Pastor Bob’s Blog

My family and I took vacation a couple of weeks ago. Charleston, South Carolina, was the destination.

While we were there, my daughter wanted to go fishing, so we booked a half-day charter on St. John Island for some inshore fishing.

We hooked some little fish. Reeling them in didn’t take much effort. But after a bit, our guide, Brian, took us to deeper water with bigger bait to fish for bigger fish. My daughter caught a 50 pound shark, and fought for five minutes to bring it in.

Jesus picked his closest ministry team from everyday occupations. One day He found Peter and Andrew returning from their daily job as fishermen. In Matthew 4:19, Jesus told them they were going to start fishing for people.

He’s given us the same task. Some will come in easily. Others will require some effort. The bottom line, though, is that He loves people, and is counting on us to haul them into His boat.

So bait your line with love and scripture, cast it out boldly, and bring in the catch for Jesus. Be a fisher of people!

I was blessed with the opportunity to share today with the amazing, committed, passionate staff of an awesome local ministry in Athens. While I talked way too much, and probably got over-excited, I knew I had an assignment from the Lord – a challenge for them and for myself.

The challenge was something the Lord has been prodding me with lately. It’s this: No matter what issue I face, “Jesus is Lord” is the central issue. “Jesus is Lord” is the key that unlocks even the most difficult problem.

To many Jesus is Savior. That’s awesome! He is the Savior. Every Christian knows that He saves from sin and paves the way to heaven. Some know He still saves from sickness, financial ruin, addiction, bondage, and any other thing we need saving from.

Jesus is our Savior. But is He really our Lord?

A lord is someone to be obeyed. And it’s just “human nature” to chafe at obeying someone else. Just ask Adam and Eve.

Even if we want to obey someone, it’s tough to obey a lord who doesn’t adequately tell us what we should do, or who crushes us if we misunderstand and mess up.

Our Lord isn’t that way. He’s given us a Bible to instruct us, the Holy Spirit to comfort and lead us, and the Church to come around and disciple us. And He’s not a hard taskmaster; Jesus is a Lord who IS love.

I’ve noticed in my own life that when I do things the Bible way, and let Jesus be Lord, it opens the door for Him to be Savior. When I do what He says, things eventually turn out right. But when I do things my own way, things start to tank, and I need to run sheepishly back to him for mercy. Thankfully, He always wants to fix the stuff I mess up – to be the Savior – but He expects me to repent and come back to Him as Lord.

One of my goals is to remember in every circumstance that “Jesus is Lord” – in my finances, in my health, in my marriage and family, in my job, in the ministry He’s given me, in my relationship with the people I bump into every day. My heart’s cry is to do things His way. And I know that because Jesus is my Lord, He’ll always be my ready and ever-vigilant Savior.

Thank you Lord!

We spent some time talking about David and Goliath at church yesterday. There are a lot of lessons we can pull from the account of David’s great triumph and Goliath’s great defeat as recounted in 1 Samuel 17.

Here’s one lesson – give more attention to God and His promises than to the problems in your life.

The armies of Israel are a great example of the wrong thing to do. They had been listening to Goliath taunt them over some time. The more he taunted, the bigger he got in their eyes.

David, by contrast, had been spending time in the field tending sheep. His practice there was to sing to God and to marvel at how vast and great He was. It was in those fields that David caught the idea that this vast and powerful God cared for him. That idea blossomed into faith that allowed him to rip bears and lions to shreds with his bare hands.

When David arrived at the battlefront, he was still marveling at how big God was. He found an army that had forgotten God, and instead was marveling at how big Goliath was. David arrived in faith, while the armies of Israel cowered in fear.

If you and I want to conquer our individual Goliaths, we need to be careful what we mediate on – what we spend time turning over and over and over in our minds, what we read, what we watch, what we listen to, and what we say repeatedly. Pondering how big problems are produces fear. Pondering how big God is, and how much He loves us, produces faith.

I want to be like David.

Today I attended a memorial service for Al Topping, a fellow I’ve known most of my life. Al died in September of 2010 just shy of his 87th birthday.

I could write columns about Al’s life, because he lived it fully, generously, and joyfully. What struck me, though, was how his memorial service reflected Al’s life.

As a friend and I walked to the local Episcopal church, we heard the strains of bagpipes – not a sound often heard in Athens, Ohio. It made us smile.

The crowded church was filled with friends and family. The service began with “Just a Closer Walk With Thee, ” “In the Sweet By and By,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” and “People Get Ready.” As the service ended, the Dixieland band processed the center aisle playing, “O When The Saints Go Marching In.” We all sang along – and smiled as we remembered Al.

Sandwiched in between these songs were a Rite I Eucharist service with traditional Episcopal hymns, scripture, and touching and funny remembrances by Al’s children.

It was a service Al would have liked – upbeat, hopeful, and tinged with humor.

It reminded me that those who die in Christ have every reason to be joyful. Likewise, we who remember them should be joyful, too. Through his memorial service, Al ministered to every person who attended. What a great ministry.

I sat with a friend from high school in the back of the church. He mentioned a scripture that was so fitting. I’ll close with it (1 Corinthians 15:53-55 NLT):

For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. When this happens – when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die – then at last the Scriptures will come true: “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?”

Godspeed, Al. I’ll see you in a few years.

Have you ever filled your car’s gas tank just so you could park the car and enjoy the sound of the engine? Of course not. You gassed up so you could drive – so you could GO somewhere.

After He was resurrected from the dead, but before returning to heaven, Jesus told His disciples to hang out in Jerusalem until power from heaven had come to them. (Luke 24:49). They did what He told them to do, and the power came with fire and a sound like a mighty rushing wind. (Acts 2).

But He also told them to go into the world and preach the good news. (Mark 16:15). He just wanted them to power up before they went. The entire book of Acts records that they did that. The early disciples went all around the region, and miracles happened wherever they went. The number of followers of Jesus grew exponentially.

The Church today is spending too much time in the garage enjoying the engine’s sound, listening to the radio, and telling everyone else in the car how great it is to be in the car.

We’re supposed to meet – at least every Sunday – but we’re not supposed to think that’s all there is to being a disciple of Jesus. No! We’re supposed to GO!

If Jesus is your Lord, you have a ministry. Get powered up in the Word and the Holy Spirit, get prayed up, get praised up, and go do your ministry. Minister healing to the sick. Minister hope to the hopeless. Minister salvation to the lost.

Minister in the work place. Minister at home. Minister at the grocery store. Minister where you are.

Go and share the Good News. Jesus is Lord!

GO!!

On Twitter, I follow accounts of men of God who have gone home to the Lord – Kenneth E. Hagin, Smith Wigglesworth, and AW Tozer are three of them. Just because someone isn’t in an earthly body walking the earth doesn’t mean we can’t benefit from the truth the Lord gave them while they were here.

Today I received, from the Global Prayer Alert Network of Mac and Lynn Hammond’s Living Word Christian Center, a great piece written by John Osteen, the founder of Lakewood Church. John Osteen’s son, Joel, is now the pastor of Lakewood. I wanted to share this piece. Let it sink into your spirit.

The following excerpts are taken from Becoming a Man of Unwavering Faith by John Osteen:

What to Do When Nothing Seems to Work

1. Check Up on Your Own Life

When I face adversity, the first thing I do is to turn God’s great searchlight on in my heart to check up on my own life. I want to find out if I have overlooked anything that needs to be made right. Jesus said, “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that you Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25).

2. Check Up on Your Promises

If you do not have some definite promises from the Word of God that has been whispered to your heart and which you have embraced; if you do not have any real, definite, pointed promise that God has quickened to you in your present situation, then you have a loose connection.

3. Check Up on Your Confessions of Faith

Jesus said, “For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says” (Mark 11:23). You will never rise any higher than your confession. You will never sink any lower than your confession.

4. Check Up on the Arena in Which You are Fighting

If the devil ever gets you in the arena of reasoning and looking at your symptoms, he will defeat you every time. Stay in the arena of faith and you will win every time.

5. Check Up on Your Companions and Fellowship

Are you in constant fellowship with people of faith? If you associate with people who cannot support you in faith, you may find yourself struggling to hold on to your promise.

6. Check Up on Yourself to See if You are Obeying the Scriptures

Many people live very worldly lives. They disregard the commandments of God. When they try to appropriate God’s promises, they fall.

7. Check Up on Your Praise Life

Are you showing your faith by praising God before you see the answer, The Word of God tells us: I will bless the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in your mouth.”

This past Sunday, we were blessed to have Prophet Jim Stevens, and his wife, Apostle Judy Stevens, minister in the church. Prophet Jim chose 1 Corinthians 13 as his text, and challenged us to look at it as the “prophecy chapter,” and not just the “love chapter.” The message will be added soon to our podcast; I encourage you to listen.

Through the Apostle Paul, most particularly in the 12th, 13th, and 14th chapters of 1 Corinthians, the Holy Spirit admonishes the Church to operate in the gifts (manifestations) of the Holy Spirit. He also instructs us as to how to operate in the gifts of the Spirit in an orderly and powerful way. The Body of Christ needs to heed the admonition of the Holy Spirit!

Let’s all make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit for Him to minister through us. All of the gifts operate by faith, and MUST be powered and led by love. Let’s get to it!

The Word of the Lord came during yesterday’s service. One thing we heard was that times of refreshing are here, and that the Holy Spirit will be for us like clear, clean, and strong water as a clear, clean, strong river. The level of the river needs to be higher than any dams in the river so the river can overwhelm and wash the dams away.

The call to action for every believer is to spend more quality time in the presence of the Lord, and to maximize the infilling of the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is filling us totally and is flowing freely, He will wash away all the dams of doubt, tradition, and sin.

I encourage all of us to meditate on Ephesians 5:17-21, and to do what it says:

Therefore do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

Keep yourself filled up, and let the Holy Spirit flow freely in your life!

We can eat well, but if we don’t exercise well, we still won’t be healthy. Jack LaLanne said, “Exercise is king, but nutrition is his queen.”

Here are a couple of websites that have helpful information about fitness.

1. Dr. Mercola. www.mercola.com. He has great articles and videos on fitness in the fitness section. www.fitness.mercola.com.

2. Dr. Al Sears. www.pacerevolution.com. The workout videos are quite good.

3. Darin Steen. www.fatlosslifestyle.com and on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/fatlosslifestyle. He has some great workout videos.

The bottom line is to get our bottoms off the line and exercise!

I’m still teaching the series entitled, “Satisfied With Long Life.” If you want to hear what I’ve been teaching, click on the “Resources” tab at www.theabundantlifetoday.org. You can click on the messages you want to hear, and can even subscribe to the podcast via iTunes.

BE blessed!

I’ve been preaching a series entitled “Satisfied With Long Life.” It’s based on Psalm 91:16 (NKJV): “With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.” That promise belongs to those who fulfill verses 1-2: “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in Him I will trust.’”

These are people who don’t have a casual and careless relationship with the Lord. No, these are people who stay so close to the Lord that they can hear His every whisper, and who order all their ways to line up with His instructions. They’re also people who open up their mouths and declare their total dependence on the Lord.

I freely admit I am completely dependent on the Lord. For everything. My family, my health, my food and shelter, my job, my profession, what I preach on Sunday – everything is a gift from Him. Even my breath is a gift from God.

A baby who is still in her mother’s womb doesn’t even have to consider how dependent she is. Whether she knows it consciously or not, every ounce of oxygen and food come through the umbilical cord that connects her to her mother. That is a picture of total dependence.

Once we’re born, we often think we’re really independent. We think we’re smart, talented, resourceful, clever, rich – whatever – because of ourselves. That attitude is prideful. It’s dangerous. It’s nonsense! And it moves us far from the shadow of the Almighty. In fact, God resists the proud, and only gives grace (favor, empowerment) to the humble. (1 Peter 5:5).

I’m convinced that anyone who received Jesus as Lord at an early age, became a student of the Bible, and ordered everything his or her entire life by what the Lord instructs in His Word (including diet and “lifestyle” choices), would inevitably live a long, healthy, and satisfied life. I’m also convinced that anyone who has lived far from the shadow of the Almighty can call on Him, repent, move into that secret place, live life His way, and begin living a longer and more satisfying life than they would have thought possible.

Are you living in the shadow of the Almighty? Are you really trying to live life His way? Do you regularly declare your total dependence on Him? Or are you filled with pride and rebellion, living way outside His shadow? The honest answer to that question will determine whether the promise in Psalm 91:16 belongs to you. My prayer is that you’ll run to Him and never, ever leave.