HE IS PRECIOUS

"Unto You Who Believe, He is Precous" - 1 Peter 2.7

We are loved with precious love; redeemed by precious blood; comforted by precious promises; justified by precious faith; yea, righteousness, holiness, heaven, we have by union with a precious Jesus. Surely, then, "to them that believe He is precious."
All this, yea, infinitely more than all this, hath Jesus done for a poor wretched race of sinners. Therefore he is indeed to them a precious "Friend, who loveth at all times:" the precious "Brother, who is born for adversity." - Proverbs 17:17. "He is the same yesturday, today, and for ever." Precious in what He hath done Yesturday - shed his blood for the guilty; wrought out a righteousness to cloth the naked. To-day He is pleading our cause before the throne, where "he ever lives to save to the uttermost all them that come unto God by him." - Hebrews 7:25. He makes visits of love, sends kind tokens, refreshing manifestations, causing poor hearts to rejoice in him, filling them with peace and comfort from him. O He is inestimably precious in what He is doing, and in what he will do. For He will never leave one of his members till He has brought them all safe through a wicked world, given them victory over all sin, Satan, and death, and lodged them in the arms of His embrace.
Do the world, sin an Satan threaten our destruction? He is Jesus, our salvation; our all in all! He is indeed precous to all who believe!

In Praise of Purity!

Snow! Snow! Snow! White pure snow was the setting for the Teen Snow Blast 2009 held at Camp CoBeAc. Our teens joined with teens from 2 other churches for fun and fellowship centered on the fabulous fulfilling Word of God!
Dan Neighbors and Laura Jackson teamed up to challenge the guys and girls to live their lives for the Lord. The theme that was very well received was that of Purity! Dan started the weekend encounter with a great challenge from Ephesians 4:17-24. At the very outset God worked to show these young people that God is Holy and He desires Holiness from all of us. One of the key thoughts carried out over the breath of the retreat was that "Once we're saved, we should be different than the unsaved world!"
The guys and gals were encouraged during two separate sessions to make purity a practical part of their lives. Commitments were made to put away sinful habits and put on the Lord Jesus Christ. Living a life pleasing to the Lord requires getting to KNOW the LORD! This involves spending time in God's Word and Prayer.
The closing session on Saturday provided great encouragement from the life of Asa. When confronted by opposition that looked impossible, Asa first sought the Lord! His confidence was in the Lord. His prayer set forth a great example for anyone who is facing what seems to be overwhelming odds. The world around us with all the temptation can seem overwhelming unless we realize the provision and power of our God. Remember God is able to help. Asa prayer is part was "Lord, it is nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O Lord our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O Lord, thou art our God: let not man prevail against thee." - 2 Chronicles 14:11.
Pray for all who participated in the retreat. Pray they will truly trust the Lord to walk in purity and holiness.

It Is Time To Seek The Lord!

The context of this great admonition in Hosea is sowing and reaping in light of coming judgment. God offered to His people the opportunity to sow in righteousness and reap in mercy. This great encouragement is echoed in the Sermon on Mount when Jesus said "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you" - Matthew 6:33. Certainly as we start the new year there should be some thought given to this priority.

God's Word says on the subject of TIME, that we are to be "redeeming the time, because the days are evil" - Ephesians 5:16. "Redeeming" means "to purchase from out of the marketplace, to redeem by payment of a price, to recover from the power of another, to ransom, buy off, to buy up for one's own self, for one's use. Thayer's lexicon says that in Ephesians 5:16 this word means "to make a wise and sacred use of every opportunity for doing good, so that zeal and well-doing are as it were the purchase-money by which we make the time our own." The idea is that of 'buying back,' at the expense of personal watchfulness and self-denial, the present time, which is now being used for evil and godless purposes.

Notice a cost assigned to this time. The cost involves "walking in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time" (Colossians 4:5). The choice has to be made to walk in wisdom. Wisdom is acquired as we seek the Lord. Proverbs 2:6 says "For the Lord giveth wisdom." The Psalmist said in Psalm 90:12 "So teach us to number our days that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." The number one priority should be seeking the Lord, which will result in the wise use of time for the Glory of God.

Our Prayer and Goal is that you will experience the benefit that comes from time spent seeking the Lord!

Please join with our church family as "It is TIME to Seek The LORD!