Daily Prayer 10/31/07

1 John 2:29 If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

Father, again this is a verse that should make us take a close look at our lives. If we are believers in Christ, we are followers of Christ. As the Lord said, "You will know them by their fruit." Our lives are the evidence that we belong to Him. If a person claims to belong to Christ, yet they live a life of sin, it is obvious the truth is not in them. But if the truth truly is in them and they are "born of Him" or "born again" (John 3) they are a new creation, no longer slaves of sin, but slaves of righteousness. The Bible is clear that a true believer has come to know You and has repented of the old ways and set their hearts on obeying the new life in Christ. We love and thus pursue holiness. We are not pleased with our sin. Help us to hate our sin more each day. May we despise our wicked ways. Help us to thirst for righteousness. By knowing You Father and our Savior Jesus Christ, we will love righteousness more and more and work and pray harder at not carrying out the sin in our minds and on our tongues....may it be stopped in the heart before we can think and act on it.

Pray again for Darlene's mom (Darlene is a co-worker) apparently she is not doing well....

For a dear brother in Christ at church who has a little girl who suddenly had become VERY sick. She is suddenly in danger of death. May her health return as quickly as it failed. Pray for kidneys to improve and platelet count to increase

For our dear friends working hard for Your glory Lord in Russia. Give them strength and help their equipment and backs to endure the heavy work load as they perform a BUNCH of dental work on pastors, their families and the children of the church there.

Father I also know that it may be a silly thing to ask, but I pray that through the Emma poem, some money would come that we could use in her name at Emma's Free Tuition School. This money is so desperately needed there as You know Lord. I have not been able to provide the help, so maybe You could provide it by her name for the school that bears her name as Your name is lifted up among the children there.

For Stanley in Ghana who is very hungry now and also for the Abandon Child Ministries, I pray that recent contacts would lead to permanent help for them.

Make us holy people who will live and die for You!

That reminds me Lord I saw online today video of a couple pastors in India who were beaten for Your Name sake. This terrible violence against these gentle men bothers me. I pray for Your protection over our dear Pastor (name removed for his privacy and safety) and his family and all his dear friends working so hard to reach a great population for the sake of their souls. They are motivated by love and often the love is only met with violence. Like the Hindu woman who burned down their church. May the work continue on the church soon...It needs walls. Lord You know the need their. I just ask for their protection. Compared to these great believers, I am nothing, but I thank You for such great examples for me to learn from and follow.

All for Christ's glory, Amen.

Halloween Thoughts

Question is this.... If you don't know or understand what you are celebrating does that make it ok? For example...the source of Halloween in Europe before it hit the USA is pagan. Then it seems Rome tried to "Christianize" it. Puritans did not celebrate it, but did have some fall festivals, then as immigrants came over, southern colonies celebrated it and it spread again with many pagan traditions attached to it. I know it's mostly just fun stuff for kids and often fall festival type events for communities, but where are lines drawn....Honestly I'm not sure. I pretty much totally reject the holiday, but we let our kids enjoy it and have fun. They know ghosts are not real and we don't want to enjoy evil things...so we steer them away from that stuff, but Jack-o-lanterns and ghosts and stuff are decorating our home (even though I hate it...haha) So honestly... I think we should reject it more than we should BUT it's ok to have fun and enjoy it in a "fun" and safe manner.

I always remember on this date two things. First is 10/31/1517 On this date Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the castle door in Wittenberg, Germany. As this gifted priest read the book of Romans he was captivated by it's message. He determined to wrestle with Paul until he understood what he taught in this book that so clearly contains such a potent and pure Gospel.

It may be pretty boring reading if you are not up to it, but it's available to check out online... HERE

The biggest thing is that we are justified by grace through faith.... Now days just about every denomination will SAY that, but they have attached their own definition of what it means. So again defer to the letter of Paul to the Romans .

Next thing I think of on Halloween is Hebrews 10:31 because that is today's date....also because of the scary words of the verse. That combination makes it easy to remember. It says "it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God" A verse you don't hear much in American Christianity today. But, it's true....the LORD is not a dear old grandfather figure, but the Holy God of Creation.

Have a great day and read Romans and maybe catch the context of that Hebrews verse if you get the chance today....

Russia Dental Trip Update

10/28 I'll just keep adding the updates here....

This update came from Brad Heck Sunday evening.

Grant, Melanie, Sheryll, and Dr. Al made it in last night at about 9:30 p.m. Tired and weary from having spent the better part of twelve hours in the airport, they were about done in. The airline kept telling them the plane would leave in one hour, but then delay it again. Frustrating, I’m sure. They are here though, and that is what counts. We immediately went to the church and started to unpack their equipment and supplies. We got back to the hotel around 11:30 p.m. Because of delays, Grant’s crew was not able to register at the hotel in Moscow ; we’ll see how that plays out when we leave. Artyom explained to Gus and me the importance of the whole process. Seems there are religious groups that are coming in on “Tourist” visas rather than “Religious” visas. Following the rules is very important, and we are.

Immediate prayer requests:

1. Dr Al had a bag of his rip open somewhere in transit. Several vital pieces of equipment are missing. I think we can cover it, but we need prayers for peace. Things have worked out so far; God will see us through. We just make adjustments.
   
2. Endurance and good rest. We are going to need it.
   
3. Please do not forget to pray for these believers here in Tomsk . Their daily existence is dependent on God; we seem to forget that ours is too.
   
4. A personal request…I have had a three day migraine that has been no fun.
   

Thanks for all the prayers so far, they have been effective!

Brad Heck

Next-10/31

Snowed most of the day here, but warmed up a bit this
evening. Started at 8am, got done at 10:30pm.

The workload for Grant is unbelievable. He and Mel
are working together, doing all the root canals. Very
labor intensive, and almost everyone is getting one it
seems. They are holding up ok. Mel has a chair that
she can sit in for a little bit during the procedures.
We are still having air compressor problems, maybe
have to get another one tomorrow.

Our interpreters have been quite the hoot, though.
Alyia is a seventeen year old, giggly high school girl
that would fit in perfect with our youth group.
Valeria is her sister, highly intelligent. Katya is
our late night one, twenty six year old mom of a two
year old firecracker. We've also used a petroleum
geologist named Alex. All believers, all good kids.

Haven't seen my buddy Andre since church, must be in
school.

Daily Prayer 10/30/07

1 John 2:28 Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming.

Father- I often think of this verse. If You Lord Jesus were to return today or if I found myself standing before You today, what would my reaction be? Would my conscience be clear and my motives pure and in my pursuit of personal holiness would I jump up and down with joy to see Your face as I then bow at Your feet to worship or would I fall like a dead man on my face with shame? Do I pray "Lord come today! I am ready to meet You now!" Or do I say "Master, please do not come quite yet, I have sinned and I have not confessed it. I am in sin now and I am not yet ready to give it up. I have sinned today and I would be filled with shame if I stood before You now." Guess what.... When we sin, we must remember our shame is right before Your eyes....I have sinned willingly in my heart with You right there with me. I have dragged You along through my sin....Oh, how sorry I am for my thinking I can sin willingly in my heart and have it hidden from You as if You don't know what I think or do.

Father, we confess our sins. Change us from the inside out. We fail because we are sick Christians who do not have the healing power of Your word within us. We need to be feeding on the Bible. It is the medicine the Holy Spirit uses to heal us and make us more like Christ. May we be healthy Christians so that at Your appearance Lord Jesus, we will not be ashamed and shrink away, but may we have confidence, because we know we have been abiding in You.

I pray for the "untouchables" in India....the entire population of the United States is living in India and considered "unclean" to some there. Even now slavery and caste system exists that places less value on people than even animals. BUT we have an opportunity to minister to these dear people and also the muslim children in the slums. Father please make a way for us to support Emma's Free Tuition school so this can be a sweet place of refuge for a people You are happy to love and adopt as Your children.

I pray for our dental team in Russia now. It is very cold and snowing and equipment is breaking and even some was lost on the flight over. From 7am to 10pm their backs are bent over patients to fix hurting teeth....give them strength. Keep their backs strong and their bodies healthy. Some of my dearest brothers are there right now just wanting to serve Your people. Bless their work.

For baby Thaddeus, keep the heart growing and please Father heal his aorta. I pray with faith and confidence that You will make him well. If any work is needed, may it only be minor and I pray it is not needed right away.

Baby Aubrie will be in our family soon. Please take care of Victoria's sister and the baby. We also pray for our (soon to be brother in law? ;} Adam - Two Adams in the family could be a nice match for the two Matt's we have....

For Robert and Cassie and Aiden, help them settle into their new home and help them to adjust to life in the Springs. I pray You have moved them here for Your purposes in their lives.

For all of us and our children....keep us save and make us holy. In Christ's Name, amen.

Pastor arrested for praying!

In April 2007, Pastor Daniel and more than 40 Christian leaders in Indonesia
were arrested after a video recording of them praying for Muslims and the Quran
was leaked to Islamic organizations. Pastor Daniel was sentenced to five years
in prison for praying, "Father we pray for the leaders of the madrassa, so their
hearts would be open for gospel."

Every day I see stuff like this, the Bible says it would happen, and in fact it will
get worse. I am also pretty sure it will be that way here before long. Maybe in
my lifetime, maybe in my children's lifetime, but our political correctness is going
to drive us to this kind of stuff. They killed Christ who was so good, why would
His followers expect less? Let's not be surprised it happens, but let's always
remember to pray for those persecuted and imprisoned for loving Christ and in
this case loving OTHERS.... May their hearts be turned from lies to truth.

Daily Prayer 10/29/07

1 John 2:26-27 These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, and you have no need for anyone to teach you; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him.

Father- In this letter of 1 John we have had so many good warnings and encouragements. John has written to warn of those who try to deceive the little one's who love Christ. Satan has been at work with lies and deception from the beginning. Of course today he tries to keep us from pure faith, but we have Your Gospel that can not fail or be proven wrong. It is preserved for our walk in this world. Plus Christ told us He would send a teacher, a comforter, Your very Spirit to teach and guide us and keep us. Spirit You open our eyes to simple truths that we have not and could not see in Your Word without You opening our eyes to them. You have opened the eyes of millions who have just prayed and asked You to see it clearly in Your Word. May we cling to, obey and abide in Truth. In this world, may we not worry about what others say or think of us or how they judge us, but may we only be concerned with how You view us as You judge the motives of our heart. Teach us to love You Father as Christ loves You. Teach us to love each other as Christ loves us. May we know Your Holiness and Your love and then may we also be people known for holiness and for our love. In Christ's Name we pray, amen.

Good or Holy?

I was thinking today about the holiness of God. I think the reason we have such a hard time understanding so many things is because we don’t understand the holiness of God properly. We have holiness and goodness confused. Yes, God is good, but He is also Holy. Because we think of God as “good” we measure things that are “good” in our eyes against this standard. For example, people often think mankind is for the most part “good”. The Bible says man is wicked and evil. Children of satan. Many refuse to accept this because we think mankind is “good”, not evil. I think if we have a proper view of what is holy, then we can more easily understand what is “good”.

For example…. Picture this in your mind as you read this description of God on His Throne in Heaven.

Revelation 4:2-11 Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and One sitting on the throne. And He who was sitting {was} like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and {there was} a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne {were} twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones {I saw} twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads. Out from the throne come flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And {there were} seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God; and before the throne {there was something} like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first creature {was} like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature {was} like a flying eagle. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, "HOLY, HOLY, HOLY {is} THE LORD GOD, THE ALMIGHTY, WHO WAS AND WHO IS AND WHO IS TO COME." And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever, the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, "Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created."

Habakkuk 2:20 "But the LORD is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him.

Ex 15:11 "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?

1 Sam 2:2 "There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.

Rev 15:4 "Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For ALL THE NATIONS WILL COME AND WORSHIP BEFORE YOU, FOR YOUR RIGHTEOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN REVEALED."

Those are just a few verses to remind us that God is Holy and Holiness is His standard. Therefore You are to be Holy as He is holy. When you look at the world, do not measure it by what is “good” in human eyes, but what is Holy in God’s eyes. Only what is holy is good. The earth was not created “good” according to what we would consider good, but “very good” that is holy and perfect. It’s why we can not come to God just as Adam and Eve were cast away from Him. Perfection is Holiness. We fall infinitely short of this standard. That is why only the Holy One, could redeem us from our hopeless state. Yet will we still try to be “good enough” to please God? When we do “good” we only do what we should do. We need the Holy One to redeem us from our sins that we can not undo by trying to be “good”. The wages of sin is not community corrections, but death! That is why we need that death of Christ.

Anyway have a great day…. Remember what mankind calls “good” isn’t necessarily holy and what God calls “holy” is always good. That is where a lot of our breakdown in understanding God lies.

Daily Prayer 10/28/07

1 John 2:18-25 Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, but they were not {really} of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but {they went out,} so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

Father- We thank You for Your great love, mercy and patience. The depth of Your love and the extent of Your general grace You show mankind I am sure is sooo much deeper than our minds could ever know. As one person said, anything less than hell (which we deserve for our sin) is grace. What bold, but true, words. Reveal Yourself to us in Your Word Father. May we see the reasons we should follow Christ more. Give us a balanced view of the Holy Trinity. It's hard for our minds to understand a Triune God. Yet we know it's true. Help us to worship You equally as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What else do we need? So many today deny that You are, or they deny what You have done for man. That is antichrist. They lead people astray with teachings that claim to show the true love of God....but it's a false gospel. To add anything to the cross of Christ is to deny His full atonement for our sins. To take away anything from the cross or the person of Christ is also a false gospel and is denying Christ. No one can be forced to love You or scared into loving You...we can only love You when we see that You have first loved us. That You have paid the ultimate price for us. A price we are not able to pay. It is Your goodness Lord that leads us to repentance. May we see Your goodness and the equal love and goodness of our Lord, Christ Jesus. Is He our Master? Is Christ our Lord? Help us to understand Him and lift Him up higher and follow Him more closely. He is the One we pursue and will bow to as our King and brother forever and ever. In His precious name we humbly pray for Your guidance Holy Spirit of our lives. Amen.

For India, the healing of the people who are sick there....for the work on the church, for Emma's School and the muslim children there....be with them...they are my inspiration to do better.

For the people in Africa, heal them and feed them....save their souls.

For Russia, may their faith continue to increase as Your Work continues to produce good fruit there.

For all our needs...spiritual and physical, we pray....amen.

Just A GREAT Sermon

One of the best sermons I have heard for a while....I am so thankful to be in a good Bible teaching church with such a gifted pastor. Dr Rick Goertzen's message on the love of God is definitely worth hearing.... Have a slow internet connection? Let this one download overnight while you sleep....it's worth it!

CLICK HERE FOR THE DOWNLOAD

Click the link above to stream it, right click and choose "save link as" to download it to hear later....

GOD Bless!

Daily Prayer 10/27/07

1 John 2:15-17 Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and {also} its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

Father- Thank You for this warning from John. We have seen in this book the contrast between a heart set on this life to be lived selfishly and sinfully and a heart set on giving this life to You. How could satan take Jesus up to a high place and show Him all the world and say in Matthew 4:9 "All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me." Can satan give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and their glory? Satan has been called the "prince of the power of the air". Adam and Eve handed this world over to satan for a while.... This world is not our friend now Father, but we wait and even creation waits and groans (Romans 8:22) for the return of Christ as the Lord and King of the heavens and the earth. So why should we love a world full of wickedness and sinfulness. What can this life offer that we should cling to? The verses above describe the "American Dream". In the USA the "lust of the flesh" (our desires for comfort and happiness along with sinful lusts) and the "lust of the eyes" (we all know what "keeping up with the Jones' " means....our eyes feed our need to consume more and more...we are never satisfied...we are a very materialistic nation. Finally the verse says "and the boastful pride of life" Oh, listen to our speech! I did this and I did that, we are power hungry in the workplace, we desire to put people in their place, we think of ourselves as better than others.... We pursue, status, wealth, positions... Lord today's "American Dream" is why the world calls us the "Great Satan" This is truly a wicked nation and we love to drink it all in! Indeed the whole world is filled with wickedness....so subtle is our hunger for this world that we take it in fully each day with no thought that we have made ourselves enemies of God. Again the verse says "Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Lord make us people who love You and love to do You will. The more we read our Bibles and get to know the REAL Yahweh, the more we will see the sin of the world. May we not worship the "dear grandfather" type false god of this country, but the True Father, Son and Holy Spirit of the Scriptures that have always existed, always will exist and will judge each individuals heart, whether they did the will of God or if they did the will of self.

Thank You for our health, our lives, and all the good things You give us in this life, so that it can be enjoyed in a holy manner. Show us that we can hate the sin of this world, yet still live a very joyous lives in the world that was created with Christ and will be made new by Christ our Lord. In His name we pray, amen.

Being Sick

First I have to say I am barely sick. BUT I am healthy most of the time so even a little sickness really gets me down. I wonder if a person who is sick a lot deals with being sick better? Does a sick person get used to being sick a lot? I don't know. Well anyway I have caught a cold that has really beat me up and has me down. It comes with some kind of stomach problems too.

I am such a baby when I am sick. I just feel soo weak, it really reminds me I need to thank God when I am healthy. I think we take our health for granted. This is a good reminder to me to thank God when we are all feeling well and able to enjoy life more. I think I am getting a little better (like I said it's not a major illness) so I'll be fine. Here's what I was thinking though.

It's easy for me to get on my spiritual "high horse" and make these bold statements about God healing without any help from man, so He gets all the glory. (My real intention is to confirm the message I have been sharing as true.) Well let me say this....that's easy to say when it's someone else, but even with this little sickness I pray "Lord, I don't care if it's from a medicine, a doctor, rest....I don't care how it happens.....just help me to get better soon!"

Anyway, I want you to know that I don't care HOW Thaddeus' heart is healed, I just want this little boy to be better and to grow and do well. I want this little boy so badly for my little brother and his wife. Life is just so wonderful with a little one around. I can't wait for them to experience all the fun of the many stages of life of a child.

As for the prayer of healing by faith alone, do I believe it can happen? Of course 100%, is that a good prayer to pray....depends on motive I think. If motive is the healing of Thaddeus, then yes...let's all pray often. If that is the goal, then I don't care how God makes Thad better, just heal him please Lord. Obviously that is my desire, but I was praying that the Gospel message I have been proclaiming would be "confirmed" by this "sign". Now is that a good thing? Here I think I am on dangerous ground. Of course as always I fall back on "What does the Bible say?"

Matthew 12:39 says
"But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and {yet} no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet;"

Jesus was speaking to the Jews who basically said they would believe the message if Jesus would show them a sign. Well this goes against the Fathers requirement of us coming to Him by faith alone. He asks us to just believe the scriptures concerning being justified in His eyes by faith in the way He has provided. The final and complete one time sacrifice for sins was Christ's death on the cross for sins. This is important. Unlike the repeated Jewish sacrifices of the Old Testament that were a temporary sacrifice until the Lamb Of God would provide the permanent sacrifice for sins, Christ's death was, again, a ONE TIME event. The FINAL and Permanent sacrifice for sins. We are to cling to this by faith.

I have strayed from the subject a bit....as far as the "confirming the message" thing. My mind has been drawn to Lazarus and the Rich man. Long story short, Lazarus the poor beggar went to heaven and the rich man went to hell. The rich man asked if Lazarus could at least dip his finger in water to cool his tongue, the answer was no. So the rich man asks if Lazarus could at least go to his family to warn them so they don't also end up in hell with him. The reply?

Luke 16:27-31"And he said, 'Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father's house-- for I have five brothers--in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment. "But Abraham *said, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.' "But he said, 'No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!' "But he said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.' "

My point is this, faith should be enough for us. We have the complete scriptures, we have Christ who rose from the dead and ascended into heaven and who has promised to come again to judge the living and the dead. He requires faith, do we ask for more? Fact is, if Thaddeus' heart is healed by a miracle, will we not all soon return to our old ways if God has not taken our heart captive? I think we saw that even with Emma, many drew near to the Father in the times of worry, but then later drifted away. There is a good lesson in this I think. A VERY important lesson. A person does not "decide" to follow Christ. Becoming a Christian is not like a new year's resolution. It's not in our power. God must draw us to Himself by the power of the Holy Spirit. So do You desire to follow Christ? Do you want to be His disciple? Then pray! As Mindy would say, P.U.S.H. Pray Until Something Happens. This is a very biblical concept. "Jer 29:13 'You will seek Me and find {Me} when you search for Me with all your heart." Christ says,

Rev 3:20

'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. So let us not seek a "sign" but just ask for the healing of Thaddeus' heart as God sees fit and may we not seek a "sign" but come to Christ by faith in His word. (I still believe God could heal Thad's heart without the touch of a human hand, He has already started....so do not lose faith, but may our hearts be prepared for God to work in any way He pleases, even through people, to heal this wonderful baby boy.)

Daily Prayer 10/23/07

1 John 2:12-14 I am writing to you, little children, because your sins have been forgiven you for His name's sake. I am writing to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I have written to you, children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who has been from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.

Father- Your Word is clear. There are only two types of people in the world. Children of God and Children of Satan. (Psalm 1, John 8:39-44), I thank the Holy Spirit for giving us these verses through John to show us the stages of the Christian life. The little ones with only a basic understanding of Christ's death for the forgiveness of sins, young men who have sound doctrine to keep them from sin and the fathers of the faith who have grown beyond the intellectual side of their faith and have come to truly know You and have a very dear and personal relationship with Christ the Savior. That is our desire Lord, to always be growing in our faith. Just as the song says "Just a closer walk with Thee, grant it Jesus is my plea..." We so strongly desire to know You more and have a dear and personal relationship with You that results in a faith so strong not even trials like Job's can shake us because we will know You and Your character and Your sovereignty and Your love for us and care for us. The joy of that faith is so deep-seated it produces an unshakable peace, joy, hope, love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. How will we know You so well? By knowing You through Your Word. By knowing God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the perfect Triune God. Give us this growth we desire Lord.

Let me feel I am with You and You are with me every minute of the day. When I do not "feel" You is it You who has forgotten me, or have my thoughts turned from You? When I read Father, keep Your words in my thoughts during the day. May I wake up at night with great thoughts of You on my mind. May the joy of Your Word consume me! Prepare me for heaven Father! Make me more like Christ and sanctify me and each day move me closer to the perfection I will know in heaven.

For those who have already attained this wonderful joy of perfection and knowing You and having the OVERWHELMING joy of being in Your presence right now in heaven, we thank You. Help us to let go of this life in this world and start setting our minds on the life that is to come in heaven. Our losses have not been losses, but gain to our dearly loved family and friends who are now with You. For those of us still here waiting for You to bring us home, we have a job to do. Believe in Christ and His death for our sins, and to grow and share all that we can with a world that does not know You and in sin does not want You. Turn their hearts from this world to You. Save them from being children of satan and adopt them as Your Children by sending Your Holy Spirit to dwell in them and open their eyes to sin and their need for Christ's death for their sins since we must face a Holy and Just Judge.

Lord, I have already died. You did not take my life from me 5 years ago, You gave me life. The man that was forever lost is not a loss, but a good riddance. I never want to be that man again. Like a child becomes and adult, I can never become that person again. Sometimes an adult acts like a child, but an adult can never become a child again. The same way Your grip on me is as permanent. It can not be undone. I may act like that sinner that died 5 years ago, but it is to my shame. May he be buried a little deeper in the ground each day as I ask You to lift this new man a little closer to Christ in heaven each day.

Every step and every breath we offer to You Lord Jesus as a living sacrifice for what You have done for us. Make us holy people for Your glory, Amen.

Accurate Bible Study

One thing in Bible study you always have to be careful about it not putting words in the scriptures that are not there. The word “hermeneutics” is the science and art of interpreting the Bible. This does not mean to interpret it in a way that fits your beliefs or motives, but what is the true message of the passage. What is the author’s intended message. The Bible is perfect and absolutely true and inspired in it’s original writings (2 Timothy 3:16). So we must seek to know the authors intended meaning. If you don’t have the meaning of the scriptures, then you don’t have the scriptures. Now two more words to know are “exegeses” and “eisegesis”. “Ex” is out, “eis” is in. We want to have good “exegesis”, that is to draw out the proper meaning of the text. We do not want a poor application and force our thoughts into a passage. We need to let the Bible speak for itself, not us speaking for the Bible….Does that make sense? This is pretty rare today. When was the last time you heard a preacher, pastor, priest, bishop, just teach the scripture and say “Here is the text, here is what it says, now here’s how we apply it.” The pastor’s real help other than understanding and proclaiming the Word of God is to help us understand how to apply it properly. It is very easy in this step to again leave the meaning of the text and apply our own meaning and application. Because the preachers words were first set up with the reading of the scriptures, people are easily fooled into thinking what the man is saying is biblical. Watch for this carefully. In application make sure it is still proper application of the principals attained through the proper understanding of the text.

I believe it is so important for Christians to know HOW to study their Bibles. If you just rake the surface you will get leaves, but if you dig deep you will get diamonds. I would guess 98% of most Bible reading is just on the surface, without the Christian practicing good hermeneutics. The Christian can easily come to wrong understandings and thoughts this way.

The next thing I think is so important is to have a sound doctrine. We must know scripture well. We all have these pre-suppositions we bring to the table when we sit down to read. Let’s call it our “grid work” we filter all things through. How you view a passage is often influenced by what you believe is true before you ever begin to read the text. Throw your thoughts of what you know out the window before you begin and let the Word of God speak clearly and fill your mind with accurate information. Let pure doctrine come from a clear understanding of the Bible. The less junk you have in your “grid work” the better the word of God will be filtered to your heart and mind.

So the goal is a literal, historical and grammatical understanding of the text. Take the text at face value in normal and plain sense (literal). Next, understand the historical situation facing the author and his audience (historical). Finally, study the meaning of words and the sentence structure and the rules of grammar. Watch for transitional words like, “but, therefore, so that”. A good study Bible is so helpful in your daily reading. I definitely recommend the MacArthur Study Bible. Don’t read for quantity, but quality. Read for understanding and then apply it to your life. Measure all that you are taught and told about the Christian life by the Bible. 2 Peter 2:1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers among you, who will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves. Colossians 2:8 “ See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ”.

May the Holy Spirit teach us and lead us in Truth. Don’t forget to pray before, during, and after you read since it is God (the Spirit) who is our Teacher.

India Childrens Camp Update

Here is the letter from Pastor Kota

Dear Brother Jason in the Lord,

I thank you somuch for offering special Prayer for me and for the Work here.... I am so happy that you are speaking Telugu language..Its delighted.amen.. Iam happy that God is answering your Prayers and started working out Miracles in the petitions.. Yes, all things are possible with God. God can do anything...Amen and all the glory goes to Him alone. He alone deserves our Honor..

Brother Jason , regarding Retreat, We had conducted Children Retreat for 2 days at the Slum Area, among the Muslim kids where it is named as EMMA FREE TUITION HOME FOR POOR KIDS ... The responce is good and we have 32 children coming to the Retreat.. Bros Prahudass, VBinod and Giri did good job in Puppet shows, Skits and Story telling.. And we have given the kids to eat Sweet Upma, Pulihora and Fruits etc.. Final day, we have given them pens and pencils..

And oneday, we have the Retreat programme at our New church Premises and we have few children attended due to the vacation..Many children left for other places. But whoever came, we presented again Puppet show and skits and Bible stories..Even, we gave them some sweets and fruits to eat...Halleluiah for what God has sown HIs seed in these hearts... Please keep praying for the work here..

Harvest is Plenteous but Labourers are few...

We have the Heart for our harvest but lack of Financial help for the work pull us back..

Lift us up in your Prayers.

We continue to pray for you and look for your emails..

Iam just working out to have time to chat with you.. I really miss you somuch...

HOw is your family doing..?

Hoping to hear you and God bless you more,

yours Brother who concentrates on the harvest of the Lord,

Pastor Samuel Kota

India

--
REV SAMUEL KOTA
# 7-6-1149/1, SANJEEVAIAH NAGAR EXTENSION
GUNTUR-522002
ANDHRA PRADESH STATE
INDIA
CELL PH NO: 0091 9866277183
http://samuelkota.tripod.com/pics

Wide Way or Narrow Way?

Here is a quick 6 minute video....pretty good stuff....

Daily Prayer 10/22/07

1 John 2:7-11 Beloved, I am not writing a new commandment to you, but an old commandment which you have had from the beginning; the old commandment is the word which you have heard. On the other hand, I am writing a new commandment to you, which is true in Him and in you, because the darkness is passing away and the true Light is already shining. The one who says he is in the Light and {yet} hates his brother is in the darkness until now. The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness, and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

Father- Thank You for immediately hearing our prayers. You do not always answer them right away but You do answer them surely, according to Your will. In these verses we again see the pattern of life. Holy Spirit work on our hearts and open our eyes to the truth about ourselves. This is between what is in the depths of our heart and You. Is the pattern of our life growing in Christ with sin decreasing or do we continue in sin even though Your name is on our lips? A tough question. We must examine our hearts before You Lord. If we say we belong to You, yet we continue sinning....we do not belong to You. We are not following Christ. Father You know how I called myself a Christian while I followed whatever made me happy. I sinned not even seeing my sin. I lived for my happiness and gave little thought to how You viewed my life. Let us examine ourselves in the light of Your Holy Perfection. What John is describing here is a hypocrite. They say one thing and do another. In public and at church and around certain people they say the right things and act the right way but at home behind closed doors they sin openly, freely and willingly. It's You we should fear not the eyes of man. Your eyes see all things and all things are recorded for the day of judgment. How often in my mind or in private have I sinned without worry knowing no one knows my thoughts or my actions or my angers or complaints? Father that only shows me I fear man more than You which is SO backwards! I am so foolish to think I can sin these sins in front of Your face! How could I think or do such things before a good person, yet I will sin freely before the eyes of my Lord. Forgive me Father! I am a foolish man who sins like a child without understanding. So what is our answer? Only the Holy Spirit given when we have placed our faith in Christ for the forgiveness of these sins can convict us and change us. Holy Spirit we do not want to be foolish and sin before the eyes of the Father and bring shame to the Great Savior who died for our sins! Please purify our hearts from these sins. Help us to overcome them. We sin willingly and we choose to sin. Such rebellion against God and we prove each day a heart that is sick with sin....yet we think we are good enough to go to heaven or that God is lucky to have us! What a joke, we need to be humbled by You and reminded that we are nothing and deserve nothing, yet You have given us all things through Christ! How can this be? You are a Great God, our Great King who has died for us and will bring us to You into the home You have prepared for us who sin against You every day.....again we look at the pattern of our lives. Are we hypocrites Lord or by Your power are You giving us growth and victory over sin as You make us more like Christ each day.

Like a tree planted by streams of living water (Pslam 1) we are either growing or dying. Spirit show us which we are.

I pray for Thad's heart growth and the aorta that it is healed. May the next appointment increase Your glory as we praise You for Your work.

For Meeja in Hawaii, heal the pain in her hand or give her good doctors that can take care of the pain. I also pray Lord that You would bring her a full time job. I know they can be hard to find, but I also know that You have control over all circumstances of life. May You bring a good full time job soon.

Our life is Yours to do with as You please. In Christ's Name we pray, amen.

Good Books to Read

I am very excited to have Dr. Renald Showers coming back to our church in 2 weeks! His book What On Earth Is God Doing? is such a great macro view of God's plan of redemption. I don't own the book but he preached and taught the contents of this book for three days with us. (Are book titles italicized, underlined, bold, or in quotes? English class was not my strength) Anyway, our little church has been SO lucky to have great authors come to speak. Dr Whitcomb famous author of the Genesis Flood (neighbor of General Patton growing up and went to college while Einstein was a professor there) came to our church and preached for 3 days. I had the pleasure of spending a day with him. A very cool man of God. Plus some men who have gone on to be with the Lord have written so many good books. The best books are really just teaching the word of God. My time is precious enough that I really don't have time to read many books. I feel I need to be reading and getting to know the scriptures firsts. I make books secondary but they are important and I know I need to read more than I do.

Must read books include A.W. Tozer's "Knowledge of the Holy" Arthur Pinks "Practical Christianity" I think "Hard to Believe" By John MacArthur along with the Gospel According to Jesus by MacArthur are must reads. I want to read Packard's Knowing God. These books are profitable but they are the work of man and do not measure up to the authority and perfection of the Scriptures, so remember when reading always let the Bible be the final word.


It's hard to know what books and authors you can trust. Be careful there is a lot of bad stuff out there. Trust books from other authors like John Piper, Steve Lawson and other Bible expositors. Expositors means they simply teach the text verse by verse. The goal is to simply unpack and teach all that the verse(s) hold.

Get in your Bible and also some other good books and rediscover the lost are of reading.

First, A Little About Me

I'll try to keep it short... I was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma and moved to Kansas when I was only a few months old. Grew up in Western Kansas in Tribune from age 2 until 18 when I moved to Hutchinson, KS for college in 1992 and I have been here since then. I have a wonderful wife from Hutchinson and three children, two boys and a girl.

I grew up the oldest of 5 children. My brother and I are the book-ends with three sisters in the middle.

We were a Catholic family and mom was really good about getting us to church often when we were growing up. She was my Sunday school teacher every year but one (I wonder if she remembers that). I was an altar boy and served mass before school when we had it available. It was a very small town and we shared a priest with another small town nearby so daily mass was not always available. I was an altar boy on Sundays (as my name came up in the rotation). I was baptized as an infant, confirmed when I was 16....I had gone through all the regular stuff.

I always used to remember that stuff really well, but it's quickly fading I have noticed. A lot of things I used to remember well is really fading fast. Just a few weeks ago I was thinking about church camp at the lake near Scott City. Pretty much every summer we would go there for a week and it was such a fun time. I remember how much I loved to learn about God and how much I enjoyed the teaching. I was thinking of one teacher in particular. Gina White was one of our favorites and also Debbie Schartz. How the heck I remember their names, I have no idea. I remember making clay hearts and learning about the love of the Father. I remember climbing up this wonderful cliff overlooking the lake and having mass. Many of us had our first communion's there. Valuable memories as I now send my son to camp to learn the Savior personally.

My wife and I were not married when our oldest Son was born. One month before he turned two we were married in the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Hutchinson (with difficulty I might add due to our living arrangement). I really loved the church....

Our son began school at the Catholic school at Holy Cross. It was difficult to send him to preschool there, since I made so little then. It was important to us though to teach him about God. By time he was ready to enter kindergarten we had left the Catholic church.

I used to think I was a good Catholic when I was Catholic, I now know I was not a very good Catholic. I often wish the Catholic church taught their catechism to their parishoners better. I was mostly an untaught Catholic I think. I didn't study the catechism like I should until I was in the process of leaving the church. Ok, so that's the number one question I always get from friends...."Why did you leave?" Oh, man I hate bringing this all up again and I honestly don't want to talk about it anymore. Short version is this: I decided to read the Bible. I thought it is probably a requirement of some kind with God to know what His Word says. So in reading it I found many things that conflicted with what I believed as a Catholic. So that threw me into the catechism and the canons and that only made it that much clearer that the Bible and Catholicism are not friends. I don't know how else to say it. I never even knew really what a protestant was and as I studied church history I learned of Martin Luther. This gifted monk who read the book of Romans to be forever changed by the grace of God. It was the same book that changed my life forever. I quickly fell in love for Luther because of his love for God's Word and his love for the Catholic church. He never intended to split off, but to only correct the error that had crept into the church of Rome. But when faced with a decision, recant and honor the erroneous teachings of popes and bishops or cling to the Word of God, what other choice was there? Luther Died of Feb. 18th, that is my birthday so I also enjoy that connection. He nailed the 95 thesis to the castle door of Whittenburg, Germany on October 31st.... I am not crazy about Halloween so I cling to that event on this date. It also reminds me of Hebrews 10:31 "It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God." (There's some Halloween terror for you.)

In the words of Forrest Gump "That's all I have to say about that." Anyway I am no longer Catholic but rather a Christian. I am a Christ-follower. I love to read and study God's Word and apply it to my life. I desire to live a life that is pleasing to God by faith in Christ's death alone for my sins.

I am now struggling with this thought. OK, how honest am I going to be in this blog? The point of it was to let you into my internal thought processes and openly live the Christian life along with the struggles and troubles that come with it. I truly care about family that may read this and I have promised to consider their feelings regarding the subject, so I don't want to go backwards. At the same time I want to be honest about how I feel about the Roman Church. Maybe some other time. Right now let me just say I love Catholics just as the scripture instructs us to love one another. It's error that leads people astray I get angry about. Ok enough on that.

So this new fire was planted in my heart. If a person believes friends and family and enemies and strangers are going to hell, how can I stand by and ignore it? Have you ever driven past a car accident and not stop to see if everyone is ok? I have, once. It has bothered me for all these years. (It seemed to be a minor thing, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't an injury accident.) If you saw a house burning would you stop and go check if anyone was home? I have. I didn't know that person, I didn't care about the mean dog in the back yard (I still stayed away from him though). I thought, what if someone is asleep in there! (Sure enough this guy was sleeping) A cigarette had caught the wooden front porch on fire. Thank God the home was saved by some quick pitchers of water from the kitchen!

My point is this. If I believe people are going to hell to the lake of fire that burns for eternity, how can I let this happen! What kind of person would know the truth of the death of Christ for the sins of the World, yet not tell them, rather let them fall into the pit of hell unwarned. It's true most don't really care what I tell them, but I have warned them. If they fall into the pit, it's because they chose to reject the One who is willing to save them. I also know one day I will stand before the Lord. "Yes, Lord I knew they were perishing, but I didn't want to be embarrassed". Or, "Of course Lord, You know I loved my family member.....but I did not want to offend them." Well if they are in hell, and I knew the grace of God that could freely save them and Christ was willing to die for them and God was ready to accept this payment for them, but a preacher would not bring the Gospel to them, I am a sorry and cowardly person. I want to live my life in service to the Lord and He was willing to die for me because He loved me, will I not be willing to do the same?

Well anyway, I'll probably just pop in and share whatever is on my mind.... Let us live for His glory striving to be the Galatians 2:20 person.

Welcome to Letters In Grace

The Letters in Grace Website can be found HERE

This blog will be "Beyond the Letters In Grace" I hope to share my more personal thoughts as I just reflect my own personal study and evangelism efforts here.