Apostolic Faith Church, Abakaliki

02/01/2023

𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗚𝗘𝗧
𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗴𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗶𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗼𝗻 𝘄𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘀𝗵𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗹.
𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘭 𝘓𝘦𝘦

Sometimes we hear the antithetical instruction, “Remember not to forget!” That is because it is human nature to remember things that should be forgotten, and to forget things that should be remembered.

The words 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 and 𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘵 appear with some frequency in Moses’ instruction to the Children of Israel, found in Deuteronomy chapter 8. For example, we find both words in verses 18-19, where we read, “But thou shalt remember the LORD thy God: for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day. And it shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you this day that ye shall surely perish.”

We have all heard of various ways to improve memory. Nutritionists suggest that eating certain foods such as fatty fish, dark chocolate, and blueberries may help. Studies indicate that physical exercise is beneficial. You may have heard that tying a string around your finger will assist you in recollecting something important. Noticing the string will supposedly cause you to remember why you tied it on your finger, which will then help you recall what you wanted to remember. However, we do not see many people with strings tied around their fingers, so that technique must not be very helpful. Most of us probably make notes to ourselves or put reminders on our phones when we need to remember something.

While certain actions may help us remember, how do we forget what should be forgotten? That may be more difficult than remembering! However, there is a solution. Since it is very difficult, if not impossible, to think about two things at once, the next time something God wants you to forget comes to mind, replace that thought with a memory of what God wants you to remember—something you are thankful for! If we occupy our minds with gratitude from our hearts, it will be difficult to simultaneously entertain thoughts that are contrary to a spirit of thanksgiving.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗮𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘁𝗲𝘀’ 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺: 𝗮 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻
Reflecting again on Moses’ admonition about remembering and forgetting, a case could be made that the Israelites suffered from memory loss. The Psalmist put it this way: “Our fathers understood not thy wonders in Egypt; they remembered not the multitude of thy mercies; but provoked him at the sea, even at the Red sea” (Psalm 106:7). The Israelites provoked God multiple times after that as well, when they failed to remember His goodness.

However, Israel’s problem was not with their memory. It was a heart condition rather than a mind condition. We read in Numbers 11:5-6 that the people remembered what they should have forgotten. They said, “We remember the fish, which we did eat in Egypt freely; the cucumbers, and the melons, and the leeks, and the onions, and the garlic: but now our soul is dried away: there is nothing at all, beside this manna, before our eyes.”

At the same time, they had forgotten what needed to be remembered. They had forgotten how hungry they had been, and the day they stepped out of their tents in the morning and found “upon the face of the wilderness there lay a small round thing, as small as the hoar frost on the ground” (Exodus 16:14). The “small round thing” was God’s provision for their nourishment. They did not know what to call this food the Lord had given them to eat, so they called it manna. Although that manna had sustained them for almost four decades, they forgot God’s blessing in supplying it for them.

They also forgot the suffering they had endured back in the land of Egypt. Exodus 1:13-14 relates that “the Egyptians made the children of Israel to serve with rigour: And they made their lives bitter with hard bo***ge, in morter, and in brick, and in all manner of service in the field: all their service, wherein they made them serve, was with rigour.”

They forgot that when they cried out to God, in His love and mercy, He heard their cry from Heaven and sent them a deliverer. They forgot how they passed through the Red Sea on dry ground, and how God had slain Pharaoh’s army that followed them. They forgot how God led by a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night, gave them water from the rock, and fought for them.

𝗠𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀—𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴
Moses stands in contrast to the Israelites, who had problems properly remembering and forgetting. At the age of 120 years, Moses had no such problem. As the people were about to cross Jordan into the Land of Canaan, he reviewed their history, including the Law that God had given on Mount Sinai. With clarity and courage, he helped the Children of Israel remember what they had already been taught. He had not forgotten, and he did not want them to forget. He admonished them, “All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do” (Deuteronomy 8:1).

Moses was speaking to a new generation, many of whom had not been born when the Children of Israel met with God at Mount Sinai. Those who were nineteen years of age and under at Sinai no doubt had memories of that quaking mountain and the fear-inducing experiences of that day. They remembered when Moses came down from the Mount and his face shone so brightly that he had to cover it with a veil. Moses wanted those who had witnessed it to remember it, and those who were too young to understand it or had not been born yet, to remember what they had been taught.

It is important for us to remember what we have been taught as well. You may or may not remember the first time you came to church. Many in our congregation are blessed with a godly heritage that has been handed down from one generation to the next. Some in this service today have no memory of the first time they came to the house of the Lord because they were carried here as infants. If you do not remember your first church service because you were young at the time, that is a blessing for which you should thank God! However, whether or not we have a heritage in the Gospel, each one of us have current blessings for which we should be grateful.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘄𝗲 𝘄𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙤𝙛 𝙂𝙤𝙙. Jesus summarized them for us in the New Testament when He said, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37-39). To love in that manner is to comply with the first four Commandments, while loving our neighbor as ourselves fulfills the remaining six commandments. We want to remember these every day!

𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙙𝙖𝙮 𝙬𝙚 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙚𝙧𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚𝙙 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. God offered us the opportunity to pass from death unto life; we offered Him our unconditional, non-negotiated surrender. There were no terms attached on our part. However, there were terms on God’s part. He required that we yield to His way, confess and forsake our sins, and turn from the world toward Him. When we came to the point where we gave our whole lives to God, such as they were, what a transformation He made in us!

𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨 𝙬𝙚 𝙢𝙖𝙙𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙗𝙨𝙚𝙦𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙖𝙡𝙫𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. As we continued to seek the Lord, we promised Him that we would go anywhere, do anything, endure any hardship. Even if we did not use those exact words, that was the purpose of our hearts. We were determined to stick with the Gospel, and by the grace of God, we want to remember our commitments to God, and do our best to fulfill them day by day.

𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙝𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚𝙣 𝙪𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙜𝙝. Moses told the Children of Israel to remember the way God had led them through the wilderness. We can look back at times we faced difficulties that seemed like “wilderness” experiences. Perhaps at the time we could not see how we could get to the other side, but here we are! Even if we face another wilderness today, as we look back and remember the fact that God helped us in the past, we will be strengthened to believe that He will do it again. We want to remember God’s mighty deliverances!

𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙝𝙖𝙨 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙜𝙪𝙞𝙙𝙚 𝙪𝙨. The Children of Israel had the pillar of the cloud by day and a fire by night to lead them. Jesus has promised that the Holy Ghost will be our Guide, and the Word of God will give us direction. We do not have to go through this life alone. The Lord will continue to lead and guide as He has done in the past.

𝙒𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙧𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙗𝙚𝙧 𝙤𝙪𝙧 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣. God promised to bring the Children of Israel into a good land. We read in verse 10 of Deuteronomy 8, “When thou hast eaten and art full, then thou shalt bless the LORD thy God for the good land which he hath given thee.” We have a destination that is far better than Canaan. There are battles to fight and challenges to face before we get there, just as there were for the Israelites. However, we want to remember them only because God gave us the victory.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘄𝗲 𝗺𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿
It was important for the Israelites to remember the leading of God because the time would come when their children would ask, “What mean the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord our God hath commanded you?” (Deuteronomy 6:20). The elders among them would be able to respond with a history lesson, explaining what they remembered from their past or what they had been told by their grandparents and great-grandparents. Like the Children of Israel, we want to remember what God has done for us so we can pass it on to the next generation.
Moses exhorted the Israelites to “remember the LORD thy God” (Deuteronomy 8:18). As we begin a new year, let us remember God—the One who saved us and who has taken us through from the day of our salvation until now. Let us recall how God has helped and guided us. There is great blessing in reflecting on His goodness, His mercy, and His provision for us, and giving Him thanks!

𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘥 𝘋𝘢𝘳𝘳𝘦𝘭 𝘓𝘦𝘦 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘳𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩.

Read this article on our website:

From the Word | God gives instruction on what we should and should not recall. By Darrel Lee

30/12/2022

IYC 2022 Ebenezer Night

A Nigerian-based Pentecostal church, The Apostolic Faith, on Thursday night, awarded the sum of N2,650,000 to seven business owners.

28/09/2022

I can almost hear the sound of the trumpet

16/09/2022

𝗕𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥𝗦 𝗠𝗔𝗗𝗘 𝗦𝗪𝗘𝗘𝗧

𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙪𝙨𝙚𝙙 𝙖 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙬𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙞𝙡𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙣 𝙤𝙛 𝙄𝙨𝙧𝙖𝙚𝙡, 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙅𝙚𝙨𝙪𝙨’ 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙩𝙧𝙚𝙚 𝙤𝙛 𝘾𝙖𝙡𝙫𝙖𝙧𝙮 𝙘𝙖𝙣 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙩𝙚𝙣 𝙡𝙞𝙛𝙚’𝙨 𝙝𝙖𝙧𝙙 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚𝙨 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙪𝙨.

𝘍𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘮𝘰𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘤𝘒𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘯

In the first twenty-one verses of Exodus 15 we find what is known as the Song of Moses. It is a poetic celebration of God’s deliverance of Israel from Egyptian enslavement, and in a broader sense, it praises God’s great power to do what no other god anywhere, at any time, could do.

The events that led to this triumphal song began when God heard the cries of His people enslaved in Egypt. Through Moses, God sent the message to Pharaoh, “Let my people go, that they may serve me” (Exodus 9:1). Pharaoh was stubborn and tried to retain control, but God sent plagues on Egypt, culminating in the death of the firstborn throughout the land. Broken by this, Pharaoh let the Jewish people go, but soon regretted his decision and pursued after them to the Red Sea. With Pharaoh’s army behind them and the Red Sea before them, the Children of Israel did not know what to do. Then, they cried out to the Lord and He parted the waters so that they walked through on dry ground! Pharaoh’s men pursued, but God caused their chariot wheels to fall off. Then the waters returned, drowning the Egyptian army.

What a miraculous deliverance! All of Israel rejoiced, singing with Moses, “Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11-12). The words of the song seem to indicate that the Israelites had complete confidence in God to lead them forward. However, within days they would encounter a new challenge and their confidence would be gone.

Following the Red Sea crossing, God led His people into the wilderness of Shur, and for three days they found no water. In the desert, this is not a small thing; it is a matter of life and death. When they finally came to a place where there was water, it was bitter. The people reacted by murmuring against Moses, and they named the place Marah, which is the Hebrew word for “bitter.” Yet, Moses knew what to do and turned to God for help. He “cried unto the LORD,” and God was faithful to answer. “The LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet” (Exodus 15:25).

After their great deliverance, the Israelites may have expected that the rest of the journey would be without incident. That is not how life works, though; there are ups and downs. Life sent the children of Israel bitter waters, and sometimes life sends us bitter waters. After a spiritual victory, we can go on to experience sickness, loss, isolation, persecution, economic difficulties, and the list could go on. Yet, as with the Israelites in the wilderness, God offers a remedy for life’s bitter waters.

God showed Moses a tree, and He also shows us a tree. Our tree is Calvary, the Cross upon which Jesus died. It was the most bitter symbol of death known in the Roman world, but it has been transformed into a symbol of sweet hope and redemption by the Blood of Jesus Christ! To those who are overwhelmed with the bitterness of sin, the Cross symbolizes the sweetness of salvation. It is forgiveness for sin through faith, repentance, and a surrender to God’s will. For the redeemed, the Cross—that tree that Jesus hung upon—is available for us to place into the bitter waters of life that come our way. It is the remedy for any trouble we may encounter.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲
One of the dangers that exists when we face bitter waters in life is that they can cause feelings of bitterness in our souls, and that is a serious problem. In Hebrews 12:15, we are told to be diligent in our faith, “lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.” If we start to harbor resentment over our circumstances, we will become troubled not only spiritually, but physically and emotionally as well. In addition, as this verse notes, our attitude will affect those around us.

Sometimes bitter feelings stem from our interactions with others. Maybe we feel we have been slighted or offended by another individual. The Word of God gives very practical advice for how to respond. We read in Ephesians 4:31, “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice.” We must make a conscious decision to lay aside negative thoughts and forgive quickly before resentment has opportunity to take root.

Some have been hurt so deeply they feel they cannot forgive. However, this is not something we have to do in our own strength—God will help. Continuing in Ephesians, the next verse says, “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” Christ suffered and died to forgive all our sins, and His love will help us extend forgiveness and grace to others. When bitter feelings threaten to rise in our hearts, we can overcome them by remembering the Cross and all Christ has done for us.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲’𝘀 “𝗯𝗶𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝘄𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀”
In the Book of Ruth, we learn about a woman who experienced some bitter waters. Naomi was an Israelite who married and had two sons. When a famine came to the land of Israel, she and her husband moved their family to the neighboring country of Moab. While there, her husband died, and she became a widow. Her sons married and thrived for a time, but then they died also.

These were tough times for Naomi. She decided to return to her homeland, and her daughter-in-law Ruth insisted on joining her. When Naomi arrived in her hometown of Bethlehem and was recognized, she told the people, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full and the LORD hath brought me home again empty” (Ruth 1:20-21). Naomi had no money or possessions, and as a widowed woman in that culture, she had no status. Without a male heir to inherit her husband’s land and continue the family name, she could not keep the property, so she had to put it up for sale (Ruth 4:3).

However, Naomi never turned her back on God, and in time He made provision for her. One of her husband’s kinsmen was a wealthy man named Boaz. Ruth went to glean in his fields, and because she found favor with him, he instructed his reapers to leave behind barley for her. When Ruth showed her mother-in-law how much she had gleaned, Naomi said, “Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Then she said, “The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen” (Ruth 2:20). Naomi saw God at work in this. Under Mosaic Law, a widow’s land could be redeemed by a near kinsman if he were willing to marry her and produce an heir to inherit her previous husband’s property, as well as carry on his family name. In fact, the word translated here as “kinsmen” comes from the Hebrew 𝘨𝘰‘𝘦𝘭, which means “kinsman-redeemer.” In this case, Boaz married Ruth, redeeming her husband’s inheritance and thereby Naomi’s.

Boaz and Ruth eventually had a son named Obed who became the grandfather of King David and an ancestor of Christ. When Obed was born, the women of the town said, “Blessed be the LORD, which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman [a redeemer] that his name may be famous in Israel” (Ruth 4:14).

When life seemed unfair to Naomi, God had not forsaken her. She remained faithful and God provided a kinsman-redeemer to buy back what she could not. We have a Kinsman-Redeemer also. His name is Jesus! His name is famous in Israel and throughout the world. There is no redeemer like Him—He gave His life on a tree to purchase us from the bo***ge of sin. He also promised to supply our every need and to be with us always, even unto the end of the world. There is no type of “bitter water” in life that He cannot overcome.

𝗪𝗲 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗝𝗲𝘀𝘂𝘀!
There is a sister in our Seattle, Washington, congregation who is in her nineties. A few years ago, she shared her testimony on Mother’s Day. She said that when she was a child, her grandmother took her to Sunday school. Then at age eleven, after her father received salvation, she declared, “I want that.” She prayed and God saved her.

Later, she grew up, married, and had five children. When she was in her late twenties, her family moved to Seattle from the southern part of the United States. They lived here in the 1960s, which was not necessarily an easy time for an African-American woman to raise a family in a West Coast city, but there she was. After fifty years of marriage, her husband died. One of her sons passed away as well.

The last time I visited her, she had eighteen grandchildren, and several were at her house. As I talked with her, I asked her to share some of the hard times in life that she had experienced. She just chuckled and said, “But Pastor, we have Jesus.” She had not one complaint, because when she was eleven years old, God showed her a tree—the Cross of Jesus. She had been putting that tree into the bitter waters every time they came up, and the waters kept coming back sweet! God will do the same for us if we will continually look to the Cross.

We wish every day could be a Passover deliverance and a Red Sea parting, but life is not like that. Difficult times will come to every one of us, but we can be encouraged for God has shown us a tree. Calvary’s tree stands strong today and is available to cast into the bitter waters that come our way.

If past events have left you feeling hurt or discouraged, cast your cares on Jesus and let His sacrificial love bring healing. If you are going through a difficult situation now, remember that God has not forsaken you; He is your Redeemer and He has a plan to provide for you. Whatever awaits us in the future, we can face with the attitude, “But we have Jesus!” God has shown us a tree, and our bitterness can be made sweet today.

𝘉𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘔𝘤𝘒𝘪𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘋𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘬 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘰𝘳𝘨𝘢𝘯𝘪𝘻𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦, 𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯.

𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘸𝘦𝘣𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘦: https://www.apostolicfaith.org/the-apostolic-faith/bitter-waters-made-sweet

11/09/2022

You are a blessing not only to our generation but to the coming generation. May God continue to make your faith stronger and stronger, and may He grant all your heart's desires as you continue to grow in mind and spirit.

God will help you achieve that strong desire in you to deliver as many people as possible from darkness into the light of God. You are with God, and whoever is with Him shall never fail, but continue to succeed in whatever he touches.

Dear spiritual father, we appreciate God's presence in your life, and we appreciate your faithfulness and righteousness. On your special day, there is nothing better than thanking God for His mercy upon your life.

Happy birthday to meritorious, gallant God's General

Assistant District Overseer
Amiable Man of God.
Chike

07/09/2022

𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗥𝗨𝗜𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗚𝗢𝗗'𝗦 𝗢𝗙𝗙𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗩𝗘 𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘

𝙇𝙚𝙚 𝙝𝙖𝙙 𝙨𝙞𝙭 𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙩𝙮 𝙛𝙤𝙤𝙩𝙗𝙖𝙡𝙡 𝙩𝙚𝙖𝙢𝙨 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝙞𝙣 𝙝𝙞𝙢, 𝙗𝙪𝙩 𝙂𝙤𝙙 𝙤𝙛𝙛𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙝𝙞𝙢 𝙨𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙡𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙩.

𝘉𝘺 𝘓𝘦𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘺

God has been faithful and longsuffering to me throughout every step of my life, and I am so thankful. He always knows just what is needed and is there to provide and help.

My mother had a hunger for the things of God. Although she had been raised to attend church, she observed that there was no difference between the people who attended and those who did not. The churchgoers smoked on the church steps before they went in, and their conversations were tainted. When they came out of the church, they went back to smoking and their tainted conversations. She decided that if God was real, the religious system she was seeing was definitely not working.

She took her Bible and began to search the Scriptures for the truth. After months of reading the Word of God, she came to the realization that she needed to ask Him to make a change in her life. At her bedside, she laid out her Bible and prayed, asking God to make her the new creature she had read about. Right there, God miraculously saved her. From that time on, she was a devout Christian and began to raise her five boys in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. She taught us every day about the goodness of God and that there was a Heaven to gain and a Hell to shun. She regularly gathered us in the living room and had us memorize Scripture and sing.

We lived in Roseburg, Oregon, and in 1964, we were invited to the Apostolic Faith Church. My mother went to a Sunday evening service, and she looked over the literature, reading the doctrines taught by the church. She realized that this was the church we needed to attend because it stood for exactly what she believed the Bible said.

As I was growing up, many of the people in the church were role models for me, including our pastors and ministers. When Sister Lois Allen was our pastor, she would meet us boys on the church steps and ask us when we were going to give our lives to the Lord. That put conviction on my heart, so I would try to avoid her.

One day she stopped me on the stairway that led into the sanctuary and said, “Lee, when are you going to give your life to the Lord?” As I hesitated, she said, “You may not care where your eternal home will be, but you need to understand that you’re going to be responsible for where these young people are going.” I turned and saw the younger boys who were following me up the stairs. I said to her, “How is it my responsibility?” Immediately she said, “If you watch these children, they act just like you, so your actions may lead them away from God. Do you want to be responsible for that?”

Her words drove a dagger into my heart. I realized that my choices were going to affect others, and that I needed to make a decision. I was not considered a bad young man—I never smoked, drank alcohol, or did drugs. Yet I knew in my heart and from the Word of God that I needed to have a change. I needed to ask God to come in and forgive me. There was no escaping that.

𝗔 𝗱𝗲𝗳𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗶𝘁𝘂𝗱𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗱
When I was sixteen years old, my mother brought us to camp meeting in Portland, Oregon, but by then I had become bitter and wanted nothing to do with the Gospel. Although she insisted that I attend for at least one week, my plan was to just sit through the services that week and then go home.

Thankfully, God had a different plan. After arriving at the campground resentful and upset, I was walking by the tabernacle when a young lady said hello to me. God can use simple things to get our attention, and when she began a pleasant conversation with me, it completely destroyed my defensive attitude. God knew what I needed.

The next day was Sunday morning, July 4, 1971, and I don’t remember who preached or what the sermon was about. What I do remember is that during the whole service, I knew that I needed to get right with God. At the invitation to pray, I went forward and asked God to come in and give me the peace that others talked about. Just as clearly as an audible conversation with someone across the altar bench would have been, the Lord’s words came to me: “Lee, would you be willing to give up football to have this peace?”

Football was important to me. I loved it, and people said I was good at it. In my second year of high school, I was six feet two inches tall, weighed 235 pounds, and could run the forty-yard dash in nearly record time. And God wanted to know if I would give up football. I prayed, “Yes, Lord, I’ll give up football. I’ll give up everything to have this peace.” As soon as I made that consecration, such a joy and peace came into my heart. It was a peace that truly passed all understanding. I felt as if I was walking six feet off the ground!

A week later, I was still at the camp meeting and a gentleman at the altar asked me what I was praying for. My reply was that I needed to be sanctified. As he began to pray with me, more joy and peace came into my life than I had ever experienced before, and I knew that was my sanctification. I got up to go tell my friends about it, but the gentleman stopped me and said, “You could stay here and get your baptism too.” So I knelt back down and prayed again, just wanting to get closer to God. In a wonderful way, the Lord gave me the baptism of the Holy Ghost. That was a great camp meeting!

𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗼 𝗯𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝗺𝘆 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱
When we returned home, it was soon time for football daily doubles to begin. I had told God that I would give up football, and I knew that’s what I needed to do. The phone calls started coming to ask why I wasn’t at the two practices each day. When I told the coaches I’d given up football to serve the Lord, it became a very difficult time in our house.

My father was a moral man and taught us many good lessons in life, but he was not godly. One thing he enjoyed was seeing the names of his boys on the sports page telling how they had scored touchdowns or made a winning kick or goal. Dad was proud of his boys! When he found out that I was no longer going to play football, he disowned me. For the next two years, he hardly spoke to me. He did not want anything to do with me because of the shame that he said I brought upon him. His coworkers began to tease him about his son giving up football for religion. He could not deal with the heckling and his frustrations were taken out on me.

Meanwhile, it was necessary to respond to the coaches. The head football coach researched how many professional football players professed to be Christians and came up with a list of ninety-six. He asked, “If these people are Christians and they play football, why can’t you?” God gave me the wisdom to say, “It may be fine for them, but this is what God asked me to do!”

The school athletic director called for me to come to his office. He pulled out a file and showed me six letters of intent from major colleges for football scholarships, even though I was only in my second year of high school. They believed I was that good. The athletic director could not comprehend that I was willing to give that up “to be religious.” I replied, “It’s not about being religious. It’s about having this peace in my heart that God gave.” Additionally, I told him my dad had taught me to be a man of my word—if a promise was made it needed to be kept. God helped me to hold fast to the promise I’d made to Him.

𝗚𝗼𝗱 𝗰𝗮𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝘃𝘆 𝗲𝗻𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱
God knew the future and was watching out for me. The young lady who had talked with me at camp meeting became my girlfriend and later my wife. Back then there were no cell phones and long distance calls were expensive, so we wrote letters, sometimes two or three per week. We saved them—Barbara has 214 of my letters and I have 211 of hers! She was an encouragement to me. My pastor also took me under his wing, allowing me to come to the church on Saturdays to help. He treated me like a father would his son and gave such encouragement to help me realize that God did care.

Barbara’s family lived in the San Francisco Bay Area, and they came to my high school graduation. My parents gave permission for me to go back with them and look there for work. I decided that if I did’t get a job in two weeks, I would return to Roseburg.
My first day in the Bay Area, before I even had an opportunity to open a newspaper, I was offered a job. That morning, when Barbara’s dad arrived at work, he was asked if he knew anyone looking for a job. He suggested they call me, and then they asked to see me right away. Barbara’s dad introduced me to the general manager in the afternoon and I started work the next day. That began my career path for the next forty-six years in the rock-crushing equipment industry, with God helping to protect and advance my position many times over the years.

God restored me into favor with my dad and completely healed the breach that had come because I stopped playing sports. Once I had a full-time job, Dad saw me as being successful, and he came to the Bay Area when Barbara and I were married in 1974. Years passed, and then when he was eighty-two years old, he attended special meetings at the church in Roseburg. From the moment the first note of music was played, Dad wept throughout the service. As soon as an invitation to pray was given, he went forward, and God changed his heart.

Over the years, at times I wondered why God asked me to give up football. Nearly three decades after the fact, an old friend shared with me how much my decision to quit sports and serve the Lord had influenced him and some of our peers to be committed to God. That meant so much to me. While I never regretted the decision to obey God, it was so encouraging to know that it had a positive impact on others.

God has directed Barbara and me in every step of our lives, even in the difficult times. He gave us a son and a daughter, and now we have three grandchildren. We have had sickness, financial issues, and other events that come to many people. Yet God has always been there to take the heavy end of every load, and has guided in each decision that had to be made. God is good! I am so thankful for Him and what He’s done.

𝘓𝘦𝘦 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘬𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘬𝘺 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘤 𝘍𝘢𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘊𝘩𝘶𝘳𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘗𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘮𝘢𝘯, 𝘞𝘢𝘴𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘵𝘰𝘯.

Read this article on our website: https://www.apostolicfaith.org/the-apostolic-faith/recruited-for-gods-offensive-line