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I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “Tough times don’t last – tough people do!” Hard times are inevitable. It’s true that we’ve been redeemed from the curse. And there’s nothing Satan can do to reverse that. But, he is going to challenge you, so don’t be surprised when things get tough!

Times will come when you have to stand strictly by faith – when you’ll have to speak and act as though what God says is true even when you can’t feel it or see it happening around you. There will be times when everything looks terrible. That’s when you must endure hardness as a good soldier.

So many people hear the word of faith and they say, “Hey! I’m going to try that.” Then when the hard times come, they give up and cave in! But, you see, living by faith is not something you try – it’s a way of life.

You do it when it’s hard. You do it when it’s easy. You do it all the time because you’re not doing it just to get in on the benefits. You’re doing it because you know that faith pleases God.

Things may get a little rough at times. But, you’ll always come out on top if you endure hardness as a good soldier! If you refuse to faint, and never fall away, you will have the victory. The only defeated Christian is the one who quits!

Here is your copy of firstIMPRESSIONS, Volume 8.22. Live for God, on purpose, never quitting, never giving up!

Faith Works...
Does Yours?

You may question yourself at times, but if you are a believer in Christ, you are unquestionably a person of faith. Yes – you have faith! Hebrews 11:6 tells us that without faith, it’s impossible to please God. In fact, you can’t even believe that He exists!

The question isn’t if you have faith – but rather, what are you doing with it?!

The apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, but He didn’t do it. He let them know if they had faith even as small as a mustard seed, they could tell a mulberry tree (Luke 17) or even an entire mountain (Mark 11 and Matthew 17 and 21) to get up and move into the sea, and it would have to obey!

Obviously, faith works! But, does yours? Do you find yourself, as the apostles did, asking the Lord for more faith? He wants you instead to learn to use the faith you have!

Since you already have faith, what do you need to do to develop this faith to its fullest potential? How can you move the mountains in your life?

This Sunday morning, we are going to discover seven key ingredients necessary to developing our faith. Be sure to join us as together we discover just how “Faith Works!”

The Seed

In the Far East the emperor was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided to do something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day. He said, “It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you.”

The children were shocked, but the emperor continued. “I am going to give each one of you a seed today – one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor.”

One boy, named Ling, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it, carefully. Every day, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown. After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Ling didn’t have a plant and he felt like a failure. Six months went by – still nothing in Ling’s pot.

He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn’t say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow. A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn’t going to take an empty pot. But his mother asked him to be honest about what happened.

Ling felt sick at his stomach, but he knew his mother was right. He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful — in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other children laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, “Hey, nice try.”

When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back. “My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown,” said the emperor. “Today one of you will be appointed the next emperor!”

All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front. Ling was terrified. He thought, “The emperor knows I’m a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!”

When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. “My name is Ling,” he replied. All the kids were laughing and making fun of him. The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, “Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!”

Ling couldn’t believe it. Ling couldn’t even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?

Then the emperor said, “One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds that would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers. When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!”

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust. If you plant goodness, you will reap friends. If you plant humility, you will reap greatness. If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory. If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony. If you plant hard work, you will reap success. If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation. If you plant faith, you will reap miracles. So be careful what you plant, now; it will determine what you will reap tomorrow. The seeds you now scatter will make life worse or better for you or for the ones who will come after you. Someday you will enjoy the fruits or you will pay for the choices you make.

Two thousand years ago someone else told the same story with fewer words, “What you sow, so shall you reap”. If you know who said this, nothing else needs to be said.

Storms

“And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.” – Matthew 8:26

We can avoid storms in our lives about as often as we can divert weather patterns over our city. Go stand outside and try. The reality is you will always face times of uncertainty. In the landscape of your life, you will enjoy a few blue-sky days, but mostly there will always be a dark cloud gathering somewhere on the horizon of your life, reminding you of the daily need to trust God with tomorrow. You can’t set your hope on the illusion that somehow you’re going to sort everything out one day. There will always be enough to keep you on your knees. And just about the time you think, I don’t really need to pray that much this week-wham. Face it; on this side of eternity, there will never be a day when you won’t need to trust the God who loves you.

My future and yours will be ravaged by the waves until we embrace the fact that God allows these storms for our good. He won’t let us drown. Can you imagine how it would have wrecked the Gospels if it went down like this: There was this storm and Jesus was asleep and four of the disciples drowned? Of course not! He would not let them – nor will He let you – drown.

But back in the moment, the disciples were wild with fear. Even the professional fishermen knew things were out of control. In the original language the disciples said just this: “Lord, save!”

Notice Jesus’ response to them: “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 8:26). Bible scholars debate whether or not that was a rebuke. Matthew was clearly fond of reporting how many times Jesus said it: First, here in Matthew 8:26, when they feared the storm; then in Matthew 14:31, when Peter took his eyes off the Lord and began to sink; again in Matthew 16:8, when they forgot about the miracle of multiplying bread; and again in Matthew 17:20, when they failed to heal the demon possessed boy. “O you of little faith!"-Jesus said it to them a lot.

In my mind’s eye, I see Him smiling when He says it here in the storm. I think it’s tender, like He’s saying, “You don’t get it yet, do you?” He’s not mad at them, but sad that they didn’t think He could take care of them.

Makes you wonder how often He says “O you of little faith!” to us.

Faith Versus Control

“If you give up your life for Me, you will save it.” – Luke 9:24 CEV

When you obsess over problems instead of looking to God for solutions, the enemy will magnify your fears. If he can’t get you to worry about the present he’ll remind you of everything that could go wrong in the future! Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “All I have seen, has taught me to trust the Creator for all I haven’t seen.”

The last time you checked, wasn’t God still bigger than any terrorist attack, financial disaster, illness, accusation, or mess you found yourself in? Well, He hasn’t changed! David said, “He won’t go to sleep... The Lord is... at your right side... [He] will... keep you safe... wherever you go” (Psalm 121:3-8 CEV); plus His angels are watching over you 24/7.

It all comes down to faith versus control. You can struggle to handle things on your own – or trust your Heavenly Father. That’s the choice! It’s not about “blind faith,” it’s about believing that God is who He says He is. And it’s an issue you need to settle in your mind once and for all, because if you don’t believe He wants only the best for you, you’ll keep trying to run the show. Control isn’t responsibility. Responsibility is doing your part by praying, obeying, and trusting God. Control is manipulating the circumstances to engineer the outcome you want.

Jesus knows how we like holding on to things we’re not wise enough to control, so He said, “If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give [it] up... for Me, you will save it” (Luke 9:24 CEV). Bottom line – you either trust God or you don’t!

Shouldn’t Have the Onions

“The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.” – Proverbs 18:21

A young man went to a local restaurant that was voted by locals to have the best hamburgers in the city. As the young man approached the cashier to place his order, he began to rattle off the things he did not want on his burgers. He began to explain to the cashier that he did not want onions because he did not want the smell of them on his breath. Because he had nothing to counter the smell, he knew what he ingested was likely to come out of his mouth and not smell too good. Therefore, he decided that he “shouldn’t have the onions.”

It is important for every Christian to know that everything we ingest will come out in some way or another. If we ingest negativity from people, negativity will begin to come out of our mouths. If we ingest positive things, positive affirmations will come out of our mouths. Negativity is like the smell of onions in the eyes of God and we cannot allow ourselves and/or other people place it in our lives.

Doubt, complaining, self-pity are among the many onions we sometimes ingest. Because we ingest these onions, we begin to speak negative things over our lives, and it stinks. We must decide to no longer think or speak negatively over our lives or allow others to do so. God has purpose and destiny for our lives and the enemy knows this and wants to rob us of it. Therefore, it is up to us not to allow negativity to stink it up, but decide that we “shouldn’t have the onions.”

Kids’ Letters to God

Years ago, a television show discovered that “Kids Say the Darndest Things!” Each Sunday, one of the highlights here at WFA is our weekly children’s sermon. You never know what they will say next! Well, here are some excerpts from letters from some children to God...

Dear God,
Did you mean for the giraffe to look like that or was it an accident?
Norma

Dear God,
Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you have now?
Jane

Dear God,
Who draws the lines around the countries?
Nan

Dear God,
I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church. Is that okay?
Neil

Dear God,
Thank you for my baby brother, but what I prayed for was a puppy.
Joyce

Dear God,
It rained for our whole vacation and is my father mad! He said some things about you that people are not supposed to say, but I hope you will not hurt him anyway.
Your friend (but I am not going to tell you who I am)

Dear God,
Please send me a pony. I never asked for anything before. You can look it up.
Bruce

Dear God,
If we come back as something, please don’t let me be Jennifer Horton, because I hate her.
Denise

Dear God,
I want to be just like my daddy when I get big, but not with so much hair all over.
Sam

Dear God,
I think about you sometimes, even when I’m not praying.
Elliott

Dear God,
I bet it is very hard for you to love all the people in the world. There are only four people in our family and I can never do it.
Nan

Dear God,
Of all the people who worked for you, I like Noah and David the best.
Rob

Dear God,
My brothers told me about being born, but it doesn’t sound right. They are just kidding, aren’t they?
Marsha

Dear God,
If you watch me in church Sunday, I’ll show you my new shoes.
Mickey

Dear God,
We read Thomas Edison made light. But in Sunday school, we learned that you did it. So I bet he stole your idea.
Sincerely, Donna

Dear God,
I do not think anybody could be a better God. Well, I just want you to know that I am not just saying this because you are God already.
Charles

Dear God,
I didn’t think orange went with purple until I saw the sunset you made on Tuesday. That was cool!
Eugene

Dear God,
Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each other so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother.
Larry

The Last Impression

Found these “unofficial” rules for driving in Delaware. After years of living here in the First State, while these rules may be unofficial, I’ve learned that they are well observed!

1. Never, EVER slow down when a light turns yellow. If you’re within half a block of a stop light when it turns yellow, put the pedal to the metal.

2. When attempting to enter a street from any parking lot, make sure that at least the front third of your car is sticking out into the nearest lane.

3. When it starts raining, completely lose your ability to drive and act as if you’ve never done it before.

4. Using your turn signals is absolutely prohibited, except in limited circumstances, such as when you’re five feet from the corner. NEVER use your signal when you’re making a right turn and someone is waiting to pull out into YOUR lane.

5. A red light is not TRULY red until five seconds after the yellow light goes out. And, stop signs only mean “Slow Down.”

Memorial Day has now come and gone, and as the calendar changes to June on Sunday, the summer season has at least unofficially begun. As the kids finish the school year soon, and the weather is nice, all of us will take advantage of the many opportunities to take a break from our regular routines, and get away for holidays and vacations. Be sure to not take a “vacation” from your relationship with the Lord! Aren’t you glad that even in the summer, He doesn’t ever leave us or forsake us?!