Archive for 2012 - Needmore Bible Church

SUNDAY – DECEMBER 30, 2012

“Lift up your heads, O you gates! And be lifted up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates! Lift up, you everlasting doors! And the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, He is the King of glory.” (Psalm 24:7-10) Let’s prepare for the coming of the King!

A very clear and often-repeated promise of Jesus Christ is that He is going to return to the earth some day soon. In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus referred to Himself as the “Son of Man,” but made it very clear that He knew that The “Son of Man” and the “King” is one and the same person. (See Matthew 25:31-34.) He repeated the instruction that we must be “busy” until He returns. He said, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” (Matthew 24:44) He also said, “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.” (Matthew 25:13) Jesus was urging His followers to be busy in order to accomplish as much of the work He has assigned us to do before His return.

The last two paragraphs from Tim Wildmon’s January editorial in the afa Journal should encourage us in the same way. He wrote: “But we, God’s people who love our country, must not give up! Ever! Even when we lose political races and we get depressed, we must not quit fighting for goodness; championing righteousness, including life, marriage and family; and defending freedom, the Constitution and the free enterprise system. Too many people- from our Founding Fathers to today’s conservative leaders- have sacrificed too much for us to give up. Besides, we serve a great and mighty God who can do miracles! We have had a First Great Awakening and a Second Great Awakening. We can have a Third Great Awakening! “Like you, I am troubled for our country, but as a believer in Jesus Christ, I am not in despair. Pray. Work. Love. Educate. Encourage. Stand. Witness. Share. Proclaim. Vote.”

Let’s be about our Father’s business! Jesus is coming back to the earth someday soon!

I want to be ready,

Pastor Doug

FOURTH SUNDAY IN ADVENT

DECEMBER 23, 2012

The wonderful passage recorded in Philippians 2:8-11 reveals to us the importance of the complete gospel story. It begins with The Son of God “coming in the likeness of men” and continues with His obedience “to the point of death, even the death of the cross.” The record ends with God having “exalted Him and given Him a name above every name.” Because of His exaltation, one day every knee will bow before Him and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” As we worship the One who appeared in the manger, we must be sure that we are looking at Him in the proper manner.

Mr. A. W. Tozer wrote, “The Church that still gathers around the manger can only be weak and misty-eyed, mistaking sentimentality for the power of the Holy Spirit.

“As there is now no babe in the manger at Bethlehem so there is no man on the cross at Jerusalem. To worship the babe in the manger or the man on the cross is to reverse the redemptive processes of God and turn the clock back on His eternal purposes. Let the Church place its major emphasis upon the cross and there can be only pessimism, gloom and fruitless remorse. Let a sick man die hugging a crucifix and what have we there? Two dead men in a bed, neither of which can help the other.

“The glory of the Christian faith is that the Christ who died for our sins rose again for our justification. We should joyfully remember His birth and gratefully muse on His dying, but the crown of all our hopes is with Him at the Father’s right hand.”

“Should the Church shift her emphasis from the weakness of the manger and the death of the cross to the life and power of the enthroned Christ, perhaps she might recapture her lost glory. It is worth a try.” (Taken from The Warfare of the Spirit.)

Let’s remember that Jesus Christ is the King of Glory who will return in the fullness of His power and majesty. Are we ready?

I worship and praise the King of Glory,

Pastor Doug

THIRD SUNDAY IN ADVENT

DECEMBER 16, 2012

Seldom do people think about the Cross of Christ during this time of year. It is the time that we focus on celebrating His advent, His coming into this world in the form of flesh. There is no doubt that the Incarnation, the event of God appearing in flesh in the form of a man, was an absolutely necessary act of God on our behalf. We must remember, however, that the Incarnation in itself was not sufficient for our salvation. God needed to do more if He was going to save mankind. God needed to provide a way for our sin to be dealt with and He could have done one of two things. He could have come to destroy us and put away sin that way, or He could have come to provide a payment covering our sin in order to take sin from us. Let’s rejoice that He chose the second way. God chose not only to come into the world in the form of a human being, He also chose to pay for our sin through the death on the Cross.

The Cross was planned from the beginning and was already present in the mind and heart of God in the Incarnation. He knew what manner of death was ahead for the Infant, the only begotten Son lying in the manger. A. Simpson wrote: “He was always overshadowed by the cross which at last He bore on Calvary. His life was a life of humiliation and suffering from the manger to the tomb.

“His birth was under a shadow of dishonor and shame. The shadow that fell upon the virgin mother could not be removed from her child, and even to this day only faith in a supernatural incarnation can explain away that reproach.”

Let’s remember that the Jesus Christ came into this world to go to the Cross. The Son of God appeared to “take away the sin of the world!”

I thank Him for the Cross,

Pastor Doug

SECOND SUNDAY IN ADVENT

DECEMBER 9, 2012

During this Advent season, I want to call people’s attention to the true identity of the One born in the stable in Bethlehem. While the sacred scenes of that stable birth we have created in our minds and portrayed in our art are very idyllic, there was something awesome and terrible that was taking place. Let’s remember that it was God, the Holy One of Israel that was invading this earth. Though He did set aside some of His glory when He came in the form of the Babe, He did not lay aside His holiness nor His righteousness. God was not compromising His character during His entrance into the human race. The surroundings were very humble and even base (after all animals and shepherds tended to stink a bit), but there was nothing profane about His incarnation. He was not born in sin! He was just as pure in the manger, as He was in heaven. Believe it or not, the entrance of One so clean into a world of uncleanness can tend to be a bit challenging, even irritating to those who did not share His same purity. It is not easy for sinners to receive Someone so morally superior! His entrance might not have been as peaceful in the heavenly places, in the spiritual realm as our pictures portray.

There has been conflict between good (God) and evil (the Devil) since the beginning of time. The Enemy of God (and us) was certainly very agitated when that Babe was born. If we could have seen the invisible realm surrounding that little town of Bethlehem, we would have seen violent activity. Certainly that same kind of activity is happening during this very season. The Devil is still trying to disrupt God’s work of salvation in the lives of mankind. The good news is that He will not be able to prevent God from entering our lives today any more than he was able to do it in Bethlehem. Hallelujah!

Let’s pray and set our hearts on making this Advent a very special time of spiritual victory for all of us. We also want it to be a time when others will be saved and join us in receiving and celebrating the appearing of God in our lives!

With my eyes wide open,

Pastor Doug

FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT

DECEMBER 2, 2012

Advent is a season of preparation for the coming of the Messiah. It is a time to look back and remember all the prophecies that needed to be fulfilled to “prepare the way” for the King to first appear on the earth. The events that surrounded the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem were not coincidental happenings, they were planned and predicted occurrences. God wanted to declare beyond doubt that the Baby in the town of Bethlehem was indeed His Son sent to be the Savior of the world. The process of making Jesus’ identity known to us continued throughout His lifetime and even up to this present time. During this Advent season, we want to consider carefully the indicators that prove Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah sent to save the world.

Advent is also a time to think about the Second Coming of Jesus. The Bible reveals that the Messiah will return to the earth to ultimately establish His kingdom. Much of the work of the King has been accomplished, yet there is more that remains unfinished. Jesus Christ must return to the earth to finish the work that He began when He appeared the first time among mankind. During this Advent season, we want to remember that Jesus Christ is coming again! We want to prepare for His second appearing!

Let’s pray and set our hearts on making the Advent a very special time of spiritual preparation for all of us. We also want it to be a time when others will be saved and join us in waiting and looking for that glorious appearing of the Son of God.

Getting ready,

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 25, 2012

We are indebted to the God who has made us and blessed us on our way; therefore we should heed the directions of the Psalmist. “Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands! Serve the Lord with gladness; come before His presence with singing. Know that the Lord, He is God; it is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people and the sheep of His pasture” (Psalm 100:1-3).

A common theme that surrounds the major holidays of our year is an attempt to encourage folks to maintain the spirit of the holiday throughout the year. Whether it is Easter, Christmas or Thanksgiving, there are practices and attitudes that occur during the specific season which would be beneficial at all times. Since this is Thanksgiving weekend, it is gratitude that should be encouraged in our lives throughout the entire year.

“It is Thanksgiving time again and those of us who have the traditional family dinner to cook are already elbow deep in preparations for the day. Where there is no family to cook for, there will be too much loneliness to be thankful, and those of us who are in the thick of excitement will be too busy to be thankful. Most of us have had for too long to know the depth of gratitude the Pilgrims felt on the first Thanksgiving Day.

“There was a time in America when an extra loaf of bread was cause for gratitude. There are millions today who have very little reason to give thanks- unless one can be thankful for starvation.

“Must we always need desperately before we can know how to feel gratitude for simple blessings? What does it mean to ‘in everything give thanks’? There is so little time for it on the one day we set aside for Thanksgiving.

“I wonder if perhaps we could bake a little thanksgiving into our pies and cakes and fold a little thanksgiving into our beds when we make them up and iron some into our children’s clothes. We could express a little thanks in our testimonies and give a little of it in our offerings and make it a year-round project.” Those words were written by Catherine D. Cattell and will hopefully encourage us to discover a daily, continual attitude of gratitude.

I’m forever grateful,

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 18, 2012

“Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful to Him, and bless His name. For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations” (Psalm 100:4, 5). This is the attitude with which we should “come to church” every week!

I know that living life as a Christian is the best possible way to live, but I also know that it can be difficult and sometimes complicated trying to convince unbelievers of this truth. This is the reason that I have often said, “I wish it could be put into a pill.” While reading my devotions, the following excerpt from A. W. Tozer was in the material. Mr. Tozer expressed some great truths very well.

“I hear people testify that they give their tithe because God makes their nine-tenths go farther than the ten-tenths. That is not spirituality; that is just plain business. I insist that it is a dangerous thing to associate the working of God with our prosperity and success down here. I cannot promise that if you will follow the Lord you will soon experience financial prosperity, because that is not what He promised His disciples. Down through the years, following the Lord meant that we count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ.

“’And don’t some Christians prosper?’ you ask.

“We have many examples of Christian men whom God has been able to trust with unusual prosperity and, as they continue to follow the Lord, they give most of it back to Him. But they haven’t made Christianity just a technique of getting things.

“I hear people testify about their search for the deeper Christian life, and it sounds as though they would like to be able to get it in pill form. It seems that it would have been much more convenient for them if God had arranged religion so they could take it like a pill with a glass of water. They buy books, hoping to get their religion by prescription. But there isn’t any such thing. There is a cross. There is a gallows. There is a man with bleeding stripes on His back. There is an apostle with no property, with a tradition of loneliness and weariness and rejection and glory- but there are no pills!”

I pray that we will pursue the “deeper life” found only in total surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. It will cost us to follow Him!

Taking up my cross,

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 11, 2012

“I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the Lord; the humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” (Psalm 34:1-3)

Today is a day set aside to remember all who have served our country as a member of the Armed Services. As a nation, we have called today Veterans’ Day. We do appreciate and thank everyone one who has served in order to make our way of life safe and secure. As Abraham Lincoln stated in Gettysburg, “it is for us, the living, to be dedicated” to the same cause of liberty and freedom. The best way that we can do that as Christian citizens is to pray. Below are some examples of prayers offered by others who are participating in OneCry. I pray that America will once again remember God. We have truly forgotten Him, and His Word reminds us over and over to remember Him and His ways, which are higher than our ways. I pray that righteousness would once again prevail in the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls, and I particularly pray that someone will begin to stand for righteousness among our government leaders and shine the light of truth on their hearts and minds. I praise You, Father, for Your faithfulness to us when I and so many have failed You in our daily walk. Thank You for Your love; thank You for being God who is mightier and greater than any others who claim to be gods. They cannot begin to compare to You, Lord! I praise You, Father! – Gerard and Sharon

I pray that God will raise up godly men and women to walk beside our younger generation in a way that will create in them a desire to seek the One these people follow. Change in America can begin in one heart at a time. We need a revival in this country, and it can begin in me. – Sandy

Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come to the USA; Thy will be done on earth and in our personal lives as it is in heaven. That we, O Lord, may individually have a personal revival so we can bring about light to this nation. Help us, Lord! We need You, O Lord … not a new economic plan. Our nation needs the plan of Your salvation. I ask all this through Christ our Lord. – Monica

Father, my cry is for this country, which has been and still is a beacon in the world, a light to those living in unbelief. We the people of this country have sinned against You. Search Your people, O LORD, and know our hearts. Test us and know our wicked ways. See if there be any anxious thoughts, and lead us in the way everlasting. Renew Your people, and then draw to Your Son all those who do not know You. Open the eyes of the blind; dig up the fallow ground to receive the seed of Your Word. You wish none to perish, but You will punish all unrighteousness. Grant us all repentance, I ask. – Rebecca

Let’s keep praying!

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – NOVEMBER 4, 2012

We worship because we know God. We worship because we trust God above all others. “Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the Lord our God. They have bowed down and fallen; but we have risen and stand upright. Save, Lord! May the King answer us when we call” (Psalm 20:7-9).

Revival will not only bring us an experience of being closer to God, but it will also make us more like Him. We have been praying and as revival happens we will continue to pray even more fervently. When we pray we become most godlike. We read from Wesley Duewel’s Mighty Prevailing Prayer.

“Our prayer travail, prayer groaning, and prayer agony can never compare with that of our Savior, but we have not followed Christ very closely or very far if we do not know in our own prayer experience times of deep prayer burden, prayer wrestling, and even perhaps prayer agony. Said Martin Luther, ‘I question if any believer can have the burden of souls upon him- a passion for souls- and not agonize in prayer.’

“Charles Finney states, ‘Doubtless one great reason why God requires the exercise of this agonizing prayer is that it forms such a bond of union between Christ and the church. It creates such a sympathy between them. It is as if Christ comes and pours the overflowings of His own benevolent heart into His people, and leads them to sympathize and cooperate with Him as they never do in any other way.’

“Yes, perhaps you are never more Christlike than when you are prevailing in prayer wrestling and prayer agony. Perhaps nothing endears you more to His heart than when you thus share His love, compassion, and burden for the world He longs so infinitely to save.” (pp. 225, 226)

As we experience revival, our prayer life will grow more wonderful and exciting!

Your prayer partner,

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – OCTOBER 28, 2012

Worship is our response to God’s revelation to us. When He displays His nature and character, it is impossible to ignore Him. The cry of the Psalmist was “Will You not revive us again, that Your people may rejoice in You? Show us Your mercy, Lord, and grant us Your salvation” (Ps. 85:6, 7). It is certain that a revelation of His goodness and salvation will excite us to praise Him.

Many of us are seeking an out-pouring of the Holy Spirit to revive us in the work of God. We have been praying that God will “do a work” within us and through us. As we continue praying, we might experience what has been called a

“prayer burden.” Consider what Wesley L. Duewel has written about this burden in his book, Mighty Prevailing Prayer.

“We have discussed asking, seeking, knocking, and fasting. Now we consider the fifth level of prevailing prayer: interceding with a prayer burden. This level of intensity is marked by urgency, commitment to the priority of the need, and holy determination to pray until God answers. It is not only knocking at heaven’s gate but prevailing in the Spirit.

“You prevail with prayer burden only by the enablement of the Holy Spirit. He summons you to prayer for the need, guides you in your praying, and fills you with holy desire so intense that it becomes not only a deep concern but a consuming spiritual passion to prevail with God and over Satan.

“Prayer burden begins as an inner impression that you should pray for a known or unknown need. It is a gracious work of the Holy Spirit applying spiritual pressure upon your heart. It is God’s way to call you to intercession at a time when your prayer is needed by God who has ordained to work through the intercession of His children. It is needed and indeed demanded by a situation that cries for God’s answer. The burden is the Spirit’s personal call to you to intercede.” (pp.194-195.)

Let’s press on in prayer!

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – OCTOBER 21, 2012

Warm greetings and Christian love are extended to each person who has come to share this time of worship. We are trusting God that He will help each of us to experience the warmth of Christian fellowship, the inspiration of genuine worship, and the peace that comes from an awareness of His presence.

Revival is a time in which we humble ourselves before our God and Savior. We want to view ourselves honestly in the light of His Word and repent whenever it is necessary for us to keep ourselves in His way. We want to be very sensitive to those attitudes and characteristics that come from our flesh and not from His Spirit within us. We want to continually mortify our flesh and surrender our lives to Him in order to bear the fruit of His Spirit in all that we do. We want to remember “…all that is in the world- the lust of the flesh, the lust off the eyes, and the pride of life- is not of the Father but is of the world” (I John 2:16).

Samuel Logan Brengle was a wonderful servant of the Lord who ministered as an officer in the Salvation Army. He was a bright and educated young man who turned many appealing offers in order to work with the Booth family in the Salvation Army. He was ridiculed by many for not accepting the call from several large and prominent churches in the United States. He was thought to be rather unwise to choose to work with the street bums, drunks, prostitutes and poor people in the London slums. His heart’s desire was to simply have “the mind of Christ” and be a servant of God. His following words should help all of us to continually walk in humility.

“If I appear great in their eyes, the Lord is most graciously helping me to see how absolutely nothing I am without Him and helping to keep me little in my own eyes. He does use me. But I am so conscious that He uses me, and that it is not of me that the work is done. The axe cannot boast of trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, he used it, and the moment he throws it aside it becomes only old iron. Oh, that I may never lose sight of this! I must continually be humble and recognize the death from which He raised me, the rock from which He hewed me, and the pit from which He digged me.”

Let us remain humble!

Pastor Doug

SUNDAY – OCTOBER 14, 2012

Welcome to this gathering on the Lord’s Day, the first day of the week. On this day we celebrate and remember the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. We gather in the potential and possibilities that the power of His resurrection makes available to each one of us. Let us joyfully praise the One who is Lord over all! Let’s pray that we will be renewed by His Spirit to be prepared to live as His people throughout the rest of this week.

Do we really want to experience revival? Do we know the long-term effects of true revival? Are we hungry for a move of God’s Spirit that will shake us out of our comfortableness and move us into new territory of spiritual action? Consider the following accounts about revival that took place here in the United States under the ministry of Charles Finney in Rochester, New York in 1830.

“A skeptic had a large, flourishing high school in Rochester. A number of the students attended the Finney meetings and became deeply convicted of their need for Christ. One morning after the meetings had continued for two weeks, the principal found so many students weeping over their sins in the classrooms that he sent for Finney to come and instruct them. Finney came, and the principal and almost every student were converted. More than forty of the male students and a number of the female students in time became ministers or missionaries.

“One of the girls in that school became the wife of Titus Coan. The Coans went to Hawaii as missionaries, and seven years later they were leaders in the mighty revival that came in full tide in Hawaii. No doubt this was indirectly a result of the Finney revival in New York.” (p. 107, Revival Fire)

The following account taken from Revival Fire, p. 109, demonstrates the effect of revival on the life of the community.

“The prosecuting attorney of the Rochester area was converted in the revival. He reported that in this fast-growing city, the population after the revival tripled but the crime rate decreased by two-thirds. Out of a population of ten thousand people, there were at least eight hundred conversions. Theaters were considered to be places of evil, and the Rochester Theater went out of business. Converts of the revival became community leaders.”

Revival will change us and the life of our community!

Hungry and praying for revival,

Pastor Doug

Sunday – October 7, 2012

“How lovely is Your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God” (Psalm 84:11, 2). We gather as people who have a yearning to encounter the manifest presence of our God. We know that there is no greater or more wonderful experience than being enveloped by His love and peace. Let’s pray, anticipate, and hope for such an encounter today!

We have been preparing and planning for revival. We must be sure that we really want God to move in a way that it will be easily recognized as revival. This type of God’s working has been called spiritual awakening, spiritual renewal, the outpouring of the Spirit, as well as revival. It doesn’t matter what we call it, but we should have some understanding of what it will look like. We must know some description if we are to decide whether or not we really want it to happen again. I think that Wesley Duewel can help us with words that come from his introduction to Revival Fire.

“Revival days are not normal days in the life of the church. They are supernormal, supernatural. They are the great days of the church when God manifests His presence in overwhelming reality. They leave you with a profound realization of God’s greatness and transcendence and of your own unworthiness and dependence on Him.

“God’s presence and power are so mightily and extensively at work during revival that God accomplishes more in hours or days than usually results from years of faithful nonrevival ministry. Revival usually involves some preaching and evangelism. But revival is far more than evangelism. Man can evangelize; only God can give revival.

“During revival people are moved toward Christ, people who can be moved in no other way. Many prayers that have gone unanswered for years are gloriously answered. Often the very atmosphere seems awesomely filled with God’s power. Christians recognize it as the holy presence of God. Sinners feel a fearsome awareness of God’s presence and their own sinfulness.”

Read those words several times. Ask God to give you a vision of revival so that it soon begins to be a constant thought that issues forth in your prayers. We must wantrevival in order to receive revival!

Yearning and praying for revival,

Pastor Doug

Sunday – September 30, 2012

As we gather for corporate worship, one of our definite purposes is to do what David wrote about in Psalm 89. “I will sing of the mercies of the Lord forever; with my mouth will I make known Your faithfulness to all generations. For I have said, ‘Mercy shall be built up forever; Your faithfulness You shall establish in the very heavens’” (vv. 1, 2). Let us rejoice with confidence in our God’s faithfulness to each one of us.

Revival is a time for returning to the Lord and renewing the basics of our faith. One morning I glanced at the top of our bedroom dresser and saw three different books and publications. One was a volume of J. Vernon McGee’s Thru the Bible, another was a copy of Creation Journal, and the third was a copy of Wesley Duewel’s book, Touch the World through Prayer. I was struck by the idea that these three were representative of the basics to which God has been calling us as a congregation. The Bible has always been the most important book to the life of our congregation. Our church’s theme verse is II Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness.” We are very excited that such a large number of our brothers and sisters are reading through the entire Bible this year. It is our goal to help as many people as possible to better understand and apply the Bible to their lives. It is important for us to “defend” the Bible from the very first verse. We believe that “all” of the Bible is true and accurate. We can believe every aspect of the Bible as it records actual historical events. We know that creation was an actual historical occurrence and that God miraculously made this entire universe just as the first two chapters of Genesis reports. We also know that there is power in prayer and God expects us to use that power in the work of sharing the gospel with the entire world. Without prayer, this ministry will not be able to accomplish any work of lasting and eternal value.

Let’s keep praying! I pray that we will never lose sight of the basics!

Pastor Doug

Sunday – September 23, 2012

Warm greetings to you in the name of Jesus Christ, the Great Physician. He offers relief from the guilt of sin and from the fear of death. He causes us to find fresh meaning in His life by losing ourselves in caring for our neighbors in need, whether they be as far away as India, New Guinea and Thailand, or as near as next door. We praise God for the healing and wholeness His Son offers to all who surrender to Him.

There are many great privileges that are given to a child of God. Perhaps the greatest is the “open door” and free access into the throne room of heaven. Any child of God can approach the Father at any time. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). Wesley L. Duewel helps us understand the significance of this privilege in his book, Touch the World through Prayer.

“As a child of God you have full authority to contact God, the Sovereign of the universe, whenever you desire. He is always enthroned in heaven; yet, through prayer, you have as much access to His presence as any angel or archangel. You need not wait for an invitation; the invitation is already yours. You need not make a prior appointment; you are already authorized to approach God instantly. God is never too busy to listen to you; He is never too involved to answer you.

“In prayer, you come to God as His child. You need not wait for an angel to introduce you. You need not try to make yourself more acceptable. You need not first prepare carefully what you want to say. You come just as you are, opening your heart and telling Him how you feel and what you desire. There is no one prayer posture which is more sacred than another. You are God’s child, and He is eager and willing to see you!” Pp. 21, 22.

Let’s confidently call on our Heavenly Father to help us!

With great confidence in the power of prayer,

Pastor Doug

Sunday – September 16, 2012

We are glad that you have come for this time of praise and worship. Let us fill this place with songs of praise for the Lord our God. Let us also feast on the riches of His Word and rejoice in His grace. May His peace and joy fill each of our hearts and minds today.

Everyone is looking for hope. We need to experience hope today as much as we have ever needed it. You and I ought to know what the real hope is for everyone in the world today. Pastor Ronnie Floyd wrote a book, Our Last Great Hope, about the Great Commission and in it he wrote:

“Why all this talk about reality and honesty? I raise these questions for one reason. Take a good look around you, at the direction of the world. All things considered, would you say it’s a better or a worse place than a few years ago? Set the parameters of your evaluation any way that you choose: our nation, the international scene, popular culture, our economy, our ecology, our politics, our families. Most of us would answer that we are a generation in decline. Many Christians believe that Christ may return soon. Even nonbelievers sense that calamity awaits us in some form.

“There is one last great hope- for our world, our nation, our children, and our churches. That hope only becomes visible when we become honest, when we define reality rightly. That hope lies in the person and power of Jesus Christ and in no one else, in no other path or possibility. We call it good news, even though there is nothing new about it, because every new moment, every new problem, every new sin, has already been conquered and forgiven through His suffering and death on our behalf and His resurrection from the dead on that Easter morning two thousand years ago. There is good news for whatever is ailing in your life; good news for whatever challenges confront you tomorrow and next week; good news for every single conceivable human problem we face today. But it is good news that must be delivered and then accepted.” Pp. 7, 8

Let each of us unashamedly declare our confidence and hope in Jesus Christ. We can sing and shout that we serve a risen Savior!

Filled with the hope of the gospel,

Pastor Doug

Sunday, September 12, 2012

Make no mistake about it; worship is a public statement concerning our faith and love for God. It is right to be so. David declared, “I have not hidden Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation; I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great assembly” (Psalm 40:10). In response to his worship, David asked God, “Do not withhold Your tender mercies from me, O Lord; let Your lovingkindness and Your truth preserve me” (Ps. 40:11). Let’s come to worship unashamed of our faith and trust in our God. Let’s expect His blessings to be poured on us today.

We are teaching, preaching and praying about revival. We earnestly desire God to do a work of renewal within us as individuals and corporately as His church. One evidence of revival will be greater devotion to God and His ways of living. We will stand up for His truth and rededicate ourselves to lives of holiness. People will have little difficulty discovering what we believe is right according to the Word of God. Yet another evidence that we certainly want to demonstrate is clearer expressions of Christian love. When revival comes, a new resurgence of Christ’s love will fill all of our lives. Here is what Paul wrote to his “son” in the Lord. “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth” (II Timothy 2:24). In another of his letters, Paul wrote, “Speak the truth in love.” (Ephesians 4:15)

Tozer wrote about the danger of standing for the right things with the wrong attitude. He wrote in The Dangers of a Shallow Faith on page 45: “We are not called to always to show a smile. Sometimes we are called to frown and rebuke with all long-suffering and doctrine. We must contend but not be contentious. We must preserve truth but injure no man. We must destroy error without harming people. In earlier times, when men were strong, they contended, and in contending, they became contentious. In an attempt to preserve truth, they destroyed those who held error. Let us preserve truth but injure no man.”

If we live genuinely in the love of Jesus Christ and demonstrate it to those around us, we will know that true

revival has come.

For His truth in His love,

Pastor Doug

Sunday, September 2, 2012

During this month, we are participating in the efforts of the OneCry Movement that is being encouraged by Life Action Ministries. We will be looking at passages from the Bible that teach the idea of “revival” and the work of God’s Spirit in the midst of His people. We will be having times of concentrated prayer in which we will ask God for His “refreshing” work to be accomplished in our lives at NBC. We will be asking and expecting God to send “the old-time power, the Pentecostal pow’r,” to the end “that sinners be converted and Thy name glorified!”

In order for God to answer us in the manner that we desire, we will need to develop certain understandings and attitudes. A. W. Tozer can help us with some proper understanding. The following is from The Dangers of a Shallow Faith.

“What we must remember is that only he who takes orders from Jesus Christ belongs to Him. The evangelical church is in the process of compromising this very thing and ignoring ‘thus saith the Lord.’ Yes, we want any benefits that Christ may confer upon us. We want His help, protection and guidance. We even get misty-eyed over His birth, life, death, teaching and example. The problem comes when we will not take orders from Him. Christ cannot save the one He cannot control. To claim to be saved while ignoring His commandments is to live in utter delusion.

“All is not lost, however. Help is available. An awakening is possible. In one flash of spiritual intelligence, God can make a man or woman know, in the deepest meaning of the word, more that matters to his soul for eternity than can be learned in 10 years of hard study. Yet it is also true that long meditation on divine truth and the habit of obedience to such truths as are known are the necessary conditions before such a flash is given. The Holy Spirit will not illuminate an irresponsible soul; or if once, than never again. He requires that we live in accord with our higher privileges.” (Pp.35-36)

It all boils down to a “surrendered heart” and a “submissive attitude.”

Let’s cry out for revival!

Pastor Doug