"Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled; set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed."  1 Peter 1:13 (NIV)

     CONSIDER

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."  C.S. Lewis

     THE COMPASSION OF JESUS

by Brennan Manning

"...When Jesus' eyes scanned the streets and hillsides, he felt compassion because the people were leaderless.  He wept over Jerusalem.  His words were not full of blaming and shaming, castigating and moralizing, accusing and guilt-inducing, ridiculing and belittling, threatening and bribing, evaluating and labeling.  His mind was constantly inhabited by God's forgiveness.  He took the initiative in seeking out sinners and justified his incredible ease and familiarity with them through the parables of divine mercy.  The woman caught in adultery was not even asked if she was sorry.  He did not demand a firm purpose of amendment. He did not lecture her on the harsh consequences of future infidelity.  He saw her dignity as a human being destroyed by the self-righteous Pharisees.  After reminding them of their solidarity in her sinfulness, he looked at the woman, loved her, forgave her, and told her not to sin anymore...."

"...The mere purchase of a postage stamp or a load of groceries at the supermarket can occasion an exchange of glances between clerk and customer capable of transforming a routine gesture into a true human encounter that is mutually ennobling.  Words are unnecessary in the interaction for the Christian who knows the fundamental secret of Jesus in relation to his disciples: his sovereign respect for their dignity.  They are people, not toys, functions, or occasions for personal compensation...."

Excerpts from The Importance of Being Foolish by Brennan Manning

     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

     DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

"I still believe that standing up for the truth of God is the greatest thing in the world.  This is the end of life.  The end of life is not to be happy.  The end of life is not to achieve pleasure and avoid pain.  The end of life is to do the will of God, come what may.  I think I have discovered the highest good.  It is love."

"... though I was initially disappointed at being categorized as an extremist, as I continued to think about the matter I gradually gained a measure of satisfaction from the label ... In that dramatic scene on Calvary's hill three men were crucified.  We must never forget that all three were crucified for the same crime; the crime of extremism. Two were extremists for immorality and thus fell below their environment.  The other, Jesus Christ, was an extremist for love, truth, and goodness and thereby rose above his environment.  Perhaps the South, the nation, and the world are in dire need of creative extremists."

     ARE FIRST THINGS FIRST IN YOUR LIFE?

by Chip Ingram

The New Year is a time of renewing, reevaluating, and reprioritizing.  It's a time to start over again.  But if you're like me, the best intentions for a new exercise regimen or a new improved devotional plan seem to fade as quickly as they are made.  Mid-course changes are normal and essential.  So before you begin another no-fail round of self-improvements, it's a good idea to make sure your priorities are on target.  No one wants to develop discipline in one area of life, only to discover you've missed something much more important somewhere else....

Six Symptoms of Misplaced Priorities:

1.      Excessive Busyness

2.      Stress/Burnout

3.      Low Grade, Nagging Guilt

4.      Mounting Financial Pressure

5.      Spiritual Leakage

6.      Escapism Behavior

Take this personal inventory at

http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/1170962.html

     A PRAYER

Give me an open ear, O God, that I may hear Thy voice

    calling me to high endeavor.

Give me an open mind, O God, a mind ready to receive and

    to welcome such new light of knowledge as it is Thy

    will to reveal to me.

Give me open eyes, O God, eyes quick to discover

    Thine indwelling in the world which Thou hast made.

Give me open hands, O God, hands ready to share with all

    who are in want

the blessings with which Thou hast enriched my life.

    John Baillie (1886-1960)

     THE POWER OF ANGER

by Gary Oliver

Definition: A strong feeling excited by a real or supposed injury: often accompanied by a desire to take vengeance, or to obtain satisfaction from the offending party; resentment; wrath; ire.

Flight attendant: "Ladies and gentlemen, this flight will be delayed for at least two hours, as our crew completes routine maintenance."

News broadcaster: "A bus carrying 48 high school students overturned last night when it swerved to miss a drunk driver. Three students were killed, and eight remain in critical condition."

Boss: "I'm sorry, but headquarters wants us to downsize by 20 percent, so we must let you go."

Would these scenarios provoke anger in you? Most men know the emotion of anger very well-that burst of irritation or displeasure that releases physical and emotional energy. Men sometimes describe their anger with other words: annoyed, bitter, repulsed, irritated, frustrated, offended.

Anger places a man's body and mind on alert. It can be devastating if it controls you. Out-of-control anger leads to emotional and physical abuse. When you "lose your temper," everyone loses.

However, did you know there's a positive side to anger?  Read this article in full at

http://www.newmanmag.com/article.php?sid=618

     THE MAKING OF A BRAND

The brand name "Hershey" is all but a synonym for "chocolate," but reality is that Milton Hershey made his fortune on caramel, relays John Steele Gordon in a Wall Street Journal review of "Hershey," a new book by Michael D'Antonio.  Read a brief history of the Hershey company at

http://reveries.com/?p=302

     LEADERSHIP TIPS (BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE)

When GE's CEO Jeff Immelt teaches up-and-coming leaders at the company's famed management-development center, he runs through a checklist of what he calls "Things Leaders Do." In an interview with Fast Company, Immelt reveals his own leadership checklist.

1.   Personal Responsibility.

"Enron and 9/11 marked the end of an era of individual freedom and the beginning of personal responsibility. You lead today by building teams and placing others first. It's not about you."

2.   Simplify Constantly.

"I always use Jack [Welch] as my example here. Every leader needs to clearly explain the top three things the organization is working on. If you can't, then you're not leading well."

3.   Understand Breadth, Depth, and Context.

"The most important thing I've learned since becoming CEO is context. It's how your company fits in with the world and how you respond to it."

4.   The importance of alignment and time management.

"There is no real magic to being a good leader. But at the end of every week, you have to spend your time around the things that are really important: setting priorities, measuring outcomes, and rewarding them."

http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/81/immelt.html

     VERSE TO PONDER

"Be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."  Ephesians 5:1 and 2 (NIV)

     CONSIDER

"God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains; it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."  C. S. Lewis

     CHRISTIAN BOOK SUMMARY

A summary of Total Truth: Liberating Christianity from its Cultural Captivity by Nancy Pearcey (Crossway Books) is now available online.

Is God a public figure?  Or should our faith be strictly a personal matter? 

Does Christianity have a legitimate role to play in the public realm of politics, business, law, and education?  Does God belong in the public square?

As we roll into a new year and consider our priorities and resolutions for 2006, it's a fitting time to examine the ever-widening chasm between personal and private, sacred and secular in our culture.  More frequently, this division relegates Christianity to the realm of the private, diluting its power to transform the whole of culture.

In this book Nancy Pearcey exposes the tactics of secularist gatekeepers who use the myth of separation to banish biblical principles from the cultural mainstream. Christianity, Pearcey argues, is not just religious truth, but truth about all reality.  It is total truth.  Read the summary at

http://www.christianbooksummaries.com

     CHRISTIANITY GETS CREDIT FOR THE WEST'S FREEDOM

It's one of history's most important questions: Why did Europe and North America embrace democracy and thrive economically while nations elsewhere suffered oppression and stagnation?

Leading U.S. sociologist Rodney Stark says many scholars purposely overlook the obvious answer: It was the spread of Christianity that made possible political and economic freedoms, modern science and resulting Western advancement.

Such is the Baylor University professor's contention in "The Victory of Reason: How Christianity Led to Freedom, Capitalism and Western Success" (Random House).  Though Western intellectuals downplay theology, Stark sees Christian beliefs as the key.  He thinks the basis for the West's rise was "an extraordinary faith in reason" resulting from Christianity, which "alone embraced reason and logic as the primary guide to religious truth."

Faith in humanity's reasoning capacity, in turn, stimulated scientific theory-making, democratic theory and individual freedoms.  Capitalism applied this to economics, producing an explosion of wealth.

Over the past century, Stark writes, intellectuals have claimed the opposite, saying the West surged ahead by overcoming Christianity with its supposed barriers to progress, especially in science.

"Nonsense.  The success of the West, including the rise of science, rested entirely on religious foundations, and the people who brought it about were devout Christians," Stark says.

He asserts that "real science arose only once: in Europe."  Only in Europe did alchemy develop into chemistry and astrology into astronomy, with thinkers moving beyond mere technology into true research.

Stark rejects the century-old scenario of Max Weber that Protestantism undergirded capitalism. Stark maintains that the main elements were invented by Catholic monks and lay Italians, centuries before the Reformation.

He also thinks it's high time to eradicate "an incredible lie that long disfigured our knowledge of history": the claim that between the fall of ancient Rome and the secular Renaissance and Enlightenment, Europe suffered through so-called "Dark Ages" of "ignorance, superstition and misery."

That's a "hoax," he says, that was invented by 18th-century intellectuals who hated religion and especially Roman Catholicism.  In reality, he says, the centuries before Protestantism and modern secularism saw huge progress in technology, education and human betterment.  His story of inventions that transformed farming, wind and water power, and global sea travel is fascinating indeed.

All this, of course, treats Christianity as useful and says nothing about whether it is true.  Nor is this any fully rounded history, since Stark's thesis sidesteps Christians' embarrassing past deeds of oppression.

In addition, Stark's praise for Christian accomplishments includes the controversial claim that non-Christian religions help explain why the West transcended other lands.  "Christianity was oriented to the future while the other major religions asserted the superiority of the past," he contends.

Whether in ancient or modern times, Stark writes, centralized command economies, slave labor, and tyranny always prevent progress, and Christianity helped defeat all three scourges.

     CONSIDER

"Man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word, 'darkness' on the walls of his cell."  C.S. Lewis

     VERSE TO PONDER

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."  Matthew 6:19-21 (NIV)

     THIS WEEK'S HYMN: GREAT GOD, WE SING YOUR MIGHTY HAND

Words: Philip Doddridge, 1755

Music: William Gardiner, 1815

Great God, we sing Your mighty hand

By which supported still we stand;

The opening year Your mercy shows,

That mercy crowns it 'til its close.

By day, by night, at home, abroad,

Still are we guarded by our God,

By His incessant bounty fed,

By His unerring counsel led.

With grateful hearts the past we own;

The future, all to us unknown,

We to Thy guardian care commit,

And peaceful leave before Thy feet.

In scenes exalted or depressed,

You are our joy, and You our rest;

Your goodness all our hopes shall raise,

Adored through all our changing days.

When death shall interrupt our songs

And seal in silence mortal tongues,

In fairer realms, O God, shall we

Your praises sing eternally.

>from CyberHymnal at

http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/g/g/ggwesing.htm

     GOD FAQ

Question 56: How is Christ to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world?

Answer: Christ is to be exalted in his coming again to judge the world, in that he, who was unjustly judged and condemned by wicked men, shall come again at the last day in great power, and in the full manifestation of his own glory, and of his Father's, with all his holy angels, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of God, to judge the world in righteousness.

http://www.shortercatechism.com/

     ON PRAYER

"Dear Lord, please give me...

A few friends who understand me and remain my friends;

A work to do which has real value, without which the world would be the poorer;

A mind unafraid to travel, even though the trail be not blazed;

An understanding heart;

A sense of humor;

Time for quiet, silent meditation;

A feeling of the presence of God;

The patience to wait for the coming of these things,

With the wisdom to recognize them when they come.

Amen."

--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.

Sign up for relevant free email publications

http://www.zondervan.com/desk/emas.asp

Encarta Quizzes (fun!)

http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/features/quiz/

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.)

What do you get the man who has everything?  Penicillin.

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