Connections........

Awakening & Reformation

clccuthbert — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:48:41 +0000

Many days as I travel home I pass by a liquor store. Today I noticed several cars in the parking lot as well as several in line to enter the highway. As I recall this is usually the scenario each time I pass but today it really caught my attention. I thought about what I had just witnessed in passing. Normally I see things and really don’t give them a second thought but this time there was that still small voice that began to speak. You know, the one in our spirit. As I listened carefully I could hear the Holy Spirit with a simple but yet profound revelation. We all know it. America has been greatly challenged as to who she is, what she stands for, and what she appears to others to be. Our religious freedoms are under attack and daily we are bombarded with the news media of rising terrorism in the world. It seems that we as Americans are slow to hear, even slower to speak, and precious few who will stand up and be counted.

Back to my original thought.. What we have become is a nation filled with addictions of pornography, alcohol, drugs, violence complacency, and just plain old laziness when it come to the church and things of the Kingdom of God. There are many who attend church every Sunday and hear a message of hope and restoration yet their lives are never changed. They leave the same as they were when they came in. Ministers preach messages of salvation, healing, deliverance, being a witness, being empowered by the Holy Spirit but many are just memorized and have the appearance of religious zombies. Am I down on Christians and the church? No way, what I am down on is the attitude that we just don’t care.

This year on May 6 is another National Day of Prayer. Every believer should already be praying for this nation. However, on this day it is our responsibility (Christian) to step up to the plate and attend one of the many events that will be held that day. The enemy has drawn his lines in the sand by declaring we are no longer a “Christian Nation”, by trying to do away with “A National Day of Prayer”, and discourage many about their faith in an all sufficient Father. Suck your gut in potato head and get off the couch, take your lunch hour, get up earlier, or sacrifice another part of your day and join with the many who will be praying for an awakening in the cities of this nation and around the world.

Let His Word dwell in you….

clccuthbert — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 04:30:38 +0000

“Let the word of Christ be in you in all wealth of wisdom; teaching and helping one another with songs of praise and holy words, making melody to God with grace in your hearts.” Col 3:16 (BBE)

A few years back the Word of Faith movement began and grew tremendously. Believer’s left main line denominations and fled to this new wave of Bible teaching. Signs, wonders, and miracles followed believer’s as they allowed the Word of God to live and reside in them. As the years passed by we all joined in with the Apostle Paul in having our minds renewed by the Word of the Lord. So much so that our relationships turned intellectual and our power to programs.

Today, there is a strong renewal by the Holy Spirit to once again develop a relationship with both the written Word and the Word Himself. In the Amplified Bible in Joel chapter 1 he says that the seed grain rots under the clod. Jeremiah says we should break up fallow ground. Paul goes on to say in Romans chapter 8 that a carnal mind is death and an enemy of God. To be hard hearted is to be hard-headed and a hard-headed person is filled with pride and pride precedes a fall.

A powerful hunger is awakening in the church for miracles and signs. We have men and women who move very well in these gifts. They bring a presence of the Holy Spirit with them and the power is released. Yet when they leave even some of those who received a miracle will not be able to keep it. We need the Word of God because it is foundational to everything else. It is the source of faith, the rock on which to stand, a wellspring of refreshing, a present help, and without it we will only have a shallow relationship with the risen Savior.

I challenge everyone who reads this blog to begin a new relationship with the Word of God. It is easy for us to read books about the Word and listen to great sermons and teachings from the Word but we will not grow to the fullness God intends without the Word. Billy Graham once said that he wished he had read the Bible more and other books less. Read it everyday prayerfully and you will discover new life and power in your life to live beyond your present level.

William Lewis

clccuthbert — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 14:27:27 +0000

There always seems to be a few who try to change the meaning of the importance of our Christian mission and purpose. Remember it was Jesus who said He “came to seek and to save those that were lost”. In the past few years the issue always arises around our holidays especially Christmas and Easter. I will admit that much of what they say has great significance however in their attempt to bring greater revelation they destroy the faith of some through much confusion. We learn line upon line, precept by precept.

It is true that Constantine incorporated Christian feast with pagan feast in a feeble stab at bringing unity in a form of political correctness. I have over the years had issues with the merge but have finally figured out that I don’t worship Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, the chocolate rabbit, the devil, nor any other form of commercialization of such holidays. I have found that I can bring the true meaning of the Holiday by pointing people to the real reason for the season, Jesus. During the Easter season more people will have their minds on Christ than any other time.

I pursue the meanings of all Biblical feast, especially the feast mentioned in the New Testament. I will admit that we do not know it all and that every person walks on a different level of understanding. I am sure as any good Bible student that I will learn more as I follow my studies. However, the putting down of fellow believers and churches is definitely not the way to bring reformation into the body of Christ. In the midst of my high days of rebuking and condemning every thing I considered paganistic someone told me, “you will catch more flies with sugar that you will with salt.”

We face much trouble in the world today. Many of our religious freedoms are under attack and soon to be taken away if we do not pray and seek the Father’s forgiveness. Throughout our communities are people who are confused, tormented, depressed, full of fear, poverty-stricken, and LOST. Why can we not come together as evangelical believers and see the bigger picture. Why must we continue to fight and war within the church over a few things that in light of eternity have little bearing. A person wholeness and well-being is far moe important in this life that the argument over any holiday or feast. We must learn to lay our differences aside and come together as the Body of Christ to take the mountains back the enemy has stolen, to snatch the lives of those who are on the path of destruction and bring them into His marvelous light. I remember a TV show from way back entitled “To Tell The Truth.” At the end of the show the host would say, “Will the real so and so stand up”. We have all the right confessions, all the right stuff, but are we the real church. WILL THE REAL ECCLESIA STAND UP!

William Lewis