Happy New Year!

Today's Reading: Zechariah 9-12; Revelation 20
Today's Thoughts: Being Bold in Prayer

I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected. Habakkuk 2:1

How many of us open our Bibles and search for the writings of Habakkuk? The most likely answer: not too many of us and not very often. I remember the first time I actually studied this short, three-chapter book. To this day I still quote chapter two, verse one, back to the Lord. Habakkuk tells the story of how he questioned what the Lord was doing with His people. It is a great illustration of how we can seek out the Lord's plans, reason with Him, and then fall at His feet when He answers us personally. However, in this case, the answer was not in favor of the people, Habakkuk stood in awe of God's awesome power and mercy.

As Christians we tend to think too much about what God wants from us. We spend a lot of time praying for the things that we think He wants us to pray. We hope that He will not be upset with us if we pray for the wrong things. And then there are times when we are just amazed that He answered our prayers at all. It is one thing to be thankful and grateful for the Lord's gracious gifts, but we need to consider and question why we are just surprised that He answered in the first place. Our relationship with the Lord should be stronger than that. The Lord wants us to not only pray for the things we want and need, but also He wants us to reason with Him, wrestle with Him, and be honest in our prayers. In Isaiah 1:18 the Lord says, "come and let us reason together." Habakkuk had questions and he was not afraid to reason with the Lord, even to the point that he states in this verse that he will stand, wait and watch for God to do something. Talk about boldness!

For each of us today, God wants us to be bold. He wants us to come to His throne of grace with boldness and receive the mercy He has freely given through His Son Jesus. God wants us to pray with that same boldness, asking, seeking and knocking to know His will. Is something on your heart today about which you are not being completely honest with the Lord? Do you have questions or maybe you are upset with the way things are going? Go to the Lord in boldness. Tell Him your thoughts and feelings then tell Him that you will "sit on the ramparts [watchtower]" and wait for His answer. Do not be afraid. You will see God's goodness, just as Habakkuk did. "Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength; He will make my feet like deer's feet, And He will make me walk on my high hills." (Habakkuk 3:18-19) Now that is a great promise!
Phillips Temple CME Church, 5333 Geneva Ave. San Diego, Ca 92114 Phone: 619-262-2505

Merry Christmas

God is Good ALL of the time.
Saturday, December 24/25 Weekend


Today's Reading: Micah 6-7; Revelation 13
Today's Thoughts: Who is Like Our God?

Who is a God like You, Pardoning iniquity And passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, And will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. Micah 7:18-19
Have you ever known anyone who truly delights in mercy? Think about it for a moment. How many of us really enjoy extending mercy to others? I am not talking about the kind of mercy that we give in times of need or extend to someone because we feel sorry for them. I am talking about the kind of mercy that the Lord extends to us on a continual basis. And not only does the Lord grant us this mercy, but also the Bible says He loves to do it. Isaiah 30:18 says the Lord waits (or longs) to be gracious to us. Sometimes we need to be reminded of how good God is to us. There is no one like our God.
We also need to be reminded of something else concerning our awesome God: He pardons our iniquities and casts our sins into the depths of the sea. He remembers them no more (Isaiah 43:25). So often, we are the ones who hold on to our sins, not God. We are the ones who condemn ourselves, not God. We are the ones who judge ourselves harshly, not God. And, we are the ones who cannot forgive ourselves, but God does. Jesus says that we are to come to His throne of grace with boldness and to take His mercy with the love to which it is extended to us. Jesus died for us so that we may live in freedom, knowing that all of our sins are forgiven, even the ones we have yet to commit.
To our friends, We pray that today can be a new day for you. We pray that you will accept God's mercy and grace with open arms. We pray that you, in turn, will begin to delight in doing the same for others. We pray that you will fall in love with this awesome God who truly does delight in forgiving all of your sins and waits just to be kind and gracious to you. Ask the Lord to open your heart to receive His mercy and take hold of all that He has for you.

Merry Christmas! from Phillips Temple CME Church, 5333 Geneva Ave. San Diego, Ca 92114. Phone: 619-262-2505.

Annual Choir Christmas Musical

Hello,
I would like to invite everyone out to worship service at Phillips Temple C.M.E. Church. We are located at: 5333 Geneva Ave. San Diego, Ca 92114. Phone: 619-262-2505

Phillips Temple CME Church San Diego

There is Only One Way
Friday, December 2

Today's Reading: Ezekiel 42-44; 1 John 1
Today's Thoughts: There is Only One Way
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5

A few years ago, the Lord put a burden on my heart for someone who worked for my husband. She was a loyal employee, a hard worker and a mature manager. Her ethics and values made her trustworthy and honest. Why would I have a burden for such a good, well-balanced person? She began attending a church and her life began to change. Her church was a Self-Realization Fellowship temple. She learned from them that her good works and good life would gain her much favor when she was reincarnated. If she continued to improve in her good works each time that she returned to earth (in whatever form that might be), then eventually she would reach the pinnacle of her life's goal: she would become god. Believe it or not, this is the teaching of the New Age movement. She bought in to their lies and deceptions.

The Lord gave me the verse listed above and told me to tell her that He is the only Light. I remember the morning that I asked her to come over and have a cup of coffee with me. I told her that the Lord loved her and that He wanted her to know Him. I read 1 John 1:5 to her and said that in God, there is no darkness. She began to cry and she shared with me her fears of darkness. She was struggling and hurting. I talked with her about Jesus and that there is only one true God. Jesus is the only Way. There is no alternative path to everlasting life. The hard part in witnessing to someone in this position is that they will often agree with you. She agreed with me in everything I said about God and that she most certainly believes in God. But, she was not so sure about Jesus being God. She believed in Jesus but she had made Him out to be just a really good man, a prophet and a teacher. She could not accept His sacrifice for her sin, because she convinced herself that, in the end, her good works were all that really mattered. She would earn her way.

She would later leave our company and move on. The differences in our beliefs really stressed our relationship at times. Without realizing it, she changed in ways that made her hard-hearted and opinionated. In denying Jesus, she was continuing to bring increasing darkness into her life. The "good life" is deceptive and blinding. It simply is not possible for us to be "good" people. I still pray for her when the Lord brings her to my mind and I hope that one day she will come to the true Light. For me personally, I learned a lot from going through the experience of witnessing to her. Despite my burden for her soul, I know that only the Lord can save her. If you know someone in this type of cult or other false religion, do not give up praying for them. There is always hope-until their very last breath.