Psalm 43:5

Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my salvation and my God.

Cross found on all donkeys' backs?

Some donkeys (often called Christian donkeys) have a narrow strip of dark hair that runs down their backs and each of their shoulders. These markings are in the shape of a cross. Like the color traits of other animals (such as zebras), we don’t know exactly why these donkeys have this cross. But, it does show the wonderful variety among God’s creatures.

There is legend that the crosses on these donkeys appeared after Jesus rode one into Jerusalem (read Matthew 21:1-11). There is no evidence that this is true. The dark stripe in the form of a cross was a trait in these donkeys long before Jesus lived. However, the fact that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem is very important. It fulfilled a prophecy that was spoken 500 years before Jesus lived, and showed He was the Messiah (read Matthew 21:5 and Zechariah 9:9).

Dear Prayer Partners

Please remember the following needs and requests in prayer:



1} President Obama and his advisors

2} the men & women serving in our armed forces and their families

3} Bobby- a missionary in Haiti who was flown back to the states with a broken back

4} Holly- recently gave birth to a son

5} Hailey- has Hodgkin’s lymphoma and is unable to work due to it

6} Margo- recovering from a stroke

7} Dan- has Leukemia & an inoperable brain tumor, the tumors in his stomach and lung have been removed successfully

8} Christine- recently gave birth by an emergency C-section and her new son is in critical condition

9} Living Waters A/G looking for a youth pastor with a vision to reach the youth

10} Dennis- having problems breathing

11} The Holm Family- death of a loved one from cancer

12} The DeRien Family- death of a loved one

13} The Fraley family- death of a loved one

14} Eugene- is battling cancer

15} Schimmica- husband is having an affair

16} Kevin- has some serious dental problems and is recovering from emergency oral surgery

17} Faith- is hospitalized after a heart attack and partial amputation of right foot, has a serious infection in heart, lungs and kidneys and is back on dialysis

18} Chantella- is expecting her 1st baby in the spring

19} Julianne- having difficulty with her pregnancy

20} Marc- family problems

21} Tom- problems with weight control

22} Achan- has HIV, an infection in her lungs and gall bladder is shutting down

23} Rick- has bulging disc in his back

24} Noah- a toddler having complications from heart surgery, has a very high fever

25} Frank- fighting depression

26} Gloria- hospitalized after passing out at work

27} Chaplain Sam- recovering from eye surgery

28} Chaplain Jay- preparing for a missionary trip to Uganda next year

29} For all the unspoken and personal requests that people have

30} For us at Highway Mission Outreach that we will continue have the doors opened to share the gospel and the needed finances to carry out the ministry of the mission and as we plant The Cross-Roads Chapel

31} For Michael Frankland, Gill Ainsworth, Mark Ainsworth, Tracy Ainsworth, Tony Wood, Eileen Walsh, and Elaine - break down strongholds in their lives

"Hold Us Together" - Matt Maher

Opening Our Hearts to God


Psa. 19:14 - May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable before You, O Jehovah, my rock and my Redeemer.

Acts 13:22-23 - And when He had deposed him, He raised up David for them as king, to whom also He testified and said, I have found David, the son of Jesse, a man according to My heart, who will do all My will. (23) From this man's seed, God, according to promise, brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus.


~~~~~ Words of Ministry ~~~~~


Both of the above passages are related to David. Psalm 19:14
is a prayer of David, while Acts 13:22-23 is a description of
David. In David's prayer, there are the “words of my mouth”
and the “meditation of my heart,” or the thoughts of the
heart. He prayed that he would not only be kept in his words
outwardly, but also be acceptable to God in his thoughts
inwardly. The words of the mouth are an expression of the
thoughts of the heart. The heart is the root problem.

Whether or not one outwardly says the right words is not the basic problem. Whether or not one has an outward attitude in his speaking that is right is also not the basic problem. The
thoughts of the heart are the basic problem. The thoughts of
the heart constitute the root problem and cannot be overlooked. David did not merely pray, “God, may the words of my mouth be acceptable before You.” He added to the prayer, “May the meditation of my heart be acceptable before You.”

David's prayer was for the thoughts of his heart to be
acceptable before God. This is why Paul could later testify
that David was a man according to the Lord's heart. A person
who is according to God's heart allows God to touch his heart. If you will not allow God to touch your heart, it will be hard for you to be one who is according to His heart.

Many Christians ask, “Why is it wrong for me to do this? Why
is it wrong for me to say this? Why is it wrong for me to
express myself this way?” Brothers and sisters, whether or
not you are doing the right thing, saying the right thing, or
expressing yourself the right way is not the real problem.

Rather, is your heart right when you are doing such a thing,
saying such a word, or expressing yourself in such a way?
What is the condition of your heart? What is the condition of
the root? Even if you are right in every outward thing, it is
still possible for your heart to be wrong. God is touching the condition of your heart and asking about it. He allows many winds and waves to beat upon His children for this very reason.

He uses these things to touch your heart and to expose the condition of your heart.

Why was God harsher in O.T.? - by John Piper

Thy Redeemer


By C.H. Spurgeon


"For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called" (Isaiah 54:5).

JESUS, the Redeemer, is altogether ours and ours for ever. All the offices of Christ are held on our behalf. He is king for us, priest for us, and prophet for us. Whenever we read a new title of the Redeemer, let us appropriate Him as ours under that name as much as under any other. The shepherd's staff, the father's rod, the captain's sword, the priest's mitre, the prince's sceptre, the prophet's mantle, all are ours.

Jesus hath no dignity which He will not employ for our exaltation, and no prerogative which He will not exercise for our defence. His fulness of Godhead is our unfailing, inexhaustible treasure-house. His manhood also, which he took upon him for us, is ours in all its perfection. To us our gracious Lord communicates the spotless virtue of a stainless character; to us he gives the meritorious efficacy of a devoted life; on us he bestows the reward procured by obedient submission and incessant service. He makes the unsullied garment of his life our covering beauty; the glittering virtues of his character our ornaments and jewels; and the superhuman meekness of his death our boast and glory. He bequeaths us his manger, from which to learn how God came down to man; and his Cross to teach us how man may go up to God. All His thoughts, emotions, actions, utterances, miracles, and intercessions, were for us.

He trod the road of sorrow on our behalf, and hath made over to us as his heavenly legacy the full results of all the labours of his life. He is now as much ours as heretofore; and he blushes not to acknowledge himself "our Lord Jesus Christ," though he is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords. Christ everywhere and every way is our Christ, for ever and ever most richly to enjoy. O my soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, call him this morning, "thy Redeemer."


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FREE Book: “Desiring God” by John Piper

Prison Ministry:

On Monday evenings, I have the unique priveledge of visiting the Greenville Detention Center. Scripture, bible lessons, tracts, bibles, Daily Breads, bible studies, testimonies, and prayers are shared. Please keep these men in your continued prayers as we continue studying Paul's letter to the Romans: Jonathan, Lenita, David Anderson, Luke Elmore, Eric Hall, Leslie Mashburn, Keith Rollins, Billy, Jared Rhines, Quinton Brown, Jeremiah Hendrix, Chris Osbourne, Jermain Cheech, Quincy Massey, and Leo Clarence.

Thank you for your support and continued prayers for these new believers and this ministry!

In His vineyard,


We Shall Worship the Lord!


By John Piper


Do you delight more and more in the majesty and glory of God? Does your heart incline to worship God more consistently and intelligently and earnestly and intensely today than it did five years ago?

Is your love for your brothers and sisters in Christ abounding more and more so that you use your gifts more and more effectively to strengthen their faith and stir them up to love and good works?

And do you feel a greater burden for the lost? Are your prayers for unbelieving relatives and friends more consistent and earnest? Are your efforts to give a reason for the hope that is in you more bold, less ashamed? Are you becoming a world Christian with a zeal for the final mission thrust of the church to reach the hidden peoples?


If you can answer yes, we are making progress as a church. If not, we are failing in those areas. But at least we have goal and a definite Biblical theology behind it.

But it is not new. Listen to the way another pastor and teacher describes the meaning of membership in the church:

Membership, therefore, involves a personal obligation to promote the objects of the body as expressed in the covenant.

These objects are three:

1. The social, united worship of God...
2. The perpetuation and diffusion of the gospel...
3. The sanctification of its own members...

The church, thus comprehensive in its scope, looks upward to God, outward upon the needs of a lost world, and inward to the processes of sanctification in the souls of its own members; the neglect of any one of these grand objects of its organization imperils its whole design.

This is our philosophy of ministry. The quote is from Hezekiah Harvey, who was born in England in 1821 (The Church, 1879, reprint 1982, pp.35-36.). There is nothing modern or trendy about the priorities of our church. They have been around for two thousand years. They are tried and true, and it shouldn't bother us at all that they are not new.


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Saturday, March 6, 2010

WHAT ABOUT MIRACLES TODAY?

By Pat Gibbons

There are many men and women who claim to be working miracles today. These so-called miracle workers may be well known and be seen on TV, while others are less well-known and may be seen in many small towns and cities.

Are these people really working miracles? Is what they are doing divine healing?

My answer to these question is simply, "NO!"

--

Before I state what I think is being done, let me give a comparison of modern day healings(?) and the miracles of Jesus. There are at least thirteen differences.

1. Jesus did not heal for money: most today do their thing for money.

2. Jesus did not heal for notoriety. He often said: "tell no man." So-called miracle workers today spend much in advertizing and use "horn tooters."

3. Jesus healed every kind of known affliction: no case was too hard. Modern divine(?) healers form healing lines and will never attempt to heal those physical ailments that are obvious.

4. Jesus never indicated that healing was to be universal. Only four times were large groups healed while one time Jesus healed ten lepers. All the rest were individuals or two at a time.

5. Jesus did not discourage the use of physicians or medical remedies.

6. There were never any questions about his healings. Even His enemies admitted that He was healing people. There are many questions about so-called divine healing today.

7. Jesus performed no partial healing with the healed one to be well on down the road. Faith healers today claim this often.

8. Jesus did not make faith a uniform condition of healing. Only one time: Matt 9:28, did Jesus ask about faith. In 3 cases he commended faith, but in 15 cases faith is not required, and in 4 cases faith was impossible. Modern faith(?) healers require faith, and if they fail in their healing attempt, the reason given for their failure is the faith of the person seeking healing.

9. There were no failures in the miracles of the Lord: none! There are many today.

10. There were never any relapses when Jesus healed: today there are many.

11. Jesus was never guilty of fraud or trickery.

12. Jesus never failed to heal all in a group when he proposed to do so. And

13. Jesus did not use hypnotic influences or auto-suggestionism.
--


In 1973 William E. Nolan, M. D. began a study of miracle workers, and entitled a book "In Search of A Miracle." Dr. Nolan concentrated his efforts on a nationally known faith healer known as Kathryn Kuhlman. She was an ordained minister who had been "healing" about 30 years at that time, and claimed to have treated app. one and one half million patients. Dr. Nolan interviewed Miss Kuhlman, and secured permission to follow up on the people who attended her services at Minneapolis in June 1973. He used two legal secretaries to secure names, addresses, phone numbers and diagnosis of everyone who was willing to cooperate. In July of 1973 letters were sent by Dr. Nolan requesting those who claimed a "cure" to come to Minneapolis. Twenty three responded.

In every case examined by Dr. Nolan there was not found one case of a miraculous cure. Note this quote: "Kathryn Kuhlman's lack of medical sophistication is a critical point. I don't believe she is a liar or a charlatan or that she is, consciously, dishonest. I think that she believes the Holy Spirit works through her to perform miraculous cures. I think that she sincerely believes that the thousands of sick people who come to her services and claim cures are, through her ministrations being cured of organic diseases. I also think--and my investigation confirms this--that she is wrong." (Quotes and facts are from an article in McCall's 9/74). I also have another article from McCall's, dated February 1957. In this article entitled "The Truth About Faith Healers" John Kobler has some interesting things to say. His work concerned such faith healers at A. A. Allen, Oral Roberts, Jack Coe and other lesser known lights. Mr. Kobler also followed up on several cases of "healing". He too found no evidence of real organic healing. Note this quote: "One of the most searching studies of American faith healers has been undertaken by Reverend Carroll Stengall, Jr., pastor of the Pryor Street Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia.

For six years Reverend Stegall has attended healing campaigns and interviewed scores of invalids before and after they were admitted to the healing line. ‘All healers,' he says, ‘use a certain psychological phenomenon called the "ready-made frame of desire." A great desire tends to produce results--in facsimile if not in reality. The more intense, the more easily one accepts a substitute satisfaction.' The testimonials of healings which Stegall examined fall, he feels, into four categories: genuine relief from psychological disturbances through suggestion, momentary fancied relief which the sufferer in his rapture endorses but later repudiates, staged fakes, and stories invented by editors for magazine publication." From that same article this quote: "The Miami Council of Churches denounced Coe as a religious quack. Three ministers of the Churches of Christ, a Protestant sect which maintains a standing offer of $1,000 to Oral Roberts for proof of a single cure acceptable to a committee of three doctors, issued the same challenge to Coe, raising the purse to $2,500. Like Roberts, he ignored it."

Then this quote from the 1957 article: "In the town of Evansville, Indiana, some relatives of Mrs. Mary Vonderscher, age forty-three, who had moved to Burbank, California, were watching her give testimony on one of Oral Roberts' televised programs. She had, she stated, been cured of cancer of the spine, though doctors considered her condition hopeless. Three days later Mrs. Vonderscher's Hoosier relatives were en route to her funeral."

--

I know personally of a young man in high school when I was who developed cancer at an early age. For some time he testified that Miss Kuhlman had cured him of cancer, but he died of that disease. He thought he had been healed, but he had not. I also personally know William Bryson, a gospel preacher, who was born with only one arm. He attended many "healing services", including Kathryn Kuhlman's in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. He has been threatened with jail and with ejection from the meeting by force. He was rejected on the charge that "you do not have faith" as well as being "a trouble maker." It was evident from his condition that no one could heal him, so he was rejected as an infidel or a trouble maker. In fact, one becomes a trouble maker when he challenges the claims of these religious frauds. And in my judgment, that is what they are.

--

Several years ago I read of a man who walked with crutches, and was caught in an open field with a wild boar. When the boar charged the man he threw down his crutches, ran to the fence and jumped over. In another case a man who was confined to a wheel chair is known to have walked out of a burning house, saving himself and some children. These two examples help explain what so many see as a miracle. Many illnesses or diseases are the product of the human mind. Symptoms, real or imagined, are found without any known cause, but through the process of "auto-suggestionism" they are healed. The truth of the matter is, there never was any real organic illness: it was psychosomatic. That big word is defined by Webster: "a physical disorder of the body originating in or aggravated by the psychic or emotional processes of the individual." So-called faith healers do not heal by the Holy Spirit today. They only seem to cure when in reality there was no real physical problem: it was psychosomatic, and the "cure" was due to auto-suggestionism.