That’s my favorite song for Advent in 2015. „Our Deliverer is coming“ – Third Day. A song about hope. The world need this message today and since the fall of man.
Das ist mein Lied für diesen Advent, weil es die Hoffnung ausdrückt, die die Welt momentan besonders braucht. Aber eigentlich braucht sie sie schon seit dem Sündenfalls. In dieser Version ist es nicht so rockig – besser ist das Original, aber hier singen die Jungs von Third Day live:
Morgen feiern wir in Bergneustadt einen Dankgottesdienst mit allen Kirchen. Anlass: 25 Jahre Deutsche Einheit. Hier ist der Flyer: 25-Jahre-Deutsche-Einheit-Gott sei Dank_Flyer-Bergneustadt
Tomorrow we will celebrate a worship service with all churches in Bergneustadt. Occasion: 25 Years of the German Reunification. Praise the Lord!
Stay Grounded!
(George, Bill, with Peter Sims, 2007. True North: Discover your authentic leadership, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass):
Leaders must stay grounded.
„To integrate your life, you must remain grounded in your authentic self, especially when the outside world is chaotic.” (:141)
“Leading is high-stress work. There is no way to avoid stress when you are responsible for people, organizations, outcomes, and the constant uncertainties of the environment. The higher you go, the greater your freedom to control your destiny but also the higher the level of stress. The question is not whether you can avoid stress but how you can control it to maintain your own sense of equilibrium.” (:141)
But how? Bill George gives us eight tips that could help us to stay grounded:
Are you inspired? You might support our project in Myanmar.
Found some good stuff? You might support this: HelpMyanmar: Establish and run Christian preschools for slum-children in Yangon.
In October 2014 I went for 10 days to Myanmar and taught about Christian leadership. I also visited some evangelical free churches. I was invited from a guy who was praying every day that I would come to Yangon. I didn’t know this guy, and I didn’t know anything about Myanmar. It was crazy. But my elders supported me and sent me to Myanmar.
One Sunday I preached at a Church, based in a small slum in Yangon. It’s a very small church with very poor people. The brothers and sisters asked me for prayer. They have a very big vision. They want to found a Christian preschool (kindergarten) for children from the slum. I was very impressed. Very poor people have a very big vision to make a different in their community.
When I came back to Germany, I started to pray and asked God what I have to do with this information. During this time, God sent me brothers and sisters who wanted to support this project. I talked to some missionaries, to our church leadership team, to some organizations and friends. In the end, we decided to support this project as a church and made an „Agreement of Trust“ with the Church in Yangon. The EFG Wiedenest and the EFG Bergkamen provided the financial infrastructure. Little by little, other churches and many donors supported us.
In 2019, we have established a non-profit charity in Germany, called HelpMy e. V., that is now responsible for the work. Meanwhile, we founded 8 Preschools and 4 churches and supports over 130 children with a scholarship.
Every month we need around €500 to run a preschool. We need money for rent, for the stuff-team, for equipment and later to visit the project. You can see the developments here: Yangon.
So if you find some good stuff on my website, and you can use it for your work in God’s kingdom, you could do me a favour: You could support this project with a small or big donation. Only if you want. And only if you do it with pleasure (2Cor 9:7). My personal vision is to establish more than just one kindergarten. I want to establish 10 kindergartens in the next years, if God helps us.
If you donate €1.70 the preschool will run for about one hour longer.
If you donate €17 the preschool will run for about one day longer.
If you donate €111 the preschool will run for about one week longer.
If you donate €500 the preschool will run for about one month longer.
If you donate €6.000 the preschool will run for about one year longer. Or we could establish the next preschool.
Please donate here: www.helpmyanmar.de. Or directly via PayPal.
While I was preparing a sermon about the church, I found this statement from John Stott (1921-2011) about Eph 3:10. It’s brilliant. This is a spectacular view about the church.
“As the gospel spreads throughout the world, this new and variegated Christian community develops. It is as if a great drama is being enacted. History is the theatre, the world is the stage, and church members in every land are the actors. God himself has written the play, and he directs and produces it. Act by act, scene by scene, the story continues to unfold. But who are the audience? They are the cosmic intelligences, the principalities and powers in the heavenly places [Eph. 3:10]. We are to think of them as spectators of the drama of salvation. Thus ‘the history of the Christian church becomes a graduate school for angels.”
Aus: John Stott, The Message of Ephesians (Downers Grove, Ill.: Inter-Varsity Press, 1979), 123-124. Gefunden bei: http://firstimportance.org/the-cosmic-drama-of-redemption/ (20.03.2015)
Übersetzt:
„Als das Evangelium sich in der Welt ausbreitete entwickelte sich diese neue und bunt gemischte christliche Gemeinschaft. Es ist wie als ob ein großes Schauspiel aufgeführt wird. Dabei ist die Geschichte das Theater. Die Welt ist die Bühne. Und die Gemeindemitglieder sind die Akteure. Gott selbst hat das Stück geschrieben. Er leitet und produziert es. Akt für Akt. Szene für Szene. Die Geschichte entfaltet sich immer weiter. Aber wer ist das Publikum? Es sind die kosmischen Intelligenzen. Die Mächte und Gewalten der himmlischen Welt. Wir müssen sie uns als Zuschauer diese Schauspiels über Rettung vorstellen. So ist die Geschichte der christlichen Kirche eine Art akademische Ausbildung für die Engel.“
Das ist mal eine Sicht der Dinge!