Ever since Adam was cast from the garden for not obeying God’s Word, all of humanity has been divided between two camps: those who obey God’s Word and those who don’t. Noah did. The builders of Babel didn’t. David did. Most of his sons didn’t. Zacchaeus did. Pilate didn’t.

Biblical history teaches that what separates the people of God from both impostors and unbelievers is that the people of God listen to God’s Word and heed it. The others don’t.

This is what Moses is at such great pains to communicate in Deuteronomy as he stands on the edge of the Promised Land with the people of Israel a second time. He begins by reminding them that he had stood there forty years prior with their parents, and that their parents hadn’t listened. So God cursed their parents to die in the wilderness. The three speeches, which follow through the course of almost thirty chapters, can be summed up pretty simply: “Listen. Hear. Write down. Remember what God has said. He’s the one who saved you from bondage in Egypt, so listen to him!” In chapter 30, Moses brings the weight of everything he has said to bear on this one command: “Now choose life” (v. 19).

The people of God will find life entirely and exclusively through listening to God’s Word and obeying it. It’s that simple.

God’s message for the New Testament church is no different. He saved us from the bondage of sin and death when we listened to his Word and believed (Rom. 10:17). Now we are to listen to his Word and follow. By listening and following what he has said, we increasingly image his character and glory.

– That’s why Matthew reported what Jesus said to Satan concerning man’s living on “every word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matt. 4:4).

– That’s why Luke described himself as an eyewitness and a servant of the Word (Luke 1:2), and why he reports Jesus’ promise, “Blessed … are those who hear the word of God and obey it” (Luke 11:28).

– That’s why, when the early church in Acts gathered, they “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” (Acts 2:42).

– That’s why Paul told the Romans, “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17).

– That’s why he told the Corinthians that the “message of the cross” is the “power of God” unto salvation (1 Cor. 1:18).

– That’s why he told the Galatians that if “anybody is preaching [to them] a gospel other than [what he preached to them] let him be eternally condemned!” (Gal. 1:9).

– That’s why the author of Hebrews warned, “For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).

– That’s why James reminded his readers that God “chose to give us birth through the word of truth” and to “not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:18, 22).

– And that’s why John, in the book of Revelation, commended the church in Philadelphia, “I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name” (Rev. 3:8).

and many other that’s why.

Friend, the church finds its life as it listens to the Word of God. It finds its purpose as it lives out and displays the Word of God. The church’s job is to listen and then to echo. That’s it. The primary challenge churches face today is not figuring out how to be “relevant” or “strategic” or “sensitive” or even “deliberate.” It’s figuring out how to be faithful–how to listen, how to trust and obey. I pray to you, all readers, that it may be in you. Amen.

God Bless ya

June 5, 2012
Time for a Change?

Today’s Truth
Isaiah 40:28-31 (NIV) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Friend to Friend
Have you ever wanted to “freeze” a moment and make it last a lifetime? I have. I have also lived through certain moments that I wish I could change or even delete and pretend they never happened. But change is a natural part of life. We can embrace it, or we can fight it.

My husband often says that the only people who really like change are wet babies. However, I have discovered that some people thrive and live for change to the point that they are “change junkies” and have little stability in life. Others dig in their heels and refuse to change a thing and ultimately become prisoners of old habits – good and bad. When it comes to change, we have a decision to make – just like the eagle.

The eagle has the longest life-span among birds. It can live up to 70 years, but to reach this age, the eagle has to make a hard decision. In its’ 40s, the eagle’s long and flexible talons can no longer grab prey, which serves as food. Its long and sharp beak becomes bent and its old and heavy wings, covered with feathers that have grown thick over the years, become stuck to its chest, making it difficult to fly.

The eagle is then left with only two options: die or go through a painful process of change, which lasts 150 days. The difficult process requires the eagle to fly to a mountain top and sit on its nest. There the eagle knocks its beak against a rock until the beak falls off. The eagle will then wait for a new beak to grow back and use the new beak to pluck out its talons. When the new talons grow back, the eagle starts plucking out all of the old feathers. After five months, the eagle takes a famous flight of rebirth and lives 30 more years.

Change is sometimes needed to survive. God may be asking you to step out in faith and make a change in your life. He has already been where He is asking you to go and prepared every step of the way for you. You don’t have to be afraid of the unknown. It is unknown only to you. God is well aware of where you are and of every step He is asking you to take. He may be asking you to get rid of old memories, eliminate destructive habits and forsake lifeless traditions. He is waiting for you to take one step. Faith in God does not come all at once. Faith is a step-by-step process that begins with one small step and increases as we go.  An Old Testament story found in Joshua 3 illustrates this truth.

The Israelites are camped on the bank of the Jordan River. Forty years earlier, they had escaped from Egypt and have been wandering around in the wilderness ever since. All of their needs have been met by God. They have seen miracle after miracle and now they can see Canaan, the Promised Land. However, there is a problem.

A huge river stands between them and the Promised Land, and there is no way around it. God told His people that He would make a dry path through the river, but the priests had never seen that happen. In fact, they hadn’t even been born when the Red Sea was parted and there were no reruns of the Ten Commandments at the local Wilderness Theatre. The Israelites had spent their entire adult lives in the wilderness and finally, they could see a way out. Oh, and one more problem — the priests couldn’t swim. This was probably the first river they had even been close to in their lives. I can imagine their fear and questions. God was asking them to step out in faith as never before.

I don’t imagine the Israelites had a great deal of faith in God at that moment, but they had just enough faith to take that first step. And that was enough.

Joshua 3:15-17 (NCV) During harvest the Jordan overflows its banks. When the priests carrying the Ark came to the edge of the river and stepped into the water, the water upstream stopped flowing. It stood up in a heap. So the people crossed over.

Notice that God did nothing until those toes touched the water. That first step was all God needed to see. Many times, we won’t take the first step of change because we’re afraid we won’t be able to make the whole journey.

Don’t wait until you believe it all.
Don’t wait until you can see it all.
Don’t wait until you understand it all.

Trust God and step out in faith. He will meet you there.

Let’s Pray
Father, I come to You in faith. I will admit that change scares me because it means I have to face the unknown. I know it is a control issue, Lord. Right now, I surrender the control of my life and my journey to You. Give me the strength to step out in faith and make the changes You are asking me to make.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.

Now It’s Your Turn
Read Isaiah 40:28-31 again.

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles;they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Make a list of the reasons we can trust God – even when facing uncertainty.

Are you tired? Is God asking you to make some changes in your life? Record those changes in your journal.

What one thing is keeping you from stepping out in faith? Are you willing to surrender that one thing to God right now?

God Bless All

Re-post from Mary Southerland- Girlsfriend of God

Could u name the angels in the bible? If we read the bible, we’ll know there are 4 angels in the bible that could be identified which are; GABRIEL, MICHAEL, LUCIFER (KJV Version, in Indonesian Version called Bintang Timur (Morning Star)), and ABADDON / APOLLYON.

Let’s take a look about them more.

GABRIEL
Gabriel has a role in the birth of Jesus and also in Jesus’ cousin; John the Baptist that’s 8 years younger than Jesus. Luke ch.1 tells us a story about Zechariah that looked an angel in the Temple of Lord. Gabriel announced Elizabeth, Zechariah’s wife, would bear a son that would make ready a people prepared for the Lord.  The old Zechariah was doubt, then Gabriel which stands in the presence of God punished Zechariah to be silent and not able to speak until the day is happens.

Gabriel came into Maria in Nazareth and tells she will bear a son; He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.

Gabriel showed himself to Daniel in the Book of Daniel as the interpreter from all mysterious Daniel’s vision. (Dan 8:16; 9:21)

MICHAEL
There is several Michaels in the Bible, but the only one important is Michael the Leader of the Angels or the Head of all Angels. Daniel stated more than once as the “Leader” about him, Michael is the chief princes of heaven for Israel. (Dan 10:13, 21; 12:1). The Book of Revelation describe him in the war of apocalypse, with Michael and the angels fight against the Dragon/ Devil/ Lucifer with one third of the rebellion angels from heaven and followed Lucifer (Rev 12:4, 7). So, Michael is having main role in the doomsday.

LUCIFER
that means “son of the morning’ and it’s only stated once in the Old Testament in Isaiah 14:12-15.

¹² How you have fallen from heaven,
morning star, son of the dawn!
You have been cast down to the earth,
you who once laid low the nations!
¹³ You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to the heavens;
I will raise my throne
above the stars of God;
I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,
on the utmost heights of Mount Zaphon.
¹⁴ I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High.”
¹⁵ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead,
to the depths of the pit.

The bible readers from generations believed that Lucifer is the angel that served God through Praise and Worships, his body is believed consists of various music instruments, when he moved, it will sound beautifully.

At the beginning, He led the angels around God’s throne, but he want to be like God, equals with the Highest, he is an arrogant angel that rebel against God. Then he was thrown from heaven to earth.

In the New Testament, Paul said that ‘And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light’ (2 Cor 11:14). In Paul’s Gospel to Timothy about the spiritual qualification for a priest, Paul says that ‘Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil’ (1 Tim 3:6). Lucifer together with the followers always intimidate and tempt the believers, even limit the gospel’s spread in the earth.

In the thousand years period, Lucifer is bounded and cast into the bottomless pit, in order he should deceive nations no more till the thousand years finished. But after these things he must be released for a little while. Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.  The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone wherethe beast and the false prophet are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. (Rev 20:1-15)

ABADON / APOLION

And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon (Rev 9:11)

Abaddon means destruction or destroyer (Apollyon). The angel of bottomless pit leads the angels to torture humans for 5 months to them who do not use God’s seal of approval in the forehead.

Abaddon and the angels are pictured in grasshoppers like horses that ready for war, they used something like a gold crown on their head, and their face are like human, hair like female, teeth like lions, and body like breastplate, their wings move like house-drawn carriages run into a great war, the tails like scorpions’ and there are powers to torture humans for 5 months in it. This happens on the apocalypse when angel sounded the fifth trumpet. These angels will torture merely, they do not let humans die on the 7 years of the doomsday.

God Bless, pals!!

I would like to tell you a story about two ministries I was involved with at a church where I once served as the hired youth director.

The first was a lunch ministry. A nearby high school would release juniors and seniors every day for lunch and these students had the option to walk down the street to a number of fast food restaurants instead being cramped like sardines in the school cafeteria. The church was also within walking range of the high school and decided years ago to begin offering a weekly pizza lunch. The idea was simple. Students got their lunch quickly and cheaply, PLUS they got inside the church, where ideally they would be ministered to. The primary goal was to serve as a bridge ministry, leading students to get involved in the church’s other youth ministries.

What quickly became clear to me as I served in this ministry was that most of the students already had a church home somewhere else. For those who didn’t, the lunch was viewed as just another restaurant choice and not as a ministry. As the leader, my priorities reflected this; rather than spending time with students, I was bogged down with logistics: ordering pizzas, organizing volunteers, buying supplies, and counting money.

That’s not to say that ministry never occurred. Over time, I was able to make meaningful connections with students, but the goal of becoming a bridge to other church ministries was never achieved. It became clear to me that the lunch ministry was fundamentally flawed because it was a fundraiser disguised as ministry. The issue was that it was a highly successful fundraiser. We experienced exponential growth, eventually adding a second lunch day and serving nearly 300 students a week. For the church at large, these large numbers equaled a good ministry.

The second ministry didn’t have this same success. It was a weekly after-school program designed to be a safe place where students could study and play. In addition, we would offer a short devotional and prayer time. As I led this ministry, some trends became immediately evident; only boys were attending, many of them came from broken homes, they didn’t attend church regularly, and their passion was sports. Over time, the ministry evolved into a devotion and prayer followed by an hour and a half of intense physical activity.

During the three years that I led the ministry, I developed deep relationships with a core group of about 10 guys. A number of them graduated high school in that time, but still attended weekly. In my mind, this ministry was far more successful than the lunch ministry. The priority was relationships instead of logistics. These students, who didn’t have church homes, felt at home in our church. And yet, volunteers flocked to the lunch ministry, while I sometimes struggled to get any volunteers for the after school ministry.

When the time came for me to leave that church, both ministries were at a crossroads and their fate was not mine to decide. The church’s priorities became clear as new leadership was quickly brought in for the lunch ministry while the after school ministry was put on hold indefinitely. Clearly, the more “successful” ministry deserved the chance to continue.

I made an announcement at lunch the week prior to my leaving that I would no longer be there but that the lunches would continue. The students listened patiently and then returned to their food and continued their conversations with friends. My last day ran smoothly, not unlike any other lunch day. The last of the students returned to school and I handed over the money box and folder containing all of the lunch logistics.

I had made a similar (albeit much more tearful) announcement at the after school program, although I was unable to assure the continuation of the program. On my last day, we played basketball. As we headed back to the youth room to gather our things and say goodbye, the guys presented a cake they had bought and offered encouraging words.

It’s been over a year since I left, and I hear that the lunch is still thriving and continuing to grow. The new leader has reached a conclusion similar to mine, that the ministry is basically a fund-raising restaurant. The after-school program is long forgotten, at least by the church. I still see some of the students from those ministries from time to time. To a majority of them, I am that vaguely recognizable “church lunch guy,” but to others I am an old, familiar friend. We spend a few minutes catching up and reminiscing about the good ol’ days and I am reminded what the true purpose of youth ministry is.

—Keith Cotton—