in a heart beat. He is so amazing! We witnessed His mighty hand at work all around us during the entire process. The move went very well and mom was on her way to Alabama. We moved her in with us in early June and at that point spent the entire summer looking for houses that would work for all of us to live in together. But to no avail. In the mean time, the LORD was continuing His hand of provision in landing mom a new job at the middle school here (just before the school year started) doing what she loves most…teaching Special Ed. students. And while it was evident we weren’t going to find that perfect home for us, the LORD had something different planned all along. He was building us a house.

I wish I could tell you all of the details that go along with that statement. They are truly amazing. This house is exactly what we were looking for all along. (Of course it is, The LORD is building it!) Another neat thing about this house is that it not only has the perfect set up for mom, but it has lots of extra bedrooms for kids! And since we only have 2 kids….you may be wondering (if you don’t already know) that we are expecting more! The LORD has drawn our hearts toward adoption over the last year and we’ve got our sights set for a baby girl in India! We have been through the most interesting journey of our lives going through the process of adopting a child. We have filled out mounds of paper work and had our family raked over with a fine tooth comb. It has been interesting to say the least.

But we have learned so much about the LORD than we ever expected in this journey of adoption. We’ve learned more about the Father’s heart for the orphan as well as the whole concept of our own spiritual adoption in Christ Jesus. It’s been a mind blowing awakening. In my statement earlier I mentioned “kids”. We are working through the possibility of getting a sibling group of girls from India, but if the LORD wills just for us to have one this time around….then we plan to adopt again. There are too many babies out there that need a home for us just to stop with one. We’ll leave all the rest up to the LORD and just walk forward in obedience as He leads. I hope to be writing this time next year about a new member of our family!

So, lots of good as I mentioned this year but along with the good, came the bad. We had to endure yet another loss this year. I wasn’t sure my heart could actually take losing another loved one. This makes three years in a row that we’ve had to say goodbye to one of my closest family members. First it was my mamaw, then my father and this year it was my papaw. That’s too tough to even absorb. When we lost my papaw, we lost one of the kindest and most gentle souls I’ve ever known. He was a man who gave of himself to others all the time. I watched him literally give up the things on earth that he dearly enjoyed to care for my mamaw when her health was declining. With what little he did have he was always sending me checks in the mail letting me know that “he couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather give his money to”. He probably did that with everyone. Such a precious man. My papaw was loved by everyone and he is dearly missed.

The last few days, I have been reflecting on yet another who gave himself for others. My mind races to Philippians 2:6-9 that says, “Though he (Jesus) was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a servant and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross.” (NLT) Our pastor says every year “that the main emphasis of Christmas is not on the infancy of Jesus but on the deity of Jesus.” When you look at it like that you begin to realize (as much as humanly possible) all that He gave up to be born in human likeness. Jesus Christ gave up all that was rightly His to step into time to be born as a human being and ultimately humbled himself in obedience unto death.

Let’s be honest. When we think of Christmas, do we just see a baby lying in a manger, or do we see the King of the universe stepping out of heaven, giving up all His privileges to become an ordinary baby headed for the cross? Yes, He was born in Bethlehem but He was headed for Calvary. Putting it another way, He was born to die. Why? Love. It was love that drove Christ to such a humble state for our sinful account so that for all who truly believe might be saved! It’s one of those things you have to ponder deeply to even begin to conceive the slightest bit of its profundity. I’m still trying to wrap my mind around it. Ephesians 3:18-19 That you may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Trees, lights, presents, family and food are all nice at Christmas. But, I’ll take the humble King. Will you worship Jesus with us this Christmas? Not as an infant but as King, born to die so that we might be saved!

Merry Christmas!

We are all in this together

2009-11-20T12:16:00.001-06:00

For more info go here.

Living your life with Purpose

2009-11-03T11:52:00.002-06:00

God cannot bless a nation that turns away from Him

2009-09-13T20:07:00.001-05:00

What If?

2009-08-06T22:01:00.001-05:00

David Platt: SBC Pastors Conference 2009 from Todd Thomas on Vimeo.

I dare you to pray this

2009-08-01T21:38:00.000-05:00

Spotless

2009-05-06T11:44:00.008-05:00

I know I have been distant on the REVIVE blog. All my attention and time have been going here instead. So, I have resorted to posting videos and quoting others rather than posting my own stuff. I do intend to jump back on board soon and pour out from my heart in blog posts about what God is doing to REVIVE His Bride! But for now...I'll continue to use the help of others for my posts....like this one:

SPOTLESS
By Kerry Hasenbalg

".....just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." - Ephesians 5:25-27

If you have spent even a short time in the orphan and adoption field, you have undoubtedly heard the Scripture verse found in James 1:27, "Pure and undefiled religion that God our Father accepts is the care for orphans and widows in their trouble and to keep oneself unspotted by the world." Although it is the most quoted passage in the Christian adoption and orphan care community, I believe it is one of the least practiced. Allow me to explain.

A friend of mine was out leading a four-wheeling expedition, and immediately following the outing, he came to our house to lead a small group Bible Study. When he arrived, he stared talking to me in my kitchen about the study he was about to teach, but it was very difficult for me to take him seriously because he had black splotches of mud on his face. he either didn't realize the mud was there or simply didn't mind, and he would have left it on his face had I not said something to him. Perhaps because many of the others who were in that room also had gone four-wheeling and were covered in mud, it just seemed normal and was not out of place. But because I was clean and freshly showered, it seemed to me to be quite silly. How often are we like that-not even realizing we look foolish because all around us there are others who look just as dirty or worse? The Word says that those who compare themselves to themselves are not wise.

Psalm 1:1 reveals that there truly is a progression of becoming more and more like the world and that it is possible to not even realize it is happening. "Blessed is the man that walks not in the council of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers." Walking, stopping and standing, and finally sitting down. It starts by just taking a bit of worldly counsel, moves to taking on some of the world's ways, and ends with us taking our place at the table to dine, completely comfortable in lives that displease God.

Much of the church is filled with man-pleasers who are unwilling to point out the mud that has splattered on our faces in the course of life, and too many are more interested in being like and accepted by men than being accepted by God. Yet, the Word reveals that God is preparing an acceptable Bride, without spot or blemish, to present to His Son! This is not about being perfect, it is about recognizing the mud on our faces and confessing our sins to a God who declares that He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Caring for orphans and widows and being unspotted by the world is not an either/or option. Some ask, "why has the evangelical church not stepped up to care for orphans and widows," but let us also ask ourselves, "why have we also not chosen to have the muddy spots of the world continually cleansed by God?" Is it the God of mammon we are busy worshiping? Is it that envy, competition, or selfish ambition are present? Or is it that we are not even aware that we are dirty because we are hard pressed to find someone among us who is choosing to be set apart unto holiness? I used to think I was very generous, until I realized that I was comparing myself to those who were stingy. Let us not compare ourselves to one another, for God has given us the great example, His Son, Jesus!

Take a few minutes and ask God to search your heart and reveal anything in your life that needs to be confessed, an way that you have a been spotted by the world. In what ways can you be set apart unto holiness? What steps can you take today to care for orphans and widows while remaining unspotted by the world?

(from my devotional, Seeds of Change)

Brittnie

Think Of Me

2009-05-01T12:30:00.000-05:00

National Day of Prayer 2009

2009-04-30T11:39:00.001-05:00

Get ready to hit your knees!

Revive in 5

2009-04-02T20:11:00.008-05:00

REVIVE Ministries presents, "REVIVE in 5". Over the next several months we will be putting up videos recapping the 2008 REVIVE events. You will be able to watch highlights from select talks and get a taste of REVIVE in just 5 minutes. Here is video number one. For best viewing, choose the "HQ" button at the bottom of the video frame to view in high quality. Enjoy!

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Sheep and Goats-Which side are you on?

2009-03-26T08:48:00.000-05:00

Sheep and Goats
Which side are you on?

When Jesus was asked to describe His second coming, He answered first with warnings, second with stories, and finally with a plain statement about “when the Son of Man comes in is glory.”

by Ray Hollenbach

The fifth and final discourse in Matthew’s gospel provides a vivid picture of Jesus standing just outside the Temple in Jerusalem as He tells his followers about the second coming. The irony could not have been greater. Even as Israel rejected the first coming of Jesus, He spoke to them of His second coming.

With each pronouncement in Matthew 24 and 25, Jesus’ words become more and more forceful. Now, in his final saying, Jesus speaks plainly enough for us to hear Him twenty centuries later. (Matt: 25: 31-46)

The words of Jesus in a single verse are breathtaking: "When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.” (Matthew 25:31) These statements fall on us with breathtaking rapidity. The carpenter from Nazareth claims plainly to be the Son of Man described in Daniel’s prophecies from centuries before (Daniel chapter 7); He will command all the angels of heaven; and He will sit on a throne of judgment that oversees all of human history.

What kind of person could make such claims? What kind of person claims that he will return after a long absence, sit on a throne, and separate the gentle from the stubborn? What kind of person declares that his choices alone qualify people for everlasting reward or eternal punishment? Jesus not only predicts his return, he issues a warning that the second coming will not be like the first.

Christian writer C.S. Lewis reminds us that we cannot separate the teachings of Jesus from his astounding claims about himself. In a famous essay Lewis points out: “Either this man was, and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronising nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.” (Mere Christianity, 1952)

In his first appearance on earth Jesus is “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” (John 1:29) Jesus reveals in Matthew 25 that in His second coming He will return as the judge of all humanity. His bold statements outside the Temple that day force us to re-evaluate all we have learned about His teaching.

Jesus not only called the religious leaders of his day into account. He is calling us into account even now. Just as His resurrection was the Father’s vindication of Jesus’ claim to be the Savior of the world, so his second coming will be the vindication of His claim to be Lord of Heaven and Earth.

Watch a video about the Second Coming:

After describing the difficulties of the last days and telling stories about His return Jesus calls us to choose what we will do with His teaching. We can recognize Him as Lord now or in the day of His coming. Indeed, we should make our choice now because in the day of His coming the time for choosing will be over. The day of His coming tilts the scale from our choices to His final judgments.

In these final words about His second coming Jesus says plainly that He will separate the sheep from the goats. In that day our opinions about ourselves will not matter. Only His opinion will matter. In that day Jesus sets people aside for eternal reward or everlasting punishment. But we can do something about our destiny now, before that day. We can bow before Him now.

In the second coming only Jesus’ choice will matter. Our choices matter now. How important is that choice set before us? It is so important that at the second coming all the angels in heaven assemble to witness the results. It is so important that God Himself prepared His Kingdom “before the foundations of the world.” The words from Matthew’s gospel are not set before us to satisfy our curiosity. They are divinely inspired to set before us the most important choice we will ever make—will we be sheep or goats in God’s eyes?

Ray Hollenbach,a native of Chicago, has been the pastor of Vineyard Campbellsville (KY) for eleven years. His desire is to see the Kingdom of God advance in Campbellsville and beyond, as well as to see the next generation of leaders raised up and released into ministry.

The Virgins and the Bridegroom

2009-03-13T14:35:00.000-05:00

Christians of every generation have been interested in the return of Jesus Christ to the earth. And no surprise: the second coming of Christ has been the hope of the church in every age.

by Ray Hollenbach

Jesus Himself instructed us to “keep awake” and be aware of the signs of the times:

At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

At midnight the cry rang out: "Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!"

Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, "Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out."

'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. — Matthew 25: 1-13

In this parable Jesus gives his disciples the assurance of his return and provides instructions for how they should order their lives in light of the promise of his coming. His message was not only for them; it is for us as well. What can we learn from the Lord’s story?

From the very opening words of the parable we can discover something about the community of faith: we wait together for his return. His coming will certainly involve personal accountability as Jesus returns to judge each person, but until he arrives we are called to remain in community.

It is a fact demonstrated in every century and every culture: Christians flourish in community and wither when they attempt the Christian life on their own. We have a duty to await the bridegroom together.

The young women in this story also carry lanterns. It is a beautiful image of those pure in their faith, filled with expectancy, acting in obedience to the Lord’s command to be the light of the world. Jesus said, "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world" (John 9:5). But he also said to his followers, "You are the light of the world" (Matt. 5:14).

In his absence he wants us to carry God’s light. In a world darkened by sin we are the evidence that a new day is coming. For some people trapped in the darkness of depression or disobedience, we may be the only light they see. And the light we carry is not our own, it comes from the Spirit he has given us.

Jesus spoke of the oil that enabled the lamps to burn. Throughout the Scripture oil is one of the symbols of the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised that He would not leave us alone. While He is away he provides his Holy Spirit to comfort and empower his disciples.

In this parable it is the oil that gives the lanterns their light, and the virgins must trim the lamps. This speaks of our devotion and fervor. We have a responsibility to trim our lamps. No one can do it for us. We alone must be sure that we steward the precious resource of his presence in the Person of the Holy Spirit. The Apostle Paul reminded us that we are the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and instructed those who waited for the Lord’s return, "do not to put out the Spirit’s fire."

This passage also reminds us that things may take a little longer than we might expect. The bridegroom was a long time coming. He was delayed so long that both the wise and the foolish both fell asleep, but we are still commanded to be ready for his return at any moment.

Ultimately, only the Father knows the day and the hour of the Son’s return. While we recognize along with the Psalmist that our times are in his hands, we also need to recognize that the End Times are most definitely in his hands.

Much has been made of the end of Jesus' parable. When word finally comes that his return is at hand, the foolish virgins must leave to find more oil, and they eventually find themselves on the outside looking in.

This verse can be the source of argument and division or we can take from it one sure lesson: instead of fearing the words, "I don't know you," we can prepare now for the assurance that the door to the feast will be open to us.

Have we made Jesus both Savior and Lord of our lives? Do we guard the gift of the Spirit given to us? Do we look eagerly to the day of his coming?

The end of this parable is the beginning of the wedding feast. And Christ Himself has made a way for all to come and dine. The second coming is really the beginning: the beginning of the marriage supper of the Lamb. Will you be ready?

Signs of Christ's Return

2009-02-25T11:50:00.001-06:00

Signs of Christ's Return
How Then Should We Live?
Christians have been looking for Jesus’ Second Coming ever since He left the first time. We have always longed for the time when our Savior will come from heaven and make everything right once again on the earth. I hope you’re looking for it because Paul says at the end of 2 Timothy that there is a crown awaiting all of those who are longing for His appearing. Are you longing for it? Do you get up in the morning thinking, This could be the day?

by Skip Heitzig

Christians live with hindsight and foresight. We look back to our redemption: the once-for-all finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross on our behalf. And we look forward to restoration, where there is a total do-over, a make-over on Planet Earth, and Jesus Christ rules and reigns.

As we look forward, how should we live? The Apostle Paul wrote in Titus 2:12-13: “Live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.”

As we anticipate, what should we know? What should we be aware of? Consider the parable of the fig tree that Jesus tells in Matthew 24:32: “Now learn this parable from the fig tree: When its branch has already become tender and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near.”

Notice that Jesus did not say, “Interpret what the fig tree means.” He simply said, “Learn a lesson from it.” He didn’t say, “Now you go to your theological libraries and try to figure out every little meaning of every detail.” He just said, “Look at the fig tree. Take a lesson from it.”

I believe there is a simple, straightforward meaning to the parable of the fig tree: You can tell what’s coming ahead by what you see right now. Jesus gave a series of signs earlier in this chapter—massive worldwide persecution (Matthew 24:2-13); worldwide evangelization (Matthew 24:14); the abomination of desolation and the mass exodus of the Jews from Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15-20); and the cataclysmic catastrophes that occur on the earth and in the heavens (Matthew 24:21-31).

Jesus said these signs would be “the beginning of sorrows.” The word that is used to mean sorrows is the same word that means birth pains. Birth pains are different from abdominal pains. Birth pains are more frequent and more intense. And when the birth pains come, you know the birth is about to take place.

If you ever travel to South Dakota, there’s a little town there known as Wall, and there is a drug store called Wall Drug. When Ted Hustead started the store back in the 1930s, he knew it would not get much traffic from his small town, so he put up signs—everywhere. He decided that everyone should know about his store. So he put a sign in all 50 states that tells the distance from that state to Wall Drug, S.D.

In Memphis, the sign reads: “Wall Drug: 1,192 miles.” In Paris, France, it says: “Wall Drug: 5,961 miles.” At the South Pole: “Wall Drug: 9,333 miles.” There’s a sign in Moscow and Kenya. There’s one outside the Taj Mahal in Agra, India. But if you’re driving on Interstate 90 and you’re 45 miles outside of Wall, you can count 53 signs in that 45-mile stretch leading into the little town. The signs get bigger and brighter. So, just seeing a sign for Wall Drug isn’t necessarily an indication that you’re close, but when those signs become more frequent and more intense, you know you’re almost there. Jesus gave a whole list of signs, or time indicators, so that already we can say, “I’m noticing the world shaping up toward His coming.”

Matthew 24:35 gives us a promise: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” There are two parts to this promise: The world of men will end, and the Word of God will endure. If you’re a materialist, I feel sorry for you. If your only hope is that new home or that wonderful garden or the new car, enjoy it now, because it’s all going to burn. The Lord has been faithful to remind me of this throughout the years. It seems that every time I buy something new, even though I try really hard to take care of it, it gets dinged or scratched. It still works, but it’s as if the Lord is saying, “It’s all going to burn.”

Matthew 24 closes with a parable about a wealthy master who leaves for a period of time and places all that he has with a servant. He comes back and catches his servant “in the act.” But what does he catch his servant doing? If the servant is wise, he is working; if the servant is foolish, he is wasting time.

The foolish servant says, “The lord is delaying his coming,” inferring that his master wouldn’t come for a long time, if at all. And in this section of Scripture Jesus goes on to tell two other parables. One speaks of 10 virgins going to meet the bridegroom, and the bridegroom is delayed in his coming. The other is the parable of the talents, in which a man gives his servants money and immediately goes on a journey. In that parable Jesus said, “After a long time, the lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them.”

It seems to me that, in telling these parables, the Lord was preparing His disciples for what would turn out to be a long absence. He was using imagery to say, “I’m going, and I’m coming back—but it’s going to be a long time.”

And the question for us is this: What are we to be doing in the meantime?

The answer is found in this story in Matthew 24. There are two kinds of servants: wise and wicked. The wise servant is caught in the act of faithful service. The wicked servant is caught in the act of fickle selfishness.

We who follow God are His servants. He is the Master. I want to remind you that if you are a Christian, Christ owns you. When you gave your life to Christ, you gave your life to Christ. He is the Boss. He calls the shots. You can never see your life as independent from God. In fact, that’s the very essence of sin.

Jesus says, “Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his master made ruler over his household, to give them food in due season?” (Matthew 24:45). This indicates a task done in God’s household, the church. How are you helping to build up other believers in God’s household? How are you sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ with those who don’t know Him?

Notice that the first servant is given two adjectives, faithful and wise. Let me ask you: What if your car started one out of three times? Would you say the car is faithful? What if you didn’t show up for work two or three days a month—just because you didn’t want to? Would your employer say you are faithful? What if you decided to make your mortgage payments most of the time, but a couple times a year you didn’t, because you wanted to buy something else? Would the bank say you’re faithful? In the same way, if you just come to church sporadically, but not enough to get involved, are you faithful?

Wise is the second adjective. Wise means you have enough insight that would prompt your obedience. Do you know that the wisest way for you to live is in absolute surrender to Christ? Romans 12:1 says “I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” It’s the smartest way to live. It’s faithful and it’s wise.

And it’s how we are to live in light of the return of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Skip Heitzig
Skip Heitzig is senior pastor at Ocean Hills Church, in San Juan Capistrano,
Calif.

Proclaiming Christ's Return

2009-02-18T13:34:00.002-06:00

Proclaiming Christ's Return

I have felt for a long time that the church has long neglected prophetic truth and, as a result, has failed to carry out God’s revealed program not only for the church itself but has failed to tell the world of God’s plan for the future.
by Billy Graham

The church has failed to keep divine objectives in view because she has neglected the prophetic message of the Word of God. This neglect has caused Christians bewilderment, confusion and ignorance in a world that seems to be disintegrating around them. Many Christians needlessly wring their hands and ask, “What is going to happen to us? What does the future hold?” Many of them are filled with fear, even though our Lord said, “Fear not.”

I believe there is a worldwide tragedy as a result of a neglect of the prophetic Scriptures. Through the centuries men and women have been experimenting with their own social, national and international programs. They have been trying to bring about a righteousness that is not of God and, therefore, it is not obtainable. Instead, it results in a recurring national collapse and sometimes in worldwide calamity. We are heading for one of those collapses at the present hour.

Today, when the church should be leading the way out of the darkness that covers the Earth, it is all too obvious that we are unable to do so because of our spiritual impotence and lack of knowledge. The church today stands sadly in the midst of the ever-increasing ruins of a civilization the church itself helped to create but seemingly has little power or even desire to save.

Acts 15:14-18 is the record of the first all-church conference. It was held in Jerusalem and concerned the work of the church in the first century. The chairman of the conference was the Apostle James. He said: Simon has declared how God at the first visited the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His name. And with this the words of the prophets agree, just as it is written: “After this I will return and will rebuild the tabernacle of David, which has fallen down; I will rebuild its ruins, and I will set it up; so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.” Known to God from eternity are all His works.

Thus the program of the church is outlined. It begins with the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, His resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. It continues with the Great Commission to go into all the world and proclaim the message of the Gospel.

The church is not a political organization or a social reform society. Individual Christians may work for political reforms and for social betterment, and in many cases we should do so. As the salt of the earth, we have a responsibility for being the preservative of society. As the light of the world, we must let our light so shine that people seeing our good works may glorify our Father in heaven.

But the church must keep on the main highway outlined in the Word of God and witness to the nations not only concerning the truth of salvation but also the truth of the program of God for the whole world, especially witnessing to the glorious consummation of the age when Jesus Christ is going to return.

This is what the Apostle Paul did when he preached to the Athenians as recorded in Acts 17. Taking his text from the altar of the unknown god, which he discovered while walking around Athens, he declared, “In Him we live and move and have our being” and “we are also His offspring” (Acts 17:28).

Warning against the worship of gods of gold and silver and graven stone, Paul continued, “These times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead” (Acts 17:30, 31).

The church should be boldly proclaiming the deity and authority of Jesus as the powerful antidote to the present trend toward world chaos. The whole human race is going after false messiahs and false prophets, false religions and other gods. They will continue this way unless they are continuously taught that God has been manifested authoritatively in the flesh and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

While there has been a great evangelical revival in the church throughout the world, there are many evangelicals who neglect the prophetic program as laid out in Scripture. Therefore, millions of people and millions of professing Christians have little hope in the future. They have not been told that our hope is in the return of Jesus Christ.

Many have turned from regeneration to the philosophy of humanism. This supposedly universal solvent in the last analysis is truly the opium of the people. It blinds them to truth so that while they ignore the reality and nature of evil, they are also deluded into believing that even the present evil is some sort of process of change for the better. They declare that even this latest reversion to savagery is but the birth pangs of a better day. The progressive humanistic interpretation of the message of the Bible is the basis of many of the programs of so-called Christian conferences today, and the gospel of social change has taken the place of the Gospel of regeneration.

Don’t get me wrong. I am for social change. In many countries of the world it is desperately needed. Even in our own country some of the structures of society need to be changed, even though most people do not know how they need to be changed or by what methods they should be changed. I have yet to find a person to tell me where the ideal government exists in the world. There can be no ideal government based upon human nature as it is. That is why it is so important that human nature be changed. That is why Jesus said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7).

There is one clear mandate to the church, and that is to proclaim the Gospel and make disciples of all nations. The results of the church’s neglect of the prophecies of the Bible are pathetic and tragic. Had we kept the message and program true to the prophetic Word, it would have been kept in its proper spiritual orbit. There would never have been the deadly ecclesiasticism of the Middle Ages—which caused the church to glory in her form, ceremonies and temporal power. There might never have been the divisions that followed the Protestant Reformation, which brought a section of the church to the truth and yet created confusion in the world by sectarianism. The expectancy of Christ coming again would have kept the church unified, holy, otherworldly and energetic, balanced with a passion for social reform and social justice.

I have found that where churches are preaching the Second Coming of Jesus Christ, the churches are evangelistic and concerned with the social needs of the people round about them. These churches also recognize the Bible as the authoritative Word of God instead of denying it.

Only God knows the future and can foretell it with accuracy. In this connection, Peter says, “we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:16). But he did say that in the message of prophecy there shines a light in a dark place, until the darkness of this day is over and the day of the Kingdom of God dawns.

The Bible teaches that the future Great Ruler of the world will be Jesus Christ. He shall rule in righteousness and equity, and shall make the knowledge of God to cover the earth as the waters cover the seas. He shall destroy wars and its miseries. Upon His shoulder, world government shall rest. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father and the Prince of Peace.

If you don’t know Christ, you can come to know Him personally today by confessing and turning from your sin, and receiving Christ into your heart right now, and you can be prepared for the future. ©BGEA

from the February 2009 issue of "Decision" magazine

The Life I Planned by Beth Moore

2009-02-10T13:15:00.000-06:00

Has someone seen the life I planned?
It seems it's been misplaced
I've looked in every corner
It's lost without a trace
I've found one I don't recognize
Things missing that were dear
Promises I'd hope to keep
And dreams I'd dreamed aren't here
Faces I had planned to see
Hands I planned to hold
Now absent in the pictures
Not the way I told
Has someone seen the life I planned?
Did it get thrown away?
God took my hand from searching
Then I heard him say,

"Child, your ears have never heard
Your eyes have never seen
Eternal plans I have for you
Are more than you could dream.
"You long to walk by sight
But I'm teaching eyes to see.
I know what I am doing
'Til then, you must believe."
He's done so much, I felt ashamed
To know He heard my moans
To think I'd trade in all He's done
For plans made on my own.
I wept over His faithfulness
And how He'd proved Himself
How He'd gone beyond my dreams
And said to Him myself,

"No, my ears have never heard
My eyes have never seen
Eternal plans you have for me
Are more than I could dream.
"Yes, I long to walk by sight
But You're teaching eyes to see
You know what You are doing
'Til then, I must believe."
I felt His great compassion
Mercy unrestrained
He let me mourn my losses
And showed me to my gains.
I offered Him my future
And released to Him my past
I traded in my dreams
For a plan He said would last.
I get no glimpse ahead
No certainties at all
Except the presence of the One
Who will not let me fall.
Are you also searching
For a life you planned yourself?
Have you looked in every corner?
Have you checked on every shelf?

Child, your ears have never heard
Your eyes have never seen
Eternal plans He has for you
Are more than you could dream.
Perhaps you long to walk by faith
But He's teaching eyes to see
He knows what He is doing
Child, step out and believe.

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind
has conceived what God has prepared
for those that love Him." 1 Corinthians 2:9

Go Tell!

2009-01-22T11:37:00.002-06:00

There is a world out there in desperate need to hear that "LOVE has come". Are we telling them?

Great video message by Travis Cottrell on Vimeo! Check it out.

Travis Cottrell Go Tell from Rick Morgan on Vimeo.

My Beloved

2009-01-21T11:37:00.001-06:00

You’re My beloved you’re My Bride.

To sing over you is My delight.

Come away with Me my love.

Under My mercy come and wait.

Till we are standing face to face.

I see no stain on you My child.

You are beautiful to Me, so beautiful to Me.

I sing over you My song of peace.

Cast all your cares down at My feet.

Come and find your rest in Me.

I’ll breathe My life inside of you

I’ll bear you up on eagle’s wings.

And hide you in the shadow of My strength.

I’ll take you to My quiet waters

I’ll restore your soul.

Come rest in Me and be made whole.

You’re My beloved you’re My bride.

To sing over you is My delight.

Come away with Me my love.

By Kari Jobe

Lead Me to the ROCK

2009-01-13T12:21:00.006-06:00

Psalm 61:1-2
Lead Me to the Rock
A Psalm of David.

1Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; 2from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Psalm 61 was a similar prayer my father had been offering up to God for about five months. At the news of his cancer, he began calling on the only one who could rescue him. All of us were crying out to God for deliverance from that evil disease. However, God didn’t answer quite how we expected. As I type this letter, a year ago today, this very minute my father left us and was delivered home to be with the LORD.

In his last few days, the cancer had taken its toll on my dad’s body and left him bed ridden and very incoherent. While watching him slowly slip away from us, my mom and I received a precious gift from the LORD the day before my father’s death. We witnessed miraculous things and experienced incomparable joys!

Dad had woken up from a deep sleep and began carrying on coherent conversations with us. His personality came to life as he began his joking and playing pranks on my mom which brought us sweet laughter. We got to huddle and love on one another and talk for long periods of time. We were able to express fears as well as provide assurance of provisions for mom once dad was no longer with us. We spoke of the difficult situation at hand and of how much he would be dearly missed. Precious conversations!

Later, to our surprise, dad sat up in bed and requested his glasses and the news paper, not hesitating for a second to go straight to the sports page. We even enjoyed a playoff football game together where he was happy to share his thoughts and opinions on players and teams as he always did. To our delight, dad didn’t waste a minute to ask to enjoy the sheer pleasure of swigging down 2 chocolate (milk chocolate Bluebell of course) milk shakes. Don’t think for a minute that he didn’t exclaim, “Mmmm, that’s so good!” one more time.

We laughed, we cried, we reminisced, we prayed together, confessed, forgave, loved deeply and reconciled all things. All of life’s earthly pleasures were enjoyed to the fullest one last time. As well, all eternal questions and decisions were completely squared away as we thoroughly discussed salvation in Christ alone, by faith alone. Dad reaffirmed his trust and hope in the LORD as he uttered the sweetest words, “who else do I have?” God demonstrated great mercy and grace to us. Never had we experienced such loving presence from the Father.

But, one thing left mom and I stunned that day. Dad spoke of a dream he just had that morning. As he described the dream, he told us he found himself walking down a long path. At the end of the path he sat on a rock and there he began talking to God. At the time it didn’t make any sense to either mom or I. We pondered it, then accepted it and moved on.

Today we fully know what was happening in what seemed to dad as a dream. It was the answer to the prayer he had been praying all along. “Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer; from the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I”. It was not an answer of temporary deliverance. Jesus led dad down the path to The ROCK of his salvation, where he would find himself just the next morning, talking with God face to face, permanently. I praise you FATHER for letting us enjoy him one more day before you delivered him home.

Dad, I love you and miss you dearly.
With love always,
Your daughter, BB

Here I am to worship

2009-01-10T12:32:00.003-06:00

What a beautiful song of worship to YHWH that is being sung to Him all over the world! This brought such joy to my heart and caused me to call out Praise to our God!

Then I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. (Revelation 7:9)

Brittnie

Do you hear it too?

2008-12-31T10:51:00.003-06:00

Together for Adoption

Russell Moore: Adoption Awareness

2008-12-31T10:51:00.001-06:00

At the Feet of Jesus

2008-12-18T12:44:00.005-06:00

At the Feet of Jesus
December 18, 2008

As 2008 comes to a close, I find myself in awe over Jesus. Each year I get to know Him in a different way. It absolutely blows my mind that I can personally know the Creator of Heaven and earth. As I look back over different seasons of my life I always find that Jesus not only shapes me and conforms me to His image, He also reveals new characters of Himself to me. I usually can name a new one each time. If I could use one word to describe God’s character revealed to me this year it would be, “Mercy”.

While preparing this letter, I reflected on the past 3 Christmas letters that I have written and I found that each one had particular difficult situations. In 2005 we were waiting on a job. Just around the corner in 2006 we picked up our family and moved to another state for ministry. Last year we lost my grandmother and watched my father battle a nasty cancer. But, none of our family was prepared for what would happen this year. None of us knew that dad would leave our world so soon and enter our Saviors. No one was ready for this! The pain, confusion and grief were indescribable. But during this unbelievable time we witnessed the hand of God and felt His presence like never before. What Mercy!

After spending nearly all of January in Texas with my mom, I whirled home in order to prepare for a brand new women’s ministry the LORD had called me to. Already sure that I was totally incapable of the calling before me, taking on a new ministry while dealing with terrible grief seemed an impossible task. Buried in studies and overcome with speaking anxieties each month, the LORD became my confidence. I was met with intense spiritual battles head on all along the way while serving in this new capacity. But God in His great mercy clothed me with strength to endure every bit of it.

The love and gratitude I have for Jesus overflows with in me. I’m drawn to the text in the gospel of John where I find Mary of Bethany at the feet of Jesus. The account reads, “Mary took a bottle of very expensive perfume made from pure nard and poured it on Jesus' feet. Then she dried his feet with her hair.”(John 12:3) I love this picture. Mary, out of love and gratitude for Jesus is found anointing Jesus’ feet with a very costly perfume. Spending time at someone’s feet was the work of a servant and a woman with her hair unbound was not a common sight in public. The incredible picture that we find in this biblical text is Mary pouring out her life in an intense personal devotion to Christ.

In the verses following we find out that the perfume was worth 3 hundred denarii. (The equivalence of about a year’s wage) Matthew and Marks gospels give testimony that some thought this was a total waste. (Mk 14:4; Matt 26:8) I have a feeling many today would scorn the behavior of one who would pour out a years worth of wages on Jesus’ feet. Think about that for a minute. What do people these days do when they have saved a year’s salary? If it is all spent in devotion to Jesus how do people react? Sadly, I believe that most would exclaim as those already mentioned, “what a waste”. Yet, Jesus describes it as a beautiful thing! (Mark 14:6)

When we get a glimpse of who He really is and what He has done for us, one can’t help but fall at His feet and give it all away! As the great hymn by Isaac Watts says, “Were the whole realm of nature mine- That were an offering far too small- Love so amazing, so divine- Demands my soul, my life, my all.” I can not think of myself in any other place than my life poured out at the feet of Jesus in total devotion, giving everything to Him for all He has done in my life. Saving me from the pit of hell was alone more than I deserve. But the fact that he goes way beyond that and gets personally involved in individuals lives and gives hope, comfort, strength and great mercy when we need it is something I’ll never understand.

At Christmas, in the midst of all the buying, decorating and celebrating some may give Jesus a glance. Others may perhaps meditate on what the birth of Jesus meant. But I hope you do more. I hope you’ll find that there is no greater place to be in this life than to be poured out at the feet of Jesus. Not just at Christmas time but at all times. There you’ll find that there is really no cost and no loss. Nothing wasted. There you’ll find all you need.

Soli Deo Gloria,
Brittnie

All the way my Savior leads me

2008-12-09T08:53:00.001-06:00

All the way my Savior leads me
Who have I to ask beside
How could I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide

All the way my Savior leads me
Cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me grace for every trial
Feeds me with the living Bread

You lead me and keep me from falling
You carry me close to Your heart
And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

All the way my Savior leads me
O, the fullness of His love
O, the sureness of His promise
In the triumph of His blood

And when my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way
Jesus led me all the way

All the way my Savior leads me

Lyrics by Chris Tomlin (Hello Love Album)

Last REVIVE for 2008

2008-11-17T12:25:00.003-06:00

Ladies,
Our last REVIVE for 2008 is this Thursday night the 20th at 7:00pm in the Student building.I'll finish up our study on Jeremiah chapter 2 and focus on verses 12-13.

Hope to see you there!

Brittnie

It's here! It's here!

2008-11-13T12:41:00.003-06:00

It's finally here! My new ESV study bible has been on back order and it FINALLY came today! I am currently just observing it, taking in it's brand "new" smell and just dreaming of the places that God will take me with Him in this new in depth study of the WORD!

I can not wait to dig into it!

If you have not heard about this new study bible you'll want to check it out here. ESV STUDY BIBLE

It is probably by far the best study bible around.

Anyone see this?

2008-11-13T12:21:00.005-06:00

Anyone see the article called "Why Believe in a god? Just be good for goodness sake?

click here for full article

Thoughts?

Understanding the Times

2008-11-05T15:06:00.000-06:00

I felt like posting this again. I wrote it this time last year.

Understanding the Times
Daniel 9:1-3 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

This passage so stuck out to me that I couldn’t help but write about it. Let’s look at this together. For a little background, All Israel had transgressed God’s law and turned away, refusing to obey the LORD their God. (Dan 9:11) and because of their unfaithfulness to the LORD, He scattered them both near and far in all the countries. (vs.7) In particular God had exiled Judah to Babylon and the people were in captivity. Daniel was one of those from the tribe of Judah who had been exiled to Babylon. But Daniel, even as a young teenage boy resolved not to let the pagan culture in which he now lived to be an influence on his life as a child of God. He lived in faithfulness to his God all the days of His life.

And here we are at this passage when Daniel was old in age and we see him searching the scriptures. He is reading the prophecies of Jeremiah which tell of a 70 year captivity and he understands that the LORD will deliver His people out of captivity just as He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Daniel understands the times. He realizes that through the Prophecies of Jeremiah and the length the people have been exiled that the time of captivity is drawing to a close and the LORD will be faithful to restore His people.

Now Daniel, understanding the prophecies and believing in God’s soon coming restoration does something so interesting. He turns to the LORD God and pleads to him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. Amazing! Why did He do this? Why wasn’t he sitting back and carrying on with his life while waiting for Gods restoration? We see very clearly through his incredibly passionate prayer that he offers up to the LORD in verses 4-19 that he is praying for his sins and the sins of God’s people will be forgiven and he is mourning over them. The people that bore the very name of GOD had been living life their way and were not turning to the LORD and God punished them. Daniel prayed for his people to turn from their sins and return to God.

This raises the hair on the back of my neck. Daniel KNEW the times and he prayed and fasted for his people!
Do we know the times that we are in? As believers are we searching scripture to understand where we are at in our day and age? In Matthew chapter 24 Jesus gives us signs of the close of the age. Jesus tells us in vs.12 that in the last days we will see an increase in wickedness and the love of many will grow cold. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 tells that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

I’d say that describes our day pretty accurately, wouldn’t you? And by reading these God breathed texts what are we doing about it? Jesus says in Matthew 24:32-33 that we can learn a good lesson from the fig tree: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he (Jesus) is near, at the very gates. Check your own spiritual pulse and the pulse of professing believers today. Do we understand the times? Or are we still going about our daily lives unconcerned about the sin in our lives or the spreading of the Gospel and totally disconnected from the Kingdom work that is to be done before Jesus’ return.

I am quickly reminded of Matthew 24:37-40 which says for as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Let this not be us! Let us be like Daniel who searched the scriptures and understood the times and cried out to God with prayers and petitions and with fasting on behalf of their sin and let us turn to the LORD with all our hearts to be ready on the day that the Son of Man returns. The time is drawing near.

Brittnie

Another one we need to hear

2008-11-05T09:29:00.000-06:00

From Beth's Blog.

To my beloved Sisters who I esteem so highly and consistently find to be part of the solution to our problems in the Church rather than the cause,

Please join me in praying for our President-elect Barack Obama, his wife Michelle, and his precious daughters, Sasha and Malia. Go with me before the Throne of our sovereign God and ask Him to grant wisdom from above to President-elect Obama and the indwelling presence and power of Jesus Christ. In the words of the Apostle Paul, "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone - for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Savior..."

Please also join me in the active and deliberate pursuit of unity and purity in the Body of Christ at this historical time in our country. I implore you in Jesus Name to have zero tolerance for prejudice whether it is regarding party-affiliation, color (whether you are Black, White, or Brown), economics or the like. Disagreement is not sin. Prejudice is. Satan has plotted events and planted attitudes that, should he be successful, will result in havoc. We must not stand for his schemes or cooperate in a single way. We would severely displease God and invite untold chastisement upon Christ's Church in our nation. Speak clearly to your children and graciously but emphatically draw a line in your work places and social circles regarding your stand against prejudice of any kind.

"Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, 'Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.'" (Matthew 12:25) A united house stands. A divided house falls. The devil has much to gain. But he also has much to lose.

We are the Body of Jesus Christ and we have an opportunity to show His character. This is our watch. We stand for what is right not from our feet but from our knees.

I humble myself before you and make these pleas under such bold direction of God that I could not resist it nor disobey it. He made it a fire in my bones.

I love and esteem you so much. Shoulder to shoulder, Dear Siestas. Let's leave not one inch for the enemy to come between us.

Beth Moore

Beth's Blog

2008-11-04T12:24:00.003-06:00

Great words from Beth Moore's blog today!

The LPM Blog

Psalm 118:24

A few things I'm so thankful for on this election day, regardless of the outcome:

*We live in a democracy where we have the right to a vote and a voice. We have the God-given responsibility to use both wisely and in the way that best reflects what God conveys through Scripture.

*God "works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will" and "according to the plan." Ephesians 1:11

*Not only does God work out everything in conformity with His will, He has promised to work out everything for the GOOD of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

*God sets up kings and deposes them and gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning. Daniel 2:21

*We, the beautifully diverse family of God, are never - not at any time - powerless. Nor are we ever victims of a system. Believing prayer takes us through doors we'll never be invited to enter and into judges chambers we'll never grace. Take a look back at Genesis 18 once again with astonishment over the dialogue between God and His servant and friend, Abraham. Rejoice that God is ever mindful of a faithful remnant. The Judge of the Earth will always do right.

*Even if persecution should await believers in Christ or harrowing circumstances hound us, God will use hardship to bring unity and purity to a people who need it desperately. The best of circumstances do not always produce the best in the Bride of Christ.

*The living God is firmly established upon His Throne and there at His holy feet we can always find grace and mercy in our time of need.

*No matter what happens today, we are GOD'S elect. He has elected us to show His heart and to walk in His ways in the culture that surrounds us. We are called to walk in the challenging balance of grace and truth.

May we be filled with Christ's Spirit today and our mouths given to praise and to believing, receiving prayer. God IS faithful and He has us firmly in His hand. We will not fear. We will not doubt. We will not hate.

"Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in Him, for He shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between His shoulders." Deuteronomy 33:12

I remain your servant,
Beth

The next five minutes

2008-10-22T14:08:00.001-05:00

The New Testament Church

2008-10-21T11:46:00.004-05:00

Good stuff from A.W. Tozer’s "Paths To Power" .

The (Early) Church was not an organization merely, not a movement, but a walking incarnation of spiritual energy. The Church began in power, moved in power and moved just as long as she had power. When she no longer had power she dug in for safety and sought to conserve her gains. But her blessings were like the manna: when they tried to keep it overnight it bred worms and stank. So we have had monasticism, scholasticism, institutionalism; and they have all been indicative of the same thing: absence of spiritual power. In Church history every return to New Testament power has marked a new advance somewhere, and every diminution of power has seen the rise of some new mechanism for conservation and defense. If this analysis is reasonably correct, then we are today in a state of very low spiritual energy.

The only power God recognizes in His Church is the power of His Spirit; whereas the only power actually recognized today by the majority of evangelicals is the power of man. God does His work by the operation of the Spirit, while Christian leaders attempt to do theirs by the power of trained and devoted intellect. Bright personality has taken the place of the divine afflatus.

Only what is done through the Eternal Spirit will abide eternally.

The essence of true religion is spontaneity, the sovereign movings of the Holy Spirit upon and in the free spirit of redeemed men. When religion loses its sovereign character and becomes mere form this spontaneity is lost also, and in its place come precedent, propriety, system–and the file-card mentality. Back of the file-card mentality is the belief that spirituality can be organized.

For centuries the Church stood solidly against every form of worldly entertainment, recognizing it for what it was — a device for wasting time, a refuge from the disturbing voice of conscience, a scheme to divert attention from moral accountability. But of late she appears to have decided that if she cannot conquer the great god Entertainment she may as well join forces with him and make what use she can of his power.

Christianity is so entangled with the world that millions never guess how radically they have missed the New Testament pattern. Compromise is everywhere. The world is whitewashed just enough to pass inspection by blind men posing as believers.

Evangelical Christianity is now tragically below the New Testament standard. Worldliness is an accepted part of our way of life. Our religious mood is social instead of spiritual. We have lost the art of worship. We are not producing saints. Our models are successful business men, celebrated athletes and theatrical personalities. We carry on our religious activities after the methods of the modern advertiser. Our homes have been turned into theaters. Our literature is shallow and our hymnody borders on sacrilege. And scarcely anyone appears to care.

Much that passes for New Testament Christianity is little more than objective truth sweetened with song and made palatable by religious entertainment. Christ calls men to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name. He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they but accept Jesus the world is their oyster. He calls them to suffer; we call them to enjoy all the bourgeois comforts modern civilization affords. He calls them to self-abnegation and death; we call them to spread themselves like green bay trees or perchance even to become stars in a pitiful fifth-rate religious zodiac. He calls them to holiness; we call them to a cheap and tawdry happiness that would have been rejected with scorn by the least of the Stoic philosophers.

A new Decalogue has been adopted by the neo-Christians of our day, the first word of which reads “Thou shalt not disagree;” and a new set of Beatitudes too, which begins “Blessed are they that tolerate everything, for they shall not be made accountable for anything.” It is now the accepted thing to talk over religious differences in public with the understanding that no one will try to convert another or point out errors in his belief. Imagine Moses agreeing to take part in a panel discussion with Israel over the golden calf; or Elijah engaging in a gentlemanly dialogue with the prophets of Baal. Or try to picture our Lord Jesus Christ seeking a meeting of minds with the Pharisees to iron out differences.

The blessing of God is promised to the peacemaker, but the religious negotiator has better watch his step. Darkness and light can never be brought together by talk. Some things are not negotiable.

One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organization do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is [Zoe] Life, always.

The modern vogue of bringing science to the support of Christianity proves not the truth of the Christian faith but the gnawing uncertainty in the hearts of those who must look to science to give respectability to their faith.

Science, the sweet talking goddess which but a short time ago smilingly disposed of the Bible as a trustworthy guide and took the world by the hand to lead it into a man-made millennium, has turned out to be a dragon capable of destroying that same world with a flick of her fiery tail.

The Bible tells of another world too fine for the instruments of scientific research to discover. By faith we engage that world and make it ours. It is accessible to us through the blood of the everlasting covenant.

-A.W. Tozer, Paths To Power

Next Revive

2008-10-20T09:26:00.002-05:00

Our next Revive is this Thursday Oct 23, 2008 @ 7:00pm

Worship led by Amy Tosney
I will be teaching from Jeremiah 2.
Come join us!

Why so serious?

2008-10-14T17:45:00.008-05:00

Why so serious? I wanted to share a thought that just ran through my mind a couple of seconds ago while walking up the stairs. I don't know who all of my readers are but I know that there are several of you subscribed to the REVIVE blog. Half of which I don't even know personally. In any case, I felt I might want to share why I am always so serious on this blog.....if any of you have ever asked that question or let that thought cross your mind.

From the beginning of the REVIVE blog, I have felt God has called me to use it strictly for ministry purposes rather than for personal drama/silliness etc.(and believe me, I have drama!) I realize that some of what I share and post are very hard things to ponder and may seem harsh at times, but the LORD has not given me permission to change that tone. The LORD has reminded me time and time again that REVIVE is to sharpen and strengthen us, His Church. No fluff. No funny business. Not here. However, I am not opposed at all to the lighter side of things in the blogger world. Not at all! I totally recognize that God can be equally effective through that kind of blogging.

And, just for the record I am real. I do have feelings. I do bleed, get bruised, get knocked down, hurt deeply and struggle with every day life situations the same as everyone else. My marriage is not perfect, my parenting skills are shabby and my walk with the LORD has it's peaks and valleys. I do love to play and have fun and even be very silly on many occasions. And if you are looking for that kind of blogging from me I hope to allow that side of me to spill over on my other blog. In the meantime, the REVIVE blog will continue to be a tool that the LORD can use to help build up, challenge and strengthen the Bride. He is pursuing His people, hard, very hard....because His delight is not in a wayward Bride, but a completely devoted Bride in full adornment! Bear with me ladies and gents...God is working!

Thank you for allowing me to share with you the things the LORD is about in my life through the REVIVE blog.

Many blessings to you.
Brittnie

Where is all the money going?

2008-10-14T09:53:00.008-05:00

Yesterday I heard about a man in the state of Alabama who pays approximately $400 to attend each home game for his favorite college football team. After calculating up the gas to travel to the game, the price of a ticket for he and his wife, and the cost of food before, after, and during the game it totalled $400. This did not surprise me and as a math lover I was happy to see someone taking into account ALL of the costs and not just the ticket price.

This got me thinking though. Could that $400 have been used better? Are there really causes out there that are more important than college football, more important even then spending a Saturday with friends? Of course the answer is yes.

That same money could have easily fed 400 people for one day or 1 or 2 people for 1 year and 35 days assuming it cost $1 per day to feed someone like this little man pictured below. (keep in mind these are rough estimates)

Now, I know many of you will think I am a spoil sport but allow me to make my case. I love spending time with friends, I like watching college football. These things are fun and the enjoyment of them is not inheritantly evil. These are just examples to show how entertainment and self-satisfying endeavors have taken the place of our love for others. In our very comfortable world where we wake up, choose and outfit from our full closets, choose our breakfast from our multiplicity of choices, spend time in climates that are adjusted just right to keep out the summer's heat and winter's cold, and slide into plush, posturepedic beds at night in relatively safe neighborhoods we forget that there is a world that is STARVING for food and for the gospel. People are literally dying or losing abilities such as sight because they have no substantial food or no food at all.

All I am asking is that you consider it. I have had to consider myself how my budget is applied each month. As a single woman with a good job, no house payment, no car payment, and no dependents, I have money to spare each month. The question is.....has this money been given to me for my accumulation of things or for my sister in Africa, in Asia, in Alabaster? Lord, let us see our wealth and GIVE IT!

Lynsey

Excellent Movie!

2008-10-13T10:42:00.005-05:00

I know I have mentioned the movie Fireproof a couple of times already on this blog, but I finally saw it this past weekend and it far exceeded my expectations. Facing the Giants was great, however the level of acting could have been much improved! I knew the level of acting had to be better with Kirk Cameron starring in this film, but I was REALLY impressed with this movie! It was hilarious, very moving and extremely powerful. The role of the husband loving his wife as Christ loves the church was beautifully displayed. It was an excellent movie!

I wanted to encourage you to all go and see it whether you are married or not. It is a MUST see! If you know of someone who is struggling in their marriage, do as my friend Shawn said yesterday....."buy them the tickets, the popcorn and drink" march them into the theater and stand guard at the door". This movie is truly an answer to prayer with the issue of marriages that are falling apart today. It is strengthening marriages and changing lives! Go see it!

Would love to hear your comments on the movie for those of you that have seen it!!

The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood by John Piper

2008-10-10T13:42:00.001-05:00

Click on link to read.
The Ultimate Meaning of True Womanhood

God Speaking to the Church

2008-10-09T11:08:00.007-05:00

When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church.
1 Corinthians 14:26

Can you take this in a minute? This is a word to the church so listen up. EVERYONE (in Christ of course) has been given a hymn, a word of instruction (lesson) a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. Each of us! If you are in Christ, God is communicating to you in some way. WOW! God gives us some kind of communication in order to share with the church. This is how the church is built up, strengthened.

Heavens knows that the church needs to be edified in our day and age. Look at her. She is struggling. People are falling apart and falling out left and right. Marriages failing, addictions running wild, strongholds of sin abound. Encouragement is needed, strengthening is needed, purifying is needed! We must all work together and do our part in order for the church of Jesus Christ to function properly.

So, are you doing your part? God is speaking to you. Is He saying anything to you about something you need to be doing for the church? Are you listening to what God is saying and are you sharing that with the body of Christ? Are you? Or are you too caught up in running after the lusts of the age and staying so busy with nonsense that you aren't able to hear what God is saying to you? Listen, God has a part for you in this. Don't miss it. The church needs building up and it can't function properly with out you.

God is speaking. Please, please hear me brother or sister.....Start Listening!!

Red Letters Campaign

2008-10-06T09:43:00.000-05:00

REVIVE Retreat 2008 Recap

2008-09-30T14:28:00.002-05:00

REVIVE Retreat 2008 Recap- Thanks to Lynsey!

Fireproof

2008-09-25T22:11:00.003-05:00

Hey all,

I don't know if anyone has heard of this movie Fireproof or not, but it comes out in theaters this weekend and I wanted to encourage everyone to see it. It is by the creators of Facing the Giants and it's a story about a married couple on the brink of divorce but who realize that their marriage is worth fighting for. A much needed message out there in our world today even for Christians. I hope you'll go see it. You can go to the link www.fireproofthemovie.com for more info or to watch the trailer.

REVIVE Retreat

2008-09-25T10:21:00.004-05:00

Our REVIVE ladies retreat is this weekend. We have been waiting for this weekend to get here for a very long time. We are really excited about what God is going to do. We look forward to His word and Presence and fellowship between other sisters in Christ. OH, and did I mention just some time away from the normal business of our lives! The camp that we will be going to is absolutely beautiful and the weather is supposed to be gorgeous! I can't wait to meet with the LORD. Would you be willing to pray for us this weekend?

Oh, and btw....there is still room to join us if you can come!

http://www.hunterstreet.org/info/ministries/Revive_Bible_Study.html

Brittnie

New Blog Gadget

2008-09-20T07:14:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone!
Have you seen the new blog gadget called "follower"?
It enables people that read your blog to allow their blog profile picture to be seen on your blog. I would love for those that read my blog to sign in as a reader. I have several people that have subscribed to my blog and I don't know who you are. Would love to be able to know who's reading! I have added this new gadget on my side bar. I've put it at the very top for it to be easily found.Just click "follow this blog" and you are all set!

Would love to hear from you!

Brittnie

The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

2008-09-15T16:49:00.002-05:00

As I continue my study this week for the REVIVE retreat on the way of the Kingdom, I ran across this prayer by Francis of Assisi. This is the way of a Kingdom heart. May we sit at the feet of Christ and learn from Him and allow Him to change us from the inside out and be a people who reflect His love.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Streams of Living Water

2008-09-11T07:54:00.002-05:00

I did it again. Before it began, I nearly ruined a divine weekend set up for my husband Jeff and me. It was a very crazy time in our lives and I was desperate for restoration in the Lord though I didn’t realize it at the time. From the moment I heard the words, “I am surprising you on a weekend get away”, I began to panic. It was our 10 year anniversary and we were going on a trip. Already my mind was swarmed with many questions and concerns. Some of which were money, kids, weather, clothes etc. How would I prepare and pack for an unknown destination and what would I do with weekend commitments that were already planned out? Should I really go? Most importantly, can I hand over complete control to Jeff who was so lovingly planning this get away? I did not have a choice. It was a done deal and so off we went for a weekend away from our chaotic lives.

Upon the arrival to our destination, we discovered the keys for our stay were left for us and that we were the only guests at this location. We were tucked away nice and snug in a great little cabin on a beautiful camp ground nestled off in the Texas Hill Country. The excitement began the moment we stepped foot onto the camp ground. We arose the next morning to the most splendid weather and glorious site, God’s creation! Jeff and I were anxious to get started with our weekend and immediately we began exploring this beautifully fashioned piece of acreage. Explore we did, all day long!

Surrounded by God's glory, I thought it appropriate to ask Him for a thrill. Selfishly, I began requesting this thrill from God as if He owed it to me and this is what I began to seek. My eyes became focused on what I demanded instead of on what He wanted to show me. After a few hours of searching for something that I just knew would knock my socks off, I began to notice something else. My ears were hearing the constant and amazing sounds of water flowing through out the hills of the country land. That wonderful sound of the water trickling and flowing down the hills became more evident. Not only did my ears finally tune in, but my eyes were now beholding the beauty!

Jeff and I began following a stream down to its end and discovered the most wonderful site of all. This stream of water dumped right into a small but deep creek bed. It was a tiny piece of heaven right before our eyes with crystal clear waters. We both gazed at this water and found ourselves in awe. We could see clear down to the bottom and watched large bass and catfish as they swam freely around with no caution of our presence. Like little kids, we began running for our equipment back at the car. With fishing gear in hand, we scurried back to this place that we felt was made just for us. We began sinking line after line and bringing up these beauties! What a THRILL! What? NO, this was more than a thrill; this was rest for my weary soul. OH how I needed it. As I drank it in and let it refresh me I thanked Him!

Let me tell you, God was not done with me. Once I recognized what I needed most and that this weekend had been given and divinely arranged, He showed me that I still needed more. About that time, I stepped backward to grab my line and forgot that I had hopped onto a large rock in the middle of the creek and I lost my balance. Yep, you guessed it and all the way in up to my neck! God not only let me rest by His streams of water, He bathed me in them. I was renewed and refreshed. At this point, it was all I could do not to hear God prompting me to think of the words living water. (Since I was swimming in it none the less.) Living Water is what God gives to those who believe and are athirst. There is no doubt that was what He was showing me.

As our weekend came to a close and it was time to head home, I reflected on my selfishness of seeking "something" instead of someone. That someone was my heavenly Father and I was reminded in scripture this day that He is "the enough". What ever we are seeking or require, He is the only one who can fill. He is the source that we must stay focused on and His resources will so infinitely surpass our requirements. He is sufficient and He is enough. Beyond that, He is more than enough, He is everything! I am so thankful that I did not ruin this perfect weekend that God planned especially for us.

Whoever believes in me, streams of living water will flow from within him. John 7:38

Brittnie 9.8.05

Sing to the LORD

2008-09-02T19:56:00.003-05:00

Psalm 18:1 David sang to the LORD the words of this song when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. He said: I love you, O LORD, my strength.

As I sit and soak the words of this Psalm up, I can't get over David's relationship with the LORD. David knew God and talked with him. What is more, David adored God and he sang to him, "I love you O LORD, my strength". When is the last time you sang to God? I'm not talking about singing about God at your last church gathering or with friends. I'm talking about sitting all by your self before the LIVING GOD who speaks and communes with His people and offering up your voice in the stillness of that moment and pouring out your love to Him in a song. There is nothing like the intimacy of singing to your Beloved!

It's so easy to hurry through our time with God. Don't rush this time and miss the Divine Romance that lies waiting for you. The next time you have your quiet moments with God and you have talked with Him and have read His word....let the dialog between you and Elohim-Mikarov (God who is Near) overflow into a song and express your deep love for Him.

REVIVE Recap 8.21.08

2008-09-01T22:29:00.003-05:00

My Inheritance

2008-08-27T18:47:00.014-05:00

Most of our REVIVE team along with several other women from our church headed down to San Antonio, Tx and joined 10,000 other ladies for a Beth Moore (Living Proof Live) conference. WOW! It was an amazing weekend! We gathered in the Alamodome for worship and the Word! It was Incredible!

Beth's prayer for us was that God would do everything but kill us with His Glory. By His mercy He relented but oh, the Glory that He revealed was so magnificent! The presence of God was so heavy that I could barely stand on my feet. My body trembled nearly the entire time from the power of the Holy Spirit doing a work in me and in that place. Oh, how I praise Him for His love and Grace.

Here is a bit of a recap from the teaching we had from Beth.

It was based on Psalm Sixteen which says:

“Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you. As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.

The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips.

The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.

I bless the LORD who gives me counsel; in the night also my heart instructs me.

I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
__________________________________________________________________________________

Our The Theme for the weekend was Inheritance. Beth showed that the Inheritance principal was interwoven through out His Word from Genesis to Revelation.

She proved that Inheritance from God always involves 3 elements:

1. Presence - "Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

2. People - "But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt, to be a people of his own inheritance, as you are this day." Deut. 4:20

3. Property - "The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, Among these the land shall be divided for inheritance according to the number of names. To a large tribe you shall give a large inheritance, and to a small tribe you shall give a small inheritance; every tribe shall be given its inheritance in proportion to its list. But the land shall be divided by lot. According to the names of the tribes of their fathers they shall inherit. Their inheritance shall be divided according to lot between the larger and the smaller." Numbers 26:52-56

8 points were made under the emphasis of
"I AM AN HEIR(ess) OF GOD"...

1. My life is NOT left to chance. (oh thank you LORD that even all the things that don't make sense to me make perfect sense to you)

2. I am inheriting a Kingdom. – Matthew 25:34-Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inheritthe kingdomprepared for you from the foundation of the world. 1 Peter 1:4 says to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Daniel 7:18- The Saints will possess the Kingdom forever and ever!

3. He is my portion, and I am His. Psalm 16:5, Deut. 10:8-9,Ephesians 1:18 These were incredible words. Not only is Jesus our portion and Inheritance, but we are HIS! Mind blowing... But, since we are God's inheritance we are to be a pure spotless Bride.

4. The down payment has been made.- Eph. 1:14

5. My boundary lines form a pleasing place. – Psalm 16:6
God has given us boundary lines that involve our Past, Faith, Gifting, Life Experiences and Intimacy with God. These boundary lines are for my good and God's glory. It's a gift from God.

6. The will has been activated. – Heb. 9:15-17

7. I can be secure. – Col. 3:23-24

8. I have a beautiful inheritance. – 2 Timothy 4:6-8, Eph. 3:6
We not only have a beautiful inheritance but we will receive a double portion!

I couldn't get over how much of God's word from Beth was so much the same of what God had me share with the girls at REVIVE 8.21.08 just the night before. He is preparing His people. Oh LORD, plunge your people deeper. Purify Your Bride! May she be the most gorgeous thing that you have ever seen when we step into the fullness of your Kingdom and may we bask in the splendor of our most beautiful, glorious Inheritance. You!
______________________________________________________
In addition to a powerful Word the LORD also provided the sweetest fellowship among us sisters. We got to enjoy each other, some incredible Mexican food and some site seeing on the River Walk and Alamo! We had a BLAST!! Praise you LORD, you are so good.

Here are some photos of our time

I LOVE my church

2008-08-21T16:24:00.000-05:00

I LOVE my church! Our pastor started a new series called Devoted:Being a Genuine Church. This past Sunday was on worship. Here are some things he shared with us on how to be ready to worship each Sunday morning. (see below) There are some wonderful things happening in the life of our church and I am so pumped! I believe our church is about to have a head on collision with Yahweh! Bring it on!

Week 2: The Devoted Dozen

At the end of last week’s sermon Buddy shared some practical ways to make the most of worship each Sunday.

1. Devote yourself to worshiping God every day. Your worship on Sunday grows out of your personal worship each day. So, seek to do all to the glory of God as you engage in your spiritual worship by daily offering yourself as a living sacrifice.

2. Get a good night’s sleep on Saturday night. Make a conscious effort of going to bed early on Saturday night so you can be alert and attentive to the majesty and presence of God on Sunday morning. Remind yourself that you are not “going to church” but you are going to worship the Lord God with your brothers and sisters in Christ. You may even want to spend time with the Lord before you head to bed. This will certainly help put you in the right attitude to worship.

3. Plan to be at least five minutes early to the worship service. If you see that you are always late to the service, then set out your clothes on Saturday night and/or wake you and your family up 15 minutes earlier on Sunday. There really is no good reason to be late on a regular basis. It robs you of a blessing and God of his deserved worship.

4. Try to spend some time alone with the Lord before coming to church. It may be hard to do, but you will arrive eager to worship God.

5. When you enter, warmly greet those you see. (The early Christians greeted one another with a holy kiss! In our culture, a smile and a gentle hug will do!) There is a healthy balance between greeting friends and being quiet as the service begins. When seated, pray or read a psalm, or read the scriptures on the sermon notes from your own Bible.

6. Be conscious that God is present. God is indeed with us when we gather for worship. We are also joining in worship with all believers in heaven as well as the angels in the worship of God. (Hebrews 12:22-23)

7. Think as you worship. Concentrate on each phrase spoken, sung, or prayed.

8. Sing to the Lord. Sing with great joy. Sing with great volume and with great thought. Think about the words of the song and make them your own. Think about what they mean. Let your mind focus on the theology behind them. Remind yourself that you are singing to the creator of the universe, your Savior and Lord.

9. Listen carefully to the Word as it is read and preached. The Word is God’s living voice speaking to you. Give the sermon your full attention; pray to learn from it. Take notes. And, please pray for your pastor!

10. Respond. At the end of the service there is a time of commitment and reflection. Remember, this is not the time to think about where you are going to eat after church. This time is personal between you and God. Reflect back on what you just heard in the sermon and turn it into a prayer to God.

11. Stay until the service is completely over. Leaving early or running out of the door to beat the other cars out of the parking lot betrays a consumer mentality. Take the time to actually speak to five people on your way out. Be especially aware of visitors at this time and take some time to get to know them.

12. After the worship service, ask, “Was God pleased with my worship?”

13. Before the day is over, ask God to show you what things you need to learn, change, make right, repent of, or begin as a result of what you heard on this Lord’s day. If possible, discuss the sermon with family members or friends. Begin now to anticipate gathering again for worship with your church family.

REVIVE 8.21.08

2008-08-17T17:01:00.007-05:00

Ladies,
It's that time again!
Revive starts back up this week, Thursday August 21st. We will meet again at Hunter Street in the High School worship room at 7:00pm. We are very excited about what God has in store for us through REVIVE! Hope to see you there.

For more information you may check here and here

God's love for orphans

2008-08-07T12:25:00.008-05:00

God's love for orphans.....I don't know about you, but this has been on my heart day and night. I have been praying and asking God what He would have me do over this issue. Could not help but post the following article by Steven Curtis Chapman.....and following the article is some videos from his ministry called Shaohannah's Hope. Pray with me over this issue and see what God would have us do!

Our tragedy and God's love for orphans
By Steven Curtis Chapman

Special to CNN

FRANKLIN, Tennessee (CNN) -- According to UNICEF, there are 143 million children in the world who have lost one or both parents.

In America alone, there are half a million children in foster care, and approximately 120,000 of these children are waiting to be adopted. In many countries, children are too often orphaned or abandoned because of poverty, disabilities and disease; every 15 seconds, a child loses a parent because of AIDS. These are staggering facts that can seem overwhelming and discouraging, but I believe that God has a loving plan for each child, and that plan is you and me.

Caring for these children is not the job of governments or institutions; instead, it is the job of families, people and communities. As Christians, our compassion is simply a response to the love that God has already shown us. Mother Teresa would constantly remind those who worked with her that the Bible clearly teaches that whatever we do for the least of these, we do for Jesus. So in a very real sense, caring for orphans is a chance to meet the person of Jesus in "the guise of human suffering." This is an invitation from the heart of God to know him and to experience his love.

Nine years ago, my wife and my eldest daughter, Emily, traveled to Haiti on a mission trip. Having been exposed to extreme poverty for the first time, Emily returned home with a determined passion to make a difference in the lives of at-risk children.

Only 12 years old, Emily went on an all-out campaign to persuade us to adopt. She bought a book on international adoption with her Christmas money and would read it to us regularly. She began fervently praying and writing letters to Mary Beth and me, encouraging us to consider giving a waiting child a home. Emily knew God was leading us in the direction of adoption; however, Mary Beth and I were not yet convinced.

My wife and I had always supported the idea of adoption, and as Christians, we understood the importance of loving and caring for others. But what I had not yet grasped was that adoption is a physical picture of what Jesus has done for me. I did nothing to deserve God's love; in fact, I was living as an orphan, without hope. Yet God chose to pursue a relationship with me, and through the death of his son Jesus, I was adopted into God's family.

My wife and I began moving toward adoption with fear and trembling and asking all the questions people ask. I remember Mary Beth crying herself to sleep at night saying, "What are we doing? I can't do this." However, God kept reassuring us that this was the direction he was leading us. It was a huge journey of faith for us.

In May of 2000, we found ourselves in a hotel room in China's Hunan province, welcoming the newest member of our family, Shaohannah Hope. From that moment, we began our journey into the world of adoption, orphan care and Shaohannah's Hope.

We went on to adopt Stevey Joy and Maria. Recently, our youngest daughter, Maria, passed from life on this earth and is now safely in the arms of Jesus. We have been completely overwhelmed by the love and support of so many during this time of deep, deep sadness. Through all that we've experienced, one thing we still know is true: God's heart is for the orphan.

In our travels to Latin America, Africa and Asia, we have visited many different orphanages. If you look past the surroundings and into the eyes of the children, they all have the same look. They seem to convey, "I don't think this is what I was made for. Where do I belong?"

These children are crying out for the hope of a family, for the hope of community, for the hope of a permanent love. Our mission, and the mission of our adoption charity, Shaohannah's Hope, is to show hope to these children and to mobilize people, families and communities to be living examples of God's love for them.

We started Shaohannah's Hope in order to connect willing families with waiting children, but the reality is that there are many orphans who cannot be adopted. Even though we may not be able to bring them into our homes, we still have the opportunity to show them the hope we have.

If only 7 percent of the 2 billion Christians in the world would care for a single orphan in distress, there would effectively be no more orphans. If everybody would be willing to simply do something to care for one of these precious treasures, I think we would be amazed by just how much we could change the world.

We can each do something, whether it is donating, adopting, fostering, mentoring, visiting orphans or supporting families that have taken in orphans. You can change the world for an orphan.

REVIVE Website Goes Live!

2008-07-11T23:28:00.003-05:00

Ladies,
We have more exciting news about REVIVE. Our Website went live today! It's not 100% complete but we are officially up and running....(thanks to 2 pretty special people)! Take a look. www.reviveministry.org

Revive Promo Video and Retreat Sign Up

2008-07-08T10:09:00.006-05:00

Ladies, spread the word....REVIVE returns August 21st.
Use this promo video to share with others a glimpse of what REVIVE is about.
Also, see the Revive info link below to sign up for our REVIVE retreat coming in Sept! REVIVE Info and Retreat Sign up

Casual Christianity

2008-06-27T10:39:00.006-05:00

"When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away." Matthew 13:21

Casual Christianity is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a low-commitment version of our faith. It is impossible to say, "I'm a follower of Jesus, but I'm not prepared to lay down my life for the Gospel." Both of those assertions cannot be true. "When Jesus calls a man," to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "He bids him come and die." Ours is a faith that demands our entire allegiance; it can be no half-hearted thing.

Church history is filled with martyrs. Missionary kids have seen their parents executed. Many Christians have lost a spouse or child to persecution. Whole communities have been tortured or imprisoned. And many have given their own lives. Whether this is a tragedy or the glory of the Church-and it is, in fact, both-is not the point. It is a given. It is assumed of Jesus' followers that they will follow Him where ever he goes. And He goes to places like the Cross.

Martyrdom is not something that confronts most of us. Few of us are persecuted. Yet all of us can say with assurance that sometimes following our Savior is difficult. He asks us to make sacrifices. He asks us to be obedient, even when obedience is painful. And though He doesn't ask all of us to die for Him, He does ask all of us to live for Him. When we were bought by His blood, we became His possession. Gloriously, joyfully His possession, but His nonetheless.

One of the great weaknesses of today's American church is our unwillingness to humble ourselves as our Savior did. We are often consumer Christians, shopping around for a faith that suits us well. But when we really encounter Christ, we face a choice: Stand firm in our faith, despite our many tests and troubles, or settle for a lukewarmness that can barely, if at all, be called "Christian." We must be prepared for the trials. They will come. And how we respond will tell us-and others-whether we are His disciples.

Chris Tiegreen

Fireproof

2008-06-18T13:36:00.002-05:00

I wanted to make these resources available for anyone who has not seen the advertisements of this new movie called Fireproof. It's created by the same people (Sherwood Bapt) who made the movie "Facing the Giants". Fireproof is a movie about marriage....and it is definitely needed today as we watch the enemy go after our marriages and families. I hope that you'll be able to see this movie when it comes out. Our marriages are worth fighting for!

Worship God with my mind

2008-06-13T13:34:00.003-05:00

Here are some thoughts I jotted down back from April that I meant to blog and never got to it.

I went for a run yesterday. It was a beautiful afternoon and I was enjoying the sun on my face and the cool wind that helped to soften the blow of the growing April heat. Lately I’ve been running with a group of girls to help motivate me and push me in getting the exercise I need. But this time I was prompted to run all by myself. I was proud in that fact that I stepped out (in what I thought) was my own determination of some much needed cardio. But I quickly understood that cardio wasn’t the only thing needed. I needed some time to free my thoughts…..to worship God with my mind.

In our running group the one thing that is always running (beside my legs) is my mouth. This time I was able to also run my mind. Rarely is my mind on anything but the LORD Jesus and so it was this day as well. However, this time the LORD led me to pack a little punch into this thinking. After some appropriate praise to the only One worthy of my thoughts, my mind was flooded with the WORD of God. Oh how God’s word satisfies my soul. But even more it pushes me to be who God has called me to be. There is no way I can read it/meditate on it and be left unchanged.

The Lord immediately shifted my focus to the word “holiness”. It’s no wonder. I jut got through teaching on this topic the week before in my monthly women’s bible study. Don’t think for a moment that I teach on things that God does not want to do a number on me in the process. So, here I am at holiness. As a disciple of Jesus I am called to be holy. To be set apart for Him. So because this is what is required of me, this is what I desire. Heavy thinking went on in my brain as I further meditated on its meaning in my life.

“Oh God”, I cried out, “I desire to be holy as you are holy. And as this prayer filled my mind, even the song on my iPod sang to the heart of the thought process. “Holiness is what I long for. Holiness is what I need; holiness is what you want from me. Take my heart and form it, take my mind transform it, take my will conform it, to Yours” This desire was so intense it had me bent over at the waist (still running of course) all the while lifting my hands to the God who was calling me to ponder and act upon such an awesome calling.

Again, “Oh God, make me more like You”. I want to go where you tell me to go, say what you want me to say, be who you want me to be and do what you want me to do. I want to follow You at all costs. I am so sick of allowing my life to be entertained by vain things. Empty things. I want you and only you. Satisfy me with your unfailing love. As my run came to an end, I was thrilled that I was prompted to go. I was given a special opportunity to worship God with my mind. I was pushed in my discipleship to the LORD by the LORD Himself! I resolved once again, I will live for God and God alone. I will be holy, I will be set apart. I am not trying to proclaim that I am the example for anyone. I am just saying, “here I am LORD, send me, use me. Anyone care to join me?

Bean Dip and Jesus

2008-06-11T17:22:00.001-05:00

Yes, I realize this is a strange title, but tonight while cooking supper, I opened up a can of refried beans to go with our Mexican meal and the minute I opened the can, the smell captured me and transported me back about 28 years or so to elementary school. It reminded me of all the days that I would sit in the cafeteria at lunch or just after a gymnastic meet and crack open my bag of Frito's and my little individual size can of Frito-Lay Bean dip. Anyone remember those?

I don't know if they still sell them at the stores, but that used to be one of my favorite snacks of all! Oh, it was so good and the memory of it took me back to the sweet days of childhood. The care free days of play and innocence (or in my case, probably not so innocent) But either way, sweet, sweet memories!

So, why on earth am I telling you about Bean Dip? Well, because it is such a great reminder of life that we live as believers. (Bear with me here) There are many people who are going through a tough time in life right now. Your relationship with the LORD may feel distant or dry. When we encounter those times, we can sometimes doubt or wonder if God really loves us or if He even cares. We may struggle and start to give up or throw in the towel. But, we have a precious gift from God. Our memory.

Our memory can serve us in many different ways. Sometimes it can cause pain and hurt as we reflect on a very difficult time. Or, it can remind us of times when we made serious mistakes and the consequences were high. We may never make that mistake again because of our memory. But, our memory serves us best when we go back to a sweet time and remember how things once were. This is so important.

While we go through dark or dry times in our walk with the LORD, we must remember the sweet times with Him in the past in order to persevere. It is our nature to forget get and begin to doubt. That's why I think it is so important to keep a journal or some sort of a record of your times with the LORD. Make notes when He speaks to you through His Word or when His presence was so heavy that you could barely breathe. We must remember the good times with the LORD in order to make it through some of the harder times.

God is good all the time and He never does us any wrong even when we may be going through the roughest time. It is always for His glory and our good that we journey on such a path, but why is it that we can so easily forget God’s goodness and His love for us and quickly find ourselves discouraged. So, today…if you find yourself in a dry place with God, go straight to your source of memories with Him and bask in the gift of remembering how good Jesus is and with a fresh wind of faith, press on.

What's the difference between living for the Kingdom and living for the American dream?

2008-06-07T10:48:00.003-05:00

What's the difference between living for the Kingdom and living for the American dream?

by John Piper

The essential difference is, What are you trying to make much of? Do you want to make much of Christ in the world, or do you want to make much of yourself, your business, or your family? What are you passionate about seeing exalted, praised and enjoyed?

I want to put that central because if we don't ask the question day by day–What am I going to make much of today?–then we will gravitate towards making much of the same things that everybody around us is making much of, like sports teams, food, or a new computer program. None of these things are sin unless they become the thing that we're driven by.

The difference between a Kingdom mindset and a worldly mindset is the King. What place does the King have? Is he central in our affections, our vocabulary, and in what we want to see happen at work, church, and in our leisure?

Does the "wartime lifestyle" come easily to you?

No, and I don't think it comes easy for anybody. If it starts coming easily then it may result in pride. That may not always be the case, because the things we work hard at are sometimes the things we boast in the most. Pride is a very insidious and subtle thing.

When I say "wartime lifestyle" I mean something very complex. That's why I say "wartime" and not "simple" lifestyle because of this complexity. In wartime you may need to build a B-52 bomber, which costs millions and millions of dollars, in order to win the war. In a simple lifestyle, however, you wouldn't fiddle around with bombers. Instead you would just move out to Idaho, plant potatoes, and be irrelevant.

In a wartime lifestyle you always ask yourself, How can my life count to advance the cause of Christ? And if it means buying a computer to keep in touch with your missionaries through email, then you're going to invest several thousand dollars into a computer and software. That's a wartime lifestyle. But you might not eat out as often, or you might buy a used car so that you can buy that computer. That's what I mean by wartime lifestyle. The alternative is to just go with the flow. Everybody gets his toys: bigger house and car, more clothing, more fine food, etc., without even thinking about how the war effort is advancing.

Personally, I must battle everyday against drifting. It isn't about making choices so much. The battle is primarily against becoming comfortable with things that aren't essential to the war effort. So you have to check yourself. Sit down with your wife and ask, How are we doing with our spending? How are we doing with the use of our discretionary money for leisure?, etc.

I admit that this is difficult. I don't have any laws to lay down about what specific things you should be doing either once a week or never or whatever. It's just tough, which is why it is tough for me.

How does what you're saying accord with the prosperity gospel–the belief that external signs of wealth are a key testimony to the world of God's blessing?

It doesn't accord. We must reject the prosperity gospel. It's just dead wrong. The world is not impressed by the prosperity of Christians. What the prosperity of Christians says to the world is nothing redemptive.

I'm not saying that all prosperity is necessarily wrong. I'm just making the point that the prosperity of a Christian says absolutely zero about Christ to the world. Christians who simply follow the American trend of "moving up" financially and materially causes the world to simply say, "They're just like us! They love the same things we love and do the same things we do." This has zero witness to the world.

The person who follows the prosperity track must find other ways to testify to the world about Jesus, because their wealth, health, and prosperity are not saying anything redemptive.

My way of remedying this lack of witness is to identify that the prosperity gospel is wrong. Don't go that direction! Don't believe that prosperity is our evidence to the world that we belong to the King. It doesn't work that way. In fact, if you look in the New Testament you'll see that the things that bear the clearest witness to our faith are the occasions when we're willing to suffer for him.

A little child can understand that. Something is valuable to you to the degree that you're willing to suffer in order to have it, not to the degree that it gives you other things that you really like. God is not shown to be valuable because he gives us other things that we like more than God. God is shown to be valuable when we're willing, for God's sake, to let certain things go which we wouldn't let go if he wasn't so precious to us.

Our testimony to the world works precisely opposite to what the prosperity gospel says. When Christians are willing to suffer for the cause of the unborn, for racial justice, and for spreading the gospel, then the world is going to say–just like it does in 1 Peter 3:15–"Where is your hope?"

Our answer will not be, "In houses, cars, and lands." Rather, we will say, "My hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is going to take me to himself. To live is Christ and to die is gain. I'm here on earth to spread the gospel. I'm going to keep my life as wartime as I can in order to maximize my effect for showing Jesus as valuable, not things as valuable."

Idols of Wealth

2008-05-28T14:59:00.006-05:00

"How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!" Mark 10:24

Jesus has harsh things to say about wealth. "Woe to you who are rich," He says in Luke 6:24. "A man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions," He says in Luke 12:15. He tells parables that cast a bad light on the wealthy (the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16, for example). And here in Mark 10, He tells His disciples that "it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God" (vs. 25).

Many of us who read these verses are incredibly wealthy, by worldwide standards, and so we spiritualize them. Jesus is really talking about those who place their hope in riches, we determine. And because we know that salvation is a matter of the heart and not of the bank account, we are right to do so. But we miss an important lesson if we dismiss these warnings too quickly.

The lesson is this: There is false worship in every human heart, and Jesus knows that all of it has some component of wealth. We either seek wealth and materialism as an idol in itself, or we have other idols that we cannot support without more money (approval of others, achievement, education, lifestyles, hobbies, food, fashion etc.). Almost any idol we can conceive of revolves around money as its object or for its sustenance. And when we harbor such idols, the kingdom of God is like the eye of a needle to us. We just can't fit.

What idols grip your heart? Whatever they are, cut off their supply. They are fed by wealth, and they consume the kingdom's resources, giving nothing of substance in return. If we are to live as kingdom citizens, we must turn our hearts toward kingdom purposes. Our wealth, our time, our abilities-all resources God has given us-must be invested in lasting goals. Our treasure will be where our heart is. And our hearts are in the Kingdom.
by Chris Tiegreen.

I couldn't help but post this devotional today. I don't think that we can hear this message too much in our culture. It is very evident that the church is living for the same things the world lives for. If we are going to enter the Kingdom of God and advance it....we are going to have to let the things of the world go. We are to treasure Christ above all the accumulation of stuff and lay up treasure in heaven not on earth.

As John Piper says....The world will not glorify Christ because they see that Christians are wealthy, healthy and prosperous because that is what they live for. They are not impressed with us- prosperous, safe, middle class, do what every body else does kind of church. Our great reward is in heaven with Christ! We are to be so profoundly heavenly minded that we are free from this world. Free from stuff. Stuff....Stuff! Stuff is killing us. Houses, cars, books, computers, electronic gadgets are killing us.

What is it going to take to see that Christ is our treasure and not our stuff? Until we get this and let it go....we will have little or no impact in the Kingdom. That should break our hearts!

REVIVE Spring Events

2008-05-21T21:26:00.004-05:00

Ladies, we had an excellent time worshiping with you this Spring. We can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for the Fall. Join us again in August (21st) as we kick off REVIVE again!

Until then, enjoy these pictures from our Spring events.....

Revival

2008-05-12T08:35:00.001-05:00

True Revivals have happened only when people have gained a right idea of God and his majesty and his holiness. Revivals have happened when people grew in there understanding of Christ work on the Cross. In their understanding of the call to trust Christ alone. These are the times when God visits his church with revival by pouring out his spirit on the land.

Question for thought:
If revivals depend on a renewed understanding of God’s majesty and a deepened conviction of own sin, what is the best way to promote revival in the land?

Quote by Mark Dever from his book "The Message of the Old Testament"

When We Know God....

2008-05-10T09:44:00.003-05:00

When We Know God.....

Routine religion is no longer tolerable.

How can we have routine religion when we have a God that calls the stars by name?
Isaiah 40:26 Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing.

Casual worship is no longer possible.

When we truly know God, there is no way we can remain unmoved when we worship Him. Sitting rigid in pews with casual reverence is (in my opinion) offensive to God

Total Surrender is no longer optional.

When we read passages like.......
Luke 9:60-62 And Jesus said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Yet another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."

Or

Matthew 10:36-38 And a person’s enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

.........there is no way we can sit on the fence. Total surrender is the only option for one who claims to follow Christ.

Global missions is no longer negotiable.

This is something that God began to open my eyes to a few years ago through scripture. When we begin to "know" God through His word He begins to share his heart with you. AND His heart is for the lost. We should squirm knowing that millions are perishing while we enjoy comfortable America. When we hear God's heart, western Contemporary Christianity must go because global missions is no longer negotiable. God says....go and make disciples of ALL nations!

Top of My Lungs

2008-05-08T13:20:00.003-05:00

I spend most of my days studying the WORD preparing for Sunday School and REVIVE. And it is the hardest thing not to break out into worship all throughout the day as I learn more about the GREATNESS of God. Seriously, I find myself on the floor in humbled reverence or jumping around singing to the ONE who is so worthy of all my praise! Good heavens, I can't get enough of HIM!

Anyway, here are some words that I have been worshiping with today as I study.

Words of worship rise like a river within me. Thoughts to express are so many. I want to bless you God. Can’t be silent. I think of the mercies you show me. My lips begin overflowing. Great is your love. Such gratitude for all that you do Jesus to you.

At the top of my lungs I will sing hallelujah, you’re the one who saved me, the one who gave me this life I live forevermore, forevermore. At the top of my lungs I will sing hallelujah. I’m not ashamed; I’ll praise your name. Let the whole world know that I love you LORD.

You are worthy, I join the song of creation, it rings out across every nation. Let my heart be heard. I need you so, I don’t care who knows from the depth of my soul.

At the top of my lungs I will sing hallelujah, you’re the one who saved me, the one who gave me this life I live forevermore, forevermore. At the top of my lungs I will sing hallelujah I’m not ashamed; I’ll praise your name. Let the whole world know that I love you LORD.

Let my love be like a sweet joyful noise. Only for you…I lift up my voice.

Words by Phillips, Craig and Dean

How We Know God

2008-05-07T16:41:00.002-05:00

I Corinthians 2:10-16

But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 11For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. 12We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. 13This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment:
16"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?"But we have the mind of Christ.

Isaiah 64:4
Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

Only the Spirit of God knows the fullness of the glory of God.
If we want to know God, then we need the Spirit to reveal Him to us.
Therefore, a people who are desperate to know God will be desperate for His Spirit.

~If we are not desperate for His Spirit, it is a sure indicator that we have grown content with knowing little about God.

Do we want to know the glory of God?

~Then let us be a people desperate for the Spirit of God
~And when we're desperate for the Spirit, our hearts will begin to understand God with the very perspective of Christ.

"We have but to want Him badly enough, and he will come and manifest Himself to us."
~A.W. Tozer

I don't know about you, but I want Him so badly that I can't stand it. I am desperate for the Spirit of God. Let's not be content with knowing little about God. Let's be a people desperate to know God.

Why Are We Here?

2008-05-05T20:00:00.010-05:00

Saturday night, I attended an incredible teaching by Dr. David Platt called "Who is God?" This was 6 intense hours of studying God's word together from 6pm-midnight. It was WOW! The first thing they said to us when we got there was this:"Do not come to Secret Church if all you want to do is learn for yourself--the objective is for you to pass along what you learn to others, so that you can be a disciple-maker for Christ, both locally and globally."

So, with that said, I will most likely be blogging on much of what was taught that night so I can share all that I have learned about God.

Here is what I thought that I would share first.

"This is what the Lord says:"Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this:that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight, "declares the Lord. " Jeremiah 9:23-24

"What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us."

"Were we able to extract from any man a complete answer to the question, 'What comes into your mind when you think about God?' we might predict with certainty the spiritual future of that man. Were we able to know exactly what our most influential religious leaders think of God today, we might be able with some precision to foretell where the Church will stand tomorrow."

It is not a cheerful though that millions of us who live in a land of Bibles, who belong to churches and labor to promote the Christian religion, may yet pass our whole life on this earth without once having thought or tried to think seriously about the being God. Few of us have let our hearts gaze in wonder at the I AM, the self-existent self back of which no creature can think. Such thoughts are too painful for us. We prefer to think where it will do more good-about how to build a better mousetrap, for instance, or how to make two blades of grass grow where one grew before. For this we are now paying a too heavy price in the secularization of our religion and the decay of our inner lives."

"The heaviest obligation lying upon the Christian Church today is to purify and elevate her concept of God until is it once more worthy of Him-and of her."

-A.W. Tozer

The first teaching that we had was Why are we here?

To know God's Glory

To learn God's Word

To advance God's Kingdom

The Reality.....

~God is incomprehensible
~We can never fully understand any single thing about God.
~We can know something about God's love, power, wisdom and other attributes.
~But we can never know His live, power wisdom or other attributes exhaustively.

The Reason....

~We can't know God fully because of both our sinfulness and His greatness.
~Because of our sin, we are hindered from glimpsing the fullness of God.
~ But even when all sin will be removed from us, we will still be finite and God will still be infinite
~For all of eternity we will increase in our knowledge of Him.
*If in pride we want to be equal to God in knowledge, this will depress us.
*If in humility we want to live to adore and worship God, this will delight us.

The Resolution....

~Though we cannot understand God fully, we can understand God truly.
~So based on scripture, even though we don't have exhaustive knowledge of God, we have true knowledge of God.
~Though God is incomprehensible, he is knowable.

These thoughts in themselves are mind blowing. God is more than our finite minds can comprehend, but He is knowable. Knowable! Does this not make your head spin? This is the most thrilling thing EVER! How awesome that we can spend all eternity getting to know more of this God.

REVIVE April 24, 2008

2008-04-29T20:20:00.015-05:00

Here are some snippets of our last REVIVE on April 24th.
A big Thank you to Lynsey (aka, "my handler") for putting all these recaps together!!

The Setting of the Sun

2008-04-28T19:48:00.001-05:00

As always, I anxiously left the office headed for home to see my boys. As I shifted from work mode back to mother/wife mode, my mind was on a hundred things, which I knew needed to be done. At the beginning and end of each day on my way to and from work I turn up my worship music and spend time singing to the Lord, offering my praise to Him through song. Well, little did I know, on this particular evening that I would be praising Him in a different way. I got into my car turned on my music and pulled out of the parking lot. As I turned onto the exiting road, which leads out of the campus where I work, I noticed a beautiful sunset out of the corner of my eye. The entire sky was a full array of color! It was quite exquisite. I took a moment and thanked the Lord for sharing His beauty. I then shifted my focus back to the music, which was playing.

As I exited the campus, heading towards the freeway, I took a different route than usual. You see, on this particular day I did not have to pick my youngest son up from school, which enabled me to head straight home. Therefore, when I made a right turn onto the road which would lead me home, I was facing the westward direction, into the sunset. Had I gone the route of my son’s school, I would have completely missed God’s wonderful display.

While traveling westward, down the road towards home, I continued to admire the beauty of the sky.As I traveled, I felt as if I were getting closer and closer to the sunset. Rarely, had I seen the sky look so marvelous. I marveled at God’s work as I felt that this splendor was designed personal, just for me.

Suddenly, I began traveling up an over-pass, which sent me up into the sky. As I reached the top of the over-pass I was completely overwhelmed. I had driven directly into the sunset! I was surrounded by the most beautiful orange and red colors that I had ever seen in my entire life. The colors had surrounded my total realm of vision; they were all I could see. My breath was taken away and I felt as though I had been suspended in time and wrapped up in the most amazing beauty. As I was enthralled with all this amazement, I heard a whisper in my spirit. “Who else can do this for you?” My eyes must have been as big as saucers. I believe that my heart may have even stopped for a tiny moment. I whispered back, “No one Lord”.

At this point my heart burst in awe and a joy swept over me! “No one Lord”, I said again, this time in an audible voice! You are mine and I am yours and no one can love me and satisfy me like you do. NO one! On this particular day, I came to know the Lord in a different way. He was like a tender husband who was trying to impress the love of his life to gain her affection. No doubt, I felt the love that He was showing me. He definitely made His point and my day, convincing me of His perfect love for me.

I then thought about all the earthly blessings that God has given me in my life. He has always revealed His love for me through His never ending gifts. But this time, it was different. He showed me that out of all the wonderful things that He has given me in life, nothing could satisfy me and thrill me like only He could. He is my heart’s affection, the love of my life. Oh how I loved and adored Him for what He showed me that day. Earlier, I mentioned that it was not a song from my lips that praised His name this day on my way home, as He requested a different type of praise; praise from my heart. It was my heart that offered Him praise as He had captured it so lovingly on this glorious evening. This heart of mine will never be the same.

From the rising to the setting of the Sun, the name of the Lord is to be praised. Psalm113:3

Brittnie April 2, 2005

Hunger for God

2008-04-22T18:42:00.005-05:00

The last week or so I have had this intense desire for the LORD. I mean the kind of feeling where I am doubled over and can't breathe kind of desire. From the moment I wake up till I lay back down at night from the pit of my soul I hunger and thirst for more of God. Really, I live like this most of the time. It's not because I have never had a taste of God. It's because I HAVE had a taste and it is so good....that I want MORE and MORE! I can't get enough. I don't know about you, but I'll do anything to cry out to God and ask Him to give me more.

I recently picked up John Piper's book called "A Hunger for God- Desiring God through Prayer and Fasting." and started to read it.

Here is a description of the book:
A Hunger For God was written to help Christians understand the Biblical nature and purpose of fasting and prayer. In this book, John Piper looks at the phenomena of religious, political, and health-based fasting, which occur around the world, and explains what makes Christian fasting unique. He then discusses the reasons and ways the Bible commends fasting to us. Ultimately, Piper asserts, fasting is a way of expressing to God that he is the supreme hunger of our hearts—that we are starving for him.

You can Read this book online for free if you would like.

If your heart feels like mine, join me in seeking God with all your heart. The more we are satisfied in Him, the more we'll let the things of the world go and we'll find that there is NOTHING more filling than the deep pleasures and love of God.

REVIVE 3.27.08

2008-04-10T08:34:00.002-05:00

Here are some pictures of our last REVIVE. Next gathering will be 4.24.08

Holy Ground

2008-04-02T10:00:00.005-05:00

One rainy day as I traveled to work, I was praising God through song in my car. As I approached the parking lot for work I realized that the rain had really picked up and was coming down extremely hard. Upon this realization, I was frazzled knowing that I was wearing a skirt that morning, accompanied by slip-on high heel sandals. There was no way around it; I was going to get VERY wet! I also realized that reaching the main entrance to my office building was going to be tough, if not impossible as there was a great possibility that I might slip and fall in my soon to be wet sandals and skirt. SO, in fear of falling in the gushing water, which flowed alongside the side walks, I took my sandals off. I then pulled my skirt up just enough to keep from dragging it through the water. Anxiously, I gritted my teeth as I knew I had no alternative to getting wet.

Now, those who know me also know that I am not particularly fond of walking in the rain and/or getting wet, especially, when it comes to jeopardizing my appearance prior to work. It takes almost an hour to achieve that appearance for crying out loud! However, for some reason at this particular moment, I stepped my feet into the cold rain water without reservation. It was as if I did not care, and to my surprise it was almost refreshing. It felt good to get my feet and legs wet as I made my way down the side walk in the rain. I did not even care that my clothes were getting soaked and that my hair would be a stringy mess when I reached the entrance to the building.

Well, about half way there, out of nowhere came the loudest boom I’d ever heard. The noise took me by surprise and scared me nearly half to death. It was THUNDER and it felt like it crashed right beside me. As to my knowledge there had been no prior thunder that morning. Usually thunder gradually works its way in from the distance, increasing in volume as it approaches. As the boom rattled my bones, I did not act terrified and run for my life, which is a common response I have when I hear thunder that close. Rather, I squealed as loud as I could in sheer delight. I knew immediately that this was not your normal thunder. This was God; He had shown up and the thunder was just for me. I actually sensed His presence through the thunder. It was almost as if He were applauding my time spent praising Him in the car, as I had come to meet with Him in worship and song. He too, came to meet me and I felt the personal touch of a tender yet mighty and awesome God through this experience. I began to smile and praise Him aloud the rest of the way down the side walk. I even skipped as I made my way into the office building.

Sheer delight is all I can think of when I remember how God made a special appearance just for me that day. As I recalled this incident, while writing this letter, it startled me, as I thought of my bare feet. I had originally thought that I had chosen to take off my sandals for convenience to keep from slipping. I now see how the extra gushing rain, which God caused to flood the parking lot, forced me to take my sandals off, for God had planned our special visit. No doubt He was present with me that day and little did I know that I was squealing and skipping on Holy Ground.

Exodus 3:5 Take off your sandals for the place where you are standing is holy ground.

By Brittnie February 6th 2005

Cheap Grace

2008-04-01T12:46:00.003-05:00

We are studying Don't Waste Your Life by John Piper in Sunday school. I wanted to post a section out of the book for you to read. (See below). Piper quotes a line out of Bonhoeffer's book called "The Cost of Discipleship" that I think is so critical for our generation. I am asking that you would comment on this line delivered by Bonhoeffer. Oh how I pray we will be done with cheap grace and be moved to do what ever it takes to follow Christ whole heartedly.
Brittnie

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a gift to my generation of students. I pray that his costly message will be rediscovered in each generation. Even though he died at the age of thirty-nine, his life was not wasted. His life and death continue to speak with power. He was hanged in the concentration camp at Flossenbürg, Germany, on April 9, 1945. He had been a pastor and teacher and leader of a small training school for the confessing church and had participated in the Protestant resistance movement against the Nazis. The book that set fire to the faith of thousands in my generation was called The Cost of Discipleship. Probably the most famous and life-shaping sentence in the book was, “The cross is not the terrible end to an otherwise God-fearing and happy life, but it meets us at the beginning of our communion with Christ. When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Fleeing from death is the shortest path to a wasted life. Bonhoeffer’s book was a massive indictment of the “cheap grace” that he saw in the Christian Church on both sides of the Atlantic. He believed in justification by grace through faith. But he did not believe that the faith that justifies could ever leave people unchanged by the radical Christ they claim to believe. That was a cheap response to the Gospel. “The only man,” he said, “who has the right to say that he is justified by grace alone is the man who has left all to follow Christ.”

"Rise Up, O Men of God"

2008-03-27T15:58:00.002-05:00

"I am," said Jesus, "and all of you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power and coming with the clouds of heaven." MARK 14:62

Although the fullness of God's Kingdom is yet to come, there is a sense in which the King is reigning now, and we can say with the utmost certainty, "Our God reigns!"

A lady once wrote to me indicating her intention to withdraw from life and await the day when God would finally establish His kingdom in power and glory on the earth. I replied with a parody of a hymn that apparently got her thinking. She wrote back in a few weeks and said, "You were right. I was waiting for God, but now I realize He is waiting for me." She ended her letter with the words of the hymn:

Rise up, O men of God!
Have done with lesser things;
Give heart and soul and mind and strength
To serve the King of kings.

This must indicate our line of action. Yes, of course, the final ushering of God's kingdom is yet to take place, but that does not mean that He is taking a backseat in the world's affairs. God wants to reign through us!

We need not wait for the day when spectacularly the great God of the universe demonstrates His imperial power. As He sounds forth a rallying cry, even through these pages, respond to Him, I urge you, with a fresh consecration of purpose, and dedicate yourself to letting Him reign through you.

Prayer:
God, I give myself wholly to You, not only just to live in me, but to reign through me. I gladly submit my whole being to You today. Live and reign in me. For Jesus' sake. Amen.

By Selwyn Hughes

Pray to the LORD of the Harvest

2008-03-25T11:47:00.003-05:00

Matthew 9:37-38 Then he (Jesus) said to his disciples, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest."

Hey everyone. As most of you know we will have our 2nd REVIVE gathering this Thursday night. I am so excited to see what God does. As I am in the middle of study and preparation for this Thursday I felt moved to share something with you.

God has showed me over and over the last several months that the fields are white unto harvest but believers are too occupied with things of the world to be a laborer in the field and to go out and do what it takes to gather in the harvest.

The Revive team is asking God to equip us and equip the ladies that we serve through Revive and that we will be so in love with Jesus and so moved by His word that we will go out and gather in the harvest no matter the cost. We NEED laborers in the field!

Our teams heart cry to the LORD of the Harvest is to send out laborers into His harvest.Will you earnestly pray with us over this matter?

Brittnie

Christ's Love for Us

2008-03-19T22:39:00.000-05:00

The Intensity of Christ’s Love and the Intentionality of His Death
March 19, 2008
By John Piper

The love of Christ for us in his dying was as conscious as his suffering was intentional. “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). If he was intentional in laying down his life, it was for us. It was love. “When Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (John 13:1). Every step on the Calvary road meant, “I love you.”

Therefore, to feel the love of Christ in the laying down of his life, it helps to see how utterly intentional it was. Consider these five ways of seeing Christ’s intentionality in dying for us.

First, look at what Jesus said just after that violent moment when Peter tried to cleave the skull of the servant, but only cut off his ear.

Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back into its place. For all who take the sword will perish by the sword. Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels? But how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” (Matthew 26:52-54)

It is one thing to say that the details of Jesus’ death were predicted in the Old Testament. But it is much more to say that Jesus himself was making his choices precisely to see to it that the Scriptures would be fulfilled.

That is what Jesus said he was doing in Matthew 26:54. “I could escape this misery, but how then should the Scriptures be fulfilled, that it must be so?” I am not choosing to take the way out that I could take because I know the Scriptures. I know what must take place. It is my choice to fulfill all that is predicted of me in the Word of God.

A second way this intentionality is seen is in the repeated expressions to go to Jerusalem—into the very jaws of the lion.

Taking the twelve again, he began to tell them what was to happen to him, saying, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles. And they will mock him and spit on him, and flog him and kill him. And after three days he will rise.” (Mark 10:32-34)

Jesus had one all-controlling goal: to die according the Scriptures. He knew when the time was near and set his face like flint: “When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51).

A third way that we see the intentionality of Jesus to suffer for us is in the words he spoke in the mouth of Isaiah the prophet:

I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard;
I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. (Isaiah 50:6)

I have to work hard in my imagination to keep before me what iron will this required. Humans recoil from suffering. We recoil a hundred times more from suffering that is caused by unjust, ugly, sniveling, low-down, arrogant people. At every moment of pain and indignity, Jesus chose not to do what would have been immediately just. He gave his back to the smiter. He gave his cheek to slapping. He gave his beard to plucking. He offered his face to spitting. And he was doing it for the very ones causing the pain.

A fourth way we see the intentionality of Jesus’ suffering is in the way Peter explains how this was possible. He said, “When he was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly” (1 Peter 2:23).

The way Jesus handled the injustice of it all was not by saying, “Injustice doesn’t matter,” but by entrusting his cause to “him who judges justly.” God would see that justice is done. That was not Jesus’ calling at Calvary. (Nor is it our highest calling now. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay,” says the Lord, Romans 12:19.)

The fifth and perhaps the clearest statement that Jesus makes about his own intentionality to die is in John 10:17-18:

For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.

Jesus’ point in these words is that he is acting completely voluntarily. He is under no constraint from any mere human. Circumstances have not overtaken him. He is not being swept along in the injustice of the moment. He is in control.

Therefore, when John says, “By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16), we should feel the intensity of his love for us to the degree that we see his intentionality to suffer and die. I pray that you will feel it profoundly. And may that profound experience of being loved by Christ have this effect on you:

The love of Christ controls us . . . . He died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Sunday's Coming!!

2008-03-17T23:27:00.001-05:00

Let These Results of the Resurrection of Jesus Revive Your Passion for His Supremacy Over All Things

2008-03-12T15:32:00.001-05:00

March 12, 2008
By John Piper

As Easter approaches, let’s stir up our thankfulness and joy and admiration and amazement at what the resurrection of Jesus means for us. The curse of our fallen nature is that what once thrilled us becomes ordinary. The reality hasn’t changed. We have changed.

This is why the Bible exists. Peter says of his two letters that they are written to “stir up” or “arouse” by means of “reminder.”

This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder. (2 Peter 3:1)

So let’s stir up our sincere minds by way of reminder.

What has God done in raising Jesus from the dead? Here are a few biblical answers.

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, death will never have any dominion over him again.

Romans 6:9: “We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.”

Acts 13:34: “He raised him from the dead, no more to return to corruption.”

Because of the resurrection, Jesus intercedes for us in heaven before God.

Romans 8:34: “Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.”

Jesus’ resurrection was the beginning and guarantee of our resurrection.

1 Corinthians 15:20: “But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”

2 Corinthians 4:14: “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”

2 Corinthians 4:14: “He who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”

We were raised with Jesus so that our true life is hidden now in him.

Ephesians 2:6: “[God] and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.”

Colossians 3:1-4: “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. . . . Your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we are born again to a living hope.

1 Peter 1:3: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, we now enjoy his personal fellowship with us always.

Matthew 28:20: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Because of the resurrection of Jesus, he has a name above every name and every knee will bow to him.

Philippians 2:9-10: “God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.”

The resurrection of Jesus means that Jesus kept his word.

Matthew 17:22: “Jesus said to them, ‘The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.’”

The resurrection of Jesus fulfilled the Scriptures and the promises of God.

1 Corinthians 15:4: “He was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

Acts 13:32-33: “We bring you the good news that what God promised to the fathers, this he has fulfilled to us their children by raising Jesus.”

Because Jesus was raised, he has received the promise of the Spirit and poured out the Spirit on us.

Acts 2:33: “Being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing.”

Because Jesus is raised, he can still heal the way he did on earth.

Acts 4:10: “Let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by him this man is standing before you well.”

Because of the resurrection, he gives repentance and forgiveness of sins.

Acts 5:31: “God exalted him at his right hand as Leader and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins.”

Because Jesus was raised, he is now appointed by God to judge the living and the dead.

Acts 10:42: “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead.”

Acts 17:31: “He has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”

God secured our justification by raising Jesus from the dead.

Romans 4:25: “He was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.”

The risen Christ takes the place for us that the law once had so that we can bear fruit for God.

Romans 7:4: “Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.”

Because of Jesus’ resurrection, he now has the glory for which we were made. Our ultimate destiny is to see him as he is.

1 Peter 1:21: “God . . . raised him from the dead and gave him glory.”

John 17:5, 24: “And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed. . . . Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.”

May the risen Lord Jesus himself arouse your sincere mind to new depths of worship and allegiance and joy.

Pastor John

The CALL ALABAMA

2008-03-03T18:50:00.002-06:00

I can't help but post this...since my heart is set on Revival. I know that is why the LORD has called me to Alabama. So, this article from Lou Engle really struck me.

A Message From Lou Engle

For three years, the Lord has led me to pray for Alabama.

The burden was born out of a dream in which I was digging for the wells of revival, and I hit an obstruction. When I dug around the obstruction, I found bones. Inscribed on the bones was "Alabama." I knew from the dream that Alabama was key to revival in America, however there were things hidden that needed to be prayed through for the breakthrough to come.

The bones of Alabama, I believe, speak of the historic calling on the state as a forerunner for justice in America. They also speak of hidden issues that must be repented of that affect the whole nation. It is my conviction that TheCall in Montgomery is pivotal for a great turning in America.

In solemn assembly before the Lord, we are calling for repentance for the shedding of the innocent blood of African American slaves, racism (Montgomery – the first capital of the confederate states), lynching, and the killing of innocent children and many others who laid down their lives for Civil Rights. But we also believe that those who suffer the most and can still forgive receive redemptive authority to lead the nation.

We believe a new company of African American voices, birthed out of fasting and prayer, will lead the parade of history in bringing freedom from poverty in the inner cities and lead the way to the ending of abortion and movements of adoption in this nation.

On the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., we want to cry out to God for a new prophetic mantle to fall on Alabama and its people to bring forth spiritual awakening and justice and, in particular, proclaim with the clearest voice, “Let my people go!"

I believe that out of this gathering, a human life amendment could be brought forth, much like the voting amendment that was born out of the civil rights movement in 1964. From this gathering, we will call on God for fasting and prayer movements to explode through the inner cities of Alabama and our nation that can alone shift atmospheres and restore city streets with dwellings.

So, it is to Montgomery we go on April 5th declaring, “We have a dream!” We have a dream that abortion can end. We have a dream for reformation in our cities, and we have a dream that National Revival can be ignited that will transform a nation.

For TheCall,

Lou Engle

A Tragedy in the Making

2008-02-25T20:24:00.000-06:00

DON'T WASTE YOUR LIFE!!

REVIVE 2.21.08

2008-02-22T13:51:00.008-06:00

Ladies, last night was great! I look forward to next month. Here are some pics from the night!

Pray for Union University

2008-02-13T15:23:00.002-06:00

Most of you have heard about the tornado that hit Union University.
Our church is heavily tied to this University. It is also the University from where I currently attend classes for the Masters of Christian Studies program. This video was made by one of the students at Union. You'll want to watch this awesome testimony of God's mercy over this campus. Pray for Union University as they move forward after the storm.

REVIVE going LIVE

2008-02-12T08:30:00.002-06:00

I am SO excited to share with you that REVIVE is finally going live!

Two years ago the LORD gave me a vision of REVIVE in my mind and He is finally bringing it forward in a corporate worship setting. REVIVE will be targeted at women ages 18-40 something, however, there is no age limit on the gathering. We will be worshiping the LORD in song led by Amy Tosney and team and then I will lead bible study. We will then have a time for women to connect with one another and to spur one another on.

REVIVE starts Thursday night February 21st at 7:00-8:30pm in the High School Worship Room at Hunter Street. We will be meeting once a month.
Dates are as follows:
Feb 21st
Mar 27th
Apr 24th
May 15th
Jun- off
Jul-off
Aug 21st
Sept-26-27th REVIVE ladies retreat in Springville
Oct-date TBD
Nov-date TBD

A Father's Heart

2008-01-24T17:56:00.000-06:00

Hey everyone,

If you have not heard about this already, then you'll want to listen to this message. Rick Burgess from the famous Rick and Bubba radio show (http://www.rickandbubba.com/) lost his 2 year old son last weekend in a tragic drowning. He spoke at the memorial service and has a "wake up message" for all. I have posted the video's below from youtube. It is an incredible testimony and lives are being saved and changed all over the world due to this one family's tragedy.

Don't Waste Your Life #2

2008-01-22T21:11:00.000-06:00

Don't Waste Your Life #1

2008-01-19T11:04:00.000-06:00

What Will the Final Judgment Mean for You?

2008-01-01T16:27:00.000-06:00

http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/TasteAndSee/ByDate/2007/2550_What_Will_the_Final_Judgment_Mean_for_You/

The Word Became Flesh

2007-12-19T00:44:00.001-06:00

Wow! What a year it has been. I think that we have been in Alabama long enough now that it is safe to say that our feet have been firmly planted in our new home and place of ministry. We love it! No doubt God has bestowed on us blessing after blessing. We have been in awe while watching the hand of the LORD work in marvelous ways. However, this year has been far from easy. There have been some real heartaches that we have had to deal with all throughout the year.

As most of you know-we lost my grandmother this year. She was the only grandmother that I knew and I was the only grandchild she knew. So, needless to say our relationship was very special. Her death allowed me to spend lots of time reflecting on wonderful memories that God had given me with her. And for those memories I am so thankful. She was precious and I miss her dearly. Another heartache - has been the news of my father being diagnosed with cancer. I can’t describe the pain that I have faced while watching my parents endure such a difficult road. Being far away from them during this time has been excruciating. Its times like these that make life far more valuable and precious than we often realize.

Mingled in with the heartaches have been many challenges this year as well. I think that we’d all agree that life is not easy. Honestly, it is just plain hard sometimes. But, the one thing on earth that I can not fathom is living through life’s difficulties without the One who became flesh and dwelt among us. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:1-2; 14.

We can see through the Inspired penmanship of the Beloved Disciple, that in the beginning the WORD was God and He became flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus- the Eternal Son of God stepped out of eternity- broke into time and put on human flesh. God, remaining fully divine now also fully man. Why? So He could dwell among us. There are really no words in our language to describe the incarnation of Christ. The word amazing falls extremely short.

God dwelt among us. The original Greek word for dwelt is eskhnwsen. It literally means to fix one's tabernacle, to live in a tabernacle (or tent). In other words, God set up His tent and lived right where we are so He could interact with us and get personal with us. Truly this is more than we can understand. To touch the Transcendent- how can this be?

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created………through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. …..For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things…… making peace by the blood of his cross. Colossians 1:15-20.

Through this incredible act on the cross, the all satisfying God has made it possible for us to have our sins forgiven so we can know Him and fellowship with Him now. We can have an intimate relationship with El Elyon (The Most High God). There is no greater joy.

This Christmas we can choose to allow the birth of Christ to be some distant historical story or we can recognize and receive this Divine intervention made available to us now. This is the reason for all the joy we proclaim during the Christmas season. We can have every pleasure and find the deepest comfort in times of pain in this life through Jesus Christ. This is how someone on earth can endure life’s difficulties. The Word became flesh and pitched his tent among us so we could know Him. Embrace Jesus with me today.

Longing

2007-12-13T23:06:00.000-06:00

1My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

2 You are the most excellent of men
and your lips have been anointed with grace,
since God has blessed you forever.

3 Gird your sword upon your side, O mighty one;
clothe yourself with splendor and majesty.

4 In your majesty ride forth victoriously
in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness;
let your right hand display awesome deeds.

5 Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies;let the nations fall beneath your feet.

6 Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever;
a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.

7 You love righteousness and hate wickedness;
therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.

8 All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia;from palaces adorned with ivory the music of the strings makes you glad.

9 Daughters of kings are among your honored women;
at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.

10 Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear:
Forget your people and your father's house.

11 The king is enthralled by your beauty;
honor him, for he is your lord.

12 The Daughter of Tyre will come with a gift,
men of wealth will seek your favor.

13 All glorious is the princess within her chamber ;
her gown is interwoven with gold.

14 In embroidered garments she is led to the king;
her virgin companions follow her and are brought to you.

15 They are led in with joy and gladness;
they enter the palace of the king.

16 Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout the land.

17 I will perpetuate your memory through all generations;
therefore the nations will praise you for ever and ever.
Psalm 45:1-17

This link to Youtube is video clips from One Night with the King with the song Everything by Lifehouse.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=R_7kCr6e68k
This video is a beautiful picture of the Bride and the KING!!

Oh, how I am longing for that day, when we come face to face with our Glorious KING!

Everything, lyrics by LIFEHOUSE.

Find Me Here
Speak To Me
I want to feel you
I need to hear you
You are the light
That's leading me
To the place where
I find peace again.

You are the strength, that keeps me walking.
You are the hope, that keeps me trusting.Y
ou are the light to my soul.You are my purpose...you're everything.

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
You calm the storms, and you give me rest.
You hold me in your hands, you won't let me fall.
You steal my heart, and you take my breath away.
Would you take me in? Take me deeper now?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
And how can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

Cause you're all I want, You're all I needYou're everything,everything
You're all I want your all I needYou're everything, everything.
You're all I want you're all I need.You're everything, everything
You're all I want you're all I need, you're everything, everything.

And How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

How can I stand here with you and not be moved by you?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?
Would you tell me how could it be any better than this?

The Gift of Jesus

2007-12-11T08:28:00.000-06:00

This is from last year. Had to share it as well as I reminisce over what God has done the last couple of years.

December 14, 2006
The Gift of Jesus

This year has been such a blessing from the LORD. Our family has been on a wonderful journey. As you may remember last year was quite a difficult year for our family as we sought God and waited patiently for Him to show us where we were to serve. But this year, not only did God give Jeff an incredible place to serve in ministry; He has allowed me to stay home with our precious children. What an experience this has been and a complete change in our lifestyle! For Jeff- from part time ministry and seminary to Full time ministry. For me- from a full time business career to full time motherhood. Not to mention all of this taking place 3 states away from Texas.

We have had so much fun getting adjusted to a new place, making new friends and watching God unfold His plan for our lives. But amidst all the fun, there have also been hard lessons learned. God obviously had a lot that He needed to show me this year. He used our changes and transitions as teachable moments. Interestingly enough, most of my lessons were revealing how sinful in nature that I really am. In comparison to a Holy God I know that even my righteous acts are as filthy rags. (Isaiah 64:6) But this time, God showed me some of my not so righteous ways. He uncovered areas in my life that I had not recognized before.

Now before you get to thinking that there is some deep secret or hidden sin that I am talking about, let me clarify. To sum it all up in one word it would be called “selfishness”. (NO, not this only child who grew up thinking that life was all about her?!!) I don’t know about you, but whenever something unpleasant in my own life is laid bare, it’s not fun at all. Nobody likes to have the ugly things exposed. There were days that felt almost gloomy when I would get a good inside look of myself. Why would God allow a season of such hard lessons? Yes, some changes were needed for sure….but, was God being cruel? Would He really want to cause me to feel worthless? Before you are quick to answer, let me say that this revealing of my sinfulness was actually a treasure- A beautiful gift. I’ll tell you why.

Isaiah 53:5 says “But He was pierced because of our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on Him, and we are healed by His wounds.” Today God reminded me that all my sin was placed on Jesus when He died on the cross. He paid the full price for all my sin and gave me peace and healing in its place. You see, I’ll never be good enough or sinless but because of Jesus and having received Him, my life is beautiful to God even in my sinfulness. God allowed me to go through a time of seeing more of who I really am without Him and in return, it caused me to have a much deeper love and appreciation for my Savior. What a GIFT!

There is nothing more fulfilling than knowing and loving Jesus more. To think that God would reveal more of Himself to me in this way is amazing! Today my heart rejoices in God alone! I could not live with out Him. He has covered all my transgressions and iniquities. This season as you reflect on Christmas and it’s meaning, do not leave Jesus in the manger. Yes, He was born and placed in a manger, but He did not stay there!!! He is now our risen and victorious LORD who has given us the most beautiful gift. Himself.

Adoring Jesus this Christmas.

What was I thinking?

2007-12-09T16:17:00.001-06:00

I told you last month that I would post part 2 of KP's sermon on my blog and I totally forgot! What was I thinking? Sorry. Any way, some of you have already gone and watched part 2 on your own, but just in case you haven't and are interested..... here it is.

For those of you that are subscribed to my blog you can follow this link. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZuZm5OQMd8

Our Immanuel

2007-12-03T08:48:00.000-06:00

Here is something that I wrote 2 years ago at Christmast that I thought that I would share again.

December 22, 2005
Our Immanuel

This year during the Christmas season, God has brought the name Immanuel to the forefront of my mind. It has been a name on which I have spent a lot of time reflecting. Matthew 1:23 says, “The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel which means, God with us”. Think about that for a moment. God with us! I can’t think of anything more profound.

The God of the universe, Creator of heaven and earth, Everlasting Father, King of kings, LORD of Lords, Self Sustaining, Omnipotent, Omniscient, All Sufficient GOD does not “need” us. He is complete and perfect just as He is! But He “wants” to be with us. Amazing! Immanuel, God became flesh. If you break into parts the name Immanuel, you would find this meaning. Im = with, An = us and El= God. So you might call Him the “With” us GOD. God with us! Have you ever heard of such a thing?

This year has been particularly difficult for our family due to Jeff’s final semester at the seminary as well as the journey we have been on now for 7 months of waiting for Gods unrevealed place of ministry for us. The last several months my focus has been on what we are “without”. But, because of Jesus, in contrast to the “without” I also have a really BIG “with”. I have a God who is with me and loves me. So I have no reason to dwell on the “without”.

Psalm 63:3 tells us that Gods love is better than life. This week, God reminded me of His personal love for me. Early one morning, I was up and spending my quiet time with the Lord at the kitchen table. I have really been trying to practice sitting quietly before Him to allow His word to sink in as I read it. (I am better at talking instead of listening) As I sat in the quiet and stillness of the moment, I requested from my heart to hear God speak to me. Just anything, Lord, will do. Oh, to hear an audible word from God! At that very moment, I heard little feet coming my way. I was irritated knowing that my quiet time with the Lord had ended and that now I would not hear from Him, as my youngest child was obviously awake and headed in my direction.

I want you to know what happened next. That precious child came over to me, quietly crawled up into my lap, put his small hands on my face, looked straight into my eyes and whispered, “I LOVE YOU SO MUCH”. Suddenly, I felt a feeling flood my body like nothing else. What I thought would be an interruption was actually an answer to prayer. I had just heard from my heavenly Father. Sure, it was in a four year old voice, but it was from the mouth of God. “I LOVE YOU” is what my God wanted to tell me as I eagerly awaited any word from HIM. Can you IMAGINE? Oh, yes Lord your love is better than life! I can testify with the psalmist now.

I can’t think of anything more wonderful than to be loved by a God that is “with us”. Avoid all the busyness and chaos that has been brought into the Christmas season. Sit back with me and reflect on a God that loved us SO much that He stepped out of heaven and came to earth to be “with us”. What more could we ask for? He is with us this very moment. We are surrounded by Him and His love at all times. Today, you may be “without” someone or something like me. But, do not spend your time focusing on the “without”. For we have a greater focus. Jesus our IMMANUEL!

May your Christmas be full of JESUS!!!

My Heart for the Lost

2007-11-11T19:38:00.000-06:00

Hey all,

I came across this powerful sermon by K.P. Yohannan today and couldn't help but post it. I met K.P. (indirectly) years ago when God began to lay Asia on my heart. He is awesome! What he speaks is what God speaks to me through His word! Not many people will stand up and say the things that he says. But, don't worry, John Piper is among the few who will! AMEN! Thank God for John Piper. He speaks my language!

Anyway, my Sunday school class is wrapping up our study on "Desiring God" with the last chapter on Suffering. The chapter is so good and once again speaks about the things that God speaks to me in His word. K.P.'s sermon is so similar to what we are learning together in class. I hope you will all take a few minutes to listen to him. The sermon is in two parts. I'll post part 2 in a couple of days. In the mean time, I am praying that when you listen to K.P. you'll hear the Father's heart. The world is dying, the lost are not being reached while prosperous America builds bigger house, drives fancier cars and is paralyzed in front of the T.V.

I pray God will open eyes and move hearts for the lost. Join me in prayer and fasting over how God can use us to make a difference in the Kingdom!

Also, K.P. has an incredible book called REVOLUTION in World Missions. He offers it free at this link. Take advantage, you won't regret it! https://www.gfa.org/freebook

PS...you'll need to hit the pause button on the music player on the lower right hand side of the page in order to hear the video.

I Surrender All

2007-11-01T21:48:00.000-05:00

When the Bridegroom Is Taken Away, They Will Fast—With New Wineskins

2007-10-30T12:48:00.000-05:00

Matthew 9:14-17
Then the disciples of John came to Him, saying, "Why do we and the Pharisees fast, but Your disciples do not fast?" And Jesus said to them, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they? But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast. But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved."

I have come across this verse a couple of times in the last few days and it is heavy on my heart. I can't seem to get it out of my mind. I was researching it some today and about to write about what God was stirring in my heart, then along comes John Piper who writes it all out so perfectly that I could not bring myself to butcher this message. So, I am going to let Piper give it to you.

Fasting in the History of the Church
The Didache, a manual of church instruction from near the end of the first century says,
Let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on Mondays and Thursdays, but do your fast on Wednesdays and Fridays. (7:1) In other words the early church sought to distance itself of the emptiness of fasting without losing the value of the practice.

Epiphanius, a bishop in Italy in the fifth century, said, Who does not know that the fast of the fourth and sixth days of the week are observed by Christians throughout the world? John Calvin, in the 16th century, said, Let us say something about fasting, because many, for want of knowing its usefulness, undervalue its necessity, and some reject it as almost superfluous; while, on the other hand where the use of it is not well understood, it easily degenerates into perstition. Holy and legitimate fasting is directed to three ends; for we practice it either as a restraint on the flesh, to preserve it from licentiousness, or as a preparation for prayers and pious meditations, or as a testimony of our humiliation in the presence of God when we are desirous of confessing our guilt before him. (Institutes, IV.12, 14, 15)

Martin Luther wrote, Of fasting I say this: It is right to fast frequently in order to subdue and control the body. For when the stomach is full, the body does not serve for preaching, for praying, or studying, or for doing anything else that is good. Under such circumstances God's Word cannot remain. But one should not fast with a view to meriting something by it as by a good work.
In more recent times the evangelical church in South Korea has taught the rest of the world a lesson in prayer and fasting. The first Protestant church was planted in Korea in 1884. One hundred years later there were 30,000 churches. That's an average of 300 new churches a year for 100 years. Today evangelicals comprise about 30% of the population. God has used many means to do this great work. One of them is a recovery not just of dynamic prayer, but of fasting-prayer. In the OMS (Overseas Missionary Society) churches alone more than 20,000 people have completed a 40-day fast—usually at one of their "prayer houses" in the mountains.

A Call to Fasting
God has confirmed in my own experience this week the value of fasting in getting long-prayed-for breakthroughs. I believe that if we seek the Lord with the hunger of fasting, there will be many more such breakthroughs that we long for. Is there something you have been praying for a long time? Is there an unbeliever you would like God to awaken to spiritual things? Is there a broken relationship you would like God to reconcile? Is there a perplexity of direction on the horizon of your life? I believe that God is calling us to rediscover the place of fasting in appropriating his power.

I suggested that as a church we fast corporately for 24 hours, skipping breakfast and lunch each Wednesday. Thus we would not eat between supper Tuesday and supper Wednesday. Instead we would try to devote some of the time given to those meals to meditation on God's Word and to prayer for spiritual awakening and for the advancement of Christ's kingdom around the world.

Many Ways to Join the Spirit of Fasting
I realize that this will not work for everyone. Some have schedules on Wednesday that make that unworkable. Others have physical conditions that make fasting unsafe. Don't worry about that. There are many ways to join the spirit of fasting. One woman wrote me this week whose job won't fit with this schedule. So she said,
So I have a couple things that I believe are from the Spirit that may be more of a fast for some than food. I thought that not watching television for a week or a month or a night of the week when I normally watch it may be more of a fast than food. Instead of watching my favorite program I spend the time talking and listening to God. I wonder if there might be others for whom this would be a fast and would be a focused time of payer for them.
Don't ignore God's call on your life to fast if you can't be a part of the Wednesday focus. If your heart is willing, he will lead you, as he did this woman, to something fruitful for you.

Martin Lloyd-Jones said in his great book on the Sermon on the Mount,
Fasting, if we conceive of it truly, must not . . . be confined to the question of food and drink; fasting should really be made to include abstinence from anything which is legitimate in and of itself for the sake of some special spiritual purpose. There are many bodily functions which are right and normal and perfectly legitimate, but which for special peculiar reasons in certain circumstances should be controlled. That is fasting.

Fasting: An Intensification of Prayer
I pointed out last week from Acts 13:1–3 that the course of history was changed when the leaders of the church in Antioch were worshiping, praying, and fasting. I suggested that in our day there has been reawakening in worship around the world and reawakening in prayer around the world. But not yet does there seem to be a reawakening in fasting, except in some places like Korea. I asked, Might God not ordain that his fullest blessings will come to the church when we prevail in prayer with the intensity of fasting? That's what I think fasting is at heart. It's an intensification of prayer. It's a physical explanation point at the end of the sentence, "We hunger for you to come in power." It's a cry with your body, "I really mean it, Lord! This much, I hunger for you."
I want to turn our attention to the words of Jesus on fasting. Does he teach us to fast? Or is it part of the old wineskins left over from the Old Testament that has no place in the new, free, celebrating people of God?
Richard Foster, who wrote the book Celebration of Discipline, said in his chapter on fasting of Matthew 9:15, "That is perhaps the most important statement in the New Testament on whether Christians should fast today." That's probably true. So let's give close attention to this text and ask the Lord to teach us from it what we should know and what we should do in regard to fasting.

Why Didn't Jesus' Disciples Fast?
In Matthew 9:14 the disciples of John the Baptist come to Jesus and ask why Jesus' disciples don't fast? So evidently Jesus' disciples were not fasting while he was with them.

While the Bridegroom Is with His Attendants
Jesus answers with a word picture. He says, "The attendants of the bridegroom cannot mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them, can they?" With those words Jesus teaches us two things: one is that fasting was by and large associated with mourning in that day. It was an expression of broken-heartedness and desperation, usually over sin or over some danger. It was something you did when things were not going the way you want them to.
But that's not the situation with the disciples of Jesus. This is the second thing he teaches: the Messiah has come and his coming is like the coming of a bridegroom to a wedding feast. This is just too good to mingle with fasting. So Jesus was making a tremendous claim for himself here. In the Old Testament God had pictured himself as the husband of his people Israel (Isaiah 62:4f.; Jeremiah 2:2; 3:20; Ezekiel 16:8; Hosea 2:19f.). Now his Son, the Messiah, the long hoped-for one, has come and he claims to be the Bridegroom—that is, the husband of his people, who will be the true Israel (cf. John 3:29). This is the kind of partially veiled claim Jesus made about his identity with God. If you had ears to hear, you could hear it. God, the one who betrothed Israel to himself in covenant love, has come.

This is so stunning and so glorious and so unexpected in this form that Jesus said, you just can't fast now in this situation. It is too happy and to spectacularly exhilarating. Fasting is for times of yearning and aching and longing. But the bridegroom of Israel is here. After a thousand years of dreaming and longing and hoping and waiting, he is here! The absence of fasting in the band of disciples was a witness to the presence of God in their midst.

"Then They Will Fast"
But then Jesus said, "But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast." This is the key sentence: "Then they will fast." When is he referring to?
Some have suggested he was referring just to the several days between his death and resurrection. They would fast just for those days. But that is very unlikely. For several reasons. One is that the early church fasted after the resurrection, as we have seen in Acts 13:1–3 (cf. Acts 14:23; 2 Corinthians 6:5; 11:27). The other is that in Matthew 25:1–13 Jesus pictures his second coming as the arrival of the bridegroom. In other words, the Bridegroom is taken away until the second coming of Christ.

So I think Arthur Wallis is right in his sixth chapter of God's Chosen Fast: "The time is now." Jesus is saying: Now while I am here in your midst as the Bridegroom, you can't fast, but I am not going to remain with you. There will come a time when I return to my Father in heaven. And during that time you will fast. That time is now.

It's true that Jesus is present with us by his Spirit. But Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5:8, "We [would] prefer to be absent from the body and at home with the Lord." In other words, in this age there is an ache and a longing—a homesickness—inside every Christian that Jesus is not here as fully and intimately and as powerfully and as gloriously as we want him to be. And that is why we fast.

A Patch of Unshrunk Cloth and New Wine
But then Jesus says something very crucial in verse 16–17. He says,
But no one puts a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment; for the patch pulls away from the garment, and a worse tear results. 17 "Nor do men put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out, and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.
The patch of unshrunk cloth and the new wine represent the new reality that has come with Jesus—the kingdom of God is here. The Bridegroom has come. The Messiah is in our midst. And that is not merely temporary. He is not merely here and then gone. The kingdom of God did not come in Jesus and then just vanish out of the world.
Jesus died for our sins once for all. He rose from the dead once for all. The Spirit was sent into the world as the real presence of Jesus among us. The kingdom is the reigning power of Christ in the world subduing hearts to the king and creating a people who believe him and serve him. The Spirit of the Bridegroom is gathering and purifying a bride for Christ. This is the new wine.
Old Wineskins Can't Contain the New Wine
And Jesus says, The old wineskins can't contain it. What is the old wineskin? In the context it seems to be fasting. Fasting was inherited from the Old Testament and had been used as part of the Jewish system of relating to God. Now Jesus says, the old wineskins of Judaism can't contain the new wine.
So what shall we say? In verse 15 Jesus says that we will fast when the Bridegroom is gone. And in verse 17 he says that the old fasting cannot contain the new wine of the kingdom.

New Wine Demands New Fasting
My answer is that the new wine demands new fasting. Years ago I wrote in the margin of my Greek Testament beside this text, "The new fasting is based on the mystery that the Bridegroom has come, not just will come. The new wine of his presence calls for new fasting."
In other words the yearning and longing and ache of the old fasting was not based on the glorious truth that the Messiah had come. The mourning over sin and the yearning in danger was not based on the great finished work of the Redeemer and the great revelation of himself and his grace in history. But now the Bridegroom has come. In coming he struck the decisive blow against sin and against Satan and against death.
The great, central, decisive act of salvation for us today is past, not future. And on the basis of that past work of the Bridegroom, nothing can ever be the same again. The wine is new. The blood is shed. The Lamb is slain. The punishment of or sins is executed. Death is defeated. The Bridegroom is risen. The Spirit is sent. The wine is new. And the old fasting mindset is simply not adequate.
What's New About the New Fasting
What's new about the fasting is that it rests on all this finished work of the Bridegroom. The yearning that we feel for revival or awakening or deliverance from corruption is not merely longing and aching. The first fruits of what we long for have already come. The down payment of what we yearn for is already paid. The fullness that we are longing for and fasting for has appeared in history and we have beheld his glory. It is not merely future.
We have tasted the powers of the age to come, and our new fasting is not because we are hungry for something we have not tasted, but because the new wine of Christ's presence is so real and so satisfying. The newness of our fasting is this: its intensity comes not because we have never tasted the wine of Christ's presence, but because we have tasted it so wonderfully by his Spirit and cannot now be satisfied until the consummation of joy arrives. We must have all he promised. And as much now as possible.
So I urge you to join in the fasting. Not because you haven't tasted the new wine of Christ's presence, but because you have tasted it, and long, with a deep joyful aching of soul, to know more of his presence and power in our midst. - John Piper

Understanding the Times

2007-10-17T07:59:00.000-05:00

Daniel 9:1-3 In the first year of Darius son of Ahasuerus, who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom- in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the LORD given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

This passage so stuck out to me that I couldn’t help but write about it. Let’s look at this together. For a little background- All Israel had transgressed God’s law and turned away, refusing to obey the LORD their God. (Dan 9:11) and because of their unfaithfulness to the LORD, He scattered them both near and far in all the countries. (vs.7) In particular God had exiled Judah to Babylon and the people were in captivity. Daniel was one of those from the tribe of Judah who had been exiled to Babylon. But Daniel, even as a young teenage boy resolved not to let the pagan culture in which he now lived to be an influence on his life as a child of God. He lived in faithfulness to his God all the days of His life.

And here we are at this passage when Daniel was old in age and we see him searching the scriptures. He is reading the prophecies of Jeremiah which tell of a 70 year captivity and he understands that the LORD will deliver His people out of captivity just as He delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Daniel understands the times. He realizes that through the Prophecies of Jeremiah and the length the people have been exiled that the time of captivity is drawing to a close and the LORD will be faithful to restore His people.

Now Daniel, understanding the prophecies and believing in God’s soon coming restoration does something so interesting. He turns to the LORD God and pleads to him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. Amazing! Why did He do this? Why wasn’t he sitting back and carrying on with his life while waiting for Gods restoration? We see very clearly through his incredibly passionate prayer that he offers up to the LORD in verses 4-19 that he is praying for his sins and the sins of God’s people will be forgiven and he is mourning over them. The people that bore the very name of GOD had been living life their way and were not turning to the LORD and God punished them. Daniel prayed for his people to turn from their sins and return to God.

This raises the hair on the back of my neck. Daniel KNEW the times and he prayed and fasted for his people! Do we know the times that we are in? As believers are we searching scripture to understand where we are at in our day and age? In Matthew chapter 24 Jesus gives us signs of the close of the age. Jesus tells us in vs.12 that in the last days we will see an increase in wickedness and the love of many will grow cold. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 tells that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.

I’d say that describes our day pretty accurately, wouldn’t you? And by reading these God breathed texts what are we doing about it? Jesus says in Matthew 24:32-33 that we can learn a good lesson from the fig tree: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he (Jesus) is near, at the very gates. Check your own spiritual pulse and the pulse of professing believers today. Do we understand the times? Or are we still going about our daily lives unconcerned about the sin in our lives or the spreading of the Gospel and totally disconnected from the Kingdom work that is to be done before Jesus’ return.

I am quickly reminded of Matthew 24:37-40 which says for as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Let this not be us! Let us be like Daniel who searched the scriptures and understood the times and cried out to God with prayers and petitions and with fasting on behalf of their sin and let us return to the LORD with all our hearts to be ready on the day that the Son of Man appears. The time is drawing near.

I'm Going To Fight

2007-10-03T10:04:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone,

I just had to share this today. For the last several weeks and in particular the last couple of days, I have been the enemy's target. I have been so weighted under his lies and his accusations and I just have to say that I am SICK of it. I am sick of walking in defeat! Anyone else feel like that today?

What is the enemy feeding you? What lies have you listened to and have started to believe? You and I are to be a threat to the kingdom of darkness. We have a weapon so sharp that the enemy will flee when we wield it! Stand up, pick up your weapon, get in the battle, stand firm and look the enemy in the face and tell him where he belongs.

Today, I am standing strong. I will not let the enemy get me down, I will not let him slow me down and I refuse to believe His lies. I WILL be a threat, I will be bold and by faith I WILL press on and I will advance the Kingdom of God. I am a child of The King and I am getting back in the battle today and I am going to FIGHT!!!

(watch this video attached)

A Reckless Pursuit

2007-09-24T09:10:00.000-05:00

A Reckless Pursuit, Fascination, Passion, Faith, Abandoning All Else, Fervency, Letting Go, Eyes Fixed, Dedicated, No Turning Back........

King David proclaimed that, above all, he sought one thing- the face of God. "One thing I have desired, one thing I seek, to behold the beauty of the Lord. Even to seek the very face of God." (Psalm 27:4,8)

Inspired by such a lifestyle, I abandon myself to this reality, reckless in my pursuit, fascinated in my devotion, stricken by love, wounded by grace. I am impassioned to seek His face because I am desperate for more.

Even now, the Spirit of God is moving in our midst, setting the pace for a worldwide movement of lovesick worshippers, inspired to live holy before God. Laying worldly pleasures aside and striving after the heart of God and longing to experience the power of the Holy Spirit.

The world may offer grand substitutes, and that is all they are; substitutes for the real thing. The Kingdom of Heaven holds a different reality; True Beauty, True Satisfaction, True Life. God is longing for us to pursue him in boldness as we abandon fleshly distractions to give ourselves wholly to Him with all our hearts. (Mt.22:37).

Today, multitude's are crying out to Jesus, "We will seek You with all our heart. We will indeed live a counter-culture lifestyle!" The Lord is preparing these people now in intimacy with His heart in the secret place to be vessels of His power. In their weak but sincere devotion, He is strong and will manifest His glory through them.

God is calling forth forerunners who will live in the spirit of John the Baptist who prepared the people for the coming of Christ. Even now God is searching the earth for forerunners young and old who will give it all up for Him, His will and his ways in fearless devotion. (taken from "The Call Kansas City" article)

Are you abandoned to this reckless pursuit of God? Are you willing to cast EVERYTHING aside to know Him in the fullness of who He is and to love Him with all your heart? God is seeking you out right now, He is pursuing you and drawing you to Himself. Get rid of everything that hinders you from coming to Him whole heartedly and be prepared to be overwhelmingly satisfied in God. There is no greater joy or satisfaction in this life than knowing the Father through Jesus. Are you ready to live for Jesus and fulfill His plan for you in the Kingdom of God? Much work is left to do before He returns. Surrender, let go, forsake all, keeping your eyes fixed and NO turning back! You will have no regrets!

Consider Your Investments

2007-09-17T17:57:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for a good devotional book, I would highly recommend Chris Tiegreen's "At His Feet". I mention his writings often on my blog. Each day is always SO good, but today's topic was something that God is talking to me about lately and I couldn't help but share it.

"What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?" Mark 8:36

IN WORD- If someone has a sum of money to invest, he or she will have to make some choices. The money can be put in full into one investment, or it can be divided among more than one. Many people choose this latter option in order to hedge their bets. But when one option is considered far superior to all the others, diversification takes a back seat to opportunism. Attractive investment opportunities draw all of our attention and all of our money for the possibilities they entail. We want to capitalize.
In the economy of God, one investment is clearly superior to all other's. It's a sure thing. And Jesus calls us to place all of our resources, time, and talents there-exclusively. Why? Because He knows the return it will yield, and he knows we will not be disappointed. But there is often a part of us that wants to diversify. We want to invest some in God's kingdom, certainly, but also some in this world. We're afraid to put our resources only in one place. Whether we put a lot or a little into the temporal, Jesus says, it's a bad deal. The world will end in bankruptcy, and the kingdom of God will inherit all wealth. And its wealth will be everlasting.

IN DEED- Human beings pursue comfort and pleasure with an alarming passion. It isn't that comfort and pleasure are wrong; God created both for us to enjoy. But He never called us to pursue them. He never asked us to focus our attention on our earthly time span in order to make it as easy or profitable as possible. To the contrary, he constantly calls His disciples to take everything they have now and invest it in everything they know about God's eternal Kingdom. "Whoever wants to save his life [i.e., live for the "now"] will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel [i.e., lives for the kingdom] will save it" (v. 35) Consider your investments well, and avoid the pursuits of this world. Whatever you do, do it for the glory of God.

God has really opened my eyes to the fact that the things of His Kingdom are done completely backwards from the things of this world. So many believers spend so much of their time, money and energy towards things of this world and Jesus clearly tells us NOT TO! All of our time, energy, talents, money should be invested in things of the Kingdom of God. Every earthly thing that we pursue in the here and now will not stand when its all said and done.

As my relationship with Jesus grows, I have come to realize that in comparison to knowing Him more intimately that the things of this world become increasingly unappealing. As Paul says in Philippians 3 that all those earthly things are rubbish compared to knowing Christ Jesus our LORD. My prayer for me is that every minute of each day, relationship, word spoken, ministry and dollar spent would bring God glory and serve to advance the Kingdom of God. I so badly want to be sold out 100% in every aspect of my life. The more I know Him the more I love Him and the more I want to give every part of my being to Him. NOTHING else compares to knowing Christ Jesus our LORD and giving everything we have to Him! When we do, our eternal benefits will far outweigh anything this world has to offer. What investments are you making?

Be Praised!!

2007-09-10T14:45:00.000-05:00

Consider the following passages from John Pipers book "Desiring God".

Consider this question: In view of God's infinite power and wisdom and beauty, what would his love to a human being involve? Or to put it another way: What could God give us to enjoy that would prove him most loving? There is only one possible answer: himself! If he withholds himself from our contemplation and companionship, no matter what else he gives us, he is not loving.

Now we are on the brink of what for me was a life-changing discovery. What do we all do when we are given or shown something beautiful or excellent? We praise it! We praise new little babies: "Oh, look at that nice round head! And all that hair! And her hands, aren't they perfect!" We praise a lover after a long absence: "Your eyes are like a cloudless sky! Your hair like forest silk!" We praise a grand slam in the bottom of the ninth when we are down by three. We praise the October trees along the banks of the St. Croix.

But the great discovery for me, as I said, came when reading "A Word about Praise" in C. S. Lewis's Reflections on the Psalms. His recorded thoughts-born from wrestling with the idea that God not only wants our praise but commands it--bear looking at again, in fuller form:

But the most obvious fact about praise-whether of God or any thing-strangely escaped me. I thought of it in terms of compliment, approval, or the giving of honor. I had never noticed that all enjoyment spontaneously overflows into praise unless (sometimes even if) shyness or the fear of boring others is deliberately brought in to check it. The world rings with praise-lovers praising their mistresses, readers their favorite poet, walkers praising the countryside, players praising their favorite game-praise of weather, wines, dishes, actors, motors, horses, colleges, countries, historical personages, children, flowers, mountains, rare stamps, rare beetles, even sometimes politicians or scholars. I had not noticed how the humblest, and at the same time most balanced and capacious, minds, praised most, while the cranks, misfits and malcontents praised least . . .

I had not noticed either that just as men spontaneously praise what ever they value, so they spontaneously urge us to join them in praising it: "Isn't she lovely? Wasn't it glorious? Don't you think that magnificent?" The Psalmists in telling everyone to praise God are doing what all men do when they speak of what they care about. My whole, more general, difficulty about the praise of God depended on my absurdly denying to us, as regards the supremely Valuable, what we delight to do, what indeed we can't help doing, about everything else we value.

I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed.

There is the solution! We praise what we enjoy because the delight is incomplete until it is expressed in praise. If we were not allowed to speak of what we value, and celebrate what we love, and praise what we admire, our joy would not be full. So if God loves us enough to make our joy full, he must not only give us himself; he must also win from us the praise of our hearts-not because he needs to shore up some weakness in himself or compensate for some deficiency, but because he loves us and seeks the fullness of our joy that can be found only in knowing and praising him, the most magnificent of all Beings. If he is truly for us he must be for himself!

God is the one Being in all the universe for whom seeking his own praise is the ultimately loving act. For him, self-exaltation is the highest virtue. When he does all things ``for the praise of his glory," he preserves for us and offers to us the only thing in all the world which can satisfy our longings. God is for us! And the foundation of this love is that God has been, is now, and always will be, for himself.

Ok, so with that said, why don't we complete our joy in God today by expressing it in our praise to HIM! The song attached will help you with this task!

Be Praised oh GOD!

Brittnie

Wear Does Our Value Come From?

2007-09-06T18:33:00.000-05:00

Hey everyone!

My sweet sister in law has something on her heart that she wants to share with you all. What she shares is a huge issue among us women today. I asked her to put her heart into words and to let me post it here on my blog. Would love to hear your thoughts on this topic.

The following write up by Kristi:

As a young woman I suffered many abuses, including sexual abuse and rape, by the one man meant to protect me, my father. This left me with deep wounds I know many of you have as well. As a result I was constantly searching for the answers to the questions every woman and girl want and need answered; "Am I worthwhile? Am I enough? Am I VALUABLE?" Of course, I was looking in all the wrong places for all the right answers. I dressed as if my value came from the way men saw me physically, because for a long time I didn’t know any other way to get my questions answered. Thankfully we are blessed with a Loving, Patient, and Forgiving God, who knows our true hearts. He has been working on mine for many years and continues to, daily. I’d like to share a few of the things I’ve learned through the Holy Spirit and our Heavenly Fathers word. I pray that it might be of help to you, as well.

Wear Does Our Value Come From?

As Christian women, where are we getting validated? Is it in our daily quiet time with our Savior or is it in the looks and comments we get from men, because of the way we are dressed? There are so many frustrating issues in our world today that need to be bathed in prayer, but few are so completely within our control.

We are called to be salt and light in a dark world. Matt.5:14-16 says "You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven." These verses are calling us to look differently than the world, yet how many of us read fashion magazines and try to imitate what we see or feel bad about ourselves because we will never be able to imitate what are on the pages? We have become so tolerant of worldly ways that I fear we don’t shine very brightly, if at all. When I allowed these images to get into my mind, through magazines, inappropriate TV shows, movies and videos, I gave the devil a foothold in my mind and heart. Eph.5:3 warns" But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s Holy people." Spiritual warfare is real and I had to get into the battle, for the sake of my marriage, my family and my own walk with Christ.

So, I had to ask myself; did I dress in hopes of catching a second glance or, did I see how valuable I was/am to God and want to honor Him because of His love for me?
This was a very hard question to address, and has taken a lot of humble tears to answer. How could Christ love me when I didn’t love myself?

Proverbs 31:10-12 states "A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies. Her husband has full confidence in her, and lacks nothing of value. She brings him good not harm all the days of her life." Yet how could my husband trust me as his wife if I was advertising what was rightfully for his eyes only?
If we are dressing to impress others who are not our husbands or to compete with other women we are doing evil to ourselves, which in turn is doing evil to our husbands and our marriages because we become one body with our mates when we marry them. (Genesis 2:24) If you are not married yet, how will you know if your future husband loves you for who you are inside, if he’s distracted by how much he is seeing on the outside? I struggled with this fact for many years, wondering if my husband really loved me for who I was inside.

For a long time I was scared to have more children, because of what it might do to my figure, until I read these verses; Luke 23:27-29 states A large number of people followed him including women, who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bear and the breasts that never nursed!" These verses weigh so heavily on my heart. Even on the way to His death for OUR sins, Christ is warning us. This issue runs so deep in our society. How many babies have not been born, how many warriors for Christ are not in the battle because we have become too vain to birth, and raise them?
What about the women who do choose to have more than a few children? How many of us have thought to ourselves" At least I don’t look as bad as her!"? How many of us can say we have never compared ourselves to another woman and thought ourselves better because we have perkier breasts, a flatter tummy, or a thinner figure?
The mothers of many should be honored, for they sustain the next generation of warriors of our faith.

Proverbs 31:30 says” Favor is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." I believe this too is a warning, that as Christian women we are not heeding. The reality of life is that we all are going to get old. I know no one wants to hear this, but it is true. We are missing the point and the beauty of this fact. We are not meant to be here forever! We are meant for a better place, forever praising our Heavenly Father.

I had to ask myself" When I get older will I be happy with the person I have become? Will I be able to hear my master say 'Well done good and faithful servant'?" I wasn’t so sure, actually I knew I wouldn’t. I needed to make some serious changes, and through the help of my TRUE Father, my Heavenly Father I have begun to turn a new page.

Proverbs 31:22 says "She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple." We are obviously called in this verse to look nice and make an effort, but not in an Earthly way. When we have Christ’s light in our hearts, it fills us and HE shines through us. That is a beauty everyone will notice and can’t be faked or duplicated.

If you struggle with this same problem I have a few questions you can ask your self that might help; -Am I trying to say look a me in this?
-Will this outfit bring honor or shame to my husband and our marriage covenant with God?
-Am I dressing to compete with another woman, am I trying to look as good as or better than another woman?
-Would I wear this outfit if Christ was physically standing next to me?
(Because He is!)

The devil feeds us all lies, and wants to distract us from God’s plan for our lives, but we do not have to succumb to his efforts. We have the power of our Creator on our side. We may be low, but we are lifted up because of Christ.

You are valuable. You are loved. You are worthy. God created you for an intimate relationship with Him, and He sent His only son to die for you. He chose you.
He chose me. Let’s honor His love and sacrifice with our hearts, minds, bodies, and our lives. May we be shining examples of His love, for our children and each other, now and always.

Desiring God- Money Part 4

2007-08-30T22:20:00.000-05:00

Desiring God- by John Piper

Our Calling: A Wartime Lifestyle

The mention of “war" is not merely rhetorical. What is specifically called for today is a "wartime lifestyle." I have used the phrase "simple necessities of life" earlier in this chapter because Paul said in 1Timothy 6:8, "If we have food and clothing, with these we shall be content." But this idea of simplicity can be very misleading. I mean it to refer to a style of life that is unencumbered with nonessentials-and the criterion for "essential" should not be primitive "simplicity," but wartime effectiveness.

Ralph Winter illustrates this idea of a wartime lifestyle:

The Queen Mary, lying in repose in the harbor at Long Beach, California, is a fascinating museum of the past. Used both as a luxury liner in peacetime and a troop transport during the Second World War, its present status as a museum the length of three football fields affords a stunning contrast between the lifestyles appropriate in peace and war. On one side of a partition you see the dining room reconstructed to depict the peacetime table setting that was appropriate to the wealthy patrons of high culture for whom a dazzling array of knives and forks and spoons held no mysteries. On the other side of the partition the evidences of wartime austerities are in sharp contrast. One metal tray with indentations replaces fifteen plates and saucers. Bunks, not just double but eight tiers high, explain why the peacetime complement of 3000 gave way to 15,000 people on board in wartime. How repugnant to the peacetime masters this transformation must have been! To do it took a national emergency, of course. The survival of a nation depended upon it. The essence of the Great Commission today is that the survival of many millions of people depends on its fulfillment.

There is a war going on. All talk of a Christian's right to live luxuriantly "as a child of the King" in this atmosphere sounds hollow-especially since the King himself is stripped for battle. It is more helpful to think of a "wartime" lifestyle than a merely "simple" lifestyle. Simplicity can be very inward directed, and may benefit no one else. A wartime lifestyle implies that there is a great and worthy cause for which to spend and be spent (2 Corinthians 12:15).

Winter continues:

America today is a save-yourself society if there ever was one. But does it really work? The underdeveloped societies suffer from one set of diseases: tuberculosis, malnutrition, pneumonia, parasites, typhoid, cholera, typhus, etc. Affluent America has virtually invented a whole new set of diseases: obesity, arteriosclerosis, heart disease, strokes, lung cancer, venereal disease, cirrhosis of the liver, drug addiction, alcoholism, divorce, battered children, suicide, murder. Take your choice. Laborsaving machines have turned out to be body-killing devices. Our affluence has allowed both mobility and isolation of the nuclear family, and as a result our divorce courts, our prisons and our mental institutions are flooded. In saving ourselves we have nearly lost ourselves.

How hard have we tried to save others? Consider the fact that the U.S. evangelical slogan, "Pray, give, or go" allows people merely to pray, if that is their choice! By contrast the Friends Missionary Prayer Band of South India numbers 8000 people in their prayer bands and supports 80 full-time missionaries in North India. If my denomination (with its unbelievably greater wealth per person) were to do that well, we would not be sending 500 missionaries, but 26,000. In spite of their true poverty, those poor people in South India are sending 50 times as many cross-cultural missionaries as we are.

The point here is to show that those who encourage Christians to pursue a luxuriant peacetime lifestyle are missing the point of all Jesus taught about money. He called us to lose our lives in order that we might gain them again (and the context is indeed money-"What does it profit a man, to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"- Mark 8:36. And the way he means for us to lose our lives is in fulfilling the mission of love he gave us.

Be Rich in Good Deeds

Which leads us to the final admonition Paul makes to the rich: "They are to do good, to be rich in good deeds, liberal and generous" (1Timothy 6:18). Once they are liberated from the magnet of pride and once their hope is set on God, not money, only one thing can happen: Their money will flow freely to multiply the manifold ministries of Christ.

What about the Lake Home?

So what does a pastor say to his people concerning the purchase and ownership of two homes in a world where 2,000 people starve to death every day and mission agencies cannot penetrate more unreached peoples for lack of funds? First, he may quote Amos 3: 15-"I will smite the winter house and the summer house; and the houses of ivory shall perish; and the great houses shall come to an end." Then he may read Luke 3:11, "He who has two coats, let him share with him who has none."

Then he might tell about the family in St. Petersburg, Florida, who caught a vision for the housing needs of the poor. They sold their second home in Ohio and used the funds to build houses for several families in Immokalee, Florida.

Then he will ask, is it wrong to own a second home that sits empty part of the year? And he will answer, maybe and maybe not. He will not make it easy by creating a law. Laws can be obeyed under constraint with no change of heart; prophets want new hearts for God, not just new real estate arrangements. He will empathize with their uncertainty and share his own struggle to discover the way of love. He will not presume to have a simple answer to every lifestyle question.

But he will help them decide. He will say, "Does your house signify or encourage a level of luxury enjoyed in heedless unconcern of the needs of others? Or is it a simple, oft-used retreat for needed rest and prayer and meditation that sends people back to the city with a passion to deny themselves for the evangelization of the unreached and the pursuit of justice?"

He will leave the arrow lodged in their conscience and challenge them to seek a lifestyle in sync with the teaching and life of the Lord Jesus.

Why Has God Given Us So Much?

In Ephesians 4:28, Paul says, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need." In other words, there are three levels of how to live with things: (1) you can steal to get; (2) or you can work to get; (3) or you can work to get in order to give.

Too many professing Christians live on level two. Almost all the forces of our culture urge them to live on level two. But the Bible pushes us relentlessly to level three. "God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that you may always have enough of everything and may provide in abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians 9: 8). Why does God bless us with abundance? So we can have enough to live on and then use the rest for all manner of good works that alleviate spiritual and physical misery. Enough for us; abundance for others.

The issue is not how much a person makes. Big industry and big salaries are a fact of our times, and they are not necessarily evil. The evil is in being deceived into thinking a $100,000 salary must be accompanied by a $100,000 lifestyle. God has made us to be conduits of his grace. The danger is in thinking the conduit should be lined with gold. It shouldn't. Copper will do.

Living on the Brink of Eternity

Our final summary emphasis should be this: In 1 Timothy 6, Paul's purpose is to help us lay hold on eternal life and not lose it. Paul never dabbles in unessentials. He lives on the brink of eternity. That's why he sees things so clearly. He stands there like God's gatekeeper and treats us like reasonable Christian Hedonists: You want life which is life indeed; don't you (verse 19)? You don't want ruin, destruction and pangs of heart, do you (verses 9-10)? You do want all the gain that godliness can bring; don't you (verse 6)? Then use the currency of Christian Hedonism wisely: do not desire to be rich, be content with the wartime necessities of life, set your hope fully on God, guard yourself from pride and let your joy in God overflow in a wealth of liberality to a lost and needy world.

Are You a Disciple?

2007-08-29T11:27:00.000-05:00

I am attaching a link for everyone to watch this video called "Experience the Life" when you get a few minutes. In the video Bill Hull is discussing something that God has been teaching me over the last several years. When I read God's word He convicts me of the state of the Church today. Becoming a Christian these days has been lowered to "just walking an aisle" or "praying a prayer" etc in order to be saved. Yet it is so obvious in America today that "so called" Christians have no transformation in their lives. They continue to live life the way they have or at best they may have cleaned up their act a little and go to church to check off a set of religious acts. But, what God has showed me is that to be a Christian, means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Bill Hull states in his article "What must change now" that: The word Christian-used three times in the New Testament has been preferred over Disciple, used 269 times. Christian seems to be a word that has lost its meaning more so than those who think Disciple is passé. It seems that outside the Church Christians are thought of as intolerant, even hateful, they are critics and judges. It is a title that has disappeared into the fog of Western culture to define religious origin. Inside the Church, Christian has become a word that describes agreement with a set of religious ideas; it does not require action or movement.

Disciple is a robust word; it calls upon a person to give an answer to God, to do something, to follow and in doing so create an opportunity for transformation. Answering the call to discipleship means positioning oneself for spiritual formation. It requires intentionality, self-denial, and commitment to follow Jesus wherever He leads. As Bonhoeffer aptly stated, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.”

We are called to be disciples of Jesus. Are you a disciple?

mms://media.bible.org/hull_etl_b102.wmv