Mistake

Last night I realized that 2 of the sermons that we uploaded were not on the site. We had placed the description for Fasting 101 and One Man One Woman on the site but I forgot to upload the audio file. This has been been fixed and they all should be ready to go now.

Online Finally

Wanted to let evedryone know that the Sunday sermons can now be listened to online. Just click on the following link and you will be taken to the page where they are listed. http://www.worshipcloud.com/ulysses-first-ag/sermons/ We have also placed a link on the sidebar to.

Dangers of Drifting Sermon Download

http://www.worshipcloud.com/ulysses-first-ag/sermon/dangers-of-drifting/

Happy New Year!

Wanted to wish everyone a happy new year! I pray God's richest blessings for you in 2009!

Quiet times

Sometimes we have a tendency to try to find a formula to get to God. Or think that we need to be religious in our prayer life. Praying with the old thee's and thou's but what God wants from us is to be real with Him. Listen to this from Matthew 6: Here's what I want you to do: find a quiet, secluded place so you won't be tempted to role play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God, and you will begin to sense His grace. With all the hustle and bustle of daily life, the holidays, kids and everything else; this is a challenge. But I have found personally that these are some of the most rewarding, sweet moments in my relationship with God. I know it's hard to do this, but make the effort and watch God show up

Musings

It has been such a hectic last few months with the holidays and the adoption and everything else that has been going on. It has been good to get back to some sort of normalcy. I normally try to read the bible through intentionally every year. Sometimes I try to read the NT twice through. This morning I was reading Matthew. No, I didn't start in Matthew, I am actually ending with Matthew this year. But I came to Matthew 5 and couldn't go any further. The first few verses jumped off the page. I am reading the Message this time through and here is what it says; "You're blessed when you're at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God and His rule. You're blessed when you feel you have lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you. You're blessed when you're content with just who you are - no more, no less. That's the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can't be bought.." There is only one more day left in this year. When I look back I see a lot of accomplishments, but I also see a lot of things left undone. There have been those moments when I felt like I was at the end of my rope, there have been those days when I felt like I was losing those things dearest to me, there have been days when I looked in the mirror and wondered if I really liked who I saw there looking back at me. If we are honest I think most of us struggle with these thoughts at times. But according to God's Word, that is the point where blessings can occur.

Elections Over

Last night as I watched the election results for president one thing stood out more than anything else to me. This country is deeply divided. As far as I could tell there were only a few states that were overwhelming victories for either candidate. As a country it will be hard to move forward with such deep divisions in place. The bible teaches us that there is power in unity and that kingdoms cannot stand when they are divided. I prayed hard last night as the returns came in. Asking God to have mercy on this nation for thinking that the economy is the number one issue. If the economy is more important than protecting the life of unborn babies, or more important than protecting marriage between one man and one woman then we as a nation have lost sight of who we were founded to be. This nation was founded on biblical principles. We have lost sight of this. Our priorities are mixed up. We must honor God first. Now that the election is over and we have a new president, our role as Christians is to pray for those who are in authority over us. We must pray for this administration. Pray that their hearts would be in God's hands. Pray that they would stand for biblical principles. Pray, repent and turn to God as a people.

Election Day

Today we face one of the most important elections in U.S. History. Sometimes we can get caught up though n the things that we see and miss the unseen things. We can focus so much on the economy, and the war in Iraq and other things that are tangible. But in God's kingdom things work differently. God says that righteousness exalts a nation. God says that if we as His people will humble ourselves, repent and turn from our wicked ways that He will heal our land. This election day as you cast your vote for president, senator, congressman or any other ballot issue, pray. Pray that God will show you who and how to vote. If we will exalt God first, His will will be accomplished.

Lonely

There are times in our lives when God's desire for us is to come to the wilderness or desert in order to get closer to Him. What that translates into is that sometimes we must leave the crowd, the familiar things, the ordinary daily routine and get away to find God. We are the body of Christ and we need one another to hold each other up, the strengthen one another. But their are times when we need to be strengthened in the Lord. King David did this when he spent time all alone on a hillside with only his sheep. Jesus did this may times during His ministry when he withdrew to solitary places. We grow together, with one another. Bill Johnson writes on this: God brings moments into our lives when we have to stand alone in difficulty and testing. God will even blind the eyes and deafen the ears of our closest friends in those moments so we can learn to minister to ourselves. He is talking about strengthening ourselves in the Lord. This means that there are those times in our lives when God wants us to come directly to Him. To spend time with Him and seek Him only. This is hard for many people. We need our friendships, we need our mentors, we need our families. But more than anything else we need God Himself. He is a friend who sticks closer than a brother, the Holy Spirit is more wise than any man, and when we truly trust God, He is our Abba Father and we are His children. So when those moments come when you feel lonely; go to God. Seek Him. Spend time strengthening yourself in the Lord.

Christian Idol

One of the reasons that I think God seems distant sometimes is because He wants to topple our idols. Most of the time we want a God who more like a butler or slave then the God of the Universe. We think that it is God's job to make us happy. That He would never want to drive us out into the wilderness, but the Bible says that it was the Holy Spirit that drove Jesus out into the desert to be tempted. The god many people have created in their imagination would never demand repentance, but instead tells us to just focus on the positive things in our lives. God would never scold us but would only speak kindly. That He is more interested in making us nice, not holy. That He isn't as concerned with our character as He is in our feeling good about ourselves. That He is more interested in us living a full fulfilling life than helping us to know Christ's sufferings. But that is a false image of God that has been created in many Christians imaginations. We sometimes worship a created god that makes us feel better about ourselves and demands nothing from us than the true God of the universe. So sometimes God seems distant, which He never truly is, in order that this false image would be destroyed in our lives. God knows what we truly desire, He understands what we need, and knows how best to help us. But before we can meet the true God, the false God must be abandoned. If we will not abandon it, God will destroy it for us. And between the time of that destruction and the time when the true God re-enters our lives, it will feel like God has left us.