"Shortly before dawn Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. " Matthew 14:25
In one of the most most memorable miracles in the Bible, Jesus walks on water after a night of prayer and after sending the disciples out ahead of Him the day before in a boat. When they arose from there slumber to see Jesus walking across the lake, they were not just astonished but terrified that they might be seeing a ghost (what else looks like a man and walks on water?).
And for as amazing as that seems, that is not the greatest part of this story. The truly amazing thing is what comes next, Peter walks on water too!!! (Matthew 14:29)
Now, realizing that Jesus (the word that was at the beginning) knew what this was going to do for Christians everywhere..."If Peter could do it, then so can I" or is that really the case. I have seen many people give up dreams and visions that they have had because of the difficulties they faced to make them happen. The impossible challenges of opening their own business, the big mountain of debt you have to climb to be debt free, the time and money it would take to get the education you want, and so on. And yet with all of those things, we can see the Lord already out there in the middle of the challenge saying to us, "Come"
I GET EXCITED JUST THINKING ABOUT IT!!!!
"I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me" Phillipians 4:13 and I believe that. What we have to be reminded of is that this is not a free ride. God does not give out trophy blessings that just sit on the shelf. Your blessings are meant to accomplish something and take you (or someone else) to a place they have never been in God before. I tell you now the the blessing of a good job is not just for you and your family. The blessing of graduating from college is not just a personal achievement, it is a goal that is a blessing to many. But what if you never tried, or never attempted to accomplish those things? What blessings would be blocked by your unwillingness? That is why you got to try.
Peter walked on water.....Peter walked on water....Peter walked on WATER! That is amazing, that is God! Yes, he got scared. Yes, he started to fall, but Peter walked on water. And you know what, it was not the water that gave him the doubts, it was the wind (Matthew 14:30)
So that means that the challenge itself can not be the thing that keeps us from success, and even the wind itself wasn't what got to Peter. He was distracted from his task and overcome by what he could not see (wind) such that he was overwelmed but his inability to do what he was already doing. BUT...Peter walked on water.
Those in the boat had more faith in the vessel that in the Lord that was in the middle of the water. And many of them saw Peter struggling and that alone solidified their fear to walk on the water. "If he is going to trip over the waves, I'm surely going to sink", i can here them say. I can here us say similar things today as we compare other peoples challenges and setbacks to out yet-to-be-taken path to success. But I can tell you right now that I would rather be tripping on the waves, than standing on the boat.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Monday, September 19, 2011
Moving Higher
Higher Ground Church of God in Christ in St Cloud, MN held services in its new location on Sunday, September 11, 2011. It was a monumental service, a culmination of years of work by the leaders and members of the oldest African American church in central Minnesota. Not only does this move signify the growth of a church, it also marks the first African-American owned sanctuary in the area. Founded in 2001, Higher Ground started in the cafeteria of a local Jr. High School with 6 adult members and 3 children. Today, it is a church that boosts 80 regular attendees and a membership of over 150.
Given that for any church or organization it is difficult to make it through the first 5 years, it serves to note that making it to 10 years is through no small miracle. Many challenges presented themselves but with the help of God there were ways that were made, and opportunities that were taken advantage of. We are proud of our church and the work that we have been able to do for this city and the surrounding areas.
In the upcoming months and years, Higher Ground has no intention on slowing down or even settling for what it has now. Higher Ground has always been more than a name for us, it is our Direction!! No matter where we are we know that we can aim and attain Higher than where were are. So with this we have our goals:
1. Evangelize to the City, State, and Region, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. Have a positive porposeful effect on the communities around us by addressing the greatest needs of the people: Housing, Employment, Transportation, Education.
3. Empower & Encourage our youth to stop the curse of poverty and the circles of destruction
4. Educate & Uplift our adults so that they have the tools to lift themselves up and out of the things that hold them down.
5. Always Praying, Reading the Bible, and going to Church
These have always been a part of the plan that God has had for Higher Ground, but we re-emphasize that plan so that we are able to inspire those new to us and encourage that already a part of us.
I am confident that in these things we can be successful and in many ways we already have been, but the race is not over, and until the Lord calls us home, we have a work to do and Higher Ground is up to the task of doing it.
Higher Ground Strong,
Higher Ground Proud,
Higher Ground, Praise the Lord
Pastor James Alberts
Given that for any church or organization it is difficult to make it through the first 5 years, it serves to note that making it to 10 years is through no small miracle. Many challenges presented themselves but with the help of God there were ways that were made, and opportunities that were taken advantage of. We are proud of our church and the work that we have been able to do for this city and the surrounding areas.
In the upcoming months and years, Higher Ground has no intention on slowing down or even settling for what it has now. Higher Ground has always been more than a name for us, it is our Direction!! No matter where we are we know that we can aim and attain Higher than where were are. So with this we have our goals:
1. Evangelize to the City, State, and Region, the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
2. Have a positive porposeful effect on the communities around us by addressing the greatest needs of the people: Housing, Employment, Transportation, Education.
3. Empower & Encourage our youth to stop the curse of poverty and the circles of destruction
4. Educate & Uplift our adults so that they have the tools to lift themselves up and out of the things that hold them down.
5. Always Praying, Reading the Bible, and going to Church
These have always been a part of the plan that God has had for Higher Ground, but we re-emphasize that plan so that we are able to inspire those new to us and encourage that already a part of us.
I am confident that in these things we can be successful and in many ways we already have been, but the race is not over, and until the Lord calls us home, we have a work to do and Higher Ground is up to the task of doing it.
Higher Ground Strong,
Higher Ground Proud,
Higher Ground, Praise the Lord
Pastor James Alberts
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
Honor the Lord with Everything you got!
Proverbs 3:9-10 states, "Honer the Lord with your possessions, and with the first fruits of your all your increase. So your barns will be filled with plenty, And your vats will overflow with new wine."
Get it? Give to God first and you wont have enough room to hold what will come your way. If you could pay $10 on a bill and you got $100 back, what would you do? So now you got $100 and you pay $10 on that and you get another $100, you now have $190. Because you are blessed you now pay $20 on your bill and you get another $100. You now have $270. You get the point.
The saints would sing this song, "You can't beat God giving, not matter how you try," and according to my numbers, this is right. If you kept this little process going you will have $1000 bucks before you are giving more than the $100 you keep getting. And know God, he has already increased you by then and the blessing comes in an even bigger way.
The best part of this process is seeing the consistency of God. Each and every time you give, He is faithful to give back to you. It is this consistency that keeps Him ahead of us in the giving game. Some days we might not have it, or dont feel like it, or it gets taken from us, or whatever, but God's perfect will is always there and always providing. A paycheck you can count on, now that's God.
Get it? Give to God first and you wont have enough room to hold what will come your way. If you could pay $10 on a bill and you got $100 back, what would you do? So now you got $100 and you pay $10 on that and you get another $100, you now have $190. Because you are blessed you now pay $20 on your bill and you get another $100. You now have $270. You get the point.
The saints would sing this song, "You can't beat God giving, not matter how you try," and according to my numbers, this is right. If you kept this little process going you will have $1000 bucks before you are giving more than the $100 you keep getting. And know God, he has already increased you by then and the blessing comes in an even bigger way.
The best part of this process is seeing the consistency of God. Each and every time you give, He is faithful to give back to you. It is this consistency that keeps Him ahead of us in the giving game. Some days we might not have it, or dont feel like it, or it gets taken from us, or whatever, but God's perfect will is always there and always providing. A paycheck you can count on, now that's God.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
The Breadth, and Length, and Depth, and Height of Ministry
How much do we know about working in the ministry? In review of the few aspects of the ministry of Christ, we have a small sample of works that we are able to reference. In these writings we see the establishment of the ministry as He travels from place to place, bringing his students with Him and using the world as a classroom. We also so Christ sowing the seeds of the church that was to continue once He returned to His Father. If we leave the discussion only to the works of Christ, then we would have a church that would be heavy on evangelism and light just about everywhere else.
Truth is, the foundation of the church was already laid before Christ shows up on the scene. The books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and later those of some of the Major and Minor prophets provide insight into the structure and organization of a stationary church. This is a very interesting point take into consideration, that in order to facilitate ourselves, we have gone to many of the ways of the old church and in some cases forgot about the other dimensions of ministry.
Jesus, among other things, was the Great Example. He provided for us insight not into things that we never saw, but just things that we didn't do as well. Truly we can say that there was evangelism in the old testament, and that there were miracles and prophecies alike. But the apperance of Jesus showed us that we had become too isolated on some of the aspects of God's desires for us to praise Him, and had forsaken many others. To counter that, Jesus starts from scratch and sets the standard for us to be able to follow.
We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, or we will fall!
So to as the church, we must be able to preach and teach as well as evangelize at the same time, or we will fall. It is not OK just sit inside the walls of the church and expect the sinner to "seek us out". That's like saying that the wheat harvest will come knock on the farmers door in the morning and say, "We are here to be collected." NO! We have a work to do and some have realize that we must present the WHOLE ministry to the world in order that we win the WHOLE world.
Truth is, the foundation of the church was already laid before Christ shows up on the scene. The books of Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and later those of some of the Major and Minor prophets provide insight into the structure and organization of a stationary church. This is a very interesting point take into consideration, that in order to facilitate ourselves, we have gone to many of the ways of the old church and in some cases forgot about the other dimensions of ministry.
Jesus, among other things, was the Great Example. He provided for us insight not into things that we never saw, but just things that we didn't do as well. Truly we can say that there was evangelism in the old testament, and that there were miracles and prophecies alike. But the apperance of Jesus showed us that we had become too isolated on some of the aspects of God's desires for us to praise Him, and had forsaken many others. To counter that, Jesus starts from scratch and sets the standard for us to be able to follow.
We have to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time, or we will fall!
So to as the church, we must be able to preach and teach as well as evangelize at the same time, or we will fall. It is not OK just sit inside the walls of the church and expect the sinner to "seek us out". That's like saying that the wheat harvest will come knock on the farmers door in the morning and say, "We are here to be collected." NO! We have a work to do and some have realize that we must present the WHOLE ministry to the world in order that we win the WHOLE world.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Why are we fasting...
Fasting is to be done with a purposeful heart. If there is a point to your praise and point to your worship, then there HAS to be a point to your suffering as well
For forgiveness…
Daniel 9:13-19
The children of Israel had once again gotten themselves in trouble and now is was incumbent upon the man of God to beseech the Lord on their behalf and as God forgiveness.
As we fast today, we are reminded that we are first and foremost not worthy to go before the Lord and ask him for anything, that we must ask God for the forgiveness of our sins AND for the sins of those of use around us. Daniel could have stopped his prayers with just himself, but he knew that is was not just about himself.
For understanding…
Daniel 10:1-9
Daniel was shown something that he did not understand, and he has not yet been given the revelation of what it meant. So in order to gain that understanding, he went into fasting and prayer because HE KNEW that fasting would give more power to his spirit and allow him access to God in a way that he did not ordinarily have.
There is a revelation coming through your fasting about your life and it is not too late. You can still get on this train of understanding because we have not reached the time where the train has reach its destination. If you haven’t been fasting, you can start today to receive a little but of understanding.
For Power…
Luke 15:11-19
Shifting gears, we come to this story because I wanted us to look at a fast that GOD set into motion, not necessarily one that the person themselves put into place. The Prodigal Son, thought he had power, love, and a sound mind away from the power source.
He didn’t think he needed to work hard along side his brother in order to receive want “belonged” to him. So he decided in himself that he would take his money and leave.
But…. The world drained him of his power and now away from his real power source, HIS Father, he had no way of replenishing his supply. He no way of rejuvenating himself, so God put him on a forced fast.
See when you run out of money to buy food, God will put you on a forced fast, and now that he was sitting in front of a slop pin, the bible tells us in verse 17 of Luke 15 that he came to his senses.
You r fasting will bring you to your senses. You will be able to smell what you couldn’t smell before, you will be able to hear what you aint never heard before, and it is in that moment that you will realize what the real source of your energy comes from. Where your real power comes from and mine comes for God.
For forgiveness…
Daniel 9:13-19
The children of Israel had once again gotten themselves in trouble and now is was incumbent upon the man of God to beseech the Lord on their behalf and as God forgiveness.
As we fast today, we are reminded that we are first and foremost not worthy to go before the Lord and ask him for anything, that we must ask God for the forgiveness of our sins AND for the sins of those of use around us. Daniel could have stopped his prayers with just himself, but he knew that is was not just about himself.
For understanding…
Daniel 10:1-9
Daniel was shown something that he did not understand, and he has not yet been given the revelation of what it meant. So in order to gain that understanding, he went into fasting and prayer because HE KNEW that fasting would give more power to his spirit and allow him access to God in a way that he did not ordinarily have.
There is a revelation coming through your fasting about your life and it is not too late. You can still get on this train of understanding because we have not reached the time where the train has reach its destination. If you haven’t been fasting, you can start today to receive a little but of understanding.
For Power…
Luke 15:11-19
Shifting gears, we come to this story because I wanted us to look at a fast that GOD set into motion, not necessarily one that the person themselves put into place. The Prodigal Son, thought he had power, love, and a sound mind away from the power source.
He didn’t think he needed to work hard along side his brother in order to receive want “belonged” to him. So he decided in himself that he would take his money and leave.
But…. The world drained him of his power and now away from his real power source, HIS Father, he had no way of replenishing his supply. He no way of rejuvenating himself, so God put him on a forced fast.
See when you run out of money to buy food, God will put you on a forced fast, and now that he was sitting in front of a slop pin, the bible tells us in verse 17 of Luke 15 that he came to his senses.
You r fasting will bring you to your senses. You will be able to smell what you couldn’t smell before, you will be able to hear what you aint never heard before, and it is in that moment that you will realize what the real source of your energy comes from. Where your real power comes from and mine comes for God.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Evangelism vs Soul Winning
What is evangelism? What is soul winning?
Do you know the difference, or is there one? There are schools of though that actually say that these are one in the same. But I would actually say that this is very far from the truth.
Evangelism is the preaching or activity of spreading the Gospel while soul wining is a subset of the evangelistic experience. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus selected his disciples and in that process brought them into acceptance that He was indeed the Christ. He one their soul first, then he began to evangelize to them. A process that took some three years and even then it did not fully win over all of them (think Judas).
Soul winning is the sharing of the message of Jesus Christ for the purpose of saving one's soul. "Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins? Do you believe that he hung, bled, died, and rose again on the 3rd day?" These non-trivial questions are the hallmark of the soul-winning experience and lay the ground work that the Holy Ghost to enter into the heart of the sinner so that they may be saved. Is this evangelism?
I think there are correlations that between these two but when compared side by side, where soul winning stops, evangelism is just getting started. In his best selling book, "The Master Plan of Evangelism", Robert Coleman points out some eight crucial processes of evangelism that Jesus employed to not only save the men he called, but to prepare them to be disciples and later apostles and preachers. Jesus poured into these men a part of himself each and every day of the course of years and when he was gone, they had a really good idea of what to do because they could answer the axiom, "What Would Jesus Do?" They were with him long enough to know the answer to that question.
My concern in this day in age is that we don't confuse the work of an evangelist with that of a soul winner or vice-versa. Evangelism takes time but done correctly can leave the lasting effect that I think we are really looking for in the people that we are ministering to.
Do you know the difference, or is there one? There are schools of though that actually say that these are one in the same. But I would actually say that this is very far from the truth.
Evangelism is the preaching or activity of spreading the Gospel while soul wining is a subset of the evangelistic experience. At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus selected his disciples and in that process brought them into acceptance that He was indeed the Christ. He one their soul first, then he began to evangelize to them. A process that took some three years and even then it did not fully win over all of them (think Judas).
Soul winning is the sharing of the message of Jesus Christ for the purpose of saving one's soul. "Do you believe Jesus died on the cross for your sins? Do you believe that he hung, bled, died, and rose again on the 3rd day?" These non-trivial questions are the hallmark of the soul-winning experience and lay the ground work that the Holy Ghost to enter into the heart of the sinner so that they may be saved. Is this evangelism?
I think there are correlations that between these two but when compared side by side, where soul winning stops, evangelism is just getting started. In his best selling book, "The Master Plan of Evangelism", Robert Coleman points out some eight crucial processes of evangelism that Jesus employed to not only save the men he called, but to prepare them to be disciples and later apostles and preachers. Jesus poured into these men a part of himself each and every day of the course of years and when he was gone, they had a really good idea of what to do because they could answer the axiom, "What Would Jesus Do?" They were with him long enough to know the answer to that question.
My concern in this day in age is that we don't confuse the work of an evangelist with that of a soul winner or vice-versa. Evangelism takes time but done correctly can leave the lasting effect that I think we are really looking for in the people that we are ministering to.
Monday, April 18, 2011
We have arrived.....
Greetings and salutations in the name of the Jesus!
Welcome to the electronic home of Pastor James Alberts II (blogging). In the coming days and weeks, I will be uploading and writing about various subjects and topics of our day in age. In many cases these will be about and because of my religious perspective on the world in which we live and operate. HOWEVER, i will promise you that from time to time there shall be times when the posts will be abstract, even detached, from the world of religion as you may have come to know it. I aim to shock, just as much I as aim to educate any an all that read and partake of my ramblings. I hope that we can take this journey together and grow with to a Higher Understanding of all things around us....
Welcome to the electronic home of Pastor James Alberts II (blogging). In the coming days and weeks, I will be uploading and writing about various subjects and topics of our day in age. In many cases these will be about and because of my religious perspective on the world in which we live and operate. HOWEVER, i will promise you that from time to time there shall be times when the posts will be abstract, even detached, from the world of religion as you may have come to know it. I aim to shock, just as much I as aim to educate any an all that read and partake of my ramblings. I hope that we can take this journey together and grow with to a Higher Understanding of all things around us....
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