Month: August 2018

(It has been a busy week  so here is another blast from the past that I believe that you will find still to be a timely word.)

 

 

Get Together#55                   That We All May Be One

 

 

Joh 17:20 -21 “I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.

 

 

The Lord has really been stressing something to me that I have always believed ever since I have walked with Jesus Christ. That is the power that is in unity.  It is the Lord’s desire that His people not be divided.   In the passages at the top of the page we see where Jesus looked across history the night before He would go to the cross and die for our sins. He prayed for all of us. Being fully God He knew in advance what awful sins we would commit.      He made the ultimate sacrifice. And what was His prayer for us the night before H e went to the cross? It was that we would be one. 

 Sometimes we feel that we are really only connected to those brothers and sisters who are in our particular denomination, or non-denomination. But the truth is if we have put our faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ we are brothers and sisters of all other Christians who have been born again by faith in His blood.

Jesus prayed that we would all be one. This does not mean that we will always pull for the same football team. It does not mean that we will always vote for the same people for political office. It does not mean that we will always like the same kind of Praise and Worship music.   But He did pray that we would love each other with such love that we would consider one another better than ourselves.

The Apostle Paul mentions unity in Ephesians 4:3 endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.   In the Book of James we also get good advice on how to have unity in the Body o f Christ. James tells us how to avoid division and how to experience unity “Jas 3:6 For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there.17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.

 

            Here are some practical ways that the Lord will use to help you and I promote unity in the Body of Christ.

• First of all ask the Lord to remove any pride that you may have about what God has done in your particular congregation or denomination.  Ask Him to replace pride with humility and gratitude.

• Replace criticism with prayer over any difference that you may have with other brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ.

• Make praying for other congregations and Christian leaders a part of your prayer discipline.

• Study how God has worked through other parts of the Body of Christ throughout history. 

• Ask the Holy Spirit to convict you when you begin to say things about other Christians that would grieve our Lord’s heart (by the way He hears us when we do it).

•   Workplace, workplace, workplace (this is where the Body of Christ is really coming together) along with the athletic field, and campuses.

• Pray Lord Jesus please don’t let me work against Your prayer in John 17.

 

Let Us Pray

 

Lord Jesus today I know that You prayed that we would be one. Lord I know that in many ways we are different. But Lord we praise You that You can take our differences and weave us together around Your cross. Today Lord help us to be one as You and the Father are one.

                                                            IN JESUS NAME

                                                                        Amen

 

I love you all.  God is getting ready to do big things. I am glad that I am on His team. He is a good God. I pray that He continually will be with you all.

                                                Your Friend/Kinfolk

                                                            Preston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GET TOGETHER- I Know It Was the Blood

Ro 5:7-9 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him.

One of my favorite things to do in ministry is going to the Hamilton A@I Correctional Facility. I love worshipping with the men out there and the Praise Team. It is always a great blessing. They sing all different kinds of worship music. It is a lot like Heaven as all the men join in worship no matter what type of Christian music that a particular song may come from.

One of my favorites that they sing is “I Know It Was the Blood.” Verse one goes like this:

Verse 1

I know it was the blood,

I know it was the blood,

I know it was the blood for me.

One day when I was lost

He died upon that cross,

I know it was the blood for me

I am sure that all of us as Christians have at times been reminded of our sinful pasts. That is one of the main tools of the demonic forces that come against us. If they can convince us that our pasts have not been forgiven then not only do they rob us of our peace, but they hinder us from sharing the good news that Jesus Christ came to save sinners with others.

I love the above passage. First, we see that Jesus Christ the Incarnate Son of God loved us enough when we were living in sin and rebellion to die for us. We also see the love of the Father. I love you all of you and love people. On the other hand, I would not offer either of our children as a sacrifice for the forgiveness of your sins. Much less the sins of the most hardened people that have ever walked the face of the earth.

Of course, we know that only the Holy Blood of Jesus Christ is sufficient for the forgiveness of sins: “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrew 9:12-14)

I can remember when I was going to church for four or five years that I didn’t think that my sins could be forgiven. I thought that they were too bad and too many. When someone told me about the Blood and that one drop of the Blood of Jesus could take away all of my sins and that my past could be forgiven that day I knew that I was saved, and I surrendered my life to Him.

Think about how much God loves us. That when we were committing things that were so reprehensible He loved us anyway. Jesus was willing to go to the cross and take upon Him every awful sin that humanity would commit in order that we would repent of our sins and be saved by faith in His precious blood. 2Co 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (NKJV)

Today can you like me and my good friends who worship at Hamilton A@I sing I know it was the blood? If you can give Him thanks and praise that Him. He loved you enough to go to the cross and die for your sins. If you can’t He wants you to know that no matter what you have done in the past if you will repent meaning turn away from your sin and put your faith in His shed blood and His shed blood alone He is willing to forgive you of your sins and give you eternal life. Then you can have assurance and you can sing this as well. Look at the last verse of the song.

Verse 6

He rose up from the dead,

He rose up from the dead,

He rose up from the dead for me.

One day when I was lost

He died upon that cross,

He rose up from the dead for me.

Verse 7

He’s coming back again,

He’s coming back again,

He’s coming back again for me.

Let Us Pray

Lord Jesus we thank you for the precious Holy Blood that You shed for us on the cross. We thank You for the mercy that You grant to those who put their faith in You. Today Lord help us to share this good news with those who have never experienced the forgiveness of their sins.

In Jesus Name

Amen

God bless all of you. Thanks so much for your love and friendship.

Your Friend/kinfolk

Preston

GET TOGETHER- Loving People Who Oppose Your Message

Ac 7:59,60 And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep. Ac 26:27,28 “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.”
Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.”

We live in a culture that is often openly hostile to the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It offends our current culture to publicly proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. It offends our current culture to proclaim that marriage is between one man and one woman. It offends our current culture to proclaim that life begins at conception. And yet as Christians we are called and commanded to love those who oppose us.
One of the areas that I have really been praying about lately is how to love people without compromising truth. That can be very challenging. I do love people. I am thankful for people. I love people of different colors. I love people of different nationalities. I love people who are currently living in sinful lifestyles and in rebellion against God. I am thankful that people loved me when I was living a sinful lifestyle. I am also thankful that God loved me to much to leave me in a sinful lifestyle.
A temptation when you love people like I do is to fall into the danger of relativism where one thinks well this might be right for you, but it is not right for me. The best place to look on how to love people and to still be faithful is in the word of God.
Stephen had preached the truth. The Pharisees and the religious leaders could not handle it. Stephen had preached the truth out of love for Jesus Christ and out of love for his people. And yet they had him stoned to death. But did he respond with viciousness and a desire to seek revenge upon those who condemned him? No, he responded out of love with a forgiving heart. He did not fall for the scheme of the enemy to destroy his testimony by responding the way that the world would respond. His battle just like ours is not against flesh and blood, but as the word tells us in Eph 6:12 “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Recently there have been several occasions where the enemy has tried to sucker me in to fight battles in the flesh rather than in the spirit. We need to pray for God to give us a love for those who hate us and hate the message that we teach and preach. Jesus said it like this “Mt 5:44 “But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.”

Another example is the Apostle Paul. He had just poured his heart out to King Agrippa. Agrippa had been made superintendent of the temple in Jerusalem by the Romans. He had the authority to dismiss charges against Paul. Paul loves him enough to share his testimony and to offer Christ to him. Yet, Agrippa refuses God’s offer of mercy and grace. But what a good example of loving one who hates your message that we see in the Apostle Paul right here. He pours his heart out before a King who lived a very immoral and extravagant lifestyle. He does this out of love for Christ and because he knows that as one that had been forgiven much that God was willing to forgive Agrippa if he had asked him to. Rather than receiving Christ after Paul had finished his response was this “Ac 26:28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You almost persuade me to become a Christian.” I wonder how many times that he has regretted making that statement over the past two thousand years.

My prayer for myself and all of us who are followers of Jesus Christ and hold to a Biblical worldview is that He will help us to love those that persecute us. This morning as I was praying in the church sanctuary I was calling out names of people who openly oppose the Gospel of Jesus Christ to experience his love and to be turned from darkness to light from the power of Satan to God. I also prayed that the Lord would help me to love those who oppose the Gospel and that my desire to see them saved would not be to prove that we are right, but for them to know what true love and forgiveness is through a born-again relationship with Jesus Christ.

LET US PRAY

Lord when you walked this earth there were people who hated your message. Some were religious, some were the Romans who were occupying Your land and others like the man on the cross who rejected the mercy that You were offering. Help us to love those who oppose us. Help us to pray for them and have a desire to see them come into the Kingdom. You love to turn Your enemies into friends. Thank You that You did that in my life. Please do it in the lives of others.
In Jesus Name
Amen

The trip to Guatemala to serve with Eyes Wide Open Ministries went great. Daniel and Brandi McIntyre and the interns that serve under them are as faithful as any people that I have ever served with. One of our members here Tinsley Gregg went with me. While there we had the opportunity to minister and preach in two churches. We had a Conference for Pastors at the awesome facility that God has provided for Eyes Wide Open Ministry. There were 34 Pastors that came. More than that the Holy Spirit came in a very special way. Thank you for praying for us. We love you all!
Your Friend/kinfolk
Preston

GET TOGETHER – Keep On Going Breakthrough Is Coming

Ps 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. (NKJV) Ro 12:12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer;

Several people in our congregation have been going through some challenging times. One family is the family of Ben and Sherry Harbor. They are very faithful people here at Christ Community Fellowship. Ben leads a men’s breakfast and teaches a Sunday school class. He and Sherry both have a strong gift of intercession and minister in the altars here during our services.
They have been under a strong spiritual attack and have had some very challenging things happen to them recently.
Sherry has had some ongoing issues with her neck and back. Ben is in the construction business and last week for the first time in his career in the housebuilding business he had a wall to fall that they were building. Prior to this the apartment that his Mother lives in flooded. Ben and Sherry own these apartments and later in the week they found out that they had termites in the apartment because of the flooding.
The next thing that happened was their granddaughter Susie had to have a tube put in her stomach to get nourishment for her little body. While they were at the hospital their daughter Jennifer, Susie’s mother got sick and had to go to the emergency room. This family got very little sleep or rest last week.
A lot of people that had been through the week they had been through would have stayed home from our service last week. But guess what? They didn’t let the enemy, or the situation make them stay home. They were there worshipping, testifying and praising the Lord this past Sunday morning.
Early that morning the Holy Spirit had told me to ask people who felt like they had been going through Hell this past week to come to the altar. Not only did they come, but several others did. Others gathered around these and prayed for them. It was a glorious time!
The best was still yet to come. Ben and Sherry’s granddaughter Savannah came to church with them this past Sunday morning. She had asked if she could sing a song. We told her she could. When she got up to sing the anointing of the Holy Spirit was all over her. Again it was a glorious time! Heaven and earth truly met while Savannah was singing!
I praise God for saints like Ben and Sherry If they had stayed home it would certainly have been understandable. But they are people of faith. They like all of us when we go through a challenging time don’t know when the break through is coming. But we do know that God is true to His word and we are promised that we will be delivered out of all of our afflictions.
Paul tells us in Ro 12:12 “rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer.” The Greek term for rejoicing means to enjoy a state of happiness during a time of trial. The Greek term for hope means to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial. Without breaking down the other terms I think that you get the picture. When Hell and life are throwing the junk at us we can look forward with confidence that God is going to not only bring us through it, but do something great in us during the process. One key thing to remember is to continue steadfast in prayer.
Listen I know that Hell is a real place that is prepared for the devil and his angels. And I know that here on earth we are not literally in Hell like those that are not saved will be one day. On the other hand, there can be times that it feels like we have been through Hell, or going through Hell with some of the circumstances that we encounter. If that is you, or someone you know I want to pray for you right now.

Lord Jesus first we are thankful that as Your redeemed children of God that we have been saved from burning in Hell for eternity. On the other hand Lord we know that the forces of Hell want to rob us of the joy that we experience in our relationship with You and with others. Right now, Lord we come and declare over every person that is reading this that no weapon formed against them will prosper. We declare that when the enemy comes in one direction that he must flee in seven.
We declare that what he means for bad that God will work for good, knowing that all things work for good for those who love You and are called according to Your purpose.
In Jesus Name
Amen

May God bless you all in a great and mighty way!
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston