Thoughts on Prayer by R.A. Torrey

"I think it would be perfectly safe to say that the church of Christ was never in all its history so fully, so skillfully, so thoroughly, and so perfectly organized as it is today. Our machinery is wonderful; it is just perfect, but it is machinery without power. When things do not go right, instead of going to the real source of our failure, our neglect to depend on God and look to God for power, we look around to see if there is not some new organization we can get up, some new wheel that we can add to our machinery. We have altogether too many wheels already. What we need is not so much some new organization, some new wheel, but “the Spirit of the living creature in the wheels” we already possess.  I believe that the devil stands and looks at the church today and laughs in his sleeve as he sees how its members depend on their own scheming and powers of organization and skillfully devised machinery. “Ha, ha,” he laughs, “you may have your Boy Scouts, your costly church edifices, your multi- thousand- dollar church organs, your brilliant university- bred preachers, your high- priced choirs, your gifted sopranos and altos and tenors and bases, your wonderful quartets, your immense men's Bible classes, yes, and your Bible conferences, and your Bible institutes, and your special evangelistic services, all you please of them; it does not in the least trouble me, if you will only leave out of them the power of the Lord God Almighty sought and obtained by the earnest, persistent, believing prayer that will not take no for an answer.” But when the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and, above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, “he trembles” as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end. Prayer has as much power today, when men and women are themselves on praying ground and meeting the conditions of prevailing prayer, as it ever has had. God has not changed, and His ear is just as quick to hear the voice of real prayer and His hand is just as long and strong to save as they ever were. Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God's infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, are at the disposal of prayer. But we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the one who knows how to pray and who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer and who really prays. “The Lord God Omnipotent” works from him and works through him." Taken from The Power of Prayer by R. A. Torrey

MITW Episode #3 - Let's Just Praise The Lord!

Spiritual Growth

In the life of a Christian, growth is vital.  Either we are growing, or we are falling backward, or backsliding. We must always keep growing towards the Lord Jesus or the devil will win the victory in our lives. The devil will do everything he can to stop a Christian from growing in the Lord because he knows what kind of power the growing Christian possesses. There are three main ways for the Christian to be a growing Christian, and in this blog today, we will look at the first way. First, we need to start with the Word of God. The Bible has many names: Word of God, the Scriptures, the Book, the Sword of the Spirit, to name just a few. Try to find as many as possible names that God calls His own Word throughout the Bible. You will find many of them in the book of Psalms alone.  The Word of God is a very important aid that God Himself has given to the Christian. When we read it, the Words of God flow through our very beings. God has given us the Bible as a way of fighting off the devil. The Lord Jesus used the Word of God to fight off the devil when He was tempted in the wilderness (Matthew 4). Whenever the devil attacks us, we should simply quote the Word of God to fight off the temptation. Other uses of the Bible include: it helps us when we are feeling down, it shows us the right way of living, it teaches us about the way of salvation, it show us about our sins, it teaches us the doctrines of God, and it tells us about our future home in a place called heaven, if we are saved. We must understand that this is not just a book about God, but rather a book with God speaking to us. These are His very own Words. There are four things we need to be doing with the Word of God: read it, believe it, memorize it, and obey it. Make it a habit in your life to be in the Word of God, and you will never fall away from the Lord. Just remember that the devil will do all that he can to keep you away from the Word of God, so keep your guard up. See all that God has for you, spend time in the Word.

Dr. Ken Scoggins

Seeking Wisdom?

Proverbs 18:1 
Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

Do you ever wish God would give some definite sign when we have a BIG decision to make? We often get frantic and scurry around trying to figure out what's next. For young people it may be a decision about which college to go to or about choosing the right kind of friends. And for adults it may be a decision on what is next in life, where does God want you to be, or choosing the right church. No matter what is going on in life, we will have to make a choice. My mom always said to me while I was growing up, "Kenny, your choices have consequences." And I truly never have forgotten that! 

In Proverbs 18 verse one, we find a definite solution to finding wisdom. If we would just get away from the hustle and bustle of the world, maybe spend some alone time with God Almighty, then God will have full access to give us the wisdom we need. Sounds pretty simply right? Well it sure is! God wants us to come to Him and seek His face, leaving every care and worry behind. Is it your desire to get wisdom? Or are you OK with just getting by each day on your own? Well friend, all you need to do is get rid of every distraction on go before your Father! 

Pastor Kenny Scoggins

A Growing Christian

 Anyone who has had a flower garden or vegetable garden understands the joy one receives when he sees the results of what he has planted growing. It takes work, but the fruit of the labor is worth it all. One must first prepare the soil and then plant his vegetables or flowers. One must water them, sometimes daily, or sometimes weekly. It all depends on the rain the Lord sends. Remember that it is God that controls the weather and not man. Finally, after much work, one gets to enjoy the fruit of his labor.

 The Christian life is much like a garden. It takes real work to be a growing Christian, and it does not happen by accident. One must prepare the soil of his heart to be able to meet with God on a personal basis. The seed is the Word of God which grows in our hearts when we read the Bible, or when we hear a message preached from the Word of God. The more we read or hear, the more we will grow in the Lord. God gives us water through the Holy Spirit that gives us blessings in our hearts when we are in tune with Him. As a child of God, we need to long for that still small voice of God to guide and direct our lives. God’s plan or His will for our lives is that we will be fruitful. John 15:8 tells us “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” There are two types of fruit in our lives as a Christian: seeing others being saved because of what we have done and the fruit of the Spirit such as joy, love, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and meekness. There are three main things that we need in the Christian life to help to make us that type of growing Christian that God wants. These include: reading the Bible, praying to the Lord, and faithfully attending church. We will look more closely at each of these three things in the future, but here is a question for each of us to ponder- Are we a growing Christian, and how are we growing? Praise the Lord if you are a growing Christian, but if you are not, ask the Lord to show you what you need to do.

Dr. Ken Scoggins

Take Your Burdens To The Lord!

A Free Gift!

The greatest gift that we can ever receive is the gift of salvation.  We are all sinners, but Christ died on the cross to take away all our sins. Once we are saved, we can never lose this wonderful gift. There are some that still teach that we can lose our salvation, but this is not the case with eternal life. We will deal more about this topic later. Satan, who is against everything that God is for, does all he can to get the Christian to doubt his salvation. He tries several different tactics to bring this doubt into our minds: he first plants doubt or unbelief in our thoughts, then he also tries to make us think we count not be saved because of some past or present sin in our lives, and finally he tries to make us think that we said or did something wrong when we got saved. If you are having doubts about your salvation, go back to a time or place when you trusted Christ as your Saviour. If you do not have a time or place, then you might not really be saved. Some people remember everything about when they trusted Christ and others do not. They know in their hearts that they have trusted Christ, but they can’t remember the details about what had happened. It all comes down to what are you doing with Christ right now and what are you trusting in to get you to heaven. There is not a certain sinner’s prayer that one must say in order to get to heaven, nor is there a certain plan of action that one must do in order to be saved. All of us must first realize that we are sinners in the sight of God, and that we need a perfect Saviour to save us from our sins. We must turn from our sins and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Once this takes place, we are now saved and in the family of God. Don’t let the devil trick you to believe that you are not really saved and not on your way to heaven.

Dr. Ken Scoggins 

Exciting News!

We are thrilled to launch Moments in the Word! My dad has always had a burden to write thoughts, devotions, and Biblical truths to help other Christians in their walk. And I too have had a desire to share some things the Lord is teaching me as well through His Word. So we've teamed up to bring Moments in the Word. Lord willing, we will be sharing more often and even have some special guest posts. Our new blog website is momentsitw.com and please feel free to send us some comments as well as thoughts on topics to discuss.

          In Christ, 
Pastor Kenny Scoggins
   cbclenoircity.com