Week Review

It is hard to imagine that it has been a week since I made my last entry in the blog.  I am sure that many of you have endured or should I say enjoyed a week of many activities.  The celebration of Christmas contains many opportunities of fellowship with family, friends, and with your church family.  Much of my week was spent at the remodeling project for the relocation of New River Worship Center.  We were blessed to be able to celebrate our first service in the new location on Christmas morning.  Oh, what a wonderful day to celebrate Christ and all that He has provided for us.  We honored Him through Interpretative Worship, songs, prayers, offertory, and the sharing of the Word of God.  The presence of the anointing of the Spirit was powerful and believe it or not the people were not in a great hurry to go home.  Many of us are realizing that we not only need CHRIST back in Christmas but that we need CHRIST in our daily lives.  I desire to recognize Him and recognize my need for Him on a daily basis. 

We enjoyed a great Christmas celebration with our family.  God has blessed our family this past year and we took some time to reflect on His blessings.  Each of us need to remember the true meaning of Christmas and make sure that our children and grandchildren are taught the true understanding of the Christmas celebration  I was also able to travel to Alabama on Monday and visit with my parents and one of my sisters and her family.  It was a day trip but one that was worth the time and effort.  My family has offered me great love, support, and encouragement throughout my life and I am truly thankful for each of them.

I will give further updates on the relocation process of New River Worship Center in the near future.  We are close to the completion of Phase 1 and we are excited about the opportunities that God will provide in 2012.

Emmanuel

Yesterday I was privileged to gather with other believers and celebrate the presence of Jesus Christ in our daily lives.  I am truly blessed and excited about the presence of Christ is my life on a daily basis.  There are many reasons to rejoice during this season of Christmas but one of the most important ones revolves around the promise stated in the Matthew passage concerning Emmanuel.  Here is an excerpt of a portion of the sermon that I delivered at New River Worship Center in Radcliff, Kentucky.

Matthew 1:23, "Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us."

The Christmas story contains many stories within the scope of the Christmas story.  We can read the story of the shepherds keeping watch over their sheep at night. We can read the story of the wise men making the long trip to worship the Christ child. We also can read the portion of the story that makes the declaration that "Jesus would be the Savior of the world."  Certainly the story of Christmas produced many great and wonderful benefits to the family of God but one of the most important announcements is found in our text in verse 23. The baby that would be born to Mary and Joseph would be called "Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us." Hidden in all of the miracles of the Christmas story may be the greatest miracle of all of them. God, through Jesus Christ would make Himself available to mankind. He would take this opportunity to open the door of relationship with every human being who would choose to receive and embrace Him as Savior. This simple statement found in this story may not excite us but the implication of this statement is the basis of our hope and faith. God offered a plan in which He would draw near to humanity and we would have the wonderful opportunity to serve Him. I truly believe that God is calling us to celebrate the wonderful promise spoken in Matthew.

Emmanuel

Over the past few days the Lord has dealt with my heart concerning families who are celebrating their first Christmas since the death of their loved one.  Christmas can present some challenging experiences and memories to say the least but these memories can be enhanced with the extra burden of grief and sorrow.  The season of Christmas is one that is meant to be celebrated but family events can create extra anxiety as people gather and realize that their loved one will be missing as they gather together.  Nothing that I say can take away the pain and sorrow of grief but I do feel led to remind each individual that they are not alone as they travel this difficult road.  I am not referring just to the presence of their family members or friends but I am referring to the presence of Jesus Christ.

One of the names of Jesus mentioned in the New Testament is the name "Emmanuel", God with us." (Emphasis added).  The story of Christ not only brings us the story of the birth of our Savior it also brings us the story that God through His Son, Jesus Christ, would be present with us as we navigate the struggles and challenges of life.  This wonderful revelation and promise allows us to understand and receive the awesome presence of Christ in our lives regardless of the circumstances that we may be facing.  We can rejoice in the knowledge that God does not expect us to face the difficult moments of life alone.  We can find rest and peace in the midst of our turmoil as we turn our attention to the presence of God. 

An unknown author wrote these powerful words, "God did not promise days without pain, laughter without pain, sun without rain.  But He did promise strength for the day, comfort for tears, and light for the way."  As we celebrate Christmas, let us remember, "Emmanuel, God with us."  (Matthew 1:23).  

Update

It is hard to imagine that it has been a week since I made my last post.  The past week has been hectic to say the least.  I do appreciate the prayers regarding the surgical procedure on my arm which took place this past Thursday. The recovery seems to be going well; I do have a significant amount of pain due to all that the Doctor did during the procedure.  I began therapy yesterday and I am looking for positive results from the therapy as well as the surgery.  I desire your continued prayer covering.  The surgery did not keep me out of the pulpit on Sunday and we were blessed with another awesome and anointed service.

New River Worship Center was saddened by the sudden passing of one of the gentlemen who attended church with us.  Bro. Jim was a wonderful man and God was doing a great work in his life.  We celebrated the home going of Bro. Jim on Monday morning.  Bro. Jim was a Viet Nam veteran who retired after 27 years of military service for our country.  We honor and respect the service that he offered to our nation and it is men and women such as him who have served and fought in various wars and conflicts that provide me the freedom to write these words today.  We will miss him but his testimony and life will live on in our memories.  Please keep his wife, children, and grandchildren in your prayers.

I  am truly thankful for what I sense that God is doing in my life.  My wife and I were involved in an anointed and Spirit directed time of prayer on Monday evening.  The Spirit began to open my heart to some of the enemies that have risen against the people of God over the years of the existence of the family of God.  The Holy Spirit began to pray through us and illuminate these enemies to my heart and I began to speak them out as the Spirit gave the utterance.  NOTE: This is not being said as a means to draw attention to myself or my wife as some special spiritual people.  But it is being said to remind us that our spiritual enemy is real and that he does have a plan and strategy to destroy the Kingdom of God that is being released among the true children of God.  I believe that the days of hypocrisy and performance based Christianity are about to be revealed and that God will receive greater glory than ever before.  I am preparing my heart to openly identify these enemies as the Spirit directs my heart over the next weeks, months, and even years.  Each of us must take a serious inventory of our lives and make sure that we are walking in a proper relationship with Jesus Christ.  After all, this is the season that we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Prayer

Many of you read this blog on a consistent basis.  Each of you realize the emphasis that I have placed on prayer during the past few years.  I am convinced that the church in this modern era of various religions need to be awakened to our need to develop a pattern of consistent communication with our Heavenly Father.  It is imperative that we begin to "put into practice" the call to prayer that the Spirit is issuing to the church through the various leadership voices of the church of today.  I know that I am doing my best to spread this "call" to the people that I serve when I am given the opportunity to share the Word of God.

Last night I felt that the Lord shared a dream or vision with me.  My wife and I were walking through various cemeteries and reading the information on the headstones.  This morning I can not remember the names that we were reading last night but during the dream we did recognize the names and we did know the people whose name were on the headstones.  The Lord revealed that these various individuals had entered into "spiritual death" because of their lack of prayer.  They had lost their relationship with Christ because of their failure to spend time in the presence of God.  Prayer is not just coming before the Lord with our "spiritual wish list."  Prayer is lingering in the presence of the Lord and allowing Him to teach us about the development of our relationship with Him.  You are probably thinking, "What does this have to do with Christmas?"  We must remember that the birth of Jesus Christ opened the door of a personal relationship with God through the Son of God.  Can you connect the dots in this spiritual scenario?  Christ was born!  Christ lived on this earth!  Christ died for our sins at Calvary!  The birth and death of Christ opened the door for relationship!  Prayer develops our relationship!  Thank God for the wonderful and awesome gift of prayer as we celebrate Christmas!

Prayer Request:  I will be having a second surgery on my arm tomorrow.  This is due to the fall that I received in October of 2010.  I have not enjoyed a full recovery as of yet and the Doctor feels that he can improve my mobility through this second procedure.  I would appreciate your prayer covering.  I may be away from the computer for a couple of days but I will be praying for each of you.  Feel free to share your prayer requests with me; I would be honored to join with you in prayer.



Looking toward Christmas

People face this time of the year with various emotions.  There are people that will celebrate this season without a loved one for the first time.  They face the various celebrations with trepidation and sadness because they will miss the presence and participation of their family member or friend.  Children look toward the season with excitement and anticipation.  Our youngest grandson arrived at our house a few days ago with his "Christmas catalogue" held tightly in his hand.  He was prepared to show us some of the gifts that he had been looking at over the past few weeks.  The other grandchildren have made sure that my wife and I are aware of some of the things on their wish list.  There are families that will face this season with some fear and concern because of the financial challenges that they are facing at this present moment.  These families are working to make sure that they can stretch their budget as far as possible.  But you also have those people that Christmas is just another day on the calendar and they will choose to ignore all of the celebrations as well as all of the concerns of this season of the year.  Each of us may be able to look back across our lives and remember when we were living in one of the above mentioned circumstances and those were the emotions that dominated our lives.

But as believers in Christ we are filled with an unique and powerful hope.  We are able to look past the parties, tinsel, gifts, food, trees, and family celebrations and realize that Christmas allows us to focus on the introduction of our Savior to this world.  We have hope in our life due to the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ.  Our greatest celebration is not the gift or gifts under the tree but our greatest source of celebration is the One who died on the tree over 2,000 years ago.  We look toward our future knowing and understanding that Christ is with us every day of the year and not just a certain designated time of the year.  Christ is not confined to the month of December but He is a daily participant in our walk through life.  Do not let your life be defined by the emotions that you may be feeling at this present time rather allow your life to be defined in the fulfillment of the promises of God.  Luke 2:11, "For there is born to you this day in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord." (NKJV)

Thankful

Some of you may grow tired of hearing about the weekend services in which I am privileged to participate.  I often write about the richness of the presence of God and you may even think that it is impossible for that to be true Sunday after Sunday.  But I can declare that it is TRUE and that the presence and direction of God is real.  I go to church in the spirit of anticipation and expectation.  I assume based on the promises of God that He is going to be on the premises when His family gathers to offer sincere praise and worship.  It is possible that some people miss the presence of God during worship because they go looking for other things.  It is hard to notice the presence of God if your heart is set toward grumbling, complaining, and fault finding.  I doubt that you will notice much of the presence of God if your mind, heart, and soul are focused on all the above mentioned distractions and discouragements.  I am deciding to make the choice to ignore the tricks and tactics of the enemy and look for the presence of God.  I invite you to join me on that journey today!

Relationship with God

Last night's discipleship class at New River Worship Center was both enlightening as well as challenging.  Each of us are aware of the need to continue developing our relationship with Christ yet there are times that this is not the true priority of our lives.  We can find ourselves spiritually "coasting" and become comfortable with going through the motions of a religious routine or ritual.  This "coasting" can lead to the situation in which our hearts can become hardened to the Word of God.  Coasting can lead to our eyes becoming blinded to the enlightenment of the Spirit.  Coasting can lead to our ears becoming deaf to the direction and guidance of the Spirit.  How can we counteract those tactics of the enemy of our soul?  We reached the conclusion last night that the application of truth to our individual lives is the only true solution to that particular challenge of satan.  We must hear the Word and allow the Spirit to apply the Word to  our lives.  The process of application will strengthen our relationship with Christ and the strengthened relationship with Christ will place us in the right position as well as disposition to follow Christ into a lifestyle and attitude of obedience.  The Word of God is alive and powerful and it will make the proper adjustments to our lives as we continue the development of our relationship with Christ.  Place your relationship with Christ at the top of your priority list and recognize the difference that it will make in your journey through life.

In My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers wrote, "There is only one relationship that matters, and that is your personal relationship to a personal Redeemer and Lord. Let everything else go, but maintain that at all costs, and God will fulfill His purpose through your life. . . . Always remain alert to the fact that where one man has gone back is exactly where anyone may go back . . . Kept by the power of God - this is the only safety."