Christ For Veterans Web Site Published This Week

Praise God for His mercies are new every morning! After much prayer and some hesitation (fear of the Lord) we launch the ministry of Christ For Veterans. In the first few days we had over 300 hits and one testimony of a salvation by a girl looking for help for her Veteran father. Prayer requests and testimonies are starting to come in.

I have no idea what God is doing with this ministry, but I can see great potential for reaching souls for Jesus.

Please pray for this work and help spread the word! Take time to check out the entire site and give us your feedback, please.                             Just click on the logo below.

Blessings and Happy Veterans Day!

Disabled Veterans Home Facing Closure

 This is typical of situations in almost every major American City. 31% of all Homeless in this Nation are homeless Veterans. We need to pray. This is a National disgrace and getting worse as the ranks of Veterans swells day after day. Please Pray for our Veterans and Active Duty Troops!

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- A charity housing disabled veterans may have to shut its doors.Many of the current residents are formerly homeless and may end up in the streets again if the organization doesn't come up with a lot cash.Highpointe Solutions provides apartments and a plush living environment for 38 non-violent, disabled residents, including David Cohen."It means that somebody cares about all of us here," Cohen said.Of all the people who live there, 95 percent are veterans.Cohen served three tours in the Vietnam War and said it means the world to him for the owner to show such kindness to the men and women who have served this country."Faye busts her back end to raise money and keep us all here," Cohen said.But in a down economy, Highpointe Solutions has run into financial problems. If the charity does not raise $160,000 by September the bank will foreclose and the vets will lose their homes."Some will end up back on the street definitely," said Dave Weaver, with Highpointe Solutions.Weaver said if the disabled vets end up on the streets they will be using emergency services a lot more and that's money that will come out of taxpayers' pockets."It's like answered a prayer for me," said Joe Bookout.Bookout's brother, James, has lived at Highpointe Solutions for two years."Just to have a nice secure place for him to live just means everything to me and to my mom," Bookout said.But if the charity closes, Bookout doesn't know where his brother will find a home.An active duty colonel in Iraq donated $10,000 to help Highpointe Solutions stay open.

I've made the CFV page a post so that others might View it.

Christ For Veterans

Christ for Veterans was a dream in 2008. It became a vision in 2009. It's time to put what we have learned into action. We are working on a website and a forum to network Christian Veterans and all Christians with a burden to serve the Heroes of our nation Past, Present and Future.

Steven Henry is helping with graphics. Pastor Glen Elmore and I are learning first hand what the situation of the VA is like from the inside where things are not hidden. My wife Judy Kreins and others are the motivators and prayer warriors. Gil Brown and Brian Wilson are Veterans in Waco, TX that have hands on experience with ministry to Veterans. Paul Cavnar is a former Marine who served in Vietnam with several of us and Paul has a gift of wisdom.

What is your part going to be?

We have a small group of about 139 sympathetic supporters on Face Book. Not much happening on that front, we had hoped for more. The best motivator is one to one sharing of the vision.

Here is the opportunity. There are over 28 million Veterans now and the number grows daily. Most can not handle the bureaucracy of the Veterans Administration and give up. Many believe they are not qualified for benefits because someone told them they weren't.

There are many fine Veteran Service organizations, but they all have gaps that good men and women are falling through. We Veterans and our families have a perfect open door. We have experience in common with all Veterans that causes them to trust us. Trust is not high on the list of tools that Veterans are equipped with.

We need your help! God is calling many of you to step into this harvest field, but you need someone to equip you. That's one of the parts of the vision. Nearly every church has Veterans. Do we have to tell or beg the pastors to put this opportunity before their Veterans? I hope not, but we are ready to do just that.

We have men that will train your church how to minister at a VA Hospital, or at a halfway house for homeless Veterans. We can show you practical ways to serve and reach the lost and it wont cost you a dime.

Here is the bottom line, ARE YOU GOING TO STEP UP BOLDLY AND SAY, "I'M READY TO BE USED BY GOD TO REACH THESE HURTING MEN AND WOMEN FOR CHRIST?

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN HELP RIGHT NOW:

• Encourage your Brothers and Sisters to pray.

• Submit yourself to the Holy Spirit and listen to His call.

• If you have talents such as an attorney that will assist us with our 501c3 filing, contact us.

• If you know of resources that we can include in our website and our tool box, share them with us. 

• When we launch the forum, participate.

• Take possession of the Vision and make it your vision.

We have an informal Advisory Board and it seems to be working well. At some point we will need to organize to satisfy man's laws. Pray about this.

One more thing that you can do would help tremendously, Donate a small amount so that we can establish an operating fund. Right now, my wife Judy and I have funded the website, forum and some other things. We need help, if we are going to offer a first class service to these men and women, with the hope of serving and then and praying for opportunity to share god's Gospel of Salvation.

The Church I pastor in Waco, is willing to underwrite the start up costs as best as they can. We can use the Churches 501c3 as long as we keep the funds separated from the Churches. We can do this until we incorporate and receive our own 501c3 status. So all donations will be tax deductible as an outreach ministry of the local church for now. We are under the 501c3 of our denomination and accountable to them.

So if you want to donate there are two ways.:

• Use the PayPal option under the account of pastorsteve70x7@hotmail.com. You can use a credit card that way.

• The second option is to send a check to:

Christ For Veterans
c/o First Church of God
2309 Skyline Dr.
Waco, TX 76710

Make checks payable to FCoG Waco , with a notation at the bottom "For CFV"

We will post total donations here and later on the forum.

May the Holy Spirit show you the huge opportunity to serve and live out Gal. 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.

August Word For You For Today

Scripture Readings For August Are Now Posted

Coming of The Light

Our Friend in Nevada, Paul Cavnar sent this and it's very much worth reading and letting the Holy Spirit Teach us from the Word. Thanks to Steve Becker for writing this short, but powerful message.

By: Steve Becker

For the hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber... the night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.  Romans 13:11-12

This is one of my favorite passages (at the moment). It helps me understand the present day, the time we are living in. I discovered it in a reading on Job by Gregory the Great. His point is that we are living at daybreak, or dawn, when day and night are mixed together. It is the people of God who are the dawn moving toward day.

Day is breaking in our world, it is breaking today and it is breaking through each of us because the Spirit of Christ himself is alive in us! Dawn tells us that the night is over, it's almost gone but it does not yet bring the full light of day. It holds both of them together. Do you not experience this in your own life? We do much that is by the divine power of God, we show great charity at times, miracles happen through us, we do divine things yet we are not free of the darkness. In many ways, we still fall short.

Wake up, Paul says. Stop using the snooze alarm! For the anxious longing of creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God (Romans 8:19). We're late already.

In Job, God is identified as the one who has given orders to the morning and shown dawn in its place (Job 38:12). Lead on, Lord, show us your place. Stir your power within us in our situations and propel us to morning. Let us not give in to the deeds of the night but rather walk in the integrity of the light so the dawn may advance in the places you have given us.

Who's Counting On You?

We're Counting On You!

Does the thought of others counting on you frighten you a little, or maybe even a lot? Is it even "overwhelming" at times?

As a Christian, you count on Jesus every day. You count on His "Faithfulness." You count on His keeping you. You count on Him completing you. You count on Him for everything, or at least you "should" be counting on Him.

Psalm 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart. 

Have you ever thought about how many people count on "You"? Have you considered being someone people around you can count on? If you are in Christ and He is in you, then it should be natural to want to be faithful and be a person that others can count on. That is one of the key ways that people will see "Christ in you"!

Thousands of fans in Camden Yards baseball stadium stood to their feet on September 20, 1998 to honor one man, Cal Ripken, Jr. Exuberant fans cheered for twenty minutes, stopping the game to salute the Baltimore Orioles shortstop. Why? Other players had better statistics. Five other Orioles held higher batting averages that year; three hit more home runs.

The fans cheered Cal because he set the new record for most consecutive games played, which was 2,632. 

• They cheered his faithfulness.  

• He was dependable.  

• They knew they could count on Cal.

Did you know people are counting on you? You need to succeed not only for yourself, but also for those who are depending on you. I am learning this day by day as I work hard to become less that God might become more, through me. I am growing in Christ first, so that I might be able. Able to do what? Able to be faithful, first to my Lord and then, I can be faithful to those who count on me.  "That's a lot of pressure," you may be thinking. Sure it is, but we need that pressure. That's what keeps us going. If people weren't counting on us we would never reach our potential.

Take a minute and think about the people who are counting on you. Write their names on a list. There are probably more people than you realize. Revisit that list daily and see how many more people are added to that list as you realize, "They might not count on me for every need, nor should they, but many people count on me for some things." Am I a faithful man or woman of God? Do I show up for every game? Am I locked in my house and not out in the Church, the community, the marketplace, where people need what I have?

Begin every day by telling yourself, "Today, God, my family and my friends are counting on me. And I'm not going to let them down." Faithfulness starts with the little things of life. First be faithful in your relationship to the perfect Faithful One, Jesus.

A popular book says, "Don't sweat the small stuff." But there is some small stuff you need to sweat if you expect to get ahead. Jesus said, "You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things" (Matt 25:23). The more faithful you are, the larger your list will grow of people who count on you. That's a good thing. The world says it's not. The world says, count on your government, we know what's best for you. Are you going to be of the world or of the Kingdom of God?

You can't be perfect but you can be faithful and that's all God expects.

* Steve

Become a Good Listener, It is a Lost Art

This new blog is for the feeding of the Body of Christ, the Church. It is meant to motivate, encourage, lift up and inspire Christian growth in Christ. It is about Transformation, Reconciliation and Glorification of God. It is not about any man or the doctrines of man.

As children of God, we must always strive to love one another, edify one another and even lay down our lives for one another. Pastors, are simply members of the Body, who are called by God to (1) dedicate themselves to the Word and to Prayer. There really is no number (2). You can best support your pastor by learning how to listen. He can best support you by learning how to listen. God can best support us all, as we learn to listen.

Yes, pastors have many duties and responsibilities, but it always comes back to the Word and Prayer. How can a pastor be effective at preaching if he isn't filling himself with the Word and then by Prayer, LISTENING for the voice of God?

How can a pastor feed God's sheep in other ways, such as visitation, counseling, teaching, encouraging, setting an example to follow, and loving everyone he meets, without filling himself with the Word and then by Prayer, LISTENING for the voice of God?

How can a pastor LISTEN to the people he is called to feed and reach for Christ, if he doesn't fill himself with the Word, then Pray and then wait before God to HEAR Him?

One of the greatest lessons we can learn , as we seek to draw closer to God, is to become good listeners!

If we can't listen to our Brothers and Sisters in the Body of Christ, how will we know how to encourage them? If we can't listen to the Lost, how will we know their hearts and see that they are lost?


If we can't LISTEN to the Lost or the Saved, how can we LISTEN to GOD!


Here are some truths about Listening;

• Listening is a lost art.

We are bombarded by so many images from television, computers, iPods, BlackBerrys, pagers, faxes,and junk mail, that we all have a form of attention deficient disorder. We've lost the art of concentrating our attention. If a television show doesn't grab our attention in the first two minutes, we pick up the remote and change channels. If we are listening to someone who doesn't get right to the point, we tune out.

This lost art of listening leaves an ever widening hole in our lives. It might take the form of a vague sense of discontent, sadness or deprivation, which can lead to depression. We don't know what's wrong or how to fix it.

We hurt each other unnecessarily by failing to acknowledge what the other person has to say.

• To listen well, we must forget ourselves and submit to the other person's need for attention.

 Often we don't hear what the speaker is saying because something in the speaker's message triggers an emotion in us that draws us into ourselves, rather than into the speaker. Hurt, anger, discouragement, disagreement, anxiety and other emotions cause misunderstandings and conflict.

To become better listeners, and to transform relationships, we must identify and harness the emotional triggers that generate anxiety and cause misunderstandings and conflicts.

I have noticed that my relationships cycle between closeness and distance and, even more important, how I could influence those cycles by the quality of my own  listening.

We can only hear God, through His Word, if we learn to do as Romans 8:1-3 instructs, ¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. 

Listening requires a sacrifice. Listening to our fellow man and listening to our God. Die to self, and you then can be transformed into a Good Listener. 

 

Here are a few suggestions to help you become a better listener;

• Learn the difference between listening and just taking turns talking

• Hear what people mean, not just what they say

• Learn to give support, not unwanted advice

• Reduce arguments by being an active listener

• Practice listening on someone you really dislike talking with. You just might find they have something worth hearing. You will also bless them by showing that you care.

If you are willing to make an effort and set your needs to one side for a time, you will become a good listener. Pastor's really need you to listen. They work hard to prepare a meal, you need to eat it.

* portions adapted from The Lost Art of Listening by Michael P. Nichols, PhD.