Lake Michigan and The Bible.

What do Lake Michigan and The Bible have in common you may ask? Well let me share with you what I heard the other night. I attended our Illinois District Assembly of God's ordination service on Tuesday night. The speaker for the night was a pastor from Chicago, "Choco" Dejesus. He said something I found to be very interesting. He said that in the city of Chicago, streets will change. Alley's will change. People will change. Next year, five years, ten years, one hundred years, even five hundred years. But the one thing that will not change during that time will be Lake Michigan. It will always be on the east side of the city. It will always be where it is now. It's not going anywhere. Then he said it's just like The Bible. The Bible is the same as it has always been. It has never changed, no matter how much people try to change it. I sat there and thought "wow", what a great word. People today take the Bible out of context. They pick and choose scriptures and try to make them fit into what they want them to say. Not what God intended them to say or mean. As a Christian pastor I believe that The Bible is 100% infallible (no mistakes) and 100% accurate. I believe that it is the living, breathing word of God. It is still as relevant today as it was when it was first written. We are not supposed to add to scripture or take anything out. Unfortunately that is exactly what the world is doing. Seems like some people are adding their own wording to scripture or changing it to fit their message instead of letting their message be inspired by scripture. They are preaching their own version of the Gospel to either (A)entertain their audience, or (B)not to offend anyone in their audience. Either way, both are wrong. We need to preach the Gospel the way God intended it to be. Honest and truthful. We need to take a stand for the Bible, and take a stand for it's Author! It's His love letter to us, but people are getting in the way and causing confusion. Thank God I have a relationship with Him, and His word makes it clear on what He expects from me, from all of us.

Headache!

My wife and I support a pregnancy clinic here in our community. Every year they have a fund raiser in the spring called 'Walk For Life.' It's about a two mile walk from start too finish. So yesterday was walk day. The director of the clinic asked me to do the opening prayer and I agreed. So the morning of the walk, I started getting a headache. It started out very dull, but increased as the morning wore on. So we went in to register and get our t-shirts, the headache kept increasing in power. We headed outside, and the director started the opening ceremonies. She finished with the directions about the walk and then invited me up to do the prayer. My head was killing me. I had wanted to say so much more, but just couldn't. I prayed a quick little short prayer and we were on our way. In hindsight, that was probably a good thing. Because while I was praying, it started to drizzle. So being quick about it was probably appreciated. So the enemy knew that I was going to do the opening prayer and he tried to stop me by causing a sever headache. Well you know what Mr. Devil? My GOD is bigger than my headache and your plans to stop me from praying. I had been praying on the way to the walk for God to take away the headache. He did not take it away, but He did give me the strength to power through. He knew what I was facing, and He strengthened me. Philippians 4:13 New Living Translation (NLT)13 For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. Press into God and He will provide what you need!