Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Rev 22:20 He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Good morning dear friends, it has been 5 days since my last post and I apologize greatly as I wanted to get to another point in our study. Just in case you are new and just joining us here is a quick outline of what we have been talking about:

Core Beliefs of the Christian Soldier
1. The Verbal Inspiration of the Scriptures
2. The Virgin Birth
3. The Vicarious Death
4. The Victorious Resurrection
5. Today's Topic---The Visible Return of Christ

I believe with all my heart as the scriptures promise that our Lords first return will be so surprising that it is really going to catch a lot of people off guard. He has promised time and again that He will come again for those that are His. No other religion in the world speaks of their god taking one thought of returning to gather their followers together with them. In a Christians life this is unique as it allows for us to have hope that we are not to be forsaken or left, we are not doomed to this plane of existence, and we are not left to inherit this miserable planet that we now occupy. Before the tribulation time ever begins our Lords first appearing will be the rapture, when all the saints of God are called up with a trump and a shout to be risen with our Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ will not set foot on this earth at that time, instead we are called up to Him for that glad reunion day in the sky! We will then be given a new body, and be changed, for the corruptible must put on incorporation (1 Cor 15:51-53). The Lord will have us to be with Him while the tribulation period as described in Revelation will occur. Then after the seven years of the tribulation another event occurs, the Second Coming of the Lord will be the actual return of Christ with His saints by setting foot on earth. Our Lords return will be signified by touching down on the Mount of Olives. Our Lords purpose in this return is five fold from the best of my studies so far in life.
1. To bring defeat to the nations and the antichrist at the battle of Armageddon
2. To bring about the restoration of faithful Israel- regather, regenerate, and restore
3. To judge and punish faithless Israel
4. To separate the sheep from the goats
5. To bind Satan
So we see from today that we as Christians have much to look forward to, we have much to rejoice about, and we have much work to be done before that trump sounds and we are called up hither! Friend there are many things we are to be doing before the Lords calls us home and here are just a few:
1. Not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together (Heb 10:25)
2. Observe the Lords supper with His return in mind (1Cor 11:26)
3. Love lost souls and the brethern (1 Thess 3:12-13)
4. Be patient (Jas 5:8)
5. Live a separated life from this world (Titus 2:12-13)
6. Preach the Word (2 Tim 4:1-2)
7. Win souls to Christ (Jude 21-23)

And be killed, and be raised again the third day.

Mat 16:21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day.
Hello friends, in case your not up yet in the Tennessee area it is a beautiful sunny day. Well I have a busy day at Calvary Baptist as we are going to be running the electrical and trying to start drywalling the teen room today! Well let us continue on with our third sub point under Core Beliefs. Today I would like to talk about the Victorious Resurrection of our Savior. In today's age as in time past there are some who declare that there was no Resurrection, but to deny it means you have believed in part and so therefore cannot believe as a true Christian. To believe fully you must accept what the Bible says on all of these points to fully trust by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the Resurrection, then there would be no victory over death, hell and the grave. Without the resurrection there could be no further fulfillment of the points to follow that we will cover in the next few days. How can one believe that the Son of God who taketh away the sin of the world could not have died, been buried, then rise to ascend to the right hand of God. Lets look at our verse for today again; nd be killed, and be raised again the third day. Jesus, Himself told of the resurrection that must occur and yet His disciples had a hard time swallowing that too. Glory to God though as we read in our Bibles that when the third day arrived and the women went to anoint the body, there was no body found! Lets look at the proofs of the resurrection:

• An empty tomb
• An encouraging message (of the angel to the women)
• An exciting meeting (with the risen Lord and the disciples)
• An enraged enemy (the Romans and the Pharisees hated the resurrection, and tried to suppress it, however they never could refute it!)
• An explosive start (of the changing of the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday)

We also can note that many appearances of our Lord and Savior that is recorded for us as He was seen of many for forty days before His actual ascension to be seated on the right hand of God until His Visible Return. Getting back to denying the resurrection there are six things that wold be out of place your life if you did not believe this one important fact:

• All the preaching of the gospel message (birth, death, burial, resurrection, and return) now, and future would be utterly and completely useless
• All past, present, and future faith would be futile
• All preachers are therefore liars
• All living Christians have never been saved
• All Christians that have passed are in Hell
• All purpose and reason of life itself is destroyed

The true sign of Christianity is not just in the cross, but in the empty tomb as promised by our Lord and Savior. We also see that in the Resurrection there is hope as the Lord said if He is risen then He shall come again, which we will cover tomorrow. I hope this has been an encouragement to show the importance of the resurrection of Christ. There have been many a man to die, but there has been only one Savior to die and rise again to give us life forever more.

And He is the propitiation for our sins:

1Jn 2:2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
Good day again my blessed friends. Today we will be studying sub-point #2 under our Core Beliefs area. Yesterday we talked about the Virgin birth, so today we will highlight the importance of the Vicarious death. The Lords death in all of its awesomeness is highly worth
considering even if but for a moment in our lives today. The magnitude of how it has touched the lives of all living persons on this earth, and to the extent of His suffering that He went through to reconcile man to God. We as Christians ought to defend the death of the cross because of its importance. In other religions in the world sacrifices are made to other gods to appease them, or their gods are exalted above all means. Lets take a quick look at what our God did for us and see the difference because He is worthy of all honor and glory for this very purpose. For whom did Christ die? Well there is the all encompassing answer, for the whole world as recorded in the Bible according to John 3:16, John 1:29, 1 John 2:2 and Titus 2:11. We as Christians have probably heard of the verse in John 3:16 and it was probably the verse that many had heard before they accepted Christ as their Savior. We also can see that Christ not only died for the whole world, but that His death was personal and for you and for me..Eph 1:4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Friends the Lord suffered at the hands of the very people that He sought to give life to, and we see that He made it so personal that He gave up temporarily His place in the heavenly realm for our benefit. We can see in Heb 2:9 that His death was for every man...Heb 2:9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. Christs death is so important to us as Christians that there was a two-fold purpose in His death. #1 Because God is a righteous God, and a Holy God, according to Lev 11:44 For I am the LORD your God: ye shall therefore sanctify yourselves, and ye shall be holy; for I am holy: and also in Lev 11:45, 19:2, 20:7, and 1 Pet 1:16. Because of Gods Holiness, there was the requirements of a sacrificial system up until the final sacrifice of Christ on the cross. These sacrifices were coverings for the sin that was in the lives of the people because of one man that is Adam, and because sin entered into the world by one man, then sin also was atoned by one, that is the Lord Jesus Christ as the unspotted, unblemished, perfect sacrifice by the shedding of His blood. If you study the Lord Jesus Christ, you will see that He fulfilled every Old Testament requirement of a sacrifice. #2 The need for the death of Christ was because it was necessary because of mans sinfulness. We see this according to:
Rom 3:10 As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11 There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12 They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.
Rom 3:13 Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
Rom 3:14 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Rom 3:15 Their feet are swift to shed blood:
Rom 3:16 Destruction and misery are in their ways:
Rom 3:17 And the way of peace have they not known:
Rom 3:18 There is no fear of God before their eyes.
Rom 3:19 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
Rom 3:20 Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Because man is born into a sinful state and the requirement for sacrifice was instituted, and fulfilled in Christ Jesus we can now see the results from His death upon all the earth in three parts.

1. In relation to sinners-Redemption (Eph 1:7, Gal 3:13)
2. In relation to saints- Sanctification (Gal 1:4, Heb 10:10;10:19-20)
3. In relation to satan- Destruction (Heb 2:14, Col 2:15, 1 Jn 2:8, Rev 12:9-11

So we see today and verified by scripture that the death upon the cross by Christ is of the utmost importance and worthy of study. Without the shedding of blood there could be no remission of sin, and since that shedding was done once for all, all through Christ may be reconciled!

Behold, a virgin shall be with child

Mat 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
Good morning to you friends. I wanted to pick up today where we left off on Thursday with our study on the Core Beliefs of the Christian soldier. Last week we covered the thought of the inerrant, inspired Word of God, and how it was preserved throughout the ages for our benefit. Now today I want to look at the second thought on our Core Beliefs that is the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Here is what I found throughout my time as a Christian about the virgin birth of Jesus. Gods Word goes though great detail to record and substantiate the Lord Jesus Christ as the Messiah, in the gospels for instance in two chapters they start out with His lineage. Lets take a look at what I am talking about first:

• In Matthew there are 41 names forward in time from Abraham to Joseph, from David through Solomon, all the way forward describing Christ's Kingly Heritage
• In Luke there are 74 names backwards in time from Joseph to Adam showing that Jesus was there from the beginning.

After we see His lineage to prove through birthright that He was from the foundation of the world the rightful heir of the Kingly title we can look at the important part of today's Core Belief, the virgin birth. In Luke chapter 1:26-27 we see that it is recorded like this...And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. Now we see that Mary was noted twice as a virgin by the records of the Word of God, then as you read further you will see by her own admittance that she had never been with a man. In Luke 1:34 Mary answers the angel after the heavenly news given unto her, Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? Now there is a big deal to be made of the virgin birth as a lot of people would like to dismiss it, and others would like to have it erased forever. In a birth period in a Hebrew family it meant something, it was a blessing from God and something that was taken seriously in the days of old. Unfortunately here in this present age we don't put as much importance on childbirth, no instead we just treat it as any other day in life, we even have degraded it so much that if you feel it would be a problem for you then you can just run out and get an abortion, what murder, and what selfishness in the thoughts of people now a days. As I stated, to the Hebrew families childbirth was important in carrying the family name, they took it so seriously that they considered it a reward from the Lord, Psa 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. Psa 127:4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Psa 127:5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. All this was said to show the importance of a birth to a simple Hebrew family, but the birth that the whole nation was looking forward to was that of the Messiah, to reinstate the promise of God all the way back in Exodus 6:7-8. In the book of Exodus God had chosen them to be His people, but because of their backsliding the Lord had set Israel aside for a moment the Lord allowed them to enter into captivity. While in captivity there came a prophecy that burns in the heart of every Israelite, and it is recorded in Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this. This was the promise of the Messiah, the deliverer, the King of their nation. They have looked forward for this event while they were in captivity, then after captivity and 400 silent years, there was the visit of an angel unto a virgin and the message was delivered in this manner Luk 1:31And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. Luk 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: Luk 1:33 And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. After that message there was the cry of a child that echoed throughout the whole world, the birth of Jesus of a virgin as it was promised by Jehovah God! Not only did this virgin birth mean something to a Hebrew family, and a whole nation, but it meant something to the whole world! Without the birth of Jesus there would be no hope in this world, there would be no promise of salvation we as Christians can see from the scriptures how important this birth is as stated in Luke 2:10-11 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. Friend did you see the part where it says tidings of great joy, which shall be to ALL people! Hallelujah as I read that it excites me because the importance of this birth means that without a savior, there would be no reconciliation to God, without a Lord, there would be no King to serve, without Jesus there would be no name under heaven by which man can come unto God! And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Luk 2:14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. Friends all this can be echoed today because of the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ!

For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

Psa 119:89 LAMED. For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven.

Well a very good morning to you friends as we see another glorious day that the Lord has blessed us with to continue our study on the Christian soldier. I am torn today where to start for our core beliefs after last nights preaching. The Pastor did an excellent job to stir our hearts and our minds for the Lord and to let us see what the Bible says about what is going on in American society today. He preached out of the book of Hosea. In Hosea 4:1 we know that the Lord was speaking unto Israel and their backslid ding, but I believe as the Pastor preached last night that the second part of the verse is applicable for our nation as it was the Israelites! In 4:1 it says
for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. It went from not knowing God and His truth and mercy to Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. Friends let us awake to righteousness as the Bible says and let us put a Holy God, full of mercy and grace back into our lives. So now I believe with that said I now have liberty to start off our study of the second point of three with this; the Bible as our first point under Core Beliefs. Lets refresh for a moment on our outline.

• Core Values
  God First
  Service Before Self
  Excellence In All We Do
• Core Beliefs
• Core Mission
  

Today lets look at the foundation of our beliefs, The Bible. The Bible speaks for itself, it is the very Words of God to fallen man for instruction, correction and reproof. Without the Bible as our guide then everything that we learn would just be hearsay. I believe in the plenary-verbal theory of the Bible, that is all words of the Bible are inspired of God, and to back that up lets take Gods word on this and not my thought...2Ti 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: 2Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. Friends if we cannot believe that God Himself gave us His words then all we are doing is lying to ourselves over everything. The very beginning of belief and faith rests within Gods Holy Word, otherwise we wouldn't even know of Jesus Christ and His shed blood on the cross of Calvary that has reconciled you and me to a Holy God. Without a true knowledge of the Bible, and belief that it is the very inspired Word of God, inerrant and without need for correction (King James Version), then all things that we do until we believe this are done in vain! Friends God preserved His Word throughout the ages that it may be given to us in our form that we may believe on the only begotten Son of God that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish but have everlasting life! The Bible has to be taken into consideration when we speak of our core beliefs, for we take the Word of God as our only authority in life in which we must live by. Now I know that we could take this study on for weeks, months, and even years as many scholars and theologians have, however all I am trying to do is to show you as a Christian soldier that the Bible is where we take our marching orders from. It is at the very fabric of our beliefs that the Word of God is the sole authority for instruction in righteousness, and our guide as to how we are to do battle. Without the divine Word of God then we would all be a complete mess,and the Bible says that pretty clearly to as we see more and more people leaving the Bible and trying to do it their way, or according to mans wisdom we see a few things happening before our very eyes.
Pro 16:25 There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. This is the first step in our degradation of society, because we have left the blessed old book, The Bible. When we start to leave out the Word of God then we continue into sin and pretty soon because of a lack of knowledge we too shall be destroyed. Friend take your Bibles read it, believe it and love the Word of God...make it a light unto your path and hide its words in your heart that you might not sin against God! This is the only Book that will sustain you for the battles that rage in your life as a Christian soldier, it is your bread and water when you are famished, it is your shield and buckler for battle. Guard it with your life. Let no man deceive you, it is the very voice of a Holy God unto all that call upon the name of Jesus Christ for the remittance of sin.

Do all to the glory of God.

1Co 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Hello again dear friends, what a wonderful time we had last night at our nursing home ministry! One of our faithful residences was just excitedly talking and Amening before the service even began which just made for a great time. Today I want to cover the third point in our core values area, that is excellence in all we do, or should I say do all unto the Glory of God! All these sub points relay back to the main point and that is God first. If we look at today's verse we see that whatsoever we do, we do for God. I think it a shame that if we can go to work and give 100% to our companies, but then come into the house of God and give Him 50% of our worship. Friends God is to be worshipped 100%, He is God and there is no other like Him. He has given us His all what would it be for us to give our all back? Whenever there is opportunity for you to work for the Lord we should give it our all that God be glorified in it. Lets really just think about everyday areas in our lives that excellence in all we do can also be done for the glory of God:

• Personal excellence- That is striving to please God though our actions, thoughts and motives. Continually growing in the faith and staying grounded in the truth that no false teaching may take us astray so we can lead others to Christ.
• Church excellence- I have heard an old preacher say "there is no place like this place, this place must be the place!". Our conduct should be as the many members fitly joined together all with the same purpose..to exalt God, and tell the world about salvation through Jesus Christ.
• Resources excellence- We should be concerned for Gods house, to ensure all equipment is in working order. Ensuring that the grounds are taken care of. Ensure that there is no waste in what we do, and all we do is done for His glory. We should also look not only on the buildings and such but to people also. We should constantly be looking for some one to train, equip, and send. Our most valuable resource is others.
• Just Plain excellence- Internally at the church house, or in our houses it pertains to the way we approach things to be done for God. It involves compassion one for another, and total commitment to maximizing our efforts as Christians. Outside our church or homes, pertains to the way in which we treat the world around us as we conduct ourselves. People are always watching even when we aren't looking.

So in closing today, do all you can to the best of your ability watching over the things God has placed in your control to glorify Him by all that you do! What a sentence, I hope this helps you to look at what your doing and why your doing it. I also hope this will make you go that extra mile to honor God while doing it, and tomorrow we will pick up on Core Beliefs as we continue in our study of the Christian soldiers training.

Nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Luk 22:42 Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Well good morning my dear friends. I want to quickly get into today's study as I have a very special link for you to see before we begin. I pray that you will listen to this and understand what is being taught, then as you understand please warn others . This clip shows what every good Christian ought to be aware of, it aslo goes to prove what the Bible says in 2Ti 3:13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived. 2Ti 3:14 But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; 2Ti 3:15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. HERE IS THE LINK http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA Yesterday we talked about the very first core value, the whole reason that we take a stand as a Christian and that is God first, there is no other God, but God! Today I want to look at service before self as the second point under Core Values. There are many times that we could just do what we want to, and there are many times that we do, but the realm of service before self will allow you to surpass pride, envy, covetousness and other things that would hinder you from serving God to your fullest. If we could erase what we have been taught by this worlds thinking and teaching of it's all about you then we can start to understand what the Lord was talking about when He said in the garden,
Mat 26:42 He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. You see friends the Lord served the Fathers will, and the Lord set the example for ultimate sacrifice. As a soldier I would always hear other troops talking with one another about taking a bullet for somebody, but I always wondered about that because what they said with their lips they did not back up with their actions. From my nightly reading I came across this verse last night which summed up most people's lives Rom 5:7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. Friends when I speak of service before self I mean laying aside all things that you want, and following after Gods will to see the mission accomplished, no matter the cost! A true soldier doesn't just talk about it, he acts upon it because he believes it. The Samaritan man put service before self, Paul put service before self, and many others were willing to go do things that they would not normally do because of what they believed in. They knew that in the Christian life its about servitude rather than riches and glory. Friends what are you willing to endure, what are you willing to let go of in order to put God first? I am not saying it will be easy, but the Bible says God's grace is sufficient to meet all our needs, and not only is the grace sufficient, but Christ said that He would never leave us or forsake us.....no matter what. When we learn to set aside our goals and our ambitions to help others then we have started to walk in servitude, when we forsake the usual entertainment that would keep us away from the church house, and join in on the work of the church then that is service before self. When we learn to forsake some TV time for pray time so that we might pray for others then that is service before self. When we take a stand on the Word of God in a workplace, and expose false teaching even though it is not popular, or not "politically correct" then that is service. Friends there's no politics when it comes to our Lord and Savior, God is not a respecter of persons! The Bible is very clear....Joh 14:5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? Joh 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. When you have been up all night in prayer to the Lord because somebody you know is lost, or troubled, or hurting and you lose sleep physically that is service before self. Service before self will point you back to the original starting place..God first. Service before self will give you an inner drive to see the Lord glorified because you want Him to have the preeminence and glory for all things! Friends that will give you the strength to endure through some very trying and tough times, it will also allow you to humble yourself and be used of God mightily. A lot of times we see people in the workplace give extra to be loyal to the company, well can't we as Christians do that much more and give of ourselves for eternal matters? We see people in the workplace walk all over each other to make it to the top, service before self says you will not do that but let another be esteemed better than you even if it means him using you. Friends I just want you to think about the drive to do more for Christ, to see Him high and lifted up no matter the cost. Peter put service before self in so much as when he was crucified he said that he was not worthy to be crucified the same as his Lord, so they crucified him upside down. Friends service before self exposes false Christianity and false teaching no matter the cost.

Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

Good morning friends what a busy weekend. We had one saved in our Reformers Unanimous program this Friday, praise the Lord for that soul and I ask that you would pray for her. Friday we had some pretty severe storms pass through and my family received a call @ 5:30 in the morning with some bad news about my wife's grandmother, she is 92 and not doing well. The Lord did take care of it though as she was able to return home from the hospital the next day. On Thursday I said we would pick up with the training of the soldier, so here goes. Every good military has a mission, a vision, and some values that it sticks to and trains for. I want to talk about the following areas over the next few days and try to cover some simplistic things that I believe will help with the training of a soldier as it effects his or her very being. Here are the topics:

• Core Values
• Core Belief
• Core Mission

We will start off with some core values, this will hopefully begin to lay the foundation of why we do what we do, and say what we say when we say it. I would like to tackle core values by looking at the following points in order:

1. Core Values
   a. God First
   b. Service before self
   c. Excellence in all you do for God

The very first and foremost in every Christians life and training is learning to put God first. The Bible states all the way from the Old Testament to the New Testament in the following verses.
Exo 20:3 Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Exo 20:4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: Exo 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, I would like to believe that with these statements our God has made it very clear that he should be first in all things in our life. If we could ever learn to put God first in all things then half of the problems we find ourselves facing because of our own will wouldn't even be an issue. If we could learn to put God first in our homes, in our workplaces, and most definitely in our churches then, and only then will we start to focus on Him rather than circumstances of life. Friends with God first that means every decision you are about to make you will bring before Him, to see if it would glorify Him or not, every circumstance you are about to act upon you will bring before Him, every word you are about to utter out of your mouth, and every thought that rings through your mind. Now you may say preacher that's silly, here's my challenge...try it! If we would put God first then the other half of the things we deal with physically and spiritually would be taken care of because God says in Jeremiah 33:3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not. My friend, you must put God first in order to do this otherwise you won't even think to call upon Him. The Lord Jesus Christ also echoed this thought in the New Testament when questioned by those that He was dealing with, Mat 22:36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. You see friends in order to walk in the Spirit and be spiritually minded God must be first in all things. The first part in training a soldier is that there are certain things of value that you are willing to fight for, and the very core of that, the very beginning of your being to want to stand firm is that God is first in all things! If God is first then when the battle goes to your mind whether you should do one thing or another it won't take long to figure it out, will this honor God or dishonor God. If the battle is with your heart to do your will or God's the battle won't be long, do we value God enough to submit ourselves to Him that His will would be accomplished because He is first? Every action you take while training ought to have this singular purpose behind it.....God First! Tomorrow we will tackle the next step of training, service before self.

Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.

1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
Good day my friends, well last night was a great night of preaching, as the Pastor made some great remarks as how we are in our lives and it fits right in on what we have been studying. In his preaching he mentioned about the fact of leading and following. We are always in a continuous cycle of leading and following whether we realize it or not. We are always following something, and inadvertly we are leading somebody. The problem is are we following the right thing, or person? Does the thing or person your following honor God or dishonor God, does it draw you into a closer relationship with the Lord or farther away? Now with your following are you leading somebody astray? If whatever you are doing does not line up with scripture then of course you are! If who your following doesn't line up with scripture then you will not only be led astray, but you will in turn lead others that way. I wanted to start talking today a little on the Training of the Soldier. In turn however I believe last nights message meant a lot in the study that we have been doing so I will steal his outline and give a little bit of it for us. Within the next day or so you should be able to log onto cbclawrenceburg.org and hear the whole message! I believe this is important in our study because to be a good soldier there is always following and leading. We should be looking to the Lord Jesus Christ first and foremost to follow the Bible gives us clearly His call in Mar 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. Now some of this nations greatest warriors are the special forces troops, and amongst them are the Army Rangers. Their motto is "follow me". They are trained and taught on how to be leaders and how to reproduce leaders. Now this should come to no surprise that the Lord Jesus Christ did this long before any Ranger unit did so, the Lord took men, trained them to lead, only after they learned to follow! Another person in the Bible said "follow me". That person was none other than the Apostle Paul, he was talking to many people on different occasions, now a lot of people may say "he's just a man, and we shouldn't follow man", rightly so not to worship Paul, but to glorify Christ through obedience. You see Paul is yet a man, but a leader, and his leadership was in such that he glorified and exalted the Lord Jesus Christ, not only by word but also in deed! We can then see that under the right leadership it is OK to follow. Paul said in 2Th 3:7 For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you; Friends you see that to follow him was essentially doing what Christ had taught them to do and that is lead others to Him that is Jesus Christ. If your preacher is preaching the Word of God then there must be two things done;

• Know that it's the right Bible (Authorized King James Bible) and the right message (Christ)
  You should be studying your Bible and know it, that way you will in turn know if what the preacher is saying is true or not.
• If it is the right Bible, and the right message
  Then get behind him as the preacher and support him and let nothing come between God, your pastor, and you!

You see under the right leadership its OK to follow, think about it, the preacher is the chosen man of God for your church, why in the world would you think not to listen to him as he is obeying the Holy Spirit in leading you. It states in Heb 13:7 Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation. They are not up there as mere puppets of human instrumentality, and if they are then they are a hireling and not a true man of God. Notice the verse says...whose faith follow, they have been there and done that. They have learned to follow and to lead, that is why God has chosen them to be Pastor. Let me remind you that it is God who ordains and places men into position as the under Shepard's of the flock, also every true Pastor has this very verse in their hearts and minds...Heb 13:17 Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you. Believers it is because they watch for your souls, that they must give an account. Friends instead of having preacher stew, why not get behind the man of God and support him, it's what the Lord would want you to do. The end result of this would be the following statement as it was given by the Apostle Paul..1Co 11:1 Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ. Now friends I have camped out on the fact of following, and this of course is just the tip of the iceberg and I have not even gotten to all the points in the preachers message. So tomorrow we will pick up with the training of the soldier, and until then may God bless, and may this have been an encouragement to show you that in order to be a good soldier you are always following, and leading the problem then is how are you doing it?

Ye are not your own

1Co 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.

Hello friends and good morning. What a day yesterday, one of our church members fixed my lawnmower saving me a ton of money, and then wouldn't you know it as I finished the front yard and started to make the first pass on the back yard..POP the belt broke. Well glory to God I finished the front and it doesn't look raggedy. I mention this because that dear brother gave of himself, he didn't ask for payment and he didn't do it with another motive of taking advantage of me. You see yesterday we spoke about voluntarily giving up our will for the will of God, that He may be glorified. So today I wanted to finish with the third point of the volunteer Christian soldier. I remember when I went to basic training, and when I went there I now fell under the command of another, I gave up not only my will, but myself. We see that you must give up your time, your will, and lastly yourself. I mean wholly forsaking all to be used of the master, the Bible says that there are vessels unto honor, and vessels unto dishonor. All this depends on how you give yourself to be used. You must remember as our verses say for today..ye are bought with a price, ye are not your own. Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. To voluntarily give up yourself would help you to live by faith, it will enable you to meet the masters call and find Gods perfect will for your life. To give yourself means that it encompasses your entire being and your sole focus is on the Lord Jesus Christ and His honor and His glory. To give yourself wholly means that your ambitions and direction are changed, your heart, your mind and everything you have is submitted to God. I remember during my training as a soldier in the military that I either got into line to accomplish the mission, or the other soldiers would advance and leave me in the dirt. It wasn't until I figured out that its not the direction I want to go, but the direction that I was ordered to go in. When I was able to grasp the idea that its about the mission and not myself then I found it very easy to sacrifice myself. We must go the extra mile, take the extra time, give when it hurts, and endure until it makes us weep. All this being done and the manifold grace of God will carry us through the battle and keep us until the next. I know its hard to give yourself, there are many distractions and temptations that allure us to not be what we could be for the Lord. The Bible however says in 2Ti 2:21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work. Every good work that impacts the overall mission, you must put aside every weight that would deter you from making an impact on the mission. Another fact I learned in the military is this, when I wasn't willing to give of myself, that didn't stop the mission, there was always somebody the commander could find that would. The same goes in the Lords army, when you back down or when others shy away God is always preparing a man to do His work, and if you don't step up to the plate and give of yourself, then you better believe that God will give that work to someone else. Giving of yourself says I will follow, being therefore a servant and a leader by example. This world teaches you to be a leader by force and coercion, the Bible says to serve, and by serving people will follow. You will have to give yourself though in order to see this come true, you will have to give yourself to be blessed of God. Friend to give yourself is a lifetime commitment, one that requires much more than a simple 8-5 job. To give yourself is a 24 hr, 365 day commitment for the Lord! Friends I pray this was an encouragement to give a little more in your life to see the work of the Lord accomplished, and to see the Lord to use you. I know from experience that all this is not a cakewalk, and as that old song says...He's still working on me! Lets do it together for the glory of GOD! Also I would like to mention that our website for the church is finally up, come and visit us http://www.cbclawrenceburg.org/

Because I seek not mine own will

Joh 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.

Good morning dear friends, yesterday was a beautiful day considering all the rain we have had in the past few days. Today seems to be promising for us also, and we are going to try and get the windows in the teen building for those that have been following that. Well lets continue on in our study of a life of a Christian soldier. Yesterday we talked a little about time, and that voluntarily you will have to make and give up time to prepare, to prove, and promote to be an effective soldier. Another voluntary aspect of becoming a good soldier is giving up your will. This is when you can decide to lay aside all that you have in interest for something else. The Bible says to forsake all and follow Jesus, Mat 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. You see you cannot have singleness of mind and have a true purpose unless you are able to deny your will your desires to make of yourself something in this world. If you are trying to make yourself rise up in your job then you are doing it on your own fruition, however don't forget promotion comes of the Lord and if it is His will you will be promoted. If you are constantly desiring to hang out with the old crowd you will not take time to do what was discussed earlier, you will make excuse after excuse to forsake what the Lord has called you to do, and that is to endure hardness and spread the gospel message. If you learn how to die to self and allow the Lord to control your thoughts and desires then you can enter the battle with purpose and be able to stand in the hour of trials and temptations. If you are constantly being double minded about your decisions you will not have victory, the Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways, it also says in Mat 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. You cannot serve the god of this world, and try to serve the true and living God! You must learn to die to yourself, voluntarily of course, because if it something that you are doing just to fit in around your Christian friends and not because you truly want to then it won't last, you will be discouraged all the time, and you will be under bondage as a hypocrite. The Bible says in Rom 8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. To learn of the things in Christendom there must be this thought...it's not about me; it's about Him (Jesus). You must forsake your will to do Gods will, you must as John realized as the Lamb of God walked up that glorious day to be baptized of John in submission to God the Fathers will...Joh 3:30 He must increase, but I must decrease. Friends if you can give yourself wholly to the Lord you will see the heavens opened and true blessing from the Lord in your life. Your joy will be magnified, because it won't be this world, it will be in the world to come. There's a lifetime of labor as a soldier, and that labor is to say unto yourself as Jesus did in the garden when He was prayer for us and this world full of sinners...Mat 26:39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. Friends let me encourage you to go a little further, and not because of your will, but by the will of God for your life. Friends you will never know God's will unless you read your Bibles and stay in prayer and voluntarily stay yielded to Jesus as He would lead you. We will never have victory in our lives through Jesus Christ unless we are lead by His will instead of ours.

Fight the good fight of faith

1Ti 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.
Good morning friends, I trust that yesterday was God glorifying and that services went well for all. The message that the Pastor preached out of Palm Chp 8 yesterday morning would fit right into what I want to talk about today. He preached on the subject of God considering man..now last week we saw that in order to do battle you must first know what we are battling about, and who we are doing it for. I would like to make a few comparisons about a Christian and a modern day soldier in the US military. Aside from the fact that our motives, mission, and mindset are different, and our equipment and encouragement there is one thing that I want to point out and make very clear. I believe it is because of this reason that most want to enlist and get into the battle for the Lord once they realize what it means to stand in the gap. The modern US military serviceman is an all volunteer force, there are no drafts, there are no gimmicks, they lay their terms out in front of you and if you wish then you may join and become a soldier. The same goes with the Lords army, it is all voluntary to become a Christian. The Bible has been written and everything has been laid out for us, all we have to do is read the Word of God and believe what it says about the Lord Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation. From Genesis to Revelation the Bible speaks of God simple plan of salvation to the Jew first and also to the gentiles. You may say what are we volunteering after we accept salvation? Well here are some simple things that I have found in my life that I have voluntarily given up and it has been a blessing. The blessing is being able to serve my Savior to see others saved for His honor and glory! Here are the three things that one must voluntarily give up in order to be an effective soldier.

1. Your Time
2. Your Will
3. Yourself

In point number one it becomes a little easy with some training, there are few things under time that are important. The first is your time to prepare, all soldiers go through training and the same goes for one that wants to fight the good fight of faith. You must prepare so you are not taken by the enemy with his devices and snares. You must prepare to understand that some days you lose ground, and some days you gain ground otherwise you will be defeated all and all. You must take time to prepare to prove yourself. The Bible says study to shew thyself approved unto God a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth. If you are studying the Word then you can prove yourself in the spiritual victories that God will give to you over sin in your life, thereby being prepared to help others through their battles. You can prove this to them because of what God has done in your life, and where He has allowed you to come from. Not only will you volunteer your time to prepare, and prove yourself, but you will have to promote. Promote what, well with your time you will have to voluntarily promote what has allowed you to prepare and prove your victories, and all that starts with promoting the gospel message. That at one time in your life you were lost in sin and on your way to a devils hell (Romans 6:23). For the Bible says that none are good, there are none righteous no not one (Romans 3:10). And that while you were in sin, somebody shared the good news with you, that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us (Romans 5:8). Once we actually heard that message we started to think about our condemned state and we realized we were sinners in need of a Savior. Then came the glorious moment that started us on the path of redemption and wanting to get into the battle for others souls...our own personal salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. It all begins by believing the above about our sinfulness, then after our realization we come unto the Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of those sins by asking Him to forgive us of those sins and calling on His name (Romans 10:13). Along with calling on His name we believe what the Bible says we should believe about Him (Romans 10:9-10) that if you believe in your heart that Jesus is the Lord, and that God raised Him from the dead and confess with your mouth then you shalt be saved! This is the volunteered message that the soldier of the Lord must herald at all cost.. that in the Bible our message is clear, Joh 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Joh 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. Friends tomorrow we will discuss points two and three if time permits, until then may you have a blessed day.

That ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Php 1:27 Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel;

Friends we talked yesterday a little on the battle and the battlefield, the battle not only consists of that for the souls of men, but there are a few other points. The Battle rages daily for our culture as Bible Believing Christians. We are constantly barraged by this world because of false religion, false teaching, and false worship. Within our own sphere of Christendom we have people that do not hold fast to the faith and the doctrines which the apostles said to. We now have an eroding culture within our own ranks because of being led astray. Lets look at just a few items quickly without getting to sidetracked. First lets address from the foundation of the old testament the fact that sodomy is an abomination, yet we see daily where sodomites are allowed into the ministry, when the Bible, the Holy Word of God to man if people will accept it says….Lev 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. Now friends these aren’t my words these are Gods words and you have to decide whether you are going to accept them, or reject His words. Now I say this openly, I do not agree with the sin that sodomites commit, however I believe through Jesus Christ that they can be saved if they choose to turn from their sinful ways. The point I am trying to make is the war that is raging on the very foundation of the Word of God..if it says that it is wrong, then why are “Christians” trying to make it right? Well the first fact is they are probably “Christian” by name only, but far from God in heart. Lets look at another battle brewing in Christendom….women pastors, the Bible again clearly states again and again for the qualifications of a bishop, that is a pastor that “he” must be a husband of one wife. Just to show you this is not my thinking here it is written again.. 1Ti 3:2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach. Now friends if we truly want to take God at His word then we would accept that which is in front of us and go on and not meddle with this worlds false teachers or teaching. If you consider yourself a Christian then this right here won’t offend you or get you discouraged. Rather this should encourage you to see what the Word of God says and study it out for yourself, then once the Holy Spirit has had time to lead you into all truth you can get back into the battle. The Bible says in Psa 119:165 Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them. Friends that is just another small battle that is raging, I would also like to mention another one that comes to mind quickly. The next battle that is raging whether Christian or not is the one for our families, if we haven’t already seen how the enemy, the devil has eroded our families because of our lack of faith, lack of worship in God, and our lack of fighting for our sons and daughters spiritually I don’t know what it will take for us to wake up to action. Our families are torn apart by this world, and yet we as “Christians” continue to adopt the things of this world to make them acceptable for worship, I mean we have Christian Rap, Christian Death Metal, Christian Yoga, Christian Coffee.. where does it end friend? I will tell you if you got into the battle and toed the line and stood fast to the true Word of God, then at a minimum your family, and your house would at least be saved from the troubles of this world, then you can focus on showing the next family from the Word of God why yours has so much hope and why there was a change. The Bible says though in order to be in the battle you must first be one of His, to understand anything that I am talking about you must first be saved and in the family of God. 2Ti 2:6 The husbandman that laboureth must be first partaker of the fruits. Before you can get into the field to sow the seed, or get onto the battle field to fight in the war, you must understand who the Lord Jesus Christ is, what He has done, and will do. First Jesus is the only begotton Son of God, who was born of a virgin, and lived and taught of the things of the world to come. Secondly as He lived, He offered Himself as the perfect lamb of God, that is the One without spot or blemish fulfilling every old testament qualification for the perfect sacrifice. Jesus did this so that when He was crucified, He took the sins of this world upon Himself that all through Him might be reconciled to God. Jesus also fulfilled all prophecy concerning the Messiah, because as He was put into a borrowed tomb, He rose and was seen of many, only to be raised in righteousness and glory and is now sitting on the right hand of God the Father awaiting the day to come again and redeem all those that have called upon His name for the remission of their sins. Friends in order to do battle as a Christian, you must first be born again, that is accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and allow Him to cleanse your life, and show you why the battle rages the way it does. Friends I hope this was a encouraging again today, and tomorrow we will go at it again.

And I sought for a man among them

Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.

Good morning readers! Well I have been giving a lot of thought on how we need to look at the life of a soldier and how he must endure hardness for the Lord Jesus Christ. First off I want you to look at this from the standpoint of what a soldier goes through, not as literally going out there and taking people out like real soldiers. Our weapons are different, our battle plan is different, and our motives are as equally different. I wanted to clarify before somebody gets the wrong idea about being a Christian. First off our war is not entangled with the affairs of this life, no we have some thing far more precious that we are battling for and that is the souls of people! The Bible says in Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. There is much to be learned from this piece of scripture, and it should help us to focus on the objective, that is seeing souls saved from a devils hell. Let’s talk today before we ever talk about the soldier, about the why of being disciplined like one. There are three things that come to light.
· The Battle
· The Battle Plan
· The Battle Field

You see the battle rages everyday, we as Christians are constantly at odds with our flesh, our minds, and our hearts. In our Adamic nature we are always trying to go against what the Bible says, but when you are saved the battle gets a little easier because of who we have to help comfort and guide us, that is the Lord Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit. When we desire something and temptation mounts we know from scripture that the Lord has made a way of escape, now we must be disciplined to know that and choose that route. Our minds are constantly bombarded with things of this world, by Television, the radio, the internet, the news. We have to remember that we have a higher calling than to meddle with self pleasure, we must be willing to forsake all to the glory of God! The Bible also says in Php 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. Our minds must stay clear to think on the things that will bring us the victory. We must meditate upon the Word of God to have it hid in our heart, that way when the battle gets ugly we can throw a salvo or two with meekness back at our adversary the devil. Our hearts need to be guarded so as to be pure in motive, the Bible again says in Mat 15:18 But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. Friends let not your hearts trouble you, or get you into trouble otherwise the battle will become hard to fight. Guard your hearts that they don’t become offended, or vile, or bitter. These things will start to weigh on you and put you out of the fight. Friends this is just somewhat of the battle that is described, not only are we at battle for ourselves, but that we are at battle for others. In the bible it speaks of one standing, will you be the one to stand in the gap for others, or will you join the millions of others that listen to all these health and wealth messages of rich Christians and how we must be abundantly blessed in order to have a victorious Christian life here on earth? Again we need to understand what we are fighting for, it’s not for temporal peace and enjoyment in this life, the Bible says it is appointed unto man to die once, then the judgment. Where will you stand, at the Judgment seat of Christ, or at the Great White Throne? Friends don’t be fooled by the covert tactics of the battle between yourself and the devil, for he seeketh whom he may devour, but Christ stands at the door and knocks and whoever lets Him enter in shall inherit life eternal! The other parts of the battle I will cover tomorrow so we have time to digest what we read today. May you be encouraged today as it says in Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Will you be found willing to stand in the gap and get fired up for God!

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ

2Ti 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

Good morning again dear friends. What a wonderful night we had at our nursing home ministry again last night! I learned a couple of people from my hall were allowed to go home, what a blessing for them, and an encouragement for the others that are there! The numbers were down though because of sickness, there seems to be this bug going around that has brought a lot of people under the weather with congestion, event he Pastor has it pretty bad. I will ask that you pray for him and the others for so they can get back to doing the things they normally do. Friends have you ever come across the above verse and thought about what a good soldier is? I have been reading an encouraging book and in it it brought out some of the characteristics of being a soldier, now I also was enlisted in the military for quite some time, and this just kind of made me start looking back about my life before the military, during the military, and now that I am enlisted in the Lords army. I want to take the next couple of days if the Lord doesn't return first and take some time to go through the things of a good soldier. I hope that they will be a blessing and an encouragement to join in the fight and stay prepared to endure. In the above verse it says that we must endure hardness, as a good soldier, in my mind that means this soldier must have already had some training in order to take a command like this, so tomorrow we will get into enlistment day. I don't know how long this will take, but I am excited to see any comments that you may have, so please feel free to leave an e-mail one way or another. Until tomorrow may the Lord bless!

Whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Rom 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

Good day friends, it is kinda gloomy out today as we are expecting rain again. Yesterday was a whole lot nicer as we had good temperatures and plenty of sunshine. My daughter had school off yesterday so we helped out around the house for mom, then because the weather was so good we went out soul winning together. It was really a great time together because we sometimes under estimate what is going on in our little ones heads. Are they listening, what are they thinking, do they comprehend all that is going on? Well friends sure enough my daughter had a great grasp of what we were doing, she was even giving me pointers on what to say after I was finished talking to one person. It intrigued me enough to start asking her other questions and boy were the answers just right! She even remembered things she learned while she was out in a group with the Pastor. It really scares me though that if she is learning that much from God house, and Gods people, what is she learning at public school? We have always had her in Christian School up until this year, however at this point she has been pretty unaffected unless I am missing any of the signs. Friends I encourage you today to spend some time with your children, you might be surprised whats going on! I praise God for yesterdays time, it allowed me to learn some things from her, and of course her dad got to teach her a few things also. It just makes me joyful to know that she had no problem witnessing, and talking with others about our Lord and Savior. Friends as much as I enjoyed that little time with her, imagine the time that you would enjoy with God, in Bible reading, in prayer, in service! God desires to have a relationship with us like a son or a daughter, we like our children just need to make time to spend with Him. The Bible says to draw nigh unto God and God will draw nigh unto you! As God's children we should be prepared to listen and obey, we should also be prepared to love Him, as He loves us. Friends if you don't know the love of God today may I encourage you to seek the Lord while He may yet be found, that is to call upon His Son, Jesus Christ and ask Him to save you from all your sins that you may be able to cry unto Him, Abba..that is father!