Sunday Wrap Up

I wanted to make a few comments today regarding Debbie's funeral service yesterday.

First of all, what a crowd! Many KP people told me they had never seen a crowd that large gather for a funeral visitation and service. I would estimate 1500, maybe more. One thing I noticed that I thought was a bit unusual was the times I would see people shedding tears not just around the casket but out in the hallway, in the fellowship hall, in the back of the church, or in the parking lot. And it just wasn't family, but friends, young people, neighbors, work peers, and fellow KP brothers and sisters. Debbie deeply touched a lot of people which was very evident everywhere on the grounds of Kings Point.

I have great admiration for Mike Kilburn. What he did yesterday was truly beyond belief. If you were there, I don't have to say anymore. I just don't know how a man can do all of what was required of him yesterday without divine strength. Throughout the day, I found myself studying him in awe. He just kept plowing ahead throughout the day. At times becoming overwhelmed with emotion and stopping to weep. But than gathering himself enough to be able to push himself forward.

I know everyone is praying for Mike and his family. But I ask that you especially hold up Mike with prayer and fastings. In the last two months he has been through much with Debbie's sickness and he also lost one of his best friends during this time. Lets keep loving them as the body of Christ. God will use you and I to bring healing over time...lots of time.

I want to thank the wonderful people at KP for all that you did Saturday and the days before for the Kilburn family. So many of you did so much that I cannot mention names for fearing of leaving people out. But we are a body, and every big and small part is crucial. I am so proud of the KP family!

I love you!

-Pastor

Some Saturday Thoughts...Debbie Kilburn

My family and I got back from Indiana Friday after visiting with my dad and mom over Thanksgiving. It was very nice. I brought my dad from the nursing home to eat Thanksgiving dinner with us. He is doing better than I have seen him in a while. He was excited to be at his house with all the family for Thanksgiving. He might be going home permanently next week.

I am writing this before I head to the church for Debbie's funeral service today. None of us are looking forward to this. I have been doing funerals for 27 years. You would think by now I could have trained myself to be emotionless at these services. But that is not the case. Even though many of the people I bury possess the fruits of salvation and I am confident are in heaven...I still find myself shedding tears throughout the ceremony. I guess this is okay. Even Jesus wept over Lazarus because he loved him and he loved those who were weeping for him. So even though we know they are in a better place, I guess it's okay to cry. We are being like Jesus...and that's always a good thing!

Debbie was special. As I will say today, she was a infuencer...a leader. I am sure Debbie never seen herself as a leader. But who she was and what she did influenced the people around her. Debbie got things done. If something needed to be done, she would volunteer to do it. Yes, she was busy. Busier than most. She was a wife, a mother, a businesswoman, a nurse, a cell leader, a Sunday School teacher, a public speaker, a counselor to many, a grandmother, a board member, and a County Comissionor's wife. But when the spirit of Christ in her saw a need she would use her giftings, time, or money to see that the need was met.

To say that Debbie's life was "a fruitful one" is an understatement. Everyday she was sowing seeds that multiplied and will be for years to come and throughout eternity. She understood thoroughly that God had appointed her to "bear fruit" and she was willing to stay connected to the Vine(Jesus) that allows for that to happen. Her relationship with Christ was the most important thing in her life and the good works (or fruit) flowed out of it.

I could go on and on. And I am sure in the days ahead I will write some more about Debbie. Today we will cemomorate her wonderful life. Yes, we will do it with tears only because like Jesus we loved her.

-Pastor

Giving Thanks is a Fruit of Salvation

As many of you have already heard, Debbie Kilburn passed away yesterday morning at the break of dawn. For Debbie, after a difficult night of unrest and pain, joy came in the morning. I am not just speaking in cliches, I sincerely believe that Christ came to receive her when He did to signify that her death represented the dawning of an eternal day with her heavenly Father in heaven.

Please keep Mike and the children in your prayers. The days ahead will not be easy ones. But the Spirit of God is the great Comforter to those that mourn. Debbie was a jewel. One of the most precious, Christ-centered women I have ever had the privilege of pastoring. She will be missed by all. I will have more comments in the days ahead.

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Hebrews 13:15 "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of [our] lips giving thanks to his name."

Did you know giving thanks is not just a reason to have a holiday or is it just a quality of a good, moral person, but the fruit of thanksgiving is a fruit of those that are converted and saved. If you’re soundly saved, there will be a cry within your heart, “thanks be to God for the unspeakable gift.” If there isn’t the fruit of thanksgiving, if there isn’t a gratitude burning in your soul, you may not be saved.

Sometimes, Christians who have been saved for many years allow the cares of this life to suppress their gratitude of salvation. I think that's why it is important that we constantly "remember" the cross of Christ and the great sacrifice He made for us at Calvary. When we do this daily, the response is one of sacrificial praise and thanksgiving unto God for our costly salvation.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

-Pastor Randy

Praying Prayers of Thanks

I love this particular week of the year. It really is a week we should designate for offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving. We will do that this week on this blog. I will give you a few comments and a offer you a thanksgiving prayer that you can pray today. I encourage you to make it a week of thanks!

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God saw you when you were in your mother’s womb (Ps. 139:13-16). He knew your mother and father and the circumstances of the home where you were to grow up. He knew the schools you would attend and the neighborhood in which you would live.

God gave you the ability to survive and walked with you through good times and bad. He gave you survival techniques and guardian angels to keep and protect you (Ps. 91:11). He chose you before the foundation of the world to be holy and without blame before Him in love (Eph. 1:4).

He cried with you when you cried. He laughed with you when you laughed. He was grieved when you were misunderstood and treated unfairly. He watched and waited, looking forward to the day when you would receive Jesus as your Savior. To as many as received Him gave He the power, the right, and the authority to become the sons of God (John 1:12 AMP). He longs for your fellowship, desiring for you to know Him more and more intimately.

Your survival techniques were probably different than mine. Whatever they were, and whatever your life may have been like up to this point, the peace of God can change the regrets and the wounds of the past into thanksgiving and praise. You can experience wholeness by earnestly and sincerely praying this prayer.

Daily Prayer of Thanksgiving

Father, I come to You in the name of Jesus. With the help of the Holy Spirit and by Your grace, I join with the heavenly host making a joyful noise to You and serving You with gladness! I come before Your presence with singing!

Lord, I know (perceive, recognize, and understand with approval) that You are God! It is You Who made us, not we ourselves [and we are Yours]! We are Your people and the sheep of Your pasture.

Father, I enter into Your gates with thanksgiving and present an offering of thanks. I enter into Your courts with praise! I am thankful and delight to say so. I bless and affectionately praise Your name! For You are good and Your mercy and loving-kindness are everlasting. Your faithfulness and truth endure to all generations. It is a good and delightful thing to give thanks to You, O Most High.

Lord, by Your Holy Spirit, perfect the fruit of my lips. Help me draw thanksgiving forth from my innermost resources; reach down into the most secret places of my heart that I may offer significant thanksgiving to You, Father.

Thank You for my parents who gave me life. I am grateful for the victories and achievements I have experienced in spite of my hurts — the bruises and the abuses that boxed me in when I was a small child. You used them for good even though Satan intended them for my destruction.

You prepared me to listen to the inner voice — the voice of Your Holy Spirit.

Thank You for Your grace, which is teaching me to trust myself and others. Thank You for life — life in all its abundance.

It was You Who gave me a desire to pray, and I am grateful for the prayer closet where we meet, and I thank You for Your Word. Life is exciting, and I am grateful that I am alive for such a time as this.

Thank You for past and present relationships. I learn from those who oppose me and from those who are for me. You taught me to recognize and understand my strengths and weaknesses. You gave me discernment and spiritual understanding. I enter Your gates with thanksgiving in my heart.

You are my Father. I am Your child, loved by You unconditionally. I rejoice in You, Lord, and give thanks at the remembrance of Your holiness.

I am an overcomer by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of my testimony.

In the name of Jesus, amen.


Scripture References:
Psalm 100:1-5 AMP Philippians 2:13
Psalm 92:1 AMP Esther 4:14
Psalm 138:8 Psalm 100:4
Hebrews 13:15 Philippians 3:1
Genesis 50:20 NIV Psalm 30:4
John 10:10 Revelation 12:11

Sunday Wrap Up

Great weekend of worship services! Great preaching by Rick Lairsey. I appreciate everyone who came out, participated, and gave in the offerings.

Please continue to remember the Kilburn family, little Hannah Taulbee and I know the McBeath children were sick today, so please remember them in your prayers.

Everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving week. May God's traveling mercies be with you!

-Pastor Randy

Some Saturday Thoughts...

* We had a wonderful service tonight at Kings Point with Evangelist Rick Lairsey. Not a bad crowd. Could it have been better...still too much complacency out there! My prayer is one day that will change. But I am afraid it will be very painful for the body of Christ.

* Debbie Kilburn is not doing very well. Please remember Debbie, Mike, Stacey, Suzi, Steve, and Stephanie in your prayers.

* Please remember little Hannah Taulbee in your prayers. She recently had a six-hour surgery and is in quite a bit of pain as she recovers.

* I appreciate John Bauer and those that went with him this morning to the Gospel Rescue Mission. I am sure they were a blessing to all the homeless that ate breakfast this morning.

Well, its been a busy, long day. I hope to see you in God's house in the morning.

-Pastor Randy

Friday Countdown..."The End of Empire America"

If you don't believe that God gives His people in modern times prophetic visions and prophetic words, then you probably will not want to read the following. If you are overly optimistic about our country and believe that everything will return to normal soon and the U.S. will continue to be the world's superpower, then you probably should not read the following. If you are comfortable in this world and are not ready for the rapture or the bad times that lie ahead for this world, then you definitely don't want to read the below article.

This article appeared in Andrew Strom's website called prophetic@revivalschool.com. In the past, I have found this site and Andrew's ministry to be very credible and most if not all of the prophetic words to be accurate.

THE END of EMPIRE AMERICA
-by Robert I Holmes.

This article will cover a range of issues which have been brewing
for six to twelve months in my heart. History will judge America as
an empire. That empire is coming to an end. The election of Barak
Obama is a significant prophetic event, marking the sunset of that
empire, and the rising of other powers in the earth who represent
ancient powers and civilisations. These ideas have consequences
for believers living both in the US and the countries who rely on her
(like Australia). But to address those things, I need to go back
eight years.

Standing in Upstate New York in 2000, I had a conversation with
the Lord which I shall never forget. The Lord asked me "How long
does an empire last?" to which I asked, "Am I standing in an
empire?" [it did not occur to me that I was standing in the Empire
State!] Rather than answering me directly, He said, "All empires
come to an end". I pondered this for a moment. What empire?
Was this country coming to an end? Then He asked a third
question: "How do people position themselves as an empire nears
its eventual end?" The implications of his line of thought were clear.
America had become an empire, had influenced the world, but was
now nearing the end of her reign as a sovereign super power. God
wanted his people to know, their day in the sun is ending; the
sunset is coming. He wanted them to make preparations and
adjustments.

What is an Empire?

The concept of an American Empire was first popularized in the
aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898 (during which it
took control of the Philippines and other Pacific island nations).
America rates as an empire not only because of her global
sovereignty but because of her super power status.

She is actually the world's first "hyper power". Hubert Vedrine, the
French Foreign Minister stated in July 2003 that, "The United
States of America today predominates on the economic, monetary,
technological and in the cultural arena in terms of power and
influence it is not comparable to anything known in modern history -
in short the US is a hyper puissance [hyper power]".

Alexander Cometh!

In 1999, as I prepared to travel to the US on ministry, the Lord gave
me a very unusual prophetic word. He said that, "In the days of
Babylon, when her walls stood wide and her leaders stood tall, her
defences were strong and her campaigns victorious, Alexander the
Great came and defeated her. In the same way, my Alexander will
stand in the very midst of the United States of America".

The phrase "in the same way" indicates that America's walls are
wide, her leaders stand tall, her defences are strong, her
campaigns until now have been victorious. But a man like
Alexander - someone God refers to as "my Alexander" will stand
in her midst, victorious and defeat her. Alexander the Great, a
Mediterranean Greek, defeated Darius the Mede in 331BC at the
Battle of Gaugamela, and the gates of Babylon swung open to him
(when he was just 25 years old). He stood in the midst of the
courtyard declaring himself king. He then spent considerable time
and effort trying to restore Babylon to its former glory.

As I prayed in preparation for going to the US two weeks ago on
ministry again, I had a vision of a map of America from high above.
There, almost in the centre of it was a marketplace. I zoomed
down toward the marketplace, and saw a man standing there. I
recognised by the Spirit that it was Alexander the Great, standing
in a dusty, sandstone area, sword lifted high, victorious.

I believe that God's "Alexander" is Barak Obama. He has now
stood in the middle of America, and declared his victory speech in
Grant Park in Chicago. There, he prophetically declared, "Change
has come to America,". Yes indeed, it has. Barak, apart from
having the appearance of a Middle Eastern or African man, is also
very young and inexperienced. Barak Obama has not even had a
full year in his senate position. I do not question the right of a 47
year old to rule a nation, but his inexperience is not reduced by his
amazing oratory skill. "Your sons will take the place of your fathers;
you will make them princes throughout [in all] the earth," (Psalm 45:16 NIV).

He represents the end of empire America as we know it, and the
opening of a new regime, one which, like Alexander, represents a
conflagration of old powers: European, Middle Eastern and Asian.
He will try to restore America's glory, but in doing so relegate her
to second position on the global scene.

Chinese communist armies may well stand ready to invade the US,
but she is extremely well guarded. Muslim extremists are surely
planning further self-destructive attacks on US soil, but she is well
prepared. It is certain that European economies seek to outflank
the US, but given the present economic collapse, their hopes fall
with the US.

There remains one great enemy the US has no protection against
at all: themselves. It is to ourselves we must look. The society we
have created, the environment we have destroyed, the economy
we have overtaxed, the people we have abandoned, the poor we
have ignored, the sin we have run toward, the morals we have
abandoned. These things must change.

- Arrogance and greed are their own poison.

- Pride brings its own inevitable fall.

- Moral corruption is its own debilitating cancer.

America Is In the Cycle

In a substantial review of empires, Salem Kirban concluded that
"world dominating civilizations progress through the following fairly
well defined sequence of stages."

- Bondage;

- Spiritual faith/ revival;

- Courage/ war;

- Liberty for the people;

- Prosperity/ abundance/ wealth;

- Complacency/ apathy;

- Dependency/ debt;

- Moral corruption/ addiction;

- Bondage.

It does not take an historian or a scholar to see that America has
traversed her way through this very cycle of life, and finds herself in
the dependency/debt and moral corruption/ addiction stages.
National debt stands at 10,639,613,228,421 today (that's ten point
six trillion and rising). It is the most indebted nation on earth. Debt
stands at 70% of GDP. And to whom is that money owed? The US
government itself owns about 43% of it. The next largest holder is
the US Federal Reserve, and after that: Japan, China, Britain and
Oil countries of the Middle East (who together hold 29%, which is
more than private sector Americans). About 66% of the debt
owned by foreign nations is held by banks of other countries, in
particular the central banks of Japan and China.

Recall the prophetic words about the end of an empire, preparing
for the days to come, and the appearance of an Alexander figure -
the era of America's dominance is closing. Barak will oversee the
increase of influence of foreign powers in the US: the power of
ancient nations and forces. Specifically: European, Middle Eastern
and Asian. The everyday mortgages of middle income Americans
are owned by Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, which in turn are
heavily indebted to Japan, China and Middle Eastern oil states.
This situation will only get more and more entwined. America
stands a very real exposure to risk should foreign banks stop
buying Treasury securities or start selling them heavily.

This risk was addressed in a recent report issued by the Bank of
International Settlements which stated, "Foreign investors in U.S.
dollar assets have seen big losses measured in dollars, and still
bigger ones measured in their own currency. While unlikely, a
sudden rush for the exits cannot be ruled out completely." (9). One
economic analyst, Nouriel Roubini keenly observes, "The US has
squandered its uni-polar moment, the decline of the American
Empire - as the US was a global empire - has started... We are
indeed slowly moving towards a multi-polar world where there will
be a balance of Great Powers rather than the hegemony of a single
hyperpower."

Change of Government, But No Change of Heart

There will be a change of president in the White House in January,
2009. The US president is moving from Republican to Democrat,
but that does nothing to change the heart of the nation. The rise of
a Black leader does nothing to address the moral malady she is in.
Obama is not the nation's savior. The nation is already deep in the
throes of a national depression which will last between 2-10 years,
it is the most indebted nation in history, and no man can rescue
such a situation.

If Kirban is right, and if this word is true, the nation will bring
herself undone. She will decay, and implode - and then bondage
must come. As Irish philosopher Edmund Burke once said,
"Society cannot exist unless a controlling power upon will and
appetite be placed somewhere, and the less of it there is within,
the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal
constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be
free. Their passions forge their fetters," (11). Our passions must
necessarily forge external fetters to govern us. Famine, strife,
martial law, war, invasion and poverty ensue.

God calls Barak Obama "my Alexander". His standing in the midst
of America, victorious, was a prophetic announcement that change
indeed has come to America. The American Empire is coming to
an end. There is a global shift from a single super power to the rise
of other powers in the earth. These ideas have consequences for
believers living both in the US and the countries who rely on her.
Our world is getting set to change!

Now God asks, "How will you position yourself as the empire
nears its eventual end?"

~This article has been slightly abridged for space. To read the
entire piece, please go to- http://www.stormharvest.com.au/

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