O Gracious God!  This day signifies more to us than any other day.  While we celebrate the resurrection every day, this Easter Sunday we recognize that this is what paved the way for all things.  On Friday, the price was paid for our sins. Your precious Son shed His blood so that we might be redeemed. On Friday, the goodness of the Son of God was seen in that He breathed His last, so that we might be saved.  As they laid Him in that tomb, the price was paid, our sins forgiven. Cleansing had come and this cleansing was once and for all. No more sacrifices, Jesus was THE sacrifice. The Spotless Lamb of God, took the sins of the world on Him.

Yet, that sacrifice on Friday had a tandem partner.  The two go hand in hand. Side by Side. The resurrection on Sunday brought eternity to the sacrifice on Friday.  When Jesus walked out of that tomb it signified so much more. His resurrection conquered death, hell and the grave. His resurrection, turned our death into life. Because He lives, we now have so much more in this life and the one yet to come.  Because of Jesus' resurrection, we can have life. Life abundant. Eternal Life. Life forevermore.  The Cross on Friday gave us access to You, Our Heavenly Father, and the resurrection on Sunday, gave us that access for all eternity.

O God! May this resurrection day be a day where we embrace that Eternal Life. Let this day be an awakening for all of us that because You have paid the price for us, we will introduce others to this great gift.  On this resurrection Sunday, may we be filled with that same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and let that Spirit empower us to bring others to You.

Thank you for the Friday and the Sunday.  Thank you that Friday was Good and Sunday makes sure that goodness lives forever!

​In Jesus Name. AMEN!

2,000 years ago was a day that lives in history books as the most brutal, torturous, and unjust day for an innocent man, who was killed for the claims He made.  Only 33 years old, this man died a brutal death for claiming to be the Son of God. 

He had raised the dead, made the lame to walk, caused the blind to see, and fed 5,000 people with just a few loaves of bread and a couple fish.  He arrived in Israel in a way that was uncharacteristic.  He was born of a virgin who had been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit.  His express purpose for such an incredible birth was that He would live a sinless life and take our sins on Him.

He was indeed the Son of God, but by claiming that title, He was arrested and tortured. His back was laid open by the Roman Flagrum. He was mocked and beaten beyond recognition. He was spit upon and His beard was ripped from His face.  He was stripped naked and nailed to a cruel cross. That cross was hoisted in the air and there He hung for all the world to see.

From that cross, He looked over His mockers and haters and prayed, "Father, Forgive Them For They Know Not What They Do!" He was offering forgiveness to the those who did not deserve it and it was the blood He shed that would be offered to cover their sins.  

Possibly my favorite prophecy concerning the Messiah is found in Isaiah 53:12.

"I will give him the honors of a victorious soldier,
    because he exposed himself to death.
He was counted among the rebels.
    He bore the sins of many and interceded for rebels"

Friends, He bore our sins and interceded for us in our rebellion. He did that for you and me.  To quote the old hymn, "Oh, What A Savior!"  2,000 years ago it would not have been called a Good Friday. But in 2019, it is a Good Friday because that fateful day secures salvation for all mankind.

There is a pain that is difficult to bear,
Some have said that I shouldn’t even care.

Let it go, forget about the wrong that was done, 
But I remember it happened to me, more than just once.

It is ever on my mind and the wound breaks my heart,
It drove a wedge between us, it drove us far apart.

With the offender, I was counted as a friend,
How could they hurt me, over and over again?

Will the pain ever cease?
Will this hurt ever decrease?

If time really heals all wounds,
Then, why does this hurt seem so new?

 But then I see a glimmer of hope, from one so pure,
With nails in his hands and feet, I think I see a cure.

He paid the price for my healing and for my hurt,
It is only His blood, through His suffering, that this will work.
​
So, I release my pain to the One who died for me
So that from this aching wound, I might finally be free.
-Danny Cheney-

The ideal life is in our blood and never will be still. Sad will be the day for any of us, when we become contented with the thoughts we are thinking and the deeds we are doing - where there is not forever waiting at the doors of our soul some great desire to do something larger, which we know that we were meant and made to do. -Elbert Hubbard-

The reason many people today are not satisfied or they are left feeling empty is because of the longing of the soul. Within us is the desire for more. Within in us is a craving to be something or to acheive something.

Yet, so many people feel it is the success of the world or what the world tells us success is that is important. We want to achieve, but that longing within us is the desire to be useful. I believe the longing within is not only to be important but to feel important. This means we want our work to count.

We want to live a life that does something significant and something that has an impact on the world around us. This is the reason so many become disenfranchised with life. We gain all that we set out to do but found it is not enough. This is the importance of doing something worthwhile for the soul.

We seek so hard to achieve in this world that we tend to neglect the soul's work or the Lord's work. The only thing that will last is serving the Lord and serving others. If you are to find fulfillment in life, it will only come by doing something without you at the center. When Christ is the center of all we do, life has more meaning.

I am in my 23rd year of pastoring and through the years I have learned a lot about myself and about leadership.  Being in leadership in our modern culture has a way of exposing our weaknesses and making them seem greater than our strengths.  With the help of Social Media and the constant posting of the good side of the leader's life, we often compare our weaknesses with other people's strengths.

Therefore, we find that we are constantly trying to be like someone else or at least wishing we had the "gift" sets that others have.  A friend and I were talking about another preacher we know that has it all.  His preaching is powerful and anointed. He is a mighty man in the pulpit but on top of that, he is an incredible musician and singer who can bring the house down.  I know as I talk about this preacher I have said on many occasions, "God, why couldn't you give me just a little of that talent?"

Yet, the older I get the more I am learning to be comfortable in my own skin. I understand my weaknesses and I do everything I can to improve those.  Every leader should seek to better himself or herself, but at some point we must understand, we are who God created us to be.  Improve our weakness, yes, but do not focus on your weakness because it will make you think you have no strengths.

I have come to realize that there are certain things that I am not gifted to do.  I try my hardest and frustrate myself trying to be something I am not.  I have tried to live up to the expectations of others and the unrealistic expectations that I have put on myself, but it all ends the same. Therefore, in recent years, I have decided to surround myself with people who can help where I lack.  

Many leaders and pastors, feel the peer pressure (that we thought we grew out of as teens)  to achieve and be what the church culture or business culture tells us. We then drive ourselves and our churches to be what we think that success is, but if you are striving for these things for the wrong reasons, we fail.  We might be a success in our peer's eyes, but what about God's eyes?

I am for growth personally and in ministry, but I want to be what God has called me to be. I believe we all do. Let's pray that we become what God has gifted us to be and see what He does through us with what He has given us.

I end with a great quote by Og Mandino in his book, The Greatest Mystery In The World.
"To do what I can is my problem; not what a Napolean or a Lincoln could do, but what I can do!"

Leader, seek to grow but always be yourself!

Monday, we took a family trip to Baxter Springs, Kansas, about an hour and a half from Rogers.  We have been there before and last time enjoyed the Baxter Springs Museum which is quite amazing.  The area is rich with history, ranging from Civil War to Mining History. 
 
Recently, I was reading a book that chronicled the life of Charles Parham.  He is known as the founder of the Apostolic Faith movement and also the father of the Modern Pentecostal movement. Parham was used of God to bring revival to our nation that eventually resulted in the Azusa Street Outpouring in 1906.
 
“The modern-day Pentecostal/Charismatic movement began in a small Bible school in Topeka, Kansas. The leader of the school, Charles F. Parham, assigned the entire student body the topic of the Biblical evidence of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit.
 
Keep in mind; neither Parham, nor any of his students had ever heard anyone speaking in tongues.  They approached this assignment not as antagonist or as propagandist, but as people hungry to follow the Biblical pattern. After three days, Parham called the students together in the chapel to ascertain their findings from the three-day study. To his astonishment the students all had the same story, reporting that although different things occurred when the Pentecostal blessing fell in the various episodes recorded in Acts, the common denominator on each occasion was that they spoke with other tongues. This, they concluded, should be the Biblical evidence of a genuine baptism in the Spirit.”  (Quoted from a Sermon by Jeff Gravis)
 
As a result of this outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Topeka, Kansas, Charles Parham influenced a man named William Seymour, who found his way to the Azusa Street Mission in Los Angeles and God used him to lead a revival that literally shook the world.  The influence that Parham had on William Seymour was immense and we should be grateful for both of these men who allowed the Spirit of God to work through them.
 
So, as I was reading a book on the Holy Spirit, I noticed that Charles Parham founded a Bible School in Baxter Springs and was buried there.  Monday, as we drove to Baxter Springs, we passed the still functioning Bible College. (Now located in a different building) Then we went to the town cemetery to see if we could find his gravestone.  In a prominent section of the cemetery, we found a well placed and intact gravestone that rested above this man of God.
 
As we stood near his grave, I couldn’t help but become hungry for a move of God in my own life as well as in our church.  What God did through Charles Parham was a sovereign act of God, yet, God can work again.  I believe that we are living in times that we are desperate for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit once again.  Not a 1901 experience or a 1906 outpouring but something for 2019. Something that can change the world.  Let us prepare our hearts for what God wants to do and I challenge everyone to pray for such a move of God that it will impact our respective communities all across our nation.
 
May God pour out His Spirit once again!
 
 No, what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet Joel:
17 ‘In the last days,’ God says,
    ‘I will pour out my Spirit upon all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy.
    Your young men will see visions,
    and your old men will dream dreams.
18 In those days I will pour out my Spirit
    even on my servants—men and women alike--
    and they will prophesy. -Acts 2:16-18-
 
 
Also, I took this cool photo of the last Marsh Bridge on Route 66.

Over the last 15 months, I have walked through a valley of sickness.  Not being able to hold food down has changed my life, in so many ways for the better. Not physically, but rather spiritually and it has transformed my perspectives.  It has taught me a lot about hunger.  Of course, I now have more compassion for those who are physically hungry. Those who have little to eat. But the greatest change has been in my understanding of spiritual hunger.  As a result of this last year, my dependence upon God is at an all time high.  I have had to trust Him for my daily needs as well as for the strength to walk through life. But what of spiritual hunger?

It’s not a plea for sympathy, but for 15 months, I was hungry every night, through the night. I couldn’t eat past a certain time and then I lost all of that. Every night was spent with my stomach growling and hungry for food.  All night was spent anticipating my morning meal. I looked forward to the morning.

After all these months, I have come to understand that this is the type of spiritual hunger God desires for us to have.  How often do we long for the morning that we can spend time with our Heavenly Father? How often do we long for Christ to satisfy our spiritual hunger? After all, He is the Bread of Life and only He can satisfy.  It begs us the question, are we more hungry for physical food than we are spiritual?

The Psalmist was a man of hunger.  He spent much time in caves on the run from his enemies. He understood what hunger and thirst truly was.  But, in all of those times on the run, what he longed for more than anything was the Lord’s presence.

 1 O God, you are my God;
    I earnestly search for you.
My soul thirsts for you;
    my whole body longs for you
in this parched and weary land
    where there is no water.
Psalm 63:1

Notice the longing for the Lord’s presence and the intensity of the Psalmist's hunger and thirst for God.  In essence he is saying, "I long for you with everything inside of me."  He is in a parched and weary land and he needs the water only God can give.  He longs to be satisfied by the Almighty. But the hunger does not end there.

 6 I lie awake thinking of you,
    meditating on you through the night.
7 Because you are my helper,
    I sing for joy in the shadow of your wings.
8 I cling to you;
    your strong right hand holds me securely.
Psalm 63:6-8

The Psalmist, too, is hungry through the night.  He lies awake thinking of the things of God.  He meditates on Him and on His goodness. It is in those night watches, in those moments of hunger that he finds himself clinging to God.

My friend, does your heart long for God in a similar way? How often do we meditate on God and on His goodness?  I have found it true of life that God will use the circumstances and hard times we face to draw us closer to Him.  It is never His intention to drive us away. Yet, it is our choice what we will do! How will you respond in the moments when you need Him the most? Will you seek Him and be driven to Him with a deeper hunger for His touch? Or will you leave His nudging unheeded?
​
I am thankful that after these 15 months of hunger, I am better and holding down food. However, the spiritual hunger remains. I am hungrier for a move of God than I have been in a long time. May God draw us nearer to Him and allow us to experience His fulness. I challenge you to seek Him and ask Him to give you a deeper hunger for His presence and His touch.

Just wanted to mention that 2 of the books I have authored are at their lowest ever price.

Sometimes, Church Hurts is now $6.99 on Amazon.  This is a great book for those who have been wounded in church or by other Christians. (Also, available in e-book  for 99 cents)

Also, Thoughts For The Journey is now $9.81 on Amazon. This is a book full of devotional writings. It will be a great encouragement to your walk with Christ. (Also, available in e-book  for 99 cents)

I believe these books will be a blessing to you.  

Have you ever been in a rut and couldn't seem to get out? 
​
When we lived in Daisetta, Texas, we had received a great deal of rain over the period of a couple weeks.  Off to the side of our driveway was a large puddle of water. It had been that way for a week and the ground was extremely soft. As I was backing out of the driveway, I pulled around Sonya's car and into the puddle. You guessed it; I got stuck. I had to call someone to pull me out. I learned that day, the harder I try to get out of a rut, the deeper it becomes.
 
In our spiritual lives, we go through periods of drought or as I call it, a rut.  It seems that we are stuck in the same place all the time. It seems as though we are not growing, and the harder we try to pray and study the Word, the more difficult it becomes.
 
I have been through many times of drought, but one thing I learned, is the harder I try to get out, the harder it gets. That is when I learned the solution. When I’m stuck, I need someone to pull me out.  Jesus is waiting for us to call on Him and ask for His help. The rut is too deep to try to do it our way. I have learned when it is the hardest to pray and read the Word, I ask God to help me. I stop trying to pray because "I NEED TO" but rather because I want to. Our spiritual walk can become a rigid ritual or formality. We do it and we walk away unchanged. When we give it to the Lord and we begin to spend time with Him, not just because it is our "hour a day", but a time set aside with Him to just soak Him in, we will find that we become refreshed.
 
A rut is difficult to overcome and impossible without Jesus to help us. I believe that God allows these times to build our faith and trust in Him so that we will still seek Him, although we don't feel like it or don't experience His presence. He will put within you a new spirit and a new heart.
 
Ezekiel 36:26 says, “I will give you a new heart and a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
 
Allow Jesus to pull you out of your spiritual rut. He is waiting for you.

​



​

​Every once in a while, I will go back and read through my grandfather's old Bible.  He was a pastor some years before I was born.  He was a passionate preacher and evangelist but had resigned from the ministry before I came along.  As I was reading though his Bible I came across a sermon he had preached nearly 50 years ago.
 
These were the words that he penned, "Our Lord has been glorified and the great gift to the church is the Holy Ghost and the one answer to your problems and needs and my needs  and that of the whole family of God throughout the whole world is the Holy Ghost.

Oh Breath of Life come sweeping through us,
Revive thy church with life and power.
O Breath of life, come, cleanse and renew us,
Equip Thy Church to meet this hour.”

Let this be our prayer as well. That the Breath of Life would sweep through us church and equip us for this hour.

Has somebody ever done you wrong? 
​
What a dumb question for me to ask!  I know that everyone can say a good hearty yes to this, but let me tweak the question just a bit.  Was that person who hurt you someone close to you?  Someone that you had blessed?  Most often it is those that are closest to us that hurt us.  Why is that?  Because we leave ourselves more vulnerable to those who we are closer to. 
 
Look at the life of King David who could really never trust those closest to him.  His own son, Absalom sought to overthrow the kingdom.  David ministered to King Saul and Saul tried to kill him.  Sound familiar?  David wrote in Psalm 35:11-14 we see David's frustration with this problem.  He writes, "Fierce witnesses rise up; They ask me things that I do not know.  They reward me evil for good.  To the sorrow of my soul.  But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing was sackcloth; I humbled myself in fasting; and my prayer would return to my own heart.  I paced about as though he were my friend or brother. I bowed down heavily, as one who mourns for his mother.  But in my adversity they rejoiced."
​
David had sought God for the others when they were down and out.  He had fasted and prayed for them and mourned with them only to see them turn their back on him.  Life is not fair is it?  Maybe this is your life story.  Maybe you are the one who is there to bless others...to minister to others needs only to see them turn against you in your most vulnerable moment.
 
Our first reaction is to fight back.  Speak against them and lash out at them with our tongue.  This is a natural response to hurt.  That is why churches today have so much conflict.  Because there is so much hurt.  When there is alot of hurt, people react by hurting others.  Many times people are threatened by the other party and that causes them to turn against them.  What are we supposed to do?  Fight Fire with Fire? It was Jesus' disciples who were ready to call down fire from heaven to consume their enemies but Jesus stopped them. 
 
David's response was verbal but not in a negative way.  In verse 17 of the above text he asks God to take care of them.  He says, "Lord, how long will you look on?  Rescue me from their destructions, my precious life from the lions.  I will give you thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people."
 
The answer can be summed up in the "two p's".  Pray for the offenders and Praise God in the midst of your hurt.  By doing these things you make yourself better and not bitter.  Pray that God would handle the situation and heal your hurts.  Pray that God would touch their hearts and that He would change them. 
 
Then put on a shout of praise.  Nothing makes you feel better in the times of loneliness and hurt than to just give God praise.  As you lift Him up, He lifts you up.  This will cause you to focus on God and not on those who have hurt you. 
 
Friend, hurts in life are inevitable.  Life is hard and your spirit will be wounded.  You do not have to live with the pain.  God will fight the battle for you.  Make a decision today to pray for those who hurt you and then give God your highest praise.  It will make you feel better.

Do you want to prosper?
 
I believe within every one of us is the desire to live a prosperous life. To live above and not beneath. To be the head and not the tail. To be blessed and not cursed. Every one of us desires to walk in the light of God’s abundance.

In the day we live we have been taught that the main road to prosperity is through our abundant giving. The more money we give the more we receive from the Lord. If we truly want to abound in God’s riches then we must give more and then some. Is this really the Bible’s path to prosperity?

Now before you stop reading, let me give you a disclaimer. I believe that we are blessed when we give, I do believe in sowing and reaping. There is, however, a broader path to the blessings of God. John said that God wills that we prosper and be in good health, even as our soul prospers. Our prosperity is dependent on our soul’s prosperity.  God’s abundance goes beyond finances. God desires to prosper us in every area of our lives. The word prosper in the Greek literally means to succeed in reaching. Therefore Biblical prosperity is success in reaching the best that God has for us. Success in living a fruitful Christian life which displays God’s hand upon our lives.

How do we prosper? How does our soul succeed? II Chronicles 31:21 gives us the path to abundance, “And in every work that he [Hezekiah] began in the service of the House of God, in the law and in the commandment, to seek his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.”

Here we find that prosperity is based upon the heart. Even the great commandment states that we are to love God with our whole heart, soul and strength. In all that we do we must love and serve Him with that type of fervency.

According to God’s Word we must give our all in the following areas if we want to prosper:

1. Serve in the House of God with all of our heart.
God is not looking for half-hearted servants in His house. He is not looking for someone to begrudgingly serve Him because they “have to”. He is looking for someone to sell-out and give everything to the One who gave everything. To prosper you must serve the Lord in His House. Find a ministry and give your all to it and you will prosper.

2. Love the Word of God and live it with all of your heart.
Hezekiah gave his all to fulfill the law and the commandments. His desire was to live according to God’s Word. To follow His commands. If you look at the gospels you find that Jesus said that our soul’s prosperity was contingent on obeying His Word. Do you desire to live according to His Word? Do you line up how you live with how the Word of God tells you to live? Prosperity comes to those who live a holy life.

3. Seek your God with all of your heart.
The path to prosperity is found in your whole-hearted desire to know God and seek Him. Do you pray because you have-to or because you want to? Do you seek to know Him more? Hezekiah wanted to know the ways of the Lord so He sought Him. For you and I to prosper in life we must have a relationship with the Master of our Souls. Seek Him and you will prosper.
​
These are the three key ways to find prosperity in your life. Make it your goal to focus on these three areas. If you do them you will prosper.


This post is adapted from Danny's  book, ​Thoughts For The Journey.

Ever feel that God doesn't even know your name?
 
Paul, in writing to Timothy, shared a powerful truth, "Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knows those who are His…" 
II Timothy 2:19
 
Need I say more?  God who is all-knowing knows your name.  The God who is all-powerful has the power to change your life.  Too many times we go by our feelings and feel unloved.  We may not feel His presence one day, and we think He has forsaken us.  The fact is, we do not have to live by feelings but by faith.  If He said, "He knows those who are His", shouldn't we take Him at His word?  God loves you and cares for you.  You are special to Him!  He knows the number of tears you cry and the number of hairs on your head (and those that fall off too).  We can delight in the fact that God cares for each one of us so much that He knows us all by name. 
​
My comprehension is not capable of grasping the fact that God Almighty can be everywhere at one time and know billions of individual names.  Not only that, He knows every detail of those many billions of people.  Amazing, is it not?  What an awesome God we serve!  Paul relates that this is the solid foundation of God, and it stands with the seal of His ownership on our lives.  Friend, the next time you feel forsaken, unloved or unmoved, think on this verse (II Timothy 2:19).  You are special, you are chosen, you are loved.  Jesus said that God knows every time a sparrow falls to the ground, how much more does He know your needs and hurts.  Rest assured that you are the apple of God's eye, and He knows you by name.