A great year is coming up! God has revitalized and even redirected our vision. This year is the year of favor, harvest and fulfillment. several great things will be happening but we need full participation from everyone who calls ACA "Thier church". we can reach the multitudes, God has "set us up" for success. I believe he has tested us and found us to be faithful. He is going to send us many precious precious people who need love, hope and restoration. I will not tell you that it is going to be easy from here on out but I will tell you that it will be worth it a million times over and over again. Our work, our sacrifice, our time and money will make a difference for eternity. Great is the reward of the faithful!

field of dreams, a place where kids will get involved in sports and at the same time recieve the word of God and spiritual mentoring, is progressing. There is still much to do but much has been accomplished. Let do this right for the Glory of God. I promise you will not regret having sowed seed into this project. Not only the sports program but also the monthly "community party's" to reach out to our community with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ will also take place at the field of dreams. And finally the prayer garden, a place where we can go and spend time in prayer anytime of the day. Field of dreams will not only impart dreams to the kids and youth of our community but there the dreams that have died will be resurrected by the power of the word of God and the Holy Spirit.

 

Three elements for success are present at the field of dreams:

1. Prayer; the prayer garden where prayers will rise up abundantly to God.

2. dreams; the dreams in the heart of Gods children to touch lives and save souls, the dreams birthed in the hearts of the children to shoot for the stars in life. And the dead dreams brought back to life. People will once again dream for thier lives and for thier children and believe that God has good things for them in life.

3. Action. When Gods people were up against the red sea with pharoah and his army coming up fast Mose began to pray and God tells him get up and stretch forth your hand. When he did the red sea opened up. Again when Gods people stood at the banks of the Jordan river the waters never parted until the priests feet touched the water. Dreams are great prayer is expedient but even faith without works is dead. We have dreamed, we have prayed now its time for action. Time to pour out our love upon our community.

Avondale Christian Assembly, you are strong, we can do this, God has prepared us for this, He is for us because we are working with Him. Do not get tired of giving and working, this is why you were created... for good works! Lets love our community.

I.       The weapons of our warfare

a.     Defensive weapons (preparing for battle)

b.    Offensive weapons

                                                             i.      The sword of the spirit (the word of God)

                                                           ii.      The word of our testimony (our words backed by our testimony)

                                                        iii.      The gifts of the Spirit

1.    The word of wisdom and word of knowledge expose plans that the enemy might have laid out. 2 Kings 6:8-12

2.    The gift of faith removes obstacles that the devil puts in our way.

3.    The gifts of healing remove infirmities that the enemy tries to put on us.

4.    The working of miracles brings down the strongholds just like the walls of Jericho.

5.    Prophecy tongues and interpretation defeats the spirits of discouragement

6.    Discernment of spirits exposes the lies of the devil. 

iv. Unity with the body

We must prepare for battle and engage the enemy, not just wait for his attacks but take the land, kill the giants, advance the kingdom, drive back the forces of darkness, set the captive free!

Ephesians 6:10-18 four things you must do:

1.  Be strong

2.  Put on the whole armor of God

3.  Learn about spiritual warfare

4.  Pray, worship, sing, shout praise

 

Six things you must Know:

1. The work of Christ (destroy the works of the devil) 1 John 3:8

2. Your authority (over all the power of the enemy) Luke 10:19

3. The word of God (It is your authority and your most powerful weapon)

4. Your spiritual position (son of God, co-here with Jesus, younger brother to Jesus, sitting together with him in heavenly places)

5. Your enemy's strategies (if the truth sets you free then the bondages are deceit, lies and illusion) John 8:32, 44

6. How to defeat the devil in your mind 2 Cor. 10:3-5

I am learning that the more I build people up the more God builds me up. I want to make people feel good about themselves. It seem like in the past I have been more concerned about others treating me right and others making me feel good. I want to be the giver not the taker. People are so wonderful, when I can look past the human error and faults that we all so obviously have, I can see the God - part in them. People created in the image of God. To see the elderly smile and hear the young children laugh. To absorb the energy of the teenagers and rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. This is more than money more than possessions more that accomplishments.

I didn't always think and feel like this. Don't get me wrong I still have a vision and I still want to do great things and see great things happen but my paradigm for living has slowly shifted over the years. People have become more important to me that everything else. I even wonder if the well known bible verse "seek ye first the Kingdom of God..." is not referring more to how we relate with others that to how much success we have and how much we accomplish. After all the great commandment was to love God and love others, not be successful and accomplish great things.

Anyway I really want to focus my time and energy on building up others. Through my words and through my actions. I have been abundantly and exceedingly blessed with cheerfulness, optimism and courage. God has given me a forgiving heart and a compassionate heart. I now ask myself how can I pass all of this on to others? There are so many people who suffer depression who live life with a pessimistic outlook and who live tormented by fear, I have something to impart to them. All that I have and all that I am comes from God, when you consider who and what I was before he found me, transformed me and blessed me with so much, you can understand why I feel the way I do.

So what can I do, what can we do to build others up. First of all is to make sure that we are not tearing each other up. There is a verse in the bible that says that if we bite each other to take care that we don't devour each other up. But how can we be intentional about building up others? I have some thoughts but I will hold them for now. I would like to hear some of your thoughts on this. What kind of things can we do to build up others. Give me your thought.

acassembly@aol.com

 

I have always loved this phrase "run the race" Im a song writer and I think I have probably overuse the phrase in my songs. I was never a runner as a matter of fact I was never very athletic, I played one season of basketball, some soccer and I went out for football one year and quit after the first practice. As for running, when I was a freshman in High school I could run the mile in seven minutes! (that's slow in case you didn't know) But I have a romance with this phrase and with this verse in Hebrews 12 that talks about running the race. When I think about how my spiritual journey is not a time of wandering in the desert but a race with a beginning and end, with a finish line to reach and a prize to win, it gives me a great sense of purpose and destiny.

we could say that the race is a lot like a marathon or better yet a triathlon race. It's a lifelong journey with many obstacles. There are some areas that are easier and then there is the uphill parts of the race. Life brings us some times when it seems like all of our troubles seem so far away as we run swiftly and almost effortlessly almost enjoying the beautiful landscape around us. But what about those times when every muscle hurts and all we can do is to keep pushing ourselves one more step. The great crowd of witnesses who watch cheer us on with chants of "Run the race, run the race!"

we could also see the race as a relay race where based on the speed of the runners, the generally accepted strategy used in setting up a 4 person relay team is: second fastest, third fastest, slowest, then fastest (anchor). I would have done it all different, I would have put my fastest runner first then the second fastest, then the third fastest and finally I would have let slowest go last, after all he is the slowest. But putting the fastest last? I think that is what is going to happen in the kingdom race. The last generation of believers will be the fastest. I wonder if that is us? Are we the fastest or the slowest? I would like to think that I am part of the fastest, the ones who with a supernatural burst of speed will push the race through to the finish line and usher in the coming of the messiah.

The important thing is not where you run or when you run but how you run. The verse in Hebrews 12 tells that that we are to run the race with patience. The bible says that "in your patience you possess your soul." We have to learn patience in our family relationships in our business endeavours, in our spiritual race. Moses, in Gods own words "the most meek man that ever lived," lost his patience, disobeyed God and lost the privilege of entering the promised land. The bible says; in James 5:11 "behold we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job..." Who has not heard of the patience of Job? He ran a great race, the bible tells us that he was a righteous man, he was doing everything right, praying, prospering, praising, running with style and then; he lost it all including his family and his health. Yet Job did not check out of the race he kept on running. Limping along, at times dragging his tired body one more inch. But Job kept the faith and made it through the rough terrain coming out stronger, better, richer and happier than he had ever been.

You see to God what really matters is how we run. He expects us to run with patience, Joy, faith, Trust, Love, humbleness. He expects us to be fruitful, to run legitimately and faithfully to the death. The trophies and prizes that we win in this life are nothing to be compared with the crowns and rewards that we will receive in heaven. All of our victories all of our success, these are mere tools that can help us win the real prizes, the eternal prizes. Our prosperity our gain is a loss if it does not serve us as a means to an end. I will call this running with wisdom. Are you a wise runner, are you running for eternity?

 

 

 

HOW TO MAKE 2009 YOUR BEST YEAR EVER!

Are you ready to do what it takes to make 2009 your best year ever?

You may be surrounded by more problems than you have ever faced, you may find yourself in the worst situation you have ever been in and yet if you are willing to do whatever it takes, you will always remember 2009 as your best year ever.

The first thing that you must do is "take inventory". You must find out what the "joy robbers" have been in your life. You must not look superficially but deep inside and carefully around to discover what has "really" been robbing you of the abundant life that Christ came to give us (John 10:10).

Let me mention just two "Joy robbers" and maybe you will discover that one or maybe both of these have been stealing your joy.

1. A bad attitude. How do you react when things don't go your way? Do you pout or get angry? Do you isolate yourself or get discouraged? If so then you are suffering from an acute case of "bad attitude". If you pout, get angry, isolate yourself and get discouraged even when things are going good then you are chronic and need to be admitted into Gods ICU. Philippians 4:8 "Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable?if anything is excellent or praiseworthy?think about such things." These versus show us that the way to change a bad attitude is to change bad thinking. You must bring your thoughts captive;

2 Corinthians 10:4-6 (New International Version)

I will be teaching about honoring God by putting Him first and by giving Him the best. During this month we will be doing an outreach and asking every member of the church to invite at least one unsaved friend or family member. also we will be doing a 21 day Daniel fast and some of us have committed our first weeks salary as a firstfruit offerring. The bible teaches that if we honor God with our firstfruits then we will be blessed with abundance. Join us the month of January as we are intentional about honoring God.

I remember when Saturdays used to be a "get out on the town" night. All we could think about is what were going to do on Saturday. When I gave my life to Christ at 18 years of age my Saturdays were revolutionized. Almost automatically Saturdays became a day of preparing my heart to be in Gods presence on Sunday. Not that I locked myself in a room to pray and fast although I would do that on occasion, But I had a strong anticipation and inward reflection. Whether I was walking through a store or in a park or wherever I was my thoughts were on what God was going to do the next day. Psalms 42 "When I remember these things, I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go with the multitude; I went with them to the house of God, with the voice of joy and praise, with a multitude that kept a pilgrim feast." Speaks to us of this yearning for Gods presence. To be in his house and worship him with great celebration and Joy. Everyone in the world is so busy on Saturdays, going to the malls to the parks and places of recreation, spending time with the family. Saturday is the time for birthday parties, baby showers, weddings, quinceaneras, long drives to the mountains, and other innumerable activities. You may not want to reduce your Saturday activities but you can build expectation in your heart. There is nothing that compares to the coming together of Gods people in explosive praise and whole hearted worship to the Lord. As I would walk into the house of God I would never be disappointed and I have never been disappointed since. I just want to encourage those of you who are advanced enough in years and in spiritual growth to dedicate your Saturdays to prepare your hearts for Sunday service. Not in a legalistic way but from a spiritual hunger for more of God. Separate a little prep time on Saturday. Carry your bible with you and any chance you get read the word. Even in the midst of whatever activity you are involved in cultivate expectation for Sunday when the whole family of God gets together to sit around the Fathers table and sup with Him and He with us.