Honor to whom Honor is due

This week we honor those who have gone   before and are no longer with us.

Memorial Day is a day to remember and honor them for the lives they lived and what they meant to us.

We also honor our Veterans that have given their lives to provide us with our freedom.

Take time this week to thank the Lord for a wonderful church and church family.  We are so blessed beyond measure.

Thank the Lord also for those who have given us our Spiritual heritage:  pastors, teachers, parents and other role models.  We owe a debt of gratitude to many on this special day of remembrance.

Lastly, thank the Lord that you live in      America, the greatest country on earth.

Thank you,  Jesus, for Your many blessings.

Happy Memorial Day,

Pastor Phil      

The ink was still not quite dry on my college degree as I launched into my first pastorate. Wishing to be faithful to preach all the Gospel, I felt I should preach a message on healing. I worked Psalm 103:1-5, Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 9:20-22 into the smooth flow of my treatise on the doctrine of healing. Triumphantly, I closed with the declaration of the unchanging nature of God revealed to us in the life of Christ. Hebrews 13:8 rolled so easily from my lips as I thundered what my head and my heart knew to be the truth: "Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and today, and forever!"

In my naïveté I spoke into the expectant hush that followed, "If anyone would like prayer for your healing, just come forward."

I was expecting headaches and arthritis to be the healing needs as a few came to the front of the church. Imagine my shock when the first lady in line asked me to pray that God would heal her of a large tumor in her reproductive system.

In the blink of an eye we had moved from the theoretical to the practical. It would either be gone following prayer or it would still be there. 

Simply following the instructions from James 5:14&15, I put a small spot of olive oil on her forehead and prayed a quiet prayer asking God to heal her. She returned to her seat with no fanfare and said nothing to me as she and her husband left the building. 

The following Sunday they were back. She asked to say something and shared how amazed her doctor was to discover that the tumor was no longer palpable. He suggested a D&C rather than the scheduled surgery.  There was nothing there. In response to the preaching of the Word and obedient prayer, God had stepped in and healed her. 

If you need a healing, study what God's Word says about the subject. Pursue your healing through the many means available to us today. Prayer, Doctors, nutrition, technology...if we ever recover from any disease, God certainly has something to do with that recovery. 

Believing for your miracle!

Pastor Richard Orrell

Stop living in the past

Jerimiah 29:11  NLT

“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and  not  for  disaster,  to  give you a future and a hope.”

OK—enough is enough!   This scripture promises God’s perfect plan for our lives.   He has forgiven us for our past, so let’s quit revisiting our past hurts and mistakes.

Let’s purpose to begin TODAY to stop looking in the rear view mirror, I’ve never seen a hearse pull a U-Haul trailer.  Let the past go, it cannot be changed. To have God’s best we need to forgive and forget those hurts and those who hurt us, move forward, forgetting what is in the past, strive toward the mark God has set for our future!

Thank Him today for the great future He has  in store for us.   

Love ya, Pastor Phil      

As a twelve year old I did not aspire to do much of anything in the little church where we worshipped. I was supremely content to listen to others play an instrument or sing a special. And I certainly was not yearning for the chance to lead a song service.

I recall as though it were yesterday the terror that swept over me when Mother volunteered me to lead in the absence of the older gentleman who usually waved his hands vaguely in the air while lustily singing some selection from the hymnal.

I was assured his duties consisted largely of announcing the number of the song and getting everyone started at the right time. As Mom was the pianist and music was such an integral part of our home life I decided to attempt what seemed an impossibility.

Sure enough; with a bit of private coaching on the proper pattern for waving one's arms while singing, plus a bit of head nodding and significant glances from the piano bench, I made it through my debut as a church song leader.

No doubt it was clumsy and rough. I'm certain an accomplished worship leader might have been justifiably critical of my style and technique. But as is so often the case in our youth, Mother served to push me into something I might never have tried left to my own devices.

Special appreciation to our Moms for the foundations they laid as we grew under their supervision!

Pastor Orrell