Magnify Him!

I don't know about you but I love to worship the Lord. No matter what I am going through, worship music always helps me feel better and encourages me to worship the Lord. Below is one of my new favorite songs. I like this song because it simply says Magnify Him! No matter what we go through or how we feel we ought to magnify the Lord. He is worthy of all our praise. I notice if I have some worship and devotion time 1st thing in the morning, I tend to have so much energy! Worship puts me in a good frame of mind and adds a pep to my step! I hope you all enjoy this song. In everything that we do let's remember to Magnify Him!

Get Alone With God

We recently went on a weekend retreat with our young adult ministry from church. We were able to get away from the busyness of the city and relax out in the country. It was a wonderful time to reflect and get alone with the Lord. Like we have discussed in previous posts, it is so important to build your relationship with God. One of the ways to do so is to be intimate with God.
The healthy relationships that we invest in with our family members, friends, co workers and spouses are earthly examples of how our relationship should be with the Lord. We need to get alone with Him to learn more about Him. We can experience His love, joy, pain, concerns, compassion and spirit by just taking the time to be in His presence. When you want to get to know someone better, you spend time with that person. You build a level of intimacy with the person. You learn that you can confide and trust that person. You also find out what the person thinks about you, if they love you or care about you.

God wants that same level of intimacy with us. He wants to hear about our concerns, deep thoughts and desires. On the flip side we need to also ask God about what concerns Him about us. Are we walking in His will, are we obeying Him and loving Him? Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days to get alone with God, before He started his ministry.

Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness John 4:1. Jesus got alone with his Father to gain wisdom, strength and understanding of His plan. Jesus also got alone with the Lord when John the Baptist died and before he feed the 5 thousand (Matthew 14:10-14:21). There are other times throughout the gospels that Jesus went out to be alone with the Father. And every time he went out to pray something miraculous happened! So if our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ could find the time in the short 3 years of His ministry to pray and get alone with God; we need to follow His lead and do the same.
I pray that you get into the prayer closet and get alone with God. He is the reason why we are still here, so give Him your time and attention every moment you get.
“And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
“Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. Matthew 6:5-8

Salvation Is For All

I know that the concept that salvation is for all seems pretty simple and common sense for most Christians but the truth is, there are still some Christians that feel that people who have done horrible things i.e. rape, murder, sexual molestation etc are not worthy of God’s grace and certainly not our forgiveness. The truth of the matter is that before we came to Christ, we were all sinners. In God’s eyes a sin, is a sin, is a sin, is a sin. Meaning, whether you killed someone, committed adultery, fornicated, bore false witness etc it is still sin. Anyone and everyone can be redeemed! To say that God is willing to save a thief and not a Satan worshiper is incorrect and goes against who God is. Romans 5:8 (New King James Version) states, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” At one point we were all Anti-Christ. We rejected His will and way, but when grace stepped in and His Spirit called us to Him we received Him and He pardoned all our sins. What God’s love teaches us is that no one is closed off from receiving salvation or forgiveness.

Which brings us to the importance of forgiveness; If God, who is constantly the offended party, can forgive and extend grace and mercy to all who come seeking Him, then why should we think that we ought not forgive others. We ought to pray for those who have hurt us. I was sitting in church on Sunday night and a young lady gave her testimony. She mentioned that she had been molested and that when she had an opportunity to speak to the person that did it, she told them that she forgave them. By doing so, her simple words/act of forgiveness is what kept that person from committing suicide. Forgiveness doesn’t just free us but it frees the offender. Because of forgiveness your enemy could become your brother or sister in Christ. Forgiveness is divine. When God asks us to pray for our enemies, He is not asking us to pray for judgment against them but rather that you can have a heart to forgive them and you can start interceding on their behalf. God does not want any of us to go to hell. No matter how bad we have been or how many sins we have committed. If someone hurts you, pray for their salvation, in love. Pray that they can experience God the way you have been able to experience God. If Christ could pray while dying on a cross, “Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do”, then surely we can pray grace and mercy over our enemies and the enemies of the Lord.

Salvation is free to all. If you see/meet someone who is Anti-Christ, don’t point your finger and condemn them to hell, or speak negatively behind their backs. Pray that God will draw them unto Him so that they might receive life and receive it more abundantly. We have been given grace and mercy so that we can share it with others.

Let’s pray for God to give us His eyes to see, ears to hear and hearts to feel so that we may be effective in His kingdom. Pray that all people come to the Lord and receive salvation, so that the devil is put to shame and that the Lord is lifted up high for all to see and worship.

True Stormriders: 17 Year Old Beaten for Being a Christian

Blessed are you, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Matthew 5:11
VOM has a new article about a Somalian girl being beaten by her own family because she converted to Christianity. I was deeply sadden when I read this story. Nurta Mohamed Farah is only 17 years old and is being persecuted for accepting Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. Her parents are convinced that she is mentally ill and believes that by reading the Quran to her it will make her well. They tie her to a tree during the day and at night they put her in a small dark room.
Please keep this young girl in your prayers. She is going through a lot of persecution and her faith might be in jeopardy. Please pray that the Lord gives her strength through this time of affliction and that He is gloried in her suffering.
Also remember to thank God that you live in a country that allows you to worship freely. Yes America has its many faults and our society is becoming more and more immoral by the minute. But we can still go to church on Sunday, worship in our homes and have the freedom to spread the Gospel.

To read the full article about Nurta please click here.

No Prayer Is To Small, Ridiculous or Insignificant

We wanted to encourage you to increase your prayer life. No prayer is to small or insignificant. When you are lead to pray about something, the Holy Spirit can exactly take you in a different direction. The Lord revealed this to me Thursday night. My sister and I were watching the NBA finals game. We were rooting for the Celtics and they were down by two at the half. The series was 2-1 and the opposing team was up.
At half time, I turned to my sister and said let's pray that the Celtics win. She gave me this look, like "Are you serious?" I told her it couldn't hurt. It might seem like a shallow prayer but why not try. So she said okay and I lead us in prayer.
My prayer started with praying that the Lord would bless the team and coaching staff. Than my prayer took a turn. The Lord brought back to my remembrance that Nate Robinson, a Celtics' player, thanked God twice for helping him to play well in a playoff game that they won. So than I started to pray for Nate and other Christians that might be on the team. That they would pray, motivate and encourage their teammates to do the same. Towards the end of the prayer, I prayed that God would get the glory at the end of the game. Regardless who won, that God would be glorified.
Into the second half, the game started to take a turn. Certain players were playing the best game they have ever played! It was amazing! I started calling shots before they happened! God was really answering my prayer. What was so interesting, was that when the game was in favor of the Celtics, they started to get bogus calls from the refs and some players lost their composure. There were two technical fouls called and the two excellent free throw shooters from the opposing team missed both shots! It was like God was not allowing the negativity to block what He was about to do.
Well the Celtics won and the players that made a difference (both who are bench players) for the Celtics were interviewed. Glen Davis and Nate Robinson gave God the glory three times! How amazing was that! God is so good! He answered a simple prayer and got the Glory! Not only that, but by them thanking God it might have planted a seed in someone who was watching the game, a team player, or someone on the coaching staff. After the game we prayed that the seed would grow in whom ever it was planted in.
So sometimes we think that we are praying for one thing and the Holy Spirit steps in and moves you in pray for something else. Be encouraged and open yourself up to the Holy Spirit for He is the one you leads us in prayer and teaches us how to pray. Christ said, "Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it" John 14: 13-14. The clip of Glen Davis and Nate Robinson is below.

If you Love me, obey me

The Lord has been speaking to me about being obedient. This has been on my heart for some time now. I know when some of us think of obedience, we think about the Ten Commandments or other scriptures in the Bible that instruct us on how to live our lives for God. The type of obedience I am talking about is when God personally instructs you to do something.

The Lord spoke to me about certain things he wanted me to do and not to do. Some of those things were hard for me to grasp. For example, to stop going to the movies, this was a hard one for me to understand. I was talking with the Lord to make sure it was Him! Like why would he want for me to stop going to the movies? But later I understood that He was keeping me from being idle and actually spending more time on Him and His Word. Now, I am not saying that everyone should stop going to the movies but this is just the conviction that God put on my heart.

I want you to know how God revealed to me that disobedience will hurt your relationship with the Lord. Now because you are born again you have a personal relationship with Christ but it will not grow if you are walking in disobedience.

There was a time when I was in a state of confusion and depression about why I was not where I wanted to be in Christ. I knew that I was called to serve the Lord and to be used as an empty vessel. But I felt like God was not using me at my job, ministering to friends, family members or people on the street. I did not have that boldness I had been praying about. I felt useless. I was constantly comparing myself to the great patriarchs, prophets and apostles in the Bible, friends and people in my church. I would ask God “Why can’t you use me like you use them?”

Then at a prayer meeting at my church, one of the pastors said that we must walk in love and obedience in order to fulfill our call and to have a deeper understanding of who God is. Then I remembered that my friend told me once that in order to love Christ you must obey Him. In John 14:15 Christ said, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” And in John 14:23-24 He says, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. ²⁴ He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.”

That is when I realized that I was walking in complete disobedience. I was not doing what the Lord told me to do and that is why I was stagnant. I was not showing my love for God because I was not obeying Him. How can God use me as an empty vessel if I still had stuff inside of me that had to be dumped out. All the great holy men and women in the Bible became who they were by obeying God! They had a deep personal relationship with God and it was based on the fact that they trusted and obeyed Him. Obedience is the only way and the key to having a abundant relationship with God. We obey God because we love Him and not out of fear. We do it because He knows best and He tells us what to do or not to do out of love.

I encourage you stromriders to trust and obey God when He commands you to do something. You will be shocked and amazed to see what God can do in you and through you. Praise the Lord!!!!

*Image from reflections of a mirror website

No Need to Fear

Psalm 27: 1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Fear is defined as an emotional response to a perceived threat. We often fear physical things, such as heights, snakes, spiders and the like. But for many Christians we tend to sometimes fear that which is unseen. We fear the very things that our faith instructs us not to fear, mainly, the devil. We fear him because we can’t see him and often times we are afraid that he is doing everything in his power to ruin our walk with God. I am writing to remind you that there is no fear with God. Because Jesus Christ has conquered death and shame on the cross and defeated the devil we are now victorious. We have been set free from the fear of the enemy. If Jesus resides in our hearts and in our lives then His very existence in us causes us to be victorious. We are no longer slaves to fear, sin and shame; we have been made whole and victorious by the Blood of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 15:57 says; “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

In His name there is victory, in His blood and in His presence there is victory. I remember as a child, when I would have a bad dream, my mother would tell me, that if I ever got scared in my dream that I should say out loud, “In the name of Jesus, all bad dreams go away.” As a child I started to understand the awesome power that is found in saying the name of Jesus. He is mighty to deliver us from all fear and restore us to a right frame of mind. 2 Timothy 1:7 states, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” We have power through Jesus residing in our hearts, the love of God in our life and a sound mind that rests on our firm foundation which is our faith. God has given us that which we need to combat fear.

· Power

· Love

· Sound mind

All of the above mentioned things are found in Jesus Christ. So if we have Jesus we can and should be fearless.

1 John 5:4 says, “For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.” Through our faith we are victorious and we need not fear, fret nor worry. God is our light and our salvation whom shall we fear? He is our light in the darkness. While we were still in the dark wallowing in our sin, He was the Light in the world that brought us salvation that we did not deserve. If God was and is the Light that conquered our sin He was and is the light that pierces through our fears and delivers us from the “terror of night” (Psalm 91:5).

He is the strength of our life, whom shall we fear? We should never forget what a mighty God we serve. If we believe that we serve the one true living God; the God that:

· Stood in the fire with the 3 Hebrew boys and saved them from the furnace

· Delivered Jericho into the hands of the Israelites without weapons

· Parted the Red Sea for the Israelites to cross over while Pharaoh was behind them

· Defeated death and sin by nailing His only Son to the a cross

· Slayed a giant by using a young Sheppard boy

· Opening jail cells for Peter

· Shut the mouth of the lions for Daniel as he sat in a den of lions

What then do we ever need to be afraid of? The aforementioned examples aren’t even the half of what God has done, but serve as a testament to what He is doing and will do in times to come. Our God is strong beyond measure. He is awesome and the scriptures say, “If God is for us, who canbe against us? (Romans 8:31) What should we ever fear? Our God is our strength. When we are weak, He lifts our head, He sustains us and fights our battles for us. He is matchless in all His ways.

I hope that this encourages you. Put all fear where it belongs, under the nail pierced feet of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. There is no need to fear, for God is on our side. He is mighty to save us from any form of attack. Walk in victory always and don’t fall victim to fear. Remember, through His blood, we are no longer victims but victors! Lay claim to this truth and watch your heart and mind transform as you release fear and embrace the freedom of God.

The Lord Glorified In The Rescuing of A Missing Girl In Florida

I read an amazing article today at Yahoo.com about James King the man that rescued 11 year old Nadia Bloom in the swamps of Florida. Mr. King said it was God that directed him to Nadia. Nadia's father said in one article "Let God be glorified." Hallelujah! God is Good! I pray we hear more about God being glorified on the news. This is a great testimony about God protecting His children and showing how much He loves us. And thank God for a man like James King who humbles himself and gives God all the glory. He is a true Hero. There is a link below to the article and a clip of Mr. King on Good Morning America and The Early Show.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100414/ap_on_re_us/us_girl_found_in_swamp

A Day of Remembrance: Good Friday

Praise the Lord!!! It is Good Friday!!! The Lord is worthy of all the honor and the glory. Let us give thanks onto the Lord for all He has done for us. And what he did 2000 years ago on Calvary. For the past couple years, we have made it a point on this day to remember what Jesus did for us by watching "The Passion of the Christ." I recommend watching this movie because it gives us a good visual description of what Christ went through for us.
Also please take the time out to remember all the sins that He wiped away with His precious blood for you. He took away all your iniquities and forgave you of all the offenses you did against God. Remember how he saved you from sin and death and brought you life everlasting. Between the hours of noon and 3pm today, which was the time Christ was on the cross and died, please pray for your love ones that don't know the sacrifice that was made today for them. Ask the Lord that they would come to a place of repentance, so that they might be able to experience His love and mercy.
I would like to leave you with a sermon that Peter preached to the people after he and John healed the lame man at the temple called Beautiful. This is in Acts 3:13-26

13 The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified His Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go. ¹⁴ But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, ¹⁵ and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. ¹⁶ And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
¹⁷ “Yet now, brethren, I know that you did it in ignorance, as did also your rulers. ¹⁸ But those things which God foretold by the mouth of all His prophets, that the Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. ¹⁹ Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, ²⁰ and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, ²¹ whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began. ²² For Moses truly said to the fathers, ‘The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your brethren. Him you shall hear in all things, whatever He says to you. ²³ And it shall be that every soul who will not hear that Prophet shall be utterly destroyed from among the people.’ ²⁴ Yes, and all the prophets, from Samuel and those who follow, as many as have spoken, have also foretold these days. ²⁵ You are sons of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed.’ ²⁶ To you first, God, having raised up His Servant Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from your iniquities.”

May the Lord's face shine upon this glorious day! Here is a video of clips from "The Passion of the Christ" with the song by Hiilsong United called Lead Me To The Cross. God Bless you all.

The Real Face of Jesus? GMA article

Good Morning America did an segment on "The Face of Jesus" which is a program on the History Channel, which I believe is airing this week. Many Christians might think this is crossing the line or that it is not important or it is blasphemy. I personally do not believe that the shroud of Turin is real. It is not mentioned in the Bible therefore I do not consider it to be anything of importance. But we are posting the segment because it will have many people talking about Jesus. Paul wrote in Philippians 1:15-18 that

Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from goodwill: ¹⁶ The former preach Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my chains; ¹⁷ but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel. ¹⁸ What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.

At first I took to offense at what these scientists were doing and I told my sister that they were wasting their time. But she said to me what if by doing their research they come to know God. And in that I can rejoice and pray that the millions that watch that program will be lead by God's spirit to Him. What the enemy might have planned to confuse people God will use it in His own will.
Since Easter is a few days away let us pray that many will come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.