Life of Jesus Bible Reading Plan for 2011

I put together a chronological Bible reading of the gospels for 2011. So far I have the first quarter of the year done. I will post the next quarter a few weeks before May. 

This Bible reading plan is set up for reading Monday through Friday and using the weekends to catch-up on days you missed and to read through the last week’s readings at one time to review it. You are encouraged to keep a journal and write out what you learn about Jesus, what you learn about following Jesus and what God is teaching you through the gospel accounts of Jesus. 

If there are readings that you don’t understand please take the time to study them until you do understand them. Some study tools you could use include Study Bible notes, commentaries, concordances, word study tools and looking on the internet. Also check with friends and pastors who are knowledgeable of the Bible. Be discerning and don’t just accept what anyone says.

   Life of Jesus - Chronological Bible Reading Plan 2011 - Quarter 1 (A4)

   Viata lui Isus - Plan de citire cronologic 2011 -  Partea 1   

   Life of Jesus - Chronological Bible Reading Plan 2011 - Quarter 1 Letter 
   (for USA)

The Mission of the Church Workshop - PowerPoints and Handouts

Here are links to download zip files in English and Romanian of the PowerPoints and Handouts from "What is the mission of the church?" workshop that was held at Calvary Chapel Bucureşti on November 26-27, 2010 and Calvary Chapel Bistrita on December 3-4, 2010. There were three sessions: The Mission - Make Disciples, The Goal - Expanding the Kingdom of God and The Purpose - The Glory of God.


     English (17.5 MB)


     Româna (17 MB)


Later I will add links to the videos so check back once in a while.

Looking at the Big Picture - English & Romanian

Here are updated versions of the handouts and powerpoints for my teaching titled "Looking at the Big Picture". I will add audio, slide cast and video of the teaching I did at Calvary Chapel Bucharest on October 31, 2010 at a later date when I have time to work on them.

The Big Picture PowerPoints - English 


The Big Picture Handout - English A4

The Big Picture Handout - English Letter

    

Imaginea de Ansamblu PowerPoints

Imaginea de Ansamblu Notite

Why is the Gospel Important?

Here are the notes from my teaching on Sunday, September 26 at Lifegate Bible, a home church hosted by dear friends of mine in Bozeman. I adapted the teaching from the first session of my gospel workshop so that it included questions throughout and also added some material from the second session as well at the beginning so we would start by looking at some basics on what the gospel is. 

     Why is the gospel important? - Bozeman

Here is a link to an excellent article I read today that looks at why we should become fluent with the gospel.

     Gospel Fluency

Looking at the Big Picture - PowerPoints and Notes

Here are links to the powerpoints I used when I taught at Calvary Kaleo in Brawley, California on Sunday, September 12, Calvary Chapel Bozeman on Wednesday, September 22, Calvary Chapel Boise on Wednesday, September 29 and Christ Community Fellowship in Walla Walla, Washington on Sunday, October 3 plus the notes I made that include what was on the powerpoints plus some extra stuff I said. The title of my teaching was "Looking at the Big Picture". I updated the powerpoints on Monday, October 4.

     PowerPoints - 4MB

     Notes

Here is a link to download a 34 page handout I wrote on the gospel. It includes lots of Bible verses.

     The Gospel in Detail

Here is a link to download a 20 page article I wrote that explains the gospel by answering three questions.

     Three Questions About Jesus

Here is a link to videos of a 10 week teaching series I did on the gospel. They are in English with Romanian translation.

     Evanghelia (The Gospel)

If you are on Facebook check out the christlinks page. Here I put the best articles and blog posts that I find on the gospel.

Inception - A Christian Review

I came across a good review of the movie "Inception" titled Dreaming Unawares that looks at the movie from a Christian perspective.  I would recommend you check out. Here is a quote from it that I really like.

In many ways we all exist within a Limbo of our own making. We construct our own private dream-worlds simply in the act of choosing which news stories to read, sheltering from the reality of death and pain, and of our own smallness. We build the boundaries of our personal universe in deciding morality, meaning and truth for ourselves. But these are fragile fantasies. Intoxicating though such 'freedom' might seem at first, experience turns it sour because somewhere deep inside such a way of living rings false. And, like a still-spinning top catching the corner of the eye - or like the prick of a guilty conscience - hints of a greater reality intrude.

'It wasn't so bad at first,' Cobb says of his time in Limbo. 'Feeling like gods. But in the end, none of it was real. It became impossible for me to live like that.' The Bible says that we, like Mal locking her totem away in a safe, have wilfully exiled ourselves from the truth about reality. Our rejection of God's reality for self-centred worlds of our own making has resulted in our alienation from him and from his design for our lives. Without him, we are dreaming unawares, spending our days building sandcastles on an imagined shore. 'We lost sight of what was real,' and as a result we no longer truly know who we are or what we are living for. 

The Apostles - The Cost of Discipleship

Jesus Storybook Bible Project Update

Those of you who have read previous newsletters of mine know that I had to start a business here in Romania in order to continue living here and in my latest newsletter I shared that I was trying to get the rights from Zondervan to translate and publish The Jesus Storybook Bible here in Romania for my business Evangel Media. 

I received a reply back from my inquiry informing me that Zondervan has licensed all language rights to Lion Hudson Publishers of the UK. So today I emailed them and await their reply.

This would really be a great book to have here in Romania so please keep this project in your prayers. Thanks.

Gospel Quote - Pursuing Holiness or Pursuing Christ

I came across the following quote on Jared Wilson's blog The Gospel-Driven Church in a post titled What About Being Holy? It is encouraging and comforting to know that our eternal destiny does not rest on what we do but rather on what Jesus did. It's all about Jesus so our life should be all about Him as well.

Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my holiness. Therefore, becoming holy is not primarily a matter of pursuing holiness but primarily a matter of pursuing Christ. Rather, becoming holy is a matter of receiving his pursuit of me. And any righteousness I pursue that doesn't have Jesus in the crosshairs of my effort -- or, again rather, having myself in the crosshairs of his effort -- is self-righteousness.

Understanding Why There is Evil and Suffering

One time, while a few of us were doing spiritual surveys near the National Theater here in Bucharest, I had an interesting experience with a young lady in her late teens or early 20's. When I asked her if she believed in God she said "no!".  I asked her why and she told me that her father had died two months before and since God didn't save him she didn't believe He existed. 

I could see she was in a lot of pain and angry, my heart grieved for her. I know what it is like to lose a parent to death. It feels like they are wrongly ripped away from you. Why does it feel like that? I think because God has put eternity in our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). Because of this we sense in our hearts that death is not the way it was suppose to be. You see this same thing play out with Jesus as well in John 11:28-37. He knew that he was going to bring Lazarus back to life but when he saw the impact his death had on his family and friends Jesus wept. He knew it was never the Father's desire for death to enter the picture. Death was not the way it was suppose to be!

Why did a good God allow evil and suffering? That is one of the most common questions people have about God. A lot of people reject the idea of God because of all the evil and suffering they see. But what is ironic is the fact that without God there is no such thing as evil and suffering. No right or wrong. What is, just is and nothing more. The idea of justice and morality can only exist if there is a God. Anything else is just an illusion.

Do you wonder why God allows evil and suffering? Have you spent time thinking about this? Have you rejected God because of something bad that happened to you or the ones you love? Do you have family or friends that have rejected God because of evil and suffering? 

Check out the video and links below as they have some great insights about this issue. Open your heart to God and let Him show you that He knows all too well about the effects of evil and suffering. He sent His son to the cross to deal with it once and for all.

Here are links to four excellent articles that look at the problem of evil and suffering:

• Why is There Evil and Suffering? Michael Horner
• If God, Why Evil and Suffering? Charlie H. Campbell
• God, Freedom, and Evil (pdf) Joe Manzari
• The Problem of Evil  William Lane Craig (need to register to read article)

John Wooden's "Pyramid of Success"

John Wooden's influence went far beyond the basketball court. He is well known for his "Pyramid of Success". It has been used by countess businesses, organizations and individuals all over the world. You can learn more about it in the book he authorized titled The John Wooden Pyramid of Success. To learn more about John Wooden check out his official website at Coach John Wooden and John Wooden - Wikipedia.

Click here to download PDF

In the video below you can hear from John Wooden himself about what true success is from a talk he gave at TED in 2001. There are subtitles for 11 languages including Romanian.

A Look at John Wooden and His Father

This past Friday John Wooden passed away at 99 years of age. When I heard the news it brought tears to my eyes. I grew up loving basketball and Mr. Wooden was the greatest basketball coach who ever lived and, in my opinion, he was the greatest coach ever of any sport.

I use to love watching UCLA, which was the team he coached, when I was in grade school, junior high, senior high and my first few years of college. I remember fantasizing as a young boy to be playing basketball at UCLA and I am sure I was just one of millions of boys in America and beyond.

What made him great? Well, he was a very successful coach, winning more games and championships that any other coach ever. But if you look behind the wins what you see is a man of godly character. Where did he get that from? Well, he got it from his father who was a Christian and from following Jesus himself. You can tell by his words and actions that he and his father were men shaped by their love of God and the Bible.

Here is a quote John tells of advice he got from his father on how to have a successful life, "Be true to yourself, help others, make each day your masterpiece, make friendship a fine art, drink deeply from good books — especially the Bible, build a shelter against a rainy day, give thanks for your blessings and pray for guidance every day." Wise advice which we would all do well to heed.

Fathers, it would be well worth your time to investigate how John was influenced by his father and to put to practice the things you learn. Another place to look is in Proverbs in the Old Testament. (I bet that is where John's father found the wisdom to live and to pass on to his son.)

Make it your life's goal to leave your children a legacy that will not only influence them in their lives but will touch the lives of all those they come into contact with as well. If you look at all the lives John Wooden touched in such a profound and good way doesn't that stir something in your heart for your own kids?

If you want to impact the lives of your own children then you need to let Jesus impact your own life. Jesus said he came to give us a rich and satisfying life (John 10:10) and that he did. Take a hold of His life so that he may impart this abundant life to you.

We live in a time when most people have turned their hearts from God and the influences of His Word to be ruled by their desires and passions. Where individualism, materialism, pragmatism, and love of self rule the hearts of people. We shouldn't be surprised by this because the Apostle Paul warned us about this in 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

Do you call yourself a Christian but live by the values of this corrupt and dying world? If so, I urge you to repent. Don't make excuses for yourself, confess your sin then turn from it to Jesus and ask him to change your heart and empower you to live the life he wants for you and then get into the Word of God and start obeying it.

If you are not a Christian then I urge you to deal with your rebellious heart now before it is too late. Admit your sin to God and turn in your heart from your sin back to God and place your trust in Jesus and all that he did for you. Give him his rightful place as King in your heart and love and serve him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength. If you are not sure yet about doing this then please read my previous post Why Should Seekers Consider the Gospel?

When you look on the news today you can't help but worry for your kids about the kind of world they are growing up in. I believe, from reading the Bible that we are probably getting close to the end of time. It seems like all the pieces are being put in place for that final seven years before Jesus returns. Time is short so don't put this off. Make the most of the time you have.

Follow Jesus with your whole heart and be a man of godly character. But be careful not to just live a moral life without Jesus. There are going to be a lot of good, religious people in hell. Don't be one of them.

I will end with two quotes from John Wooden to think about,:

"Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are."

"I have always tried to make it clear that basketball is not the ultimate. It is of small importance in comparison to the total life we live. There is only one kind of life that truly wins, and that is the one that places faith in the hands of the Savior."

Here are a few good blog posts and videos I have come across on John Wooden:

• John Wooden: A Legend Passes On - Christianity Today
• Sports as Shalom
• John Wooden: It Takes a lot of Strength on the Inside to be Gentle on the Outside
• John Wooden Love Letters (video)

Why Should Seekers Consider the Gospel?

Those seeking God and the truth should consider the gospel and make every effort to understand it because the gospel alone is "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16). Being good will not save you, going to church will not save you, your parents can not save you, being smart will not save you, nothing in this world can save you, only the gospel can save you.

Realize the problem of belief in the gospel is not an intellectual problem but a heart problem. We are in rebellion against our creator and prefer the darkness to the light. We want to be our own gods so we can seek life, happiness and satisfaction on our own terms rather than find them in God. We suppress the truth because we love sin (Romans 1:18-25). This is true for me and this is true for you.

When Jesus was on the earth He said many amazing things, loved many people and did many miracles, including raising people from the dead. Yet, in spite of everything He said or did, many people who had seen or heard what He had done shouted, "Crucify him!" when Pilot gave the crowd a chance to let Him go. They chose to let a murderer go free rather than Jesus. This just proves that if your heart is hard nothing on this earth will convince you of the gospel.

One time last summer, while sharing the gospel in a park here in Bucharest, I asked a 20 year old guy who had a 14 year old girlfriend, "If God is real, would you want him in your life?" He thought for a while and then finally said, "That is a tough question to answer". I told him it wasn't hard to answer but that he didn't want to admit to himself that he didn't want God in his life because he loved sin more. He looked shocked when I said that but after thinking about it for several seconds he said, "You are right."

If you come to God in arrogance and anger saying, "Prove yourself to me to my satisfaction or I won't believe in you!" you will never find Him. The Bible tells us God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble (see James 4:4-10). In order to find God and the truth you need come before Him in humility and ask Him, "If you are real please open my heart up to you and give me understanding of the gospel." Humility is the secret to finding God.

A basic definition of the gospel is that it is the good news of what God has done through His Son Jesus Christ to restore His reign and rule over all creation and bring reconciliation to all those who repent and place their trust in Jesus. But there is a lot more to really understanding the gospel in its fullness. 


I have written a 34 page booklet that you might find helpful as you begin your quest to understand the gospel. It looks at the gospel in detail and includes lots of Bible verses as well. You can download a pdf of it here: Letter Size (US) or A4 (Europe).

I became a follower of Jesus through some friends who showed me Jesus by their love and by giving me a Bible and helping me to understand it. It is in the Bible where you will find the complete message of the gospel. I would suggest getting the New Believer's BibleNew Living Translation as it is a good and very understandable translation. To begin, read the four gospel accounts and then read the book of Romans as it is the book richest in gospel truths. The New Believer's Bible also has lots of notes to help you better understand what you are reading.

If you have doubts or are struggling or have questions about believing in God or believing that the Bible is really God's word you should check out the websites below. They have articles, audio and video explaining every possible question you could ever think of. In addition, some of the sites have audio and video debates between Christians and atheists on a wide variety of subjects. You can even look on YouTube to find them as well.

     Always Be Ready

     Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry

     Ravi Zacharias International Ministries *

     Reasonable Faith

     Stand to Reason

Remember you will never find God on your own. You need Him to reveal Himself to you. So go to Him in humility and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. You have everything to gain if you do and everything to lose if you don't.

Someday you will stand before Jesus and give an account of your life. If there is any sin at all you will be sentenced to hell where you will experience the wrath of God forever. You say you don't believe in hell. Well, Jesus does! He said, "If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched…" (Mark 9:43)

If you have turned from sin back to God and placed you faith in Jesus and all that He did for you then you will not have to stand before Him in judgment because He already suffered your punishment for you. Instead, you will spend all of eternity in God's presence as a part of His family on the new earth after God restores all things.

Sound too good to be true, but it is. Take a hold of the gospel so it can take a hold of you!


* For an example check out this 4 1/2 minute video by Dr. Ravi Zacharias:
       How Can a Good God Allow Evil? Does Life Have Meaning?

Check out this related article: Sexual Immorality and Five Other Reasons People Reject Christianity

Here is a link to a post with the video, slides and handouts of a teaching I did titled Why Do People Refuse to Believe in God?

The Transforming Power of the Gospel

This morning I came across a very good blog post by Elyse Fitzpatrick titled The Transforming Power of the Gospel. In it she shows that only the whole gospel message has the power to change us and she gives a specific example to show how it works out in real life.

I encourage you to check it out. Spend some time thinking about what she says and then put what she says to practice in your own life. If you do, you will discover that the gospel is indeed "the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes..." (Romans 1:16)

Here are two paragraphs from Elyse's post to give you a taste of what she says:

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul writes that the gospel message is not only the cross, it is the incarnation, the sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return of Jesus Christ. It is the story of the incarnation (God without flesh cannot die, v. 3), his sinless life (the death of another sinner cannot atone “for our sins” v. 3), his substitutionary death and burial in our place, his bodily resurrection procuring our justification and freedom from bondage to sin (v. 1-2, 4), his ascension and reign (revealing Himself to Paul on the road to Damascus, v. 8) and His victorious return for his bride (v. 24-25). Incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return: the gospel.

Here is the concluding paragraph to her article:

It is the whole message of the gospel that has the power to transform impatient, guilty, selfish, despairing idolaters into free and joyful worshippers of the Living God. The whole message of the gospel includes His incarnation, sinless life, substitutionary death, bodily resurrection, ascension, reign and return.  Seeing Jesus and His glorious work is the only power strong enough to transforms us from “one degree of glory to another” (2 Corinthians 3:18) or as John Owen wrote, “Here in this life, beholding the glory of the Lord [true believers] are changed into his likeness. Hereafter they will be like Him for they will see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

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

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 I 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.

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

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

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Change in Plans - May 2010 Newsletter (part 1)

Gospel Ministry Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 2)

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 Bucharest. Until 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)

Church Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 3)

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

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)

Gospel Ministry Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part2)

Church Update - May 2010 Newsletter (part 3)