Canelo Cowboy Church

Well, we’re 12 days into 2020 and so far, so good. I am looking forward to this year because I know that God is going to bring in a harvest of souls and His Kingdom will be expanding in our community and beyond! I know that He will be doing this because we as a church have stepped out in faith and asked Him to touch and save those that we’re praying for.
Remember last week I asked you all to write down a name on a piece of paper and place it in a basket? And I also asked you to commit to pray for that person daily and I will pray over the names daily and we’ll see what God does in those lives. I said that we are going to call this the “My One” prayer. Just one person, one, that you and I will commit to pray for and we will see what God does in the lives of “our one.” Well, there are 40 names that came in on the 1st Sunday and I would like to continue putting names in the baskets throughout the month and continue to pray for them. Won’t it be wonderful to see how God answers our prayers this coming year? And God will get the glory for this Brothers and Sisters! God already has a plan for each and every name that we have written down and it is going to be amazing to see wonderful things happen in their lives.
Do you have the faith for that? Do you believe that God can, through your sincere prayers, change lives and save people from their sins? I believe that He can and that He will if we just ask Him to. James 5:13-16 tells us this, “Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” This is a promise to you directly from the word of God. If you’re in trouble, pray. If you’re happy, sing. If you’re sick, ask others to pray. And confess your sins that you may be healed. What greater healing is there then the healing of “your one’s” soul and the forgiveness of their sins that they can live eternally in the presence of Jesus? Then James says, “ The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.” Your prayer is important to God and important to the people you are praying for. Can you imagine getting to heaven and realizing that “your one” is not there simply because you didn’t pray for them? Shouldn’t everyone have that chance?
Maybe you don’t know how to pray for them. “What do I say, how do I ask God to save them?” you may be saying. Well, simply that. Simply ask God to save them and do a work in their lives that they can have eternal life and spend it in heaven with you. Pray for them, sincerely, knowing that God can do a work in their lives and that they will be born again (John 3:3)! Then sit back and watch God do a work in their lives.
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve

It’s 2:47 a.m. New Year’s Eve 2019 as I am trying to write this week’s Words from the Pastor. Crazy to be awake this early in the morning I know, but if you can’t sleep you might as well try to do something productive, I suppose. We had a wonderful and blessed New Year’s Community Service last Sunday and if you missed it you missed a blessing, I think. All four of the evangelical churches in the area came together under one roof and all praised God together. It was a beautiful thing and a great way to kick-start the new year. I believe God was glorified in it and the Holy Spirit was there big time. Thank you, Lord! We are ready to start this new year with a full head of steam and turn our community upside down for Jesus!
But what happens when we wake up January 1st and the same ole same ole happens? Or maybe we can hold on to the spark until the 1st of February but then we fall back into the same routine and the same kind of pressure and the same…you know the drill. What do you do then?
Now Naomi and I heat our home with a woodstove. And I am the “Keeper of the Flame” so’s to speak. It’s my job to cut the wood, load the wood in the pickup, bring the wood home, unload it from the truck and stack it, split the big logs so they will fit through the door of our woodstove, cut kindling, bring the wood in, lay up the fire and light it. Then, to ensure that the house is warm I get up early and stoke the fire and add more wood. That way when my queen wakes up and comes out of our bedroom, she can be warm. Happy wife happy life I always say! And it doesn’t end there. After the wood burns there are ashes to clean out of the stove and haul off and clean up. And I do all of this because we don’t want to pay a $300.00 electric bill by operating our heat-pump. And I enjoy it, actually.
That’s the same way we need to be in our relationship with the Lord isn’t it? We, as disciples of Jesus Christ, need to keep our spiritual fire burning. We need to be, “Doers of the Word and not hearers only (James 1:22).” It isn’t a once-a-week come to church because that’s what I am supposed to do thing, it is an everyday die to myself, take up my cross and follow Jesus thing (Luke 9:23)! It is becoming a new creation in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17), putting off that old self and putting on the new! And doing that day in and day out, keeping the fire of the Holy Spirit stoked in our hearts.
I have had people come to me and tell me they are going to leave the church because they don’t feel that they’re “Getting fed.” And when I ask them what that means, not getting fed, they usually spit and sputter and aren’t sure what to say. And then I get personal with them and ask them how much time are they are spending in the Bible during the week? and they will usually answer me, “Not too much preacher.” So, I ask them how they can expect to get fed at church when they aren’t even putting the effort into feeding themselves in the first place? If we have been a Christian for a while, then we should be feeding ourselves and helping feed others. If we are disciples of Christ, disciples meaning followers or apprentices of Christ, then we need to be doing what He told us to do, loving our neighbor and sharing His Gospel. Lord, help me be the Christian man that I need to be to glorify You.
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all. -Pastor Steve