firstIMPRESSIONS
from Senior Pastor Timothy Satryan

We like the outcome of the Apostle’s lives, but we need to be reminded of the cost of discipleship and total surrender to Jesus as Lord. What did it cost the disciples to be true followers of Jesus? For most, the Bible doesn’t tell us, but there is historical record available.

So, what does history tell of the last moments of Christ’s first followers? For the record here is the cost: History tells us...

1. John died of extreme old age exiled to the island of Patmos.

2. Judas Iscariot, after betraying his Lord, hanged himself.

3. Peter was crucified; head downward, during the persecution of Nero.

4. Andrew died on a cross at Patrae, a Grecian Colony.

5. James, the younger, son of Alphaeus, was thrown from a pinnacle of the Temple, and then beaten to death with a club.

6. Bartholomew was flayed alive in Albanapolis, Armenia.

7. James, the elder son of Zebedee, was beheaded at Jerusalem.

8. Thomas, the doubter, was run through the body with a lance at Coromandel, in the East Indies.

9. Philip was hanged against a pillar at Heropolis.

10. Thaddeus was shot to death with arrows.

11. Simon died on a cross in Persia (what we now call Iran.).

12. Matthew was first stoned and then beheaded.

What sacrifices! And I ask you why? Why did they choose to die this way? Why leave your father and mother, your wife and child, and your home? Why put up with the constant humiliation, and hunger, and persecution, and defeat town after town after town? I’ll tell you why. In the words of Apostle Paul, they were held captive by the words and teachings of Jesus Christ. It is Paul’s way of saying they were slaves to Christ.

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 5.44. Live for God, on purpose, committed to Him no matter what the cost may be.

Let’s say a guy named Roger is attracted to a woman named Elaine. He asks her out to a movie; she accepts; they have a pretty good time. A few nights later he asks her out to dinner, and again they enjoy themselves. They continue to see each other regularly, and after a while neither one of them is seeing anybody else.

And then, one evening when they’re driving home, a thought occurs to Elaine, and without really thinking, she say it aloud: “Do you realise that, as of tonight, we’ve been seeing each other for exactly six months?” And then there is silence in the car.

To Elaine, it seems like a very loud silence. She thinks to herself: Geez, I wonder if it bothers him that I said that. Maybe he’s been feeling confined by our relationship; maybe he thinks I’m trying to push him into some kind of obligation that he doesn’t want, or isn’t sure of.

And Roger is thinking: Gosh. Six months.

And Elaine is thinking; But, hey, I’m not so sure I want this kind of relationship either. Sometimes I wish I had a little more space, so

I’d have time to think about whether I really want us to keep going the way we are, moving steadily toward...I mean, where are we going? Are we just going to keep seeing each other at this level of intimacy? Are we heading toward marriage? Toward children? Toward a lifetime together? Am I ready for that level of commitment? Do I really even know this person?

And Roger is thinking...so that means it was...let’s see...February when we started going out, which was right after I had the car at the dealer’s, which means...lemme check the odometer...Whoa! I am way overdue for an oil change here!

And Elaine is thinking: He’s upset. I can see it on his face. Maybe I’m reading this completely wrong. Maybe he wants more from our relationship, more intimacy, more commitment; maybe he has sensed even before I sensed it – that I was feeling some reservations. Yes, I bet that’s it. That’s why he’s so reluctant to say anything about his own feelings. He’s afraid of being rejected.

And Roger is thinking: And I’m gonna have them look at the transmission again. I don’t care what those morons say, it’s still not shifting right. And they better not try to blame it on the cold weather this time. What cold weather? It’s 87 degrees out, and this thing is shifting like garbage truck, and I paid those incompetent thieves $600.

And Elaine is thinking: He’s angry. And I don’t blame him. I’d be angry, too. I feel so guilty, putting him through this, but I can’t help the way I feel. I’m just not sure.

And Roger is thinking: They’ll probably say it’s only a 90-day warranty....scumballs.

And Elaine is thinking:_ Maybe I’m just too idealistic, waiting for a knight to come riding up on his white horse, when I’m sitting right next to a perfectly good person, a person I enjoy being with, a person I truly do care about, a person who seems to truly care about me, a person who is in pain because of my self-centred, schoolgirl romantic fantasy.

And roger is thinking: Warranty? They want a warranty? I’ll give them a warranty. I’ll take their warranty and...

“Roger,” Elaine says aloud.

“What?” says Roger, startled.

“Please don’t torture yourself like this,” she says, her eyes beginning to brim with tears. “Maybe I should never have...Oh

God, I feel so...” (She breaks down, sobbing.)

“What?” says Roger.

“I’m such a fool,” Elaine sobs. “I mean, I know there’s no knight. I really know that. It’s silly. There’s no knight, and there’s no horse.”

“There’s no horse?” says Roger.

“You think I’m a fool, don’t you?” Elaine says.

“No!” says Roger, glad to finally know the correct answer.

“It’s just that...it’s that I...I need some time,” Elaine says.

(There is a 15second pause while Roger, thinking as fast as he can, tries to come up with a safe response. Finally he comes up with one that he thinks might work.) “Yes,” he says.

(Elaine, deeply moved, touches his hand.) “Oh, Roger, do you really feel that way?” she says.

“What way?” says Roger.

“That way about time,” says Elaine.

“Oh,” says Roger. “Yes.”

(Elaine turns to face him and gazes deeply into his eyes, causing him to become very nervous about what she might say next, especially if it involves a horse. At last she speaks.) “Thank you, Roger,” she says.

“Thank you,” says Roger.

Then he takes her home, and she lies on her bed, a conflicted, tortured soul, and weeps until dawn, whereas when Roger gets back to his place, he opens a bag of Doritos, turns on the TV, and immediately becomes deeply involved in a rerun of a tennis match between two Czechoslovakians he never heard of. A tiny voice in the far recesses of his mind tells him that something major was going on back there in the car, but he is pretty sure there is no way he would ever understand what, and so he figures it’s better if he doesn’t think about it.

The next day Elaine will call her closest friend, or perhaps two of them, and they will talk about this situation for six straight hours.

In painstaking detail, they will analyse everything she said and everything he said, going over it time and time again, exploring every word, expression, and gesture for nuances of meaning, considering every possible ramification.

They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks, maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never getting bored with it, either.

Meanwhile, Roger, while playing racquetball one day with a mutual friend of his and Elaine’s, will pause just before serving, frown, and say: “Norm, did Elaine ever own a horse?”

And that’s the difference between men and women.

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by Brian Stromsoe

There is prayer, and then there is real PRAYER! Many of my prayers are wimpy, soggy, and spineless. A lot of bed time, meal time, “God bless all of the people in the world” type of prayer. They may sound good, but not necessarily bring a dead man back to life or cause the sun to stand still.

Then again, I’ve heard of PRAYER. What about Jonah in the belly of the fish? What about Elijah before Ahab’s priests of Baal on Mount Carmel? What about blind Saul waiting in Damascus for Ananias? What about Jeremiah sinking in a muddy cistern up to his armpits? What about Peter on the storm tossed Sea of Galilee as he begins to sink?

Yes, there is prayer, and then there is REAL PRAYER! It seems to me that the belly of a fish has got to be one of the all-time horrible places to find yourself praying. It is dark and wet. It must smell to high heaven. Breathing must be almost impossible. The gastric acids, the occasional influx of sea water, the other bits and pieces of oceanic detritus sloshing by your head. I’ll tell you, I think Jonah’s prayer life went into super high gear about five minutes after he was placed in what I would call “God’s pressure cooker.” And, Elijah, Saul, Jeremiah and Peter (as well as all saints) periodically find themselves in their own “belly of the fish” circumstances of life.

That kind of PRAYER is concentrated desperation focused on the Almighty God and it shakes kingdoms. Look at each of the men mentioned (Jonah, Elijah, Saul/Paul, Jeremiah, and Peter); they were chosen by God to accomplish great deeds. A key ingredient in their “belly of the fish” experiences was their subsequent total and complete submission to God.

Interestingly, as you follow their lives you will note that they did not retire to a life of ease thereafter. No, they were delivered from serious and immediate danger to do battle for God, and they endured great trial and tribulation after God’s deliverance took place. Jonah to Nineveh, Elijah to Ahab, Paul to prison, Jeremiah to captivity, and Peter to martyrdom. Their PRAYER for deliverance was actually a prayer of submission to the will of God and a prayer of dedication to the service of God, no matter what the outcome! Lets be honest. No one likes to find himself in trouble dark enough to be called a “belly of the fish” experience. But, those experiences “get our attention,” and God is suddenly a lot more relevant than he was two days before the event. For instance, your view of God changes when the doctor tells you that your tests are positive for a malignant cancerous tumor. Your vacation to Tarshish will become unimportant as you wrestle with your responsibilities to the people of Nineveh.

Submission to the Will of God is the only logical answer to the prayer of people caught in such circumstances. Doing the Will of God is the only acceptable response.

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A small congregation in the foothills of the Great Smokies built a new sanctuary on a piece of land willed to them by a church member. Ten days before the new church was to open, the local building inspector informed the pastor that the parking lot was inadequate for the size of the building.

Until the church doubled the size of the parking lot, they would not be able to use the new sanctuary. Unfortunately, the church with its undersized parking lot had used every inch of their land except for the mountain against which it had been built.

In order to build more parking spaces, they would have to move the mountain out of the back yard.

Undaunted, the pastor announced the next Sunday morning that he would meet that evening with all members who had “mountain moving faith.” They would hold a prayer session asking God to remove the mountain from the back yard and to somehow provide enough money to have it paved and painted before the scheduled opening dedication service the following week.

At the appointed time, 24 of the congregation’s 300 members assembled for prayer. They prayed for nearly three hours. At ten o'clock the pastor said the final “Amen.” “We’ll open next Sunday as scheduled,” he assured everyone. “God has never let us down before, and I believe He will be faithful this time too.”

The next morning as he was working in his study there came a loud knock at his door. When he called “come in,” a rough looking construction foreman appeared, removing his hard hat as he entered.

“Excuse me, Reverend. I’m from Acme Construction Company over in the next county. We’re building a huge new shopping mall over there and we need some fill dirt. Would you be willing to sell us a chunk of that mountain behind the church? We’ll pay you for the dirt we remove and pave all the exposed area free of charge, if we can have it right away. We can’t do anything else until we get the dirt in and allow it to settle properly.”

The little church was dedicated the next Sunday as originally planned and there were far more members with “mountain moving faith” on opening Sunday than there had been the previous week!

Would you have shown up for that prayer meeting? Some people say faith comes from miracles. But others know: Miracles come from faith!

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Once upon a pew I sat, and heard the preacher ask,

“We need someone to teach a class. Now who will take this task?” Then God sat down beside me there, and said, “Child, that’s for you.” “But, Lord, to stand before a class is one thing I can’t do. Now Betty would be the one to call. There’s nothing she won’t do. I’d rather heard the lesson taught from here upon my pew.”

Once upon a pew I sat, and heard the preacher ask,

“We need someone to lead the songs. Now who will take this task?” Then God sat down beside me there, and said, “Child, that’s for you.” “But, Lord, to sing before a crowd is one thing I can’t do. Now Brother King will do the job. There’s nothing he won’t do. I’d rather hear the music played from here upon my pew.”

Once upon a pew I sat, and heard the preacher ask,

“I need someone to keep the door. Now who will take this task?” Then God sat down beside me there, and said, “Child, that’s for you.” “But saying things to strangers, Lord, is one thing I can’t do. Now Tom can talk to people, Lord. There’s nothing he won’t do. I’d rather someone come to me, and greet me on the pew.”

As years just seemed to pass me by, I heard that voice no more. Until one night I closed my eyes, and woke on heaven’s shore. ’twas four of us together there, to face eternity. God said, “I need just three of you to do a job for me.” “O Lord,” I cried, “I’ll do the job! There’s nothing I won’t do!” But Jesus said, “I’m sorry, Friend, in heaven there’s no pew.”

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by Mark Adams

Bill Wilson pastors an inner city church in New York City. His mission field is a very violent place. He himself has been stabbed twice as he ministered to the people of the community surrounding the church. Once a Puerto Rican woman became involved in the church and was led to Christ. After her conversion she came to Pastor Wilson and said, “I want to do something to help with the church’s ministry.”

He asked her what her talents were and she could think of nothing – she couldn’t even speak English – but she did love children. So he put her on one of the church’s buses that went into neighborhoods and transported kids to church. Every week she performed her duties. She would find the worst-looking kid on the bus, put him on her lap and whisper over and over the only words she had learned in English: “I love you. Jesus loves you.”

After several months, she became attached to one little boy in particular. The boy didn’t speak. He came to Sunday school every week with his sister and sat on the woman’s lap, but he never made a sound. Each week she would tell him all the way to Sunday school and all the way home, “I love you and Jesus loves you.”

One day, to her amazement, the little boy turned around and stammered, “I—I—I love you too!” Then he put his arms around her and gave her a big hug.

That was 2:30 on a Sunday afternoon. At 6:30 that night he was found dead. His own mother had beaten him to death and thrown his body in the trash.

“I love you and Jesus loves you.” Those were some of the last words this little boy heard in his short life—from the lips of a Puerto Rican woman who could barely speak English. This woman gave her one talent to God and because of that a little boy who never heard the word “love” in his own home, experienced and responded to the love of Christ.

What can you give? You and I each have something in our lives, which, if given back to God, could move Jesus and His message further down the road.

from Mark Adams’ “The Roads He Walked – Palm Avenue” Cited on Acesonline/Leadership/Illusrations http://tinyurl.com/cevjg

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When I give NOTHING, I cast a vote to close the church.

When I give LESS than last year, I have experienced a decrease in income, or I have changed my priorities, or I question the need for the work the church is doing.

When I give LESS than one-tenth of my income, I do less than what was required of the poorest Jew.

When I give GRUDGINGLY, I find no joy in my giving, and I am a disappointment to the Lord, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7).

When I REFUSE to plan my giving in advance, I fail to follow God’s plan (2 Corinthians 9:7).

When I give WEEKLY, I help fulfill the planned programs of the church; I make it much easier for myself by avoiding the accumulation of my stewardship obligation; I find joy and satisfaction in my giving; and I follow the God-given plan (1 Corinthians 16:2).

When I give PROPORTIONATELY, I shall be blessed in my giving and will be enriched in every way (2 Corinthians 9:11); and I shall increase my gifts as my income increases.

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A minister was approached by a couple who expressed desire to become members of his congregation. The man said, however, that he was rather busy and did not want to be called on for any service such as working on a committee, teaching a Sunday School class, or singing in the choir.

The wife added that she did not want to be involved either, and not to look for them too often in worship, as they spent a lot of weekends traveling, camping, and visiting relatives. They also indicated that they could not make a pledge because of their many other financial obligations, but would give whatever they could.

The minister thought for a moment and then replied, “I think you folks have stopped at the wrong church. We understand the purpose of Christian community somewhat differently here. The church you want is three blocks down the street.”

The couple left and drove down the street three blocks. There they found an abandoned and boarded-up church building-a dead church, gone out of business.

There’s nothing else that needs to be said.

as seen in “The Timothy Report,” www.timothyreport.com, October 31, 2005

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As an atheist walked through the forest, he smiled at the beauty that was all around him and said: “What natural wonders the powers of evolution have created.” Just then he heard a rustling near the river. He went to investigate and a 7-foot-tall grizzly bear was tearing down the path towards him. The man took off like a shot, and when he got up the courage to look back, he saw the bear was catching up fast. He tried with all his strength to pick up the pace, but he tripped and crashed to the ground. As he tried to get up, the bear jumped on his chest and picked up one paw to whack him. The atheist screamed, “Oh my God!!!”

Time stopped! The bear froze. The forest was silent. Even the river stopped moving. As a bright light shone upon the man, a voice boomed from the heavens, “You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others I don’t exist, and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?”

The atheist looked directly into the light, “It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps could you make the bear a Christian?”

“Very well,” the voice said.

The light went out, the river ran again, and the sounds of the forest resumed. And then the bear dropped its right paw, brought both paws together, bowed its head and spoke: “Lord, for this food which I am about to receive, I am truly thankful.”

Yours for HIM,
Timothy Satryan
Senior Pastor
WILMINGTON first assembly of God

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