“Dennis Hall’s Monthly Newsletter”

February 2010

Hey Friends,

                This is the ninth addition of the newsletter and in the beginning we only had a little over one hundred names on the contact list. My, how the Lord has blessed and given increase in such a short time, for it now goes out to over 1,200 mail and internet addresses! In the first edition I commented that my whole purpose was to bring good news to a world bombarded with negativity and bad news. This world has choked God out of everything and would like for everyone to believe He is some fictitious fairy tale. We have shared many powerful miracles with you over the months that can only be explained by a mighty and living God.  The greatest miracles I have been involved with are those of revival. So many people have a wrong definition of the word revival. They think it some huge gathering, with thousands worshipping and praising the Lord. I enjoy these awesome events as well, and there can be revival going on, but true revival begins with broken hearts grieving and mourning over sin, and confessing and pouring out their hearts before a holy God. He says blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see My face. And pure hearts are obtained through much earnest and fervent time on one’s knees before the throne of God, sitting at the feet of Jesus, nurturing a deep love and intimacy for Him through His Word. Jesus said His Word was water to wash away the filth of the world; Paul called it a mirror in 2 Cor. 3:18 saying, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the same Spirit of the Lord.” We become what we behold and it is impossible to know Jesus without spending time with Him.

                This in my estimation is true revival, when men and women who were walking in darkness and heading to the pits of hell, whose souls were spiritually dead, who had no hope or purpose, on the road of despair, have an encounter with Jesus! WOW, this is revival, the reviving of a soul headed to hell for eternity, transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit! This is, and always has been the biblical definition of REVIVAL as far as I’m concerned, and is the greatest miracle God performs. Words cannot begin to express how deeply I have rejoiced, and how grateful and honored I am, to witness people like myself who were blind and dead come alive. To be one used of God to remove the grave clothes as Jesus calls the dead back to life! Now that’s “REVIVAL” and this has indeed been a season of great revival! I have seen so many lives powerfully touched and transformed by Jesus in the prisons, jails, at Steps of Christ Recovery, the BLP Seminar, my church at Gatlin Baptist, and everywhere the Lord has led me. I say this from the humblest of hearts. If anyone receives this as a prideful statement, then you have never met me!

                Some of you may be fighting an inner battle with a ghost from the past. The skeleton in one of yesterday’s closets is beginning to rattle louder and louder. You wonder, possibly, “who knows?” You think, probably, “I’ve had it…can’t win…party’s over.”  The anchor that tumbled off your boat is dragging and snagging on the bottom. Guilt and anxiety have come aboard, pointing out the great dark hulks of shipwrecks below. They busy themselves drilling worry-holes in your hull and you are beginning to sink. Down in the hold, you can hear them chant an old lie as they work: “The bird with the broken pinion never soared as high again…” Allow me to present a case in opposition to these destructive and inaccurate accusers. It may be true that you’ve done or experienced things which would embarrass you if they became public knowledge. You may have committed a terrible and tragic sin that was never traced back to you. You may have a criminal record or a moral charge or a domestic conflict that, to this moment, is private information. You may wrestle with a past that has been fractured and wounded by a mental or emotional breakdown. Futile attempts at suicide may add to the previous scar tissue and increase your fear of being labeled “sick” or “nervous.” It is possible that you live with memories, covered now by the sands of time, of an illicit relationship or a financial failure or a terrible habit or a divorce or a scandalous involvement. You feel that any one of these things might mar or cripple your reputation if the dirty details ever spilled on the table of gluttonous gossipers or legalistic executioners.

                But wait a minute. Before you surrender your case as hopeless, consider the liberating evidence offered in the Bible. Take an honest look at men and women whom God used in spite of their past! Abraham, founder of Israel and tagged “the friend of God,” was once a worshiper of idols. Joseph had a prison record but later became prime minister of Egypt. Moses was a murderer, but later became the one who delivered his nation from the slavery of Pharaoh. Jephthah was an illegitimate child who ran around with a tough bunch of hoods before he was chosen by God to become His personal representative. Rahab was a harlot in the streets of Jericho but was later used in such a mighty way that God enlisted her among the members of His hall of fame in Hebrews 11.

                Still unconvinced? There’s more. Eli andSamuel were both poor, inconsistent fathers, but proved to be strong men in God’s hand regardless. Jonah and John Mark were missionaries who ran away from hardship like cowards but were ever-so-profitable later on. Peter openly denied the Lord and cursed Him, only to return and become God’s choicest spokesman among the early years of the infant church. Paul was so hard and vicious in his early life the disciples and apostles refused to believe he’d actually become a Christian…but you know how greatly God used him. And my favorite King David, the man after Gods own heart, a premeditated murder.  We could go on and on. The files of heaven are filled with stories of redeemed, refitted renegades and rebels.

                How magnificent is grace! How malignant is guilt! How sweet are the promises! How sour is the past! How precious and broad is God’s love! How petty and narrow are man’s limitations! How refreshing is the Lord! How rigid is the legalist! There is not a single saint who sits in a single church free from a few things he or she is ashamed of–not one of us! The one who thinks otherwise is worse than all the rest combined. In plain, garden-variety English, we were all taken from the same dunghill. And so we all fight the same fight with the filth of the flesh regardless of how loudly we sing, how piously we pray, or how sweetly we say hello.

Mark it–when God forgives, He forgets. He is not only willing but pleased to use any vessel–just as long as it is clean today. It may be cracked or chipped. It may be worn or it may have never been used before. You can count on this–the past ended one second ago. From this point onward, you can be clean, filled with His Spirit, and used in many different ways for His honor. God’s glorious grace says: “Throw guilt and anxiety overboard…draw the anchor…trim the sails…man the rudder… a strong gale is coming!”

                I’d like to close with a huge thank you to the folks at Blackwell First Christian Church for allowing me the honor of preaching the Valentine’s message on love. “WOW!” We had a great time! I’d also like to thank F.L. Estes, Dave Horn, and the entire jail staff for sitting patiently two days, allowing me the honor of  share my story and our vision to continue to bring Jesus into the jails. The chaplaincy is indebted to the entire Sheriff’s department and jail admin for allowing us the privilege to serve our community in such an awesome way; and to the many of you who support this ministry. I pray these newsletters provide you encouragement and assurance that your efforts are reaping a bountiful harvest. According to Paul Washer, in missionary work there are those who go down the rope into the well and those who hold the rope. Either way you’ll have scars on your hands. Woe to the missionary who doesn’t have anybody to hold the rope!

 

                                    His servant,                                                                   web:      www.deliveredfrommeth.com

                                    dennis                                                                              e-mail: dennis@deliveredfrommeth.com

                                                                                                                                phone: 580.606.3784

If you would like to become a partner in this ministry, please fill out the form below, clip it off and mail it to my home church. Please make out support checks in the name of Dennis Hall Ministries, P.O. Box 2117, Duncan, OK. 73534, in order for them to be tax-deductible.

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Ministry of Dennis Hall Partnership Form (2/2010)

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