Through the Son; With the Holy Spirit.

When I deeply seek to know Him more,

Then the voice of God, I know I hear it.

He listens to my heartfelt prayers.

He answers with caring and love.

He never forsakes me; I’m never alone.

He’s my Father from heaven above.

Whenever I feel afraid or sad,

His Spirit comes to comfort me.

He gives me strength to carry on.

From all evil, He sets me free.

Jesus is here with me always too.

He’s my shepherd and my friend.

My wants dissolve; There’s nothing I need.

All my heartaches He does mend.

So I’ll keep the faith, and walk the path,

Because I know Jesus walks with me.

He’s my guide who never fails.

With eyes wide open, His Truth at last I see.

Richard Cerruti   —  June 28,  2017

The Jewish people refer to this passage as the Shema. Jesus said it was the greatest of all the laws of God. He also said that all the Law could be summed up in this passage. First it tells us that JHWH (LORD in all caps) is our Elohim (plural for God in Hebrew). Then it tells us JHWH is one. Here we have the mystery of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. They are one. There is no difference amongst them. Religions with many gods distinguish the differences and purposes for each god, but the God of the Hebrews is one. We refer to that as monotheism. A perfect God can only be one.

Then we are commanded to love our JHWH our Elohim with all our heart. In other words, all our desire should be focused upon Him. In Hebrew, this word includes our thoughts. We should love our God with all our soul. That is all our will and emotions, our very life. We should love the LORD our God with all our strength. Our best and most diligent efforts should be exerted in glorifying Him out of love. It seems impossible to do one of these completely without combining all the other parts of our makeup. An abbreviated form of this command might be expressed as, “love your God with all you are!”

As we focus on just what this is saying, we should get a sense of just how short we fall and of areas in our life that are competing with the first place in our hearts. The Jews put this verse in a small container and put it on the entryway of their homes. When the orthodox Jews worship, they put it in a box on their foreheads. We should keep it before us always as a check of where our heart and soul and strength are being exerted.

Admonition: Do all to the glory of God.

Among the guidelines that ought to be considered include:

1. Set up small groups according to their respective membership levels, such as newcomers, members and ministry leaders, and teach them according to their levels;

2. Offer Bible study series for members to study systematically;

3. Create a platform for members to share their weaknesses while receiving counseling and inner healing through participating in regular prayer meetings;

4. Encourage more participation from members to serve and lead in various ministries of the church.

As the ministers evaluate their current education system according to the proposed guidelines, it is with hope that church members would be well equipped with the knowledge of Christ and right motivation as they serve in their respective churches.

The first lecture on personal study exhorted the teachers to revolve their lives around the Word by prioritizing the Scriptures as being God-breathed and developing a habit of memorizing Bible verses. The inductive Bible study method was also introduced to encourage a deeper meditation of the Word.

Using the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman as a model, the subsequent lecture on evangelism challenged the teachers to cross the boundary of fear by firstly praying to meet the prepared persons of evangelism, to be humble in taking the first step in initiating the conversation, to listen patiently and challenge at the appropriate opportunity before eventually guiding them to receive Christ as their Savior through committing to a systematic study of the Word.

This is followed by the lecture on teaching where the teachers were guided to teach according to the four types of soil as discussed in the Parable of Sower. By providing the answers through the Word accordingly to their life problems, it is anticipated that the students will develop their faith towards the authority of the Bible.

Each lecture was followed by a time of question and answer where the teachers raised issues relating to their personal experiences and challenges in personal study, evangelism and teaching.

It is with hope that following the training, many people will be drawn to commit their lives to Christ and the Kingdom as the teachers resolve to effectively study, evangelize and teach many to know Christ and make Him known.

The parents-kids program that will be promoted widely in OA churches involves learning new skills together, family outings and family games and is anticipated to encourage more interaction between parents and their children through their time spent together.

Apart from that, family support groups that is being mentored by experienced couples will aim to promote healthy dialogues between parents, developing a better understanding of the needs of their children, while creating a conducive platform for parents to share their struggles and receive advices towards becoming better equipped parents.

In addition to these, a series of seminars that focuses on marriage and parenting will also be organized from time to time to equip singles, couples, parents-to-be or parents in response to the challenges of family life.

It is with hope that through the family enrichment programs, many families will grow close to each other to reflect the love of Christ to the communities around them.

Recognizing the challenges of one to immediately devote his/her life for a full-time mission in a foreign land, this exposure program serves to be a platform for those interested to initially experience cross-cultural mission in partnership with other OA affiliated churches in the region. It is anticipated that such a program would especially be an eye opener for those who considers doing mission in the long-term.

Despite a relatively short commitment of 14 days, the program would provide many opportunities for the participants to be exposed to the local culture through joining the local church in its mission activities, while being given lectures on the development of Christian mission in the host country.

It is with great hope that through the exposure program, many would grab the opportunity to experience cross-cultural mission in Southeast Asia that is home to a diversity of languages, religions and cultures.

Before setting up systematic plans towards reaching the goals for 2016, the ministers were guided to embark on the essential evaluation of the progress in 2017 in the following aspects:

1. Evangelism and strategies;
2. Education and teaching; and
3. Fellowship and service.

On the foundation of these three aspects, the ministers will then summarize their mission breakthroughs for 2016 and things to improve for the coming year while finalizing their goals and plans for 2017.

It is with great hope that through the evaluation and planning process, it would also serve to challenge the ministers to set and realize greater goals for mission expansion in the coming year.

There are millions of people who have not yet given their lives to Christ. With today’s technology it should be much easier to spread the Gospel to those who do not yet know Christ and haven’t even heard the Gospel yet. The Internet is rapidly developing and becoming more popular in today’s culture. It is surely a powerful method to allow those who have not heard before to now understand the Truth found in Jesus Christ.

Each day there are millions of people who seek for help online. These millions include people experiencing loneliness, suicidal thoughts, depression, addiction, abuse, and hopelessness. These souls have this emptiness that only Jesus could fill and are searching the internet to find the solution. The church must meet these needs of these millions.

As the internet increasingly dominates the lifestyle of today’s generation, it is imperative that churches use internet evangelism as one of their methods. Ministers must know the importance of setting up means of outreach through the internet within their own ministry if they want to reach the people around them.

Starting internet evangelism can be very easy. Below are simple ways that a ministry or church can improve this aspect of their outreach.

The minister can create websites through popular social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. A common method is also blogging. Churches and ministries can include videos, devotionals, and testimonies on the blogs. On the websites, the church can include various contents such as videos illustrating the Gospel of Christ or video testimonies from well-known websites.

Once a minister sets a posting standard it’s important to keep it regular. This will allow for the site to build a good reputation and gain people’s trust. If visitors like the contents then they will look forward to checking the website again for renewed contents.

Let’s keep improving our methods of evangelism. Satan wants to quickly work to take people farther from the Lord. As believers, let’s move much more urgently and meet the needs of the souls around us.

One of the biggest threats to orthodox Christianity as we know today was a widespread belief called “Arianism.” In the year 325 AD, emperor Constantine initiated the Council of Nicea, the first ecumenical council that welcomed hundred of Christians and respected bishops to discuss boundaries of Christian theological understanding. Athanasius was 27 years old at the time, but took a leading role in refuting the heretical views.

Arianism held that the Son of God was subordinate to the Father. They believed that Jesus was a creation of God and that the Logos had not always existed. This belief went contrary to the nature of the Trinity. Arianism insisted that the Father and the Son were distinct and that, although Jesus was of higher value than humans, He was also just a creation. This doctrine became a widespread belief and posed a great threat to orthodox teachings.

To some people, the Arianian controversy was not a big deal. Most of the lay people considered it a small theological detail that was not very relevant to the big picture of Christianity. However, Athanasius believed that even a slight misunderstanding of proper Christology would mean that the very core of the Christian message was at stake. The presence of God in history was everything for a Christian to understand entirely. Athanasius wrote several works related to the issue of Christology, one of them being ‘On the Incarnation of the Word’. This work clearly reveals his conviction on the divine nature of Jesus. While other famous theologians like Clement and Origen only speculated about the Logos and His relationship to God, Athanasius had undivided conviction that the incarnation of God in Jesus Christ was the central fact of the Christian faith. He believed that the presence of God in humanity was the very heart of Christianity.

In one of his works, Athanasius gives an example of what the incarnation of God means for humanity. He compared it to an emperor moving into a city. If the emperor, who is the ultimate ruler of all the land, comes to a house in one city, then that house as well as the city is well protected. The city will be honored and they will be safe from robbers and other dangerous things.

Similarly, Athanasius describes how the Ruler of the world has come to dwell among lowly humans. Thanks to the presence of our holy God, we are protected from the evil one. Athanasius believed that by virtue of Jesus’ divine presence, we can be with God and God with us, just as we should have been from the beginning.

“He became what we are, so that He might make us what He is,” he wrote in his book, ‘On The Incarnation of The Word’.

Arianism believed that Jesus was not truly God, but Athanasius upheld the opposite. He knew that this distinction was unacceptable to ignore. Athanasius is known today as the Father of Orthodoxy because he upheld “the tradition, teaching, and faith proclaimed by the apostles and guarded by the fathers,” as he states in one of his works.

Athanasius went on to suffer during the reign of Constantine as many attacked him for his strict faith and opposition to Arianism. However, he lived during a controversial time in history and showed an honorable example of standing firmly on the Word.

Dubbed “Millenials”, this demographic gives us both the crisis and opportunity of youth ministry. Why target them? This is because they are influential, and they can be influenced – by both good and bad forces.

Adolescence includes “years of unprecedented opportunity…these are the years of penetrating questions, the years of wonderful discussions never before possible. These are the years of failure and struggle that put the teen’s true heart on the table. These are the years of daily ministry and of great opportunity,” Paul David Tripp observed in “Age of Opportunity.”

At the same time, “The world for young adults is changing in significant ways, such as their remarkable access to the world and worldviews via technology, their alienation from various institutions, and their skepticism toward external sources of authority, including Christianity and the Bible,” opined David Kinnaman, president of Barna Group.

In today’s postmodern culture, the crises facing the young people are rather easier to identify:

Isolation
Despite the excessive level of access to every information and knowledge, the digital world has crippled young people from creating vibrant, engaging communities.

Emptiness
Today’s youths exhibit hunger and thirst for significance and acceptance like never before.

Relativism
Young people are over-skeptic of the existence of THE truth. The norm is that there is no moral standard nor objective truth, and we should celebrate tolerance toward all religious and moral beliefs.

Each crisis is also accompanied by opportunity:

Isolation
-> Community experience

Through experiencing the shared life of early church, one can discover the joy of community. In the digital era, it is life-changing to be part of communities through firsthand and real-time communication and fellowship with God and His people.

Emptiness
-> Hand-crafted, not factory-produced, discipleship

Christian communities can help discover and mobilize the gifts in each person, in order to reach full potential through faithful stewardship of God-given talents. Additionally, Jesus’ model was to offer spiritual guidance through close mentorship to a limited number of followers.

Relativism
-> Biblical worldview and lifestyle – Offering integrity and spiritual freedom

The postmodern trend of pluralism results in increased depression and growing confusion. Only the truth of Christ’s love can fully set free the wandering souls. Youth ministers are called to offer the absolute, timeless values in the Bible, invite the youth to experience true freedom of their souls, to and further guide them to live holy lives with faith and integrity.

Youth ministers are to grow to understand the crisis as well as opportunity in reaching out to the next generation, and effectively shine the light of the Gospel into their hearts and lives.