Make room!

Make sure you take time to seek a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ this Christmas.

Remember that when we read "there was no room for Mary and Joseph in the inn", it wasn't that there was actually no room, it's that they didn't MAKE ROOM. Had Herod arrived and demanded a room, people would have thrown out other guests in order to make room, even given up their own room for him... once you realize that Jesus is both Lord and Savior you must repent of your sins and make room to put Him first in all things and every area of your life in order to claim His promise to abide with you and you in Him.

Put Jesus first - because He is and will not settle for second place in your life, "Jesus is either Lord of all, or He's not your Lord at all".

Seek the Christ we celebrate at Christmas.

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Sunday's Sermon - The gifts of the first Christmas celebartions.

To listen to Sunday's sermon now, just click the play arrow here.



For a basic manuscript of this message use download, or sharing options, click the menu button at the right of this square and choose your option.

For past sermons or podcasting options see the full size sermon player at the very bottom of this blog page OR you can always access my sermon player site (and countless other preachers) at http://sermon.net/The_Salvation_Army_Homer

God bless your study!
Live holy, preach Jesus!

Forwarding this from a friend ... Improv Everywhere: Guerrilla Handbell Strikeforce

You've got to wonder what this bell ringer what thinking??????.... enjoy....



Live holy, preach Jesus!

Kettle Cartoon

Live holy, preach Jesus.

Sunday's Sermon - How Bethlehem missed Christmas

To listen to Sunday's sermon now, just click the play arrow here.



For a basic manuscript of this message use download, or sharing options, click the menu button at the right of this square and choose your option.

For past sermons or podcasting options see the full size sermon player at the very bottom of this blog page OR you can always access my sermon player site (and countless other preachers) at http://sermon.net/The_Salvation_Army_Homer

special note... Much of this sermon was from a sermon by Andy Cook of LifeWay - originally published in Proclaim Online. Original sermon & powerpoint at http://www.lifeway.com/article/?id=166513

God bless your study!
Live holy, preach Jesus!

Classic Christmas message - Luke 2:8-20

Charles Schulz found the gift of Christmas, coming to faith in Christ as a child, and returning home after service in World War II with very strong Christian beliefs. For a while, even worked as a writer for a Christian magazine. But he found fame, of course, as the creator of “Peanuts,” the most famous comic strip in history. Ironically, in 1965, television producers almost turned away the Shultz’ most successful project of all. When the first screening of “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was seen, executive producer Lee Mendelson says that CBS network executives hated the show. "They said it was slow," says Mendelson, who, along with animator Bill Melendez, told Schulz, "You can't read from the Bible on network television." Schulz's desires prevailed, however, and the simple cartoon special garnered an unbelievable 50 percent of the nation's viewers that first year. It went on to win both an Emmy and a Peabody award. Pop Culture experts affirm that the program, now considered an icon, draws strength from its back-to-the-basics approach. The ironic thing is that the program, which intentionally turned away from a materialistic view of Christmas, has become a huge corporate moneymaker. During its 40th broadcast, it won its timeslot in terms of total viewers (15.4 million), and led all adult, teen, and children's demographics. It also earned over $6 million in ad revenue, as companies paid over $200,000 for each commercial airing with it. Schulz's widow, Jeannie, is not surprised that the show has earned such large profits, saying, "[Charles] said there would always be a market for innocence." (Source: Bill Nichols, "The Christmas Classic That Almost Wasn't," USA Today, December 6, 2005, pp. 1-2A; "You're a Good Magnet for Holiday Ads, Charlie Brown," LATimes.com).

------------------------
Take time to seek the Christ of Christmas this holy season.

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Homer News Report of Holiday efforts

Here is a story about our local Salvation Army in the paper this week.

Read the whole article here...
http://www.homernews.com/stories/120909/news_1_008.shtml

Blessings,

Live holy, preach Jesus.

Sermon Audio Problems fixed!

Hello soldiers and friends,

Special thanks to Craig for telling me of the audio problem with my last 6 entries. They have all been corrected and should be fine from here on out. Please let me know if there are any further problems, but hopefully the bug is fixed.

You can go back and listen or download them again and they should be fine.

Thanks for listening and remember... we will try to keep my voice as clear as possible, but make sure you can here HIS.

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Sermon audio problems???? Past 5 Sermons & soldier enrollment

Hello to all those who listen to my sermons on-line,

Right now there is an audio problem with my past 5 sermon (and soldier enrollment) audio files, I'm sorry for the problem and hope to have them fixed shortly. If there are any others that aren't working correctly please let me know.

Thanks for listening, and God bless.

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Sunday's Sermon - The Church Leaders who missed Christmas

To listen to Sunday's sermon now, just click the play arrow here.



For a basic manuscript of this message use download, or sharing options, click the menu button at the right of this square and choose your option.

For past sermons or podcasting options see the full size sermon player at the very bottom of this blog page OR you can always access my sermon player site (and countless other preachers) at http://sermon.net/The_Salvation_Army_Homer

special note... Much of this sermon was from a sermon by Andy Cook of LifeWay - originally published in Proclaim Online. Original sermon & powerpoint at http://www.lifeway.com/article/?id=166511

God bless your study!
Live holy, preach Jesus!

Salvation Army red kettles now accepting prayer requests

Great story from my fellow comrads in Spokane.



Live holy, preach Jesus!

Captain's meditation on Luke 11:28

Luke 11:27-28 27 As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, "Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." 28 He replied, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

Just a quick thought as we enter the Holy Season of Christmas...

What an amazing thing for God to choose Mary herself to be so privileged as to give birth to God incarnate - Immanuel. But Jesus Himself says, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it."

Would you like to be as blessed as Mary???? Read God's Word... Hear God's Word.... and do what it says.

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Quote from Samuel Logan Brengle

Someone recently passed this great quote to me, apparently from Brengle...

Samuel Brengle (Salvation Army) said, "The axe cannot boast of the trees it has cut down. It could do nothing but for the woodsman. He made it, he sharpened it, he used it. The moment he throws it aside, it becomes only old iron. O that I may never lose sight of this."

Live holy, preach Jesus!

No special emotional feelings, just faith in God. Oswald Chambers Luke 11:13

I wanted to pass on this great illustration from SermonCentral.com and their daily sermon illustrations they send me free by email...
-----

As a young man, Oswald Chambers, who wrote the materials that became My Utmost For His Highest, battled a persistent sense of barrenness in his Christian life. He finally wrote: "I was getting desperate. I knew no one who had what I wanted; in fact I did not know what I did want. But I knew that if what I had was all the Christianity there was, the thing was a fraud.

"At a little meeting in Dunoon, a well-known lady was asked to take the after-meeting. She did not speak, but set us to prayer, and then sang, 'Touch me again, Lord.' I felt nothing, but I knew emphatically my time had come. I rose to my feet. Then and there, I claimed the gift of the Holy Spirit in dogged committal on Luke 11:13. I had no vision of heaven or of angels; I had nothing. I was as dry and empty as ever, no power or realization of God, no witness of the Holy Spirit. Then I was asked to speak to a meeting, and forty souls came out to the front!

I came to realize that God intended me, having asked, to simply take it by faith, and that power would be there. I might see it only by the backward look, but I was to reckon on the fact that God would be with me.

"From that point on, Oswald Chambers ministered with extraordinary power. His words and writings touched people around the world, especially when he taught, as he frequently did, from his favorite verse, Luke 11:13. And when Oswald died at an early age in Egypt during World War I, an old Australian soldier whom he had led to Christ had a Bible carved in stone for his grave. Its pages were tuned to Luke 11:13.

Contributed by: A. Todd Coget

-------------

Luke 11:13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Sunday's Sermon - The King who missed Christmas

To listen to Sunday's sermon now, just click the play arrow here.



For a basic manuscript of this message use download, or sharing options, click the menu button at the right of this square and choose your option.

For past sermons or podcasting options see the full size sermon player at the very bottom of this blog page OR you can always access my sermon player site (and countless other preachers) at http://sermon.net/The_Salvation_Army_Homer

2 special notes...
1. Much of this sermon was from a sermon by Andy Cook of LifeWay - originally published in Proclaim Online. Original sermon & powerpoint at http://www.lifeway.com/article/?id=166510

2. The pictures I mention in the sermon are at the end of my manuscript - you can download it and increase their size if you would like to view them.

God bless your study!
Live holy, preach Jesus!

To Rock the boat

I wanted to pass on this great illustration from SermonCentral.com and their daily sermon illustrations they send me free by email...

To Rock the Boat

Survivor Eva Hart remembers the night, April 15, 1912, on which the Titanic plunged 12,000 feet to the Atlantic floor, some two hours and forty minutes after an iceberg tore a 300-foot gash in the starboard side: "I saw all the horror of its sinking, and I heard, even more dreadful, the cries of drowning people." Although twenty life-boats and rafts were launched—too few and only partly filled—most of the passengers ended up struggling in the icy seas while those in the boats waited a safe distance away. Lifeboat No. 14 did row back to the scene after the unsinkable ship slipped from sight at 2:20 A.M. Alone, it chased cries in the darkness, seeking and saving a precious few. Incredibly, no other boat joined it. Some were already overloaded, but in virtually every other boat, those already saved rowed their half-filled boats aimlessly in the night, listening to the cries of the lost. Each feared a crush of unknown swimmers would cling to their craft, eventually swamping it.

"I came to seek and to save the lost," our Savior said. And he commissioned us to do the same. But we face a large obstacle: fear. While people drown in the treacherous waters around us, we are tempted to stay dry and make certain no one rocks the boat.

Contributed by: Ryan Johnson
----

Live holy, preach Jesus!

7 ways you say thank you to God…

This is a note I found tucked away with some Thanksgiving items...

7 Ways you say thank you to God…

1) When Spend time with Him daily (not just on Sunday)

2) When you forgive others

3) When you serve in His church

4) When you reach out to hurting people

5) When you share His Plan of salvation

6) When you give God the best of your time, talents, and treasures

7) When you praise Him enthusiastically from the heart

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Sunday's Sermon - 5 Commands of thanksgiving

To listen to Sunday's sermon now, just click the play arrow here.



For a basic manuscript of this message use download, or sharing options, click the menu button at the right of this square and choose your option.

For past sermons or podcasting options see the full size sermon player at the very bottom of this blog page OR you can always access my sermon player site (and countless other preachers) at http://sermon.net/The_Salvation_Army_Homer

God bless your study!
Live holy, preach Jesus!

Soldier Enrollment of Michaela Franklin

Our Corps was privileged today to have Michaela Franklin choose to become a soldier of Christ in The Salvation Army. Listen here for her enrollment.



Here is a copy of the promises one makes when the become a Salvation Army Soldier...

The 'Articles of War' or "The soldier's covenant

HAVING accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord, and desiring to fulfil my membership of His Church on earth as a soldier of The Salvation Army, I now by God’s grace enter into a sacred covenant.

I believe and will live by the truths of the word of God expressed in The Salvation Army’s eleven articles of faith:

We believe that the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments were given by inspiration of God: and that they only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice.

We believe that there is only one God, who is infinitely perfect, the Creator. Preserver, and Governor of all things, and who is the only proper object of religious worship.

We believe that there are three persons in the Godhead—the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost—undivided in essence and coequal in power and glory.

We believe that in the person of Jesus Christ the Divine and human natures are united, so that He is truly and properly God and truly and properly man.

We believe that our first parents were created in a state of innocency, but by their disobedience they lost their purity and happiness; and that in consequence of their fall all men have become sinners, totally depraved, and as such are justly exposed to the wrath of God.

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ has, by His suffering and death, made an atonement for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved.

We believe that repentance towards God, faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and regeneration by the Holy Spirit are necessary to salvation.

We believe that we are justified by grace, through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ; and that he that believeth hath the witness in himself.

We believe that continuance in a state of salvation depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ.

We believe that it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We believe in the immortality of the soul; in the resurrection of the body; in the general judgment at the end of the world; in the eternal happiness of the righteous; and in the endless punishment of the wicked.

THEREFORE I will be responsive to the Holy Spirit’s work and obedient to His leading in my life, growing in grace through worship, prayer, service and the reading of the Bible.

I will make the values of the Kingdom of God and not the values of the world the standard for my life.

I will uphold Christian integrity in every area of my life, allowing nothing in thought, word, or deed that is unworthy, unclean, untrue, profane, dishonest or immoral.

I will maintain Christian ideals in all my relationships with others: my family and neighbours, my colleagues and fellow Salvationists, those to whom and for whom I am responsible, and the wider community.

I will uphold the sanctity of marriage and of family life.

I will be a faithful steward of my time and gifts, my money and possessions, my body, my mind and my spirit, knowing that I am accountable to God.

I will abstain from alcoholic drink. tobacco, the non-medical use of addictive drugs, gambling, pornography, the occult, and all else that could enslave the body or spirit.

I will be faithful to the purposes for which God raised up The Salvation Army, sharing the good news of Jesus Christ, endeavouring to win others to Him, and in His name caring for the needy and the disadvantaged.

I will be actively involved, as l am able, in the life, work, worship and witness of the corps, giving as large a proportion of my income as possible to support its ministries and the worldwide work of the Army.

I will be true to the principles and practices of The Salvation Army, loyal to its leaders, and I will show the spirit of Salvationism whether in times of popularity or persecution.

I now call upon all present to witness that I enter into this covenant and sign these articles of war of my own free will, convinced that the love of Christ, who died and now lives to save me, requires from me this devotion of my life to His service for the salvation of the whole world; and therefore do here declare my full determination, by God’s help, to be a true soldier of The Salvation Army.

-----------

Live holy, preach Jesus!

Captain's meditation on Luke 10:38-42

Luke 10:38-42 At the Home of Martha and Mary
38 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. 39 She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. 40 But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" 41 "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Jesus Himself was in their home. That is an amazing thought by itself. Make sure you realize that God Himself through His Holy Spirit is with you everywhere you go today (your home included). It's also important to realize that they opened their home to him. He is always wanting to come close to you, but you must be open to receive Him. During this busy season, it is right to serve the Lord by serving the "least of these". Touch others in His name, do "intakes", make food boxes, prep the chapel, prepare bible studies, plan services, plan holiday meals, do street ministry, etc., etc., etc., but make sure that you don't leave Him sitting there while you run around busy. Make sure you have opened yourself to be beside Him throughout your day, and also be sure you spend some time alone .... ... still... ... sitting at the feet of Jesus.

I leave you with these words from the song by John Wesley...
LO! I come with joy to do The Master's blessed will;
Him in outward works pursue, And serve his pleasure still;
Faithful to my Lord's commands, I still would choose the better part,
Serve with careful Martha's hands, And loving Mary's heart.

Live holy, preach Jesus!