July 17, 2014 by anatatar

My Deliverer

My Deliverer

Job 19:25 ”For I know that my Redeemer lives!”

My name is Ana. I was born in Romania, in a lovely village where I lived a very simple and quiet life, in a small house with no running water and no bathroom inside. My parents were hardworking people, but the Communists were stealing “in a legal way” almost everything they earned by their honest work. As a child, I learned to be content with what God gave me. God took care of us. My mother is the most thankful, grateful and generous person I know, even though she still lives in the same house and conditions.

My grandmother taught me to pray and prayer became my first love.

At age 14, I went to school in the city. I attended a big church where I learned to sing and to praise God. Praising the Lord became my second love.

I was baptized at 17, and I am so glad I made this important step.The church was a great blessing, a real protection, and a wonderful family the Lord gave me to help me grow spiritually and to know the truth.

God opened a door for me to another church where Bible study was very important. I enjoyed the beauty of God’s Word and the Word of God became my third love.

I left Romania to live in “the land of the free”. I am proud (grateful) and humble at the same time to be a U.S. citizen. I know what it means to have freedom because I lived 29 years in the communist regime. When Americans will lose freedom, then they will understand what freedom is. But communism is not the hardest prison, but sin. No one can save us from the bondage of sin. Nobody, but God!

Here, in America, I began to fall from one depression to another. I needed an experience with the Lord, my Redeemer. I decided that I will not take drugs, but I will call upon the Lord and I will not leave Him until He will bless me with His victory. One day, when I couldn’t take it any more, I took the Bible in my hands and I began to read aloud, to cry, with a desperate voice to my Savior. I was reading (Psalms 27 to 40) and praying through the verses I had read, proclaiming the victory of Christ in my life. I lost track of time reading, crying, praying, before the Lord. When I was reading Psalm 40, I noticed that my voice was stilled, calmed down and I was talking normally. Then I knew that the Lord has brought healing to my soul. ”In my distress I called upon the LORD, and cried unto my God: He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under His feet. He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them which hated me: for they were too strong for me.” (Psalm 18 ).

He delivered me out of the pit, because ”I waited patiently for the LORD; and He inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And He hath put a new song in my mouth, even praise unto our God.”(Psalm 40:1-3a).

What a great Deliverer we have! What a wonderful Savior! What an amazing grace! What a powerful Healer! What a mighty God we serve!

I know my Redeemer lives!

He is my Deliverer! He is my Joy and my Comforter! He is my Provider! He is the Prince of Peace! He is the great I AM!

I thank You, Jesus! I love You Jesus! I praise You, Jesus!

I will humbly serve You! I will follow You to the end! And one day I will see You face to face, I will humbly bow down before You, and I will joyfully sing: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, God Almighty; worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing; thanks unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.

by Ana Tatar Andras

July 15, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (10)

10. Pray for God’s guidance in how the future pastor is presented to God’s strength and guidance in the pastor’s former church.

1 Corinthians 1:10 ”Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

Acts 2:1 ”And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.”

July 14, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (9)

9. Pray for the prevention of Satan’s influence in misleading or rushing the search team. (One of Satan’s wiles is deception.) Pray for a powerful hedge of protection around the committee and their families.

Ephesians 6:18 ”Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.”

Job 1:10 ”Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.”

July 11, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for Pastor Search Committee (8)

8. Pray for the future pastor and his family to have absolute certainty in their sense of call to our church. (He must know he has God’s directions.)

James 5:16b ,,The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.”

July 10, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (7)

7. Pray for the team to have no timetable but God’s. They must be determined to find God’s perfect will in God’s perfect time.

Ephesians 5:17 : ,,Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.”

July 9, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (6)

6. Pray for the team to have supernatural wisdom as to the unique characteristic and traits most needed for our church.

James 3:17: ,,But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.“

July 8, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (5)

5. Pray for the search team to have God’s wisdom in all the questions and information they share with the prospective pastor. Spirit-led thoroughness is essential!

1 Corinthians 2:10 ,,But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knows the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches: comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.
16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

July 7, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (4)

4. Pray for God’s clear direction in how resumes are collected, examined and interviews conducted. Ask God to bring the right person to the attention of the team.

Proverbs 14:12: ,,There is a way which seems right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Isaiah 55:8-9: ,,For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

July 6, 2014 by anatatar

Biblical Prayers for the Pastor Search Committee (3)

3. Pray for powerful unity and oneness of spirit within the team.

Amos 3:3: ,,Can two walk together, except they be agreed?”

Matthew 18:19: ,, Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”