MSM CONNECTIONS
For the week of 05/30
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.
Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
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"Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always." Psalm 105:4 (NIV)
CONSIDER
"It seems to me, as time goes on, that the only thing that is worth seeking for is to know and to be known by Christ – a privilege open alone to the childlike, who, with receptivity, guilelessness, and humility, move Godward." Charles H. Brent (1862-1929)
SOCIETAL SUICIDE
by Charles Colson with Anne Morse
Is America witnessing the end of marriage? The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has ordered that the state issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. (By late March, the Massachusetts legislature voted to recognize same-sex civil unions instead.) An unprecedented period of municipal lawlessness has followed, with officials in California, New York, Oregon, and New Mexico gleefully mocking their state constitutions and laws. The result: Thousands of gays rushed to these municipalities to "marry," while much of the news media egged them on....
Marriage is the traditional building block of human society, intended both to unite couples and bring children into the world.
Tragically, the sexual revolution led to the decoupling of marriage and procreation; same-sex "marriage" would pull them completely apart, leading to an explosive increase in family collapse, out-of-wedlock births-and crime. How do we know this?
In nearly 30 years of prison ministry, I've witnessed the disastrous consequences of family breakdown -- in the lives of thousands of delinquents. Dozens of studies now confirm the evidence I've seen with my own eyes. Boys who grow up without fathers are at least twice as likely as other boys to end up in prison. Sixty percent of rapists and 72% of adolescent murderers never knew or lived with their fathers....
Read the full commentary at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/006/8.72.html
<a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/006/8.72.html"> Or click here</a>
DEBUNKING THE DA
VINCI CODE
An interview with Dallas Theological Seminary scholar Darrell Bock,
Q: You say that there is a "conscious agenda" at work in the Da Vinci Code. What is that agenda?
A: There is an attempt to -- and I'm going to use this term on purpose -- relegate Christianity to a level that is like other religions. There are a lot of things Christianity claims are unique about what Christians believe and what Christianity is about -- particularly the focus on Jesus Christ and his uniqueness. And it's those elements that tend to be relativized by this kind of material. We have a novel that's claiming that the divine Jesus was originally a human Jesus. That's the major re-visioning that's going on.
Q: Why does this agenda take away from Jesus' uniqueness?
A: Because it tries to reduce Jesus to a great religious figure, one among many, rather than being a unique figure who is uniquely divine.
Q: Because the book posits that Jesus could have been married?
A: No, I actually make the point in the book that if Jesus had been married it wouldn't touch the theology one bit. Jesus is 100 percent human. Had he been married and had he had children, all it would have done would have been to reflect his engagement with his humanity -- but I just don't think historically there's any evidence that Jesus was married. But the important point in relationship to the novel is, had Jesus been married, the church wouldn't have had any reason to suppress that knowledge....
Read the rest of this interview at
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/145/story_14506_1.html
<a href="http://www.beliefnet.com/story/145/story_14506_1.html"> Or click here</a>
SPYING NEW
LEADERS
How to recognize natural leaders and help them develop. Do you see yourself here?
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/002/18.60.html
<a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2004/002/18.60.html"> Or click here</a>
AMAZING SIN, HOW
DEEP WE'RE BOUND
by Mark R. McMinn
....Part of our mess is not knowing we are a mess. Most of us in contemporary life have never participated in the evil of slavery, never been convicted of a felony, never abused a child. Sometimes we don't feel a pressing need for grace because we do not see our sin as particularly troublesome.....
I am usually nice to my students, treat my colleagues fairly, deeply love those in my family, pay my taxes, provide psychological help to pastors in crisis, go to church and tithe. I don't steal, commit adultery, use illegal drugs, or swear. And I floss regularly. When I was younger, I would gladly sing, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound" and then remain uncomfortably silent for the next six words. I was no wretch, that was for sure.
But when I look at myself honestly, I see my sin. I micromanage, consume more than my share of resources, and harbor bitterness from past losses. I hoard my time and resent others for intruding on it. I am vain and consumed with how others perceive me. I wrestle with my sexuality and have strayed away from Lisa, my wife, with my eyes and my heart. I have learned how to pretend to listen without really listening. I think more about being great than about being good. I act more spiritual than I am. I am a mess -- broken in every way -- and my only hope is in God's mercy.
I have been socialized in a therapeutic language that proclaims "I'm okay, you're okay." Our culture is fascinated with the cult of self-esteem, as if this is the path to self-acceptance and the ultimate experience of love. Many have become adept at polishing the steel of the defensive armor, but the inner self still longs for love more than self-love, for grace more than impression management, for authenticity more than admiration. Beneath the armor of our pride, we live as vulnerable men and women longing to be loved and known. Our hope is found in cautiously shedding the armor and clinging to the possibility of amazing grace....
Seeing our sin occurs over a lifetime of pursuing God. Our vision is seldom restored in a single burst of light but with countless rays streaming into our darkened eyes over many years -- and always in the midst of amazing grace. At the end of his life John Newton said to his friends, "My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: That I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Savior."...
Read the full article at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/005/11.50.html
<a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/005/11.50.html"> Or click here</a>
MEN'S HABITS, NOT
BIOLOGY, CAUSE EARLY DEATH
Men die, on average, about seven years earlier than women. It might not have to be that way. Increasingly, research implicates behavior, not biology, for men's shorter life spans. Men are more likely to die violently or accidentally, and they're less likely to seek medical care when they don't feel well.
Read the story at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-05-23-mens-health-usat_x.htm
<a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2004-05-23-mens-health-usat_x.htm"> Or click here</a>
REMINDER
Father's Day is June 20.
FINDING GOD IN
THE QUESTIONS
At age 65, Dr. Timothy Johnson decided to take another look at his faith and rethink everything, as if for the first time. As a seminary graduate, who decided to be a doctor, and ended up on television, Johnson talks about this personal journey in Finding God in the Questions. Johnson is best known as medical editor for ABC News where he's reported on health care issues for Good Morning America since 1976. He holds joint positions in medicine at Harvard University and Mass General Hospital in Boston. He is also the assisting minister at the Community Covenant Church in Massachusetts.
Your book starts with the most rigorous questions about the intellectual sensibility of faith in a scientific age. How do you deal with the question about whether the universe is an accident or not?
There's an even more basic question that I eventually get to which is, Why is there something rather than nothing? When you think about it, there's nothing that says that it has to be. If you start with that question, then I think the very next question becomes, Is this kind of world more likely to have happened by accident or by design? I point out that it's amazing that we wouldn't for a minute look at objects of everyday life, the television in our room or a vase on the table and say, how did that come about? We know it came about because of some kind of intelligence and some kind of design by a person or a committee of persons. But when it comes to this unbelievable universe, we can be talked into thinking that it could have happened by chance.
The creation of the universe is absolutely amazing, from my point of view, and that's a bias probably because I'm a physician. I find that the human body is even in some ways more amazing. And when you get down to the structure of DNA and the brain, in particular, it turns out to be the most amazing structure that we could ever possibly imagine.
Read the full interview at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/121/23.0.html
<a href="http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2004/121/23.0.html"> Or click here</a>
CONSIDER
"If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning -- just as, if there were no light in the universe, and therefore no creatures with eyes, we should never know that it was dark. Dark would be without meaning." C. S. Lewis (1898-1963)
VERSE TO PONDER
"Direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me." Psalm 119:133
* Participate in our 20th year anniversary celebration on Sunday, June 6, 2004, 3:30 pm.
* Get prepared for the Christian Marriage Enrichment Ministry’s Las Vegas outing. July 18–21, 2004. See Minister Shonnette Collier for details.
INHABITING THE
BIBLICAL NARRATIVE
How I Learned to Stop Doing Bible Studies and Start Loving the Bible Again
by Tony Jones
"...We made a few decisions right off the bat: we wanted to get through the whole Bible between September and May; we wouldn't use versions of the Bible with verse numbers, since they tend to distract from the story, and we'd avoid versions of the Bible with crinkly pages, too. We settled on The Book of God by Walter Wangerin, a novelized form of the story from Abraham through Jesus. It worked out to be about a chapter a week-anywhere between five and 20 pages of reading....
"We also decided to interact with the text of Scripture in other ways. We reminded ourselves that many followers of Christ for centuries didn't have a Bible in their laps. Instead, they heard the story read and sung at church or told around the hearth, and they saw it in paintings and other works of art. We needed to have a broader definition of the word "text," one that included all of the ways that God's story is made known to us. Everyone in the group was encouraged to search the Internet for art and poetry and to think of movies and songs that elucidate parts of the story.
"And that brings up another point: we worked very hard at not calling it "the story of Abraham" but "the Abraham part of The Story." That is, none of the individual narratives stands alone. Each is a part of the cosmic story that stretches from the creation of the universe to its consummation.
"Here are some of the ways we interacted with parts of the story:
"As we talked about Abraham's near-sacrifice of Isaac, we were focused on his role as father, because that's where Wangerin places the focus in his retelling. But then someone passed around a painting by Peter Paul Reubens in which the spotlight is focused on the unblemished alabaster torso of a young boy. Immediately the conversation shifted to Isaac's point of view.
"We listened to Donny Osmond sing a track from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, and the students were taken with how closely the words followed the biblical text.
"We watched clips from The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt.
"We listened to "Samson and Delilah" by the Grateful Dead.
"We studied a beautiful painting by Pieter Breugal of Jacob wrestling the angel.
We read a recent ruling written by a judge who quoted King Solomon.
"And probably the funniest moment was when someone brought in a poem from the Internet that imagined Jacob, Rachel, and Leah on The Jerry Springer Show. (Think about it for a minute!)
"And the list goes on.
"In the end, I'm convinced that it's more important that my students know the grand, sweeping scheme of this meta-narrative than that they can recite this verse or that one. I'd rather have them be able to sketch out a genealogy from Abraham through Jesus than be able to find Isaiah 12:28 in record time. I want them to know that these are our grandmothers and grandfathers in the faith, that this is our story, and that we are a part of this story, too.
"When I was speaking on this subject at the National Youth Workers' Convention last fall, a youth worker raised his hand and said, "Shortly after 9/11, a girl in our group noticed that 3,000 innocent people dying when a building collapses is a lot like when Samson knocked down the Temple. Is this what you mean by 'inhabiting the biblical narrative'?"
"Exactly."
http://www.youthspecialties.com/linker/index.php?id=3254
<a href="http://www.youthspecialties.com/linker/index.php?id=3254"> Or click here</a>
CONSIDER
When John Owen, the great Puritan, lay on his deathbed his secretary wrote (in his name) to a friend, "I am yet in the land of the dying, but I hope soon to be in the land of the living."
(SOURCE: Death, John M. Drescher, In Pulpit Digest Summer 1985.)
VERSE TO PONDER
"Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners." Hebrews 13:3a (NIV)
Mark your calendars for the weekend of August 27-29, 2004 at the Hickory Ridge Marriott Conference in Lisle Illinois where we will have our annual Men’s Conference. Theme: “The Fruit Of The Spirit.” Come and be blessed during this time of fellowship and ministry. Contact Minister Maurice Collier or Minister Frank Coleman. Visit the church’s web site: www.newjoydivine.org, go to the Men’s ministry page for details.
THIS WEEK'S HYMN:
BRETHREN, WE HAVE MET TO WORSHIP
Words: George Atkins, 1819
Music: William Moore, 1825
Brethren, we have met to worship and adore the Lord our God;
Will you pray with all your power, while we try to preach the Word?
All is vain unless the Spirit of the Holy One comes down;
Brethren, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.
Brethren, see poor sinners round you slumbering on the brink of woe;
Death is coming, hell is moving, can you bear to let them go?
See our fathers and our mothers, and our children sinking down;
Brethren, pray and holy manna will be showered all around.
Sisters, will you join and help us? Moses' sister aided him;
Will you help the trembling mourners who are struggling hard with sin?
Tell them all about the Savior, tell them that He will be found;
Sisters, pray, and holy manna will be showered all around.
Is there a trembling jailer, seeking grace, and filled with tears?
Is there here a weeping Mary, pouring forth a flood of tears?
Brethren, join your cries to help them; sisters, let your prayers abound;
Pray, Oh pray that holy manna may be scattered all around.
Let us love our God supremely, let us love each other, too;
Let us love and pray for sinners, till our God makes all things new.
Then He'll call us home to Heaven, at His table we'll sit down;
Christ will gird Himself and serve us with sweet manna all around.
>from CyberHymnal at
http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/r/brethren.htm
<a href="http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/b/r/brethren.htm"> Or click here</a>
CREDIT CARD SCAM
Watch out for a person who calls your phone number and identifies him/herself as calling from the Security and Fraud Department of Visa and Mastercard. They'll sound professional, even giving a badge number. But don't be snookered into giving your card number or last 3 digits on the back of your card. It's a scam.
Just hang up.
MAINTAINING A
CENTRAL AIR CONDITIONER
A central air conditioner is a very reliable appliance. If the unit does stop working, there's not much that a homeowner can do; all major service on a central air conditioner should be performed by a pro. However, you can do several simple preventive-maintenance tasks to keep the repair person from knocking on your door.
* Clean the compressor unit. Unscrew and remove the cover from the compressor unit (you know, that noisy box outside your house). With the cover off, use the garden hose with the spray nozzle to remove dirt from the interior of the compressor cabinet. Be careful to avoid getting water on the fan motor and other controls. These parts are weatherproof, but they're not designed to take the direct spray from a nozzle. Do clean the air louvers in the sides of the cabinet.
* Oil the fan motor. Your air conditioner fan motor, located in the center of the condenser coil, usually has a plastic cap atop the twin oil ports: One oil tube is connected to each end of the motor shaft. Place a few drops of 20-weight motor oil in each tube, and replace the plastic cap.
* Change the furnace filter. Replace the filter every 30 days. Because the central air conditioning unit uses the furnace blower and ductwork to distribute the cool air, you need to service the furnace filter in the summer, as well as winter. Most filters are located in the return duct at the base of the furnace.
For more information like this, get a copy of Home Improvement For Dummies
http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=FeaturedTitles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764550055.html
<a href="http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=FeaturedTitles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesTitle/productCd-0764550055.html"> Or click here</a>
Related Articles
Bathroom Remodeling: Installing a Two-Handled Faucet
http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=RelatedArticles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-2133.html
<a href="http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=RelatedArticles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-2133..html"> Or click here</a>
Picking the Right Tools for the Home-Improvement Job
http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=RelatedArticles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-367.html
<a href="http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=RelatedArticles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-367.html"> Or click here</a>
Taking Care of Sliding Glass Doors
http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=RelatedArticles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-604.html
<a href="http://portal.hungryminds.com/etip.asp?topic=dd18&promo=RelatedArticles&link=www.dummies.com/WileyCDA/DummiesArticle/id-604.html"> Or click here</a>
FROM JONI
EARECKSON TADA
Hi Praying Family...
As if breaking my neck wasn't enough, it's now a broken leg which will keep me in an 'open' cast for up to three months. At least that's what the orthopedist said yesterday. It also means keeping my leg elevated as often as I can (so it's not only my wheelchair, but a stool, pillow and bag of ice). My body is reacting with "sweats," a frustrating pain-signal involving shortness of breath, a spike in blood pressure, and profuse perspiration on one side of my face, shoulders and neck. But God is good -- He put a hymn on my heart that has to do with feet, the one that goes, "Lord lift me up and let me stand, by faith on heaven's table-land; a higher plane than I have found, Lord plant my feet on higher ground."
But we need your prayers earnestly -- especially Ken, Judy and other friends who are going the extra mile to help me. Plus, I have been advised not to travel on an airplane for awhile. Would you please ask God to:
* Give mental and emotional strength to deal with this "sweating" reaction.
* Heal my tibia-fibula fracture. My quadriplegic bones are rather thin and porous.
* Help us gain His perspective on changes which will have to be made to my schedule over the next three months.
* Help us all to gain all the blessings and look for the new opportunities in which this accident will bring Him glory.
Bless you and thank you for praying. We felt it, sensed the power, and could almost "see" God's everlasting arms underneath us over the last week-and-a-half as we slowly made our way home from our ministry trip back east. I have ahead of me a long road toward healing, and I will be thanking the Lord Jesus constantly for your support and intercessions!
Joni Eareckson Tada
Joni and Friends
http://www.joniandfriends.org/
<a href="http://www.joniandfriends.org/"> Or click here</a>
ON PRAYER
"Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer."
Romans 12:12 (NIV)
CRITICAL PRAYER
REQUESTS FOR STRATEGIC NATIONS
We're praying for our fellow believers in a different nation each week.
Please pray for...GUINEA-BISSAU
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pu.html
<a href="http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/pu.html"> Or click here</a>
Leadership in the evangelical churches is mature, with a real vision for evangelism and missions. There are still, however, many churches in the interior without any pastor. If they do have a pastor, he is often responsible for as many as 10 other congregations as well. Pray for others to be called to the ministry. Pray also for the Bible Institute, run by the Evangelical Church to train indigenous pastors. Ask the Lord for more national teachers, and that the costs of the Institute and support for the students would be increasingly met by national believers.
http://www.gmi.org/ow/index.html
<a href="http://www.gmi.org/ow/index.html"> Or click here</a>
PRAY
* Bro. Rudolph West
* Elder Tim Howard (travel)
* Bro. Anton Johnson
* Bro. Danielle Metcalf
* Bro. Darnell Kennedy
[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.
Sacramentis.com
http://www.sacramentis.com/main.html
<a href="http://www.sacramentis.com/main.html"> Or click here</a>
Where's George (dollar bill tracker)
<a href="http://www.wheresgeorge.com/"> Or click here</a>
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.)
It might look like I'm doing nothing, but on a cellular level, I'm quite busy.
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, Chair, 773-410-1483, [email protected]
Minister Arnold Whitehead, Vice Chair, 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's Ministry 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 www.newjoydivine.org
<a href="http://www.newjoydivine.org"> AOL users click here</a>
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