Last night, I was rocking Hannah to sleep.  It was a calm night, no storms or anything out of the ordinary but she looked me in the eyes and said, “Daddy, I scared.”  I asked, “what are you scared of?” and she looked over toward the cabinet.  I am still not sure what she was scared of but she somehow knew that whatever it was that I would protect her.  When she said those words to me, it instantly made me want to fix it or to calm her fears.

In life, there are times that we face frightening circumstances.  Maybe it is a devastating illness or a situation that you fear the outcome.  There is a Father in Heaven that hears your cries.  All you have to say is “Father, I’m scared.”  We can cry out to Him at any time and He wants to calm our fears.  In fact, the Bible records a couple hundred times the simple phrase, “Fear not”.  God said, “Fear not for I am with you.”  The Bible declares that He is Jehovah-Nissi, the Lord our banner, our protection.  He is the calm in our storm and we can take refuge under the shadow of His wings.

What are you afraid of?  He is there to take away your fear.

We got back home about 1:00pm.  There was little traffic on the roadways but I am sure that is going to increase as the day goes on.  We came Highway 90 and it was clear all the way. 

We will be having Wednesday night service, which will be an informal service.  Sonya and I will be leaving Thursday morning for vacation.  Brad and Meridith Drake will be ministering Sunday morning.  They always do a great job.  Don’t miss it!

There is a possibility that the county officials will lift the evacuation order this morning.  We are planning on heading back to the Golden Triangle this morning before everyone else.  We will have Wednesday Night service for anyone who is back home.  Hope to see you there.  May God keep you on your travels home.

We have been anticipating the outcome of Gustav.  Prayer must be working, because at this juncture it has weakened to 115mph winds.  Our prayer is that it will continue to weaken before it makes landfall.

As of the last report on kfdm.com, it looks like it will miss the Golden Triangle.  We will get some rain and wind gusts but for the most part we will be safe.  Now we anxiously wait for word when we can return home.  Gustav should make landfall sometime in the morning hours.  May God be with the Louisiana Coastal communities.

I received a prayer by Tom Victor for the Gulf Coast region.  If you are compelled pray this for our coastal communities.

Call to Urgent, United Prayer for Gustav:

Please join with us in faith as we unite our hearts in prayer. For those in the Gulf Area, you are encouraged to point your hands towards Gustav and pray the following:

The Prayer:

Father, we acknowledge you as Lord over the United States.

You reign above all gods. All power belongs to You.

We thank You for your continual protection and provision.

Using the authority given to us in the Name of Jesus, we speak to Hurricane Gustav and we command the winds and the storm to dissipate.

We ask for the peace of God to still Hurricane Gustav, and we declare that Gustav will not bring harm or destruction to New Orleans, Houston or the surrounding coastal areas.

We also speak to Hanna and the storms lining up following Gustav. We declare peace to these storms and we command them to dissipate and to do no harm.

Lord, we ask You to touch the heart of every believer in this area to pray against this hurricane. Raise up a Spirit of prayer and empower your people to pray effectively.

Father, please forgive our many sins. Please forgive our disobedience, rebellion, unbelief, and any forms of idolatry. Lord, help us to be a nation that is kind and forgiving to others.

Have mercy upon us. Lord, help us to overcome our temptations as a nation, and please deliver us from this impending destruction. We ask You to destroy every satanic assignment against our nation during this season.

Father, in Your great love and compassion we also ask you to protect the peoples of the islands in the path of Gustav, Hanna and these weather system.

Now to the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever. We ask this in Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Thanks for praying,

Tom Victor

 

Everyone on the coast is nervously waiting.  Our trip to Houston wasn’t bad at all.  We took the less used route and there was little traffic.  County authorities have called a mandatory evacuation for tomorrow morning so there will be no services tomorrow.  As most of our people have already dispersed, we anxiously wait.  There is nothing like being hundreds of miles from home and watching the potential of a category 4 hitting your city.  There is a grip of fear in many hearts as we just wait and see.  The predictions show it hitting east of us, but it can waver.  There is nothing sure in this hurricane watching game.  We pray for protection on all communities that are still in the path of Gustav.  We should also be praying for Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba who have suffered immense devastation from this storm.  Tomorrow is Sunday, there is a sense of loneliness knowing that all of our friends from church are in different parts of the Southern US.  God be with us all!

Again, if you need links to vital hurricane information, click here.

It looks like we will be evacuating.  Sonya and I are leaving for Houston in a few minutes.  For those of you who have a cell phone, I will be checking on you in the next couple of days.  Our prayers are that this storm dissolves and that it misses any more land. 

Here are  couple of links for you to check on the weather and area news:

Ira’s Beaumont Weather Page:  Great info

National Hurricane Center

Jefferson County Info: Press Releases

The Weather Channel

Channel Six KFDM

Channel 12 KBMT  

Channel 4   

We love all of you and hopefully we will see you Wednesday night.

Hurricane predictions can unsettle your nerves weeks before it even hits.   Every weather report is different and they often give you the worse case scenario to make you scared enough to evacuate.  In a nutshell, TS Gustav is head somewhere to the Gulf Coast.  I have been watching the Hurricane Center reports every three hours to make sure we are out of its path.  I have been noticing that its path is inching its way west.  The predictions keep moving closer and closer to the Golden Triangle.  It is par for the course.  Any time I have vacation scheduled, we are waiting for a storm.  I need to start taking vacations in January, but then we would probably have an unprecedented blizzard in Southeast Texas:)  We will keep watching this.  If we must evacuate, we will not be having services Sunday to allow you to make your way out of town.  If you will miss my preaching, take a sermon cd to listen to while you drive:) (Just kidding!)

On another note: it has been a great conference here in Katy.  Larry Stockstill is calling for a remnant of pastors to stand firm and be men and women of God.  Yesterday dealt mostly with the baggage we have as pastors.  He also spent time talking about returning integrity to ministry.  In America, pastors should be examples of holiness not conforming to the world.  There was also a great session by Gary McIntosh about Resolving Unforgiveness in your life.  I took notes that I will share them at some later time.  It was powerful!

This morning, we will be talking about multiplication.  About building a biblical church.  It should be good.