It’s a big night tonight.  I hope you are able to make it out to the Point at 9:00 pm to usher in the New Year right.  We are going to have a time of prayer, praise, and a time to hear what God did in ‘07.  If you have something you would like to share tonight, see me before we get started and I will clear off a spot for you.  The only thing to keep in mind is that we need to keep these down to 2 minutes so that more people can share.

Love you guys!

Jim

     I just wanted to say “Merry Christmas” to everyone and tell all of you who are out of town that we miss you.  Sunday was great but it’s never the same as when everyone is here.  I think of you guys in St. Louis and in our neighboring states…  Have a great Christmas and be careful as you make your drive back.  We love you guys!

     Here is what you need to know for this week:

1.  All weekly activities are cancelled for Christmas.

2.  Service on Sunday will be at 9:00 am instead of our normal 11:00 am.

3.  Our next cycle of prayer will begin on Sunday at 1 pm and run until the next night (New Year’s Eve) at 9 pm.  Sign up on Sunday for an hour of prayer.  Our focus during this next cycle is “Do you care enough to connect?”  We will be praying for those individuals who are not yet connected to the Body.

4.  New Year’s Eve!  We will be praising and praying the New Year in.  Show up at the Point at 9 pm.  We will run until midnight.

I love you guys!  Have a great week this week! - Jim

     It was a great service today!  One of our UMKC folks came to Christ!  What a blessing.  God has been working on their heart for months now and it finally happened.  I want to just tell the Lord how grateful we are that He has done these things in our midst.  Thank you Father!

2Ch 27:1 Jotham was twenty and five years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Jerushah, the daughter of Zadok. 2Ch 27:2 And he did that which was right in the sight of the LORD, according to all that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet corruptly.

The passage above makes an interesting comment about a good king named Jotham. He did what was right by God. His name even means “Jehovah is perfect.” But there is something about his life that missed the mark. - Jotham did not go into the temple. His fellowship with God was not what God wanted for Him. As a result, his life was very “explainable.” There doesn’t appear to be a whole lot of supernatural things taking place in his life. As a result, he spent 16 years as king and had children who ALSO did not live supernatural lives. AS A RESULT, because his son never saw the supernatural in his life, he grew up independent of God and ended up living a carnal life apart from God.

The point is this: When we get into the Word and have “our quiet time with God,” ARE WE MEETING HIM IN THE TEMPLE? Are we TRULY there to meet with Him? Or, are we “getting our reading done?” A good question to ask is “What has God been showing me in His Word?” “What did He reveal to me today?” And keep in mind also that sometimes God’s agenda for you has nothing at all to do with “getting something from God.” Sometimes it is all about you simply abiding in the Holy Place and just “being there” with God and knowing and enjoying His Presence. Remember what you are after when we have your quiet time. The point of it all is meeting with God!

     In the reading for this morning in My Utmost For His Highest, Oswald Chambers said something that hit me:  “God’s permissive will is the means whereby His sons and daughters are to be manifested.  We are not to be like jellyfish saying, ‘It’s the Lord’s will.’  We are not to put up a fight with God, not to wrestle with God, but to wrestle before God with things.  Beware of squatting lazily before God instead of putting up a glorious fight so that you may lay hold of His strength.”

     This passage really resonated with me.  There are times when I KNOW THAT I KNOW!  There are times when I am sure of God, confident, secure, and excited with the fact that God is on the throne and interjecting into life, transforming lives, etc.  But there are times when I am unsure as well…  There are times when I don’t necessarily see God at work and I end up coming to God in my quiet time without being transformed back to confidence in God.  I can end up BEING SATISFIED with leaving His Presence in the wrong frame of faith.

     This passage was a good shot in the arm to encourage me to wrestle THE THINGS in His Presence that prevent the right mindset…  To fight my way to encouragement…  To encourage myself in the Lord like King David had to do…  And not be satisfied leaving His Presence until I can leave with my face a glow like Moses did when he came down off the mount with God.

     There is such a subtle, and yet profound, difference between a work of the flesh versus a work from God.  In a section titled “Appropriation” Miles Stanford says, “Appropriation does not necessarily mean to gain something new, but to set aside for our practical possession something that already belongs to us.”

     He continues:  “To appropriate something for our daily walk in Christ, we face two essentials:  to see what is already ours in Christ; and to be aware of our need for it.  On these two factors rests the ability to appropriate, to reach out in steadfast faith and receive what belongs to us in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

     He quotes William R. Newell:  “Paul does not ask a thing of the saints in the first three chapters of Ephesians but just to listen while he proclaims that wondrous series of great and eternal facts concerning them; and not until he has completed this catalogue of realities about them does he ask them to do anything at all!  And when he does open his plea for their high walk as saints, everything is based on the revelation before given- the facts of their high character and destiny as saints:  ‘I therefore… beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called (Eph. 4:1).’”

     Let’s bring this home now…  I don’t know how much of what was said in the above quote you are getting so let me break it down some more.  God has ALREADY blessed us with ALL SPIRITUAL BLESSINGS IN HEAVENLY PLACES.  So what is it that you think you are lacking in Christ?  Whatever it is, you need to praise God that YOU ALREADY HAVE IT!  That is called appropriating.  He has promised to supply your need so believe and rest in Him.  Praise Him for what He is doing.  When you are able to truly praise Him in your current set of circumstances then, and only then, are you in a position to receive what is already yours to have in Christ.

I don’t know what first came to your mind when you saw the title to today’s post but, whatever it is, it will probably apply to what I’m writing about this morning, though not directly. This morning I woke up thinking about something that is spoken of in the Song of Solomon regarding foxes… In chapter 2, verse 15 it states: “Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes.”

Let me tell you why I was thinking about this verse… Yesterday, we got some care packages back that we had sent to our students who go to school away from home. In their minds, some of their friends got care packages. But for some reason they didn’t. Maybe they are thinking they aren’t as important or valued. And then later last night I was talking to the Rookstool’s about how one of these same young ladies (who didn’t get their care package) has not yet been contacted by their Guide for Directions. I immediately began to see the annoying hand of the enemy at work in this wonderful young ladies’ life. The Bible refers to the “foxes,” or the knipping bites of the enemy, that over time, can knock a person out.

So this morning I have been praying for the persons I just mentioned as well as the rest of us. It is those annoying interferences of the enemy that discourage us and get us down. Maybe you ask, “Yea, but what’s the big deal?” The big deal is that we are told to be “strong and of good courage.” The big deal is that the Bible says “the joy of the Lord is your strength.” The enemy seeks to strip us of strength (i.e. encouragement/ joy) because then we are more susceptible to other attacks he would throw our direction.

Oh God, bind the enemy! Destroy the foxes which knip at the vine. Expell them all so that the vineyard can flourish. Flourish these college kids!!! Thrive their hearts! Bless their lives! Encourage their hearts! Be glorified in each one of us! We love you Lord Jesus and now we rest back in You again. In Jesus Name I ask this. Amen.

     Yesterday was so encouraging…  I mentioned this in front of our college group but I wanted to say it again.  Upon hearing what the weather was going to be and seeing what the attendance looked like in our jr. high group, I figured that we were literally going to have somewhere between seven and twelve people in our group.  I was actually praying about whether or not I should even preach.  (It would be kind of weird to “preach” to seven people.)  So I was praying about what we should do.  I was thinking it might be a  good time for some of our folks to share what God has been doing in their lives and I would then just finish Jonah 1 the following week.  Instead, we had about as many as we ever have.  How cool is that?!?!  I love you guys!

     The December 6th reading from “My Utmost for His Highest” reminded me of the difference between living a life which is a work of self versus living a life that is a work of God.  Keep in mind, when he makes statements regarding “waiting on God” he is not referring to this idea in the good sense.  Rather, he is talking about waiting on God to prove this or that in our lives.  This quote is all about positional living as opposed to living according the wind of our circumstances.  He says this:

     “… Why does not God do this or that?  He has done it, the point is - Will I step into covenant relationship?  All the great blessings of God are finished and complete, but they are not mine until I enter into relationship with Him on the basis of His covenant.  Waiting for God is incarnate unbelief, it means that I have no faith in Him; I wait for Him to do something in me that I may trust in that.  God will not do it, because that is not the basis of the God-and-man relationship.  Man has to go out of himself in his covenant with God as God goes out of Himself in His covenant with man.  It is a question of faith in God - the rarest thing; we have faith only in our feelings.  I do not believe God unless He will give me something in my hand whereby I may know I have it, then I say - ‘Now I believe.’  There is no faith there.  ‘Look unto Me, and be ye saved.’  When I have really transacted business with God on His covenant and have let go entirely, there is no sense of merit, no human ingredient in it at all, but a complete overwhelming sense of being brought into union with God, and the whole thing is transfigured with peace and joy.”

     Praise God for the freedom we can live in His supernatural life!