Walking With God

While reading from II Chronicles 6:14 I stumbled on this phrase "your servants who walk before you with all their heart." The word "walk" means to converse and to follow.

What does it mean to converse with God. I heard the story about a blind lady who used to spend eight hours a day conversing with God. She used that time to plead for her island to be brought to God. She had heard about a mighty preacher named Duncan Campbell being used powerfully of God and she began asking God to bring him to that island. In time Campbell did come and her prayers were answered as God brought a mighty revival to her island off the coast of Scotland.

I also heard the story of a coal miner from Wales who gave his life to conversing with God. The Lord would often wake him up in the middle of the night to pray before going to work. He prayed for thirteen years for God to move mightily in Wales. Eventually God did and Evan Roberts became in many ways the face of the revival though he shunned the spotlight.

The story is told of one revival meeting where he preached. He showed up and prayed for three straight hours on the front pew. The people waited on the Lord and to see what Roberts would do. After three hours of praying he got up and preached for fifteen minutes. He returned to praying and left to pray at home. Over 100,000 people were saved in six months.

A study I read recently cited that the average Christian prays between three to seven minutes a day. Another study cites the sobering statistic that the average pastor prays only about five minutes a day. We need men and women as well as pastors who will be more than average. We need people who walk with God conversing with Him.

Yes, that means that part of that time we pour our hearts out to Him in prayer. That is only a one sided conversation though. To be conversant in our walk with God there must be times we also listen. I have been seeking the Lord on a matter for weeks and weeks lately pleading with God to speak to me. This morning He did. It was really just one word. Yet with that one word God gave me the long needed direction I had been pleading for.

Walking with God means conversing with Him. It also means following Him. When God spoke to me this morning I had a choice to make. I could believe what He said by faith or I could reject His instructions. How many times do people go to the word of God or attend church on a Sunday and hear a Bible message but make no application to their lives. They refuse to follow through on the truth they just heard and be obedient. You cannot walk with God in close communion and rebel against His instructions.

Following is not always easy. There are times when God's instructions are a head scratcher. They are confusing. They do not make sense to the rational mind. There are times when God leads His followers to risky adventures with no guarantees of success. If you are going to walk with God you have to walk with God down those irrational paths and down those risky roads.

The key word not to miss here is you walk WITH God. He does not abandon you on the journey. He is with you every step of the way to provide strength, encouragement, counsel, hope, endurance, and provision. You have to be willing to follow and obey His leadership. Following Him is step after step of faith.

Walking with God involves conversation with Him and following Him. This leads to a life of adventure. This leads to a life of rich experiences with God. This is not a life of dead stale religion. This is the most exciting life imaginable.

Today will you commit to walk with God? To converse with Him? To follow Him? More than that will you commit to a lifetime of walking, conversing, and following God? If you do it will lead down exciting roads you could have never imagined.

God Is Gripping My Heart

God is gripping my heart in ways He has never done before. I am not sure what He is doing in me but it is deep, it is painful at times, and He is changing my heart. He is changing my outlook and focus. He is calling me to places with Him I have never been. His burden for prayer is being transplanted into my heart. Prayer is no longer a religious exercise to be endured out of duty. Time spent alone shut up to God is increasingly becoming an endless delight both day and night. God is changing me. This means many things in ministry will be changing for me as well.

Prayer now is the central focus of my life and, therefore, must become the central focus of the church I serve as pastor. If a church does not want to give herself wholly to prayer then they do not want me as their pastor. The prayer meeting is the new barometer of success for Faith Community Church. The attendance is not the most important figure nor how large the offerings are. Real success from this day forward is measured by the attendance at the prayer meetings and the fervency of the prayers offered there. Regardless if that means extended altar calls on Sunday morning or Wednesday night  and the Sunday night prayer meetings lasting longer than thirty minutes. WE MUST BECOME A HOUSE OF PRAYER. WE MUST BECOME A CHURCH GRIPPED BY GOD.

I plead with God to grip my soul with a burden, desire, and motivation to pray above everything else in my life. Above sleep. Above food. Above entertainment. Above time off. I am pleading that just like the mantle from Elijah fell on Elisha that the mantle of Leonard Ravenhill, Bill Mcleod, Manny Beasely, Duncan Cambbell, Evan Roberts and A.W. Tozer would fall on me. I am not talking about the mantle of ministry prominence or success. I am talking about the mantle of prayer and the prophetic mantle to fall on me and grip my heart.

How can I be content to go through the motions of ministry and church but never see the wonder working power of God on display. How can I ever be content when God's people have no heart for the things of God? How can I never be at ease in Zion when holiness is foreign in the lives of preachers and church members alike. Satan rapes and pillages our communities and our country and nobody seems to care. We gripe about things but where are the people shut up to God pleading for a revival.

A group of people began a prayer meeting in Germany back in 1727. That prayer meeting turned into a prayer movement impacting the entire world. Those prayer meetings lasted for 100 straight years! We can get crowds to come sit in church but we cannot get a few dozen folks to pray. We are losing the battle on every front. GOD CALL THE PRAYER WARRIORS FRONT AND CENTER IN EVERY CHURCH TO TAKE THEIR POST AS WATCHMEN ON THE WALLS.

I serve a church that lived in lukewarmness far too long. We have been dead, apathetic, unholy, and largely unconcerned.  I know it is because I have been content to serve a prayerless church. For over two years I have preached before empty altars. I have preached without the anointing and brokenness of God of a man held firm in His grip. I have not called this church to her knees to plead for breakthrough to God with authority. THAT ALL CHANGES NOW! God is stoking a revival fire in me like I have not known since the early days of my ministry. That was before hardships, setbacks, wounds, and disappointments. Suddenly none of those things matter as God grips my soul. He is conquering new ground inside me. He is revealing convicting truth to me. He is drawing me to repentance. He is gripping me firmly.

I don't  believe what He is doing in me is some emotional experience that will wear off in a few days. I have pleaded with God to never loosen His grip on me and to weigh His heart and mind on me heavier every hour of every single day for the rest of my life. I have pleaded for a never ending burden and discipline to pray no matter what hour of the day or night or how long those seasons of prayers last. I never want this to end. All of it began and will only be sustained in the prayer closet. I also do not believe this is something He just wants for me. HE WANTS ALL OF US TO BE HELD FIRM IN HIS GRIP EXPERIENCING HIS POWER, BROKENNESS, AND REVIVAL IN OUR PERSONAL HEARTS AND IN THE CORPORATE BODY OF CHRIST.

I do not want to glory in my successes. It does not matter how many books I write or how many come to hear me preach. I glory in the cross of Christ Jesus. I glory in the work of redemption where He first began gripping my heart. How inconsistent I have been. He never let me go. In fact He has only strengthened His grip on me to bring me to this place.

FAITH COMMUNITY CHURCH IS NOW A HOUSE OF PRAYER. LET THE SERVICES LAST LONGER THAN HOUR. LET THE TIMES AT THE ALTAR LINGER LONG INTO THE AFTERNOON. LET MESSAGES ON HOLINESS BE PREACHED AND LIVED. WE WILL SETTLE FOR NOTHING LESS THAN THE FULLNESS OF GOD AND THE POWER OF GOD TO BE EVIDENT ON WHAT WE DO. LORD I PLEAD THAT YOU WOULD GRIP US TIGHTER AND NEVER LET US DRIFT BACK INTO MEDIOCRITY AND HYPOCRISY!

Stand in the Gap

I was eating breakfast at the cafe when I learned there had been another mass shooting this time in Terrell, TX. I can remember all the way back to the Jonesboro and Columbine shootings. I remember the shooting at Westwood Baptist Church in Fort Worth and there have been others. Then there was the shooting at the Batman movie, the shooting at the elementary school in Connecticut, the army base and navy ship yard shootings and so many others.

While the politicians cry out for gun control laws the real need is Holy Spirit invoked self control. WE WILL NEVER LEGISLATE MORALITY. Lost people are going to act lost. Those apart from Christ are going to be subject to demon torment, oppression, and possession. They will carry out the wicked schemes of Satan to steal, kill, and destroy. [Jn 10:10] No amount of new laws are going to change any of that.

What breaks my heart, as equally as all the shootings, is the apathy of the Christian church. What has to happen to wake this church age up from spiritual slumber? We are hardened to these events. Nothing gets to us anymore. We do not sorrow. We do not grieve. We do not cry out for God to help. We really do not care. We are losing the war right and left but seem unbothered as long as the church service has people in the seats and money in the offering plates.

I for one cannot sit by and do nothing. As deeply as any time in my life, God is not only calling me to pray, but to rally others to pray as well. The Lord is waking me up at 2:00, 3:00, and 4:00 a.m. at times to plead for God to come and heal our land. Even as I write this my eyes are burning from lack of sleep but the burden for God to heal our land is greater. I am deeply resolved that the church I pastor will become a house of prayer. [Luke 19:46] Not a house of worship. Not a house of preaching. Not even a house of teaching. A house of prayer! This is the need for our nation. If churches really prayed again the much need healing of our land would come.

We have set aside our Sunday nights for prayer for revival for our church, our community, and our nation. Children, students, and adults all praying together for God to heal our churches, communities, and country.

If sermons were going to change our nation and usher in days of revival and spiritual awakening it would have already come. There has been no shortage of preaching. If singing praises to God would heal our land it would have already been made whole. There are worship gatherings continually. God said, "If my people who are called by name will humble themselves, turn from their wicked ways and PRAY..." [II Chron 7:15]

The American church will do just about anything and everything except pray. God has called me on mission to embrace the burden to pray for revival for our land and hold prayer gatherings anywhere I am invited to lead others to pray for revival. Sometimes these may be one night gatherings. At other times they may take on the form of a weekend retreat or conference. However God chooses to do it the purpose will be the same; TO CALL THE CHURCH TO PRAY!

I cannot and will not sit idly by while our land is destroyed on every front. All I know to do is to pray and rally others to pray as well. We must stand in the gap for this nation. "I searched for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand in the gap before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it; but I found no one."

Did you catch that. God looked for a man who would stand in the gap for the nation of Israel but He found no one. In how many churches can that also be true? How many communities? We must take our post to stand in the gap between our wicked and wayward nation and God.

Jeremiah Lamphier was only one man with a burden to call people to pray in New York. The first noon time prayer meeting only had six in attendance. Do not despise the day of small beginnings. Out of that one prayer meeting the Second Great Awakening was kindled transforming the nation. Soon others joined the six and in time the location had to be changed. Other prayer meetings began springing up in New York and in time in communities all over the nation. The masses were saved. That was a long long time ago.

America is in worse shape than ever. My assignment is to give my life to prayer. I have pleaded with God to grip my soul with this burden and to wake me up whenever He wants to cry out for healing in this land. This is a cause for which I am willing to devote the remainder of my life. Will you ask God to do the same in you? I will lead the church I serve to become a house of prayer. Pastor will you do the same? I will travel where I am invited to rally people to PRAY both far and near! Seeking God and pleading for His healing of our churches, communities, and country is consuming and compelling vision I give the rest of my life to.

It is time to wake up church. It is time to stand in the gap not just for a set aside day for national prayer. It is time to pray everyday. I will not cry out when students cannot pray in school when there is so little praying in the church. Now is the time.

Made Righteous

I am a sinner. I am often disobedient to the commands of God. I am often cold or worse indifferent to the things of God. On my own effort I would have never and could never have become acceptable to God. My sin got in the way.

O but then enter Jesus who died for sin taking the punishment for all mankind. In exchanged He offers forgiveness, salvation, and His righteousness. What a glorious exchange. It is not a fair exchange by any means. Jesus received what He did not deserve on the cross and I received forgiveness that I never deserved.

No truth in the whole Bible humbles me more and yet causes such rejoicing in my heart as the truth of II Cor 5:21."He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

I am not righteous because I preach. I am not righteous because I go to church, read my Bible, pray, and give money away. I am declared righteous because of Jesus Christ and the great exchanged He made on the cross. Why would I not love Him? Why would I not want to serve Him no matter how difficult the path? Why would I ever entertain any other life than following Him in full surrender?

I see now why Paul wrote what He did in [Gal 6:14]. "But as for me, I will never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."

Be Still

We live in a restless age. We always want to be on the go but to go deeper with God we have to learn to be still. [Ps 46:10] Being still is foreign to many people. In fact, we live such fast paced lifestyles if we ever get still many fall asleep out of sheer exhaustion.

We do not know how to be still. We have to be watching something, listening to something, checking social media, seeking entertainment, and trying to stay connected with everyone while increasingly becoming more and more disconnected from God.

If we are ever going to go deeper with God we have to learn to be still. That means we have to intentionally forsake the company of people so that we can be alone to keep company with God. Being still requires that we cease activity in order to turn our thoughts, our passions, and affections toward Jesus Christ. Being still means quieting our minds and hearts in the Lord's presence. Being still means ceasing activity except for prayer and meditation on the word of God.

Centuries ago this being still was built into the natural flow of life. People lived a slower pace of life. They walked more. Took time to sit on the porch more. There were no smart phones, email, or internet. The television did not keep people preoccupied for hours on end. Social media did not distract. People pondered things. People read more.

There have been distractions in every age to keep the believer from going deeper with God. Satan is a masterful distractor. To combat that the child of God has to learn to sit still before a great and magnificent God. Sitting still means slowing down everything for the purpose of seeking more of Him. Sitting still before Him brings new revelations with endless joy in His presence. [Ps 16:11]

When we learn to sit still we come to know Him. That means we comprehend more of Him, we discover new truth about Him, we perceive new revelation of Him and we gain a higher regard for Him.

I urge you to get still before God and linger long in His presence. Then and only then will you truly come to know Him.

Friendship With God

Do you long to be a friend of God? Do you long for an intimate communion with Him that you do not even share with a spouse, child, or best friend. We need that kind of devotion to God. Keith Green once taught a message about being devoted or just doing devotions. I have had enough of devotions. I want to meet with God. I want to enjoy Him as I tarry in His presence. I want to hear Him give counsel and directions. I want to yearn for Him more. I want to yearn to yearn for Him more. I want to be a friend of God. 

How many times do we prefer the company of men over the company of God? How often do we gather in the fellowship of other people to discuss God while shunning the fellowship of God Himself. How often do we rush through a devotion so as to check it off our list and hurry on to other important matters. What is more important than cultivating friendship with God?

O brother and sister, is your heart burning with new zeal and love for God? We have zeal for food, sports, family, making money, accumulating stuff, business, and for some even the church. Do we have zeal to know God and to walk deeply with Him? Do we have zeal for friendship with the Almighty?

American church we are missing it. We are convinced our latest technology and time saving methods can short cut our way to success ministry. What may look like success on the outside just might be offensive to God for He does not look on the outward appearance of things but looks at the heart. The hearts in many churches are distant, hard, and self-centered. How many walk in friendship with God daily sitting in the pews on Sunday. Research says the average Christian prays between 3-7 minutes a day. 3-7 minutes! We give more time than that to television, facebook, pinterest, texting, instagram, twitter, email, and surfing the web. Surely God is worth more than 3-7 minutes. The results are evident. Cool hearts, subdued passion, and in some cases total neglect toward the things of God.

God wants hearts that love Him supremely. [Matt 22:37] God wants hearts that are bent in the relentless pursuit of knowing Him. {Ps 42:1-2] [Ps 63:1-2] May we give our energy, our time, and our souls to the passionate pursuit of friendship with God. It will not happen without time spent alone in His presence. It will not happen apart from the breaking of our hearts of the lesser pursuits that distract us.

May we not be so easily amused with the lesser blessings on planet earth. We were created to commune with God. May we expend our days living out that destiny. May we give ourselves wholly to prayer, scripture meditation and study, and private worship. How I pray friendship with God would become an inward reality for all of us.

Burden for Revival

We are in trouble. Our culture drifts further and further from God while the church sleeps in indifference. Pagan Nineveh had more of a heart to respond to God's truth than many believers do.

Sin is everywhere including the church. Holiness has become a foreign reality in many homes and under multitudes of church steeples. While church growth experts promote church growth strategies, where are the proponents for holiness and revival?

There are a few prophets in the land doing as Vance Havner used to do. He would often say, " I have come to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable." We need more of that. The prophets have many cashed in profit rather than the hard ministry of thus says the Lord.

I yearn for hard truth spoken by God's prophet unconcerned about the love offering or whom he may offend. I need to be offended out of my comfortable apathetic lifestyle. That happened today through a man of God long ago departed.

I watched a message he preached on the internet and was challenged. I found myself on my knees crying out to God for His burden and repentant of the sins in my life. I want to fully embrace the burden for revival and spiritual awakening in our country, communities, and churches.

I don't know what that means for me personally. Today was the culmination of months of God's work in my heart to call me to the burden for revival. God is gripping my heart for the soul of this nation and today my prayer included asking God to grip me tighter and more firmly not just for this moment but every day for all my days. I asked God to grip my soul hourly so the burden never lessens and the passionate pursuit of Him in revival consumes me.

I don't know what form that passionate pursuit will take me. For now I am confident it is increasing prayer and writing. Perhaps the day will come when God chooses to use me to preach in pursuit of Him in revival.

It is time to wake up church. It is time throw off indifference and apathy and to revive the near extinct prayer meeting. I heard today about a pastor who labored in this pursuit and actually saw the Wednesday night prayer meetings increase in attendance to over 170 persons in a congregation with less than 200 in attendance on Sunday mornings. He told the people miss Sunday morning and Sunday night if you must but do not let anything but death keep you from the Wednesday night prayer meeting.

Preacher would this hurt your ego if they did not come to hear you preach in mass but came to the prayer meeting to seek the face of God in droves? Of course I know if those people are coming to seek the face of God in prayer they will want to seek God on Sundays as well.

After five years of prayer meetings that church saw a move of God that lasted for seven weeks in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. People began going to the police station and confessing crimes they had committed. Broken relationships were reconciled. People were saved. The crowds outgrew church sanctuaries until the revival services had to be moved to a civic auditorium.

Here is the question posed to me. Will I diligently give myself to prayer for revival and leadership in the pursuit of God for five years or ten if that is what it takes for God to answer. I cannot sit idly by going to church services where little is expected of the people or experienced of God while this nation drifts closer and closer toward judgment.

I have tasted small pockets of revival on at least three different occasions. That felt like an appetizer. I hunger for the full revival meal that would draw this nation back to the heart of God. I am asking for a prophet's anointing and mantle to fall on me. Only God can save this sinful age. Here am I Lord, send me. Use me. Choose me to labor in pursuit of you for revival. Please give the spirit of prayer to your people once again.

Leaving the Altar in Tears

It is my sincere desire to preach for decisions. Whether that be preaching an evangelistic message and desiring to see souls saved or seeing people at the altar in repentance of sin, I want to see God move. When I preach my heart out I trust God to move souls to respond. When people do not respond it eats away at me.

I left the altar about as broken this past week as I have in a long time. I preached a message about revival, prayer, repentance, and the mercy of God to respond to broken hearted, sorrowful, and repentant people. The challenge was that the people of God would be as responsive to God's word as the pagan people of Nineveh were to Jonah's message.

I concluded the message asking people to ask God for His heart about our nation and to ask God to break our hearts with the things that break His heart. Then I went to the altar and fell to my knees praying. My prayers were interrupted by the sound of laughter as I had already told people they could leave when they wanted. We went from a solemn message to casual conversational chatter in less than five minutes. My heart sunk like an anvil in a swimming pool.

Tear filled my eyes as I left the altar. I was in no mood to talk and made my way to my office trying to avoid eye contact with people. There I sat in stunned silence wondering why the people did not respond. The gnawing in my soul is hard to live with. When the altars are not jammed with people it bothers me. When people are not repentant, the lost are not saved, the people of God do not pray, and when the listeners do not adjust their lives with the truth of God's word it does not sit well with me.

Brenda has often said that when I preach my whole body and being are caught up in the message. I often feel the message deeply while delivering it. Maybe that is why it hurts so badly when it seems that the people do not listen nor respond. The prophet Jeremiah knew this feeling. The nation never responded to his prophetic utterances.

Prophets are often maligned, rejected, and persecuted. I wonder if they ever left the altar or from a preaching assignment in tears broken that the people did not respond. I would rather leave the altar broken and in tears than to leave a service dry-eyed and hard hearted because I do not care.

New Book Update

The publisher has my my new book and production has begun. Out of the $4,000 we need to hire a publicist for the book (which will all be reimbursed once the book sells 1,000 copies) we have been able to send $1,700. We thank God for the generosity of his people and for opening doors for me to preach to be able to send that amount.

We still need $2,300 and I do not have it. We have less than $100 in No Compromise Ministries. I just reread the manuscript to make a few changes before sending it to the publisher. Now we are in production. We have asked God to supply the rest of this money.

I believe in this book as much as any that I have written. Don't just take my word for it. Here is an email I received from one who read the manuscript and gave me some feed back.

"Matt, I am not a reader, I can count less than five times I have ever finished a book that quickly, sad but true! 

I couldn't put this book down. Less than 24 hours I have consumed your writings as if it were a piece of homemade chocolate cake! 

You have allowed God to speak through you as you share your personal experience mixed with truth from His Word. They have spoken to me and my soul the things I have felt, what I'm feeling now and things I haven't even realized before, but that are so true! 

Wow! Brother I believe with my whole heart this book will reach thousands NO millions of people because it's content is relevant  to 100% of the people who live here on this earth! 

The length of the book is perfect living in a busy, busy world.

I cannot wait to see what God is going to do with this book! I want to pay you for a whole case of books that I am going to share with so many I know that need this comfort! They need to know that Joy does come in the morning! They need to know that Hope comes from having a relationship with Jesus Christ! 

Hang on brother, it's going to ignite , spread and consume! Are you ready for this? 

Thank you for being obedient and allowing God to use your sufferings to reach others. Your pain has not been in vain. This book is going to be proof of that. You have exalted the Lord through your sufferings by being obedient in writing this book!  To God be the glory! "

We are still committed to giving all the money we make from this book to help pay off the remaining debt on the hospital in Honduras. I have laid this book at God's feet and trust that He will put it in the hands of the people who need healing and hope all over the world. 

If you would like to partner with us in helping to make this book a reality please contact me. Though $2,700 is out of my reach right now that is not a big sum to God. I trust Him to move this mountain like He has done so many times in the past. He has already moved one person to give a generous gift of $1,000 in answer to prayer right after a No Compromise Ministries board meting.  

It will take about seven months before the book will be released. I hope to do several book signings in west, TX, east, TX, and in this area. Your prayers are coveted and your partnership is appreciated. 

No COMPROMISE ministries began as a faith ministry in 1998 and has continued as a faith ministry for the past fifteen years. We have trusted God for His provision over and over again and watched God move in answer to those prayers in timely fashion. We trust He will do it again with this project. I am happy to report that God has used this ministry to send nearly $30,000 to pay on the hospital to date. It is our desire to see God wipe out the debt on the hospital completely as the doctors continue to minister to poverty stricken Chorti people around Copan Ruinas Honduras. 

We will not stop praying, serving, and laboring until that mountain has been moved. We believe this book is going to be a huge part of that miracle. 

My Choice

Life is filled with choices. Today I chose to wear jeans, a green shirt, and boots. I chose to buy breakfast rather than to cook. Those are simple choices.

 Other choices are more complex. Choices about how to spend and invest your money. Choices about how to use your time. There are choices about where you live or where you work. These are not as simple.

The one choice I am most interested in today and every day is the one I found while reading in the scriptures this morning. Read it for yourself. "Now fear the Lord and serve Him in sincerity and truth and put away the gods which your Fathers served beyond the River and in Egypt and serve the Lord. If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord , choose for yourself today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." [Joshua 24:14-15]

Will I choose to serve the Lord? Will I decide day in and day out to serve the one true God? Will I elect Him day after day to rule and to reign on the throne of my life. What will I choose when He works in ways I do not understand? Who will I serve when life does not work out like I thought in my long term plans? Will I decide with God when life gets hard and the way seems unsure? Who will I serve?

Everybody chooses to serve someone. Many bow down to the god of self. They live to serve self. The enjoy whatever they want with few restraints as long as it makes them happy. They put self at the front of their agenda. They promote themselves in every realm of life. They indulge in every selfish pleasure they want.

Others serve politicians, philosophies, and other religions. Some serve money. The question posed before me today is who will I serve. Put another way who or what will I give my whole self to be enslaved as a bondservant. Who will get my allegiance?

It is easy to say "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." Will I choose serving the Lord when things get tough. When God calls me to serve Him requiring sacrifice will I still I choose Him? When God beckons me to hold things in this life loosely and to let them go, will I still choose and desire to serve Him? Will I still want to serve Him when the nights of weeping outnumber the joys in the morning? Will I still choose to serve Him when the tears blind the path and obscures hope for better days.

Will l still bow in submission to God the Sovereign King and give my allegiance to Him when His plans clash with my plans and I have to alter my course? Will I still remain loyal in service when youth has faded and my body and mind become feeble with old age?

Then, I wonder if my household will choose to serve God. Will they elect God the King of their hearts. Will they live out their days as good church members or truly devoted followers of Christ? Will they give their allegiance to Jesus Christ for all of their days? Will they choose the easier road. A more populated road but a road leading to destruction?

These are the questions I am pondering today. You know what I have decided. I have decided to serve the Lord and with every fiber of my being to lead my family to do the same. I know full well what I am choosing. I am choosing the route of surrender.[Matt 16:24] I am choosing to relinquish control.[Gal 2:20] I understand I do not get to call the shots.[Eph 2:10] I know there are things that are off limits to me. I know there are things I may have to do that will not be popular. I know the choice of this path will often be lonely. It could lead down some risky trails. I may not come out unscathed. I still choose to serve the Lord.

So again, today as I have done numerous times, I give Jesus Christ my allegiance, my loyalty, my service, and my life. I seek to give Him all of me down to the last drop. I bow in submission to Him, His purposes, and His commands. I give my worship and service to follow Him even if none go with me. I lay my life, my family, and my ministry at His feet. Today I choose to serve the Lord. I choose for my whole household to serve the Lord. When I fail I will not quit. When I sin I will turn in repentance. When I am unsure of the direction I will wait on His marching orders. When I am hurt, wounded, and broken I will trust Him for healing and run back to the battle. I raise the white flag of surrender. No holding back. My choice today and everyday has to be JESUS!

What do you choose? Who will you serve?

Patience and Perseverance

While driving to Seminole on Monday I began anticipating seeing the cotton fields ripe for harvest. What I found were barren fields where in some places the crops never came up due to lack of rain. I witnessed a dismal sight of sparsely under grown fields. I expected to see fields of green plants laced with cotton balls. I found a wasteland depicting broken hearts and broken dreams for a great harvest.

I thought of all the farmers I know. I thought of how year after year they plow in hope. They sow seed in hope. They pray for rain and wait in hope. Most can no longer irrigate because the water below has dried up. For the third year in a row the harvest was bad.

One man told me the crop insurance companies are discussing classifying the farm lands as dry land instead of irrigation land. Those farmers are some of the most stout hearted people I have ever met. Year after year they climb on their tractors with the hope for a better year. They never give up. They press on in faith and hope year after year.

James tells us to consider the farmers and their patience waiting for their precious crops [James 5;7]. The word patience there is a good word for us today. We need to learn this. It means "to be long in spirit, not to lose heart, and to persevere bravely even in enduring misfortunes and troubles."

Even the mundane tasks become difficult when we are heavy laden and trying to endure trials patiently. I think of those farmers year after year preparing the fields under the stress of drought. One man told me experts predict the drought could last anywhere from five years to fifteen more years. Yet those stalwart sod busters plow the fields and plant trusting God for rain and to bring the harvest. They keep laboring though their hearts are heavy with mounting debts and decreasing yields from the field. Though their hearts are anguished they still do their daily tasks.

They inspire me. They inspire me to persevere. They inspire me to keep praying, to keep hoping, and to keep laboring for the Lord. They are an example of steadfastness as are the prophets.

Perhaps none inspires me to persevere through hard times more than Job. He suffered but he kept singing God's praises. He got knocked down but he didn't stay down. He lost most everything he held dear but still clung to an unfailing God.

I don't know what you are up against today. I know what my farmer friends face. I know that God can strengthen our hearts with two things. His word. [Ps 119:165] [Rom 12:2] God gives us peace and transforms our minds with reading and meditation of His word. The second thing is the inspiration of others. Weekly I meet brave men, women, and students who persevere through adversity. I read in history books about those who have suffered but they kept the faith and ran the race God set before them with endurance.

O weary and worn pastor let me encourage you. William Carey labored for seven years in Burma before he saw the first convert to Christ and Adoniram Judson likewise waited seven years before seeing anyone saved. Charles Simeon endured twelve years of ill treatment before his church accepted him as their pastor and he remained in that place for over fifty years. Persevere. Endure. Remain constant and steadfast.

We all have a need for those character traits. We need it in marriage, raising children, at work, doing the mundane tasks of every day life, and in our pursuit of intimacy with Christ. God help us to persevere and to endure to the end.

Don't Take Them For Granted

Matt Edwards

16 seconds ago · 

• How easy it is to take people for granted. From where I write this I can hear Brenda's gentle breathing as she enjoys these last few moments of slumber. She has been a part of my life for the past twenty-five years. Three of those we dated off and on and we have been married for the rest.
  
  I have lunch with her most everyday. She is my best friend. I unload my burdens to her, share my dreams with her, and have followed and pursued God with her by my side. She has weathered the storms in my life like the death of my mom in 1998 and the death of numerous ministry dreams. She has prayed for me diligently while I stood to expound God's word. At times I have been awakened in the middle of the night with her hand resting on me as she prayed for me to get a clear word from God to preach.
  
  We still laugh together. We still enjoy going on dates together. We still chase the kids together. We quietly grieve and rejoice that Taylor is about to graduate this year and pray with him for where God would have him go to college.
  
  I write all this because I was afforded a rare opportunity yesterday to sit with a man who recently lost his wife of almost 63 years. 63 years! We talked about how they met and where life had taken them. He loved his wife and devoted himself to her care when her health began to fail. While we talked his continued love for her and grief were evident.
  
  I let that sink in. His life has changed. The things I take for granted he does not. I wake up with a warm body next to me. I came home from traveling to a hot meal last night. Brenda was doing my laundry when I came home. When I opened the door she greeted me last night with these words, "Hello Daddy." Today we will have lunch together at one of our local favorites. Tonight she will sit dutifully on the front row for our midweek Bible study Lord willing. We will most likely talk numerous times on the phone before the day ends. I can smell the dinner she already has cooking in the crock pot for tonight.
  
  These are blessings my friend no longer gets to enjoy and my heart grieves and aches for him. While many people grieve the death of people for a few hours or days and then move on with everyday life, the spouse or parent who lost the loved one never get over the grieving. A song, a movie, a picture, or a face in the crowd can jolt hundreds of memories of a lost loved one reopening the grief wound. They may learn to cope but they never forget. Life is never the same. NEVER! Many have to learn to live with a hole in their heart. Days are spent alone. The phone does not ring as often. Meals are now eaten alone. Life is different.
  
  We ended our visit yesterday with prayer. We had a tender moment as I asked God to comfort and strengthen this brother. He is a hero to me. He inspires me to want to be a better husband and a better man. He is the best example of a man who honored his wedding vows "to love and to cherish in sickness and in health to death do us part" I have ever known. Many more prayers will be lifted up on his behalf over the days ahead.
  
  Today I will not take my wife for granted or my children. I will hold her hand. I will look deep into her eyes. I will listen to her intently. I will make mental notes of every feature of her face. I will rejoice in the wife of my youth and now my middle age. I will rejoice in the Lord who gave her to me. I will not take her for granted. I will enjoy driving the kids to school and listening to them. I will hug each of them as if for the first time. I will not take them for granted.

Home Bible Study

The living room was crowded with all sorts of different chairs filled with people eager to study the Bible. After six hours of driving west, visiting with several people, and a board meeting, we were eager to dive into the scriptures.

There were a couple of students and a room filled with familiar faces of adults. There was not an empty chair in the room. Most had open Bibles. A few had note pads to take notes. They were hungry for God and I was hungry to get to teach those I love once again. I taught from Jonah chapter two. It was the same message I delivered at Faith Community Church this past Sunday morning. It is a message about how God pursued, chastised, and brought Jonah to a place of brokenness. I lost track of time as we dug into the passage feeling the presence of God in the room.

We had no music. There was no choir. No special music. No throngs of people. It reminded me of what [Acts 2:42-47] must have been like. A simple gathering of God's people hungering to grow and to learn. I sat with an open Bible and a few scribbled notes exploring the text verse by verse.

At times I got choked up. I shepherded these people just two short years ago. The bond is still strong. At times I fought back tears as I expounded the text. I told about a vow I made to God several years ago. That vow is to follow God anywhere, to do anything, at anytime. It is a vow God has called me on time and time again. It is a vow I believe God will continue to call me on time and time again. Like a broken and repentant Jonah [Jonah 2:8-9] I want to pay my vow to the Lord.

Paying vows can be costly. Numerous times I have had to look my wife and boys in the eyes to tell them God had called us to move to a new ministry in a new town. I have felt their anguish as the reality set in that would mean leaving friends and the familiar for the unknown. Yet submission to the Lordship of Jesus trumps the pain of keeping my vow. God desires obedience even when it requires sacrifice.

We ended our time together in prayer. The tears began to flow freely. There are no words to communicate how the presence of God permeated our souls. I cannot describe the deep level of love that flowed freely in that room. Love for God. Love for His word. Love for one another. We all cried.

It was Monday night. These close to two dozen people hungered for God and the study of the scriptures more than Monday Night Football or a leisure night at home. I cherish the memory of that home Bible study. I thank God, not just for the chance to teach His word, but also for the chance to teach it to people I love so much.

A Quick Answer to Prayer

After a few weeks of prayer we have a publisher for my latest book "Weeping For A Night". The No Compromise board of directors voted last night accept the contract from Tate Publishing. We have to come up with $4,000 for a publicist but there is a catch. If we sell 1,000 copies of the book the $4,000 will be reimbursed. So last night the board closed our meeting by praying for God's provision. 

Later that night, before a Bible study, I was handed the phone to talk with a man from Seminole. The conversation went like this. This man had gone to the hospital to pay off his wife's hospital bill. He learned it had been payed in full already. He had some extra money and asked my friend who handed me the phone if there were any needs he might make a contribution to help meet. My friend with the phone is on our board of directors and told him about the book. All the money we make from the book will go to pay off the debt on the hospital in Copan Ruinas Honduras. The man committed to a $1,000 gift.

I picked the check up this morning. God will supply the rest and we trust in about seven months the book will be available. Praise the Lord for answered prayer and for a board of directors who believe God still works. We continue to pray for the Lord to move the rest of this mountain and to put this book into hands of people all over the country.