firstIMPRESSIONS
from Senior Pastor Timothy Satryan

In Genesis 15:14, the Lord says this concerning the nation of Israel and their Egyptian captors, “But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.”

God kept the people of Israel enslaved 400 years! But when the time came to free them from the bondage of slavery, they came out with great possessions!

These physical possessions symbolize the spiritual possessions we receive when we come out of being enslaved to those things that have hindered us all our lives.

Whenever God brings you through a time of great adversity, you can expect to come out of that experience with great possessions – if you have been faithful through the trial. This is a universal truth! When we have been tested and proven, the reality of our faith results in possessions from God that we would never receive if we had not gone through those trials. These are precious possessions in His sight and should be greatly valued.

Those who know you will be amazed at the wisdom that comes from your mouth. It is one of those mysteries of the gospel that only those who experience incredible testing and hardship can explain. These possessions are to be shared with others so that they also can know how they might become free.

What has God freed you from that allows you to share your possessions with others? Share what God has done in your life with someone you work with today. It may be the possession they need most in their life!

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 7.23. Live for God, on purpose, for He who the Son sets free is free indeed!

Have you ever heard of Kevin Allen? Probably not. But, he was the Philadelphia Eagles’ first round draft choice in 1985. In fact, he was drafted ahead of Randall Cunningham!

Kevin Allen was an offensive tackle, drafted in the first round out of Indiana. But, he proved to be a colossal bust as a pass-protector and drive-blocker. Buddy Ryan, head coach at the time, said that Allen was a good player to have “if you want someone to stand around and kill the grass.” Things were no better for Allen off the field, as he ended up serving time in prison.

He had great potential. And there were many high expectations of Kevin Allen. But, he never lived up to his potential.

This week, we will honor our 2007 graduates here at WFA. We are proud of all our graduates, from high school all the way through college and university. We will celebrate this milestone accomplishment in their lives! But, graduation is not the end of their life, but the beginning! The time begins now for them to live up to the potential that lies within them!

Each one of us – graduates included – have tremendous potential in our lives. But potential is only realized if we put into action the principles that the Lord has given us in His Word for our life.

This Sunday, as we honor our graduates, we will share from 1 Corinthians 13:13 about three key factors we need to latch onto if we are to truly reach our greatest potential! Don’t miss it!

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Although our messages have been available on the net at our web site for quite some time, we are pleased to announce that we are now “podcasting” my sermons! You can subscribe to the WFA podcast here – http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=257450044 and then each message will automatically be downloaded to your iPod. Subscribe, and then when you sync your mp3 player, the newest message will be there, ready for you to listen to anytime, anywhere!

Alternatively, you may also subscribe using any multi-media capable web browser or RSS reader. Just go here to subscribe – http://feeds.feedburner.com/WFA.

All messages from the past year continue to be available for you to download to your computer from our website. Just point your browser to http://www.wfa.org/sermons/, select the message you want, and click on the format you desire.

Be aware that each month, message older than one year are removed to make room for the newer ones that are added. So, be sure to download any you want before the end of the month!

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by Warren Kramer

What do you get for speeding? Why you get a ticket and a fine, that’s what. What do you get for safe driving? A reward? Only if “no ticket” can be considered a reward. How about if you have a perfect driving record? Don’t you get SOMETHING? Nope. The only reward you get is NOT having the headaches of fines, insurance hikes (maybe), and accidents.

The law can only condemn. It cannot supply a reward for good behavior.

In the same way, heaven cannot be attained through good behavior. Heaven is a reward. If you were perfect – if you could follow life’s rules to perfection throughout your life – you can’t, but if you could – the best you could hope for is to avoid the penalty due all those who break the law. You would not gain a reward.

To gain heaven, you need an advocate. One full of grace who is willing to bestow an undeserved reward upon you. Fortunately, there is such an Advocate available to you. And you need not follow life’s rules to perfection to gain this advocacy for yourself. You need only acknowledge Him for who He is...

as seen in Warren Kramer’s “Daily Wisdom” email devotional on June 7, 2007. Visit his website at www.dailywisdom.com

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by Steve Troxel

At the end of his third missionary journey, Paul was arrested in Jerusalem, transferred about 40 miles up the road to Caesarea, and sat in prison for over two years before being sent by boat to stand trial in Rome. During the journey to Rome, a storm blew the ship off course and threatened to kill everyone on board.

Acts 27:30-32 says “In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea, pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, ‘Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.’ So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall away.”

Where is our true security? Most of us have lifeboats which we keep close to our side. Even after we’ve accepted the forgiveness and saving grace of Jesus, we tend to keep the lifeboats – just in case. We say we’re trusting our future to God, but we still make sure every step of our life is planned for the next 30 years and fight any attempt to deviate from “the plan” – just in case.

We say we understand the concept of eternity and the idea that our life is “a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14), but we still strive for titles and positions so our friends and family can remember us as “successful” – just in case. We say we want to live for Jesus and praise our Heavenly Father for all eternity, but we still don’t want to miss the immediate pleasures of the world – just in case.

If we keep one foot in the ship and one foot in the lifeboat, we will never live as God desires. It makes absolutely no sense to say we believe and trust God with our eternity and yet fail to trust Him with the uncertainties of tomorrow or the storms of today. Cutting the lifeboats means we place ALL our trust in God, believe His Word as truth, and live accordingly: “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

We MUST stay with the ship! A saving relationship with Jesus implies we have recognized the eternal storm of sin which threatened to sink us to the pit of hell, but it also implies we are clinging to His forgiveness as the ONLY way to be saved; “for there is no other name under Heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12).

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to reveal any area of our life which is not consistent with a life of unrestrained belief and trust. Then, let’s ask for the strength and courage to, once and for all, give Him ALL of our heart and cut the lifeboats.

as seen in Steve Troxel’s “God’s Daily Word” on July 7, 2007. You can visit his website at http://www.gdwm.org

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Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood.

Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of Albrecht Durer’s elder children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy.

After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy.

Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines. They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg.

Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht’s etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works.

When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht’s triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition.

His closing words were, “And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you.”

All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, “No... no... no... no.”

Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, “No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look, look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother... for me it is too late.”

More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer’s hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer’s works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office.

One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother’s abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply “Hands,” but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love “The Praying Hands.”

The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one, no one, ever makes it alone!

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by Alan Smith

A picky customer comes to a small food shop and sees a new delivery of fresh fruit. “Give me two pounds of oranges and wrap every orange up in a separate piece of paper, please,” he says to the saleswoman.

She does.

“And a pound of cherries, please, and wrap up every one in a separate piece of paper, too.”

She does, although frustrated with the demand.

“And what is that there?” he asks pointing out a bushel in the corner.

“Raisins,” says the saleswoman, “but they are not for sale!”

There’s nothing wrong with a customer in a grocery store who wants to individually wrap each piece of fruit. But it reminds me that sometimes we tend to do the same thing with our lives. We wrap up a piece of our lives and give it to our family. We wrap up another piece of our lives and give it to our employer. We wrap up another piece of our lives and leave it laying on the couch in front of the television set. Oh... and we certainly don’t want to forget God! So we wrap up an hour of our lives and give it to Him on Sunday morning.

There’s only one problem with that approach to life (but a very big problem it is!). God doesn’t just want the hour of our lives that we have wrapped up and presented to Him (no matter how beautiful the wrapping paper may be). He wants all the pieces! He wants the part of our lives that we designate for family, and the part we designate for work, and even the part we designate for recreation. Every piece of our lives is to be lived with the purpose of bringing God the glory.

“Therefore whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.” (1 Corinthians 10:31)

“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and with all your mind.” (Matthew 22:37)

When you stop thinking about the small part of your life that you’re giving to God and see yourself giving Him every moment of every day, life will take on new meaning for you.

This article by Alan Smith, Senior Pastor of the Helen Street Church of Christ in Fayetteville, North Carolina. You can visit his site at http://www.TFTD-online.com

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by Jim Liebelt

So I will always remind you of these things, even though you know them and are firmly established in the truth you now have. – 2 Peter 1:12

The story has been told (source unknown) of an old ship captain. Every morning the captain would walk into his office, approach a locked desk drawer, take a key out of his pocket, unlock the drawer, take out a book, read and then replace the book and re-lock it in the drawer. He would then go about his duties for the day. For years, the captain’s lieutenant watched him go through this daily ritual.

Upon the captain’s retirement, the lieutenant was promoted to become the new captain. As part of the changing of the ship’s command, the old captain handed over the key to the desk drawer and said, “Guard your ways well, sir, that you follow the advice given in the book. If you do so, you will succeed.”

The new captain couldn’t wait to see what the book contained that had so inspired the old captain and provided so much wisdom all of those years. He anticipated finding the words of another great sea captain, perhaps those of a great philosopher or even the wisdom of the Scriptures. So he rushed right away to the office, unlocked the drawer, pulled out the book and opened it. In the book he found only one page with writing upon it. On that page were two sentences:

“Port is left.”
“Starboard is right.”

This story is a simple reminder of how some of the basic things in life cannot be overlooked. Living as a Christ-follower is no different. While the Scriptures do challenge us to move towards maturity in our faith, the call to remember the basics is also found. There are some very basic components of the Christian life that we should remind ourselves of repeatedly in order to make sure that we don’t forget and move away from important areas like simple, loving devotion to Christ.

Today, reflect for a moment on how your life might be different if every day when you wake up you remind yourself of the basic truth that you are dead to sin and alive to God through Christ Jesus. This kind of daily reminder might just make a world of difference!

as seen in “Today’s HomeWord,” a daily devotional with Jim Burns. Visit them online at www.homeword.com

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On Sunday, the new young pastor arrived at the small country church, and found only an old farmer had shown up.

After waiting a while, the disappointed the pastor remarked to the old farmer, “Well, it appears no one else is coming, so we should probably cancel service today”

The farmer, dressed in his Sunday best, looked at the young preacher and said, “Well pastor, I don’t know much ‘bout preachin', but I do know something bout farmin’ and if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I’d still feed ‘em”

This excited the young preacher who preached for the next 45 minutes a fierce fire and brimstone sermon. Afterwards the pastor asked the old farmer what he thought.

The old farmer remarked, “Well pastor, I don’t know much bout preachin', but I do know somethin’ ‘bout farmin’ and if I went out in the field and found only one cow, I wouldn’t give ‘em the whole bale.”

Looking forward to giving out the whole bale of hay this Sunday! Hope there is more than just one old farmer there to share in the “feedin’”! As we honor our graduates, we will also have a cake and coffee reception following the service in the Fellowship Hall. Don’t miss this great Sunday here at WFA!