Thoughts on Winter storms / God's Creation & God's Plan For Our Salvation.

Howdy folks; Well, here it is the 10th of January and snow is predicted for our afternoon forecast! I have to say I have had enough snow to last me a lifetime after all the years I spent in New England. The last year I lived in Northern Maine we had a season snowfall of 22 feet, yup, that's right, 22 feet! Most of that was still on the ground in April! We had to use a bucket loader, sometimes, just to clear our driveway and door yard. I can remember climbing out a second story window so I could shovel down to the back door to get out of the house. I loved it back then. I was a lot younger and I loved to cross country ski, snowshoe and go sledding and snow mobiling with friends. A buddy of mine and I also ran a trap line back then and we were out in it every day or at least every other day to check our traps. A very dear friend of our family used to call spring snow "God's fertilizer" because it would make the ground softer to plow and it seemed to give the spring planting a "boost" in it's sprouting and growth. As I got older I noticed it really did give things a bit of a head start, at times. The very best thing about it is that when the days  started to get longer and a bit warmer you could really tell that spring was just around the corner. Folks would say that "winters back is broken" and some of us would even have mid-winter parties to celebrate the death of winter and the new birth of spring. Having grown up in an agrarian community and living in small farming towns most of my life I could really see why the ancient prehistoric societies would have winter solstice celebrations. Native Americans also had such celebrations. The "circle of life" had a deep and rich meaning for all people, as it still should for us. As we have "progressed" into an industrial society we have lost the connection to the land. We have lost our connection to the "Circle of Life".  What has always amazed me is that ALL of the world's religions have creation stories (much like Adam and Eve), flood stories (like the Noah story), special "king" or leader stories (like the David story), and Savior stories (like our Jesus story) and many other similarities. My Honor's Thesis (which I got an A+ on, by the way) for my Philosophy degree was just that. It was based on the concept that God has revealed himself to many peoples in many different ways. I firmly believe that. We serve an awesome God! The Bible is God's revelation of Himself to His people and the story of the history of His creation's relationship to Him. I accept the Bible as the inspired word of a living God, and how God has revealed himself to many people, and how they wrote God's stories down after years of oral tradition, and finally when He saw just how far people had fallen from His path, and the Law, He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to be the "perfect Lamb" sacrifice for all of His creation.

Romans 5:7-9 (King James Version)

7For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
8But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
9Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.



 I also know in my heart that the God of Adam and Eve, Noah, and Abraham sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners!   I know a lot of folks will say that it is narrow minded and not "politically correct" to say that Jesus Christ is the ONLY way for one to find salvation, but that is too bad. I have to stand on the truth! And the truth is, that God created all of the universe, the earth and all the things in and on it, and that looking down on it He saw how His creation had moved away from Him and His plan for us in the garden of Eden and through one man,Adam, sin entered the world.
  
John 14:6
Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
 

 
          Psalm 14:1-3 (King James Version)


1The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.

3They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Romans 3:23 (King James Version)
23For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

God wants ALL of us to be saved. He wants us to WANT Him! He wants us to be with Him through out all of eternity. The only way that He saw for His sinful and willful creation to find that salvation, and be worthy of a place in heaven was through the one PERFECT Lamb sacrifice. Jesus Christ! Time is growing short my friends. The time of Salvation is at hand. If you are born again then you are sealed in God's book of life and if you are NOT yet born again ask God NOW for Him to save you. Admit you are a sinner, tell Him you are sorry for your sinfulness and that you repent, Tell God you believe His Son Jesus was sent to be our savior and ask the Holy Spirit to come into your heart! That is all you need to do to be born again. Jesus is the path to your salvation!     

Revival is still going on!

Well folks; I have to say that our four days of REVIVAL at my church went very well! Brother Lamar Denby brought the message with power from the Holy Spirit. Awesome! What is even more wonderful is that the Spirit of Revival is still going strong. I have been attending services here for quite some time, and I have prayed about joining the church long and hard. I felt my prayers had been answered, and I had expressed my desire to formally become a member to our Pastor, and he brought it up to the church membership. Leona and I were officially made members of the church after my Baptism on Sunday. Even though I had been Baptized by "Immersion" twice before it was my pleasure to be Baptized once again in New Hope Baptist Church. Baptism is the outward symbol of an inward commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I felt, once again, the Joy of knowing Jesus, The Holy Spirit and God the Father. The Power of the Holy Spirit flooded over me as I was lowered under the water and symbolically buried with Christ and then brought up out of the water to be resurrected and reborn of the Spirit of God! It was wonderful! I felt brand new, Born Again and revitalized in my Spirit. God is so good all the time! It is funny because I had been feeling far from God, and felt like my Joy had been slipping away for a little while and the Baptism was exactly what I needed. God answered my prayers once again because I had been praying about those feelings for a while! I am flooded with the Power and Joy of knowing the Holy Spirit strong within me. All Glory to God. I have been reflecting on what it means to be an Heir to the Kingdom of God. We are promised, in scripture, that once we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and our name is written into the "Book of Life", we are then Heirs with Jesus to all the Powers and Riches He has inherited as Son of the Living God! Romans 8:16-18 states; "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our Spirit that we are children of God, and if children the heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we also be glorified together.". It is also confirmed in James 5:5 "Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which He promised to those who love Him". Being Heirs to the Kingdom is also mentioned in: Hebrews 11:8-10, Titus 3:6-8, Ephesians3:5-7, Galatians 3:25-29 and many more places in both the Old and New Testaments. What does it mean! It means that we are truly heirs to the Kingdom of God through Jesus Christ as we are joined with Him as brothers and sisters. That means that we can have the same powers to heal, make the blind see, the lame walk and cast out evil spirits THROUGH Jesus Christ. We cannot do it under our own power but we can by faith through Jesus Christ! God said so, He promised us and we all know that God keeps His promises. It is where we fall short in our faith and obedience that keeps every born again believer from performing these miracles. We pray, but we pray weakly at times, we don't pray in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. I says in James 3 that if we are "double minded". The whole book of James teaches us how we can be completely filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. James is an awesome book, and one we should read often until it becomes implanted in our hearts and minds. James 1:5-8 tells us exactly how we should pray, and how we can receive from God. Look it up! As believers we are heirs to the Kingdom, but just as Deuteronomy 28 tells us about how we can be blessed by God as heirs. Chapter 29 tells us exactly what we can expect if we are not obedient to God. Open you Bibles my friends. Don't rely or expect your Pastor to do all the work for you. "Study to show thyself approved". We can expect ALL of our needs to be met as Born Again believers, and IF we can come into obedience with God and are not "double minded" we can also expect to perform miracles through the power of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit! It is God's promise! God bless you all.

Update on Revival

God bless y'all! Folks I have got to tell you that the Revival at New Hope Baptist Church has been awesome so far, and Brother Denby has been on fire with the Holy Spirit! You could literally feel the tension in the air caused by the Holy Spirit filling the whole church. Satan was on the run!! There was no room for him there. A number of folks went up to the Altar to rededicate their lives to service for Jesus Christ! Tonight he preached on the scriptures relating the defeat of Goliath by little David and how David sent Goliath's head to Jerusalem but how David kept the armor of Goliath in his tent. He likened that to the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in us through Jesus Christ and how we ALL as believers in the Salvation power of Jesus Christ is the ". . . something we have in our tents". People all around me were standing up and giving a "hand clap" for Jesus or shouting out "Halleleulya" or "Amen" and so was I. Brother Lamar was ON FIRE for Jesus. I was reminded a number of times of the saying; "that surely God is in this place". Amazing, wonderful, thrilling. There are not enough adjectives to describe just exactly what the feeling was that moved through the church. Someone sent me an email with a link to a quick short cut to scriptures based on "key words" and I explored the site and found a number of features that are awesome helps in doing bible studies. I am going to try to include them here for anyone who might like to check them out. Go to: http://www.biblegateway.com/ This site is awesome! There many different versions of the Bible available from the King James to New King James all the way to New International Version and many, many more. There are search helps and links to "Bible Verse of the day" . I love it and I use it often to do my research. Remember that all one needs to do to be born again is to renounce Satan and your sinfulness and truly repent and then accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior and thereby accept the gift of the Holy Spirit into you heart. To believe and to know that you have been "Saved" is awesome. In a flash scriptures seem to be more clear and your understanding of them growing. The PEACE that fills you up, and knowing where you will spend all of eternity, WOW! Amazing! God bless you all!

Homecoming Report

It is still hotter then a Jalapeno pepper outside. It has been over 100 for so long I thought my thermometers were broken! Oh well, God must have a reason for it and it is His plan not mine. I cannot complain. God is so good all the time. Homecoming was awesome. Brother Josh Mills preached an amazing word of God. The Holy Spirit was moving throughout the whole congregation in an awesome way. You could actually feel the Spirit in the air. The more he preached the more the air sparkled and danced with the Spirit of God. The music was wonderful as usual, but the "specials" were also Holy Ghost filled and they made you want to dance and sing right along with them! Marvelous! With the Homecoming service being so amazing I can hardly wait for the Revival to begin on the 16th of August. We had two new members come forward and accept the Lord. WOW! It was truly wonderful. You know there are Angels rejoicing in heaven when that happens. Many old members that had not been able to come regularly were there, and a special prayer was offered up for those members who have gone on to their reward in heaven. There are so many! It was both sad and wonderful at the same time to remember them. The wonderful thing about being "Born Again" is knowing that when the time comes I know I will be seeing all of the members of my family and all of my friends that were (and still are) believers again. The most wonderful part though is knowing I will be in the presence of my Lord and Savior! Glory to God, won't that be wonderful! Anyone who might read this and not be a believer in Jesus Christ please understand that the time is coming when Jesus Himself will be returning to this world and if you have not accepted Him as your Lord and Savior by then it will be to late. I urge you to accept Jesus as your Savior pray the "sinners prayer" renounce Satan and all of his imps and demons in the name of Jesus and ask for forgiveness. Let the Holy Spirit come in to you, and give you the peace that ONLY He can give. That empty, gnawing lonely feeling that is in you can only be filled by God through Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Nothing else can fill it with the peace you seek. Not drugs, not sex, not alcohol nothing else can fill you up to the overflowing with Peace except Jesus! Trust me, I have tried it all and I know by personal testimony that ONLY Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit can take away that longing of the spirit you may feel without Jesus. It is easy, just pray: Jesus I repent of my sins, I renounce Satan and I accept you, Jesus, as my Lord and Savior. Thank you for going to the cross and suffering that awful torture and death for me. I praise you in your victory over Satan at the cross and at the gates of hell. You are the Resurrection, the Way and the Light. Thank you Jesus for the Holy Spirit! There you go! If you prayed that prayer you are made brand new, you are "Born Again" , and ALL of your sins are washed away. Praise God. Find a good spirit filled church. Study the scriptures! Read the book of Acts, the book of Romans. Study to show thyself approved. When you read the book of Revelation to the end you find out that WE WIN! Satan is defeated, and that is why he is putting up such a fight now, because he knows in the end he looses, and he wants all the company he can muster in hell to share in his torment. Born again believers will be reigning with Jesus until the end of time. We will be able to command angels! All praise and Glory to God the redeemer of us all! God bless y'all for now. More after Revival services.