One favorite scripture says, “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that ye ask or think…”

My heart is encouraged when I read these marvelous words.

The fact that God is “able to do” suggests that no matter how daunting today’s crisis might appear, there is Someone who can handle it. His resources tower majestically higher and stretch infinitely wider than any mountain His child may face.

Considering the fertile imagination resident in most of us, for scripture to say that God is able to do so much more than we ask or think crowds the load limits of our minds. It would seem that the limitations of prayer’s possibilities are self-imposed by our failure to dream and believe commensurate with God’s limitless power. So go ahead and fire up your imagination. Dream big. Believe big. Ask big.

A wise old country gentleman once said; “Better to aim at the moon and hit a fence post that to aim at a fence post and hit the ground!”

See you at the altar!

Lovingly,

Pastor Richard Orrell

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 

Palm Sunday stands out in my mind as a signpost pointing to the following week’s celebration of the heart of the Gospel; the resurrection. But it also holds its own place of great excitement and deepest reverence for us as it reminds us of the settled fact of Christ’s return.

How the crowds must have thrilled that day as He sat astride the little donkey fulfilling scripture coming into Jerusalem being hailed with cries of “Hosanna!”

Although they were a couple of thousand years early the cries were well placed recognizing Him as the only hope for our little sin-cursed planet. They couldn’t know the horrors that awaited the Lord of Glory submitting to the beating that paid for our healing. Nor could they grasp the savage death He would die for our sins. They just recognized the majesty and divinity of God’s Messiah cloaked in the trappings of the common man.

The Church stands on spiritual tip toe looking and longing for the return of the loving and gentle Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary, son of David, son of Abraham, Son of God.

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout!”

Look up! For your redemption draweth nigh!

In anticipation of Christ’s return,

Pastor Richard Orrell

Jeremiah 7: 7-8 NLT

⁷ “But blessed are those who trust in the Lord and have made the Lord their hope and confidence.  ⁸ They are like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat."

Scripture says that we WILL have troubles in this world, but we're not to be bothered by them.  We are to put our faith in Him.

Just as a tree with roots sunk deeply into the riverbank, if we have our faith roots sunk deeply in the Lord, He has promised he will take care of our every need.  

Human nature is to fret and worry, but He says we should NOT worry, but only trust in Him.   Jesus is my Savior I shall NOT be moved.

Be at peace with God as your Source today!

Love ya, 

Pastor Phil      

The warnings on labels these days often border on the ludicrous.  Reading them might well lead to the conclusion that if the purchaser needs such warnings he or she shouldn’t be out in public unattended.

However, there are things in our world one might well avoid like the plague: potassium cyanide, sulphuric acid, electric shock, king cobras and brown recluse spiders, just to name a few. There are valid reasons any information about these will certainly contain words like, caution, deadly, corrosive, or aggressive. Some things are programed to be destructive. If they are allowed into proximity to anyone, they remorselessly function to the extreme detriment of their unfortunate victim.

One must wonder if there shouldn’t be warning labels on certain personalities: “Caution! Anything shared will show up on social media!”

Another might be: “Danger! This personality is highly critical and can be very corrosive to one’s sense of self-worth!”

Or: “Prolonged exposure to the culture of sin contained in this character can result in a severe infection of unrighteousness!”

Isolation has been tried to no avail by well-meaning ascetics from time immemorial. Not only is it non-productive for believers to stay aloof from the ordinary world around us. It is also a violation of the spirit of Jesus’ prayer for us in John 17. It seems rather clear that He sees us as His emissaries to the world; certainly not a part of it but Heaven’s representatives to it.

Thankfully we are left with the choice of whom we let into our inner circle. It is imperative that we screen those closest to us and make choices not to allow the patently corrosive nor the clearly contaminant to infect us with their nature.

Choose the inner circle well. It is the base from which compassionate inroads may be made into the community of the hurting.

Serving the God of the Bible as revealed by His Son, The Lord Jesus Christ,

Richard Orrell, Pastor 

Feeling at Home

In the words of the Gaither's song, Feeling at Home, we hear the words, "Warming my feet by the fires of The Spirit, camping right close to the Throne, feeling at home, feeling at home," we hear the cry of my heart today.

I’m tired of this old world, tired of winter, homesick for Heaven and Jesus.

I awoke this morning with this wonderful song on my heart and later this morning that changed to "I've a longing in my heart for  Jesus, I've a longing in my heart to see his face, I am weary, oh so weary, of traveling here below, I've a longing in my heart for Him."

Winter won't last that much longer, just a  little while and it will be better, The ache in the heart of each Christian is to see our Savior and to be HOME at last.

Hang in their my friends, "Soon and very soon", we're going to see the King!

Please join us this Sunday at His house.    Let your voice join with ours in worshiping the King.   Enjoy anointed ministry in song and the Word.    Services are at 10:30 AM and again at 6 PM.

We'll say "Welcome Home", the words we anticipate hearing from our Saviour soon.  See ya Sunday!

Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

The inside of a car engine can shed some light on what keeps the believer going when the emotional high of the revival service is over and the realities of everyday life kick in.

There are times when none of the cylinders in the motor are actually firing and producing power. Some fired recently. Some will fire shortly.  But at this instant in time, NO power is being produced by any of the eight cylinders. What keeps the motor from suddenly stopping?

There is a simple device deep inside the motor that has absorbed the energies produced when the cylinders actually did fire. It is called the flywheel. It is just a disc of heavy steel whirling at the speed of the motor. When an instant occurs when no cylinder is firing, the flywheel with its weight and inertia keeps the motor turning so that the moment of opportunity will come around for each cylinder to fire and do its part. 

For us as believers, commitment to a local church, involvement with its programs, the expectations of those depending on our attendance and performance…these all serve the same purpose as the flywheel in the depths of the motor. We really need to have the inertia of involvement to get us through the flat spots when there is neither excitement nor enthusiasm. We are there because we are expected to be there. That pressure pushes things around to our own firing point. The kitchen as a cook, the foyer as a greeter, the lectern as a teacher, the pulpit as a preacher, the office as a secretary…well…you get the picture.  :-)

How about you?  Are you still going from today’s emotional high to tomorrow’s hoped-for apex of religious fervor? Or have you learned to let the deep commitments of your involvement with a local church take you through your valleys of today to the thrill of accomplishment as a servant of Christ the next time it’s your turn to function??

See you Sunday!

Lovingly,

Pastor Richard Orrell