Brian

She considered herself to be pretty self suffiecient, the independent type, and comfortable in her role as a business executive. Fed up with the hurried, hectic lifestlyle of the city she decided to take a day trip to enjoy the peace and quiet of the country life. She hit the pike, got off at Cranberry, dropped down the roof on her Audi, and just enjoyed the thrill of no work, no calls and the cool country air rushing through her hair. Cruising north toward the big falls at Niagara she was going to enjoy her day out of the rat race. 

After enjoying the sites she turned her machine around and was bent on enjoying the often-spoken-of sunset outside the little town of Northeast, which sits on Lake Erie.  That sunset is famous and she was going to take it in.  Cruising down the freeway she realized she had a major headache. The flopping of a flat tire would force her to pull over. 

Head in hands wondering what to do and evening dead on, she looked up to see a late model truck pull over. In a second a young man with heavily-worked, dirty jeans got out of the truck and was heading to her car. In a cheery voice he asked, "Could you use some help?'

After he had changed her tire, the lady asked him what his name was? "Brian", he said, "folks around here just call me Brian." Well Brian, she said,"How much do I owe you?"  "Nothing, Ma'am, just do something nice for someone else when you get a chance." 

It was getting dark, so the gal thanked him and drove off. With a few miles of asphalt behind her, she pulled into a little restaurant to get something to eat.  After being seated a waitress approached her table. It was evident that she was going to be a mother before to long. "When are you due?' she asked. "In about a month," she replied."Is this your first child?'

 "Yes.  I'm working to help my husband pay the doctor bills. He's had a hard time finding good work but we are still so excited." The women paid her check with a hundred dollar bill. When the waitress returned with the change, the lady was gone.  On top of that when she cleaned off her table she found four one-hundred dollar bills under her plate as a tip.

At closing time the waitress headed home, and slowly climbed the stairs to bed.  She saw that her husband was asleep, so she kissed him good night and said, "Somebody did something nice for me today. I'll tell you all about in the morning, Brian"

Eccl 11:1   Give generously, for your gifts will return to you later.  (NLT)

persecution

She and her family were Christians in a place where Christ followers are considered profane.  Islamic law says these traitors to the Muslim faith can be killed. Shafia and her family were known for their Christian faith.  Her brother, Rafi, stood up for some Christian girls in their village. For doing this he was murdered in the night by Muslim's. The men who did this crime were never brought to justice.
With Rafi's death, the family lost their spiritual leader.  Life only got worse for them from his death on.  A Muslim man in Shafia's village tried to trick her into marrying him.  When she refused, he kidnapped her at gunpoint.
For four months, Shafia was locked in a small, upstairs room.  Each night the man raped her.  He tried to force her to accept Islam.  She refused, and he then started to beat her as well.  Every night for four months the cycle repeated.  Shafia's only solace was the memorized psalms she repeated as she was beaten. Shafia's kidnapping nightmare ended when she found the door to her crude prison unlocked.  She immediately ran home to her family.  She thought she was finally safe.  But just as the nightmare ended another one began.  Shafia's family had borrowed money from a local businessman to file charges against the kidnapper.  To pay back their debt, they were forced to work as slave labor in a brick kiln.
Shafia and 11 family members shared a tiny mud room at the brick kiln with no kitchen and no bathroom.  Every day the family made mud bricks for 12 hours a day.  They earned just $3 for every 1,000 bricks.  Only faith in God sustained Shafia.  Each evening she prayed with her family and read scripture.  Each Thursday night, they attended a nearby prayer meeting.
The Voice of the Martyrs heard about the family and paid their debt to the brick kiln owner. "Surely this is an answer to our prayers," she thought.
Since the horrible incidents the family now operates a taxi business and Shafia's family now hosts a prayer meeting for friends and neighbors in their home.  They continue to let their faith in Jesus Christ shine in Pakistan.  The risks have not changed. But neither has God.
This month Suburban Community Church is raising money and praying for the persecuted Church.  These are our unnamed brothers and sisters in Christ, in area's of the world were Christ is not welcome but yet his light is shining.  Please join us in praying for those under intense persecution and compassionately remember those whose faith can't be diminished by torture, abuse and suffering.

No weapon

Isa 54:17
'But in that coming day, no weapon turned against you will succeed.' (NLT)


Let's look at one of the most dynamic promises given to us "warriors of Christ" in the Bible; Isaiah 54:17. I think we should really use this verse all the time for our well being.  It's more than a verse in the Bible, it's also an assurance - no weapon that can be formed against us will prosper.
It doesn't say that there won't be any weapons formed against us, as a matter of fact, Isaiah is saying that most assuredly there will be things formed against us with the intention to do us harm. This verse doesn't say that our enemies won't forge or form a weapon that can be used against us to cause us hurt; they most assuredly will be formed and put in motion by satan to harm us.  We can be sure that at times we will experience attacks in our life. They will show up, they may even startle us for a time, quite possibly a weapon, or as Ephesions calls them, 'fiery darts' may knock us off our feet or they may have a degree of success during their duration till we figure out we are under attack and neutralize it.
This verse also tells us that we have an enemy.  As if life isn't tough enough already, there are bullies out there trying to make our lives difficult. Only an enemy forms devices that he can use to do us harm.
I do want to remind each of my bloggers that for every weapon formed against us, Jesus Christ gives us the antidote for that weapon. 2Cor 10:3 reminds us that, 'We are human, but we don't wage war with human plans and methods [guns, knives, fingernails, etc]. 4 We use God's mighty weapons, not mere worldly weapons to knock down the Devil's strongholds.
   The Old Testament puts it nicely also...Gen 50 :20 says, "But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good."  It's time to stand in faith on the Word.  When your situation comes, and it surely will if it hasn't already, remind yourself that God will bring you through.

Do you know what time it is?

You hear it everyday - you hear it in most any place you find a person.  "What time is it?" 

For most of us it's simply a way of getting our bearings as to how much longer we are at work, or how long till the game, or how long till the snow arrives, or how long till our kids come home from school.

As I look around the country and the world around me, 'What time is it?' becomes a very powerful thought. In the times that we live in, most people say that they are glad that they don't have to raise kids

 in todays' society....and most of them really mean it!  Why? Because they know what time it is...it is a time of wickedness and they recognized this.  One man said to me that "today sin and evil is so easy to catch up with you".  He explained that back in his day you had to kinda go out of the way a little to get into big trouble but today it is right there in your living room. I think he meant his computer, smart phone and television, right at our fingertips. 

I do believe that evil or trouble is very accessible in the lives of most people today - more than ever.  Why?  Because of 'What time it is".   We can see our society breaking apart....it is evidenced by the breakdown in the family, social collapse, open lewdness, bold and brazen sins, the lack of shame, and nore and more crime. It is all because of 'What time it is.' Sin is easy because easy sin catches more people...I believe sin is more accessible because more accessible sin catches easy prey...I believe sex, sexual sins, lusts and sensual pleasures are easy today because they strike at man's nature and they are easy bait for a wise predator we call the devil.  Why is this stuff so easy.....it is because of 'What time it is.' 

Well then 'What time is it?'....It is not time for the bread to be done, it is not time for the game to come on or the snow to arrive...it is also not time to fall into these sins because IT IS - time for Jesus to come back. The signs are becoming more and more apparent.

Now is the time to dump the stuff and hook on with the Word of God, find an anointed pastor, a holy congregation, and men and women of God that can tell you what time it really is.....

Start over

Jer 18:4-6
4 But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again.

I appreciate this potter. He had put much work into his creation but it wasn't right. He recognised that it wasn't what he wanted.  He had mixed the clay, added the necessary water, stirred and kneaded it to make a fine base, but after he had put it on the wheel and put much effort into it, he realized it wasn't what he was looking for.  So he started over again!  He destroyed it, got another big lump and started working it to make it what he wanted it to look like. 

I know I'm not talking to all of you, but I am sure I will be speaking to some.  It is time you look at what is going on in your life and it is time for you to start over again.  The potter shows us that it's ok to start over again. He shows us it is not proper to keep pressing on when you know it is not really the way you want it to go.

In Jeremiah, it was the Lord that took him down to see the potter...to see this message of God to the people of Israel as told through the ordinary working practice of a potter. You see, God took Jeremiah down there. God had the potter doing the job. God had Jeremiah's eyes' and heart open to receive the truth. 
 Think about it now, right now. In your own life you may know it's just not going well.  You know something needs to be done. You know you are in the slide and that you are just headed for a crash and burn. Why not 'start over'? God is in 'starting over". 
Read the next, scripture...

5 Then the LORD gave me this message:
6 "O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand."  (NLT)

If you'll be willing to 'start over,' can't God do for you what He said He would do for Israel? He will take you in His hands and He will shape you for the good He wants to see in you.....just ask Him. 

Resolutions or Solutions

Well the Holidays are over and all is done. I can now put the grate back where it belongs over by the fireplace and I can go outside and bring in some of the wood I split this year and start a nice comfy evening fire.  I don't have to worry about blocking Santas' path into my house...or burning his ruby red britches while he's coming down the chimney if he does it too slow.  Everything is Osha approved again. 

 I hope your Christmas was as sweet as Karen and I's.  We had a lovely service and good times with our kids and grandchilren and we have our health.  I hope this is the same with you.

Today everyone is focusing on the upcoming New Years Eve reveling, which is a big part of some peoples' December 31st evening. Another big-time New Years event is the resolution business. That comes from people who want to start over fresh in something or want to make themselves a better person in the upcoming year.  A New Year's resolution is kind of a personal home improvement project.  It's even more like a home construction project because of the similarity of both...think of it....we get half or three quarters of the way through, lose interest and the project sits undone for months. For some people who lose interest, years. 

 Resolutions are a lot like that, we lose interest in months, sometimes days and almost always in sweat.  Yeah, I mean sweat.  If something is to hard, requires a lot of work, a lot of effort, it is usually abandoned pretty fast. 

My proof on that is in the rankings of  America's top five New Year resolutions:
 No.5 is to get a new hobby
#4 is to make more money
 #3 is visit the foks
 #2 is to quit smoking and
#1 is............you take a guess....yeah, lose weight. It seems like everybody on the planet has made or quit this resolution. Thats why it is number one..we keep bringing it up and we keep abandoning it. Over and over we recycle the resolution and over and over we drop it. 
Well that's the way with resolutions.  They go in one year and out the other. What we really need in our lives is not resolutions we need solutions.  And not just solutions we need God's solutions.
This year don't listen to the piping in your mind. Cut the miror talk. Cap the vanity. Ask God what or where you really need to improve. He will give you home improvements that He can help you with.  Improvements that really work and are custom fitted to you. Go ahead....ask....I dare you...

Christmas

All through the Christmas stories we find one beautiful thread, and that is the thread of worship.
The angels worshipped the Savior in the fields outside of Bethlehem, the shepherds were told to go and see the Savior and they were so amazed they went out to tell everyone, the Magi came and gave their gifts in worship.  Even the Star that guide the Magi did what was asked of it to guide our eastern wise men as they traveled.  Latter in life we see the people at the temple praising God when they held the baby or saw the Christ child.  One man said that it would be ok to die now that he had seen the Messiah.  All of these events and many more did one thing to mankind, they caused him to worship God.
Worship is contact with God - it's no wonder why we have so many fights on our way to church! The enemy wants to rob & distract you from Him! Worship is our expression & connection with God & His presence. When God's people come together - He shows up! He inhabits our praise.

When we worship, we establish a throne for the King to come, rule & reign. When we worship, things happen in our lives for His good!! There are times when God is quiet, but He's not left you. There are sovereign times in the silence - God is still moving in your midst.

Worship is just as much for me as it is for Him!! It's not just all talk, it's sharing your heart with your Papa God, Father & Creator. David is an example of what a true-worshipper is. He worshipped with all his heart, spirit and soul. When we come to the Christmas Story, the child in a manger, remember it is not about our gifts to others, it is about our gift of worship to God that is improtant.
Some of this blog was from Pastor Zane Anderson, my sisters Pastor out in Tucson, Az.  I think alot of him and his ministry so I thought it would be good to pass some of his very real words on to you.
Merry Christmas to all of you who have been reading my blog and God richly bless you.