Serving God's Purposes in Our Generation (Acts 13:36b)
Category: Articles

The Biblical View of Failure

Failure is an important topic because so many of us are driven to succeed more from a fear of failure than by the call of God on our lives. This is partly because in this nation we have a “black and white” view of success and failure that makes failure unacceptable. The following are points each of us need to understand to enlighten us with the biblical view of failure.

Make A Difference

I believe the best way to make a difference and leave a lasting legacy is to be a champion, serving others and helping them achieve their purpose. A champion is someone who uses their time, talent and treasure to serve others, bettering their lives so they may encounter God and achieve their purpose. Champions make a difference for good, they make a difference for God by serving others.

Bravo! Indian Church!! Stunned! Shocked!! Speechless

When I carefully observed, the old charismatic leaders have already faded away. It was young pastors and leaders, who were not known beyond their town or areas who had girded their loins and hit the streets. These youngsters do not believe in consultations, discussions, (which they believe as lot of talks and not work) but plunge into action in their own way and style. Only through network, they get connected to share and get encouraged.

Spiritual Shape of My Life: A Remembrance

There is so much to tell about the person of who I am and the formation factors that shape the story of my soul. There are some parts too dark, too painful and too vulnerable to be written in print. These portions I have confessed to God in intimate conversations and received healing from God the Healer. This is an assignment paper I wrote in Bible School in 2000.

Ten Kinds of People Nobody Can Help

I’ve been involved in pastoral ministry for over 30 years, and I have a desire to help everyone. But, I have learned the hard way that I cannot help every person who attends our church or who comes to me for input. The following are ten kinds of people I have identified that are so entrenched in certain habit patterns that I cannot help them advance to the next level unless they make the necessary shift in their attitude or behavior.

Ten Things Congregations Wish Their Pastor Understood

Congregations wish their pastor would preach messages relevant to their daily needs and struggles. Congregations wish their pastor understood the high demands of their schedules. Congregations wish their pastor would be transparent and sincere instead of only relating to them when under the anointing from the pulpit. Congregations wish their pastor would develop and release ministries that meet the felt needs of the congregation.

God Will Make A Way

God Will Make A Way, Where There Seems To Be No Way, He Works In Ways We Cannot See, He Will Make A Way For Me, He Will Be My Guide, Hold Me Closely To His Side, With Love And Strength
For Each New Day, He Will Make A Way, He Will Make A Way - By A Roadway In The Wilderness
He'll Lead Me, And Rivers In The Desert Will I See, Heaven And Earth Will Fade, But His Word Will Still Remain, He Will Do Something New Today

'Generation Ex-Christian': Why Young People Are Leaving The Church

Research and surveys show that many atheists, agnostics, and spiritual-seekers who lack religious affiliation are former Christians. But there was no research-based book that explained in depth why people were leaving, until Generation Ex-Christian. The recently released book by Drew Dyck, editorial manager of the ministry team at Christianity Today International, breaks down “leavers” into six categories: Post Modern Leavers, Recoilers, Modern Leavers, Neo-Pagans, Rebels, and Drifters.

What is Water Baptism?

Water baptism technically is when a believer is immersed in water in a public confession of his/her faith in Jesus Christ.  Water baptism is an act of obedience to His commands. Water baptism is a physical show of what spiritually happens in a person’s life when he or she believes in Jesus.  The Bible states: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  II Corinthians 5:17.  Water Baptism is an act of obedience and an outward symbol of the internal change after accepting Jesus. 

Family Ministry – Need of the Hour

Families are in need everywhere. Broken relationships, hurting individuals and families, painful pasts, irreconcilable difference, breakdown in communication, absence of intimacy, and marital conflicts and violence are destroying families all around us. Families are in crisis! There has been a sharp surge of family breakdown in our community in recent years. Divorce is growing at an alarming rate in our community and marital disharmony is common across cities and faith backgrounds. The lack of moral and spiritual values, changing gender roles, absence of adequate support systems in the adopted land, cultural differences, and poorer relational skills may be some of the causes of the fundamental breakdown of families in the Indian community.

Why Married Couples Are So Challenged in Contemporary Culture

Since this is the season for Valentine’s Day, I have been thinking about the state of the institution of marriage in our nation and pondering why there are so many divorces. Several decades ago the divorce rate hovered around 10%. Now it is almost at 60%! Even the Body of Christ is not exempt from the staggering amount of marital failures! I truly believe there are several unique challenges married couples now face that previous generation did not. The following are some of the many reasons for these increasing challenges to marriage today.

Is the Local Church Becoming Obsolete in the Present Kingdom Movement?

There is a growing tendency in the Body of Christ among practitioners in kingdom societal transformation to bypass the local church in order for the reformation of society to take place. This is due to the frustration of many marketplace leaders with the slow pace, bureaucracy, myopic local view, and lack of high-level leadership found in many of this nation’s congregations. As more of us receive greater light regarding the kingdom, and we rightly go from a church mindset to a kingdom mindset, I am afraid some will have a tendency to go too far and jettison the local church altogether!

Ways I Do Violence to My Soul

There are certain seasons in my life when ministry and other responsibilities are so difficult and my schedule so demanding that I feel like I am doing violence to my soul. (It’s as if I were taking a knife and intentionally sticking it into my body.) As I analyze what I do and how I feel during these seasons, I have come up with several ways I have done violence to my soul. (Whether or not these seasons can always be avoided is not the point of this article.) The following are ten ways I do violence to my soul. (By “soul” I am referring primarily to my emotions.)

One Way Jesus

One Way - Jesus - You're The Only One That I Could Live For - One Way - Jesus - You're The Only One That I Could Live For - You Are Always, Always There - Every How And Everywhere - Your Grace Abounds So Deeply Within Me - You Will Never Ever Change - Yesterday Today The Same - Forever Till Forever Meets No End - You Are The Way The Truth And The Life - We Live By Faith And Not By Sight For You - We're Living All For You

Diasporas – People on the Move

We need to educate our congregations to be effectively relational in our “global neighborhood.”  We need to try the new Somalian restaurant (for example) and then invite our friends there to expose them to the culture of our new neighbours.  It is important for Christians to build cultural awareness that will result to authentic relationships making them credible witnesses for Jesus Christ . . .  . We now have an unprecedented opportunity to introduce the Diasporas to Jesus Christ and invite them to become part of His Church.  With Lausanne Diasporas, we are proactively responding to this major global trend of Diasporas and the Diaspora issue will be addressed at Cape Town 2010.  Pray that Diaspora Missions will be embraced by the Whole Church.

Lessons Learned from the (Almost) Florida Quran Burning

Pastor Terry Jones went from obscure pastor to a worldwide phenomenon last week because of his foolish plan to burn copies of the Quran.  During this fiasco he kept hiding behind God, saying God was speaking to him and giving him guidance throughout the entire drama. Pastor Jones came off ignorant when admitting he has never read the Quran and revealed gross naiveté by announcing that Imam Rauf agreed to move the proposed Ground Zero mosque in return for Dove International agreeing not to burn Qurans.  This is in spite of never even speaking once to Imam Rauf!

Ten Ways Muslims View Christianity

The following is based on numerous personal conversations with Muslims, personal study, and intensive training I received from a missions organization in preparation for one month of outreach in a Muslim nation in 1979.
The astonishing thing about my conversations with Muslims is that most of them have the same moral values that Christians should have, and that this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks hindering them from believing that Christianity is true. (Most of them are very warm, friendly people. Some experts estimate that only about 7-10% of them are affiliated in some way with radical Islam, which is still about 100 million adherents globally.)