Undivided Hearts

Last night to begin our Wednesday night services I opened the Bible to Psalm 86: 11-13 which says, "Teach me your ways, O Lord, and I will walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name. I will praise you, O Lord my God, with all my heart; I will glorify your name forever. For great is your love toward me..." Unless we are taught the ways of Christ we won't know how to walk in truth. Jesus said to "abide in Him" and that's what it takes to have an undivided heart.

If I have a divided heart I am separated into parts or pieces, disunited by disagreement, pulled by conflicting interests or activities, separated by distance (Webster's II dictionary), sadly to say it, but that sounds like the description of some Christian people today. If I allow things of this world to separate me from God I have a divided heart. So many times we find ourselves with divided hearts by engaging in interests other than what God has planned. This sounds only too familiar to me! We must engage in Christ and His truth and that truth is that He gave His life so that we can have life and have it abundantly! We must seek for an undivided heart! We can't let the ways of the world and the schemes of the devil trip us up and trick us into being unfruitful. Let's praise God today with all our hearts and glorify God's name so that we will be united in His love and mercy!

Overcoming schemes

"Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes." (Ephesians 6:10,11)

So many times we look at this passage of scripture, or I do, and we visualize a devil in a red suit with horns protruding from his head and holding a pitch fork. I don't think that Paul visualized the devil in this form when he urged the church at Ephesus to "be strong in the Lord". The battle that we are fighting is NOT against a red suited devil with a forked tongue. Our battle is against "those that allow themselves" to be part of the "rulers and authorities and dark world" that Paul continues to talk about in the scripture. Paul talked about unity in the Body of Christ and that there were some that could not be part of that unity because of the "futility of their thinking that they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts." (vs17,18)

I'm mad at the devil because he has launched a warfare on me as to being a minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the power of the Holy Ghost and I have shaken up some ground that he thought he had firmly settled in on! I have authority through JESUS and the HOLY GHOST to plow up every ground that the enemy has tried to make UNFRUITFUL! It is my job as CALLED from GOD to be so close to him in the Spirit, through prayer and fasting and more prayer and fasting and more prayer and fasting, that he causes me to be as Ezekiel and see the valley of dry bones and prophesy the Word of the Lord!

Paul wrote to the Corinthians and he said this, "I hear that when you come together as a church, there are divisions among you, and to some extent I believe it. No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval." (I Corinthians 11:18,19) Let me give the devil a big black eye here, I'm not so dumb that I don't know you have people settled in the church buildings that you use to playout your schemes. It's not rocket science! That's why I stand firm and I stand strong in the mighty power of God and I put on His armor and I fight against the wiles of the enemy and against the rulers and authorities and powers of the dark world. I am going to JUST UP as a Christian and fight the fight!!!!!

Kempville Chapel Gift

Bishop McKinley has delivered the relief check that God has so graciously allowed the congregation of Kempville Chapel to give. His comments from his daily blog are below:

Today, I was privileged to deliver a check for $2,100 to Bishop David Bryan from the Kempville Chapel Old Time Methodist Church. This love gift is for relief to the people of Haiti


Bishop Bryan, the Director of Global Outreach just returned from Haiti, where he delivered aid.

Monday Morning Reflections

This weekend was full of fun, fellowship, and the presence of God Almighty! Saturday night was our "sweetheart" dinner where several couples gathered for food (GREAT FOOD BY THE WAY; STEVE WALKER IS THE STEAK KING) fellowship and fun. We had beautiful decorations that got us in the "mood" for Valentine's and we enjoyed some soft music playing as we gathered around the tables and enjoyed the meal that was prepared and had many convesations throughout the night. We were blessed and honored to have with us Greg & Tonya Dunigan as our guests speakers for the event. Greg & Tonya are very good friends of ours whom we attended church with for several years before coming here to pastor. Greg spoke to us about putting God first in every aspect of our lives and just like Matthew 6:33 tells us "all things will be added unto you". If you want blessings in life, abundant blessings in life, just put God first and seek his will for your life and he will add abundant blessings to you. Greg & Tonya, Kelly & myself are just two examples that God can restore marriages that the enemy tries to break apart. When you put God first in your individual life and let REAL LOVE come from God everything else will be put in order.

We had an awesome service yesterday morning! During worship service it was just like the Holy Ghost settled down amongst us and we were lost in worship. The Lord spoke to us through a message and interpretation and let us know that he is coming back for a church without spot or wrinkle! It's time to get ready and get things in order! It was just amazing because on Valentine's day God gave us our very own Valentine card in the mist of our worship to him! God is an awesome God! Last night we shared in communion in rememberance of Jesus and what he did to be our Valentine!

Be blessed today and as you go throughout this week tell somebody about Jesus!

Church of God of Prophecy Haiti Relief

This morning I was privileged to travel to the Tennessee State Offices of the Church of God of Prophecy in Hendersonville, Tn. to hand deliver a monetary gift from the congregation of Kempville Chapel Old Time Methodist Church where I pastor. Our congregation, as a whole, felt very strongly about giving to the Haiti Relief efforts after the devastation of that Nation from the tragic earthquake. I had compiled a list of different organizations that were already affiliated and established for, not only the Haiti relief, but in Haiti prior to the earthquake. Among that list, that I presented to the leadership of Kempville Chapel, was the Global Outreach Ministries of the Church of God of Prophecy which operate an orphanage in Haiti that was directly affected in the earthquake with loss of personnel, children, and property. Our leadership decided to have Global Outreach Ministries to be the recepients of the gift.

I am very familar with this organization (COGOP) as to having a great friendship with Bishop E.C. McKinley, State Overseer of Tennessee, and also many other people of the Church of God of Prophecy. When I was a child, my fine parents brought us up in the Church of God of Prophecy and I have many, many friendships within that church all across the State of Tennessee. I thank God for all the many contacts and dear friendships that he has allowed me to have over the years and I believe that there will be many more to come.

Bishop McKinley has a blog that I follow daily that I enjoy reading and receiving from the Lord through this man of God, and within just a few minutes after I had left his office he had already posted the information about my visit on his blog. You will find a link to his blog here: http://www.tncogop.blogspot.com/

Weekend Reflections

Where did this weeekend go? It seems like in just a snap of a finger the weekend is gone. Our weekend started out with bball tournaments for the county championship which the Lady Braves (my daughter's team) ended up 2nd place after falling to the Gordonsville Tigers. I have issues with the game but I am learning to let it go, enough said about that!

Yesterday morning @ 5:30am found me with a cup of coffee (actually serveral), bible reading, sermon adjustments and prayer time for the day's services. I am beginning to cherish times like these when I can just relax in the presence of God. I think there may be a message in that statement. We need to learn how to RELAX in God! I'll get back with that one later. 9am prayer time with those few faithful that have committed to join me was also met with the presence of God. I was just lost in prayer beside the organ as people began to come in for Sunday School. On Sunday mornings a few individuals have been meeting in the 9am hour in prayer for the classes and services for that day for over a year now and I believe that the Lord is moving in our S.S. classes and services and also in the lives of those that commit to coming early for prayer. I believe in "intercessory prayer"!!!!

Our 11 am service was awesome! I was lost in the presence of God, yet again, during our worship time! One of the songs was "Glorify Thy Name" and as we were singing I found myself realizing that we are to do what we sing, as well as, do what we say. If we say we are a Christian, we ought to do what Christians do, live right! If we sing about glorifying the name of God in all the earth we should do so! How do we glorify God in all the earth, we submit to him and turn every aspect of our lives over to him and acknowledge that he is Lord of Lord's and King of King's. He is the Almighty God!

The Lord allowed me to speak about the crossing of the Jordan river (Joshua 3). The Lord let us know that we have modern day Jordans to cross in our own individual lives and that we cannot cross them on our own. Sometimes I think we try to wade out in the Jordan's of our lives and find ourselves in a state of drowning and find we are in over our heads because we try to tread on our own without God and then tuck tail and run backwards. Ever been there? We have to realize, as did the Israelites, that we can't cross over into the promises of God, without the presence of God leading and directing our steps! We have to take action and follow the Holy Spirit as he directs us in crossing our Jordan. God has a "promise land" for all his children, it just may be on the other side of our Jordan and we need to listen to the voice of God and follow the directions he gives us through the Word (Bible) and the preaching of the Word (preachers, evangelists, etc...) and then take action and follow by faith. Let's learn how to let God lead us and cross into his blessings he has stored up for us today!

Goose Chase

I'm excited about this coming Sunday morning! My Sunday School class is starting a new series called CHASE THE GOOSE. Mark Batterson, lead pastor of Washington, D.C.'s National Community Church, is the author of a book intitled Wild Goose Chase from which we get the series from. Here's a little info:

Is your Christian experience boring? It's not supposed to be. Unfortunately, many Christians have been domesticated. Like caged animals in a zoo, we mindlessly and heartlessly trudge through our day-to-day lives. No thrills. No excitement. No adventure. But what if we could break out of the cage and reclaim a sense of spiritual adventure? The Celtic Christians seemed to capture a life like that well with their name for the Holy Spirit - An Geadh-Glas, or the Wild Goose. Life in step with the Holy Spirit is a little like a Wild Goose chase - mysterious, unpredictable, and adventuresome. Chase the Goose is a Bible study inviting you to break out of the cages of responsibility, routine, assumptions, guilt, failure, and fear, and to start reclaiming the spiritual adventure God has planned for all Christians. God only knows where this Wild Goose chase will take you.

Sounds like fun, don't it! I would recommend purchasing this book from LifeWay Christian Bookstore if you want to have an adventuresome experience.