Revival and SIGMA

We are in revival with Brother Joe Arthur this week and last night was great! He preached a terrific sermon on the fire and how God uses it to empty us, empower us, and entreat us, using illustrations of the times the Bible says Peter was by the fire. Oh, it was good! I'm looking forward to tonight.




Here's some pics from SIGMA Wednesday night. The Eagles were doing a skit here. I believe this one was when Peter was walking on the water and lost his faith. Justin was Peter.



Here they are doing a game of fast-paced pictionary with a twist. Brother RJ gave them so much time to do as many Bible drawings as they could while their team shouted out the answers. It was pretty interesting to say the least.

LeAnna is a pretty good artist, I must say! I have no idea what that other character is wearing. LOL

Elizabeth with her big grin!

Hannah and Cassie after their prayer time together.

We've had a great deal of people sick in our church with the flu. I'm sure you're all experiencing it where you live also. It's been very bad, hasn't it?

Here is a video of our Ladies Trio singing What's Wrong With Living Right last night at Revival. Hope it's a blessing!

I Have Not Forgotten

These are videos of my Pastor's sermon at the Heritage of America Bible Conference Monday night at Springmore Baptist Church. Please keep in mind that the quality of sound is not great because I was using my little camera. HOWEVER! Brother Chad did give Pastor one of those lapel mics, and that helped a lot. Pastor has a tendency to move around and out from behind the pulpit. He can't just stand there. So if he goes out of view, I promise he'll come back. Also, there are three links to click. I knew blogger had a limit on video length so I had to video in segments. But at one point I forgot I was video taping and left the camera running too long and blogger refused it. So I went to YouTube and they also rejected it. I don't know why, I've seen much longer videos on there. ANYWAY! My last resort was Photobucket and they just happen to have a brand new feature where you can cut and edit your video clips. YAY! So the links are there to continue on with the sermon. If you have about thirty minutes to 45 minutes to watch these, I think it'll be a blessing to you!

Click here for Part 6

Click here for Part 7

Click here for Part 8

Tonight we attended Springmore Baptist Church to hear our Pastor preach a message for their first Heritage of America Bible Conference. The Pastor there is Brother Chad Jones with his sweet wife, Rebecca, serving along beside him. They are special friends and we love them bunches. Chad and Rebecca were members of our church when the Lord called Brother Chad into the ministry. He took a small church and they have worked extremely hard at building it up. The fruit of their labor was very evident tonight. It was such a blessing to see how the Lord was blessing in their church.

They have several of Ambassador Baptist College students attending and working in their church so the service had that Bible college atmosphere. Coupled with Brother Chad's old fashioned preaching and enthusiasm, it was a wonderful service.


As usual, Pastor Goodman was plugged in and goin'! He preached a teriffic message on I Have Not Forgotten. I video taped his sermon in segments so I'll be posting those soon.


Here is their choir singing I'm On The Winning Side.

Brother Chad and Rebecca, it really was a blessing seeing you and your children and how the Lord is blessing there at Springmore. We Love y'all!!

Intercession

As much as I was looking forward to our ladies trip to Walkertown, NC, I really hated to see our prayer revival end. And just so you'll know, Brother Beckum is planning a Prayer Conference to be held at the Tabernacle Baptist Church in Greenville, SC, September 2008. Lord willing, we will be in attendance there. If you are close to Greenville, you MUST plan on attending and if you're far away, it will be worth the trip. I can promise you that!

Isaiah 59:16 "And he saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him; and his righteousness, it sustained him."

Israel was in a mess, forsaking God. Is He looking at America wondering I see you going through the motions, but when was the last time you interceded? We need to intercede for America. We have alcoholism, abortion, murders in families, Pastors leaving the ministry because of immorality and burn-out. Churches are closing their doors all over America. Pastor's wives feel their spouses should find another profession. We need to intercede for America! If we don't get on our knees, we'll be like Rome and Babylon and we will fall. Our churches need intercession!

Isaiah 58:1-4 "Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God. Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge? Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness; ye shall not fast as ye do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high." America is a religious nation, and yet we are not right with God. We want good preaching, but we don't want to follow it. The church is living in the verses of Isaiah 58:1&2. We're going through the motions of loving God, but not truly loving Him. We need to get on our knees in our prayer closets and pray.

Isaiah 59:1-3 "Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath uttered perverseness." God is still waiting to save. And He can. But we must pray for one another. There has never been a time He hasn't heard His children. God says it is our sin that has His face hidden. His people cry, "Look at us! We're fasting!" But it is not feasting.

Vs 9-11 "Therefore is judgment far from us, neither doth justice overtake us: we wait for light, but behold obscurity; for brightness, but we walk in darkness. We grope for the wall like the blind, and we grope as if we had no eyes: we stumble at noon day as in the night; we are in desolate places as dead men. We roar all like bears, and mourn sore like doves: we look for judgment, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far off from us." Any nation forgetting God is going to Hell. We can not blame God for our problems. It is our fault because we do not pray. During invitations, the same crowd of people are at the alter, while everyone else is letting America go to Hell. Where are you?

Isaiah 59:16 "And he saw that there was no man and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore his arm brought salvation unto him: and his righteousness, it sustained him." Where were the Christians in this day? There was NO man interceding. NOBODY was standing in the gap. Are you an intercessor? Are you guilty of not praying?

II Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." We need to humble ourselves and swallow our pride. Our sin has deafened God's ears. God said to just forsake your sin and pray. When God walks by you, does He hear your intercession? He hears your heartbeat. Does He hear a heart of prayer? Are you satisfied with fasting, devotions, and attending church? Or are you willing to stand in the gap and intercede?

Always On His Mind

Wednesday night at Prayer Revival, Brother Beckum preached on how our Father always has us on His mind.

Matthew 6:8 "Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him."

"Them" referring to the heathen. Don't be like the heathen wringing our hands and wondering what we're going to do to meet our needs. God already knows those needs and He will take care of it. He knows our needs before we even open our mouth in prayer. Everything is under control. He knows our needs, our pain, and His eye is upon us.

Psalm 40:17 "But I am poor and needy; yet the LORD thinketh upon me: thou art my help and my deliverer; make no tarrying, O my God."

He always thinks of us and intercedes for us. Why? Because we are His children and He loves His children!

Psalm 40:5 "Many, O LORD my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered."

There is no way we can tell all the blessings He bestows on us. Do we stop and thank Him for those blessings or expect them? We need to learn to stop and just say, "Thank you, Father, I love you." How often do we tell Him we love Him?

Isaiah 49:15 "Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."

Mothers murder their children every single day. Leave them abandoned in alley-ways. Leave them to fend for themselves. She can forget her children, but God will NOT! He does nothing but love and help His children. He has never forgotten them.

Psalm 77:7-9 "Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more? Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah."

Churches today are not praying. And they're not praying because Christians are living in verses 7,8,&9. Has God forgotten who He is?? NO!! He has not forgotten. He has not forgotten His children. We need Him to remind us that He is there. We need to get in verses 10,11, & 12. "And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High. I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings." When you're low in spirit, write down your blessings and tell the Devil to take a hike! Meditate on the blessings. You'll start bragging on His goodness. If you're in verses 7, 8, &9, you're living in sin as the heathen. He's not hearing your prayers if you're living in sin. He wants the church to be a praying church that He can hear. We need to ask God to help us to remember His goodness. No one has ever loved us like Jesus.

Something to Listen to

We had another wonderful service last night at revival. Wednesday night is always good, but last night was GREAT~The Lord really dealt with my heart, reminding me that He is always in control of everything. I'll post those notes when I have time. I don't know when I'll be posting again because Hannah and I will be going out of town this week to a ladies conference. My sweet daddy paid for our way to go. Wasn't that just so sweet? We're very excited about the trip. I'm planning on taking my computer, but I don't know what kind of Internet service they'll have there, so we'll just have to see. Anyway, I have posted three videos below. I took them last night at church. Two of them are of Justin's group, Sons Of Faith, singing and the other is one of our college boys. I hope it's a blessing to you.

I also wanted to say that Amanda's mother's tests came back and the cancer is not on her brain. They do not know what caused the seizure the other day, but they do know it was not the cancer. So praise the Lord!

Thanks for praying for her. Please continue to do that. She'll have to stay in the hospital a few more days before going home. Hospice will be going with her, so please be in prayer for her. Mrs. Wanda Smart is her name. I know the family would greatly appreciate it.

It Is Natural To Pray

Amanda's mother is still in the hospital and had a pretty bad seizure yesterday. They decided to do a CT on her this morning. We haven't heard back from them on that yet, but Amanda and her sister decided to stay with their mother at the hospital last night. They got about an hour and a half of sleep, but Amanda said she wouldn't trade that time for anything in the world. They just had a slumber party together. Since she stayed there and her husband had to be at work early this morning, I kept the girls for her. If Bruce is anywhere in the house, Carissa will be wanting to be with him. So when he's on the couch, she's happiest snuggled up next to him.


Celine is happy all the time. She was so excited to find out she was spending the night. She told Kelly Turner, from church, "Pray for my mommy, her eyes are so red."


T-R-O-U-B-L-E


Now tell me, is this a peaceful picture or what? Like I said, she's happiest snuggled up next to Brother Bruce.

Last night's revival service with Brother Beckum was on why it is natural for a Christian to pray. So here are those notes.

1. Galatians 4:6 "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father."

It is natural for a Christian to pray because the Holy Ghost dwells within. If you don't have a desire to pray, the Holy Spirit does not live in you, and if the Holy Spirit is not in you, you are not saved. Romans 8:26 "Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered." You might say you don't pray because you don't know how. But the Spirit helps our infirmities. When we don't know what to pray, He does.

2. Luke 9:23 "And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me." Not yearly, monthly, or weekly. But daily. It's natural for a Christian to pray because we follow God. We need to swallow our pride and deny ourselves. We need to repent and PRAY! I John 2:6 "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked." Jesus preached. Jesus was a soul winner. Jesus was a teacher. But Jesus also prayed. If we're going to walk with Him, we must pray like Him.

I John 2:4 "He that saith, I know him and keepth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him." We are commanded to pray. If you're not praying, you're not keeping His commandments. If you're not keeping His commandments, you're a liar. John 10:27 "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:" The church is hearing His voice, but we're not following it. If you're not following it, you're in rebellion. There are goats in the sheepfold. Are you a stubborn goat or a humble sheep? Are you following Christ in prayer? When we follow Him, we want Him to teach us to pray. Hebrews 7:25 "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them." Christ lives to pray for us. He prays for us continually.

3. It's natural to pray because we love the Lord. John 14:15 "If ye love me, keep my commandments." You say you love God, but do you really? John 14:21 "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him." If you don't keep the commandments, you don't love God. Are you keeping the commandments or just bringing them to church? Where in the Bible are we commanded to pray?

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Matthew 6:6 "But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Matthew 6:9 "After this manner therefore pray ye:

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Luke 18:1 "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;"

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

Ephesians 6:18 "Praying ALWAYS with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;"

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

I Thessalonians 5:17 "Pray without ceasing."

"If ye love me, keep my commandments."

I Timothy 2:8 "I will therefore that men pray every where, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting."

The Sin of Prayerlessness

I'm going to share my notes from our Prayer Revival, but I wanted to tell you about our visit with Uncle Tommy today.

Uncle Tommy missed our family reunion yesterday because he was in the hospital for a procedure he had done recently. Uncle Tommy is hilarious. He has such a sense of humor and we enjoyed our visit with him, although he was sick on his stomach.


Anytime you get around Uncle Tommy, there's a guarantee for laughter. Those poor nurses don't know what to think of him, I'm sure.


And he's always up for a hug! We love him bunches and are praying he gets to come home soon.


After visiting Uncle Tommy, we went to another floor to visit Celine and Carissa's grandmother. Amanda was there with her sister-in-law. She was so tired. Bless her heart. Her mother has been dealing with cancer and the doctors told the family today that there is nothing more they can do. They just want to make her comfortable. Please remember this family in your prayers if they cross your mind. They're really going to need those prayers in the days to come. Mrs. Wanda is on her way to Heaven. We can praise the Lord for that. But the family being left behind is bearing a heavy burden.

We began our third service of the Prayer Revival with Brother Benny Beckum.

He really knows his Bible on prayer. It's amazing what he'll point out in verses you've probably read a hundred times. Anyway, here are tonights notes:

I Samuel 12:19-23 "And all the people said unto Samuel, Pray for thy servants unto the Lord thy God, that we die not: for we have added unto all our sins this evil, to ask us a king. And Samuel said unto the people, Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart; And turn ye not aside: for then should ye go after vain things, which cannot profit nor deliver; for they are vain."

James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin."

It is a sin not to pray. It is this sin that is destroying our churches, our homes, and our lives.

Our churches are doing everything but praying. We have numerous ministries, but we're not praying. A church, a home, and a nation without prayer will be weak, regardless of how many outreach ministries they have. When you neglect the very thing that is the most important thing, you have no strength. Prayerlessness is a sin against our fellow man.

You cannot be an effective soul winner, Pastor, Sunday school teacher, etc, without a prayer life.

I Timothy 2:1 "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men: For kings, and for all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godlines and honesty."

We are to pray for our leaders. It's a sin not to.

Pray for the unsaved. We are not commanded to pray for them, but it is God's desire that we pray for them. Romans 10:1 "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved." Do you believe in Hell? When is the last time you prayed for someone going there?

Pray for other Christians. Ephesians 1:17-19 "That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power." It's OK to pray the Scripture for your church and other Christians. What better words to pray?

Ephesians 3:14-17 "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole familiy in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye being rooted and grounded in love." Are you rooted and grounded in love? Let go of bitterness. You cannot have a prayer life if you are harboring bitterness.

Brother Beckham was saying that in every church he goes into, he'll read the church covenant, which is usually hanging on a wall where anyone can read it. He'll go through all the "dos and don'ts" of the covenant and it's "do this, do that" and "don't do this, don't do that" but no where on that covenant does it say you must pray. Pastors are telling their choir members that they can't sing if they have a one inch split in their skirt. They can't teach Sunday school if they go to movie theaters. They can't work a bus route if they don't have hair cut above the ears. They are church disciplining members for living in open sin, but the sin of prayerlessness is evident in "good members" lives and yet no discipline is taking place.

Something to think about, huh?

Family Reunion

Now, don't let your jaw drop when I tell you this, but I only have one picture to share from our family reunion today. I thought it wasn't over until 4:00, but people were leaving at 2:30 and I knew I had better get at least a group pic. So about 40 people are in this one, but several had already left and some hadn't even gotten there yet. You know who you are!


It's always good to see family and fellowship for a while. We missed Aunt Bertha, of course. And we missed Aunt Marcel and Uncle Tommy. Uncle Tommy is in the hospital right now. Lord willing, Bruce and I will be going up to see him in the morning sometime with my mother-in-law.

We started our prayer revival with Brother Benny Beckum today. He'll be here through Thursday. We're looking forward to hearing more from him in the coming days.

This morning he preached on leaving our first love, which of course, is Jesus Christ, and what we lose in our prayer life when we leave our first love.

Revelation 2:1-4
"Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write: These things saith he that holdest the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars: And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted. Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love."

When we leave our first love,
I. We lose our prayer life
Having standards does not mean you love God. It's a good testimony, but it's what is on the inside that God sees to be truth. Just because you have good standards doesn't mean you are in love with God. When you leave your first love, your prayer life will suffer and more than likely become nonexistent.

II. We lose our Christian Joy.
When you leave your first love, you lose the joy in serving the Lord. Service becomes a chore instead of a pleasure. Is it a pleasure to serve the Lord?

III. We lose our interest in the work of God.
You may be busy in the bus ministry, the rest home ministry, regular visitation, teaching Sunday school, etc. But if you don't have a regular prayer life, praying for those ministries and for those involved in those ministries, you don't have an interest in those works of God.

IV. We lose our burden for souls.
How long has it been since you've prayed for lost souls. Family, friends, people you don't know, people you haven't even met yet? When was the last time you touched the throne of God for someone who is dangling over Hell?

And when we leave our first love, the world will creep in and destroy you. You can not have sweet fellowship with God if you don't have a consistent prayer life.

Revival Service

The trip up and back to Tennessee was very good. We had a fun time traveling up and down the mountain.

As you can see in this picture, the clouds around the mountain were very thick.


But as we traveled on it began to clear. Is that not a beautiful view? In the last two weeks, I've been from the ocean to the mountains and I don't know which is more beautiful. Only God can create something so lovely.


The name of this music store is the Pickin' Pig Music Parlor. I thought that was a comical name for a music store. I'd like to know how they came up with it.


On the bus, Hannah sat with Nicole, who was concentrating very hard on her video game.


Kellie didn't want me to take her picture and after a couple of tries, she realized it was of no use to try and dodge the camera and ended up giving me this nice smile. Thank you, Kellie!
:)


Our church people.

More of our church people.

And some MORE of our church people. We had a really good crowd go up and they were still piling in.


Our orchestra was setting up while Autumn gave me a naughty pose. I'm tellin' her momma!


Pastor Goodman was given the opportunity to fly to Georgia in a private plane and was escorted by the pilots to the funeral, who were able to get him back in time for the revival service on time. Pastor did preach the funeral and said the it was sad, of course, but many were rejoicing because of this young man's statement of faith concerning his salvation. Please continue to pray for this family.
The service ended up being one of singing, testifying, preaching in between testifying, more singing, more testifying, alter calls, etc. It was very good!!! The Lord blessed our hearts throughout the entire service.
After the service, the hosting church served us BBQ plates with soups and sandwiches. They have always shown us sweet hospitality when we come.

Getting ready to eat.


Diggin' in!!


My Pastor


We got home around 1:00 AM this morning. It was a great trip and I'm glad we were able to attend the metting and fellowship with God's people.

Going to Tennessee

Lord willing, the kids and I will be catching our church bus to Elizabethton, Tennessee today. Our Pastor, J Barry Goodman, has been preaching a revival service there every year for as long as we have been attending Faith and I believe several years before that. The Friday of those services, our choir and orchestra goes up to sing for their church. We ALWAYS leave more blessed than when we got there. The services are always good and always different and we just love going.

Pastor has a preacher friend in Georgia whose 19 year old son died suddenly last week and Pastor will be attending the funeral in Georgia today, possibly preaching the funeral. So please pray for his safe travels from Georgia to Tennessee. And also for this other preacher's family. I may spell the name wrong, but the preacher is Danny Mundy. When they told Brother Mundy's mother about young Daniel drowning, within minutes she had a stroke. I do not know of her condition at this time, but this man and his family are in great need of prayer.

It'll be a very busy tomorrow but I'll try to post on the revival service if I have time. Hope you all have a GREAT weekend!

~Kristi