Dry Land

Tomorrow, May 29th, we will be having our Red Rain Concert/Outreach! We are really excited about this outreach and look forward to what the Lord is going to do! One of the major factors about this outreach is the fact that we are wanting to do it outside. To do so, we need really good weather and also some really dry ground for the stage that we are going to be using. It is going to be the back end of a huge truck (LKW). We are planning to park it onto the grass, which if the soil is hard and dry enough, it should hold the weight, if it is too soft, then it will probably sink. So this is the deal...
I believe that we serve are really BIG GOD who is able to do all things! I believe that if He is able to divide the Red Sea, speak creation into existence, calm the storms, raise the dead, etc., then it should be NO BIG DEAL for Him to dry up this one chunk of soil to hold the weight of the LKW. In fact, this morning, this is what in my daily reading of the Psalms...

Psalm 66:5-6 “Come and see the works of God; He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men. He turned the sea into dry land; They went through the river on foot. There we will rejoice in Him.”

So please begin to join in with us and ask the LORD to do this great work - He who is God of Wonders beyond our galaxy, He who is LORD of Heaven and Earth, He who is the Almighty God and so much more!
As you are praying for that - please do pray for the salvation of lost souls! - the Real Miracle!

The Harvest is Ready!

Tomorrow Night, May 25th, I will be teaching here at CC Herborn! As I was praying for the Lord's direction in what He would want to speak to us tomorrow night as a church, He has laid the "Lost" on my heart and has given me a passage that I believe He wants to remind us about. I do ask that all of you would please begin to pray for me as I study, but also that the Lord would really prepare our hearts as a church to receive this message from Him!

If you are here in Deutschland - COME JOIN US!
If you are elsewhere - PLEASE PRAY!!

Red Rain Outreach this Saturday

Hello Everyone!
We just wanted to ask all of you to please praying for our Outreach this coming Saturday, May 29th! It will begin at 19:30 and is open for anyone to come!

Here are some specific prayer requests:

• For good weather!
• For the Holy Spirit to be drawing people to come and to prepare their hearts
• For the rest of the fliers that will be given out this week - that we can get them all out!
• That many people would come!
• For salvation of the lost!
• For the Gospel message to be preached faithfully!
• For the people in the church to really get involved in this outreach!
• For the LORD to be glorified in everything!
  

Sing Praises With Us Tonight!

"Sing praises to God, sing praises! Sing praises to our King, sing praises! For God is the King of all the earth; sing praises with understanding."
We want to invite all of you reading this here in Germany to come and join us tonight as we will be singing praises to our God and King, Jesus Christ! Tonight will be a night that you will not want to miss out on! An opportunity will be set for you to come before your King Jesus and to worship Him as well as pour out your heart before Him in PRAYER! We will be praying for you throughout the day! Hope to see you tonight!

Walking = Obedience

Earlier today the Lord really ministered to me in the topic of walking worthy of our calling and tonight as I read to my wife, we read in Genesis 6-8 about how the heart of man was so corrupt and all the earth was filled with violence. But then it says...

”But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord…Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”

As I think about this, here is a man that lived in the midst of so much wickedness and yet he found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Why? I believe it was because he desired righteousness and not wickedness. He desired to be above reproach, to walk blamelessly in his generations. How could he do this? HE WALKED WITH GOD! Those are just 4 words, and yet they are very powerful words.

Think about it… today we are living in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Sin is abounding. The warfare for people’s souls are at stake. Apathy, complacency, selfishness, and compromising is something that the “Bride of Christ” is constantly dealing with. (These things I see in myself too much). And so when God is wanting to use people in this midst of all of this – who does He look for? He looks for those who are WALKING WITH HIM.

• Those who are in fellowship with Him.
• Those who are sitting at His feet.
• Those who know His heart.
• Those who know Him.
• Those who fear Him and not man

So here was Noah. A normal man. But a man who walked with his God and was active in it! So I believe when God told him to build this huge ark in the midst of the desert, He knew that Noah would be willing because Noah walked with Him. Oh yes, this was crazy! All the circumstances that took place in this story would take faith – extraordinary faith. But Noah could do it! Why? Because he walked with God!

From Noah’s perspective, I believe that when the Lord told him all of the details, he thought, “Ok LORD, I will do it!” Why? Because Noah’s eyes were upon the One with whom all things were possible and not upon the things that seemed impossible!

And so we read later at the end of chapter 6 and in chapter 7…

“And Noah did according to ALL that the Lord commanded him to do.”

Here are some questions that I put before the Lord in prayer & I encourage you to do the same:

• What is the Lord calling you to do?
  
• Are you walking with Him?
  
• Are you available for Him?
  
• Will you trust Him?
  
• Will you keep your eyes upon Him & not on the circumstances?

Fullness of Christ

This last week we were so blessed to be able to attend the annual Mitarbeiterkonferenz at Calvary Chapel Siegen. This year the theme of the conference was "Be Filled with the Fullness of Christ," which was based out of the book of Ephesians.
Pastor Ricky Ryan once again brought out a great team from Calvary Chapel Santa Barbara, as well as many other Senior Pastors to come and minister to those who are serving here in Europe. This year was the 4th year that they have been doing this conference. This is now our 2nd time going to this conference and we were once again supremely blessed with it.
Pastor Ricky started the conference teachings out by saying something like this...
"If you want to really study about theology, than you study the book of Romans. If you want to study about how the Old and New Testaments come together, then you study the book of Hebrews. If you want to look at the life of Jesus and see how He loved and served the people, than you study the Gospels. But if you want to have your life changed, than you study the book of Ephesians!"
As the conference went on each of the pastors (Ricky Ryan, John Spencer, Nick Long, David Guzik, Lance Ralston, Ed Rae, and Bob Botsford) brought forth powerful messages going through the whole book of Ephesians! I would definitely encourage all of you to get a hold of these messages that will be on Calvary Chapel Siegen's web page available for download in a week or two. You can even watch the videos!

One of the blessings about the conference is that they provide a great team to do the Children's Ministry so that the parents can really take in the Word! We were really excited about this! Unfortunately, Tuesday was the only day that we were able to go to the conference all together as a family. :( On Wednesday morning, Aliyah woke up with a temperature of over 100 degrees and stayed that way throughout the rest of the conference. I was personally really bummed about this as I was really looking forward to going to this conference together as a family! So Rebecca allowed me to go the rest of the week with Katie as she took care of Aliyah and Noah at home. (She is such a giver! I have the best wife in the world! No, you don't. I do!) Katie and I did have a great time together and she was able to go with the rest of the kids at the conference to the Circus which was taking place just down the street! She said that she had so much fun!

Personally, the Lord really did a work of His Spirit in my heart and mind. He really used these pastors to speak directly to me through this great book of Ephesians! So what I want to personally encourage you to do is to read through the book of Ephesians in your personal time. Stop what you are reading now and read through it! Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you into all the fullness of who you are in Christ! (more on this later)

PLEASE CHECK THIS OUT
Lastly, one of the pastors who taught was Pastor Bob Botsford. I am not sure if you saw or not, but he was recently was on Larry King Live with Larry King, Ted Haggard, and Jennifer Knapp. I am not going to get into details over all that is going on with Jennifer Knapp, but I want to encourage you to look up the videos on YouTube and watch this 4-part interview. Once you have watched it, please do be praying for Jennifer Knapp, Larry King, and Ted Haggard.

Happy Mothers Day!

Mother's Day is today! What a great day to be able to say THANK YOU to all of our moms for ALL that they have done for us! I am not even sure that a "thank you" is good enough for all that they do! I mean if we would stop and think about all of the things that our moms have done for us, I don't think that a gift, a card, a present, or anything could even compare to the gift of life, service, dedication, tolerance, patience, and so much more that our moms have done for us. The fact that they carried us in their wombs for 9-10 months, GAVE BIRTH TO US, fed us, clothed us, changed our diapers, listened to us wine and complain about everything, drive us to our sports games and practices, etc. etc. etc. I mean the list goes on and on! Where would we be without our moms?

My Beautiful Wife
We decided to celebrate Mother's Day for Rebecca since Sunday's are kind of crazy! The day started off with breakfast in bed, lunch at Sicilia's, friends over for coffee and cake, she didn't have to change any diapers, a walk in the afternoon with the family, and putting the kids to bed so that she didn't have to. She loved it!
What a blessing it is to have a wife as I do! She is completely committed to the kids and me! She does all of the things that I stated above and so much more! We are so thankful for her! Oh Jesus, pour out your blessings upon Rebecca!

My Mom
To my wonderful mom, well, I already said that a THANK YOU would not be enough, but I do once again want to say THANK YOU for all that you have done for Dad, Shannon, Erica, Stephanie, and me, plus now, all the grand-kids! Thank you for loving Jesus! Thank you for teaching us about Jesus! Thank you for giving us Jesus! Thank you for serving, giving, helping, loving, teaching, and everything else! Although I am thousands of miles away and not with you this day, I praise the Lord for you! May the Lord abundantly bless you as you continue to live for Him!
Be blessed today mom!
I love you!

Big God - what happens when we Trust Him?

Now here is a book that I would highly recommend every believer in Jesus Christ to make sure to buy and to read! Big God is a book written by Pastor Britt Merrick from Reality Carpinteria.

While we were in California visiting our family, Rebecca and I had the opportunity to get away and spend some one on one time with each other up in Santa Barbara, which was such a blessing! During our time there we went to Reality Carp on Palm Sunday morning. We couldn't wait to go and see all that the Lord is doing in and through Reality! On that Sunday, we picked up this book and I (Joey) began to read it!

The book is based on the lives recorded in Hebrews chapter 11 known as "The Hall of Faith." In this book, Britt takes a look at the men and women listed there in Hebrews 11 and begins to show us how they were able to overcome all the difficulties and obstacles that they faced. How did they overcome these obstacles? By their faith in a very BIG GOD! Something that I love about this book is how it was laid out. He is a brief picture of the book:

• When My Heart is Overwhelmed
• The Hall of Faith?
• Faith Worshiping (Abel)
• Faith Walking (Enoch)
• Faith Working (Noah)
• Faith Willing (Abraham)
• Faith Waiting (Sarah)
• Faith Well-Tried (Abraham with Isaac)
• Faith Winning (Moses)
• Faith Welcoming (Rahab)
• Faith Warring (David & the others)
  

This book is actually based originally that Pastor Britt taught to his congregation while he was teaching through Hebrews 11. I personally have listened to all of these studies and would also highly recommend each of you to listen to them as well. To listen to them, click here.

I don't want to get into any details with you on it, because I don't want to ruin it for you! Once again, I highly recommend you listen to these message and buy this book and read it! I do believe that the Lord will use it in your life to challenge you in your walk with Him and challenge you in your FAITH and TRUST that you have in Him!

BIG GOD - get it!

wieder zurück in Deutschland

WE ARE BACK IN GERMANY!

We have been back in Germany now since this past Sunday night! We got home after 9:30pm! How great, weird, an amazing it was to be home! Some dear friends of ours picked us up from the airport, brought us home, prepared some surprises for us at home and then were able to stay for a little bit to eat some dinner with us around 11pm!

Needless to say, we have spent the last few days trying to get adjusted to the time here in Germany! The first night we were up until 4:00 in the morning and then the following night we were up until 3:00 in the morning. Last night went a lot better. Rebecca was able to get all of the kids down by 10:15pm or so and we were able to get down by 12:00 midnight!

I (Joey) had the opportunity to go to Wednesday evening service last night, which was a blessing. It was great to see some of the people in the fellowship once again. We look forward as a family to go to church on Sunday.

Katie went back to Kindergarten today and had a really great time! She was really excited to see her friends again in her class! Aliyah was able to come along for the ride and check out the classroom. What an answer to prayer it was to have Katie go to class without any complications.

It looks as though we will be fully back on the time schedule by tonight!

Please do continue to pray for us as we have many things to pick up and get going again! One thing and One day at a time!

Trip to California

The Lord truly blessed our time in California. We were able to do so much more than we could have thought of! We are so thankful for our time with our family and friends. Here is a short video of our trip! Enjoy!

Trip to California from Joey Roper on Vimeo.