Over the years I don’t think that I ever heard any preacher talk about Ananias and Sapphira. It is interesting because it comes down to what a church really is. Everything in life revolves around people. The church is no different from the world, which is unfortunate. The church is to be an example to the world of how God works in man’s life. If you read the history of most denomination, they started with a bang. People prayed and asked to start something special. When God answer their prayers, it started a movement. Churches sprang up everywhere. The gospel was being preached and people were being saved and healed. God was moving like He wanted to. Then man had to control this movement so it didn’t get out of hand. The more man controlled the less God moved. Until God wasn’t there anymore and man controlled the church. This is how we have so many dead churches. I was in 2 revivals in my life time. The first one lasted 5 years. And how it ended when the pastor and assistant pastor fought over the church. They split the church and God left. The second one lasted 6 months. It started with a bang and the people were amazed at what happened. Then they got bored with God’s wonders. They stopped coming and God left. Ananias and Sapphira were members of the church in Jerusalem. People were giving large amounts of money to the church. Ananias and Sapphira wanted to get in on this glory. Ananias and Sapphira agreed to sell a piece of property and give part of the proceeds to the church. They lied to Peter about how much money they sold the property for. They gave only part to the church. Peter asked Ananias again if this was the whole amount. He said yes and died on the spot. Sapphira come in later and did the same thing. She died in front of Peter. They lied to the Holy Spirit. God knows what is in your heart before you even speak it. The bible says great fear came upon the church. And many separated themselves from the church.
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Many people have tried to prove that there is no God. I have to laugh at their ignorance. It is sad to try to prove that man is really god. During the French Revolution, one of their leaders was named Robespierre. He was as racial a human being that there ever was. The Reign of Terror came about because of him. He had over 40,000 people killed in a year and half. He hated God and wanted to prove that there was no God. He had a new born son and to prove there was no God, he separated his son from everyone. He alone would teach him. When the child was old enough to understand, he began worshipping the sun. God wrote His laws in our heart, so that if we never did hear about Him, we still would know Him. The French people finally had had enough of Robespierre and executed him. When is the last time you could bring someone back from the dead? When is the last time you could make a tree grow or heal someone? God is who He is. We don’t have the power to do anything that God does. Jesus did say we were gods because of what happened in the Garden of Eden. Our free will made us gods, little g. Without the power of God we can do nothing. Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus, it is hard to kick against the pricks.
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I wake up some mornings and wonder what day it is. It comes to me and I have to get up for work. Sometimes it goes beyond that I wonder what season I am in. God made the seasons to tell time. We have divided it into 4 seasons, fall, winter, spring and summer. I look at the civilizations of the past and see how they used the seasons to align their buildings. The pyramids of Giza are aligned with the constellation of Orion. Or the Mayans or Incas built observatories that follow the movement in the skies. I laugh when people say that aliens built the pyramids or the temples in South America. We aren’t descendants of monkeys. Those men in each civilization were smart and understood engineering. They used their understanding of the God and the heavens to build their culture. Yet there are more seasons than the 4 earthy seasons. Solomon looked at the seasons and understood what else there was. He said to every season there is a time. He knew that we went through different times in our lives. There is a time for life, for death, for anger, for hate, for love, for forgiveness, for planting, for harvesting and for everything that a man goes through. Solomon figured this out about 3000 years ago. Which was before all the other civilizations built all their pyramids or temples. God is who He says He is. And He does bring to pass His word as He says. God isn’t a man that He should lie. What season are we in? I pray it isn’t to last season on earth.
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Paul and Saul of Tarsus are the flip-side of the same coin. Saul of Tarsus was raised an orthodox Jew. He was sent to the best Jewish school at the time. It was the school of Gamaliel in Nazareth. Guess who was another distinguished graduate, Jesus. Saul knew Jesus. Saul pressed to become the best Pharisee around. He was reported to be on the fast track to become the leader of the Sanhedrin. He was so good that the leaders choose him to hunt down the new believers in Jesus. When Stephen was stoned to death, it was by Saul’s orders. Saul was enthusiastic about his assignment. He put to death men, women and children. He later said it himself, I was the chiefest of sinners. God didn’t give up on Saul. On his way to Damascus, Saul encountered his old classmate who was now risen from the death, Jesus. Saul was blinded by the light from heaven. Everyone saw the light but only Saul heard His voice. At that point Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul. God had work for Paul to do. God brought him to the backside of a desert to teach him. Paul came back with such a force that the Sanhedrin wanted him dead. Paul literally began to do what Jesus said, that was to preach the gospel to all the world. He started in Antioch. The Armenians became the first Christians. Jews who are believers aren’t called Christians. They are called into today’s vernacular Messianic Jews. Besides the 4 gospels, Paul wrote the other books of the New Testament. If God can take Saul of Tarsus and turn into one of the leaders of the New Church. Just think He could do with you?
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The story of Mary Magdalene isn’t an usual one. She was by all rights a whore in the city of Jerusalem. She sold her body for money. It was a hard life. Jesus came to visit a man named Simon. He was a Pharisee and fairly wealthy. Jesus was seated at Simon’s table and they were having good food and conversation. God had shone His light on Mary’s life. She knew that everything she was, was wrong. And that she was separated from God. She had heard that Jesus was in town and sought Him out. She took with her an alabaster jar of ointment. Apparently the people at Simon’s house knew her and she got in. Jesus was already seated at the table eating. She headed straight for Him. Mary began to wash His feet with her tears and anoint them with the ointment. Simon being a good host didn’t say out loud what he was thinking. Though he thought Jesus should know better than to let this whore touch Him. Jesus rebuked Simon for not being a good host and providing water to wash his feet or ointment to anoint His head. He turned to Mary and said her faith had saved her life and that her sins were forgiven. God doesn’t tell story for no good reason. They always relate to us. This was an important story that anyone can go to God and ask for forgiveness. And God will forgive us our sins. I can see myself in that story, can you?
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What is the church? Most people think it is the people that go to a particular building every Sunday. It may be called a congregation, however it isn’t the church. The church is a peculiar group of people that have the distinction and honor of being the sons and daughters of God. It doesn’t matter what denomination you belong to. Because God didn’t start denominations. Man did. In the first century, there was a local church. People could belong to it if they were recommended by people in the church or a pastor of other church. If you didn’t have this certification you could not belong to that church. In the first century, the government was trying to kill off the church. So they would send people to try to infiltrate their meetings. There were no denominations. Everybody belong to God’s church or they didn’t belong. If you were a Christian and couldn’t verify it, you would probably be killed. The church wasn’t only where you could learn of God, it was a sanctuary for the government of the day. And I am afraid it is coming back to that again. If you really want to see who you are and what is really going on. Don’t look at yourself as a member of this or that denomination. Your teacher isn’t the man in the pulpit. Your teacher is the Holy Spirit. You belong to God and God is ultimately responsible for you. God says you were bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
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I am watching my cat clean herself. She is taking her time to clean herself as well as she can. She takes one area at a time. With her paw she scrubs each area of her body. And she won’t stop until she is clean. It is called being fastidious. God made that cat to be that way. Don’t laugh, can you say that you are doing what God has given to you to do? And doing it fastidiously. That cat knows what it is supposed to do and is doing it. How many people can say the same thing? Do you know what you are supposed to do? It took me quite a few years to figure out what my calling was from God. I had no inkling of what God wanted. But until I started studying to find out what it was, I was at a loss. As I have said before, we learn a little bit at a time, here a little there a little. So what have I learned? I not as dumb as I thought I was. God loves me unconditionally. He raised Jesus from the dead to make Him Lord of Lords and King of Kings. God gave me the kingdom of God here and now. All I have to do is ask and He will give to me His will. What is His will? His will is healing, deliverance, health, and salvation. I have learned a lot in these few short years. I am glad about that. God says call unto Me and I will show you great and mighty things which you don’t know.
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What is real power? When I was young I saw older guys lifting weights. I thought how powerful they were. I had superheroes I thought could solve all my problems. Did you know that the writers of Superman changed him during WWII, from solving all the problems to helping solve problems? So people would not rely on someone else to solve their problems. You see the real power isn’t in muscles or guns. It’s funny how people think that everything can be solved by the government or the army. WWII was solved by people coming together in 1 mind and 1 accord. You know that is what got Babylon in trouble with God in the first place. They thought that they could defeat God because they were all in 1 mind and 1 accord. God fixed the situation by scrambling their languages. They left in different direction because they couldn’t understand each other’s language. It’s funny, every time man thinks that he has stopped God, God turns it back on man. But back to power. Everyone knows the story of Rwanda. How 1 tribe began killing another for power and control. But do you know what their solution was after the killing stopped? The solution was forgiveness. The government took the tribe that did the killing and brought them to villages of the people they killed. The villagers forgave the people and let them live among them. Now you want to talk about real power. God brought the spirit of reconciliation to heal mankind. He name is Jesus.
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Violence is the destructive nature of man. It comes in all forms. Bullying is a form of violence. But I am old school about the solution. A bully is a coward and a swift blow to the nose would resolve a lot of things. I don’t advocate violence as a solution. I advocate that you stand up and facing it head on with courage. There are more insidious forms of violence. It is how this blog got started. I was watching a commercial about abused animals. It said how people should be involved to stop it. Then I thought how people should be involved in stopping the killing of innocent children. I was talking to a person who worked in the US Justice Department about violence in this country. I said that after the US Supreme Court decision about abortion, that the murder and violence rate has climbed exponentially in the country. He kept saying no, but the statistics bear it out. If life isn’t protect, it is open season on man. I know that it is a touchy subject. Man wants what he wants. And everything is right in his own eyes. What will happen in the end? What will man do? Will man destroy everything that is good? Hitler tried to conquer the world. He marched his army in every country he could. He was successful in killing 50 million people. God didn’t leave one brick on top of the other in Germany. Over 80 million Germans were killed in WWII. Their country was destroyed. God says if you live by the sword, you will die by the sword. God also says you have a free will and need to choose what you will do about your life.

Crain Blanchard.
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I had 3 brothers until I bury my younger brother Bill this week. My little brother would follow me around. Sometimes I would lead him right into trouble. But most of the times we just played. Our neighborhood was filled with children. There was an alley behind the house that we ran up and down. We would built forts from Christmas trees. We played hid and seek and did just about everything a kid could do back there. There was a confederate Jasmine bush that was over 10 feet tall in the alley. We would climb up inside to the top and side down the bush. We would climb almost anything that was there, trees, bushes and garages. We would get on top on the garage and throw roof shingles at each other. Of course we did this when daddy wasn’t home. My little brother followed me. We were in the school choir together. We were both sopranos. They were forming a special boy’s choir. We both tried out for the choir, but he made it. My voice was changing into a tenor and they only wanted sopranos. When we were in high school, we started going our separate ways. We had discovered something new, girls. Bill met a special girl and married her right after high school. He started working in the oil field and I didn’t see him much. He and his wife had three boys and 5 grandchildren. This kept them very busy. Somehow our lives flashed before us and we were older men. Cancer took Bill last week. We buried him this week. And God is still faithful. And I miss my younger brother Bill.
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