Lachash Wednesday, Apr 1 2015 

Uncategorized kennethbow 7:29 am

Lachash is a quiet, whispering prayer (like the whispering of forms of incantation in Isaiah 3.3); it is when sorrow renders you speechless in the long run of life; you are out of words, empty and exhausted, and a consciousness of sin crushes so completely, that a man does not dare to address God aloud. It is a time so intense, you hiss your words.

Isaiah chapter 29, verse 4,

4  And thou shalt be brought down, and shalt speak out of the ground, and thy speech shall be low out of the dust, and thy voice shall be, as of one that hath a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and thy speech shall whisper out of the dust.


Sometimes a whisper is all you can utter. 


God hears even the most quiet whisper!


When you are empty and spent, there are no more words, then whisper a lachash!


Thanks for reading today…

 

The world’s most magnificent moment. Saturday, Mar 28 2015 

Uncategorized kennethbow 4:14 pm

The Resurrection: The World’s most magnificent moment.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most magnificent moment in the history of the world.  Without the resurrection we have no hope, no gospel, no salvation.  Paul said in 1 Corinthians without the resurrection we have nothing but a false hope, our preaching is vain, and our faith is vain.

The resurrection defeats death and validates Christ as the Lord of all creation.

As a christian why would anyone pollute this most magnificent moment with paganism?  How can a rabbit, an egg and baskets begin to compare with the magnificence of Jesus rolling the stone away, and rising from the dead?  Should not we as a christian make sure we fulfill Deuteronomy 6.4-9?  Our God given mandate is to teach our children the way of God.

We need to teach our children the truth.  It is our God given responsibility.  

Picture yourself with your child at the judgment seat of Christ.  You have your child by the hand.  As you look into Christ’s eyes you see hurt.  He asks you as a parent, did you teach your child about Me?  Did you teach them I am God? Did you teach them I am the only God? Did you teach them to never mix worship of me with paganism?

As a responsible parent, it is your God given responsibility to train up a child in the way they should go.  What can be more basic than Jesus rose from the dead? 

Paganism seeks to shift the glory off Christ, and place the celebration on things that are not God. Paganism always distracts from the real meaning of things that relate to God. 

Paganism is not harmless.

Paganism steals God’s glory. Paganism teaches a child to celebrate things not related to God.  Paganism creates false joy on a lie. 

There is no easter bunny.  It is a lie, just like there is no Santa Claus.  We must be careful to teach our children truths, and never teach them to believe a lie. It is not innocent or harmless to condone a lie.

Easter baskets, eggs, and rabbits have nothing to do with the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Why not teach your child the truth?  Teach them Easter is a time to recognize the resurrection of Jesus Christ!

When you stand before Christ in the judgment, you will feel confident you trained up your child in the way of truth, not the way of paganism. You kept the most magnificent moment truly magnificent.

In our church we call this time of year Resurrection Sunday. 

It is the true meaning of the world’s most magnificent moment!

 

How to stand in a slippery place. Saturday, Dec 6 2014 

Church news kennethbow 10:50 am

How to stand in a slippery place.

There are some keys to living for God.

For example, here is a simple short checklist to ask yourself.

What do you listen to? Gospel music or worldly music?
What is your hobby? Games?
What do you read?
How do you spend spare time?

How is your prayer life?
Do you fast? When? ( Emergency only?)
Do you build spiritual resistance and muscle?

Do you think about heaven or the world?
Who are your friends?
When you come to church do you give it your best?
Who is your best friend?
Are there any secrets in your life you are hiding?
Is there secret sin in your life?
Are you consistent or up and down?

You stand in a slippery place by:
Being consistent,
Removing secret sin,
Make godly people your friends,
Giving your best at church,
Thinking about heaven and God,
Fasting and praying,
Using your spare time for godly things instead of carnal things,
Reading good things,
Listening to encouraging music about God and salvation.

So many people won’t pray, listen to worldly music, read worldly books, run with sinners, spend hours on you tube or social media, and then wonder why living for God is a struggle?

Who do you feed, your flesh or your spiritual man?

When you develop good spiritual habits you will stand in a slippery place!

Thanks for reading today!

 

Thank you from Wikimedia Wednesday, Dec 3 2014 

Uncategorized kennethbow 6:39 pm

I believe in Wikimedia, you may not know they operate from private donations. Here is a letter I recieved from them….

Dear Kenneth,

Thank you for your invaluable gift of bringing knowledge to every human around the world.

My name is Lila Tretikov, and I’m the Executive Director of the Wikimedia Foundation. Over the past year, gifts like yours powered our efforts to expand the encyclopedia in 287 languages and to make it more accessible all over the world. We strive most to impact those who would not have access to education otherwise. We bring knowledge to people like Akshaya Iyengar from Solapur, India. Growing up in this small textile manufacturing town, she used Wikipedia as her primary learning source. For students in these areas, where books are scarce but mobile Internet access exists, Wikipedia is instrumental. Akshaya went on to graduate from college in India and now works as a software engineer in the United States. She credits Wikipedia with powering half of her knowledge.

This story is not unique. Our mission is lofty and presents great challenges. Most people who use Wikipedia are surprised to hear it is run by a non-profit organization and funded by your donations. Each year, just enough people donate to keep the sum of all human knowledge available for everyone. Thank you for making this mission possible.

On behalf of half a billion people who read Wikipedia, thousands of volunteer editors, and staff at the Foundation, I thank you for keeping Wikipedia online and ad-free this year.

Thank you,
Lila

Lila Tretikov
Executive Director,
Wikimedia Foundation

 

The Right Medicine. Tuesday, Nov 18 2014 

Uncategorized kennethbow 9:07 am

A friend of mine had a wreck on his bicycle several weeks ago. He banged his leg on the curb and got a big ugly bruise on the calf of his leg. The swelling was about the size of a baseball and the wound became infected. It was an ugly red wound full of pus and poison to his body.

He went to a critical care unit to have it looked at after a few days. They prescribed antibiotics. He took the medicine and seemed to be doing better.

After several weeks he went for another bike ride then went for a run. The infection came back with a vengeance.

While at the hospital with him and his family last night I learned something I had not known about antibiotics. The doctor explained you need the right kind of antibiotic to combat the type of infection you are dealing with. The critical care facility had not prescribed the correct antibiotic.

The infection had looked superficially better but was not cured. So it returned worse than before.

They prescribed the correct antibiotic and lanced and flushed the wound and hopefully he is on the road to health again.

Because the last 38 years of my life has been spent treating spiritual wounds and conditions I took note of the principal involved.

It takes the right medicine to attack the cause of the problem. Some medicines may appear to help but only hide the issue and it gets worse while being unseen.

For me as a pastor and minister of the gospel, I must make certain I am presenting the right cure for the problem. I wonder how many times I prescribed the spiritual medicine and thought the issue was cured while all the time it was only superficially better?

Unknown to me the issue was only hidden under apparent healing, ready to resurface with a vengeance.

I suppose there has never been a day in Apostolic history where we need the cure for sin like we need it today! We must not only preach, but we must preach the particular things that attack the cause of sin!

We do not need spiritual band aids today, we need the cure. I pray my congregation is not sitting there week after week with hidden issues unresolved and not healed. God help me to seek God until I have the right medicine in my hand for every service.

This brief incident in my life has stirred me to want to be more prayerful. It has caused me to want to carefully take a long look each time I write that spiritual prescription.

May the preaching of the gospel produce healthy, spiritual, saints of God!

Thanks for reading today!

 

How to put a whooping on the devil! Tuesday, Nov 11 2014 

Uncategorized kennethbow 12:08 pm

How to put a whooping on the devil.

Romans 16.20 And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly~kjv

before you know it the God of peace will come down on Satan with both feet, stomping him into the dirt ~msg version

1. Just go to church. He will give you 27 reasons not to go to church. Too tired, too old, too poor, too beautiful, to ugly, too friendly, too depressed, too sad. No friends, no one likes you, it’s raining, too hot, etc. Everytime you go to church you put a whopping on the devil.

2. Do not get offended. He will try to make you be offended. Offended at the pastor, offended at the song leader, offended at the hostess, offended at the usher, offended at…parking space, chair, too loud, can’t see, can’t hear, Ebola ☺ . So put a whopping on the devil and do not get offended.

3. Give God a little dance. He hates it when you dance with your love. If you don’t want to hurt the Devils feelings be sure and not dance because you’re clothes are to tight or you’re too fat or too skinny, or you are mad at your wife or your husband is a jerk or your kids have been ornery. Your dog has been sick, your kid did not finish homework, your car needs cleaning, you have lousy neighbors. But if you want to put a whopping on the devil, do a little dance.

4. Hang around and talk to good clean godly people. The devil hates that. Go home talk to back sliders or sinners, Facebook, gossip, find some dirt, run someone down….watch YouTube for two hours…get the latest football scores. But if you want to put a whopping on the devil, hang around godly people and fellowship!

5. Go out and fellowship after church and talk about things that build up spiritual character. Man I promise you the devil hates that. Most of all never invite the server to church. They would not like the church. Go home and pout, or kick the dog, get carnal. Drive up and down skid row and see if you can sin a little. Go to a bar or club or drug party…. But if you want to put a whopping on the devil… Go with good people and have good fellowship.

Thanks for reading today.

 

The Temple Wednesday, Nov 5 2014 

Doctrine kennethbow 8:36 am

If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are. 1Corinthians 3.17.

While reading this today I looked up the word temple and was surprised at the meaning. The metaphorical meaning is: the spiritual temple consisting of the saints of all ages joined together by and in Christ.

That would mean if I defile this temporal temple I not only defile myself but all the other men and women who have stood for truth throughout the ages. Sin brings contamination to the entire temple and the multitudes who have lived clean in centuries past.

We are compelled to live soberly, righteously and godly in this present age, not just for ourselves, but for all those who have gone before us holding up the torch of Godliness.

Thanks for reading today!

 

The Abraham factor… Thursday, Aug 21 2014 

Biblical history and Church news and Old Testament and Political kennethbow 2:20 pm

Abraham is the father of three world religions. How much more can one life contribute to planet earth?

Abraham is considered the father of Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. This encompasses much of the population of earth. Geographically it is quite a large area covered by these three religions. I would imagine most countries of the world are affected by at least one or more of these religions.

I had a discussion with a young pastor on the east coast and he contributed an interesting observation.

Pastor Bart Adkins of High Point, North Carolina is one of the brilliant young Apostolics of this generation. He is also a talented musician, singer and speaker. He made this observation:

“I had a conversation with dad one day musing on the thought that God has
attempted to make himself known to all the peoples of the Earth. It is
interesting to me in thinking about Judaism, Islam, and Christianity,
specifically, as though each one almost displays a particular aspect of God’s
character. The Jews had His law and Word, to a science. The Muslims have His War
and Judgement. The Christians have seen the revelation of His Grace and Mercy.”

Thank you Pastor Adkins for that keen insight.

Thanks for reading today….

 

The Sower Thursday, Aug 7 2014 

Uncategorized kennethbow 11:32 am

Matthew 13:3 (KJV)
3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow;

It was the beginning of the second year of Jesus’ ministry. The religious leaders were growing increasingly wary of Jesus and began to pepper him with questions that illustrated their doubts. To avoid confrontation and debate that only led to confusion, Jesus began to speak in parables.

He had just been accused of working supernatural miracles by the power of evil, and while in this moment of confrontation, Jesus’ family arrived. Jesus throws down the gauntlet of future discipleship by declaring who his family was. His proclamation that his disciples were his family, separated him from the umbilical cord of family ties once and for all.

Matthew says “the same day”, Jesus began to speak the parables of Matthew 13. Jesus deliberately chose this method to reveal truth to his followers and conceal truth from his accusers.

The first parable Jesus spoke was about a sower that sowed seed in various places and the ensuing harvest.

I broach this subject today because it is my opinion many of us feel unqualified to teach a Bible study or witness or win a soul. This parable illustrates some interesting things to us.

For all of us who think we must be well prepared, intelligent, or qualified, to win souls, I want to point out some basic points.

The sower was not brilliant. In fact he/she was not a good sower at all! What sower with good sense would scatter seed where birds would immediately eat it up? If the sower was such a hot shot sower, why did he/she sow seed where the ground was stony and shallow? If Mr or Mrs Sower was as smart as we think we need to be to work with lost people, why did he/she sow seed among weeds?

I point out the obvious conclusion, the sower is not that important! The seed is what is important!

Even dumb sowers will get results if they just keep sowing. What would happen if all of us stopped making excuses about not knowing enough, or about being illiterate about the Bible, etc., and just sowed seed?

What if we stopped being soil analyzers and just threw seed there anyway? What if we stopped looking at the outward circumstances and just threw seed there anyway?

Maybe there is good ground not being reached because we analyze the soil before we sow? Maybe we feel like we need some kind of Union Card for Sowers International or something?

Maybe if we quit looking at the sower (us), and just threw seed everywhere like in the parable, maybe just maybe we would see more of a harvest?

Thanks for reading today….

 

The discarded Christian trait…. Friday, Aug 1 2014 

Doctrine and Motivational kennethbow 11:42 am

Ephesians 4.32 “And be ye kind one to another”

I Corinthians 13.4 “Charity suffereth long and is kind”

Kind: To show oneself mild, to be kind, use kindness.

I see a social phenomenon that troubles me. It is the habit some develop under the guise of humor or teasing that puts another person down so the person with inferiority can feel better about themselves.

Many barbed statements are communicated and then at the end, the attached “lol” is supposed to soften or deny the intent of the barb. By this means many people who do not feel good about themselves, or feel inferior, seem to put others down so they can feel better about themselves.

In my opinion this habit of teasing has a subtil purpose. Possibly it becomes a habit and the person may not ever realize they do it. Possibly they are in an environment where it is constant so they join the verbal fray. Whatever the reason it goes against Biblical teaching of honoring and esteeming one another.

I will possibly be looked at in this post as a “knit picker” or overly critical or even someone who cannot take the banter. However, let me take a Biblical approach. That is always safe 🙂

Is there Biblical teaching on this matter? Yes, there actually is. As a christian we are instructed to act and speak to one another in kindness. We are made to know from many places in scripture that our words are important. They can heal and they can wound.

There are times when the person who is the butt of the remark smiles and shows a good spirit, but down inside they feel the sting or hurt.

Are we big enough as Apostolics to look in the mirror and acknowledge this is part of living for God also? There are some inward standards that are important as well as our outward standards of dress and life style.

Putting another child of God down through humor or teasing them can indeed have consequences spiritually. We are judged by how we judge others. If we criticize, demean, make unkind jokes, and generally speak unkindly of others, well that is what gets delivered in our spiritual mailbox!

Colossians 4.6 Let your speech be always with grace…(grace here means: that which affords joy, delight, sweetness, charm, loveliness).

I am an advocate of kind words, upbuilding words, words that encourage another pilgrim on the road to the Celestial City! Let’s help one another get to heaven by making their journey lighter and easier!

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord…

Thanks for reading today…

 

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