Would you die for a lie?

Think about it… would you die for a lie? I know the majority of people are looking for physical evidence to confirm their faith… That is not what faith is about. For me God is not about physical evidence (although that evidence is all around), it’s about what I know. I know God is real… it’s like what they say… I know what I know. Scripture calls this “His spirit indwelling in us”.

As technology has increased and our access to information is now instant, we no longer listen to our hearts. With that change, humans are living less on faith, and more on self.  You take the human heart out of the equation and you lose compassion. There is no such thing as a Christian without compassion.
We have to find a way to continue to make our experiences real. Watching a video online of homeless man sleeping in the gutter has far less impact on us than if we meet this person on the street.

That’s why it is so important for churches to reach out in their communities. Send out individual groups to meet and talk to those who are not as fortunate. If you are a member of a church that has no community outreach, I challenge you to find another church that lives out the gospel message, not just talk about it.

The majority of the apostles died a martyr’s death. Not only did they die for their faith, but the way they died. Some of the most inhuman ways to die were they subjected to. Think about this, if you were nailed to a cross, upside down, and given the chance to live if you only confessed that Jesus was a lie and renounced your faith. You are not going to die for a lie, let along the kind of death these men were subjected to.

Just some thoughts… Hope everyone has a great Sunday. Blessings to you all.

Tim

Back

Greetings!!  Just wanted to take a moment and let you know I'm back...  I will be posting more soon.

Blessings,
Tim

Happy Easter

To all my family and friends I want to wish you a wonderful Easter. I was thinking about the empty tomb and how skeptics say there is no proof of Christ’s resurrection. There is plenty of proof; they’re just not looking in the right place. For me, I don’t need any proof, I know what I know and you can’t explain that.  If I had to point to one thing it would be the apostles. After His Jesus death on the cross, the very same men who had just spent the pretty much every minute or every day with Christ for the last 3 years were not only mourning but in total fear for their own lives. They were all in hiding, waiting and watching, fearing to show their faces in public. After the resurrection, that all changed. No longer were these men afraid for their lives. They went out in public proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ with boldness. What changed them? You certainly are not going to freely give up your own life for a lie or a scam. What these men encountered that so radically changed their entire thought process and motivation was the risen Lord Himself.

Happy Easter! If you know the risen Lord, may this day be one of celebration and joy. If you don’t know Him, may the Holy Spirit shine His light of love and acceptance in your heart. 

New direction

After a lifetime of testing, trials and prayer, I’m moving forward and starting a church. The Lord planted this seed in me some time ago, and everything is coming together now according to His plan.

The vision the Lord has given me is one of the first century church.

We will be Christ centered, teaching straight from the word of God.  We are a non-denominational church and welcome anyone.

Our model will be… "UP" (reaching up to God in worship and prayer)… "IN" (Serving one another and meeting the needs of the body) and "OUT" (Reaching out to the local community and abroad through our mission programs).

I will be updating our website over the next few days to include more information. For now we will be meeting at our house Wednesday evenings from 7:00pm – 8:30pm starting April 13th.

Please keep us in your prayers. Anytime you try to expand the Kingdom of God you can expect great resistance from the enemy. Thank you and may God bless and keep you always.

Tim

Bibles

Greetings!!I recieved a letter from a group of students today from the University of Ibadan in Nigeria. The students that sent the letter are lookiong for 120 bible donations. I've added the letter as a photo here so you can read it for yourselves.

You know what is so sad, these people are begging for bibles that they don't have, we have bibles just sitting around that we never read. What's wrong with this picture!!

If you can help in any way, that would be so awesome. If you want to send them direct to the students, let me know and I'll get you the information.

Thank you in advance...  May God bless and keep you always,

Tim 
You can email me at tim@anchorholdsministries.org for more information and ways to help.

Urgent help

I received an urgent message yesterday from our pastor in Kenya. His wife (Lydia) went to the hospital last night with stomach problems. She has had a growth in her stomach for some time now, but they have never had the money to have the growth removed. She was in great pain yesterday and went to the hospital. They have no money to have the surgery done, the hospital told them they will go ahead and remove the tumor for 12000 shillings ($150.00 US dollars).  Pastor Barasa Moses has asked for help paying for the surgery. We have some extra to give, but not enough to cover it all. Any donation amount would be greatly appreciated. If you are not able to donate, then please lift Pastor Barasa and his wife Lydia up in prayer.

Thank you and God bless,

Tim

Japan needs our help... BIG TIME !!

This last week the world witnessed the power of mother nature on an epic scale. Our brothers and sisters in Japan are suffering the effects of this devastation. World Vision has set up several ways for you to donate... you can text to give option (share this on your blog or Twitter): Text "4JAPAN" to "20222" to give a $10 donation, you can visit http://bit.ly/Japan-Quake-Tsunami-Relief



Please take a few moments a day and pray for the country and the wonderful people of Japan. We have no idea what they are going through... Lord God please be with the rescuers, please guide their hands to those who need help the most.

Thank you and God bless,
Tim

Help needed

Our ministry in Kampala, Uganda is in need of a small digital camera. Nothing fancy, doesn't need allot of megapixels. Just something to get some pictures on to promote the ministry there. Please drop me a line if you something cheap and no longer use. If you can help please drop me a line at tim@anchorholdsministries.org


Thank you and God bless.
Tim

Self

No one really wants to follow Christ do they? I mean think about it. A life of total self-abandonment. Forsaking all for Christ and the Kingdom of God. Caring more about others than yourself.  Literally giving all you earn to the poor and trusting in God to meet all your needs. Boldly sharing the gospel with everyone you meet, even if it costs you your life.

Mark 8:34-38, Matthew 16:24-27, Luke 9:23

“Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”

During the time of Christ, the cross was the symbol of a tortuous death, not the view of the cross we have today, this cherished symbol of atonement. Christ always talked about the cost of following him. I don’t take the verse as being literal, meaning to take up the cross and physically die, although if you truly follow Christ that may be the ultimate price you pay. I believe Christ is talking about dying to self in order to truly live.

One of my all time favorite scriptures gives the perfect example of what Christ is talking about.

John 12:24 “Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds”.
And that is the ultimate purpose isn’t it, to produce seeds.

Dying to ones self, that totally goes against everything we are as humans, especially in our super size me society. That makes the idea of self-denial all the harder. But the cost of following Christ is so worth it, so rewarding, not only in this life, but the one to follow. From what I witnessed when my son passed away, there is no doubt in my mind that there is an afterlife. That’s for another story.

Please don’t get me wrong, when I write these things, I’m writing to myself as well. Just things on my heart that I like to share.

Blessings to you all,

Tim

Yard of hell

‎"Christ wants not nibblers of the possible but grabbers of the impossible. Some wish to live within the sound of church or chapel bells. I want to run a rescue shop within a yard of hell" ~C.T. Studd

Please read

Our dear pastor and friend in Uganda is asking for our help. He has exhausted all his financial resources serving the church and now faces eviction from his home. Follow this link to find out how you can help more...
http://www.anchorholdsministries.org/news_help.html 

Thank you and may God bless you,
Tim

New pictures

Here are some pictures from our sister church in Uganda. These are from the crusades in Kayunga, Africa.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/45367158@N04/sets/72157625594503466/

We also received a nice donation for some bibles for our congregation there... Thank you almighty God for all your doing there.

Tim

John Lennon

Today December 8^th 2010 is the 30^th anniversary of John Lennon’s murder. I miss John Lennon! I know, I know, all you card carrying Christians are screaming foul right about now… but hear me out. Yes, John did not believe in a God in the same way we do. But there are allot of Christians out there who could learn a few things from John.  What made John so special? He was a doer! He saw a wrong and would do everything he could to make it right. Social injustice (which we in America are going to be experiencing more of), the rights of all mankind, the true cost of war and that love is really all you need.  Now granted, the love John spoke of was not the same as John 3:16, but a love never-the-less that put your own life above another’s… sound familiar.

We have many shining examples of doers just like John, George Clooney comes to mind. With all his riches and fame, he values the lives of those who are not able to take care of themselves more than his own. Bono is another, Bill and Malinda Gates are another. They use not only their money but the fame as well to bring the spotlight to a desperate need.

We may not have the money or the fame, but there is still so much we can do. God has given each of us a gift/talent for His glory. By helping our fellow man where ever he is and what ever condition he is in. we bring glory to the father in Jesus name. After all, Christ is our model, and He gave all for us, should we give any less for Him.

Peace,
Tim

Churches in Canada Using Housing First Model | haRdLy NOrMal

This is an amazing story about a man and the local church community that has and continues to make a difference. Please share with others!

Churches in Canada Using Housing First Model | haRdLy NOrMal

WAKE UP CHURCH!!!

Amazing show!

Greetings all,

Last night on CNN they had their annual "Heroes" show. Wow!! Some truly amazing and selfless people serving humanity. Here is one of the people who was up for the award.
http://www.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/04/01/cnnheroes.krishnan.hunger/
Not that any of them want to be honored, but this show does present a great way for them to collect more donations for their cause. The nominees get $10,000.00 and the winner get's $100,000.00 for their cause.

Take a moment and watch the videos... you will be inspired and blessed.

God bless,
Tim

Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving is a special one for me. After about 12 years of wondering, I’m finally back where I belong. The last 12 years of my life have been a real trial. The highs and lows were some of the most extreme I’ve ever experienced.  God stretched me, put me in the fires, rolled me in the dirt, and like the ant on the hill, put me under the magnified glass until I started smoking. All of His trials and testing’s left me feeling abounded by Him. At one point I even questioned His existence. All of this culminated in December 2009 when my family and I had to sell everything we owned, I mean everything. We left in our car with only our clothes and important papers. Thanks to some loving family members who opened up their home to us, we were able to move back from the place we had left 12 years earlier. I had a job waiting for me when we arrived, so after a couple of months we were able to get our own place.

The point I want to get to is, everything we went through was part of Gods plan. He had to bring us to a place of total submission. Causing us to depend on Him for everything, even where our next meal was going to come from. Looking back now, I would not change one thing. Everything we went through, God bringing us to that point of total dependence on Him has made me the man that I have longed to be. A servant of the Most High God.

So this Thanksgiving is truly my best one ever. Another one of the things I’m so thankful for is, after almost a year of praying and waiting on the Lord, the job that I have been praying for came through. You see the job that I did have was 50 miles away. The hours at work, the drive times, all left me drained at the end of the day. So I had little energy to focus on the ministry we started (www.anchorholdsministries.org). Starting this Monday I will be working for Apple Inc, and the best part is I’ll be working from home. Now I will have so much more time to focus on our ministry, thank you Lord God. I’m also so very thankful to be back home near family again. I’m thankful for our car and that it’s still running. We have just one car, and we’ve put a boat load of miles on it. Every day the car starts up and gets us where we need to be… Thank you Lord!

This last year has been an amazing one, and I’m so grateful that God put us through everything He did. I could not have become a man that He can use if were not for the trials we endured.

I encourage you; if you’re going through some tough times, hang in there. Remember, God is in control; He loves you and wants only the best for you. The sooner you let go of self, the better.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. May God bless and keep you always,
Tim

I know

Greetings,

Here is is, just a few days away from Thanksgiving Day. Sorry I've not been posting here much. The job that I have keeps me so busy and takes up so much of my time that by the time I get home I'm exhausted and don't really want to do anything but crash on the couch and rest. All that is about to change though. Last week I was hired by Apple Inc in a tech support role. The really cool part is I will be working from home. So I will have so much more time to work on our ministry and post some good blogs.

I'm hoping with the extra time that I'll now be able to hold some home bible studies. I have all the curriculum to do the six week study course on "The Hole in our Gospel". I think it's an amazing book that has so much to offer many Christians. I also want to spend more time at our local Rescue Mission... the number of homeless is growing everyday, and it's only going to get worse.

Keep up the good work. May God bless and keep you always.
Tim

Truth

A must see video

If you watch just one video clip the rest of your life... make it this one.

It Will Cost You Everything by Jesse Jackson - ChurchLeaders.com - Christian Leadership Blogs, Articles, Videos, How To's, and Free Resources