Sunday Wrap Up

Great job tonight, youth! Everyone of them did a super job. Especially the human video...powerful! Jeremy and Teen Challenge did a great job. We will have Jeremy's message along with two of the guys testimonies on the web site by Tuesday sometime. Great service!

We ask everyone tonight to bring a pack or more of gum with them to church next Sunday. My mother who is going to Haiti in early April ask if we would collect packs of gum so that she could take it with her to the children there.

Sunday morning's service was awesome. The presence of God was strong in the service. I know the Lord ministered to a lot of people. Thank you Father for yor presence and your Word.

Everyone have a great week!

-Pastor

Table Fellowship

Great time at the chili dinner last night. Great job as always guys last night to make it happen: Ken, Mike, Jeff, Tim, Frank, and Gerry. Thanks to all the others who helped out. We couldn't do it without ya!

Wow, the chili was great. Being a judge was tough, because it was all good! I liked eating a little of each. I think I will do that next year whether I'm a judge or not. Jeff Brumfield's chili won the contest for the best tasting. Brian's chili of course was the hottest. Speaking for the judges, we should have tasted Brian's last. Because after tasting his, we could hardly taste the next few samples...our taste buds needed about five minutes and lots of Sprite to recover. I think my mouth is still burning!

The service was wonderful too. Rob Mason did a great job of preaching God's Word. We had a wonderful time of prayer and ministry.

Just a comment on "table fellowship" which goes all the way back to the first church in Acts. The bible says the Christians in the first church went house to house breaking bread. Something happens during table fellowship that doesn't take place in a corporate worship service or even a small group meeting. People share openly...they are more comfortable...people put up less walls or no walls...while doing something most of us enjoy - eating. God really uses times of table fellowship to do a work in the lives of believers as we partake of our daily Bread. I just want to encourage you today to remember to practice "table fellowship." Our Savior did often with his disciples. Why shouldn't we?

Have a great day!

-Pastor

We Begin Monthly Youth Services this Sunday!

This Sunday evening will be an exciting service for KP. Jeremy Long was saved in our youth group at the beginning of the decade. Jeremy was a sincere, sweet teenager with a tender and obedient spirit. I remember when Jeremy came to me about what do with his life after high school. He felt the call to preach and we talked and prayed together in what should happen next. Jeremy told me about a bible college in Colorado directed by David Wilkerson's son, Rich. Jeremy ended up going there where he was equipped for the work of the ministry. Afterwards, Jeremy came back home where he works at Teen Challenge in Milford and also serves as a youth pastor in a church in Goshen.

Jeremy will be preaching Sunday night in a special monthly youth service at KP. Our monthly youth services will be the last or fourth Sunday evening of the month and we will be letting the youth lead the service with a special guest youth speaker each month. Everyone, adults and youth, are strongly encouraged to attend.

-Pastor

Sunday Wrap Up

As I am writing this, I am sitting here half awake. I didn't get my power nap today and its caught up with me.

It was a great day. Good service this morning. Good service tonight. I just sat back tonight and received for the most part. It felt good. T.O. did a wonderful job preaching while A.J. ran the service.

Wow, I better go! I keep nodding off. Have a great week!

-Pastor

What Tiger Woods Really Needs

Today Tiger Woods apologized various times for his infidelity at a called new conference. He acted very sincere and humble. He said that he had veered off course from what his Buddhist faith had taught him growing up. But he never said anything about receiving forgiveness or redemption from his Buddhist god or teachers of that religion.

So is Tiger Woods still carrying the guilt of his wrongdoing? Has he received redemption and forgiveness?

As I already stated, he did apologize and we presume that he ask his wife for her forgiveness. But does that take away the sin? No doubt it makes the consequences of the sin or sins easier, but the sin and the guilt is still there.

In the Old Testament, under the law, when a person sinned he would bring a sacrifice to the brazen altar to atone for his sin. The word atonement means "to cover." The sin and the guilt still exists after the offering, but the blood of bulls and goats could only cover...not take it away.

In Psalm 51, David understood the power of God's forgiveness provided for in the sacrificial death of God's son, Jesus Christ.

"Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin." [Psalm 51:1,2,NKJV]

This is what Tiger so badly needs...true, liberating, cleansing forgiveness from the one that he sinned against. Buddhism, his wife, his kids, the media, his mother; no human or institution can provide that. This is why Jesus came into the world...to seek and save those who are lost...to provide for the forgiveness of sins.

Matt 26:28 "for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins." NASU

-Pastor

Some Thoughts on Logs and Specks

Matt 7:1-5 "Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye'; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye. NKJV

` The Greek word for judge is "krínete," it means to distinguish, decide (mentally or judicially); by implication, to try, condemn, punish:

~ I think this is a natural law, related to the sowing and reaping principle. There's no doubt, when we judge others it will come back to us. It's easy to judge someone else, its not so easy when their judgement of us comes back on us.

~ Isn't crazy that we can spot the speck or specks when we examine others, but we can't see our own log or logs.

~ Truthfully, how can we see the speck in others when we have a log of our own? We really can't...its impossible!

~ I think its interesting that first Jesus says you must remove your own log before you can see clearly enough to help someone else with their speck. But can I suggest that is very painful removing a log out of your eye. I've cried just trying to get a small speck out out of my own eye. I can't imagine what I would do if I had to get a log out of my own eye. The truth is...I have...and not only was it painful, but aggravating and embarrassing. It left me with a great deal of compassion for others with specks or logs of their own.

~ Come to think of it, I think after removing our own log that's how we can help others with their speck. Not only does it leave us with the ability to see clearly but it also provides for us the compassion and patience that's needed to truly help others.

~ After we have removed our own and helped others remove theirs, we probably won't be looking for specks in others for ahile. You think?

Have a wonderful day!

-Pastor

Does God Have Anything to Do with all this Snow?

Wow, whats with all this snow? My son told me today that he has never seen snow like this in his lifetime and no doubt he hasn't. When I was his age in 1978, winters like this were the norm. It seemed like every year we had a major blizzard that was labeled as the "Blizzard of '78' or whatever year the blizzard hit. But in the last twenty-five years the winters have been mild for some reason.

Some have suggested that God may be trying to send a message to the global warming crowd with all the snow and cold we've been having, especially in Washington D.C. Recently, in the President's State of the Union message, our President and many of those in attendance scoffed at the notion that there were still some people in America that did not believe in global warming. Does God really have a say in the global warming debate? Would God actually try to make a point or bring about his will through extreme weather?

Well, the answer is absolutely. You only have to look at the Old and New Testament for evidence. See Noah's flood; see God sending an east wind of locusts in Exodus 10; see Job's disaster; see the Lord raining down hailstones in Joshua 10; see Jesus' rebuking the winds; God sending famine in Ezekiel and Jeremiah; see God sending snow, frost, and cold in Psalm 78:47, and Job 37:6. Believe me, I could go on and on. The bible is full of examples of God sending all kinds of weather for his own purposes.

But even more pointed than that, God absolutely has a problem with the wicked and the foolish who think that they are smarter than His word. I am speaking of those who ignore his counsel and who become proud in their own knowledge. Read below about how God reacts to such people.

Prov 1:22-27
22 'How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity?
For scorners delight in their scorning,
And fools hate knowledge.
23 Turn at my rebuke;
Surely I will pour out my spirit on you;
I will make my words known to you.
24 Because I have called and you refused,
I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
25 Because you disdained all my counsel,
And would have none of my rebuke,
26 I also will laugh at your calamity;
I will mock when your terror comes,
27 When your terror comes like a storm,
And your destruction comes like a whirlwind,
When distress and anguish come upon you.
28 "Then they will call on me, but I will not answer;
They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
29 Because they hated knowledge
And did not choose the fear of the Lord,
30 They would have none of my counsel
And despised my every rebuke.
31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way,
And be filled to the full with their own fancies.
32 For the turning away of the simple will slay them,
And the complacency of fools will destroy them;
33 But whoever listens to me will dwell safely,
And will be secure, without fear of evil." NKJV

Does God have anything to do with all this snow? Personally, I really don't know. But its obvious according to his word he controls the weather and he can use it if he wants to make those who think their wise look and sound foolish...and the global warming crowd seems to be sounding rather foolish these days.

-Pastor

-Pastor