The Hellands in Holland

Then he said, "Son of man, get all these words that I'm giving you inside you. Listen to them obediently. Make them your own. And now go. Go to the exiles, your people, and speak. Tell them , "This is the message of God, the Master.' Speak your peace, whether they listen or not."  Ezekiel 3:10-11 The Message Bible In order to effectively communicate God's message, we need to first digest them; internalize them, make them our own. When we  have allowed them to enter into the deepest recesses of my heart, then they can change us at the core of our being. Nevertheless, we must also be actively listening and internalizing how the culture around us thinks. When this takes place, we will be able to fluently speak God's words to the culture we live among in a way that they can understand. ( The late Dr. T. L. Osborn) A  good example of this comes from the life of the late T.L. Osborn. Osborn was a pioneer in mass crusade evangelism outside of the Uni

My name is Michelle*. For more than a year I was invited to go to Celebrate Recovery, a program offered at New Life West. I did not want to go because I did not want to be converted or join a group wh ere I would not be accepted. However, one evening, I finally did go to CR and what I discovered that evening began a journey of self-discovery and growth with God who continues to this day to change my life. I grew up in a Roman Catholic family where my grandpa was more Catholic than the pope and every Sunday we went to church. However, when I turned six, suddenly church and faith were eliminated from our family life. My parents taught me that we can only trust in rationality and science and that you can not trust in anyone except for yourself. I missed the feeling of someone or something being there whom I could trust so I began worshipping that which would gave me security in life: a job or money. Then in May 2012, the crisis hit hard in my field of work. I lost my job and found my

Chiune Sugihara was the vice consul for Japan in Lithuania during 1939-1940. During his time there, he realized the horrible plight of the Jews for whom it was nearly impossible to travel. Against orders of his superiors, he decided to begin handing out transit visas in order to save these people's lives. In one day he would give out more visas than regularly given out in a month. During the last days of his time in Lithuania, he would spend 19-20 hours a day hand writing visas for people to escape Lithuania. He did this at a great personal risk, but is credited for saving over 6,000 jews. When asked why he did what he did  he said, "I myself thought this would the be righ thing to do. There is nothing wrong in saving many people's lives...The spirit of humanity, philanthropy...neighborly friendschip...with this spirit, I ventured to do what I did, confronting this difficult situations--and because of this reason, I went ahead with redoubled courage." Some people

The Lord  God  has given me       the tongue of a teacher, that I may know how to sustain  the weary with a word. Morning by morning he wakens—   wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught. Isaiah 50:4 (NRSV) In order to teach, I first need to be taught. In order to lead, I first need to be led. I can not give away that which I have do not have. As a young adult I remember asking God for a leader I could follow and be mentored by. His first response was that he was my leader and my teacher. It is possible that we can learn first and foremost from Jesus himself. Paul said, "I did not recieve it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I recieved it by revelation from Jesus Christ." (Gal. 1:12). There are remarkable examples of this concept in Paul's writings. For example, in Ephesians 4:20, 21 it says "You, however, did not come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in him... " Yet in the original greek it does not say you he