Genesis 34:7, " Who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet He by no means will leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations."

     Moses went up on the mountain the first time and God gave him the ten commandments written on stone.  When Moses came off of the mountain he saw the false idol that Israel had created and the worship that they were giving to the gold statue and he threw the tablets of stone at them.  Now he returns to the mountain a second time so that God can give him another tablet of stone.  The interesting thing is that God doesn't go through the commandments again, and why should He?  He never says any thing twice.  All He has to do is say it once. But He repeats Him self in one area.  He again tells Moses about the iniquity being visited onto the children.  Why would He reemphasize just this one thing?  Because He's not reemphasizing it because Moses didn't hear it the first time.  He's speaking it onto the generation of people who just transgressed the tablets of stone in the worst way.  He's telling Moses what will be.  The iniquity of the Father's, or the worship of the golden calf, will be visited upon the generations.  Did you ever stop to think that not only the people who were worshiping came under a curse, but even their children and their children.  Not many days in the future He would give them the opportunity to repent and again trust in Him, or, break the curse.  He sent spies into the land.  Only two believed what He said was true and the bible said that none of them would enter except for Joshua and Caleb.  Every one, even the innocent children and babies who were present were doomed to wander in the desert.  This iniquity that was performed by the fathers was visited upon every generation that was present.  There was a curse laid on the children of Israel and the next generations, even over the ones who didn't have anything to do with the decision.  Everyone who passed over the Jordan, some forty years later, was not alive at the time these things happened.  The iniquity was not visited onto them.  This is just one example.  Next time we will look at the families in the bible and how the generational curse affected them.   God Bless you,  Rusty

Exodus 20:3-5, " "You shall have no other Gods before Me.  You shall not make for yourselves an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and fourth  generations of those who hate Me."

     We not only speak curses on ourselves, but some were brought and placed on us by previous generations.  What is a generational curse?  Anything that you have that mom or dad had!  Anything that you do that mom or dad did.  Sometimes the sins were not your parents fault, but your grandparents or great grandparents, great grandparents or even further back.  Sometimes the sins are hidden by our parents so that we don't see them, but they're there.  I know that there are things here that are hard to understand, but they are scriptural.  Have you any problems in your life that you look back and say, "What is this all about?  How did this start in my life?"  Chances are that you have a curse on you that you're not even aware of.  A lot of diseases are carried on by curse, "Well my mother had it so I guess I've got it to."  Some are out in the open.  A father drinks all the time so the children drink all the time.  Divorce runs in the family or poverty runs in the family.  Anything that runs in the family is probably a generational curse.  Did you ever get so close to a goal that you could touch it but then a red flag went up.  You just knew that you wouldn't finish because you never finished anything.  There are so many things that we're just not aware of in our life that are caused by previous generations.  Even though they're not our fault, we do them anyway and just add fuel to the fire and because we don't recognize what's happening and because we don't understand how to break the curse, we actually continue the cycle.  We put what we're doing onto our own children.  It sounds like some "grade b" horror movie and you may have a hard time understanding or receiving this but it's still true.  It's taught in the word.  The main thing I want to tell you today is that the word also teaches us how to break these things in our life and be set free of these areas over our lives and our children's lives.  This is what we're going to be discussing this week.   So stay tuned and believe that the truth that you'll receive can change your life.  We're going to do it together so get ready to rumble.  It's time to get free.    God Bless,  Rusty

Hebrews 10:24+25, " Let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking the assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another."

     Most of us have no idea what family really is.  Our family structures have eroded until having a dysfunctional family has become the norm.  So when we think of our church as a family we imagine the same kind of relationships.  But God intended us to be family.  A church is more then a place you go to, a building, it's an organism.  When you become a part of this body, you are one with it.  You breath and eat and sleep with it throbbing around you as you feed from it and give into it.  If you go to church on Sunday just to go to church, you're missing the bigger picture.  Church is a place of building Godly relationships.  It's a family where you come to be encouraged, sometimes corrected, and a lot of times we learn how to work things out with each other.  A church family is where you really learn to apply God's word to your life.  You learn God's word in your head by just going to church and listening to sermons.  But when you're a member of the family you have to occasionally take that word and use it in a practical way to restore relationships.  This is where you really start understanding God's word, by practical experience with each other.  There are a lot of people who run at the first sign of trouble.  They look for the perfect church family.  Well let me ask you, "Was your blood family perfect?"   Of course they weren't.  But you had to stay because you were family.  That's the way the church of Jesus Christ is supposed to operate.  Like people of the same blood, because we are of the same blood.  The blood of Jesus runs through our veins.  Some people don't come to many church events because they don't really want anyone to know who they are.  They don't want to get to close.  They have got hurt in church.  My brother and sister, the only reason we get hurt in family is because we run and are not willing to work things out.  It's that simple!  We should look forward to coming together every time the doors are open.  We should be at every event and we should actually start to miss people when they don't make it.  That's what a family does.  Are you a member of a church family or do you just go to church?  That is the question for us all to consider today.           God Bless You,  Rusty

Matthew 16:19, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."

     Jesus didn't say that He'd give the keys to the kingdom, He said the keys OF the kingdom.  I believe our words are these keys.  He gave us the words of life to speak in all situations.   If we will speak His word over every situation, we will, on this earth, release His blessings into our lives and the lives around us.  We have the ability, if we don't speak words of life, to bind His hands from the situation.  If His hands are tied then we will receive the things of the earth.  If we tie His hands then heaven is bound up and cannot release blessings.  God told us that, "today I have set before you blessings and curses, life and death, so choose life that you may live."  What we speak is our choice and with our words we bind or loose the blessings or curses into our lives.  These are the keys of the kingdom.  These are the keys to life.  The words that God gave us can put us over or take us under.  The words we choose to speak can give power in our lives or keep us weak and helpless.  Knowing all this, we can see how important our tongue becomes in every situation and why it's so hard to try to tame it.  It is full of poison and every deadly evil.  We must work on controlling our tongues in every situation.  This victory; the one that's already been won for us, has it's beginning and end right in front of us.  What comes out of us, the words we speak, determine were we go in life and what Jesus can do through us.  Watch your words.  Choose today what you'll speak carefully.  It's a matter of life and death!    God Bless, Rusty

Ephesians 1:4, "Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.  In love.

     One day I was struggling with my own inabilities.  Sometimes I'm like Paul who said, "the things I want to do I don't do and the things I don't want to do, I do.  What a wretched person I am."  We all have sin in our life that we just seem to keep on doing and we can't seem to get any relief from.  When I think about these things in my life, I start to wonder how God can use me at all, much less the way He does.  Just about the time I was thinking these things God spoke to me, "Just keep on loving people."  It took me by surprise.  Then He started showing me all the good things I do for others and how much love He can bring to others through me.  I have my bad days and I have my good days.  When I thought about it I realized that when I first came to God through Jesus I didn't have a lot of love in my heart.  I didn't do a lot of good things for people.  But as I look back now, I see that I do a lot of good things for people and God shows His love through me in many different ways to many different people.  In other words, there is a lot of good in my life. After I thought about His statement to me I realized that I'm not perfect and never will be on this earth.   I already knew that and I'm absolutely positive that He knows it a lot more then me.  But, if I just continue to change and do the best I can with His love toward Him and other people I'm okay.  In love I'm made holy and blameless before Him.  His grace, His love, my vessel.  I am growing in Him.  I still have a long way to go but as long as I keep loving Him and other people, His love will never fail.  That's good news for me.  How about you?     God Bless,  Rusty

Deuteronomy 28:13, "The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. You shall be above only and not beneath."

     Are we the head, or the tail?  What's the difference? Well, the head is making the decisions in life and the tail just gets dragged around.  That's one of the many blessings God has for us if we will obey Him and carry out His word.  The Lord really leaves it up to us which role we will play.  Are we in charge of situations and making decisions in our life.  Do we see them successfully carried out?  The word says that if we are walking in the blessings of God, carrying out the role of the head defines our life.  If we are not walking in the blessings of God,  then we are just being dragged around by circumstances and forces that we truly do not understand, and certainly are not in control of.  This is further driven home by the next statement.  Are you above the circumstances in life?  Someone says, "I'm under the weather."  We don't have to be under any thing in life.  We are children of the most high God and we have the blessings of God.  Every circumstance that comes our way in life, good or bad, has the ability to be over us and become such a heavy burden that we don't have the strength to carry it any longer, or, we can put it under our feet.  It's really up to us.  Jesus makes it very clear to us that we can be successful and prosperous in this life.  We can come through any situation if we just trust in Him and obey His word. We are the head!  We are over each situation.  We have the ability to make decisions in our lives and see those things carried out.  It's part of god's plan for us to walk in the blessings and not the curses of life.  It's really our choice.  So the question is really simple.  What will we do today and every day?  We can follow God and walk in His blessings or not obey God and walk in the world, where we are cursed.  I encourage you today to choose life and receive the best He has for you.  You'll be glad you did!  God Bless,  Rusty

1 John 5:4, " For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world- our faith."

     Our faith overcomes the world.  How does faith come?  The bible says that it comes from the word.  So the word is seed (The parable of the sower) and we plant our faith by speaking the word. The book of Revelation says, "They overcame by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony."  It is a scene in heaven looking back upon us.  In this scene we are being told that we overcame.  In other words, the end to our problems, persecutions and tribulations is already prophesied and we have already overcame all of this world.  How did we do it?  We did it by the word of our testimony.  In other words we spoke words of faith into every situation and the word of God, seed, that we planted in faith, grew and brought us a harvest of blessings.  We must learn to speak the word of God into our situations.  We must get our tongues under control so that we speak blessings all the time.  James couldn't understand how we could speak blessings and curses out of the same mouth and he was right.  It shouldn't be that way.  We have a tendency to speak our faith into a situation for a season.  But soon we get tired and just give up without giving God's blessings a chance to grow.  So we speak curses on our field and burn up the crops that we planted.  Then we have to start all over again.  We overcome by speaking our faith and continuing to bless the field, no matter what is going on around us.  We bless with our mouth no matter what we see, feel or hear.  Faith cannot be based on our physical circumstances.  It is being convinced of things you can't see.  You must be convinced that God's word is true and speak your faith into each situation.  If you will continue to speak blessings, sooner or later you will receive the harvest.  We will not only overcome but we will walk into the blessings of God.  We need to just start speaking differently.  It will change our lives.      God Bless, Rusty

Isaiah 54:17, " No weapon that is formed against you shall prosper; and every tongue that accuses you in judgement you will condemn."

     What is the weapon that could be formed against us?  Ephesians 6:17 call the sword of the Sprit the word of God.  So the weapon that we have, which we can use in all circumstances is the word of God.  2 Corinth 10:3-6 tells us that our weapons are divinely powerful for the pulling down of strongholds.  Again, the words of God are the weapons that we use to do battle, whether in this physical realm or in the spiritual realm.  So, what weapon is it that is formed against us?  The bible doesn't try to trick us.  We just have to read it and understand simple truths.  If the weapons that we have are words, then the weapons we have coming against us, and in this case formed against us, are words.  They could be words spoken by the world or words you hear on the TV.  They could be words spoken to you over and over again by a parent or a spouse, or maybe even a sibling.  Maybe you've heard a doctor speak words over your body or a body of a loved one.  Maybe a friend or an enemy has spoken things over you.  The biggest mouth that speaks against us in most cases is our very own.  We always talk ourselves down.  What we don't understand is these words start framing a prison wall around us and the construction continues until we're boxed in and can't get out.  The bible says that, no matter who or what it was that put us in the prison we're in, we have the ability as a servant of God to speak our way out.  We can destroy every wall and prison that holds us by speaking back the word of God in faith.  As we do this mountains start to crumble and fortresses start to fall.  Our heritage is to speak and break every curse over our lives by simply applying the word of God over our lives.  In other words instead of saying words that don't bring life, start speaking the life giving word of God over our lives and every situation that we're in.  You will be surprised at how your situations will start turning around.  You'll be shocked at how powerful words are.  So instead of dwelling on evil words that hurt and bring destruction,  start concentrating on who God's word says you are in Christ, and then start speaking those word over your life.  The power that resides in the living word of God will not only bring life to your situation, but they will bring life abundantly.  Don't wait any longer.  Do it today, in Jesus name.  Amen.   God Bless,  Rusty

I will pray a blessing over you today;

     I pray that the Lord would bless you today in everything you put your hands to.  I pray that your day would be blessed with abundance and enough for every good deed.  I bless you today as the head and not the tail.  I bless you as the being out front and not lagging behind.  I bless you with staying power and the peace that passes understanding.  I bless you with strength to see the journey through and I bless you with vision, to see God's plan for your life.  I bless you today with all your hearts desires and I pray that as you move through the day, God's blessings would not just catch up to you, but they would overtake you.  I bless you with every good thing today in the name of Jesus Christ, the strong Son of God.  Amen!!

John 8:31-32, " If you abide in my word then you are truly disciples of mine; and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free."

     Jesus tells us that we are to abide in His word.  To abide means to sojourn, or dwell as a guest at a lodge.  It means to maintain unbroken fellowship with someone, to continue to be present, or not to leave.  So Jesus is telling us that we are to stay in His word.  He says that if we will sit down and make ourselves comfortable in His word, then we shall know truth.  This truth will not only enlighten us but it will set us free.  "Free from what," you might ask.  Free from the lies of this world.  Free from the lies of our flesh.  Free from everything that our senses input into our brain.  Free from this world.  The only true life is the life found in Jesus Christ. If we are in Christ then the life that we live is through faith in Him, and faith comes through the word.  Truth then becomes the stabilizing force of our life.  We learn to live in truth and not what we see, hear or feel.  Truth will bring good things into our life.  The blessings of God reside inside of the truth and as long as we stay in His word we are living in His blessings.  The world will constantly feed you lies and keep truth from you.  This will take your life away.  If you listen to the news and keep up with what's going on in the world there is just one thing you will receive, and that is confusion.  There is no truth in the world except the truth that abides in the word of God.  That's why it's so important to abide in Him.  If you stay close to His word, then confusion and fear can't settle on you.  Life becomes so much better and you have a spring in your step.  You are full of love and joy and peace.  Stabilize your life today.  Get into His word and stay there.  Your whole life will change.  Amen!   God Bless, Rusty

Matthew 12:35, " The good man out of his good treasure brings forth what is good; and the evil man out of his evil treasure brings forth what is evil."

     What is in our heart is always going to come out of us.  We can pretend and get by for a while but soon or a later truth is revealed.   Who we really are is revealed.  If we're evil, we can act nice for a while, but soon or a later we'll act.  What is it that God calls evil?  If we went to the 13th chapter of numbers, we'll read about the spies that went to spy out the promised land.  12 went in and twelve came out but there was a difference between them.  Ten of them, the bible says, came out with an evil report.  What was the evil report?  It was simply that what they heard, saw, and felt was contrary to what God had said.  So they went with their feelings instead of what God said.  That's an evil report.  When we speak out of our mouth things that don't agree with God's word.  In other words what we see and feel and experience in this world is what comes out of us instead of truth.  We see the things of this world as eternal, but they're not.  They are all just temporal.  The things that are eternal are in the world that we can't see with our physical eyes.  This is where most people slip.  The tongue speaks what's in the heart.  That's why a lot of people play the religious game real well but soon or a later, when the things of this world raise their ugly head, they have to make a choice.  Will they believe what God said or will they believe what the world said?  That's the question.  What's really inside of us?  Do we have good treasure or bad treasure inside?  Do we put our trust in God's word or on our symptoms and problems?  That's the gage to find out what's inside of us.  It's an easy gage that most of us can already figure out.  What's the answer.  Trust in God's word totally and speak His word all the time, no matter what your senses tell you.  Only the two spies that did were brought into the promised land.  A point to think about today is, "What land are we living in?"  If it's the wrong plot we still have time to change address.  The housing market's slow but not dead.  Find the promised land and walk in it.  You'll be glad you did.   God Bless,  Rusty

1 Peter 3:9, " Not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead; for you were called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing."

     Words are very powerful.  James talks about how your tongue is the hardest thing to tame on the planet.  I know this to be true in my life.  He says that, "with it we bless and curse."  The tongue is the most powerful weapon we have in our arsenal.  Let me give an example of a farmer.  If he sows wheat he will reap wheat.  If he sows corn he will reap corn.  This is because seeds produce after their own kind.  You can't get corn from a wheat seed. Seeds produce after their own kind.  This is the same with the words that we speak.  They produce after their own kind.  So if either blesses or curses are coming out of our mouth, and one of them comes out every time we speak, the harvest will come depending on the seed that's sown.  That's why Peter tells us to give blessings to everyone so that we can receive a blessing back.  Jesus told us to not only forgive those who transgress against us but to bless our enemies.  Blessings will always reproduce blessings.  It's a spiritual concept that we must not ignore.  Most people keep on receiving things that are curses and wonder what they did.  "Why do these things keep happening in my life?"  In most cases, a change of our speech patterns will change the quality of our life.  It's a spiritual concept that seems to be so well hidden in the church today, and in people's life.  We need to wake up.  Let's start blessing our enemies and God's word says that when we do, His blessings will flow back on us.  This is a law of His kingdom.  So I challenge you today to monitor your words and don't let poison slip through your mouth.  Bless people instead.  You'll be glad that you did.   Amen!   God Bless,  Rusty 

1 Peter 2:24, " He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness, for by His wounds you were healed."

     There was a great exchange that took place on the cross.  When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, all of our sins are transmitted to His body on the cross.  In fact Paul wrote to the Romans that our old man was crucified with Him.  So, when we except Jesus, not only do our sins placed on the cross, but our sinful nature gets hung there with Him.  We are (were) crucified with Him.  So if our body dies with Him at Calvary, it can no longer sin.  Have you ever seen a dead person sin? The truth is, once your body is in the grave there will be no more sin.  So If there is no more sin and if your body is dead, how do we still live?  He exchanged our sin for His righteousness.  He took the body of death and gave us life in Him.   All His perfection and all His obedience, which brought Him in right standing with the Father, now dwells in us.  Because of that exchange, we now walk on this earth the same as Jesus did.  So, the question that I pose to you today is this, "Did you ever read of Jesus being sick or diseased, other then at the cross?"   The answer is a definite no!  Jesus was not sick or diseased.  He walked in perfect health because of His relationship with the Father.  But now, because that righteousness was transmitted to us, He is the righteousness of God and we are also the righteousness of God in Him.  Therefore, "By His stripes we were healed."  He took our sin and exchanged it for His righteousness.  He took our sickness and disease and gave us His perfect health.  It's all part of the great exchange.  So if we receive right standing with the Father by faith in Jesus, we also receive our healing through faith in Jesus.  We are not going to be healed, we already were healed.  He already took our sin, so we don't have to bear it.  He also took our sickness, so we don't have to bear it.  Both were accomplished and both are ours, received through His blood, in faith.  The biggest hindrance to our healing in most cases is that our symptoms talk us out of our healing.  Just believe it and confess it in faith, regardless of what you see or feel.  After all, if salvation was based on feelings, we would all have times in our life when we would think we weren't saved.  It's the same with healing.  It's the great exchange that's available to every one that would believe.  Receive it today, in faith.         God Bless, Rusty

Acts 17:28, " for in Him we live and move and have our being( (exist)."

     A lot of people think they are living life to it's fullest.  I hear people say, "man, this is the life."  There is a TV commercial for Miller Beer that says, "this is the high life."  Society places it's worth, or how well they are living on material things or activities.  The truth is no one really understands life until they are born again.  We must be born again, spiritually.  Jesus said, " unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."  This is the place where we'll find true life.  In Christ we are alive.  When He is alive inside of us we will feel His presence in every thing that goes on in our life.  He becomes the very essence of who we are and every movement we make shines forth with His presence.  Our very being is wrapped up in Him and we come to a place just like Moses where we cry out and said, "Lord if you're not going, I don't want to go either."  This is when His life is flowing through us in a manner that is indescribable.  You just can't explain to someone why you feel so good and it's not about anything on this earth.  No possession or position, no reputation or fortune, simply nothing but Him.  When we get to that point in our walk with the Lord, we reach the point where we start understanding and walking in life, and life abundantly.  It seems like such a hard thing sometimes to serve God but when we start moving toward Him and we start experiencing His life flowing in us, we will never turn back.  His life is true life.  The physical life we live on this planet is not truth.  Only eternal life in our hearts brings us truth, and with this life we are set free.  You can experience this life.  You can walk above the clouds regardless of your situation.  You can live and move and have your whole being in Christ.  So what are you waiting for?  I know the waters deep, but just take a leap and jump in.  You won't regret it.  Do it today!!        God Bless,  Rusty

Deuteronomy 30:19, " I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants."

     God tells us that we have the choice to make.  Not just one time in your life, but everyday.  I council many people and one thing that runs through a lot of the conversations is a tendency to blame everyone else for the circumstances of our life.  I certainly don't want to down play the fact that people all grow up in different atmospheres and situations.  A lot of things happen to people when their young that will affect the way they react to life.  In other words, some people grew up on one side of the tracks and some on the other.  There are some that had wonderful childhoods and then some who have had traumatic things happen to them by no fault of their own.  But, what I'm saying is that there comes a time in every person's life where they can make their own decisions.  Every one of us has choices set before us.  If we will determine in our minds to walk with God and make the right choices, our lives will be blessed, no matter what our starting point might happen to be.  We have to stop saying that we're at the point we're at because of other people or situations.  We all have the ability to choose the blessings and walk in life.  The problem is that we make bad decisions in life and then we want to blame other people.  It's time to realize that God has a plan for each one of us and if will choose to serve Him, if we will choose life and the blessings instead of the curses and death, then our lives and situations will change.  I pray that everyone of us starts making the right decisions in our lives this very day.  I pray that we all would see truth and let truth set us free.  It's really our choice.  Blessing or curse.  Which will you choose?     God Bless,  Rusty

     Lord, I pray that everyone who reads these words today would be blessed.  I speak health unto the bodies.  I thank you Lord that we are not sick and diseased, but that we are all healed by the stripes of Jesus.  I thank you Lord that we are all debt free, owing nothing to any man but to love one another.  I thank you Lord that we are all protected today, on the roads, in our homes, in our schools and workplaces.  I thank you Lord that no harm will come to us.  I thank you that you care for all of us so much.  I thank you for your love and I pray that today, as we go about life's chores that your grace would be sufficient for us.  In our very weakness, I pray that you would strengthen us and give us the ability to face all things with peace and joy moving in our hearts.  I thank you Lord for providing everything that is needed unto the people who would call on your name.  I give you praise and glory for all the wonderful things that you're doing even right now in the midst of us.  I thank you Lord, that even in the midst of a dark world, we are the light.  I thank you that when we go into the darkness today, that people will be drawn to the light and we would be able to speak truth into their lives.  Let us all be lighthouses to bring ships in peril on the sea home to safe harbor.  I pray that we would all bring every weight and burden before You and lay them down in Your presence.  I pray that everyone reading this would be filled with Your presence as they read and that today would be a day of much peace and joy.  I pray for each one, Lord, and I commit each life and purpose for the day to Your hands, and I thank You for them, in the name of Jesus Christ, the strong Son of God.  Amen!    Rusty

2 Timothy 1:9, " Who has saved us and called us, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity."

     When we receive Jesus as our Lord and Savior, He not only saves us but calls us to serve Him.  All of us in the body of Christ have a calling to serve Him, as well as each other.  We have been duped into believing that the Pastors, or Priests, of whatever you call the men and women in charge, are the only ones who are called to serve.  This is separated from real truth by the largest of gaps.  We are all called to serve.  Not only are we all called, but every gift in the body of Christ is just as important as the other.  I'm a Pastor, because that's the calling He gave me and that's the only reason.  If you try to be a pastor without being called you won't last long.  But that's just my calling.  I have people in the church who clean toilets.  They're gift to the body is just as important as the gift I have, OH YEAH!!  Tommy is a man who likes to cook.  Every time we have a church picnic , or we go camping with the men's group, Tommy is cooking.  Is that important?  You bet it is.  I have people in the church who straighten up the chairs after services.  Is that important?  You bet it is.  There are people who sing, teach Sunday school, watch the babies in the nursery, cut grass and a wide variety of different tasks that are needed to keep the ministry running.  Without any single one of us, there would be a gap.  Every one has been given a purpose and the grace to carry out that purpose.  In other words, no matter what it is that you are called to do, God has not only called you but He's given you the grace to carry it out.  And He assigned these gifts even before we were born.  That's why it's so important to find out where God wants you and then do what He's given you to do.  You are important to your church, no matter how insignificant you think your gift is.  The body needs every part to function properly.  So, I encourage you today.  Put your hands to what you've been called to do and do it.  You'll be blessed, the church will be blessed, the people around you will be blessed, and most of all, Jesus will be blessed.        God Bless,  Rusty