A band called NewFire.

I have recently been given the opportunity to play for the contemporary Christian music group NewFire.  NewFire recently released the single entitled “Choosing You Today” off of their self titled national debut album that is in stores now.  ”Choosing You Today” has since been picked up by American Family Radio (AFR) putting NewFire on 150 stations across the US.  AFR is a large enough station that if you can do well on that station alone it can put you in the top 20 on the charts.  So would you please consider contacting your local AFR station to request “Choosing You Today.”  It would only take a minute of your time and could make a very substantial difference for NewFire.  Thanks.  You can email them at music@afr.net.

You can pick up a copy of the new album from your local Christian retailer.  The album was produced by Michael Boggs (FFH) and Phil Keaggy was a guest guitarist.  You can read more at http://www.youthworker.com/reviews/bands/11576670/.  You can also download it from www.NewFireMusic.com or from iTunes.

NewFire will be on the “Worth Fighting For Tour” this fall.

NewFire (www.NewFireMusic.com)

Ronnie Freeman (www.RonnieFreemanOnline.com)

Warren Barfield (headliner) (www.WarrenBarfield.com)

You should come!

If you’re not yet familiar with Warren Barfield’s music check out the music videos below.

The Burn 24/7. Cool Jesus story.

So a couple of weeks ago my older sister Sarah tells me about this organization called “The Burn 24/7″ and how she is all jazzed about it and how it is amazing. lol. So she shows me the website. It is basically 24/7 worship just for the specific purpose of getting into God’s presence. There are 40 different Burn centers (or “furnaces” as they call them) across the US and also some in foreign nations. At these “Furnaces” they meet once a month and will go 72 hours straight night and day of doing nothing but worshipping. No one preaches, no one prays (they do in the congregation, but not corporately led from the microphone), it is just praise and worship to the King for the sole purpose of getting into His presence. They describe themselves as “presence junkies” and they describe the Burn services as hanging out in God’s living room. Here, check it out for yourself. There is a video on the front page.  www.burn24-7.com

Me and my sister both thought it was really cool. We noticed that there was one in Arkansas so we started contemplating how we could get involved with it. It looked like something that we would really love to be a part of. Shortly after that we heard about a prayer and worship event that some locals were putting together at the Little Rock River Market Amphitheatre with an IHOP team and a team from the Burn in Tulsa! We were really pumped about getting to meet and connect with the Burn team to see how we could get involved. Well, a couple of days before the event we heard that the Burn team had to cancel. We were a little bummed but still excited about the event. So we go.

I am minding my own business sitting on a bench in the amphitheatre worshipping the Lord when I see my sister waving me over. When i get to her she is talking to another woman. It ends up that it is the National Director for The Burn from the headquarters in Dallas!

This is what had happened before my sister called me over. The national director for The Burn (Tracey) was talking to the director of “Praise on the River” (the event that we were at) when she saw me. She asked the director, “Who is that over there in the yellow shirt?” My sister was standing close to them and overheard them. So she spoke up and said, “That my little brother.” Tracey asked, “Is he a minstrel?” My sister told her yes. So Tracey said, “Call him over here.”

When I got over there Tracey said, “Have you ever heard of The Burn?” I told her that my sister had told me about it. She went on to explain that she was the national director and was from the headquarters in Dallas, TX. She told me the reason that she had called me over was because when she saw me she had seen in the Spirit the same mantle on me that all of the worship leaders for The Burn carry! (Keep in my mind, I had never seen or met this lady before in my life and I thought that all the Burn people had cancelled)

She proceeded to ask me if i had ever considered doing music and worship for a living. I told her that i was going to be in a couple of months. After talking for a couple of minutes she invited me to get involved with The Burn and also invited me to lead worship for The Burn events. She told me that I could even do it while i was on the road. Stopping at different Burns across the nation!

So I went from just wanting to know how i could get in contact with someone at The Burn to being personally invited by one of the National Directors to lead worship at any Burn across the US! Just because she saw a mantle on me in the Spirit when she saw me at the event. Now that is an encounter that i could never have dreamed up or created on my own. God is so creative.

Tracey also talked and prayed with my sister about becoming a director for a Burn Center here in central Arkansas!

My sister and I are going to experience our first Burn service this week. I’m excited!

I’m on Phil Wickhams new album!

Well, the artwork at least.

Check it out.  From the top left I am the third one over and five down.  That’s me for real.  No joke.

http://philwickham.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/badge-cover1.jpg

He is offering “singalong” as a free download from his site on August 8th.  Go download it.  Hey, it’s free!  Why not?  www.PhilWickham.com

God Believes In You

Below is an email blast i recently sent out to the members of the Clean Hands & Pure Hearts Ministries Facebook group called, “Represent Christ with your Facebook.”  I got a huge response from the email and many people contacted me.  It seemed to really strike a chord with many of the members.  After seeing the response that I got from the message I also wanted to share it with the rest of my readers here.

If you would like to join (or view) the Facebook group you may do so with this link.

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10168895951

———————————————-

Hello everyone!

For those of you that are new to the group since I was last here – My name is Chris and I was the creator of this group and the founder of Clean Hands & Pure Hearts Ministries. Thanks for joining the group!
Welcome.

Recently my heart has swelled with compassion for men and women that truly and deeply desire to follow Jesus Christ, and yet find themselves stuck in addictive behaviors that they want desperately to be free of. I was recently in a meeting with Perry Stone in Hot Springs where he talked about the story of Peter.

After Peter denied Jesus three times he basically gave up on himself and had decided to go back to his old life. This is when Jesus appeared to Peter and asked him, “Peter do you love me?” When you go back to the original text Peter actually replies, “Lord you know I LIKE you.” But he doesn’t reply with the same word for love that Jesus used. Twice Jesus asks, “Do you LOVE me?” and twice Peter replies, “Lord you know I LIKE you.” Finally the third time Jesus asks (paraphrased), “Peter, do you even like me?” Peter is hurt and replies, “You know I like you.” Peter was so ashamed and disgusted with himself that he couldn’t even bring himself to say that he loved Jesus. I don’t believe at all that Peter didn’t love Jesus, I do believe that Peter did love Jesus. I just think that Peter had so lost confidence in himself that he felt like a hypocrite saying he loved Jesus after what he had done.

I believe the reason Jesus came to Peter and asked him three times (the same number of times that Peter denied him) if he loved Him was simply to build back Peter’s confidence in himself. Jesus still believed in Peter even when Peter had given up on himself. Read the story for yourself in John 21.

Peter messed up worse than any of the rest of the disciples and yet he went on to become one of the most powerful and forefront leaders for Christianity and a leader among the disciples. He was a powerhouse.

The point – You may have blown it big time. Maybe you have lost confidence in yourself and no longer see yourself as worthy to do the Lord’s work. But I want you to know the Lord sent me to tell you that He still believes in you. He hasn’t given up on you and He wants you to believe in yourself too. For many of you, the only thing standing between you and meeting your destiny is believing in yourself. You have confidence in God, it’s just the confidence in yourself that you have lacked. If God believes in you, shouldn’t you? And God does believe in you.

The lord recently made me write a post about all the struggles and addictions that I have dealt with in my life and the methods the Lord taught me to get free of them. You can find that entry here. http://www.CHPHMinistries.wordpress.com. It is the third entry down entitled, “Burning Love Affair Bridges.” I once found myself in such sin and bondage that I believed the Lord was going to give my assignment to someone else. It was a hopeless and sad feeling . . . And not from the Lord. Conviction is from the Lord, but hopelessness and despair is not. If you have been dealing with any of the feelings I described above please check out that entry. And not because I want to promote my blog, but because I sincerely believe that it will help you. It is a window of complete transparency into my life and as someone that has been there I really think it could be an encouragement to you. My contact info is also there in case you feel like you have no one to talk to, or if you feel you would be judged or ridiculed somewhere else. We Christians need each other in this Christian walk. It wasn’t meant to be done alone. I promise you can trust me and the other members of the team. If you need a safe place to open up, than please contact us.

I love you guys! (and gals) I really do.

Living to destroy God’s loneliness,
Chris Ulery
http://www.CHPHMinistries.com

To subscribe http://www.CHPHMinistries.com/subscribe.html

Demonic encounter at nursing home.

The lady above is not the one that had the demon.  The lady I am with above is the one we threw the birthday party for that i talked about in a previous post.  I wanted to post a picture of her.  She is a sweetheart and I love her.  She says she has adopted me as one of her children.

Since i started the outreach program at my church in January I have been taking groups to the nursing home bringing them individual birdfeeders to hang outside their windows.  Then we go inside and check on them and minister to them.  On this particular Saturday our church was involved in another event so i wasn’t able to get a group together.  But i decided i wanted to go alone anyways.  When I got there i went to visit one of the ladies that we have been visiting for a while.  In the nursing homes you very often run into people with dementia & alzheimer’s.   But sometimes you run into people that deal with demonic oppression or possession.  Well, this particular lady that i went to visit i had suspected at times may be dealing with demonic activity.  She would randomly scream things and make weird noises while during conversation.  Which, in nursing homes is actually quite common and it happens a lot.  But i sensed a different spirit on her and some of the things she would scream made me suspect that maybe it was demonic and not just mental.  However, i could never tell for sure and i didn’t want to start casting a demon out of her if she was just suffering from dementia.

But my suspicions were confirmed last time i visited her.  I was alone and as i walked in she immediately started begging me to take her home.  She’s normally much more stable than that.  I wanted to pray for her to try and comfort her and calm her down.  And she normally really likes for me to pray for her.  Well, as i went to pray for her she got a very different look on her face and her whole demeanor changed and she told me she didn’t want me to pray for her that day.  I asked why.  She said, “I don’t believe in prayers anymore.”  Then suddenly her demeanor switched back to normal and she started saying, “Please pray for me, Please, i want you to pray for me.”  So i went to pray for her.

This is when the demon manifested.  Her whole face contorted into this awful face of pure hate and anger.  Her lips curled and her eyebrows went down and she began to scream at me in a way that is not like her, “Get out of her now! Leave! Get out!”  Ms. Doris’ finger went up to her mouth and she began shushing herself going “Shhhh, shh, shhh, sh.”  After she was back to herself she had a look of fear in her eyes and she started crying.  She reached up and grabbed my arms and begged me, “Please don’t leave, please don’t leave!  If you leave i’ll die, they’ll kill me.  And i’m not ready to die.”  I started to comfort her and pray for her.  I asked her if she had made Jesus the Lord of her life.  Again her demeanor changed and she told me, “No. leave.”  Then she would come back to herself.  I kept trying to get her to say the name Jesus.  She was never able to.  But i was able to tell her that Jesus could rescue her if she would just make Jesus her lord.  And she heard me.

I bound the demon in Jesus name and rebuked it in the name of Jesus.  However, a deliverance usually isn’t complete until you can get the person suffering from the possession to themselves proclaim Jesus as their Lord and rebuke the demon themselves.  They have to break their “agreement” with the demon.  I don’t think that i took Ms. Doris through the whole deliverance process.  After i prayed she did calm down and stopped screaming, but unfortunately i’m not sure that i got to the root of the problem.  But i am going back again and this time i am taking a team with me to fully free her.

Please pray for her.  Her name is Ms. Doris and she is a very sweet lady.  Pray for wisdom for me in how to handle it and for clarity and understanding.  And proclaim her deliverance in Jesus name.

Thank you.

Taking it to the streets!

My friend Kyle just came in from England for a month.  He got saved at our church about a year ago.  We became good friends and during his time in England he really matured a lot in his Christian walk.  He started street preaching and witnessing with his church in England and discovered he had a passion for evangelism.  He had heard about the outreach and evangelism program that we had started at our church.  So he told me on the phone that when he got back into town he wanted to hit the main strip in town with me to do some evangelism.  So we have.  It has been very eye opening.

You would think that with a church on nearly every corner in America that the majority of people would at least know the most basic fundamentals and principals of Christianity.  But I discovered that many of them don’t.  The other night we went to a skate park here in town.  After striking up a conversation with some of the skaters one of them said, “There is just one question I have that bothers the **** out of me!  If someone could just answer this one question for me, but no one ever can.  Why the **** are we here?!”  And he was being sincere.  I started explaining about how God was lonely and wanted a family.  So He created man to have someone to share His love with.  I went into a lot more detail and explained a lot better than that.  But that was idea of it.

I was able to walk through the entire story of creation with him starting with Genesis 1.  He had never even heard the story of Adam and Eve.  He didn’t know about creation, he didn’t know where we came from at all.  And he was an older teenager.  The other skaters quit skating while we were teaching and had formed in a group around us to listen.  They were silent and still and we had their full attention.  While I was explaining the story of Adam and Eve one of the other guys chimed in and said, “Wasn’t there another woman that came before Eve?”  I told him, “Nope, she was the first one.” 

I was amazed that these older teenage guys that lived in the same town as me where there are churches and “christians” everywhere had not even heard the most basic and foundational stories from the Bible.  They had heard the name Jesus and knew that it was related to religion, but that is about all they knew.  They didn’t really know Him or what He did for them at all.  It made me realize how truly important it is that we get the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ out there, because there are still so many people that have not heard it.  And I mean in the United States, not foreign nations.  I am all for foreign missions and I thank God for them.  However, it is imperative that we understand that there is a mission field right in our own back yard.  And people here need to hear the story of Jesus just as much as the tribes in Africa need to.  Missions work isn’t just reserved for those called by God to the foreign missions field.  The great commission includes all of us, none are exempt.

I urge you please be bold with sharing your faith.  There are many lost people out there who are searching for the truth.  And we can give it to them.  After we finished witnessing the guy sincerely THANKED us for coming out and telling him about Jesus.  He said that he got it and that it finally made sense to him and that his questions were answered.  He was a ruff looking and acting guy.  You would of thought that he opposed christianity if you judged by appearances.  But he was really just a lost man searching for the truth and craving some sort of light to illuminate his darkness.  And this was proved by the fact that he thanked us for taking the time to tell him about Jesus.  He told us it was very cool for us to do it.  He wanted to know the truth.  He had just never had anyone tell it to him.

Please be bold with your faith.  There are people all around you in your sphere of influence that are searching for the truth as well.  Don’t be timid.  The bible says that if we are ashamed of Jesus before men than He will be ashamed of us before God.

There may be people that have popped into your head while reading this that you know you have been supposed to witness to.  You can rescue them.  Please do it.

PS – I will post some more stories in the comments of this entry that you can read if you are interested.  I didn’t want to make this post to long.  I’ll tell some intense ones.  Just click on the link below that says “comments” to read more stories.