Al Jennings II

What to do when your back is against the wall

1Sam. 30:1  Three days later, when David and his men arrived home at their town of Ziklag, they found that the Amalekites had made a raid into the Negev and had burned Ziklag to the ground. 2 They had carried off the women and children and everyone else but without killing anyone. 3 When David and his men saw the ruins and realized what had happened to their families, 4 they wept until they could weep no more. 5 David’s two wives, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel, were among those captured. 6 David was now in serious trouble because his men were very bitter about losing their wives and children, and they began to talk of stoning him. But David found strength in the Lord his God. 7  Then he said to Abiathar the priest, “Bring me the ephod!” So Abiathar brought it. 8 Then David asked the Lord, “Should I chase them? Will I catch them?” And the Lord told him, “Yes, go after them. You will surely recover everything that was taken from you!” 9 So David and his six hundred men set out, and they soon came to Besor Brook. 17 David and his men rushed in among them and slaughtered them throughout that night and the entire next day until evening. None of the Amalekites escaped except four hundred young men who fled on camels. 18 David got back everything the Amalekites had taken, and he rescued his two wives. 19 Nothing was missing: small or great, son or daughter, nor anything else that had been taken. David brought everything back. 

David came home and found that his family and the family of his men had been taken.

His men were discouraged and there was talk of stoning him. We can learn some valuable 

lessons on what to do when our backs are against the wall and it looks like all (natural) hope is gone.

David did three simple things:

1. He strengthened himself in the Lord

2. He consulted God in prayer and asked Him what to do

3. He acted on what God told him

And as a result of doing those 3 things, He received total restoration of ALL he had lost!

Those 3 steps worked for David then, and will work for you today!

Anybody thankful that you're SAVED!?!

Psalms 116:13 I will lift up a cup symbolizing his salvation; I will praise the Lord’s name for saving me. 

In my devotional time this morning I ran across this Scripture as I was enjoying a cup of tea. When I read about the cup of salvation, I lifted up my cup of tea (symbolic of the cup of salvation) to the Lord and thanked him for my salvation. Salvation means deliverance, preservation, healing, safety, and soundness. We have all of that in God's wonderful salvation plan for us. Whether you have a cup or not, take some time and thank God for your salvation. And if you do happen to have a cup somewhere nearby, grab it and lift it up to God as a symbol of your salvation. 

No matter what it looks like or what you feel like right now, remember, you are SAVED! Live like that is true, act like it’s true, and you will experience the results of your salvation! You are free indeed!

Make it a great day!

If You Invite Them, They Will Come

I came across something I want to share with you from a book called, "Leading a Small Group" by Dave Early And Rod Dempsey. It's specifically dealing with small groups, however, the same principle applies to inviting people to a Sunday morning Encounter:

Occasionally, I have heard small group leaders say that they do not invite people "because they might not come." When people tell me this, I always ask, "if you invite them, what is the worst thing that could happen?" They generally respond, "they might not come."

Then I reply, "if they are not coming anyway, have you lost anything? After all, they just might come if you invite them, right?" It is exciting to know that if you invite them, they will come. Not all will come. Not all will come right away, but if you invite them, some will come (by Dave Early).

So the word is, "invite, invite, invite!"

Feed on Word not trash

Prov. 15:14  A wise person is hungry for knowledge, while the fool feeds on trash. 

When I read this verse this morning, I thought about all of the garbage on television today. Many people live on a steady diet of TV trash; like people beating each other up over an adulterous affair and stuff like that.

Instead, we should spend our time feeding on God's word in order to grow in grace and in the knowledge of God. Be hungry for the Word of God my friends (Matthew 4:4)!

When Not to Make a Faith Confession

Here's a paraphrase of something I shared this past Sunday in my message on, "The Life and Power of Words": during times when your faith is at a low level this is not the time to make faith confessions but rather be silent and rest in the confession of faith that you already established when your faith was at a high level. I used the gospel story of Jesus and Jairus in Mark 5 to illustrate this. Summit member Dawn Pope shared with me via Facebook some some things she thought about as she meditated on Sunday's message. I thought they were very significant and I wanted to share them with you here: "I was meditating on the message that you shared today. I have been thinking about what you said about being quiet sometimes - like when your faith is waivering. It caused me to think of Luke 1:20 where Zacharias was made mute because of his unbelief. I was also thinking that since faith comes by hearing, would it be wise (especially at those times) for a person to build up their faith by listening? Maybe this would be a a time when a person would be smart to be equipped with spoken scriptures on their iPhone or iPod. Maybe we can't speak the Word with conviction in our heart at that exact moment, but we can still benefit from hearing it spoken by someone that does have the conviction. Even a prerecorded message in our own voice." Good stuff, thanks Dawn!

Guarding against bitterness

Heb. 12:15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled; 

When adverse circumstances came against Joseph (Genesis 37-41), he did not allow them to make him bitter, instead he let God use them to make him better. A very important ingredient to success is not to let people or circumstances in life make you bitter. Bitterness is a root and if you allow it to take hold and grow, it will cause trouble in your life. Bitterness will take the spice out your life. It will cause you to focus on the wrong things and lose your focus. It will cause you to have a bad attitude and a funky disposition. And it all boils down to your thought life. You must cast down thoughts of bitterness and think on good things. Meditate on Philippians 4:8 and let that be a filter for what you choose to think about. And walk in love. You cannot be bitter and walk in love. Make a quality decision to guard against bitterness and not allow it to enter into your life. 

Spiritual Gifts Seminar Report

The last two nights we had a spiritual gifts seminar at Summit Church / Fort Wayne.
I really enjoy teaching on that topic. We had a good group of people in attendance that were very attentive to the Word of God. Next week, I'll teach the seminar to Summit / Indianapolis. 
Last night, we had a guest from New Mexico that was searching for a place to get the Word; and not just anyplace! She specifically asked around town for a place where there was "teaching". And the interesting thing about that is, we don't have regular Wednesday night service! It was a divine set up. She was at the right place at the right Wednesday and she was blessed! I encourage you to get the CD or download the messages from iTunes. It should be available on in a couple of days. 
For those of you who have not heard, my good friend, Prophet Daniel Byrd had 
a serious physical attack on his body recently and we've been praying for him. 
To top off the exciting time we had in the seminar, after the meeting I received 
an e-mail praise report on Prophet Byrd's progress and how God is working 
in his recovery process. God is not finished with him! The prayers of the righteous 
avails much. Please believe with me and his family for a full of restoration 
of healing and health. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

Monday morning mind upload!

Greetings everyone. Our website is shaping up quite nicely and right now we’re putting the finishing touches on it. At this point, it’s just some fine tuning to dial it in nice and tight. We wanted to make the User Interface simple so viewers can easily navigate the sight. And I think we’ve accomplished that. I’m very pleased with the results.

Also, we plan to pull my blog and podcast into the website so you don’t have to leave the site to access that content.

Last but not least, we will soon launch a new connectivity tool called “The City” that will help us to build relationships inside Summit Church and minister to people outside of Summit. Spread the news that something new and exciting is on the horizon! Stay tuned for an update in the near future. 

Look forward to a great week and expect God to manifest Himself to you in a special way!

Sunday evening (actually it's Monday) mind dump

Hello everybody: it's late Sunday night and I'm winding down after a busy busy week. Carla and I along with our Campus Pastors (Gary and Eric) and wives attended the All Access Conference in Louisiana. Our media director Zachary Briggs also attended. I was really excited about taking my team so they could experience other ministries that are going in the same direction as Summit, and at the same time, are doing it on a higher level. I believe it gave them a clear picture of where we're headed and what is possible as we pursue the vision that God has set before us. It was a life-changing and refreshing conference. Calling it a conference doesn't really do it justice because to me it was a place where rivers of living water flowed out.

 

As a result of this conference, I'm going to make some tweaks to the ministry that will help us get to the next level. Stay tuned. And I was very pleased as I listened to the positive comments from my team about All Access. Mission accomplished! I'm excited about the ministry that God has given us to fulfill at Summit Church. We're going to affect more lives for the Kingdom of God.

This weekend’s encounters were awesome and I enjoyed teaching on “Words”. I believe lives are being changed; been getting a lot of positive feedback.

BTW, the website is very close to being completed. The goal is to have everything working properly including the video by end of day today. Hope you like it!