"I’ve learned that anytime my success depends on another person’s response, I will manipulate them.”
That's a really interesting quote, it got me thinking a lot and I think that it is almost always if not always true. It is probably one of the biggest flaws as well in the way we view evangelism. When we are concerned about numbers and how many people accept Christ instead of just faithfully presenting the gospel then we are manipulating and probably not preaching the full gospel. It reminds of one of the most convicting passages in the bible for me
Ezekiel 33
Ezekiel Is Israel's Watchman
1The word of the LORD came to me: 2"Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.
7"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
God has called us as Watchmen, we are to warn others of the coming wrath. This is serious stuff, it is all right if they don't listen. But the responsibility is on us to get the message out, otherwise their blood is on our hands. I don't know if we can take this as theologically accurate, but definitely as a stern warning. Here is a site that changed my life, and my opinion of missions
http://www.thetravelingteam.org/2000/resources/quotes.shtml
I heard an analogy of telling people about Jesus actually if you want to hear the sermon itself it is here
click here
But the guy was talking about if you are standing outside a forest on a snowy day and you have a shotgun in your hand and you see a wolf walking up behind a skinny defenseless man, and you watch as the wolf proceeds to eat that man. You do not even raise the shotgun but watch with Sadness. Would you say that you showed Love to that man? Maybe he had sensitive hearing and would have been offended by the blast of the shotgun. Surely then you were justified in not shooting the wolf or even yelling and telling him about it. Or imagine the gun is not yours but there is a man beside you who's gun it is and he is pleading with you to use his gun to shoot the wolf before it reaches the man. As you can probably tell Jesus is that man and he says
Mark 16:15
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
The gun is the gospel message and the wolf is the oncoming Godless eternity.
All of this is so important and has convicted me so much but it means nothing if I don't take what I've been learning and use it for the glory of God. I am such a timid guy sometimes, it is so frustrating because I know that God is offering me boldness if I will take it but I am too afraid to accept the boldness that he can give me because I know it will change who my friends are, what people think of me, and my future. I know it would be for the better but also it would be far more uncertain, far more dependant on God. And that is scary, so very scary, even though I know in my head that God is trustworthy and am learning more in my heart that he is.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Sunday, May 29, 2005
New stuff
Hello all,
that article that I just posted I thought was really neat, just to see what it's like for christians to have a bible and the holy spirit and not know anything of culture and church traditions. I find myself lately just kind of thinking about God and church and what it's all about. What is the most effective way to live for God? How much balance should there be between prayer and action? When is the time for acceptance and when is the time for drawing the line? I like Pastor Bill's bucket analogy.
I find myself appreciating more and more people who handle the scriptures well, who not only read it like it is the word of God, but know it like it's the most important book in the world. Both of which it is. I really want to get back hardcore into the word but with graduation and frisbee and all these other things piling up I just have so little time. But even the time that I do have I often put it off. Haha like right now, just writing this instead of getting into God's word.
We had a youth retreat out at Katepwa valley this weekend here are the pictures
http://photobucket.com/albums/y260/hillbap/
it was really fun but I am really tired now. Actually haha I think I will just get off now and follow my second paragraph's conviction. God bless you all! Oh yeah and if you have answers to my wonderings above I would be delighted to hear them. bye all. Oh yeah haha and you can visit this site by going to
http://www.davidhepting.tk/
bye for real now!
-david
1 Chronicles 16:25
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
that article that I just posted I thought was really neat, just to see what it's like for christians to have a bible and the holy spirit and not know anything of culture and church traditions. I find myself lately just kind of thinking about God and church and what it's all about. What is the most effective way to live for God? How much balance should there be between prayer and action? When is the time for acceptance and when is the time for drawing the line? I like Pastor Bill's bucket analogy.
I find myself appreciating more and more people who handle the scriptures well, who not only read it like it is the word of God, but know it like it's the most important book in the world. Both of which it is. I really want to get back hardcore into the word but with graduation and frisbee and all these other things piling up I just have so little time. But even the time that I do have I often put it off. Haha like right now, just writing this instead of getting into God's word.
We had a youth retreat out at Katepwa valley this weekend here are the pictures
http://photobucket.com/albums/y260/hillbap/
it was really fun but I am really tired now. Actually haha I think I will just get off now and follow my second paragraph's conviction. God bless you all! Oh yeah and if you have answers to my wonderings above I would be delighted to hear them. bye all. Oh yeah haha and you can visit this site by going to
http://www.davidhepting.tk/
bye for real now!
-david
1 Chronicles 16:25
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
REVIVAL IN THE ARTIC - RUSSIAN INUIT
The last week of August Bill, an evangelist from Ottawa, held a series of meetings in Gouverneur, New York. Gouverneur was a difficult or hard place when Charles Finney held meetings 160+ years ago. It is even a harder place today. He is known for a healing ministry but the meetings in August were definitely more like renewal meetings.
The reason I'm sharing this is that he spoke of the revival in Arctic Canada among the Eskimo (Inuit). Then last week we received the latest issue of Spread the Fire from TACF. In that issue was an article about the Eskimo revival. I thought I would share some other exciting news that Prankard shared concerning Arctic Russia.
He found out that there were Inuit in Arctic Russia as well and that these Russian Inuit were an "unreached people." It seems that in all the years of Russian control, not even the Russian Orthodox Church had had any contact with these people.
In 1994 he arranged an outreach to the Russian Arctic and took a team of nine Inuits with him. They found the Inuit people open to the Gospel and many, many were saved. The team had to take a helicopter to a village, share the Gospel and then leave to the next village. The Russian Inuit got saved, a prayer was said over them that the Holy Spirit would keep them, and they were given a Bible in their language. That was it.
Nine months later the team of Canadian Inuit returned with Bill. They were apprehensive about what they would find. The Russian Inuit hadn't really received any teaching. When the team arrived in Arctic Russia they found on-fire Christians. In one village 1100 of 1200 Inuit were saved (all adult men in the village were saved).
It seems that since the Russian Inuit had no teaching they were forced to rely on the Bible and the Holy Spirit for guidance--they just didn't know any better. :-) They did't know anything about church but they did discover that the Book of Acts wrote about church. In Acts, the believers met daily. So the Inuit met daily. In Acts, believers asked the Father for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and received. The Inuit asked the Father and received. Deliverance, healings, gifts of the Spirit were all freely available to the Inuit. They just didn't know any better-- they thought the Book of Acts and the New Testament letters described NORMAL church life!
All on their own, the Russian Inuit decided to send missionaries to villages which had not heard the Gospel. Yes, they are facing opposition and persecution as well. (I believe they weren't surprised, having read the New Testament. Probably thought that was normal too.)
Bill said that these people were so isolated that they had never heard of Canada or the United States. Of course they had also never heard of Toronto, Vineyard. But in their services they acted like they had. The Canadian team saw Inuit do crunches, laugh, shake, the whole Toronto blessing repertoire of manifestations. The Russian Inuit had the peculiar notion that this was all part of a normal, everyday church service. I guess they just didn't know any better.
We have a prayer meeting every other Friday night in our home. At our last meeting we decided that our standard operating procedure would be to ask ourselves, "What would a Russian Eskimo do in this situation?" I guess we just don't want to know any better.
from sendrevival.com
The reason I'm sharing this is that he spoke of the revival in Arctic Canada among the Eskimo (Inuit). Then last week we received the latest issue of Spread the Fire from TACF. In that issue was an article about the Eskimo revival. I thought I would share some other exciting news that Prankard shared concerning Arctic Russia.
He found out that there were Inuit in Arctic Russia as well and that these Russian Inuit were an "unreached people." It seems that in all the years of Russian control, not even the Russian Orthodox Church had had any contact with these people.
In 1994 he arranged an outreach to the Russian Arctic and took a team of nine Inuits with him. They found the Inuit people open to the Gospel and many, many were saved. The team had to take a helicopter to a village, share the Gospel and then leave to the next village. The Russian Inuit got saved, a prayer was said over them that the Holy Spirit would keep them, and they were given a Bible in their language. That was it.
Nine months later the team of Canadian Inuit returned with Bill. They were apprehensive about what they would find. The Russian Inuit hadn't really received any teaching. When the team arrived in Arctic Russia they found on-fire Christians. In one village 1100 of 1200 Inuit were saved (all adult men in the village were saved).
It seems that since the Russian Inuit had no teaching they were forced to rely on the Bible and the Holy Spirit for guidance--they just didn't know any better. :-) They did't know anything about church but they did discover that the Book of Acts wrote about church. In Acts, the believers met daily. So the Inuit met daily. In Acts, believers asked the Father for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and received. The Inuit asked the Father and received. Deliverance, healings, gifts of the Spirit were all freely available to the Inuit. They just didn't know any better-- they thought the Book of Acts and the New Testament letters described NORMAL church life!
All on their own, the Russian Inuit decided to send missionaries to villages which had not heard the Gospel. Yes, they are facing opposition and persecution as well. (I believe they weren't surprised, having read the New Testament. Probably thought that was normal too.)
Bill said that these people were so isolated that they had never heard of Canada or the United States. Of course they had also never heard of Toronto, Vineyard. But in their services they acted like they had. The Canadian team saw Inuit do crunches, laugh, shake, the whole Toronto blessing repertoire of manifestations. The Russian Inuit had the peculiar notion that this was all part of a normal, everyday church service. I guess they just didn't know any better.
We have a prayer meeting every other Friday night in our home. At our last meeting we decided that our standard operating procedure would be to ask ourselves, "What would a Russian Eskimo do in this situation?" I guess we just don't want to know any better.
from sendrevival.com
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
My thoughts
Hey everybody,
well I just got back from the last bible quiz meet ever where i will be a quizzer. It was a really good time, but also sad. I'm going to miss everyone so much, being a coach or quizmaster or official won't be the same. I learned a lot too. Being supportive and an encouragement costs us so little and yet the difference it makes in the lives of others is just incredible. The worst that can happen is that somebody will totally reject us or the encouragement, but even then they will still probably deep down appreciate it. I know for myself I was encouraged so much there and learned better how to encourage. Ask God that he would make you an encouragement to those around you and I'm sure he will.
Man I also can't get over how much God has blessed me with so many cool little things that are so special to me in personal ways. Only God could have known how to make my day so well. I will name a few things that he has given me. Ever since I was like 2 years old 17 was my favourite number, whenever I had a chance to pick a number I would always pick 17 and still do. But anyways it was so neat because for the quiz meet my dad saw the list of the order that they pick people for Internationals. Every year they take the top ten quizzers out of almost 500 in our district to go to Internationals. Not only did I not have room in my summer or really want to go, but I also didn't study anywhere near enough to go. But my dad saw that my name was number 17 on that list, and that encouraged me so much. Haha God is so nice. Also they had all the quizzers stand on Sunday morning that were going to be involved in Missions of some kind this summer. This included summer camps, so I stood and when Steve asked people to tell where they were going I said Dallas Valley. Then in the lunch line one of the coolest nicest girls in quizzing introduced herself and it turns out she is going to be a wrangler at Dallas Valley this summer and doesn't really know anyone, so that was really cool to meet her and find that out.
Haha so much is going on in this week alone in my life, another cool thing happened when i got back from the quiz meet. I checked my email and a really nice girl from camp last summer invited me to be her escort at Grad. So that was exciting and will be a lot of fun. Then I read one of the most intense books ever, I got it for free from here
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/
It talks a lot about the way we deal with money and how much we have compared to christians all over the world and how it is our duty to be good stewards. It convicted me hardcore, instead of sponsoring a world vision or compassion international child where there is a slight slight chance they might become a christian through your love. Here you can sponsor a native missionary, they live with nothing to give everything to the people they are reaching. They do a phenomenal work and it costs them about $120-$180 a month for all their food, shelter, tracts, family, and transportation. That is so crazy, Almost none of the western missionaries are willing to live in those kind of conditions with that kind of passion for the people they are ministering to. I decided to sponsor two each month for $30 each a month, then pray for them each day. To think that we can be such a part of bringing people to christ in the most unreached parts of the world is so exciting. I can't wait to get the pictures of my missionaries and their testimonies in the mail. It almost makes me want to get a job before summer camp counselling to help support more, haha but I don't think I want to give up the last months of high school. Maybe later.
The more I rely on the holy spirit day to day the more amazing my life becomes. I've had so many more oppurtunities this year for Christ than ever before in my life simply because I'm praying more every morning. If before you had asked me if Prayer worked I would say "Absolutely!!" and then go on pray a few times a week, a few feeble and not bold prayers for things like safety and forgiveness. In my mind I believed it but I had never experienced God's power for myself. At street Invaders I started writing down a list of everything that God has clearly done in my life, but I think that there is no way I could keep that up anymore. and I am still such a wuss and pathetic when it comes to stepping out in faith or making sacrifices for God. The longest I have ever fasted in my life, like really fasted not 30 hour famine or anything. Was from going asleep one night to 8:00 the next night. Haha and that was really tough for me. I am so used to appeasing every desire. That deliberately saying No to my flesh, and saying that God is more important than food to me is just super tough.
But yeah, it was cool to write all this. I wonder if I will keep blogging. God bless you all!
-david
Habakkuk 3:2
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
well I just got back from the last bible quiz meet ever where i will be a quizzer. It was a really good time, but also sad. I'm going to miss everyone so much, being a coach or quizmaster or official won't be the same. I learned a lot too. Being supportive and an encouragement costs us so little and yet the difference it makes in the lives of others is just incredible. The worst that can happen is that somebody will totally reject us or the encouragement, but even then they will still probably deep down appreciate it. I know for myself I was encouraged so much there and learned better how to encourage. Ask God that he would make you an encouragement to those around you and I'm sure he will.
Man I also can't get over how much God has blessed me with so many cool little things that are so special to me in personal ways. Only God could have known how to make my day so well. I will name a few things that he has given me. Ever since I was like 2 years old 17 was my favourite number, whenever I had a chance to pick a number I would always pick 17 and still do. But anyways it was so neat because for the quiz meet my dad saw the list of the order that they pick people for Internationals. Every year they take the top ten quizzers out of almost 500 in our district to go to Internationals. Not only did I not have room in my summer or really want to go, but I also didn't study anywhere near enough to go. But my dad saw that my name was number 17 on that list, and that encouraged me so much. Haha God is so nice. Also they had all the quizzers stand on Sunday morning that were going to be involved in Missions of some kind this summer. This included summer camps, so I stood and when Steve asked people to tell where they were going I said Dallas Valley. Then in the lunch line one of the coolest nicest girls in quizzing introduced herself and it turns out she is going to be a wrangler at Dallas Valley this summer and doesn't really know anyone, so that was really cool to meet her and find that out.
Haha so much is going on in this week alone in my life, another cool thing happened when i got back from the quiz meet. I checked my email and a really nice girl from camp last summer invited me to be her escort at Grad. So that was exciting and will be a lot of fun. Then I read one of the most intense books ever, I got it for free from here
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/
It talks a lot about the way we deal with money and how much we have compared to christians all over the world and how it is our duty to be good stewards. It convicted me hardcore, instead of sponsoring a world vision or compassion international child where there is a slight slight chance they might become a christian through your love. Here you can sponsor a native missionary, they live with nothing to give everything to the people they are reaching. They do a phenomenal work and it costs them about $120-$180 a month for all their food, shelter, tracts, family, and transportation. That is so crazy, Almost none of the western missionaries are willing to live in those kind of conditions with that kind of passion for the people they are ministering to. I decided to sponsor two each month for $30 each a month, then pray for them each day. To think that we can be such a part of bringing people to christ in the most unreached parts of the world is so exciting. I can't wait to get the pictures of my missionaries and their testimonies in the mail. It almost makes me want to get a job before summer camp counselling to help support more, haha but I don't think I want to give up the last months of high school. Maybe later.
The more I rely on the holy spirit day to day the more amazing my life becomes. I've had so many more oppurtunities this year for Christ than ever before in my life simply because I'm praying more every morning. If before you had asked me if Prayer worked I would say "Absolutely!!" and then go on pray a few times a week, a few feeble and not bold prayers for things like safety and forgiveness. In my mind I believed it but I had never experienced God's power for myself. At street Invaders I started writing down a list of everything that God has clearly done in my life, but I think that there is no way I could keep that up anymore. and I am still such a wuss and pathetic when it comes to stepping out in faith or making sacrifices for God. The longest I have ever fasted in my life, like really fasted not 30 hour famine or anything. Was from going asleep one night to 8:00 the next night. Haha and that was really tough for me. I am so used to appeasing every desire. That deliberately saying No to my flesh, and saying that God is more important than food to me is just super tough.
But yeah, it was cool to write all this. I wonder if I will keep blogging. God bless you all!
-david
Habakkuk 3:2
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
thoughts
I read this on a different blog and heartily agree
I wish i could apologize to all females in the world on behalf of all males who have ever treated them badly.
Really.
I'm sorry. You deserve so much better than what "men" (boys) have given you.
To all of my Lady friends: I truly value and cherish your friendship and I pray that I never join the unfortunately long ranks of males who have hurt, used, abused, belittled, taken advantage of, or treated you as any less than the daughters of the true Living God that you are.
If human fathers can be protective of their daughters to the point of violence, then there's nothing scarier than messing with Gods daughter.
Please don't ever let one of us manipulate you or play with your emotions. Please have rediculously high standards for the men in your lives. It may be hard to find men that can meet those standards in this day and age, but the ones that do will hopefully make up for the ones that don't.
Please don't ever let the worldly, secular, fleshy, opinions of men about what you "should" look like affect your own opinion of yourself. Comparing yourself to others will always leave you finding some reason you not like something about yourself and there is nothing Godly about that. Don't worry about the opinions of men, but of God.
Remember who you are...
I wish i could apologize to all females in the world on behalf of all males who have ever treated them badly.
Really.
I'm sorry. You deserve so much better than what "men" (boys) have given you.
To all of my Lady friends: I truly value and cherish your friendship and I pray that I never join the unfortunately long ranks of males who have hurt, used, abused, belittled, taken advantage of, or treated you as any less than the daughters of the true Living God that you are.
If human fathers can be protective of their daughters to the point of violence, then there's nothing scarier than messing with Gods daughter.
Please don't ever let one of us manipulate you or play with your emotions. Please have rediculously high standards for the men in your lives. It may be hard to find men that can meet those standards in this day and age, but the ones that do will hopefully make up for the ones that don't.
Please don't ever let the worldly, secular, fleshy, opinions of men about what you "should" look like affect your own opinion of yourself. Comparing yourself to others will always leave you finding some reason you not like something about yourself and there is nothing Godly about that. Don't worry about the opinions of men, but of God.
Remember who you are...
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