Bethlehem

Archive for December, 2009

Focus your prayers on the bigger issues of the kingdom, knowing the coming of the kingdom is the will of God for the women in your group and their families—“Thy kingdom come; Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Study the prayers of the New Testament and see how they involved kingdom issues: character-building in those who suffered, the glory of God in the midst of persecution, and the knowledge of Jesus in the world.

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Source: Kay Daigle

“If I want to respond to Jesus, it means I not only have to live out the cross of Jesus Christ in my relationships, I have to live out the cross of Jesus economically.  What does this mean?  It means I’ve got to give enough money away such that it sacrifices my lifestyle.  If I give money but it doesn’t make a difference in my lifestyle, then there’s no sacrifice and no cross and no following Jesus in my life.  The cross is our standard for economics.”

This quote comes from a sermon Tim Keller preached titled “Treasure vs. Money” on Matthew 6:19-34 from his series on “Stewardship” which is downloadable for free here.

It is for this reason that with every new member class, I have the privelege of teaching on stewardship.  Our goal with this section in the membership classes is to illustrate (in a very holistic way) that all of life is a gift from God and that we are to offer everything – time, talents, and resources – to Him for his glory and his purposes.

In my previous post updating you on the financial situation in 2009 I pointed out (and you may have missed it) that though we have been able to increase the budget and financially we have expanded, our people have not necessarily grown in their generosity.  In fact, the number of members within Sojourn that have given nothing since January 2009 has increased from 12% in 2008 to 23% at the end of this year!

Let’s remember that Jesus’ death on the cross represents the most generous gift ever given—when the King of Glory gave up everything in order to reconcile us to God. When we are generous with others, we are reminding one another of the great generosity of our good God.

Sojourners (those attending on Sunday):
44% have given $0 since January 2009
69% have given less than $1 a day in 2009
and 93% have given less than 10% of a Louisville average income for a family of 3 (avg income is $30,000)

Those that have covenanted with this church are better in percentage, but not by much…

Members:
23% have given $0 since January 2009
36% have given less than $1 a day in 2009
and 80% have given less than 10% of a Louisville average income for a family of 3 (avg income is $30,000)

One response to a lack of financial commitment that I often hear is  “I don’t make enough to give”…and my response is typically one of two things:

First, do you have a budget and know where your money is going (how can you manage/steward God’s resources if you don’t even know where it is all going in the first place?)

And secondly, do you go out to eat or get coffee every day (or once a week)? Often the thought is that “my small amount does not really matter”. And to that, I generally respond with this illustration:

I got my undergraduate degree in Economics and one thing I was taught that certainly applies to our giving is a principal called the Latte Factor® which is a euphemistic label for all that extra money we spend daily on nonessentials such as candy, bottled water, doughnuts, and yes, lattes. David Bach (author and financial advisor) coined the term to illustrate the crazy amount of money wasted on daily nonessentials.  You can google Latte Factor and several sites will pop up with info on how to calculate this.  David applied the principal to investments to show that the insignificant amounts we spend each day does have long-term implications (i.e. $5/day invested at an average return of 10% you will have saved an average of $950,000 over 40 years!).

If we apply that same principal to giving (just taking into consideration our members that have made a commitment to this church):

Sojourn’s End of Year Goals:

• make budget for the rest of 2009

• exceed 2008 year-end gifts of $150,000 to establish a firm financial foundation leading into 2010

• 25% of all revenue from December goes to missions

2010 Challenge:

• Increase average giving from $775 per adult to $1620 per adult (match National average given to charities)

• Increase average giving for members to $2200 (From $1920 per family in 2009)

• End 2010 in the black

• Every member that has given nothing is seeking help in financial coaching and is growing in generosity.

For the most part, at least here in North America, Christians give less than their ability. Some give according to their ability and very few give beyond their ability. For most of us, giving according to our means would stretch us.  We think that giving beyond our means would break us – but in the end it won’t, because God is faithful.

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Source: BryceButler

By now, everyone has heard of the failed bombing of Delta/Northwest flight 253. This was frighteningly close to being a disaster,…

Source: Brett Snyder

 

 

 

 

Source: myariv@gmail.com (Yariv Modzelewicz)

“[Jesus Comforts His Disciples] “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.”

Source: Bible Gateway

What did I do in 2009?

Compared to 2008, this year was slow on travel. Since I was in school and pretty much broke from all the trips last year, there was very little I did.

India

I started the new year in India and flew back to Canada shortly after that.

Canada

Camping in a farm outside a little town in southern Ontario

I went on several biking and trekking day trips with Chad to places around Toronto, but our biggest one was a 4-day biking trip to Southern Ontario. Equipped with camping gear, we bicycled across small towns and through the woods for a total of 170km.

Fall colors at Frontenac Provincial park

There were few camping trips too, the biggest one being to Frontenac park amidst beautiful fall colors and an unexpected cold wave (-5ºC) on the Thanksgiving weekend .

Humber bridge, Toronto

Toronto Tuesday, with sights an flavors of Toronto will continue in the next year.

Abandoned mineshaft on a snowy Christmas day in Timmins

Right now I am in Timmins, a little city in north-eastern Ontario where I am spending the holidays with Chad’s family. I did several things for the first time in my life, such as seeing reindeer, eating reindeer meat and bear meat, drinking home brewed wine, getting my first Christmas present, going skidooing and snowshoeing and many other things… etc.

USA

Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls

I made three trips across the border, two of them were to nearby places: Niagara Falls and Buffalo.

NYC – near the courthouse and department of Justice

Before my Fall semester began, I went on a 8 day trip to New York city and Chicago. I walked till my feet fell and did many touristy things like walking with a I ‘heart’ NY shirt and taking cheezy pictures at the cloud gate in millennium park.

Plans for 2010

Simply stated, it all depends on how much money I have…hehehee. I’d like to see more of Canada and if possible make one trip overseas. Lets see where it goes!

This travel blog is one year old and I am excited about the next year.

Source: Priyank

take Barcelona at night, the bus tour (2 different companies) and a cam

Source: BarcelonaLife

I hope everyone has enjoyed the BC series as much as I have. It’s been a great journey and I’m looking forward to finishing the journey in the upcoming year as we work through the entire New Testament after a couple of months in Psalms and Proverbs. There is some really cool stuff ahead for us – Genesis to Revelation in two years!

I love New Year’s resolutions. I always feel like I’m getting a fresh start with spiritual and physical disciplines in my life. I encourage you not to wait until Friday morning to frantically jot down a few ideas for the sake of having resolutions. Rather, start thinking about your resolutions today. Invest some time in the process and set yourself up for success with prayerfulness and planning.

Here is a helpful article from Donald Whitney on 10 Questions to Ask at the Start of a New Year (excerpt below):

The beginning of a new year is an ideal time to stop, look up, and get our bearings. To that end, here are some questions to ask prayerfully in the presence of God.

1. What’s one thing you could do this year to increase your enjoyment of God?
2. What’s the most humanly impossible thing you will ask God to do this year?
3. What’s the single most important thing you could do to improve the quality of your family life this year?
4. In which spiritual discipline do you most want to make progress this year, and what will you do about it?
5. What is the single biggest time-waster in your life, and what will you do about it this year?
6. What is the most helpful new way you could strengthen your church?
7. For whose salvation will you pray most fervently this year?
8. What’s the most important way you will, by God’s grace, try to make this year different from last year?
9. What one thing could you do to improve your prayer life this year?
10. What single thing that you plan to do this year will matter most in ten years? In eternity?

Whitney continues:

The value of many of these questions is not in their profundity, but in the simple fact that they bring an issue or commitment into focus. For example, just by articulating which person you most want to encourage this year is more likely to help you remember to encourage that person than if you hadn’t considered the question.

Whitney also offers an additional 21 questions to help us “consider our ways.”

Read the whole article here.

Here is helpful post from blogger, Justin Taylor,  on  D.M. Lloyd-Jones and his work Spiritual Depression titled, Resolutions and Regret.

I plan on having my New Year’s resolutions written by Monday or Tuesday and I encourage you to have them done early as well. Happy New Year!

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Source: BryceButler

I briefly talked about <a…

Source: Brett Snyder

Pastor Mike Cosper finished out the BC series yesterday, preaching Jonah. It’s a great sermon for anyone who knows someone who doesn’t know Christ (which, likely, is all of us). The devotional went through Jonah a couple of weeks back, and you can find that here. Jonah is a perfect book to meditate on for a week. It’s only four chapters and you can read the whole thing literally in 5 minutes. I encourage you to read this book a few times this week. Be on the lookout for how different things will stand out to you with each reading. This is the perfect opportunity to learn the valuable lesson that the Word of God never grows stale.

Pastor Mike spent some time urging us to be proactive with the precious good news we have as Christians – that Christ has made a way for sinners – but not to try to drum this up in ourselves for we are bound to stumble and grow discouraged. (What should we do, then? Listen in and hear Pastor Mike’s thoughts). That fear of stumbling (fear of being judged, mocked, persecuted, etc.) can be a real hindrance to proclaiming Jesus to people. We can feel inadequate to the task of saving people (which, honestl, we are – only God saves) and we can struggle to find that first step to evangelism (that scariest of Christian callings). We could never preach a sermon to a friend, they’d think we were ridiculous. We can’t possibly be evangelists.

Consider this. If you had season tickets to the Colts or to Actors Theater, you would love to invite your friends. It’s so easy. You have this thing you do every week and you’d love it if they could come along. Your first step to proclaiming Jesus to a friend of relative can be as simple as just inviting them to church. You can’t preach a sermon? That’s ok, Sojourn’s pulpit preaches 5 every Sunday, just invite someone. You attend most every week and it means a lot to you, so just invite someone along. It’s so simple. ‘If you’d like to come to Sojourn, I’ve found it very rewarding and would love for you to come.’ The worst they can say is, ‘No, thanks.’ Or they could say, ‘Sure,’ and then you’d have a softball gospel conversation starter. ‘What did you think of the sermon?’

It may be uncomfortable, but that’s ok. We all long for comfort, that one thing that, if all else fails, will sustain us. It’s a problem if that one thing is anything other than God. But as a Christian, that one thing is Jesus Christ and the approval He won for us before God. That never perishes, spoils or fades. With that kind of enduring comfort, we can certainly endure the momentary discomfort of inviting someone to church.

Invite a friend to church and your community will make sure they hear the gospel.

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Source: MichaelMorgan