Take your medicine as prescribed…

I was reading an article in the September issue of Reader's Digest and a study concluded that nearly 30 % of us stop taking our medicines before we should. Playing Doctor can be dangerous. The article is exactly right in that we need to follow our prescribed medicine plan. Unless it causes us a reaction negatively, we should follow the prescribed course.

When I look at this Biblically it is important that the Christian take their spiritual medicine appropriately. So what is the spiritual prescription God gives Christians? I am so glad you asked.

1. Seek Him with all your heart -- Matthew 6:33. Seeking His will, seeking to know Him intimately by having a love relationship with Him; that is Biblical.
2. Pray regularly -- 1 Thessalonians 5:17. The Bible actually says “Pray without ceasing.” I told a college age group I was speaking to recently that I had a real problem following through with praying without ceasing. One young lady said to me at the next meeting, “Pastor, see how I pray for you?” She had written my name on her sandal so every time she took her sandals on and off she would pray for me. What a wonderful idea! God knows I need all I can get, any way I can get it.
3. Fall in love with His Love letter to us, the Bible. The Bible is what we must stand firm on. A few things about the Bible. It is:

• Reliable
• Readable
• The authority for our Faith and Practice
• The inerrant Word of God, we have God’s Word to us in the Bible.
• It is corrective. Hebrews 4:12 It is good to read nice verses about love, joy and hope. But there is also correctiveness in the Bible.
• It is applicable to today’s Christian
• It is powerful
• It gets to the heart and soul of the matter and a person.

The Prescription: the Bible should be taken daily and followed accordingly. It should be trusted to heal the spiritual dilemma of mankind. A steady diet of the Bible will produce a Christ likeness that is what He wants.

Come and hear and listen to the Word of God taught from the pulpit ministry of Pastor, Dr. Lee Singley, each and every Sunday at 9:30 or 11 am. God Bless!

The Power of the Church

I am so proud of our President for his stand on religious freedom around the world. While in Beijing, China, President Bush attended worship services at a state sponsored Christian Church. Yes, it was a government registered church but it was a church of worshipping people. The children's choir sang Amazing Grace and an American President was there to participate. Several years ago had I even hinted at that this would be a possibility I believe we all would have said "not in this lifetime". However, it did happen and Amazing.

If that church has problems like we all do. I mean all churches have some type of problems. When you leave our church, that is not perfect, you can go down the street and there will be another church that is not perfect and it sure won't be if we join it, because we are people and people are not perfect. I wonder if that church has problems with space, the kind of space problems like where to put people. We have that problem. Since we are in a building program it causes people to get nervous and squeamish and not sure if they want to be a part of a big church. I have seen it happen for years in other churches when churches begin to expand. I wonder if that church has the right Pastor. Since it is a state sponsored church it may very well not have any say in the matter but if it did does everyone like the Pastor? I wonder if that church has the problem of constantly maintaining the buildings and cleaning the floors and making the essentials available for every child and teenager who comes in the door. I wonder if that church has the problem of gossip? Surely not in a church where there is no freedom of speech anyway they probably don't know what gossip is.

The plain truth of the matter, one in six people in America change churches every year. One in six! I have a feeling you can't do that in China. The church of America has been altered to a level of modernism and a lack of commitment. The church in China, the real churches that meet underground and are probably the most biblical founded, are just glad to be assembling together "as the manner of some is and so much more as you see the day approaching." Hebrews 10:25 We really have reduced the power of the church in America from "220" power capabilities to "110" power output. We are shopping around to find the best fit for our needs and the problem is the Bible never calls us to shop for a church to meet our needs but if we were faithful to serve in a unified spirit we would charge the gates of Hell and have demons shaking in their boots. Instead we struggle with tithing and "I can trust God with my soul but not my wallet". If everyone in the average church would tithe there is absolutely no telling what could be done to grow the Kingdom of God. We are playing games with church and the Rapture is on our heels. We are jumping around from here to there and trying to find a place to have needs met and the Great Commission is left undone and no one is fulfilling it.

The Power of the church is in the hands of the faithful followers of the Lord Jesus Christ who hold up the hands of their Pastor like Aaron and Hur held up the hands of Moses. Where there is unity and love within the body and these believers are doing all they can to reach people for Christ before it is too late. I have seen way too much already of people who call themselves committed and are not. I'm committed to my wife and that means I am staying with her til we die. I am committed to my church to the day we die and I will do all I can to reach people and if it means doing the thing that shakes some "Baptists" up like risk taking Faith so be it.

The problem as I see it is, we don't believe God. If we believed God there would be a sense of urgency, To all our endeavors. To have Power in a Church only comes one way but by "Prayer and Fasting". Matthew 17:21

Have You Ever Asked, "Why?"

Have you ever asked “Why”?

Of course you have. The words may not have come out of our mouths, but we have asked that question, as hard as it is to admit. “Why,” why did this or that happen? Why did my baby die so young? Why did I lose my job? Why are gas prices so high? Why doesn’t God do something about it? Why, why, why??

The 20th of September is a big day for our family. It is the day our little granddaughter came into this world. The “why” is, "Why did she have to come at 24 weeks and experience the difficulties she had to endure?" She never came home from the hospital. She was taken to Vanderbilt from Huntsville Hospital, which has a fine medical NICU, I would have you know. We were treated so wonderfully there and they deserve your support. We wanted her to live, but she didn’t. After nearly six months, she passed from this life into the very presence of God; whole and not hurting, and we will see her healthy for the first time when we get there ourselves.

Is it wrong to ask, “Why?” When John was in prison in John 4 he asked for messengers to go and ask Jesus if He was the One, or if should they look for another. Obviously, being in prison and Jesus experiencing His own problems with the Pharisees, John wanted some assurance. Basically, he was asking, “Why?” Why did Adam and Eve sin and send us on this downward-spiraling situation that seems hopeless at times?

Let me give you the good news -- I can’t stand the negative anymore:

• "He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." (1 John 4:4, NKJV)
• "Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." (Romans 8:37, NKJV)
• "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (Galatians 2:20, NKJV)

When we celebrate the life of little “Tori” Wilhoit on Saturday, we will not be sad. I refuse to give into the thoughts of death and denial. We are looking for a better day and it is coming in the near future (John 14:1-6) He is coming, just keep looking up!

A little girl was missing from the presence of her parents, so they went upstairs and found her kneeling at her window with it opened and a suitcase packed full of clothes beside it. They were bewildered and they said to her, "Honey, what are you doing?" She said, "Well, I heard you talking about Jesus coming and that He is coming very, very soon so I wanted to be ready when He came." That is exactly how the believer must live. We may not have all the answers, but we know the One who does. We may have tough days now, but the Bible says, "Joy comes in the morning." There are going to be the tough times, but I'd rather be on His team when it looks like we are losing than to be on the devil's team knowing he is going to lose.