I just wanted to say “thank you” to all of you who participated in the Bible conference. I think God blessed us with more participation putting Bibles together than what we have ever had before. Praise God! I was talking to a few of you who came up to church between midnight and 6 am to help assemble the Scriptures. That so encourages my heart. I’ve been seeing the Lord begin to bring us together as a Body in a way I haven’t seen before. It was just a couple of years ago when we saw some of our students distance themselves from others in the church. Now we are seeing just the opposite. Our students are seeing the value of the older generation. They are making comments about what a blessing Jeff Adams is in the main service. We are seeing the older saints in Sam Shockley’s ministry begin to reach down and grab hold of this generation and dare to invest. It is great to see all that the Lord is doing.

Oh yeah, just an fyi… I’ve asked Sam Shockley to come preach to us in May. Everyone loved it last time he came and I know he is looking forward to it as well.

I love you guys! - Jim

     This is a big week!  Our Bible conference started last night and will continue through Wednesday night.  We are putting together 35,000 Portuguese New Testaments in a four day, 24 hour a day assembly.  So what do you need to know this week?

1.  Services in the main building at 7 pm each night.

2.  Come put Bibles together for the next couple of days any time day or night.

3.  Way of the Master, Home Groups, and Sold Out will resume next week.

     See you there!!!

     In our College reading this morning I read Proverbs 23:19:  “Hear thou, my son, and by wise, and guide thine heart in the way.”  Here is the thought for this morning:  Are you purposefully leading your heart in the way OR is your heart just a victim of happenstance?  Most people are victims of whatever circumstances come their way.  They drive their lives much the same way in which a 16 year old drives his car.  They are very wreckless with their hearts.  They don’t understand the precious and delicate nature of the instrument of the soul which they possess.  They seem ignorant of the damage a vehicle can do to an individual.  They don’t treat it with the respect it deserves. 

     As I was reading this verse it immediately conjured up how I, as a father, guide my sons in the right way.  When going  through a parking lot, I hold them by the hand.  We stop together at the points of crossing walkways and deliberately “look to the left.  Then look to the right.  And then look to the left again.”  Then I ask them if they see any cars coming.  When it is safe we cross.  As a father, I am very deliberate about how I guide my sons.  I am very purposeful in how I guide their t.v. viewing and the time they spend in different activities.  I AM GUIDING THEM!  They are much too precious to accept whatever the devil might throw their direction.  Contrast this approach with that of some parents who let their children go wherever, whenever!  What happens to their children is whatever happens.  They have no purpose.  They let their children experience life in a crap-shoot manner. 

     Now if only we would guide our hearts in the same way a good parent guides his/her child…  Knowing that there are certain things which are damaging to our hearts…  Rather than just letting anything and everything into your eye and ear portals, we should be wise to guide what comes in with much care knowing that these things matter.  We should be purposeful with our time making sure that we are nourishing our hearts in the Word and providing the encouragement that is needed to thrive.  Most people don’t realize the awesome gift they have been given with their souls and don’t care for it properly.  Guide it in the way.  Don’t just allow life to happen to you.  Take care and time to guide your heart. 

     What do you do when you don’t know what to do…  when you are losing heart and it becomes increasingly difficult to move in the direction you believe God initiated in the beginning?  Do you find yourself void of energy in that regard and don’t know why?  I believe these issues are often related to vision.  Proverbs tells us that ”where there is no vision, the people perish.”   

     This morning I was considering these questions in my own life.  Here is how I think through all of this…  First off, can you determine what the source of losing heart is?  Is it the enemy trying to prevent you from moving forward in the direction you know God has for you to move in?  Or is it God’s Spirit Who is trying to get you to move in a different direction?  My problem is that I often cannot differentiate the two.  I often don’t know what the source of this is.

     So what then?!?!  Then I go to the Word and find a promise speaking to the general theme of what I am to be spending my time engaged in.  Even if I don’t understand specifically what I am to be engaged in, I do know generally what God’s Word implies I am to be doing.  So engage in the general.  Move forward.  Advance.  It is in the advancing that God can direct you.  Doing nothing gets you nowhere.  Even though it is hard, ask God for a Scripture to grab hold of and claim in your situation.  Look to Him to grant you the grace to be about the work.  He will take your faith and your movement forward to lead you in the way you should go.  Don’t worry.  This isn’t a “freak out.”  You don’t have to concerned with the notion of God leading you nowhere.  He promises that He will light your path.  “The integrity of the upright shall guide them.”  God is good.  He will lead you in right paths.

Tuesday - Way of the Master continues from 7 pm to 9 pm at the Point’s Upper Room.

Wednesday - SOLD OUT Jr. High mentoring opps from 7 pm to 8:30 pm.  H.S. Home Groups mentoring opps throughout the KC metro area.  Talk to Kent Liles or myself if you are interested!

Friday - The Next Level Bible study at the Alumni Room at 6 pm on UMKC campus. See Andy Castro and/or Josh & Erin Coleman for more details.

Sunday - College at the regular 11:00 am time slot BUT COME TO THE 9:00 AM MAIN SERVICE!

This coming Sunday marks our Bible conference where we are putting together 35,000 Portuguese Bibles. We will meet after the 6 PM Sunday evening service as a Student Ministry and put Bibles together.

SUNDAY MORNING PRAYER - Since your coming to the 9 AM main service, why not come an hour earlier than that and go to 8 AM prayer??? We meet in the Upper Room at the Point EVERY SUNDAY morning.

THE REST OF NEXT WEEK ~ Monday, Feb. 25th thru Wednesday, Feb. 27th 7 PM Bible conference.

     I’m coming out of a dry spell this week.  It felt like Monday through Thursday I was getting nothing from the Word.  I found myself to be starving even though I was spending daily time in God’s Word.  I was wondering what was going on with me.  Several things occur to me when these things happen…

1. God allows barrenness to breed desire. 

2. Barrenness often comes as ”time with God” becomes routine.  I’ve got the quotes there because the real issue is that we often aren’t really spending time with Him.  We are going through our dead, religious rituals.

3. Let desire give way to prayer and searching.  If you’re not hearing God’s voice in your life you have two options…  Either give up (NOT!) OR keep looking!  Remember when Daniel was having difficulty getting an answer from God?  It wasn’t until the 21st day of his search that an angel showed up with an answer.  God is often found in the further.  In other words, go beyond your routine to find Him.

4. RECKON your way out!  The tendency is to think that God has forsaken you and it is pointless to keep trying.  I want to leave you with a passage that helped me this morning from Psalms 13.  It starts with David asking how long God is going to forget him.  It ends with him realizing and reckoning that God HAS HEARD HIM.  It ends with his praise to the LORD.

Tuesday - Way of the Master continues from 7 pm to 9 pm at the Point’s Upper Room.

Wednesday - Worship Wednesday starts at 7 pm.  Don’t miss this once in every six weeks event!

Friday - The Next Level Bible study at the Alumni Room at 6 pm on UMKC campus. See Andy Castro and/or Josh & Erin Coleman for more details.

Don’t miss the Valentine Party on Friday, February 15, from 7 pm - 9 pm.  No date necessary!!!   

     $12. You can still sign up by 5 pm on Monday.  Also, Sam Shockley is asking that some of you share your musical talents…  If you would be willing, please email Ruby at nannarubydoo@kc.rr.com!  

    ”The condition-centered Christian has no other recourse but to fight against indwelling sin, and thus seek to control self as best he can.  Added to this intolerable burden is the frustrating fact that God does not seem to help him in this endeavor.  He is immersed in the defeat of Romans 7.  He battles here below, only to lose; he should rest above, where he is sure to win.”

     This passage from The Green Letters shows why we struggle like we do…  After salvation the Bible likens us to little babies who need to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.  We don’t really understand HOW to relate to God.  We don’t understand the life of the SELF.  We don’t get how they relate the one to the other.  For the next 15 + years we find ourselves going through cycles of failure and success.  We don’t seem to grasp that victory has come after complete dependence upon Christ and failure has come from self.  As a result, God continues to allow us to experience it… cycle after cycle after cycle after cycle.  Finally, we realize what God has been doing all along.  Finally, we come to the place of utter frustration and realize that we can’t make SELF produce results.  We realize that SELF will NEVER be improved.  God so removes His hand from SELF that one of two things takes place…  We either give into the despair and give up on God OR we throw our entire beings into Christ, declare and reckon ourselves dead, and live in His resurrected freedom.

     Those of you caught in the cycle of sin…  Do you understand where you are???  You are living in the power of SELF that can never be controlled or purified.  God is teaching you the futility of hanging onto your life.  Declare the death that Paul spoke of in Galatians 2:20:  “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; YET NOT I, but CHRIST LIVETH IN ME…”  The old you is ALREADY dead.  True Life is Christ in us.  When Jesus died, I died there with Him.  When Jesus arose from the dead, I arose with Him!  His life is the only life.     

     I don’t know how many times I have found myself frustrated with Israel in the Old Testament for turning to other gods.  It is such a bummer when you see God is blessing and doing a great work AND THEN THEY TURN AWAY FROM THE LORD GOD to serve stupidity!  What ALWAYS results is misery.

     This morning I was in 2 Chronicles 24 (from our College Bible reading schedule) and read the story of Joash the king of Judah.  He came on the throne at a very young age, had a great mentor named Jehoiada the High Priest, and left God after his mentor died.  Here’s the part that tends to baffle me (in my own hypocrisy!)…  Right after Jehoiada dies verses 17 - 18 say, “Now after the death of Jehoiada came the princes of Judah, and made obeisance to the king.  Then the king hearkened unto them.  And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols:  and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.”  As you continue to read you see the LORD sending prophets to them whom they ignore to their destruction.

     As UGLY OBVIOUS as this scenario is to all of us - I want to yell at them “WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS GOING TO HAPPEN WHEN YOU FORSOOK THE LORD?” - it wasn’t so obvious to them.  The surrounding cultures undoubtedly saturated society in idol worship.  And it was probably very hard to be different than everybody else around them.  And I bet there was probably a lot of grey areas surrrounding what was really ”idol worship” versus what was simply “an appreciation for the arts,” etc. 

     If you think about it, it isn’t any different with us today…  Our idolatry seems more obscure and hidden to us.  We don’t see our idolatry so clearly.  But believers in other countries look at us and it is as plain as the nose on our face!  What is our idolatry?  Colossians 3 says covetuousness is idolatry.  In other words, wanting what belongs to someone else  is idolatry.  And there is a plethra of different forms that idolatry can take in our lives.  Wanting to exalt ourselves or having this ugly desire to show people what WE ARE DOING would be just a few examples.  Idolatry is simply putting something before God.  That’s it!  Anything that God takes a “back seat” to is idolatry.

     So my prayer this morning is this:  Oh God, May we be holy as You are holy.  God cleanse us from our own idolatry.  Cleanse us from all the secret sins that we aren’t even aware of.  Lord, Make us a holy habitation of Your Spirit…  A place in which You seek to dwell.  Forgive us God and make us completely right with You.  We love You.  We want You.  God be merciful to Your people who seek to know You and walk with You.  Open our eyes to see what only You can see.  Grant us the grace to reckon ourselves dead to the sin but alive to You.  Perform Your perfect work in each one of us.  We present ourselves to You as living sacrifices.  We yield.  We abide.  Be glorified and may Christ be magnified in our body.      

     This morning in our college reading I was looking at Psalms 91 where it lays out the prophecy of the coming Christ.  What encouraged me this morning about it was this thought:  “If it is true of Christ, it must be true of me because I am in Christ.”  We are safe and secure in Christ.  ”As he (Christ) is, so are WE in this world.” 

     Meditate on this and consider that as a child of God you have all that is in Christ.  We are called “joint-heirs with Christ.”