Pastor's Blog

Your Shackles Are Coming Off (Acts 16:16-34)

04/04/2012 10:40:00

The bible says, in Nehemiah 8:10, that the joy of the Lord our strength. This joy that we have, that gives the saintsof God their strength, is based on the reconciliation we have with God and theever presence of the Holy Ghost in the lives of the saints. This joy that we have, is a fortress to guard us from and through our daily troubles and temptations. You see, it’s hard to sin and rebel againstGod when you have the joy of the Lord, for it acts as the power and motivation to preserve you in faith. This joy that we have, can be defined as:

1. a deep feeling or condition ofhappiness or contentment

2. something causing such a feeling; asource of happiness (Jesus)

3. an outward show of pleasure or delight;rejoicing

Because of the joy that the Lord gives us, we are strengthenedspiritually as we celebrate what the Lord has done for us. As we exercise the outward show of pleasureand delight in the Lord, our joy is normally accompanied with a Tehillah praise. A Tehillah praise is the singing of a newsong, or a hymn of spontaneous praise by glorifying God in song. Paul even admonishes the saints in Ephesus toexercise their outward expression of joy by “Speaking toyourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord.” The psalmist David, emphasized the point of having joy when he says, in Psalm 34:1, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise(Tehillah, singing) shall continually be in my mouth.”

But despite thepsalmist’s declaration, can you still sing your new songs unto the Lord? Is there a Tehillah in your mouth, even whenthe environment and your situation and your circumstances are not conducive tofurther your joy?

Can you still express your joy in song:

· When yourland is barren and unfruitful

o Cultivated but no harvest

· Dry desert place without an oasis

· When the medical prognosis isn’t positive

· When doorafter door keeps getting slammed in your face and opportunity refuses to knock.

Can yousing your songs of Zion even when you are a captive in a strange land? (God'sblessing stripped from you.)

Here aresome points to remember:

o Eventhough your environment is not conducive to your joy

You needto nurture your own joy.

· Believingthat God is still in control and can deliver

· Not allowanyone to steal your joy (Because it is your strength); Joy is a weapon;produces praise.

· Godwill give you beauty for ashes, the oilof joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit ofheaviness

In acts 16, Paul and Silas exemplifies our joy:

· When you do the Lord’s will, you’ll find yourselfplaced in shackles

o Yourministry is going to cause pain and discomfort, inconvenience to others, evenin the church.

o Sometimesinterfere with other’s ill gotten gain, even in the church

· Yet in the middle of their suffering theybegan to Tehilla God.

o Persecutioncan't destroy your peace and joy, if you hold fast to your faith in JesusChrist.

· We need to learn to praise God even in shackles

o Shackles= that which hinders & limits you; cause you to not feel like praising God; weighing you down (Ex. toxic people)

o When you praise = shedding of the shackles = new perspective

o Mary Marysaid:

Take the shackles off my feet so I can dance
I just wanna praise you
I just wanna praise you
You broke the chains now I can lift my hands
And I'm gonna praise you
I'm gonna praise you

· Your praise will notonly deliver you but also deliver someone else:

o Jailer and family

o Someone is watching you as you go through your suffering.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

12/27/2011 11:15:00

I, First Lady Daniels and the Agape Ministries family pray that you and your family have a safe Christmas and a blessed and happy new year!

Pastor Daniels

This Christmas

12/03/2011 17:40:00

One of my favoriteChristmas songs that I love to hear that really gets me into the Christmasholiday spirit is Donney Hathaway and Nadine McKinner’s, “This Christmas.”

Hang all the mistletoe

I’m gonna get to know youbetter

This Christmas

And as we trim the tree

How much fun it’s gonna betogether

This Christmas

This Christmas is a songof enjoying a special and intimate Christmas holiday with someone you love,caroling through the night, exchanging presents and enjoying the Christmaslights. This Christmas some childrenwill be waiting for Jolly ol’ Saint Nick to come down the chimney with his bagsof goodies and toys to leave under the tree of every good girl and boy. This Christmas, your family and mine willlook forward to gather around the television set and watch a Charlie BrownChristmas and those old Rankin and Bass stop motion shows like Rudolph the RedNose Reindeer, and Santa Clause Is Coming To Town, and It Was A Year Without aSanta Clause as we all sing the Heat Mizer and Cold Mizer song.

This Christmas we’ll play our old Christmas tapes and CDsor turn on the radio to a station that will play 24 hours of Christmas music toget us in the holiday mood. We’ll drivedown the road singing Bing Crosby’s and David Bowie’s Peace On Earth and LittleDrummer Boy Medley or The Christmas Song by Nat King Cole or Joy To The World,Hark the Herald Angels Sing, and Silent Night by various artists, on our newChristmas CD we bought at Target. ThisChristmas, we’ll brave the cold, terrible traffic and folks fighting in longlines in the stores or spend an enormous amount of our time on our laptops andiPads to find the best prices on the internet and run up our credit cards toget that toy that little Jimmy and little Suzie has been bugging us about forthe past six months.

This Christmas we’ll be out partying like it’s still 1999at the company’s Christmas party...oops…Holiday Party….you’re not allowed to say Christmas anymore in certain circles of our communities. But partying none the less, with the spiked eggnog and with the married executives who will be introducing the young ladiesthey bring to the party as their daughters or nieces…wink…wink! This Christmas many will have the dilemma ofdeciding whether to stay home and open presents on Christmas morning by thenice warm fire place and watching “Miracle on 34 Street” andcollege bowl games or whether getting dressed and coming to church on time for worship,since the day we have set aside to celebrate Jesus’ birthday will fall on aSunday. But this Christmas, while thefireside is blazing high and we’re caroling through the night, and while thisChristmas will be as very special Christmas for you and for me, I want everybodyto know and encourage you that for this Christmas, I’m gonna get to know youbetter…Jesus!

I want to get to know Mary’s baby boyjust a little bit better this Christmas! I want to get to know him in the fellowship of his suffering! I want to walk with him, I want to talk withhim, I want him to tell me that I am his own, and the joy we share as we tarrythere none other shall ever know! Anybody want to get to know him better this Christmas! Anybody want a closer walk with Jesus thisChristmas! If there’s one gift that Ican receive on this Christmas, it’s that I want to get to know youbetter…Jesus! Help me to know your mind,Jesus! Hide your word in my heart sothat I will not sin against you. Help meto learn your precepts and your ordinance so that I can love you by keepingyour commandments!

This Christmas, people are going to be walking aroundcelebrating someone whom they don’t really know. And it is imperative that we, who know Jesus,step out this holiday to help other to get to know him better in the pardoningof their sins. Baby, don’t you know thatthe gift of Christmas doesn’t have anything to do with a box, wrapping paperand a pretty bow. I know Madison Avenue coercesus to think that the best Christmas gifts are expensive and comes boxed andwrapped with a big fat bow on top and sparkling diamonds on the inside, but thebest gift of Christmas is the gift of salvation (See John 3:16). The baby Jesus, whom we sing about duringthis time, was born for the purpose of dying. He is the Father’s gift to an ungrateful people who have turned theirfaces from him and are worthy of death. Iheard Paul say, in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift ofGod is eternal life.”

So just like the joy and excitement of children whentheir eyes sparkle and shine bright on Christmas morning, when they see andopen the gifts left under the tree, so it should be with those of whom we sharethe knowledge of Christ to lead them in getting to know Jesus better, andexperience true Christmas in their hearts for the first time. Like the Grinch who stole Christmas, they’llbe puzzled and puzzled till their puzzlers are sore. They’ll think of something that they hadn’tbefore. Maybe Christmas they’llthink…doesn’t come from a store. MaybeChristmas perhaps…means a little bit more. And what will happen, then? Well, in Westminster & Baltimore & Maryland& the USA, etc. they’ll say - that the sinner’s heart grew, three timesthat day. And then – the true meaning of Christmas did come through, and the sinner found salvation through Jesus’ bloodby the witnessing from you! So tell yourneighbor, that this Christmas, because your witness is so important, you’regoing to get to know Jesus better.

Be blessed!

Pastor Daniels

Happy Thanksgiving!

11/22/2011 11:45:00

On behalf of First Lady Daniels and the Agape Ministries family, we pray that you have a safe and blessed Thanksgiving! Let's concentrate on giving God thanks before we think about Black Friday!

Be blessed!

Priorities

09/13/2011 08:02:00

This past Sunday was our first Family and Friends Day celebration and truly the Lord blessed us with His presence. There was great worship and praise, a wonderful and unexpected confession/testimony, yokes destroyed, a great word from God(with God confirming his Word with signs and wonders on the very the next day), enjoyable fellowship and unchurched folks were in the house and were able to be offered enternal salvation. And while I am a couple of days removed from this past Sunday, I can't help to think about those who decided not to come to church and miss out on their deliverence from God. As pastor you are privy to information that members of the congregation have shared with you privately or sometimes persons make you their spiritual trash can and continually talk with you about their struggles while not being mindful of what you have to accomplish at that point of time or they have an issue with you that they need to get "straight" (Hey, it comes with the territory!) and you wonder why they are not in church on such a day where they surely can receive a breakthrough. Yet some of these people are the same ones who don't feel that it's a priority to be in the house of God for worship when the doors are open nor do they feel obligated to give God his due reverence and also to fulfill that which they are called to do in the church, yet they always want to take from God, the church and you.

I heard a wise woman say one day, "If your are in a relationship with someone and you are the only one that is giving and the other person is taking, then something is wrong in the relationship." I have to agree with that viewpoint, but I would also add that if you are the only giver in the relationship, then what is wrong with your own self-esteem? As this society has become a "gimme" and "what have you done for me lately" society, I find that many people have decided that they only want a one way relationship with God and not have to commit or give themselves to the relationship. But I do believe God has excellent self-esteem than to be a doormat, don't you think?

As I said previously, we had a blessed time for our first Family and Friends day. If you were unable to attend, I'm sorry that you could not be in the house. If you decided that it wasn't a priority for you to attend church Sunday or you stayed home because football season started and you wanted to see the Ravens beat up on the Pittsburgh Steeler (Thank you, Lord!), then make sure you give a call to your favorite NFL team and tell them all about your problems and struggles. Maybe they can give you the deliverence and spritual release that you should have received from God on Sunday?

Be blessed!

Learning To Do a Lot With Little

07/22/2011 08:19:00

The past few month have been an up and down roller coatser of emotions and activities for Agape (and for me personally), as we have tried to do big thing with little resources. I am greatful to those who have latched onto the vision of our church. Despite the nay sayers God has continued to use this ministry to touch peoples lives and lead them to Christ. I am overjoyed to see how God has taken

some who were on a ride ending in a train wreck and rescue them from disaster. I've watched low self-esteem and self-deprication in others turn into a greater knowledge of them knowing who they are in Christ. I've seen introverts gain boldness in Christ and I've met those who were making plans to end their lives receive a new beginning. There may be only a few of us in our 900 sq ft rented space, but we've learned to do a lot with a little because there still more minisry to do. Be blessed!

Pastor

Is The Church Heartbroken?

05/15/2011 18:25:00

Have you ever cared about someone so much that in times past in which they have hurt you or turned on you or in moments when they have disappointed you or let you down, or even when they have made a great mistake that was a detriment not only to you but to themselves also, that instead of feeling angry, the feeling you really experienced was being heartbroken? Have you ever been emotionally tied to someone who you see going down the wrong path or has suffered great earthly trials that you empathize with their struggle and it hurts you to see them go through their trials? And sometimes you want to reach out and help and assist them and pull them out of the hole that they are in, to pull them out of the traps and snares set by the enemy and help them out of their blue funk, but you find that they either refuse to be helped, because some people don’t want to be helped or have become so far gone and reprobate that they can’t realize that they need help or you are powerless to do so due to circumstance beyond your influence and control.

Sometimes the feeling of powerlessness does stem from our inabilities or ineffectiveness to help due to the wall the person we care about has put between us and them. But a truth to their failure in deliverance does come from our turning a blind eye and shutting up the bowels of compassion for those we love or those who are in need. The bible says in 1 John 3:16-17, “Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and see the his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?” I heard David say,in Psalm 69:20, “Reproach hath broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.” After we finish preaching heaven down from the pulpit, where is the church to ease the reproach of men’s broken hearts? After we finish sing and dancing and shouting, where is the church to lighten the heaviness in men’s hearts? When we leave the church parking lots in our Bentley’s, BMW, Mercedes, and Sebrings, and Ford Focuses, and minivans,where is the church to extend pity to those in distress? When we take off our big hats and sharp suits, and collars and ropes and habits, where is the church to bring comfort when there is none else to be found? We spout off at the mouth and talk about the love of God, but when there is a real need that someone has that comes to our door, we close our door and hearts to them and they go away with the mindset that the church doesn’t care and the love of God becomes nothing more than verbal diarrhea out of our mouths to the ears of our hearers because some of us in the church have forgotten that the love of God is actually realized through personal sacrifice. The love of God shed abroad in our hearts should be expressed by sincerely helping persons in ‘real’ need and not only giving lip service! Jesus said, “For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” What have you done for Jesus lately?

Now, I encourage you to develop a great compassion for sharing the love of God to meet the ‘real’ natural needs of your fellow man and be heartbroken that others are suffering in this life. It’s good that your faith is wrought with works! It’s good if you are compassionate enough to want to:

· Feed the hungry.

· Clothe the naked.

· Visit the sick.

· Take care of the widow, orphan & stranger in the land.

But God doesn’t only want you to show compassion and stop at the works that meet the natural man’s needs! God wants you to also become heartbroken like Him of the reality that people have rejected and will reject the gospel of Jesus Christ and their souls are being lost for all eternity. For I heard the bible say in 2 Peter 3:9, that God “is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And when your heart breaks, I hope it drives you to open your bowels of compassion and reach out and lead someone else to salvation because your fellow man is in need! Can you become heartbroken as you see someone going down the wrong spiritual path? Is your heart aching as you realize the spiritual torment that someone is suffering at the hands of the devil? Can you weep for your fellow man because their faith in God is shattered and they can’t seem to reclaim it?

The bible says, in John 11,that when Jesus came to Bethany after Lazarus had died and seeing Mary, Martha and others grieving for Lazarus that he groaned in His spirit & Jesus wept. The emotional impact of Jesus’ dear close friend displays Jesus’ humanity, but Jesus was not only grieving because his friend had died. He was also grieved and heartbroken by the limited faith everyone displayed even though he, the resurrection and the life, was in their presence who had the power to raise Lazarus from the dead. The people stated, “Could not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?” They believed Jesus could have performed a miracle while Lazarus was sick, but believed all was lost now that death had claimed him.

Heartbreak came to a head for me last Wednesday night when I received word about a young man who was in transition that I’ve been ministering to for about a month and had been coming to church for about two weeks. In our discussions, he said he was trying to change his life and moved to Westminster to stay out of trouble. I could surmise he was searching for something better but his urgency of salvation wasn’t sinking in his heart and he took the new opportunities God had given him for granted and on an early Wednesday morning after Mother’s Day he laid in an apartment stairwell close to death, a victim of a gunshot to the stomach, a victim of an assassin’s bullet meant for someone else who is now lying in shock trauma fighting for his life. He was at the wrong place, at the wrong time,hanging around the wrong people. My heart breaks because he represents a large number of people in Westminster whose urgency of salvation isn’t sinking in their hearts. Like ships without a sail, they are stuck in transition with no direction, beaten up by the world and walking around chasing after crumb government crumbs without any hope of an abundant life, yet refusing to accept the new abundant life offered by Jesus the Christ.

It is my spiritual discernment,that the city of Westminster can have all the festivals and carnivals it wants in town and can conduct all the community projects it wants; the city can cover it’s streets with pretty flowers and dress its buildings with colorful paint and colorful banners and it can build all the community centers it can in Westminster. The churches in Westminster can feed all the elderly and the homeless and children that they can reach; the churches can have all the Christmas concerts and Easter egg hunts they want, but until we stop being in denial that there is a spiritually demonic undercurrent in this city and until our heart brakes to the point that we are compelled to reach out and meet the needs of the spiritual man, this city is still going to be dressed and adorned with the heaviness of the spiritual chains that bound its citizens hearts!

The bible says, in Romans9:1-5, that Paul expressed this ‘heartbreak’ we should experience as it related to the election of Israel and their rejection of Jesus Christ. He expressed that he suffered great heaviness and sorrow in his heart and Paul wished he would be separated from Christ for his brethren sake. Does the church really have the same attitude as Paul? Is there great grief and heartache at the center of the church’s emotional being? Are saints willing to suffer for the salvation of others? What are you willing to give up so that someone else might be saved? Please don’t take my statements as a condemnation of the church. It’s only something for us to contemplate as we minister to those in the twenty first century, for Jesus is surely to soon come or he will surely call us into eternity. As always, be blessed!

Pastor Daniels

Count It Not Strange: MTO

02/18/2011 10:03:00

There is a song that I have heard the saints sing that says, “Every promise in the Book is mine! Every chapter, every verse, every line. I am standing on His Word divine, Every promise in the Book is mine!” And with that song we make it personal that the promises of the blessings of God are for us, as the people of God. We covet or take ownership of the Word of God to our lives when it says, "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19). We are reassured because the Word of God says, "The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways" (Deuteronomy 28:7). or "When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him" (Isaiah 59:19). With great enthusiasm we shout upon the roof tops, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). We’ll shout and dance and tingle with excitement and anticipation when the prophet comes to tell us that God is going to send us that new husband or wife or a new job and more money or that new five bedroom house that we know we can’t afford. It’s also exciting to know that God has given us the victory over sin & the devil and we can be assured of the salvation we have obtained by the washing of the blood of Jesus Christ! Are you glad to know that your sins are blotted out by the blood of the lamb? Are you happy that you are no longer at enmity with God but now you carry the name “Friend of God?”

But let me shift direction a little. I want to know, where is the joy, when the promise in the "Book," is the promise of suffering for Christ sake, and is realized in our lives? Where is the joy in knowing Him in the fellowship of His suffering? Have you ever gone through trouble because of your friendship with someone that other people didn’t like? Have you ever been maligned by others because you stood by your friend who was being ostracized? As Peter wrote to the strangers scattered throughout the Roman provinces of Asia Minor, “If ye are reproached for the name of Jesus Christ, happy are ye!" Peter reaffirms the promise of our suffering when he says, “Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you.” If I could say it using a modern cliché, I could probably say to someone who is suffering for righteousness sake, “No good deed goes unpunished.” Sometimes when you do good and are striving to live right before God and man, instead of roses you’ll only get thorns! Instead of a pat on the back, you may get kicked in the teeth! But the promise of the bible is that you will suffer for righteousness sake.

I know your suffering has brought you unimaginable pain. I know your suffering has caused you to be ostracized, criticized and misunderstood. Your trials have caused you to go through being repressed, depressed, suppressed & oppressed! Your tribulation has caused your world to fall apart but the reality is that your suffering is inevitable. It is inevitable because you’ve been loyal to Jesus the Christ in an ungodly world that has rejected Him and is opposed to His Gospel. But happy are ye! WHY? Because there is a purpose to your suffering (Read Romans 8:28).

Wait a minute, Pastor! All I’m getting is disappointment and rejection, heartache and pain, no sunshine and all rain and you say that it’s working for my good? Yes, it’s working for your good! The heartache & pain means that you’re still alive to glorify God and your suffering has not killed you. Sometimes too much sunshine, as with a plant, will cause you to wither and die; so rain comes to provide relief, replenishment and nourishment. How else are you going to grow without sunshine and rain?

If you are willing to suffer for Christ, you’ll find it easier to resist sin and obey the will of God. Because the pull of sin becomes less significant and the will of God becomes principal in your life. Think about yourself during your daily workout in the gym, laying on a weight bench and performing a number of repetitive sets of bench presses and lets apply this action spiritually. The pull of gravity of the weights your are lifting can be equated to the temptations of the world or sin in your life. The barbell/weight is the suffering, the tribulation and trials that you are going through. The more you resist and the longer you push against the pull of gravity and the barbell, the stronger you become physically. Hence, the more you resist and the longer you push against the pull of the world's temptation and fight through your struggles, the stronger your become spiritually and the more you rely on God.

All of our suffering that we experience is God’s opportunity to manifest trust and obedience to Him who has redeemed us from the hand of the enemy! Your “manifested trust and obedience (MTO)” is your being tried by fire and coming out like pure gold. Your MTO will:

Cause you to overcome your fear and doubt.
Make your realize that if God is for you, then who can be against you.
Allow you to overcome your depression.
Take you from faith to faith.
Take you from a "Woe is me!" to a "Just another day that the Lord has kept me!”
Help you be reassured that God is always there with a promise of hope.

As you walk in trust and obedience to God you will learn to overcome the hate that is in your heart to those who have hurt you. You will walk in the Word of God and love your enemies and pray for those who despitefully use you. Out of pain and hurt will be born forgiveness and you will look to your Father in heaven and say, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."

Finally as you trust and obey God even through your struggles, what will be produced in you is a sincere praise.

Job spoke truth when he said that, "Man is born of a woman is but a few days and full of trouble." But despite him reeling in his tribulation, he still went on to sincerely praise God in his time of distress, "The Lord giveth…the lord taketh away…blessed be the name of the Lord."

Be blessed!

Did You Celebrate Black Friday With An Unthankful Heart?

11/30/2010 09:40:00

The title of this blog is a very timely and appropriate question to ask today as we are a few days removed from the Thanksgiving holiday and from one of the biggest shopping days of the year, called Black Friday. And as I talked with people within the few weeks leading up to Thanksgiving, there was more interest and planning and discussion about Black Friday than there was the actual Thanksgiving holiday. Now don’t get me wrong! Thank God for the opportunity to spend less money on items to shop, because I already did some Christmas shopping online last Friday night.

But my problem with Black Friday is that this is another way that 5 Avenue advertisers has found to exploit and commercialize a holiday. We even now have Cyber Monday. Black Friday also reveals that some of our priorities are in the wrong place as a nation. Did anyone see the video of the people getting trampled over at a Target in Buffalo, NY? How can we complain about our economy and personal debt when we are spending our Thanksgiving holiday camped outside stores in anticipation of Black Friday? I wish people would camp outside of the church to wait for the doors to open to worship God who gave them the money to shop on Black Friday.

Black Friday is also a paradigm of how unthankful we can be as a nation because it causes us to look past Thanksgiving; a day we have set aside to give God thanks for all that he has done for us throughout the year. With all the effort we put into Black Friday (and we put a lot of effort into it by downloading and collecting online circulars, creating shopping team, strategizing what stores we’ll hit first, who we will elbow or clothesline to get to the item we want first, etc.) we have forgotten to be thankful unto God who has richly blessed us beyond our imagination. Did you really remember God and tell him thank you for your blessings. Did you really count your blessings and name them one by one? Did you really count your many blessings and see what God has done?

I heard a song writer say, “O’ give thanks, unto the Lord, for He is good, yes he is good!” For He is worthy, worthy! For he is good, yes he is good!” We have been so spoiled by God that we have forgotten and taken for granted on how good He really is! On last Thursday, did you think back on how good He was when He:

Blessed you with that new job.
Healed your body from that infirmity!
Delivered you out of the car wreck that you should have died in.

On last Thursday, did you show a sense of gratitude when He:

Had all your family under one room at one table breaking bread together.
Kept you from sleeping out in the cold, hungry and wet.
Saved you and sanctified you and is keeping you from a devil’s hell!

Did anybody say Thank you Jesus! Thank you for saving me! Thank you that you loved me enough to die for me! Thank you for being JEHOVAH-JIREH, JEHOVAH-SHALOM, JEHOVAH-NISSI, JEHOVAH-ROHI and JEHOVAH-ROPHE! Thank you for Calvary!

We are living in a day and time and in a society where people no longer carry a thankful heart. In the third chapter of the II Timothy, the apostle Paul warned that in the last days perilous time would come. In the last days, there would be a coming apostasy marked with false believers and churches, an ever-increasing wickedness in the world, and a collapse of our moral standards. I want you to know that time is now and we need to be ready and right with our Lord. Paul then gives examples of the increased ungodliness as history approaches the end of the age. Men would be lovers of own selves (Self-centered, Arrogant), without natural affection (Family affections), lovers of money and pleasure more than God, professing Christianity without the power of God being manifested in their lives, leading people astray from the truth of the gospel, resisting the truth of the gospel, corrupt & reprobate. Oh by the way, one characteristic on Paul's list that I did not previously mention above…..‘unthankfulness.’

Because we are so blessed, we operate with a sense of entitlement as if God has to bless us because it is our expectation, instead of bringing him a gift of ‘Thank you.’ At Agape Ministries COGIC, we open up our worship every Sunday with Psalm 100, “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands. Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.” The psalmist said, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.” On last Sunday, did you bring the same enthusiasm with you to church as you did when you celebrated Black Friday while hunting down your deals? Did you even go to church or did you forget to bless him name and thank Him for being good?

Be Blessed!

Pastor

You Can’t Have It All But You Can Have New Life

10/29/2010 19:14:00

You Can’t Have It All But You Can Have New Life

Ephesians 4:23-32

In 1 John 2:15-16, the bible says, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." In other words:

Don’t attach yourself to the world that if supersedes your love for God.
Things of this world are temporary and will pass away.
Love world = Love sin
All sin can be found in these 3 things - Flesh, Eyes, Pride

Whether we want to admit it or not, we love to hold onto the sin that this world has to offer especially our own personal sin. We don’t want to lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily besetus because we enjoy and are comfortable in the sin that we are in. The bible says that there is pleasure in sin for a season and we don’t want the season to change. And if we can, we will try to have it all and still get into heaven. We’ll:

Lie, cheat and steal and still want to make it in.
be mean, crotchety and ornery and still want to make it in.
be greedy, slothful, and vengeful and still want to make it in.

But that’s not how it works! Once you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, you also have to accept him as Lord. And your Lord says that if you love him, keep his commandments. You are required to put off the old sinful man and take on new life. You have to turn over a new leaf, you have to have a new outlook, a new drive, a new perspective that see’s the world the way God sees it. Now that you are in Christ, you have to let the old things pass away and let all things become new! You can’t have it all, but you can have new life!

You see, even though Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forevermore, He makes change happen. When Jesus is in the mix:

demons tremble
healing occurs
restoration begins
the dead receives life
strongholds are torn down
and yokes are destroyed when Jesus is in the mix!

When you allow him to be the shepherd of your life, change has to happen to you. He is the initiator of change. He is the catalyst that took you from darkness into the marvelous light. When you meet Jesus, you’ll never be the same again! You can't have it all, but you can have new life!

Be blessed!