12 Days of Christmas???

Click on the link to see a very funny and well sung...

12 Days of Christmas

Quote of the Day

The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.

                                                                      - Mark Twain

Ireland Mission Trip 2014

  Ireland 2014 Presentaion HERE

Ireland 2014 Pics

The Ireland Mission team will be sharing THIS SUNDAY (March 30th, 2014)  at Beneva Christian Church. Here are some pics from the trip...

RIOT House 

 RIOT YOUTH CENTRE

Dundrum Methodist Church - Where our team lead worship on Sunday 

MORE PICS SOON

Jamaica Pics 2014

Beneva Christian Church - Jamaica 2014

 A little "taste" of Jamaica and a reminder that the Jamaica Team will be sharing this Sunday in church. 

A Breakfast in Jamaica

Green Bananas (broiled)

Fritter (Fish)

Banana Bread

House Build

The Blue house is falling down, this will be the replacement.

Peace of Heart

"WHEN a man desires a thing too much, he at once becomes ill at ease. A proud and avaricious man never rests, whereas he who is poor and humble of heart lives in a world of peace. An unmortified man is quickly tempted and overcome in small, trifling evils; his spirit is weak, in a measure carnal and inclined to sensual things; he can hardly abstain from earthly desires.

Hence it makes him sad to forego them; he is quick to anger if reproved. Yet if he satisfies his desires, remorse of conscience overwhelms him because he followed his passions and they did not lead to the peace he sought.

     True peace of heart, then, is found in resisting passions, not in satisfying them. There is no peace in the carnal man, in the man given to vain attractions, but there is peace in the fervent and spiritual man."

The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis

Jamaica Update 2 - Misc Pics

Jamaica Update - Church at the Bus Stop

Beneva Christian - Jamaica Mission Trip

Please pray this week for the Beneva Mission Trip to Jamaica!

A few things we are doing...


- Feeding the Hungry

- Helping Build a Bathroom for a School

- Street Ministry

- Prayer Walks

Mission to Ireland 2014

Pray for the people from Beneva Christian who will be traveling to Northern Ireland next month to serve at, and through R.I.O.T. (Revival In Our Town), which is located in Dundrum. 

The following are some of the places we will visit, and areas we will minister. 

Mountains of Mourne

RIOT

Our plan is to develop a permanent full time community centre that not only provides healthy outlets for the youth but also for the rest of the village. The new community centre will aim to create a Revival In Our Town!

Some of our goals include a play park and a multifunctional sports area that will be supervised and maintained regularly. Creating a proper community centre, allows us to expand programs for groups like: Mums & Tots, Suicide Awareness, Senior Afternoon Activities, Smoking Cessation programs. Excitingly, we hope to create local job opportunities. Our aim is that RIOT will become a fluid, living, self-sustaining centre that will benefit the community for years to come.

Down Cathedral

Down Cathedral, the Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, is a Church of Ireland cathedral located in the town of Downpatrick in Northern Ireland. It stands on Cathedral Hill overlooking the town. It is one of two cathedrals in the Diocese of Down and Dromore {the other is Dromore Cathedral) in the Province of Armagh. The cathedral is centre point in Downpatrick.

It is an ancient ecclesiastical site with a church dedicated to the Holy Trinity recorded in the 12th century. In 1124 St Malachy became Bishop of Down, and set about repairing and enlarging the Cathedral. In 1177, John de Courcy (Norman conqueror of Ulster) brought in Benedictine monks and expelled Augustinian monks settled there by St Malachy. By 1220 this building was in ruins and was further damaged by an earthquake in 1245. The Cathedral was burned by Edward Bruce in 1315 and subsequently rebuilt and destroyed several times. In 1538 the monastery was suppressed and then destroyed in 1539 by Lord Leonard Grey, the Lord Deputy of Ireland, who stabled horses there. The destruction of the Cathedral was one of the charges for which Grey was executed in 1541. For two centuries after that it lay in ruins.

In 1778 John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, visited and described it as a noble ruin. A Round Tower close to the Cathedral was taken down in 1790.

The cathedral incorporates parts of the 13th-century church of the Benedictine Abbey of Down .

The restoration of the ruined 14th century cathedral of Downpatrick was initiated after an Act of Parliament of 1790 granted £1000 for the purpose. The Earl of Hillsborough donated a further £568 and £300 a year of the deanery tithes were appropriated. The long chancel from the late medieval cathedral was repaired and transformed into an aisled nave and chancel for the new cathedral. 

Work was completed and the cathedral was ready for use in 1818. An octagonal vestibule and a Perpendicular Gothic tower were added to the west end in 1826. 

Crosses from the 9th, 10th and 12th centuries are preserved in the Cathedral. The building today is mainly the original chancel from the 15th century with a vestibule and tower added. It had a second major restoration from 1985 to 1987 during which time the Cathedral was closed.

Castlewellen

Giving In or Standing Up

Man is not fully conditioned and determined but rather determines
himself whether he gives in to conditions or stands up to them.
In other words, man is ultimately self-determining.

                                         --Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning

Prayer

Father, make me one with You. I am often wearied by the many things I hear and read, but being in You is all that I desire. I long for You alone to speak to me. Amen.

Humility

"...a humble rustic who serves God is better than a proud intellectual who neglects his soul to study the course of the stars. He who knows himself well becomes mean in his own eyes and is not happy when praised by men." 

Taken from The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis.

Prayer

The following is taken from HOW TO PRAY by R.A. Torrey. 


PRAYER IS GOD'S APPOINTED WAY FOR OBTAINING THINGS, AND THE GREAT SECRET OF ALL LACK IN OUR EXPERIENCE, IN OUR LIFE AND IN OUR WORK IS NEGLECT OF PRAYER.

James brings this out very forcibly in the 4th chapter and 2nd verse of his epistle: "Ye have not because ye ask not." These words contain the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the average Christian — neglect of prayer.

"Why is it," many a Christian is asking, "I make so little progress in my Christian life?"

"Neglect of prayer," God answers. "You have not because you ask not."

"Why is it," many a minister is asking, "I see so little fruit from my labors?"

Again God answers, "Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not."

"Why is it," many a Sunday-School teacher is asking, "that I see so few converted in my Sunday-School class?"

Still God answers, "Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not."

"Why is it," both ministers and churches are asking, "that the church of Christ makes so little headway against unbelief and error and sin and worldliness?"

Once more we hear God answering, "Neglect of prayer. You have not because you ask not."

Daddy Daughter Dance

Here are the pics from the Daddy Daughter Dance last night. After the dance we went to Pub 32 for cheescake and LIVE Irish Music. 

I LOVE MY DAUGHTER!!!

  

The Cha-Cha

"Gangnam Style"

 Cheesecake!

What a fun date!

Quote of the Day

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. 

                                                                                            

                                                                                   - John Adams

Science, Atheism & Freewill - Dr. Ravi Zacharias respond

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is within you, says the Lord. 

Turn to the Lord with your whole heart, and forsake this wretched world: your soul will find rest.

Learn to despise outward things, and to give your self to inward things: you shall see the Kingdom of God come within you. 

                                                                     - a Kempis

Thoughts on Worship

God values all of the gifts we bring Him, at least the honest and sincere gifts. I believe that this includes gifts of praise and thanksgiving, service, and material offerings.

Maybe God accepts gifts, not just by acceptance or rejection? Maybe they are accepted by degrees?

What if the gift is acceptable to God in the measure of character and attitude in which the one who offers to God?

If this is true, wouldn't we need to postpone giving to God until right relationships are established with others???

Could neglecting this truth found in Matthew 5 be the explanation of the barrenness of our worship? 

I suppose that if our worship is not focused, full and free, then we need to evaluate all our relationships.


True worship so satisfies the worshipper that they do not have to look and yearn for man-made substitutes. 

Quote of the Day

“If you are renewed by grace, and were to meet your old self, I am sure you would be very anxious to get out of his company.” 
                                                                         ― Charles H. Spurgeon

Broken

“God uses broken things. It takes broken soil to produce a crop, broken clouds to give rain, broken grain to give bread, broken bread to give strength. It is the broken alabaster box that gives forth perfume. It is Peter, weeping bitterly, who returns to greater power than ever.” 


                                                                             ― Vance Havner

The Right Climate

A businessman purchased a tropical plant. He put the plant in his office and did every thing he knew to keep the plant healthy. He gave it water, plant food, sunshine and lots of tender loving care. After two weeks the plant was turning brown and dying. 

He called the Florist and asked if the plant had a guarantee because the plant was dying. The Florist asked how he was caring for the plant. He said he was giving it water, plant food and sunshine. 

The Florist asked: “Are you misting the plant?”

“What do you mean, misting the plant?” The businessman responded.

The Florist replied, “The plant you purchased is a tropical plant and it needs high humidity. Take a spray bottle and spray mist on the plant for a week or two.” 

After two weeks of spraying the plant it turned green and was revitalized.

___________________________________

What is required for you to be and remain healthy spiritually?

Reading the Bible in a "New Way" - Part Three

(Excerpt #3 - Conclusion)

 I am saying that we mustn’t belittle scripture by bringing the world’s models of authority into it.  We must let scripture be itself, and that is a hard task.  Scripture contains many things that I don’t know, and that you don’t know; many things we are waiting to discover; passages which are lying dormant waiting for us to dig them out.  Awaken them.  We must then make sure that the church, armed in this way, is challenging the world’s view of authority. 

It seems to me that evangelical tradition has often become in bondage to a sort of lip-service scripture principle even while debating in fact how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.... Instead, I suggest that our task is to seize this privilege with both hands, and use it to the glory of God and the redemption of the world.

Reading the Bible in a "New Way" - Part Two

Excerpt #2...

"If we really engage with the Bible in this serious way we will find, I believe, that we will be set free from (among other things) some of the small-scale evangelical paranoia which goes on about scripture....Of course the Bible is inspired, and if you’re using it like this [reading large portions] there won’t be any question in your mind that the Bible is inspired..." 

Of course you will discover that the Bible will not let you down.  You will be paying attention to it; you won’t be sitting in judgement over it.  But you won’t come with a preconceived notion of what this or that passage has to mean if it is to be true.  You will discover that God is speaking new truth through it."

Reading the Bible in a "New Way" - Part One

The following is taken from a lecture by N.T. Wright concerning the "Authority of Scripture." He is encouraging Christians to read larger portions of scriptures so that Christians better understand the authority of the God's Holy Word. Hence, reading the Bible in a new manner not necessarily with different meaning. 


"In private reading, and in informal group meetings, we need again to experiment with new ways of reading scripture.  Anyone who has heard an entire biblical book read... will realize that such things as chapter-divisions, or almost any divisions at all, can be simply unhelpful.  

We need to recapture a sense of scripture as a whole, telling and retelling stories as wholes.  Only when you read Exodus as a whole (for example) do you realize the awful irony whereby the making of the golden calf is a parody of what God wanted the people to do with their gold and jewels . . . and only by reading Mark as a whole might you realize that, when the disciples ask to sit at Jesus’ right and left hand, they are indeed asking for something they do not understand."

Video - What would you do?

Difficult to watch, but may affect a significant change in your life. 

Please be at least 18 years old to watch. 

Click Here to Watch.

Love...

“Love is a commitment that will be tested in the most vulnerable areas of spirituality, a commitment that will force you to make some very difficult choices. It is a commitment that demands that you deal with your lust, your greed, your pride, your power, your desire to control, your temper, your patience, and every area of temptation that the Bible clearly talks about. It demands the quality of commitment that Jesus demonstrates in His relationship to us.” 
                                                                             -   Ravi Zacharias

Do You Believe in Evolution? The Evidence...

Refutable?

Click Here to See Evolution Video

Government

"Just because you do not take an interest in politics, it doesn't mean that politics won't take an interest in you!"
                                                                        - Pericles (430 BC) 

Silent Sermon

A member of the church, who previously had been attending services regularly, stopped going.  After a few weeks, the pastor decided to visit him.

It was a chilly evening.  The pastor found the man at home alone, sitting before a blazing fire.  Guessing the reason for his pastor's visit, the man welcomed him, led him to a comfortable chair near the fireplace and waited.

The pastor made himself at home but said nothing.  In the grave silence, he contemplated the dance of the flames around the burning logs.  After some minutes, the pastor took the fire tongs, carefully picked up a brightly burning ember and placed it to one side of the hearth all alone then he sat back in his chair, still silent.

The host watched all this in quiet contemplation.  As the one lone ember's flame flickered and diminished, there was a momentary glow and then its fire was no more.  Soon it was cold and dead.

Not a word had been spoken since the initial greeting.  The pastor glanced at his watch and realized it was time to leave.  He slowly stood up, picked up the cold, dead ember and placed it back in the middle of the fire.  Immediately it began to glow, once more with the light and warmth of the burning coals around it.

As the pastor reached the door to leave, his host said with a tear running down his cheek, 'Thank you so much for your visit and especially for the fiery sermon.  I will be back in church next Sunday.'