My Father was a soldier. He was actually in the Army/Air Force, which were a branch of our military until higher powers saw a need for change and the Army became our ground troops. I began to think about the women I have served through the years and thought it would be a viable subject of consideration to share with you.

In 1967, GayNell moved to Uvalde, Texas to serve a church no one knew was there. It was a fairly new structure, a very pretty red building that had more bats in the belfry then we had people in the pews. One Sunday night they decided to join us, ladies were ducking their heads under the pews. Just imagine me with a mop swinging at their intrusion with the youth shouting, STRIKE ONE, … STRIKE 15. It is hard to hit a flying mammal with radar and the kids will never forget that riotous service. I am sure they laughed with their families all the way home that evening and still laugh about it today, when they think about it.

In 1967/1968, the population of Uvalde was 15,257. It was eighty miles from San Antonio and 80 miles from Del Rio, Texas on the border of Mexico. Thirty-eight miles from Uvalde, there was a small town called Camp Wood. I found out there was an empty church building that had not had services in it for 20 years. It was right smack-dab in the middle of town. In a few weeks, we approached the owner of the Hotel who was the custodian to the church and we started services on Thursday Evenings. The proprietor of the Hotel also was an old time Pentecostal Believer, and she was the caretaker of the church. I loved it and the people were the salt of the earth.

Now this was in 1967 and one of the men who came to worship with us had been a soldier in World War I. I remember the first time I saw him. He was tall and lean, wearing a pair of kaki's and a long sleeve dress shirt. He had some stories held away in the deafness of his life. It was in the teen years of the turning of the century. A violent influenza had swept across America, and as a result of this plague thousands died. It was after the war. Many were left with the aftermath of sicknesses. The proud soldier that was left deaf as a result of its impact on his life. It is hard to believe but when you think about it, WWI had only been fifty years before. He walked like a soldier; with his shoulders back, and his head held high. We communicated the best we could with him, talking with our hands and in his heart he had the scars of war.

In the early 60's I worked with many who had fought in World War II, these guys loved our country. One of them -- Jim, had stormed the beach at Normandy. Jim had glaucoma and he bore painful memories of those years and the thousands losing their lives around them.

I had cousins, an uncle, and neighbors that fought in WWI and WWII, along with some who fought in Korea and other lesser conflicts around the globe, fighting for democracy and freedom. My Uncle Gene Britt was taken as a prisoner of war in Germany and marched across Germany in the bitter cold of winter.

One of our friends would disappear from our jobs for a few weeks and you would wonder where he went, but when he came back to the job, he didn't talk. In confidence he would tell my uncle that he was a mercenary and had been down in South America fighting Communist influencers.

I had second twin cousins that had served in the military and they were men who had P.T.S.D. That is not what we called it back then, nobody did. We called it shell-shocked. I had friends that served in VIETNAM, in different aspects of the war. Some were pilots, others were nurses, but the broader scope in those days made us all feel like we owed something to the men and women who have served us.

When I read the Bible, I read it with these life experiences in mind, and as I do, I think about those in the present conflicts that are going on at this moment in real time in other time zones. It is real to me. As we pray for those in military service caught up in conflict in the middle East, I pray where I can almost feel the missiles flying overhead, hear the explosions, feel the buildings rattle, watch families hurrying to the safety of bomb shelters and hear the weeping of families who have lost loved ones.

May God teach us to pray, because when it seems the calendar of heaven is on it's toes in regards to the players who are on front page of the end-time gazette, we need an awakening to pray. History has a way of repeating itself.

A woman in Paris wrote in her diary years ago, "Nothing of significance happened in Paris today." In fact it was the very day they stormed the Bastille. When I learned how to type, I typed this line hundreds of times:

"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country." "NOW IS THE TIME FOR ALL GOOD MEN TO COME TO THE AID OF THEIR COUNTRY." Here we are again.

Larry Norman wrote these words below two and a half decades ago:


I was in the Atlanta Airport one afternoon on the way home from a ministry trip and the announcer came on the inner-com and announced the transfer of the remains of a fallen soldier in the very terminal and gate where I was waiting for my flight home. Everything stopped, I stood with people looking out the window when the widow and his family stood on the tarmac and received the body back to American soil. There was a forced reverence, a solemn respect for the price that had been paid on foreign soil. He was more than a body bag, more than a toe tag and more than just a number, he was an American hero and I for one have never forgotten them.

There was another battle another day, where the precious blood of Christ was shed. Some may ask what made His blood so precious?

• In the first place, God did not have blood. He said, "A spirit has not flesh and bone, as you see me have." But he made no reference to the blood, did he? Therefore because the blood was His, His blood was precious."

• Then His blood was precious because it was shed for us. I love the verse that earmarks its value. "This is the blood of the New Covenant, SHED FOR MANY." For His blood to be precious to us, it had to be shed for us. In the early church there were those who believed in his humanity but denied his deity and their were those who believed in His deity that denied his humanity. Do you realize that if He had not consented to His crucifixion, nobody would have been able to kill Him? He came to give His life a ransom for many. Oh Precious is that flow that washes, white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.

• Finally, His blood is precious because of what it accomplished and is accomplishing. Have you ever stopped to meditate on his words, "Come ye after me and I will make you?" My friend He is still doing it, making mighty men out of reprobates.

Have you been watching the way in which God is reaching men on the 7 mountains of influence? A transformation is taking place in the hearts of men and women around the earth. I am reading on a daily basis how even in some cases, He is revealing Himself to people groups, "God is not willing that any man should perish but that all should come to repentance."

Always remember, "God watches over His Word to perform it".

HIS WORD IS CHASING ME TODAY AS WE MOVE FORWARD INTO TIME, AFTER THE RESURRECTION SEASON, 2026.

HE IS ALIVE!!!!!
I LIVE WITH RESURRECTION HOPE I LIVE WITH BLESSED ASSURANCE
I LIVE WITH HIS PROMISED RETURN
I LIVE VICTORIOUSLY IN THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S

IT IS A JOY TO SERVE YOU,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

WELCOME TO PASSION WEEK - A WEEK FOR ALL MANKIND AND ALL THE NATIONS OF THE EARTH.

You know when I was young I was under the impression that Jesus died on the cross for the sins that the world could see in my life. As I started my journey I began to realize it was for more that that, He actually died for the sins that God sees.

Have you ever stopped to realize how often Simon Peter was spot lighted by Jesus? Take a fresh look at the story of Jesus washing his disciples feet. It is called by theologians, Maundy Thursday which is the Thursday before Easter, it is believed to be the day when Jesus celebrated his final Passover with His disciples. Most notably, that Passover meal was when Jesus washed the feet of His disciples in an extraordinary display of humility. He then commanded them to do the same for each other. I have spoken to people about this and many have never even heard of such a thing.

How searching His Words are in this passage, "BUT NOT ALL." In other words, Judas was still in the group. It reminds me of the Corinthian letter, "there is one among you," who is not one of you. In this passage Simon Peter became symbolic of something that was not right on the inside of the man; it was a heart issue.

It was not the dust of the road, which needed attention, it was the deeper defilement in the soul. Jesus was speaking to Peter, a prominent figure among them. He was a conspicuous as the BIG FISHERMAN. Could it be that others, like Peter, share some of the same issues of the heart, which had become a part of his very nature and personality? Can I remind you, that the disciples were all having the same issue - "who will be the greatest?" It was an inner defilement which exposed all of their pride. Wow! can you see it now? There is something more than the sins the world has no problem seeing. It is the sins the world cannot see, we need to ask God to deliver us from.

Can I move away from this for a moment to tell you I have seen my sins and the effect they had on the people around me, as I became a follower of Jesus. And as I show you mine, at the same time I will show you yours.

"On the Cross crucified, for me He died.
He was nailed to the Cross for me."

Blood suggest violence and this is what my sins did to my Lord and Savior.

I wish I could paint this special moment in time. Peter and Jesus at the foot washing, having a debate concerning his feet being washed. It was here that Peter objected to becoming subjected to the Lord, example of humility. What was it that broke Peter's resistance? It is not hard to find, it was a simple and direct comment, NOT ALL OF YOU ARE CLEAN,

CAN YOU SAY, "CLEAN BEFORE THE LORD I STAND AND IN ME NOT ONE BLEMISH CAN HE SEE?"

CAN YOU EVEN STAND THE THOUGHT OF A FUTURE WHERE CHRIST IS NO A PART OF IT? THOSE THAT CAN CONSIDER A FUTURE WITHOUT HIM SHOULD NEVER THINK OF THEMSELVES CHRISTIANS, I PERSONALLY HAVE SURROUNDED MYSELF WITH FRIENDS WHO HAVE COMMON INTEREST WITH ME.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN HARDER ON YOUR SELF, THAN CHRIST HAS BEEN?

I FOR ONE HAVE CRIED OUT WITH PETER, " NOT MY FEET ONLY BUT MY WHOLE BEING, NEEDS TO BE WASHED.

It is beautiful pictures of humility just imagine Jesus kneeling at Peter's feet, to wash them but there will be a day when all mankind will bow at His feet and proclaim, Jesus, Christ is Lord to the Glory of God the Father.

Most people can tell you a few things about Jesus. They may be able to talk Easter Talk with others who know nothing more than they do. There is always a lot of dress up on Easter Sunday but there is far to more than dress up that it took to redeem mankind and blood speaks of violence.

Remember, "He took upon Himself the form of a servant and became obedient, even to the death of the Cross." To cleanse us from the power of sin and pride it took more than a towel, it took much more than this, and it took The Cross.

ON THE CROSS CRUCIFIED FOR ME HE DIED
HE WAS NAILED TO THE CROSS FOR ME

Do you remember how proud your heart was when you first got a glimpse of Calvary? Some can sing, THE VIA DOLOROSA like Sandi Patty, but they may not know the one who went to every station of the Cross. I have been there and it is a wonderful attraction, but the real issue is I am not a tourist, I am a son and as a son I invite you to join me in making Paul's bold declaration: "I am crucified with Christ." The songwriter has written, "This was the reason He gave His life, this was the reason He suffered and died, in the world that was lost He gave all He could give to show us the reason to live."

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL THOSE WHO LOVE THE DEATH ON THE CROSS, THE RESURRECTION AND AS THE GREAT INTERCESSOR IS SET ON THE RIGHT HAND OF THE THRONE OF GOD.

Pastor Cleddie Keith

Speaking to the staff in between services, I told them this is one of the dirtiest messages I have ever preached. Looking back at it, it reminds me of the poem:


The Bible speaks of mire, mud and muck several times, so just what is mire? JUST, WHAT IS MIRE?

A situation or state of difficulty: it is Distress or embarrassment from which it is hard to extricate oneself:

"Have you ever been left to squirm in a mire of new allegations"? Do you agree with me that America is still trying to climb out of the mire left by previous presidents? Do you think maybe some feel as though they are caught in the mire of poverty? David knew how to get God's attention. He prayed like this:

"OH GOD, DELIVER ME OUT OF THE MIRE."

This is a universal cry for help and I can feel it when I read it. For some, IT IS AS THOUGH CRYING FOR HELP, DOES NOT SEEM TO HELP.

I have spoken with many people who have been caught with this drama of frustration in their lives, more men and women, than I can remember. I call it the distress of soul. One of the ladies in the congregation responded with this email, and I asked her permission to share it with you.


DAVID HAS TURNED INWARD ON HIMSELF. IT IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF ALL FRUSTRATION THAT MEN MAY EXPERIENCE.

"THE FLESH LUSTING AGAINST THE SPIRIT AND THE SPIRIT LUSTING AGAINST THE FLESH."

CHRISTIAN, I MAY BE SPEAKING TO YOU. YOU ARE TORMENTED IN THAT YOU ARE OVERLY CONSCIOUS OF YOUR WRETCHEDNESS. "OH WRETCHED MAN THAT I AM."

COULD IT BE THAT WE HAVE BECOME SECRETLY, BITTER AGAINST GOD? COULD IT BE THAT WE ARE NURSING RESENTMENT TOWARD THE VERY SAVIOR OF OUR SOUL?

WE MUST BE CAREFUL NOT TO EAT THE LOW HANGING FRUIT OR JEALOUSY, COMPARISON, OR LOVING THE WORK GOD HAS GIVEN US TO DO MORE THAT WE LOVE THE LORD THAT HAS GIVEN US THE WORK?

LET'S DO A HEART CHECK. ILLUSTRATION:

GAYNELL'S HEART WENT OUT OF RYTHMN THIS WEEK. THERE MAY BE SOMEONE IN HERE THAT THERE HEART WAS ONCE IN RYTHMN WITH THE CALL OF GOD ON THEIR LIVES BUT IT IS NO LONGER IN RHYTHM, THEY WANTED TO SHOCK IT BACK INTO RYTHMN BUT IT RESET ITSELF AT 3:00 IN THE MORNING.

THIS IS NOT A DAY TO CLEAN JUST THE OUTSIDE OF THE CUP BUT THE INSIDE AS WELL. AS I THOUGHT ABOUT THIS I REALIZED THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN PERSPECTIVE AN PERCEPTION:

PERCEPTION IS YOUR SUBJECTIVE SENSORY BASED INTERPRETATION OF THE WORLD AS YOU SEE IT.

PERSPECTIVE IS THE BROADER OBJECTIVE VANTAGE POINT OR LENS USED TO UNDERSTAND A SITUATION, OFTEN INCORPORATING EMPATHY AND MULTIPLE VIEW POINTS.

YOU MAY HAVE HEARD ABOUT THESE TWO MEN WHO HAD BEEN IMPRISONED.

"TWO MEN LOOKED OUT THROUGH PRISON BARS, ONE SAW MUD THE OTHER MAN SAW STARS."

GOD KNEW OUR NEEDS BEFORE WE WERE BORN, SO HE USED WORDS TO HELP US UNDERSTAND OUR PLIGHT IN LIFE. THE SCRIPTURE SPEAKS OF MIRE, MUD AND MUCK 50 TIMES IN THE BIBLE.

I have always said, if you find words in your concordance numerous times, it is for a reason. What the Holy Spirit thinks important enough to mention frequently, we should pay attention to. Those passages are repeated for a reason.

Oh God, deliver me from the MIRE.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AS YOU USE THIS AS A TOOL TO HELP STRENGTHEN YOUR FAITH AND THE FAITH OF OTHERS WHO MAY BE MIRED DOWN.

I PRAYED FOR YOU TODAY,

PASTOR CLEDDIE KEITH

P.S.  I WANT TO SPEAK TO THOSE WHO ESPECIALLY FEEL AS THOUGH CRYING OUT TO GOD DOESN'T HELP. MANY PEOPLE FEEL THIS WAY YET THEY AT THE SAME TIME, FEEL AS THOUGH NO ONE CARES.

It is really nice to be able to breathe the fresh air that God has provided for each of us today and to remember, "This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Have I ever told you what Bennett Cerf said regarding things that are unbelievable? It is possible that you never heard of Bennett Alfred Cerf (born Benoît Cerf; May 25, 1898 -- August 27, 1971) he was an American writer, publisher, and co-founder of the American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and some may remember him, for his weekly television appearances for 16 years on the panel game show What's My Line? One of his most memorable lines which I remember is;

"I never saw a purple cow, I never hope to see one; but if there was a purple cow, I'd rather see than be one."

You know come to think about it, I have never seen a purple, green, orange, blue or chartreuse cow or even a horse. This could be a reference to his own doubt of things that cannot be scientifically explained. In recent days there has been what is an attack on those who believe in the supernatural. I for one have every reason to believe, that God is still at work in the earth and as Disney would say, "It's a Small World after all." Yes it is, and in the eyes of an All-Knowing God who never slumbers, sleeps, and in whom there is no variableness or shadow of turning; He is an on-time God. YES, He is.

Horace Bushnell, who was a theologian 200 years ago in America, wrote these words, "God has a definite life-plan for every human person, girding him, visibly and invisibly, for some exact thing, which it will be the true significance and glory of his life to have accomplished. On to live out such a life as God appoints, how great a thing it is! TO DO HIS DUTIES, make the sacrifices, bear the adversities, finish the plan and then to say with Christ (who of us will be able?), It Is Finished."

When my days ahead were longer than my days behind, I learned, "my reach should always exceed my grasp, or what is heaven for." All these years later, "My reach still exceeds my grasp." The Bible speaks of inheritance, in the book of Ephesians, at which we should take a new look.


WHAT IS INHERITANCE? THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE IN CHRIST.

THE DEFINITION OF INHERITANCE IS:
THIS IS WHAT WE HAVE BEEN PROMISED IN CHRIST.

GOD SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT AND THAT SETTLES IT.

YOUR FRIEND AND PASTOR,

Cleddie Keith

Faith, Hope and Love to all of you who have become a special part of our lives and the Heritage family. It is wonderful to be alive and know that as long as you have a pulse, you have a purpose. I have a verse on my heart this week concerning our families. I woke up thinking about Joshua 24: 15...


This reminded me of some specific salvation experiences that I have known to be "true to life" conversions. They refer to unsaved husbands who were born again because of the faithfulness of their wives. You will find this passage in, Paul's letter to the Corinthian Church, 1 Corinthians 7:14.




THIS IS A GOOD FOLLOW UP ON OUR 7:14 MEETING TIMES

When the clocks hit 7:14, morning or evening we need to pray for the unsaved husbands.

Let me introduce you to a praying wife; her husband was the lead deacon in our church during our early pastorate in Beaumont, Texas. We lived in a subdivision less than a quarter of a mile from the Spindle Top oil rig. This is known as the Lucas gusher at Spindle Top, January 10, 1901: This was the first major gusher of the Texas oil boom. I could hear it pumping 67 years later when I got up in the morning, and when I went to bed at night.

We lived in the parsonage across the street from the head deacon and his wife, Brother McDaniel, He was a superintendent in the Mobil Oil Company. The main entrance was within a mile of our homes. He had been quite a man in his day and did not have a relationship with the Lord. His wife on the other hand was a praying woman and was passionate about the things of God. She had prayed for him for several years, standing on the this verse, "as for me and my house we will serve the Lord." He had been a hard case to say the least, and she had prayed for his salvation for many years. One day she was in a meeting and the evangelist was talking about prayer cloths, you can find this story in Acts chapter 19.


She came up with an idea -- she would wash and iron his clothes and starch his shirts and kaki trousers. He always looked like he stepped out of a bandbox. She would take his kaki's turn them inside out and between the slack and the back pocket she would sew prayer cloths in between them, so without him knowing it she was intensifying her prayer for his conversion daily. It was not long until he came under deep conviction and gave his heart to the Lord. He was a wonderful man of God and helped me in my early days of ministry. I can truly say, God answered the prayer and faith of his wife, who was confessing with Joshua, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

My own Dad came to know the Lord, three years before he passed away at the age of 49. He was a good man, the greatest father I could have ever had and saved my life one night from falling 180 feet into the end of a silo where we were working the night shift on missile sites in Arizona. I grew up in a loving home, where Mom and Dad literally lived for each other, except for one thing, Dad was not saved. I never heard him cuss. I never heard, as I remember, my parents fussing or having a big fight. He cherished my Mom and I grew up seeing that every day of their lives but as I said, Dad was not saved.

I am a JR. and proud to carry his name, but he had been nicknamed Speedy Keith all his life. Jokingly he would say of his work, "If you don't like this gear I am in, I know you wouldn't like the other one." Meaning it was slower, but he always got more work done at the end of the day than anyone else. He lived through us being raised in the depression and having lost his parents in childhood was hard on him. We became the family that Dad wanted, my brother was like him in so many ways and my sister was just 5 when he died. When she came into the family, she was his pride and joy. I remember him buying a singer sewing machine for my mom, that she never learned how to use. He could make shirts and by following a pattern could make anything he wanted to. I can still remember him making my sister an Easter Dress and it was gorgeous. All of this, but he was not saved. My mother read him the Bible ever evening before he went to sleep, even the night before he passed away into the arms of Jesus. He did enter Heaven born again because of my mother's faithfulness and prayer for him through all the years, which were not long enough. My mother's holiness of life led him to the straight and narrow. I remember when work was scarce, how my Mom would pray and when no one else had work, my dad always had work. It was a lesson well learned and received, because my Dad knew and believed in the power of prayer, and as a result surrendered his life to the Lord. I learned the power of this verse found in 1 Corinthians 7:14, by watching my mothers relationship with my Dad. He was set apart to God by the Holiness of my mother.

Ladies let this be a encouragement to you and your families. A good verse to stand on is, "As for me and my house we will serve the Lord."

I believe in you,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

I have been asked to share the notes and Faith Declaration which we ministered on Sunday February 22nd. It is my desire for all of us to benefit from this message of the week.

THE DECLARATION OF FAITH IS AT THE END OF THE MESSAGE.


HERE IS THE WAY SOME PEOPLE SHOULD SING THIS SONG:


Are you an unbelieving believer? Doubt your doubts and believe your beliefs. They are like the woman who told me, she did not believe God answered her prayers. I then asked her, was she saved? Born again? Forgiven? Washed in the blood? Changed/ Transformed/ Set Free/ Delivered/ and walking in the newness of life?

She was somewhat disgusted with my question and responded curtly, "Who are you to ask me if I am saved?" I said, "Well, you just told me that God never answered any of your prayers, right?" She nodded her head in an.affirmative gesture. I then said, Well, that is one prayer God answered."

I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER, HIGHER, MUCH, MUCH HIGHER THIS MORNING. SO HIGH THE ENEMY CANNOT, HIGH JACK YOU WHEN YOU WALK OUT OF THE BUILDING THIS MORNING.

Someone may ask, "Where will that be?" The answer to this question is, "In heavenly places with Christ Jesus." Who wants to go with me? You really won't need anything more than Faith the size of a mustard seed.

By contrast, the mustard seed has built-in to it, great potential. You have potential to walk out this morning with mountain moving faith.

Let us ask a pertinent question. Have you ever seen a mustard tree? First of all, all trees have trunks. Let us take a look at this today:

What is the difference between a tree and a shrub? There is a difference between a tree and a shrub. Trees have a single stem and support branches and leaves. Shrubs are smaller, have many stems, and have no single trunk.

WHAT MUSTARD SEEDS ACTUALLY GROW INTO

They do not grow into trees, they grow into a plant that can appear as a tree, but they are an herb. Mustard seeds can grow into big plants, but they are not trees, 3 to 10 feet tall.

These tall plants with big leaves can look like trees. This is true when they grow in tight groups. Even though they're not trees, they can look like it.

HOW FAST CAN THEY GROW?

Mustard seeds grow at an incredible rate. SOME OF THESE MUSTARD SEEDS CAN MATURE IN JUST 60 DAYS

MUSTARD SEEDS HAVE A RUGGED NATURE

JESUS USES THE MUSTARD SEED AS AN EXAMPLE, WHICH SYMBOLIZES FAITH AND GROWTH.

The story of the Mustard Seed is found in three different books of the Bible.

Gospels, Matthew 13:31-32 (NKJV), Mark 4:30-32 (NKJV), and Luke 13:18-19 (NKJV). In each account, Jesus uses the imagery of a mustard seed to convey profound spiritual truths about the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 13:31-32 (NKJV): In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus presents the parable within the context of a series of parables known as the "Parables of the Kingdom."

He says, "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches."

Mark 4:30-32 (NKJV): Mark's Gospel records a similar version of the parable, emphasizing the growth and expansion of the mustard seed. Jesus states, "To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade."

Luke 13:18-19 (NKJV): Luke's Gospel presents a concise rendition of the parable, focusing on the mustard seed's transformation into a large tree. Jesus says, "What is the kingdom of heaven like? And to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and put in his garden; and it grew and became a large tree, and the birds of the air nested in its branches."

Why did Jesus speak in parables? Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given . . . . And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive, for the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them.'  Matthew 13:11,14-15.

Matthew 13 speaks of the expanding Kingdom of God. Now to a different situation found in Matthew 17:17-21, Jesus easily casts the demon out. Then Jesus answered and said, "O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him here to Me." And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour. Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast it out?" So Jesus said to them, "Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you. However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting."

Did you know that there is a medical term for self doubt, that leads to an individual becoming afraid they will be found out?

They even have a clinical name for it, and a way in which they suggest you deal with it? It is called the IMPOSTER SYNDROME.

The enemy of your soul wants to kill, steal (YOUR PEACE, JOY AND LOVE) and destroy who you are in Christ.

HERE IS A LIST OF MEDICAL THINGS THAT ARE MANIFESTATIONS OF WHAT YOU MAY BE DEALING WITH. ISN'T IT STRANGE THEY CALL THESE, MANIFESTATIONS?

• Feeling unworthy of affection or attention
• Having an irrational fear of failure or the future
• Having increased anxiety related to performance or TASK Management
• Downplaying your accomplishments
• Holding back from reaching attainable goals
• Crediting your successes to luck or other reasons outside of your control
• Having difficulties processing or accepting praise, compliments or award recognition
• Overworking or people-pleasing to meet the expectations of others
• Comparing yourself and your achievements against other people's MANIFESTATIONS

A DECLARATION OF FAITH

GOD HAS NO FAVORITES, SO WE CAN PROCLAIM, WE ARE THE APPLE OF GOD'S EYE

NO GOOD THING WILL HE WITHHOLD FROM THOSE WHO WALK UPRIGHTLY BEFORE HIM

GOD IS LOVE AND THAT IS AGAPE, WHICH MEANS HIS NATURE IS UNCHANGING, UNALTERABLE AND UNENDING

HIS DESIRE FOR US IS OUTLINED IN THE WORD OF GOD, THAT WE WOULD PROSPER AND BE IN HEALTH EVEN AS OUR SOULS PROSPER

GOD IS A GIVER AND BECAUSE HE IS LOVE, HE SO LOVED THE WORLD HE GAVE, GOD GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, NOT TO CONDEMN THE WORLD BUT THE WORLD THROUGH HIM MIGHT BE SAVED

THE LORD MY GOD IS MY STRENGTH AND SHIELD OF LOVE, MY GLORY AND THE LIFTER UP OF MY HEAD

THE JOY OF THE LORD IS MY STRENGTH TO OVERCOME BY THE BLOOD OF THE LAMB AND THE WORD OF MY TESTIMONY

MY FUTURE IS AS BRIGHT AS THE PROMISES OF GOD

"I AM A MIRACLE GOING SOME WHERE TO HAPPEN", AND AGAIN, I PROCLAIM, "I AM

GOING SOME WHERE TO HAPPEN."

Pastor Cleddie Keith

My mother had three children, the youngest was Karissa Ruth, the middle child was Michael Elsworth and I just happened to be the oldest. Dad was shipped off to World War II shortly after I was born, so I really did not know him until he came home from war. I remember going to the train depot in Ft. Worth, Texas when I was almost 4 years old. I can remember it like it was yesterday. My mother had been sent to Fordyce, Arkansas when I was about 2 to work in a munitions plant. Many women had been put to work building the war machine of the United States and it prove to be very important to the success of the conflict. This led to me being taken care of by my grandmother and aunts and uncles. They spoiled me rotten, to hear them tell it. I guess you can say I was spoiled rotten by all of the love they gave me. Life was different then.

My mother gave birth to me when she was twenty. My brother Michael was born when my dad came home from his deployment in Burma (now Miramar), which is located on the Indian Ocean. My sister Karissa was born fifteen years later. After my sister was born, my mother developed a serious female problem. It lasted almost 12 years and my mother suffered intolerably for all that time. It would be so bad she would take my brother and I in the middle of the night and just drive for hours doing everything she could to deal with the pain. She would pray for hours as she drove through the night, returning home in the early morning. I know what suffering is, and we would pray often. It was a night mare for her while she was wide awake and Mike and I would fall asleep as she drove.

I know that I developed a deep emotional sympathy for ladies who have suffered as Mom did. Then one day she could not take it anymore and went to see another doctor for a second opinion. He was Dr. Roy Fisher, who founded the Texas Hospital of Osteopathy in Ft. Worth, Texas. I was with her when she went to her appointment. I was 15 years old and I probably drove because she was so tormented by her pain. She literally wore her Bible out through those years seeking God for her healing.

She was like the woman we find in the Bible who has suffered 12 years with an issue of blood, Mark's Gospel 5:27-30.

When she walked out of his office, with what I would call hope on her face, I saw it, Dr. Fisher had offered her hope.

Doctor Fisher diagnosed that the issue began when my brother was born, eleven and one half years before. He told my mother that her fallopian tubes had become twisted during the birth and it caused her to suffer all these years. Please believe me when I say, the misery was at times maddening. I can still feel the painful tears and the anguish as well as the deep guttural groans she suffered monthly. On top of this she suffered many things of physicians and the cost was great. He put her in the hospital immediately and operated on her and she lived happily ever after.

Her story reminds me of the woman Jesus healed in the story of Mark 5. I thought it would be good today to visit her story, for there are many lessons to be learned.

Mom was strong in the Word of the Lord. I learned a lot as a child watching her fight the good fight of faith. I maintain what I was taught by her trusting God was, don't ever give up. I believe God led her to Doctor Fisher. Many people don't believe in the need for medical professionals, but before the year 2000, I was told that there were only 2 new diseases a year that were discovered. Today, with the discovery of D.N.A. and other rereplace, that as many as 2000 new disease discoveries are being made. This fits in to the prophetic word that at the end of time, "knowledge shall increase" and we are certainly seeing this take place in our day.

Do you feel like this woman?
Do you feel as though you are hopeless? Do you feel, Oh, Woe is me?
Do you feel like God has given up on you?
Do you feel, all these years and nothing has changed? Do you have a pulse? THEN YOU HAVE A PURPOSE.

GOD IS WITH YOU NOW! GOD IS WITH YOU RIGHT NOW!

HE SAID, "I WILL NEVER LEAVE YOU."

SAY THIS OUT LOUD, OR MAYBE EVEN SHOUT IT OUT LOUD: "HOLDING I AM HELD!"

I LOVE YOU ALL,

Pastor Cleddie

Picking up where we left the story last week. Once again you can see the danger of God's people,

GETTING WHAT THEY WANTED BUT NOT WANTING WHAT THEY GOT.

I think we should look at this text in the context of 1Samuel 12:22-25:

"God, simply because of who He is, is not going to walk off and leave His people. God took delight in making you into His very own people." (Samuel is speaking a bout God's faithfulness).

(Then Samuel speaks)

23-25 "And neither will I walk off and leave you. That would be a sin against God! I'm staying right here at my post PRAYING FOR YOU and TEACHING YOU THE GOOD AND RIGHT WAY TO LIVE. But I beg of you, fear God and worship him honestly and heartily. You've seen how greatly he has worked among you! Be warned: If you live badly, both you and your king will be thrown out."

I prefer the way The Message Translation presents this portion of the story of Samuel. I don't know how anyone could not appreciate the autobiography of the prophet Samuel as depicted in the Word of God. From his miraculous birth as a result of his mother Hannah's misunderstood intercession to his faithfulness in regard to his commitment and respect for the Word of God. I have a book in my library somewhere by Don Mallough named, "If I Were God." As I was writing this the thought crossed my mind, If I were God, I would loved to have more men like Samuel, whom I knew as men would not allow one Word God had spoken to them, like an arrow in flight, fall to the ground.

The Holy Spirit thought it necessary to remind us of the initial night when God spoke to young Samuel. Can you imagine a child coming to you in the night and awakening you to ask you if you called him. Even the backslidden Eli, knew the importance of responding to the Voice of God. What do you think it was that gave Samuel such a keen understanding of the importance of responding to, God's voice? I heard that voice as a child but did not know the importance of responding to it until later, I actually heard His voice again and again through out my life and did not respond until I was 19 years old. All I can say is, I wasted a lot of time doing nothing, which had eternity in it.

The priest Eli is a sad example of the greatest apostasy is a forgotten destiny.

ELI WAS HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS SONS EXCESSES

Have you ever really read the story of Eli's sons, they are referred to as vile and their father is included as an accomplice to their sin against God. Their sins would be what some would call inconsistencies today, watering down of the lifestyle by preaching a cheaper brand of grace than the New Testament would call for, such as HOLINESS WITHOUT WHICH NO MAN SHALL SEE GOD. The son's sins with women at the entrance of the house of God were overlooked but God saw them and judgment began at the house of the Lord.

Can you imagine the perplexity of Hannah having given her son to the Lord and knowing the depravity of what was going on in the House of the Lord. We know she was an intercessor because of God answering her prayer concerning her bareness. Do you think she really gave Samuel up after she weaned him from her at such an early age? She gave him to the Lord but that being said, do you really give something up when you give it to the Lord? She made him a new coat every year, because his growth demanded it. Think about how much prayer went into every stitch and each cut pattern? We all need praying mothers and I can say proudly that I had two, Golda and Juanita, my mother and mother in law.

It is amazing to me that God always has someone or others waiting in the wings, preparing them to serve the next generation.

SAMUEL WAS LIKE A DIAMOND ON BLACK CLOTH.

As we noticed last week, God remembered Hannah, I love the way F.B. Meyer said it, OF COURSE HE DID. Hannah sang about it and her song surely became an inspiration to other childless mother's, even the Virgin Mary.

Samuel was a gift son, a gifted son, a son who became a gift to his nation and his gifting took him where only his character could sustain him and it did.

We will once again visit Samuel again next week, SAMUEL A MAN OF CHARACTER.

I BELIEVE IN YOU,

PASTOR CLEDDIE

Hello neighbor, what a weekend! We prayed for the sick Sunday afternoon and we have you on our Holy Ghost radar as well. A wonderful blanket of healing came over us at the end of the service and his presence permeated us in a beautiful way. I have learned there is immediate healing and there is mediate healing, where people like the blind man Jesus prayed for was healed as he went.

MEDIATE HEALING = A PROGRESSIVE HEALING THAT TAKES PLACE GRADUALLY

Our 21 days of corporate fasting and prayer are over and as we face the year of our Lord 2026, we need to take heed to the scripture which admonishes us to "DWELL DEEP" and I am sure that I am not sharing something with you that you are not already aware of. As I was studying this morning I felt as though it would be a good thing to do a brief character study of someone who that Holy Spirit spot lights in regard to his character. There are two Old Testament Books named after him because His character is spoken of before his gifting. His name of course is Samuel the prophet. The Holy Spirit gives us a peek into his life as what would have been a good eulogy for any of us, at the end of our life lived for God:

In Samuel's Farewell Address he mentions the Great Name of the Lord who will not abandon His people. Paul mentioned this same thing, Behold:

1 Samuel 12:22-24
Indeed, for the sake of His great name, the LORD will not abandon His people, because He was pleased to make you His own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin, against the LORD by ceasing to pray for you. And I will continue to teach you the good and right way. Above all, fear the LORD and serve Him faithfully with all your heart; consider what great things He has done for you...

This is key to all the great men who God chose as an example of those who became leaders in diary of His Word.

1 Samuel 12:23
Moreover as for me, God forbid that I should sin against the LORD in ceasing to pray for you: but I will teach you the good and the right way.

WE CAN ALL LEARN LESSONS FROM SAMUEL, "GOD FORBID":

Acts 12:5
Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.

Romans 1:9
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers;

Colossians 1:9
For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;

It has always been our desire for Heritage to be a House of Prayer, knowing that is Christ desire. "My house shall be a house of prayer. Built Word of God."

How often have you heard me say through the years, "The study of God's Word is the secret discipline which has formed the greatest of characters."

Now let's take a look at Samuel, one of the greatest of Bible characters. Remembering his birth is fascinating to me, because you cannot justly read about him without mentioning his barren mother, Hanna. God was wanting someone like her to demonstrate the power of an answered prayer.

In 1 Samuel 1:22-28, Hanna dedicates Samuel to the Lord and it is not without drama.

But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, "I will not go up until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, that he may appear before the LORD and stay there forever." Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do what seems best to you. Remain until you have weaned him; only may the LORD confirm His word." So the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. Now when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year-old bull and one ephah of flour and a jug of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh, although the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull, and brought the boy to Eli. She said, "Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you, praying to the LORD. "For this boy I prayed, and the LORD has given me my petition which I asked of Him. "So I have also dedicated him to the LORD; as long as he lives he is dedicated to the LORD." And he worshiped the LORD there.

Please make a note that Hanna got what she wanted, a son named Samuel and God got what he wanted, a child named Samuel.

What a story, if you ask God for what he wants then you will get what you want as well. He may be waiting on you to ask Him for what He wants. Have you ever received an answer to prayer wherein God received what He wanted? God's Word speaks about selfishness in our prayers in the last days. James lived with the prototype of unselfishness; his brother Jesus.

James 4:3
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.

DO YOU THINK WE COULD BE LIVING IN A DAY LIKE THIS?

2 Timothy 4:3
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

2 Peter 3:3
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.

PART ONE OF TWO

Pastor Cleddie Keith

Greetings to all those who have desire to feed on the incorruptible Word of God. I often say as I am speaking publicly, that I push the Word out in front of me and I hide behind it. On the 22nd of June, 2001, I woke up early with a deep disturbance in my soul. The Lord had dealt with me on this specific Lord's Day to speak on an unusual subject and there was some question and restlessness in my soul concerning it. The subject was THE REIGN OF TERROR. The chapter for the message was Amos chapter 6. Let me give you a brief outline of the message in our letter for this week:

A MESSAGE TO THE COMPLACENT

• WOE TO YOU WHO ARE AT EASE IN ZION
• TO YOU WHO FEEL SECURE ON MT. SAMARIA
• TO THE NOTABLE MEN WHOM THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL COME

1. NOTABLE CITIES: CALNEH - A SYRIAN CITY, NEXT, THE WALLED CITY OF GREAT HAMATH, THEN, TO THE CITY OF GIANTS - GATH, ONE OF THE ROYAL CITIES OF PHILISTIA.
2. THEY WERE CITIES OF LEISURE; SLEEPY CITIES, SNOOZING IN THEIR EXTRAVAGANCE.
3. THEY WERE CITIES ABOUNDING IN SUPERFLUITY.
4. THE WORD PLACES AN EMPHASIS ON HOW THEY SATISFIED THEMSELVES WITH CHOICE LAMB CHOPS AND PRIME RIB.
5. THEY DID ALL THIS AT THE EXPENSE OF THE POOR.
6. THEY DID THIS WHILE BEING ENTERTAINED ON HARPS, LIKE THAT OF DAVID. THEIR SONGS WERE SONGS OF RIDICULE OF DIVINE INSTITUTIONS.
7. THEY WERE WINO'S AND BATHED THEMSELVES IN THE FINEST OF LOTIONS. IN OTHER WORDS, THEY ANOINTED THEMSELVES. THEY LOVED THEIR OWN PERSONAGE.
8. THEY HAD NO PASSION OR COMPASSION. THEY DID NOT GRIEVE OVER THE RUIN OF JOSEPH, WHICH WAS BOTH JUDAH AND ISRAEL AT THAT TIME.
9. THEY WORSHIPPED WITHOUT A CONCERN FOR THE GREATER PICTURE.
10. WHO WERE THEY LIKE? THE BUTLER AND THE BAKER, IN THAT THEY FORGOT JOSEPH — GENESIS 40:21,23
11. IT IS OFFENSIVE TO GOD TO FORGET THE NEEDS OF OTHERS.

Now this was on June 22nd of 2001 and the message was, "THERE WAS A REIGN OF TERROR THAT WAS COMING TO AMERICA."

I even apologized to the church that morning, not knowing that some 72 days later 2,996 people would loose their lives as a result of the terrorist attack on the twin towers, the Pentagon, and the crash in Pennsylvania. As a result of that fateful day, terror still reigns. This is why I have now said, "IT IS TIME TO CLINCH OUR HEARTS."

TODAY, AS A PASTOR, I FEEL THE NEED TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO HIDE THE WORD OF GOD IN YOUR HEART. REMEMBER, THE WORD OF THE LORD IS A STRONG TOWER, THEY THAT RUN INTO IT ARE SAFE.

LET ME CHALLENGE YOU TO FEED YOUR FAITH AND YOUR DOUBTS WILL STARVE TO DEATH.

Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. —James 5:14-15

Worship the Lord your God, and his blessing will be on your food and water. I will take away sickness from among you. —Exodus 23:25

Dear friend, I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all may go well with you, even as your soul is getting along well. —3 John 1:2

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. —Psalm 147:3

Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. —Isaiah 53:4

A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones. —Proverbs 17:22

THE POWER OF CONFESSION
Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise. —Jeremiah 17:14

THE POWER OF LISTENING
My father-in-law and Kenneth Hagin were friends. They were in a meeting in Dallas where several hundred pastors and believers were gathered in a Faith Meeting. A friend of there's a prominent faith preacher in those days was sick and a call went out to come and pray for him. People were gathering around him to pray but Hagin did not move. My father-in-law leaned over to Hagin and ask him why he was not joining them. He answered, "God spoke to him about what not to do and he did not listen." The man died at a young age.

IF YOU LISTEN CAREFULLY to the Lord your God and do what is right in his eyes, IF YOU PAY ATTENTION to his commands and keep all his decrees, I will not bring on you any of the diseases I brought on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, who heals you. —Exodus 15:26

NOW BEFORE YOU READ THIS NEXT VERSE, I WANT TO LOOK AT THE END OF MATTHEW CHAPTER 9, VERSE 35-38 FIRST.

35 And Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. 36 But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. 37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; 38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.

AND IN THE NEXT CHAPTER IT BEGINS WITH
And when he had called unto him his twelve disciples, he gave them power against unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of disease. —Matthew 10:1

HEALING IS THE DINNER BELL TO SALVATION
8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give. —Matthew 10:8

Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. —James 5:16

Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.' —Luke 10:9

Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life. —Proverbs 13:12

The Lord gives sight to the blind, the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down, the Lord loves the righteous. —Psalm 146:8

When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. —Psalm 32:3

He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. —Isaiah 53:3

GOD'S WORD IS A FORECAST OF THINGS TO COME
Who believes what we've heard and seen? Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost. We've all done our own thing, gone our own way. And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong, on him, on him.

He was beaten, he was tortured, but he didn't say a word. Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered and like a sheep being sheared, he took it all in silence. Justice miscarried, and he was led off— and did anyone really know what was happening? He died without a thought for his own welfare, beaten bloody for the sins of my people. They buried him with the wicked, threw him in a grave with a rich man, Even though he'd never hurt a soul or said one word that wasn't true.

Still, it's what God had in mind all along, to crush him with pain. The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life. And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

Out of that terrible travail of soul, he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it. Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant, will make many "righteous ones," as he himself carries the burden of their sins. Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly— the best of everything, the highest honors—Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch, because he embraced the company of the lowest. He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many, he took up the cause of all the black sheep. —Isaiah 53 (MSG)

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Look! God's dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away." —Revelation 21:3-4

Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom, and healing every disease and sickness among the people. —Matthew 4:23

Pastor Cleddie Keith

The story of the providence of God in our lives begins before we do: "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you." Jeremiah 1:5.

And what did God know about us before our conception? Our personal history from start to finish: "...all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." Psalm 139:16

So these two profound statements by God in His eternal, trustworthy Word, set before us the definition of providence: to know or see beforehand, from the Latin prepositional prefix "pro," to know or be aware, and the Latin verb "video" meaning to see: God sees, knows, is aware beforehand what will be.

The best way to understand and define God's providence is to ask the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of our heart that we might see His providence in our personal history.

While born and raised, baptized and confirmed in the Presbyterian church, I experienced a powerful conversion and an equally powerful Holy Spirit baptism, both during my senior year of high school. Upon graduating from high school I found myself a full-time student at a Pentecostal school, Southern California College.

It was there during my senior year, that the professor who taught systematic theology asked me to take the class when he had to be away, which I gladly did. Unbeknownst to me, because of how I handled the teaching of that class, my name was shared with individuals putting together the faculty for a new Christian university being founded in Tulsa, Oklahoma, a Pentecostal school, Oral Roberts University. I was contacted and offered a full ride in the graduate school of theology in exchange for teaching two undergraduate systematic theology classes.

Here was an offer I couldn't refuse -- or so I thought. For me it was a dream come true. Yet every time I prayed about it there was a subtle but persistent check in my spirit, which I can still sense within over sixty years later: this was not God's will for me. Nothing wrong with the offer, it just wasn't his will. So I said "no" to an incredibly attractive proposition.

What to do? I was graduating that spring with a B.A. in religion and now had a future that looked like a blank slate, a rather bleak blank slate. Then one day a retired pastor called and asked me to drop by his house near the college. After exchanging pleasantries, he told me that as he was praying the Holy Spirit told him he was to encourage me to go back to school and get a teaching degree and, to help me do that, he handed me a check for the tuition for the first semester. So I did just that, enrolled for the fall semester in the education B.A. track.

While this scenario was unfolding, another, unbeknownst to me, was running parallel to it.  A missionary to Switzerland was speaking in chapel for the first week of school. She was accompanying a young lady enrolling as a foreign exchange student from Switzerland. As she sat on the platform watching the students as they entered, the Holy Spirit caused her to focus on one student who stood out from all the rest, and told her, "That young man is going to be Ruth's husband." She told us that story two years later when we announced our engagement.

The providence of God is a characteristic of the God who sees ahead of time the details in our lives before they happen. Had I persisted in moving forward with the tantalizing offer from Oral Roberts University, I would have enjoyed that chapter in my life but missed the woman who has now been my wife for 60 years.

So the providence of God involves guidance, if we will listen and not be tempted to choose something in which we can discern nothing wrong just because we want it, and in the choosing miss what God sees ahead of time that he has waiting for us that we will miss if we make the wrong choice. Paying attention to what the Quakers call the checks and nudges of the Spirit involves trusting without knowing ‘why,' learning to walk the walk of God's providence in our lives who always knows ‘why.'

And so we pray in the words of a great Welsh hymn:


It was a hot and humid summer in Arlington, Texas, where I stayed for a few weeks with my college roommate, Cleddie Keith, and his parents. While Cleddie lined up some preaching opportunities for me in several churches, I was there primarily to travel to the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation in East Texas where I was scheduled to preach a week of revival meetings in the Indian church. there. This southern California boy found himself confronted with two unfamiliar cultures, southern culture in general, and southern Pentecostalism in particular. I felt like a fish out of water, and a part of me wanted to cancel all meetings and hitchhike back to LA. But the Holy Spirit said "no," just as he said to Paul as he sought the Lord's providential guidance as to where to preach in Acts 16, a discernment which, if we will read the text carefully, was as clear about where Paul was NOT to preach as well as where he WAS to preach -- we can't be in two places at the same time. It was clear to me that I was to be in Texas preaching that summer.

So one day in Arlington, standing at the curb in that hot and humid Texas summer, and for reasons which I have long since forgotten, I was feeling disconnected, insecure and alone. Then, in the providence of God, I looked down and saw a dead sparrow in the gutter in front of the curb just where I was standing, not up the street, not down the street, but right in front of me and the quiet voice of a loving Father said to me, "Not one of these sparrows falls without my knowing exactly where it is, (Matthew 10:29), including the dead sparrow in the gutter in front of you, and I know where you are as well."

It was then that I began learning that the purpose of the providence of God is not only there to provide us with guidance, but also to envelope us with a sense of assurance as we follow that guidance, an assurance born of an awareness that He always knows where we are and will never abandon us enroute. While I was tempted to go my own way that day, I remain grateful I did not, and instead experienced God not only working in my life but through my life that summer. At the end of the summer all was well with my soul, and I returned to college thankful for the providence of God in my life, although I didn't know to call it that yet.

A testimony born of great loss in the Chicago fire of 1871 and the subsequent loss of his four daughters two years later in a shipwreck, Horatio Spafford, a Presbyterian elder, was able to pen these words of confidence in the providential assurance God gives no matter the circumstances.


Back in college, one day I received a call to drop by the finance office. When I met with the finance officer she handed me an envelope with cash in it but no name. She explained that someone had been watching me as I worshiped at Glad Tidings Assembly of God near the college, and would watch as at every opportunity I would join others going forward to kneel at the altar benches to pray and seek the Lord. One Sunday they noticed my shoes -- they were worn through and had holes in them. The money was to buy a new pair of shoes.

Here we encounter a different take on the word "providence," for the word "provide" is found, letter for letter, in the word providence, and contains, therefore, the same prepositional prefix and verb from Latin as our word providence. He knew ahead of time that my shoes were going to wear out. He knew ahead of time that I wouldn't have the money to replace them, and He knew ahead of time the individual He could trust to place it in their heart to anonymously provide new shoes for me. This characteristic of God is confirmed in one of the Hebrew Old Testament names for God, Jehovah Jireh, "the Lord will provide."‘ God's providence not only means God's guidance and God's assurance but also God's provision. The providence of God backs the promises of God: "But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

These snapshot testimonies of God's providence help us to understand a little more of Who He is as a providential God, a God who sees ahead.

There is one more way in which God's providence works in our lives: in our past, a past that before it came to be He saw ahead of time. The French Reformer John Calvin, 1509-1564, in his singularly greatest work of theology, The Institutes of the Christian Religion, made the sovereignty of God the centerpiece of his treatise. "A summary of the doctrine of divine providence," he wrote, "...embraces both the future and the past."  Here is a great mystery regarding God: he sees both past and future as present.

Sometimes the landscape of the past in our lives is littered with anger, resentment, unforgiveness, bitterness, all of which are relational in nature - and even hatred, which can maintain a stubborn presence in our lives in the present and wounding our future. How does God's providence interact with such personal histories in ways that are freeing and healing even though the events that sowed such seeds in our lives happened years ago?

As the heavy metal doors of the prison slammed shut behind me, I felt a moment of anger that I should even have to be there, visiting my father incarcerated for doing to other children what he did to me so many years ago. So egregious was his behavior that he made it to the front page of the Los Angeles Times. Now here I was, again, going to spend time with the man I grew up hating but a hatred the Holy Spirit had converted into love for him over the years.

As we sat at a picnic table in the prison yard he began to cry, and asked me to forgive him for the things he had done to me as a child. My response was immediate and sincere; "Of course I forgive you." God had been preparing me for that moment years ago.

Years earlier, driving our youngest daughter to school, she asked,  knowing our family history, "Dad, do you sometimes wish you had a different father?" "Yes," I replied, "but this is the father God has given me, and if on his deathbed I have the opportunity to lead him to Christ then that is why he is my father, and I am his son." A few years later this is exactly what happened. In our last meeting before he died, the man who would not help me with college because the school was run by a church, and the man who made it clear to me he wanted nothing to do with Jesus, asked this same Jesus into his heart and life and also asked Him to forgive him for all the terrible things he had done to children and their families. The past and the present met there in that exchange that prepared him for the future when he died, and brought past and present for me into one time frame. Only a providential God can do that.

The great English hymn writer Isaac Watts, 1674-1748, paraphrased Psalm 90, giving us a memorable hymn of praise and prayer to God for his providence covering all time.


Here's a fundamental prior principle when it comes to seeking an understanding of God's providence in our lives: It is always about his purpose, not our particulars. What do I mean by that? When I was tempted by a perfectly legitimate offer to teach at ORU, what God was after was not my teaching ability but my obedience above the particulars, the formation of Christ's person and character within me. Dietrick Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis in the closing days of World War Two, puts this principle bluntly before us in his classic, The Cost of Discipleship, when he says, "Only he who believes is obedient, and only he who is obedient believes." The particulars are secondary.

Asking questions helps us get at least a bit of a hold on providence from God's perspective, found in His eternal, trustworthy Word.

The why of God's providence - John 3:16-17

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him."

The where of God's providence - John 14:2-3

"...I am going to prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

The what of God's providence -- 1 John 3:2

"Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is."

The when of God's providence -- 1 Thessalonians 5:1-2

"Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you very well know that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night."

The who of God's providence -- Revelation 22:3-4

"The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face..."

Not what we expected, is it, but ultimately God's providence is always about another world, not this one, and we would be well-advised to keep this in mind when seeking his providential engagement with who we are and where we are.

Here's the end of the matter: "...he who has begun a good work in you will bring it to completion..." Philippians 1:6, a completion echoed in that great worship hymn "All Hail the Power of Jesus Name." :


"Maranatha, come, Lord Jesus." Revelation 22:20

As we continue in the fast this week, I want to encourage you by offering perhaps a different perspective on the heart of fasting.

Fasting Is a Form of Worship
Fasting is the act of laying down: what I want, what I desire, and what I think I need in exchange for what God knows is best for me.  It is a bold declaration that says there is nothing I want more than God, His presence and His desires.

Fasting Is a Physical Declaration of Our Faith
Fasting proclaims physically what we are called to declare verbally. Declaring the Word of God over your life is monumental in the process of spiritual growth and maturity. We must feast on, believe, and declare what God Word says—regardless of our present circumstances. When we add fasting to our faith and declarations, it releases a level of power that cannot be found any other way.

Fasting Empowers Us to Be Purified—and Comes With a Promise
The rawness of fasting can expose how carnal and natural we can be, and at times it can be downright ugly. Fasting brings the "crud" to the surface. When that happens, it is the perfect opportunity to bring those things—those raw places—to the feet of Jesus and repent.

In true repentance there is always a blessing. It says in 2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

Fasting Is a Time of Being Set Apart by God
During fasting is is vitally important to seek and listen to Gods heart and His desires. If you truly love someone, you ask them what they care about and what matters to them. We must do the same in our relationship with the Lord.

In Acts 13:2 and 14:23, we see men of character gathering together to seek the Lord about how to proceed in building the church. They didn't simply do what seemed best to them—they asked the Lord and waited for His response.

We know this honors God because in Genesis 4:3-5, Scripture makes it clear that Abel brought exactly what the Lord desired, while Cain brought what was easiest. The Word says the Lord had no regard for Cain's offering.

God Answers Those Who Fast and Pray
God honors the sacrifice of prayer and fasting. Throughout Scripture, both men and women are called out by name and recorded forever so we can learn from their obedience.

Abraham, Moses, Hannah, Esther, David, Anna, and many others are remembered because their obedience in fasting and prayer kept their hearts close to God. The course of history was changed forever because of their obedience!

God Does Have a Favorite Fast
Isaiah 58:3-5 speaks of a false fast—a fast of the body but not of the heart. But the chapter continues on to tell us the fast God loves:

Isaiah 58:6-8 (ESV)
Final Encouragement
Remember, fasting is never about what we are giving up—it is always about what we are gaining.

We have come to a place where we stop bringing sacrifices to cover sin and instead become the sacrifice that offers everything. When we truly turn our lives over to the Lord, we become people who can once again change history—for His glory.

Julie Schilling

Fasting has been a major part of my life, and I can honestly say it has helped make me who I am today.

Some of my earliest encounters with God happened as a young boy—not because of something I did, but because of my dad's fasting lifestyle. I watched God move through his obedience. I experienced deliverance from night terrors, healing, and God's protection in real and tangible ways. When I look back now, I can trace so much of that back to one thing: my dad's commitment to fasting and prayer.

That example marked me deeply.

As I grew older, I began to live a fasted lifestyle myself. It wasn't driven by religion or routine—it was driven by relationship. Over time, fasting became a consistent way God spoke to me, prepared me, and led me.

There have been critical moments in our lives where fasting became the place God met us most clearly. During one season of fasting, the Lord gave me specific direction for what to do concerning Julie's healing. Other times, God would call me to fast before something major happened—before I even knew what was coming. I've learned this: God prepares us if we are willing to stop and listen.

Fasting has been a major part of why Julie is still alive today.

Three years before Julie had brain surgery, God had me fasting often. At the time, we didn't fully understand why—but looking back, we see how God was strengthening us, sustaining us, and anchoring us for the dark days ahead. That season of fasting didn't just help us survive—it carried us through and brought us out on the other side. There are other markers along the way that stand out clearly.

In 2018, during a time of fasting, God gave me a vision for evangelism.

In 2020, God called me into a 40-day fast and told me something was coming on the world that we needed to be ready for—and not long after, COVID hit.

In 2021, during fasting and prayer, God showed me a month-long tent revival at Heritage. During those meetings, the Lord showed me tents spread across America and asked me a simple but weighty question: How can you stay?

Again and again, fasting and prayer have been the catalyst for what God has done in and through our lives. From protection to breakthrough, from direction to endurance, God has always been faithful to honor obedience.

It's important to say this clearly: fasting has never been about performance. It has never been about proving anything to God. It has always been about faith, humility, and obedience—about positioning our hearts to hear Him and respond.

We have seen God move mightily in our meetings and through our ministry, not because of a formula, but because He honors surrender. And fasting has been one of the ways He has continually drawn us into deeper trust and dependence on Him.

Our prayer is that as you seek the Lord, you would discover what fasting can become—not a burden, but a doorway. Not a duty, but an invitation. A place where God prepares, speaks, protects, and brings victory.

- Aaron Schilling 

This week marks the beginning of 21 DAYS OF FASTING AND PRAYER.

I have heard over the years, of many churches joining together in January to fast and pray. This morning in my prayer time, I heard the familiar voice speak to me:

"CLINCH YOUR HEART"

This is what a boxer does with his fist as he goes into the ring.

In my days as a kid, there may be100 matches in a tournament each night. I remember my Dad, SPEEDY KEITH, coming down to the staging area as I was next up into the ring. He had strong hands and taking my hands, he would help me clinch them much harder than I ever could.

This morning God helped clinch my heart more than I possibly ever could.

I felt it as I meditated on Fasting and Prayer—in that the prayer of faith moves mountains.

Fasting and prayer moves the unseen world. So welcome to the World of Supernatural; where denying the natural is the pathway to the Supernatural.

Pastor Cleddie Keith

THE GRAPHIC ARTIST SADLY MISSED SOMETHING; DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS?

I saw the word mistletoe on this list of words, and what is missed is not the pucker of two young love birds underneath this twig. Did you ever wonder why it is called mistletoe?

To understand why it’s called mistletoe, consider these points:

• The name mistletoe comes from the Old English word "misteltan," meaning "dung twig."
• Mistletoe is a plant that grows on trees and shrubs, often appearing as green clumps.
• The "mistle" part refers to the plant's association with bird droppings, which help spread its seeds.
• Traditionally, mistletoe has been linked to fertility and peace in various cultures.
• It is commonly used in holiday traditions, particularly around Christmas, for kissing under its branches.
• The plant's unique growth habit and evergreen nature contribute to its symbolic significance.

Mistletoe is a parasite and if you have it growing on your property you should remove it to protect your vegetation because even though it is fabled to be associated with fertility, it is also poisonous. Despite appearing rootless, it flourished high in treetops during harsh winter months when other vegetation succumbed to the elements. Its evergreen nature made this plant a symbol of life, hope, and mystery. These qualities embedded mistletoe into the mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Celts, and Norse, representing fertility, love, peace, good fortune, and more.

IT IS NOT SANTA STUCK UPSIDE DOWN IN A CHIMNEY. IT IS FAR MORE THAN THIS; IT IS THE REASON FOR THE SEASON.

It is a story written in heaven before the world began. Long ago in a time before time, there was a meeting and God the father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit were in the meeting. Just imagine it was not an after thought. From the beginning it was a best seller and still is. He did much more than give visions of sugar plums.

In Revelation 21, John saw more than sugar plums:

John saw Every Thing New

The City of Light


I took a little time to explain what Mistletoe is, but how much more should we know about the real meaning of what we are celebrating this time of year. John writes to us about Jesus’s I-am-ness, God’s begotteness, and the source of our completeness. He was born against the backdrop of the Law, full of Grace and Truth. John describes himself as merely an echo of a prophetic voice. John was referred to (according to Jewish wedding customs of the time) as the friend of the bridegroom, often referred to as the "SHOSHBEN," who played a crucial role in the wedding ceremony. This individual was responsible for many of the arrangements and acted as a liaison between the bride and the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom was a trusted companion who ensured that the wedding proceeded smoothly and joyfully.

LET'S LOOK AT THE ROLE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST

John the Baptist identifies himself as the "friend of the bridegroom," indicating his role as a forerunner and preparer of the way for Jesus Christ. His mission was to announce the coming of the Messiah and to prepare the hearts of the people for His arrival. By using this metaphor, John emphasizes his subordinate position to Jesus, acknowledging that his purpose is to point others to Christ. HE WAS THE VOICE AS ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS AND HE PROCLAIMED THAT JESUS

WAS THE SON OF GOD. One can say that Jesus is God’s language to mankind. His name declares his mission. IN THIS WE CAN SAY THAT JESUS IS WHAT THE BIBLE IS ALL ABOUT AND IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT THE STORY OF CHRISTMAS IS ABOUT, THEN YOU WILL FIND IT IN THESE WORDS, “THIS IS THE SON OF MY DELIGHT, HE HAS MY TOTAL APPROVAL.” MERRY CHRISTMAS!

GAY NELL AND I WANT TO WISH YOU A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS FROM THE DEPTH OF OUR HEARTS AND THANK YOU FOR ALLOWING US TO SHARE OUR LIVES WITH YOU.

WITH HEARTS FILLED WITH CHRIST LOVE, WE REJOICE WITH YOU IN THE CELEBRATION OF HIS VIRGIN BIRTH,

Pastors Cleddie and Gay Nell Keith

Heaven and Earth
A funny thought came to me as Gay Nell and I took a drive through our subdivision, looking at beautifully decorated homes. I thought, someone must have said, "Let there be light", and there were lights, lots of lights. I heard that a lot over the years and most husbands and fathers know what I am talking about. Last Sunday Patti Maher brought me something to look at and it fits todays weekly letter. It was a Christmas sweater with this message written on it:

He was the beginning of all things:
Christ Holds It All Together
(THIS IS CALLED THE COLOSSIAN ‘THEORY AND WHEN SCIENTIST CANNOT EXPLAIN SOMETHING IT IS CALLED THE COLOSSIAN THEORY)

To understand the Colossians Theory, consider these key points:

And when it comes to the church, He organizes and holds it together, like a head does a body. He was supreme in the beginning and—leading the resurrection parade—He is supreme in the end. From beginning to end He's there, towering far above everything, everyone. So spacious is He, so expansive, that everything of God finds its proper place in him without crowding. Not only that, but all the broken and dislocated pieces of the universe—people and things, animals and atoms—get properly fixed and fit together in vibrant harmonies, all because of his death, his blood that poured down from the cross.

He alone is the LIGHT that shines in our hearts and this light show us what the GLORY OF GOD IS ABOUT AS WE SEE THE FACE OF THE SON OF GOD.

Pastors Cleddie and Gay Nell Keith

HOW CAN "CHRISTMAS BE ORDINARY," WHEN "CHRIST" IS ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY? HE IS EXTRA-ORDINARY.

I was traveling across London praying for a Christmas theme for our upcoming Advent Season, when by chance I saw a commercial advertisement that was announcing their "anything but ordinary" product. When the thought came to me; "How can Christmas be ordinary when Christ is involved? Everything about Him is extraordinary." WHAT A THEME FOR THE KING OF KINGS.

Just think, "His Birth Announcement" was ANYTHING BUT "ORDINARY."

CHECK OUT THIS LIST:

1. When you stop to think about it, His birth was the only one in history where an Angel Choir was chosen to announce His arrival.
2. What about the ON Star GPS that His Father had placed in the Solar System where wise men from Orient could be directed to a tiny spot in Bethlehem. I don't think you could call that "Ordinary!"
3. Have you ever thought about the accuracy of the Messianic Prophecies given by ordinary men concerning His Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA). Surely you could not think of those as "Ordinary Words."
4. "A Virgin Shall Conceive." Do you think anyone can call that "Ordinary?''

So, how can we have "An Ordinary Christmas," when Christ is anything but Ordinary?

I don't think we can. I don't think we should. I don't think we should even want to. This December we will have an Unordinary, Supernatural, Other Worldly, Heaven Wrapped, Christ Centered, Spirit Inspired Christmas, and we invite you to make it what we all want it to be.

Our purpose is to encourage you and your family to have an ANYTHING BUT ORDINARY CHRIST FILLED CHRISTMAS...

We believe in you and we believe Christmas is for everyone. Everything HE has to offer is available to EACH OF US; no LAYAWAY PLAN on His gifts.

MAY GOD BLESS YOU AND YOURS WITH AN EXTRA ORDINARY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

WE BELIEVE IN CHRISTMAS AND WE BELIEVE IN YOU.
IN CHRIST, WE LOVE YOU.

Pastors Cleddie and GayNell Keith

GOD THOUGHT IT, JESUS BROUGHT IT, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT WROUGHT IT.

It is 3:00 am, after a wonderful day in the Lord's House, and what a wonderful day it has been. Sunday had been a day of appreciation for the faithful church family we have had the privilege of serving for 44 years. I recall one of the pastor's who was loved by the church and the city he had served for many years. One lady speaking about him said, "he never knew my name, but he always knew my needs."

On the shared tombstone of my father and mother-in-love in the Rose Mound Cemetery in Waco, Texas, we had engraved the epitaph, THEY SERVED THEIR GENERATION BY THE WILL OF GOD. If someone came running up to him and told him that one of his faithful members of the church he served had just robbed a bank, he would answer the person like this, "Well, I bet he had a good reason." His love for the people he served in nearly 60 years of ministry was one of the greatest influences on my life. I have always been fascinated with the word CHARACTER. Through the years as I have officiated funeral services, I have read many of the tombstones. The words that have been written about them are engraved in to the stone. My father-in-law had character, it was carved into everything he was and indicative of the God he represented. His life message was used as an intro of a song used on his radio broadcast.

The devastation and the casualties of what is remembered as, The Waco Tornado of the 1950's, was hard to believe: 114 people were killed, 145 sustained serious injuries, 196 business buildings were destroyed completely, 396 business buildings were damaged so badly they had to be torn down. Gay Nell was 14 years old at the time. She played the organ at the funerals of 16 people she knew and that attended their church. Three members of one family owned a furniture store and they were taking shelter together when a roof beam broke and killed each of them together. They had three coffins in the altar area of the church that day.

The tallest building in town (and is still), the Amoco Building. It is a landmark in the Heart of Texas. Gay Nell's father broadcast his radio program out of that building. The week after this horrible storm had left the fury of it's impact behind, my father-in-law went into the lobby of the Amoco Building. He had his shoes shined, as he did weekly. As he was sitting in the chair this day, the man that shined shoes in the lobby looked up at Brother Weathers, and he begin to sing:

ONLY BELIEVE, ONLY BELIEVE
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE, ONLY BELIEVE
ONLY BELIEVE, ONLY BELIEVE
ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE
ONLY BELIEVE

This is how he opened and closed each of his daily broadcasts, and the Shoe Shine man had listened to the messages. Not only had he listened, he got the message.

Just think, it is one thing to hear, but another thing to get it. For "faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God." When it comes to believing, we choose to believe it is a choice. In spite of the devastation and chaos, we too must choose to believe, "for faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of the Lord."

One of the best ways for me to really take hold of something in my faith life is to place emphasis on truths, which help me celebrate what I have learned about and from the Lord Himself, such as: THE FATHER THOUGHT IT, THE SON BROUGHT IT, THE HOLY SPIRIT WROUGHT IT.

Biblical References of "Wrought"

The meaning of the word wrought in the Bible can be illustrated through several key biblical references:

Psalm 139:14 - "I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Here, "WROUGHT" can be interpreted as the divine craftsmanship involved in the creation of human life, affirming the belief that each individual is intentionally and purposefully created.

Isaiah 45:7 - "I form the light and create darkness, I bring prosperity and create disaster; I, the Lord, do all these things." This verse emphasizes God's sovereignty in all aspects of creation, showcasing that everything "WROUGHT" by God is under His control and authority.

Ephesians 2:10 - "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." In this New Testament reference, the term "HANDIWORK" can be viewed as synonymous with "WROUGHT," indicating that believers are crafted by God for specific purposes.

Spiritual Relevance of "Wrought"

Understanding the meaning of the word wrought in the Bible carries significant spiritual implications for believers. It challenges Christians to recognize that their lives are not random, but purposefully crafted by God. This realization can enhance one's sense of identity and value in Christ.

Moreover, the concept of wrought, encourages individuals to engage in their spiritual gifts and talents actively. Just as God wrought the universe with intention, believers are called to use their abilities to serve others and glorify Him. Colossians 3:23-24 states, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward."

Conclusion

In conclusion, the meaning of the word wrought in the Bible reveals a deep connection between divine creation and human craftsmanship. It invites believers to appreciate the artistry of God's work in their lives and encourages them to participate in the ongoing act of creation through their own efforts and talents. By understanding this term's biblical significance, individuals can gain a greater appreciation for their purpose and calling in the grand tapestry of God's plan. - copied

I WANT TO CLOSE THIS CHAPTER WITH A BEAUTIFUL STORY, AND BEFORE YOU READ IT, UNDERSTAND THIS STORY IS TRUE:

Who's Your Daddy?

A seminary professor was vacationing with his wife in Gatlinburg, TN. One morning, they were eating breakfast at a little restaurant, hoping to enjoy a quiet, family meal. While they were waiting for their food, they noticed a distinguished looking, white-haired man moving from table to table, visiting with the guests. The professor leaned over and whispered to his wife, "I hope he doesn't come over here." But sure enough, the man did come over to their table.

"Where are you folks from?" he asked in a friendly voice. "Oklahoma," they answered. "Great to have you here in Tennessee." the stranger said. "What do you do for a living?" "I teach at a seminary," he replied. "Oh, so you teach preachers how to preach, do you? Well, I've got a really great story for you." And with that, the gentleman pulled up a chair and sat down at the table with the couple. The professor groaned and thought to himself, "Great... Just what I need another preacher story!"

The man started, "See that mountain over there pointing out the restaurant window. Not far from the base of that mountain, there was a boy born to an unwed mother. He had a hard time growing up, because every place he went, he was always asked the same question, 'Hey boy, Who's your daddy?' "Whether he was at school, in the grocery store or drug store, people would ask the same question, 'Who's your daddy?'

He would hide at recess and lunch time from other students. He would avoid going in to stores because that question hurt him so bad. "When he was about 12 years old, a new preacher came to his church. He would always go in late and slip out early to avoid hearing the question, 'Who's your daddy?' But one day, the new preacher said the benediction so fast he got caught and had to walk out with the crowd.

Just about the time he got to the back door, the new preacher, not knowing anything about him, put his hand on his shoulder and asked him, "Son, who's your daddy?" The whole church got deathly quiet. He could feel every eye in the church looking at him. Now everyone would finally know the answer to the question, "Who's your daddy." This new preacher, though, sensed the situation around him and using discernment that only the Holy Spirit could give, said the following to that scared little boy, "Wait a minute!" he said. "I know who you are. I see the family resemblance now. You are a child of God. With that he patted the boy on his shoulder and said, "Boy, you've got a great inheritance. Go and claim it."

With that, the boy smiled for the first time in a long time and walked out the door a changed person. He was never the same again. Whenever anybody asked him, "Who's your Daddy?" he'd just tell them, "I'm a Child of God." The distinguished gentleman got up from the table and said, "Isn't that a great story?"

The professor responded that it really was a great story!

As the man turned to leave, he said, "You know, if that new preacher hadn't told me that I was one of God's children, I probably never would have amounted to anything!" And he walked away.

The seminary professor and his wife were stunned. He called the waitress over and asked her, "Do you know who that man was who just left that was sitting at our table?"

The waitress grinned and said, "Of course. Everybody here knows him. That's Ben Hooper. He's the former governor of Tennessee!"

Someone in your life today needs a reminder that they're one of God's children!
- Copied from Scopes

PROVIDENTIAL PURPOSE CAN BE RELEASED THROUGH YOUR WORDS, FOR AS I HAVE SAID, "WE ALL ARE JUST ONE REVELATION AWAY FROM A BREAK THROUGH."

Pastor Cleddie Keith

Several years ago I had the privilege of speaking in a camp meeting for R. W. Schambach, on the ministry grounds located on the banks of Lake Tyler in East Texas. We had the occasion to spend time with him before he spoke on the final night. For an hour he shared with us some incredible events in his life. He had joined the ministry of A. A. Allen, serving as his platform man and associate evangelist. Brother Schambach spoke to us from these experiences. He told us of a morning meeting where a demon-possessed man had come into the service and could not be stopped from disturbing the meeting. Brother Allen never came to the morning meetings, but on this particular morning he showed up. He entered from the side of the tent and Schambach immediately went to him and said, "Ace, Ace! We cannot do anything to silence this man and he is totally distracting the attention from our speaker. Allen went to the man and whispered in his ear and the devil was cast out. After the incident Schambach said, "I asked Allen, ‘Ace, Ace, what formula did you use?' To which he replied, ‘Formula, Formula; I didn't use any Formula, I did not use any Formula. I just said, this is A. A. Allen.'"

A month later, I was preaching for Peter Morris, Nathan Morris's father in Wath, England and an unusual thing happened. A man possessed with a devil came out of the crowd and as I was praying for him, he grabbed me by the throat and he tore the buttons off my shirt. I thought, oh my! This looks like a scene out of the Bible and I am not one of the seven sons of Sceva. It dawned on me there was glass on the entry way into the sanctuary and the devil may try to throw him through the glass to harm him, so I tripped him on his back and lay on top of him to prevent him from hurting himself. In a matter of a few minutes I had used every formula I had ever heard of in casting out devils. I probably even came up with a few of my own. Nothing was working. All of a sudden a spirit of love came upon me, I cannot explain it, but I can only say Christ's love and compassion overwhelmed me and I began to feel a rush from my toes to my vocal chords and without in hesitation I said with authority, "THIS IS CLEDDIE KEITH!" Suddenly the devil released the man and he was delivered. Let me say, you may not believe in impartation, but I can tell you that had I not had that Providential Faith Talk with Brother Schambach, things may have had a different outcome. I am convinced that we do not fully know how much "greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world." I often say that we are just one revelation away from a break through and this is the kind of thing I am making reference to.

I knew a preacher that ‘Godcidently' was on a flight to Mexico to minister. His seat assignment was beside a veteran missionary who was well known for his work South of the border. In conversation he told the veteran about his call to Mexico and how he did not know what he should do about it. The veteran missionary told him if he had that strong of a call, he needed to get his feet on Mexican soil as soon as he could. So he went to Mexico and lived in a sod house without running water for one year. He lived like the people he was serving. I know the family and the children of this man became wonderful and powerful representatives of the Gospel. Sacrifice demands a reward. Back in the early 70's I was speaking in Monterey, Mexico and God showed up and dozens came to be prayed for. I found out later that people went into the surrounding neighborhood and brought the sick from their homes to be prayed for late into the night. Then they took me into the dark streets and into homes to pray for those who were too sick to bring into the church house.

In that service there was the largest Mexican man that I had ever seen, who was totally demonized. They had brought him in for prayer and deliverance. It was as though the finger of God was at work that night and with a simple prayer the demon was driven out. There was a little boy who came and stood beside me as I was ministering. He was watching everything I did.

When the demon was cast out of the large man, I turned to the child who was about 6 years old at that time and prophesied over him. These are the words that I spoke over him: "Son, you have just seen the demonstration of the power of the Kingdom of God and of this Kingdom there shall never be an end. Nations and Civilizations will rise and fall, but of this Kingdom there will never be an end and you are going to be a builder in this Kingdom. Fast forward 46 years, I was in Leon, Mexico and preaching a national conference of the Assemblies of God. There was a preacher in the meeting who did not like anything that I was doing. A friend was with me who was a great drummer, who years before had been a drummer at the world famous Apollo Club in the Bronx, New York. I would have him play to stir up the religious spirits that take hold of people and keep them from the best that God has for them. Remember that good can become an enemy of the best. This preacher had made a real show of himself for his displeasure with the way the meeting was being conducted. His attitude was exactly what I wanted exposed in this meeting. Right in the middle of my message, I told about being in a meeting in Monterey, Mexico years before. Now grant you, I had probably gained forty or fifty pounds and lost most of my hair at that time. I stopped to sing a song I had written in Spanish all those years before, it went like this:


The next morning our Spanish pastor and my interpreter met me in the lobby. He said, "Pastor, that preacher wants to talk with you, the one who has been unhappy with the meetings." I thought, Oh No, the other foot is getting ready to fall. The preacher then came to speak to me and Renee our Pastor of our Hispanic Church interpreted what he wanted to tell me. He began by saying, "I was in that meeting, but I did not know who you were until you began to sing that song. I stopped him and said, (God gave the word back to me word for word just like it had been spoken over the boy when he was six years old) "Yes and you were six years old and this is what I told you when the devil was cast out of a man. "Son you have just seen the demonstration of the POWER OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD AND OF THIS KINGDOM THERE WILL NEVER BE AN END. NATIONS AND CIVILIZATIONS WILL RISE AND FALL, BUT THIS KINGDOM WILL NEVER FALL AND YOU ARE TO BE A BUILDER IN THIS KINGDOM. He then said, "Yes,

and I have built my life on that word you gave me." I told him at that point, "Sir, you are speaking this afternoon." He got up that afternoon and wept until he had no more power to weep. He had just been removed from the office of the Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in all Mexico. In 1994 I had seen this man in a vision, he had come into the back of the church on a Wednesday night but that is a story for another time. God records what He has to say to us and it might be well if we take words to heart. For remember, "We are just one revelation away from a breakthrough."

The brother who had been such a wet blanket on the conference, did speak. His clothes were soaked in his own tears and he would have had to meeting that had become and God had been saving a song to be sung at the right moment to change and challenge a new generation of pastors and teachers in the heart of Mexico.

I love Mexico and the people of Mexico. I had told the Lord years ago, if He did not want me to go to Mexico full-time, any time He needed me to be there, just call me. This is one of the times He called me.

Here I am, fully available,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

"Where is the god who can compare with you— wiping the slate clean of guilt, turning a blind eye, a deaf ear, to the past sins of your purged and precious people? You don't nurse your anger and don't stay angry long, for mercy is your specialty. That's what you love most. And compassion is on its way to us. You'll stamp out our wrongdoing. You'll sink our sins to the bottom of the ocean. You'll stay true to your word to Father Jacob and continue the compassion you showed Grandfather Abraham— Everything you promised our ancestors from a long time ago."   (Micah 7:18, The Message Bible)

"Who is a God like unto thee, that PARDONS iniquity, and passes by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retains not His anger for ever, because He delights in mercy."  (Micah 7:18, King James Version)

I love the sound of the word PARDON, It has the sound of freedom in it. You can almost hear the sound of chains rattling as the prisoner is released or the clang of the prison door as it is slammed behind those who sins have been absolved. For sins to be absolved there has to be an absolver, someone who can set the prisoner free, from an obligation or the consequences of guilt. Do you realize that forgiveness and pardon are synonyms? But there is a slight difference. The synonyms forgive and pardon are sometimes interchangeable, but forgive implies that one gives up all claim to requital, to resentment, or vengeful feelings.

Synonyms for FORGIVE: pardon, ignore, redeem, acquit, excuse, release, absolve, exonerate.

FORGIVENESS IS UNLOCKING THE DOOR TO SET SOMEONE FREE AND FINDING OUT YOU WERE THE PRISONER. (UNKNOWN)

Who has not heard or even knows the lyrics to this classic song on forgiveness. Several years ago during a revival that swept across Brazil, this was the song that would set the deadest church on fire, and it had the spark of revival in it. They tell of a preacher from Kansas, who was turned down by his denomination as to become a missionary to Brazil. The reason was he had five snotty nose children, and this in itself would be too much of a burden for him to manage. He had a word from God and a burden for the people of Brazil. His only equipment was a banjo and a song. THERE IS POWER IN THE BLOOD. It was the song of the revival, and everywhere he went and played this song, revival would break out. Let me say there is still (wonder working power in the blood) and I am singing this beloved song as I type this letter.


It is the song of the pardoned, and if you can sing it in your most difficult stretch of the road, or as the Psalmist would say, "When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death," it shall not come near you anymore than the Death Angel came near the Israelite dwellings in Dothan. Do you know why their residents were called dwellings? It was because they were not going to remain there, they would soon be on their way to the promise land. That is why it is called the Exodus. Providential Pardon from captivity in Egypt.

I love the sound of the word pardon, it has a ring of freedom to it

From one blood washed believer to another, MARANATHA.

Pastor Cleddie Keith

Have you ever prayed and the steps of your life were altered, and you found yourself on a new path? I have a friend who when working in missions in South America, despaired of life. He told the Lord, I cannot hold my life together unless I see you do something supernatural. In his own words he described it as a nation that devoured its inhabitants. He was drained and defeated in a nation where there was no dynamic leadership. He defined it as a nation of gross darkness. One little boy when asked what gross darkness was he replied, "layer after layer of darkness". God began to give him a down load, taking him to the Christmas Story. He noticed that again and again the word (WITH) appeared 30 times in 27 verses, in Luke chapter 1:34, Mary asked, "how shall these things be, seeing I know not a man?" The answer is beautiful .chapter 1 vs. 37, "WITH GOD NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE."

Later that year we took him with us on a mission's trip to Sweden. In one of his messages he told a story that (for me) was life changing. It was 1994, the week after Easter. He told of a pastor who had a daughter that chose to rebel against what she was taught, having been brought up in a Christian Home. She had met a boy and chosen to go join him in Kansas from the East Coast. The father was totally broken and as many families have experienced, he was desperately seeking God for her will to be changed in that matter. She was insistent on joining the young man. He took her to the bus station for her to travel to where the boy was in Kansas. He prayed all the way for her to change her mind. He dropped her off, broken hearted, and returned home. When he arrived, he went into the back bedroom and fell on his knees, praying even deeper now. Herein is his intercession he prayed:. "Lord, if you don't touch my daughter and turn her around, then a million years from now, I will be heard disgracing heaven with my tears. Something biblical happened as he prayed. He heard someone knocking on the front door. He got up to answer it and there stood his daughter. God had touched her heart and she returned back to her Father's House. As he told this story, it clicked with something on the inside of me.

It became the language to the inarticulate prayer of my heart. So we begin to pray this publicly and privately. I asked the church to join me. We had a wonderful church body and were involved in many church functions that were evangelistic in nature and missions oriented, but we wanted to see a move of God. We were planting churches in Mexico where we still have mission's teams, that along with us, followed their God Given Passions. Families came along side us and moved to Mexico, building churches and leaving children behind, who still work there over thirty years later. I was like my friend; asking, how can I hold my personality together unless I see you do something supernatural? If it is not supernatural, it is superficial. We had a school, community out-reaches, many legitimate things that churches do, but we wanted more. Here is the Providential Prayer we began to pray:


On July 17th, 1994, the heavens broke open over us and God mugged us on a Sunday Morning.

I can say now, it was as a PROVIDENTIAL PRAYER, and our congregation and friends of Heritage were a part of it, in a special way.

I tell people, if you are asking God for Revival, you are asking for a Divine Disruption. I should add; you cannot ask God for Revival and defy change.

I am asking God to give you words that are inarticulate prayers of your heart, those prayers you have never been able to put into words.

I believe in you, and I believe God knows "how to deliver the Godly out of temptation and reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment."

Walking in Providence and Providentially Secure,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

BROWN HAIR AND BROWN EYED REWARD TO OBEDIENCE

Funny way Providence leads to a lifetime of love. I was working at General Motors Assembly Plant in Arlington, Texas, unloading quarter panels on twelve hour shifts. At the same time I was going to college at Southwestern AoG in Waxahachie, Texas. It was about an hour drive to the campus and my little brother Michael was enrolled there as well. So, we would make the journey three times a week. As you can imagine we did not get a lot of sleep.

Shortly after the first semester, my uncle asked me to come and work with him as his assistant in Stafford, Texas--a small Houston suburb Southwest of the growing city. My Aunt Dorothy had a friend that played the piano and would come and play for their services occasionally. She told her of a pastor's daughter in Houston, who was a knock out. I told people I was quitting and moving to the Houston area and I was going to marry a preacher's daughter who was a brown haired and brown-eyed beauty. I had never even seen her but I could visualize her in my minds eye.

We met on a blind date in Alvin, Texas, at a lake cabin my uncle owned. That night when I was taking her home I got lost and had to stop and ask a policeman at a convenient store how to take her back to her home. When she leaned across the front seat and looked out the driver's side window, I thought, "Ole girl, you look altogether too comfortable in my car," which was a 1964 Aqua Mustang, with a white interior. We had that date on the weekend after Valentines Day 1965 and were married 90 days later in Dallas, where Gay Nell's uncle was the pastor. I was the luckiest groom in Texas and have always told folks when they ask me, how did you manage to catch such a beautiful lady. I told them all, "I dated her in the dark where she could not see what she was getting."

Gay Nell has never known anything but ministry. Her momma had to stay up when Gay Nell was an infant and fight the rats off of her. That is how poor things were in that day. As a result of how they lived in that era, she always said, "I will never marry a preacher." Back in that day preacher's lived off the clothes line and ate wind pudding. In other words, they just had two sets of clothes, one hanging on the clothes line and the ones on their back and they ate only what the wind blew in for them to eat.

I was blessed to marry into her family because her daddy was a faith preacher as a result of the hardships they faced in ministry during the late thirties and through WWII. The first time I had ever seen him was a year before in the Houston crusade of Oral Roberts at the Civic Center in Houston. He had been asked to pray. I really did not even realize who he was until we met him a year later and remembered that he would be my future father in law. It was humbling to say the least. As I recall, he touched Heaven that evening and I never forgot it.

Fast Forward to early March 1965 when I asked Gay Nell to go with me to hear me preach one Sunday Morning at my uncle's church. I owe him far more than I could ever repay him. He would alternate with me on Sunday mornings and Sunday nights, allowing me to begin my preaching experience. His name was Ellsworth Roach and he was the greatest preacher I ever heard. He had incredible retention of the Word of God, and when He preached the Word of God spoke to me. The church was an old school house in Stafford and when he spoke the building would shake.

Gay Nell did come to hear me preach, and on the way home that morning she told me she changed her mind. At first she was a little reluctant when it came to marrying me. I could take you to the spot on the country road where she changed her mind. I was working as an Iron Worker in those days and was making good money; some times as much as $1000.00 a week (which looks better if you type it this way). I asked her, "What did I say that changed your mind?" She said, "Oh! It's not what you said that changed my mind, it was after you preached, I decided what little preaching you were going to do was not going to hurt anything." Well that goes to show you, "the test of pride is humiliation." My grammar was hard to tolerate, but she patiently helped correct me with animism, as an instructor would teach a child.

I had been raised in a Christian Family, but that is a far cry from living in a Pastor's home. Gay Nell knew more by accident than I did on purpose, and I was her student. Sixty years later, I am far better for it. I learned early on to listen to her when it came to situations in the church. She had discernment, added to her woman's intuition, that was fool proof. She was a gift to me to help me in dealing with circumstances that she learned from her father, Hardie Weathers. When I would speak of him, I would say: "You could walk through a minefield and never set off a land mine." I believe if someone came to him and told him that someone in the church robbed a bank, Hardie would say, "Well I bet he had a good reason." Gay Nell is more than a chip off his back, she is a composite of her Mom and Dad and I appreciate the impartation they deposited in her life.

She has stood with me for over 60 years now as we have served our generation by the promises of God, fighting the good fight of faith, and laying hold of eternal life. I want to leave her a Love Note today reminding her of what they sang at our wedding:


Gay Nell has fulfilled this in my life. I found more than a good thing. When I found her it was Providential.

This is the way it happened, and I guess I ought to know, so that's my story and I am sticking to it.

Pastor Cleddie Keith

This is a letter from Gerald Davis. His father, R.L. Davis, pastored in El Cajon, California and had a tremendous influence on my life when I was 20 years old.

I ONCE AGAIN FELT THE PROVIDENTIAL NUDGE TO SEND THIS OUT TO YOU THIS WEEK. I HAVE ASKED SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE HAD INFLUENCE ON MY LIFE TO SHARE THEIR PROVIDENTIAL EXPERIENCES WITH ME FOR THE BOOK THAT IS BEING COMPILED. IT COULD BE YOU NEEDED TO HEAR THIS COMFORTING STORY OF GOD'S GRACE IN GRIEF.

Providentially Yours,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

As I read the Word of God, I cannot help but to believe in Providence. I don't know who said, "Plan your work and then work your plan," but I do know "…that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose." Romans 8:28

God is ever watching over us; "Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure."

A good definition of Divine Providence is the doctrine that God actively guides, governs, and intervenes in the universe and the lives of individuals, sustaining creation, working toward His ultimate purpose, and accomplishing His will. Actually universally all religions believe in Providence in some measure. I read that Aristotle believed Providence was mere opinion. What he thought reminds me of the man that could not go with his friends to an event because his wife would not let him go. One of his friends said to him, "I can't believe that he would allow a mere woman to control his life like this, by telling him what he could or could not do." I will never forget how he replied to his friend. He said, "If you knew my wife you would know, you would never think of her as a ‘mere' woman."

I remember times when providence had my complete attention. I was in South Africa and we were making my first trip in to the Kruger National Forest, we would be staying with a Professional Hunter was a retire pastor, in the lower part of the region.

Our friend Yan Venter was driving us and we were in a caravan of three cars while Yan and I spent almost a daylong drive to get to the compound, which looked like Jurassic Park. God had spoken to me to buy a pair of sunglasses for the professional Hunter and they had to be like Highway Patrol sunglasses that wrapped around the eye, which was a very specific instruction. I remember we stopped in every town we traveled through where I could look for this, specific type of eyewear. We stopped in five different towns and had no luck. We could have purchased lesser and least types of sunglasses, but God would not let me pick out just any of the many I had found. It had to be a specific pair. Finally we stopped at one last store that was an Optometrist before going over the mountain that would lead us down into Elephant Walk and into the Compound after sunset. I remember the sunglasses were expensive, but they were exactly the ones that God put on my heart to buy for the owner of compound where we would stay for the weeklong experience of a lifetime.

As we arrived and got settled in I gave the gift to the professional hunter and owner of the compound that was actually located inside the Kruger.

Now for the rest of this Providential story. We returned to the same compound a little less that a year later, and as we arrived the Professional Hunter met us as we came into the compound and here is the conclusion of Providential Obedience:

He said, "Cleddie, you save my life without taking a breath. He asked, "do you remember the sunglasses you gave me when you were here last?" I answered, sure I remember them, how could I forget the trouble we went to find that specific pair of eyewear. He continued, "I drove into the compound one day and everyone was in the yard. The cooks were outside the house, terrorized by what was going on in the kitchen. My two Jack Russell Terriers were in the house barking and sounding like a burglar alarm with their continual yelping. The help was crying, ‘SNAKE!' If I had been there, I too would have been on the run.There are two things I hate; and they are both snakes." My friend went in to see what all the commotion was about. Just as he stuck his head around the large tile and concrete built in centerpiece, where the dogs were making all the noise, a spitting cobra spit right in his face. "If I had not had the sun glasses on that you gave me, I would have died on the spot," he said. I believe in providence, but I believe in providential obedience as well.

I often say that, "nothing gives a man more dignity than to know he can hear the voice of God." He speaks to those who have an ear to hear and we need God to fine tune us, "He that has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the church." DO YOU KNOW HIS VOICE? The Bible makes it clear, "My sheep know my voice."

I knew that day that I had to buy those sunglasses, even when it made those traveling with us a little unhappy as we stopped again and again, looking for what they did not understand. We just never know how important our obedience is. Providence could be defined as: The preservation, care, and government, which God exercises over all things He has created, in order that they may accomplish the ends for which they were created. It is also defined as: The forecasting and guardianship of God over his creatures… A manifestation of His divine care of direction. American College Dictionary. We can summarize from these two definitions that providence is: The divine intervention in the affairs of man within the confines of natural law to bring about God's objectives.

God in His providence had created the world for a purpose, and He governs it in such a manner that nothing can thwart that purpose -- Job 42:2.  There are disruptions however, but He is ever in control. Whatever He allows is meant to further aid the fulfillment of His purpose, be it in the lives of individuals or nations. God as revealed that, in His Word is the Ultimate Power and Supreme Being. He created all things both visible and invisible. He designs their destinies, purposes, and He governs His world to the extent that, in the end they will carry out His will. The love of God for mankind from eternity past will help us to understand that in the providential nature of God He has our interest at heart. Be that as it may, this love of God is guided toward the fulfillment of His global purposes. In His love for man, which is unique, unparalleled, and unquantifiable, He created us in His own image and made us the administrators of His entire world. He empowers and commissions us to subdue and rule over His world. He puts all other creatures under our control -- Gen. 1:26-28 & Psalm 4:4-8. God has the power and ability to work within the circumstances of human activity to bring about His desire. His Providence is usually employed to facilitate the journey of those whose hearts are longing to find and serve Him. Instances of this abound in the Bible.

The life of a Christian resembles the works of a watch. What we see, is that certain wheels which turn in a counter-clockwise direction are attached to other wheels that are working in a clockwise direction. Our first though may be that the watchmaker is either foolish or confused, but he is neither. Rather, he has so arranged the works of this watch and put in a mainspring to govern all its wheel, so that when wound, one wheel turns clockwise and another counter-clockwise, though all work together to move the hands around face of the watch at precisely the right speed. Many wheels appear to counteract each other, but they all work together for the identical purpose of revealing accurate time. Such is the symbolic life of God's people. Some wheels in our lives run clockwise, which provide hope that the events of our lives, directed by God's purpose, are good for us, but other acts of God's providence seem to run counter-clockwise, i.e. seems to run against us. Only when our eyes of faith are fixed on the great watch maker, who has planned everything in His all wise decree, do we see and understand that He has placed the main spring of free grace within our "watch life," so all providential and spiritual wheels work together for our welfare. God will work all things together to produce a divine and blessed result according to his sovereign good pleasure and eternal Counsel. Copied from Our Saviors Church. Lagos Nigeria.

Your act of kindness may save someone's life. I believe in Providence, it is God's hand in the glove of a man or woman, working to perform His will and purpose in the earth. A glove that has no hand in it can do nothing. We can all be used of God. He works in us both to will and do of His own good pleasure. Will you say yes to His purpose being fulfilled through life? Only God knows what He can do through one act of your obedience.

Your Provident Servant,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

PROVIDENCE

Pearl Harbor changed everything and was a harbinger of things to come. WWII brought about many changes in people lives. GayNell and her family lived down on the border of Mexico in Harlingen, Texas. They pastored the First Assembly of God Church. There was a military base in the county and the church served Harlingen Army Air Field where many service men and women attended the church.

Can you imagine America during war years? There were many societal changes which took place: Mass mobilization, rationing of goods, and the end of the Great Depression because of the boom of the war economy.

We had a Japanese neighbor in the 1960’s that was taken to a war camp with his family as a child because of the deep-seated racism and fear of the Japanese. Many women entered the work force, including my mother who was sent to Fordyce, Arkansas where she worked at the Shumaker Ammunition Depot. I was left with family in Texas as an infant.

Times were tough and Pastor’s learned to live by faith and not by sight. It was a Saturday afternoon and GayNell’s mother had just finished cooking their evening meal when there was a knock at the kitchen door. The parsonage was located right next to the railroad and Travelers (or Hobo’s as they were called in that day) had come to beg for money. Here is how the story went:



Fast forward to the early 1970’s. We are working with him in the East end of Houston and at this time we had opened the “Salt Inn” coffee house to work with youth. It was in a house that had been given to us by a woman that Brother Weathers knew when he was a child in his hometown of Waco, Texas. We actually had hundreds of young people we were working with at that time and the property was well known to the youth of that neighborhood.

The story goes like this: an addicted young man decided he was going to break in to the house and steal what ever he could, so that he could buy dope. When he approached the back door of the Salt Inn, suddenly a huge angel appeared to him blocking his way into the house. He of course fled from there as fast as he could and told the story to all the head bangers in the region. Needless to say, we had a Heavenly Security System from that day forward. I will call it, “The All Seeing Eye, Security System,” which serves you 24/7, Day and Night.

These stories are true and providentially shared with you at this time. God is with you now, and he never slumbers are sleeps.

Remember, Angels really are on assignment. Providentially yours,

Pastor Cleddie Keith

Could I say that yesterday was a providential day for America?

September 21st, 2025. Could I say that a providential voice was memorialized and honored by what has been reported as over a billion people? I have heard that more people watched the burial of Charlie Kirk than that of John F. Kennedy. I watched both, and the touch of heaven on the memorial service for Charlie was that which could not be denied. I literally felt as though I had to sleep off what GayNell and I felt as we were riveted to the incredible oratory. Politicians sounded more like preachers than politicians, and preachers across America said, Amen to that.

I want to move the clock of time back to the West Side of Arlington, Texas. Join me if you can imagine where we are going. I am fifteen years old sitting in a history class. Mr. Lindsey is teaching and I am listening intently. Mr. Lindsey is a lay preacher and actually attends Bethel Temple, the same church my family attends in Fort Worth. It was of no consequence to him that what he taught that day was just another day in class. That day led to my salvation and ultimately leading me into ministry. He did not know that my life would have been marked by the stories he taught that day on God's involvement in the founding of America. I will never forget the Providential acts he attributed to God's intervention in our virgin nations affairs.

Stories like this one, that I borrow from the renowned historian, David Barton. I knew David when he was a country High School history teacher from Aledo, Texas, a town just West of Fort Worth. I used to buy rare books from his friend and we would see him at church conferences when we were pastoring back in the 70's in Texas.

In his writings about George Washington, he speaks of God's direct intervention and aid, which was so evident, that the then president celebrated having his entire army go to church the following day to openly acknowledge what he described as the "astonishing interpositions of PROVIDENCE" and called for a national day of prayer and thanksgiving. Yet another day of Divine involvement in America's behalf.

Samuel Adams spoke of providential interventions, which did not surprise the "Father of the American Revolution". Listen in to what Adams had to say about this subject: "Let America exert her own strength; let her depend upon God's blessings. He who cannot be indifferent to her righteous cause (i.e., God), will even work miracles if necessary, to carry her through glorious conflict and establish her feet upon a rock." Washington witnessed God's assistance so often that on more than 250 occasions he acknowledged the Providence of God. This had to do with preserving Washington's life in battle, when bullets were flying, to the change of weather at York.

These stories are from THE AMERICAN STORY II, page 229.

I am aware of other incredible stories of providence where God is given all the glory for changes. As I said, God put a hook in my jaw at 15 years old and I could not escape the word PROVIDENCE. I have some stories to tell.

I am Providentially a part of your life and I am the better for it.

Pastor Cleddie Keith