Welcome and let us make our ministry your home.
We hope to use this site to promote both spiritual and biblical beliefs. We want to do that by spreading the Word of God through scripture, teaching, prayer, and worship. May God bless anyone and everyone who comes on this site and feels his word work in and through them.
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
The Touch That Reveals
Jesus… put forth his hand, and touched him— Mar_1:41
We Reveal What We Are by What We Habitually Do
It has been said that if we want to judge a person we should never do it by a single action; but if we must do it by a single action, let that action be an ordinary one. A man is more likely to reveal himself in the kind of thing he habitually does than in the deed of some excited moment. Now touching is a very ordinary action. We touch a thousand things each passing day. We do not prepare ourselves for touching things, as we do for the greater hours of our life. Yet in the touch of Jesus, instinctive and spontaneous, what a deal of His glory we discover! There is an evangel of the touch of Christ as surely as an evangel of the blood. I want you to think, then, of the Master’s touch, that in this common, ordinary action we may have some revelation of the Lord.
Christ’s Touch Revealed His Brotherhood
First, then, His touch revealed His brotherhood—we find that in the story of the leper. “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean”—and then we read that Jesus touched him. All that the leper expected was a cure. He thought some word of power would be pronounced. He would have been well content to light on a physician; he never dreamed he was going to find a friend. And when Jesus touched him—him the outcast, him whom everybody loathed and shunned—it was something he never could forget. He would go home and tell his wife, “He touched me.” He would gather the villagers and say, “He touched me.” He had found more in Christ than a physician; he had found a brother and a friend. That touch revealed to him, as nothing else could do, in all the ineffable yearning of his loneliness, that he was face to face with One who understood. That was the revelation of the touch. It revealed in an instant the Savior’s loving heart. It revealed His scorn of prudential morality and the self-forgetful courage of His comradeship. It was the kind of thing we are doing every day, for every day we touch a hundred objects, yet here it was the sacrament of brotherhood.
Christ’s Touch Revealed His Divine Authority
Again His touch revealed His large authority: it was a quietly commanding touch. That emerges, with quite singular vividness, in St. Luke’s story of the widow of Nain. When He met that procession, outside the city gates, the first thing He did was to address the mother. Christ has always a cheering word to say, even in hours when other lips are dumb. And then Luke tells us that He touched the bier, and immediately the whole procession halted. He did not argue or discuss the matter. He did not beg the favor of a halt. Apparently He did not speak one syllable to the men who were carrying the bier. It was His touch that was authoritative. It was His touch that had commanding power—and His touch has commanding power to this day. How many a drunkard has that touch stopped, when heading straight for a dishonored grave! How many a woman has that touch stopped, when she was squandering the possibilities of womanhood! The touch of the Lord reveals His brotherhood, but sometimes it does more even than that. It reveals the range of His divine authority.
Christ’s Touch Revealed God’s Restfulness
Then once again His touch revealed His restfulness. “Come unto me and I will give you rest.” Is not the restful touch exhibited very beautifully when there was sickness in the house of Peter? Simon’s mother-in-law was down with fever—of what particular kind we do not know. Her pulse was racing, and her head was aching, and she was restlessly tossing on her couch. And then, we read, the Savior came and touched her, and immediately the fever left her. The “storm was changed into a calm” in the house of Peter as on the Sea of Galilee. Instead of uneasy tossing there was peace. Instead of feverish unrest, repose. The infinite restfulness of Jesus flowed out through the very act of touching, and the touch itself conveyed what it revealed. There are people whose touch is wonderfully restful. That is one sure mark of a good nurse. There are people who can calm us by a touch, just as others by a touch can irritate. But the touch of Jesus is unequalled, in the “fitful fever” of this life, for conveying the restfulness of God.
Christ’s Touch Revealed His Uplifting Power
Lastly, His touch revealed His uplifting power: we see that in the case of Jairus’ daughter. When He went in the little maid was sleeping—they called it death, but Jesus called it sleep. For Him death meant something far more awful than the closing of those childish eyes. Then He touched her—took her by the hand—and the Gospel tells us that the maid arose: it is the elevating power of His touch. On Goldsmith’s monument these words are written—nihil tetigit quod non ornavit. They mean that within the realm of literature he touched nothing that he did not adorn. Outside literature that is not true of Oliver. He had a touch which often tarnished things. It is only true universally of Jesus. He touched water, and the water became wine, and the wine became the symbol of His blood. He touched the lilies, and their scarlet robes grew more beautiful than those of Solomon. He touched language, and common words like talent were lifted up from the bank into the brain. He touched Simon, and Simon became Peter. What sin touches it defiles. What the devil touches he degrades. Everything that Jesus touches is lifted up to higher, nobler levels. Of all which we have a sign and symbol when in Jairus’ house that day He took the maid by the hand, and she arose.
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
New Creature in Christ
How does one become a new man, woman, or child in Christ?
Colossians 3:1-11 – Change your thinking from Carnal to Christ-like.
Colossians 3: 12-17 – A new persons Character.
1 If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. 2 Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. 3 For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with him be manifested in glory. 5 Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; 6 for which things’ sake cometh the wrath of God upon the sons of disobedience: 7 wherein ye also once walked, when ye lived in these things; 8 but now do ye also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, railing, shameful speaking out of your mouth: 9 lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doings, 10 and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of him that created him: 11 where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.
If you express that you died in your own life and rose with Christ you need to keep your thoughts about Christ and things that are good. Remember a good tree bears good fruit and a bad tree bears bad fruit and this cannot be mixed at all. Keep your needs and desires out of the gutter so to speak. Keep yourself focused on what needs to be focused on. You ask ‘What’s that?’ well for one keep Christ first in your life. Everything else can and should be second.
I hate to say this but this includes family and loved ones. You may look at this as crazy talk but im being very serious with this. If God isn’t first in EVERYTHING then the rest is nothing. When you are new in Christ your old life is DEAD and no more. Why do people want to return to what was bad? Its because people belive it is easy to deal with life that way. Remember being a new creature in Christ does not make your life any simpler it makes it better. Your work isn’t done but the rewards are the greatest.
When you do this you put to death the ways of the flesh. With everyone there are different fleshly desires but yet all fleshly desires are the same. Here are some samples of fleshly desires; Fornication, Pornography, doing or thinking evil, jealousy, idolatry, or inappropriate actions, words, or thoughts. I did include thoughts. There has been some discussion about whether thoughts are as bad as the act itself. I can answer that now. YES your thoughts make you equally as guilty of sin as actually doing it. No in mans law the thought of hurting someone isn’t illegal only actually doing it is, but God says differently. Our hearts and minds can get us into so much trouble.
So basically as what Col 3:8 says we were once this way and now we must put them away. With the help of Jesus you can have these things tossed as far as the east is from the west. This goes for everyone who is a follower of Christ. It is not for some but for all.
You know the best part of this is that we are not alone. We can call upon Jesus to help us when we feel tempted. Jesus knows how difficult it is remember he was tempted himself. For those who don’t remember he spent 40 days in the wilderness to be tempted as stated in Mark 4:1-11. So trust me when I say He understands more than we can ever imagine.
Let’s now talk about Christian Character.
Before I go into this I got to say it’s not just our own choice to be saved we are also chosen by God himself. We must show LOTS of tender mercy, kindness, humanity, meekness, and longsuffering to each other both the people who are good but also and most importantly to those who are not.
• Let’s look at these for a second.
• Tender Mercy – to forgive, to be nice and to allow softly
• Kindness – sweetness, again nice, respectful,
• Humanity – treating people as people including the good bad and ugly so to speak
• Meekness – NON Selfish
• Longsuffering – When we are Christ like beings we have our own new suffering but that is because Satan is very angry that we no longer belong to him so he will make us suffer but we are not alone Christ is there to ease our suffering.
We must keep not bother each other and if there is any hurt or strife against us we must forgive as Christ forgave us. As believers we must promote love, goodness, and let Christ dwell within ourselves. Because it is not us who does good it is Christ who is perfect and does good within us and He shines inside all of our believers.
I know it sounds like we are perfectionists but we are not the only PERFECT human that walked on this earth was Christ. But we all must strive to be like him. We can never be him but we sure can be like him. Remember it is not an easy thing but it can be done and it is something that is practiced daily. Keep yourself occupied with God and Godly thoughts. If you get flack from others who do the name calling and saying bad things to you and about you because you are doing what Christ has commanded take that as a good thing. For Christ did say that we will have our own strife. Job did remember that.
May Christ be with you and allow Him and His Word to dwell within you so He can use you to bring more souls to Him. God is Good and Good is God.
I know my desire is to be pleasing to God and live like Christ wants me to live. How about you? What is your desire? Is it the same as Christ’s desire for you?
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
8 I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
10 And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago;
11 but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.
12 For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened;
14 but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack–that there may be equality.
15 As it is written, “He who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack.”
We tend to dream of things or start things that don’t get completed. In this scripture what I take from it is that when something is good and well thought of and prayed over is something that God wants us to continue and finish. We also must remember to do this with Him first in mind. Otherwise our works are dead.
Dont leave things unfinished. Complete them as God has completed his plan for us. When Jesus arrived he needed to not only walk among us but also experience the same life and hardships that we all endure in our day to day lives. Try to imagine how awful things would be if Jesus came down and was rich and just overlooked our lives. How much would really be done for us. It takes alot more than to just say “I see now and I understand.”
Come on how many people really understand something just by watching it. I know with myself I have to see it many times and even experience something similar to truly understand. That is how I get the job done. That was the way God did it so the gap between us and Him was done. That was through the Life of Jesus.
We also can take from this not to waste our time. I hate the term to Kill time. Come on. Time is so precious and important why do we want to kill it or waste it. Time is SHORT people so we need to make the most of it. Time needs to be cared for. It is such a waste to start something and never finish it. Or procrastinate.
This leads me to say why just dream something. Especilly if it is good and for God. Why not start it and go through with it. That way it is completed for His Glory. And you will feel rich in the process. To be rich as to Gods Discription. That is an amazing idea to have. I so wish everyone would.
May God bless you all
–Pastor Shawn
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night.” Psalm 91:5
What is this terror? It may be the cry of fire, or the noise of thieves, or fancied appearances, or the shriek of sudden sickness or death. We live in the world of death and sorrow, we may therefore look for ills as well in the night-watches as beneath the glare of he broiling sun. Nor should this alarm us, for be the terror what it may, the promise is that the believer shall not be afraid. Why should he? Let us put it more closely, why should we? God our Father is here, and will be here all through the lonely hours; He is an almighty Watcher, a sleepless Guardian, a faithful Friend. Nothing can happen without His direction, for even hell itself is under His control. Darkness is not dark to Him. He has promised to be a wall of fire around His people—and who can break through such a barrier? Worldlings may well be afraid, for they have an angry God above them, a guilty conscience within them, and a yawning hell beneath them; but we who rest in Jesus are saved from all these through rich mercy. If we give way to foolish fear we shall dishonour our profession, and lead others to doubt the reality of godliness. We ought to be afraid of being afraid, lest we should vex the Holy Spirit by foolish distrust. Down, then, ye dismal forebodings and groundless apprehensions, God has not forgotten to be gracious, nor shut up His tender mercies, it may be night in the soul, but there need be no terror, for the God of love changes not. Children of light may walk in darkness, but they are not therefore cast away, nay, they are now enabled to prove their adoption by trusting in their heavenly Father as hypocrites cannot do.
“Though the night be dark and dreary,
Darkness cannot hide from Thee;
Thou art He, who, never weary,
Watchest where Thy people be.”
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
“Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away.” Song 2:10
Lo, I hear the voice of my Beloved! He speaks to me! Fair weather is smiling upon the face of the earth, and He would not have me spiritually asleep while nature is all around me awaking from her winter’s rest. He bids me “Rise up,” and well He may, for I have long enough been lying among the pots of worldliness. He is risen, I am risen in Him, why then should I cleave unto the dust? From lower loves, desires, pursuits, and aspirations, I would rise towards Him. He calls me by the sweet title of “My love,” and counts me fair; this is a good argument for my rising. If He has thus exalted me, and thinks me thus comely, how can I linger in the tents of Kedar and find congenial associates among the sons of men? He bids me “Come away.” Further and further from everything selfish, grovelling, worldly, sinful, He calls me; yea, from the outwardly religious world which knows Him not, and has no sympathy with the mystery of the higher life, He calls me. “Come away” has no harsh sound in it to my ear, for what is there to hold me in this wilderness of vanity and sin? O my Lord, would that I could come away, but I am taken among the thorns, and cannot escape from them as I would. I would, if it were possible, have neither eyes, nor ears, nor heart for sin. Thou callest me to Thyself by saying “Come away,” and this is a melodious call indeed. To come to Thee is to come home from exile, to come to land out of the raging storm, to come to rest after long labour, to come to the goal of my desires and the summit of my wishes. But Lord, how can a stone rise, how can a lump of clay come away from the horrible pit? O raise me, draw me. Thy grace can do it. Send forth Thy Holy Spirit to kindle sacred flames of love in my heart, and I will continue to rise until I leave life and time behind me, and indeed come away.
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
“My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” Psalm 22:1
We here behold the Saviour in the depth of His sorrows. No other place so well shows the griefs of Christ as Calvary, and no other moment at Calvary is so full of agony as that in which His cry rends the air—”My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” At this moment physical weakness was united with acute mental torture from the shame and ignominy through which He had to pass; and to make His grief culminate with emphasis, He suffered spiritual agony surpassing all expression, resulting from the departure of His Father’s presence. This was the black midnight of His horror; then it was that He descended the abyss of suffering. No man can enter into the full meaning of these words. Some of us think at times that we could cry, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” There are seasons when the brightness of our Father’s smile is eclipsed by clouds and darkness; but let us remember that God never does really forsake us. It is only a seeming forsaking with us, but in Christ’s case it was a real forsaking. We grieve at a little withdrawal of our Father’s love; but the real turning away of God’s face from His Son, who shall calculate how deep the agony which it caused Him?
In our case, our cry is often dictated by unbelief: in His case, it was the utterance of a dreadful fact, for God had really turned away from Him for a season. O thou poor, distressed soul, who once lived in the sunshine of God’s face, but art now in darkness, remember that He has not really forsaken thee. God in the clouds is as much our God as when He shines forth in all the lustre of His grace; but since even the thought that He has forsaken us gives us agony, what must the woe of the Saviour have been when He exclaimed, “My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?”
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
All the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed forever. Gen. 13:15.
God’s promises are ever on the ascending scale. One leads up to another, fuller and more blessed than itself. In Mesopotamia God said, “I will show thee the land.” At Bethel, “This is the land.” Here, “I will give thee all the land, and children innumerable as the grains of sand.” And we shall find even these eclipsed.
It is thus that God allures us to saintliness. Not giving anything till we have dared to act—that He may test us. Not giving everything at first—that He may not overwhelm us. And always keeping in hand an infinite reserve of blessing. Oh, the unexplored remainders of God! Who ever saw His last star?
—F. B. Meyer
—Thoughts for the Quiet Hour
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
Throwing over Tables: A Temper Tantrum?
Greg Laurie
We all have things that irritate us, and we display our anger in different ways. Yet research has proven that it is not good to be angry. One study found that bad-tempered people are three times more likely to have heart attacks. And a 2006 Harvard study revealed that 10 million men in the U.S. are so angry, they are sick. In fact, their disease has a name: Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED).
Having said all that, not all anger is bad. The Bible records a time when Jesus Christ, God incarnate, was angry. Very angry. After making His triumphal entry into Jerusalem with crowds cheering and palm branches waving, Jesus “went into the temple and began to drive out those who bought and sold in it, saying to them, ‘It is written, “My house is a house of prayer,” but you have made it a “den of thieves” ‘ ” (Luke 19:45-46).
Was Jesus having a temper tantrum? Hardly. It was righteous indignation. He went into the temple. He took stock of the situation. And He overturned tables. Why such a display of anger? Because the people engaged in temple commerce were keeping others from God. They had a little racket going in which they found fault with the sacrificial animals the people brought in and then sold them an “approved” animal at an inflated price. And this made Jesus angry.
God is angry when people stand in the way of sinners coming to know Him. God doesn’t like it when we get in the way, and it happens all too often in the church. But the church is not supposed to be a museum for saints; it is supposed to be a hospital for sinners—a place for people to know God.
Taken from “When Jesus Got Angry” by Harvest Ministries (used by permission).
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
“Betrayest thou the Son of Man with a kiss?” Luke 22:48
The kisses of an enemy are deceitful.” Let me be on my guard when the world puts on a loving face, for it will, if possible, betray me as it did my Master, with a kiss. Whenever a man is about to stab religion, he usually professes very great reverence for it. Let me beware of the sleek-faced hypocrisy which is armour-bearer to heresy and infidelity. Knowing the deceivableness of unrighteousness, let me be wise as a serpent to detect and avoid the designs of the enemy. The young man, void of understanding, was led astray by the kiss of the strange woman: may my soul be so graciously instructed all this day, that “the much fair speech” of the world may have no effect upon me. Holy Spirit, let me not, a poor frail son of man, be betrayed with a kiss!
But what if I should be guilty of the same accursed sin as Judas, that son of perdition? I have been baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus; I am a member of His visible Church; I sit at the communion table: all these are so many kisses of my lips. Am I sincere in them? If not, I am a base traitor. Do I live in the world as carelessly as others do, and yet make a profession of being a follower of Jesus? Then I must expose religion to ridicule, and lead men to speak evil of the holy name by which I am called. Surely if I act thus inconsistently I am a Judas, and it were better for me that I had never been born. Dare I hope that I am clear in this matter? Then, O Lord, keep me so. O Lord, make me sincere and true. Preserve me from every false way. Never let me betray my Saviour. I do love Thee, Jesus, and though I often grieve Thee, yet I would desire to abide faithful even unto death. O God, forbid that I should be a high-soaring professor, and then fall at last into the lake of fire, because I betrayed my Master with a kiss.
—Morning and Evening
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
Are Humans Basically Good?
Jack Graham
I know there are people who don’t like to hear about sin. They think it’s a meddlesome or outdated topic. But it’s against the backdrop of our sin that you and I can truly see all that Jesus has done for us. The depth of our sin speaks directly to the great depth of God’s love.
You see, some people are convinced that man’s nature is basically good. There are many in the media and various professions that declare this sentiment. But this is completely contrary to Scripture. Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick.”
In plain language, sin is an abomination to God. It’s an offense to a Holy God. Sin degrades our personalities, defiles our purity, and destroys our principles and everything in our lives. But our story doesn’t end with our overwhelming sin.
Look at those amazing words in today’s verse: “while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Jesus has redeemed us that we might fulfill our true calling. We were created to know God, to love God, to experience his presence and fullness in our lives, to experience the fullness of life itself!
It’s time to turn from your sin and live the life you were created to live in Christ Jesus!
Taken from “March 22, 2010″ by PowerPoint Ministries (used by permission).
Filed under: Thoughts from our Pastor | No Comments »
