Christ The King Ministry International.org

Join us for worship tomorrow morning at 10 am as we worship in our new location–the youth room at St. Joseph’s Church, 173 Albion Street in Wakefield, MA!

It’s going to be a glorious day!

By Rev. Michael Carl

I’ve been giving a lot of thought lately to the concept of truth.

A lot of people talk about truth; some spend a lot of time and money trying to convince us that they’re telling us the truth.

Many others spend years ‘looking for truth,’ and committing their lives to the ‘search for meaning.’

Motivational public speakers like Wayne Dyer, Gary Zhukov and even Oprah Winfrey dedicate hours, days, even weeks of television time exploring the spiritual dimension of our lives and tell us that we all have truth within and that there is power in our ‘intention.’

Other seekers dabble in eastern religions, mysticism, even the occult and witchcraft in an effort to find truth.

When it’s all said and done, there’s a lot more said than done.

Then I turn to the pages of the Bible and breathe a deep sign of relief.  How wonderful it is that our Creator—the One who fashioned us with His own loving hands—loved us enough to give us a place to stand.

God didn’t want us to be adrift on an endless search for meaning and significance.  He doesn’t want us to spend our whole lives searching aimlessly for something in which we can believe.

He loves us enough to give us a comprehensive source for our lives, a complete recipe for hope, dignity, spiritual strength, faith and the capacity to love one another as He loves us.

He won’t turn us loose and He will never allow us to wallow in a sea of relativistic wishful thinking.  He doesn’t want us to spend our whole lives on empty intellectual mind games and empty, self-centred power struggles.

In His sovereign grace, He told us the truth and sent His only Son to not only tell us the truth, but to BE the Truth for us.

All we have to do is come to Him by faith and latch on to Jesus, the One who is the ‘Friend who is closer than a brother,’ and the One who will never let us go once we fall into His loving arms.

He died on a cross to take away our shame, guilt, heavy hearts and broken dreams.  He shed His precious blood so we don’t have to carry the weight of our failures on our own shoulders.

All He asks is that we take the broken pieces of our empty emotional shell games and to put them in His compassionate hands.  All we have to do is commit our lives to following His loving plan.  Jesus calls us to a deep level of commit-ment, because it’s only by giving our lives to Him that we find the answers.

The answer to why we worship is that we find joy in His presence.  With Him, through His Word and Sacraments, we find our greatest treasure—Him.

One church where the Word is proclaimed without apology and the Eucharist is served with joy is a new one in town.  It’s Christ the King Church.    We are now meeting at 10 am in the youth room at St. Joseph’s Church in Wakefield.

If you need information on how to find us, call 781-640-9450.

by Robert Holmes

Supplied by Revival School

To fight or not to fight, that is the question. Or rather, to fight
this enemy or that. There is a battle Christians all need to wage
against the enemy of our souls, the enemy of the church – Satan.
But there are many other skirmishes and insidious battles being
fought by the brethren. These are the skirmishes of church warfare.
There are lines drawn between this movement and that, between
this crowd and that, battles being fought to divide the church…

But the Bible teaches us that we should not skirmish and rail against
flesh and blood, but against the evil rulers of the air, who influence
and affect our brethren (Eph 6:12). We are to take up the shield of
faith with the sword of the spirit and join God’s warriors fighting a
common enemy (Eph 6:16-17). I have asked myself why we are
led to divide the church, why we go into battle when we should be
building the kingdom…

A PICTURE of WAR

I had an open vision in early September 1997 that showed me a
startling reality of what is happening right now in the church. A
cinema style video opened up before me as I was praying one
evening. I saw a black and white film, which looked like it was made
in the 1940’s. It began on a farm. Dozens of men were working in
the fields, preparing instruments for the harvest. Then suddenly,
they began to leave the fields and walk toward a railway line. Trains
pulled up with streams, banners and a band playing. Many of the
men climbed aboard to go off to war.

The scene panned back to the field where many shovels, spades,
forks, scythes and machinery had been left idle on the ground.
Before me was a vast harvest of wheat, with scarcely no one left to
work the fields!

The scene changed and I saw women and children learning in various
schools and colleges. There were women learning trades and how
to operate machinery, children at lathes learning woodwork and
smaller children learning at school. So many women and children
had been left behind as their men went off to war. They had to learn
how to survive and remain productive without them.

The vision closed with a picture of a lone man standing in the field.
Behind him lay all the discarded tools of the harvest, before him
was a huge field of wheat. He did not look perplexed or dismayed -
he simply prayed God’s blessing and began to work.

The HARVEST

I ask you, is God’s agenda for us to lay down our tools of harvest
and run off to war? I know for sure a battle is raging, there is no
doubt of that! Indeed the enemy comes to devour our harvest, he
comes like a plague of locusts to eat the crops and steal the seed
before it can germinate. It is true we must fight, and fight hard
against the devil today, but let me ask you – what war are you
running off to fight? Where is our focus?

“Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But
I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for
harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering
fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.”
(John 4:34-36).

WHERE is OUR FOCUS?

The rumble of an exciting opportunity to go off to war resounds
across the land. These days we run, leaving the weak and the
young behind to do the productive work. We want to glory in the
temporal, while Christ is working the eternal. We are putting down
our tools, and taking up guns and weapons…. And there is Christ,
standing alone in the fields crying, “These fields are ripe unto the
harvest, pray for labourers”.

Where are you going Christian? What is consuming your energy
right now?… Are you one to run off and join the train, the band, the
noise, the army gathering or will you stay and fight for the harvest?
Will you join those who devour the land before them or strike at the
plans of Satan to destroy the church? God is preparing a harvest,
lift up your eyes and see the work it ready to be done! Behold the
fields are ripe unto the harvest and the reaper is already collecting
his wages.

-Extracts from ‘Harvest or Civil War?’ copyright (c) Robert Holmes, 1997.

Tomorrow is going to be an awesome day at Christ the King Church!

Worship is at 12:15, where we’ll sing, praise the Lord, pray together and receive the Sacrament of Holy Communion.

Then we’re all going to get into our cars and drive to the Burbank YMCA in Reading to baptise two of our members, Emily Pica and Michael Brown.

God is totally awesome!

See you there!

Pastor Mike

From RevivalSchool.com

“All I can say is I look for perpetual conflicts and struggles in this
life, and I hope for no other peace, only a cross, while on this side
of eternity.”
-George Whitefield

“God give me a deep humility, a well-guided zeal, a burning love
and a single eye, and then let men or devils do their worst.”
-George Whitefield

“If we believe in Jesus, it is not what we gain but what He pours
through us that really counts. God’s purpose is not simply to
make us beautiful, plump grapes, but to make us grapes so that
He may squeeze the sweetness out of us.”
- Oswald Chambers

“Nothing is more contrary to a heavenly hope than an earthly heart.”
-William Gurnall

“I wouldn’t cross the street to hear Ingersoll preach on the mistakes
of Moses, but I’d love to hear Moses preach on the mistakes of
ingersoll!”
-Vance Havner

“Consecrate, then concentrate…”
- Dwight L. Moody

“At the day of judgment we shall all meet again.”
-George Whitfield

“Dare, dare, my dear brethren in Christ, to follow the Captain of
your salvation, who was made perfect through sufferings.”
-George Whitefield

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable, because God
has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”
-C.S. Lewis

After some further discussion with the folks at the Methodist Church, it’s been determined that the best time for them and for us is this Sunday, 12 noon and beginning on the thirteenth, 12:30 pm.

This allows for a comfortable transition between the services at the Methodist Church and our service.

If there are any questions, call me at 781-640-9450.

Pastor Mike

Supplied by Revival School

“Some years ago a fearful railroad wreck took a dreadful toll of life
and limb in an eastern state. A train, loaded with young people
returning from school, was stalled on a suburban track because of what
is known as a “hot-box.” The limited was soon due, but a flagman was
sent back to warn the engineer in order to avert a rear-end collision.
Thinking all was well, the crowd laughed and chatted while the
train-hands worked on in fancied security. Suddenly the whistle of the
limited was heard and on came the heavy train and crashed into the
local, with horrible effect.
The engineer of the limited saved his own life by jumping, and some
days afterwards was hailed into court to account for his part in the
calamity. And now a curious discrepancy in testimony occurred. He was
asked, “Did you not see the flagman warning you to stop? ”He replied,
“I saw him, but he waved a yellow flag, and I took it for granted all
was well, and so went on, through slowing down.”. The flagman was
called, “What flag did you wave? “A red flag, but he went by me like a
shot.” “Are you sure it was red?” “Absolutely.” Both insisted on the
correctness of their testimony, and it was demonstrated that neither
was color-blind. Finally the man was asked to produce the flag itself
as evidence. After some delay he was able to do so, and then the
mystery was explained. It had been red, but it had been exposed to the
weather so long that all the red was bleached out, and it was but a
dirty yellow! Oh, the lives eternally wrecked by the yellow gospels of
the day—the bloodless theories of unregenerate men that send their
hearers to their doom instead of stopping them on their downward
road!” – H. A. Ironside

“And what is wrong with the old method of scaring the ungodly with
a sermon on hell?” – Vance Havner

“There is a lot of soft, sentimental talk about Him today that brings
no conviction. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he did not feel comfortable!
Neither did Habakkuk nor Daniel nor Paul nor John. We want a
picture of Him today that does not disturb us, that smiles at sin,
and winks at iniquity. I remember a man who told me he wanted to
hear no hell-fire sermons but rather about the meek and lowly Jesus.
Yet the poor man did not seem to realize that the meek and lowly
Jesus said more about hell than is reported from the lips of anyone
else in the Bible! We need a true and complete vision of God in
His holiness and Christ in His glory that will bring us to repentance.”
-Vance Havner.

“Obedience is the crown and honour of all virtue.”
-Martin Luther

“Spiritual maturity is reached when obedience [to God and His
word] becomes a joy.” – Jesse Yoder

“In Acts the apostles prayed for 10 days then preached for 10 min-
utes and 3000 people were saved. Today pastors pray for 10 minutes
then preach for 10 days and wonder why no-one is saved.”
-B.H. Clendennen.

“It is a poor sermon that gives no offense; that neither makes the
hearer displeased with himself nor with the preacher.”
-George Whitefield.