It's Monday, Now What?

First things first, "Dear God, please grant me the wisdom, the strength, the love, and the energy to complete what ever it is you give me to accomplish or deal with today!" Amen

I have to make a public apology because I had full intention of praying for  Butch Peterson last night at the service and it didn't happen. I am so sorry!  Let me tell you what Sandi sent me about his progress: "Butch is doing a lot better, the rehab has him raising is arm over his head and lifting his leg up to cross his legs and walking with a walker. Speech is much better, thank you of all your prayers" Sandi Peterson

Please continue to pray for Butches full recovery.

For those of you that listen to the sermons online we know that the last sermon was not recorded correctly. This problem has been corrected so you should be able to listen in again.

Begin to live your spiritual life expectantly. When you pray, expect an answer! When you ask for the Holy Spirit expect Him to fill you! Expect great things for our church and start worshipping right now wherever you are. As you have seen on the news this morning, we live in a world that desperately needs to know Jesus and have a real relationship with Him. "IF" the people involved in the rioting and looting last night were people who knew Jesus there would have been no news story this morning.

See you soon! love, pastor kent

Invitation

I am inviting all who receive this blog to come to Praise Community Fellowship worship service tonight at 6:30 at the Crystal Garden for a special blessing. If you are planning on attending this special service I ask you to please bring the following:

1.) A prayerful spirit!
2.) The expectation of a miracle!
3.) The expectation of receiving the power of the Holy Spirit!
4.) The expectation of receiving answer to a prayer!
5.) The expectation of leaving the service with a changed life!

All are welcome to attend this service. Bring a friend, but make sure they understand what the requirements are before entering the service.

See you tomorrow. Love, pastor kent

This Sunday and More!

Question: What does Suffering, Death, Illness, and Pain have in common with Blessings, Health, Wealth, and Success?

Answer: Satan can use either to destroy our faith in God and God can use either to strengthen our faith in Him. Kind of ironic isn't it. Same experience but two totally different motives.

Question: So where does that leave us when we are experiencing either? It comes down to your belief system. Your world view. When you build your relationship with God thru daily prayer and bible reading. Your mind will be changed and your faith will be strengthened so no matter what it is you are experiencing you can as Paul says in
1 Thessalonians 5:18 " give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus."  
And in Romans 8:28 "And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those are called according to His purpose."
And in Proverbs 3:5 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight."

I have received some excellent questions on the 3x5 note cards I requested a couple of weeks ago.  I will be addressing some of the questions I have received the Sunday. And, as expected, some of them are tough questions which is awesome because it makes me "Dig into" my bible and prayer.  As a reminder "Here is what I would like all of you to do for me for this Sunday. Get a 3 x 5 note card and write these three questions on it.

1.) What do you wonder about?

2.) What do you worry about?

3.) What do you wish for?

Think about these three questions this week and write down your answers and bring them to the service Sunday. Drop them in the offering box. Do not put your name on them. It is going to help me develop relevant sermons over the next month or so.

We, Praise Community Fellowship, are on a journey together. One of the great functions of the church is to be there for one another and to help one another on this journey called life. As your pastor, which I find to be an unbelievable honor to be called such, want our church to be different in the respect that each of us are to become pastors. We are all called to be acting pastors so that we can become more effective at reaching more people for Jesus. 

As you are all well aware, there is much suffering in this world. There is unhappiness all around, broken relationships, broken hearts, fear, worry, doubt, and on and on. If each one of us can make it a goal to bring a smile, or some kind of hope to one person each day, we begin to change the world one person at a time. And, as our church grows, we will have more and more pastors each equipped with unique skills and gifts that God plants in all of us to be used to expand His Kingdom. 

Remember our mission message. Write it on for hearts and share it often and apply it everyday. And as a reminder here it is:

1.) What's our Message?  "God has a plan for YOUR life!"  That is huge! Think about it, the creator of all things has a plan for YOU! Do you think you can open a door with someone with that truth?

2.) What's our MIssion? " Our mission is to open a conversation about the saving sacrifice and love of Jesus with as many people as possible!

3.) What's our method? In other words how are we going to effectively accomplish one and two? By living our life as a demonstration of the Jesus' Hope, Love, Forgiveness, Compassion and Healing with everyone who crosses our daily path and in all circumstances!

Let's become the light and the love that this world so desperately needs. 

Hope to se you this Sunday! Love, pastor kent

In This Moment

Butch Peterson update:  He is still  at Anderson and I noticed a slight improvement in his speech yesterday. His stroke affected his right side and he is going to have to go through a period of therapy to get back at it. Please continue to pray for Butch's healing, strength, patience and peace.

The Well: I ask all of you to continue to ask for Gods guidance and blessing on the members of the Well and the property as our possible and probable future home. Let Gods will be done!

Gods Will: Let our first desire in all things to have the will of God revealed in our life. God can reveal His will only to a heart that is humble and tender and quiet. Let us pray in confidence and then wait on the Lord. To wait on God is our most important work.
When you come into the fullness of your spiritual life, your life can become a series of impossibilities made possible! The one thing Jesus taught us about His Kingdom was that He always waited to know what God wanted Him to do. Christ understood obedience!

Father help me today in this moment to surrender all my desires to your desires. Help me to learn to trust you in all circumstances. And Father help me to live my life as a demonstration of Jesus' hope, Love, Forgiveness, Mercy and Healing to all who cross my path and in all circumstances.
In Jesus name Amen

Hope to see you all soon.  Love, pastor kent

Most used tool?

I guess it depends on who you are and what you do but it seems as if the cell phone is one of the worlds most used tools today. So let me ask you something, how often do you charge your cell phone?  Why?

Ever wonder why your prayer life may be unproductive?
Ever tried to call someone one on a cell phone that is out of juice?

I have to plug my cell phone in daily to get it recharged and there are times when I have to plug it in during the day if I have really been using it often. There seems to be a correlation between how long I use it and how often I plug it into the power source and its ability to be used as an effective communicative tool?

Need to to pray for someone?  Does your prayer power seem to be waning?

Just asking. Plugging into the power source just makes sense!

Ok that's it for now.

• Please Pray for Butch Peterson, He had a stroke right after our service Sunday evening. He is currently at Anderson Hospital. I'll keep you posted as soon s I find out more.

• From Bob Ahrens: America Red Cross Blood Drive Thursday April 14th, 10:00AM til 2:00PM 110 Cottonwood road Glen Carbon at Oohlala Spa.

See you soon. Love, pastor kent

Monday Morning Thoughts after a Wonderful Sunday Evening

I know I told you to bring a notebook and pen last night for notes and some of you asked after words why we didn't get to that.  Good question.  It's because i do not use notes or stick to a format when I preach because i want the Holy Spirit to guide the service. So, like last night, I did not get to everything I had planned on speaking about. So let me get back to some of the points I had planned on getting to last night so maybe your creative juices will start flowing and the notebooks can still be put to use.

Why church?  The way I see church, it is not a place or time to cram more and more historical biblical facts and knowledge down everyones throat every week like some college class, but to entice and develop a hunger for Gods word in those who show up for the worship service. It is also a place where the Holy Spirit working through the members of the congregation help create a desire for a relationship with the living God where all spiritual knowledge and peace and hope can be developed.
The goal is to bring people into a place of spiritual awareness so that they can become conscious and aware of the amazing infinite glory that can be enjoyed in everyday life! So that our life becomes filled with His "Kingdom Light" of pleasure and power which completely eradicates all fear, anger, frustration, disappointment, jealousy, and any other "anchor" which keeps us chained to the physical world and all it's aches and pains and cravings problems.

I guess the easiest way to put it would be to say it is the awakening and realization of the Holy Spirit within one self. And when this amazing awakening happens, your life will be filled with a love of souls, all souls! You will be filled with a desire to help unlock the chains of burdens which shackel so many people. It is coming to the realization that all life has a destiny! And that there really are are only two possible destiny's:

• One with God and 
• One without God,      and it really is our choice!

So here we are two and one half years into "Praise Community Fellowship."  As some of you know we have lost some along this two and a half year journey and we have gained others. That is just life. One thing I can assure you though, our door will "Always" be open and welcoming to everyone who is seeking God.

Now, because of Gods grace and guidance we find ourselves on the doorstep of a tremendous opportunity. To step into a promised land of five acres currently known as the Well property. The people of the Well are praying as each of us should be with the prayer that God will do what He wills so that He may have the Glory and many will be served.The Well may become our permanent home! The place where we will build what God wants. That is what the notebooks were for.  See, every person in our congregation, let me emphasize, every person including the children, God can use for His purpose. So here is your assignment.

First, continue to pray that if it be God's will, we will soon be moving to the Well.
And, if we move to the Well, what is God speaking to you as to what your ministry will be?
How does God want to use you?  My answer to all of you is this. We want to become all that God wants us to become!  Now at this time I have no idea what all that means but open your spirit to His guidance and begin dreaming.  Let Him plant the seeds of our future in your heart.

But please don't fall into this trap! Thinking that we are going to be like all other churches. My gut is, I doubt very much if we will be like other churches. Remember, as you begin dreaming, that people are bailing from traditional churches. Now that does not mean that all traditions are bad but something is not working in most churches. The other huge thing to remember as you start to pray and ask God to help you plan this new church is this, "IT IS NOT PRIMARILY ABOUT YOU!"

Now let me try and explain that. Of course our church cares about you however here is the important point, we are to be thinking about the people who we do not yet know. How will we design and plan a church that will bring them in? That is the question! Because we are seeking to fulfill what Jesus said, to bring the gospel to all the world. We are seeking this who need to hear and understand the gospel for the first time!

Bottom line, pray to God, wait on God, trust God, then follow through with what ever it it is He is showing you!  Ok that's it for now but man is there a while lot more to talk about!

See you soon. Love, pastor kent

This Sunday

This Sunday, "With God All Things Are Possible!" 

Those are just words until you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then those same words become a promise! And when Gods words become a promise, energy is released. Spiritual energy. And when a people get filled with God's spiritual energy, "All Things Become Possible!" 

 You are not going to believe what God has been doing behind the scenes the last couple of months! Come and find out this Sunday and see why we are worshipping a God who is alive and well. Come and find out what it is like to get spiritually excited. This Sunday we are going to begin dreaming of the possibilities for our future. And as we begin this dialogue we will write on our hearts, "With God, all things are possible!" My dear friends and family, things are getting real exciting!  I mean real exciting! And its because we have been faithful in waiting on the Lord. This is His church!  He is the leader! He is the designer! We have one duty, to seek Him and His ways and be obedient. That is our job. The rest is up to Him.  He will not disappoint! All I can say is, it's almost time to break out the champagne and sing Hallelujah. God is good.  Let all the Glory be His for evermore! Amen!

Earlier this week I posted the following on the blog: "Here is what I would like all of you to do for me for this Sunday. Get a 3 x 5 note card and write these three questions on it.

1.) What do you wonder about?

2.) What do you worry about?

3.) What do you wish for?

Think about these three questions this week and write down your answers and bring them to the service Sunday. Drop them in the offering box. Do not put your name on them. It is going to help me develop relevant sermons over the next month or so. "However,  because of some new developments, just bring a notebook and a pen and be ready to take some notes for now. There are some things that you will probably want to write down during this next service. We will get to the note cards later.

God has a plan for your life and for Praise Community Fellowship!  Hope to see you soon. We have a lot of work to do for Gods Kingdom! Love, pastor kent