It’s no wonder that Christians worship on Sunday. Muslims worship on Friday, Jews worship on Saturday, but Christians worship on Sunday because that is the day when Christ proved that he had conquered death. This is why we are Sunday Christians. We are not Friday Christians who serve a dead Savior, not Saturday Christians still waiting and wondering, but Sunday Christians who serve a living, breathing Savior. One who is alive and one who reigns. He died because he had to die. Our sin demanded blood and death. And yet he rose because he had to rise. He was the Son of God; how could death hold him? How could the Creator of all that exists be held down by death? It cannot happen and it did not happen. Christ is risen.

What an incredible thing to consider and experience – an intimate conversational relationship with the creator of the universe! To think that God is waiting for us to be alone with Him so we can know each other and so He can talk with us. WOW! This is my second time through the “Secrets of the Secret Place”. This time I am looking forward to going very slowly, one chapter per week, and doing it with others in The Fellowship – it’s like being on a journey together. These last two chapters reminded me of a daily morning prayer that Dale Fife, a guest speaker several years ago, shared with us. Often since that time, but not necessarily daily, I pray this; “Lord, here I am to walk with you today. Where are we going? What do you want to say to me today?” What would be the result of such a pr ayer? For Jesus – it was leaving Glory; walking on this earth into the lives of and touching all kinds of people from all walks of life that needed to experience the reality and power of His Kingdom; and only doing what His Father told Him – ultimately leading to the cross. For us, the consequence of such a prayer is that He reveals Himself to us; takes us out of the church and into all arenas of life and people to speak volumes of His love, acceptance, forgiveness, and hope to those who need to experience The King and His Kingdom – ultimately leading to our death-of-self only to find true life. How that looks for each of us will be different. I want to grow in my ability to hear and obeying. Where that takes me is a result of a daily decision of making myself available to hear His voice, a willingness to allow Him to lead me, and my desire to be obedient – no matter what.   – Greg

It seems to me that the struggle to have a quiet time –any time with the Lord, requires sacrifice and discipline. I must carve time out of my day to spend with the Father, which means that some other portion of the day has to be eliminated. So what gets cut? Well, I’ve found: nearly everything that’s not relational. I have to ration the amount of time I spend on TV and Internet. It’s too easy to lose hours here or there. But the benefits of conversing and listening to the Father outweigh any sacrifice on my part. His words are life itself and I’ve already seen the fruit budding. My encouragement to others: be ruthless in creating and protecting your quiet times. Allow Jesus to be your intimate confidante and not merely a sometime acquaintance. Then we will see our city changed, our region transformed, our State prosperous, and our Country redeemed. – Ralph

If you have not started reading the book, or feel as if you are to far behind. I would encourage you that you are not to late. The chapters are very small in this book and we are only a few weeks in.  If you are wondering where we are in the book, you can find the reading schedule by clicking here.

O My Saviour, help me.
I am so slow to learn, so prone to forget,
so weak to climb;I am in the foothills when I should be in the heights;
I am pained by my graceless heart,
my prayerless days,
my poverty of love,
my sloth in the heavenly race,
my sullied conscience,
my wasted hours,
my unspent opportunities.
I am blind while light shines around me:
take the scales from my eyes,
grind to dust the evil heart of unbelief.
Make it my chiefest joy to study thee,
meditate on thee,
gaze on thee,
sit like Mary at thy feet,
lean like John on thy breast,
appeal like Peter to thy love,
count like Paul all things dung.
Give me increase and progress in grace so that there may be;
more decision in my character,
more vigor in my purposes,
more elevation in my life,
more fervor in my devotion,
more constancy in my zeal.
As I have a position in the world,
keep me from making the world my position;
May I never seek in the creature what can be found only in the creator;
Let not faith cease from seeking thee until it vanishes into sight.
Ride forth in me, thou King of kings and Lord of lords,
that I may live victoriously, and in victory attain my end.

Quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. Grab life by the mane. Set God-sized goals. Pursue God-ordained passions. Go after a dream that is destined to fail without divine intervention. Keep asking questions. Keep making mistakes. Keep seeking God. Stop pointing out problems and become part of the solution. Stop repeating the past and start creating the future. Stop playing it safe and start taking risks. Accumulate experiences. Consider the lilies. Enjoy the journey. Find every excuse you can to celebrate everything you can. Live like today is the first day and last day of your life. Don’t let what’s wrong with you keep you from worshipping what’s right with God. Burn sinful bridges. Blaze new trails. Criticize by creating. Worry less about what people think and more about what God thinks. Don’t try to be who you’re not. Be yourself. Laugh at yourself. Quit holding out. Quit holding back. Quit running away.

“Would you like to be rid of this spiritual depression? The first thing you have to do is to say farewell now once and forever to your past. . . . Never look back at your sins again. Say, ‘It is finished, it is covered by the Blood of Christ.’ That is your first step. Take that and finish with yourself and all this talk about goodness, and look to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only then that true happiness and joy are possible for you. What you need is not to make resolutions and to live a better life, to start fasting and sweating and praying. No! You just begin to say, ‘I rest my faith on Him alone, who died for my transgressions to atone.’”

The seminar’s early session will go from 9:00am-3:45pm, and the evening session will begin at 6:30pm.

The early session will include training and activation. The training will range from basic to advanced. The evening session will consist of a Q&A session and ministry time.

If you are interested in growing in your prophetic ministry, have some questions about the prophetic, or just need prayer, this time is for you.

This truth applies to our attitude toward our life, our work, our ministry, our family, and all the other areas of our lives. What we see is what we are looking for. What we see is what we’ll get. If we see a terrible spouse, guess what? If we see that everything is wrong at work, guess what? If we are looking for faults in someone, guess what you are going to find? If we are looking for faults in the church, guess what we’ll find? We see what we’re looking for, and then what we see is what we get.

So, what do we do about this? Change what we are looking for. Look for the good. That is what God did when He sent Jesus. He didn’t just see sin. He saw children worth dying for. When Jesus picked the twelve disciple, there we plenty that Jesus could have seen wrong with them. What did Jesus see? Potential. No one else saw it in them. What did Jesus see when He looked at Jerusalem? In John 4:35 He said: “Well, I’m telling you to open your eyes and take a good look at what’s right in front of you. These Samaritan fields are ripe. It’s harvest time!”. What did Jesus see when He looked at people? Potential! Want to be like Jesus? Stop seeing everything wrong with everything and everyone. Start seeing potential!

Philippians 4:8-9
Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

It reminded me of a G.K. Chesterton quote:

Because children have abounding vitality, because they are in spirit fierce and free, therefore they want things repeated and unchanged. They always say, “Do it again”; and the grown-up person does it again until he is nearly dead. For grown-up people are not strong enough to exult in monotony. But perhaps God is strong enough to exult in monotony. It is possible that God says every morning, “Do it again” to the sun; and every evening, “Do it again” to the moon. It may not be automatic necessity that makes all daisies alike; it may be that God makes every daisy separately, but has never got tired of making them. It may be that He has the eternal appetite of infancy; for we have sinned and grown old, and our Father is younger than we.

I was reminded how numb and blind I become to the small wonders around me, brilliant sunrises, great conversations, beautiful smiles, good meals, big hugs, contagious laughter, loyal friends. All of these things I take for granted simply because they can become common place in my life. But I want the appetite of infancy. I want to celebrate life and live grateful for each and every moment. However, there are times I think I’ve sinned and grown old, tired, bitter, anxious and judgmental. I’m blinded to the wonders of God around me.

So what simple, maybe even redundant thing do you need to be thankful for today?

ReGreek – specializes in word studies from the Bible ’s original languages.
Crosswalk – has many translations and Bible study tools.
Bible Gateway – has many translations and Bible study tools.
CCEL – has most of the major works from Christian history for free and a “Study Bible” feature that pulls up historical church commentary on specified verses.
E Sword – has numerous Bible study tools.

Let us pray…

Almighty God, Our Father, everything we see and everything we can’t see exists because of You alone. It all comes from You; it all belongs to You; it all exists for Your glory. History is Your story. The Scripture tells us, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God.’ The Lord is One, and You are the compassionate and merciful One and You are loving to everyone You have made.

Now, today we rejoice not only in America’s peaceful transfer of power for the 44th time, we celebrate a hinge point of history with the inauguration of our first African-American President of the United States. We are so grateful to live in this land, a land of unequalled possibility, where the son of an African immigrant can rise to the highest level of our leadership. And, we know today that Dr. King and a great cloud of witnesses are shouting in heaven!

Give to our new President, Barack Obama, the wisdom to lead us with humility; the courage to lead us with integrity; the compassion to lead us with generosity. Bless and protect him, his family, Vice-President Biden, the cabinet and every one of our freely elected leaders.

Help us, oh God, to remember that we are Americans united not by race, or religion or blood, but to our commitment to freedom and justice for all. When we focus on ourselves, when we fight each other, when we forget You, forgive us. When we presume that our greatness and prosperity is ours alone, forgive us. When we fail to treat our fellow human beings and all the earth with the respect that they deserve, forgive us. And as we face these difficult days ahead, may we have a new birth of clarity in our aims, responsibility in our actions, humility in our approaches and civility in our attitudes, even when we differ. Help us to share, to serve and to seek the common good of all.

May all people of goodwill today join together to work for a more just, a more healthy and a more prosperous nation and a peaceful planet. And, may we never forget that one day all nations and all people will stand accountable before You.

We now commit our new President and his wife Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, into Your loving care. I humbly ask this in the name of the one who changed my life – Yeshua (Hebrew), Isa (Arabic), Jesus (Spanish), Jesus (English) – who taught us to pray, “‘Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy Name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.