Thursday, May 28, 2015

5/28/15

“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”  Philippians 4:6-7
 
 
Father, the worries of each day are ever around us. Conflict, both within and without, threatens the peace we so desperately want and seek. Father, we come to you with an open heart, seeking your guidance and being content with all that you have given us as a nation. Guard our hearts, O Lord, so that we will be faithful to you, and let the peace of your presence surround us each and every day.  In the name of Jesus, amen.

Wednesday, May 27, 2015

5/27/15

“Call to Me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”  Jeremiah 33:3
 
 Lord, You have asked us to call to You, with the promise that You will answer when we do. We humbly seek Your guidance for our nation. Give us wisdom so that we will be a people guided by Your Spirit and filled with Your presence.  Help us, O Lord, to honor You in word and deed, that we as a people will have Your blessing and favor. In the name of Jesus, amen.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

5/26/15

Since our very first days, God’s greatest blessings on the United States of America have been petitioned, experienced and sustained by prayer…from the signing of our nation’s founding documents, in our triumphs during years of both internal and external conflict, through our seasons of both spiritual decline and awakening.  Throughout Scripture and throughout our history as a nation, persistent, prevailing and perpetual prayer has always brought God’s favor. 
 
Right now we are in great need of the united and intentional prayers of the people of God throughout our land.  So, to facilitate the offering of these prayers, I will, for the next 40 days, ending on the 4th of July, daily post a brief scripture passage and a prayer.  I implore you to take thirty seconds to read it and pray it from your heart.  And, be assured… it does matter… it will make a difference.  This 40-day prayer journey will do more to influence our direction and secure our future as a Christian nation than anything else we could possibly do.
 
I want to invite you to join me today and stay on this journey with me until July 4th.  Just check your email daily for 40 consecutive days and protect 30 seconds to read a relevant scripture passage and offer up a passionate prayer.  Here we go…together…
 
“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” 2 Chronicles 7:14
 
Father, we seek Your sovereign blessing on our nation.  Forgive us for our many sins and the times when we have failed You.  Draw us back into Your love and strengthen us as a nation to honor and serve You in all that we do.  May we be faithful to the calling that You have given us.  We respectfully and humbly give thanks for Your promise of continued blessing ‘if’...In the name of Jesus, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

5/25/15

Deuteronomy 6:4-10 and Ephesians 6:1-4 clearly exhort parents to teach, disciple, and train their own children.  Regardless of what’s happening in the youth groups, pulpit, and Bible study groups of a strong local church, the primary responsibility for ministry to our kids has never been removed from the parents.  It’s time to pick that ball up and jump back into the game.  James Rutz, in his thought-provoking book, The Open Church: How to Bring Back the Exciting Life of the First Century Church, writes:  “God’s plan for religious education is Dad.  It’s a 4000-year-old plan that has consistently worked, when applied, since the days of Abraham.”
 
I understand what the author is saying, but I would say it is actually at least a 6,000-year-old plan, going back to the first dad, Adam.  So, if your parents shirked their God-given responsibility for training you spiritually, you will need to break the chain of biblical illiteracy and spiritual neglect in your family tree.   All of us parents and grandparents and great-grandparents must realign our priorities to include, above all else, seeing Christ formed in our children.  Don’t delegate this responsibility to professionals, experts or specialists.  It is too important.  It is easily the most rewarding and gratifying aspects of being a parent.  And do it right now.  There’s no time to waste.
 
Pray with me…Father God, we pray that You will help us with the discipline to make the hard day-to-day decisions to realign our priorities, restructure our time and reinvest our energy to rise up and meet the challenge of discipling our children.  We know that they are the most important disciples we will ever make in our lifetime.  We want our family circle to be unbroken in the greater life.  Keep this vision before us that, in our families, we may all walk together with you one day in paradise.   In Jesus’ name, amen.

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

Monday, May 18, 2015

5/18/15

Memorial Day is exactly a week away from today.  It is a day set aside each year to remember, and honor, our brave soldiers who have sacrificed their lives and their limbs to protect our land and our freedoms.  It began as a day to honor our Civil War dead, but after World War 1, it was expanded to include our war dead from all the wars in which America was involved.  So far, our country has fought in 13 wars, including the current conflict in Afghanistan.  The sacrifices these young men and women have made can never be totally comprehended, nor can they be repaid by us.  Many will be physically or mentally disabled for the rest of their lives. 
 
We can never begin to understand what they went through, and are continuing to go through, all because they love their nation and the freedoms we take for granted every day.  We can never begin to repay them and their families for the sacrifices they have made for us.  It seems as if saying “Thank You” just isn’t enough.  On the upcoming Memorial Day weekend, let us remember the brave soldiers who have so unselfishly given of themselves for us.  Let’s not only appreciate their actions, but also then take steps to help these veterans and their families whenever and wherever we can.
 
“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”  I John 4:7-8 
 
Pray with me…Father God, wars and rumors are the story of life on earth.  But, we know it will not always be this way.  You have promised that there will come a day when the lion will lay down with the lamb; when swords will be beaten into plow blades and spears into pruning hooks.  We all say “Yes, even so, come soon Lord Jesus.”  Put an end to our strife and open the way to life everlasting with you in heaven.  In Jesus’ Name, amen.  

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

Thursday, May 14, 2015

5/11/15

In the first few verses of Mark’s Gospel, chapter two, we are introduced to four nameless men who carry their catatonic friend to Jesus for healing. When they could not get into the house where Jesus was teaching, they removed the roof and lowered their friend right down in front of him. Jesus ‘saw their faith’ and He was impressed enough that he immediately forgave the man’s sins and raised him up from living death.
 
So, what did Jesus see that was so impressive?  He saw compassion, conviction, cooperation and creativity. Their compassion was demonstrated in the effort they extended and the energy they expended to carry their friend, for who knows how long and from who knows how far, to Jesus for healing. They cared about him.  Someone has said, “The world will not care how much we know until they see how much we care.”  Their conviction was demonstrated by their determination to get their friend in front of Jesus. They did not have the slightest doubt that Christ was the answer to their friend’s need for spiritual help and physical healing.  Their cooperation was demonstrated in their willingness to both think in harmony and act in unity. When they addressed the challenge of how to get their friend in front of Jesus, there had to be differing opinions, yet the four of them acted as one.  Their creativity was demonstrated in their decision to remove the roof and lower their friend down in front of Jesus. They did a new thing. It was the right thing for sure. What does our Lord see when He looks at our faith?
 
Pray with me…Lord Jesus, we know that you are a discerner of the thoughts and intents of our hearts.  You know our rising up and our going out and our coming in and our lying down.  All of your ways are known to You alone.  We want our hearts to be pure and our lives to demonstrate a faith walk that will get your attention.  We want you to see us in the same kind of self-forgetful faith that characterized the four men who brought their friend to You for healing.  May our thoughts be daily focused and our actions be daily invested in bringing others to You.  Amen

Blessings,
Pastor Ken

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

5/4/15

Mother's Day can be a time of joyfully celebrating the mothers in our lives… our grandmothers, moms, wives or sisters… but for some it can be a day fraught with mixed feelings.  For some, it can even be a day of grieving:

-The mother who has outlived her child
-The mother who has lost a baby through abortion, miscarriage, stillbirth or sudden infant death syndrome
-The mother who has suffered rejection or unforgiveness from an adult child
-The mother whose child is an addict, or far from God
-The mother whose child is emotionally torn by divorce
-The daughter whose mother has passed away leaving a void in her life
-The grandmother who is not allowed a relationship with grandchildren
-The child who deprived of closeness to her mother
-The child who has never known who her mother is
-The young woman who wants a child but has never been able to conceive
-The single woman who wants a child but has never found a life mate

Pray with me… Father God, thank you for the promise that we can experience your grace and the peace of Jesus in profound ways…  grace and peace that alone compensate for the loss, estrangement and deprivation that are sometimes a part of life in this fallen world.  Thank you that we can discover the deep and abiding joy that is known only by those who suffer with dependence on heaven for their fulfillment.  Help us to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep on this Mother’s Day.  In the name of Jesus, amen.

4/28/15

It was back in 1994 that a new book personally impacted me. Happiness Is A Choice, co-authored by Christian psychologists Frank Minirth and Paul Meier.  I think I had always believed the assertion implied in the book title, but I had never read anything in print that actually documented and developed the idea. 

John Ortberg writes, “We will not understand God until we understand this about him: God is the happiest being in the universe.”
 
Joy is God’s basic character.  Joy is God’s eternal destiny of choice for all of us.  Jesustold his friends that his aim was that they should be filled with joy, but not just any kind of joy: “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.”  [John 15:11]  The problem with people, according to Jesus, is not that they are too happy, but that we are not happy enough.
 
Lewis Smedes puts it this way: “To miss out on joy is to miss out on the reason for your existence.”  C.S. Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”  The apostle Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.”  The Bible puts joy in the non-optional category.  Joy is a command.  Joylessness is a serious sin, one that professed religious people are particularly prone to indulge in.  It is the sin most tolerated in the church. 
 
Pray with me… Father God, Your Words speaks of a ‘joy that is inspired by the Holy Spirit.’  We pray for that joy to show itself in our lives, in the moments when we are front and center and the moments when we are backstage, in our shining moments and in our unguarded moments.  We pray for this grace of joy.  The fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives that will attract others to the Lord of Joy, Jesus… in His name we pray, amen.

4/20/15

Adolph Hitler said it, “If a lie is repeated often enough and long enough, it will come to be perceived as truth.”  One such lie often and long repeated is, “Islam is the fastest growing world religion.”  Despite the fact that Muslims are much more reproductive than other people groups, Islam as a religion is not growing, but dying fast, very fast.  Every day thousands of Muslim intellectuals are leaving Islam.  They are finding that Islam is ‘inconsistent with science, logic, human rights and ethics.’

More and more Muslims are discovering that the violence advocated by their religion is not an aberration, but is in fact a quest for dominance inspired by the teachings of the Quran.  They are finding that the mechanistic ritual of praying five times a day, reciting verses they do not understand… and indeed mean nothing, getting up at taxing hours of the morning and abstaining from food and water until the sunset are not pathways to becoming more spiritual, but are instruments used to control their minds.  However, the exodus from Islam is not limited to intellectuals. Average Muslims are finding that Islam is not the way to God, but to ignorance, poverty and wars.  They are leaving Islam to embrace other religions, especially Christianity. 

In Africa alone… Every hour, 667 Muslims convert to Christianity.  Every day, 16,000 Muslims convert to Christianity.  Every year, 6 million Muslims convert to Christianity.  [FaithFreedom.org]

Pray with me… Jehovah God, You are the One true and living God, and Your Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, is Lord of heaven and earth. We pray that more and more people… the whole world would come to follow Him, be changed by Him and be on mission with Him.  Amen.