The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ “Endued”

Posted on November 5, 2023 by Chip Murray

Our God is the loving and merciful Shepherd who will leave the 99 to find the lost 1(St. Luke 15:3-7), but…

And behold, I send the promise of my father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high. ~ St. Luke 24:49

The Holy Spirit has been given; Jesus has been glorified; now the waiting depends upon our fitness, not upon God’s providence. ~ Oswald Chambers, The Promise of the Highest

Then he said to them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. ~ St. Luke 24:25

Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. ~ Psalm 60:4

Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. ~ 1 Corinthians 12:4-6

The same Spirit, Lord, and God led me to the good shepherd of Howells through the words; “We are called to be first century disciples.” That was three years and four months ago. What I understood in the flesh then, I realize in the Spirit now…what it means to be of one accord {Acts 1:14}.

My brothers and sisters, we are suffering from a tragic plague of charming pirates (a person who appropriates or reproduces the work of another for profit without permission) in way too many church pulpits in America. That may seem harsh…until they are held up to the light of the Acts Apostles, as God would have them be. Ye shall know them by their fruits {St. Mat. 7:16}. “98% of American millennials do not have a Biblical worldview.” ~ Dutch Sheets, The Disabled Church…and Jeremiah 23:30.

Truth in Love: We who think of ourselves as Christians are precariously in only one of two places this Lord’s day, November 5, 2023; endued by the Holy Spirit, or subdued by the enemy.

God gave His church a chance to change its business-as-usual ways in 2020, and it failed. He gave His church a second chance this year, this time on a farm. It was actually a church that led to the second failure…or was it something else? In hindsight, I believe it was two things for those with eyes to see. I believe it was God using CLOTH to reveal the subdued in light of the endued. And in so doing He was proving His Remnant who went on to accomplish the task He had given.

There is only ONE true vine (St. John 15). Jesus answered and said unto (Nicodemus), Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God (St. John 3:3). This is the ONLY way to this: Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father (St. John 14:12).

The difference between man’s perspective and God’s perspective is revealed powerfully in John 3:3 and Luke 18:18-30. Nicodemus and the rich ruler were both sterling, worthy, upright men…from man’s perspective.

Many if not most of us know that the same shark that will grow large enough to kill a man in the ocean would remain harmlessly small in a fish tank because sharks cannot outgrow their environment. While God has given us an endless ocean (John 14:12), the pulpit pirates have turned our churches into spiritual fish tanks.  

This needs to be noted. CLOTH had a conversation this week with a widely respected political leader who pointed to “lack of spine” at the top of our regional political leadership. That same spinelessness exists in the majority of churches as well…This is the union of church and state, and this is the power of Babylon; church and state together…and they are found wanting, and they are going to fall. ~ Walter Veith, The Fall of Babylon

Our God is the loving and merciful Shepherd who will leave the 99 to find the lost 1(St. Luke 15:3-7), but Babylon will fall, and many who will not see, won’t come out of her!

Oswald Chambers asks the question each of us must ask ourselves, “Am I becoming the birthplace of the Son of God (St. Luke 1:35), or do I only know the miracle of God’s changing grace?”  (Love of God) ~ The Need for New Birth

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Sin of Eli Revisited…By The American Church

Posted on October 29, 2023 by Chip Murray

“Speak; for thy servant heareth.” ~ 1 Samuel 3:10

Now Eli was very old, and heard all that his sons did id unto all Israel; and how they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation…For I have told (Eli) that I will judge his house for ever for the iniquity which he knoweth: because his sons made themselves vile, and he restrained them not. ~ 1 Samuel 2:22, 3:13

He restrained them not…

The gross deception of believing that addressing government policy and elections in the church is unbiblical and inappropriate opened the door to ignorance and complacency in many believers. ~ Dutch Sheets, We Will Reap, Not Retreat.

For the iniquity which the church knoweth…leaving the slowest, weakest…and the children to the beasts of prey…

“We know that lions usually hunt for the slowest, weakest and YOUNGEST of its prey.” When the church checked out, Oprah stepped in!

…And restrained them not!

“(Our Government) is facilitating the largest child-trafficking ring in American history! ~ Sen. Josh Hawley ~ 85,000 Children!!!!!!

Better to be thrown into the sea with a millstone (Luke 17:2)…

Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent. ~ Revelation 2:4-5

This is the union of church and state, and this is the power of Babylon; church and state together…and they are found wanting, and they are going to fall. ~ Walter Veith, The Fall of Babylon

Earlier this year I walked into a men’s Bible study in the middle of a conversation between a pastor and two elders who were discussing the sin of homosexuality in their families, and to my dismay, witnessed the pastor excuse the sin on the basis of the times we are living in.   And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? ~ Acts 19:15

But if ye have respect to persons, ye commit sin, and are convinced of the law as transgressors. ~ James 2:9

Our Lord is dethroned more emphatically by Christian workers than by the world. ~ Oswald Chambers, The Test of Loyalty

And then came a voice crying out in the wilderness…

Discernment is needed. We are commanded. The Lord is speaking more than ever before. He’s instructing us and telling us what to do, when to do, how to do, what to say and who to say it to. Listen to Him, listen for it, know His voice…So when the church allows the government to tell them to shut the doors of God Almighty, I don’t know if there is any greater sin. I don’t know. Because you are literally now taking instructions from the enemy. That is bizarre! So how do I come and sit in your church and listen to you? I can’t listen to you because I don’t know who your father is. We are the ones who are going to bring revival. The revival is coming through us, and God is giving the church an opportunity to come back. But the church must first repent for what it failed to do. The church must first repent for failing God in the time when the country and the world needed to see it, needed to hear it, needed to understand, and stand under its authority. The church has to repent, and we have to hold the church accountable. ~ Tricia S. Lindsay, Esq. ~ “the AUTHORITY to tread on serpents and scorpions”

After faithfully posting this Tune-up for the past thirteen years, I believe I am finally able to see the end in sight. What began as a whisper in November of 2010, much the same as the very first time He called young Samuel {1 Samuel 3-10}, has become a shout. I went to seek His voice on a mountaintop in Wyoming in September of 2015. He answered me on a ray of golden sunlight over the top of Laramie Peak pouring into the tiny church in Esterbrook with His Word in James 4:8. He called me to start the Prayer & Fast Wednesdays in 2018, the Choose Life Parade in Warwick, NY in 2019, CLOTH (Christian Leaders of the Hudson) in 2020, the Eagle Classical Christian Academy via brother Wes in 2021, and the John 17:21 Hudson Valley Revival at the beginning of this year. And today? It is exactly as Tricia describes above, He’s instructing us and telling us what to do, when to do, how to do, what to say and who to say it to. Listen to Him, listen for it, know His voice…

Interestingly, the very church that Tricia calls to repent is the same church that Dutch Sheets, Walter Veith, and Oswald Chambers are calling out. It is the same church that has surrendered its moral authority, closed its doors, failed God, and then tried to silence her John 17:21 Revival message, Our Authority As Sons & Daughters of the King Most High!This same church that brought discord and division into the CLOTH shows up to the very spot where the Revival was supposed to take place…to repent and seek forgiveness? No, this spirit ignores the letter of reproof sent by the CLOTH Chaplain {Proverbs 15:32} and chooses instead to come back to the scene of the crime to stand before God and His people and say it’s ready to forgive…the same spirit that attempted to silence the very people who have devoted and risked their lives to protect his flock!!! Tricia is 100% correct…I am hard-pressed to think of a greater sin.

This is where James 2:9 comes in. If we as the Revival Committee had chosen to listen to a pastor and ignore God, we would have sinned against God! If you haven’t had the chance to watch the movie Darkest Hour with an amazing performance by Gary Oldman playing the role of Winston Churchill, I would encourage you to do so. Evil can only manifest where it is allowed by a weakened church and state. We teeter on the brink of self-destruction because of an epidemic of politicians who at best believe they need to sacrifice truth for votes, and worse, sell their souls and constituents for $$$. Add to that the majority of church leaders who’ve deafened their ears to Bonhoeffer’s warning, chosen silence in the face of evil, and have failed to hold themselves accountable for the fact that 98% of millennials do not hold a Biblical worldview in this, our darkest hour!

For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the lord, He also has rejected you from being king.

It would be almost forgivable if we were standing in the place of a pre-Pentecostal Peter. But we, by the grace of God’s “helper” or “comforter” {John 14:26} know better! Those of us who remain steadfast and loyal to the one and only Holy Spirit and His calling. CLOTH cannot and will not reconcile itself to sin anymore than Joshua could reconcile himself to Achan, or God to His only Son. Because Joshua by obedience, and God by wisdom know the lethal poison of sin un-checked in the civic ecosystem of men. We “talk” the talk of holding each other accountable, but we fail miserably in “walking” the Proverbs 27:17 walk. How do we know this? Because sparks fly when iron sharpens iron, and too many good men have been conditioned to avoid the sparks of conflict. For fear of offending one another, we scourge the very heart of our Father in Heaven.

So, the question as it pertains to Revival becomes, “Why would God bring revival to an unrepentant body of believers?” We were tasked to prepare the ground for it here in the Hudson Valley, which is exactly what we did in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, September 24th. I believe, with a slight caveat, Tricia is correct when she says, “We are the ones who are going to bring revival. The revival is coming through us, and God is giving the church an opportunity to come back.”The caveat being that only God can bring revival. God is the power working through us {Eph. 3:20} as she states in the next sentence. But I have to be totally honest, as things sit right now, when I hear “We” I think Remnant.

From sister Jenny this morning: Look! Up in the sky! It’s a bird! It’s a plane! It’s… “(The Pharisees) had made such a box, not only did they miss him, they hated him, and I don’t want to be that guy! I am trying to wake up the church…another 2,700-year-old prophesy that we are in the midst of and 98% of the pastors in America never mention it.” ~ Pastor Carl Gallups (10 hours ago)  Israel: The Public Has Never Heard This Side Of The Story!

You can find all ten parts of the 9/24 Revival at Meribah81 on Rumble and see for yourselves the seed that has been planted. The rest is up to us. Amen?

September 24, 2023 ~ CLOTH John 17:21 Hudson Valley Revival!

Part 1 ~ Amy Kumicinski & One Came Down ~  God Bless America, Pam & George Praise God!

Part 2 ~ Fr. Frank Pavone,  Why Church Leadership Is So Important In This Moment

Part 3 ~ Tricia S. Lindsay, Esq.,  Our Authority As Sons & Daughters of the King Most High

Part 4 ~ Songs of Revival, Theatrical/Musical Tribute to Welsh & Asbury Revivals!

Part 5 ~ Zamar Music,  Powerful Young Worship Band on Fire!!

Part 6 ~ Anthony Dilullo & Pastor Anthony Mugnano, Testimony, Isaiah 35

Part 7 ~ Pastor Bill Banuchi, Restoring God’s Truth To A Hurting Nation

Part 8 ~ Pastor Steve Offringa, What God Alone Can Do

Part 9 ~ Pastor Mark Weller & Joy Bonneau, “Is There Not A Cause?” ~ 1 Sam. 17:29, How Great Is Our God?

Part 10 ~ One Came Down, Just the Beginning! ~ The Close

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Flaccidity of American Faith

Posted on October 22, 2023 by Chip Murray

The bows of the mighty men are broken, And those who stumbled are girded with strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, And the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, And she who has many children has become feeble. ~ I Samuel 2:4-5

The passage above is taken from the prayer of Hannah, a barren woman who by the power of her faith conceived Samuel, the first and arguably greatest prophet of the Bible. Remember, brothers and sisters, it took young Samuel three times to finally identify the voice of God {1 Sam. 3:3-9} after Eli coached him to say, “Speak, for thy servant heareth.”

Are we “ALL IN”? “We drift if we lose sight of why God left us on earth. Our goal (should be) to participate in God’s redemptive plan for the world. IF we embrace purpose, we gain power.” ~ John C. Maxwell, Gaining Authority In Christ

Isaiah said that the Lord spoke to him “with a strong hand,” that is, by the pressure of circumstances. Nothing touches our lives but it is God Himself speaking. Do we discern His hand or only mere occurrence? Get into the habit of saying, “Speak, Lord,” and life will become a romance. ~ Oswald Chambers, The Dilemma of Obedience

Where is our faith to do so? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? ~ St. Luke 11:13

So, where am I going with all this? Power, Purpose, All In, Authority, Faith, Romance ALL gone missing in the men of the churches in America today, leaving the Body…

flaccid

/flăs′ĭd, flăk′sĭd/

adjective

Lacking firmness; hanging limply.

“flaccid muscles.”

Lacking force, vigor, or effectiveness.

“a flaccid acting performance.”

Yielding to pressure for want of firmness and stiffness; soft and weak; limber; lax; drooping; flabby.

“a flaccid muscle; flaccid flesh.”

I just attended a wonderful Christian Education conference where in two key breakout sessions the message was If we focus our energy and do the right thing in the horizontal “physical” realm, it will manifest in the vertical “spiritual” realm, when the exact opposite is Biblically confirmed above.

Stop and think for a moment what it means to be All In. It is an easy thing to visualize in the natural, physical, horizontal sense. We see it in everyday examples all around us in sports, business, etc. But what does it mean to be All In as a Christian? God tells us: Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me. And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich. ~ St. Luke 18:22,23 On the other hand He lights the path for us in verses 1 through 8 of the same chapter via the parable of the widow…ending with a question that should chill us all.

And HERE is the key brothers and sisters. What do the men who have followed their Teacher for the past three years say after witnessing the fate of the rich ruler who had followed every rule in the natural, physical, horizontal world to inherit eternal life? And they that heard it said, Who then can be saved? ~ St. Luke 18:26 Again, God gives us the answer in 27, And he said, The things which are impossible with men are possible with God…to them that ask Him.

The enemy is devouring souls in the horizontal because our pulpits are largely occupied by flaccid actors preaching from an upside-down model. It is the reason only two percent of our millennial population hold a Biblical world view. That needs to be flipped right-side-up to focus our energy and do the right thing in the vertical “Holy Spirit” realm, and it will manifest in the horizontal physical realm.

As John C. Maxwell puts in today’s devotional, Leaders Cannot Show the Way Until they Know the Way. His very last point?   * Have a reliable guide.

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ “Through Confusion”

Posted on October 15, 2023 by Chip Murray

Our Present State…

The time is coming when we shall see perfectly clearly, but it is only through confusion that we get to a clear outline…Until we have been disciplined properly by means of spiritual confusion we shall always want to bank on God’s miracles and refuse to do the moral thing ourselves. It is much easier to ask God to do our work for us than to do it ourselves—“Oh well, I will pray and ask God to clean this thing up for me.” God won’t. We must do our own work. ~ Oswald Chambers, Towards Fuller Communion

Biblically speaking, racism is impossible because God who created us sees us all as one race. The fallen enemy of God and father of lies {St. John 8:44}, who relies on the lie of racism to divide, has a special hatred for the true Jewish people (not to be confused with the Ashkenazi) and children because of their closeness to God by virtue of His love and covenant {Deut. 5:2-5}. The ultimate consequence, as the devil knows and wants, is confusion and the chaos it ultimately leads to.

I read the following passage in my morning Psalms/Proverbs read yesterday following a leadership meeting the day before with a group of men I love as brothers, For this God is our God for ever and ever: he will be our guide even unto death. ~ Psalm 48:14. This encouraged me because even in our small leadership team there was confusion brought by division. We were seeing a conflict that to our minds (man’s perspective) began with us when, in reality, it came in from outside and found its mark in our weak and divided response. Those who dismiss the Spirit for the sake of the natural will suffer defeat by the principalities, the powers, and the rulers of the darkness {Eph. 6:12}. They are the foolish five of Matthew 25 who took lamps without oil…banking on God’s miracles…to clean this thing up for them.

Worse than that…Our Psalm 48:14 guide is the comforter Jesus promised {St. John 14:26} and we’ve rejected for the creature comforts, where never is heard a discouraging word. The dead-to-the-Spirit hyper-grace church as Pastor Earl would say, practicing safe-Christianity as Pastor Mark observes, and the farthest from the offensive (and frontline) of all…the tolerant Christian Patrick Bet-David calls out (to a standing ovation) HERE! Those who stand for nothing will fall for everything!

The iron sharpening iron of reproof is hard to accept but foolish and even deadly to ignore {Proverbs 15:10}. The tolerant, safe, hyper-grace Christian will do just about anything to avoid confronting (favorite pronoun) Christian (favorite pronoun) today. Imagine 1 Corinthians 5:3 Paul who only had to confront the church over incest! BUT…dear brothers and sisters, that is exactly what love does…contending for the faith IS love confronting! Confronting the lazy Republican, the do-your-own-thing Libertarian, and the tolerant Christian…in love, for:

  • Clarification
  • Change
  • Relationship
  • Purity
  • Respect
  • Security

If you have a better remedy to rise above our present state of chaos and confusion, please feel free to share! #John17:21!

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ God Bless Our Defenders & Contenders!

Posted on October 8, 2023 by Chip Murray

There will be NO binding on our watch!

Here me, O LORD, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the LORD God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again. ~ 1 Kings 18:37

This has been one very amazing week! A week that was tragically capped off by a “land, air, sea” attack on Israel yesterday morning at around 6am. God had just finished triangulating the following three separate scriptures a day or two earlier: Isaiah 3:1-5, 1 Kings 18:37, and Numbers 16:1-32. No person in his or her right mind can deny our present Isaiah 3 judgement, or not imagine that the hand of God to smite the Numbers rebel and 1 Kings prophets of Baal is imminent.

First, we need to imagine what it must have been like to live at the height of the Ahab/Jezabel reign of power. What’s the saying? One man with courage is a majority? Elijah against 450… “He knew the time of judgement had arrived.” Doc Chambers gave an amazing interview with Scott on Bards the other night: A House Divided He starts out with the Word from St. Mark 3:27, No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man: and then he will spoil his house.

The enemy within our midst today is a far deadlier Pharisaic spirit that has penetrated our religious institutions than that which Jesus had to contend with. There was no Pretender in Nicodemus…or Saul before his conversion.

We have to find out why Jesus was beside Himself with rage and indignation at the Pharisees and not with those given over to carnal sins. Which state of society is going to stand a ripping and tearing Being like Jesus Christ who drags to the ground the highest respected pillars of its civilized society, and shows that their respectability and religiosity is built on a much more abominable pride than the harlot’s or the publican’s. The latter are disgusting and course, but these men have the very pride of the Devil in their hearts…The thing that awakens indignation in us is the thing that upsets our present state of comfort and society… “Calvary” means “the place of the skull,” and that is where our Lord is always crucified, in the culture and intellect of men who will not have self-knowledge given by the light of Jesus Christ. ~ Oswald Chambers, Pharisaic Invincibility

That my friends, is the enemy within the divided body of our Church. Meet the one that has infiltrated our State:

“Our massive lawsuit against Biden’s IRS just unearthed a bombshell revealing the breathtaking scope of the targeting of Christians. The IRS has 26,000 pages of documents related to the ‘Word of God’ – 50,000 pages related to ‘Prayer.’” ~ Jay Sekulow, ACLJ Chief Counsel DONATE

By the way, a huge shout-out and thank you to Ed R who turned me on to the LARRY Town Hall   this week. He does a marvelous job of bringing truth to light, by exposing the Pretenders in the press, and the business-as-usual gang in DC, where Rep. Matt Gaetz showed some major Elijah spine this week, and a Candace bonus clip!!

At the end of the day we have a choice. We can either remain in our divided state and wait for the wolf to knock, OR, we can practice the Orange Strong Strength in Unity motto and come together in answer to the CLOTH John 17:21 prayer…with a dash or two of tenacity! Amen?

Then comes the call to spiritual tenacity, not to hang on and do nothing, but to work deliberately on the certainty that God is not going to be worsted. If our hopes are being disappointed just now, it means they are being purified. There is nothing noble the human mind has ever hoped for or dreamed of that will not be fulfilled. ~ Oswald Chambers, Spiritual Tenacity

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Dominion Dudes & Gladiators

Posted on October 1, 2023 by Chip Murray

Watch the ripple…

The LORD looketh from heaven; he beholdeth all the sons of men. ~ Psalm 33:13

It occurred to me just this week, on the sunny side of our CLOTH Revival last Sunday, how many of us are laboring under a false impression that can only lead them to despair and their own enslavement. Preoccupied with the view of the world and their own circumstances through the lens of man’s perspective, they are suffering a lack of precious time and energy in relationship with God in prayer, and in His Word. As a result, they are depriving themselves of the encouraging and empowering view through the lens of God’s perspective…which is insane when you stop, think, and understand that man’s view is a temporary illusion before death, while God’s view is the truth of eternal life.

I am grateful to brother Sean for sending me the clip of Pastor Mark Driscoll speaking before an audience of men at what appeared to be a Dominion for Dudes event. It was perfect timing as I had just spent time with a brother the day before who has been suffering the same despair, under relentless attack by the enemy, for the very same lack of feeding his soul I described in the first paragraph above. (6 minutes) ~ Are You Selling Your Soul? Interestingly, I came to learn that Pastor Driscoll’s voice was silenced in Seattle by the same spirit that attempted to silence the voices of Fr. Frank Pavone, Tricia S. Lindsay, Esq., and Rev. Bill Banuchi at our Revival last Sunday!

In the very same day brother Sean turns me on to Pastor Driscoll, sister Marucia introduced me to the beautiful soul of Rachel Elnaugh and her powerful message carried by (wait for it) Just a Dude channel. The beauty of the tandem messages to my eye: Pastor Driscoll’s message on the abandoned and neglected soul cost us our discernment. Rachel not only reveals the world through the discerning eye of a well-nourished soul, in her wrap-up she prescribes the John 17:21 fix as enacted by Russel Crowe in the movie Gladiator. (9 minutes) “Whatever comes out of those gates…If we stick together, we survive.”

“If” we stick together…

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. ~ Ephesians 2:10

From up-enders, pretenders, and defenders…

The pretenders who talk good works are the same who will stand in the pouring rain and tell you to your face the sun is shining because they fear the enemy more than they fear God. He beholdeth all the sons of men. When the wicked rise, (pretenders) hide themselves, but when they perish (thank you defenders), the righteous increase. ~ Proverbs 28:28 He beholdeth all the sons of men. The Word we live by does not say we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should talk in them…He said we are to walk in them.

The joy, opposite despair, viewing the battlespace from God’s perspective is a universe beyond palpable. It’s healing, restoring, regenerative, and fortifying…which is exactly why the enemy so desperately needs to silence the defenders. So, one might say, “Brother Chip, your walk is not my walk,” to which I simply steal a line from John C. Maxwell and reply, “Be on purpose!” He goes on to write, “Nothing in life can take the place of knowing your purpose. If you don’t try to discover your purpose, you’re likely to spend your life doing the wrong things…I believe that God created every person for a purpose…Our responsibility—and our joy—is to identify it.” There’s that joy word again…amazing what God’s perspective in our lives can do to light us up, thus illuminating the family, friends, community, and world around us.

Our Abba Father tossed a pebble last Sunday…watch the ripple, and know He is watching us.

Psalm (Heart) & Proverb (Wisdom) a Day Drives the Tyrant Away! PS 35:4 Let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul: Let them be turned back and brought to confusion that devise my hurt.

PR 24:10 If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small.

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Sons & Stewards

Posted on September 24, 2023 by Chip Murray

Next Stop!

My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings. Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil. ~ Proverbs 4:20-27

Today is not just any day, and I am not just any son. For I am, along with my brothers and sisters who have labored these past eight-and one-half months to prepare the ground for this day, sons and daughters of the King Most High. And as such, we are given His authority as stewards of this worldly realm He has born us into and chosen us out of.

Stewardship ~
: the office, duties, and obligations of a steward…

: the conducting, supervising, or managing of something…

especially: the careful and responsible management of something entrusted to one’s care.

Our world gone mad has nothing to do with us…but we, by our God-given authority, have everything to do with it. And the absolute horror of this decadent freak show of immoral oblivion our country has deformed into is the direct result of our having abandoned our office, duties, and obligations…to the point we nearly lost our John 17:21 Revival by attempting to cancel three of the bravest defenders of our office, duties, and obligations! As Jude foretold them, earnest contenders for the faith. By God’s grace and the precious gift of His discernment, we pondered our path and held our ground. The very same discernment that saved the ONLY family in Jericho (Joshua 2:9, 6:22,23).

As Howells shepherd Pastor Steve preached a few weeks ago, Revival that comes of the Holy Spirit seeing us in the state of our desperation, involves repentance, reconciliation, and restoration. Surely there can be no reconciliation without repentance. And there can be no repentance without assuming full accountability and responsibility for the fact that our deviation from the Proverbs 4:20-27 path by what Dutch Sheets refers to as an “irrelevant” and “disabled church” has led us into the hellish quagmire of double-mindedness, half-hearted weakness, and fearfulness. It is the church, church pastors, and churchmen who need to repent, if we’re to have any hope of reclaiming our authority as sons of the King Most High. True restoration has to start with us in order to return the church, His Ecclesia, to its rightful place as THE moral authority of the nation God intended us to be…a nation now barely on life support.   

A true believer shared with me on Friday that his 22-year-old son shocked him and his wife a short while back when he confessed his lack of believing in the Word of God. That’s on us as men of the church! We had a remarkable special prayer service at Howells Church last night that included a special treat from Songs of Revival which will be performed today at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center, a powerful message on Revival from Pastor Tim Mercaldo, and prayer for Revival and all involved today from 11-5pm in Poughkeepsie. We especially prayed for all the lost, hurting, and suffering souls seeking love, light, beauty, and truth in a world that just seems to grow darker by the day.

Only God knows what today will bring. While we have seen many, many signs and wonders affirming His hand in choosing this time and place…

(Haggai 2:18-19)…the far greater question as it pertains to our survival and posterity is, “What is He seeing in us?”

Whether or not this is the beginning of a Great Revival, it is only a good start of a great commission for the CLOTH (Christian Leaders Of The Hudson). There was a welcoming message of well wishes and move towards reconciliation last night from friends the enemy tried to separate us from. The enemy is panicked knowing his best efforts to derail us have failed, and our trajectory and momentum towards the realization of John 17:21 oneness is unstoppable! Next stop, the return of a Godly education with the Eagle Classical Christian Academy! All we need now are for a few good men to return to the game and step up to be the Sons and Stewards God made them to be! Amen?

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The River of Déjà vu

Posted on September 17, 2023 by Chip Murray

Even the bugs!!

But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him. And the Lord said, Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like? They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept. For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He hath a devil. The Son of man is come eating and drinking; and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man, and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners! But wisdom is justified of all her children. ~ St. Luke 7:30-35

We are so truly desperate for revival brothers and sisters, even the bugs are praying for it! What the Luke 7 Pharisees rejected then, the “business as usual” pastors and priests reject today, not being baptized of Him…born again, as Jesus counseled Nicodemus (St. John 3:7). They are aptly the middle group in this, the final act of a trio of key actors on the American stage of our greatest chapter: The Up-enders, The Pretenders, and The Defenders. Dutch covered it well…

“2% of Millennials (born 1980 to 1995) have a Biblical world view…basically, an entire generation of Americans believe the Bible is irrelevant. How can anyone argue that it will not take a great awakening and reformation to save America. It also makes one wonder how so many churches can simply continue with business as usual.” ~ Dutch Sheets-Give Him 15, The Disabled Church…which rhymes with the vision that haunts me; Man waiting on God waiting on man.

So, God proved our Revival Committee on the Farm, and moved us to the River to, I believe, send a message to the business as usual pastors and priests that they’ve made themselves irrelevant. And He gave me a dream…

9/13/23 River Dream

I had this very strange and very real dream that woke me between 2 and 3am this morning: I was with a small group of men…might have been men and women. We were leaving a small village onto a bridge that crossed over a river…when the guy in front just all of a sudden jumped off the bridge 30-50’ into a river that could have been the Hudson River…without a blink, I followed him and did the very same thing. When I got to the other side quite a ways downstream, I climbed a very steep palisade that reminded me of the climb I made in California nearly 50years ago. I made my way to a home and walked in the back door to find a several kids who reacted to my appearance as if almost expected…I tried to get them to alert mom so I wouldn’t be a fright, and she was as calm as they…and then the husband appeared and it was all so pleasant…he was trying/wanting to show me an old album…Beatle album I think…and there was some kind of old relic hippie bus I think parked in front he had to show me.

I just remember thinking as I scaled the mountain this feeling of renewal…almost rebirth…with no more cell phone. Everything was right again. And then I woke up…

Prayer warriors needed on the river! Tune in to Sound of Life today (89.7FM) 9:20am, 1:30pm, and 6:20pm 😊

“All God’s children they come down to the river, they wanna jump in but they’re afraid of gettin’ nearer. It’s easier to sit and watch the water run by…and wait until it’s your turn to die.” ~ Muddy Water, Chip Murray 2004

I don’t know what it will take to reawaken the men waiting on God to their role as men. I know that I invited many of the them to a “Biblical Justice in America” call with brother Marshall, organizer of the upcoming “Mighty Men of Valor” conference October 20th this past Friday, and only four pastors showed up for the call. The Truth of His Remnant: What the Pretenders would throw away, the Defenders treasure…  

Doctrine of the lesser magistrate The lesser magistrate doctrine declares that when the superior or higher civil authority makes unjust/immoral laws or decrees, the lesser or lower ranking civil authority has both a right and duty to refuse obedience to that superior authority. If necessary, the lesser authorities even have the right and obligation to actively resist the superior authority. ~ Matthew J. Trewhella, author of The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates

Before the dawn there is desolation; but wait, the dawn will merge into glorious day—“…the light of dawn, that shineth more and more into the perfect day.” If you are experiencing the darkness of desolation on individual lines, go through with it, and you will find yourself face to face with Jesus Christ as never before. “I have come that they may have life”—life in which there is no death—“and that they may have it more abundantly.” ~ Oswald Chambers, The Darkness of Desolation

Join us one week from today for the CLOTH John 17:21 Hudson River Revival from 11am to 5pm at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie! That we be one! To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet unto the way of peace (St. Luke 1:79).

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Conquering Fear

Posted on September 10, 2023 by Chip Murray

REVIVAL IS HERE!

Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. ~ Psalm 19:4-5

It’s really quite something to draw near enough to that thing you were born to do, that you can actually see it. You imagine in your head that the prophet who foretold these things to you and more, forty-seven years ago, will be there. Why wouldn’t he be? All the failures…all the heartaches…all the disappointments and losses. But always that voice, “Keep going.” I heard this great quote on Bards the other day, “God will put you back together…right in front of those who broke you.” In fact, I highly recommend you listen to Scott’s interview from Thursday night with Joe Allen. Here’s a man who has studied the enemy for the past twenty plus years. And from my morning MAX a few days back, “Failure is simply a price we pay to achieve success.” And yet the fear of failure has stopped more than a few good men…even Christian men, of all men, who should know the victory is already won. What Christian man doesn’t want to see himself in Teddy Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena mirror…and why? Fear…

We had an amazing call with an amazing brother in Christ, Lt Col Pete “Doc” Chambers last week on the situation we are ALL facing as Americans, believers and unbelievers alike. The call presentation was “Decisively Engaged” for 16 Christian men who are effectively engaged as leaders in their respective areas of our Northeast. Decisively engaged, as Doc shared, is when things go hot which few of us, myself included, have ever experienced. I have no idea how I will handle it, no one does. But I can tell you this from my own experience. God does not give us anything we cannot handle when we are faithful to Him. In fact, I have learned from my own walk that He chose me long before I fully accepted Him, and I am now able to see how He prepared me for all of what is about to happen by subjecting me to test after test over the years, incrementally building from small to bigger, harder, and more intense (1 Sam. 17:34-36).

Which brings us to OUR revival. God is proving us (Judges 3:1-4). He anointed CLOTH to the task of preparing the ground in January, and He appointed the committee to choose the time and place, and to select and vet the speakers and performers. Seven and a half months of His blessing us with spiritual, financial, and human resources. All united in a John 17:21 Spirit of mission and purpose…until the ides of August, when a different spirit crept in, effectively calling for the removal of the decisively engaged Joshua’s and Caleb’s from our lineup! God does not give us anything we cannot handle when we are faithful to Him, and our committee never flinched, never waivered under fire, and remained faithful to Him. We were tested, proven, and as a result our Hudson Valley will be favored with revival at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie on Sunday September 24th from 11-5pm, not for our righteousness, but for their wickedness (Deut. 9:4). To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet unto the way of peace (St. Luke 1:79).

Brothers and Sisters, Revival is not the end but the beginning of a very long hard road to the third R in Pastor Steve’s R trilogy from his message last Sunday; Restoration. Are we ready? I know a certain committee that is! Restoration will never come to those who wait for God to do that which He provided them the full Ephesians armor to do for themselves. Woe to the poor souls who failed the first test, and never humbled or repented…only to wake up chained to the wrong spirit at the final exam. As Doc would say, “Suck it up buttercup!” There are no more safe shortcuts, no more cozy comfort in the shade…that’s the fool’s path to the wide gate. We are bound for glory, brothers and sisters, on this long hard road to the narrow gate. Amen?

Long Hard Road ~ Junior Sisk

But Mama kept our Bible read, while Daddy kept our family fed, and somewhere in between I must have grown. And someday I was dreaming that a song that I was singing takes me down this road to where I wanna go…and now I know, it’s a long hard road.

Oh yes, our good shepherd adds a P word for good measure…

The “perilous times” of these “last days” (see 2 Timothy 3) are already upon us, and what’s ahead of us, according to God’s Word, will try our faith as never before!  As God’s people, however, let us be reminded of His sanctifying, purpose through suffering and the testing of our faith, as Peter said, “That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ….” (1 Peter 1:7ff).  The testing of our faith, therefore, clearly serves to purify and to perfect the faith in which we already stand!  Please also read First Peter 4:12-19, where the apostle speaks about our being “partakers of Christ’s sufferings” as the Apostle Paul also speaks of “the fellowship of His sufferings”, according to Philippians 3:10!  Testing from our God, or permitted by Him, therefore, is not designed to defeat us, but instead to perfect us, and to develop “patience” (spiritual “endurance”) in our lives and witness for Christ (see Romans 5:1-5 & James 1:2-4), that we may become more complete and mature in Him!  Then, as with Daniel in Babylon, for example, along with Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, their severe testing only served to prove who and what they truly were, regardless of what they faced – faithful to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Jacob!  What will the days ahead prove about us?  Not that we are anything in ourselves apart from our God and His grace and mercy, but that our faith in Him is solid and secure for His glory, “whether it be by life, or by death” (Philippians 1:20)!  Will we cave in under the pressure, the threats, or under the ill treatment of the enemy and his followers?  Did Peter and John collapse before the Sanhedrin (see Acts 4)?  Who will we choose to obey?  Or, perhaps better asked, “Who have we already decided to obey and to follow”?  the story is told of a fireman who risked his very life to rescue a child from a burning building!  A bystander then exclaimed that the firefighter “had become a hero”!  Someone else then quickly responded, saying, “Oh no!  He was already a hero”!  The fire only proved that he was a hero at heart!  By God’s grace, what will the days ahead prove us to be?  Fearful, or faithful?  

Always in the love of Jesus,

Pastor Steve Offringa 

(2 Timothy 1:7ff)!

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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ “ALL IN!”

Posted on September 3, 2023 by Chip Murray

The altar of God’s choosing is not approached by feelings of devotion or emotions of worship; that is why it is difficult to discover it. All natural religion reaches its climax in ritual, in the beauties of aesthetic and sensuous worship. God’s altar is discerned only by the Holy Spirit when that Spirit is in a man. ~ Oswald Chambers, Supreme Sacrifice

That Spirit was/is in the greatest ALL-IN team I have ever had the honor to serve with…the CLOTH John 17:21 Revival Committee. CLOTH has been led, blessed, and fed by the Holy Spirit since July of 2020. Through the inception of a classical Christian academy in December of 2021, to the actual Labor Pain birth of the John 17:21 Hudson Valley Revival, delivered on the Labor Day weekend, as only God could do. The original altar was a beautiful farm in Montgomery…until man got in the way, second-guessing our committee, with a better idea…a safer idea. As our CLOTH chaplain put it so well: It suggested the “things of men” rather than the “mind of God.” The better idea came from a church pulpit of all places. The committee never flinched, knowing and honoring God’s mind in the matter. This note to our committee this past Friday morning:

By day’s end we will have six “Hail Mary” passes headed for our 9/24 end zone…in the game already won! For the last several days I have walked by a face-side-down envelope on the table in the kitchen where new mail is placed. This morning I woke up thinking about what will be at this Sunday’s CLOTH meeting, our meeting today with Pastor Sam…and the words “ALL IN” from one who wasn’t. And how in this hour of our lives, every one of us must be. And for some reason 😊 this morning I picked up that envelope addressed to me to read His 9/24 affirmation! And then His word Deut. 9:4-6…He will bring Revival to the Civic Center not for our righteousness, but for their wickedness! And Deut. 9:10:16:17 because “It is a great thing to have a God BIG enough to believe in!” He’s not done. 😊 Psalm 37:12-17 and Luke 1:79 To give light to those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet unto the way of peace. 😊

~ Chip 

I see three types of people in America right now in this pivotal hour: Upenders, Pretenders, and Defenders…those ALL IN. Pretenders being the most dangerous. Those who pretend away the Truth will get in the way, and even betray those who at all costs will defend the Truth.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring…~ Teddy Roosevelt, excerpt from his Man in the Arena speech.

…and His Word is fresh every day…

Proverbs 31:3 Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.

Something miraculous is about to happen. What the Upenders have turned upside down, God, working through His Defenders, is finally ready to put rightside up again. And He’s going to do it in the Arena…of the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie on Sunday, September 24th!

My engineer, who produced my last CD a year ago, who I haven’t spoken to this year, who has no idea of any of these things, Fed-exed me one hundred of the CD’s this week without explanation…for the baby shower…just in time for today’s CLOTH meeting at 4pm. The CD title? “When the World Turns Around”!

 “God is tired of people like me getting credit for His work.” ~ Billy Graham, interviewed by Glenn Beck…covering the Oliver Anthony phenom.

I shared the ALL IN envelope Holy Spirit story with a young pastor the other day. His response, “That’s funny.” That told me I was talking to a young man who was not tuned into the supernatural dimension…where the Holy Spirit lives. Recently I was accused of being uncompassionate in my description of today’s business-as-usual church void of youthful potency because the youth have gone elsewhere to satisfy their supernatural craving. That’s why the Holy Spirit choosing Sunday seemed crazy to some pastors. But God isn’t looking to bring in pastors, He is looking to bring back His children. Amen? As I said to some…I am praying for many to consider the Mid-Hudson Civic Center their House of Worship on Sunday, September 24th!

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