Guidelines for Giving

By Pastor Valmike Apuzen

1 Corinthians 16:1-4

1. Punctual. Give on the First Day of the week. This speaks of regularity and habit. First Day – regular (Acts 20:7).

2. Personal. “Everyone” set aside.

3. Provisional. Set aside some amount of your funds! Abound preparation – give some thought.

4. Proportional – “As God has prepared you”
(Deut. 16:17) (16:16 not empty handed).

5. Practical – that there be no gathering when I come. No need for extra special offering.

Why give? Because we are stewards. God owns it.

Scriptural Prayers for Revival

1.Lord, convict me of my specific sins that need cleansed in the blood.
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9, nasb).

2.Lord, give me the Spirit of prevailing prayer.
“In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for word” Romans 8:26 (nasb).

3.Lord, burden me deeply over the headlong rush to destruction many engage in.
“I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” (Romans 9:1-3, nasb).

4.Lord, pour out your Holy Spirit mightily upon us.
“And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31, nasb).

5.Lord, revive your work in the midst of years.
“Lord, I have heard the report about Thee and I fear O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2, nasb)

Pastors and IN-N-OUT BURGER

by Dave Jacobs

Smaller churches lack the resources of larger churches. This does not mean they will not be able to provide meaningful ministry to their members and community, but it does mean they will have to be more selective in what they offer.

In 1948, the first In-N-Out Burger was founded by Harry and Esther Snyder in Baldwin Park, California. Harry’s idea of a drive-thru hamburger stand where customers could order through a two-way speaker box was quite unique. In that era, it was common to see carhops serving those who wanted to order food from their car. Harry’s idea caught on and California’s first drive-thru hamburger stand was born.

The Snyder’s business philosophy was simple: “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.” These principles have worked so well over the years that they are still the company’s fundamental philosophy. In-N-Out Burger has basically three items on their menus: burgers, fries, and drinks. There are no salads, no burritos, no chicken sandwiches. Think of the huge variety most other fast food chains offer. You would think In-N-Out made a mistake in limiting what they offer but they continue to be one of the most popular food chains in California, Nevada, and Arizona.

I think smaller churches need to follow the example of In-N-Out…do a few things well and, “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.”

What do you have the resources to do? By adding more ministries prematurely are you running the risk of providing a poor product and equally as bad, burned out workers? It would be better to do a few things well than a bunch of things half-baked that burn people out.

-If you can’t do multi-media well…don’t do multi-media.
-If you don’t have the manpower (usually it’s womanpower) to do a full-on Sunday school program, don’t do one.
-If there are not resources and interest for doing small groups…let it go and wait until the time is right.

You get the point. Smaller churches need to copy In-N-Out not Dennys. Dennys offers everything you could ever want. In-N-Out…burgers, fries, and drinks. Since mission statements are so popular these days, perhaps your mission statement should be In-N-Out’s: “Give customers the freshest, highest quality foods you can buy and provide them with friendly service in a sparkling clean environment.”

Source: http://www.toddrhoades.com/?p=1631

Why Does ACTION Work in Crisis Relief?

Someone asked us recently “Why is ACTION involved with crisis relief? Why not just let large NGOs like World Vision handle it?”

A brief answer is that we want to follow Jesus by loving our neighbors (Luke 10: 25-37). ACTION works with evangelical missions, workers, networks, evangelical churches, and local ministries who are often near the place where crises occur. These believers have a desire to reach out in compassion to those in need in the name of Jesus Christ. They know our heart is the same as theirs so we are invited to serve with them.

ACTION is an evangelical mission committed to working in ministry (such as crisis relief) through local evangelical churches -- churches which minister compassionate care and the Gospel. It is true that ACTION is not a relief agency and it is not easy taking on added burdens of those in distress. However, Christ would have us do no less and we embrace His wish as our pleasure.

Most relief agencies from our observation and experience are not integrated with local churches and ministries the way ACTION is. We conduct our relief and mercy projects alongside our brothers and sisters in Christ as the Lord leads. It is our privilege to contribute resources and personnel toward their initiatives or mutually envisioned relief efforts.

Are Whales More Valuable Than Children?

“We can also teach our sons and daughters that there is a world of suffering beyond our own neighborhood. Unfortunately, our kids won’t get a reliable perspective of this plight through the media. In 1988, for example, the press sent an army of reporters to cover the story of three trapped whales in Alaska. Several governments cooperated to rescue these animals, and the media heralded this account to inquiring minds around the world. Sadly, the same year, more than a quarter of a million people died of starvation in the Sudan. Their terrible tragedy never made the front page.

In fact, more children die in the Third World every two days than all the American servicemen killed in the Vietnam War. In some countries like Tanzania, one of five children will die before the age of five from diseases such as measles, malnourishment, diarrhea, and malaria. This is the stark reality of life and death in the Southern Hemisphere.”

Train Up A Child by Rolf Zettersten
(pages 29-30)

Sadness on a Plane

Recently I was on plane to Sacramento, California and sat next to a man who saw I was reading a New Testament. He asked me why we needed God?

I took out a Gospel booklet and began to share the Gospel with him. The man suddenly said, “I know all that stuff. I am a minister, I just don’t believe it.”

Rather than acted shocked, I continued to share the Good News looking for a soft spot in his heart so that he might begin to respond to the Word of God. However, he did not seem to soften at all. I left him with the Gospel booklet and my card and asked if we could get together sometime in Seattle where he lives.

Perhaps God will bring him to a place of repentance and trust in Him through the glorious Gospel of Christ.

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance” (Romans 2:4 nasb).

The Race Is On (Working for the Glory of God!)

Soon after trusting Christ in my early twenties, I worked the night shift at a plywood company in Southern California mainly with Hispanics. We enjoyed each other whether we fought nor not. They taught me to really like hot peppers!

I worked on an 8-man crew (4 teams of 2 men on a team) that off-loaded huge crates of 50 4’ x 8’sheets of plywood from trucks.  We would then unstrap each crate of plywood, inspect each piece and then stack them into piles of 100 good sheets.  The stacks of plywood were then taken to another building to be painted for mobile homes.

In an 8-hour shift, each 2-man team would prepare two or three stacks of 100 good sheets ready for painting.

My teammate was also a new Christian, and as we began to reach out to others with the Gospel and do Bible study together on breaks, we began to be concerned about our testimony in the lazy, union-controlled work environment.

So we began to pick up speed and work harder.

Soon we were doing four stacks of plywood, instead of two or three.  The other teams also began to speed up as they did not want to look bad.  The race was on as each team began to race each other and still be careful of quality control.  The amount of stacks increased.  Soon it was three or four stacks by lunch, and eight or ten stacks completed on each shift instead of the previous two or three.

This became a problem as the painters then had to keep up and go faster on the paint machines.  The union bosses then came in and made a fuss, but the management was so happy that they gave everyone a raise, extended our break and lunch times, and provided all kinds of amenities to the 250 workers.

Our company became the most productive factory in California.

As young Christians this made a great impact on our personal life as we saw the difference Christ made in the simple matter of stacking plywood for the testimony of Christ for the glory of God!

“Whatever you do, do your work heartily, as for the Lord rather than for men” (Colossians 3:23).