Tag: Inspirational

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Great is Thy faithfulness

I’ve been thinking about the old hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” The lyrics say, “Great is Thy faithfulness, oh God my Father. There is no shadow of turning with Thee. Thou changest not, Thy compassions they fail not. As Thou hast been, Thou for ever will be! Great is Thy faithfulness, great is Thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see. All I have needed Thy hand hath provided, great is Thy faithfulness Lord unto me!” You could google the song when you have a chance and read the rest of the lyrics. I think they will bless you and maybe you can relate to the writer and his relationship with his Father. This is what we are talking about when we say that we at Canelo Cowboy Church don’t have a religion, we have a relationship with Jesus.

You might be thinking, “What’s the difference between religion and a relationship?” If you look in the Gospel books in the Bible, you’ll read about how the Pharisees and the Sadducees took issue with Jesus. They weren’t impressed at all with how He raised the dead, healed the sick, made the lame walk, made the deaf hear, made the blind see and all the other wonderful things He did. They weren’t interested in why He did it, they were interested in if He messed with their religion when He did it. Did He heal on the Sabbath Day, did he do all the things He did in accordance with their interpretation of the law, their religion!

We don’t want to be religious here at Canelo Cowboy Church folks! We want to be free to allow the Spirit to work in our lives and allow God to use us as He sees fit. God doesn’t need to do things the way we think He should. We cannot put God in a box and tell Him He needs to do things the way we think He should. We want to be able to have that relationship with Him and to say “Great is thy faithfulness” no matter what He decides needs to happen in our lives! He desires a relationship with us and it’s really quite simple if we just trust in Him to lead us.

Pray for that kind of relationship, would you? I want to be like Jesus and only do what I see the Father do and only say what I hear the father say. Now that’s a relationship!

Please let me know if you need anything.  Pray for me and I’ll pray for you. Naomi and I love you all.

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Be kind to one another!

I was reading in chapter 4 verse 32 of Ephesians. It says, “And be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another even as God in Christ has forgiven you.” There are a few things to look at here. First, it’s a great reminder that we need to be kind to each other. We need to be kind to everyone we come in contact with actually. If we are to “Love others as we love ourselves,” and “Love our neighbor as ourselves,” then we need to learn to show kindness to whomever we come in contact with.
You ever had a bad day? Or maybe you’ve had a bad week or a bad month. Some folks seem to have bad lives, where nothing ever seems to go right for them. I think that we as Christians need to keep this in mind when we are dealing with people. We never know what someone is going through. Look at the writer of this Epistle, the Apostle Paul. He had been imprisoned, shipwrecked, beaten, stoned and attacked from every side but yet he knew that God was on the throne and He was looking out for him. He wrote these words, “Be kind to one another.” We need to keep in mind that we don’t know what everyone is going through when we’re dealing with them. If we knew what they were going through, we might just understand why they’re a big ‘ole grouch!
So maybe instead of being mad about their attitude we should try and encourage them and show them the same love Jesus shows us even when we don’t deserve it. Which in my case is all of the time!
Then Paul writes, “Forgiving one another even as God in Christ has forgiven you.” Each one of us that knows Christ as our personal Savior knows that we do not deserve this kind of forgiveness! We deserve death, but Christ died on the cross for us so we don’t have to die and spend an eternity separated from Him! What a deal! He did it all and forgave us so we need to show the same to everyone, especially our brother’s and sister’s in Christ. I know it sounds simple and in reality it’s hard, but with enough prayer we can get it done! We can become like our Savior, Jesus! Pray for me and I’ll pray for you that we can get this done!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve

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What’s God doing in your life?

What’s God doing in your life folks? Is He changing you from the inside out or do you figure He’s done all the work in you that He’s ever going to do? I think He’s constantly changing and growing us no matter how old we get!
God puts us through all kinds of things to help and/or make us grow up in Him. All the things that go on in your life are allowed so we must start depending on God and on His sovereign will for our lives. We need to lay down our lives daily and allow Him to work His will in our hearts. That way we become more Christ like and are willing to allow God to work in our hearts until we are able to say, “Not my will but Yours Father. Whatever is best for me is what I want! I am willing to go through it because You know what’s best for me.” We can really start believing Romans 8:28-“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to His purpose.”
There’s an old song by Dan Burgess titled, “Thank You Lord.” It’s a great song and it speaks to my heart because it speaks truly how I feel. Here’s some of it:


Thank you, Lord, for the trials that come my way. In that way I can grow each day; as I let you lead, and thank you, Lord, for the patience those trials bring. In that process of growing, I can learn to care.
But it goes against the way I am to put my human nature down
and let the Spirit take control of all I do. ‘Cause when those trials come, my human nature shouts the thing to do; and God’s soft prompting can be easily ignored.
I thank you, Lord, with each trial I feel inside, that you’re there to help, lead and guide me away from wrong. ‘Cause you promised, Lord, that with every testing, that your way of escaping is easier to bear.


“But it goes against the way I am to put my human nature down and let the Spirit take control of all I do!” Wow! Human nature raising its ugly head once again. I really like where he writes that “God’s soft prompting can be easily ignored.” He’ll never force us to do anything. He wants it to be our decision. You pray for me that I can let Him do that, please.
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.

-Pastor Steve

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Change is coming soon!

Well my brothers and sisters here we are 3 weeks into 2016 and from the surface it sure doesn’t look like much has changed around here but please hang on! Change is coming soon! The leadership is busy working on the new building and it’s progressing in a behind the scene manner. Very soon folks we are going to see progress at the new Property and we’ll be meeting there before you know it. But there is a lot of paperwork and things that need to be taken care of first.
Dennis and Juli should be in tonight some time! That’ll be a fantastic blessing and a giant leap forward on the building project. It is exciting to me to see a young couple feel God moving in their hearts enough that they will pack up and leave the comforts of home and head out West on an adventure that they have no clue where it will land them in the end. It’s pretty much like a New Testament missionary journey where the missionary’s feel God pulling at their heart to go minister to a people group so they get up and go! Remember when God told Abraham to “Take your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love and go to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains I will tell you about (Genesis 22: 1-2).” The Bible says that Abraham got up early the next morning and set out to do what God had asked him to do! No hesitation, no whining and no arguing with the Lord, he just did it.
Would you be willing to do that? Would you be willing to move out if God asks? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone and do something that God wants you to do? I’m not saying that you need to kill your kid or move across the Nation, but how about teaching a Sunday school class? When we move to the New Property in a few months we are going to need folks to step up and help out in that manner because the church is going to grow and we will have an opportunity to change these kids’ lives.
We need to teach these young people folks because they are our future! All I’m asking for you to do is pray about it and let Him lead you!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve

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Happy New Year!

Happy New Year You All! Wow! I haven’t seen most of you all year. And you look as good as you did last year!
Well here we go into 2016. Can you believe that we’ve been alive this long and that God is still able to use us in His work on this ole earth? My heart’s desire is to see Him do some fantastic things in each one of our lives. Because when He starts working in our lives there is a ripple effect that spreads to others and the Kingdom of God expands.
I have seen so many of you all grow in Him and in your relationship with Him and it’s been so fantastic! God is moving and hearts are changing. That’s what this whole Christian experience is about. Our lives being changed and others observing that peace in our lives. They then want what we have and the lost coming to know the amazing grace that He gives so freely. What a great time to be alive and to serve a Risen Savior that is in the world today! Please, let’s allow Him to work in our lives and not allow our flesh to cloud our judgement and take away from what He is doing.
Dennis and Juli will be here in about 7 days (Give or take a day), and then we’ll start working on the new building again. We have the money in hand to get the building finished and then we’ll move from The Old Canelo School House to our new facility. I know from talking to some of you that you are not looking forward to the move, but it’s a necessary thing if we want to have the church keep on growing. Please be in prayer about where God can use you in the building process and where you can plug in to help with the move.
I am just as sad as any one that we’re needing to move! I love this old building and so many memories have been made here. But it’s a great growing pain that has been a long time coming. I really truly never envisioned all of this when we first planted this church in 2006, but it’s been His plan all along. We just need to plug-in and see where He takes us as a church and as individuals! Let’s all cinch up tight and let Him lead us wherever He wants us to go! It’s going to be fantastic! Happy New Year!!
Please let me know if you need anything. Naomi and I love you all.
-Pastor Steve