Sermon On Tithing Moves Congregation To Commit 10% Of Their Attention To It
GOSHEN, IN—A message on tithes and offerings at Maple Street Methodist Church received a surprisingly warm welcome Sunday as congregants responded by giving a full ten percent of their attention to the well-prepared sermon.
“I’m impressed by their generosity,” Pastor Larry Williams told reporters Monday. “We have to start somewhere—just pay a small amount of attention to a word here, a word there. Heck, sometimes I’m happy if the congregation even shows up for these services.”
An encouraging Monday morning staff meeting revealed the remarkable return, giving hope to the financially struggling body of Christ.
“I usually try to focus and really absorb about 12–13% of the sermon, so I’m doing way more than my part,” longtime church member Ruth O’Neill told reporters. “Once in a while, I’ll listen to the entire thing as a special, one-time love offering of my time and attention.”
Member David Spangler admitted to giving only 1% of his attention, blaming the pastor for scheduling the message in the prime of golf season, on the weekend of a major. “I have to prioritize, you know?” he explained.
…how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! —Matthew 7:11
Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct in this passage for those people who have His Spirit. He urges us to keep our minds filled with the concept of God’s control over everything, which means that a disciple must maintain an attitude of perfect trust and an eagerness to ask and to seek.
Fill your mind with the thought that God is there. And once your mind is truly filled with that thought, when you experience difficulties it will be as easy as breathing for you to remember, “My heavenly Father knows all about this!” This will be no effort at all, but will be a natural thing for you when difficulties and uncertainties arise. Before you formed this concept of divine control so powerfully in your mind, you used to go from person to person seeking help, but now you go to God about it. Jesus is laying down the rules of conduct for those people who have His Spirit, and it works on the following principle: God is my Father, He loves me, and I will never think of anything that He will forget, so why should I worry?
Jesus said there are times when God cannot lift the darkness from you, but you should trust Him. At times God will appear like an unkind friend, but He is not; He will appear like an unnatural father, but He is not; He will appear like an unjust judge, but He is not. Keep the thought that the mind of God is behind all things strong and growing. Not even the smallest detail of life happens unless God’s will is behind it. Therefore, you can rest in perfect confidence in Him. Prayer is not only asking, but is an attitude of the mind which produces the atmosphere in which asking is perfectly natural. “Ask, and it will be given to you…” (Matthew 7:7).
Recent trends in the direction of the full-scale legalization of marijuana suggest that pot is undergoing a dramatic marketing makeover.
One cannabis branding firm put it this way: “There is a huge untapped market here. It’s about reaching nonconsumers: women, young people, business professionals, grandmothers, and soccer moms.” Get ready: if it hasn’t already, your favorite shows soon will feature marijuana in a way that makes it feel cool — whether it’s a joint, a pot-tart, a keefcat, or a pot-brownie.
This means that Christians will need to think more carefully about marijuana than most of us have until now. Not everyone will be tempted to consume pot, but most everyone will be in a position to advise someone who is considering it.
With this in mind, here are five questions to ask before you consume pot.
Today I visited Tenterfield on the last stage of my Prayer Journey. I travelled up Killarney Gap Road and encountered a few kangaroos along the way and a total of 6 floodways with small amounts of water over the road.
I stopped at Killarney Gap for a photo, reminiscing my summer bike rides there.
The drive past Killarney Gap was marked by fog as well as the water courses. The fog was patchy but persisted to Glen Innes. Tenterfield itself was quite warm and sunny.
Tenterfield is a very historical town with many old buildings. It is known as one of the birth places of Federation with Henry Parkes making a famous speech at the Tenterfield School of Arts. It is also known as the birth place of singer Peter Allen.
Once again, I prayed God’s blessing on the town. I declared that, although it was famous for its past contributions to the nation, its best days are yet to come. As in many places, the denominational churches are in transition with some older churches having closed in recent years. I prayed that Tenterfield would see a revival that will bring Christ to the centre of the town.
Just out of Tenterfield is this stunning rock
That concludes my Prayer Journey. In 5 days I travelled a total of 3,200 km. The area enclosed by the four towns I visited is about 400,000 square kilometres or about half of the state. I didn’t do this to have a crazy road trip but simply to obey God.
Wagga Wagga is the biggest inland city in NSW with a population of 55,000. This compares to its rival Tamworth which is not far behind at 47,000. The south-eastern point of our prayer journey is only 3 hours drive from Hay, so it was an easier day.
We went up to the scenic lookout to look over the city and pray
Once again I prayed for God’s blessing on this city, for the churches to be blessed and for people to turn to Jesus. I thanked God that this city has been a blessing to the Riverina district and I prayed that it would become a beacon of hope for the nation.
When I was at theological college I came to Wagga Wagga for a summer of field education. It was an interesting time. We stayed next to the Turvey Park church in a house which was condemned by the Parish, although it is still standing nearly 30 years later.
The church building was sold to the Coptic Orthodox Church which apparently has huge dioceses.
Tonight we are sleeping in Parkes and should get home about lunch time tomorrow. This will give me time to catch up on some things before completing my Prayer Journey with a day trip to the north-eastern point.
We left Narrabri at 7.30 this morning and drove through rain nearly all the way to Hay, some 800 km away.
Hay was where we started ministry in 1984. We lived in this house which is 100 years old now and is being restored.
Hay has always been a unique place due to its isolation. All through the 20th century its population was stable at 3000. However the Murray-Darling Basin Plan ripped the heart out of the irrigation industry and the town is now down to 2500 people.
When we lived here, Hay still aspired to being a cathedral city. The Anglican church was designated a pro-cathedral and a residence for a bishop was built in the 1800s. The diocese was eventually centred in the much bigger city of Griffith and now the former pro-cathedral is falling down.
The Baptist church looks quite well-maintained.
The railway station is a grand building as befitted the terminus station. Trains no longer come to Hay, but the buildings are well used by the community.
In the park opposite our former home I prayed an apostolic blessing on this town. I prayed for the Lord to restore its former grandeur, to place back the population ripped out of it by poor Government decisions and for all the churches in the town to be filled with people.
Tomorrow is a shorter drive, so a much more relaxed day.
Today was the first day of my Prayer Tour of Western NSW. From today until Friday I am travelling to some key points on the map to pray blessing on the region and particularly on the churches in the towns.
Today, Tim and I took off early to visit Bourke. Bourke is one of the most remote towns in NSW and the term “Back of Bourke” is a vernacular phrase to describe a remote bush location. It has never been established which is the more remote of “Back of Bourke” and “Beyond the Black Stump.”
For the first time in my life, I have now been to the Back of Bourke and a photo to prove it.
This is the Back O’ Bourke Exhibition Centre, where they have a daily show, which we missed by about 45 minutes, and art exhibitions etc.
The town is located on the mighty Darling River which is looking splendid right now, being full of water after good widespread rains last month.
In the middle of town there is a tourist precinct featuring paddle steamer cruises, coffee shops and the like. The Crossley engine is a fuel oil engine nearly 100 years old, which found its way to a property near Bourke after starting its life producing electricity in Sydney. It has been lovingly restored and now the Shire pays someone to maintain it and run it for a short time each day. Doesn’t sound like much, but there were 50 people watching an old stationary engine turn over. this afternoon.
From the stats on the notice board this engine produces about 138 BHP or 103 kW of mechanical power. The tiny engine powering Tim’s Hyundai i20 produces 55 kW. Engines have come a long way in 100 years!
I prayed by the river for apostolic blessing to be released in Bourke, for the Darling to always be a source of prosperity for the town and for the churches to grow in their love for Jesus and for their neighbours.
Seeing Bourke alive with hundreds of visitors made me realise what potential there is for development of the tourist industry in Narrabri. We are a bigger town with as much history as Bourke (albeit with a much less spectacular river) and we just don’t seem to do anything much to encourage people to stay in town.
Today was the north-western extremity of our Prayer Tour. Tomorrow we head south, again to pray blessing on God’s people.
There’s a rich root of revival in Los Angeles—and women were a key part of it.
Assemblies of God history tells us the Azusa Street Revival brought women’s ministries to the fore. Indeed, Jennie Evans Moore who married Daddy William Seymour in 1908, was a key figure. Her name is not as well known as Seymour’s but she was in the revival trenches with him, along with Lucy Farrow and Julia Hutchins. These virtually nameless and faceless, yet faithful, women helped keep the fire burning.
Maria Woodworth-Etter was a mother figure in early Pentecost—John G. Lake called her “Mother Etter.” Her trance-marked ministry helped pave the way for the Azusa Street outpouring and ultimately the birth of a movement that changed the world.
Bold women like Aimee Semple McPherson and Kathryn Kuhlman followed in Mother Etter’s footsteps. McPherson’s Angeles Temple is still standing in Los Angeles today. I stood behind her pulpit in her home, which the Foursquare denomination she started preserved for historical purposes.
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While in Los Angeles, I felt mantles being released; mantles for healing, mantles for miracles—and mantles for apostolic women. I began to prophesy these words:
The time is now, says the Lord. The time is now, says the Lord. The time is now, says the Lord, for apostolic women to arise and indeed they are arising even now. The time is now for apostolic women to arise and take their places in their church and take their places in the marketplace and take their places in their families, in their homes.
The time is now for apostolic women to release the revelation that I’ve shared with their hearts in the secret places. The time is now for apostolic women to arise and bring forth the revelation of days gone by. The time is now for apostolic women to build upon the revelation, to speak forth, to build, to build, to build and plant in the name of Jesus with the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ backing them; with all of heaven standing with them; with the ministering angels building and working alongside of them.
The time is now for apostolic women to arise in this city and in this region and in the nation and in the nations of the world. For many years apostolic women have sat in the background waiting for permission to prophesy, waiting for permission to take their places and their God-given roles in the body of Christ. And the time is now for apostolic women to come to the fore, working alongside apostolic men and prophetic believers and evangelists, pastors and teachers who have a heart to build, who have a heart to see awakening, who have a heart to see revival impact this land and who have a heart to see the glory of My Spirit go forth in the nations and cover the earth as the water covers the sea.
The time is now.Apostolic women, the Lord says you have permission to rise up, even own and carry the mantle of Aime Semple McPherson, and carry the mantle of Kathryn Kuhlman, and carry the mantle of Maria Woodworth-Etter, and carry the mantle of those great women from generations past who were nameless and faceless.
Babylon Bee humorously predicted it, and here it is just two days later, the first claim that Brexit fits into Bible prophecy.
Just astoundingly, amazingly bad theology.
How the Brexit is Surprisingly Fulfilling Bible Prophecy
Posted on June 24, 2016 by joshuainfantado
Britain’s exit or simply ‘Brexit’ has bitterly divided the country. This controversial political move has just concluded with Britain walking away from the powerful European Union. After 43 years, Britain has finally decided to leave and regain complete sovereignty of their native land.
With this in mind, are we moving closer to the fulfillment of Biblical prophecies? Where will this recent event lead us? Most importantly, what does this mean for us, individual Christians?
Many Christians assent to the reality of miracles, dreams and visions and other supernatural encounters with Jesus. Yet the vast majority rarely move in these things. Often God seems to be at a distance or only understood at the level of the mind.
Part of the reason for this is bad teaching (“The gifts are not for today.”) or bad practice which suggests that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are rarely given and only to a few special “men of God.”
This book written anonymously by a paramedic dispels this notion. Praying Medic prays often with his patients on the way to hospital and sees many of them healed. Often he employs a process he calls “seeing in the spirit” which is visualising what God is doing in the present situation.
This book is really easy to read and simply written. It encourages the reader to step out in faith and to use their “spiritual eyes” as a part of their prayer life. A number of exercises are given to help this process along.
We left Narrabri at 7.30 this morning and drove through rain nearly all the way to Hay, some 800 km away.
This is the Back O’ Bourke Exhibition Centre, where they have a daily show, which we missed by about 45 minutes, and art exhibitions etc.
New Life Narrabri 