We want to see you go from where you are to where God wants you to be.
South Texas District Camp Meeting 2013
Camp Meeting is Back! Come join with others from all over the South Texas District for ole’ time Camp Meeting church at the Pasadena Convention Center August 14 – 16th. Speakers are Bro. Brian Kensey and Bro. Raymond Woodard. Make plans and mark your calendars for this special event. If you know someone that has never experienced “Pentecost” make it a point to invite and bring them. Make a difference in the world!
Camp Meeting is Back! Come join with others from all over the South Texas District for ole’ time Camp Meeting church at the Pasadena Convention Center August 14 – 16th. Speakers are Bro. Brian Kensey and Bro. Raymond Woodard. Make plans and mark your calendars for this special event. If you know someone that has never experienced “Pentecost” make it a point to invite and bring them. Make a difference in the world!
Jarryd Raynes and Leslie Daniel will be getting married on June 29th at 2:00. Congratulations!
Be Prepared with Prayer
By Will Davis, Jr
Make prayer a daily habit with these tips and you’ll be ready to face life’s challenges.
One of the most important factors in praying is to be a person of prayer before a crisis hits. A crisis is not the time to start praying; it’s the time to keep praying. That isn’t always easy. It’s typically a crisis that drives us to prayer.
When things are just rocking along, we usually don’t feel the need to pray. But we need to pray “in season and out” (2 Tim. 4:2), in good times and bad. Be a praying person before the hurricane blows through your life, and then when it does, you won’t have to try to start praying.
Here are three suggestions to make prayer a daily habit so that you can be prepared for your next crisis.
1. Have a regular prayer time. Don’t wonder when or if you’ll get to pray again. Have a set time for prayer and ruthlessly protect it. Be as committed to prayer as you are to meals.
2. Have a regular prayer place. Don’t wonder where you’ll be able to find a quiet place for prayer. Build a location into your discipline of peacetime praying. When your set time for prayer rolls around, be unyielding about staying in your set place.
3. Have a regular prayer plan. Don’t wonder what you’ll say to God when you pray. Be systematic about your conversations with him. I use my Bible as my daily prayer guide. I can open it on any day and have plenty to talk to God about. Should the Spirit choose to lead me to different subjects, I try to be sensitive and obedient to that. But when I sit down to talk with God, I know where I intend to go. It takes much of the guesswork and wasted time out of my precious moments with God. He’s your best friend…tell him everything!
Pray in advance, pray before crisis. That way, when the fire does break out in your life, you’ll be prepared to keep right on praying.
This article is excerpted from Pray Big.
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Where Do I Start?
Several years ago, I was driving down the freeway when my car died. I pulled over to the side of the road, got out of the car, and opened the hood. As I looked at the engine I thought, A lot of good this does me. I know nothing about cars. I don’t even know where to start!
That’s how we might sometimes feel about prayer: Where do I start? That’s what the disciples wanted to know when they asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray” (Luke 11:1). The best place to look for instruction is in the example and teaching of Jesus. Two questions you may have are:
Where should we pray? Jesus prayed in the temple, in the wilderness (Luke 4), in quiet places (Matt. 14:22-23), in the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22), and on the cross (Luke 23:34,46). He prayed alone and with others. Look at His life, follow His example, and pray wherever you are.
What should we pray? In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to ask that God’s name be honored and that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Ask Him for your daily provisions, for forgiveness of sin, and for deliverance from temptation and evil (Luke 11:2-4).
So if you’re looking for a good place to start, follow the example of the Lord’s Prayer.
The Lord has shown us we can pray
Wherever we may be;
And when we say, “Your will be done,”
His work on earth we’ll see. —Sper
If Jesus needed to pray, how can we do less?
Article by Anne Cetas, Our Daily Bread, Copyright 2012 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from RBC Ministries
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Worship By Prayer
When was the last time you and God met together for a worship service? No choir. No piano. No order of service. Just you and God and prayer.
Want an example? Listen to the psalmist: “I cried to [the Lord] with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But certainly God has heard me; He has attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me!” (Psalm 66:17-20).
Did you notice what was happening in those verses? The psalmist called out to God in praise. He came with a pure heart—cleansed by confession. He was confident that God was listening. God accepted the prayer, and He lavished His love on the person praying. The psalmist’s worship included praise, a pure heart, communicating with God, and then God’s affirmation and love were poured out. Yes, true worship took place.
What a pattern! Think of the spiritual advantage you gain and the honor God receives when you practice worship by prayer. Anytime, anyplace, you can worship the Lord and He will bless you. Are you ready to worship?
In solitude, on wings of prayer
My soul ascends before the throne;
My only hope of strength is where
My heart and God’s meet all alone. —Anon.
God speaks to those who take time to listen, and He listens to those who take time to pray.
Article by Dave Branon, Our Daily Bread, Copyright 2012 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from RBC Ministries
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But God
Howard Sugden, my pastor when I was in college, preached many memorable sermons. After all these years, the one titled “But God . . .” still makes me stop whenever I come to those words in the Bible. Here are a few examples of verses that encourage me with the reminder of God’s righteous intervention in human affairs:
“You meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to . . . save many people alive” (Gen. 50:20).
“Their beauty shall be consumed in the grave . . . . But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave” (Ps. 49:14-15).
“My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever” (Ps. 73:26).
“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:7-8).
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard . . . the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit” (1 Cor. 2:9-10).
Whenever you feel discouraged, look up some “but God” verses and be reassured of God’s involvement in the lives of those who love Him.
Creator of the universe
Who reigns in awesome majesty:
How can it be that You’re involved
With such a one as me? —Sper
God’s involvement in our lives should reassure us of His love.
Article by Julie Ackerman Link, Our Daily Bread, Copyright 2012 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from RBC Ministries
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Saving My Prayer Tree
By Pam Kidd, Nashville, Tennessee
My sacred prayer place was in jeopardy of being destroyed.
May the God who gives encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other.—Romans 15:5 (NIV)
Standing on the newly scalped road leading to our cabin, I was trying to escape the reality of the electric company’s machinery. How could this be happening? The Queen Anne’s lace, the blackberry bushes, even the wild persimmon and the sweet gum trees had been viciously mowed down under the guise of clearing space for power lines.
Ahead, on the other side of the causeway, the oak tree where I always stopped to talk to God was still standing. I considered the tree my “thin place,” where I felt particularly close to “things not yet seen.” Here, I had fervently prayed for our Aunt Kate in her last days. Here, I had asked God to take care of a dear friend, Frances, as she slowly drifted away. Even now, the huge machine was headed in the direction of my tree. I gathered my courage, approached the monster and knocked on the door of its air-conditioned cab. The driver cut the engine and swung open the door. “Whataya want?” he snapped.
I felt hard, looking at him. Meeting my eyes, it was clear that he felt the same. I wanted to say mean things but out came words I didn’t expect to say: “That tree, up ahead … the tallest one. Well, it’s my … my praying place.” His eyes softened, his expression changed. “I was just hoping,” I finished, “that you might spare that tree.”
The door closed, the engine restarted, and I hurried back to the cabin where my husband was waiting for a trip to town. Hours later, I squeezed my eyes tight as we approached the causeway. How could I bear seeing my tree twisted into splinters and sawdust?
“Pam,” David said then, “what in the world happened? Your tree is still there, and it’s the only one in sight!”
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A Walk In The Woods
Do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. —Romans 6:12
A friend of mine wrote to me about certain “reservations” in his life—areas of secret sin that he reserved for himself and into which he frequently withdrew.
These “reserves” are like the large tracts of wilderness in my home state of Idaho. It may sound exciting to wander around these untamed regions by oneself, but it’s dangerous.
So too, each journey into sin takes its toll. We sacrifice our closeness with God, forfeiting His blessing (Psalm 24:1-5), and we lose our influence on others that comes from purity of mind and body (1 Timothy 4:12).
The wild areas in us may never be fully tamed, but we can set up perimeters that keep us from wandering into them. One perimeter is to remember that we are dead to sin’s power (Romans 6:1-14). We do not have to give in to it.
The second perimeter is to resist temptation when it first attracts us. Initial temptation may not be strong, but if we entertain it, it will in time gain power and overwhelm us.
The third perimeter is accountability. Find a person who will commit to ask you each week, “Have you ‘taken a hike in the wild’? Have you gone where you should not go?”
Impurity is ruinous, but if we long for holiness and ask God for help, He will give us victory. Press on!
O Lord, help us to recognize
When we begin to compromise;
And give us strength to follow through
With what we know is right and true. —Sper
Beware—the more you look at temptation, the better it looks!
Article by David H. Roper, from Our Daily Bread, Copyright 2012 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from RBC Ministries.
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Watching and Waiting
In Isaiah 18, it appears that the whole world is set to battle God’s people. Yet what is the response of the Almighty One? “I will take My rest, and I will look from My dwelling place” (v.4). His stillness may appear to have been an acceptance of the conspiracy against them. But it wasn’t. God’s response was His reminder that He acts in His timing—at just the right time according to His will.
I think of Jesus waiting 4 days while Lazarus lay in the grave (John 11:39). Was He unaware? Did He not care? Of course He cared! He was waiting for the right time to act and to teach the lessons He wanted to teach.
The Bible records God’s “delays,” many of which seem at the time to be inexplicable from our point of view. Yet every delay flows from the depths of His wisdom and love. If nothing else, delay, if we accept it, can produce the quieter virtues—humility, patience, endurance, and persistence—qualities that are often the last to be learned.
Are you in distress? Does the Lord seem distant and detached? He is not indifferent to your plight, nor is He unmoved by your pleas. He is waiting while His purposes are achieved. Then, at the right moment, He will intercede. God is never in a hurry, but He is always on time.
Turn not aside, discouraged one;
Stir up your gift, pursue your goal;
In God’s own time you’ll see Him work;
He’ll give you hope and lift your soul. —D. DeHaan
God is worth waiting for; His time is always best.
Article by David H. Roper, from Our Daily Bread, Copyright 2012 by RBC Ministries, Grand Rapids, MI. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Further distribution is prohibited without written permission from RBC Ministries.
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