I Pastor Joseph Prince say one time "God is not interested in behavior modification He wants life transformation".
This is a very true statement God wants more than your behavior to change He wants your life to change. Over the past ten years or so I have dealt with people who are desiring to be free from the sick cycle of addiction, I have seen many successes and naturally I have seen some failures as well but one thing that I have noticed that is very consistent is this; the men and women that only want to change their behavior rarely do, they desire to be free from the pain of addiction but they do not want to change their lives they only wan to quit drinking, shooting, snorting whatever it is that they are addicted to. The problem with this of course is that without a life change it is very difficult to maintain freedom. In many recovery arenas they teach that abstinence is recovery but that is incorrect, abstinence does not mean recovery, it merely means that the person involved has not had access to their substance of choice or they are trying to quit on their own, and both of these are liable to fail. When a person experiences a life transformation they become a new person, the Bible says "a new creature" in other words what they were they are not any more they are brand new. This is the way to battle addiction help people see that when they were born again they were created new they are no longer an addict they are a son or daughter of God. This is life transformation.
Pastor Steele
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Don't throw rocks
I am a information junkie. I love to learn new things so consequently I spend quite a bit of time reading books, listening to tapes (yes I said tapes I have several hundred of them, my wife and I are tape worms) as well as CD'S.
As i surf the web it seems inevitably I will run across several sites that are put up by some minister who has decided that they are the judge and jury of every other minister on the web. Now most of the time I have never heard of these men, and quiet probably they have never heard of me; in any case, these men have no problem calling other ministers false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing, pimp preachers etc. These are terms that should never come out of the mouth of a minister of the gospel, and certainly they should never be used to describe a brother in Christ. The Apostle Paul stated in Romans 14:4 "Who are you that judges another mans servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth..." the context here is simple. Men and women in ministry are servants of God they are accountable to Him and Him alone in regards to their ministry. Now the comment I hear is "well somebody has to tell the truth" my question is this; does truth involve making degrading statements about people that in most cases they do not even know? Where in the Word is there a justification to use terms like "false prophet, pimp preacher" and others that are not worth repeating? There is none, when they fall into the degrading trap of name calling they are "sitting in the seat of the scornful" they are being unjust if for no other reason than they give the person they are running down no opportunity to defend them selves. In most cases they are taking these mens comments vastly out of context (apparently they cannot listen to an entire message) and another disturbing trend I see among these that will so quickly call other men of God such disturbing names is this; they usually have no covering from a pastor or spiritual father, they are usually a lone ranger out running other people down. There is plenty of negativity in the world towards the church without those who are in the body destroying each other from the inside. I have all I can do to take care of me, I have no time to judge another mans servant.
Pastor Steele
As i surf the web it seems inevitably I will run across several sites that are put up by some minister who has decided that they are the judge and jury of every other minister on the web. Now most of the time I have never heard of these men, and quiet probably they have never heard of me; in any case, these men have no problem calling other ministers false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing, pimp preachers etc. These are terms that should never come out of the mouth of a minister of the gospel, and certainly they should never be used to describe a brother in Christ. The Apostle Paul stated in Romans 14:4 "Who are you that judges another mans servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth..." the context here is simple. Men and women in ministry are servants of God they are accountable to Him and Him alone in regards to their ministry. Now the comment I hear is "well somebody has to tell the truth" my question is this; does truth involve making degrading statements about people that in most cases they do not even know? Where in the Word is there a justification to use terms like "false prophet, pimp preacher" and others that are not worth repeating? There is none, when they fall into the degrading trap of name calling they are "sitting in the seat of the scornful" they are being unjust if for no other reason than they give the person they are running down no opportunity to defend them selves. In most cases they are taking these mens comments vastly out of context (apparently they cannot listen to an entire message) and another disturbing trend I see among these that will so quickly call other men of God such disturbing names is this; they usually have no covering from a pastor or spiritual father, they are usually a lone ranger out running other people down. There is plenty of negativity in the world towards the church without those who are in the body destroying each other from the inside. I have all I can do to take care of me, I have no time to judge another mans servant.
Pastor Steele
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Who you are
This has been an amazing day, not because anything extraordinary has happened, but because I realize who I am and what I am capable of. You know very often in religous circles we are taught that we are nothing and that we should be thankful that God had mercy on a no good little worm like us. While it is true that before we were saved there was nothing good in or about us when we were born again that all changed. First John 3:2 states "Beloved now are we the sons of God..." well God does not have any no good sons who are nothing, does He? No He doesn't and He never will too often we confuse who we were and who we are, we "were" sinners, we "were' strangers and aliens, we "were" without God and having no hope, but "now" in Christ we are free.
When you were born again a metamorphosis occurred, you were a sinner and you "morphed" into a saint, a child of God, a overcomer, a winner a individual to whom nothing is impossible, a man or woman of God who cannot be defeated and who will not quit. Today walk like the champion God made you to be and know that in the words of one of my heroes in the faith Dr. Oral Roberts "Something good is going to happen to you!"
Be blessed,
Pastor Steele
When you were born again a metamorphosis occurred, you were a sinner and you "morphed" into a saint, a child of God, a overcomer, a winner a individual to whom nothing is impossible, a man or woman of God who cannot be defeated and who will not quit. Today walk like the champion God made you to be and know that in the words of one of my heroes in the faith Dr. Oral Roberts "Something good is going to happen to you!"
Be blessed,
Pastor Steele
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Discipline
Good morning!
It is a beautiful here in Mid-America it is around 35 degrees which is really nice right now so far this has been the coldest winter I can remember in my last fifteen years living here (this is an inconvenient truth for some people) but true none the less. This morning started like every other morning up at 4:00 a.m. let the dogs out, come back in grab my bible head to the place I like to pray and read in the morning and start the day off soaking in the Word, around 5:00 a.m. or a little after head to the gym with my wife, workout and head back home around 6:30 a.m. eat breakfast, get Angela off to school cleanup and head to the office all of these things in about three hours time impressive huh? I like many people have to attempt to get a lot done every day in what seems to be an increasingly shrinking amount of time, the key word here is "seemingly" it seems as if time is shrinking, it seems as if time is flying by, when in reality for the most part it is because many times we are not disciplined to stay focused on the task at hand. Have you ever walked in a room and thought; "how did this room get so cluttered?" Or have you ever stood on a scale and though "how did I get this heavy?" If you have you are certainly not alone I have said those very thing myself on a number of occasions. The problem is this. Too often we say "how" and "why" and that is all that ever comes of it we never take any action to correct the problem and the root of this inaction is a lack of discipline, there I said it, a lack of discipline. The word discipline in the dictionary means "the practice of training people to obey rule or a code... the controlled behavior resulting from such training" many time we do not control the behavior in our lives because we do not discipline our selves. As I was getting ready for the office I heard in my spirit "This is the year for you to discipline yourself and stay focused" this shocked me somewhat seeing as how I am very diligent scheduled person, but then I saw it I am where I should be on time every day, but am I disciplined to accomplish the task at hand whatever that may be? Many times ashamedly the answer is a resounding no. How about you will you join me this year in making this the year of discipline and focus? C'mon I'll help you... here we go!
It is a beautiful here in Mid-America it is around 35 degrees which is really nice right now so far this has been the coldest winter I can remember in my last fifteen years living here (this is an inconvenient truth for some people) but true none the less. This morning started like every other morning up at 4:00 a.m. let the dogs out, come back in grab my bible head to the place I like to pray and read in the morning and start the day off soaking in the Word, around 5:00 a.m. or a little after head to the gym with my wife, workout and head back home around 6:30 a.m. eat breakfast, get Angela off to school cleanup and head to the office all of these things in about three hours time impressive huh? I like many people have to attempt to get a lot done every day in what seems to be an increasingly shrinking amount of time, the key word here is "seemingly" it seems as if time is shrinking, it seems as if time is flying by, when in reality for the most part it is because many times we are not disciplined to stay focused on the task at hand. Have you ever walked in a room and thought; "how did this room get so cluttered?" Or have you ever stood on a scale and though "how did I get this heavy?" If you have you are certainly not alone I have said those very thing myself on a number of occasions. The problem is this. Too often we say "how" and "why" and that is all that ever comes of it we never take any action to correct the problem and the root of this inaction is a lack of discipline, there I said it, a lack of discipline. The word discipline in the dictionary means "the practice of training people to obey rule or a code... the controlled behavior resulting from such training" many time we do not control the behavior in our lives because we do not discipline our selves. As I was getting ready for the office I heard in my spirit "This is the year for you to discipline yourself and stay focused" this shocked me somewhat seeing as how I am very diligent scheduled person, but then I saw it I am where I should be on time every day, but am I disciplined to accomplish the task at hand whatever that may be? Many times ashamedly the answer is a resounding no. How about you will you join me this year in making this the year of discipline and focus? C'mon I'll help you... here we go!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
