sams-blog

The day or the hour

Tue, 24 May 2011 17:34:55 +0100

    Matthew 24:36 "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone." As you know it was predicted that Jesus would return on Saturday at 3:00 p.m., but as you see we are all still here. Now this same person is telling us Jesus will return in October instead and that he was off just by a little. But Jesus said no one knows the day or hour not even Himself, so either Jesus is wrong and this person is right or the other way around, for may two cents iam going with Jesus!
    The truth is if someone saids they know when Jesus is coming they are lying or deceived! But in either case we must not believe them or we will be deceived as well. This also causes the world to grow cynical of our message of the return of Jesus and the believers to dispair of their hope in His return. I will leave you with this final thought, when Paul wrote his second letter to the Thessalonians he was addressing the same issue we face today with those who set dates and say Jesus has come. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians 2:3, "Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction," So dont let someone decieve you into believeing a date, the Bible is clear about what has to take place first before His return, and please heed Pauls warning! Love you all.

    Pastor Sam.

When your spirit sings

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 22:14:56 +0100

    My spirit was singing to Jesus and kept singing to Him, singing this song "I believe", by Andy Chrisman of 4Him. I decided to go YouTube and listen. The instant i started to play that song the Holy Spirit fell on my spirit and tears filled my eye's and my spirit began to sing over and over this phase. " Come Holy Spirit bring Jesus, come Holy Spirit, i love You because You bring Jesus to me".
    When you notice your spirit is singing to the Lord, STOP whatever your doing, it means the Holy Spirit is near and is wanting you, wanting to pour into you. Please please let Him and be so blessed without measure!
    Luke 10:21 "At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father for this way was well pleasing in Your sight." Amen Jesus, we join You in this prayer and seek Your face!

        Love you all
        Pastor Sam.

Embracing who we are in Christ

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:37:36 +0100

    In our Upper Room meeting we discovered that one of the issues the hold us back in our Christian walk in not believing what God says about us. We dont embrace who we are in Christ, we reject the Word of God concerning ourselves and instead embrace guilt, condemnation and self-loathing. This self-loathing keeps the Holy Spirit from overflowing our lives and setting us free from patterns of behavior and sin that traps us and thus we never grow.
    We see this with Moses in Exodus 3 and 4 when he repeatedly said, "who am I". This lead Moses to reject God's call on his life in Exodus 4:13, Moses focus was on himself and his inabilities and not on the Lord and His abilities. The Bible tells us the Moses was the humble man on earth, but not here in theses chapters for he was filled with self-loathing and trapped in himself unable to see the Lord and embace His Word concerning his life. True humility embrace who Christ and who we are in Christ! The Bible says we are the children of God, the bride of Christ in which we are discribed as spotless dressed in white. To believe anything else is unbelief and rejection of God's Word, yes we struggle with sin, yes we are unworthy in and of ourselves. But God looks at what we will be when the work of the Cross is finished and not at what is, that the blood of Jesus covers us.
    Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come." also in verse 21 it says, "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." Paul says we are new creatures and the righteousness of Christ, thats what the Bible says and its what we must believe to be free. Once we begin to believe in faith, even a mustard seed size faith, then the Holy Spirit is released to overflow us to break off things that keep us in bondage and to give us meaning to our lives and to fulfill our purpose and call of God. Believe and be free, amen.

    Love you all, Pastor Sam.

Floppy Puppy

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 17:09:57 +0100

    Acts 7:51, "You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in the heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did." In Steven's amazing message he is telling the Pharisee's, that they resist the Holy Spirit and as a result they repeat the mistakes of the past. The only way we can escape the pattern of making the same mistakes over and over is thru the power of the Holy Spirit.
    I was playing with our new puppy Sunny the other day and all was fine until i decided to try and take her her bone. She went from floppy puppy to stiff, resistant, firm puppy. Her neck got stiff just as Steven said in regard to the Pharisee's, because she didnt want me to take her bone away. When the Spirit comes to us, He requires a releasing or removal of something, (usually our will), so the Spirit may impart life and healing, were there was death and disease.
    The reason we often resist the Holy Spirit is we dont want to let go of something, so the Holy Spirit may free us from the past and the patterns of sinful behavior. That the Spirit may gift us and complete us! If you are stuck in a pattern of behavior and repeating the past over and over; its because you are resisting the Holy Spirit, for fear of what might be removed from you. I have seen this in my own life and continue to battle this, the only hope of being free is to surrender to the Holy Spirit, trust me you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
    Love you all, Pastor Sam.

Always giving thanks

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:30:45 +0100

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    As two men were walking through a field one day, they spotted an enraged bull. Instantly, they darted toward the nearest fence. The storming bull followed in hot pursuit, and it was soon apparent they would not make it. Terrified, the one shouted to the other;
    "Put up a prayer, John. We're in for it!"
    John answered, "I can't. I've never made a public prayer in my life."
    " But you must"! implored his companion. "The bull is catching up to us."
    "All right," panted John, "I'll say the only prayer i know, the one my father used to repeat at the table: O Lord, for what we are about to receive, make us truly thankful."
    This story is fictitious but it does give us a valuable truth. That no matter what the trial we should and need to always give thanks. Having a thankful heart breaks the power of a trial to crush you and make you bitter, it free's the Spirit of God to act on you're behalf to bring forth victory. Psalm 100:4-5a says, "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, And His courts with praise, Give thanks to Him; bless His name. For the Lord is good." When we enter His presence with thanksgiving there is a releasing of God's love and power to face down whatever bull of a trial we maybe going thru. A thankful heart is a glad heart. Happy Thanksgiving, love you all.

Measuring a Miracle

Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:13:52 +0100

Three weeks ago we prayed for a brother with a back injury, and seeing how God healed him thru our prayers got me thinking that prayer is a miracle. The sooner we realize this fact, the sooner prayer ceases to be a dull routine or a religious burden. It becomes an exciting adventure that molds your life and the lives of those for whom you pray. If prayer is a neglected or ignored discipline in your life, then it's time you and I attempt to measure this miracle and discover what we are missing. In the book of Acts the church members devoted themselves to the Word of God and prayer, knowing prayer was their lifeline in this life. Prayer is our lifeline and an opportunity for us to glorify God's name and receive His blessing. It's also an opportunity to join in His miracles. Charles Spurgeon was asked the reason for God's blessing on his ministry he replied, "My people pray for me". Spurgeon knew he needed pray and his people joined in the miracle of Spurgeon's ministry thru prayer. Prayerlessness is a sin we need to confess to the Lord right now so we can be free. I love David's heart when he wrote, "You, God, are my God, earnestly i seek You; I thirst for You, my whole being longs for You, in a dry and parched land where there is no water" Psalm 63:1. Love you all, Pastor Sam.

Jump before you look

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 16:54:40 +0100

In April 1988 the evening news reported on a photographer who was a skydiver. He had jumped from a plane along with numerous other skydivers and filmed the group as they fell and opened their parachutes. On the film shown on the news report, as the final skydiver opened his chute, the picture went berserk. The announcer reported that the cameraman had fallen to his death, having jumped out of the plane without his parachute. It wasn't until he reached for the absent ripcord that he realize he was freefalling without a parachute. Until that point, the jump probably seemed exciting and fun. But tragically, he acted with thoughtless haste and deadly foolishness. Nothing could save him, for his faith was in a parachute never buckled on. Faith in anything but an all sufficient God will be just as deadly spiritually. Only with faith in Jesus can we safely navigate thru this dangerous world and please God. Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God." Amen.

Love you all
Pastor Sam

Got the Spirit?

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:44:43 +0100

"We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone.... [We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost." -A.W. Tozer- Like Tozer i believe that something is missing in our churches and that something is Someone--- namely, the Holy Spirit. Without Him we are left to operate in our own strength and only accomplish human size results. The world is not moved by love or actions that are of human creation. And the church is not empowered to live differently from any other gathering of people without the Holy Spirit. But when believers live in the power of the Spirit, the evidence in their lives is supernatural. The church cannot help but be different, and the world cannot help but notice. So this week take time to yield to the Holy Spirit and His leadership, listen to Him, because obedence is being filled with the Holy Spirit! Love you all, Pastor Sam.

The Voice of God

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 19:12:20 +0100

"The voice of God is upon the waters; The God of glory thunders, The Lord is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful, The voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; Yes, the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. He makes Lebanon skip like a calf, And Sirion like a young wild ox. The voice of the Lord hews out flames of fire. The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness; The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord makes the deer to calve And strips the forest bare; And in His Temple everything says, Glory!" Psalm 29:3-9 Its been said that people who seek faith go where faith is and people who want to hear the voice of God go where He can be heard. Its clear from this Scripture that the voice of God is indeed a powerful part of our existance and accomplishes much more than we could ever imagine. We will explore the many benefits of His voice next week, but for now seek His voice in the quiet place of your heart, the small still voice the can shatter utterly the power of darkness, amen! Love you all, Pastor Sam.

A worshiper of God

Tue, 25 May 2010 20:22:18 +0100

One of the things that demostrates our God is so very real is our praise and worship music. Its how we sing to Jesus, how we praise Him that shows He is real. No other religion even comes close, nothing in this world compares to the worship of a real God. Perhaps its one of the best parts of being a christian, at least for me, the honor and joy of worshiping my King, there's nothing like it. Sets me free in ways nothing else can, brings healing to my broken heart, brings the rain to my dry and weary soul. Keeps me going when i feel like giving up. Psalm 29:2 & 96:9 says,"Worship the Lord in holy array and holy attire." In Acts 16:14 it tells us that Lydia who was a worshiper of God, sold purple fabric for a living. Purple is the color of royality. The connection here is that Lydia was dessed in holy attire thru worship, being a worshiper of God made her royal and beautiful. Nothing makes you more beautiful than to worship Jesus and it demostrates to the whole world the reality of God Himself, wow so amazing and amen. Be a worshiper of God, love you all, Pastor Sam.