September 2024 Newsletter

Happy Autumn!  Truly God is Lord over every season and this one is just beautiful!  We pray you are well and blessed.  Our youngest five children (Yissachar, Jakin, Yezekiel, Jerusalem, and Justice) attend a Christian school in Lexington, KY, and they are pictured below.  Yissachar recently had an opportunity to help lead worship at chapel and is pictured with his guitar.  Steve also preached at a chapel service and hearts were stirred!  In the center photo is Jonah who is now enrolled at Northern Kentucky University; Judah and Yisaac are attending Morehead State University.  Jill is writing a devotional book.  Truly the Lord is leading all of us into His best during this time of our lives!  We pray that for you and your family also! The best is yet to come!   

 Truly, I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea, and does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. --Mark 11:23   

God wants us to believe. His Word is true and sure. When we put it into practice, we are building our house on the rock, as Jesus said. When we have built our life on the Rock, Jesus, the storms of life come, and we will stand because of the sure foundation of Christ.

When we hear words of doubt, we immediately have a choice to believe it or reject it. As we continually fill ourselves with the word of God, the filth of doubt is flushed away by the washing of the water of the Word. That is vital, because doubt makes one unsteady and tossed this way and that, like a wave of the sea (James 1).  

What we believe is determined by who we believe. Will we receive from the Tree of Life (Jesus) or the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil (the enemy of our souls)? Just as He clearly instructed Adam and Eve, God wants no death at work in us!  So let’s diligently read and militantly believe His Word, which is Jesus! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (John 1:1).

If we truly believe that Scripture is the infallible Word of God, then we will take what He says and fully believe it.  We will embrace it and stand on it in faith, knowing the goodness of the Lord.  Jesus told us that believing is actually WORK.  Then they asked Him, ‘What must we do to do the works God requires?’ Jesus answered, ‘The work of God is this: to believe in the One He has sent.’  (John 6:28).

What?  We do not need to bring a particular offering?  We do not do His required work when we perform good works?  Jesus made it very clear:  The work God requires is to believe in Him. This verse is a key for the Christian.  To stay in faith IS work when God’s truth is constantly being attacked in our lives.  The enemy wants to steal the Word from you.  Then there are many distractions in this life, pulling at our desires and our time.  Persecutions may come from friends or loved ones that discourage us from believing the Lord. 

Do you remember the Parable of the Sower in Luke 8?  It was the quality of the soil that determined if any of the seeds would grow.  The soil is our hearts, and if we believe Him, we will be like the “good” soil producing thirty, sixty, and one hundred times what was sown.   BELIEVING in Jesus is the root truth, and all fruit will flow from that Root.

I was recently thinking on the Parable of the Sower and wondering what could make the soil produce the 100-fold?  I personally think it is the quality of the soil, filled with nutrients and well-watered.  How do farmers increase the quality of their soil?  They apply manure or compost to it, working it into the earth.  To me, “manure” is all the “stinky” stuff that we wish were removed from our lives!  But God has a way of working it for our good and actually using it to bring increase to His Word sown in our hearts.  The same is true with compost, which is rotting foodstuffs (maybe similar to difficult circumstances or people).  God does not waste those trials in our lives, but helps us flow in His love, forgiveness, joy, peace, and patience through them.  That environment is rich for His word to produce!  That is why we are to rejoice in our trials.  They work FOR us!  

Grace to you and we pray 100-fold to your seed sown to this ministry!  We are praying for you and believing that the best is yet to come for you and your family!  Please share your prayer requests with us.    

Love in Christ, Steve, Jill, Judah, Yisaac, Jonah, Yissachar, Jakin, Yezekiel, Jerusalem, and Justice