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Do you know the story of Joshua? And how the wall of Jericho fell down after the Israelites marched around it once a day for six days, then seven times on the seventh day? Why not just walk around Jericho one time? I think it was because God was testing their faith.

God was teaching them that “Waiting time is not wasted time!” Isaiah 28:16 says, “he that believeth shall not make haste.” God is never in a hurry like we are. We get upset when we miss a section in a revolving door! God is also never late. He knows what He is doing.

Do you know what our problem is? We’ve been around Jericho six times and we’re ready to quit.

Psalm 27:14 tells us to “Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.” Say with the psalmist, “My soul, wait you only upon God; for my expectation is from Him.” (Psalm 62:5)

What is it that you are wanting? What do you believe you need? Take comfort in knowing God knows your heart’s desire. Take courage in knowing God’s ways are far better than our ways.

Though it may be hard to wait, God will honor your obedience!

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 8.10. Live for God, on purpose, having confidence that God is in control!

The Duffields in Concert

This Sunday morning will be a special time here at WFA as Jeff and Sue Duffield return with their special blend of worship and praise, testimony and encouragement, all wrapped around a style that is uniquely their own! No strangers to WFA, the Duffields are regular guests at our fellowship. Using great harmonies, outstanding arrangements, and anointed worship, the Duffields communicate Christ’s love in a most unique way.

Jeff and Sue have traveled across the United States and Canada, appearing at churches, concerts, and television and radio programs blessing thousands with their music. Jeff is recognized as one of the leading keyboardists and arrangers in Christian music today, with production credits on over 200 gospel albums. Sue is a gifted vocalist and songwriter, having written over 30 compositions. She also has a background in radio, hosting a morning program for twelve years. Sue’s speaking abilities create demand as a frequent guest at many women’s conferences.

The Duffields always bring a powerful and blessed time in the Lord. You won’t want to miss it!

Interesting Facts About Easter

We are just a few weeks away from Easter Sunday. In case you haven’t yet realized it, Easter is quite early this year. Unlike Christmas, which always occurs on the same date every year, Easter is always the 1st Sunday after the 1st full moon after the Spring Equinox (which is March 20). This dating of Easter is based on the lunar calendar that Hebrew people used to identify passover, which is why it moves around on our Roman calendar.

Based on the above, Easter can actually be one day earlier (March 22), but that is pretty rare.

Here’s the interesting info. This year is the earliest Easter any of us will ever see the rest of our lives! And only the most elderly of our population have ever seen it this early (95 years old or above!). And none of us have ever, or will ever, see it a day earlier! Here are the facts:

1. The next time Easter will be this early (March 23) will be the year 2228 (220 years from now). The last time it was this early was 1913 (so if you’re 95 or older, you are the only ones that were around for that!).

2. The next time it will be a day earlier, March 22, will be in the year 2285 (277 years from now). The last time it was on March 22 was 1818. So, no one alive today has or will ever see it any earlier than this year!

I Don’t Want Them to Change Me

by Alan Smith

Elie Wiesel was brought up in a closely knit Jewish community in Sighet, Transylvania (Romania). When he was fifteen years old, his family was herded aboard a train and deported by Nazis to the Auschwitz death camp. Wiesel’s mother and younger sister died at Auschwitz — his two older sisters survived. Wiesel and his father were then taken to Buchenwald, where his father also perished. Wiesel has devoted his life to ensuring that the world does not forget the atrocities of the Nazis, and that they are not repeated. He tells this story:

A just man decided he must save humanity. So he chose a city, the most sinful of all cities. Then he studied. He learned all the art of moving people, changing minds, changing hearts. He came to a man and woman and said, “Don’t forget that murder is not good, it is wrong.” In the beginning, people gathered around him. It was so strange, somewhat like a circus. They gathered and they listened. He went on and on and on.

Days passed. Weeks passed. After a while, they stopped listening. After many years passed, a child stopped him and said, “What are you doing? Don’t you see nobody is listening? Why do you continue shouting and shouting? Why?”

And the man answered the child, “I’ll tell you why. In the beginning, I was convinced that if I were to shout loud enough, they would change. Now I know they won’t change. But if I shout even louder, it’s because I don’t want them to change me.”

We live in a world where there is a battle going on. I’m not talking about the conflict in Iraq or Afghanistan or Kenya. You may not even be aware that this battle is taking place, but I assure you that it is. It is a spiritual battle being waged between God and his people and Satan and his people (Eph. 6:12). It is a battle for the control of the hearts and minds of men and women, including you and the people around you.

We sometimes use the word “evangelism” to describe our attempt to influence ungodly men in a way that will draw them to God, the God who created them and loves them. But we sometimes forget that efforts (sometimes diligent efforts) are being made by ungodly men to pull us away from God. Be assured of this: One of two things is happening — either you are having an influence on other people, or other people are having an influence on you. It’s a constant battle, much like a tug-of-war.

And there are times, as in the story above, when we need to speak up or take some action, not so much to change others, but to prevent others from changing us.

“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Romans 12:1-2)

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

The Bad News About
the Good News

by Ron Hutchcraft

Not long ago, someone told me about a pastor who stood at the pulpit one Sunday and announced this to his people: “Folks, I have some bad news, some good news, and some bad news.” He had everyone’s attention. “The bad news is that the roof on this church is shot. We have to replace it. But the good news is – we have the money. The bad news is – it’s in your wallets!”

Interesting thought, huh? The money is there for the work God wants to do. But it’s still in our wallets, our bank accounts, our toys.

Recently, a friend who is the head of a major missions organization said, “It’s taking our missionaries three years to get their support raised. And we’ve tried every creative means we can to change that, but nothing has worked.” The experience of their missionaries is echoed by hundreds, and maybe thousands, of missionaries. Here they are ready to get to the people God has called them to reach and they have to wait three years because they can’t get enough financial support. Is it because there’s no money to send them? Probably not. The money is there, it’s just tied up in our wallets. And meanwhile, on the other end, people go on dying without Christ.

In our word for today from the Word of God in Romans 10:14, God asks a series of questions that are very revealing and convicting – uncomfortably revealing really. Pouring out His heart for the people who don’t yet know His Son died for them, God asks, “How, then, can they call on the One they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the One of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent?”

Now where does this bottom line responsibility rest for whether or not lost people ever hear the Good News about Jesus? With the messenger? Apparently not. It’s with the sender. God takes the process of the unreached hearing the message all the way back to its source – a sender. For 2,000 years the Great Commission of Jesus has depended on two kinds of people sacrificially playing their position – the senders and the sendees.

In what may be the fourth quarter of God’s game on earth, there is so much work to be done in Jesus’ name. And it’s going to take money. Money we have tied up in things other than what God gave it to us for. He sacrificed His Son so the lost could be rescued. Many of His workers and messengers are willing to sacrifice to tell the lost about His Son. Rescuing the spiritually dying has always meant sacrifice and no follower of Jesus is exempt. We can’t delegate the sacrifices to a few spiritual warriors. God intends for all of us to spend and be spent in the cause for which His Son was spent.

Lottie Moon was a great missionary hero, who made real great impact on 19th Century China. She asked some hard questions. She said, “Where is the silver and the gold that should be in the Lord’s treasury to send out those men and women who are asking to be sent? Alas! Some are adding more fields to their broad lands. Some are spending in selfish indulgences. So these lost souls go down to death without ever having heard the name of Jesus. In the day of judgment, at whose door will lie this sin?”

By God’s grace, let’s release the funds God gave us to send His messengers. Let’s transfer funds in our account on earth to our eternal account in heaven. The soldiers of Christ are waiting for the bullets they need to win the battle, and it’s in our hands!

Eagles in the Storm

Did you know that an eagle knows when a storm is approaching long before it breaks? The eagle will fly to some high spot and wait for the winds to come. When the storm hits, it sets its wings so that the wind will pick it up and lift it above the storm. While the storm rages below, the eagle is soaring above it. The eagle does not escape the storm. It simply uses the storm to lift it higher. It rises on the winds that bring the storm.

When the storms of life come upon us... and all of us will experience them... we can rise above them by setting our minds and our belief toward Jesus.

The storms do not have to overcome us. We can allow God’s power to lift us above them. God enables us to ride the winds of the storm that bring sickness, tragedy, failure, and disappointment into our lives. We can soar above the storm. Remember, it is not the burdens of life that weigh us down, it is how we handle them. The Bible says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on the wings like eagles.” (Isaiah 40:31)

Top 10 Reasons Eve Was Created

After last week’s little tome about God’s conversation with Adam about creating Eve, I guess I need to give “equal time” here. So, here goes are the “Top Ten Reasons Eve Was Created...”

10. God worried that Adam would frequently become lost in the garden because he would not ask for directions.

9. God knew that Adam would one day require someone to locate and hand him the TV remote.

8. God knew that Adam would never go out and get himself a new fig leaf when his seat wore out and would therefore need Eve to get one for him.

7. God knew that Adam would never be able to make a doctor’s, dentist or haircut appointment for himself.

6. God knew that Adam would never be able to remember which night to put the garbage on the curb.

5. God knew that if the world was to be populated, men would never be able to handle the pain and discomfort of childbearing.

4. As Keeper of the Garden, Adam would never remember where he left his tools.

3. Apparently, Adam needed someone to blame his troubles on when God caught him hiding in the garden.

2. As the Bible says, It is not good for man to be alone!

And finally, the number ONE reason that God created Eve...

1. When God finished the creation of Adam, He stepped back, scratched His head and said, “I can do better than that.”

The Last Impression

A little boy opened the big, old family Bible with fascination, looking at the old pages as he turned them.

Then something fell out of the Bible and he picked up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf from a tree. The leaf had been pressed in between pages.

“Momma, look what I found,” the boy called out.

“What have you got there, dear?” his mother asked.

With astonishment in his voice, the young boy answered: “It’s Adam’s suit!”

Don’t forget that Daylight Saving Time goes into effect this weekend! Before you go to bed on Saturday night, be sure to set your clocks AHEAD by one hour! Spring forward! You won’t want to miss one moment of the great time we have in store with the Duffields joining us here at WFA! See you on Sunday!