Aaron and Stephanie

This week we celebrated the birthdays of two of the most important people in my life, Aaron Thomason (my son) and Stephanie Thomason ( Aaron's wife). These two special people have brought me so much joy and happiness through their loving relationship, their devotion to Jesus, their two precious children (Ethan & Marlee), and their love shown to me in a myriad of ways. I am so proud to be a part of their lives, to have them as leaders in the church I pastor and to be able to watch them shine for God's Glory! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS YOU TWO!

In Mid July, a team of Pastors, Elders, Lawyers, Businessmen, Teachers, Evangelists etc. from 7 Churches in Jacksonville, Fl., a church in Faulkville, Ga, a couple of churches near College Station, Tx. will join forces for a series of Crusades and Leadership Seminars in and around Port-Au-Prince, Haiti.

This effort will include a giant televised out door Crusade, Two Church Revival Campaigns, and morning Leadership Seminars for Pastors and their Wives in three locations daily, and Evangelism Teams of Young Haitian Men and Women will hit the streets sharing the Gospel. Team members will also be teaching people how to start their own small business.

This is a huge undertaking under the leadership of Rev. Jean-David Charles of Fleming Island, Fl.  We are expecting God to begin a Mighty Transformation of the Nation of Haiti! The poorest country in the Western Hemisphere is about to become a "Well
Watered Garden" and an example to the World of God's Power to bring change to any people who call upon His Name!

Ruth and I will be ministering in the mornings to the Pastors and their Wives. I will be speaking in the Outdoor Crusade on Monday night the 14th and the final Sunday night July 20th. Other speakers include Pastor R.J. Washington of Titus Harvest Church, Pastor Donald Byrd of Horn of Zion, Pastor's Phil & Evie Ward of The River Church, Pastor Jean-David Charles of Believer's Gathering Place, (all of Jacksonville, Fl.) and Pastors Tim & Sheena Doorn of Brazos Valley Power Center, Madisonville, Tx.

We are going to Haiti to make a difference. We will break chains that have held the People of Haiti bound for generations. We will sow powerful seed for the blossuming forth of a great and prosperous people. We will give the Haitian Christians a boost of faith for their future in God. We will (with God's help) make a difference!

What is in it for us? The Seed we Sow in Haiti will return to us in the United States of America in the form of a Mighty Revival breaking out from the East Coast of Florida and Georgia to Texas and beyond. This is our hope and belief. This is where our Faith stands. In this we are united in the Name of Jesus!

Join your faith with ours. Expect a transformation in Haiti and Revival here at Home. Give some of your time to pray earnestly about these events. Be a part of God's solution to the problems our generation faces today. Let God arise! Let His enemies be scattered!

Water For The Orphans

In just a few days, a Team of Four including myself will travel half way around the Globe to an orphanage and Bible College in Yangon, Myanmar. We are taking them a state of the art water filtration system.  It is a new filtering process patented by one of our church members, John Armour. His process cleans water to 99.99999 % pure at the rate of five gallons per minute. It has been tested by at least three respected laboratories here in the U.S. with the same results. Two of them started with "black water" and ended with safe drinkable water.

Why Orphans in Myanmar?

1). They are drinking contaminated water and bathing in it as well. They have skin disorders and diseases that are from the water they drink. Compassion compels us!

2). They live in an area that has the same problem or worse. Their neighbors even come to them for water (the bad stuff). Bottled water is available, but it is expensive and questionable quality.

3) with a little effort they can bottle the clean water and sell it for a modest price to their village. This will provide income for the orphans and free them from dependance upon foreigners.

4). Like Paul's "Macedonian Call", we have been directed to sow this seed into these children and college students. We know God will use it to affect the nation for generations to come.

5). We have already made contact with a second orphanage in Yangon who will be watching our progress with great interest.

What Next?

Once the pure water is flowing, we have plans to build a fish farm and hydroponic gardens at the orphanage to use the good water to produce clean meat and vegetables for them to eat and take to market. As you can see, this has powerful, life changing possibilities for these young people who live in an 89% Buddhist country.

Can you help? YES YOU CAN!

1). Pray for our Team (John & Austin Armour, Adam Culp and myself) as we spend most of February on this project.

2). This is an expensive task. You can help by sending tax deductible gifts to:
      CCI- Water
      P.O. BOX 19156
      JACKSONVILLE, FL. 32245

God Bless you for doing what He leads you to do!

Ronny D. Thomason

Don Normand, my good friend and spiritual Father, went to his eternal reward on Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 8:00 p.m. He was two days away from his 83rd birthday. He passed peacefully with his daughters, Jill and Desre, holding his hands. We expected him to go and he wanted to go to be with "My King Jesus". He is now experiencing the joys of Heaven in his new body. Oh what celebrating must be going on over this spiritual giant and great soul winner's entrance into Glory!

A lot more will be said about this man as time goes by. He deeply impacted my life with his testimony and Gospel Ministry. His friendship was genuine. His life was real. He was a "Man's Man" and full of passion and zeal for living. When his body finally gave out, he could not wait to get on with getting to Heaven. Now that he is there, we must cope with our temporary loss. It is temporary because in his words, "You will be coming right behind me".  It is true. We are right behind you Don!

Ethel Pratt, 86, has joined the ranks of my loved ones in Heaven. She is my Mother-in-Law and has been since March 26, 1970. I can truthfully say that there could not have been a better mother in law for me. She loved me and supported my work for the Lord from the very beginning. I watched her grow in the Lord steadily from the first time I met her to her final days. She impressed me with her strength of character, wisdom, strong work ethic, and devotion to Jesus. She anchored her family in values that matter and typified the Virtues of the Woman in Proverbs 31. Her husband trusted in her and her children (and grandchildren and great grandchildren) rose up to bless her! Of all the people I have known in my life, Ethel is tops! I love her dearly and look forward to seeing her again soon in Heaven. I can only imagine the joy she is experiencing right now as she worships Jesus with Glenn, Vernon, Norma and all the others.

Hypocrisy = "a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; especially: the false assumption of religion"

Hypocrisy is not a new thing. Jesus Christ often condemned the hypocrites he encountered in His earthly ministry. He had no tolerance for hypocrites and viewed them with utter disgust. There is so much hypocrisy in our world today and it does not seem to ever go away. Perhaps it is because people are just not honest and react to circumstances and events emotionally and not rationally.

A good example of this occured just last week in the aftermath of the deadly shooting in a Connetticut elementary school where an entire kindergarten class was brutally murdered by a psycopathic killer.  We were all shocked, saddened, and deeply grieved by the senseless murders of innocent children. The nation is still in deep mourning over this tragedy, and justly so.

The hypocrisy is evidenced in the fact that many of those who seem upset over this event to the point of shedding tears and being outraged and demanding new gun laws (the killer violated 41 existing laws) have absolutely no feelings for the approximate 3,000 unborn babies that were brutally murdered in their mother's wombs that same day in the United States alone.

I have no problem with the President of the United States wiping tears from his eyes as he address the nation about the kindergarten class tragedy. But why no tears EVER for the innocent, helpless babies being sucked out in pieces from the womb with a vacuum hose? The Center for Disease Control reported that 1,210,000 abortions occured in the United States in 2009 (the most recent statistics--why?). How many tears are shed for these victims of senseless murder? This is hypocrisy of the highest order!

Could it be that the number of abortions being committed with legal backing in the United States and the tragedy of Newtown, Ct. are somehow connected? Galatians 6:7 says, "God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." 

Do we really think that we as a sinful nation can make our children safe from disasters like this when we are not repenting of killing the unborn? No amount of gun control is going to stop these tragedies. Recently, in China, a crazed man with a knife entered a kindergarten class and slashed 28 children. Many parts of the world have frequent suicide bombings that kill innocent people of all ages. The only way to stop evil is to repent of the evil we ourselves are doing. Then we can confidently call on God for His Divine protection. Let us also repent of the hypocrisy!

Thanksgiving Day (Yesterday) for me was very pleasant as we met at Aaron's home for a mid-afternoon feast. The meal hi-lite for me was the traditional "Dad's Banana Pudding". Thank you Heather! The others ate various pies for dessert, but for me it was straight for the pudding. My first dip into the bowl brought thoughts of my brother Jerry and the competition for banana pudding back in the days when we were growing up. The two of us could make a huge dent in the delcious dessert! Everyone else just had to satisfy their sweet tooth with the cakes and pies. I never really felt bad about it because there was always a huge amount of the other sweets and no one seemed to care that we were dominating the pudding bowl.

Thanksgiving is about family. I know this because everyone becomes mindful of who they have called and not called. This time I sent a lot of emails and facebook greetings and received them as well, and still missed some important ones. Today I will continue contacting them to wish them a happy holiday.

We set up the croquet set in Aaron's back yard and enjoyed teaching Ethan & Marlee the game. I especially enjoyed watching Aaron patiently teach four year old Marlee how to operate her mallet. He is a good Dad!

In the midst of all our activity, Stephanie got a phone call....from Texas....family. We could tell by the way she lit up and the excitement in her voice. Her family lives so far away, but thanks to cell phones and Skype we can stay in touch. Stephanie's brother Conner, is in Nepal this week, but was still able to talk to his family on Thanksgiving.

Yes, Thanksgiving is a Family event. It is about being with family, thinking of family, touching base with those who are not here, remembering those who have passed, loving and thanking God for the people in our lives.

Then there is the extended family, church family, and friends who are like family to us.
Thank you Lord for each and every one!

Most of all, I thank God that I am part of His family! This ensures an eternity with all the people I love, so long as they join the Heavenly Family by accepting the Lord Jesus Christ. I am most thankful for Him and the difference he made in my life!

Psalm 68:6
God setteth the solitary in families

What Happens When We Pray?

I was reading in Romans Chapter Eight about how we do not always know how to pray as we ought. Boy, is that true! But as I read on, I discovered that my ineptness has not been overlooked by God.  He has (as is His Nature) provided a remedy for my prayer weakness. That remedy is the Holy Spirit! The Spirit of God has come to "help" me pray. That's right, when I pray, the Holy Spirit of God joins me to make my prayers effective.  He actually prays along with me to make my prayer perfect, complete, accurate, so that I can get an answer that is totally in line with God's Will.

Reading on in Romans Chapter Eight, I discover that while I am praying (with the assistance of the Holy Spirit), Jesus Christ is in Heaven at the Right Hand of the Father making intercession on my behalf! That's right, I have THE PERFECT INTERCESSOR working for me right where it counts.....before the Father God.  So now, I am not only praying perfect prayers with the help of The Holy Spirit, but the Lord Jesus Christ, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Ruler of Heaven and Earth, is taking up my case before God the Father.  How great is that?

But, as I read on further into Romans Chapter Eight, I am delighted to find out that it is God the Father Himself who justifies me in the Court of Heaven and lets it be known throughout the Universe that no charge can be made against me because I now am covered in the Righteousness of Christ. So any accuser out there that might object to my prayer request being granted has no leg to stand on!!!  The only one who can destroy my confidence before God is me. (1 John 3:19-23)

How happy am I to know that when I pray, the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Heavenly Father all get involved with me to make my prayer a successful one! What do you think my chances are of getting the prayer answered?

Oh, by the way, the same is true when YOU pray!

I Believe!

Some Times I Just Want To Scream It Out So Everyone Can Hear

And Let Them Deal With It! 

The Things That I Believe, For Example:

I Believe That Jesus Christ Is God

I Believe He Existed Before Time Began as a Co-Equal Member of the Divine God-Head

He Was The Word of God That Created All Things Everywhere

I Believe God made a body for Him and He was born to a Virgin girl named Mary.

I Believe He Was God In The Flesh

I Believe He Lived a Sinless Life 

I Believe He Was The Express Image of The Heavenly Father

I Believe No One Could Have Killed Him, Except He Lay Down His Life

I Believe He Died for Everyone's Sin

I Believe He Was Resurrected Three Days Later By The Power of the Holy Spirit

I Believe He Proved Himself Alive For Forty Days

I Believe He Ascended Into Heaven and Sat Down At The Father's Right Hand

I Believe The Heavenly Father Gave Jesus All Power In Heaven and Earth

I Believe That Jesus Christ Is Lord and God of The Universe

I Believe He Now Reigns Over All Things

I Believe He Is All He Claimed To Be: Healer, Deliverer, Baptizer, Savior

I Believe He Is Coming Again Soon

I Believe His Enemies Will Be Sorry and His Friends Glad

That Is Some of What I Believe.......just saying.

PEOPLE I WISH EVERYONE COULD KNOW (Part Two)

There are a few people I know who lift you up everytime you are with them. RAND MONTGOMERY is one of those people. He has such an infectious joyful spirit and happy attitude steming from a close walk with God. He and his lovely wife NIKKI are Missionaries in Southeast Asia. Based out of Chiang-Mai, Thailand, they work with Pastors, Churches, Bible Schools, and Missions Outreaches into China, Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Viet Nam, Pakistan and beyond. They are powerful in their faith and trust in God and they have a great love for people.