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| NEWSLETTER Monday Edition | May 7, 2012 |
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Upward or Downward: In Which Direction
are You Headed?
Ultimately, You Make that Choice!  In any group, team, or organization the direction to which it is headed depends, for the most part, on the individuals who make up that group. Consequently, the trend of growth is dictated by what each member of the team does or doesn't do for the whole. At our Core Group Meeting yesterday, Sunday, after the Fellowship Lunch, an important point mentioned in Pastor John's closing prayer, as those who attended joined hands in a large circle, was whether you or I, as an individual congregant at Gospel Life Community, is in effect a facilitator or a detractor for the projects and goals previously set forth by the church's governing body, which is the Core Group. More specifically, are you always constructively supportive of what GLC does locally or in its global outreach missions? Do you meaningfully contribute to the discussions that affect the welfare and well-being of Gospel Life? Are you a positive encourager to the staff, to the department managers, to the small group facilitators, or towards each other? Is it your purpose to offer suggestions and helpful hints to those who are able to do something about it? Or, do you tend to criticize those who lead in different areas of ministry in the church without a meaningful attempt at an alternative solution that can be discussed in an appropriate forum? Are you involved in gossip among yourselves without approaching whomever it is you have a critique about so that perceived problems and challenges can be dealt with in a kind and understanding manner? Is it something usual for you to backbite someone or speak disparagingly of another brother or sister in Christ? Is tearing down something you do in a matter-of-fact fashion, unmindful of whether there is an actual basis for doing it? All of these have everything to do with whether your direction as a group of Christian believers is upward, downward or indifferent. The prayer of Jabez to "expand my territory" (1 Chronicles 4:10 NLT) will not come to pass when you contribute to adding link after link to the chain that binds GLC from progress. Philippians 2: 1-5 (NLT) admonishes us: "Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.
3 Don't be selfish; don't try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don't look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.
5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had." (Emphasis added.)
The Church Staff __________ |
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JESUS SEMINAR UNDER WAY  The "Debt Eraser" Seminar about "Discovering the Jesus of the Bible" is off to a great start! The series began on Friday evening, May 4th, on the subject, "The Son of God: Why Jesus Came."
Pastor John Tulio, Senior Pastor of Gospel Life Community and speaker for the series, laid emphasis on the fact that Jesus came to earth to reveal to us that we have a loving heavenly Father. He further showed how Jesus revealed our God of love by replacing tradition with truth, guilt with grace, fear with faith and rules with relationship!
The second session of the series was held on Saturday afternoon, May 5th. The subject "In the Image of God: Why Jesus Became a Man" was clearly explained in God's desire to restore man's lost earth dominion by discussing two principles, namely, a) the earth dominion principle in which God's will and plan are to be done on earth only through man acting as God's surrogate king or representative, and b) the one-man-principle which takes into account the fact that one man's (Adam's) sin caused condemnation and death for all mankind, which was reversed by one man's (Jesus Christ's) act of righteousness.
Yesterday's (Sunday) seminar was entitled "Bridging the Gap: Why We Need Jesus." The answer to this revolves around the reality that all human beings are born sinners because of Adam's sin, and are, therefore, separated from God. Because of sin, every man, woman and child is totally disabled and disqualified from fulfilling God's plan and destiny for him or her, because of man's natural opposition to God, because of wrong thoughts and attitudes, because of man's failure to love and his imperfect obedience, as well as his inability to change or control his sinful nature without knowing and allowing Jesus into his life.
At the end of each session, Pastor John offers a "How to..." set of actions to accept, believe and commit to Jesus apropos to the topic.
Two more weekends are left for the remainder of the seminars. Invite your family members, friends, neighbors, co-workers, clients, customers and others to come and share in knowing the Jesus of the Bible on Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 3:00 p.m. and Sundays at 11:00 a.m.
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MEN'S BREAKFAST MEETING
The Ladies are Invited
The bi-monthly Men's Breakfast Meeting which convenes on the second Saturday every other month will hold its get-together this coming Saturday, May 12, at 8:30 a.m. at the Fellowship Hall.
Featured guest speaker is Mr. George Rivera, owner and CEO of Total Resources, Inc.,a local manufacturer
of first aid kids and products. He will likely relate his story of growth and success as a Christian businessman.
The ladies are invited to this meeting. The men will serve breakfast to the ladies who will attend, a tribute to the Mother's Day Weekend coming up. However, you do not have to be a mother to attend this meeting.
Linda Santos, one of our active and entrepreneurial members, is spearheading the organization of a Women's Ministry group at GLC. She is hopeful that this could be the start of such a group to initiate what will become another strong group of Gospel Lifers in certain aspects of ministry and outreach.
Please bring a favorite breakfast dish or two when you come, if you are able.
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JUST A HEADS UP
 Our monthly fellowship dinner is not too far away. The third Tuesday of the month falls on May 15, only 8 days from today!
Please start giving your reservations to Johnny Chua (910-228-2162) and bring your checks or cash this coming Sunday.
The venue for our dinner will be announced later. Pastors John and Jessie will be leaving for the Philippines the following week, after the evangelistic seminars. This dinner will be sort of another send-off for them as they continue their ministry abroad.
Make sure to invite friends, family members and members of your bible study groups to come and join us.
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CORE GROUP MEETING
There was good attendance at yesterday's Core Group Meeting. Basically, Pastor John gave us an update regarding the progress of the mission work he and his wife, Jessie, are doing in the Philippines.
A network of affiliating independent groups of the body of Christ appears to be forming amidst a shift in the direction that the Global Outreach of Gospel Life (GOGL) is taking. In their recent three months of work in the Philippines, Pastor John has been led by the Lord in the direction of establishing a Ministry and Leadership Institute and the propagation of a School of the Supernatural patterned after our own Lion's Den School of the Supernatural.
There are many unaffiliated church groups and companies who need their leaders to obtain and develop leadership skills in their ministry. This need will continue to be addressed as Pastor John provides the tools and training necessary to meet this need. He will also continue to train others to help him as the Ministry and Leadership Institute is promoted and becomes more functional.
As the apostolic and prophetic aspects of church development are aggressively implemented, the presence of a School of the Supernatural becomes even more important and necessary. It is hoped that our graduates from the Lion's Den can be rotated in their ministry to aid in providing instruction for the church leaders and members in the Philippines.
Pastor John related several providential connections that have been established where Gospel Life's instructional and spiritual support are making headway. Instead of trying to establish or plant new churches, affiliations of existing groups or churches with Gospel Life will become more dependent upon the current economic and material resources of those church groups rather than Gospel Life's. As such, these churches will maintain their names, with the phrase "Church Without Walls" added to their names.
As an example, one of the groups affiliating with Gospel life is the True Vine Ministry in Metro Manila. It will take the name "True Vine Ministry-Church Without Walls" as a result. This will identify the church as being affiliated with GLC Walnut.
Leadership sessions are currently being held at the "parsonage," the temporary condominium residence that Pastors John and Jessie occupy at Greenhills in Metro Manila. It is convenient for commuters who take public transportation to get to and from their place, as long as it is not Saturday evening or Good Friday! (There is too much traffic on Saturday evenings and hardly any public transportation available on Good Fridays - the streets are empty!)
A powerpoint presentation was made of several places they visited while making their travels among the Gospel Life churches in several areas of the Philippines. Pictures of the newly built Gospel Life Community Church in the island of Cebu, a few kilometers from Cebu City, was shown. Reportedly, it is the most beautiful church in that area and its membership has grown from about 30 to close to 100 in a space of about six months.
The meeting place for the Gospel Life Community church in Guimba, Nueva Ecija has moved to the City Council chambers and other government facilities through the efforts of their senior pastor, who is also secretary to the City Council. The church there is also growing.
Report was given regarding the churches in Davao, Bukidnon, and other areas, as well as new and prospective affiliations in Cavite and Mindoro.
Pastor John related an interesting friendship that they have developed with the owner of a large resort in Bustos, Bulacan province. He has a huge group of people who meet and worship on Tuesdays in this friend's resort meeting hall. He has four air-conditioned tour buses that he uses only to transport people to and from surrounding neighborhoods to this weekly meeting. Several different preachers and Catholic priests alternate in giving God's word to the people. Pastor John said that he sensed this friend would be ready to make a decision as to what direction his personal ministry would follow. Let's pray for him.
While attending one of these meetings, Pastor John met a Catholic priest whose message was pure salvation by grace. Pastor John said that he has become friends with this priest and at one point he told the priest not to leave the Catholic Church because he would be more effective in reaching his fellow Catholics with the message of salvation by grace alone.
Those who attended the Core Group meeting formed a circle by joining hands as Pastor John closed with a prayer for unity in our church and for God's work to go forward both locally and abroad.
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MAILING ADDRESS:
436 Crestwood Lane
Walnut, CA 91789
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| Meditation |
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Lord, thank You for empowering me by Your Spirit today. I do not want to do anything out of vanity or just trying to "climb every mountain" on my own. I long to be led by Your Spirit, not by human initiative and man-inspired positive thinking.
Thank You for helping me to be a positive, joyful person, full of Your Spirit, inspired by Your Word, and busy about Your work as I go through daily life. Thany You for leading me so that all I do will glorify You and be evidence of Your power and Your might and Your Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. |
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