Testimony and recommendation from Steve Mason: alabama district youth director

Incredible video about a dramatic healing. 

Questions are very powerful.  God asks many questions in the Good Book.  Here is one question Jesus asked from each Gospel.  Matthew 15:16 “Are you still so dull?” Jesus asked them. Mark 10:51 “What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked him. The blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.”  Luke 17:17 Jesus asked, “Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine?  John 18:24 “Is that your own idea,” Jesus asked, “or did others talk to you about me?” 

I have found it profitable to ask myself these ten questions at the end of my day:

TODAY DID I…

1.       …LISTEN TO GOD?

2.      …TALK TO GOD?

3.      …INGEST GOD’S WORD?

4.      …BLESS MY FAMILY?

5.      …DO ANYTHING TO BUILD THE MINISTRY HE GAVE ME?

6.      …CARE FOR MY TEMPLE (body)?

7.      …LEARN SOMETHING?

8.      …FOCUS AND FINISH?

9.      …GET BETTER AT MY CRAFT AND PASSION?

10.  …ENJOY MY LIFE?

Grow up! Act your age! Man up! Jesus said different stuff. Matthew 18 2 “He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” I recommend that we go backwards to go forward. No we are not supposed to be childish, immature, and scream at the Wal Mart register for candy. But there are some characteristics of children that are helpful. Children that are well adjusted and healthy have great qualities. Here are a few:

· Kids are simple. American author and minister Robert Fulghum was right in his work All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten

· Kids are innocent. The Col 3:4 list hasn’t taken hold of them yet… sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires (except for Wal Mart candy), greed, idolatry.

· Kids are excited.

· Kids are loving.

· Kids have great imaginations.

· Kids have joy.

· Kids are humble. Filthy “I’m better than you” pride hasn’t hardened like concrete just yet.

· Kids trust.

· Kids have faith. Richard Foster in Celebration of Discipline talks about a child. I paraphrase, “A child well taken care of never asks his father for lunch with the slightest doubt that he will receive it.”

· Kids play.

When we see children that lose their innocence, we get angry and we grieve. If they can’t play or if they are jaded about simple things like having enough money for school lunches we know something is wrong. If a child loses excitement or can’t dream then we have a flag in our spirit. How much more does the Lord grieve when we come “too mature” and “too growny” in this Kingdom to be great? 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Did you ever do this as a kid? Did you ever pull chairs together and hang blankets over them and let them drape to the floor? I did. And I loved it. I would crawl into the “fort” and nothing could ever get me in there. The darker - the better. And flashlights were cool as long as the batteries lasted. I am memorizing Colossians 3. A line from verse three is banging the drum in my spirit today - hidden with Christ. The whole verse is kind of scary. For YOU DIED, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. Hidden means concealed; obscure; covert: No red blooded American man wants to hide from anybody. But look at that last definition… “Covert”. Sometimes in this spiritual darkness hiding is the best thing to do. And we hide in the best place possible – with Christ in GOD. If you are facing a pile of devastating financial news today; if you are at the breaking point in your marriage; if your parents are making unbelievable demands on you; if everything is shaking today – pull some chairs together in your spirit and hide out for a while. Like for life. And go covert against the power of Hell. Jesus did it. 59Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by. (John 8:59 kjv) That old song says it right…

You are my hiding place You always fill my heart With songs of deliverance Whenever I am afraid I will trust in You

My dog is the kind of dog a girl would like. I think it’s called a sh’poo or some such thing. It is a girl dog named “Ellie”. I’m very fond of Ellie and she and I have a routine. I walk her in the morning and I quote Scripture. I do some Word business while she does some dog business. I took my sweet time and memorized Isaiah 53 over the last month or so. When you repeat the same verses over and over they really get into your spirit. Sometimes a fresh insight hits like lightening. More than an insight, a fresh question hit my brain. When Isaiah 53 says in the middle of verse 10 he will see his offspring and prolong his days, I started wondering (while the dog smells every mailbox), “How does Jesus prolong his days?” I am sure that there is some kind of brilliant explanation. And it probably has to do with the resurrection. But one day recently early in the morning I wondered, “Perhaps the Lord prolongs his days through us.” Plausible? Maybe Jesus prolongs His days with His body. And if I am grafted into the vine and I am filled with the Spirit, Jesus is alive and prolonging His days thorough me. So today I want to keep the Lord’s eternal calendar on track through me while I’ve got breath. And if He doesn’t come back, I want my kids to prolong His days. And so on and so forth.

Two men were worshipped as God just two chapters apart.  The results were worlds apart.  Herod. Paul.  The satellite dish to receive the worship was PRIDE.  C.S. Lewis called all other sins “fleabites” compared to pride.  He said, “…: it was through Pride that the devil became the devil: Pride leads to every other vice: it is the complete anti-God state of mind.”  Worship is the destination of pride; it is the last stop on the Pride Subway.  Pride in us wants everyone else to fixate on us and know that we are greater than everybody else.  

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New truck. Out of the rental car business.

The boys in the snow

A pile of junk has been burning in my hometown for a long time. (I put the link below.) There are reports that say the fire has been burning underground for weeks or even months I have heard. People working around Overcash Sand and Gravel on Poplar Tent Road had no idea that the 50 foot pile of debris had a fire burning within it for all that time. A long, long time ago a prophet named Jeremiah said: If I say, I will not make mention of [the Lord] or speak any more in His name, in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer]. (20:9 Amplified) Somebody reading this has a fire smoldering inside. You are just waiting on that “spontaneous combustion” to manifest the fire. One thing I learned in West Virginia is that when a fire burns, people all congregate on the sidewalk and watch it burn (I guess that applies to all the states I have lived in). Once that smoldering fire gets from deep inside to the air then there is only one thing to do: For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God … (2 Tim 1:6) Burn, baby burn!

http://www.wcnc.com/news/local/Crews-expect-to-extinguish-Concord-fire-Thursday-night-111215084.html