The wisest man in the world wrote that there is a season for everything under heaven. "A time to be born and a time to die..." This season of death has come upon my family. At the young age of 73, my dad's life is being snuffed out by asbestosis. This has been a shock to us, and at this point, has caused me to adjust my life a bit. There are still things I must to do keep EMM moving forward; but there are also some things that I can cut back on so I can spend more time in these final days and weeks with my mom and dad. Please pray for both of my parents. Each time hospice comes to their home, they seem to increase my dad's medications, which means he is deteriorating.
For the time being, I will put my devotionals on hold since I will not have a computer with me while visiting my dad. Some have suggested that I take a laptop computer along so that I can write and do other things, but I prefer not to own a laptop. So please forgive me for the break in the devotional schedule. I will get back to it as soon as I can. I do enjoy looking at I John with you, and many of the comments I have read from our readers have been quite rewarding.
Today I am leaving for Peru, along with my son, Ben, and Gary Losey our Festival Director. This will be our last trip before the festival that takes place the end of May. I will be teaching the Christians there on relational evangelism, as well as doing media interviews and speaking with the pastors. Gary will be training the counselors that we will use for all of our events. They are the ones who will pray with those who want to trust in Christ. He will also have numerous committee meetings covering more details than I could ever keep up with. Ben will be going over the many details of our daily ministries and making sure that everything is ready for the 25 team members that will be serving with us. He will be visiting each location for our eye-glass, medical, and dental clinics. It's an important final trip for all three of us and I would so appreciate your prayers. With my dad not doing well, I am finding it a bit difficult right now to concentrate fully on ministry, but I know the Lord will give me grace.
We are also in need of about $6,500 for de-worming medicine for the children and other humanitarian works we are planning to do in Peru. If you feel like you can help or make our need known to others, that would be so appreciated. We know from our past ministry in Peru how much these medicines bring relief to the children and open doors for the Gospel!
Thank you for your prayers during this difficult time. I know that they are making a difference and will continue to do so.
Peace to you,
Dan
P.S. Come visit us on Facebook for the latest on EMM!
Copyright 2010 Eternity Minded Ministries
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
Unity
But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you know it and because no lie comes from the truth. Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist – he denies the Father and the Son. No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2:20-23
One of my favorite jokes is of the man who had been shipwrecked on a deserted island. After years of living alone he was finally rescued. One of his rescuers noticed three huts and asked the man what the three huts were for. He replied that the first hut was his home, the second hut was his church, and the third hut was the church he used to go to!
Ah yes, unity is such a dilemma for us. We know that Jesus spoke clearly regarding the subject of unity, but it seems that many times we are so far from His matrix for us. As a very young man coming to the Lord in a separatist kind of church, I did not think much about unity. I was told that we were right and everyone else was wrong and was in danger of going to hell. That made life easy for me, as I could just believe that my own small world was the only way and in it I could feel safe and secure.
As years went by and I started to travel and started working across denominational lines, my world was turned upside down on more than one occasion. Not only did I find people who passionately loved the Lord and lived out their faith in other denominations, but they actually had better arguments for things that my denomination said were wrong. It was unsettling to see that each denomination could argue the finer points of their doctrine from Scripture; once you come to Scripture with a certain bias, then you could make it say just about anything. Each denomination also had its own scholars and universities.
So, in this world in which we live where there have been some 25,000 denominations started since the Reformation, how do we deal with unity? There are those who, like the first church I attended, do not want unity at all. Their minds are made up and everyone else is wrong and they are right. I still come across that type of attitude, but I must say that it is much less than it used to be. Most of the people and churches I get to associate with know that we need to come together in this wicked world and focus on what truly matters so that the world can hear the Easter story.
The Apostle John is dealing with this issue of heresies and schisms and of new churches being planted that went beyond the bounds of apostolic teaching. John calls these leaders the antichrists because they truly delivered a message that was against Christ and His teaching. John gives us the one true way to spot those who are not a part of God’s eternal family; they are the ones who deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!
John words are quite clear, “No one who denies the Son has the Father.”
On Easter Sunday we read the Apostles Creed in unison at our church. I have no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of churches in our little town would agree with that ancient creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
and on the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
In my early years of working on citywide crusades and festivals with Luis Palau, I discovered a new source of joy. In the inviting city, an organizing committee would be formed, made up of business people and pastors. Often, these pastors had never really worked together before and so they came to the first meetings with suspicions and biases. Over the yearlong process, and culminating in the salvation of many people at the festival, the pastors changed.
There was no greater joy for me than to hear ministers from the Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Calvary Chapel, Assembly of God, Lutheran, Christian, Church of God, Christian Missionary Alliance, Covenant, Bible, Independent, Evangelical Free, and scores of others confess that they had no idea how much they had in common with the other pastors. It was a little taste of heaven on earth as these ministers came together with the common goal of lifting up Christ.
That is what we do through Eternity Minded Ministries! We not only bless the poor and preach the Good News of Easter, but we are used of the Lord to bring unity amongst the pastors! I love it. It’s a glorious day when a pastor like me can say to a pastor of another denomination, “Oh my, I was wrong about you, forgive me.” And we see it happen all the time.
We need all who name the Name of Christ to unify together against the spirit of this world! That is where the real battle should be.
With eternity in mind,
Dan Owens
Copyright 2010 Eternity Minded Ministries
One of my favorite jokes is of the man who had been shipwrecked on a deserted island. After years of living alone he was finally rescued. One of his rescuers noticed three huts and asked the man what the three huts were for. He replied that the first hut was his home, the second hut was his church, and the third hut was the church he used to go to!
Ah yes, unity is such a dilemma for us. We know that Jesus spoke clearly regarding the subject of unity, but it seems that many times we are so far from His matrix for us. As a very young man coming to the Lord in a separatist kind of church, I did not think much about unity. I was told that we were right and everyone else was wrong and was in danger of going to hell. That made life easy for me, as I could just believe that my own small world was the only way and in it I could feel safe and secure.
As years went by and I started to travel and started working across denominational lines, my world was turned upside down on more than one occasion. Not only did I find people who passionately loved the Lord and lived out their faith in other denominations, but they actually had better arguments for things that my denomination said were wrong. It was unsettling to see that each denomination could argue the finer points of their doctrine from Scripture; once you come to Scripture with a certain bias, then you could make it say just about anything. Each denomination also had its own scholars and universities.
So, in this world in which we live where there have been some 25,000 denominations started since the Reformation, how do we deal with unity? There are those who, like the first church I attended, do not want unity at all. Their minds are made up and everyone else is wrong and they are right. I still come across that type of attitude, but I must say that it is much less than it used to be. Most of the people and churches I get to associate with know that we need to come together in this wicked world and focus on what truly matters so that the world can hear the Easter story.
The Apostle John is dealing with this issue of heresies and schisms and of new churches being planted that went beyond the bounds of apostolic teaching. John calls these leaders the antichrists because they truly delivered a message that was against Christ and His teaching. John gives us the one true way to spot those who are not a part of God’s eternal family; they are the ones who deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God!
John words are quite clear, “No one who denies the Son has the Father.”
On Easter Sunday we read the Apostles Creed in unison at our church. I have no doubt in my mind that the vast majority of churches in our little town would agree with that ancient creed:
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth.
And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
and born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died and was buried.
He descended into hell.
and on the third day He rose again from the dead.
He ascended into heaven
and sits at the right hand of the Father.
From thence He will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting. Amen.
In my early years of working on citywide crusades and festivals with Luis Palau, I discovered a new source of joy. In the inviting city, an organizing committee would be formed, made up of business people and pastors. Often, these pastors had never really worked together before and so they came to the first meetings with suspicions and biases. Over the yearlong process, and culminating in the salvation of many people at the festival, the pastors changed.
There was no greater joy for me than to hear ministers from the Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Calvary Chapel, Assembly of God, Lutheran, Christian, Church of God, Christian Missionary Alliance, Covenant, Bible, Independent, Evangelical Free, and scores of others confess that they had no idea how much they had in common with the other pastors. It was a little taste of heaven on earth as these ministers came together with the common goal of lifting up Christ.
That is what we do through Eternity Minded Ministries! We not only bless the poor and preach the Good News of Easter, but we are used of the Lord to bring unity amongst the pastors! I love it. It’s a glorious day when a pastor like me can say to a pastor of another denomination, “Oh my, I was wrong about you, forgive me.” And we see it happen all the time.
We need all who name the Name of Christ to unify together against the spirit of this world! That is where the real battle should be.
With eternity in mind,
Dan Owens
Copyright 2010 Eternity Minded Ministries
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