We have "endured" :) some very poor weather lately and it is very nice to see some sunshine right now after some heavy showers this morning. We weren't able to do door to door yesterday because their were wind and rain warning in place. 

God gave us a very good morning and we are thankful to Him for His goodness and help in our ministry. Please pray for a mother in our church, Priscilla, who has been very ill since before Christmas. She is on three weeks of bed rest for a heart condition. We look forward to God restoring her to health in the near future. She is getting better, but it has been a slow process.

I preached this morning on,  "Obey God's Angel" from Exodus 23:20-33.  The point of the message was the need to follow God's angel to the promised prepared place. For Israel it was the promised land and the victory God would give there. For us, it is the victorious Christian life obtained in  much the same way by following Jesus Christ. God helped in our service and your prayers are much appreciated. 

We leave in 20 minutes for our afteroon service at the Trust. (Assisted living facility.) Thank you for your prayers for the many opportunities He has before us today.

On Tuesday, I am flyer to Ireland to be with a friend of mine, Les Hill and some other men for a day of prayer. Les just sent out a special request for a family in his church who had a bad car accident. The father is unsaved. He and two daughters were in the accident. One is in critical condition and the other is stable. The father has internal injuries. The critical child really needs prayer as she is on life support. Please pray for God's help for this family.

I preached a message on a Sunday evening several months ago entitled, "P's in the Pod of Power." It's not a new message. In fact, it's one of my oldest messages that I revisit in my preaching. I prepared this for a missions conference at Pillsbury Christian College back when we were on deputation. It was to be for a workshop during that conference. Unfortunately, Pillsbury closed before we were able to have that ministry opportunity. However, the truths God worked in my heart about for that workshop are still truths of which I need to be reminded. 

I do not normally record our Sunday evening service. However, I felt like God would have me record this. I recorded it about 5 months ago and God has also helped me not to delete this off of my phone until I've finally uploaded it. :) So, I hope this will be a blessing, encouragement, and help to someone who takes the time to consider these truths. I can't imagine it not being helpful to anyone who hears it because these are precious truths from God's Word.

Please find the handout notes below.

P.'s in the Pod of Power

God has put within our means as believers the resources for increasing our power.

I. How __________________ affects your power.

A. God is the P________________ of power. Ac 1:8, 1Co 2:4, 1Th 1:5 B. God gives the p____________________ of power.

1. The disciples were commanded to ______________ for this power.

Lu 24:49, John 14:26a

2. Jesus humbly lived in _____________________ upon God's power.

Ac 10:38, Lu 4:1

Points to note:

1.) ____________ are full but some are not. Ac 6:3

2.) Paul _____________________ us to be filled. Eph 5:18

3.) Christians ought to ______________________ to be filled. Joh 7:38-3

II. How ___________________ affect His power. A. Your prayer affects His power. Isa 45:11

1. Prayer accesses ____________________________. Jas 1:5 2. Prayer accesses God's _______________________________.

a. A _____________________________ Jesus gave. Lu 11:13

b. A promise the disciples _____________________. Acts 4:31 3. Prayer accesses the ______________________________. Mt

17:21 .

B. Your purity affects His power. II Timothy 2:19b-22

exp. Without purity you have ....

1. An unbelievable _____________________________. Lot - Ge 19:14 2. An unprofitable __________________________. Lu 6:41-42

3. An unanswered _________________________. Ps 66:18, Isa 59:2

4. An impassable __________________________. John 7: 38-39 C. Your priorities affect His power.

1. Priority of the ______________________ of God. Heb 12:1 2. Priority of the ______________________ of God. Ps 119:9 3. Priority of God. Mt 6:24

D. Your p__________________ affects His power.1Ti 3:6, Ro 12:3 , Jas 4:6

E. Your p___________________ affect His power. Eph. 3:19

Robert Moffat, ".... When I look at the Man of Sorrows, His toilsome days and midnight prayers, and the burning zeal of the first ministers of the gospel, I feel as if I had not the same mind or spirit."

Conclusion: How are you affecting His power?

1Co 2:4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:

1Th 1:5 For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.

God has given a couple divine appointments this week outside of scheduled evangelism. But, it was nice today to finally get back out putting flyers through mail slots. Don Dillman and I put out a couple hundred flyers in Livingston today. The weather has been very poor this week with rain and very high winds. Two lorries (semi trucks) were blown over on a road near us yesterday. 

The wind was so high when I ran on Monday that at one point I had to shield my face so I could breathe. (No, I'm not kidding.) It was like sticking your head out of a fast moving vehicle. High winds are coming back Friday into Saturday. This kind of weather does impact our evangelism at times.

We appreciate your prayers for our evangelism. Please pray for wisdom for me as I am thinking about writing a new flyer. Please also pray for the newspaper article I shared in an earlier post. It will be in the county newspaper later this month.

We enjoyed Sunday morning services on our first Lord's day of 2020. We had good attendance and a good spirit. I love seeing our church people stick around and visit with one another after the service. 

We appreciate your prayers for our ministry. We've got three months and then Pastor and Mrs. Anderson will be here for a 6 month ministry. Our furlough schedule is coming along nicely. We appreciate your prayers for just the meetings for our furlough calendar.

This morning I enjoyed preaching on God's servant, Caleb in Joshua 14. Caleb must have been a great blessing to Joshua. Here was the only old man (other than himself) in Israel. Both of them had wanted to see God's people take the promised land, 45 years previously. But, they didn't let the passing of time keep them from doing what they knew God would do through them. They wholly followed the Lord.

It was windy enough to wreck our sidewalk sign this morning. :) Don't worry, it's not the first time this has happened. That sign is chained to a tree and tight against a wall, but it blew a panel out anyway. We used to see these signs fly through the air during church but we replaced our closest sign with a water filled sign. It has stood up to all the tests the wind has given to it. It bows in the wind like a punching bag stand and so it doesn't get destroyed.

We had a good morning. The Lord put on my heart to re-preach a message I wrote and first preached several years ago on, depression. The main character in the story is Elijah as found in 1 Kings 19. My message was, "Dealing with Depression." We are in a great battle and there will be times of discouragement. But, God's Word shows some good truths about dealing with depression in 1 Kings 19. 

Our next fun extra ministry is Tuesday evening as we watch the BJU Unusual Films production of, "Sheffey." I'm looking forward to it. It is a great Gospel film and a good challenge on living our lives for God. Thank you for praying.

I enjoyed preaching the latter half of Luke 2 this morning as we looked at baby Jesus Temple dedication and the two worthy servants of the Christ found there. My messaged, "Walk Worthy of Declaring Christ." God gave us a very good spirit this morning and we are thankful for our church family.

We didn't have any guests this morning but we had a 14 year old first time visitor in our midweek service. We also enjoyed the ministry of camp director, Pastor Randy Tannis and his wife, Laurel. They spent Thursday night with us and we had a wonderful time catching up with them. Pastor Randy spoke to our adults/ teens and Laurel worked with our children's class. We took them over Friday morning to Missionary Keith Cashner who took them to Carlisle.  They are on a special mission trip/ family holiday. It was good to see them.

Tuesday night at 6:00 PM is our Christmas Eve service. We appreciate your prayers for that special evening of ministry.

I was able to get out yesterday and today doing Christmas flyers in Loanhead. The frost on the ground today made the black tarmac white. Obviously it was a cold day, but the Lord gave me two divine appointments in the cold. I spoke with the first man for 10 minutes and the second for about 20. Please pray that God will work in these men's hearts. All told, I think I put out around 450 flyers in the last two days. Thank you for praying for our outreach.

Also, the Lord helped me to get my article written for the "Views from the Pews" column of our county paper, The Midlothian Advertiser. I'm priviliged to get to contribute bi-annually. The emphasis of my article is man's need to get back to the truth of God's Word. I'm limited to 350 words and really have to be succinct in what I say. Please pray for God's blessing upon this article. I'll put the text below. This article will not be printed until the end of January.

Have you ever tried studying while someone was practicing the bagpipes? I don't know if I've mentioned that three of the boys are taking bagpipes. (Logan (14) Parker (12) and Nelson (9). God has blessed them with good instructors at a local bagpipe band in Penicuik. They are making good progress. I'm sure we'll have a set of bagpipes with us on furlough. 

I had another interesting Scottish history moment today. Almost two years ago I bought a set of books from the 1850s, The Memoirs of Dr. Thomas Chalmers. They were compiled by his son in law a few years after his death. Dr. Chalmers was the most influential man of God in Scotland in the 1800's. He was the leader of the Free Church of Scotland when they came out of the church of Scotland because of their conviction on the separation of church and state. Each book was around 500 pages. I finished that set today and am very thankful God gave me the opportunity to look into this man's life and a significant portion of Scottish church history.

The interesting moment was when I read about him laying the first stone for the New College property of the Free Church of Scotland. It was interesting because I was sitting in the library at that property in Edinburgh reading about it. I'm so thankful that God has put us in an area rich with church history. I praise God that He saw fit to bless this nation incredibly in the 1800's.

It was a blessing to have two ladies visit our church this morning. One of our church ladies was asked in front of the building if a church was meeting here. She said, "Yes and you are welcome to come." Praise God they came and we were thankful to have them with us.

I preached a Christmas story messsage this morning from Luke 2 where we considered, "The Birth of the Gospel." It was a good morning. Thank you for praying.

Our next two special events are Christmas Eve at 6:00 PM - Christmas Carol Sing Service. The second is New Years Eve Film Night where we'll show the film, "Sheffey." Both are great Gospel opportunities. Please pray with us for God's blessing on these evenings. Thank you for your participation in our ministry with your interest and prayers.