"Maintaining the Course"

That is the title our pastor picked today from the scripture reading from Romans 12: 9-21. It was an awsome sermon. The kind that makes you love everybody. A very anointed minister delivered this sermon today. I wondered how he came up with a title like this, "Maintaining the Course," from the thirteen verses in Romans chapter 12. It starts out saying that love must be completely sincere. Hate what is evil, hold on to what is good. Serve the Lord with a heart full of devotion. Ask God to bless those who persecute you. Do not be proud, but accept humble duties. Do everything possible on your part to live in peace with everybody. Do not let evil defeat you; instead, conquer evil with good. There are several more do's and don'ts in the rest of the verses, but my question is, "is this part of maintaining the course?" Actually it is. The course of this life has to be maintained, that is fixing something every day that has broken down. Love turning to hate, humbleness turning to pride, peace turning to fighting, work turning to laziness, just to name a few of the things we need to fix everyday in order to keep our heart right with God. There is one thing that I hope we all can remember daily, "work while it is still day, for the night cometh when work shall be no more."
God bless
Jean Sharp

Great Sermon Today At Church Romans 12,1-8

Our minister preached on the body having many members and all members have not the same office. Verse 5, So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another. The main theme of his sermon was,"to keep all the members in place." The body cannot function well if some of the members are missing. Example. if the human body has a hand missing it does not function as well as if it had both hands. The same is true of other parts of the body. Since the church is called the body of Christ, the church functions better if every member is present and in place. The minister pointed out how if some of the members are missing the church becomes sickly, and cannnot be all that it could be if all the members were present. Is your church sick today, is my church sick today? I believe most churches are missing a lot of body parts. We are not speaking of those who have moved away, or because of illness are not able to attend, we are speaking of those who have dropped out, or don't come regulary, due to unfriendly attitudes by some who, (v,3) think more highly of themselves than they ought. The heart is a very important member of the body, but the heart could not operate if there was not blood flowing through it. Both are very important to the natural body. The big thithers are very important to the church, but according to Jesus, the little lady who gave three mites gave more than them all. She gave all she had. The talented singers and musicians are always a blessing to the ears, but the humble, "do the best I can of anything you ask," are often the biggest blessing to the heart. Our sermon was one this morning that I can cheerish for a long time. I hope that I have related part of it to you in a way that you can cheerish it also.

Thank God For Old Friends Who Never Forget You

A dear friend from long ago stopped by yesterday to visit with me. She is from another state and I had not seen her in several years. We immediately began to catch up with the usual things like how our children and grandchildren are doing. We shared our dissappointments with how cold and unspiritual our churches have become. She and I grew up in a church where the Holy Spirit could always be felt by anyone who walked in. There was such reverence that Jesus came and stayed with us till the service was over. Our children were taught to reverence the house of God. When we left church to go home we were equipped to handle all the problems Satan put on us for the entire week. Glory and praise were always on our lips. Our children were the joy of our lives, and still are. I am afraid that today so many of the churches have insulted Jesus so much till He has quit coming leaving the congregation without a spiritual leader. The  older Christians are rooted and  grounded  enough to make it through troubled times, but most of the younger generation do not stand a chance. They have been cheated out of the teachings of Jesus because of various reasons. What a shame!
     My prayer for today is this. God let us all open our eyes and see where we have been  failing. Let us be visited fresh and anew by Your Holy Spirit. Let us be willing to take our place, whatever it may be, so that we might be approved by You. Let this younger generation be," stopped in their tracks," when they say to the elders, "you are too old fashioned, we are living in the two thousands," Tell them, Lord, that You never grow old and one day with You is like a thousand years with us. "Lord, bless everyone who is willing to ask for forgiveness and help us to help someone else every day." Amen.                                                                                                                           
    

A Time To Stand Up For Our Rights

In reference to David Horsley's opinion to Governor Rick Perry's, "prayer rally," Aug. 15, 2011, Amarillo Globe News, titled, Gov. Perry set to pray for votes, I would like to express my opinion. I know that I am no match to debate David Horsley, but I can voice my thoughts and ideas concerning such an important issue as this. I did not like Mr. Horsley quoting Jesus by signing His name to the scripture introducing the letter that followed by Horsley. He gave no reference as to where he got the Quote.
     I can supply all kinds of quotes found in the KJV, (King James Verson of the Holy Bible,) where Jesus talks about leaders as well as followers of Him, to let all people know about Him, Jesus, and to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Mark, 16:15
     Of course Jesus taught us to go into our closets and pray to Him secretly when we are asking Him for something personally. If Mr. Horsley is using Matt. ch 6 for his bible reference we can plainly see that Jesus is talking to the hypocrites, those who like to be seen of men without respect of God. Governor Rick Perry is a man of God who very well knows that unless America repents and turns from their wicked ways, God will not heal our lands. The part of the scripture that Mr. Horsley quoted, "pray in secret," does not mean that Gov. Perry should refrain from all public acknowledgement of God. He is doing a good job by letting the people know where the trouble lies.
     I would like to ask Mr. Horsley, since he said he had been a Christian all his life, where in the bible he finds that it is ok for same sex couples to marry. Lev. 20:13, If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death: their blood shall be upon them.
     At last I would like to say this, Mr. Horsely said neither Michele Bachmann or Rick Perry is electable. My honest feelings about his prediction is this, If he is right and no republician gets elected, woe be to America and our freedom of liberty.

To the editor for Amarillo Globe News

I hope you will consider putting my letter of disagreement to Mr. David Horsley in the Globe News. I know I have exceeded my quota of words, but I needed to say everything I put in the letter. I did leave off some issues that I wanted to address, but I just couldn't cover it all. There wasn't enough space for everthing. I was trying to respond to a much lengthier letter by David Horsley and tried to wrap it up in less space than I really needed.

A citizen for equal rights for equal people.
Myrtle Jean Sharp
Perryton, TX

Very Excited Today about Governor Rick Perry Announcing His Bid For The presidency

We have waited so long for this to happen and now the best governor Texas has ever had, Rick Perry, has announced today that he is a candidate for the presidency. A friend said to me,"I was hoping that wouldn't happen." "Why," I asked? "Because we needed to keep him here in Texas." But " I said, "Texas is only one state in the United States, we need him in all of the states. "That's right," she said, "but I have my doubts that President Obama is beatable." She continued to say that she thinks something very disastrous will happen to our country just so president Obama will not even have to seek re-election. Something like all of the United States congressmen and women will become," null and void." I assured her that that is not going to happen, but I keep hearing similar remarks made often by others. I still have high hopes for our great nation, but only if you and I join in the battle to help make things happen like getting Governor Rick Perry elected to the presidency. It's time to put our pennies in the GOP offering plate and take to our knees. Keep the cheers and the chatter going full blast; who knows maybe one word spoken by one of us will be worth a bowl full of gold.

God bless Rick Perry &
God bless America.

Put Your Guards In Place

Today is the time to take a stand for securing the borders of the land you call your church home. The enemy is forever in action to drive you out so they can take over. The enemies job is to stop the power of God from blessing His people. Many times we as a weak vessel that has been used in combat for years have become far too ready to surrender. To put it straight we don't want to keep on fighting the good fight. We so often are willing to move out and look for greener grass elsewhere. Let me assure you there is no such place. The enemy is everwhere on this earth. Our only hope for victory is to keep on believing in God and know that he will keep every promise that He made to us. It is true that God did lead His people out of bondage from Egypt, Exodus ch. 15, but Egypt was not the children of Isreal's homeland. They were just sojourners and slaves to the Egyptian king. Egypt was never a good place for the chilren of Isreal to live. God had a plan to deliver His people from bondage. I am speaking about a place we call our homeland, our church, and have been driven out by our enemies. It is always easier to walk away from a problem than to try and solve it. Is that what God wants you and I to do? I believe we must hold fast to God's unchanging hand. He will always lead us to victory.  Remember, there is no victory without a battle, and God said, "The battle is mine, it has already been won." The last thing I would like to say is this, until our work on this earth is finished we will never be at complete peace.
God bless you and
God bless America.