Pastor’s Blog 11.6.19

3 John 2
2 Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. NKJV

The balanced life; prosperity in spirit, soul, and body! The word of God will take us there. When we obey the word we set ourselves up for the blessed life. Wherever God finds His word being honored, there He commands His blessing.

This Saturday morning, November 9th, we are hosting a seminar at the Rock called “Healthy Body Healthy Life”. How much time, or when was the last time you invested into your health as a lifestyle? I will be speaking, as well as others, and encouraging everyone to be proactive in the fight for health. October completed my 8th year of living on a plant based diet and I cannot tell you how glad I am I made that decision! Not only will there be a lot of good information on making healthy choices and explaining why, but a Greenbrier Chef will be cooking us a great lunch and teaching us how to cook healthy without losing flavor and enjoyment of food. You receive all of this for only $15, what a deal! I hope to see you there!

What led me to going plant based? I had a ultrasound scan done on my arteries when I was 41 and received a warning letter from a cardiologist telling me I had significant plaque buildup in my arteries. Statistic’s now show the average 7 year old child in America has arterial plaque from the SAD way of eating, acronym for “standard American diet”.

Fast forward 15 years, and after converting to a plant based diet and going through a regiment of Chelation, I had the same test, but without a warning letter from a cardiologist this time. Results? No significant or dangerous levels of arterial plaque in my arteries! If some parents don’t start helping their children learn to make right choices in their diets, they are propagating the curse of sickness ad disease in the next generation. Obesity is now epidemic in our children and, sadly, parents are to blame.

Proverbs 22:6
6 Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it. NKJV

When my daughters were children I stayed on them about their weight and diets and my wife would get so mad at me. But I kept telling her if they don’t get it now they never will. Now they’re in their 30’s and fit and have lived a lifestyle of discipline in diet. They aren’t totally plant based like me, but they count every calorie they eat and have stayed the curse of obesity from the SAD. Your government has lied to you about the supposed benefits of meat, eggs, and dairy. Did you know for example it is against the law for an egg producer to advertise eggs as “healthy or good for you”? Why? Because they are really not.

50% of us have heart disease and we are told it’s because we have high cholesterol and we are prescribed statins, and then told to take co-q 10 to counteract the heart damage from the statins they prescribed us. The truth is, cholesterol isn’t the problem. It’s the mother hormone in the body. It’s the dietary junk cholesterol that is the problem. Short fatty chain acids are clogging up the arteries, not the cholesterol your body produces. Our body doesn’t produce the bad cholesterol, we eat it because it tastes good!

I am an admitted radical and tend to do everything I do to extremes, but that isn’t a bad thing when it comes to serving Jesus and choosing food. You are what you eat. My goal as a good shepherd leading the flock of Jesus, is when Pastor Brian comes to preach, there are hardly any sick people for him to pray for! And that your children get your inheritance instead of Camden Clark, or Marrietta Memorial hospitals. Too much of sickness and disease is a self-inflicted wound in our church, and through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can overcome our lust for garbage and junk food and reverse the curse of disease in our midst! So take a couple hours and a couple dollars and invest in your health this weekend!

Hope to see ya Saturday!

Pastor’s Blog 10.16.19

A few weeks ago in a message I said, “The Lord will only take your prayer life as serious as you do.” Let that sink in. We all have the exact same access to the Father after all, the name of Jesus! I have no different access than you.

John 14:12-14 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. 13 And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. NKJV

I remember when we were discussing this portion of scripture in Bible college, the class teacher had made a comment that I’ll never forget. “When asking something in the name of Jesus, is it something that is in His name? What is in the name? Healing, deliverance, prosperity, freedom, wisdom, knowledge, miracles ect. What is not in His name? Someone’s self will, envy, greed, strife, rebellion, bitterness, ect. I’m sure you get the picture. So when you pray and invoke the name, the prayer must be worthy of the name.

1 John 5:14-17 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. 15 And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. 16 If anyone sees his brother sinning a sin which does not lead to death, he will ask, and He will give him life for those who commit sin not leading to death. There is sin leading to death. I do not say that he should pray about that. 17 All unrighteousness is sin, and there is sin not leading to death. NKJV

So based on this, we could surmise that anything “in His name” is according to His will. If it is not His will, it’s not in His name so our prayer doesn’t produce the outcome we desire. James seems to echo this truth by his instruction when he adds that prayer isn’t granted if we are just asking to consume on our own pleasures.

James 4:3 You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures. NKJV

The Passion Bible says that you “ask with corrupt motives”. I think almost everything with the Lord reverts back to motives. He judges after the heart and the heart aligned with His word and His will can expect to be heard and the request will be granted. I know what a challenge this is and I have struggled and wrestled with prayer as I am sure you have. But I just keep on and I do see many prayers answered, and some not of yet.

Patience is so much a part of this. We, in our human nature, don’t like to wait and don’t understand delayed answers. This is where trust and faith come to play. Again, we must ask in faith believing. Doubt and unbelief are the enemies of our prayers. Time is also a huge factor and one of the first things I learned about faith is that our timing is usually not the Lord’s. Our faith is only as powerful as our patience and endurance to see it through.

Let me say that again….Our faith is only as powerful as our patience and endurance to see it through!

Think about all the things you urgently requested from the Lord but in 30, 60, 90 days the urgency lifted and apathy set in that it wasn’t going to happen. A statement we have made in the past is that with the Lord, “faith is the constant and time is the variable, but how many times have we reversed this?

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. NKJV

It is believed though not recorded in detail, that it took Noah 60-120 years to build the ark. Even if we look at the low end of 60 years – wow! I prayed for about 15 years to see my daughter turn to living for the Lord and that was a battle. I have prayed for people to change for 20-35 years and then seen my prayer answered! So I encourage you today, let faith be the constant and time the variable! Do not waiver in your prayers. Patience and endurance will see you through!

Be blessed!

Pastor’s Blog 10.9.10

Last week, I was writing about the necessity of faith in our walk with God and I am going to continue on this subject. It seems that there is a demand by our culture to require less and less from the individual in a walk with God. In a recent Barna Poll the question was asked: What is the most important thing you look for in selecting a new home church? The number one answer was “that they don’t need me to do anything”. Wow, this really shines a light on the faith, or lack of faith of this generation! Everything we do in Christ is “motivated by faith and manifested by service.”

Hebrews 11:6-7
But 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 diligently seek Him. 7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. NKJV

As we read Hebrews 11, we find people were motivated by faith “to do” things. Today, there is a lack of urgency to live for God. To live for God means our lives take on His meaning and His priorities become ours. We awake each day with a call to service and purpose, knowing it could be our last! We shake off the apathetic attitude of those who are perishing and take up our cross and follow Him!

We have a record of warning about becoming apathetic in our walk:

2 Peter 3:1-7
Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder),
2 that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, 3 knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, 4 and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, 6 by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. 7 But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. NKJV

The Lord has called us to a diligent walk and given us much responsibility in it. Just as socialism is a failed experiment in every culture, faith without works is dead. Why is socialism a tempting offer? I get to do less, be responsible for less and someone else will take care of me. It is a failed solution in politics and it doesn’t work with your faith either. The Lord has commanded us to go and use all the talent and ability we have to subdue the earth and share in it’s prosperity. In the same way we have to engage our faith in our walk with Him for the harvest by service.

Each week the administrators of local churches struggle with all the “call offs” of their volunteer army. While we try to schedule a harvest because the fields are white and ready, we are countered with excuses of why, “I can’t serve this week”. Reminds me of a story in the Bible:

Luke 14:16-27 Then He said to him, “A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, 17 and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, ‘Come, for all things are now ready.’ 18 But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.’ 19 And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen , and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused.’ 20 Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ 21 So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.’ 22 And the servant said, ‘Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.’ 23 Then the master said to the servant, ‘Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. 24 For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'” 25 Leaving All to Follow Christ (Matt 10:34-39) Now great multitudes went with Him. And He turned and said to them, 26 “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. 27 And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple. NKJV

Roll up your sleeves and work for the Lord of the harvest!

Be blessed!

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