Nate Staton

When I was 19, a professor encouraged me to diversify my reading. At the time, I was only reading commentary’s or Christian living. He didn’t discourage me from reading them, but rather, he wanted to help equip me engage with a more diverse crowd. The following is some beneficial advice on how to choose books that I received.

1. Choose books like you choose your friends. Choose them wisely. Know the author. Know what their angle is. Ask yourself so I really want this as a consistent source in my life when it comes to reoccurring authors in your Library. This rule applies to your weekly reads.

2. Read something you know nothing about. This will continually keep you humble and hungry for wisdom. It will be a reminder that others know more than you, and that’s ok. Keep growing in grace and humility.

3. Read 4 books a year with an author you know you disagree with in every level. As you read, ask the Lord to open your heart to loving them and praying for them. This will help you love the lost in your city more.

4. Read something you think is so amazingly cool. For me, I love reading about Pirates, early American History, and Church history.

Sleepless nights… that wasn’t taught in seminary. Trust me, I spent over a decade in seminary. No, I’m not slow, I acquired 3 degrees during that time. At no time during that decade however we’re sleepless nights covered.

As I’m writing this, it’s 1:34AM. Friday. The heaviness of many people that I love is on my heart. The concerns that the church faces is on my mind. The frustrations of “why can we just get out stuff together and love Christ and each other” echoes in my mind over and over and over again. I pray, put my ear buds in, or crack open the Bible App. Then my mind starts rolling.

I lay in my bed, and as I lay down, I can’t help but feel the wounds from the knives in the back of those I once cared for genuinely or served with faithfully. I fight the negative replay loop that likes to show itself whenever I feel like this. The replay loop of this family leaving for this reason, or that person talking about me behind my back, or having to talk with my kids about why their friend no longer goes to church here because “my vision” for the church wasn’t their choice of tea.

Sunday is coming. My favorite day of the week. I pray the people show up. That Jesus shows us most importantly. I pray the sermon will be heard over the cell phones people are glued to or the other distractions that like to keep us away from His weekly message to His flock.

I then begin to worry and fight defeat. Why preach? Does anyone listen? All I hear about is other peoples messages and how “I need to listen to it.” I think to myself, “Why don’t you just go to church there then?” Truth be told, it works crush me if they actually did. You can’t help but feel attached to people you pray for daily.

I see the ministry team working so hard, fighting in a battlefield of competing voices and calendars. I pray for them and worry about them and their hearts and minds. I know they feel what I feel. I care so much about that.

One thing I know for sure, is that Jesus felt all this and more. He’s a High Priest who can empathize with us. So there’s solace in that while I can’t sleep, knowing there was a time He couldn’t either.

For whatever reason, the word “when” stood out to me when reading this today. Jesus makes the implication that prayer is not optional. Prayer isn’t an area of intimacy with God that I can afford to be skimpy with. Prayer is an expectation in my relationship with the LORD.

How many times have I turned to other means of resolution or wisdom without praying. Prayer is essential to my connection with the Almighty.

I’m encouraged tonight that anytime I feel like taking matter into my own hands, I am remember Jesus’ “when.” And when I do, I pray.

The Church Has Left the Building?

On May 23, 2021 Anothen Church will be ministering our first ever “The Church Has Left the Building.” The heart behind this is to give the entire church body an opportunity to serve Christ by ministering through local missions. There will be a few opportunities that will give each Kingdom Partner an opportunity to use their gifts to love others and reveal the heart of Christ to this community.

This will take place during our Sunday morning worship time. What does that mean? That means that instead of coming to gather to sing and receive a word from the teaching of His Word, we as a body of Christ are you to preach the Gospel and worship the Lord through our service to the community as unto Christ. The prayer is that our witness will be the sermon for that day for those we encounter.

How to Sign up?

You can sign up on the Anothen Church Home Page. Once you sign up, you will receive and email (Starting this Wednesday) of opportunities that you can sign up for.

http://www.aclife.tv

What are some potential options?

Street ministry. Ministering at the Hope Center. Ministering in a local community.

I can’t wait to see how the Lord guides His Brides eyes on His mission and purpose for their life.

Pastor Nate Staton

1 Honor is no more associated with fools
than snow with summer or rain with harvest.

² Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow,
    an undeserved curse will not land on its intended victim.

³ Guide a horse with a whip, a donkey with a bridle,
    and a fool with a rod to his back!

⁴ Don’t answer the foolish arguments of fools,
    or you will become as foolish as they are.

⁵ Be sure to answer the foolish arguments of fools,
    or they will become wise in their own estimation.

⁶ Trusting a fool to convey a message
    is like cutting off one’s feet or drinking poison!

⁷ A proverb in the mouth of a fool
    is as useless as a paralyzed leg.

⁸ Honoring a fool
    is as foolish as tying a stone to a slingshot.

⁹ A proverb in the mouth of a fool
    is like a thorny branch brandished by a drunk.

¹⁰ An employer who hires a fool or a bystander
    is like an archer who shoots at random.

¹¹ As a dog returns to its vomit,
    so a fool repeats his foolishness.

¹² There is more hope for fools
    than for people who think they are wise.

¹³ The lazy person claims, “There’s a lion on the road!
    Yes, I’m sure there’s a lion out there!”

¹⁴ As a door swings back and forth on its hinges,
    so the lazy person turns over in bed.

¹⁵ Lazy people take food in their hand
    but don’t even lift it to their mouth.

¹⁶ Lazy people consider themselves smarter
    than seven wise counselors.

¹⁷ Interfering in someone else’s argument
    is as foolish as yanking a dog’s ears.

¹⁸ Just as damaging
    as a madman shooting a deadly weapon
¹⁹ is someone who lies to a friend
    and then says, “I was only joking.”

²⁰ Fire goes out without wood,
    and quarrels disappear when gossip stops.

²¹ A quarrelsome person starts fights
    as easily as hot embers light charcoal or fire lights wood.

²² Rumors are dainty morsels
    that sink deep into one’s heart.

²³ Smooth words may hide a wicked heart,
just as a pretty glaze covers a clay pot.

²⁴ People may cover their hatred with pleasant words,
but they’re deceiving you.
²⁵ They pretend to be kind, but don’t believe them.
Their hearts are full of many evils.
²⁶ While their hatred may be concealed by trickery,
their wrongdoing will be exposed in public.

²⁷ If you set a trap for others,
you will get caught in it yourself.
If you roll a boulder down on others,
it will crush you instead.

²⁸ A lying tongue hates its victims,
and flattering words cause ruin.

As you continue to fast, I want to encourage you to ask the Lord to grow you in these three key areas in our faith. Hope, patience, and prayer. These three aspects of our spiritual make up in Christ Jesus have incredible power in our lives.

Paul says in Romans 12 to rejoice in confident hope. Hope believes past the circumstances we find ourselves in, and has confidence in the One who is walking us through the valley. Hope believes that there is resurrection power about to be unveiled. Hope banks on the author and perfecter of our faith, as opposed to the one who is being authored and perfected. Hope gives a firm foundation. Without hope, there is no light. Without light, there is no redemption. We bank on our confident hope in Christ, in all circumstances.

He also tells the church to be patient, even in tribulation. Whether we like it or not, tribulation is an incubator for patience. It is the trials that bring us closer to Christ and stronger in Him. Without this stretching, there would be no growth. Ask the Lord as you walk through trials, that He expand your capacity and output with patience.

Lastly, Paul tells the church in Rome to pray! How is your prayer life? Ask the Lord to grow it and create large areas of impact and kingdom purpose in your prayer language with Him. Ask Him to expand your vocabulary and focus as you pray.

Do you find yourself needing healing today? Do you know others who do? As we continue to fast, let’s ask the Lord for healing.

So many people are impacted by COVID on many levels. Some need physical healing, others need spiritual healing, mental healing, financial healing.

Let’s intercede for our county, state, and nation today. Let’s be priests, who minister unto the Lord.

As we continue to fast today, ask the Lord to increase your capacity and purity of your love. Also ask God to define and refine love in you. Love has been greatly perverted and misunderstood in our culture. That should come as no surprise, as God is love Himself, and the enemy comes to steal kill and destroy.

Read these passages below and ask Holy Spirit to move in you. Ask the Lord to give you the grace needed to love and be known as a Jesus follower according to HIS WORD, not this country’s perception of Him.

Passages Below:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. ² And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. ³ If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

⁴ Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. ⁷ Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

⁸ Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. ⁹ For we know in part and we prophesy in part, ¹⁰ but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. ¹¹ When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.¹² For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.

¹³ So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. – 1 Corinthians 13 NLT

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

-John 13:34-35