Happy Pentecost Day!

A Blessed and Wonderful Pentecost Day to all our brothers and sisters in Christ, as we celebrate together with our Chief Apostle Leber and the Apostles who will be serving on this special day in Chicago, USA. This service will be transmitted to several congregations within the USA and Canada districts and can also be viewed online via webcast Here. May we be inspired by the message today, to continue in Faith and Commitment to do God's work as devotedly as the members of the early Christian church.

(Chief Apostle Leber)

Greeting Word Pentecost 2008
"Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." (1. John 4:11)

Pentecost

"What is Pentecost Sunday?"
Pentecost Sunday is a commemoration and celebration of the receiving of the Holy Spirit by the early church. John the Baptist prophesied of the first Pentecost where Jesus would baptize with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11). Jesus confirmed this prophesy with the promise of the Holy Spirit to the disciples in John 14:26. He showed Himself to these men after His death on the cross and His Resurrection, giving convincing proofs that He was alive. Jesus told the disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Father’s gift of the Holy Spirit, from whom they would receive power to be His witnesses to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:3-8). After Jesus’ ascension to heaven, the men returned to Jerusalem and joined together in prayer in an upper room. On the Day of Pentecost, just as promised, a violent wind filled the house and tongues of fire came to rest on each of them and all were filled with the Holy Spirit. They were given the power of communication which Peter used to begin the ministry for which Jesus had prepared him. After the coming of the Holy Spirit, the disciples did not stay in the room basking in God’s glory but burst out to tell the world. This was the beginning of the Church as we know it.Today, in many Christian churches, Pentecost Sunday is celebrated to recognize the gift of the Holy Spirit, realizing that God’s very life, breath and energy lives in believers. During this service, John 20:19-23 may be the core of the message about our risen Savior supernaturally appearing to the fear-laden disciples. Their fear gave way to joy when the Lord showed them His hands and side. He assured them peace and repeated the command given in Matthew 28:19-20 saying; “as the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Then He breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit (John 20:21-23).The celebration of Pentecost Sunday reminds us of the reality that we are all have the unifying Spirit that was poured out upon the first century church in Acts 2:1-4. It is a reminder that we are co-heirs with Christ, to suffer with Him that we may also be glorified with Him; that the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good (1 Corinthians 12:7); that we are all baptized by one Spirit into one body (1 Corinthians 12:13); and that the Spirit which raised Jesus from the dead lives inside believers (Romans 8:9-11). This gift of the Holy Spirit that was promised and given to all believers on the first Pentecost is promised for you and your children and for all who are far off whom the Lord our God will call (Acts 2:39).

Recommended Resource: Balancing the Christian Life by Charles Ryrie.

Prepatory Message for Pentecost

Message From District Apostle Kolb

Please click on the image below to download and view a Pentecost 2009 preparatory message from the District Apostle Kolb.

LOL

Three Hymns...

...One Sunday a pastor told his congregation that the church needed some extra money and asked the people to prayerfully consider giving a little extra in the offering plate. He said that whoever gave the most would be able to pick out three hymns.
After the offering plates were passed, the pastor glanced down and noticed that someone had placed a $1,000 bill in offering. He was so excited that he immediately shared his joy with his congregation and said he'd like to personally thank the person who placed the money in the plate.
And there sat our Rosie all the way in the back shyly raised her hand. The pastor asked her to come to the front. Slowly she made her way to the pastor. He told her how wonderful it was that she gave so much and in thanksgiving asked her to pick out three hymns.
Her eyes brightened as she looked over the congregation, pointed to the three most handsome men in the building and said, "I'll take him and him and him!"

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NAC International Reports

Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber sends Pentecost greetings around the whole world! (19.05.2009)

The Chicago skyline (photo: NAC USA)

Outside the American continents, this year’s Pentecost divine service will once again play out in the familiar circle of each home congregation, something that has not happened for quite some time. This year, the Pentecost divine service conducted by Chief Apostle Wilhelm Leber will be transmitted beyond national borders by satellite to congregations throughout North and South America. The international Church leader is expected in Rosemont near Chicago (USA). The divine service will take place in the Rosemont Theatre and will be transmitted to Canada, the USA, and a number of countries in South America.
Chief Apostle Leber sends a special Pentecost greeting to all congregations around the world, and writes as follows:
My dear brethren in faith and dear friends of our Church,
I wish all of you a richly blessed Pentecost, filled with much peace and joy out of the Holy Spirit. I will conduct this year’s Pentecost divine service in Chicago (USA), and will thus be serving our members in the American continents. Nevertheless, I remain closely connected with all Apostles around the world. The power of the Holy Spirit will bind us together such that there will be nothing lacking anywhere.
It is always quite impressive to read the biblical account concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost. The account ends by relating that the disciples continued “praising God and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved” (Acts 2: 47). We can understand this as follows: the congregation of the time looked up to God in gratitude, and possessed a special “radiating power” that emanated from the members toward the outside world. That was the work of the Holy Spirit! It is my wish that we too may have such a special “radiating power”, such that the effect of the Holy Spirit may become more and more clearly visible.
I send you my greetings and assure you of my prayers. I intercede especially for those who are lonely and those who are sad. May the Holy Spirit lead you onward and upward!
Yours,
Wilhelm Leber

For last year’s Pentecost celebration the Church president came to Berlin, where all but two of the Apostles of Europe had gathered together. The divine service took place in the congregation of Berlin-Lichtenberg, and some 1.5 million members from around the world participated in the divine service by satellite transmission. The Chief Apostle’s message of greeting for Pentecost 2008 was: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another” (1 John 4: 11).

LOL

God is Watching

Children were lined up in the cafeteria of a Christian school for lunch. At the head of the table was a large pile of apples. Someone had written a note and placed it next to the apples. It read, "Take only one, God is watching."
Moving through the line, to the other end of the table, was a large pile of chocolate chip cookies.
One little boy wrote his own note and snuck it next to the cookies, "Take all you want, God is watching the apples."

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"And Forgive Us Our Debts..."

"How can I forgive those who sin against me?"

Everyone has been wronged, offended, and sinned against at some point. How are Christians to respond when such offenses occur? According to the Bible, we are to forgive. Ephesians 4:32 declares, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” Similarly, Colossians 3:13 proclaims, “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.” The key in both Scriptures is that we are to forgive others as God has forgiven us. Why do we forgive? Because we have been forgiven! Those who are not Christians, however, have not been forgiven by God and have neither the power nor the desire to forgive others. Forgiveness would be simple if we only had to grant it to those who come asking for it in sorrow and repentance. The Bible tells us that we are to forgive, without condition, those who sin against us. Refusing to truly forgive a person demonstrates resentment, bitterness, and anger, none of which are the traits of a true Christian. In the Lord's Prayer, we ask God to forgive us our sins, just as we forgive those who sin against us (Matthew 6:12). Jesus said in Matthew 6:14-15, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” In light of other Scriptures that speak of God’s forgiveness, Matthew 6:14-15 is best understood to be saying that people who refuse to forgive others have not truly experienced God’s forgiveness themselves.Whenever we disobey one of God's commands, we sin against Him. Whenever we wrong another person, we not only sin against that person, but also against God. When we consider the extent to which God forgives all our transgressions, we realize that we do not have the right to withhold this grace from others. We have sinned against God infinitely more than any person can sin against us. If God forgives us of so much, how can we refuse to forgive others of so little? Jesus’ parable in Matthew 18:23-35 is a powerful illustration of this truth. God promises that when we come to Him asking for forgiveness, He freely grants it (1 John 1:9). The forgiveness we extend should know no limits, in the same way that God's forgiveness is limitless (Luke 17:3-4).

Recommended Resource: The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness by John MacArthur.

LOL

How Do I Get into Heaven?

A teacher asked the children in her Sunday School class, "If I sold my house and my car, had a big garage sale and gave all my money to the church, would I get into heaven?"
"NO!" the children all answered.
"If I cleaned the church every day, mowed the yard, and kept everything neat and tidy, would I get into heaven?"
Again, the answer was "NO!"
"Well," she continued, "then how can I get to heaven?"
In the back of the room, a five-year-old boy shouted out, "You gotta be dead!"

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NAC International

NAC around the world

The New Apostolic Church can be found all over the world. In order to give you a better picture of this global community, various regional churches now provide local information on their own websites. (Read more)

© 2008 New Apostolic Church International

(NAC) - info@nak.org- Contact - last update: 24.09.2008 -

LOL

A Sure Cure
Three Pastors in the south were having lunch in a diner.
One said "Ya know, since summer started I've been having trouble with bats in my loft and attic at church. I've tried everything--noise, spray, cats--nothing seems to scare them away.
Another said "Yea, me too. I've got hundreds living in my belfry and in the narthex attic. I've even had the place fumigated, and they won't go away."
The third said, "I baptized all mine, and made them members of the church... Haven't seen one back since!!!"

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NAC Current Word of the Month

May 2009: PRAYING means asking about the will of God

Apostle Paul gave the Christians in his time the advice: “Pray without ceasing!” It must have been clear to him that no one would have been able to spend the entire day engrossed in prayer. Nevertheless, we can always seek a connection to the Lord.
No morning should begin without prayer. As soon as we get out of bed, we immediately kneel and pray – if possible, with the whole family. And at night we do the same: before going to bed we kneel and pray. That is something that we can do regularly every day. We also pray before meals: we thank God for the food and ask for His blessing upon it. That is how I understand the concept of regular prayer. But to “pray without ceasing” can also imply that we continually send our thoughts to our heavenly Father and that we repeatedly ask the Lord what His will holds for us.
When a young man meets a girl and falls in love, he may well ask himself the question whether this is going to be his partner for life. Why not ask God what He thinks first? It also works the other way around. After having fallen in love, a young lady can also ask God if this man is the right one. If we do this in faith, we will receive an answer from the Lord. He thus permits us to make experiences of faith and we will receive a clear indication whether this is the right one or not.
The Apostle goes on to recommend: “In everything give thanks.” If we pray without ceasing, and we experience our faith as a result, we will also find it possible to be thankful. The more we pay attention to the ways in which God intervenes in our lives and paves the ways for us, the more thankful we will be. On one occasion Apostle Paul and his companion Silas were cast into prison. About midnight they began to praise and thank God. They knew that they were in the hand of God. They knew that no one would be able to do them any harm without the permission of God. Suddenly the earth began to shake, and their chains fell from them. A moment later, the doors burst open and they were free.
When we praise the Lord and give thanks to Him we too can experience His miracles.
(From a divine service by the Chief Apostle)

LOL

Father Murphy

Father Murphy walked into a pub and said to the first man he met, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
The man replied, "I do Father."
The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall."
Then the priest asked a second man, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
"Certainly, Father," was the man's reply.
The priest said, "Then stand over there against the wall."
Then Father Murphy walked up to O'Toole and said, "Do you want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole said, "No, I don't Father."
The priest said, "I don't believe this. You mean to tell me that when you die you don't want to go to heaven?"
O'Toole said, "Oh, when I die, yes. I thought you were getting a group together to go right now."

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Guyana Music Festival 2009 (Opening Night)

Guyana Music Festival 2009 - NAC Choir "Prepare Thyself Zion"

Guyana Music Festival 2009 - NAC Choir "Come Let Us Sing"

Scenes from Guyana Music Festival Pt. 2

Featured Christian Celebrity of the Week

Bishop T.D. Jakes
Thomas Dexter June 9, 1957 in South Charleston, West Virginia to Ernest Jakes, Sr., a janitor and entrepreneur, and Odith, an educator. Even as a child he was known in his West Virginian neighborhood as "the Bad Bible boy." He was also told he would never be able to preach because of his "bad" lisp. Shortly after his father's death from kidney failure, Jakes decided to go into ministry. In 1979, with very little funds of his own and with only ten initial members, he founded Greater Emmanuel Temple of Faith as a storefront church in Montgomery, West Virginia. Jakes maintained his day job digging ditches in order to support his ministry until the church was able to support him. During its first 10 years, the church grew to over 1,000 members. In 1982, Jakes turned to full-time ministry...Read more

Featured Bible Character of the Week

Moses
According to the book of Exodus, Moses was born in a time when war threatened and the large increase in the number of his people concerned the Pharaoh who was worried that they might help Egypt's enemies. His Hebrew mother, Jochebed, hid him when the Pharaoh ordered all newborn Hebrew boys to be killed, and he ended up being adopted into the Egyptian royal family. After killing an Egyptian slave-master, Moses fled across the Red Sea to Midian where he tended the flocks of Jethro, a priest of Midian on the slopes of Mt. Horeb. After the Ten Plagues were unleashed on Egypt, Moses led the Hebrew slaves out of Egypt, across the Red Sea, where they based themselves at Horeb and compassed the borders of Edom. It was at this time, that according to the Bible, Moses received the Ten Commandments. Despite living to 120, Moses died before reaching the Land of Israel...Read more

LOL

MISSING JESUS
It was Palm Sunday, and the family's 6-year old son had to stay home from church because of strep throat. When the rest of the family returned home carrying palm branches, the little boy asked what they were for. His mother explained, "People held them over Jesus' head as he walked by."
"Wouldn't you know it," the boy fumed. "The one Sunday I don't go to church, and Jesus shows up!

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"Is the Devil...

/ Satan a person or a force / personification of evil?"

Although he has persuaded many people that he doesn't even exist, Satan very definitely is a real, personal being, the fountainhead of all unbelief and of every kind of moral and spiritual evil in the world. He is called by various names in the Bible, including Satan (meaning, “adversary”—Job 1:6; Romans 16:20; etc.), the devil (i.e., “slanderer”—Matthew 4:1; 1 Peter 5:8; etc.), Lucifer (Isaiah 14:12), the serpent (2 Corinthians 11:3; Revelation 12:9; etc.), and many others.To the Christian, the existence of Satan as a real person is proved by the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ recognized him as such. He referred to him frequently by name (e.g., Luke 10:18; Matthew 4:10; etc.) and indeed called him “the prince of this world” (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11).The Apostle Paul called him the “god of this world” (2 Corinthians 4:4) and the “prince of the power of the air” (Ephesians 2:2). The Apostle John said, “The whole world is under the control of the evil one” (1 John 5:19) and that he is the one “that leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9). These could hardly be the descriptions of a force or a mere personification of evil.The Scriptures teach that, before man and the world were created, God had created an “innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22), a heavenly host of spiritual beings, of great strength and intelligence. The highest of these beings are the cherubim, who are attendants at the very throne of God, and the “anointed cherub” at that throne was originally Satan himself (Ezekiel 28:14). He was “full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.” God did not create Satan as an evil being, however. The angels, like man, were created as free spirits, not as unthinking machines. They were fully able to reject God’s will and rebel against His authority if they should chose to do so.The root of all sin, in both man and angels, is the twin sin of unbelief and pride—the refusal to submit to God’s will as revealed by His own Word and the accompanying assertion of self-sufficiency which enthrones the creature and his own will in the place of God. This was the original sin of Satan, rejecting God’s Word and trying to become God himself. He said in his heart, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God . . . I will be like the most High” (Isaiah 14:13,14). Again, these could hardly be the actions or motivations of an impersonal force.Jesus also told us of some of the characteristics of Satan. Christ said he was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him, and that when he speaks he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44).It is crucial that Christians recognize the reality of Satan in this world and understand that he prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). It is impossible to overcome sin and temptation from the devil by ourselves, but Scripture tells us how be strong. We need to put on the full armor of God daily to be able to stand our ground against temptation (Ephesians 6:13) from the very personal being, Satan.

Recommended Resource: The Serpent of Paradise by Erwin Lutzer.

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When I am Weak...

...Then I am Strong

As humans we all carry weaknesses in us and that is what makes us so imperfect. As Christians are goal is towards perfection but how can we be perfect when we carry this mortal body. This body of mine is full of weaknesses. The Apostle Paul had a weakness for pride and that is why God gave him a thorn in the flesh. He was blameless before the law but God gave him so much revelation that he was tempted to let pride in his life. He wanted God to remove the things in his life that were troubling him but God only said, “My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.” It seems that our weaknesses can really be our strengths when we allow God to show his strength through them. When we surrender our shortcomings to God, He turns them around and makes them our greatest assets. Paul said, “Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ’s sake : for whem I am weak, then I am strong.” What are the things in your life that bring you to your knees? What are the things that bring you down, that trip you and make you fall? We have to stop fighting our weaknesses and instead hand them over to God in surrender for God’s strength is made perfect in our weaknesses when we entrust them to Him. When Christ’s power rests in us, we will glory in our weaknesses for we know they are now our greatest strengths. Our weaknesses provide God an opportunity to show his strength in our life. As Jesus said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God” The rich young ruler had a weakness for wealth but he could not surrender it to God. It may seem impossible to overcome somethings in your life but when you learn to surrender them to God they will turn to be the shining spots in your life.

LOL

Liquid, Fragile or Perishable...?

When a woman decided to send the old family Bible to her brother in another state, the postal worker asked her if there was anything breakable in the package. "Only the Ten Commandments," she replied.

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