Where ever we go in the world people are watching us.  Even when we don't realize it, there seems to be a peering eye watching to see how we respond in every situation. Can you imagine what it was like for Jesus everywhere He went?  In Luke 14, we read that the Pharisees carefully were watching every move he made. They were ready to pounce on any misspoken word or deed that did not somehow align with their viewpoint of things. Wow! Can you imagine what that would be like? There are some people reading these words right now that can relate with Jesus. Everywhere you go you feel like you are being analyzed for any weakness that can be found.  There is no question that anyone who is running for public office can relate to this passage. What about the Christian that stands for a standard of morality, love, and self-control?  In this world, these qualities are faintly seen and there is a cynicism that they even truly exist anymore. Yet, Christians are a light of contradiction to this kind of thinking. All around us there are people that are carefully watching you and I.  You often don't even know they are there, but they are analyzing your words and actions to see if they line up with each other.  About ten years ago I had the opportunity to climb the Eiffel Tower.  Once we made it to the top the tower it began to sparkle because of the lights that were installed a few years earlier.  As soon as the tower began to sparkle an amazing thing happened.  The city of Paris then began to sparkle from the flashing of camera lights going off around the city.  Even though the flash was miles away, it was a light that you could see shining through the darkness.  The person taking the picture had no idea that someone on the tower just observed their action.  In this dark world your flash of Christ-likeness will be seen by many even though you will never meet them.  

Graduation season is upon us once again.  We have a whole new group of students that are moving from one stage of life into an exciting new adventure.  Recently I went to the University of Minnesota to have a Root canal and crown down on tooth #3.  (Knowledge gained by being a dental training institution).  The young man who was doing the work on my tooth had been in school for eight years.  Needless to say, he was more than ready to move on into the next stage of his life.  

Really life is a collection of stages that we go through. Life in the Kingdom of God is no different.  Corinthians tells us that we are to graduate from glory to glory.  Peter tells us that we are to attain certain characteristics in increasing measure.  We call it Spiritual Growth.  That Growth will give us all we need for life and Godliness. For many Christians, however, they are content to live for years at the same place in their Christian walk.  They never experience deliverance from bondages, operate in the signs, experience wonders and miracles that God intends for their life, and never increase in the understanding of God's love for them and for others.  They never graduate to the next level of a knowledge, relationship, and position with God.  It is important to understand that every new stage we enter releases us into new intimacy with the Creator of the universe and a revelation that was but a mystery.  Although before you can handle these new mysteries you must show that you understand and comprehend the revelation that you have already been given.  Therefore, just as in school we are given final exams and tests, it is the same spiritually. We need to demonstrate that we have spiritually grown to a place where it is time for a Spiritual graduation.  

So it begs to ask this question: "When was the last time that you went through a graduation in your spiritual life?"  Ask yourself when was the last time that you felt excited about your connection with God?  These are times when although you had some anxiety you chose to move forward in your pursuit of God. In doing so, God revealed new understanding of the mysteries of the Word of God. These experiences are graduations from what has become stale and a movement into a new stage that will be exciting and fresh.  If you are a Christian that has lost your excitement, take this advice.  It is time to graduate!  When you continue to progress and graduate from level to level you will never experience boredom on your Spiritual journey.

In Luke chapter nine, Jesus sends out the disciples to all the lands to preach the Kingdom of God and to heal the sick. Upon their return we hear of all the amazing things that they were able to do by the authority and power of Jesus. The lame walked and the blind were able to see!  

A few verses later when Jesus is speaking to the masses and dinnertime is approaching, the disciples point out that the people are hungry and should be sent home so that they may eat. Jesus response was, "You feed them." You would suspect that after the spiritual high that the disciples were coming from that they would be all about this, but they weren't. In fact they stood around confused. In their search they return with a few loves and some fish. Most of us know then that Jesus went on to bless and feed EVERY PERSON THERE!

But here is what I want to draw your attention to. There are things that we experience where God does something utterly amazing in our lives or loved ones, and then within days, even hours we are quick to forget about that which he has done for us. It happened with the disciples, and it happens with us. We can't forget abut the things that God has promised and done for us. We walk as if we have never seen or heard.

Let us walk with a holy confidence in the God that we serve!

May the awe and wonder of God serve as a constant reminder of the things God has done in your life!  

Divine Appointment

Have you ever asked yourself, "What would life be like if I believed 100% of what God said in His Word would happen in my life?" (That would be far from boring)  Have you ever walked past people in wheelchairs in the grocery store or your place of work and thought I should pray for them to be healed?(Most people don't even notice them)  Why is it that we walk by so many opportunities everyday to demonstrate the love and power of God to people and yet we are kept silent? People in the world are calling out for God to show Himself, yet the Body of Christ stays seated in their own little world.  God's Will is for His love and power to be shown to the LOST sheep. He is calling us to be His vehicle to them.  We are His portal into their life.  How much longer will the Church stay silent?  How much longer will we walk right past one DIVINE APPOINTMENT after another and miss our opportunity for God to flow through our lives?  Church today is our season, it is our moment, it is our time to be a voice in the darkness.  It is our time to preach the message of love, to walk out life with others, and to demonstrate the authentic Power of God through deliverance, signs, wonders and miracles.  Today it is my prayer that your eyes will see the Divine Appointments that are all around you.  To see with the eyes of Christ!  Now is the Time and You can do it!

We have an old upright piano that sits in our living room.  For a long time it served as a piece of furniture, rather than something used to fulfill its purpose.  However, Bailey has shown some interest in it and is actually using it.  Therefore she has been getting lessons on that piano so she can learn how to play songs beyond 'Chopsticks' and 'Mary had a little Lamb'.  Well the other day her piano instructor mentioned that the piano was extremely out of tune and the piano was not producing a sound that it was created to make.  So last week this man came to our door with his briefcase full of wrenches and tuning forks, along with a computerized gage that identifies the perfect pitch for each cord.  I watched as he would push the key and then turn the wrench ever so slightly until it was perfect. You could even hear the sound change as he turned the wrench. Now if you familiar with the inside of a piano you know that there are many cords and little nuts that need to be adjusted.  The Tuner patiently went through each cord and brought it back into tune. You see although the piano played the note it could not bring itself back into tune. That could only be accomplished through the hand, ear, and wrench of the Tuner.  When the tuner was finished that piano made a sound that it had not made in some time. As the man played a beautiful melody with every key sounding perfectly, it then made the tune it was created to make.  We are a lot like that old piano.  We were created to Worship God and to live a life that is in perfect tune with God.  However, there are all kinds of things that are pulling us out of tune.  Yet God like the patient tuner, patiently brings our lives back in tune when we allow him to open up our insides.  Now I know that there are many people who are content to just be a piece of furniture, filling up space in some basement. You would rather God just let you be seen and not heard or played.  Friend your heart has become disillusioned and apathetic because you have allowed Satan to bring confusion to you about your purpose.  Please understand God created you to make a beautiful noise, to be played, by the creator of the universe.  God wants to play a beautiful song with your life, but first you must let Him bring your life into tune. You cannot tune yourself any more than that piano could.  It needed the tuning hand and ear of a tuner, and so do you. Don't become a piece of furniture in God's house, rather become a Grand Piano that is has its ivory's tickled by the fingers of God every day. Every person must live with the knowledge that every time God makes a little adjustment in your life he is only preparing you to play a great masterpiece.

Matthew 9:8 "When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to men." When was the last time that we were so awestruck by God that we could not think about anything else? When was the last time we were so taken by his amazing glory and wonder that all we could talk about was about Him? Through out the Bible we see people who did amazing things, people who laid they're life on the line for the gospel and people that could not help themselves when it came to talking about Jesus. They wouldn’t stop talking about Jesus even if it meant for them being flogged or beaten. The church of Jesus Christ traded in their worship of a Sovereign God for the temporal glory of this world.  The sad part is that many people do not even recognize that their worship of pleasure has not only robbed them of God's promises and power, but of experiencing something that cannot be described or even weighed.  This is the awesome Glory of God.  Church, there is a worship, a level, an experience with God that can change your life in moment.  The disciples wanted to build a house in it.  Moses refused to go anywhere without it.  And John the Revelator ended his life experiencing it.  It is available to us.  It is available to you and to me. In order to discover these secret things you have to deny the pleasures of the flesh, the enticements of the world and connect to the Father through His Word, worshipping in Spirit and in Truth.   

God your first, the best of your praise. He wants your best.  Let's give God our First in every area of our life.  

The city is crying!  Can you hear its cry and sense its pain.  We are living in a broken world where people are nothing more than a toy of the enemy as Satan reaps havoc in their lives.  ‘We the church’ are to be the ‘Salt’ and ‘Light’ that rescue these people from the deep pit that they are finding themselves in.  Take a moment and stop to listen for the prayers of little kids that are praying for God to help their mom and dad to love each other again; or the single parent praying that God will help them with the stress of life.  These stories along with many others are very common in our city.  They may be your neighbors, or those who you are working with, and even those who are in your family.   You have the answer!  What will you do with it?  This morning I would like to challenge you to hear the cries of our city.  One day you and I will give an account for its souls.