EnCOURAGEment for the Week of August 13, 2002
Rev. Richard Ritenour

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 fraudulent 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
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EnCOURAGEment for the Week of July 31, 2022
Rev. Richard Ritenour

Philosophy is the fluid expression or compilation of man’s anecdotal thoughts about many things including the meaning and values of life. Science is the systematic pursuit of finding through human investigation as well as a source for the formation of theoretical postulations as to the origins of life. Philosophy and science are not evil pursuits, but they are pursuits, that are guided by a number of factors and variables. Science involves research and discovery, with many discoveries having benefited mankind from the beginning. Philosophy is a formation of values underlying visionary leadership and a key to many positive advancements. 

The Bible identifies God as its Author and it claims that through Him Life was created and that through Jesus Christ life, at its highest level, is given freely to those who receive His gift of Grace through His redemptive suffering and death.

As a student of God’s Word, I have come to believe that the Bible is the perfect revelation of that which inspires faith in God as the author of Life and the standard of validation for all other findings regardless of the vehicle through which they are presented. The scriptures require faith, not validation.

All other things that claim to provide and to require proof to support all findings or theories, bow before that which requires no validation, simply requiring faith, that is the Word of God. God never asks for man’s validation. Faith is a substance that transcends the limitation of human study and philosophy. That which is finite and limited can never truly assess that which is infinite and limitless.

This is not about pitting science, philosophy, and Christian faith against one another, it is about the transcendence and the sovereignty of God presiding over the creation to which He gave and gives Life.  The Word of God validates, it is not subject to validation by lesser things.          The Scriptures are the standard by which all other things are measured according to Its claims.

John 14:6
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.

2 Peter 1:21
for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit.
 
Job 38:4-11
4 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding.
5  Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?
6  To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone,
7  When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?
8  “Or who shut in the sea with doors, When it burst forth and issued from the womb;
9  When I made the clouds its garment, And thick darkness its swaddling band;
10  When I fixed My limit for it, And set bars and doors;
11  When I said, ‘This far you may come, but no farther, And here your proud waves must stop!’

Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 
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EnCOURAGEment for the Week of July 24, 2022
Rev Richard Ritenour 

NOT GOD'S MISTAKE

God was not, and never will be, confused about who He created each one to be. To believe that we are God’s mistakes is to believe that His Word cannot be trusted. May each one identify with and celebrate God's design as revealed in scripture rather than being tossed around by ever changing personal feelings or cultural commentary and influence. Stand in The Truth of God's Word rather than getting caught up in the web of lies and the state of confusion. We all are loved and valuable in the eyes of The Creator. Jesus laid His life down for all, that His Truth would set people free to live confidently in His Father's design for each one's life.

Isaiah 44:24 “This is what the Lord says— your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, the Maker of all things, who stretches out the heavens, who spreads out the earth by myself,

Jeremiah 1:5 “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations. Psalm 139:14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well

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ENCOURAGEMENT
Week of July 17, 2022

What if My Feelings about God, Faith and Life are not Consistent with Christ’s Teachings or are possibly absent all together?

Psalm 144:15
….Happy are the people whose God is the Lord!

Feelings are wonderful experiential impulses given to us by God. Feelings are our internal sensations of happiness, sadness, excited anticipation, dread, confidence, doubt, enjoyment, displeasure, peace, distress, and a host of “feelings” in response to many different stimuli.

What if our feelings have fled or are oppressively ruining our lives? What if our feelings are triggered to extreme responses? What if feelings are absent all together? Feelings are sensory and depending what they are wired or tuned into, they can be healthy or unhealthy, honoring or dishonoring to God and others.
People who are consistently given to rage, consistent perceptions of victimization, or those who are numb to feelings both positive and negative, represent those who stand in need of deliverance or possibly medical, spiritual, mental and emotional counseling or treatments.

We all have times when we feel very deeply, and sometimes our emotions can run ahead of our character, and or our common sense. When we are consistently ruled by our emotions, it reveals a lack of depth or maturity in some other vital area of personal development. Emotions may not always accurately represent the appropriate response to a situation and our subsequent course of action.

When our feelings do not represent the character of Christ and they are unscriptural we bear the responsibility to host Holy Spirit led change and to bring our feelings back into alignment and under submission to the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence. We are not helpless and others are not always to blame for feelings that fueled a negative mindset, a faithless disposition or an indifference due to a lack of feeling.

If we are consistently mastered by our feelings, rather than energized by our faith in God, perhaps we have not grown deep enough into the rich soil of God’s Word and, or have not taken a revealing and truthful inventory of our hearts in soul-searching prayer. As we do that is when our hearts and minds can be recalibrated with the Truth of God’s Word and His Character.

It happens in the undesirable seasons of life and even in the best of times, that we may not feel inspired, we may not have any sense of God’s presence or of His love and we may walk through times of numbness.

The thing that is important to keep in mind is that our feelings are to be brought into alignment with the authority and content of the inspired Word of God. It is not what we feel, that is always true, but the Word of God is. It is not what we feel or do not feel but what the Word of God says. God’s Word is an indivisible and transformative extension of His Character.

When Simon Peter was exhausted after a fruitfulness night of fishing the Supernatural Jesus directed him out to the deep and though Peter was not feeling it, he obeyed the directives of the Lord and he launched out, catching so many fish that the nets began to tear (Luke 5:1-10.)

Sometimes when we embrace the opportunities that are afforded to us to connect with the Lord in fertile solitude and silence, the breakthrough of healthy spiritual emotion and feeling is released into our lives.

Psalm 46:10
Be still, and know that I am God,…

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Weekly EnCOURAGEment
Week of July 10, 2022

THE WORDS THAT JESUS SPOKE
 
John 6:63
63 The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you -they are full of the Spirit and life.
 
The Words that Jesus spoke were from His Father and were an extension of the very Divine Nature of God. He spoke nothing independently from that which The Father had given Him to speak.
 
Even in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus expressed his human desire that the Cup of this terrible of assignment be taken away, His heart was so aligned with the Will of the Father that He surrendered to His Father’s Will instead of to the impulses that were pulling upon His human nature.
 
A few thoughts regarding the Words that Jesus spoke:
 
1.  He always acknowledged and honored His Father when He communicated anything on His behalf. That provides all of us with a tremendous example of honor  and obedience. He was not merely compliant but He embraced His Father’s Words, Plans and directives.
 
2.  Jesus spoke some things that were very comforting and some things that were very difficult for others to hear.  But it was always God’s Truth and it was spoken with Grace.  It did not always win the affection of people, but for those who received it, they experienced love, deliverance and freedom, life and hope.
 
3.  What Jesus spoke was never frivolous or spoken out of a wrong disposition. Even when He spoke the hard things, Grace was always inherent in all that He spoke. His declaration concerning His role as the Good Shepherd who would give His life for the sheep, makes it clear that He loved beyond natural comprehension.
 
4.  His Words were powerful and authoritative and that was because they were anointed by The Spirit of God.
 
Luke 4:18-19
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
    because he has anointed me
    to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
 
 * His Words held command over Sin, Sickness, Death, The Laws of nature, The Spirit World of both angels and demons, and His Words held command over  hopelessness and lovelessness.
 
John 6:68
Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. 


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Weekly EnCOURAGEment
Week of June 19, 2022

CLAY?

Isaiah 64:8
And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand.
 
What I believe about God forms over time. What I believe about God determines how I will relate to Him and how my faith and life will represent Him daily among others. What I believe about God, must be drawn from a pure source, uncontaminated by unhealthy and unscriptural streams of influence that are not sourced from the springs of “living water” that Jesus spoke of.

There have been many voices and life experiences that have sought to steer others toward or away from certain beliefs and ideas about God. There have been and continue to be those things that influence personal faith, views, and relationships with God. There have been positive and negative life experiences and growth opportunities and interactions that have led others to examine scripture and to prayerfully examine and discern the integrity of the heart through its counsel and the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
 
Truthfully, and it must be God’s communicated truth, from which each believing life is liberated from small, distorted, imprisoning or imbalanced views of scripture and its transforming effect as revealed in its application in life, does Christ truly become Lord. Scriptural truth and the revelation of God, as provided through His inspired Word and from its substance and the context of personal and corporate relationship with God through Christ, requires prayerful humility and personal surrender to its author, that Christ be shaped in each one who professes His Lordship.

Like clay conditioned and shaped within the designs and hands of the potter, as placed upon a pottery wheel, followers of Christ are to be shaped by the hands of the Lord.   
  
IMPORTANT THINGS TO CONSIDER ABOUT THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR FAITH, RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD AND ITS IMPACT UPON OTHERS.
 
1.  Personal faith comes from hearing the Word of God. (Romans 10:17) 

2.  We must be prayerfully selective as to whom we give the powerful of spiritual influence in our lives. (2 Timothy 4:3) 

3.  We are to prayerfully and scripturally engage others in Truth and in Love, from the whole counsel of God’s Word and in humility. (Ephesians 4:15) 

4.  Knowledge without personal transformation makes one arrogant and ungracious toward others.  Jesus changes our hearts not His Truth. 

5.  Scripture interprets scripture, meaning that we must have scriptural integrity and that comes from the whole counsel of God’s Word, not merely the cherry-picked portions that support our preferred narrative.  (Matthew 4:4) 

6.  What we know, must be match by what is most important. (Matthew 23:23) 

7.  Scripture is God’s communication of His Person, His Love, His Plan, and His Promises. (1 Corinthians 8:1) 

8.  We are not to make converts to Christ-less religion. (Matthew 23:15) 

9.  We grow by God’s grace in faith, in Christ and as we are nourished and nurtured in His Divine, Exalted, Sovereign and Providential counsel, given in Word and in Spirit for personal and corporate transformation in Christ’s likeness that we might win and build up others in His Truth and Grace. 

10. It is not what I feel, think, or even believe that determines the truth and authority of anything pertaining to God, but it is: (1) that which God has revealed about Himself through His Inspired Written Word (2) through the incarnate Living Word of God in Christ, and (3) from the counsel of His Holy Spirit.  (Jeremiah 1:9)
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Weekly EnCOURAGEment
June 12, 2022

SOMETIMES IT’S WHAT YOU KNOW AND SOMETIMES IT’S WHAT YOU DON’T KNOW
 
2 Peter 3:17-18
17 You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 18 but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
 
Sometimes there is shelter and protection in not knowing certain things.
 
At other times knowing something is absolutely essential for personal growth and advancement.
 
A Christian’s growth in knowledge is relational and experiential in Christ. The first of these, “relationship,” is absolutely critical and is foundational to Christ centered growth and a knowledge of scriptural and spiritual matters. Unfortunately for many that is not widely known and understood, and that, tragically among those who profess a personal relationship with Christ at a surface level or on our own preferred terms. We can restrict greater spiritual growth by placing the priority of such at a lower level of premium than other pursuits of knowledge and experience.
 
Matthew 10:16
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.
 
1 Corinthians 14:20
Dear brothers and sisters, don’t be childish in your understanding of these things.
Be innocent as babies when it comes to evil, but be mature in understanding matters of this kind.
 
With knowledge comes great responsibility and accountability. There are many things that the need to know comes with age and development, and that for Christians unapologetically is framed within and built upon the context of scriptural instruction. The clear directives of scripture are not merely suggestions for those whose faith and conduct are guided by scriptural principles and Christian love. They are bedrock.
 
There are things that that we are not to become indulgently familiar with such as reckless disregard for the truth, causing harm to others, defamation of others, lying, lack of compassion, irreverence, vulgarity, and contempt for others to name a few. I am grateful for the transforming
grace of God afforded to me when I fall short. Grace is never a license for sloppy living.
 
1 John 2:1-4
My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous. 2 He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins – and not only our sins but the sins of all the world.
 
For those who know Christ, teaching our children and grandchildren the facts of life must begin from a premise of Scriptural truth. Even when the scripture does not speak to an issue specifically or exclusively, it does provide the guiding principles of scripture for every part of life. The Bible is a book of Divinely given wisdom.
 
We as believers should never embrace ignorance and fall into gullibility but as we walk in truth and grace with, and among others, we walk on a path that is much too narrow for the accompaniment of godless acts and attitudes to travel with us over the long haul. Yet the grace of God makes room for others who will be encouraged to join the walk in the light that guides our steps forward in the best of all directions and to the best of all places in Christ.
 
In God’s love, and by His grace we are never at lost and we are never missing out of the false pleasures of sin and the indulgences that consume.
 
Wisdom, discernment, and personal conscience are essential, and we do not have to taste of the fruit when we know that it is the product of that which poisons the soul and the spirit. Love is the greatest of all reflections of who God is in our lives and when we walk in its way, we are not missing out on anything good.

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Weekly EnCOURAGEment
Week of June 5

GHOST HUNTING SEASON
 
On any given summer evening you can see groups gathering in search of ghosts, spirits, and chills in my community. People are always in search of a “para-normal” experience, that which defies logic and carries the potential to blow away one’s previous spiritual history and to excite future expectations.
 
People part with their hard-earned money for many things, in pursuit of a thing, an experience, a high, a laugh, or for an infusion of fear that will raise the bar of ones’ desire to know what he or she has not known, to see what he or she has not seen, and to be touched by what has not touched one before. There are countless, some greater and some lesser, aims and pursuits, and yet all are driven by a need or an urge, a desire to know that there is something more than this moment, something beyond what I know or have experienced. We desire to connect with the things that are next level, things that will reach deeper into our consciousness and take us into places and experiences that we can enjoy alone or with other “seekers.”
 
There is a Spirit that brings those who are touched by Him and filled, to a place of resonate peace and deep and inexpressible joy. Mystics search for experience and knowledge that elude the natural senses, a perceived truth that is more enlightening and provocative that will make today more.
 
It is given to us, a desire to know and to experience, but apart from the foundational knowledge of God in mind and spirit, the search and experimentation, though fascinating for a season, frequently leads to dry or poisoned wells. Running after something that is not part of the routine or the norm in life, to capture or to be captured by that which is perceived transcendent, and sublime is a pursuit that is common to people of every ilk. The range of spiritual pursuit and experimentation aims at many things, often with reckless disregard and without discernment, like driving a car riding on the rims and without fuel and without a credible destination.
 
Truth according to scripture comes from God. Truth cannot be simply created out of convenience or human rhetoric. The reality is that Scripture Truth releases the spiritual revelation of God, the ultimate communication from a God who freely communicates His person and His love for people. There are pursuits that truly reward and inspire and there are those which deplete and confuse. The pursuit of intimacy with God, who is from everlasting to everlasting, unlimited by time and space, who was and is and always will be, Holy and Exalted is not an exhausting quest. God is a communicator, a revealer, and The One who infallibly infuses revelation of Spirit without exhaustion.
 
The God of scripture is a communicator and a revealer. His interactions with those whom He Has created in His image are released in Spirit and Inspired Truth. Our divine creator reveals what can only be known in Spirit and in Truth. The spiritual world is real and yet there is only One who is infallibly True and Truthful, only one who transforms the lives of those who seek Him, those who respond to His wooing. “Spirit” with our truth is a realm that is dark and is navigated without a true compass, without a guide. The scriptures refer to the Holy Spirit as “the Spirit of Truth” who guides into all truth.
 
Power without integrity is dangerous to all. Spiritual experimentation without the infallible guidance of scriptural truth opens our lives to the influence of many things. We are created with a spirit, and it is the spirit, when renewed in Christ and baptized in the Holy Spirit, that a believer is equipped to discern truth from error, light from darkness, and spiritual life from spiritual death.  
 
God is Spirit and He can only be known intimately in Spirit and in His Inspired Truth. He can only receive worship that comes from man’s spirit and in Divine Truth.
 
We are given a spiritual nature, though broken through sin, and it is restored through a saving relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
 
Reckless or experimental spiritualism is casting a wide net into the dark seas of the unknown with the hope of catching something, the likes of which and the fruit of which are seldom, realized immediately to be what they truly are. It is often the opening of a pandora’s box of deceitful afflictions of mind, body, and soul, an enslavement of the fallen nature to the fascination of that which is shrouded in and screams from the darkness into our positioned and reckless desire.
 
The God of Scriptures reveals Himself to all who receive Him, in Spirit and in Truth. Jesus Christ declares Himself to be The Way and Truth and The Life, and only in Him can one come to the Heavenly Father.
 
God sent His Holy Spirit following the Ascension of Christ, to bring and to baptize believers into a spiritual life which is in-dwelt and empowered for life and faith, a life which is transformed righteously by the Truth of God which draws the heart, the mind and the spirit of the believer, to a life of inner peace that rest in the sublime knowledge and a life rested in the Love of a God who gives rather than demands and who leads to the still waters and the pastures of rest. 
 
The character of God is that which brings people into life and one which liberates the soul from endless searching for “something else.” God reveals His love for all people, and His salvation is afforded to all in Christ. He reveals our true identity and our highest purpose for living. God leads, and as a Shepherd does not drive the sheep of His pasture. The interactions with God never defile, never compromise the conscience, darken the soul, or celebrate and advance evil. The being of those who know Him in spiritual and Scriptural truth are nurtured in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control - Galatians 5:22-23.
 
Ephesians 6:12
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
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2 Corinthians 11:14
14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
 
1 John 4:18
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
 
John 8:12
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”
 
John 3
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
 
John 12:46
I have come as a light into the world, that whoever believes in Me should not abide in darkness.
 
1 John 1:5
This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.

1 John 1:6
If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of May 15

WHAT’S YOUR TEAM SPIRIT?
 
1 Corinthians 12:12-14
12 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. 13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body - whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free - and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. 14 For in fact the body is not one member but many.
 
TEAM SPIRIT is a shared passion and energy that brings team members together into a shared purpose, a shared goal, and a shared commitment to achieve the goal, as One.
 
TEAM SPIRIT is to be more than a concept. It begins as a concept emerging from a vision or a passion that is shared with others, who go from being a disconnected assortment of personalities, ideas, abilities, and passions, to being transformed from polarity to unity.
 
TEAM SPIRIT is the vital disposition that connects the ranks of the team from its Leadership and establishes cohesion and coordination as it moves forward.
 
The Scriptures provide the best example of Team Spirit. The Greater the mission or the goal, the greater the need for Team Spirit and Team unity. It is an undeniable reality that the Holy Spirit Baptizes the church into Purpose, Power, Passion and Promise to fulfill its individual and collective Mission, by His Power and for the Glory of God alone. The Spirit Filled Church exists to: 
 
1.  Worship and Glorify The Lord.
2.  To Reach The World With His Redeeming Gospel
3.  To Equip Believers from the Scriptures and Through Prayer.
 
Acts 1:8
8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
 
Luke 24:49-50
49 Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”
 
The Holy Spirit is the guide, the helper, the comforting counselor, an Advocate, an intercessor and The Spirit of Truth of whom Jesus spoke, “16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever - 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.  - John 14:16-18.
 
We are saved by Grace through faith in Christ, when we turn to Christ for forgiveness and for cleansing from all sin, through His finished work on the Cross of Calvary, receiving freely and abundantly the grace that ushers us into Salvation through Christ. We are graciously given redemption through the death and resurrection of Christ, because of His shed blood.
 
The Holy Spirit then takes up residence with our hearts:
 
1.  He raises us up in Christ unto Spiritual life.  (Romans 8:12-16)
2.  Bearing witness within that we have become Children of God.
3.  He places His desire for our Heavenly Father within our hearts which cries forth “Abba”, “Father.”
4.  We are united with Christ in the Holy Spirit to live the life that we could never know apart from His indwelling.
5.  We are able to love as Christ loves because of the Spirit of the Lord that takes up dwelling within our hearts. (1 Corinthians 13)
6.  We are joined in relationship with one another to Worship and to Serve our Lord, while sharing His Love and His Word with the World.  (Acts 2:41-46)
7.  The Holy Spirit joins believers together as a body and we are coordinated with one nother to Encourage and to Equip one another to live the life of believers and to serve His will. (1 Corinthians 12)
 
The Holy Spirit discloses insight into that which can only be scripturally and spiritually discerned in the lives of believers. Spirituality is not marked by pride and condescension toward others but through humility and graciousness.
 
1 Corinthians 2:9-16
9 That is what the Scriptures mean when they say,
 
“No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared
    for those who love him.”
 
10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. 11 No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit. 12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us. 13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths. 14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means. 15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others. 16 For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

​For a Born Again believer, the Holy Spirit indwells and fills, seals he or she as God’s possession in Christ, transforms, leads, directs, equips, and empowers all true followers of Christ to live lives that are raised up in Spiritual life to the Glory of God.
 
The Holy Spirit joins the members of the church into “The Team Spirit” of God The Father, through Jesus Christ!
 
1 John 4:13
13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us.

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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of May 15

PLEASE TELL ME WHY
 
Deuteronomy 29:29
29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.
 
There are scores of things that happen or fail to happen in our lifetimes which we do not and may not ever understand.  No matter how much knowledge and wisdom that one may accrue or demonstrate, apart from the Lord no knows everything and no one will ever know everything, either in this life or in the life to come.
 
The Bible tells us that there are secret things that belong only to the Lord God. There is nothing in the heavens, on the earth or in the earth, and there is no distance that spans beyond the reaches of God’s knowledge and wisdom, and all things are subject to Him.
 
Sometimes God works in ways that defy even our scriptural understanding of who He is and the Promises that He has made. But He is True and Trustworthy in His sovereign operations. 
 
Sometimes godly people of faith fail. They get sick and they die, even as scores of faith-believing prayers are lifted in agreement toward the throne of mercy.  Followers of Christ go through adversities, the likes of which the faithless at times seem to skate by.  Sometimes those who are doing great things and are critically involved in the advancement of Kingdom principles, engaged in great benevolence programs, offering life sustaining aid, counsel, comfort ministries, community advocacy, civic leadership, church ministry, and not the least of which, are those wonderful family members the Lord takes home before we are ready to let them to go. Doesn’t God see the good that they are doing, the potential for what they could have done, or the fact that I need them and I can’t imagine how I go forward in life without them? It is always terrible to see babies and children suffer, and to see them harmed. Why do babies have cancers and criminals allude the law? Why is there so much corruption in every sector of society?  The list could go on and on, not for infinity but certainly for a long time.
 
There are jobs we believe that we should have gotten, deserved recognitions that never came, and inequities that have suppressed many. We have been at times victimized without justice.
 
There are those who believe that God is going to provide us with the answers to all of the mysteries and “unanswered” questions of life when we go to heaven.
 
First of all, Heaven requires a price for admission and the only currency accepted for such is the blood of Christ over our lives.
 
God owes us nothing. He is not indebted to us, and Heaven is not going to be about God answering for all of the things that we feel He needs to provide an explanation for.
 
It is inconceivable that anything outside of the knowledge of His presence and the pre-eminence of His Glory, will even matter to us at that point. His Holiness, His Goodness, His incomparably brilliant and iridescent Light, the Worship of His Exalted Kingship Surrounding His throne, and an eternal community of righteousness in Christ, (leaving behind our fallen nature) will dissolve all other obsessions.
 
We know that God is good, and His goodness is not subject to our approval or how that His Goodness fits in our preferred narrative. God is compassionate, sovereign, and just in all that He does. He is Good if He does nothing for us and yet He gave His precious Son for the salvation of whoever will call out to Him for redemption.
 
We are called to trust Him without condition and that is extremely difficult at times because we have not had many experiences in our lives where trust has been extended to that degree.
 
Revelation 21:4
‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of May 8, 2022

WHO DETERMINES WHAT GROWS IN YOUR GARDEN?
A garden tells a lot about the person who plants it. It’s care and what it produces are all part of the process. In some significant ways each person’s soul is like a garden. The condition of the soul is like the condition of the soil into which a gardener plans to plant a garden in.
 
What grows in the garden of my heart is determined by a number of factors:
 
HOW I PREPARE AND MAINTAIN THE HEALTH OF THE SOIL OF MY GARDEN?
 
♦  Hard ground, rocks and weeds are impediments to the Growth potential of a garden. Spiritually, when one hardens his or her Heart, what grows there will be limited by a lack of depth. (Proverbs 29:1)
 
♦  Ground has to be broken up to receive the seeds of that which is to be planted. Hard ground inhibits the process of the rain’s refreshment of the soil and the germination of the seeds. The ground cannot soak and retain the moisture if it is wicked away by its hardness. (Ephesians 4:18)
 
♦  Rocks have to be removed for the roots to grow and to attain the proper depth. Rocky soil makes it impossible for wide-spread and deep plant root development to take place for plants. Removing rocks can be a very tedious undertaking. It is not the most glorious of tasks, but it is essential for a productive garden to grow. A heart of stone is not receptive to the plantings of God’s Word and for the Fruit of the Spirit to grow.  (Psalm 139:23; Ezekiel 36:26)
 
♦  Weeds require that nothing be done in order to grow and to take over the garden.   Neglect is the most direct path to the Introduction, encroachment, and a hostile take-over by weeds. All gardens require weeding, as they will rob the good plantings of their nourishment and eventually choke them out.  (Matthew 13)
 
♦  The soil must be regularly watered. Some plants require more, and others less, but all require the right measure of water.
 
WHAT TYPE OF SEED DID I PLANT IN MY GARDEN?
♦  Like one’s garden, one’s heart will only produce from what has been seeded there or has grown there as a result of neglect. Faith, Hope and Love are the most important things to be grown in our hearts. God causes the increase, but we are always responsible for its absence or decrease. (Galatians 6:7-8)

HOW DO I TEND TO MY GARDEN?
♦  Most plants require pruning for greater growth for a number of reasons. Nourishment cannot be wasted on the things that are dead and incapable of growth and production. Some things cannot accommodate life and have no potential. These things must be purged.  (John 15:1-7)
 
 HARVESTING THE CROP?
♦  Gathering the fruit or vegetables are a great part of the process to be celebrated and shared with others. In Christ we share with others from the healthy fruit that God has produced in the life of the one who has offered Him a heart prepared for the planting. (Galatians 6:9)
 
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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of May 1, 2022

Ecclesiastes 1
1 The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?

What is life without God’s perspective and purpose? According to Solomon it is described in a word, “meaningless,” a word that he uses four times in verse 2. He speaks of an existence without a knowledge of God.

If not for Christ’s Lordship, and for those whom He has placed as gifts and resources in the critical parts of life, an arduous journey finding small comfort in the void of false promises and behind the mirages of phantom comforts, one would be left with little more than the insatiable appetite of vanity, the tyranny of religious enslavement, and the gnawing of the harsh realization that life offerings are often “never enough” or seldom “live up to the hype.” The trajectory of life without a personal hope in God, would be directed by one’s subscription and offering oneself as prey to scores of shifting narratives that have been formed to the deliberate exclusion of the Lord, and of His greater desires spoken over and for those created in His image.

In Christ, our lives become more than the rotten fruit of a decaying world and the demeaning assessments of godlessness. Jesus came to liberate all who call upon Him and to remove the fallen nature from its usurping imposition as author and voice of the narrative over our past, present and future.

The most noble of human ambitions apart from Christ can never produce that which only the workmanship of God’s Grace and Truth can author. That is revealed in the miracle of spiritual transformation that raises a person up into abundant life out of the wreckage of crippling disappointment and failure. God has raised us from the captivity of faithlessness into a righteousness which is not our own but belongs solely to Christ which He bestows upon all who come to Him at the bequest of redeeming grace.

Personal repentance from sin and faith in Christ as one’s personal savior is the greatest difference maker in life. A foundation in Christ and the resources of that revealed though God’s Word and His Holy Spirit are incredible!!!! They rebuff the destructive forces of life’s storms, and they unlock and reveal the greatest treasures offered in this life and for eternity. Grace is God’s smile and Truth is God’s integrity, to honor every precept that His Word utters and the Divine Promises He has made.

As the Apostle Paul stated, “It is no longer I that live but Christ who lives in me, and the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20

It is when we come to Christ that we discover the depths of truth concerning our true identity, our real purpose for living, our highest calling, the Greatest Love, a Grace that is greater than all our sin, and a Hope that transcends our time here throughout eternity.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. - 1 Corinthians 13:13

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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of April 10, 2022

CHRIST CONQUERED DEATH AND I CAN CONQUER NEGATIVITY
 
There is one person who determines my prevailing disposition and the manner in which I react to life and to other sojourners on its paths. That person would be me.
 
When we allow moments or people to harden our disposition or to ruin us, we give consent for that to be inflicted upon us.  When we allow the fears that occasionally pay us a visit, to become guests in the chambers of our minds and eventually within our hearts, we have allowed the one who “steals, kills and destroys,” access through which He introduces all types of evil afflictions.  We determine whether we will stand in victory over them in Christ or we will tragically surrender to the tyranny of a fear driven existence. I intentionally used the word “existence,” as many things exist but fail to advance and to mature in a healthy manner and to be productive.
 
There are storms that all of us will have to live through and what emerges from them will be determined by where we have stood during the tempests. If we have found shelter in Christ and upon the firm foundation of The Word of God, we will find that the storm is subject to the commands of the creator. The storm then, does not control the narrative, because the narrative to which we subscribe is The Inspired, Infallible and Inerrant Word of the Living God.  His Word is our armor during the heat of the battle.  He has provided for us the protection of our minds and our hearts, and He has shielded us through the Faith from which He has provided the substance necessary to provide protection against the very flaming darts of hell at all times. We will be maligned and we at times may be held in contempt by those who place insatiable expectations and demands upon us, knowing that we will never meet those standards. If we run here and there trying to find acceptance from every naysayer, it will become painfully clear to others and essential that we ourselves recognize the need to be personally reminded of a few things:
 
1)    Who we are in Christ. (Romans 8:16)
 
2)    What God’s Word has established as our focus. (Hebrews 12:2)
 
3)    Our security is not found in creation but in the creator. (Hebrews 13:5)
 
4)    We are clothed in Christ, and it is beneath the representation of His sacred Name and Lordship, that we as The Father’s children be enslaved to personal insecurity, hatred, spiteful behavior, jealousy, anger, bitterness, and the drive in the wrong direction of compulsively trying to win acceptance from others.  False humility is manipulation as the Holy Spirit begs for its abandonment in exchange for the joy that follows sincerity and true humility. (Philippians 1:21)
 
5)    God accepts the redeemed based upon what He has done for us and within our lives. (Titus 3:5)
 
I don’t hate others unless I have first consented for hatred to be seeded, watered, and grown in my heart. I do not live in fear unless I have stopped meditating upon the promises of God’s Word, and I have forsaken the counsel of the Holy Spirit.  I don’t live a small, restricted life unless I no longer believe that “faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”
 
God’s Truth sets me free; it claims me, and it makes my path secure and establishes who I am and who/what I serve and how I walk and where I go. It is the foundation for a steady focus and a clear direction.  We are called to please the Lord God almighty and to know that He has already demonstrated His love toward us and for us, with an unbreakable and unconditional love. His Love empowers me to be who it declares me to be, to live the life that it empowers me to live, and to focus on His transcendence when that which is far beneath it calls me to be lesser than.
 
Ephesians 2:10
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
 
CHRIST CONQUERED DEATH SO THAT I CAN CONQUER NEGATIVITY!

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Weekly En"COURAGE"mnet
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of April 3, 2022

GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE
Everything about God is essential to every part of life prior to and beginning with initial creation and ongoing increase. There is nothing about God that is not essential to life, its purpose, balance, and its destination. All of our yesterdays, this present moment, the coming hours or the days, months, years, and the near and distant future are already known by God and He is in them all. His infinite presence presides there to make Himself known. Romans 1 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
 
Nothing about God is created or random. He is not a myth, or a fairy tale and He is not defined by creation. He is not un-involved, and He is not foreboding unknown far above our knowing. He is a revelator, a communicator, and one who seeks intimacy of spirit with those who have been created in His image.
 
There is no such thing as self-creation and advancement from a universal design which brings forth order out of chaos from an empty seat, left to billions of un-superintended units of time as calculated by man. God moved upon the formless void that existed and He introduced light and life into it and made provisions for its continuation and order.
 
God is not dependent upon anything for His existence and all that lives is dependent upon God for its existence. God created the heavens and the earth out of nothing. The phrase ex nihilo means “out of nothing.” Though the idea of creating something from nothing is dismissed by those who see such as a physical impossibility, stating that something always requires something else out of which it is to be made.  
 
The scriptures teach that, “1 In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.” Genesis 1. 
 
Void, darkness covering the deep, chaos, and water were said to be present when the Lord began to create the heavens and the earth through His spoken command. The belief that God has always existed as the only uncaused cause, espouses that He predates everything that has ever existed and was created by Him. “The beginning” references the time of heaven and earth’s creation, by God, commanding into existence all that would be made.  He creates “from nothing” and whatever was present (darkness, waters, void) when God created the heavens and the earth had been created by Him, were brought into order, and furnished by Him during the days of creation. It is also confirmed that God the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit were present when the beginning of creation took place.
 
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Genesis 1:26
 
“ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” John 1:1-3
 
By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. Hebrews 11:3
 
By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth. Psalm 33:6
 
GOD HAS ALWAYS BEEN AND WILL ALWAYS BE! HE WILL ALWAYS BE FAITHFUL.  PUT YOUR TEMPORARY CARES INTO HIS ETERNAL HANDS!

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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of March 27, 2022

John 13
12 So when He had washed their feet, taken His garments, and sat down again, He said to them, “Do you know what I have done to you? 13 You call Me Teacher and Lord, and you say well, for so I am. 14 If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet. 15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
 
What Jesus shared with His disciples on the night before His death is extremely insightful and powerful.  He did not hold a rally.  He did not incite his closest followers to become more politically connected and he did not enlist them to save Him from what was to come.  What was about to come was coming for their benefit as well as for all who have and will come to know His salvation through the shedding of His blood and the ultimate selflessness of laying down His life.  He did not call them to arms to revolt against those responsible for the cruelty that was about to be unleashed upon Him.  Jesus was not a victim.  He was a free will offering as a ransom paid in full to secure the salvation of whoever will call upon God in His name.  He was a sinless Lamb, a sacrifice without blemish, offered in complete willingness and with a joy greater than anguish, because of the judgment that would be laid upon Him for us, that mercy would indeed triumph over judgment for all who believe.  The Divine plan of the Father foresaw and provided for all that would be gained as a result of His Son’s sacrificial death and resurrection.
 
Jesus before supper, laid aside His garments covering himself with a towel as he washed the feet of each of His disciples.  He washed the feet of both friend and betrayer, the Father’s children and the one who sold his soul to hell as his portion for betraying God’s Only Son.  Jesus loved and served them all.  That tells us much about what being a follower of Christ is about.
 
Jesus used these monumental moments in the intimate presence of His closest followers to leave with them the most important of all lessons.  They were to be like Him.  They were to love like He Loved.  They would later realize that Jesus afforded the same act of kindness to the one who betrayed Him as he extended to those who loved Him and left all to follow Him.
 
Jesus did and shared what He chose to, because it was to be a lasting image in the minds and hearts of those who would be entrusted and equipped to seed and water this Gospel around the world in His name.  Jesus revealed Himself as the Servant King to them. 
 
All leadership in Christianity that is truly Christ-like never separates the call to service from the Humbling Honor afforded the calling in our lives as His ambassadors, regardless of the title or position.  All believers are called to be servants of Christ and all believers never outgrow the calling to serve others.  It is not as much a duty as it is a heaven sent and entrusted privilege.
 
Jesus taught that we are to regard integrity and service before public Honor.  It is not uncommon for a person to seek honor and yet in God’s kingdom as we live by its principles on earth as it is the higher and more enduring honor to serve others as Christ did and that we do so for His Glory.
 
May God help us as His children to serve with selflessness of heart, which allows for true obedience to have its place and for Christ to be exclusively exalted on the throne within our hearts. Prestige among men may come with title and position, and many times the title and positioned are served well, but the Greatest honor will be conferred upon a child of God for his or her service, to the least of these  All such rewards are then joyfully placed as the King of King’s feet.
 
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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of March 20, 2022
IF GOD NEVER EXISTED AND WHAT ABOUT DEATH?
 
If God never existed, who established an awareness of a higher good, a moral law, and the internal and corporate desire to worship a God, perhaps an unknown God or even a rock? Where did love and truth come from? What distinguishes virtue and honor from evil and corruption, and why do we hope? Why do mystics seek out the supernatural, pursuing that which is paranormal and other worldly? There is a revelation, a knowledge, a connection and relationship sought for among those who may deny the existence of a Holy God who desires fellowship with all people and yet they pursue ghosts and phantoms, whispers and shadows from the past or voices from another realm. (ROMANS 1:20)
 
God has revealed Himself to those He created and to whom He imparted free will. He gave the function of choice to those He created in His image. Humans were created sinless and yet corruptible.  God did not create a race of automatons, who would be programmed, devoid of the ability to choose and to love from free will. He was with the first man and woman as they walked in the garden during the cool of the day. When man sinned against God he then hid from his creator. (GENESIS 3:8-10)
 
When man sinned against His creator, he became estranged and over time God's presence and His revelation and truth were not welcomed in the schools of thought. Fallen thought attempted to seize the narrative and to re-define "the concept of God" and to dismiss His existence and substitute its ways for His. Yet try as many have, they could not and cannot erase the fingerprints of God over all the good that He has designed and created. Even the beauties of nature groaned for their creator in this fallen world.
 
God is a Communicator, and He is relational. He loves with a perfect love and with flawless integrity.  He is not raised up to the standard. He is the standard. He is the Grace and Truth that raises us from the dust of our failed past. He is the breath of life that gives us the abundant life that cannot be found in our pursuit of things which the winds carry beyond our reach. 
 
God has revealed His intense and immeasurable love, the greater, and even the greatest love of all, when His son became one of our kind, while as God he remained sinless, fearless, flawless, powerful, living in perfect obedience and honor to His Father.  Jesus was God incarnate, The Way, The Truth, and The Life, not one of many ways, many truths, or one of many paths to Life.  He is God revealed to us in human flesh, as the Light that offers all people, Hope and real life, against the dark backdrop of that which denies God and oppressively enslaves people in cycles of hopeless ignorance of His Redeeming Love.
 
Jesus died my death, he satisfied the demands required of me because of my sin, that I would be forgiven and be made fully alive during the breadth of my days graciously given to me by my God.
 
For a follower of Christ, death and the eternity that follows is not a question mark.  In Christ it is an exclamation point, "Gone Home"! The Word of God makes it clear that as believers, in death, we do not leave home, we go home!  Where God is, His Spirit draws us.  In this life He leads and when we graduate from this school, He will draw us Home.  I know God!  I know that He is Alive!  Knowing God changes everything!
 
When some ask whether God exists, there is no uncertainty among those of faith who have accepted the invitation that He extends to all, to know Him through Christ. His Spirit dwells within and we live and find rest in our Lord. 
 
Once one responds to His compelling love, he/she will never doubt that there is a loving and saving God, even if others dismiss what they cannot explain.
 
Jesus Christ died and was resurrected, as the greatest proof of God's existence and love for all of us.
 
2 Timothy 1:12
But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
 
Romans 15:13
God has revealed His intense and immeasurable love, the greater, and even the greatest love of all, when His son became one of our kind, while as God he was sinless, fearless, flawless, powerful, living in perfect obedience and honor to His Father.  Jesus, was God incarnate, The Way, The Truth and The Life, not one of many ways, many truths, or one of many paths to Life.  He was God revealed to us in human flesh, come to be the Light that offers all people, Hope and Life.
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Weekly En"COURAGE"ment
Rev. Richard Ritenour
Week of March 13, 2022
 
As we celebrate the passion and the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ during this time of observance, we sing corporately with great joy “He lives, He lives, Christ Jesus Lives today, He walks with me and talks with me all life’s narrow ways.”  We can see the Love of God manifest in and through the incarnation, mission, ministry, suffering, death, and resurrection of the one identified in scripture as Immanuel “God with Us,” and “The Word become Flesh.”
 
During this Lenten season we consider that Jesus Christ came to earth according to the will of God the Father. He came as the incarnation of the Divine, and His interactions with, and response to, those for whom He would give His life to redeem, always represented a perfect ambassadorship of Divine Grace and Truth. 
 
His mission was focused from the foundations of eternity on providing rescue for those who were lost. Matthew 20:28 tells us that His mission was and is “to seek out and to save those who are lost.” His ministry on earth was supernatural and it was brought forth in Divine compassion and goodness as the scriptures tells that the Lord “went about doing Good for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38). The body of His work while on earth was a one of perfect submission to the will of The Father and incomprehensible compassion toward those who were “oppressed.” He did come into the world with the purpose of condemning it. Christ came to bring redemption to all who would believe and receive from Him, salvation. He gave His life as the perfect atonement for our redemption. His grace and mercy was extended to the darkest parts of our lives for the sake of securing our redemption. 
 
The Lord suffered in my place, and he was afflicted because of all human transgression. The infliction of unjust prosecution was not a victimization forced upon The Lord. It was God’s deliberate placement of Himself beneath the full weight of judgment that would have crushed fallen humanity. Jesus’ life was not taken, it was given as a ransom, as an unparalleled offering of greater love. His death satisfied the punitive demands of all transgression, and His resurrection was the flexing of Divine muscle by which He shattered the chains of death, hell, and the grave. 
 
He satisfied in full, the demands of the Law on behalf of every person and that satisfaction invites the whole world into its provision and shelter by faith in Christ.
 
Today, it is because Christ lives and because He lives within the hearts of the those with a saving belief in Him and a personal surrender to His grace, that real freedom resounds.  Joy overwhelms sorrow. Light cuts down the darkness. Hope rises out of hopelessness. Grace conquers failure. Mercy is greater than judgment. Life destroys the Spirit of death.
 
Christ, according to scripture, is seated and exalted at the right hand of The Father. He makes intercession and provides advocacy for those who trust in Him.
 
The scriptures will always provide the foundation for all that Christ has done and for the salvation so richly provided to all who believe in Him.
 
John 3:16
 
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.




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WEEK OF MARCH 6, 2022
YESTERDAY IS NOT LATE FOR GOD
 
The Lord is a redeemer. He completely redeems those who come to him in repentance and faith. The redemption of the Lord secures the past, the present and the future. Grace’s ownership of that which was imprisoned in spiritual bondage is complete. The hand of God does not forcefully drag us back into the past and it doesn’t continually replay the tortured sorrows and regrets of the past that are now beneath the blood of Christ. It does not take us back to a Christ-less past, but it takes possession of our past and rewrites the narrative of that which was. The reach of redemption lays hold of the past and the blood of Christ rewrites the narrative from one of shame and failure to one of beauty for ashes, because Mercy triumphs over judgment. Birthing a new creation in Christ from every broken life is miraculous and Salvation’s masterpiece. The scriptures make it clear that who we once were is not who we are today because of Christ.
 
Jesus greets us in the mirror of our past. The Spirit of the Lord escorts us in this present moment. The future would be unknown if Christ were not there but thank God He is there!
 
Whatever yesterday may have been it is not too late for God to rewrite life’s narrative, from lost to found, broken to restored, ruin to redemption, and hopelessness to Promise.

Luke 15:24
…. for this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’  And they began to be merry.
 
1 Corinthians 6:11
11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
 
2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
 
Psalm 103:11-13
11 For his unfailing love toward those who fear him
    is as great as the height of the heavens above the earth.
12 He has removed our sins as far from us
    as the east is from the west.

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WEEK OF FEB. 27, 2022
REV. RICHARD O. RITENOUR
DOING GOOD

Galatians 6:9
So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.
Acts 10:38
And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good………
 
The “doing good” part of the Christian’ life is an outgrowth of becoming.  What we do reflects what we are “becoming” by God’s grace and the internally transformative work of the Holy Spirit. The final and critical component of the ministry of “doing good,” is our willingness, availability, intentionality, follow through and follow up.
 
Willingness is perhaps more crucial than our skillset at times.  If we are willing, we can acquire the skills necessary as we step up and step into an area of need and opportunity.  Not every need or opportunity is ours to personally to step into but if our hearts are tender and we trust the Lord to show and confirm the needs and opportunities that are given to us directly to respond to, our willingness will progress into follow-through. Again, no person is everyone’s everything all the time. Only God can be that. But there are plenty of opportunities to “do good” that will not only benefit others but will advance our personal growth in Christ.
 
Availability is one step closer to “doing good” that grows out of a willing disposition to serve others.  If one is willing, availability is the willingness to step into a specific area or realm of need. Availability answers the door when specific needs call upon our willingness to act upon situation.
 
Most acts of goodness are either thought out benevolences or acts of premeditated kindness in response to need.  All acts of goodness are intentional outgrowths of a charitable disposition. Jesus was very intentional in all that He did.  His acts of goodness were extensions or expressions of His character. As we grow in Christ we become like Christ. His compassion within us overwhelms our indifference. Insulation from those for whom Christ died is displaced by a desire to be His hand extended in places of opportunity and need. Our reluctance to serve others is put to rest by the inspiration of Jesus’ example as He washed the feet of those who knew as Him as their Master and Lord. He made it clear what their response was to be in light of His example. “And since I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash each other’s feet.” – John 13:14.
 
The integrity of our profession is known by the Lord and examined by others, in light of our “follow through” and “follow up” when given the opportunity to do good. The proof is found in the concrete witness borne regarding such, through our follow through and follow up.  Follow through and follow up are most often book-ends.  Both are extremely important.  The Samaritan who paid for the care of the man who had been mugged and robbed, made it clear that he would follow up to cover the needs that went beyond his initial care.  “35 The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.” – Luke 10. Acts of Kindness and “doing good” are precursors to a greater investment of “kingdom” capital.
 
When we are born again, into the transformative growth of becoming more like Christ, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within, shapes us into Christlikeness in thought and behavior.  Jesus lived a life of goodness, and His interactions were saturated with Divine goodness. The apostle Paul’s yearnings for the spiritual growth of those within the Galatian church would continue and were likened unto the disposition of an eagerly expectant mother “…..until Christ is fully developed in your lives.” – Galatians 4:19
 
Doing Good unto others is never wasted time or energy.  It is productive and most importantly it Christ-like.   As many have said, “don’t merely tell me that you care, show me that you care.” The Gospel in action is a most powerful sermon and a most compelling witness of Christ, among others. 
 
James 2:17-19
17 So you see, faith by itself isn’t enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.18 Now someone may argue, “Some people have faith; others have good deeds.” But I say, “How can you show me your faith if you don’t have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds.”

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Week of February 20, 2022
Rev. Richard O. Ritenour
THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Luke 10
25 And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”
26 He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”
27 So he answered and said, "‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
28 And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.”29 But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
 
If living out our faith in Christ were costless and relation-less, limited to that which is comfortable and convenient, the number of real subscriptions to it would be through the roof. The words and examples of Christ have always called out and confronted self-serving and prejudicial limits which serve to issue loveless deterrents to trespass among those not like us, enforced by the kingdom of self, contrary to the Father’s principles for the advancement of His Kingdom.
 
No one can honestly petition the heavenly Father with, “…your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven….” while smugly looking upward toward a self- constructed ceiling of Christ-less religion that obstructs the view of The King whose kingdom we are to seek the increase and advancement of. This is a kingdom which The Lord himself said, will be approached and entered by many as, “29They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last.” - Luke 13. When the knowledge of God is obstructed by that which is man-made, truly perverse substitutions, for the Gospel of Grace and Truth, they tragically ensure the exclusion of its relentless authors and adherents from being in the Kingdom that increases only through Grace and Truth in Christ.
 
Our neighbors include those who live beyond the shadows of our steeples and who are often viewed as “un-church-able” because of the offensive nature of their lifestyles.  Sin indeed corrupts and it is a cancer of the soul for which there is but one cure, the redeeming blood of Christ, shed for all. Sin is presently and ultimately judged by a Holy, Righteous, and Loving God, fierce in His redeeming pursuit of all people, the revelation of His Word, and saving advocacy offered to all who receive Him.  The Holy Spirit equips us with discernment and to be bold in our declaration of Christ and Scriptural Truth, yet we are not the ultimate judges of this present sinful world. The call of our separation unto Christ and away from evil is certain, but turning the collective back of the church toward those for whom has Christ died would be an evil perversion foisted upon those who should be Christ’s Ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:20-21.)
 
Our neighbors include other humans who often have little to anything in common with us, and may not share, but rather, fiercely oppose our scriptural values. Our neighbors may include those who love us, like us, are either tolerant or intolerant of us, despise us, or are indifferent about us, and many who, in spite of seeing us often, do not even know that we exist. Their life choices and lifestyles may range from being similar to our own to being far removed from ours. Their political affiliations, vocations, interests, and recreational choices may be similar to ours or off the charts different from ours.  They may be as different from us as a certain Samaritan was to a certain Jew who had fallen victim to violent thieves on the road between Jericho and Jerusalem. None of those differences mattered when they came together in a crisis of need.
 
Sin infects and encompasses human nature, and its effects and consequences are evident in many, many ways. There is one saving cure. There is One Saving Redeemer and there is One Saving Message. We must not allow anything to restrict the flow of God’s saving Grace and Truth from our lives into the Neighborhood of human diversity. Diversity by design is that which is created by the Divine creator and is consistent with the Inspired Word of the Creator. Sin is not a skin color, and it is not the righteous freedom associated with godly human diversity. It is that which rebels against God’s Holy Designs, comes up short of God’s Glory or crosses the line into transgression which is sin.  Diversity and Depravity are not always associated with one another. Depravity is the state and economy of a fallen world, and it is into the sea of Diversity that the nets of redemption are to be cast. Grace hauls out of the dark depths that to which God has assigned great value.
 
The bottom line is that everyone is my neighbor and without Christ I will never see them or value them as such.  Anything that wrecks my neighbor’s life is not to be compounded by a shortage of God’s grace and mercy in my heart toward to them. Neighbors are those that we have not discovered yet, but God has sought to introduce us to them for the longest time.

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Week of February 13, 2022
Rev. Richard O. Ritenour
NEXT

Next is a loaded word. It is always at least one second ahead of us and we cannot capture it, because it instantaneously reloads each second of the day. What we do next either grows out of plan of action, what we do impulsively or how we respond to those things which happen beyond our foresight and control. Prayerful reading of God’s Word and allowing our lives to be led by the Holy Spirit makes for the better and more fruitful use of our time. Faith is an essential part of capturing the full benefit of what happens next. Faith sees the next minute as the Spirit of God provides a prophetical insight & application of God’s Word in the context that most completely advances the kingdom principles of God in and through our lives, in the “Next” that is rushing upon us.

A heart that is not being fashioned after the heart of God, through prayer and in scriptural light, is one that acts and responds recklessly to the volumes of what comes “Next” in our lives. The result as such is regrettably painful and adversely consequential and/or anemic. “Next” is coming and is gone with the reading of each word in this devotion and life is a rapid compilation of the past and that which was yesterday’s “nexts.”

The Bible gives scores of practical insights and life shaping principles, which include the following, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, And He delights in his way.” – Psalm 37:23; “Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.” – Psalm 119:105; “However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.” – John 16:13; “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” - Proverbs 3:5-6

A reckless life makes for a future of anxiety, paranoia, irrational behavior, and it progressively corrupts the things that which we have counted upon to guide us into that which is “Next.” “The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, - Proverbs 28:1 We cannot always in the natural see what is next, but by faith we can see the things that God sets before us that can only be captured by that which the Bible describes as “the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.” – Hebrews 11:1

​To live in personal relationship with God by faith, one is plugged into the Divine order and guidance structure that makes for the most productive and fruitful use of the “Next.” It is always wise to trust God. What comes “next” is not a surprise to His Omniscience and the future is a place where His omnipresence dwells and His Omnipotence rules.

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Week of February 6, 2022
LIVE AS A CHAMPION TODAY

There are the things that we have control over in life and there are things that we do not have control over. There are probably many more things in the natural order of things that we do not have control over than things that we do. But we do have the ability to decide what our disposition will be in each situation. That fact beckons to two things and that would be Faith and Trust. When we live in these dispositions we are never at a place of disadvantage.

Faith is described in numerous ways throughout the scriptures but for the sake of this devotion I will mention two of them. Faith is as essential as the air that we breathe as believers and it is the breath of God into our Spirits that enables us to set out our sights on things that we cannot presently see, hear, touch, taste or feel in the natural. If we do catch a glimpse of that which requires faith and obedience, it may come through a Word given us and, or a sampling of the larger portion of that which God purposes to release into our lives. Another aspect of Faith is our confidence in God’s ability to perform the supernatural, that which we have discovered to be naturally impossible without Divine involvement. “Now faith is the substance of things hope for and the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1. It is the mountain moving faith which Jesus spoke of and encouraged. “So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” – Matthew 17:20. This is a principle of operation, a dynamic that the Lord supplies the wherewithal for, in order for it to operate within the lives of those who follow Him. The Lord’s specific will and plan may unfold differently than that which we hope for, when He has prepared a path that leads to a much better outcome and advances our relationship with Him.

Trust is another critical operation essential to living in victory and peace. Whereas faith is an expression of our confidence in God’s ability to remove or transform a situation or an outcome, trust is a disposition and an attitude of confidence in His integrity, His plan, and His timing. It is a resolve that has been cemented in the integrity of God’s character, whether or not it aligns with our understanding or desires. His plan is infallible, and it is based upon His sovereignty and His concern for the growth and advancement of our “whole” person….body, soul, and spirit. Faith is at times our resolve to be believe God for the impossible and trust is our resolve is to stand upon the foundation of who the Word of God declares The Lord to be regardless of what we see, hear, touch, taste or feel. “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 17 If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18 But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:16-18 ; “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.” Job 13:15; “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;” “ 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6
Faith and Trust are greater than uncertainty and fear. In Christ, the Word of God is established and guaranteed through a Divine “Yes” and “Amen” to those who believe.

In Christ we are never at a disadvantaged position. He is always Greater than what we are up against, and His power and grace are always more than enough. God affords us every day and in every situation that which enables us to live as Champions in Christ. The Spirit of the undefeated Lord lives within us. In Christ, regardless of the circumstances or the challenges, “WE ALWAYS WIN!” Live AS A CHAMPION TODAY!!