Harvest Christian Fellowship

Yesterday I was spending some time with the Lord Praying for the Amarillo Church. I was reading Matthew 10 and feel that these verses provide a good framework for how anyone can help us with the launch of the Amarillo Campus.

Matthew 10:5-8 - ⁵These twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: "Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; ⁶but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. ⁷"And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.' ⁸"Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.

Here are the observations that I made from this passage.

1. In their first "evangelistic thrust" Jesus instructed His disciples to "go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." For us I think that means we should make a list of people we think are saved; but, not currently members of another church.

2. Jesus tell the disciples to tell these "lost sheep" to "repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Although I know most people have many reasons for repenting, I feel that the Holy Spirit was telling me to have us go to people who are saved but not churched and tell them that we have found what they were looking for. (the kingdom of heaven)

3. Finally, Jesus tells His disciples to "heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give." This one is pretty self-explainatory; but, I feel that it is important for us to remember that Jesus never expected anyone to believe a powerless message. Our walk has to match our talk or people should keep looking for the kingdom of heaven somewhere else. Please, pray that God will work thru us to minister to people in Amarillo in a powerfull way.

In response to these observations here is what I would like for us to do:

1. Make a List of people from Amarillo, Canyon, and Bushland who you think are probably saved; but, not attending church anywhere. 

2. Email me a copy of that list. All I need on the list is names. If we choose to do anything more than pray for these people, I will ask the people who provided the names to follow up with the people they know.

3. Pray over the list of names you compile and believe that God will minister to them in the ways most appropriate for them.

4. When our building has been renovated we will try to contact as many of these people as possible and invite them to our services.

Sorry that it has been almost a month since a made a post on this blog. I have been very busy with the Amarillo Campus; but, most of the work has been in areas that don't lend themselves to this venue.

For the last 2 month God has really been showing me a lot about His character as Our Provider. I have received some interesting insights from the stories of Joseph, Abraham, Paul, the Amarillo Campus, the Lubbock Campus and the Plainview Campus. I have also revisited the well known Isaiah 40:31. I encourage you to go back to the book of Isaiah and read chapter 40 verses 28-31. Then pray about these issues regarding the launch of our Amarillo Campus:

1.  Completion of Facility Renovations

2.  Official Selection of the Amarillo Campus Pastor

3.  Solidification of the Worship Team.

4.  Preparation of Homes for Life Groups

5.  Coordination of Volunteer Efforts

6. Blessings on all those who Help in the Process

7. Most importantly that God will be Honored in any/all of our Activities

Thank you for praying. Please, take one more step by making a post to this blog to let me know you read it. I really appreciate the feedback, it helps me to know that someone is listening.

This week several people have come up to me and told me that the Lord had spoken to them about the Amarillo Campus. I can summarize everything I have been told in these two verses from Zechariah 4:

Then he said to me, "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the LORD of hosts. 'What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain; and he will bring forth the top stone with shouts of "Grace, grace to it!"

It really is how amazing our God is! I hope you have seen His activity in your own life and I hope that you will see His activity in the church planting process for the Amarillo Campus. Please, keep praying and please, keep making comments on this blog. It really does help to see that people are reading this blog and praying.

When I surrendered my life to the Lordship of Christ in April of 1995 I really didn't know very much about God, the Bible, or Christianity. Fortunately, I was part of a good Baptist church and I had the spiritual support of a grandmother who set a very good example for me. Every morning my grandmother would read her Bible and/or her Sunday School book. I started asking her questions and those questions inspired me to read my Bible some. One of my first books to read was Psalms. For the most part, I think the Psalms or Proverbs are a great place for new believers to start reading their Bibles; but, when I read the 23 Psalm something very interesting happened to me.

My translation of the Bible at the time said, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want." I studied and prayed all the time about this verse because I could not understand why David did not want the Lord to be his Shepherd. Honestly, I questioned this for a very long time. In fact I may have not understood this verse for the first 5 years of my salvation. Then one day I was walking up the stairs in the Wayland Baptist University to visit Brad r and I saw a painting that had the 23rd Psalm on it; but, this painting translated the verse to say, "The Lord is my Shepherd, I will have no needs." My first reaction to this translations was emphatically, "that is not what it says," then the Holy Spirit gently corrected me, confirming in my heart that this translation and not mine was accurate.

Today, I look back at that time in my walk and smile. When I first got saved I knew nothing about how God provides for us. Greatfuly today, I see his activity all around us. I even see Him masterfully orchestrating events I do not like or understand. Honestly, I am proud to say, "Even though I walk thru the valley of the shaddow of death, I will fear no evil; because I know that you will provide for me."

Please, keep praying for the Amarillo campus. We are facing some obstacles right now. They are nothing to worry about; but, we do not need to stop praying now. I have faith (not hope) that things will continue to go well in Amarillo. Join me in prayer for the campus.

Thanks for your help,

Chris

We had our Pre-Renovation / Prayer Meeting Saturday at the new facility. Everything went well. 22 adults and 8 children attended the event. I thought this was a good turn out. Thank you for coming if you were one of the ones who was able to attend.

Several people told me they were disappointed because they were not able to come. If you are one of the ones who wanted to come; but, could not make it, I also want to thank you for your support. We will have many opportunities to gather in the future. I look forward to those times and I know that you do to.

Please, keep praying. This week is a very busy and important week. I have a very important meeting on Tuesday. We will be filming a commercial on Thursday, and we plan to start renovations on Saturday. As you can see, things are in full swing now. We need things to run smoothly, safely, productively, and efficient. Your prayers will help ensure tat these things happen.

Thank you for your help,

Chris Craig