My attempt at poetry

Lord Feed My Soul


Lord feed my soul
For it has been empty
many years


Lord feed my soul
For it hungers
for You


Lord feed my soul
I hear your Word
and it strengthens me
I read your Word
and it brings me peace


Lord feed my soul
For like an infant I cannot
feed myself

I crave your Word
like a bear craves honey
I share your Word
For all need to hear
Good News


Lord feed my soul
Until someday I feast with You

What is Prayer?

Prayer is our way of communicating with God, much as a child with his father, we can talk with our Father. I am pretty new when it comes to prayer....other than "fox hole" prayers i.e. "God if you'll just do this for me I swear I'll do that." We negotiate with God as if we have something to offer that would otherwise be withheld, that God could not attain otherwise. It is silly on its face, to anyone who has a remote idea as to who God is, or even the concept of a god  (an all powerful being) so even an unbeliever should realize the futility in negotiating with God. So I have learned it is not negotiating.      
  Nor is it demanding. How do you demand something from God? He who has angels worshipping Him. He who has created all things. He who foreknows all things. He knows your demand before you even think it. Yet we are still sometimes foolish enough to demand God do this or that. So it is not demanding.
 Is it asking? Yes of course it is. As I said earlier, much as a child to his father, ask anything of God. He will answer, and much like your father here on earth, often the answer will be no. Why ask if the answer will be no? Well it might be yes. Or it might be later. He will answer, in His time, but He will. Ask for big things, ask for small things He will listen to them all. Most importantly His answer will always be perfect and justified. He will give you what you need and what fits into His plan, nothing more and nothing less. Think of a young child that had just seen an old western, a wild west shoot out, he's really into it, after the movie he goes to his dad and asks for a gun. What kind of father would say yes. An imperfect one of course. Now maybe he would buy his son a squirt gun, or a bb gun when a little older and wiser, and surely he would counsel the child it its responsible use. But to just grant a demand from a child who is in no way ready for what he asks is irresponsible, and I know I have a responsible and just God.
 Is it worshiping? Of course. God is awesome and worthy of our praise. He is the perfect and everlasting God. Everything we do should be to the glory of God, from drinking orange juice (see John Piper) to praying. Everything you and I have, from the clothes on our backs to the money in our pockets to the food on our plates belongs to God, worship Him that shares it with you. I recently started saying grace at dinner with my family, I realize I should be saying it at every meal, I will be praying about this.
 This brings me to being thankful. Is it giving thanks? Amen it is! Now you may ask well isn't that worshipping? I think it is different. We worship God for who He is in all things, we thank God for all things He does. He is at work in your life, most times I think we never notice, and often less times do we thank Him for it.
 Since I became a believer I have had a number of prayers answered, my job location, my Baptism, my daughter's surgery, all powerfully answered. I thank Him for those things, not nearly enough, and I try to do it as often as I pray, I may only say "thank you for all that you have given me" or I may name them out loud, but He knows whats in my heart.
Don't just recite the Lord's prayer, live it every time you pray!

The Lords Prayer :Matthew 6:10-13 "This, then, is how you should pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Amen!

Read everyline one at a time, think what it means.Think what God is telling you, if you do you may think I have missed something, you may be right.

As part of your prayers ask to turn away from and be protected from your sins and from being enticed to sin. Indeed a tough subject for another day but no doubt important and surely everytime we pray we should be asking Him to protect us and to help turn from sin when it tempts us. For it will tempt us and our spirit is not strong enough to turn from it, but if we ask Him for the the Holy Spirit to guide us, especially in times of temptation, He will give us the strength we need to "deliver us from evil" And times when the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins that we have committed we should pray that Jesus will forgive those sins and keep us from them.

Lastly I would suggest you ask Father God to send the Holy Spirit to guide your life, in Jesus name, for his spilled blood that by grace you may be saved, that I am saved. Amen!

Debra, my wife's, testimony

If you asked me to describe myself I would have told you I was a Christian.

Growing up when I was young we didn’t go to church but my parents got my sister and me a Children’s Bible.  I was 8 years old.  I used to enjoy looking at the pictures while my Father would read to the Bible to us.  I would say I believe in God and Jesus.

One summer when I was a teenager my Mom sent my Sister and I to Vacation Bible School. I can still remember one of the counselors teaching us about Jesus and a passage about how even the demons know of him and shudder. I began to understand the difference between knowing of God and Knowing God. 

I have spent the better part of my life until recently tormented-never sure of what would happen to me when I died.  I would worry about the end time predictions. I would think of having an underground house with stockpiles of food and water and when the Pope died how many more Popes where left before the end of the world came.

 Psalm 38 verses 4-8 describes how I often felt.

              My Guilt overwhelms me-It is a burden too heavy to bear. My words fester and stink because of my foolish sins. I am bent over and racked with pain. All day long I walk around filled with grief. A raging fever burns within me and my health is broken. I am exhausted and completely crushed. My groans come from an anguished heart.

On mother’s day after almost three years of not making it to church for one reason or another I asked my son if he wanted to go to church. My daughter was still sleeping and my husband was working. We went together. I am not confident I would have gone if I didn’t have someone to go with.  Even my 8 year old son.  He went down to Sunday school .After service I went down to get him. He wanted to stay and enjoy fellowship. I remember feeling emotionally overwhelmed and crying when people came over to talk with me and feeling foolish for crying. I was embarrassed to tell my husband I had gotten so upset.  Everyone was so nice and welcoming. They asked if we were new to Medfield.

A few months after we started all together to church as a family, Pastor Jonathon was offering a church membership class at the parsonage.  Dennis and I signed up to attend. I really needed and treasured our times together. It was a teaching and learning experience.  All of my questions Pastor had the answers in the Bible and the time to listen.  Dennis was talking to Pastor about baptism and knew he was ready and I knew I was not. I still had my old fears. Pastor asked me if I had asked Jesus to come into my life. We prayed together and I asked Jesus to please come into my life and heart and I wanted to follow Him. The next day the Holy Spirit came into my heart and my soul... I have never felt anything so beyond words and wonderful in all my life. I suddenly got it. My entire burden had been lifted off of my heart. I understood everything clearly. Everything that Jesus had come to do for me and for all of us. Jesus came to die for our sins that we may have eternal life it is nothing we can earn .It is a free gift for us to accept by the grace of God.

Psalm 34 verse 4-10 describes how I now am.

 I prayed to the Lord and He answered me. He freed me from all my fears. Those who look to Him for help will be radiant with joy; no shadow of shame will darken their faces. In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened; he saved me from all my troubles. For the angel of the Lord is a Guard; he surrounds and defends all who fear him. Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh the joys of those who take refuge in him! Fear the Lord, you his godly people, for those who fear him will have all they need. Even the strong young lions sometimes go hungry. But those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.

Asking Jesus to come into my life was the best thing that has ever happened to me.

Amen

Testimony on Baptism Day

A Psalm of David
Psalm 22 1:10

¹ My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.

³ Yet you are enthroned as the Holy One;
you are the one Israel praises.
⁴ In you our ancestors put their trust;
they trusted and you delivered them.
⁵ To you they cried out and were saved;
in you they trusted and were not put to shame.
⁶ But I am a worm and not a man,
scorned by everyone, despised by the people.
⁷ All who see me mock me;
they hurl insults, shaking their heads.
⁸ “He trusts in the LORD,” they say,
“let the LORD rescue him.
Let him deliver him,
since he delights in him.”
⁹ Yet you brought me out of the womb;
you made me trust in you, even at my mother’s breast.
¹⁰ From birth I was cast on you;
from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

Before my walk with Jesus I was a “good” person. I got up in the morning and went to work, kept to myself, and worked hard. I would come home and watch TV, get on Facebook, have a few drinks and go to bed. The next day I would do it all over again. I was very self-righteous, better than most people, overcame some addictions, I would judge people and wonder why they were not more like me. Even my wife, instead of accepting and loving her, I would try to get her to conform to my needs while not caring for her needs.

So when we went looking for a church to attend as new residents of Medfield, I had an ulterior motive. I would be able to sleep in on Sundays while the family went to church. God had other plans, as did my son Karl, who motivated me to attend by telling me “God is more awesome than you”! Well who can turn that down, so that first Sunday Karl and I went to church. We started attending as a family regularly, and before you know it I was going to Bible study. That first Bible study I realized I was NOT a Christian, and probably not even a good person. I started listening to some podcasts of sermons recommended by Pastor and reading my Bible and slowly it all came together for me.

One day on my route as a letter carrier I sat in my car and said a prayer, not sure of what to say, I simply asked Jesus to come into my life and guide me. And He has!

I went back to Bible study with a thirst for His word and a desire to learn and worship Him! Since I know that Jesus died for my sins I try to glorify His name in all that I do, now days that would have left me empty and worn-out remind me that HE has something better for me. Daily He continues to show me His glory and so I walk with Him knowing someday I will be before Him.