Whom Will You Serve?

  I am in a season now where Father’s promises are being fulfilled that He spoke to us many years ago.  We have encouraged each other to trust the Lord with all our heart and to walk in His ways daily being a testimony of His truths and His faithfulness.  No matter what is happening in our lives, He is Lord! His truth never fails, His Word never fails, His love is unconditional and His peace passes understanding.  During our last trip, I knew I was a bit anxious to be traveling again.  We had not traveled since last fall.  During May the weather is a bit unpredictable especially in Colorado.  I remember many times arriving at our destination on dry roads in the mountains and waking the next morning with 4 inches of snow on the ground and the most beautiful pristine world to see and enjoy! Well, this time it didn’t happen quite like that but we did have 2 blizzards while there. In one day the weather changed 4 times!! Amazing!! BUT GOD!! 

  We saw a miracle take place (we see them daily) and this one was unmistakable.  On our way out of the mountains we had a 10 foot long about 30 foot wide patch of MUD across the road that we had to cross.  Charley stopped the car, assessed the situation, ask Father for help, hit the gas and we flew across the mud WITHOUT sinking in a hole. It was as if there were two LONG boards across the mud pit and we drove across on the boards.  Well, Jesus walked on water and so did Peter.  We didn’t look at the pit but we said, Jesus HELP and HE DID!! That is the only explanation for us making it in our mountain goat car over the mud pit. Later we heard that the mud pit was knee deep and two cars got stuck in it. BUT GOD!! We rejoiced the whole way down the remainder of the road.  And that is just one miracle! We saw many lives impacted by Jesus on our 3 week journey.

  Our God is so faithful!! He knows the needs better than we do and all we do is say, Help us Lord as we make ourselves available to Him for His Kingdom Work.  We are no different than you!  When Jesus is your Savior, the Holy Spirit resides in you; He will use you too for His honor and glory!! Surrender your lives today to the amazing Jesus Christ, Son of God and Savior of the World. People are dying around the world because they will not renounce Jesus as Lord.  What would you do if confronted with death if you didn’t renounce Jesus?  Believe me I have thought a lot about this!  I choose this day to serve the Lord Jesus and just as the 3 Hebrew children said when confronted with the fiery furnace: “Shadrach, Meshach, and AbedNego answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. 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. 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  “AND Then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished; and he rose in haste and spoke, saying to his counselors, did we not cast 3 men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said to the king, True, O king. Look! He answered, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire; and they are not hurt, and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.” Daniel 3:24-25 

Mentoring by Example

This week we had an awesome opportunity to share on radio about the ministry and our walk with Jesus.  We were asked to share how the Lord uses us to touch people’s lives in our day to day walk.  We shared about ministering to pastors, leaders and missionaries as we encourage, love and bless them. Then we shared about going to the restaurant, store and gas station. We didn’t talk about church or evangelism or preaching but about the people we meet daily in various walks of life. I have to say we enjoyed it immensely.  What was so special was being able to share open and free what the Lord is doing each day through our speech and attitude.

In my last blog I spoke about the persecution that has come upon many Christians around the world.  The persecution continues.  What people do not hear though is how the Kingdom of God is flourishing IN THE MIDST of persecution. Read the Word of God, this has happened all through history.  God’s Word is truth and it prevails though all hell breaks loose, God is still on His throne and His Kingdom knows no end.  For years we have sung the song, One Day at a Time sweet Jesus that’s all I’m asking of you!!  We have prayer time each morning and we do not have a list written down of the folks we pray for but we do have it in our mind as Father gives it to us.  We always pray for our children and grandchildren and then Father gives us people to daily speak their name into His presence. We pray Proverbs 3:5-6, the Prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10) and the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13) also. Our hearts are so full as we speak their names and release them into Father’s hands. We KNOW that He hears, He answers, He knows their needs and He knows His perfect will for them.  Then in the evenings we have a written prayer list of over 3000 that we do the same way.  Father knows the intricate details of their lives.

In these days, Father is digging us deeper into prayer and the desire of our heart is to see all believers be people of prayer. It is not about going to church  and hearing people pray, but it is about being people of prayer every moment of the day all week long.  I can’t emphasize this part of our faith walk enough.  Do you believe prayer works? Do you know that our Father hears and He answers?  Oh dear saints of God, focus your eyes on Jesus.  Let this be your lifestyle from this day forward.  Be the CHURCH, BE the PEOPLE OF GOD; mentor others by example. Let the Fruit of the Spirit operate in your life and flow out to everyone you meet. They will KNOW we are Christians by our love! Let it be so!    Galatians 5:22-25: But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, He will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to His cross and crucified them there. If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.” NLT

We Believe

How many of us truly know what we believe as we go to church, speak the name of Jesus and walk each day trying to be faithful to the cause of Christ. The news is so full of Christians being persecuted, but one story has really captured my heart and mind.  It is a story from Iraq and a story of families torn apart because they teach their children and others about the good news of Jesus.  The story I read told of children being asked to renounce their faith in Jesus and when they refused they were killed but the parents were left alive.  If a little child is not willing to turn their backs on Jesus to save their lives, what would we do? We have never really been faced with that choice in our western world.  Yes, I know you read about people being asked not to pray in public places or churches being attacked but these are all random acts.  I know that our leaders in government are trying to make laws that are prejudiced against Christians but these are not life and death situations.  What about the reality of what is happening in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Ukraine, Africa and many other nations.  They are experiencing life and death choices and many are choosing death over renouncing their faith and trust in Jesus. Heaven is their home when they die.  Praise Jesus!! The Lord has had us praying for the persecutors.  Have you thought about that?  We know that it is Father’s desire that ALL be saved!  So while we pray for those being persecuted, we pray also for the persecutors!! We pray for truth to be revealed and deception uncovered and God’s justice, God’s justice happen!  Several weeks ago we attended a local church and heard for the first time a song that has captured our hearts because it is what we believe and we proclaim it to the rooftops.  The precious worship leader leads us with great passion and truth and we watch people around the auditorium lift their voices in admission of what they believe.  Now I cannot promise you that when they walk out the doors of the church they live what they believe in their daily lives but during that moment on Sunday morning with like believers around them, they lift their hearts, lives and voices to make a statement of what they believe.  I can only pray that if faced with a soldier holding a machine gun or a guillotine ready to be used, that I along with every believer in the world would do what those children done and say NO, I WILL NOT RENOUNCE MY JESUS!! HE IS MY SAVIOR AND LORD! Below I have the link to the song WE BELIEVE!! 

Please listen and worship the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ, the SON OF THE LIVING GOD JEHOVAH.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FtPmX7e_Rpw

Loving you and praying for you,

Charley & Karen

Heritage

Heritage – anything transmitted from the past or handed down by tradition, something inherited at birth, such as personal characteristics, status, and possessions. (World English Dictionary)

  So much has happened since my last posting.  I will attempt in our ’we love pastors blog’ to update you on our personal journey as well as our ministry journey.  The two are pretty well inseparable at this point in our lives as you will find out the older you get.  I believe the Lord desires I share with you a personal experience we had this weekend.  We know a precious family who began a family tradition of honoring their children when they reach their 16^th birthday. So far they have done this for 9 of their children.  They have 12 so only 3 more to go but we have had the privilege to be a part of several of these ‘coming of age’ birthday parties.  Each one has been unique and special as each child is also very special, gifted and anointed by the Lord for His purposes.  We are asked to pray and ask the Lord what to share with each child.  The most recent son brought forth the message of Heritage.  This young man has a Godly heritage but that is not always the case.  I want to share part of what we wrote and read over the young man being honored.

  Every person in the world has a heritage that comes from their family and they must choose whether to continue this heritage or change it.  Because we know this family, we know that they have chosen a Godly heritage based on Father’s Holy Word not only for the mom and dad but for them to pass on this Godly heritage to their children.  This son is at a place in his life where he must choose for himself. His mom and dad have chosen that ‘As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord ‘(Joshua 24:15). We asked him ‘What are you going to do with your freedom of choice?’ Are you going to choose to continue the heritage from God and your family that has been placed before you or are you going to change? We, Charley and I, made a decision on this day to continue to pray for this young man that he will seek the Lord with all his heart, lean not on his own understanding, in all his ways acknowledge Him that He shall direct his paths (Proverbs 3:5-6).  As he follows this direction, he will continue the heritage that has been set before him.  He will hear God’s voice and God’s blessings will overtake him (Deuteronomy 28:1-2).

  Take a moment for yourself to read these scriptures and reflect on the heritage you have enjoyed through your life and choose you this day who you will serve.  This opportunity to share this with this young man who has turned 16 gave us a moment to reaffirm our own commitment to provide and pass on a Godly Heritage to our own children and grandchildren.  That has been our joy through many years but today, June 9, 2014 we choose to continue that lifestyle of telling not only our family about Jesus but others about His amazing love for them.

 

Implanted Word

James 1:21-25 says: “So get rid of all the filth and evil in your lives, and humbly accept the message God has planted in your hearts, for it is strong enough to save your souls. And remember, it is a message to obey, not just to listen to.  If you don’t obey, you are only fooling yourself.  For if you just listen and don’t obey, it is like looking at your face in a mirror but doing nothing to improve your appearance.  You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. But if you keep looking steadily into God’s perfect law-the law that sets you free-and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.” NLT

While reading the book of James and discussing this passage of scripture during our house church one evening, I found myself reflecting on the garden I used to plant years ago.  I remember the process that happened when we tilled the soil, prepared the ground (hoeing and raking, removing the rocks and weeds) and made the rows for the seeds.  I remember also the waiting and watering that took place so that the precious seeds would germinate and grow.  When they first peeked from the ground the whole family got excited! Soon we would have beans, corn, onions, squash and tomatoes and our table would be filled with bounty.  But it is a process of preparation and growth.  The seeds had to be planted before the growth process could happen.  So it is with the Word of God, the message of the Gospel of Jesus, the TRUTH.  In verse 21 we are told that we must get rid of all the filth and evil in our lives (rocks, weeds, grass, etc) and humbly accept (receive) the message God has planted (the seeds planted) in our hearts.  That message is strong enough to save our souls.  It has grieved my heart for years to see people sitting in a service listening to the pastor feed the Word of God to them, seek to plant the Word in their life and hearts and then to watch them walk out the door and not do anything with it.  It truly was not planted for what is planted will grow and mature as it is nurtured, watered, fed the nutrients of a life lived for Christ, obeying His Word, studying His Word and acting out His Word through works of love and compassion.  I lived this way for years so I know how it feels to hear the Word but not do the Word.  What is faithful about that?  Our God is faithful! He does what He says He will do in our lives if we will seek Him with our whole heart.  If the Word is planted deep within our heart, it will come forth in our words and actions.  Do we live like believers in Jesus or do we live like the world?  Charley has told people for years, look at the Fruit of the Spirit and the Acts of the Flesh listed in Galatians 5.  Your life will line up with one of these.  Where are you today in your relationship with the Lord?  Jesus is coming soon to get His Bride, the Church.  Will you be with Him in Glory or will you be left behind?  Seek the Implanted Word in your heart and walk out each day with Jesus.  If you are going to talk the talk you must walk the walk. 1 John 2:6 says: “He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.” NKJ Walk, live, conduct yourselves daily, as Jesus walked.    

Pursue Me! Come Into My Presence!

Welcome to the New Year of 2013!  Goodness it has been fast paced since January 1! We knew this year would be exciting because of all the Lord has shown us.  Each year we ask the Lord what His focus is going to be for us. This year He told Charley: Pursue Me!  Then He also told me: Come into My Presence!  Wow!  We shared these messages with each other and then took His words to Him in prayer surrendering all we are into His hands.  We want to see these words manifested in our lives during this year.  So far every devotional I have read points me to His Presence and we are Pursuing Him deeper and more eagerly than ever before. Our responsibility in this world as children of God is to give witness of the truth of His Word.  In the Word is wisdom and the answers to all the questions we will ever have.  Read the story of David and Saul.  Saul was God's anointed and chosen King.  He was not following God.  He was behaving in a manner contrary to God.  He had tried to kill David many times.  David had many opportunities to kill Saul but he would not touch God's anointed.  We must do all things according to the Word of God.  We must seek His face, believe that He will hear, obey what He tells us and trust that He knows what He is doing.  You are on a faith walk for you.  Where will you stand?  With God and His Word or with people and their ideas.  Be sure you are acting under God's direction before you take a step.  He will lead and guide you.

Psalm 91, Galatians 5, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Take a deep breath of His Spirit and know that He will give you the strength, wisdom, direction, purpose, comfort, peace and everything else that you need for each moment of the day!

May the Lord encourage and bless you as you Pursue Jesus and spend time in God's Presence. 

Charley & Karen Tackett

chasnkt44@att.net

The Priority of Prayer

A major part of our ministry is prayer.  We pray for over 2800 people every evening.  We also have a joint prayer time each morning for our immediate family and many extended family.  Father gave us this mantle and it has not been a burden to carry but a joy!  These past few months a lot of our prayer focus has been on Colorado and other areas of this country experiencing fires.  In Colorado they have had numerous fires burning many thousands of acres of land, forests, and homes.  Smoke has been in the air constantly in different areas of Colorado for most of this year.  As we prayed over family and friends in the path of these fires, Father showed us His protective hand over those we were praying for.

What an awesome responsibility some might say but we look at it as a privilege to lay our loved ones at Father’s throne and to trust Him with them.  The scriptures we also pray daily are Proverbs 3:5-6, the Prayer of Jabez (1 Chronicles 4:10) and The Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13).  As we pray we rest in Father’s total and complete care of those whose names we speak into His presence.  I wrote about prayer last year in March and I could not get away from Father’s instructions to speak about prayer again now.  Why?  Didn’t I say it all last year!  Not at all!  So much has happened in this past year to focus our attention on the need for prayer, those on our prayer list and the power of prayer.  We have seen lives changed by prayer.  We have seen healing of physical bodies, healing of marriages and hearts, healing of emotions and the spirit and we have seen families restored. We see the effects of constant, consistent, faithful, unyielding, confident prayer.  We add new names to our prayer list almost daily and Father knows that no one is exempt from our prayers.  When He gives people to us, they are on the list and we pray for them until HE tells us to remove them or they go home to be with HIM!  Of course that is the ultimate healing and restoration!

One day He will come for us and we will be with Him forever but for today, for now, He has a plan and a purpose for our prayer ministry.  I cannot tell you the excitement when we get that call or email and we hear how our prayers have been answered. Our hearts are lifted, our spirits soar, our lives are enriched beyond words just to pray and trust Father with the dear ones He has given us.  How is your prayer life?  I am reading an amazing book sent to us by a dear friend that tells about praying for strangers.  When our friend told us she was sending the book, she said, this is YOU! As I read though the book and listen to the stories of the author’s encounters for prayer, I am in awe that our Father works in such miraculous amazing ways to draw people to those willing to pray.  We have experienced it ourselves but reading about the author’s encounters has refreshed me again to all that has happened over the past 13 years of CKM. 

May you be encouraged to make prayer a priority in your life!  The Word of God is full of scriptures about prayer.  Pray believing and expecting and you will see the Glory of God manifested through your prayer life and the answers to your prayers.  Our God hears and He answers!  We have confidence and assurance! We pray and leave the results in Father’s hands!

Prayer is our responsibility to God.  It is addressing God in word or thought involving these:  praise, thanksgiving, confession, petition and intercession.  Father wants to fellowship with us.

Prayer is the means by which believers communicate with God and receive guidance for their lives.  Effective prayer depends on faith and a right relationship with God.”  Faith is essential to prayer. “Asking for oneself and for others (intercessions) is an important aspect of prayer.”

Intercession – seeking the presence and hearing of God on behalf of others.

Meaning of Prayer and Intercession: “Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications and prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior” 1 Timothy 2:1-3

Prayer of believers for believers: “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height—to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:14-19

Prayer for Healing: Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.  And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.  The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:14-16

Prayer for the Lost (Salvation): “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.” Romans 10:1