Fresh Start

Wow, what a year. All I can say is that this has been one wild and exciting ride over the past year. My life has been changed in so many ways that I don't even have the words to explain them all. You see the year started out just like the ones for the past few years, I was lost in a state of melancholy that was destroying me from the inside out. I had made a move near the end of 2007 that would prove this year to be one of the best moves I have ever made. My son and I had decided that we needed a fresh start and had moved to Palmetto Assembly. We were made to feel right at home from the very beginning. In April of 2008 Pastor Mark challenged the staff and all of the church to join in on a 40 day fast leading up to Pentecost Sunday. I attempted to join in but did not do a very good job with the fast, but I did find myself being more and more hungry for what God had in store for me. On Pentecost Sunday the break through began for me. It was a miracle of refreshing, for the first time in years I felt like living. The hunger continued to go over the course of the year and in October we had our missions convention. This was like no missions convention I have ever been a part of. I stepped into a freedom that I had never known before in my life. It was amazing. From that point until now things have just blown up around here. There is the possibility of a new building, Winterfest was a huge success, and peoples lives are being changed all around us every day. Like I said before, WOW!! What a year.

That is only the start. We are now at the place of "New Beginnings." You see, New Beginnings is not only the new name of the church but it is the direction of the church as well. We are at the cross roads of a new year with great anticipation of what God is going to do in this place. We have seen more salivations and re-dedications in the last year than had been seen here for a long time and those numbers are going to just grow from this point on. There is going to be healings and miracles in our midst like we have never seen before. You see I believe that God has just started a great work in this house and it is going to continue to grow as long as we stay in tune to what he is doing.

Pastor Mark and Pastor Judy need our prayers and our support each and every day. They need us to be the ones who stand along side them as we go through this journey. We can't just stand and watch though we have to be a part of what is taking place or we will be left on the outside looking in. That is not a place I want to be in. So I ask you to join me in standing with our Pastors and staff and we will see the great things God has in store for us today.

Paul

Christmas List

I find myself at a point where it is almost expected that we would write up a Christmas wish list. I really don't have anything that I would like for myself so I began to just try to find what would be of real value to me.

The first would be to have my relationship with Christ and my family be what it ought to be. This is one area that over the years I have struggled with. I find myself sometimes questioning if those relationships are right or if I am fooling myself. I know like everyone else I am not perfect but I also know that Christ died for my imperfections. Accepting this and applying it to my life makes my relationship with Him as it should be. My family situation is one that is not so uncommon these days. I am divorced and I have two kids. The part that makes this relationship a little different is that I still have a good working relationship with my ex-wife and we work together for the good of our children. The pride and joy of my life are the children and I feel as though we have a great relationship. I have truly been blessed in that area of my life.

The next area is that my family have a relationship with Christ. My children both know Christ and are living their lives the best they can to let that show. Once again I am surely a blessed man.

The only other thing that I really would like to have is a opportunity to minister to others. For the past six months I have had more opportunities than I could have ever imagine. Our church is on the move and there are new things opening up each and every day. This has been the biggest blessing I could ever hope for.

I guess my Christmas wish list is for new beginnings and those are already happening. I am more blessed than I could have ever believed for in the past. This makes it all easier for me to believe for great things in the future.

God bless and Merry Christmas

Thanks For All You Do

Thanksgiving has just past and Christmas is quickly on it's way, so I sat down to just think for a minute on what I have to be grateful for. You see so many times I am so busy running from one place to the next that I forget to stop along the way and just say thank you. This can be to other people, to good friends, family and even some times to God as well.

I guess this is as good a place as any. I have to thanks to God for all that has happened in my life over the past few months. It has been an awesome time for me. I have been made free for the first time in almost 5 years and it is a great feeling not to walk around depressed and lonely.

The next people I have to thank are my kids. They have been absolutely wonderful. They have loved me through times that I couldn't even love myself. They make me proud to be a dad every day. I believe it takes more to be a dad than just fathering children. It takes love and being responsible for your actions to be a dad. My kids make me want to be that man every day.

I also have to say a huge thank you to my Pastors. Pastor Mark and Pastor Judy have worked with me to see my place in the church and in the world as well. They have also opened opportunities for me to minister to people that had been closed off to me in the past. Pastors you will never know how much this has meant to me.

Lastly to my family and friends who have put up with me so much over the past few years. Thank you for your loving support and all of the help that you have extended my way in my time of trouble. You have surely been a blessing to me and my family. You have kept us from falling through the cracks and that means a great deal to me as well.

Thanks again to everyone for all that you have done and continue to do. May God bless you for you have blessed me.

Paul

Dare to Stand

Over the course of time, men and women from all walks of life have been asked to stand up for one thing or another. Some of these stands were for religious reasons, some for political, and even some were for basic human rights. Many of these stands have had lasting impact on the way we live even still today.

Esther stood up for a whole nation. She stood in the gap and protected her people from the evil influences that were affecting the king that she served. She not only stood up but she did so at great risk to her own life. You see she knew that without her stand there would be no future for her people.

Patrick Henry in the days of the revolutionary war stood up and was counted by saying "Give me liberty or give me death." This became a battle cry for not only our nation but also for many others over the past couple of hundred years.

Rosa Parks in the years of the Civil Rights movement refused to sit at the back of the bus wanting only to be treated as a human and not as a person of color. Although she took that stand it still took some time for those rights to start being seen and allowed even in our country.

All of these stands just seem to pale in the light of the stand that Christ took for us on the cross. He stood in our place taking the very sins that would con dim us to death and made them His own. In spite of the fact that He prayed "Father let this cup pass from me." He was willing to take our place and give up His deity, all of the power that went with it and then even as a man He gave up his life. He then took a stand in Hell and took the keys to both Hell and the grave and ascended into Heaven. We now know that He sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us. Through His stand we now have the hope of eternal life and freedom from sin.

We have now been asked to take a stand for our community. We are being asked what we are willing to do to make a difference in this community? Also are we willing to give what it takes to see it through? We have some awesome opportunities on the horizon here at our church that could make a world of difference in this community. We could possibly become one of the greatest influences this area has ever seen for the positive. We all know that not all of the stands being taken in our area are positive so we need to stand up and show our community we are for real and we are here for the long haul.

Right after Paul tells us in Ephesians to put on the whole armor of God he then tells us that having done all, to stand. Stand.

Now we are faced with the choise, where will we stand?

What's Next

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of change for me. Things have been happening so fast that I sometimes can't even keep up with then in my own head. You see there is so much that God is doing in my life, I'm not even sure where to begin. I have written of some of the changes but still there seems to be more. About the time I think God has stopped for the moment something or someone else comes across my path and I am reminded once again to "stir up the gift of God that is in you by the laying on my hands." Timothy 1:6. Paul was reminding Timothy that the gift of the Holy Spirit that was within him was there as an anointing to press on and not be afraid to follow through with what God had given him to do. We all to often forget that we are not doing this on our own. We can't, we are not even capable of doing what God has in store for us. We can only move in the anointing and power provided by the Holy Spirit.

This truth has become increasingly obvious to me over the past few days and weeks. I have been asked to do some things both in the church and in my own life that six months ago I had written off as long lost dreams and visions of a crazy old fool. I believed that because of the circumstances of my life God could no longer use me to minister to the needs and hurts of others. I am now being shown that God can not only use me but he wants to use the very hurts and pains that he has brought me out of to help others. I know that sounds like a "no brainer!" but when you are in the middle of the trouble you can't see how it could ever help anyone.

But now is the time to "Stir it up!" Wake up! We need to step out there. People are in pain all around us and there is no better time to minister to an individual than when they are in the middle of the circumstance. Let God use the things he has brought you through to minister to someone else because no one can understand or give direction like the one that has been there before. We need to begin to mentor younger Christians. We don't need to hoard over them with rules but show them that Jesus loves them and even more importantly we do as well. We have to remind those that have been in the faith to stand up and be counted once again for the cause of Christ. We are on the verge of a great move of God here in our church and I truly believe that. We are already seeing the signs, but it is only the beginning. God has been pouring out the fire of his Spirit on us and is changing lives in a radical way all around us.

The fire comes and it burns out all the underbrush and the garbage. It cleans up the landscape. It may seem that the area has all been burnt up and left in ashes. Then the rain comes and new life springs up. Fresh flowers begin to grow, the grass is green again and the trees come back even stronger than before. You see they have been through the fire and the fire has cleaned all the moss and other parasites away. They are now free to grow and to flourish. So here we stand waiting to be consumed by the fire of the Spirit and set free to flourish and multiply in the land once again.

May God bless
Paul

Why Vote

Hey there, I found myself in a rather interesting situation a couple days ago. My son came to me and said "Dad why should I vote anyway, it's not going to make any difference?" I then found myself pondering that very question for quite a while and then God began to deal with me on the issue.
First there was the question of do you believe that it is right to protect unborn children? Yes I do. Then the question do you believe that marriage is between one man and one woman? Yes I do. well do you believe that every thing possible should be done in order to protect our religious rights and freedoms and to uphold our moral standards in this country? And again it was yes I do.
I then began my regular daily devotional reading. This is usually reading that helps me get started through the day and not so much my true study reading time. Well this day was to be totally different for me because you see the reading of the day was in James 4:7-17. As you have probably already guest verse 17 states, "Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin." If there were no other reason to vote in this whole world the fact that I know right from wrong and can see who stands for those things is all the reason I need to vote. The voice I have in that voting booth creates a sound in the spiritual world that causes things to happen.
Let your voice be heard. Don't sit back and say my voice doesn't make a difference. You see every anointed voice that speaks makes a sound that can make a difference.

Can't Stop Now

I know that some who may read this think that I am totally crazy. You think I should just get over this and move on, or maybe you think that it will ware off soon enough and I will just go back to being my same old self. Well that's not going to happen. I can't stop moving forward because the minute I do I will fall 2 steps back and that means falling over the edge and never coming back. So you see there is no stopping now. I have to move forward. I have to change the sound in my home and in my family. You see this peace, this joy, THIS FREEDOM may cost me everything, but if it does it's a price I have to pay. My heart breaks when I see people who refuse to take the very steps that could set them totally free because i can see how they are just like I was. They are afraid of what they may have to give up. Their afraid of who or what it may cost them. My prayer for you is that you reach beyond your fears and you will find the freedom God has for you. It will cost you something but whatever it cost God will restore to you in greater measure.

Love you

What's this FREEDOM

What is this freedom I am talking about?  You see for the first time in a very long time I am truly free in Christ.  I have walked around for the past couple of years bound up totally by depression and mind numbing sadness.  I could find no way out and there seemed to be no end.  People kept telling me I needed to just get over it and move on but that seemed like the impossible dream.  No matter how much I prayed and read my Bible there didn't seem to be an answer for me.  The fact is that I was in such bondage I could not see the light of day.  The answers were there I just couldn't find them.  

Here is the beauty of this story, I now know where the answers can be found.  This kind of freedom is only found in totally surrendering every thing to Christ and leaving the sadness and the guilt at the alter for him to carry.  No longer do I have to carry this burden.  You see I AM FREE!!!!