Dear Beachside Family and Friends:

Do you want to please God? Is pleasing God even important in your life? Does it matter whether we please God or not? I certainly want to please God in everything I do. I believe pleasing Him is extremely important. I am grateful that He cared so much for us that He sent Jesus, who paid for our redemption with His very life, and who ives in our hearts today. I am compelled to please God, knowing I could never repay Him for what He has one for me. 

If we want to please God, how do we go about it? Do I please Him by going to church? It has been said that Satan is the most regular church attender, but He certainly isn't pleasing God. Can I please the Father by working at a local shelter, and serving meals to the homeless? I know of atheists who do this, but are they pleasing God? Certainly going to church and helping the less fortunate are important, but are not in themselves what pleases God

A man named Enoch understood what it meant to please the Lord. "It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to heaven without dying—“he disappeared, because God took him. For before he was taken up, he was known as a person who pleased God." (Heb 11:5) There was an innate quality about Enoch's life that was pleasing to God: he lived by faith. His walk of faith was so impressive that God caught him up to be with Him! By Enoch's example we know it is possible to please God. Continuing in Heb. 11 vs 6 "And it is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. 

If it is impossible to please God without faith, it IS possible to please him WITH  faith. In fact, living by faith is the ONLY way to please God! When we live by faith in God's Word, we not only please Him, but He rewards us as well. I believe it's time to live like Enoch, please God, and have an "out of this world" experience in Him. 

2018 is upon us, and living a life that pleases God should be our primary resolution for this new year.

This Sunday we will have our annual anointing service for families, individuals, and business leaders. We will also be revealing the theme for 2018, and I can hardly wait to tell you what God has planned. Join us for pre-service prayer at 9:30 am and hang around for service at 10:00. The Miracle anointing is with us, and God has great plans for our lives and our church. In 2018, IT'S ALL ABOUT THE WORD!

Pastor Ramon

Dear Beachside Family and Friends,

If our lives are effective witnesses for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we will experience criticism, opposition, and even hatred. Satan fears Christians who are influential, and will do anything to minimize our influence and dimish our effectiveness for God. Jesus said that we would experience persecution and tribulations in this life. If we are intent on spreading the Good News, then we must be prepared for what the devil does, and thwart his plans before they ever get started.

When persecuted for following Jesus and honoring His Word, we must understand that He experienced an even greater and more determined persecution. Satan was constantly trying to kill Him, using the religious as his tool of attempted murder. On many occasions the Jews tried to seize and kill Him, but He simply passed through their midst unharmed. No man or demon could take His life 

Paul was also on the devil's hit list. He wrote  "Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served him far more! I have worked harder, been put in prison more often, been whipped times without number, and faced death again and again. Five different times the Jewish leaders gave me thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked. Once I spent a whole night and a day adrift at sea. I have traveled on many long journeys. I have faced danger from rivers and from robbers. I have faced danger from my own people, the Jews, as well as from the Gentiles. I have faced danger in the cities, in the deserts, and on the seas. And I have faced danger from men who claim to be believers but are not. I have worked hard and long, enduring many sleepless nights. I have been hungry and thirsty and have often gone without food. I have shivered in the cold, without enough clothing to keep me warm."

(2 Cor 11:23-27)

Jesus, Paul, and many others experienced persecution for sharing the Gospel. We have not experienced the level of resistance they did, but the spirit of persecution is in operation in this world. In our own nation, Christians are having aonerous fines levied against them and being forced from business because they refuse to make products for or participate in gay weddings.  Like Jesus and Paul, they are oppressed  because they follow the highest law of all, the law of the Word of God. 

Jesus spoke to this issue in Matthew 5:10-12. "They are blessed who are persecuted for doing good, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them. People will insult you and hurt you. They will lie and say all kinds of evil things about you because you follow me. But when they do, you will be blessed. Rejoice and be glad, because you have a great reward waiting for you in heaven. People did the same evil things to the prophets who lived before you." When men treat us wrongly, lie about us, and hurt us, it difficult, even impossible to bear, yet Jesus provides us freedom from the shackles of persecution and rejection. He has pronounced a blessing upon us! 

When Jesus says you're blessed, you ARE blessed! The byproduct of persecution for righteousness sake is the blessing! If we can believe for it, every time the Devil raises a persecution against us, we receive the blessing. The very weapon he forged against us results results in our blessing. The Lord says "But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the Lord; their vindication will come from me. I, the Lord , have spoken! (Isaiah 54:17)

When people mistreat us we must declare that we are blessed! When they call us names, we must declare that we are blessed! When they tell lies about us, we must declare that we are blessed! When they try to take our businesses away, we must declare we are blessed. Jesus said it: When we are persecuted, we are blessed. He WILL vindicate us. Think about it!

Pastor Ramon

Dear Beachside Family and Friends,

I have to confess to doing some smoking in my lifetime. I am grateful that I have not suffered any negative health consequences, in spite of my inability to quit. I have tried to cut back, but it is very difficult to do when my friends, and even my family, encourage me to continue, and even increase my smoking activities. I now expect I will continue to smoke for years to come. It seems impossible to stop. 

If the previous paragraph has left you uncomfortable, confused, or concerned, let me set your mind at ease. I'm not speaking of consuming and inhaling cigarette, cigar, or pipe smoke: I am referring to smoking meat, fish, and poultry. While writing this, I am engaged in smoking two turkeys for the Beachside Fellowship Women of Joy Thanksgiving Celebration. I have been smoking away for several hours, and there are several more left to go.

I have used several different types of smokers in my career. Two years ago, my family gave me an electric cabinet smoker which can be controlled by Bluetooth. I named it the "Glory Cloud". I have the smoker app on my iPhone, and it allows me to remotely manage the progress of whatever eagerly anticipated items I am preparing. I can see the smoker temperature, the time remaining, and the internal temperature of whatever I am cooking. It is the most convenient and easy to use cooking equipment I have ever owned, with one notable exception. 

In order to produce smoke that will flavor the food, I must insert wood chips into a hopper. As the chips are converted into smoke by the electric element, gravity is supposed to draw additional chips down the hopper to contact the element. This arrangement is supposed to guarantee a hassle–free smoking experience, with no need to add chips for many hours. It is a truly wonderful idea, but does not function well in practice. As the chips are heated, they tend to swell and stick in the hopper, impeding their flow to the heating element. After an hour or so, the smoke stops, and I am forced to open the hopper and manually stir the chips so they will once again fall toward the source of heat. Once I stir them up, prodigious amounts of smoke are once again produced, reestablishing the proper cooking environment inside the cabinet. If I do not take the time to stir the chips up, no smoke will be produced, and the food will be adversely affected.

I have discovered that what I must do in order to keep the smoke flowing is also necessary to break through the resistance of satan in my life. He is always trying to stop the gift of God and His power in every one of us. Demonic interference attempts to hold up and block the progress of salvation, healing, and prosperity in our lives. Just like the chips in the smoker hopper, we may feel "stuck", and disconnected from the source of the fire. We know that Jesus lives in us, that He has defeated Satan, and that He empowers us to do the same. He said "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you." (Luke 10:19) Even though we know and accept this as true, it may seem that we are "stuck" in our situation. When we find ourselves experiencing these feelings, it's time to"stir it up"!

Paul wrote to Timothy:  "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you..." (2 Timothy 1:6) When David was experiencing times of loneliness and feeling down, he took action. "And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God". (1 Samuel 30:6) The Hebrew word translated "encouraged" means to seize. David stirred himself up to take hold of God. When he did, God delivered his enemies into his hand, and he took back everything they had stolen.

Like the chips in my smoker, when we "stir it up" we move closer to the fire. Hebrews 12:29 tells us "...our God is a consuming fire". As we stir ourselves up in God, we begin to burn with His fire, consuming every resistance, for " Fire goes before him and consumes his foes on every side. (Psalm 97:3) That never works out well for Satan and his cohorts!

When we feel "stuck" in life and do not seem to be progressing, it's time to "stir it up". Let's encourage ourselves in our God and draw close to the fire of His Word. When we do so, every resistance will be consumed, and we will move forward with confidence and holy expectation. I've been smoking a lot recently, and not just with my smoker. I am stirring myself up in God and burning with holy fire! Won't you join me?

Pastor Ramon