God – Page 9 – Dr. William A. Horton

Star Light, Star Bright

May 21, 2015May 22, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Finding God's will

Light unto this world

¹⁴“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.15 neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

This little light of mine I’m gonna let it shine, This little light of mine I am gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shiiiii-iiiiii-innnneeee…

This past week Pastor Jeff Schultz of Living Hope Worship Center preached on 1 Peter 3:8-16, he challenged us to look at what kind of light we are in response to that passage Peter wrote. In conclusion Pastor Jeff said there are many lights that we could be like for example a nightlight or a flash light… but those lights are for special occasions not for us to use all the time. He suggested that we should be like a Pilot Light. A Pilot Light by definition is a small gas burner kept continuously burning to light a larger burner when needed… And I agree we need to be continuously burning because we never know when we are going to need to be used by God for something greater than ourselves.

So this being said it really got me thinking about what kind of light that I think the Bible says we should be and what kind of light that I want to be. I like the idea of being a pilot light continuously burning…

So as I was thinking about it this week I believe (my opinion) we are called to be like a “STAR”…

I know right off the bat some will say that we are called to be humble and being a “STAR” sounds a little arrogant. When we think of stars we think of people that are all about themselves… I get that and that is not what I am talking about. I believe we are all “STARS” in God’s eyes and yes the Bible tells us to be humble… “

“Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may EXALT you at do time…”

(1 Peter 5:6).

I think we can be “STARS” when God exalts us to be. It is a heart issue and we can never forget that what we have in life is because God’s grace and love.

Now here is the real reason I think we are called to be “STARS”

Stars burn so bright that we can see them from over 4.3 light years away… When we look up at the Stars at night we see the twinkling lights in the deep dark night sky but if we could look closer at a Star, we would notice that it is something so much greater… it burns with a fire that exceeds 18,000 degrees Fahrenheit. Like a Star we have something so much greater to offer than what you first see… We have the Holy Spirit burning inside of us! Which burns deeper and brighter than any star in the sky!

Another thing is enough Stars brighten the darkest night, we are called to be a light in this dark world just like the stars brighten then midnight darkness.

And the MAIN reason I think we are to be a light like a STAR is because Stars also never turn off…

(like the pilot light).

We may only think of the Stars in the evening but during the days it is not as if the Star is like a light switch and shuts off and on. The Star is still shining even during the day,

THE ONLY REASON THE YOU DO NOT SEE THE STAR DURING THE DAY IS BECAUSE THE SUN (SON) IS BRIGHTER THAN THE STARS…

So we to as “STARS” are to be out shined by the SON (SUN)!

So whatever light that you want to compare yourself to make sure it burns bright and is continuous. Always being ready to glorify God!

SO,WHAT KIND OF LIGHT ARE YOU?

Hulk Smash’s, John Wycliffe Tears Down Walls! (What’s So Special About the Bible)

May 20, 2015May 19, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Finding God's will

“Hulk Smash!” The Incredible Hulk may smash but John Wycliffe broke down the walls of the Bible for everyone to see what God really wants in our lives…

John Wycliffe was a man who believed that everyone should be able to read the Word of God. We take for granted today that we can open up a Bible or more likely a Bible App like You Version and read the Bible whenever we feel like it. This was not always the case however, 150 years before the reformation this man John Wycliffe believed that everyone should be able to go to God themselves without a priest. During this time period no one besides the priest had Bibles and it was also written in a language that was not common for people to read. Bibles were very expensive for people to buy and believe it or not they were sometimes chained to the pulpit so no one could take them. That sounds strange I know because at my church they encourage you to take a Bible if you do not own one. His power over the 14th century was that of a conscience captured by the Word of God. Unlike his peers, he denied that men must go through a priest to get to God. Before the time of Jesus we had high priests who would go before God and speak for the people to Him (God) but after Jesus came the story changes you see…

Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “¹⁴Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. ¹⁵For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. ¹⁶Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”

We no longer need a high priest like the Pope because we have a Great High Priest in Jesus who gives us access to the throne room of God. It says it right there in verse 16… “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence…”

Like I said above Wycliffe also believed that everyone should be able to read God’s Holy Word themselves. After all scripture says that…

“¹⁶All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for correcting, for correction, for training in righteousness;¹⁷so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16, 17)

So if God’s Word is useful for teaching, correcting and training we must first be able to learn from it and not just what the priest wants to teach you. You need to know God’s Word. This however was nearly impossible when you cannot read the language the Bible is written in or could not have a Bible yourself. So Wycliffe a man of industry and academic ability, admired by friend and foe alike who also worked at Oxford and was acknowledge by them to be their leading theologian decided to translate the Bible into English. With the help of Oxford friends, Wycliffe translated the Bible, all 750,000 words, from Latin into English—an immense undertaking. His revolutionary conviction that the average Englishman should be able to read the Bible in the common language threatened the power of the English state-church. It meant that the Bible, rather than the counsel of a state-controlled priest, would mediate Christ to the believer’s conscience. Therefore, his translation threatened the glue that held medieval civilization together, the church’s power to bind men’s consciences. He was consider a heretic, but before he could be arrested, tried, and burnt at the stake, he died of a stroke while saying Mass in 1384.

So before you think to yourself oh great I am supposed to read the Bible everyday?! Remember that one man’s struggle and conviction from God made it possible for you to be able to read it.

All things are possible through God and just think you could do something greater than you could think or imagine for God’s glory all because you were able to grow closer through His living Word!

Wait for It!

May 13, 2015May 13, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Finding God's will

“You are blessed because you believed that the Lord would do what he said.” Luke 1:45. Because you heard from God and waited for it to manifest and believed you are blessed…
The book of Daniel gives us glimpses into the future. This prophecy would take place throughout Daniels life and many things he spoke of happened hundreds of year after they were spoken by Daniel. Daniel never got to see them manifest…In the ninth chapter of Daniel says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” “Daniel 9:24. What we should know as a beginning to the correctly understanding this prophecy, that in Daniel’s view, those weeks represented years, so the 70 weeks of Daniel represent 490 years -70 times 7 years- that ended with the death of Jesus the Christ. Daniel spoke these things around 457 B.C. If we extract this number to 490 (490-457=33) so, here we see that the 70 weeks of Daniel were completed with the death by crucifixion of Jesus around the year 33 A.D. Continuing on in that chapter, “Yet shall he confirm the covenant with many for one week.” Daniel 9.27. Did Jesus confirm His covenant of love and mercy with Daniel’s people for 7 years? There was a 7 year period between the death of Christ and the time the Gospel was sent out to the Gentiles at the calling of Cornelius. This is the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy.

Later in DANIEL 11:3 it says, “Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion, and do according to his will.” After the military defeat of Xerxes by the Greeks, a number of additional Persian kings ruled the empire. But Xerxes had set the stage for a strong Greek ruler to arise. This ruler was the Macedonian Alexander the Great, who defeated Persian King Darius III Codomannus in 333 BCE at the battle of Issus (located on the Mediterranean coast in what is now southeast Turkey). This defeat signaled the beginning of the end of the Persian Empire.

At the height of his power, Alexander conquered and ruled an empire that stretched from southern Europe to North Africa to central Asia. But the Greek empire of Alexander was not destined to endure. He fell ill and died on June 10, 323 BCE in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon.

So throughout the life of Daniel there are some compelling things that God spoke to Daniel that Daniel himself did not even have a chance to see fulfilled… The question that pops into my head then is what is God telling you that you think is never going to be fulfilled? Do you think that it is impossible for it to happen? Well when God speaks something into your life sometimes you have to give it time to manifest into reality and not give up so easily because you do not see anything happening right now!

After all when you plant a seed you do not see it pop out of the ground the moment you cover it with dirt, it takes time for the seed to sprout and mature then it bears fruit!

Inside The Warehouse

May 10, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Video Sermon Series "The Warehouse"

God is Greater Than All My Unanswered Questions

May 6, 2015May 6, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Finding God's will

I don’t have all the ANSWERS! And I don’t CARE!

“You are worthy, O Lord our God,

To receive glory and honor and power.

For you created all things, and they exist because you created what you please.” (Revelation 4:11).

I never really thought or saw this before but, it is important to realize that from the beginning of the Bible (Genesis) to the end of the Bible (Revelations) God is telling us that He created the world. It is also worthy of pointing out that this is one of the hardest topics to witness and prove to people. With the world today teaching our kids evolution and everything else besides intelligent design it is harder and harder to get people to believe in a God they cannot see. Not only that it is hard for them to get them to believe that God spoke something into nothing and from nothing came everything that we currently see. The facts are that while we may not know what to say when someone asks us about these tough questions, the truth is always the same. God did indeed create something from nothing and we are not God’s sales person who needs to convince people of the facts we know are true. God is His own salesman and we are just called to do what we can to be His hands and feet. A hammer does not look at a house and say, “Look at what I just built!” The hammer without the Carpenter is nothing… We are the hammer and as

Genesis 1:1, 2 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ²The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.

God created it whether we believe it or not that does not change the fact that He is who He is… God is not made smaller by our small view of Him. He is the God who created something out of nothing and gave us the honor to be made in His image. I am challenged every day to see the world God created and see Him in all of it and so should you…

God is bigger than our explanations of Him and I find it refreshing when people do not act like they have all the answers, because we don’t… If I had all the answers to the questions of God then the God you and I serve would not be a Big enough God to serve. I am glad I don’t have all the answers because in that He keeps me coming back to know Him better.

From the beginning to the end of the Bible it tells us the same story God is the creature that’s the “start and finish of it”

Don’t Be a LUNK!

May 2, 2015May 2, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Video Sermon Series "The Warehouse"

Take the bull by the horns

April 16, 2015April 16, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

“Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”-Matthew 26:39

In the Orient young bulls are tested for the fight arena in a certain manner . Each is brought to the ring and allowed to attack a picador who pricks them with a lance. The bravery of each bull is then rated with care according to the number of times he demonstrates his willingness to charge in spite of the sting of the blade. Henceforth recognize that each day you are tested by life in like manner. If you persist, if you continue to charge forward, you will succeed.

Sometimes you have to feel the sting of the blade to get to the ultimate goal…

Think about Jesus in the garden right before He was betrayed by one of His very own followers. Jesus knew the sting that was about to come even to the point that He asked His Father to take that cup from His hands. Jesus knew that to suffer ment He would succeed in His mission to save you and me. Yet in spite of the sting of the nails He preceded to charge forward…

The prizes of life are at the end of each journey, not near the beginning; and it is not given to us to know how many steps are necessary in order to reach our goal. Failure you may still encounter at the thousandth step, yet success hides behind the next bend in the road. Never will you know how close it lies unless I turn the corner.

Sometimes you have to suffer a little to succeed… pain brings on change! Take the bull by the horns and

BRING ON THE PAIN OF CHANGE!

William A Horton

D.T.R.

April 9, 2015April 9, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

DEFINE THE RELATIONSHIP…

Last night in church we started a new small group that really gets you to think about where you are with Christ. It is based off the book by Kyle Idleman called Not a Fan. Define your relationship with God? This is not for us to judge others based off of our relationship with God but to take a good self-evaluation of where we truly are with our creature… Are you a fan our are you a follower? Most fans would say they are followers… the Pharisees would have said they were followers and yet they killed Jesus. A fan is an enthusiastic admirer, you may know all the scripture in the world but do you have a true relationship with God. Followers are devoted and sacrifice is required to be a follower.

Luke 9:23, “Then he (Jesus) said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

As Uncle Ben would say, “With great power comes great responsibility.” God has empowered us with the Holy Spirit now we are responsible to do something with that daily! In the Gospels Jesus says believe in me something like five times but He says follow me twenty! We are to follow Him! Being a committed follower of Jesus means that He has an all access pass to your life. Is there rooms that you are trying to keep Jesus out of?

So have you DEFINED THE RELATIONSHIP with God yet… or did you just say a prayer of salvation and left it at that? God does not want a causal relationship with you where you come to church and put your two dollars in the tithe plate then forget about Him the rest of the week…

JESUS WANTS TO GIVE YOU A COMPLETE OVERHAUL NOT JUST A TUNE UP!

SO ARE YOU A FAN OR A FOLLOWER?

Are We Just Glorified Slaves?

April 1, 2015April 2, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

Are you locked up and don’t even know it… Are you just a glorified slave?

Romans 1:25, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.”

We live in a world that is full of technology that is supposed to make life easier, but instead we all know that it just makes our lives more complicated. The fact that we can sit with our heads buried in our phones and not even recognize that there is someone next to you struggling is proof of that. This web of technology does entangle us in a never ending web of busyness and hurry, which makes us forget about the fact that there are real people hurting around us. Having our cell phones with us everywhere we go including the bathroom makes us forget the importance of human contact and even takes away time from God. When we wake up and the first thing that we do is look to see how many likes we have on a post or maybe you check to see your Twitter numbers… When we do these things there is something completely wrong with our thought process! The first thing that we should do in the morning is not to check social media but it should be to connect with God! Have a real heart to heart with our creature. We are too busy with the created things that we phase out the one who made them all possible. Imagine if you spent as much time with God as you do on Facebook, I have to be totally honest with all of you if I did that my relationship with God would be much, much stronger than it is now. It is sad to think that we have all this technology to get things at a moment’s notice yet we forget that God just wants a little of that precious time that we are trying to save. Today I will look at my life and see how I can truly give myself a way to God…

So what will keep you from God…?

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I am convinced that in this modern world that we live in we could add to this list; neither cell phone or tablet, computer nor job…

Whom are you a slave to? We can be a slave to technology or we can be a slave to God… The choose is yours!

Here is to NEW beginnings!

March 28, 2015March 28, 2015 by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

BE PREPARED TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE…

“Therefore, If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away behold all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

The renewed man acts upon new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and in new company. The believer is created anew; his heart is not merely set right, but a new heart is given to him. But sometimes you have to crash and burn first…

Evil Knievel attempted more than 75 ramp to ramp jumps in his life time. A failed jump over Snake River Canyon left him with 433 broken bones. He had to crash and burn to become what most people call one of the greatest American Icons. In the Silicon Valley fortune 500 companies won’t hire you until you have lost a million dollars first. Why you may ask? They want to see what you do after you crash and burn… Our lives are full of testimonies but until we come to Christ we do not see them as such. Like the Phoenix that rises from the ashes we are also new creations in Christ and everything that we go through is the uncomfortable things that we need to grow closer to God.

BE PREPARED TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE!

If you want to grow you better be prepared to live outside your comfort zone…

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).

The cross that Jesus was hung on weighed over 400 pounds to be on the conservative side. Jesus told us to deny ourselves and carry that cross… Talk about out of your comfort zone. Anyone that has lifted weights knows that after a few reps of shoulder presses you feel the burn, but it is not until you push past that burn that you get to the next level. Sometimes crashing and burning draws you closer to God.

So… “Let us not grow tired of doing what is right, for after a while you will reap a harvest of blessings if you don’t get discouraged and give up” (Gal. 6:9).

So when you crash and burn and feel uncomfortable remember that you are a new creation, and diamonds are forged out of pressure… Metals are forged in the fire 🔥
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28).
This includes the crash and burns of life!

BUT IN THE END BEAUTIFUL THINGS COME FROM THAT PRESSURE AND FORGING!