September - Roshashanah

WOW! Can you believe it is already September! This is the month in which Roshashanah is celebrated. That is the Hebrew New Year! It is also considered The Day of Atonement. In the Hebrew tradition that Jesus grew up in it would be a day of prayer and a time for asking for forgiveness from anyone you may have sinned against. I think we should celebrate the Day of Atonement as Christians too. We have all, at one time or another wronged someone or sinned against someone we know. How nice it would be to ask for their forgiveness and also forgive those who have sinned against us. We pray that in the Lord's Prayer. Wouldn't it be nice?
Well, anyway, on to my point for today. It seems like the older I get the faster and faster the days go by. When I was 18 years old an older friend of mine told me that the days would seem like they went by faster the older I got and I told him he was full of beans and nothing could make the days seem to go any faster than they were right then, when I was eighteen. Well, I was wrong, and he was very right! Back in the day, as they say now, it seemed like I had all the time in the world. I was working two jobs, taking classes and still was able to find time to go fishing with friends or go and shoot some hoops with buddies. When my step children were in school and doing different things, having to be chauffeured here and there for track or baseball, T-ball, football or whatever it seemed like there was time to do all of that and still have some time for myself and my "fun things". I wonder what makes the difference? There are still only 24 hours in a day. Still only 7 days in a week, sixty minutes in an hour! Is it our "energy level". I know I had more energy back then. But still there were chores to be done, wood to be chopped, split and stacked. Lawns to be mowed, fields to be plowed, meals to be cooked, household chores top be done. Still with all of that, I was able to find time to hit the rivers or streams for a few hours of fishing, or time to go hunting with friends or my step-son. Maybe it is because now that I am retired there is not the press for time as there was back then. I had to manage my time more closely to be able to get all of the "got to's" done and that left more time for the "want to's". I don't really know . . . but I do know it seems like I have less time to get things done than I used to. Any way, the point of all of that is to get to this realization that I had about spending time with God. "Back in the day"; I would get up at 4:00 or 4:30am and spend at least an hour with my Bible and with my prayers. Now I kind of fit it in whenever I can and that is not fair to me or to God. What I have decided is that from now on I am going to set aside a special time for God, the Bible and my prayers. For me morning has always been my best time. It is usually quiet and peaceful early in the morning and what better way to start the day than with my Lord and Savior, my Bible and my prayers. I will still set aside my Saturday evening prayer time at 8:00 central time to do my Prayer Warrior devotions and prayers. That is the time we all agreed upon to spend in prayer so that all of us would be praying at the same time. When two or more are agreed in prayer ". . .It shall be done!" The real point is that we ALL need a special time to reflect on life, God, prayer, service to others and especially on the people who really mean the most to us. One of the things I figured out a long time ago was that if I just read a couple of chapters in the Old Testament and a few chapters in the New Testament it wouldn't take long to get the whole Bible read cover to cover! I have done that many times in my life and I plan on doing it many more times. There is so much wisdom in the Bible that you realize that there really is "nothing new under the sun", and that just about any situation you come up against in life is already written about in the "Good Book". I have found that the Holy Spirit gives me a new understanding of the scriptures at different times! I have read a passage and had it speak to me about a certain situation in a certain way, and read the same passage at a different time and had it speak to me about a completely different situation and in a completely different way; and for both of those "understandings" to be right on the money EVERY TIME! I'm not exactly sure why or how, but the Bible is truly the "Living Word of God". I have heard many people criticize scriptures and say that it is too "confusing" or too "contradictory" and friends I have to say there was a time when I thought the same thing! You know what the difference is? It is the power of the Holy Spirit! Once you give you life over to God and accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and the Holy Spirit fills your heart and understanding it makes ALL the difference in the world! We are all human and we all stumble and fall away from the Lord at times, BUT if you are truly responsive to the Holy Spirit and to the Biblical "Truths" of God's Holy Word; and if you truly try to live your life according to His commandments the Bible is alive and speaks directly to you and your heart. Every time I read it I find something NEW! Some new truth that I can hold on to that helps me make it through another day. Life is hard there is no doubt; and it is NOT fair sometimes. But with God, the Bible and prayer we can face all things and defeat all of life's foes and woes. One of my mom's favorite verses and it is also one of mine is: Philippians 4:13 - "I can do all things through Christ which strengthenest me." or as it says in the NIV version of the New Testament "I can do everything through Him who gives me strength." With God nothing is impossible. Romans 8:31 ". . .If God is for us who can be against us. " I want to leave you with this thought: Pray, pray alone, pray with others, pray in your church and most of all pray in your own special quiet place. I would also like to tell you all to read Romans 8 the whole chapter. There is much in there for you to discern. Read it prayerfully and with your heart open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. You won't be sorry!

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.

August 2010

Well, here it is August and the weather here in Texas is as hot as ever. Actually it is hotter than I remember it being in a long time! The wonderful thing about this month is that we are having Homecoming and Revival at my church! That is the New Hope Baptist Church in Grapeland, Texas. August 8th is Homecoming and Brother Josh Mills will be bringing the word. There will be fellowship, fun, food and praise to the Lord of Lords. Hopefully we will have a lot of our older members and some new members coming to worship with us. We are also having our Revival week the 16th through the 19th and Brother Lamar Denby will be coming to preach the word. He is an awesome preacher and is truly filled with the Holy Spirit! I am looking forward to hearing him again. The Holy Spirit flows through the building and the prayer and praise raises the rafters! Awesome special music and awesome fellowship. The wonderful thing about being a Holy Ghost filled believer is getting together with other believers and feeling the renewal of the Spirit fill your heart and just blow you away! There is such joy at knowing Jesus and knowing that you will be with all of the saints and family believers that have gone on before when the time comes for you to shake off this mortal coil and then to be able to worship at the feet of the Savior! To know that by accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior the old person, the old sins are washed away and you are made brand new! Washed clean by the blood of Jesus, praise God! AND there by able to take your place in heaven because your name is written in the Book of Life. That is one of the hardest, yet the easiest choices a person can make, to accept Jesus. You can believe in God, sit in a pew every Sunday, do good deeds and be a good person; but that will not mean you are "Saved"! That will not mean you will gain a place in heaven. You will not be numbered among the Saints UNLESS you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and confess Him to be the ONLY SON of the LIVING GOD! All a person needs to do is pray this simple prayer: Lord Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner, and I am in need of your Saving Grace. Lord wash me clean, fill me with the Holy Spirit and come into my heart. I thank you Lord for sending your Son Jesus to die on the cross for me and that by His stripes I am healed and washed clean and made brand new. Then you must study His word. Pray often for those around you. The amazing thing is that as soon as the Lord fills you with the Holy Spirit the Word of God, the Bible will come alive for you. Each time you read a passage your understanding will increase, and the more you will realize that God is your ever present help and comforter! I praise God for all He has done for me and all He will continue to do.

Spring!

Howdy Y'all! It's FINALLY SPRING!! I have had enough of cold weather. I know that around the middle of June I will probably start complaining about the heat but I guess that just makes me human. I wish I could be a bit more like Paul at times when he said (I may paraphrase a bit here) "I have learned to be content no matter the circumstance." The thing is, I am satisfied! Spiritually. I have accepted Christ as my savior and I have wept at the foot of the cross for every drop of Jesus's precious blood spilled because of my sinfulness and I have truly repented, I am washed clean by that precious flow. Life, my life is not perfect by any means but I have a house that is a home, I have friends who care about me, clothing, food in abundance (actually more than enough), reliable transportation and most important a wife (helpmate) who really loves me, understands me, cares about me, and all that even though she knows me and my quirks, foolishness and foibles. What is even more amazing is that she likes me! I like me, but I am amazed that some one else does too. We have had good times, abundant times, lean times, illness and down times and we see it all through together. The reason we can do that is because God is number one in our lives. We pray together, laugh together, cry together and we can be quiet together. I know I could go on with life if Leona was not in it, BUT I don't want to be without her. I know that Leona feels the same way. There is a line in that Jerry McGuire movie where the mute couple in the elevator are signing to each other and what passes between them is; "You complete me." That expresses exactly what and how I feel about Leona. God brought us together twice. The first time we got married and because of immaturity after almost 11 years together we divorced! We always stayed friends and occasionally we would communicate and then we even stopped that, but, miracle of miracles God brought us together again. This time, I will not make the mistake of letting her go. No matter what! We are truly meant to be together. I am not always sure why things are as they are, but it is not for me to question why. I just have to follow where God leads me (us) and trust that it is His plan and that it will eventually be to His glory! Nothing happens by accident or by coincidence. I am as sure of that as I am sure that the earth spins and the sun will come up again in the morning. I have lived long enough to know that . . ."All thing work for the glory of God." We may not ever come to know why, though the song says that; "Farther along we'll know all about it, farther along we'll understand why.' We have to have the bad times in order to appreciate the good times, lean times in order to appreciate times of abundance and see the evil in ourselves and the world to really appreciate the glory and wonders of God and His creation. What must be sufficient for us is to know that God has control and God knows His plan and why things must be as they are. There has been so much evil said about Barak Obama and what he is doing to this country that I am getting sick of it! I don't like him much and I don't like some of the things he has said about whites and this country, or some of the things he has done, but he is President because God wants him to be President! I pray for him and his soul every day! I pray for God's plan to be fulfilled. Whatever it may be. I urge you all to pray for Obama, and pray for this country to return to it's spiritual roots. Too many folks fought and died for this country and all that the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution is, and stands for, to let it slip away! We are a "Christian" country and our forefathers have based the foundation of this country on sound Judeao-Christian principles. Let us pray that we never forget it or let it be ridiculed or stripped away. We all need to wake up and pay attention! Do not let the politicians and "political correctness" weaken our standards of freedom and democracy. While we still have the right to vote let us use those votes to get a grip on our government. Let all those in Washington know through the power of our votes that we won't stand for it. If "they" do not respond to what we want and what we need then they do not have our votes. Vote them out of office. I pray that God will touch Obama's heart. I pray that He keep Obama safe. Most importantly I pray that God's will be done! God bless you all, and may we all praise God for the blessings that He has showered down upon us. It is ALL about Jesus and God's will!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! Well here we are . . .another New Year. There are times when the past year seems like a dream, with things that just "happened' outside of any control at my hands. And other times it seems it is all blur that just sped by so fast I barely saw it all. Leona and I are so blessed! Like everyone else out there this year has had some very bad financial reverses, but so far (praise God) we still have a roof over our heads, food on the table, sufficient clothing and a bit of money for gas for the car and diesel for "Harvey". We have decided to try to travel around to the various arts & crafts shows and flea markets around Texas instead of doing the E-bay / Internet E-business to supplement our income. It is hard sometimes to stay positive when so much pounds down on you from the everyday cares of the world. The only thing I know of as being constant in life is change. Good times pass and bad times pass and the route we travel is thus filled with ups and downs. BUT . . .through it all I KNOW as sure as I know my name that God is ALWAYS with us. God never promised us that life would be easy BUT He did promise to be ever with us. Psalm 94:12-19, Psalm 119 is one of the longest Psalms and through out the whole thing is blessing after blessing for us. If ever you are feeling down go to the Psalms! Psalm 91 is another one. Psalm 146 speaks to us about not putting our trust in worldly things but to trust in God vs. 7 (God)" Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives food to the hungry. The Lord gives freedom to the prisoners." Many of us are prisoners, maybe not behind actual bars, but prisoners in our own hearts because of our doubts and fears. Fear has been defined as False Evidence Appearing Real. Fear is what Satan uses to cripple and imprison us. As long as we are gripped by fear Satan has power over us; our mood, our words, our actions and our reactions to the cares of the world that press in upon us. Once we break the bonds of fear we are free of his evil influence. The minute we put our trust in God the bonds of fear are broken . . .we are free. We are free to trust God and know in our hearts that ALL things are under God's control. God wants us to be free from fear. We can find freedom through His word. Turn to scripture when you have doubts or fears. In Timothy 3: 16-17 we find that; "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work."
As believers in God through the blood of Jesus Christ we become sons and daughters of God (Romans 8:16-17 / Ephesians 3: 5-8 and many others). In Matthew 7:7-12 begins "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." and goes on to say that if your son asks for bread would you give him a stone or if he asks for a fish would you give him a serpent and we are human and weak yet we want the best for our children what then should God , as our eternal Father and creator, want for us !? Of course He, our God and Father, would want the very best for us. What is required of us is our faith and our obedience to His word. If we are obedient and try to live by His commandments and believe in Jesus Christ as His Son then we are most assuredly heirs to the Kingdom of heaven and we can also expect the blessings He promised us. God shall not be mocked. Neither will He be a liar. God does not lie . . . He promised us all blessings in abundance, full, packed down and overflowing IF we are obedient and try to live by His commandments. Knowing we are human and imperfect because of our sinful natures He sent His Son Jesus Christ to intercede for us the second we finally believe in Him. We all can be heirs to the kingdom just by praying a simple prayer: Lord God, I know I am a sinner and I am not perfect. I repent of my sinfulness and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe that you sent Jesus Christ to earth to die on the cross for me and that His blood washes me clean of all of my sins. I love you God and I ask for you to fill me with your Holy Spirit and guide my steps from now on. Amen. If you took the time to pray that prayer you are now marked as a child of God and as such you are heirs to the riches of His Kingdom now and forever. God loves you and wants the best for you