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“And He (Jesus) said to them, ‘Follow Me, and I will make you fishers
of men.” — Matthew 4:19
(NAS)
Click here to enlarge
These young men are slaves to the fishing industry on Lake Volta in
Ghana, West Africa. Some children are as young as 3 years old. They work 14-hour
days paddling fishing canoes and casting nets. Many of the children have
ringworm and parasites. They do not know their last name or age. Rescuing and
providing for abandoned, enslaved children in that country is the goal of
Johnbull and Stacy Omorefe of Sioux Falls, S.D., through their City of Refuge
Ministries.
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Christ changes woman who was on drugs and married to a drug dealer.
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Growing Ministry: Living Stones News – Good News for the Midwest
Volunteer delivery positions: LSN needs delivery persons for West Duluth
and South Superior, If you have an hour or two a month and would like to help
get the LSN newspaper out, we invite you join the LSN family.
Advertising salespersons wanted: Want to earn extra cash each month? Come
sell advertising for growing Christian newspaper ministry — South Dakota,
Minnesota or Wisconsin. Paid commissions.
Volunteer managers for Resources Directory: LSN needs volunteers in the
Duluth, Minn., Grand Rapids, Minn., Chequamegon Bay, Wis., and Sioux Falls,
S.D., areas to manage online Christian resources that help people, such as
books, support groups and links to major ministries.
Contact Corinne Scott at (218) 728-4945, (605) 336-6870 or e-mail
Corinne for more
information.
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In his search, a student found Jesus Christ and a new way of living
BY Joseph Rodgers –Senior and a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ
chapter at Northland College in Ashland, Wis.
"And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." Revelations 12:11
The above verse is the premise for this short epistle. God is spirit, and he
seeks those who will worship him in spirit and truth--something I have learned
to do more and more over the past two and a half years because of what Jesus
Christ, Son of the living God, did for the world over 2,000 years ago.
The workings of the "Eternal Spirit" are very profound if one will choose to
meditate on them. The Law and the prophets testified to the coming of the Christ
thousands of years before He came, and here I am, thousands of years after the
death, burial and resurrection of our Lord, contemplating and submitting to the
same Spirit and living the same Most Holy Faith as the patriarchs, prophets of
old and even our Lord.
Death came into the world because of Adam's sin. Moses said that the sins of the
father will be passed down to the third and fourth generation. The atonement of
Jesus Christ's death on the cross is the only thing which can break this cycle.
Without it, we are just "born into sin." We might as well eat, drink and be
merry for tomorrow we die.
Even a child is known by his works. When I was a child, I certainly was known by
my works. I was not what you would call a sweet little boy. I knew what was
right and wrong; however, most of the time I chose wrong. I did not have my head
put on straight, nor did I care. As I entered high school, I had a big chip on
my shoulder. Being a basketball star and all, nothing was going to stop me,
right?
Well, without getting into too many graphic details, the Lord humbled me in a
very personal and special way. He took one of my inner, personal sins and made
it public. At the time I did not fully understand what was going on, but now as
I look back, I can see the Lord working in my life. To make a long story short,
I was publicly embarrassed. As with anyone, this humbled me fairly quickly. I no
longer looked to others for my support or joy; I had nowhere else to turn except
the Lord.
For a short time I was seeking the Lord. Up until my junior year in high school,
I took the goodness of the Lord for granted. I was at a different school. It
took me a while to fit into the crowd. I did it by conforming to their ways of
drinking and smoking marijuana. I was now a big basketball star, cool dude, weed
smoker. My life could not be any better. Or so I thought. I had a girlfriend at
the time, who is now going to be my wife, Praise the Lord. We did everything
together, even smoking marijuana. We were wicked people, no life or light, just
darkness. We were in love and going to get married.
As I look back, now I can see what Solomon is trying to tell us in the book of
Proverbs about the adulterous woman. "Her steps lead to death." And to death was
where I was led. When I entered college, the marijuana smoking had gotten out of
control. I went from smoking marijuana every weekend to smoking it everyday. I
even tried to quit several times on my own. Surprise, surprise, it didn't work!
I began to seek the Lord again. Every once in while I would pick up my Bible and
read it. These incidents became more frequent. I even had an argument with my
brother that looking at women lustfully was a sin even before I was re-born. The
Lord was beginning to show me some things.
When the planes hit the World Trade Center, my mind was suddenly moving 100 mph.
I wanted to know why those planes hit the building, why people would do it in
the name of God, nonetheless, and how this affected me. These are the questions
I had.
I began to read up on Islam, Christianity, and Judaism. I was seeking pure
knowledge. I have done a Google search on everything from Aliens, to Church
History, back to Aliens. You name a crazy topic; I have most likely done a
Google search on it.
For the next year and a half, I would use weed and Google to float my spiritual
boat. In the process I ran into a person; His name was Jesus Christ. He taught
me about forgiveness, repentance, and holiness. He loved me enough to show me
that if I continued to live the way I was living, I was going to hell and burn
for an eternity. I cried before the Lord begging for forgiveness, and it was
granted because I had repented. I had come to the Lord out of a broken heart
that He longed to fix. I went from being a selfish person to a loving person, a
sinner transformed into a saint. That is what the love of God does; it
transforms lives. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, "Therefore if any man is
in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away, behold, new things
have come." Praise the Lord! I have been guilt-free and blameless for the past
two-and-a-half years. By his grace and my willing spirit, I will be able to
continue in him for the rest of my life. Worthy is the lamb that was slain.
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Campus Crusade for Christ at Northland College (Ashland, Wis)
What’s this whole Campus Crusade for Christ thing about?
By Willeum Edward Boykin
I once heard a person declare, "God is a crutch!" As one raised in a
Christ-following home, at first I was repulsed. But then I thought it over and
decided that yeah, God does kinda act like a crutch. We have all been injured or
hurt in some way, no one is perfect; every human can be identified as deficient
in some way. So why do our souls automatically yearn to attain such unachievable
perfection? My answer: the conscience within us that constantly reminds us of
our imperfection was deposited by God, to remind us that we need Him.
Campus Crusade for Christ, Intl., is an organization that was formed to help
spread a message of hope. According to the analogy above, basically everyone is
a cripple. Every person is either lost, misled, confused, inaccurate,
insufficient, inadequate, incapable, or etcetera. We, the group at Northland
College, believe that God made everyone; He loves you a lot and has awesome
plans for your life. Deposited within each person is a spirit that identifies
sin. This way, it is inborn to know right from wrong, and sinful men and women
not only sin against God, but against themselves. Such rebellion permanently
separates humanity from God’s awesome plans and renders us incapable of properly
accepting His love. Fortunately, Love came to our rescue by humiliatingly
condescending to human form, emotionally painfully living a lowly human life,
and physically and mentally painfully dying the death designed for the world’s
crimes. This same Jesus Christ lovingly led His newly forgiven followers out of
shame and back to perfection in God by completely reviving after being dead for
days. This is good news for everyone!
If you can consider yourself as being brassy, bossy, bashful, blank,
undisciplined, unsympathetic, unenthusiastic, unforgiving, reluctant, resentful,
resistant, repetitious, fussy, fearful, forgetful, frank, impatient, insecure,
indecisive, interruptive, unpopular, uninvolved, unpredictable, unaffectionate,
headstrong, haphazard, irritable, hard-to-please, hesitant, plain, pessimistic,
proud, permissive, easily-angered, aimless, argumentative, alienated, naive,
having a negative attitude, nervy, nonchalant, a worrier, withdrawn, a
workaholic, careless, a moocher, too sensitive, tactless, timid, talkative,
doubtful, disorganized, domineering, depressed, inconsistent, an introvert,
intolerant, indifferent, messy, moody, a mumbler, manipulative, slow, stubborn,
a show-off, a loner, a lord over others, lazy, loud, sluggish, suspicious,
short-tempered, scatterbrained, revengeful, restless, reluctant, rash,
compromising, critical, crafty, or changeable*, and can identify any negative
connotation to any of those traits, you can consider yourself a cripple as well.
The message of hope offered is that you are not doomed or fated to be crippled
forever. The good news that we bring declares that even freethinking Northland
College students can be made whole and justified—just as if they had never
sinned!
The popular acronym SEEDS is our regular large group meeting of "Spiritually
Enhanced, Energetic DiscipleS" of Christ that features singing and dancing to
God; snacks for the hungry and games for the bored; mingling, hanging out, and
meeting new friends; and most importantly, the message of hope that can save
your life and change it for the best. Our first SEEDS event of the second
semester and of the year 2004 was held Friday, Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. in the Alvord
Theatre. This was also our first use of the Alvord and our first use of a DVD
player for a video and audio approach to message relay. A lot of other firsts
occurred that night. I personally enjoyed myself more than ever before, even
though the other meetings were good too. The food was good, the video was
hilarious, and the camaraderie and casual socializing, as usual, was the best
part. I will constantly encourage anyone and everyone who might consider coming
to attend an entire session some time before the end of this school year.
Northland College Campus Crusade for Christ is a subgroup within the collegiate
ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ International (CCCI). We represent both
Northland College and CCCI. Our group provides regular opportunities for study
and discussion of the Bible. We worship and pray together and enjoy fun
fellowship with friends who share a common interest, consequently providing a
haven of encouragement and for spiritual development among the Northland College
student body, all in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and savior. There is
SEEDS and there are several Bible studies, conferences (e.g. Fall Conference and
Christmas Conference), and campus events such as daily morning prayer that
people may be interested in. I encourage you to join the excitement and look
into what Love has to offer.
* These characteristics are not all necessarily bad.
Shafeekah Abdul-Rahim –Sophomore
A testimony from a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ chapter at
Northland College in Ashland, Wis.
Before I accepted Christ, I was a Muslim, and I didn't really get into any kind
of trouble; I was pretty good. In 1999 my mother started going back to church,
and she dragged my sisters and I along with her, against our will. It drove me
crazy, but now that I think about it, I'm happy she did.
Anyway in 2000, she made me attend a winter camp with the church youth group,
and it was there I accepted Christ into my life. That next several months were a
struggle for me getting used to this idea of having a relationship with God and
the whole forgiveness thing. It seemed too easy, and for a long time, I was very
frustrated with God. But, I got a little older in Christ and was able to finally
accept that He loved me and wanted what was best for me.
And for a while it was good. I'd accepted Christ, but I had this kind of
half-way committed relationship. I talked to Him now and then, read the Bible a
bit and continued to do whatever else I wanted. I was content. And then I became
a senior in high school and decided I wanted to go into the military instead of
going to college. So I started my application for the Air Force. The first red
light I got was when they told me they wanted me to lie about my asthma. If I'd
been listening instead of ignoring Him, I would have realized God was telling me
the military was a no go. But I was being hard headed.
Long story short, for the next five months or so, I butted heads with God, and I
learned that trying to go against what God wants only gives you a headache and
you really don't get anywhere. So I finally gave in, and came to Northland
College in Ashland, Wis.
But, I guess I was still a little angry at God for not letting me have my way
because I more or less ignored Him that whole first semester. I did whatever I
wanted. And he let me. But by the time the second half of the year started, I
was miserable. I felt like dirt; I didn't like myself at all. About two or three
weeks after returning from break, I'd sunken as low as I could possibly sink and
gave up.
Deciding to do things God's way was not and is not easy. I had to get rid of
things and people I knew God didn't want for me but that I wanted for me. I had
to stop making excuses for doing things that I knew God was telling me not to
do. And I had to stop ignoring Him. I started to reading the Bible, by myself
and with other people, and plugged into a women's bible study as well. I started
talking to God again.
It's still not easy, but it's better. The other day I was sitting and wondering
to myself why God does things the way He does them. I was trying to figure out,
in particular, why I had asthma and how that could possibly be helpful to me in
anyway. And then I realized that it was my asthma that set off a whole chain of
events that led me to where I am today.
If I'd continued to be asthma free throughout high school, I would've gone
straight into the Air Force and all this that happened wouldn't have. I never
would have met them my friends from small group who I talk to about what God
wants from us and why. I have three new big brothers who encourage me to
actually read the Bible myself and never tell me what I want to hear but what I
need to hear. I never would've met them either. And though I'm sure I would've
found my way back to God eventually, I'm grateful He put me in a place He knew
I'd find my way back to Him without getting too beat up in the process.
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