The Bride of Christ: Crawling into bed with the Fed.

Attention all faith-based non-profit organizations... GET READY! 

Years ago, after graduating from Bible College, as I prayed and asked God what I should do regarding whether or not I should pursue a 501c3 non-profit status for this ministry, I received a clear directive straight from the Holy Spirit telling me NOT to pursue this avenue. I was amazed because this was contrary to the encouragement of all my friends in ministry. One friend whom I had introduced to his wife and whom I served as Best Man at their wedding, actually told me he would support my ministry financially ONLY when he could get a write-off for his support to my ministry when it achieved 501c3 non-profit status. 

OUCH! Show me THAT model in Scripture!

Right now, ObamaCare is having an effect on Hobby Lobby, a Christian-owned store with hundreds of locations and thousands of Employees nationwide. Because they will be obligated to paying for ObamaCare, any business, or church is subsequently bound to pay for abortions, contraceptives, etc. - like it or not! 

What does this have to do with your Church or 501c3 non-profit group? Stay tuned!

After seeing the requirements of ObamaCare, HobbyLobby realized they were liable to cover many things for their Employees - stuff which they didn't agree with on a moral and spiritual level. Though they want their Employees to have health insurance, retirement and social security, they don't want to jeopardize the beliefs of their family-owned business and will probably lose this fight in the Supreme Court, just as they've already lost in State Court. 

Folks, this incident has a really great chance of RUINING HobbyLobby and other businesses, costing thousands of people their jobs. Does anyone dare to take a stand against ObamaCare? The Catholic church, their hospitals and universities, have already fought this fight. Unfortunately, they can't win this in the courts and neither can the NON-Catholics. 

In case you weren't aware - and I've been sounding this alarm for a long time - every 501c3 faith-based organization in America is going to have to pay ObamaCare for their Employees, thereby supporting abortion and contraception for their employees in the process. This goes for organizations of ALL faiths, including those whose religions have a Pro-Life leaning, including Muslims. 

We are going to have some really tough decisions to make very soon, folks. ObamaCare will impact faith-based schools where anybody who works as much as 30 hrs MUST have ObamaCare paid for by their Employers, whether the bosses like it or not.

The Fed is NOT supposed to meddle in the religious affairs of this country according to the First Amendment. With ObamaCare, this is exactly what they'll be doing. Most of America's Churches have chug-a-lugged the 501c3 non-profit Kool-Aid and, as such, have become, unwittingly, subject to governmental control. 

Hear this: the 1st Amendment was set up to keep the Fed OUT of Religion but, in the their desire to attain a tax-exempt status and give their supporters a tax deduction, Religion crawled BACK into bed with the Fed, thereby allowing the government BACK into the Religion business. Therefore, no separation of Church 'n State exists.

DUMB! Didn't our vast multitudes flee their countries to America because of this kind of governmental control?

As I see it, as a result, religious groups now have no leg to stand on.

Churches are soon going to have to make drastic decisions and most are, at this moment, completely unaware of what you've just read. For Christian schools, universities, physicians and Christian businesses... some really HUGE changes are coming down the pike and some VERY tough decisions are going to have to be made. ObamaCare will lead to the demise of many businesses including those of physicians and surgeons who are already changing courses and, in some cases, seeking another profession. How will this effect those who need a doctor right away? We've already heard the horror stories of socialized medicine in other countries.

I am 100% convinced this is all part of the Global Elitist agenda and has NOTHING to do with MediCare and certainly nothing to do with your health. Frankly, it's all about total control of the people as those who run the planet usher another peace of the agenda puzzle of the New World Order. 

What can be done? It's called Preparation. For example, where my own church is concerned, we have embraced the Book of Acts "House Church" model, meeting "house to house", thereby eliminating all the trappings of a 501c3, and we pay no salaries or overhead. One might even consider buying a copy of the Physician's Desk Reference in order to diagnose one's own symptoms, too.

Just a suggestion. 

No, I'm NOT kidding.

Please forward this message to your religious leaders. Chances are, they haven't got a clue.

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work

Pray for the Prez

Father, your Word exhorts us to "pray for those in authority." When I read that verse, my mind cries out, "You've got to be kidding!" However, in my spirit, I know it is the right thing to do.

Therefore, I lift up Barack Hussein Obama before your throne of grace. When I read in Scripture that we are to "give thanks at all times," the only reason I can find for giving thanks that he is now our President is that, by his presence in that office, his decisions and policies have been the cause of so many eyes being opened, so many drawing closer to you, so many prayers being prayed. That alone gives me cause to give thanks and praise.

I pray, for his sake as well as the sake of vast multitudes, that Obama would have a Damascus Road experience, just like the one experienced by the Apostle Paul, such an enemy of your Church at that time. May he have a close encounter with the living Christ! Jesus, you died for him - allow him the privilege of knowing you and having the scales removed from his eyes. Lord, replace his hardened and hurting heart with a heart of flesh. Edit his mind, Father, and help him to overcome the negative input and indoctrination he has been spoon-fed all his life. Please allow him the great blessing of knowing his Father in Heaven. Lord, may godly sorrow come upon him - the kind that leads to repentance.

Protect him and his family, Lord, with angels given charge over him. Pour out your Spirit upon the Obama family and convict them of their sins as well as the righteous that was purchased for them by the Blood of Jesus.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, I join my prayers with those of Intercessors across the planet. We break the assignment of the enemy that has been launched against his mind, his will and his emotions. We declare him free from the devils sent to torment him and to use him as a pawn to accomplish Satan's schemes - and those whom the Son sets free are free indeed!

We pray safety over the Obama family. In the Name of Jesus, we come against the devils sent to kill, steal and destroy them. We declare that the blessings of Almighty God will overtake our President and that he will experience such boundless love from above that he will be driven to his knees in repentance. Thank you, Jesus, for being glorified through the life of this man, just as you were glorified through the life of the apostle Paul.

Remind us, Lord, that Obama is NOT our enemy. We have an enemy and we call him "satan." Remind us, Lord, that people are never our problem and that our battle is not against flesh and blood. Break our hearts for this man that we would hold no malice against anyone.

I ask this in the mighty Name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Amen! 

OMG! It's the FLU!

It's bigger 'n badder than ever, folks! It's here earlier than ever, too. Flu patients are being turned away from Chicago hospitals. A Philly hospital has erected an emergency tent for flu cases.

Fox News anchor, Megyn Kelly, received an on-camera flu shot from a doctor wearing surgical gloves.

Media hype equals mass hysteria among the masses. Keep your heads, people! There are drugs and shots and natural remedies, some of which are questionable and even harmful, so do your own research. 

What's a Christian to do?

My own strong reminder is this: do what the Scripture directs us to do and HEAL THE SICK! Nowhere in Scripture do we read anything about "Praying for" sick people. No, Jesus directed us to HEAL them - and He gave us the authority and power of the same Spirit who raised Him from the dead to get that mission accomplished. All we need to be is available, exercising our faith and recognizing that Divine Healing is only a challenge when we start thinking WE have anything to do with the process.

I was quite proud when I received a text requesting prayer from my son when he felt sick and even more proud to hear he laid hands and anointed with oil his wife and baby. 

I was thrilled when my daughter told me by phone her two little girls took their medicine, but started confessing they were already feeling better after mommy anointed their foreheads with olive oil. 

Personally, though I've been sneezing and sniffing, I pro-actively had my wife and church pray over me and, well... feel better already! I'm praying against sickness now, especially for my wife, daughter and daughter-in-law who all work in health care and are surrounded by sick people.

Which method of healing works best?

"Be it unto you according to your faith," Jesus said. If a person's faith is at the level of medicine, herbs, or a surgeon's knife, they'll likely receive healing as a result of those methods. That's great... whatever works (though I don't really believe modern medicine actually heals, so much as comforts, anybody - sometimes, it actually has adverse affects). Even Jesus used mud on a blind man's eyes and had to minister twice for the man who described what he saw as "trees walking around." Though Jesus didn't need those things, we see this an example showing us where the man's faith-level was. Remember, Jesus could do very few miracles in His own hometown. The locals simply couldn't see the boy they knew as "Mary's kid" as REALLY being the long-awaited Messiah.

Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, doing His work on earth through willing vessels like you and me. 

"Pray without ceasing, give thanks at all times." In other words, pray until you see results. Our tendency is to have people "take two prayers and call me in the morning" when it's "the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous" that avails much.

In the last days, we are warned, there will be plagues and pestilences, etc. How are we, as Christians, going to handle a pandemic later if we aren't mastering sniffles and coughs right now? 

I suggest we use these illnesses as training exercises! Get good at this stuff, people! Step out in faith as the Spirit leads (crucial point, so start listening), and minister healing to those who are oppressed. Make declarations of health. Heck, do it BEFORE that first sneeze. Do it in Jesus' Name. In other words, in accordance with how He taught and showed us. 

Warning: Satan hates this stuff! That alone should motivate you to good works like these!

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work                                                                                                                                                                                     

FOR MEN ONLY: 

Guys, what's the worst thing you ever did?

I'm writing this message with men in mind after sensing a strong unction to do so. I can only imagine the Father is thinking about a guy like you for whom that "thing" you did felt so awfully sinful, or that habitual "thing" that keeps rearing its head is keeping you in bondage, denying you the freedom bought for you by the blood shed at Calvary.

Oswald Chambers wrote in My Utmost for His Highest (I paraphrase), "To say you are not worthy of God's love is to tell Jesus "the cross wasn't good enough." Many years ago when I read this, at that very instant, I KNEW I was made worthy by Jesus' blood and that, truly, NOTHING would ever separate me from the Father's love. Guys, everything you have ever done, or will ever do, was forgiven at the cross. Contrary to what so many believe, there's no rating scale for sin. The chasm has been bridged and that which once separated us from God carries no more weight. This truth should cause you to love God unceasingly, as it did me, wanting nothing more than to surrender everything I have to serving Him and advancing His Kingdom, no longer my own.

OK, so you took the bait. Maybe you were a Pastor or a Priest. Perhaps you were a deacon or a Christian radio show personality. Maybe you were just a Christian man who got "caught" doing what many others haven't been caught doing... yet. Were you stealing from the register, having an affair, a DWI, looking at porn? Maybe it was doubting, pride, selfishness, unforgiveness, or a lack of faith. There are sins of commission and omission - things we DO and things we should've done.

No one is innocent.

Then again, because of what Jesus did for us, we are seen as RIGHTEOUS DUDES by our Father, meaning we ARE innocent. Men, when God sees you, He sees Jesus! 

Religion will tell you the same thing it said to the first guy, Adam. When he and his lady, Eve, ate the forbidden fruit, they suddenly became aware of their sin, became ashamed of their nakedness and hid from God. Later, when God found Adam, clothed in fig leaves, He asked, "Who told you that you were naked?" In other words, "who told you that you'd sinned?"

If the God who chooses to cast your sins as far as East is from West were to ask you, "Who told you that you sinned," it's likely the response would be, "My parents." How about, "My preacher." For others it's, "Satan" or "My wife... all the time!" Whether it's religion or relatives, multitudes are being kept in bondage to some "thing" they did through the words of others who held them captive, separated from God only in their minds. Some guys turned to religious traditions, a penance of sorts, in an attempt to work off their "debt." Other simply gave up and dove head-long into a life of depravity.

Newsflash: The debt's already been paid! Jesus did it!

Last night, we attended a house church meeting. A young man was there, recently released from prison. During the course of conversation, he mentioned an ID card he has with the word "OFFENDER" stamped across the front, a gift from State of Texas Department of Corrections. In Texas prisons, he said, every prisoner has one of those. I was instantly reminded of all the names God changed throughout Scripture: Abram became Abraham. Saul became Paul. Jacob became Israel. Guys, an "Offender" is NOT what that guy is; he's redeemed, a child of God... and I told him so. You and I had an invisible spiritual card with the word "SINNER" stamped across the front. With that first drop of Jesus' blood, that word was erased and, according to Scripture, replaced with the word "SAINT."

Be encouraged, men. You are NOT what you've been labeled as. God isn't mad at you. Through Jesus, He made the way where the wasn't one. Just accept that; it's either true or it's a lie. Whatever the world - including the church - may call you, that's NOT the name God calls you.

My advice? Deal with this truth. Embrace it and get on with God's business. Focusing on your own business doesn't usually work out so well.

Ladies - and I KNOW at least a few women are reading this - please forward this message to every man you know. Boys, too. It will bless and encourage many to whom it is sent.

Every blessing,

Michael Tummillo

Founder, The Church @ Work

Are You Undermining the Redemptive Work of Christ?

Are you undermining the redemptive work of Jesus in any way? If so, don't panic; you can always change your mind. The Greek word is metanoia; "repent" in English. Believe me, you'll experience a great freedom of spirit every time you do so! 

Not surprisingly, many Followers of Jesus are "mixing covenants," towing the party line with an admirable allegiance to their denomination DESPITE practices no longer required after Christ shed that first drop of His precious blood, when the New Covenant began. I must not fail to mention those traditions of man that, as Jesus said, "have made the Word of God of NO EFFECT" (Matthew15:6) as well as teachings and practices the apostle Paul referred to as "doctrines of demons," (1 Timothy 4:1).

In Jeremiah 31:31-34, the Lord says: “Behold, the days are coming... when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them... But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days... I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them... For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” 

So, as Paul wrote, we are now under a "new and better Covenant." Read it in Hebrews 7:20-23 in your favorite translation. Here's how "The Message" phrases it: The old priesthood of Aaron perpetuated itself automatically, father to son, without explicit confirmation by God. But then God intervened and called this new, permanent priesthood into being with an added promise: 

God gave his word; he won't take it back: "You're the permanent priest."

This makes Jesus the guarantee of a far better way between us and God—one that really works! A new covenant.

Earlier there were a lot of priests, for they died and had to be replaced. But Jesus' priesthood is permanent. He's there from now to eternity to save everyone who comes to God through him, always on the job to speak up for them.

I encourage you - no, I BESEECH you - take a long, hard look at the traditions and teachings of your own religious affiliation and your own attitudes as well. Do the rules and regulations you're being taught tend to make those who fail to keep them feel like a red-headed stepchild, or do they nurture a loving relationship with the Father? Is there a sense of unworthiness within your congregation, or a peace, an unspeakable joy, and a freedom that makes others want what you claim to have found? Are lives being changed as a result of your practices, or is it all about behaving for appearance's sake?

Ask the question: Did the early Followers of Christ practice this? Would they have been comfortable engaging in this? 

An African minister once emailed a photo of his small church, everyone seated in rows, listening to him, attentively. I thanked him for sharing and suggested he try circling the chairs, encouraging the people to interact, and to ask the people bring food, suggesting this might feel a bit more like the early church. His next comment? The church started growing! The people don't want to go home! Even the children were enjoying themselves!

During this assessment of your own church practices, ask yourself if this practice, or teaching, is at risk of holding anyone who hears it in a religious bondage to another religious expectation? 

Ask yourself, if Jesus Himself taught anything held as a standard by your group, was He under Old Testament Law when He did so? (Example: "Our Father, who art in Heaven." Sure, He's in Heaven, too, because He's omnipresent, but YOU are the temple of God today, remember? Are we emphasizing THAT truth as strongly as we teach others to memorize a prayer directed toward Jewish men that has caused millions to see God as "out there" and untouchable?

Are we so sin conscious we've made it seem hopelessly impossible for anyone to feel loved and accepted by God, as individuals and as entire denominations? 

Would the very One who said, "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them... For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more,” agree with the poor discipleship example we offer to those who wish to follow Jesus? 

Are we teaching them anything but how to walk in bondage to Religious practices, or are we introducing them to Christ in us, taking advantage of every opportunity to exhibit love and life?

Tomorrow, our church fellowship is getting together for Burgers, Beer and Bible Study. Yes, it was my idea and, after an informal survey, oddly, not a single person objected. In fact, some non-regulars will be joining us, I'm sure, because we'll HAVE beer. My thinking is this: If some Christians can have real wine at communion during THEIR gatherings, we can have beer, right? 

Now, I haven't had a beer since high school when I was working construction in El Paso and had six in the truck on the way home from a job site. I'm sure this message will ruffle the feathers of many Bible Belt Evangelicals, but I could name some incredible men of God who enjoyed their liquor, cigarettes and pipes throughout Christian history. In fact, many of our European brethren - mighty men and women of God whose names you would know - have joined us for Tex-Mex and indulged in a beer or a Margarita while some of us non-denominational types untangled our knickers! I may stick to toddlin' tea, but it sure won't be for any reason other than I don't like beer. 

Coffee neither.

Let's give it a rest. Instead of gauging everyone by whether they stick to the rules of our spiritual gatherings, let's try loving one another, regardless of whether they measure up or not.

Every blessing,
Michael Tummillo
Workplace Chaplain
Founder, The Church @ Work (TCAW)