Deadmen's Bones

Deadmen's Bones The following work is not meant to discourage new believers from the gospel of Christ. Most ministers out there are truly trying to serve God. There are others out there though who are using the ministry simply as a career choice and others who are using it as scheme to get rich just like all of the pyramid or ponzie schemes out there. That is where we must use the gift of discernment that God gave us to see who is true to the Word, so that we can weed out those servants of the enemy who would sell our very souls to make a buck. Thank you for your spiritual support of this ministry. I hope this will open some people's eye without discouraging anyone from coming to know true Christianity and not that false doctrine that many are selling. God bless you my friends. You preach an empty message asking for my money Telling me all about how you can save me But you're feeding me a filthy bag of lies Selling me your false Christianity You tell us we need to be giving more to the Lord You keep on taking up your supposed offering But you're the one that's stealing from our God And only He knows the things that you'll be suffering You should never charge for the Holy Word of God But you've put a pricetag on the gospel of Christ You're robbing from the poor to keep yourself rich Your whole ministry just an elaborate hiest You're using the hearts of the believers Making merchandise of their faith You're toying with their very souls At what point did you lose your way Once you preached a message of peace And warned people of the danger of their sin But now you just tickle their ears with your speach And pass around the offering plate again You've got so many fooled in your flock A modern day wolf in sheep's clothing You make easy prey of innocent souls But in the end you'll recieve God's loathing You were once a man of God until you let greed come in And so easily you let the devil get inside You once had a heart of gold so full of the Word But it's the place where you've allowed the enemy to reside For all the TV cameras and your latest book covers Youre appearance is always so holy and so nice But you're leading God's people so far astray You preach not the gospel but a pack of lies You look all clean and polished on the outside All of these thousand dollar suits you own So ornate like whitewashed tombs But on the inside you're full of deadmen's bones Pete 6-16-11

Discipleship Through Grace

Discipleship Through Grace The Great Commission (Discipleship Through Grace) Matthew 28:16-20 New King James Version (NKJV) 16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. This is the Word of God, For us the people of God, Thanks be to God. I was so very happy to see this scripture when I looked up the Lectionary for this week. I think everybody has certain scriptures that stick with them throughout their lives and this is one of those for me. I want to first discuss the setting in which this is taking place and what it meant to Jesus' apostles and disciples at that time. Then I want to discuss what it means to us today as Jesus modern day disciples. The events of this scripture are taking place just before Jesus is to ascend into heaven and take His place at the right hand of our Father God. As we all know, the last words we hear from someone as they are leaving our lives whether for a short time or in some cases permanently are very important to us and often stick with us for the rest of our lives. For Jesus disciples, this is such an event. He is returning to His heavenly home and though He will always be with them in spirit as He is with us all, Jesus will no longer be with them physically. It is time for them to take up the lead of His ministry here on earth themselves and spread it throughout the world. It's no small undertaking by any means and also one that will be faced with opposition at every turn. Afterall, the Jewish authorities who had sent Jesus to the cross for crucifixion were already hunting them and trying to put an end to their ministry. This was a time of goodbye for the disciples and the time for Jesus to give them His final instructions on carrying out the ministry. 16 Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. 17 When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. The scriptures state in verse sixteen that their were eleven disciples at this point. Judas Iscariot, who was one of the original twelve apostles had betrayed Jesus to the Jewish leaders and lead them to Him to be arrested. Afterward, Judas had gone outside of the city and committed suicide. The election of Matthias by the other disciples to take Judas' place in the ministry had not yet taken place and the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who would later be known as the apostle Paul hadn't happened yet either. The verse also tells us that his gathering with our Lord takes place at Galilee. This is after Christ has already appeared to His disciples in Jerusalem as it is written in Mark Chapter 16, Luke Chapter 24, and in John Chapter 20. Jesus had first appeared to ten of the eleven remaining apostles in the place they had assembled in secret for fear of the Jewish officials having them arrested for being Jesus' followers. This is the occasion where Jesus had appeared in their midst and startled them until He told them 'Peace be with you' and showed them His scars so that they would know it was Him and not some spirit. When they knew it was their Lord He then breathed on them and told them to receive the Holy Spirit. After He left them, the eleventh apostles, Thomas came in, but would not believe what they were telling him. He even made the statement "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe." When Jesus appeared again eight days later to all eleven apostles He confronted the apostle Thomas who did not believe Christ was resurrected even though He had already been seen by Mary Magdalene outside the tomb, by the other ten apostles, and by the two pilgrims on their walk to Emmaus. As we know, he was the original doubting Thomas. He finally believed when our Lord appeared before Him and told him "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!" I'm going into all of this detail because verse seventeen states: When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. You see, this was not referring to doubt among the eleven apostles who were in attendance at this gathering, but it referred to some of the hundreds that were there. The apostles were not alone at Galilee. The scripture in Matthew tells us that Jesus had instructed the eleven to gather there, but in 1 Corinthians 15:6 we are told After that He was seen by over five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have fallen asleep. So, the resurrected Jesus was seen by over five hundred people at once before He ascended into heaven. At this point, His closest follower knew who He was and believed without a doubt the He was the Christ, He was the Son of God in the flesh and they would follow His every instruction. Verse eighteen states: And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Jesus is telling those gathered what we today already know. The Father in heaven had given the Son all authority to rule over heaven and earth and under this authority His followers were to carry out all of His instructions. In verses nineteen and twenty Jesus gives out the great commission: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. For these original disciples, this meant that they were no longer to only preach to the Jewish people who were God's chosen people, but they were to take the 'good news' to the gentiles throughout the world as well, Just as Jesus Himself had done with the Samaritan woman at the well. From that moment on, all people were to be given the opportunity for salvation and the forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. This commission was for the eleven apostles and all the rest of Christ's disciples gathered there at Galilee that day and still holds true to all of His disciples two thousand years later. These verses also give us the confirmation of the Holy Trinity. Though the word trinity never appears in the bible, when the disciples are told to baptize in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Jesus is confirming the three persons that make up our God. The three that are at work in our bible from the first verses of Genesis to the last chapter of Revelations if you take a closer look. The same three parts of our God that are at work in our lives today as we carry on the furthering of God's kingdom here on earth and making of disciples as the apostles first did. So, how do we go forth and make disciples of all nations in world today? How do we witness the gospel of Jesus Christ resurrected to the people of our time? First and foremost we must first make disciples of ourselves. We must graduate from being a believer and a church member to being an actual disciple of Christ. We do this by keeping ourselves versed in God's holy Word reading out bible at home, as well as devotionals and other Christian publications, taking part in bible studies and Christian book studies at church, and getting involved in a Sunday school class. We should also have a healthy prayer life, and attend worship services regularly so that we can give praise back to God for all of His blessings in our lives and be in fellowship with our brothers and sisters in Christ. All of these things will assist us in become living, breathing examples of disciples of our Lord and Savior. After preparing ourselves, we can then go out into the world and begin to spread the gospel. For some of us, this will mean doing mission work in foreign lands, helping to feed starving people suffering through droughts, wars, and diseases, helping build shelter for the homeless and disaster victims, giving medical attention in places where there are no doctors, building churches for new believers, building schools for children who have never had the opportunity for an education, and most importantly, showing them that God and His people love them and have not forgotten them. This is one of the most powerful ways to bring more souls to believe in and to know Christ. This can change the hearts of those who worship pagan idols and deities and those who have no faith in anything at all. Not all of us are meant for this kind of mission work though. For many Christians, their mission work and discipleship efforts will take place in their own communities. It can be volunteering at their local food banks, homeless shelters, retirement centers, or childrens' homes. It could also be helping the elderly or disabled in their area through a community outreach program by way of a local civic organization or their home church like our own church has. Many of you make have already been doing mission work without even realizing it. At other times, witnessing the gospel of Christ can be something as simple as holding a door open for a stranger or having a kind word for the aggravated and underpaid clerk ringing up your purchase in the checkout lane at the store. Through these random acts of kindness, your efforts and growth toward a more Christlike way of life will show through and hopefully inspire those around you to want what you have by knowing Christ. In doing any or all of these things, we are showing the changes that the grace of God has made in our lives and how that grace continues to work in and shape our lives. I'm speaking of that preventient grace that comes before salvation. It was the spark that God put in our hearts to that led us to the Lord to begin with. It was that same preventient grace that kept us safe when we put ourselves in dangerous situations in which we could have harmed ourselves or others along the way, but because we were sheltered by God's own loving hand, that did not happen, so that we may serve the purpose He had for our lives today. There's also the justifying grace we experienced when we finally took Jesus into our hearts and said 'Lord doing everything my way just isn't working. It's time that I start doing it your way from now on'. This is the grace of conversion, of salvation, and of being born again. It doesn't mean we are perfect by any means. Receiving this grace means that from this time on, we are going to strive toward a more Christlike way of life. It means we have a lot of growing to do in order to become a whole person and an obedient servant of God. After we've received that justifying grace, we now are in the midst of sustaining grace. This is the grace that is active in our day to day lives. This is the kind of grace that includes doing the things that I discussed that make us a better disciple of Christ. It's staying versed in the scriptures, having an active prayer life, taking care of family and friends, being kind to strangers, worshiping with fellow believers, doing good works, and being that living example of what a Christian should be. We must work on ourselves continually and allow God to work on us continually as a part of this sustaining grace. After all, our Lord's brother James told us in the scriptures that 'For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also'. This doesn't mean we can earn grace through the works of our hands. It means that we will do these works out of the kindness of our heart because of the grace we have received from God above and through these grace driven works, we will go forth and make disciples of all the nations. Pete 6-19-11

The First Three Years

The First Three Years Hello brothers and sisters in Christ. I hope this message finds you well and prospering in your walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I want to thank all of you for your friendship, fellowship, and support of this ministry over the years. Whether you've been a friend of New Disciples for a few days or from the start, I honestly appreciate you all. You are truly all a blessing to me. June 11th, 2011 marked three years since I created the Myspace page that became an online ministry. These past few years have been an amazing journey. In the beginning, I faced a lot of doubt and skepticism for starting an online ministry. I often heard the comment "How does an online ministry work?" and at times, doubted it myself. There were times while I was continually searching for and adding friends to the Myspace and Facebook pages and building the website, that I would see very little feedback and get discouraged. Then I would get a comment on something I wrote, about how it encouraged or lifted up someone's spirit and I would be inspired and determined to push on and keep it going. It feels so good to know that God is working through you. There's no feeling like it! I know that it is what God is doing through me, not any work of my own that is touching people. Though the biggest part of the New Disciples Ministry is still the outreach and discipleship through the internet, my ministry work has gone well beyond the web now. About a year and a half ago, I got involved with the United Methodist Church through the church here in my hometown of Southmont, NC. Soon after I started attending Macedonia UMC, I was able to start teaching Sunday school regularly. I became a member of the Church and went through Lay Speaker training. As a Lay Speaker with the UMC, I'm certified to be in the pulpit, which gives me the oppurtunity to do liturgy during worship services and to fill in when the pastor is away or to be sent to other churches to do the same. It's been a great experience already that has helped me to continue to grow in my walk with Christ. I've also been afforded the oppurtunity to be on the Witnessing Commitee at our home church and on the Administrative board. Through my church family there, I've also been blessed by going on the Walk To Emmaus and becoming a part of the Piedmont Emmaus Community, which has given me more oppurtunities to minister to even more people. More recently, I've also been able to start teaching bible study at Naaman's Recovery Village at Ward Street Mission in High Point, NC. It's a recovery program for drug and alcohol addiction and is a part of a United Methodist Mission. Teaching the guys in the program there and fellowshipping with them has been a wonderful experience. Last, but certainly not least, I've also gotten involved with a ministry called Southmont Chapel. It's a ministry operated by a retired pastor and his wife who take donated clothes and hand them out to the needy in our community. They also buy milk to hand out as well. On Sunday afternoon's, they have an informal worship service as well. They have become dear friends and often times ask me to speak at the chapel. It's been an awesome experience. Lately, we've had the chance to witness to a young man who wanted a relationship with Christ, but wasn't sure of how and to witness to an older man who wasn't sure of his salvation. God just keeps blessing me with these chances to witness the gospel. So, although we still haven't gotten regular ministry gatherings or worship services started, this ministry has continued to grow and become involved with more and more ministries and when the time is right, the next steps will take place. It's been a very humbling and yet exciting experience since this ministry started, the past year and a half especially. Although there have been some very dark and trying times along the way, my faith in our risen Lord has gotten me and the ministry through it all. I thank God firstly for using such an imperfect sinner like me to further His kingdom as He has done these past few years. I also want to thank the friends and family who have helped me from time to time with the ministry over the years. I haven't forgotten any of you. At the moment though, I'm doing most of the ministry work myself, with some input from friends from time to time. I know in the future there will be more people to take part in New Disciples Ministry, but as the founder of it, I know it is my responsibilty to keep the ministry working in the right direction and functioning in a way that will help to furhter God's kingdom. Again, thank all of you for your support over the past three years and lets look forward to many more together in New Disciples Ministry and the ministries that it's linked to. As always, all praise to God and may the Lord bless all of you. Your brother in Christ, Norman L. 'Pete' Morrison. Pete 6-14-11

Peculiar

Peculiar I'm going old school on you this time and going with the King James Version of the scriptures. Some scriptures sound better in the old english language. This particular scripture was a favorite of the pastor of my old home church. He quoted it often and it stuck with me. Now, a few years later, it struck me to write about it. Here we go. I hope you enjoy. 1 Peter 2:9-10 (King James Version) 9But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; 10Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Are you a peculiar person? Are you a part of a chosen generation, a holy nation? Are you a member of a royal priesthood? These may seem like crazy questions at first, but when you dig into the scriptures, they make sense. First of all, what does it mean to be peculiar? It doesn't exactly sound like a compliment does it? The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines it as:1 characteristic of only one person, group, or thing : or 2 different from the usual or normal. So, is it a good thing to be 'peculiar'? Let's look at it like this. The first definition says it's a characteristic of only one person or group. When that one person is our God in the flesh, Jesus Christ and that group is the body of Christ, it's absolutely a 'good' thing. If you are peculiar in this manner, it means that your faith is showing through in your actions and in your works without even having to verbally proclaim that you are a Christian. That indeed is a good thing. The second definition is different from the usual or normal. Think of how our culture works today and what it values. You are considered successful if you have attained great material wealth. You're successful if you have a nice house, new car or cars, and a fat bank account and it doesn't matter who you had to double-cross or run over to get there. Often times you are even praised for being good at deceitful, calculating, and merciless actions in business and in life. Would being considered unusual be a wonderful compliment in this instance? Wouldn't it be great to be seen as a 'good' person, instead of ruthless? Wouldn't it be wonderful to be seen as 'one of those Christians' instead of being normal? About being a chosen generation or a holy nation; what does that mean? Again, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines chosen as : one who is the object of choice or of divine favor : an elect person. That sounds like a wonderful thing to be; chosen! When we take Christ into our hearts, we become a chosen people. We become joint heirs in the heavenly inheritance. We become God's chosen people. So, this is a question you must ask yourself. Am I part of a chosen generation? This make take a bit of self examination. Are you trying to live a holy life? That's the main part of being a chosen person. It means you are trying to live a Christlike life. It doesn't mean we are perfect, since Christ was the only one to ever walk the earth who was perfect, but it means we are striving toward that life. We are only human afterall and we will make mistakes and fall short of that perfection we are growing toward. That doesn't mean that we can live an openly sinful life, say empty prayers of forgiveness, and go on like nothing is wrong. It does mean that we will make mistaked from time to time and if we are truly trying to live a godly life, we will feel conviction in our heart for it and honestly pray for forgiveness. That is what being a chosen generation and a holy nation means. We strive toward a godly life and feel the conviction in our hearts when we fall short of the goal. We continue to 'fight the good fight' against our own sin and the sin of the world around us. Finally, are you a part of a royal priesthood? Wait a minute. You didn't attend divinity school or a seminary. You didn't go through and training or ordainment ceremony. That may be true, but as a Christian, you have become a part of a royal priesthood. You see, in the Levitical priesthood, God gave Moses intrsuctions for ordaining Aaron and his sons to be His priests. Moses was told how they should conduct themselves, how to conduct the rituals in the tabernacle, how they were to dress, how the were to ritually wash, and how to prepare the oils to annoint the heads of the chosen priests. These preists were to be the nation of Israel's conduits to God. They were to offer sacrifices to the Lord and speak to the Lord on Israel's behalf. Remember when Jesus said that He came not to destroy the Levitical law, but to fulfill it? When Jesus came, so did baptism through water. When we accept Jesus Christ into our hearts and are baptised in His name, we are annointed as His priests and as for the offerings the priests gave to God, Jesus has covered that as well with His own blood that he gave on our behalf. We are given the right to pray and lift our worries and our joys up directly to our Lord as the Levitical priethood did in ancient times. This doesn't mean that we can just step up on the pulpit at our local church and begin preaching our view of the gospel, but it does mean that we have the right and the responsibility to witness the gospel of Jesus Christ to everyone in our lives. We are a royal priesthood because we are preaching the gospel of our King, our Lord, our Savior, our Redeemer to the masses. In closing, I may have given you more questions than I have answered, but that's not a bad thing. From time to time, we need to ask ourselves the tough questions and take note of where we are in our walk with God. I pray that this writing has stirred something inside of you and helped you in some way. God bless you my friends. Pete 5-23-11

Ministry Update 2/16/2011

Ministry Update 2/16/2011 Hello my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I hope that you are all doing well. I thought I would take a few moments to give you some news on New Disciples Ministry. I know I haven't written many blogs or devotionals or bible studies lately. I'm sorry about that. I'm not intentionally neglecting the internet ministry. It's just that I've been so busy with ministry work away from the internet, that I haven't had much time to type anything up to post on our Myspace, Facebook, or website. I'm in the middle of a 6 week Lay Speaker training course through the United Methodist Church which will allow me to be more active at my home church. I've also been taking the 'Crazy Love' Christian book study at church which has been a great experience. Also, I've been speaking at Southmont Chapel, a small ministry near my home, lately. I've got a few sermons that I wrote and delivered there that I need to type up for the New Disciples Ministry pages. So, even though I haven't been very active with our webpages lately, I have been active in the ministry and the activities I've been busy with will also benefit this ministry. As always, thank you for your friendship and support of this ministry and I hope to have some new materials for you soon. I also have a few new projects up my sleeve that I hope to get going in the near future. God bless you all and keep the faith my friends. Your brother in the Lord, Pete Morrison. Pete 2-16-11

So, Why Listen?

So, Why Listen? I have considered myself a Christian all of my life. It was just a few years ago that I actually know that I was 'saved'. It was a life changing experience. Three years or so ago, I was asked to teach teen Sunday school at the small church I was attending at the time. The pastor and his wife had noticed how much I was growing in my walk with God and saw my desire to serve. I also began traveling with the pastor when he would evangelize around the state and ministering at our youth services myself. In June of 2008 I started a Myspace discussion group called New Diciples which grew into New Disciples Ministry. In January of 2009 I applied for ordination via the internet with Universal Ministries of IL. Since then, I've also been liscensed by Universal Life Church, Progressive Universal Life Church, New Horizon Ministry, and God's Living Words Ministires. Some of these don't require much more than a valid I.D. and an ordination fee. So, I have no formal training and don't have any degrees from any universities in the ministry field. All I have is a true desire to serve the Lord and a little internet ministry that I run out of my own pocket. Yeah, in two and a half years, I've never taken any offerings or other financial support to run New Disciples Ministry. I've yet to even set it up as an official non-profit organization. I have organized a fundraising concert for The American Children's Home, toured several southeastern states ministering wherever i could, given out quite a few bibles, and have formed relationships with people from all around the world through my online teachings. So, my question is this. Why do people listen? I didn't graduate from any seminary or bible college. I'm not a pastor of any physical church. I'm not a very charasmatic speaker. I'm not the greatest teacher or devotional writer either. Why would people want to listen to what i have to say all this time and even ask me to come speak in their countries? Is it because I'm honest about my training or lack there of? I don't really know and I'm by no means bragging. I don't feel like I have accomplished anything. If anyone has felt blessed by this ministry, it's because of God working through me, not because of anything I've ever done. So, why listen? God bless you all, Rev. Norman L. Morrison a.k.a. Pete Pete 1-30-11

Psalm of Peace

Psalm of Peace .... I am not the man I was I have been crucified with Christ No longer lost and bound by sin For with His blood He paid my price I see the world much differently now Handle conflict in such a different way I see it clearly in my actions And much more so in the words I say Now when the enemy attacks I know I can stand strong And when I face the world's injustice I know I won't fight wrong with wrong Today I can let belligerence slide No longer provoked by ignorance Now I have truly learned to turn the other cheek Why did it take me so long to be convinced I can let an affront roll off my shoulders When others would be ready to fight Many would think me to be a fool But I have just stepped into the light Days wasted in anger are now long gone No longer wrapped up in foolish pride I've found what many will never understand I have found peace with the Lord as my guide Your brother in Christ, Rev. Norman L. Pete Morrison Pete 1-9-11

Pruning

Pruning Recently, I was out in the yard pruning the trees. I was triming off some of the lower branches of some of them so I could mow around them easier, so they wouldn't scratch me as I tried to trim closer to them. Other trees in the yard, I was trimming up so I could use them for shade trees next summer when I'm cooking out or wanting to sit outside and read and write. I was cutting off parts of the trees, taking away from them so that they would better serve my purpose for them. We all know that having something taken away from us hurts, especially when it's somebody. When we lose a relationship, we feel like a part of us has been taken away. Like a part of us has been cut off. It hurts! What if that relationship was really bad for us, but we didn't realize it until it was gone and we've had time to heal? It could be a spouse, a lover, a friend, a family member, a habit, an addiction, a job, a ministry, or any other kind of crutch that becomes a destructive relationship. Something that we feel like we need in order to survive, but we actually need to be rid of in order to live our life to it's fullest. Now, back to pruning the trees. I was trimming the branches from them with a bow saw, a small hand saw. As I was doing this, my hands were getting scrapes and cuts on them. So, as I was pruning the trees and hurting them for now in order for them to grow and be more fruitful in the future, I was also feeling some pain in what I was doing to them. This made me think of some scripture.... 　 John 15:1-8 (New Century Version) John 15 Jesus Is Like a Vine 1 "I am the true vine; my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch of mine that does not produce fruit. And he trims and cleans every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce even more fruit.3 You are already clean because of the words I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. A branch cannot produce fruit alone but must remain in the vine. In the same way, you cannot produce fruit alone but must remain in me. 5 "I am the vine, and you are the branches. If any remain in me and I remain in them, they produce much fruit. But without me they can do nothing. 6 If any do not remain in me, they are like a branch that is thrown away and then dies. People pick up dead branches, throw them into the fire, and burn them.7 If you remain in me and follow my teachings, you can ask anything you want, and it will be given to you.8 You should produce much fruit and show that you are my followers, which brings glory to my Fath In the past year, I have lost a relationship of three years, left a church I called home, left a ministry I had thrown so much of myself into, had to shut down another ministry a group of us had started, lost a brotherhood of friends, and severed many other relationships that were tied to all of these parts of my life. Yes, it hurt. In fact it hurt me more than i thought I could have beared. As time went by though, I started to see how all of these things were holding me back from what I was meant to do in life. I've also seen my own ministry flourish like couldn't have imagined and reach people all over the world. I found a new home church where I was made to feel right at home from the first day that I walked into it! I've also met so many new friends and reconnected with several old ones. In so many ways, all that I lost has been restored many times over. This reminds me of another scripture..... 　 Job 42:10-12 (New Century Version) 10 After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord gave him success again. The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had owned before.11 Job's brothers and sisters came to his house, along with everyone who had known him before, and they all ate with him there. They comforted him and made him feel better about the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave Job a piece of silver and a gold ring. 12 The Lord blessed the last part of Job's life even more than the first part. All of this also made me think. As I said, while I was pruning the trees I was getting cuts and scrapes on my hands. It was hurting me to prune the trees, even though it would be the best thing for them in the future. It made me think, does the Lord feel the same way when He is pruning us? Does it hurt Him to take away from us and to see us hurt even if it is the best thing for us in the long run? Remember how it makes us hurt to see the ones we love in pain? Don't you remember how much our Lord loves us? 　 John 3:16 (New King James Version) 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Even though it's for our own good, God doesn't enjoy seeing us suffer when we experience loss. He feels it too! God bless you all my friends, Pete 10/23/10

The Protest Through Prayer Project

The Protest Through Prayer Project The idea behind The Protest Through Prayer Project is to remind the public that we are a Christian nation and in the process perform evangelism. It's a way of peacfully protesting what seems to be the 'de-christianisation' (not sure if that's actually a word, but I'm going with it) of our country. We all too often complain about the lack of prayer and so forth in public places and the seeming favoritism by our government toward other religions without actually doing something about it. Some people act like public displays of our faith have been outlawed but they haven't. People have just stopped doing it. As a part of this project, New Disciples Ministry is encouraging and even challenging Christians to go out and be seen praying and reading from the Holy Bible in public places. It can be as a simple as praying over your food in restaurants, reading your bible while you're waiting on your food, or going out to the park to read or to pray. We're just encouraging you to go out in public and do the things a Christian shouldn't be afraid to do and definitely shouldn't be ashamed to do. Each day, in the month of October, we'll be posting an update on our Facebook and Myspace pages about the project, so that everyone can comment about anything that happened to them while they were reading or praying in public. Tell everyone about anything someone said to you, good or bad, how people reacted to you, or how they treated you differently. I've actually been doing it for about a week now myself. A woman at the Uptown Grille in Lexington told me that she was so happy to see someone who wasn't afraid to read their bible in public. I've been reading at work on my breaks and have gotten other guys into doing it and we're having conversations about our faith. Also, I had a guy tell me how much he liked my t-shirt I was wearing the other day that has a verse from 1 Corinthians on the back of it. It's these simple things that we can do to remind people that we are a Christian nation and we're not afraid or ashamed to show that we are Christians. In the process of doing this peaceful protest, we may actually bring in some new believers or bring some who had gone astray back to the flock. The Protest Through Prayer Project is something that came to mind while I was working one day. I was thinking of some of the complaints Christians have about our country today. You know the arguements I'm talking about. Prayer in school, the ten commandments taken out of some of the courthouses, other religions being favored over Christians, and so forth. I'm always hearing people complain about how 'big brother' is taking God out of everything in our country and how our country is being overrun by muslims. First of all, seperation of church and state is a part of our constitution so, in some cases the government can't show the church favoritism in some aspects. I do wish children were reading the bible and praying in school, but we're facing a slippery slope when it comes to that. I think that a period of silence in school for each person to use that time for their own faith related activities would be a good alternative to nothing at all. Also, remember that if we instill God in the hearts of our children, God's still in the schools anyway! As for the Ten Commandments statues being removed from some of the courtrooms around the country? Most people don't realize that a lot of those were given by Paramount Pictures and director Cecil B. Demille to promote their 1956 movie 'The Ten Commandments', not donated by churches or built by our government. Again, I don't like to see them removed, but we should ask ourselves if they were there for the right purpose to start with? Afterall, when anyone takes the stand inside the courtroom, guess what there gonna be asked? That's right "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you God?". He's still there! Of course, there are some Americans who take the opposite stand and try to claim that we're not a Christian nation at all anyway. They even try to convince us that the signers of The Declaration of Independence were mostly atheists, when several of them were actually ministers! For an example, here are a couple of paragraphs from some very important documents that form our nation's foundation. The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (Bill of Rights) Amendment I Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances So congress will make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. This means that congress cannot make a law favoring one religion over another. So, why do we as Christians feel like the law is favoring other religions over Christianity? Is it really the government's fault or the fault of Christians?They haven't made any law prohibiting us from public prayer or publicly reading our Holy Bible while allowing other faiths to do so. So, why aren't we? I think we have too many people 'playing' Christian instead of living as a Christian. That's the problem! It's time to step up and walk the walk instead of just talking the talk. 　 From The Declaration Of Independence IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776. The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America, When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Hmmmm... The words Laws of Nature and of Nature's God used in one of the most important documents in American history. No, that doesn't sound like a Christian nation at all. Well, I hope I haven't rambled too much and lost you somewhere along the way. In short though, we may think that our own government has shunned Christianity or treated it unfairly. For the most part, we only have ourselves to blame for not standing up for our faith. It's time we take a stand and proclaim our faith to our fellow countrymen. We must remind them that we are Christians and that this great nation of ours was based on Christian values. It's time to remind everyone that The United States of America IS a Christian nation and nothing is going to change that. God bless you all my friends. Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 9-26-10

Getting Real With God

Getting Real With God In the past six months and especially in the past few weeks, I've been fortunate enough to spend some time with several people who are being very real with God. These aren't people who have gone up in front of the congregation, made an empty proclamation of belief, walk around saying "I'm Saved", and sit on their ususal place on the pew where they continue to walk in and out of the sanctuary every week unchanged. These are people who have truly asked God into their heart, have a very personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and pursue God in their everyday lives. 　 Psalm 24:5-6 (New Century Version) 5 They will receive a blessing from the Lord; the God who saves them will declare them right. 6 They try to follow God; they look to the God of Jacob for help. Selah I have met these disciples of our Lord in prayer group meetings at my home church, at break time on my job, and at the local tattoo shop! These men and women have opened their hearts to each of us in these small groups and gotten very real about their feelings, views, questions, and relationships with God. These people don't just go to church on Sundays and sit through the sermon and return to whatever life they live outside of church. These disciples go to Sunday school, get involved in bible studies and small group studies, seek out spiritual retreats to be with other disciples of Christ, read and study their bibles, and walk in the ways of the Lord. They aren't 'playing Christian'. They are Christians in the truest sense of the word. I have seen them open up about how God has helped them through the darkest of times in their lives, how giving in to God's will has taken the stress out of their lives even in tough circumstances, and how they want to learn more about our Lord. I feel so blessed to have these people in my life. They don't give you lip service by acting holier than thou on the outside while they're full of lies and unchanged by God on the inside. 　 Matthew 23:27 (New King James Version) 27 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. 　 These disciples of Christ don't walk around acting or claiming to be perfect. They are true to themselves, to those around them, and most importantly to God! They admit they are flawed individuals as we all are and they share that with other believers and non-believers. They know that we are all a work in progress and by sharing this with others, they draw more and more people to our Lord. They don't walk around telling people that they're going to hell for smoking a cigarette or drinking a beer. They don't put down women for wearing a little makeup or jewelry. They don't try to scare people by telling them that the world is ending and that they'd better be right with God or they're hellbound. No; they share with others what God has done in their lives since the asked Him into their hearts. That is how they bring more people to Christ. They are a living example of God's work in our lives and by living the way they live, they make others think to themselves "I want what they have!" They show both the believer and the non-believer love. 　 1 John 4:11-13 (New Living Translation) 11 Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other. 12 No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us. 13 And God has given us his Spirit as proof that we live in him and he in us All I can say, is that I pray that all of you who are reading this are being real with God. He knows what is really in your heart. He knows His followers and He knows who is putting on a show. I hope that you all are trying to be a living example of what a Christian is. I hope you all are showing everyone what a difference it makes to have God in your heart and in your life. By doing this, you are witnessing the gospel to everyone you come into contact with. You may even be bringing more sheep into the flock. 　 Matthew 28:19-20 (New Living Translation) 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." God bless you my friends. Pete 9-26-10

Real Love

Real Love Love can be wonderful Love can be terrible Love can be heavenly Love can be unbearable It can take you to the highest of highs And knock you down to the lowest lows It can bring you thrills you never imagined It can cause you pain like no one could ever know Love can bring you so much comfort and joy Or the anxiety of wondering if it's real Love can feel like a long warm embrace Or it can make wish you could never feel Love can be found in your best friend Or it can be stolen by the wiles of your lover It's so wonderful when it's held close in your arms And it tears you apart when it runs to another Love can be found in someone else's heart Sometimes a love that lasts a lifetime Sometimes love isn't love at all Sometimes it can feel more like a crime I know that we all want to find real love my friends We want a love consoles and completes us But there's one place you're sure to find that love And my friend that's in the heart of Jesus 1 John 4:8 (New King James Version) 8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Pete 9-14-10

Counter-Protest

Counter-Protest For weeks now, the media has been covering the story about the small church in Gainesville Florida that had been planning a 'Burn the Qur'an Day'. As of right now, I understand that the pastor of that church has called it off. Though from what I have read, he is either greatly misled or just flatout lieing about his reasons to do so. This idea that he had was un-christian from the start. When I think of book burnings, white supremists wearing swastikas come to mind. No good can come from burning any book, much less what is a holy book to millions of people. As Christians, it's not a holy book to us, but how would we feel if a local Muslim Mosque held a 'Burn The Holy Bible Day'? We would be outraged and ready for some sort of action! Muslims around the world were already protesting outside of our embassies, throwing rocks at our soldiers, burning our flag, and chanting 'death to Christians' because of the acts of ignorance of one man, claiming to be a Christian minister. Actions like this just breed more contorversy and trouble for all Christians and widen the gap of understanding among the world's religions. Christ did not return hate with hate and that's what this is; a hatecrime. Anyway, as my own little counter-protest, I stopped by a local bookstore and bought a copy of the Qur'an today. I had been planning on buying one for a long time now to study so that I may better understand the religion of Islam. I had been putting it off, since I'm in the process of a cover to cover read of the Holy Bible at the moment, but all of the controversy lately prompted me to go ahead and do it. I thought it a far better thing to buy a Qur'an that will be kept safe in my collection of books and use it to study and better understand people of another faith, than to let it sit on a shelf with the possibility of some ignorant or misled person buying and destroying it. In closing, through this online Christian ministry I founded I have befriended Muslims, Hindus, Wiccans, and Universalists as well as many Christians. We have treated each other with kindness and respect even though we are of different faiths. So tell me now, can I better represent Christ's believers by treating people of other faiths with respect and love or by burning their holy books and driving them to hate Christians? So, I encourage all Christians, to show all of God's children love, not hate. It may be a very overused saying, but ask yourself this, What Would Jesus Do? Your brother in Christ, Rev. Norman L. Morrison a.k.a. Pete Pete 9-9-10

State of the Ministry 9/7/10

State of the Ministry 9/7/10 Hello my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I'm sorry it's been so long since I've written any bible studies or devotionals. I feel like I've been letting you down. I was busy for a while putting together the Disciplefest Christian Concert we did for the American Children's Home here in Lexington, NC. We didn't have a big turnout like we had hoped for, but we did raise $208 for the Children's Home. The week after that, my sister won tickets to a fundraising dinner for a group Ekissa. They are a group of Christians who went on a mission trip to Uganda and were inspired to form there own foundation to help the poor and the starving in that nation. I'm happy to say that New Disciples Ministry contributed $100 to their cause and we hope to stay in touch with them in the future. Like I said, I've been busy with some New Disciples projects and with some projects with The Junior Order of United American Mechanics, the patriotic organization that owns and operates The American Children's Home. They've been around since 1853 and I've been a member for 20 years. We do funraisers for the Children's home to help them with operating expenses and we also donate some money to some of the kids cottages for activity funds. It's a really great organization to be a part of and they co-sponsored Disciplefest with our ministry. As for our ministry itself, we've been going through some changes. Several of our members have left us this year. Of course, my ex-fiancee and her two kids who were helping us left when our relationship ended. One of our members left to go into managing Christian music artists, and a couple of other members left to pursue their music careers as well. I wish them all the best that God has to offer. I hate to see them go, but as long as they're doing what God wants them to do, I could never hold a grudge. There's another member of our ministry whose family has been going through a spiritual struggle for quite some time which has made it hard for him to be active with us. Please be praying for our brother's family. That has left the majority of the workload back on yours truly, but I can't complain. Hey, I'm the one that started all of this afterall. Well, I can't make that claim. God put it on my heart to to start it. All the praise goes to Him! Well, that's pretty much the state of our little ministry right now. I still pretty much run it out of my own pocket, haven't ever taken any donations. I get help from my brother, sister, and neice to do events. Brother Raymond McBroom is still active and planning some things up in TN. I'm still getting blogs from brother Arturs over in Latvia to post on one of our profiles. I promise to get back to being active with the ministry blog as I have in the past and I hope to do some more work to the website soon. I really would like to get some 'new blood' in the ministry. It'd be great to have some more writers and artists to work with, so hopefully the Lord will bless us with some soon. I won't ramble on any farther, so I';; say God bless you all my ministry family. Your brother in the Lord, Pete. Pete 9-7-10

Hero

Hero Over the past few years, I've seen some of my favorite childhood heroes come to life in big budget movies. Ironman was always a favorite, Batman of course, but The Incredible Hulk was truely my all-time favorite. He was a hero and a monster at the same time. He was a regular guy with the violent uncontrollable beast inside of him who destoyed so much around him when unleashed, especially the relationships of his alter ego, David Bruce Banner. In the end though, The Hulk always managed to do the right thing and save the day. Anyway, all of these heroes had their special powers. The Hulk had superhuman strength, could crash through walls, bend steel with his bare hands, and could leap for what seemed like miles at a time. Ironman had his flying suit and all of the cool weapons that came with it. Batman had the the most amazing gadgets and inventions to help him fight crime. In the end though, all of these comic book heroes can't compare to my true hero. My true hero didn't come out of a comic book. He is very real. There's a biography about His life, His works, and the Works of His Father that has been written and translated, generation after generation for thousands of years. Our modern archaeologists continue to prove the accuracy of this book and the people in it time after time, even though many of them originally set out to disprove it. My true hero doesn't wear a mechanical suit, use gadgets on His utility belt, or turn green and grow huge muscles when He's angry. He has raised people from the dead, given sight to the blind, speech to the mute, cured leprocy, caused the crippled to walk, done miracle after miracle, and even given Himself as a sacrifice for all of us sinners. How could anyone be more of a hero? My hero is Jesus Christ. I'd be happy to tell you more about Him if you don't know Him. May the peace and love of the Lord be with all of you, Pete. 8/23/10

Psalm of Prayer

Psalm of Prayer My God, My Father in Heaven So often I come to you in need So often in times of sorrow I pour out to you all of my hurt and my loss And you give me your wisdom, your comfort And faith for a better tomorrow I send up to you all of my worries And I give to you the troubles of my mind When I feel like my world is falling apart When I humble myself and pray to you My troubles seem to fade away And a spirit of peace fills my heart When I'm down on my knees I cry out I tell you all of my pain and my fear To you my Lord, I pray and confess You listen to it all in spite of my faults You give me so much more than I deserve And time after time you continue to bless My Lord, My Shepherd I owe all to you You've restored me time after time And You have always provided all that I need My God, When I call on your name I feel your love and peace in my heart And from the troubles of this world I am freed My Lord you have always been there for me As my guide, my teacher, my healer And in countless other ways My God I owe everything to you I will forever give you thanks And I will send my prayers up to you always Pete 8-12-10

Preaching Hate

Preaching H8 What I'm writing about is nothing new by any means. It's something I've encountered time and time again. As a Christian and as a minister, I feel that it's my calling to witness the gospel of Jesus Christ to all who are willing to hear it. I never try to force the gospel on anyone. I personally feel that if you try to impose Christianity upon someone who is unwilling or unready to receive it, you will only alienate them from the gospel and push them away. I've always felt that we should bring them to the gospel by being a living example of what it means to be a Christian. We should show love and charity to strangers, not act or speak lewdly in public, be true to ourselves and our maker, live by our faith, and be courteous and repsectful to people of other faiths or beliefs. Believe it or not, I've taken quite a bit of criticism from other Christians for trying to live this way. I've had Christians say that this is not the way Christ acted toward people and been accused of keeping quiet toward people of other faiths just so we can get along. I don't feel this way at all. Let's take a look at some of Jesus' teachings and see how they pertain to this subject. 　 Matthew 22:35-41 (New King James Version) 35 Then one of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, and saying, 36 "Teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?" 37 Jesus said to him, " ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets." Jesus taught us to listen to the commandments. He told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Do we like it when we are verbally attacked for our beliefs as a Christian? Does it draw us to a person or push us away from that person when they launch one of these verbal assaults on us? Are we likely to be open to anything this person has to tell us after they have affronted us in such a manner? I think not! I think we would either get into a heated arguement with this person or walk away from and ignore them altogether. How do you think the non-christian reacts when we attack their beliefs in such a manner? They either argue with us or walk away from us and we no longer have any oppurtunity to witness the gospel to them. The only way we will have a chance to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to more people is by treating them as a friend and showing them love as Jesus would have. Remember that in His day, Jewish people despised the Samaritan people. They thought of them as unclean and avoided them at all cost. They would even travel around there villages when going from one Jewish city to another instead of traveling among them. Did Jesus do this during His ministry? No, He did not. This is what He did. 　 John 4:7-15 (New King James Version) 7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. 9 Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, "How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?" For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. 10 Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 The woman said to Him, "Sir, You have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do You get that living water? 12 Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons and his livestock?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." 15 The woman said to Him, "Sir, give me this water, that I may not thirst, nor come here to draw." Jesus did not attack the woman for her beliefs or how she was living even though she was living with a man who was not her husband. He showed her courteousy and love. She saw who and what He was through His actions. This is how we must spread the gospel. We must show love, respect, and friendship to the person living in sin, the nonbeliever, the agnostic, the atheist, the muslim, the buddhist, the wiccan, and so on. This is the way we will bring them closer to us and to our savior Jesus Christ. Let me give you another example. Like I said, I've been criticized for being respectful to people of other faiths. I've been criticized by people who call themselves Christians. These so-called Christians would rather start arguements with nonbelievers than try to peaceably explain the gospel to them and try to bring in new believers. They would rather tell people to 'believe as I believe or else'. I personally never heard of anyone being converted to Christianity at gunpoint or swordpoint depending upon the day. These same people also verbally attack their fellow Christians for trying to spread the gospel peacefully instead of forcefully. On the other hand, I've had a pagan friend of mine give me a video he made of a Cathedral in Scotland to use on my ministry webpages, had another friend who is a universalist help with the ministry discussion board, and even had an atheist friend tell me 'thanks' when I told him 'God bless'. Remember, we are supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves. Who among these people were my neighbors? Luke 10:30-36 (New King James Version) 30 Then Jesus answered and said: "A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. 31 Now by chance a certain priest came down that road. And when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. 32 Likewise a Levite, when he arrived at the place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. 33 But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’ 36 So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?" Also, many Christians would also criticize someone like myself for calling pagans, universalists, muslims, and atheists friends. They would tell you that a Christian shouldn't associate with such people at all. They may even accuse you of not believing in the same Jesus they believe in or tell you that Jesus wouldn't act this way at all. Let me give you some more scripture here to show you otherwise. Mark 2:16-18 (New King James Version) 16 And when the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with the tax collectors and sinners, they said to His disciples, "How is it that He eats and drinks with tax collectors and sinners?" 17 When Jesus heard it, He said to them, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance." In closing, I hope that I have brought a speck of light to this subject. I know that many of you may not see this the same way as I do and you know what? I'm respectful of your opinion. You are entitled to your own beliefs. Personally, I believe in bringing as many people to Jesus as I can peacefully. I don't believe that we will bring anyone to the gospel by offending, attacking, and making enemies of them. We will only bring in new believers and make new disciples of Christ by befriending them, showing them love, and by being a living example to them. I will continue to minister in a loving manner to all who will listen. I refuse to preach hate toward anyone. Thank you for taking the time to read this. May the peace of the Lord be with you my friend. 　 Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 7-13-10

The Flood

The Flood A couple of weeks ago, I took a couple of vacation days from work and had a long weekend. The Friday I took off, I decided to take a drive down to Concord, NC. It's about 45 minutes from my home. As I was driving down I-85, I was listening to a favorite rockband of mine; The Cult. Yes, a rockband named The Cult. Some of their songs are very spiritual if you've ever taken the time to pay attention. Anyway, as I was driving down the interstate in the Mustang, I was deep in thought and prayer. It was some time for just me and God. Yes, my time with God was cruising down the interstate in a Mustang GT with metal music playing. During this time God started giving me all of these ideas of subjects to write about for the ministry. My mind was literally flooded with thoughts for bible studies, inspirationals, poetry, and maybe even some songs. I know I haven't posted much writing lately, but I did do a pretty intense bible study for my friend Michelle's internet group. I also posted it on newdisciplesministry.com . It's called 'Who's Your God? (Idolatry in the Modern World). Anyhow, I've got a lot of ideas and material I'll be working on in the near future, as soon as I get some other projects set in stone which I'll be telling you more about. They involve taking New Disciples Ministry beyond the internet! So, prepare yourselves for the flood people. We're gonna be hitting you with a whole lot of Jesus really soon! May the peace of the Lord be with you my friends, Pete. P.S. While I was in Concord, at Books A Million, I ran into this young man while I was browsing through the bibles. He asked if I was a Christian and I told him yes of course. We talked about our faith and bible translations and he even asked me if I needed prayer for anything. It really rekindled the fire in my heart to see a new generation fired up for God like that! God was really working on me and through me that day. God is simply amazing!!! Pete 6-30-10

Modern Idolatry

Modern Idolatry Idolatry- 1 : the worship of a physical object as a god 2 : immoderate attachment or devotion to something. Taken from the Merriam-Webster dictionary online. First of all, let me take a second to introduce myself. My name is Norman L. Morrison, but most people call me by my nickname Pete. I'm an ordained Christian minister from Lexington, NC. I don't pastor a church, but I do operate an online ministry called New Disciples Ministry. I have been a youth, Sunday school teacher and travelled with a touring ministry around the southeastern United States. I befriended Michelle Meyer through Facebook and am honored that she asked me to be a part of the bible study group. So, now that the introduction is out of the way, let's get into some scripture, shall we? Exodus 20:3 (New King James Version) 3 “You shall have no other gods before Me. When our God tells us that we shall have no other God's before Him, he means more than just the false Gods that are mentioned in the bible. Like we see here in the book of Judges. It goes beyond just these 'named' gods, but lets cover them first. Judges 3:7-8 (New King James Version) 7 So the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God, and served the Baals and Asherahs. 8 Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia; and the children of Israel served Cushan-Rishathaim eight years. In modern times, we still see people turn to other religions and away from Christ. Bhuddism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Islam, Confucianism, Rastafari, Shinto, Taoism, Wicca, Scientology, Satanism, and a seemingly neverending list of 'religions' exist and thrive in our modern society. Some people believe in living by a mixture of several of these religions or even in blending them together to for one religion. This is called Universalism. So, here's the first question for you of the study. 1. Have you had any 'experiences' with people of these belief systems and how did you handle it? Aside from these 'recognized', false gods, there are other forms of idolatry that are less recognizable. Have you ever witnessed people, sometime friends, sometimes adversaries who are constantly competing against each other? It can be something as simple as you buying a new lawnmower or boat, then your friend or neighbor goes out and buys one with a few more bells and whistles just to best you. Or, with the ladies of the study here, have you ever had a friend who just had to go out and get a new hiardo just because you did? Or maybe it was a new handbag, shoes, or maybe even a new car that they just had to have in order to best you. Did you know that if you got caught up in all of this competition and tried to outdo them, you fell into a from of idolatry? Yes, besting your adversary with a greater status symbol just became more important to you than God. It temporarily became your God when an inanimate object turned into a status symbol and an idol. Deuteronomy 6:14 (New King James Version) 14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you. This leads to our second question. 2. Have you ever fell into this type of competition knowingly or unknowingly and fell victim to idolatry? Another form of idolatry can come through those that we love or at least think that we love. We can sometimes become so wrapped up in a personal relationship that it becomes the only thing that we think about. We put it before our blood relatives, our jobs, and worst of all before God. These relationships can blind us to so many more important matters in life. They can make us do things that we never would of even considered doing before. We become infatuated with this person so much that they become our latest form of idolatry. Many very wise people a fallen victim to thi,s as we see in this scripture. 1 Kings 11:3-5 (New King James Version) 3 And he had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart. 4 For it was so, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not loyal to the LORD his God, as was the heart of his father David. 5 For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites. We see here that Solomon, one of the wisest men to ever walk the earth, fell into idolatry two-fold in this instance. First of all, he put the lust for these exotic women who were brought to him before God and then he even allowed them to tempt him into worshipping their false Gods from their homelands. So, we come to our third question: 3. Have you ever allowed a personal relationship come between you and God? Next we come to another all too common for of idolatry: status. All too often people put their careers at the forefront of their lives. Their always thinking of how to get that big promotion at work, get moved to a larger market in their field, attain one more degree, or simply want to edge everybody out for that employee of the month parking space. There's nothing wrong with striving to succeed in life, but many times the need for advancement can take over our hearts and minds and become our next false god. They love the attention from their peers, they love the perks that come with their status, and the feeling of being 'priviledged' more than they do God. The Pharisees of Jesus' time were a good example of this. Matthew 23:5-7 (New King James Version) 5 But all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. 6 They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, ‘Rabbi, Rabbi.’ So our next question: 4. Have you or someone you know gotten so caught up on status, that it escalated to idolatry? Our next form of modern idolatry is something that many of us are more guilty of falling victim to than we would ever want to admit: celebrity. Our movie stars, professional athletes, politicians, tv personalities, and even some of our ministers attain a certain amount of fame and become american royalty. How many people haven't heard of Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan, Sandra Bullock, Jennifer Aniston, Kobe Bryant, Joel Osteen, Joyce Meyer, Peyton Manning, Hillary Clinton, Sarah Palin, and so on and so on and.... We even have a television show called 'American Idol' for crying out loud. We try to dress as these people dress, go to places these people have been, buy there books, and others products that they endorse. So of these people became celebrities simply by being born into the right families. Remember Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie? They became famous just by being the children of wealthy people. This, I hate to tell you is a very blatant form of idolatry. This one was a little harder to find scripture on, but Herod came to mind. Even though the real power in Judea belonged to Rome then, the elite of Jerusalm still clung to him. Mark 6:20-22 (New King James Version) 20 for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just and holy man, and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. 21 Then an opportune day came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee. 22 And when Herodias’ daughter herself came in and danced, and pleased Herod and those who sat with him, the king said to the girl, “Ask me whatever you want, and I will give it to you.” So, of course, here's our next question: 5. Who have you been guilty of idolizing? I'll close up our study on idolatry with the absolute biggest idol or false God of all time; money. People will lie, cheat, steal, murder, enslave, and even prostitute themselves for money. Everyone wants to get a raise, find a better paying job, hit the lottery, win big in the poker game, and think up thousands of other ways to attain more money, and find an easier way of doing it. Many lives are ruined everyday because of the lust for money. Of course there's one scripture that we have to look at here. 1 Timothy 6:10 (New King James Version) 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. The scripture says it all. The love of money can lead you down a path of destruction and far, far, away from God and your loved ones faster than you would ever believe. Many people don't even realize it as it's happening to them. Quite simply money has become God to many, many people all around the world. Of course this leads us to out final question of the study: 6. What's one case of this form of idolatry that comes to mind? It could be a personal experience or it could be something from today's headlines. In closing, I'm not trying to take all of the fun out of life and tell you that if you enjoy something, you're idolizing it. I'm simply reminding you to use caution in life. When something is taking up more and more of your time and attention, take a minute to reflect on it. Is this activity important enough to warrant this much of my attention, or am I going too far with it? Am I letting my career rule my life? Is that expensive of a car really necessary? Am I putting all of this before God? God bless you my brothers and sisters in the Lord, Pete. Pete 6-22-10

Response

Response I recently was sent an invitation to read and respond to someones blog. I checked it out and read a lot of the responses. Many of them were putting down Christianity and trying to disprove it. They all kept talking about it being a 'religion', like any other beleif system. This was my response to all of that. Everyone's comments keep mentioning 'religion'. I am a Christian minister and am happy to say that I am 100% 'religion' free. Religions do not offer you salvation and forgiveness of sin. Only Jesus does that. He taught us to show love to everyone, even our enemies. He would not want us bad-mouthing each other for our differing beliefs. He would and did offer people His teachings and if they didn't accept them, He moved on and left them to their fate, whatever it may be. Jesus never told people to believe Him or else. You can't convert someone to Christianity at gunpoint or swordpoint. He even told us that He came to save us, not to condemn us. Christianity is believing in Christ's teachings with all your heart and giving your life over to living your life in His ways. It's not about rituals, crusades, cults, and all the garbage you see on television, the newspapers, magazines, and movies. It's simply about trying to live your life in a way that is more Christlike. Jesus the Christ was a human body with the spirit of God living within Him. He was the only flesh to ever walk the earth free of sin. He then to the weight of all of our sins upon Himself when He was crucified on the cross. That's right, our God became flesh, died for us, and was resurrected out of love for the human race. Our God is all about love. Yes, in the Old Testament, God The Father did condemn and kill sinners. He then saw that the only way to save us was to offer a part of Himself, His Son, as a sacrifice for our sins. That was the ultimate sacrifice and ultimate act of love. No other God in any religion has done that for anyone. Christianity is not a religion it is the way to salvation, a way of life, and the way to eternal life. Maybe that's why in the beginning, Christ's first followers were called 'The Way' before the term Christian was used years later. The peace of the Lord to all of you my brothers and sisters, Pete. Pete 6-21-10

An Invitation

An Invitation An Invitation Hello my brothers and sisters in the Lord. I hope this message finds you blessed, healthy and happy in life. I just want to take a moment to extend an invitation to you. As you may have seen, New Disciples Ministry has been going for two years now. It started on June 11th, 2008. I've always called it an 'online' ministry since that's how it began, but it's actually more than that. Myself and other members of the ministry do spread the gospel of Christ out in the real world through speaking at special events, through music ministry, and mostly by living our lives as true Christians. Through the online ministry, we write blogs about our walk with God, post bible studies, our interpretations of scriptures, inspirationals, and scriptures that inspire us. We also post music, videos, and pictures that we find inspiring on our webpages. We use our website, Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter to do this. When someone becomes a member of our ministry they sometimes become a new 'chapter' of the ministry, like brother Jason who runs the Salisbury, NC chapter or brother Raymond who runs the Tennessee chapter. Running a chapter involves maintaining a Myspace or Facebook page under the name of New Disciples Ministry which you use to do as I've told you that we do in writing blogs and posting inspirational materials on the webpage you operate, some of which, I in turn post on our main pages and website since I operate those pages myself. Operating a chapter also involves getting together with your friends and family to study scripture and fellowship together from time to time in your home or at a local gathering place. Brother Jason and I sometimes meet at a restaurant on Saturday mornings to break bread and share some Word. If you are a fellow disciple of Christ and are interested in working with us in our ministry, please contact us at one of our webpages. We actually have some webpages on Myspace and Facebook already setup with a few hundred friends built up waiting for someone to come in, customize the page, and run with it. Believe me, I don't make make this offer lightly. This ministry has been a labor of love for me this past couple of years, but I know that in order for it to continue to grow and prosper, I must share it with more people. I would love to see chapters of New Disciples Ministry in every state and in other countries spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is my work for the Lord and I look forward to sharing it with you. Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 6-11-10

My Labor of Love

My Labor of Love It's been two years now since what would become New Disciples Ministry was formed. It all began with some conversations that I'd had with a couple of friends of mine. At the time, we were all looking for a little more from our walk with God than just going to church on Wednesdays and Sundays. I came up with the idea of a discussion group on Myspace. It was called 'New Diciples'. Yes, I accidentally left the 'S' out of the name. I created it on June 11th 2008. My friend Allen, who also designed our first profile layout, wrote a blog about the missing 'S' standing for the 'something' that was missing from our church lives. It all started to fall into place from there. Several of us began posting topics on the discussion group and leaving comments with our own views and so on. We also made a Myspace page under the same name and invited friends and family to join it. It all went pretty well for a while. In time though, people got busy with other projects, or with raising their families, or with their careers and activity pretty much died down to nothing. After about 5 months, it was down to pretty much just me being active. Then, God put something else on my heart to do with it. By this time, I had started teaching teen Sunday school at church. It was a very small church, so I didn't have a lesson plan to go by. I had to come up with the lessons myself. I was enjoying teaching and enjoying the traveling I was doing with our pastor at the time. The idea came to me to start an internet ministry. There was so much bad stuff floating around on the net, I figured why not turn it around and use it for some good. I saw that I already had the beginnings of my ministry right in front of me. So, on November 11th of 2008, I deleted the 'New Diciples' pages and made them again under the new name of 'New Disciples Ministry' and explained my idea to everybody. Some of my friends were like "That's great man!", while others were like "How's that gonna work?". I began posting my lessons I would teach my Sunday School class on the Myspace page's blog. It was getting a little bit of attention, but not too much. It was slow going and I was getting a little dejected. Then, I got up on Christmas morning 2008 and had a comment on one of the blogs I had written. A woman from San Francisco, CA had written that she was feeling down, but then she found the New Disciples profile and the images and writings on it had lifted her up and made her feel better. I felt such a warm feeling in my heart at that moment. I had stayed true to what the Lord had put on my heart and now I had proof that I had touched someone in a positive way. I knew I was hooked and was in it for the long haul after that. Since then, I purchased webhosting from Yahoo and put together www.newdisciplesministry.com, started the Facebook page, linked up the Myspace page with Twitter, and created several more Myspace pages. For a long time, it was just me working on all of it alone. Then, I got involved with a ministry called The Follow Me Tour. While on the tour I got to know a lot of good Christian people as we traveled NC, SC, VA, WV, and TN ministering to people and bringing Christian music artists with us. It was a great oppurtunity to spread the gospel and talk a little bit about New Disciples. It was also unusual for me, because all through life, I had always been so quiet and reserved. Public speaking was definitely something I had never liked until I started ministering. I met my friend Jason Stover on the tour and asked him if he was interested in working on the internet ministry with me and he accepted. Next, I got to know Jennifir Huston while on the tour as well. She also became a part of New Disciples. Along with them, my friend Allen contributed writings from time to time and my former fiance' and her son and daughter were helping me with it as well. Also, some of the guys from the tour and myself started a ministry in Statesville, NC called The Gathering that met on Sunday evenings. Everything was going great again! Then, everything started to go wrong. Support for The Gathering faded, so we ran out of funds and had to shut it down. Differences of opinion on some matters led me to leave the tour. This all happened right after Thanksgiving 2009. A few weeks later, the day after Christmas, my fiance' and I split up. I had lost a relationship of almost three years, a brotherhood of friends, and a ministry in a little over a month. At this point, it felt like God was the only thing in my life that was right. I kept on working on the ministry though. Even though I felt like I was dieing inside, I did my best to stay positive to everyone who was involved with New Disciples. I started rebuilding my life based more in my hometown of Lexington, NC. I rebuilt relationships with old friends and with my hometown itself that I had been drawn away from. Also, through the online ministry, I continued to make more and more friends all over the world. Unfortunately though, most of the people who had been helping me with the online ministry were gone at this point due to broken relationships or others projects they had taken on. I also suddenly transferred to another division of the company I work for and had to learn a new job on top of everything else. Again, New Disciples was the one constant in my life other than God Himself. So, again I find myself doing the bulk of the work for the ministry that I founded. I don't know who, if any of the members from that past will be a part of it's future, but there is a group of young people who have just started working on a new chapter of the ministry that seem eager and willing to get it growing again. I do know that I won't let anything get me discouraged about it though. Even if I have to keep it going by myself in the future, I definitely will do that. I love sharing what God has done for me and giving other people the oppurtunity to see what He can do in their lives. I even have the ministry name tattooed on my arm, so it's definitely not going anywhere! In closing, I just want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart for taking time to read the writings on these pages and for supporting this ministry. We continue to move forward so that we may spread the gospel of Jesus Christ to more and more people. I hope to continue to write for you for many, many more years. Only God knows what's in the future for this ministry. Thank you so much, Pete. Pete 6-7-10

New Life

New Life There is new life inside of me anxious to get out I can feel it coursing through my veins like fire It keeps me awake sometimes as I lie in bed It keeps telling me I will find my heart's desire As much as I try to fight it, it's of no use I try to tell myself that I've given up on love But the flames inside of me refuse to die It won't let me forget all the things I've dreamed of I know where the fire comes from of course It comes from the one I serve, the one I love above all The one who's saved me countless times My God above who picks me up when I fall When I try to say I could never trust again God stokes the coals and says have patience my son When I say I won't take a chance on love again God tells me your days of true love haven't yet begun When I tell myself I'm just not meant to be married When I tell myself I've always been meant to stand alone God tells me to stop thinking such foolishness That one day He'll send me a love like I've never known God always reminds me not of what I've lost but what I've gained He tells me there's a reason I've weathered the storms and the strife He's got something more in store for me than what I've dreamed He tells me that I can't even imagine beauty of this new life Jeremiah 20:9 (Amplified Bible) 9If I say, I will not make mention of [the Lord] or speak any more in His name, in my mind and heart it is as if there were a burning fire shut up in my bones. And I am weary of enduring and holding it in; I cannot [contain it any longer]. John 14:1-3 (New King James Version) John 14 The Way, the Truth, and the Life 1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. God bless everybody, Pete 6/3/10

Beware the Prosperity Gospel

Beware the Prosperity Gospel For many years now, prosperity theology has been spreading like wildfire. It's based on the idea that if you give more tithes and offerings to the church, God will bless you with great health and material wealth. Here are some scriptures that seem to be the basis of this movement. Malachi 3:10 (New International Version) 10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Deuteronomy 8:18 (New International Version) 18 But remember the LORD your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your forefathers, as it is today. We should give our offerings to God, but those offerings aren't always money. Our offerings should include our time that we spend doing God's work, such as volunteering to help in the ministry, giving to foodbanks, helping homeless shelters, helping children's homes, helping senior citizens, and so on. It's also the time we spend reading and studying God's Word, our bible, and time we spend praying. It's not always the cash or check we put in the offering plate, which is something these prosperity preachers won't tell you. I'm not telling you to stop giving tithes and offerings to your church. If you enjoy the church you attend, you should help to keep it going, which your offerings do. On the other hand, your tithes shouldn't be used to keep these ministers up in multi-million dollar mansions, driving Bentley's and Rolls Royces, wearing suits that cost thousands of dollars, flying in private jets, and in one case I know of, owning their own airport. This is not what the scriptures tell me. Here are some scriptures that I'm sure these prosperity pimps as a minister I respect calls them surely don't want to remind you of. Psalm 51:15-17 (New King James Version) 15 O Lord, open my lips, And my mouth shall show forth Your praise. 16 For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. 17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, A broken and a contrite heart— These, O God, You will not despise. Matthew 19:16-21 (New King James Version) Jesus Counsels the Rich Young Ruler 16 Now behold, one came and said to Him, “Good[a] Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” 17 So He said to him, “Why do you call Me good?[b] No one is good but One, that is, God.[c] But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments.” 18 He said to Him, “Which ones?” Jesus said, “ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ 19 ‘Honor your father and your mother,’[d] and, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’”[e] 20 The young man said to Him, “All these things I have kept from my youth.[f] What do I still lack?” 21 Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Do these prosperity preachers resemble the teachings of Jesus now? In Psalm 51, we are told that God would rather have us have a broken and contrite heart than to give offerings. That doesn't mean broken by the world, but broken in the sense that we have given our spirit over to God. In the scripture from Matthew, the wealthy young man asks Jesus how he can enter into heaven. Jesus tells him to sell all he owns, give to the poor, and follow Him. How many prosperity preachers would give up all of their material possessions in order to follow Christ? I don't like to bad mouth other ministers and I won't name names here, but to me, the prosperity gospel is a cancer on the Christian world. It's nothing more than vultures twisting the gospel to serve their own purposes: To make money and lots of it! To make it worse, I've seen some people who were truely inspired and blessed by some of these minister's sermons and I don't want to ruin those blessings and possibly drive those people away from God by exposing these false prophets for what they are, but I don't want to see these same people throw away their earnings so that these deceivers can live in the lap of luxury while their congregation barely scrapes by either. So, what are we to do? These profiteers make themselves out to be saints, but are swindlers and snakeoil salesmen in reality. Matthew 7:15 (King James Version) 15Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. In closing, the prosperity gospel goes against everything that I believe. The bible tells me that we will be rewarded for living by God's Word and giving our offerings to Him with great rewards in heaven, not with material wealth in this world. In the last few years of my life that have been the beginning of my ministry, I have not accepted any offerings for myself. I have paid for the website of our ministry from my own pocket, paid for all of the supplies that I use in this ministry myself, and paid for all of my travelling expenses myself when I have gone out to minister myself. I have in no way used the gospel of Christ for my own personal gain. So, the next time you see an evangelist on television telling you to send in money in order to 'sow seeds', think about whether they can say the same. Are they trying to help you grow closer to God or are they just trying to help themselves to your bank account? Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 5-22-10

Letter To Our Friends

Letter To Our Friends To all members and friends of New Disciples Ministry Hello, it's Rev. Norman L. Morrison, aka Pete. It's closing in on almost two years since I founded this ministry. A lot of you have probably heard of how this started out as a discussion group on Myspace with myself and a few friends. Since then, those friends have moved on with their lives in directions that carried them away from being a part of New Diciples. That's right, in the beginning it was called New Diciples. It was kind of a mistake with a purpose. As my friend Allen described it, 'The missing 'S' represented the 'Something' that was missing from our church lives at that time. You see, it wasn't meant to be a ministry in the beginning. It was just a group of friends sharing their walks with God. One of us would come up with a topic and then everybody would weigh in with their view on it. That worked great for a while. We had some very interesting discussions and learned from each other. In time though, everybody went their seperate ways in life. When it was down to just me, I decided to take what we had started and run with it. I deleted everything that was named New Diciples and made new pages under the name New Disciples Ministry. I ran into a lot of skepticism in the beginning. 'An online ministry? How is that gonna work?" was what I often heard and still hear occasionally today. The thing is though, I had made friends and fellowshipped via the internet with Christians across the United States and then across the world. People like my friend Shaheen who works with widows and orphans in Pakistan, Arturs who uses his Myspace blog and bulletins to spread the Puritan way of Christianity which is rarely seen today from his home in Latvia, and many other friends have been a light to me to show me that I'm on the right track. I would have never known they existed without this online ministry. Closer to home, I've met my friends and fellow New Disciples Jason Stover and Jennifer Huston through the online ministry's involvement with other ministries and travels around the southeastern United States. Jason and Jennifir share their walk with God and some of their innermost thoughts through the ministry's webpages and blogs. I know that they have certainly touched my life and my walk with God through their writings and from the comments that others have left about there blogs, I know that they have touched the lives of others as well. So, here we are in May of 2010. The Ministry started on June 11th, 2008. There has just been the three of us for quite a while now. We've got several Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter pages going along with our website www.newdisciplesministry.com. It's been a lot of work, sometimes seemingly thankless work at that, but when God puts something on your heart, you just do it. On the occasion that you get a message or comment from somebody stating how something you posted on the net touched them and helped them, it makes it all worthwhile. It gives you a feeling inside that nothing can compare to. That's when you really thank God for making you a part of it. Now we've got some new members coming into the ministry that I'll introduce you to soon and we're still searching for more. This ministry is growing and it's time to put some real thought into direction n structure. I don't want to hamper the spirit of what we're doing in the process, but I do see the need for us to be more organized than we have been in the past. The first step in the is a mission statement that will let everyone know what this ministry is all about. I've seen ministries destroy eveything they were doing when they've put one of these out though, so I am a bit nervous about this. So, I hope I can put this into words that will do our ministry justice. Here we go... New Disciples Ministry is not a church, it's not a new age religion, it's not a 'religious movement', and definitely not a money making scheme. We're not here to collect tithes and offerings. We're not hear to draw you into 'organized religion'. We're definitely not here to sweep you away to live on some compound out in the middle of nowhere. We're not hear to make money by selling you books, cd's, or dvd's. We're not selling you God! So, why are we here? New Disciples Ministry is an idea. That idea is that we can help each other to grow closer to God through a closer personal relationship with His son, Jesus the Christ. Whether you're in church three or four times a week or you don't go to church at all, you can have that real personal relationship with our Lord and Savior. Whether you're Catholic, Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostal Holiness, or any other denomination of Christianity, you're a child of God and you can talk directly to Jesus and get His guidance on how to live your life. So, how you do this? It starts by turning to Jesus on a very personal level and asking Him into your heart. You can do this kneeled down beside your bed, sitting on the side of the bathtub, or on a hike out in the middle of the forest. It begins in private, not on stage with an audience to see. It's as simple as kneeling down and starting out by saying "God I need you." From there, it continues through praying regularly, reading and studying your bible, watching programs and listening to music that are good for you spiritually. It also means cutting the spiritually harmful things out of your life, like addictions, destructive relationships, and other vices that hold you back from being closer to God. It means honestly and faithfully giving in to God's will for your life. You can do this by honestly asking Jesus into your heart and turning to Him for strength and guidance. There may be times that you fall, we are only human afterall, but you must get back up on your feet, ask Jesus for forgiveness and the strength to carry on. It may sound overly simplified, but that's the way it is and that's what this ministry is about; living with God in our lives. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are the the Holy Trinity and they can be in your life if you'll only allow them to be. So, what does all of this have to do with New Disciples Ministry? I got the term New Disciples from the Holy Bible itself. Matthew 28:19-20 (New King James Version) 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. The goal of this ministry is to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ and the impact it has on our lives to all who will listen all over the world. We will do this through the internet and small groups in as many places as we can reach. We will share how God is moving in our lives with you because of our personal relationship with Him and encourage you to do the same with your friends and family. Use the internet pages and form small bible study groups to share your walk with God with others and keep this idea growing until we have spread it all around to world. For some it will supplement their churchlife, for others who don't attend a church, it will be the beginning of their relationship with the Lord. Remember, though that we are not here to replace anybody's 'church' even though all Christians, as the body of Christ are the actual church. We're not here as a part of or as a replacement for organized 'church'. We are solely here to help you grow closer to God and to make the way you live your life more Christlike. So, in closing, I hope I have explained clearly what New Disciples Ministry is all about and what our aim is. I also hope you will accept our invitaion to become a part of our ministry and help continue spreading the idea of a personal intimate relationship with Jesus Christ. May God lay many blessings upon your lives my brothers and sisters in the Lord. Your brother in Christ, Pete. Pete 5-16-10