2010 April «KennethBow's Blog » Page 3 KennethBow's Blog

You are invited….. Tuesday, Apr 6 2010

Biographical and Doctrine and Family kennethbow 7:18 am

First Pentecostal Church will be holding it’s

39th Annual Services April 9~11, 2010.

We would like to extend a cordial welcome to all who would like to attend!

First Pentecostal Church of the Puget Sound

Schedule of Guest Speakers:

Friday 7pm:

Garry Streeval,

Noblesville, IN

Saturday 6pm:

Jerry Rowell,

Yuma, AZ

Sunday 10am:

Martyn Ballestero,

South Bend, IN

Sunday 7pm:

Glen Burgess,

Chehalis, WA

Saturday Night following the service,

a Panamanian meal will be served at

Brank’s Restaurant.

Come celebrate 39 years of ministry of

Kenneth Bow & First Pentecostal Church .

Recognition of visiting ministers.

FPC Choir,

Chorale

& Orchestra

will be singing and playing nightly.

Fellowship for all age groups.

For information about lodging please call our church office~~~ 253 862 4314.

Where truth still takes center stage!

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Burger King Got It Wrong! Monday, Apr 5 2010

Biblical history and Doctrine and Motivational and Old Testament kennethbow 5:48 am

Burger King got it wrong. They say have it your way. The book of Judges shows me this is not the way to happiness or success!

The book of Judges opens to us one of the darkest times of man’s history. The people of God should have been celebrating victories and conquering a new land.

Judges opens the window into the heart of mankind, and the picture is not pretty!

Seven times in the book the statement is made “Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord”, two times it says “Every man did that which is right in his own eyes”. The result of that environment was catastrophic. It further emphasis that there was no King in those days. So every man was left to follow his own decisions.

This period of time lasted 450 years! This period of time was as long as the entire duration of the monarchy. Because there is one book of Judges, and six books of the Kings (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles), it is natural to feel like the Kings were a longer period of time. Both of these time periods were 450 years. Why?

God gave man 450 years to reveal what happens when man does that which is right in his own eyes.

The result of that time period is so abhorrent and tragic, we scarce can comprehend it. The last five chapters of Judges are as bad and ugly as any period of history, any place on the Globe. From this experiment and experience we can truly agree with God that it is not in man to direct his steps.

It might help to think of these Judges as freedom fighters. The word Judge to us today speaks of courtrooms and juries. These men, (and one woman), were liberators, fighters, leaders of armies! They are renowned for their military campaigns. The following is a list of Judges and their term of time.

Judge Enemy

Othniel/40 years Mesopotamia
Ehud/80 years Moab, Amon, Amalek
Deborah, Barak/40 years Caanan
Gideon/40 years Midian
Abimelech/3 years
Toah/23 years
Jair/22 years
Jeptha/6 years Ammon
Ibzaim/7 years
Elon/10 years
Samson/20 years Philistines
Eli/40 years Philistines
Samuel/20 years Philistines

By my addition there were 111 years of oppression and 339 years of peace for a total of 450 years of the reign of the Judges. This is the same amount of time for the Kings! There was 120 years of the United Kingdom, 200 years of a divided Kingdom with Israel and Judah side by side, and an additional 135 years of Judah.

The conclusion I get is this, God gave man 450 years of man doing what he thought was right on his own. Then he gave man 450 years where a king ruled over his life. Both time periods ended in abject failure. Opening the door for the prophets and God’s voice being the law of man and earth.

The only successful government has proved to be when God himself rules over the affairs of men.

In the first 16 chapters of Judges, it is all about God’s people being attacked from without. The enemy is from the outside. Then the last five chapters are the result when Israel turns upon herself and begins to carnage herself. The result is one of the most terrible times in all of history.

Before it is over Israel will have killed more of her own that any of her attackers ever did from the outside. If fact, she will have killed more of her own that all of the outside attacks combined over the entire 450 year period!

What a statement God leaves on the pages of the Bible about what happens when we forget who our real enemy is and begin to war on our brothers.

In the last five chapters, it begins with the introduction of Idolatry into Israel with the story of Micah and his graven images. The stage is set for idolatry and it takes a thousand years and a dispersion (Israel), and a captivity (Judah), to finally purge Israel of Idolatry!

The story moves on to the tribe of Dan.

This tribe is not satisfied with their inheritance so they look for new territory. They journey east, then north, a total of about 144 miles to conquer Laish. They rename the city “Dan”(hence the term from Dan to Beersheba). This is not the inheritance God assigned to the tribe of Dan.

This story lets us see the terrible result of what happens when you are not satisfied with your inheritance! The tribe of Dan is forever removed from the pages of the Bible. The only mention I find is one descendant worked on Solomon’s temple. Dan is never mentioned again, never included anymore in the list of the tribes all the way to the book of Revelation!

What more would anyone need to illustrate the danger of not being satisfied with our inheritance?

The book of Judges then moves on to the story of the concubine.

The woman was abused and finally dies. Her master cuts her into twelve pieces and sends a piece of the evidence to each tribe. The nation goes to war and the result is horrific. Israel loses 65,000 men in the final chapters of Judges, all because they had a piece of the evidence. The tribe of Benjamin is reduced to 400 men and almost obliterated.

I believe they would have been wiped out if not for a future son of Benjamin that would literally change the world, Saul of Tarsus. God preserved the tribe for Israel’s first king, and Christianity’s first missionary.

The moral of the story is again so stark! It is so dangerous to go to war over a piece of the evidence.

Was all lost for humanity? Not at all. God in his infinite wisdom was letting man work through the slow process of human government to help man self discover for himself his need of God.

All was not lost, for even in this morass, at the bulls eye center of the greatest carnage were faithful people who held on to God. That is why Boaz steps onto the stage. There was in the days of the Judges, Ruth 1.1

We will discuss that in the book of Ruth!

Thanks for reading today!

8 Responses »

Elvis is Alive! Saturday, Apr 3 2010

Uncategorized kennethbow 8:28 am

It was about 5 in the morning. I was flying out of the Houston airport. I had just turned the rental car in. It was like a graveyard. No one anywhere, walking or driving. I was sleepy and tired and on my way home to Seattle. I got on the shuttle, went to the back seat to avoid conversation with the driver who looked a bit weird through my unfocused bleary eyes.

He got in and we started toward the airport. I was the only passenger. That is when it happened.

He looked at me in the rear view mirror steadily until I acknowledged his stare. I thought he wanted to know what airline I was using. As I tried to focus on his small image in the mirror, he said it.

He meant it.

It was not a joke.

Shivers ran down my spine.

I thought, uh oh, I am in this van with a nut! Very loud and with absolute conviction, almost like a challenge, he said…

“ELVIS IS ALIVE”!

I froze! If I laughed he might shoot me. If I ignored him, he might go crazy.

I will tell you one thing, I was no longer sleepy! I was wide awake. In a millisecond I decided the safest way to navigate these dangerous waters. I decided to act like he was perfectly normal and everyone knew good old Elvis was alive.

I said, “How do you know?”

When he spoke there were now shivers on my shivers.

His piercing stare looked at me and he said, “Because I have seen him”.

Well, about this time, I am desperate. Can I jump out of a moving shuttle before he tackles me? Is there an emergency cord I can pull? Should I fake a heart attack? Maybe tell him Elvis is my first cousin to win him over?

So wanting to laugh at this incredibly absurd situation I am in with this nutcase, half scared, I replied, “How does he look”?

I am not sure what happened in his mind, or what was left of his mind, but he stared straight ahead without any more utterances or sounds.

When we got to my terminal, he placed my suitcase on the ground and stepped back.

It was then the “Martyn Ballestero Syndrome” kicked in my devious brain toward this lunatic who had robbed me of some valued sleep and scared me pretty bad.

I looked into his glazed eyes and said, “Elvis is my cousin. Tell him you met his cousin Ken, and say hello for me”.

I turned and walked off. After about 30 steps or so, I looked back. He was frozen in stupefied awe and adoration to know he had met Elvis’ cousin. That is the last I ever saw him.

I try not to rent cars in Houston.

I hate to disappoint the Elvis fans out there, but honestly, Elvis died and was buried. Just like every other mortal man who has ever lived. Just like Budda and Confucius and Mohammed. Just like every politician, leader, guru, shaman, and great man.

But there is one….one who died, but didn’t stay dead!

He got up!

After three days He rose from the dead, made His bed, and left the door open so the whole world would know that He got up and left!

His name is Jesus, and I actually do know Him!

If you have never met Him, He would like me to introduce you to Him.

He told me to let you know that tomorrow somewhere near you will be a church.

He will be there and would like to meet you personally.

Thanks for reading today!

8 Responses »

Some Days Live Forever! Friday, Apr 2 2010

Family and Motivational kennethbow 9:14 am

It was a Friday afternoon, in July, 1975.

I was working for UPS. I had a little break time left so I stopped at the coffee shop. (A coffee shop is what there was before Starbucks). Most of the drivers from UPS stopped there in the afternoons. The waitress came to my table and told me I had a phone call.

When I answered the phone, my world was forever changed.

My supervisor told me to bring my truck in immediately. I asked what was up. He said there had been an accident with my family and he would tell me when I got in the center. I demanded he tell me if it involved my wife or daughter, he said no it was about my mother. There had been an accident and she could not be located.

My mother had been murdered.

As I write this so many years later, the pain and shock is still so vivid. Some things do not dim with time. They remain ever fresh, pungent, alive, and painful.

The next few days were terrible. It took three days to locate her body. Then there was the funeral, and days and days of just a blur.

Just a week before this tragedy, my mother had stood across the hospital bed of the man who murdered her and asked me to teach her a bible study.

I was so excited that she wanted to know more about God. My mother had a rough life. She and my father divorced when I was three. Mom went on to marry 5 more times before her tragic murder when she was only 42 years old. Her last husband was the man who murdered her.

He was a brute and a beast. He was a large powerful man. He beat my brother with a rubber hose until I did not recognize my own brother.

The night my mother asked me for a bible study, this husband of hers was in the hospital with a heart attack. I went to the hospital. Little did I know that my mother had a little over a week to live.

If I had known my 42 year old mother would be dead in 9 days I would have dropped everything and prayed with her. She was a backslider with two brief sojourns in church. Both times she had prayed through she had stayed in church just a few days or weeks at best.

But I did not know. Neither do you. Today is all we have.

How will you use this day?

Will you wallow in self pity?

Will you throw away a wonderful 24 hour gift locked in a mind loop of things you cannot change?

Will you allow anger to take the microphone and filibuster?

Who needs you today? Who can you show love and approval to today? Where can you distribute happiness today?

Today is all you have! It is yours to spend as you choose.

My hope is you take today by the throat and demand full payment for all the zest and joy it can bring! I pray you shake off any element that would rob you of the abundant life Jesus Christ promised us.

Honestly, I am simply amazed that you would take a few moments of your day to read this blog. From my heart I thank you. I do not take that lightly or take it for granted.

In a terrible way, the day my mother was murdered is a day that has lived forever in my mind.

I am glad there are other days that also live forever. The day I received the Holy Ghost. The day my daughter sang her first special in church. The day my grandson won a trophy in Bible quizzing.

Sand never flows upward in the hourglass of time. Tomorrow’s sand cannot flow through before today’s sand. I cannot place tomorrow’s gold in my purse today. Tomorrow lies buried with yesterday. Today is all I have.

If for any reason today should be my last, then let me drink each minute to the full. Let me savor it and give thanks.

Thanks for reading today!

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