MSM CONNECTIONS
For the week of 01/16/05
The Men’s Ministry e-mail newsletter of
Our mission: Our mission is to lead men to
Jesus Christ and provide opportunity for
Christian men to grow in their faith
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MSM CONNECTIONS is the opt-in newsletter for the men
of New Joy Divine Full Gospel Church. It's a periodic service that helps
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"Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him? For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen." Romans 11:33-36 (NIV)
CONSIDER
"All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors." John Calvin (1509-1564), The Institutes of the Christian Religion [1559]
SANCTITY OF HUMAN LIFE SUNDAY
January 22, 2005, marks 32 years since the U.S. Supreme Court handed down Roe vs. Wade and Doe vs. Bolton legalizing abortion. These two decisions rocked the foundation of life saying that a mother's right to "choose" overwhelmed an innocent child's right to live. Each year, thousands of churches dedicate a Sunday in January as Sanctity of Human Life Sunday (Jan. 23). In the last 32 years, the scope of the issue has broadened as stem cell research, euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, and chemical and partial-birth abortion have become part of the discussion.
http://www.family.org/pregnancy/
JANUARY DATES
January 20 - Inauguration of U.S. president and vice president (Washington, DC)
http://www.infoplease.com/spot/inaug1.html
January 22 - Hula Bowl (Maui, HI)
QUESTIONS TO ASK THIS NEW YEAR
by Don Whitney
Once, when the people of God had become careless in their relationship with him, the Lord rebuked them through the prophet Haggai. "Consider your ways!" (Haggai 1:5, NAS) he declared, urging them to reflect on some of the things happening to them and to evaluate their slipshod spirituality in light of what God had told them. Even those most faithful to God occasionally need to pause and think about the direction of their lives. It's so easy to bump along from one busy week to another without ever stopping to ponder where we're going and where we should be going. The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up and get our bearings. For starters, here are 10 questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God:
1. What's one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What's the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen our church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What's the most important way you will, by God's grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in 10 years? In eternity? In addition to these questions, here are 21 more to help you "Consider your ways." Think on the entire list at one sitting, or answer one question each day for a month.
11. What's the most important decision you need to make this year?
12. What area of your life most needs simplifying, and what's one way you could simplify in that area?
13. What's the most important need you feel burdened to meet this year?
14. What habit would you most like to establish this year?
15. Who do you most want to encourage this year?
16. What is your most important financial goal this year, and what is the most important step you can take toward achieving it?
17. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your work life this year?
18. What's one new way you could be a blessing to your pastor (or to another who ministers to you) this year?
19. What's one thing you could do this year to enrich the spiritual legacy you will leave to your children and grandchildren?
20. What book, in addition to the Bible, do you most want to read this year?
21. What one thing do you most regret about last year, and what will you do about it this year?
22. What single blessing from God do you want to seek most earnestly this year?
23. In what area of your life do you most need growth, and what will you do about it this year?
24. What's the most important trip you want to take this year?
25. What skill do you most want to learn or improve this year?
26. To what need or ministry will you try to give an unprecedented amount this year?
27. What's the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your commute this year?
28. What one biblical doctrine do you most want to understand better this year, and what will you do about it?
29. If those who know you best gave you one piece of advice, what would they say? Would they be right? What will you do about it?
30. What's the most important new item you want to buy this year?
31. In what area of your life do you most need change, and what will you do about it this year?
You might want to put these questions someplace -- in a day planner, PDA, calendar, bulletin board, etc. -- where you can review them more frequently than once a year.
http://www.SpiritualDisciplines.org/newsletter.html
UPDATE YOUR SOFTWARE
If you run Microsoft programs on your PC, be sure to download the latest free security patches at
http://www.microsoft.com/security
VERSE TO PONDER
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
THE YOKE
"Did you ever stop to ask what a yoke is really for? Is it to be a burden to the animal which wears it? It is just the opposite: it is to make its burden light. Attached to the oxen in any other way than by a yoke, the plow would be intolerable; worked by means of a yoke, it is light. A yoke is not an instrument of torture; it is an instrument of mercy. It is not a malicious contrivance for making work hard; it is a gentle device to make hard labor light. [Christ] knew the difference between a smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good one... The rough yoke galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke caused no pain, and the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted harness was a misery; the well fitted collar was "easy." And what was the "burden"? It was not some special burden laid upon the Christian, some unique infliction that they alone must bear. It was what all men bear: it was simply life, human life itself, the general burden of life which all must carry with them from the cradle to the grave. Christ saw that men took life painfully. To some it was a weariness, to others failure, to many a tragedy, to all a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of life had been the whole world's problem. And here is Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life as I take it. Look at it from my point of view. Interpret it upon my principles. Take my yoke and learn of me, and you will find it easy. For my yoke Is easy, sits right upon the shoulders, and therefore my burden is light." Henry Drummond (1851-1897), "Pax Vobiscum"
BASIC BIBLE DOCTRINE
III. How can we describe God?
God has many perfect characteristics (attributes).
A. God has incommunicable attributes (characteristics belonging only to God).
1. Self-existence (John 5:26).
2. Immutability (Psalm 102:25-27; Ex.3:14; James 1:17) - God does not change His essence or plan.
3. Infinity
a. Eternality - Infinite in time (Ps.90:2)
b. Omnipresence - Infinite in space (Ps.139:7-11)
4. Holiness - The absence of evil and presence of purity (Lev.11:44; John 17:11; 1 John 1:5 - "light")
B. God has communicable attributes (characteristics found in a limited degree in man).
1. Attributes of Intellect
a. Omniscience - God knows all things actual and potential (Ps.139:16; Matt. 11:21).
b. All-wise - God acts upon His knowledge to always do what is infinitely best (Rom.11:33-36).
2. Attributes of Emotion
a. God is Love - God is incomprehensibly active for our good (1 John 4:8).
b. Grace - unmerited favor (Eph.2:8)
c. Mercy - concern, compassion (James 5:11)
d. Long suffering - self-restrained when provoked (2 Peter 3:9,15)
e. God is just - God is perfectly righteous and exact in His dealings with man (Ps.19:9).
3. Attributes of Will
a. Omnipotence (Job 42:2) God is able to do anything He wills. He will not do anything against His nature (sin) or anything that is logically self-contradictory.
b. Sovereignty (2 Chron.29:11,12) God is the final authority - the ruler over all the affairs of the universe. He may choose to let some things happen according to natural laws He put in place.
http://www.bible.org/page.asp?page_id=176
Also see What Is God Really Like?
http://www.pastors.com/article.asp?ArtID=7735
LEADERSHIP TIPS
(BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE)
For leaders, communication is critical. Listen, consult, involve, explain why as well as what needs to be done. Some leaders lead by example and are very 'hands on'; others are more distanced and let their people do it. Whatever -- your example is paramount -- the way you work and conduct yourself will be the most you can possibly expect from your people. If you set low standards you are to blame for low standards in your people.
http://www.alanchapman.com/leadership.htm
WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY
by Jeff Adams
10/40 is not a tax form. It's the largest window of opportunity for evangelism in human history. Located between 10º and 40º latitude north of the equator, from West Africa, across the Middle East, to India, China, and Southeast Asia, this window is home to 90% of the two billion unreached people on the planet today, one third of the world's population.
The window is one third of the earth's total landmass, yet four billion people live there in sixty-four countries. In a global village mindset, everyone is a neighbor. People inside this window are peering outside it, searching for hope. They have never heard that God loves them so much that he sacrificed his only son to pay the penalty for their sins. Instead they are enslaved to three major belief systems which offer no hope.
The heart of Islam lies in North Africa and the Middle East. Some 706 million people, 22% of the 3.6 billion living in the window are Muslims. More than 717 million, 23%, are Hindu. Almost 5%, 153 million are Buddhist. The diversity in the 10/40 window is staggering:
105,000,000 Turkic Peoples
16,000,000 East African Cushitics
14,000,000 North African Berbers
60,000,000 Kurdos Iranians
40,000,000 West African Muslims
121,000,000 Southern Chinese
74,000,000 Indo-Malay
80,000,000 Hindustani
800,000,000 Northern Chinese
60,000,000 Arabic
119,000,000 Asian Muslims
121,000,000 Indochinese
WHAT CAN I DO?
We can pray, daily. We can give. We can go. David Livingstone, who died in Africa rather than return to his native Scotland, said, "God had only one Son and he was a missionary."
http://www.assistnews.net/Stories/s05010018.htm
THE WORLD'S WORST NATURAL DISASTERS
http://www.exn.ca/Stories/1999/12/14/53.asp
RECONCILING RELIGIOUS FAITH AND NATURAL DISASTER
The world's major religions were affected by the tsunami -- Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, and Christians all suffered catastrophic losses. Members of different religions talk about how they reconcile human suffering with the idea of a caring God in this National Public Radio report by Barbara Bradley Hagerty.
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4276173
'BEFORE & AFTER' PHOTOS
Most look legit...but I cannot guarantee the source of these pictures. They may be 'urban legends.'
http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/2.html
AMERICAN COUNCIL FOR VOLUNTARY INTERNATIONAL ACTION is a
coordinating group that works with many relief agencies.
http://interaction.org/sasia/index.html
TSUNAMI WEBLOG
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/101/41.0.html
JUDGE RULES AGAINST TEXTBOOK EVOLUTION DISCLAIMERS
A federal judge rules that a Georgia county must remove stickers on science textbooks stating that evolution is "a theory, not a fact." Susanna Capelouto of Georgia Public Broadcasting reports.
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=4283234
VERSE TO PONDER
"For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." 2 Corinthians 4:6 (NIV)
CONSIDER
We rest on Thee, our shield and our defender!
Thine is the battle, Thine shall be the praise;
When passing through the gates of pearly splendor,
Victors, we rest with Thee, through endless days.
Edith Gilling Cherry (1872-1897)
THE WONDER OF GOD'S CREATION
For the last 20 years, a scientist at Oregon State University has used Gary Larson's cartoons as a teaching tool. The result has been a generation of students learning -- and laughing – about insects. If students can laugh about bugs, maybe they won't squash them, Professor Michael Burgett explains. Listen to this report and meditate on how wonderfully God created everything -- even bugs!
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4258512
THE 7 DEADLY SINS OF BIBLE STUDY AND HOW TO AVOID THEM
by Jack Kuhatschek
"A few years ago a friend showed me a prayer letter he had received in the mail. Inside were the following instructions: Take the prayer sheet I have sent you and write your name on it, and as you do, lay hands on it. We must have your prayer requests back from you so we can touch them and pray over them for "if any two agree touching anything, it shall be done."
"By misunderstanding the portion of Scripture in Matthew 18:19, the well-meaning Christian who wrote this letter hit a new low in biblical interpretation. The word "touching," which is so crucial to his viewpoint, does not even occur in the Greek text.
"Although a bit extreme, this example illustrates the unusual and sometimes amusing ways the Bible is interpreted and applied. One of my seminary professors, Howard Hendricks, once said, "Many applicational elephants dangle from interpretive threads!"
"To interpret and apply God's Word properly, we must be aware of what I call the "seven deadly sins" of Bible study. In this article we'll identify these "sins" and discover how to avoid them...."
Read this in full at
http://www.newmanmag.com/article.php?sid=568&mode=thread&order=0
CONSIDER
"It isn't the mountain ahead that wears you out - it's the grain of sand in your shoe." Robert Service
VERSE TO PONDER
"I will sing of your strength, in the morning I will sing of your love; for you are my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble." Psalm 59:16 (NIV)
THIS WEEK'S HYMN: AH, DEAREST JESUS
Words: Martin Luther, 1535
Music: Valentin Schumann, 1539)
Ah, dearest Jesus, holy Child,
Make Thee a bed, soft, undefiled
Within my heart, that it may be
A quiet chamber kept for Thee.
My heart for very joy doth leap,
My lips no more can silence keep;
I, too, must sing with joyful tongue
That sweetest ancient cradle song.
Glory to God in highest Heaven,
Who unto man His Son hath given;
While angels sing with tender mirth,
A glad new year to all the earth.
>from CyberHymnal at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/a/d/adearest.htm
GOD FAQ
Question 3: What is the Word of God?
Answer: The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the Word of God, the only rule of faith and obedience.
http://www.shortercatechism.com/
ON PRAYER
"I strongly suspect that if we saw all the difference even the tiniest of our prayers make, and all the people those little prayers were destined to affect, and all the consequences of those prayers down through the centuries, we would be so paralyzed with awe at the power of prayer that we would be unable to get up off our knees for the rest of our lives." Peter Kreeft, Professor of Philosophy, Boston College
PRAY FOR A COUNTRY TODAY
http://www.gmi.org/ow/index.html
DAILY BLESSING PACT
Use the following
list as your daily prayer guide. Think of a brother or situation that applies
and lift them up in prayer.
I am agreeing in
prayer with you for God’s blessings to overtake you!
PERSONAL
Marital harmony
Family unity
Children saved
Faithful pastor
Spirit-filled church
Real friendships
Relatives redeemed
Educational benefits
Recreational time
Fulfilling career
Favor with God and
man
Be in God’s will
FINANCIAL
Better Jobs
Raises or bonuses
Benefits
Sales &
commissions
Settlements
Estates &
inheritances
Investment increase
Rebates & returns
Checks in the mail
Gifts &
surprises
Money to be found
Bills decrease while
blessings increase
"And all
these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken
unto the voice of the Lord thy God" (Deut. 28:2).
PRAY FOR THESE BROTHERS
* Bro. Patrick Wilkerson
* Bro. Gerald Williams
* Bro. Needle Wilson
* Bro. Lester Yancey
* Elder Dalter Yarbrough
* Bro. Robert Allen
* Bro. Anton Johnson
* Apostle Aaron Royster
* Bro. Warren Baudy
* Bro. Raymond Jones
[As you travel on business or vacation, let me know if you'd like the church guys to pray for your safety and spiritual effectiveness. I'll add your name to the list for the time you'll be away.]
CLASSIFIEDS
Are you looking for something or do you have something to sell? Let me know and I'll put it in this newsletter.
SHARE YOUR FAVORITE WEBSITES
Tell us what sites you find enjoyable and why.
Church Leader Internet Portal
http://www.zondervanchurchsource.com/clip/
Holy Land Photos
http://www.holylandphotos.org/
All links to Websites are provided as a service, and do not imply endorsement by our church.
(BTW: whenever the URLs in this newsletter are too long to turn into links on your e-mail program, just copy the entire URL (two lines or more) and paste it into a temporary email message. Then delete the return in the middle of it and copy it again. Then paste it into your web browser and hit enter.)
A pint of example is worth a gallon of advice.
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MSM CONNECTIONS is a periodic newsletter of
announcements, news, recommendations, articles, and other information helpful
to men in our spiritual growth. Thanks for welcoming MSM CONNECTIONS
into your in-box!
Who to contact:
Minister Frank Coleman, Men Servants Ministry Chairman,
773-410-1483,
Minister Arnold Whitehead, Men Servants Ministry
Vice-Chairman, 773-846-6090
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The mission of New Joy Divine
Full Gospel Church is to be a
Christ-centered, Bible based, Spirit guided church meeting the spiritual,
physical, and emotional needs of its members and the community it serves.
The Men Servants Ministry (MSM)
Team offers a variety of activities for men to interact with other men on our
journey of faith in Christ together. Large group, small group, and one-to-one
events encourage relationship building and spiritual strengthening that result
in maximizing the potential we all have in Christ. Contact Min. Frank Coleman,
773-410-1483, [email protected]
if you'd like to participate in a men's discipleship program.
New Joy Divine Full Gospel Church is located at 7625 S.
Halsted St. Chicago, IL 60620.
Tel: 773-224-5683. Founded & Pastored by Apostle
Aaron L. Royster & Prophetess Mable L. Royster.
Visit our website at: http://www.newjoydivine.org/
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