Politics and Faith

All too often people who think of themselves as “Christians” still choose to vote based on values outside of what we are called to do and who we are called to be in the gospel.  I want to encourage each one of us over the next weeks and months to look at our faith, consider His message and to vote according to our informed conscience.

I won’t presume to suggest what that answer should be for anyone else; each of us must come to a decision we can defend before God.  Abortion, war, poverty and heresy all call out for our attention these days along with so many other issues that I know God has a message about.  Be like Elijah, listen in the silences for the voice of God, and I know you will find an answer.

Continue reading

His Glory, His Gospel, Our Gifts

If I am a little scattered please understand that I am thinking many different things right now.  Let me share them with you.

1.  I am gainfully employed!  After spending 2 months searching I was hired today to return to my first love in sales, handling scientific instruments!  For those who don’t know my background is in chemistry and I worked as a forensic scientist for a number of years before going into sales.  (Think CSI)

2.  Pure Gratitude to God.  I went to Mass yesterday to say “Thank you” to the Lord for His manifest bounty to me.  At Mass a very cool thing happened that I’d like to share.  At St. Joseph’s in New Paltz Friday is the day for Eucharistic Adoration.  For my non-Catholic friends, we believe that the bread and wine become the literal body and blood of Jesus Christ.  As such we offer adoration to Him in His presence thanking God for His sacrifice and His love.  As this went on I felt a chill run up my spine and I could feel the presence of the Lord.  Not only was He in this church, he was in my heart!  It was a very thrilling experience.

3.  My new boss, Jim, has brain cancer.  Please pray for him.  Jim is a faithful Christian who is using this trial to witness his beliefs in the face of a terrible illness and in a short time I have come to admire him.  May the Lord give Jim and his family strength through this challenging time.

4.  I read Tony’s latest post.  Believe me, Tony, God has His hand upon you.  I can personally attest to your influence on my life and my faith journey.  You lead me beside still waters my friend, God will always walk with you.

OK, enough.  Know that He is walking among us this very day.  His truth and His glory form our legacy and we are each called to His witness.  Can we possibly expect greater love than that?

Ross

Continue reading

Only in God

At some point and time today I could hear the voices clearly, pleading with me to walk away from everything. Voices of despair and hopelessness, voices that declared that all things will remain the same, and the end will be one of dismal failure on God’s part. Of course the voices shout of my own failure as well, but they are more determined to convince me that God simply will fail to show up and honor His word, and our prayers.

As the voices increased in pitch and volume I went to prayer and heard the Holy Spirit saying prayer must increase, indeed He described it to me as the nails that hold and fasten every wall together, and no spiritual house can be built and remain apart from real and substantial prayer. As leaders Darlene and I must of a necessity demonstrate that our house is a house of prayer, before we can even lead any of those we are called to serve in this same direction.

It is only in God that my soul finds rest.

 

Continue reading

The Lack of sincerity

Stupefies me beyond belief. I speak of my own self and I might as well throw most of Christendom in here as well since it is obvious to most everyone.

If we could only be sincere for one week of our lives, what an impact that would make; Christ actually manifest in His Body upon the Earth, even the Church!

Kyrie eleison

Continue reading

Another gathering for “revival” prayer

We will gather again this morning to pray for real and substantial “revival” in the Body of Christ on the earth. Thousands of others throughout the world will do the same, but I am reminded of those who once prayed with us and have now chosen a lesser path, an easy road to travel.

September will be three years we have continued on a weekly basis and I can only pray we grow in hunger and passion that this weekly gathering will not suffice. Some have been swept away with contentment and delusions of grandeur and office, while others have simply found the cost too much. We know what it is to be rejected by our own leadership, or at least those who were supposed to lead us, yet we continue to pray!

Father I thank you for those who continue in prayer, not content to remain within the walls of the Laodicean church!

Rev. 3:16

Continue reading

His Love, His Hope

I was listening to the radio this morning and heard a sermon (part of one anyway) and the key point was that no matter what challenges we face, no matter what pain we bear, we need always find hope in Him.  God always offers us a path to hope and reward, regardless of the life challenges we might face.

Blessed be God forever.

Continue reading

If we fail at everything else…

…perhaps we can get something accomplished by simply loving. May we simply love the brethren, and may we simply offer love to all. May we strive to let His love flow through these earthen vessels that have been defaced by sin, sorrow, and shame.

Continue reading

In Gratitude for His Love

I have been truly blessed by the folks who write this blog.  They have shown me the true meaning of His love by offering their help and support to me as I have struggled with sin and with temptation.  I cannot thank each of you enough!

I am slowly healing from an ordeal of my own making, sin had me down and struggling, facing a life of eternal damnation along with a current life of shame.

Through so many wonderful Christians  I have found my way back onto His path.  The love of God and the forgiveness He offers are overwhelming, but they are manifestly real.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow!  I sing alleluia and offer Him my praise.

Continue reading

Thy Glory

I found a poem today by Leonard Ravenhill titled “Thy Glory”.

The stanza that makes my heart ache: “O Lord , we labor in a day when men of faith are few.  Now just a remnant to watch and pray.  Again we beg-endue thy church with apostolic power for true revival this hour.”

THIS hour Lord, is my prayer.

Continue reading

Warnings that are never heeded…

Secular authorities are screaming from the walls every day that the Earth is in trouble and we cannot continue on this path of environmental and ecological disrespect and destruction. The warnings are dire and the celebrities act like they believe, then they have a fundraiser and continue to live in mind boggling self indulgence. We seldom heed warnings at all and the prophets of old knew this well for they often experienced it firsthand, that is the judgments that follow when people reject the warnings.

Well we stand on the verge of the same event, or events once again. It isn’t the chaos and global warming disasters that scientist and Madonna are concerned about, it is the events of the Book of Revelation that are truly looming directly on the road ahead! The wonderful rosey life of the average American, and those around the world that no nothing but comfort and fatness is on the verge of being no more. When is it going to happen, I don’t know if any prophets have been given a clock, but when I look at the signs it is like looking at the sky right before dusk. Any idiot should know it is going to be dark in just a little while. The sun has already dropped below the horizon, so what else is there except the long night ahead.

Believers be warned that the word urges us to “pray that ye enter not into temptation!” He will not abandon us, and no we will not suffer His wrath, for it is indeed resting on those who reject the word of the Lord, but “…a thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand.” We are not going to be immune from seeing the beginning of the end. Judgment will truly begin as prophesied in the house of God, but what is about to befall the ungodly is beyond our comprehension. Prophets are going to scream from the walls in the days ahead, but believers who love the prosperity and comfort gospels will not give heed anymore than the Israelites of old. Some of those who are utterly lost and depraved will respond to the warnings with great zeal while believers turn from the faith because it didn’t pan out as the 100 fold return they were expecting vanishes into the abyss of a shattered economy and a government that cannot rescue the rich, let alone the average and the poor.

Remember and recall it in the times ahead that the word has gone out, and the congressmen and senators will not even bother to propagate their lies and feigned concern for the less fortunate. They will scramble in madness and terror at their own fortunes being stripped and the real faces of woefully corrupt leaders will be made evident, not that anyone will care when it happens. After all there will be more pressing issues to face for the individual, but know that that 91st Psalm does declare that “…it shall not come nigh thee.” We may see it on both sides, and all around, but we are ” the body of Christ” and:

NJB Romans 6:9 We know that Christ has been raised from the dead and will never die again. Death has no power over him any more.

Beloved, be sober, be aware, give ear to every word from the Holy Spirit in the days ahead, for the time is increasingly short, and we must yield to the His desire and forget about our own, so His glory may truly fill this temple as the darkness multiplies.

 

Continue reading

prev posts