Tuesday, February 17, 2004
TUESDAY BRIEFING
2-17-04
ALL glory to God in Jesus Name!
May you have loyal friends.
May you live your life to please Jesus.
May Jesus shower you with special blessings.
Amen?
COMPLETED
1. Today I taught two classes while at work in the Media Center. One was on Power Point and the other was on photos and clipart. Tomorrow I teach on Power Point again. This was part of at Open House. I GREATLY enjoyed this. I ENJOY teaching any subject that I understand well.
2. Dad found a way to use his frequent flyer miles to get me to Colorado almost free.
3. God provided some nifty gifts for my nephew?s birthday present. They are three fun multimedia encyclopedias CDs.
CURRENT
A. Currently lining up the milestones and action steps to share with intercessors, advisors and accountability partners. God has blessed me with MANY accountability partners.
UPCOMING
i. I am in the process of joining the church I have been visiting for a few months. Pray for my meetings with the elders of Mesquite Bible Church.
ii. God might be opening a door for me to work in conjunction with World Vision to establish a local ministry that blends benevolence and evangelism. They are sending the information. I will say more later.
iii. Knock for God to open the right doors in the coming months and years to teach. Plus I LOVE to preach. Surely these opportunities will come together in due season.
RESOURCES
Great witnessing tools at Ten Reasons to Believe. These are both online and they will mail you a print version for FREE http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/rtb/
Great apologetic site http://evolutionoftruth.com/
Rationalism and theism meet http://snapshotsofgod.com/
Does God Exist? http://www.doesgodexist.org/
Apologetics links http://evolutionoftruth.com/adm/links.htm#creation
The design of an eye requires an Intelligent Designer. This site shows dozens of pictures of the eyes of animals and insects. It is from a Christian perspective http://www.eyedesignbook.com/
Honest Answers to Tough Questions http://www.greatcom.org/resources/toughquestions/
Links to witnessing sites http://www.greatcom.org/resources/
If you wish to unsubscribe then just let me know by reply email.
John 11:46 PM
Monday, February 16, 2004
Special Intercessor Report
2-16-04
God has given a HUGE breakthrough today.
A small set of occurrences could be used by God to FINALLY lead to a major launch.
THANKS again for your prayers.
This was a special divine appointment.
I have not announced it to the whole email list.
I have sent this to the intercessors first.
BACKGROUND
Last week I had a meeting with an advisor.
He challenged me about the need for a simple mission statement.
I understood the importance and agreed that it would help to FOCUS,
From a brief mission statement others can rally.
The donor presentation would orbit this key idea.
The priorities, goals and budgets would be examined in the light of this.
There is no argument about this principle.
I have encountered this concept from many sources over the years.
I have wrestled with writing a brief mission statement many times.
I posted my work sheets on the web back in June of 2002.
There is a link at the end of this message for that.
HEADED
God used his challenging questions and prayers to get me thinking differently.
The next morning as I woke I thought of where all this is headed.
I had lined up the many parts of the vision last month.
Until then I had been concentrating on the early stages and forgetting the later stages.
The web-based ministry is intended to guide people to become better stewards.
The way that is measured is in their habitual behaviors.
Like the Bible says faith without works is dead.
As active ambassadors for Christ the message of reconciliation would spread daily.
As the salt of the earth and the light of the world we would communicate the truth in love.
We are to equip the saints for their unique works of ministry.
Biblical Christianity is not just knowledge and emotion.
Actions are needed to apply the Word of God practically.
I could beat that drum on and on.
The long-term parts of the vision dealt with ways to connect the Body of Christ locally.
After the professionally designed web site was in place other phases would follow.
There would be an audio and then video recording studio.
The seminary students have testimonies and teaching to share.
These would both be distributed over the web and by mail.
People need to be evangelized and discipled in cost effective ways.
Another huge complicated and important part of ministry is meeting physical needs.
Here we are in a relatively prosperous country due to the blessing of God.
Most Americans have extra things that clutter up their storage space.
Meanwhile there are all kinds of needs in the church and outside for those things.
Plus they could be sold with the funds being used to buy new things.
During DEC and JAN god gave me the design of a system of pipelines to move these items.
As a systems designer I was please with the plan
I posted this on the web and there is a link at the end of this message.
But I was hesitant to jump into those waters.
Then I talked with a former missionary that has headed a Christian thrift store for seven years.
He told me that with seven employees he only clears a small sum.
He said that it would take about 30 employees to reach critical mass.
He told of an operation in Lewisville that is doing very well with 40 employees.
CITY
Boot Camp gave me guidelines to share the passion and vision face to face.
This will lead to monthly contributions.
It needs to be BRIEF and something they can QUICKLY understand.
I had been concentrating on the PROCESS of stewardship.
But what I sought was the PRODUCT of more involvement in missions.
I had published Our Five Mission Fields last month – see link at the end.
Those five mission fields are Family, Spheres of Influence, Church, City and World.
I had printed what appears on the web in 15 pages -- 3 horizontal and 5 vertical.
I taped and laminated these.
As I shared these with maybe two dozen people I was excited about each part.
Repeatedly I felt that the City part could use much more development.
I was going to go from the general suggestions to specific places and times to serve.
At the END of the flow chart was a section to hold monthly gatherings.
At these meetings we would share information, inspiration and instruction.
For years I have envisioned bringing together many different kinds of people in Jesus name.
There are those who are in need that are too hurt or humble to ask.
There are those who care and want to help but do not know how or where.
There are those who have huge sums of money to give, but they want it used wisely.
Meeting physical needs and spiritual needs is central to missions.
This happens through MANY personal relationships.
I have been amazed at how mission agencies do great things overseas yet we do little here.
Why have we not applied those same principles right here?
WORLD VISION
Someone left many missions videos on a table in the seminary library where I work.
These were free and I took several.
I have been encourage and challenged by them.
God is alive and well.
The people of God are doing great things on the mission fields of the world.
Then this morning I watched the Annual Review 2002 of World Vision.
They showed many quick stories of their projects all over the globe.
One of these was in the USA and I wrote down the name.
Hours later I looked up Love INC on the web.
WOW
WOW
WOW
THIS is a God deal JUST for ME.
Here are quotes from their web site
Putting a face on love
Twenty-five years ago, Holland, Michigan, had plenty of pastors for its 35,000 residents. About one for every 500 people. But few members of the clergy connected with each other. And churches seldom reached beyond their own members to help others in need. Dr. Virgil Gulker, supported by a handful of committed Christians, dramatically changed this by founding Love In the Name of Christ (Love INC).
His ideas were simple and effective:
o Bring local churches together
o Help congregations identify and pool their assets, skills, talents, and material resources
o Establish a clearinghouse to screen, verify and assess requests from the community
o Match those in need with those who can help
Love INC provides a model churches can use to work together, across denominational lines, to help people in need in their communities. In 2002, Love INC affiliates served more than 500,000 people in need in the U.S. through over 100,000 volunteers
WOW dozens of cities have already done this.
And the national organization will help me to do it locally.
They have plenty of experience, guidelines and prayer momentum.
I have sent for their initial information packet.
May God open my eyes, ears and heart to this opportunity.
Before I give the link to Love INC (INC stands for In the Name of Christ) let me point out a small but important factor about how their web site is designed. At first I thought that the blue buttons on the left were the only way to get to information. Then after a long while, I noticed the small orange words at the top of each blue button section. http://www.worldvision.org/worldvision/wvususfo.nsf/loveinc
WOW they provide the guidelines and national supervision wile I build a local work.
According to their map this does not exist in Dallas.
I have shared this with selected intercessors first.
You have stood with me for weeks, month and maybe years.
God might be using this to answer your prayers.
I am not positive that this is God’s best but today it seems right.
May God grant much discernment.
May He make His will known very clearly.
This could have HUGE implications for decades to come.
Soon I will make a shorter announcement to the rest of the distribution list.
I still need to get ready and make those dreaded face-to-face presentations.
But if I were in their shoes I would have much more confidence if World Vision was behind it.
Mission statement work sheet
http://www.incubator.homestead.com/files/Management/Executive_Summary_for_HSM.htm
Pipelines diagram
http://www.osuonline.org/files/Mind_Maps/Sort/IM/index.html
Our Five Mission Fields
http://www.osuonline.org/files/Mind_Maps/Mission/IM/index.html
John 6:20 PM
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