Guard your heart— Open hearted

Guard your heart, or open-hearted???

Is it Christ-like to "love from afar?” Is it a necessary evil? Can we fulfill the great commission with walls around our hearts??

Self-preservation versus self-sacrifice. I know that's tough, so give real thought.

If we are supposed to go to every nation and preach the gospel, how can we do so with our hearts walled off? The Bible also tells us to "guard our hearts." The answer is not quite so simple. It has to do with seasons, maturity, and temporal stasis (is it necessary for things to be temporary, or permanent based on circumstances, we slow [pay attention to details, speed excess time...] the things that need to be slowed, and rush through the others).

The season of your life will dictate how open you are to be toward people. If you are young in the word, then you are more susceptible to negative influences and therefore you should not be very open. This however, does not exempt you from fulfilling the great commission. It only means that you are in a season of preparation, education, and equipping. That season can last 5 days, 5 years, or 50 years. That’s up to the Father, and how long it takes us to “get it”.

The next season, step in maturity, is the season of battle, Also known as harvest. If you never enter a season of harvest you have not nurtured the seeds sown into you. In this season you actually put to work the things that you have learned. This is where your faith is tested and grows, the initial season of planting is where your faith was sown.

So, as it says in the book of James, faith without works is DEAD. Without this season of harvest, battle, the faith that was sown into you dies. This is why we enter negative cycles, and also why generational curses are allowed to take root. Once we are saved, according to 1st Peter we are adopted into a new bloodline with an "incorruptible seed". This does not stop the enemy from trying to attack.... but, hallelujah NO weapon formed against me shall prosper.

We love you, and we are praying with you.

Dr. McGinty and Sis Pinky

~SALT

Sis. Pinky’s Prayer: Thank you God for giving us discernment so that we’ll know which season we’re in, and we can act accordingly. We love and praise you.

In Jesus’s Name,

Amen.

Trust God for the Transition

Trust God for the Transition pt.2

When it is time for a change, trusting in the Lord is absolutely paramount to the success of the transition. The story of Abraham (at that time named Abram) is always remarkable to me. God told him to go. No direction... not "go to the east as far as the sun rises". No, “travel south for three days with a herd of migratory camels…”, or, “walk west until you’re too tired to travel on.” Not even a, “go down the mountainside and take a left at the Wal*Mart and wait next to the Olive Garden until you hear from me”... nothing like that. God only said, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you.” Gen 12:1  and Abraham went.
We even struggle with simple changes to our regular routine. It can be difficult for us to alter our route to work if we feel God instructing us to go a different way. Or, if on our way to the collection basket at church we feel the Lord saying to give a different amount other than what we’ve already planned. We question if it’s really God.

We struggle with these small things. So naturally, a bigger change will create more anxiety. Whether large or small, they require the same key ingredient for success; Trust in God.

We must learn to 1) trust God through the transition, 2) trust that He has prepared the destination for our arrival, and 3) trust that He is preparing us (hearts and minds) while on the journey, to be ready for the destination. Our hearts must be ready for the transition, AND the destination! We can only achieve that by trusting in God.

We love you, and we are praying with you.

~Dr.  McGinty

SALT (Saved, Anchored, Living, Transformed)

Sis. Pinky’s Prayer:

Thank you God, for being sovereign! You know the plans you have for us; plans for us to prosper and not fail. Thank you for increasing our measures of faith and trust in you. Help us Great Jehovah to trust you with every aspect of our lives. We thank you in advance,

Amen

Freedom

I have on my table a violin string. It is free. I twist one end of it and it responds. It is free. But it is not free to do what a violin string is supposed to do—to produce music. So I take it, fix it in my violin and tighten it until it is taut. Only then is it free to be a violin string.

-Sir Rabindranath

Are you in place? In the correct place? Sure, you're free to do whatever you like. If you are not in the will of God in your purpose in life. You are free, but not free to do what you were created to do. That's why there is an emptiness, a void in your life. You can put whatever vice in it that you like but it would never fill that hole. Why not? That hole is the size of God. The Bible puts it this way in I Cor 10:24, "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible"--but not everything is constructive..."

-SALT

Pastor Erroyl

Fasting: Necessary?

From time to time Christians SHOULD fast. There is a spiritual need to fast. It is not a point of salvation, so don’t think that if you do not fast you go to hell. That’s not what I’m saying.  But there are certainly strongholds, barriers, demonic interventions, tribulations, boundaries in your life when fasting is absolutely the needed tool.  

(Matt 17:21 "But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting." ~Jesus). Jesus says that more is needed in particular situations than just prayer.  Of course, there are tools that we need in addition to prayer. Fasting, praising, working, etc.  but for some reason, we have been taught /conditioned to think that prayer is all that is needed. But, that is not what the Bible says. Nor is it what Jesus taught.

This is a very deep subject, and cannot possibly be covered with brevity. So, this post is only to get the cogs turning, the boulders sliding, the river flowing.... the questions coming. These questions are really inward. Of course, you may ask any question that you want of me, and I will do my best to answer. You can do it publicly, or a private message. But, most of the questions should be generated by God, in you and to you.

Some preachers/teachers of the Word will disagree with what I am about to say.  When I fast, I include Facebook, WordsWithFriends, etc. and anything else that I feel lead to forego. From my understanding, some preachers/teachers/denominations believe that food is the only thing to abstain from (I assume they also include consented marital relations). I’ve not had in-depth conversations with them, so I do not want to misrepresent their thoughts. (If you are one of them, let’s chat privately so I can gain understanding.) I have heard of people fasting from only chocolate, only Coke, only Coffee, only etc. etc. 

When we fast, we should certainly remove things that we know are occupying space in our timeline that belongs to God. The point of fasting is sacrificing and depending on God. Sacrificing the flesh from what it craves. Essentially when you crave something, you are admitting that you want it...badly. Simply put, when you fast from food (a traditional fast), you are severing the link between the body/flesh and dependency.  You are rerouting that dependency back to where it should be, on God. Throughout the fast, you should be constantly in prayer. You should not introduce influences from music, movies, friends, family, TV. You should not listen to particular types of music, nor watch particular types of movies, etc. You should do your best to have a holy environment. I do believe if you are earnestly fasting from coffee because you recognize that you depend on “that morning cup” more than God, then I believe God honors that intent. Does that mean you stay there? Fasting from coffee for 30 days. Of course not. We should always strive to do better.

We love you, and we are praying for you. 

SALT

~Dr. and Mrs. McGinty 

Sis Pinky’s Prayer:

Thank you for the opportunity to abstain from worldly pleasures and get more connected to you, Alpha and Omega of it all! Give us a desire to fast and the willpower to follow through once we’ve committed to it. We know that we are overcomers in you! 

In Jesus’s name,

Amen

Hurry up, and wait!

Oxymoron anyone? Probably the single most difficult command that God ever uttered, was to "wait", "be still", etc. We have become accustomed to acting, going, or doing something. We find it quite perplexing to "wait on the Lord", or "be still and know that I am God".    For this lesson, let's look into the Old Testament at 1 Sam 13: 9-14.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous

Many are the afflictions of the righteous

After going through some personal trials and pain episodes lately, I began to seek God about what was going on. I then continuously begin to hear, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous."  I also heard, " If Jesus suffered, why shouldn't you?" Then I looked up the Scripture (which is Psalm 34:19 by the way) and the second part states, "But The Lord delivers him out of them all." 

People of God, be encouraged and know that if you are suffering for righteousness sake, you are on the right track! I don't know about you, but this makes me rejoice! It is very reassuring to know that my suffering is not in vain and the outcome is I win! Keep pressing on fully assured that the Lord Your God is your deliverer!

We love you, and we are praying for you,

~Pastor Erroyl and Sis. Pinky 

SALT

Pastor Erroyl’s Prayer:

          Heavenly Father, we thank you for your will. Not ours, God, but yours. So, we trust that whatever you take us through that you will instruct us in it, and deliver us from it. And because we trust you and praise in the good times, we will do the same in what we may consider as the bad times. Whether our affliction is physical, mental, emotional, or social we know God that if we are suffering for righteousness, we are resembling Christ a little more. Thank you for trusting us to be your ambassadors here on Earth. Help us to represent You and Your Kingdom well. 

In Jesus’ mighty name.

Amen.

Hear and Do

Hear and Do 

     If you read in the book of Ruth Ch 1, you will find that after Naomi's husband and sons pass away she moved. 

Have you ever thought about why she moved? Or better yet, why she moved where she was moving to (Moab)? The Scriptures say that she was moving because she HEARD that the Lord had visited his people there. 

Have you thought about the discomfort it must have caused her to leave? To pick up and go? After all, she and her family had been there for quite a while. They were there long enough for her sons to get married, her husband to die, and both her sons to die. Yet, because she HEARD, she WENT. 

The lesson for us here is two fold--
     1) that we should listen for the voice of the Lord. Listen for occurrences where God has moved in someone else's life. (Their testimony) What Naomi heard was not that God was still present there in Moab, but that he had visited there. That's past tense. In other words, she was moving based on God showing himself in someone else's life. She was basing her move of faith on someone else's testimony. 

     2) we should not hesitate to share what God has done in our lives. We should constantly tell our testimony to others. Why? Because we don't know if there is a Naomi somewhere waiting for, and listening for, our testimony in order for her faith to be activated.

      James 1:22-23  But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

      Is God telling you to step out on faith? Is He telling you to move? What is it that the Lord is saying to you through the story of Naomi?

We love you, and we are praying for you. 

~Pastor Erroyl and Sis. Pinky

~SALT

Sis. Pinky’s Prayer:

Father, anoint my ears to be sensitive to Your voice, and then to share my testimony to those who have ears to hear. Increase our faith this day.

In Jesus’ name, we pray

Amen