FIRST OF ALL, we must realize that Christianity is not a "game" that needs a coach, cheerleaders or a mascot.  Christianity involves trials, tribulations and, yes, sometimes warfare, that demands a warring Monarch to rule and reign through us.
Many Christians are still "playing the game" of success, prosperity, winning, looking good and coming out on top.  That is an endeavor to deploy Jesus to being a "spiritual mascot".  We "trot him out" on Sundays to cheer us up, give us new vigor and vision, and to reassure us that we are important.

We want Him to reinforce the things we do for God.  We want Him to resuscitate our souls and rebuild our confidence.  But then, sadly to say, for the rest of the week He is sent to the sidelines ans we start "calling the shots" of our lives.  Even things we do "in His name", we do with little reliance on His Lordship.

We must again become desperate for "His Majesty" to be the chief desire for our hearts.  We need to elevate the Lord Jesus as our "all in all" and not just our "fix it all."

It amazes me how many people have redefined King Jesus into someone who can be both admired and yet ignored a the same time.  We can no longer use Jesus as a "reserve", "convenient" or just "on call" for our personal needs.

I believe we need to become a "Person-Driven Church" (Christ-Centered once again) and not merely "Purpose-Driven" (works-centered).

May the "King of Kings again have pre-eminence in His Kingdom as we serve Him with all honor and might.

Serving and loving my King,

Brother Jon

Matthew 6:9-13

Dr Jon Jenkins is a regular speaker at Life Center of Brandon. He is an evangelist with a unique pastoral heart.
Jon’s  pastoral heart with his prophetic anointing have been instrumental in bringing  great encouragement to leaders and renewed  vision for many churches throughout  the country.
Married for over 30 years, he met his wife, Helen at Bible College. Their greatest testimony is that their three sons are also Bible College graduates and are in fulltime ministry positions.
The Jenkins are ordained with the International  Church of the  Foursquare Gospel and presently reside in 
Troutman, North  Carolina. 
Their mission is to spread revival fires through a  prophetic anointing, powerful preaching, and pastoral mentoring releasing God’s  potential in and through His people.
www.inhouseministry.com

Since there's alot of confusion these days on the subject of the grace of God, I thought I'd bring some clarity to the issue by sharing portions of an email I recently received from Joyce, a dear member of our congregation:

"When we think and feel that we must do something to have God's approval and love, we are getting into legalism and away from grace. Grace is God's one way love.  He loves us regardless of what we do or don't do.  We should do things because of our love for Him and what He has already done for us.  We shouldn't abuse grace by purposely doing wrong knowing that because of grace we are forgiven--it is not a free pass to go out and live like the devil.  On the other hand legalism is a set of rules of do's and don'ts-trying to be good enough and do good things to earn our salvation."

Joyce goes on to share how God's grace impacts her daily walk with Christ:

"God opened my spiritual eyes to see that I am me; I can't and should not desire to be anyone else.  That it doesn't matter to Him if I can't pray as good or as long as other people, He still loves me and hears prayers long or short as long as they come from the heart.  He still loves me even when I fall by the way side or make mistakes,  He will be there to pick me up and He will never leave or forsake me.  It doesn't matter what people think about my stammering and stuttering when I speak.  I may not think that I am pretty, but God sees the inner beauty and that is all that matters.  I don't need man's approval--Jesus is all sufficient--He's all I need.  He created me to be me and no one else.  He has a purpose and plan just for me that no one else can fulfill."

Amen, Joyce!
The grace of God is absolutely WONDERFUL! It affects EVERY part of our lives! It is how God brings us into His Kingdom, how we grow in His Kingdom and how we will live in His Kingdom for all eternity!
It is not a license to do wrong nor an exemption from doing what's right. It is the power that liberates us from the bondage of sin so that we may be free to love God and one another and to abstain from wrongdoing everyday of our lives from a joyful heart.

"For you were called to be free, brothers; only don’t use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but serve one another through love."
Galations 5:13

Pastor Ellery Aguayo

In Matthew 20:28, Jesus promises to be with us "to the end of the age". In John 14:13, He promises that whatever we ask in His name, He will do it so that the Father may be glorified in Him.
Yet there are times when we as Christians feel as though God is not hearing our prayers. It's as if He's abandoned us and left us alone in our sufferings.
But has He?
In a recent interview with James Robison on Life Today, Ravi Zacharias gives this rather insightful answer to what he calls "the irony of prayer" - those dark times in our lives when our prayers seem to go unanswered:

You can watch the entire program here.

Tithing (the giving away of a tenth of our income to the local church) is a controversial issue with many.
Not hard to see why. It is, after all, OUR MONEY we're talking about!
The main issue with tithing is whether or not it is something Christians need to do now in these New Testament times.
In his book, Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller - Senior Pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City - gives this great answer:

There have been times when people have come to me as their pastor, and asked about ‘tithing,’ giving away a tenth of their annual income. They notice that in the Old Testament there are many clear commands that believers should give away 10 percent. But in the New Testament, specific, quantitative requirements for giving are less prominent. They often asked my, ‘You don’t think that now, in the New Testament, believers are absolutely required to give away ten percent, do you?’ I shake my head no, and they give a sigh of relief.
But then I quickly add, ‘I’ll tell you why you don’t see the tithing requirement laid out clearly in the New Testament. Think. Have we received more of God’s revelation, truth, and grace than the Old Testament believers, or less?’ Usually there is uncomfortable silence. ‘Are we more ‘debtors to grace’ than they were, or less? Did Jesus ‘tithe’ his life and blood to save us or did he give it all?’ Tithing is a minimum standard for Christian believers. We certainly wouldn’t want to be in a position of giving away less of our income than those who had so much less of an understanding of of what God did to save them.

Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods, Hodder and Stoughton, 2009, pg 62.

We had a small group of teen and young adult girls over for a screening of the award winning documentary "Yellow Roses". The response was amazing.
Here's what some of the girls posted on Facebook after the movie:

"Whyy Do People Go Backk To The Same Guy That Hurt Them ? .... More Than Once . Smh"

"* Yellow Roses ♥ [:"

"my new fav color:)"

"freedom ♥"

"So Im Singlee w. NO Intentions On Looking For A Guy . This Time , Im Letting Him Find Me . ♥"

"God is good. Had alil girls talk with the teenagers from church at my pastors house. We had a blast. im glad i went! We all needed that. New start baby... Yellow roses"

"Done looking stupid for being "in love" with him when i know he dont love me back. Im letting God bring a guy to me cuz i know he would be "The One" :)"

The film is a wonderful, honest look at the lives of several real life teen girls dealing with pressure, technology, relationships and abuse.
We will announce future showings.
You can check out the website here.
The Facebook page is here.
The trailer for the film is below.
Check out clips from the film here.

"... this was an awesome film for every age woman and young women. I love how every girl had there own story but had a strong head on them. It made me look at my life as God sees me and the way he made me. It got me closer to God, myself, family and friends." Erika

In their book The Faith of Leap, Alan Hirsch and Michael Frost write:

"God took something of a risk in handing over his mission to the all-too-sinful human beings who were his original disciples...it is entirely conceivable that history could have gone in a completely different, indeed totally disastrous, direction if the original disciples hadn’t plucked up the internal courage to follow Jesus no matter where."

John Piper responds to their notion - that if it wasn't for the mustered up courage of the original disciples, God's mission in saving sinners through Christ could have possibly failed - as

1. false to the Scriptures;
2. built on a false philosophical presupposition;
3. damaging to the mission of Christ in the world;
4. and belittling to the glory of God.

You can read and see his video response here.

I love theology. I also love teaching it in a way that makes it simple to understand. With that in mind I thought I'd present a couple of very cool videos that exemplify what I like to call "Street Level Theology".
Enjoy!

Yes, the big robots are back along with most of their human supporting cast (Megan Fox is history after publicily comparing her boss to Hitler).
But after the debacle that was 'Transformers 2: Revenge of the Fallen' (which I think was one of the WORST MOVIES EVER MADE), does 'Transformers 3: Dark of the Moon' redeem the franchise?
In a nutshell, it's better than #2 but worse than #1.
It is loud. The effects are masterful. The crude, immature humor that marred #2 is practically (but not comlpetely) gone. The action is good (if not draining).
Unlike TF1 however, the characters are unlikable and certain story elements are set up but never developed.
It almost seemed as though some of the script was taken from a couple of 8 year olds playing with action figures.

All that aside, one of the things that really bothered me about TF3 was the casual destruction of human life from the villians while the heroes (who could have AT LEAST HELPED to save some lives) did nothing except save the main characters.
The friend who took me to see TF3 commented on how in the Superman films we see Supes doing all he can to save the endangered innocent lives around him. Now that's a hero!
Sadly, these heroes do nothing of the sort.
Maybe it's the pastor in me, I don't know.  But when I see a giant robot maliciously flip a minivan over on the freeway and destroy it, I can't help but to think to myself how many family members were in that vehicle.
Also, seeing Optimus Prime in cold blooded kill mode was definately hard core.
(SPOILER ALERT)
Ripping out one the evil robots metallic spinal columns while mercilessly putting another one down execution style with a cannon to the head (as it was on it's knees in defeat) was quite shocking and a little bizarre. Had they been humans, this movie would have easlily been rated 'R'.

I posted Ted Baehr's video review below:
His full review is here. Focus on the Family's full content analysis (violence, nuditiy, drug use, etc.,) is here.

A review of Marvel Studio's 'Thor' by James Harleman from a theological perspective. Good stuff!
See more at: http://cinemagogue.com/

    "March 11th, 2011...The city was utterly destroyed. You have already heard of the accident of
    Fukushima first nuclear power plant. All the residents were forced to evacuate, and my church 
    members had to get on a bus without any belongings and sent to schools and gyms separately. 
    It's been hard to find out how they are doing. "

So writes Pastor Akira Sato, pastor of Fukushima First Baptist Church, near the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Japan.
You can read his diary entries here.
(The original ones are here. Be sure to click on the 'English' tab if you need to.)

Tim Challies has compiled some really memorable excerpts from Pastor Sato's online diary here.
Below is one of them:

    "March 18, 2011...The most miraculous thing to me is that I never get asked questions like ‘Why did 
    God allow this?’ or ‘I can’t believe in God. There is no God.’ From the 160 members I have been in 
    touch with, all I hear are words like, ‘God is great. I want to trust Him as I walk with Him from now on.’ 
    I marvel at the strength of their faith in the Lord."

Photos of the devestated area surrounding the church are uploaded here.