Poured Out

“Then He (Jesus) took the cup, gave thanks to God, and gave it to them. “Drink it, all of you,” He said; “for this is my blood, which seals God’s covenant, My blood poured out for the forgiveness of sins.” Matt. 26:27-28 TEV
As I was preparing the communion elements for the Sunday service, I read these passages in order to see what the Lord wanted me to share during the communion part of the service. The phrase, “My blood poured out for many,” stuck out. Later at the church building while filling the little cups I noticed that while I was pouring the grape juice from the little Pyrex measuring cup, I would run out and have to refill it.
Jesus when He offered Himself as an offering for all mankind, He gave all that He had. All that was needed.
To be a real disciple we must pour ourselves out for Him in service and devotion, not worrying that we may also give all with nothing else to give. For when we are empty in His service, He fills us up again.
In our service, communion time is a great opportunity to be refilled.

During the early church years the Romans killed many Christians because they believed they were cannibals by eating Christ’s body. Later during the middle ages, Christians were killed because they DID NOT believe they were eating Christ’s body. Some may say that the communion service means nothing to them and that it is just a part of the church service.
How dare we partake of communion and it not mean anything? Whether you believe it turns to Christ’s body or not, whether it saves or is just a symbolic ritual.
Do it in remembrance of Christ and what He did and do likewise. Allow ourselves to be poured out in Jesus name.

Stand By Me: 2 Timothy 4:18

"The Lord will deliver me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly Kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen"

2 Timothy 4:18 NAS

Paul wrote these words after noting that at his first defense, "no one stood by him". v.17 Have you ever really felt alone? And you just needed someone to defend you. Not give excuses for your sin and mistakes, but to just stand by you as you try to get free. Although Paul's only addiction was the Word of God, he states that the Lord stood by him when he needed that someone. He is saying that if you will seek the Lord's will in your life, He the Lord will stand by you.

The Lord has also promised in

Hebrews 13:5 and 6,"Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, "I will never desert you , nor will I ever forsake you ," so that we confidently say, "The Lord is my helper , I will not be afraid . What will man do to me ?"

Choose this day not to deal with you problems alone. And if there is no one around to help, trust in the Lord to Stand By You.

Mover of Men and Mountains

Been off a little on the blogging. I’ve been working rotating shifts and my hours of awake-time has been funny. I’ve been trying to get some work done at the Ark Christian Ministry Center here in Dothan. Our number of volunteers have dropped off and there is just to much to do around the thrift store and such.
So to get back into the groove of blogging I wanted to do a post on one of my favorite Christian Leaders, R.G. LeTourneau.

I came informed about Mr. LeTourneau through a book I found entitled, ”Mover of Men and Mountains”.
The book was thrown away next door when an elderly couple passed away and their children put all their books and unwanted items out by the road. Well seeing a garbage bag full of books only made me giddy. There I found this first edition and autographed copy of “Mover of Men and Mountains”. When I started reading it I could not put it down.
The book chronicles the life of Mr. LeTourneau and the lessons learned. Here is a quote that will explain more than I can write.
“If there is no logical explanation of my development of the digger, there is a theological one, available to all of us, including the weakest. By accepting God as your partner, no limit can be placed on what can be achieved. But God is no remote partner, satisfied if you go to church on Sunday and drop some religious money - the small change that goes to church - on the platter. He isn’t overwhelmed if you read the Bible once in a while and obey the Golden Rule. That isn’t active Christianity, but just half-hearted way of getting along. When you go into partnership with God, you’ve got a Partner closer and more active than any human partner you can ever get. He participates fully in everything you let Him do, and when you start putting on airs, and thinking you’re doing it with your own head and steam, he can set you down quicker and harder than a thunderbolt. There’s nothing dull about being in partnership with God.”
If you are not in business and are thinking this does not apply to you than you are wrong. He is speaking of “servantship” (hey, this word is not even in my spell check, but I added it) the missing factor in allot preaching today. It’s giving over the control of our lives to Christ. Governing our lives by His rules and His words with no promise of blessings and riches. Just doing it because He desires it and He knows best.
They payback, if you can call it that since we are the ones in debt, is unspeakable. Not a burdensome servant hood since our burdens are lifted and He says His burden is light. Not a dull servant hood for He will fill your life with exploits. A servant hood so amazing that knowing you can leave at anytime, you wonder, “why would you?”.
Yes, Mr. LeTourneau found the secret to the Overcoming Christian Life, not confessing and proclaiming, but living and walking. And being made a Mover of Men and Mountains.
For more info on R.G. LeTourneau see these sites.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._G._LeTourneau Wikipedia Bio
http://www.letourneau-inc.com/about/RG_bio.htm LeTourneau Inc
http://letourneau.org/index.php LeTourneau.org
http://www.letu.edu/ LeTourneau College

Spacial Note: the autograph in my book has the verse reference Matt 6:33 onder it.
"But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and all His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you."

Boynton Beach Martyrs

In this April 2010’s of Christianity Today there was an article about two men shot to death in Boynton Beach, Fl. for witnessing on the streets. This surprised me because I had not heard of this before. Why I was surprised I do not know. So I looked it up and here is what I found.
Back in January 2010 two Christian men were witnessing on the streets and stopped to witness to one young man, the young man received a cell phone call and after answering it shot the two men while they were walking away.
There are rumors that the incident was gang related, but according to West Palm Beach News the killer reported to the police that he shot them because they were preaching to him.
Stephen Ocean (second Pic) and Tite Sufra (first Pic) were two young Christians with some reported spotted backgrounds before coming to Christ. A lot has been made of their past and how it may have ended in the cause of their deaths. We being “born again” as new creations like the Bible says, our past is behind us but I can tell you from experience the past has a way of catching up. Until the world we live in comes under the rule of Christ, it will always be so. We can not sow weeds and pray for a crop failure.
But I did not want to get into this or the fact that if two Muslims were shot CNN (Fox did have a small spot buried) and all the networks would be all over it. I wanted to share with you that we need to keep these people in our prayers. You may not like the street corner preacher on his bull horn and you may think he is wasting his time and giving all “good” Christians a bad name. I’ve done street ministering in the 80’s and 90’s and I’ll tell you there will be a special place in Heaven for them all. If you know of a group that is involved in this ministry, see what you and your Church can do to help. Get on their email mailing list. Take them some boxes of tracts (with your church address on them) Take them some cold water or heck just yell out your car window that you are praying for them. Do something that you feel the Lord would do instead of criticize.
I hope to go back to the streets again. I may be posting more on this and posting updates on a local ministry called “Street Lights” to bless them. Watch for “Street Lights Updates”.
But let’s remember the two young men that gave their lives.

Is Anyone Called to Witness on the Streets? by Larry Rosenbaum

In my last message, I gave statistics that have shown, in a dramatic way, the spiritual decline that has taken place in the U.S., especially among youth who claim to be “born again” Christians. The majority of these youth, while claiming to be certain of going to Heaven because of a personal commitment to Jesus Christ, do not believe that Jesus lived a sinless life on this earth or that it is impossible to get to Heaven by good works. According to pollster George Barna, while 9% of Americans have a biblical worldview, less than ½ of 1% of Americans aged 18-23 have a biblical worldview.
This lack of a strong Biblical foundation in many Christians reflects itself in their attitudes towards evangelism. Every year, hundreds of thousands of Christian youth spend millions of dollars on “mission trips” that involve work projects and food distribution, but no mention of God’s plan of salvation. In the U.S., countless Christian youth are involved in giving out food to the homeless and similar “ministries” that don’t involve talking about Jesus. Many Christians, it seems, believe that people will be saved if we pray for them and live a good life in front of them. They think there is no need to share the gospel with unbelievers.
As our nation becomes increasingly hostile towards Christianity, Christians are looking for new methods of “evangelism” that will avoid any possibility of being rejected or persecuted. Perhaps, they think, if Jesus and the apostles had used our new “evangelism methods,” they would never have been persecuted. I often hear from Christians that not everyone is called to witness on the streets. Sometimes, however, I wonder if anyone is called or, rather, if anyone is responding to God’s call. I’m exaggerating, of course. There is a small group of Christians who faithfully witness with us. And there are other Christians witnessing throughout the country. But the laborers are indeed few, and they seem to get fewer each year.
Last April, in an attempt to recruit Christian youth to work with our ministry, I went on Facebook. Almost every day, I have been adding young Christians from Bible colleges and other Christian groups to be my “friend.” I now have over 7000 friends, most of whom are under 30. Occasionally, I let them know about our ministry house. Less than 10 have expressed interest, and, so far, none has moved in. I certainly did not expect all 7000 Christians to respond to my appeal. All we need are three or four Christian men to live in our house. But, so far, we have not found one. As far as I know, there is no other house like the one we have, where Christians can live with others who are interested in doing street evangelism. Most Christians who want to witness on the streets find it hard to get other Christians to join them. A few people may come one week; nobody the next week.
Eventually, street witnessing teams tend to die because they lack consistent involvement from Christians. By having a core group of Christians who are committed to witnessing on the streets regularly, and who hold one another accountable to this commitment, we have been able to maintain a regular street outreach for over 30 years in San Francisco. One reason that it is difficult to get Christians to do street evangelism is the hardness of many people’s hearts towards the gospel. If I could guarantee a Christian that every time he witnessed at least one person would be genuinely saved, we would have no lack of workers. There are witnessing “methods” that can get a lot of people to “say sinner’s prayers.” Unfortunately, when we try to follow-up on these people, we find that few who recite these prayers are truly converted. It is far more satisfying to us to witness to a person who really wants to get saved, than to someone who is hardened to the gospel message.
But are we witnessing to make ourselves happy or to obey God and reach the lost? It is hard for us to walk by faith and trust God to use our witness to work in people’s hearts. We want to see results, and we can’t see what God is doing in someone’s heart. I haven’t given up on Facebook. It is a great way to let thousands of Christian youth know about our ministry and encourage them to witness for Jesus. In the past, I would call churches and Bible colleges, and try to set up meetings to share about evangelism and about our ministry. Almost all would say no. A few times, I have had an opportunity to speak to Christians at a Bible college chapel. The Christians who attended, it seems, soon forgot about us. We saw no response from any of these meetings. With Facebook, I can invite almost every Christian in a Bible college to be my friend, and continue to share with them about our ministry, and about evangelism. But it seems that the task of finding a few Christian youth to join our ministry will be harder than I originally thought.
Please pray for us that God will give us guidance in this matter, and meet our need.
Larry Rosenbaum

Become Untangled

"Thou therefore suffer affliction as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No man that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, because he would please him that hath chosen him to be a soldier." 2 Timothy 2:3 & 4 Geneva Bible 1599

My wife and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary. My daughter gave me a copy of Richard Wheeler's Lee's Terrible Swift Sword. I devoured it immensely and greatly enjoyed it. The book chronicles the first victories of the Confederacy and the factors behind them. The blunt of it was that Lee's army was able to out maneuver the Union army because they did not have as many supply wagons to keep up with like the Union did. Johnson and Burnside were very concerned that their troops were comfortable and content. Lee knew that victories made troops comfortable, not food, clothes, shoes, etc… Lee would have supplied his troops better if he could have, but he wasn't going to let the lack of it slow his army down. It wasn't until northern leaders who knew what it took to win came into control, that the South's victories became few and far apart.
When I read this, I thought of the verses above that show that we are a Spiritual Army. And these things we must know:

1. Flesh beings are not our enemies but the fouls in the spirit world.
2. We are chosen and our only pleasure will be in our calling.
3. You will know a good soldier because he will only want to please his Commander.
4. The only way to victory is to focus on our mission and do not become entangled with worldly pursuits.

These are the characteristics of a good soldier of Christ and you may feel that you have no calling in this area of Spiritual life.
Rest assured that a soldier knows when he has been chosen. Most Christian don't see that most of their lives is "Basic Training" and the more we buck the training and fail to enter into our calling, the more dissatisfied we become.
So you can just go abut your life and adjust or join in the Battle for the minds (soul) and spirit of those under attack.

Spiritual Warfare Ref: Eph. 6:14 -17; 1 Thess. 5:8; 1 John 5:4 -5; Romans 16:20;
Gal. 5:24

Happy Birthday Robert E. Lee

Wanted to repost this article I orginaly did on 1/19/08 reminding everyone of a special day Jan. 19th

Happy Robert E. Lee's Birthday (Jan. 19th 1807),
Just wanted to remember one of the greatest leaders in US history on his birthday. My family tree is full of confederate soldiers, quite a few who made that long march from Appomattox back home. I would like to share the story of a news article that I've seen. It mentions a distant relative of mine. Second Cousin Four Times Removed Henry Harris Sasnett. The article tells how Henry acting as a scout for the south entered a confederate camp and was took prisoner. The solders thought he was a spy. After some time they called the Sr. Officer of the camp and he questioned him about the charge. After determining that he was innocent and a southern scout, the officer asked him to join him for a meal. Then they went their separate ways until the end of the war. Later in Jacksonville, Fla. the two meet again and Henry gave the officer a pair of new boots.
The officer later wrote Henry a thank you note for the boots. I saw a copy of this along with the news article. The note was sign Robert E. Lee.

This speaks of the character of the man. In the book "Christ In The Camp" by J. Williams Jones, Jones did a chapter on the General and wrote how he was an advid writer. He wrote everyone he could think of with thank you notes. This is amazing knowing the time he did not have to waste.
I saw a History channel doc one day (DVD I got for Christmas) and how the general was not beat but gave up to save lives. I seems his army was out of food and every train shipment that came to them was full of weapons but no food. He was commanded to retreat into the mountains and wage "Guerrilla War". This was something the Union was afraid would happen. This would prolong the war for years to come and cost many-many lives. He choose to surrender and help bring the war to and end. I believe He listened to the commander-in-chief of heaven and obeyed. Another story on the doc was that after the war. In the Va. church were many leaders attended. The blacks still sat in the back, but one day as the Pastor called people forward to receive communion, an elderly black man came forward and stood at the alter. After a couple of minutes awkwardness a gray haired gentleman came forward and stood beside the black man and took communion. The gentleman was Robert E. Lee. Then others came. General Lee spent the rest of his life trying to heal the division of North and South.

To our beloved General, Happy Birthday. You lost all you had, but gained a place in history and hearts.

Mind Your Own Business: 1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

1 Thessalonians 4:11-12

King James Version
11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;
12 That ye may walk honestly toward them that are without, and that ye may have lack of nothing.

The Message
Stay calm; mind your own business; do your own job. You've heard all this from us before, but a reminder never hurls. we want you livinging in a way that will comand respect of outsiders, not lying around sponging off your friends.

The Amplified Bible
11 To make it your ambition and definitely endeavor to live quietly and peacefully, to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we charged you;
12 So that you may bear yourselves becomingly, be correct and honorable and command the respect of the outside world, being (self-supporting,) depend­ent on nobody and having need of nothing.

On sharing of these verses we should know that Paul was trying to teach non-jews how to live a christian life. Mostly Greeks who before had a lose lifestyle. Like the early colonist of Jamestown (USA), some wanted to just enjoy their new freedoms and soak it all in. The story of Jamestown sayes that Capt. Smith told all of them that if they did not work they did not eat. This really came from the Bible. He's not talking about people who want to work and can not find a job, but those who see work as beneth them. I have been in management and have had those we've hired, work really well until they were eligible for unemployement benifits and then started being late every day and worked really bad. Forcing me to fire them.
These verses encourage us to work and mind our own business. All for the purpose of having a good witness to those who do not share our beliefs. The work Christ does in us should produce the perfect worker.
Some may ask, how does this become a witness for the Lord. When you do your best and your boss gives you a compliment, you will be able to reply,"It's because of Christ in me that I can do what I do". That will bring glory to God.

Wanted: Heavy Metal Christians

"You have cause for great joy in this, though it may have been necessary for you to be troubled for a little time, being tested in all sorts of ways. So that the true metal of your faith, being of much greater value than gold (which, through it comes to an end, is tested by fire), may come to light in praise and glory and honor, at the revelation of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:6-7 BBE

Are you going through things that are really stressing you out. Take comfort. There is a reason for all of it. The Lord uses trials in our lives to strenghten us. Just like you can't purify gold or any other metal without fire or heat, we will be useless without trials to make us pure.
The fires in our lives also reveal what kind of metal our faith is made of. Fire or trials bring out the worst leaving the best.
God is looking for those purified by fire and walking holy before Him.
God in it's purest form is still tanted. That's why it is yellowish. It is never pure. You can only get it to .999 percent. (Before the fall of man gold was transparent like glass. Like it is mentioned in Heaven. "Streets of gold transparent like glass".) Our faith however is worth more to the Lord than all the gold making the streets of Heaven. So He will purify for Himself and it will bring you great joy.

Rejoice in your troubles and will yourself to see the big picture. The outcome of your testing. Heavy Metal worth more than gold. Your Faith.

For the record: "Where in ye greatly rejoice, through now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations: that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perisheth, through it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ." 1 Peter 1:6-7 KJV