Maximize God!

It is amusing to me how we humans get in tough situations and we begin to immediately minimize God. We get looking inward and fail to see the Lord working on our behalf. We minimize Him, don't we? I know that I have, and I am certain that you have too. We all know what it is like to be in this kind of situation, and to fail to see where the Lord is and how He is working on our behalf.
What got me thinking about this today is someting I was reading...the Bible. Who would have thought? ;) Psalms, several of them in fact. 145:3 - "Great is the Lord, and worthy of praise!" 147:1 - "Praise the Lord! How good it is to sing praises..." 147:5 - "Great is the Lord and mighty in power; His understanding has no limit." WOW! It hit me...great IS the Lord! He is above all that we know and struggle in. He is in control, even when we might feel that He is not. After all, we have to remember that we don't live by feelings, but by faith, right?
Then, an old song came to mind. "Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised!" Well, that is in Psalm 48:1-3 It ends with the thought that God is the stronghold. He is!
Which causes me to praise the Lord today, just knowing that He is great!
So, instead of my attitude and discouragement causing me to minimize God...I have to do what my Spirit-man wants and MAXIMIZE Him at times like that. Do the same with me. Because our God is a BIG God, as the old Imperial's song says!

ONE Thing

David made it a prayer of his to live in the house of the Lord forever. In fact, he said, this "one thing I have desired of the Lord..." The one thing that any of us need is the Lord! To dwell in His presence and to walk with Him all the days of our lives.

In Genesis 5, there is a man named Enoch who "walked with the Lord" -Genesis 5:22 He walked with the Lord in such a way that the Lord actually took him. Verse 24 says that "Enoch walked with God; and he was not..." It would be amazing to be taken away to be with the Lord, (we will in the rapture - since we walk with God) but even better is the idea of it being said of me that we "walked with God."

Let me ask you, how is your walk with the Lord? Is it what it should be, and needs to be?

After all, this is just what God has wanted from us...fellowship. To be with us. It says in Genesis that in the cool of the day, God would come down and walk with Adam and Eve. That is what God wants to do with each of us...not so much walk now, but to fellowship with us.

This ONE THING David said. He was a man after God's own heart. I wonder if that is said of Him because he desired ONE THING...to be in the house of the Lord all the days of his life.

I encourage you today to be focused on this ONE paramount THING. Be intent on ONE THING - to be with the Lord and in His presence. Be like Moses who said he would go nowhere without the presence of God - Exodus 33:15.

Be Dynamic & Daring!

Recently, I have felt lead to study a bit from the book of Acts. Last year my book was Joshua, and this year, it is to another "power" book.

I like this book, especially being that I am Pentecostal, since it holds the verse that is the hallmark of Pentecostalism - Acts 2:4, "and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Not to mention Acts 1:8, "But you shall recieve power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth." These are great verses that we love...especially we who do believe in the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and Spirit-Filled living.

But, that is not my point...my point is that God has chosen to use us to fulfill the great comission given in Matthew 28:19 & 20, "To go into all the world, and preach the Gospel." Well, what Jesus began in his own physical body, He now carries out in His Spiritual Body...the Church. What a great thought that is! However, it requires something more of us...and then, we need something more to do it. The "more" that we get is the power of the Holy Spirit! Remembering that God never calls us to do something, that He doesn't first equip us to do...we know that the Holy Spirit is the "equipping" that we need for the task of doing the work of the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Therefore, I would encourage everyone to seek and experience the power of the Holy Spirit. Certainly in the dage and age we live in, there is a dire need for the power of the Holy Spirit, because the people in the world need to experience the power of God's Holy Spirit, PLUS, they need to see it demonstrated THROUGH my life. How can I (or you for the matter) properly demonstrate the love of the Father to this world? How can we let our light shine so that they will see our good works and glorify our Father in Heaven -Matthew 5:16? Through the power of the Holy Spirit, and by allowing Him to help us to live according to the Word of God.

There is a dire need for the Church to be the Church, as it is said. For the Body fo Christ to LIVE for Jesus in such a way that people will be drawn to Christ. Our key to success in this regard is the Power of the Holy Spirit.

Today, the Church can be nothing less that a dynamic and daring people. We see the launching of the NT Church in the Book of Acts with these fingerprints...and we need to see that kind of identity in the Church today as well!

Determine to be DYNAMIC & DARING as you live for Christ!

What's with the weather???

I don't know about you, but I have enjoyed the mild winter that we are having so far. In the Northeast, the temps have been mild, where it always seems to be cold and blistery any other year. What is remarkable to me is how the weather has been so harsh in the West, and Mid-West - in stark contrast to what we have be having. We were talking with some friends in Mississippi not long ago, and they told us how the temps were in the 30's...we were warmer up here! What's going on with the weather??? They tell us it is all because of this El Nino thing in the Pacific Ocean. Plus, there is a huge scare about global warming and everyone is in an uproar.
Well, I have had this verse/story on my heart a lot lately...I Kings 17-19. The story is about Elijah, who was a great prophet of God. He prayed that it would stop raining and it did. Jezebel was furious about it, and Ahab too for that matter. But, God's judgment on the land was severe...as no rain came, famine increased tremendously.

It was during this time that Elijah possed a challenge to the prophets of baal, and won that challenge. If you are not familiar with it get your Bible and read it. However, after Elijah took on the prophets of baal, and killed all 450 of them, and all the people came to trust in the Living God that day. Something else began to "trickle" in...

There was a sound that was heard...in the Spirit. Elijah hears it! Elijah tells Ahab to go eat and drink, because there was "a sound as of the abundance of rain!" Then, Elijah went to the top of Carmel, and began to implore the Lord to send rain again. The Bible tells us that seven times he sent his servant out to look for rain. He came back and kept saying, I see nothing. But, on that seventh time, there was a cloud that the servant saw, about the size of a man's hand.

I say that to say this...I wonder if God's hand is coming over the earth and is about to send a Spiritual rain??? At our Monday morning prayer meeting today, the Lord laid something on my heart in regard to the weather changes - you see, what seems to happen in the natural sometimes does relate to the spiritual. I felt like the Lord spoke to my heart and said that the weather changes we have seen here in the US lately are a sample of the Spiritual changes that are about to take place in the US. Places that were once cold and closed to the Lord, will be opened to Him. Places that have been cold in Spirit will begin to experience the fire of the Holy Spirit! I not sure if this means the Northeast in particular, or all the US, but I just am trusting God to pour out His Spirit.

Joel prophesied that in the last days God will pour out His Spirit. I beleive that He is still going to do that. My only prayer is that we will see the hand of the Lord rising up over us all, and the we will hear the sound of abundance of rain! Are you looking for it!

Happy B-Day Alex!

Just wated to give a shout-out to Alex, our 11 year-old. His B-Day was on Wednesday, the 10th. Here he is about to enjoy his cookies-n-cream cake his mama made.

Love you Buddy!

I'm following you daddy!

Those were the chipper words I heard from my daughter, Abbey, this afternoon while walking into the house. "I'm following you daddy!"

A whole array of images came to mind when she said that... Not so much about the physical path we were on, but on the spiritual level I knew immediately that she is watching me there too. Which forced me to remember the responsibility I bear as a father, Christian, and Pastor too. I began to think: I better lead her in the right path. I better walk carefully. Do I know where I am going? Where I go, she will go. And, on and on...

I remembered how Paul the Apostle said, "follow me as I follow Christ!" What an awesome statement that was. Not just for the people he was speaking to, but in regard to his life. Because, when one says that, one must be certain that they know the ramifications of such a statement. It bears a great level of responsibility for that kind of example. When we claim to be such an example, we best BE that example too!

At some level we all bear that responsibility though. I know that a parent does, whether they like it or not. Maybe if parents realized this, the kids of today would be better. ??? But, on the Spiritual end of things, we who say we are Christ's, better act like we are. People are watching us, whether we like it or not. We could say, "don't judge me" or "I am just human"; but we have to remember that once we join in the Lord's Army, there is a level of responsibility that we bear, and we have to be ready for it. We are reflections of Christ to this world. It is like the saying goes, "We might be the only Bible some people read."

Well, these are just some simple words to jog all of our memories that we have people watching us everyday. We have children watching us, and following us. So, leave a path behind that is worth being on. We can't fall back on the saying from a bumper sticker that I once saw, "Don't follow me, I'm lost too!" That just won't work with God.

Compassion

You will often hear in the Gospels of how Jesus "had compassion" or was "moved with compassion" towards someone.

This thought came up in prayer meeting tonight, and we certainly did think that was good. We were praying for the sick, and trusting God for healing for so many people. However, there has to be more that we can do - that is where the compassion thing comes in.

It is like the idea that we get in the James 2, that "faith without works is dead". It is so true. And, we kind of felt that our prayers were only going so far, don't misunderstand, we know they prevail and are important, but we felt there was more that we could do too. We needed to do something too - we were moved with compassion. The verdict - DO SOMETHING.

As we left the meeting, I encouraged the people to do something, as well as pray for these people. Love them, visit them, send them a card, do something for them, etc., etc.

You too...be moved with compassion and share the love of Christ with someone today! That is real faith, isn't it?

Are you sleeping???

I usually give a mini-message on these blogs, but today, I just want to vent a bit. Please indulge me...

I have picked up this book, The Slumber of Christianity by Ted Dekker, and have begun to read it a bit. What caught my attention about it, was the title. I thought it might be going in a certain direction, however it was going in another. Still good. It brings to light the fact that Christians have kind of left our purpose and focus behind. We scurry around in life, and read books like the Purpose-Drive Life (of which I am not speaking against) to give our lives some sort of meaning. I know that it works, and has done that for many many thougsands of people. But, the premise of this book is that we have forgotten one speacial focus that every believer in Christ has. HEAVEN!

I remember preaching on Heaven one time, and told the people (basically) that even though life here on earth is kind of "stinky", we should not be dismayed, because this world is not our home, but it is just a pathway towards what will be our home forever...HEAVEN! One lady piped up and said, "Yeah, but shouldn't we have some kind of joy here, while we are on earth?" Man, I couldn't believe that I was interrupted for one, but secondly, I wondered, why should we expect it? I know that we can have joys here on earth and all. However, when we do, I believe that there can come a great temptation to all of us to love the world and the things in it. I John 2:15-17 Not that God can't give us any pleasure here, because He does...I just think that it is all about perspective at times. When we need to get our focus in focus.

In any event, it is time for us believers in the Lord to believe once again, isn't it? Christ really is coming back! Instead of becoming so consumed with what is on this side of Heaven, maybe we need to get re-focused on what really matters...like seeing Jesus one day, face-to-face. That is our goal after all...