It's a Girl!

Just wanted to let everyone know that our second child, due March 9, 2008, is a girl. Her name will be Chloe Renee'. Also, stay tuned for an entry dealing with what we talked about this past Wednesday.

Last Night...

Great discussion last night. I pray those of you who attended have a lot to chew on in the coming days. And that it encourages you to run after God with all of your heart. If you were not there, I will post some of what we were talking about a little later. Blessings to you all!

Hosea 8:13-14 New Living Translation

13 The people of Israel love their rituals of sacrifice, but to me their sacrifices are all meaningless. I will hold my people accountable for their sins, and I will punish them. They will return to Egypt. 14 Israel has forgotten its Maker and built great palaces, and Judah has fortified its cities. Therefore, I will send down fire on their cities and will burn up their fortresses.”

Does this picture look familiar? In case you are wondering, it is a picture of stagnant water. It has green stuff growing all through it and is not suitable to drink. Most of us would answer the question, "No, it does not look familiar." But take a closer look at it. I hate to say it but it is a picture that resembles our lives. Think about it. For most of the churches today have become a great big lake of stagnant water that is unsuitable to drink. Why is this? Because we begin to love our rituals like Israel did in the above passage and we forget our Maker. These are both displeasing to God.

If you look closely at the picture, there is a pipe that feeds the water. I'm sure at what time there was water flowing through the pipe keeping the water active and living. But for some reason the water is now just trickling out letting the water sit and get stinky. Our walk with the Lord is the same way. When we let Him pour His Holy Spirit into our lives we are active and living. We are being filled with living water that others might drink from us. We have desires to share the gospel. Each morning we awake we are aware of His awesome presence all around us. But something happens. Instead of continuing to pursue Him with all of our hearts, we get into rituals and after awhile, we become stagnant and stinky unsuitable for anybody to drink from. There must be a sustained enthusiasm for Jesus. A passion to press in deeper and deeper until there is no stagnant aspect of our lives. Oh, how I pray that I do not grow stagnant, though sometimes I do.

How do we overcome this? By continuing to let God "change" us. Change is important. Without it we begin to grow stagnant. There is no such thing as an old dog not able to learn new tricks. Jesus wants to teach us everyday of our lives. He wants us to pursue Him with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Stay in Him. Let Him rejuvenate the stagnant aspects of your life. So that we might all truly be rivers of life giving water to the thirsty souls around us.

Don't let church, ministry, your family, or your walk with God become a ritual. If it has, shake up your prayer and Bible reading time. Stir up the ministry that God has called you to. Do something new and different and get back to a first love for Jesus.

...Community...

As I was praying and meditating the other day, the Lord showed me something. Community sounds like Come Unity. We need to continue to pray for unity to come if we truly want to be a community. In Merriam Websters Dictionary, community is defined as: a. a unified body of individuals; b. the people with common interests living in a particular area; c. an interacting population of various kinds of individuals in a common location; d. a group of people with a common characteristic or interest living together within a larger society. Take time to think about the definition of community. Then let us go to work on the next part of what God taught me.

What is that? That Satan has strongholds here in our area that need broken down so that we can truly be a community. I thought about how walls were built in Bible times to create strongholds. I also thought about how armies came against those strongholds. (Reading through Ezekiel, you can understand this by looking at Babylon and what they did to Israel.) They built siege works around the walls and controlled what came in and out of a place. Which usually meant nothing was going into that place and therefore people would begin to starve. They would then work on tearing down the walls.

I believe that we need to lay siege to the walls Satan has built around our area. We need to begin to starve these strongholds until Satan is defeated and the walls have been torn down. There is a song we used to sing that went like this: The walls will come down with the shout of praise; The walls will come down with the shout of joy; The walls will come down with a shout of triumph; To the Lord God Almighty! Take these words to heart and let us continue to seek the Lord so that we can lay siege to the enemies strongholds and destroy what he has built up in this area. Satan is defeated! May we truly be able to call our selves a community. Come Unity, Come!

Forgive me...

I want to take this time to ask for forgiveness for something I said on Wednesday night. I mentioned about hearing some people pray and wondering if they were actually listening to what they were praying because it would be something that would help them in their life. This was wrong of me because that is judgement. I am repenting for that comment and asking everyone for their forgiveness.

I do think it is important to pray from our heart and to examine ourselves as we pray. I can be guilty of praying and thinking it pertains to others and not really examining my own life.

I do not want to hinder the Spirit in anyway by making people afraid to pray in front of me or anyone else. Please know that I am very sorry if I have affected anyone by this comment and I ask for your forgiveness. Let us continue to pursue God with all of our hearts and minds and not let man (especially this man) get us down. May we grow from this and never be afraid to lift our prayers up. I know I have learned a lesson here and I will ask God to help me guard these lips.

You're Invited...

If you are checking this blog out, I want to invite you to our prayer time. It takes place at the New Life Center on 9th Street in Ford City from 12:00 - 1:00pm. All our welcome. We are going to be continuing to pray from now until forever. Make the trip down and let God stir the fire within you, even if you don't think it's burning anymore, let Him spark it up. We won't let you leave until God has sparked something new in your heart and that's a promise. Be encouraged and know that God is speaking to you... You just need to listen.

10 x's Better

Daniel 1:20 (New Living Translation)
20 Whenever the king consulted them in any matter requiring wisdom and balanced judgment, he found them ten times more capable than any of the magicians and enchanters in his entire kingdom.

Daniel and his friends are smart, goodlooking, young men who fear God. (Read Daniel 1) After going through the same training that the wise men of Babylon go through they are put to the test. So what you have is 4 men of God up against everything that Satan tempts us with in todays society. You had those who look at the stars to tell the future. You had those who looked at palms and cards to tell the future. All witchcraft in different forms. And do you know who comes out on top... (drum roll please) Daniel and his friends. And not only do they come out on top they are found to be 10x more capable than any of Satans ploys to undermine who God is. Their wisdom and judgement find no one even close to them.

Now isn't that what the world should see in us? I want the world to come to me and see that the wisdom and judgement I have through Jesus is 10x's better than anything they have found in the world. And that is all because of Jesus! This should be our hearts cry. IS it yours?

Lord, give me favor in all of my dealings that others would see You and hear You when I speak. That what I say and how I live, would be 10x's better than anything this world has to offer. Amen.