Archive for the ‘Worship’ Category
Loud Pipes Save Lives
Loud Pipes Save Lives
Most cars, trucks and SUV drivers who cause motorcycle crashes, claim they never saw the motorcycle at all. Loud pipes help bikers let the other vehicles on the road know they exist. Before the motorcycle is ever seen, it is heard. It’s loud pipes may no doubt help save the rider’s life.
Harley Davidson teaches classes to new riders. My son Bryan took such a class last year. They informed all the students of the importance of loud pipes. Telling them, it just might save their life.
If you believe, as I do, that loud pipes save lives, then maybe you know about loud pipe manufactures like :
- Rhinehart
- Samson Sinisters
- Samsom Street Sweepers
- Thunderheaders
- Pipe Dreamz
- Sideshots
- Bassani
- V&H Bigshots
- V&H Straightshots
These are only a few of the products of companies that specialize in making motorcycles LOUD.
Let me talk about another set of pipes. “A Set Of Pipes” is a figure of speech we use for someone one with a great voice. Especially, if they have a very loud voice.
Dictionary.com’s Slang Dictionary defines:
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“set of pipes”
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The Psalmist said,
Ps 98:4 “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.”
Will loud worship save anyone?
I don’t plan to find out if I can afford to ignore this passage and others just like it. For some reason, God wants our worship to be energetic and very vocal. He wants us to use our set of pipes and sing with a loud voice.
I believe that Loud “Pipes” save lives, even in church! Don’t keep quiet during the worship service. The life you save may be your own.
When The Lady Of The Night Got The Holy Ghost
When The Lady Of The Night Got The Holy Ghost
For many years, I preached annual revivals in a very small West Texas town. The town was so small that after church it was not uncommon for the pastor or saints to drive an hour and a half to Odessa or Midland just to get something to eat.
The pastor was a dear family friend. The church was one that really worshipped and was easy to preach in. They loved the Word and the loved their “Man of God.”
The church had not grown significantly in many years. The little group prayed for revival and worked hard to bring visitors to the revival.
A seventeen-year-old Foster child sought for the Holy Ghost for over an hour every night. He sought fervently and with tears. He had prayed every night of the 4 week Revival.
The last Saturday of the revival, the pastor and I talked about Home Bible Studies. He said, “When I came up in church, we’d never heard of them. I’ve been here for 30 years or so and we’ve never taught any Home Bible Studies. Not only do we not have any material, if we had some, we wouldn’t know how to go about teaching them. Could you teach our people how to teach a Home Bible Study?”
Although I said that I could and would, there wasn’t any material within 100 miles. There also wasn’t any Internet connection to download anything.
I was relieved to find a copy of Bishop Gerald Adam’s ‘Deeper Life’ Home Bible Study in my briefcase. Bro. Adam’s was kind when I called and granted permission for me to make copies of his Bible Study for the occasion.
(The Deeper Life Home Bible Study is now digitized and can be found on the Hopkinsville, KY church website.) http://www.lifetabernaclechurch.org/Life_Tabernacle_Church/Bible_Study.html
I asked the pastor what he thought about me putting a table in front of the pulpit Sunday morning and teaching a Home Bible Study to some one while everyone else watched and followed along with their copy. He agreed and said he would have the table and chairs set up right after the preliminaries.
Standing on the platform Sunday morning I noticed two new visitors. A teenage boy stood on the right side and a 20 something young woman on the left.
For a few minutes after the song service, the church family went around and personally welcomed the visitors and greeted each other.
I noticed the boy seemed very sincere and responsive during the singing, so I went over and welcomed him. The young man smiled warmly when I introduced myself. He told me his name was Billy.
I said, “I’m a visitor here too, Billy. They’ve asked me to teach what they call a ‘Home Bible Study’ this morning. It’s a thing where two people sit at a table and basically just read scriptures from the Bible.
“I really don’t know who to choose to help me out today. But whoever does, doesn’t have to say a word. All they have to do is just act like they are reading the material. Do you think maybe you can help me out today?”
“Sure,” he said.
Later when they introduced me to speak, I explained to the church that I had asked Billy to help me and invited them to make him welcome. They gave him a good round of applause.
Billy and I sat at the small table in front of the pulpit. Each person there was given a copy of the Home Bible Study. I saw the look of sincerity and interest in the young man’s face.
He nodded as I spoke to him. I looked only at him and not at the crowd. We took less than an hour to go through the study.
The organ player began to play softly as we all stood. The table and chairs were removed. I looked to my left where Billy had stood and then I looked down. He was kneeling at the altar. All the others came forward too. Billy received the Holy Ghost in just a few minutes.
I heard shouts go up at the other end of the altar and saw that the young woman was praying and the ladies were rejoicing. She also received the Holy Ghost and excitedly thanked the Lord.
The pastor whispered in my ear, that someone had just told him, this new girl was the town’s hooker. The town’s only hooker. Her name was Sarah.
The saints were ecstatic about what God had done in the service that morning.
Sunday night’s service started. The front doors burst open as the 17-year-old Foster kid entered the church crying and speaking in tongues. He had prayed during the day, and while taking his shower before church had received the Holy Ghost while still in the shower. He was still talking in tongues when he got to church. He couldn’t stop and he was excited. The saints rejoiced. I mean really rejoiced.
Billy and Sarah came back too. The church shouted and ran the aisles. Joy was in the camp.
The front door again opened and an unhappy faced man walked in and sat on the back row. Sarah was too lost in worship to notice that her pimp was there. He watched the worship for a while. Several were uneasy not knowing what would happen.
Testimony service had new life that night. When Sarah got done testifying and thanking the Lord, the guy on the back row got up and walked out shaking his head.
He was officially out of business. Sarah never noticed. She started to dance before the Lord. She had been delivered.
The Night The Blind Lady Ran The Aisles
The Night The Blind Lady Ran The Aisles
The grandfather’s clock struck 12:30am as the CB radio crackled with static and mundane conversation. A female voice called, “Pastor Ballestero?”
I picked up the microphone and responded. The caller was Mary Swift, a blind lady. With a voice choked with tears Mary said, “I really need God. I want to repent. Tell me how to be saved.”
I was ready for bed and completely caught off guard by her interest in God and her request for guidance. I sat down in my Lazy Boy chair and began to answer her questions.
Mary was someone who I mainly knew from Amateur and CB radio. I had heard her voice for several years. None of her family was in church, nor did they seem interested. Mary’s midnight call was a major event in her family.
I carefully explained to Mary about the need for repentance, baptism in Jesus Name and the Holy Ghost speaking with other tongues. I knew that many were listening to our on-the-air Home Bible Study. I read several verses from the book of Acts chapters 2, 8, 10 and 19.
Every time Mary responded, I could detect sniffles and hear the tears in her voice. When I finished, it was about 1 am.
Mary asked, “Can I be baptized tonight?”
“You sure can,” I said, “I’ll meet you at the church at 1:30!”
My wife Marcia and I met Mary and her husband John at the side door. I baptized Mary in Jesus Name and she received the Holy Ghost while still in the water.
That was Wednesday night; it was also our Bible Study night. At church, I stood at the pulpit and announced the wonderful news of our new baby ‘sister’ in Christ.
I looked at Mary. With unseeing eyes, she was beaming with joy. Mary was sitting beside one of the most precious older women in the church who immediately had taken the new blind lady under her wing.
When the church heard the news of Mary’s hunger and midnight conversion, they yelled with excitement and began to run the aisles.
Mary, new to Pentecostal worship and demonstration, asked the older woman beside her, “What are they doing?”
“They are running the aisles,” was the reply.
“Why?” Mary wanted to know.
“Because you got the Holy Ghost.”
“I want to run the aisles too.” Mary said, “Here, take my hand and lead me.”
The older sister beside Mary was always responsive in worship, but was not one to run the aisles. Tonight however, she had no choice. She took Mary by the hand, and together they ran several laps around the church.
For years some had depended on excuses to exempt them from running the aisles. Tonight saw a blind Sister Mary running. They knew they didn’t have any excuses now. They all got up and ran with her.
That was the night every body ran the aisles. The blind led them in praise and rejoicing.
That makes me ask the question, “What are we waiting for?”
Why do we hold our praise and demonstration in reserve?
Are we waiting to feel condemnation before we worship too?
Worship is everybody’s business.
There are no excuses not to praise the Lord.
Mary continued to worship every service and never tired of running the aisles assisted by her friend.
When she told me they were moving south, I shed tears. Her husband wanted to buy a farm down in Arkansas and she had little choice in the matter. John has never gotten in church to my knowledge.
Thank you Sister Mary Swift. Your desire to lead in worship lingers heavy on mind after all these years. What an example you were to us all. Bless you!
Worshippers are the ones you miss the most.
Why Would You Live Your Life Without Benefits?
Why Would You Live Your Life Without Benefits?
Imagine working all your life for a company that gave you a paycheck and nothing else. I mean, nothing else.
- No Vacation,
- No Insurance
- No 401k
- No Sick Days
- No Retirement
- No Continuing Education Courses.
There is not much there to attract a worker of quality. A company that doesn’t care much for it’s employees, is doomed.
No one is thrilled to spend their life working and living without benefits.
Psa. 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.
David said that God loaded us down with benefits every day. Has anyone been noticing what God has been doing for you? He doesn’t let you live for him without benefits.
There are no benefits like the ones God gives His children. Why is anyone willing to live without them in their life?
Benefits Like:
- Forgiveness
- Healing
- Guidance
- Protection
- Provision
- Comfort
- Defense
- Blessings
- Strength
- Daily Needs Met
- Answered Prayers
- Loving Kindness
There is no future in living for the Devil. He pays no benefits. Everyone loses. His pleasure is known to be very temporary, and afterwards very painful.
Psa. 103:2 Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits:
There were so many benefits coming his way that David tried to figure out how to thank the Lord for them. He asked the rhetorical question that we must all answer.
Psa. 116:12 What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?
How do I thank God for His benefits? Just saying thank you doesn’t seem like it is enough.
I Thank Him With My:
- Obedience. Keeping His Commandments
- Submission
- Love
- Separation from the World
- Living A Holy Life Pleasing Unto Him
- Tithe And Offerings
- Praise
- Worship That Is Whole Hearted
What would your life be without the daily blessing and benefits of God? Never stop thanking Him. Never stop looking for ways to let Him know how grateful you are.
Rom. 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Making Melody In Your Heart
Making Melody In Your Heart
Eph. 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
This verse is among the Paul’s final words to the church family in Ephesus. It is cloistered sweetly amid his fatherly farewell.
Paul, in a later epistle admonishes the saints of Philippi to rejoice aloud unto the Lord all the days of our life.
Phil. 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord I: and again I say, Rejoice.
Paul promoted vocal worship in the house of God. But while writing to the good folks in Ephesus, he shows a side of himself, which is most revealing. Paul evidently made a melody in his heart even in his darkest moments.
In those few words, he wrote of the importance of singing on the inside. He encouraged all of us to have a song in our heart, and if there was no song, then to make a song. Make a melody in your heart.
This encouragement came from a man who had been through the worst events that hell could manufacture. But he didn’t stop singing. When he couldn’t sing on the outside, he was doing it on the inside.
- We knew him as a Missionary.
- We love him as a writer.
- We read about him as a preacher.
- But Paul the singer?
- Who knew?
Paul Kept Humming A Song.
2Cor. 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
2Cor. 4:9 Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
Paul Still Kept On Humming.
2Cor. 11:23… in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.
2Cor. 11:24 Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one.
2Cor. 11:25 Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep;
2Cor. 11:26 In journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren;
2Cor. 11:27 In weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
2Cor. 11:28 Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches.
Paul Never Stopped Humming.
No matter what he had been through, he never allowed his circumstances to shut down his inner praise machine.
The story of Paul and Silas perfectly shows how quick Paul was to make melody in his heart unto the Lord. In spite of his pain, he sang.
Even though he had been beaten, his melody maker was still working. Even though he was falsely accused and imprisoned he had a melody going on in his heart.
- It was that melody that caused the earth to shake.
- It was that melody that caused all of the prisoner’s chains to come off.
- It was that melody that opened the prison’s doors for them.
- It’s unimaginable what can come out of having a melody in your heart.
My precious and godly parents sang a song many years ago written by Ira Stanphill. It’s words still echo inside my heart.
You Can have A Song In Your Heart In The Night
Ira Stanphill
1. You can have a melody down in your heart
When it’s aching, almost breaking
Even though the sorrow makes the teardrop start
You can have a melody down in your heart.
CHORUS
You can have a song in your heart in the night,
After every trial, after every mile
Anyone can sing when the sun’s shining bright
But you need a song in your heart at night.
2. Do not let your worries drive your song away,
Though tomorrow brings its sorrow
Just remember after night time comes the day
Do not let your worries drive your song away.
3. Soon the night will pass and morning bring the day
I am longing for its dawning
Until then we’ll labour here and watch and pray
Soon the night will pass and morning bring the day.
No Nutritional Value
No Nutritional Value
The evening camp meeting service was over in Ontario. I stood there talking to three Outfitters and five Hunting Guides. The men were all from Ontario and New Brunswick, Canada. They were talking to me about the moose-hunting story that I had told in my sermon.
After a few minutes, one of the Outfitters said to me, “Brother Ballestero did you know that if you were stranded and had nothing to eat but moose meat, you would eventually starve to death? Even with your stomach full? It has basically, no nutritional value. It’s too lean, besides.”
“No!” I said. “That’s unbelievable! I didn’t know that,”
I stood there in unbelief. Just the thought of having a full stomach and yet not being fed caught me off guard.
While I knew that the old Outfitter was probably not a nutritional expert, there were years worth of practical and sound advice being dispensed here for my benefit. I chose to believe him. That’s what he did for a living. He organized and guided moose hunts. He was a woodsman.
My mind immediately went to the lunch conversation I’d had with Brother Wade Bass. He and I had eaten at the little roadside café in Henrietta, Oklahoma back in July. Because he was fighting cancer, his Doctor had him on a very strict diet. He ordered only a salad for his meal.
“Do you have any ‘Romaine’ lettuce?” He’d asked the waitress.
While she went back to the kitchen to ask, he explained to me that he had to eat a lot of salad on his diet. He said that Iceberg lettuce had basically no nutritional value in it, so that’s why he’d asked for the Romaine.
With these two incidents freeze-framed in my mind, I begin to think about spiritual foods and spiritual diets. Or maybe I should have said, “unspiritual” diets.
How many sit every week in church services and hear sermons, sing songs, and then go home pretty much unchanged? Even though they felt like they were absolutely ‘full’? This type of pill is hard to swallow as a preacher, it is something we need to keep close to our hearts.
Is it possible to get ‘full’ on sermons that don’t say much and never seem to change any lives?
It’s possible, I think, to get full on ‘worship’ services that never touch the heart and are not much more than drum beats accompanied with powerless repetitive phrases.
I pretty much enjoy all kinds of Worship. But if I can’t feel God touching my heart, I know there is no nutritional value involved.
There is a big difference too, between being fed the “finest of the wheat” or having to live on a constant sermon diet of Faith, Blessing and Prosperity.
Am I against those sermon subjects? Not at all! Keep preaching them. We need our faith built and we sure could use some prosperity. But there’s more to the Word than just that. Feed me some ‘doctrine’ and feed me some ‘practical living’ sermons while you’re at it. I need something to feed me, not just fill me.
Thank God if you are blessed to be in a good church where you are not only get full, you get fed!
God Likes It Loud
God Likes It Loud
Job 36:29 Also can any understand the spreadings of the clouds, or the noise of his tabernacle?
Psa 33:3 Sing unto him a new song; play skilfully with a loud noise.
Psa 66:1 Make a joyful noise unto God, all ye lands:
Psa 81:1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
Psa 95:1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
Psa 95:2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
Psa 98:4 Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice, and sing praise.
Psa. 150:1 Praise ye the LORD. Praise God in his sanctuary: praise him in the firmament of his power.
Psa. 150:2 Praise him for his mighty acts: praise him according to his excellent greatness.
Psa. 150:3 Praise him with the sound of the trumpet: praise him with the psaltery and harp.
Psa. 150:4 Praise him with the timbrel and dance: praise him with stringed instruments and organs.
Psa. 150:5 Praise him upon the loud cymbals: praise him upon the high sounding cymbals.
Psa. 150:6 Let every thing that hath breath praise the LORD. Praise ye the LORD.
God likes it loud
15 Things To Do In Church Before You Die
15 Things To Do In Church Before You Die
1. Pray
- Pray till you get the absolute Victory.
- Intercede for a lost or wayward soul.
- Let God use you in the Spirit of Travail
- Pray till the Fire falls.
- Pray someone through to the Holy Ghost.
- Pray before church.
- Pray around the altar after church
2. Sing
- Don’t make the Song Leader beg you to sing.
- Don’t let the Praise Singers do your singing.
- Sing till you cry.
- Sing till you shout.
3. Shout
- Dance in the Spirit
- Leap for Joy
- Lead. Be the first one to shout.
- Run the aisles
4. Believe God
- Believe God for a Healing.
- Trust Him to supply your needs.
- Believe Him for a Miracle and see it come to pass.
5. Get ‘Lost in the Spirit’
- Be taken home drunk in the Holy Ghost
6. Witness
- Teach a Home Bible Study
- Win a soul
7. Say Amen
- Say Amen from your heart. Be willing to Obey.
- Stand to you feet and say Amen
- Say Amen from even if you’re the only one.
- Say Amen even when the Scripture or the Preaching touches a sore spot.
8. Give
- Give your last Dollar, if God impresses you to.
- Become faithful in your tithe and offerings
- Give without expecting anything in return.
9. Read
- Read the Bible through.
- Have a daily Scripture reading.
- Get a Revelation of One God.
10. Testify
- Don’t give some narrative about “he said, and I thought to myself.”
- Just brag on Jesus!
11. Fast
- Fast to crucify your flesh.
12. Love Your Brother and Sister
- Prefer them. Put them first
- Let all jealousy die
13. Refuse To Listen to a Rumor
- Tell the talebearer, “I really don’t want to hear this.”
- Refuse to pass a rumor on.
14. Forgive
- Put all your yesterdays behind you.
- Empty yourself of all Bitterness.
- Be merciful.
15. Get the Pastor’s Heartbeat.
- Try to feel what he feels.
- Work with him for Revival.
- Feel the Spirit of Unity
Now, Let’s Have Some ‘Church’ Around Here!
Is God Ugly?
Is God Ugly?
I don’t mean for this question to sound like it borders on blasphemy. It is important for me not to be flippant or sacrilegious about things that are Divine. With that being said, I will ask the question one more time. Is God ugly?
The Prophet Isaiah makes an amazing prophecy about the coming of the Messiah. He describes him and portrays him in a very uncomplimentary manner.
Is. 53:2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: he hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
Is. 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
When man makes a grand entry, he normally tries to ‘put his best foot forward’. Why then did Jehovah choose to wrap Himself up in human flesh that apparently wasn’t the best He could make?
The mind of man would think, ‘Why He could have gotten more followers if He’s had some ‘great’ looks. People will follow someone that’s easy to look at. That was not how God planned to present Himself.
When God came to earth in the flesh, there was nothing beautiful about Him. I want to talk about that very thing. Look first at the Old Testament.
1. Noah’s Ark – The wood was covered with pitch. It looked ugly on the outside. No one in Noah’s generation outside of his own family was able to get past the ‘Ugly’. They all perished.
2. The Tabernacle In The Wilderness – The outside of the Tabernacle was covered with dyed badger skins. To those that had been there, they KNEW the real beauty was on the INSIDE. It was on the INSIDE that the golden vessels were displayed. It was on the INSIDE that the beautiful Veil hung concealing the Holiest of Holies. INSIDE there was the Shekinah, the Glory of the Lord.
Once the Israelites got past the Ugly, they found the real beauty.
1Pet. 2:6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
1Pet. 2:7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
1Pet. 2:8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
To those that take the time to Know Him and Believe, He is Precious.
- If Living for God is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Worship is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Giving God the Tenth of your income is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Holiness is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If the preaching of Doctrine is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Long Hair on Women and Short Hair on Men are Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Standards are Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Separating yourself from the World is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If the Prayer Room is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
- If Winning Souls is Ugly to you, you just don’t know Him very well.
And the list goes on…
When living for God is longer attractive to you, you don’t really know Him very well. It tells me that you don’t really Believe. It tells me you are Disobedient. (1 Pet 2:7)
Can you get past the Ugly? If you can, He will become Precious to you!
I WILL DANCE
I WILL DANCE
They tell me David danced, though he was a king
They tell me David sang, as loud as he could sing
When Pharaoh’s mighty army, perished in the sea
Miriam took a tambourine, and danced, my Lord, for thee!
And when the wayward son, lost within his sin
Came trudging wearily home, his father took him in
He slew the fattened calf, a feast that some would envy
Within the house there was much joy, they danced, not one, but many!
So when they tell me Jesus, I should be restrained
And I feel this awesome tugging, pulling on my brain
I’ll warn them very quickly, you must clear the way
The Holy Ghost has hit me, and I will dance today!
© Jay L. Zumbrum
In Jesus Precious Name
And for His Glory
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