Author: admin

I grabbed my phone after having it on charge all night and got a glimpse that it had zero percent charge, then it blinked off. I unplugged it and plugged it in again to check it, and sure enough, when I had plugged it in the night before, I did not have a good connection so that it was discharging all night long. When I came to get it, the small amount of power that it took to light up the screen is all it took to completely drain it down to zero. Since I would not be leaving the house for a while, I re-connected it, making sure it was a good connection that was charging. By the time I would be ready to go, it would be ready to go. If we don’t pay attention, we, in our spiritual lives, can be living in a state of being drained, having zero percent charge. When it is time to go, and our screen lights up for the last time, it is seen that there is no life in us; we were not properly connected. But then it’s too late. I remember the little girl interviewing the leader of our mission group in Russia in 1995. There was a team of twenty two of us who went into the region around St. Petersburg. Working with interpreters, we would go into a village and canvass the village during the day praying for people, preaching the gospel of Jesus, and passing out flyers telling about the meeting to be held in the town hall that night. A regional television station came and did an interview that went live to millions of people. The girl doing the interview kept asking direct questions about Jesus and how to be saved and what was involved in being a Christian. When the interview was over she said to the leader that the reason she asked those questions was because she wanted to be saved and know this Jesus we were preaching. She realized she was not connected and had never been connected. She did accept Jesus and commit her life to him, the sure connection.

Many believers have let their connection get corroded with sin and the trials and cares of life. You are living in a state of being drained. As simply as I unplugged and re-plugged the phone we must unplug the bad connection and make a good, clean connection to the power source. By turning from sin and trusting in Jesus for cleansing, and by committing things into his hands, we can be filled with the Holy Spirit to be guided by him. In this way we will have the power to do what we need to do to keep the connection sure. The key to staying charged is simply to check our connection and make sure we are properly connected to the power source of God’s Word and Spirit.

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It was Sunday afternoon. Several family members were eating together in a restaurant, and little two and a half year old Jace had his little toy cows with him at the table. Jace loves his cows. They go with him everywhere he goes, including to bed with him at night and all around the house. The three little cows are made of a breakable plastic, which has rendered one of the cows with only one original leg. Two of the other legs consist of a screw twisted into the remaining part of the leg and body and wrapped with black electrical tape to match the one good remaining black leg. The fourth leg is just missing, which in Jace’s eyes makes no difference, even though the cow cannot stand up. His Father will fix that fourth leg, but Jace loves his cows no matter how banged up, impaired, and non-functional they might be. If you have Jace with you, you have his three cows with you.

The Bible says when we were without strength Christ died for the ungodly, and that God “commendeth his love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:6-8). In other words, even though we are like Jace’s broken cows and cannot stand on our own feet God’s love toward us is not diminished one minute. He still wants us to be with him at all times and be healed and restored in every way. In order for us to be with him, he sent his Son into this world to be our Savior. Jesus conquered all the temptations of the flesh and devil so he never sinned and was totally pure and righteous for us. He was beaten at the hands of the authorities which secured healing for everyone who believes (Isaiah 53:5). He died for us as the totally acceptable sacrifice in the eyes of God. His blood sacrifice was full payment for the sins of all mankind, for whosoever believes and receives him into their life as their one Lord and Savior (John 3:16). He was raised by the power of God’s Spirit, victorious over sin, satan, death, and the grave. He is seated at the Father’s right hand of all power and authority, and those who believe, are positioned with him in that spiritual realm. Through the power of that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, by our receiving and walking in that Spirit, God has provided for us to be with him at all times to walk and talk with him and live in his renewing power on earth today. He has promised to keep us and take care of us if we believe and walk in his Lordship. This is the Good News of Jesus. How Jace loves his three cows is how God loves us and keeps us with him at all times as we give ourselves to him.

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Many years ago I had an orange, Volkswagon bug. It was parked on the side of the street in a parallel parking spot. A disoriented driver came along the street in a vehicle and accidentally rammed the bug in the rear. Amazingly the back glass popped out intact and landed on the narrow grassy strip between the concrete curb of the street and the concrete sidewalk. It rested parallel to the street and sidewalk, unbroken. The impact damaged the engine causing it to leak oil. I was happy that I was able to re-install the unbroken glass, and by keeping several quarts of oil with me in the car, I was able to drive it until I was could get it worked on. Then after getting the oil leak fixed, I drove the rammed bug until I sold it.

Sometimes things happen that are amazing. It makes us stop and wonder about the fact that it happened as it did. We all have stories of such wonderment of things that have happened in everyday life. It is no different in the Bible. Jesus was anointed with, was endued with, the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. The Bible says he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed of the devil, for God was with him (Acts 10:38). Blind eyes were opened, inoperative limbs were made whole, and the dead were raised. There were many things done through his life that made people stop and wonder about what happened. After the people were filled with the Spirit in the book of Acts, the same types of things happened through their lives. People talked about and wondered about what was happening. Today, many of us say God is with us. It is one thing to say it, and it is another thing to truly believe it. God was with Jesus and signs and wonders occurred through his life. God was with the early church and signs and wonders occurred through their lives. Today, if we really give ourselves to believe that God is with us, the Bible says signs and wonders will follow. “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover” (Mark 16:17,18). Our lives will show what we believe. What we show causes people to think about it, wonder about it and talk about it. That’s OK. Whether it is a banged up bug with unbroken glass, or blind eyes that have been blessed to be opened, amazing things happen in life!

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I was painting a house at a place in the country, where they have several dogs. One dog stood out in particular as I was working in and around the place. They were all friendly and settled, but this one would suddenly run out across the field barking. I looked to see what he was barking at, and at first it seemed there was nothing there in the open field. But as I studied it more closely, I realized that the dog was barking at the buzzard that was sailing around in the sky. “Well”, I thought, “now that’s a good watchdog! Not even a buzzard can sneak up on the place.” As I continued to observe over the days that I worked at that place, I realized that he is in fact a good watchdog. He does not bark unless there is something that is invasive or out of place. That’s a good dog to have around. If he barked excessively, you would not pay attention to him. But as he is, when you hear his bark, you know there is something there, even if it is just a buzzard sailing around over the field.

Jesus told his disciples that when he went away he would send the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and he would be their guide and helper. Not only does the gospel provide forgiveness of sins for us, but it also affords the divine “watchdog” to warn, alert, and instruct us in those things that need to be brought to our attention. The Bible says that God is faithful and will not allow us to be tempted above that we are able, but will with the temptation (a putting to proof, trial, adversity) also make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it (1 Corinthians 10:13). With this being so, the “watchdog” of the Holy Spirit must be barking a lot and often, warning, alerting, and instructing us, because life carries a constant stream of temptations, trials, and adversities. If we ignore his warnings and fail to watch, then something can over take us. If we will listen and see what it is all about, then we are in a position to do whatever we need to do. If the fowl of the air, a Biblical reference to the spirits of the devil, are floating over our field (Matthew 13:4), it is good to have a divine alert of what is going on. I am persuaded that the Holy Spirit will communicate with us constantly if we will give ourselves to him to allow that communion. Certainly, according to the Word, he will faithfully warn us as needed. So if we hear some barking at the buzzards going on in our heart, we need to pay attention and check it out. God always has our best interest in mind.

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I shared with my wife, Barbara, one morning before I went to work, that I had a project ahead of me of white-washing some interior wooden walls. I have done lots of painting in my days, but I have never white-washed anything. Outside of reading how Tom Sawyer whitewashed the fence, I have never paid any attention to the technique. I decided to run by the Sherwin Williams Paint store and see if they had any special product for such a project. I walked in the store and told the manager what my project was and asked him if he had any special product for it. As I talked with the manager at one counter, I was aware of a man doing something with paint over at the other counter. The manager replied to my inquiry by referring me to the man at the other counter who was creating some samples of white-washing for a customer of his. I just stepped into a white-washing tutorial, learned exactly what I needed to know, made acquaintance with the man and thanked him, and went on to the job. I mentioned to them that it worked out real good that I could step in the store and learn all I needed to know. I further stated that we believe in applying the Word of God to our lives in specific ways, and that the Word says in Psalms that the Lord surrounds us with his favor (5:12). I went on to the job, created a couple of samples for the owner to see, and went on with some other painting. When I got home from work that afternoon, Barb asked how my day went. I told her about the white-wash tutorial incident. She said that as I drove out of the driveway this morning she was prompted to pray for me that I have wisdom, and have it easily and quickly for the whitewashing job. Wisdom doesn’t come any easier or quicker that what I experienced that day!

The Word says the Holy Spirit is given as a helper, and, that a wife is given as a helper. If you get them both working together, now that’s some help! Bottom line is this: Jesus said of believers, “ If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you” (John 15:7). Since the Spirit of God is given as the helper to believers, it would behoove us to listen to his promptings and do what he directs us to do. Only good things can come from it. We can actually live a lifestyle of hearing and responding to him if we will. All it takes is that we lay our lives at his feet for him to do with us whatever he so desires. It is sort of like the monkey trap. We can hold on to our life like the monkey holds to the banana with his hand in the snare, or, we can “let our life go” by giving it to the Lord, like if the monkey turns the banana loose, his hand is free to be removed from the trap. Such commitment to the Lord to abide in him will bring multiplied rewards both now and for all eternity.

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We enjoy burning wood for heat in the winter. It is a lot of hard work to cut, split, and stack, then go out in the cold and get bundles of wood into the house. I have a canvas carry bag that carries several sticks of wood. Since I want to make the most of every trip I tend to load it up until it is a little bit heavier than I really want to carry. That makes it hard, and, it is dirty. When bringing it in and loading it in the wood bin, and taking it out of the bin to put it in the stove, debris falls off in the floor. Then when you burn it, and remove the ashes, a fine dust settles on the stove and surrounding area. Also, anytime the babies come to visit, the screen goes up to keep them away from the hot stove. But you know what? We still like to burn wood for supplementary heat. It just seems like there is nothing like being able to back up to a wood stove and get toasty warm all over inside and out. We also enjoy the evenings, to sit down and relax with the fire flickering through the window of the stove. So, one day, in the process of cleaning the ashes out from the stove, my shovel kept hitting something which seemed like something other than the normal remaining small chunks of coals and ashes. As I dug around to lift it out I found a small piece of barb wire in my little shovel. It had been embedded in a piece of wood that the chain saw had fortunately missed. It was hidden down deep, never to be seen except for when it was all put in the fire. The fire will reveal the hidden things that are buried deep as it burns away what covers it up. That tree had the barb wire attached to it so long that it slowly grew around it so it was imbedded and unseen.

This happens to us sometimes. We make choices allowing the barb wire to be attached to us so that it becomes part of our personality. Self- imposed barriers and restrictions and foreign, injurious, thoughts and actions become imbedded. We are told that Jesus will baptize believers with the Holy Ghost and fire (Matthew 3:11). There is a working of God in our lives in which we not only have our present sins forgiven and washed away, but he will go deeper and reveal the inward causes, if we will allow him to do so. He wants to set us free from the inside out. Deep wounds must heal over a period of time from the inside out. As we avail ourselves to him, and immerse ourselves in his powerful Word, he is faithful, he will heal us. As we pursue and allow the fire of his Word and Spirit to burn in our lives, and pay attention, we will be able to see and understand and receive freedom. He will speak to us personally in our heart and mind, or he might speak to us through somebody. Either way, God is merciful and faithful to those who will come to him believing. As the fire to the wood revealed the wire, so will the Holy Spirit reveal and free us from our hidden barb wires.

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I overheard a phone conversation to learn that a certain handicapped person’s toilet seat was broken. I volunteered to run by on my way to work and put a new one on right quick. I knew it would only take a few minutes and I would be gone. I went across town to the location and saw the size, type, and color and went back across town to Home Depot in Benton to pick one up. Because of the way it was mounted on the handicap fixture, I decided that instead of it having plastic hinges like the broken one, I would get one that had metal hinges so it would hold up better. I went to the selection of toilet seats, saw the metal hinged one hanging over its bin of boxed seats, raised it up, grabbed a box, and took off to pay for it. I was wasting no time. I will “git ‘er done” so I can drive on to Arkadelphia and go to work. When I got back to the house and pulled the new seat out of its box, I was irritated to only discover that the seat had plastic hinges (a customer or someone had placed the wrong seat in that bin) and the holes in the tubular structure of the handicap toilet seat frame were not quite large enough to receive the new screws. With a twinge of exasperation, I drilled the holes slightly larger, and when I mounted the seat I saw that by design, the way this seat mounted, it would not take long for it to break also. So I removed it, drove back across town, and made sure, by the numbers, that I was getting the right seat. I went back across town, got the seat installed satisfactorily, and finally went on to work. When I grabbed the first seat I assumed it was the right seat in the box because it was in the bin under the metal hinged seat. I did not check the numbers.

We can assume that our spiritual life is OK because we feel like we are OK and have a sense of peace. (We can sit in a hen house for 20 years, but that doesn’t make us a chicken.) We need to check the numbers on the package to make sure they correspond with the numbers on the lid. We need to check our life out with what the Word says to make sure we are right with God the Bible way, and in the full blessing of what Jesus Christ has done for us. With the steel of the Word as our confidence, we have a source of strength to hold up under the pressure. Plus, when that day comes when we cross over to the other side, that same source of strength in the Lord will be our place of refuge and blessing for all eternity. It pays eternal dividends to go by what is written.

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As a kid raised in rural Arkansas, I lived on a small acreage on which we had various farm animals. My Dad went through a time of having some fowl that went beyond the norm. In addition to the regular farm fowl of chickens, we also had some pheasant. They were wild and crazy, always trying to fly through the roof of the pen. We had quail that were raised from eggs that we incubated. I don’t know if there is any cuter baby fowl than a baby quail. And, somehow, I don’t remember, we obtained 25 wild mallards that had to have their wings clipped to keep them around. A mallard duck is also a beautiful bird. We lived in an old, worn out house before we tore it down and built a new one. It had the old double hung, single-pane windows with the window weights inside that would rattle when you raised the window. I slept in the summer time with that window up for cooling with no screen on it. For some reason I got the bright idea that if I threw some corn out the window, it would be fun to watch the ducks eat and carry on. Early one morning I did just that, and sure enough those ducks found it and thoroughly enjoyed it. Well, next morning about daybreak, guess who was back at the window and guess who got fed corn again! This became routine. It seemed harmless enough. But then, it was realized that when it rained, with twenty five ducks outside your window putting out more than what they took in, a smelly loblolly was created. Plus, no matter if you wanted to sleep in, twenty five ducks outside your bedroom window at daybreak, demanding their breakfast, is not conducive to deep, blissful sleep! Eventually the ducks got hauled off to a friend’s large pond, but the lesson I will never forget.

We can engage in something that seems fun and harmless enough to only learn that there are consequences in the end. Feeding your ducks might be fun for a while, but the Word will stand true, sooner or later we will reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7,8). The good news is that through what Jesus Christ has done for us, we can sow into his kingdom and reap eternal good. Are you caught in the trap of enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season? (Hebrews 11:25) Repentance and faith in Jesus can get you out of the trap, although the consequences might still be in place. If you don’t want your life to have a disturbing, loud, mess on your hands, then don’t feed the ducks out of your bedroom window.

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I recently learned of a strategic planning technique called a SWOT Analysis. The acronym stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. If a person examines the business, the organization, the relationship or oneself by this guide, understanding can be obtained of what is needed to advance into a greater good and effectiveness. We are approaching a new year. The next 50 days or so would be a good time to apply the SWOT Analysis to all areas of our lives to help set our goals for the coming year.

The Word of God says, “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2 Corinthians 13:5) The standard by which we can examine ourselves is Jesus Christ himself and the truths and principles of the Word of God. Concerning ourselves and our personal relationships and our interactions with others, we can observe the life, ministry, and attitudes of Jesus and readily see his strengths and our weaknesses. This is why the message of Jesus to the whole world was “repent”, be changing your mind and your attitudes and the way you do things in order to line up to God’s ways (Mark 1:15). When we believe the good news and line up to God, and God’s mind, and God’s attitudes, we are on the road to well-being and prosperity. Will there be adversity and even outright opposition? Absolutely! But with our lives committed to go with God, the grace of God is released in our lives to carry us through to victory.

This SWOT Analysis is good for every pastor and every church. We can see what Jesus did and what the early church did and ask ourselves, “What of this are we doing, and what of this are we not doing?” With some gut honesty and by laying all reasons and excuses aside, we can get a clear picture of what our goals for our church and our ministry needs to be. If we embrace a doctrine that limits the operation of God in this modern day saying that the power of God is not like it used to be, that certainly needs to be laid aside with the understanding that the Word says Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Hebrews 13:8). When we can clearly see where we stand and where God wants us to go, then we can set our goals in line with God’s way and we can give ourselves to him to be and to accomplish what he wants us to be and to accomplish. That is a good thing for the coming year!

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I was probably somewhere between eleven and thirteen years old. The barn situated on our small farm was about 75 feet from the stock pond. It was a hot and dusty summer, and we were keeping some hogs in the side shed of the barn. Knowing how pigs love to wallow in the mud, I decided to bring water from the pond and provide a mud hole for the pigs. I got a 5 gallon bucket and proceeded to tote water. The pigs responded with grunts and squeals of delight as they rooted around in and wallowed in the mud. I remember it took lots of water to make a nice, big, loblolly. It was a lot of hot work for this skinny little kid, but when I reached a stopping point, I perched right there on top of those old rough fence boards and thoroughly enjoyed watching those pigs enjoy their mud hole. Years later, as a father of four, I thoroughly enjoyed watching my children enjoy things in which they delighted. Today, I enjoy seeing grandkids laugh and play as they enjoy the swings and other good things that are provided for them.

Jesus said if you, as an “evil” or “natural” parent enjoy seeing your kids partake of and enjoy good things that you provide them, in the same manner the heavenly Father enjoys seeing his kids enjoy good things from his hand. Jesus affirmed that the Father won’t give you anything bad, and if you will ask, seek, and knock, he will give you the Holy Spirit to assist you in your daily walk through this life with his supernatural gifts and power (Luke 11:9-13). In another place Jesus said it was the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom (Luke 12:32). Our heavenly Father enjoys seeing us prosper and be in health even as our soul prospers (3 John 2). Satan, has come to steal, kill, and destroy, Jesus has come to give life and life more abundant (John 10:10). Any mentality that might beset us that says God lays hard things and bad things on us to teach us a lesson doesn’t fit. Yes, he will be with us when the hard and bad comes, and we can learn good lessons from bad things in life, but we can know of a certainty that God is always for us and not against us. God has good things for us, not bad things. Your summer might be hot and dusty and your spiritual ground is parched and dry. Remember that if you ask, seek, and knock, God will thoroughly enjoy pouring out for you a blessing of living water through the Holy Spirit in which you can wallow and be as happy as a pig in mud.

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