A TRIBUTE TO MARCO SHOFF

6/28/07

Hello beloved,

I have been working on my testimony lately and it’s not ready to send out to everyone. Not only is it not finished, I think it is way to long to send out(it’s almost turning in to a book). When I get finished, I’ll send a shortened version to everyone. In turn, I would like to encourage you to send me yours. What did God save you from? Tell me about the radical transformation that took place in your life when you asked Jesus into your heart. Your testimony is one of your most powerful tools.

Speaking of testimonies, I only wish I could hear Marco Shoff give his. Marco went on to be with the Lord on June 27. He was killed in a car wreck at the age of twenty. You might say that he was taken early, or at a young age. That’s not true. Age is not determined by how long you live, but how long you have left to live here on earth. For example, I am 27 years old. If I live to be seventy, I am very young right now. However, if I live to be 28, I am extremely old. My point is, you never know when your appointed time to die will be. And it is not a question of if, but when. And this “when”, comes with a “then”. The “then” is the judgment. Hebrews 9:27 says that “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment,”. Praise the Lord! Marco was ready for this judgment. Are you? What about those around you? You can answer “no” to at least one of those questions. So, my next question is “What are you going to do about it?”. Well, what are you going to do about it?

The reason I am writing this tonight is that I have been reading Marco’s blog for the last two days. I have been touched deeply by the obvious struggles he went through. I would be filled with sorrow if I only read his early writings, but thanks be to God, he lived long enough to write about God’s love. I would encourage everyone to read his blog. You will witness God’s grace in Marco Shoff’s life. After straying from God, he gave his life back to Jesus, just weeks before the car wreck.

Marco’s words will change many. His words have changed me. Every time I get the chance, I go to the malls to share Jesus Christ with mostly teenagers. I will never look at these kids in the same way. He has lit a fire in me that burns for the souls of these kids.

It is quite frequent that I talk with young people that have cut marks all down their arms. A lot of them have told me they would like to commit suicide. They hate themselves. They hate their parents. And, they hate God. Marco said in one of his writings that “if I hate God, He will always love me more than I hate Him.” It is obvious that Marco had struggled with some of the same struggles that a lot of young people struggle with today. But, when he wrote this, he had found that love of God which he testified as being infinite.

Once again, I’ll tell you that I didn’t know Marco Shoff. But, his writings have inspired me to show the world that Jesus Christ can set the captive free. He set Marco free! He set me free. He can set anyone free! Praise the Lord!

I want everyone to know that Marco’s words have challenged me. I now love these young people that I witness to, even more than I did before. I don’t want to walk past one kid without telling them about Jesus Christ. I am afraid that we are coming into a time where these kids are going to make one of two choices: Jesus Christ or suicide. The sorrow and depression is overwhelming. I am telling you now. I will lay down my life for these kids to come to know Christ. For, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Gal 2:20) I’m not living for me anymore. I am living for Christ! It is the only way for these kids to be saved. So, who’s with me!? Let’s go out, church! The only way they can be set free is by the blood of Jesus Christ! But they won’t know that if we don’t tell them!

So, what I am getting at is this: There might be a lot of young people just like Marco out there. A lot of young people struggling with the things he struggled with. But, Marco had an advantage that most of these others don’t; Godly parents. They instilled the Word of God in him at an early age. Most kids these days don’t have that. That is why you and I have the responsibility to tell these kid’s the Truth. They want to see someone that is real. They want to see someone that won’t hide the truth from them and keep it within the walls of the church. They want to see someone love them enough to tell them the truth.

So, church, what are we going to do? What are we going to do?

And when?

How about today…those kids you see at the store…and in the malls…today. Give them Christ!

Today might be their day…they make a choice…God or suicide…

In Christian love,
Adam Tennant

DEUTERONOMY 7

6/7/07

DEUTERONOMY 7

In chapter 7 Moses is telling the people how to act when God takes them into the promise land. Notice the scripture says that God’s gonna do the driving out. He’s gonna drive out those big, bad Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites. But, notice also that the Scripture says that “when the Lord your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally.” The word there is charem. It means to totally annihilate; the irrevocable giving over of things or persons to the Lord, often by totally destroying them. That’s what God’s commanding them to do. Totally destroy them. And not only that, but to destroy everything they are about. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. My, my; that doesn’t sound like the god most are preaching today. This god of love and mercy, who is not vengeful or wrathful. This god doesn’t exist. The God of the Bible is a God of love, yet He is a God of wrath as well. This scripture proves it. You see, if we give sin the smallest place to stand, eventually that sin will grow to control us. Remember this, either take out the enemy, or the enemy will take you out. Engage the culture or the culture will engage you. Know that. When will we realize that we can’t worship God on Sunday and ignore the shedding of innocent blood through abortion. Don’t we know that the blood is on our hands? We’ve got to break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For we are the people holy to the Lord our God. The Lord our God has chosen us to be holy. And not just that. He’s chosen us to fight against the gates of hell.

In the next few verses, Moses is explaining God’s love for his people, and how he delivered Israel from Egypt.

Then in vs. 12 there is a big “if”. I love all of the “if’s” of the Bible. Because they come with some sort of a promise. Not necessarily of a blessing either. I won’t get into that, but read Dt. 28:15-68 and you’ll see what I mean. But this “if” precedes a covenant. However, the “if” has to do with following God’s laws. It seems that wherever I see that in the Bible, I already know that somebody’s gonna break it and find out the bad side of that “if”. After all, man always seems to want to do things his way. But anyway, Moses is telling the people that they have to pay attention to and follow God’s law in order for Him to keep his covenant of love with them. Then, Moses goes on to explain this covenant of love. What a glorious thing this was.

But, look what verse 16 says. Haven’t we read this before? Why yes we have. God is repeating what He said in vs. 2. “You must destroy all the peoples the Lord your God gives over to you. Do not look on them with pity and do not serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.” This is very important. Don’t have any mercy on the idolatrous people that God is going to give over to your. You see, when we got saved, God delivered us from sin. All sin. Don’t make any pacts with Satan on which sins you can hold on to. You can’t hold on to any of them. Destroy them all. And when God tells you to get rid of something, you had better do it. Or, it just might be a snare to you. Better yet, it WILL be a snare to you. You had better do like David did and cut the head off of the giant. All of the giants.

And if all of this seems like it’s too hard, look at verses 20-23. You see, God is gonna do the driving out. He’s gonna “send the hornet among them until even the survivors who hide from you have perished.” Then He goes on to say that you don’t need to fear these people. They cannot stand against the Lord! And look, all we have to do is stand on God’s Word and God will drive them out “little by little” and He will bring us in. So why is it that we do it the other way around? We try to bring ourselves in, little by little, and compromise God’s Word. I’ve got news for you: that has never worked, and that will never work! The Word of God is the only thing we can stand on and expect victory! God is the only one Who can bring us that victory.

So, what must we do? Ruthlessly and mercilessly take out the lies of the devil, before they take us out. Period. Destroy the sin in our lives before it destroys us. And cut off absolutely any place for the devil to put his foot. Everything. Cut off everything. Which leads me to my next point…

And look at the final verses in chapter 7. God’s giving us a big warning. Verses 25-26 say “The images of their gods you are to burn in the fire. Do not covet the silver and gold on them, and do not take it for yourselves, or you will be ensnared by it, for it is detestable to the LORD your God. 26 Do not bring a detestable thing into your house or you, like it, will be set apart for destruction. Utterly abhor and detest it, for it is set apart for destruction.” Oh, but how tempting it is to salvage what God has commanded us to destroy. Don’t salvage anything that God says to destroy. That is detestable. How can we apply that today? Real simple. Look again at verse 26 and lets ask ourselves “What detestable things have we brought into our houses?” Wait a minute! I’ve got the answer. How about half naked women, alcohol, blasphemy, and blatant idolatry; just to name a few. You might say “Wait a minute, I have never…” Not too fast, my friend. I’ve got two words… “American Idol”. And a few others would include NFL football, soap operas, God-hating talk shows, etc. Before you scream “legalism”, hear me out. I don’t watch American Idol, so I can’t say a whole lot about it. I do know that it’s name sends up some red flags though. How can anyone watch a grown man totally berate people and tear them down to nothing? And then we complain when someone insults us in some way.  The sad thing is that countless “Christians” worship God on Sunday and go home to watch(worship) this idolatry. And NFL Football, now this one hurts me, but I can’t play favorites. I love football, but every time I watch a game in my house I have to turn my head when a beer commercial, with some half-naked stripper in it, comes on. Well, at least I turned my head, right? Wrong! So what if I turned my head. I just did exactly what Deuteronomy 7:26 told me not to do. I brought a detestable thing into my house. I don’t have time to get into the others I mentioned. But I really don’t have to. You should know better than to watch soap operas or Oprah Winfrey. But here’s one that might hurt too…Fox News. I won’t say anything. But just ask yourself if you are inviting anything into your house that you shouldn’t. You see, often times, we will compromise by saying “Well, I know most of it’s bad, but this part is good.” Or something to that affect. I hope everyone knows that this is for me too. I don’t bring television into my house, but I do compromise and get some rabbit ears for the “big game”. I enjoy football and I’d like to say there’s nothing wrong with watching it. But I just don’t know. If I apply this scripture to one thing, I can’t be hypocritical and not apply it to the things I like. Removing television from your house is a hard step, but I  think it is a step that is necessary. Trust me on this. Removing television will not push you away from God. It will only draw you closer to Him. And closer to your family as well.

So, what’s my whole point? I’m not sure right now. I think I have a few. I would like to encourage everyone to do a television fast for a week or two. I guarantee, you will not regret it. And, when you turn back(hopefully you won’t), you will see how gross the immorality is that we sit through. Let’s not allow ourselves to become hypnotized by the devil. We’ve got to totally destroy all sin and all of the lies of the enemy.

In Christian Love,
Adam Tennant

FREE INDEED

6/6/07

Hello beloved,

I’m sorry I have not written in a while. I have gone through some drastic changes recently. I am still working through them. The Lord is strengthening my faith and my mind. I am going to be very transparent for you because I know that the Lord wants us to testify of his power of deliverance in our lives so that others may receive deliverance.

On May 28, I found myself praying(yet again) to be delivered from “ADD”. I was diagnosed with this around 1992 and have been on rytalin for over eleven years now. I relied heavily on this drug to make my mind work correctly. The doctors say this is perfectly normal; that my mind has a chemical inbalance. Blah, blah, blah… The fact is, Jesus Christ set me free from over ten years of addiction to narcotic painkillers, mainly Oxycontin. He did this when I gave all that I had to Him. Deliverance is always preceded by total obedience and self-sacrifice. At least it has been in my life.

Anyway, He set me free from all the sinful stuff I had been bound to. I never considered taking rytalin a sin and I still don’t. But, none the less, I was still bound to it. It controlled me. I was not a slave to sin any longer, but I was a slave to my flesh, a slave to this medication. You see, Pastor Faw said in a message this past Sunday “faith rises above reason” and that “faith will never follow reason”. This is so true. Is it not the case that every time the Holy Spirit puts it in your mind to do something reason kicks in? I have come to find out that reason is often times completely demonic. That might sound extreme, but is it not REASON that speaks against the Word of the Lord? A better name for reason could be treason.

Here is Webster’s definition of reason and treason:
Reason – the power of comprehending, inferring, or thinking especially in orderly rational ways
Treason – the offense of attempting by overt acts to overthrow the government of the state to which the offender owes allegiance or to kill or personally injure the sovereign or the sovereign’s family.
I won’t get into this too deeply right now. But, reason actually tries to overthrow the authority of God’s Word in your life. But know this: one guilty of treason will suffer severe punishment. So should our reason. Let’s kill it.

I would like to add that the lack of reason could also be considered stupid at times. You have to use common sense.

Reason will keep you from taking that step of faith. That step of faith is the obedience that God is looking for in you that must precede your deliverance. You see, for over a year, I have tried to pray that I would be delivered from the need to take rytalin for my mind to work, but I always found a reason that it was O.K. By the way, every time I tried to pray about it. I got no where. Has that ever happened to you? You’ll try to pray about something when you already have the answer. God’s not going to listen to you until you do what He last told you. You see, I knew God wanted me off of Rytalin, but reason told me that it was OK to be on it, that there was no way for me to be off of it because it was the only way my brain would produce a certain chemical I needed for comprehension and focus. Reason sure does sound stupid when you look back on it. I mean, the same God that delivered me from a habit that controlled me in drug addiction, wanted to deliver me from rytalin. Is He not able? What does the scripture say? John 8:36 says “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” FREE INDEED. That means no limitations. That is the word that the Holy Spirit gave me on the night of my deliverance. He showed me that God can set me free from anything. That I need to quit making excuses. We need to quit listening to the lies of the world; telling us that we have to do this or that. The three hebrew children didn’t listen to the world. We need to have the same attitude of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego when the said “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” This is the attitude we need to take against our REASON. And remember, God did deliver them. Remember, they didn’t get burnt. Remember, it was Jesus that went into the furnace with them. Jesus is with us as well.

Anyway, I wanted you all to know that. You might be going through something similar. Whether it be depression, anxiety or something like that. Something that controls you. It might be that God is asking you to take that step of faith like I did. Please pray for me on this. My mind is being re-trained and it is sometimes difficult, but I know that God is God and He has set me free.

By the way, I thank God for a wife that is so supporting and loving. God used her to help me fight my will to reason and do the will of my Father.