Third Avenue House Church gathering

3rd Ave House Church visiting with the Ebenhacks- Missionaries to Haiti

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02.22.06 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,

This past weekend I (along with the other Mike...K...that is) had the chance to gather with some men from Hope Community Church in South Bend, IN. They were having a Men's Retreat and we got invited to go and to share a bit. It was a blast. We talked about a lot of things together and had a lot of fun. You can check out the pic below of us in the lodge( see if you can find us both.)


We talked about what the Bible asked of Men...and it was pretty interesting what the Bible asks of us. It directs us to LIFT UP HOLY HANDS IN PRAYER (1 Tim 2:8).

So we spent some time praying for our families (you can get the worksheet we used here)

We ended up talking about lots of things from the Bible...like loving our wives and leadership and more.

The Lord really impressed on me a prayer that Paul prayed for the saints in Ephesus. I prayed it for the men over the weekend several times. Today in my time in the Word, I prayed it for thequest family as well. So I have put Paul's prayer--that I echo today--here for your encouragement.


For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge-- that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.Ephesians 3:14-21 NIV


Press on,
Mike

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Men's Retreat in South Bend, IN

 

02.15.06 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,



Here's a little ditty that Mindi wrote a few weeks ago. On Tuesday of this week, she got to share with another church about contagious praying... So I thought I should share this good piece with you all:



“Prayer Contagion” by Mindi Jentes

23 January 2006

While surfing the internet, the Lord brought something across my path that struck me to the core. I was simply doing a Google search to see where my website www.prayercontagion.com (just tinkering right now) appeared on the list. I was hoping to be elated to find it at the top of the search result window, but was disheartened to find it didn’t even make the list! Now this did not strike me to the core, though for a moment, I was disappointed.

However when I read the #1 search result, I was struck with intrigue:

H. Grattan Guinness--"Flame of Fire" on Historicism.com

He was a man steeped in prayer; and the students caught the prayer contagion. It was wonderful. We can never forget or lose that wonderful influence. ...
www.historicism.com/Guinness/guinness.htm - 28k - Cached - Similar pages


That did it. God had my attention! I quickly clicked on the webpage to see what this website was all about. What I discovered was something I’ve longed for in my own life.



H. Grattan Guinness, an Irishman, lived during the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. After coming to know the Lord as an adult, he sought solitude in the woods to spend time crying out to the Lord. Taken from his journals, he writes this about his profound experience:

"I sought solitary places in the woods where I could pour out my soul in prayer, with strong crying and tears. Old things passed away, and all things became new. How could I keep silence, knowing as I did, that those around me (in Ireland) were utterly ignorant of the salvation in which I was rejoicing, and most of them abject slaves of Roman superstition."

I couldn’t stop reading. My intrigue was growing evermore:

There is not space in this brief article to relate all the great evangelizing and preaching work of Dr. Guinness. Suffice it to say that, the work he did in Ireland was repeated in England, where it was designated as a "Flame of Fire." The following are merely snapshots quoted from his biography, written after his death. In England "he went about preaching when both men and women wept floods of tears." The evangelistic work in London kept the fire burning brightly. So hot was the fire of the Holy Spirit burning in his soul that great crowds were attracted to his preaching everywhere, even in the open air, like Wesley and Whitfield.

He wrote in his diary, "I do now most heartily desire to live but to exalt Jesus; to live preaching and to die preaching; to preach to perishing sinners till I drop down dead." He was the great evangelist in England in the middle of the 19th Century.

As so many were coming to know Jesus and desperate to serve Him too, he saw the need to train these new believers to do the work of evangelism and to send them out as workers in the harvest fields:

Not only did Dr. Guinness evangelize in Ireland, Wales and England, but he also spent several years in mission work in France, for his heart was always burning for mission work. He made a special trip to Spain where he stood breast deep in the ashes of the Spanish martyrs, in the Quemadero-Burning-place.



During all these intense evangelistic labors the passion for Missions grew and burned stronger in his heart. At length this fire in his soul developed into the famous Missionary Institute in East London. This materialized in March, 1872. The Institute started with just six students. The renowned Dr. Barnardo was co-director with Dr. Guinness. It was entirely a venture of faith. The following is quoted from Dr. Guinness' writing in later years. "I recall the fact that it was boldly undertaken in faith, and largely unrecompensed. It was wholly unsalaried. Never in the course of a long ministry, have I made any bargain for fee or reward."



This is the secret of the Man on Fire, like the Old Testament "Man of Fire" Elijah.

By the end of three years, more than 100 students were in training. All who were accepted for training, were definitely pledged for Foreign Mission work. The first place in which the Institute started soon became too small, so Harley House, Bow, was taken and enlarged and the College built, and Cliff College, Derbyshire, was opened. Mission Halls in East London were used and open-air preaching carried on by the students. In 14 years 500 students had been received and were in training.



All this was carried on in faith. Students were received and trained without cost to them, unless they were able to pay for their expenses. The Institute was intensively spiritual. Everything was blessed in prayer. Holy lives were the object of the training as well as Bible study. In the first 30 years of the Institute 1500 young people, mostly men, were trained and sent out to the foreign field, under many societies. And the Congo Balolo Mission was carried on from Harley College, and scores of students went to the Congo. This writer was one of the 1500 mentioned above. Dr. Guinness was one of the greatest missionary leaders of all time. He was a man steeped in prayer; and the students caught the prayer contagion. It was wonderful. We can never forget or lose that wonderful influence.


WOW! So God got me, right to the core of my being! This has been something God has been working in my life for the last year. Showing me how much I need to draw close to Him by spending lots of time in prayer & praising Him, praying for the souls of the harvest fields, and fanning that flame till it spreads like wildfire to you, others in Columbus, and beyond.


This man was one of the most powerful preachers who ever lived. He is compared to C.H.Spurgeon, D.L. Moody. H.G. Guiness trained A.B. Simpson and Hudson Taylor! God used him in mighty ways to not only preach the Word of Christ to the multitudes but also to fan the flames of the gospel to the world through men he trained.



This is my passion! I want to be this kind of prayer contagion: so close to God and so impassioned for reaching the lost and dying world around me that prayer and doing the work of evangelism infects those around me!



If you want to read more about H.G. Guiness you do a Google search for “prayer contagion”. It’ll be the one at the top! Or you can go to: http://www.historicism.com/Guinness/guinness.htm



Luke 10:2b “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. Pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest, that he would send out more workers into his fields.”


Press on,

Mike




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02.08.06 thequest email UPdate

thequest family,


Treasure Island ... A Child's Garden of Verses - those are just some of the literary classics written by Robert Louis Stevenson. He must have had a way with words from the time he was a boy.


Anne Graham Lotz tells of a night in his boyhood when his nanny just couldn't get him to bed. Young Robert just kept staring out the window, oblivious to her talking to him. Finally, she said, "Robert, what in the world are you looking at out there?"


As she pulled back the curtain, she realized he was watching the lamplighter making his way down the street, lighting one street lamp after another. Young Robert Louis Stevenson saw something more. He said, "Look at that man! He's punching holes in the darkness!"


...What an awesome description of the reason God has placed you where you are! You're not there to shake your head and bemoan how dark it is where you work or go to school or whatever your environment. You're there to punch holes in the darkness! So, how are you doing so far?

Just listen to what Jesus said in Matthew 5:14-16, our word for today from the Word of God. If you belong to Jesus, He's including you in this. "You are the light of the world." Think of your personal world and the people in your world. Jesus says you are their light. "A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp or put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its' stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven."

Yeah, we live in a pretty dark world. But it is not a world without light - unless the Christian in a situation fails to punch holes in the darkness by living like Jesus would live there, treating people like Jesus would treat people, and handling situations and temptations as Jesus would handle them. So many of Jesus' followers don't realize who they are - His personal representative in their personal world.

You punch another hole in the darkness every time you show up with joy instead of gloom on your face, with good things to say instead of griping, every time you stop for someone who's struggling, when you consciously put someone else ahead of you, when you insist on taking the high road when it's tempting to cut corners, every time you weep with someone who's weeping, rejoice with someone who's rejoicing, and reach out to someone who is being acting very unlovable.

The lost folks around you probably won't be all that impressed with your don'ts or all the religious meetings you go to. They need to see meaningful differences in you because Christ is in you.

But it isn't enough that they just see that you're different. They need to know why, or they'll never be able to get out of the darkness themselves. They need Jesus. And He put you in their life so they could find out what Jesus did for them on the cross; so they could find out from someone who's living proof that Jesus is alive and how they, too, can have a life-changing relationship with Him. Have you told them about your Jesus yet? Humanly speaking, you may very well be their best chance of heaven.

Every morning, before your Lord, tell Him and tell yourself, "I am the light of my world." And go out there, showing a harsh and lonely and self-serving world that there's another way to be. Defy the darkness wherever you go. Punch holes in the darkness with the brilliant light of Jesus Christ! *



Press on,

Mike


* Punching Holes In The Darkness Transcript #4193 © 2006 Ron Hutchcraft. from the following webpage http://rhm.gospelcom.net/awwy/view.php?id=4193 Permission to distribute this material via email, or individual copies, is automatically granted on the condition it will be used for non-commercial purposes and will not be sold. To reproduce "A Word With You" transcripts in any other format, including Internet websites, written permission is needed from Ron Hutchcraft.


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