Well one person has been converted to the Lord through my friend. She become unemployed shortly thereafter. She told her employer that they were doing the wrong things business wise and that she could not do it any more. My friend says she is much happier now believing in the Lord.

My friend would like me to go into business with him which I will pray much about before I make a decision. Would be nice to combine a business with witnessing to people.

Seems I spend a great deal of time now praying for others and seeing answers to prayers. I read some of my first posts at this site.
I said this once, "I followed God and like Job  He blessed me tremendously until "there came a great wind from the wilderness" (Job 1:19) that made me suffer the loss of all things of which I am yet to say "I count them but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus." Well I can say it now: "Phil:3:8: Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ."

A post or two ago I wrote about someone the Lord told me to help out. I want to say a little more about this person.

He is doing a lot of good things for people and unfortunately the enemy is hitting him hard with trouble galore. Being no stranger to similar trouble I related to him how the same thing happened to me and how I was angry with God for letting all this trouble come my way but how I now see the blessing. I told him if you want to kept on helping people like you are expect even more trouble.

He doesn't realize it but the Lord has silently through him rebuked me for my attitude to some other people.

My friend, a neighbor, and I know a certain amount of people who I consider the dregs of humanity and I certainly would not mind of something bad happened to them. I am using kind words my actual feelings and words would be quite bad if written down. These people have "despitefully" used him and some of them have "persecuted" him. He tells me he goes to them and tells them Christ loves them and he even cries while he is saying that. In fact when he tells me about how much God loves them and how he is trying to help them he starts crying and he even gets me to start crying. He says when he tells them God loves them their face sort of looks evil or strange after he says that but seems to be changing at least with some recently. He was going past someone who hates him and their car stopped working so he offered to help fix it which he did. Of course he again told them how much God loved them and they seem to be more receptive. Another person he has helped still goes on giving him a hard time- a very hard time- but he continues to love them and help them and cry and tell them how much God loves them and he is seeing a bit - not too much- but some change.

I must say this. The gulf between the heart of this person and my heart is about as wide as the moon's distance to earth and perhaps quite a distance greater. I understand we are to love out enemies but apparently what that means has never seeped into my heart.

I am now devoting a lot more time to prayer and asking God to create a new heart in me.

"But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death -Revelation 21:8."

Always thought the inclusion of the group of people called fearful with the rest of the verse did not make sense. Looking at some of my old posts and looking at my fellow work mates I understand why it is included. I reached a point in my Christian life where I was afraid to go forward. Like Jonah I was really saying to the Lord" Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live (Jonah:4:3)." Maybe not those exact words but I was saying something similar an acting out that fearfulness in life and falling back in the Lord. You cannot stand still I found out, if you do the wind comes up and blows you back.

I look at my fellow Christians especially the ones at work and see the way I used to be. God brought me into a very narrow road and hedged me about in such a way that I was forced to deal with all my weaknesses in my life and all the ways I did not glorify God. I was forced to see that by my own efforts I can accomplish nothing. Having already thought I had sacrificed everything for the Lord I was amazed when God put me in a place that showed parts of me I did not even comprehend. I was amazed  how fearful I had become of going forward in the Lord.

"When God looks down upon the whole burnt offering that we bring as our reasonable act of worship, He looks not for that which we can produce from our own efforts, but for that which God alone has wrought in us as a work of grace. Like the living organisms mentioned above, the offering that is acceptable to the Lord is one that man can only cultivate, care for, protect and feed, but never create (Mark Frost)." http://buildinghishouse.org/articles/acceptableoffering.shtml
I had originally sacrificed everything for the Lord - at least I thought so- until he put me in a place that showed me I had sacrificed nothing but a work of my own efforts. The sacrifice that was needed now is only one that God can work in me by His grace which He has and is doing everyday now. “For he who has entered into his rest, he also has ceased from his own works, as God did from His” (Heb. 4:10). (I think basically the difference between the Old Covenant and the New is ceasing from our works.)

"Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster (Galatians 3:21-25)." Interesting that we can be living in New Covenant times under the Old Covenant of works but that is precisely what I was doing and what my Christian friends at work are doing. The Lord had to bring me to a place that I could not move forward but by faith. It says above if God could have made a law that we could follow that would give us life then that would be sufficient, righteousness would be by the law. I can do it on my own following what God says basically. But my whole recent experience says ain't no way.

Jer:23:6: In his days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely: and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

Jer:33:16: In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The LORD our righteousness.

That is the only righteousness I know now. There is no life apart from Christ.

So back to the fearful situation. My manager at work once professed Christ but obviously he never knew Him. He has taken more and more evil attributes on and everybody under him- my fellow workers- are fearful and are not moving forward and consequently falling back in their Christian lives. God has put them all in a situation like the Israelite's in the desert but they kept on going around in circles fearful to go forward and murmuring as they go.

Having said all that, unfortunately, I realize that many will use this approach to the scripture as license to bend and manipulate scripture to support error, and even doctrines of demons, such as universal reconciliation (all men will be reconciled to Christ).  Many will swing the pendulum to the opposite extreme from literalism in order to justify lies, while claiming a higher level of revelation.  These do violence to the law, allegorizing or spiritualizing all of scripture in order to support beliefs that are not clearly taught in scripture. 

For example, there are many today who allegorize scriptures regarding hell and the lake of fire, saying that there is no literal lake of fire, but that it is a cleansing process in Christ in the present, and not some future, literal, and eternal judgment. 

In that sense, I agree with the biblical literalist that God “would use language and expect people to understand it in its literal, normal, and plain sense” rather than to purposely deceive man by clearly stating one thing throughout scripture, while meaning something completely different.  That, God would never do.  "He is not a man that He should lie" (Num. 23:19).  All men are not children of God, all men will not be saved, and there is a literal lake of fire that will endlessly torment God’s enemies, including men and women, in spite of what the “more enlightened” would attempt to teach to the contrary.  “Beware that no one deceive you” (Mark 13:5).
   

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?(Amos:3:3).  How many times have I prayed and the Lord given this for an answer to my prayer. It is not the answer I wanted to hear but the one the Lord gave me.

“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them (Hosea:11:4).” The Lord keeps on drawing me with His “bands of love” and His “banner over me is love.” Even when I resisted this pulling of the Lord He did not forsake me until on a daily basis I am surrendering everything to Him. The thought comes to me how easy it is to be saved if we just give up resisting Him.

When I communicate with my Christian friends and my wife I notice a gulf that is as wide as the nearest star is to earth and the loneliness of that thought is almost an unbearable burden to bear. It is at that moment that thick darkness seems to gather around me and the powers of darkness see an opportunity to destroy me and the greatest opportunity is offered by Christ to trust Him in the darkness believing in His atonement for me.  “When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him (Isa:59:19).”

“Circumstances can often give us a revelation into our true position relative to others, just as certain illustrations or comparisons can give us a glimpse into the enormity of outer space. What appeared so near, now declares itself to be infinitely far. “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” The intimation is, “No”, of course, but agreement in word means very little. Can two walk together except their lives be in agreement? That’s the test. Sooner of later, life will declare what words fail to convey, and that is the millions of light years that separate us from those to whom we often reach in hope.”-Mark Frost

Oh how I wish circumstances had not brought this revelation. It is a revelation that is heart wrenching to understand and makes me want to do anything I can to close up that enormity of distance relative to those I love. I know the only one to close that enormity is Christ. All the words in the world will not cause a bridge to be built, there is no way to bridge the gap but by the blood of Christ and their acceptance and total surrender to Him.

I fear someday those I love who kept resisting Him will say  "to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne" (Revelation 6:16). What can they say to that much love from God that is constantly pouring on them and they are constantly resisting.




The Lord is answering my prayers in a big way these days and pushing back the powers of darkness at work.

One answer to prayer for a neighbor who is seeking the Lord involved me making a sacrifice I was not planning to make. I worry about losing my job at any hour for certain reasons and the Lord spoke to my heart to help a neighbor who is trying to start a business. The couple had fallen on hard times plus their son had been in a bad accident plus other circumstances that were extremely trying for them. The Lord impressed on my heart to buy them a piece of equipment to help start their business. I started worrying what am I going to do if I do not have a job.  I know the couple will pay me back when they can but I did worry about myself. The Lord told me to do this and that became enough reason to do it- trust and obey. The neighbor kept thanking me to which my reply was don't thank me thank the Lord. 

The thing about moving forward is don't expect anyone to move forward with you.  Friends will congratulate you for having taken a risk to change things, they will tell you what is the right and wrong thing to do, but if it puts them at risk expect them to head the other way.

I do not know if I will be around for these events pictured in the book of Revelation:


And I do not have any idea what "worshiping the image" refers to but I do know that if we are so afraid to risk anything now because it might upset our comfortable life style then what will we do in the day pictured in that verse in Revelation. If we are not faithful in the small things we shall not be faithful in the larger things.

And worse than that what about the honor of God. This is the time to bring honor to God when it truly means something. We may sing someday "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints(Revelation 15:3)" but what will it mean if we deny that in our actions now. What effect are we having on non Christians by our actions or lack of them? What is the judgment they are forming about God. If they see we risk nothing then they will judge God is not worth risking anything for. God for eternity will not have the full honor due Him. We can sing for eternity "Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints" but here in this life is the place to honor God and have those words mean something.

The Lord is answering my prayers in a big way.

I was reading about Elijah who said, "As the LORD God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word(1 Kings 17:1)."  In James 5:17 it says: "Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months."

So the Lord put on my heart to pray that we would have so many calls for service from customers that we would not be able to handle them all and also that we would get hard calls that take a long time to figure out how to repair. I have been praying this many times day and night and I hear from others that we have so many calls that there are pages and pages of them and we are not able to kept up with them.

My manager who is getting frantic about it and is out now getting calls all day asked me to do something that I choose to say I would not do and then took the opportunity to say how many things I thought was wrong with this company (or rather the company that bought this company and is just using its name). I laid into him so hard that he said "I have been here x years and I cannot quit now."

What I did not see happening was that this is giving the opportunity for the others to demand  things of the manager which he would not give into before. Because he is desperate now he is giving in. He brought himself to this state of affairs by mismanaging the company  (as have those above him). There is a new sense of power because he is giving in to demands that he would never before have given into. I did not need to compromise with him but after he gave into me I decided let me compromise with him and help him out a little.

The part of my prayer about getting hard jobs that take a long time to repair well I was in the office on overtime and happened to see that the parent company was rejecting warranty labor repairs for the excessive amount of time it is taking for the repair. Those repairs are being done by very experienced technicians.

I am unfortunately feeling the effect of my own prayers. If you pray for a drought well don't be surprised if it is hard to find water to drink.

Of course I am thanking the Lord continually for answered prayer and have considered adding the whole national company to my prayer list. If the Lord is answering my prayer for the local company why not pray for the national company.

What I hope though is that it gives people more hope and faith and takes a weight off of them that was dragging them down.

I am adding this: Just read something this morning:"Hear me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again (1 Kings 18:37)." I think maybe that should be my hope that hearts are turned back again fully to the Lord.


As for soaking prayer. It seemed that after I had started it the enemy (Satan) had tried to do his best to disrupt my prayer life and my whole life. Well this man is soaking again and moving forward.

(Part of the reason for praying this prayer is that the company has gotten rid of as many people as possible that were helping the customers and puts first only the customers that are a national chain and pay the big bucks. The company is making a huge profit but are not serving customers well like hospitals and schools to name some.)

Sorry for so abruptly leaving the forum.


The Lord led me out of Egypt but I did not see it like that. "Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him."Hebrews 10:38

I do not know if I was drawing back but standing still in fear I am sure is the same thing. I am living totally by faith now and must say I am going forward in the wilderness. I am tired of standing still and watching the armies of the enemy advancing and taking more territory. When the enemy is at my doorstep I cry out to the Lord for help and He helps me. When I am faithless He is still faithful always. I am tired of staying in the same place in the wilderness while I watch my fellow Christians go from worse to worse by an enemy that brings them down every time they try to advance forward. I dwell in the shadow of death here with Christians who because I am trying to serve the Lord cannot understand that and so pass gossip about me until they almost destroyed me. I am praying for every single one of them and that God will overturn and shake up this company I work at. I will wash their feet and do whatever it takes to get back the territory that the enemy has taken from them.

The Lord brought me in this wilderness, this drought, this shadow of death but has spoken to me comfortably. My prayers the Lord has heard and slow advancement is being made. The Lord will clear a path in this desert of pits where everybody seems to be falling into at every advancement.

We serve our customers very badly and by prayer and work I am changing that and advancing there also.  THe Lord is answering my prayers in a big way.I am not going to listen to we are in the business to make money and the customer is not important or I do not want to jeopardize my job by trying to change things. The Lord is going before me and He will clear a huge path and things will change.

My wife who is so afraid of advancing forward and because of countless troubles that came our way because I devoted myself fully to the Lord I will pray for and serve until she wants to go forward also.

I had a teacher in a religious school when I was a kid that spoke to us of Christ in way that I did not understand. The headmaster later dismissed him because he did not understand him and thought him odd and extreme because of his devotion to Christ. He cried one day in class because we had sung a beautiful religious hymn and none of us understood the meaning of it. He was pouring himself out in tears that one of us would understood. He talked of a pomegranate so I went out after school and bought one and brought it to him the next day. But I still did not understand.


So when Christ my High Priest stands before the Father as my Advocate let me hear those bells by faith and remember the meaning of the pomegranate.

"Neither said they, Where is the LORD that brought us up out of the land of Egypt"

"Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto

her." Hosea 2:14

The Lord is in the wilderness speaking comfortably to me and alluring me further. Yes wound me Lord with your arrows and break me open so I can serve you.Thank you Lord Jesus!!!

We no longer believe in nor regularly practice what many believe to be the most important aspect of the Christian life, and that is church attendance in a building we call a church and as members of an organization (sometimes a corporation) we call a church.  We don’t believe that organized religion is a valid expression of New Testament Christianity, and that it was unknown to the early church, and is unsupported by scripture.  The writer to the Hebrews gives us the following instruction: “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching” (Heb. 10:24, 25).  The Greek word here translated as “the assembling” is the noun form of the verb “gathered” as recorded in Matthew 18:20, where Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”  This Greek word intimates that where two or three are led to gather, Jesus will be there.  We have found that as the Holy Spirit leads us to get together with other believers in any forum or expression, Jesus is present with us, and we believe that as the writer to the Hebrews states, we are to stir up one another and exhort one another, and not to sit passively in a pew while a professional does it for us.  We are not, of course, apposed to large gatherings or to organized meetings, for they have their place.  However, as the main expression of Christian worship and gathering, we believe that they have done much to separate man from God, from his fellow man, and from true religion, as the organized church, with her corporate organization, programs and performance related services, have usurped the place of the home and work-place as the center for Christian worship, fellowship, and evangelism.  We believe in the church (ekklesia – the called out ones) as one living organism, and not as a fractured and disconnected conglomeration of independent and often competing organizations.  For us, becoming the church has replaced the Sunday morning obligation of going to church.

We believe that the new birth is the prerequisite to seeing the Kingdom of God (John 3:3), the means to becoming a child of God (1 John 5:1-5), a work of God and not of man (Eph. 2:8,9), and an act of God’s will and not of man’s will (John 1:12, 13, James 1:18, John 5:21, Rom 9:15-23).  We believe the new birth is an experience with God where one encounters God and that it is not obtained by, or necessarily related to, Catholic sacraments or protestant or evangelical sacraments such as “The Sinner’s Prayer”, or other religious exercises performed at the urging of others.  We believe that baptism is a response from a heart changed by the new birth, and not the means to obtain it (1 Pet. 3:21, Acts 10:44).  We believe that in order for the new birth to be a deep and lasting experience, it must be preceded by a work of the Holy Spirit that brings a chronic or acute conviction of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and that any action that cuts short that process by bringing to birth prematurely will cause the work of grace to be a weak and shallow one (John 16:8, Mark 4:5, 6).

Below are the above referenced scripture verses:
John 3:3  Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

1 John 5:1-5  Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves Him who begot also loves him who is begotten of Him.  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep His commandments.  For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome.  For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world— our faith.  Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Eph. 2:8, 9  For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.

John 1:12, 13  But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

James 1:18  Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.

John 5:21  For as the Father raises the dead and gives life to them, even so the Son gives life to whom He will.

Rom. 9:15-23  For He says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion.”  So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.  For the Scripture says to the Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you, and that My name may be declared in all the earth.”  Therefore He has mercy on whom He wills, and whom He wills He hardens.  You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who has resisted His will?”  But indeed, O man, who are you to reply against God? Will the thing formed say to him who formed it , “Why have you made me like this?”  Does not the potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor?  What if God, wanting to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He had prepared beforehand for glory,

1 Pet. 3:21  There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

Acts 10:44  While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word.

John 16:8  And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:

Mark 4:5, 6  Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.