I remember as a teenager sitting in my grandfather’s fishing boat as he told me about how he served in the army during the WWII D-Day invasion. He told me about how he needed to use his anti aircraft flack cannons to take out German snipers in the church bell towers. I was enthralled by his stories, however the United States Army is not the only army he served in, he also served in the Lords Army. Driving home from the lake we drove past his church, where he served as an elder, and it is there where he discussed the importance of spending time with God. While I did not understand at the time, my grandfather understood the significance of putting on your spiritual armor every day. As a teenager I really looked up to him and as an adult I’m going to miss him.

On August 27, 2010 my Grandfather, with an American flag draped over him, went into eternity with Jesus. Before they took his body away the nurses at the VA hospital preformed a private flag ceremony in the courtyard that inspired and reminded me of his service. In the same manner that he was honored for service to America, I know that in Heaven he will receive an even greater honor, an imperishable crown (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).

One day that flag will perish and America as a nation will cease to exist, but a believer who is adopted into the Eternal Kingdom will receive a heavenly reward which is “an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:3-5). I write this to encourage you to remember our greatest reward comes not now, while we are here on Earth, but in heaven from our Heavenly Father. Therefore, remain faithful to God, obey him in all His commandments, and ask the Holy Spirit to give you “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control,” (Galatians 5:22-23) for this is a mark of a believer. While it is a great honor for my grandfather to receive this recognition from his country, it will be an even greater honor when he receives an imperishable crown from the creator of all (James 1:12).

Will you receive this honor?

To all the service men and women, I thank you for protecting my religious freedoms. To all my Sunday School teachers, I thank you for teaching me about freedom in Christ.

 

Over the last eight weeks I have read through the New Testament and during that time I wrote up a short summary on each chapter.  This is helpful to me, because often I will remember reading something in one of the books of the Bible, but I can’t remember what chapter.  This Survey of the New Testament allows me to quickly look up information and refresh my mind.  If you are preparing a lesson, would like an overview of the New Testament or you are a student preparing for a paper, this New Testament Survey may be helpful to you.   Please fell free to download my New Testament Survey and put it to use.

The Summarization of Matthew

The Summarization of Mark

The Summarization of Luke

The Summarization of John

The Summarization of Acts

The Summarization of Romans

The Summarization of 1 Corinthians

The Summarization of 2 Corinthians

The Summarization of Galatians

The Summarization of Ephesians

The Summarization of Philippians

The Summarization of Colossians

The Summarization of 1 Thessalonians

The Summarization of 2 Thessalonians

The Summarization of 1 Timothy

The Summarization of 2 Timothy

The Summarization of Titus & Philemon

The Summarization of Hebrews

The Summarization of James

The Summarization of 1 Peter

The Summarization of 2 Peter

The Summarization of 1 John

The Summarization of 2 & 3 John & Jude

The Summarization of Revelation

If you’ve grown up in the church or have spent any significant amount of time at church you have likely heard about the core purposes of the church. Rick Warren repackaged and made these purposes a hot topic in the 90′s when he wrote The Purpose Driven Life. In this book he states that the five purposes of the church are: worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. Rick points out that a healthy life keeps all these purposes in balance and neglects none of them. The dilemma here is that readers have then taken this information and will live out four out five of these purposes, often neglecting evangelism, and tell themselves, “I’m not doing bad because I’m doing 80% of what I’m supposed to be doing. ” The problem wit this is they are actually doing much worse than they realize.

Evangelism is not a verb (euaggelidzo), it’s a noun (euaggelion). Literally, evangelism means “Good News.” It is a message, not an action. You don’t go around and do evangelism, rather every believer is to live out evangelism! David Wheeler writes, “Proper discipleship is never complete until the person being discipled multiplies their witness consistently into those who do not know Christ… A proper understanding of evangelism as the message of Christ, demands that the church prioritize the gospel itself.” Therefore, believers are not to just discriminate information about Christ to those around them, but rather one is live out out the “Good News.”

How do you live out evangelism? You take the time to show the love of Jesus to those around you, pray for people who need to know Christ, minister to people , disciple people who need to know Christ, share the redemptive message of Christ and be the message itself (Acts 1:8). Evangelism is multiplication, clear and simple. Christ himself came to multiply followers (Luke 19:10) and if we are not multiplying, then we are not fulfilling the mission of the church (Matt. 28:19). Christians can no longer divorce themselves from evangelism. To be the church is to live out the “Good News” and communicate it to those around you. If you remove evangelism from the Bible, our faith and our lives, what is left?

“Evangelism, properly understood, must be reestablished as the main purpose of the church, not merely one of numerous functions.” ~ Wheeler

 

Today I’m on twitter and I see this:

O-P-T-I-M-U-S = 7 letters. That’s a prime number. Optimus = Prime. Your mind = Blown.

followed by

O+P+T+I+M+U+S = 15+16+20+9+13+21+19 = 113 is a Prime number; Optimus = Prime. Your mind = Blown Again

Today was not an exciting day till I saw the Optimus Prime went viral on Twitter.  What would you like to see go trendind on Twitter?

 

Charismatic: Only one. Hands already in the air.

Pentecostals: Ten. One to change the bulb and nine to pray against the spirit of darkness.

Presbyterians: None. Lights will go off and on at predestined times.

Roman Catholic: None. Candles only.

Rick  Warren: One. If changing it is one of the Purposes of the church.

Baptists: At least 15. One to change the light bulb and three committees to approve the change and decide who brings the potato salad.

John McArthur: One. As long as Rick Warren is not doing it.

Episcopalians: Three. One to call the electrician, one to mix the drinks and one to talk about how much better the old bulb was.

Methodists: Undetermined. Whether your light bulb is bright, dull, or completely out, you are loved. You can be a light bulb, turnip bulb or tulip bulb. A church-wide lighting service is planned for Sunday. Bring a bulb of your choice and a covered dish.

Nazarene: Six. One woman to replace the bulb while five men review the church lighting policy.

Lutherans: None. Lutherans don’t believe in change.

Amish: What’s a light bulb?

 

Welcome to Twitter 201.  Let’s talk about how to get people on Twitter to follow you.  First, determine the subject/s that you are interested in ex. technology, plants, family life, motherhood).  Update your Bio in your Profile to reflect those interests.  By optimize your profile you will make it easier for people to follow you.

First Rule of Twitter: People follow people who are following others.

Notice that a person following a 1000 people are often being followed by 1000 people.  So lets get you following some people.

1. Tweepz.com: Sign up and do a search on the subject you are interested in and follow those top five tweeter.  There is a good chance that those people will begin to follow you and whne people see people who they are following, your name will come up.
2. Followformation.com. Log in using your Twitter account and type in your keywords.  Now set the number of people you want to follow and begin to follow those top tweeters.
3. Tweetadder.com allows you to download a program that acts very similar to Followformation
4. Twollo.com also provides another similar function but be warned that if you don’t cancel your service before the end of your four free day they may charge you.

Alright, now that you have set up who you are following you will begin to see people follow you back.  Next we are going to begin to tweet on subjects that you’re are interested in to retain your followers and attract new ones.  Guy Kawasaki says, “in order to get followers you need to become interesting.”  Therefore in the next lesson we are going to talk about how to be interesting.

If you are new to Twitter make sure you watch Twitter 101

Follow me at :twitter.com/PaulLuna

Twit·ter (twit-er) n.,  1. a social networking and microblogging website that allows users to send and read other user messages called tweets  2. Tweets are short one or two sentences (140 Characters) that are displayed on Twitter.com  3. Twitter can be updated by most phones, computers and the iPad.

Still you ask, “What’s the Point?”    The Twitter is a website about conversing and building relationships.  Unlike traditional websites where you put up content and broadcast here we are look at me.  Twitter is all about sharing information and holding conversations.  Tweeters, people on twitter, expect people to hold conversations over twitter.  It is not enough for an organization to say, “Sale, Sale, Sale!”  Organizations need to learn to listen to what people are saying on Twitter and respond likewise.  Now, let’s get started.

To see people’s tweets you need sign up for a Twitter account at www.twitter.com.  Once you are signed in go to ‘Settings’ and by default it will take you to the ‘Account’ page.  Make sure you your profile is filled out.  I do not recommend checking the box ‘Protect my Tweets ’.

Click on ‘Profile’ on the menu near the top of the screen and begin filling out the info on this page.  Under ‘Bio’ you have filled in descriptive words that define you (ex. Father, rocket scientist, etc.) . Remember to upload a picture to your profile.

Click on ‘Design’ on the menu near the top of the screen and pick out a nice background for your account.  This can be updated at anytime.

Now that your profile is all filed out it is time to find people you already know that is on Twitter.  If you have a Google, Yahoo, AOL and/or LinkedIn account you can click on ‘Find People’ on the very top menu bar.  Then click on ‘Find Friends’ and log into your Google, Yahoo, AOL and/or LinkedIn account.  Twitter will do a search through your contacts and if it finds anyone that is in your contact list and on twitter it will show you their names and you can choose to follow them or not.

Go back to the main menu bar on top and click ‘Home’.  On the Home page you can tweet you first 140 character sentence.  In the next lesson we will be discussing how to increase your followers.

Once you are done with Twitter 101 then it’s time for Twitter 201

Follow me at :twitter.com/PaulLuna