MSM CONNECTIONS
For the week of 09/19/04
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
and minister to others.
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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 connect you with God and with other men at NJD. If you'd like its delivery to your email address stopped, scroll down and follow the instructions at the end of this message. Also let me know if you change your email address and want to keep subscribing to MSM CONNECTIONS.
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"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13 (TNIV)
CONSIDER
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself." Leo Tolstoy
WHEN GOD DOESN'T HEAL
Answered by Mark M. Yarbrough
"The life context of the question is all too familiar. The issue arises in our darkest hours-in the hospital ward, in the doctor's office, when the unfavorable test results return. Our need often arises unexpectedly and then consumes us. Embedded in the question are two key assumptions. First, that ours is a God of miracles, including healing. A quick evaluation of Scripture attests that miracles display God's power (Jer. 10:12), arouse wonder (Exod. 4:21), and function as a sign to confirm his message (Matt. 12:39-40). The second assumption is that believers are instructed to pray fervently. The Thessalonians are commanded to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17) because habitual prayers express dependence on God. And positioned as little children, we anticipate "good things" from our heavenly Father (Matt. 7:11). Yet three additional points are critical.
Read this answer in full at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/009/30.80.html
GROWING IN CHRIST
A friend was telling me that her folks had just returned from an early summer Alaska cruise. She said they enjoyed the trip a great deal, but she said, her dad came home with one observation in particular that really impressed him.
He said the flowers in Alaska are huge! The pansies, day lilies and impatiens all had flowers that were just immense. Even the dandelions stood two feet above the grass with flowers that were 6" across. He wondered what kind of fertilizer the Alaskans were using - but when he inquired they said "none." Why then, he asked, are the flowers so big? The answer came back: Nearly twenty hours of sunlight!
With that much exposure to sunlight, anything would grow bigger and stronger. The same principle applies if I want to grow in Christ. If I want to get bigger in love, stronger in patience, stand taller in selflessness, shine brighter in godliness – I need to spend more time in the Son.
(Source: PreachingNow, www.preaching.com)
A CHRISTIAN'S IMMUNE
SYSTEM
by David Jeremiah
At the peak of the Cold War, five scientists are miniaturized to the size of germs and injected into a vital scientist's bloodstream in a tiny submarine. Their mission: travel through his circulatory system and destroy the lethal blood clot in his brain-before their miniaturization wears off. If he dies, the secret to permanent miniaturization-and a quantum leap forward in technological world dominance-will be lost. One of the scientists is a secret saboteur.
Isaac Asimov's book, "Fantastic Voyage" (and the movie) is now a classic among sci-fi fans. One of the most exciting parts of Fantastic Voyage is Asimov's description of how the body's immune system goes to work to attack and rid the body of the germ-sized submarine and its passengers.
Germs and other microorganisms, cancer cells, and transplanted tissues and organs are all viewed by the immune system as intruders to be attacked and defeated. The immune system is based in the body's lymphatic system, which coordinates key body parts-lymph nodes, tonsils, bone marrow, spleen, liver, lungs, and intestines-to organize and deploy lymphocytes (antibody-producing cells) to attack invaders. An infection on your finger may lead to a swollen elbow (lymph node) as your body corrals and transports infectious germ cells to be destroyed-amazing defense system!
God has a defense system too, an immune system designed to protect us from external "invaders" of our spiritual lives-financial shortfalls, relationship breakdowns, vocational disruptions, family problems, accidents, discouragement, loneliness, illness. When they invade Christians, we often hear, "Why do bad things happen to God's people?"
If the heroes of our faith (read Hebrews 11) were invaded by tests, temptations, trials, and troubles, what about us? And why didn't God keep His own Son from experiencing troubles -- "though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Hebrews 5:8)? In discovering those reasons, we discover God's five-fold immune system against germ-sized or giant-sized problems.
Read the rest of this devotional at
http://www.crosswalk.com/faith/ministry_articles/1282246.html
NOT ENOUGH PLEASURE
"The enemy of worship is not that our desire for pleasure is too strong but too weak! We have settled for a home, a family, a few friends, a job, a television, a microwave oven, and an occasional night out, a yearly vacation and perhaps a new personal computer. We have accustomed ourselves to such meager, short-lived pleasures that our capacity for joy has shriveled. And so our worship has shriveled...The scenery and poetry and music of the majesty of God have dried up like a forgotten peach at the back of the refrigerator." John Piper
PARALYMPIC GAMES
(9/17-28), Athens, Greece
http://www.paralympic.org/release/Main_Sections_Menu/index.html
http://www.christianitytoday.com/sports/features/athletes/olympics-athletes.html
NATIONAL PREPAREDNESS
MONTH
September is National Preparedness Month. Are you prepared for the next emergency (like the hurricanes of late)? See resources at
http://www.ChristianEmergencyNetwork.org
VERSE TO PONDER
"'Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken nor my covenant of peace be removed,' says the LORD, who has compassion on you." Isaiah 54:10 (NIV)
CONSIDER
"If our faith is not relevant to our daily life in the world and in the parish, then it is no use; and if we cannot be Christians in our work, in the neighborhood, in our political decisions, then we had better stop being Christians. A piety reserved for Sundays is no message for this age." Douglas Rhymes (1914- )
DAFFYNITIONS
* Advertising: The science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it
* Allege: A rocky platform on a mountain
* Arbitrator: A cook that leaves Arby's to work at McDonald's
* Arson: Our daughter's brother
* Autobiography: A history of cars
* Avoidable: What a bullfighter tries to do
* Backward: Patient rooms at the rear of a hospital
* Baloney: Where some hemlines fall
* Bassinet: What every fisherman wants
* Belong: To take your time
* Bernadette: The act of torching a mortgage
* Book: a utensil used to pass time while waiting for the computer repairman
* Budget: A method for going broke methodically
* Burglarize: What a crook sees with
* Carpet: A dog that enjoys riding in an automobile
* Circular Definition: see Definition, Circular
* Coffee: Break fluid
* Cole's Law: Thinly sliced cabbage
* Condescend: A prisoner escaping down the wall using a rope
* Consciousness: that annoying time between naps
* Control: A short, ugly inmate
* Counterfeiters: Workers who put together kitchen cabinets
* Deduce: De lowest card in de deck
* Democracy: Four wolves and a lamb voting on lunch
* Diplomacy: The art of letting other people have your own way
* Document: Repeating what your doctor told you in your own words
* Dogma: A mother dog
* Earthquake: A topographical error
* Eclipse: What a gardener does to your hedge
* Eyedropper: A clumsy ophthalmologist
* Fairy Tale: A horror story to prepare children for the newspapers
* Falsehood: Someone who pretends to be a gangster
* Feast: An eat wave
* Fission: What Huck Finn did when he played hookey
* Flashlight: A case for holding dead batteries
* Flattery: Phony express
* Geezer: Formerly known as studmuffin
* Geometry: What the acorn said when it grew up
* Grateful: What it takes to build a good fire
* Ground beef: A cow with no legs
* Handicap: A ready-to-use hat
* Hanging: A suspended sentence
* Hari-Kari: Transporting a wig
* Heroes: What a guy in a boat does
* Hunger: What the posse did to the lady rustler
* Hypochondriac: A guy who won't let well enough alone
* Hypothesis: What a boy says to his father on the telephone
* Indecision: Under the whether
CHRISTIAN PRODUCERS IN
HOLLYWOOD
Monique Parsons reports on Christians and Hollywood -- two words that don't normally appear together. But Parsons finds that many in Tinseltown use their faith to shape, and interpret, the movies and films they work on. Listen to this National Public Radio report at
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1126769
NATIONAL MEDIA PRAYER
BREAKFAST
With media moguls in Hollywood and New York still stunned by the success of Mel Gibson's "The Passion of the Christ," Christians in Hollywood are calling the nation to prayer for the entertainment industry. The first annual National Media Prayer Breakfast will be held on October 1, 2004, at The Beverly Hilton featuring celebrities and top producers, directors and decision-makers. The breakfast organizers have invited – and will support in prayer -- the media's 365 most powerful people.
Sponsored by Mastermedia International, the event will celebrate the organization's 15th year mobilizing prayer for the top leaders in American media through its Media Leader Prayer Calendar. The calendar is distributed quarterly to more than 50,000 people, is available worldwide online, and is the most widely-recognized prayer guide of its type. It's been featured in "People" magazine, "Daily Variety," on National Public Radio and in the story line of NBC's hit TV series "West Wing."
http://www.mastermediaintl.org/NMPB
http://www.hollywoodprayernetwork.org
http://www.nationalmediaprayer.org
CONSERVATIVE LIKE A FOX
An interview with Cal Thomas
Q: How did your faith revive?
A: I had started to work for NBC in 1961 as a copy boy in Washington. I had moved up, and I had this plan of where I would be by age 30. But at 27, I wasn't advancing as I thought I should be. I felt like I was in a basement, no direction. In 1971, my wife, Ray, and I were feeling a lot of emptiness. So, we started to go to church. Someone recommended Fourth Presbyterian, Pastored by Richard Halverson. We loved it and started attending.
But I was still trying to have it all and not succeeding. I was working six or seven days a week. The culture tells us that if we achieve this, or make this, or buy this, then we will get the [American] dream and be happy.
On a Friday in 1973, my boss at NBC said, "Got a minute?" I got fired-because of my ego, big mouth, and jealousy of now-dead people. That was part of the trembling struggle toward the glory of Christ. He was holding me back for my sake.
My wife said, "You will never be free of the burden of success if you don't thank God for losing your job." In tears I recommitted my life to Christ that night. And that led to 11 years in the wilderness.
Read this interview in full at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/007/31.54.html
ZINGGGGG!
"Guys want to marry guys? Cowards." Christian comedian Brad Stine
IT'S ALL ABOUT WHO,
JESUS?
by Brian McLaren
If a Martian visited earth and observed earthlings at public worship in contemporary or nontraditional settings, what would he/she/it report back to the home planet? (A similar exercise could be imagined for more traditional churches, with different results.)
My friend John, a music professor rather than an extraterrestrial, noticed something too few earthlings have noticed (see his full article at www.anewkindofchristian.com). Too many of our worship songs are more about us than God. Yes, we say the words "praise/thank/bless God," but mostly, what for?
For glorious attributes and wonderful mysteries? For historic deeds and cosmic judgments? For rescuing the widow and orphan? For setting the captive free? For humbling the arrogant and sending the rich away hungry? For spinning galaxies and salting starfields with glorious light? Uh, no.
Rather, we praise God for holding us close, for keeping us secure, for making us feel loved and blessed and forgiven and warm and cozy in our electric blanket of eternal security (with a warm comforter of national security thrown in too). We congratulate God on how well God is meeting our needs. When we say, "You're such a good God," it sometimes sounds like comforting words spoken to a pet.
It pains me to say that, but I think it needs to be said....
Click here to read the rest of this article
http://www.christianitytoday.com/leaders/newsletter/2004/cln40831.html
THIS WEEK'S HYMN: O
LORD MY GOD! HOW GREAT ART THOU!
Words: John Q. Adams (1767-1848)
Music: Lowell Mason (1824)
O Lord my God! how great art Thou!
With honor and with glory crowned;
Light's dazzling splendors veil Thy brow,
And gird the universe around.
Spirits and angels Thou hast made;
Thy ministers a flaming fire;
By Thee were earth's foundations laid;
At Thy rebuke the floods retire.
Thine are the fountains of the deep;
By Thee their waters swell or fail;
Up to the mountain's summit creep,
Or shrink beneath the lowly vale.
Thy fingers mark their utmost found;
That bound the waters may not pass;
Their moisture swells the teeming ground,
And paints the valleys o'er with grass.
The waving harvest, Lord, is Thine;
The vineyard, and the olive's juice;
Corn, wine, and oil, by Thee combine,
Life, gladness, beauty, produce.
The moon for seasons Thou hast made,
The sun for change of day and night;
Of darkness Thine the deepest shade,
And Thine the day's meridian light.
O Lord, Thy works are all divine;
In wisdom hast Thou made them all;
Earth's teeming multitudes are Thine;
Thine-peopled ocean's great and small.
All these on Thee for life depend;
Thy Spirit speaks, and they are born;
They gather what Thy bounties send;
Thy hand of plenty fills the horn.
Thy face is hidden-they turn pale,
With terror quake, with anguish burn;
Their breath Thou givest to the gale;
They die, and to their dust return.
And Thou, my soul, with pure delight,
Thy voice to bless thy Maker raise;
His praise let morning sing to night,
And night to morn repeat His praise.
>from CyberHymnal at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/o/l/m/olmghgat.htm
ON PRAYER
"Spiritual growth is impossible apart from the practice of prayer. Just as the key to enhanced relationships with other people is time spent in communication, so the key to a growing relationship with the personal God of heaven and earth is time invested in speaking to Him in prayer and listening to His voice in Scripture." Kenneth Boa, author and President of Reflections Ministries
CRITICAL PRAYER
REQUESTS FOR STRATEGIC NATIONS
We're praying for our fellow believers in a different nation each week.
Please pray for...PERU
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pe.html
Evangelical churches have grown dramatically since the first evangelical congregation was started a century ago. Evangelicals were only 0.8% (76,000) in 1960, 2.9% (500,000) in 1980 and 8.7% (2.2m) in 2000. The greatest growth was in the worst times of violence and social breakdown. Persecution between 1980 and 1994 was sometimes severe at the hands of both the terrorists and the army in areas of fighting over the cultivation of narcotics -- each regarding Evangelicals as a threat. Over 750 evangelical leaders were martyred and some sentenced to imprisonment on trumped-up charges. Growth has been most marked in the work of CMA, IEP(SIM-LL), CoN, AoG and numerous indigenous Pentecostal groups. After peace came, growth slowed. Pray for a new and deeper work of the Holy Spirit to re-ignite the Church.
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. Gerald Williams
* Minister Tony Hampton
* Bro. Damien Robinson
* Bro. Needle Wilson
* Bro. Joe Ross
* Bro. Lester Yancey
* Bro. LaMallon Howard
* Pastor Alan Roundtree
[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.
Just Between Men
http://www.faithwritersmagazine.com/men.php
Grace To You
Hymn Site
Squash the Mosquitoes
http://www.shockhaber.com/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.htm
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.)
Statistics show that people who have the most birthdays live the longest.
Min. Frank Coleman, Editor
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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:
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