Dream by William Murphy

I've been struggling these past few weeks with what God is saying and what people are saying/what I see through my physical eyes. So I’ve been challenged to grow and trust me it hasn’t been comfortable. I posted these messages to facebook as a way of encouraging myself through encouraging other. My ministry has simply been brought forth that way…my preaching comes from my struggles with the Holy Spirit in my own walk. I often hear people saying, “Pastor, that word was for me,” they never know how God has birth that word from the womb of the preacher’s own life. So the following have been my confession to God:

Monday: Accept the tension of knowing u r called 2 GREATNESS but live with WEAKNESS. Admit your weakness and God will reveal His greatness for you, in you & through you! You were BORN for greatness!

‎Tuesday: It's MUCH easier to have faith in the sunshine but your faith grows MOST in the storm. "These have come so that your faith--of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire--may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." 1 Pet 1:7

Wednesday: Feed your faith NOT your fear! If you don't feed your faith it will be too weak to fight your fears & fears that are allowed to run free will ruin your life. "For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline" 2 Tim 1:7 I believe in you & you were born for GREATNESS!

Thursday: GOD (will) do EVERYTHING HE Promised, now the question is: Will YOU do EVERYTHING You Promised? CAN God trust you & Can your Pastor & Church count on you? Psalms 37: 4-5 Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you.

During my quiet time today I was blessed by this song entitled “DREAM”! God has given me a dream for the Greater Bethel Church and the people that I’ve been privilege to pastor for nearly 20 years. As you read the words of this song I hope that it will revive, reinstate, and refresh the dream & vision God has placed inside of you.

It's never too late to be what you should have been
It's never too late to start over again


It's never late to do what you should have done
The curses are gone you are the chosen one


It's never too late to chase after your dream
What God has prepared your eyes have never seen


Today is the day that God's gonna change your name
And after today you'll never be the same


Dream

Dream

Dream

Four Lesson The Church Can Learn From A Track Team

I came across this article written by Cameron Smith about uniforms in the world of high school track and field and how they tend to be pretty, well, uniform.

I’m really NOT that old but I’ve been around during a sexual revolution. Everything is about sex these days. I remember a few years back my brother Mike and I went to watch the University of Oklahoma indoor track team run and I was shocked at what both the men and women runner wore. Almost every team was wearing tight tops and shorts made of spandex (or of other material that is nearly as form-fitting). Lets just say nothing was left to the imagination for male or females. This applies to volleyball as well. So when I saw this article I wanted to give a shout-out to both the writer and the coach/designer as well as the girl track team that dared to be difference, took a stand and made a difference.

The Washington Post reported that the city's best public school girls track team broke free of the competition when they ditched their traditional uniforms for something a bit more retro: a skirt, (See above photo, second to the left in the back and the girl leading in the front are wearing them).

To be exact, the uniform items that helped the Dunbar (D.C.) girls track team excel were skorts, skirts with black compression shorts attached to them. When the team's female athletes put them on, they claimed to feel significantly less self-conscious about their appearance, leaving the runners to focus solely on their events.

That additional focus more than made up for any lost streamlining as Dunbar athletes stepped forward with faster times and something that may be responsible for those improvements: Significantly more self confidence.

"That skort is a miracle worker," Dunbar star Destiny Phillips, one of the team's co-captains, told the Post. "You look good, you run good. It makes you feel different when you're out on the track, like no one can come get you."

I simply say, Congratulations!

I think the church can lean a lesson or two from “skorts”!

You don’t have to settle for statue quo!

You if you’re uncomfortable about something then change it!

Change is good and many time much, much better!

It never pays to be safe!

Life Hurts & the Church has to be God's Divine ER

Life Hurt and the Church is the God's ER

At one time or another every human being will endure periods of intense suffering. It is common to the human condition. However, something so common to each of us has the potential to completely derail us, devastate us, and potentially ruin us unless we understand how to Biblically respond to it. God’s word has so much to say about how we should think about and respond to pain.

The ER should be open to pastors/preachers/teachers who are suffering, families who are enduring pain and challenge, or an individuals that are going through extremely difficult circumstances. The church is designed to comfort, provide care, and encourage those who are in the middle of suffering and/or who would be benefitted by being assisted in thinking through suffering.

The New Testament church is commanded to live out what is known as the "one another's" such as “love one another,” “care for one another,” “pray for one another,” “encourage one another,” “share with one another.”

It's is my prayer that Greater Bethel Church become a place that's will be known for her gentle, loving and caring ministry that lead the hurting through some deep theological truths about suffering, sovereignty, and growth that will assist individuals in developing a firm foundation from which to find direction, purpose, and comfort in the midst of trying circumstances.

Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. Galatians 6:2(ESV)

Take A Break Or It Will Break You

http://t.co/aZ0CjbN

Sunday Notes

The Meanest and Most Dangerous Member In The Church

“WTH Wrong with the Church?” Pt. 2

James 3: 1-12 (NIV)

1 Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly. 2 We all stumble in many ways. If anyone is never at fault in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to keep his whole body in check. 3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. 7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, 8 but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water. Who do you think is the meanest member in our Church? I'm sure that we all have our own private opinion. But there is a member in our church who has killed more friendships ruined more reputations wrecked more homes split more churches, driven more preachers out of the ministry and caused more division in the church than any other member I know. James 3:1-12 (NIV)

James makes three important observations concerning the meanest and most dangerous member in our church.

1. The dynamic power of this member!

This member guards

This member guides

2. The deadly poison of this member!

This member destroys

This member defiles

This member devours

This member deadens

3. The divine purpose of this member!

This member proclaims

This member praises

This member promotes

Taking the Word Deeper:

Question: 1

Read & write out Proverbs 15:23.

What does it means to have “a word spoken in due season”?

Question: 2

Read & write out 1 Peter 3:10.

Discuss: How does words dictate how you live out your days?

Question: 3

Read & write out Psalm 141:3.

Discuss: How do we take control back from this member?

Question: 4

Read & write out Proverbs 18:21.

Discuss: What is the writer of Proverbs saying about the power of our words?

Question: 5

How have your own member (words) and the member of others (words) impacted your life?

Sunday Notes

Who Elected You The Judge & Jury?

“WTH Wrong with the Church?” Pt. 1

Matthew 7:1-5 (NIV)

1. When you become judge and jury you play God?

“Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”

2. When you become judge and jury you play yourself?

“And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye? Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye.”

3. When you become judge and jury you play others?

“Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye.”

Random Thoughts

1. · Will change-lives ever be a shouting & a giving point in the church?
2. · What would Dr. Martin Luther King say about racism in America?
3. · What was Scottie Pippin on when he said Michael Jordan was the greatest ever?
4. · Why are there still hungry people in America one of the wealthy nations in the world?
5. · Why isn’t the church the most accepting, approving, asserting place on the planet?
6. · Why does the church say they want to win the lost to Christ but when the lost show up they aren’t welcomed?
7. · Why ask members to be obedient and bring their tithe and give offering if the church is only going to watch the bank balance up and won’t use it to expand the mission and ministry of the church?
8. · Why are God’s people who say they have been changed won’t accept church in church?
9. · Why is it that when a church want to be innovative and cutting edge that its worldly but when people bring technology into their homes and job it necessary?
10. · Why do we complain the state of our children and student but we don’t invest time, talent nor treasure to change them?
11. · Why do we always talk about the power of prayer but prayer meeting the weakest service all week?
12. · Why is church diversity only when black attend white churches not the other way around?
13. · Will Americans ever give President Obama the respect due the office of President and get behind him? If we can fall President Bush for 8years we surely ought to be able to follow a very intelligent President Barack Obama?
14. · Will the church ever stop being a place of performance and become a place of power, purpose and preaching?

Be Encouraged

I WANT TO SPEAK THIS INTO YOUR SPIRIT & OVER YOUR LIFE! The problems you are facing in this season of your life is growing your faith, fortifying your faith and producing patience! You won't ever be the same again. God is developing you into the champion that He purposed, planned & positioned you to be from the foundation of the world.

James 1:2-4 says it this way, "Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way." I believe in YOU! It us my desire to use this moment to make a difference n the world by making a difference in you...if you have been blessed by these post leave a comment & tell your friends & let's lift up Jesus & each other.

A few random thoughts that have been running through my mind that I may write on later but really don’t have the time to develop now:

In Matthew 16: 13-15 Jesus asked the probing question: “ Who do people say that the Son of Man is?' And they said, 'Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.' He said to them, 'But who do you say that I am?” (Matthew 16:13-15)

Is Jesus exposing them with this first question? What are THEY saying about me? Where they that drawn to what others where saying rather than what Jesus was saying?

Why could those that had been with Jesus the most, seen the most, and experienced the most not answer the question, “Who do you say I am?

How come they watched him minister, saw his motives and heard his message and still didn’t know him?

Is this a picture of the how lonely it is to be in ministry? How people can be so close be never really know you?

HDJF?

All of us remember the craze WWJD “What Would Jesus Do”? I want to put a Gaddis twist to it and call this one HDJF “How Did Jesus Feel”? I believe that one only guesses as to what WWJD if you haven’t investigated HDJF? Have you ever pondered that? I know that we see Jesus as He is as the conquering King but we first must see him as the Suffering Savior. I know we see Him as the Great I Am but we first must see Him as Mary’s little baby. He was all God but Jesus was all Man at the same time. Pastor C. C. Cooper (whom I’ve been thinking about a lot lately) says it as only he could, “Jesus was just as much God as He was man and just as much Man has He was God”.

Some here’s a few question: How did Jesus feel when…

He received NO respect in his own hood?

He was lead to start a ministry with out a church?

He chooses Judas as His betrayer?

The religious leader rejected Him?

Nobody but Peter could answer, “Who do you say I am?”

His disciples slept rather than prayed?

He heard the rooster crowed right after Peter’s denial?

He was lied on, spit on, and beat & made fun of?

He was being falsely accused?

He was being beating to an inch of His life; they put a cross on his shoulders and commanded Him to carry it?

He heard the insults from the very ones He would soon die for?

The weight of the cross causes His knees to buckle?

They nailed His hand that only did good and nailed His feet that only ran errands of mercy?

They lifted the cross and the weight of His body fell on the nails?

The crowd and the thief began to mock him?

He saw the tears in His mother’s eyes.

He saw God turn His back?

His disciple deserted Him?

His disciples didn’t believe Him?

How does He feel about the church of today that He died for, sacrificed for and paid the price for?

How would we every know WWJD if we’ve never asked ourselves HDJF?