Pastor's Blog

What Kind of Sheep?

3/31/2022

by: Pastor Lonnie Phillips
The Big question of the day: What kind of Sheep are you?
John 10:27 Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."
When Jesus says, "My Sheep" this involves ownership or what we call today "Lordship". Is Jesus Lord over yours and my life?
If He is Lord then our ears have been opened and we hear His voice call our name. We are intimately known and cared for by Him. Even this very hour scripture reveals that our Shepherd lives to make intercession for us as He sits at the right hand of God the Father.(Hebrews 7:25)
If Jesus is Lord then we are continually setting our hearts and minds to follow him. We cannot follow Jesus if we have not first been born of water and Spirit.(John 3:5) We cannot follow Him if we aren't surrendered to the Holy Spirit's leading today and set on discovering His commands for us through His word.
Life can get busy and even chaotic as we deal with issues in the family or at work. Maybe the issues we deal with are things going on inside of us that no one can see but the Lord.
If Jesus is our Shepherd and we are His sheep then may we live to hear His voice speak into our lives and issues so that He can lead us and we are following Him! He knows the way because He is the Way so may we put our trust in Him today!

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Which Path Are You Walking?

2/8/2022

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by: Pastor Lonnie Phillips
Jeremiah 6:16 Thus says the LORD: "Stand by the roads or crossroads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'
The Good way is not the new and fresh way. It is not the progressive and left way or the Right and conservative way. The way that the Lord calls people to walk in, in order to find rest for their souls, is the Ancient Paths.
Science doesn't give rest for our souls. Technology doesn't give rest for our souls. Religion, in and of itself, doesn't give rest for our souls. Self-Help Books or Power of Positive thinking doesn't give rest for our souls. We are a people more restless and more agitated than ever even as we have made idols out of those things listed above.
The Ancient Paths where we find rest for our souls is only found in the One who is from everlasting to everlasting. He is the One who spoke when there was nothing and it all came into being. He established the heavens and the earth. All of humankind is created by Him and for Him. It is His breath that gives life to the soul. Until we surrender to Him, who was, and is and is to come and walk in His ways we are chasing the wind as we search for rest.
When Jesus says, "I am the Way"(John 14:6). He is the answer to our restlessness. He is the Good Way where there is true rest, eternal rest for our souls. The people of Israel refused to walk in the Ancient Paths. Are we refusing Him or does He have our YES today?

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Father

1/25/2022

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by: Pastor Lonnie Phillips
I remember at around 9 or 10 years old my parents had built a house in Friona, Tx. We had been in our new home for just a few months, when I discovered that my aluminum baseball bat could write on the wall of my new room. I, therefore, proceeded to write in big grey letters my name across my room, right above my bed.
Although I was impressed, not only with the discovery that I could write with my baseball bat but also how incredible of a job I did in writing my name, my dad did not share my enthusiasm. I received, perhaps, one of the most painful whippings I ever received from him. However, before the whipping, he did tell me how much he loved me and that this whipping was going to hurt.
I cried and my bottom and feelings hurt for some time, but I never wrote on my wall again. I had learned the lesson and it came with pain but from my earthly father who loved me and whom I respected.
It is so hard for many to think that God, who is love, would actually discipline us, who belong to Him. There are false teachers and false pastors who teach a love that doesn't involve discipline but only acceptance of whatever behavior one wants to exhibit, as long as no one gets hurt.
Hebrews 12:9-11 "Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Let us praise God the Father who loves us enough to discipline us and call us back to what is right in His sight. May we truly celebrate being His children, bought by the blood of Christ Jesus, our Lord.

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The Great Physician

1/18/2022

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by: Pastor Lonnie Phillips
In the times that we are living, even as we have passed over from 2021 to 2022, sickness and diseases are still very much on peoples minds. There seems to be a lot of sickness, whether it is CV-19, strep, flu or others, that is going around.
After me and my family went through the whole CV-19 in our home, I came to a deeper revelation about how we go through illness, whatever that illness may be.
Scripture does speak of the illness that the prophet Elisha got that led to his passing.(2 Kings 13:14) This indicates that illness does take the life of people, both the righteous and unrighteous, but illness is not to crush the spirit of God's people.
Proverbs 18:14 A man's spirit will endure sickness, but a crushed spirit who can bear? (Prov. 18:14 ESV)
Illnesses can test our faith and resolve. Along with the illness we can experience frustration, doubt, isolation and even feeling disconnected from others and God. We can experience spiritual oppression, which I did through this bout of CV-19.
However, Jesus is the one who can and will lead us through these hard and difficult seasons of life. He is also the one to go to and ask for healing and deliverance whenever we come under illness, oppression or both.
He cares for us as a Shepherd cares for His sheep and will never leave or abandon us in our time of need. He does heal and He does give us strength to endure. May we lean upon Him who is faithful and who conquered both sin and death!
Matthew 8:14-17 And when Jesus entered Peter's house, he saw his mother-in-law lying sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her, and she rose and began to serve him. 16 That evening they brought to him many who were oppressed by demons, and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were sick. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah: "He took our illnesses and bore our diseases." (Matt. 8:14 ESV)

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Breakthrough is Coming!

1/5/2022

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by: Pastor Lonnie Phillips
Have you ever been oppressed spiritually and needed breakthrough?
It is interesting that one of the great spiritual giants in the Bible, Elijah, knew what it was like to be spiritually oppressed. God had just used him to defeat the prophets of Baal and to call the people of Israel to repent. Elijah saw the power of God at work when fire came down from heaven and engulfed the sacrifice that he prepared. (2 Kings 18 and 19)
When King Ahab told his wife, Jezebel, what Elijah had done, she threatened to kill him in the way the prophets of Baal had been killed. Elijah ran for his life.
What caused Elijah to run when he had just witnessed God demonstrate His power? Fear is a great oppressor of our soul and Satan uses fear as a weapon to beat down and paralyze believers in Christ.
What fears could you be carrying today that Christ Jesus wants to free you from?
God did not condemn Elijah when he ran but dispatched an Angel to minister to him. God went about building Elijah up in faith so that he need not fear the Jezebel's in the world that are against what God is doing.
If you are experiencing oppression that has sidelined you for a time, take courage today for Jesus Christ is present to deliver you out of the oppression and to minister strength and courage back into you.
2 Timothy 1:7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

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