Category Archives: Pastor’s Picks – Recommend Resources

These are recommend resources that we have been personally encouraged and challenged by and hope they do the same for you. It’s been said before that great leaders are readers, and we are committed to regularly reading through our Bible and never stop learning. May the Lord bless you as you grow! -Pastor Tim Molter

Videos: Expressing Pro-Life Views in Winsome Ways by Focus on the Family

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We usually post a recommend book but this month we are posting a recommend resource by Focus on the Family. The world today is more confused on the issue of when life  begins that ever before and as Christ followers we need to to know the truth about life and death, and also how to engage in a winsome conversation with others.

This resource highlights the top arguments for abortion and how to respond with pro-life views. Use it to shape your next conversation with a family member, friend, neighbor, colleague, or stranger. We want to help you share your pro-life views with grace and confidence, not hostility and resentment.

Focus on the Family wants to give you some real, practical guidance in standing up for the sanctity of human life. This 5-part video series called “Expressing Pro-Life Views in Winsome Ways” features Scott Klusendorf, president of the Life Training Institute.

This presentation is available online for free at: 

https://focusonthefamily.webconnex.com/co-expressing-pro-life

Video #1 – “Acknowledging the Pre-Born as Fully Human”
Video #2 – “A Persuasive Case for the Pre-Born”
Video #3 – “How Science is Settled on the Pre-Born”
Video #4 – “Why Economics and Hardship Aren’t Good Reasons for Abortion”
Video #5 – “What About a Woman’s Right to Choose?”

Video #6 – “What about if there is an adverse prenatal diagnosis?”

 

Go to the I Am Pro-Life Facebook page and like and follow to stay informed. This group shares news and encouragement to help you be an informed citizen and an empowered advocate for life.

Download the “Expressing Pro-Life Views in Winsome Ways” discussion questions for additional reflection on your own or with a small group.

Get your whole family involved!

Download the Guide to Engaging Your Neighbor PDF. It highlights the top arguments for abortion and how to respond with pro-life views. Use it to shape your next conversation with a family member, friend, neighbor, colleague, or stranger.

Memorize and meditate on:

  • Psalm 139:13-14a ESV: “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.”
  • Genesis 1:27 ESV: “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
  • Psalm 127:3 ESV: “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.”
  • Mark 12:31 ESV: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
  • Proverbs 31:8 NIV: “Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves.”

Get Scott Klusendorf’s companion resource The Case for Life. This book gives you more depth from what you’ll learn in this video series.

Learn about how to start an Embrace Grace group at your church. Embrace Grace helps women with unplanned pregnancies find support and belonging.

Have you had an abortion? Do you know someone who has had an abortion? You are not alone or outside of God’s love and redemptive care. These post-abortive resources can help.

Find your local Pregnancy Help Center at OptionLine:

  • Get involved by volunteering
  • Refer someone who is facing an unplanned pregnancy

Thank you for partnering with us and encouraging other pro-life advocates to be a voice for life.

Book: Life@Work (Marketplace Success for People of Faith) by John C. Maxwell

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Authors John C. Maxwell, Stephen Graves, and Thomas Addington identify the basic tools followers of Jesus should always have in their work toolbox: Calling, Serving, Character, and Skill.

The conventional wisdom of leadership sees character as a muscle of leadership. In truth, character is a muscle of the heart. Our culture is enamored with leadership when it should be enamored with character.

The lines of our behavior draw picture of our character. Behavior and character are related, but they’re not the same. Behavior is what we do. Character is the person our behavior has made us into. Behavior is just one action. Any behavior, duplicated and reduplicated, forms a part of our character. Character is a fruit of the heart.

If characters is what counts most, then it is critical that we build and protect a strong pure heart. As the book of Proverbs says “as the heart goes, so we go.” The heart is where character is forged. After God gives us a new heart, it is up to us to water and nurture it.

This book helps readers learn how to better integrate faith and work and why it is crucial that we do so.

How to get this resource:

Book: Out of the Comfort Zone by George Verwer

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In this book George Verwer reflects on his forty-three years as leader of Operation Mobilization to talk straight about what he believes is needed in missions for the twenty-first century.

This is a humble and hard-hitting approach at the same time. He doesn’t pull any punches in his heart’s cry for a ‘grace-awakened’ approach to mission, and wants to cut through any superficial ‘spirituality’ that may be lurking inside you.

He shows how many Christians have the feeling that someone else will take care of it and have a vague, detached and unrealistic attitude to what mission is about. This book will challenge you to step out of your comfort zone and adjust your view of how missionary work is being done.

George Verwer is known throughout the world as a motivator and mobilizer. Out of the Comfort Zone should only be read by those who are willing to accept God’s grace, catch His vision and respond with action in the world of mission.

How to get this resource:

Book: On the Mountain of the Lord (Elijah Chronicles) by Bodie Thoene and Ray Bentley

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(The first book in the Elijah Chronicles series)

Watch history, prophecy, and current events leap to life as best-selling author Bodie Thoene and prophecy scholar Ray Bentley lead you on a journey that melds the past, present, and future into one unforgettable story.

Submerged in doubt after a brutal car accident ripped his wife, child, and faith from him, Dr. Jack Garrison travels to Israel on a fact-finding mission. When he begins to experience inexplicable visions within hours of landing, he knows he’s in over his head.

Join Dr. Garrison as he teams up with longtime friend Lev and a dauntless female Israeli Border Police officer to battle a furtive yet deadly enemy. His journey will take him from the city streets of London to the furthest shores of the Mediterranean as he’s forced to confront his doubts and accept the astonishing possibility that he is witnessing an ancient prophecy unfold.

This book is a must read for students of Bible prophecy.

How to get this resource: