CHRISTVALUE GLOBAL OUTREACH

Family Favoritism

God does not show favoritism.

Romans 2:11

How can we leave parents after we’re married and at the same time honor them? This can get sticky because, of course, two sets of parents are generally involved in a couple’s life. Issues can particularly arise during the holidays. Perhaps the wife’s mother wants the couple home for Christmas Eve, and the husband’s mother wants them home for Christmas dinner. That may be possible if the two families live in the same town, but not if they live five hundred miles apart.

The guiding principle must be equality. Romans 2:11 says, “God does not show favoritism.” In this particular passage, the apostle Paul is reminding his readers that God makes no distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers, but God’s lack of favoritism certainly extends to other groups as well. He is our model. We must seek to treat both sets of in-laws with equality. This may mean Christmas here this year and Christmas there next year, or Christmas with one family and Thanksgiving with the other. The same principle applies to phone calls, e-mails, visits, dinners, and vacations.

You are not responsible for your parents’ happiness; that will be determined by their own attitude. You are simply seeking to show equal honor and respect for them. Having done so, you have followed the biblical injunction: Honor your father and your mother.

Father, thank you for not showing favoritism. You welcome everyone who turns to you. Help me to treat my parents and my in-laws with equal honor and respect, and to make sure my spouse and I are fair in the way we spend our time. Please give us grace as we discuss these issues.

CGO is here to love one another, CGO is here to care for one another, Agape love God’s kind of love is what we share in this great CGO Family

Letter to the Gospel Preachers

Dear Minister, the offensive good news you are made to preach is battle provoking, and when the battle is over crisis begins, when crisis is over struggling/hustling begins…who then will overcome? It’s only ABONDANT GRACE MINISTERS; hence, they all have God in their Race
EVANG RICHARD O. SEPT, 2020.

THE OFFENSIVE GOOD NEWS

The offensiveness of the gospel becomes especially clear when we consider the central subject of the gospel—Christ crucified. Paul views his gospel ministry (and, by extension, the description applies to the mission of the churches) as the parading of Christ crucified before the eyes of fallen humanity (Gal 3:1). This picture of the crucified Christ serves as a constant reminder that a horrific death was needed to rectify humanity’s desperate state. The crucifixion declares both the awesome love of God and the miserable “failing grade” that even the best of fallen human behavior deserves (i.e., the punishment Christ received was the just penalty for even the finest of human religiosity) (Phil 3:3-10). Such an assessment does not sit well with those who prefer a more favorable evaluation of their spiritual condition, and so such persons attack those through whom the gospel of Christ progresses (Phil 3:2-3; Gal 6:12-15). Because the identity of both the apostles and ordinary believers is determined by the presence of an offensive gospel and identification with a rejected Messiah (Gal 3:10-14), true Christians must, by their very nature, face hostility. It is due to this fact—the fundamental Christological grounding of Christian suffering—that Paul frequently refers to his or other believers’ suffering in direct relation to Christ’s suffering (e.g., Rom 8:17; 2 Cor 1:5; 2:14-15; 4:10; Gal 6:12; Phil 3:10; Col 1:24-25). Also, we should note that Paul’s view that suffering is inevitable for all Christians demonstrates the apostle’s expectation that the word of God and presence of Christ would advance to the non-believing world through all Christians (Rom 8:16-17; 2 Tim 3:12).

Prayer
Help me oh Lord to keep on keeping on with preaching this good news in this hostile world in Jesus name amen!

Family Favoritism

God does not show favoritism.

Romans 2:11

How can we leave parents after we’re married and at the same time honor them? This can get sticky because, of course, two sets of parents are generally involved in a couple’s life. Issues can particularly arise during the holidays. Perhaps the wife’s mother wants the couple home for Christmas Eve, and the husband’s mother wants them home for Christmas dinner. That may be possible if the two families live in the same town, but not if they live five hundred miles apart.

The guiding principle must be equality. Romans 2:11 says, “God does not show favoritism.” In this particular passage, the apostle Paul is reminding his readers that God makes no distinction between Jewish and Gentile believers, but God’s lack of favoritism certainly extends to other groups as well. He is our model. We must seek to treat both sets of in-laws with equality. This may mean Christmas here this year and Christmas there next year, or Christmas with one family and Thanksgiving with the other. The same principle applies to phone calls, e-mails, visits, dinners, and vacations.

You are not responsible for your parents’ happiness; that will be determined by their own attitude. You are simply seeking to show equal honor and respect for them. Having done so, you have followed the biblical injunction: Honor your father and your mother.

Father, thank you for not showing favoritism. You welcome everyone who turns to you. Help me to treat my parents and my in-laws with equal honor and respect, and to make sure my spouse and I are fair in the way we spend our time. Please give us grace as we discuss these issues.

Developing Your Testimony

Grab a notebook and designate it your prayer journal. List the names of people you know who aren’t Christians and begin praying for them. Also, designate this notebook as the place you’ll write and hone your testimony.

Puzzle Piece: Tell about your life AFTER you met Christ. Share the specific changes that have happened as a result of making Jesus Lord of your life. Share what Christ means to you now. Talk about the excitement you experience from your relationship with him.

Be careful to avoid giving the impression that your life is now free from problems, because realistically, everyone will continue to face hardship. Share the difference: Now you have Someone to face the hard times with you and provide the wisdom and strength to handle them.

Examples of specific changes: “Now I have a reason to live. Everything is in perspective. He’s given me a genuine concern for other people. I really want to help others. I’m not always thinking about myself—I’m learning how to meet the needs of those around me.”

“Every day is a new day. It blows my mind that he loves me even though he knows I’m still a jerk a lot of times. Life is kind of like an adventure now. I mean, I’m walking hand-in-hand with the Master of the universe!”

Puzzle Piece: Share Scriptures. The following Scripture passages provide more information on how you became a Christian. You might want to use some of these in your testimony; if not, keep them handy to answer any questions your friend might have. These are also great verses to memorize!

• John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”
• Romans 3:23:“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
• Romans 5:8:“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
• John 1:12: “Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”

Know It!

Now that you have the pieces to putting the puzzle of your testimony together, it’s time to get started. Grab your notebook and make three sections: 1. My Life BEFORE I Met Christ. 2. How I Came to Know Christ. 3. My Life AFTER I Met Christ.Now begin writing! After you’ve put the pieces together, read your testimony out loud and time yourself to see if it’s too long or too short. When you’ve honed it to approximately three minutes, ask your parents, your minister, or a Christian friend if you can practice on them.

Read It!

There’s no time like right now to familiarize yourself with the Scriptures below that you’ll want to use when sharing your faith.

Pray It!

Ask God to help you feel confident and secure about your testimony.

Hallowed Be Your Name

It’s almost impossible to turn on the TV and not hear someone using God’s name. It’s frequently used as a punch line or to express emotion. In fact, most of us don’t even think twice when we hear someone say, “Oh, my God!”

Guess what? God wants our stomach to twist in knots whenever we hear his name being misused. And unless the name of GOD is being used in prayer or in talking about him, it’s being misused.

When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, he said to his Father, Hallowed be Your name. In other words, “I give the utmost respect and honor to your name, Almighty God.”

What does this mean? First, we recognize that God is our Father. He is in authority over us and reigns in a perfect kingdom that will someday be our home if we follow him. Then we recognize that his very name is holy. When we approach God with this mind-set, we’re laying out the proper ingredients for genuine communication.

In Leviticus 22:2, God tells Moses to instruct Aaron and his sons (who were the priests) how to treat the sacred offerings with respect, “so they will not profane my holy name.” And in Deuteronomy 28:58, the Israelites are told if they don’t revere God’s name, they’ll suffer fearful plagues, prolonged disasters, and sickness that will seem to hang on forever. Malachi 4:2 talks about the rewards of revering God’s name.

How can you revere the name of God?

1. Hit anyone who misuses God’s name.
2. Leave the room when someone takes God’s name in vain.
3. Ask the person misusing God’s name if he realizes what he’s doing.
4. Start a “Revere God’s Name” club on your campus.
5. Make sure whenever you use his name, it’s always done with respect, honor, and reverence.
6. Share your thoughts on honoring his name with some of your friends. Discuss it. Pray about it.

While you can’t rewrite movie scripts, you canask God for a tender heart so that when you hear something you shouldn’t, you’ll wince. Or walk away. Or write a letter. Or make your thoughts known. After all, if someone used your mother’s name or even your name in a derogatory way, you’d probably take a stand. Will you do the same for God’s name?

Know It!

God never wants you to become comfortable hearing his name taken in vain, used as a punch line, or spoken in negative terms. If it doesn’t bother you, it needs to!

Read It!

Matthew 6:9-13; Psalm 33:8; 89:7; Ezekiel 36:23

Pray it!

Are you often not even aware of God’s holy name being used in vain? Confess that to him. Ask him to give you a sensitive heart and teach you how to revere his holy name with your words and actions

Anxiety Wrap

The Lord is my light and my salvation—so why should I be afraid? The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger, so why should I tremble? (Psalm 27:1 )

My family used to have a wire fox terrier that was terrorized by thunderstorms. Sweet Pea (yes, that really was her name) was trained to stay in the kitchen unless someone invited her into other rooms in the house. But with the first clap of thunder, her training would fly out the window. Racing through the house, she would look for the closest lap to shelter in. On more than one occasion, a storm sent our poor dog into a seizure. We might have helped Sweet Pea by fitting her with a Thundershirt, had it been available back then. This is a garment that wraps around dogs like a coat, applying gentle, constant pressure, which works to calm them down. It is also called an Anxiety Wrap.

Strange as it may sound, this technique also works for some children with autism who wear weighted vests for a few minutes each day to calm their overstimulated nervous systems. No doubt the same principle is at work with infants who are swaddled. The pressure makes them feel more secure.

While most of us don’t need weighted vests, we could all do with our own version of an Anxiety Wrap. Here is the one I’ve developed: whenever I become anxious or fearful, I talk about my concerns with close friends, enlist their prayers, pray, and read Scripture. I also consciously remember how God has helped me in the past, and I thank him for his faithfulness. The more I focus on God and on doing his will, the more peaceful I become. As God wraps me in his grace, I am able to calm down in his presence.

Let us pray

Lord, I want my life to be characterized not by fear but by faith. Wrap me in your love and faithfulness today, changing my anxiety into confidence so I can do your will in Jesus name, Amen!

You have no Excuse

¹⁰Moses pleaded with the Lord, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.” ¹¹Then the Lord asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the Lord? ¹²Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.” ¹³But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”

Exodus 4:10-13

Don’t you just hate it when people make excuses? Excuses mean that somebody is trying to avoid responsibility—some job or task that rightly belongs to that person but what he or she considers too inconvenient to do. On the surface the excuse looks right, but closer examination reveals major flaws in the argument.

This reading begins a new chapter in Israel’s history. The small, privileged family of Joseph has become a large nation of oppressed Hebrew slaves. Moses will be their deliverer. After fleeing to Midian, Moses meets God at the burning bush, is given his assignment, and returns to Egypt. Moses is not qualified for the job.

Look for other lessons, including the dual excuse-busters be courageous (the Hebrew midwives) and don’t run from your problems (Moses).

Moses made excuses because he felt inadequate for the job that God asked him to do (Exodus 3:10–4:17). It was natural for him to feel that way, because he was inadequate all by himself. But God wasn’t asking Moses to work alone. He offered other resources to help (God himself, Aaron, and the ability to do miracles). God often calls us to perform tasks that seem too difficult, but he doesn’t ask us to do them alone. God offers us his resources, just as he did to Moses. We should not hide behind our inadequacies, as Moses did, but look beyond ourselves to God’s great available resources. Then we can allow him to empower our unique contributions.

What has God asked you to do? What excuses are you using to avoid this responsibility and work? Obey God by stepping out in faith. He will give you the resources to do his work

Needs for Effective Listening

Jesus said,] “To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.”

Matthew 13:12

You cannot overestimate the importance of listening to your spouse. Listening says, “I value you and our relationship. I want to know you.” You can never have an intimate marriage if you don’t know your spouse.

Respecting the other person’s ideas, even when they differ from your own, is essential to communication. Few people will continue to communicate if their thoughts are always condemned. Also, responding too quickly gets in the way of effective listening. Listen twice as much as you talk, and you will know your spouse much better. Jesus told his disciples in Matthew 13:12 that listening brings knowledge. The more we listen and the better we listen, the more we understand. That’s certainly true of Jesus’ teachings, but it also applies to conversations with our spouse.

If your spouse starts talking, take it as a “holy moment.” The one you love is about to reveal something. When your spouse begins to reveal his or her inner self, don’t do anything to stop the flow. Drop everything else and focus on listening. Nod sympathetically. Smile if your spouse says something funny. Let your eyes show concern if your spouse expresses pain. Ask questions to make sure you’re getting the message. Good, active listening stimulates communication.

Prayer:

Lord, I want to listen well to my spouse and gain more and more understanding of this person I love. I know that needs to start with valuing the times when he or she shares thoughts and feelings with me. Please give me the self-discipline to be an active, alert listener so our communication will be stronger and stronger.