Effective Prayer

Let me give you a huge clue about effective prayer. It's not about what you want, It's about what God wants!

Join us tomorrow as we continue our series on Prayer. We will come to gather for Praise, Communion, Fellowship and Worship.

See you tomorrow at 6:30PM, Crystal Garden, 1230 University Drive, Edwardsville.

See you there. Love, pastor kent

Are you Missing God's Answer to Your Prayers?

The Jews of Jesus' time had extensive knowledge of the scriptures yet completely missed Jesus.  How could that be?  Here is what Jesus said to the Jews of His day:

John 5:39-44New International Version (NIV)

39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.41 “I do not accept glory from human beings, 42 but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. 44 How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

We are still blind and deaf when it comes to spiritual things but it does not have to be that way. We have a choice, but that choice requires change. Change makes people uncomfortable. People don't like to be uncomfortable. 

I am recuperating from my surgery and a lower back injury. I have to make myself uncomfortable by exercising to get stronger. I would rather relax and rest but the longer I do that, the weaker I become. I must push, sweat, make my muscles burn, and continue to increase the "uncomfortable" zone so as to strengthen and grow.

Gods way of life is like that. You must be willing to leave your comfort zone to discover the treasure.

This Sunday, September 7th, Communion, Praise, Fellowship, and more on Prayer.

PCF youth I invite you to come to the service this Sunday with questions about prayer. I may just call on you! See you at 6:30 Crystal Garden.

See you Sunday, love pastor kent

Tuesday Morning Thoughts on Hearing God in a Noisy World

This coming Sunday we will resume our series on prayer. All of us have experienced "failed" prayers. We prayed with as much faith as we can muster but to no avail. Now what?

Effective prayer requires you to know the God you are praying to. This Sunday we will try and open the door to that understanding. We are going to get involved in getting to know God.

To give you a little teaser about how our God operates, let me take you to a story from the Old Testament found in 2nd Kings chapter 5.

We meet a man named Naaman, a commander in an army. He was a big shot but also a man of valor according to the bible. Naaman could represent any one of us today. Naaman was stricken with the dreaded disease Leprosy, the cancer of the time. Naaman hears about a guy named Elisha, a guy who would pray to the God of Israel, who would then heal the person he prayed for. Naaman hears of Elisha thru a young girl that his army had captured on one of his raids. A young Israelite girl.

Naaman decides to go see this Elisha deciding that he would give it a try!  He shows up a Elisha's house but Elisha does not even come down to greet him. Instead, Elisha sends Naaman a message by one of his servants. The message read, Go wash in the Jordan river seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean."

Now ask yourself, if you had a serious disease, would you pay any attention to let's say a 10 year old little girl? A girl that you don't even know? And imagine if this 10 year old little girl came up to you and said, "Go see so and so and he will heal you?"  Be honest. Would you give that suggestion any credible thought? ….probably not!  

But what if you did? You go see this probable crack pot who won't even see you in person, and he sends you a hand written message that says, "Go to the Mississippi river down by the Arch and wash in it seven times to get healed."  Now how many of you would still be with the program?

We worship an interesting, mysterious God. If you don't know Him you will miss Him which means you are probably missing the answers to your prayers! A life that is committed to knowing God will be a very interesting and amazing journey!

Bring someone to church this Sunday to get in on this amazing series on prayer. Praise Community Fellowship is about helping people get to know and enjoy God in their daily life!

You can read the Bible account of Naaman Here.

See you this Sunday.  Love, pastor kent

Reminder

There is NO Praise Community Fellowship Service this evening!  We will resume next Sunday same time same channel.  Have a blessed Holiday.

Love, pastor kent

That's Ridiculous!

Imagine the following ridiculous scenario:

Yo are single and you hear about a beautiful (man or woman) that you would like to get to know. You do some detective work and find someone who knows them. You then approach this person and begin an inquiry. "How well do you know this (man or woman)?"  "What can you tell me about him/her?" "Are they dating anyone?" "Do you think he/she would be interested in me?" and on and on the questions continue until which time you are ready for a formal introduction. Alas, you hit it off, you begin dating and eventually decide to get married. Ah but marriage is such a huge commitment. What if this, and that… and what if he/she doesn't like my …. or my….. Would I be willing to compromise?  What if …… or ….. and I have to change this or that?  Oh I'm not sure about such a commitment. I mean I really like who this person is and we really enjoy each others company but marriage, man that's another thing.

Maybe I'll ask my friend to move in with him/her and they can then just tell me about what its like to be in a close relationship with him/her. So once a week from that moment on for about an hour you meet the friend who is living with the one you really liked and get the stories and the details about the relationship. Many times you come away from the weekly meeting smiling and imagining how wonderful that relationship must be. But you continue to have this emptiness and longing on the inside. You say to yourself over and over, "I wish I could experience the joy that my friend speaks about each week.   But committing your life to that special person just seems like too much.

 Eventually you stop meeting with your friend once a week. Your meetings become less and less frequent and the stories of the wonderful life of being in a committed relationship become less and less interesting. You remain empty and keep wondering why? You think to yourself, "If marriage is so wonderful, how come it never fulfills me?" " I really don't understand all these married people, what is so special about that?"

Welcome to CHURCH if you aren't willing to get up-close and personal and in a committed relationship with Jesus. The pastor is your safe go-between. You learn about the joys and challenges of commitment without ever committing.  Wonder why so many people have chosen to take church off their commitment calendar?

We are surrounded by our circumstances of life.  Our circumstances become our main focus. The trouble is, all of our circumstances whether good or bad are all temporary. None of them will last past this lifetime. There are only a couple of things that will continue after this life and committed relationship with Jesus is one of them.

We will continue our series on Prayer on September 7th!  There is no service this next Sunday due to the Labor Day weekend.

A "church" person will think that it is awful of me calling off church for a holiday.  A person who knows and loves Jesus will celebrate the holiday with me in full confidence that Jesus understands and approves of our time together as friends and family. It ain't about church!!!!!  It's about a committed relationship with the living Savior.  He's patiently for you.

Love all of you. See you soon. Love, pastor kent

News

Attention PCF Youth: 

Due to the conflict of schedules, the first youth group meeting for Wednesday August 27th is CANCELED.

SAVE THE DATE:  

Next youth group meeting - Thursday September 18th.  More information will be announce before the next meeting.

If you have not done so, PLEASE send your email contact to rburian1974@hotmail.com

Thank you,

Sheryl Burian  

The Walk to Hear God Talk

As I have told you before one of my favorite things in the whole world to do is to take what I a call a "prayer walk."  I focus on God, ask questions, and then try to listen.  I say try because my brain seems to always be busy.

Try to imagine yourself taking a person to person prayer walk with Jesus. What do you think He would tell you? When you come up with an answer thank Him, because you probably just heard from Him!

Good News  I had a short vista with Butch Peterson today at his home and he is doing much, much better than when I saw him  in the hospital. He is looking forward to coming back to church, he said he is planning on being there the next time we meet on September 7th.  That's right we are NOT meeting next week due to the Labor day weekend.  Butch asked for continued prayer for full recovery.

We are studying prayer and one way to learn more about prayer is to make a special effort to double down on your prayer time. I believe when we finish this series you are going to be hearing God like you never have before!

See you soon. Love, Pastor kent