Friday, February 11, 2005
REQUESTING REINFORCEMENTS
2-11-05
I have felt distracted, discouraged and disoriented for a week.
This last week has been a continual spiritual battle. I have prayed and asked for prayers. It has been very rough. So I am calling upon you for more spiritual reinforcement.
When I got home after work last Friday I set a moderately ambitions goal of investing 10 hours before midnight on Saturday to put the many notes together into a PERT chart kind of road map. I have referred to that several times. I kept a record of how long I spent time on this task. During those 36 hours it was only one and a half hours. I have had other blocks of time since then. And in the last 7 days I have only put in a total of 3 hours.
There is something very wrong with this picture. You may wonder what I have been doing instead of the most important project for the ministry. As I hinted at on the last Tuesday Briefing I have slipped into Internet pornography in the worst way ever. Not only it that nasty but it has sucked away my time. There have been blocks of 3 to 6 hours on the dirty side of the web. Then afterward there were flash backs of the worst images and stories.
On Monday I enrolled in Net Accountability http://netaccountability.com That was a huge help but not the end of the story. I had a big slip on Tuesday and a small slip on Wednesday.
Mind you I had told my weekly accountability partner about this and a few close friends. I had contacted the best prayer groups I know both online and by phone.
At the Net Accountability web site I saw a letter from Chuck Swindoll that states that nearly fifty percent of male church members have been involved in Internet pornography http://netaccountability.com/ver2/letter.cfm This verifies what Bruce Wilkerson said. Like I have told many men at the seminary who are preparing to become pastors this is a silent plague that is harming the Body of Christ.
There has not been much online transgression recently but an on-going mental and emotional battle. I have had much trouble concentrating due to frequent temptations to lust. I ask you to pray for spiritual protection for me. May I claim and use the promises about the armor of God and related verses.
I know two men that I have met and prayed with before about these issues. May God open the doors and coordinate our busy schedules. I have an appointment with one of them at 4 on SAT.
The solution is not to stop here and get tangled up. I need to plan my work and work my plan. The central issue is making headway toward obeying the revealed will of God.
I believe that I am very close to a MAJOR breakthrough in funding the ministry and that is why the enemy is attacking so viciously. Yesterday the hardware and software lined up for what could become a way to get good video on the web. That material will be forwarded to millionaires and billionaires. I hope to experiment with that this Saturday. If the tests prove okay then I will share the results with you on Monday.
John 4:42 PM
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
TUESDAY BRIEFING from John S. Oliver on February 8, 2005
BLESSINGS
ALL glory to God in Jesus Name!
May you accept the mercies of God that are new every morning.
May you die to self and live to God daily.
May Jesus become the center of each commitment.
Amen?
COMPLETED
· I have had troubles with Internet pornography for the last few weeks. I have told close friends and my accountability partner that I meet with weekly. Last weekend was the worst and I began with Net Accountability http://www.netaccountability.com on MON. The way this works is that instead of a software filter that can be faulty or by passed this service allows all surfing but keeps a record on their servers. My accountability partner can look at this record any time. It is reported that this has been very successful in breaking people of this dirty habit. I have one such online partner and am praying about whom else to ask. The partners pay zero and I pay only 15 dollars per quarter.
· Please pray for complete victory in this area.
CURRENT
· I have been making progress toward the PERT chart that will be like a road map for me and others. It will show a graphic summary of the short term projects lead to the Big Picture. I stay busy with ministry activities but need this way to help target my actions toward strategic goals.
UPCOMING
· Very soon I will borrow a PC laptop and this will allow me to produce and publish the Power Point slide shows on the web.
· The PERT graphic and slide shows on the web pave the way to better fund raising. May this unfold quickly and easily. I admit that I tend to get far too detailed in my preparations.
OTHER UPDATES
· 7 Sentence Saturday Summary http://7sentencesaturdaysummary.blogspot.com/
· There were many quotes added here recently http://valuablequotes.blogspot.com/
DONATE
· http://ears2hear.homestead.com/Donate.html
RESOURCES
This is an amazing site if you like Christian forums http://www.christianforums.com/
I have used various free photo editors and this is by far the best. There are many special features. http://www.picasa.com/index.php
Just found this site and exploring the possibilities www.spreadtehword.com
Here is an archive of previous Tuesday Briefings and updates between Tuesdays http://tuesdaybriefings.blogspot.com/
If you wish to unsubscribe then just let me know by reply email.
John 8:40 AM
Sunday, February 06, 2005
Is reason the enemy of faith?
May I suggest that reason is not the enemy of biblical faith.
What follows is a site that has dozens of reasons to believe. They take on the toughest objections to Christianity.
http://www.gospelcom.net/rbc/rtb/
Note that RBC is the same ministry that publishes Our Daily Bread. They will send out print copies of these to you for free. They will even send multiple copies for you to give to others. I have distributed hundreds.
John 4:50 AM
What a challenge?
It seems that most Christians rarely encounter a genuine atheist. And clearly the person who wrote this site has much experience in heated debates.
What is stated here and the ways of thinking may stretch you.
Articulate atheist's web site
http://www.ebonmusings.org/atheism/index.html
And here are links that summarize the biblical worldview.
Here is the shortest summary online
www.ifmamissions.org/doctrin.htm
And here are longer versions
http://www.gospelcom.net/lcwe/statements/covenant.html
http://reformed.org/documents/wcf_with_proofs/indexf.html
Both cannot be true. Atheists have truth or those who rely on the Bible but not both.
You are an ambassador for Christ. You are His representative in the fallen and flawed world.
A tiny percent of the population is actively atheistic. But that percent is gradually growing. And they have an hostility toward Christians. They can win many to their views by the kinds of thinking on the atheist’s site.
It is highly unlikely that you will meet an articulate atheist in person this week. But there are hundreds online in forms and chat rooms that are making basic Christianity seem like foolishness. That may not seem like a big deal to you but that is where the younger generation has been going to sort out spiritual matters.
How they sort out the eternal questions will determine the choices and consequences for decades including how they parent their children.
Today you may not think you have time to explore these matters. But just store these links for later.
I have begun to set aside Sunday afternoons to explore apologetics, evangelism, theology etc. on the web. There are vast spiritual riches available for free over the World Wide Web.
Maybe you can make time in your busy life to broaden your horizons. This may include looking at the way an atheist views life.
John 2:34 AM
Great Drawing to Go with Insightful Quote
2-5-05
Actually it was the drawing that I recalled most easily and then from that visual aid I remembered the truth it represented.
The drawing in on this blog http://gemcollection.blogspot.com/
John 1:08 AM
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