He Is More Than Enough

Saturday evening I visited a young patient in the ER. 

Monday morning early it was ME in the ER, concerned that I may have a life-threatening event.   Thankfully I was diagnosed with a mild case of Bell’s  Palsy instead of the feared stroke.

Is this affliction inconvenient and irritating?  Yes, but we know that God works all things out for good for those that love Him and  follow His commands and serve Him.

I know that many folks held me up in prayer this past Sunday evening and Monday as I walked through the evaluation of what was wrong with me—I fully believe God answered prayer.  So until the Lord takes all the symptoms away, I’ll look a little different, but praise Him, I’m able to function and Worship Him for His goodness to me.

Trusting Him and believing His promises is a very real part of each of our lives.  Daily we are called on to put our trust in Him.

So whether it is healing you need, protection, employment, improved relationships,  ANYTHING and EVERYTHING we need, and must have in life, comes from the Lord.

Friend, God’s got your back!    He is never ‘early’, but I know from experience He is not ever ‘late’ either!

Trusting Him for our healing, a new job, Divine direction, whatever the need is, He’s more than enough to take care of all of our needs, according to HIS riches in Glory.

So why do we have our daily struggles?   That’s not our business, we must leave that in God’s hands and trust His plan for our lives.

Our job is to pray.   God’s job is to bring the right answer that falls in line with His Divine Plan for each of our lives.

As the old song says, “We don’t need to understand, we just need to hold His hand”.

So here we are “Trusting Him”.   Please join me in trusting our mighty Lord for all my needs and yours. He is more than enough!

Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

V1 is that moment in the takeoff of an airplane when weight and mass, lifting power, engine thrust, speed, length of the runway and many other variables coalesce into the decision to continue with the takeoff or abort. If the captain delays just two seconds the aircraft will hurtle off the end of the runway sustaining damage and potential injury or loss of life. Once V1 has been reached the decision to stop the takeoff has been removed from the table. It must continue as well as it may. The throttles must remain at their maximum. The control surfaces must remain set for takeoff. There can be no waffling or indecision. The commitment has been made and there is no possibility of turning back. 

For us as believers we are at V1. "I've come too far to look back", as one old gospel song says it. Another one expresses V1 this way, "There's nothing to go back to!" Jesus suggests there is a fatal flaw in the reasoning of the one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back. 

Church, we cannot afford to back off on the power at this late date. We are at the most critical point of our walk with God. The end of our takeoff run looms ahead. Success awaits those who continue doing the things that make for a strong run to the finish. It is imperative that we keep up with our prayer life, Bible study, Christian fellowship, and regular church attendance. We must continue our scriptural giving and allow the fruit of the Spirit to blossom, bud and be borne in our lives. We are far beyond the decision point. As one old country preacher said; "ya just gotta keep on keepin' on!" 

"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not." Galatians 6:9 

In Christ's love,

Pastor Rich Orrell

God Takes Care of His Kids

Psalm 37:23-25 (NLT)

^23 "The Lord directs the steps of the godly.     He delights in every detail of their lives. ²⁴ Though they stumble, they will never fall,
    for the Lord holds them by the hand. 

²⁵ Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children  begging for bread."

We struggle daily against temptation, unbelief and discouragement,  These are tricks of the enemy to destroy God's children.

The secret to living a triumphant Christian life is to believe daily His promises, to remind Him of all the promises He has made to us and to claim them for ourselves.

Last Easter Sunday began a year-long journey for our family in which we had to trust God for the outcome of a situation over which we had absolutely no control.   As humans, we tend to want to 'fix' whatever is wrong in a quick-fix mode, we don't like to leave things in God's hands to bring the ultimate correct outcome.

But God tells us to put our cares in His hands.

This Easter Sunday evening, just one year after the journey began, God confirmed His perfect answer to the situation that had weighed so heavily on the Illum family.

Can't share all the details here, but I do want to confirm that God has been faithful, He worked His plan and He has done all things well!    The outcome is perfect!

Even if we are tempted to try to tell God how to work things out, we need to hold our peace, and just trust Him.   He says, when we've done all we know to do, we're to STAND, and let Him take care of the solution.

We want to thank everyone who has prayed with us during this year for our extended family.   We stand AMAZED that God loves us so much that He died for us and He cares for the things that burden us.   He is so faithful!

God's never late, and once again He has shown up "Right On Time".   When we say "Jesus", He speaks peace to our souls.

Love ya, 

Pastor Phil  & Twila

Good Friday stirs memories of somber church services laced with ritual and homilies reminding us of the fact of humanity's brutal slaying of the Lord of life. But for our family it also holds sacred thoughts of the culmination of two weeks waiting for the inevitable words, "she's gone". Kind nurses and care givers fluttered about fluffing pillows or administering other kindnesses designed to make Mother comfortable as her 95 year old body slowly ground to a halt. We had sung everything we could think of and quoted or read all of Mom's favorite scriptures many times over.

It was during one of those precious times when she was awake but weak. We had sung another collection of sacred songs with Mother faintly mouthing familiar words with her waning strength. Someone began Bill Gaither's marvelous song, "Because He Lives".  Mother rallied, and for the last time we heard her deep throaty contralto belt out: "Because He lives, I can face tomorrow. Because He lives, all fear is gone. Because I know He holds the future, and life is worth the living just because He lives!" It was Thursday, April 12, 2001. No one else in the room realized what tomorrow held, but I'll always believe Momma  did. After yet another long night spent doing whatever we could for our dear Mother, Good Friday was upon us. As the day progressed we could see she would be leaving soon.  We were all there praying, singing and just being together as Mother "faced tomorrow". All fear really was gone. And when the time of her passing arrived she just went quietly and quickly to sleep.  Jesus' resurrection had changed everything.

Hopefully all of us can face all of our tomorrow's...because He lives. Without the resurrection Good Friday isn't good at all. Without the miracle of Easter's vacant tomb Jesus' death that terrible day was just another sad, sick premature death of a fine young man. But with a flourish, the Angel said, "Come see the place where the Lord lay. He is not here. He has risen as He said!" Because He lives, we can face tomorrow!

Anticipating the resurrection!

Richard Orrell, Pastor