Ministry Article: Camp Alpha – Launch and Life Change
April 27, 2023 by admin
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It was early Monday morning. I'm not used to being up before 8:00 am so, I can only guess that it was around 7:30 am and I had been up for at least two hours. I walked around the Children's Education building at 44 Academy Street, marveling at the amount of work that went into planning, decorating, and generally getting prepared for the first ever Camp Alpha at First Baptist Church Alpharetta. |
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Slovakia: Part Three
April 26, 2023 by admin
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This month we are in for a great treat! Lynda Turley has graciously allowed us to follow her mission trip to Slovakia. As most of you probably know, the best part of mission trips are making connections with people, and watching them develop in their relationship with Christ through your positive influence. Lynda and her team have been able to do just that. Throughout the next few weeks we will be bringing you pictures and Lynda's insights form her trip to Zilina, Slovakia. Keep coming back and enjoy the difference that a follower of christ can make in the lives of others. August's Mission Spotlight: Slovakia Slovakia: Part Three Each day, we had team building challenges and sports competitions. There was life-size soccer/foosball, water balloon launching competition, water balloon volleyball with the whole the team holding onto a sheet for catching and returning. Our team provided options for free time each afternoon. Some of our team offered American sports while others had crafts indoors. Both were very popular, especially the ultimate Frisbee, American football, and making journals with a magazine collage on the cover and tie-dyeing shirts and even some campers' personal clothes. In the evenings after the speakers, we had more time for socializing. Each night we arranged a different fun way to hang out…coffee house, campfire with S'mores, watermelon pigout (including seed spitting), ice cream sundae bar, and movie with candy night. Isn’t it amazing what we all have in common when we’re looking for it? Saturday, the evening we left camp, the church hosted a cook-out at Kompas. Some of the youth who couldn't be at camp came for the cookout. Everyone had a fun time! There were more games, music, and lots of new friendships were made firmer as they transferred home after camp. As the evening concluded, mostly due to the rain storm, there were some tears and many, many hugs. On Sunday, we attended church in the Jones' attic. To my happy surprise, there at a table was Snajo, one of the teens from camp. He was part of my group last year and claimed atheism. At the beginning of camp this year he declared he wanted nothing to do with God-stuff. He was only at camp to hang out with friends. I had noticed that through the week, Snajo seemed lighter, less serious. He was having fun and participating in the activities versus sulking on the sidelines or leaving the area. Lo and behold, he came to church! I pray the feel-good time Snajo had at camp has made an impression that there is something he wants that Christians have. The service was an experience that confirmed for me the greatness of God. I didn't understand the lyrics, but I felt the Spirit moving in the music and the voices. The thought came to me that as praises were lifted up in the attic of a missionary's home in Slovakia, there were acts of worship happening all over the world: in cathedrals, in cottages, in huts, and outside in fields. He appreciates the variety of expression. Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord, worthy to be praised and glorified! That evening we said our final good-byes to our missionary friends and some of the youth who planned camp. We had a wrap-up meeting and farewell dinner at Picolo, an Italian restaurant. Then they saw us off at the train station. It was bittersweet to leave them. I pray that God will allow me to go back for camp next year.
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Spiritual Agents for Hire
March 16, 2023 by Nina Medrano
Filed under Faith, Faith Articles
By Nina Medrano –
I was praying for a loved one who is trapped in a cycle of temptation, asking the Lord to deliver her as he delivered me, to protect her against temptation as he protected me; to tip the balance from living a lie to living in truth, as he did for me. I began to see a picture of a chase, a hunt, for her life. I saw words, like, SELF-DESTRUCTION, DEATH, VIOLENCE and HARM, seeking her out. A sense of urgency for her safety stirred my heart to pray. I asked the Lord to “hide her in the shadow of his wings” (Ps. 17:8), to “hide her in the cleft of his rock” (Ex.33:22), to “house her in the secret place of his most high” (Ps. 91:1). I prayed that these spiritual assassins would not find her and that they stop seeking her out.
As the picture of this spiritual chase played out in my mind, the Holy Spirit re-played the words I spoke to my loved one just a day prior. Sharply, I said to her, “You could be hurt or lying dead somewhere! What if something happens to you, I won’t know what to tell the police?” I was so afraid for her well-being that I didn’t stop to consult the Lord for wisdom. I just spewed out words from a place filled with fear and worry.
I have heard many messages, read scripture, and studied books that teach on the power of our words. But, this is the first time to visually see how my words are currencyin the spirit-realm with which I hire agents to carry out death or life assignments.
Humbled by his Spirit, my posture falls to the floor. It grieves me when the Spirit of God has to discipline me. Yet, his loving hand of correction re-aligns me to God’s word and I find myself thanking him again for the conviction. I sought forgiveness from my loved one, the Lord and from myself—and found it.
I feel a new sense of accountability to steward my words; to be more effectually in the spirit-realm by hiring godly agents to carry out life assignments!
Deuteronomy 30:19 New Living Translation (NLT) “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!
Real Treasure
February 4, 2023 by Mary Sefzik
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By Mary Sefzik –
“When did you leave for work?” I could tell by the tone of Mom’s voice something wasn’t right. “Our house has been burglarized.”
My heart skipped a beat. Mom said my bedroom had been trashed. I couldn’t concentrate on work that day. The list of possible missing items grew longer by the minute. My debit card, a collection of gift cards, my external hard drive filled with personal files. Most of my afternoon was spent on the phone—canceling my debit card and giving Mom more items to add to the list of possible stolen goods.
That evening I took a deep breath and sifted through the mess. My Christmas and birthday money from Grandma—five hundred dollars. Gone. If only that wallet could tell me whose hands had rifled through its pockets. Whew. My debit card was safe—tucked away in one of the back zipper pockets. All my gift cards were accounted for and my computer and external drive were untouched.
As I put my room back in order I remembered Jesus’s command to His disciples in the Gospel of Matthew. “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on Earth where moth and rust, destroy and where thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:19 NIV).
The loss of money angered me, but I was thankful God had spared a much greater treasure—my Mom. When she walked into the house she was greeted by the sight of a teenage boy standing on her bed with a tire tool in his hand. They had locked eyes. Mom, one of the gentlest people I know, hollered, “Get out of my house.” She must have sounded like she meant business because the boy jumped off the bed and dashed out of the house. I hope this experience served as a warning for that boy. His next theft could land him in jail.
This harsh life experience reminded me earthly treasures can be wiped out in a moment, but heavenly riches last forever. Just as we protect our earthly belongings with a security system we must protect our souls with the secure seal of the Holy Spirit. “And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of His glory” (Ephesians 1:12-13 NIV).
The Bible & Reincarnation
November 26, 2022 by Warren Mueller
Filed under Faith, Faith Articles
By Warren M Mueller –
Is there any evidence in the Bible that supports reincarnation? I recently met a person who claims that Matthew 11:14 supports the idea that at least some people are reincarnated. In this verse, Jesus says that John the Baptist is Elijah or Elias and therefore, John is either the resurrected or reincarnated prophet. Since Elijah was taken bodily up to heaven, he presumably never died and so John could not be the resurrected prophet (2 Ki 2:11). His mother was Elizabeth, a relative of Mary (Lk 1: 36, 57-60) and he was special even from birth being filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:15). Jesus said that there was nobody greater than John the Baptist ever born which certainly would put him in an exceptional class with Elijah the prophet (Mt 11:11). Mark and Luke both attribute prophetic verses from the old testament prophets Malachi and Isaiah to John the Baptist as the messenger who prepares the way for the return of the Lord Almighty (Mal 3:1; Is 40:3). So is the literal sense of Mt 11:14 what Jesus meant?
Some of the Jewish priests wondered who John the Baptist was and asked him if he was Elijah. John said he was not Elijah (Jn 1:21) which clearly conflicts with the literal sense of Mt 11:14. During the transfiguration of Jesus, Elijah and Moses appear and talk to Jesus who is changed such that “his clothes became dazzling white, whiter than anyone in the world could bleach them.” (Mk 9:3, NIV) Peter is present and offers to set up three shelters for each of them Jesus, Moses and Elijah.(Mk 9:5) This event happened after the death of John the Baptist so if he was Elijah reincarnated, why didn’t Peter and the others recognize him as John? Also, after the transfiguration, the three disciples ask Jesus why the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come before the Lord. In Mk 9:12, Jesus responds to their question and affirms that Elijah does come before the restoration of God’s kingdom. This is fulfilled in the appearance of Elijah before the death and resurrection of Jesus which establishes the kingdom of God on earth inside of believers (Jn 3:3; 1 Cor 6:19). The appearance of Elijah at the transfiguration of Jesus could also fulfill Mal 4:5 which predicted that Elijah would return before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. Jesus continues in Mk 9:13 to explain that John the Baptist is the Elijah that has come and suffered. John the Baptist is the last of the Old Testament prophets who were rejected and suffered at the hands of the kings and priests of Israel. Therefore, these verses describe both the return of the Old Testament prophet Elijah (at the time of the transfiguration) and John the Baptist as the last forerunner of the kingdom of God and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Reincarnation is not supported by the Bible which teaches that each person lives once and then is judged by God to determine eternal life in heaven or hell (Heb 9:27; 2Co 5:8; Rev 20:11-21:4). Jesus and Paul taught that every legal matter should be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Mt 18:16; 2Co 13:1). The diety of Jesus was witnessed by both Elijahs at the baptism of Jesus and his transformation. Jesus taught that faith in him leads to perfection and unity with God, not multiple human life experiences (Mt 14:6).
