Reading List Update

I set for a goal this year to read 50 books. As of today I have completed 9. The last book I read was called When Character Was King. It is the story of Ronald Reagan. It was an amazing book. I grew up in the shadow of the presidency of Ronald Reagan. I can still remember the day that He was shot, watching the reports showing the event over and over again. I remember being in Science class in the 8th grade and hearing the radio reporting that the Space Shuttle Challenger had just blown up. I can still remember the speech President Reagan delivered, closing with, "They had slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God." I am not so much a fan of politics as I am of the the character and content of those people we have as leaders. I like to sift through the hard decisions that they make and find out what convictions lead them to those decisions. Reagan was a man that I believe will be judged as one of our greatest Presidents in the history of this nation. He was led by convictions, by a sense of right and wrong. But more important, those convictions were forged by a Christian mother and a life of prayer. Many times he took heat for snoozing during important times but in reality he was praying during important times. He didn't allow popularity to guide him, it was God who gave him direction and that is who he followed. I think it is ironic that he never knew his impact on history due to Alzheimer's disease. I think it also a paradox that an actor become one of the most real and transparent presidents we have ever had. He left us with so many examples of what it meant to be compassionate, loving, caring, in a nutshell; A Christian man.

Website Close

I have been looking at the proofs for the website this week and we are getting close to launching soon. Hopefully by the end of March we should be up and running. It will give us better ability to keep in touch with everyone and let people know what's going on. You will also be able to subscribe and download the sermons from the website. More details soon......

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.