CHRISTIAN
VENTURES NEWS
AND
VIEWS
FIRST EDITION
August 15, 2006
FIRST ISSUE
LATEST TOOLS TO ASSIST
CHRISTIANS
On July 1, 2006, a new communication
tool was introduced to help Christians get answers to their questions concerning
the Work of the Lord and their walk with Him. It took the form of a web site called
“askmrchristian.com”.
Since that time, numbers of inquiries have been received and answered by
the researchers and utility teams working with Mr. Christian. If you would like more information about
who Mr. Christian is, please visit www.askmrchristian.com now.
This new web site was created to be
a special means of communication with modern day Christians during these
turbulent times through which we are passing. Christians need to be armed with proper
information and guidance if they are to perform to the best of their ability
their service for the Lord as “salt” and “light”.
A suite of informative articles are
being offered soon on the web site.
One will offer the vital lessons which Christians need in order to
understand the basic doctrines taught in the Scriptures which serve as the
foundation and underpinning of their faith. Also, Christians will be provided with a
guide for their conduct and service.
Facing a general population which could be described as disinterested,
dubious and anti-religious, Christians need encouragement and help so they can
effectively and winsomely witness to the perplexed people living on earth
today. By sharing information
through “askmrchristian.com”, Christians can assist one another in carrying out
their very important and God-given responsibilities. This is a new and innovative approach
and is available at this time to offer inspiration and information to Christians
who feel they need help.
The ENewsletter, “Christian Ventures
News and Views”, is also a special means of communication created to aid in the
proclamation of the Gospel and the building of the Kingdom of God on Earth. It is a monthly publication, telling the
latest news that is important for Christians, offering them encouragement and
assistance.
These two mediums of communication are
commissioned to help in the launching and administration of a very vital and
needed new program, designed and committed to aid Christians in their service
for the Lord. It will be initiated
in a special and appealing way on September 11, 2006. It will serve as every Christian’s
answer to the terrorists, whose aim is to kill and destroy, by offering new hope
and new life to a lost and dying world.
Help and hope are coming for all Christians with the launching of
“Global Ventures for Christ” on 9/11/06.
This program will deal in-depth with
four vital areas of our Christian responsibilities. First, it will help us esteem Jesus
Christ personally, helping Christians adopt Jesus’ agenda for His
followers. Second, it will lead us
to esteem Jesus Christ together in a tangible and impressive way. Then, it will help us to esteem Him as
the Prince of Peace by improving our role as His Peacemakers, promoting peace
with liberty and justice, emphasizing and applying the principles which the
Prince of Peace gave us. And
finally, it will lead Jesus’ followers in adorning, under girding and
refashioning, in accordance to need, the three institutions He created for
mankind’s benefit: the home, mankind’s governments, and his
Churches. Each of these has
been under Satan’s attacks and needs to be restored to their proper functions
for the improvement of conditions in our world.
Effective Christian renewal and
successful evangelism is dependant upon the participation of people known as the
“grass roots”. “Global Ventures For
Christ” is very definitely a “grass roots” effort.
With anticipation and prayer, you
are invited to look forward to the launching of this timely and needed Christian
program on September 11, 2006.
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GOD’S PRINCIPLE
UNDERTAKINGS
It is tremendously important for
Christians to know what God is seeking to accomplish at this point in human
history. Until we realize what God
is undertaking to do, we cannot assist Him, as He would like us to do, in the
accomplishment of His special undertakings.
A very vital and primary undertaking
of the Lord is to purify, unify and multiply His Kingdom members
upon the earth.
His Kingdom members cannot be
greatly multiplied until they are purified and unified. Christians lose their influence when
they compromise with the world and indulge in activities that reflect badly on
Christianity. Also, their lack of
love and respect for one another and their strained relations with one another,
their being divided into so many separate, sometimes estranged and competing
camps, reflects badly on their character and
influence.
In contrast, Jesus said; “By this
shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.”
John 13:35.
In His longest recorded prayer found
in John 17, Jesus prayed five times that His followers would be “one”. We can make our excuses and we can
attempt to explain away our differences, yet, our divided world demands that
Christians have a loving and united approach if we would like to have an
effective influence on the world.
Jesus specifically prayed, “Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their work; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me.” John 17:20-21. According to
Jesus’ prayer, one has to be impressed that He thought our oneness would help in
the multiplication of the believers on Him as the Good News of the Kingdom is
preached unto them.
The time has come, with all the
frightening turbulence which surrounds us, for us to realize that God wants His
followers to be pure and clean, and He wants us to love one another and work
together for the building up of His Kingdom. God desires that His followers be
purified, unified and multiplied so that we can effectively minister to the
needs of our lost, torn and fractured world.
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MAN’S GREATEST PRIVILIGE AND MAN’S
GREATEST RESPONSIBILITY
God’s mighty works and His great
accomplishments as Creator, surpass our ability to understand and fully
appreciate.
Before He created the world, God
created angels as His special messengers and servants. The scriptures teach that there are
“thousand thousands” and a number that no man can number of the angels of
God. They glorify and faithfully
serve Him in His immediate presence all the time.
God designed and created the
universe in all its splendor.
Modern day astronomers, equipped with acquired knowledge and all their
technical tools, tell us that our galaxy, the Milky Way, is one of the smaller
galaxies that exist, even though it has hundreds of billions of stars. Other galaxies, they say, have trillions
of stars. Then, more amazingly,
they tell us that there are trillions of galaxies having trillions of stars in
each of them. God’s infinite wisdom
and power is totally incomprehensible for our human, finite minds to
understand. The majestic,
magnificent wisdom and power of God is shown in His vast and beautiful
handiwork.
Still, another fact that is
delightful beyond measure and almost too good to be true, is the love and
fondness of God for each one of us who is made in His own
image.
The Bible states this fact
throughout its pages in many different ways. One that we don’t properly comprehend
and appreciate is found in Deuteronomy 32:9, which states, “For the Lord’s
portion is His people”.
That means that each person, created
in God’s own image, is His choice above every thing else that He has
created. He could have made His
angels His first choice of love and honor.
He could have chosen the vast universe with all its splendor and beauty
as His principle interest. He did
not. He chose mankind, the human
race.
This fact is both our greatest
blessing and our highest challenge.
Such love, devotion and attention are almost unbelievable. We cannot understand why nor how God
could love us so much. But, if you
wonder if God loves us like that, just remember that He sacrificed His only
begotten Son so that we could be blessed, saved and restored so that we could
have a personal relationship with Him and enjoy a constant and intimate
fellowship with Him. How much love
is that? What is there that you
love so much that you would dare sacrifice one of your children for
it?
We are the apple of His eye, the
object of His love, the principle interest of His being and the chosen portion
out of every other thing else that He could have
chosen.
Now, grasp this. The worst sin of all is unloved
love. For God to love us so much
and for us not to love Him in return is the worst sin possible. Rejection, rebellion, self-centeredness
and unreturned love are the reason people go to hell. If one is approached by God through His
Holy Spirit, wooed, called unto, blessed, drawn and if one rejects and openly
demonstrates He does not want a relation with God, is it any wonder that God
will not force one to have a personal relationship with Him after this life is
over?
Some people, trying to justify their
rejection of God and excuse themselves in the eyes of others, think it is smart
to just say they are atheists.
This, by no means, gives them any excuse for rejecting God’s many
approaches to them. It only adds
greatly to their many sins and proves their lack of intellectual honesty and
sound reasoning. In this day of
advanced technology which makes research and discovery much easier, one owes it
to himself/herself to be diligent in determining accurately whether there are or
are not rational evidences that support a belief in God and the divinity of
Jesus Christ. That Jesus Christ is
God’s Son and the Savior of the world is provable by His sinless life and His
resurrection from the dead.
Supported by many ancient documents which have been preserved, recorded
history proves this.
The Scripture summarizes the mental
failure and dishonesty of supposed atheists by saying: “The fool hath said in
his heart, there is no God”. Psalm 14:1; 53:1. Eternally given, what they temporarily
have chosen, spells hell for those who reject God’s love and fellowship here and
now. Indeed, they deserve what they
get and are without excuse in being alienated from the presence of God in heaven
forever. They need prayer and help
to end their unwarranted rebellion.
Because God is worthy, the more
rational, the better choice, is that which King David talked about in Psalms
119:57, which says: “Thou are my portion, O Lord: I have said that I would keep
thy words”. When we love God
because He first loved us, we demonstrate our true love by doing what He teaches
us to do. Again, the Scriptures
say: “We love Him because He first loved us”> 1John 4:19. Also, Jesus said: “If ye love me, keep
my commandments”. John 14:15. The
first and greatest commandment is: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy
strength; this is the first commandment”. Mark
12:30.
To truly make God one’s portion, one
will cultivate a continuous, close, loving and intimate relationship with God
every minute of every day. God
wants us to include Him in our thought processes as well as in our daily
activities. He wants to hear us say
that we love Him and He wants us to prove it by the close relationship and
companionship that we maintain with Him.
We will be blessed if we do this and we commit a terrible sin of omission
and neglect if we don’t. No sin is
greater than unloved love or unreturned love.
God can achieve much good in us and
through us if we acknowledge and regard His presence within us and if we do what
He tells us to do. Our lives will
be greatly enhanced as we do this and we will come to experience the abundant
life accompanied by many good achievements resulting in a marvelous feeling of
great satisfactions with wonderful peace and
contentment.
We are God’s portion and God is our
portion. That’s the way it is
supposed to be. If we fulfill
this ideal in our lives, we will be living on the highest level and achieving
our greatest possible good. What a wonderful privilege God offers to each of us
to come to Him and enjoy an intimate relationship with Him
forever.
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BILLY GRAHAM’S PRAYER FOR THE
NATION
“Our Father and Our God, we praise
You for Your goodness to our nation, giving us blessings far beyond what we
deserve. Yet, we know all is not
right with America. We deeply need
a moral and spiritual renewal to help us meet the many problems we face. Convict us of sin. Help us to turn to You in repentance and
faith. Set our feet on the path of
Your righteousness and peace. We
pray today for our nation’s leaders.
Give them the wisdom to know what is right, and the courage to do
it. You have said, “Blessed is the
nation whose God is the Lord”. May
this be a new era for America, as we humble ourselves and acknowledge You alone
as our Savior and Lord. This we
pray in Your holy name.
Amen.
Billy Graham