I wanted to share this message from my brother Avedis Bastajian. This brother grew up in Beirut, Lebanon and his life was spared miraculously a few times in his pre-teen years in the war ravaged country. When you consider the brevity of life on this earth, it is all the more imperative that we serve the Lord our God every day. This touching testimony reveals God's protection and watch care over us in the greatest of trials. I hope you enjoy this message.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Write them on the doorposts....
Anyone who has ever been to our home has noticed that we love God's Word. Selected passages have been printed and framed all over the house, and even printed on the family van. We were encouraged to see this contest by Doorposts, the publishers of some of our home school curriculum.We use the "Plants Grown Up" and "Polished Cornerstones" to aid us with lots of ideas in educating our children, training them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
With this in mind, we wanted to share this contest with others. You may never have posted God's Word in your home to read and memorize, you may have done this for years. Either way, we hope you are encouraged to do so with the ideas and examples shown in this contest. You can read the official contest rules here.
I have included a few of our ideas in picture form. We have Scripture as a banner on our website, our Facebook profile picture, and much more. Help us get God's Word out in public places, as we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. God's Word can penetrate hearts with the truth more than our our words ever could. We should constantly be praying for God to be glorified in all things, and for the salvation of souls through faith in Jesus Christ.
With this in mind, we wanted to share this contest with others. You may never have posted God's Word in your home to read and memorize, you may have done this for years. Either way, we hope you are encouraged to do so with the ideas and examples shown in this contest. You can read the official contest rules here.
I have included a few of our ideas in picture form. We have Scripture as a banner on our website, our Facebook profile picture, and much more. Help us get God's Word out in public places, as we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. God's Word can penetrate hearts with the truth more than our our words ever could. We should constantly be praying for God to be glorified in all things, and for the salvation of souls through faith in Jesus Christ.
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| The family van |
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| Inside the upstairs bathroom |
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| Facebook profile |
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| Family website |
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Songs that make you go "hmmm???"
I was recently seeing a lot of posts on Facebook, by a few friends, of pictures with "Positive Insirational Quotes" and I just had to sit and think a while. Now I am ready to deal with the crafty false teaching that these things are portraying as Christian thought.
One quote from a recent song on the radio "Free to be me" by Francesca Battistelli: "Perfection is my enemy. On my own I'm so clumsy, but on your shoulders I can see... I'm free to be me... you're free to be you." While we could never earn forgiveness of sin or salvation on our own, when one becomes a child of God (by spiritual birth, not natural birth John 1:12) we become in fact slaves to righteousness. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price. If we have in deed been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, then we should not be satisfied with our own sin or even the best we can do, but rather "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Another recent song says that we are "Something worth dying for", but truly we are not anything worth dying for. We are wicked, awful, wretched sinners who deserve judgement, eternal damnation, and God's wrath. Because of God's mercy and grace, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in our place. This was not to purchase us due to our worth, but to make us something that shows God's glory. In Heaven, we will not be singing this song, but rather praising the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This man centered gospel is no true gospel at all, but one where we justify our sin and say that God owes us something because we are so special.
Back to the pictures and "inspiration", one said this: "I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection" While I agree that we ought not hold others to a standard of perfection in regards to human judgement, we are not to condone sin or accept addictions or such things, but rather plead with God to "create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" and "cast me not away from your presence, Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me" as David said in Psalm 51.
The one that really got me going was this one, which is stark contrast to Jesus' own words: "love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't." One might head over to Jesus' words in Matthew 5 on this topic. Jesus said to love your enemies, do good to those who mistreat you, and that by this behavior we would show His love and maybe even win for Christ the hearts of those who would persecute and hate us.
Don't get me wrong, some of these little posters are actually good. Some are biblical and inspiring. We just need to be careful to discern the truth from a lie, to get our counsel from God's Word rather than the songs on the radio. It is sad that so many of the songs out nowadays are just people singing about themselves, their desires, and their right to sin. We should examine the music that comes into our homes, to guard our children's hearts and our own, and to seek God in all things so that He gets all the glory He is due.
One quote from a recent song on the radio "Free to be me" by Francesca Battistelli: "Perfection is my enemy. On my own I'm so clumsy, but on your shoulders I can see... I'm free to be me... you're free to be you." While we could never earn forgiveness of sin or salvation on our own, when one becomes a child of God (by spiritual birth, not natural birth John 1:12) we become in fact slaves to righteousness. We are not our own, but we have been bought with a price. If we have in deed been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ, then we should not be satisfied with our own sin or even the best we can do, but rather "be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect."
Another recent song says that we are "Something worth dying for", but truly we are not anything worth dying for. We are wicked, awful, wretched sinners who deserve judgement, eternal damnation, and God's wrath. Because of God's mercy and grace, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to die in our place. This was not to purchase us due to our worth, but to make us something that shows God's glory. In Heaven, we will not be singing this song, but rather praising the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. This man centered gospel is no true gospel at all, but one where we justify our sin and say that God owes us something because we are so special.
Back to the pictures and "inspiration", one said this: "I will hold myself to a standard of grace, not perfection" While I agree that we ought not hold others to a standard of perfection in regards to human judgement, we are not to condone sin or accept addictions or such things, but rather plead with God to "create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" and "cast me not away from your presence, Lord, take not your Holy Spirit from me" as David said in Psalm 51.
The one that really got me going was this one, which is stark contrast to Jesus' own words: "love the people who treat you right and forget about the ones who don't." One might head over to Jesus' words in Matthew 5 on this topic. Jesus said to love your enemies, do good to those who mistreat you, and that by this behavior we would show His love and maybe even win for Christ the hearts of those who would persecute and hate us.
Don't get me wrong, some of these little posters are actually good. Some are biblical and inspiring. We just need to be careful to discern the truth from a lie, to get our counsel from God's Word rather than the songs on the radio. It is sad that so many of the songs out nowadays are just people singing about themselves, their desires, and their right to sin. We should examine the music that comes into our homes, to guard our children's hearts and our own, and to seek God in all things so that He gets all the glory He is due.
Monday, October 10, 2011
Custom Gospel materials available
I was recently asked for a PDF of the tract we use (written by Justin Humes) for use by this year's Good News on the Move team. Jesharelah Pena was so helpful in the re-design work of this beautiful tract. This tract is available for PDF download Click here to download. You can have your own contact information added into the format, or use a stamp or sticker with your personal or church information.
We have checked prices a few times, and ended up using Uprinting.com most of the time. They have done a quality job and for larger orders have averaged less than 6 cents per copy, with orders of 10,000 or more being substantially less. With this type of printing, the difference between buying 10,000 and 25,000 is less than 40% more cost for 150% more product. You can directly upload this PDF copy to their site for printing if you do not need any alterations.
Please let us know if you do use this tract, as we may decide in the future to keep quantities in stock. No personalization would be possible this way, but it could bring down the cost for folks who are unable to afford large amounts or who just do not need larger quantities.
Other tracts are available that I have written in the past on our download page. I enjoy writing Gospel tracts, and can often find custom pictures and write custom tracts for specific areas or a targeted audience. I have found that postcard style Gospel tracts are often cheap to print (maybe 2-3 cents each) and look sharp when handing out in parades or other mass distribution settings. If we can help you get out the Gospel, we are happy to help any way we can. If we can't help, we would be happy to pray for you and hear what the Lord is doing among His people to make known the greatest news in the world's history, forgiveness of sin and eternal life through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark Cowperthwaite
cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com
www.cowperthwaitefamily.com
We have checked prices a few times, and ended up using Uprinting.com most of the time. They have done a quality job and for larger orders have averaged less than 6 cents per copy, with orders of 10,000 or more being substantially less. With this type of printing, the difference between buying 10,000 and 25,000 is less than 40% more cost for 150% more product. You can directly upload this PDF copy to their site for printing if you do not need any alterations.
Please let us know if you do use this tract, as we may decide in the future to keep quantities in stock. No personalization would be possible this way, but it could bring down the cost for folks who are unable to afford large amounts or who just do not need larger quantities.
Other tracts are available that I have written in the past on our download page. I enjoy writing Gospel tracts, and can often find custom pictures and write custom tracts for specific areas or a targeted audience. I have found that postcard style Gospel tracts are often cheap to print (maybe 2-3 cents each) and look sharp when handing out in parades or other mass distribution settings. If we can help you get out the Gospel, we are happy to help any way we can. If we can't help, we would be happy to pray for you and hear what the Lord is doing among His people to make known the greatest news in the world's history, forgiveness of sin and eternal life through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Mark Cowperthwaite
cowperthwaitefamily@gmail.com
www.cowperthwaitefamily.com
Monday, October 3, 2011
This year's GNOM team
We just got the information for this year's Good News on the Move team. Our (semi adopted) son, Caleb Caeton, is on the team this year and will be traveling around the country sharing the Gospel and getting great practical and instructional training. Please pray for the whole team, for the instructors, local church elders, and especially those who will hear the Gospel in various outreach opportunities.
You can get updates from the team, with prayer requests and updated information on the team's travels by visiting www.uplook.org
Here is Caleb's bio, click on it for full size image.
You can get updates from the team, with prayer requests and updated information on the team's travels by visiting www.uplook.org
Here is Caleb's bio, click on it for full size image.
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