ChuckBalsamo.com

History Belongs 2 The One Who Prays!

Friday, May 1st, 2009 By chuck 5 Comments

Happy Friday Good People,

Last nights prayer team gathering at Destiny Family Center was the best! We had such a great time together… I love those guys and gals so much! That has to be the greatest benefit of being a Pastor… having a team of people so much committed to PRAYING for your protection and for the success of your visions! Thursday night prayer has become my FUNNEST thing to do! I know it sounds crazy… but PRAYING is one of my favorite things to do in life!

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” –Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

I love praying just as much as I LOVE BREATHING! It’s the involuntary blessing of my spirit that I never wish to take for granted.

“Men may spurn our appeals, reject our message, oppose our arguments, despise our persons, but they are helpless against our prayers.” –Sidlow Baxter

I have found this to be true in my own life. People either love me or hate me. Those who love me, love me LIKE CRAZY and those who hate me, hate me with a vengeance! This is why I thank God for the unprecedented prayer desire he has graced to my heart. For more than 18 years, I have prayed like few people I have ever met… and because of this, I am indestructible until my mission is accomplished and my time is up.

“Don’t pray when you feel like it. Have an appointment with the Lord and keep it. A man is powerful on his knees.” –Corrie ten Boom

“The men who have done the most for God in this world have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning, its opportunity and freshness, in other pursuits than seeking God will make poor headway seeking Him the rest of the day. If God is not first in our thoughts and efforts in the morning, He will be in the last place the remainder of the day.” –E.M. Bounds

Even though we love to pray, we love other things as well. Life on this natural earth can be so amazing… it can be so all consuming! When times are good, we are too busy enjoying the fun and relaxation of our blessings. When times are bad, we can be so distracted with the merciless demands of crises. This is why we must SET AN APPOINTMENT WITH GOD, whether times are good or bad. We should never allow ourselves to ride on the blessings of yesterday, nor should we work through crisis in human strength.

“Seven days without prayer makes ONE WEAK.” –Allen E. Vartlett

Every time I become weak and defeated… if I can just drag my battered body into my hiding place… the place where he meets with me… if I can just run to God… it is there in his awesomeness MY STRENGTH is RENEWED! Psalms 121:1-3 says this, “I will lift up mine eyes unto the HILLS, from whence cometh my help. ²My help cometh from the LORD, which made heaven and earth. ³He will not suffer thy foot to be moved: he that keepeth thee will not slumber.”

“The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” –Samuel Chadwick

“I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” –Charles Spurgeon

There are so many things in this life that cannot be dealt with through human devices. True, some battles have nothing to do with spiritual forces… they are natural, yes. When our tires have 30k miles on them and we get a flat… this is very stressful circumstance of a natural origin. But, there are MANY things we face in this life that are not of natural origin… and these things cannot be fixed correctly without prayer. Living in a spiritual universe, have we become far too natural in our approach to everything? History belongs to the one who masters the art of PRAYING!

There is so much more I could write on this beautiful subject of prayer… but then who would read much beyond what is already written? For the next few moments, consider your own life… be honest about your own prayer life. What could happen if you blocked out 30 minuted to hang with God EVERY day for the next year? Think about the mighty mountains you could move during that time! Think about the miracles you would experience! History belongs to the one who masters the art of praying! So master it you guys… and don’t forget to PRAY FOR ME! LOL

Have an amazing day… and make plans NOW to attend Destiny Family Center this Sunday… 10am! God bless you all!

Filed Under: Journal & Message Tagged With: prayer

April Showers/ May Flowers!

Monday, April 20th, 2009 By chuck 4 Comments

Happy Monday Friends!

It’s raining here this morning… and you know what they say, “April showers bring May FLOWERS!”

In Psalms 126:5-6, the bible calls it like this:

“Those who plant in tears… will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep as they go to plant their seed, but they sing as they return with the harvest.”

In other words… prayer and tears are like the April showers that bring about the May flowers!

Farmers rejoice over the spring rains… because they ANTICIPATE the flowers and harvest that are CERTAIN to follow! We should do the same! As we water our personal situations with prayers and tears (some of them with lots and lots of prayers and tears)… we should KNOW that FLOWERS AND HARVEST are CERTAIN TO FOLLOW!

God always answers prayer… so never stop praying and trusting all things into His loving care!

What happens if we don’t pray? What if we take matters into our own hands? Then there will be no water to bless the soil of our situations… and very little chance of FLOWERS and HARVEST!

So as you pray about things today… KNOW that MAY IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER! Don’t get bummed out with these cold and rainy days. Look beyond this month… to NEXT MONTH! Look beyond the rainy days… on to the days of FLOWERING AND HARVEST!

I am praying more than usual for you guys and gals this morning… I’m praying about specific situations I am aware of and other things that come up in my spirit concerning you all. I pray that todays blog adds tremendous value to your amazing lives! Thanks for reading…

Filed Under: All Message Tagged With: anticipation, april, expectation, flowers, harvest, joy, may, morning, night, prayer, rainy days, showers, tears, weeping

Run Free & Stay Young!

Saturday, April 11th, 2009 By chuck 2 Comments

Happy Saturday Friends!

Tomorrow is Easter Sunday… hope to see you at Destiny Family Center- 10am!

I just watched a video on Jonathan Woodard’s blogsite… and thought to share it with you guys! When I first experienced this video about six months ago, I remember thinking to myself, “How much of what I am doing every day is outdated and unproductive?”

The Bible is NEVER outdated… prayer is NEVER outdated… building the church is NEVER outdated… reaching unbelievers with salvation is NEVER outdated… but HOW we are going about our mission is always being challenged with our EVERY CHANGING SOCIETY!

Here… watch the video and I will be back with a few closing thoughts.

Riveting aye? I think so! It makes me wonder how much of my time each and every day is wasted attempting todays and tomorrows mission with yesterdays methods.

Sadly, our world is filled with so many protesters of change. There is a STRONG undercurrent of YESTERDAY always ripping the trailblazers down.

Jesus explained it like this in Luke 5, “No one tears a patch from a new garment and sews it on an old one. If he does, he will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the new wine will burst the skins, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.“

If you want to make a BIG difference in tomorrows world… you’re going to have to stay clear of small minded people and paradigms. Yes, hold on to sound doctrine… never forsake the timeless message about Christ… hold tightly to the routines of prayer, devotion, and fellowship that keep you drawn NEAR to God! Just get away from anything that backs you into a corner… things that suppress creativity and consume your days in meaningless activities.

As Christians, we should have great concern over the spiritual state of todays world. We should SPEND much more of our time apart from the political bickering that keeps us FRUITLESS. We should be walking by FAITH and LIVING by FAITH… INNOVATING the quantum leap concepts that will lead to the modern evangelization of this empty society.

Our message is FAR TOO AMAZING to be so UNAPPEALING in this world of broken people!

I believe that God has a BEAUTIFUL PLAN for this generation! And I’m determined to keep pressing into it, not swayed in the least by the dangerous undercurrents of yesterday.

We are trailblazers my dear bloggers! Stay fresh… run free and stay young… reach in to the love and mercy of God that so easily snaps the choke chains of fear and judgment… and don’t get distracted for more than a week or two. We are the church of tomorrow… and no matter how things look today… we can still emerge as the FINEST CHURCH TO EVER GRACE THIS EARTH!

I pray that todays blog acts as a catalyst of change in your amazing lives! I pray that my dear bloggers will clearly identify those distractions that keep them going backwards… and they choose to reclaim their destinies in Christ! Have a tremendous Easter everyone!! Love you all!

Filed Under: All Message Tagged With: church, creativity, destiny, devotion, distractions, fear, fellowship, finest church, fruitfull, fruitless, judgement, Luke 5, new wineskins, prayer, run free, stay young, trailblazers

Don’t Ever Let the Cheering Stop

Sunday, April 5th, 2009 By chuck 2 Comments

Good Palm Sunday Friends,

I’m praying for each of you to wake with a great reality of the beauty of Jesus today. Palm Sunday is about recognizing Jesus as so much more than a great teacher… to see him as KING and LORD.

Until Palm Sunday… the crowds didn’t really know for sure who Jesus was. Approaching the Passover Feast, riding on a donkey, and heading for Jerusalem… it was all the crowds needed to detonate an eruption of praise… the celebration of a lifetime! They all went crazy as they wondered… could this be the deliverer, the King predicted by our prophets? Surely, this miracle worker had to be the Messiah!

The problem with Palm Sunday is how quickly the cheering stopped! Yeah, when the people realized that Jesus was not going to overthrow the Roman Empire… and they could not understand that the Kingdom Jesus was building was an eternal Kingdom… they no longer wanted him to be the one who fulfilled their prophecies.

Why are we cheering for Jesus today? Is it because we think that he is going to do everything we ask him to do for us exactly the way that we ask for him to do it? Or, will our cheering go far beyond Palm Sunday… into the Garden of Gethsemane… to the cross… into the grave… and onto the REAL LIFE God has for each of us?

I want to CHEER for a King whose kingdom is not of this world. I want to CHEER for a King who overthrows the sins of my own heart… a King who calls on me to pick up my own cross and FOLLOW HIM wherever he may lead! I want to CHEER for Jesus today, because he overthrew the KINGDOM OF DARKNESS and freed me from the tyranny of Satan.

“Father, please don’t let me be like the Jews of that first Palm Sunday. Let my heart rejoice in you because of WHO you are, instead of what I perceive that you may be doing for me. May my praise go so much deeper than the temporal blessings you bring into this short life… and may I be able to praise you because YOU ARE THE PASSOVER LAMB… YOU ARE THE KING OF AN ETERNAL KINGDOM… YOU ARE THE SAVIOR OF THE WORLD!

Please, give me a praise that transcends circumstance… and may I not be hindered from being able to express my awe of your truest beauty! I love you Father… thanking you this day for sending Jesus, your son into this earth to give his life as a ransom payment for my sins… and the sins of the world! Please help me to praise you even when life doesn’t go the way I want it to… please don’t ever let my cheering stop. May I praise you all the way to the cross… and far beyond… again and again throughout the rest of my life!

I give myself to you anew this Palm Sunday… overwhelm me right here in my office… overwhelm all my bloggers… overwhelm the beautiful people of Destiny Family Center… overwhelm my wife and kids… overwhelm my family as they grieve the loss of my Uncle Tuff! This is my prayer… in Jesus name amen!”

Here’s a beautiful song for you to spend a few minutes worshiping Jesus… have a beautiful day!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuZgTTHrzi0

Filed Under: Message with Video Tagged With: cheering, messiah, palm sunday, passover feast, praise, prayer, riding on a donkey

30+ Thoughts on Effective Evangelism- Clip #1

Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 By chuck 4 Comments

Good Morning Great Friends!

I’m at the hospital again this morning, this time at UVA sitting with Kevin Myers while his AMAZING wife Pam undergoes a very successful triple bypass surgery! Pam is a regular commenter on this blogsite and a BEAUTIFUL Lady! Maybe you can say a prayer for Pam this morning.

As promised… drum role please… rumble, rumble, rumble… here’s the first of a few video clips from “30+ Thoughts on Effective Evangelism” we will be posting over the next few days. The teaching happened on Sunday night at White Hill Church of the Brethren… I hope you enjoy! Please post your comments… and have a most triumphant day!