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Mental Health and A Prayer - 17 April 2024

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  (This was from my letter to my congregation today - 17 April 2024) The Kaiser Foundation, and several other organizations, are reporting on the rise of men, women, teens and kids who are having an increase in mental health troubles. For example, some 40% of young adults between 18-29 report they have been told by medical professionals they have a mental health condition (usually depression or anxiety issues). Or, half of all adults say they or a family member have experienced a severe mental health crisis. I mention this because in the last two years I have either interacted and walked with more people than I ever have before, who are burdened with serious mental illness or whose loved ones were going through a mental health crisis. In all my years in the Military, and in ministry, these last two years have been the largest numbers I’ve ever been involved with. Some have been Christian ministers. Others have been people who have drifted into my orbit and sought my help. Most have bee
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Earnestly I Seek You - 14 April 2024

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  O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift up my hands . Father, all that we are about – in our family worship, personal devotions, Sunday School classes, Worship assemblies, Care Groups, our involvement in works of mercy, mission trips, VBS, and so forth – yes, all that we are about flows from our craving to know you and be nearer to you, from our enraptured amazement at your gracious goodness to us. Draw us to you – this whole congregation, along with your Church worldwide including Amber Mission Holiness Church, Centro de Celebracion, Christian Faith Fellowship, and Gospel Lighthouse Church. Slake our thirst for you; refresh us that we may rise from our faintness; and
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"Shout For Joy In the LORD" - 7 April 2024

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  Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright. Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings! Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts. O God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, our hearts are glad, and we lift our voices in thanksgiving and praise! And we now pray in Jesus’ name: For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness. He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadfast love of the LORD. As your upright word goes forth from your preachers, evangelists, pastors and teachers, may it not return to you void, but accomplish what you please and prosper in the thing for which you sent it. May your church, including this congregation, as well Countryside Pentecostal, Heaven Bound Family Church, Hillcrest and Lighthouse Pentecostal, display your righteousness, exhibit your justice and thrive in your steadfast love as we are reformed by your word
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"Preserve Me, O God" - 31 March 2024

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  Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” Your whole Church, including this congregation, Holy Temple First Pentecostal Church, House of Prayer, India Pentecostal, and Templo De Alabanza, acknowledges that we have no good apart from you. Therefore, please continue to be your peoples’ refuge and preserver. Strengthen your church in godliness and graciousness. Keep her ever in the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Stop the mouths of heretics who attempt to demoralize her. Fortify the faithful leaders who work hard to build her up in sound doctrine and empower her with the new life of Christ risen from the dead! As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight. The sorrows of those who run after another god shall multiply; their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out or take their names on my lips . We cry out to you on behalf of those who go after other gods and
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"Battle for the Island Kingdom" by Don Hollway. A Personal Review

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  A fascinating book. A whirlwind story of regime change upon regime change, from Vikings to Anglo-Saxons to Vikings to Normans. Back and forth, up and down the tale unfolds, washing up on the English beach, then swishing back to the European Continent and back to England again. The interplay, interacting, conflict and control-seeking kept me turning pages, excited about each new chapter. Fascinating book! And the tale does three things for readers. First, it reminds us that this is normal history and what normal world events look like. Here, inside the 21st Century, we have been coddled for the last 70 to 80 years, and have quickly forgotten that most of world history is littered with blood, dead bodies, and burnt out hamlets. And as most of the world returns to "normal" in the years ahead, we're already starting to see more of the same. Next, this volume shows how related we are to our ancestry and ancestral actions. As Americans living in the "make it up as you go
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"Long Is the Way" by Alton Hardy (and Billy Ivey). A Review

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  It just showed up in our church mailbox a few weeks back. It looked interesting enough, but I put it into the stack of books I was reading, with a “I’ll get to it when I can” thought. That day came today. I picked up this 202-page softback this morning and couldn’t put it down. “Long Is the Way” is the story of Pastor Alton Hardy of Urban Hope Community Church in Birmingham Alabama. From infancy to stepping into the work of Urban Hope CC, Hardy – with the help of Bill Ivey of Small Stories Studio – draws the readers into his life, with all of the fatherlessness, darkness, racism, hope, failure, rescue and rebuilding. I just couldn’t put the book down!   Hardy’s tale begins in the heart of Jim Crow and the heat of Sardis Alabama. Dealing with life in a very large sharecropper family, the author grew up in poverty like most have never experienced, in conditions we’ve only heard about from the “Old Timers”. His story moves along the lines of domestic abuse, black magic, fatherlessne
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"Let Them Praise the Name of the LORD" - 17 March 2024

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  (From Psalm 148) Praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise him in the heights! Praise him, all his angels; praise him, all his hosts! From the highest to the lowest, from the nearest to the furthest, may all come and worship you, submitting to you, praying to you, cherishing you as their greatest good and deepest joy. Therefore, we pray for you to give our missionaries assets and guide their achievements to this end. And we pray that you would reclaim and rescue those who are outside of Christ (…). Praise him, sun and moon, praise him, all you shining stars! Praise him, you highest heavens, and you waters above the heavens! Let them praise the name of the LORD! For he commanded and they were created. And he established them forever and ever; he gave a decree, and it shall not pass away . We pray for the earth that its vast resources will be replenished and maintained. Bring us rains and showers in ways and quantities that are most fitting. Settle the shaking, shifting
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