True Revival

The danger of being a Christian for any length of time, is that church life can become routine with very little expectation of anything new.

It's like taking a teaspoon, dipping it into the ocean and saying, "this is God". Then we pour it over our head and say "this is the Christian experience".
God calls us to dive in the ocean. Prayer is boring when it is merely an attempt to maintain our present level of communion with God.

Let me encourage you to read Psalm 85, it is a prayer for revival.

It's a prayer about asking God to help get you out of your spiritual decline
It is a prayer to get you out of apathy, vs. 6 says "will you not revive us again" and after we are revived, the promise in vs. 12 is to "get ready for a new harvest".

Psalm 85 should make our mouth thirsty for Him, because if it did, Jesus said "come and drink".

Yours for Revival

Pastor Francis

Is God asking you to do more?

In the fall of 2007 I met a boy who changed my life. He was a little boy we found in tears on the street. He had just lost all of his money after working all day and was upset at the prospect of going home to face his father without earnings. Myself and the others with me that day gave him more than enough to double what he had lost – to us, it was just about twenty dollars. To him it meant much more.

That little boy right now is somewhere in Guatemala, probably earning a living for himself and his family the same way he was that day. I haven’t seen him before or since in my several trips to the country. But that day God asked me if I could do more.

More meant opening a children’s home in Villa Nueva, Guatemala, a more rough community than some in Guatemala. We have called it Casa de Alabbanza – “House of Praise”.

In November 2008 we found land to purchase. In April 2009 we began a three year contract to pay off a $200,000.00 USD building that once was a school. This April we will pay the third and final installment of about $70,000.00 CAN (depending on our currency at the time of payment).

Not only will we be finished paying for the building this April, but we believe we will be permitted by the Government to begin taking children into our home. We will begin with just a few, but within a year we could have up to 40, possibly 50, children that right now are living in abusive, neglected and abandoned states.

We have renovated, bought supplies, received donations, brought on Directors (Dan and Ashley Arnoldussen), and are ready for children. But we need your help. We have just 10 weeks before we need to send $70,000.00 CAN. My question to you is this: Is God asking you to do more?

Yours for revival,

Pastor Francis Armstrong

Hope

As I randomly read the news today I noticed several different things.

in one article they were wondering if there was a war on police officers with 11 killed across America in a few days period.

Another article was about the mystery birds falling out of the sky, to find out they were poisoned for being pests.

Another article talks about churches that are going into foreclosure at an alarming rate. And there were many others of the same nature.

It’s not quite a world gone bad; it’s a world gone crazy.

Yet Jesus told us these days would come upon the earth in the book of Matthew. For all the uncertainty in our world, one thing you can count on – Jesus is coming!

So with a world in a free fall, should we, the church, not come out of hiding and tell the world Jesus is their shelter in any storm. That God does love people. That there is hope. It’s time for Christians to show that we are following Christ. In times of trouble we want to follow those who know what to do. Let’s be like the men of Issachar in the Bible, who knew what to do in troubled times.

Yours for revival,

Pastor Francis Armstrong

Turning 50

Some interesting things happened since I last blogged. For one, I turned 50, still getting used to that. I loved my 40’s which were the new 30’s so 50 will be like 40 – you know what I mean LOL. Age is what you make of it. I just want to make sure I am fulfilling my destiny.

Another interesting thing that happened was on December 21 the moon turned red. When Joel spoke of the last days he mentioned this in Acts 2:20:

The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

So to me, turning 50 and having a red moon means Jesus is coming soon. Sooner than we think!

Are you ready? I trust you are.

Yours for revival,

Pastor Francis Armstrong

2010

As we get ready to close out 2010 and enter 2011 some may say, “Praise the Lord! What a terrible year. Can’t wait till it’s over.”, etc. The question I have is, “Whoever said that Divine order would be easy?” It’s like God dropped a plumb line and said, “Now line up.”

So I am thankful for this year. Yes I felt like quitting, weekly sometimes. Yes, it would be easy to run but to where, and when do you stop?

So embrace this year and thank God for it. I bet you grew more than you realize. I would say more things are in order now in your life than early in the year.

So I can’t wait for 2011!

Yours for revival,

Pastor Francis Armstrong

KOINONIA

Fellowship’s a word Christians use for almost everything. Eating – fellowship, walking with someone – fellowship; Tim Horton’s for coffee – fellowship…

A recent look at this word told me we really don’t know a lot about this word.

Acts 2:42 gives us a clue that the early church knew something about it because they were devoted to it.

And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers.

In the Greek (you say “in the Greek” to sound smart) the word for fellowship is Koinonia. It means community, intimate. No wonder we don’t know much about it – very few of us do it biblically.

In a world of me, myself and I – a world of separation, divorce, etc., what do we really know about community or intimacy? Imagine what could happen in churches if we became devoted to fellowship. The Book of Acts tells us the result (of Koinonia) was people being added to the Church daily. Do you know why? We all need and want fellowship, so let’s work at being devoted to it!

Yours for revival,

Pastor Francis Armstrong

HIS PEACE

We have all heard of pressure cookers, but what do you do when you feel you are in one? Athletes feel pressure in the heat of the battle. Children feel it in school. Marriages feel it. Job stress creates it.

Then there is the pressure of others’ expectations. They want you to act a certain way or talk a certain way.

Teenagers feel pressure at school – their peers wanting them to do what they normally never would. Pressure to do things for others.

Religion is like that. Jesus faced it all the time but He lived in peace. He said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you, NOT as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” (John 14:27)

His peace takes the pressure off.

Yours for revival,
Pastor Francis Armstrong