Shootings 12/14/12

First, the events of yesterday are horrific and take my sanity away. I will never understand why this man did what he did. I believe that whatever caused him to do this came from something more terrible than I have ever known. He is dead and rightfully so. I believe that God has judged him rightly; however, the children were innocent without a doubt. Second, the person responsible for this is all of us. This happened because sin has consequences, and people aren’t repenting of their sin and turning to God. You can’t smoke a little weed, drink a little beer, have a little fling, abort a little mistake … without it affecting more than just you. Sin is extremely unfair, but we play with it like it’s a puppy. I have done my share of sin, as we all have. My children have followed down paths of sin that I don’t know how they knew were in my past. My children have paid in some ways for my sins. This wasn’t the parents, kids, or even our faults, but sin has consequences. Third, the farther our nation gets away from God, the more horrific, terror-filled events will unfold. A lot of talk has taken place this year about the end of the world, but is anyone turning back to God before it comes? I don’t have a lot of answers, but I do know that if America would stop thinking that their sin doesn’t have a price; we might have some hope. We may get to choose what sin we commit, but we don’t get to choose how the consequences come. Satan loved what happened yesterday! He loves to see mankind be destroyed and die. The children didn’t deserve this, but if sin continues to reign; you may see more pain and worse situations in our future. God didn’t choose death by sin for us, we did. God doesn’t choose sin for us today, we do. Sin has a powerful after affect, we die. Not just us, but even the innocent get hurt by sin. God had to watch His Son die in innocence and do nothing to stop it. He knows how every parent feels. Fourth, I had to have some sleep before I wrote this, because I was sickened, shocked and disgusted in a way that I didn’t know before yesterday. Today, I have risen with the hope that God will take what this evil man did in sin and use it for good. If we can change as a result of this tragedy, then the lives of those children that we all agree is so precious and priceless will not be lost in vain. Lastly, join me in this prayer, “God, I know that sin has consequences that are awful, but yesterday seemed to be a price too high to pay. My heart is broken for the families of those who have suffered loss. Please comfort them. Please help us all to make sense of this for your good. I ask that you please hear my cries that if my sin was responsible, please know that I want it to end. If anything in my life needs to be confessed or brought to my attention, then please know I’m willing to change. I wish God you would have stopped this, but I trust that You have ways that I don’t understand. Please care for those children who are with you now and let them know that we will love their families and our families more! Please give me the words and actions that will help others come to trust in You before the end of the world comes. I pray for God to bless me, my family, my friends, America, and the world; and for the quick turn of all mankind from sin and its consequences to the best way to live according to Your will.” 
PS – 1. Read Job 3 for your grief; 2. Read Romans 8 for truth in why we need to change; 3. Read John 3:16 and ask Christ to be your Savior (Admit you have sinned, Believe that Jesus died for you to take away your sin, Call on God to take you to heaven and have victory over death as Christ did); 4. Trust in, Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.”
PS – 1. Hug your kids more; 2. Tell them that you love them especially when leaving home; 3. Pray for your kids and with your kids! 4. Be an example for them in all ways that they can follow to God!
True to God,
Tom Davis
Pastor of Effingham Baptist Church Rincon, Georgia

Repost of 11/9/2011 Why is God doing this to me?

Does it ever seem like God is piling it on? I know that it seems that to me sometimes. I have been studying the book Radical by David Platt that we are using for our small group bible study on Sunday nights. Listen to what he says about God piling it on us:

"God actually delights in exalting our inability. He intentionally puts His people in situations where they come face to face with their need for Him. In the process he powerfully demonstrates His ability to provide everything His people need in ways they could have never mustered up our undefined. And in the end He makes much of His own name!"

Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

I hope that today God reveals His strength and power in each of our life's situation!

Pastor Tom Davis

Reprint of 9/16/2011 Great sermon for 9/11 Remembrance

“FOUR REASONS WHY GOD IS SHAKING AMERICA AND THE WORLD” The Wake Up Call Event
Joel C. Rosenberg
September 11, 2011

Thank you. It is an honor to be here tonight -- especially at this critical moment in American history, and in the history of the world.

Thousands of years ago, through the Hebrew Prophet Haggai, God told us what He was going to do -- that He was going to shake us. “For thus says the Lord of hosts, ‘Once more in a little while, I am going to shake
the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations…. I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.’” (Haggai 2:6-7, 21-22)

That’s what Bible prophecy is – an intercept from the mind of the all-knowing, all-seeing God of the universe….a weather report from the future….a storm warning from the future -- not so that we will be afraid, but so
that we will be awake and ready and faithful and walking close to Jesus when the storms come.
·
Do you remember where you were on September 11th, 2001? Do you remember how you felt when you saw the Pentagon burning, the smoldering wreckage in Pennsylvania, the two towers imploding? Not since Pearl Harbor had so many Americans been killed in a single attack – more than 3,000 that day. None of us will ever forget that day -- nor should we.

God didn’t cause 9/11 to happen….fanatics devoted to the false teachings of Radical Islam caused 9/11 to happen….but the True and Living God -- the God of the Bible -- let it happento shake America….to get our attention….to wake us up.

I want to ask you some questions tonight as we reflect on 9/11, as we reflect on the state of our union, and the state of the Church, both here and around the world: On this anniversary of 9/11, are you morally and spiritually better off ten years ago? Is your family? Is your church?

Now is an appropriate time to take a spiritual audit -- to assess how you’re doing morally and spiritually, how your family is doing, how your congregation is doing. Ten years ago, God shook us – the question is: Were we listening?

In the Book of Hebrews we read:“See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, ‘Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven.” Hebrews 12:25-26)

Our Lord Jesus Christ -- sitting with His disciples on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem -- also warned in Matthew 24 that we would be shaken in the last days, those days leading up to Jesus’ return. “The sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the power of the heavens will be shaken,” Jesus said. And then, when men least expect it, Jesus said, “the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory. (Matthew 24:29-30)

America was shaken on 9/11. Today, God is shaking us again.

Nine of the ten costliest – most expensive – hurricanes in American history have happened since 9/11. The worst was Hurricane Katrina which nearly wiped out an American city and ended up costing $108 billion.[i] Hurricane Irene will likely rank in the top five and has made 2011 the worst year in American history for natural disasters, with ten separate catastrophes costing $1 billion or more.[ii] This year, we’ve seen the worst outbreak of tornadoes in nearly half a
century.[iii] The worst fires in the history of Texas – amidst the worst drought in the history of the state.[iv] The
biggest earthquake on the East Coast since 1875.[v] The biggest earthquake in Colorado since 1882.

At the same time, our economy is being shaken to its core.

42,000 American factories have shut down since 9/11.[vi] Fourteen million Americans have lost their jobs just in the past few years. Millions of families have lost their homes. Washington is running up the national credit card to jump start our economy, but it’s not working. Our federal debt is now more than $14 trillion – that’s trillion with a “t.” It’s
hard to imagine so much money. But put it this way: if we were to pay one dollar per second every hour of every day of every month to pay down our national debt, it would take us more than 32,000 years just to pay off $1 trillion – but we
have more than $14 trillion of debt.[vii] No wonder nearly eight-in-ten say America is on the “wrong track.”[viii] No
wonder nearly half of all Americans fear we’re heading for another Great Depression.[ix] People are beginning to wonder if we can turn this thing around, or whether we’re heading towards an economic collapse, an economic
implosion. Sometimes, it feels like we’re out on the middle of a frozen lake and suddenly we begin to hear the ice cracking under our feet. We haven’t plunged down into the icy waters yet, but we’re not sure where to step, or whether we can get back to the safety of the shore. That’s the economy.

But what of the state of our culture?

Since 1973, more than 53 million abortions. More than 53 million children murdered, and there is no end in sight.[x] Pornography revenues today exceed the revenues of ABC, CBS and NBC – combined.[xi] Today the pornography industry is larger than the revenues of Microsoft, Google, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo!, Apple, Netflix and EarthLink – combined.[xii]

Where are the Christians? What difference are we making? The answer is painful too hear. Too many people who say they are Christians are asleep, or distracted, or intoxicated by the world. Like the old country and western song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places,” too many people who say they are Christians have been looking love and meaning and purpose outside of Christ and His love.

George Barna, the Christian pollster and researcher, has just released a fascinating but sobering book entitled, Futurecast, Which I commend to your attention. In it, he devotes consider time to analyzing the state of Christianity in America today, and it is revealing:

85 percent of Americans identify themselves as Christians.[xiii] “84 percent consider it a holy or sacred book” and “the typical American household owns four Bibles”[xiv] Yet only 56 percent believe that “the Bible is accurate and without error.”[xv] Clearly, there’s a disconnect between who we say we are, and what we say we believe, and how we’re living. Barna offers many examples. Let me share just two.

First, there is no statistical difference between the percentage of non-Christians who get divorced (33 percent) and the percentage of “born-again Christians” who get divorced (32 percent).[xvi] Second, only half of all born again Christians say they even try to share the Gospel with even one unsaved person one time – one time – a year.[xvii]

How is this possible? How can we be salt and light to the lost world around us if we are no different than that lost world? How can possibly hope for a spiritual revival or a Third Great Awakening in this land if we are barely all sharing our faith in Jesus Christ with one person a year? Jesus said in Luke 6:46, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?” This is an important question for us tonight.

Yet God isn’t merely shaking America -- the Lord said through the prophet Haggai, “I will shake all the nations.”

Japan is suffering what her Prime Minister calls the worst disaster since World War II – a devastating earthquake, the resulting tsunami, and multiple nuclear meltdowns all at once.[xviii]
Australians have faced devastating flooding this year – one headline read: “Australia Faces Biblical Floods”[xix]
God is shaking the Arab world through revolutions and uprisings. The prophet Haggai said, “I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations.” And sure enough we have see rulers and regimes overthrown and destroyed in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya – and more may be coming.
Russia is suffering the worst drought in 100 years.[xx]
China is currently suffering its worst drought in 200 years.[xxi]
The earthquake in Christchurch last year was the worst in the history of New Zealand and left 1/3 of the city’s buildings facing demolition.[xxii]
Last year, God shook Haiti – the deadliest earthquake in nearly 500 years, and the second deadliest in all of human history.[xxiii]

The question is: Why is God shaking us?

The Bible teaches us that at this stage in history, God is shaking us not to punish us -- though judgment will come. There are, however, four reasons, I believe.

First, God is shaking us because He loves us and He wants us to repent – What is repentance? Some people think of it as a very heavy religious word. But my wife, Lynn, and I have tried to teach our four sons what repentance means in a very simple way. Our youngest is Noah, and so I’ll bring Noah over to my side and say, “Noah,
start running away from me, out of the family room, through the kitchen and to the dinning room. Ready? Go!” So Noah starts running. Then suddenly I say, “Stop, Noah!” And he stops. And I say, “Repent, Noah.” And he turns around. And
I say, “Come back to daddy!” And he comes running to me and jumps up in my arms and I hug him and kiss him. That’s repentance. God is telling to stop, because we’re running in the opposite direction, away from Him. He tells us to repent – to turn around – and to come running back to Him so that He can forgive us and dust us off and restore us. And that’s why He shakes us. He is trying to get us to let go of anything and everything we are holding – every form of ideology, or philosophy, or religious beliefs, or political beliefs, or material possessions – whatever we’re holding onto that we think will give us hope and peace and security other than Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.

Second, God is shaking us because He wants us to realize there is no One else who can satisfy us or give us true peace and security except Jesus Christ – no other water that will quench our spiritual and emotional thirst except His living water, and He wants us to discover Him and draw near to Him and drink the water only Jesus Christ gives us.

Third, God is shaking us because He has a mission for His Church, a mission for each follower of His – good works that He prepared before the world began that we should walk in them – and He doesn’t want us to miss the blessing of serving Him and seeing Him bear fruit through our lives of obedience. I’ve had the opportunity to travel into Iraq four times in recent years. Last year, we were invited to bring a team of pastors and staff from The Joshua Fund to do a pastors conference in northern Iraq, near the province of Ninevah. We have a son named Jonah, and he really wanted to go with me so he could see Ninevah. Lynn and I weren’t so sure about that, but we prayed, and felt God’s peace, so Jonah came with me. But as we were flying in, a big storm came up and prevented our flight from landing in northern Iraq. We were diverted back to Amman, Jordan. There, I texted Lynn and told her what happened and said Jonah and I were disappointed and weren’t sure what was going to happen next. She texted back to say, “Don’t worry. This would be the first time in history that a Jonah wanted to go to Ninevah and God prevented him from going. But I think God is going to actually let you and Jonah get to Ninevah after all.” And she was right.

Now, in the Bible, the Lord gave the Hebrew prophet Jonah a mission -- to take a warning of judgment and the urgency of repentance to the people of Ninevah in modern day northern Iraq, but Jonah refused to listen to the word of the Lord, and tried to run away from the Lord by boarding a ship that was heading for Tarshish, which is modern day southern Spain.

What happened? God began to shake Jonah’s world. We pick up the story in Jonah 1:4-6. “The Lord hurled a great wind on the sea and there was a great storm on the sea so that the ship was about to break up. Then the sailors became afraid and every man cried to his god, and they threw the cargo which was in the ship into the sea to lighten itfor them. But Jonah had gone below into the hold of the ship, lain down and fallen sound asleep. So the captain approached him and said, ‘How is it that you are sleeping? Get up, call on your god. Perhaps your god will be concerned about us so that we will not perish.’”

Jonah -- a man of God, a prophet of God, a teacher of God’s Word -- was on the run from God, and asleep to His voice. How convicting is this: that a pagan ship captain had to shake a teacher of God’s word, and wake him up, and beg him to pray for his salvation?

What about you? What mission has God given you? Are you obeying, or are you on the run from the Lord and asleep to His voice?

There is a fourth reason, too -- the Lord is shaking us because Jesus Christ is coming back soon, and the time to get right with the Lord is running out. How do we know Christ is coming back? Because He said so.

Revelation 22:12 And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.

John 14:1-6, "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. 4 And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. 5 Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way? 6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."

When is Jesus coming back? We don’t know exactly, because He didn’t tell us. Matthew 24:36 But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

But our Lord Jesus did give us signs to watch for that would tell us when His return was near. In Matthew 24, and Luke 21, and Mark 13, and throughout the Scriptures we find lists of signs:

· wars and rumors of wars
· uprisings and revolutions
· earthquakes
· natural disasters
· lawlessness
· false prophets
· false teachers
· false messiahs
· the rise of evil in our cultures previously unimaginable
· persecution of the believers
· betrayal
· apostasy
· … to name just a few.

Jesus said we will experience“birth pangs.” Are we not experiencing all these today? But you say, Joel, when in history have we not had wars and revolutions and earthquakes and apostasy? What makes this period of time
different from all others? The answer is Israel. Bible prophecy makes it crystal clear that in the last days before the Second Coming, the world would witness the miraculous, prophetic rebirth of the State of Israel, Jews coming back to the Holy Land after centuries of exile, Jews rebuilding the ancient ruins, Israel becoming the epicenter of international attention, and growing international hostility and isolation -- and we have seen all this happen in our lifetime.

The prophetic rebirth of Israel on May 14, 1948 -- together with the reunification of Jerusalem under Jewish control in June 1967 -- is what Bible scholars call the “super sign,” the definitive sign that we are truly in what the Bible calls the “last day” before the return of Christ. Throughout the Old Testament, Israel is symbolized as a“fig tree.” Jesus told us
the “parable from the fig tree” in Matthew 24. Matthew 24:32-33, "Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: 33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors."

· We are seeing the signs that will precede Christ’s return.
· We are experiencing the birth pangs that will come before Christ’s return.
· We are being shaken, as prophecy warned, because Jesus wants to wake us up.

We don’t know the day or the hour, but Jesus said we would know the season, and we should be living as though His hand is on the door, ready to come back.

Matthew 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

Matthew 24:43-44, "But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh."
Are you ready to see Jesus face to face? Have you given your life to Jesus Christ? Are you absolutely sure that if you were to die tonight that you would go to heaven? Tonight, you can be certain. Maybe you are already believer --maybe you have given your life to the Lord….but in your heart you know you’re not walking faithfully with Him….you’re drifting….or far away….tonight, God is calling you back to Him….He’s calling you to repent, turn around, come running back into His arms, asking for His forgiveness – for a fresh start, for a righteous and willing spirit. And the
Scriptures tell us, 1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

But to start, we need to wake up. The Hebrew Prophet Joel wrote: Joel 1:5 Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth. Joel 2:1 Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

The Lord Jesus said in the Book of Revelation to the Church in Sardis: Revelation 3:1-3, "And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know
thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead. 2 Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before God. 3 Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast, and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee."

Is that you tonight? Is that your family? Is that your church? Perhaps you have a reputation that you’re spiritually alive
-- but maybe that’s not how Jesus sees you. Maybe He sees you as dead inside. Maybe you’re not obeying Him. Maybe you’re not worshipping Him -- not really -- not with your heart. Maybe you’re not sharing the gospel with family or friends. Maybe you’re not making any disciples. Maybe you’ve never made a single disciple. Maybe you don’t know what it means to make a disciple, even though Jesus commanded, “Go and make disciples of all nations.” Where are you tonight? Are you awake, or asleep? Are you running with Jesus, or are you running from Him, and from the mission He has for your life -- like Jonah?

Ten years ago, Americans got a wake up call. The 9/11 attacks stunned us, and they drove us back to church by the millions. But did it last? George Barna’s research shows that “after the 9/11 attacks, religious activity surged, but within two months, virtually every spiritual indicator available suggested that things were back to pre-attack levels.”[xxiv] In other words, the wake up call came and people jumped out of bed -- but before long, they went back to sleep, back to business as usual.

But look at the list of signs that the Bible says we will see in the last days. Then look at what is happening in our world. Wouldn’t you say the list is being checked off, one by one? I would. Which is why I would this: if you consider yourself a follower of Jesus Christ and you’re planning any major sins in your life right now, can I urge you to postpone those plans, or better yet, cancel them outright. This is not a good time to be goofing around. This is not a good time to be doing something, watching something, listening to something, reading something, spending time with someone or
something for which you would be ashamed when Jesus comes back.

The Apostle John put it this way: 1 John 2:28 And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall
appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming.

Let’s be clear: the Bible tells us that these shakings are going to continue, and get worse, like birth pangs, increasing in frequency and intensity -- contraction and release, contraction and release. Our Father is trying to wake us up before it is too late. Our Lord Jesus Christ is giving us time…..

· to rekindle our first love with Him
· to embrace Him
· to eat of the Bread of Life
· to drink of the living water
· to follow Him no matter what the journey
· to serve Him no matter how high the cost
· to discover His mercies afresh every morning
· to discover that when the world is being shaken, you don’t have to be – not in your heart, not in your soul – because your hope and trust is fully in Him.

Hebrews 12:28 Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

Psalms 16:8 I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Psalms 55:22 Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.

Where are you tonight? Are you ready to meet Jesus face to face?

Getting Started

About a month ago, I was challenged to get involved with more of a presence on the web. I have joined facebook, twitter and now I'm blogging. I want to let all friends and family know that I care about you deeply and plan to share family stories and odd stuff from my brain. If you think that I'm strange already, you have no idea! I hope all is well in your life and/or family and that God has you centered on Him and loving life! I want to challenge you today to start to memorize more scripture. I believe we are living in days where God has never been more important to live for than now! Here is my current memory verse for this week:

Psalms 119:11, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee."

I want you to help me to keep my commitment to memorizing scripture!

Love yall more than you know,
Tom