Jesus went to the cross to bear the sins of many… “And unto them that look for Him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation”.
Can you pray with John, “Even so come Lord Jesus?”. Jesus is coming for those who are looking for Him as stated in Hebrews 9:28. Jesus came the first time to suffer and die on the cross to save us! This time to take us with Him to heaven. John 3:16 states, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life”. My friend receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior. We all have a need for the Savior. Acts 3:19 says, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins be blotted out…”. Psalm 51:5 states, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me”. Romans 3:23 states “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God”. A Marriage at Midnight Please read the story of the ten virgins; five were wise and five were foolish. Five made it in and five didn’t (Matthew 25:1-13). The snatching away will be at midnight. God’s midnight! Jesus may come by our clock at noon or at night or maybe in the morning! No man knows the hour! God only knows that time! Jesus will return at God’s midnight; not one minute before or after. I’m looking toward the open sky for the soon coming King! I’m looking up towards God not distracted by what’s down here happening in the world around me. Just as Ruth laid at Boaz’s feet and became the Gentile bride of this great Jewish man, I am waiting at the feet of Jesus to be in the Gentile bride and go to the married supper of the lamb. How are you living your life? Enoch was raptured just before the flood. He had a testimony that he pleased God. Elijah was a man of passion and raptured. Elijah continued to believe in God despite a nation looking to kill him. Paul had a testimony that he had fought a good fight. He finished his course and had a crown of righteousness laid up for him! Let us live like the examples set before us in the Bible and run the race with patience and pleasing unto God. A Test Here is a good test for you to see if you are ready. Look up in the clouds and see if you would like to see Jesus coming! Many people would hesitate at that. He is coming for those looking for Him (Hebrews 9:28)! He’s coming for a people who have their wedding garments on without spot or wrinkle just as a bride adorned for her husband. Can you pray like John, “Even so come Lord Jesus”? I’m praying for you and your families to be saved! Jesus is coming for overcomers. Ask Jesus to come into your heart, tell him you are a sinner and need his forgiveness. Repent and be converted that your sins be blotted out. Thank God for his love and forgiveness. Amen.
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3/24/2020 3 Comments The Rain is Coming... Dear Church Family, Let us open in prayer; “Father God we thank you for letting us see another day. We thank you for salvation and we thank you for our families. We pray for healing for the world around us and that the world may come to know you. In Jesus name, Amen!” In the last sermon, “The Impossible”, we talked about laying our impossibilities on the altar for God to consume. Elijah was the only prophet of God left calling for Israel to return back to God. To continue reading on in this sermon I suggest you reading the blog post prior to this if you haven’t already. The series continues with an important proclamation, the rain is coming! Israel was in a great state of sin when King Ahab began to reign, however; the Bible states that Ahab was worse than the Kings that came before him. 1 Kings 16:30 “And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord above all that were before him.” King Ahab walked in his sins without a second thought to consequences. The Bible says in 1 Kings 16:31, “And it came to pass, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam…”. He took Jezebel as his wife who encouraged the worship of Baal and he created altars to this false god. 1 Kings 16: 33 states “…and Ahab did more to provoke the Lord God of Israel to anger than all the kings of Israel that were before him”. In my opinion, what King Ahab did by angering God to this level was huge. In 1 Kings 16 there are verses describing how previous kings angered God by their actions but God quickly states that Ahab surpassed them all. Elijah appears to King Ahab in 1 Kings 17:1, “And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the Lord God of Israel liveth, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.” And God was true to his word. Chapter 18 tells us it wasn’t until three years later that God told Elijah that rain would come onto the Earth. At this point, there was a famine in Samaria and Elijah faced the prophets of Baal (see prior blog post “The Impossible”) and slew the false prophets after God showed himself as the one true God by consuming the offering. After this display, Elijah approached King Ahab once again with a different message. 1 Kings 18:41- 44 “And Elijah said unto Ahab, Get thee up, eat and drink; for there is a sound of abundance of rain. 42 So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees 43 And said to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and looked, and said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. 44 And it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down that the rain stop thee not.” I am writing to you to say, I hear a sound of abundance of rain coming! Elijah’s purpose was to turn the hearts’ of Israel back to the worship of the one true God. Elijah proclaimed God’s judgment on King Ahab and Israel because of their actions. As Christians, we most likely have not constructed altars to a pagan god but we have allowed other things to take priority in our lives over God. I want you to ask yourself a few questions that stem from this sermon. What state is your spiritual life in? Are you walking lightly in your sins like King Ahab? Are you placing things before God? In this time of seclusion, take a step back and weed out things in your life that are not like Christ. We have been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to slow down and focus on what is important. When writing this message I felt God pressing on my heart that once we have repaired our broken altars like the people of Israel we can receive the blessings of God. Like Elijah, I can see the promise coming like a cloud the size of a man’s hand on that seventh time. The time of famine is over in Samaria! God is ready to send the rain. It is going to take Christians that continue to press on in prayer with their face in between their knees even when others are saying they don’t see anything happening. Prepare your hearts, because the rain is coming! 3/17/2020 6 Comments The Impossible... Dear Church Family,
Let us begin in prayer, "Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for everyone who came to read this post. Let your glory shine through and reach hearts. We pray that you cast out all fear throughout the world because we know that by your stripes we are healed. We thank you for your goodness and mercy. We thank you for the ability to speak your word. In Jesus name, Amen!' Today begins a short series on various subjects surrounding the Prophet Elijah. I have always been intrigued about his life, the messages he gave, and the power of God displayed through this man. There is power even behind the name. Elijah is a Hebrew name coming from the word ‘Eliyyahu’ meaning “My God is YAHWEH”. Think about this for a minute. Such a powerful start, coming out of the womb declaring his god is YAHWEH. The Bible is filled with examples of how great men and women faced impossible situations. Circumstances that in the natural eye were scary and intimidating to any person. Situations that would immediately cause us to wave the flag of surrender. BUT GOD! Many of us face what seems to be impossible on a daily basis whether its our job, our family, bills. etc. Even some of the most tedious things we face can become impossible to overcome in our minds. I want you to close your eyes and think of whatever impossible situation you are facing. Visualize in your mind the very thing that you feel is going to overcome you. Take a good look at that because after today I want you to be able to use the word... Luke 1:37 “For with God NOTHING all be impossible” and Mark 11:23 “… mountain, be thou removed.” I want to give a little backstory to the scripture we are going to read. God had moved Elijah to face King Ahab about the spiritual state of the people of Israel: a people that once fervently served God that now turned to worship Baal and other idolatrous practices. At this point, Jezebel had murdered prophets of God and Elijah was in hiding but returned to bring the people of God back to him. Elijah charged the people of Israel stating to them: “How long will you waiver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” Now let us open to our main scripture. I want to begin with the scripture of 1 Kings 18:20-39 "20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waiver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”But the people said nothing. 22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord’s prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let Baal’s prophets choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire—he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.”
25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made.
27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention.
30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which had been torn down.
31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs[a] of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench.
36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord—he is God! The Lord—he is God!” Not only did God burn up the sacrifice, he dried up the water around the altar. What looked like an impossible situation to man, God said, “this is nothing to me!”. Im sure the people of Israel were laughing on the inside thinking about how impossible it would be for fire to consume the offering after the water had drenched the offering. They saw 450 people fail at summoning their god. At this point they had no reason to believe that one man alone could get God’s attention. But the beauty in this situation, God turned naturally impossible to supernaturally possible. Now imagine this in today’s context. So many times we look at our circumstances and say to God, “This is impossible. Nothing can fix what I’m going through! God where are you? Everything is crumbling around me. The weight of what I’m going through is almost too much to bear.” Like the water being poured on the altar more and more things are poured into our lives and we only see the impossibility of our circumstances. Single parents, bills, trouble on the job, NEED a job, car keeps breaking down, Coronavirus! But OUR God, OUR God is an all consuming fire. Let me reiterate OUR God is an all consuming fire. Nothing is too hard for God. We’ve heard it so many times that nothing is too hard for HIM, but have we made it into a saying instead of something we hold fast in our heart. We need to need to cry out and say like the Israelites, “The Lord - he is GOD! The Lord - he is GOD!” And let him consume our impossibilities. We must believe in our hearts what we know in our heads. Jesus emphasized this point in the new testament, Matthew 10:27 states “Jesus looked at them and said With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.” There is not one area in our lives that God cannot turn around. God repeatedly tells us in the Bible and throws the ball in our court about his power. Genesis 18:14 states “Is anything too hard for the Lord?…” It is up to us to put our trust in HIM and allow God to move in our lives. There is not one situation too hard for God to turn around. Luke 1:37 says, “For with God nothing shall be impossible.” We must lay the impossible on the altar and let God consume it. Because let me remind you again, “FOR WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE”! Amen and Amen. Thank you for reading, Be Blessed! Jacquelyn Parris |
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