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Precious People

8/21/2018

 
The Lord spoke of the advent of His Glory visited upon and dwelling within Zion . It served as the chosen host of Divine glory.
Today those redeemed, who dwell in the light of Christ reveal the glory of God. To such, others are drawn by the radiance of God's glory from within.

God has blessed Robin and I with precious friends and precious memories. We offer a tribute to those precious people whom God has sent into our lives. They are those through whom the glory of the Lord has regularly offered the touch of heaven upon our lives .We are forever grateful.

Isaiah 60

“Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples,but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light,and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
There are people who capture your heart not by the volume of what they have to say but by the strength of manifest character.
Time diminishes most things but it only proves precious things to be more enduring.. Time cannot erode things of eternal nature and value. Precious things are heaven sent, they are imbued with a heavenly fragrance. Precious things are the streams of God in dry places. Out of precious friends flow the thirst quenching Waters of the Holy Spirit shared freely in Christ with those who are parched.
Those who leave life-giving impressions require no forced or strained efforts to remember them, recalling the moments when they have spoken life into our dying dreams and have introduced sunshine cutting through the darkest of Skies. Their fingerprints are on every page. The chapters of our lives are filled with footnotes from things that have been authored by the Lord through precious others. They are never archaic or faded memories, their voices are never silenced, their smiles never dissolve, and the fragrance of their presence never dissipates. Times of reflection, reminiscing upon the precious moments spent with those who have made this life an incredible journey of soulful and spiritual communion, cast an even greater light revealing the vivid and colorful things about them that have introduced real joy and profound significance into our lives.
We choose to express our gratitude often to the Lord and to those that have made our Christ authored life-songs, the go to melodies of our hearts. They stir us to greater passion, authoring lyrics for each day that offer deep refreshment, and inspiration. They are the sounds of heaven, the soothing background of a healthy view and approach to life.

Thank you.

I Declare....His Truth

8/17/2018

 
1 John 3:1
See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are......

I am called to refuse the fraudulant claim that the old nature asserts in its pursuit of restored lordship over my life. I am compelled to lay down all before the altar of my Heavenly Father's Glory. I am abundantly alive when conquered and undone, in the revelation of The Father's redeeming love. My heavenly Father bestows indisputable victory of soul and spirit, through grace's redemption and conquest over that which once ruled my fallen soul. Christ's banner is raised over me, a temple of His dwelling, in what was once vacant, ruined within by depravity's contempt toward that by which I now stand redeemed. I am beckoned to the dangerous places to which the Holy Spirit guides me, where my flesh nature is sure to suffer devastating wounds.The Word of The Almighty is my right of passage to places where I have never been from which I will never turn back. Undone in Christ, transformation raises me up in Him, born anew to become what I have never been. I desire no return to what I once was. The past was cursed and today is Promise, and in that I choose to advance.

Philippians 3:7
But Christ has shown me that what I once thought was valuable is worthless

Light in Dark Places - Betrayal

8/15/2018

 
When we allow a sense of betrayal to sabotage our personal health of soul and spirit, as well as our interactions and relationships with others, we have become willing accomplices with those with whom we are aggrieved, by self inflicting far greater injury than the original offense. An absence of intimacy with God may be the reflection of embitterment toward others, having formed a chasm through un-forgiveness.
Hebrews 12:14-15
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
FORGIVENESS AND RELATIONAL TRUST ARE NOT THE SAME
Forgiving others is a commandment, trusting them is not. Forgiveness is the extension of grace while relational trust is an affirmation of another's proven trustworthiness. Forgiveness is the expression of unmerited favor. Relational trust is reciprocation toward honor. Forgiveness pardons betrayal. Relational trust may or may not be restored over time. Spiritual transformation is the foundation upon which the possibility of restored trust is built. The work of God within makes all things possible.
Real forgiveness will defeat the tyranny that would otherwise high jack and insatiably rule personal and relational behavior in the absence of personal trust. Forgiveness does not exploit the absence of relational trust.

There is More

8/12/2018

 
Jeremiah 33:3
‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’

At times, our theology caps our pursuit of God as we believe ourselves to be capable of defining, and exhausting what there is to be known or experienced in God. Such thinking is what turns believers into burnouts, churches into museums, and surrenders families, communities, regions, and nations to the exploitation of Satan. Those who give up on God are lacking the fresh fuel of revelation. Faith fuel is replenished in the higher realms where Christ is exalted ruling over all supposed impossibilities. God’s Spirit invades the realm of impossibility. He is waiting there for us to call on Him with the thunderous authority imparted through Christ. God has not vacated the premises of the impossible, He wants His church to thrive there in fresh revelation and power, fresh love, and a fresh hunger.

1 Corinthians 2:6-12
6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God [a]ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.9 But as it is written:
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,

Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”
10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

    Pastor Rick Ritenour
    Lead Pastor

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Bethel Assembly of God
1125 Frederick Pike
Littlestown,  PA 17340