The Nature of Prayer

Is your relationship with God personal or functional? When I was younger in the Lord and began to hear some of the very things that today I teach, I was at first most upset.  See, the truth does something that many will not acknowledge.  It divides.  When the truth is presented to you, you must make a decision to walk in the light of it or to get angry with it.  I wrestled and got angry with the message of faith for quite some time, because it did not allow me to have my way.  In the end I figured out that I am irrelevant and that to live is Christ.  God was no more interested in what I thought about having my way than a little bit.  I then came to realize that the primary purpose of my prayer life (and yours too) should be to deepen my relationship with God.  The pinnacle of prayer is when we want Him.  (When we don’t want what we want).  The nature of prayer is such that our relationship with God is more important than our requests.  So I ask again; Is your relationship with God personal or functional? Holla at your boy.

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
P. Jas.

A Little More To Chew On

I want you to notice that it is quite possible that the nature of your relationship with God has hindered your prayer life.  Relationship precedes request and out of fellowship comes fortitude.  Some of us have gotten to the place where we accept God’s word as truth, but that is where it stops.  A true follower of Christ is one who responds to the truth of God’s word.  The life of faith in God is a response to relationship with Him, not just another way to be religious.  All things have been revealed to you as a child of God.  A disciple is one who will respond to God’s revelation.  What will your response be to what you are reading here? Keep the faith and wear the crown.

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
Pastor James

Food For Thought

Is your interest in God personal or functional?  I ask this because as I’ve examined myself, I’ve found that there have been times in my life when my relationship with the Lord was purely functional.  What I mean is that I wanted to know God only because I thought that I would gain something from Him.  If that is your frame of mind today, I want to encourage you to get to know God on a personal basis.  Not because you need something or want something, but because He wants to know you intimately, as well.  I believe that even if you find yourself in a place where your motives to pursue an interest in God are selfish, that He can meet you there and take you to the place where you belong in Him. Remember that growth is optional. Keep the faith and wear the crown.

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
P. Jas.

Dawn Of A New Day?

In a few hours President Elect Barack H. Obama will take the oath of office and become the President of the United States of America. I can say without reservation that today is a proud day for America and minority Americans more specifically. If you don't understand our enthusiasm, you are likely not a minority and it would be utterly impossible for me to describe to you why we feel the way we feel.
Enthusiasm aside, I believe that our coming president is fit for the job. I am not alone in this assertion. I hear on the radio this morning that 58% of Senator McCain's supporters are confident in the coming Obama administration. Obama is without question an innovative and deliberate leader, who has an opportunity to do not be merely the first minority President of the USA, but a great American president.
We have been filled with promises and pledges of what it will be like. I would like to believe that if he can get half of what he says done, he will go down in history as a great man, not just a great black man.
That being said, I wish that you would join me in praying for our president. I hope that when the times get rough and it seems like there is no way, you'll pray for a way. I'm hopeful that the faith community and those who are without will answer the call to be of service to one another. This alone, could solve many of the problems we face. Barack knows this, I know this and God knows.
Pardon me for being a little giddy, but I will be smiling ear to ear, every time I hear the song, "Hail To The Chief" from now on. Have a great innauguration day! Keep the faith and wear the crown.

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
P. Jas.

Sign of the Times

Seasons greetings and happy holidays! Those of you who know me realize that I am no apocalypse now preacher. You also know that I don't claim to be anywhere relatively close to an eschatology expert. Actually, most of what I've been exposed to in the name of eschatology has been cleverly disguised drivel and wishful thinking.
That being said, the signs of the times have caught my attention as of late. Surely I don't need to cite for instances; but I will. Have you noticed the weather for instance? Earlier this week right here in Vinita the temperature went from 75 to 20 over the course of a day. Not exactly a normal situation, but yet more and more frequent. Didn't Jesus say that we are well able to discern the weather, but not the signs of the times?
Well the weather has certainly claimed my attention and I believe it is time to wake up as He could be back to collect His own shortly. I realize that I am in the company of every Christian philosopher that has ever walked Earth since Jesus first promised in this assertion...but really. Before you go with the, "Jesus is not coming back till His church is glorious, brother" argument, I'd like you to observe a globe and not merely a map of the USA. We (America) are the only place on the planet where the church is growing in reverse. Wasn't it Jesus who claimed that it would be easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to inherit the Kingdom of God? Stop it. You are rich. Again pull out your globe and look at the world. (Jesus isn't an American)
I say all of this to ask you to think about what I'm saying. At the risk of being redundant I'm saying, We must work while it is day...We must wake up to the fact that Jesus will be back and if He came back today, what would your, or my story look like? What words would we hear from Him with respect to our hearts condition and activity? Join me please in prayer that we as a people of faith would wake up, rise up, fall to our knees in repentance, get up and go about our Father's business till His return. Selah.
Again happy holidays. Keep the faith and wear the crown!

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
P. Jas.

Everyone Follow's Someone

Everyone won't follow me. No matter how compelling, intriguing, or otherwise engaging that I am. Everyone won't follow. This is also true of sheep. In a shepherds flock only a few sheep actually follow the shepherd. The rest follow another sheep; usually the sheep that are following the shepherd.
It's important that as we follow Jesus that we do just that... follow Him. That should be obvious. I understand that there will be times that we cannot see Him clearly enough to follow. In these cases and in these times we should follow someone else who is following Jesus that can see Him clearly from where they stand.
Needless to say if we can do this we like the rest of the flock will live in a place of relative safety and peace. Selah.
Keep the faith and wear the crown.

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
P. Jas.

Merry Christmas

I don't even know where to start. We have made it through the Thanksgiving holiday. We have survived yet another "black Friday"...and black it was. At least it was very, very, dark.
I was stunned to learn that in the midst of giving thanks, the words thank you Lord still echoing in the walls of our craniums, that a man lost his life on account of a thankless, thoughtless, and delusional mob. That's right, a healthy hard working 34 year old man was trampled to death at a Walmart! What in the world could you want at a Walmart bad enough to participate in trampling to death another human being?
Wow, I mean isn't Walmart a bargain store to begin with? Were they giving away the water you can drink of and thirst no more? Were they giving away the bread of life? Were they giving away common sense? No, they were giving away nothing! They were feeding the fever of greed and selfishness and capitalism. They were feeding the fever of a culture that is so focused on I that they couldn't see a man beneath thier feet as they rushed to "save" a buck.
I want to apologize to the family of the man whose life was lost on behalf of humanity. I want to tell them that this is not who we are, but I have no excuse why we acted as we did. I want them to know that God was not pleased with this display. I want them to know that this is not what the original "Christian" architects of the "holiday" we know as Christmas had in mind in remembering the birth of Christ.
Please join me in praying for this family...surely, they will struggle to have a Merry Christmas.
Wear the crown.

Peace is the presence of the goodness of God.
P. Jas.