Jeremiah 29:11   NLT

¹¹ “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.”

This friday we turn the page and begin a fresh new year 2016.    This is a year of promise, for  which God has already planned our days.     We’re so excited to see what the Lord of Glory is going to do in Battlefield Assembly and through each of our lives.

We ask you to join us this new year -  and  anticipate ALL that God has in store for 2016!

Leave worry and fretting behind -  God has great things in store for us -  perhaps even taking us all to live with Him.   Even so Lord Jesus Come!   We’re ready!

Love ya, Pastor Phil & Twila

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It was just an old bicycle someone had thrown away until Dad found it in the trash and rescued it from certain destruction. He put new spokes in the wheels, new tires on the rims, new bearings in the crank hub, a new chain and sprockets, a beautiful new coat of paint and a comfortable new seat. Whatever the old bike had been in the past faded into insignificance that Christmas morning when it was found parked next to the unpretentious Christmas tree in my childhood home.

I was thinking: Isn’t that rather like our experience with God? There we were on the devil’s trash heap. Well aware of our own short-comings and failures. Badly scarred by the life we had lived. Seen as worthless by some; simply overlooked by others. But then, the Master found us, replaced the bad, repaired the good, refurbished His own remarkable design and gave each of us as a unique and useful gift to a family and circle of friends waiting with baited breath to see God’s finished product.

Don’t give up on yourself. God certainly has not. Give Him all that you are right now and see what amazing things He can do with you!

Merry Christmas!

With love,

Pastor Richard Orrell

Matthew 1:23 NLT

²³ “Look! The virgin will conceive a child!  She will give birth to a son, and they will call Him Immanuel,  which means ‘God is with us.’ ”

The Angel told Mary what Jesus’ name was to be, and gave her the assurance that all was going to be alright, God had a plan for her life.

God set this plan in motion many years ago, and his Word tells us that each of our days was numbered and planned before we were even conceived.

God cares so much about each of us that He planned our lives and directs our paths.   We only need to allow Him access.

This Christmas season, don’t be stressed and overcome by the hustle and bustle that man has created.  

RELAX.  Take a deep breath and place your  future in the hands of the One who has it all under control.  Jesus is the Reason for this season!

Merry Christmas, 

Pastor Phil  and Twila   

She was so young. And no doubt there had been pressures for her to lower her personal standards. There are always pressures, no matter the era or culture. But Mary held true to her faith and to God.  How amazing it must have been to her when the angel calmly asserted; against impossible odds her elderly cousin was already pregnant. And that she too would conceive, who without fear of contradiction could boldly declare to her heavenly visitor that she was a virgin. The racing thoughts behind her one timorous question would doubtless fill a book: “How shall this be, seeing I know not a man?”

Perhaps you too have impossibilities looming large over your life. The cancer diagnosis is firm. Simple math reveals a large cash shortfall this month. The relationship is irretrievably broken. The list of potential impossibilities is varied and daunting.

Wouldn’t this be a good time to hear the message of the angel so fresh from the heart of God that night in Mary’s small room? “For with God, nothing shall be impossible.”

The other part of the equation that brought forth a Savior for a sin-darkened world was the profound response from the lips of a simple daughter of Abraham, “Be it unto me according to thy word.”

In our desperation, may we each hear God saying one more time that nothing shall be impossible with Him. And may our response be as prompt as her immediate acceptance of His will.

Go ahead and believe for your miracle. God cares

Have a blessed Christmas!

Pastor Rich Orrell

1 Thessalonians 5:18  (NLT)

¹⁸  “Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.”

Thursday is Thanksgiving and yes, we're all thankful on that day.    However, the Word says we are to be thankful in ALL circumstances, no matter where we find ourselves.

Twila and I are in Michigan enjoying some down-time with our kids and helping serve Thanksgiving dinner to a host of students and their families at Teen Challenge. What a blessing this is to us.

However this weekend, and at all times, we’re thankful for our Battlefield AG Family. You are loved and we are glad we’re all part of God’s  Family.    Rejoice and worship Him today with your whole heart!  

We’re blessed to call you Family!   

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving!

Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

In my early years of serving as Pastor there was a time when Thanksgiving loomed close but the cupboards were bare.  The economy had taken a turn for the worse.  My wife and I prayed that God would send us a turkey for Thanksgiving.

Being new in the community, neither of us realized that several of our church families had more than one member working at a local factory that gave turkeys to its employees for the holidays.  Be careful how you pray, you may get it.

As Thanksgiving approached we wound up with so many turkeys from our generous congregation that we had to rent a freezer locker to store them!  We enjoyed roast turkey, turkey sandwiches, left-over turkey, warmed-up turkey, cold turkey...  we had all the turkey we needed or wanted and THEN some!

Philippians 4:19 became a way of life for us in those early days. We learned first hand that He really does care about those empty cupboards.  He really does hear those desperate cries as breadwinners pray for little hungry mouths needing to be filled.

These days our prayers might be a bit more specific.  We might think to include the side dishes to go along with the turkey.

Trusting God with you for a bountiful Thanksgiving!

Pastor Rich Orrell

Thankful for His Blessings

Psalm 69:30 NLT

^{30 “}I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving. “

Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday.  Just a little over a week from now we will all sit down with family and friends to give thanks to the One who provides all to us.

God is so good to us friends, His mercy abounds and gives us much more than we could ever deserve.

Today and every day let us let the Lord and others know how truly thankful we are for God’s bounty.

“He paid a debt He did not owe, I owed a debt I could not pay.”  

Love ya,             

Pastor Phil      

As a younger person I often heard about the importance of putting a good foundation under the building. Things were said about the strength of the foundation as well as the need for it to be plumb and level. I’m not sure I really grasped what was being said until I began remodeling an older home. Although the project was not extensive it grew into some major work as I discovered just how wavy the floor really was.

It did not take long to find out there was nothing square nor plumb in the entire structure. A quick trip to the crawl space revealed the problem; the foundation had settled and cracked. Oh, the building wouldn’t fall down. The ground was too rocky for that. But it certainly made for interesting times fitting well-built cabinetry into a kitchen that was badly out of kilter.

 After lots of hard work and ingenuity the cabinets fit (more or less) and life went on. A bit wiser at the close of the project, I made up my mind that if I were ever to build something from the ground up, I would do everything in my power to see that the foundation was rock solid. I had had enough of fixing preventable problems from the past.

It occurs to me that life is a lot like that. Things just go a lot smoother for a lot longer if the Foundation is secure to start with. For the person setting out to build a life, there IS no better Foundation than a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 

To know Him supersedes all else that might otherwise seem solid and secure. Without Jesus as the Foundation, whatever else one may build will be out of square and out of plumb. He truly is the Rock of our salvation. 

Lovingly,

Pastor Rich Orrell

Let’s be a true friend!

When the Word chooses to emphasize a relationship of great value It refers to a “friend. “  It says Jesus is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.   So friends are important.

Each person that we can truly call ‘friend’ is a blessing to us and a person of great value.  

As our Church Family grows, we have a great opportunity to add new friends to our lives.

Resist the ’comfort zone’ of just sticking with our ’old friends’.    By stepping out of the comfort zone to get acquainted with newcomers, we have a great opportunity to make new friends.

Let’s make sure our friendliness is more than just a friendly greeting.   Take the opportunity to connect and  get to know each other.   We all benefit when we expand our circle-of-friends!    Be a friend today, to have new friends!

True friends are a blessing from God!

Love ya,  Pastor Phil      

To a six year old in a family with limited financial resources the crisp new dollar bill in the birthday card seemed a fortune. An out of town relative had sent it perhaps realizing what it would mean to the boy to have an entire dollar to spend on himself. Unrealistic visions of the purchasing power of that single dollar filled his head as he slipped on his faded dungarees and buttoned his only dress shirt preparing to head for church with the family. Mountains of candy and piles of toys occupied his thinking as the '35 Plymouth sedan coughed and chugged toward church on it's remaining 5 cylinders. 

The guest speaker for the morning was a missionary. Memories of just which country the speaker served have dimmed with age. But the urgency of the request for assistance in getting there still rings true through the years. 

At the close of the service the missions offering was finally being received. The six year old thought about the great need for the Gospel in that distant land and the enormous cost the missionary had underscored in his talk. In the little boy's mind, the only source of money massive enough to fund such a need was his one and only dollar. By the time the offering container had arrived at his pew the boy clutched his offering reverently in his pudgy little hand. Mountains of candy and piles of toys evaporated from his thinking to be replaced by thoughts of a child rather like himself, but with darker skin, kneeling to pray as he had done months earlier to receive Christ as Savior and Lord. Gravely, the little boy placed his dollar in the pan experiencing that warm, clean feeling of joy every missions giver knows. 

It was not a solitary piece of money that the Father had given that bought salvation for all. It was His one and only Son. He still looks for those who place greater value on the souls of men than they place on money or possessions. 

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son..."

Lovingly,

Pastor Richard Orrell