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Jacksonville, Florida

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Dennis Bratton inside his Church in Jacksonville

It’s been a whirlwind of a week. I had to make a quick trip to Jacksonville, Florida for a funeral. A dear friend of mine, Damon Davis’, father passed away at the age of 57. Damon’s father, Ray, was probably the main person in America who has helped many ministers in the development of their T.V. ministries, and he has helped literally millions and millions of people find a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

I met Damon through one of our church members. He and I have a kindred spirit, and he was very thankful that I was able to attend his father’s funeral. Damon, please know that I love you and I will continue to lift you up before our Lord. May He comfort you during this difficult time.

I then visited with a dear preacher friend of mine named Dennis Bratton. Dennis is the Sr. Pastor of Christ Church of Jacksonville, and he gave me a tour through his facilities. One of the strongest elements of this church is their love for missions and outreach. Normally on a Sunday, this church runs over 4,100 in attendance, and there is a constant longing for worldwide evangelism. I do NOT know many preachers who have done as good a job as Dennis.

Tomorrow morning, I will board a non-stop flight for LAX, and Lord willing, I’ll see each of you this weekend in church.

This trip was very difficult to squeeze into my schedule, but I believe it was important for many reasons… The most important was to encourage my friend Damon. Please keep him in your prayers….

In love,

Pastor Dudley

Game Report… GO Kayla….

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2/17/07
Box Score
Hope International reeled off a jaw-dropping 28-4 run midway through the second half and then held on to upset The Master’s College 61-56 before a stunned crowd in Bross Gym Saturday evening. The win is the Royals’ season-high fourth in a row.In the first 1:19 of play, it appeared that the 24th-ranked Mustangs were going to run away and hide as they tallied the game’s first six points. Jumpers by Stacy Nanninga and Lisa Chenoweth sandwiched around a pair of Annie Gillespie free throws put the Mustangs ahead 6-0. But Hope roared back to tie the score at seven before a Kayla Rutherford layup gave the Royals their first lead of the game at 9-8 with 12:10 left in the opening half. That set up a see-saw effect on the scoreboard over the next seven-plus minutes, featuring a pair of ties and four lead changes. Hope gained its largest lead of the half (16-12) on a Jasmine Nault jumper with 6:24 left but the Mustangs answered back with a 9-0 blitz, ignited by a Chenoweth three-point play and capped by a Kinsley Mittel free throw at the 3:29 mark to race ahead 21-16. A Mittel layup with 2:06 left made it a 23-18 game and her free throw with 24 seconds remaining put the Mustangs ahead 26-20 before Hope’s Allison Wulff cut the deficit to four at halftime with a late jumper. Just as they did in the first half, the Mustangs dominated the opening minutes of the second stanza and threatened to blow the game wide open. A 7-0 spurt, fueled by a Stacy Nanninga layup and finished off by a Gillespie trifecta, moved the Mustangs to a 33-22 lead with 16:46 left to play and just over two minutes later, back-to-back layups by Mittel and Gillespie extended the advantage to 39-26. But Hope didn’t fade. In fact, they exploded, using a trio of three-balls over the next three minutes to trigger the monster run that helped them blow by the Mustangs. In addition, a pair of threes by Malerie Rodrigues and Rutherford pushed the margin to 52-43 before Nault capped the assault with a jumper for an 11-point cushion with 5:20 left to play. The Royals needed almost the entirety of that padding, though, because the Mustangs finally awoke from their nine-minute slumber (four points) and decided to do something about their plight. Gillespie, single-handedly, got the squad going, scoring six consecutive points as part of an 11-2 burst that drew the Mustangs to within 56-54 with 1:33 left. Rodrigues and Gillespie traded a pair of free throws each but a Mustang turnover and a Wulff jumper off her offensive rebound made it a four-point (60-56) game with under a minute to go. That was enough as the Mustangs failed to score the rest of the way while Rutherford made the win sure with a free throw with five seconds left. Rutherford and Roderigues poured in 13 points apiece for the Royals, while Nault added 12 points and seven rebounds. Point guard Stephanie Wenke dished out a game-high 10 assists.

Kayla and the Girls

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Kayla is number 11

Today is going to be a good day for the Rutherford household. My daughter, Kayla, who plays basketball for Hope International University play at Master’s College in Newhall today at 5:30 PM Pastor Tim is preaching this weekend, so I am going to be able to go see my daughter play today…. yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh God….

Today, at 2:00 PM this afternoon, Kayla is bringing the entire team over to our condo for lunch. Yes, they are going to have their pregame meal at our little condo. I am sooooooooo happy to host her team and to spend some time with Kayla.

I’ll try to write later tonight and let you know how they did in today’s game. If you’re not doing anything today, come on up to Master’s College, and I’ll see you there at 5:30 PM.

Be blessed and Maranatha!

Romancing Royalty Letter

Written by admin on . Posted in devotions, Letter of the Month, Romancing Royalty. No Comments on Romancing Royalty Letter

Pastor Rutherford,

Last year at this time you gave out your new devotional Romancing Royalty. It has been a blessing to me personally, as I have used it for my own devotional times, but also has blessed me in ways I would never have anticipated. I want to bless your heart with how your book has worked this past year in the hearts of some people I have given it to. I have an opportunity every day to meet many different people in another area outside of the valley, and as a Christian, I try to share my faith when I can – sometimes that means over a long period of time, gradually forming a friendship or sometimes God puts someone in my path who has a definite need he makes me aware of. Here is the story of 7 books and the results:

Von Louise had been in a bad car accident and it shook her up. Her partner of many years then left and she shared all this with me. I purchased a book for her and she began reading it, came to Shepherd to hear you in person, and I led her to the Lord at the end of the service. She now attends another church regularly and is growing. 1yr/April

Stacy was in a depression when I gave her the book and she started reading and learning that God loves her. She found a church and is growing. 1yr/July

Ed seemed hungry for the Word as I shared scripture, so I gave him a book (which he read straight through!) He is growing, but I need to make sure he is a believer.
1 yr/August

John became an alcoholic after surgery as pain relief. He let me give him a book in September and is now not drinking. I have an appointment with him to give him the gospel. 5 yrs/September

Kirby having nothing but time after back surgery began reading the devotional, and is now attending church and open to the gospel. 5 yrs/1 yr/October

Tracy’s husband left her after 12 years. The devotional has comforted her and moved her toward God. 8 months/November

Christine. God told me to give her a book even though I had just met her. After reading it for the first time, she told me she is a recovering alcoholic and it is exactly what she needed. God knew! Weeks/3days

I indicated how long I have known the person first, and then when I gave the book to them. In Kirby’s case, it wasn’t until the surgery a year ago that I was able to start witnessing, so I gave you 3 times there.

Thank you for listening to God and doing what he tells you so that many people can know the love of our Lord. Thank you for giving me a tool that has opened hearts to the gospel. It was exciting to a part of God’s work this year. I am going to continue to use the devotional as part of my outreach as God leads.

Finishing up my story

Written by admin on . Posted in giving, stewardship, tithing. 5 Comments on Finishing up my story

I gave away over $5,000.00 at church last weekend. I’m really sorry if you missed it. I was trying to illustrate how God is the One who actually provides the seed money for us. (See II Corinthians 9:6-11)

So I randomly picked someone from the congregation and gave them ten ONE DOLLAR bills and asked them, “If I gave this to you, would you be willing to put ONE dollar in the offering plate?”

I wanted to prove that if you KNEW that God was the One who gave you your resources, it would be EASY to tithe.

Then I called another parishioner forward and gave them ten TEN DOLLAR bills and asked them, “If I gave this to you, would you be willing to give ONE ten dollar bill back to God?”

Next, I called someone forward and was going to hand out ten ONE HUNDRED dollar bills (for those of you who are not very good at math, that is $1,000.00 cash). At this point in the sermon, I had everyone’s attention. I then asked, “If I gave this to you, would you be willing to give ONE one hundred dollar bill from this one thousand dollars back to God?” Everyone answered YES to this question.

Then I asked each recipient of the $1000.00, “Before I give you this $1,000.00, I want to ask you, do you ALREADY TITHE? Do you currently give God a tithe of all you have?” One lady that was called up to receive the $1,000.00 responded, “No, but I’m willing to start.”

It was VERY difficult for me, but I then took the thousand dollars away from her and gave it to a young man named Dustin, who had acknowledged that he was, in fact, a tither. I felt sooooooooo
bad taking the thousand dollars away from that lady, but if I was going to give a thousand dollars to someone, I wanted to make sure they were already a tither…

After church, Dustin came into my office and told me that he was having some difficult times and that he had literally put his LAST five dollars into buying gas so that he could drive to church. He then told me that before I started handing out the money, that if for SOME STRANGE REASON, I picked him out of the crowd, and if I were to give him any money, he promised the Lord that he would give 50% back to the Lord.

So in my office, he counted out FIVE ONE HUNDRED dollar bills and slid them across my desk. He then took the five remaining one hundred dollar bills, held them up, and told me that I had no idea how much this was going to make a difference in his life.

He was telling me this story with tears running down his face, and as he was talking, I was reminded of the many times that God has shown me His faithfulness. I pray that through our study of the ABC’s of financial success, each of us will learn that it is impossible to out-give God.

Why not grab your Bible, and read through II Corinthians 9:6-11 again?

Maranatha!!!