A Special Message
The Spirit of the Lord is Upon Me
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Seize the Moment – Day 692
God is a Promise Keeper!
Joshua 21:41-43 summarizes the fulfillment of an old promise:
All the cities of the Levites in the midst of the possession of the sons of Israel were forty-eight cities with their pasture lands. These cities each had its surrounding pasture lands; thus it was with all these cities. So the Lord gave Israel all the land which He had sworn to give to their fathers, and they possessed it and lived in it.
The Levites did not receive an allocation of the Promised Land, like the rest of the tribes of Israel, but these priests and temple workers still needed homes to live in, places to raise their children, and pastureland to feed their animals (Numbers 18:20). So, God spoke to Moses promising the Levites cities in Numbers 35:1-8.
It was up to Joshua to ensure that the promise was kept. Under his leadership, all the tribes had their land allocated to them, the six refuge cities have been declared, the forty-eight Levites cities have been selected, and the tabernacle was centralized at Shiloh. Joshua 21:44-45 captures this crowing moment’s significance to the nation of Israel:
And the Lord gave them rest on every side, according to all that He had sworn to their fathers, and no one of all their enemies stood before them; the Lord gave all their enemies into their hand. Not one of the good promises which the Lord had made to the house of Israel failed; all came to pass.
God is a promise keeper! While there was much work to do to settle the land, and, we know, there is much about their future that is not to be envied, God’s people stopped at this moment in time, and this place in their history, to celebrate God’s faithfulness to keep His promises!
Seize the moment and celebrate God’s faithfulness to keep His promises to you! God will never fail you!
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Seize the Moment – Day 650
Protecting Priorities!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Monday, December 27.
Have you ever heard someone say, “Happy wife, happy life”?
While such a statement does not allow for an idolatrous view of marriage and family, it does call you to realize that right priorities make for a holy and healthy life. If you make the decision to get married, then you must protect and prioritize that relationship. If you and your spouse decide to have children, then you need to work together to figure out how to partner to prioritize the raising of those children. Neither marriage nor having children are required of you to live a holy life, but if you decide to follow either path, then you must accept the consequences of your decision by protecting and prioritizing the responsibilities those decisions require of you!
This is an amazing teaching that demonstrates the power of shared priorities. But it also reveals how difficult it can be to protect your priorities when you live in a culture that doesn’t share them, and even works against them!
What decisions do you need to make to protect your priorities in your daily life?
Seize the moment and prioritize time and energy to the priorities of your life today!
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Seize the Moment – Day 640
The Word of the Prophet!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday, December 17. Please join me in wishing a happy birthday to Vicki Thomson, Richard Kinnaird, and Pam Frazee.
How can we know God’s will for our lives?
This was a significant question for the nation of Israel, as it is for us today. Israel had been rescued from Egypt and were now surrounded by the Canaanites. The people of the ancient Near East used a variety of illegitimate sources, from which Yahweh strictly forbade His people, as in Deuteronomy 18:9-11:
When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, or one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead.
In direct contrast to these practices, God speaks through His chosen people, called prophets, such as He did with Moses. Moses prophesied of the coming Messiah, and His office of Prophet, in Deuteronomy 18:15: “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen, you shall listen to him.” The early church quoted this promise twice, in Acts 3:22 and Acts 7:37.
Jesus is the new Moses and the fulfillment of the office of prophet. The first disciples of Jesus Christ declared it so in the Gospel of John 1:45: “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” More than a prophet, Jesus is the Living Word: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).
Seize the moment and know God’s will for your life through Jesus Christ and His Word!
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Advent 2021 Special Presentation – Week 3
From the Streets of Bethlehem
From the Streets of Bethlehem
Production team:
Cast for the Play
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You can listen to the presentation here:
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Advent 2021 Hope – Week 1
A Message of Hope
Missionary Jim White
Hope is not thinking that something might happen, it is the assurance that something will happen! As I look around me, it seems that people are living in “survival mode.” Many of us seem to be just barely making it. I suggest that sometimes it is because we get distracted from what God wants us to be doing.
It’s unhealthy to live like this for an extended period of time. It causes fatigue, ulcers, headaches – a general feeling of being overwhelmed.
I am convinced that God can set us free from bondage to drinking, drugs, etc. You don’t have to just get by.
When surviving becomes your daily focus, you forget about your goals, about your dreams for the future. You only think about how you will get through today.
There are three questions we ask ourselves:
- How did I get here?
- Did I cause at least some of it?
- How do I get out of this place I find myself?
We must first be able to discern whether God has put these “things” into my life or whether it is from Satan. That makes a big difference on how we approach it.
Many times we bring it on ourselves, because we turn from the Lord:
1 Kings 11:3-6 Solomon turned from the Lord and went after other gods.
Numbers 12 Miriam complained against Moses’ leadership.
But God wants us to experience the Abundant Life!
John 10:10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
Ephesians 3:19 …and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
He wants us to overcome all obstacles through faith in Him! We have authority over all evil forces in this world. When people lose hope, they act out of desperation & that leads to chaos. We believers are to live with hope as an example to those in the world without hope!
John 14:12-14 12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I yam going to the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
You can listen to Jim’s message here:
You can watch the video HERE.
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Live Like a Champion – Week 33
The Promise of Leadership!
Presented by Reverend Mark Thompson (ABC Regional Pastor)
(The following are notes taken during the message, there may be some misinterpretations of what Rev. Thompson actually said. Listen to his message to hear for yourself.)
Ephesians 4:15:
Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ.
Serving the Lord demolishes all of our preferences.
God exists in community (the Trinity) and He creates us to live in community.
Ephesians 4:11-16:
11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
18 “Forget the former things;
do not dwell on the past.
19 See, I am doing a new thing!
Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
and streams in the wasteland.
God may be calling you into leadership.
Justified – It is “just-as-if-I’d never sinned. All the labels come off! (Good & Bad)
Sanctification – We are set apart for God’s purposes.
We think we need time to think about what God wants us to do, to make careful consideration before moving. We say something like, “I don’t know all of the things I need to know in order to do all of the things I need to do. I need to think about it.”
“God calls us to act our way to NEW THINKING, no to THINK our way to NEW ACTING!”
– Mike Mather, a pastor
Ministry takes all of us – and more!
You can listen to Mark’s message here:
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The Promises of Christmas (Week 3)
Glimpses of the Nativity
…Suddenly we were surrounded by light.I could see the shock on my brothers’ faces that I was sure was mirrored in my own.Then an angel appeared and said,“Fear Not!”Huh!? For some reason when an angel declares “Fear Not!” — FEAR IS OUR FIRST REACTION!Well! We feared all right! We were terrified!We fell on our faces – praying for ABBA’s protection like we never prayed before…!
You can listen to the Reader’s Theater here:
You can watch to the Reader’s Theater HERE. (Week #3, Dec. 13th)
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COVID-19 Update
A short leadership update:
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IT IS LEFT FOR ARCHIVAL PURPOSES ONLY.
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