The Key to Strong Faith:
The key to strong faith is a close fellowship with God. When we know intimately the God in whose word we trust, it becomes easier to trust him when we have not other assurances but his word. It is easy to see that this intimacy was the case with Abraham. Each time God says, “Abraham,” he answers immediately, “Here I am.” That biblical way of expressing the quick and ready obedience of a servant who knows his master well. Had spent twenty-four years before Isaac’s birth becoming acquainted with this God’s faithfulness and love. He had the benefit of the years that had passed since his son’s birth to see in Isaac a daily, living reminder of God’s faithfulness. Abraham knew intimately the one in whom he trusted.
Abraham was like the young sailor in a story that was the delight of Robert Louis Stevenson. Waves crashed over the ship as it labored along the rocky coast. The danger in the air was palpable. One sailor, toiling below the water line, could contain himself no longer. In a panic, he stumbled up the stairs into the control room where he stood frozen in terror, watching the captain grapple with the controls as he fought to steer the huge ship through the rocks to open water. The captain looked over his shoulder at the scared sailor and smiled. The sailor smiled back and went back down below deck to tell the crew that everything was going to be all right. When they asked him how he knew, he said, “I have seen the face of the captain, and he smiled at me.”
Abraham had spent years looking into the face of God and had seen his smile often enough to trust him when he couldn’t see it. That is what a lifetime of waiting, in close fellowship with God, does for you. There are no shortcuts to this kind of trust. It comes only out of a reservoir of faith that has been fed by years of experience.
When asked how he became such a great orator George Bernard Shaw answered, “I learned to speak as men learn to skate or cycle, by doggedly making a fool out of myself until I got used to it.”
I love these words by Martin Luther;
This life, therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness; not health, but healing; not being , but becoming; not rest, but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing towards it. The process is not yet finished, but it is going on. This is not the end but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.
A faith like Abraham’s comes only through years of experience. There are, however, things we can do to enrich that experience. A life of prayer, meditation on the Holy Scriptures and the fellowship and worship of the church are chief. In fact they are critical. These things are to our faith what a look at the captain was to the frightened sailor. Prayer, Bible study, worship, and fellowship in the Christian community, the Church are definitely not “one-shot” experiences. Their value is cumulative, not instantaneous.
The letters to the editor section of a newspaper printed a letter complaining about the sermons the writer heard each week in his church. He figured that he had heard nearly 1500 sermons in a lifetime of church attendance, but could remember what was said in only two or three. He proposed that the sermon served no good purpose and should be discarded. A fury of protest followed. But the best word came from a man who wrote: “As near as I can tell, I have eaten nearly 55,000 meals in my fifty years on this planet. I can remember what I ate in only a few of them. I would give up eating, but I have the distinct impression that I would soon be dead if I did.”
The power of prayer, the Word of God, the fellowship and the worship of the church are food to us. These exercises may not be memorable, but they are crucial to the nourishment of our life with God.
The key to strong faith is a close fellowship with God. And the key to fellowship with God is fellowship with His people, His family, His body, the church. I cannot encourage you strong enough to get involved in our new Sunday School hour (8:45 – 9:45 every Sunday am). This time will allow all of us to grow in our faith by developing stronger relationships with each other. It will give us an opportunity to grow in our understanding of the Word and how to apply it to our lives.
I sincerely desire to see each and every one of you grow stronger in your faith. This is a great opportunity for all of us to become more like the Master. See you Sunday.
Living in the Light of the Cross,
Bishop Quintin
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 13, 2009
THE CELEBRATION BEGINS!
Americans and for that matter most of western civilization are event orientated people! We have a tendency to celebrate everything only on a particular day and time. The ancient world would never have allowed themselves only a day and then only a couple of hours on that day to mark such a glorious event as the resurrection of Christ.
Think about it, the Hebrews marked and celebrated seven major events a year and they took days and weeks to do it. That is why in the ancient church they celebrated Easter for 5o days! That's right "50" days! Built within every calendar year was a mini Jubilee! Every debt was forgiven, every slave was set free and everyone returned to his home land!
That's right Easter can never be fully realized and celebrated on one day for a few hours! No, the very magnitude of the resurrection of Christ takes 5o days to comprehend and to embrace.
Yesterday was Amazing! BUT DON'T STOP NOW! HE IS ALIVE! CHRIST HAS RISEN!
He lives in our lives right now, breaking every limitation and bringing us into our God-given Destiny! I am looking forward to the next 7 weeks of feasting with the One who died for me and defeated evil for me.
Praise your name O Christ! My King and My Lord! This truly is the Day that you have made and I will be glad and rejoice in it!
Living in light of the Cross!!!
Bishop Quintin
Think about it, the Hebrews marked and celebrated seven major events a year and they took days and weeks to do it. That is why in the ancient church they celebrated Easter for 5o days! That's right "50" days! Built within every calendar year was a mini Jubilee! Every debt was forgiven, every slave was set free and everyone returned to his home land!
That's right Easter can never be fully realized and celebrated on one day for a few hours! No, the very magnitude of the resurrection of Christ takes 5o days to comprehend and to embrace.
Yesterday was Amazing! BUT DON'T STOP NOW! HE IS ALIVE! CHRIST HAS RISEN!
He lives in our lives right now, breaking every limitation and bringing us into our God-given Destiny! I am looking forward to the next 7 weeks of feasting with the One who died for me and defeated evil for me.
Praise your name O Christ! My King and My Lord! This truly is the Day that you have made and I will be glad and rejoice in it!
Living in light of the Cross!!!
Bishop Quintin
Friday, April 10, 2009
FOR WHAT PURPOSE DID CHRIST COME DOWN FROM HEAVEN?
For what purpose did Christ come down from Heaven? Answer: “That He might destroy sin, overcome death, and give life to man.”
Along with this pregnant statement we must quickly add yet another great quote: “Man had been created by God that he might have life. If now, having lost life, and having been harmed by the serpent, he were not to return to life but were to be wholly abandoned to death, then God would have been defeated, and the malice of the serpent would have overcome God’s will. But since God is both invincible and magnanimous, He showed His magnanimity in correcting man, and in proving all men, as we have said; but through the Second Man He bound the strong one, and spoiled his goods, and annihilated death, bringing life to man who had become subject to death. For Adam had become the devil’s possession, and the devil held him under his power, by having wrongfully practiced deceit upon him, and by the offer of immortality made him subject to death. For by promising that they should be as gods, which did not lie in his power, he worked death in them. Wherefore he who had taken man captive was himself taken captive by God, and man who had been taken captive was set free from the bondage of condemnation.”
The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers, which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil. This victory does not end with the triumph of Christ over the enemies, which had held man in bondage; it continues in the work of the Spirit in the Church.
Therefore, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of continued and future glory – the central and crucial point is the victory of Christ over the hostile powers of the enemy through His death and resurrection empowers us today to live victoriously.
Bishop Quintin
Along with this pregnant statement we must quickly add yet another great quote: “Man had been created by God that he might have life. If now, having lost life, and having been harmed by the serpent, he were not to return to life but were to be wholly abandoned to death, then God would have been defeated, and the malice of the serpent would have overcome God’s will. But since God is both invincible and magnanimous, He showed His magnanimity in correcting man, and in proving all men, as we have said; but through the Second Man He bound the strong one, and spoiled his goods, and annihilated death, bringing life to man who had become subject to death. For Adam had become the devil’s possession, and the devil held him under his power, by having wrongfully practiced deceit upon him, and by the offer of immortality made him subject to death. For by promising that they should be as gods, which did not lie in his power, he worked death in them. Wherefore he who had taken man captive was himself taken captive by God, and man who had been taken captive was set free from the bondage of condemnation.”
The work of Christ is first and foremost a victory over the powers, which hold mankind in bondage: sin, death, and the devil. This victory does not end with the triumph of Christ over the enemies, which had held man in bondage; it continues in the work of the Spirit in the Church.
Therefore, the gift of the Holy Spirit is the guarantee of continued and future glory – the central and crucial point is the victory of Christ over the hostile powers of the enemy through His death and resurrection empowers us today to live victoriously.
Bishop Quintin
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
You don't have to be "just right" to Pray!
People want to pray and yet they run from prayer! Attracted to it, understand the need for it and yet can't seem to find the time or the real desire to actually participate in prayer! We believe we should pray, we even want to pray and yet there seems to be huge rivers to get across before we can pray.
We often times are not aware of why we don't or can't pray! Work and all the other obligations of life seem to stand in our way, but those are really only smoke screens to the real issues. Our busyness does not keep us from eating or sleeping or playing!
Perhaps one of the reasons is that we think we have to have everything "just right" in order to really pray. We assume that prayer is something to master. When in reality we are only and always only beginners.
Jesus reminds us that prayer is like a little child coming to his or her parents. Our children ask us for some of the silliest things. We are always glad that they ask, it implys that they trust us for anything.
God is just like that, he is pleased merely because we trust him for our lives. What I am trying to say is that all that is needed is child like faith, who comes just as we are into the very presence of God and honestly reveals one's true self. We merely bring ourselves to God just as we are warts and all. Like little children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests known.
Simply begin with where we are: our families, our jobs, our friends, our church, our nation, etc. To simply believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary issues of life is the stuff of prayer. The only place that God can really bless you is where you are right now, because that is the only place we are.
I want to encourage you to pray not when you have it "just right," but rather as a little child who knows Daddy cares. Secondly, simply start where you are right now! You will soon realize that God is not merely a part of your life, but that we are part of His life. You will realize that you are having a divine conversation with God and that He is working in the very ordinary simple areas of your life.
Dear God, I am coming to you this morning with my simple concerns right now in this moment of life. As best as I can I am coming to you with these concerns. Thank your sharing your life in the midst of my life. --- Amen
We often times are not aware of why we don't or can't pray! Work and all the other obligations of life seem to stand in our way, but those are really only smoke screens to the real issues. Our busyness does not keep us from eating or sleeping or playing!
Perhaps one of the reasons is that we think we have to have everything "just right" in order to really pray. We assume that prayer is something to master. When in reality we are only and always only beginners.
Jesus reminds us that prayer is like a little child coming to his or her parents. Our children ask us for some of the silliest things. We are always glad that they ask, it implys that they trust us for anything.
God is just like that, he is pleased merely because we trust him for our lives. What I am trying to say is that all that is needed is child like faith, who comes just as we are into the very presence of God and honestly reveals one's true self. We merely bring ourselves to God just as we are warts and all. Like little children before a loving father, we open our hearts and make our requests known.
Simply begin with where we are: our families, our jobs, our friends, our church, our nation, etc. To simply believe that God can reach us and bless us in the ordinary issues of life is the stuff of prayer. The only place that God can really bless you is where you are right now, because that is the only place we are.
I want to encourage you to pray not when you have it "just right," but rather as a little child who knows Daddy cares. Secondly, simply start where you are right now! You will soon realize that God is not merely a part of your life, but that we are part of His life. You will realize that you are having a divine conversation with God and that He is working in the very ordinary simple areas of your life.
Dear God, I am coming to you this morning with my simple concerns right now in this moment of life. As best as I can I am coming to you with these concerns. Thank your sharing your life in the midst of my life. --- Amen
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
A CALL TO PRAYER!!!
As I prayed this morning I realized just how God's heart is an open wound of love. He absolutely aches over our distance and preoccupation with other things. He longs for us to draw near to him. I truly believes that he grieves that perhaps we have forgotten Him. I sense that He weeps over our obsession with all the "muchness and manyness". I believe He longs for our presence more than we long for His.
I hear His heart beating for us to return.... return home. We are called to live in His "divine embrace." On the cross he opened wide His arms so that we could come to Him. It is far too easy to be caught in a country of noise, busy with the call to success! But this country leads to frustration, fear, confusion, and ultimately disappointment. We are all called to live within His embrace! That is our home!
The key to this home, this heart of God, IS PRAYER! I realized this morning that the distractions of this country, this life many times keep us from reaching the safety of the Father's Embrace. Many times we don't pray except in times of anguish or terror. But never mind. I want to tell you that Abba's arms are open wide this day for you!
I also realized some of you may not even believe in prayer! You've tried to pray but it proved to be a disappointment or it left you disillusioned. You didn't seem to have faith or for that matter any feeling what so ever! I want to encourage you.... the Father has both for you.
Perhaps you are just hurt, wounded by the injustices of life. You've been wronged! And you simply avoid prayer because it just hurts too much! His arms are still open to you too!
Maybe, you have prayed for years and the words just seem cold, and empty! You just don't see the results like you used too. It's OK His arms are still open!
I want to encourage you this morning that the Father wants you to come into His "Divine Embrace." We are to live within His arms! Prayer is all about knowing His Love and responding to that love by climbing into His arms on His lap and hearing His heart beat for you! Prayer is all about "intimacy." It is all about "relationship."
IF THE KEY IS PRAYER -- THEN THE DOOR IS JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus is the doorway into the Father's Embrace! Prayer is the key to that door! We no longer have to stand outside --- we are no longer barred from the Presence of our Father. We... you and I can enter into the very Presence of our God through the doorway of Christ!
Prayer is the communion between the Holy Spirit and Jesus! The Holy Spirit leads us through the doorway of Christ right into the arms of the Father. When we don't know how or what pray it is the Holy Spirit who helps us and sustains us and guides us into and through the door of Christ.
The Holy Spirit sheds and stirs the very love of God in our hearts. Effective prayer is merely the response of lovers! "He prayeth well, who loveth well" (Samuel Coleridge).
I am simply saying perhaps you need to stop and turn from all the distractions and calls of the world around and listen to the love that is crying deep within. Go ahead respond to that cry... for it is the cry of God, the cry of your Father who longs for you presence. He aches for you!
Go ahead you can pray, you can love, can rest in His Embrace today!
I hear His heart beating for us to return.... return home. We are called to live in His "divine embrace." On the cross he opened wide His arms so that we could come to Him. It is far too easy to be caught in a country of noise, busy with the call to success! But this country leads to frustration, fear, confusion, and ultimately disappointment. We are all called to live within His embrace! That is our home!
THE DIVINE EMBRACE
He has invited us to come right into the very heart of His Presence! We do not need to be shy or intimidated. We have been given free access into the family room, the kitchen, the dining, the study....the bedroom; He has invited us into His home and we have free run of the whole house.Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hand in love, may bring those who do not know you into the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. Amen
(The Book of Common Prayer, 101)
(The Book of Common Prayer, 101)
The key to this home, this heart of God, IS PRAYER! I realized this morning that the distractions of this country, this life many times keep us from reaching the safety of the Father's Embrace. Many times we don't pray except in times of anguish or terror. But never mind. I want to tell you that Abba's arms are open wide this day for you!
I also realized some of you may not even believe in prayer! You've tried to pray but it proved to be a disappointment or it left you disillusioned. You didn't seem to have faith or for that matter any feeling what so ever! I want to encourage you.... the Father has both for you.
Perhaps you are just hurt, wounded by the injustices of life. You've been wronged! And you simply avoid prayer because it just hurts too much! His arms are still open to you too!
Maybe, you have prayed for years and the words just seem cold, and empty! You just don't see the results like you used too. It's OK His arms are still open!
I want to encourage you this morning that the Father wants you to come into His "Divine Embrace." We are to live within His arms! Prayer is all about knowing His Love and responding to that love by climbing into His arms on His lap and hearing His heart beat for you! Prayer is all about "intimacy." It is all about "relationship."
IF THE KEY IS PRAYER -- THEN THE DOOR IS JESUS CHRIST.
Jesus is the doorway into the Father's Embrace! Prayer is the key to that door! We no longer have to stand outside --- we are no longer barred from the Presence of our Father. We... you and I can enter into the very Presence of our God through the doorway of Christ!
Prayer is the communion between the Holy Spirit and Jesus! The Holy Spirit leads us through the doorway of Christ right into the arms of the Father. When we don't know how or what pray it is the Holy Spirit who helps us and sustains us and guides us into and through the door of Christ.
The Holy Spirit sheds and stirs the very love of God in our hearts. Effective prayer is merely the response of lovers! "He prayeth well, who loveth well" (Samuel Coleridge).
I am simply saying perhaps you need to stop and turn from all the distractions and calls of the world around and listen to the love that is crying deep within. Go ahead respond to that cry... for it is the cry of God, the cry of your Father who longs for you presence. He aches for you!
Go ahead you can pray, you can love, can rest in His Embrace today!
Monday, April 6, 2009
I found this video very interesting! To realize that even those who don't believe in God pay attention to those who believe enough to share their faith. I wonder if we believe enough to realize that others need to hear what we know to be the truth.
Like the man said, "if you saw a truck that was about to hit someone you would push them out of harms way." Real Love, Real Faith must witness!
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation. (2 Cornithians 6:1-2).
We have received His Grace and part of our response is to care about others enough to offer them the same Grace! Somewhere along the way it appears as though sharing our faith has become "embarrassing." Or at the very least culturally and socially unacceptable.
If we truly believe in heaven and hell, we must share the "good news" with all people. I want to encourage you to share your faith with others. This is a great week to do it... !
We are remembering His death, burial and resurrection this very week. Please care enough to share His - Story with others.
Like the man said, "if you saw a truck that was about to hit someone you would push them out of harms way." Real Love, Real Faith must witness!
We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation. (2 Cornithians 6:1-2).
We have received His Grace and part of our response is to care about others enough to offer them the same Grace! Somewhere along the way it appears as though sharing our faith has become "embarrassing." Or at the very least culturally and socially unacceptable.
If we truly believe in heaven and hell, we must share the "good news" with all people. I want to encourage you to share your faith with others. This is a great week to do it... !
We are remembering His death, burial and resurrection this very week. Please care enough to share His - Story with others.
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