Friday, January 30, 2009

Mexico Mission

Joel and his wife, Pat, are traveling back to Mexico the last week of February along with Rick Couch from 'Faith Missions'. There is a real move of the Father among thousands of Mexican people living in several 'colonias' outside Nuevo Laredo (just across the border from Laredo, Texas).

They plan to leave Charlotte, NC on February 20th to travel there and be in Mexico from February 22 until 28.

They will be providing these precious people with food, water and other supplies as they proclaim the "good-news" of the Kingdom of God. These villages have no running water, no sewage system and most have no electricity. They will hold evening services under a big tent, with electricity provided by several generators. On the past visit, during one of these services, there were 24 who came forward for salvation and 22 who testified that they had been healed by the power of God!

Joel says: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, for IT IS THE POWER OF GOD...and I can't be ashamed to ask for your generous support, because without your help, we just would not be able to do this. We need your help. Thanks to the generousity of those of you who helped on our last trip, there are 24+ new names written in the Lambs book of life! Who can estimate the eternal value of even one immortal soul! I want to say thank you again to those of you who helped us go before. You were as much a part of the souls who were saved and the bodies that we healed as we were."

The total cost - everything for the trip for both Joel & Pat - is $2,750. If you would like to partner with them for this ministry, please send your tax-deductible gift to: FIRE International, PO Box 187 Harrisburg, NC 28075 Make your check payable to FIRE International, and in the memo please write Joel Crumpton.

As many souls were saved during the last visit, and many miraculous healings took place, they are looking forward with excitement to what Father will do this time! Please pray and intercede with them for this time.

Here is a video from the last visit to Nuevo Laredo - click: GodTube

What is a backslider?

How do I know that I am not a backslider...?

The Bible warns us that “the backslider in heart shall be filled with His own ways“.

Allow me to ask your conscience a few pointed questions to allow you to “examine yourself, whether you be in the faith“, and if you see that you are, in fact, backslidden in heart, you would certainly want to know wouldn’t you? If you have no concern about this then you are not a backslider, but a hypocrite. If, after examining yourself in the light of these questions, you see that you have backslidden, you must immediately return to your “first-love” and do your “first-works” or else…

Consider:
If you have lost your spiritual appetite, and have developed an appetite for the things of this life, you are beginning to backslide, and must repent and return to Christ.
If you have lost your zeal for the lost, and are less involved in soul-winning than you once were, you are sadly backslidden.
If your friends and family have commented that you are beginning to return to your old ways, you are definitely backslidden in heart. If you can remember a time when you were more intimate with the Lord, and more on fire for souls and more fervent in prayer than you are right now, then you are definitely backslidden and must repent. If you were ever truly converted to Christ and born of God, you know what it is to love Him more than anything, and to be willing to lay down your life and take up your cross to follow Him. So if you have layed these things aside, you can be sure that you are a backslider in heart.
If you prefer watching a movie or just “hanging out” with your friends instead of attending a prayer meeting, you can be sure that you are a backslider. While a Christian’s heart is ablaze with the love of God, the prayer meeting will be the most important and interesting event of the week. But when the heart is backslidden, prayer is a burden, and a backslider will use any excuse to avoid meetings that bring him into such close communion with God. Therefore, if you find yourself neglecting early morning prayer-meetings without good reason (by the way, self-denial is a condition of discipleship according to our Lord Jesus Christ), or any scheduled prayer-meeting, this is strong evidence that you are backslidden in heart.
If you find yourself reading God’s word more as a duty, than as pleasure, know for certain that you are backslidden in heart. While the love of God remains in your heart, no book is as precious to you as the word of God. To read it and meditate on the scriptures is as satisfying to you as a good meal is to a hungry man. But, when you have left your first-love, you begin to fill your heart and mind with other things, and even the thought of reading God’s word is somewhat repulsive to you.
When we indulge in junk food we have no appetite for the healthy nutrients that make our bodies strong and able to fight off disease. In the same way, when we indulge in worldly amusements and entertainment, we have no appetite for godliness. Therefore, if you notice that you are making time for worldly entertainment or amusements, but find that you have little or no time to pray or read and sudy the word of God, it is because you really don’t have a heart for godly things. Therefore, you see prayer and Bible study as a duty instead of an awesome privilege. You have abandoned your first-love, have come again under the control of a self-pleasing spirit and must repent deeply or nothing will change. It will only get worse.

The backslider in heart will be filled with his own ways.
You know you are a backslider if you are always feeling condemned. You attend meetings at Church, and you know you’d rather be somewhere else, so you feel condemned. You stay away from meeting and you feel condemned also. You try to read your Bible and your heart is not into it, so you feel condemned. You neglect your Bible and you feel condemned also. You try to spend time in prayer, and your heart and mind wander and do not get into it, so you feel condemned. You neglect to pray and feel condemned also.

Why? Because you are a backslider! You have left your first love. You have become a “lover of pleasure more than a lover of God”.
If you are a backslider, you will notice that you no longer have a tender conscience about little things. Now your conscience has become “seared as with a hot iron”. The small things that once bothered you don’t seem so bad now. When a person backsides, they will make allowances for things that Jesus Christ would NEVER allow. A backslider in heart will go to a video store, and they are pulled to the PG-13 and R rated movies. They don’t want to watch something clean. Clean movies are boring to the backslider. If you are a backslider, you will notice that you are becoming more and more “worldly-minded” and less and less “spiritually-minded”. Many times, backsliders will get with other professing Christians who are cold also, and all of them will waste hours of precious time filling their mind with vain amusments and worldly entertainment. When confronted, they will reply, it’s not “that bad”.

WHAT!?
Remember,”you are bought with a price, and you are not your own”.
When the heart is right, worldly amusements and entertainment are repulsive. When the heart is full of the love of Christ, it finds it’s greatest enjoyment in prayer, winning souls, searching the scriptures and worshiping the Lord. But when the heart is backslidden, these things are boring and repulsive, and you will instead fill up all your free time with worldly things.

Would a true follower of Jesus waste hours watching sports on television, perhaps even wasting God’s money, that they should be using to build up His Kingdom to purchase more and larger entertainment centers. Have you forgotten that you have surrendered your life to the Lord Jesus Christ? All your time, all your talents, your possessions, your money, your influence, are no longer your own, to do with as you please. Remember, “Whoever does not forsake all that He has cannot be my disciple”.

How is it with YOU?
Was there a time when you were more zealous, more useful, prayerful, tenderhearted and loving than you are today? Are you drawing closer or sliding backward?
Are you now trusting in your good works to save you or are you trusting in the blood of Christ?
Are you seeking worldly pleasures or do you find your greatest pleasure in serving Jesus Christ.
We naturally enjoy spending time with the one we love most, and we naturally find our greatest pleasure in doing the things that please them. We are jealous of anything that would get in the way of that, or that might grieve the one we love. So, if you find yourself gaining interest in things that grieve the Spirit of God or that occupy the time you once spent in His presence and service, then you are a backslider in heart. You are filled with your own ways.

Listen to your conscience. It will do no good to pretend you are not backslidden when you know you are not as on fire for God as you once were. Unless you return to God now you will not get better, you will only grow worse. Why continue to grieve the Spirit of the Lord and harden your heart?
Allow the Holy Spirit to bring godly sorrow upon you that works repentance to salvation, not to be repented of. Humble yourself NOW, return to your first love and be renewed and revived. Then do your first works over again.

“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Sin, righteousness, and judgment

“The Sermon on the Mount is the greatest example we have of how to ‘reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.’

In Matthew chapter 5, Christ reproves the multitudes of sin by showing the essence of the Law.

In chapter 6, He teaches on true righteousness, the essence of which is to cause men to glorify our Father which is in heaven, not to draw attention to ourselves.

Then, in chapter 7, He teaches concerning judgment. He warns the multitudes that if they judge others as guilty for doing the same things they themselves are practicing, instead of pulling the log out of their own eye first, they are obviously hypocrites.

If we will follow this method of preaching the gospel, then we can expect the Holy Spirit to help us. For Jesus Himself promised that this divine Helper would reprove the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He does this by causing our words to make saving impressions on the minds of men.”

Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching. 2 Timothy 4:2 (Amplified Bible)

The Gathering - 2009

Click to watch:
GodTube or YouTube

Charlotte, NC

Father's Heart

Is this also your heart...?

Prison to Praise

Ministry Update: January 12, 2009

Last night Joel and Caesar Morales travelled to the Cabarrus Correctional Center - a minimum security prison for adult males - in Mount Pleasant, NC. Joel had somehow forgotten about being scheduled to minister at the prison and he and his wife, Pat, had accepted a dinner invitation with their good friends Caesar and Lisa Morales. While Joel and Pat were in Georgia on Monday, Pat had risen very early for prayer and when finished around 6am came to Joel and said, "Honey, while in prayer, the Lord reminded me you're scheduled to minister at the men's prison in tonight!" "That's right!" he realized, "Perhaps brother Caesar would like to go along as well." Upon calling to explain and invite Caesar to come along, the immediate response was "Absolutely!"

Joel says: "We had some business we had to attend to before we could leave the Atlanta area, and because of several delays it looked as though the enemy was trying to prevent me from getting back in time to minister at the prison. This let me know that God was going to move mightily in the service. In hind-sight, I'm glad I forgot about it so that the Lord could remind me through Pat. The fact that He reminded her was (also) a strong indication to me that God was going to move mightily in the service at the prison. And He did!

There is a chapel where services are provided by volunteers and at last night's service about 35-40 men attended. Now (for those who know Joel) he is skilled at - or should I rather say given to - extemporaneous utterance! Praise the Lord. Joel preached and proclaimed the Kingdom of God, then gave a call to unconditional surrender to every sinner and backslider. Seven men ran forward, fell on their faces, and began to call to God for mercy.

They then ministered to all those in need of healing and five imates testified of healings - three from torn rotator cuffs, one from back injury, another from pain on the left side of his torso. Joel called those forward who desired to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit and about 1/4 of the men came forward and began speaking in new tongues!

Caesar and Joel were very encouraged seeing what the Lord did for these precious men. Several who were present shared a witness of the deep sense of conviction of the Holy Spirit that they experienced during the ministry of the Word. They testified of experiencing the fear of the Lord.

To God be the glory!

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

On the Cross


It has a way of stirring curiosity in people and many will come up and ask why I do it. It makes it easy to talk about spiritual things. Whenever a sinner asks me why I’m carrying it, they are not surprised or offended when I talk about God, Jesus Christ, sin or Hell. I have seen many fall on their knees in surrender to God publicly after a few moments of conversation. No one can be neutral when it comes to the cross of Christ. The cross demands a response.


Pictures taken in Times Square, NY

Interview


Compliments: Voice of Revolution

Background

Joel was born again in 1978 through an employee who, unbeknownst to him, prayed for his salvation. Joel has a passion for equipping the saints, teaching and practically demonstrating the Kingdom of God in power through salvation and healing. It is not uncommon to find Joel in uptown Charlotte on a Saturday night carrying his 10 foot cross and preaching the forgiveness of sins through faith in Jesus. He is drawn most to those outside the church, the sinful and sick.