Posts

Showing posts from November, 2009

Prayers answered in Honduras

Here's another praise report. The election in Honduras went off without a hitch. It was a peaceful, open election and it seems to poise Honduras to move away from the brink of crisis on which it has teetered for 5 months. Many of God's people have prayed fervently for this election and we thank the Lord for hearing and answering these prayers. Please continue to pray for Honduras during the transition time until the new administration is inaugurated. And continue to pray for the Honduras church planting movement project. We believe that there are over 300 inductive Bible studies occurring now in both western and eastern Honduras. Agree with us especially for the studies that will soon be finishing the first level of studies, "Discovering God". As these studies come to an end, people will have opportunity to make a quality decision to follow Christ as Savior and Lord, and to obey Him in baptism. Let us pray that hundreds follow Christ in this manner. Randy and I will n

A Special Call For Prayer

In this post we want to ask our readers to make November 29, 2009 a special time of prayer. On this date the nation of Honduras will be having it's national election. For the last 5 months, the nation of Honduras has been passing through a period of turbulence. On June 28 the President was removed and in the intervening time there has been political conflict, international condemnation and termination of much needed aid, disruptions in travel and infrastructure, and at times, what seemed to be the threat of civil war. Now, 5 months later, the election gives an opportunity for resolution of the crisis and a return to normalcy in this much suffering country. During these 5 months, the work of the Honduras church planting movement project has continued through the blessing of God. 5 months ago, there were inductive Bible studies in 73 locations. Today they are in 288 locations by actual count, and possibly in over 300 locations. Work is going forth in the 5 westernmost departments and

A Vision to Make Disciples

Image
Jesus told us in the Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20) to make disciples. In some blogs last year, I tried to illustrate a discipleship model of completing the Great Commission (How to Win the World In One Generation, Win the World in 1 Generation, and Project 2030). In this post, let's look at a simple proposal that connects the 3 Column Bible study to the larger picture. Imagine with me what would happen if someone became totally committed to the process of: Hearing the Word of God Understanding the Word of God Obeying the Word of God In other words, he would apply the parable of the sower (Mark 4: 1-20), in a literal way in his life. This personal commitment would be the heart of his own relationship with God. He would say, "Lord, I choose to follow you. I don't want to be a disobedient child of God. I am a follower of Jesus, I choose to be your disciple. I know there is a cost to this....you told me to count it. But I am tired of mere religious Christianity. Jesus Ch

Hear, Understand and Obey: How the Three Column Bible Study Works

I first learned about this wonderful method of Bible study from David Watson. David is a missionary and strategist who has helped begin church planting movements worldwide. Since 1990 he has helped movements that have planted over 100,000 churches. The three column Bible study method is a fundamental part of the process of church planting movements. This method of Bible Study is beneficial to an individual and it is foundational to a small group discovery Bible study which is the foundational unit of church planting. In the “Hear The Word” column you will write out the passage of scripture that you are studying word for word. Someone might ask, why must the passage be written, I can just read it. But if you are doing this for your own study, it is important that you write it. As you write the passage, you have to read it a number of times. So this process is causing you to read it and think about it as you are writing the passage. In your study you will focus on just a few verses...a

Hear, Understand, and Obey

In this blog we try to do 2 things. First and foremost, we want to give updates on the progress of the Honduras church planting movement project. Secondly, we want to give to the blog reader insights into the principles of C.P.M. both for information purposes and to hopefully impact the reader's own spiritual journey. I think that in terms of the last mentioned objective, the most helpful thing I have written about is the 3 column Bible study. In order not to repeat myself unnecessarily , let me refer you to 3 previous blog articles from this year. The first was on May 6 and called "The 3 Column Bible Study". In that article I explained the basics of how a 3 column study worked. A week later, in the May 13 article called "3 Column Study on Joshua 1:8", I demonstrated how a 3 column study would look. If this is the first exposure you have to this Bible study method, I encourage you to go back and look at those blogs (also posted as facebook notes, if that is how

7 Realities

Last week on my Facebook page, I used the "7 Realities of Experiencing God" by Henry Blackaby and Claude King" as my status updates for each day. "Experiencing God" was a great blessing to me when I took the course several years ago. It was also a textbook for one of my classes in seminary. I thank God for Blackaby and King and the wonderful truths that their book and course unearthed for us. Here is a list of the 7 realities: 1. God is always working around you. 2. God pursues a continuing personal love relationship with you that is real and personal. 3. God invites you to become involved with Him in His work. 4. God speaks by the Holy Spirit through the Bible, prayer, circumstances and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes and His ways. 5. God's invitation for you to work with Him always leads you to a crisis of belief that requires faith and action. 6. You must make major adjustments in your life to join God in what He is doing. 7. You com