As we celebrate Easter, I’m comforted by the reminder that our Savior remains as present in our world today as He was when He walked the earth more than 2,000 years ago. This is a wonderful time of year to reflect on the unfailing reality of “God with us” and to rediscover our adoration for the Lord.
Psalm 89 says, “I will sing of the Lord’s great love forever; with my mouth I will
make your faithfulness known through all generations.”
Amen!!! PRAISE GOD!!
Taken from the National Day of Prayer
Dewey, Here I am again asking for prayers for my friend Daniel whose father Michael is the hospital with heart disease. Michael will have by-pass and valve replacement surgery on Friday. I thank everyone in advance for your prayers.
Doris Husted
Doris, we are praying it is also such a good reminder for us that on Good Friday when Michael will be under going surgery…Hospitals are still open, Doctor’s and nurses, like my Sharon, are all working to help people. We are praying on this…..and also let us spend time in prayer for Doctor’s and Nurses…….Most of these folks are overwhelmed at this point.
Let us continue to pray for Revival in Flint, Michigan and all the folks from Time to Revive who are there. By the way the unemployment rate in Flint is 45%, 6 arson fires a day…….many spaces in neighborhoods where houses once stood…..number 6 in murders in the United States……..More on this later on in this Post………….
As part of a series on peacemaking, in late 2007, Pastor Rob Bell’s Mars Hill Bible Church put on an art exhibit about the search for peace in a broken world. It was just the kind of avant-garde project that had helped power Mars Hill’s growth (the Michigan church attracts 7,000 people each Sunday) as a nontraditional congregation that emphasizes discussion rather than dogmatic teaching. An artist in the show had included a quotation from Mohandas Gandhi. Hardly a controversial touch, one would have thought. But one would have been wrong.
A visitor to the exhibit had stuck a note next to the Gandhi quotation: “Reality check: He’s in hell.” Bell was struck. (Vote on Rob Bell’s influence in the 2011 TIME 100 poll.)
Really? he recalls thinking.
Gandhi’s in hell?
He is?
We have confirmation of this?
Somebody knows this?
Without a doubt?
And that somebody decided to take on the responsibility of letting the rest of us know?
So begins Bell’s controversial new best seller, Love Wins: A Book About Heaven, Hell, and the Fate of Every Person Who Ever Lived. Works by Evangelical Christian pastors tend to be pious or at least on theological message. The standard Christian view of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth is summed up in the Gospel of John, which promises “eternal life” to “whosoever believeth in Him.” Traditionally, the key is the acknowledgment that Jesus is the Son of God, who, in the words of the ancient creed, “for us and for our salvation came down from heaven … and was made man.” In the Evangelical ethos, one either accepts this and goes to heaven or refuses and goes to hell. (See 10 surprising facts about the world’s oldest Bible.)
Bell, a tall, 40-year-old son of a Michigan federal judge, begs to differ. He suggests that the redemptive work of Jesus may be universal — meaning that, as his book’s subtitle puts it, “every person who ever lived” could have a place in heaven, whatever that turns out to be. Such a simple premise, but with Easter at hand, this slim, lively book has ignited a new holy war in Christian circles and beyond. When word of Love Wins reached the Internet, one conservative Evangelical pastor, John Piper, tweeted, “Farewell Rob Bell,” unilaterally attempting to evict Bell from the Evangelical community. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, says Bell’s book is “theologically disastrous. Any of us should be concerned when a matter of theological importance is played with in a subversive way.” In North Carolina, a young pastor was fired by his church for endorsing the book. (See TIME’s photoessay “A Brief History of Hell.”)
The traditionalist reaction is understandable, for Bell’s arguments about heaven and hell raise doubts about the core of the Evangelical worldview, changing the common understanding of salvation so much that Christianity becomes more of an ethical habit of mind than a faith based on divine revelation. “When you adopt universalism and erase the distinction between the church and the world,” says Mohler, “then you don’t need the church, and you don’t need Christ, and you don’t need the cross. This is the tragedy of nonjudgmental mainline liberalism, and it’s Rob Bell’s tragedy in this book too.”
Particularly galling to conservative Christian critics is that Love Wins is not an attack from outside the walls of the Evangelical city but a mutiny from within — a rebellion led by a charismatic, popular and savvy pastor with a following. Is Bell’s Christianity — less judgmental, more fluid, open to questioning the most ancient of assumptions — on an inexorable rise? “I have long wondered if there is a massive shift coming in what it means to be a Christian,” Bell says. “Something new is in the air.”
Read more: http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2065080,00.html#ixzz1K9gJgdlo
Chick-fil-A CEO Dan Cathy wasn’t shy about his faith Friday when he attributed the huge increase in sales at the fast food chain to the wisdom found in the teachings of Jesus.
God bless,
Day Three: Speak To Dry Bones
What would it take for Flint to change?
When a local of Flint looked out on his neighborhood, there was sorrow in his eyes. He was wondering how a neighborhood becomes a brothel and a crackhouse and a valley full of bones. It happened right in front of him.
“We must all pray for the city,” he says. “It needs a miracle.”
But does he expect a miracle? Can there be life in the neighborhood again? Something in his gaze says, “Miracles are impossible.”
God once took Ezekiel to a valley filled with dried up bones. God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones become living people again?”
Ezekiel replied, “O Sovereign LORD, You alone know the answer to that.”
Ezekiel spoke God’s words to dry, dead bones.
Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD! This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
Perhaps Ezekiel didn’t really think anything would change, because when he had prophesied to the bones, he said suddenly – suddenly – the bones began rattling. Maybe he was as shocked as any of us when his words became reality. The bones became people. Suddenly – surprisingly.
Life changes when suddenly you see a miracle. When you see dead become alive.
Life is dramatically different for Will today. Yesterday his car didn’t work and he didn’t have enough money to fix it. A couple of reviveFLINT people showed up and prayed. Will wanted to pray for a free alternator for his car. Why not? Kyle said, “Lord, give us a free alternator.” When they entered the store, suddenly, the man behind the counter was giving them an alternator, for free. Will saw the miracle, and believed in the Lord.
Perhaps Cynthia sees reality differently today. Because yesterday she was afraid to go onto the streets to talk about Jesus, and she planned on staying back and cooking. She had no words, no memorized Scripture to offer. But she was out there, and when she met a woman who had lost everyone in her family and was suicidal, suddenly, words came. Cynthia spoke and the woman believed. Dead became alive.
Mary had no place to live yesterday. She was number eight on a housing list and desperate. We prayed, hoped, left. Suddenly, the phone rang, and within minutes of the prayer, Mary was bumped to number one on the housing list. Suddenly, she has a home.
Ramona is different today. She started the day unsure. She had one week left at the place she was living and no hopeful options in sight. Christina brought her back to the reviveFLINT group and people are surrounding her with love, hope, and options.
Another lady had been hurt by church enough to say she didn’t want anything to do with faith. Today she met Sherry, and she learned that God isn’t like people and that He actually cares about her no matter what people do. Suddenly, it made sense. She received that word and believed. She is a renewed person.
Kyle reunited with Larry Jr. who he introduced to the LORD this week. The color-coded bracelet that led him to Jesus wasn’t on his wrist. The reason was because he wanted to give it away. He was the receiver and now he’s the giver, along with others we’ve encountered on the streets. Flintstones are opening their doors to us and now they’re going out in their neighborhoods with hope to share. Or they are coming to worship through dance with us like Felicia. Larry said, “Tell my friend Dre about Jesus.” Dre has a new perspective on life, now, too.
A man came to our dinner and worship tonight, and said he has been homeless, depressed, and alcoholic. He testifies to getting healing through Christ and that he received love at reviveFLINT. Love revives dry bones.
A family is getting electricity today because a reviveFLINT group from Arlington, TX found them with a need. People we have met who have faced trauma are receiving counseling for their grief. Households are getting food. Drug dealers are opening their doors to us. Individuals are finding reason to step outside of their homes.
On Easter, God raised the dead bones of to life. That power is available to all who believe. So where do we get off not expecting what others call impossible, not expecting Flint to change? Is a miracle a trite wish, or is it your reality? Guess you won’t know until you speak to dry bones.
For reviveFLINT,
| Today’s Video
Watch highlights from Day 3!
Watch the Evening Services by Clicking HERE.
Come and see. With 580 volunteers involved, we are at 82% of our goal. Will you join us? Click here to join the team. Do not let anything hold |
you back. If Flint is going to change, we must lay aside apathy and fear, embrace our relationship with Jesus Christ and share the Truth that transforms lives.
Once again today, Lord Willing at 4:30 on NM News and Views we will have Kyle Martin on live with us from Flint, Michigan. PRAISE GOD!
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