Summer Wrap Up / Start of the 2nd Year of JEFES / Check out this Amazing Quiet Time Tool!

This is a picture of Obed and Hamilton out soul winning one Saturday morning late this summer.  We had a summer push called Do You Have Jesus Fever?  It was great to see these young men and all the others do so well through the summer and keep up their pace spiritually.  Hamilton here is leading an ice cream man to the Lord.

To God be the glory, the teens of our church were blessed from September 2010 to August 2011 to see 668 people saved.  That is phenominal for them, and I am so pleased with the great job they did this past year.

We have officially started our second year of the JEFES teen program.  This year we are learning about the Character of Christ.  There are 49 different character qualities that we will be studying until this time next year.  We have already learned a couple of character qualities. 

First we learned about LOYALTY.  Loyalty is using difficult times to demonstrate my committment to God and those whom he has called me to serve.  We saw how Amasa showed disloyalty to David by doing things his own way in his own time.  We also learned how Mordecai was loyal to an undeserving Babylonian king.  We learned that EVERYONE is loyal to something, whether it is self, or their image, or others, or a job.  We also learned that what you are loyal too, you will fight for.  There are some definite things that a young person should be loyal to and they are Jesus, the Bible, their parents (you should defend them, obey them, and honor them), your authorities, people who are close to God, your church and until death.

The next week we learned about Truthfulness.  Truthfulness is earning future trust by accurately reporting past facts.  We learned about the Honeybee and how that a hive depends on truthfulness among its members to function properly.  Without a dependable system of communication among them, chaos would reign and the hive would collapse.  All areas of life of the hive are dependent upon truthfulness.  It was a really interesting study in itself, but the amazing part to me was how well a bee hive relates to the home.  One single lie that invades the home can steal the Honey (sweet atmosphere) of the home.  It can also (like an intruder in a bee hive) steal the eggs (future blessing or future period) of the home.  We also learned how that lies bring with it a burden of guilt.  Satan doesn't sell that to you when he convinces you to tell the lie.  Forever after you tell the lie, your conscience will point its finger right in your nose and call you what you really are... A LIAR!  But praise the Lord, God has given us an escape.  He says in John 8: 32 "the truth shall make you free."  When we tell the truth, the conscience then has nothing to accuse us of and we are free to pay the consequences and be free from GUILT.  GUILT is a terrible thing to live with.  Remember Joseph's brothers?  How many years later did they come to get food and bring up the subject of Joseph and what they did to him?  They were eaten up with guilt.  I would venture to say that they probably would have preferred to die than to continue being accused by their conscience for that wrong doing.  What a graceful God they had who allowed all the events to come about so they could get it right and enjoy forgiveness!  Praise the Lord!

I apologize for not updating the blog for 6 weeks, but it is just that after the last post I began working on a very intensive project that totally consumed my time.  (My wife said she forgot what I looked like there for a while because I was gone some much.  Just Kidding!)  But seriously, it was a very detailed project. 

We have a put together a DYNAMITE tool that will revolutionize your relationship with God.  I have used a tool like this for TWENTY YEARS NOW!  We have it in SPANISH and ENGLISH.  It is called, "My Quiet Time Alone With God (in Spanish, "A Solas Con Mi Dios").  We have completed the  Level 1 daily devotional journal for our JEFES teen program this year.  We have also made it available to everyone in our church.  It required a lot of proofing and research, but we finally got it done.  I am excited about how it is going to help our families in the church and help them get stronger in their walk with God.

If you would like more information about the Quiet Time Journal or the JEFES Teen Program, you may email me at kdandkk@yahoo.com or call me on my cell at 214-907-8145.

Obed Arevalo preaching in J. E. F. E. S.

This past Sunday in the J. E. F. E. S. teen meeting, we had the privilege of hearing Obed Arevalo preach for his FIRST TIME!  Wow! What an honour it was for us, and what a SUPER JOB he did.  Very good poise!  Good meat for a teen crowd... and he even cracked a joke.  He said he was nervous on the inside.  God really helped him out greatly though.  He just turned 12 this past March and surrendered to preach in June at the Teen Convention in Longview, TX.  Pray for him to keep a humble attitude (not that he is proud, but just a preventative prayer) so that God can continually use him as he grows in the Lord.  I talked to him after the Sunday evening message and told him that "Pride is a PREACHER KILLER!".  Be sure to get alone with God, and GIVE HIM THE GLORY!  Praise the Lord for an SUPER EXCELLENT group of young people who have a desire to be close to God.

J. E. F. E. S. meeting Sunday with some teen guests from Kansas City

Obed Arevalo preaching to us

These young men surrendered to preach at the 2011 LBT Teen Convention

From left to right: Ulises Moreno, Obed Arevalo, Bryan Alvarado, Hamilton Orozco and Sammy Miranda

The entire group that went to the LBT Teen Convention in June 2011

The NEXT Generation

June 20 - 23 we took a group of our church teens to Longview, TX to attend LBT's 17th Annual Teen Convention.  On Wednesday night, our preacher, Dr. Danny Ortiz Jr. preached "I sought for a man among them".  For each group of people on earth, if God could find one man that would intercede for that people with God (as Moses did for people of Israel... as Abraham did for Lot in Sodom.  Job said, "O that ONE might plead for a man WITH GOD.") then God might just hold off his judgment on that people.  He looked throughout ALL OF ISRAEL back in that day and couldn't FIND ONE man that would plead to God for the nation of Israel... not one that was willing to surrender ALL to speak on God's behalf and warn them.  So God had to bring down the judgment. 

America still has some super great people in her that are very hungry for the truth all over her.  The HOLY SPIRIT isn't dead.  The BIBLE STILL HAS POWER to change lives.  God doesn't WANT to destroy America... He would rather SEND REVIVAL.  He doesn't take pleasure in PUNISHING.  HE NEEDS JUST ONE MAN WHO WILL SPEAK TO HIM ON BEHALF OF EACH PEOPLE GROUP IN THE WORLD... if He can find ONE... that people group will be spared HIS judgment, BUT IF NOT...

WOW!  WHAT HOT PREACHING IT WAS!  And that was the second time THAT week I had heard that message. ( I translated into English that message for our pastor on Sunday morning in the back of the auditorium of our church where all the GRINGOS sit... AND THAT MESSAGE WAS HOT THEN.  It was even better the second time around... WOW! WOW! WOW!)  To hear the message you can go to http://www.teenconventionlbt.com/ to hear it.  I listened to it a THIRD time the next week and got cranked up yet again hearing it.  The preaching was superb. 

Here are some of our guys who surrenderred (and one that rededicated) to the call to preach and STAND IN THAT GAP for the people.  (When I was 8 years old, I surrenderred to preach in that SAME SPOT.)

One sermon Bro. Bob preached took me all the was back to Young Fundamentalists in 1994.  I remember hearing the original version of that sermon as a teenager.  He came up to the pulpit with a sword and announced the text.  Sitting there in my seat, I wrote the title on the top of that page in my Bible, BEHIND EVERY DEATH THERE IS A HAND and told the young man sitting beside me that Bro. Bob was going to preach THAT message.  Sure enough, I was right.  It is a message that STUCK into my heart as a teenager and I have NEVER forgotten it.  Through the years, every time I would read that passage in the Bible, I would remember that sermon.  LIFE CHANGING!

One other message that was really good was Tuesday Night.  (Something about Tuesday night messages at the Teen Convention and Bro. Bob preaching...or maybe it is just something about Tuesday night... I heard Bro. Bob in California at Bro. Mark Turner's Youth Conference preacher The Buyer Is Always The Boaster... HEAVEN CAME DOWN THAT NIGHT IN JUNE OF 1998... and it too was a Tuesday night.  I still have that CASSETTE (do you know what a cassette is?) with that sermon on it.  We (the TBC Tour Group) were there along with Bro. Cowling's Hyles-Anderson Tour Group Ladies.  They sang that glorious invitation song of "Come Home"... Don't wait another moment... for he stands with arms wide open... COME HOME!) 

Going back to my original thought of Tuesday night of 2011 and Bro. Bob's sermon... he preached "The smiths are gone... now what?"  He preached about how teens feel sometimes.  They don't feel like that have the right instuments to do battle against Satan in their day and feel discouraged because the smiths are gone.  The smiths represent the great preachers of yesteryear that God is calling home.  We  "peons" (or that is what we think of ourselves) can't do those mighty works that THOSE preachers did... those preachers were just BIGGER THAN LIFE!  He asked the people this.  So the smiths are gone... now what do we do?  Do we sit down and DIE?  Do we sit and do NOTHING?  NO... take what you do have (your farm tools - pitchfork, axe, shear, scythe etc.) and just start shapening them.  One day YOU "PEONS" (or that is what you think of yourself now) will be the CHURCH LEADERS!  Start NOW to sharpen yourself so that when the time comes for our churches to NEED LEADERS... you will be ready AND able to do justice to the AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY of leading tomorrow's Christian into battle against the prince and power of the air. 

My heavenly Father is just amazing in how he works out the messages for just the right time.  His Word preached just DOESN'T get boring.  Good stuff maynard!