“Be ENCOURAGED” - GOD is the One …

Positive Expectations & Excellence in Our Efforts --- These are the SEEDS for Ministry Success that We Plant, and then God Gives Us the Growth and the Results.

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.” Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

This is the third Blog post in my series God is the One...

Pastor Nick Diliberto recorded his video, “God Speaks” as a testimony of how God moved during services he was leading at a Christian camp for kids in grades 4 - 6.   He made remarks in the video about how he had some plans for activities that he thought were very creative, but he listened to God for direction and was led to minimize the implementing of those plans.    

He still affirmed that you have to plan, and to be motivated to have excellence in what you do.   But God … when God takes over, to just stir the hearts and minds of the kids and draw them in - for powerful times of worship and revelation of Himself through the Word, then your plans for ministry and activities need to take a back seat.    “God is the One who makes ministry successful.”   You can get ready to switch gears, and start to harvest spiritual fruit from what God is doing in your midst.

I also can testify from my experience with taking a group of sixth graders to the Super Start Conference for preteens last March.   The conference planning, programming, and worship, with the singer Yancy, were all excellent.  But the real blessing was how God moved, challenging those sixth graders and stirring up faith in their hearts.   I was in a position to help by answering their questions, and counseling them.    I’m looking forward to next year’s conference.

The take-away idea for ministry to young people is to expect the Power of God to really be your Source.   I have objectives for ministry, and plans to accomplish them, but the main thing I need is the spiritual breakthrough that causes my preteen students to engage - first, engaging with spiritual matters (for the “Not Interested” or “Stagnant” kids), then engaging with learning and  discipleship at the next level higher (for the “Growing” kids), not just listening to some Bible stories but making a commitment  to be young disciples of Jesus.   

I can tell you that -- if you don’t have that spiritual breakthrough -- applying all the intellect and all the experience you have, into planning and program development, or curriculum development, will fall flat with preteens.   But, don’t let that drive your efforts.     Let positive expectation and faith be what is driving your efforts.

Be Encouraged.   God is the One who can take the positive expectations you have for your work in the ministry, and the effort you put into it, and use that as seed planted for a harvest.   He will give the growth and the ministry success.


___________________
George Nielsen is an ordained minister in the Christian Church and Churches of Christ.  He is a teacher and evangelist with Faith Hope and Love Christian Ministries, of Springfield Illinois and teaches in the Children’s Christian Education ministry at Rochester Christian Church.   He is a member of the United States Reformation Prayer Network (USRPN) and is affiliated with Mountain Alliance of Illinois.   He is a US Army veteran and retiree.

"God is the One ..." so - Have FAITH

Jesus answered, saying “Have Faith in God”

Mark 11: 22

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.” Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

This is the second Blog post in my series God is the One...

We need to always minister to others from the mindset of positive expectation, looking to our Source, God Almighty.  If we are in alignment with God, doing the works He has preordained for us to do, we can be fully justified in having our positive expectations.   

2 Chronicles 16: 9a is a Scripture passage that declares a Kingdom principle we can rely on to have and to maintain our positive expectation:

9 For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him. (NKJV)

God Almighty, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and  using the holy angels when needed, takes action to show Himself strong, on our behalf.

Mark 11:22 is the verse I have used throughout the entire 20 years I have been in vocational Christian ministry as my reminder to “look to our Source”.    Put a dagger into doubts -- Have faith in God.      

This does not necessarily mean immediate achievement of  positive results that we can see.  Sometimes, the positive expectation is achieved in stages, like planting and then watering a crop, then waiting for growth and then the harvest.    During the time it takes, when we don’t see what we have expected, having faith and exercising our faith is vital.    The words we say need to reflect our faith, not any frustration we may feel while we wait.    

Helping Kids Develop a Mindset of Positive Expectation

Words we say are particularly important when we are saying them to preteens.   There are enough things happening in the lives of our typical preteen (and some are quite serious, needing our intercessory prayer), that it is easy for them to have doubts.   This is not just “having questions”, which is normal.   The things that are happening in their lives can cause them to doubt basic things like their worth as a person, their ability to achieve what is expected of them, or whether they will have friends.    In some cases, the kids will have gone beyond doubts, to the point where they are experiencing “fears."
The number one thing to say to preteens, and to communicate with sincerity, is “I believe in you.”   This is the start toward building your level of faith into the kids you influence.    They are able to get the intellectual understanding of the idea “God is the One who is our Source” and that God is capable of showing Himself strong.  Preteen kids need to have the confidence to receive this as their own.   Telling them of your confidence in them will help -- so that your confidence starts to rub-off onto them.
This also will help them to see that you are the kind of person that they can go to, to  get those doubts and fears out into the light.

This series of articles about God, and depending on Him as the Source, is being written just prior to the start of one of the most important seasons of the year, Back-to-School season.   This is one of the critical times when a preteen kid needs big-people in his or her life that say “I believe in you,” as they launch into another year of school.

A Manifesto for War on Christianity

"The SKY GOD"

Gore Vidal's Manifesto for War on Christianity

Note:  Six days ago, I published a post on this blog which was an Excerpt of an article by Dr. Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.    My comments were in the posting itself, and the Excerpt was supposed to be available by clicking on a LINK.  Because of problems with that link, today I am re-publishing the full Excerpt here.

Gore Vidal and the Sky God  -  By R. Albert Mohler, Jr. ,  August 7, 2012   9:28 am

Excerpt taken from article at http://www.christianpost.com/news/gore-vidal-and-the-sky-god-79595/#T2RZ1epIAjKKRVQ6.99

In his 1992 Lowell Lecture at Harvard University, Gore Vidal attacked not just Christianity, but the very notion of monotheism.    In his essay, "Monotheism and its Discontents," based on the lecture at Harvard, Vidal perceptively and blasphemously blamed the existence of a binding sexual morality on monotheism.

"The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism," Vidal asserted, "From a barbaric Bronze Age text known as the Old Testament three anti-human religions have evolved - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These are sky-god religions."

He went on to describe the "sky-god" as patriarchal and jealous. "He requires total obedience from everyone on earth, as he is in place not just for one tribe but for all creation."

He claimed that America's founders were "not enthusiasts of the sky-god" [in spite of clear references to God, the Creator, in the Declaration of Independence], but that devotees have had an inordinate influence throughout most of the nation's history.

"From the beginning, sky-godders have always exerted great pressure in our secular republic," he argued.    "Also, evangelical Christian groups have traditionally drawn strength from the suppressed."    He blamed the "sky-godders" for "their innumerable taboos on sex, alcohol, gambling."

In one scathing paragraph, he pressed his case:

"Although many of the Christian evangelists feel it necessary to convert everyone on earth to their primitive religion, they have been prevented - so far - from forcing others to worship as they do, but they have forced - most tyrannically and wickedly - their superstitions and hatred upon all of us through the civil law and through general prohibitions.    So it is upon that account that I now favor an all-out war on the monotheists."

He was not reluctant to state his main concern:

"The ongoing psychopathic hatred of same-sexuality has made the United States the laughingstock of the civilized world.   In most of the First World [Europe], monotheism is weak or nonexistent, private sexual behavior has nothing at all to do with those not involved, much less with the law."

Christians should pay close attention to Gore Vidal's argument, but the mainstream media have almost uniformly ignored it. The obituaries have celebrated his literary gifts, and noted his radical political ideas and rejection of Christianity, but not his call for "all-out war on the monotheists."

We should realize that Vidal's rejection of monotheism, though blasphemous, was truly perceptive. He was certainly correct that a binding and objective morality requires a monotheistic God who both exists and reveals himself.   He was also correct in pointing to the fact that a secularized Europe has largely abandoned a biblical morality when it comes, most specifically, to sexual behavior.

Gore Vidal was a controversialist, but in making this argument, he was simply saying aloud what many others in his social class and literary circles were thinking.

Christians must not miss the troubling parable of Gore Vidal and the Sky God.  It tells us a very great deal about the intellectual world Gore Vidal now leaves behind.   It is a manifesto for aggressive homosexual activism against Christianity.

"God is the One..."

“God is the One who makes ministry successful; He is the One who reaches lost kids, and grows the faith of the preteen believers.”  
Nick Diliberto (from video ‘God Speaks’ at preteenministry.net)

Today I am publishing this quote from Christian pastor Nick Diliberto.  

This will serve as a Preamble to additional posts I will be writing next week. Key elements that I will emphasize are Faith, Encouragement (in the work of the ministry), and Intercessory Prayer.

George Nielsen

"The Olympic Myth" -- and My Response

My Response to:  “The Olympic Myth”  

By:  George Nielsen - August 10, 2012

“The Olympic Myth” is a recent posting at www.preteenministry.net .  This is one of the ministries that I have ‘liked’ and subscribed to, on Facebook.    Excerpts from the post are shown below, and a link to the full post is given at the end of my response.    The basic premise of the post is that the effort and character qualities of Olympic championship athletes, that they need to reach that level of achievement, are NOT the right approach for achieving ministry and spiritual life goals.   The myth is that the same model for achievement used by Olympians will work for Christians in their spiritual life.     I agree -- that is a myth.    But I feel that the post needs to be supplemented by comments that add some balance, regarding our own effort, and don’t leave the impression that it’s okay to be a spiritual “slacker”.     

Excerpt:

As the summer olympics come to a close, I have been reflecting on what I call the olympic myth. Let me explain.

Some of the keys to success for olympians is hard work, determination and persistence. They set goals and create daily habits that move them towards their destination. Eventually those habits, combined with a good attitude bring them victory. Yes, not everyone gets an olympic medal. But the super stars do.

Now, these characteristics are good. In fact, God applauds persistence, self-determination and working hard. The danger is when we carry this attitude over into our spiritual lives.

The problem is that many of us try too hard when it comes to following Jesus. We try hard to avoid sin, maybe even setting specific goals in this area. We are determined to get closer to God. We persistently read the Bible and pray without those practices having much of an impact in how we act. We hear a message and are determined that change will happen if we make the right choices.

The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t work long-term. We end up frustrated and confused. The bigger problem comes when we push this approach on those that we lead. We tell them to try harder and be stronger when following Jesus. As a result, they end up frustrated and confused as well. Some even quit following Jesus. We weren’t designed by God to try harder.

We were designed to rely on Jesus more often, not try harder.

So, stop trying and start relying on Him!

My Response:
Your point is valid, regarding relying on extra effort as THE way to achieve ministry or spiritual life goals. It is not the way.  Receiving guidance and strength from Jesus is the answer, along with your own effort and persistence.    We want to teach our preteens to connect to Jesus as their Source.  One of my fellow ministers has a saying "Look to the Source for your resources."   This lines up with our Theme and prayer emphasis for this year "Fix your Eyes on Jesus."

You should note that the article doesn't give enough credit to the importance of putting in your own effort to persist with spiritual disciplines.   There is a balance -- between legitimate personal effort and reliance on supernatural help from the Lord.   We want to teach the kids to build their devotion to Jesus and stay connected spiritually to the Lord, to be faithful young disciples of Jesus.  To Be a faithful, and growing, young disciple of Jesus, it is still important to Do spiritual disciplines that strengthen that devotion.   "BE"-ing comes first, but there is also a place for emphasizing "Do"-ing, for the young disciple of Jesus.    

For the 5th graders I teach, Being a Young Disciple of Jesus is the primary goal for this year.   But I don't feel I can neglect their development of spiritual disciplines, and I feel the kids need to put in a lot more of their own effort too.

- George Nielsen

To read the full post “The Olympic Myth” - Click HERE .

What Do We Mean When We Say Someone Is “a False Convert” ?

What Do We Mean When We Say Someone Is “a False Convert” ?

By:  George Nielsen – August 8, 2012

My brother in the Lord, Bernie Lutchman Jr. of Chatham IL, minister and President of Businessmen in Christ of Springfield, writes and publishes online as part of his ministry.  He has a Ministry Blog (a link to it is given below), and today he re-published a posting from a few years ago that featured teaching by Rev. Paul Washer.   If you are not already following Bernie’s Blog, I recommend that you do so.    For a link to Bernie's Blog, click HERE.

The main point of Paul Washer’s teaching is that ‘Soft Preaching is Weakening American Christianity’ and that part of that soft preaching is what is known as “easy believe-ism”.   People who are “False Converts” are those who say what is called “the Sinner’s Prayer” after hearing and giving their assent to the message of grace and forgiveness – but have no other requirements as a believer, except that they may agree to be baptized in water – and then they live an indifferent, casual, so-called Christian life. 

What is missing, and what makes these people “false”?

Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom.    My primary teaching ministry in the Church is teaching 5^th grade Sunday School.  I teach the 5^th graders the Gospel of the Kingdom, but my experience has shown that not that many adults know this, so I have to put in quite a bit of effort, trying to bring my students’ parents up-to-speed with what I teach their kids.  

There are two primary messages in the Gospel of the Kingdom – Salvation and the Kingdom.  

¨      The Salvation message is that people need to Come to Jesus.   He paid the price for their sins, and they can be saved, by grace, through faith in Him.  The Scripture teaches that he who believes and is baptized (in water) shall be saved.

¨      The Kingdom message is that Jesus, our Risen Savior, is the King of the Kingdom of God (Matthew 28:18).   People who Come to Jesus enter the Kingdom of God by their commitment to be His disciples.   Everyone needs to examine themselves regarding their own level of commitment to discipleship.   Jesus said “if you love Me, keep My commandments.”    To keep this brief, I would simply say that there are two times that Jesus uses the word “Go” to command His disciples. 

o       In Matthew 28, Jesus said to go, and BE something, be witnesses for Him in the world who will make new disciples.  

o       In Luke 10, Jesus told the lawyer who had questioned Him to go, and DO something, do just like the Good Samaritan did, meeting other people’s needs, serving them as a demonstration of the love of God.

Jesus taught the disciples to pray and included this petition as part of the prayer He taught: “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”   His disciples come to Him in worship, giving honor to Him as their Lord.  Then His disciples go, doing works that they are called to do, to extend the Kingdom of God to more and more people, throughout the world.

False converts are people who may say that they love Jesus, but they don’t serve Him – they serve themselves.    Christianity and any Christian behavior you may see in their lives is just a veneer, covering the outside.    On the inside – they are the king, not Jesus.

False converts say “I believe in Jesus”.   You need to understand that even demons from hell can say that they believe in Jesus.    The Scripture teaches that if we “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” we shall be saved (Acts 16:31).    Referring to saving faith as “believe on the Lord Jesus Christ” means not only have you assented to Jesus’ message of salvation, but that you also believe these things:

¨    Jesus is the eternal Son of God,

¨    Jesus is the Christ, the anointed one who is the Messiah, our Savior; He fulfilled His ministry of salvation through His death, atoning for our sins, and His resurrection from the dead, in victory over death, hell, and the grave.

¨    Jesus has instituted a New Covenant; believing on the Lord Jesus includes your agreement to this New Covenant.   You give your allegiance to Him as King.

¨    Jesus gives new life to those who receive it, by faith, and enter in to this new life, which is called being born again.   A key characteristic of this new life is that you are led by the Holy Spirit and desire to be faithful as Jesus’ disciple.   If you fall short in being faithful, you repent and seek to be restored.   Your faith is not stagnant – it is growing.

The danger of “Soft Preaching” is that a truncated message, not preaching the entire Gospel of the Kingdom, is actually a deceptive message.   People can be deceived concerning their eternal destiny, and then grow cold to living the new life in Christ, because they think they don’t have to live any differently.   “Being led by the Holy Spirit” will actually occur only if a person listens and is willing to obey.

Soft preachers may be afraid to “get in your face” and as a result they stick with an easy Gospel message.    Just because the price for your salvation was paid-in-full by Jesus, don’t think there is nothing for you to do.   Instead, commit to being faithful, growing disciples of Jesus.   Be people whose Christian lives are characterized by taking action to fulfill your calling from God, being people of integrity, and growing faith.    

A Prophecy for Today: "What Hath God Wrought!"

What Hath GOD Wrought!

By: George Nielsen, August 3, 2012

  Numbers 23.23b and 24a

according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought! ²⁴Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion   [KJV]

This prophecy that was spoken about God’s Chosen People, Israel, still is the destiny that God has for His children today – the sons and daughters of God who have Come to Jesus, and are led by the Spirit.

In our time of prayer, we can speak this word from Numbers 23, claiming it as our prophetic destiny: 

– it shall be said of those who are united with God’s Vision, “What hath God wrought !”

   In other words, it will be said “Look at what amazing things God has accomplished through His people.” 

And what will be one of the keys to this?    The Scripture says “Behold, the people shall rise up”.   This is step Number One:

o       the end of ‘casual’ Christianity, with its inward-focused,  Sunday-mornings-only, mentality that has a negligible impact on anything outside the Church’s buildings.

o       Those Christians that do rise up, becoming part of what has been termed “the Triumphant Reserve”, will find their calling, find new associations or connections to join together with, and will act.   Saying this, using military language, would be to say the Triumphant reservists have been mobilized, and are being deployed on-mission.    

o       The reservists will take action because they have internalized the word St. Paul the Apostle spoke to the Philippian church – that they would work out their salvation, and that God, in them, is doing His work (see Philippians 2: 12-13).

Another key to this is taken from the repetition of the metaphor of the lion in verse 24.   The great lion, gifted and anointed by God, is able to do great things.  

o       Jesus commanded us to do great things, the things that He had done Himself, while He ministered here on the earth, and even greater things (see John 14:12).   And I always follow up, when mentioning John 14:12, with the statement – He wasn’t just ‘kidding around’. Jesus said this, the night before He was crucified, so His disciples would know they could do what He did, in hands-on ministry for people.

o       The great lion will also “lift up himself as a young lion”.   The fulfillment of the meaning of the young lion metaphor will be two-fold.   

¨      First the Triumphant reservist will lift up himself in the sense of re-invigorating himself both physically and spiritually.   So, he or she will have energy and stamina, and the activity level more like their younger days.  Also, he or she will be more active prophetically, seeing the vision that God has for them.   Finally, the reservist will be growing in faith, because they are becoming more locked-in and focused on their own devotional life (remembering “their first love”), and they are faithfully following their spiritual disciplines.

¨      Second, and even more importantly, the Triumphant reservist is committed to being a mentor to young Christians, “Millennial’s” in their teens and twenties.  Furthermore, reservists are especially focused on supporting the development of our youngest generation, “the iGeneration” – children born after the year 2000, basically preschool-age through sixth grade, so that they become the young lions.    The reservist focuses both on their own grandchildren, or children in this age group, and also all the other iGeneration kids they can minister to.    This is being fruitful and multiplying.     The goal is that by the time they are sixth graders, the kids are committed, warrior sons and daughters of God, ready to be mobilized and minister in their giftings as they go into junior high school, among their young teen peers.  

        

Receive, in your own spirit, this prophecy, as being “yours,” for today.     Pray, with thanksgiving to God for His strengthening you, to be a great lion.   This is “calling things that be not, as though they are” – a positive declaration of God’s Word.   That’s what this word was when it was spoken back in the ancient land of Moab by Balaam, declaring God’s intended outcome for the children of Israel – in advance of it actually happening.

Use the phrase from verse 23 as your “battle cry”.   God is the Source, but you are His force, the Triumphant reserve.   What hath God wrought!      

 ▫▫▫

    

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George Nielsen is an ordained minister in the Christian Church and Churches of Christ.  He is a teacher and evangelist with Faith Hope and Love Christian Ministries, of Springfield Illinois and teaches in the Children’s Christian Education ministry at Rochester Christian Church.   He is a member of the United States Reformation Prayer Network (USRPN) and is affiliated with Mountain Alliance of Illinois.   He is a US Army veteran and retiree.

GABBY DOUGLAS

U.S. Olympic Athlete Gabrielle "Gabby" Douglas

This week, Gabby Douglas made history by being the first African-American woman to win the gold medal in the ladies’ gymnastics all-around and the first American gymnast to win gold in both the individual and team events.

In the moments after receiving her individual gold medal, Gabby told a reporter,

“It is everything I thought it would be; being the Olympic champion – it definitely is an amazing feeling.   And I give all the glory to God.   It's kind of a win-win situation.    The glory goes up to him and the blessings fall down on me.”    

The 16-year-old celebrated the moment with a tribute to God, sent out using her Twitter account.   "Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things He does for me," she tweeted.   

"The SKY GOD"

This post to my blog is an excerpt from an article by Dr. Albert Mohler.  He is the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is a scholar and a man of God who I have high regard for.  The article is a commentary on the beliefs and the life of author Gore Vidal.   My excerpt highlights Vidal's assertion that:

 "The great unmentionable evil at the center of our culture is monotheism,"

Vidal's answer to this evil was that he "now favors an all-out war on the monotheists."   He intended to concentrate on evangelical Christians, rather than observant Jews and Muslims.    Christians are the ones who supposedly force their superstitions and hatred on all the rest of the people.
 

To see the full excerpt of Dr. Mohler's article, click:  Gore Vidal and the Sky God - By R. Albert Mohler, August 7, 2012 .    

The excerpt has the address for retrieving the full article and for Dr. Mohler's weblog.