The Stromwall's

Read this from John C. Maxwell on Leadership – Promises for Every Day

So Aaron and his sons did all the things that the LORD had commanded by the hand of Moses.

Lev 8:36

Aaron, like many leaders through history, received a divine calling. God chose Aaron and his sons to serve as Israel’s priests and charged them with carrying out rituals and sacrifices on behalf of all Israelites. Scripture gives meticulous detail to their ordination and calling. Their conduct was to be beyond reproach – God made it crystal clear that failure to uphold His established guidelines would result in death.

Despite his high calling, Aaron at times struggled with his authority. He once caved into the depraved wishes of the people and led Israel in a pagan worship service, an abomination that led to the deaths of many Israelites. Aaron had been set apart for God’s service, but on that occasion, he chose to live and lead otherwise.

The failure of a leader usually results in consequences far more grave that the fall of a non-leader; On the day Aaron failed, “about three thousand men of the people fell [died] ” (Exodus 32:28). When leaders fall, followers also pay the price.

Team,

It’s amazing to see the gospel going forth to all the nations. I want to train up men that would be the “goers” for world evangelism!

This message was from our pastor Tom Steller –

The Kachin are a “christianized people” with an amazing history and so many wonderful evidences of grace and God’s preservation.  But there is much nominalism and shallow understanding of the Gospel among so many of them.  Bethlehem continues to have an open door to influence them.  God helped me as I preached to over 10,000 Kachin on Sunday (see photo).  I challenged them to remain faithful to the Scriptures which took Ola Hanson 38 years to translate for them.

One of the highlights was seeing 2,899 Kachin get baptized!  It was incredible to see, and perplexing at the same time.  How many really understood what was happening?  It’s dangerous to be part of a culture that says, “To be Kachin is to be Christian.” Aids and alcoholism is a scourge to many.  But there is a fervent devotion to Christ among a significant number.  They are strategically positioned to reach many unreached peoples in India and China as well as the millions of Burmese Buddhists in their own country.

One of the joys I had was to meet with the man who has devoted countless hours to translating Grudem’s Systematic Theology into Kachin (see attached picture).  He’s finished with the first draft (all hand written). Now he will enter it into the computer and prepare it for publication.  Pray that he doesn’t lose this one and only copy!  Theological books in Kachin are very rare. So this book has the potential of filling a huge void.

I am reminded of the importance to fight sin at the root level. How often do we find ourselves struggling with surface level issues, when in reality there is something much deeper at work.

Please take 30 minutes and listen to this sermon on Battling Unbelief in Anxiety from John Piper:

http://www.desiringgod.org/resourcelibrary/sermons/bydate/1988/652_Battling_the_Unbelief_of_Anxiety/