Stepping Out

People wish to learn to swim and at the same time to keep one foot on the ground.
Marcel Proust (1871-1922, French novelist)

Heb 11:6
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
NASU

Faith is required. This should be the statement emblazoned on every Christian at the moment of salvation. It is not a bad thing, it is an adventure. You must leave the dock, and you must launch out in faith to see the wonders of God as He works in your life. This is all required for your faith to grow and for you to see the uncommon things in the spiritual realm in which a Christian must learn to live, and walk.

I’m sure the astronauts would have liked to have had a long tether as they launched for the moon so many years ago, a backup in case they messed up. They sought to see and understand that which they had seen from afar as children, to get closer as to understand more. But this also required a letting go, a risk of leaving comfortable settings, to acquire that which they desired.

God wants us to launch out, you know what I mean. Remember that childhood curiosity that made us take risks and sometimes get into trouble. Well, God wants us to try the reigns of our faith and to launch out into His spaces so we can learn what He can do. It’s a new world, and it has new rules that we must learn to be able to safely navigate our way to heavens realm. So today, let go, and let God. Do some spiritual space walking…God Bless.

Pastor William

Eternity Is Now

Christ was born in the first century, yet he belongs to all centuries. He was born a Jew, yet He belongs to all races. He was born in Bethlehem, yet He belongs to all countries.
George W. Truett

Luke 1:30-33
The angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. "And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. "He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end." NASU

Are we aware, fully, of what we have become? I ask that question to Christians saved and adopted into the Family of God. I think that in our striving to attain things of this world we forget, or fail to inventory fully what we already possess. We are too busy I guess to take a sobering gaze into our future, for it would change inevitably our goals in this world.

Mary found favor with God, and with that special gift from God came a favoring of us all. You see in that moment, when the Holy Spirit conceived in Mary the Son of God, she began a process that we all would go through. From that time on Jesus would enter the lives of many, and be born in their hearts, and live on the thrones of their lives.

We walk every day now with a different purpose, or we should, for we are now a part of something that is so much bigger that we could imagine. We have a wonderful future in store for us, endless years of wonder and awe. Peace unimaginable, pleasures never envisioned, as part of a kingdom, “That Will Never End”… Merry Christmas, and God Bless.

Pastor William

Godly Curiosity

For here we are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead...
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826, American President (3rd))

Matt 7:7-8
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. NASU

It is a tragic fact in the world that we live that some do not seek the truth, they make their own. They do not bother to seek; as a matter of fact they will choose to reject the truth, to remain safely in what they believe. If you are one of those that have questions, you are one of the chosen ones, God called, to seek out the truth, even as the wise men did two thousand years ago.

The magi proclaimed we have seen “His” Star in the East, and we have come to worship Him. It means that they were looking, they desired something else and they were seeking for something greater. Herod, the king sent them on a mission to find Him, not to worship Him, but to destroy Him. To the extreme that he would kill many children, to ensure that He was safe in His own truth.

To some degree that still happens today. I am still amazed daily at the hatred that the world has for our belief in Christ. They tolerate other religions, yet they actively seek to kill the Church. Why? Because it is real, it is powerful, and it still changes and draws the hearts of men to seek the truth, there is no other name as powerful, as the Name of Jesus…God Bless.

Pastor William

An Attitude of Hurry

Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; While others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.
Herodotus (BC 484-425, Greek historian)

Luke 2:12-16
"This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger." And suddenly there appeared with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, And on earth peace among men with whom He is pleased." When the angels had gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds began saying to one another, "Let us go straight to Bethlehem then, and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us." So they came in a hurry and found their way to Mary and Joseph and the baby as He lay in the manger. NASU

I love the song silent night, for on that night no one could fully voice what God was doing for us. In Heb 2:16-17, we find these assuring words; “For assuredly He does not give help to angels, but He gives help to the descendant of Abraham. Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.”

So on this night some were told to go and see, and they obeyed. Their obedience allowed them to see on that night what any of us would give anything we have to see, The Savior, lying in a manger. God became man to come to our aid, to experience our pain, and save us from ourselves. Notice there was a special message given by the angels, to the shepherds, one that is frequently over looked.

The angels proclaimed Glory to God in the highest, and peace among men, “WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED.” Notice that the Shepherds “came in a hurry” and found the baby as He lay in the manger. There is a pressing need for that attitude in our world today, for Jesus is coming again. It would please Him to bring many to this manger. Our reward will be peace within, for it is His will that none should perish, but come to everlasting life in Him, let’s hurry…God Bless.

Pastor William

Returning what is Due

You can't buy loyalty, you can only invest in it.
Ronny M. Cole

Matt 21:33-39
"Listen to another parable. There was a landowner who PLANTED A VINEYARD AND PUT A WALL AROUND IT AND DUG A WINE PRESS IN IT, AND BUILT A TOWER, and rented it out to vine-growers and went on a journey. "When the harvest time approached, he sent his slaves to the vine-growers to receive his produce. "The vine-growers took his slaves and beat one, and killed another, and stoned a third. "Again he sent another group of slaves larger than the first; and they did the same thing to them. "But afterward he sent his son to them, saying, "They will respect my son.' "But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.' "They took him, and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. NASU

In the tiny vineyard of this world, which God planted and made us caretakers of, we will find all that we need to produce that which we are to produce for Him. We have all the tools that we need and all of the facilities that are necessary to return to Him what we owe. But, there is an important fact that cannot be refused, and it is to recognize Him as the owner of all that is within these walls.

We can see from this story that God sent his slaves first, to retrieve what was His, and they shamefully abused them. Notice that God was insistent on retrieving what was His, He is God. When the first group of slaves didn’t retrieve what was His, He sent another, and finally after they were abused, and killed, He sent His Son. They thought when they killed THE SON, that everything in the walls would be theirs.

In Heb 1:1-2, tells us this, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.” You see, God sent His Son to reclaim from our lives what was His. Maybe the biggest gift we could give this Christmas, is to give from our lives, what is due to the Owner of the vineyard…God Bless

Pastor William

Why Wait?

A wise person does at once, what a fool does at last. Both do the same thing; only at different times.
Lord Acton (1834-1902, British historian)

Deut 30:10-14
If you obey the LORD your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul. "For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. "It is not in heaven, that you should say, "Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, "Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?' "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it. NASU

Procrastination is the sin of this nation. It is the sin of the very young and the very old. It seems like all think they can wait one more day, one more week, or one more year to look into God’s commands for life. It is something that they will get too one day, when they have done all that “they” want to do.

Some say it’s just too hard that God is asking them to do the impossible. But, they have never asked God for the strength to follow, and walk in the blessings that come from being obedient. Obedience is important, following instructions is important. If you don’t believe me just ask anyone that has run a stop sign, or a red light. You take a chance on death, hurt or destruction.

Paul refers back to this verse in Romans 10:6, referring to the power that the heart has to believe “unto, Righteousness.” So within us God has bestowed the power to believe and be obedient to His Word, and there is no excuse to ignore His instruction. You don’t have to look around for some secret, the power is near. Some will listen today, some will listen tomorrow, and some will wait until it’s too late…God Bless.

Pastor William

Love makes all things possible, faith makes all things endure.

Pastor William,

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 (HCSB)

“Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is One. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Robert Collier, American writer and publisher, defined faith in this way, “Faith is the confidence, the assurance, the enforcing truth, the knowing...” God speaks to us of how important faith is in Deuteronomy. The first prerequisite for knowing God is to “Love” Him. The second is “repetition” which ensures that we will always have Him close to our hearts, for if we believe something works, we do it again.

Repetition binds us to the truth. How would God speak to us today of these things? He probably would say something like this; “Speak to your Children of your faith in Me, and let them hear and see your faith in Me every day. Let them hear you pray to Me before you go to sleep, and let them hear you thank Me in the morning.

He might say, put a note on the side of the bed to remind you that you must do these things “every” day. Maybe even put a note in the car to remind you of how much I love you, and if you do this, your love for me will never fade. Keep my Word in your hands, and keep me first on your mind, and I will hold you close. In other words, if you love Him, surround yourself with Him, and you will never drift away…God Bless.

Pastor William

Being Contented

We are not to make the ideas of contentment and aspiration quarrel, for God made them fast friends. A man may aspire, and yet be quite content until it is time to raise; and both flying and resting are but parts of one contentment. The very fruit of the gospel is aspiration. It is to the heart what spring is to the earth, making every root, and bud, and bough desire to be more.
Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887, American preacher, orator, writer)

Philippians 4:11-13 (HCSB)
I don’t say this out of need, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know both how to have a little, and I know how to have a lot. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being content whether well-fed or hungry, whether in abundance or in need. I am able to do all things through Him who strengthens me.

On our journey on this temporal terrestrial bubble, some find a spot on this tiny ball that floats in the majestic and unfathomable reaches of space, and are content to know no more, or see no more. They can surround themselves with walls and things that they are pleased with, and not question what lies beyond. It is a mystery to me, for on a starry night while gazing in the heavens, so many questions come to an open mind.

God really wants us to be content and secure, and for me, He is the only one that answers my questions, He makes me comfortable with the local things, and what lies over the horizon. If you and I stop on this journey and settle down, we will settle for less, and we will miss the majestic. We cannot live on this earth without ever looking up that is one border that we cannot secure, His Majesty will be seen.

Paul is really giving us the secret to life, it is His unquestionable faith in God. He can be secure on places he knows, but he can also launch out into the unknown. He can feel safe and be contented that, as he says in verse 19 of this same Chapter, “ God will supply all His needs, according to His riches in Glory,” and we can too…God Bless.

Pastor William

The Second Act

We live between two worlds; we soar in the atmosphere; we creep upon the soil; we have the aspirations of creators and the propensities of quadrupeds. There can be but one explanation of this fact. We are passing from the animal into a higher form, and the drama of this planet is in its second act.
Winwood W. Reade (1838-1875, American writer)

2 Cor 4:16-18
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. NASU

Winwood Reade, was an atheist and so called philosopher, who tried to understand the world in his own way. He came close, but he missed the boat, there will be no second act for him. If he had but tried Christ all of those feelings could have come together for him.

After listening to a lecture on evolution by a science professor, a student wrote a poem and titled it "The Amazing Professor." The poem read: Once I was a tadpole when I began to begin. Then I was a frog with my tail tucked in. Next I was a monkey on a coconut tree. Now I am a doctor with a Ph.D.

The philosophy of C. S. Lewis was that the reason that we don’t quite fit into this world is that we were designed for another. I tend to agree. I think when I want to understand who I am now, as a saved and loved Child of God, I will look above me and not around me, how about you…God Bless.
Pastor William

The Gift of Following

No organization is stronger than the quality of its leadership, or ever extends its constituency far beyond the degree to which its leadership is representative.
Edgar D. Powell

1 Sam 8:7-9
The LORD said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. "Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day -- in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods -- so they are doing to you also. "Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them." NASU

We can only go as far as we let the Lord take us. Leadership is important, but it is not the leadership that we see in front of our eyes. It is in fact, the invisible hand of God working within the Church, to bring it to its ordained destiny. The problem lies in the ability to follow.

Good leaders first become good followers, and Christ never allows leadership in His church that has not first learned the gift of following. I say gift because many gifts are received after we learn this wonderful talent. Sheep learn to follow the shepherd and receive the safety of safe pastures and dwell securely. But, the ones with the wild ideas close their ears and chase things that lead them from the flock.

There is no use to tie them, they will only wander away when the time is right, but the shepherd must be faithful to solemnly warn them of their error. They will be led by err or by right, but they are still being led. It is error to think that we have our own way within us? Listen to Paul in 2 Corinthians 1:9 “indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead;”…God Bless.

Pastor William

Charting The Way

Leaders are the ones who keep faith with the past, keep step with the present, and keep the promise to posterity.
Harold J. Seymour

Isa 6:9-11
He said, "Go, and tell this people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand.' "Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed." Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered, "Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, houses are without people and the land is utterly desolate, NASU

Eleanor Roosevelt, former First Lady, had this perspective on leadership, “Perhaps in His wisdom the Almighty is trying to show us that a leader may chart the way, may point out the road to lasting peace, but that many leaders and many people’s must do the building.” I agree whole heartedly, for no one does anything great, alone. It takes the strength and persistence of many who are focused on one goal.

In the Church that goal is for all to be created in the image of Jesus Christ. That is the mission and the goal of the church. This means that in today’s world we must find a way to fit the truth’s that have made us successful in the past, into today and beyond. It takes unified focus and dedication. Dull ears, dim eyes, and un-understanding hearts will not find the future of God’s Church in this dying world.

Perceiving God’s will for our lives is important, for if we don’t listen, we can end up just as the Israelites ended up in the past. We can avoid this devastation and utter desolation, if, and only if, we bond together on things central to the truth, and future salvation, of souls we will never see or know, until we get to heaven…God Bless.

Pastor William

Seeing Ourselves

Jesus tapped me on the shoulder and said, Bob, why are you resisting me? I said, I'm not resisting you! He said, You gonna follow me? I said, I've never thought about that before! He said, When you're not following me, you're resisting me.
Bob Dylan (1941-, American musician, singer, songwriter)

Num 32:11-13
"None of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and upward, shall see the land which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob; for they did not follow Me fully, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have followed the LORD fully.' "So the LORD'S anger burned against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until the entire generation of those who had done evil in the sight of the LORD was destroyed. NASU

Following requires faith, faith requires belief, and belief leads to footsteps of obedience to Christ. One of the things that are required is just as Bob Dylan put it, recognizing where you are resisting the influence of Christ in your life. Are you doing that? Don’t answer so quickly because the real answer requires prayer and a painful self-examination of where you are right now.

Self is integrated into our frames so well that it’s like trying to see a hidden picture on a page. People see Jesus on toast and rocks and windows, but we have a hard time finding out important facts about ourselves. Jesus requires of us to examine our ways, our personalities and extract from our frame those things that we hide that we don’t want to get rid of.

Jeremiah in Lamentations 3:40-41, tells us what to do; “Let us examine and probe our ways, And let us return to the LORD. We lift up our heart and hands Toward God in heaven;” That is to say that we are not to hide anything, we show him our hands, and we lift up our hearts to Him for total exposure. In this is faith, in this is belief, and it keeps our resisting flesh under control…God Bless.

Pastor William

Do You Now Believe?

Nothing real can be threatened. Nothing unreal exists. Herein lies the peace of God.

John 16:30-33
"Now we know that You know all things, and have no need for anyone to question You; by this we believe that You came from God." Jesus answered them, "Do you now believe? "Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home, and to leave Me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. "These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world." NASU

Do you now believe? It is a pertinent question for us today. Do you really, really believe, or do you just say that you do? Do you really believe in the authority and dominion of Christ over all of Creation and all that you see and know today? If you do then you can have peace, but without it we are hopeless.

The disciples in John 16, were in the presence of Christ, a place of easy belief, a place without an air of danger or testing. In these places it is always easy to rest. Until your faith is challenged and it appears to you that you may have been mistaken. It seems to me that in today’s world, the church is failing the test of faithfulness in those trials. Withdrawing in fear in times when Christ would step out boldly in faith.

Our faith is seen in how we react to times of testing, it was seen in how our Savior responded to a crisis, and it will be seen in us also. Mahatma Gandhi said this of Christians; “If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of India would be Christian today.” You see what you really believe and who you really are is found through trials, and today is our time of testing, it is our day to shine for Christ…God Bless.

Pastor William