The Desert

  

For the last month I have been working ten hours a day, seven days a week.  I think during the last thirty five days I’ve had three days off.  I don’t mind, it has given me extra money to take care of a few obligations Terrie and I have.  During this time I have become very tired.   I haven’t neglected to read my Bible, but I have had to work on Sunday.  Sometimes missing Sunday and Wednesday night services.

Anyway, one afternoon on the way home after a ten hour day I was trying to come up with something to write on the blog.  I have two ideas but no inspiration on the subject matter.  They are both good ideas but The Lord usually gives me the words to go with the idea.  It suddenly dawned on me I was going through a desert.   When I go through deserts I still feel Christ present, but the close communication is not there.  I have gone through them before.  Each time they have a message God is trying to convey. Whether the communication gap is initiated from my end or by Christ. The result is still the same.  It can be unsettling to find yourself walking alone.  

The reason Christ asked that the cup pass from Him was because he knew there would be a ti when God would have to turn His back on Christ.  The constant communication that existed between the Father and Son would stop. This in Christ’s’ mind was incomprehensible. But He knew the final out come. So, “never the less not My will but Yours.”   

The lesson I have relearned is that, Christ so love the world that He allowed His Loving Father to turn His back, on Him, for me, Steve Waltrip.  So men when you experience the desert,  do not fear.  He’s still there; He just has a blessing He wants you to have.    P.S. My desert is gone, and I have received a blessing.  Posted by Steve Waltrip

Memory…

How vivid is your memory?

Do you remember specific details about life events?

 When Father God is speaking to you, do you write down the details of your conversation?

Over the last couple of years, I have been keeping a journal (hand written and blog).

Here is a sample:

This is part of a prayer that I wrote on September 6th, 2006.

“Father, thank you for your presence.  I sense and feel your Holy Spirit encouraging me.  Thank you for your Word.  Jesus, thank you for your sacrifice.  Life brings stress and anxiety, but you bring calmness and peace.  I worship you Father God.  My soul rejoices, my heart yearns for you, my mind needs to be filled with the knowledge and understanding of your word.”

 Without my notebook, I would never remember the details of this season in my life.

Scripture calls upon us to write our thoughts and conversations with God.

Habakkuk 2:2 The Message

 2-3And then God answered: “Write this.
   Write what you see.
Write it out in big block letters
   so that it can be read on the run.

Habakkuk 2:2 NASB

 ”2Then the LORD answered me and said,
         ”Record the vision
         And inscribe it on tablets,
         That the one who reads it may run.”

Try writing down your thoughts and prayers for a couple of days.   Return to your journal in a couple of weeks and revisit your thoughts.  It has been a blessing to be able to return to my journal and to see how God has answered prayers that I do not remember praying.

Allow Father God to speak with you today.   God Bless!!

Written by Chris Dennis

Forgiveness and Prayer

Forgiveness can be a tough issue in our life.  Sometimes we just need to forgive instead of knowingly holding a grudge and justifying why we do it. 

 Here is a great quote about forgiveness by Sydney and Suzanne Simon:

“Forgiveness is freeing up and putting to better use the energy once consumed by holding grudges, harboring resentments, and nursing unhealed wounds. It is rediscovering the strengths we always had and relocating our limitless capacity to understand and accept other people and ourselves.”

The only way to understand forgiveness is to spend time with the Father.

It’s more than just saying a prayer…..

“It means entering God’s Holy presence and communing with Him about His intentions and activity.”

“Prayer isn’t merely for us to place our wishes before God; it’s an opportunity for God to lay His heart upon us.  When we’ve truly prayed, we come away with a heart and mind like God’s.  Through our prayers, we do not conform God to our will; rather He transforms us as we abide in His presence.”  Blackaby

I leave you with this scripture:

2 Corinthians 3:16-18 New Life Verson 

“16 But whenever a man turns to the Lord, the covering is taken away. 17 The heart is free where the Spirit of the Lord is. The Lord is the Spirit. 18 All of us, with no covering on our faces, show the shining-greatness of the Lord as in a mirror. All the time we are being changed to look like Him, with more and more of His shining-greatness. This change is from the Lord Who is the Spirit.”

Let your light shine, forgive those keeping your mind in bondage and allow Father God to heal your heart.

God Bless!!!

Post written by Chris Dennis

Discipleship

The topic I have chosen this week is probably the hardest one yet.  Because it goes against the grain of typical teaching.  But it is an important principal of a Christ-like life. 

Mat.16:24 says:

Then Jesus said to his disciples,” If anyone wishes to follow after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” 

Many times we steer away from the mention of life’s storms, or hard work, or persecution.  When you witness of Christ’s love in your life are you always welcomed with open arms?  I haven’t been.  I’ve worked for the same company for thirty-four years, and during this time, as a Christian, I have received all kinds of reactions.  One time a supervisor told me I was too much of a Christian.  He said I should be more like John Doe.  A few months after that statement John Doe was sent to prison for child molestation.  That was a long time ago.  Today I have a guy that treats me with contempt all the time.  I try to be nice to him and pray for him.   My Christian witness caused one man to come to Christ, a few years later he went to be with the Lord. 

When Christ walked the earth the term” take up your cross” meant just that.  Hundreds if not thousands of people were killed in this manner, death by crucifixion. Christ carried His cross down the Via Dolorosa which is Latin for ‘the way of suffering’.  While the subject of discipleship carries a lot of weight, it is not without reward.  Taking up your cross and following Christ will come with reward.  Not a new car or money but blessing without comprehension.  Posted by Steve Waltrip

Church Attendance

 

When I was a little boy my mother insisted we go to church every time the door was open.  Sunday morning, Sunday night, vacation Bible school, and revivals.  In the early 60’s we attended a little Methodist church on highway 181.  Well, around 1960 I missed the Ed Sullivan show that had the Beatles on it. The show came on about the time church started.  For a 5^th grade boy this was something I knew I would never forget, and I didn’t. 

It’s amazing how we change.  Now I’d rather be in church.  I heard a joke one time:  A Christian was talking about the way Heaven would be to a none Christian.  He said,” In Heaven we are going to have church all day long.”  The none believer said,” I don’t think I would like that!”  The believer said, ’”that’s OK you won’t have to worry about that.”  Why do we go to church?  A pastor told me once he had a man come up to him and tell him he did believe in church, he worshiped in nature.  He said he could see Gods handy work in the trees and the birds of the air.  This pastor told him when he needed help to go tell a tree.

The Bible commanded us: not to forsake the assembling together(Heb. 10:25).  I have my own reasons for attending church.  Personally I like being around people.  2BC has meny good people, it’s one of the things that attracted Terrie and I.  In the two years we have been here I feel a part of a close family; so much so, they fuss at me when I don’t show up. I feel its where God wants us, because He is revealing new things to us. Terrie and I are both growing in ways we may not have at another church. 

Everyone that is born again has the Spirit of the Living God living in them, and when we come together on Sunday morning God is there in a very special way.  My heart is warmed by the worship in song and I receive confirmation, of what I read in the Bible when Bro. Ray preaches about what I read.  Can you see Him? 

The picture above is of The Old North Church, in Boston Mass.  Remember “One if by land two if by sea”?  Paul Revere watched for a lantern, to alert of the British invasion.  Allow the church to be your warning today.  Posted by Steve Waltrip.