Chatsworth Baptist Church

On Palm Sunday, 1981, millions of Americans shared a great sense of anticipation as they awaited the liftoff of the manned space shuttle Columbia. More than 80 000 people crowded into Florida’s Kennedy Space Center to witness the launching of the nation’s first space plane. Hundreds of thousands drove to nearby roads for best view they could get. Countless others watched the event on TV, together with millions from around the globe. As the countdown reached the last 10 seconds, the nation counted down in unison. Then the great flying machine rose straight up. Orange flames and vapor engulfed the launch site as sound and shock waves thundered through the air. The hopes of all future manned spaceflight seemed to focus on the success of that long awaited mission.

As promising as that event was, it’s nothing compared with another event – the return of our Lord Jesus Christ to earth. (“Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” Luke 21:27).

He will asher in the dawn of a new age like we have never seen. When He comes in the clouds with power and glory, all other hopes will look empty and foolish.

The year 2014 is soon to arrive. It is time that we prepare for both the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the entering into a new year. No one knows which of these events can be first. So why not prepare for both, with the understanding that our hearts may be in tune with righteousness (Jesus Christ).

Go into 2014 a new person with renewed physical, emotional, and spiritual energy which can only come from the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. (“I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” Philippians 4: 13). Believe it in your heart, and receive it in faith.

2014 Can only be better!

If it is so that a man must be in a state of friendship before his prayers can be accepted, then understand that all you ever do before that state is hateful to God. Not only your sinful actions, but even your civil, your natural, yes, your religious actions. Not that they are so in themselves, or in regard of God, but in regard of the doer of them. Many prayers cannot turn one sin into a grace, but one sin willfully and resolutely continued in can turn all your prayers into sin. “The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the lord: how much more when he brings it with a wicked mind?” Proverbs 21: 27

Prayer is an ordinance of great excellency, of great efficacy, but if it comes out of the heart of one who is wicked it loses all its virtue. A diseased body turns food into corrupt humors which a healthy body turns into sound nourishment. Water that is pure in the fountain is corrupt in the channel….

God does not care for the:
¢ rhetoric of prayers (how eloquent they are),
¢ nor for the arithmetic of prayers (how many they are),
¢ nor for the logic of them (how rational or methodical they are),
¢ nor for the music of them (what a harmony and melody of words you have).

God looks at the divinity of prayers, which is from the heart. The heart is the window through which God sees into a man.

It is good to inquire:
¢ Is my heart right?
¢ Is my mind composed?
¢ Are my affections raised and kindled in prayer?
¢ Is my person accepted by God?

James 5: 16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray for another, that he may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”