Is your veil removed?

II Corinthians 3:14

14 But the people’s minds were hardened, and to this day whenever the old covenant is being read, the same veil covers their minds so they cannot understand the truth. And this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ.

Some many today are stuck in the “religion” mode instead of living free in the Spirit. “The Bible is too boring,” I often hear people say, or “I try to read the Bible but I don’t get anything out of it.” So many people struggle to understand anything they read from the Bible because they’re reading it through veiled eyes. It’s the Holy Spirit who reveals Truth and brings wisdom and understanding. Reading the Bible without asking the Lord to reveal new principles IS tedious and boring.

But when we seek the Lord and invite Him to remove the veil from our stained eyes, He brings Freedom, Truth, and Life more abundantly. The apostle Paul says once the veil has been removed, we become mirrors that brightly reflect the glory of the Lord.

Next time you open the word, rather than just flipping through the pages and randomly selecting a passage that your finger falls on, try this:
Take a minute to ask God what He wants to reveal to you. You’ll be amazed at how much more scripture you’ll retain and apply to your life. Once the veil is removed, it’s pretty fun to see God go to work and infuse people with his life giving word.

Father we desire to know you and become more and more like you. Teach us your ways oh Lord, so we can better reflect your glory!!

Always Enough

I Corinthians 13:3
If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
The Lord’s been pounding me hard with the importance of simply loving others. Last night at the River I sensed this overwhelming desire to reach out in love to each person that walked through the doors. The entire night there was a deep sense of community as the Presence of the Lord touched hearts. As a group we corporately prayed against the spirit of death and suicide and then broke off into groups and commanded waves of healing to rush over each person who was struggling to take each thought captive to the Lord. It was incredible operating in the gift of prayer and prophecy over others. Love and jubuliant joy completely saturated the entire night. Praise God for the breakthough in the River!!
I’m reading a book called Always Enough by Heidi and Rolland Baker – a missionary couple serving in Mozambique Africa. After serving in Mozambique myself for over a month, my heart leaps as I read of what the Lord is doing among the poorest children on earth. This family truly embodies and models what it means to love and care for those that nobody wants. Many of these children found by Heidi and her husband spend their entire childhood running the streets, stealing food, and prostituting themselves just to stay alive. Some children come from backgrounds where witchcraft is practiced seriously, and have been thrown out of their homes for coming to Jesus. But it’s amazing to read the testimonies of how the Lord can take a broken little soul, infuse it with power and healing, and bring complete restoration to these poor children. And as he visits them, they change; they become radically serious about serving Him with their lives and about cleansing impurities out of their hearts.
As I read this book there is one resounding Truth that echoes throughout the book; When we Love and Trust in God there is Always Enough!!

I ve been sorting through some stuff relating to my earthly/ heavenly father. For me i know that my heavenly father loves me more than i can ever imagine. It is just really hard to wrap my head around. alot of times i feel that alot of people including myself give like half of our issues to got and then try to use our little brains to figure it out. we need to give it all to GOD…it needs to be a heart issue and not a mind issue.

so i starting think about who i am in christ. and God started to pour out his love in my quiet time. Then i found this band THE GLORIOUS UNSEEN! they have some freaking sweet songs. The song close to your heart really just spoke to me about GODS LOVE FOR ME! How he sees me as his son. This might not make any sense to you…i hope it does.
BLESSINGS
AC

MATHEW 3-17
And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

You are not your own…You’ve been bought with a high Price

 18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.

19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;

20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.

Paul spent most of this chapter devoted to the importance of fleeing from sexual immorality – a sin which is violent destroying young people all over the world. So many people believe they can do whatever they want with their body because it’s their own. Satan has tricked young people into defiling their bodies for a fleeting moment of pleasure and self-satisfaction. Young people have become ignorant to the fact that they have been bought by a high price – that price is the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

Listen to these words of Nate Saint written over 50 years ago:

                             ” If God didn’t hold back His only Son, but gave Him up to pay the price for our sin and failure, then how can we Christians hold back our lives – the lives he really owns??”

The world is dying for a Savior, yet so many Christians go about living “business as usual” lives, never walking in the High calling of the Lord Almighty. It’s time the Western Church begins to live out it’s destiny and step into the reality that when suffering and persecution increases – sinning decreases! The world can do nothing to a Christian who has no fear of man. Jesus never said it would be easy!

Jesus…my life for you!

AMOS 5:21-24 What are you doing about it??

21 “I hate all your show and pretense—
      the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies.
 22 I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings.
      I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings.
 23 Away with your noisy hymns of praise!
      I will not listen to the music of your harps.
 24 Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice,
      an endless river of righteous living.

I just stumbled across this verse a few days ago and I can’t get it out of my mind. It expresses everything that’s been bottled up inside me, just waiting to be released. I’m sick of all the role-playing and religiosity that plagues the American Church. Too many people get stuck in the rut of mediocrity and luke-warm Christianity. We go through the motions on Sunday- say the prayers, sing the songs, repent for a weeks worth of sins and then go on with our lives with little to no change taking place. 

Shouldn’t the love we express to the Lord in worship compel us to change? Shouldn’t the songs we sing on Sunday be lived out Mon. -Sat? We’ve got to get to a place with the Lord where our worship begins to drive our lives, propelling us towards the demolishing of social injustices throughout the globe.

I love what the Lord says here in Amos, “I want to see a mighty flood of Justice, and an endless river of Righteous Living.” I have been wrestling with the idea of worship and justice, and how it is impossible for one to live without the other. Worship brings forth Justice. They are absolutely coexisting units. How can we worship the Lord with one hand and with the other hand do nothing about the injustices around the world? There’s thousands of young children being exploited in the sex trafficking business – What are we doing about it?? There’s millions and millions of starving children in Africa who have no family and are fighting to stay alive while an aids epidemic runs rampant – What are we doing about it? Millions of children right here in America can’t find love and affirmation from their parents so they run the streets, turning to drugs, alcohol, sex, and stealing – What are we doing about it?

God, teach us how to love!! May our worship of you compel us to bring justice to those who are exploited and to Fathering the orphan and the poor. Mercy Lord,     Mercy!

Merry Christmas!!

In 1926, Dr. James A. Francis wrote, “Here is a man who was born in an obscure village, the child of a peasant woman. He grew up in another obscure village. He worked in a carpenter shop until He was thirty, and then for three years He was an itinerant preacher. He never wrote a book.  He never held an office.

He never owned a home. He never set foot inside a big city. He never traveled two hundred miles from the place where He was born. He had no credentials but Himself.

While still a young man, the tide of popular opinion turned against Him. His friends ran away. One of them denied Him. He was turned over to His enemies. He went through the mockery of a trial. He was nailed upon a cross between two thieves.

His executioners gambled for the only piece of property He had on earth while He was dying -and  that was His coat. When He was dead, He was taken down and laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Twenty-one centuries have come and gone, and today He is the centerpiece of the human race and the leader of progress.  All the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever were built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together have not affected the life of man upon this earth as powerfully as that one solitary life – Jesus Christ.”

RIVER SURVEY

Hello everybody
Happy holidays, hope this finds you well!!

I just wanted to take a moment to let you know about some River news. We’re gearing up this holiday season to have a big River kick-off night on Jan. 16th at Church at the Gate with a fresh new look to each and every Friday Night. During this Friday night (Dec. 12th) We’re personally inviting you to come and dream a little bit with us about new and fresh ideas we can implement into the River.  Any creative strategies or ideas God has birthed within you about what He is calling you to do for His Kingdom, are what we are after.  We want all suggestions even if they sound crazy or impossible.  We want to hear your input and direction about how you see yourself involved in the River. We’re going to dream big and see what God does. Even if you can’t be there this Friday we would love to hear your voice, so feel free to fill out the survey!!
Your response is vital to the success of this ministry.

(TO SHOW OUR APPRECIATION FOR YOUR INPUT YOUR NAME WILL BE ENTERED IN A DRAWING TO WIN A PRIZE. WE WILL BE DRAWING FOR THE PRIZES ON JAN 16th, SO MAKE SURE YOU’RE THERE!!! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!  )

1. How long have you been apart of the River? are you still apart?

2. What are we doing well?

3. What areas do we need to work on?

4. What are you passionate about? What brings your spirit alive?

5. How do you see yourself involved in the River?

6. If you were leading the River, what are some specific elements you would implement on Friday Nights? What would it look like?

7. If we provided a meal would you be interested in being apart of that?

8. What are your ideas on local service projects?

9. List 5 ideas that you want to see implemented into the River (i.e. small groups, meal, service projects, etc.)

10. Do you consider yourself a leader? Would you be interested in leading a small group or being involved in one of our ministry teams such as hospitality team, prayer team, worship team, sound/tech team, service project team, etc…? (if so, which one)

11. What are some avenues or strategies that we could pursue to help build community?

12. What are some relevant teachings you would like to hear at the River?

Please Copy your responses in a message to Jeremy Iversen (jeremy.iversen@usiouxfalls.edu or jeremy@churchatthegate.com) . Thank you for your time and Merry Christmas!! We hope to see you this Friday DEC. 12th for the last River of 2008.

Finger of God

The Deaf hear.

The Blind See

The Lame walk

The Mute speak

The Broken hearted are restored

The Sick Healed

The Dead live

Don’t believe it?……..

Check out these videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBJt7rI4zZU&feature=related

Give Thanks!

Giving thanks

Historian H. U. Westermayer wrote, “The Pilgrims made seven times more graves than huts. No Americans have been more impoverished than these who, nevertheless, set aside a day of thanksgiving.” 

As we head towards another Thanksgiving, take the lead this year and write down ten things you are thankful for and share them with your family before the bird is carved.  We have so much, but appreciate so little. Let’s really focus this year on how truly blessed we all are.

And, let’s remember military families during the holidays.

God’s Blessings on You and Yours this Holiday Season

What happens when a desperate people plug into a powerful God?

The underground church in China is experiencing an explosion of the Power of God. See how God is moving in a communist nation. The Western Church has become desensitized to the intense persecution of Christians around the globe. It’s so easy to go through our daily routine and forget that our Christian brothers and sisters are being tortured for what they believe.

Praise God for the bold and courageous people of China! Don’t pray for the persecution to stop, but pray that the Lord would continue to rain down his glory and power and the entire country of China would see that Jesus is King!!

I’m sooooo fired up right. God I ask for the faith and courage of my Chinese brothers and sisters to be released in America today…Hallelujah!!!