Glimpses of Grace

Today on Moments of Grace our is Will Lemmers. Will lives in Gettysburg PA. He is an assistant Sunday School Teacher, he sings in the choir and he has a great interest in creation.

Moments of Grace:

I came to faith is Jesus at a very early age. And since then I have lived through seasons of various levels of devotion to Him. When I was sixteen years old I started to really get serious about the faith, and within that year I read through the Bible for the first time.

I decided at that time that I would no longer listen to any secular rock music and said goodbye to all my Led Zeppelin cds, all my Nirvana and Guns n' Roses, no more Metallica or Bon Jovi, lol. And I really started trying to live the Christian lifestyle. 

I began going regularly to church and youth group. It was also at that time that my parents introduced me to C.S. Lewis. My mom bought me a copy of a C.S. Lewis biography which was a part of the Heroes of Faith series that can probably still be found at Christian bookstores. 

Soon after that, I borrowed a copy of Mere Christianity from the Gettysburg College Library. Now I was getting immersed in Christian apologetics. All of this was shortly after I had dropped out of public high school, and had started working full time at a local restaurant. 

At eighteen, I decided to go back to school and I enrolled at the Adams County Christian Academy, where I would earn my diploma. I had read more of Lewis' writings and much of Josh McDowell's material. At ACCA, I learned a bit more about the creation/evolution debate as well, which inspired me to write a song called "Mutant Monkey".

Now, maybe it was my introduction to apologetics, or maybe it was just a part of growing up. But I had begun to think more about what and why I believe. C.S. Lewis and Josh McDowel were of profound help to me, but as I read the biblical accounts of events like the parting of the Red Sea and the miracles and the resurrection of Jesus Christ, it was just difficult for me to imagine that those events actually, really happened. And I wondered to myself whether or not faith requires the ability to imagine it in one's mind.

And it was sobering, to say the least, to realize that a person's eternal destiny depends on their response to a poor, first-century carpenter-turned-wandering-preacher from a tiny little dot called Israel. I grappled with all this in my mind.

After completing high school, I continued to go through various ups and downs in my walk with the Lord. Some of the downs seem more significant than others, maybe they're not. I have reached a point in my thought-life where the truth of gospel of Jesus Christ seems self evident. 

I look at this troubled world (on the news as well as the History Channel), and I look at my own life. I see the need for grace and salvation. I can see that humanity is made in the image of God. But I can see how marred by sin humanity is too. How broken is this world in which we live.

I see the prophet's words vindicated by the history that continues to unfold in the Middle East and the rest of the world. And I think about Jesus, and His message. His offer of a new creation, starting inside the believer's heart and life. And I think about the apostles, with their lives turned upside down because of what they saw with their own eyes (1st John 1:1-3). And I know that it's all true.

I still wrestle with sin as I strive to live out the Christian lifestyle. I'm not very good at it. And I realize that all my life is, to use the words of a song by Tait, "holding out for grace". And so is the Church, and the world.

I Am Ashamed of My Past

I Am Ashamed of My Past

"I am ashamed of my past." Satan is happy to hear this, and I am quite sure that He was helping you created that very past that you are ashamed of. Do you know the reason he delights in our misery? It is because he will do anything in his power to distract us from Jesus. Listen to me, Beloved of God. As Christians we don't have to live defeated lives. Everyone has a past. Even Satan had one. He also has a heated future. Christians, on the other hand have a glorious future. There is no need to cling to the past. Jesus paid it all, all to him we owe. "Sin had left a crimson stain, he washed it white as snow." The next time Satan try to remind you of your past, you, remind Him of the Cross!!!!

Moments of Grace

 Moments of Grace


Today on Moments of Grace our guest is Dr. Donald Hartley. Dr. Hartley is a Professor at Southeastern Bible College. He is also a Bible Scholar, Apologist and Author.

Moments of Grace

I remember my high school senior year (1981–82) late one night, alone, lying on my bed, and praying from memory the Lord’s Prayer. I tried to understand the words of that prayer I had been taught as a child. I’d said it a thousand times before that night. But that night was different. I was desperate to hear from God. I felt so alone, could not find the answers, and sensed an inability to even seek them. “Our Father who art in heaven….” Father? Of course you are in heaven. “Hollowed be thy name.” What does “hollowed” mean? “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” On I went through prayer phrase-by-phrase and word-by-word until the “for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.” What did it mean altogether and what did it mean in particular to me? I was literally on my back speaking out loud to the God transcending the ceiling above my bed. “I know you’re out there. Why do you not hear me? Why cannot I hear from you?” Silence. What good is a God whom I cannot hear and who cannot hear me? If the answers were outside of me, how do I get to them? I was taxed and spent with nothing to tax and spend. I could not figure out either the meaning of the Lord’s Prayer or the world into which I felt I was thrown. Why was I here? How can I get through this life alone? Why was I so miserable? Is there life after High School? Was I to spend my life alone?

I don’t remember the details of the night that brought on the angst but I do remember giving God an ultimatum. The soliloquy began with angst, progressed to anger, degenerated into blasphemy of God, turned into asking for his forgiveness, then petitioning the impossible from him. It culminated with something like this: “OK God. I want a wife! I don’t think you can do this because I want nothing but the best. I do not want a woman just to have a woman. I don’t want any woman. I need a particular one. I’d rather be single all my life than to be with someone I did not desire or worse, repulsed me as ugly. Here is what I want. I want a short, cute, blond who is built really well—you know what I mean—and who thinks the world of me. Hey God, did you hear that? That is what I want. But I know it is impossible…even for you. What would a girl like that want with a guy like me? There, I’ve said it. Good night and good luck.” I fell back upon the pillow out of a living nightmare and into a depressing sleep haunted by an impossible dream. But at least I’d laid it out to God. It wasn’t the Lord’s Prayer, but it was mine.

I grew up in a Roman Catholic family, one of eight kids. I was the fifth born followed immediately by my twin brother, Doug. It may be difficult for someone to appreciate the possibility of loneliness in a family where one is never really alone. But I was like Adam in the garden. “It is not good for man to be alone,” God said. Adam was not alone! He had God walking with him in the cool of the day. He had animals of all sorts to keep him company. He had a job to do in the garden. He was busy, busy, and busy still. But God said Adam was alone, and it was not good. If Adam even in a pre-fall state, with God walking alongside him, commissioned to tend a garden, and surrounded by animals all around him could be alone and in a state of “not good,” then surely anyone descended from Adam can be alone in the midst of others as well. I had parents, two sisters, and five brothers. I was not alone. But I was missing something. I was missing someone as well as Someone. I felt alone on many levels. But I felt abandoned by God. That night, my solution was a “Hail Mary pass” to God for him to find and bring the right woman, the ideal woman, for me and to me. I did not ask for salvation or a wise heart or a heart for God like David. My visceral concern was to be with a helper a companion that I could find fellowship. And in doing this I felt that it would demonstrate whether God had indeed forsaken or cared in the least for me. I remember that night and this prayer clearly because I have rehearsed its contents repeatedly over the last thirty years to my wife, Melissa. You see, God answered that prayer two weeks before my senior year ended!

I met my wife over 31 years ago in high school, two weeks before the last day of class for seniors. I was a senior and she was a junior. She fit the physical features and far surpassed them with her bubbly personality, eager anticipation of the next moments of life, uninhibited optimism, cheerful disposition, and endless entertaining chatter. And, she was a PK (“preacher’s kid”). At the time, I was still a Roman Catholic, but God had my attention. Over the next couple of years I did become a genuine believer. Whenever I doubted God’s love for me I simply reminded myself of what I had asked from him at a dark hour and then the undeniable answer down to its specific details in Melissa. He must love me because he gave me her. That was a tangible proof in the here-and-now that I could not deny. Of course I know that God loved me before time and in time demonstrated by the death of his Son in my place. But I did not know that in the sense I do today. God condescended to me and gave me someone so that I could better see the Someone I needed even more. A moment of grace prepared me for many more and greater degrees of grace from God.
Donald E. Hartley, Ph.D.

 

Moments of Grace

Moments of Grace

 

 

Hi my name is Gladys Brown and I am the person behind Glimpses of Grace. People don't always agree on the same thing but I am sure that everyone will agree that we need God's grace and we all would like to go get glimpses of it. That is the reason for this segment, which is entitled "Moments of Grace". As I mentioned to you last week, "Moments of Grace" will feature ordinary men and women by the power of the Spirit of God, doing extraordinary things for His Kingdom.

I once was a part of the Jehovah's Witnesses. I was presented with the gospel of Jesus in 1986. It has not been smooth sailing for me, but God is faithful. I've had 2 children to precede me in death but I am assured on the authority of God's word that they are in His presence. I have one surviving daughter and a lovely granddaughter. God is indeed good. Everyday, I am amazed to be counted amongst His people. It is all because of His grace.

God has put 2 desires within my heart. I desire to correctly divide the Word of truth. It excites me to teach people God's word. Nothing is more gratifying that when you are teaching and someone has an "I get it moment." You know then that the Spirit of God is at work. I love to teach, but most importantly I love to see people lives changed through the teaching of God's word. Because it is His word that holds the power of life. Why would you choose death when eternal life is free?

Another desire of mine is to bring about change in my community. Some people are called to foreign missions. I was called to the mission field right here in Birmingham,AL. When I became saved, I did not have 2 nickels to rub together. But God placed wonderful Christian people in my life who was to me, what the first century church was to their brothers and sisters in need. They were the living gospel on display. Through that I saw that the gospel was not just for presenting, but it was for living out also. God gave me the desire to be the gospel on display in my community.

The people that God placed in my life was middle and upper middle class. I was below the poverty level, but I was never looked down on and neither were my children. I really believe in my heart that the Lord allowed me to see this so that I would not get puffed up, in the future when He I did provide me with a better life. Because he was sending me back into my community. No one wants help from a person who is looking down on them. Jesus never looked down on us. He showed us grace and mercy.

Once I went with my church (Hunter Street Baptist Church) to a Program called Ready Day One, this is a program that helps kids who are less fortunate. It supplies them with school supplies, shoes, socks, encouragement,etc. But most importantly it gives them the gospel of Jesus Christ. One little girl told me, when she grew up she wanted to work at Wal-mart. I asked her to tell me about what she liked to do and she said she liked to design clothes. I told her that I thought she should try to be a fashion designer and she looked at me and said "do you really think I can do it." I looked her in the eyes and told her that God had a great plan for her life and I was sure with His guidance she could. She said "God has a plan for me". Wow, TEACHING TIME. I told her about our wonderful Savior. She received hope. She really believed what I told her and for me that was a "Moment of Grace". Please don't misunderstand me, I am an Ambassador for Christ and I will be all things to all men. God Has given me Glimpses of Grace and I will share it will all men!!!

 

 

Thanks

Gladys

I now realize that all I gained and thought was important was nothing but yesterday’s garbage compared to knowing the Anointed Jesus my Lord. For Him I have thrown everything aside—it’s nothing but a pile of waste—so that I may gain Him. He is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. I want others to know about this love of a lifetime and how they must seek Him now while He can be found.  Philippians 3:8

Please Respect Jesus' Name

Please Respect Jesus' Name

                         

  

Giveaway: Apologetics Study Bible

Apologetic Study Bible Giveaway 

I am so excited about this give away. I contacted the wonderful people at B&H Publishers about a giveaway. I was asked what books did I want. I told them "The Apologetic Study Bible"  When they responded back, they told me they were giving me not one but two of the Bibles to giveaway. That was more than I dreamed of. I am going to do a giveaway this month and another one in a couple of months from now or maybe I will wait close to Christmas.

One of the reasons, that I am so excited about this Bible, is because it helps us to see where cults and other religions get the basis of their beliefs from. But this Bible also helps believers to be prepared to share why we have the hope that is within us.  This Bible was written by some of the best Apologetic Thinkers of our time. Just to name a couple of them: Lee Strobel, Norm Geisler, Chuck Colson, Ravi Zacharias, Josh McDowell. Oh!, I said a couple of them didn't I.

Studying with this Bible helps answer the real hard questions about our faith and it gives believers the confidence to share their faith without doubts. Because it shows the Bible is the Word of God and it can be trusted.

Good Luck!!!

Father, Make Them One

Father, Make Them One



I’m praying not only for them But also for those who will believe in me Because of them and their witness about me.The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. John 17: 20, 21 (MSG)

What America calls a melting pot. God calls the body of Christ. Only God could take people from multi-ethnic groups, from different cultures and from different races and make them one. Did you get that, well I am going to say it again. One!!! Just as He and the Son are one. We are the body of Christ and whether you asked for it or not, we are called to be united. We must put all difference aside and live in harmony. Everything that was not in harmony in heaven got kicked out. So when we finally make it to heaven, we will all live in unity. So let practice and get a glimpse of what is to come. We are believers in Christ. We need to check on each other, pray for each other, cry with each other and desire what is best for each other. It is these type of things that the world does not understand. It is foreign to them, but we are from a foreign land. Guess what? It is these foreign actions that causes them to see that Jesus was sent by the Father. So today contact someone in the body that you have  never communicated with before and let them know that you are thinking about them. I promise you will make their day. You will also make the world curious

Let us be united See each other through your eyes May we forgive our brother. We see you risen No longer on an old rugged cross Lord, may your glory fill us. Make us one heart Make us one mind Make us one Let your will be done.Make us one flame To proclaim your name Make us one.~ Phil Driscoll

We Will See Him In All Of His Glory

We Will See Him In All Of His Glory!!!

Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. John 17:24 (ESV)

 

 

 

 

 

Have you ever noticed the difference in what people called the "Lord's Prayer" and when Jesus really prays? The "Lord's Prayer, was a model prayer that Jesus prayed. He was teaching His disciples how to pray to the Father. But, when Jesus actually prays, it is powerful. One of the things He prayed about, was His followers living in heaven with Him. Do you actually, think about living in heaven with Jesus? Well it is pretty important, because He told His Father that He wanted us to be with Him in heaven. What an honor. There is not anything about thinking about living in heaven. That does not mean you will go out and commit suicide. It means that He wants you with Him and you, likewise desire to be with Him. We should not be content here on earth in bodies that are only wasting away. Our spirits should be groaning and desiring the One who will give us our glorified bodies. Now don't miss this, it is only when we receive our glorified bodies, that we will be able to see Him in all of His glory. Hallelujah!!!  We will behold what the Angels have beheld since they were created. If that doesn't make you want to dance like David, I will meet with you and give you dance lessons. Please continue to remain in His word and continue to lift each other up even more, as we see the day of His return drawing near.

  

Someday believers will not only see his glory, but share it. Until then, we participate in it spiritually.~John MacArthur

 

Follow The Shepherd Not The Sheep

This is why we need to follow the Shepherd and not the sheep!

July 4th 2013 Grace For Thursday

July 4th 2013  Grace For Thursday

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

 

 

 

 

 

Happy July 4th Everyone!!! If you are off from work today, I hope you get to spend some quality time with your family!!! This is a very special holiday for our country. This is the day that Americans set aside to celebrate our independence from Britain. We are the United States of America and we should be proud of our country. Ladies although we are independent of Britain, we should always be dependent on God. So today as you thank God for the freedom He has given to our country, also thank Him for the dependency that we have in Him through Christ. Also remember to pray for each other but say a special prayer for our country. Our country may claim Freedom, but we are under the yoke of sin. So together, we the people of God can cry out to Him and He will heal our land. Now that is the best news I've heard all morning!!!!

 

On this Independence Day I am reminded of all those who have sacrificed for my freedom, following the example of your Son, Jesus Christ. Let me not take my freedom, both physical and spiritual, for granted. May I always remember that my freedom was purchases with a very high price. My freedom cost others their very lives. (unknown)