Looking Forward

May 032012
 
 3 May 2012  Posted by at 3:27 pm Greenhills Christian Fellowship - Batangas, Parson to Person  No Responses »

GCF Batangas

Psalm 84 captures the joy of the ancient Israelis as they would travel to Jerusalem for one of their yearly festivals. The emotion and joy experienced by the Jewish people could be compared to ours when we are traveling to a distant place to visit family and friends that we have not seen in a while. But for Israel it was not so much to visit people but rather to worship God.

One of the differences between the Church of the New Testament and the nation of Israel in the Old Testament is that we as local churches worship God weekly and in close proximity to where we live. For Israel, worship took place in the home, and then several times throughout the year the Jewish people would travel to Jerusalem to worship God there as well, though after the time of King Solomon this would be limited to those living in Southern Israel. These times of travel would produce great joy and excitement for the people. This excitement would help spur them on through some of the more difficult sections of their journey where the people would have to walk through barren desert land to come to the hill that Jerusalem was built upon. The excitement would increase when they would start walking up the hill to Jerusalem. As a matter of fact, the Psalms that capture this excitement are called Songs of Ascent informing us that they were likely sung while the people were hiking up the paths to the city.

Yet the Psalms were also intended to be sung by the Jewish people throughout the year while in their homes worshiping God as families. Here in the homes the Songs of Ascent would help them look forward to the journey that they would soon embark upon. For us as Christians, who worship God weekly in local churches, to worship God is more of our weekly schedule rather than being a “big event.” For us big events are the Christmas, birthdays, and other such events. Some of these events may incorporate worship but others, such as birthdays and “Back to School,” have no religious connotations whatsoever. We look forward to the events but not for the purpose of worship. For Israel, their big events focused on worship. Looking forward towards something gives us hope and helps us make sense of life. God intends for us to be joyous people and to have hope is one way to find joy. God designed worship in the Old Testament to be a means to bring great joy to the lives of His people.

Yet to look forward to the big events” of the year were only one item that Israel had to look forward too. The Old Testament built into Israel and second item that they would look forward to and that was the Messiah, the coming of their anointed one. This longing for the Messiah helped them through the difficult times in life in the same manner that the Songs of Ascent would help the Jewish people on their journeys to Jerusalem.

For us the Church, this Messiah is who we know to be Jesus Christ. And for us as a New Testament Church we too look forward, we look forward to the return of Jesus Christ. We need to learn to “look forward” to the return of Jesus Christ as this will give us great hope and enhance our joy. With the return of Jesus Christ we as Christians will be transformed and resurrected in to our new spiritual bodies. With the return of Jesus we will be with Christ forever and will co-rule with Him. With the return of Jesus Christ Satan will be cast into the abyss and all the nations will be submitted to Jesus Christ. With the return of Jesus Christ there will be peace and prosperity at levels never before experienced by mankind.

Are you looking forward to the return of Jesus Christ or are your eyes stuck on the problems of today? Allow Psalm 84 to remind you that great joy can be found in looking forward to worshiping our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and always remember that Jesus Christ is coming again.

 

A Question to Raiders General Manger Reggie McKenzie After the NFL Draft

Apr 292012
 
 29 Apr 2012  Posted by at 5:20 pm Raiders ,  No Responses »

Reggie McKenzie (left) with his Head Coach Dennis Allen

Q: Reggie, as names were announced, it seemed like almost every guy who came up today was very outward in his faith or in his Christianity, is that a coincidence? Or is that [a] trait that appeals to you?

McKenzie: I think when you talk about high character guys, how they were brought up, work ethic, I think part of that is reflective on your faith. At least I know it was with me. But did we go out and say we are going to get faith-based players specifically? No, that is not our intent! But I think that just by nature good, quality players have a strong foundation in their faith.

This is an exert taken from Raiders.com.  Some grammatical clean-up was applied.

Psalm 51

Apr 242012
 
 24 Apr 2012  Posted by at 11:45 am Greenhills Christian Fellowship - Batangas, Parson to Person  No Responses »

An Introduction to Psalm 51

While preparing for this article this week I was awestruck by David’s brokenness over his sin. Now I do realize that he never publically displayed any acknowledgement of his sin prior to the confrontation by the prophet Nathan. As you may recall Nathan had a cleverly devised story where once presented to King David required the King to make a judgment. The King passed judgment after which Nathan turned the story around and demonstrated to David that it was his own actions that were judged. David judged himself guilty of adultery and murder.

Once King David realized that it was he who was guilty of sin he broke down and cried out to God for forgiveness grasping onto the graciousness of God.

What impressed me the most this week was the sensitivity of David towards sin once sin was realized. What a true and honest example for us to follow! How sensitive are we towards our sin? As sinners we often do not even recognize our sin or sinfulness. We cloud our sins by imploring worldly excuses such as “lust is just being human” or “it is because of my poverty that I did…” We disguise gossip as “social interaction” and greed as a means to “give further unto the Lord.” We all are guilty of offering these excuses and many more; and God knows this to be so. Therefore with patience He continually works with us bringing us to the point of awareness that David came to when he was confronted by the prophet.

Yet when we come to this point of awareness how do we respond? Do we break down and call out to God for His gracious forgiveness or do we just continue to justify our actions by offering to God our excuses. It is very difficult to acknowledge sin, and it is more difficult to repent from our sins and embrace the Lord’s grace. This is true for all of us; it is true for me.

One struggle I have is being able to break focus on any task that I may be working on and deal with what I consider a distraction. It frustrates me to change my focus and this frustration leads towards a negative and sinful attitude more often than not. I praise God that He has brought me to a point of being able to recognize this sinful attitude as it begins to weal up in me, but the struggle with the flesh is often the outcome. I begin to live out Romans chapter seven where “I am not practicing what I would like to do.” (Romans 7:15) This struggle causes further frustration thus compounding my desperate situation. By this time this whole ugly situation starts affecting those around me and I slip further into despair. What hope do I have???

As you read Psalm 51 observe the struggles that David had; his despair, his brokenness, his response, and the outcome of his battle. David struggled in the same manner that you and I struggle in. David learned to express his struggles to God clinging to His grace, mercy, and God’s desire to forgive us who find ourselves struggling with sin.

As I sat down to write this article I found myself battling distractions, frustration, sinful attitudes, further frustrating over my wretchedness, and the despair of needing forgiveness. My answer was found in coming back to God’s word, reading and resting in His word and bathing myself in prayer. We all know the answer! Let us press on towards the goal of being holy as our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is holy.

This was a weekly writing for the church bulletin.

 

Kaufman Returns to the Silver and Black as Team Chaplain

Apr 142012
 
 14 Apr 2012  Posted by at 4:52 pm Raiders No Responses »

Former Raiders running back Napoleon Kaufman has rejoined the Raiders organization as team chaplain.

 


The Raiders have named former RB Napoleon Kaufman team chaplain. Silver and Black Productions.

Former Raiders running back Napoleon Kaufman has rejoined the Raiders organization as team chaplain.

Kaufman, who played six seasons for the Silver and Black, has been the pastor of The Well Christian Community in Livermore, Calif. for nine years.

“I’m so excited to officially be part of the Raider organization once again,” said Kaufman. “I’ve always considered myself a Raider and to be able to come back and serve the Silver and Black in this capacity is my privilege.”

The native of Lompoc, Calif., attended the University of Washington and entered the NFL as the Raiders’ first round draft pick in 1995. He finished his career with 4,792 rushing yards, a total that ranks fourth on the franchise’s all-time list, and set the Raiders’ single-game record with 227 rushing yards against Denver in 1997. Kaufman totaled 1,294 yards on the ground in 1997, marking the second highest single-season total in team history.

He retired from professional football after helping the Raiders win the 2000 AFC West title and advance to the AFC Championship Game.

From Raiders.com

The Order of Resurrection

Apr 062012
 
 6 Apr 2012  Posted by at 9:22 pm Sermon , ,  No Responses »

 “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, after that those who are Christ’s at His coming, then comes the end, when He hands over the kingdom to the God and Father, when He has abolished all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign until He has put all His enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be abolished is death.”

1 Corinthians 15:22-26

Introduction

While growing up there were three big holidays that my family celebrated.  All three focused our attention on God.  Two of the holidays have their origins in pagan holidays and were in turn restructured in history past by the Church so as to focus the minds of believers on special events of the Church.  The first honors the birth of our savior, Jesus Christ, whereas the second concentrates on His death and resurrection.   The first we all know of as Christmas, and the second is Easter.  For me while growing up Easter was always a very special holiday.  The third holiday my family celebrated was the American holiday of Thanksgiving where we gave thanks to God for His provisions.

Here in the Philippines Easter Sunday is not a holiday, mainly because it always falls on a Sunday, so I’m told.  The holidays are Black Thursday and Good Friday.  I will never forget my first Easter here in the Philippines.  I was living in Lipa City at the time and the year was 1993.  Each day I would walk around to observe the Holy Week festivities.  Friday I was amazed at seeing some guys walking around barefooted, shirtless, and with bloodied backs.  They were not whipping themselves, at least not there in Lipa City, but it was still a shocking scene for me to witness.  Then on Saturday I went out and there was nothing!  No jeepneys, no tricycles, no businesses were open; Lipa City seemed completely abandoned.  Then came Sunday, Easter Sunday, one of the biggest days for Christians worldwide.  Yet it seemed like just another Sunday morning.  As all parts of the culture were extremely focused on the days leading up to the anniversary of our Lord’s resurrection I assumed that Easter would be a big time of celebration.  Wow, was I wrong!  Nothing!  As I walked to church that morning I noticed all the normal traffic patterns that I would normally see on any other Sunday walking to church.  At church, a good God fearing church in the heart of Lipa City, we did celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, yet, the business next door that would crush large rocks into smaller stones was hard at work making all the noise and dust they made every other Sunday morning.  As for the culture, it seemed as if they were not even aware of the fact that Easter Sunday had any significance.  No meals in the homes, no businesses are closed, nothing to mark this day as being special.  This seems true even now.  SM was closed on Thursday and Friday, here in Batangas City they were open for a shorter amount of time yesterday, but today they resume their normal business hours.  Yet with all of this said, Gloria my wife speculates that people do understand that Sunday is the day of celebration and the culture likes to celebrate in the malls and at the beaches whereas Thursday and Friday are days of mourning and therefore the businesses close on those days. Continue reading »

His Ultimate Agenda, Part 1

Feb 272012
 
 27 Feb 2012  Posted by at 10:45 am Evangelist, Evangelistic Gospel Proclamation No Responses »

Evangelistic Gospel Proclamation

His Ultimate Agenda, Part 1

So far I have mentioned that God is self-existent and self-sustaining, God is eternal, and that God is sovereign.  These four attributes, known as infinite or incommunicable attributes, are unique to God as contrasted with His personal or communicable attributes which are qualities that are shared with mankind to a degree.  As we proceed we will see that God’s ultimate agenda will be directed by His personal being and attributes so therefore let’s take a few moments to list God’s attributes and then regroup them for use in our study.  A typical listing may look as follows:

Incommunicable or Infinite Attributes

  • Self-existence: Exodus 3:14
  • Self-sufficient: Psalm 50:12-13
  • Eternal: Psalm 90:2, 1 Timothy 1:17
  • Omnipresence (Everywhere-present): Jeremiah 23:24; Psalm 139:7-10; 1 Kings 8:27
  • Immutability (Unchanging): Malachi 3:6, James 1:17, Hebrews 6:17
  • Sovereign: Daniel 4:35, Psalm 115:3, Psalm 22:28, 1 Timothy 6:15
  • Incorporeal (Lacking material form or substance): John 4:23-24

Communicable or Personal Attributes

  • Omniscience (All-knowing, All-wise) – An intellectual quality with mankind having limited knowledge: 1 John 3:20; Psalm 147:5; Hebrews 4:13
  • Omnipotence (All-powerful) – A volitional quality with man having freewill: Jeremiah 32:27, Revelation 19:6
  • Holiness ­– A moral quality: Exodus 15:11, Isaiah 6:3
  • Love – A moral quality: 1 John 4:8
  • Just – A moral quality: Isaiah 30:18, Job 34:12, Revelation 16:7
  • Merciful – A moral quality: Psalm 79:8-9, Matthew 5:7, Ephesians 2:4-6 James 2:13
  • Good – A moral quality: Mark 10:18
  • Gracious – A moral quality: John 1:17, Romans 5:15, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Hebrews 4:16
  • Jealousy – A moral quality: Exodus 20:5, Joshua 24:19, Isaiah 48:11

In our discourse I will redefine the categories so as to align them with our course of study.  The traditional categories were defined by classifying those attributes which were unique with God and those which are in part shared with mankind.  For our purposes we will define our categories by listing those attributes which have exercisable qualities.  God has possessed all of His attributes eternally and the attribute itself has not changed yet prior to creation none of His attributes were exercised in a fashion that could have been witnessed outside of Himself, if a witness were present.  There was no reason to execute any attribute outside of the trinity.  God has always been and therefore His attributes have always been.  Before creation God existed as the triune God without time, space, or any other external dimension but at creation came all externals and with the externals the opportunity to exercise His attributes outside of the trinity.  The need to exercise His attributes was necessitated by His own nature.  It is this notion of God exercising, executing, or demonstrating His attributes that we want to follow in our study.  You will notice that with the following list the groupings have changed.  Our motivation behind why we have placed the attributes in their new listing has more to do with the fact that the attribute has an executable quality compared with the first two attributes that have a necessary quality but are not attributes that we generally see demonstrated. Continue reading »

Parson to Person: How to Write a Psalm

Feb 202012
 
 20 Feb 2012  Posted by at 10:46 am Parson to Person ,  No Responses »

GCF Batangas

For our sermon series on Psalms, we need to understand that Psalms are expressing emotion to God in the form of poetry and song. Let us, as a church body, not only learn about the Psalms but learn how to express ourselves to God in our own personalized form of worship. We encourage you to attempt to write your own psalm to God; perhaps share what you write with the worship team; and, let us develop our own worship from the heart of GCF Batangas. Today we will look at some simple steps that can guide you in writing your own psalm.

1. Pray and contemplating what is weighing on your heart – What is a burden, joy, or passion that needs to be expressed?

2. Pick a theme of focus – Praise for who God is, thanksgiving for what He has done, expressing fear or doubt. Praise for a specific blessing, remembering a special event, confession, etc.

3. Personalize it – Personal pronouns such as I, we, me, us, our, and my should be used.

4. Position it with Scripture – Though our psalm will never be considered “scriptures” we do need to ensure that our statements align with Biblical truth.

5. Wax Poetic – Use descriptive language. Try to say a lot without using a large number of words. Use adjectives such as awesome, majestic, mighty, incredible, etc.

6. Psalm like the Hebrews – The Biblical Psalmists used parallelism to express themselves in their Psalms. Consider these three types:

a. Synonymous Parallelism – The expression in the first line is repeated in the second line.

Example: Psalm 139:7:
Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?

Example: Psalm 85:2
You forgave the iniquity of your people,
And covered all their sins.

b. Antithetical Parallelism – The parallel verse states the opposite idea.

Example: Psalm 20:7-8
Some trust in chariots and some in horses,
But we trust in the name of the LORD our God.
They are brought to their knees and fall,
But we rise up and stand firm.

c. Synthetic Parallelism – One thought is stated and then the following thought either expands or completes the first thought.

Example: Psalm 24:3-4
Who shall ascend the hill of the LORD?
And who shall stand in his holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who does not lift up his soul to what is false,
And does not swear deceitfully.

An Example of a Modern Day Psalm:

A Song of Worship for God’s provision during Project Jabez

You brought us together as a body,
We are Greenhills Christian Fellowship Church.
You have enabled us to generate income,
You have given us wisdom and jobs.
To be stewards of all of Your resources,
Is the prayer that we offer to You!

(Chorus )
You are the God of Jabez (3x)
You provided for us our church home.

You are God our provider,
When the world wants to steal and entice.
You gave us our home,
They want to separate and keep us feeling alone.
Yet we will praise You from Mount Maculot,
All the way to the sandy beaches of Lobo.

(Chorus)

We want to worship and adore You!
We worship You as a Family,
We worship You in our homes,
We worship You in our church building,
We worship You who sits on the throne!

(Chorus)

Romans 1:26-27

Feb 152012
 
 15 Feb 2012  Posted by at 12:18 pm Romans  No Responses »

Romans Devotions Header

The Philippines has a reputation for holding beauty contests that are second to none. Some of which have discovered hidden treasures that have gone on to win internationally acclaimed contests. Even now it is common to see beauty contests being conducted on local levels such as the one I passed by on my way home from office several weeks ago taking place in Ibaan. It is a simple pleasure that many people enjoy.

Several years ago I was walking through a mall in Manila and noticed a beauty contest. I thought nothing of it as I was passing by until I realized that the people on stage donned in attractive dresses were actual men. It turned out to be a “Gay Beauty Contest.” I was surprised by what I saw and stopped to take notice. As I looked around I saw hundreds of people watching, laughing, and enjoying themselves. There were 20-30 guys parading around dressed like women. I could not help but wonder what the Lord thought of all of this?

Paul tells us in Romans 1:26-27 “For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.”

The context of Romans 1:26-27 is reinforcing the main idea of the last half of chapter one and this idea is found in Romans 1:18: “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” The context is the wrath of God and as we looked at previously in Romans the wrath of God is experienced by the means of God withdrawing Himself from mankind thus allowing sin to increase as it is no longer restrained. Note the phrase in verse 26 “God gave them over.” The Holy Spirit withdraws and as a result sin increases.

God does, in His wisdom, create some men who have feministic qualities, and in like manner God may create woman who are rather masculine. There is no sin in this. But our sin nature will tempt these people to cross a morale line and engage in homosexual acts, including cross-dressing (we know that cross-dressing is an abomination to God as it was forbidden in Israel’s Law). Now sin has entered into God’s creation. And the more we allow sin to influence us the more God will withdraw Himself and allow us to fall further into sin. This downward spiral leads us to commit unnatural acts; or worse.

Years ago when I was involved in Jail and Prison ministries I ministered to a young man whom I knew from church prior to his digression into an extremely sinful lifestyle. One night he and a friend were drinking in a bar late into the night. As they left the bar, an establishment that had women excite men by erotic dance, they saw a group of women standing around outside. They took one lady to the lady’s home and one of the drunken men went aside with the lady. It turned out that the person was not a lady but rather a man and the drunken men got angry and killed the deceptive homosexual. The young man that I knew and his partner were convicted of the crime of murder and sentenced to prison, one will spend the rest of his life in prison. The saddest part of this story is that the homosexual was the prodigal son of a pastor.

This is an example of God’s wrath and how when He withdraws His presence we spiral out of control.

 

Just A Rambling – God Died

Feb 072012
 
 7 Feb 2012  Posted by at 1:24 pm Hey Hey, ,  No Responses »

 

One of my responsibilities at GCF Batangas is being the pastor over the Christian Education ministries. This will include tasks such as overseeing the teaching in the children’s Sunday school classes, youth ministry, and adult Christian education. One of the ministries that I oversee is a leadership developmental program that one of my co-elders is spearheading. Here we have instructors who are working with a seminary in Manila come down and conduct training every other month or so. We bring in pastors from other Conservative Baptist churches in the region, as well as church members, and they teach us whatever the topic of the course is at the time.

Recently in a theology class one of the instructors asked the question “who died when Jesus was crucified on the cross?” The instructor never answered the question but it got me to think about how I would answer it.

To start with it will depend on how we understand death. If you understand death as simply the cessation of the biological life of one’s material body then the answer would be simple; Jesus the son of man died! Yet the Bible has an extended concept of death. We see this in Genesis 3:3 when God tells Adam “from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” but then in Genesis 3:6 Adam eats from the tree but then does not die his physical death until he was quite old (Genesis 5:5). Yet what happened the day that Adam ate from the tree was that “the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden…” and God “drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life.” (Genesis 3:23-24)

The day that Adam sinned he was separated from the presence of God!

Again we see death being a separation from God starting in Revelation 20:4-6 which reads:

“…And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power,..”

Picking up in Revelation 20:11-15 we read:

“Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Then in Revelation 21:6-8 Jesus Himself tells us:

“It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son. But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”

At the final judgment all who did not have faith and believe that Jesus was their substitute in punishment when He died on the cross will be resurrected into indestructible bodies and then cast into a place of eternal fiery punishment. This act is called the second death.

Now coming back to the original question, who died when Jesus was crucified on the cross? When Jesus was hanging on the cross He cried out in Mark 15:34 “MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?” The intensity of Jesus’ cries is due to the fact that at this point in time Jesus became sin, our sin!!! And therefore the Father had to turn away from the Son; separation. When Jesus was crucified He died as He was separated from God the Father. Likewise the Father experienced death when He was separated from God the Son. It is highly probable that the Holy Spirit Himself experienced death in the same fashion as God the father. That is true if the Holy Spirit Himself was separated from the Son of God.

Because death is understood as separation, when Jesus became sin God the Father was separated from God the Son thus experiencing death.

Here is the significance of it all; God from His whole being can sympathize with us as we face death. When the Holy Spirit is interceding for us as we wrestle in prayers over what is to come His groaning that are beyond human verbal expression are grounded in His experience as to when He was separated from Jesus the Son of God. Likewise, when God the Father hears the groanings of the Spirit He too is moved by what He has experienced. And as for our Lord Jesus Christ, not only has He experienced the physical pain associated with His torturous death but also the pain of being separated from the Father and the Holy Spirit at that moment He became our sin.

This thought should strengthen our faith greatly. Death is not something that we need to fear, but do we? Let us probe a hypothetical scenario and test our own faith. Let us say that the dispensationalists are correct in that the return of our Lord Jesus Christ does take place prior to the establishment of His millennial kingdom which takes place at the moment that Israel acknowledges that Jesus Christ is indeed their Messiah. At that point all surviving Israelites will be saved but, to get to this point Israel went through the purifying process of the tribulation. As the tribulation is for Israel the focus is not on the Church and some schools of thought will say that the Church is not even on earth at the time as they have been raptured out at the beginning of the tribulation. No problem! Yet there is another school of thought that says that the Church remains and passes through the time of tribulation here on earth. One word we can use to describe the tribulation is “death.”

Christian, how is your faith? Do you get fearful at that thought that the Church may remain in the tribulation? Fear should not be a response. Maybe disbelief if you don’t buy in to the theology. Yet we should not be fearful. God can sympathize with you. The Spirit can pray with groanings deeper than words for you. The Father can feel your pain. More so, you are the bride of Jesus Christ.

During the tsunami of 2004 the giant waves hit the shores of Sri Lanka on Sunday morning. Many churches at the time were built on the sea shores and as a result a good percentage of the Church in Sri Lanka was lost that morning as the Christians were in church worshiping our Lord at the time that the giant waves hit. They did not die because of judgment but rather went home to be with our Lord because of His divine providence.

I am not saying that we as the Church will go through the time of tribulation! But I am asking you, if we do, is your strength strong enough to overcome the fear of death? If we do go through the tribulation, is your faith strong enough that you can just acknowledge that we had our theology wrong but nevertheless we can rejoice in our circumstances? God will not leave us alone and knows what we are going through. Let us just remain focused on Him. Let us also prepare our minds and faith for what may be coming.

Glory to God

 

Raiders Introduce Coach Allen

Feb 012012
 
 1 Feb 2012  Posted by at 9:43 am Raiders , ,  No Responses »

Reggie McKenzie: This search quickly led me to coach Dennis Allen. To say I was excited after the interview with Coach Allen would be a major understatement. Guys, I was extremely excited after this interview. As a matter of fact, after the interview, I quickly called two people — Mark Davis and my wife.

Dennis Allen: I want to make sure I say thank you to my wife and kids. Family is extremely important to me, there’s nothing more important to me than my family. They are sitting down here in the front row right here. This is my wife Alisson right here in the front. My son Garrison, go ahead and stand there bud. Here’s my daughter, Layla, she’s the shy one. They are extremely excited about the opportunity and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for them; their support and their backing of [me] throughout my career.  As coaches we work long tireless hours at times, and we spend a lot of time away from our family at times, and we need that rock at home to make sure that everything is taken care of. That’s what my family is to me. I want to make sure I say thank you to my mom and dad. Obviously, without them I wouldn’t be here today. They instilled a lot of my core values and the things I believe in and the things that allowed me to get to this position. Without them, this wouldn’t be possible and I want to make sure I say thank you to them.

This is an exert taken from Raiders.com.  Some grammatical clean-up was applied.

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