A Sower

In Memory of 9/11

Holy! Holy! Holy!

I get so excited when I stumble upon beautiful art depicting scenes from the Bible. When I saw this I had to enlarge it to truly take in the magnitude and vastness of all the Angels in it. I feel so led sometimes to certain images to share here on the blog. This reminded me of a couple of verses in the Bible..

"And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, LORD God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come."

Revelation 4:8

"They rest not day or night," now that really got me to thinking. They never tire. Could it be that something new is being revealed to them about GOD each time they go around?

"And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;"
Revelation 5:11

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Church of God Women (Past, Present & Future)

Women have been a vital part of the ongoing ministry of the Church of God since its humble beginnings in the rugged Unicoi Mountains. Their ministries now reach around the world with a multiplicity of emphases and focuses…including prayer, Bible study, local and world missions, covenant team ministry (providing assistance to mission states and regions), benevolence, prison outreach, ministry to both young girls and senior adults, fund-raising, printed resource materials, and social issues that affect women.

One of the ways the Church of God celebrates and honors women's contributions to the ministry is by annually celebrating International Women’s DISCIPLESHIP Heritage Day October 6. However, it may be celebrated at any convenient time.

The anniversary of Women’s Discipleship provides an excellent opportunity to honor the dedicated, courageous women who pioneered many wonderful ministries. It is a time to reflect upon what God has done and how He continues to use women in the expansion of the Kingdom.

Typically, with the approval of the pastor, programs, banquets, etc., are planned that recognize the ministry of outstanding women in the congregation.

960 Hours

The Temptation of Jesus

The temptation of Jesus reflected the Bible's concept of temptation - which is always basic, not complex. The word used, in both Testaments, relates more to testing a person's moral character than his bodily desires. Our culture reads into the word an excess of lust, greed, and ambition that are derivatives, not the essence, of character. That's why Jesus could have "been tempted in every way, just as we are" (Hebrews 4:15). All the temptations we face can be summarized in the three Jesus confronted and overcame: to put our earthly before our spiritual needs; to misinterpret Scripture for personal purposes; and to compromise scriptural truth for an apparent gain.

The temptations of Jesus also prove that Satan had no choice but to attempt Christ's subversion. The Devil knew Jesus was the original, and he the created being. Neither combatant mistook the creature for the original AUTHORITY in the universe. The fact that Satan tempted Jesus, not vice versa, proves who was in charge and who wanted to be. Jesus held in trust from God all the spiritual truth the Devil wanted and intended to take by deceit or force, but no question existed but that Jesus, not Satan, possessed it.

Each came as the representative of his cause: Satan the enemy and Jesus the champion of humanity. Satan intended to keep humanity chained to its ego by binding Jesus to his. Jesus intended to destroy the Devil's power over human ego by submitting His to God's will, however much it cost or however long it took.

The personal, face-to-face confrontation was essential since Jesus determined to put Satan on the way to ultimate destruction. Allowing him to go personally unbeaten, while working to ameliorate the disasters he caused, would let Satan create greater evil than an exhausted virtue could ever solve. To ultimately destroy the Devil's work, Jesus first defeated him-which means Jesus offered Satan no sympathy whatever, and made no effort whatever to convert him.

The temptation of Jesus proved that God gave Satan every possible advantage in the conflict. First, the environment of lonely desolation, where Jesus had to personally resolve a single question: would He fulfill His role as God's Son according to God's will? God had fulsomely acknowledged Christ as His Son when He emerged from His baptism, then ordered the testing of His Son's commitment.

Second, God allowed Satan the offensive during those 960 hours. To earn the right later to crush the Devil with God's truth, Jesus exposed Himself to every possible Satanic attack - relentlessly, by day and by night forty straight days and nights. Third, God reduced Jesus to physical and mental exhaustion, and most open to Satan's blandishments. The exhaustion gave the Devil his most propitious opportunity. If Satan didn't convert it, he never would another, for this conflict determined whether Jesus or Satan won the WAR between them.

The temptation of Jesus focused on Satan's determined effort to keep Jesus from the cross. He didn't want Him to die, whatever interpreters think. He desperately sought to keep Him from the cross, for he knew Christ's death destroyed evil, death, and Satan himself. The proof of his desperation was his willingness to compromise with Jesus by letting Him rule in morality and virtue so long as He didn't rule in blood-bought righteousness.

The temptations of Jesus were all answered by the Master's resort to Scripture. The reason is obvious: Satan has no answer to God's Word. He would have loved to debate philosophy with Jesus or why God could say He loved Jesus, but still let Him suffer, or why God could claim to be sovereign and let good people suffer-all the arguments skeptics employ to justify their refusal to obey God. But Jesus declined. The Master gives us the perfect response to any temptation: shield life with God's Word and shoot it like a cannon at the tempter!

The temptation of Jesus ceased, but only "until an opportune time" (Luke 4:13). Obviously, Satan returned throughout Christ's ministry: through demon-possessed people (Mark 1:21-24); the leadership (Mark 2:6-7); His own family (Mark 3:31-35, John 7:5); His own disciples (Mark 8:31-32); and finally in the colossal struggle in Gethsemane (John 14:30-31). No matter how badly mauled Satan is, or however strongly he's opposed, he won't admit defeat and insists he can yet find a way to defeat us. Constant vigilance is also the price of our spiritual freedom.

The Great Commission

A Letter from a Dear Friend.

The following is a letter I received today from a wonderful friend I got to know a while back. At the time she was the secretary for the Clay County Chamber of Commerce. Many of you may already know Jo Ann.

Most of you know that my dad was diagnosed about 6 wks. ago with mesotheleoma lung cancer & doesn't have long to live. Well I had to make an emergency trip to Clay City Friday morning and then to St. Joseph Hospital, because my mother was taken to the hospital Thursday night. My mother has been diagnosed with acute leukemia and doesn't have long to live either. She will be sent home on Tuesday to live the rest of the short days that she has in her own home. I am requesting prayer for my parents and for my family. We three children are losing both of our parents at one time, to different cancers and we are devastated, to say the least....I can hardly function but I put on a brave face and try to keep them laughing and keep their mind from what will be happening to them both in a short time. They are not used to being apart, they have been married for over 60 years, and with daddy in the hosp. first & now mom, it is taking an emotional toll on both of them. Please pray for us and put us on your prayer lists at church.....may God bless each of you....their names are Glenn & Wanda Brewer for those of you who do not know...thank you so much for being my friends, I love each of you...... ♥ Jo Brewer Abner♥

Beverly Rogers(Ungodly Advice, Careless Actions, Unholy Alliances, & Godly Consequences) 9-1-10

ALL THINGS!

A New Little One.......

A Baby is a Gift of Life.

Born of the wonder of love,
A little bit of eternity
Sent from the Lord above,
Giving a new dimension
To the love between husband and wife
And putting an added new meaning
To the wonder and mystery of life.
Introducing

Trinity Chase Craft

Proud Parents Tracy and Randy Craft

Miracles Happen Everyday....

The word “miracle” “signifies in Christian theology a striking interposition of divine power by which the operations of the ordinary course of nature are overruled, suspended, or modified”

I got this word Miracle on my brain yesterday and just can't seem to let go of it. You see as I headed out yesterday on North 421 headed to Sunday School I witnessed a Miracle. I watched as the car that was directly ahead of me flipping not once but twice into the air and land in the ditch the opposite way it was going.

I got out of my car and begin to walk toward the crash and was amazed when the driver pushed open his door and stood up and then walked over and sat down on the side of the bank. From what I had just witnessed I would have thought that no one could walk away from something like that. His car was totalled out and suspended there as if it were being cradled by the ditch line.

As I made my way home from church I begin to think about the divine power of a Miracle. I got to thinking about the people God put there that morning. A Pastor Bobby Stevens, Glenna Marcum, Sharon Finley, Sonya Maxie and myself.

You often hear about miracles but when you actually come face to face with one it is truly astounding.

MY GOD IS GREAT!

In Memory of Shirley Hoskins

Mrs. Shirley Ann Hoskins, age 69 of Manchester, passed away Monday, August 9th, 2010 at the Saint Joseph Hospital in London, Kentucky. She was born January 13th, 1941 in Clay County, Kentucky to the union of Rex and Mattie Brewer McGee. She was co-owner of Hoskins Florist and a member of the Laurel Creek Church of God.

She is survived by her husband: Ford Hoskins of Manchester, her son: Dean Hoskins and wife Denise of Manchester, 2 grandchildren: Jessica Jones and Amy Hoskins, and 4 great grandchildren: Charles Andrew Jones, Logan Cash Jones, Summer Paige Jones, and Hayden Trace Hoskins. Also surviving is 1 brother: Sanford McGee of Russell Springs, Kentucky and 1 sister: Betty Boggs of Lewisburg, Ohio, and these friends: Sandra Whitaker and Francis Wagers.

What is the Anointing?

"Ye shall see the heaven opened." "He saw the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descending upon him." What is the meaning of the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is nothing less and nothing other than the Holy Spirit taking His place as absolute Lord. The anointing carries with it the absolute lordship of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit as Lord. That means that all other lordships have been deposed and set aside; the lordship of our own lives; the lordship of our own minds, our own wills, our own desires; the lordship of others. The lordship of every interest and every influence is regarded as having given place to the undivided and unreserved lordship of the Holy Spirit, and the anointing can never be known, enjoyed, unless that has taken place. That is why the Lord Jesus went down into Jordan's waters, into death and burial, in type, taking the place of man in representation, from that moment not to be under the government of His own life in any respect as He worked out the will of God, but to be wholly and utterly subject to the Spirit of God in every detail. Jordan's grave set forth the setting aside of every independent lordship, every other lordship, every other influence, and if you will read the spiritual life of Christ in the Gospels you will see that it was to that position that He was every moment adhering. Many and powerful were the influences which were brought to bear upon Him to affect Him and govern His movements. Sometimes it was the full force of Satan's open assault, to the effect that it was necessary that He should do certain things for His cause, or for His very continuance in life physically. Sometimes it was Satan clothing himself with the arguments and suasions of beloved associates, in their seeking to hold Him back from certain courses, or to influence Him to prolong His life by sparing Himself certain sufferings. In various ways influences were brought to bear upon Him from all directions, and many of the counsels were seemingly so wise and good. For example, with regard to His going up to the feast, it was urged, in effect: It is the thing that everybody is doing: if you do not go up you will prejudice your cause. If you really want to further this cause, you must fall into line with the accepted thing religiously, and you only stand to lose if you do not do that; you will curtail your influence, you will narrow your sphere of usefulness! And what an appeal that is if you have something very much at heart, some cause for God at heart, the success of which is of the greatest importance. Such then were the influences that were beating upon Him. But whether it be Satan coming in all the directness of his cunning, his wit, his insinuation, or whether it be through beloved and most intimate disciples and associates, whatever the kind of argument, that Man cannot be caused to deflect a hairsbreadth from His principle. 'I am under the anointing; I am committed to the absolute sovereignty of the Holy Spirit, and I cannot move, whatever it costs. Cost it my life, cost it my influence, cost it my reputation, cost it everything that I hold dear, I cannot move unless I know from the Holy Spirit that that is the Father's mind and not another mind, the Father's will and not another will, that this thing comes from the Father.' Thus He put back everything until He knew in His spirit what the Spirit of God witnessed. He lived up to this law, this principle, of the absolute authority, government, lordship of the anointing, and it was for that that the anointing had come.




That is the meaning of the anointing. Do you ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Why do you ask for the anointing of the Holy Spirit? Is the anointing something that you crave? To what end? That you may be used, may have power, may have influence, may be able to do a lot of wonderful things? The first and pre-eminent thing the anointing means is that we can do nothing but what the anointing teaches and leads to do. The anointing takes everything out of our hands. The anointing takes charge of the reputation. The anointing takes charge of the very purpose of God. The anointing takes complete control of everything and all is from that moment in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and we must remember that if we are going to learn Christ, that learning Christ is by the Holy Spirit's dealing with us, and that means that we have to go exactly the same way as Christ went in principle and in law.




So we find we are not far into the Gospel of John, which is particularly the Gospel of the spiritual School of Christ, before we hear even such as He saying, "The Son can do nothing of himself". "The words that I say unto you I speak not from myself." The works that I do are not Mine; "the Father abiding in me doeth his works".




"The Son can do nothing out from himself." You see, there is the negative side of the anointing; while the positive side can be summed up in one word—the Father only. Perhaps that is a little different idea of the anointing from what we have had. Oh, to be anointed of the Holy Spirit! What wonders will follow; how wonderful that life will be! The first and the abiding thing about the anointing is that we are imprisoned into the lordship of the Spirit of God, so that there can be nothing if He does not do it. Nothing! That is not a pleasant experience, if the natural life is strong and in any way in the ascendant. Therefore Jordan must be there before there can be an anointing. The putting aside of that natural strength and self-life is a necessity, for the anointing does carry with it essentially the absolute lordship of the Spirit.




You notice the issue of that in 2 Cor 3:16. "When it shall turn to the Lord", when the Lord is the object in view, "the veil is taken away, and we all with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are transformed into the same image . . . even as from the Lord the Spirit", or "the Spirit which is the Lord". You are in the School and you can see Christ and learn Christ; which is being transformed into the image of Christ under the lordship of the Spirit. "When it shall turn to the Lord", when the Lord is our object in view! But with us, with us Christians, with us very devoted, very earnest Christians, what a long time it takes to get the Lord as the sole object. Is that saying a terrible thing? We say we love the Lord; yes, but we do love to have our own way as well, and we do not love to have our way thwarted. Have any of us yet reached that point of spiritual attainment where we never have a bad time at all with the Lord? Oh no, we are still found at the place where we so often think it is in the interests of the Lord that our hearts go out in a certain direction, and the Lord does not let us do it, and we have a bad time; and that has betrayed us absolutely. Our hearts were in it. It was not easy, absolutely easy and simple for us to say, Very well, Lord, I am just as pleased as though you let me do it, I delight always to do Thy will! We are disappointed the Lord does not let us do it; or if the Lord delays it, what a time we go through. Oh, if we could only get at it and do it! The time is finding us out. Is that not true of most of us? Yes, it is true. We do come into this picture, and that just does mean that, after all, the Lord is not as verily our object as we thought He was. We have another object alongside and associated with the Lord; that is, something that we want to be or to do, somewhere we want to go, something we want to have. It is all there, and the Holy Spirit knows all about it. In this School of Christ, where God's objective is Christ, only Christ, utterly Christ, the very anointing means that it has to be Christ as Lord by the Spirit. The anointing takes that position. Well, so much for the moment for the meaning of the anointing. It was true in Him, and it has to be true in us.

Me: This is the hard part! Giving it all to Christ. But oh so worth it!

: Manufacture Recall

(I have no idea who wrote this, but it is great!)



The Maker of all human beings (GOD) is recalling all units
manufactured, regardless of make or year, due to a serious defect in
the primary and central component of the heart.
This is due to a malfunction in the original prototype units code
named Adam and Eve, resulting in the reproduction of the same defect
in all subsequent units.
This defect has been technically termed "Sub-sequential Internal Non-
Morality," or more commonly known as S.I.N., as it is primarily
expressed.

Some of the symptoms include:
1. Loss of direction
2. Foul vocal emissions
3. Amnesia of origin
4. Lack of peace and joy
5. Selfish or violent behavior
6. Depression or confusion in the mental component
7. Fearfulness
8. Idolatry
9. Rebellion

The Manufacturer, who is neither liable nor at fault for this
defect, is providing factory-authorized repair and service free of
charge to correct this defect.

The Repair Technician, JESUS, has most generously offered to bear
the entire burden of the staggering cost of these repairs. There is
no additional fee required. The number to call for repair in all
areas is: P-R-A-Y-E-R.
Once connected, please upload your burden of SIN through the
REPENTANCE procedure.
Next, download ATONEMENT from the Repair Technician, Jesus, into the
heart component.

No matter how big or small the SIN defect is, Jesus will replace it
with:
1. Love
2. Joy
3. Peace
4. Patience
5. Kindness
6. Goodness
7. Faithfulness
8. Gentleness
9. Self control

Please see the operating manual, the B.I.B.L.E. (Basic Instructions
Before Leaving Earth) for further details on the use of these fixes.

WARNING: Continuing to operate the human being unit without
correction voids any manufacturer warranties, exposing the unit to
dangers and problems too numerous to list and will result in the
human unit being permanently impounded. For free emergency service,
call on Jesus.

DANGER: The human being units not responding
to this recall action will have to be scrapped in the furnace. The
SIN defect will not be permitted to enter his Kingdom so as to
prevent contamination of that facility..

Thank you for your attention!
GOD

P.S. Please assist where possible by notifying others of this
important recall notice, and you may contact the Father any time by
'Knee mail'!

Because He Lives

An Invitation to Us All

Keta Howard (Under the Gun)8-18-10