Thankful to God

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and even though there are thousands of things that are going terribly wrong in our world, there are still millions of reasons to be thankful.

However, in this era of political correctness, we will see movies and TV commercials of people giving thanks for family, friends and food, but no one will mention to whom they are directing all of this gratitude.

It really doesn't make sense to talk about how thankful you are if you don’t talk about the object of your gratitude. You don’t just throw these kinds of words into the air.

If someone opens a door for you and allows you to walk into a building first, you don’t just say I’m thankful for that. You say, “Thank you!” to the person who performed the kind deed. Yet, we live in a time of so much pressure against a Biblical Christian world-view that we now sit back and receive this ridicules notion of being thankful (to nothing or no one in particular) for our good fortune and blessings.

We can sing ‘God Bless America’ at sporting events, but we can’t simply say, "I thank God for blessing me to have a family, a place to sleep, and breath in my body." Why bother to sing God Bless America if it’s politically incorrect and offensive to thank God when He blesses us? It’s crazy, isn’t it?

So make no mistake about it, the Urban Life Church family gives thanks to God. We will do it, not only tomorrow as we gather with our families and friends, but every day as we live our lives to the praise of His glory.

1 Chronicles 16:8
Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!

Psalm 18:49
Therefore I will give thanks to You, O LORD, among the Gentiles, And sing praises to Your name.

Psalm 30:4
Sing praise to the LORD, you saints of His, And give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name.

Psalm 35:18
I will give You thanks in the great assembly; I will praise You among many people.

Psalm 75:1
We give thanks to You, O God, we give thanks! For Your wondrous works declare that Your name is near.

Psalm 92:1
It is good to give thanks to the LORD, And to sing praises to Your name, O Most High;

Psalm 105:1
Oh, give thanks to the LORD! Call upon His name; Make known His deeds among the peoples!

Psalm 106:1
Praise the LORD! Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever.

Psalm 140:13
Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name; The upright shall dwell in Your presence.

1 Thessalonians 5:18
…in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.



May you have a Blessed Thanksgiving Holiday!

Be Still and Know That I Am God

You never know what’s up ahead of you on the road of life; especially when the Lord sends exhortations like what He’s been giving us. Over the past couple of weeks we’ve been teaching from the topic Assured and Secured in Your Relationship with God.

We began with a couple of weeks of teaching, followed by a couple weeks of answering questions. We even talked about following the leading of the Holy Spirit in moments of crisis.

This past Saturday night, we received a phone call from our nephew, that grandpa (Carol’s dad) had been hospitalized and wasn’t doing well. We learned he had actually been in the hospital all week. Not realizing just how serious his condition was, we decided that we would go see him the next day, immediately after our Sunday Gathering.

During the night we could feel a great stirring in our hearts. Even as we prepared for our weekly time of worship and teaching, we knew that the meeting was not going to go according to any planned agenda. From the start, the Holy Spirit moved upon us in travailing prayer after we sang the song, I Just Know We Win.
The opening lyrics of that tune declare,

I just know when life goes wrong to give a sacrifice of praise.
I just know when I’m in a storm to give a sacrifice of praise.
I just know when I’m in a mess to give a sacrifice of praise.
I just know in strife and stress to give a sacrifice of praise.

The Spirit of God led us to Psalm 61:1-4 which reads: “Hear my cry, O God; Attend to my prayer. From the end of the earth I will cry to You, When my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For You have been a shelter for me, a strong tower from the enemy. I will abide in Your tabernacle forever; I will trust in the shelter of Your wings.”

The Spirit of God moved upon one sister and she began to sing as the Lord gave her a prophetic word for the church family in the form of a song. Part of the song came from Psalm 46:10, “Be still, and know that I am God!”

Afterwards, I shared briefly with everyone about Carol’s father and told them of our plans to go to the hospital immediately afterwards. However, I asked all the women to pray. So the wonderful women of our church family gathered around my wife and prayed for her. They uttered profound, faith-filled, powerful prayers that flowed in agreement with what the Holy Spirit was speaking.

The Lord impressed Carol’s mother, to have us to sing a song called You Are Here. Part of those lyrics:

You are here in our midst. How we’ve waited for moments like this.
Have your way in this place; Holy Spirit come do as you wish.
We are changed as you move in our midst.

There was such a gentle and sweeping move of the Lord as we wept in His presence.

In closing, the Lord gave me a word of encouragement taken from the Bible passage where Joseph spoke to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”

As we prepared to leave for the day, Carol received a call from her nephew to let us know that her dad had passed away. From the time that he indicated that he passed on, it was at the same time the women were praying for her.

As I hugged my stunned and disappointed wife, I heard the Words the Lord had just given us during the meeting, “Be still and know that I am God.” Carol's mom expressed that she was thankful that even though they had separated and divorced many years ago, she could honestly say that there was no bitterness in her heart towards her ex-husband and father of her children. Even though saddened by the news, she had indeed been healed by the power of forgiveness.

We cannot explain why it happened this way. We desperately wanted to see my father in law one more time. We wanted to go to the hospital in the glory of that service and pray for Him. But we bow humbly to the sovereign Lord of our lives.

These are the times that we realize why we must be assured and secure in our relationship with God. These are the times you find out if you truly have a solid relationship with Him. These are the times that give legitimacy to the strategy and emphasis of this ministry.

Many of us are in the grieving process in this church. Over the past couple of years we have seen loss at many levels ranging from divorce to death. This year alone we have seen some extremely painful and tragic deaths amongst our family and friends.

And yes, even though we give praise to God in spite of the loss, we still have a healing process to go through. That’s why we don’t preach sermons to condemn people who are going through their healing process. They are fighting through all kinds of mental and emotional trauma. Sometimes they respond in sinful, ungodly ways in their grief. But that’s why we are allowing that unique anointing that was upon Jesus to come through us to minister to one another.

I want to show you something from Isaiah 61. Look at verse one and verse three. I want you to combine those two verses as if though it was one sentence. We’re not doing injustice to the Word of the Lord by doing this because of the grammatical structure of the sentences.

Isaiah 61: 1 and 3 says, “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me to console those who mourn (grieve) in Zion, To give them beauty for ashes, The oil of joy for mourning, The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; That they may be called trees of righteousness, The planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified.”

Jesus was anointed to console those in Zion who are still in their grieving process. Console means to remove the sense of loss. That’s more than just embracing someone to comfort them. This anointing removes the sense of the loss that causes the pain in our grief. That anointing is on this ministry for you and your family! That anointing is present to give you beauty (a crown of distinction); to give you the oil of joy; and to give you a garment of praise!

So even as my wife, my sons, and our family are going through this loss, just like most of you have experienced this year, we all can now receive the consoling, healing touch of Jesus in this moment. As we always tell you, we’re all on this journey together.

When we get together again this Sunday, let’s not make it a solemn occasion. Let’s make it a praise celebration because what was meant for evil, God is turning it for our good. We choose to be still and know that He is God!

Chris Green 

Back to Square One

Many years ago, while we were teen ministry pastors, the Lord gave us this little song to express the importance of going back to the basics:

We were face with deadlines; before the bills came due
We asked a miracle from God, but it all fell through.
I know what the Bible said, but still my dream is dead.
I confessed the positive verse; mere words that fell to earth?

Square One: Did I really hear God’s voice?
Square One: Understand what You say?
Square One: Have I totally counted the cost?
Square One: Dared to truly obey?

Satan does the evil deed to destroy and steal what’s ours,
So I thought this was a trial to show God’s overcoming power.
Is my motive selfishness? My inner goals simply pride?
I want to know from this day on, How to walk by God’s side.

Square One: Did I really hear God’s voice?
Square One: Understand what You say?
Square One: Have I totally counted the cost?
Square One: Dared to truly obey?

Last Sunday's teaching, Empowered by God, was all about being filled with the Holy Spirit. It was one of those Bible basics teachings. We’re going back to square one. Now that we have more people attending who have very little exposure to church and religious terminology, we find it very necessary to go back to that simple message about the love of God, the purpose for Jesus Christ dying on the cross, and the role that the Holy Spirit has in our lives today.

We are absolutely giddy with excitement about the journey we are about to take together. For the remainder of this year, we’re going to get back to Biblical basics like: What it means to be born again; who is the Holy Spirit; what are the gifts of the Spirit; what are the fruit of the Spirit; what it means to live by faith; and how to live with a passion for God that draws others to Him.

Over the past two years, we touched on these topics in brief segments within other subject matter. However, in this season we have become a group that is hungry for the Lord’s Presence, Word and Purpose. We can now move at a pace that will build up our new people and fine tune those who may have been on this journey for many years.

We recall those years when our sons were small little guys, daily exploring the world around them. It was a wonderful thing to see life through the eyes of our toddlers. Everything was new. Many things captured their attention that we had long since taken for granted, ignored or overlooked. That’s what it feels like to be the pastors of this church family.

It’s great to watch you guys fall in love with Jesus or discover a part of your purpose. It touches our hearts to watch God touch the heart of someone who never knew how much HE loves them. It blesses us to watch God drive fear, regrets and sadness out of your lives. There are many things that we “veterans” in the church have taken for granted and you guys have brought freshness into our gatherings. That’s because old things have passed away and all things have become new in you. You have reminded us of how awesome it is to be a child of God. In these ways, you have taken us back to square one.

God’s Not Mad at You; But Are You Mad at God?

We listen to Christian music as we work on our secular jobs and last week I was listening to one of Israel Houghton’s songs called Surprises. One of the repeating lines in that tune is the writer declaring about God, “You’re not mad at me…” What a wonderful thing it is to know that God isn’t angry with us, especially not in the ways that have been portrayed in movies or sermons. However, I had to pause for a moment as the Holy Spirit whispered this little thought, “That’s true that I’m not mad at My people, but many of My people are mad at Me.”

As a teenager I used to read about the end times and how there would be a great turning away from God. I often wondered how such a thing could ever take place. However, in recent years, we have watched it come to pass. As big name ministers have fallen and as Believers have gone through bankruptcy, foreclosures, divorce, accidents, incidents, natural disasters and the loss of loved ones, in their grieving process, many have turned their anger toward God.

We believe that part of the reason the turning away is happening so fast is because thousands were fed and groomed on faulty doctrine. They’ve been told that if they just name it and claim it, they will have whatever they speak. They’ve been taught that faith and prayer would move God’s hand without understanding the true meanings of faith and prayer.

They’ve been told that they are always above and never beneath. They’ve been told that they will live victoriously with nothing bad ever touching them. So when they hit the same trials and crisis that everyone else in the world has to face, many were so disillusioned that they came to a conclusion that God’s Word doesn’t work, and therefore they’ll just take care of matters on their own. If God won’t help and protect them as it was promised, then they’ll just fend for themselves.

Ever since we first accepted the call into the ministry (in 1991), we have observed many Believers taking this course in their life choices. For twenty years we have watched people cave in to this ploy of the enemy. Now we live in an era where so many Believers are angry with God that church attendance has dramatically dropped all across America and church doors are closing faster than churches are being planted.

There is so much hostility against God in the land that we now have a wide open door for the citizens of these United States to be brought under total control and domination of its government.

Please hear us carefully. This is not doom and gloom prophecy. What we are about to tell you is very real. Next year, the Health Care bill is going up before the Supreme Court. Its passage would mean nothing short of total government takeover. Those who have read the fine print, of the soon coming law, have discovered that the Health Law requires that everyone eventually receives a computer microchip under their skin on their hands or forehead, just as the Bible predicted thousands of years ago.

We are merely one Supreme Court decision away from the next stages of the One World Government dominance that the Bible foretold. We are in the same patterns that played out just before World War II with the agenda of Hitler and his regime. Those who do not learn from history are always destined to repeat it. While many Believers are going on with their lives, mad at God and rejecting His love, purpose and will, they are playing right into the hands of the enemy of their souls.

How are your pastors responding to all of this? What should you be doing? From this point on, we are going to be even more intentional in pressing after God as HE takes the Urban Life family to the next level of brokenness and grace.

We just experienced a powerful weekend in the Lord’s presence that led to chains of fear and doubt being removed. One person testified of being delivered from the fear of failure. We all witnessed one visitor committing her heart and life to Jesus. We witnessed the return of a brother who’s been away for a while. As a pastor, I was freed from the lie the enemy planted in my heart six years ago, that nobody wants to hear me preach or teach the Word of God. We believe that revival has come to Urban Life. We encourage you to come and jump into the waters that have been stirred!

If you know you’re harboring anger against God because of something He allowed or something He did NOT do for you; today is the day to humble yourself. His ways are higher than your ways and His thoughts are higher than your thoughts.

Many of us know the story of Job and how he eventually got so down about what God was allowing Him to go through that he began to curse the day he had ever been born. That’s when God stepped in and said, “Dude, (urban version) You don’t know me like that! Where were you when I formed the world? You don’t have any idea what you’re saying.” Growing up in the inner city I often heard people say to someone who had stepped out of line, “You betta check yourself!”

That’s kind of what the message is today. We all had better check ourselves and our attitudes about God. Yes, He’s full of love, mercy and grace, but when we walk around harboring anger and resentment towards Him, we run the risk of walking out from under His protection and right in to the trap of the enemy.

Turning away from God in your attitude can eventually lead to turning away from God in your heart. When you turn away from God in your heart, you have no idea how far into the gutter your heart will lead you. So let’s come together, family. Drop the hostility towards God and run to Him with a broken and contrite heart.

Some of us are in a battle in which we are resisting discouragement, disappointment and disillusionment with family members, friends or spiritual leaders, like pastors. We insist and encourage you to press your way through it. There's an old school song that says, "I have decided to follow Jesus... No turning back, no turning back. If none go with me, still I will follow... No turning back, No turning back."

Please make every effort to join with your sisters and brothers in our weekly gatherings. We only get to meet once a week, so let's make the most of the time that we have. We don't know how much longer we have in America before serious persecution breaks out against the church; or it could be an outbreak of revival. We believe that we can make the choice, but it depends on our personal pursuit of God in this hour.

Buying the Field

As we continue to pray for each of you, the Holy Spirit continues to open our understanding about the people to whom we’ve been sent to minister. Jesus said, in Matthew 13:44, “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

We see you guys as that treasure that was found in a field called Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Interestingly, the parable says that after the man found the treasure, he didn’t announce it. He didn’t tell everyone to come and see it. He hid it! We believe that he hid it because he did not have the right to take the treasure since he did not own the field. In order for him to legally take possession of the treasure, he had to buy the field. What do we learn from this part of the parable? We believe that this parable is telling us that whoever was the owner of the field, did not realize there was treasure within it.

For a long time we were disappointed that our congregation was small and the weekly attendance was sporadic and low, but now we realize something. The Lord was requiring us to hide our discovery. In a time when church leaders are advertising and trying all kinds of strategies to enlarge their ministries, the Lord told us to focus on the people who already attend our weekly gatherings. Instead of trying to “grow” a congregation numerically, the Lord instructed us to “grow” a church family relationally. This meant hiding our treasure.

In last week's Midweek Connection letter, we talked about investing our all in order to buy the field. We had no legal right, as outsiders, to come into Harrisburg and take its treasure. Even after we discovered the treasure, we still had no right to it. Perhaps, that’s why so many ministries have come and gone over the years. Perhaps they tried to take the treasure without buying the field. They came in and tried to raise offerings and solicited for donations. However, this Kingdom of Heaven principle says that you have to buy the field before you can access the treasure within it.

So, our first six years have been all about investing and buying the field, so that we could obtain the legal right to the treasure. The treasure is not a church member’s money or property. The treasure is the presence, power and purpose of God within each of you. We had no right to ask you to join this church, help us in our outreaches, connect with the vision, and advance in kingdom work together, without FIRST making an investment in your lives and in our relationships.

After discovering the treasure, the Lord made us hide the treasure. This ministry has remained hidden while we are legally taking possession of the field from an owner who has no knowledge or appreciation of what was is in his field.

We’re not boasting in ourselves and we’re not putting down any other pastors or churches when we make the following statement: Some of you have lived in this region all of your lives and you’ve never been taught about the treasure that is within you. You’ve never been told how precious you are to the Lord and how vital you are to the fulfillment of His will and purpose in your family and community. 

Many “owners” stand before their congregations and all they see is the potential for income through tithes and offerings.  Many “owners” of this field (Harrisburg) have failed to realize what treasure was in their midst all along. Those who have failed to recognize the treasure will lose their treasure. 

So right now, we're rejoicing over the treasure that we have found. We're hiding it and selling our all to take legal possession of the field.