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God's Word

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.

James 1:6
NIV

posted by Brian H Schwartz @ 8:39 AM 0 comments

Indiana 'Kill The Bill' TeaParty... today at the Statehouse

If a picture's worth a thousand words...



... then, here's 16,000 words.

posted by IndyChristian @ 7:59 PM 0 comments

God's Word

For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1:7
NKJV

posted by Brian H Schwartz @ 11:20 AM 0 comments

God's Word

let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance

Proverbs 1:5
NIV

posted by Brian H Schwartz @ 7:49 AM 0 comments

Video: 'Battle at Kruger' (50,000,000 Views on YouTube!)

The video below has now been seen over 50,000,000 times on YouTube. And it's worth every minute of it...



[Visit BattleAtKruger.com]

*************

Lesson: Carefully watch the water-buffalo...


"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen" [From I Peter 5]

posted by IndyChristian @ 4:49 PM 0 comments

Just Worship (Remix)...

[a very challenging video posted today by @CityCommunity ]



***********

Indy churches -- what say you?

posted by IndyChristian @ 1:12 PM 0 comments

God's Word

A fool gives full vent to his anger, but a wise man keeps himself under control.

Proverbs 29:11
NIV

posted by Brian H Schwartz @ 8:22 AM 0 comments

FHL March eZine: Revival Begins With You!

The Book of Acts shows how revival and church growth comes, not by human effort but through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit that worked with the Apostles is the same Holy Spirit that is currently at work in the church and is within you.

Acts 1:8, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” .

Then, the Apostle Peter spoke to the crowd and about 3000 people accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior.

The Spirit of God was poured out on the people and revival started in the early church. Acts 2:41, “41Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day.”

Luke 17:20-21, “Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, 21nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within you.”

It is possible to be right next to God and miss Him. Just like the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law. They were the “Religious” people of the day. The very person that they have been studying about all their lives was right in front of them and missed Him. It interesting that the demoniacs, those who were considered unclean, the drunkards and the prostitutes knew Jesus right away. See Matthew 8:28-29

That’s because they rejected the teachings of Jesus and the Holy Spirit. They studied the Scriptures but they did not have personal relationship with Jesus. That’s what religion do to people. They become experts and scholars of the Word but they miss the point…relationship with Jesus. Many times, we are motivated by religion rather than having relationship with God and with others.

This is what we teach our people at FHL. Relationship with God and with others-the TWO Greatest Commandments-Loving God and Loving others.

James 2:14-19, “What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds?…”

Most of Jesus’ ministry on earth was spent outside the temple and in the marketplace. He was constantly in the streets preaching the Good News and demonstrating the love of God to others. This is what we teach in FHL. It’s more than just proclamation but also demonstration of the Kingdom of God. [Read More in the FHL March “Revival Begins With You” eZine Vol.5,No.1]

Add FHL March Events to your Calendar

Partner with FHL in our next Fundraiser on EventBrite!

March 24, 2010 join FHL for “A Lifestyle of Unconditional Love”

Luncheon Info: Only a few seats are available; please reserve yours by March 19th!

FHL Week 2010: ‘A Lifestyle of Unconditional Love’ with an Invite by Crossroads Baptist Association

FHL International kicks off FHL Week 2010 planning meetings for the city of Indianapolis and outlying areas! Doug Pennington of the Crossroads Baptist Association wants to personally invite you to partner with FHL. Watch: FHL Video

Labels: Doug Pennington, Faith Hope and Love, FHL International Inc.

posted by Melanie Reed @ 9:27 PM 0 comments

God's Word

For as churning the milk produces butter, and as twisting the nose produces blood, so stirring up anger produces strife."

Proverbs 30:33
(NIV)

posted by Brian H Schwartz @ 8:30 AM 0 comments

Coalition Calls Church Out... 'Love Your Neighbor'

Coalition Issues Call to the Church for a New Depth of “Loving Your Neighbor”
by Susan Brill, Director of Communications, Mission America Coalition

Two Joint Gatherings of Evangelism Leaders Held in Birmingham



Palm Desert, Calif., March 9 -- The Mission America Coalition issued a call to churches and Christians across America last week for a “prayer-care-share approach” to “loving their neighbors to Christ.”

“We need a new surge of evangelism and discipleship in America,” Dr. Paul Cedar, chairman of the Coalition, said in an interview at the group’s annual gathering in Birmingham, Ala. last week. “The average evangelical Christian in America has such a resistance to being involved in evangelism. I’m convinced that fear, not wrong motive, is the major factor. They are just afraid.”

Cedar addressed the group of 300 who gathered for two joint meetings in Birmingham - “Convergence,” the National City Impact Roundtable, and “Accelerate 2010,” the MAC annual gathering. He emphasized that evangelism is not work that we do, but the work of the Holy Spirit. “There is this mysterious wooing and drawing and convicting of the Holy Spirit,” he said, “And we just need to make ourselves available.”

The method Cedar put forth for “making ourselves available,” is the prayer-care-share lifestyle. MAC wants to “blow the trumpet” to call and encourage churches and ministries to adopt a “prayer-care-share lifestyle,” Cedar says. This natural method of outreach can alleviate some of the fear believers have about sharing their faith, he advocates, because it relies on the Holy Spirit, not on the believer, to come up with the best way to minister or reach out to someone. The method begins with prayer alone.

“If you can get Christians to really start praying for even a small list of three to five people,” Cedar explained, “then as they pray, that gives opportunity for the Holy Spirit to get them to the next step. Then they are prepared to begin to love them and to care for them.”

The third facet of this lifestyle is “share” - sharing the gospel. While “the gospel always comes down to a verbal message” Cedar says, it doesn’t mean that those who are praying for and caring about someone will share the gospel one on one. The “share” part of this lifestyle could mean inviting someone to a church service or an evangelistic event where they can hear the gospel message, or sharing a book or movie that present the gospel, or many other means. The point is for the one praying to look for opportunities the Holy Spirit opens up, Cedar says.

Cedar said he and his wife Jeannie are amazed at the “mature” Christians they meet who have not caught the vision for beginning to pray for lost people. “That is the key,” Cedar said. “The right place to put the oar in the water...is to get them to start praying for lost people.”

In his plenary session delivered on Wednesday, Cedar issued a call for a new emphasis on loving one’s neighbors to Christ to the 300 gathered. He presented a working paper for feedback and response. The group responded positively, Rev. Phil Miglioratti, MAC’s COO, reported, “Everybody - 100 percent of the people there - resonated with the need to call the Church to love our neighbor at an even more authentic level than we are doing it now. At no point was there disagreement for the Church to seek God for a ‘Compassion Revolution’” he said, using the term some had begun to call the movement during the discussions.

According to Miglioratti, “Researchers Dave Olson (America Church Research Project) and David Kinnaman (Barna Group) gave compelling evidence that the Church is struggling yet filled with signs of hope. Nothing less than a compassion revolution of Christians loving their neighbors and neighborhoods will accelerate the Great Commission in this next decade.”

Held in conjunction with Accelerate 2010, was Convergence, the National City Impact Roundtable. The two events shared several sessions. Convergence addressed four streams of cityreaching - Christians collaborating in evangelism and discipleship to reach their city/community for Christ. George Otis, of The Sentinel Group, addressed “presence-based cityreaching” in Monday’s opening session. “Transforming revival is a pleasant byproduct of believers who are passionately seeking God’s intimate company for it’s own sake,” Otis offered.

The marketplace stream of cityreaching was represented by a panel of four leaders in marketplace ministry who shared what God is doing in each of their ministries and fielded questions from the audience.

“We don’t need more faith and evangelistic efforts...in the workplace,” posed panelist Steve Capper of Mission Houston, “The saints need to be equipped for their works of service in every place they live, work and play….the Church in and through the workplace, connected and functioning in obedience to the Lord.” Other panelists included Brad Fieldhouse (The Barnabas Group), Kent Humphreys (Christian Companies for Christ, Int.), and Bob Varney (Campus Crusade for Christ).

Dr. John Perkins spoke to the community development stream of cityreaching and also gave the opening plenary for Accelerate 2010, when the two gatherings joined together. Perkins said the only remedy to the problems of our culture is God and His Church. “We are sitting at an opportune moment of greatness. And greatness has to do with people seeing the pain and the agony and entering into that pain and agony,” he said. He challenged participants to go where they see the most hurt in their communities to expand their compassion.

Melisa Pearson from Idaho welcomed that challenge. She said she is looking forward to going back to Boise, gathering statistics about the hurting needs in her community, and praying over where God would have her start working. “I want to be able to step into where that pain is and be willing to be vulnerable to allow Christ to flow through me to love them and meet them in their need,” she said.

The fourth stream of cityreaching - evangelism - was held in conjunction with MAC’s session with Dr. Paul Cedar speaking on the prayer-care-share lifestyle, and the closing NCIR session addressed the convergence of these streams.

Jarvis Ward, of the NCIR lead team and a national facilitator for MAC repeated one of the group’s analogies about convergence: “When two rivers collide, the nutrients come to the surface...and you’ve got some of your best fishing ever,” he explained. “That is what we’re about - as we converge, that we would see in our cities the best fishing ever for the souls of young and old.”

“We hope we will see an increased number of cityreaching movements around the country as a result of this,” Ward said. “Our vision is to try to have a cityreaching movement in every city of 10,000 or more - that’s about 2,500 cities in the United States.”

Participants engaged in frequent roundtable discussions during speaker presentations, and a number of cityreaching groups took the stage throughout the event to talk about the work going on in their cities and share best practices.

“A lot of times cityreaching people get so focused on their local area, they get discouraged because they don’t see things progressing,” said participant Kathy Pipal from Boise, Idaho. “It really helps to see what God is doing in other places....Just networking with the people here is well worth it because you get so many ideas.”

Alaina Brake from Akron Ohio agreed. “It’s a great way to network and to build partnerships with other people, especially for the young folks,” she offered. “So I can bring home to Akron Ohio...that even though we’re young, we can do big things.”

Both groups held a reception together for Dr. Perkins Tuesday evening honoring his 80th birthday and his 50 years of ministry pioneering Christian community development. MAC presented Dr. Perkins with a plaque and a collection of letters from participants thanking him for his work for the Kingdom of God.

For information about promoting a prayer-care-share lifestyle in your church or ministry, go to http://www.missionamerica.org. For more information about City Impact Roundtables, go to http://www.cityreaching.com.

The Mission America Coalition is a network of national church leaders, representing denominations, ministries, and other key Christian leaders with a shared vision to collaborate in prayer, evangelism, and revival. Since its inception, leaders from 81 denominations, over 400 ministries and dozens of ministry networks have been involved in the Coalition. Mrs. Vonette Bright (Campus Crusade for Christ), Dr. Billy Graham (Billy Graham Evangelistic Association), and Dr. John Perkins (Christian Community Development Association) serve as honorary co-chairs.

City Impact Roundtables (CIRs) are interactive gatherings of cityreachers held regionally and nationally to build relationships among cityreachers, share Kingdom-sized vision for holistic evangelism and revival, and pray together for united ministry throughout the Body of Christ.

Visit CityReaching.com

posted by IndyChristian @ 7:51 AM 0 comments

God's Word

Wisdom is found on the lips of the discerning, but a rod is for the back of him who lacks judgment.

Proverbs 10:13
NIV

posted by Brian H Schwartz @ 8:50 AM 0 comments