Agenda for LaVern Bitter’s Family

Thursday and Friday – Family arrives. Final arrangements, downtime for the family and small gatherings.

Saturday 10:30 Services for LaVern Bitter at Kingdom Hall 9201 Q St Ralston, NE

Saturday Reception following service at Elks at 96th and Harrison, Ralston, NE

Saturday 6:00p Family gathering at Mike and Ruth’s house, 21747 Martinwood Dr, Council Bluffs, IA. You can Google the address for directions or Google Martinwood International. We have two acres, so when you get to the house, park anywhere on the right (north) side of the house. Feel free to park in the open spaces on the north of the house.

Sunday 10:00a Family gathering and farewell breakfast – Golden Corral, Council Bluffs, IA

NOTES:

  1. The service will be available on Zoom:

Meeting ID: 999 342 0986

Passcode: 2911315

2. It has been chilly at night. For some, that means cold. Bring a coat if you like. Saturday night we will have the firepit burning in case you want to sit outside and enjoy the fire.

3. During this time, feel free to share stories, anecdotes, and things you remember about LaVern and family. He loved family and this is a good time to have family time.

Sometimes Encouragement Hurts

One thing I’ve noticed is sometimes encouragement hurts. What I mean is there are times when you know what’s right for a person, but they don’t see it. The person may be co-dependent on you to take care of everyday life situations for them. In this case, encouragement is not necessarily a niceity.

We know what people should be doing in their life, yet they continue to depend on you to take care of those things for them. Encouragement may seem harsh and not necessary, but how else will they move onto their own path and grow? We have to find ways to encourage them to assume responsibility for their own actions.

This could come in the form of not doing those life things for them and keeping your eyes on your own life, and letting them figure it out. There are other times when awarding someone something they didn’t expect will encourage them to take another chance. Public appreciation goes a long way to encouragement. Ask for the manager at a restaurant you are at and tell them all the good things you saw and how good the food was. Even if not everything was as good as you expect, find things you can compliment the staff.

I have encouraged my children in ways that hurt their feelings or upset them, but the outcome was well worth the pain they went through to accomplish tasks they otherwise would not have accomplished. Encourage someone daily and in no time, the world will be a better place.

Mike. GB

How-To Encourage Daily

In my last post I talked about encouraging daily. This means to encourage someone else each day, but how do you do that? You do it by answering four simple, one word questions; Who, What, When, Where. Here we go.

Who: Anyone. Don’t be shy and when you look at encouraging as an opportunity you will see opportunities abounding. Maybe it’s the check out clerk and you tell them they bagged your items appropriately. Your son, daughter, grandson, granddaughter by telling them they did SOMETHING (anything) good. Thank the trash man for being there to pick up your trash. There are many ways to encourage others.

What: Big or small, anything that is encouraging. Maybe something they are wearing, or a look in their eye. Say something positive about THEM! This is not about you, it’s about them. When you encourage others you will receive blessings and rewards you never imagined.

When: When the opportunity presents itself. After you get the encouragement fever, you will be encouraging people all the time. So start with something small, no matter the time or place, just do it.

Where: Anywhere. You can encourage at a local store, at church, on vacation, anywhere there are people, you’ll find someone needing encouragement. Don’t hold back. You have something they want and it does not cost either of you anything other than time.

Enjoy life and encourage others. Work with them rather than against them.

Encourage Daily

To encourage daily sounds daunting, but it really isn’t. What does it mean to encourage and why don’t more people encourage others? It seems society is more inclined to tell someone they cannot do something rather than encourage them to test their abilities, explore the world around them and find out what THEY are capable of doing. There is a special feeling you get when you help someone accomplish what seemed to be an unattainable task. Try it! Encourage someone today. Encourage just one person. Give it a try; encourage daily.

Fight For Something, Not Against

Many events and attitudes have over taken the values richly engrained in our society, or at least what I thought were engrained in our society. I’ve been at a loss as to what to do to combat these actions of fighting against something rather than fighting for it. I heard a great quote from a martial arts grand master this week. He said to not let our emotions overcome our values. I see so many allowing their emotions to overcome what they truly believe. Find your values and stand on them. Don’t allow them to bend one way or the other when the wind blows, rather stand tall on the values you hold dear.

2024 is The Year to Restore

There is a season for everything and this year, this season is the time to restore.


                                   “2024 is The Year to Restore”


This is a big Christ Theme, but then again, we have a big God. So where do we start when we start to restore and what should we restore?

This year’s theme is not about anyone but you. It’s time to restore some elements of YOUR life. The Christ Theme for this year is about restoring things for you as a person. The first element we need restore is our relationship with God.

If you have a good relationship with God, kick it up a notch and get in a better relationship with Him. This is the year to do it.  There is so much to be had in life when your relationship with your Heavenly Father is good. He made this very promise in 1 Kings when He said:

1 Kings 9:3-5

The Lord said:

“I have heard the prayer and plea you have made before me; I have consecrated this temple, which you have built, by putting my Name there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

 “As for you, if you walk before me faithfully with integrity of heart and uprightness, as David your father did, and do all I command and observe my decrees and laws, I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father when I said, ‘You shall never fail to have a successor on the throne of Israel.’

God’s word is for all of us.  It is His guide so we do the right thing.  Study His Word so you know what is expected of you.  You’ll be pleasantly surprised with the blessings He’ll bestow upon you and your family. God’s Word is timeless and cannot be changed.

I can see things happen in those who’ve met the challenge of having a good relationship with God.  And I can see things happen in those people’s lives who haven’t met the challenge, or don’t want to meet the challenge of having a good, or better relationship with God.

The relationship is not so much about you and God, but about doing what God asks you to do.  Most of what He’s asked is in the Bible.  The other times He asks you its because He needs “boots on the ground” to do His work.  You are that person He may ask.  The real question is are you willing to do what God has, and will ask you to do? 

The hard part is letting go of reality to do the work God asks of you.  It is hard stepping out of this world, letting go to see, hear and do what God asks.  This world entices us to stay a part of it.  The world does not want to let go of you long enough for you to have a good solid relationship with God. It’s not hard to be a Christian. 

There is a step by step guide about what you should be doing as a Christian.  It also tells us how to live our lives to align ourselves with Christ.  The guide is the Bible.  The blueprint is there. 

The hard part is letting go of the world we live in long enough to be the Christian Jesus asks us to be.  It does not happen overnight and is something a person has to work at a little bit at a time. 

What I’ve been writing about is why we need to restore our relationship with God, first, then look at restoring, or upgrading; our love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23).  GB

The 2024 Christ Theme

As I sit here getting ready to write I am overcome with emotion about the number of people who want to keep the Martinwood Christian Church Facebook page open.  We have decided to keep the page open and will support it as best as we can.

That’s the first announcement.  The second is the 2024 Christ Theme.  Christ’s theme did not come to us as soon as usual this year.  For the last seven years we’ve announced it at the Christmas Eve Service, but this year was somehow different.  Christ waited until I could understand His Christ theme, not mine.

The Christ Theme for 2024 is

2024; The Season to Restore

2024 is the season to restore hopes.

2024 is the season to restore dreams.

2024 is the season to restore love.

2024 is the season to restore peace.

2024 is the season to restore your health.

2024 is the season to restore your attitude.

It’s the season to restore your relationship with God!

*****

This year’s theme is based upon Ecclesiastes 3:1-8: there is time for everything, and 2024 is The Season to Restore. 

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

1There is a time for everything,

and a season for every activity under the heavens:

2a time to be born and a time to die,

a time to plant and a time to uproot,

3a time to kill and a time to heal,

a time to tear down and a time to build,

4a time to weep and a time to laugh,

a time to mourn and a time to dance,

5a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,

a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,

6a time to search and a time to give up,

a time to keep and a time to throw away,

7a time to tear and a time to mend,

a time to be silent and a time to speak,

8a time to love and a time to hate,

a time for war and a time for peace.

Look closely at this year’s Christ Theme and you’ll see a pattern.  The pattern involves you, not others.   This is not meant to offend anyone or sound mean, but I did not mention, nor does Ecclesiastes, restoring relationships.  It is intentionally left out because there are some relationships YOU cannot restore.  They will only bring you down.  Christ is the only one who can restore THOSE types of relationships, but we must restore ourselves first!  We cannot restore something we don’t have control over, but we do have control over ourselves and what we can do for us.

*****

It’s the season to restore hopes and dreams. 

Remember those hopes and dreams you had as a kid.  Remember how much love you had in your teen years and how much you love you had when you got married or had an equally special event happen in your life?

That is what we will restore in 2024.  You will restore you to the person who will reap the benefits of the Lord’s fruits called the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Experience

Those who know me, know I don’t write poetry. As you read this poem about experience you’ll see it is written by someone else. I found it on an old piece of paper without the author’s name. This poem will remain “author unknown.”


Experience

We must live through the weary winter, if we would value spring.

And the woods must be cold and silent,

Before the robins sing.

The flowers must be buried in darkness,

Before they can bud and bloom.

And the sweetest and warmest sunshine,

Comes after the storm and gloom.

So the heart, from the hardest trial,

Gains the purest joy of all.

And from the lips that have tasted sadness,

The sweetest songs will fall.

For as peace comes after suffering,

And love is reward of pain,

So after earth, comes heaven,

and of our loss, the gain.

8 Spiritual Attacks You Need to Know About

The 8 Spiritual Attacks you need to know about have been known since at least 400 A.D. I found out about them while reading a book about the desert monks. I believe these attacks happen on a daily basis today, just like they did in 400 A.D.

There are many spiritual attacks to watch out for. You will know when these spiritual attacks are coming against you. You will feel icky feelings inside, unless you’ve gotten used to them. Amongst those feelings are…

Jealousy

Contempt

Pride

And lot more feelings you notice that are more intense than you have ever felt.

There was a fourth century monk called Evagrius of Pontus. His influence was seen throughout early Christian churches. Evagrius was a high ranking bishop who’d spent most of his life in ministry. He was the overseer of many churches. Evagrius was also instrumental in the original Nicene Creed which as you know is very similar to the Apostles Creed.

Evagrius of Pontus was a dessert monk. He researched evil attacks made against the monks he worked with. For instance he talks about a monk coming from wealthy families who had a spiritual attack of the love of money. The kind of attack trying to get him to believe he should have had lots of money, but instead he chose to be a monk.

Evil spirits know what to attack. They sometimes seem like they know as much about you as your best friend knows, but they’re not a friend, much less a best friend. Evagrius wanted to understand and define the spiritual attacks the monks were having because each of the 8 attacks seem to have certain characteristics about them.

As a result of his studies, Evagrius of Pontus identified 8 spiritual attacks (demons we face, some on a daily basis). These are attacks you need to be aware of so in full armor, you can fight against them and win! Any one or all of these attacks could happen against you, especially if you have a strong relationship with God. These spirits do not like us having a strong relationship with God so they try to kill steal or destroy that relationship. .

Evil believes it has forever to taunt you and to get between you and God. What he doesn’t expect is your knowing and fighting his every move and that’s why we first need to know these demons exist, then I’ll show you how to fight them.

Evagrius book, Talking Back is about taking charge, standing up against them for the fight by talking back to evil spirits using the same tools Jesus used when Satan taunted him in the desert.

The premise of the book is that there is scripture to combat each one of the 8 demons. These scripture verses give you the ability to stand your ground and talk back to each of the 8 demons and repel them.

  1. Thoughts of Gluttony
    • Excess in eating or drinking
    • Greedy or excessive indulgence
  2. Thoughts of Fornication
    • Consensual sexual intercourse between two persons not married to each other
  3. Concerning Love of Money
    • Making the love of money a priority in life, even above God.
  4. Concerning the Thoughts of the Demon of Sadness
    • Affected with or expressive of grief or unhappiness
  5. Against the Demon of Anger
    • A strong feeling of displeasure and usually of antagonism
    • A threatening or violent appearance or state
  6. Against the Thoughts of the Demon of Listlessness
    • Characterized by lack of interest, energy, or spirit
  7. Against the Thoughts from the Demon of Vainglory
    • Excessive or ostentatious pride especially in one’s achievements
    • Vain display or show
  8. Against the Cursed thoughts of Pride
    • Exaggerated self-esteem CONCEIT
    • (Self-esteem = confidence and satisfaction in oneself SELF-RESPECT)

GB. M

Him at his Best

This post is not about God, but about His adversary and our enemy. In this vain “him” is our enemy. Being “at his best” is when he unknowingly gets under your skin, causing you to snap at people when you least expect it.

Its not that he’s good at what he does, it’s that he’s been doing it for so long, he knows what he is doing and has many ways of encroaching on God’s territory.

You will know it is happening when you feel something welling up inside you. This is the first indication your enemy enters your camp. You have feelings, but somehow they don’t feel right and they are contrary to what you know about God.

Your enemy knows those that are washed by the blood are free from slavery and that you have a tool, a sword, that will penetrate even the strongest defenses. Your enemy knows he can be defeated….unless you allow your faith to indicate otherwise.

Today my enemy has been running rampant in me and my wife’s life. It started as cancellations for an important family dinner, then escalated to church issues, then to me being noticeably irritated with an elder in the church.

This is not me. This is not who I am nor whose I am. As a child of the most High God, my enemy wants to take me out. Since my first breathe, he’s wanted me knocked down and out of the game so he could roar with victory; victory over our heavenly father. We can’t let that happen. We have to be brave and courageous.

Is your sword sharp? Are you doing God’s will? The only way to beat and defeat your enemy is to stay sharp, not get rusty, and stay in fellowship with our Lord and Savior, through the Word, the church, prayer and circumstances . The better our relationship with the Lord, the stronger you will become.

This week read your Bible more than you read it last week. Read it more next week than you did this week and so on. Spend time listening and doing His will. Through these actions you will overcome. Above all, as you feel the attacks starting, have patience for our God to do His work in the background. Keep your voice steady and without undue volume. Don’t let the things of this world interfere with your relationships, especially relational fellowships. Be protective of your heart and all that goes into it.

GB. M