5 Become One...

Well I think it’s finally froze over.:) We finally have five churches in our area that realize it’s not about denomination, it’s not about each individual church, it’s not about them, it’s not about the building that great grandpa helped build, it’s all about the saving grace and love of Jesus. We finally have 5 churches that are willing to put their small differences aside and come together as one to show and share the love of Christ to a lost and dying world. It’s about time and I praise God for it. The pastors of these churches have their hearts in the right place, now I just pray that the congregations of each church will as well. Bobby, Matt, Heath, Nick, and Steve, this is awesome and I praise God that he’s laid this on your hearts. It’s not about “church”, it’s about Jesus. My God bless this endeavor and we realize it’s not about our small differences and our pettiness, it’s about doing the will of a holy, righteous, and just God. It’s about showing the love of the one who died for us, it’s about telling people about the hope that lives in Jesus and Jesus alone. May God bless you all!

Awesome Night!

Just touching base on the events last night at the WNC Rescue Mission from last night. The Kingdoms a little more crowded praise God! It was a great night last night and it was awesome to see God work. Once again it was proven that we have absolutely nothing to do with the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. All we have to do is present the gospel and get out of the way and let God work. My brother in Christ Richard Mills from His Laboring Few motorcycle ministry came down and provided the music and my brother John Galloway and his son Kaine were there as well. We preached the gospel and stepped aside and let God show them their need for a Savior. There was no begging for them to accept Christ (which isn’t biblical anyway), there was just the saving grace of the Gospel. The shepherds sheep knew His voice and it was an awesome night! I thank and praise God for the opportunity to serve Him. To God be the glory forever and ever, Amen!

What have you done lately?

As I sit here this morning and I think about Christians as a whole, that question came to mind. We see so many churches and christians hiding behind the four walls of the church and never stepping foot outside to do as Christ did. In Mark 10:45 Jesus says even He came not to be served but to serve. When is the last time you did anything to show the love of Christ to someone? That’s an honest question that we need to ask ourselves on a daily basis. Matthew 25:35-40 is a powerful passage on how we are too serve others. Let’s stop thinking about ourselves, and start thinking about how we can serve others not for us or our church but for Christ. It’s all for His glory.

Reflections

I praise and thank God for this week as I sit here early on this Friday morning. As I look back over the week I see how God has been working in my life to fulfill His will. It’s amazing how God works when we just get out of the way and let Him do His thing. Do you do that? I’ve always had a problem with a case of the “I can do it on own’s”. If there is one thing God has shown me, it’s that when I try to do it on my own I’ll mess it up. But by God leading, and listening to His will, everything always seems to work out for His glory. Even in times when I’ve been at a complete loss about something, He’s always provided and shown me the way.
One such way was with the WNC Rescue Mission in Asheville. I had the opportunity to speak there a couple Thursdays ago, filling in for Richard Mills of His Laboring few who had to be out of town. It was such a blessing that I prayed that if it was His will, that I would be able to preach there again. I got a call yesterday from the mission locking Hellfire Ministries into once a month to come preach. God is soooo good! As Hellfire Ministries grows I see how God is at work. Just this past week we’ve added The Community Kitchen in Canton twice a month where we’ll not only be preaching but feeding them as well, plus the WNC Rescue Mission once a month. I thank and praise God for the opportunity to reach this lost and dying world with the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If you’d like to help out just let me know.

The Lad

As I was looking at a synopsis of the Gospels on the feeding of the five thousand I came across the mention of a lad in John 6:9. None of the other gospels mention this lad. In John 6:8, Andrew tells Jesus there is a lad here with five barley loaves, and two small fishes. We don't know who this lad is, who he was there with, why was he there. We just know that this lad helped Jesus provide for the multitude. The disciples didn't know who this lad was, but the lad did what Jesus asked. The lad must have seemed irrelevant to Matthew, Mark, and Luke because there's no mention of him. But this lad played a vital role in Jesus's plan. How many lad's do you know? Those in the background helping out. The unsung heros of your church. Those who are not in the spotlight but do their part for the growth of the Kingdom. While alot of people didn't know who this lad was, God did and God knows who you are too. God bless you.

How Awesome!

In my studies today I was lead to John 14:2-3. "In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also." It’s a powerful piece of scripture about the hope we have for that which is to come. Jesus talks about preparing a place your us in His Fathers mansion. But two words stuck out at the first part of verse 3 “And if…”. Anytime you see the word “if” there is a condition attached. For instance, “If it doesn’t rain, we’ll go to the lake”. There’s a condition with “if”. What’s Christ’s condition? We must be a child of God. We must be born again and cleansed with the blood of Christ. If Jesus is your Lord and Savior at this very moment Christ Himself is preparing a place for you in Heaven. How AWESOME is that!

But there are two sides to every story. If your not a child of God’s, Christ isn’t preparing a place for you in Heaven. You won’t need it because you won’t be there. I know that sounds harsh but that’s what’s wrong with Christianity today, we’ve tried to water it down so that it doesn’t offend anyone. Christ didn’t water it down and neither should we. Christ paid the price for our sin. He suffered the wrath of God so that we could be reconciled with God. Romans 5:1 "Therefore since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." The only way into eternal life is through Jesus. Sorry Oprah, there is only one way and that’s through Christ.

So my question is, is Christ preparing a place for you today?

Cheap Christianity

As I study this morning one thing that’s on my mind is the amount of people who think that because they claim to be a christian, they can still live and do what they want and it’s okay. I hate to break your hearts but that’s impossible if you’re truly a child of Christ. We are held to a higher expectation.
1 Peter 2:24 tells us that we’re to live to righteousness. 1 Peter 1:14-16 tells us “You shall be holy as I am holy”
There’s a cheap Christianity that’s prevelant in our church’s today. J.C. Ryle said, “There is a common, worldly kind of Christianity in the day, which many have, a cheap Christianity which offends nobody, requires no sacrifice, which costs nothing and is worth nothing“. Our churches have gotten away from the true word of God and present a watered down, man-centered gospel. The gospel isn’t about what your going to get out of “coming to Jesus”, it’s about the good news. The news that God has provided His children with a way out of the desperate, sin laden life they live that’s put them on a straight path to hell. The gospel is about being reconciled with God the only way we can. Through the death and sacrifice that Jesus paid for us.
I pray for every church in our county that it will get back to preaching and teaching the inerrant, infallable word of God. In the words of Paul in Galations 1:6under the guidance of the Holy Spirit he says, ”I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel–not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ.”
Cheap Christianity is nothing but a distortion of the true gospel of Christ to make you feel better about your sin. If we expect to see any healing for our land we have got to turn back to the one true God, not the one that we’ve created in our minds.

Why are we here?

Have you ever asked yourself that? What’s our purpose, what’s our reason for being on this earth. There has to be more to our existence than just living for ourselves and going through life acquiring stuff. Getting up day after day, doing the basic same routine. There has to be more to life than that. Well as always, all we have to do is turn to God’s inerrant, infallable word to find our answers.

Colossians 1:16 gives us the answer “For by Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through Him and for Him.”

There’s our answer. “…and for Him”. We were created for God. Kinda throws a kink in our man-centered way of thinking doesn’t it? We weren’t created for us, we were created for Him. Shouldn’t that be the way we live our lives? For Him and not for ourselves? Doing God’s will instead of what we want? If you’ve been living your life just for yourself, you probably feel that something is missing. What’s missing is God.

Changed my life...

A friend of mine Bryan Spencer from SC posted this on Facebook. I'm reposting it here because the message is of utmost importance. If you never read anything else, please read this.

Romans 5:6-8 "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

During Sunday morning worship this past week I was once again brought to my knees through God's Word. During cooperate worship there is two set times that the church has public reading of Scripture. I praise God that we are going through the Book of Romans, and this week God sovereignly appointed for this text to be brought up. I have been so overwhelmed lately of my sinfulness toward a Holy God. That I deserved the wrath of God because of my sin. So many people ask how could a loving God send anyone to Hell? In contrast I ask them how can a Holy God choose to send anyone to Heaven? Upon stating that how can a loving God choose to send His only Begotten Son to come to this world to die on a cross for the sins of His chosen People? It seems as if some people believe that God owes them something special. As if we did God a favor by claiming to be a Christian, as if we had any part of our salvation. If you so desire to have a part in it then let me tell you what we you did. You sinned against a perfect and holy God, and you became dead in your sin. So there is your part in the redemption story my dear friend. Now the amazing part comes in, because according to this verse it states that while we were still helpless, God at the right time sent His Son to die for us. As a Christian if you are not brought to your knees by the Sovereign plan of God to redeem His people, then what will ever do it then? That I was dead in my sin, and totally not able to save myself. Just as Lazarus was dead, I once was also! I was of my father the devil and did the deeds according to Him. But God being rich in mercy choose to send Himself to this sinful fallen world to redeem His people from their sins. Praise be to God that He did not just make salvation possible, but that He actually accomplished it. That He came and sought out what was lost and found it. Not only did He find me, but because of His great love toward me He bought me back. The Bible states that my righteousness is like bloody rags, that is totally corrupt. But God because of His perfect righteousness choose to live that life on my behalf for His glory. In addition He choose to count me righteous on Christ's account. Finally while I was still yet dead in my sins, God states that He loved me still. He loved me because according to Scripture before the foundation of the World He predestined me to adoption. The Bible states that God fore loved His children, that He was patient and long suffering toward them wanting all them to repent. While I was living everyday against God for sixteen years, God loved me still and sent His son to died for me. O praise be to God alone for His great love that He choose to save this sinful young man, and to adopt me as His son. That although I deserve the wrath of God and a eternity in Hell, God because of His mercy, not because of anything in me, but because of Him who calls choose to do this work in me that I could not do in myself. So I cry why o God, why? The only answer I have for this is simple to say for His glory alone!

The Spring is bad

In 2 Kings 2:19 we see the men of Jericho have come to Elisha and said "...Behold now, the situation of the city is pleasant, as my lord sees; but the water is bad and the land is unfruitful". We see the "situation of the city is pleasant". Jericho is a beautiful place, it's a great place to raise your family, it's a great place to grow up, but there's just one problem; the spring is bad. The water flowing through Jericho is nasty and filthy. As I look at Haywood County, I'm reminded of this passage and the description of Jericho. Haywood County is the same way. It's a great place to raise a family, it's a great place to grow up, it's a beautiful place, but like Jericho our spring is bad and the only thing that's going to cleanse the spring is God. Our society and yes even our church's must turn back to God. Our church's must work together instead of working against each other. Our church's must put God first, not our wants or needs and get back to preaching and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We must do the will of God and stop our petty bickering. The bottom line is, who do you love more, your church or Jesus?