Sanctity of Life

Pray that we would remember the magnificent truth that humans are image bearers.

Man is made in the image of God and therefore has great significance and is precious. 

Watch this video...

Prayer requests from the Luce family

Here are some prayer requests.

1. Salvation for those who attended the Carols service.
2. Mark’s responsibilities as team leader, and that the team would be unified as transition is always difficult for some.
3. Our holiday club has been going well the past  4 Sundays. We have just 2 more Sundays left.  Ashlee’s workmate Charlene has brought her daughter Chanelle.  Charlene’s boyfriend Andrew has been coming as well.  We know that they all three are unbelievers.  Please pray for their salvation.
4. Our current monthly financial shortage is just over $1200.  Pray that this need will be met.  Pray that individuals might want to support the ministry here.
5. Ashlee will finish year 12 this September.  Pray for wisdom and direction in her career path.
6. Spiritual growth of people attending Grace Baptist Church.

Manifestations of Humility

A humble person lives differently than a proud one.  

From the booklet From Pride to Humility

1. recognizing and trusting God's character
2. seeing yourself as having no right to question or judge an Almighty and Perfect God
3. Focusing on Christ
4. Biblical praying and a great deal of it.
5. being overwhelmed with God's undeserved grace and goodness
6. being thankful and grateful in general toward others
7. being gentle and patient
8. seeing yourself as no better than others
9. having an accurate view of your gifts and abilities
10. being a good listener
11. talking about others only if it is good or for their good
12. being gladly submissive and obedient to those in authority
13. preferring others over yourself
14. being thankful for criticism or reproof
15. having a teachable spirit
16. seeking always to build up others
17. serving
18. a quickness in admitting when you are wrong
19. a quickness in granting and asking for forgiveness
20. repenting of sin as a way of life
21. minimizing others' sins or shortcomings in comparison to your own
22. being genuinely glad for others
23. being honest and open about who they are and the areas in which they need growth
24. possessing close relationships

Manifestations of pride

A sample list of pride manifestations from the booklet From Pride to Humility

Prayerfully read through this list, evaluate yourself and ask others to evaluate you.

1. Complaining against of passing judgment on God
2. A lack of gratitude in general
3. anger
4. Seeing yourself as better than others.
5. Having an inflated view of your importance, gifts and abilities.
6. Being focused on the lack of your gifts and abilities
7. Perfectionism
8. Talking too much
9. Talking too much about yourself
10. Seeking independence or control
11. Being consumed with what other think
12. Being devastated or angered by criticism
13. Being unteachable
14. Being sarcastic, hurtful or degrading.
15. A lack of service
16. A lack of compassion
17. Being Defensive or blame shifting
18. A lack of admitting when you are wrong
19. A lack of asking forgiveness
20. A lack of biblical prayer
21. Resisting authority or being disrespectful
22. Voicing preferences or opinions when not asked.
23. Minimizing your own sins and shortcomings
24. Maximizing others' sins and shortcomings
25. Being impatient or irritable with others.
26. Being jealous or envious.
27. Using others.
28. Being deceitful by covering up sins, faults and mistakes.
29. Using attention-getting tactics
30. Not having close relationships.

Humble spiritual growth. Do you want it?

2 Peter 3:18  "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

Throughout scripture we are commanded to grow and yet 
we are told that God has provided everything we need to grow.  
Pastor Duke challenged us this past week (www.emmanuelbaptist.com/messages/i.really.want.to.grow.01.13.13.mp3).
We were challenged to examine our lives and grow!

One of the specific challenges was to work through some spiritual growth questions

www.emmanuelbaptist.com/i.really.want.to.grow.pdf

While working through the questions and talking with others, I realized humility plays such an important role in our spiritual growth.

The following quotes from Stuart Scott's booklet From Pride to Humility need to be considered when it comes to spiritual growth and humility...

"We cannot come to God without humility"

"We cannot love God supremely without humility"

"We cannot be an effective witness for Christ without humility."

"We cannot love and serve others without humility."

"We cannot lead in a godly way without humility."

"We cannot communicate properly without humility."

"We cannot resolve conflict without humility."

"We cannot deal with the sin of others rightly without humility."

"We especially cannot resist sin without humility."

"We never find the scripture saying 'come on now, you're thinking too poorly of yourself' or 'what you need is to consider yourself more.'"

"Scripture tells us to stop focusing on ourselves or on what we want."

Tomorrow morning's post will have a list of manifestations of pride to use for personal evaluation.

Tomorrow evening's post will have a list of manifestations of humility to also use.

Prayer requests and praises from the Logans...

Here are some specific prayer requests sent on 01.09.13:

1. That Gradyn (5 1/2) and Jace (4) would trust Jesus as their personal Savior.

2. The boys are on summer break right (hard to believe with all the snow we are hearing about in the States!) and starting school again in February. Pray they can make more friends, we can meet more parents, and they can continue to learn Portuguese. They love school and are doing great with the language.

3. The opportunity for us to begin a English Conversation Group in our new apartment to meet more neighbors.

4. Our church studying Genesis and having visitors coming!

Kimmell Prayer Update...

We have had a busy holiday season—probably the busiest time of year as it is for most churches. On Christmas day we had a children’s program with over 70 children participating. Many visitors came both for the children’s program and for the Christmas service immediately following. We would ask for prayer that the Lord work in the hearts of those who do not normally come to begin coming each week. Likewise for the children to keep coming. We typically have anywhere from 15-25 children on Thursdays and Sundays, but so many more only come occasionally or not at all.

Pray that the seeds of the gospel that were planted in the service would take root. We gave each family who attended a small package with some food items as well as a copy of John/Romans and a calendar from the Romanian Bible Society with verses and a Bible reading plan. Pray that the Lord would use these materials to remind the people to read His Word and to come to church.

We would also ask you to continue to pray for wisdom in the coming year as we complete the purchase of land and the construction of a new building. There are numerous pitfalls in this process, both financially and spiritually. Satan would like to use this time to divide the people and create disunity. We already can see evidence of this. Pray that our family and our teammates, the Warners, will have patience and perseverance throughout the coming months.

Finally we would ask for your prayers for our upcoming furlough. We are still in the early stages of planning. About 1/3 of our meetings are scheduled, but we are still needing to locate housing, preferable in the Cincinnati area near our sending church, and for all the details that need to happen between now and then as we split our time with furlough planning and ministry responsibilities. We have one more month until the Warners return from their furlough, so we need to remain focused throughout this time.

Thank you again for your partnership with us. If we can provide any further details or answer any questions, please contact me. We are looking forward to being back at Emmanuel in the coming year.

In Christ,

Dave and Ruth Kimmel