This Sunday, April 1, we will celebrate Palm Sunday.  Palm Sunday is the celebration of Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem.   Old Testament Scripture prophesied this very event.  In Zechariah 9:9 (Old Testament) the prophet proclaimed, “Cry out with joy, O daughter of Zion!  Shout jubilantly, O daughter of Jerusalem!

Look - your King is coming; He is righteous and able to save.  He comes seated humbly on a donkey, on a colt, a foal of a donkey.”

This King that Zechariah prophesied about 500 years before the birth of Jesus was a declaration of the coming Messiah.  This prophesy was fulfilled in Jesus!  The Gospel of John chapter 12 and verses 12,13, 14 & 15 declare, “On the next day much people who were come to the Feast (the Passover), when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem (their excitement was understandable), Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet Him (as was the custom; presents them waving these palm fronds in token of the approach of a conqueror), and cried, Hosanna (in the Hebrew means “saved we pray”):  Blessed is the King of Israel Who comes in the Name of the Lord (this is taken from Psalm 118:25-26; while the people at that moment were proclaiming Jesus as their King, the religious leaders were plotting His death).  And Jesus, when He had found a young donkey, sat thereon; as it is written (presents an animal that had never been ridden; Matthew tells us that the foal was accompanied by its mother, and both satisfied the prediction of Zechariah 9:9) Fear not, daughter of Zion:  behold the King comes, sitting on an donkey’s colt (this is recorded by John from Zechariah 9:9).

Take time this Palm Sunday (April 1, 2012) to celebrate the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and His triumphant entry into Jerusalem.  The King showed Himself that day in Jerusalem and fulfilled Old Testament prophecy.  I have great news for you and that is the King is Coming again and He will not be on a donkey this next time, but we will see Him as He is in His full Glory!

Father, thank You for sending Jesus to earth and fulfilling Your promise.  Please help me to always remember that You are righteous and mighty to save, and may my joy be a reflection of Your presence. May I worship You with all that I am and all that I have!

 There are times when we all feel alone.  We feel like we are an island removed far away in the sea.  It seems no one could possibly understand how we feel.

Scripture states in Luke 22:43, 44 that Jesus was also in a situation where he felt alone and removed from everyone around.  He was deeply burdened when He called out to His Heavenly Father in prayer.  “And there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him.  And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly:  and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”  This scripture pictures our Lord, Jesus Christ, in the Garden of Gethsemane.  Jesus was at His point of surrender as a human being.  Remember that Jesus on this earth was fully God and fully man.  He suffered at that moment as possibly no other has suffered, thereby desperately needing the help of an angel.  “And being in agony, He prayed more earnestly…”  Hebrews 5:7 shows that the wrath of God was to judge Him as if He, and He alone, were the only sinner who ever existed, even though He was no sinner at all; this caused that agony.

It was at this “place of surrender” called Gethsemane that Jesus made that decision to go to the Cross for all of us.

Can you imagine the loneliness and desperation?  Jesus felt all of this and there is absolutely nothing that you are facing today that He doesn’t know about.  He walked in the same flesh and blood like us and was “in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” My problems may seem small to your problems and your problems small to others, but one thing is for sure and that is we have a Savior in heaven that understands.  He’s been there!

I boldly confess that Jesus Christ understands and emphasizes with me and the situations I am facing right now.  Because He understands, I go to Him and talk to Him, knowing that He hears me when I pray.  And not only does He listen to me, but He also answers the prayers and cries of my heart.  I do not have to face the challenges today alone because Jesus is with me, empowering me to stand tall, to stand firm and hold my head high!  With Him as my Guide I will not only survive but thrive and prosper in spite of what the devil has tried to do to me.  Trust Jesus, He understands.

There is an old adage that states, “God doesn’t always pay on Fridays, but He’s always on time.” If you have attended White Oak Worship Center for any length of time, you’ve probably heard me say this. 

Over the 30 plus years of ministry serving as a pastor I’ve witnessed many folks become weary in well doing.  They get tired!  Giving and working in the Lord’s kingdom is not always an easy task and anything that is worthwhile requires work.

The word work means that we will need to exert energy and it will require action on our part.  We know by reading Ephesians chapter 6 that we are in a battle and we have a definite enemy.  The Lord would not have given us a description of the armor we are to wear, if there was no battle.  We are placed on this earth to have a relationship with the Lord through His dear Son, Jesus Christ.  As a believer, we are charged with the Great Commission. We are given the task to share this beautiful Gospel with all people that we come in contact with everyday.

Hebrews 10:35 states, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward.”  Don’t cast away your confession of Faith in Christ and the Cross.  Your Faith has an eternal reward while earthly persecution, trials, troubles and tribulations are temporary. 

As human beings, we expect to be rewarded timely.  When we work, we usually know when we will get compensated for that work.  We typically know when the pay-day arrives.  We expect it that day and we continue to work for the next pay-day.  Spiritually, we long for those “pay-days.”  We long for that blessing or time of peace.  We long for the Spirit of God to comfort us and let us know that everything is going to be okay.  There are sometimes in life where we become weary, dry and thirsty and even “spiritually-broke” and we desperately long for that pay-day! We even question if our work for the Lord’s Kingdom even pleases Him.

Our scripture proclaims that we have “great recompence of reward!”  There is a pay-day coming my friend that will surpass all the struggles of work in the Lord’s Kingdom.  There is a time of refreshing that is going to spiritually, physically and financially move us into greater realms of His Glory! 

Perhaps you are that person who is “weary in well-doing” and you just feel like that your effort and hard-work, is in vain.  I encourage you today to not give-up, but rather hold on and even intensify your effort.  When you’ve done all you know to do….Stand!  I challenge you to pray the following prayer and faithfully hold to the promise found in Hebrews 10:35.

Lord, I’m so thankful that You are always mindful of the time, money, and talents – as well as the blood, sweat and tears that I’ve poured into my life assignment.  Sometimes when it gets hard or when I get physically or emotionally exhausted, I am tempted to think no one sees or appreciates what I have done.  But You have seen it all, and You are faithful to see that I am rewarded for what I have done.  I thank You for being so steadfast and faithful and for promising that I will be recompensed for everything I’ve done with a right heart.  I pray this in Jesus’ name!

Well, it’s that time of year….. The college basketball fans are excited and we lovingly call it “March Madness.”  I must admit that the NCAA basketball tournaments are probably the best sporting events around today.

It’s playoff time.  You win and you will advance.  You lose and you must go home.

It’s exciting to see a #1 seeded team fall to a lower seeded team. 

The conditions are equal.  If you are the 65^th best team, you still have a shot at the title!

Why am I talking basketball today?  Well, the tournament is much like our life.

We all have that chance to get it right and move on.  You see, we don’t have “9 lives” and neither does our cat!  Many of these basketball teams have equal talent, but some choose to believe in their goal a little more.  Should I say that they are exercising their faith a little more?  Locker room talk is positive. The coach has hopefully got the players to buy into the system and believe that they can win it all.  I promise you that at this point, it’s not negative words of “I can’t do it,” even in the locker room that knows their down by 15 points at half time.

Numbers 13:30 says, “And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it;  for we are well able to overcome it.”

Now that’s great locker room talk.  You see there were some other fellows that weren’t that optimistic, but Israel chose to believe the good report….even before victory materialized.

If you’re down by 15 points in the second half and life and death hangs in the balance, what will you do or who will you listen to?  I choose to believe the Lord’s report.  I choose to exercise my faith!  Believe God for anything and don’t just believe, but speak your faith and He will surely come through!

Army of Worshipers
 

When the Scriptures refer to the "heavenly host," we usually think of "choirs of angels." The word "host" in the Bible meant "army" (Josh. 5:13-14). It is an important truth: the hosts of Heaven are worshiping armies. Indeed, no one can do warfare who is not first a worshiper of God.

The Central Issue In Tribulation: Worship
One does not have to penetrate deeply into the Revelation of John to discover that both God and the devil are seeking worshipers (see Rev. 7:11; 13:4; 14:7, 11). Time and time again the line is drawn between those who "worship the beast and his image" and those who worship God.

In the last great battle before Jesus returns, the outcome of every man's life shall be weighed upon a scale of worship: in the midst of warfare and conflict to whom will we bow, God or Satan?

Yet, while this warfare shall culminate in the establishment of the Lord's kingdom on earth (see Rev. 11:15), we must realize the essence of this battle is the central issue in our warfare today. Will we faithfully worship God during satanic assault and temptation? True worship must emerge in the context of our lives now. For no man will worship through the great battles of tomorrow who complains in the mere skirmishes of today.

You will remember that the Lord's call to the Israelites was a call to worship and serve Him in the wilderness (see Exod. 7:16). Indeed, when Moses first spoke of God's loving concern, we read that the Hebrews "bowed low and worshiped" (Exod. 4:31). But when trials and pressures came, they fell quickly into murmuring, complaining and blatant rebellion. Their worship was superficial, self-serving and conditional---an outer form without an inner heart of worship.

This same condition of shallow worship prevails in much of Christianity today. If a message is given that speaks of the Lord's great care for His people, with eagerness do we bow low and worship. But as soon as the pressures of daily living arise or temptations come, how quickly we rebel against God and resist His dealings! The enemy has easy access to the soul that is not protected by true worship of the Almighty! Indeed, the Lord's purpose with Israel in the wilderness was to perfect true worship, which is based upon the reality of God, not circumstances. The Lord knows that the heart that will worship Him in the wilderness of affliction will continue to worship in the promised land of plenty.

Without true worship of God, there can be no victory in warfare. For what we bleed when we are wounded by satanic assault or difficult circumstances is the true measure of our worship. You see, what comes out of our hearts during times of pressure is in us, but hidden during times of ease. If you are a true worshiper, your spirit will exude worship to God no matter what battle you are fighting. In warfare, worship creates a wall of fire around the soul.

Protecting Your Heart Through Worship
Most of us understand the basic dynamics of the human soul. We have been taught, and rightly so, that the soul is the combination of the mind, will and emotions. Generally speaking, when the enemy comes against the church, he targets any of these three areas. We must see that the protection of these areas is of vital importance in our war against Satan.

To further illuminate the nature of this battle, let us add that, in addition to the mind, the will and the emotions, the soul is made of events and how we responded to those events. Who we are today is the sum of what we have encountered in life and our subsequent reactions. Abuses and afflictions hammer us one way, encouragement and praise inflate us another. Our reaction to each event, whether that event was positive or negative, is poured into the creative marrow of our individuality, where it is blended into the nature of our character.

What we call memory is actually our spirit gazing at the substance of our soul. With few exceptions, those events that we remember the most have also shaped us the most. Indeed, the reason our natural minds cannot forget certain incidents is because those events have literally become part of our nature.

Our soul is shaped by how well or poorly we handled our past experiences. When Scripture commands us to not look back and to "forget . . . what lies behind" (Phil. 3:13; see Luke 9:62), it is saying we must undo the consequences that have come from our unchristlike reactions. With God, this is not impossible, for though the events of our lives are irreversible, our reactions to those events can still be changed. As our wrong reactions to the past change, we change. In other words, although we cannot alter the past, we can put our past upon the "altar" as an act of worship. A worshiping heart allows God to heal and restore the soul.

All of us receive a portion of both good and evil in this world. But for life to be good, God, who is the essence of life, must reach into our experiences and redeem us from our negative reactions. The channel through which the Lord extends Himself, even into our past, is our love and worship of Him.

"And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God" (Rom. 8:28). The key for the fulfillment of this verse is that we become lovers of God in our spirits. Bad things become good for "those who love God." When we are given to loving Him, all that we have passed through in life is washed and redeemed in that love. Bad becomes good by the power of God.

Therefore, it is essential to both the salvation of our souls and our protection in warfare that we be worshipers. The ship that safely carries us through the storms of adversity is worship.

Psalm 84 expresses in praise to God the wonderful effect worship has upon the soul. "How blessed is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion! Passing through the valley of Baca [weeping] they make it a spring; the early rain also covers it with blessings" (vv. 5-6).

If you are "ever praising" God (Ps. 84:4), your worship of God will transform the negative assault of the enemy into "a spring" of sweet refreshing waters. No matter what befalls a worshiper, their "valley of weeping" always becomes a spring covered "with blessings." You cannot successfully engage in warfare, nor pass safely through the wilderness of this life, without first becoming a worshiper of God.

Worship: The Purpose Of Creation
We were created for God's pleasure. We were not created to live for ourselves but for Him. And while the Lord desires that we enjoy His gifts and His people, He would have us know we were created first for His pleasure. In these closing moments of this age, the Lord will have a people whose purpose for living is to please God with their lives. In them, God finds His own reward for creating man. They are His worshipers. They are on earth only to please God, and when He is pleased, they also are pleased.

The Lord takes them further and through more pain and conflicts than other men. Outwardly, they often seem "smitten of God, and afflicted" (Isa. 53:4). Yet to God, they are His beloved. When they are crushed, like the petals of a flower, they exude a worship, the fragrance of which is so beautiful and rare that angels weep in quiet awe at their surrender. They are the Lord's purpose for creation.

One would think that God would protect them, guarding them in such a way that they would not be marred. Instead, they are marred more than others. Indeed, the Lord seems pleased to crush them, putting them to grief. For in the midst of their physical and emotional pain, their loyalty to Christ grows pure and perfect. And in the face of persecutions, their love and worship toward God become all-consuming.

Would that all Christ's servants were so perfectly surrendered. Yet God finds His pleasure in us all. But as the days of the Kingdom draw near and the warfare at the end of this age increases, those who have been created solely for the worship of God will come forth in the power and glory of the Son. With the high praises of God in their mouth, they will execute upon His enemies the judgment written (see Ps. 149). They will lead as generals in the Lord's army of worshipers.

Do you remember any of those old horror films that showed the dead walking around town terrifying all those whom they came in contact?  Folks would try to hit them with any object they could find and even shoot them, but the dead would just keep coming!  We would call these beings the “walking dead” or “zombies.”  Nothing seemed to deter them from terrorizing those who came in contact with them.  They were dead, but alive!

Now you may ask, where am I coming from?  Why would I mention some horrid detail of a not so Christian film in a pastor’s blog?  Well, I’m trying to make you visualize the “Walking Dead Man.”

In Galatians 2:20, the Apostle Paul writes to the believers in Galatia concerning something very similar to the “walking dead.”   Scripture reads, “I am crucified with Christ:  nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me:  and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.”   Romans 6: 3-5 states, “Know you not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?  Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death:  that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His (Christ’s) death we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection (Life).”    Baptism is into Christ and not water (See I Corinthians 1:17, 12:13, Galatians 3:27; Ephesians 4:5 and Colossians 2: 11-13.).  When Christ died on the Cross, in the Mind of God, we died with Him; in other words, He became our Substitute, and our identification with Him in His death gives us all the benefits for which He died; the idea is that He died for all of us! Not only did we die with Him, but we were buried with Him as well, which means that all the sin and transgression of the past were buried; when they put Him in the tomb, they put in All of our sins in that tomb as well!  In His resurrection, we have also too come alive in Him!

We have new life, but not by our own strength and ability.  “Christ lives in us” by the virtue of us dying with Him on the cross and being raised with Him in newness of life!  “And the life which I now live in the flesh” which is my daily walk with the Lord here on this earth in my flesh and with my actions every day, “I live by the Faith of the Son of God” of which the Cross of Christ is the Object of my faith!  “He loved me and gave Himself for me” which is the ONLY way that I could be saved.”

Galatians 2:20 is clearly stating that if I’m in Christ (I’ve asked Him to save me and I trust Him and His Cross alone for my salvation) then I’m dead to myself.  You see…I’m a walking, living, talking dead man!  My sins and transgressions against the Lord God were nailed to that tree with His Dear Son, Jesus.   But I am also resurrected with Him in life and liberty today to live for Him.  My adversary, the devil, knows this as well and I strive to be that “walking dead man” where the tests and trials of this world fall short of my life in Christ.  You see…..you can’t hurt a living dead man, he just keeps coming!