How did you use your Christmas break?

This Christmas TruthMedia partnered with the Power To Change Students at their P2C+ conference.  This is an annual event that is used to bring together university students who have been discipled in the Fall and who want to be better quipped to share their faith at their school in the New Year.  TruthMedia was asked to give the students an opportunity to use the internet to tell other people about Jesus.

Our team scrambled hard to pull together an experience that would provide good training and challenge the students to the possibilities for digital evangelism.  It was amazing how God helped us create in a very short amount of time a unique training experience for these students and the structure to help them use The Mentor Center.

125 students signed up for this workshop at the two conference sites (Calgary and Toronto) and over the course of 2-5 hours they were able to send out over 800 messages!  It has been so cool to read through the personal testimonies that these students shared and the responses that they received in return.

One of the messages that came back was, "I prayed the prayer . Thank you so much .  I'm going to be very honest , I use profanity a lot . But I'm working on it . I feel like because of how I used to be , bad, acting up people just don't get me . What people don't know is that I want to help people , be there for the people who need someone . You know ? Thank you so much , I really appreciate that you replied to my message . I understand y'all probably get a lot of messages each day and I thought y'all were just going to go right past mine. Thanks for the help ."

Please pray for the on-going impact of the messages that have been sent out.  Pray for the students as they decide about staying on as mentors.  Pray for those who have prayed to receive Christ through the messages of the students and those who have been encouraged to take steps closer to Jesus.

In October, Power to Change hosted a global event called "Lion's Den".  Invited to this event were 11 different ministry groups that have been focused on using technology to share the Gospel with people around the world.  Those 11 teams presented in front of a panel of 5 potential investors and a room full of others who were equally excited about investing in new ministry opportunities.  

TruthMedia had a team presenting a plan for helping churches use technology to Accelerate Multiplication in their community.  I was indirectly involved in the presentation since part of it was the new tool in The Mentor Center that I have been working on that helps Christians to share their faith online.  During the ministry tradeshow we helped 28 conference participants share the Gospel with people from around the world.  I watched as two people prayed to receive Christ through these presentations.  It was amazing!

I would like to share some highlights of the Lion's Den.  

Lion's Den Highlight Video from Power to Change on Vimeo.

Hope found in the depths

I just was reading an article on the Power To Change website about the Chilean Miners' rescue.  Campus Crusade for Christ Chile had partnered with the rescue efforts by providing MP3 players for all the miners which had an audio copy of the Jesus film and the Bible.  Through the clear presentation of the life Jesus and His offer of hope and new life for all two of the miners became followers of Jesus while trapped in the mine.  One of the miners, "Mario Sepulveda, who handed out rocks from the bottom of the mine as souvenirs, stated: 'I seized the hand of God, it was the best hand. I always knew God would get us out of there.'"  To read more

I was just having a chat last night with a friend who is being baptised on Sunday.  I asked him what had made him decide to become a follower of Jesus.  He told me that he had been coming to church for a number of years and wanted to live a good life but for a long time it was just that: his effort in trying to live a good life.  It was in the midst of an intense personal crisis that God opened his eyes to the fact that being a follower of Jesus was about being in a relationship with God.  He said the truth hit him hard and he found himself weeping for hours.  He still wants to live a good life but now it comes from His daily, moment by moment walking with God rather than out of his own "tryin' hard to do right." 

Don't ya just love the way God brings hope in dark and difficult times?  Whether it is physical darkness, emotional darkness, relational darkness or whatever, the light of God's hope shines so brightly and changes lives forever.  "Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-- kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time." (1Peter 1:3-5)

The prayer of a righteous woman is effective

Sorry for the slight misquote in the title but I have to share this story with you. I was recently talking with a lady named Rita who has a number of deer living in her area. I am not completely clear on the timeline, but some time ago Rita noticed one of the bucks was crippled. His hindquarters clearly had been injured which made it difficult for him to walk, lie down and get up. Rita's guess was that he had been hit by a vehicle. Even one of his antlers had broken off!


Well Rita has a soft heart and a deep belief in the power of God so she is compelled to begin praying for this injured buck. "Lord, please heal him and take away his pain" was her plea. Again, I am a little sketchy on the timeline but sometime after Rita began to pray for this deer she was driving home from work. Close to home a buck came walking out onto the road. At first Rita's heart jumped because she thought it was her injured buck; but this one had no limp or any sign of injury in the way he moved across the road. She thought perhaps she was mistaken so quickly asks that God would show her if this indeed is her deer. At that moment the buck stopped and looked directly at her. He stayed there for about 20 seconds gazing right at her and clear as anything, Rita could see the deer's broken antler. And with that confirmation, he bounded off the road and into the trees without the slightest evidence of injury.

Now I don't think we should start up a healing ministry for wildlife, nor do I think that this deer should become a destination for people on spiritual pilgrimage. But I do know that God has intervened in this deer's life for a reason: He wanted to show me that He does indeed answer prayer, even prayers that some might deem frivolous. I heard this story at a point of disappointment and discouragement. It was exactly what I needed to hear from my Father to lift me up and re-orient my perspective towards His faithfulness and provision. The words of Jesus ring in my ears,

"Not even a sparrow [or a deer], worth only half a penny [okay deer are probably worth more than that], can fall to the ground [or be hit by a truck] without your Father knowing it... So don't be afraid; you are more valuable to him than a whole flock of sparrows [or herd of deer]." (Matthew 10:29, 31)

Perhaps you are going through a challenging time, or someone you know is hurting right now. Know that God values each of us far more than He does an injured buck and that He will answer our prayer in exactly the way that is best.

PS Rita thinks she has a picture of the buck when he was injured and she will get one of him healed for all you skeptics out there.  I'll be sure to post them as soon as I have them.

Good Reason To Be Thankful

I had a good reminder this morning of why I am so thankful. As a follower of Jesus Christ I am a recipient of every (not some or a good portion of or even most, but every) spiritual blessing. Now I am a big fan of blessings. I readily accept any blessing I am given. I think it is even safe to say I go out of my way to find blessings. So right off the bat, when I read these words that Paul wrote to the faithful followers of Jesus in Ephesus, I was hooked.

But then I started asking myself, "What are spiritual blessings?" and started looking further in the letter to figure out if Paul answers that question. What I found was a list of spiritual blessings that filled my heart with joy and thankfulness:

 

1. I was chosen before the creation of the world (I love being chosen)
• Chosen to be holy (ie. set apart for something special) and blameless in the sight of God
• Adopted as a child of God through Christ (not because of my earning it but because of His unmerited favour to me.)
• Chosen to receive redemption and forgiveness, again according to His grace which He lavished on me (that's how I can stand without blame in the presence of God.  He has forgiven my mistakes, failures and rebellion against Him)
• Chosen to have the mystery of His will (to bring everything under the authority/rule of Jesus) revealed to me
• Chosen to bring glory to God through His work in me (this is the one that I just don't get.  How could my messed up life bring glory to a perfect God?)
2. These spiritual blessings belong to all who believe in Jesus Christ

How could that not fill a person up with joy and thankfulness? I suppose for someone who has not yet come to that place of belief there is no comfort in these words. But with all these promises hanging out there, ready and available to those who have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ, why would anyone not want to cash in on every spiritual blessing?

 

To Apologize or Not To Apologize...

I have been doing a lot of thinking about apologies. I was challenged by someone that I have been mentoring online who said that the Bible does not tell us to apologize. I guffawed at the mere suggestion of such lunacy and went to my concordance to quickly locate the references that require us to apologize. My guffaw soon stuck in my throat. Did you know that not once has the Bible called us to apologize? We are called to forgive, we are called to confess, we are called to repent, we are called to be reconciled, but never once is the word "apology" used.

I was floored! All my life I have been taught of the value of the apology. I encourage my kids to always find ways to apologize when they hurt one another. Yet this well-established virtue is never spoken of in the Bible.

Now there are a few examples of apologies made by the characters of the Bible (Genesis 33:8, 26; 50:16; Exodus 10:17; 1Samuel 15:25; 24:17; 25:28; 26:21; Acts 16:39; 2Corinthians 12:13). Most of the examples are less than classic apologies, lacking in the appropriate "I am sorry, I was wrong." The ones that do, come from people not usually held up as examples to follow (Pharaoh, King Saul, and Philippi’s civic leadership) and their motivation to apologize is somewhat suspect.

So where did this compulsion to say "I am sorry" come from? It is all tied up in the command Jesus gives us to love one another. There are few things as destructive to our love as unresolved conflict and hurts. It is the unaddressed wrongs in our relationships that often become the bricks that make up the walls that there are between us. More than likely the motivation for us not to apologize is pride or fear rather than love.

So let's deal with that stuff already! Put aside the pride and fear. Perfect love banishes fear (1John 4:18). If we are motivated by the love of God we don’t have to fear that our apology will create bigger problems. We don’t have to fear that we will get taken advantage of because just like Jesus, we will seek to serve rather than to be served (Mark 10:45).

The Bible may not use the words we use, but there is no doubt that we are called by God to apologize. So everybody! Say it with me: “I am sorry. I was wrong.”

The Next TruthMedia Video

Well, its the middle of the night and I have finally finished the latest video in the TruthMedia Promo series (it seems like I always finish these things in the middle of the night).  I wanted to get this posted right away because in this one I give a detailed explanation of my role with TruthMedia and a description of why I need people like you and your friends to help partner with me to make this ministry a reality.  Please take 10 minutes and watch this video and then prayerfully consider how God is leading you to join with me in His work at TruthMedia.  I really do look forward to hearing from you and chatting about the way that we are helping people find God on a website.

If you had a chance to watch this, would you also make sure that you share it with your friends?  The more people who have a chance to hear about this ministry the sooner we can see God building His kingdom through this unique outreach.  I am so excited about what He is going to do! Aren't you!?

To Him alone be the glory!

Lauren Berg