Praying for Missionaries part next

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I pray things are well for all of you who are reading this.
Well, today is Wednesday so please especially be praying for the AIM students today. For those who have just now arrived on their mission fields and those who have been on their fields are a while now. Please pray for those who will be moving to Lubbock in August to start AIM. Please be in prayer for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their entire team as they prepare to move to Auckland to begin their mission there. Please be in prayer for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they get ready to start Advanced Missions at Sunset this Fall. And lastly, please be in prayer for by friends Robin and Chrissy and all of those who will be at Sunset this Fall. It should be an exciting two years for all of them. We need more workers in the Lord's harvest fields, let's all pray for that (Matt. 9:37-38).
On a final note, please pray for those who have been effected by the tragic events that have happened this year (ie. floods in Ft. Worth and Gainsville, VT. killings, and so on). Thank you everyone! Have a great day today. Be blessed!
Zack

My Bible Heroes

Yo, yo, and hello everyone! I pray all is well with each of you. I am getting back into the blogging mode now. Here is a new series of blogs I've been thinking about: Bible heroes. One of my heroes in the Bible is Timothy. He is someone I want to be like. The first time we hear about Timothy is is in Acts 16. Right after Paul and Barnabas split up, Paul decides to partner up with Silas (15:40) and they go off to Derbe and Lystra (16:1). It is there that they meet Timothy (16:1). His father is a Greek and his mother is Jewish. His mother and him both are converts of Paul's from back in Acts 14:8ff when he and Barnabas were in those two cities. Apparently Paul and Silas both liked him and the brethren there spoke well of him (v. 2). Paul recruited Timothy to join them on their missionary journeys from then on. Before they set out Paul has Timothy circumcised because of the Jews. They all knew Timothy's daddy was a Greek (v.3). Timothy did it and off they went. I just love that about him. Another story about Timothy I love is in Philippians 2:19-24. Paul tells the church there that he hopes to send Timothy to them hopes he will bring back good news about them (v. 19). Paul also says he has no else like him "who takes a genuine interest in your welfare" (v. 20). Other people look out for their own interests and not those of Christ (v. 21). And Paul says that they all now how Timothy had proven himself as he worked with Paul (v. 22). They worked together like father and son (v.22). There were other mission endeavors Paul knew Timothy could do. For example in 1 Corithians 16:10-11 say,"If Timothy comes, see to it that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, for he is carrying on the work of the Lord, just as I am. No one then should refuse to accept him. Send him on his way in peace so that he may return to me. I am expecting him along with the brothers".
In 1 Thessalonians 3:2ff we read, "We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God's fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. ...". And in verses 6 through 10 Timothy gives Paul a glowing report about them and how they are doing. In 1 Timothy 1 we read how Paul commissioned Timothy to stay in Ephesus in order to straighten out those who became false teachers who were distorting the truth of the gospel (vs. 3-7). And lastly, in 2 Timothy. In chapter 3 and 4 (3:10-4:18) Paul gives Timothy a charge to do three things. One, to endure hardship for gospel like he had done (3:10-17). Then, to preach the Word in all circumstances (4:1-8). And lastly, to come and see him, because he as about to be executed (4:9-18). Paul and Timothy were a great team. A dream team if you will. Paul obviously had full confidence in Timothy to full-fill the tasks he gave him to do, no matter what they were. I wonder what it was like for Timothy to travel with Paul, what they talked about, what they prayed about, how they interacted. I love Timothy's servant heart he must of had. I love the passion he must of had. I love the love in his heart he must of had. Timothy is certainly someone I want to be like. I will blog more about Bible heroes in later posts. Who are some of your Bible heroes? Comments please. Be blessed! Peace out. Power to the people!
Zack

Soft Music For A Hard Heart

How's it going everybody? I am very very sorry for not blogging in such a long time. I got really busy one week and went to see my brother and sisters and their spouses last week. Now here we are again and I promise to do better in blogging.
Let's get back to the book on David: A Man of Passion And Destiny. The third chapter is on Soft Music For A Hard Heart. It is taken from 1 Samuel 16:14 through 23. At this moment Saul has lost the Holy Spirit from God and He gave him an evil spirit to torment him (1 Sam. 16:14). Notice that the text indicates that God took away His Spirit and gave Saul a tormenting spirit. Swindoll says that the Hebrew word there says "... terrorize carries the idea of falling upon, startling, or overwhelming". This happened because of Saul's continual acts of disobedience toward God. The Lord had finally had enough and took away His hand of blessing from Saul. And now Saul has an evil spirit that haunts him on a continual basis and everyone around him seems to know this. They suggest to Saul that he get somebody who knows how to play the harp to come and play for him when this evil spirit comes on him (1 Sam. 16:16). When they do this Saul takes them up on it (16:17) and then someone suggests David (v. 18). It is remarkable how God puts the right people in our lives who He uses to open the door for us to be used for His glory. So, Saul learns of David's credentials and has David brought in (1 Sam. 16:19-20). Keep in mind David is the king-elect, but he doesn't ever try to kick Saul off the thrown. All David did was do his duty (vv. 21-22).
David's music certainly did the trick. Whenever the evil spirit came on Saul, David played for him and soothed his spirit calmly(v. 23). Music has always had a profound effect on people all through the ages.
More on David next week. In conclusion, please pray for a couple of friends of mine. They recently sent out an email saying they want to go to Sunset this year and want to be missionaries. Praise God for them and for people like them who want to serve Him. We need a lot more people like them who want to serve God by speaking His Word through out the world (Eph. 3:7). There is so much need here in the US and all over the world. But there's not exactly a lot of people rushing out to do it. So, please pray for God to send out more workers for the harvest field (Matt. 9:37-38).

Prayers for Missionaries part 2

Greetings one and all. Once again I am sorry for not blogging again yesterday. Busy busy busy. What can I say.
A group of eight people (three from my home church Buckingham Road Church of Christ) left yesterday to go to Cameroun, West Africa for a World Bible School mission trip. I went on this trip at this time last year. Please be in prayer for them while they are gone. This trip is absolutely awesome! I loved going last year and wished I could have gone this year as well. It is a great experience. Please pray for the AIM students who are just now arriving on their mission fields. And for the AIM students who have been on their fields for a while now. Please pray for my friends Elijah and Kristan and their whole team as they go to Auckland, New Zealand in September. Please pray for my friends Rob and Denyce and their whole team as they get ready for Advanced Missions at Sunset as part of their preparations for their time in Russia. And lastly please pray for Sunset students as they minister for God and His Word all over the world. I am so very excited about attending Sunset in 2008 with the hope of doing the same things myself. But only with God's help and blessings. I love Sunset's mission statement: Let's go ... Make Disciples! That is mine as well.
I love Matthew 9:37-38 which says, "... the harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field". And I love Isaiah 6. There Isaiah is and suddenly the Lord's glory fills the whole place. And Isaiah cries out, 'woe to me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty" (v5). And an angel flies down and picks up a burning coal out of a furnace and touches his lips with it and says, "see, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for. Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Who shall I send and who will go for Us'! And I said, 'Here am I. Send me'!" That is my plea as well. "Here am I, Lord. Please send me"!
How about you? Be blessed!
Zack

A Nobody, Nobody Noticed

Yo, yo, and hello there everyone! Sorry I haven't blogger in such a long time. Been really busy. I pray all of you are doing well. Back to the study we've been in. For a refresher, we're looking at the life of David in a book called David: A Man of Passion and Destiny by Charles Swindoll. Last time we studied the chapter on God's Heart, God's Man, God's Way. Now we're going to look at A Nobody, Nobody Noticed. The first thing we see is that God provides when man panics. When God rejected man's choice to be their king He also is preparing His choice to take his place. Saul, man's choice to be king, is weak and flawed. He had three acts of disobedience that lead to God withdrawing His blessing from him. The first one was when he offered sacrifices, which was a duty only for the priests to do (1 Sam. 13:5-14). The second act was he made a vow that caused his people to sin and nearly cost his son Jonathan his life (14:24-46). And the third one happened when God told him to totally destroy the Amalekites, and he saved the best of their flocks and brought back their king alive (15:7-11).
God told Samuel to tell Saul he was out as Israel's king. And when he told him this, Saul acted like nothing happened and wanted to go about like everything was peachy keen (vv. 12-31). And after this God tells Samuel that it was time to find the new king, the one God Himself had chosen to be the next king. And this one would be a man after His own heart. In chapter 16:1 God tells him to fill his horn with oil and go to Jesse's house to anoint one of his sons to be the next king. We see that man only looks, but God truly sees. When Samuel arrives there and talks to Jesse, he has his sons appear before Samuel like a parade. But one by one Samuel replies, "The Lord hasn't chosen this one' (vv 6-10). Each of them looked like king material, but "... God doesn't see as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart" (7b). Man all to often looks at appearances, but God looks at their character, values, and how you live your life. We need to do what Samuel did: look to the Lord for guidance and wait for His choice. When man forgets, God remembers. Samuel, no dought thought that the parade was over and that there were no more sons. How confusing. Samuel knew that God had selected a son from this family, but who? So Samuel finally asks him, "Are these all of your sons" (v 11b)? Then we see Jesse's oh-yeah-I-almost-forgot moment. David had been completely over looked. Verse 11b says, "There remains yet the youngest, he is tending the sheep". This reveals two attitudes Jesse had toward David. 1.He didn't appreciate each of his children equally. And 2. he failed to cultivate a mutual respect among the brothers. Despite Jesse's attitude towards him Samuel says, "Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here" (v. 11b). When he gets there the Lord says to Samuel, "Arise, anoint him; for he is the one" (v.12). Then Samuel takes the horn full of oil and anoints him the presence of all his family. In the story of David we can see that God rejects the self-serving and exalts the God-serving. He doesn't look at outward appearances, but looks at the heart.
In closing let's look at three applications. First of all, God's solutions are often strange and simple, so be open. Second, God's provisions are usually sudden and surprising, so we must be ready. And third, God's selections are always sovereign and surprising, so we must be calm.
More on David next week. Be blessed!
Zack