⁹ But you are not like that, for you are a chosen people. You are royal priests,^[a] a holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light.  ~1 Peter 2:9

Peter is saying to us: "Because of you are in Christ, you have become a new creation.   You have been set apart, a transformed person uniquely reserved for Christ and His Kingdom.   You are no longer of this world "set apart" for God by Christ to be a unique people, royal priest, a holy nation, God's own possession.   You and I when we become faith filled believers walking in Christ we become a chosen people like Israel, God puts His name on us.

I love Matthew Henery's commentary on this verse:

"All true Christians are a chosen generation; they all make one family, a sort and species of people distinct from the common world, of another spirit, principle, and practice, which they could never be if they were not chosen in Christ to be such, and sanctified by his Spirit."

Matthew Henry says we are a disticnt species of people different from those of this world "SET APART."

It's time that many of us operate as citizens of the Kingdom of God, be the people who God set apart through Christ.   Our world will change when the Kingdom is operating in its full power through the people in which Christ "SET APART."

All of us are hit with trials in these two categories of our lives:

1.         Internal Storms

2.         External Storms

• Sally is crying because she is struggling with addiction.  ~Internal storm
• Joe found out a good friend has cancer.   ~External storm
• Jane is struggling with loneliness ~Internal storm
• Adam's home was destroyed by a fire last spring. ~External storm

Three Problems Storms

1.      They have a tendency to  Isolate Us

Storms make us feel as though we are alone in our situation, that no one else understands the trouble we are going through, that no one will be able to help us. .   

David felt isolated when he was being pursued by Saul, when he had to leave everything and flee to a cave.   He penned Psalm 13:1

How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?   ~Psalm 13:1

Even the strongest of men in the midst of storms feel isolated.

How do we destroy isolation in our storms?    

Like all storms when you get in trouble you need to send out a distress signal: S. O. S.

When you feel isolated you need to Seek the Lord, keep your eyes fixed on Him.

²⁸ “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” ²⁹ “Come,” he said. Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. ³⁰ But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord, save me!”  ~Matthew 14:28-30

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you   ~Isaiah 26:3

The second problem with storms is:

2.         They Can Discourage Us

We get discouraged when we reduce God to man’s restraints, it’s always in the midst of my problems, my storms that I lean or have a tendency to limit God based on my human understanding of possibility.

Our strength fails, when stop allowing God to fill us up, we stop allowing Him to be the source of our strength in our storm.  When things, places and conditions become our refuge we get discouraged. 

S. eek the Lord

O. perate in His Power

We will overcome discouragement when we plugin in to the power of the Lord, when we allow the Lord to be our refuge, our strength, when we plug in to the Lord rather than trying to face the storm on our own.

David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam.

~1 Samuel 22:1 

Adullam translates to "Refuge"

God is our refuge, a strong tower, our hding place.   

Find your strength in Him, Operate in His Power.

Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Don't be discouraged, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand.

~Isaiah 41:10

Listen to what He says: 

• Don’t be afraid
• I am with you (God of the Universe, Alpha, Omega, Beginning, End)
• Don’t be discouraged
• I will strengthen you
• I will help you

The third problem with storms is they have tendency to:

3.         Overwhelm Us

We become overwhelmed when the weight of our trial becomes too big to carry.  And as result of trying to “shoulder” the problems ourselves, rather than letting God be God, we try to take the weight and then we get discouraged when nothing changes.    

 “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” ~Matthew 19:26b

S. eek the Lord

O. perate in His Power

S. urrender the Circumstance

If I am going to overcome being overwheelmed in my storms, I will have to surrender the storm to the Lord, give it to the one who can shoulder the problem, who has the strength sufficient to overcome any storm.  

Cast your cares on the LORD and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous be shaken. ~Psalm 55:22

We had an awesome time Friday Night; I thank God as we really have a good group of people at our church.  Their willingness to be used by God in a way that represents Christ is commendable.   I really was blessed; Friday night afforded an opportunity to minister to 50 + adults at the Hope of the Valley Rescue Mission.   

They do a great job at Hope of the Valley of being Jesus' hands and feet to a community in need.  

The worship was awesome, it began with just a few voices but then grew in to a loud chorus of praise.  

God opened opportunities for us to not only minister to the group, but also to indviduals.  

Homelessness isolates people from normal living and often they are treated just that way, as if they were aliens or sick and needed to be avoided.

I believe the program at the rescue mission destroys that isolation.  

The stories were endless, people who by some misshap or circumstance ended up on the street with no place to stay, men, women, women with children, pregnent women.   Homelessness plays no favors it stricks the most un-suspecting people.  

Be encouraged: "We can make a difference."   Be Jesus Hands & Feet, Be Part of Project 3:16

I believe that we are called to full gospel ministry.   Let me just clarify that with a simple definition of what a full gospel Church is:

Full Gospel Churches differ in these key areas, we believe in Anointing with Oil, Exuberant Worship, Gifts of the Holy Spirit operating in the church, Spiritual Warfare, , Intercessory Prayer, 
Baptism in the Holy Spirit with the Evidence of Speaking in other tongues and the laying on of hands.

There are five distinct purposes for the laying on of hands in the life of a Spirit Filled Believer:

• Blessings (prophetic impartations);  (Genesis 48:14,15-16)

14 But Israel reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim’s head, though he was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh’s head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. 15 Then he blessed Joseph and said, “May the God before whom my fathers     Abraham and Isaac walked faithfully, the God who has been my shepherd  all my life to this day,16 the Angel who has delivered me from all harm  —may he bless these boys. May they be called by my name and the names of my fathers Abraham and Isaac, and may they increase greatly on the earth.” ~Genesis 48:14-20

I don't think that as Fathers, we realize the kind of power, authority and responsability that God has given us.   We have a responsability to care for our family, to protect them and to lead them, and we have the authority to bless them.    This may be hard to believe for some, maybe because your Father did not bless you in fact exactly the opposite, you were told how stupid you were, or how you were not wanted.    Just as much as we have the power to bless we can curse our children. 

I believe Godly men hear the voice of God, and are able to impart that to the generations, and here we see Israel imparting blessing and a prophetic word for each of the sons of Josseph.   God has given us authority, He has given us His Spirit and where His Spirit is there is power and blessing.

• Impartation of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit; (Acts 9:10-17.)

10 In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, “Ananias!” “Yes, Lord,” he answered. 11 The Lord told him, “Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. 12 In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight.” 13 “Lord,” Ananias answered, “I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your holy people in Jerusalem. 14 And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name.” 15 But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel. 16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.” 17 Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” ~Acts 9:10-17

• Healing; (James 5:14-16)

14 Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 15 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. ~James 5:14-16

I have been healed many times of various things by the laying on of hands.   I have seen miraculous healings through this ministry.    

• Commissioning Believers. (Deut 34:9; Numbers 27:15-23; Johsua 1:16-17).

16 Then they answered Joshua, “Whatever you have commanded us we will do, and wherever you send us we will go. 17 Just as we fully obeyed Moses, so we will obey you. Only may the Lord your God be with you as he was with Moses. ~Joshua 1:16-17

Note: 1 Timothy 5:22 says that we should not be hasty in commisioning believers, but rather that we should allow those whom we have seen evidence of faithfulness, be proven and then comission them to the work.   

• Impartation of Spiritual Gifts; (1Timothy 4:14-15)

 14 Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.15 Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. ~1 Timothy 4:14-15

We should be careful not to waste the gifts that God has given us, but we should exercise them often, allowing work of the Holy Spirit to grow in us through the working of the gifts He has given.   As we give out God gives more...

#1 

The free Logos iPad app for Bible study wherever you go, I have a paid library but the free one comes with the following features:

Check out more detail on the features:  

Anyway I use this all the time for studies, reading plans and more.   It has great tools in the iPad you can touch and highlight a word and lookup the definition or do a word study on that particular word, all at the tip of your finger.   You can do inductive bible studies, you can highlight anyway that helps you understand the word best.   I am not going to tell you how to study but I am going to tell you that this is a good tool, and I have only scratched the surface.

Get it here:  

#2 

Nuber 2 on my list Dropbox is one of my favorite apps.    This tool is essential for productive people of the 2oth century, it allows for you to store 2GB of data for free and acceess it anywhere you have internet connectivity.    Note: You can get extra free space just by getting your freinds to join.

Dropbox is a free service that lets you bring your photos, docs, and videos anywhere and share them easily. You can organize, share and store virtually any file type.   They do have a file upload limit of 300 MB, but for the most part I have had no  issues as most of the files I utilize in the service are not this big.

I use this app on my iPad, iPhone, Mac and PC, I store pictures, sermon notes, reciepts, pdf's and more.  

The great thing about this app is that allows me to colloborate with other people.  

Lets say I have 12  small groups that I want to get the current material for their groups to them.  I can place it into my small group leader folder for the current week and then with a couple clicks I can have a link in email to  my group leaders and they can have access immediately to the material.  

Not only can you store files but you can use it to sync your files between your office, home, school and all of your devices.     

 Be sure to check it out... its FREE click here:   

#3

Number 3 on my charts is EverNote.  

This is yet another awesome collaborative app that allows you to create or attach word documents, pdf, text files, html and more; you can clip web pages with this plugin  (WebClip Link.) and send them to your notebook to read later.   For me thats an awesome feature; I can't tell you how many times I have been reading a blog or on a website where I saw a quote, or some material I wanted to save, this makes that process so much easier.  

Not only can you attach paper notes but you can record audio and attach it.     They also have other apps that collorate with this app, you can see those in the evernote trunk:  Trunk

Check them out here, and again it's FREE:  

I have more to come but these apps are on my top 3.   Watch this blog post for more in the future...