Connecting
man to man to God
For week of May 31, 2009
Issue 254
The
Men’s Ministry newsletter of Path Of Life Ministries.
Our
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"I
consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the
race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task
of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” Acts
20:24
CONSIDER
“This must be put bluntly: every man who has more than
is necessary for his livelihood and that of his family, and for
the normal development of his intelligence, is a thief and a
robber. If he has too much, it means that others have too little.”
Romain Rolland
SURVEYING
THE WONDROUS CROSS
by Philip Yancey
The Cross is the central image of
Christianity, and gives us vivid proof that, in novelist Flannery
O'Connor's words, the world "has, for all its horror, been
found by God to be worth dying for." Yet theologians must
somehow explain how Jesus' death differs in essence from the death
of any great leader. What made it necessary, and exactly how did
it affect our relationship with God?
During Holy Week last
year, I found myself reflecting not so much on the theoretical
rationale for the Atonement as on its practical outworking. Three
insights from that week:
(1) The Cross made possible a new
intimacy with God.
(2) The Cross reveals the limits of human
achievement.
(3) The Cross brings to light an unexpected
quality of the Godhead: humility.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/may/32.72.html
MOST AMERICANS
BELIEVE ABORTION IS 'ALMOST ALWAYS A BAD THING'
Most Americans know at least one person who has had an
abortion, and most of them say the person’s experience was a
generally negative one, according to a new poll. Of the 68% who
told polling company, inc./WomanTrend that they know someone who
has had an abortion, 55% said the abortion was a negative
experience while 33% said it was a positive experience.
Moreover, 53% said they believe abortion is "almost
always a bad thing" for a woman while 13% said it was "almost
always a good thing." Twenty-one percent, meanwhile, said it
was neither bad nor good and 13% said they do not know or refused
to answer.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090528/most-americans-believe-abortion-is-almost-always-a-bad-thing/index.html
A FAITH FOR THE
NONES
by
Michael Gerson
There is a book that everyone will be talking
about -- when it appears over a year from now. "American
Grace: How Religion Is Reshaping Our Civic and Political Lives,"
being written by Robert Putnam and David Campbell, is already
creating a buzz. Putnam, the author of "Bowling Alone: The
Collapse and Revival of American Community," is the
preeminent academic expert on American civic life. Campbell is his
rising heir. And the book they haven't yet finished will make just
about everyone constructively uncomfortable.
At a recent
conference of journalists organized by the Pew Forum on Religion
and Public Life, Putnam outlined the conclusions of "American
Grace," based on research still being sifted and refined.
Against the expectations of hard-core secularists, Putnam asserts,
"religious Americans are nicer, happier, and better
citizens." They are more generous with their time and money,
not only in giving to religious causes but to secular ones. They
join more voluntary associations, attend more public meetings,
even let people cut in line in front of them more readily.
Religious Americans are three to four times more socially engaged
than the unaffiliated. Ned Flanders is a better neighbor.
Against the expectations of many religious believers, this
dynamic has little to do with the content of belief. Theology is
not the predictor of civic behavior; being part of a community is.
People become social joiners and contributors when they have
friends who pierce their isolation and invite their participation.
And religious friends, says Putnam, are "more powerful,
supercharged friends.".... Read this in full at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/05/07/AR2009050703056.html?wprss=rss_religion
'YEAR OF THE
BIBLE' RESOLUTION ROILS CONGRESS
A battle over the Bible is brewing in the halls of Congress,
and political blogs are buzzing about a Southern Baptist
congressman's desire to designate 2010 as "The National Year
of the Bible."
Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a medical
doctor and member of Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, Ga.,
introduced a resolution May 7 urging President Obama to issue a
proclamation "calling upon citizens of all faiths to
rediscover and apply the priceless, timeless message of the Holy
Scripture."
Broun's resolution, which has 15
co-sponsors, says the Bible "has profoundly influenced and
shaped the United States and its great democratic form of
government, as well as its rich spiritual heritage" and
"unified, healed and strengthened" America's people.
The resolution says "the Bible has had a profound
impact in shaping America into a great nation." It also
states that "shared biblical beliefs" are what
influenced the colonists to write about individual worth and
inalienable rights in the Declaration of Independence and
Constitution.... Read this in full and see the video at
http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4105&Itemid=53
*SPEAK* THE
GOSPEL; USE DEEDS WHEN NECESSARY
by Mark Galli
I've heard the quote once too often. It's
time to set the record straight -- about the quote, and about the
gospel. Francis of Assisi is said to have said, "Preach the
gospel at all times; when necessary, use words." This saying
is carted out whenever someone wants to suggest that Christians
talk about the gospel too much, and live the gospel too little.
Fair enough -- that can be a problem. Much of the rhetorical power
of the quotation comes from the assumption that Francis not only
said it but lived it.
The problem is that he did not say
it. Nor did he live it. And those two contra-facts tell us
something about the spirit of our age....
Why is it that
we "remember" Francis as a wimp of a man who petted
bunnies and never said a cross word, let alone much about the
Cross?
I suspect we sentimentalize Francis -- like we do
many saints of ages past -- because *we* live in a sentimental
age. We want it to be true that we can be nice and sweet and all
will be well. We hope against hope that we won't have take the
trouble to figure out how exactly to talk about the gospel—our
unbelieving friends will "catch" the gospel once our
lifestyle is infected with it.
"Preach the gospel;
use words if necessary" goes hand in hand with a postmodern
assumption that words are finally empty of meaning. It subtly
denigrates the high value that the prophets and Jesus and Paul put
on preaching. Of course we want our actions to match our words as
much as possible. But the gospel is a message, news about an event
and a person upon which the history of the planet turns. As
blogger Justin Taylor recently put it, the Good News can no more
be communicated by deeds than can the nightly news.... Read this
in full at
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/mayweb-only/120-42.0.html
THE GOSPEL
ACCORDING TO TWITTER
Do you tweet during church? Isn't it rude? David Loveless
doesn't think so. Loveless is lead pastor of Discovery Church, a
nondenominational congregation that draws some 4,000 on Sundays to
three locations in Orlando. The congregation has always thrived on
the cutting edge, becoming among the first to embrace contemporary
music and remove its steeple from its building. Now the
congregation is tweeting -- using 21st-century technology to
discuss the gospel in 140-character cell-phone text updates sent
via Twitter.
The technology emerged naturally here, as
something parishioners brought with them to Sundays from the rest
of their week. Loveless recognized it as a new way to communicate,
and he began posing questions during his sermons and asking
parishioners to "tweet" back by texting their responses.
Those responses were then woven into his sermons, creating an
instantaneous dialogue between pulpit and pew.... Read this in
full at
http://www.crosswalk.com/news/religiontoday/11603906/
JESUS FILM TO
TARGET MORE SOPHISTICATED COUNTRIES
Nearly 30 years after "The Jesus Film’s"
debut, the ministry that created the most translated movie in
history is working to develop more sophisticated tools to reach
western and highly developed countries. “We are going to
make probably more effort because we don’t have the
equipment, tools and resources that are really speaking well to
the first world and the media sophisticated, the US and Europe,”
said Greg Gregoire, senior associate at The Jesus Film Project, to
The Christian Post. “So we are going to spend a little more
focus on developing tools that work there,” he said, noting
countries and cities such as Berlin, Singapore, and Los Angeles.
Since "The Jesus Film" debuted in English on
Oct. 19, 1979, it’s been translated into 1,055 languages and
has been seen by more than 6 billion people from every country in
the world. Out of the billions of people that have seen the film,
there are a recorded 225 million that have indicated a decision
for Christ.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090526/jesus-film-to-target-more-sophisticated-countries/index.html
DECLARATION BY
GERMAN CHURCHES IN 1934 INSPIRES CHURCHES TODAY
The actions of a group of German church members in 1934 to
resist the Nazi regime still serve as a powerful model for
churches today according to the General Secretary of the World
Alliance of Reformed Churches.
May 31 marked the 75th
anniversary of the publication of a statement by the group that
has come to be known as the “Barmen Declaration.”
Clergy, theologians, and church members who disagreed with the
leadership of the German church which was willing to follow the
orders of the Reich government, gathered in the city of Barmen to
prepare a declaration that said only the scriptures have authority
over the church. Some of the founding members of the group paid
for their adherence to its principles with their lives. Dietrich
Bonhoeffer, a German pastor and theologian, was executed for his
role in plotting to overthrow the Reich. Others met clandestinely
to study and pray at great risk.
The Barmen Declaration,
drafted by the Swiss Reformed church theologian Karl Barth, calls
upon Christians to accept a list of six “confessions”
in opposition to the growing influence of the government over
senior church leaders.
“A ‘confession’
fixes what counts for a church in a particular context”,
says theologian Peter Bukowski of the German Reformed Alliance.
“It declares what the church believes, not individuals. By
adopting a ‘confession’ of beliefs in reaction to a
concrete situation the Confessing churches in Germany were saying
in effect that if you couldn’t agree to this confession then
you didn’t belong in that church.” .... Read this in
full at
http://warc.jalb.de/warcajsp/side.jsp?news_id=1899&part_id=0&navi=6
A COMMON BOWL OF
FORGIVENESS
“Because it goes against human nature, forgiveness must
be taught and practiced, as one would practice any difficult
craft. "Forgiveness is not just an occasional act: it is a
permanent attitude," said Martin Luther King Jr. What greater
gift could Christians give to the world than the forming of a
culture that upholds grace and forgiveness?
“The
Benedictines, for example, have a moving service of forgiveness
and reconciliation. After giving instruction from the Bible, the
leaders ask each one attending to identify issues that require
forgiveness. Worshipers then submerge their hands in a large
crystal bowl of water, "holding" the grievance in their
cupped hands. As they pray for the grace to forgive, gradually
their hands open to symbolically "release" the
grievance. "Enacting a ceremony like this with one's body,"
says Bruce Demarest, a participant, "possesses more
transforming power than merely uttering the words, 'I forgive.'"
What impact might it have if blacks and whites in South Africa—or
in the United States of America—plunged their hands
repeatedly into a common bowl of forgiveness?” from What's
So Amazing About Grace? by Philip Yancey
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY
PRAYER BULLETIN UPDATE
by Elizabeth Kendal
Remember those who are in prison, as
though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since
you are also in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)
DURING MAY WE
PRAYED FOR --
* EGYPT, where Cairo's garbage collectors
(Arabic: 'zabaleen') -- all indigenous Coptic Christians socially
crippled by systematic religious discrimination -- are fac ing
increased hardship as a result of a government campaign to cull
all Egypt's pigs. Islam deems pigs 'unclean' and so pigs are kept
and eaten only by Christians, particularly the zabaleen whose pigs
consume the organic waste. Egypt's Copts regard the cull as yet
another example of persecution.
UPDATE: PIG CULL CONTINUES
TO IMPACT CAIRO'S COPTS
The pig cull continues with the
authorities estimating it could take six months to complete. PETA
(People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) protested the
cruelty to the animals after footage emerged on Youtube showing
pigs and piglets being beaten, kicked and stabbed to death, as
well as doused with acid and buried alive. While the cruelty being
meted out to the pigs is deplorable, the extreme hardship being
forced on Cairo's Coptic Christian communities is more so. People
for the ethical treatment of people should be outraged. Pray for
Egypt's Christian Copts.
CHRISTIANS TRAPPED AND DISPLACED
BY WAR.
The Church's responsibility to pray and care for the
wounded, endangered and traumatized body of Christ will continue
as long as conflict and persecution continue. 'Is this not the
fast that I choose [says the Lord] . . . to share your bread with
the hungry, to bring the homeless poor into your house; when you
see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your
own flesh?' (Isaiah 58:7 ESV)
* INDIA, with a special RLPB
on the results of the Indian elections. We praise God for another
five years in which to challenge the wicked, dangerous and
deceitful ideology of Hindutva. We pray it will not be wasted.
UPDATE: KANDHAMAL STILL SAFFRON STAINED
Please pray
for Christians in the remote, violence-wracked Hindutva stronghold
of Kandhamal district, Orissa State. In the State Assembly poll
(he ld at the same time as the Federal poll) Kandhamal district
was won by the BJP, even though the BJP candidate is in prison for
his part in the anti-Christian pogrom of September-October 2008.
This indicates that Kandhamal's displaced and vulnerable
Christians are surrounded by a majority of highly radicalized,
unrepentant Hindus who still strongly support the Hindutva agenda.
Pray that the newly elected, professedly secular, centrist BJD
government in Orissa will exercise its clear state-wide mandate to
disempower Hindutva, ending the shameful and destructive
communalism it engenders and the impunity it has long enjoyed.
Pray that justice will flow (Amos 5:24) .... Read this in full at
http://www.ea.org.au/default.aspx?id=4fba2916-fbcf-4acf-9adb-6a4f82e44e4d
ARE CHURCHES
TAKING THE ELDERLY FOR GRANTED?
At first, the idea of churches overlooking their elderly
members seems hard to grasp. After all, surveys show that
church-affiliated populations are older than the national
population as a whole -- and in many Protestant congregations,
overwhelmingly so. Many churches do have plenty of classes and
groups for older members.
Yet many churches have paid so
much attention to attracting the young that they may be
overlooking the needs of those in their midst, United Methodist
blogger Missy Buchanan said. More than a quarter of United
Methodists are 65 or older -- compared with 16 percent of people
nationally, according to a 2008 Pew Forum on Religion & Public
Life survey.
The numbers are similar, and sometimes
higher, for other Protestant denominations, such as Episcopalians,
Lutherans and Presbyterians. Twenty-three percent of such
"mainline" Protestants are 65 or older, as are 19
percent of evangelical Protestants such as Baptists.... Read this
in full at
http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20090523/NEWS01/905230394/Are+churches+taking+elderly+for+granted
GOD IS NOT FAIR
“’When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do
not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the
fatherless and the widow’ (Deuteronomy 24:21). It isn't
fair. It's my vineyard, it's my olive grove, it's my field. Why
should I let these people come onto my property and take what I've
worked so hard to produce? That's not fair.
“Exactly.
Because being rescued from slavery in Egypt wasn't fair.
Liberation isn't fair. Redemption isn't fair. Grace isn't fair.
God isn't fair. When we empower others, when we extend grace to
others in their oppression -- whatever that may look like -- we
find out about the grace that God has extended to us. from NOOMA
Corner 023 with Rob Bell
A
COMMON DATE FOR EASTER IS POSSIBLE
The hope that all Christians will be able to celebrate Easter
on the same day in the future was reaffirmed by an international
ecumenical seminar organized by the Institute of Ecumenical
Studies at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv, May 15.
The problem is just about as old as the church itself: As
Christianity started to spread around the world, Christians came
to differing results on when to commemorate Jesus Christ's death
and resurrection, due to the different reports in the four Gospels
on these events. Attempts to establish a common date for Easter
began with the Council of Nicaea in the year 325. It established
that the date of Easter would be the first Sunday after the full
moon following the vernal equinox. However, it did not fix the
methods to be used to calculate the timing of the full moon or the
vernal equinox.
Nowadays the Orthodox churches use the 21
March of the Julian calendar as the date of the equinox, while the
churches of the Western tradition -- that is the Protestant and
Catholic churches -- base their calculations on the Gregorian
calendar. The resulting gap between the two Easter dates can be as
much as five weeks.
All participants at the seminar in
Lviv, which included Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant
theologians from a variety of European countries, endorsed a
compromise proposed at a World Council of Churches (WCC)
consultation in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997. The proposal was to keep
the Nicaea rule but calculate the equinox and full moon using the
accurate astronomical data available today, rather than those used
many years ago.
Participants at the seminar expressed the
hope that the years 2010 and 2011, when the coincidence of the
calendars will produce a common Easter date, would serve as a
period during which all Christians would join their efforts "to
make such coincidence not to be an exception but rather a rule"
and prepare for an Easter date based on exact astronomical
reckoning and celebrated by all Christians on April 8, 2012....
Read this in full at
http://www.oikoumene.org/en/news/news-management/eng/a/article/1722/a-common-date-for-easter.html
LEADERSHIP TIPS
(BUSINESS, FAMILY, LIFE)
Doug Mazza’s leadership has led Joni and Friends to be a
workplace of excellence, recognized as a certified Best Christian
Workplace. In particular, under Doug's leadership Joni and Friends
has flourished in respect to staff feeling that they are
appreciated and their hard work is noticed. Selection as an
outstanding leader is based on employee feedback from the Best
Christian Workplace survey.
Doug Mazza's distinguished
career began in the automotive industry. Involved in leadership in
Mitsubishi, Suzuki, and eventually Hyundai. Then, as a dedicated
volunteer with a variety of non-profit organizations that meet
human needs, Doug and his wife Lorraine made a life changing
decision when he accepted the position of Executive Vice President
of the International Christian Ministry Joni and Friends. This
organization was founded by visionary, author, artist and
quadriplegic, Joni Eareckson Tada.... Read this in full at
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20090528/outstanding-leader-doug-mazza/index.html
VERSE TO PONDER
"God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him.” John 3:17
CONSIDER
“We must never separate what God does for us from what
God does in us.” Charles Gore
PLUGGED-IN MOVIE
REVIEW: NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM: BATTLE OF THE SMITHSONIAN
Virtually everything the first film offered we get more of in
this sequel. More characters. More battles. More intensity. More
slapstick. More monkeys. More history. More fun. I laughed out
loud quite a lot during this movie. And I enjoyed the creative
ways in which the filmmakers brought such a variety of museum
exhibits to life -- from that historically significant moment with
the Tuskegee Airmen to Larry grabbing the old farmer's pitchfork
from Grant Wood's classic painting, American Gothic.
Instead
of making it feel derivative or cobbled together, this tale's
liberal appropriations of other films and TV shows actually seems
to accentuate its good-natured ribbing style. Along for the ride
are influences from National Treasure and Mission: Impossible,
cribbed dialog from The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the
Ring, Monty Python and the Holy Grail and The Last of the
Mohicans, and even a catchphrase from American Idol.
There
are caveats, too, though. (Of course.) While there is definitely
more of what makes a film a rollicking good popcorn flick, there
are also a few more content concerns. We hear a couple more
profanities than in the first film. Wink-wink sexual references
are incrementally more frequent. And part of the plot revolves
around a dark spiritual underworld filled with "armies of the
damned."
Those things still won't be fatal flaws for
most families. Most will see this film as a well-told and
enjoyable story, one that encourages viewers to do what they love,
with the people they love. And they'll also notice that, just as
in the first film, Battle of the Smithsonian once again helps us
see why history is important.... Read this in full at
http://www.pluggedinonline.com/movies/movies/a0004645.cfm
PEOPLE OF GOD?
“Over time the Crypto-Christians [in Japan] confused
their Christian beliefs and their Japanese [cultural] disguises.
The result was the emergence of a hybrid religion no longer
adhering to the doctrines of orthodox Christianity. When Europeans
regained entrance to Japan in the nineteenth century, they were
astonished to see communities of hidden Christians living in the
hills around Nagasaki. This amazement waned, however, when they
discovered the faith of these forgotten Christians was hardly
Christianity.
“In our cultural quest for survival,
driven by our fear of irrelevance, have evangelicals become
Crypto-Christians? Have we clothed our faith with the forms of our
American culture to the point that our Christianity has morphed
into something entirely different — a folk religion
altogether consumerist in spirit and content? By yielding its
imagination to the forms around it, has the church, like ancient
Israel, lost the ability to be an alternative people of God? Is
Walter Brueggemann correct: ‘The contemporary American
church is so largely enculturated to the American ethos of
consumerism that it has little power to believe or to act’?”
from The Divine Commodity: Discovering a Faith Beyond Consumer
Christianity by Skye Jethani
IS THE POPE
ADVOCATING THAT MARY IS THE ‘COREDEMPTRIX’ OF
HUMANITY?
When
Pope Benedict XVI told a crowd in St. Peter’s Square in
April that the Virgin Mary “silently followed her son Jesus
to Calvary, taking part with great suffering in his sacrifice,
thus cooperating in the mystery of redemption and becoming mother
of all believers,” most listeners probably heard nothing
remarkable in the statement. After all, devotion to Mary is a
pervasive element of the Catholic faith, and one of the features
that most clearly distinguishes it from Protestantism.
Yet
for one group of devotees, Benedict’s statement was a
milestone -- a sign that he had moved one step closer to granting
their wish for a new dogma on Mary’s contribution to human
salvation.... Read this in full at
http://www.religionnews.com/index.php?/rnstext/is_mary_the_coredemptrix_of_humanity1/
AD CAMPAIGNS
INVITE PEOPLE TO CHURCH
Shrinking mainline Protestant denominations are turning to
marketing to help stem decades of membership losses and stay
afloat. The United Methodist Church recently unveiled a $20
million rebranding effort aimed at attracting younger members to
the large but diminishing Protestant group. The new ads will
appear over the next four years as part of the denomination's
"Rethink Church" campaign. The Evangelical Lutheran
Church in America has invested nearly $1.2 million over the past
two years launching a similar branding effort based on the theme,
"God's Work, Our Hands."
The denominations are
trying to bounce back from losses that began in the mid-1960s.
From 1990 to 2008 alone, mainline Protestants dropped from 18.7%
to 12.9% of the population, according to the American Religious
Identification Survey.... Read this in full at
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/life/religion/6443261.html
IS GOD DEAD? OR
HAS HE JUST STOPPED RIDING THE BUS?
Dangling from the sides of Chicago public buses in recent
days: large signs bearing the slogan, "In the beginning, man
created God." Lo and behold, the atheist bus war that raged
through London earlier this year has led to the opening of another
front in America. The Chicago ads were purchased in May (for a
total of $5,000) by the Indiana Atheist Bus Campaign.
Despite
Chicago's abundance of trains, the Indiana group preferred to buy
ads to appear on the outside of buses. "That way, cars can
see them. People on the sidewalks can see them, as the buses go
zipping by," says Charlie Sitzes, 73, the group's spokesman.
Apart from the predictable blogosphere chatter, Chicago has
largely greeted the ads with a quick, curious look and then a
shrug. While the media attention has drawn donations to the group
from across the country, there are no plans to extend the ads' run
beyond mid-June. "You don't have to shake the believer tree
too hard to get a discussion going," Sitzes says, adding,
"We've already won." .... Read this in full at
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1901301,00.html
IS THIS YOUR
BRAIN ON GOD?
More than half of adult Americans report they have had a
spiritual experience that changed their lives. Now, scientists
from universities like Harvard, Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins are
using new technologies to analyze the brains of people who claim
they have touched the spiritual -- from Christians who speak in
tongues to Buddhist monks to people who claim to have had
near-death experiences. Hear what they have discovered in this
controversial field, as the science of spirituality continues to
evolve.... Read this in full at
http://www.npr.org/news/specials/2009/brain/
CONSIDER
Basis for happiness: something to do; someone to love;
something to look forward to.
VERSE TO PONDER
“Do not love the world or anything in the world. If
anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
everything in the world -- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of
his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does -- comes not
from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass
away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever. 1 John
2:15-17
ON
PRAYER
“Give us grace and strength to persevere. Give us
courage and gaiety and the quiet mind. Spare to us our friends and
soften to us our enemies. Give us the strength to encounter that
which is to come, that we may be brave in peril, constant in
tribulation, temperate in wrath and in all changes of fortune, and
down to the gates of death loyal and loving to one another.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
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
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you looking for something or do you have something to sell? Let me
know and I'll put it in this newsletter.
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vacation with us!
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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.
Christian
Computing Magazine (current issue free pdf)
http://www.ccmag.com/2009_05/ccmag2009_05.pdf
BuzzCal:
The Ultimate Sports Calendar
http://www.buzzcal.com/
Religion
Facts
http://www.religionfacts.com/
BBC
Ancient History
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/
All
links to websites are provided as a service, and do not imply
endorsement by this ministry.
(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.)
Why
does Superman stop bullets with his chest, but ducks when you
throw a revolver at him?
Min.
Frank Coleman, Editor
Rev.frank@gmail.com
Thanks
for welcoming CONNECTIONS into your in-box!
----------
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, frank@frankcoleman.com
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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