10:30 AM SUNDAYS

Elders PrayerZechariah 4:6B gives believers an important truth:
” …  not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts”.

Each Lord’s Day morning at about 10:30 the Pastors meet in my office to pray for God the Holy Spirit to mightily move in the Worship Service exalting Christ & transforming Christ’s followers & calling the lost to repentance-faith.

This is not a ritual. This is a necessity.

2 Corinthians 10:3-4:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ …”.

James 5:16B: ” … The effective prayer of the righteous man can accomplish much”.

When we pray, God works; when we fail to pray, we merely work.



BACK IN THE DAY USEFUL TODAY

The ShortsI sewed every patch on the shorts. Close to 40 years ago.

When I outgrew the shorts I passed them on to my younger sister. When she outgrew them she surprised me one Christmas. She had them framed as my Christmas gift that year!

I now display the shorts in my office as they remind me of happy bygone days and they start conversations with visitors to my office.

Because of God’s touch, your past can be a launching pad to your ministry to others.

“But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer …”
(2 Corinthians 1:6)

God has helped you out of your past so you can be in someone else’s future.  To the glory of God!



OUR RELUCTANT LIFE GUARD

YankeeToday Yankee went swimming with us at beautiful Cabbage Beach.

Yank got into the warm water but nowhere near as deep as Beth was swimming.

He so desperately wanted to swim out to her to keep her safe but he was way too scared.
So he did the next best thing (at least to him; a canine life guard!).

He incessantly offered his shrill bark.
I’m pretty sure in the bark language he was saying: “Hey, you … Master … Get in here where I can keep you safe!”

Jesus is our un-reluctant Life Guard. He waded into the very deep water to bring us to safety.

“For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich”. (2 Corinthians 8:9)

Thank your un-reluctant Life Guard / Saviour now.



KEEPER OR SCHEMER?

Parsonage-South SideThis is the side of our house. Notice the razor & barb wire & padlocked gate.
We are told that it hasn’t always been this way for crime in the Bahamas.
We are also told in the Bible that it hasn’t always been that sin was on the scene. (Genesis 3)
 
” … And it came about when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’
And he said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ “. (Genesis 4: 8B-9)
When a society stops believing that individuals are other individuals’ keepers, it is inevitable that locked gates and barbed wire and razor wire and police & jails and (you fill in the blank) … become necessary.
 
Criminals pervert & twist God’s design that we would be each others’ keepers into a fearful & disheartening reality that some brothers are their brothers’ schemers.  The only cure & prevention for criminal behavior is Jesus Christ. When a brother’s schemer is born again he or she is radically made brand-new, from the inside out!
(2 Corinthians 5:17).
 
Prisons which acknowledge this make an observable difference. The prisons which don’t are beating their heads against the wall.

 

We can thank Adam & Eve for the mess we’re in. We can share Christ to do our part to clean up the mess we are in.
 

Brother-keeping for God’s glory,
Pastor Rob Elliott



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