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BE WISE AS SERPENTS

Given the choice of experiencing acceptance or rejection, the choice is very easy to make.  All of us want to be accepted.

The fear of rejection may well be the major reason why more Christians don’t share their faith.

Fear of rejection is the irrational fear that others will not accept me for who I am, what I believe, and how I act.

Fear of rejection is the self-censoring attitude that inhibits creativity, productivity, and imagination in our approach to life.

Fear of rejection is the energy-robbing attitude that leads to self-immobilization, self-defeating, and self destructive behavior.

Fear of rejection is the act of giving to others more power than I give to myself over how I feel about myself.

In this Red Letter command from Matthew 10, Jesus gives us reasons why we will suffer rejection:

• Verse 17 – Beware of men who will attack you because of the message.
• Verse 14 – Some will not receive you.
• Verse 14 – Some will not listen to you.
• Verse 22 – Some will even hate you.

The three institutions which God established in this world are the home, government, and the church.  In these last days all of these institutions will oppose the truth instead of promoting it.

Jesus is sending us out as sheep among wolves.

“Behold, I send you forth.”  The pronoun is emphatic, “It is I, the Lord, who send you.”

I send you knowing what you will encounter.  I send you with My Message. I send you with full power, authority, and protection.

We are to “be wise as serpents” as stated in Genesis 3:1.    Serpents sense danger and avoid it if possible.

As God’s witnesses we must possess the wisdom to do the right thing at the right time; to use the best means to achieve the highest goal.

Don’t get into a fight about Jesus; don’t antagonize people whose hearts are hard.

Don’t waste your time or your breath on those who reject His message.

Shake the dust off of your feet and leave (Verse 14).

Our priority should always be to “Live the Red.”

We must strive to please God and not men.  He has “sent us” to boldly proclaim His message in spite of opposition. We must always “let our light shine.”

21 Days of Prayer

Nothing is more needed in our world today than a clear, concise Word from God.  His voice dispels fear and doubt and fills our hearts with peace.

Jeremiah 33:3 (MSG) – “Call to me and I will answer you.  I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.”

Philippians 4:6,7 – “Don’t fret or worry.  Instead of worrying, pray, let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns.  Before you know it, a sense of God’s wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down.  It’s wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.”

Beginning September 10 and continuing for 21 days, theChurch will open both campuses for prayer every day.

            Mornings 6-8am          Mid-day 11am-1pm      Evenings       7-9pm

If you cannot come to theChurch, we ask you to pray wherever you are.

Our Nation and our world is in crisis.  Our economy is in crisis.  Families everywhere are hurting and need healing and restoration.  Pray for each of these concerns and earnestly ask God to give us a time of refreshing and renewal.

Name at least three people you are praying for to come to know Christ and do all in your power to bring them to theChurch.  As God so directs, fast when you can.  Fasting details are available online.

Forgiveness Unlimited 9.27.11

Romans 8:1-2
^1-2With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

Unlimited—vast — without measure – boundless—  are just a few of the words which describe the universe which God created.

Light travels at the speed of 186,000 miles per second which is mere than 11 million miles per minute or approximately 700 million miles per hour, or 17 billion miles in one day, or 64 trillion miles in one year which equals a light year.

Likewise God’s forgiveness of and removal of our sins are just as mind boggling as these numbers.

Everyone everywhere has placed themselves under a legal penalty by the fact that they have voluntarily broken God’s law.

Jesus came and took upon Himself men’s spiritual liabilities and paid the otherwise impossible price of redemption.

The purpose of forgiveness is to restore man’s relationship with God to the state it was in before sin entered. 

God alone cannot restore man to fellowship, man must desire that fellowship.

Repentance is a positive, glorious gift of God that enables us to avert divine judgment for our sins.

The change which repentance brings about is so deep and radical as to affect the whole spiritual nature and to involve the entire personality.  Psychology shows repentance to be profound, personal, and all-pervasive.

When God’s principles are followed, God’s promises are performed.

We must change our attitudes before God will change His judgments.

God forgives us even though He knows us better than we know ourselves.

Guilt is such a destructive force in our lives that Satan does everything in his power to see to it that the guilt is not remitted toward self.

We must never uncover what the Blood has covered.

Empowered By Hope

As an acrostic the word “HOPE” can mean ~

                        Heavenly

                        Optimism

                        Personally

                        Experienced

Hope is a virtue which the soul needs for energy and motivation. Hope is always necessary for the restoration of a wounded spirit.

We need hope to press on, to endure, to stay focused, and to see dreams fulfilled.

Hope has been called the energy and effort of faith.  It is the power to be cheerful in circumstances that we know to be desperate.

Hope fuels life with joy, peace and love.

Two words will help you cope when you run low on hope — Accept and Trust.

Accept the mystery of hardship, suffering, misfortune or mistreatment.  Don’t try to understand it or to explain it.  Accept it.  Move on.   Then trust God to protect you by His power from this very moment to the dawning of eternity.

God has an agenda for each of us.
Jeremiah 29:11 ~ For I know the plans (agenda) I have for you, declares the Lord…to give you a future and a hope.

God’s agenda for His people is that they never lose hope.

Most of all of us are in some sort of a holding pattern, trusting God for something we have prayed for, dreamed of.   I have good news; the Lord is good to those who wait for Him, who seek him.  You should know that God has chosen us to be on His team.  The Lord chooses us because He chooses to choose us.

What are we to hope in?  Our position, our wealth, our privilege or power? No! 

We are to hope in God.

• He commands and inspires hope. 
• He justifies and expects hope. 
• He approves and rewards hope.

There are three simple steps in order for us to experience Christian hope:

1.  In Believing: Doubt interferes with hope.  As you believe God’s Word, and His promises, hope begins to fill your life.
2. Joy: When you exercise faith that the blessings of His Word are indeed yours, joy will    flood your life.
3. Peace: When you trust God with your life, all of it, peace – tranquility of mind, produces hope.

It’s time for a SHIFT!

… Here’s a poem I wrote several months ago during our series called “Shift.”

It started in the garden with the very first man,
In order to be right he needed to take a stand.

Instead of occupying his seat he decided to shift,
From that moment on his soul was adrift.

When you shift a transition begins,
Your choices will determine where it ends.

When God determines your life to shift,
He has in mind a positive lift.

With every shift there opens a door,
Opportunity beckons with potential galore.

Are you facing a shift in your life today?
By all means you must stop and pray.

A shift means change and transition,
God is preparing you for a brand new mission.

This series of messages will bring a sifting,
And cause you to prepare for a shifting.

FINDING YOUR DESTINY

Webster says “destiny is the purpose or end to which any person or thing is appointed.”

Spiritual destiny means living according to God’s plan for your life.

God has destined each of us for great things — not just a mundane, average, ordinary life.

The Bible gives many stories of those who had a destiny, but never lived it:

• Adam and Eve were destined to rule all mankind and the earth, but they forfeited that assigned destiny.
• Esau was to have inherited the birthright from Isaac but sold it out when he was hungry.  His destiny was lost.

Because of sin (Adam and Eve), neglect (Esau), lethargy (Terah), and many have lost their destiny.

To find and live your destiny you must not fear the dangers of stepping out and doing God’s will.

Destiny is realized when you can say with Paul,
          I have fought a good fight,
          I have finished my course,
          I have kept the faith.

If you persevere and never give up on God you will live your destiny.  

What Abraham accomplished, his father failed to accomplish.

Nothing — including sin, disobedience, neglect, lethargy — can stop you from living your God assigned destiny, provided you persevere to the end.

Psalm 139:16:  Your eyes saw my unformed substance, and in Your book all the days [of my life] were written before ever they took shape, when as yet there was none of them.

Jeremiah 29:11:  For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord, thoughts and plans for welfare and peace and not for evil, to give you hope in your final outcome.

The Truth of God!

Genesis 1:1
¹In the beginning God (prepared, formed, fashioned, and) created the heavens and the earth.

What is truth?
How can we know truth?

In America, for many years we had certain presuppositions which influenced the way life was lived.

The basic presupposition was that there really are such things as “Absolutes.”

We accepted the possibility of an “Absolute” in the area of “being” (or knowledge), and in the area of “morals.”

If anything is true, the opposite is false.  If one thing is right, its opposite was wrong.

Today our world is in a “mess” because of the rejection of Biblical absolutes.

The greatest absolute in the entire world is found in Genesis 1:1- In the beginning God…

Without this absolute nothing makes sense.

Man can never understand himself by beginning with himself.
Man can only understand himself by beginning with God.

What every man needs to do is to meet God.  God has revealed everything about himself that we need to know to respond to Him in worship.

Worship of God is always limited to our knowledge of Him because we cannot extol Him beyond our concepts of Him.

Many Christians are more interested in the principles of God than in the person of God. They give to God, receive from Him and work for Him, but never enter into a personal relationship with Him.

The purpose, the reason for man’s existence is found in the first commandment of Christ:

Mark 12:30 - And you shall love the Lord your God out of and with your whole heart and out of and with all your soul (your life) and out of and with all your mind (your faculty of thought and your moral understanding) and out of and with all your strength. 

This truth causes me to know what man is and who I am.

What will you do to get to know Him better?

Identifying Your Identity!

Proverbs 4:23

Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the springs of life.

The greatest wealth is knowing who you really are.

Whoever you can be, you must be.  Every person came with an Identity from God to be discovered in the process of living life.

Nothing is more critical to successful living than knowing who we are.

That which is within the heart of a person is by far the largest and most important part of their existence.

Proverbs 19:21: Many plans are in a man’s mind, but it is the Lord’s purpose for him that will prevail.

Proverbs 20:5:  The purposes of a man’s heart are deep waters, but a man of understanding draws them out.

Our “Identity” must come out of our deep inner self, from the reservoir of God’s truth, wisdom and knowledge.

Our “Identity” should never come from our circumstance, adversity, culture, status, position, past, sins or failures.

Our “Identity” is to be built over the course of our lifetime as we respond to the issues of our life.

Proverbs 4:21, 23:  Keep my words in the center of your heart.  Keep and guard your heart with all vigilance and above all that you guard, for out of it flow the issues of life.

“Issues” means “to go forth, limits, boundaries.”

Your Identity will determine the boundaries, the limits, of your life.

What is your life full of?  When life squeezes you, what comes out?

Do you know the person God designed you to be?  Or, have you become the person the world around you has determined you to be?

God’s Love!

Love is perhaps the greatest subject of all the written and spoken poems, essay and writings.

Both in human terms and in Biblical teachings it is the world’s strongest force.

Someone said love is blind.  Another answered, love is not blind – it sees more, not less.  But because it sees more, it is willing to see less.

Some say love makes the world go around.  It may not make the world go around, but it sure makes the trip worthwhile.

Love can be pictured in many and varied ways:

• A parent holding a newborn;
• A child lovingly holding an animal;
• Two young people sitting and gazing into each other’s eyes;
• A young couple being joined together in marriage;
• An older couple celebrating a wedding anniversary;
• A poppy swinging his grand-daughter.

Without a doubt, love is the greatest of all the forces of heaven or earth.

John simply said “God is love.”  His love is impartial and universal.

There is no single human being created for any other reason than because God loves him.  Love is the supreme and ultimate law of the universe.  Love can subdue the world.

Love binds us together from within.  Love can never be annihilated. Love is the premier teaching of Christianity and an undying expression of Jesus’ doctrine.

Love is more powerful for the building of the church than any, or all, of the various manifestations of God’s power.

Love is the church’s most effective weapon, without which all the various gifts of the spirit are of no avail.

Love is the essence of God’s nature, as well as the perfection of human character. Love is the most powerful, ultimate force in the universe.

God the Father is love in its highest form and reality (John 3:16).

God the son reflected the essence of the Father (John 14:21).

God the Holy Spirit produces in our hearts the fruit of love (Romans 5:5; Galatians 5:22).

Paul said that the only continuing debt we should have is that of loving one another. The Biblical command is to first love God and then to love our neighbor as we love ourselves.

We are to love out of the fullness of God’s prior love to us. Our experience of God’s love provides the inner motivation toward love.

We are not required to create or develop a quantity of love.  Love is not an ideal – it is a relationship.  It is the result of a dynamic and growing relationship with Christ.

Love only happens when you become vulnerable, trusting. Are you ready to love the Lord and trust Him today?

The Will of God is the Real Life of Man

Advertising and marketing agencies often use images to show us what “real” men and women look like and do.

“Real men” ride Harleys, climb mountains, and use bow flex machines.   “Real women” use certain cosmetics, work out at Curves or Lifestyles, and dress in certain ways.

In fact, you could do all those things to perfection and still not be real.  No one is real until they become God-like, because as one becomes God-like, they will find that God’s will calls into play all those powers which God gives to them.

You only have the possibility of truly becoming real when you know and do the will of God. Only then will the gifts and abilities placed into you at conception be released without limits into your life.

No one can experience this kind of fulfillment until there is a renewing of their mind with the mind of Christ.

The conquering principle of life according to Paul is an inward renewal of the mind.

There is a two-fold process of coming to know and do God’s will:

• Do not be “conformed” to the pattern of this world.
• Be “transformed” by the renewing of your mind.

Only then will anyone be able to test and approve what God’s will is.  Every day we must choose to do these things.   All around us a whole climate of life is pressuring us, squeezing us, and insisting we conform, making it costly to us if we don’t.

The only way to escape this “conformity to the world” life is by the transformation of our minds.

Literally, our thinking must be changed by Christ’s mind in us.  Everyday the thinking of the world around me tries to influence “my mind set.”

Worldliness (opposite of godliness), lust, anger, vindictiveness, jealousy, greed, confusion, doubts, and fears take aim at my mind.   To be empowered by His will, we must surrender. 

The will of God is the real life of man.  When we recognize, accept, and agree with His will, our life discovers the harmony of all its powers, the fulfillment of all its hopes, the satisfaction of all its desires.