"Don't worry about what you will eat or drink or wear.  Your heavenly Father knows that you need (these things)."  Matt. 6:31-32 (CEV)

     CONSIDER

"Regarding the debate about faith and works: It's like asking which blade in a pair of scissors is most important."  C.S. Lewis

     THE CHURCH IS THE GREATEST FORCE ON EARTH

by Rick Warren

"Most people have no idea how many Christians there are in the world: More than 2 billion people claim to be followers of Jesus Christ.  That's one-third of the world's population!  The Church has about a billion more people than the entire nation of China.  For example, about 100 million people in the United States went to church this past weekend.  That's more people than will attend sporting events in the United States throughout this year.  The Church is the largest force for good in the world. Nothing else even comes close.

"The Church is everywhere in the world.  There are villages that have little else, but they do have a church. You could visit millions of villages around the world that don't have a school, a clinic, a hospital, a fire department or a post office.  They don't have any businesses.  But they do have a church.  The Church is more widely spread -- more widely distributed -- than any business franchise in the world.

"Consider this: The Red Cross noted that 90% of the meals they served to victims of Hurricane Katrina were actually cooked by Southern Baptist churches.  Many churches were able to jump into action faster than the government agencies or the Red Cross.  Why?  The Church is literally everywhere, and Christians who could provide help to the Gulf Coast communicated with Christians in need of help so relief could be sent immediately."

God's plan for tackling the global giants that are dominating our planet spiritual lostness, egocentric leadership, poverty, disease, and ignorance is none other than the church.  Together there is no force on Earth that can stop us.  Here are 8 reasons why....

http://www.pastors.com/rwmt/default.asp?id=237&artid=8964&expand=1

     THE LEGAL BOUNDARIES OF WITNESSING AT WORK

by David C. Gibbs, Jr.

Full-time American workers spend an average of 8.3 hours a day on the job, so many believers recognize that their workplaces provide an obvious venue for sharing the gospel.  But, such Christians are facing increasing opposition from employers for engaging in witnessing activities.

Just how much can you talk about Jesus Christ on the job?  Is it legally permissible for managers to mention Bible verses when conversing with clients, or to pray for their employees?  At what point does witnessing constitute harassment, or does it ever?  Read this in full at

http://www.icwm.net/articles_view.asp?articleid=8192&columnid=604

     WINTER OLYMPICS

Feb. 10-26, Turin, Italy

http://tinyurl.com/9df44

Yahoo! Sports coverage

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics

Television coverage

http://www.nbcolympics.com/index.html

     NEW U.S. NICKEL ENTERS CIRCULATION

A new nickel entered circulation last week, with Thomas Jefferson appearing in a totally new view.  The front of the coin is based on an 1800 portrait of Jefferson painted by Rembrandt Peale, and the reverse is modeled on a 1938 rendition of Jefferson's Virginia home at Monticello.  Whereas previous nickels had featured a profile view of Jefferson, the Peale portrait shows the president looking directly at the viewer.

http://www.usmint.gov/index.cfm?flash=yes

CNN article

http://tinyurl.com/a5awq

     CONSIDER

"You and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness."  C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

     SLEEP THERAPY

by Lauren F. Winner

"...According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average adult sleeps six hours and 58 minutes per night during the work week.  One hundred years ago -- before Mr. Edison's marvelous invention -- people slept about 9 hours a night.  They were right in line with the 8 to 10 hours of sleep specialists say we need.  Now we are a nation of the chronically sleep-deprived....

"...The irony is that although many of us trade sleep for productivity, we'd actually be more productive if we slept more.  When we don't get enough sleep, we accumulate "sleep debt" which has to be paid back....

"...The unarguable demands that our bodies make for sleep are a good reminder that we are mere creatures, not the Creator.  For it is God and God alone who "neither slumbers nor sleeps."  Of course, the Creator has slept, another startling reminder of the radical humility he embraced in becoming incarnate.  He took on a body that, like ours, was finite and contingent and needed sleep.  To push ourselves to go without sleep is, in some sense, to deny our embodiment, to deny our fragile incarnations-and perhaps to deny the magnanimous poverty and self-emptying that went into his Incarnation...."

Read this in full at

http://www.christianitytoday.com/bc/2006/001/2.07.html

     THE QUEST FOR RELIABLE DIRECTIONS

As the world grows more complicated, so do methods for navigating through it.  The Internet is often more reliable than a human when it comes to giving directions.  But in some areas, that's not the case.  One Los Angeles man found out the hard way.  Listen to this NPR report to learn that Internet map services are not always accurate.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5140674

     HOW COMMITTED TO GOD ARE AMERICANS? IT DEPENDS WHO YOU ASK

According to Barna research, there's a huge gap between the perception of pastors and the reality of people's devotion to God.  Based on interviews with a representative national sample of 627 Protestant pastors, the Barna study discovered that, on average, pastors contend that 70% of the adults in their church consider their personal faith in God to transcend all other priorities.  As many as one out of every six pastors (16%) contends that 90% or more of the adults in their church hold their relationship with God as their top life priority!

In contrast to the upbeat pastoral view of people's faith, a nationally representative sample of 1002 adults was asked the same question -- i.e., to identify their top priority in life -- and a very different perspective emerged.  Only one out of every seven adults (15%) placed their faith in God at the top of their priority list.  To make an apples-to-apples comparison, the survey isolated those who attend Protestant churches and found that even among that segment of adults, not quite one out of every four (23%) named their faith in God as their top priority in life....  Read this study at

http://tinyurl.com/ahv7z

     LEADERSHIP TIPS (BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE)

"Success is going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." (Winston Churchill)

Read the article "Learning from Failure" by Harold Myra and Marshall Shelley at

http://www.leaderlinks.com/archives/feature20050701p.htm

     END OF THE SPEAR

50 years ago this month, 5 men were martyred in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador and their story changed lives around the world.  January 20 the rest of the story will be told in a powerful motion picture called End of the Spear, coming to theaters nationwide.

http://www.endofthespear.com/

     DINING ROOM TABLE LOSING CENTRAL STATUS IN FAMILIES

British families are no longer using the dinner table as the center of family life, says the Agence France-Presse.  Furniture sales have dropped 8% in the last 5 years in Great Britain, yet sales of home office furniture have climbed by 40%.

http://tinyurl.com/86ebc

     THE POWER OF A FATHER'S BLESSING

What former NFL pro Bill Glass has learned after 36 years of prison ministry

"What is our country's biggest problem?  A lack of the father's blessing.  The blessing always involves a hug and a kiss.  Not the kiss of abuse, but the kiss of blessing-there's a vast difference.  You can't force yourself on your child, but you can hug them and get close to them physically to a certain degree without embarrassing them or turning them off.  I found my kids love to be hugged and kissed.  I grab my little girl by her ears and look into her eyes and say, "I love you, I bless you, I think you're absolutely terrific."  That's easy with her because she's little and dainty.  But I've got two boys, 280 and 290 pounds. One played pro ball, and both played college ball.  They're 6'6", bench press 500 pounds, and are bigger than I am, but I grabbed that eldest son of mine recently and said, "I love, I bless you, I think you're terrific, and I'm so glad you're mine."  His shoulders began to shake and his eyes filled with tears and he said, "Dad, I really needed that"....

Read this interview in full at

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2006/001/26.48.html

     YOU KNOW YOU'RE IN A REDNECK CHURCH IF...

1.         the finance committee refuses to provide funds for the purchase of a chandelier because none of the members knows how to play one.

2.         people ask, when they learn that Jesus fed the 5000, whether the two fish were bass or catfish, and what bait was used to catch 'em.

3.         when the pastor says, "I'd like to ask Bubba to help take up the offering, "five guys and two women stand up.

4.         opening day of deer season is recognized as an official church holiday.

5.         a member of the church requests to be buried in his 4-wheel-drive truck because "It ain't never been in a hole it couldn't get out of"

6.         the choir is known as the "OK Chorale".

7.         in a congregation of 500 members, there are only seven last names in the church directory.

8.         people think "rapture" is what you get when you lift something too heavy.

9.         the baptismal pool is a #2 galvanized "Wheeling" washtub.

10.    the choir robes were donated by (and embroidered with the logo from) Billy Bob's Barbecue.

11.    the collection plates are really hubcaps from a '56 Chevy.

12.    instead of a bell you are called to service by a duck call.

13.    the minister and his wife drive matching pickup trucks.

14.    the communion wine is Boone's Farm "Tickled Pink".

15.    "Thou shall not covet" applies to huntin' dogs, too.

16.    the final words of the benediction are, "Y'all come back now, Ya hear."

God bless and don't fergit ta say yer prayers!

     VERSE TO PONDER

"Start with GOD -- the first step in learning is bowing down to GOD; only fools thumb their noses at such wisdom and learning.  Pay close attention, friend, to what your father tells you; never forget what you learned at your mother's knee.  Wear their counsel like flowers in your hair, like rings on your fingers."  Proverbs 1:7-9 (Msg)

     CONSIDER

"A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading.  There are traps everywhere --'Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,' as Herbert says, 'fine nets and stratagems.'  God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous."  C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy

     THE CULTURE OF PORNOGRAPHY

by R. Albert Mohler Jr.

"For most of my life, I gave little thought to pornography.  It was not something I considered relevant to me, nor did I consider it -- in the daunting spectrum of social, cultural, and political problems -- a particularly pressing issue facing this country," recalls Pamela Paul, author of "Pornified: How Pornography Is Transforming Our Lives, Our Relationships, and Our Families."  Her new book is likely to attract attention as it represents one of the few comprehensive reports on how pornography has transformed American culture.

Paul, a contributor to TIME magazine and other major journals, developed her interest in the cultural impact of pornography when she was asked to write about the subject for TIME.  "Like many Americans, I believed pornography was no big deal," she explains.  Nevertheless, her experience writing about pornography for TIME changed everything.  "My eyes were blown open," Paul now remembers.

Read this in full at

http://www.bpnews.net/bpcolumn.asp?ID=2098

    MATERIALISM IS TOXIC

Psychologists are studying what makes people happy.  "Materialism is toxic for happiness," says University of Illinois psychologist Ed Diener.  Even rich materialists aren't as happy as those who care less about getting and spending.  The article also quoted University of Michigan psychologist Christopher Peterson, who indicated forgiveness is the trait most strongly linked to happiness.  Peterson said, "It's the queen of all virtues, and probably the hardest to come by."  Read the article at

http://tinyurl.com/3l4g

     GREATEST SPIRITUAL CHALLENGES

In a recent survey in Discipleship Journal Magazine, readers reported that their greatest spiritual challenges came from

1. Materialism

2. Pride

3. Self-centeredness

4. Laziness

5. Anger/Bitterness (Tie)

6. Sexual Lust (Tie)

7. Envy

8. Gluttony

9. Lying

Survey respondents noted that temptations seemed more potent when they neglected their time with God and when tired physically.

http://www.navpress.com/Magazines/DJ/

     CONSIDER

"When humans should have become as perfect in voluntary obedience as the inanimate creation is in its lifeless obedience, then they will put on its glory, or rather that greater glory of which Nature is only the first sketch."  C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

     VERSE TO PONDER

"The grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say 'No' to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age."  Titus 2:11 and 12 (NIV)

     THIS WEEK'S HYMN: SING TO THE GREAT JEHOVAH'S PRAISE

Words: Charles Wesley, 1750

Music: Nikolaus Hermann, 1554

Sing to the great Jehovah's praise!

All praise to Him belongs:

Who kindly lengthens out our days

Demands our choicest songs.

His providence hath brought us through

Another various year:

We all with vows and anthems new

Before our God appear.

Father, Thy mercies past we own;

Thy still continued care;

To Thee presenting, through Thy Son,

Whate'er we have or own.

Our lips and lives shall gladly show

The wonders of Thy love,

While on in Jesu's steps we go

To see Thy face above.

Our residue of days or hours

Thine, wholly Thine, shall be;

And all our consecrated powers

A sacrifice to be:

Till Jesus in the clouds appear

To saints on earth forgiven,

And bring the grand Sabbatic year,

The jubilee of Heaven.

>from CyberHymnal at

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/s/g/sgjprais.htm

     GOD FAQ

Question 55: How does Christ make intercession?

Answer: Christ makes intercession, by his appearing in our nature continually before the Father in heaven, in the merit of his obedience and sacrifice on earth, declaring his will to have it applied to all believers; Answering all accusations against them, and procuring for them quiet of conscience, notwithstanding daily failings, access with boldness to the throne of grace, and acceptance of their persons and services.

http://www.shortercatechism.com/

     THE NEW YEAR

I am the New Year.  I am an unspoiled page in your book of time.  I am your next chance at the art of living.  I am your opportunity to practice what you have learned about life during the last twelve months.  All that you sought and didn't find is hidden in me, waiting for you to search it but with more determination.  All the good that you tried for and didn't achieve is mine to grant when you have fewer conflicting desires.  All that you dreamed but didn't dare to do, all that you hoped but did not will, all the faith that you claimed but did not have-these slumber lightly, waiting to be awakened by the touch of a strong purpose.  I am your opportunity to renew your allegiance to Him who said, "Behold, I make all things new."--Anonymous

http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/

     PRAY FOR PERSECUTED CHRISTIANS TODAY

http://christiansincrisis.net/

     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).

[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.

2006 North American International Auto Show

http://www4.naias.com/

National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign

http://www.freevibe.com/

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.)

You know you're into middle age when you realize that caution is the only thing you care to exercise.

Min. Frank Coleman, Editor

[email protected]

===== /\ =====

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

===== /\ =====

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/

===== /\ =====

To subscribe to MSM CONNECTIONS, send a message to [email protected] with "subscribe MSM" in the subject line.

To unsubscribe, send a message to [email protected] with "unsubscribe MSM" in the subject line.

THANK YOU FOR READING

MAKE IT A GREAT WEEK!

It is my prayer that, “the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,” Ephesians 1:18

© 2004, 2005, 2006 Frank Coleman