A reflection of my message last Sunday at NRN

Today at NRN I shared a message about how Jesus took our sin and shame upon Himself and nailed it to the cross that we might be saved and clothed in righteousness. People have commented on the clip I used as a testimony of Phil Robertson - aka The Duck Commander.  Here is another clip that shares the importance of living our life with Christ in control.

 

St. Patrick's Day - Bet you didn't know

Since today is St. Patrick's Day I thought I would share a simple clip with you.

 

 

Check back tomorrow for a follow up of my message today at NRN

Preparing for worship on March 17 2013

As I prepare for Sunday at NRN my heart is ready for an awesome time of worship and I pray for the anointing of God upon the words I plan to speak.   Here is the order of worship planned for tomorrow:

We begin with a welcome and opening prayer and then lift our voices in worship and adoration of God.










We will continue in worship with prayer and I will encourage everyone to join us for the annual Prayer Vigil at NRN.

 

 

 

Then I will present the message God has given to me in our current teaching series.

 

 

 

Following our worship, we will conduct our annual church elections:

 

 

An example of true sportsmanship

With March Madness underway in the NCAA basketball season - I thought today would be a good time to share about sportsmanship.  I look forward to seeing some amazing basketball over the next two weeks - but this post shares the meaning of true sportsmanship:

Mitchell Marcus, a special needs student at Coronado High School, was given a chance to play in a varsity basketball game by Coach Morales, and not only did he get to play, but an act of good sportsmanship was showed that night by Jonathan Montanez and the Franklin Basketball Team.  Mitchell Marcus was able to live out a dream! 

There is usually a little more to the story:

What makes Phil Robertson Happy, Happy, Happy!

I recently saw several postings on facebook about a recent interview with Phil Robertson.

Here is the text of the interview:

I'm currently 66 years old. That's how long I've been on planet Earth. When I was 28, I was sort of into "sex, drugs, and rock and roll," as they say. Some guy with a Bible came into a beer joint that I was running and he wanted to talk it over. I basically ran him out of the place. My sister is the one that brought him and while he was in the back trying to get a Bible study going with the old guy here, yours truly, she's in the front handing out Bible tracts. That created a little bit of a ruckus in the beer joint.


I had to go out there and tell everybody, "Look, the girl wants to hand out Bible tracts. Take them, throw them into the trash can, do whatever you want, but don't be messing with my sister here. I'll break your legs." So, I ran the guy off. But later on I looked him back up as my life was pretty much going south in a hurry.



So at 28, I finally sit down and listened for the first time in my life to the story about Jesus of Galilee, the one we're all counting time by. It is currently 2,013 years since Jesus got here. 2013 A.D. Anno Domini. So we're all counting time by Jesus. I just decided to follow him 38 years ago when I heard that He, in fact, was God in flesh. Not only was He God in flesh, it took the blood of God to remove my "sex, drugs, and rock and roll" lifestyle — sin.

Well, I'm sitting there listening and I'm like, "Man, that was a mighty kind thing to do for a scumbag like me." Not only that, it wouldn't do me any good, though, if something could not be done about the six-foot hole I'm going into (and you too, by the way).

So we're all sinners, Jesus dies on a cross to remove all of them, so you can go, "I'm guilty no longer. The price has been paid." God coming down in flesh did that. It's actually too wild a story to dream up by human beings, especially sinful ones. Three days later he guarantees me not only did He have the power to remove my sin, but He had the power to energize dead cold flesh so it can stand back up on the earth again.

Because of what Jesus has done, his death on a cross and his resurrection, He's guaranteed you that you will live. So, as Jesus would put it, "Whoever lives and believes in Me will never die."
If you're not a believer and you don't believe God exists at all, about the only hope you have is He not be there. That's your hope: "Maybe He's not there." What we're saying is: "We trust that He is."

The Power of Prayer

Prayer is essential in the life of a believer. One definition of prayer is as being personal communication with our Almighty Creator. Since God is relational, communication with him needs to be present in order to fully embrace Christianity at its finest.

 There exist multiple kinds of prayer, ranging from thanking and loving God to praying for others. Christians need to understand the different types of prayer and the importance of each because it stimulates a growing trust in God, and therefore makes the individual a stronger Christian.

Don't make excuses

Many times, the lifestyle and habits for Christians today can be a hindrance towards prayer. Unfortunately, laziness is a major reason believers in Christ put off praying. Scores of Christians cannot seem to realize that prayer actually does not require a big deal of energy. Just the thought of taking time out to pray must seem like a hassle to many.

Another hindrance is just the fact of not having a set time to pray . Although it is not 100% necessary to do this, creating a schedule will greatly increase the chances of remembering to pray. Not creating a schedule goes hand in hand with time constraints. A large amount of people nowadays cannot find the time to pray, but when those people do find time, they are too tired or not in the mood. Prayer can be done anywhere at any time, and should be done in order to please God.

God delights in prayer and wants us to pray to Him relentlessly. God desires for Christians to pray because it helps to build up the believers trust in Him. Once the trust is developed, reliance will shift from self to God. Further communicating with God will make the believer closer with Him.

The true meaning of Christianity, having a relationship with God, is what the praying Christian will experience. Lastly, it allows Christians to give all the glory to Him. God created everything out of nothing, and He deserves nothing less than everything from Christians.

Five types of prayer:

Prayer of Adoration

Of the five different types of prayer, the prayer of adoration is probably the most important. The prayer of adoration is saying to God, “God, I love you”. Christianity is based on faith, and without faith it is impossible to develop a relationship with Him. Developing that trust and faith in God is the key ingredient to living a full Christian life. Not only is it important to tell God of the love for Him, but it is also important to thank Him.

Prayer of Thankfulness

Thanking God is next in line of importance when praying. When asked to think of everything that a person is thankful for, not many things come to mind. We can never thank God for too many things. God never gets tired of getting thanked. Often the phrase, “count your blessings” is used to describe the inability to know them all. When thanking God, Christians need to remember to thank Him not only for the good things, but the trials and hardships.

 God puts hard times in Christian’s lives in order to better their relationship with Him, and in doing so make them stronger individuals. But in the end, it is the individual’s choice whether or not to turn the trial into a positive step towards God or a backwards leap away from Him.

Prayer of confession

The prayer of confession is also important in order to straighten out issues and to begin the healing process in relationships. Some of the three hardest words to say are,”I am sorry”. When two people are in a quarrel, the fight is almost never resolved until one party admits their apologies and says the three words above.

 The ability to throw away pride and admit the three words above can and will lead to better relationships with everyone. God is the exact same with prayer. Christians should repent for everything that is clearly not allowed by God’s law. Doing so will lead to a much better relationship with God and a much better conscience. But the important thing to remember is that the focus is on asking forgiveness from God and not fixating on the sins only.

Prayer of Intercession

The prayer of intercession is one that most Christians forget about because intercession is praying for other people. Most people tend to not think of other people. Christians consume much of their time with things for themselves. This is the time when Christians would ask God to help or intervene in the lives of other people.

When praying this prayer, one must be aware about the situation of the people, and the must pray in accordance with God’s will. Another addition that goes along with the prayer of intercession is to forgive others. If Christians do not forgive others transgressions, then the relationship with God will be interrupted and halted. Not forgiving others trespasses is just going to be s stumbling block, even though it may not seem like it.

 Prayer of Petition

The fifth type of prayer is the prayer of petition. The prayer of petition is what many Christians believe prayer is for. The prayer of petition is the prayer where Christian’s ask God for needs and wants. Although this is necessary, the way each want is put must be phrased correctly. For example, instead of asking for the memorizing of a poem to magically happen, the situation should be handled differently. Rather, the Christian student should ask for the wisdom of God to fully embrace them so that the memorization might come much easier. With God everything is much easier.

 There's more than one way to do it  Not only are their different types of pray, but there are different ways to pray. A very important thing to remember is to pray according to the will of God. Although it is difficult sometimes to determine what the will of God is, the Bible can always give us a clue to what it might be. For something that is clearly stated in the Commandments, it is easy to follow. But for things that are not explicitly explained in the Bible, it is a little harder to determine the will of God.

The best way to approach this is to read the Bible to figure out the best solution. Without having at least a general understanding of God’s Word, it is very difficult to determine the will of God. Whenever praying, think about the word usage. Paying attention to the word usage will really affect how Christians pray. If Christians paid that much attention to their prayers and how the words are articulated, the better the relationship with Christ will be, and the better Christians they will be.

Praying is definitely vital in every Christian’s life. Without prayer, a Christian’s life will become dry and ineffective. Once everyone realizes this truth, the world might undergo a serious revival. Prayer is communicating with God, and because God is a relational God, prayer is possibly the most important thing for becoming and remaining a Christian

 Tonight we gather at 6:30pm for a time of corporate prayer at NRN.  We will pray the prayer of intercession on behalf of the prayer request placed on the altar this past Sunday. 

Lord I give you my heart

This is a song will be be singing this coming Sunday at NRN.

 

VERSE:
This is my desire, to honor You
Lord, with all my heart, I worship You
All I have within me, I give You praise
All that I adore, Is in You

CHORUS:
Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord, have Your ways in me

VERSE:
This is my desire, to honor You
Lord, with all my heart, I worship You
All I have within me, I give You praise
All that I adore, Is in You

CHORUS:
Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord, have Your ways in me

CHORUS:
Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord, have Your ways in me

BRIDGE:
And I will live,
And I will live for You

CHORUS:
Lord, I give You my heart
I give You my soul
I live for you alone
Every breath that I take
Every moment I'm awake
Lord, have Your ways in me