Knowing Our Mission Field

Thanksgiving is a result of being filled with the Spirit of God. We are not thankful for one day but for every day of the year. Even in the bad circumstances, we should be focused on Him-the Author and Finisher of our faith. Only the Spirit of God can make us truly thankful. If you have the life of Christ in you then you have the greatest of possibilities to be thankful.

It is only God in you who will allow you to rejoice, to sing, to be aware of what He is doing. Only as you and I stay in constant contact with our Savior can we know what it means to be true to worship, pray, and praise. If we are not consciously thinking of His presence in us then we will back out of the Throne Room of God and find nothing but the world, the flesh, and Satan enticing us to our own resources.

How sad it is when we are in the reality of the presence of Christ in us! Turn from sin and turn to the Savior. Live and move and have your being in Him.

May we think so we may thank!

Did you know that 95 percent of all believers placed their faith in Jesus primarily because of someone in their OIKOS Group? The Greek word “OIKOS” is a noun, it means an extended household. What this means is that you and I have approximately 8 to 15 people that are in our world where you share life most closely. This is your sphere of greatest influence. If I were to ask in a room full of congregants of who came to Christ mainly because of someone who brought you to church, told you about Christ, invited you to hear and become a part of the community of believers, almost everyone (95%) in the church service would raise their hands and say “Yes, someone in my sphere of living invited me to church, to Christ, or was just there to be a sign for salvation.” Most people come to Christ because of someone who was interested in them. So the world-changer is the one who actively encourages people in their relational world (their oikos) to become Christ followers.You can become a World-Changer! It’s not hard, nor is it complex.You just select up to four names who are Pre-Christians who have not placed their faith in Jesus and then you begin to pray for them everyday. You also will pick out Prodigals who are believers but who are not actively pursuing their faith; write them down and pray for them daily. Then there are those who are Purposefuls, believers who are actively pursuing their faith. Take these names, write them down, pray for them. And finally there are the Potentials. These are those who keep showing up on your life’s front burner more often than in the past. You write those names down and pray for them.In all you will have eight to fifteen people that you will pray for everyday.You list their names, pray daily for your names, invest and watch for appropriate ways to be God’s instrument, and invite them to church thoughtfully and regularly, and prepare to become a better example of faith in Christ as well as a more effective witness of His grace. The Bible tells us Jesus said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you” (Mark 5:19). This is our oikos.This is how we follow Jesus and become fishers of men.

Very soon the church as a whole will begin to experience the life changing, daily washing of care and compassion for others, and we will begin to see the manifest presence of Christ as we trust and obey. I love you with the love of the Lord! Pray for your OIKOS! Those you go to school with, those who you work with, those who are your neighbors, those who are your relatives, those who are the others. Write them down-8 to 15 and pray and let God do the work through you.

-Pastor Don

Link to Oikos brochure

Many are setting up their Christmas trees and decorations a tad bit earlier this year. The Christmas music is already in the homes and cars of America and around Alamance County. The prospect of a happier time is trying to make its place in our bewildering times in this year of the Pandemic.

Jesus came during days of great distress. The Lord Jesus, Son of God, was birthed into this world of woe. God was contracted to the womb of a mother. He left the world of glory for a world of gore. How it must have broken His heart as He saw this world from His vantage point with the Father. Yet He chose to redeem us from the works of Satan and the power of death which legally Satan held sway over us. Adam surrendered his rule and authority under God and caused great harm!

Remember that our Lord had no real joyful Christmas experience. Everything for Him was deep sorrow as He saw mankind without a Shepherd. The only tree He had to look forward to was the impending tree of death. There were no ornaments, no lights, or presents under that cross of blood. It seemed as if Heaven nor earth wanted Him as He hung on the shameful cross suspended in air.

This world still hates Him, despises Him, ignores Him, and rebukes Him. If it had its choice the world at large would physically have Him murdered again! The infection of sin is incurable in the heart of man. The ego is set so far away from God and can’t cross the chasm it has made for itself. Only God can surgically remove the stain, shame, and guilt and the power of this most disastrous virus of sin. Only He can come to us. Only He is the Great Physician!

Jesus lived in the midst of the wilderness and loneliness of a world living in sin. Nothing around Him satisfied Him or slaked His thirst. What the world gave Him was a Gethsemane and Golgotha and a Judas. What the world presented to Him was a scourging, a crown of thorns, and nails that were pounded into His hands and feet. What kind of presents from our hands for the King of glory! What love that He would give and not to revile or seek vengeance against us but for our healing!

Our Christmas season ought to center in the heart of God. Our total lives daily ought to be of Christ’s heart for His Father, His total obedience to the second person of the Godhead, and for the sons of men from Adam’s fallen human race.

May it be said of us that what we are wishing for this Christmas season is none other but the total glory of Christ! What do you give to a King who has it all? The only thing I know is our total submission to God’s anointed! And the only way to do this is submit ourselves to the Holy Spirit of Christ.

A Merry Christmas is found only in Him! A New Year is only found in Him! Eternal life begins when you bow before Him and repent and believe upon God’s only Name that will save you and me from the ravages of a lost life.

You are loved,
Pastor Don

Every year draws closer to the Lord’s return. He has been received in Heaven awaiting the day of all things to completely be fulfilled before He comes again. His plan is on purpose and deliberate. From the creation of the galaxies to this globe, God determined to settle the mystery of iniquity and to defeat all evil and wickedness. One glorious day there will never be the movement of sin.

When all vestige of sin is taken away there will never be the thought of worry, sorrow, and death. It was sin that brought all that is bad, but it was our sin that brought our Savior all the way down from His home which was to set us free from the tyranny of Satan’s works.

Let’s ask ourselves if we have seen anyone come to Christ during this year personally in our walk and talk of Jesus? Do we need revival in our lives? Have we grown accustomed to the culture and the ways of man? Are we asleep in the household of faith? Does what the pastor says shake you to your core through the messages? Do you get mad at the message, or sad, and then glad because you understand. These are real questions we need to answer ourselves. People are not looking for pat answers in their sorrows, they are searching for that which is real and true, they want to see Jesus in you.

God’s people in the beginning of the church age were people of extreme joy, deliberation, discipline, and worship. Though they were persecuted they endured, and they overcame. Our world of America is fast becoming a thing of the past. We can have a booming economy, freedom of religion, and open doors in our churches, but if we do not become a bastion of faith ourselves as individuals then we are only fooling ourselves to believe all is okay.

Let’s ask God to give revival in us. Are we seeing the burning bush of revival in us who is the Holy Spirit. Let’s examine our hearts by His Word and through His Spirit. You see, it takes more than just doing church work! Our church work must begin with Him in the holy sanctuary of our lives. We are the temples of the Holy Spirit. He lives within and indwells us as believers. And the church is the temple of the Holy Spirit.

If nothing is happening through us that is unexplainable than we need to look up and look within. Only that which is unexplainable can be said it is of God. God’s people are supernaturally natural and naturally supernatural. Think on that for a while . God’s people are saved, separated, sanctified, supernatural, splendid people. They witness without witnessing because it is Christ working through them.
May we have 20/20 vision for the year 2020.

I do love you dearly,
Pastor Don