This was sent to me by a friend. Enjoy!

Today’s Illustration - “The Trip Home”
Featured Illustration items are well suited for introducing or illuminating a point in a sermon, speech, or devotional. Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.

A pastor had been on a long flight between church conferences. The first warning of the approaching problems came when the sign on the airplane flashed on:
*Fasten Your Seat Belts.*

Then, after a while, a calm voice said, “We shall not be serving the beverages at this time as we are expecting a little turbulence. Please be sure your seat belt is fastened.”

As the pastor looked around the aircraft, it became obvious that many of the passengers were becoming apprehensive.

Later, the voice on the intercom said, “We are so sorry that we are unable to serve the meal at this time. The turbulence is still ahead of us.”

And then the storm broke . . .

The ominous cracks of thunder could be heard even above the roar of the engines. Lightning lit up the darkening skies, and within moments that great plane was like a cork tossed around on a celestial ocean. One moment the airplane was lifted on terrific currents of air; the next, it dropped as if it were about to crash.

The pastor confessed that he shared the discomfort and fear of those around him. He said, “As I looked around the plane, I could see that nearly all the passengers were upset and alarmed. Some were praying. The future seemed ominous and many were wondering if they would make it through the storm.

“Then, I suddenly saw a little girl. Apparently the storm meant nothing to her. She had tucked her feet beneath her as she sat on her seat; she was reading a book and every- thing within her small world was calm and orderly.

“Sometimes she closed her eyes, then she would read again; then she would straighten her legs, but worry and fear were not in her world.

When the plane was being buffeted by the terrible storm when it lurched this way and that, as it rose and fell with frightening severity, when all the adults were scared half to death, that marvelous child was completely composed and unafraid.” The minister could hardly believe his eyes.

It was not surprising therefore, that when the plane finally reached its destination and all the passengers were hurrying to disembark, our pastor lingered to speak to the girl whom he had watched for such a long time.

Having commented about the storm and the behavior of the plane, he asked why she had not been afraid.

The child replied, “Cause my Daddy’s the pilot, and he’s taking me home.”

Physical, mental, financial, domestic, and many other storms can easily and quickly darken our skies and throw our plane into apparently uncontrollable movement. We have all known such times, and let us be honest and confess, it is much easier to be at rest when our feet are on the ground than when we are being tossed about a darkened sky.

Let us remember: Our Father is the Pilot. He is in control and taking us home. Don’t worry!

- Gerald M. Costello, Interim Director, The Christophers

It depends on who’s asking. Well since the only one that can give all things is God, I have been wondering what I should ask for. My main problem is that I know I should not ask for what I already have. And I also know that whatever I ask for will be given.

Should I ask for money? Good health, Fame, Peace of mind, long life, more children, a house, a good car, a private jet, love from everyone around me, world peace? The truth is that God has already made provisions for all these. All I need to do is take them and align myself with God’s will. Since I want peace and success, I have to follow divine instructions so every other thing is bundled within following divine instruction.

So what will I ask for? Well Dear Lord, From today, help me to know you better each day, grant me the grace and the ability to hear you at all times and to obey instantly. Grant me the boldness to stand in the place you have placed me and to be a blessing to my generation all the days of my life.  And also anoint me afresh to be the best Ade that I can ever be, so that I can pastor your people by divine instruction.

And What would I do today? - Probably, read scriptures, spend couple of hours praising, worshiping and praying to God spend some time with my family, answer calls from friends, and family (church and nuclear) and update this blog to write about how the day was. Also work on some scriptures and my sermon for Sunday.

Come to think of it, I have always enjoyed my birthdays. No two birthdays have been the same and I am sure today will be nice too. I am expectant of a wonderful day. PRAISE THE LORD.

I found out about the revival in Lakeland simply by searching for Revival in Google 4 days ago. I cannot even remember what exactly I was searching for. I saw Lakeland revival and I decided to take a look at it. Needless to say that I was surprised to read that a 5 days meeting had extended to over 40days is being broadcasted live on www.god.tv. I have been watching for one or two hours every night since then and I am so glad that this is happening.

I read some articles and listened to an interview of Todd Bently the Minister that is being used for the “revival”. From what I heard I believe that there is definitely a move of God in Lakeland, USA. It is too early at this time to simply say this is the revival we have been waiting for, but from the testimonies that are being shared every night we can give all the glory to God. It is so amazing to see that people can travel from all over the world to experience the power of God. I believe that there is a power that is drawing this people and the testimonies that people watching the meetings are sharing makes one just want to praise God.

My Prayers: I pray that the move of God will continue in Lakeland and that it will spread all over the world especially to Canada; Montreal in Particular. There are so many people suffering in this world. They need the power of God in their lives. We the children of God need to be on fire for God. We need to be ready to deliver the healing power of God to the millions who are sick and are in need of healing. I pray that the move of God will bring repentance and holiness to the church of God in America and to the rest of the world. I pray that this will not just be a healing revival, but healing followed by deep repentance and holiness.

My Pain: Each night as I have tuned in to view the meetings at Lakeland, I could not help but notice that many of the sick people that were being prayed for were Christians. They have been Christians for many years and yet their bodies were broken, many afflicted by terminal diseases and they really wanted to be healed. It’s painful because if we claim to be serving a living God, we should be also able to tap into His creative power, healing power and all-encompassing power to receive our breakthroughs. I must confess that I cannot boldly claim that I have a fail-proof formula for Christians to receive healing, but at the same time, I believe strongly that all we need to do as Christians is to know that Jesus is all the healing we need. I know that Jesus was not sick so we also can live without sickness. Oh Lord teach your church how to enjoy divine health. Teach me Lord. Amen.

For the past 3 weeks I have found that I have prayed more and more for the fire of the lord to fall upon me. Jesus is the one that baptises us with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Fire I believe stands for the sanctifying presence of the Holy Spirit as well as the overwhelming passion for more of God that one receives along with the filling with the Holy Spirit.

I really need fresh fire, because the challenges that we face as “missionaries” in Quebec, needs more than just doing church. Quebec needs ministers and Christians that have been set ablaze by the Holy Spirit. The forces of darkness that have determined to keep this province in darkness are working day and night and if we will have any form of victory we must stand on the victory that has been won on the cross and we must never stand down, give in or give up.

We need to confront the enemy with the word, with the blood of Jesus and with the Name that is above every other name. The name of Jesus. Personally, the enemy has tried to distract me and my family with financial needs but we will not be distracted. We know that we have all things in Christ. So we refuse to be discouraged.

Lately the Lord has been reminding me that I have been set free from the bondage of sin and the devil (John 8:32). So now I am free to live, to love and to declare freedom to other people. We will be free in Montreal and Quebec in Jesus Name.

I was at the confrence held by Peter Yongren last weekend and I must say it is encouraging to know that God is doing great things in Africa and He wants to do it here also. We will keep praying and obeying until we see the revival that has been promised.

After reading so many books and articles. After many hours at the computer. I finally wrote the last paper for this first semester of my M.A Theology Program. So how was it? The semester was good, but I must add that its much more challenging than the B.A program. The good thing is that I love what I am studying and I am ready to go ahead come April 30 when I would be taking Advanced Biblical Hebrew.

Well you can expect to read more regularly from me, from now on.

I know I have been silent for a while. I am busy writing papers for my M. A classes. I should be done with them by 15th of this Month. I spent the last three days writing a paper that I had been researching for quite some time. I enjoyed the research but I hated the writing. People who know me know that I hate writing academic papers.

The Joint Service between our church - Overcomers Assembly and Montreal West Presbyterian Church was a great success. They want us to come back. I pray that the Lord will continue to do His work amongst us. I look forward to the next time.

I need to start jogging again. When will this “winter” go away so that I can run outside?

Stay blessed.

Ade

Sometimes I wonder what it means for a service to be great. Is it the number of people that attended? Or the number of people that were saved or the number of people that were blessed? I think it is a combination of all of them. However, lately (a couple of months) I have been more interested in people becoming saved (totally transformed).

In the book of Acts of the apostles, we see that the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved. I long to see people being added to our local church daily and the church in Montreal daily. Do you know that if the Lord is adding to all the local congregations monthly, we would have at least 52 new members in the church every year? Our model of growth however at Overcomers assembly is for God to double our numbers every year. My concern however is that if we do not preach the gospel as it is (no sugar coating) we would only get people who like the idea of Christianity but are not truly saved. With this kind of half-baked salvation, the model will not work.

So what do we do? I think the first step is to determine how many of us are truly saved. I think this is something every pastor is required to know (at least as much as we can tell from human point of view). If we are indeed given the mandate by God to watch over the lives of His people, we must be diligent to know their spiritual states and to be able to help them to move on from where they are now to a better position.

I have taken it upon myself therefore to continue to meet with members of the church one by one to inquire about their states and to encourage them if they are already in the Lord to win others to Christ. I have no doubt that once I have been able to determine the number that are saved, we will be able to double that number.

So if the number of those saved are 18, it will take another 8 yrs for us to get to 5000 members. However if there are only 15 people that are truly saved, it will take us 10 more years to get to about 6000 members. I don’t care how long it will take even if it will take 20 years. What I am praying for is a solid foundation and a clear knowledge of the number of people that we are starting with.

This week and the next 2 weeks are going to be very busy for me, so I may not blog as much. I have two final papers to hand in within the next 3 weeks. However, I hope to post at least one article before the end of the month. The Lord keeps surprising us with financial blessings. A brother sent $100 from Alberta. All glory to God.

I have been silent for one week because I did not know how to present what I was going through without sounding as if I was trying to solicit donations. Now that things are better I feel a little more confident about sharing some details with you guys. I really wonder if anyone bothers to read these posts. Anyway I find it refreshing to share a part of my life even when I have no idea who is reading it.

In the past one week, things went so bad financially that I began to wonder, how the next week would be. Our car had a problem and the money to fix it was not forth coming, rent was due and the was no money to paid it, other bills were due and they just kept coming one after the other without any hope of financial income. However, when we thought that we would park our car and even though we did not know how we would get around, the money started coming in little by little. Needless to say, our car is fixed, our rent is paid and the bills are being tackled one after the other.

Some people may see the above paragraph as a sad place to be. How can one at this age be unable to pay rent? How do you explain the challenges of not being able to pay your bills talk less of savings and investment? However, we see this as victory, because it shows that even if you don’t have a regular income, and your work is to cater to the needs of God’s people of faith, you will be taken care of. I have no doubt that the time is coming when we will have much more than we can use, I am so glad because these days of lack, will help us to know how to share with people in need rather than spend it all on luxury.

Grad school is taken some of my time, but I know it’s a necessary sacrifice and I know that I am learning a lot more than one would expect from a theological degree in a secular university as opposed to the same at a Bible School or Theological Seminary.

Demi is growing every day. He is not walking yet, but he stands and crawls very well. I guess that’s one of the reasons why he doesn’t see the need to walk yet. I mean “why walk when you can get there faster by crawling?” Demi in this world, we walk around on two legs not on hands and feet.

I have not written any new articles. I hope to write one this weekend. I am looking forward to a wonderful Easter Celebration.

Well until next time. Have a wonderful week.

I made another attempt to fix my Toshiba laptop today. I had to take it apart and re-solder the power connector. This is the 5th or 6th time I have had to do so in the past 3 months. It usually stays okay for about a month, sometimes just a few days so I am hoping that this one would last for at least a year or at least 6 months. I wouldn’t feel so bad if I have to do this twice a year. However not ever having to do open this computer again would be better. I am actually typing this on my laptop.

The day started well, with prayers and an encouraging word from Psalm 57:2 that our God is the one who fulfills His purpose for us. Our God has a purpose for us and then He goes ahead to fulfill the purpose by Himself. We don’t need to be scared of the great vision that the Lord has put in our hearts, or even to worry that we don’t have any “big” visions. We should be rest assured in the fact that the Lord who has the purpose is willing and able to accomplish His purpose in us. Our task is to be totally submissive to the leading of our loving Lord and God.

I spent a good portion of the day fixing my laptop. I went for the first meeting of our 4th cell at church and I think we are on the way to a successful cell launch. Attended my class on Romans, we did chapters 7 & 8. I find this class quite interesting. It’s kind of interesting studying the book of Romans in School. I an enjoying the class more now that we are focusing on a particular book as opposed to all the letters of Paul.

I have a paper due tomorrow so a good portion of my day would be spent on that. Got to go to bed soon.

If there is any day that would have been a dull day, it would have been today. After all the snow we had “enjoyed” all through the winter, we were “blessed” with another 50cms of snow overnight. But as God would have it, our drive way was already cleared before we had to go out and since we have underground parking, we just drove off to Church. That is after waking up a little bit late and almost much later due to the change in time.

Sunday morning service was great, we had a good time worshiping and I felt the sermon was okay (I hardly ever feel the sermon was great), but I felt that the Lord was touching all of us in different ways. And there was a word of encouragement at the end of the sermon. My friend Barth was there and he was blessed (that’s what I gathered from what he said).

As if that was not enough, someone put gas in our car (we can guess almost accurately who it was) and that was just the icing on an already great morning. You know, it came at the right time and we feel so blessed by God and I pray that God would bless the vessel He chose to use abundantly. I tell you it’s such a blessing to give and it is a blessing to receive too!!

Sunday evening service was great too. We had another great time in praise and worship and the sermon was good. In fact I felt the sermon in the morning was better, but in my little experience so far, I found that God uses the sermons that I feel are not so good to bless people. It’s not about the sermon, its about the God of the sermon (thank God for that - imagine preaching without anointing!!).

The attendance today (both services) was a little lower but just a little. We had almost 80% of our regular attendance. However, we did not have any new guests this week and none of our previous guests came back (except Barth who is an active member of another church). We have had guests every Sunday this year except the first 2 Sundays.

I watched Oprah’s big give tonight. It was quite interesting and inspiring. It sure did get me thinking about how to give more (actually how to inspire people to be blessed enough to give). Another week is already rolling by, I’ve got to get my plans for the week in place before I go to bed.

Oh Lord I thank you for another day that you have made. I thank you so much. Glory to God.