Official Assembly of God Statement of Faith #13-The resurrection of those who have fallen asleep in Christ and their translation together with those who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord is the imminent and blessed hope of the church.
The rapture is, in short, when God will remove the Christians from the earth and take them to join Him in heaven without dying first. There are many different opinions about the rapture-Pre-Trib where the Christians are taken up before the 7 year tribulation, Mid-Trib where they are removed in the middle of the 7 year tribulation and Post-Trib where they are taken up to heaven after the tribulation. The Assembly of God church believes that the rapture will occur before the 7 year tribulation.
In general the time line will be that just before the 7 year tribulation, all Christians will be raptured or caught up into the air with Jesus. There will be two men working in a field and one will be gone while the other remains, two sitting together and one is gone while the second remains. Then there will be a 7 year tribulation or a period of very difficult times. It is 7 years when God is trying to draw the people of Israel to Him. During the tribulation, the Anti-Christ will be revealed and God will perform spectacular things. We believe that there will be 144,000 saved in this time frame as spoken about in Rev. 7:9-17. At the end of the 7 years will be the revelation or second coming of Christ and the Battle of Armageddon will occur and Satan will be bound. Then will come the millennial reign or 1,000 year reign of Jesus Christ on earth and after that the GreatWhite Throne Judgment when nonbelievers will be resurrected and brought before the Lord for judgment. Satan will be cast into Hell and there shall be a new heavens and earth for the rest of eternity.
To try to explain the end times here in one post as I believe it to be, is not possible and in all honesty I still have some questions about the Rapture and other end times events myself. Shannon and I are hoping to study about this at a later date in more detail. Ultimately, what this entire doctrinal statement comes down to for myself is that I need to be sure that I am a believer in Christ because I have no way of knowing exactly at what time God will choose to remove me from this earth, whether it be through death or the rapture. I need to also remember that no matter when my death or the rapture should occur, as long as I remain faithful to Christ and do not allow myself to renounce Him under any circumstances I will live with Him forever.
"For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the LOrd forever." 1 Thess. 4:16-17
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Thursday, April 24, 2008
End Time Glory Spring 2008 Conference
It is the weekend for the spring 2008 Glory Conference. You can find more information here. Feel free to join us there. We'd love to see you. Take note of the location since it has changed since the last one. It is sure to be a blessed time with praise and worship and good teachings. I won't be blogging until next week now as we will be busy attending and ministering at the conference.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Statement of Faith #12-Divine Healing
Official Assembly of God Statement of Faith #12-Divine healing is an integral part of the gospel. Deliverance from sickness is provided for in the atonement, and is the privilege of all believers.
Throughout the bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, are examples of Divine healing. Some who were healed were Jews and non-Jews with blindness, leprosy crippling conditions and even death. Because we believe in an unchanging and merciful God, it is also a very large part of our belief system to believe that God still heals. Sometimes He uses doctors to accomplish the healing and other times there is no scientific explanation for a healing. I have seen this personally in those I have prayed for in church, at home or overseas. I have seen healings of blindness, deafness, fibromyalgia, and other physical problems. Several years ago a man was completely healed of his Multiple Sclerosis right in our current church. He is now a pastor.
This is such an important part of what we believe we use the word integral in the statement of faith. Integral means that it is necessary for completeness or essential to our faith.
Even though we believe that God does still heal, we cannot find ourselves focusing on those times where He does not. It is quite common, especially in less developed countries, but I have seen it here as well, for Christians to believe that if they are not healed, it is because they do not have enough faith or because they still have sin in their lives. That is not true. There are times that even though we are not miraculously healed we need to remember that God is still using that condition or illness to His glory. He may be refining the person with the malady but more often, in my opinion, it is because He is using that person's ongoing faithfulness and love to God as an example to others around them. Both Christians and non-Christians cannot help but notice when someone remains peaceful and calm through the bad times as well as the good. Your actions and attitude through the storm will often be more of a witness to God for those around you.
"He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons." -Matthew 10:1,2,8,9
Throughout the bible, in both the Old and New Testaments, are examples of Divine healing. Some who were healed were Jews and non-Jews with blindness, leprosy crippling conditions and even death. Because we believe in an unchanging and merciful God, it is also a very large part of our belief system to believe that God still heals. Sometimes He uses doctors to accomplish the healing and other times there is no scientific explanation for a healing. I have seen this personally in those I have prayed for in church, at home or overseas. I have seen healings of blindness, deafness, fibromyalgia, and other physical problems. Several years ago a man was completely healed of his Multiple Sclerosis right in our current church. He is now a pastor.
This is such an important part of what we believe we use the word integral in the statement of faith. Integral means that it is necessary for completeness or essential to our faith.
Even though we believe that God does still heal, we cannot find ourselves focusing on those times where He does not. It is quite common, especially in less developed countries, but I have seen it here as well, for Christians to believe that if they are not healed, it is because they do not have enough faith or because they still have sin in their lives. That is not true. There are times that even though we are not miraculously healed we need to remember that God is still using that condition or illness to His glory. He may be refining the person with the malady but more often, in my opinion, it is because He is using that person's ongoing faithfulness and love to God as an example to others around them. Both Christians and non-Christians cannot help but notice when someone remains peaceful and calm through the bad times as well as the good. Your actions and attitude through the storm will often be more of a witness to God for those around you.
"He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness. As you go, preach this message: The kingdom of heaven is near. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, and drive out demons." -Matthew 10:1,2,8,9
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Chickens!
On May 5th there will be 20 newly hatched chicks that will be placed in a box with a shipping label to Minnesota. They are coming here, to our house!
Before you call us impulsive, as some who have known us for a long time think we are, may I say that we have been considering having chickens here on our 6 acres since we moved out here in 1997 and have been considering it more seriously for a couple of years now. After some research, talking with a cousin(Thanks Minke!)and discussion as a couple then as a family, we have decided this is something we want to do. Here are some reasons why.
Chickens are easy to care for and make a good family project. They are inexpensive to purchase and to keep. They lay eggs. The cost of groceries continues to climb and the nutritional value of eggs cannot be denied. Our family likes eggs and eats a lot of them. Home grown eggs usually have better, more flavorful yolks and are just plain better for you than store bought. Imagine, collecting the eggs just a few minutes before cooking them. Finally, this reason being one of the biggest to us, is that we are eventually going to be moving to Tanzania where we are hoping to have a mini-working farm within the ministry to help feed and support the children in the orphanage. We know chickens will be one of the first animals there and that we will be raising and eating a lot of them. Anything we can learn to do here in the relative comfort of our own culture seems like it would be a benefit in the long run. Although, we aren't quite ready to branch out into goats, cows and pigs yet, we know that will come once we are over there.
Call us crazy if you will but this is one of the least crazy decisions we have made in a long time.
Edited to add:For those with chicken knowledge who may want to know, here are the breeds we ordered. We have 5 of each coming to us-Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, Silver Laced Wyandotte and a Rhode Island Red/Delaware Hybrid. We chose based on our research of personalities and egg laying capabilities as well as looks. The rest of the decision lay in how long we wanted to wait for our chicks. One breed we were considering would have held up delivery until June so we decided on a different breed. For those without the knowledge, there will be pictures later.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Tags or Labels
I wanted to let everyone know that I have finally decided to add tags to my posts. Tags are simple "search" words that are assigned to each post. These tags can then later be used to help search for posts on specific subjects within the blog. For example, "doctrine" would bring up all of the doctrine related posts or just for fun would bring up jokes or funny videos I have posted. My tags will eventually all be listed on the side of the blog where clicking on them will bring up the related posts.
I have found that even I, the author of this hang out, am often unable to find my own posts to refer to later so I am hoping this will be helpful to myself as well as our readers. Give me some time to get this done. I hope to eventually get every post, all 215 of them, tagged.
I have found that even I, the author of this hang out, am often unable to find my own posts to refer to later so I am hoping this will be helpful to myself as well as our readers. Give me some time to get this done. I hope to eventually get every post, all 215 of them, tagged.
Statement of Faith #11-The Ministry
Official Assembly of God Statement of Faith #11-A divinely called and scripturally ordained ministry has been provided by our Lord for the threefold purpose of leading the Church in: 1)Evangelization of the World. 2)Worship of God. 3)Building a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son.
In class we actually covered this statement of faith on the same day as the church and its ministry. These two statements are so closely related that they kind of blur together. Ultimately, in a nutshell, this statements says that we believe that those in authority in the church have been selected or appointed for duty and called by GOd to be our leaders.
We also believe that the various positions of church leadership were put into place, ordered, established and explained in the scriptures as follows.
Apostle-a person sent by another, a messenger Luke 6:14-15
Deacon-a servant Acts 6:5-6
Disciple-a student, follower of Christ
Elder-a person of authority entitled to respect Eph 4:11, Acts 20:38, Heb 13:7, 1 Thes. 5:12, Numbers 22:7
Evangelist-preacher of the gospel
Overseer-another term for elder
Pastor-another term for elder
Prophet-a spokesman for God and speaks with God's authority
1 Timothy 3:2-13 and Titus 1:5-9 give the requirements for leadership.
The purpose then of the church leadership is to lead and direct the members of he church at large to do the three duties of the church mentioned in Statement of Faith #10. Namely, evangelization of the world, worship of God and Building a body of saints.
It is important for us as church members to be constantly in prayer for the leaders in our churches. Often, it is the church leadership that Satan attacks the hardest. This is because if the leader can be brought down many, many followers will be too.
In class we actually covered this statement of faith on the same day as the church and its ministry. These two statements are so closely related that they kind of blur together. Ultimately, in a nutshell, this statements says that we believe that those in authority in the church have been selected or appointed for duty and called by GOd to be our leaders.
We also believe that the various positions of church leadership were put into place, ordered, established and explained in the scriptures as follows.
Apostle-a person sent by another, a messenger Luke 6:14-15
Deacon-a servant Acts 6:5-6
Disciple-a student, follower of Christ
Elder-a person of authority entitled to respect Eph 4:11, Acts 20:38, Heb 13:7, 1 Thes. 5:12, Numbers 22:7
Evangelist-preacher of the gospel
Overseer-another term for elder
Pastor-another term for elder
Prophet-a spokesman for God and speaks with God's authority
1 Timothy 3:2-13 and Titus 1:5-9 give the requirements for leadership.
The purpose then of the church leadership is to lead and direct the members of he church at large to do the three duties of the church mentioned in Statement of Faith #10. Namely, evangelization of the world, worship of God and Building a body of saints.
It is important for us as church members to be constantly in prayer for the leaders in our churches. Often, it is the church leadership that Satan attacks the hardest. This is because if the leader can be brought down many, many followers will be too.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Statement of Faith #10-The Church and Its Mission
Official Assembly of God Statement of Faith #10-"The Church is the Body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit, with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her great commission. Each believer, born of the Spirit, is an integral part of the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn, which are written in heaven."
I have known people who did not want to be members or attenders of a church. Sometimes it is because they just don't want to take the time to go, and often it is because they have been hurt emotionally by members of a church and they have decided they don't want to attend anymore. Ultimately, whatever the reason may be doesn't matter. As a Christian it is very important to be a part of a church. This particular statement refers to Christians, who as a group, make up the body of Christ, the church. It refers to the importance of believers needing to be part of a larger group of Christians. That larger group is responsible for encouraging, teaching, leading, helping and supporting as well as holding us accountable to our Christian beliefs.
There are three main purposes to the church. The first is to evangelize the world. We cannot reach the people of the world alone. Each of us does not have enough resources or time to do so. However, working together, we can financially support missionaries overseas as well as ministries locally. Our prayers put together accomplish more than they do alone.
Another main purpose of the church is to worship God together. We can come together and with or without music, praise God as a group. It is often within a group that great things happen-prophecies are spoken, prayers for each other happen and the power of a group of united Christians cannot be denied.
Another purpose for the church is to build up the body of saints. We can edify each other through teaching, discipleship and fellowship. It is very important that we spend time with those who believe similar to ourselves. Iron sharpens iron they say and working together we can all become stronger Christians. I do not want to ignore that there are times that other members of a church hurt us. Within a church there can be disagreements and pain and I want to refer you to another post of mine written last summer about porcupines to address that issue.
If you are not involved in a Christian church right now I would encourage you to become so. It can be one of the best things for you and you can also be good for the others there. If you currently are involved in a church that is great and I hope you find it to be a good thing for your Christian walk. If it is not, then you may need to find a different church, but do not go without church altogether. And no matter what, do your best to keep those porcupine quills at bay.
"You are...fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." Ephesians 2:19-22
I have known people who did not want to be members or attenders of a church. Sometimes it is because they just don't want to take the time to go, and often it is because they have been hurt emotionally by members of a church and they have decided they don't want to attend anymore. Ultimately, whatever the reason may be doesn't matter. As a Christian it is very important to be a part of a church. This particular statement refers to Christians, who as a group, make up the body of Christ, the church. It refers to the importance of believers needing to be part of a larger group of Christians. That larger group is responsible for encouraging, teaching, leading, helping and supporting as well as holding us accountable to our Christian beliefs.
There are three main purposes to the church. The first is to evangelize the world. We cannot reach the people of the world alone. Each of us does not have enough resources or time to do so. However, working together, we can financially support missionaries overseas as well as ministries locally. Our prayers put together accomplish more than they do alone.
Another main purpose of the church is to worship God together. We can come together and with or without music, praise God as a group. It is often within a group that great things happen-prophecies are spoken, prayers for each other happen and the power of a group of united Christians cannot be denied.
Another purpose for the church is to build up the body of saints. We can edify each other through teaching, discipleship and fellowship. It is very important that we spend time with those who believe similar to ourselves. Iron sharpens iron they say and working together we can all become stronger Christians. I do not want to ignore that there are times that other members of a church hurt us. Within a church there can be disagreements and pain and I want to refer you to another post of mine written last summer about porcupines to address that issue.
If you are not involved in a Christian church right now I would encourage you to become so. It can be one of the best things for you and you can also be good for the others there. If you currently are involved in a church that is great and I hope you find it to be a good thing for your Christian walk. If it is not, then you may need to find a different church, but do not go without church altogether. And no matter what, do your best to keep those porcupine quills at bay.
"You are...fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit." Ephesians 2:19-22
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Another just for fun video...
This one is only a 30 second long commercial so for those of you still on dial-up, it will only take you half a day to see it.
I promise, I'll get serious again soon. I have several doctrine posts to do to get caught up to where we are in the class.
I promise, I'll get serious again soon. I have several doctrine posts to do to get caught up to where we are in the class.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Statement of Faith #9-Sanctification
Official Assembly of God Statement of Faith #9-Sanctification is an act of separation from that which is evil and of dedication unto God. The scriptures teach a life of "holiness without which no man shall see the Lord." By the power of the Holy Ghost we are able to obey the command: "Be ye holy, for I am holy." Sanctification is realized in the believer by recognizing his identification with Christ in His death and resurrection, and by the faith reckoning daily upon the fact of that union, and by offering every faculty continually to the dominion of the Holy Spirit.
Sanctification is a big word and rightly so, it represents a big thing. Sanctification occurs when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior (instantaneous sanctification). It is also an ongoing process that we call progressive sanctification and eventually leads to final sanctification when we reach glory in heaven.
According to Romans 12:2 God calls us to separate ourselves from the world and devote ourselves to righteous living. In reality, this is an ongoing process. I know there are many non-Christians who look at Christians and see ongoing sin. This is reality. A pastor at our church has said that we are all sinners, saved by grace and unfortunately, we are all hypocrites. Becoming a Christian does not make us automatically sinless. We must continue to struggle against sin on a daily basis. It is necessary that we maintain a constant state of awareness and vigilance against evil in our lives. But, the Holy Spirit living inside us gives us the power we need to overcome sin. Do we always choose properly? Unfortunately we don't and I thank God for his continuous grace.
Please, if you are not currently a Christian, do not allow someone else's Christianity, or lack of it to affect your own personal decision. On judgment day you will need to answer for yourself alone and not for those around you. Another person's unwillingness to live a righteous life will not be a valid excuse for your own unwillingness to accept Jesus as Lord over your own life.
"I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2
Sanctification is a big word and rightly so, it represents a big thing. Sanctification occurs when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior (instantaneous sanctification). It is also an ongoing process that we call progressive sanctification and eventually leads to final sanctification when we reach glory in heaven.
According to Romans 12:2 God calls us to separate ourselves from the world and devote ourselves to righteous living. In reality, this is an ongoing process. I know there are many non-Christians who look at Christians and see ongoing sin. This is reality. A pastor at our church has said that we are all sinners, saved by grace and unfortunately, we are all hypocrites. Becoming a Christian does not make us automatically sinless. We must continue to struggle against sin on a daily basis. It is necessary that we maintain a constant state of awareness and vigilance against evil in our lives. But, the Holy Spirit living inside us gives us the power we need to overcome sin. Do we always choose properly? Unfortunately we don't and I thank God for his continuous grace.
Please, if you are not currently a Christian, do not allow someone else's Christianity, or lack of it to affect your own personal decision. On judgment day you will need to answer for yourself alone and not for those around you. Another person's unwillingness to live a righteous life will not be a valid excuse for your own unwillingness to accept Jesus as Lord over your own life.
"I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will." Romans 12:1-2
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
Wordless Wednesday-For the Birds
Last night we looked out our window to see A LOT of birds on the power line out in front of our house. There were a bunch of them and they were making quite a racket. We talked of how it reminded us of a short cartoon we saw for the first time back about 5 years ago. We had taken the children to see the film Monsters, Inc and there was a short clip on the front end of the movie. We enjoyed that several minutes far more than the movie that followed. Pixar animation is known for their short cartoons and we actually bought a DVD containing about 20 of them several months ago. If you haven't seen this one, take a look, if you have, take another look. It's worth a laugh.
Tuesday, April 08, 2008
Home again and camera program working
I arrived home safely on Friday evening. It is always good to be home but I hadn't missed the laundry and cooking that were waiting for me to return. I am still working on getting the laundry caught up again. I ended up putting in a full work day again on Saturday-4 hours on the mail route and 8 hours on Census work. Shannon had done a good job of holding down the fort while I was away and everyone got where they needed to all week and was cared for. He did have some help from his parents for a few days while Molly and E stayed with them.
The photo program on the computer is working again so here is the photo I wanted to share with you a couple of weeks ago. This is E, anxious for spring. The temperature was in the high 40's that day and the snow was melting fast. If you notice, you will see that he is barefooted in the picture and he had to walk through the snow to get to his location. Brrrr. I was just so humored by the picture and it wouldn't have surprised me if he had taken a book with him out there since he is such a reader.
I am hoping to start writing the Statement of Faith posts again. Molly and I missed the class on Sanctification because we were at quilt retreat but they videotaped it for us so as soon as we can sit down and watch that I will post-hopefully yet this week. Some of you have told me you are anxious for them to start again. Stick with me...they're coming.
The photo program on the computer is working again so here is the photo I wanted to share with you a couple of weeks ago. This is E, anxious for spring. The temperature was in the high 40's that day and the snow was melting fast. If you notice, you will see that he is barefooted in the picture and he had to walk through the snow to get to his location. Brrrr. I was just so humored by the picture and it wouldn't have surprised me if he had taken a book with him out there since he is such a reader.
I am hoping to start writing the Statement of Faith posts again. Molly and I missed the class on Sanctification because we were at quilt retreat but they videotaped it for us so as soon as we can sit down and watch that I will post-hopefully yet this week. Some of you have told me you are anxious for them to start again. Stick with me...they're coming.
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