The boy bundled up in his warmest and driest clothes and said, “OK dad, I’m ready.” His Pastor dad asked, “Ready for what?” “Dad, it’s time we gather our tracts together and go out.” Dad responded, “Son, it’s very cold outside and it’s pouring down rain.” The boy gave his dad a surprised look, and asked, “But dad, aren’t people still going to Hell, even though it’s raining?” Dad answered, “Son, I am not going out in this weather.”

Despondently the boy asked, “Dad, can I go—please?” His father hesitated for a moment then said, “Son, you can go. Here’s the tracts; be careful, son.” “ Thanks, Dad!!!” And with that he was off and out into the rain. This 11-year old boy walked the streets of the town going door to door and handed everybody he met in the street a gospel tract. After 2 hours of walking in the rain he was soaking bone chilled wet and down to his VERY LAST TRACT. He stopped on a corner and looked for someone to hand a tract to but the streets were totally deserted.

Then he turned toward the first home he saw and started up the sidewalk to the front door and rang the doorbell. He rang the bell—but nobody answered. He rang it again and again but still no one answered. He waited but still no answer. Finally this 11-year old trooper turned to leave but something stopped him.

Again, he turned to the door and rang the bell and knocked loudly on the door with his fist. He waited, something holding him there on the front porch. He rang again, and this time the door slowly opened. Standing in the doorway was a very sad looking elderly lady. She softly asked, “What can I do for you son?” With radiant eyes and a smile that lit up her world this little boy said, “Ma’am, I’m sorry if I disturbed you, but I just want to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU, and I came to give you my very last gospel tract which will tell you all about JESUS and His great LOVE.”

With that he handed her his last tract, and turned to leave. She called to him as he departed, “Thank you son! And God bless you!”

Well, the following Sunday morning in church, Pastor Dad was in the pulpit and as the service began he asked, “Does anybody have a testimony or want to say anything?” Slowly, in the back row of the church, an elderly lady stood to her feet. As she began to speak, a look of glorious radiance came from her face as she said, “None of you in this church know me. I’ve never been here before. You see, before last Sunday I was not a Christian.”

“My husband had passed on some time ago, leaving me totally alone in this world. Last Sunday, being a particularly cold and rainy day, it was even more so in my heart as I came to the end of the line, where I no longer had any hope or will to live. So I took a rope and a chair and ascended the stairway into the attic of my home. I fastened the rope securely to a rafter in the roof then stood on the chair and fastened the other end of the rope around my neck. Standing on that chair, so lonely and brokenhearted, I was about to leap off when suddenly the loud ringing of my doorbell downstairs startled me.”

“I thought, ‘I’ll wait a minute and whoever it is will go away.’ I waited and waited, but the ringing doorbell seemed to get louder and more insistent and then the person ringing also started knocking loudly. I thought to myself, again, ‘Who on earth could this be?’ Nobody ever rings my bell or comes to see me.”

“I loosened the rope from my neck and started for the front door, all the while the bell rang louder and louder. When I opened the door and looked I could hardly believe my eyes, for there on my front porch was the most radiant and angelic little boy I had ever seen in my life. His SMILE, oh, I could never describe it to you!!! And the words that came from his mouth caused my heart, that had long been dead, TO LEAP WITH JOY as he exclaimed with cherub like voice, ‘Ma’am, I just came to tell you that JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.’ Then he gave me this gospel tract that I now hold in my hand.”

“As the little angel disappeared back out into the cold and rain, I closed my door and read slowly every word of this gospel tract.”

“Then I went up to my attic to get my rope and chair. I wouldn’t be needing them any more. You see, I am now a happy child of the King and since the address of your church was on the back of this gospel tract I have come here to personally say THANK YOU TO GOD’S LITTLE CHILD WHO CAME JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME; and BY SO DOING, SPARED MY SOUL FROM ETERNITY IN HELL.”

There were now no dry eyes in the church. And as shouts of praise and honor to the King resounded off the very rafters of the building, Pastor Dad descended from the pulpit to the front pew where the little boy was seated; he took him in his arms and sobbed uncontrollably. Probably no church has had a more glorious moment.

AND this universe has never seen a papa that was more filled with love and honor for his son – EXCEPT for one – this Father also allowed His Son to go out into a cold and dark world. He received His Son back with joy unspeakable, and as all of heaven shouted praises and honor to the King, The Father sat His beloved Son on a throne far above all principality and power…and every name that is named.

There may be someone reading this, who is also going through a dark, cold, lonely time in your soul. You may be a Christian, for we are not without problems, OR you may not yet know the King. Whatever the case and whatever the problem or situation you find yourself in and no matter how DARK it may seem, I want you to know that I just came to tell you – JESUS REALLY DOES LOVE YOU.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Faith has the answers;
you need only ask for them.

“Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God.”
Romans 10:17

God has helped solve
the problems of mankind
all through the ages.
Trust Him with yours.

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of the newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. “I’ve gone for 30 years now,” he wrote, “and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can’t remember a single one of them. So I think I’m wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.”

This started a real controversy in the “Letters to the Editor” column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher: “I’ve been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this: They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!”

When you are DOWN to nothing . . . God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

Overwhelming darkness surrounded my soul,
Clouding my mind, smothering me,
I was losing control.
But out of darkness Jesus called me
Into His wonderful light.
Now I do not fear,
When the darkness is here
I know He’s shining on me

The Son of God is shining on me
Even if I cannot see behind this great cloud
I still believe
The Son of God is shining on me
Now I do not fear
I know Jesus is here

© 1996 Mary Etta Mohan

In January 1996, I was driving on a dark, cloudy day. I heard this voice telling me to end my life. Discouragement had gripped my soul. I had lost reason with reality. My life wasn’t as bad as my mind was telling me but I couldn’t get things into perspective. I am a Christian, this couldn’t be happening to me. Looking up into the dark sky I remember thinking, “I can’t do this to my children, they will have to live with the pain of this the rest of their lives. God, are You there? You’ve got to help me.”

In a flash, a tiny rim of sunshine peaked out only for a moment and encircled the clouds. Then God spoke to my broken heart “The sun is shining for you even when you cannot see.” That’s what faith is. Faith is believing even when I cannot see. I started singing, “The Son of God is shining, shining on me.” For the rest of my trip I sang these two lines and the darkness left. The darkness in my mind lifted right then. Things around me didn’t change but I was different. I wrote the rest of the song that day using the scriptures to confirm what I heard.

1 Peter 2:9 says, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people: that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.” Isaiah 9:2 says, “People living in darkness have seen a great light. In the shadow of death, a new day has dawned overcoming the night.”

I’ve asked God to use me to minister in music to the world. It’s imperative for me to go through trials so I can effectively know how those I’m singing to feel. The Bible says to expect adversity. It also says in Romans 8:28 “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and are called according to His purpose.” That’s me. I love God. I am called according to His purpose. This song is His message of hope to those in darkness. “He is still shinning through His son, Jesus Christ.”

The Lord then asked Richard if he knew why Love, Faith, and Godly Wisdom could get on base but could not win the game. Richard shook his head. The Lord explained, “If your love, faith, and wisdom had won the game, you would think you had done it by yourself. Love, faith and wisdom will get you on base, but only My grace can get you home. My grace is the one thing Satan cannot stop.”

The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest.

When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.

The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel how could you have let this happen? The first man had everything, yet you helped him, she accused. The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let the cow die.

“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I gave him the cow instead.”

Things aren’t always what they seem. Sometimes that is exactly what happens when things don’t turn out the way they should. If you have faith, you just need to trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not know it until some time later.

Let us look at another account of “counting it all joy” in the Word. In 1 Samuel chapter 30 we find King David facing a severe trial. His swift action of “count it all joy” caused him not only to be preserved, perfected, complete and lacking nothing, but David also was one who prospered from it. In verse 1 we find David and his army returning home to Ziklag from an exhausting campaign of battles. Tired and fatigued they were looking forward to seeing their families and taking a long over due rest. As they approached the City they could see smoke arising off the horizon, and as they got closer they saw that their homes and families were gone the City was in total ruin. Their wives, children and all their possessions were stolen by the Amalekites. Is this a trial or what? So let’s pick this up in verse 4 were it says, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep”. People don’t get me wrong, there is a proper grieving that takes place when you receive shocking news like the lose of your home, or the death of a loved one. God doesn’t expect us to be cold and callous about things. But we also can’t let it cause us to get into the soul realm either. Look at what happens; verse 5, “And David’s two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the widow of Nabel the Carmelite, had been taken captive.” So here is David not only is he dealing with the loss of his own family. But he is also the captain, the one who the people look to and who hold responsible for the protection of their city and families. Moving on to verse 6 and it says, “Now, David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, for the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and his daughters.” Look at what we find here. Not only did David loose his own family and all his possessions, but he had the responsibility for the loss of the others. Now they wanted to stone him, his life was in danger. But David’s great distress wasn’t because of those things. It was because the people allowed their grieving to enter into their soul. This is what caused the people, who loved David and respected him, who would at times risk their own lives to save his, now talk of stoning him. What did David do? Did he get emotional and say “oh, woo is me, what am I going to do. I probably deserve to die and threw himself into their hands, No!” In the last sentence in verse 6 it says, “David strengthen himself in the Lord his God” (scenario #2). That word strengthen means the same as to “be strong and of good courage” which is found in Joshua 1:9. It means “established, firm, fortified, mighty.” David literally “made himself strong in the Lord his God”. He didn’t allow his soul to take over. How did he do that? By rehearsing the things of God. David looked upward to who his God is. What did David say to Goliath as he approached him in 1 Samuel 17:45 “Then David said to the Philistine, you come to me with a sword and with a javelin? But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies if Israel, whom you defied”. David looked back at what God did for him, he looked ahead to the promises of God and he looked inward to what God thought about him. What did God say about David? He said, “That David was a man after His own heart”. Even in the midst of all his wrong doing David was always after the heart of God. He knew God. How can we know God like that? In John 15:7 Jesus said, “if you abide in Me and I in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.” John 14:6 “Jesus is the way and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 8:32 “You shall know the truth, (Jesus) and (He) the truth shall set you free.” In John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth”. This is talking about Jesus; He is the empowerment of God and the Word and Truth of God. In John 18:37 Jesus told this to Pilate when asked if He was a king, He said, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” Go back to 1 Samuel 30. After David strengthened himself in the Lord his God, He did what? Verse 8, “David inquired of the Lord, saying, “Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them”? And He answered Him, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all.” So what we have seen so far in answering our question of “How do I count it Joy”. 1) David didn’t allow his soul to respond, 2) He strengthened himself in the Lord and 3) He inquired of the Lord. David sought God’s plan and not his own plan. God, what do you want me to do? His plan is always better than our plan.

So what happened. In verse 18-20 it says, “So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.” But it doesn’t stop there. In verse 20 it says, “then David took all the flocks and herds they had driven before those other livestock, and said, This is David’s spoil.” See he didn’t only recover all that he lost but God added to him and also to those who were ready to stone him.

The answer to how we “count it all joy” or “making an intelligent appraisal of the situation from God’s perspective” is simple isn’t it?

1. Be aware of our response. Don’t respond in the soul, but respond in the spirit. David grieved but didn’t allow his soul to respond to the trial.

2. Strengthen yourself in the Lord. Know Him and what He thinks of you. Jeremiah 29:11 says, “ The thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

3. And inquire of the Lord. This wasn’t the 1st time David inquired of the Lord. In 1 Samuel 23:4 it says, “Then David inquired of the Lord once again.” David was what? He was a man after God’s own heart. Like Jesus his desire was to do the will of the Father. Jeremiah 29:12 & 13. Says, “Then you will call upon Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”

I am closing this month with a couple of scriptures for you to look up. Amos 3:7; John 15:15: Daniel 9:22; and Jeremiah 23:22. These talk about God’s heart in revealing His plans to us. As our loving heavenly Father wants us to turn to Him and His ways so that He can preserve us, perfect us, complete us and keep us from lack during the midst of our trials.

©2001, Used by permission

He considers his public high school a mission field; his desire is to see the whole school come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

This message was delivered by him as a sermon for the National Youth Sunday Service at Open Bible Church, June 3, 2001.

[added 2.2006] Lance and his wife Amanda have planted a church in the Oakland, Pittsburgh, PA area, with a desire to reach the college students in the area. You can read more of his writings at www.reachingoakland.com.

[added 9.2008] Lance and Mandi are the proud parents of Selah Grace Rhoades, who arrived into this world on September 7, 2008. See her picture at www.selahrhoades.tumblr.com.

If you look around at my generation in the world today, you see kids with more holes than Swiss cheese in every part of their body that listen to the most vulgar music. It is a generation that is surrounded by hate for one another where the schoolhouse is no longer a safe place of learning. But yes, even my generation is savable! Only by God’s grace and mercy can their salvation be obtained. I beg of each one of you that you would pray for the youth and CanTeen, our youth group, as we work together, developing the children of God, so He could raise up this generation to be a generation of His own.

You may be asking yourselves, “Why is it that these youths from CanTeen have been so touched? What is the underlying factor that makes them want to come and be blessed by God?” My answer is simple and one word: “Jesus.” We come to see Jesus. We want to see Jesus lifted high. We want know Him and hear His voice, and be able to run around and tell the world to get ready because Jesus is coming.

Children, in the Bible, are looked upon greatly from Jesus’ perspective. That is why Jesus said in Luke 18 that whoever did NOT receive the kingdom of God as a child would NOT enter in. That doesn’t mean you have to be a baby to enter in. Think of a child, an infant, they do whatever they want. If they want to go to the bathroom, they go to the bathroom. If they want to run around the house naked, they run around the house naked. No matter how hard you try, they will still do it if they want to. It is so hard sometimes to keep control over little children, because they do what they want to do. They don’t care what people think of them. They don’t care what their best friend is doing. They don’t care who is looking at them. If they want to wear a shirt that is three sizes too small, and it’s their favorite shirt, they wear it. They don’t care if people will make fun of them. If we come to God like that, then things would be different.

Just the other day I was helping our pastor with his twin girls, I was holding one, and she didn’t like that idea. No matter how hard I tried to hold her back and keep her from her father, she pushed me away and ran to him, asking for him to hold her. She was desperate to be with her dad. I even tried to bribe her with a toy. She said “No. I want daddy.” She didn’t care what was in her way; she didn’t want a cheap substitute. She wanted the real thing. She flung herself from my arms and ran across the room at him, till he reached down and held her and calmed her. And oh, did she smile. She was in her own little world, just her and her father – her and her daddy.

That is the kind of relationship the Lord wants to have with us – one that is not willing to accept any cheap substitute; one that will throw every hindrance aside, beg and plead, push through temptation after temptation, do whatever you have to do to get into your Daddy’s arms and strive for an intimate relationship with the Father.

We call Him Lord, Savior, and Friend. We call Him Father, but why not Daddy? Children call their fathers “Daddy” because it’s their special word for their father. Some say “Dad” others “Daddy” and some “Dadda.” That is what they refer to their father as, because they are so close, they love their father so much, he has his own special name in their heart. Maybe we need to start referring to God, not as everyone else does, but as a name that is special to us.

So many people refuse to even call Him Father because of one or two incidents that didn’t seem good at the time, where they didn’t even wait to see if something good could come from it. They get caught up and disgusted with what they think is bad, even though the outcome could be heavenly. Look at what happened when Jesus cleansed the temple.

And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, And said unto them, It is written, My house shall be called the house of prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves. Matthew 21:12-13

Jesus did a radical, a loud thing that day. He came in and destroyed a major part of the economic contributions to the church. (At least what they thought.) He really made people mad, and people thought their lives were destroyed. But Jesus only did this so that God could reach His people in a way no one had ever seen before. Everyone thought it was a bad idea, but Jesus knew it was a good idea because it was God’s idea.

“And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.” Matthew 21:14

God knew what He was doing even though it seemed bad at first. But the priests and scribes thought they knew everything that God could do. They put Him in this tiny little box and told Him when He could perform miracles, when He could be worshiped, when He could be prayed to. They were trying to be god to God. And they wouldn’t let God be God. And when the Messiah came in and turned all this upside down, do you think they were accepting of it?

“And when the chief priests and scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were sore displeased” Matthew 21:15

Sore displeased doesn’t sound too happy. It sounds more like irate, furious, or enraged. They were so mad because Jesus turned their lives upside down. They never even thought a child knew how to worship God, but the children were crying out “Hosanna to the Son of David!” The lame and blind were now leaping for joy in the presence of their Savior.

God did a mighty deed that day, and some people accepted it, and others rejected it. My petition that I put in from of each one of you is this: Will you be like the scribes and priests and get all mad when Jesus comes into your temple, when He turns over the things in your life that hinder you from reaching an intimate level with God? Or will you come before the Lord as a child and do as they did and shout “Hosanna! Hosanna to the King of kings!”

Recently, Lou has been spending some time on-line at a place called “eBay,” which is an auction site. There he found a few trailers that were for sale. One of the trailers didn’t seem to have too high of a bid so Lou placed a bid on it. Later that same night the auction ended and we found out that our bid was the highest; thus we were the proud owners of a 5′ x 8′ trailer.

The person who sold the trailer was located in Ohio and offered to deliver it to us for a nominal charge, which we considered a bargain. Within two weeks he did so and we had the title transferred and purchased a plate and the following week it was in use.

We filled the trailer full; top to bottom, side to side, front to back. It’s hard to believe we fit all that stuff in our van before.

With the help of our printing business we were able to add the vinyl lettering to the side of the trailer that includes our name, location, and phone number.

All in all, the final cost was about $1,200.00 which was less than we anticipated. Currently we have received $170.00 in pledges towards the purchase of the trailer and the rest of the funds came from the general fund. Praise the Lord that we had just enough!

We are still accepting donations toward the cost of the trailer so if you want to help it is not too late. Just mark your donation for the trailer and we will apply it to the expenses.

Our son, Lance, preached his first sermon for the Open Bible Church’s National Youth Sunday Service, which was held June 3rd. Proud parents we were to hear his message and to hear how well he presented it. Lance has a desire to continue in the ministry and I know the Lord will use him greatly. A printed version of Lance’s sermon is included in this issue and an audio version is available on cassette for a $4.00 donation, plus $1.00 for postage. I know it will bless you.

Then, we had the Ice Cream Social Fundraiser on June 23rd. It was truly a blessing. “Chalice” started the evening with a worship time that, by the comments of those attending, must have been a pretty good night with singing and dancing and shouting and praising the Lord! We also had a time for testimonies and then Pastor David Vento from Shiloh Full Gospel Church in Adamsburg shared a word about “the third day church.” We did record the service and a slightly condensed version (45 minutes of the worship and 45 minutes of the message) is available for a $4.00 donation, plus $1.00 for postage.

Also, we finally received a notice from the PA Dept. of Revenue who now recognizes this ministry as an official non-profit organization and granted us tax exempt status. This enables us to make purchases for the ministry and not pay state sales tax on the total.

Our All Day Sing we had planned in September was changed because the Gaither Vocal Band is going to be singing in Pittsburgh on the original date and I didn’t want to take people away from their concert. So on the morning of the Ice Cream Social we rescheduled the date for Saturday, September 8th. The day will start with “Puppets for the King” at 1:00 and at 2:00 there will be gospel groups, church choirs, mime groups and more singing until 9:00 PM. It is going to be held at the Renzie Park Bandshell in McKeesport. A few of the gospel groups that have already confirmed include Abraham’s Promise, Larry Walker, Don Amon, and Steel City Quartet. Of course, our own “Chalice” will be there too. Mark your calendar now, you won’t want to miss this day! We still have some times available if your church choir, soloist or worship team would like to participate. You can call The Well Ministries office at (412) 664-WELL to get more information.

In addition to the singing there will be a program booklet and we are looking for sponsors to help by advertising in it. We are also looking for some volunteers to help solicit the ads. If you or your church or organization wants to help in any way, you can contact our office for more information.

Until next month,
Blessings!
Kris