Making Mistakes Work

“And the children of Israel journeyed, and came into their cities on the third day. Now their cities were Bibeon, and Chephirah, and Beeroth, and Kirjathjearim” (Joshua 9:17).

Of all liars religious liars are the worst. Many have come to churches as seekers and after wards to learn they are sneakers. They “love God” and then proceed to tell you of their sad tales of woe, hoping to break hearts and then pick pockets.

This scenario took place in Joshua and Israel’s life. Joshua and the princes of Israel did not ask God for instruction concerning the strangers before them (Josh. 9:14). They were duped and deceived by the enemies of God. They traveled to them as people who sought after their God because they were afraid Israel would kill and destroy them, so they lied.

Though deceived the lies were there, but the people of God stood by their vow of protection and took the cities in but made them servers of the people of God. When we do something wrong by not taking heed to God’s Word and follow our own intuition, we still can go to God and do what is right.

God is able to make even those things which were not in wisdom and work them out for our good. Since we fail we must not stay down but get back up and follow God. We are to take the ploy and reinstall our lives to His benefit. That is the power of the third day. Because of the resurrection of Christ, the Lord is able to make all things abound!

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  • Sunday School and Prayer Meeting

    “And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works” (Hebrews 10:24).

    L.R. Scarborough said that if we could only have a five-minute glimpse into hell our evangelism would be changed for a lifetime. Just the other day I was trying to imagine what a look into hell would be like. I’m sure the “terror of the Lord” would take on a dreadful new meaning if I could see hell.

    We believe that Sunday School is important, as far as it goes, but that is about it. The number one reason why most attend the Sunday affair is because of their own fellowship and teaching for them, or just out of obligation.  Yet if we are content to be spiritually fed, spiritually welcomed, and we forget about participating in bringing others to hear the good news, then we do not have the heart of Christ. Sunday School is meant to bring others to hear what you hear and feel what you feel and to share what you share.

    Prayer with others on a specific night is important as well. It is at the prayer meeting where we come together as a body to beseech the God of glory for the lost and for our own strength that only grace can provide. The Kingdom of God is coming upon this earth one glorious day. And God is peopling His kingdom with people who have been prayed for, reached for, and sought for–who come to submit to His way of salvation for them–through the outreach and prayers of His people.

    When you and I have food and a future we can not be content with others who are starving and lifeless. The four starving lepers of Samara who walked into a deserted enemy camp discovered food and a future, and they could not keep this to themselves. They said to one another, “We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, and we remain silent” (2 Kings 7:9). So they did something about their passivity. Together they went and told the good news of food and a future in the camp.

    It is together that we invite others, it is together we pray, it is together we meet with God. Church is important for groups to gather and not for individuals just to meet. God works through His gathered people. The greater the unity of God’s people the greater the authority we have as God’s people.

  • Serving a Friend for God

    “Elisha the son of Shaphat is here, who poured water on the hands of Elijah” (2 Kings 3:11).

    Everyone needs a friend who is true. But what we need more is to be a friend who is true. Elijah had a friend in Elisha. Elisha was chosen by God to become a friend of Elijah. Though Elijah found Elisha and threw his mantle over him for the purpose that he might train him, prepare him, and lift him to the office of a prophet, Elijah’s training led to a deep friendship.

    Are you a true friend? Do you serve your friend in the Lord with compassion, prayer, and love? Will you miss this friend when he or she is gone from earth? Today in our society many people are “thankful for us” but are you “thankful for a friend.” Elisha poured his life into his aging friend. Why did he pour water into the hands of Elijah? Is this symbolism for serving Elijah? Did Elijah’s hands carry arthritis? Did the warm water help?
     
    The Master’s yoke is to led  and taught by God to become a true friend to others.     God needs you and wants you to surrender to Him so that you may encourage and build others up. We all need a friend but we need to become a friend first of all.

  • A House of Prayer

    “And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold in it, and them that bought, saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but you have made it a den of thieves” (Luke 19:45-46).

     

    The place was filled to overcapacity. The service at Central Baptist Church in Moscow, Russia was anticipatory. The invitation was given, many stood to come forward, but because of tightness of quarters, they rose together and there from their seat or in the aisle received Christ, repenting of the sin of unbelief.

     

    Billy Graham had preached the Gospel in Moscow in 1984. Now Franklin, Billy’s son, shared the Gospel some thirty years later, a few weeks ago, 2015. The Russian churches who once under communist rule were closed and bulldozed to the ground but now are being rebuilt and reopened. The hearts of many in Russia are being prepared by God for God. Suppressed for nearly a century because of Satan’s doings someone is praying and God is opening doors. This is His work.

     

    We must pray for the nations of the world. God has set our churches in America and other places to pray. But we have become imploded with our own self importance and needs. God has commanded that Christians salt the earth (Matthew 5:13), and it has not been repealed. The local church was created by God, not man, to achieve His purpose in the world. God has entrusted His reputation to ordinary people.

     

    As we read the headlines may we pray for the nations. May we pray for God’s missionaries as they are ambassadors for Christ in foreign lands. And may we never forget that God has called us to meet at His throne of grace together beseeching Him in His purpose for His glory. He is waiting for us to come to Him and ask.

  • Revival Means To Live in a New Way

    “The LORD is good unto those who wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him” (Lamentations 3:24).

    J.D. Grear in his book, “Jesus Continued”, said, “In an awakening, the Spirit of God does not typically do a “new” thing; he simply pours greater power upon the “normal” things faithful Christians are already doing. Prayers become more intense; worship becomes more joyous; repentance becomes more sorrowful; and the preached Word yields greater effect. The Spirit of God multiplies the effectiveness of our “normal” work of seed-planting, bringing a bountiful harvest. And he does more in a moment than we can accomplish in a lifetime.”

    This is what I dream of everyday that I awaken from my sleep. Looking, longing for this is a great desire that many have for their churches and for their land. This passion should drive each of us to our faces before a holy and righteous God. Yet the passion runs deep and the need arises paramount.

    Don’t you want to serve as a spiritual pyromaniac in igniting the heart of the church for Christ’s glory? Are you dreaming of this too? Could God do it here in Alamance County? Could you and I be used of God to help lead the way in a movement of unprecedented proportions to see the Gospel of God spread like wildfire and countless lives transformed?

  • I May Be Wrong…But I Doubt It

    “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine but, after their own lists, shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears” (2 Timothy 4:3).

    In this diet, fitness-crazed world especially found in America, there are many conversations when it comes to good cholesterol, bad cholesterol, fat, fiber, calories and carbohydrates.  The wellness teams are coming up with all kinds of programs to help us lead better and healthier lifestyles.  They want us to live a long time.

    I read about two elderly ladies who died and went to heaven.  As they walked the streets of gold, one said to the other, “Just think, if we hadn’t eaten all that bran, we could have been here years ago.”  We are in a fitness craze today.  We live longer and we enjoy it less.

    I only wish that the Christian community was as into a rigorous spiritual exercise as they are with their physical exercise.  We are so focused on the temporal more than the eternal.  We worship dust when we are more concerned about our temporal bodies than the eternal body.

    Firm faith is better than firm bodies.  We have promoted buns of steel and brains of silly putty.  This is a scandal and a sin.  We have dumbed down our minds.  Although there are more Christian Bookstores today, only 10-12% of American Christians ever visit them.

    The majority of the Christian world would rather be ignorant than learn.  People no longer read, or think.  And because of that fact we have raised a generation that cannot endure sound doctrine.  There are many in our church pews today who desire not to be taught or to teach.  And when we watch the news we see the Philistine mindset which promotes untruth.

    There needs to be a return to seeking the face of God and the mind of Christ.  We must call people to discipline their minds as well as their bodies.  God expects us to take care of our physical bodies but not at the expense of not exercising our spiritual minds for the glory of God.  There needs to be a real turn to Christ and His Word.

  • Mary Ida Sutton Stephens

     

    Mary Ida Stephens will be spoken of today in our church where she attended faithfully and participated beautifully. As her pastor, there is an emptiness that has affected me since her sickness and Home-Going. It was the last few weeks of her life that really concerned me, that drew my heart to the God of heaven for her and the family she loved. Early on Sunday morning she passed into glory; that still leaves a void in the heart.

     

    I am so grateful for God’s good work in her and God’s good work through her. She brightened our lives and others. Her fingerprints will continue to be seen and missed. Mary Ida touched a lot of lives. She is indelibly etched upon our hearts and minds.

     

    At this time we are reminded of God’s gift He gave to us here at Kinnett. Lots of good things happened when Ron and Mary Ida made their way to Morehead Street in Burlington. They were such a blessing!

     

    We love her family. They have been supportive of Ida and have been very kind to her. We have seen the grace of our great and wonderful God to her children and her family. It is hard to replace a lady like unto her. But who wants to replace her?  She was unique, loving, talented, and gracious.

     

    I pray that when God takes us home that it will be said of each that we have effected change.  May it be said, “We loved God more than anything or anyone.”

     

    Give God all of yourself; don’t hold anything back – for only what’s done for Christ will last. We think if we hold on to this or hold on to that tightly that all be good. No, my friend, what we give up and give over and lose will be that which we will hold in eternity.

     

    We look forward to the day when we will see, again, Mary Ida Stephens. Her body will be laid to rest today awaiting resurrection. She is not here. She is with her Lord and all of the saints of glory! What a reunion it will be when we will see Mary Ida in the light of Christ’s glory.

     

    I love you dearly,

     

    Pastor Don