03.23.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:59 am by jeff@dlaog.com
Jesus was asked by a young religious leader what the greatest commandment was. Jesus responded to him by saying that loving the Lord your God was the greatest, and the second was like, or equal to, the first and that was to love your neighbor as yourself.
The motivation of Christ was love. John was so impacted by the love of God that was manifest through Christ Jesus that he declared in 1 John 4 that “God is love.”
Over the millenia of Church history, we who call ourselves Christians have not been very good at either command, loving God or loving our neighbor.
I believe that we who would call ourselves “Christian” must refocus on the basics of the faith and love of God and our fellow humans certainly is foundational to our faith.
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03.17.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 8:33 am by jeff@dlaog.com
I haven’t posted for a while, and I want to explain why.
We are starting a new ministry here at DLAG, and I am so excited!
For many years, I have wanted to help people in a practical, helpful manner,
but have never came across what I was looking for until mid-summer of last year.
After thinking on the idea for a while, I presented the idea to the church board
in late fall, we entered into the steps to being our involvement with Angel Food
Ministries. I encourage you to go to their website http://www.angelfoodministries.com/
and join us in this amazing opportunity.
We are tentatively planning a training date on March 28 here at the church. If you have
any questions, please call the church office.
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02.16.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 12:19 pm by jeff@dlaog.com
Yesterday during the message, I compared an apple fritter to the power of God. Think about it for a moment, an apple fritter has power over your body. If you have a diet of to many apple fritters over the course of a month, there will be a noticable result. People will be able to tell that you have encountered and been changed by apple fritters. There is no way to go around it. The Central Market Apple Fritters are powerful!
In the same way, people who have been in contact with the power of God will demonstrate a noticable result. People will be able to notice a difference. Acts 4:13 NKJV says Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realized that they had been with Jesus. It was obvious that Peter and John had encountered the power of God. Now they were doing the very same things that Jesus had done.
May I ask, how has your encounter with Jesus Christ transformed your life? Is it noticable? Is it visible? When you have encountered to many fritters, it is noticable around the waste. When you have encountered the Creater of Heaven and Earth, it is far more noticable.
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02.13.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:12 pm by jeff@dlaog.com
Rom. 1:3-4 NKJV says concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who was born of the seed of David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead.
Often, we declare Jesus to be the Son of God, and rightfully so, but this is where we most often stop. We remain on a purely intellectual level. We think that to declare Jesus the Son of God is enough, we have even developed systems of theology that essentially say “This is as far as it goes.” But Scripture goes on to say that Jesus is declared to be the Son of God in power!
There is still power in the Name of Jesus. There is still power in the Church of the Living God. Let us call for the power!
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02.03.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 1:00 pm by jeff@dlaog.com
Pressing in is something that we don’t do really well anymore in American culture. We are so “fast-food” oriented that we find it very difficult to slow down and pray something through to completion.
As we are in day 2 of our fast, I want to encourage you to slow down, and re-focus on God, and on His timing.
Blessings,
jeff
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02.02.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 11:57 am by jeff@dlaog.com
As I was driving to the office this morning, I turned on the Christian Radio Station (this is part of my fast…no more talk radio for awhile) and the song that was just starting really hit me. I’ve been singing this song all day today. It is a song that I have heard once in a while and has been around a while, and liked it, but never really caught the title or the artist.
Here it is, and the eternal truth contained is priceless.
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Posted in Uncategorized at 11:52 am by jeff@dlaog.com
Hello,
Yesterday was our Super Bowl party and it was wonderful, as usual. Lots of food, fellowship, and as usual, I was pulling for the losing team. That is just a bummer, that I always seem choose the wrong side that way.
Today marks the beginning of our church’s 21-day fast. Joel 2:12-14a NKJV reads “Now therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning. So rend your hearts and not your garments; Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness: and He relents from doing harm. Who knows if He will turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind Him…”
We are, as a body of believers, making a conscience decision to set apart these days and seek the Lord our God with our whole heart. We acknowledge that we live in a culture full of distractions, and it is so easy to become distracted ourselves. In these next few weeks, we choose to let loose of the multiple distractions available to us and return to our God with our whole hearts.
Blessings…
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01.15.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 9:19 am by jeff@dlaog.com
Hello,
There is often among congregations an unspoken conflict regarding the mission of the church. Some folks feel the Pastor’s job is much like a cruise ship captains, with the major responsibility being keeping everyone aboard happy and entertained. A wonderfully insightful column that I hope you’ll read is found here, entitled “Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Churches.” http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/354143_faith08.html
So, what is the mission of the church then. If it is not to keep everybody happy, what is it? The founding fathers of our movement described it this way:
The Church is the body of Christ, the habitation of God through the Spirit, with divine appointments for the fulfillment of her great commission. Each believer, born of the Spirit, is an integral part of the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven (Ephesians 1:22, 23; 2:22; Hebrews 12:23). Since God’s purpose concerning man is to seek and to save that which is lost, to be worshiped by man, and to build a body of believers in the image of His Son, the priority reason-for-being of the Assemblies of God as part of the Church is: a. To be an agency of God for evangelizing the world (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15, 16). b. To be a corporate body in which man may worship God (1 Corinthians 12:13). c. To be a channel of God’s purpose to build a body of saints being perfected in the image of His Son (Ephesians 4:11-16; 1 Corinthians 12:28; 14:12). The Assemblies of God exists expressly to give continuing emphasis to this reason-for-being in the New Testament apostolic pattern by teaching and encouraging believers to be baptized in the Holy Spirit. This experience: a. Enables them to evangelize in the power of the Spirit with accompanying supernatural signs (Mark 16:15-20; Acts 4:29-31; Hebrews 2:3,4). b. Adds a necessary dimension to a worshipful relationship with God (1 Corinthians 2:10-16; 1 Corinthians 12-14). c. Enables them to respond to the full working of the Holy Spirit in expression of fruit and gifts and ministries as in New Testament times for the edifying of the body of Christ (Galatians 5:22-26; 1 Corinthians 14:12; Ephesians 4:11,12; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Colossians 1:29).
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01.12.09
Posted in Uncategorized at 4:48 pm by jeff@dlaog.com
A few days ago, I linked to another blog that was writing on the subject
of perseverance. They have posted Pt. 2 to their teaching, and I know
that it is certainly what I needed to hear. I’d encourage you to go there
and read this. http://mikekatehagen.wordpress.com/
Jeff
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Posted in Uncategorized at 10:18 am by jeff@dlaog.com
7 Steps to Victory
20 Steps to a Successful Christian Marriage
34 Steps to an Overcoming Prayer Life
The numbers just keep going on and on and on. We just love to complicate things. While I was speaking
up at Rice Lake Fellowship, I really had a personal encounter with God. He called me to return to
the simplicity of the Gospel.
Really, the Gospel is simple.
We are sinners. Jesus came to save us from our sin.
We are sick and broken in our bodies. Jesus took stripes on His back so that we could be healed.
We are weak and powerless. Jesus ascended into heaven so that the Holy Spirit and power could be
poured out on those who believe.
Jesus will return in the same manner as His ascension.
These four simple truths contain the Gospel. This year, I really want to stay on track with the simplicity
of the Gospel in my preaching, teaching and personal life.
Blessings
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