It’s Christmas Time

I wrote this letter to my Bible Study group and I wanted to share it with you guys in the Internets. - Ed.

I truly hope that this week is a week that is good for you all. Spend time with family, eat good food, drink good drink, celebrate and give your time, energy and money away to those we love and should love.

I know you are going to be constantly reminded by every single pastor but just remember what we are celebrating.

We are not celebrating that some mere heroic, kick butt, awesome, epic warrior that would rile up a bunch of soldiers and go overthrow the oppressive reign of whomever ruled the little world some 2000 years ago. This is a Divine Being, whom existed before time began and all things were made through Him. He decided, in that moment, that now was the time to begin the true kingdom. The one kingdom that transcended boundaries, walls, rulers, kings, political offices, wars, treaties and weapons. The only kingdom that was ruled by a King, that would rule forever and thus, this kingdom would last forever!

That King is the same as our Lord and is the same as our Saviour and He was to be called Emmanuel, which  declared “God is with us” and the man, God in the flesh– was named Jesus Christ. In order for his kingdom to begin, He had to overthrow Death and Hell so that we might live. In order to do that, He had to die, descend into hell, take the power away from Death and Satan and ascend back to the Father.

For this to happen, He must first be born like a human. He started the entire process of making everything right standing with Himself by being just a little bitty baby, born to a virgin teenage girl for a mom and a holy man of God for a stepdad. He then, had to live like a human. Learning how to walk, talk, eat, toilet train, speak, write, read just like any other child that grows into an adult.

We celebrate Christmas because God made good on His promises. We celebrate because the kingdom of God is now and we are so blessed to live in it.

Blessed be the name of the Lord.

How Should We Then Work by Jonathan Dobson

I have always preached that we should all do an excellent job in order to honor our employers, the very leaders that God has placed in charged over us, in order to show Him all the glory and be a witness to how good Jesus Christ really is.

I know that many people (including myself) have been called into full time ministry.  At the moment, however, God is still preparing, enabling and teaching us.  Many of us are not in seminaries and bible college but working as salt in the earth (Matthew 5:13) in different jobs.

I know that some of us have a really tough time keeping our “eyes on the prize” (so to speak) and our work in some way is suffering.

If you are transitioning from secular to full time ministry, my plead to you is to finish strong!

I know Paul mentions the following verses as far as finishing in ministry.  I think it does apply to our situation:

2 Timothy 4:5 (ESV) As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Keep a clear mind. (1 Peter 1:13)

Endure suffering. (Hebrews 10:36)

Do the work of an evangelist. (Mark 16:15)

Fulfill the ministry that God has given you at this very moment.

Then you can say:

2 Timothy 4:6-7 (ESV) For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

How Should We Then Work by Jonathan Dobson © 2008 TheResurgence.com

Hells Bells by AC/DC

If you are at all familiar with my blog, then the title should not throw you for a loop.  Because of the vastness of my music collection, I will occasionally be inspired to use a song title as a fast and easy way to headline my posts.  Unfortunately, I cannot take credit for this blog title (even though I am familiar with song) because I was encouraged, inspired and otherwise fired up (pun intended) when I found out some of the details of a sermon from Perry Noble (Pastor, NewSpring Church in Anderson, SC) last year.

He goes a bit old school and talks about hell and nothing but hell in this particular sermon in his series, “Illuminate”.  Beyond the calling by God on Perry to see 1,000 people saved in his church, I stood and cheered when I heard he was doing a sermon on hell.  Somehow, in the last twenty years, I missed how preaching on hell became passé because such sermons don’t feel quite so good.

I don’t know how that trend got started (I will speak on filling pews later on) but this leads me to share my how I became saved on a cool December 1982 morning in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in a Baptist Church that would bus in kids from around the city.

The Children’s Pastor’s message that morning was simply: hell and how Jesus Christ came to the earth, died on the cross and rose again so that you wouldn’t go to hell:

John 3:16 (KJV)  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Up till that moment, I am pretty sure that I have never made any life changing decisions.   I’d had a lot of decisions made for me such as my mother saying goodbye to me for the last time when I was 5 years old or the fact I had to go live with my father who would abuse me and my brother for the next seven of the longest years of my life.

But the day I was saved, I will never forget.

So a choice had to be made: Did I want to go to hell (Romans 6:23)?  The answer is obviously no.  Was I a sinner?  I understood that I had done bad things in my life but absolutely no human was born perfect (except Jesus Christ) (Romans 3:23).  If I confess to be a sinner, the Lord will forgive me of my wrongdoings and remove all that is wicked and evil from within me (1 John 1:9).  If I believe that Jesus is my Savior and Lord and he was raised from the dead after being crucified (Romans 10:9), then I will be saved.

The rest, as they say, is history.

So what say you, faithful readers?  Share your testimony of salvation.

The Persecuted Church

Have you ever felt you wanted to make a difference in this life? Do you have something that keeps nagging at you, telling you to take a step? Check out stories of these people who decided to take a step out for Christ. These people are real “Jesus Freaks.”   www.persecution.com

There are so many aspects of Voice of the Martyrs that I love. It’s on my Top-10 list of favorite ministries. They are voices for the unheard, the forgotten, and the persecuted. In their own words, they are:

“A non-profit, interdenominational organization with a vision for aiding Christians around the world who are being persecuted for their faith in Christ.” -pulled from Voice of the Martyrs

Please pray for the individuals in different countries being persecuted. Pray for their countries–that God will change the hearts of those nations. Pray for more opportunities for the gospel spread throughout the world. Pray that a Holy Spirit fire will ignite throughout the nations.

Blessings

Time for a Change

Can I just be honest? I’m frustrated with people who call themselves Christians with their words, but then their actions say something else. It’s so easy to “play church,” but then continue doing whatever you want all the other times. I’m not saying I’ve never fallen, or given in to my flesh or that I’ve never done anything wrong. I’m not saying that at all!! I’ve fallen so many times and asked our gracious Lord for forgiveness, but there has to be change. There has to be a point in your life where you say “it’s not about me Lord, it’s only about you!”

It’s not like “Christian” is some magic word that makes you safe just because you say it. If you look at early Christians they weren’t even called Christians. They were Followers of Christ, they were Disciples of Christ. And it took serious commitment to follow Him—it’s wasn’t easy and it wasn’t cushy.

You know what? I almost don’t want to be called a Christian anymore—not in our world today where the term is thrown around just as easily (and sometimes just as negatively) as a cuss word.  I want to be a sold-out Jesus Freak; willing to do anything (in a loving manner) to get the gospel to people and to win souls for Christ.

When will we get it in our heads that it’s not about religion, it’s about a relationship with Jesus? God doesn’t care how much Scripture we know, how many times we go to church, if we can memorize the entire book of Psalms. Here’s the deal, if it doesn’t sink in to our hearts, if it doesn’t build a deeper relationship with Christ or bring us closer to HIM, then it doesn’t matter.

I’m not saying that we don’t need to learn the Word—cause we DO. What I’m saying is that we have to quit being so legalistic. We have to quit being concerned with mere words and appearances and get back to the heart—OUR hearts.

When are Christians gonna start acting like Christians EVEN when they’re not in their comfy churches, but out in the real world? It’s time to quit playing around and acting like that just in church. Where are all the Peter’s, Paul’s, and John’s at? These guys didn’t care what people thought of them. They preached the gospel like it was going out of style.

Let’s take a look at Paul in Acts chapter 14:1-20. To me, Paul is gangster in this chapter. That’s right, I said gangster. Paul is hardcore! Paul and Barnabas leave Iconium and head to Lystra and Derbe. There they see a crippled man and God uses them to heal him. But in the end, the people there drag Paul outside the city and stone him for preaching about Jesus (Acts 14:19)! But take a look at the next verse “as the believers gathered around him (Paul), he got up and went back into the city.”

Ok wait? He just got stoned, basically left for dead, his friends show up around him, probably prayed, and the he gets up and heads back? That’s a hardcore Christian who is sold out for Jesus—not caring what anyone thinks of him (or DOES to him). When does that happen anymore?

I’m sorry if you don’t like what I’m saying but I can’t help it. Now days Christians seem weak to me. We’re too afraid of what people will think, how they’ll react, or if they’ll close the door in our face. We as Christians can’t let that stop us. We have to fight for what believe in! We have to take a stand! If we don’t who will? I believe God is going to raise up a “new breed” of Christian. He wants an unconventional type of Christian.

I want to leave you with one last thing: How do we as a people, created by God, ignore Him? Our God, who created the earth in seven days, set boundaries for the sea, made mountains rise, set the stars in place by His word, and made a galaxy more vast then we know–how do we ignore Him? My God who did this comes to us and says “GO” and we say “No, I don’t want too.” When is it going to stop?

~Michael

Impacting the World

I have something on my heart: To promote ministries all over the world. From here in the U.S. to across the ocean in Asia, I want to support ministries and ministers who are glorifying the Lord and making a positive difference.

We’ll keep a list of ministries here, and updated it as much as possible. The purpose is to get the word out on what others are doing in our world to help people and advance the Kingdom. It doesn’t matter where you’re at, where you’re from, or what you’re doing (whether you think it’s big or small). We want to know about it! We want to be an avenue that helps missionaries and outreach organizations continue to thrive in their passions.

If you know anyone who’s stepping out of the ordinary to make an impact in the world, please drop us a line and let us know! (Email any of us!)

We love you guys and only want to bring glory to the Kingdom of our Lord.