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The Pastor just said OMG!!!

Written by admin on . Posted in God, honoring God, sermon series, www.twitter.com/pastordudley. No Comments on The Pastor just said OMG!!!


Yes, you heard it! The Pastor not only said OMG! He is getting ready to start a new sermon series this weekend called OMG! You see, our world has lost total reverence and respect for GOD ALMIGHTY! We use his name in vain without even knowing it. We don’t even realize we are breaking the 3rd commandment listed in Exodus 20:7. OMG! has become so popular it was recently listed in the Oxford English Dictionary.

Well, starting this weekend, I am going to tackle this issue. It’s time that God’s people begin to fear him with reverence and awe. We are going to take the next 5 weeks to look at 5 things you should know BEFORE you utter his name. In fact, if you could some how get your arms around any of these 5 things you would NEVER EVER UTTER HIS NAME IN VAIN! Instead of saying “Oh my God” as a curse word, you would bow before him and say “Oh… My Lord and my God”

I am so anxious to preach this weekend and I hope you will join us at one of our many campuses in Antelope Valley, Aqua Dulce, Woodland Hills, West L.A. or Porter Ranch www.the shepherd.org or if you can not attend personally that you would watch it live on www.callonjesus.com

This series, without question, has the potential to change your life forever! OMG!

Be sure to sign up for www.twitter.com/pastordudley

Burning the Quran?

Written by admin on . Posted in Bible, enemies, honoring God, Love, Pastor Dudley Rutherford, quran. No Comments on Burning the Quran?


Although I firmly do NOT believe in the Quran, and even though I firmly believe that Jesus is the ONLY way to salvation for all mankind, I believe it’s wrong to have a National Quran Burning Day.

A Pastor named Terry Jones from a small church in Florida is planning such an event. And although there are MANY things that are WRONG about the Quran, burning them is not the answer.

Let me give you several reasons WHY we should NOT be burning the Quran. (I found some of this in an Article written by William Harvey.)

1. It really goes AGAINST being a Christian. I am all for standing up for things that are of God. I preached this past weekend on Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego who refused to bow down to a golden image, and we need to have the same courage as them. Honor was given to their God (the one true God) because of their devotion. They were standing for truth; they were not trying to burn down Babylon.

In Acts 19:18-20 there were some folks who burned some books, but they were actually scrolls that they themselves had owned. The passage refers to “those who had practiced curious, magical arts” gathering to burn scrolls in which they no longer believed. This is quite a different act from choosing to burn a book in which you have never believed or burning a book that is going to cause pain world wide.

Jesus made it VERY clear in his Sermon on the Mount that we are to LOVE our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us. We are to TURN the other cheek and try to befriend those that think differently than we do. How are we ever going to reach the Muslim people if our first act is to offend them by burning the most important thing in their religion?

Once you burn the Quran, you lose all hope of ever reaching them. They will HATE you and HATE your faith. You will drive them FURTHER AWAY from where you want them to be. It’s possible to reach the Muslims around the world and introduce them to the Savior, but NOT if you start out by burning their sacred book.

Just last week I had a conversation with a Muslim man about the Lord. Just like Jesus with the woman at the well in John 4, I started out by engaging him in a dialogue about current events and then I moved the conversation along until we were able to talk about Jesus being the Son of God and the Savior of the world.

I believe God would have us be merciful to all and to build bridges that enable salvation, rather than burning bridges that divide and hinder the Gospel.

2. It disrespects the memory of those who died on 9/11.

In the words of Mr. Harvey in an open letter to Mr. Terry Jones, “The vicious thugs who attacked the World Trade Center and the Pentagon almost nine years ago did so in order to widen the cultural divisions between Muslims and non-Muslims. Your planned protest would also accomplish this, allowing the message of violent extremists acting in the name of Islam to resonate more widely. The innocent victims of 9/11 deserve better than for you to use the anniversary of their death to commit an act of which their murderers would have approved.”

3. It is un-American.

The First Amendment protects Americans from any government effort to abridge our freedom of speech. We are free to say and do what we please, however not all things are benifical and in fact, some things cause great harm. If our government said that you had no right to express yourself, this would be un-American, but irresponsibly exercising that right stains our hard-earned heritage of liberty and our tradition of tolerance. In the same way that many people feel it’s within a legal right to build a mosque in the shadow of Ground Zero, just not prudent. The same applies to the burning of the Quran: It might be legal to burn the book, but the wise thing would be NOT to burn it.

I wish everyone felt the same way about our flag. For me the American flag represents the freedom we share. It causes personal pain whenever I see or hear of someone burning a flag. They might have the freedom to do so, but if they were in their right mind they would never do it for the pain it causes in so many people who fought and died for the freedoms we have here in the United States of America.

4. It is endangering American lives.

Your actions endanger not only our military around the world, you are endangering my life and my family. The vast majority of Muslims who learn about the planned protest will peaceably counter-protest, but there will be many, operating under their own perverted interpretation of the religion, who will want to protest by killing Americans wherever they may find them. Thousands of Americans in the military, in the foreign service, and doing humanitarian work in countries from Mauritania to Indonesia (where thousands of Muslims have already marched in protest of your plan) are in danger.

Please join me in praying that this event does NOT unfold and if it does, I pray that we will not be judged by the actions of a few foolish people. But I’m certain we will be, and therein lies the problem beyond our ability to fix.

May God forgive us of ALL of our sins and may we be mericful as God has been merciful to us.

Pastor Dudley

Friday night with Glenn Beck and David Barton

Written by admin on . Posted in America, Glenn Beck, honoring God, revival. No Comments on Friday night with Glenn Beck and David Barton

Tonight was a night I will never forget as I attended an event at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. It was billed as “an evening of prayer and spiritual renewal, hosted by Glenn Beck and David Barton”. I wish everyone in America could have been in that Performing Arts center to hear what I heard and to experience what I experienced.

I sat on the next to last row of the third level and I watched in amazement and thanksgiving for the events that unfolded. It started at 7:30 with music and worship, every song that was sung were songs that we know and sing at Shepherd. The first 45 minutes, everyone on that stage was African-American. The audience was electric in their praise and worship to Almighty God.

The first man to speak, I don’t know his name, was a congressman who led our hearts in prayer. He told us that there are a number of congressman who pray every day and that there have been MANY times where they have stood for the things of God when congress often tried to remove God from the Washington Monument, from our currency, from the flag certificates and other such things. His prayer was stirring… and from that moment on I cried most of the night.

Next a Rabbi spoke from the book of Genesis, explaining that we are all on this planet because of a creator God and that he put us here for a reason. He explained that there are those who believe our only right is choice. That we can choose whatever we want to do and he explained that was not why we were placed here. He said our only task is to do what GOD commands us to do. Therefore marriage is a union between a man and a woman. You can’t say, “I have the right to marry 4 people, or people of the same sex, or to abort a child because it’s convenient for you.” It was a very moving message.

Then Miles McPherson spoke and he stirred the audience with a message that the Church needs to wake up and begin to engage with the world in making a difference for God. Taking Jesus to our cities is imperative. That our cities are in trouble and that Jesus is the answer.

Then…. Drum roll…… Chuck and Gina Norris, who attended our church when they were living in L.A. came out and Chuck read several quotes from our founding fathers about how they trusted and depended upon God for their provision and their protection.

Then, different bible teachers and evangelist spoke along with David Barton who constantly spoke about how preachers helped shape our constitution and that many of our founding fathers listened to the preachers of the land. He talked about how 91 percent of the first 250 colleges in this country were led by ordained ministers.

Glenn Beck got up at the end and simply said that we as a nation need to turn back to God, that our problems will never be solved by any one man. He mentioned that it involves each of us “asking God what God wants us to do and then doing it”.

Not once, did I hear the word “Democrat or Republican”
Not once, did I hear the name of our current or former President.
It was simply a call to our Nation to turn back to God.

As I conclude this brief synopsis, let me explain some things about Glenn Beck. I am trying to figure him out and unlike some of you that have already made up your mind and have no room that you might be wrong about him, whether in a positive manner or negative manner. I am watching a man that God is using to bring together people from all walks of life. From tech developers building a virtual casino online, to small business owners managing local manufacturing plants, to public school teachers navigating crowded city classrooms, he is gathering a remarkably diverse crowd for a common purpose of bringing our nation back to God.

I listened intently to every word he spoke and here is what I believe is happening. I believe that God is USING him for a purpose not known to us. Glenn loves David Barton and David is a Christian to the core and God is using David to speak to Glenn’s heart and soul. Glenn can NOT figure out exactly what is going on… he keeps saying he’s feeling something that he has never felt before and I feel as though God is surrounding him with Christian preachers and that Glenn is hearing things articulated that you and I have heard many times but he is just now hearing it and God is opening up his heart to the truth found in the word of God. He says things from time to time that you would expect from someone who really does NOT know the Bible, but I believe that God is teaching him the bible from all these Christian preachers that he has gathered around himself. It’s fascinating to watch.

I’m telling you tonight was like the beginning of a Revival for our country with Asians, Latinos, African-Americans and people from all walks of life singing praise songs and calling upon God to restore our Nation and we pray and call out to him.

If you have ever attended our Day of Prayer and Fasting, that was what this event was like and they said tomorrow (Saturday) will be more of the same. I hope you will tune in yourself and watch on TV and make your own judgment on what you see and hear, and I believe, like me, you will cry as you see God using a man that no one would have ever thought to use, to help bring America back to God.

I am hoping and praying that tomorrow will be like tonight. I don’t know, maybe it will get all political and stuff, but tonight I didn’t hear ONE word that came anywhere near being labeled political. Tomorrow, I pray will begin the next great awakening in America.

What a Team!!!

Written by admin on . Posted in basketball, children, Hillcrest, honoring God, Kerri. 1 Comment on What a Team!!!



I have been coaching Kerri’s middle school basketball team. It is comprised of 6th, 7th and 8th grade girls. They are a great bunch of kids. They all love to play and we are having a good season. I have not posted a picture of Kerri recently so I thought I’d post a few. Kerri doesn’t really like to play as much as my other two children but she runs up and down that court primarily because she knows I like it so much.
As her father, I’m a little torn because she does a pretty good job but I’m never sure if she really wants to be out there. It was interesting that when we begin stretching before practice that Kerri ( a 6th grader at Hillcrest Christian School) is always the first in line to LEAD the stretching. Usually and 8th grader would step up to lead but Kerri is always anxious to lead.
You see, I think she is anxious NOT because she LOVES the game of basketball… you can ask her… she doesn’t really enjoy it that much… but the reason she leads the stretching is because she is a LEADER. God placed that within her!! And God has placed different gifts within each of us… and when we use those gifts the Lord is glorified.
Not only is Kerri leading the stretching, she is always quick to say a prayer or lead a devotion. Yes, I am thankful that I get to hang out with her on the basketball court, but i’m most thankful that she has a heart for God.
We have a few games left…. I think we play L.A.B at Hillcrest Christian School on November 2nd at 3:15 pm. Come out and cheer us on if you’d like.

In GOD We Still Trust

Written by admin on . Posted in flag, honoring God, trust, USA. 2 Comments on In GOD We Still Trust

1776, 1777, 1778, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1784, 1785, 1786, 1787, 1788, 1789, 1790, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1797, 1798, 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802, 1803, 1804, 1805, 1806, 1807, 1808, 1809, 1810, 1811, 1812, 1813, 1814, 1815, 1816, 1817, 1818, 1819, 1820, 1821, 1822, 1823, 1824, 1825, 1826, 1827, 1828, 1829, 1830, 1831, 1832, 1833, 1834, 1835, 1836, 1837, 1838, 1839, 1840, 1841, 1842, 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, 1861, 1862, 1863, 1864, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868, 1869, 1870, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1874, 1875, 1876, 1877, 1878, 1879, 1880, 1881, 1882, 1883, 1884, 1885, 1886, 1887, 1888, 1889, 1890, 1891, 1892, 1893, 1894, 1895, 1896, 1897, 1898, 1899, 1900, 1901, 1902, 1903, 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910, 1911, 1912, 1913, 1914, 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1924, 1925, 1926, 1927, 1928, 1929, 1930, 1931, 1932, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948, 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1953, 1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1987, 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007!! In GOD We Still Trust (yes, I typed all these numbers myself)

Developing and Deploying

Written by admin on . Posted in glory, honoring God, talents. 1 Comment on Developing and Deploying

We are in a sermon series about using your gifts for the Glory of God. EVERYONE has been given some type of gift. You are good at something. Wouldn’t it please the Lord if every one of us used our God given talents for the purpose of honoring God?

Not only would YOU be blessed for using your talent, but the Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:12 that the entire body of Christ would be built up. Now in my little brain, I think that building up the body of Christ would be a GOOD thing… Don’t you???

And just think about that… With the gifts and talents that God has placed within you, you are able to build up the entire body of Christ.

Unlike some things, this particular discipline is something that brings JOY into the heart of the one who practices it, and it is also able to bring JOY into the heart of the person that you are serving.

Why not put a little JOY into your heart and into the heart of God by finding a place to serve his body (church) today? He is never more pleased than when we are excitedly and exceptionally developing and deploying our talents on His behalf.