Three Prayers to Pray...

Craig Groeschel offers the following prayers for us to pray:

1. Stretch Me:

• In many ways, comfort is the enemy of faith.
• You have more in you than you realize, only by being stretched will your kingdom potential be realized..
• God has put more in you than anyone else sees.
• Ask God to Stretch you...only then can you grow.
  

2. Ruin Me:

• Let the working of a loving God break you and ruin you for His glory.
• Let yourself be ruined by the brokenness that is all around you...let it hurt you...let it grow in you...let it bother you.
  
• Let yourself be wrecked by the hurt in the lives of the people that you know.
• Ask God to Ruin you...only then will you care to help.
  

3. Heal Me:

• You have some wounds that God wants to heal.
• We need to admit that there are ways in which we are sick and in need.
• Our spiritual sicknesses hinder the full working of God in our lives.
• Ask God to Heal you...only then will you remember that all glory belongs to God.
  

Blessings,
PB

The Sunday Shout-Out: October 25th, Edition

It was great to be able to have our annual business meeting Wednesday...so today we shout-out the quorum. If you were there consider yourself appreciated. Business meetings don't usually inspire shout of hallelujah but still they are necessary and important. So, for those of you who were able to attend we would like to thank you for being faithful to Hilltop. But if you were not able to attend the meeting for some reason or another, here is a little heads up...our next business meeting is October 21, 2009.

Blessings,
PB

Quotes: #16 & #17

"We need people who are more afraid of missing opportunities than making mistakes. People who are more afraid of lifelong regrets than temporary failure. People who dare dream the unthinkable and attempt the impossible." - Mark Batterson

"The difference between where you are and where God wants you to be may be the painful decision you refuse to make." - Craig Groeschel

From The General Superintendent.

This video as posted by the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God and concerns the upcoming election:

Blessings,
PB

Hilltop Reads...Day Fifty-Four: As was said of Moses!

"Moses did everything just as the Lord commanded him." Exodus 40:16

As was said of Moses, may it be said of us.

Blessings,
PB

Quote: #15

"Earth's crammed with heaven,
And every common bush afire with God;
But only he who sees takes off his shoes;
The rest sit round it and pluck blackberries."

- Elizabeth Barrett Browning

CSP '08 Final Accounting

Here are the final numbers for the Child Survival Project '08 weekend.

• 11 Malaria nets provided
• 25 Child Sponsorships
• $6,253.19 total cash raised for the Wolmera CSP.
• Scores of joyful volunteers.
• Priceless.
  

Blessings,
PB

Questions That I Am Asking Myself.

Here are few of the questions that are keeping me up at night:

• Am I dreaming of or attempting anything that will require God's help to accomplish?
• Am I truly being faithful with the opportunities that God has and is giving me?
• Am I turning a blind eye to anything that I shouldn't be?
• Am I using my time wisely?
• Am I laughing enough?
  

I hope to elaborate on each of these questions sometime in the near future. In the mean time maybe one of them will keep you up with me as well.

Blessings,
PB

Hilltop Reads...Day Forty-Seven: Do!

As we read it is always a good thing to ask ourselves if what we are reading requires action from us, "Is there something in this passage that I should obey?"

Former chaplain of the United States Senate, Peter Marshall proffered this thought for our consideration:

• "I wonder what would happen if we all agreed to read one of the Gospels until we came to a place that told us to do something, then went out to do it, and only after we had done it, began reading again? There are aspects of the Gospel that are puzzling and difficult to understand. But our problems are nit centered around the things we don't understand, but rather in the things we do understand, the things we could not possibly misunderstand. Our problem is not so much that we don't know what we should do. We know perfectly well, but we don't want to do it."

You might even want to read that again just to make sure you hear what is being said. As you are reading the Bible, make sure that you are engaging with what you are reading. Then ask for the willingness, ability and grace to do the things that it requires you to do.

Blessings,
PB

Quote: #14

"Worse than being born blind would be to be able to see but not have any vision." - Helen Keler

Slacker

I just realized that I've been slacking when it comes to the posts here...I'll see if I can't step it up a bit in the weeks to come.

Blessings,
PB

A Prayer Audit? Redux.

Here is two minutes and eight seconds of Francis Chan's thoughts concerning Proverbs 30:7-9:



By-the-way I am still waiting to see if I will be making this a prayer of mine.

Blessings,
PB

Seeing Only What You Want To See.

For the record, I did not watch the VP debate last night (forgive me if you need to.) But, as I have been perusing the comments of the pundits it has become clear to me that it is difficult for people to get past what they believe when evaluating a candidate’s performance. This is what I mean; as a result of my perusal-ing I have been able to decipher who won last night's debate and here it is: without question Sen. Biden won the debate, AND what is more, Gov. Palin clearly won the debate. There can be no questioning the reliability of my conclusion; after all, multiple witnesses and statistical polls have established them. If you consider only the polls it wasn’t even close: one poll has Sen. Biden winning a victory by a generous 18%. Which I have to say is a clear indicator that Gov. Palin was simply out of her league last night. But wait…another poll has Gov. Palin victorious by a mind-blowing 41%. So, clearly she knocked Biden out. So far, every "conservative/Republican”-website/pundit that I have read has Palin victorious, whereas every "liberal/Democratic"-website/pundit that I have read has Biden sitting in the victors seat. Conclusion = people generally see what they want to see.

Now, I have no direct comment related to the above observation, but I do have a related comment…

…if we are not very careful, we will do exactly the same thing when we read our Bible. Because it is possible to read it, and only read what we already believe...it is possible to open our Bible and see in it, only the things that we want to see. Which means it is possible for us to read the entire Bible and find only affirmation and never find correction. But the bible does both...it affirms and it corrects. So, as you are reading through your Bible this year, I challenge you to make room for affirmation and for correction.

If you are only seeing the things that you want to see...beware...the Bible is bigger than that.

"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 2 Timothy 3:16 & 17

Blessings,
PB