RAIN DOWN

Lord, thank you for the rain you sent to us and the rain you are sending.

The weather for the next week does not look too promising for rain or any relief from the 100 plus degree temperatures.  Texas is in the grip of historic wildfires that have destroyed nearly 1.8 million acres of forest and grassland in the state as well as 400 homes. The almost 8,000 fires so far this year are unprecedented.

Many will see the only hope of rain and relief from the heat to be in the form of a hurricane hitting the Texas coast.  That would be bad for the people of the coast but good for those of us who would be blessed with the much needed rain.  I believe there is a greater hope. 

In 1 Kings 18:41-44, Elijah said to Ahab, “Go, eat and drink, for there is the sound of a heavy rain.”  It is amazing that the only cloud visible to Ahab was the size of a man’s hand off in the distance yet Elijah told Ahab to ‘hitch up your chariot and go down before the rain stops you’.  That had to be some rain for it to be able to stop a chariot.  That is the kind of rain we need now!  That is the faith we need now!

If you have been praying for rain – don’t stop.  If you have not – start.  Remember, when you pray for rain, carry your umbrella.  Show your faith.  Pray without ceasing for God to heal our land, fill up the lakes, rivers and creeks.

If you are going to pray for rain you need to carry your umbrella.

Where is your Umbrella?  Where is your faith?

PRAYER FOR OUR GOVERNMENT

God created government to protect our freedoms so we can spread the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.  By hearing God’s word and praying for our country, we can lead a quiet and peaceable life which will enable us to spread the gospel.

1 Timothy 2:1-2 states: “I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.”

Satan tries to work through our governments to stop believers from spreading the gospel by either limiting or eliminating our liberties.

How can we stop this?
1. Spread the gospel
2. Pray
3. Vote our convictions

Father, give us leaders after Your heart! A time like this demands strong minds, great hearts, true faith and ready hands; leaders whom the lust of office does not kill; leaders whom the spoils of office cannot buy; leaders who possess your opinions and will; leaders who have honor; leaders who will not lie; leaders who does not use false claims and promises in order to gain power, and can withstand the treacherous flatteries without winking!

Father, give us Christian leaders who are not afraid to stand up for you.  Leaders who will do the right thing when the wrong thing will benefit them.  We thank You that we live in a Christian nation.

Father, we thank you that we and our leaders have your supernatural wisdom and the ability to make the right decisions every time.  Father, you said the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, so we thank you that you are guiding our steps and our leaders’ steps.

Father, I thank you that our leaders are strong in the power of your might and well able to do what you have called them to do.

Micah 4:5 states “All the nations may walk in the name of their gods; we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.”  Lord, we thank you that we walk in Your name.

Father, you are our judge, our lawgiver, our king and only you can save us.”  Help us to always seek you when we enter the voting booth to elect Christian leaders and help us to encourage those who we elect.

Father I pray for our government officials to recognize Your authority and rely on You for wisdom, for our country to stand strong on the principles of our Founding Fathers, and that our leaders will make wise decisions rather than succumbing to special interest groups.

Father I pray Isaiah 1:26 over our leaders. You said, “I will restore your leaders as in days of old, your rulers as at the beginning.  Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.”

We pray this in Jesus’ name.

Amen

What Rejection Means

What does rejection mean?  Rejection keeps us at a distance from those we love, like someone with an infectious disease.

Rejection is one of our greatest fears. Being rejected by someone makes us feel small, insecure and unwanted. We lose our self confidence

The Enemy used the pain of rejection to stop you and keep you away from the call that is in your life.

Rejection and the fear of rejection did not stop Jesus! He was determined, and persistent in his ministry.

Jesus was moved by the Holy Spirit no if the people like him or not.  Jesus knows all about rejection. Jesus understands how we feel when we’re rejected because he experienced it so powerfully and personally.

God cares about you! You are Loved Valued, Accepted.  He'll never quit loving you and never will.  Expect love, love & more love.

“I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with unfailing kindness." Jeremiah 31:3

"These people who survived the killing.  Israel, out looking for a place to rest, met God out looking for them!"  God told them, "I've never quit loving you and never will.   Expect love, love, and more love!  And so now I'll start over with you and build you up again," Jeremiah 31:3 Message Bible

Are you hurt?  The best medicine is God's Love + Love Others.  We need to stop being selfish in the frame that we believe others owe us anything.  We need to learn to care about other people and then the pain will go away.

Make a Decision.  Live in God's Love.

Don't allow the rejection from a few stop you from blessing others!

What's Holding You Back?

In Luke 19: 1–9, we see that Zacchaeus had a goal; he wanted desperately to see Jesus. However, a very large crowd was in his way and being a short man he couldn't see over the crowd. Instead of him saying "Well I can't do this", "I am too short", "The Democrats or Republicans are in power", “its Bush’s fault,” Zacchaeus came up with a plan.

Zacchaeus made a decision to see Jesus through the crowd. He decided no one would stop him. No matter what, or who, Satan puts in our way, even if the doors seem closed, or barriers are in the way to accomplish your dream, be like Zacchaeus!

So Zacchaeus ran on ahead and climbed up in a sycamore tree so he could see Jesus when he came by. Zacchaeus refused to say no. "If I can't get past the crowd I will climb that tree to see Jesus."

Zacchaeus was an unlikely person to have an encounter with Jesus because he was a tax collector, he wasn't part of the "in" crowd that seemed like they should be blessed and have success in Jesus.

Jesus saw Zacchaeus when he got to the tree; he looked up and said, "Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” Jesus wanted it to stay at his house.

Zacchaeus expected Jesus to show up by the sycamore tree. He made a plan. He didn't allow others to dictate what he would receive from God. He didn't allow others to dictate the outcome of his dream.

Let's now examine our lives. You have a God-given dream and whatever barriers you see are only temporary obstacles. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus tells us to speak to our mountains.

It is no coincidence that the parable of the ten minas is found immediately afterwards. In this parable, the king tells his 10 servants to put the 10 minas to work – until his return.

Don't let others inhibit your God-given dreams! Make a plan, be creative, and aggressively pursue Jesus. He will pass by and He will see you. Jesus wants to stay in your house!

What are you investing in? Our King is coming again.

America's Only Hope

I have seen numerous yard signs over the past few months with the inscription, “PRAYER, America’s Only Hope” 2 Chronicles 7:14. The only problem with these signs is that they are wrong. Jesus Christ is America’s only hope.

I believe the context of the yard signs was done with the most honorable intent and I commend the people responsible.

In 2 Chronicles 7:14 God says, “if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

There are four things God tells Solomon that Israel must do in this passage:

1. Humble themselves – That one is always the hardest

2. Pray

3. Seek God’s face

4. Turn from their wicked ways

There are also three promises from God here:

1. God will hear from heaven

2. Forgive their sins

3. Heal their land

Why wait for another year to pass to do the right things? The New Year is here and there is no time like now to get started. Love more, forgive more, volunteer more, give more to our church and charities, and attend church or synagogue.

If we as American’s will only do what God tells us to do, what a paradise America would be. Prayer is not America’s only hope, or the worlds only hope, Jesus Christ is. Well, what are we waiting for? When Jesus returns, it will be too late. Let’s start now!

Obama's Make Believe Life - By Alan Caruba

I have this theory about Barack Obama. I think he’s led a kind of make-believe life in which money was provided and doors were opened because at some point early on somebody or some group took a look at this tall, good looking, half-white, half-black, young man with an exotic African/Muslim name and concluded he could be guided toward a life in politics where his facile speaking skills could even put him in the White House.

In a very real way, he has been a young man in a very big hurry. Who else do you know has written two memoirs before the age of 45? “Dreams of My Father” was published in 1995 when he was only 34 years old. The “Audacity of Hope” followed in 2006. If, indeed, he did write them himself. There are some who think that his mentor and friend, Bill Ayers, a man who calls himself a “communist with a small ‘c’” was the real author.

His political skills consisted of rarely voting on anything that might be deemed controversial. He went from a legislator in the Illinois legislature to the Senator from that state because he had the good fortune of having Mayor Daley’s formidable political machine at his disposal.

He was in the U.S. Senate so briefly that his bid for the presidency was either an act of astonishing self-confidence or part of some greater game plan that had been determined before he first stepped foot in the Capital. How, many must wonder, was he selected to be a 2004 keynote speaker at the Democrat convention that nominated John Kerry when virtually no one had ever even heard of him before?

He outmaneuvered Hillary Clinton in primaries. He took Iowa by storm. A charming young man, an anomaly in the state with a very small black population, he oozed “cool” in a place where agriculture was the antithesis of cool. He dazzled the locals. And he had an army of volunteers drawn to a charisma that hid any real substance.

And then he had the great good fortune of having the Republicans select one of the most inept candidates for the presidency since Bob Dole. And then John McCain did something crazy. He picked Sarah Palin, an unknown female governor from the very distant state of Alaska. It was a ticket that was reminiscent of 1984’s Walter Mondale and Geraldine Ferraro and they went down to defeat.

The mainstream political media fell in love with him. It was a schoolgirl crush with febrile commentators like Chris Mathews swooning then and now over the man. The venom directed against McCain and, in particular, Palin, was extraordinary.

Now, nearly a full year into his first term, all of those gilded years leading up to the White House have left him unprepared to be President. Left to his own instincts, he has a talent for saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. It swiftly became a joke that he could not deliver even the briefest of statements without the ever-present Tele-Prompters.

Far worse, however, is his capacity to want to “wish away” some terrible realities, not the least of which is the Islamist intention to destroy America and enslave the West. Any student of history knows how swiftly Islam initially spread. It knocked on the doors of Europe, having gained a foothold in Spain.

The great crowds that greeted him at home or on his campaign “world tour” were no substitute for having even the slightest grasp of history and the reality of a world filled with really bad people with really bad intentions.

Oddly and perhaps even inevitably, his political experience, a cakewalk, has positioned him to destroy the Democrat Party’s hold on power in Congress because in the end it was never about the Party. It was always about his communist ideology, learned at an early age from family, mentors, college professors, and extreme leftist friends and colleagues.

Obama is a man who could deliver a snap judgment about a Boston police officer who arrested an “obstreperous” Harvard professor-friend, but would warn Americans against “jumping to conclusions” about a mass murderer at Fort Hood who shouted “Allahu Akbar.” The absurdity of that was lost on no one. He has since compounded this by calling the Christmas bomber “an isolated extremist” only to have to admit a day or two later that he was part of an al Qaeda plot.

He is a man who could strive to close down our detention facility at Guantanamo even though those released were known to have returned to the battlefield against America. He could even instruct his Attorney General to afford the perpetrator of 9/11 a civil trial when no one else would ever even consider such an obscenity. And he is a man who could wait three days before having anything to say about the perpetrator of yet another terrorist attack on Americans and then have to elaborate on his remarks the following day because his first statement was so lame.

The pattern repeats itself. He either blames any problem on the Bush administration or he naively seeks to wish away the truth.

Knock, knock. Anyone home? Anyone there? Barack Obama exists only as the sock puppet of his handlers, of the people who have maneuvered and manufactured this pathetic individual’s life.

When anyone else would quickly and easily produce a birth certificate, this man has spent over a million dollars to deny access to his. Most other documents, the paper trail we all leave in our wake, have been sequestered from review. He has lived a make-believe life whose true facts remain hidden.

We laugh at the ventriloquist’s dummy, but what do you do when the dummy is President of the United States of America?

Christianity and Immigration

Does Arizona’s new immigration law stand up to God’s law? Yes!

Romans 13:1-7, tells us that we are to submit to the governing authorities and that the government is to protect its citizens. God has delegated this authority to civil government for that specific purpose. ^“For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and he will commend you. For he is God's servant to do you good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword for nothing. He is God's servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” (Romans 13:3-4).

Many who support giving amnesty to illegal immigrants misquote Leviticus as their source. Sadly, they do not understand the facts. Leviticus 19:33-34 says that aliens (temporary visitors) are not to be mistreated. They are referred to as aliens because they we not living there permanently. The word immigrant does not exist in the Hebrew language. Aliens could remain in Judea only if they paid taxes, converted to Judaism, obeyed the Israelite laws, went to Jerusalem each year to be counted, they could not violate any norm of Israelite law. Those who want to live here legally should not have to adopt Christianity. They should be able to worship or not worship how they like. However, they should never be allowed to walk on other religions be mandating that others make unnecessary adjustments just for a different religion. Some religions have tried to mandate that our public schools add separate water fountains for boys and girls, prayer rooms for their specific religion, and many more.

Some Christians are even voicing opposition to the Arizona immigration law by saying this law in not compassionate or fair. My question to them, “Who is it the state and federal laws are in place to protect? Should it be those who break the law or the law abiding citizens of the US?” Is it fair to law abiding citizens to live in fear of escalating violence, and to have their wallets continually skimmed to provide welfare, education and medical care to individuals who have no legal right even to be in our country? Remember, the word illegal refers to those who do not enter the US legally.

It is time for mature Christian thinking to solve this, and other, issues. We must have a Christ minded view and not world minded view in order to resolve the issues our country has and will have in the future. George Washington said, “What happens when a nation stops basing its judgments on a Biblical basis? Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.” Ronald Reagan said, "Without God democracy will not and cannot long endure."

Arizona's Governor Jan Brewer explains that she signed this bill into law because, as governor, she has a responsibility to protect the safety and security of Arizonans. That is her Biblical job.

Arizona is a state that has been ravaged by illegal aliens committing criminal acts and has seen a rise in almost all violent crimes; murder, burglary, illegal drugs, human trafficking for prostitution, car theft and home invasions to name a few. Arizona is now the kidnapping capital of the world. Not a title any city wants to bear. There are an estimated 500,000 illegal immigrants currently in Arizona alone. This is a huge strain on their budget. Taxpayers are the ones footing many of their bills.

For years the federal government has not lived up to its Romans 13 duty of protecting the citizens of the United States. President Obama has even said that there has been a failure to act by the federal government. That is the sole reason Governor Brewer signed SB1070 into law. It is not the states duty to protect its citizens; it is the God-given duty of the federal government.

The new Arizona law is very close to the federal law that has been active, but not enforced, for over 50 years. This should not be a States Rights (Tenth Amendment) issue. This is a federal issue. The problem has been that the federal government has been asleep on the job so the states are acting out of necessity.

A 2006 congressional report claims that only 10 to 30 percent of illegal aliens are ever caught -- implying that 70 to 90 percent enter the U.S. unnoticed.

I oppose granting amnesty to illegal immigrants for the same reasons that we rose up twice during George W. Bush's presidency and defeated two congressional efforts to create amnesty and a path to citizenship for an estimated 12 to 20 million illegal aliens. I believe it is simply wrong to reward citizenship to those who illegally crossed our borders without permission or overstayed their visas. Those who want to enter our borders legally should come from those waiting in line or willing to join the existing line.