JURONG OUTREACH - March 07

LET US HELP ONE ANOTHER
4 March 07

In the fall when you see geese heading south for the winter flying along in the "V" formation, you might be interested in knowing what science has discovered about why they fly that way. It has been learned that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates uplift for the bird immediately following. By flying in a "V" formation, the whole flock adds at least 71% greater flying range than if each bird flew on its own.

People who are part of a team and share a common direction get where they are going quicker and easier, because they are travelling on the trust of one another and lift each other up along the way. 

Whenever a goose falls out of formation, it suddenly feels the drag and resistance of trying to go through it alone and quickly gets back into formation to take advantage of the power of the flock.         

If we have as much sense as a goose, we will stay in formation and share information with those who are headed the same way that we are going.


When the lead goose gets tired, he rotates back in the wing and another goose takes over.
It pays to share leadership and take turns doing hard jobs.
  The geese honk from behind to encourage those up front to keep their speed. Words of support and inspiration help energize those on the front line, helping them to keep pace in spite of the day-to-day pressures and fatigue. It is important that our honking be encouraging. Otherwise it’s just – well honking!
 

Then we who are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.  Let everyone of us please his neighbour for his good, to building up   Romans 15:1-2
(Adapted)

 

Let brotherly love continue 

Someone once wrote about a traveller who fell into a deep pit and couldn’t get out. Several persons came along and saw him struggling in the pit.

• The sensitive person said, “I feel for you down there.”

• The reflective person said, “It’s logical that someone would fall into the pit.”

• The aesthetic person said, “I can give you ideas on how to decorate your pit.”

• The judgmental person said, “Only bad people fall into pits.”

• The curious person said, “Tell me how you fell into the pit.”

 
• The perfectionist said, “I believe you deserve your pit.”

• The evaluator asked, “Are you paying taxes on this pit?”

• The self-pitying person said, “You should have seen my pit.”

• The counsellor said, “Just relax and don’t think about the pit.”

• The optimist said, “Cheer up! Things could be worse.”

• The pessimist said, “Be prepared! Things will get worse.”

• Jesus, seeing the man, loved him, and lifted him out of the pit.

What kind of person are we to our brethren?

Are we Christ-like? Let’s work towards that goal today.

MIRACLE WORKER
11 March 07

Imagine that you could not see these words or hear them spoken! This was the case for a young girl named Helen Adams Keller (1880-1968) who lost both her vision and hearing at the age of 18 months. At the age of 7, her parents decided to hire a teacher to try to help her to somehow overcome this seemingly impossible handicap. Her breakthrough story is one of the most remarkable cases in history...  

Helen once asked her teacher, Anne Sullivan, what God's name was. Anne finger-spelled “G-O-D” into Helen's hand, and the young blind and deaf girl smiled. Helen finger-spelled her reply: "I ALWAYS KNEW who He was, and NOW I know
HIS NAME!" 

Amazing! And isn’t this truth EXACTLY what we learn from God’s Word? 

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:20).
 

Even though Helen Keller could not see or hear, she KNEW of God’s existence because of “what has been made.”

"I can see, and that is why I can be happy, in what you call the dark, but which to me is golden. I can see a GOD-MADE world, NOT a manmade world." Helen Keller. 

What a remarkable observation for one so severely handicapped...
For a young girl who was blind and deaf from the age of 18 months, she understood the nature of the world around her better than many. She lived in SILENCE. She lived in DARKNESS. But even in her dark and silent world, she KNEW of the existence of God! There is certainly NO excuse for YOU and ME! 

Observe some more of the insights of this remarkable woman:  

“The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.” -- H. Keller  

“I thank God for my handicaps, for, through them, I have found myself, my work, and my God." -- H. Keller  

"There is no better way to thank God for your sight than by giving a helping hand to someone in the dark." -- H. Keller  

Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne Sullivan, “is remembered as ‘the Miracle Worker’ for her lifetime dedication, patience and love to a half-wild southern child trapped in a world of darkness and silence.”  

Helen Keller, with her life’s story and her faith, point us to THE Miracle Worker: JESUS CHRIST, who through our obedient faith rescues US from the dominion of darkness and brings us into His kingdom of light and life

THE Miracle Worker will rescue THOSE who: believe in Him (Acts 16:30-31), And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house,

turn from their sins in repentance (Acts 17:30-31),And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent: Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

confess Him before men (Romans 10:9-10), That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

and are baptized (immersed) in His name for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38; 22:16). Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost 

He will CONTINUE to cleanse those who CONTINUE to walk in the "LIGHT" of His Word (1 John 1:7).

Thank you, Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller, for pointing US to THE Miracle Worker who can restore our SIGHT and our SOUL! 

Can YOU see Him? Can YOU hear Him? Will YOU follow Him?

-- David A.

THE LAST THING HE DID
18 March 07

When I was growing up at the Lincoln congregation in Huntsville, Alabama, one of the elders was a man named Roy Jacks. He was a good Christian man who served the Lord throughout his lifetime. He and Lucille were married for 77 years and they brought up their children in the Lord. 

Brother Jacks died last week at the age of 99 after suffering two heart attacks. Living to the age of 99 and being married for 77 years are both remarkable feats in life, but I want to tell you something that was noteworthy about his death. 

When it became obvious that his health was deteriorating, his wife and children were called to his bedside. While they were all together, they had prayer. The amazing thing is that Brother Jacks led the prayer himself! He knew the power of prayer and prayed often.  

1 John 5:14-15;
And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 

James 5:13-16;
Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.
Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord:
And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him.
Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much 

Matthew 7:7-8,
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened 

Shortly after that prayer, he went into a comatose state and six hours later he passed from this life. The last thing he did was lead his family in prayer! 

What will be the last thing we do with our families? It will likely be what we have done with them all along. “The family that prays together, stays together.” Think about it. 

—adapted from Ricky Phillips, Florence, Alabama

Rules For Growing Christians 

Don’t neglect your prayer time. It is the breath of the soul (Lk. 18:1).

Don’t neglect your Bible. It is your sword for conquest, your hammer for construction, your guiding light for dreary days (Rev. 1:3).

Don’t neglect your body. It is the capital on which you are to do business for the rest of your life (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).

Don’t neglect your mind. It is your channel for reaching up to the very thoughts of God
(cf. Phil. 4:8).

Don’t neglect your laugh. The Bible teaches that “A merry heart doth good like a medicine” (Prov. 17:22).

Don’t neglect your reputation. It is the gold with which you will meet the demands of a complex civilization (Mt. 5:14-16).

Don’t neglect your influence. It will point other people to the living God whom you serve (Prov. 11:6).

AN EGG OR A TENNIS BALL?
25 March 07 

You may have had the unpleasant experience of learning first-hand what an egg does when it hits the floor. It bursts. A tennis ball, on the other hand, bounces back up when it hits the ground. 

There is not a single person reading this article who has never made a mistake—who has never fallen. A distinction is made in the way we react to a fall. Some, like the egg, burst, while others, like the tennis ball, bounce back. 

For example, Judas was overcome with grief and took his own life after he betrayed his Lord. Peter, though, after he denied Jesus, went on to become a great leader in the early church. You see, when Judas fell he burst like an egg. But Peter responded to his fall like a tennis ball—he bounced back.

Successful people are people who are able to bounce back from failure. General George Patton once stated, “Success is how high you bounce when you hit bottom.” When asked the secret to his success, Paul Harvey responded, “I get up when I fall down.” Basically, success is getting up one more time than you fall down. I’m sure the following people would agree with me: 

Kristi Yamaguchi won the gold medal in the 1992 Winter Olympics after falling down in the middle of one of her routines.  

Michael Jordan, perhaps the greatest basketball player of all time, got cut from his high school basketball team and missed 9,000 shots in his NBA career, 26 of which lost the game for his team.  

Abraham Lincoln, this country’s most popular president, lost 8 elections, failed in business twice, and had a nervous breakdown.  

Walt Disney got fired from a newspaper for lack of ideas.  

It was said of Fred Astaire after his first screen test, “He can’t act, he’s slightly bald, but he can dance a little.”  

Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times in his career.  

Macy failed in business 7 times before his department store caught on.  

Henry Ford went broke 5 times prior to his “Model T.”  

Just think of all the light bulbs Thomas Edison blew up before he found one that actually stayed lit!

Much like these successful individuals, those who are successful in living the Christian life need to learn how to get up when they fall down. The two greatest preachers in the early church—Peter and Paul—both had a past full of failure

The secret to their success lies in the statement Paul made: “Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Their lives teach us that a sinful past can be the black velvet on which the diamond of God’s forgiving grace is displayed. 

Never forget: grace is greater than guilt. Forgiveness is greater than failure. Paul warned the Corinthian Christians, “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall”
(1 Corinthians 10:12). Let’s also remember the other side of that coin: “Let him who has fallen take heed lest he not stand back up.”  

—Daniel Hope