Category: Get Together Writings

GET TOGETHER – The Myrtle Will Grow

Isa 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”(NKJV)
One of the things that I really love about this time of the year is all the beautiful myrtle trees that we have in this part of Alabama. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I know that we don’t worship nature. We are not one with nature, but in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit will sometimes speak to us through God’s creation.
Isaiah 55 is one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. We see in this prophetic chapter what the Messiah our Lord Jesus Christ can do in the lives of those who love Him. He desires to bring healing and restoration to all of those who trust in Him.
Isaiah tells us that instead of the brier will come up a myrtle tree. Briers can be very painful. I remember as a young boy growing up in Hull camp in Walker County waiting for the mail man to come. Most times me and my brother would be barefooted at that time of the day. When the mail man ran either me, or my brother would go out to the mailbox. Between the house and the mailbox from time to time we would get briers in our feet. The tar that was on the road was hot and it also added to the pain somewhat.
If we have lived life, we have often experienced spiritual briers in our lives. Those briers could have come because of our sinful behavior. It could have happened when we thought that we were going after something pleasant, and instead we ended up in the brier patch.
Sometimes those briers may have come because of someone else’s sin that hurt us and effected our life’s journey in some way. Or they could have come when we hurt someone else with our sin. And we also know that because we live in a fallen world that briers can happen as we experience the loss of a loved one here on earth. Briers may come when a person has lost their job, a child has gone into rebellion or many other ways that bring heartbreak and disappointment.
But we are promised in Isaiah 55:13 that not only the briars, but the thorns will be replaced by something beautiful Isa 55:13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree, And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree; And it shall be to the LORD for a name, For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
In the Old Testament we see what God promises for a repentant Israel. We also see in this what God will do in the life of the repentant sinner who follows Jesus Christ. We see it in Joel 2:23-25 “Be glad then, you children of Zion, And rejoice in the LORD your God; For He has given you the former rain faithfully, And He will cause the rain to come down for you-The former rain, And the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you.”
In the New Testament we are told in Lu 4:18 what Jesus will do for those who love Him. “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Now that is making the myrtle grow where the brier once was. If there are myrtle tress growing near where you live may it remind you that our Lord will make the myrtle grow where the briers have been in your life. Often it is here on earth, but always it will be forever and ever in Heaven one day where we are told about another tree:
Re 22:1 -4 “And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the tree of life, which bore twelve fruits, each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.” Not sure if it will be a myrtle, but one thing for sure is that it will be out of this world!

Let Us Pray
Lord we thank You that in the hurts, the disappointments, the heartaches and some of the briers that we have experienced in our lives that you can make the myrtle come up. Lord, I pray today for all who read this that the myrtle will come up where the brier has been.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston
Please pray for the Revival Services this week at Mt Olive United Methodist church on Cotton Gin Road in Tremont Ms. I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do there.

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER- HE WORKS FOR OUR GOOD

Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

I don’t know how many times in the last twenty-six years that the Holy Spirit has given me this verse in ministering to someone. And I can remember on one of the most difficult days in my life when the Holy Spirit gave it to someone to give to me. It didn’t really feel so good that day, but the Lord has used it in a lot of ways over the last twenty-six years in our lives and in the lives of those that God has had us to minister to.

Last Thursday I broke the screen on my cell phone. I just got it back today. The first day it reminded me of my first day of quitting smoking over 32 years ago. I would reach for my phone just like I reached for a pack of cigarettes. But to be honest it got better every day.

Here are some ways that I believe that God worked for good in this. I have been able to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit more clearly. One thing that the Lord showed me was that I spent too much time scrolling Facebook. I know that the Lord gave me a ministry on Facebook. But on the other hand, I didn’t have to know what every person that a friend was thinking about on every issue, or their favorite football team, or so many other things.

The Lord also began to speak more clearly when I was studying His word. I have a busy schedule coming up. I will be preaching Revival services in Mississippi, going to Guatemala, and working a Christian retreat within the next couple of months. Please keep me in prayer for all those opportunities to lift up the Name of Jesus. I also felt like the Lord used that time to help me hear more clearly what He wanted me to do during those opportunities.

One neat thing that happened was while we were at J.J.’s Dad’s this past weekend happened when the power went off. Normally I might have used what battery that I had left to do something on my cell phone. Well, we just decided to sing hymns during that time. We must have sung at least ten, or eleven hymns. It was truly a glorious time, and the Holy Spirit was present with us in a good way.

As I mentioned earlier, I got my phone back about two hours ago. The Bible tells us in Jas 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. (NKJV) I know with what I do and in this culture that I need a cell phone.

On the other hand, I know that I don’t need to spend as much time scrolling Facebook or going to the sites of news networks. So, pray for me that it will be a tool for God to use in His Kingdom and that I won’t clutter my mind and my spirit with unnecessary information.

One more way that God worked in this is that I have been sleeping
better at night. I don’t wake up and think about something that I saw on Facebook. So feel free to hold me accountable about this.

You may be going through something a whole lot more serious than what I just shared. I have had some of those things. But no matter what it is if we trust Him God will work in it in some way. I know as I said earlier, He has done it in my life and in the lives of so many that He has allowed me to share that passage with.

Let Us Pray
Lord there may be some people reading this that are experiencing something a whole lot more serious than being without their cell phone for a week. No matter what it may be Lord help them to trust You to work for their good in their situation.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER – HE DOES WHAT WE CAN’T
Ec 3:11 ¶ “He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.”
Last week I wrote about how God redeems our regrets. I may have shared how that I have often regretted not being a Christian in High School. I shared some ways that God had redeemed some of that time. Today I got to experience that even more.
A dear brother from Jasper had arranged for me and a couple of my friends from here in Hamilton to meet with him and some of my old Dora High School teammates and friends for breakfast. What a joyous occasion it was.
We shared stories of old high school football games and basketball games. Several of them we had come out on the wrong side of the scoreboard. Now you probably could not have convinced us at that time that God could make that beautiful in His time when we were paying the price on Monday for a rough night the previous Friday. But as the Word of God says He makes all things beautiful in His time.
For all of us as I said last week there are things that we would like to have had another crack at or done over. When we read these words, we realize that God may not make everything beautiful exactly when we want Him to, but we can be assured that He will do it. Sometimes and a lot of the time He does do it here on earth as we follow Christ. On the other hand, in a fallen world sometimes it takes place in Heaven when we go to be with the Lord.
One of the great blessings today was being able to tell those old friends that I loved them. Another great blessing was knowing that they really loved and cared about me. As a person that was once very insecure in relationships that was one way that God through Jesus Christ does in our lives what he said that He would do in Lu 4:18 “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed.” Jesus can and desires to do that in the lives of all that surrender their lives to Him.
When we yield our lives to Him, He truly does make all things beautiful. Again, He doesn’t always do it when we want Him to, but we can be assured that He is at work in us and that He will do it.
Today was truly one of those wonderful days. On the other hand, it was not perfect. We prayed for one of my old teammates who is batting cancer. We could have probably talked until late in the afternoon, but all of us had somewhere, or somebody that we had to get back to.
One of my favorite Hymns is “There Is A Fountain Filled With Blood .” One of my favorite lines in that song is “redeeming love has been my theme and will be til I die.” Isn’t it awesome that by and only by the shed blood of Jesus Christ can vile sinners be saved and God redeem the time in our lives? Isn’t it awesome that He not only has a glorious present for us? Jesus said it like this in Joh 10:10 “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. He makes things beautiful now. He also has a glorious future for us. He truly makes things beautiful forever and ever in Joh 11:25,26 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. “And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” And how does this sound for making everything beautiful in His time? Re 22:3-5 And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever. Trust Him and He will make all things beautiful in His time.

Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus, we thank You that You make things beautiful in this life. Thank you for those moments that we see how You have redeemed time in our lives. We thank you for old friends being able to meet new friends. We thank You for making some ugly times in our lives beautiful. We also thank You for the time that is coming. When we will meet more new friends. Where we will once again see some old friends. We thank You that as the scripture says in Ro 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose, and in Eph 1:11” In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.” So today Lord I am asking you to make all things beautiful in Your time in the lives of all who are reading this.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER – Redeeming Our Regrets
Eph 5:15,16 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

Back in 2002 the Lord answered a prayer that I was praying from 1Ch 4:10 And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “Oh, that You would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” So God granted him what he requested .” (NKJV) I had prayed for the Lord to increase my territory in sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He answered that when one of my old friends Tommy Combs asked me to preach on his television station in Jasper, Alabama in our former home county Walker County.
The Holy Spirit gave me a name for that program several years ago. The name of the program is Redeeming the Time. I felt like the Lord gave me that name to show me that the program was a way for God to redeem the time that I had lived as a sinner in Walker County until 1990 when I got saved. The Lord has since opened doors for that program to be on the internet and in several cities and towns in Northwest, Alabama.
I thank God that by the Blood of Jesus Christ and the work of the Holy Spirit that God can redeem every part of our lives. Let me give you an example of one way that God did that recently. I pray that it will help you to allow the Holy Spirit to work in redemptive ways in your life everyday now, and until we go home to be with the Lord.
Most weeks I get the blessing of going to Life house in Winfield, Alabama. Life house is a discipleship ministry for those who are trying to get free from addiction and other destructive behaviors. It is a part of New Life Fellowship in Winfield. And Pastors Jerry, and Hope Norris have poured their lives into this ministry.
From time to time some of the residents there will be from my old home county. When they are I try to connect with them in some way. There will be some that I may have known some of their relatives. There may be others that I am familiar with where they went to high school and some of the traditions associated with where they went to high school.
Last week one of the residents shared with me that he was from one of the high schools that was a friendly rival to where I went to high school. When he told me that I did with him what I usually do with some of the other former students from that same school. I started humming the tune to their fight song. The next things that the Holy Spirit had me to do was to play a song that I had been listening to on YouTube. You may or may not be familiar with that song. It is an older song What A Day That Will Be.
As we listened to the song, we began to sing the song together. Then the young man shared that his daddy was a preacher. He shared that his sister used to sing that song in church. It was really a powerful time and for me it was evidence of how God can use every bit of our lives past, present, and future to share the love of Jesus Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote in 2Co 5:17 “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” As I said earlier through the Blood of Jesus Christ and through the work of the Holy Spirit God can redeem our regrets. We all have had some. We all would have liked to have changed some things in our lives. However, we can’t go back in the past and change them. But praise God that Jesus Christ redeems it all. He took our regrets with our sinful pasts to the cross at Calvary.
Praise God that we can now walk in the victory that He has provided for us. The Prophet Isaiah wrote to Israel, and it is a good word for all of us who once lived in rebellion against God. Isa 43:18,19 “Do not remember the former things, Nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, Now it shall spring forth; Shall you not know it? I will even make a road in the wilderness And rivers in the desert.
Please pray for the young man that I mentioned and for all the residents at Lifehouse. Pray also for the Lord to use you in ways that remind you that you don’t have to regret your past. That in Jesus Christ you know that you have been forgiven and He has redeemed your past. This is one of my favorite passages about how God works in a redemptive way to bring redemption to our past.

Joe 2:25,26 “So I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten, The crawling locust, The consuming locust, And the chewing locust, My great army which I sent among you. You shall eat in plenty and be satisfied, And praise the name of the LORD your God, Who has dealt wondrously with you; And My people shall never be put to shame.
There is coming a day when not only will our natural minds not remember any of our regrets. It will also be a time when the forces of evil cannot remind us of them either. Until that day know that if you are in Christ Jesus your past has been forgiven. Know that He can redeem every bit of it. And as His forgiven and redeemed children of God may He use you to sing songs of redemption with others. May He also use you to help others to walk in victory over any regrets that they may have from a sinful past. And may these words about that day abound in your spirit forever and ever.
Re 21:5,6 Then He who sat on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” And He said to me, “Write, for these words are true and faithful. “And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.”

Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus, we thank You that You redeem it all. We thank you for forgiving us of our sinful pasts. Today fill us with the Holy Spirit in such a way that the people that you put in our lives will experience Your forgiveness, and Your healing from any past regrets, or anything else that was a result of either their sin. Or the sin of someone else.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER- PRAY THE WORD
Col 1:9-11 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy;

I am so thankful for the many ways that we are told that we can pray in the Bible. We know that the Lord gave us an example in the prayer that we often refer to as the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus also gave us other examples like the neighbor who was out of bread and when a visitor came, he kept knocking on the door until he got an answer. Sometimes some of us pray in an unknown tongue. So in the Bible we often see differ examples of prayer. The main thing is for the Holy Spirit to be praying through us as we pray for others. Because He knows what is on the Father’s heart. And He will put it on our heart.

A dear friend of mine and J.J.’s sister Carolyn Lovelady from Dora, Alabama helped us to learn about the importance and the power of praying the word for others, over others, and concerning certain situations. This week as I was reading the Book of Colossians, I was reminded of this when Paul shared how that he was praying for the church at Colossae. As I look at that prayer, I would just like to share with you some things that I gleaned from that and how that I believe that we can pray that prayer for ourselves and for others.

First, Paul tells the people that he prays for them regularly. That is a good thing for all of us. We are to pray for our congregations, our family, our friends, our co-workers, and yes, our enemies. We should do that regularly as the Holy Spirit leads us.

He prays that they be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in wisdom and spiritual understanding. Isn’t that a good thing for us to pray for anyone and for everyone?

He prays that they would glorify the Lord. Please pray that for me and that I would not be a glory seeker but would glorify the Lord.
He prays that they would please God. Wow! What if everyone in our family, our church, our community, our nation, and in the world was pleasing God at the present time?

He prays that they will be fruitful in every good work. Could not our churches be used to change the world if every believer in Jesus Christ was being fruitful in every good work?

So today if at times you may feel like you want to be sure to pray the will of God over someone’s life, or a church, or any other situation. Pray the word of God. We have a promise in Isa 55:11 “So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” Pray it! Believe it and stand on it!

Before I close, I ask you to pray for our good friends Richard and Carolyn Lovelady. They are having some serious health issues at the present time. Please keep their son Scott, their daughter Gina, and their families in your prayers at this time.

One more thing. There has never been a more important time in the Kingdom for us to be a people that pray as I have just talked about than now. And there has never been a more important time for us to be an answer to someone’s prayer than at this time

Let Us Pray
Lord we thank You that You have given us the freedom to come boldly before Your throne of grace. Forgive us when we have taken that for granted. For all that read this I pray today that you will birth new life into prayer lives of those who may have grown weary. May we know that You can use us in ways that we cannot ask or imagine when we get serious about our prayer lives.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.
This Sunday’s Message : Over Coming Temptation Like Jesus Did

Get Together- What A Wonderful Month
Eph 6:2 “Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: Mt 19:5 “and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? (NKJV)

Either last week, or another week me and my good friend Richard Wilson were talking about how in both of our lives June had been such a prophetic month. I would just like to share a few ways that June is such a special month to me.

First of all, J.J. and I will be celebrating 41 years of marriage this coming Monday June the 20th. That day over 41 years ago brother Mahlon Felkins married us at the Childersburg United Methodist Church in Childersburg, Alabama. He also gave us wonderful counsel in what Holy Matrimony is between a man and a woman.

Another great joy is seeing some of the couples that the Lord has allowed me to perform their ceremony having good solid marriages between the husband and the wife. Not all were married in the month of June. But none the less during the month of June I do think about and praise God for them being united in Holy Matrimony no matter what month it may have been in.

Last Sunday marked 26 years since we began serving our first church as a pastoral family at Bethlehem Church. We moved to Hamilton on a Wednesday 26 years ago last week. Next week will mark 17 years ago when we began the ministry that God called us to at Christ Community Fellowship.

This Saturday will be my daddy’s birthday. I have been thinking a lot about him this week. It is Father’s Day as well so that gives me a double reason to think about him this week.

I am so thankful that he was my father. He always stood behind me when I needed him to stand behind me. Fatherhood is a big deal. Just as marriage between a man and a woman was ordained by God as His plan for the family. So was fatherhood ordained by God to lead the family. Sadly, many fathers have abandoned their role as fathers and have left some heavy loads on some very faithful women.

One of my favorite memories of my daddy’s happened when I was working for him. At that time, I was a drug user. I had been up most of the night from using drugs. When I went to work, I was hung over and messed up from the night before. I got mad at him. I threw my keys to a car that he had given me and my keys to the business away and started walking up the big hill where our business sat. It was snowing that morning. That was another reason I was mad I thought that we would close because of the weather, and we didn’t so I threw a tantrum and walked up the hill. Guess what? He came driving up the hill and picked me up. He forgave me for my childish rebellious actions and brought me back to work.

That is a lot like our Heavenly Father has done for us. When we were living in a rebellious state, He came looking for us and offered us the opportunity to be a part of the family of God.

I realize as I said earlier that there are people who may be
reading this that have experienced a lot of hurt from their fathers. I know that it is painful, but I encourage you to forgive them as you have asked God to forgive you. It doesn’t mean that the hurt was ok. But it will bring freedom to you.

I also encourage you to pray for people to regain an understanding of Holy Matrimony again in our nation. God loves all people. But His desire for marriage is for one man and one woman in Holy Matrimony. I love people. As a matter of fact, from being in the restaurant business for 22 years prior to entering the pastorate I have to on a regular basis pray for the Lord to help me not to be a people pleaser. If I didn’t love people, I wouldn’t share what God has put on my heart. I Pray for you that not only the month of June, but every month is a special month for you in which you experience the goodness of God living in His good, pleasing, and perfect will.
Let Us Pray
Lord Jesus, we thank you for good memories. We thank You that You are a God that desires to bless His people not just in June, but in season and out of season. We thank you for the gift of Fatherhood. We pray for all fathers to live out our roles as fathers as You have intended us to do. Forgive us for when we have shirked that role and our responsibility. We thank you for Holy Matrimony. May You bless the men that you have joined together as husbands with the women that You have joined together with them as their wife in a very special way. And for those that you have chosen to remain in singleness bless them in a way that we cannot ask, or imagine. And yes be with those single Mothers who have such a heavy load.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER– Won’t It Be Wonderful There.
Joh 14:1 -6 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. “And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.”

As I began to write this the Holy Spirit brought before me the title of a song that we sang at what is now Bethlehem church. That was the first church that we ever Pastored. In that song it talks about the joys of not having any burdens and the joys of Heaven.

A couple of weeks ago we went to Fort Morgan for a few days at the beach. J.J. had rented us a wonderful cottage to stay in for those four days. There were several other cottages near us. There was a little lake right behind us with a fountain in the middle and water was continuously running and making a soothing relaxing sound.

One morning as J.J. and I were sitting out there having our quiet time with the Lord I was reminded of Jesus promise that in our Father’s house are many mansions. I was thinking that if there was one of those cottages like that up there for us how wonderful that would be. Everything seemed to be so peaceful there where we were staying.

Then I got to thinking about how great that it would be. We could go visit my mother and daddy one day. We could go visit my brother one day. We could go visit J.J.’s Mom. I have two grandmothers there. One of them I have never met. There will be so many friends that I would like to see again. I would like to tell the woman that was caught in adultery how her being forgiven by Jesus helped me to know that I could be forgiven for the many sins that I have committed. And then most of all I thought about seeing Jesus and touching His nail scarred hands.

Well, we know that as wonderful as vacations are they are not perfect. So as special as that time was for us at the beach it was not perfect. There were wars being fought in the world. Children had been murdered two days earlier in Uvalde Texas. Gas prices kept rising and are still rising. I am sure that you can add some unpleasant and some horrendous things that are taking place in our world at the same time as well.

With all that Jesus tells us to not let our hearts be troubled. He tells us to believe in God and to believe in Him. There are times that the evil one would try to convince us that there is no answer for the troubled heart. The enemy has done a good job of convincing a lot of people that God either does not exist, or that the God of the Bible isn’t God.

But we believers in Jesus Christ we know that He is God. We know that He is faithful to what He has promised. He has promised us that He will come again. He promises that He will receive us unto Himself. And that we will be with Him forever and ever.

When we go on vacation sometimes it takes me a day to get relaxed and to get into vacation mode. When we go to be with Him, we won’t have that problem. The apostle Paul tells us in 2Co 5:8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. When we are with Him, He will help us to make the adjustment real quick, kind of like in the twinkling of an eye.

Another thing that happens with me when I get into vacation mode, is that I get into counting down how many days until we must go back. When we get there, we won’t have that problem. Jesus said that we would be with Him always. As a matter of fact, we won’t have any problems and yes, we will be there forever and ever! The apostle John wrote about this in Revelation 22:3 -5: “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him. They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads. There shall be no night there: They need no lamp nor light of the sun, for the Lord God gives them light. And they shall reign forever and ever.”

There are a few different routes that you can take to get to the beach from Hamilton, Alabama. We went down I-65 through Montgomery, got on I-10 just past Bay Minette. We then got on the Baldwin Beach express for several miles before taking a couple of other roads to get us to our destination. We came back a different route. We came back on US 45 going through Mississippi. So there is definitely more than one way to get to the beach from Hamilton, Alabama.

However, there is only one route that you and I, or anyone else can take to live in Heaven forever and ever and to be reunited with those that are in Christ. Jesus in this same chapter had this to say when Thomas one of his disciples ask Him this question and He gave Him the answer. In John 14:5,6 Jesus answers Thomas question :Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way? “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

Friends and brothers and sisters in Christ that J.J. and I love so much. We are looking forward to spending so much time with you in the presence of the Lord one day. Many of you time and distance does not allow us to get together like I would like to. For those of you who have put your faith in Jesus Christ rejoice and look forward to that time as you serve the Lord here on earth until that time comes.

On the other hand, if you are reading this and you have never put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to save you from your sins. Please understand that it is only by repenting of our sins and putting our faith in His precious Blood that we can live forever in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and be reunited with those that are in Christ again in Heaven. I want to see you there. Here is a line from that old song that the title of this message comes from.

When with the savior we enter the glory land
Won’t it be wonderful there
Ended the troubles and cares of the story land
Won’t it be wonderful there? (Songwriters: Alexander Olson / Jason Esdale / John Lee Smith / Ray Riddle
Won’t It Be Wonderful There? lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC)

It is going to be good!!!!
Let us Pray
Lord Jesus, we thank you for paying the price for us to be able to live with you in Heaven forever and ever. May all that read this one day live with you in heaven forever and ever.
In Jesus Name
Amen

Love you all
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER – Help Us Lord!

1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.” Ro 14:13 Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way.
Samuel was given instructions by God on whom to anoint as the next King of Israel to succeed King Saul. In verse 6 we see that Samuel looked at Eliab and thought that he must surely be the one that God had sent him to anoint: 1Sa 16:6 “So it was, when they came, that he looked at Eliab and said, “Surely the LORD’S anointed is before Him.” This guy must have looked like a blue chipper, or a five-star recruit. But we know that it was David the little brother who would become King of Israel.
Although there are certainly times that God gives us wisdom on some matters that things that a person may be wearing such as a tee shirt, or some other garment, or a piece of jewelry that may indicate where that person’s heart, or sympathies may lie. We can also be wrong when we attempt to judge people by their outward appearance.
Most mornings I don’t eat breakfast. A lot of the time I make me a shake out of almond milk. One day I put blueberries in my shake. When I got through drinking it, I noticed that some of the fragments of the blue berries were on my teeth. When I looked in the mirror it appeared that I had been chewing tobacco. I brushed my teeth again and flossed them before I went out. One of the main areas that the Lord has called me to serve in is helping people to be free of a life of addiction. When I preach that the Lord set me free from nicotine, I don’t want the enemy to use that to put doubt and mistrust in the minds of those that I am ministering to. On the other hand, if I had not brushed and flossed my teeth and gotten the blueberry fragments out someone could have made a wrong judgment about me because of something that they saw.
I also had bought some breath mints that were in a circular container. J.J. pointed out to me that it looked like I had a container of snuff in my pocket. I immediately took the container of mints out of my pocket. As a person that was delivered from a 2 and ½ packs of cigarette habit over 32 years ago I didn’t want to give the appearance that I had substituted one addiction for another.
Pardon me if I am rambling today. But basically, what I am trying to get across is that sometimes when we judge someone by what we see on the outside we can be very wrong about that person. On the other hand, as believers in Jesus Christ and I am certainly not trying to be legalistic. We do have a responsibility not to be a stumbling block to other Christians. That is where the Holy Spirit comes in. He will give us discernment. And by the way there is a difference in discernment and judging someone based solely on their outward appearance. He will also alert us as He did J.J. and I and help us not to be a stumbling block to others.
So, I guess the best way to sum up what I am trying to say is the two principles that are in the two passages that I shared are this. Let us not judge people by their outward appearance. And let us not be a stumbling block to others that are in the faith. Again, the Holy Spirit will help us in both areas that I am talking about if we will listen to Him.

Let us Pray
Lord, we know that in our current culture that it is easy to let our hearts get hard and to form opinions about people by their outward appearance. Help us to allow the Holy Spirit to guide us and to help us not to have a critical spirit. We also ask you to help us to not be a stumbling block to new believers. We thank You for the grace that You give us to help us to become more like You.
In Jesus Name
Amen
We love you all!
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER- Worship The Creator and Not The Creature
Ro 1:24,25 Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

I love people. God loves people. God created human beings in His Image and His desire for us is to love Him with all our heart and soul and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We are told in Joh 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” That is a lot of love. I wouldn’t sacrifice any of our children, or grandchildren for hard core sinners, but God gave His only begotten Son.
Jesus in responding to a lawyer as recorded in Lu 10:27 So he answered and said,” ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.” (NKJV) So we know that we are to love our neighbor. We are to love our enemies and yet the Apostle Paul has some words of warning to us in Romans Chapter 1. We know that Paul was saved by Jesus, filled with the Holy Spirit, and inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the Book of Romans as well as at least thirteen and many believe fourteen letters of the New Testament.
When Paul wrote Romans he was in Corinth. Corinth was a city where there was a lot of sexual sin as well as idol worship that involved sexual sin of various types. And Rome at that time was every bit as full of the same type of sin that was in Corinth. This sin was practiced by government leaders and prominent leaders, and citizens.
Sin has pleasure for a season. we are told in Hebrews concerning the passing pleasures of sin: Heb 11:25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. (NKJV) Just like a fish biting on a lure. It may taste good for a while. It may feel good for a while. But sooner, or later the fish is in the boat, and then in the frying pan.
One of the dangers of worshipping the creature more than the Creator is that the creature will often come up with what the created calls right, or wrong. And the creature is subject to changing what it considers right and wrong.
The unsaved man, or woman is controlled by the sinful flesh. I believe that Paul wrote the Book of Ephesians. Paul described that condition of the unsaved created human beings in this way : Eph 4:17 -19 “This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. I know that describes my life before I met the Lord Jesus Christ.
Notice that when Paul talks about those who love the creature more than the Creator. He says that they have exchanged the truth of God for a lie. We live in a culture today where one prevalent mindset is that there is no such thing as absolute truth. That is not really such a new thing. Satan basically was telling Eve that she couldn’t believe God, or trust God. He was denying truth. Pilate asked Jesus “what is truth”? He didn’t know it, but truth was standing right there in front of him.
As I mentioned earlier. I love people. God desires for us to love people. On the other hand, if we love people. We must point to the truth. We point people, to the Creator. It has been said that what we bow down to is what we worship. It is a temptation for someone like me that loves and likes people to bow to the winds of the culture and to what the created says is good. On the other hand, I don’t ever want to be guilty of worshipping the creature. There is only one that is worthy of our worship. that is the Great Three in One Father- Son-and Holy Spirit.
The created under the influence of the demonic and the sinful flesh will just as Satan did to Eve try to convince us not to trust God. The created will use intimidation, false guilt, name calling, and the threat of cancelling us to make us bow down and worship the created.
I encourage you to read all of Romans Chapter. I ask you to allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you as you read this chapter. And be assured that any area of your life, or my life that is not in accordance with what the Holy Spirit is saying there that God will forgive, deliver, and heal from every sinful effect that is there.
I love you too much to worship the created. J.J. and I are so thankful for the many friends, loved ones, and brothers and sisters in Christ that God has given us. Our prayer is that we all will worship the Creator and not bow to the winds of the culture. We don’t want to worship a fallen creation under demonic influence. We want to worship the true and living God and to share His love with a people that He desires to call out of worship of the creature and into a dynamic Holy Spirit filled relationship with Him.

Let us Pray
Lord Jesus, you created us to worship You. Help us to not fall into the trap of worshipping the creature. Help us to love and to offer Jesus Christ to those who have. Lord today we pray for our nation, and all other nations that have fallen for the Satanic lies that lead to worship of the creature .
In Jesus Name
Amen

We love you all!
Your Friend/Kinfolk
Preston

PS For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. It is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.
Please pray for our broadcast that the Lord will use it to bring sinners into the Kingdom and to edify His people.

GET TOGETHER – HANGING ON BY A THREAD

Jos 2:18-21 “unless, when we come into the land, you bind this line of scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and unless you bring your father, your mother, your brothers, and all your father’s household to your own home. “So it shall be that whoever goes outside the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we will be guiltless. And whoever is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head if a hand is laid on him. “And if you tell this business of ours, then we will be free from your oath which you made us swear.” Then she said, “According to your words, so be it.” And she sent them away, and they departed. And she bound the scarlet cord in the window.

 

Perhaps you have heard the expression that we say here in Northwest Alabama that old saying: “she was just hanging on by a thread” when he or she was in danger, or about to experience some life-threatening situation.  Well, that was certainly true in the case of Rahab.  And, it wasn’t just a thread it was a cord that we would see that she needed in the situation that she was in. 

The Army of Israel was approaching the city of Jericho. Rahab like others had heard the accounts of what the God of Israel had done for his people.   Her hearing of this is written about in Jos 2:10,11 “For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom you utterly destroyed. “And as soon as we heard these things, our hearts melted; neither did there remain any more courage in anyone because of you, for the LORD your God, He is God in heaven above and on earth beneath.”

She demonstrates her faith by hiding out the spies that Joshua has sent to spy out the city.  She hides them on the roof of our house and covers them with flax. We see in the passage above where the spies agree with her that she and her household will be spared when the city is taken if she binds the scarlet cord out of the window. And in the following passages we see where she and her family were spared and would gain a new life with the people of God. Jos 6:23,25 “And the young men who had been spies went in and brought out Rahab, her father, her mother, her brothers, and all that she had. So they brought out all her relatives and left them outside the camp of Israel.  And Joshua spared Rahab the harlot, her father’s household, and all that she had. So, she dwells in Israel to this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.” 

 She had demonstrated her faith in the God of Israel by hiding the spies in her house. She was saved by putting out the scarlet cord.  She trusted that Blood red cord to spare her life and the life of her household. And they had to trust in it as well.   She and her household made the decision to put their trust in the God of Israel to save them from destruction.  Rahab is listed in what some of us refer to as God’s Hall of Fame also known as the Faith Chapter in  Heb 11:31 “By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.”

  According to David Guzik in his on line Bible commentary “early church commentators such as Clement of Rome, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus and Origen saw the cord as symbolic of the Blood of  Jesus”  (https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/joshua-2 .

The title of this message is Hanging On By A Thread. The Hebrew term for cord is actually tiqvah,  tik-vaw’.  It means cord as an attachment.  I agree with those commentators that believe that cord is symbolic of the Blood of Jesus Christ.  Today we might feel surrounded by all the uncertainty in the world. There are wars and rumors of wars across the globe. There are murders taking place everyday in neighborhoods across our nation. The basic Biblical values about gender, marriage and other biblical values are under attack.  It may appear to us that the enemy is closing in on us and that there is no hope.  Everywhere we turn, we see the epidemic of rampant drug use.

But praise God that the Blood of Jesus Christ covers us and makes us more than conquerors in all situations. We can be thankful that we really aren’t just hanging on by a thread. The cord that was hanging from Rahab’s window points us to the Blood of Jesus Christ. And through the Blood of Jesus Christ, we are more than conquerors! Because of the Blood of Jesus Christ, we are bound with that eternal three cord strand Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!  And we know that a three-cord strand cannot be broken.  Because Jesus hung on the tree we don’t have to just hang by a thread. Because Jesus rose from the dead. we can experience life and life more abundantly in season and out of season! In him and by faith in His precious Blood we have eternal life!

And just as Rahab became a part of God’s people by her faith. Through the Blood of Jesus, we became and if you haven’t, yet you can become a part of God’s people by faith in His Blood. The Apostle Paul said this in Eph 2:13,14 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. ¶ For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation.”  Rahab got a new identity. We get one too when we come to Christ. And praise God we aren’t just hanging on by a thread, but we are being held in the arms of God by the Holy Spirit.

 

          Let Us Pray 

Lord Jesus, we thank You for every word of God being yes and Amen! We thank You that just as Rahab was saved by grace that we can be and are saved by grace today. Help us to never forget the Blood sacrifice that You made for us. And Lord help us to demonstrate our faith as Rahab did by being faithful to You and caring for those around us.

In Jesus Name

Amen

 

Love You All

Your Friend/ Kinfolk

Preston 

 

PS   For those in Northwest Alabama our Broadcast Redeeming the Time comes on at 9:30 A.M. AND 9:30 P.M. on Sunday morning and Sunday night. I am currently preaching a Sermon Series called The I-22 Sermon Series.  That is on Spectrum Channel 10. In Jasper, I believe it is on TV 16.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preston Headrick 

Evangelist 

Real Party Ministry 

P O Box 2302

Hamilton, Alabama  35570