more info.

Here is another link to some additional info. I have found...http://www.gantdaily.com/news/43/ARTICLE/23988/2008-06-26.html
At least they found this guy.

A Tragic Day

We had a very eventful morning here in our little town of Clearfield...

I recieved a prayer-chain call this morning telling me of a man being shot in the head at a local Methodist Church. Link to a short article about it here http://www.wjactv.com/gant-daily/16718326/detail.html or here http://www.theprogressnews.com/default.asp?read=13027 What a horrific thing to happen to anyone, anywhere...

There is no report as to the motive, but our little town is a buzz with speculation, as you can imagine. All in all, prayer for these men is certainly necessary, as well as this Church and its leadership.

more faith...

Just wanted to share a couple more quotes about faith to suppliment my previous blog...

"Faith has to do with things that are not seen

and hope with things that are not at hand."
-Thomas Aquinas

I really like this one...

"God our Father has made all things depend on faith

so that whoever has faith will have everything,

and whoever does not have faith will have nothing."
-Martin Luther

Do you know of any great quotes on faith? I'd love to hear them!

Hope Against Hope!

My assistant, Pastor Brian, dropped this pretty awesome passage on me a few days ago, and it has really stuck with me since then...

Romans 4:18-21 - In hope against hope he believed, in order that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, "So shall your DESCENDANTS BE." [19] And without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body, now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb; [20] yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God, [21] and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.

Isn't that just powerful? Abraham believed IN SPITE OF what seemed to be reality in the natural. That is the very battle that we are all in...to believe, to hope against hope, to trust in God so that we can see His word, which was spoken to us, to become a reality in in our lives. (In His time. -Ecclesiastes 3:11)

To dig a little deeper, try this quote on for size...St. Augustine said, "Understanding is the reward of faith. Therefore seek not to understand that thou mayest believe, but believe that thou mayest understand." Awesome! However, we do just the opposite, don't we? We want to have things become a reality, and then we will believe...but that is not how God works. He responds to our faith, and then the reality (or understanding) of our hope comes into existence.

The noble father, in John 4, exercised this kind of faith. He asked for Jesus to come to his house to heal his son, but Jesus just spoke the word and sent him on his way. So, for this dad, every step towards home was a literal "step of faith" and he found out that when you hope in God, and walk in faith, He works on your behalf. And he understood that faith does work when he heard that his son was healed. That is why he believed, and his whole household!

What are you facing today?

What are you going through that you need to apply some faith to?

Trust in God, and place your faith in Him!

Then, understanding will come your way! It may not be overnight...remember that Abraham waited for quite some time!

No Fear!

I thought this was a pretty cool picture that I came across with an awesome Scripture verse imbedded into it...II Timothy 1:7.

Check out this guy on this huge wall...amazing! It would test my fears!

SURVIVING VS. THRIVING

1 Corinthians 15:58 - Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.

Here is a thought that I have had for quite some time now. It seems to me that many people today have the mentality of just surving from day to day. We all know how mundane life can get, as well as how hard it is sometimes. I can't help but see it when you consider just how poorly people do at disciplining their children, or the care and upkeep of thier homes, even just paying the bills. With the way the world is today, it appears to me that people are concerned about SURVIVAL. And the thought of THRIVING seems to be just beyond their reach.

Now, I understand that I don't speak for all. However, I do speak for what I percieve in the "world" that I presently live in in Central Pennsylvania. It seems to be faily evident that the reason we don't always see a great increase in people's lives for the better is because they can't help but see themselves just trying to get through another day. And it is beyond economic, and social status... Life is full of challenges and trials today that can get a person way too overwhelmed with themselves...and that is just the problem, isn't it?

When we become too consumed with "me," and "my life," we fail to realize what life is all about. It really isn't so much about "me," as much as it should be about GOD! Then, we become concerned about others, as is a natural response to the Lord in our lives, because He is concerned about others. Jesus summed up the whole Law into a few words in Matthew 22:37-40 - And He said to him, " 'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' [38] "This is the great and foremost commandment. [39] "The second is like it, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' [40] "On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets."

Finally, an interesting thing happens in our lives when we focus on these two things, rather people. We gain an inspiration for who we are and what we do! We find some resemblance of PURPOSE for our lives, and we "switch gears" so to speak... We go from mere SURVIVAL to THRIVING! Abounding in the Lord!!!

John 10:10 says, "The thief comes only to steal, and kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life, and might have it abundantly." Hey! Don't allow the devil to steal from you anymore, and get back some LIFE! Go into the enemy's camp and get back what he stole from you, as the song says and THRIVE!

We live in perilous times, and now is a great time for the Church to rise up and be what God has called it to be. But it seems to me that this "survival" mode has crept into the Church too. We can't have it any longer! It is time for us, Believers in Christ, to set a new pace and accomplish something for the Lord! May the Church THRIVE once again under the mighty hand of God, and with the Power of the Holy Spirit!

Little Johnny the Baptist

Wanted to share this cute little story...

Matthew 18:4-5 - "Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greates in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me." Oh, to recapture that child-like faith again...

Johnny's mother looked out the window and noticed him "playing church" with their cat in the back yard. He had the cat sitting quietly and he was preaching to it. She smiled and went about her work. A little while later she heard loud meowing and hissing and ran back to the open window to see Johnny baptizing the cat in a tub of water. She called out, "Johnny, stop that! The cat is afraid of water!" Johnny looked up at her and said, "He should have thought about that before he joined my church."

Jesus does tell us to "count the cost" of being His disciple first in Luke 14...

W-O-R-K

Oh, that nasty four-lettered word...WORK! We all seem to hate it, but yet, we find it necessary if we hope to eat! :)

I spoke to the folks at Glad Tidings A/G this weekend from a familiar passage...II Timothy 2:15, "Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the Word of truth."

This weekend was the weekend that we used to honor our graduates. (Of which we only had one this year.) Anyhow, I spoke to the people about God's great graduation day that awaits us...when we will be taken to glory! However, in the meantime, we have to be doing a few things that we gather from II Timothy 2:15...STUDY, WORK, and DISCERN!

For our purposes here, I want to focus on that second thought...WORK. We all know what it means to work. Some enjoy it, and others don't. Truth is, that many Christians seem to shrink away from it in this day and age, in regard to getting involved in the Church and its mission. I came across this cute thing about work, and it goes like this..."There are three kinds of workers: When a piano is to be moved, the first kind gets behind and pushes, the second pulls and guides, and the third grabs the piano stool."

The dilema is that we must not allow for this laziness to creep into our Spiritual life... Though we don't like to work, it is clear in Scripture that we must work for the Lord. Though we don't do it to get saved, according to Ephesians 2:8-9; we do need to do it to prove our faith in the Lord is genuine and real, according to James 2:17-20. In fact, the quality of our faith will show through in our work for the Lord.

So, as you carry on with your week, remember that we will be judged according to our works. They will be tried by fire one day. And Revelation 20:11-15 gives us a bit of a discourse in regard to the final judgement... Verse 13 tells us that "every one of us will be judged, according to our deeds / works."

So, the question must be asked, "What have you done for HIM lately?"