Saturday, September 18, 2010
What's Your Keirsey Personality Type?
Thursday, June 3, 2010
June 19-20..Family Event
Thursday, May 27, 2010
The goal of Christian Life is....
Tuesday, May 25 2010
"I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." - John 12:24
The goal of the Christian life is death, not success. A popular teaching says that if we follow God, we will prosper materially. God may, in fact, bless His people materially, but few can make this claim among third-world countries. Wealth must never be the goal of a person's life, only a by-product.
A missionary to a Middle-Eastern country has shared a motto among their ministry team: "God does not require success, but radical, immediate obedience." Jesus' obedience gained Him the cross. It did not gain Him popularity among the heathen, the religious or financial success, or a life of pleasure. His obedience resulted in His death on the cross. This is the same goal Christ has for each of us--death of our old nature so that He might live through us. That may not sell well among outcome-based Christian workplace believers, but it will result in an eternal reward that far exceeds any earthly reward. "Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with Me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done" (Rev. 22:12).
The Christian life is a paradox--the first will be last, death in return for life, and we are encouraged to offer praise to God to overcome a spirit of heaviness. It requires faith in a God who operates from a different set of values that are sometimes difficult to measure from human standards. Let death work in you a life that only God can raise up.
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Saturday, April 10, 2010
EXCUSE ME! What EXCUSES DO YOU HAVE?
If you are not involved in any service or ministry, what excuse are you using? Let me lift some excuses which could have been used by others:
Abraham was old
Jacob was insecure
Leah was unattractive
Joseph was abused
Moses stuttered
Gideon was poor
Samson was codependent
Rahab was immoral
David had an affair and all kinds of family problems
Elijah was suicidal
Jeremiah was depressed
Jonah was reluctant
Naomi was a widow
John the Baptist was eccentric to say the least
Peter was impulsive and hot-tempered
Martha worried a lot
The Samaritan Woman had several failed marriages
Zacchaeus was unpopular
Thomas had doubts
Paul had poor health
Timothy was timid
Do any of those sound like legitimate excuses to you? Those people could have used those excuses as reasons NOT to serve God. But they each chose to use their FREEDOM to put themselves to use in God’s work. And guess what – God used each one of them, problems and all!
From Johnny Creasong’s Sermon: You Are Free to Serve the Lord
Very Powerful Evangelism quotes!
2. Paul Little in his book "How to Give Away Your Faith" defines witnessing: "Witnessing is that deep-seated conviction that the greatest favor I can do for others is to introduce them to Jesus Christ."
3. Elton Trueblood, the Quaker scholar, once compared evangelism to fire. Evangelism occurs, he said, when Christians are so ignited by their contact with Christ that they in turn set other fires. It is easy to determine when something is aflame. It ignites other material. Any fire that does not spread will eventually go out. A church without evangelism is a contradiction in terms, just as fire that does not burn is a contradiction.
4. Evangelism is not what we tell people, unless what we tell is totally consistent with who we are. It is who we are that is going to make the difference. If we do not truly enjoy our faith, nobody is going to catch the fire of enjoyment from us. If our lives are not totally centered on Christ, we will not be Christ-bearers for others, no matter how pious our words. [Show and Tell, Citation: Madeleine L’Engle, quoted in Christian Reader (May/June 1998, p. 50)]
5. Recently, I saw a letter written by a relatively new Christian to the person whose life had influenced hers so greatly. She actually lists about a dozen qualities she found contagious in the life of this older Christian. Listen to some of what she wrote: You know when we met; I began to discover a new vulnerability, a warmth, and a lack of pretence that impressed me. I saw in you a thriving spirit - no signs of internal stagnation anywhere. I could tell you were a growing person and I liked that. I saw you had strong self-esteem, not based on the fluff of self-help books, but on something a whole lot deeper. I saw that you lived by convictions and priorities and not just by convenience, selfish pleasure, and financial gain. And I had never met anyone like that before. I felt a depth of love and concern as you listened to me and didn’t judge me. You tried to understand me, you sympathized and you celebrated with me, you demonstrated kindness and generosity - and not just to me, but to other people, as well. And you stood for something. You were willing to go against the grain of society and follow what you believed to be true, no matter what people said, and no matter how much it cost you. And for those reasons and a whole host of others, I found myself really wanting what you had. Now that I’ve become a Christian, I wanted to write to tell you I’m grateful beyond words for how you lived out your Christian life in front of me.
Basically, she was saying, "Thanks for being a Contagious Christian." Reading a letter like that motivates me to live as a contagious Christian too. How about you? I’ll bet you want your life to count for a whole lot more than trinkets and toys and zeros on a pay check, too. From: Becoming A Contagious Christian
6. Recently I heard Dieter Zander, the pastor of the first GenX church in America speak at a conference about reaching people in the age of relativism. He cited a Barna study that asked people to use single words to describe Jesus. They responded, "wise, accepting, compassionate, gracious, humble." Then he asked them to use single words to describe Christians, they said, "critical, exclusive, self righteous, narrow and repressive."
"There is a difference between knowing the good news and being the good news," Zander said. "We are the evidence! How we live our lives are the evidence. Everything counts--all the time."
"With previous generations, a strong preacher could give a good message, even if the church was hypocritical and critical and people would still get saved," Zander continued, "but not any more. I’m seeing a change in what seekers are looking for. Not something they can relate to. They are looking for a transcendent God. They don’t want to be entertained they want to be transformed."
7. There is something wrong when people are leaving the church to find God
8. "It is our privilege to have world evangelism as a passion, not our responsibility to have as a burden." Mary Nordstrom
9. Jim Wallis writes in The Call to Conversion (HarperCollins, 1992, p.
108) his testimony: "When I was a university student, I was unsuccessfully evangelized by almost every Christian group on campus. My basic response to their preaching was, "How can I believe when I look at the way the church lives?" They answered, "Don’t look at the church, look at Jesus." I now believe that statement is one of the saddest in the history of the church. ...People should be able to look at the way we live and begin to understand what the gospel is about."
10. "Our English word witness comes from an Old English word we do no use very much anymore but we used it in Elizabethan times and afterwards. It is the word wit. ’To wit’ means ’to know’ A ’wit’ is ’a knowledgeable person.’ So a ’witness’ of some who knows something and testifies to it."
11. A free flowing river purifies itself and is alive with life. So also is the Christian who becomes involved with others in sharing the Gospel. That Christian will discover the reason for his or her existence. Being involved in the ministry of a witness is essential to finding the fulfillment we desire as humans.
12. Richard Baxter, the Puritan preacher of the 17th century conveys the urgency, the zeal of Christian witness when he said, "I preached as never sure to preach again, and as a dying man to dying men!"
13. Jesus issues the same call to all, but to different tasks. Someone put it rather quaintly: "to some, Christ calls ’leave boat and bay, and white-haired Zebedee.’" To some, the call is harder - "stay and mend the nets for me."
14. CT STUDD: "wealthy, nationally famous athlete put it all aside to disappear into the mission field: China, India, and then Africa. Lost from sight for 13 yrs without contact. WHY? ’Some people love to dwell near church with choir and steeple bell. But I want to run a rescue station a yard from the gates of hell.’"
Lieutenant Hirro Onada - fighting alone for 29 years
Through the years, he ignored messages from loudspeakers announcing Japan’s surrender. Leaflets were dropped in the jungle begging him to surrender so he could return to Japan. During his 29-year private war, he killed at least 30 Philippine nationals. More than half a million dollars were spent trying to locate him and convince him to surrender.
Finally, on March 10, 1974 Onada surrendered his rusty sword after receiving a personal command from his former superior officer. His lonely war was finally over. When he returned to Japan as a prematurely aged man of 52, he made this comment: “Nothing pleasant during those 29 years in the jungle.” (Newsweek, 1974)
Well, that was a bit of an understatement. But people can spend long years fighting lonely battles when they are determined to “go it alone.” People spend years battling secret sins and weaknesses and addictions --- when they could end the battle IF they would let other people help them. We need each other for perspective, accountability, advice, encouragement, and all of the other things that Christian friendship adds to our lives.
WOW! What a testimony!
Monday, March 8, 2010
Family's favourite dish
Sunday, January 31, 2010
God's beautiful creation perfected with colours
creation....Flowers from Cameroon Highland, taken with my simple nokia mobile