Saturday, Nov 22, 2008

TWG - November 22, 2008

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TWG - November 22, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Deuteronomy 5: 22-33; John 10: 22-42

Today is November 22, 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 covenant to seek the LORD God with all our heart and with all our soul. If you seek Him, He will be found by you.

Susan is doing a bit better. I hope she wakes up feeling happy and spry today! Yesterday I worked on setting up the fellowship hall for wreath making. It looks like a production facility. The ladies were there for Ladies Bible Study. Marcia and Carrie and Candita and Christiana put together some swags. CC and Casey stopped by with another couch for our fireside room. Sonja was there making jelly. Carl fixed a phone and hooked up an internet access point. I worked on power point and proofread the bulletin. My computer is still crunching away. When I last left it, it said it only had 67 hours left before it was finished fixing my hard drive! That’s more than it was yesterday!. I put a picture of CC and Casey on the Blog at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com. Check it out.

Today’s thought comes from 1 Timothy 4:9-11 This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.
For to this end we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe. These things command and teach.

Godliness is good for you. Believe it. You can trust that truth. Take it all the way to the bank. That’s why we do what we do. That’s why Christians all around the world are willing to suffer persecution and put up with insults and hatred. That’s why we take the moral stands that we take. Because we trust in the “living God.” We believe that Jesus is the Savior of all men. There is no other way to God than Jesus Christ. He is the hope of all humanity. Strangely, there are many who don’t want to hear that. They are threatened by the message. It completely upsets their world view. If you were wrong, would you want to know it? If you were wrong would you be willing to change? We hate personal change, and we hate to be wrong. Our personal egotism gets in the way of the message. That’s a huge motivation for antagonism against Christians. But there is another. There is a spiritual battle going on. The “god of this world” has blinded their minds to the truth. He has filled them with anger and hatred so that they are willing to kill in the name of freedom from our faith. They want to stamp it out and destroy it. That’s why we need to share the message while we can. That’s why we need to win the world to Jesus Christ… before the intolerance against Christians rises to the level of violence in your neighborhood. Time to get motivated and filled with compassion that makes a difference.

Dear Lord, help me to be proactive in sharing my faith. The world is full of people without hope and they need you. I want to be a light in this dark world while I can. Please give me the motivation to be intentional about sharing my faith.

I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers

Posted by Dennis Kreiss at 9:44 AM |  MAKE A COMMENT  

Friday, Nov 21, 2008

TWG - November 21, 2008

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TWG - November 21, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Deuteronomy 5:1-21; Psalm 114; John 10:1-21

Today is November 21, 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 transforming, this is spiritual, this is essential.

Computer repair goes on and on! I just started my computer on another round of maintenance because “WARNING – YOUR HARD DRIVE IS IN IMMINENT DANGER OF FAILING!” When I checked on it at 9:30 last night it still had 36 hours of maintenance left to go! I won’t be using that today! That’s all I do anymore is work on computers. My new pastoral ministry program is called Shepherding the heart of your hard drive. Lots of eternal stuff going on here. So pray that I get past this and move on! I did go to lunch with Rick yesterday. We had a great time of fellowship. Sherri just got out of the hospital in the last week and could use your prayers. She had a serious brush with death. Pray for her salvation. Dale and Vivian were at church cleaning the kitchen. Yay! They do a great job. I moved a 500 pound desk upstairs into the new sound room. I am superman. And last night I went to Growth Group and we had a long talk and some great ideas about hospitality! Oh and did I mention Susan is down with a cold? Pray for her. I put a picture of Dakota and Esther doing the pledge at Awana on the Blog at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com. Check it out.

Today’s thought comes from 1 Timothy 4:7-9 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.

Exercise yourself toward godliness. Exercise is the activity of exerting your muscles in various ways to keep fit. It is a systematic training often by multiple repetitions. In the spiritual world exercise is an activity designed to develop or hone your godliness or spirituality. So what are some spiritual exercises? Time With God is one of them. Daily we do a distance run through the Word to keep ourselves fit. Reading your Bible daily is another of those important repetitions. So is prayer. Memorizing Scripture should be a high priority workout that should be done regularly. Worship in song is another important exercise. Everyone should listen to good Christian music every day. Consistent, weekly church attendance and Bible Study is important. To build your spiritual body, you’ve got to go the spiritual gym regularly. Witnessing is a stretching experience necessary for you to grow in godliness. It should be done as often as possible. It should be intentional. You must have a plan and work the plan. Encouraging one another is yet another important discipline. We run into many hurting Christians who could use a kind word, a prayer or an insight from Scripture. Then there is ministry. Serving others is a great way to sweat off our ungodliness. And how about the 2 Peter 1:3-10 workout? Add these reps to your regimen. “Add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.” Or how about the Philippians 4:8 workout, “whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.” So let me lay out a workout for you:

Time with God – 1 rep daily
Bible Reading – 3 reps (chapters) daily
Prayer – minimum of 3 sets a day, morning, noon and night
Memorizing Scripture – 1 set of 15 a day (repeat the verse 15X minimum)
Worship in song – daily at least a brisk 15 minutes– preferably on your iPod while you do your other work out.
Church attendance – 2 to 3 times, once a week on Sunday – don’t miss it!
Bible Study – at least once mid week with a group
Witnessing – try lifting the weight of a cup of cold water to give away in the Lord’s name every day
Encouraging one another – at least 5 reps a day! Everyone needs encouragement!
Service – at least one set of ministry in the church a week
2 Peter 1:3-10 and Philippians 4:8 workout – think godly thoughts whenever ungodly thoughts intrude

Dear Father. I want to exercise myself to godliness. Help me to do these 11 exercises regularly to strengthen my soul. I want to become like you in every way. I know these things take discipline. I am willing to expend the effort and the time to be like Jesus.

I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship

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

Thursday, Nov 20, 2008

twg november 20, 2008

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TWG - November 20, 2008
To Listen to Today’s Reading http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com
Deuteronomy 4: 32-49; Psalm 113; John 9:13-41

Today is November 20, 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

It was another computer day. This time I reinstalled windows on my computer. It took quite a while. I had to run check disk on it again because of a boot error. Who knows why? Today I will reinstall windows on another computer! I also burned some CDs and some DVDs for Jim. He is taking a trip back east and wants the DVD’s of Irene’s memorial service. Last night we had “Awana Family Night” and had about 5 parents show up! The kids just beamed when I introduced their parents. Unfortunately some parents didn’t come. One of the kids had his laugh and shout “Don’t count on me! I’m not going to come.” So sad. It’s something that we really need to pray about. And the behavior of the child shows it. He really acts out badly. Pray for our Awana kids. I put a picture of Dakota and Esther doing the pledge at Awana on the Blog at http://timewithgod.mypodcast.com. Check it out.

Today’s thought comes from 1 Timothy 4:7-9 But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance.

Exercise. It’s good for you. I do it three or four times a week… if you call what I do exercise. I walk or ride for about 15 to 25 minutes (usually closer to 15). Then I pretend to stretch or do a few sit ups or push ups. I’m not really a big fan of exercise. That’s why I referee soccer. I can run for 80 minutes while doing something that takes my mind off of the exercise, “come on ref! That was a lousy call!” Yep, that’ll take your mind off the pain of exercise. Here are some benefits of exercise. It improves your mood, combats chronic diseases, helps you manage your weight, strengthens your heart and lungs, helps reduce high blood pressure, helps reduce high cholesterol and promotes better sleep. Hey that’s a lot of stuff. In fact I ran across one web site that had 60 benefits of exercise! Wow, that’s a lot! (Ok! On the floor right now and give me 10 push ups! Can’t do it can you!) But the Bible says that Bodily exercise profits a little. The idea from the Greek is that Exercise is profitable for a few thin