Tuesday, April 29, 2003
TUESDAY BRIEFING
4-29-03
ALL glory to God in Jesus Name!
May you draw near to God daily.
May you mediate in the Word more and better.
May you love God with your mind.
Amen?
COMPLETED
1. My 50 birthday passed with many people calling, emailing and dropping by the Help Desk. It is wonderful that God has granted me so many supportive friends. I had a nice dinner with a friend that night.
2. Also I received a 2nd large birthday check. I have been praying, making a list and shopping. There are many more dollars remaining. It is unusual for me to have funds to spend on me and not for bills or to give to others.
3. God answers prayers in His way and His season. Over the weekend God provided an excellent reading chair for FREE. Long ago I asked for your special prayers for this. Then through a chain of events that are too complicated to explain here, it arrived. I have NEVER sat in a better reading chair. And the chocolate brown color even matches the hard wood floor. This is rocker but not like a wooden granny rocker or lazy boy. It is a lovely upholstered chair that can rock. During the last few days I have already invested many hours in it praying, reading and meditating on the Word.
4. Also this weekend there were timely gifts of office equipment and office supplies. Gradually the home office is coming together.
5. The four bookcases and dozens of books were put into good order.
6. While touching and organizing the dozens of books, the Holy Spirit reminded me of the width and depth of what he has taught me over the decades. I have digested and applied the contents of most of these books (plus hundreds of library books that are not at my residence) It was encouraging to realize that there is MUCH that I have to offer many.
CURRENT
A. DSL is still not online. Pray for me to work well with the technical services to get online quickly.
B. I have begun to enter the dozens of index card notes on my desk into some time management software. It is refreshing to assign the tasks to categories and give relative priorities. This software will interface with my Palm pilot after I get a cradle. Meanwhile I can better focus my life from my laptop.
C. Starting may 1st I will begin to keep financial records again in an Excel spread sheet. This is for my personal and ministry accounts. I have begun this several times before but it died out within a few weeks or months. This time I will enroll a few trusted accountability partners and advisors to help keep me on track. Will work out ways to send it to them as an attachment. Pray for this simple but critical project. I have fallen here more times than I can count over the decades.
D. There are several web pages that I will be publishing soon. These are based on what I hear myself telling students over and over again. God as given me information that I need to be faithful to pass along to others. And using the web is the most effective way to do this.
E. I continue to follow the prompting of the Holy spirit to invest three hours a week improving the home office. It is getting gradually better.
F. The recent phone bills have been full of complications due to the recent changes. I have examined it several times. I am willing to pay but I am not sure I have been correctly charged. Pray for God to give me understanding and to talk with someone who can answer my questions.
UPCOMING
i. Kindly pray for my relationship with my coach, Cathi. We talk for an hour twice a month. She is in Seattle WA. God is using her in wonderful ways to help me through this complex season of my life.
ii. God has granted me grace to consistently send out an Advisor Update on the 1st and 15th. May Jesus use this to bless me and the advisors.
iii. During the coming weeks I will be setting up various blogs that will help to make the Tuesday Briefing simpler.
iv. Soon I publish a wish list of equipment and software on the web for you and others to see. As God hears many prayers then He will supply in ways that is obviously from His hand. He will get the all the glory. Things will then move forward quickly with the right tools.
v. Yet again God must make a way for the rent and phone to be paid. The numbers are close. The timing is close. Unexpected funds in the next two weeks would make for smoother sailing.
vi. Several people said that they are praying about writing words of endorsement for the blog. Pray for God to guide and bless them.
ENCOURAGEMENT
This Tuesday Briefing is already too long. In the coming weeks I will have a separate blog and/or web site to post such words of encouragement. Pray for this to unfold soon.
RESOURCES
For those who are interested in church history I recommend a video The Christian Story by Martin Marty. It is new to the DTS collection number 616. I have seen most of the DTS videos on church history and there are more than a dozen. This is by far my favorite. The man taught the subject for 35 years at Chicago University. He has much knowledge and passion. This is presented as an unfolding story in six 20 minute segments. Thus it is well suited for home school use. ISBN 1-56364-617-X
John 10:25 PM
TUESDAY BRIEFING
4-22-03
ALL glory to God in Jesus Name!
May you consistently honor God with your things and money.
May you quickly repent when convicted by the Holy Spirit.
May God reveal His Son to you in fresh ways using His holy Word.
Amen?
COMPLETED
1. On Good Friday did some street evangelism in downtown Dallas with two men. We were on the NW corner of Pacific and Lamar near the clock and across from DART West Transfer Center. God used the buses and light rail trains to bring people to us. During more than three hours we distributed more than 1,200 gospels of John. They were in English and Spanish. The vast majority took the publication. Several believers got packets about the warehouse where hundreds of thousands have been distributed over the years. I proclaimed the gospel loudly like my friend. But my voice gave out long before his. We said that we hope to do this again soon. For me that is raw and real Christianity. Hundreds of those people will not normally encounter a Bible during a typical year. The gospel of John is simple yet profound place to start and develop a personal relationship with Jesus.
2. Also on Good Friday I went with a friend to celebrate a Sadder in Rowlett. Several messianic Jewish congregations came together to observe the Passover meal. This was my first time. It was wonderful how the leader explained how Jesus Christ was presented in this ancient Jewish celebration. Also it was very refreshing to come into the presence of the Lord during the worship.
CURRENT
A. Normally only my family members know when my birthday is coming up. But the thoughts, feelings, memories and regrets keep coming because of this being my 50th. Thanks for your prayers the depression is less. I have been journaling and praying. These have helped. There are many parts of this journaling that will help me soon when I do a forth step in Celebrate Recovery. That step involves taking a searching and fearless moral inventory.
B. There have sweet moments of prayer. The Holy Spirit has led me to just get still. Quiet is a treasure in swirls of my busy life. God is leading me into new ways of reflection and meditation. This helps to clear the mental clutter.
C. My father and stepmother sent an extra big check for my birthday … pray for God to guide me in how to use it.
D. When I finally plugged in the modem for the DSL I saw that the phone cord would be on the hard wood floors right in the foot traffic. So I moved the large free standing book case that was in front of the phone jack to make room for the table that the computer and modem sit on now. To make room for that book case in another place has required most of my furniture and other bookcases to be moved. I am in the midst of bringing order to the chaos cause by those shifts. I did not sell or give away the three wicker bookcases and they have become a big asset.
UPCOMING
i. The Holy Spirit has been whispering to me that I need to invest 3 hours a week to improve my office. That is a way to gradually bring order to the scramble of books and files. By the nature of the research that I love to do there is always an influx of paper. There needs of be a designated place for each kind of printout, letter, brochure, catalog, etc.
ii. It feels like I am bursting to get on the web and publish. There are various projects that have been simmering in my soul for months. I long to put these where others enjoy them. I talk with many people entering ministry each month. I say the same things to them verbally. I want to have a few web sites with short URL that I can point them to and that they can share with others. These examples of the ministry God has given to me will help to raise the big money needed to get a professionally designed site.
iii. The Holy Spirit has been convicting me of my neglect of money management. God has made a way for me to pay my bills and I am thankful for that. But I do not keep good financial records. I do not enter my numbers in a spread sheet. I do not anticipate and set aside funds for future bills. I understand how to do these things. I have attempted to get on a budget many times over the years. It never lasted more than four months. Somehow this MUST change. It is needed for me to get on top of my financial life. And I need this set of disciplines to lead the emerging ministry. Pray for God to guide in this process. Sooner than later I hope to hire a bookkeeper to assist in this area.
iv. Tuesday Briefing will be changing again soon. They are getting too long and complex. I will use the blogs to shift some of the content there with a link in the Tuesday Briefing. This began as a prayer request and testimony of answered prayers. Then came all the background to the need for prayer and how it was answered. Then came the blessings, resources and encouragement. I can move parts of that and other features to the blogs. There are more than 80 people that receive the Tuesday Briefing. During the coming months that number will greatly increase. SO I am back FOCUS and keep it simple. Please pray for God to guide in this process.
ENCOURAGEMENT
God will not tempt you beyond what you are able … do not fear following the Lord Jesus Christ 100% … His grace is always sufficient … the journey is not always pleasant …. as you get to the end of your self, God Himself does a work deep in your soul that no human can do … when you are completely committed to Christ, it is wise to surrender to your will to His will sooner than later … He will have His way eventually, so you may as well save yourself some pain … just go ahead and let go while letting God … His thoughts are above your thoughts, His ways are above your ways … keep His commandment to deny yourself, take up your cross daily and follow Him … do not neglect the simple truths, there is bottomless comfort in many of them … trust and obey for there is no other way to be happy in Jesus … Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so … biblical Christianity is centered around a personal relationship with the living God … Jesus is your best friend … the Holy Spirit is your comforter .. the Heavenly Father loves you personally .. you can rest in the Lord … daily orient your life to an audience of One … draw near to Him and He will draw near to you
RESOURCES
If you want to have an expert on evangelism give a free seminar at your church or other Christian group in the DFW area, then contact my dear friend Bob Brincat. You can learn more about his ministry including the warehouse in Carrolton where you can pick up free gospels of John. www.freeword.org
For years I have wondered how various things worked. Here is a site that has plenty of instruction with illustrations. I enjoy the site for my own edification and as a web designer who seeks to facilitate education. Various experts give the instructions and to help pay the bills, there are related ads. That is a clever combination. After all it is commercials that make broadcast TV free as contrasted to cable. This site is great for homeshcoolers www.howstuffworks.com
If you know anyone that teaches from the book of Revelation then point them to this web site www.revelationillustrated.com There you will find amazing paintings of the key scenes in that awesome book of the Bible. They can be purchased on a CD or video. Also they offer prints.
John 10:25 PM
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