Let's Get Together!!

I have some things on my heart today, one of which is something that I feel is getting completely lost in this busy busy world in which we live! The importance of this that I want to talk about seems to be one of great controversy although I grew up believing is was RIGHT thing to do. Now this is not aimed at anyone individually at all. This is just something I am studying and I am working on to see if maybe I have been wrong all these years! Now, in the long run, I will let God's Word speak for Itself...and for me. So, I am going to start with sharing a passage of scripture from Hebrews from a few different translations of the bible.

First, the New King James:
^{Hebrews 10:24} And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, ²⁵ not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Ok, now the New Living Translation:
^{Hebrews 10:24} Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵ And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

Lastly,  The Message:
^{Hebrews 10:22-25}So let's do it—full of belief, confident that we're presentable inside and out. Let's keep a firm grip on the promises that keep us going. He always keeps his word. Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching.

Hang on, let me throw one more in there....the Amplified version:
^Hebrews10:24And let us consider and give ^[d]attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities,²⁵Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.


ASSEMBLING....GATHERING.....GOIN' TO CHURCH......

Assembling today has taken on SO MANY forms and meanings. To some, it is as sacred as the blood of Jesus, while with others, there is no value at all in goin' to meetin'!The above passages would seem so simple that a child wouldn't mess em up yet I believe many miss its intended mark by a country mile and I also believe it has become something we can hit or miss on....like a lost art almost.

I think people are really forgetting just what can happen when God's people join together in some sort of assembly, gathering, whatever. A good example of being assembled is the 120 in the upper room at Pentecost! They were certainly assembled; Acts 2:¹ On the day of Pentecost^[a] all the believers were meeting together in one place. ² Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. ³ Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. ⁴ And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages,^[b] as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability. 

Ok, they were gathered together...but they had this amazing experience because they were ALL IN ONE ACCORD! They were united! So maybe that is part of our problem. People don;t feel united with their churches. Ok, so does this problem lie with leadership, the congregation, or both? Let's look at it this way:

Let's compare the many members of Christ’s body to a car that has many members, or parts. We can have all the parts of a beautiful, new Mercedes Benz gathered in a pile — but I challenge anyone to hop on top of that pile of new parts and drive them to the Piggly Wiggly for a gallon of milk. Those parts would be more akin to a junk-pile than an automobile, and the supposed driver would get nowhere!  However, when all those parts are properly assembled by a team of assemblers who are in one accord — you can zip across the country at breakneck speed if that's what ya need to do!

So, part of what I'm thinkin' is that our churches are not filled and Christians are not attending is because the body is a conglomerated mess of parts instead of being unified for one purpose. DID WE FORGET OUR PURPOSE? DO WE EVEN REALLY KNOW WHAT OUR PURPOSE IS????

OUR PURPOSE IS CHRIST AND HIM CRUCIFIED, RISEN, AND COMING AGAIN! OUR PURPOSE IS THAT SALVATION, FREE AND CLEAR, IS OFFERED TO EVERYONE!! I think God's people need to get a fresh grip on purpose!

 So, maybe the unity thing is our problem...maybe that's why good Christian people care nothing about being in church. I don't know. Maybe they are BORED with "church".

OK, so we (leadership) are pressed from every side to have the coolest, hippest church with all the new fangled lights and music and be all on the cutting edge of technology. Well, that's not so easy in small town Georgia. But we (leadership) worry that this is why we cannot seem to hold on to a younger generation....the 20/30 somethings. We are just not as appealing as Free Chapel (which I love-don't get me wrong)  or some other churches who have all the hippest stuff!

So, how do small town churches get er done?

I looked around for some answers and what I found just brought back what I have known and believed for years and I quote this from a 20-something blogger:

“I’m not looking for a slicker sermon series or a faux-hawked worship leader or designer coffee in the back lobby.I also believe you make a commitment to one local church and invest in community with those believers long-term, I’m not going to start shopping for a new church. Besides, all those churches would also have long sermons and rambling prayers and worship leaders in skinny jeans. That’s the problem. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don’t want cool as much as we want real…. If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it’s easy or trendy or popular. It’s because Jesus himself is appealing and what he says rings true.”

WOW! Did I ever love reading THAT! Because believe you me...when you are in leadership and your church is not full and no matter how many people you call and visit, you still can;t get it full you really start wondering! But, truthfully that is all Jeff and I have EVER had to offer.....JESUS.

So, I hear people say and I read where they have written it...that they are bored with church because it isn't REAL! There's nothing wrong with all that other stuff I reckon but when it comes down to the Word and altar time and cultivating a real relationship with God.....THEY DON'T WANT THE FLUFF! They want something that will stick to their proverbial ribs! They want REAL!

But then, that's all we have to offer anyway is a VERY REAL JESUS. 

I could keep rambling...I could keep questioning. I could keep on trying to figure it out but I really believe it all comes down to DO YOU LOVE JESUS??

^{John 14:15} “If you love Me, keep My commandments.

IF we love Him we will keep His commands. IF IF IF.

^Hebrews10:24And let us consider and give ^[d]attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities,²⁵Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.

HIS WORD IS HIS BOND. HIS WORD IS HIS COMMANDS. HIS WORD IS HIM.





BTW.....I think that if we will look deep down and really examine ourselves...the reason we are bored does not fall on the shoulders of our leaders or those we attend worship with but that the reason is ourselves. Like Jesus said of the church at Ephesus when He was giving John the Revelation.....we have left our first love. I have learned that I can worship Him and NOT be bored whether I am singing out of an old hymnal or have the most up to date technology happening during worship. I can worship Him and NOT be bored whether the preaching and teaching is challenging or dull. I can worship Him in whatever setting I find myself in and NOT be bored because I fell head over heels in love with Jesus---my first love---all over again! I am not saying you don't love Jesus...I am just saying your love for Him could be so much deeper and then maybe you wouldn't be so bored with worship. And here is your preacher's wife confession.....my family has (in the past) been so consumed with making sure everybody in our worship services was happy...from air to music to nursery to comfy seats....etc etc...that we found ourselves caring more about that than being in His presence. That's all changed in the past couple of years and now...no matter how "service" goes....we have just had the time of our lives in HIS presence because we fell back in love with Jesus!!!!!!!

ARE YOU A GIANT KILLER?!?!?!

Are you feeling broken from the battles in your life?  Are you feeling overshadowed by giants (financial, relationships, health, etc)?  When David was staring up at the face of Goliath, when no one else would stand and fight, where did his courage come from?  David KNEW that his God was bigger than the giant standing before him.  David knew all that was required of him was to place that one little stone in the sling, pull it back, and let it go!  It was God who would direct the outcome of that stone.  David KNEW that the battle belonged to God and the victory belonged to him through faith.  Can you gather new courage to stare down the giants in your life?  Can you let God be bigger than the giants?  The battle belongs to God, and the victory belongs to us if we have the faith to put a little stone in our sling, pull it back and let God prove himself faithful in taking down our giants.  In this life, we can’t avoid difficulties and struggles, but God tells us He cares about every area of our life, great and small.

John 16:33-These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

I will take away your coldness.....

This is an excerpt from the book, "When You Pray", by Lucille Walker. It is an interpretation by the Holy Ghost given at the 1975 Tenn Campmeeting during bible study. Oh how this rings true in this age we live in.....

 "You have wanted glory, I have wanted you to be broken. You have wanted fame, I have wanted humility. You have wanted success. I have wanted obedience and for you to carry your cross. You have wanted power, I have wanted you to be filled with love. I wanted you to be led but you have not wanted to be guided. I would have empowered you, but you would not obey. Hear me now: cast your excuses aside and let me walk into your life. I will take away the shame of your barreness, the shame of your coldness. I will touch you with holy flame and power with the Holy Ghost and fire, and you shall be my witnesses in these last days, saith the Lord God Almighty."

 

 

 

 

 

WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE!!!

I just heard Jentezen Franklin preach this and I HAD to share it!!!

God's Word says Luke 1:37
For nothing is impossible with God.

Jesus came to the disciples, who had been fishing all night long with nothing to show for it, and asked if they had caught anything. they said they had been fishing ALL NIGHT LONG AND CAUGHT NOTHING! Jesus told em to throw the nets on the other side of the boat and they did and the haul was so great it was breaking their nets!!!

Ya know why??? Because with GOD...NOTHING is impossible! They HAD to catch SOMETHING b/c NOTHING was an impossibility!!!!


Ok, now me.... if you have been dreaming and hoping and expecting....if you have been fasting and praying and giving.....if you have been trusting in the middle of your mess and you STILL see nothing happening...just KNOW that something is coming....God is up to something big because at this point NOTHING is completely impossible!!!!!

SHOUT NOW!!!!!

My prayer...

Lord, I am so hungry for revival! REAL REVIVAL! Break out in Glennville, Tattnall County, GA, the USA, this world! God we cry out for souls! Save us oh God! Shake us out of complacency! Shake us out of sin! Shake us out of laziness & our slothful ways! WE REPENT OH GOD! DISTURB US! DISTURB BALLGAMES AND GRADUATIONS AND CHURCH SERVICES! Release something into our midst Lord that we have never experienced before! Touch us in our prayer services....bring people in! Touch us in our worship times and our discipleship times! Confuse the enemy and give us SOULS! WE CRY OUT LORD JESUS! We are so tired of the "way things are"! God, I am not interested in the same ole same ole. I thirst...I hunger! Lord Jesus, forgive us for our lies~~when we say we are doing all we can for you and we love you more than anything else. WE LIE GOD! If we loved You more than anything else...then Your Word would DRIVE us and we would not be who we are today! God, shake our colleges~~these places of higher learning! We have learned man's ways well and have not learned Your ways at all! We repent for our education system! We repent for our church! We repent for the sins of those who came before us and dwell with us even now! We repent for our denominations! Our denominations have become so RELIGIOUS! We are dead and plucked up by the roots! Oh God we REPENT! Humble us oh God! We humble ourselves under Your mighty hand! CHANGE US! TRANSFORM US! Make us the vessels that YOU want us to be!  Oh Jesus, send REVIVAL! REAL REVIVAL! Not a nice little week of good services and fellowship~~ we have had that til we are blue in the face. God we NEED MORE! CHANGE US! God raise up a fresh generation of young men and young women  who are unafraid to LIVE HOLY LIVES! Anoint this generation! Let us be a peculiar people again! WE NEED YOU JESUS! Our ways have nearly destroyed us and they will eventually if we continue in the way we are going! Lord, we are Your people but we have turned our faces toward the WORLD! Why do we want to please this world so much!??!?! God forgive us! WE REPENT! We cry out for revival!!! Lord we TURN from our wicked, perverse, ungodly, unholy ways and we plead with You to come down and restore us again! WE CRY OUT! Hear our prayers of repentance Oh God! We need You to refresh and renew us! What we are doing is not working because we have nearly cut YOU out of the equation! We are not seeing souls saved because we are introducing the world to ourselves and our little ministries instead of introducing them to YOU JESUS!! Lord, we turn from our selfish ways and ask your forgiveness! Hear our prayers, heal our land! Let Your hand forever be on us and send REAL REVIVAL to our families, our churches, our communities, our counties, states, schools, congress, the white house, and to our entire country and this planet! LORD HEAL US! Come down oh Lord! OH THAT YOU WOULD REND THE HEAVENS! Oh Jesus if we will only rend our hearts...You would rend the heavens! REND! REND! REND!!

There's a shakin' coming.....

Haggai 2:6 “For this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: In just a little while I will again shake the heavens and the earth, the oceans and the dry land. 7 I will shake all the nations, and the treasures of all the nations will be brought to this Temple. I will fill this place with glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 8 The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. 9 The future glory of this Temple will be greater than its past glory, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. And in this place I will bring peace. I, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, have spoken!”

Hebrews 12: 25 Be careful that you do not refuse to listen to the One who is speaking. For if the people of Israel did not escape when they refused to listen to Moses, the earthly messenger, we will certainly not escape if we reject the One who speaks to us from heaven! 26 When God spoke from Mount Sinai his voice shook the earth, but now he makes another promise: “Once again I will shake not only the earth but the heavens also.”[k] 27 This means that all of creation will be shaken and removed, so that only unshakable things will remain.28 Since we are receiving a Kingdom that is unshakable, let us be thankful and please God by worshiping him with holy fear and awe. 29 For our God is a devouring fire.

Back in the early part of the 2000's, God burdened me to preach on the shaking that He is sending and about to send. When I preached this, I preached it with the connotation that people's lives were going to be shaken.
And it is the TRUTH! And I have seen people's lives shaken violently since that time.You see, if you don't allow God to have ALL of you, He will shake shake shake until all that remains is Him. I have watched some people who were stuck in complacency have their lives turned upside down and I watched as they were shaken  loose from such things. DELIVERED! I have also watched others who have been stuck just as bad and God show them where they were wrong....and they decided to stay put in their sin. I have seen some of that kind get theirs lives turned so upside down that there was nothing left of them and they quit. I have also watched some of that kind turn a deaf ear to the Lord...and God is still being merciful to them at this point. But they sure better watch out because God is not a lie! His Word says it, so that's IT. PERIOD.

But I have also had the intense blessing of watching people HEED the Word of God and follow 2 Chronicles 7:14 with all of their hearts! And I have watched as God opened up the windows of heaven over them and bless them mightily! I have watched young men and women give their mess over to God and He transform them into a vessel of honor! They allowed God to shake the junk off of their lives! PRAISE JESUS!

If YOU don't shake off the things of this world, HE will and it will not be fun. And for some reason I feel like saying this right here: What you uncover, God will cover with His grace. But what you cover up, God will uncover before EVERYONE.

Ok, transition.....

I also understand  that God's Word speaks both to our hearts AND to the things that are going on in this world. And right now this world is being shaken like it has never been shaken before! God said in His Word (see above verses) that He WILL turn the faces of all nations towards His holy temple. EVERYTHING we see happening today is a countdown to the Second Coming of our Savior!! Very soon, He will come and receive His bride...the spotless church....to Himself. After that, things will really unfurl upon this earth. Trust this...you do NOT want to be left behind to endure the shaking that is coming after rapture time....after that great catching away!! He said in His Word that He would shake absolutely everything so that only the unshakable remains. His WORD is the only unshakable thing. And since the Word is Him and He is the Word....well you get the rest.What God's Word has spoken WILL come to pass. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's all a bunch of hooey. You will find yourself in dire straits.

So, let's run through a short list of things we are seeing unfurl now. Really, ever since 9/11, things have been going crazy but in the last few years, we have really seen some horrible catastrophes. There was the 2001 Gujarat earthquake in India - ~19,700 dead. In 2003 there were the European Heat Waves- 35,000 dead and the Iran earthquake- 31,000 to 43,000 dead. In 2004 Indonesia was crushed by Tsunami.
Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in 2005. A cyclone hit Burma in 2008 killing 146,000 precious souls. There was the Tsunami recently in Japan.Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes in divers places as the Bible speaks about in Matthew 24. Now, which ever way you interpret that (deep places in the sea or diverse) does not matter. It works both ways. And now these tornadoes that wreaked havoc in the sweet south! And how about how fires have ravaged! Oh, it doesn't seem so real being out in California but when it comes to South Georgia, we realize how horrible it is!  SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE!!!There are so many more things I could list but I won't. Just go to this link and read for yourself. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biggest_natural_disasters_from_2000_to_2011 Take it all in and realize just how factual God's Word is!! What I have named is only natural disasters....that's not even counting plagues and wars that the Word of God speaks of!!

There's more shaking coming!!! David Wilkerson (Teen Challenge, The Cross & the Switchblade) gave a prophetic word of a huge earthquake in Japan that would signal a bigger one coming to America. (MORE SHAKING!) Perry Stone told us at Winter Campmeeting in Tifton, GA. that God had shown him the farmlands of America being flooded. Well, just take a look at the Mighty Mississippi River! There are people up around Missouri  who have had their farmlands flooded because of the river and extreme snow melts!
Go ahead....go to his website and listen to what God is giving this man! http://www.voe.org/  And there are other men and women of God that He is speaking to in this last day! God Almighty is trying to get this world's attention if we would only listen! If we will listen and apply His Word to our lives, then although we may have to stand through some shaking, we will not have to deal with all that is coming. This shaking is just about to get more intense as we see the Day of the Lord approaching. Watch!! Be sober & vigilant! Satan wants you and your family. Don't be caught in the shaking! We are IN the beginning of sorrows~Matthew 24.

SHAKE YOURSELF LOOSE OR THE SHAKING THAT IS COMING UPON THIS EARTH WILL SHAKE YOU LIKE YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SHAKEN!!!

So Bin Laden is dead......

So they say the mastermind behind the 9/11 attacks is dead. Nevermind the American people have no proof of this except for Obama's word and let's not go there!! So let's just nevermind that part. How bout how the American people are rejoicing all over the place and uniting because someone's never dying soul went straight to hell. Now seriously, is this right of us? Are we, in essence, becoming what we claimed to hate? I mean, Bin Laden no doubt rejoiced and threw a party over the thousands of souls lost on that fateful September day! And now we rejoice over HIS death?? Pharisees!
I know...it was an act of war and war is hell. Yes, I know. And I totally understand taking him down just as I understood taking Saddam out. But the rejoicing part is kinda bothering me. So am I lame or am I hittin' the proverbial nail on the head here? You tell me...and take these verses, Oh Christian, into consideration....


Proverbs 24:15 Don’t wait in ambush at the home of the godly,
and don’t raid the house where the godly live.
16 The godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again.
But one disaster is enough to overthrow the wicked.

17 Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;
don’t be happy when they stumble.
18 For the Lord will be displeased with you
and will turn his anger away from them.

19 Don’t fret because of evildoers;
don’t envy the wicked.
20 For evil people have no future;
the light of the wicked will be snuffed out.

Maybe, just maybe...celebrating is NOT what we oughta be doing. Pray people. PRAY! Yes, I will admit that my first reaction was one of elation. But then I felt the Spirit of God bring me into check on that and I ended up crying over this man's soul. Ask Jeff for yourself!! So, search your heart.. and let me know what  YOU think?