Turn.. 180° -Repent

Being penitent, or having repentance means to turn away from one thing and, subsequently, toward another. Envision your sin on one end of the road of your life, and the Lord at the other end.

Notice that on this road, if you are walking towards your sin, you are walking away from God... According to Genesis 4:7, "sin is crouching at your door, it desires to have you."  Doesn't that word "crouching" bring to mind the image of predation? Perhaps you envision a lioness on the savannah hiding in the tall grasses waiting for a careless wildebeest to wander too far away from the herd. Well, guess what? You are the carelessly, wandering wildebeest. The best thing that you can do is - stop heading towards sin, turn around 180°, and rejoin the herd (Body of Christ).

As with the lion and wildebeest, sin ends with death (Romans 6:23). The sin binds you. Constricting every part of your life, it chokes the liberty out of you, then it kills you. Make no mistake about it; you die!

The wages of sin is death, but Jesus gives life everlasting. That’s forever! Go on and turn towards HIM, away from those things that are keeping you from all that He is for you, has for you, and wants for you!

I love you, and I am praying for you!

~Pastor Erroyl

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Sis Pinky’s Prayer: Heavenly Father,

Thank you for Jesus! Thank you for the precious blood that saved us from eternal damnation. Now Father we pray that You would endow us with the power to resist the devil, turn from our wicked nature, and master those things that are trying to entangle us in bondage again!

Please God reveal to us not only the sins that we are cognizant of, but those hidden things that hinder us from having a fuller, deeper relationship with you.

We love you, and we praise you.

In Jesus' name we pray,

Amen.

Learning from the Storm

Storms can teach us a lot if we are willing to learn from them. The lessons can be wide and varied. We can learn about ourselves, others, and our walk with Christ. 

For us, we see our shortcomings clearly, our areas of fortitude, and we are forced to acknowledge endogenous weaknesses as well- if we are honest with ourselves.

It's not really until there's a leak in the roof, or a crack in the foundation that you get your home inspected. In other words, the turmoil caused by the storm can be a great indicator of who we really are. If a branch is blown through a window during a storm, you get it fixed right? So, when a storm uncovers hidden issues, faults, shortcomings, and character flaws in your life... fix it. Do the work. If you don't the next storm will wreak havoc in your life.

We can also learn about others. Their ideology, theology, politics, morals, standards, strengths and weaknesses are on display when the winds begin to blow. You don't really know the character of a person until your relationship is tested. Storms do that very well.
We can see our relationship (or lack thereof) with Christ in our response to the looming clouds. Our reaction to the storm can tell us how much, or little, we've grown in Christ. Our focus mustn't be on the storm; but on He who can calm it. So if you response is to panic, worry, or run away then maybe there is some growth that needs to happen. Your belief, or unbelief,  that God is really in control shows through during storms.
We should look to Jesus to see how to act in a storm. You know what Jesus was doing during a storm? Sleeping. (Mark 4:35-40) That's right, He was resting. And, sleeping 'good' too ;-)
I'm not going to worry, I'm going to rest in Him. How about you?
I love you, and I'm praying for you.
~Pastor Erroyl
SALT

Sis. Pinky's Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father,

We thank you for giving us a new perspective about the storms that come into our lives. Help us to rest in You and to look to the hills from where our help comes from when the typhoons of trials beat upon us. We love and thank you Jesus for being our model and for leaving us Your peace.

In Jesus' name we pray,

Amen!

What are you carrying?

Have you ever felt like the weight of the world is on your shoulders? Have you experienced pressure that makes you feel like your knees will literally buckle, or that you might lose your mind? Due to the pressures of home, work, relationships, lifestyle, debts, choices, etc., many of us live with these sorts of burdens for years. 

The Bible teaches us that we can exchange with our Lord and our God. My wife often quotes the scripture from Isaiah 61:3 that says "[God will] bestow on them [that grieve] a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." This scripture teaches us that God loves us, and does not want us to remain in states of prolonged strain. Notice there cannot be an exchange if you have nothing to give. So, there will be times of carrying a heavy load. There will be times when you require rest due to the heavy-lifting of life. But those times may not have to last long. 

Why not?  There is Jesus who, in Matthew 11:29-30, says that we can exchange our burdens with him if we WORK and need rest and are heavy burdened. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”  Just for the record- I think he's a tad bit stronger than we are. ;-) Even here we see that Jesus expects us to work, even after the exchange. But, the expectation is that He will do the heavy work. We get His burden and His yoke. We still have to carry something, but there must be dependance on His strength.

So, why then do we Christians walk around with such heavy hearts? Why are we permitting ourselves to be so heavily burdened? I think that waiting on, and waiting of God's plans to be revealed to us is why we continue to carry the burdens. We don't seem to want to rely on Him. We want to carry the burdens ourselves. It's not until our knees, backs, and psyches are nearly broken that we turn to Him. 

I have no magical insight into how to prevent this. But, what I can tell you is that at the bottom of this issue is trust. Trusting in the Lord. Trusting that His plans are better than your plans. Trusting that His power is supreme. Trusting that His timing is perfect.  And, trusting that He has your best interest at heart.

Do you trust Him? Do you believe Him when He says He will give you beauty for your ashes? Do you trust that He will come through for you? Do you believe Him when He says you can exchange burdens with Him? Do you believe Him when He says that He will supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory? Do you believe Him? Do you trust Him?

If you believe Him, stop carrying that weight around and give it to Him. He can handle it. I'd much rather have a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. How about you?

Sis. Pinky's Prayer: Father, forgive us for taking upon yokes unnecessarily and allowing them to burden us. Forgive us for lacking faith and trust in your Supremacy. Help us to release those things that so easily weighs us down into Your hands. Thank you for the exchange that we can do with You; beauty for ashes,
oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. We love you, and we say this prayer in the magnificent name of Jesus. Amen!

We love you, and we are praying for you.

~Pastor Erroyl

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Words from the cross

Every year around Resurrection Day, churches all across the world have programs and preachers have sermons that center on the last seven words of Jesus. This year I am going to focus on John 19:25-27. 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Have you ever thought about why Jesus did this? When you think about the scene it's really quite remarkable. Jesus, while on the cross makes arrangements for his mother and a close friend. He was in pain, His body was broken, His head bloodied, His body tired from the stress of being on the cross, and He was thinking of others!? Why? Let's not even think about the "how".  How do you muster up the strength to be anything but selfish at that moment... let alone selfless. But, why? Why did He do it?

Why did He do this for John? John was most likely the youngest of the disciples. Some estimate his age to be 13-15 years old. He refers to himself as "the disciple whom Jesus loved" indicating, I believe, a closeness that would surely cause a young boy to hurt to the point of needing a motherly figure to comfort him at the loss of Jesus. He had an emotional need. 

His mother? You may not realize that Jesus was not an only child. He had at least 6 siblings, four of whom were male. Any of them should have been qualified to care for their mother. Financially, I have little doubt that they could have cared for her. But, at the moment they appear to be disconnected from Jesus' plight. (See Matt 13:55-57). I believe that Jesus did not wish His mother to live in traditions that He was trying to save her (and the world) from. Due to their belief system, their lifestyles would have been in direct opposition to Jesus. So she would have needed a person who understood what Jesus was really about to care for her. 

Why did He do it? He was doing what He always does, and what He had always done; He was meeting the need. 

Think about your life, your needs, and your savior. In your life are their needs that you have not allowed Jesus to meet? Are you stopping the savior from saving you? Are you the inadvertent cause of unhappiness by an unwillingness to surrender or simply move?
On another train of thought, while in the middle of your situation are you selfish, or selfless?  
We should strive to be like Jesus. We should try being selfless in the midst of our trials. And by all means, allow Jesus to make provisions for you. His work on the cross made provisions for your soul, but relationship with Him gives even more.

I love you, and I am praying for you.
~Pastor Erroyl
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