|
Nr 02/12
February 2012
Dear Member/Guest
Content of Edition
- Monthly Devotional — A God who make things happen — our Grower
- Kehrhahnministries moving forward through technology
- Theme Change — Our website will soon have a new look
- Quote of the month
1. MONTHLY DEVOTIONAL — A GOD WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN — OUR GROWER
A GOD WHO MAKE THINGS HAPPEN — OUR GROWER
Devotional Text: 1 Corinthians 3:4-11 (NIV)
For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere men? What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The man who plants and the man who waters have one purpose, and each will be rewarded according to his own labour. For we are God’s fellow-workers; you are God’s field, God’s building. By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ.
Dear Friends
Starting a business or organization can be very hard, especially when it is being build from the ground. Markets for your products needs to be found, finances must be available etc. People with certain expertise needs to come on board to assist you and finding the right people who shares and relates to your vision is hard to find. These are the growing pains of something new, not only in your personal growing process as you learn new things along your way, but it also help those who became your co-workers to experience a new horizon. To get there however one cannot stand still, since you will be needing different people with different skills at different stages of developing your business or organizations as each person can only become an expert in one specific area.
Our text however shares with us of a quarrel which has developed within the Corinth congregation. A quarrel where people remain stuck with one individual as being the only true apostle. It is in this set up that Paul reminds the people that they are only ordinary people who are working for someone else and therefore they have got different duties and responsibilities in God’s organization. Expecting that one person must do everything puts a lot of strain upon these individuals because they themselves only knows where they can fulfil God’s great purpose and with that Paul teaches the congregations that it is okay not to be able to do everything all at once and therefore it doesn’t matter who is the greatest of the two, because they all fulfil their roles to the best of their abilities. As in business, one can have all the expertise to enable the business to thrive it however is God who allows the business to flourish. Man can only do what is possible and therefore we need to allow God to do the impossible. One can only build on the foundation which has been build and if that foundation isn’t strong enough the rest of the building will soon tumble down.
In our faith it is just as true as it is in the secular world. People come into our lives and help us to build on the foundation that was laid by Christ Jesus. This they do through encouraging the down-cast and being a pillar of support when the seas get rough or just being a harbour (place of refuge) where one can wait until the storm has before one continues with one’s journey. Without these people in our lives our boat would have already sunk, way before we have ever started to embark with our life’s mission.
Paul’s responsibility thus was to found a new congregation and now that he has moved on, Apollos had the responsibility to nurture and cultivate that congregation using the gifts and God gave him for that purpose. Having Apollos in that congregation enables Paul thus to continue with the passion that God laid upon His heart without worrying about the congregation he founded, knowing that God would send him the right individual to take this congregation into the direction and the purpose that he has for them. Apollos on the other hand knows that even though Paul isn’t with him anymore there will always be someone who will assist him when he needs assistance along the way, knowing that Paul trust him enough to inform him when things becomes overwhelming for him.
God enables growth only and therefore, when something works out for our best, we need to realise it is all because He has looked upon us with favour and therefore all glory belongs to Him for sending us the right people at the right time. So let us not claim the one person being more important than the other, rather let us give God the glory for everything that has happened for it did not happen without God’s prior consent.
Father God
Thank you that we do not need to be able to do everything ourselves, but that you send people along our way with the same passion, but with different inclinations than ours. Thank you for enabling growth in all the things that we are doing for you. Help us to give glory to you and to realise that our success in actual is your success and that we are only blessed by being a part of that.
In Jesus’ Name, we pray
Georg Kehrhahn
CEO: Kehrhahnministries
2. KEHRHAHNMINISTRIES MOVING FORWARD THROUGH TECHNOLOGY
Kehrhahnministries would like to inform our sponsors and ministry partners of the following changes, which arose from the meeting between the CEO and the technical department on the 26th December 2011.
At this meeting it was agreed that a reading devotional plan consisting out of 108 devotionals will soon be available on your iPhones/Blackberry and Android devices via the Youversion program. Our technical department is still waiting for approval and we anticipate that it will be up and running in the months to come. This will enable you to share with people the redeeming message of the Gospel where you are without immediate access to internet facilities. This is just another way in which Kehrhahnministries is making use of technology to enable more people access to our devotionals, which may lay the foundation for a good conversation about religious matters when the time has presented itself. The head of this department, our Deputy CEO, Roland Rieseberg is very excited and believes that this will bring about reaching our target of 25000 visits set by the executive at the previous meeting. However, this devotional needs to be down loaded from the Youversion program and all necessary information and links will be provided depending on what the management of Youversion allows. As Kehrhahnministries strives to reach people in their daily lives, we realized that mobile phones plays a vital role in our daily lives and receiving a good Word or thought to ponder on only makes our day more tolerable. Technology is being used in so many bad ways and here we know that we can contribute to good use of technology.
At this meeting changes regarding our website have also been discussed and therefore you will be able to see photo’s from a project that we have with our ministry partner in India.
December is the busiest month for members of the Executive, since it is during this month where we meet to discuss and evaluate current developments within our cyber community. If there is any other ways in which we can use technology via a computer, which we didn’t use, please feel free to contact our Webmaster at the following address
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
or if you need to find out more or your NGO wants to create a website at minimal costs or (no costs) our webmaster can also be approached, since Kehrhahnministries has got policy in place regarding this issue. For our existing members who needs advise on any computer matters, feel free to contact our technical support department via the following address
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
. This service is free and depending on the quantity of e-mails we receive, we will try to work through all the emails and therefore it may take time for a response.
If you would like to share a testimony of how Kehrhahnministries have impacted your life or the life of your community or to report abuse of the site, feel free to drop an email to our administrator at
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
As always, the Kehrhahnministries executive would like to remind our users of our Twitter facility (@Kehr_ministries) on our website as well as our “Prayer Request” and “Forum” facilities where you can interact with other Christians around the world or simply asking that our community pray for a specific need that you may have. This of course can be done anonymously.
KEHRHAHNMINISTRIES STRIVING TO UNIFY AND MOBILIZE CHRISTIANS AROUND THE WORLD!!!!!!
With Kind Regards
Roland Rieseberg
Deputy CEO: Kehrhahnministries
3. THEME CHANGE — OUR WEBSITE WILL SOON HAVE A NEW LOOK
Kehrhahnministries have decided that during 2012 we will change our website image to a new theme in our strive to keep up with the topics that effects us globally. In this way we want to become a clear voice in how we as a executive stands in regards to these topics while through our website keep people closer to what scripture says about this topic which we have elected. This theme will be our theme until the end of 2014 after which we will change it again. Our technical staff are working on this change and we hope that our new look will be as inspiring as our theme was in the last two years.
We will soon start a new book review soon on the request of our readers and we hope that it will encourage you to read on that topic. As always we will publish the title of that book within our books section of the website under the non-fictional section.
With kind regards
Roland Rieseberg
Deputy CEO: Kehrhahnministries
4. QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Humility is an appreciation of you, an awareness of who you really are. And anyone who sees him- or herself as he or she truly is must be truly humble.”--The Cloud of the Unknown
Have you ever heard someone saying to you “don’t be so hard on yourself, show yourself some grace!!!!” In hearing that what was your first reaction to this statement? Perhaps anger, since you know that is you are you and therefore, who are those individuals to say something like that to you? Or did it bring you to a stand still realizing that people do see the work that you are doing, they appreciate and acknowledge it and since you can’t be gracious unto yourself, they feel obligated to so that to you? Maybe they are trying to tell you that you are okay just the way you are and that they love you despite your weaknesses and your attempt to run from it. You can be you, for you are perfect the way that you are.
Today, perhaps you see parts of yourself in this opening paragraph and still although you know that all these words ever spoken to you are true, it isn’t applicable to you, but to someone else, then I would like to encourage you to have a fresh look at the quote from this book. The fact that this quote appears in a book means that it is the authors hope that however reads this quote may realise that humility, begins with you. You cannot show grace to others, if you are not allowing yourself to receive grace first. In Jesus’ command to love the Lord God with your whole heart soul and mind as well as your neighbour as yourself, we think that loving other people is more important than loving yourself and by doing that you neglect yourself.
This message of performance becomes so embedded within ourselves that we push ourselves so much that we neglect the people around who loves us and who just want to be with us for no apparent reason than simply being with us and those are the ones we push away even though everything in our very nature screams out aloud the exact opposite. Taking all this into consideration it is no surprise to me that people suffers of depression and burn outs because they simply cannot continue with this tread over a long period of time. Humility isn’t determined by your achievements rather it is determined by how well you look after yourself and whether you allow someone to put the brakes when you are unable to do it yourself.
Humility begins with the realization of who you really are. It begins with the wisdom which comes from knowing your limits. It begins with asking the people around you for help and making them part of your decision when important life changing decisions needs to be made. It begins with working together, sharing with one another a collective vision and working side by side in making that vision a reality. The most precious gift you can ever have isn’t your achievements or possessions, but you.
People however are scared of expressing their love to themselves, because it is very easy to have a higher think of yourself than what you ought to. Unfortunately, this may be what others perceive you to do when you do it. Perhaps there might be something true about it and thus seeing yourself from the perspective of others and allowing someone you love and trust to correct you will not only enable you to make that change, but it will also enable you to love those around you with a appreciative heart. Nobody tries to down-size you, since you are doing that very well yourself, rather they want you to find that person within you that they know you are and who you want to be. Those are the encouragers, which our to which I have referred to in my devotion for the month for you might be surprise when you realize that they know you better than you thought.
Our strive in showing to the people that we are worth something starts to show in how we manage the environment as we tapped into its resources and destroying the planet in order for a few people who struggles with their own insecurities causing the planet to pay the price for our need to show that we are worthy through what we have achieved exchanging the life of humanity for a couple of dollars, not caring about the impact and devastation they leave behind. And this all in the name of business and “good” environmental management.
The road in discovering your humility is a hard and painful road, but you hit the rough patches then know that God is with you all the way and that these periods to rough riding will soon pass, because those who chose to stick to you, I believe will remain with you for they know the importance to the role that they are playing in your life for they love you more than you will ever know especially in those difficult times through which each and every one of us are going.
God Bless!!!!!!
Georg Kehrhahn
CEO: Kehrhahnministries
|
