Celebration Baptist Church

1 Peter 3: 8-18

Now finally, all of you should be like-minded and sympathetic, should love believers, and be compassionate  and humble,  9 not paying back evil for evil or insult for insult but, on the contrary, giving a blessing, since you were called for this, so that you can inherit a blessing.

    10 For the one who wants to love life

    and to see good days

    must keep his tongue from evil 

    and his lips from speaking deceit,

    11 and he must turn away from evil and do good.

    He must seek peace and pursue it,

    12 because the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous

    and His ears are open to their request.

    But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

13 And who will harm you if you are passionate for what is good? 14 But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear  or be disturbed, 15 but set apart the Messiah as Lord in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.  16 However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear,  so that when you are accused,  those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame. 17 For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

    18 For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,

    the righteous for the unrighteous, 

    that He might bring you to God, 

    after being put to death in the fleshly realm 

    but made alive in the spiritual realm.

As I sat and listened to Pastor David today, it was a gut check.  My heart broke as the truth he spoke rang home.  One could say that there was no reason why David needed to give such a message, but if we are honest with ourselves, it was a message we all needed to hear.  As one who has looked from the outside in, it was clear ther were many fractures within the body.  Now it has become time to move from fractured to broken then to restoration that only God can provide.

     Pastor came to the point of many Old Testament prophets, he could do nothing else but preach what God had put upon his heart.  I think that those are the hardest messages to give, but the ones we need the most.  I want to thank Pastor for the courage to give this message, and now it is our turn to respond.  It is time to pray and reflect on what was spoken, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal if we are holding anything in our hearts against somebody, or if there is something we have done or said that has offended  someone one else.  Now the hard part we are to act upon it.  If YOU have something against somebody then GO, talk to that person. Then let it go.  Yep, that’s right let it go, God does not hold long accounts when we ask Him for forgiveness,”The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, Slow to anger and great in mercy,”Psalm 145:8 Are we to be better than God, do we honestly think that holding a grudge is something God honors?

   My final prayer is this, if you need breaking, let God break you,  then let God rebuild you.

I was driving this morning  listening to the radio, and being reminded that today is the Natonal Day of Prayer.  The radio talked about the the history behind the day.   As the day progressed  I thought more about the concept of putting aside a day to focus on prayer.  The concept in a sense is good, to have a national focus on prayer and repentance, but then I thought about the challenges facing our country and realized that we must rise to the challenge, and not to have a brief passing moment of prayer but that prayer must be ingrained into our daily lives.   I am reminded of 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18  “Rejoice always! Pray constantly.  Give thanks in everything, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”  I realize that there is still so far to go, but I also have realized that the greater my focus is on prayer the more I line up to what scripture says.  So I urge you to make everyday a day of prayer. 

 In Christ

Matthew 6:9-13 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)

 9 “Therefore, you should pray like this:

    Our Father in heaven,     Your name be honored as holy.     10 Your kingdom come.     Your will be done     on earth as it is in heaven.    11 Give us today our daily bread.    12 And forgive us our debts,     as we also have forgiven our debtors.     13 And do not bring us into temptation,     but deliver us from the evil one.When was the last time we stopped and reflected on the Lord’s prayer, to look at the direction given to us by Jesus as to how we approach God in prayer?  When we come before God , do we automatically put our needs up first or do we come to the Lord in the order Jesus taught;  His name, His kingdom, His will, then to give us, forgive us, lead us, and then to deliver us.  Let us take at least a minute during this upcoming week, and pray using the model prayer as our guide.

As we gear up for 40 Days of Community, we must look at what community is. During this time I encourage each member of

Celebration Baptist Church to be in prayer not only for our church, but for the community of Rio Rancho.  Each week during the 40 Days campaign there will be a different focus.  On Sunday’s during the campaign we will be reminded of what God has to say on prayer and on community.  So join us in prayer, and let us seek God’s face, and worship Him.  During the first few weeks we will look at prayer:  

What is prayer?  Prayer is defined as 1. A devout petition to God.  2. A spiritual communion with God, as in supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, or confession.  But can we truly define prayer where we as finite creation are allowed to come before the infinite creator and make supplication, thanksgiving, adoration, and confession?Do we really understand what prayer is?  That the God of the universe actually hears us?  As I was reading through the bible I began to realize that prayer is not something that comes naturally to people.  The disciples asked of Jesus in Luke 11: “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”  If the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray, should we do any less?  I encourage each member of CBC to specifically pray for Jesus “to teach us to pray.”  I am not saying that we do not understand how to pray on some level, but can we honestly say that we can completely understand prayer?  If we are honest—the answer is no.  So join me in asking the Lord to teach us how to pray, and let us pray for our church body as we venture into 40 Days of Community.

1. For the hearts and minds of our church to be ready to receive what the Holy Spirit is doing and going to do.  Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not My ways.”
             [This is] the LORD’s declaration.  “For as heaven is higher than earth, so My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
2. For healing of our church body. Mark 11:25 “And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven will also forgive you your wrongdoing.”  Pray that this may be true of the members of CBC.

I pray for the body of Christ to pick up and dust off their swords of prayer and call on the Lord. 

I would like to take a moment and welcome you to the CBC blog.  Although I think a more appropriate name would be a plog (prayer log) .  It is our hope that you will be given food for thought, and spiritual food to help grow in your walk with Christ.  Just a notice this page is moderated.   Thanks and enjoy