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Connecting
man to man to God For week of August 9, 2009 Issue 264
The
Men’s Ministry newsletter of Path Of Life Ministries. Our
mission is to lead men to Jesus Christ and provide opportunity for
Christian men to grow in their faith and minister to others.
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“The
only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.”
Galatians 5:6
CONSIDER
“Remember that when you leave this earth, you can take
with you nothing that you have received ... but only what you have
given: a full heart, enriched by honest service, love, sacrifice,
and courage.” St. Francis of Assisi
A NEW THERAPY ON
FAITH AND SEXUAL IDENTITY
The men who seek help from evangelical counselor Warren
Throckmorton often are deeply distressed. They have prayed, read
Scripture, even married, but they haven't been able to shake
sexual attractions to other men -- impulses they believe to be
immoral.
Dr. Throckmorton is a psychology professor at a
Christian college in Pennsylvania and past president of the
American Mental Health Counselors Association. He specializes in
working with clients conflicted about their sexual identity.
The
first thing he tells them is this: Your attractions aren't a sign
of mental illness or a punishment for insufficient faith. He tells
them that he cannot turn them straight. But he also tells them
they don't have to be gay.... Read this in full at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124950491516608883.html
PROMISE KEEPERS
RETURNS 10,000-STRONG
This year's Promise Keepers stadium event took a different
turn from its usual godly men talks. Relaunched August 1 under the
leadership of founder Bill McCartney, the men's ministry drew some
10,000 men, women, and children to Boulder, Colo., for talks of
revival and unity. "We're back because Coach received a
clarion call from God to relaunch this ministry. It is recognition
of the fact that the church is . . . incredibly divided,"
Promise Keepers president Raleigh Washington told the Denver Post.
"Coach's heart, his calling, is to heal the divide."
The weekend event was scheduled as the only event for
Promise Keepers, which is in its 20th year of ministry, this year
and the first major event since former University of Colorado
football coach McCartney returned to the helm of the ministry last
September. Promise Keepers has typically held numerous events
across the country throughout the year, drawing tens of thousands
of men. But with declining attendance and revenues, the ministry
scaled down the number of stadium-size events in recent years.
Recalling the ministry's glory days, McCartney noted that
they had over 350 full-time staff at one time and their budget was
$100 million a year. Returning to the Promise Keepers stage, after
having resigned as president in 2003, McCartney, 68, came out
strong to relay a message of healing and honor not just in the
context of the ministry but in regards to all of Christianity....
Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090803/promise-keepers-returns-10-000-strong/index.html
WHY SUNDAY
SCHOOLS ARE CLOSING
A number of reasons can be given for the decline, including an
increasingly secular society and the other demands on the time of
the average child. And then there is a content problem. The kind
of Sunday-school activities that pleased my generation simply
wouldn't fly with today's busier and more sophisticated kids. "A
lot of the stuff we did was rote memory," said Mr. Morrison
of the Missouri Baptist Convention.
Ultimately, if Sunday
school is to thrive, parental involvement is necessary -- somebody
has to say, "Go." But who? The Rev. Neil MacQueen, a
Presbyterian minister who develops software programs for Sunday
schools, cites a crucial factor in the decline of Sunday-school
attendance: divorce. On any given Sunday, many children of
divorced parents are out of town, visiting "the other"
parent.... Read this in full at
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124598071177158161.html
'MOST RELIGIOUS'
COLLEGE STUDENTS OF 2009 REVEALED
1. Thomas Aquinas College, Santa Paula, CA 2. Brigham
Young University (UT) 3. Wheaton College (IL) 4. Hillsdale
College, Hillsdale, MI 5. University of Dallas, Irving, TX 6.
Grove City College, Grove City, PA 7. College of the Ozarks,
Point Lookout, MO 8. University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN
9. Furman University, Greenville, SC 10. Samford
University, Birmingham, AL 11. Baylor University, Waco, TX
12. Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI 13. Texas A&M
University--College Station 14. United States Air Force
Academy, USAF Academy, CO 15. Pepperdine University, Malibu,
CA 16. Catholic University of America, Washington, DC 17.
St. Anselm College, Manchester, NH 18. Brandeis University,
Waltham, MA 19. Auburn University, Auburn, AL 20.
University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090804/-most-religious-college-students-of-2009-revealed/index.html
STUDY:
RELIGIOSITY OF HUMANITIES STUDENTS MOST LIKELY TO WANE
Results from a recent study on the impact of a college
student's major on their religiosity have led researchers to
conclude that postmodernism, rather than science, is the greatest
antagonist of religiosity. Researchers at the University of
Michigan-Ann Arbor drew the conclusion after finding that majoring
in Humanities or Social Sciences has a significant negative effect
on religious attendance and self-assessed importance of religion
in one's life.
"Because we consider both the
Humanities and many of the Social Sciences particularly strongly
imbued with Postmodernism, we take this as evidence for a negative
effect of Postmodernism on religiosity," they state in their
report. Majoring in the Biological Sciences and the Physical
Sciences has a much smaller negative or no effects on
religiosity.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090803/study-humanities-major/index.html
MANY CHRISTIAN
LEADERS SKEPTICAL OF NEWLY CONFIRMED SOTOMAYOR
In a 68-31 vote August 6 that was split largely down party
lines, the Senate confirmed Sonia Sotomayor as the nation's next
Supreme Court justice, making her the first Hispanic ever to sit
on the high court.
The Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of
the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, one of the
nation's largest networks of Hispanic believers, said he is
cautiously optimistic about Sotomayor, who spent 11 years as a
judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New
York.
He congratulated her on her historic confirmation,
saying it gives Hispanic Americans an opportunity to more fully
incorporate into the American community. But he said as an
evangelical Christian, he is praying that the new justice
"demonstrates moderation, prudence and does not attempt to
legislate from the bench." .... Read this in full at
http://www.charismamag.com/index.php/news/22854-many-christian-leaders-skeptical-of-newly-confirmed-sotomayor?utm_source=MailingList&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Charisma+News+Online+08-06-09
HOW SOLITUDE
BUILDS COMMUNITY
by Chris Armstrong As a history professor, I have asked my
students, "What is monasticism?" and I often get
suspicious, negative answers: "Monks withdrawing from the
world." "Unhealthy isolation and no evangelism."
"Men and women who won't engage with the surrounding
culture." "Those who thing the body and material world
are evil." "Those too busy in self-centered devotions to
care for others."
My students think they know what
motivated the early monks: obsessed with their own salvation and
afraid of their own sexuality, they retreated to the desert to
fight "demons," which were actually vivid manifestations
of their own libido-right?
Interestingly, the early monks
did fear the temptations of demons, but what sorts of temptations
did those demons actually present to their would-be victims? Sure,
fornication was among them. But what did fornication actually
mean?
For at least one of the original monks, Antony of
Egypt (A.D. 251-356), fornication stood for anything that dragged
the heart away from God—any flirtation with an idolatrous
replacement for the Lord. Fornication could mean sex and
sensuality, but it could also mean forsaking vows, going home, and
being caught up in the commerce and competition of life in the
Nile Valley. In ancient dream theory, if a man dreams of a woman,
he is dreaming of his business—how he supports the woman.
That was the deepest fear of the monk: not that he would merely
indulge himself sexually, but that the entire direction of his
life and affections would shift from following God to the
distracting entanglements of "life in the city."....
Read this in full at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/communitylife/discipleship/howsolitudebuildcommunity.html
MANY AMERICANS
DON'T BELIEVE IN HELL, BUT WHAT ABOUT PASTORS?
Just when it seemed to have cooled off, the topic of hell is
back on the front burner -- at least for pastors learning to
preach about a topic most Americans would rather not talk about.
Only 59% of Americans believe in hell, compared with 74% who
believe in heaven, according to the recent surveys from the Pew
Forum on Religion and Public Life.
"I think it's such
a difficult and important biblical topic," said Kurt Selles,
director of the Global Center at Samford University's Beeson
Divinity School. "There's a big change that's taken place as
far as evangelicals not wanting to be as exclusive." At the
recent annual Beeson Pastors School, Selles led two workshops to
discuss "Whatever happened to hell?" He asked how many
of the pastors had ever preached a sermon on hell. Nobody had, he
said.... Read this in full at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-08-01-hell-damnation_N.htm
COMPASSION IN TOP
1% OF FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE CHARITIES
Compassion International, the world’s largest Christian
child development organization, is in the top 1% of charities in
terms of fiscal responsibility, according to an independent
charity evaluator. For 8 straight years, Compassion has been
awarded the highest rating -- 4 stars -- by Charity Navigator for
responsible management of its finances.
Charity Navigator
is the nation’s largest independent evaluator of charities.
It evaluates more than 5,400 charities each year.
“Only
one percent of the charities we rate have received at least eight
consecutive four-star evaluations, indicating that Compassion
International consistently executes its mission in a fiscally
responsible way, and out performs most other charities in
America," said Charity Navigator president and CEO Ken
Berger. "This 'exceptional' designation from Charity
Navigator differentiates Compassion International from its peers
and demonstrates to the public it is worthy of their trust."
.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090806/compassion-in-top-1-percent-of-fiscal-responsible-charities/index.html
TV AND PARABLES
OF OUR TIME The
radio program Speaking of Faith explores television as a center of
storytelling in US culture -- and listen in on intriguing,
important themes of our time being played out in a new generation
of shows like Lost, The Wire, House, and Battlestar Galactica that
now have eternal life online. Guest Diane Winston appreciates good
television, studies it, and brings many of its creators into her
religion and media classes at the Annenberg School for
Communication at the University of Southern California.... Listen
to this program at
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/tv/
ASSEMBLIES OF GOD
ELECTS FIRST FEMALE LEADER
The Assemblies of God elected its first woman to the Executive
Presbytery during its biennial meeting August 5. "It's a
wonderful moment for the church to recognize God lays his hand on
women and say they bring something to the table," the Rev.
Beth Grant, who was elected on the second electoral ballot, told
The Ledger.
Thousands of ministers and delegates at the
53rd General Council in Orlando, Fla., greeted Grant's election
with a standing ovation. Grant, a missionary in India and
coordinator of the Women in Ministry Network, addressed the crowd
saying, "We as a movement are who we are because women went
to the ends of the earth with nothing more than the call of God.
We are here today and we in this vote are saying thank you God for
the women in our Movement."
Two years ago, the
General Council of the nearly 3 million-member Pentecostal
denomination approved a resolution to add two executive presbyter
positions for an ordained woman and an ordained pastor under the
age of 40. Although women have been allowed to serve in pastoral
roles for decades, female ministers have never taken a seat in the
denomination's top leadership.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090806/assemblies-of-god-elects-first-female-leader/index.html
A MASTER
STORYTELLER
“Our culture is a master of droning prose. Storytelling
is found in film and literature, but rarely in public speech. We
believe that religious speakers are effective when they can string
out long arguments to defend their points, when they can persuade
by the force of argument -- this for us is theological
sophistication. But this view betrays an important Western
prejudice, that storytelling cultures are less sophisticated than
prose cultures like our own. They are not!
“Jesus'
world was also filled with drama and entertainment and theater.
Jesus himself was theatrical, and this was a feature of his
teaching strategy. Rather than giving a speech about a corrupt
temple, he ransacked it. When Jesus underscored the cost of
discipleship, he told his disciples that they should plan to carry
a cross. His culture valued the clever image, the crisp story.
Jesus himself was clever and in this brilliance, people intuited
his sophistication.” from Jesus, the Middle Eastern
Storyteller by Gary M. Burge
OUTDOOR BAPTISMS
DWINDLING
Outdoor baptisms are rapidly disappearing in America. Once
prevalent in the rivers and deltas of the South, the ritual has
been nearly extinguished by indoor pools, mega-churches, and
modernization, researchers and ministers say. Only a handful of
churches keep it alive. "It's a feature of American
Protestantism that is vanishing," says David Daniels,
professor of church history at McCormick Theological Seminary in
Chicago.
No one keeps statistics on outdoor baptisms,
which are performed predominately by Baptists and Pentecostals.
But officials at the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest
grouping of Baptist churches in the USA, say of the 342,000
baptisms performed last year by its member churches, the vast
majority were done indoors.... Read this in full at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2009-08-04-riverbaptism_N.htm
THE MYSTERY OF
INIQUITY by
R.C. Sproul It has been called the Achilles’ heel of the
Christian faith. Of course, I’m referring to the classical
problem of the existence of evil. Philosophers such as John Stuart
Mill have argued that the existence of evil demonstrates that God
is either not omnipotent or not good and loving -- the reasoning
being that if evil exists apart from the sovereign power of God,
then by resistless logic, God cannot be deemed omnipotent. On the
other hand, if God does have the power to prevent evil but fails
to do it, then this would reflect upon His character, indicating
that He is neither good nor loving.
Because of the
persistence of this problem, the church has seen countless
attempts at what is called theodicy. The term theodicy involves
the combining of two Greek words: the word for God, theos, and the
word for justification, dikaios. Hence, a theodicy is an attempt
to justify God for the existence of evil (as seen, for instance,
in John Milton’s Paradise Lost). Such theodicies have
covered the gauntlet between a simple explanation that evil comes
as a direct result of human free will or to more complex
philosophical attempts such as that offered by the philosopher
Leibniz.
In his theodicy, which was satired by Voltaire’s
Candide, Leibniz distinguished among three types of evil: natural
evil, metaphysical evil, and moral evil. In this three-fold
schema, Leibniz argued that moral evil is an inevitable and
necessary consequence of finitude, which is a metaphysical lack of
complete being. Because every creature falls short of infinite
being, that shortfall must necessarily yield defects such as we
see in moral evil. The problem with this theodicy is that it fails
to take into account the biblical ideal of evil. If evil is a
metaphysical necessity for creatures, then obviously Adam and Eve
had to have been evil before the fall and would have to continue
to be evil even after glorification in heaven.... Read this in
full at
http://www.christianity.com/Home/Christian%20Living%20Features/11596412/
VERSE TO PONDER
“[T]he fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and
self-control. There is no law against such things.”
Galatians 5:22-23
CONSIDER
“Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a
part of the heaving surface of ocean, so must I never live my life
for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around
me.” Albert Schweitzer
WORLD CONGRESS OF
FAMILIES V WILL BE BROADCAST LIVE ON THE INTERNET
World Congress of Families V (Amsterdam, August 10-12), will
be the first Congress to be webcast live on the Internet with
video and audio. Both plenary sessions and panel discussions in
the main hall will be webcast live. To access live webcasting, go
to either the World Congress of Families site
(www.worldcongress.org) or the website of the Dutch local
organizing committee (www.worldcongress.nl) and follow the
instructions.
World Congress of Families V marks 12 years
of international pro-family Congresses -- Prague (1997), Geneva
(1999), Mexico City (2004), Warsaw (2007) and Amsterdam (2009).
MARIE
LITTLE, WIDOW OF PAUL LITTLE, DIES AT AGE 91
Marie Huttenlock Little, the widow of late evangelism guru
Paul Little, passed away July 28 after more than six decades of
ministry. Little’s husband was InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship’s director of Evangelism from 1965 until 1975,
the year he died in an automobile accident. Before his death, Paul
Little had written a number of popular books on evangelism and
apologetics -- one of which (Know Why You Believe) was selected by
Christianity Today magazine as one of the 50 most influential
books of 20th century evangelicalism. He’s also known for
How to Give Away Your Faith and Know What You Believe....
Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090804/marie-little-widow-of-paul-little-dies-at-age-91/index.html
RIDING A DEAD
HORSE The
tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from one generation
to the next, says that when you discover you are riding a dead
horse, the best strategy is to dismount. However, in contemporary
organizations other strategies have often been tried with dead
horses, including the following:
1. Buying a stronger
whip. 2. Changing riders. 3. Threatening the horse with
termination. 4. Appointing a committee to study the horse. 5.
Arranging to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
6. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
7. Appointing an intervention team to reanimate the dead
horse. 8. Creating a training session to increase the riders
load share. 9. Reclassifying the dead horse as
living-impaired. 10. Change the form so that it reads: "This
horse is not dead." 11. Hire outside contractors to ride
the dead horse. 12. Harness several dead horses together for
increased speed. 13. Donate the dead horse to a recognized
charity, thereby deducting its full original cost. 14.
Providing additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
15. Do a time management study to see if the lighter riders
would improve productivity. 16. Purchase an after-market product
to make dead horses run faster. 17. Declare that a dead horse
has lower overhead and therefore performs better. 18. Form a
quality focus group to find profitable uses for dead horses. 19.
Rewrite the expected performance requirements for horses. 20.
Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position. (Mikey’s
Funnies) http://www.mikeysFunnies.com
THE CHRISTIAN
WORLD OF AGATHA CHRISTIE
by Nick Baldock Detective fiction is a distinctively moral
genre; indeed, a distinctively theological genre. Questions of
guilt and justice are inherent within even the most implausible
and incredible whodunit. The world of Agatha Christie was a
Christian world. The assumptions, morality, and society are
Christian.
Christie was baptised into the Church of
England, although her peripatetic mother dabbled in other
religions, including Catholicism, and introduced Agatha to the
possibilities of occult spirituality, a theme that recurs in her
stories outside the classic detective genre. Nonetheless, it was
her mother’s copy of the Imitation of Christ that Christie
kept by her bedside, an inspiration she passed onto her detective
Jane Marple, a character A.N. Wilson called “a more
impressive creation than those old women such as Mrs. Moore in the
novels of E.M. Forster, who are somehow meant to carry
quasi-mythic weight and hidden wisdom.”.... Read this in
full at
http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2009/08/the-christian-world-of-agatha-christie
REPOSSESSING
VIRTUE -- WISE VOICES FROM RELIGION, SCIENCE, INDUSTRY, AND THE
ARTS Here,
we present the second program in our series on moral and spiritual
aspects of living in and beyond economic crisis, this time with
wise voices from religion, science, industry, and the arts. As the
economy has faltered, we've grasped to understand what went wrong,
and how. But beneath economic explanations and remedies, these
questions compel us to other kinds of reflection -- on qualities
of human nature that ultimately determine economies and markets;
on qualities of humanity that we want to cultivate in ourselves
and our children. How will we redefine what matters in this
moment? Who will we be for each other? .... Listen to this in full
at
http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/2009/rv-wisevoices2/
‘BACK TO
CHURCH' CAMPAIGN TO WOO ‘DE-CHURCHED' AND ‘UN-CHURCHED'
As millions of Americans head back to school, organizers of a
new faith-based outreach campaign hope that millions more will
come back to church as well.
The "Back to Church
Sunday" campaign (http://www.backtochurch.com) from San
Diego-based Outreach Inc. makes it easy for church members to
invite their friends and family by creating a worship service
specifically geared toward visitors.
The program kicks off
with national "Back to Church Sunday" on Sept.13 aimed
at reaching the "un-churched" and "de-churched"
-- people who used to go to church, but don't any more.
The
campaign is based on a simple idea. If you ask un-churched people
to come with you to church-mostly likely they'll say yes.... Read
this in full at
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/pressreleases/back_to_church_campaign_to_woo_de_churched_and_un_churched/
PBS ANNOUNCES 3
NEW PROGRAMS FOR 2010 EXPLORING VARIOUS PATHS TO FAITH,
SPIRITUALITY
PBS will present three documentaries that explore faith and
the varieties of religious expression in the United States -- one
of the most religiously observant and spiritually diverse
countries in the world. GOD IN AMERICA, THE BUDDHA, and THE
CALLING will air in 2010 on PBS.
"For many Americans,
exploring religion and faith is one of life's biggest and most
central questions, and PBS offers some of the most compelling,
wide-ranging programming on this subject any where on television,"
said John F. Wilson, PBS Chief TV Programming Executive. "In
2010, viewers will be able to enhance their understanding from
three different documentary perspectives providing a truly
multi-dimensional experience that will also continue online with
materials and video."
GOD IN AMERICA, a six-hour
documentary series from AMERICAN EXPERIENCE and FRONTLINE,
targeted to air in fall 2010 on PBS, will tell the sweeping and
dramatic story of religious life in America, examining more than
500 years of American religious history from the voyage of
Christopher Columbus to the 2008 presidential election. GOD IN
AMERICA will examine this history as it has played out in public
life, exploring the complex interaction between religion and
democracy in the United States; the origins of the American
concept of religious liberty; the dynamics of the ever-evolving
American religious marketplace; and the vital role played by
religious ideas and institutions in many social reform movements
in the country's history.... Read this in full at
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/pressreleases/pbs_announces_three_new_programs_exploring_many_paths_to_faith_spirituality/
YOUR AGE BY
CHOCOLATE MATH
1. First of all, pick the number of times a week that you
would like to have chocolate (more than once but less than 10) 2.
Multiply this number by 2 (just to be bold) 3. Add 5 4.
Multiply it by 50 -- I'll wait while you get the calculator 5.
If you have already had your birthday this year, add 1759. If you
haven't, add 1758 6. Now subtract the four digit year that you
were born. You should have a three digit number. The first
digit of this number is your original number (i.e., how many times
you want to have chocolate each week). The next two numbers are
your age! http://www.mikeysFunnies.com
LIVING A LIFE OF
RADICAL WORSHIP
What is true worship? It can elevate us into the presence of
God, renew and refresh our spirits, and offer the deepest
expression of love for our Savior. Yet worship can also be a call
to arms, a battle cry, a salvo in an ancient spiritual war that
continues today. In his first book, Make Love, Make War: Now Is
the Time to Worship (David C Cook, August 2009), award-winning
songwriter Brian Doerksen challenges Christians to make their
lives an offering of radical worship.
An acclaimed
songwriter, recording artist, author, conference speaker, and
pastor, Doerksen believes God is calling us to love and to
battle--to spread peace and wage spiritual warfare. "Each is
essential to our daily spiritual walk," writes Doerksen. "We
do this through how we live, how we serve Him, and how we protect
and fight for what matters most. One of the ways I make love and
war is through music."
In Make Love, Make War,
Doerksen shares the stories and inspirations behind some of
today's most influential songs of worship. While offering special
tips for aspiring songwriters, Doerksen also reveals rich truths
and insights about the nature of God, His calling for us, and how
we can wage spiritual war and share His love through a life of
radical worship.
"I believe that we know love and war
are at the heart of everything inside us, and everything going on
all around us," says Doerksen. "We sense that there is
nothing that Satan hates more than the worship of Yahweh by those
who are faithful to the Lamb. He spends more than a little energy
convincing us that there really is no war going on, and that the
sum total of our lives' calling is to be nice. But God is
provoking us to rise up and fight. The war He calls us to make is
always for the sake of love!"
Beginning August
through September, the "Hear It First, Read It First"
contest and promotion for Make Love, Make War will be sponsored by
David C Cook, Integrity Music, HearItFirst.com, and
Gibson/Epiphone Guitars. By visiting HearItFirst.com, fans and
readers will be able to enter to win prizes, as well as download
free music video performances of Brian Doerksen and free sample
chapters from Make Love, Make War.
http://www.davidccook.com/catalog/Detail.cfm?sn=106199&source=search
CONSIDER
“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full
value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
Mark Twain
VERSE
TO PONDER “I
pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may
dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being
rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all
the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the
love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses, knowledge --
that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:16-19
ON PRAYER In
his “One Minute Uplift” newsletter, Rick Ezell writes:
"St. Augustine, the early church father and theologian,
described prayer as like a man in a hapless boat, who throws a
rope at a rock. The rock provides the needed security and
stability for the helpless man. When the rock is lassoed, it's not
the man pulling the rock to the boat (though it may appear that
way); it is the pulling of the boat to the rock. Jesus is the
rock, and we throw the rope through prayer.
"Samuel
Chadwick said, 'The one concern of the devil is to keep saints
from prayer. He fears nothing from prayer less studies, prayer
less work, and prayer less religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks
at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.'" (Tto
subscribe to the newsletter send a request to
http://www.rickezell.net/uplifts.htm.)
PRAY FOR PERSECUTED
CHRISTIANS TODAY
http://christiansincrisis.net/
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 Business Growth 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.
Book your next
vacation with us! Http://www.ChristianConnectionTravel.com
Books,
Music & More! http://www.ChristianConnectionBooks.com
Get
your domain name here! http://www.GoGlobalDomains.com
Let
me show you how to earn money as you
travel! http://www.earnGlobalVacations.com/ It's
as easy as 1-2-3!
SHARE YOUR FAVORITE
WEBSITES Tell
us what sites you find enjoyable and why.
Petra:
Lost City of Stone
http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/petra/
Geocaching
http://www.geocaching.com/
The
Longest Way 1.0 -- one year walk/beard grow time lapse video
http://www.vimeo.com/4636202
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.)
Amazing!
You hang something in your closet for a while and it shrinks 2
sizes! Min.
Frank Coleman, Editor [email protected]
Thanks
for welcoming CONNECTIONS into your in-box!
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CONNECTIONS is a periodic newsletter of
announcements, news, recommendations, articles, and other
information helpful to men in our spiritual growth. Thanks for
welcoming CONNECTIONS into your in-box!
-----------
The
CONNECTIONS 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.
Path Of Life Ministries is located at 6459 S. Campbell Ave.
Chicago, IL 60629. Visit our website at:
http://www.pathoflifeministries.net/
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