This man amazes me. I know you can read this devotional for yourself, but it helps me to contemplate his thoughts here. Two thoughts for today. First, he speaks (literally, he spoke and his wife took notes by shorthand and published his works after his death)…. he speaks of how we tend to make the Christian life an experience using Christ as our pattern. Then he reminds us that: (more…)
Now is a great time to start planning ahead for your trip to Israel next fall! This is one of those trips that every Bible believing Christian ought to consider. Michele and I will be leading a group next October 21-30 in the land of the Bible. We would like for you to go with us. October is a wonderful time of year to be in the normally hot land of Israel. In fact, much of the world’s citrus comes from the plains of Israel. Ladies, most of the diamonds of the world pass through the nation of Israel’s diamond syndicates before they reach your ring finger.
All that considered, we want to show you some of the amazing discoveries of Israel related to Biblical events. The picture in this post is a more recent excavation site of the actual steps that would have led up to the temple mount. In fact, when I was there in 1999, these were not uncovered, but when Michele went in 2005 they had been opened to the public. Follow this link to learn more about the trip and our itenerary. Hopefully, you can come with us and experience the land of the Bible.
I went to my favorite local mexican restaraunt today and ate zuchinni bread with my amigos who are learning english as a second language. Ruth and Mike are doing a great job and the students are learning quickly! I was very proud of them after seeing their progress. I noticed that each of them had gotten their own notebooks and they were writing down everything that Ruth put on the whiteboard.
I was asked to come and help them practice introductions. We worked phrases like “Hello, my name is _____. Nice to meet you. How are you doing?…” We had a lot of laughs.
One of the things that they worked on today was the “th” sound. I never really thought about how hard it is to make that sound. There is not a sound for “th” in Spanish. Needless to say, they had to practice hard so they could say “Ruth” instead of “roof” and “booth” instead of “boof”. But they got it! Keep praying for these guys. We all prayed together at the end of the session.
Oswald Chambers writes in Brilliant Heritage:
There are three big mysteries. The Mystery of the Triune God - Father, Son and Holy Ghost; they Mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is both human and divine, and … the mystery that I, a sinner, can be made into the image of Jesus Christ by the great work of His atonement in my life.
Well said Ozzie! As believers we all live in the midst of these mysteries. They are not mysteries because we don’t know the outcome. They are mysteries because we don’t understand how they are possible. Enter faith. Oswald comments, “the remarkable thing about mysteries which the Bible reveals is that they never contradict human reason, they transcend it.”
Attention all bloggers at FBC Cameron! I am in the process of gathering stories about members of our church as a way to tell who we are, where we’ve come from and encourage us into the future. I would encourage you to blog the stories of people in our church (You don’t have to use full names) and tell about stories of their faith. Stories such as…
When you post these blogs let me know and I will copy them over to the church blog for these stories of faith.
http://thatiswhoweare.blogspot.com
Pastor Jay
Here’s a video about Samaritan’s purse and Operation Christmas Child
You may wonder how a Christian, pro-life film could do well at the box office. According to Chuck Colson, it is because it is artistically captivating. In a world where Christian films have been castigated (ie. The Passion being ignored by the Oscars), Bella won awards at the Toronto Film Festival, primarily because of its artistry.
The story is about two people who work at a restaurant together. One day the girl loses her job and the chef follows her out the door to help only to lose his job. It turns out that the girl is pregnant. The two explore the struggle of an unwed girl with the choice of keeping her child. I have not seen the film. Feel free to discuss you impressions of the film here. It has already hit the big screen.
Pastors/ministers: Here are some awesome free clips of the movie. You must see the first one about the main actor (Mexican telenovela heartthrob Eduardo Verastegui of Chasing Papi) and his life in the fast lane that was transformed. He gave it up to be a servant of God.
NEW: You have to see this video interview with the star of the show (watch the whole thing!)
Eduardo’s Story
Maybe you remember hearing Christian Author and Speaker Larry Burkett’s financial advice over the years. Now called Crown Finacial, they have developed a 7-step online roadmap for journaling and celebrating your progress toward financial freedom. The journal is free. There are some products offered that have a cost. As we talk about financial stewardship, I thought you might find this information helpful. They also offer a program called Mvelopes that tracks the spending on all of your credit cards, bank information, investments, loans, etc. in one place and helps you organize your spending in to budget envelopes. It’s a pretty interesting concept.
Welcome to my hangout. We spend a lot of time here. I especially like their tamales. I have also come to know some of the workers. Many of them are from Mexico or still have family in Mexico. And many of them want to learn English or improve their English. Yesterday, one of the friends of our church started an English as a Second Language (ESL) class there yesterday. They have allowed her to come into the restaurant and teach one hour two hours before work begins! She was hoping for at least six students. She had nine! Wow! What a tremendous ministry. Along the way she will be able to not only teach practical English skills, but they will use the Bible for their text. Please pray for Ruth B. as she leads them. (She reads this blog).
This is one of those places you didn’t think you’d ever want to go, but today I saw God at Crossroads Correctional Center (prison). I attended the closing ceremony for the Kairos weekend. Thirty offenders were gathered with 35 Kairos volunteers for a life-changing experience. I listened for over two hours to these men share about how the love they had experienced impacted them. The volunteers had exibited unconditional, non-judgmental love. I heard many of them talk about how they had done wrong and how they were now forgiven by God, but still had to pay for their crimes. The prison selects the leaders from among the 1400+ population to be part of the meetings. Many of these leaders are at odds with one another when the weekend begins. They become a family of brothers that learn to care for one another and they learn to listen. Walls are torn down and the love of Christ is exibited. I was in tears as I heard these men talk about the difference they hope to make in others lives.
One man talked about how he hoped to pass along what he has gained to his 14 year old son who is headed in the same direction toward destruction. One of the muslim leaders who accepted Christ this weekend was later seen trying to lead one of the Buddhists to faith in Christ - how amazing!
I heard one man say that in 38 years of incarceration there has never been a
program that made a difference like this and he pleaded with the warden who was present for a third Kairos to come so that another group of men could be reached. God is calling out the men of our churches to volunteer for the next Kairos in May of 2008.
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