A Word given on the Tenth Anniversary of 9-11-01

This is a word that was spoken at my church on Sunday, Sept. 11, 2011, by Apostle Ron Carpenter Jr. To watch the service in it's entirety visit http://www.rwoc.org/ .

There is no way you can turn on a TV or radio and not know what today represents and I want to speak to that for a moment. My staff asked me this week and said, “Pastor, what do you want to do? A slide presentation? A video?” And I said I don’t want to do that because I don’t want to take the service down because I believe with Jesus there are no sad endings. I believe with Jesus there is something redemptive in everything. That’s the way I view my life. I had a lot of real crappy stuff I’ve gone through in life, but when you serve the God I serve, there is something redemptive in everything. God will redeem something in every part of your life. Everything. And so I asked the Lord about what I was supposed to do. I wanted to tell you what I felt like God would have us to do. I always believed that America has been spared not because it is a righteous nation. I believe America has been spared because it has a righteous remnant. And there is a theology in the Bible that I sure don’t have time to go through and talk about and prove to you, but it’s “remnant theology”. It’s the way God has always worked. There is no nation where everyone is righteous, but God has always said if there is a remnant in that nation…in fact God told Lot if you can go into Sodom and G and just find me a handful. I don’t mean a whole section of town, he said if you can just find me a handful, I‘ll spare the whole place. The problem was, Lot couldn’t find any. He couldn’t find anybody. And America has it’s share of issues but there is a righteous remnant. You are in here this morning because you have a God you believe in and you believe in his ways and you believe in his righteousness. You believe you are His righteousness. And I want to tell you what I believe happened at 9-11. I am not a sociologist, I’m not an economist , I’m not a psychiatrist or a psychologist, I don’t have data and I don‘t have facts so I am not going to pretend to know something I don‘t. But I am going to tell you my view on it. I don’t believe we started having recession problems in 07 and 08 or whenever year they record it. I believe it stretches all the way back to 9-11 because I believe that was the day America was injected with a huge dose of fear. I believe right now we have a fear problem in America. A vulnerability was exposed. We have never been attacked like we have been attacked there before and if you see the look on the people faces who were a part of it and the people who watched it and the people who went through it you didn’t see a look of sadness, you saw a look of terror, you saw a look of fear. That fear has not subsided and what is wrong with our economy is not a money problem it’s a fear problem. America has never been in a place where it had to make decisions that were fear based. America is known for it’s boldness. America is known for it’s faith. America is known for it’s risk taking. America was born out of boldness. The fact that America was discovered-where there were people that went off on wooden boats and sailed across an ocean and said I believe there is something over there. That’s how this country came to be. We were not born out of a people who were afraid. We were not born out of a people who were fearful we were born of a people who were brave. On 9-11 we got slapped with a dose of fear and when a spirit is injected into a country through an open door, then any decision that is made based out of fear has no ability to benefit you. Fear is your enemy. Fear is when false things appear real. Fear is faith in reverse. Fear is confidence in a negative outcome. Fear is confident the business ain’t gonna work, confident you’re not gonna get the job. Confident you’re gonna lose your investment. Confident you’re not going to be able to send your kids to school. Confident that you’re gonna lose your retirement, confident you’re not gonna be able to sell your house. That is the confidence in the negative. It is the reversal of faith. Faith is believing God for His desired outcome. Fear is believing that the negative outcome will manifest and America has now become a place where people live in negative outcomes. We have a fear problem. We do not have a money problem in America. Aliens did not come down and suck all the dollar bills out of America. There’s no less money than there once was. But what happened? Fear has stopped the current. We call money currency. Currency makes an economy work when it flows it has to have a current. They can have the biggest power plant, they can have a nuclear plant right next to your house but if there is not a current to your house you can’t put toast in the toaster.. They call it currency because it has to flow to benefit an economy. What happens is when fear is injected, currency doesn’t flow, it stops. People don’t risk, people don’t hire, people don’t expand, they don’t do anything. They stop. Why? Because fear is paralyzing. Are you all hearing me today? Are you hearing your preacher? Now, as I approached this I know we have different levels of voting bases in here They say that the Bush administration couldn’t handle the money so we got a new one and now people are mad and they’re saying they can’t handle the money. Of Democrats, Republicans or Independents, nobody can fix fear. Fear is a spirit. You can’t vote on a spirit in the Senate. You can’t reason with a spirit, you can’t talk to a spirit, you can’t vote on a spirit. You break a spirit and cast it out. That’s the way you get rid of a spirit. OK? Now Paul has lived his life, he has finished his course. He’s kept the faith. He kept the faith-he didn’t get into fear, he kept his faith. The guy’s locked up, The guy’s put in prison, the guys shipwrecked the guy’s been through everything, he says I kept the faith the whole time. That’s when you know you keep faith. You don’t know if you keep faith in good times. Can everything become a wreck and you still got your faith? Hallelujah. He said I kept the faith and he’s now beginning to impart before he departs. He wants to take what’s in him and leave it with a young man named Timothy, who is a young Pastor at a church in Ephesus where we get the book of Ephesians. And right in the first chapter right off the bat, let me tell you what he tells Timothy. This is one Pastor who is about to die talking to another pastor who is up and coming and the first thing he wants to address is fear. When God went to Joshua and said you’re it, do you know the first thing He told him? He said Don’t be afraid. Be bold. Be of good courage. Don’t be afraid. Here’s Timothy. He says “therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind“. You can’t make good decisions when you are scared out of your mind. You’ve been given a spirit of power, of love and of a sound mind. You have not been given a spirit that makes decisions out of a fearful mind. You’ve been given a sound mind. When nobody else thinks clearly, you ought to be able to think clearly. I don’t know if folk are hearing me or not-I am confronting a spirit today. He says “stir up the gift …for God has not given us a spirit of fear”. That’s odd that those two verses are together. Stir up the gifts that are on the inside of you…because you have not been given a spirit of fear. When fear arises, it shuts the giftings of men and woman down. He says ‘you go back and get your sound mind and that stuff that is on the inside of you, you stir it up again!’ He said ‘come out of your fear and understand God gave you POWER!’ And he said ‘you’ve got powerful gifts on the inside of you. Stir them up again and make them work Don’t you sit back paralyzed by your fear and do nothing and watch life pass you by.’ This is what the Lord told me today. He didn’t tell me to show you a slide show, or have something that would make everybody cry. I want you to stand all over this building and I want you to grab the hand of a neighbor, because this is what the Lord instructed me to do with those that I influence today. I don’t know what they are going to do everywhere else, but this is the folk that I influence. He said “If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways” he said “then”- how many know what “then” means? Then means what I am about to say hinges on everything I just said. In other words he said you have to humble yourself , you’ve got to pray, He said you’ve got to seek His face and you’ve got to turn from all that crazy stuff you’re doing. He said you got to quit doing all that crazy mess. You’ve got to turn from your wicked ways and you’ve got to act like you got some sense. He said if you do these things ‘THEN, THEN will I hear from heaven, I will forgive their sins‘…He said ‘if MY PEOPLE will pray I’ll forgive the sins of the whole nation‘. Woo--hallelujah! God said “I’ll wipe away the reproach of the entire nation if MY PEOPLE will get together and say Lord we’ve sinned against you. I will heal their land“. We need healing in our land. I can’t imagine what the people went through that day but you know what? I don’t want to cry no more. I want to fix it. And I want to show the door the thing that entered the door on 9-11. Because the door we let it in we can open it and kick it right back out. We live in a country that is scared, and it’s afraid, and that’s a spirit and it has to be dealt with like a spirit in the name of Jesus, by the power of His blood, by the power of the Holy Ghost, and I am asking you not to be silent, you may say well I’m not a loud person, I’m an introvert, I’m not a type A personality…I’m not asking any of that. I am asking that you not stand there and listen to me pray. If I heard the word of God right today, He could take a few folk in Greenville, SC and heal a state. Heal a region. Impact maybe the whole nation out of something that came floating out of one building and touch heaven today. And I want you to open your mouth out loud because you participate in whatever you are connected with. We are connected with America. If it does well, we are effected. If it doesn’t do well, it effects us, and people connected to us. And I just want to take this time, no altar calls today, I just wanted to take this transition with prayer, and I am just going to take two or three minutes and I want you to passionately and boldly hit the fear that is in our country and I want you to cast it out of your own life. I have been through things that have made me afraid. I looked in mirror one day and said I don’t like what I have become. Why? Because so many things happened to me it made me fearful. I want to turn it loose again. I want to be that renegade guy again. I want to be that crazy faith guy who will believe God for anything again. I don’t want to be cautious, I want to throw that to the wind. I want to believe God for possibilities. So let’s all raise our voices together and we can know that God is going to hear our prayer, forgive our sins and He is going to heal our land today, in the name of Jesus. Are you ready? Begin praying with my. Father God we invoke the name of the Lord Jesus Christ , and His kingdom back on our country, hallelujah, and Lord I am not in control of what everybody does with their life, and I am not in control of media, I am not in control of the TV world, I am not in control of all of the Internet, or the political and judicial systems. But I do know in this building today, we are in control, and Father in the name of Jesus I plead the blood right now over our country and over our place of abode and everything we come in contact with. And we speak to this foul devil, this foul evil spirit called the spirit of fear, we come against you not in might nor in power but by the spirit of God, for the Bible says by my Spirit these this will happen. We come against you by the blood of Jesus. Spirit of fear, the blood of Jesus is against you, and we break your power in the name of Jesus, over the banking system, over the economic structure, over the business habits over the political habits of our nation and we again declare that we will be a people of faith, of boldness and of courage, and we cast you out, out of our mind, out of our home, out of our decisions, out of mornings, out of our days out of our nights, out of our money, out of our business, out of our employment , out of our dealings with people, and we take authority over you and we command you go out. OUT, OUT, OUT, in the name of Jesus. Somebody take authority over it. Tell it to get out of your house. Put your hands on your head and say get out of my mind. Got out of my thoughts. Get out of my kids. Get out, get out, get out in the name of Jesus. Swing wide the door of blessing. Swing open the windows of blessing. Swing wide the doors of courage and bravery, righteousness and Godly standards. Manifest in your people what it is to follow Christ. Let your people once again in America be a city set on a hill, be a light in the darkness, salt that has not lost it’s savor. Oh God, forgive us of our sins, and Lord heal our land, in Jesus name, I thank you for it and I believe fruit’s is being born out of this moment. Praise God.

I'll never tire....



...of looking into those big brown eyes



...or that sweet, sweet smile...

...or hearing that contagious giggle...



...or that sweet spirit...



...and his precious voice singing...

...or watching him use his God-given talents...

Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!
1 John 3:1

Miscellaneous Photos

Where are you?

Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might. Ecclesiastes 9:10

Where are you finding yourself at this very moment? Are you at work, in a fabulous job that you love and in which you find fulfillment? Are you a stay-at-home Mom, loving, nurturing and instructing your children in the ways of the Lord, and making your home a haven for your spouse and family? Are you between jobs, searching for work, not sure what tomorrow holds? Are you in a job that is less than desirable, and each waking morning brings dread? This scripture has been sticking with me for the last two days now. I can't shake it, so I figured I better meditate on it some more. I am, at this season of my life, a stay-at-home Mom to my sweet little Lily. Some days are easy, precious and so gratifying. Other days are hectic, frustrating and down right annoying. Let's be honest-no matter where we find ourselves in this season of our life, we have good days and we have not so good days. We have days where we feel like we can conquer the world, and days where we wish we could just curl up under a rock. I admit, I am not the best housekeeper. As I type, I can see the breakfast dishes still on the table..heck, the dinner dishes are still in the sink. My house is in relative order at the moment only because I just had family visit for a week and they were super helpers! So yesterday, when I first read this scripture, it struck a chord inside of me...it wasn't a beautiful high C, it was more like a B flat. Many times, I don't "do whatever I do with all my might". Many times I am half hearted in my endeavors. My desire is to be the best I can be, but my weakness is my flesh and all the distractions that it finds all around me.

It says in Colossians 3:23 to "Work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people."

I often remembered that scripture when I was working outside the home, but somehow I have forgotten that it applies wherever I am, whether it be rocket science or diaper duty. I really love this season in my life, and staying home, for me, is a joy. But looking around my house, you wouldn't know it. I am thankful that God gently and lovingly nudges us when we need to focus and readjust, even when what I really deserve is a swift kick in the behind. So I am getting off my blog for now, and whipping this house into shape. I want this home to be a safe haven for my family. A place of peace and order, not chaos. I want to be the woman, wife, and mom that God wants me to be. And no matter where you find yourself right now, God can help you to be the best that you can be. Instead of wishing away our seasons that might leave a lot to be desired, He can help you to refocus on what your sphere of influence is, find purpose and meaning in Him and what He has placed right in front of you.

Out of the Box

Something has been stirring in my heart lately, and it seems like where ever I turn, I am hearing the reverberation of this message. In the world, we are often bombarded with "social norms". These all-encompassing rules and "standards" that are constantly shifting and evolving to meet the politically correct attitudes of the day. I am often amazed at how these stances have so rapidly distanced themselves from everything Godly, everything Biblical, everything that the Lord considers to be good and right and pure. Many of these "social norms" are in direct conflict with the Word of God, and therefore cause me, as a follower of God, to cringe when I see them embraced, defended and on display in the public square.

This, ironically, isn't what has me blogging like a mad woman this morning. After all, God alerts us that the darkness will get darker, even while the light gets brighter (Romans 5:20-21). What really has been leaving a horrible taste in my mouth is when I see people use their own Godly personal convictions and try to make them law for everyone.

I am not typically a person who enjoys stepping on toes or making people feel uncomfortable. On the contrary, I have always been one who tried to console, extend compassion and encourage. That being said, I hope you can listen to these words from my heart, without taking offense if my examples hit home. The issues of child rearing, marriage and the woman's role in the household, and women in the church are the first three that come to mind. Let me be the first to say that I have not arrived in any of these areas. I have struggles as I am sure many of you do, and sometimes it is difficult to know exactly what God's perfect plan is for me, my marriage and my children. Not everything in the Bible is black and white. In fact, there seems to be more gray than anything else. The black and white areas are easy. You really have to stretch to misinterpret "do not murder" or "do not commit adultery". But to decide whether to work or be a homemaker or whether to publicly educate or home school are not so clear. I know some of you who have strong convictions about these topics may be feeling your blood pressure rise a bit. To that I have this to say: I applaud your fervor, your passion, your dedication. But then I would also add, please extend to others the same privilege God extended to you, that allowed you to seek God's plan for your life. And hopefully, you did just that!

Early in my marriage, many people offered advice as to how Luis and I needed to live, how we should act, and what our marriage should look like. I even had people tell me that I was in rebellion because I didn't follow their Godly counsel and their plan for my marriage. (I really wish I was joking!!). I have had people shun me like a leper when I told them I home schooled and then had homeschooling moms treat me like I was abusing my kids when I sent them to public school. When my husband stayed home with the boys for a year, worked on the weekends and studied online courses during the week, he received looks like he wasn't performing his "husbandly duty" while staying home (with our boys) Monday through Friday, and allowing me to worked 40+ hours a week outside of the home. I have heard people belittle a stay at home mom's worth, as well as others ride a mom who feels it best for her family to go to work. I have witness first hand the opinion that somehow you are more righteous and holy simply by wearing a skirt rather than pants, or choosing the natural look rather than the Mary Kay makeover. The lists goes on and on! (Is your head spinning yet?)

Why am I saying all this? I am hoping that I have struck a nerve, especially in the camp of those who are in the position of expressing what they believe is "God's best" for other people's lives. Here's my approach: If God in His immense wisdom decided NOT to make certain issues black and white, then who am I (or you), mere dust, to try and make a law where it was never intended. To take it one step further, when we follow other people's rules for our life and family, we then take a passive, legalistic role in life. It is easier to just sit back and let others tell us what we should be doing. It takes real active faith to pray and seek the Lord for his way for our individual circumstances. I remember when I first started to home school Joshua. I knew I needed to be doing it for the right reasons, not simply because people said it was the right thing to do. I had to wade through opinions and cut right to the nitty-gritty. After spending much time in prayer, I heard the Lord tell me that what I was feeling about homeschooling Josh was right for me at that time. He also deposited the word "mobile" in my spirit. I felt a peace with that and dove in with my whole heart. I had a word from the Lord for my child and my situation. During the third year of homeschooling, our family was uprooted and moved to another part of the state right in the middle of second grade. It was then that the word "mobile" came back to me, and I understood how God sees the end from the beginning and has a plan for my individual life. Josh's schooling was not disrupted, and he was able to study and learn right through the move, finishing on time. We recently took a giant leap away from a denomination (turned in Pastoral credentials) where legalism still triumphs in many circles. We felt that our personal integrity and the fresh move of God were both too precious to just leave to sit on the back burner, while we waited and hoped that someday God's people would listen to God and rise up from yesterday's altars in pursuit of today's fresh manna. Some people are called to stay and be the catalyst for change. Others are called to get up and move on towards the change that God has. After much prayer, we knew that we were of the latter group and not the former. Many didn't understand or agree. Even leaders, who should have understood it, didn't.

Here are a few things I have learned along my journey that I would love to share:
(Please keep in mind when I talk about making decisions, I am referring to those areas that are NOT black and white in the Bible.)

No one knows what's better for you than God. Seek His face, His hand, His path, and don't give up until you find it! (It might take more than five minutes! Hang in there-you'll find it!)

God wants us to know Him...really KNOW him. Not just head knowledge that we can learn from studying what he has done for someone else (although that can be very encouraging), but a heart knowledge that only comes from studying His word, praying, and spending time in His presence. Don't rely on others to give you what God wants to give you Himself! Sometimes God will use others, but most of the time he wants us to come to Him directly!

Being legalistic is really nothing more than being lazy...relying on other people to set guidelines and seek the Lord for us rather than taking an active role for our self. Never be afraid to seek God's answer for your own life. After all we are His sheep, and He is our shepherd. You CAN hear God's voice. It takes time and practice...the more you practice, the better you get at it!

Many times when people try to place their convictions on you, they are actually trying to find approval from people (power in numbers) rather than being fulfilled in knowledge that they have God's approval. As human beings, we tend to think that the majority is always right...nothing could be father from the truth.

When you say phrases like "God told me" or "God spoke to me"...know that the people who give you strange, doubting looks are usually those who have never heard from God because they haven't taken the time to try. Unless of course, "God told you" to do something that is contrary to the black and white parts of scripture. Then their looks might be right on the money.

"And you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free" Romans 8:32