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PRAYERGEAR.COM / SPIRITUAL RESOURCE SERVICES
NEWSLETTER
July 13, 2000; Issue 53: The Call of Christ, Part 3
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<>< CONTENTS <><
1. Mini-Reflection
2. Cruising Christian Cyberspace!
3. Prayergear.com product and services updates
4. Let us know!
5. Weekly Reflection: "The Call of Christ", Part 3 of 4
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It is a pleasure and blessing to be back in touch with you! A
great welcome to our new subscribers and a thank you to all who
have been forwarding these Weekly Newsletters to potentially
interested persons and helping get the word, His Word, out to
more people!
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1. ~~ ** Mini-Reflection ** ~~
From time to time most people feel as though their lives and
environments are out of their control. You may be experiencing
that now, along with the fears, worries, and anxieties that are
part of it. Popular psychology will urge you to "claim"
control, putting blame for your troubles on your "poor
self-esteem" and lack of self-confidence. New Agers would
tell you it's a karmic thing, that the "Universe" is
giving you what you expect so you need to expect the
"abundance you deserve" and the "Universe"
will respond to you. However, if you buy into these frames of
thought you will create a belief system that places you in the
center of the "Universe", putting yourself in a place
reserved only for God, which is to practice idolatry of the self.
Our Scriptures teach that we, indeed, are not in control. Bad
things happen to good people. Good things happen to bad people.
So we are confused, worried, fearful. The apostles, right after
the death and resurrection of Christ, were also confused and
fearful. That's why "Before He [Jesus] was taken up, He gave
orders to the apostles He had chosen with the help of the Holy
Spirit." (Acts 1:2.) Orders from Christ are for a good
reason and best be obeyed. "Don't leave Jerusalem yet. Wait
here for the Father to give you the Holy Spirit." (Acts
1:4.) Yet in John 20:22, it's recorded that Jesus breathed on His
apostles and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
Confusing? Consider what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John
14:17: "...the Spirit of Truth, Whom the world cannot
receive or welcome to its heart because it does not know Him. But
you know and recognize Him, for He lives with you and will be in
you." (Greek Amplified Version.) Please notice the language
and tenses. Jesus says the Holy Spirit is with you;
"para" was the original term translated
"with". It means the Spirit is along side you, nudging
you. Perhaps what is referred to as your "conscience"
is the Holy Spirit with you. But Jesus says the Spirit WILL be IN
you, clearly implying He wasn't in the apostles then. The Greek
word for "in" is "en". There's a difference
between the Spirit (or God) being with you and being in you! So
later Jesus breathes on the apostles and the Spirit is now
"in" them. But that isn't enough! Jesus ordered the
apostles to stay in the city until the Spirit was
"upon" them. That word, which could also be translated
"over" or "overflowing in", is the Greek term
"epi". It was only when the Holy Spirit was given in
"epi" could the apostles burst out of their hiding
place and ignite the explosion of the Gospel: "On that day
about three thousand believed his message and were
baptized...Everyone was amazed by the many miracles and
wonders..." (Acts 2:41, 43.) Jesus promised, "The Holy
Spirit will come upon (epi) you and give you power. Then you will
tell everyone about Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria,
and everywhere in the world." (Acts 1:8.)
The Scriptures declare the Holy Spirit took control, and with
that taking, gave power. Your control and power doesn't lie in
your self-esteem or education. When you take control, you take it
from the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of Life. Not a smart
thing to do. I don't want to be just filled ("en") with
the Holy Spirit. I desire the Spirit to be "epi",
overflowing through me and out of me. As on that first day of
Pentecost, then others will also receive the Spirit. And in a
vessel overflowing with the Holy Spirit, there is no room for
worry or fear. This is not something for which we must work. The
Father is so anxious and delighted to epi us with His Spirit! We
just have to relinquish control over to Him, letting Him take
over everything.
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2. ~~ ** Cruising Christian Cyberspace! **
~~
Our web site feature of the week is
www.audiotreasure.com (http://www.audiotreasure.com)
Suggested by a subscriber, this MP3 site allows you to download
free audio files of many books and versions of the Bible so you
can listen to Scripture through your computer offline while you
complete other tasks (like filing away that growing mound of
papers or paying that pile of bills.) It also provides audio
streaming of Scripture while online without downloading and
without needing to stay locked to the web site. I recently
enjoyed this feature, listening to the Sermon on the Mount, while
searching other Christian sites via web search engines. Great for
multi-taskers and those of us to like to saturate our brains with
God's Word through more than just the visual channel of print.
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3. ~~ ** Prayergear.com Product and Service Updates ** ~~
If you do check out Audiotreasures.com, you'll learn they sell a
CD-ROM of their audio files. We want to remind you that we
provide a wide selection of CDs and cassettes of the entire
Bible, the New Testament and certain books (such as the Psalms
and Proverbs) in various versions. There are many times when we
are doing "no brainer" tasks such as cleaning, cooking
or driving which are great times to be contemplating God's Word.
There are also many visually impaired persons and those who lack
reading comprehension skills who need audio versions of
Scripture. Look these over in the Bibles section of our online
store or
click here.
Our subscribers north of the equator are deep into their summer
season and in the middle of T-shirt wearing time. Solid Light
Co., one of our distributors, reports that the message on a shirt
is read about 10,000 times during its life. We added several new
designs in all three of our shirt sections (Shirts for Everyone,
Shirts for the Ladies, Shirts for Kids.) Great ways to witness
and proclaim your faith.
To encourage you to review the online store and support our
ministries, we are offering a 15% rebate check (including the
shipping and handling cost) on all purchases until Sunday, July
16, midnight EDT. Share this offer with your friends!
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4. ~~ ** Let us know! ** ~~
Someone commented, "Thank you for the audio prayer for
redemption on your website! I prayed that prayer by reading it
from your printed version. But when I saw you put it in audio, I
just clicked on it, sat quietly in my chair with my eyes closed,
and prayed it again with you. Somehow it was a different
experience of prayer, more from my heart. After it was finished,
I still sat there with eyes closed, not wanting to get up for a
while, loving my Lord for loving me."
Thank you for letting us know and blessing us with that! And
again, we remind you of our invitation to help write this month's
Weekly Reflections on The Call of Christ. Email your experiences
with Christ's call to prayercare@aol.com and help us encourage
others to respond to Him and His Good News. Let us send a
collective voice through out the world!
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5. ~~ This week's Weekly Reflection follows below ~~
We appreciate you helping our ministries grow by forwarding this
newsletter to friends, we just ask you do so in their entirety.
May God bless you through the Weekly Reflection below and may His
Holy Spirit not only be with (para) you, but overflowing (epi)
through you!
God bless!
John
John S. Hilkevich, Ph.D.
Spiritual Resource Services: Prayergear.com
~ Education, Services and Products
in the Christian Faith ~
www.prayergear.com
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For a more attractively formatted Weekly Reflection or links to
previous
Reflections, point your browser to
http://www.prayergear.com/weeklyintro.html
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WEEKLY REFLECTIONS
The Call of Christ
Part 3 of 4
What's New/Article Index / Home/Welcome Page
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