Friday, May 28, 2010

Proverbs 3: A Mini-Guide to Life - Tim Keller

In our youth group here at CC Bucureşti we are currently studying through the book of Proverbs after having done in-depth studies on what the gospel is and what is involved in being a disciple of Jesus since last September. Last night we looked at Proverbs 3 which tells us about 17 things we should do and the blessings that will result if we do. Proverbs gives us a lot of practical advice for how to live a wise life but it needs to be studied and applied in light of Jesus who is the true wisdom of God. 

In preparing for the study I came across a blog post by Tim Keller called Proverbs: A Mini-Guide to Life which looks at Proverbs 3. I really like it and found it useful for our discussion last night. Here is what Tim says at the beginning of the post.
In my regular, daily Bible reading over the past year I read through Proverbs 3, a passage I've studied and preached through many times. But during this reading, I realized that in verses 3 through 12 we have all the themes of the rest of the book, and therefore a kind of mini-guide to faithful living. There are five things that comprise a wise, godly life. They function both as means to becoming wise and godly as well as signs that you are growing into such a life:
Here is a summary of the five things Tim talks about. Go check out his blog post to see what he has to say. If you do, you will have chosen wisely.
  1. Trust God Deeply
  2. Submit to the Word
  3. Be Humble and Teachable
  4. Be Generous
  5. Accept and Learn from Difficulties and Suffering

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Best Stuff I've Read on How to Be Generous

The other day I came across the blog post, The Generosity Matrix, by J D Greer and it was one of the best things I've read about how Christians should deal with being generous with their money and possessions. He gives six principles that need to be held together in tension in order to view and use our money and possessions as God would want us. I would encourage you to check it out.

Here are the six principles he talked about:
  1. God gives excess to some so that they can share with those who have less.
  2. Jesus’ radical generosity toward us should be to us a model and a motivation for radical generosity with others.
  3. The Holy Spirit must guide us as to which sacrifices we are to make.
  4. God delights in our enjoyment of His material gifts and gives us richly all things to enjoy.
  5. We are not to trust in riches and not to define our lives by the abundance of our possessions.
  6. Wealth building is wise.
After going through the six principles he finishes by answering two questions: 
  1. So what is the conclusion? 
  2. How much should we give?
So go check it out to find out what J D has to say. Here is a quote from the post that I really liked:
God never made us responsible for the Great Commission; we are responsible to obey King Jesus as He goes about to accomplish the Great Commission.
Often when we talk about the needs of the world and our responsibility in light of them, we talk as if God is depending on us or in desperate need of our resources in order to accomplish His mission.  Quite simply, He is not.  Our God spoke the worlds into existence and is the God who can create everything out of nothing.  God does not lack anything for the accomplishing of His mission. He doesn’t, strictly speaking, need anything from us. It is God’s responsibility, not ours, to resource the great commission. In fact, Jesus reinforced this to His Apostles when He gave them the Great Commission. After instructing them about carrying the Gospel to the whole world, He told them to go and wait, doing “nothing” until He came on them in power. The lesson was clear: accomplishing this task is not something you can do, it is something must do through you.
Our responsibility, as creatures and servants, is to give ourselves to God and to yield ourselves to Him for use in the accomplishment of His purpose. We don’t try to accomplish His purposes for Him, we depend on Him to accomplish His purpose through us.

Monday, May 10, 2010

Switched Email List Services for Newsletter

Last night I switched over to a web-based email list service for my newsletters. If you would like to receive my newsletter by email click on the link below.

Subscribe to Receive My Newsletters

Saturday, May 08, 2010

Church Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 3)

April was a busier month than usual for us here in Bucharest. The day after Easter we went up to Oradea for our annual Calvary Chapel Romania Conference. Many of the 130 that were there said it was the best conference we have had yet. Our church took care of the worship and the audio and video recording of the conference. It sure is great to be able to get together with all those attending Calvary Chapels throughout Romania once a year. .

The second week I was busy editing the video of all the sessions from the conference. It took me a bit over 40 hours to get them all done. Since I still had my regular ministry responsibilities I did some of the editing at night. The conference speakers were all English speakers with Romanian translators so it you are interested you can check out the videos at http://vimeo.com/channels/99181.

The third week of the month we had a team of students from the Bible College in Hungary come to do a week of outreach at our church. Jean, who is an intern at the Bible College this year and is from our church here in Bucharest, led the team and did a great job. They came and did evangelism in the park, helped with the school and kids ministries, painted our fence and some of the building and did other helpful things around the ministry building, Jean taught on Sunday, one of the guys led worship at the home fellowship on Wednesday and two of the students taught the men’s and women’s ministries on Thursday and one of the guys led the worship for the men. So you can see they had a busy and fruitful week. We sure enjoy having the teams come and are always a bit sad when they leave.

So the fourth week was spent catching our breath, getting caught up on things that fell by the side during the first three weeks and transitioning back into the normal rhythms of the ministries.

Home Fellowship
I really enjoy hosting and leading the Wednesday home fellowship. Florin leads the worship, Elena translates for me and I prepare some questions each week to go over based on the sermon on Sunday. We have a time of fellowship and snacks from 6:30 to 7:00 then we do worship for up to a half hour then we do the study and after we have prayer in small groups then finish the evening with snacks and fellowship. I am so thankful for the apartment God has provided for me to host the home fellowship. It is just great for activities like the home fellowship and movie night once a month we do.

Youth Group
In April we only met twice since other things were going on. So the second Thursday we finished our study of what is means to be a disciple of Jesus and the last Thursday we did an introduction to the book of Proverbs which we will go through. In addition I am having the boys read a proverb a day through the month of May so they can see the big picture as well. In addition to our studies I have had the boys (and me) memorize the books of the Bible, a basic outline of the gospel, and several gospel oriented Bible verses. 

We had three boys coming to youth group but Robert has stopped coming so there are only two now, Elvis and David. Please pray for Robert that he will turn back to the Lord. With only David and Elvis it is a challenge for me to minister to them as David is the pastor’s son and is tops in his class at school and Elvis comes from a rough background, doesn’t live with his own family and is way behind in his schooling. Elvis is involved in our school program so he gets ministered to there as well. So David and I are going to do some one-on-one stuff starting with reading through the book “The Naked Gospel” together. I’m looking forward to going through it with him.

Much to Do but So Little Time
Between my responsibilities at the church and what I am doing with the gospel and now trying to get the business going, not to mention other things that I am being asked to do, I need wisdom and direction from the Lord on how He wants me to use my time for His glory and His church. So please pray for me in this regard.

Keeping in Touch
With all the ways there are now to stay in touch it is hard to keep up with it all. When I first came to Romania there wasn’t even internet where I lived and it was really expensive to call to the States. How times have changed! So I have decided I will try and do a monthly email newsletter, a weekly prayer request on my blog and daily share tidbits on Facebook on what is happening. On Facebook I will also post links to my newsletters and the prayer requests as well, so if you just want one place to find everything Facebook will be the place to do it.

Before I send out my next newsletter I am going to be changing the system I use for sending out my newsletters to a web based one so if you get a notice about it you will know what is going on. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition.

Until next month, may the Father give you a deeper understanding and love for Jesus and the gospel.

William

Support Information

By Check

Make checks payable to: Calvary Chapel Missions or CCM

Put WA in the memo section and attached a note to the check with my name William Anderson  

Mail to: 

Calvary Chapel Boise
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID  83709

Online Giving to William

Be sure to put “William Anderson – Romania” in the comment box

FYI
I usually receive my support on the 20th of each month so allow at least a week for your support to clear the system.

Contact Information



Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dulcewill/ (add me as friend)

Personal website: http://godswill.ro/

Skype and Yahoo Messenger ID: godswillromania

Landline Phone : 011-40-314-323-299 (011 if you are calling from USA) 

Time difference: add 9 hours if you live in Mountain Time Zone (10 hours Pacific)

Change in Plans - May 2010 Newsletter (part 1)


Friday, May 07, 2010

Gospel Ministry Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 2)

Yesterday I shared that I have started a business in order to get a visa but it is my hope and prayer that God is purposely moving me to publish really good books on the gospel as well as other media related things here in Romania. I am really excited about the possibilities of how God could use my business to be a blessing to many here in Romania. Who knows, maybe it will even make some profit and supplement my support and provide jobs for people. Time will tell.

I know it won’t be easy and I have a lot to learn when it comes to doing this type of business but I want to step out in faith and see what God does. My plan is to try and get the rights to a really good children’s Bible that is gospel oriented and have it translated and published here. Then, Lord willing, after there is enough profit from that book to do other excellent books that really explain the gospel and deal with legalism which is a problem here.


Once I get the rights to publish the book here I will begin to raise the money to translate, edit, print, market and distribute 3,000 copies of the book which I estimate will cost around €10,000 to €15,000 which is $13,000 to $19,000 given the current exchange rate. My plan is to have those interested in being involved with this to give me unsecured loans that I will pay back in two years. I am hoping to get as many Romanians as possible to be involved with this. So far I have two Romanians which have committed to helping me with this first book. If you interested in being involved with this and would like to know more then please contact me.


So next week I will send an email to the publisher of the book in the States to ask for the rights to publish it here in
Romania. So please pray for me as I write and send the email and for favor with the publisher in the States when they receive the email.  While I am waiting for a response I need to find a good accountant for the business so I would appreciate prayer for that as well. I would love to find someone here in Bucharest who speaks English, has experience with the publishing business and is a man or woman of godly character.

If you would be interested in keeping up to date with how my business is doing I will be putting regular updates on my Facebook profile as things happen. Below you will find the link to my profile on Facebook if you are not already one of my friends on Facebook.


Gospel Workshop
The past few months I have been spending time reading, studying and reflecting on the gospel in response to what I felt the Lord was saying to me about getting the gospel deeper into my heart. The word that comes more and more to me when I think of the gospel is “beautiful”. For truly it is the most beautiful message ever spoken. May the Lord give me grace to do justice to His gospel in my workshop and may many people be encouraged to really take a hold of the gospel so the gospel can really take a hold of them.

At this point I have one church I am going to do the gospel workshop at while I am in the States and I am open to doing it as many times as possible. So if there are any other churches who would like me to come and do the workshop they should contact me soon while I am working on my plans for my trip to the States.


Gospel Website – http://despreisus.ro (about Jesus)
Things have been going pretty slow as far as the development of the website. I had hoped by now to have the blog up and running but it is not yet. God is still using the site though as there are almost 1,000 pageviews per month with the most popular articles being ones that deal with why one should believe in God, why one should believe the Bible is the Word of God, and why does God allow suffering.

Please pray for those working on the site and translating articles to be faithful in what they are doing. Also pray for more people who have a heart for the gospel to help translate articles and blog posts into Romanian and for people gifted with web related skills to help with the development of the site over time. I think one of the reasons things are going so slowly with the site is that there is spiritual resistance so please be praying for this as well.


That’s all for now, in part three of my newsletter I will share about our church here in
BucharestUntil then.


May the grace of the Lord be yours in abundance,


William


Support Information

By Check


Make checks payable to: Calvary Chapel Missions or CCM

Put WA in the memo section and attached a note to the check with my name William Anderson  

Mail to: 


Calvary Chapel Boise
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID  83709


Online Giving to William

Be sure to put “William Anderson – Romania” in the comment box


FYI
I usually receive my support on the 20th of each month so allow at least a week for your support to clear the system.


Contact Information


Email: godswillromania@gmail.com


Blog: http://godswillromania.blogspot.com/


Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dulcewill/ (add me as friend)


Personal website: http://godswill.ro/


Skype and Yahoo Messenger ID: godswillromania


Landline Phone : 011-40-314-323-299 (011 if you are calling from USA) 


Time difference: add 9 hours if you live in Mountain Time Zone (10 hours Pacific)


Change in Plans - May 2010 Newsletter (part 1)




Thursday, May 06, 2010

Change in Plans - May 2010 Newsletter

In Proverbs 16:9 says “A man’s heart plans his way, but the LORD directs his steps.” I have found this to be so true in regards to my plans to go to the States for a visit. In my last newsletter I shared that I was planning on going in February this year but I ended up not being able to go because I still didn’t have a visa for living here in Romania. If you don’t have a visa Romania requires that you have a ticket to fly back to the States from Romania. That would have meant buying not only a round-trip ticket but also an additional ticket back to the States. The cost to do that made the trip way too expensive. So instead of going in February I worked on getting a visa to live here in Romania.


Started Business
If you remember from my last newsletter I said that my best option for getting a visa was to start a business and that is what I ended up doing through a lawyer and Florin helping me. It is called Evangel Media and the motto is “Bringing the transforming power of the gospel to life”. About three weeks ago I received a five year visa which was the first one I have ever received for more than one year. I was so happy and praised God when I picked up my visa card! It is so nice that I won’t have to deal with this again for five years.


Coming in September
So now that I have my visa for Romania I plan on going to the States in either late August or early September and staying till late October. Lord willing that is! If you would like to meet up while I’m in the States let me know as I am going to work on my plans over the next few weeks. Right now my tentative plan is to fly to California from Romania then on to Montana then Idaho then maybe Washington and then back to California to fly back with a team that will be coming to do a week-end retreat for Calvary Chapel Bucharest and Brasov at the end of October. While I am in the States I will need some places to stay so if you would like to host me while I am there please let me know.


Financial Situation
The year started out really well as I received more support in January that I ever had before. But in February and March I received less than I ever had. Thankfully April was more in the normal range. Starting up the business and paying all the fees for the visa totaled about $1,500 which didn’t help the situation either.  Since I used up most of my savings last year things are really tight now, probably the tightest it has ever been for me except for when I first moved to Romania. In fact, it will be interesting to see if I will have enough to pay rent for my apartment later this month. 


I also need money to buy tickets in order to fly around while I am in the States and it would be best to do it soon so the tickets will be at their cheapest price. In addition, there are things needed for my ministry in Romania that I would love to be able to buy while in the States.


So as you can see I have many needs. Please pray that God will provide for me. Please also pray for more monthly supporters for my regular ongoing living expenses as well as one-time gifts to be able to pay my rent this month and also to cover everything related to my trip to the States. If you have any questions or would just like to talk please contact me using one of the options below.


In part two of my newsletter I will share more about Evangel Media and what has been going on in the ministry. Until then.


God bless,


William


Support Information


Make checks payable to: Calvary Chapel Missions or CCM
Put WA in the memo section and attached a note to the check with my name William Anderson  


Mail to: 


Calvary Chapel Boise
123 Auto Drive
Boise, ID  83709


Donate Online To William


Be sure to put “William Anderson – Romania” in the comment box


FYI
I usually receive my support on the 20th of each month so allow at least a week for your support to clear the system.


Contact Information


Email: godswillromania@gmail.com












Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/dulcewill/ (add me as friend)


Personal website: http://godswill.ro/


Skype and Yahoo Messenger ID: godswillromania


Landline Phone : 011-40-314-323-299 (011 if you are calling from USA) 


Time difference: add 9 hours if you live in Mountain Time Zone (10 hours Pacific)



Gospel Ministry Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part2)