Seeking The Lord Jesus

Are You Ready For This?

Posted on August 21, 2012 by mcalmond

Matthew 17:1-2 (ESV) And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.

Jesus was transfigured before them; that which was inwardly true of him became outwardly evident or manifest. The light came from within him and shone outwardly, dispelling anything of darkness around him, around them.

I want to share with you two incidents in my life that illustrate this powerful reality.

One day I walked into a very old building alone, a building that at one time had been used for worship. As I walked into this building there was a very real and intense sense of heaviness, of darkness, of evil, all around me. This place was not as it once been.

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Categories: Absolute Dependency, Angels, Anointing, Authenticity, Churches, Discipleship, Divine Encounters, His Light and Glory, Light, Prophetic Revelation, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Spiritual Warfare, Visions, Work of God | 2 Comments

What is The Heart Of Ministry?

Posted on June 20, 2012 by mcalmond

Below is an email that I received and my response to it. I am posting it to see what others might think of this discussion and have some input. So have a shot and we will see where this takes us.

Blessings in Christ Jesus!

Email:

For me to minister, I need a heart to minister, but people are not that enjoyable to minister too.  How do I develop compassion and love for people?

I find people who are going through trials, I find it hard to minister to them, cause I really don’t want to help them, even though the right thing to do is still to minister to them.

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Categories: A Simple Reminder, Absolute Dependency, Authenticity, Awakening, Being Built Up, Benefits, Christian Maturity, Confidence, Dependency, Empowerment, Genuineness, God's Love, Hope, Seeking The Lord Jesus | Leave a comment

What In The World Are We Doing?

Posted on April 19, 2012 by mcalmond

Proverbs 25:2 (ESV) It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.

There is a very real need to inquire that seems essential for each one of us. Need simply refers to that which is essential for life. We are strongly encouraged in scripture to seek that we might find, to search out that which is hidden with the assurance that as we seek and search we will find, in Christ Jesus. We are commanded to seek first the kingdom of God that all we seek after in and of God’s Kingdom may then be added to us. The problem is that there are far too many who want to do it all for us, simply because they see us as just too ignorant or lazy to do it for ourselves. Then having created this dependency, us on them, they turn around and criticize us for not doing or learning to do for ourselves.

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Categories: Authenticity, Belief System, Bible Translations, Body of Christ, Calling, Changes, Christian Maturity, Church, Core Values, Death, Elitism, Fear of God, Holy Ghost Burdens, Misplaced Dependency, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Suffering, Theology, Wrestling | 3 Comments

Thoughts About Age and Changes

Posted on April 14, 2012 by mcalmond

Change comes hard for most of us and as we get older, change seems to become even more difficult. It may simply be because of our age or it is simply because when you have spent a life time moving through one change after another, change just gets harder, more difficult and seems to require more of you than ever before. The motivation, energy and drive required for these changes seems to wane and not be as sufficient as it once was, to see you through these seemingly essential changes.

The truth is however, that true change is hard, risky and is always stressful whatever its ultimate fruit and our age at the time.

As a pastor or one who has spent the majority of his life in the ministry in one form or another, I find myself in such a season of life. The real question arises for me, regarding my need for change, is simply, is it worth the effort, difficulty, stress, etc? I have experienced a lot of changes in my life, from one move after another, from one church or ministry organization after another, from one home to another, one state to another, from one ministry crisis to another and even from one job after another. So, yes, the question arises, is this change worth all of the effort, stress and hardship it requires of us to accomplish this change and the promises that these changes hopefully contain?

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Categories: A Genuine Heart Cry, Absolute Dependency, Being Built Up, Breaking Forth, Changes, Christian Maturity, Dying to Self Will, Fear of God, Genuineness, Grace, Hearing The Lord, Holy Ghost Burdens, Hope, Jobs, Mentoring/Discipleship, Ministry Motivation, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Spiritual Fathers/Mothers, Timing, Word of God, Work | Leave a comment

I Am Hearing The Lord. Really?

Posted on January 11, 2012 by mcalmond

I Believe That I Am Hearing God, But… ?

I believe I am hearing God, but what if my heart, being deceitfully wicked and no man, including me, can know it, has misled me?

I believe I am hearing God, but what if my motives, paradigms and ignorance are all in the way?

I believe I am hearing God, but what if I am functioning out of blindness and deafness, unknown to me?

I believe that I am hearing God, but what if I have hidden unresolved issues with my mother or father or some kind of ancestral bondage’s that are getting in the way?

I believe I am hearing God, but the counsel of my friends in Christ cannot agree as to whether the question I had asked the Lord to begin with, was accurately framed according to the doctrines of our faith and therefore genuinely theologically sound?

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Categories: A Compilation of Sources, Absolute Dependency, Hearing The Lord, Holy Spirit Hearing, Holy Spirit Listening, Intellectualism, Lost and Alone, Noise and Distractions, Obedience, Open Ears, Prayer, Presumptions, Revelation, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Stirrings, Vulnerability, Word, Work of God | 1 Comment

Christmas, Santa And A Tree

Posted on December 22, 2011 by mcalmond

Part Two

Now as Christianity continued to expand, grow and thus celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus (Christmas, Epiphany, the Feast of the Nativity), His Baptism and obviously His death and Resurrection (Easter), the different cultures added their own marks upon these celebrations. It is these cultural adaptations, which most often incorporated some aspect of their local celebrations or local context into the celebration experience of the Birth of the Lord Jesus Christ and yes, even of what we call Easter. Now, again, taking the more positive road on this, I believe this was all done for the same purposes as we have already stated in Part One, to replace what was previously observed or worshiped, with the true worship and celebration of the Lord Jesus Christ. How successfully this was always done, I am not always so sure.

The point of all of this is simply that the celebration of what we call Christmas is indeed the celebration of Christ’s birth and this has been in the church, in various forms, from very early on. The celebration of what we call Easter, the celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, has also been a vital part of the church from its very beginning. In fact, it was seen for a very long time as the greatest of the Christian celebrations or remembrances. I believe that Easter should still be our most important celebration. However, this of course is my humble opinion.

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Categories: A Compilation of Sources, Body of Christ, Celebration, Changes, Christmas, Church, Church Forms, Church History, Churches, Confidence, History, Hope, Humility, Questions, Remembrances, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Thanksgiving, The Power of God, Timing, Witness | 2 Comments

Some Things Change, Some Things Do Not

Posted on December 18, 2011 by mcalmond

I have been in the ministry in one form or another for over 35 plus years. Much of this time was bi-vocational. What this means is simply that I worked two or more jobs while seeking to fulfill one calling in the Lord Jesus Christ! I have Pastored, Itinerated, Consulted, Church Planted, Restarted Churches, Revitalized Churches, Counseled and Train Others in and for the Ministry and Wrote. I have also worked in factories, worked construction, and many other odd jobs along the way while still in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ!

Today we are beginning to see a fresh resurgence of this much needed ministry and calling that is understood as bi-vocational ministry. However, I would say, there is still so very many more who have yet to embrace or have even begun to seriously consider this vital calling of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I confess that while in the early days of ministry, I wanted desperately to be in ministry full time. Much later, while in fulltime and paid ministry, I wanted to be in bi-vocational ministry. Some people are hard to please and I guess that sometimes I am one of them, just ask my precious wife.

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Categories: A Simple Reminder, Absolute Dependency, Anointing, Calling, Churches, Commands, Core Values, Encouragement, Fear of God, Ministry, Ministry Motivation, Pastor, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Work | Leave a comment

My Personal Struggle With Writing

Posted on December 6, 2011 by mcalmond

Writing is like preaching for me, without the anointing, I have an extremely difficult time doing it. So, I confess that I have shied away from it more often than not. In other ways, writing is much more difficult for me than teaching and or preaching. This is most likely because I have preached and taught far more than I have written. Come to think of it, I have always struggled with writing. I have never really ever seen myself as a writer and still don’t. Yet this last year there was a brief moment in time when I surely felt, in and before the Lord Jesus Christ, that I was to give myself to writing much more than I do. However, as is usual, there were so many others things that got in the way of this. There was for example, work and driving long miles to do so, fatigue, moving, pastoring, family, health concerns, lack of genuine motivation, and the list goes on and on.

I have imagined a time when I would have time sufficient to write more. I have imagined a time when I would have the finances to take the time to write more. I have imagined that the anointing of the Lord Jesus would suddenly fall upon me and I would write like there was no tomorrow. But alas, none of these realities are indeed mine. This leaves me with but one of two choices as I see it: to give up on writing more altogether, or to write anyway.

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Categories: A Simple Reminder, Absolute Dependency, Anointing, Being Built Up, Calling, Character, Dying to Self Will, Following Through, Gifts of the Holy Spirit, Noise and Distractions, Perseverance, Process, Righteousness, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Spiritual Barreness, Surrender, Work | 2 Comments

The Great Falling Away

Posted on October 29, 2011 by mcalmond

The Lord Jesus Christ one day while he was teaching asked a vitally important question. This question is almost too easily overlooked because of the way that it came forth. His question arose at the end of his teaching. He was telling a parable of the importance of persevering in faith, in earnest prayer, of how we need to be those who learn the power of and value of our praying through until we have what we are seeking the Lord.  For in Spirit and Truth, He is willing, just and ready to answer our prayers. As the Lord was finished sharing his brief parable, suddenly, almost as a passing thought Jesus says, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8 ESV)

Will we as believers persevere in faithful prayer, in genuine faith, while waiting for the Lord’s return? Or will we give up and walk away, throwing in the towel, turning around and no longer walking in the faith, hope and love of the Lord Jesus Christ?

We live in crucial times with rapidly accelerating darkness and sin all around us. We live in a time that all too quickly approaches, what the Word of God refers to as the time of The Rebellion, The Apostasy, The Great Falling Away.

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Categories: Anointing, Apostasy, Awakening, Being Built Up, Belief System, Believer, Body of Christ, Boundaries, Breaking Forth, Calling, Darkness, Dependency, Disobedience, Dying to Self Will, Edification, Empowerment, Encouragement, Exhortation, Faith, Fear of God, Flesh, Following Through, Genuineness, God Faith, God's Faithfulness, Grace, Growing in Faith, His Chosen, Holy Spirit, Hope, Knowledge, Last Days, Mercy, Ministry, Noise and Distractions, Now Word, Obedience, Open Ears, Open Eyes, Openness, Paradigm Shift, Persecution, Perseverance, Prayer, Presumptions, Priorities, Process, Profession, Promises, Readiness, Relationship, Rest, Righteousness, Rock, Salvation, Saving Faith, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Source, Spirit, Spirit of Truth, Spiritual Warfare, Standing in Faith, Steadfastness, Teacher, Teaching, Tenaciousness, Thankfulness, Thanksgiving, The Lord Jesus, Victory, Vulnerability, Waiting on the Lord, Witness, Word, Word of God, Work, Worship | Leave a comment

Is The Church Worth Saving?

Posted on October 16, 2011 by mcalmond

Matthew 16:18 (ESV) And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

I confess that I love the church and the people of God, how can I not? They are my Lord and Saviors children. I also confess that I do not always like the church or what is going on in it. My heart, however, when it is said and done is pro-church and therefore pro-people of God.

I am concerned about what is going on today throughout the world of the church. Statistically, there seems to be a very real departure or exodus of people from what has been frequently referred to as the Institutional (IC) or Organized Church (OC). Now what I can surmise from this term as it is being used over the web is that we are speaking of any church that has its own church building, which is dedicated to the purpose of being, doing and having church with those who enter within. It can refer to denominational churches, regardless of the denomination. It can also refer to those who belong to or are a part of these churches. This seems too broad for me and evades the complexity of what it is that truly is the Body of Christ.

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Categories: A Genuine Heart Cry, Absolute Dependency, Authenticity, Being Built Up, Belief System, Believer, Benefits, Breaking Forth, Calling, Character, Christian Maturity, Church, Churches, Commands, Dying to Self Will, Edification, Empowerment, Encouragement, Exhortation, Faith, Family, Following Through, Genuineness, Grace, Hatred, Healing, Holiness, Hope, Humility, In Spirit and In Truth, Inspiration, Loving One Another, Mercy, Ministry, Openness, Perseverance, Prayer, Preaching, Presumptions, Prophetic, Reconciliation, Relationship, Remembrances, Repentance, Resurrection Life, Revelation, Sacrifice, Seeking The Lord Jesus, Separatism, Simplicity, Spirit, Spiritual Warfare, Steadfastness, Stirrings, Teaching, Tenaciousness, Thankfulness, Thanksgiving, The Lord Jesus, The Power of God, Transformation, True Love, Victory, Witness, Word, Work, Work of God | Leave a comment

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