It's Time To Get Hungry!

Editors Note: It has been a while since we updated our articles and website. We are currently undergoing many exciting changes, and so we hope you will check out our website, and be a part of this ongoing ministry! We will endeavor to keep more current with the new changes. GBU.

Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6

For a little while now I have wondered whether or not we have lost our zeal and our faith in the ability of Christ to move. Our services have become almost denominational. We have our programs, our philisophical diatribe, a little music, and of course our many offerings. What we seem to have lost is our real hunger for God. It is confusing, and sometimes I find myself being angered by the lack of desire, but when I do what I can to pray, and be available if needed, and still no change, well it gets easy to be discouraged, or even full of doubt.

I understand it is the last days, and many will fall away. I also understand the 'preachers with itching ears thing.' I think I even know a few of them. But I think we blame who we have become on the scriptures say it will happen rather than being willing to do something to change.

It is depressing to see people come in, get the holy ghost, be baptized, and never come back. Some would say, they just didn't have the hunger for God. Others would say, it is just a sign of the times, but the bible says 'they that hunger, shall be filled.'

Have we become so complacent in our worship, so busy with our lives, so afraid of controversy that we fail to realize that we are slowing dying. A body can only go so long without food, and without hunger the body will not realize the slow deterioration until its too late.

There are instances where we are unable to find food. In a spiritual sense, if our minsters are not clued in with what is needed, then we will not find what we need. If we base what we do on the programs that have worked for others rather than seeking God, and finding fresh food for our own people, then we are slowly killing them. Even a baby will get sick of nothing but milk when it begins to grow, and yet the same repeated message comes across the pulpit over and over. Stale!

Now, I understand there can be a need to reaffirm the message of our faith. Water baptism, the holy ghost, the love of God, needs to be taught. But, if the message didn't come from prayer, and study, it is microwaved bread. It is not good, tough to chew, and though there may be a bit of food value left, it isn't easy to choke down.

It irritates me though, that instead of fresh bread, and fresh water, and especially a fresh anointing, we are expected to exist on what is the topic of the day. We have the fire, we have the bread, why isn't the bread fresh and hot? We are hungry pastor! Feed us!

Imagine it like this. We are sitting there at a banquet table filled with all kinds of glorius treats, but instead our host comes up to us, and says, I am sorry but you will only be able to eat this moldy, stale, bread. And when someone makes a grab for the meat, he apologizes and takes it away!

GET REAL PASTOR!

Try feeding your wife stale bread and dirty water, when there is cake and fresh milk available. I am sure you will wake up to realize, either she doesn't want you around anymore, or that she has died of hunger!

Eventually though, we succumb to eating the stale bread because it is all we are given. Our hunger for greater things dies.

This is the state of the Apostolic church. Content with less, when we could have so much more. Some of it is the pastors faults. Some of it is the saints who sit there on their pew and are willing to accept less than the best. I have seen souls die spiritually and in actuality because their needs were not being met. Psychology, charisma, and an act of 'worship' is not enough to sustain those in need. Still we persist. I have begun to believe that some do not even realize what they are doing. (He wist not the spirit had departed.) I know this is talking about Samson, but I believe it is relevant to today.

Sadly, I have found myself wondering if I was wrong, if perhaps I was backslid myself. I am not. I want to see God move like He used to. He deserves all of our praise. But, I wondered, does anyone else feel like I do? Am I alone in this hunger?

Thankfully I am not!

A friend sent me the top photo from her church camp. There is still hunger, and there is still a cause. Are we going to feed them? Or let them die like so many of us already have. Is there not a cause??? Little kids hungry for God! So many of us toss them aside, tell them to 'shush!' and act like they do not matter. But they are hungry, and they believe God can. I do not see how we can sit on our pews of complacency, or how we can go on with the program when some child is hungry for God. We need to throw our plan, and our agenda out the window, before it is too late.

See, it is not just them that would be lost. It is us! They want a move of God. They don't feel embarrassed by what we believe, and they want to share it with others. Look at the hunger in her face, look at the desire. Do you still have that?

If we keep silent the rocks will cry out! Already there is talk of the holy ghost falling in other churches, and yet we have one or two a year? Believe me I am not against the holy ghost falling where ever it has to, but do we really want to be the ones on the outside looking in?

In many churches the all night prayer meetings are gone. I cannot remember the last time my pastor called a fast for some need that wasn't financial. We no longer linger in the altar, and our 'musicians' can't seem to know what the spirit is leading to draw more people to the altar. Loud music is confused with praise, and one of two shouts and we think we have had a move of God.


Just last week I was in revival, and the services were better than I can remember in quite a while. A comment was made from the pulpit, ' We need services like this, sometimes.' SOMETIMES?

If you aren't hungry you will not get fed. But I know for myself, when I am hungry for barbequed ribs, mashed potatoes, and corn on the cob; cream of wheat, doesn't cut it! When I am hungry for some reason, I seem to cook better. I don't make my kids eat leftovers, I make em something fresh.

And that is the answer! When the pulpit gets hungry, the pews will no longer accept stale bread and stale water. When the pastor displays his hunger, the saints will follow.

It is time to get hungry!

Read More

Christ Came; And No One Cared!

Maybe it is the Christmas Season, or perhaps the cold dreary weather, but I am aggravated. I was informed that the church I attend is not planning to have service on Christmas day because "no one will come." Then I read on CNN.com, that several so called mega churches are canceling service because "people don't want to be there, and it is Christmas." I thought we were Christian aka Christlike, but apparently I was wrong.


We claim to be Apostolic, Believers, Anointed, but the very reason we celebrate, or at least the reason we claim, isn't important enough to acknowledge the reason we even have a Christmas Day!


Now I realize Jesus wasn't born on Christmas Day, December 25, but HE was born. This is the only day the majority of the world even acknowledges His existance, and that is the day we choose to cancel church service? Can anyone tell me why? I remember growing up and talking to my friends about God, but most of them wouldn't come on a normal sunday, but they all made a point to be in a church service somewhere on Easter, and yes Christmas Day.
What has happened to us? What has happened to our beliefs? What has happened to our respect for our creator?


The liberal world is busy even trying to remove the word Christmas from the season. Let's call it a holiday season, we don't want to offend those who don't believe. Hogwash. Remove Christ from Christmas and all you have is fat women, and rude men running over each other in greedful exasperations early in the morning at Walmart, for that one item that there is only one of, and it is on sale! I seen reports of people being trampled in stores, while trying to find some stupid present that was overpriced made by some cheap labor force overseas so that the retailer could fatten his already bulging wallet. And yet, the calm time in the Shopping Storm has always been the fellowship, the drama, the music, and the cheer, and peaceful thoughts of religious diligence and real love for Jesus Christ in our church worship. And we are throwing it out, because people might not show up.


It is idiotic to call ourselves Christian, when we care more about the gifts, than the Giver of Life.
He made Himself of no reputation, but we have to have designer clothes, and XBox, maybe a new car, and a massive credit card bill we will still be paying off in 2010.


See, the first time Jesus came it wasn't a big crescendo. No one really knew, but a couple shepherds, and a few wise men from the east. They weren't even of His own nationality, but they had studied stars, and papyrus scrolls, and they knew something was going on that was important. He couldn't even get a room at a hospital or a Motel 6 to be born in, but a stable. The King of ALL eternity, born in a cow trough. No bells, no party, probably not even any baby gifts, just a bit of cloth wrapped around his body, while a couple sheep looked on. And this was after the prophecies had foretold his birth, even to the city, but even then people were so busy with their lives, they didn't care or realize that He came for them.


Zoom forward a little more than 2000 years, and we are back at the same place. If He came back on Christmas Day, would we even know it? Oh yes, I know we think we are saved. We think when the rapture happens we will be like rockets out of this pathetic world, leaving the horrible heathens behind. Thing is, when God created the earth, He said it was good. We are the ones who screwed everything up. This earth is pathetic and dying because of the inhabitants, not because of the creator. We want Him to save us from the misery, pain, sickness, and all the trouble we bring on ourselves, so that we can be "like Him."


"Like Him?" We don't even know Him! The Bible says some have entertained angels unawares. And most of us have read the accounts of the disciples at Emaus, they didn't even realize who he was until He did something. And how about Thomas, "Lord, if its you...." "Thomas, look at the scars on my hands, stick your hand in my side." Yet somehow in our pompous, self righteous Christianity we think we would know Him?


I mean put yourself in His place. You have been gone for a long time from "home." Where would you come? To the place that is "your house," of course. We call our churches houses of prayer, house of worship, even the house of God, but we treat them like recreation halls, and marketplaces. But when He came home, the doors were locked; everyone was somewhere else. "Those that look for Him, will he appear a second time..."


We have become so organized and choreographed with what we call worship, that if the service don't fit with our plan, we are lost. So instead of being there for the lost who may show up, we close the building down. If even Jesus showed up at our church, on His day, of all days, no one would be there.


We make a big deal of the trumpet, the great white horse, the return of the saints, and somehow gloss over the "thief that comes in the night," when no one is prepared. He came the first time without a lot of fanfare, it wasn't on the news, no fancy hall, no party, what makes us think it will be different the second time?


I am more inclined to believe He will come the second time like he came the first, more like the hide and seek game, than the charging army. Instead of royal robes, and a calvacade of horses and chariots, He would appear in the midst like he did after His ressurection. How would you feel if you came home for Christmas, and your loved ones were all gone somewhere else? Think He feels different? Showing up after all this time, and it wasn't important enough for His own people. It is a shame isn't it? But let's lock our church doors, and make sure the lights are off and make sure we are busy with candy, punch, extra ham and potatos, and of course that pie... we don't want to be open for the one who may show up wearing rags, homeless, dirty, and hungry; I mean that would mean we would have to leave our comfortable warm fire, and our games, and "you don't know, that one may not even show up. And then we would have wasted all that time."


So, let's get our Christmas Celebrations out of the way early in the month, and hand out our candy canes,oranges, and peanuts at the beginning so we won't be caught off guard on Christmas.


"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment." Matthew 25:40-46


I think we need to be in church on Christmas, even if we are alone, but if your doors are locked, how about stopping by a nursing home and singing some carols, or perhaps shoveling someone else's sidewalks, or take a food basket to someone you know is hurting. It is what He would do!
If He returned on Christmas, what would you be doing?

God Bless Us, Everyone! Help Us to KNOW YOU!

Read More

The Difference Between Being Broken and Being Useless

My heart tonight is heavy. I have been looking around to see if it is just my perception or if it is almost too late.

Christianity has become so commercial. What used to pass for holiness, is now considered passe', and what some used to recognize as sin, is now looked at with an unoffensive eye. Those who at one time were the holy rollers, and the mighty workers for God, have somehow lost sight of what is important. Even our preachers, like the word says, are preaching, or doing, listening, carefully manuevering through the tithe-payers, rather than doing "thus saith the Lord."

I have pondered the meaning of the scripture, "I looked for a man to stand in the gap, and found none." I do not believe that everyone has lost their fire or their zeal for God. I believe some have hidden their talent and their anointing, rather than face the ridicule of others. And I believe still others have had their talents buried for them, because they don't fit with what is popular.

Preachers! Wake Up! "Watchmen, what of the night?" "What meaneth the bleating of the sheep?" The difference between being broken and being useless needs to be addressed.

In many churches, gone are the days of intercession, of all night prayer meetings, of fasting til we see results. Instead they have been replaced with programs, singing groups, special events, and other activities to "reach them where they are at." Where are the hungry souls? They still exist! Brokeness is an act of contrition, of deepening one's walk with God to the point where, no matter what happens, "I must touch Jesus!" Somehow I must get across to him the needs of those around me. I cannot be who I am called to be, without first being broken. I have to get rid of the parts of my life that are a hinderance, and a stumbling block. I have to commune with God and learn from him.

The boy David, knew how to talk to God. He knew how to be a help to those around him. He also knew how to fight the battles alone. He didn't have help when he slew the lion or bear, save God. He wasn't even backed up by the army of "saints" when he slew Goliath. He went into battle alone, and without all the trappings of what others expected for him to be "right."

But he was more than just a warrior. He knew how to sing praises, and he knew how to get God's attention. A man after God's own heart. Sure he was human, and he made mistakes, but he knew it wasn't about him. To many people, the ones making the most noise, or being upfront in the action are the ones who make a difference, and the ones that are important. However, the bible doesn't see it that way. "He that is first shall be last, and he that is last shall be first." "Create in me a clean heart, and a right spirt." "They that hunger and thirst after righteousness, shall be filled." Many passages tell us exactly what to do, but there are also many that tell, that we have hardened our hearts and wont listen.

God cannot, and will not, use a vessel that is just for show. Sometimes we start off in the right attitude and with good intentions, but we get sidetracked by circumstance, or our own perceptions of what is good or not. Instead of really seeking God in prayer for direction, we try to make it happen, and we lose the humbleness of our hearts. My heart is so burdened tonight for someone, they have heard, and yet they remain unchanged. We have let our lives get derailed by a trial, or a test, or just because of our lack of committment. Hardened in our hearts and fill with our own imaginations and beliefs, we lose sight of what is really important.

Saul was such a person. Sure he was king, and he had been put in charge of God's people, but he let circumstance and others opinions cloud who he was meant to be. He failed because he listened to the wrong voice. He forgot to be humble, and use the gifts of God like he used to. Choirs have to be choreographed, the preacher has to preach so long, and we can't forget that special offering we were going to take for the new thing we need for that one deal. Sound familiar? We don't use those that don't fit the image of what we want to portray. If some slip by the wayside its ok, as long as we don't offend those who seem to be moldable. Rather shouldn't we be looking for the hunger more than the manner of personality? Are we jealous if God chooses to use someone else? Do we do everything we can to see that change doesn't occur?

That is the difference between being broken, and being useless. When our position, or our perception become more important, than our impact in changing lives to see God, reagardless of who we think they are, then we are useless in God's sight.

Saul was so afraid of the abilities that God had given David, that he refused to see him for what he was. Oh sure, when he needed something from David to appease his own ideas, he was friendly, and welcoming, but when it looked like David may get some attention, he had to stop it. He tried many times to kill David. I guess he felt that if David wasnt' there, he would still be in charge. However, God had already made his decision. Saul had lost his committment, and had become useless. He listened to what the people said. Eventually, he even consulted a witch.

There is a place and a committment to God that each of us must find, and no one can make it happen for us. No one else's prayers and good works can keep the backslider from going to hell. Sure, we can extend God's mercy, and pray he gives them time, but it is a one to one consecration, and humbleness of spirit that matters. Sometimes we get caught up in homiletics, and in choreography, or "tradition" that we leave God entirely out of the picture. It doesn't matter if we grew up in a "christian" home or the world. Our relationship with God is the only thing that matters.

Trials will come, and test will shake us to our very core, but they are not brought to weaken or destroy us, but rather to show us where we need work, or even as a reminder of how strong He really is, if we are leaning on him. We need sometimes instead of the jump and shout, to find a place of solitude and desperation in touching him. A hunger, and a reaching, that stirs and breaks us to our very soul. Yes, we can lean on him. "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not unto your own understanding, and he will direct thy path."

When the children of Israel went up to do battle against the Midianites, they were few in number, and God wouldn't even let them use a sword. A trumpet, a pitcher, and a lamp was their only weapons. And yet when that pitcher was broken, the light shown out to their brothers around the camp, but it also destroyed the will of the enemy, and fear came upon them and they fled or were killed by their own Midianite warriors. A broken vessel led the way to victory. Something we would think as not any good, and would throw out, God used for his glory.

Jesus was broken for us on the cross, and he was submissive to the pain and suffering, and ridicule, and he saved us. What would happen to us, if we allowed ourselves to be broken?

Are you willing to be broken? Or will you end up being thrown out, because you are no longer useful? Lord, let me be broken, for you!

Read More

In Whom Doth Your Strength Lie?

"Some trust in chariots, and some in horses but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They are brought down and fallen, but we are risen and stand upright. Save, Lord: let the king hear us when we call." Psalms 20:7-9

It is easy these days to rest on our achievements, and to forget that we are simply weak vessels meant for the master's good pleasure. We can read in many passages of scripture where men of old began to rely on their own strength and wisdom to get them through life, and in most instances, they failed.

We have read the story of Samson and how he brought great misery to the Philistines; until one day his weakness, and his self-reliance cost him his sight, his strength, and his dignity. Yes, god did allow him to regain his strength for one last victory, but have you ever wondered what the story of Samson would have been had he kept his vow, and his dependence on God. Truly, he would have been a mighty man.

Many instances of reliance on one's own intellect and strength are mentioned in the bible; but in all, pain, discouragement, and failure were soon to follow. Sure, many times these men with the best intentions meant no harm, but God required strict obedience to his word.

Disobedience to the word, brought much destruction on God's people. We can read several instances where the children of Israel lost battles simply to disobedience. Achan's hidden wedge of gold cost many lives, and eventually his own. Intermarriage with the Jebusites, brought weakness into the camp. Saul spared Agag and some of the cattle, because of "the people." A broken covenant stripped Samson of his power. In 1st Samuel 17:24, we read how a backslidden nation forgot the strength of God and became cowards. Even the apostles were rendered helpless over satanic forces because of their unbelief.

Where doth your strength lie?

We need to keep in mind that our strength cometh from the Lord, and only through Him are we able to stand. In these days of fancy singing, incredible slideshows, computers and other forms of "religious use" technology, it is easy to rely on the program and forget God. All the new methods we use in our daily lives makes it sometimes easy to forget that without God there is nothing! It is very easy to put our trust in our job, our family, our friends, our bank account, or even our own self. However, these things are perishable and finite. He alone is omnipotent and everlasting.


Often it takes being broke, destitute, and discouraged, before we figure out we need to rely on God to see us through. It would be a lot easier if we would give Him glory, and depend on him, as the word says we should, in times of plenty, than to wait until we are in bad shape looking up from the bottom of mess and we are in need desperately. He is as strong in times of prosperity as He is in poverty. Who do you think is prospering you?

Reliance on God is a choice. And it is one we all have to make in our own daily and spiritual lives. We can read how after crossing into Canaan, Joshua exclaimed, "As for me and my house, We will serve the Lord."

In Matthew 8:24-27, we read, "Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it."

Where does your strength lie?

The choices we make now will ultimately affect us later on. There are times we don't rely on God's strength because we think it seems impossible or too easy an answer. I am reminded of the story of a man hiking in the mountains and came to close to the edge of a cliff and fell off. Screaming "HELP!" as he plummeted down the face of the rock, he managed to grab onto a branch growing in a crevice in the cliff. After catching his breath and realizing there was no way to climb back up the sheer wall, he prayed isn't there someone who can help me? Several minutes of sweating desperation went by when he heard a voice. "How can I help?" Although he was unable to see the individual he explained his predictamint. "By the way, who are you?, he asked. The voice replied, "I am God! Do you trust me to help you?" "Of course I do!" "Then let go of the branch, and I will catch you." After several minutes went by, the man again shouted, "Is there anyone else up there?" His trust in the strength of God, was not enough to cause him to let go.

Now I know this is a ludicrous example to test our trust in God, but it is very accurate most of the time. We are often more content to keep our problems, and do things our own way like we always do, rather than trust God to see us through. 1st Corinthians 1:27 states, "But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty."

Many passages of scripture relate the relavance of simple things being made mighty through the hand of God. Naaman was cured of leprosy simply by dipping seven times in a muddy river. The walls of Jericho fell by armored tanks and rocket propelled grenades. (Really! That is what our feeble minds would allow us to believe.) The camp of Israel simply marched around the walls, and on the seventh day, they shouted, and the walls crumbled to dust. And the Midianites were defeated by breaking a couple pitchers, showing a few oil lamps, and the blast of trumpets. They were so confused, they fought each other thinking they were being attacked. Yet, we think we have to invest all this money, training, time, and worry to accomplish the tasks laid before us. When we come to terms that God is our strength, and that he will supply, "all things are possible." Remember he fed five thousand with one little boy' lunch, and he saved us all with one act of obedience of his crucifixion on the cross. We simply have to follow and obey. Where does your strength lie? The psalmist David knew, and he wrote, "Be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord." (Psalms 31:24) Where does your strength lie? We all like to quote passages scriptures of strength when we feel weakhearted, but it is the word of God for ALL times.

"But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

The Name of the Lord is a strong tower! In Whom doth your strength lie?

Read More