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Pastor’s Blog 6.27.18

1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul , and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it. NKJV

“Make me whole in my soul” should be the heart cry of every believer! The soul, we are taught, is basically a working of the mind, will and emotions. That says about everything doesn’t it? It is the soul that is a interpreter between the body and the spirit. I have had a couple of Out of body experiences in my life, and I can confirm by experience that outside the body, the spirit has a whole new attitude. I believe the word of God is the key to balancing the nature of God in the mind and emotions, and that the Holy Spirit has a great influence upon the will.

Romans 12:1-3
12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 Serve God with Spiritual Gifts For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.
NKJV

The mind is where and how we think, and thinking can be changed. How we think or our ideologies are not random but influenced by the culture and reasoning we are associated with. A young person with a conservative mindset or ideology can be converted by a liberal if opposing arguments are not presented. Liberals have taken over our learning institutions and are now infiltrating the pulpits of the Body of Christ.

Based upon the word of God, I have to believe thoughts are not the product of emotions, but emotions are the product of thoughts.

Proverbs 12:25-26
25 Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad. 26 The righteous should choose his friends carefully, For the way of the wicked leads them astray. NKJV

Here we see depression is a product of anxiety and anxiety is the product of thoughts. Change your thinking and you change your life for the better or worse. Our associations are to be guarded carefully according to this wisdom in Proverbs. Why?

Haggai 2:11-13
11 Thus says the Lord of hosts: Ask now the priests to decide this question of law: 12 If one carries in the skirt of his garment flesh that is holy [because it has been offered in sacrifice to God], and with his skirt or the flaps of his garment he touches bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any kind of food, does what he touches become holy [dedicated to God’s service exclusively]? And the priests answered, No! [Holiness is not infectious .] 13 Then said Haggai, If one who is [ceremonially] unclean because he has come in contact with a dead body should touch any of these articles of food, shall it be [ceremonially] unclean? And the priests answered, It shall be unclean. [Unholiness is infectious .] AM

There is a principle here that we should apply to our lives, evil is contagious, holiness is not! Let me show you again:

1 Corinthians 15:33-34
33 Do not be deceived:”Evil company corrupts good habits.” 34 Awake to righteousness, and do not sin; for some do not have the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. NKJV

Notice the Apostle here says, “some of you do not have the knowledge of God”, not the “Spirit of God”. We can have the experience of salvation and miss the sanctification that knowledge brings our mind.

Think on this!

Being Thankful Will Change Your Life!

Last year, I wrote an article on being thankful. In the fall of 2016, the Lord told me to concentrate on increasing thankfulness in my life, and I did. It totally changed me.

Yesterday, Pastor Dave taught on being thankful and grateful, and shared how a psychiatrist told him that they’ve had great success pulling people out of depression by having them be more thankful. How? By starting their day writing out three things they are grateful for. These cannot be repeated and must be written out. It reminded me of this article and I thought it would be good to share again. I also am including a link to his sermon at the end. He talks about being thankful REGARDLESS and how powerful and freeing it is. I hope you will avail yourself to the sermon, and I hope this article helps you today!

Thankful- to be pleased, relieved, expressing gratitude. Grateful – feeling or showing an appreciation of kindness

A few months ago, being thankful kept coming into my thought process. And as I purposed to be thankful more often, it turned to being thankful daily and it has honestly changed my life. By making the choice, daily, to be thankful, my entire life has changed – and it all boils down to a choice.

Proverbs 23:7 says – as we think in our hearts, so are we. This is so true! I have learned a few things in purposing to be thankful and I must say, it has made me even more thankful for my life! It has changed my thinking! It has given me a new outlook! I am amazed at what being thankful daily has done for me. Here are a few things I have learned:

You can’t be thankful and angry at the same time. It will not work. So, what if anger comes? It’s a choice you have to make. You have to stop, reset your thought process and focus on what you are thankful for. The Bible says 2 Corinthians 10:5TV (VOICE) 5 We are demolishing arguments and ideas, every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge of the one true God. We are taking prisoners of every thought, every emotion, and subduing them into obedience to the Anointed One.

It’s amazing what happens when we actually do what the Bible says! What if the next time anger came, we took it captive? I will challenge you with something that works for me – say out loud – “Anger – I am marching you to the cross of Christ right now and I give you no place. I release this situation to YOU Father and I choose instead to be thankful for_______ (this way of escape, thankful for anything actually! ) Confess being thankful and watch the anger dissipate then and there! James says to submit to God and resist the devil and he will flee – submit to God and resist anger and it will flee as well!

Being thankful has given my faith a new freedom! I read recently that one of the hindrances to our faith is when we are facing an impossible situation and we go over in our minds how we think the Lord might work it out. Doing this just rehearses all that we CANNOT do. And, because it is an impossible situation to us, it only serves to remind us of how helpless we really are. By keeping our focus on all of this it weakens our faith and causes doubt to creep in or even fear. I am guilty! So, what I have started to do when I am reminded of all that is wrong in my life – all that I need answers for and do not have? I have started saying – out loud so the enemy and my own heart can hear – “Father – I don’t know how You are going to work this out, but I know You are. Thank You for doing it! In the meantime, I am going to be thankful for all that You have already done for me!” And then I begin to name things out loud. When you begin rehearsing the blessings of the Lord out loud, it will change your atmosphere! Philippians 4:6 says “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” The word thanksgiving, in the Greek means – actively grateful – language as an act of worship to God!” When anxiety comes- actively thank the Lord as an act of worship! It will bring peace!

Being thankful has made me happier and changed my outlook! I used to worry about things all the time – although I didn’t call it that, to me, I was just trying to figure out solutions to problems. And, there is nothing wrong with trying to find a solution – we should do that. However, when trying to find the solution becomes your overwhelming thoughts it is WORRY! Now, I simply give these problems to the Lord. I still look for solutions, but when they don’t come, I release these problems to my Father – with thanksgiving, knowing He cares for me and that He will work them out…some way, somehow. There is no sense in ruining my day fretting over that which I can’t do anything about! Colossians 3:15-17 TV- “Let your hearts fall under the rule of the Anointed’s peace (the peace you were called to as one body), and be thankful.16 Let the word of the Anointed One richly inhabit your lives. With all wisdom teach, counsel, and instruct one another. Sing the psalms, compose hymns and songs inspired by the Spirit, and keep on singing—sing to God from hearts full and spilling over with thankfulness. 17 Surely, no matter what you are doing (speaking, writing, or working), do it all in the name of Jesus our Master, sending thanks through Him to God our Father.” When you allow His peace to come and are thankful, when you let the Word of God inhabit your life, when you encourage each other with songs and sing to the Lord from your heart with thankfulness – I promise you it will change your horizon! We always have something to be thankful for. If you woke up this morning you can be thankful!

Being thankful keeps my heart light and my thinking clear! Romans 1:21 says “For although they knew God, they did not honor (praise) him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Futile means incapable of producing any useful result; pointless. This scripture is talking about believers! Although they KNEW God they did not honor him as God OR GIVE THANKS TO HIM they became futile in their thinking – incapable of producing any useful result, pointless! And their foolish hearts were darkened….. darkened there means to be deprived of light – in your mind – deprived of understanding. Have you ever been in a situation and said “I just can’t understand??????” Have you ever been incapable of producing any useful result? Hit the reset button and begin to honor and praise God and give Him thanks! If not honoring, praising and thanking Him causes us to be futile in our thinking then honoring, praising and thanking Him will produce the opposite effect! WOW!

Being thankful gives me hope! One of my favorite scriptures is Philippians 4:8 (TV) “Finally, brothers and sisters, fill your minds with beauty and truth. Meditate on whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is good, whatever is virtuous and praiseworthy.” Folks, when you meditate on the goodness of God, when you think on lovely things, you can’t help but be hopeful for the future! Joshua 1:8 TV “Let the words from the book of the law be always on your lips. Meditate on them day and night so that you may be careful to live by all that is written in it. If you do, as you make your way through this world, you will prosper and always find success.” I have found since I have made an effort to be more thankful daily, that my hope and outlook has improved greatly!

I know these things sound too easy to be true…. I mean, could it be as easy as saying thank you? Could it be as easy as changing our thoughts to meditate on His goodness? On the gloomiest of days, I try to find even the smallest things to be thankful for. A good parking spot, a hot cup of tea, a smile from a stranger, sunshine…… I remind myself to be thankful for things that become easy to take for granted…. My job, my health, my home, my car, a warm bed at night, an awesome Bible believing, God fearing church, my health, friends, family, etc. Once I get started, it is amazing just how much I find that I have to be thankful for!

I am dumbfounded at the change in my atmosphere and daily life that being thankful has had on me. However, the Bible says in Isaiah 55 that our ways are not His ways and our thoughts His thoughts – that His thoughts are higher. Sometimes I think we make things too hard. Jesus said His yoke was easy and His burden was light. (Mark 11:28-30) Jesus took the chastisement of our peace so we could have peace. He did it all for us on the cross. All we have to do is accept Him, His ways and plans. His word tells us how.

So, I challenge you to purpose to live a more thankful life. Get your Bible and look up the word thankful and just meditate on His goodness. It really is as easy as making a choice. Once you get past the fact that it is really up to you, and it is truly a CHOICE – the rest will fall into line. I wish I could have gotten this principle years ago. I would have been much happier a lot sooner!

Psalm 9:1-2 “I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart; I will recount all of your wonderful deeds. I will be glad and exult in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.”

Pastor starts at minute 48

Pastor Dave 6.24.18 Pastor starts at minute 48

Pastor’s Blog 6.20.18

As I travel and see and hear the condition of the Body of Christ, I have noticed how “heavy on opinion and light on scripture”, many preachers have become. This is a day when the word of God, as final authority of good and evil, has been compromised by the “emerging church movement.” The Lord has confirmed to me over and over that it is part of my calling to keep enforcing the “word of truth” over the opinion of pop culture.

I hear very few messages today being preached out of the Epistles, and I believe this is part of the reason why the church has fallen so far from moral righteousness. The Gospels of Christ tell us the “what” of the Kingdom of God and the Epistles tell us the “how”. The Lord told us what love is and the Epistles tell us how to love in deed and in truth. They tell us how to apply the truth to real life, relational situations, and are salted with real life crises in the early church and how they were resolved.

How to deal with sinning “brethren” is described in great detail as church government is explained by the writers. Almost every page of the Epistles describe that sin practices have to be confronted, what attitude they are to be confronted in, and where they are to be confronted here’s a prime example:

Titus 1:10-16

10 The Elders’ Task For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, 11 whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. 12 One of them, a prophet of their own, said, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.” 13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men who turn from the truth. 15 To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work. NKJV

Paul warned his young protege’ Timothy about staying the course, and I think some preachers should get back to reading the Bible and turning off the pop culture theology messages! Another example:

2 Timothy 2:15-26

15 Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 16 But shun profane and idle babblings, for they will increase to more ungodliness. 17 And their message will spread like cancer. Hymenaeus and Philetus are of this sort, 18 who have strayed concerning the truth, saying that the resurrection is already past; and they overthrow the faith of some. 19 Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 20 But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honor and some for dishonor. 21 Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work. 22 Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But avoid foolish and ignorant disputes, knowing that they generate strife. 24 And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. NKJV

The Bible is very clear on these subjects. We must keep our focus on the Word of God, the principles laid out in the Word, and not be swayed by man’s opinion or the pop culture of our society. Let’s become students of the word so we will always know God’s truth and not be swayed by the deceptive practices of the “good gospel” instead of God’s Gospel!

Have a Bible filled week!