GOD'S WAY CHURCH

It is fitting to begin with this qoute from Bernard.....

Movers and Shakers,Bernard of Clairvaux,Medieval reformer and mystic said:

"There are some who long to know for the sole purpose of knowing, and that is shameful curiosity; others who long to know in order to become known, and that is shameful vanity. … There are others still who long for knowledge in order to sell its fruits for money or honors, and this is shameful profiteering; others again who long to know in order to be of service, and this is charity. Finally, there are those who long to know in order to benefit themselves, and this is prudence..."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/special/131christians/bernardclairvaux.html

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   "....No part of my life will ever find success unless I do it God's way....."

The simple truth we seem to ignore is that our effectiveness horizontally to the World is proportionate to our effectiveness vertically towards God. The more of God in my life and the more of God's Love will dramatically increase my ability to reach people. One of the things I wanted to do with this web site is to bring us back to basics. "...Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and mind and strenght and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself..."

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I usually go to a Thursday Morning Bible Study with a small group of guys from a very small church. Lately we have been talking about how to add people to the church and the real meaning of koinonia fellowship? I really try my best not to be a know it all. But I did mention Charles Sheldon's "In His Steps" and It is free for you online now:

http://homechurch.org/spirituality/sheldon/

qoute.....

"It seemed to him that the most fitting word to be spoken first was that of prayer. He asked them all to pray with him. And almost with the first syllable he uttered there was a distinct presence of the Spirit felt by them all. As the prayer went on, this presence grew in power. They all felt it. The room was filled with it as plainly as if it had been visible. When the prayer closed there was a silence that lasted several moments. All the heads were bowed. Henry Maxwell's face was wet with tears. If an audible voice from heaven had sanctioned their pledge to follow the Master's steps, not one person present could have felt more certain of the divine blessing. And so the most serious movement ever started in the First Church of Raymond was begun."

St.Luke Evangelical Christian Ministries with the Ordinations

of Brian Templar and Lionel Avilla  honors God's Way Church

ito minister all sacraments, to minister ,

to proclaim the Word of God, to seek and save the lost and to humbly

minister in whatever ways God chooses to the Body of Christ.

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Ten mistakes the Church makes....

1. associate the "church" with a building...go to 'church.'

2. come into the building and adopt a serious religious attitude.

3. don't invite anyone into the building it may corrupt the congregation.

4. if someone comes in seat them depending on how they look or dress.

5. cater to people with social standing and affluence.

6. use language the world doesn't understand such as 'propitiation.'

7. don't make a visitor feel welcome and don't say 'hello.'

8. don't invite the visitor to join you for lunch it may cost you.

9. create rules and arduous tasks for membership to see if the person is serious.

10. hold onto your "Jesus bless me Club"  attitude.

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This is our modus operandii:

a. Establish relationships without an expectation from the person.

Someone said "People don't care what you know until they know that you care."

b. Fill a void in the Community.

We started ministering to the Long Term Care patients at the Local Hospital. Services, birthday cakes, trips to the beach and Memorial Services and we have seen them accept the Lord.

c. As a result of working with the patients we at one time became hospital chaplains and see many respond to Salvation.

d. We ministered to one waitress who was in OBGYN having a baby. We prayed for the baby and asked them if there were any needs. The next day we dropped off food and baby items and told them"Jesus loves them"

e. Not only do we minister spiritually but practically as well.

One brother needed a water pump and it would be so easy just to say God bless you brother. But one of our Pastors met the need. The brother does not always come to Church but he knows we care.

f. If the people don't come to Church...Take Church to the People!

g. How do you minister to a sick or dying person in a hospital bed? Perhaps it can be summed up by ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL "A religious man is a person who holds God and man in one thought at one time, at all times, who suffers harm done to others, whose greatest passion is compassion, whose greatest strength is love and defiance of despair. " GEORGE WASHINGTON CARVER "How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these."

BERTRAND RUSSELL

Three passions have governed my life:
The longings for love, the search for knowledge,
And unbearable pity for the suffering of [humankind].

Love brings ecstasy and relieves loneliness.
In the union of love I have seen
In a mystic miniature the prefiguring vision
Of the heavens that saints and poets have imagined.

With equal passion I have sought knowledge.
I have wished to understand the hearts of [people].
I have wished to know why the stars shine.

Love and knowledge led upwards to the heavens,
But always pity brought me back to earth;
Cries of pain reverberated in my heart
Of children in famine, of victims tortured
And of old people left helpless.
I long to alleviate the evil, but I cannot,
And I too suffer.

This has been my life; I found it worth living.

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Our Heritage covers 2,000 years..........

As I was walking through the Catacombs in Rome.I saw the remains of brothers and sisters who paid the price.Yet after Ten Major Persecutions the enemy did something more insidious and more dangerous "religio legato" which means  "legal religion. " While our intent is not to disparage the Roman Catholic Church the point we are making is that Constantine for whatever intent did more lasting harm to the Body of Christ.the Church was placed in a Building.A special select group ruled over the people. The Word was taken from them.And Authority no longer rested in the Word of God but in a hierarchial church structure leading to confessing to man or buying their way into heaven. While all this was going on there has been a two thousand year unbroken line of born again, God fearing,Bible believing people. They were sometimes called Albigenses,Waldenses, Monrovians or Huguenots. With the Reformers Truth finally broke free. These are God's Hall of Fame who stand at the portals of Heaven and cheer us on. If you are called to preach the only reason is God called you. If you have authority the basis of authority is your bible. And it is God's Holy Spirit who fills, ordains and equipps us.You are not alone and you are not doing anything new. You are hopefully as you read this part of God's Lineage and true line of Succession  As a result of wide spread distribution of the 95 theses beyond Luther's control John Calvin was largely responsible for the Reformation and started the Huguenots.Their Cross is symbolic:

                  

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All time favorite books....

"THE PILGRIM CHURCH"

"THE WORKS OF BROTHER LAWRENCE"

"STRONG'S SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY"

Kevin Conner "THE FOUNDATIONS OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE"

Rees Howell's "INTERCESSOR."

Gibbon's "FALL AND DECLINE OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE."

Latourette "CHURCH HISTORY."

"STREAMS IN THE DESERT."

Fox "BOOK OF MARTYRS."

Bulthiemer "DESTINED FOR THE THRONE."

Bonhoeffer Works.

C.S.Lewis "BASIC CHRISTIANITY."

Durant "HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION."

Ironside "ROMANS."

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The Bible College of Wales, Derwen Fawr Road, Swansea, South Wales.

I was the first "yank" student to attend and to graduate.

The pillar in front of the main house says "Jehovah Jireh"

Their lives are based on real faith in God for everything.

Many prayers ascend to God's Throne here.

We learned to walk with God, to "pray through" and to trust Him.The staff were wonderful, solid and mature examples of commitment and prayer.Why did it mean so much to Me? I really got to know God.And found real sincere Christians who devoted their lives to what they believed. By the Grace of God The Bible College still continues with the original vision.To take raw recruits and turn them into men and women of God. When I looked back on it I remember most...examples of real people and I learned how to pray and seek God. Which indeed is priceless. The academics came later, now I got to know Him personally and intimately.

Rees Howell's as a young man...

http://prayerfoundation.org/books/book_review_rees_howells_intercessor.htm

Sites referring to Rees Howells:

 

All of us would put on our best duds and celebrate Sunday.

I cut my teeth and began preaching in old Welsh Chapels that have been around for Centuries and some of the members remember the 1904 Revival. I remember all I had was my Bible and asking God to give me a word for the people....

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"We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of Him. And when we come to love Him, we shall then also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure."       ... Brother Lawrence"There is not in the world a kind of life more sweet and delightful, than that of a continual conversation with God. Those only can comprehend it who practice and experience it."     ... Brother Lawrence

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF 'PRACTICING THE PRESENCE OF GOD"

http://www.practicegodspresence.com/

For Brother Lawrence, "common business," no matter how mundane or routine, was the medium of God's love. The issue was not the sacredness or worldly status of the task but the motivation behind it. "Nor is it needful that we should have great things to do. . . We can do little things for God; I turn the cake that is frying on the pan for love of him, and that done, if there is nothing else to call me, I prostrate myself in worship before him, who has given me grace to work; afterwards I rise happier than a king. It is enough for me to pick up but a straw from the ground for the love of God."

http://www.christianitytoday.com/history/special/131christians/brotherlawrence.html

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Who are we? Where does our authority come from? What happened to the Power?

Where does our authority come from? I can't help but think of Martin Luther.I see him as a real hero of the faith. What happened is that he started reading the Bible.And the Holy Spirit started illuminating his soul and spirit.One day he was doing penance climbing up the Spanish Steps in Rome and the Holy Spirit gave him a rhema "The just shall live by faith." I can see him getting up off his knees wiping the dust off and looking up into heaven with joy.At the worst time of his life as he stood before the Diet he said "here I stand I can do no other."He bravely nailed the 95 thesis to the Door.He maintained our authority comes from the Bible alone. The early reformers had three basic ideas.."sole fide...sole christus...sole scriptura....simply put...by faith alone.....by the person of Christ alone on what HE did and the Word's it's own interpreter. It is interesting to know that the very first item to be printed on the Guttenberg Press was the New Testament in German.

For an interesting reading of the 95 theses goto:

http://home.cvc.org/95.htm

"A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD"

written by Martin Luther sums up his heart....

A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood Of mortal ills prevailing, For still our ancient foe Doth seek to work us woe; his craft and power are great, And, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal.

Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing,
Were not the right Man on our side, The man of God's own choosing.   Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth is His  name, From age to age the same. And He MUST win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, Should threaten to undo us We will not fear, for God hath willed His Truth to triumph through us. The prince of Darkness grim, We tremble not for him; his rage we can endure.  For lo! his doom is sure, One little Word shall fell him.

That Word above all earthly powers - No thanks to them abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours, Through Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, This mortal life also; The body they may kill; God's Truth abideth still. His kingdom is forever Amen!!

We are not implying total acceptance of Lutheran Theology. The major point I am trying to make is that all these men contributed towards Truth.The Lutherans under Luther and the Reformed under Calvin  and the Armenian/Wesleyan Tradition under the Wesleyans. Further clarification of modern denominations can be seen as Baptists, the Holiness Movement and the Pentecostals. Traditionalists tended to conflict with Revivalists. How did I hash this out in my own doctrinal belief?

Luther..........Justification by Faith Alone.

Calvin..........Election based on God's foreknowledge.

Baptists.......Emphasis on the Bible and baptizing adults who responded.

Holiness.......Indeed God wants His people to be holy.

Pentecostalism and Charismaticism.....Giving the Holy Spirit the rightful place in your life.

Traditionalism....Maintaining the traditions carried down through the Centuries

Revivalism.......Knowing the need for a fresh touch of the Holy Spirit.

the key word in the consideration of all this is Balance.

Accept all Biblical truth and give all Biblical Truth a rightful and equal place.

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I remember being on a freighter going to Dublin. Ireland reading Pink's "Elijah". the thing that impressed me was that his entire ministry was predicated on hearing the voice of God and until he heard the voice of God he did nothing.This accounted for his victory on Mt.Carmel. The enemies trick is to keep the Ministers of God so busy they have no time to wait on God. Read Isaiah 40 the word "wait" means "two strands of rope tightly held together."

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Where does  the power come from? Someone said power is the word plus holiness. I remember listening to Duncan Campbell the Revivalist a week before he passed. Every Friday night we were stirred by proven men of God who walked through the fires....

 

 

 

 

The minister at Barvas, the Rev James Murray Mackay, had been led to write to Duncan through the prayers of his congregation, and in particular two elderly sisters named Peggy and Christine Smith who had received the God-given assurance that Duncan would be the instrument that God would use to fulfil His purposes on the island.

Duncan was quite unaware of these things and he intended to stay in Lewis for just ten days and then take a rest from his mission work. However, despite his tiredness, he immediately recognised the feeling of spiritual expectation amongst the people who had invited him to Barvas, and after the preaching service on the second evening he was there, the congregation lingered outside the church and were joined by others who had not attended the meeting. At that moment, the voice of a young man was heard praying aloud inside the church, and many were moved to join him as a sense of deep conviction came over the crowd. The church was soon filled with people calling upon God for mercy and praising Him for His goodness, and even when they separated in the early hours of the morning, small groups went on praying in various parts of the village.

(I met the  'young man' mentioned above and at that time he was a missionary to Yemen.)

The powerful awakening which swept through Barvas in the following days was not an isolated event, and although Duncan Campbell's preaching was similarly blessed when services were hastily arranged in villages such as Tarbert, Leurbost and Arnol, the revival was felt throughout the whole of Lewis, to such as extent that he later described it as "a community saturated with God".

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In School in Wales it was common to hear about the Welsh Revival. Even Evan Roberts acknowledges it was a sovereign move of God. Burly Welsh Coal Miners in  Pub fell on their knees begging to be saved.The thing that struck me is that both Duncan Campbell and Evan Roberts were empty yielded vessels and they both admitted it was God who did it. Did not Jesus say "As I see the Father do,that I do."

Summing up the message in 4 parts,

Evan pressed it home to the astonished church

1. Confess all known sin

2. Deal with and get rid of anything ‘doubtful’ in your life

3. Be ready to obey the Holy Spirit instantly

4. Confess Christ publicly

By the end of the first week over 60 responded. By the end of the second week Evan had already started on a whirl-wind tour of the South Wales valleys with his team of 5 girl singers and within a year or so 100,000 converts were said to be added to the Welsh Church....

Extract from the Evan Roberts Section.

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What's the one thing every minister secretly craves? It can't be bought,borrowed,manipulated or copied? It spells all the difference between fruitless ness and fruitulness? You know it when you see it?

It has nine letters and begins with A___ ____ _____ _____ ____ _____ ____ _____ ______

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I was doing a Crossroads with YWAM and met a man who gave me his card. He was a quiet, unassuming man. A year later a filipino Pastor and I went to P.I. and ministered everywhere and it was easy because all had to do was follow him around. One day he told me he was going to WASHINGTON FOR JESUS and I was on my own. There I was with $60.00 and a return plane ticket for 60 days later. After he left I called the number and the man answered. He said to meet him by the Mercedes in the parking lot of Greenhill Mall. As we sat in a restaurant in Makati another brother asked me if I would be interested in being a Speaker at the National Full Gospel Annual Banquet. As I was finishing my testimony I shook hands with General Ramos who was to later become President of the Country. What's the point? I had no plan "b".I was totally dependant on God. God paved the way a year before hand.................

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As a result of my being there I met two friends who invited me to minister with them and at this point I have been to the P..I. seventeen times and taught at Zion Bible Institute.

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I found three pitfalls to effective Ministry. Comparing,Competing and Condoning. Avoid the trap of comparing your church to someone elses. Avoid the trap of feeling like we are competing to count heads, Avoid the trap of condoning anything  in our lives that does not glorify the Lord Jesus.

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What does God really want? what has God been lacking? What God cannot do? God wants persons to love Him and to return His Agape Love to Him God lacks outside love until outside love is given.God cannot force anyone to love Him.

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Most of the Saints we read about were simply people who fanatically loved God. Most of the people we call 'mystics' in the 'dark ages' were simply people who somehow connected with God and God became the most consuming thing in their lives and so we admire them,read about them and try to emulate them instead of the One to whom they responded.Frances did it one way.St.Benedict did it another way and St.Theresa was filled with the Spirit in her way.I remember being in Rome in the place said to be Paul's jail.On the wall was a plaque which would read in English "the two guards got saved and were killed."I can see Paul talking to Tychicus and the guards overhearing and the Word of God taking root (isaiah 55) Our effectiveness to minister is proportionate to the level of our relationship to God.

Oswald Chambers said in 'MY UTMOST FOR HIS HIGHEST' "If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself for us-totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him."

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Another pitfall to avoid is...If I see a dynamic preacher with thousands in his Church and if I duplicate what he does or subconsciously begin to act like him I will then bear the same fruit? I remember going to Abbott Loop in Anchorage and found a real FIVE FOLD MINISTRY CHURCH in operation. A real Apostle, A real Teacher,A real prophet etc. I later found that just because it happened in Alaska was no guarantee it would happen in Hawaii. I remember sitting in Cho's Church. Obviously there was no way I could become a Yonggi Cho? I remember going to Airport Vineyard in Toronto and praise God some annointing did remain. What's the point. God will uniquely work in my life just as he worked uniquely in other lives.

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I remember taking a train from Fulda to Darmstadt,Germany and visiting the Sisters of Basilia Shlink. Their message of repentance and the Garden I will always remember. I admired their total  complete abandonment of the World and simple love for God.I met a brother who was a real monk and I admired him for his simplicity of lifestyle.I was  in the Army and there was no way I could duplicate them. However we did have a small fellowship group which because we were all away from home on the German border began to foster real Agape love towards one another. It was again a unique situation.  When there is a move of God whether big or small we try to bottle it and duplicate it and  remanufacture it which misses the whole point of a genuine move of God.

http://www.kanaan.org/mbasilea.htm

One walk through the Prayer Garden will cement in your life the reality of what

Jesus went through for you.

http://www.photos2.net/international/kanaan/prayer-garden.htm

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OUR PREACHING STYLE...

We use the King Jame's Bible as a basis and then use others such as THE AMPLIFIED and the MESSSAGE. Our preaching style is exegesis, "line upon line,precept upon precept".  We use online study tools such as BIBLEGATEWAY.COM.ESWORD AND CROSSWALK.COM. We believe in a Christological approach. Ultimatly all truth centers on the person and work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.Homiletically we do not try to be fancy or cute. As Paul said "The preaching of the Cross is to them that are to perish foolishness,but unto those who are being saved, the power of God and the wisdom of God."

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WHY WE EXIST.....

We believe that God exists in the person of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that man was originally in God's image and likeness. Man chose to fall and became alienated from God. There was then nothing man could do to bring himself  back to God. Man was hopelessly lost in sin. God had an eternal plan. God,Himself,would become man,live a sinless life, accept the Cross as a Substitutionary sacrifice acceptable to God. Man's Redemption cannot be bought,cannot be manmade,cannot be any human system,but rests completely in the Person and Work of Christ on the Cross.Jesus died, rose bodily from the grave, ascended into Heaven,sits at the right hand of the Father,and according to Ephesians 1 He is the Head over all things to the Church which is His Body, The fullness of Him who fills all things. We believe God has his hand on human history, that Jesus will someday return, there will be a Millennial Reign followed by The Last Judgement. We believe Jesus is the head of the Church and he builds it,equipps it and ultimately God's eternal plan was to have a Bride. (see DESTINED FOR THE THRONE.) All authority rests in the Person of Jesus Christ.

The Bible is literal and without error..."All scripture is INSPIRED by God and is profitable for Doctrine,Reproof, Instruction in Rightousness and Correction that the man of God may be thoroughly furnished unto all good works....You need not that any man teach you (be your primary source of learning) but the Holy Ghost will teach you and lead you into all Truth."

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Three questions the enemy uses to give us headaches..........

What's the deal with Calvinism?

While every man has a choice "whosoever will"

God is omniscient and all knowing.

God can see the Beginning of time to the end.

God knows at a specific time a specific person

will be saved. This knowing on God's part is

the basis of predestination and election. If

God knows that "John will be saved on Sunday,

24,June, 2007" and if God knows this in His

eternity then that person is in that sense

predetermined to be saved based on the

foreknowledge of God and the person's choice.

 

Does God send anyone to Hell?

A person because of their own free will chooses

where he or she wishes to spend eternity based

on acceptance or rejection of God's only offer.

 

Why are there starving babies in Africa?

Adam and Eve owned the deed to The Garden.

Upon eviction.

They now were Leasees.

And the Leassor was Satan.

Who had full legal right to devour and destroy..

They were no longer under God's covering.

What's the point.

Keep Doctrine simple.

The Word has an answer for all our questions.                                                             

FAVORITE SERMONS