12 posts tagged “good”

TheCall DC II

Guys, let's face the hard truth: America is messed up. BIG TIME. Pornography, prostitution, and pop culture influence the sexual immorality, human trafficking, and abortion in this nation. Not to mention the greed, lust, and love of money that causes so much crime in many american cities. Not only is this rampant, but it is openly being marketed to our kids. there was a statistic for Canada that said that the average age a canadian loses their virginity is 16.. and that more than a third of 13 year old boys from Alberta said that they had watched porn of the internet "TOO MANY TIMES TO COUNT." I must stop here and make one point: Don't try to tell me that pornography has some good uses. I say to you that you are WRONG. (Isa 5:20). These stats are for Canada, but I can guarantee you that they are very similar in America. Divorce rates are climbing, and laws are being passed so that a boy can declare himself a girl and walk into a girls bathroom in public schools in California.

So enough of the negative, huh? well.. more of the hard truth is that the Church in America is sick and lukewarm. There needs to be a massive overhaul in the Church. So many leaders in the Church are addicted to the same things that their kids are. I heard another statistic about a year ago that said that the number of pornography rentals at hotels actually go UP when the Christian conferences go to town.

so think of this, people in america are calling good evil, and darkness, light. We then turn around, and have record floods in the midwest, droughts in the southeast, and raging forest fires in the east. on a larger, world wide scale, there are earthquakes in China, and hurricanes that flood cities..

'nuff said.

Okay. I'm tired of being negative now.

1000038749

That moment is NOW, beloved. There is a solution, and it's called fasting and prayer. God came up with it. In His great unfailing mercy, He has decided to give us a prescription for this virus of death that has infected our nation. 

The Call on the march

On August 16th 2008, God is calling over one million people to the National Mall in DC, where they will fast, pray, and repent for the wickedness that is running rampant in this nation. all this according to the passage in Joel 2:15, with a solemn assembly of worship and prayer. I went to TheCall Nashville last year on 07.07.07, and I can tell you that as over 70,000 people gathered together, we moved things in the Spirit with our prayers. 

I can tell you that this year will be no different, except that the feeling will be 234526462 times as strong, and the effect just as awesome. I can't wait guys. 

So come to Washington D.C. on August 16th, and from 10AM to 10PM, we will stand before the throne of God on behalf of our nation, pleading for mercy, and, renewing our covenant with Him. 

I wish I could give you guys more information, but I to tell the truth, I am out of steam for today. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

rg

I like this song by Vicky Beeching.

Hey everyone, and especially PASTORS! Boyd and Pastor Scott... I think this might be something to do with LaGrange, but I dunno how we'd get it done. check out the article below from Charisma Magazine. <(Direct link to article.)

One Prayer Unites Hundreds of Churches
Oklahoma pastor Craig Groeschel weary of seeing the body of Christ divided across denominational and doctrinal lines has begun “One Prayer,” a monthlong campaign to unite churches.
 

[06.17.08] A cutting-edge Oklahoma pastor weary of seeing the body of Christ divided across denominational and doctrinal lines has begun a monthlong campaign to unite churches.
 
Dubbed “One Prayer,” Craig Groeschel, senior pastor of LifeChurch.tv, launched the initiative on June 8, joining hundreds of churches worldwide to simultaneously participate in the same sermon series.
 
Four different megachurch pastors are preaching a sermon weekly until the end of June elaborating on the one prayer that each pastor would pray if they had only one petition for the body of Christ. Each Sunday a different pastor preaches while the other churches watch the service via video.
 
“If I had one prayer that I could ask the Father in heaven, I would pray, ‘Father make us one,’” Groeschel said during last week’s message. Citing John 17:20-24 he said God is likely exhausted of hearing His children argue over nonessential issues such as which version of the Bible to use or the style of worship they choose.
 
The campaign was not born out of a yearning for unity but out of his desire to repent, Groeschel said. After noticing a competitive attitude he held toward other churches, he wanted to rid himself of it and focus his attention on the “true” enemy—Satan.
 
“The evil one is trying to destroy us,” he said, noting Satan’s strongest weapon is causing division in the church. “He wants to steal our unity. He wants to kill our churches. He wants to destroy Christianity.”
 
Groeschel said that believers should not only unify on a personal level, but he also encourages churches to combine resources to help build God’s kingdom.
 
“Think about the resources God makes available to us.” he declares at oneprayer.com. “Consider the money we control, the talent, gifts and passions of perhaps 2 billion people. Now consider the needs around the world.”
 
This Sunday all of the participating churches will collect an offering and the proceeds will be used to build 500 churches in Cambodia, India, Sudan and China.
 
Said Groeschel: “[Jesus] explained that the sign of our unity in Christ is our love for one another. Now 1,000-plus churches and hundreds of thousands of Christians will gather in His name to make a difference.”
 
Other participating churches include Jentezen Franklin’s Free Chapel, Perry Nobel’s NewSpring Church and Ed Young’s Fellowship Church. —Felicia Mann

Psalm 101:3 - "I will set nothing wicked before my eyes. I hate the work of those who fall away, it shall not cling to me."

Psalm 101:3

... but i think there's something about a woman leading worship.. don't get me wrong, men... Men have their own anointing, and it has it's features, and it's awesome... but right now, I'm amazed at the anointing that a female worship leader brings..  one who is rooted and grounded in love, and who spends time with her Father in heaven, and her Savior.. who prays and reads the Scriptures diligently, and who truly loves the Lord.. the songs and melodies that come out of that heart, combined with the vocal qualities of a female voice... something just speaks to my heart and says "love the Lord, because He loves YOU."  it's amazing.. I'm sure one day I'll be like "there's something about a MAN leading worship... really brings out the WARRIOR in ya! YEAH! WOOOOOOOO! WARFARE! YEAH!" or something like that... but yeah. right now i"m just caught up in the intimacy part of God.. and it's SOOOOOOO good.

Okay.. so the past few posts of mine have been, to others, not very far above coherent in their nature, so I will attempt to explain what in the world (or rather, what in the heavenlies!) is going on.

I would like to inform everyone that God is soooo Good. amen.

16 is pretty sweet it exemplifies how we should live: UNASHAMED of the Gospel!
And 5 is good too concerning grace, because it qualifies us to be apostles, given we are obedient to His Word: "Through Him [Jesus] we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name..."

I wanna focus on 3-4 before I got on to 21-32.

I got a revelation on verse 3, then realized a couple days later that the revelation was in verse 4. In life, we all have "two lives" that are lived parallel to each other, and are directly affected one by the other, and vice-versa. we have a life "in the flesh" or "according to the flesh," and we have a life "in the Spirit" or "according to the Spirit." These lives are essentially one and the same. 

Jesus also lived the same way. What I thought was cool was that John put it this way, that Christ was just "born", according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit (of holiness), He was the Son of God (get this) with POWER. that's amazing. it shows us that Jesus did not receive His power by His own might, but by the might of the Father. that's tight!

Concerning verses 21-32, A. W. Tozer claims that it was a low view of God that caused the worship to turn from the Creator, (who is blessed forever, AMEN) to the creature. 

It's interesting. Look at verse 21: "Because, although they knew God, they did not *glorify* Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened."

That's powerful, guys. Look at it (my comments in brackets): Because they knew God [with their minds], they did not glorify Him [worship Him] as God [with their hearts]." Essentially, they knew ABOUT God, but they were not in a RELATIONSHIP with Him! how sad! 

Therefore, they "became futile in their thoughts." I looked up the word "futile" in the dictionary, and it said "incapable of producing any useful result; pointless." KJV says "became vain in their imaginations." that leads on to the next verse, but I wanna look at the words "became vain." The greek word for that is "mataioō" (ματαιόω). It's also translated as "To make empty, vain, foolish; were brought to folly in their thoughts, i.e. fell into error." That's deep. They fell *INTO ERROR*. That's why it is VITAL, as Christians, that we do not let our view of God slip to anything less than the truth.

Then comes the next error. verse 22: professing to be wise, they became fools.
Old Testament parallel: Job 36:26 - BEHOLD! God is great, and we do not know Him." The more we know about a subject, the more we realize we don't know. 

for the sake of your time, I'll move on. :p (love you guys!)
23 says "They changed the Glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man." Remember all the golden Idols from the OT? that's a similar situation, and whether we know it or not, it goes on today. we think of how God is without ever really checking our ideas with the Word. They then break one of the 10 commandments: "You shall have no other gods before me." The "image" of Him that we make is a lower view of who HE really is, therefore, it's not really Him. we then begin to exalt and worship a lesser god. Bad idea guys. REAAALLLY bad idea. Because when we don't keep our worship on the TRUE God, and our focus on Him, we begin to worship and serve other things, similar to that of verse 25.

finally, 29-31 mentions all the things that a debased mind does. several of those things we are still seeing today. But the kicker is in verse 32: Who, knowing the righteous judgement of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death **not only do the same, but also approve of those who practice them."

this is not saying that those who don't practice the sin are cleared of guilt. If you sit there and say "I wouldn't want to do that, but I"m not gonna enforce my beliefs on someone else" (aka "it's okay for them to do it, but not me"). that person is just as guilty of the sin. Now that some of you guys are really worried... it doesn't mean if you sit by idly letting the sin happen, disapproving of the action, you are guilty of that sin. That is a whole different topic on sins of commission and omission. that's for another time. 

I hate how I've ended this on what the world would call a "negative" note. but I think it's good for us. Because it makes us see that we can't live by ourselves. we MUST call on the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost to help us live our everyday lives, and God must also help us to think rightly and highly of Himself. Doing so will prevent a multitude of other sins.

If this is something that's really sparked something in you, I'd Totally recommend reading the Bible (of course). but some other VERY good sources are A. W. Tozer's book "Knowledge of The Holy," and Corey Russel's "Pursuit of the Holy." Corey Russell quotes a good bit of Tozer's book in his, and they are both great books to make sure you're on the right path to Knowing God as He IS, not as we have formed Him to be. 

any other thoughts on romans 1?