You have a LOT to be thankful for - Read what here...

You have something to be thankful for today...Actually a long list of things, but as I was studying this morning I wanted to share with you a few things of many I am thankful for when it comes to life in Christ Jesus.

#1 His blessings for us and our Sonship

Ephesians 1:3-5
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he[b] predestined us for adoption to sonship[c] through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will—

1. He loves us and chose us to be his sons and daughters. Oh AND He sent his son Jesus who died for our sins so we could receive him and live forever with him in heaven.

2. He gives us blessings - What does that mean? it means: He hooks us up with some great stuff!

There are major benefits to being the son or daughter of the King!
If you have received Jesus and are living for him thats who you are, the old person is gone.

2 Corinthians 5:17- Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

This is really cool too:
Ephesians 1:7-11
7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace 8 that he lavished on us. With all wisdom and understanding, 9 he[d] made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, 10 to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment—to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.
11 In him we were also chosen,[e] having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, 12 in order that we, who were the first to put our hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

We have every reason to put our trust and hope in Jesus.

Hold up though:
v7 Redemption through his blood
Forgiveness of sins
Grace lavished on us
AND v9: he downloads to us the mystery of his plans and will?

We have every reason to put our trust and hope in Jesus. We have every reason to lay our life down to him in response to his infinite Love. AND we have every reason to be thankful as all get out for who He is and all that he has given to us.

Why should we live outside of this? So many are high on the World's kool aid and totally miss all of the above.

Here is some more good news:

His kindness (thankful for that) leads us to Repentance
See Romans 2

Check out what happened in this story that Jesus taught:

Luke 15:11-22
11 Jesus continued: “There was a man who had two sons. 12 The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
13 “Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. 14 After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need. 15 So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs. 16 He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.

17 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father.

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

21 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’

22 “But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. 23 Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. 24 For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.


IF you need to get right with God, He has been waiting on you and filled with love and compassion for you. Not anger and judgement, that is a lie from hell.

Repentance is: confessing your sin to God, asking for His forgiveness, and turning away from it.

God leads us to this through his love and kindness and desire to be in close relationship with us.

He wants nothing more but to be in close relationship with you so he can give you everything he has prepared for you.

Another reason to be thankful - We deserve death and he throws us a coming home party.

I am so thankful today. I hope you are too!

My prayer for YOU today...

Father, give your people revelation today of who You are. Show them what you want to do in and through them today. I pray that they would receive the download and follow you. With raw obedience, great faith, love, and BOLDNESS. I ask you to fill them with the riches of your glory so that they will understand the reality of You living inside of their hearts as they feel your touch now. Fill them with everything they need to accomplish what you want them to do today. May they have great joy in pleasing your heart. I pray that NOTHING will stand in-between them and You. Let nothing keep them from what you are telling them to do today as they follow you. May they respond to your miracles today in humility and realization of your Holiness and make a decision to give up their own rights, interest and life and follow you. I ask that you would teach us all to walk as you walk, and speak as you speak in this world that needs a doctor to bring them back to life, and is crying out for help. Let us love the World that you died for like you love it and fish for people today in the mission field that you have placed us in. Now to You Father who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, and immeasurably more that I could ever as or imagine, according to your great power that is living inside of me, to You be glory in your Church and through Jesus on this earth, our families and on our mission field today in Your GREAT Name. AMEN

Love GOD and Money?

OK, before I go into which Master you serve I gotta tell ya that last week at The Refuge was been one of the significant weeks in our History, in my opinion. We had our first service on our new property on Kannapolis hwy. Pastor Jay invited Pastor Robert Morris from Gateway Church in Dallas, TX and Author of "The Blessed Life" to come and speak with us at this first service about Living Stones. This was such a historic night as Pastor Jay cast a clear vision of where we are going and Pastor Robert shared about what God wants to do through us as we obey his voice, especially in the area of giving and stewardship. God spoke to me personally, then to Elizabeth, and confirmed it through several scriptures that same night, for us to give God something BIG and trust him in a way like we never have before. And we are doing that now. In that obedience, he is already began to develop us. I see it like buying a song on iTunes, you pay for the song and immediately it begins downloading into your iTunes account. I feel like the download just began, and it feels so good. When that happens you don't even care about how much you spent or gave your just excited about the download! Thats how we feel right now. Pastor Jay invited Phillip Cameron to speak this weekend at The Refuge and Phillip spoke and painted such a great picture of what obedience produces, so cool hearing all the stories of how God has used The Refuge around the world and how God is raising up Living Stones in and through The Refuge. The greatest thing about all of this to me is not the fact that God needs something from us but He really wants to do and give something to us/through us. And to do that, we have to surrender everything to Him, including our stuff. God gave Elizabeth this scripture in Luke 16 Wednesday night. She didn't know what Luke 16 was she just felt like God was leading her there, so she looked it up. And it applys to us right now in a serious way. I think it will for you too;) CHECK THIS OUT:

Luke 16:10-14

10 “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much. 11 So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches? 12 And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?

13 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.”

14 The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of others, but God knows your hearts. What people value highly is detestable in God’s sight.



ALOT can be taken from this passage I will just list some things below and then talk about it:

v10,11,12 - Trust and Stewardship: If you steward a little you will steward a lot. The problem with people who don't have much and stay in that place is bad stewardship. Thats what its talking about. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. His resources are available to those who are trust worthy. Most people who don't have much, have tons of excuses and reasons and live there forever. That is NOT what God intends for them.

v13- This is one of the most ignored scriptures in The Bible. People love talking about it but talk is nothing. Faith without works is what? DEAD. Ok, so.. We have two Masters here and only one can be served. 1.God and 2.Money

People say they Worship/Serve/Love God but:

Trust, need, LOVE, want, stress over, are controlled by, live by/for, more, more, more MONEY.

Talk is cheap...God knows our hearts. If God is our master then we:

Trust, need, LOVE, want, have PEACE in, are submitted to, live by/for, more, more, more GOD.

v14 - Who are you trying to impress God or People? Do you pumped yourself up with pride or are you a submitted vessel PUMPED by the Holy Spirit?

WHO is your Master....If its not GOD. MAKE HIM your Master!

I AM A LIVING STONE!

You know somebody who knows somebody who knows.....

"Its a who you know World" Read yesterday's post if you haven't yet!

Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, who knows somebody. YOU-KNOW some people who YOU need to bring to Jesus AND they know some people that they will bring to Jesus after they meet Him. And they ALL will have great stories and make a BIG impact on the Kingdom!

Think about it....If you know someone who does not know Jesus (You know several) and you bring them to Jesus then teach them how to reach their friends who don't know Jesus and they come to Jesus and then....

This is the great commission and we are ALL called to make disciples who make disciples.

Take a look at what Jesus did in John 1:

³⁵ The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ³⁶ When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”

NOTE: He did this on purpose to point them to Jesus.

³⁷ When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ³⁸ Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”

They said, “Rabbi” (which means “Teacher”), “where are you staying?”

³⁹ “Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”

So they went and saw where he was staying, and they spent that day with him. It was about four in the afternoon.

⁴⁰ Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. ⁴¹The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). ⁴² And he brought him to Jesus.

Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter^{g]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[g]}).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

⁴³ The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

⁴⁴ Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. ⁴⁵ Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

⁴⁶ “Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

⁴⁷ When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

⁴⁹ Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

⁵⁰ Jesus said, “You believe^{h]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[h]} because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.”⁵¹ He then added, “Very truly I tell you,^{i]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[i]} you^{j]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[j]} will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’^{k]" style="line-height: 0.5em; ">[k]} the Son of Man.”

Andrew - Simon

Phillip - Nathanael

Found people Find People - This is how the disciples were formed. But take a closer look. Each were called to be a disciple of Jesus and it just so happens that as one was picked their close friend or relative was also chosen by Jesus. Which shows us that WHO we are and WHO is around us is very on purpose with great purpose and if we would truly choose to follow Jesus and do what He has called us to do, we can discover this to be true in our lives just as it was for the disciples.

Who do you know? Bring them to Jesus.

Who do they know? Teach them to bring them to Jesus

Who do they know? ....

In Matt. 28:18-20 Jesus tells his 11 to GO out and make this happen.

I'm challenging YOU to go out and to do the same!

Its a WHO-YOU know World: MY STORY

Its a WHO-YOU know World: MY STORY -

When I was 18 years old I reached out to a man named Don Gray who was the Father of a guy I played high school football with and a Pastor. I just graduated High school and around K-town there were no jobs for college kids after Cannon Mill shut down, being that 5,000 people who were laid off and taking all the jobs up. Don worked in the HR department at UPS in Charlotte and I heard that he was getting people jobs working in the Hub left and right. So I gave him a call...After a few conversations with Don he set me up with an interview with a top dog UPS manager and next thing I knew, I went from being a struggling white boy from K-town with no job, giving plasma twice a week to being the youngest part time Supervisor at UPS in Charlotte. NOTE: This was CRAZY you can ask anyone who knew me then. I couldn't thank Donald enough for helping me and I will never forget what he told me at the end of one of our talks, he told me "Its a who you know World" I could go on with the story because as I befriended my boss for the next two years who had befriended his boss many promises of promotion and big pay were stirring. I was so excited about my journey of climbing the corporate ladder. As the climb really began becoming more of a reality God clearly spoke to me about quitting my job at UPS because he was about to open the door to my future in ministry (Which at the time I was hoping would be a record deal) My Family FLIPPED OUT, because this was the best thing that had ever happened to me and was crazy that I would get a position like this and be successful. December 31st 2004 was my last day at UPS.

NOTE: I went on to get 5 of my friends jobs at UPS after I quit just by making a phone call to a friend of mine in the HR office. I told them the same thing Don told me and they thanked me "Its a who you know World"

One month later January 2005, I walked into The Refuge for the first time and God met me there holding the door wide open. We were invited by our friend Scott who had been working with Providence House. He gave us a tour of The Refuge shortly after renovations has been made in 04, and had been all over us for the next couple of months about visiting. We finally showed up and knew The Refuge was not only where we were suppose to be but where God was leading us. I started volunteering at PH at The Refuge that Wednesday night. 11 months later I quit my job at my doctors office (Yes, I was a male nurse...if you google my name, my work pic comes up.lol) and was hired by PH as a Youth Pastor after taking on a PH in Kannapolis that was growing rapidly.COOL FACT: Brad Rooks, who is the Worship leader of The Refuge Salisbury now was also the Worship leader of PH-KTOWN then. We did PH-KTOWN every Monday night for over 2 years and it was awesome, we have some great stories! God has developed me over the years from a young Youth Pastor at PH to a young Campus Pastor at The Refuge. I'm very greatful and thankful for the people God put in my path to develop and teach me. Im blown away by the way God has blessed me in my life, his plans are so great and beyond our imagination. I tell you this story because I want to encourage you to trust God with your story, which is your life. And tell you that "Its a who you know World" Its not just for your benifit but for the expansion of the Kingdom.

Tomorrow I will write you about WHO-YOU know in your World and talk about John 1 and what Jesus did when he met his first disciples. Everybody knows somebody who knows somebody, who knows somebody. I would LOVE to hear from YOU your story! Check back in tomorrow for part 2, im going somewhere with this because YOU-KNOW some people who YOU need to bring to Jesus AND they know some people that they will bring to Jesus after they meet Him. And they ALL will have great stories and make a BIG impact on the Kingdom!

Send in your Story, thoughts, questions, or anything you got!

FaithFULL or FaithLESS?

You are one or the other...

Dictionary.com says that Faith is: confidence or trust in a person or thing.

You either trust God fully or you do not trust him at all. Since Faith is confidence and trust, faith is also a choice we have to make everyday. Naturally we would love to just trust ourselves or money to do and make happen whatever we want and need. But that is our sinful nature, and if we are born again we are free from those old ways. It is impossible to please God without faith! Look at this:

Hebrews 11:6 - And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Without Faith you offend God! Whenever the disciples would slip up on their Faith or the Pharisees would question Jesus he would always respond with "You of little Faith!" I do not think he had a smile on his face when he made this statement. Why? Many times he would remind them of what He had done like in Matthew when he reminded the Pharisees about what He did when he took 5 loaves and 2 fish and fed 5,000 people!

We cannot forget all of the miracles God has done in our lives. I do not want to hear "You of little Faith" or be reminded of the time when Jesus did a miracle in my life.

Its not always easy trusting Jesus. Especially when everything is spinning out of control, Look at what happened to the disciples:

Matthew 8:23-27 23 Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24 Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

26 He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

27 The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

Remember who is with you and lives inside of you. Too many times we forget who we serve and belong too.

Today, put your trust fully in Jesus with everything you have and with every part of your life.

So you will be FaithFULL and so you can please God!

When you do this, people notice and when Jesus is announced in your life, people will be drawn to him and when that happen's you may be the cause of your entire mission field (work, school, neighborhood) to come to Jesus, and that is what God wants!

Please God-tick off the devil!

5 Things to anticipate-The most Important blog I have ever written

To my Refuge Salisbury Peeps: Yesterday I posted "5 Wins to celebrate" : Justin Porter's Blog: Refuge Salisbury - 5 Wins: "Hey Refuge Salisbury! I want to Celebrate with You 5 Wins since our Launch. 1. Every Sunday since our launch (3 weeks) people have encounter..."

Today, I want to share with You - 5 Things to anticipate as we move forward!

1. Our "Hypocrites" Series, based on Craig Groshel's book "The Christian atheist" - This series started last Sunday, Pastor Jay talked about "When you believe in God but not in prayer" If you were not challenged by this message please email me because we need to talk! Looking forward to the upcoming weeks: When you believe in God but:

-trust more in money

-don't think He is fair

-don't share your faith

-don't think you can change

This series is already beginning to shake our community, and by the time its over we are going to see A LOT of people come to Christ, and be CHANGED by the Word. With touch cards available this week, this is your opportunity to invite people you know "think" the Church is full of hypocrites and are not living for Jesus! If you don't share your Faith, you could be a Hypocrite yourself...guess we will find out in week 4 of this series. You should blow this up!

2. Advertisement or that thing called "Spreading the Gospel" - We are being intentional about getting the Word out about Jesus and what He is doing in and through His Church! This month we have had an ad in the newspaper which brought a couple first time guest this past Sunday! Praise God! We have a TV commercial out for our Hypocrites series that is incredible: http://vimeo.com/19297694 - In March we will launch Facebook ads, and yard signs. Word of mouth is creating major buzz in the community. What does this all mean and why should we be in great anticipation? The result of this means: MORE SOULS ADDED TO THE KINGDOM. And people becoming CHANGED, CONNECTED AND CHALLENGED! So do your part and get the WORD out! We are going to see a GREATER HARVEST than any of us has ever seen before. Get ready!

3. 55,000 people - We have had an average of 140 people in attendance at The Refuge Salisbury the past 4 weeks, since our Launch on January 16th. That's awesome! And we have been growing every week, which is a huge Win BUT their are 55,000 people in a 5 mile radius of Tinseltown Theaters. We have work to do! Its time for us as the body of Christ to GO AFTER OUR CITY! Every Church in town should be having multiple services and be packed! I believe that is what God wants for HIS CHURCH. The problem is we have be trying for way to long to have OUR CHURCH-Oh man, that can preach. I will AMEN myself! We are all full time ministers and missionaries. Where you live, work and play is your mission field. GET TO WORK! Matthew 9:35-38 “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few"

4. Ephesians 3:20 coming to life in our lives and in His Church

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably MORE than all we could ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us,

We end our Sunday services with this scripture every week. Its one of the most power filled scriptures in the Bible. We have to live in a way that submits to His Power and know that if we follow him, that Power is at work within us. Once we get that down and dare to ask, The God of Wonder will do in and though us what He Imagines for our lives, and in His Church. His imagination is much greater than ours, can you imagine what God will do when you really imagine with Him? And Ask for it! GET READY!

5. Service every Sunday! - We get to do this every single week! Yesterday I shared 5 Wins with You that we celebrate since our Launch. Today lets look forward and anticipate what God is about to do! We get to open His house every Sunday. If we apply the above 4 things to our lives and anticipate what He plans on doing and just get out of the way, History will be made for eternity. And what happens next as a result will be greater than anything we have ever seen, heard or been a part of. And if choose to have this kind of Faith and are willing to put your hand to the plow and never look back, we will see His Kingdom come! I LOVE Sundays!

I am so excited about what God is stirring up. Let's GO!

Don't be afraid to share this blog with friends!

My Hope is that we will build the Kingdom in a way that God imagines for us to. May HIS KINGDOM COME!

I Love you guys,

-Justin