Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Rogue River Assembly Of God Heroes: Hinkles

This amazing family has been a part of our church since dinosaurs roamed the earth. I might get in trouble for that one...Although Ray says he'll never be a blogger... Sillyness aside, their faithfulness should give them saint status! Doris is behind the scenes working in almost every area of our church, especially when it comes to decorating, organizing, caring... She is the one responsible for making sure we have the important emblems to celebrate Holy Communion! Ray is serving behind the scenes too! I constantly hear of acts of kindness he's performed especially in the area of plumbing, handi-man stuff... (the stuff that if I touched it would break worse) Ray is such a cut-up...He makes us all laugh...WHAT A GIFT! I love them dearly and am so thankful they call our church home!

Sunday, January 25, 2009

The three most important things we can do at Rogue River Assembly of God are to pray, to pray, and to pray!



Johnny had been misbehaving and was sent to his room. After a while he emerged and informed his mother that he had thought it over and then said a prayer. "Fine", said the pleased mother. "If you ask God to help you not misbehave, he will help you." "Oh, I didn't ask Him to help me not misbehave," said Johnny. "I asked Him to help you put up with me."

(My son was so cute for church today I thought I would share a picture!)

There are a plethora of resources in the Christian world to help us all learn HOW TO PRAY...
Even the smallest of things can help your prayer life... like these words I shared from a simple bookmark ordered from http://www.praymag.com/...
BLESSINGS FOR YOUR NEW YEAR... Purpose: As you complete your daily tasks, may you understand how they contribute to the larger purpose of your life... Fulfilling work: May you take pleasure in all your work... Physical Health: May you and those you love remain strong in body and free from disease... Peace of Mind: May your mind and heart always be at rest... Good relationships: May you be surrounded by loving , faithful, and supportive friends... Sufficient resources: May you have exactly what you need for each day. May you become rich in every way so that you can share generously with others... Contentment: May you take pleasure in all the good things you have and discover the secret of being content in any and every situation... Laughter: May you laugh long and often... Breathing room: In the rush of life, may you always find time and space for the people and activities that refresh your soul... Great ideas: May you receive fresh insight to meet the challenges of each day and discover creative solutions to your problems... New opportunities: May you constandly be presented with new and profitable ventures... Good decions: May you have wisdom to determine the best course of action in ever situation... Safety: May you and those you love be kept from violence, calamity, and loss...
This week I went to my favorite place on earth, the Oregon Coast, for a prayer retreat... Cynthia Bezek wrote: YOU KNOW IT'S TIME FOR A PRAYER RETREAT WHEN... you're dry and out of touch with the Lord... you feel overwhelmed, overworked, stressed, or scattered... you feel mechanical in your devotion and service... you have an important decision to make... you have a sinful habit to overcome... you have someone you need to forgive... you need God's perspective on a situation... you have a strategic ministry event or season ahead... you need insight about an unanswered prayer... you're behind in intercession and others are depending on you... you haven't had one in three months or more... your spouse, teenager, roomate, collegue, or dog tells you that you need one...
I think the greatest advice I can give you on HOW TO PRAY is JUST DO IT... Prayer is simply FOCUSING ON GOD... Talk to Him, set aside a time, a place, stay constantly connected...

2 Chronicles 20 (if this passage of scripture doesn't crank your tractor, your feelers broke) 1. Prayer refocuses us on God... 2. Prayer sensitizes us to God's voice... 3. Prayer gets results...

In his book Intimacy with the Almighty, Charles Swindoll writes, "If we refuse to provide pockets of silence in our lives, we will always flounder in a fog, wondering who God is and what He's doing...But if we deliberately fashion protracted periods of silence, we will grow deeper in an increasing awareness of the real presence of God."

Don't miss this amazing opportunity!



STEWARDSHIP WEEK February 8 – 10, 2009

Sunday morning Service: Bob Rufe - AG Financial Solutions

Sunday afternoon Personal appointments with Bob Rufe

Monday – all day Personal appointments with Bob Rufe

Tuesday – all day Personal appointments with Bob Rufe

Sign up for a personal and confidential consultation available
Sunday afternoon, Monday – Tuesday

There is no cost, and no obligation for a personal appointment.
The purpose is to provide professional guidance regarding estate planning or investment issues
of concern to you.

AGFS provides life-stage planning to help our people become good stewards of whatever the Lord has provided,
and to help build the Kingdom of God .

Bob Rufe is a consultant with AG Financial Solutions.

Prayer for President Obama

Monday, January 19, 2009

The Best Sunday EVER! (Prayer Fresheners)

I wish there was someway to convey how amazing this last weekend was for our church on my blog! Celebrating Alice Heron (WHAT AN AMAZING FAMILY) and with no exaggeration I think yesterday's celebration service was the best EVER...The ANOINTING was on the worship, the word, the prayer...

SERMON NOTES:
The temporary Sunday School teacher was struggling to open a combination lock on the supply cabinet. She had been told the combination, but couldn't quite remember it. Finally she went to the pastor's study and asked for help. The pastor came into the room and began to turn the dial. After the first two numbers he paused and stared blankly for a moment. Finally he looked serenely heavenward and his lips moved silently. Then he looked back at the lock, and quickly turned the final number, and opened the lock. The teacher was amazed. "I'm in awe at your faith, pastor," she said. "It's really nothing," he answered. "The number is on a piece of tape on the ceiling."

Keeping Company with God doesn't have to be laborious, as a matter of fact it shouldn't be...
Sandy Mayle helped me discover A Month Of Ideas, Prayer Fresheners...
1. Bring in the new
new time of day to pray, new place of prayer, new postures, new Bible translations, online devotionals...
2. Pray your schedule
submit past and future commitments and activities to God...
Proverbs 16:3,9
3. Write a psalm to God
mabye use a template: lament in the dark (psalm 10), pursuit in the desert (psalm 63), declaration of faith (psalm 131), litany of praise (psalm 136)...
4. Pray the hours
3x like Daniel, 5x liturgical (9a, noon, 3p, after eve meal, bedtime), 7x as the psalmist did, or even use the book of common prayer...
5. Sharpen your spiritual senses
Ask God to develop your sense of spiritual taste, sight, hearing, smell, and touch...
2 Corinthians 2:14-16
6. Pray the hymn or praise song that most recently stirred your heart toward God
7. Worship through creation
drive to a beach, walk to a park, painting, Dvd, book of photography...
8. Pray the rule of T.H.U.M.B.
acronymn to guide intercession for unreached people: T tribal peoples, H hindus, U unreached unreligious unconvinced, M muslims, B buddhists...
9. Prayerwalk your house
Set each room apart for the Lord, break out the anointing oil and get a little pentecostal...
10. Prayerwalk yourself
dedicate the various parts of your body to the Lord
Romans 6:13,19
11. Dig in
Spend extended time interceding in depth for a person or situation...
12. Pray through the newspaper
13. Have a "top-five day"
Set your regular prayer list aside and ask God to reveal five needs in His heart...
14. Observe a worship watch
Instead of seeking God for anything, focus solely on adoring Him...
15. Prayerwalk a hospital, nursing home, prison, city mission, or other place of human need
16. Take inventory
based on the two greatest commands (emotional, spiritual, physical, mental, social)
Luke 10:27
17. Go global
pray for international ministries, missions, governments (grab a newsletter from the bulletin board outside Holly's office: pray for and write a missionary)
18. SHHHH!
Spend several hours or more in silence, listen for God's voice...
19. Prayerfully read the same passage of Scripture from 3 translations
20. Pray your commitments
Review before God your baptism, church membership, marriage vows, promises, dedications...
Psalm 56:12
21. Celebrate your heritage
spiritual legacy, Hebrews 11, godly heritage, saints in heaven
22. Ora et labora (latin for "pray and work")
1 Thessalonians 5:17
23. Praise-walk your neighborhood, downtown, or church
24. Meet with some prayer partners
25. Build the body
go to the sanctuary, pray for the local body of Christ and worldwide, including the persecuted...
(Every Sunday 9am Prayer and Communion)
26. Collaborate
Call a believer who shares a concern, set a time to intercede together...
27. Pray your payback
for enemies, those who oppose Christ, sincerely bless them in Jesus' name...
28. Recollect
"Collect" all your responsibilites, concerns, decisions, opportunities, and so on, bring them to Jesus...
29. Pray your contacts
address book, cell phone directory, church directory...
30. Let Jesus pray for you
JOHN 17, note verse 20
31. Anticipate!
Renew your longing for Christ's return, Even so, come Lord Jesus...

The Holy Spirit got our blood pumping a little with the reading of HE IS: http://godswork.org/enpoem6.htm

mabye I should keep preaching a 31 point sermon because it was so well received...
being a little selfish, please remember to pray for your pastors...

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Homebuilders New Series and Church Membership



Just "click"on the images to make them large enough to read...

Why Pray?

Sermon Notes from last Sunday...
(sorry they're so late in gettin on my blog, I've been fighting the flu)

Three preachers sat discussing the best positions for prayer while a telephone repairman worked nearby. “Kneeling is definitely best,” claimed one.
“No,” another contended. “I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to Heaven.”
“You’re both wrong,” the third insisted. “The most effective prayer position is lying prostrate, face down on the floor.”
The repairman could contain himself no longer. “Hey, fellas,” he interrupted, “the best prayin’ I ever did was hangin’ upside down from a telephone pole.”

Jesus never asked us to do something He himself did not do. Each of the Gospel writers shows us moments when Jesus was at prayer. Matthew notes nine such occasions, Mark, eight, Luke, thirteen, and John, five. Out of these thirty-five references, there are twenty-three separate occasions in Jesus’ three-year ministry when the curtain is pulled back on details of Jesus’ prayer life.

Hebrews 7:23-25 tells us that nothing has changed He’s still practicing prayer in the heavens…
Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them…seated at the right hand of God, forever interceding, our Mediator, Savior, Friend, Hope, Peace, Joy, Everything…

Some people have given up on prayer because of unanswered prayers or the wrestling that comes when trying to understand why God has allowed certain tragedies…
But consider some benefits from a lifestyle of prayer:

1. Relationship

Prayer is the main way we get to know God in a personal, relational way…Especially if that prayer is joined with the study of the Bible… Romans 8:16 talks about a Spirit-led prayer that God “testifies with our spirits that we are His children.” When we take time to listen, we can begin to know Him in intimate ways. This is that Vacation with Jesus we were talking about last week…
Buddy Westbrook said it well…Tapping into the divine intercession is not as hard as many people think. God loves to share His heart with us when we take the time to ask Him.

Jeremiah 33:3…Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know…

Start by asking the Holy Spirit questions. Take plenty of time to listen, maybe even take notes on paper of what you believe you hear Him saying. Ask questions like, “Lord, what is your perspective on this?” “What do You want me to see? To hear? To understand?” “Do You want to redirect me?” “How do you want me to intercede for this person or situation?” and so on…

Romans 8:26,27…Likewise the Spirit also helps us in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Now He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God…

2. Partnership

God partners with us, through prayer, to accomplish His purposes in the world. The Holy Spirit tells us what to pray and then we watch God work in ways that build our faith in Him. We see this illustrated in Genesis 18…when God partnered with Abraham regarding the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, inviting him to intercede for the sinful city. Such divinely led intercession was rare in Old Testament days, but through God’s indwelling Spirit, it can be an everyday experience for us.
If you have not been baptized in the Holy Spirit, let me encourage you to seek all that God has for you! His Spirit can open up new worlds of prayer. The gifts and fruit of the Spirit, even speaking in other tongues are all promises recorded in scripture available to every believer!

3. Perspective

By engaging with God through His Holy Spirit, we can know God’s thoughts about specific things He is doing in our lives and in the world around us. As the apostle Paul preached…no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him – but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit…1 Corinthians 2:9,10

Isaiah 55:9…For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts…

Anne Graham Lotz said it best…The Bible is God’s Story, and best way to discover the author of the bible, and our lives, is to read His story. God’s Story reveals God’s eternal person, His infinite power, His unlimited love, and His matchless glory giving meaning to your life and joy to your heart and purpose to your step. The Bible reveals the God of glory Whose very Presence can give fulfillment to the empty…healing to the broken…forgiveness to the sinful…freedom to the bitter…purpose to the meaningless…help to the helpless…courage to the fearful…strength to the weak…reality to the religious…hope tot eh hopeless…and love to the loveless. There is nothing in your life – no circumstance or crisis, no organization or administration, no individual or alliance, no problem or pressure, no habit or heartache, no sickness or grief, no king or criminal, nothing visible or invisible – nothing is greater than God! He is Creator Who is in authority over everything, fully able to control that which not only seems but is beyond our abilities to handle…

4. Guidance

When we tap into the Holy Spirit’s intercession, He freely gives us detailed, specific guidance, as He did the believers in Antioch in Acts 13:2…While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, ‘Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’…

And beyond all benefits of prayer, I hear Job…Though He slay me, yet I will praise Him…For I know my Redeemer lives and my eyes will yet behold Him…Naked I came from my mother’s womb, naked I shall return to the ground, the Lord gives and the Lord takes away…blessed be the Name of the Lord!

Whenever I come to Jesus, When troubled or distressed
I always find a refuge, When I with Him can rest
I tell Him all my trials, I tell Him all my grief;
And while my lips are speaking, He gives my heart relief
When full of dread foreboding, And flowing over with tears
He always calms my sorrows, And hushes all my fears
He comprehends my weakness, The peril I am in
And He supplies the armor, I need to vanquish sin
When those r cold and faithless, Who once were fond n true
With careless hearts forsaking, The old friends for the new
I turn to Him whose friendship,Knows neithr change nor end
And so I find in Jesus, An ever faithful Friend
Whenever I come to Jesus, No matter when or where
To seek His gracious presence, I’m sure to find Him there
In times of joy or sorrow, Whatever my need may be
I can always come to Jesus, And Jesus comforts me

Monday, January 12, 2009

Happy 1st Birthday Son!
















YEAH RUSTY!


So, Rusty called me this week ecstatic...
His sister is a manager at Wal-Mart...
Because Oregon just made water bottles deposit only, Walmart had to get rid of ALOT of cases of water bottles...
So, Rusty loaded up the choir room with cases of water bottles!
Now we have more than enough to do our acts of kindess event for Rooster Crow, mabye several years worth! YEAH GOD!

Monday, January 5, 2009

God Wants To Hear From You

We already heard about some NEW YEAR MIRACLES at church yesterday: the testimonies shared were inspiring and I had the privilege of baptizing Amethyst...
Sermon Notes from yesterday's Celebration Service:

Every child of God is called to a lifestyle of prayer. So how do we bridge the gap between knowing the good that we ought to do and actually putting it into practice? Here are a few principles to keep in mind:
1. Prayer is a responsibility AND a privilege. (Matthew 6:5-13)
Jesus didn't say "if you pray," but "when you pray." While spending time in prayer requires a sustained commitment and produces some real challenges, it's also important to avoid viewing prayer as merely a responsibility to be met. Jesus invited us to hold conversation with God. there can be no higher privilege than entering His Presence.
2. God hears us. (Psalm 34:15-18)
Our prayers don't just bounce off the ceiling. God listens because He cares. And this compassion leads to powerful acts on our behalf when we seek Him in prayer.
3. Consistent prayer requires commitment. (Colossians 4:2; 1 Peter 5:8)
The commitment to prayer is a spiritual battle that requires devotion.
4. We need prayer now,, more than ever. (1 Peter 4:7)
Jesus is coming soon! Recognize the urgency of personal prayer. Refocus your attention on God's kingdom...

We had a special guest with us yesterday...the well-known Christian Author, Phillip Yancey! Ok, so he wasn't there in the flesh, but the dvd clip was inspiring. My favorite thought that was shared is that prayer is really A VACATION WITH JESUS!
I am thankful for the prayer resources provided by the Assemblies of God National Prayer Center...I will be sharing them throughout this sermon series...(Week Of Prayer, Called to Pray)
I hope you will use the bookmarks and such as you START THE NEW YEAR RIGHT...

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Prayer: Starting The New Year Right


I hope you got your postcard...if not, we need your address...I'm believing for some NEW YEAR MIRACLES...That's what happens when God's people pray!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Thanks for the blog help!











Tom and Ruth Vallo sent me some photos from our special Christmas Service...Cindy Dara sent me a photo from the youth Christmas party...Melisma gave me a dvd clip from the uth party but I wasn't able to get it on my blog, I think it was too large...It's hard to believe the holidays are already over, they came and went so fast...