Month: February 2017

GET TOGETHER- Don’t Let the Giants Keep You From the Grapes!

Posted on by Christ Community Fellowsip in Get Together

GET TOGETHER- Don’t Let the Giants Keep You From the Grapes!

Nu 13:22,23 And they went up through the South and came to Hebron; Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the descendants of Anak, were there. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.) Then they came to the Valley of Eshcol, and there cut down a branch with one cluster of grapes; they carried it between two of them on a pole. They also brought some of the pomegranates and figs.
Giants can be very intimidating. And by the way intimidation is one of their main tactics. Giants for us in the Kingdom can be problems, issues, natural barriers and barriers erected by humans. To be honest there is not enough space in this Get Together to list all the ways that giants will try to come and discourage us.
The men who would be going to spy out the land of Canaan had seen God do some miraculous things. They had seen God divide the Red Sea right before their eyes. They had been there when He had brought an enslaved people out of bondage to their Egyptian Slave masters. Now they are getting close to the land that had been promised to them. This perhaps should have been a slam dunk. But look what happens.
When the spies return from their mission ten of them give the following report. They testify that yes, it is a land flowing with milk and honey just as we have been told. But then they begin to talk about how big the giants are in the land. Think about this. These guys were leaders. Leaders have to choose to either go for the grapes, or to cower at the giants And yet there were two that did not focus on the giants, but focused on the grapes. Their names were Joshua and Caleb. They would be the only two that were allowed to go into the land. For the others looking in the natural, unbelief, and fear kept them from obtaining their inheritance.
I remember when J.J. and I were getting ready to leave our family business to go into full time Pastoral Ministry. After we visited the church one day where we would be serving I began to get into some fear and doubt on the way home. I must have been studying Numbers about that time. That night I had a dream, or vision and I heard the Holy Spirit say don’t look at the giants, look at the grapes.” Back then we always went out to my Mother’s house to eat breakfast, before we started work. When I opened my Mother’s refrigerator door guess what I saw? You guessed it. It was a huge cluster of beautiful green grapes. I’m so glad that we didn’t let the giants rob us of nine wonderful years with that congregation. Also, we wouldn’t be where we are now, or have gotten to go to some the places that the Lord has sent us if we had succumbed to the discouragement and intimidation of the giants.
God is always calling us to a deeper level of trust where there will be greater rewards for us when we move into those areas that He is calling us to move into. On the other hand those demonic forces will try to intimidate us, discourage us, and try to get our focus off the promises of God and on to the size of the giants. Today as believers we have a choice. We can eat the grapes and see our dreams and visions come to life, or we can fear the giants and die in the wilderness. I say let’s eat the Grapes! How about you?
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus we want to be a grape picking, honey eating, milk drinking people of destiny. Help us through the Holy Spirit not to be discouraged or intimidated by the giants, but as Joshua and Caleb empower us to move forward and to possess the land that You have given us.
In Jesus Name
Amen
Love you all!
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

GET TOGETHER- MAKE IT TASTE GOOD

Posted on by Christ Community Fellowsip in Uncategorized

GET TOGETHER- MAKE IT TASTE GOODCol 4:6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. (NKJV)
            A few weeks ago J.J. surprised me. We were eating something and she said that I needed to put some salt on it. She normally cooks with salt in the food. We don’t normally, put salt on our food, but that day we did. When we put it on there it gave it a good taste. I like salty foods like fish and ham. They have a good taste to them. 

            Sometimes our conversations may be seasoned more with bitter weed than they are with a good seasoning. The scriptures have much to say about what comes out of our mouths. We are told in the Scriptures that in our tongues there is either life or death: Pr 18:21 “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.” (NKJV)  

            We need to model our conversations after Jesus. He had this to say about the words that He spoke “Joh 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” When we find ourselves disagreeing with someone politically, or in any other way we can either voice our opinion in a way that brings glory to God, or we can succumb to the temptation of the devil and respond in a way that dishonors the Name of Jesus Christ. We must remember that we are not called to shout people down, call them names, or belittle them. We are called to be salt and light. People who disagree with us should see that there is something different about the way that we talk. 

              When we say things about others, or to others we want to be sure that these words are not wounding words, or damaging words. I know that I am going to Heaven by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ. On the other hand when I come to the Lord I don’t want to have a lot of idle words to give account to Him for when I get there : Mt 12:36 “But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.(NKJV)

            Sometimes we really cheer people on who use idle words. We like to say things like “he tells you what he thinks, or she tells it like it is.” When many times it may not be exactly like it is, or what he is thinking may not be right. 

            When the Holy Spirit points out to me that my conversation is not seasoned with salt here are a few things that I do. First, I repent and asked the Lord’s forgiveness. Then I like to pray this passage for myself: Eph 4:29 “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for necessary edification, that it may impart grace to the hearers.”
            
            The Greek term for corrupt in that last passage is sapros, sap-ros’. It means worthless, harmful, and it also means rotten! That leads me back to something J.J. and I watched on T.V. the other night. It was a show about all the top steak houses in the United States. Almost all of them seasoned those steaks with salt no matter what other, or if any other seasoning that they used. Those steaks sure did look good when they were cooking them. I wanted to go cook one right then. On the other hand, have you ever seen road kill on the side of the road, or smelled It as you passed by? There is a big difference in something being rotten and something being seasoned good. In this culture that we live in we all need the Holy Spirit’s help to speak the truth in love. We want to speak in such a way that our conversation is seasoned with salt. When we do, rather than attempting to beat them in an argument, we might just be used to win some people to Christ!
Let Us Pray

Lord Jesus we live in a tumultuous time. There are so many ways that we can be tempted to engage in talk that is not seasoned with salt. Please help us today to not let road kill come out of our mouths, but be a people that a wonderful spiritual flavor emanates from when we open our mouths. Let our conversation and communication be seasoned with salt.

In Jesus Name

Amen
  Thanks to all of you who read this and encourage us!

Your Friend/Kinfolk 

Preston

GET TOGETHER- Are You As Merciful As God? Mt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy. (NKJV)

Posted on by Christ Community Fellowsip in Uncategorized

GET TOGETHER- Are You As Merciful As God?
Mt 5:7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
(NKJV)

Sometimes when we are real quiet we can hear the Holy Spirit speak plainly to us. Today I was in the lobby of the church and I heard the Holy Spirit ask me two questions. The first one that He asked was this “was I as merciful as God”. The second one was “what if God was as merciful as I am . Wow! That was a challenging one. It leads me to first really appreciate the mercy that God has shown me in a greater way. Then it also brought about an examination of my heart concerning how merciful I am to others.
The Greek term here for mercy is eleemon, el-eh-ay’-mone. That term means to show mercy. There is a good promise for those of us that do that. We will receive mercy. Today I was reading a devotional by John Maxwell. He talked about being a good leader. He said that good leaders take the high road and not the low road. I think that this really applies to all of us as Christians. Maxwell said that those who take the low road go for revenge and retaliation when wronged. He said that those that take the high road choose unconditional love and forgiveness.
He used the example of Job. Job endured long hard criticism by his friends who thought that they knew how to fix him and his dire situation. Rather than retaliate. Job chose mercy and prayed for his friends. Look what happened when Job took the high road: Job 42:10 ¶ And the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. (NKJV)
Think about it Job could have taken the low road and drank the poison of bitterness for the rest of his life. But he chose mercy. I love the following passage from the Book of James: Jas 2:13 “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. “(NKJV) That is right in line with what Jesus was saying at the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew Chapter 5.
If we have lived life all of us have most likely suffered some hurt by another individual. And most of us have either intentionally or unintentionally hurt someone else. For those who have been hurt forgiving someone isn’t saying that what they did was right. But it is choosing to not drink the bitter cup of poisonous judgment. No matter how much we have been hurt none of us have felt the pain that God felt when we lived lives rejecting Him and refusing to come to the cross and accept the mercy that Jesus Christ was offering to us.
So today my friends on this Valentine’s Day first of all know that Jesus Christ loves you! Next thank Him for the mercy that you have received from Him. Then ask the Holy Spirit to help you to be the merciful follower of Christ that we are called to be. When we do I believe that just like Job’s losses were restored ours will be also.
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus we thank you for the mercy that you have demonstrated to us in sparing us from Hell. We thank You for the mercy that allows us to fellowship with you now and forever. Today help us to be a merciful people.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston