Dove Award Winning Artist Keith Plott

Our 2nd Annual Toys for Tots Christmas concert was held November 26th at Redemption Faith Outreach Center.  We were pleased to have Servants Call Quartet to open up our festivities this year.  As always they did a wonderful job and they truly get better each and every time we hear them sing.  We are so proud to call them our friends and part of our ministry family.

The Grand Finale of the evening however was Keith Plott.  Keith is a Dove Award Winning Artist who has been a part of the Southern Gospel community for quite sometime.  His easy manner and smooth, deep voice was a pure delight to listen to.  Keith entertained the crowd with his talent but ministered to us with his spirit.  It is truly amazing the anointed talented men and women Jeff Walker finds and brings to RFOC.  The highlight of the evening was a fantastic rendition of The Grinch.

We want to thank everyone who came out and supported the event.  A special thanks to those that helped put it together, pull it together, and pull it off!  You are the best and you know who you are!!!  It’s a very good start to another great Christmas Season for RFOC.  We love you all.

Servants Call Quartet

Pastor James

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Every great adventure begins with Hope! When Christopher Columbus set sail on his voyage across the Atlantic it was with and because of one thing, Hope. The problem with Hope is that it usually begins to fizzle out long before we arrive at our destination. I am sure that there was great fanfare leading up to the day that Columbus sailed his small fleet of vessels out of the harbor and into the great unknown. There were probably more than a few butterflies in the stomachs of his crew. Men, women and children lining the docks to see them off on this historic journey, most wondering if they would ever see them again. The men on those ships watched as they horizon stretched endlessly out before them and their home grew smaller and smaller behind them until finally the view was the same in all direction.

Hope has a way of doing that to us. It moves us. It makes us believe that something is possible even if we’ve never Experienced that something first hand. It causes us to leap head first into the unknown. We, like those men, leave safety behind in pursuit of something better. What Hope fails to tell us is that between the time we Leap and the time we Arrive there will be a time where we are surrounded by the Overwhelmingly unfamiliar and frightening. When we strike out in Hope we usually are exchanging the solid dry ground for a much more fluid experience.

So then, what is this thing we call Hope and why is it necessary? Many people never really take the time to stop and think about Hope. Much like the air that we breath it is just taken for granted. That is, until it is gone. However, just like air, Hope is very much a necessary part of our everyday life. It is so much more than just a word that we use to express a unrealistic desire. Hope is very real and very tangible. Hebrews 11 actually says, “Now, Faith is the Substance of Things Hoped for… the Evidence of Things not yet Seen… For by “Faith they Obtain a good report or success” This literally says that Faith comes out of Hope and that from that Faith we achieve good success. Thus, Success always begins with the same thing… HOPE.

Really, the truth is that ALL Change must begin with the same foundation. The Potential for Change is literally found in the Seed of Hope. If there is no Hope then there will probably not be any real positive change. Remember, that every great adventure, every new invention, every great accomplishment began with the same thing… Hope. Someone believed that we could fly. Someone believed that we could travel to the moon. Someone believed that we could sail off into the horizon and not fall off of the edge of the earth. Someone believed or had FAITH that things could be different. That’s Hope in a nutshell. It’s being able to envision the possibilities of life even when there is no real proof to support it. It’s being able to envision your future even while you are having to deal with the same old struggles that you face everyday. Hope is when we see our tomorrow on the inside while we are still in today.

Hope always begins as a Dream

Here is the truth as I have come to understand it. Hope is really neither positive or negative, it is simply a Spiritual Law that governs all of us. It is not exclusive to Christians, but it is exclusive to people. My dog, like every other animal I know, lives in the moment. She doesn’t envision what her life will be like after she graduates from obedience school. She doesn’t lose sleep over whether or not she will meet the dog of her dreams or if her puppies will turn out okay. People on the other hand envision their future constantly. We daydreamed about what we would be when we grew up, what life would be like after we left home, who we would marry and the list goes on and on. For most of us though our Envisioning turned to Worry somewhere along the way. We will call this Spoiled Hope. When all of our enthusiasm for tomorrow has waned and now we are just hoping that we are still alive when tomorrow gets here. Worry is Hope, but it is a negative Hope because it is the act of envisioning our future in the light of lack and failure.

The danger here is that our Faith is going to spring out of our Hope. What we believe about our life and ourselves is directly tied to how we envision our future. If we are worrying or envisioning disaster then we are going to believe that life is out of our control. Worse yet, if we are envisioning disaster then we have found ourselves believing that life is out of God’s control. The problem with what we believe is that it governs what we do. When we believe the boat is sinking then we are going to panic and find a way off of the boat. It doesn’t matter if it is sinking or not, what matters is that we believe that it is sinking. Our belief always motivates our actions. If we believe that the worst is inevitable then we are going to ACT accordingly.

We should never believe that the Worst is going to happen. Jeremiah states, “For I know the plans (the vision) that I have for you sayeth the Lord, and they are good and not evil, to give you an Expected end”. The key to changing our lives once and for all is to come to the place where we begin to see ourselves through God’s eyes. When we can see our everyday lives through His perspective we regain our Hope. We begin to breath a little easier. The unfamiliar doesn’t frighten us half as much and we have a peace that those around us just don’t posses.

Our Hope determines our Faith, our Faith determines our Actions and our Actions determine our Results. The only real question then is, “What determines our Faith”. If the answer to this question is God’s Word then the results are guaranteed to be Great.