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firstIMPRESSIONS
The other frogs kept telling them to stop, that they were as good as dead. Finally, one of the frogs took heed to what the other frogs were saying and simply gave up. He fell down and died. The other frog continued to jump as hard as he could. Once again, the crowd of frogs yelled at him to stop the pain and suffering and just die. He jumped even harder and finally made it out. When he got out, the other frogs asked him, “Why did you continue jumping? Didn’t you hear us?” The frog explained to them that he was deaf. He thought they were encouraging him the entire time. This story holds two lessons: 1. There is power of life and death in the tongue. An encouraging word to someone who is down can lift them up and help them make it through the day. 2. A destructive word to someone who is down can be what it takes to kill them. Be careful of what you say. Speak life to those who cross your path. The power of words... it is sometimes hard to understand that an encouraging word can go such a long way. Anyone can speak words that tend to rob another of the spirit to continue in difficult times. Special is the individual who will take the time to encourage another. 1 Thessalonians 5:11 tells us “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” Be special to others! Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 4.14. Live for God, on purpose, sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ, so that we “may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” (Romans 1:12) |
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 The Character of the Heart
What makes you “you”? When it comes down to the essence of who you are, what is it that really makes the difference in the choices you make, the things you decide, and the conclusions that you come to? The Bible says in Jeremiah 17:9-10 that “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? 'I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.'" You see, it is really a matter of the heart as to what and who you are. I have often been drawn to the passage in Acts 17, which describes the believers in Berea as being “of more noble character” than those in Thessalonica. Why would Paul take the time to specifically say these very pointed words? Paul tells us why the Bereans were of more noble character in the following verses. And, I believe that this is found in the scriptures so that we may learn from it, and so that we, too, may develop in the character of our heart. This Sunday morning, we will examine Acts 17:10-12, and find the three reasons that the Bereans were of “more noble character” than the Thessalonians in a message that I have titled “The Character of the Heart.” You will be encouraged and strengthened by this message! Don’t miss it! (top) Grove City College Touring Choir
This Sunday night, April 4th, the Grove City College Touring Choir will present a concert of sacred choral music at WILMINGTON first assembly of God. My oldest daughter, Jessica, is a freshman at GCC, and was selected by audition to be a member of the Touring Choir. (She is pictured in the front row, center of the choir.) You won’t want to miss this special time of music ministry. Make plans now to attend, and bring your friends with you! The Grove City College Touring Choir, under the direction of Professor of Music, Dr. Douglas A. Browne, is a select group of forty singers. The choir, consisting of students of a variety of academic majors, tours annually during the week of Easter break through various regions of the United States. The choir seeks to praise and glorify God and to minister to others through the medium of music, striving together to achieve choral excellence. In addition to the spring tour, the choir performs for churches, schools, and various events in the western Pennsylvania area. Recent honors include performing for the Pennsylvania Music Educators’ National Conference Eastern Division Conventions, with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and recently for the American Choral Directors Association. Grove City College was founded in 1876 and has a three-part mission to provide a high-quality education in a thoroughly Christian environment at an affordable cost. Grove City is a truly independent and private college, which accepts no federal funding in order to protect the integrity of its mission. Since its founding, Grove City College, committed to Christian principles, has striven to be equal in academic quality to the finest four year colleges. It seeks to provide liberal and professional education of the highest quality that is within the reach of families with modest means who desire a college that will strengthen their children’s spiritual and moral character. Grove City College is a residential, undergraduate campus of approximately 2300 students. It is located in northwest Pennsylvania near the intersection of I-80 and I-79 – about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. Current students represent 45 states and 11 foreign countries. The 150 acre campus is located on the edge of Grove City, PA – a town of approximately 8000 residents. The college is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools. You can visit Grove City College on the web at http://www.gcc.edu (top)  Pastor Stops Attending Sporting Events
Twelve reasons why a local clergyman stopped attending athletic events: • Every time I went, they asked me for money. • The people with whom I had to sit didn’t seem very friendly. • The seats were too hard and not comfortable. • The coach never came to call on me. • The referee made a decision with which I could not agree. • I was sitting with some hypocrites—they came only to see what others were wearing. • Some games went into overtime, and I was late getting home. • The band played some numbers that I had never heard before. • The games are scheduled when I want to do other things. • My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up. • Since I read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches anyhow. • I don’t want to take my children because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best. (top)  Thinking About Quitting?
by Alan Smith WARNING: You are about to enter the “pun zone.” Enter at your own risk: • My first job was working in an orange juice factory, but I got canned because I couldn’t concentrate. • Then I worked in the woods as a lumberjack, but I just couldn’t hack it, so they gave me the axe. • After that I tried to be a tailor, but I just wasn’t suited for it. Mainly because it was a so-so job. • Next I tried working in a muffler factory but that was exhausting. • I wanted to be a barber, but I just couldn’t cut it. • Then I tried to be a chef — figured it would add a little spice to my life but I just didn’t have the thyme. • My best job was being a musician, but eventually I found I wasn’t noteworthy. • I studied a long time to become a doctor, but I didn’t have any patients. • Next was a job in a shoe factory; I tried but I just didn’t fit in. • I became a professional fisherman, but discovered that I couldn’t live on my net income. • I managed to get a good job working for a pool maintenance company, but the work was just too draining. • I got a job at a zoo feeding giraffes but I was fired because I wasn’t up to it. • So then I got a job in a gymnasium, but they said I wasn’t fit for the job. • After many years of trying to find steady work I finally got a job as a historian until I realized there was no future in it. • My last job was working at Starbucks, but I had to quit because it was always the same old grind. Seriously, though, why do people quit? Why do some people quit their jobs? Even more importantly, why do some Christians quit following Christ? I have a great love for the book of Hebrews because it addresses that very question. It is written to a group of Hebrew Christians who were considering leaving Christ and going back to Judaism. Why? There are several reasons that surface in the letter. Some apparently missed the spectacular pageantry of Judaism (“Where’s your temple? Where’s your high priest?”). Others were influenced by family and friends who regarded them as outcasts when they embraced Christianity (Heb. 10:32). Still others were apparently considering quitting because they were tired. Tired? Yes, tired. The road of Christianity is a long one, and sometimes difficult. There are times we have all considered just sitting down and giving up. I remember when I was a boy and my family would go to the Blue Ridge Mountains to camp and hike. Hiking was great fun. We would walk down a waterfall and I was full of energy (“Don’t walk so slow! Come on, let’s go!”). But after several miles of hiking, coming back was a different story (“I can’t walk another step. Just go on without me and leave me here by this rock to die!”). The same thing can happen spiritually. That’s why the book of Hebrews is full of admonitions to “hang in there”. “...Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us...lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls...Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees.” (Hebrews 12:1,3,12) Ready to quit? Don’t think you can take even one more step? Hang in there. Don’t give up now. Home is just around the corner This article by Alan Smith, pastor of the White House Church of Christ, White House, Tennessee. You can visit his site at http://www.TFTD-online.com (top)  My King
The Bible says that my King is a seven way King. He's the King of the Jews — that's a racial King. David says that the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork. My king is a Sovereign King. No means of measure can define His limitless love. No far seeing telescope can bring in the visibility of the coastline of His shoreless supplies. No barrier can hinder Him from pouring out His blessings. He's enduringly strong. DO YOU KNOW HIM? He's the greatest phenomena that has ever crossed the horizon of this world. He supplies strength for the weak. I WONDER IF YOU KNOW HIM? THIS IS MY KING! Well, He's the key to knowledge. His office is manifold. He's indescribable… He's indescribable… He's indescribable. The Pharisees couldn't stand Him, but they found out they couldn't stop Him. And Thine is the Kingdom and the Power and the Glory, forever and ever and ever and ever... How long is that?… and ever and ever. And when you get through with all the “forevers”… then AMEN! AMEN!!! AMEN!!! (top)  God’s Embroidery
When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was, the underside. I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand. She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.” I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother’s voice say, “Son, come and sit on my knee.” This I did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy. Then Mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.” Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, “Father, what are You doing?” He has answered, “I am embroidering your life.” I say, “But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?” The Father seems to tell me, “My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side.” GOD’s EMBROIDERY When I was a little boy, my mother used to embroider a great deal. I would sit at her knee and look up from the floor and ask what she was doing. She informed me that she was embroidering. I told her that it looked like a mess from where I was, the underside. I watched her work within the boundaries of the little round hoop that she held in her hand. She would smile at me, look down and gently say, “My son, you go about your playing for a while, and when I am finished with my embroidering, I will put you on my knee and let you see it from my side.” I would wonder why she was using some dark threads along with the bright ones and why they seemed so jumbled from my view. A few minutes would pass and then I would hear Mother’s voice say, “Son, come and sit on my knee.” This I did, only to be surprised and thrilled to see a beautiful flower or a sunset. I could not believe it, because from underneath it looked so messy. Then Mother would say to me, “My son, from underneath it did look messy and jumbled, but you did not realize that there was a pre-drawn plan on the top. It was a design. I was only following it. Now look at it from my side and you will see what I was doing.” Many times through the years I have looked up to my Heavenly Father and said, “Father, what are You doing?” He has answered, “I am embroidering your life.” I say, “But it looks like a mess to me. It seems so jumbled. The threads seem so dark. Why can’t they all be bright?” The Father seems to tell me, “My child, you go about your business of doing My business, and one day I will bring you to Heaven and put you on My knee and you will see the plan from My side.” (top)  Insufferable Roman Cruelty
Paul Lee Tan shares the following words about the cruelty of the Romans in Biblical times— The Romans sometimes compelled a captive to be joined face-to-face with a dead body, and to bear it about until the horrible effluvia destroyed the life of the living victim. Virgil describes this cruel punishment: The living and the dead at his command Without Christ, we are shackled to a dead corpse—our sinfulness. Only repentance frees us from certain death, for life and death cannot co-exist indefinitely. (top) Words of Wisdom “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates “Be humble or you'll stumble.” — Dwight Moody “Experience is one thing you can’t get for nothing.” — Oscar Wilde “We are continuously faced by great opportunities brilliantly disguised as insoluble problems.” — Lee Iacocca “The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.” — John Powell “Only the heart knows how to find what is precious.” — Fyodor Dostoyevsky “Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape.” — Unknown “The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.” — Mark Twain as seen in Richard Innes’ Weekend Encounter, (c) Copyright 2004 ACTS International. Visit them online at http://www.actsweb.org (top)  The Last Impression...
Here is a list of fun things to do during boring sermons (although you will never need this list at our church!) • Pass a note to the organist asking whether he/she plays requests. • See if a yawn really is contagious. • Slap your neighbor. See if they turn the other cheek. If not, raise your hand and tell the preacher. • Devise ways of climbing into the balcony without using the stairs. • Listen for your preacher to use a word beginning with ‘A’ then ‘B’ and so on through the alphabet. • Sit in the back row and roll a handful of marbles under the pews ahead of you. After the service, credit yourself with 10 points for every marble that made it to the front. • Using church bulletins or visitor cards for raw materials, design, test and modify a collection of paper airplanes. • Start from the back of the church and try to crawl all the way to the front, under the pews, without being noticed. • Raise your hand and ask for permission to go to the rest room. I trust that you won’t find this week’s message to be boring! God has surely been pouring out His Spirit in a phenomenal way here at WILMINGTON first assembly of God. The anointing that we experienced last week was just so wonderful, and the excitement at all of the testimonies and water baptisms on Sunday evening was dynamic! I am expecting and anticipating another fantastic day in the Lord’s house this week! See you here! |
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Yours for HIM, |
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The story is told of a group of frogs traveling through the woods, and two of them fell into a deep pit. All the other frogs gathered around the pit. When they saw how deep the pit was, they told the unfortunate frogs they would never get out. The two frogs ignored the comments and tried to jump up out of the pit.
