Category: Life

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Bind The Strong Man 2019, Myrtle Beach, SC, March 1 – 2

Everything is in motion for Bind The Strong Man 2019 (BTSM). Many of you have shared the flyers on social media and I encourage you to continue to do so. Please help keep this event at the top of your page. You never know who will see it and decide to attend. Our church seats about 250 and we’d love to have full capacity for a powerful all–night move of God! Remember the dates and location…Friday night, March 1, 2019, from 8:00 PM until Saturday March 2, 2019, at 7:00 AM. Christian Life Center, 124 April Gray Lane, Myrtle Beach, SC 29579. 

I’ve had several inquiries about the event name, “Bind The Strong Man.” It comes from Mark 3:27 where Jesus says, “No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.” Before studying the scripture, I had a common misconception about its meaning. As with all Scripture, it must be read in context of surrounding Scripture to gain understanding…The “strong man” is Satan and the “house” is his domain. The “goods” are what he possesses—in this case, a blind and mute man whom Jesus releases from the power of a demon (Matthew 3:22). Jesus cannot use Satan’s power to cast out the demon because He needs to bind Satan in order to free the man.

This is what we strive for and what we hope to better understand after Bro. Hurt’s teachings at the BTSM 2019! Remember, the public is invited and everyone is encouraged to attend and bring guests. There is no charge! We encourage all ASR Members to attend as this kicks off our annual riding and witnessing season! 

Chaplains, BTSM 2019 will be especially helpful to you! If we expect to see changes in our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray, we need to know more about prayer and how to become a true Prayer Warrior! Fasting sets the foundation for this event! Personally, I will be doing at least a 3–day (possibly longer) water–only fast the weekend before BTSM 2019. Please join me as there is power in numbers and let me know you’re participating so I can pray for you during this time. Towards the middle of February, I’ll be posting more on the two ASR Facebook pages (“ASR Friends” and “ASR Members Only”) to remind you, but please mentally prepare for fasting now…it helps! 

The response for financially help fund BTSM 2109 from the ASR membership has been fantastic! Although BTSM is a “nationally sanctioned” ASR event, it is still fully funded by the local chapter of ASR and/or the local church. For this reason and due to the anticipated expenses, we’re asking any ASR member and/or ASR supporter for donations (fully tax deductible). 100% of the funds will be used for direct expenses for the event to include, airfare, meals and an honorarium for Bro. Hurt, plus snacks for the all–night event and breakfast Saturday morning for all ASR attendees. If funds are received above the expenses incurred, all excess funds will go to our “Motorcycles for Missionaries” program. Please help! Any donation is appreciated! The best way to donate is to mail a check to me that’s made out to CLC of Myrtle Beach. Mark on the check for 2019 BTSM. Fred Beall, 3501 North Kings Highway, Suite 103–B, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577.

PLEASE RESPOND PROMPTLY SO WE CAN GET FUNDING OUT OF THE WAY AND CONCENTRATE ON PLANNING. 

Thank you and God bless…

Fred Beall
Azusa StreetRiders, Myrtle Beach, SC

Additional comment from our National Secretary Bro Tom Thompson

Bind the strong man event:
I would like to personally invite all members and beyond to this event. My wife Renaye and I are eyewitnesses to Bro. George Hurt’s ability to reach God through his prayer techniques. The presence of God was so thick that day it’s hard to put to words. “Amazing” is only one word that comes to mind. He talked to the four of that were in hotel room for little while, then prayed. We were all speaking in tongues and he instructed Renaye to step forward. She did, she walked few steps and he said, “Sister you’re walking!” She looked as if she saw ghost. He told her, “Don’t stop now!” She walked all over that hotel room, kept walking past wall mirror and saying, “I’m walking!” That was first time in 5.5 years that she was even able to put weight on left foot/leg, not to forget first time walking. I urge you all, if you can only attend one event this year, make it “Bind The Strong Man!”
Thank you
Bro. Tom Thompson
ASR Secretary

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OH DEER!

OH DEER!
(My Evening Ride)
I saw you standing over by
the highway fence with wires high
waiting for the moment when
you felt it right to jump, and then…
because I had my eye on you
I know you had me sighted too.
So then I slowed as caution wills;
It’s dangerous riding in these hills.
when sun has set and darkness falls
and trees close in like curtained walls.
Then two eyes were shining bright
as lit up by my bike’s headlight.
Though I’m warned, I have no fear
especially of a single deer,
but then I see more eyes appear
and begin to wonder why I’m here
and then they jump and start toward me;
not just one, but two… then three.
I’m nervous now but stay my course
while thinking this just might get worse.
So I crank her open to get past
the first and second, third and last
still several yards before the road
a different story had I slowed.
But now I slow and wipe my brow
I’m down the road and past them now.
One thing’s sure as I think back
remembering that buck and his big rack.
If we’d locked horns as thought we might
I wouldn’t have made it through the night.
Marvin Wallace

 

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Bind the Strong Man

02-event-bind-strong-manDo you need a true miracle from God? ASR’s second annual “Bind the Strong Man” Prayer Gathering is when and where it can happen! Last year it was held in Myrtle Beach, SC, and at least one lifesaving miracle took place, along with some instant healings and other spiritually powerful occurrences. My oldest son, Patrick, was healed of brain cancer! Despite the doctors saying he’d only live 18 months if he did everything they told him to do (which he didn’t), he walked away from Bind the Strong Man saying “I’m healed!” Over the next four months, the cancer continued to grow and new places appeared in his brain MRIs. Yet Patrick continued to have faith, and he would tell the doctors that he “had cancer but God healed” him. They wanted to start radiation on one of the new spots one month, and the next visit, they wanted to do an immediate biopsy on another new spot. Those didn’t happen! Patrick’s refusal to succumb to their insistence on man’s treatments and his continued witnessing to everyone he saw about his “healing,” resulted in a “cancer-free” MRI—to the doctors’ amazement—in the fourth month after Bind the Strong Man. His last MRI was in January (a year after surgery) and the head of the neurological oncology department at the University of South Carolina said, “I want the faith that you have!” God is Good!

Bind the Strong Man is the brainchild of ASR Member, Bro. Mike Markham, Pastor of Turning Point Fellowship, 95 County Road 755, Marbury, AL 36051, where this year’s event is to take place. Bro. Markham is a gruff US Marine with a teddy bear’s heart for souls! He uses motorcycles to help build churches and God is moving through his efforts.

Bind the Strong Man is open to the public but is an ASR event. ASR members sacrifice their time and expenses to attend this event solely for prayer. Last year in Myrtle Beach, ASR members from about ten states attended from as far away as Forsyth, MO (the Cobbs) and one member even flew in (Sis. McGhghy) from OH. Unlike most ASR events, there will not be a ride as our focus is on prayer. We simply get together to have “focused” corporate prayer and then return to our homes. Prayers will be focused throughout the night and different facilitators will introduce us to the next corporate-prayer topic. We’ll pray for the local church, the city, the state, our nation and the state of mankind. We’ll pray for godly leadership of all officials. We’ll plead for a revelation of truth to the Christian community and for the opening of understanding of the necessity of baptism in Jesus name and the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Of course, we’ll pray for the outreach efforts of Azusa StreetRiders along with the efforts of the churches we attend and missionaries we support. Most of all, we’ll pray for God’s will to be done everywhere!

We’ll take short, non-conversational coffee and snack breaks as individually needed throughout the evening in order to keep our knees from cramping and our strength up. Bind the Strong Man will last from 8:00 PM on Friday, March 7 until Noon on Saturday, March 8. This should give most of us time to return home to our local churches. For those ASR members who are able to stay, there will be a time of fellowship!

Please make every effort to attend… blessings are in the sacrifice. Please also put attendance to this event into your prayers and fasting (Sis. McGhghy is organizing with our Chaplain, Bro. Curley) and let’s see where God takes us this year!

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Bike Scams to Avoid

It’s pretty sad how hard some people will work to steal from others. If they would just work as hard at an honest living as they do trying to con people, they’d do just fine, and we’d all be better off. One type of con that is rather amazing in its depth of “scamminess” is the “motorcycle seller has shipped the bike to you” scam. It goes something like this:

You’re on the hunt for a new bike. (We hope you’re not planning on going into debt to make the purchase, so lets just say that you’ve saved the money, and it’s about to burn a hole in your pocket. )You’re googling “Harley for sale” or “Honda for sale” or whatever. You just happen to find, on some unheard-of website of bikes for sale, a splendid specimen for an amazingly low price. It could be real. Maybe not. You’re on the alert.

Just in case it is real, you reach out to the seller. Clicking the link may lead to another page on a different site, but eventually you are either permitted to send a message via some website, or you obtain a regular email address and write to them.

They answer. The bike is still for sale. It’s as glorious as the ad listing proclaimed, but there are just some extenuating circumstances. The seller is currently located at XYZ location, while the bike is still at some prior address or some location  other than where the seller is at the moment.

You tell them you’re only willing to work through a legit escrow agency. They tell you that’s fine. They offer that they will ship the bike to you, and the money does not have to change hands until you have the bike in yours. There are vague but reasonable-sounding promises that you can make arrangements for payment via an escrow agency, and you will have a certain reasonable window of time (some days) after the bike arrives to either approve or disapprove of the transaction.

At this point, you are thinking you are not in danger, but you are wondering if it is legit. After a few more days of occasional contact, the seller seems content that you are serious. Next thing you know, you’re being notified that they have shipped the bike. “Wait,” you think to yourself, “I thought I was first supposed to make some connection with an escrow agency of my choosing?”

Then you start getting emails (with attachments) from a company that advertises itself as both a bike transport company, and an escrow-type company that facilitates sales. You stand to save thousands of dollars on this gorgeous bike.

There are multiple versions of the scam from this point forward. In one version, “you only need to pay for the shipping charges.” Say again? Yes, several hundreds of dollars in shipping charges. In another version, the documentation may “require” that you pay a “deposit.” In one recent case where this scam was actually attempted (but not successful) the amount of the “required” deposit was “only” $1,500 (on a bike that, if it really existed, would be worth about $10,000-$11,000, and which the seller had advertised for sale for only $6,500).

By the attachments, the con artists are essentially saying, “Look at all these really authentic-looking documents with actual signatures.” (Really?) There are often all sorts of documents—there may be a waybill and/or a bill of lading, tax documents, customs forms, a contract, or whatever. It all just looks so legit. See attachments below from the above-mentioned actual scam effort that did not succeed.

It’s amazing how realistic this “company’s” website will seem. All these documents seem so proper. The original listing may have even been on a trustworthy site. But don’t get comfortable. Warning! Danger! The payment method choices will likely demand either a bank transfer, wire transfer, money order, cashier’s check, or debit card transaction. If you use one of those methods, it will be as though you just handed them cash, and they’re gone. You won’t have any big “PayPal” company or any credit card company willing and able to go to bat for you, chasing down a “merchant” that hopes to continue doing business with them. Your money will be gone.

Consider that by the time you’re to that point, the con artist(s) will have spent several days luring you in (or at least attempting to). Who knows how many hours of labor they have spent in creating that whole fake company website, plus more hours spent in conjuring all the fake documentation. Amazing.

Caveat Emptor is Latin for “Let the buyer beware.” Indeed. As the old timers would often say, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.” It’s always to good be careful, and today more so than ever.

Below are “documents” from an actual scam effort that did not succeed:

Contract-of-sale-1of3 Contract-of-sale-2of3 Contract-of-sale-3of3 Purchase-order

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Tech: Why You Should Delete SnapChat (from adammclane.com)

“I’ve been engaged in various forms of social media since AOL chat rooms in 1994. And I’ve never seen a more dangerous application targeting teenagers, specifically girls, than SnapChat. The premise of SnapChat is simple. You take a picture, send it to a friend, and they can only see it for up to 10 seconds before it’s deleted. And that’s where the lie begins. I want to be blunt. My goal for this post is to motivate you to delete SnapChat from your phone….” [read more].

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Happy New Year! Plus all-new gearings behind “Rumblings” newsletter!

ASR-Site

Yes, the amount of work we still have left to do is mind numbing, but look how far we’ve come already! Thank you, Jesus! Truly, if we had to get it all done in a hurry, the work still remaining is enough to drive a guy batty. So our sense of sanity and stability in all that is being undertaken is well summarized in a concept called kaizen—a Japanese philosophy of constant improvement. To put it more kindly: painfully slow, yet steady improvement. This is a microcosm of how the overwhelming goals of life can and should be handled.

Our local church in Clarksburg is now serving as a local campus for Purpose Institute (Bible college classes), and this holiday season our church undertook hosting a local instance of Financial Peace University (using video curriculum from Christian finance guru David Ramsey). The courses for both types of schooling have been tremendous. One story from David Ramsey illustrates how powerful a slow, steady improvement can be over the long haul.

He told of young man who learned how to be careful, saving and investing his money instead of going into debt. When he had finally saved enough money, he went down to the Mercedes Benz dealership and arranged to buy his dream car. He drove it home for a “test drive,” and his wife, friends, and neighbors all went bonkers congratulating him.

“You did it!” they shouted. “You’ve arrived!” they said. However, he finally chose to not buy the $40,000 car. Why? Well, when he started to think how much that saved money could become for him if he invested it instead, and when he considered that the car purchase would pretty quickly depreciate away the huge wad of cash, he chose to invest it instead.

Twelve years later (just 12, not 42 or 52), he saw a man driving the exact same model and make of car he almost bought. The car pulled up beside him at a stoplight. It had all the same features as the one he almost bought. It was in nearly mint condition for a 12-year-old Benz.

The man said to the driver of the nice, used Benz, “Excuse me, sir. Is that an ’82?”

“Yes!” came the reply.

“Nice!” he complimented.

“Thanks!”

“Would you mind to tell me what your car is worth right now?”

The driver of the used Benz went on to say that the car was in like-new condition, and he had just bought it for $4,000.

The man (who had chosen not to buy the same type of Benz when it was new) thanked the other driver, and went on about his business. He had invested the $40,000—he had socked it away in a mutual fund, with the dividends set to stay in the fund, for compounding of interest. He had never touched the money since.

When he got a chance, he checked on the value of his money then. The accumulated value, with interest? About $400,000. No gimmicks. Just time, and slight, positive improvements with each passing day.

I’m not just thinking about money. In the same way that we’re working to (painfully slowly) improve and enhance the ASR sites/programming, you can work daily to improve your life, your skills, your relationships, your finances, whatever. Maybe you need to lose some weight. Maybe you need to shed an addiction. The Apostle Paul once wrote of being able to withstand both failure and success, not being tripped up by either (see Philippians 4:13). It’s an important part of our life as a Christian. You can do it, in Jesus name! Anything can get amazingly better over time, with tiny improvements each day. As we enter this new year of 2014, let’s not just make a bunch of over-the-top “resolutions” (likely impossible deadlines for hard-to-reach goals). Instead, deliberately, carefully, intentionally make every day count, even if only by just the tiniest bit of improvement. God bless you in 2014, in Jesus name.