Weekend Review

This week finds me in Brecksville, OH (suburb of Cleveland) with Pastor Donnal & Jennifer Markham.  I have been invited to this church and community on previous occasions and it is always a privilege to minister in this local congregation.  The presence of celebration and anticipation filled the atmosphere of the services on Sunday.  The local church has been involved in 21 days of prayer and fasting preceding the revival and your could sense the results of this time of sacrifice and commitment.  I am a firm believer that God rewards any effort of sacrifice and self-denial that we offer to Him in the spirit of praise and worship.  I encourage each of you to be willing to deny yourself on occasion as we seek to see God to intervene in our lives as well as the lives of our family and friends.

Many individuals responded to the altar invitation in each of the services.  Several churches from the surrounding communities joined with us in the evening service.  The presence of God reminded each of us of the great and marvelous love that God has for each of us.  Do not forget that God loves you and that He is interested in your life even when you are facing your own set of challenges and trials.  We must re-connect our hearts with the heart of God and realize the the love of God is not some spiritual myth that we have created and taught to others.  We must remember that the love of God is REAL and we must remember that God stands ready to reveal His love to each and everyone of us.  When we receive His love into our hearts we are then able to release His love to a hurting, lonely, depressed and dejected world which is looking for hope in their individual lives.  We have a great story to tell and we need to be willing to share that story without hesitation!

We were able to witness a miracle in the service last night.  A young man in the congregation suffered some type of seizure.  A EMT that was present in the service recognized the fact that this young man's heart stopped and his life was literally leaving his body.  The believers began to pray and the Spirit of God revived this young man.  He was taken to the hospital for evaluations and the last report from the hospital stated that they could not find anything wrong with this young man.  We witnessed a miracle; but it also serves as a reminder that we need to be prepared to for death.  We need to know for sure that our sins are forgiven and that we are living in right relationship with Jesus Christ.