Tag: baptism

By Pastor Andrew Farland

When I was going through one of the hardest times in my life, one of the most loving things anyone could do for me was to provide a safe place to land.

One night I had a panic attack, I was nervous and scared – completely beyond the point of being able to handle it on my own. It was the worst panic attack I had ever had. I was with a friend, but he had to leave me. I didn’t want to be alone because I didn’t feel okay.

I had two options:

Go to the emergency room to calm the panic attack. Just thinking about it made me crazy. Admitting that I was sick enough to go to the emergency room would be like going insane. Going to the hospital meant a new level of brokenness, and that was unacceptable.

Go to a small group meeting that had been scheduled to start in half an hour. I didn’t want to show this broken side, but it seemed better than going to the hospital.

My friend recommended I go to the small group meeting, and he left. I took his advice and went.

I arrived with no emotion, just a blank stare. I was a shell of myself.

The group leader Veronica said, “Hey Andrew, I know you’re going through a hard time. We don’t expect anything from you. Just stay here with us and be yourself.” She suggested that I could sit on the couch while the group met at the table, and I was welcome to join them – or not.

The group sat at the table, and I stayed on the couch with her dog. I stared at the wall, not sure what to think. All I knew for sure was that I was broken beyond repair, and I had no idea how to fix myself.

The upside was that I had a friend who expected nothing from me. She let me just be with her and the small group.

It reminded me that the greatest way to love is to be welcoming. To be a safe place to land.

I planned to go home after the meeting even though I knew it wasn’t a smart move. Veronica insisted I stay with them for the next couple of days.

Veronica showed me that love is meeting others at their point of need, not making demands of them. The way to take care of others is by being available. It’s not about throwing out advice. It’s not about offering a blanketed statement.

Go to the person in need. Meet them where they are rather than make them come to you. You need no agenda.

If we’re going to change the world, it will be like that. You don’t need to join a program, pay a fee or take a drug.

Open love – the love of God– is beautiful, and it’s a safe place to land.

1 Peter 4:8
Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.

By Pastor Andrew Farland

Our God is a God of redemption.

He saves us from ourselves.

Before Jesus was crucified, Peter denied Christ three times. Peter was the same guy who commanded God to come out of the boat and walk on water. It was Peter who said, “I will never turn away from you even if everyone else does.” He was full of zeal, and yet Christ had to teach him a couple of different lessons.

The number one lesson Peter had to learn is:

Your own zeal can’t save you. Your own power can’t save you. You need the power of Christ, the redemption of Jesus.

Peter denied Christ three times, but then Peter started Jesus’s church and lead 3,000 people back to Christ on Pentecost.

You see, whatever you’ve done can be forgiven.

But God needs to teach us a lesson that we are not supposed to work out of our own sufficiency. We can’t do it on our own. We need to rely on God.

We are not redeemed by our power and might, but by His spirit.

Rely on the spirit of Christ inside. God can redeem us, grow us, and He can forgive us.

God is the one who shows us that He is the source of power in our lives.

Every time we go through something different; we need to rely on him because no two situations and no two battles are the same. We need to rely on God who knows the exact strategy for what we’re going through.

Rely on God for your sufficiency, not on yourself.

Zechariah 4:6
So he said to me, “This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,’ says the Lord Almighty.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.

By Pastor Andrew Farland

God can reach you at the lowest possible place, even in your deepest sorrow, with no hope in sight.

I had an experience in Rwanda that showed this.

We were working with a bunch of kids who wanted to explore the ministry.

When we split into teams, my team had five people including me. Right away, one boy and one girl left us, and we became a team of three. We still wanted to go door to door that morning to pray with people and for them.

The team knocked on the first and second doors, and we continued making our way down the street. We finally arrived at the last door on the end of the street. A young girl invited them in. Even with our translator helping, there wasn’t much talking. Everyone prayed together, and we left.

The next day, we went back to the same community. Our translator ran up to us, saying, “You’re not going to believe what happened. It’s crazy!”

“Tell us!” I said. “We love to be encouraged!”

“Remember the last house at the end of the street?” asked our translator. “The night before you came, the lady you prayed with put a rope around the top of the beam in her ceiling, and laid the noose around her neck.

She heard a voice say, “Don’t kill yourself; help is on the way.”

The translator continued. “Then she had a vision of three white people coming to pray for her. But wait, It gets crazier. In the vision, she saw your faces — one girl, and two boys — coming to the door.”

This story illustrates that you might be at the end of the road and at the end of your rope, ready to give up.

But don’t.

God is there, putting the right people in place to help you. God did this in Rwanda for the woman who contemplated suicide.

He gave her a vision of three white people who would come and pray with her. He sent away two members of the five-member team so only the envisioned prayer warriors would be left. Everything fit perfectly in God’s plan. He made it so.

You see, God shows us that there ways where there are no ways. Life and hope exist where there is death and hopelessness.

We discovered on our next trip to the area that all three of the lady’s prayer requests had been answered.

God will help you with yours!

Isaiah 42:13
“For I am the Lord your God who takes hold of your right hand
and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.

Be encouraged today because God is with you.

By Pastor Andrew Farland

If you’ve ever been let down by someone in your life, letting go and letting God take care of things can seem hard to do.

You may be asking, “Is God really capable of being in control of my life, and is He able to help me when I need it?”

The answer lies in Job 38, where God reveals his presence and power to Job by commanding the oceans:

“This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt.” [Job 38:11]

God tells Job that He’s in control of the boundaries of the waters. Think about this for a moment. Water covers two-thirds of our planet, and the remaining third island. Imagine what would happen if the oceans had no boundaries.

The oceans would spill out and cover not just the shoreline, but the entire Earth. The small amount of land we have would be covered with 6,000 feet of water.

Fortunately, God established boundaries that protect us. God in is control of everything on Earth and in the celestial sky as well.

The giant traveling star Arcturus is the brightest star in the Ursa Major constellation, and it’s the 4th brightest in the northern sky. It’s thirty times bigger than our sun. The Bear Guardian, as Arcturis is also known, is constantly on the move, barreling along at a brisk 4,200 mph right this minute.

That’s a lot of horsepowers. Imagine God asking Job if he’d like to drive that monster truck. One stomp on the gas pedal, and the beast would be out of control. But God’s got this. He shows His ability to control and manage a massive and powerful star like Arcturis.

He is on top of things.

Like Job, many of us wonder if God can really help us. So many times we doubt that God cares or can even bring us through a hard time.

Maybe you’re struggling with believing God for your future. God shows us daily that he really can help us. He cares, and He can do it.

After all, He holds back the waters every day. The waves cannot increase or go over a certain size, nor may they exceed their boundaries. God guides Arcturus through its paces in the night sky.

He does all of this and more, so of course, God is capable of helping us when we need it.

Jeremiah 32:37
“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

Be encouraged today because God is with you.