firstIMPRESSIONS
from Senior Pastor Timothy Satryan

God always looks at His children for what they will be, not what they are now. The Lord already had seen Gideon as a leader of others, not just a laborer who threshed wheat.

Gideon was an Israelite who lived during a time of oppression from the Midianites. God had allowed Israel to be oppressed because of its rebellion. However, the Israelites cried out to God, and He heard their cry for help. He decided to free them from the oppression of their enemies.

God chose a man with little experience in such matters to lead an army against Midian.

When God came to Gideon through a visit by an angel, the angel’s first words to him were, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” God always looks at His children for what they will be, not what they are now. The Lord had already seen this man as a leader of others, not just a laborer who threshed wheat.

The apostle Paul said, “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13). God has reserved an inheritance for you and me. He has foreordained that we should accomplish great things in His name-not so that we will be accepted or become more valued, but to experience the reality of a living relationship with a God who wants to demonstrate His power through each of us.

What does God want to accomplish through you today? He used Gideon, with only 300 men, to deliver Israel from an army of more than 100,000. He demonstrated His power through one man who was willing to let God use what little faith he had to free a nation from oppression and bring glory to the God of Israel. The Lord delights in showing Himself strong through those who will trust Him.

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 7.09. Live for God, on purpose, for He has great plans for you today – and tomorrow!

Have you ever had a friend who did a great favor for you – something that you needed desperately, but were unable to do or accomplish on your own? When this happens, even though you may be unable to specifically pay the person back for their kindness and their generosity, you nonetheless promise to pay them back in some way at some time.

I can name numbers of folks who have blessed me and my family in so many ways. There is, however, no way that I could ever repay them for the kindnesses they have shown.

More than any friend here on this earth, there is One who has blessed us so immeasurably. Our Lord has done so much for each and every one of us. How could we ever pay Him back?

The Psalmist asks that very question in Psalm 116:12 – “How can I repay the Lord for all His goodness to me?” He then proceeds to tell us how he will repay the Lord.

Although our salvation is free – we could never pay for it – we nevertheless owe the Lord a tremendous debt. How do we repay the Lord? That is the subject of our message this Sunday here at WFA. As we share the Lord’s Supper together, we will also consider the 116th Psalm, in a message we have titled “How Can I Repay the Lord?” Don’t miss it!

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You’re familiar with them. They’re those small slips of paper left with permission in a cash box or a verbal agreement between friends. They’re different than a favor owed (the most expensive thing in the world), and in some ways more serious than a legal document. Their validity is based more on relationship than legality. For them to function correctly, trust and integrity are needed...

It occurs to me that I owe a great debt of gratitude for the unfailing love of Christ and the mercy He demonstrates daily in my life. Grace is a gift and calls for an appropriate and proportional response on my part both to God and to the world. Sometimes I’m impatient in the interval between GRACE and GRACIOUS. I don’t have any problem with grace. It’s that tricky suffix that sometimes trips me up. I forget that the same word extended to me calls for me to be transformed by its power and add the IOUS to the everyday practicality of my life. To be a gracious person does not come naturally. I have to work at being surrendered to that life changing grace.

It’s not like a penance offered for an offense. We can never repay God for His love and forgiveness. No, what we are called to do is to remember what He did for us at Calvary and do the same for others.

It’s as though we open the box of IOUS our sin caused and find a blood stained stamp that reads, “paid in full”! Our memory functions to remind us just how much we owed. God’s grace asks, “What are you talking about? Now, go and live a life of forgiveness!"WOW!....

It occurs to me that my life is supposed to be the “Thank You” for those cancelled IOU’s. And when I remember what God has forgiven, I become GRACIOUS to others.

from Bobby Sanderson’s writing in “Evangel,” the weekly newsletter of First Baptist Church, Columbus, Mississippi, January 25, 2007 (Vol. 75, No. 4), p. 3.

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by James W. Foley

Drop a pebble in the water: just a splash, and it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on.
Spreading, spreading from the center, flowing on out to the sea.
And there is no way of telling where the end is going to be.

Drop a pebble in the water: in a minute you forget,
But there’s little waves a-flowing, and there’s ripples circling yet,
And those little waves a-flowing to a great big wave have grown;
You’ve disturbed a mighty river just by dropping in a stone.

Drop an unkind word, or careless: in a minute it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on.
They keep spreading, spreading, spreading from the center as they go,
And there is no way to stop them, once you’ve started them to flow.

Drop an unkind word, or careless: in a minute you forget;
But there’s little waves a-flowing, and there’s ripples circling yet,
And perhaps in some sad heart a mighty wave of tears you’ve stirred,
And disturbed a life was happy ere you dropped that unkind word.

Drop a word of cheer and kindness: just a flash and it is gone;
But there’s half-a-hundred ripples circling on and on and on,
Bearing hope and joy and comfort on each splashing, dashing wave
Till you wouldn’t believe the volume of the one kind word you gave.

Drop a word of cheer and kindness: in a minute you forget;
But there’s gladness still a-swelling, and there’s joy a-circling yet,
And you’ve rolled a wave of comfort whose sweet music can be heard
Over miles and miles of water just by dropping one kind word.

from the collection “The Best Loved Poems of the American People,” Hazel Felleman, editor (New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1936), pp. 124-125. As seen in “The Timothy Report,” www.timothyreport.com on February 19, 2007

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Stretching south for hundreds of miles from Glacier National Park lies a majestic mixture of valleys, rushing streams, and gargantuan mountains called the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Backpackers have hiked there for decades looking for elk, grizzlies and golden eagles. Fortunately the grizzlies stay up in the high country, but a golden eagle may be spotted and the elusive wolverine may be tracked.

The Bob Marshall Wilderness hosts some 90,000 packers and hikers each year, most of them in the months of July and August. They must come in either by foot or horseback. No motorized vehicles are allowed. The forests on those rugged mountain slopes are thick with Lodgepole Pine, a tough, hardy tree with cones so thick that only extreme heat can burst forth the seeds. That’s where fire comes in. For thousands – oh, millions of years – lightning has cracked the big sky out there down to the forests below. (Often the lightning will hit the Douglas Firs, less rugged than the Lodgepole Pines, and a forest fire will begin.)

For years, of course, the United States Forest Service fought furiously to put out these fires. More recently, they have adopted a policy of managed fires. They have learned these fires have a purpose. Without them the seeds of the Lodgepole Pines are never released. Without them much of the underbrush and plant life there does not regenerate. The earth needs a fire cast on it or it will die.

Jesus, speaking to Peter, that blustery, Lodgepole Pine kind of a man, said, “Peter, I have a fire to cast over the earth, and how I am constrained until it be kindled!” (Luke 12:49 NAS) What did Jesus mean? He knew that Peter, like all of his disciples, was a wilderness that needed fire or he would die. Peter needed the fire of God’s Word to keep his heart from freezing over and to keep the passion of his soul from cooling down.

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A fellow who had been reared in the city bought a farm and several milk cows. In the feed store one day he complained his best cow had gone dry.

“Aren’t you feeding her right?” asked the store owner.

“I’m feeding her what you’ve been selling me,” said the man.

“Are you milking her every day?”

“Just about. If I need six or eight ounces of milk for breakfast, I go out and get it. If I don’t need any, I don’t get it – I just let her save it up.”

The feed store owner had to explain it doesn’t work that way. With cow’s milk, like God’s presence, you take all that’s there, or you eventually have nothing. Asking for God’s power in six-ounce doses, or asking sporadically only at our convenience, may mean that for us, the source dries up.

from Leadership, Vol. 6, no. 3. Submitted by Don Aycock, Franklinton, Louisiana. As seen in A Dose of Inspiration. Subscribe to A Dose of Inspiration by sending an email to adoseofinspiration-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

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by Bill Bouknight

In 1972, NASA launched the exploratory space probe “Pioneer 10.” Its main mission was to reach Jupiter and send back information about that planet. It was a bold plan because at that time no satellite had gone beyond Mars. Pioneer 10 accomplished its mission and so much more. In November 1973 it swung past Jupiter, then it passed Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto. By 1997, Pioneer 10 was more than six billion miles from the sun.

Despite that immense distance, Pioneer 10 continued to beam back radio signals to earth. The most remarkable thing was that those signals were powered by an 8-watt transmitter, which radiates about as much power as a bedroom night light. Not even the most optimistic scientist could have ever imagined what that little 8-watt transmitter could do.

So it is when you and I offer ourselves to God in faithful obedience. It’s just incredible what God can do through little 8-watt transmitters like you and me, when we’re turned on for Him.

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The Sunday school teacher was carefully explaining the story of Elijah the prophet and the false prophets of Baal. She explained how Elijah built the altar, put wood upon it, cut the steer in pieces, and laid it upon the altar. And then, Elijah commanded the people of God to fill four barrels with water and pour it over the altar. He had them do this three times.

“Now,” said the teacher, “can anyone in the class tell me why the Lord would have Elijah pour water over the steer on the altar?”

A little girl in the back of the room started waving her hand, “I know! I know!” she said. “To make the gravy!”

It’s going to be a great time of worship this Sunday here at WFA! Come with an open and expectant heart, believing that the Lord is going to do great things in your life!