The Hand Prayer

Max Lucado is spearheading a national prayer initiative asking Christians to pray for the nation from September 28 until the election. We discussed "THE HAND PRAYER" today at Bible Study where we "Prayer" was our topic of study and discussion. In case you're interested, here's how it works...

THE HAND PRAYER (palms together in prayer)

Thumb... reminds us to pray for those Americans closest to us.

Pointer Finger... reminds us to pray for those in our nation who point the way (ministers, teachers, those who are defending the nation's constitutional and Godly heritage).

Middle Finger... the highest finger reminds us to pray for those in positions of Authority and positions of greatest influence from the President of the nation to the Mayor of our town to the single mom in charge of her family. Bear in mind the 7 Mountains of Societal Influence: Family, Religion, the Arts, Media, Education, Government, Business.

Ring Finger... considered the weakest finger, it reminds us to pray for those who are weak; sick people, struggling marriages, children of divorce, addicts, the unborn.

Pinky Finger... pray for your own needs, too!

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work

Ever tried your hand at Gardening?

Ever tried your hand at Gardening? 

Well, neither had we! 

My wife and I used to joke the plant hadn't been made that we couldn't kill! Well, the more we learn about Disaster Preparation, the more vital it appears we should ALL be gardening - even if only in buckets. Apartment and Mobile Home Park Dwellers and Nursing Home Residents, too! Kids LOVE gardening. As a couple, we've found gardening to be a great hobby for bonding!

Think about it: If the Stuff ever did hit the fan, aside from drinkable water, food will be your next most important provision. Dried foods are ok. We have those, too. Beans and rice and canned goods will do in a pinch. But what if you could carry seeds with you, learn to carry your groceries in your shirt pocket, and harvest from buckets and cans, eating, bartering, giving from what you have yielded? (EXAMPLE: One woman said her 24 watermelon seeds yielded 600 pounds of melons!)

This is GREAT! Did you know you can grow a fruit-bearing apple tree or pear tree INDOORS?

Here's a tip: Start your seeds in a cardboard egg crate, 3 seeds per cup. Moisten the dirt and slip the egg crate into a black plastic bag. Place in a dark, warm place (on top of water heater perhaps). After 5 days, it's those 3" seedlings you will be planting... wherever. Full sun, keep moist. 

Tah-dah! You're a Gardner!

This gardening thing is GREAT... 

despite us having "black thumbs."

Plant NOW and never run out of seeds!

Learn more by clicking the LOGO below.

Happy Harvesting!

Every blessing,

Michael in Texas, USA

Keeping them covered

Keeping them covered

A friend handed me a slip of paper last time I visited her workplace. She scratched out:

Pray for PENNY R.

Car wreck

Broken legs

Broken collar bone

Broken neck

Brain injury

I'm pleased to report, Penny is going through a surprisingly rapid recovery a month later.

A prayerful woman I know received a call from her son two nights ago. He was headed home from work and - though he has NO IDEA who this happened - he wound up rolling his pick-up truck (which he had just paid off) and totaled it. Other than a few bumps and bruises, he's totally fine.

It reminded me of the Thanksgiving Day when my oldest son and his family were driving home and he fell asleep at the wheel. They left the road, became airborne, and smacked into a cement draining area. They walked away unscathed but totaled the vehicle.

Last Spring, a tornado tore my other son's apartment complex apart but left his unit and car without a scratch. 

When it comes to praying for our families, all I can say is IT MATTERS. Satan is prowling about looking for those he can devour. He's out there trying to kill, steal and destroy. Who is going to lay down "cover fire" if not their own parents?

Whether it's the negative influences of your children's friends and coworkers, or the person driving "under the influence" late at night, YOU HAVE THE POWER to declare safety and pray for God's protection over those He has made you steward over. 

I was eating in a restaurant with a friend, talking about the Lord, when a complete stranger walked over, handed me an envelope and asked that I not read it until she left. Puzzled, I accepted it and she walked off. She wrote how she, "just kept hearing our Father's Name being spoken at your table. It just blessed me and I want to ask you... please pray for my daughter." Afterward, I eMailed and asked many others to pray for her daughter, too. One day, months later, that same woman walked up and introduced me to her completely healed daughter!

Is your kid in Afghanistan? Keep 'em covered! 

Are they on a mission trip? Keep 'em covered! 

Are they in DayCare? Keep 'em covered!

Are they in jail? Keep 'em covered!

Are they in college, the workforce, trying to "find themselves?" Keep 'em covered!

Are they ensnared by drugs and alcohol? Keep 'em covered!

Are their parents going through marital issues? Keep 'em covered!

Are they in the world, being fed a steady diet of the world's perspective on relationships, religion, sex, money and communication - even through the cartoons and movies they are exposed to? Keep 'em covered!

Whether they're driving cross country or down the street, keep those kids covered with prayer. 

Grandparents, that goes for you, too!

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder The Church @ Work

Amazing Testimony! Please pray about this.

Please read the following (amazing) testimony about a Volunteer with the Austin Disaster Relief Network (ADRN) and her experience with CISM training: It was while attending an annual gathering of ministers that Susan Martin first heard Daniel Geraci's vision of the churches around the Austin area mobilizing together to meet the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of people who are victims of a disaster. Susan felt the Lord revealing to her that this was the ministry she would become involved with. After retiring from 20 years of teaching and then 12 years with the State, Susan had gone through a serious illness. After her recovery, she decided, "I'm not using anymore of the days of my life to get money. I'm going to use them for what God wants me to." It was then that Susan felt the Holy Spirit prompting her to reach out to people with the love of Jesus through the Austin Disaster Relief Network (ADRN). So in 2010, Susan enrolled in the Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) training and then shortly thereafter the Critical Incident Stress Management ("CISM") training. CISM is an internationally-recognized crisis intervention program designed to deal with the resultant psychological, emotional, and spiritual effects from a crisis. A skeptic as to whether the CISM debriefing process would really work, Susan decided to try it word for word as it was taught to find out. She was able to test it firsthand in late April 2011 when one of the deadliest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history ravaged Southern, Midwestern and Northeastern parts of the U.S. The catastrophic destruction left 324 dead across six states with 238 of those deaths in Alabama alone. Susan traveled to Alabama with a group of volunteers and while part of the group went to work with chainsaws cutting trees off roofs and driveways, she and others walked around talking to tornado victims and debriefing them through the CISM techniques. Susan described her experience as nothing less than amazing! She specifically recalled meeting a very depressed woman whose head was hanging down while twisting a Kleenex in her hands. Susan said that by the time they had finished taking her through the CISM debriefing, the woman's heaviness lifted and she started hugging everybody. The transformation was nothing short of miraculous! The woman asked Susan, "Could we call my husband at work and would you do this for him?" The woman's husband had been so depressed and wondering whether life was worth living anymore because there was just too much to cope with. So the woman got her husband on the phone and Susan took him through the process on the phone. The woman kept calling Susan and her team "angels." First of all, she couldn't believe all these people came from Texas to help but then also taking the time to talk her through her grief to allow her to process it and then begin healing. Susan said, "It takes courage to look someone in the face who is grief stricken and lost so much and then ask them what good can come of their situation and then wait for them to process an answer." The experience in Alabama left Susan convinced of the profound ability of CISM to change people's lives, which was astounding in itself because the CISM hadn't changed people's actual circumstances, but it had changed how they perceived their circumstances. Now a true believer in the CISM debriefing process, Susan was ready for the next disaster. Unfortunately, she didn't have to wait long. On Sunday, May 22, 2011, a catastrophic F5 tornado with a maximum width in excess of one mile, descended upon the town of Joplin, Missouri. 158 people were killed and around 1,000 injured. It was the deadliest single tornado in America since 1947. Susan recalls meeting a woman whose brother had been in surgery when the massive tornado approached. The doctors had to stop the surgery prematurely. Susan observed there was no place on this woman's body except her arms and neck that did not have stitches from cuts and gashes because moments before the tornado hit, she laid on top her brother and pulled a pillow over their heads to protect them from the flying glass. Recently, this woman had opened up her home to 11 tornado refugees and on this particular day had arrived at the church for help and to talk with her pastor. However, in the chaos of so many looking for help, she was told she needed a badge to go inside. That was enough to push this woman over the edge. The woman broke down into tears and ran from the building. Susan caught up with her in the parking lot and was able to talk to her, pray with her and debrief her. When they finished, the woman returned to the church composed, gave her pastor a hug and told him she was alright. Susan has a very real and personal understanding of how overwhelming emotions can be. In 2004, her daughter-in-law and three grandchildren were killed when an 18-wheeler came across the median and collided head on into their vehicle. Having suddenly lost her daughter-in-law and all her grandchildren, Susan's grief for herself and her son was almost inconsolable. It was only the grace of God that brought her through the ordeal. Reflecting back to this dark time in her life, Susan shared, "It was then I knew the real and practical power of the presence of God... when you know beyond any doubt that you've survived and impossible things are possible because of the power and grace of God in your life. But many people don't know that and I knew that I wanted other people to know that too. I want to be that open door for them to be on the receiving end of that grace and power." Susan knew there were many people praying for them during that time. "I'm sure somebody prayed for us all the time! So when we talk about God being all-powerful and loving and full of majesty and grace and when you absolutely know it, you want other people to know it too." Susan has shared her tragedy with someone in the field only once. It was with a lady whose house had burned. Probably thinking it couldn't be as bad, the woman asked Susan, "Have you ever had a disaster?" Susan responded "yes" and then briefly shared her story. The woman, taken aback, could only reply, "Well... then you know." Although this memory is still very painful for Susan, she doesn't see the need to share it in the mission field for the simple reason that when she is ministering to hurting people, it's not about her but about that person she is talking to and always about Jesus. Then, less than four months after Joplin, Susan was called to minister to victims of Texas' single most destructive wildfire in history, the Bastrop County Complex fire. The fire started on September 4, 2011 and when it was officially declared extinguished on October 29, 2011, over 34,000 acres were burned, 1,709 homes destroyed and two people were dead. ADRN was allowed into the burn area on the first day residents were granted access to their properties. Amidst the charred remains of people's homes and belongings, God used Susan in a divine way to bring hope to a seemingly hopeless situation and healing to those who were in shock trying to process the gravity of their loss. Two weeks into the Bastrop recovery process, Susan spoke with a young lady whose house had burned. She arrived at Susan's tent, sat in a corner and wept for two hours. She seemed unable to get control of her emotions. She told Susan she couldn't trust herself to go out into public, to work or even to church. As Susan allowed the Holy Spirit to minister to her through CISM, the young lady asked, "Who are you people? I have seen your yellow t-shirts around here all week. I know that only the Holy Spirit could do what happened to me sitting here." They hugged each other and wept. Susan does not take credit for anything. Instead, she gives the glory to Jesus. Susan considers herself merely a willing vessel who has the privilege of being used in such a direct way by the Holy Spirit. Susan shared about a woman volunteer who cried non-stop as she followed Susan around a disaster scene talking to victims. She later asked Susan how she managed to maintain her composure in the midst of such devastation and loss and Susan told her it's Jesus that gives her the grace and strength she needs. One thing that excites Susan about ADRN is witnessing the different churches coming together to minister to disaster victims to such a degree that it transcends denominations. Everyone working alongside one another with the common goal of reaching out to those in need with the love of Christ. The time is now and the need is great. Natural disasters are at an all-time high. Consequently, many people today live in a perpetual state of anxiousness and fear and depression is at an all-time high. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, every 14.2 minutes someone in the United States commits suicide, and the suicide rate has been increasing since 2000. Most of these people do not have mental illnesses, but are people like these who are struggling to cope with sudden life-changing circumstances. And as the occurrence of disasters is on the rise, the opportunities to share Christ as compassionate, caring and trained crisis responders like Susan, increase. Every time a disaster hits and God does not have His people on the ground ready to minister in some capacity, it is a missed opportunity. So are you prepared to go to work? If you're not, ADRN offers trainings to get you prepared. Jesus said, "The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Luke 10:2 This is your opportunity to become a field worker for the Lord like Susan because the harvest is ripe and time is short. ADRN's next CISM training is this Friday (Sep 20th) from 6PM-10PM and Saturday (Sep 21st) from 9AM-6PM. CISM is for all ages, from teenagers to the elderly. You do not have to have a psychology degree to take this class. Anyone and everyone can learn the simple debriefing tools taught to become effective in times of crisis. To register, click here to visit the ADRN website, look to the right of the homepage to find the training. CISM Training is $95. Scholarships are available to full- time students and those challenged by financial hardship. For more info on scholarships, please email Sharon@adrntx.org. ADRN also offers Spiritual Trainings to better equip you to grow you in the knowledge of the Lord and to minister to the spiritual needs of those around you and in the community. Spiritual Trainings are usually held on Tuesday evenings from 6:30 - 9:30 PM at Austin Baptist Association, 3811 Harmon Ave. (38 ½ St. & IH-35), Austin, TX 78751 - Spiritual Trainings are FREE! Next training is Biblical Readiness, Sep 25th! To insure a reservation and printed materials for you please register athttp://www.adrntx.org/. If you have any questions please email Sharon@adrntx.org. God bless you as you continue to desire and sow into His Kingdom, ADRN Training Team

What motivates you to work?

What motivates you to work?

Believe it or not, for most of us, the #1 motivator for getting up and out the door each day is FEAR.

Fear of getting fired. 

Fear of getting evicted if the rent isn't paid. 

Fear of freezing if the electricity is cut-off. 

Fear of starving if you can't afford groceries. 

Fear of living on the streets.

Hebrews 2:14-16 tells us why Jesus came. "Because God’s children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—the Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could He die, and only by dying could He break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could He set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying."

There it is; most humans are in bondage to the fear of dying and it's that fear that gets us out the door every day. What a bondage! What a gun-to-the-head existence.

When Jesus instructed His grieving disciples to cast their net on the other side of the boat, they were using all the same skills and expertise they'd always used. After a morning of catching nothing, their simple act of obedience brought in a huge catch that nearly tore their nets. 

So, what changed? Only the motivation of their hearts, that's all. With that in mind, what could motivate millions of Christians to go to work each day and maximize their impact for the Kingdom's sake, literally turning communities upside-down? Simply change the motivation from one of fear to one of faith. 

Go to work with a Kingdom agenda.

Clock-in knowing that Christ lives in you and anticipate those daily Divine appointments where you can speak an encouraging word, pray for (or with) a coworker, start a prayer group, or lend a listening ear to a hurting member of the team.

Show up looking for an opportunity to serve. You may have a job description already but look for that extra "thing" you could do that will be meaningful to someone else. A birthday, an anniversary, an award, a new baby, an engagement... you get the idea. We spend up to 70% of our lives there. Make it count! 

I recently spoke with a woman whose daughter died during the holidays 45 years ago. As a result, she detested the holiday season. Last Christmas, after a healing encounter with God, she put up a Christmas tree for the first time in all those years! She's a changed person now, but Christians came and went for 45 years without helping her while she suffered silently. She told me she's now considering taking a course on grief counseling. 

Arrive early, leave late and work hard in between. Guess who's likely to get promoted for doing so? Remember, no matter who signs your checks, your REAL boss is a Jewish carpenter named Jesus.

1 Corinthians 10:31: "...whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God."

If you or your Christian group could use an encouraging message on Faith at Work, let's talk! Heck, I've even shared this message by phone a time or two!

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work (TCAW)

ONE YEAR AGO: The Bastrop Fire!

WATCH THE VIDEO AT THE END! My CISM Experience  By: Daniel Geraci Executive Director, ADRN In early September 2011, as every TV station in Texas was covering the Central Texas fire disaster, ADRN was deployed to help Red Cross operate shelters in Bastrop and Smithville.  I too was in Bastrop at the Command Center, set up in the Bastrop Convention Center.  The scene was intense as workers/leaders from organizations around the state gathered to work together in response to the disaster.  Most of us were getting 2-3 hours of sleep per night.  ADRN's call center was in full-swing at Hill Country Bible Church NW, receiving an estimated 500-750 calls per day from desperate fire survivors wanting to know more about their homes and when they could return.  At the convention center, I meet Lisa Jackson, the victim services coordinator for the Bastrop Sheriffs department.  She was working on mobilizing the State of Texas' CISM team to be deployed into the residential areas just prior to the families returning to the remains of their homes.  I had recommended inviting ADRN's CISM team into the field to help her with this response but Lisa wasn't 100% confident in ADRN as this was her first interaction with us.  Fortunately, she decided to drive me into one of the hardest hit areas of Bastrop to ask me questions on how we would deploy CISM trained volunteers in the area if deployed.  It wasn't easy to get in these areas because the fire departments were still trying to put out the smaller fires and DPS had blocked off all roads leading into the Bastrop communities affected by the fires (Hwy. 71 was closed).  By God's grace, we were able to pass through the barricades, see the devastation and I had a chance to share our plan for deployment.  As we were combing through the neighborhoods, she suddenly receives a call from the State CISM coordinator telling her that they had been re-routed to another city in the state that needed their services leaving her with no one but ADRN CISM trained volunteers.  She looked at me nervously and asked if I could pull together a large team by the next day to lead the deployment.  In faith, I said "yes!"  Shortly after this, she receives a call from officials at the Command Center  recommending to cancel the next days deployment of CISM teams and not allowing residents back into their homes.  The reason for the decision was the ash in the area was toxic and officials feared that residents health would be greatly affected by the ash in the air.  City officials recommended that a facemask needed to be handed out to every resident.  Lisa looked at me and said "do you know where I can get thousands of facemasks?"  I told her that I had received 21,000 facemasks 8 months prior to the disaster and that I could get her 8,000 facemasks by the morning.  She asked me to get them there by evening due to the pressures from the state.  So God enabled us to get 8,000 facemask within hours.  She also told me to "call in the troops and deploy in the morning!"  After this short trip in Bastrop, I drove to the McDonald's in Bastrop to use their internet service to get a deployment email out to our CISM team as soon as possible (the convention center internet was practically jammed due to the high volume of internet use).  I also emailed my friends at Austin Bridge Builders Alliance (ABBA) to send an email to Pastors throughout Greater Austin, asking them to join us in the morning.  At this point, all I could do was commit my plans to God, have faith in Him to stir the hearts of CISM volunteers and pastors to join us in the morning!  I had no idea if 1 or 100 people would show up?  Day 1 of our deployment was to join the Red Cross at the Home Depot in Bastrop to begin debriefing victims as they drove up to the back of the Home Depot to pick up sifters, tools and the placard that would get them back into their neighborhood within the next few days.   By the grace of God, over 80 ADRN CISM trained volunteers and pastors showed up!  They would split up into 3 different locations to debrief families as they picked up their supplies.  At my location, the Home Depot, cars and trucks wrapped around the building and as far as an eye could see.  As victims drove up to our area of the drive-thru line, going behind the Home Depot, we began asking victims "Hello. I am with the Austin Disaster Relief Network.  We are a network of churches that are sponsoring families affected by this disaster.  Would you like a church on our network to walk with you through this process?"  As people began to say "Yes!" - I told them to drive up on the side parking lot of Home Depot and like a Sonic restaurant, find an open slot and one of our Yellow Shirt volunteers will take your information.  This was how the ADRN CISM team debriefed hundreds of people that day!  The cars/trucks continued to come non-stop for at least 3-4 hours.  Some victims couldn't drive another inch once asked if they wanted to be adopted due to the emotion that erupted through them like an open fire hydrant.  It took the loving arms of pastors to embrace these people as they wept uncontrollably.  This was a glorious day in the Kingdom because pastors and volunteers became the hands and feet of Jesus, loving on the victims, debriefing them, collecting their information in order to be adopted and praying with them.  To me, it was a great day in the Kingdom!    Over the next 4 days, ADRN set up our Incident Command Post tents in 100+ degree weather, at the heads of neighborhoods to deploy CISM volunteers and pastors into the residential areas before the victims were allowed to return to their home.  The Sheriff's Department told me if our volunteers were not wearing the YellowADRN's objective was to assign 2 CISM trained volunteers and one pastor per team to cover several streets in the neighborhood to ensure that by sending 20-25 teams, the entire neighborhood/each home owner would be greeted by an ADRN team.  Each team also was assigned a driver to become their personal chauffeur, taking each team from one house to the next since each home was so far apart.  The plan was to greet the victims with cold water as they drove up to the remains of their home, comfort them, debrief them (most were in a state of shock/trauma), help them bury pets and livestock as needed and most importantly, pray with them, inviting God into their situation.  After 4 days of debriefing over 1,400 people, ADRN had collected close to 500 "sponsor  a family" forms!!  Also, stories began to pour in from our CISM volunteers on the impact that was made between them and the victims through debriefing and praying.  Many families were incredibly touched and moved by the hand of God working through His church!  Many CISM volunteers quickly saw the benefit of their CISM training and how powerful it was to help take traumatized victims to a greater state of peace so they could begin moving forward in their lives.  I think about all the individuals that have given their life to Jesus through the Churches sponsoring them. We saw volunteers who were led by God to become CISM trained volunteers enabling them access to love people in their greatest time of need.  Thank you Jesus!     ADRN is offering its next CISM Training on September 21st & 22nd.  I want to encourage you to join our CISM team today. I believe every Christian should get this valuable training!  Visit our website for more information and to register (click here for CISM video).   Click here to visit the ADRN website.   Michael Tummillo is a Workplace Chaplain in Texas and a Volunteer with the ADRN. If your Christian church or group would like him to give a FREE Disaster Preparedness Orientation within a 3 1/2 hour radius, contact him at miketummillo@me.com

ATTENTION... all who believe in miracles!

ATTENTION... all who believe in miracles!

Please go to this website and read about this precious Christian woman, her horrible accident, and PRAY in faith believing for her miracle! 

Multitudes are watching and following her situation. She's a willing vessel God could use in a major way!

CLICK HERE!

Who's naked? Not me!

Recently, I sent this message out to many people electronically. It resonated with folks. Great response. Last night, I felt compelled to send it to my oldest son, Justin, now in doing time in a Texas prison on drug and theft-related charges. He's been there over 6 months and will be there till Christmas, I'm sure. Of the many things my flesh wanted to say to him in a letter (he has not requested any visits from me), the only thing I feel at peace about saying to him is what you are about to read. 

Truth is, all of us know someone who needs to know these things. Maybe even you?? Please forward the message. Please pray for my son, too. Thanks! 

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Who's naked? Not me!

Today is Sunday. By 8AM, my wife and I were at the City Park, me on my bicycle, her walking briskly. The breezes were cool, the leaves were showering us, the water fall was the only thing I heard loudly when I rode past it. I was so blessed and couldn't help but pray prayers of thanksgiving, thanking the Father for my wife, our health, the freedom we had to come and go at will. I prayed for my family, those who lost our beloved Tommy last Wednesday (Barbara's last remaining uncle) as well as the new baby still being knitted together in my oldest daughter's womb. My heart was filled with praise and thanks! 

My wife told me she had prayed, too, while she was walking. On a beautiful morning like this, apparently, we just couldn't help ourselves. 

When we climbed into the truck to head home, we heard a preacher on the radio, lovingly reminding his congregation how sinful they were and how those sins separated them from their loving God. 

YUCK! I was disgusted and changed the station. 

After we got home, my wife made some eggs and turkey sausage for us while I surfed the TV. I found a denominational minister, clothed in a bright, shiny green robe, lovingly reminding his church members how sinful and awful THEY were! 

YUCK! I shut the TV off. 

After we'd eaten, I called out to my wife and asked if she wanted to pray with me in the parlor (after all, it IS Sunday). At this point, I'd like to clarify something: Barbara and I do not expect our convictions to become anyone else's. Your relationship with God is between you and Him. Our personal belief is The Church is the people, all the time, 24/7, everywhere we are. We choose to fellowship with others in homes on a weekly basis whenever possible, but we are no more "churchy" there than we are at the park or in our parlor. 

Now you know. 

Anyway, in a moment, my wife was in the room with me and sat down on the couch in our peaceful old sitting room in this 100-year old house. Again, with gratitude in my heart, I thanked God for saving us and setting us free, even from manmade rules and regulations and from the trappings of denominationalism, church hierarchies and doctrines of man and of devils that once held us in bondage. I thanked him our sins of scarlet have been made as white as snow by the sacrifice of Christ on the cross. I thanked Him, most of all, that NOTHING would EVER separate me from His love. NOTHING! 

No thing. 

No person. 

No how.

No sins.

We are the righteousness of God in Christ. In other words, when He sees us, He sees Jesus. 

Think about this… if it were all about how "good" you were required to be, how would you ever know you'd been good enough?

If it were all about how many good deeds you accomplished, how would you know when your obligations had been fulfilled?

If all that mattered was how pious and spiritual you could act outwardly, though some might be impressed, the Father only cares about what's in your heart. We can't hide that. Sure, as long as we walk around in these "earth suits," we will be prone to sin. No, that doesn't give us a license to do so, but we WILL sin. At our best, we STILL need a Saviour. 

Guess what? God already sent us One!

Personally, I became crazy about Father God when I FINALLY realized my salvation had nothing to do with me and everything to do with what He did FOR me. I sure couldn't do it for myself! Now, I have been made worthy to enter His throne of grace, NOT because of my good deeds and religiosity, but because of the Blood which atoned for my sins; they are no longer held against me!

Consider this: How many sins had you committed at the time of the crucifixion? 500 years later? 1,000 years later? A week from today? You get the point? All your sins were forgiven for all time. Period. When I finally wrapped my mind around those concepts, THAT is when I fell wholeheartedly in love with the Father. He truly has an unfathomable love for us, just as I have for my own flesh and blood children, only GREATER!

"Who told you that you were naked," God asked Adam, after he and Eve had sinned. Likewise, who told you that you were a sinner saved by grace? Who told you anything could separate you from God? 

Well, THEY LIED! 

I heard two ministers flat out LYING to their congregations this morning over the airwaves, and I'm sure there were others doing the same. I'm sure because I used to do the very same thing. 

Folks, you have been made HOLY by the sacrifice at Calvary. You are a SAINT! You are a child of God! You are NOT a Sinner, but you have been saved by God's grace, His unmerited favor and unconditional love. 

Chew on that truth for a while. 

As well-meaning as those electronic ministers were this morning, I'm convinced such sin-centered preaching does little to strengthen and deepen the love of those who hear that message. People already KNOW they've sinned (they are reminded all the time by preachers and family members… and by the devil). They've already been told their sins are separating them from the love of God, that they are unworthy, etc. 

The Church must now be reminded nothing will separate them from the love of God any longer. I'd rather see people serving God out of love than out of fear. I think the Father prefers that, too.

Don't you?

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work

1-Hour FREE ORIENTATION, Whitney, TX