Fresh or Stale ????

Jana & I were blessed to be speakers at a Refreshing conference. And wow we were refreshed. There was a verse shared there that I haven't been able to shake. Act 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. As Believers we must learn how to be refreshed. 1 Repent. This means we have moved away from Christ. And it's usually those "little sins" that cause it. Solomon 2:15 says
“Catch the foxes for us,
The little foxes that are ruining the vineyards,
While our vineyards are in blossom.” Don't under estimate sin. We catergorize sins but they seperate us from our connection with our LifeGiver. 2 Return. We know what we are to be doing. So go back to it! Get with a Brother or Sister in Christ and confess & pray. James 5:16 Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much. Get in God's Word in find a body of Believers and worship with them and then be REFRESHED by the presence of the Lord!!

Claiming It ALL!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 {NLT}  ¹⁸ Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.

As we go thru recovery of Jana's stomach removal surgery & are awaiting  chemo treatment, We are @ Peace with it all. She was diagnoised with maligment lymphoma. She does have cancer. And you know we are ok with that.  Many people have told us not to claim those kind of diagnoisis, and quote many great scriptures, and truly I THANK you!    But My Lord is bigger than a cancer dianoisis!  I have seen Jesus work in mine and Jana's life; WITH her Multiple Schlerosis,  WITH having a child with moderate hearing loss, WITH our drug addiction, WITH our arrest and probation, WITH the custody battle of our 3 sons. I Claim ALL of those things, to the Glory of CHRIST! And WOW how God has used all of that for His Glory, my Good, & the Good of many others.  I know Jana is being healed & will be healed.  She no longer has a maligment tumor in her stomach. Thanks to God for Dr. Baduniac the surgeon whom removed it. GOD Heals!   When we go thru chemotheropy & they pump toxic, deadly drugs thru my wife's veins. Once again GOD Heals!  So as for me and my house, we do not fear the diagnosis of cancer, nor do we fear to claim it!  1John 4:4 ⁴ My dear children, you belong to God and have overcome them; because God's Spirit, who is in you, is greater than the devil, who is in the world.   Jana, I & our boys have overcome many circumstances in our lives. And we will overcome cancer to the Glory of Christ!  Jesus says it best in    John 16:33 NLT.   
³³ I have told you all this so that you may have peace in Me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
Our Hope is not in this world anyway. 1 Timothy 4:10
¹⁰ This is why we work hard and continue to struggle,^[a] for our Hope is in the Living God, who is the Savior of all people and particularly of all believers.
   So whatever this brings,  Glory be to Christ!  Go read James 4:13-15.  As I wrap this up, THANK YOU, THANK YOU ALL for your prayers & please keep them coming, This has been a slow recovery for someone as active as Jana is.  I think the apostle Paul must have known my wife when he said in Colossian 1:
⁴ For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people, ⁵ which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.
 ⁶ This same Good News that came to you is going out all over the world. It is bearing fruit everywhere by changing lives, just as it changed your lives from the day you first heard and understood the truth about God’s wonderful grace.
 ⁷ You learned about the Good News from Epaphras, our beloved co-worker. He is Christ’s faithful servant, and he is helping us on your behalf.^{[a] 8} He has told us about the love for others that the Holy Spirit has given you.
 ⁹ So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of His will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.
 ¹¹ We also pray that you will be strengthened with all His glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy,^{[b] 12} always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to His people, who live in the light. ¹³ For He has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of His dear Son, ¹⁴ Who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
Ok, one last scripture and my prayer for you who read this:
¹⁸ I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident Hope He has given to those He called—His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.
 ¹⁹ I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe Him. This is the same mighty power ²⁰ that raised Christ from the dead and seated Him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 1
Christs servant, Greg

taste somethin "Good"

good in Hebrew is 'tobe' towb; here is the defenition: beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, favour, glad, graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, loving, MERRY, most, pleasant, pleasure, precious, prosperity, ready, sweet, wealth. well pleasing, fruitful, morally correct, opposed to evil.   WOW and I thought good was just good. I was reading Psalm 34:8 this morning, "O taste and see that the Lord is good;  How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." As most of you know Jana has had emergency surgery and awaiting cancer treatment. We have been experiencing the goodness of the Lord ,but good just didn't seem a big enough word. The love, support, outreach, benevolence, has been truely overwhelming. Good? YES GOOD. Now that I know what good is. In Psalms119: 103-105"How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes sweeter than honey to my mouth! From Thy precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way. Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path".  AMEN! God's word teaches us what is good , God's people [the church] shows us what is good . So I challenge you get into God's word or better yet let God's word get into you. And get your butt into a bible believing,teaching church. [I highly recommend Cedar Creek Baptist in Whitney, Tx].  Truly don't just read this and say awww how sweet. When the troubles of life come your way and they will you will be ready[good]. So as I end I, Hope you all have a MERRY no a                         TOBE CHRISTMAS

Be Sober

SOBER.    For me and Jana its been 1675 days.        God's word has lots to say about sober. I believe God's idea of sobriety is more than alcohol & chemicals, shoot that's actually the easy one. Don't drink, don't smoke, don't chew, don't go with the girls that do. Like dear mom use to say. :}                          1Peter 4:7-11 [the Message] says:               Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted.
Stay sober {wide-awake} in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life
depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give
a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous
with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get
in on it: if words, let it be God's words; if help, let it be God's
hearty help. That way, God's bright presence will be evident in
everything through Jesus, and He'll get all the credit as the One mighty
in everything,—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes!"       BE SOBER!! We ARE closer to the coming of CHRIST than we have ever been. And we... aren't gettin any younger, and we are NOT promises tomorrow. With Jana's emergency surgery and cancer that has brought this FACT into reality. To all my friends and those I don't know,  Do U KNOW HIM?  email me @hadoutreach@gmail.com

Better Things

 When you hear "better things" it usually means: clothes, shoes, car, house, tv, computor, cell phone, and you know there is nothing wrong with better things. But is that what our focus should truley be?
What "better things" does our ABBA [Heavenly Daddy]'s focus on. He says it in Hebrews 6:9-12
⁹ Dear friends, even though we are talking this way, we really don’t believe it applies to you. We are confident that you are meant for better things, things that come with salvation. ¹⁰ For God is not unjust. He will not forget how hard you have worked for Him and how you have shown your love to Him by caring for other believers,^[a] as you still do. ¹¹ Our great desire is that you will keep on loving others as long as life lasts, in order to make certain that what you hope for will come true. ¹² Then you will not become spiritually dull and indifferent. Instead, you will follow the example of those who are going to inherit God’s promises because of their faith and endurance.
[I encourage you go and read the first part of this chapter, I hope you don't find yourself there. Even though we all have been there before]. 
The "better things" come with salvation. The ability to love, lead, to be sober and have a renewed mind. But the greatest of these is Love[1Corinthians 13:13]. God sees how we love , why we love & who we love, it does not go unnoticed, It makes certain of the hope we have. If we love we will stay sharp spiritually. I have watched my wife LOVE, some of them are lovable and some not so lovable.  I see her faith and endurance, especially during this hard time of emergency surgery & impending cancer treatment.  But I have also seen the evideince of her love, by those people whom she loves, loving her back. All this Glory goes to Jesus Christ:  as of now [11-20] she has been hospitalized 6 days there has been no less that 74 different people that have visited her, and about 50 Facebook well wishes.  The "better things" my wife focus's on is loving people.  I know I fall short in this area. Thank you Jana for the Godly example you are to me and your boys.  When you find yourself wanting "better things",   Remember each person is the "better thing"

The Riches of Life

I'm sitting here in Hillcrest Baptist Hospital .With my wife who just had emergency surgery to have a tumor removed from her stomach. Along with 3/4 of her stomach. Doesn't seem that long ago we were facing the fight of drug addiction and trying to regain custody of our 3 sons.  God was doing a mighty work 60 months ago.  Cedar Creek Baptist Church was actively reaching out and loving us through that.   And now here we are  54 months clean, boys been home for 43 months, and we find ourselves facing the fight of cancer recovery.  Once again God is doing a mighty work in our lives. Once again CCBC is actively reaching out and loving us, but in a whole new way. I have been blown away with new people[ones that weren't there 60months ago] who's lives have been touched by my wife and through our ministry at CCBC.  I know what it truly means to "be rich".  I have never been loved by so many, & encouraged by so many.  Experiencing the Hands and Feet of Christ in this situation reminds me, 1Thessalonians 5:16-18 " Rejoice always, pray without ceasing ; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will, for you[me] in Christ Jesus."  This passage isn't saying that it was God's will for my wife to have cancer and emergency surgery. Its God's will for me to Rejoice, Pray, and give Him Thanks.  He is the one giving me the ability to do those things. Man I am telling you , THIS IS RICH!
 ,Greg