Remnant

Remnant is a word seldom used these days.  It’s a numerical word without any digits.  No one can tell you how many make a remnant but a remnant can cause a revolution.   Just ask the Moravians!

The Pentecostal church today owes a magnanimous debt of gratitude to this group and their commitment to prayer.  On August 27, 1727, twenty-four men and twenty-four women began a twenty-four hour prayer movement that lasted one hundred years.

The result…the birth of the greatest missionary movement the church has ever known.  Thousands were set apart by the Holy Spirit to be missionaries.  Some even sold themselves into slavery in order to reach their mission filed.

I can’t prove it but there must have been an ancestor to Honi in that group.  They were serious circle makers willing to pray for a century day and night.  That’s how revolutions begin! 

Remnants are normally responsible for revolutions.  It’s not the numbers that matter but the purpose.  We know them in our modern era in political and military matters but the Bible is filled with small groups whose purpose was much bigger than flesh and blood, gold and silver, politics and governments. 

The day of Pentecost is now in our windshield of time.  Pentecost is 56 days from today, the day when 120 (a remnant) of 500 who witnessed Jesus ascend back into heaven and waited ten days for the power from heaven to motivate them outward to the awaiting world.  Fast-forward 2,000 years and here we are!

I’m sorry to say, but if you are looking for a remnant, the best place to find one is at a church prayer meeting.  Few understand the power of waiting in God’s presence for power and provision for the awaiting task.

Please, make a vow today to become a member of God’s praying remnant!  Stay at the throne for more than a few moments and you will discover what the Moravians discovered…God answers with POWER!

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George        

Spiritual Umbrella

Florida is soon to re-enter our rainy season.  Daily showers will come and go with the heating of the atmosphere and sea breezes colliding.  You never know when one will pop up but one thing is sure, someone’s going to get wet somewhere.  We regain a good friend in this time, our umbrella.

Do you know the origins of the Umbrella?  The word "umbrella" comes from the Latin word "umbra", meaning shade or shadow.  It wasn’t until the start of the 16th century that the umbrella would become popular to the western world, especially in the rainy weather of northern Europe.  At first it was considered only an accessory suitable for women.  Then the Persian traveler and writer, Jonas Hanway (1712-86), carried and used an umbrella publicly in England for thirty years and popularized umbrella use among men. English gentleman often referred to their umbrellas as a "Hanway."

Not a very spiritual thought but informative none the less.  Now what’s that got to do with prayer?  

There is a term used by some to describe their desire to be under the spiritual umbrella of others.  They call this a spiritual “covering.”  This occurs when people want the prayers of others to become a force-field of protection (to use a science-fiction motif.)

Moses had it with Aaron and Hur.  They supported Moses who interceded for Israel’s army by supporting his arms heavenward (Ex. 17).  The enemy could not be defeated any other way.  So these three teach us our prayer lesson for today, no battle, no victory of any kind spiritually can be won apart from prayer and praise.

You can count on this:  there will be times when you will not have what it takes; ability, strength, will power, faith, or steadfastness to pray for ourselves and there needs to be an Aaron and Hur in your life to pray with you!

Who’s in your life that holds up your arms in dangerous times?  Don’t pray alone, have others standing with you.  My mother Irene gets up with me every morning and we pray together.  No phone is needed but just our spirits colliding before God’s throne.  She’s part of my covering and I’m part of hers…who’s apart of yours?

This 40 day prayer journey to Easter isn’t a piece of cake.  Its serious warfare and you and I must take it seriously.   Keep yourself before God and He will keep you covered.

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George

Armed and Dangerous

If you’re like me, all media entertainment has become deluded by sex and violence.  It’s hard to find anything that will just make you laugh or think without have either lewd or lethal language.

As the old country boy once said of himself; “I wasn’t born on a turnip truck” so our God has or won’t be outdone by the very tools our enemy the devil uses.  God has given us a voice, tongue, vocabulary and the ability to think and each one of these are spiritual weapons for warfare in our daily lives.

The book of Revelation is an overcoming book!  We are given front row seats to the stage of life where our Lord and Savior will return and put on display a crime drama like the world has never witnessed on TV.  This show will not use guns and bombs for God’s bullets are ‘words’ (Rev. 2:16).

But that’s ‘then’ and we’re ‘now’ so what’s that got to do with us?  Everything!

What God has armed himself with He has also armed you with and you are just as dangerous with this weapon as Jesus was and will be.  Let’s remind ourselves what Revelation 12:11 says; 

“They triumphed over him (the devil and their foes) by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony.”

If we are not willing to allow the Holy Spirit to use our testimony of how God has worked and is working in our lives, then those in our world will never know that He has and can work at all.

When you receive answers to your prayers then share that with others.  Life is our courtroom and we are first-person credible witnesses of His saving, healing, delivering, providing, amazing power!

You are spiritually armed and dangerous.  Your life is better than Law & Order, NCIS, Elementary, and any other program today’s media can script.  

Speak!

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George

    

Dumb Question?

 

A common question heard in a learning environment is; “anyone go a question?”  The teacher asks it to be sure the students are clear on the subject.

I on the other hand struggled when that question was asked for fear that I would ask a dumb question, or what I thought would be evaluated by others a dumb and ultimately show how much I didn’t know.

I was reading the other day and read one of Jesus’ miracles which made me think even Jesus asked a dumb question.  One of Jesus’ disciples could have thought it was a dumb question and that’s why he remembered it and would leave it for generations to ponder spiritually.

Jesus is walking through Jericho one day and two blind guys shout out to him; “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on us!”  (Matt. 20:32)  Intrigued, Jesus engages them with what I think was a dumb quest, “what do you want me to do for you?”

Daaaaaaaaa…their blind!  Jesus heals!  Why ask them what they want?  Jesus should have known the answer shouldn’t he?

How many times do we pray and not have a specific request.  I started thinking about my prayer life and realized how often I’ve prayed vaguely not getting specific enough with God.  The blind guys could have been hungry and wanted food, or naked and needed clothes.  They may have been content to be blind and so Jesus wanted clarity so He could give them what they wanted.

Then the Holy Spirit quickened my thinking and I realize that I often don’t get specific because my faith doesn’t really believe Jesus will answer.  Our spiritual guide Mark Batterson says it like this; 

“The more faith we have, the more specific our prayers will be.  And the more specific our prayers are, the more glory God receives.”

Jesus didn’t ask a dumb question, He just wanted to see if the two blind guys knew what they wanted!

Pray with specificity!  Don’t be vague!  Yes, God is all knowing but He wants you and me to know what we really need and ask.

Keep praying!

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George

Breakfast of Champions

I love the taste of honey especially in the morning.  It’s sweet and gooey, a texture my tongue loves.  King David must have loved honey too.  When speaking of his love for God’s word he saw it as tasty: 

“How sweet are Your words to my taste!  Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”  (Ps. 119:103)

If you were a six year old boy during Jesus’ day, you were introduced to formal education.  No ordinary building would be good enough, you went to the synagogue and your class was entitled “house of the book.”

Tradition says the very first assignment was eating honey!  The rabbi would take their writing slate tablet and cover it with honey and it became a sort of lollipop they licked until the honey was all gone.

Inquiring minds want to know why?  Honey in ancient times was a symbol of God’s favor.  So their first lesson would become their most memorable one for the rabbi wanted his students to know there was nothing sweeter than the Words of God.     

Clearly, one of the surest ways to get into the presence of God is to get into the Word of God!  There is a simple deduction here, if we get into God’s Word, God’s Word will get into us.

I begin every day this way.  I don’t even drink my coffee first, I read a Psalm, the chapter in Proverbs that corresponds with the date, two chapters in the Old Testament and two in the New Testament.  You talk about a breakfast of champions, that’s it! 

The Words of our God have more spiritual protein, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals than any substance known to man.  So eat heartily and I can assure you that no sinful fat will form.

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George

Lip-Synch-Gate

Beyoncé’s singing of the National Anthem sparked a national debate!  It wasn’t the rendition of the sacred melody, but the fact she faked it.  Her lip-synching of our anthem was unacceptable to most Americans. This surprises me since we accept and even endorse fake lifestyles.

What’s that got to do with prayer and our journey to Easter?  A very valid question!

A fascinating study came out some years ago that discovered that people stop thinking about the lyrics of songs after they have sung them thirty times.  That probably varies depending on the person, but the tendency is universal and has implications when it comes to our regular worship.

Every time you and I sing a song we’ve song more than thirty times, it begs the question, are we lip-synching to God or genuinely expressing our true heart and feelings to Him?

For so many, worship requires someone else’s words be spoken or sung rather than finding our own.  To sing only the songs we know removes the possibility the Holy Spirit wants to give us a new one as was promised by both the Palmist and the Apostle Paul.  Both suggest we sing a new song or songs of the Spirit (Ps. 96:1, Eph. 5:19).

David went so far as to tell us to sing a new song six times; why?  God gets tired of old songs!  Our worship should not just be worship from memory, but we must learn to allow it to flow from our imagination as well. . 

It has been said; “love isn’t repetitive; love is creative.”  How creative is your love to our God?  Do you need a spiritual Hallmark card, i.e.a hymnal or chorus on the screen to worship?  Is your worship created only by others who have written moving expressions of their soul that you’ve learned to sing? 

If I expressed my love to Cheryl the same way over and over, she just might stop believing me at some point.  She doesn’t want my mindless expressions, she wants passion from my soul.

Don’t give God anything less!

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George     

When the Light Goes Out

Jesus wanted us, His disciples, to know our value, so he defined our presence in this world with the words, “you are the light of the world (Matt. 5:14).”  When you think about it, Jesus was saying as our world would be dark without the sun so is our culture dark without followers of the Son.

When Christianity turns into a noun, it turns off the SON.  Our faith has always been contextualized in terms of being a verb or active.  Take the book of Acts for example.  The very name (Acts: a verb) declares its purpose.  It’s not a book of stories or ideas or just words, but a book of Acts.

If your prayers, at some point, do not lead to action then you’re just being religious.  James says that  faith without works is really dark and thus dead in God’s sight (James 2:18).

For many, talking to God has become a cop-out from the responsibility to do something about our prayers.  When was the last time you prayed, “Jesus, send people out to share your Good News with the nations?”  Sorry, but if you’ve ever prayed that and not been willing to be sent, you are being hypocritical!

Praying and not being willing to go is just like our universe without the sun.  What if everyone took the position, “Holy Spirit move on others hearts” but were not willing to let Him move on theirs?

So don’t just pray about it; do something about it…that’s when you know the light is on!

I’ll meet you at the throne,

Pastor George