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 Paul writes in
Ephesians 2:19-22, “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and
aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of
God’s household, built on the foundation of the apostles and
prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the
whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the
Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in
which God lives by his Spirit.”
There are times when we need to be alone with God in prayer. But there
are other times when we can only experience the fullness of His presence as
we come together with His people.
The church is like a corporate headquarters. When people who are
individually indwelt by the Spirit meet there for worship, praise,
instructions, encouragement and service, God’s Spirit is revealed in
a powerful way and we grow as we experience His presence and hear His Word.
The world and circumstances may beat us up all week and make us feel
like losers, but when we gather with other members of Christ’s body,
we are reminded that we are on the winning side.
It’s hard to celebrate all by yourself. When you have something
worth celebrating, you call people together so you can share the joy. Jesus
Christ is so excited about His victory at the cross that He calls us
together each week to celebrate what He achieved for us. And celebration,
like spiritual growth, is a group project.
This Sunday, don’t miss out on the opportunity to celebrate the
victory we have together in Christ!
Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS,
Volume 8.07. Live for God, on purpose, gathering
together with other believers to encourage them, and to be encouraged!
 Surrounded
by Bones
I’m not sure how many people live in the community that you reside
in, but here in Delaware, there are just under a million people, with a
little over half of those residing in northern New Castle County. A
half-million people living in the small area north of the Chesapeake and
Delaware Canal, south of Pennsylvania, east of Maryland, and west of the
Delaware River. As I drive down I95, it seems as though I see at least half
of them, hurriedly scurrying here and there, going about their daily
activities. As I visit the Christiana Mall, there’s another large
group of these individuals, all moving here and there, with their families
and friends. Head down to the beach in the summer, and I’m again
surrounded by more people, either stuck in traffic near the outlets, or
jammed together on the strip of sand between the water and the boardwalk.
People. Everywhere.
I’m sure you have experienced this same feeling — all of
these people, and you don’t know them, or have any real contact with
them. And you have this feeling — the feeling of being surrounded by
a “sea of humanity.”
I wonder if that is the feeling that Ezekiel had. The Lord brought him
into the center of a valley. And there he stood. Surrounded by bones.
And the Lord told him to preach to the bones, to command them to hear
the word of the Lord. But the bones were dead and dry. Why would the Lord
have Ezekiel preach to dry old bones? Because He wanted to give them life.
Here in Delaware, we stand in the midst of bones. People with
meaningless lives, rushing here and there, but no purpose, no reason for
being, just doing whatever it is they do because that is what they do. And
the Lord asks me, just as He asked Ezekiel, “can these bones
live?” Mimicking Ezekiel, I say “You alone know, Lord.”
What do you do when you are surrounded by bones? God asks us if those
bones — those folks we see around us everyday — if they can
live. This Sunday we will hear His word for us as we are “Surrounded
by Bones.”
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 What Makes
the Christian’s Faith Different
by Rick Ezell
Faith is used everyday, for example, sending children off to school,
taking prescription medicine, eating in a restaurant, depositing money in
an ATM machine, signing a contract, and driving on the highway. Faith
isn’t some kind of religious experience for the elite; it’s the
glue that helps hold people’s lives together.
If everyone uses faith, what makes Christian faith different?
Faith is seeing God in every situation.
Everett Alvarez Jr. was the first American pilot shot down over North
Vietnam on August 5, 1964. He spent eight and a half years as a prisoner of
war, the first one and a half in solitary confinement. He was beaten and
tortured.
His darkest hour came after seven years in prison. On Christmas Day
1971, his captors let him read a letter from his mother that said his wife
had left him.
Alvarez emerged from captivity with a new spirit. He remarried soon
after his release in February 1973. He earned a law degree in night school.
He held two senior political posts in the Reagan administration. In 1988,
he started Conwal Inc., the executive management consulting firm that
employs over 200 people and pulls in more than $15 million a year.
In an interview, he said, “The hardest part was being alone. I
used to do a lot of talking. I talked to God, and I realized I wasn’t
really alone.” He scratched a cross outside his hut. Christian faith
does not deny the problems and challenges of life. It does not turn away
from reality. But it understands that beyond the realities of this world, a
greater reality exists.
Faith is no stronger than its object.
Faith is more than having faith in faith. Many have been misled to believe
that if one had enough faith, they could do anything, even the impossible.
But faith in what? Faith is only as good as its object. If an astronaut put
his faith in a single-prop Cessna to get him to the international space
station, he’d be nuts. His faith, no matter how sincere, strong, or
determined, would get him no farther than the Cessna’s built-in
power.
William Newton Clarke was right when he wrote, “Faith is the
daring of the soul to go farther than it can see.”
Faith grows out of a relationship with God.
Let’s suppose you’re shopping in a department store and a total
stranger approaches you and says, “I think you should loan me $500 so
I can buy a new washing machine.” My guess is you’d either
ignore him or say, “I’m sorry, but I don’t do business
that way.” Obviously offended, he would probably reply,
“What’s the matter? Don’t you trust me?” I can hear
your answer: “Trust you? I don’t even know you!”
Trust is a relationship that can be built only over a period of time. To
hand $500 to a total stranger and expect to get it back isn’t faith,
it’s presumption.
But let’s suppose it is your spouse that asks for the $500 to buy
the washing machine. You would give the money, not because of presumption,
but because of the relationship.
The Christian faith is not based on presumption, but rather on a walk
with God and a growing relationship with him.
Near the end of 1994, Scott and Janet Willis, along with six of their
nine children, were traveling in their minivan on Interstate 94 toward
Milwaukee. The van ran over a large chunk of metal that had broken off the
back of a truck. It punctured the van’s gas tank and set off an
explosion that ripped a hole through the backseat floor. Scott and Janet
escaped the blaze with burns, but they couldn’t save six of their
children. Seen through the eyes of a public that gasped at the enormity of
their tragedy, Scott and Janet Willis faced unendurable pain, but they
model an example of the depth and purity of Christian faith. They faced
that tragedy, and each day since, with an undeniable trust in God. It is
their relationship with God that enables them to get out of bed in the
morning and enjoy the memories of their children, rather than be haunted by
them.
Faith is not unique. It is as commonplace as the air we breathe. But how
we demonstrate and practice that faith is unique. And that’s what
makes the Christian’s faith distinct from the rest of the field of
faith.
as seen in Rick Ezell’s “One Minute
Uplift” weekly email devotional of February 7, 2008. Dr. Ezell is
pastor of First Baptist Church in Greer, South Carolina.
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 Be
a Blessing
Do you realize that Jesus has no arms to hug with except yours? He has
no hands to heal and comfort the world with except the hands that you
supply — so make a difference with your life today. John Bunyan, the
author of Pilgrim’s Progress, wrote, “You have not lived today
until you have done something for someone who cannot pay you back.”
God didn’t call His people to come together just to get blessed,
but to be a blessing to someone else. God told Abraham he would become the
father of a great nation. But notice that God also wanted Abraham to be a
blessing to many. If you want God to pour out His supernatural favor in
your life, reach out to bless those around you.
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 Amazing
Things Happen
When God sends forth the Spirit amazing things happen:
barriers are broken,
communities are formed,
opposites are reconciled,
unity is established,
disease is cured,
addiction is broken,
cities are renewed,
races are reconciled,
hope is established,
people are blessed,
and church happens.
Today the Spirit of God is present and we’re gonna have church.
So be ready, get ready... God is up to something...
discouraged folks cheer up,
dishonest folks ‘fess up,
sour folks sweeten up,
closed folk, open up,
gossipers shut up,
conflicted folks make up,
sleeping folks wake up,
lukewarm folk, fire up,
dry bones shake up,
and pew potatoes stand up!
But most of all, Christ the Savior of all the world is lifted up.
taken from the opening remarks to the Memphis Annual
Conference of the United Methodist Church by Rick Kirchoff, Senior Pastor
of the Germantown (Tennessee) United Methodist Church
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 Passion for
Jesus
by Wesley L. Duewel
All other passions build upon or flow from your passion for Jesus.
A passion for souls grows out of a passion for Christ.
A passion for missions builds upon a passion for Christ. When Hudson
Taylor was once asked what was the greatest incentive to missionary work,
he instantly replied, “Love of Christ.”
William Booth’s passion for helping the underprivileged, the
derelicts of society, and for world evangelization was built upon his
passion for Christ.
The most crucial danger to a Christian, whatever his role, is to lack a
passion of Christ.
The most direct route to personal renewal and new effectiveness is a new
all-consuming passion for Jesus.
Lord, give us this passion, whatever the cost!
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 Roses and
Thorns
A certain man planted a rose and watered it faithfully, and before it
blossomed, he examined it. He saw the bud that would soon blossom and also the
thorns. And he thought, “How can any beautiful flower come from a
plant burdened with so many sharp thorns?” Saddened by this thought,
he neglected to water the rose, and before it was ready to bloom, it died.
So it is with many people. Within every soul there is a rose. The
God-like qualities planted in us at birth grow amid the thorns of our
faults. Many of us look at ourselves and see only the thorns, the defects.
We despair, thinking that nothing good can possibly come from us. We
neglect to water the good within us, and eventually it dies. We never
realize our potential.
Some people do not see the rose within themselves; someone else must
show it to them.
One of the greatest gifts a person can possess is to be able to reach
past the thorns and find the rose within others. This is the characteristic
of love, to look at a person, and knowing his faults, recognize the
nobility in his soul, and help him realize that he can overcome his faults.
If we show him the rose, he will conquer the thorns.
Our duty in this world is to help others by showing them their roses and
not their thorns. Only then can we achieve the love we should feel for each
other; only then can we bloom in our own garden.
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 The Last
Impression
A language instructor was explaining to her class that French nouns,
unlike their English counterparts, are grammatically designated as
masculine or feminine. Things like “chalk” or
“pencil,” she described, would have a gender association
although in English these words were neutral.
Puzzled, one student raised his hand and asked, “What gender is a
computer?” The teacher wasn’t certain which it was, and so
divided the class into two groups and asked them to decide if a computer
should be masculine or feminine. One group was comprised of the women in
the class, and the other, of men. Both groups were asked to give four
reasons for their recommendation.
The group of women concluded that computers should be referred to in the
masculine gender because:
1. In order to get their attention, you have to turn them on.
2. They have a lot of data but are still clueless.
3. They’re supposed to help solve your problems, but half the time
they ARE the problem.
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize if you’d waited a
little longer, you might have had a better model.
The men, on the other hand, decided that computers should definitely be
referred to in the feminine gender because:
1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic.
2. The native language they use to communicate with others is
incomprehensible to everyone else.
3. Even your smallest mistakes are stored in long-term memory for later
retrieval.
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending
half your paycheck on accessories for it.
From my computer to yours... trust you are having a great
week! Looking forward to a tremendous weekend here at WFA as we share the
word the Lord has for us. Come expecting the Lord to speak to your heart
and change your life for His glory!
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