T.J.I.F.A.

 

THANK JESUS IT’S FRIDAY AGAIN!
PASS IT ON…& ON…& ON…& ON.
SEPTEMBER 23, 2005

 

SUBJECT: “SPIRIT OF THE LEADER”

 

WHEN A GREAT LEADER HAS GRACED OUR MIDST, WE ARE TOUCHED BY HIS ABILITIES, HIS CONFIDENCE AND POISE.  THE SPIRIT OF THE LEADER CONTINUES IN OUR MEMORY FOR AS LONG AS WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO RECALL.  MARTIN LUTHER KING IS STILL REMEMBERED FOR HIS WORDS.  “FREE AT LAST FREE AT LAST!  THANK GOD ALMIGHTY WE ARE FREE AT LAST.”  JESUS WAS THE GREATEST LEADER EVER; AND HIS SPIRIT IS WITH US CONTINUALLY.  HE HAS SAID.  “I’LL NEVER LEAVE YOU NOR FORSAKE YOU.  I’LL BE WITH YOU ALWAYS.”  WHO IS THE LEADER THAT IMPACTED YOUR LIFE? 

 

NOTEWORTHY:  KATRINA

 

T.J.I.F.A.’S BOOK SHELF:  “THE HIDING PLACE”  BY CORRIE TEN BOOM

 

FRIDAY’S WORD:  FLOOD

 

IN THE MIRROR:  SLC  ASKS  A QUESTION

 

O TASTE AND SEE!  VERA’S ICED TEA JUST IN TIME FOR THE CLOSE OF SUMMER, AND THE BEGINNING OF AUTUMN.

 

LOOKING FORWARD

 

SEE YA NEXT TIME!

 

TER
SPIRIT OF THE LEADER
Matthew 16:24-27; 
“24Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 25For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. 26For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? 27For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.” 

 

The spirit of the leader remains even after physical death.  i.e. Martin Luther – The Reformation; Martin Luther King – Civil Rights; Mother Teresa – Peaceand love for the impoverished;  Jesus Christ – Peace, Salvation for all men.   
It seems as though the headship of these great leaders is so  powerful that even in death the spiritual essence  of the individual remains to guide and spur the memory of those who remain to finish the dream, or continue the legacy. 

 

Who is your leader?  What dream are you pursuing? What legacy must you complete in this life? 

 

There was a man, missionary, in a foreign land.  He was warned not to preach the Gospel in that country anymore.  He continued to preach until the authorities confronted him with the ultimatum.  “We are going to kill you because you won’t stop spreading this Gospel in our country.”  The man replied.  “The best you can do is kill me.  The best I can do is die; because if you kill me, the Gospel that I have preached will be enhanced more and more, your citizens will want to know why I died.  They will read my tracts and talk about my message to one another, and the Gospel will spread faster than I could ever have done in a lifetime.  So go ahead and kill me.” 

 

The armed guards carried this message back to the ruler.  The ruler made a decree to leave the missionary alone, because he was ‘out of his mind’. 

 

Was he? Or, were they afraid of the spiritual essence  that would remain after his death and claim the victory over their citizens?  

 

Others look to leaders in times of trouble.  Leaders usually have a long history of being responsible for other’s lives. 

 

KATRINA – THE STORM: A young boy, six years old, two three year olds, and a baby were handed off a roof top, to a waiting helicopter,  without their mother.  The mother gave the six year old instructions to keep those children together.  Obediently the brave six year old was transported to dry land, and made his way to authorities towing two three year olds and the baby.  The mother arrived later, only to find that the  six year old had been true to his orders.  All of them were fine.

 

Do you think that he will be a good leader?  A leader must be able to follow instructions before he can give orders.  How many of you would trust your six year old to care for two three year olds and a baby in a crisis? 

 

Jesus has given us the traits of a good leader, in Matthew 16:24; He said: 
1. Change your ‘will and desire’.( “If any man will come…”).
2.  Surrender. (“…let him…”)
3. Deny yourself.   (“…deny himself…”)
4. “Take up his cross…”
5. “And follow  me.” 
Jesus has said in many occasions to “Come”.   Our only response is and should be;  “Yes Lord.”  He has more than proven Himself to be the Greatest Leader ever to have lived.  He as the leader, has left us His Spirit.  The Spirit of Understanding;the Spirit of Truth; and the Spirit of Life.  It has been more than 2000years and still, anyone who accepts Him, is guaranteed life eternal.

 

Can you repent of your sins, and acknowledge and receive the Greatest Leader ever to have walked the face of the earth? 

 

Can you deny yourself ‘top billing’ and allow the Spirit of Christ Jesus to be first? 

 

Can you humble yourself, take up your cross, acknowledging Him before men that He will not deny you before His Father? 

 

Now, you’re ready to ‘follow’.  But, what if the cross is too heavy?  Then Jesus will get along side of you, and slip into the yoke; because He has said.  “Take my yoke upon you and learn of Me; for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” 

 

A good leader is always mindful of His followers, as is Jesus.  Though the world may call Him antiquated, and outdated.  He is presently saying to His followers:
“Come unto Me all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”
“All ye that hunger and thirst come unto me.”
“Bear ye one another’s burdens.”
“Love your neighbor as yourself.”
“Fear not.  I AM Alpha and Omega; the Beginning and the End.”
“I hold the keys of hell and death.” 

 

Why not follow Jesus?  It only makes good sense.  

 

What if you had been one of those who had perished in the flood in Louisianna?  Would your family have known how to seek the real Leader?  Have you taught them who the ‘Real Leader’ is? 

 

Please don’t leave your family without a leader.  Be sure they know Him today.  Just have them say this simple prayer:

 

“Dear Heavenly Father.  I would like to follow  Your Son, Jesus.  I repent of my sin and anything that would keep me from You.  I believe that You raised your Son, Jesus from the grave; and I receive Him into my heart, today.  Father, I thank You for Jesus, and Jesus, I thank You for dying for me.  AMEN.”

 

Leader, go and lead someone else to Christ.  Remember, “Christ in you; your hope of Glory.”

 

LOOKING FORWARD

 

SEE YA NEXT TIME!

 

TER

 

NOTEWORTHY:

 

KATRINA- August 29, 2005

 

We have experienced a tragedy, unlike any we’ve ever been exposed to in this generation, in the United States of America.  I am speaking of the Hurricane named Katrina.  This one hundred fifty plus miles per hour blast devastated three states in the gulf region of the main land of America. 

 

Many people have lost their homes, and everything that they held dear.  They were barely able to escape with the clothes on their backs.  However, there were many in the higher places of the same city who were, thankfully, spared by early escape. 

 

This type of tragedy only serves to bring one main point to mind.  That point isn’t ‘how much insurance did you have’ or ‘what is your race or color’, or ‘how much money did or do you make’.  The only acceptable or even feasible question in any tragedy is . . .
“DO YOU HAVE ETERNAL SECURITY?”  

 

I know that question is one that carries great weight, but it is the only question that can be asked of every soul affected and unaffected by this devastation. 
“DO YOU HAVE ETERNAL SECURITY?”

 

Can you definitely say that if you were caught in this tragedy you would be ready to lose your life?  Everyone is going to die.  It is a given.  “It is appointed to man once to die; and then the judgment.”  Are you ready?  Were those people who died ready to face death and then judgment? 

 

The only reason that T.J.I.F.A. exists is to remind you and its other readers of Our Savior, Jesus Christ, and to give many the opportunity to accept Him as their Lord and Savior before it’s too late. 

 

Give a copy to a friend who is lukewarm and floundering. 
Thanks.

 

TER

 

TJIFA’S BOOK SHELF:
HOLY BIBLE
Readers, we must keep in mind, that GOD sets up kings and rulers over nations.  He also brings them down.  The Book of Daniel rehearses this point loud and clear. 
“17This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.”  (Daniel 5:17)

 

After seven years of living like a beast, the king understood that his pride was his downfall.    “25That they shall drive thee from men, and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field, and they shall make thee to eat grass as oxen, and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass over thee, till thou know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will.”  Daniel 5:25.

 

BOOK OF THE MONTH:

 

“THE HIDING PLACE” By: Corrie ten Boom

 

A lesson in growing love.  An excellent example of the reward of patience; “They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.” 

 

Corrie ten Boom, her father, and her sister, Betsy, are subjected to the horrors of the Natzi concentration camp because their home was a refuge for Jews in the Second World War. 

 

This is Corrie’s story and it is told with passion, the highs and lows of love, hatred, physical needs, deprivation and sorrow.  Corrie recalls previous times of instruction from her mother and father, which help her to overcome the rigors of imprisonment.  This book is a reminder to the Christian, that there is a hiding place, where GOD will keep you safe from the wiles of the evil one; but we must be willing to seek it with all our heart.   

 

If your compassion has never been stirred for the power of GOD at work in individuals, you will enjoy the renewing and refreshing that this autobiography rakes up and unleashes within. 

 

Lessons learned: Love is stronger than hate.  (John 3:16)
There are no ‘ifs’ in the Kingdom of GOD.  GOD’S timing and plans are perfect.  Your purpose and GOD’S plan fit together perfectly.
Romans 8: (all things work together for good.)
Life lessons in being a good Christian in bad circumstances. 
Loving the enemy. 
“This book targets your heart.”
 TER

 

FRIDAY’S WORD: FLOOD A miraculous deluge of water God used to discipline His world made evil through human sin.
Its Structural Background The literary theme of a flood was a natural motif for the Sumerian and Akkadian peoples who resided between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in a plain prone to flood. The oft-repeated flood experience found literary _expression in a Sumerian flood story and in two or more Akkadian ones: the Atrahasis Epic and the Epic of Gilgamesh. The Akkadian and Hebrew stories parallel each other in the following ways: the naming of the hero (Utnapishtim/Noah), the divine announcement of a flood, instructions to build a ship, the inclusion of animals in the ship, the dispatch of birds, the sacrifice the hero offered after the waters subsided, and other related details. From all of this, it is the studied judgment of scholars “that the Babylonian and Hebrew versions (of the flood stories) are genetically related is too obvious to require proof” (Alexander Heidel. The Gilgamesh Epic and Old Testament Parallels. Chicago, 1949, 269). However, the community of parallels is structural; it does not extend to the religious meaning. There the Sumero-Akkadian and Hebrew stories are distinctly different.
The structural background of the Flood in Genesis derives from the fact that the early ancestors of Abram were resident in the Mesopotamian valley and were exposed to the prevailing cultural patterns. It was there that the forebears of Abram practiced a polytheistic religion, first in the Ur of the Chaldees and then in Haran (Gen. 11:31-32:6; Josh. 24:2, 14, 15).
It must be admitted that the identification of a flood that gave rise to the Sumero-Akkadian and Hebrew Flood accounts has proved illusive. In every geological or archaeological endeavor to use sedimentary deposits to develop a time frame for such a catastrophic deluge and all efforts to recover an ark have failed. Such scientific efforts have not proven the Flood narrative.
The drama of Israel’s Flood story is the drama of God reacting to the habitual sin of His creatures. Scene after scene exhibits a disclosure of God, the moral nature of His acts, His self-consistent righteousness, His ever abiding love, His determined will to extricate humanity from its self-inflicted ruin, His determination never to see wrong as ultimately victorious, but to see the fulfillment of His purposes finally and fully. These magnificent vistas of divine glory are dramatic in character, symbolic in nature, and religious in purpose. Since they are addressed to Noah in whom is incorporated the new race, the proclamation is applicable to all people in whatever situation they discover themselves.
To an ancient story form known widely in the Ancient Near East, the inspired Hebrew writer joined Israel’s theological affirmation to form an educational means to teach the community of Israel the ways of Yahweh (Gen. 18:19).
 From: Holman’s Bible Dictionary
 Mount Ararat (Armenian Masis; Turkish Ağgri Dağgi; Persian Koh-i-nuh), mountain in extreme eastern Turkey, near the border with Armenia and Iran. Except on the northwest, where a spur nearly 2,200 m (7,000 ft) high merges with a long ridge, the mountain is completely isolated, being surrounded on all other sides by elevated plains ranging from 800 to 1,400 m (2,500 to 4,500 ft) above sea level. From an elevation of 2,700 m (8,800 ft) Mount Ararat rises in two peaks, known as Great Ararat (5,165 m/16,945 ft) and Little Ararat (3,914 m/12,840 ft). Above the 4,300-m (14,000-ft) level, Great Ararat is perpetually covered with snow. Vegetation, consisting for the most part of grasses, is chiefly confined to the area between 1,500 and 3,350 m (5,000 and 11,000 ft). According to the Old Testament (see Genesis 8:4), Noah's ark landed on the “mountains of Ararat” after the deluge. Great Ararat was first climbed in modern times in 1829. On July 2, 1840, great masses of the mountain were torn loose by a violent earthquake. The resulting avalanche buried a village and a convent on its lower slopes. An American expedition ascended Mount Ararat in the summer of 1949 in an unsuccessful search for evidence of the existence of Noah's ark. Recent expeditions have reported finding timbers that members believe to have come from the ark.
Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006. © 1993-2005 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
 

 

IN THE MIRROR:
 Question: What really ministers to us when all other methods seem to fail, or either just fall short of the mark?
 There is a writing, one of Oswald Chambers’ daily devotionals that I kept reading over and over and I didn’t really know why until now as I attempt to share something with you that still leaves me in one area of thought, and that is: God still has all the answers before we even ask the questions.
 Chambers writes: “Every time you venture out in your life of faith, you will find something in your circumstances that, from a commonsense standpoint, will flatly contradict your faith. But common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense. In fact, they are as different as the natural life and the spiritual. Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? Can you venture out with courage on the words of Jesus Christ, while the realities of your commonsense life continues to shout, “It’s all a lie”?
 Somebody made a statement within only a few days after ‘Katrina’, “The suffering we now see on television will fade in reality when it is displaced from our screens.”
 In reality those who were not directly affected will have a much shorter memory than those whose physical and mental scars will last a lifetime. It is one of the inescapable characteristics that make up a life; We all suffer at different times, at different levels, and suffering differs in degrees. God is never caught off-guard by our suffering or unaware.
 In the most recent and early stages of my own hurt and pain about all the people affected by Katrina, I had the experience of meeting a victim of the hurricane, she was from Louisiana. She told me how she had lost everything, and before I was even able to hint at any sorrow for her, she quickly told me that, “God is my source, my job was my resource.”
 It was such a reminder for me that the kind of faith, and the standpoint from which she was sharing was not just for ‘Bible-days’, but for everyone who’s willing to step out on faith in God’s word.
 The key principle that always ministers to us, is our very own Faith! Never has there been a greater time or opportunity to look within ourselves and examine who do we believe; what do we believe; and how is it affecting my life now, and into eternity.  Death came to so many, and in such a small framework of time, but also life came in that same instance for those who had given their life to Jesus and believed upon His name. God Bless,  SLC
  Some scriptures to support you in a time of need. 
Isaiah 40:31 (NKJV) 31 But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.
Psalms 100:5 (NKJV) 5 For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, And His truth endures to all generations.
Psalms 119:2 (NKJV) 2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies, Who seek Him with the whole heart!
Proverbs 3:5 (NKJV) 5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NKJV) 18 For in much wisdom is much grief, And he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NKJV) 1 To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven:
Matthew 11:28 - 30 (NKJV) 28Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
Romans 10:9 - 10 (NKJV) 9that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Philippians 3:20 - 21 (NKJV) 20For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.
Philippians 4:19 (NKJV) 19And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
See how many you can memorize, and be a comfort to you.
 
O TASTE AND SEE!

 

VERA’S SOUTHERN ICED TEA
(OH MY GOODNESS)

 

INGREDIENTS: 
4 LARGE TEA BAGS
WATER 
1 ½ – 2 CUPS GRANULATED SUGAR

 

DIRECTIONS:
PLACE 4 LARGE TEA BAGS IN SAUCE PAN OF WATER.  BRING TO FIRST BOIL.  REMOVE FROM HEAT, AND REMOVE TEA BAGS FROM TEA. 

 

IN A GALLON CONTAINER WITH WIDE MOUTH, POUR SUGAR, TO TASTE.  (1 ½ CUPS EQUALS SWEET; 2 CUPS EQUALS SWEETER.  (YOUR PREFERENCE) 
ON TOP OF SUGAR, POUR HOT BOILED TEA; STIR CONTINUOUSLY UNTIL SUGAR IS COMPLETELY DISSOLVED.  YOU’LL KNOW WHEN YOU NO LONGER FEEL THE ROUGHNESS UNDER YOUR STIRRING SPOON.  (WOODEN SPOONS ARE VERY GOOD INDICATORS.) 

 

POUR IN WATER UP TO ONE GALLON TOTAL CONTENT.  REFRIGERATE.  SERVE OVER  ICE.

 

THIS REFRESHING GLASS OF ICED TEA IS LIGHT IN COLOR, BUT STRONG IN TASTE.  VB REPORTS.  “I LIKE ICED TEA THAT YOU CAN SEE THROUGH.” 

 

A GREAT GLASS OF ICED TEA IS A WELCOMED ACCOMPANIMENT TO ANY MEAL.  KEEP THIS RECIPE, SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO GIVE IT WHILE YOU’RE TRYING TO ENJOY IT. 

 

SUBMITTED BY: VB . . . ENJOY!