Have Some Faith!

Faith, the Bible states, is the substance of things that one hopes for; it is the evidence of things unseen!

I don't think there is a more powerful phrasing of the definition of faith than that! When I think of faith, I think of the invisible being visible in the area of dreams and imagination. It is the formation of the uncreated in the consciousness of the person who hopes to bring those things that are not to existence. Every builder builds in faith - he builds in hopes to complete his plans the way he planned it. Every entreprenuer raises his pen in faith, hoping to bring dreams into reality. Faith is the substance - it is the house when the architect is just looking at the lot. Faith is the substance - it is the bustling of customers for the woman who is just looking at property for her new business. Faith is the job when one has just been recently fired. Faith makes men and women from all walks of life pursue dreams, chase opportunities, and embrace strangers in hope of fulfillment, success, and friendships.

Faith is also evidence. What I see in my spirit or in my mind is witnessed by faith. In the court of hope, when situations look grim and dark, faith is the key evidence that bears witness that the sun will shine and the rains will cease. Behind every great thinker, there is someone that believes he/she is crazy. Before society stamps honor to men/women who have done things that have never been done before, society considers these group of people as odd or "off". Faith in man states, "I know what I'm after because I have seen it already even if it has never been seen before."

So what does that have to do with those of us that are in the midst of struggle? Well, have faith!

"How?" one may ask.

Well faith, the idea of believing without seeing, I believe, is one of the greatest ascent of the mind. Man! A person has to be able to look past current situations, market stipulations, and one's own fear of failure to elevate to the realm of faith that moves mountains. The mind must be thoroughly convinced no matter what the senses are feeding it about the fulfillment of what it believes is able to achieve. So, to have faith then is to ascend into the heights of the spirit where the natural is outwieghed by the supernatural and the visible is brought to question by the invisble. (That's why a complete surrender to God is the ultimate expression of faith because the Invisible takes greater precedence than the visible.) To achieve faith then is to defeat doubt - meaning, it is to accept the reality of the unseen. When we lose a job the natural tendency is to worry, fear, and succumb to the feelings of defeat. Faith states that worry, fear, and feelings of defeat are real, BUT what is happening now is not what necessarily will be tomorrow. In fact, in faith, what will happen tomorrow, is going to be greater that what had happened today or yesterday.

Hope unfulfilled is exhausting and frustrating. Imagine hoping and hoping everyday for a miracle and the miracle does not happen. Hopelessness is the result of prolonged hope that has met dead-ends at every corner. Faith is not hoping against reality. Faith is the acceptance of reality with an understanding that those things that are real does not change the things that can be. Meaning, if the doctor has come to you and told you you have an incurable illness, faith understands that's reality. But what faith then does is, despite of the reality - the prognosis of the incurable disease - it does not change the fact that others have beat death before. Others have recieved healing before; men and women have had fulfilling lives despite a such prognosis. Faith understands that a diagnosis of pending death or hurt is not lethal until I allow it to kill my mind of dreams and hope. Faith is at times hoping against hope. Choosing life for death, joy for sorrow, happiness for sadness, and living instead of giving up!

A man by the name of Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with prostate cancer. His mind, filled with faith, accepted reality but determined to live surreally. By fighting the cancer, he was able to rise above the statistics into a national hero. Since Lance Armstrong had already done what others have thought was impossible, winning 7 straight Tour de France, fighting in faith for a recovery and remission is already in his DNA.

This is what I suggest: Live life in faith so that faith gets intertwined into your DNA. See the invisble! Do the impossible! Think above your circumstance! Live with your destiny in mind! Act as though you have been where you're going!

We bless you in Jesus Name!

Pastor L. Jones Ayudtud

Let's Pray!

So everyday we are endeavoring to pray morning, noon, and night - a pattern reflective of Daniel's prayer life.

Daniel was a prophet of God stuck in a country that was not his own, separated from his family, and was in the company of idol worshippers. Daniel was in captivity! He was were he did not want to be but Daniel made the best of it. In fact, despite of his situation, he prospered in the land of Babylon because he knew how to get a hold of God. Daniel stood up against the paganism of the Babylonian King and prayed despite being under the threat of death. Daniel stayed a night in a lion's den and came out the morning after victorious over his enemies! Daniel was bold, passionate, and favored because he connected with God at least three times a day. Daniel was a steemed magistrate in a strange land because of the wisdom God bestowed on him. What an amazing Bible character Daniel was! Not only did he experience all the above mentioned, Daniel also recieved visions from God concerning the future including the death of the Messiah - Jesus and the rapture of the saints in the end times!

Fantastic!

We don't know the extent of the knowledge of Daniel. We don't know the scope of his natural talent. We don't know his pedigree. We don't know if he had a familial propensity for greatness. We don't know alot of Daniel's background history, but what we do know is that he knew how to pray.

Sometimes we depend on our physical and mental abilities to bring us through our life's situations. We focus on what we can do and what we think we are able to do. We can rely on our resources such as our careers, our jobs, and our wages to pull us out of tight spots. We strive to make sure that we are able by ourselves to make it through. What happens? When our resources does not meet our needs, frustration can come. If we continue to pursue the answers for our situation through our own powers, we can find ourselves more and more frustrated as we find out that alot of what we think we're able to do sometimes do not meet the need at hand. If we are not careful, frustration can lead to hopelessness!

So what do we do?

Connecting to God is the key to perpetual hopefulness. When we are connected to God, there may be times where we do not get what we feel like we should but we later find out that God has everything working together for our good. Connecting to God enables us to not be so entrusting with our own abilities thus preventing ourselves from feelings of frustration and hopelessness. If we can rely on God as we exercise our God given abilities, even if our talents are not enough, we'll find ourselves less stressed since our reliance is not our resources, but on God's resources; we're we fail, He steps in!

Prayer is the connecting point to God. Learning how to trust and lean on God is the outcome of prayer. God answers prayer - but equally important is - prayer changes our attitude about our situations. When we pray for our needs, we release our self-reliance into God-reliance. Prayer has a natural element of surrender and humility. It's very difficult to pray for God to answer or meet our needs without inherently confessing, even without speaking it out, that we are in need of Him. Yes, God hears our prayers and it affects God because God is stirred by prayer (along with praise), but the affect of a heartfelt prayer works on our spirit and our mindset. The praying person learns, as he/she prays, to trust in God.

Daniel's prayer life raised him to be a man of favor. Daniel's connection to God enabled him to withstand his time of captivity. Daniel's prayer life made him a prosperous man and an esteemed man in Babylon! Like Daniel, we can recieve favor, perseverence, prosperity and esteem if we would take the time to pray like Daniel.

Last words ...

Just so I don't get mistaken ... yes, the very act of praying changes us, but, remember, it is the answering God that makes the true difference in prayer. Some of us may lose our jobs, possesions, and money - but God does not lose anything. What we lose, God can find!

We bless you in Jesus Name!

It's Just A Matter of Time.

The first day of the 50 days began on Sunday morning. As the United States celebrates the hopping of bunnies and the painting of eggs, the Church celebrates and commemorates the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Nothing in history has been so world-changing as the life, the death, and the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. No sentinel event can even come close to the change that Jesus brought to the world then and even now.

There are many things we can learn from the gospel story. One of them is that it's just a matter of time until a crucifixion becomes a resurrection. It took but three days to see the most gruesome death of Jesus Christ turn to the most glorious comeback story in history. Imagine: Jesus was beaten, played before a crowd of death-mongers, spit on, made to carry a wooden plank, and then nailed to a cross to die. Everywhere around him people were either whispering to each other about how wrong He was, betting one another for some memorabilia of the downfall of this great Rabbi, or just somewhere in a corner regretting that they backstabbed Him. Days before His great humiliation, all of Jerusalem were on their feet receiving Jesus as the King. Young and old were shouting, “Hosanna in the highest!” People took palms and made a path for the King! In just a matter of days, the great Superstar of the time had become the laughing stock of all Jerusalem! But three days later, Sunday came! A huge stone was rolled away, an angel proclaimed His victory over death and the grave, and He eats with His disciples again. Most of us would have just stayed up on that cross and died! In fact, some of us would have been glad we died. After having such a great streak of success and fame, some of us would have refused to rise from such a degrading demise.

I recently read a story of a man who used to make $750,000 a year. He had a mansion for a house, luxury cars, and a year round schedule that boast of vacations and lavish visits to five star restaurants. Because of some personal choices and the economic state of the country, he lost everything. On the interview, the man and his family were about 7 months behind on their mortgage, the cars had to be returned, and he spent his working hours delivering pizzas! What so fascinating about this story is that the man never took his life, did not run from the shame, and didn’t seem to be in a depressed state. From the story, one can tell that the man had a resurrection in mind!

What I want to offer this week is: think of YOUR own resurrection. Yes, things are difficult, the bills still need to be paid, and there seem to be no hope in sight! But if we can learn anything from our Lord Jesus is that, don’t let yourself be kept up on your cross! Bury your demise and your shame. Wait on the perfect timing of God. Expect a resurrection! Don’t stay hanging on the cross. Don’t stay in the tombs of your disappointment. Don’t stay wrapped up by what could have been. Learn to trust in the promise of God that it’s just a matter of time! We need to muster the tenacity, the guts and the courage to wait for the upswing of our downturn.

Jesus could have died and stayed dead in the grave. What made Christianity become what it is today was not the death of Jesus, it was His resurrection! As Paul the Apostle declared in his epistle, "And if Christ wasn't raised, then all you're doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever. It's even worse for those who died hoping in Christ and resurrection, because they're already in their graves. If all we get out of Christ is a little inspiration for a few short years, we're a pretty sorry lot. But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries." (1 Cor 15:17-20 Message Bible)

Community Flyers for 50 Days of hope

Why are we doing this?

Thank you for your visit to our site. It's about 4am here in New York as I write. I'm normally asleep at this time as you can imagine, but I can't go back to sleep, at least not now.

A few months ago a few members of our church, Worship and Praise Community Church, went to a conference in Conn. During one of the services, one of the preachers spoke of something that at this present time I don't even remember. All I know was that after it was spoken, I felt the Lord speak to my spirit about "days of prayer". I quickly scanned through my mind if there were any days of the year that I can do something like this at our church (though at that time I felt a need to let the whole congregation know it, but God did not release me to tell). The church had just recently completed a 21 days fast at the onset of the new year, we were well on our way with GB365 (a yearly Bible reading group), and the church was poised for a new, but another lasting thing. As I thought on the 40 days of prayer concept, I remembered what my sister told me after we finished our 21 days fast: "We should do more things like this, only let's put some action to it." So I wrote done on a receipt paper, "40 days of prayer, faith and action".

While the service was going on, I continued to think about when I can implement this program churchwide back home in Staten Island. I suddenly came to a realization that the best time to do something like this would be right after Easter Sunday. Thinking about the current state of the world with the economy going crazy, with increasing numbers of murder - suicide by parents who had lost their jobs tragically ending thier lives because of lost hope, I knew that God had given me this idea. I also thought about the need for every member of the church to have a sustainable prayer life that consisted of daily devotion and commitment to a life of prayer so I knew that if we are to make a change in our habit of prayer, this new "program" must run a lenght of time. 40 days just sounded right, but it did not feel right. Thinking about Easter Sunday, a time where Christians globally mark the ressurection of Christ - this would be a great time to begin, but when do we complete it? 40 days does not feel conclusive. Then I felt the Spirit of God direct me to the Day of Pentecost where the Holy Ghost was initially poured out! I thought, "That's 50 days after Jesus' ressurection". For 40 days Jesus ministered to His disciples showing, by infallible proofs, that indeed He was risen and that He is Lord! After His ascension, the disciples spent 10 days waiting for the outpouring of the Holy Ghost - at last, "50 days of prayer, faith, and action!"

So why?

In all honesty, members of our church are currently feeling the effects of this economy. We have brethren who can't seem to find a job no matter how hard they search. The news is almost always filled with stories of millions who have lost their jobs, countless more who have lost possesions, and an increasing number of tragic losses of lives from individuals who have lost hope. In these uncertain times, people need to learn how to pray. The Bible leads me to pray. There is a passage in the Scriptures that states, "If my people, which are called by My Name, shall humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I here from heaven, and forgive their sins, and heal their land." This passage is a directive from God. If there is going to be sustainable hope - transforming hope - then it must come from God. The government is doing the best it can with the resources it has, but it's just getting crazier and scarier. If there is anyone that can fix the problem that we have now, it will be only the Hand and the Help of God.

Trusting in God and learning to lean on Him is "Sustainable Hope." But, as believers in the providence of God, we can not just sit idly by and watch people in and around our communities - yes, even in our very own families and churches - start to manifest hopelessness and not do anything. The Apostle James, in his letter to the church as a whole, tell us that we must do more than just have faith. He wrote, "Faith without works is dead, being alone." In order for our communities to have transforming hope, we, as the church - the representatives of Jesus Christ, must do something. The book of Acts is filled with believers helping other believers as well as their communities in crisis. We are in crisis. We need to rise to meet the challenge.

So for the next 50 days, approximately 7 weeks, we will pray for our nation, our state, our city, our boroughs, our community, our neighborhood, our friends, our family, and ourselves. But not only will we pray, we will encourage others to pray also. We will invite them to our homes for community and neighborhood prayer meetings. We will invite our co-workers to meet us somewhere in our places of work during times appointed, to pray for each other's communities. We will seek to do good daily to someone else. We will take at least $1 per day and set it aside for someone else who may be in need. We will look to supplement lost wages with these givings. Imagine if 100 people would give but $1 per day for the next 50 days, that would total $5000 dollars. If $50 gift card is given to a family of 3 or greater for food, that would be 100 families. Think about it. Then let me know what you think.

This blog will be dedicated to those who need a word of encouragement. For the next 7 weeks - and possibly even longer - we will blog on a weekly basis, every Tuesday, a word of encouragement, wisdom, and sound advice. Turn to this blog weekly for yourself and lead someone else to read this blog as well. You never know, someone's life may be depending on it.

We bless you in Jesus Name! Thanks again for reading.

Pastor L. Jones Ayudtud