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April
2009
Church Press
Newsletter |
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"I want to remind you of
the Gospel I preached to you, which you have received and on
which you have taken your stand. By this Gospel you are saved,
if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise,
you have believed in vain" (1 Corinthians
15:1-2). | |
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Don't Be Caught Dead Without
Christ!
a sermon on
1 Corinthians 15:55-57 by Don Ginkel for
Easter
 There is something about Christianity
that distinguishes it from all the other religions in the
world. It is the only religion that claims that its Leader
died and rose again and is alive at this very moment. Christ
is living today. Those who are true believers in Jesus are
winners. I want you to be a winner because of
Jesus.
You can follow any
philosophy in life that you want. You can belong to any kind
of religious denomination you want. You can call yourself a
Baptist or a Buddhist, but unless you have the living Christ
as your Savior, you are a
loser.
You can have a good
education, live in a beautiful home, drive a nice car, and be
vaccinated against all kinds of diseases, but until you are
converted to the Lord Jesus Christ you are a loser, you will
continue to lose, and for all eternity you will
lose.
You may have attended
Sunday School as a child, have memorized many Scripture
verses, and today you are a member in good standing in a
church, but you will lose if you have not had an encounter
with the Son of God. Until you are converted to Jesus
Christ instead of following whatever it is that you are
following, you are a loser, and you will continue to be a
loser. The Bible says there is no hope for you. [Complete
Article]
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Bricks and Mortar
by Kent
Hunter
 First
Church is in an urban center in Ohio. The community
around the church has changed dramatically. The homes are
now occupied by people of a different culture than those who
attend the church. A nearby hospital is purchasing homes,
one-by-one, as it rapidly expands.
First Church is housed
in a three-story, 104-year-old, deteriorating
building. No one, including the pastor, lives near the
church. As a consultant, the recommendation was
clear: abandon this facility and relocate before your
membership dwindles to nothing. However, it didn't end
there. The plan included working with the hospital and
local YMCA to raze the building and construct a mission
facility, deploying a missionary to the people who live
there. For many of the members, this was the challenge of
a century. Tear down our beloved building? [Complete
Article]
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Important note from
Pastor Don
"This April Newsletter will be
the last one for awhile. I need to cut down a bit on my
work load. We will be emailing you Monthly
Notes which will carry specials and a
sermon. The sermon will also be
accessible page 1 of our website. All of the
Newsletters are archived on the Newsletter
accessible on page 1 of our website. New Bible
studies are now in the planning stage. Shortly we will be
hiring someone to be in charge of Children's
Ministries. Please let us know how you feel we may better serve you in the
months ahead (info@churchpress.com).
Thanks!" - Don Ginkel
Suggestions for
guests
who attend one of your worship
services: 1) Have the goal to have two to three handshakes for
each guest. 2) Ask guests to fill out an attendance card or
pad, but don't be pushy. 3) Each first-time guest will get
four things:
- A phone call (from a woman
with a friendly voice)
- A letter from pastor.
- A "cookie" visit" (No hard
sell, just give a dozen cookies, and thank them for
attending church).
- Within 48 hours pastor
should drop by for a few minutes to thank them for
attending.
We guarantee that these
points WILL produce fruit. Go for it!
He is risen and
lives - therefore: Do know that as a child of
the living God you are the most blessed and fortunate of all
people on earth.
"Dear Mom -
The counselor said if your parents called, you could come
home. Mom, call. I want to go home. I'm crying right now, Mom.
Right now. Because all the counselors are mean. Come now!
Please Mom. Love, Allison
P.S. Come quick!"
Rebecca Watters of Kansas City, Allison's mother, now
thinks her daughter just wasn't ready to attend summer camp at
the age of 9.
Seen on a church sign:
"It is highly unlikely there'll be a reduction in the
wages of sin."
Many churches today
are going "full steam ahead" for Jesus. One of these is
Risen Christ Lutheran Church, Rev. John Kassouf, Pastor, at
Myrtle Beach, SC. Here are a just a few of the things we
like: 1) A succesful Christian School. 2) Sunday worship
at 8:30 called Classic Grace, 10:15 worship called Majestic
Praise, 10:00 & 11:45 Adult Bible study, 10:15 Kid's
Church. 3) Wednesday 10:00 Midweek Bible classes. 4) Various
small group studies throughout the week. 5) Four Adult
Membership Classes a year using I Have Good News For
You and called, "Christianity 101." 6) And much
more. God be praised!
For churches
that are trying, struggling, and progress is slow: Be
faithful! The Spirit of God says, "Stand firm. Let nothing
move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the
Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in
vain" (1 Corinthians 15:58).
As
lab'rers in Your vineyard, Help us be ever true,
Content to bear the burden Of weary days for You.
To ask no other wages When You have called us
home
Than to have shared the labor That makes Your Kingdom
come.
Mother's
Day
is filled with possibilities
for outreach to your community. Plan a Mother - Daughter Tea
in the fellowship hall. Slip an attractively wrapped tea bag
in each invitation. Be sure that every woman in your
congregation is invited. Ask each of them to invite two
non-member moms to the tea. Ladies without a daughter can
"adopt one" for this special occasion. Be sure that everyone
is invited to the special worship service on Mother's Day. At
this service give a carnation to every woman
at the service.
Consider sending
an empty envelope to our President. Encourage your
friends to do the same. Sample:
John Doe
777 Joy Street
Lakewood, CO 80235
This EMPTY envelope represents
one life lost to abortion. Please block the passage of the Freedom
of Choice Act. Thank you!
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
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How Can We Be Resilient In Difficult
Times?
by Craig
Loving
Several months
ago, A View from the Summit looked at the common
experience of anxiety. In that article, we saw that anxiety is
a response to a threat, whether real or imagined. The goal of
the article was to help us develop skills for managing our
anxiety so that it doesn't get out of control. In this issue,
we will consder how one particular response - resilience
- can help when the threat is real. How can we be resilient in
difficult times?
"Stress" and "reslience" are
terms that are on loan from physics. "Stress" refers to the
pressure that is applied to a particular material
that distorts its original shape. "Resilience" describes
the ability of tha material to withstand stress or return to
its original shape once the stress is removed.
It's an easy conceptual transfer
from the realm of physics to life: the phrase "I'm stressed"
describes the pressure we experience in difficult situations.
[ link] |
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Longing For A Better Home
"When I was five years old we lived in the little town of
Nicollet, MN, population 600. Our church was that familiar
white church building with a tall steeple. Before services
each Sunday the church bell would ring. But it always rang
throughout the year whenever a member died. It would toll
slowly. I can still see my mother stopping whatever she was
doing. She would count, and she would know who died; then she
would say, 'I'm so happy for...' (whoever it was that died). I
could tell that she longed for heaven. Now she is eighty-nine
years old in a nursing home, and she really longs for
heaven. Her daughter, Donna Mae, is there. Dad is there. She
can't wait. I hope you're like that." (The Many Wonders of
Heaven, p. 102, a Bible study by Don Ginkel)
Lesson 1 The Wonder of Entrance
Lesson 2 The Wonder of God
Lesson 3 The Wonder of the Saints
Lesson 4 The Wonder of God's Family
Lesson 5 The Wonder of Reward
Lesson 6 The Wonder of Activity
Lesson 7 The Wonder of the City
Lesson 8 The Wonder of Anticipation
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"Good People Who Do Nothing"
by Bob
Tasler
Edmund Burke and Leo Tolstoy both
have written, "All that is necessary for evil to triumph
is for good men to do nothing." The message I send today
is true, though you may not believe it belongs
here.
In World War II,
few German soldiers were actually Nazis; they were just
controlled by them. The majority of German citizens were
peaceful people and only after a bitterly lost war did they
see the terror and horror that resulted from actions of their
leaders. But for a time evil triumphed because good people did
nothing about it.
Not unlike the
Muslims of today. We are told over and again that Islam is the
religion of peace and that the vast majority of Muslims want
to live in peace. Although it may be true, it makes no
difference to Islamic fascists.
Islamic fanatics rule Islam
today. They are the ones who preach bombing, beheading, and
all kinds of murder in the name of Allah. They stone, hang or
kill anyone who offends them, including their own. Worst of
all, they teach their young to do the same. A majority of
Muslims may be good people, but their inaction is helping
Islamic fascism. [ Complete Article] |
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Does God Answer Prayer?
 A
minister had just brought home a kitten for his family
when it climbed up a tree in his yard and was afraid to come
down. The tree was small and not sturdy enough to climb,
so the pastor decided to throw a rope over the upper branches,
tie it to his car bumper and carefully bend the tree down so
he could then reach up and grab the kitten. Well, it was
working until he drove a bit too far, and the rope broke. The
tree went "boing"
and the kitten shot through the air like a
slingshot clear across the block. The pastor felt terrible. He
walked all over the neighborhood trying to find the kitten but
couldn't, so he finally prayed, "Lord, I commit that cat to
Your care."
A few days later he was at the
grocery store and met one of his members. "Pastor," she said,
"the strangest thing happened. My little girl has been
begging me for a cat, but I kept saying no. She begged and
begged and one day she asked me that if God gave her a
cat, could she keep it. I said, 'yes' to that, thinking I was
safe. Then I watched her go out in the backyard, get down on
her knees to pray, and pastor, a kitten came flying out of the
sky and landed right in front of her! Only thing is, whenever
the kitten sees a tree, it runs and hides."
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"I Haven't Got Time"
by Paul
Foust
 In
this busy, racing world it is surely true that time is at a
premium. Even our children in school find their days and
evenings scheduled full. Parents are either chauffeuring or
racing to another meeting. Perhaps it is not so strange that
the unregenerate sees the church as another organization
trying to steal some of that precious
time.
I remember a busy
farmer, who had barns full of dairy cows and acres of crops to
care for, telling me, "Pastor, I'd like to come to your
religion class because I know how much my wife gets from her
church, but I really haven't got
time!"
Here was a man
who was probably speaking his honest conviction, but he was a
man with bad priorities. I responded, "Howard, I spent 18
years of my life on the farm, and there's one thing I learned.
There are some things of which I never said, 'I haven't got
time.' Have you ever once said, 'Tonight I haven't got time to
milk the cows'? How did you get them milked?" Howard's answer
was simple, "I took the time!" Again I asked, "Have you ever
once planted and watched a field of wheat mature till it was
dead ripe and then said, 'Sorry, we haven't got time to
harvest it'? How did you find time?" Again his answer was
simple, "I took time." [Complete
Article]
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Please Keep Your Hope
Even when faith falters,
hope comes to the rescue. Peter wrote to believers who
were going through severe trials: "Praise be to the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In His great mercy He has
given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection
of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 Peter 1:3).
Hope is illustrated
in the true story of a dog who was abandoned at the airport of
a large city. He stayed there for over five years, waiting for
his master to return. People at the airport fed and cared for
him, but he refused to leave the spot where he last saw his
master. If a dog's love for his master can produce that kind
of hope, how much more should you keep your hope in God?
Please take a moment to read Psalm 42. Thanks!
As the deer
pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I
go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and
night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
These things I remember as I pour out my soul: how I used to
go with the multitude, leading the procession to the house of
God, with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the
festive throng.
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and
my God. My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will
remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of
Hermon - from Mount Mizar. Deep calls to deep in the roar of
Your waterfalls; all Your waves and breakers have swept
over me.
By day the LORD
directs His love, at night His song is with me - a prayer to
the God of my life. I say to God my Rock, "Why have You
forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the
enemy?" My bones suffer mortal agony as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my
Savior and my God.
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