Tuesday, Mar 31, 2009

3/31 - Don't Sweat The Bad Times

Download this episode (18 min)   
It’s not even April 1st yet, and it has been a rough couple of days! I didn’t publish TWG yesterday because the night before I couldn’t get to sleep until the weee hours… I should have been praying because yesterday was a humdinger! Our broken down SUV has a blown engine! 2 to 5 thousand to fix it! OUCH. Then we got some good news… two applicants for our empty rentals… yay! Maybe the day will have some redeeming qualities about it. Then first one applicant called to say she has to back out and then the other got a horrible recommendation so… now we are down to none again. And I still have to finish my taxes! UGH! I think I’m standing in the need of prayer. Please pray for us!

Today is March 31, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. This is your invitation to take one step forward every day in your relationship with Christ. We invite you to do something unbelievably radical. We invite you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus

Today's Scripture reading is Judges 17; Proverbs 12; Luke 16
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com
Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

Let’s fast forward to the end of the Antichrist. It’s good to know the ending, because when you are eyeball to eyeball with alligators, it’s kind of tough to trust that Tarzan will somehow swoop in and save you at the last second. It’s pretty difficult to focus on anything but those great big snapping jaws lined with dozens of razor sharp teeth! It sure would be nice to hear the piercing cry of the jungle king right about now! (help!) But God is not Tarzan! He’s much better… and much more powerful. In the end it’s nothing more than His minty breath and bright personality that destroys the Antichrist. Christ doesn’t even have to lift a finger, he just has to breathe the word and Antichrist is incinerated! He just has to show up on the scene and the Lawless One is obliterated, wiped out, done, finished for good. God help us to remember that. God help us to believe that! Trust is the BIG issue. It’s all about trust. It’s all about understanding and digesting who God is. God is ALL POWERFUL. When He decides it’s time, there’s no colossal, universal struggle to defeat His enemies. He just says one little itsy bitsy word and it’s over. “Goodbye, you are the weakest link.” Now we, on the other hand, are engaged in a colossal struggle because we are frail human beings subject to weakness, mistakes, failed strategy, sickness and death. Say you are facing someone as tough as Bruce Willis in Die Hard or as indestructible as Rambo. I’ m running scared already! But what if you had to face the million man army of China by yourself or defeat the nuclear arsenal of Russia or some other rogue nation with just a knife between your teeth. You’d be in serious trouble. But don’t think for a second that God is limited in any way by your weakness or by their power. God can yawn and do his fingernails with his eyes closed and his hands tied behind his back, while solving Sudoku and still win the day. I wish I could think of an analogy to explain how powerful God is and how puny man is, but there isn’t one. The entire universe is like a pebble in his hand! He can blow it all away in one tiny breath like a child does with a dandelion. I’m talking the ENTIRE universe! How are you going to defeat a God like that! And if you are on His side, what’s to be afraid of. So they’re tying you to the railroad track, or They have a pressure sensitive bomb strapped to your chair, Or they have a gun to your head? SO WHAT! Hey, God, could you like take care of my HUGE car problem and HUGE rental problem… Piece of cake. Just tune in to God’s plan and go with the flow. God’s not sweating it! He’s got you covered. TRUST HIS PLAN – not yours!

Dear Almighty God. I know that you are in control. Help me to get my eyes of my problems and realize that your plan is the one that counts. Help me to say with Job, “even if He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” And “even if the fig tree doesn’t blossom, yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation. He is my strength.”

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:16 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Friday, Mar 27, 2009

3/27 - Restraining Evil

Download this episode (23 min)   
Well, good day. I’m back again. Yesterday I spent the day in the office trying to dig out of the mountain of work that I created for myself by being gone for three days. Did it work? Not really. Mike and Bill were in the new kitchen putting finishing touches on the last cabinet! Pretty cool. Evie dropped in to fax some stuff. I got Sunday Evening stuff started and worked on power point. Jayn writes… Am so glad to see you write about the antichrist. Those not in the Word will be deceived. And John wrote to ask what a Spiritual Anorexic is. I told him that it is secret knowledge only the initiated understand, too deep for anyone else (kind of makes you want to vomit huh?) At our conference the speaker "made up" two terms to explain some of the extremes Christians go to in response to the world and the people in it. #1 Worldly gluttons... those who gobble up all worldly stuff and want to be just like the people of the world. #2 Worldly anorexics... those who reject everything and everyone who is in the world... separating and distancing themselves from the people of the world "vomiting any worldly stuff" for fear it might infect their children etc. Thus anorexics. We need to be in the world, but not of it.

Today is March 27, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. TWG is a complete turn of events; it is a 180 degree turn around. God is changing us and turning us around as a community. This is not business as usual, this is life transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Today's Scripture reading is Judges 16; Proverbs 11; Luke 15
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com
Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2: 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed… 6 And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. 8 And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

I suppose it is possible that we may recognize the beginning of the end before “the day of Christ” occurs. Two events will happen almost contemporaneously… There will be a falling away from the faith and the Antichrist will become a prominent world leader. They are indicative of the end. But there is a third event which takes place at the same time. The Restrainer will get out of the way, allowing for this series of events. There is something that restrains lawlessness in our world today… and to many, this principle is a mystery. Why aren’t people as evil as they could be? Is it because of conscience? Yes. That is one factor. But conscience can be muted. That’s why killers can kill without remorse and why immorality is justified by those who practice it. Is it because of social pressure? Yes. That is another factor. There seems to be a general agreement of baseline morality in every culture… don’t murder, don’t sleep with my wife etc. But even those mores have some variation. But once you get past the obvious baseline evils, every culture has different taboos. In some it’s ok to drink, in others not. In some it’s ok to lie, in others not. Social conscience varies from place to place. Is it because of Christian influence? Yes. The Christian ethic has been quite influential at restraining evil. After all “We are the light of the world and the salt of the earth.” That influence is waning and appears to be on the way out. But neither one of these three are the principle or the person we call the Restrainer. The Restrainer is a person… the person we call “The Holy Spirit.” He is behind the scenes, hidden from the view of the average man, yet powerfully and certainly restraining evil. The law unknown to empirical science is the law of the Restrainer. While we can’t out and out “prove” His existence and power, the day will come when his restraint of sin will cease and all hell will break loose on earth. If you think people act like savages today, wait until the restraints are cast away… unseen, undetected, but a sudden radical change in the world like the loss of electricity or gravity. This will be the trigger point, signaling the beginning of the end.

Dear Restrainer, I ask for your strength in my life. Please keep me from temptation. Please strengthen my resolve to follow you. Thank you for your influence of conviction of sin in our world. Without it, the world would be a very dark place. Help me to continue to depend on you.

Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:40 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Thursday, Mar 26, 2009

3/26 - No More Freedom of Worship?

Download this episode (16 min)   
Ok, ok, I know. You are going through withdrawals without your TWG fix! Unfortunately two things conspired against me. #1 I was under the weather, and #2 I was at a Pastors meeting… Ouch… that preacher gave me a headache every time he got up there to preach! I really didn’t feel well and didn’t get as much out of it as I would have liked… and when I wasn’t in meetings I was so exhausted I was sleeping… and then I was still tired when I woke up. Enough of this pity for me! Despite all that we managed to have a good time and listen to some great messages on the need for us Christians to mingle with the world. We’ve gotta quit being worldly anorexics and hang around with unbelievers or we will never win anyone to Christ. It’s our commission!

Today is March 26, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. We are doing something of eternal significance. We are redeeming the time. That is one of the basic premises of TWG. We believe that what we do every day is so important that we must do the important things each day. That is why we read the word every Day

Today's Scripture reading is Judges 15; Luke 14
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com
Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, 4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Look out for the future Führer! There is coming a maniacal man in the end of days who will dominate and subjugate the world. He will be an egomaniac who is so full of himself and so driven by the demonic that he will want the focus of all the world to be on him alone! There are three evil acts he will do in regards to God. #1. He will oppose all that is called God. This includes all worship. This primarily relates to the worship of the True God but it also includes any other religion. Right now there is an intolerance for Christianity, and a tolerance of any other religion, but in that day he will impose an intolerance for every kind of worship and every kind of god except for emperor worship. We should inform our religious friends of every stripe that their own intolerance of Christ Alone will one day be turned against them. It reminds me of Martin Niemoeller, a German Protestant theologian who was imprisoned during the Second World War years for his opposition to Hitler who said: "When they came for the Jews, I didn't speak up; I wasn't a Jew. When they came for the trade unionist I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist… When, finally, they came for me, there was nobody left to speak up for me." #2 He will exalt himself against God and demand that he be worshiped. When you see a world leader rise to the forefront with messiah like magnetism… look out! That man will be the most dangerous man in all of history. Goodbye freedom of religion! #3 Eventually he will enter the rebuilt temple and set himself up as the “god” of this world. A prophetic reflection of this has already happened in days gone by. Antiochus IV Epiphanes devastated Jerusalem in 168 BC, defiled the Temple, and of all things, offered a pig on its altar, erected an altar to Jupiter and prohibited Temple worship. The Antichrist will do him one better. He will require that all men worship Him. This will happen about mid-point in the Great Tribulation. The future is on its way. We have a short time to wake the world up to the need for Christ!

Dear Father. The future is coming and it does not look bright. Please remind me that You are in control. You are working all things for your glory. We have a great need to share the good news with all those around us because when darkness comes, if they don’t know you, they will be groping in the darkest night ever. Motivate us, I pray to live our lives as a witness to the Christ of Hope!

Come unto me all you who are weary and heavily burdened and I will give you rest.

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:20 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Friday, Mar 20, 2009

3-20 Things are going to get worse!

Download this episode (19 min)   
Yesterday was strangely productive. Sometimes that happens! I got a ton of stuff done on my checklist. I finished Discovery Class 2, Got announcements done for Power Point, Did Bible Study, Published the order of service, and I know, yawn, this is really exciting. Mike popped in to say that the new kitchen cabinets would be ready to bring in tomorrow! The last of the cabinets and the kitchen is nearing completion. Ken and Evie and Isaiah stepped into the office to use the computer. Ken has a few sheets of sheetrock for me! Yay. Susan did the bulletin and cleaned the church. I fielded a few phone calls. I am trying to set up a few times to do videos for Easter… our theme “our God Reigns!”

Today is March 20, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. TWG is a complete turn of events; it is a 180 degree turn around. God is changing us and turning us around as a community. This is not business as usual, this is life transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Today's Scripture reading is Judges 14; Proverbs 10:17-32; Luke 13
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com
Archives can be found at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition

We live in troubling times. The world is full of fears. We have been scared into believing that global warming is going to melt the ice caps and drown the world… that the ozone layer is going to be depleted and we will suffer severe burns from UV rays… that the bird flu will kill millions… that if I breathe I might catch AIDS… that the world economy is going to melt down and everyone is going to be homeless and jobless… that North Korea or Iran is going to launch a nuclear attack on us… that the Pagans or some other gang is going to attack your local Wal-Mart… and some people teach that we are in the tribulation right now! Now I’m not denying that times are bad! They are bad! I’m also not denying that things could get worse! They may! You ought to see what’s in store for us during the Great Tribulation! There will be world-wide famine and deadly epidemics that take the lives of millions. There will be earthquakes of a magnitude we’ve never seen before creating carnage on a horrific scale. There will be cosmic disturbances of meteorites and other fearful changes in the skies… like the moon looking blood red and the sky going pitch black. There will be the worst world wars ever seen during which several billion people will die! While I can’t predict what the immediate future will hold, I know exactly what the Tribulation has in store! And it’s just not a pretty picture. It is enough to drive even the bravest of us into fear! Now for the good news… “we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled… as though the day of Christ had come.” Wars and rumors of wars will come… but the end is not yet. In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for “I have overcome the world.” God has not appointed us to experience the wrath that will be poured out on the world, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. There is no reason for us to cry and wring our hands in sorrow and fear as those who have no hope. God has promised to keep us from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world. Sure times will be tough, be we have a great deliverer. Thank God for Jesus!

Dear Lord. I am looking forward to the Day of Christ. Please calm the furious beating of my heart. Help me to have peace because I know that You are in control. You are all powerful and I trust in you. You are all knowing, you know what we are going through. You are loving and you are doing what is best for me. Convince me of that I pray!

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, To comfort all who mourn, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, and The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness;

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:01 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Thursday, Mar 19, 2009

3/19 The Great Apostasy

Download this episode (21 min)   
I’m up and running this morning. Almost on time, but not quite. Yesterday I tried hard to pace myself on different activities. I have so many to juggle. I worked on D2 for a little while… then I did powerpoint for the morning service. After that I spent some time working on Easter. John stopped by for a while and we talked about what God is doing in our lives. He was very excited to take away some solid concepts from men’s retreat that help him grow! He has the attributes of God posted in two or three places to remind him of how Great God Is! I called Dale to ask him to do some videotaping for me. We are going to try to tape a few testimonies of God’s grace for Easter. At Awana last night I had 6 boys in my car! And we finally hit the 30 mark! Wow that was fun. Enough of my day!

Today is March 19, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. We are doing something of eternal significance. We are redeeming the time. That is one of the basic premises of TWG. We believe that what we do every day is so important that we must do the important things each day. That is why we read the word every Day

Today's Scripture reading is Judges 13; Proverbs 10:1-16; Luke 12:22-59
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com

Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition

We like to say that there are no prophetic “signs” which need fulfillment to make the way for Christ to return. He could return at any moment! That doesn’t mean that there won’t be any signs. Nor does it mean that there aren’t some things that God is doing to set the stage for Christ’s return. Christ could have returned 100 or 1000 years ago if he had wanted. He could have, at any time, rearranged the players and set the table for the end times events of Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel and Revelation. That’s why we can’t depend on signs to signal the Church that… hey, it’s tomorrow, or next week or the year 2012. He doesn’t need them. But there are prophetic milestones. One irrefutable sign is that Israel is back in the land and in control of her own country. The nation really lost self government after Babylon defeated them in BC 586. They had a few years of self rule under the Maccabeans, but not many. Not until Statehood in 1948 did they have their own country back. Israel has to be in the land so that the end times events can occur. Another milestone will be the Great Apostasy of the church. There have been many departures from the faith, some by whole denominations. But this is talking about a wholesale departure of enormous proportions. In the original language it is not “an apostasy” it is THE Apostasy. We already have so many indications that the church is gelatinous and unstable. Denominations continue to crumble in the wake of worldly pressure. Many of them already have given up on the Bible. They don’t believe it to be God’s inerrant Word any longer. Most religious colleges and even Bible colleges now teach that man got here through evolution rather than through Creation, as though the debate over the theory of evolution was settled and they won! Hardly! Ridiculous! Evolution can’t even answer the most basic questions of how it happened. Add to that the Emergent Church which believes everything and nothing about the truths of the Word of God. What we today call the Church is over-ripe and ready to spoil on a massive scale. My guess is that The Apostasy will somehow be tied to the appearance of the Antichrist. He will be the final deceiving influence which will throw the worldwide church into chaos. Those two events seem to be a trigger-point for the Coming of Christ for the True Church. Get ready!

Dear Father, help me to be faithful. With so many departing from the faith in fulfillment of prophecy, let me not be one of them. I want to influence a generation of people for Christ. Help me to be a witness and a shining light to those around me so they can see the truth and find the way to you.

Trust in the LORD forever, For in the LORD, is everlasting strength

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:10 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Wednesday, Mar 18, 2009

3/18 Jesus is coming Again

Download this episode (14 min)   
I’m yawning this morning… I slept in again. Daylight savings time is not for me! Yesterday I worked on Discovery Class and on our XEE for Evening Service. Mike stopped in to take measurements for the cabinets. Carl and Sonja are back! They saw the hallway for the first time! Man it looks great. Ed and Frieda dropped by with a few tidbits they picked up and wanted to share with me. And I met their son Donny. After work I worked out and talked with Kyle about XEE. I’m getting excited about how it’s all going to work out. Then I went to men’s meeting where Jim talked about outreach. He shared some of the same things we’ll be doing Sunday nights. What a good time.

Today is March 18, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. You are part of a devotional community where we put Christ first and our commitment is to spend time with each other and Time with God every day.



Today’s Scripture reading is Judges 12; Proverbs 9; Luke 12:1-21



Today’s thought comes from 2 Thessalonians 2:1 Now, brothers, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, 2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of Christ had come. 3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition

The Kingdom of God is at hand! Jesus is coming soon. We’ve heard that message for 2000 years! Scoffers have come to taunt that message! Some theologians have felt constrained to come up with different ways of looking at it to save face, or to make it fit in with the spirit of the times. But the simple, unvarnished truth is this: Jesus is coming and those who are His will be gathered together to Him. That is what we call “The Day of Christ.” Sometimes the word “day” is used of a larger period of time. There is the day of man… (1 cor 4:3) which is the time period we live in when man thinks he reigns supreme. There are the “Times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24) during which foreign powers have ruled Jerusalem. There is the “Day of Jacob’s Trouble” (Jer 30:7) which is a seven year period of tribulation yet to come. There is the “Day of the Lord,” “The Day of His Wrath,” or “The Day of God” which begins with the judgment of the earth at the great tribulation and stretches to the judgment of the earth after the 1000 year tribulation (Rev 6:17, 2 Peter 3:10). And that brings us back to the “Day of Christ.” The Day of Christ is when Jesus comes back for His own. It’s his Coming and Gathering of believers to the Bema Seat of Christ. That is the event that has so fascinated religious folk down though history. Hundreds of predictions have been made as to its exact date. Even in Paul’s time the Thessalonians were disturbed by the preaching of some that that day had come and gone and they were left behind! Here is a primer for you on the event called the Rapture: It won’t happen until #1 there is a massive “falling away” from the church and #2 it won’t happen until the Antichrist is revealed. After that… expect it at any second! But good luck on figuring out those two events… Maybe we should just settle for “Jesus is coming any time!”

Dear Lord Jesus, come quickly! We are waiting expectantly for your return. We look to the skies in anticipation and we realize we need to share our faith with our loved ones and every person who does not know you. We don’t want them to face your judgment. Have mercy and save them we pray!

Trust in the LORD forever, For in the LORD, is everlasting strength

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:15 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Tuesday, Mar 17, 2009

3-17 Obama the Antichrist???•

Download this episode (21 min)   
Yesterday I was a floor laying fool. I tore up a rug at Phil’s place and brought it to a rental. Jeanne didn’t look too swift. She was laid out on the easy chair in pain! She could use some encouragement. While I was there I went out to Phil’s shop where Mike was working on Church kitchen cabinets. We had a good discussion about the gas shut off. From there I went to a rental and laid a linoleum floor and trimmed it out. Wow did it look good when I was finished! It happened to be our renter’s birthday so Susan put up a few signs saying “happy birthday Angie! Enjoy your new floor!” She called later and was so excited, “best birthday present ever!” she said. After that I worked out with Kyle and Marcia and went home to do some paperwork… it’s getting close to the end of tax season! I’ve got to get on the ball!

Today is March 17, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. This is your invitation to take one step forward every day in your relationship with Christ. We invite you to do something unbelievably radical. We invite you to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Jesus

Today’s Scripture reading is Judges 11; Proverbs 8; Luke 11:29-54

Today’s thought comes from 1Jo 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. They went out from us, because they were not of us…

Obama is the Antichrist! He’s inspiring, seemingly out of nowhere and followed by entranced mobs. I’m sure he’s the Antichrist as was Kissinger, Hitler, Mussolini, George Bush and David Hasselhoff of Baywatch fame! Right. Everybody has a theory. If we guess often enough, one of them is bound to be right! Keep guessing! Who is the Antichrist? Only God knows. But… just from his title we can tell two things about him. #1 Anti means against. The Antichrist will be antagonistic to Christianity and to our Savior. Expect the Antichrist to be passionately against our most precious truth that Jesus is the only way to God. That will evoke scorn and censure from him. #2 Anti also means “in place of.” Expect the Antichrist to set himself up in place of Jesus. In the book of 2 Thessalonians and Revelation the Antichrist sets himself up as a god to be worshiped. In fact everyone on the earth will be expected to worship him as they were forced to worship some of the Roman Caesars of old. The only modern parallel to emperor worship is North Korea. Even as I write this the North Koreans are forced to worship Kim Jong-il or face punishment, torture and death. That is happening today! Christians are being persecuted and killed in North Korea like in no other country on the face of the earth. Kim Jong il is an example of what the Antichrist will be like. Many antichrists will come before The Antichrist shows up on the scene. Another characteristic of the Antichrist is that apparently he will come out of Christianity. It is popular for a politician to claim he’s a Christian. After all there are a few billion people on planet earth who say they are Christians. If you want their vote or support, you should identify with them. Jimmy Carter said he was a Southern Baptist. George Bush professed to have an evangelical faith. In an interview John McCain once said, “The most important thing is that I am a Christian.” He even wrote a book called “Faith of My Fathers.” And Barak Obama says he’s a Christian. He spent years in a black liberation theology church pastored by Jeremy Wright. These men all identify themselves as Christians but their theology is worlds apart, and in some cases universes removed from biblical truth. From 1 John it appears that the Antichrist will do what every other politician does… identify with the masses so that he can become popular… and then look out! When Antichrist comes to power he will promulgate the worst persecution and slaughter of God’s people ever known in all of history. We’re already deep in a trend that is hostile to faith… you’d better share your faith while you can!

Dear Jesus. You are my Savior. I will serve and worship you and no other. You are the one true God. Please help to be bold and share my faith while I still can! Help me to be unafraid of what man can do to me. If You are for me, who can be against me?

You will keep him in perfect peace, Whose mind is stayed on You, Because he trusts in You. Trust in the LORD forever, For in the LORD, is everlasting strength

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:00 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Monday, Mar 16, 2009

3/16 The End is Near

Download this episode (15 min)   
Good morning! I slept in until 6 AM today, so I’m running a little late. Had a great weekend. Thanks to Dr. John for putting on a great Men’s Retreat! Lot’s of growing needed from that weekend. We learned some very practical things about controlling our thought life and the way that we live. Now we just have to do it! Sunday Earl Brubaker from NICE was our speaker and gave a very revealing look at the state of Christianity in our Country and what we can do about it. We need to be much more aggressive about passing on our faith! Next week we begin work on XEE – teaching a 10 week course on how to share your faith to a generation of people who know next to nothing about God and about the Bible! So we’ll see what’s going to happen.

Today is March 16, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. Together we are strong. As we walk though the word together we help each other grow.

Today’s Scripture reading is Judges 10; Luke 11:1-28 To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.podbean.com Today’s thought comes from 1Jo 2:18 Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know that it is the last hour. We live in the last days. True. Every time a global crisis strikes we begin to think about the end of all days. According to the USA Today Psychics make a fortune during uncertain times. Men and women are calling psychics who never thought they would call a psychic,” says Maryanne Fiedler, marketing director of Psychic Source, an online network of 165 clairvoyants who consult by phone. Many have lost jobs or retirement savings. Fiedler says her psychics don’t give investment advice. “We’re trying to ease their anxieties,” she says, by offering “reassurance.” Executives inquire about layoffs. Restaurateurs ask if people will still go out to eat. Homeowners want real estate tips. Psychics are all the rage. After all, if the times aren’t normal, why not try the paranormal? The Apostle John had a few words to say about these little “antichrists.” They are evidence that we are in the last hour. So when did the “last days” begin? And when will it end? The Apostle John bluntly stated that HE was in the last days! The Last days began at the beginning of the Church age… at Pentecost. We have been in them ever since! Check out Peter’s Sermon on the day the church began in Acts 2! So how does that help us figure out how close we are? Let’s do a little math. The Bible records about 6000 years of earth history as far as we can tell. 2000 years from our time to Jesus. 2000 years from Jesus to Abraham. And about 2000 years from Abraham to the Creation of the Universe. This is “the day of man.” The “Day of the Lord” is yet to come. Some people suggest that God runs things on sevens. Seven Days of Creation. Six to create everything and one day to rest… God’s Day. They also suggest that God created history in the same way! Six days of man, and the Day of the Lord. If we calculate time based on the chronologies of the Bible we are approximately in year 6012! In the book of Revelation, the Day of the Lord lasts for 1000 years of Christ’s reign plus the 7 year period of tribulation which precedes it. Do you get the picture? If our assumptions are correct, we are in the end of the end of days! We really don’t know the exact day, nor year because God purposely obscured it from us… but we are nearing the end of the sixth day of man and ready to enter the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord! Now granted we are making a lot of assumptions, Assumptions that I won’t spend discussing or debating here. I just throw this out for you to chew on! THE END IS NEAR! How do we know? Many “antichrists” are out in force in the world. True.

Dear Lord. Come Quickly Lord Jesus. I want to be ready for your return. Please help me to live rightly, love deeply and witness boldly. I see the crisis ahead of us and I know that “Jesus is the Answer!” Please help me to trust you faithfully until you come.

“Open my eyes that I may see wonderful things in your law.”

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:22 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Friday, Mar 13, 2009

3/13 - The Culture War and the Church

Download this episode (19 min)   
OK… my podcast is up and running again. You itunes users can find it at http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=308118644 – Yesterday I worked on a bunch of stuff. Got D2 finished, published and ready to go. Worked on Power Point for the morning service. Fielded a number of phone calls. A few of them from mortgage companies. Looks like I’m going to have to get busy and get my taxes done! I lost track of time, which has happened two days in a row, and left work late… still managed to get a little work out time in before Bible Study. We had a good time but Jeanne was not well, so she didn’t make it and another couple couldn’t make it either. Man it’s difficult to adjust to Daylight Savings Time. I’m finding mornings really tough.

Today is March 13, this is time with God, I’m Pastor Dennis - I’ve been waiting here for you. Welcome to our life transforming community. TWG is a complete turn of events; it is a 180 degree turn around. God is changing us and turning us around as a community. This is not business as usual, this is life transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Today’s thought comes from Acts 2:41-47 “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers…. praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Today’s thought comes from Acts 2:41-47 “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers…. praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.”

Dear Master and Savior. You are the Head of the Church, and you are my Head. I will follow You, Jesus wherever you may lead. Now is the time when we as Christians must step up to the plate and get serious about our faith. Now is not the time for timidity or retreat. Help us to determine that Your will and Your kingdom is the most important thing in the world!

“Come now, let us reason together,” says the LORD. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”

Today’s Scripture reading is Judges 9: 22-57; Proverbs 7; Luke 10:25-42

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:13 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Thursday, Mar 12, 2009

3 12

Download this episode (18 min)   

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:36 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Thursday, Mar 05, 2009

3/5 - The Most Admired Woman in all of History!

Download this episode (12 min)   
Today’s thought comes from Luke 1:34-37 Then Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I do not know a man? And the angel answered and said to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God… For with God nothing will be impossible.""

Who doesn’t love Mary, the mother of Jesus! Motherhood, apple pie and warm fuzzy feelings all come in a nice little package, we love them! Any ordinary birth is extraordinary! I was present at the birth of all three of my children and every time I was blown away by that new life that Susan and I had brought into the world! “It’s a miracle!” I said over and over. I’m proud of my children and it was a great privilege to give birth to them and raise them! But the birth of Jesus was more than extraordinary! It was Supernatural. If a miracle is something that happens outside of the natural laws of the universe, then this was a miracle. People just don’t conceive and give birth to God! It just doesn’t happen. Never has, never will, except once! Once in the history of the universe God stepped in and did something that defied the odds! He became a man! Now enter Mary; A teen age girl with stars in her eyes and dreams in her heart. She probably wanted nothing more than to marry and raise a big Jewish family. Then one ordinary day an angel sauntered up to her and told her she was about to bear the son of God! Unbelievable! Except for two things: #1 She was talking to a real live angel! How often does that happen. If it happened to you, you would know it! It’s not your ordinary encounter. The normal angel – human conversation begins like this, “FEAR NOT!” They start things off that way because your fear factor is so far off the scale that if you don’t calm down, you will probably go into anaphylactic shock! #2 This would be unbelievable except for the fact that “with God nothing will be impossible!” You have got to really believe that God exists and that He can do anything, anything at all, or you wouldn’t believe that angel. Mary did! Despite the pain of social rejection, she was a woman of faith! She trusted God and became the most admired woman in all of history!

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 10:10 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT