That Name! Jesus!

God is talking, are we listening? In these last days He is speaking to us through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Times are fleeing and lives are valued by what we do with Jesus. But are we listening? How far have we drifted from God and His voice? Have we become more dull of hearing and distracted by the things of the day? Satan is our invisible enemy.

I am praying that my world will hear what God is saying, and to the church may we hear her Shepherd and draw nigh to His side. The world needs to realize that repentance is a necessity and only the Holy Spirit can reveal Christ to the lost and of its unbelief in His Son. They are dead in trespasses and sins and only He can give life. He is the Creator and Redeemer! All things began by Him and they will end in Him. And all will stand before Him! And one day all will kneel before Him!

The people of God should examine themselves and to repent of her selfishness and fleshly ways. We should know better but we have a drift as well from God’s ways. Our ways are not His ways and therefore we must know Him, hear Him, so as to follow Him. As the church goes so goes the family, the city, the country, and the world. Without the church who is to become a part of the conscience which awakens the sinner all will continue in its apostasy. So will the church listen to what God is saying to her? Will we love, pray, witness, give, confess our need to Him, or will we continue to try to deafen what He is saying? He is slow to judgment and yet He is great in mercy!

May we draw nigh and He has promised to draw nigh to us. Listen to Him!

Pastor Don

Our church’s address is no mistake.  God has placed us here to reach out to those who surround us in our neighborhood.  We have this great privilege and responsibility before God.

The Lord has also given us the privilege to live where we do.  It is here on our streets that we become mission minded to those who are our neighbors.  We have the great joy of mastering the art of neighboring.  Our neighbors need Christ, and we have the tool to do just this.

What do we do as we gather in our church buildings?  We learn who we are, and that God has given us a special commission to reach others through prayer and discipleship.  It is our responsibility to share and God’s responsibility to save.

Let’s refocus our prayer ministry toward our neighbors.

Love in Christ,

Pastor Don

“O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy
servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who delight to fear thy name;
and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the
sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer” (Nehemiah 1:11).

The basis of courage is individual initiative. If we cannot act alone, we
cannot act together.

God has given us the power to lead. Our knowledge and skill developed by God
in us has given his people the ability to lead.

But it is only under the most difficult of circumstances that character and
courage earns us the right to lead.

Nehemiah led, even under great adverse situations to rebuild the walls of
Jerusalem.

Dear Kinnett,

When I left the church’s building after our service this past morning several matters gripped my soul.  

1. I thought of those traveling home in the heavy rain and I asked the Lord for their safety.
2. I thought of those who were at home who truly are not well, and I prayed for them.
3. I thought of an illustrative point made at the beginning of my message yesterday too.  “A pastor met up with a delinquent church member and said to him that he had missed him for several weeks at the church meeting.  The man replied back to the pastor, ‘Well, you know, the children have been sick, we’ve been out-of-town, and besides that, it’s been raining.”  And the pastor said, “Well, it’s dry over at the church.”  And the delinquent church member said, “Yea, that’s another reason.”

While I traveled home my heart was lifted up to the Lord in prayer that He would send a deluge of rain to take the dryness away from our homes, communities, and churches.  We need more than “Mercy Drops Round Us Are Falling” for we are in great need of a flood sent from God upon the dry and parched ground.

Only the reading of the Word of God and the praying of the Word back to God will move the heart and hand of God.  The church is too busy today.  We hustle and bustle around while accomplishing nothing but clouds without water.

Please take time to pray.  Take time to be holy.  Take time to behold Him!

God, burden us of the aridness that surrounds us and is in us.  Prepare us for Spiritual Rain.

Pastor Don

God has placed the local church in divinely appointed areas. We are located in Burlington near the interstate not far from downtown. While we are a body of believers that gather weekly we are also a church that scatters daily.

There is a scene that we do not see. It is the invisible spiritual world that is playing its game of havoc upon mankind in the physical visible world. When the church is not available in prayer then the invisible world runs amuck upon the visible world.

As the church is on the scene and praying then we know that the invisible spiritual world of God is available to us. When God’s presence is thick and real then sin is defeated and Satan is deposed. Prayer is needed to ask God for His activity.

May we pray and go in the name that is above every name. Prayer gives us wisdom, power, and purity. Prayerlessness is terrible. There is power in congregational prayer and power in the individual prayer. Let’s Pray. We can’t see the wind but we can feel it. So what we see and feel is dependent upon God’s people as we pray.