Current Book

I am currently reading a great book by R.T Kendall called The Sensitivity of the Spirit. What a powerful, insightful man of God he is. The introduction begins with a quote by Billy Graham. "My greatest fear is that God would remove his hand from me." I think this is my worst fear also. It should be every believers fear. It's scary to think about the mighty men and women of God who through the years thought that the hand of God was on their lives when it in fact had departed. Most of these once great people didn't recognize that the anointing had left them. I know of a pastor who felt led by the Holy Spirit to speak over a man, "Ichabod. The spirit of God has departed." How sad to hear that. I don't know enough of the situation to know if it was correct or not but what a dreadful thought to think that everything I do could be without the hand of God on it. Here is how R.T. Kendall puts it; "I can displease the Lord and feel nothing. It is very possible that I could spend years doing what I presumed was God's will- preaching, teaching, witnessing, and being involved in church work- when God was hardly present in my efforts at all. I may even have the applause ad respect of people the whole time, and they not have a clue I have moved ahead of Jesus." I don't know about you, but I need the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Holy Spirit, the special presence of God, in my life. I want everything I do to be drenched in the anointing of the Holy Spirit. I can't live a day without Him.

Sunday's Service

God has been moving in so many ways in my Spirit lately. Giving words or direction, correction, and affirmation. Sunday was an overflow of what He has been doing in me. I just feel that as God speaks to us His truths for this day, we must take time to soak it in and apply it to our lives. If we feel that God is desiring to do greater things among us we must take the time to wait on Him for the greater things. As we pray for the greater things to takes place we must take the time to Listen and hear from the Holy Spirit about what greater thing He wants us to focus on. But it doesn't stop there. Then we must be ready to participate in the greater thing He desires to do. The christian faith is not a passive faith but an active faith. It requires that we move or act in a way that shows we believe the greater thing will take place. God always requires action to our faith. So the question for the day is what greater thing are you believing God for and what action steps are you taking to make it a reality in your life?

Greater Things

There is a thought or a theme that the Holy Spirit has been playing over and over again the last few weeks in my spirit. Greater things you will do, greater things are still to come, greater things than what you have seen before. Greater things than what happened in 2008. Greater things are on the way. This week for me has been an amazing week. So many things have happened to confirm God's leading in my life. Some of you know a few of the details but they are only the beginning of what God is doing in my life. God has a plan and at times I feel like I am on the most exciting roller coaster in the world. I love roller coasters. I love the thrill. I love the unknown. I know that God is taking me on a ride I will never forget. I have listened to the song God Of This City 26 times and counting in the last 2 days. Read these words: You're the God of this city You're the King of these people You're the Lord of this nation You Are For there is no one like our God There is no one like our God Greater things have yet to come Great things are still to be done In this city Greater things are still to come And greater things are still to be done here You're the Lord of Creation The Creator of all things You're the King above all Kings You Are You're the light in this darkness You're the hope to the hopeless You're the peace to the restless You are You're the strength in our weakness You're the love to the broken You're the joy in the sadness You Are Greater things have yet to come Great things are still to be done In this city Where glory shines from hearts alive With praise for you and love for you In this city Greater things have yet to come Great things are still to be done In this city Greater things are still to come And greater things are still to be done here Powerful words..... But more powerful are the words of Jesus in John 14:12 "The truth is, anyone who believes in me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father." The song count is now at 28.....

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.