Finish Strong

I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom:Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing. 

2 Timothy 4: 1-8 NKJV

Dear friends of Come Rest,

Some of you know I have rooted for the Green Bay Packers football team since 1965. If you are not a football fan, hang in there with me for a moment. This past Sunday afternoon the Packers dominated the defending champs Seattle Seahawks for 56 minutes of the 60 minute contest. Yet, the Packers collapsed the last four minutes and missed the victory which would have propelled them to the Super Bowl. Their season is over. It was heartbreaking for many Packer fans. The Packers did not finish strong. As a younger fan, I may have been shocked and depressed. As an older fan, I’m was simply shocked.

I felt the Lord immediately remind me what’s most important. He wants us to finish, not be “fan-ish”! The word “fan” is short for “fanatic.” The Lord isn’t looking for fickle fanatics, but faithful followers. He isn’t about attracting fair weather fans, but adopting fruitful children. He isn’t about drawing intense spectators, but developing invested sons and daughters. He wants us to finish strong in His Spirit’s power, not weak in our will power.  I believe with all my heart that 2 Timothy 4:1-8 is the Lord’s “now word” for you and me this week…and the rest of our lives.

I have been reading this week in 1 & 2 Kings and 1&2 Chronicles. Of course there were so many kings who blew it from the start, and some who began well but fell away quickly. But what is so heartbreaking is the kings of Israel and Judah who began well, prospered in the Lord for many years, but did not finish faithful to the Lord for different reasons:

1. Practicing idolatry, inviting evil. (Solomon in 1 Kings 11)
2. Relying upon man for national security & personal health (Asa in 2 Chronicles16)
3. Partnering with the ungodly, tolerating immorality. (Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20)
4. Fighting battles willfully ignoring the Lord.(Josiah in 2 Chronicles 35)

We need to seek His face in the light of His flaming heart every present moment of each precious day He gives us. We can’t do it on good intentions and will power. We can only do it through resting in His Spirit’s power through His word, prayer, and each other’s love and prayers.

Please join me in prayer right now, and invite others to join you by forwarding this email on to others…

“Come Holy Spirit. Father, we repent of worshipping anything but You, thereby inviting evil ; relying upon man for our security and health instead of You; partnering with ungodly people and tolerating any hint of immorality in our lives; and fighting battles willfully ignoring Your voice. Help us make the necessary changes You want us to make in our daily lives. Help us guard our lives completely from Satan and surrender our lives completely to You. We will enter Your Rest and bear Your Real Fruit in 2015 like never before. You will help us neither turn away or fade away. You will help us burn bright and finish strong--awaiting the return of our Lord Jesus according to 2 Timothy 4:1-8! In His name we pray, Amen!”

There are many hills, valleys, and hairpin curves ahead. Avoid a heartbreaking crash through heart “braking” surrender to Him. Stay on track. Let Him help you finish strong!

Love and blessings,

Richard Speight

Come Rest Ministries

Personal Retreat

Please note

(This retreat was postponed because of illness and is now being offered this coming week)

Jan. 28^th    9am-4pm

Rehoboth House 2125 Bever Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA

Requirements: Pen, bible, notebook, your copy of our book

REAL FRUIT, and your wholehearted desire to come rest in Jesus!

Cost: Freewill Offering plus $18 for book which may be purchased at retreat

Space Limited-- Lunch provided

Those interested must apply at jkadlec@ImOnMail.com.  

******************************

COME REST MINISTRIES’

AWAKENING OF LOVE

FRIDAY, FeB. 6^th      630-930pm

River of Life, Cedar Rapids

Worship, teaching, testimonies, prayer.

                                             Bring a friend!     

Register at the door; freewill offering; refreshments.

******************************

UPCOMING EVENTS

Jan. 25^th            845am    Speights teaching Come Up/Secret Place Class at River of Life CR

6pm       Men’s & Women’s Wellsprings Covenant Groups at Rehoboth

                        7pm       I58 Cross-denominational House Fellowship at Rehoboth

Jan. 28^th                        9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

Feb/March       TBD     Speights ministering in Aplington, West Union, & Fayette, Ia.

Feb. 6^th                         630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love@ River of Life, CR               

Feb. 18^th           9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

Feb. 20^th           630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love @ Calvin-Sinclair, CR

Mar. 6^th                         630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love @River of Life, CR

Mar. 18^th                       9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

Apr. 25^th                       Speights ministering at Laddusaws’ Gathering in Wittemore, Iowa

Apr. 26^th           Speights ministering at Presbyterian Church, Burt, Iowa

Apr. 30-May 2   Come Rest Ministries’ 3 Day Rehoboth Wellsprings Gathering (Place TBD)

We thank each one of you for your continued financial support! We ask each supporter and

participant to ask the Lord how much He wants you to give regularly to Him for His work

through Come Rest. Ask your church to consider Come Rest in their mission giving. We

are indeed a unique ministry to the Body of Christ and beyond! We pray for more people

benefiting from this ministry giving more money more regularly as He leads!

Blessings,

Dick and Kim Speight

***********************************************

Come Rest January 2015 Response

___My prayer request is__________________________________________________

___Yes, Lord! I will make my life Your Resting Place in 2015!

___Yes, Lord! I will pray for Come Rest Ministries.

___Yes, Lord! I will financially support Come Rest Ministries.

Today’s gift $______________

___Yes, Lord! I have enclosed $100 for the “COME REST” Reprint Fund.

___Please send me ____copie(s) of the “REAL FRUIT”

                        1/$18; 2/30; 5/$60. $4 ship for 1 plus $1 per additional copy

___I will cast seeds in my city by giving away REAL FRUIT as the Holy Spirit leads!

            ___Send me 10 copies for $100 plus $10 ship. 

___Please send me __copie(s) of Come Rest CD 1 “Meditations with Dick Speight”

___Please send me __copie(s) of  Come Rest CD 2”Reflections on His Real Love”

            $8 each plus $2 ship; $12 for the set of 1&2 plus $3 ship.

Name__________________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________

Email__________________________________Phone___________________________

Face of Grace, Heart of Fire

Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face evermore! 1 Chronicles 16:11 NKJV

Dear local and global friends of Come Rest,

Last Friday many friends of Come Rest had an overwhelmingly powerful experience of the Lord’s presence at our first Awakening of Love worship gathering of 2015.  As per last week’s email, we declared 2015 to be His Year of His Rest for His People. He is igniting more hunger for His presence in His people worldwide. His answer for intimidation by the enemy is intimate victorious rest with Him!

Later in the evening our worship leader Deb Polk asked my wife Kim to read Isaiah 32. Kim felt suddenly led by the Spirit to begin singing the scriptures as the Spirit gave her a new tune. As Kim kept singing, Deb, vocalist Joy Mees, and violinist Bryce Christiansen began harmonizing in the Spirit. I got on my face and many others came forward and a hushed sense of awe came upon us all. We had a sense that the great cloud of witnesses and angelic hosts were drawing close. It was very precious, very deep, very loving.

This Wednesday I had a powerful encounter with Him in which the Holy Spirit led me to cry aloud, “Jesus, the desire of my life is to seek Your face in the light of Your flaming heart.”  With my eyes closed I saw His face lit up by flames coming out of His heart. Jesus’ face and Jesus fiery heart have long been two separate images through which He has drawn me close. Now the two images have been fused into one.

No matter how weak I am, He is strong in me to help me come up to Him and stay up in His face of grace, in His heart of love. I must seek His face evermore! I must spent much more time alone with Him in scripture, prayer, and praise-- and much less time with people. He wants me to give Him more time and space in my life so He can more thoroughly transform me. If I do this, then His concentrated Power will flow much more from me to people when I am with them. He wants me to spend more time writing in His presence. He wants to help more people come up into His presence through this next book.

He is waiting to show me things in the spiritual realm I have never seen before. He wants me to come up because He loves me. He wants me to come up so He can help other people through me—like never before. Please pray for me.

He is waiting for you, too. Because He loves you. Because He wants to touch people through you. Is the desire of your life to seek Jesus’ face in the light of His flaming heart? If so, let me know. I will pray for you. Ask Him to help you seek His face continually and you will be ignited by His flaming heart. Seek the Lord and His strength with me; seek His face ever…more!

Love and blessings,

Richard Speight

COME REST MINISTRIES’

2  Hour AWAKENING OF LOVE

FRIDAY, Jan. 16^th      630-830PM

Calvin-Sinclair Presbyterian, Cedar Rapids

Worship, teaching, testimonies, prayer.

                                             Bring a friend!     

Register at the door; freewill offering; refreshments.

******************************

Come Rest Ministries

Personal Retreat

Wednesday Jan. 21^st   9am-4pm

Rehoboth House 2125 Bever Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA

Requirements: Pen, bible, notebook, your copy of our book

REAL FRUIT, and your wholehearted desire to come rest in Jesus!

Cost: Freewill Offering plus $18 for book which may be purchased at retreat

Space Limited-- Lunch provided

Those interested must apply at jkadlec@ImOnMail.com.  

***************************************************

COME REST MINISTRIES’

AWAKENING OF LOVE

FRIDAY, FeB. 6^th      630-930pm

River of Life, Cedar Rapids

Worship, teaching, testimonies, prayer.

                                               Bring a friend!     

Register at the door; freewill offering; refreshments.

******************************

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Jan.16^th                         630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love @ Calvin-Sinclair, CR

Jan. 18^th            845am    Speights teaching Come Up/Secret Place Class at River of Life CR

6pm       Men’s & Women’s Wellsprings Covenant Groups at Rehoboth

                        7pm       I58 Cross-denominational House Fellowship at Rehoboth

Jan. 21^st            9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

Feb. 6^th             630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love@ River of Life, CR               

Feb. 18^th           9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

Feb. 20^th           630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love @ Calvin-Sinclair, CR

Mar. 6^th             630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love @River of Life, CR

Mar. 18^th           9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

***********************************************

Come Rest January 2015 Response

___My prayer request is__________________________________________________

___Yes, Lord! I will make my life Your Resting Place in 2015!

___Yes, Lord! I will pray for Come Rest Ministries.

___Yes, Lord! I will financially support Come Rest Ministries.

Today’s gift $______________

___Yes, Lord! I have enclosed $100 for the “COME REST” Reprint Fund.

___Please send me ____copie(s) of the “REAL FRUIT”

                        1/$18; 2/30; 5/$60. $4 ship for 1 plus $1 per additional copy

___I will cast seeds in my city by giving away REAL FRUIT as the Holy Spirit leads!

            ___Send me 10 copies for $100 plus $10 ship. 

___Please send me __copie(s) of Come Rest CD 1 “Meditations with Dick Speight”

___Please send me __copie(s) of  Come Rest CD 2”Reflections on His Real Love”

            $8 each plus $2 ship; $12 for the set of 1&2 plus $3 ship.

Name__________________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________

Email__________________________________Phone___________________________

Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Come Rest Ministries

P.O. Box 11010

Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52410

319-213-5684

www.comerestministries.com

2015: Rhetoric or Rest?

2015: Rhetoric or Rest?

Thus says the Lord:

“Heaven is My throne,
And earth is My footstool.
Where is the house that you will build Me?
And where is the place of My rest?
² For all those things My hand has made,
And all those things exist,”
Says the Lord.
“But on this one will I look:
On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit,
And who trembles at My word.

Isaiah 66:1-2 NKJV

During Christmas, we saw that God gave chapter 9 to Isaiah to promise the future salvation of the world through a child who would be born as Emmanuel, God-with-us. God mercifully spoke this and Isaiah faithfully declared this even though restless, rebellious, idolatrous Israel was about to be carried off into ruinous exile. Then Lord gave the final chapter 66 to Isaiah with a pointed question and answer that forever has present application for each would-be believer in our restless, rebellious, idolatrous times. 

You notice I said “pointed question”, not “rhetorical” question. A rhetorical question is a literary device to make a point, but not expecting an answer. In Isaiah 66 the Lord is making a particular point because He wants us to make something particular of our lives.

Right now, January 2015, the Lord is asking, “Where is the house, the resting place you will build Me?”  He is expecting an answer—right now.

He wants you and I to build Him a house upon which His Holy Spirit Presence will rest. It will not be made of things—but of people. His house is the family of believers who have been truly saved by Jesus. His Resting Place is when His family truly  honors, loves, trusts, and obeys Jesus.

His resting place is wherever people are living with Jesus and each other in three inseparable ways. They humble themselves—truly  submitted before Him and each other; they are contrite—truly sorrowful and joyful in turning away from sin; they tremble at His Word--truly believing and behaving according to Scripture with the help of His powerful Holy Spirit as they witness to a lost world.

The Lord never wastes words. He is not asking these “where” questions for His health—but ours. He is not given us a bunch of rhetoric, He is offering bountiful rest. But He is looking for our answers, our action. He doesn’t want rhetoric from us any longer. I can’t do it for you. You can’t do it for me. He’s waiting to help us both. I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of not fully resting in His love. I’m tired of the body of Christ not being His resting place. I yearn for it. I burn for it. If I desire all this, as deficient as I am--Can you imagine how much He yearns and burns for us to fully and finally sell out to Him? That’s not a rhetorical question either.

A Declaration In Jesus for His House, His Rest, His People, His Harvest

I now declare my deficiency and His sufficiency! Join me.

In the name of Jesus, with the power of His precious blood, I declare 2015 The Year of His Rest.

Many will leave self-defeating sluggishness & enter His self-sacrificial victorious rest!

Many will resist fruitless intimidation and rest in fruitful intimacy with Him!

Many will kneel down before Him, & remain down before each other, as His way to come up into the Secret Place of His Face.

He will help many to build their lives into HIS RESTING PLACE!

The Holy Spirit will come rest upon the household of Jesus and many of the lost will come rest in Jesus’ saving arms!

So be it! Amen!

Love and blessings,

Richard Speight

Come to Me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

Come Rest Ministries

P.O. Box 11010

Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52410

319-213-5684

www.comerestministries.com

COME REST MINISTRIES’

AWAKENING OF LOVE

FRIDAY, Jan. 9^th      630-930pm

River of Life, Cedar Rapids

Worship, teaching, testimonies, prayer.

                                                             Bring a friend!     

Register at the door; freewill offering; refreshments.

******************************

Come Rest Ministries

Personal Retreat

Wednesday Jan. 21^st   9am-4pm

Rehoboth House 2125 Bever Ave SE, Cedar Rapids, IA

Requirements: Pen, bible, notebook, your copy of our book

REAL FRUIT, and your wholehearted desire to come rest in Jesus!

Cost: Freewill Offering plus $18 for book which may be purchased at retreat

Space Limited-- Lunch provided

Those interested must apply at jkadlec@ImOnMail.com.  

***************************************************

COME REST MINISTRIES’

AWAKENING OF LOVE

FRIDAY, Jan. 16^th      630-930PM

Calvin-Sinclair Presbyterian, Cedar Rapids

Worship, teaching, testimonies, prayer.

                                                             Bring a friend!     

Register at the door; freewill offering; refreshments.

******************************

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Jan. 9    630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love@ River of Life, CR               

Jan. 11  845am    Speights teaching Come Up/Secret Place Class at River of Life CR

6pm       Men’s & Women’s Wellsprings Covenant Groups at Rehoboth

            7pm       I58 Cross-denominational House Fellowship at Rehoboth

Jan.16^th 630pm    Come Rest Awakening of Love @ Calvin-Sinclair, CR

Jan. 21  9am-4pm Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

***********************************************

Come Rest January 2015 Response

___My prayer request is__________________________________________________

___Yes, Lord! I will make my life Your Resting Place in 2015!

___Yes, Lord! I will pray for Come Rest Ministries.

___Yes, Lord! I will financially support Come Rest Ministries.

Today’s gift $______________

___Yes, Lord! I have enclosed $100 for the “COME REST” Reprint Fund.

___Please send me ____copie(s) of the “REAL FRUIT”

                        1/$18; 2/30; 5/$60. $4 ship for 1 plus $1 per additional copy

___I will cast seeds in my city by giving away REAL FRUIT as the Holy Spirit leads!

            ___Send me 10 copies for $100 plus $10 ship. 

___Please send me __copie(s) of Come Rest CD 1 “Meditations with Dick Speight”

___Please send me __copie(s) of  Come Rest CD 2”Reflections on His Real Love”

            $8 each plus $2 ship; $12 for the set of 1&2 plus $3 ship.

Name__________________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________

Email__________________________________Phone___________________________

New Year Word

The sluggard says, “There is a lion in the road!  There is a lion in the streets!” As a door turns on its hinges, so does a sluggard on his bed.  Proverbs 26:13-14  (ESV)

Dear friends of Come Rest,

Just a brief, but clear, word for you all to begin 2015. Believe with Kim and I that this will be the year of your complete victory over your fear and the enemy’s intimidation. No matter how messed up life seems, you will draw ever closer and come up even higher into His presence and plan for your life. Whatever has threatened you in the past will have no power over you. Jesus will help you stay face to face with Him like never before. You will be His bold witness speaking His truth with His love like never before.

Here is what I hear Him saying in my heart, “The Lion in you is greater than the lion out in the street. I am the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. No longer let anything intimidate you into sluggishness. Let My Spirit lead you into My victorious rest. The antidote for intimidation is intimacy with Me! All that I have is yours; you have nothing to prove; let Me help you do things My way!”

I commend these words to all of you as we begin 2015. Come rest in His love and bear His real fruit! Come up into His heart and do not settle for anything less than Him and His way of life; let Him teach you in 2015 to stay face to face with Him in the secret place in every present moment of each precious day He gives you.

Thank you so much for your continued participation, prayer, and financial support for Come Rest Ministries. We anticipate an abundantly fruitful year in Jesus’ name.

Kim and I love and bless you all.

Happy New Year 2015!

Dick Speight

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Jan. 4               845am               Sandy Hagen teaching Come Up/Secret Place Class at River of Life CR

           10am & 6pm     Speights teaching on prayer @ Gospel Open Bible Church in Jefferson, Iowa  10AM & 6PM

           1030am             Pastor Christian & Amanda Shields invite friends of Come Rest to join in the 1^st anniversary celebration of their new Christian Life Church at

old Lincoln School in Cedar Rapids

6pm                 Men’s & Women’s Wellsprings Covenant Groups at Duane Mclean’s home 1668 13th St NW, CR319-899-0315

                        7pm                 I58 Cross-denominational House Fellowship at Mclean’s(Ellis to O; O to 13^th; north on 13^th to end of block)

Jan. 9               630-930            Come Rest Awakening of Love@ River of Life, CR

Jan. 21              9am-4pm          Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

***********************************************

Come Rest New Years 2014 Response Form

___My prayer request is__________________________________________________

___Yes, Lord! I will pray for Come Rest Ministries.

___Yes, Lord! I will financially support Come Rest Ministries.

Today’s gift $______________

Thus Far

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” 1 Samuel 7:12 NKJV

What anticipation. A December afternoon in 1965. When Dad came home from work as diesel railroad machinist, both parents would take my little brother and me Christmas shopping in bustling downtown Omaha. It was a big deal. We normally shopped in our much smaller hometown of Council Bluffs just across the Missouri River, the Mighty Mo’. Mom was seeking a particular gift for her sister only found at the massive downtown Brandeis store(to Omaha what Macy’s was to New York.). What’s more, after shopping we would return home to watch Mister Magoo’s Christmas Carol. It was a big deal and already a cherished tradition as the first Christmas television cartoon special in 1962 that paved the way for Charlie Brown and others in American pop culture. Watching Magoo play Dickens’ Scrooge was the first time I heard the name “Ebenezer.” 

When we arrived at the store Mom set off on her quest. Dad let us fully in as co-conspirators in his shopping plans for Mom. We were thrilled as we secretly patrolled on mission with him throughout various departments, while keeping a lookout for Mom. From then on, joining one parent in their search for just the right gift for the other parent became one of my most cherished Christmas traditions. As I reflect on it now, it wasn’t the shopping for the item that I enjoyed the most—it was the shopping for the person. As we traversed the aisles I listened to the way Dad delightfully described his bride as the most beautiful woman in the world. He always said she reminded him of the actress Ava Gardner. He gave examples why she was such a faithful wife, mother, and registered nurse. I watched the way Dad precisely pursued the right sizes, colors, textures, and functions of the gift—all for the purpose of showing her how much He loved her. Dad didn’t always get the right size or the right color, but we always saw the same look in Mom’s eyes on Christmas morning. She loved and delighted in Dad always, even if he never gave her another gift. Yet she also knew that every gift she did receive from her bridegroom was a sacrificial labor of passionate love for her.

I get teased sometimes by other men because I love to shop for Kim, love to shop for my loved ones—whether for gifts or for groceries—just like my Dad. But I notice that women do not tease me. Every woman, every person, whether they are aware or not, longs to be cherished sacrificially. It is the case for you and for me. Jesus is just the person for the job. Let Him do it. Let Him love you passionately and precisely at your deepest need this Christmas. Cry out to Him in your pain. Pour out your praise and thanksgiving to Him for dying on the cross for you to save you from hell. Read scripture and listen deeply to what He is saying to you. Ask Him to give you more of His heart of love to passionately and precisely cherish the people in your immediate sphere of influence. In all your relationships with family, friend, or foe--I beg you to come up into His supernatural flow of love in each present moment. He is always right there with us, Emmanuel. Let your Helper help you.

This brings me to the name “Ebenezer.” Ebenezer means “stone of help.” Samuel set up a stone between Mizpah and Shen as an act of praise, thanksgiving, and remembrance for God’s people at a particularly crucial time. Mizpah can be translated “watchtower” and Shen can be “change.” They had forgotten their God, their Helper, who had delivered them from Egypt and brought them to the promised land. Instead, they embraced the idolatry and sexual immorality of the cultures around them. They were weary and heavy laden from the consequences of their sin and oppressed and harassed by their enemies. They came to Samuel whom God had mercifully raised up to watch over them. They asked him to pray for them. He prophesied and called them to destroy their Baal statues and Ashteroth poles and come back to the Lord and find mercy and rest in obedience to the His commands. And they did! They could no longer stand defenselessly squeezed between their own sin against God and their enemies against them. Join me in praying for America and modern day Israel, that both nations will turn from all idolatrous immorality and come rest in Jesus’ truth and love. Let it begin with you and me. Let this moment, this Christmas 2014 season, be a true Ebenezer time between you and the Lord. Come up into His watchtower and change! Let Him help you stop sinning and start shining.

The first step is always turning your eyes upon Jesus. Meditate upon who He is and what He has done for you thus far.  It’s interesting to me that Charles Dickens named his character “Ebenezer Scrooge.” Scrooge comes from an old English word meaning “squeeze”—as in Scrooge miserly squeezing money out of every moment and person.  So, literally, “Ebenezer Scrooge” can mean “The Stone of Help Squeezed”. Guess who that is?

Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures: “The stone that the builders rejected has become the conrnerstone; this was the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in our eyes?’ Matthew 21:42 ESV

The night before Jesus died on the cross for you and me, He prayed in agony in the garden of Gethsemane, which means “olive press”. Near that garden was a press which would extract the first cold virgin pressings of the olive fruit from the trees. He placed Himself into the press between the weight of the world’s sin and hellish destiny on one side; and the prospect of torturous death and  temptation to avoid it, on the other.

And being in agony, he was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood falling down upon the ground. Matthew 26:44 ESV

The next day He took all the wrath for our sin upon Himself, all our iniquities, all our diseases. He paid the price in full. He was dead as a door nail, and on the third day was raised. Then He sent the Holy Spirit—the first pressing of oil from His pure sacrifice—the Helper. He knit you together in your mother’s womb,  helped someone pray for you, testify to you, invite you to receive Jesus, He actually helped you give your life to Christ, and He has preserved you through great trials and protected you from untold calamities up to this moment—thus far.  And no matter how you may feel “squeezed” by the pressures of living in this sinful, fearful world as you read this—the One who entered the “olive press” for you is passionately and precisely pursuing everything for your best right now. This Christmas, will He see the look of absolute love in your eye for Him-- like my Dad saw in my Mom’s eye—whether he got the size right or not? Pause for just a moment…think about it…if He never did one more thing for you…if nothing else ever went right for you in this life…wouldn’t it be enough that He saved you from hell? The Holy Spirit is your oil of gladness. Let Him burn bright through praise, scripture, prayer, and grateful sacrificial giving of yourself for others. You are part of Jesus’ Bride. You are absolutely beautiful to Him. It’s a mystery, but we are all foremost on His mind at the same time. He’s always working, watch, waiting to help you now. Let Him. Love Him. Love others from His heart within you. That’s all He wants for Christmas. Come up and know Him better. The Helper has a wonderful adventure planned for you. The Bridegroom returns. What anticipation!

Kim and I thank the Lord Jesus, and each of you, for helping us thus far!

Merry Christmas! 

Mighty Christ sends us forth in 2015 to invite the world to come rest in His love.

God bless us every one!

Dick and Kim Speight

319-213-5684  

www.comerestministries.com   

kimspeight@comerestministries.com

Upcoming

Dec. 19             630-930pm   Come Rest Carols and Party @ CR Calvin-Sinclair Presbyterian

Dec. 21 & 28     845am          Come Up!/Secret Place Class at CR River of Life

                         6pm               Men’s & Women’s Wellsprings Covenant Groups at Rehoboth(2125 Bever Ave SE, CR)

                        7pm                 I58 Cross-denominational House Fellowship at Rehoboth             

Jan. 4                10am & 6pm     Speights teaching on prayer @ Open Bible in Jefferson, Iowa  AM & PM services

                        6pm                 Men’s & Women’s Wellsprings Covenant Groups at Duane Mclean’s home 1668 13th St NW, CR319-899-0315)

                        7pm                 I58 Cross-denominational House Fellowship at Mclean’s(Ellis to O; O to 13^th; north on 13^th to end of block)

Jan. 9               630-930            Come Rest Awakening of Love@ River of Life, CR

Jan. 21              9am-4pm          Come Rest Personal Retreat; apply at jkadlec@imonmail.com

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Come Rest Christmas 2014 Response Form

___My prayer request is__________________________________________________

___Yes, Lord! I will pray for Come Rest Ministries.

___Yes, Lord! I will financially support Come Rest Ministries.

Today’s gift $______________

___Yes, Lord! I have enclosed $100 for the “COME REST” Reprint Fund.

___Please send me ____copie(s) of the “REAL FRUIT”

                        1/$18; 2/30; 5/$60. $4 ship for 1 plus $1 per additional copy

___I will cast seeds in my city by giving away REAL FRUIT as the Holy Spirit leads!

            ___Send me 10 copies for $100 plus $10 ship. 

___Please send me __copie(s) of Come Rest CD 1 “Meditations with Dick Speight”

___Please send me __copie(s) of  Come Rest CD 2”Reflections on His Real Love”

            $8 each plus $2 ship; $12 for the set of 1&2 plus $3 ship.

Name__________________________________________________________________

Address_________________________________________________________________

Email__________________________________Phone___________________________