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RECAP NEWSLETTER - 1/3/2010 BACKWARDS & FORWARDS Already we are several days into the new year of 2010. It seems like only a few days ago that it was the start of 2009. This year has been a year of defining changes for our world and country. All around us the world and events are not pointing to a happier and chipper future, but rather one of increased turmoil, hardship, and national change; yet, even in the midst of such a bleak outlook, as Christians we have hope. Our hope and faith in God to work through circumstances, through the flood and fire, and then shortly, in eternity enables us to press onward in our lives and service. The lost and unsaved have no hope. They look at the news, calamities, and their bank account and they have no hope. A Christian, one who is redeemed from their sins by the blood of Jesus Christ only, knows that the trouble we face now is only a blip on the timeline of eternity. Not to mention that Christ has promised He will one day wipe away all tears and sorrow. Our Shepherd sustains us through the valley and on the mountaintops. With His sustaining hand in memory, let us look back on a few points from this last year concerning this ministry. A year ago, late January, we finally finished the editing work on the Logic Seminar video – the culmination of two year’s work making a DVD seminar curriculum based off of Isaac Watts’ classic book Logic (www.artoflogic.org). It was a lot of man-hours in front of the computer getting the four-hour’s worth of video completed, but the Lord gave grace and strength. It was during late February that the economic events hit home with the loss of my main employment. Over the next few months, we depleted our savings and went into the red for the first time. While it was a trying time, and we lost use of some valuable services, the Lord provided all the way. It was a good time to stay focused on the important things and ministry. We are always urging people on our website resource section Prudent Living, to constantly maintain a food pantry and supplies for the uncertain future. Our own personal prudent living strategy and pantry greatly helped ease the burden and worry of the employment loss. It is one thing to be concerned about how you are going to meet the bills, let alone pay bills and eat food, too. With a prudently prepared larder during the good years, the Lord provided for us during this lean time. If you have not yet looked through our Prudent Living section, or taken action, time is running out! During February through June we worked on the printed materials and workbooks for the Logic Seminar. In April, the Lord opened a door for us to be able to get our Logic DVDs produced and packaged totally on credit, through friends of the ministry. Because of the budget crunch and unemployment, we would not have been able to come up with the over $1500 in production costs beforehand. The Lord also enabled us to get our first batch of printed materials produced in the same manner but through another route. In May, the Logic Seminar went on sale for the first time at a home school curriculum convention in Pennsylvania. Not too long after that, the Logic Seminar passed Vision Forum’s review process for acceptance, and is now being sold as digital downloads on their bluebehemoth.com, under their Learning section. From August through October, the Lord allowed me to work on putting together a website (thehomeapothecary.com) with herbal and alternative health information that was free from the new age junk often found on many herbal sites. It was launched late October, and is definitely a work in progress! Around this time swine flu started coming on the scene, and we were able to post pertinent information, tips, and news articles concerning it. Please keep this particular ministry in prayer that we will be able to expand the amount of information on it. In November, we were blessed to finally have the review of our Logic Seminar completed by The Old Schoolhouse Magazine, a major respected homeschool publication. The Lord blessed by affording us a glowing review that (Lord willing) will open many doors for its expanded distribution. Also in November we did a short rush video called “Consider” portraying some of the things that an American colonist would have been thankful for. So often we get so busy and distracted in life that we forget that all is not life, and when we peel back the distractions and really think about life, we realize that oftentimes we are blessed much more than we realize. If you haven’t had a chance to see it, here is the link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ovbe0ya8aa8 In December, our video “Building Thinking Skills In Young People” was also reviewed and accepted for Vision Forum’s bluebehemoth.com and should be available some time this month. If you would like to see the low-res version of this powerful video, we are currently showing it full-length at http://www.homeschoolviewtube.com/video/689/Building-Thinking-Skills-In-Young-People Also in December, the Lord opened several new doors for distribution of the Logic Seminar, so please keep them in prayer that the Lord will help this ministry grow in reaching old and young alike! Of course, this overview cannot even begin to cover how the Lord enabled time, energy, and funds to keep the informedchristians.com website updated and maintained on an almost daily schedule throughout the year. When I consider what the Lord has done in what feels like such a short amount of time (only a year), all I can say is Soli Deo Gloria [To God be the Glory!] and Maranatha [Our Lord Cometh]! Brethren, we have looked back on 2009 and seen the hand of God move in ways that I definitely cannot take credit for. As a steward, the talents, opportunities, and duties that are entrusted to me are not my own, nor for my advantage. The same is true for every child of God. We are all stewards. As you look back at 2009, examine how the Lord has been there and what He has done in your life. Also consider what you have done for Him. What kind of steward have you been? This should be an impetuous and springboard to press the limits in our service during this new year. Philippians 3:13-14 reminds us, “…I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” While it is good to remember the former days, what God has done in the past, and consider all that He has done for us, we must remember that they are in the past – they are already done and today is a new day. Today we must press harder and farther than last year. Last year is over, the accomplishments recorded, and another day given for more service. Just like the runners, we still have laps to go. Yes, we may have made significant advances, but we can’t quit or lollygag here at the end - so close to the mark. We must endure to the end and be found faithful. Already a few days into the new year, we are standing on a precipice looking over the vast clean slate of a new year. On one hand, it can be daunting – how can we use such finite time to accomplish for the infinite? In Exodus 14:15-16, the children of Israel are standing on the banks of the Red Sea: “And the LORD said unto Moses, Wherefore criest thou unto me? speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward: But lift thou up thy rod, and stretch out thine hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea.” The children of Israel could not rest on the laurels of what God had done back in Egypt with the plagues and showing His mighty hand – today was a new day, a new challenge, and a new direction that they were to go. His command was simple: “…that they go forward.” That is what God is asking of us as well. Just like Peter, we can look at the year as a Red Sea, and maybe focus on the financial waves and political swells and wonder what we can do for God in the midst of a storm. God’s answer to Moses is the same to us – forget the water and storms, I’ll either be with you through them, or I will move them out of the way, or I will calm them – or all of the above. God told Moses to go forward even before He explained what He was going to do to the water. We may not understand what God is going to do, how He is going to work, etc.; but, if He asks us to take a step of faith and move in a certain direction and plan, then He fully knows the outcome. Let us not be found standing on the banks of the Red Sea – let us be found going forward! In Jeremiah 7:23-24, God lamented over His children saying, “…this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” There are many Christians, unfortunately, who will face this new year, see the waves and storms ahead, and end up going backwards on God. Their faith in God is only a fair-weather faith, and many have already inclined their ear and heart away from God. What about us? Is our faith and service to God only strong when the paychecks are coming in and there is food on the table? Does our faith linger or turn when hard times come? The children of Israel quickly turned to murmuring that they would rather go back to Egypt, even though they were halfway to the land that God was trying to give them! In II Corinthians 8:10-12, the Apostle Paul exhorts the Corinthians believers, “…for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago. Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have. For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.” What direction are you going in? In Scripture, we often find the word “froward”. It is very similar to “forward”, but it is different. Froward means a turning from, while Forward means progressiveness, usually to a certain place. The Corinthian believers were forward to serve God; that meant they were inclined in the direction of doing what God wanted them to do. The Apostle Paul was now telling them that just having the inclination is not enough – there needs to be action of moving forward. Also in this passage we find another nugget. Not everyone has the same Red Sea or even Jordan River that needs to be crossed. Paul encouraged them not to compare themselves to other people (“…to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.”). Too many Christians compare themselves to others and say that they cannot do what so-and-so does for God. God gave so-and-so opportunities, talents, and duties that He did not give you. What He has given you is what He expects you to move forward with. It can be anything from child-rearing choices, witnessing opportunities, all the way to full-scale ministry. What matters is that we are moving forward with what God has given to us – not somebody else. II Timothy 4:5 exhorts us, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.” Whatever ministry God has given to you, you need to show progression and forwardness in it. Some people’s whole ministry is raising their family, while others may minister to other people’s families in a multitude of ways. Regardless, you must give proof of the ministry that God has given YOU. The Apostle Paul gave Timothy a heads up that serving God is not like the prosperity teachers of today; the way will get hard and there will be afflictions, but regardless you need to go forward! 1 Corinthians 16:13 is Paul’s pep speech: “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” Watch for what? We need to keep an eye out for what will stall or retard our going forward for God. To “quit you like men” is the idea of freeing ourselves and absolving ourselves of what is holding us back from going forward - a steady determination, like Joshua, “…as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.” Ephesians 5:14-16 exhorts us, “…Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” There is much work left to do. God has us here for a reason; He wants us to make progress in the ministry that He has assigned to each one of us. We cannot rest on the laurels of yesteryear or even last month- we must be redeeming the time and making progress for eternity – today! Finally, let us dwell on Psalm 94:16-17: “Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? or who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.” The work that the Lord has given to me to do, may be my stewardship - but, we are also commanded to bear one another’s burdens. I need your prayers, exhortation, and encouragement as I go forward. Just like a soldier is encouraged by their fellowsoldier telling them that ‘they have their back’, so I am also encouraged when my fellowlabourers tell me they are praying for me. Encourage one another to move forward for Christ. The second verse we looked at, “Unless the LORD had been my help, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.” is my life verse. You see, I do not go forward into the Red Sea of this new year, or any new day, alone - Christ is with me. The stewardship, progression, and proof is not my doing, but belongs to Him who has been my help. God does not ask me to accomplish big and grandiose endeavors for Him; He just asks me to go forward. And when I walk through on dry ground and arrive at the other side of another year, I can look back, just like Moses, and sing and rejoice in what God has allowed me to be a part of. My hope and prayer is that you are also going forward for Christ. Awake, quit you like men, and press forward; the Lord is your help and salvation. May He find all of us faithful unto the end. Maranatha! Maranatha!
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