Ambassador

First Assembly of God Newsletter - March 2009

Pastor’s Heart

I have been enjoying our series on Sunday mornings on the “Five Phases of Planet Earth”.  By popular request we have been doing a study on the book of Revelation on Wednesday nights.  In 36 years of ministry I have never done an exclusive or specific study of Revelation and I have found it to be interesting and challenging as we are about half way through it now.  Bible prophecy requires networking portions of Scripture from all over the Bible to get a clearer view of what God is doing in our world today and what He is about to do, which is what has every Christian wondering if this is the time of our Lord’s return. 

Studying the Scriptures of what God has done in the past reveals that He has always warned people of the day what He was about to do.  In most cases they did little or nothing to change their ways as they refused to heed the warnings.  The great flood of Noah’s day is proof of that.  No different for us today as people reflect on what Jesus said they would do in Matthew 24:32-39…"Take a lesson from the fig tree. From the moment you notice its buds form, the merest hint of green, you know summer's just around the corner. So it is with you: When you see all these things, you'll know he's at the door. Don't take this lightly. I'm not just saying this for some future generation, but for all of you. This age continues until all these things take place. Sky and earth will wear out; my words won't wear out. But the exact day and hour? No one knows that, not even heaven's angels, not even the Son. Only the Father knows. The arrival of the Son of Man will take place in times like Noah's. Before the great flood everyone was carrying on as usual, having a good time right up to the day Noah boarded the ark. They knew nothing—until the flood hit and swept everything away.” (The Message Bible)

We are not like the world.  That’s one of the reasons why we don’t fit in with the world and their thinking.  We, like Abraham, are looking for another city in our future…”Each one of these people of faith died not yet having in hand what was promised, but still believing. How did they do it? They saw it way off in the distance, waved their greeting, and accepted the fact that they were transients in this world. People who live this way make it plain that they are looking for their true home. If they were homesick for the old country, they could have gone back any time they wanted. But they were after a far better country than that—heaven country. You can see why God is so proud of them, and has a City waiting for them.” (Hebrews 11:13-16 The Message Bible)

As people with a future, we act and behave differently in our world today.  We must be a peculiar people so others will want to know why we are not living in fear and worried about the future of our nation and affairs worldwide.  It is important we know what God says through His Word about what He is about to do.  We are to speak the warnings and the comfort of a better day to come for those who will heed and be able to escape the wrath of God that is about to be unleashed on this world during the Great Tribulation. 

We will be offering the series “The Five Phases of Planet Earth” on DVD or CD upon request.  We will be able to compile this series into four DVD’s or CD’s.  These messages give an historic view of God working in prophecy which helps us to see how He may work in the future.  He is true to His Word and all will come to a final conclusion in His time as He sifts mankind to bring those that have responded to His plan of redemption into eternity with Himself.

Children’s Ministry

Mark Entzminger encouraged the Children’s Ministry on Saturday, February 28th. I’d like to recap what he spoke about. 

We know the story in Exodus 2.  Moses’ mother put him in a basket.  Pharaoh’s daughter had the infant taken out of the water.  Moses’ sister asked if she should find a Hebrew woman to take care of the infant.  The answer was yes and she went to get her mom.  The story continues that Moses was taken care of by his mother until he grew older.

He was probably 5, or at the most, 9 years of age when he went to live with Pharaoh’s daughter.  From this we see that Moses’ parents had very little time to teach and train him.  After Moses was adopted it’s doubtful that any more spiritual training was accomplished. 

Here’s what his parents instilled in Moses during those early years.  We read out of Hebrews 11 “By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called a son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to share ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.” He considered abuse suffered for the Christ to be greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the reward.  By faith he left Egypt, unafraid of the king's anger; for he persevered as though he saw Him who is invisible. By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, so that the destroyer of the firstborn would not touch the firstborn of Israel. By faith the people passed through the Red Sea as if it were dry land, but when the Egyptians attempted to do so, they were drowned.

Moses’ faith was shaped by a few years and it was greater than all the decades he spent in service for the Pharaoh.

Barna Research has shown that what a child believes by the time he is in 6th grade will be what he believes all his life.  There are some exceptions but for the most part it’s true. 

What was Mark telling us?  Ministry to children is extremely important and does set a life on a spiritual journey.  Proverbs 22:6 tells us:  “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.”

I loved history classes in school.  We rely on someone else’s retelling of past events to understand what truly happened.  In some cases, we just get the facts.  In other cases, we hear the personal reactions of individual experiences.  I think another word that can be used in place of history is “commentary”.  Dictionary.com defines commentary as “a series of comments, explanations, or annotations; records of facts or events; anything serving to illustrate a point”. 

Our perpetually-online society has provided unlimited outlets for people to provide commentary on what is happening around them.  The “average person” is literally writing history every day!  Teenagers are totally plugged in to the idea of commentary through online social networking.  As a parent, you may be frustrated by the amount of time your teen spends online, but maybe we can look at it differently.  I do feel it’s important to monitor your teen’s use of the internet, BUT I think this culture fosters a phenomenon that presents unique opportunities to reach them.

Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, BlogSpot, Plaxo…and the list goes on and on.  It may sound like a foreign language!  To those who speak this dialect, they represent a whole other world where people are able to share their lives, ideas, dreams, or disappointments.  OUR TEENAGERS are using these outlets to give commentary on their lives!  Have you heard what they’re saying lately?

This idea became revolutionary to me several weeks ago when I heard the Nebraska Assemblies of God Youth Director (Toby Schneckloth) talk about the power of commentary.  It was like a giant light bulb went on in the room!  I am one of those people that uses several of the sites I listed, so my mind was flooded with ideas of how to connect it with discipleship!  Social networks provide a unique window into the lives of its users.  I can find out a lot about a person in five minutes on Facebook.  This instant access has been abused by predators from the very beginning.  Why has the Church delayed in seeing the potential of this resource? 

As a youth pastor, I have been able to connect with at least twenty more students on Facebook in the last six months that I may not have even had time to say more than “hello” to otherwise.  Face-to-face communication is still incredibly important to forming a true connection with people, and I know that people will say things online that they would be too scared to say in person.  Usually that is viewed as a negative thing…but I think that the unbridled transparency of a person’s online commentary also presents a great opportunity.  I can use commentary to present spiritual ideas in a forum where potentially hundreds of young people may read it.  AND – this is where parents should perk up – I can also read the commentary of the young people that I care about.  I can see what their friends are like.  I can laugh with them about embarrassing photos from the basketball game.  I can pray for them when they write about feeling sad at the betrayal of a friend.  I can send them a phrase from Scripture that I know will apply to their situation.  It’s all right there in the commentary of their life. 

I don’t write this so that parents frantically sign up for Bebo like they’re about to rip through their teenager’s diary pages.  I write this because I want to know what our kids have to say about life - and I believe you do too.  I don’t go looking for “evidence”.  I’m just looking through the open window to see a different angle.  I’m willing to go to whatever lengths necessary to reach students.  If there’s a non-traditional way to minister to them, why not try it?  That’s how I’m looking at the world of commentary.  What do you think?  You could blog about it…

Check out the new blog we created: http://what-i-heard-ardent.blogspot.com!

Spiritual Life – Pastor Kathy Dehring

In January 2009 I went on a plane to a land far, far away, only it was true and no fairy tale. The conditions of living were not a comfortable sight at times.  I was a part of medical missions team that went to the city of San Salvador, El Salvador to minister to pastors, missionaries and their wives at the 79th general council of the Assemblies of God of El Salvador.

I understand the importance of stepping outside your own comfort zone in order to minister to others. It was good to be with these precious people and see how they might feel in those challenging living conditions.  Several things were different than what we were used to. The language was different as everyone spoke Spanish while we spoke very little. The water was different. You could not drink it nor even brush your teeth with it. It was the constant reminder of paradise vs. poverty. Literally across the road from each other you would have tin roof huts on one side and million dollar ocean front properties on the other. It made me think of the contrast from home where we often see people side by side and that look very similar, but the spiritual difference may be extreme concerning life and death issues. Reality is often not what we visually see.  I was impressed by two opposites.  The need for Christ is exactly the same here as there. The love of Christ shown on their faces was amazing to me even though they seemed to have so little of basic creature comforts.

Interestingly enough, the people who live there (Central America) are not as aware of these financial extremes as we North Americans.   We tend to place value on how things look from a financial point of view.  They see life in terms of who they are in Christ with little impact of what the lack of finances play in their lives.

In February I met a South Dakota pastor’s wife named Ruth who formerly lived in Columbia, South America. We were talking about the countenance of the people of Central and South America. She expressed that those in poverty (financial) live with a great deal of joy not because of what they have, but because they value relationship and who you are as a person and not what you have.

In this time of unstable financial stability in North America, it is time for us also to re-evaluate what is really important. We do need money to live and pay bills, but what if our country was like the poverty areas in El Salvador? Would we have enough in who we really are to not just sustain us, but to give us a Christ-like victory during the tough times? How can we help others to know the true hope found in Jesus Christ?

Can we reflect the love of Christ in our lives and faces that is not only shown in times of prosperity or financial gain, but the times of want and loss as well? These are all questions we need to seriously consider.