MOUNTAIN MANNA

Thou Who Wast Rich Beyond All Splendour

Chip Stam writes: “This hymn was written at a particularly difficult time in the history of the missions to China. Missionaries had been captured by the communist Red Army and released in poor health after over a year of suffering. Others had been captured never to be heard from again. In 1934 the young missionaries John and Betty Stam (my great aunt and uncle) were captured in Anhwei and beheaded . The news of these sorrows had reached the mission’s headquarters in Shanghai. Though this was a very dangerous time for both the Chinese Christians and the foreign missionaries, Frank Houghton decided he needed to begin a tour through the country to visit various missionary outposts. While traveling over the mountains of Szechwan, the powerful and comforting words of 2 Corinthians 8:9, “though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor,” were transformed into this beautiful Christmas hymn.”

Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becamest poor;
Thrones for a manger didst surrender,
Sapphire-paved courts for stable floor.
Thou who wast rich beyond all splendour,
All for love’s sake becomes poor.

Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man;
Stooping so low, but sinners raising
Heavenwards by thine eternal plan.
Thou who art God beyond all praising,
All for love’s sake becamest man.

Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship thee.
Emmanuel, within us dwelling,
Make us what thou wouldst have us be.
Thou who art love beyond all telling,
Saviour and King, we worship thee.

– Frank Houghton (1894-1972)

TOP TEN THINGS TO DO/ DON’T DO WITH YOUR NOSE:

10) DON’T look down it at somebody (Pride)

09) DON’T poke it into someone else’s business (Strife / Dissension)

08) DON’T snoop around with it (Nosey / Gossip)

07) DON’T get it out of joint (Anger)

06) DON’T cut it off to spite your face (Bitterness)

05) DON’T pay through it (Materialism)

04) DO find something right under it (Love / Salvation)

03) DO see past it (Eternity / Hope)

02) DO Keep it clean (Humility / Obedience)

AND THE NUMBER ONE THING TO DO WITH YOUR NOSE…

01) DO get it stuck in a book (The Bible!)

The Prodigal Son – in the Key of F  (copied)

Feeling footloose and frisky, a featherbrained fellow forced his father to fork over his farthings. Fast he flew to foreign fields and frittered his family’s fortune, feasting fabulously with floozies and faithless friends.  Flooded with flattery he financed a full-fledged fling of “funny foam” and fast food.

Fleeced by his fellows in folly, facing famine, and feeling faintly fuzzy, he found himself a feed-flinger in a filthy foreign farmyard. Feeling frail and fairly famished, he fain would have filled his frame with foraged food from the fodder fragments.

“Fooey,” he figured, “my father’s flunkies fare far fancier,” the frazzled fugitive fumed feverishly, facing the facts. Finally, frustrated from failure and filled with foreboding (but following his feelings) he fled from the filthy foreign farmyard.

Faraway, the father focused on the fretful familiar form in the field and flew to him and fondly flung his forearms around the fatigued fugitive. Falling at his father’s feet, the fugitive floundered forlornly, “Father, I have flunked and fruitlessly forfeited family favor.”

Finally, the faithful Father, forbidding and forestalling further flinching, frantically flagged the flunkies to fetch forth the finest fatling and fix a feast.  Faithfully, the father’s first-born was in a fertile field fixing fences while father and fugitive were feeling festive. The foreman felt fantastic as he flashed the fortunate news of a familiar family face that had forsaken fatal foolishness. Forty-four feet from the farmhouse the first-born found a farmhand fixing a fatling.

Frowning and finding fault, he found father and fumed, “Floozies and foam from frittered family funds and you fix a feast following the fugitive’s folderol?” The first-born’s fury flashed, but fussing was futile. The frugal first-born felt it was fitting to feel “favored” for his faithfulness and fidelity to family, father, and farm. In foolhardy fashion, he faulted thefather for failing to furnish a fatling and feast for his friends. His folly was not in feeling fit for feast and fatling for friends; rather his flaw was in his feeling about the fairness of the festival for the found fugitive.

His fundamental fallacy was a fixation on favoritism, not forgiveness. Any focus on feeling “favored” will fester and friction will force the faded facade to fall. Frankly, the father felt the frigid first-born’s frugality of forgiveness was formidable and frightful. But the father’s former faithful fortitude and fearless forbearance to forgive both fugitive and first-born flourishes. The farsighted father figured, “Such fidelity is fine, but what forbids fervent festivity for the fugitive that is found? Unfurl the flags and finery, let fun and frolic freely flow. Former failure is forgotten, folly is forsaken. Forgiveness forms the foundation for future fortune.”

Four facets of the father’s fathomless fondness for faltering fugitives are:

1)  Forgiveness
2) Forever faithful friendship
3) Fadeless love, and
4) A facility for forgetting flaws

To the Editor:

The Presbyterian Church USA has opened the door for ordaining gay ministers, deacons and elders. The church’s constitution used to have a requirement for its leaders to “live either in fidelity within the covenant of marriage between a man and a woman or chastity in singleness.” However, recently the PCUSA has dropped that stipulation and now nebulously requires church leaders “submit joyfully to the Lordship of Jesus Christ in all aspects of life”–whatever that means!

In doing this the PCUSA contradicts the Bible’s clear teaching that marriage is between one man and one woman: i.e. Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve (Genesis 2:24), its own definition of marriage in its worship book as being between one man and one woman and okays sex outside of marriage. If that is so, then is it okay for heterosexuals, as well. Right?

What is next? Changing the Ten Commandments to the Ten Suggestions?

Pastor Terry K. Hagedorn
Calvary Baptist Church
PO Box 282 Reedsville, WV
Ph. 304-864-3870

http://mountainmanna.com

“Pointing Mountaineers to Mount Calvary.”

Why didn’t the Dominion-Post give equal front-page coverage to the churches that were approached by PETPEEV (People for the Ethical Treatment of Plants and Every Edible Vegetable) demanding to have their propaganda included in their Sunday bulletins?

PETPEEVers and other meatans (people who only eat meat, take vitamin supplements and drink mineral water) ask, “If God wanted us to eat vegetables, why didn’t He make them out of meat?” What better place to ask that question than in a church service?

PETPEEV founder I. M. Nutz declares, “Plants, as other non-human persons, have rights! And, they do not deserve to be yanked out of the ground, cut down, cut up, baked, boiled or pureed! Research scientists at the prestigious Zarr Chasm Medical Center have proven that plants, including vegetables, feel pain when subjected to trauma such as being yanked out of the ground, peeled, cooked, and eaten. Veggies and plants initiate a massive hormone and chemical barrage internally when they suffer any kind of injury. This response is akin to the nerve response and endorphin release when an animal is injured. Only a vegan bias could cause one to ignore the similarities.”

Other agencies and the sum total of the world’s hard-core vegetarians (known as vegans) registered formal complaints against the research. Their team of lawyers has already submitted a motion to have the results of the research destroyed or sealed. Others fear the damage has already been done. A spokesman said, “This is bad for us. Most of our members haven’t eaten anything since hearing about the results. Our lawyers are looking into suing God, but concede that the suit will probably get nowhere.”

One pastor, who was approached by PETPEEV to have their literature given out in his church’s bulletin, asked, “One wonders, if they would include, “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 in all their literature–with contact information to Gospel preaching churches?

Why is the Muslim World So Resistant to the Gospel?
AlbertMohler.com | April 8, 2011 | Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.,

The future shape of the world appears to be a worldview competition between Christianity, Islam, and Western Secularism. For Christians, both of these worldviews represent real and lasting challenges to evangelism. Neither of these is a particularly new challenge, and the Christian encounter with Islam is now over a millennium in duration.

1. Islam is Younger than Christianity

Having borrowed from both Judaism and Christianity, Islam “has just enough Christianity in it to inoculate it against the real thing.” As with Mormonism, Muslims claim a later revelation that corrects and supersedes the Bible. This represents a very real challenge to the Christian, who will base the argument for the Gospel on the biblical revelation.

2. Islam Denies the Deity and the Death of Christ

Islam not only denies the deity of Christ, it finds the idea abhorrent. “If a missionary but mentions the deity of Christ the fanatical Muslim is likely to spit on his shadow to show his utter contempt for such a blasphemous suggestion.” Furthermore, the Qur’an denies that Christ actually died on the cross, thus taking away the very act of our atonement. “There appears to be no way around these two obstacles,” Kane lamented. “The Christian missionary can find many points of similarity between Christianity and Islam, and certainly he will want to make full use of these; but sooner or later he must come to the central theme of the gospel — the cross. At that point he runs into a stone wall. He can remove many offending things, but he can never do away with the offense of the cross. That and the deity of Christ are hurdles that can never be removed.”

3. Islam’s Treatment of Defectors

“All religions, including the broadest of them — Hinduism — look with disfavor on the devotee who changes his religion,” Kane advised. “But it remained for Islam to devise the Law of Apostasy, which permits the community to kill the adherent who defects from the faith.”

For Islam, “conversion is a one-way street.” Even when death is not a real threat, losing the bonds of community and family are huge costs.

4. The Solidarity of Muslim Society

Even where Muslims are not in a majority, such as in Western nations, they often concentrate in specific areas or communities where this solidarity can be approximated.

Under such an arrangement, efforts by Christians to evangelize meet a unified resistance, and a decision to leave Islam can be construed as an unpatriotic act, tantamount to rejecting one’s nation and people.

5. The Public Practice of Religion

Often overlooked by many Christians is the fact that a faithful Muslim demonstrates that faithfulness in a public pattern of prayers and observances. A convert who ceases these observances becomes immediately evident. This system of public prayer and ritual represents a powerful support for Islam and a powerful deterrent to conversion to any other belief system.

6. The Memory of the Crusades

As Kane explains, “To Christians in the West the Crusades were a bad dream, of which we have only the faintest recollection; but to the Arabs they are the greatest proof of the Christian hatred for Islam.” Christians bear the burden of a long and intensely bitter Muslim memory. Though atrocities were common on both sides, the atrocities committed by Christians were uniquely a repudiation of central Christian teachings.

In the mind of many Muslims, the Crusades feel like a living memory. To many within the Islamic world, Christians remain Crusaders, and evangelism is just another way of continuing the crusading mission.

Professor Kane’s breakdown of these obstacles is not only interesting and helpful, it also serves as a reminder that these issues are hardly new. At the same time, Christians must evangelize, no matter the obstacles to Christian witness.

Christians must remember that the Holy Spirit can break down the greatest wall of resistance and the Word of God is, as He says, like a hammer that shatters a rock. Dr. Kane’s arguments help us to understand the challenge, but were not meant to suppress evangelism. To the contrary, he wanted the church to be better informed as we fulfill the command of Christ.

10 Habits of Ineffective Christian Leaders

Pastor Terry Hagedorn, Calvary Baptist Church, Reedsville, WV

1. Ineffective leaders lead by word only—not by word and example:
“Do as I say—not as I do!” (What you are speaks so loudly people cannot hear what you say.)

2. Ineffective leaders do not have clear objectives:
By establishing clear goals, you establish a purpose and sense of direction. Remember the hunter’s adage: If you don’t aim at something, you won’t hit it.

3. Ineffective leaders are inconsistent:
When all is said and done by the inconsistent, more is said than done.

4. Ineffective leaders never praise good work—just condemn the wrong:
Make a point of only telling people when they do something wrong. Or, praise them in a vague way, “Well, you did the best you could–I think.”

5. Ineffective leaders do not communicate effectively:
Good communication breeds good communication. So ineffective leadership causes people to not understand you–so, they respond accordingly.

6. Ineffective leaders discourage ideas and initiative:
Innovation and creativity are essential requirements for every organization to move forward. Therefore, ineffective team leaders should look to discourage team members.

7. Ineffective leaders see any change as dangerous:
An ineffective leaders makes certain he or she is unaware of the changes in dynamics in the team and do not regard change as an opportunity to improve.

8. Ineffective leaders neglect the development of team members:
This prevents members from growth and motivation. In turn, this will also stymie and stall the team as a whole.

9. Ineffective leaders do not treat team members as individuals:
All people are alike. What works for one team member will work for all—after all, they are sheeple.

10. Ineffective leaders do not learn from experience or advice:
Change means that you were wrong—else you would not need to change.

As 2010 nears the end, I want to thank all of you for your educational e-mails over the past year. I am totally messed up now and have little chance of recovery.

I no longer open a bathroom door without using a paper towel, or have the waitress put lemon slices in my ice water without worrying about the bacteria on the lemon peel.

I can’t sit down on the hotel bedspread because I can only imagine what has happened on it since it was last washed. And, was it ever really washed?

I have trouble shaking hands with someone who has been driving because the number one pastime while driving alone is picking one’s nose.

Eating a little snack sends me on a guilt trip because I can only imagine how many gallons of trans fats I have consumed over the years.

I can’t touch any woman’s purse for fear she has placed it on the floor of a public restroom.

I MUST SEND MY SPECIAL THANKS to whoever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet sponge with every envelope that needs sealing.

ALSO, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die for the 1,387,258th time.

I no longer have any money, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa’s Novena has granted my every wish.

I can’t eat at KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes, feet or feathers.

I can’t use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

THANKS TO YOU I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an e-mail to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

BECAUSE OF YOUR CONCERN, I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains..

I no longer buy gas without taking someone along to watch the car so a serial killer doesn’t crawl in my back seat when I’m filling up.

I no longer use Cling Wrap in the microwave because it causes seven different types of cancer.

AND THANKS FOR LETTING ME KNOW I can’t boil a cup of water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face,disfiguring me for life.

I no longer go to the movies because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS when I sit down.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

And I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan ..

THANKS TO YOU I can’t use anyone’s toilet but mine because a big black snake could be lurking under the seat and cause me instant death when it bites my butt.

AND THANKS TO YOUR GREAT ADVICE I can’t ever pick up a coin dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a s * x molester waiting to grab me as I bend over.

I can’t do any gardening because I’m afraid I’ll get bitten by the Violin Spider and my hand will fall off.

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 p.m. tomorrow afternoon, and the fleas from 120 camels will infest your back,
causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s best friend’s beautician . .

Oh, by the way….. A German scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse. Don’t bother taking it off now, it’s too late.

P. S.: I now keep my toothbrush in the living room, because I was told by e-mail that water splashes over 6 ft. out of the toilet.

NOW YOU ALL HAVE YOURSELVES A VERY HAPPY AND HEALTHY NEW YEAR!