Approximately 70% of my blogs are read by those searching on Goggle, Bing, WordPress, etc.  The rest come from those 220 who are notified twice a week.  Therefore, I will occasionally repeat Scripture and information from time to time for those and maybe many, are first time readers.  Some will ask where I get my information and the answer is, from the Holy Spirit, commentaries and personal experience. 

I wrote: “A Christian’s greatest problem is surrendering”.  Over the past fifty years that has been my greatest struggle.  I am learning to deal with it and realize the difference it made in my life by surrendering my self-centered nature daily to allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me. 

Another was: “How do you respond to problems”.  I have dealt with thousands of employees and customers over many years.  Then I have been responsible for overseeing millions of dollars of investments for clients since 1987.    The stock market doesn’t always go up.  By March 9, 2009 it had gone down over 56%.   

Then came: “I can – can you?”  I learned that God wants us, His family, to be successful and avail ourselves to the talents and abilities He created us to use. 

One of my latest, #229 was: “God has a plan for you to follow.”  I want to follow it up with today’s information concerning the importance of faith.  Some of the following comes from: “Guaranteed success in the workplace.” 

I want to stress, I have always considered myself as being just an average individual.  I never believed I was any smarter, more talented or more anything than the average college graduate.  Yet, the Bible taught me to be confident, not to worry and be prepared as if you are running a race.  I believed God had a plan for me and whatever He asked He would make sure I was capable of doing it.  One thing, over the years, that I grasped was the importance of faith.  Many times people would ask Christ to heal them.  Often He would require that they do something, requiring faith, before He would heal them.  Go dip seven times or your faith has healed you, etc.  Luke 17:6 – “He replied, ‘If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.’”

Prior to coming to Las Vegas in 1974 I played a part as a board member in helping build two churches.  One was in Klamath Falls, Or and one in Las Vegas.  In 1981 we started going to Central.  In 1988 and 1989 I was chairman of the board and we had decided that we needed to expand our church because of our growth.  It was recommended that we expand by 44,000 sq. ft.  It would cost just under two million dollars.  It was impossible to raise this much money and I suggested we build in stages.  With my background in budgeting and accounting there was no way we could repay the loan and pay the added expenses.  Everyone but me was for the total expansion at once.  We started and I helped oversee the building expansion.  Once the addition was completed we had raised enough money and with increased weekly giving were able to meet all of our obligations. 

Because of the addition, at the end of 1990 we were averaging 1,283 in weekly attendance.  In 1991 we had grown to the point that the expansion was not adequate and it was decided we needed to look for land to relocate. I was asked to chair the Relocation Task Force.  It required raising money, purchasing land and building a church.  We were told that we need 80 acres.  What I saw the Lord do with the expansion I was convinced that all things were possible.  Anything we could dream He would provide.  Financially we were not in very good shape.  But that didn’t matter, God wanted a larger church and we had more faith now than a mustard seed. 

After three offers to purchase 80 acres and turned down, we were able to obtain 80 acres that had been used as a gravel pit to build the adjacent expressway.  It cost us $37,500 an acre and across the expressway, land was selling for $110,000 an acre.  It was a “God Thing”.  We had to raise the property by 13 feet which required 700,000 cu. yds. to prepare for building.  The dirt was free but it cost 1.7 million to pack, grade and get ready.  At the same time the City of Henderson wanted to purchase 24 acres from us.  They paid 1.6 million for that acreage.  This also helped us negotiate with the city to acquire adequate roads through their property on our north and our south allowing swift entrance and exiting possible.  Another “God Thing”! 

From the very beginning to the final day of the buildings completion on December 1999, time and again the impossible became possible.  It appeared that Christ was overseeing the entire operation.  What we witnessed happening could only be described as the “Supernatural” at work.  Our faith, belief and trusting in God and His Supernatural involvement was at an all-time high. 

In 2005 I had two massive heart attacks and was given little chance of living.  They didn’t know if they could find a surgeon willing to operate.  They did and I had a five-bypass surgery.  During the entire time my faith was positive, there was never any fear and I had learned to trust that God’s will, (based on what I saw the Lord do for the church), would be accomplished regardless of the outcome.  In the past six years I have not had a problem with my heart and have lived a normal life with no restrictions. This is why I believe what God did for the church I believe He did in my life.

I hope that my blogs, over the past two plus years, will help others learn what the Lord has taught me.  Do not pray without expecting God to answer.  Have the faith to believe that all things are possible with the Lord.  Remember, Christ taught us that if we expect an answer to our prayers it requires that we have the faith to believe it will happen.  I do not personally pray for material things.  If God wants to bless me, He will and has many times over.