Newsletter

Dear Ministry Partners, Friends, and Family,

Thank you for helping keep us active on the mission field and global stage in 2014 and readying us for the New Year.

Into Thy Word is a viable, much used and needed platform that church leaders and pastors use on a daily basis.  We can do this ministry for the Lord with your prayers and partnership.  What exactly do we do?  We are online and in the field doing personal training, discipleship, conferences, research, church planting, and curriculum development.  In fact, we served over 5,000 pastors and church leaders at our conferences in 2014 in the U.S., and we served thousands more overseas.  

How about this:  More than 11 million different people--over 30,000 per day--downloaded materials from our websites and blogs this past year.  Yes, 11 million people.  This number makes us one of the top ministries doing online the right way with the best materials--for free, without charge.  Why do we offer this?  Because, we serve the Lord and want to spread His Word; He has blessed us abundantly in this way.

Furthermore, we do rely on you, too.  I'm sure you're busy, so I'll get right to it.  We need your help again this year.  Please help us forget about fundraising and get back to serving the Lord.

We are a small non-profit that runs some of the top Christian websites in the world along with our pastoral training and church planting in 80 countries.  We only have 3 part time administrative staff and about 2,000 trainers in the field who use our resources worldwide.  We serve over 20,000 pastors in the field and 11 million users online, and we have costs like any other top sites:  bandwidth, software, servers, development, programs, and people.

Into Thy Word is something special.  It is like a seminary library, research institute, and a Bible college education all on a smart phone.  It is like a spiritual resource and comfort for the Christian mind that is tired of the dog-and-pony shows that so many others offer.  It is a place people like you can go to get what you need for your church or small group to think and learn.

We survive on prayers and donations from partners like you. This is the time of year we ask.  If missions, pastor training, church planting and excellent Biblical Christian resources are important and useful to you, please take a moment, pray and perhaps give a donation to keep the ministry online and to help us continue to train pastors for another year in service to Our Lord.

Christmas Reflection

Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of all God's promises

"Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, 'Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.' And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet,' Out of Egypt I called my son.'" Matthew 2:13-15  ESV

What was Herod's response to the birth of Jesus?

Jesus always invokes a response from every person who has ever lived.  We either accept him or reject him; we will fight against Him, or we will devote our lives to pleasing Him.

Herod had the incredible opportunity to be one of the first people to give such a response; he chose fear and deception as his appropriate reaction to the newborn King. He saw Jesus as a threat to his throne. He did not understand that Jesus' throne was universal and eternal, while Herod's own kingdom was geographical and temporary.

Herod wanted to hold on to his power instead of opening his eyes to a mightier ruler--if he had worshiped as the Magi did, perhaps he would have been blessed instead of remembered as a foolish, grasping, power-hungry ruler.

The Chief Priests and leaders were one step ahead of Herod. They knew that that the newborn King was indeed the Messiah, yet, they also saw Him as a threat and not the God they should serve and worship. They knew the Truth, but chose to fight it and hang on to their old perceptions of God.

The response we give to Jesus will echo for eternity, so, let us make sure it is the correct one!

Responses also have consequences for us, as well as those around us.  For Joseph and his family, it meant fleeing to a foreign land, away from family, friends, and work--he left everything he knew. The response of Herod and the Jewish leaders also echoes for us today, giving us examples and warnings as we consider our responses to Jesus. What is your response?

What's New?

With vital ministry partners we just launched a New APP!

The new application is a place to be refreshed and to network!  This is quality devotional encouragement and helps Christians who are too busy for normal Discipleship.  Please spread the word! http://www.fellowshiper.com 

We are having a Writer's Contest!  Do you have a calling for Christian writing?  Do you have something on your heart from God's Word?  We, with ministry partners, just started to run a monthly contest for best mobile writers.  There is a cash prize available to those who win.  Check it out on our new app: http://www.fellowshiper.com   

Just to let you know:  Apps are very expensive to develop and hard to get into the iTunes store.  Ours is out an already in, and ready for you. It is a beta, and we need to raise another $5,000 to keep it going with another $5,000 to develop the app for the Android platform.  The total amount needed for this endeavor is $12000; this will be a blessing for countless people--for you, too.

We have an action-packed 2015 ahead of us that needs your prayers and partnership. We are planting churches with our partners at an accelerated rate.  Each church costs around $4,500 to get it built and started; the pastor needs $120 to $250 a month. Please pray about supporting the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

See our Directors family Newsletter here:

https://files.stablerack.com/webfiles/70030/Krejnewsletter1214.pdf

 Merry Christmas to all our family and friends all over the world!

"Praise be to the Lord, the God of Israel, because he has come to his people and redeemed them. He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he said through his holy prophets of long ago," (Luke 1:68-70)

Feel free to pass this on to anyone who would like it….