Devotional
Taking back Christmas
Isa 9:2, 6&7
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Taking back Christmas - Isa 9:2, 6&7

The People walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the lands of the shadow of death a light has dawned.  (Isa. 9:2 NIV)

 Norman Sawchuck and Rueben P. Job  in “A Guide to Prayer for all who seek God” write,

”Advent marks the beginning of the church year and lays before

us the pathway of faith for the year ahead.  Advent initiates

once again remembering, retelling, and celebrating the whole

drama of God's Revelation.

 
Four weeks is the limit to this season that declares the truth

about a God whose love and resourcefulness have no limits.

"Advent" has its roots in the Latin word "adventus," or

coming. This season proclaims the coming of Christ in the

Birth of Jesus, in the Word and Spirit, and in the final

victory when God's kingdom shall be complete.

 

Our privilege as Christians is to receive the gracious gift

of God's presence in Christ.  Our task is to prepare for His

Coming, so that we will not miss life's greatest gift.”

 
The Advent Season 2005 is upon us.  Already the rush and bustle of the season has begun.  We are busy preparing our gifts for family and friends as an expression of our love.  Christmas is a wonderful time of the year.

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The Advent Season focus on the gifts that Jesus brings to us.  We take back Christmas by celebrating the spiritual meaning of the event and discover anew the spiritual truth of the coming of Jesus into our world as God’s gift of love to us.  This year accept the gifts that Jesus brings and share His love with others.

 

Taking back Christmas must be intentional on our part.  It challenges us to rewrite our schedules to reflect the true meaning of the event.  As the year draws to a close, family schedules and personal agendas fill with engagements, programs, parties and annual obligations.  The carol “Silent Night” could not have been written at the end of the twentieth century.  The title evokes a peace and stillness we can only imagine.

 

To reclaim Christmas we need to draw close to God who became flesh and lived amongst us.  It is difficult to harmonize meditation and car pooling.  How do we carve out moments of quiet and worship and open ourselves to God’s Presence?  Perhaps we have to lower our sights from hours spent around hearths, Christmas trees, decorated halls and festivities to schedule quiet times when the family can sit together and contemplate what Christmas is all about.

 

The first theme of Advent is Hope.  It is the first gift that Jesus brings to us.  It is a bright light in a dark world. (Isa 9:2, 6&7)  We continue to hope in God’s promise that Christ will come again to fill our world with love, joy and peace.

 

Prayer

 

Heavenly Father, speak to my heart during this season as you spoke to your prophets.  Remind me again of the journey you call me to make and the work you would have me to do.

 

I am your servant, O Lord.  Speak to me in this holy season and turn my eyes to watch for your coming.

  

About the Author
 
Pastor Earl Batstone has pastored for more than forty years.  He retired as General Superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies of Nfld in 2002. He and his wife Lily are presently active in Short Term Missionary work. They reside in Paradise, Newfoundland and may be reached at: earlbatstone@nl.rogers.com

 
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THE NEHEMIAH FUND.

 
Based out of the book of Nehemiah, we are given an account of how one man became burdened for the City of Jerusalem. Because of it’s broken down walls, Nehemiah touched God on behalf of the people. The story shows us how Nehemiah rebuilt the ruined city in just 52 days. Our mandate now is like that of Nehemiah to rebuild the walls that were torn down by the communist government back in the 1970’s.

Pastoral Sponsorship Program:

Sponsored Family in Dong-Nai

Many of the pastors living in the mountains earn a meager wage of less than $0.20 cents an hour. This works out to be under $10.00 a week and if they lose time because of sickness or bad weather their pay is much less. Global Prayer Ministries has developed the Pastoral Sponsorship Fund for these pastors at $60.00 a month. This fund will encourage the pastor to spend more time in the local church focusing his time on evangelizing the village in which he lives. Our commitment is to provide support until the churches are in a position to take over the support themselves.  

Scholarship Funding:
Ordination Service at the first PAOV
National Conference July 2007
Many of the students are living under extreme poverty needing financial assistance to attend college. Global Prayer Ministries has put in place a scholarship program to assist the students with their tuition, meals & lodging while they are attending college preparing for ministry.

Sunday Moring Church Sercies
with Rev. Charles Crane from Global Prayer Ministries

School of Ministry:

 
Global Prayer recognizes that not all pastors are able to attend Bible School. We are offering Schools of Ministry for pastors and lay workers to better equip them in all areas of church management. In order for the pastors to attend the School of Ministry, we will have to cover their travel costs as well as their meals & lodging. The cost for us to host a School of Ministry could range anywhere from $10,000 up to $50,000 depending on the attendance and location of each School of Ministry.

Office Space and equipment/ workers:
Currently the offices for the leadership are located in the house churches which also serve as the pastor’s private home. As this is a brand new venture we are in need of everything required to set up the offices. At present we are in need of qualified employees, desks, computers, telephone system, office supplies and the list goes on, virtually everything that it takes to set up an office from scratch. As you can appreciate this work is so new that prior to last December there was no need for workers, however since the church began to organize the work load is growing greater by the day. Our prayer right now is that God will provide funding to put all this in place.
First MTI Board of Governors Meeting. Dec. 2007

 
Typical house cell group

Church Planting:

The majority of the Christians still meet in house churches and it will probably remain that way for many years to come. However, with the rapid growth within the house churches there is a need for new churches. A recent statistic coming out of Asia claims that there are over 160 million Pentecostals and that number is growing rapidly. One pastor in Ho Chi Ming City told us that they were averaging 10 new converts per week. This was recently confirmed by an article released by Far East Broadcasting Company who reported after a census in nine churches last year, statistics stated that 3,443 people had accepted Christ and attended church regularly. What is so amazing is that even though the church was underground, over 75% of the Christians range in ages 40 and under. Because of the lack of finances many of these new churches will continue to worship in pastors homes. This would eliminate the need for raising funds to build new church buildings especially in the rural areas however in the urban areas the need to construct churches is very important.

Soul Wining
People Coming to Christ in a Christmas
outreach December 2007
The goal of the PAOV is to win as many souls for the kingdom that they can. Already plans are underway to send evangelist and missionaries into the neighbouring countries of Cambodia and Laos. With our support of equipping and financing they will be able to accomplish the goals that they set out to achieve.

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Global Prayer Ministries · 1-709-579-7729
P. O. Box 1041 · Mount Pearl NL A1N 3C9
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