Do not join those who drink too much wine or gorge themselves on meat, for drunkards and gluttons become poor, and drowsiness clothes them in rags. Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. "They hit me," you will say, "but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?"
O God, do not keep silent; be not quiet, O God, be not still. See how your enemies are astir, how your foes rear their heads. With cunning they conspire against your people; they plot against those you cherish. "Come," they say, "let us destroy them as a nation, that the name of Israel be remembered no more." With one mind they plot together; they form an alliance against you--
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin
"His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'
I lift up my eyes to the hills-- where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. He will not let your foot slip-- he who watches over you will not slumber; indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The LORD watches over you-- the LORD is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD will keep you from all harm-- he will watch over your life; the LORD will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be on guard! Be alert! You do not know when that time will come.
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this.
"The most important one," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'
The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."
[Article at IndyGeek.net -- by David Szpunar @Dszp]
For those working with Information Technology in churches, it’s easy to feel isolated and alone, trying to figure out what the best technology solutions are (and how to afford them!), how to best support your staff, recruit and manage volunteers, and figure out how to communicate your needs and solutions to leadership and users in ways they understand, go along with, and fund. Most churches have either a volunteer IT staff, a paid staff member who does IT as part of their job, or perhaps one full-time IT position. If you’re really large and fortunate, you may have a small team of two or more to support your environment, creating some camaraderie, but it’s still easy to feel alone, isolated and seldom understood.
Fortunately, Jason Powell, the IT Director at Granger Community Church (GCC) in Granger, Indiana felt that way himself several years ago, and decided to do something about it: he started blogging. The online community created by Jason’s blog led him to invite other church IT folks to GCC and have a “roundtable” discussion to see if they could benefit from sharing with each other. This was the first official Church IT Roundtable (CITRT), a term that now encompasses an unofficial group of people, discussions and community that connect from around the US and even the world so no one has to “go it alone.”
Roundtables are generally held a couple of times a year. The most recent Roundtable was held at Saddleback Church in Foothill Ranch, CA on March 10th through 12th. Approximately 75 people from churches around the country (and a small number of vendors) attended.
On Wednesday night, officially the optional “pre-roundtable” dinner, old friends and new ones gathered for some excellent dinner provided by the on-campus foodservices at Saddleback and some even more excellent socialization. Sharing technology and technique are excuses to have a... [continued at IndyGeek.net]
Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.
"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.
And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.
To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen" [From I Peter 5]
The Book of Acts shows how revival and church growth comes, not by human effort but through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that worked with the Apostles is the same Holy Spirit that is currently at work in the church and is within you.
Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” .
Then, the Apostle Peter spoke to the crowd and about 3000 people accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.
The Spirit of God was poured out on the people and revival started in the early church. Acts 2:41, “41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”
Luke 17:20-21, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”
It is possible to be right next to God and miss Him. Just like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. They were the “Religious” people of the day. The very person that they have been studying about all their lives was right in front of them and missed Him. It interesting that the demoniacs, those who were considered unclean, the drunkards and the prostitutes knew Jesus right away. See Matthew 8:28-29
That’s because they rejected the teachings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They studied the Scriptures but they did not have personal relationship with Jesus. That’s what religion do to people. They become experts and scholars of the Word but they miss the point…relationship with Jesus. Many times, we are motivated by religion rather than having relationship with God and with others.
This is what we teach our people at FHL. Relationship with God and with others-the TWO Greatest Commandments-Loving God and Loving others.
James 2:14-19, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?…”
Most of Jesus’ ministry on earth was spent outside the temple and in the marketplace. He was constantly in the streets preaching the Good News and demonstrating the love of God to others. This is what we teach in FHL. It’s more than just proclamation but also demonstration of the Kingdom of God. [Read More in the FHL March “Revival Begins With You” eZine Vol.5,No.1]
Partner with FHL in our next Fundraiser on EventBrite!
March 24, 2010 join FHL for “A Lifestyle of Unconditional Love”
Luncheon Info: Only a few seats are available; please reserve yours by March 19th!
FHL Week 2010: ‘A Lifestyle of Unconditional Love’ with an Invite by Crossroads Baptist Association
FHL International kicks off FHL Week 2010 planning meetings for the city of Indianapolis and outlying areas! Doug Pennington of the Crossroads Baptist Association wants to personally invite you to partner with FHL. Watch: FHL Video
Coalition Calls Church Out... 'Love Your Neighbor'
Coalition Issues Call to the Church for a New Depth of “Loving Your Neighbor” by Susan Brill, Director of Communications, Mission America Coalition
Two Joint Gatherings of Evangelism Leaders Held in Birmingham
Palm Desert, Calif., March 9 -- The Mission America Coalition issued a call to churches and Christians across America last week for a “prayer-care-share approach” to “loving their neighbors to Christ.”
“We need a new surge of evangelism and discipleship in America,” Dr. Paul Cedar, chairman of the Coalition, said in an interview at the group’s annual gathering in Birmingham, Ala. last week. “The average evangelical Christian in America has such a resistance to being involved in evangelism. I’m convinced that fear, not wrong motive, is the major factor. They are just afraid.”
Cedar addressed the group of 300 who gathered for two joint meetings in Birmingham - “Convergence,” the National City Impact Roundtable, and “Accelerate 2010,” the MAC annual gathering. He emphasized that evangelism is not work that we do, but the work of the Holy Spirit. “There is this mysterious wooing and drawing and convicting of the Holy Spirit,” he said, “And we just need to make ourselves available.”
The method Cedar put forth for “making ourselves available,” is the prayer-care-share lifestyle. MAC wants to “blow the trumpet” to call and encourage churches and ministries to adopt a “prayer-care-share lifestyle,” Cedar says. This natural method of outreach can alleviate some of the fear believers have about sharing their faith, he advocates, because it relies on the Holy Spirit, not on the believer, to come up with the best way to minister or reach out to someone. The method begins with prayer alone.
“If you can get Christians to really start praying for even a small list of three to five people,” Cedar explained, “then as they pray, that gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to get them to the next step. Then they are prepared to begin to love them and to care for them.”
The third facet of this lifestyle is “share” - sharing the gospel. While “the gospel always comes down to a verbal message” Cedar says, it doesn’t mean that those who are praying for and caring about someone will share the gospel one on one. The “share” part of this lifestyle could mean inviting someone to a church service or an evangelistic event where they can hear the gospel message, or sharing a book or movie that present the gospel, or many other means. The point is for the one praying to look for opportunities the Holy Spirit opens up, Cedar says.
Cedar said he and his wife Jeannie are amazed at the “mature” Christians they meet who have not caught the vision for beginning to pray for lost people. “That is the key,” Cedar said. “The right place to put the oar in the water...is to get them to start praying for lost people.”
In his plenary session delivered on Wednesday, Cedar issued a call for a new emphasis on loving one’s neighbors to Christ to the 300 gathered. He presented a working paper for feedback and response. The group responded positively, Rev. Phil Miglioratti, MAC’s COO, reported, “Everybody - 100 percent of the people there - resonated with the need to call the Church to love our neighbor at an even more authentic level than we are doing it now. At no point was there disagreement for the Church to seek God for a ‘Compassion Revolution’” he said, using the term some had begun to call the movement during the discussions.
According to Miglioratti, “Researchers Dave Olson (America Church Research Project) and David Kinnaman (Barna Group) gave compelling evidence that the Church is struggling yet filled with signs of hope. Nothing less than a compassion revolution of Christians loving their neighbors and neighborhoods will accelerate the Great Commission in this next decade.”
Held in conjunction with Accelerate 2010, was Convergence, the National City Impact Roundtable. The two events shared several sessions. Convergence addressed four streams of cityreaching - Christians collaborating in evangelism and discipleship to reach their city/community for Christ. George Otis, of The Sentinel Group, addressed “presence-based cityreaching” in Monday’s opening session. “Transforming revival is a pleasant byproduct of believers who are passionately seeking God’s intimate company for it’s own sake,” Otis offered.
The marketplace stream of cityreaching was represented by a panel of four leaders in marketplace ministry who shared what God is doing in each of their ministries and fielded questions from the audience.
“We don’t need more faith and evangelistic efforts...in the workplace,” posed panelist Steve Capper of Mission Houston, “The saints need to be equipped for their works of service in every place they live, work and play….the Church in and through the workplace, connected and functioning in obedience to the Lord.” Other panelists included Brad Fieldhouse (The Barnabas Group), Kent Humphreys (Christian Companies for Christ, Int.), and Bob Varney (Campus Crusade for Christ).
Dr. John Perkins spoke to the community development stream of cityreaching and also gave the opening plenary for Accelerate 2010, when the two gatherings joined together. Perkins said the only remedy to the problems of our culture is God and His Church. “We are sitting at an opportune moment of greatness. And greatness has to do with people seeing the pain and the agony and entering into that pain and agony,” he said. He challenged participants to go where they see the most hurt in their communities to expand their compassion.
Melisa Pearson from Idaho welcomed that challenge. She said she is looking forward to going back to Boise, gathering statistics about the hurting needs in her community, and praying over where God would have her start working. “I want to be able to step into where that pain is and be willing to be vulnerable to allow Christ to flow through me to love them and meet them in their need,” she said.
The fourth stream of cityreaching - evangelism - was held in conjunction with MAC’s session with Dr. Paul Cedar speaking on the prayer-care-share lifestyle, and the closing NCIR session addressed the convergence of these streams.
Jarvis Ward, of the NCIR lead team and a national facilitator for MAC repeated one of the group’s analogies about convergence: “When two rivers collide, the nutrients come to the surface...and you’ve got some of your best fishing ever,” he explained. “That is what we’re about - as we converge, that we would see in our cities the best fishing ever for the souls of young and old.”
“We hope we will see an increased number of cityreaching movements around the country as a result of this,” Ward said. “Our vision is to try to have a cityreaching movement in every city of 10,000 or more - that’s about 2,500 cities in the United States.”
Participants engaged in frequent roundtable discussions during speaker presentations, and a number of cityreaching groups took the stage throughout the event to talk about the work going on in their cities and share best practices.
“A lot of times cityreaching people get so focused on their local area, they get discouraged because they don’t see things progressing,” said participant Kathy Pipal from Boise, Idaho. “It really helps to see what God is doing in other places....Just networking with the people here is well worth it because you get so many ideas.”
Alaina Brake from Akron Ohio agreed. “It’s a great way to network and to build partnerships with other people, especially for the young folks,” she offered. “So I can bring home to Akron Ohio...that even though we’re young, we can do big things.”
Both groups held a reception together for Dr. Perkins Tuesday evening honoring his 80th birthday and his 50 years of ministry pioneering Christian community development. MAC presented Dr. Perkins with a plaque and a collection of letters from participants thanking him for his work for the Kingdom of God.
For information about promoting a prayer-care-share lifestyle in your church or ministry, go to http://www.missionamerica.org. For more information about City Impact Roundtables, go to http://www.cityreaching.com.
The Mission America Coalition is a network of national church leaders, representing denominations, ministries, and other key Christian leaders with a shared vision to collaborate in prayer, evangelism, and revival. Since its inception, leaders from 81 denominations, over 400 ministries and dozens of ministry networks have been involved in the Coalition. Mrs. Vonette Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ), Dr. Billy Graham (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), and Dr. John Perkins (Christian Community Development Association) serve as honorary co-chairs.
City Impact Roundtables (CIRs) are interactive gatherings of cityreachers held regionally and nationally to build relationships among cityreachers, share Kingdom-sized vision for holistic evangelism and revival, and pray together for united ministry throughout the Body of Christ.
"And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as it is this day.
Our #CommTeam is researching what our pastors & ministry leaders actually want & need here in our Indianapolis area, please help get the word out re this easy-but-insightful 5-question survey. We need all the feedback we can get. "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry."
Spread the word. And thanks in advance! Getting good at LISTENING should be one of the most significant contributions to the Great Commission that a citywide Christian communications team could make.
That you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sin
"And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain,
for the former things have passed away."
"This is what the LORD Almighty says: 'In a little while I will once more shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land. I will shake all nations, and the desired of all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,' says the LORD Almighty. 'The silver is mine and the gold is mine,' declares the LORD Almighty. 'The glory of this present house will be greater than the glory of the former house,' says the LORD Almighty. 'And in this place I will grant peace,' declares the LORD Almighty."
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"If
you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from
his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion,
then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one
in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but
in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not
only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus..." (Philippians
2)
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