Letter From Pastor
15 January
- January 2010
- The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart that this is not just a New Year, but He is giving His church a New Ear to hear and courage to obey what He has to say. This is the time for the grey to go away from the church.
By that I mean a clear clean call of the Spirit to raise you, His church, as the one and only hope for the world. Church is not about the gloom and doom we see in the world, it’s the living hope —the Good News. It is the place where we turn our pain into a pulpit to produce something precious. The church is not a place to share how great our problems and pressures in life are to God. It is a place where we declare how great our God is to our problems.
I recently had the funeral of a 21 year old mother and her two year old son. There is a criminal investigation involved in the tragedy that caught the heart of our church and community. Hundreds of young adults poured though our church for the visitation and over 250 people gathered for the funeral service.
When I heard about the fire that took their lives and where it was, I was stirred in my heart because just a few weeks prior, three other pastors and I were praying over those same apartments. We actually prayed behind the very apartment where the fire took place. The Holy Spirit spoke to my heart to go bring comfort and connect those hurting hearts with His.
I went and offered our church for the funeral. I shared that God’s heart weeps with them and that God can not be the question in this kind of tragedy—He is the answer.
The Holy Spirit so responded in speaking to hearts that 20—25 souls accepted Christ in the funeral service, as well as many who re-dedicated their lives to Christ. That is a picture of the church being called out to reach the lost.
I am continuously reminded that God did not say to the world, “Go to church,” He said to the church, “Go to the world.” That calling requires that we become more and more God conscious and less self-conscious so His love can heal all of us Humpty Dumpty people.
The Foursquare Cabinet Meeting will take place January 18 to 20. Pastor John and I both serve on the Cabinet. Please pray with us as we meet to process the election of the next President of the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.
I conclude with a call for 21 days of fasting. It can be a meal a day or whatever you hear the Holy Spirit say. The focus is not on food, it is about Him. Let me explain—There is an orphanage in India where children fast every Friday. They fast and pray for America. However, they do not call it fasting, they call it Feasting on Jesus Day. Let’s feast on Jesus as we fast and you will gain a holy hunger for Him.
Pastor Jim
posted at 14:36:34 on 01/15/10
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