Many of you will read the fire and will delete. Please do not. Let God speak to you. God, I pray that anyone here that is afraid of your refiners fire. That you touch them with your Holy Spirit. That they begin to realize that it is through your refiners fire. We become more like Christ. Mark 9:49-50 For every one shall be salted with fire, and every sacrifice shall be salted with salt. Salt is good. but if the salt have lost his saltness, wherewith will ye season it? Have salt in yourselves, and have peace one with another. I have been a Christian for over 26 years. For 20 of those years, I was afraid of those fire trails. I cry, "Why me?" The last 4 years has been better than those years. God has used an adversity to refine me. I have and learn to rejoices through those trails. To praise Him no matter what. Mark 9:49 says "everyone". That means everyone here on earth. That claims the name of Christ has trails. The closer one wants to get to Christ must suffer. Are we better than our Lord and Christ. "NO!" As we read further, we read, " one shall be salted with fire". Our lives must be seasoned with suffering. Many will go through trails that lead unto death. God prepares us with His Word. We are tested and refined. The test do not stop, until you die and go to heaven. How can the church be powerful, if it refuses to go through trails? We must be broken and crushed to be served to the lost. So they can see Jesus through us. When a Christian realize that he must have a life salted with fire. He becomes free. His prayer time becomes one not of centered around self. But a deeper relationship with God. To love Him unconditionally. And realize the God loves you unconditionally. Which brings me to another point. When your love grows stronger for the things of God. The bondage chains becomes broken. You want to draw closer to God. So you for sake your sin. You want to serve Him in ministry. Once this happens, the church is powerful. You'll have a church that reaches out to the lost around you. The pastor needs not preach a begging sermon to be involved in ministry. The church is not center around one man or woman. The same goes for each ministry with in the church. The leader becomes a true servant. Brethren, as of now I am experience this. This past summer I laid my life down. I surrendered my all. I am trusting in God to provide from healing to every need in my life. This past September, Kathie and I decided to do seek God to where He wanted us. Through the month of October, we went to a few services. we saw God moving among his people. We saw children, teenagers, middle age, and the old praise God like never before. Then we wonder why it was not happening where we been for the past 11 years. Four weeks ago, we moved from a normal A/G church to a loving, caring, open, moving, Spirit filled church. Where over 60% of its members are involved with ministry. This church does not hinge on one person. Kathie and I are now going to a Vineyard church. I am awe what God is doing my life. Each of you can have a powerful church and outpost. If you just yield willfully unto God. A miracle happen yesterday at the end of service. The pastor mention to pick up the chairs to move them to the new sanitary. I did not get sick. A couple of men and my wife prayed over me. God showed us that He will be my mask. He will filter my air for me. God is God and I do not know why He does not totally heal me. But I am not going to question Him. Another thing happen, some brother asked me to pray about getting involved with Royal Rangers. I mention to him that I have LTC and NTC. Was a cmdr. for the 12- 17 years old. Plus involved with teaching LTC. He just smiled. To close this, I want to share some encouragement. When your time of testing comes. Fear it not. Trust God through it. Many of a times God will put you on the shelf to have you wait on Him. It is the time to get close to Him. And not to be busy with ministry . When the time of testing is over. The blessing will come. God is my comfort and strength. All the days of my life I will praise Him. I will not keep quiet for I will always shout His praises. rick/eagle feather (FCF/Wilderness Oct. 97) bond servant of the Most High God Isaiah 40:31 serving Christ as my Lord and master. He is the true owner of Eagle Feather's 18th Century Clothing Shoppe web site http://www.datasync.com/~jwmort/baldwin/welcome.html ___________________________________________________________________ Why pay more to get Web access? Try Juno for FREE -- then it's just $9.95/month if you act NOW! Get your free software today: http://dl.www.juno.com/dynoget/tagj. _______ To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe rangernet" to [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Eat the hay & spit out the sticks! - A#1's mule" RTKB&G4JC! http://rangernet.org Autoresponder: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
