Keith Frazer

Day 42 SET OURSELVES APART

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Today is the 42nd day that we have been counting the omer.

Throughout the Old Testament, God highlights the requirement to be different from all those around us. This is evident as He requires Abraham, his household and all his male descendants to be circumcised. It is seen again as God verbally gives His commandments to the Israelites at Mt Sinai and then in written form to Moses. Each one of God’s commandments reflect His holiness and His standard for living. He wants a people set apart. He not only desires but requires that they serve no other god. They were to have no other god in His face. They are to only worship Him, Yehovah. He wants a “different” people so that they stand out from all those around them.

As His people, we are to imitate Him by sanctifying ourselves, setting ourselves apart for Him alone. We are to choose to more accurately reflect Him by sanctifying things in our lives such as our possessions so that even those things are holy in His sight. We are to make sure that the things we own are not used in ways that are unholy. Maybe that means what is viewed on our TV or what our vehicles are used for…. Our time is sanctified when we set apart time to be in His Presence, drawing closer and developing intimacy with Him. Adherence to His commands hopefully is the fruit of sanctifying ourselves and living in a loving relationship with Him.

Leviticus 20:23-24; 26 (English Standard Version) “You shall not walk in the customs of the nation which I am driving out before you; for they did all these things, and therefore I detested them…. I am the LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples…. You shall be holy to me, for I the LORD am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine.”

It is very easy for us to forget how adamant Yehovah is about living and being separate from the world in which we live. I am not talking about going and living on a mountain top, having no contact with others. I am talking about choosing to live our lives in such a way that we refuse to pick up the habits of this world in which we live. Our language, what we watch or bring into our being through any of our five senses, what we approve, where we go, our behaviors, and our attitudes are to reflect our God. Yes, He knows that we are human, but that does not give us license to do things that do not reflect His character. We cannot think and act in this manner: “well, this might be wrong, but God will always forgive me”. He requires us to be different from those who do not believe in Him. We are “to walk in humility and obedience and in the beauty of holiness – the beauty of His Presence – because He wants us to be His own. He desires for us to be consecrated and devoted in love to Him alone.” (A Taste of Torah, A devotional Study Through the Five Books of Moses, Keren Hannah Pryor, 2016) He wants so much for us to grow in intimacy and oneness of heart and mind with Him, sanctifying ourselves for Him. He wants the world to look at us and know that we are different even as He wanted the children of Israel to be different from the rest of the world. Through their difference, they were to proclaim to the world that there is only one God, and His Name is Yehovah.

Our challenge today is to do even as Paul tells those living in Corinth (2 Corinthians 6:17 NLT) “Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the LORD. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you.” Will we choose to be like Yehovah, or will we choose to be like the world in which we live?

Pastor Ann

May 23, 2020

Day 41 HOLY SPIRIT POWER

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Today is the 41st day that we have been counting the omer.

Luke 24:49-53 (NLT), “And now I will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father promised. But stay here in the city until the Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power from heaven.” Then Jesus led them to Bethany, and lifting his hands to heaven, He blessed them. While He was blessing them, He left them and was taken up to heaven. So they worshiped Him and then returned to Jerusalem filled with great joy. And they spent all of their time in the temple, praising God.”

Acts 1:8-11 (NLT), “’But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about Me everywhere – in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth’. After saying this, He was taken up into a cloud while they were watching, and they could no longer see Him. As they strained to see Him rising into heaven, two white-robed men suddenly stood among them. ‘Men of Galilee,’ they said, ‘why are you standing here staring into heaven? Jesus has been taken from you into heaven, but someday He will return from heaven in the same way you saw Him go!’”

Jesus had done all He could do to ensure that the disciples were convinced beyond any possibility of a doubt that He was alive. He had meals with them; He continued to teach them about the Kingdom of Heaven. He connected the dots for them from the prophets and through all the writings found in the Old Testament. He proved to them that He was the Messiah and would return to be the King over all the world. He knew all the persecution that would follow. He knew who would be the first to die for proclaiming that Jesus is the Messiah. And, He already knew who will be the last to die for faith in Jesus. For 40 days, He worked diligently to confirm His Father’s truths to them. He knew that they would be put on the witness stand and would have to be convinced beyond convincing that what He had told them was true. And now, He was leaving.

He commanded them to return to Jerusalem and stay there until they were baptized by the Holy Spirit. He did not ask them if they wanted to do that. He commanded them to do it. According to Jesus, it was essential, not optional. He knew that despite the fact that He had just spent 40 days confirming and reconfirming, teaching and reteaching, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit was the critical piece that would be required if they were going to ready to be put on the witness stand of the world. He knew that the methods that would be used to bring about their deaths would require the indwelling of the Holy Spirit if they were to stand firmly. So He commanded them to stay in Jerusalem.

If it was essential for them, it is essential for us. More believers are dying for their faith today than at any time throughout history. We in the United States have not been persecuted like those in the rest of the world. But as we come down to the end of this age, it would not surprise me if we begin to see terrible persecution. Will we be ready? Only through the power of the Holy Spirit will we be able to stand! This was His last command, the last thing on His mind before He left. We must not ignore this command. It is ESSENTIAL.

Pastor Ann

May 22, 2020

Call to Duty

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Memorial Day is a unique holiday.  Every year it gives Americans an opportunity to reflect on the cost of answering the call to duty.  Whether you or someone you know is military, a first responder, or even a parent you recognize what that means.  When you respond to that call the outcome is not cut and dried.  You don’t know that all will end well.  There is no guarantee that everyone will survive to tell the tale.  When the call to duty is answered sometimes people die. 

Now I know some of you are saying, “REALLY? A parent?”  Yes, really.  Parents have a duty to their children that exceeds the call of our country or our community.  As a parent, protecting one’s child is the primary call.  Does that mean a person will die because they are a parent?  No.  But it does mean that if they love their children as God planned they are willing to die for them.  

God knows this price and understands this call to protect His children.  Jesus paid the ultimate price when He answered the call to protect all of God’s children by accepting responsibility for every sin ever committed.  He took that burden with Him to the cross.  By nailing those sins on the cross, Jesus protected us from eternal death and provided us the opportunity for eternal life.

We need only step out in faith.  Our call to duty is to believe that God is.  That Jesus is His son who died for us.  Our call is to faithfully proclaim our belief in Him and follow Him all the days of our lives.

If you are hungry and want to know more, PLEASE join us in the parking lot at 964 W Hwy 190 this Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m.  Pastor Ann has a special message she’ll be sharing with us that you don’t want to miss.

For those of you unable to join us please check us out on FB livestream at 9:20.  You can also find us on YouTube and at our website: www.covenazarene.org

Day 40 ASCENSION DAY

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Today is our 40th day counting the omer.

In some places, today is called Ascension Day because 40 days after Jesus rose from the grave, He ascended from earth to heaven where He “sat down in the place of honor at God’s right hand” (Mark 16:19 NLT). Jesus had been with His disciples teaching them about the Kingdom of God. Paul told the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15:6 that Jesus was seen by more than 500 at one time after His resurrection, “the majority of whom are still alive, though some have died.”

What a day that must have been for the disciples! They had been following Him through all the days of ministry and had been so elated when they discovered that He really had risen from the dead. To have Him there with them for another 40 days must have been the icing on top of the cake! But now they have come unknowingly to the day that He would leave them, never to be physically seen again in their lives. Jesus took them over to Bethany, just a bit less than 2 miles from Jerusalem. There He finished reinforcing the most important things about the Kingdom of heaven. Suddenly, His feet started lifting off the ground! Maybe it was slow at first, but He just kept going up and up.

I do not know how long they stood and watched Him ascend. Evidently it was long enough for two angels to come and stand among them. They were probably still looking up when the two angels began talking to them. “You Galileans! Why are you standing, staring into space? This Yeshua, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will come back to you in just the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” (Acts 1:11 CJB) I do not know what the disciples were thinking as they walked back to Jerusalem. Perhaps they were mulling over all the events in their minds. At some point, they remembered what the angels had said, “This Yeshua, who has been taken away from you into heaven, will come back to you in just the same way as you saw Him go into heaven.” They had so much work to do to proclaim to all the world that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, but the promise was forever in their minds – He’s coming back just like He left.

We most certainly would have been right with them staring up into the sky and outer space. Our thoughts and emotions would have probably been a very mixed bag. But as we stand here, almost 2000 years after He ascended, may we never forget that He will return in the same way that He departed. May we be so convinced that He will soon return that we will work harder than ever before to expand His Kingdom using all means possible! And, may God help us not to be caught flat-footed when He returns.

Pastor Ann

May 21, 2020

HIS PRESENCE on Day 39

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Today is the 39th day that we have been counting the omer.

The fourth chapter of Joshua has a very interesting statement found at the end of the crossing of the Jordon River. Twelve men have just picked up stones from the middle of the riverbed and brought them to the west bank. Joshua tells the people, “In the future, when your children ask, ‘What do you mean by these stones?’ you will answer them, ‘It’s because the water in the Yarden was cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yehovah; when it crossed the Yarden, the water in the Yarden was cut off; and these stones are to be a reminder for the people of Israel forever.’” (Joshua 4:6b-7 CJB)

The statement that jumps out to me the most is, “It’s because the water in the Yarden was cut off before the ark of the covenant of Yehovah; when it crossed the Yarden, the water of the Yarden was cut off….” Stop for a moment and read that verse again. Notice that the water was not cut off because of Joshua, it was not cut off because of the priests. The water was cut off because of the ark of the covenant! I do not know how long Joshua thought about what he was going to say, but what he did say was very profound.

His statement reinforces to us today the fact that it is not by might nor by power that things are accomplished, but “it is by My Spirit says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies” (Zechariah 4:6 NLT). If we ever get to the place that we think it is by human strength, force or ingenuity, our plans, or our great brainpower, we will fail. The Presence of God is what stopped the water in the Jordon just as His Presence stopped the water in the Red Sea, opening both so that the people could cross on dry land. Oh yes, people had their roles to play. Moses had to hold up his staff; Joshua had to give the order; the priests had to step into the water and stand firmly, but it was God’s Presence that commanded the water to move out of His way!

And it will be the same for us today. We will see Him work as we do exactly what He says. We cannot make it about us. It is simply us doing what He tells us to do. It is not about us doing something that we have thought up. It is about Him! My challenge to us today is that we carefully listen to Him and follow Him precisely. This requires an intentionally intimate relationship with the God of Heaven’s armies. Then, we can expect Him to show up and demonstrate His power and majesty to all who will have eyes to see and ears to hear.

Pastor Ann

May 20, 2020