Continual Thanksgiving

Wow, what at weekend at FPB. I always love our Children’s Crusade and this one was over the top. The Kid’s ministry here at FPB is something else. Every part was first class and the ministry of all the different ones was superb. The greatest part was watching all the children praying in the altars at the end of each service, and then finishing it off with two children being baptized. Thank you Kid’s staff and most of all Thank You Jesus for Your wonderful blessings.

On that note let me remind you of two things this morning.

 

Start each day off being thankful to God.

 

This morning in my prayer time I started with Thanksgiving. I always try to do this and this morning I thanked God for each of those children that I saw touched by this weekend. Time will tell the power of each of those services. No doubt there will come a day when one or more of those little boys and/or girls will stand where Marcus and Bryan did last night and we will see the seeds coming up that were planted. Jesus said to send the little children to Him and never prevent them from getting to Him for such is the kingdom of Heaven. (Matthew 19:14) Yes, many lives were touched by the anointing of this wonderful weekend and time will clearly show the power of those planted seeds. So join with me today and tell God how thankful you are for all the kids at FPB and those who lead them.

 

Keep a spirit of Thanksgiving

 

We often really start to zero in on the things we are thankful for this time of year. I do so much enjoy this season and believe we should be thankful. I challenge you to start today making a list of all the things you are truly thankful for. You will have to write them down or you will lose some with time. But just stop and look around you and realize that if those blessings were not there, your life would not be the same. Stop today and think how your life would be if those blessing were taken away. But just don’t be thankful during this season. Make a point to live your life thankful continually. Selfish unthankful people are miserable souls.

 

I may have shared this before but allow me to send it again. This story puts a clearer picture on the reason we need to keep a spirit of Thanksgiving.

 

Dr. Norman Vincent Peal wrote a story of a man who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This man had been a vital, dynamic individual. Now he had become an empty shell of a man. Then someone suggested that the way for him to avoid further breakdown and be healed was by the practice of what is called the attitude of gratitude.

 

He was advised to sit down and make a list of all the people who had helped him over the years. Then he was to fill his mind with thankfulness for all that these men and women had done for him. He was asked if he had ever thanked anyone for what he or she had done for him.

“No,” he said, “I never really laid much stress on that.”

The next advice was to think of someone who had especially blessed his life and send that person a letter of thanks. He thought of a schoolteacher who was now elderly. He sat down and wrote a letter telling her that he remembered all the inspiration she has given him, that he had never forgotten her over the years and how much he loved her. 

A few days later, he received a letter written in a trembling hand. Using his boyhood name, it said, “Dear Willy, when I think back over all the children I have taught in my life time, you are the only one who ever wrote to thank me for what I did as a teacher. You have made me so happy. I read your letter every night. I will cherish your words until the day I die.” 

This did so much for the man that he thought of someone else to write to. Then someone else came to mind and before he was through he had written 500 unexpected letters of thanks and appreciation. And the therapy of thanksgiving had much to do with curing him of his nervous depression. It lifted him above himself and into the secret of real living. He was grateful from that time on for every new day, and lived life to its fullest. 

No matter where life finds you today I challenge you to live with a thankful heart and spirit. It will make all the difference in your days to come. Thankful people are wonderful people to walk through life with. So be thankful for all the blessings God has put in your life and allow them to put a smile on your face as you walk through life today. Not only will you feel better but those around you will enjoy you much more too.

 

Thanks for reading this!

From Strength to Strength

A young man, no doubt wishing to seem wise beyond his years, watched and elder gentlemen plant young apple trees. The old man carefully and tenderly set each little tree in the soil and watered it in. After a bit the young man called out, “Sir, you do realize you will never eat an apple off these trees?” “Yes”, replied the elder and went on working. “Then why waste the time knowing you will never get anything out of it?” Ask the younger. The old man’s answer showed the focus his life. The elder man replied, “I won’t eat apples from these trees, but someone will. Someone will come by this place and be thankful of the fact that I planted the trees. Yes, I won’t eat the fruit of my labor but someone will.”

There are many events that touch our lives through the passing of time. Happenings that bless us and leave us smiling and events that touch us and leave us sadden or hurt. Some even leave us shell-shocked and confused. There are no doubt questions in all our minds about what has come our way. Good things, wonderful things and then bad things. We all have things in our life that we have no answer as to why they came our way. Why did I have to deal with that?

 

Years ago I had an event touch my life that left me filled with questions. I prayed, asked God why, and puzzled over the lack of an answer. I didn’t know anyone to turn to who had walked down a similar road. For a few days I walked through life in a daze not knowing any reason or lesson, direction or hope as to why I was staggering through that barren area of life I was. After a few days a received a hand written letter from an elder in my life who said God woke Him and he felt he should write me the letter. In that letter he described in detail the exact same event in his life with a different time, place and name. Yet it was my story and my event in someone else’s life. He encouraged me and gave me words of wisdom.

 

Today looking back I still don’t know the reasons or the whys of that event in my life but I have purposed that I would not leave the place barren. Because someone else will walk there and I plan when that day comes to be a fresh pool for them to be encouraged by.

 

There is a song in scripture found in Psalm 84. It is a song about the wonders of the tabernacle of God. It describes the blessing of being in the Lord’s courts and how the writer longs to just stay there. The singer envies the birds that get to build a nest there. Yet, declares that he will be there, he will journey there, he will return to the court of the Lord with praise. It is in verses four through seven that some amazing thoughts are given.

 

Israel had several feast or holidays of celebration that required they return to the Temple to worship each year. On their way to Jerusalem, from their different home towns, they journeyed no doubt the same route each time. Spurgeon, in his books, The Treasury of David, makes this note about verse 6. “Probably there is here a local allusion, which will never now be deciphered, but the general meaning is clear enough. There are joys of pilgrimage which make men forget the discomforts of the road. “The rain also filleth the pools.” God gives to his people the supplies they need while traversing the roads which he points out for them. Where there were no natural supplies from below, the pilgrims found an abundant compensation in waters from above…”

 

Those who passed through the different dry and barren places must have created places of rest where the rains, which were now long gone, left a pool to rest by. Maybe they dug the pools for the rain to fill. Maybe they built a bridge to get over a certain place. Whatever was there it was a help and a refreshing to those who would later, maybe years later, come that way again. They journeyed to the presence of the Lord from one strength to another strength.

 

Blessed is the man whose strength is in You, Whose heart is set on pilgrimage.  As they pass through the Valley of Baca, They make it a spring; The rain also covers it with pools. They go from strength to strength; Each one appears before God in Zion. Psalm 84:5-7 NKJV 

 

I don’t always know all the reasons why life handed me what it has passed to me but a long time ago after a note that made a difference I decided to dig a pool at the event. I may never use the water of help caught there but someone will. I don’t always know why some blessings come my way but I have purposed in my heart to plant something that will bear fruit so someone can enjoy it. I don’t always know the reasons but if I can learn enough I can help someone else walk where I have walked. I can dig a pool.

 

That day when I received that note I decided I would be ready to write such a note when the need of opportunity came. I will dig a pool, build a bridge, plant a tree, I will do something with the events of my life so that those who come after me can go from strength to strength.

 

No, I may not get to eat the fruit but I will plant the tree because someone will need the fruit.

I challenge you to look at where life walks you and  make it a better path so someone else can go from strength to strength, help others appear before God in His courts.

Your Most Important 5 Percent

This morning when I left the house the cool crisp air felt wonderful. It was a hint of what is no doubt to come in the next four or five months. It’s a time of the year that I like. Matter-a-fact, it’s my favorite time of the year. As we move into this fall season things start to get really busy for us here at FPB. The next three months are filled with fast pace excitement and busyness. We will have a chance to touch the lives of a lot of people over the next several weeks. Yet, at the same time I want to remind you to plan time to slow down and really see what is going on around you.

 

Recently I was made aware of some things I must focus on. I am reading a book called, Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordeiro. In this book the author reminds his readers there are some things in our life that he called the most important five percent. He writes,

 

Eighty-five percent of what we do, anyone can do. These tasks don’t require an elite expertise or specialized skill. Many of these tasks can be delegated to others so we can concentrate on what’s most important to the job we have been given to do.

Ten percent of what we do, someone with a modicum of training should be able to accomplish. After all we were trained to do what we do; someone else of like capabilities could learn how to do what we do.

But 5 percent of what I do; only I can do! This is the most important 5 percent for me. I can’t delegate these initiatives to anyone else. I can’t hire someone else to take my place in any of these activities because they require that I be there! This 5 percent will determine the validity of the other 95 percent.

 

I think we tend to really not believe that someone else can do our other 95 percent but we are just fooling ourselves. If we were to step from this life today there would be tears and some sad days but within weeks our jobs and positions would be filled as life went on. This world has never stopped because someone was no longer there. But we can get so busy that we neglect the most important things that only we can do, our most important five percent. My five percent may be different from yours but the principals are the same. After reading this chapter I put down my most important 5 percent.

 

1.      A vibrant growing relationship with Jesus through prayer and His Word. He in me and I in Him. (John 15)

2.      A healthy and real relationship with Stephanie that’s enjoyable and comforting.

3.      An authentic family that love God and also have a close relationship with Him. Also that my family be close to one another.

4.      A God pleasing ministry that is continually consumed by His anointing.

5.      A physically healthy body with a creative mind and an emotional heart.

6.      Taking time to enjoy life with my family and friends and in that order.

 

So as you move into this busy season make sure you keep everything in order. If you get the top 5 percent out of focus the other 95 percent will be a mess and really just a fake. I want to finish with a story I found years ago that still gets me in my emotional heart every time I read it. It’s called 1000 marbles. Enjoy!

 

I was shuffling towards the basement with a steaming cup of coffee in one hand and the morning paper in the other. What began a typical Saturday morning, turned into one of those lessons that life seems to hand you from time to time.

Let me tell you about it.

I turned the dial up into the phone portion of the band on my ham radio in order to listen to a Saturday morning swap net. Along the way, I came across an older sounding chap, with a tremendous signal and a golden voice. You know the kind, he sounded like he should be in the broadcasting business. He was telling whoever he was talking with something about “a thousand marbles.”

I was intrigues and stopped to listen to what he had to say.

“Well, Tom, it sure sounds like you’re busy with your job. I’m sure they pay you well but it’s a shame you have to be away from home and your family so much. Hard to believe a young fellow should have to work sixty or seventy hours a week to make ends meet.” He said.

“Too bad you missed your daughter’s recital.”

“Let me tell you something Tom,” he continued.

“Something that has helped me keep a good perspective on my priories.” And that when he began to explain his theory of “A Thousand Marbles.”

“You see, I sat down one day and did a little arithmetic. The average person lives about seventy-five years. “Now then, I multiplied 75 times 52 and I came up with 3,900 which is the number of Saturdays that the average person has in their entire lifetime!

Now stick with me Tom, I’m getting to the important part.”

“It took me until I was fifty-five years old to think about all this in any detail”; he went on, “and by that time I had lived through over twenty-eight hundred Saturdays. I got to thinking that if I lived to be seventy-five, I only had about a thousand of them left to enjoy.”

“So I went to a toy store and bought every single marble they had. I ended up having to visit three toy stores to round up 1000 marbles. I took them home and put them inside a large clear plastic container.

Every Saturday since then, I have taken one marble out and thrown it away.”

“I found that by watching the marbles diminish, I focused more on the really important things in life. There is nothing like watching your time here on this earth run out to help get your priorities straight.”

“Now let me tell you one last thing before I sign off with you and take my lovely wife out for breakfast. This morning, I took the very last marble out of the container. I figure if I make it until next Saturday then I have been given a little extra time. And the one thing we can all use is a little more time.”

It was nice to meet you Tom, I hope you spend more time with your family, and I hope to meet you again here in the band.

73 Old Man, this is K9NZQ clear and going QRT, good morning!”

You could have heard a pin drop on the band when this fellow signed off. I guess he gave us all a lot to think about. I had planned to go fishing with some of my buddies this morning, and then I was going to work on the antenna, so I could listen to the game. Instead, I went upstairs and woke my wife with a kiss. “C’mon honey, I’m taking you and the kids to breakfast.”

“What brought this on?” she asks with a smile. Oh nothing special, it just been a long time since we spent a Saturday together with the kids.

Hey, can we stop at a toy store while were out? I need to buy some marbles.

From www.lovethissite.com

 

If we use the same figure as the story, 75 years:

If you’re 25 you have 2600 Saturdays left.

If you’re 35 you have 2080

If you’re 45 you have 1560

If you’re 55 you have 1040

If you’re 65 a little over 500 Saturdays left.

Get the top 5 percent right, your running out of marbles.

The Deception of Life

Sunday was a great day at FPB. The altars were full in both services and another one was baptized in Jesus name. To God be the Glory!

As I read my twitter feeds Sunday evening I read how God moved all across our fellowship. People are being baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost across the globe. The Word of God declares that the Almighty would pour out His Spirit on all flesh in the closing hours of the church. The revival that is sweeping this world is a clear sign that Jesus is about to come. As I preached in Sunday’s first service don’t become deceived by this world and the events of your daily lives and miss the coming of the Lord. The signs of His coming are all around us if we are not asleep or being ignorant of what is coming upon this old world.

 

While attending the Arkansas District Camp Meeting this past summer one of the evangelists made this statement. “Too many opportunities are being missed by people with other things on their mind.” Stan Gleason

 

It is the plan of this world and the works of darkness to side track the church so that we become less effective for the kingdom of God. Jesus warns us not to be distracted or deceived in this closing hour.

And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. Matthew 24:3-4 KJV

For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.  Behold, I have told you before. Matthew 24:24-25 KJV 

 

Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. Matthew 24:42 KJV 

 

Today your world will take your attention and the anointed moment of God will be missed because we are carried about with other things. Just as Jesus warns Martha, we can get covered up with other things and miss the best things.

 

Don’t laugh it off as those mentioned in 2 Peter 3:2-5.

That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
For this they willingly are ignorant of, …

The Apostle Peter says that there will be people who willing decide to be ignorant of what is about to happen. They will excuse it and put it aside because their day has deceived them and they live as if things will always be the same. This day you are living in will deceive you into thinking such a though. This day will make you become ignorant of what is about to happen in this world. But such feeling will not stop or change the fact that God is about to come but will cause us to miss a great chance of being ready.

The Apostle Peter goes on to write in his book, “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God,…” 2Peter 3:10-12 NKJV 

 

Last week a Muslim leader stood before the UN and introduced the fact that there is a man who will as he claimed, fix all this world’s problems, a man he named. While we worried over trivial things the great possibility of the anti-Christ was about to be introduced to the world almost happened. By what this man said he knows who the man is. He knows of a man who can fix everything. With all this and many other things pointing to the coming of the Lord what is distracting you away from living a vessel filled life. (Matthew 25:1-13)

 

What has your focus this week? What keeping you from daily prayer?

What was more important than living holy righteous before God?

What takes all your dreams and time and causes the coming of the Lord never to cross your mind? What is deceiving you? Do we not realize we are breathing air that the trumpet of God could very well be about to sound through? What is getting your attention? What has you focus?

What is deceiving you?

Deception from this world will take your focus and cause one to miss the coming of the Lord.

 

Here is the link to the speech given in the UN.

...http://foxnewsinsider.com/2012/09/26/transcript