The First International Church Of The Web

Church Newsletter For January, 2000

Hi everybody! Greetings from one who loves you!

Well Happy New Year everybody! I pray this new year finds each and every one of you well, safe, and joyous in Our Lord! I trust everybody weathered the "Y2K Disaster" with a minimum of difficulty. Our own church's computer came through with no difficulties whatsoever, and I pray the same is true for yours. And while I know that many governments and businesses spent a great deal of time and money to minimize the possibility of problems, I still say that God's people who trusted in Him and remained strong in their faith rather than listen to the prophets of doom had as much to do with the millenium coming in like a lamb as anyone else did, Praise God!

Of course, there are still people who are going around saying that this year isn't technically the start of the new millenium, that it doesn't really start until the year 2001.Maybe they're right, I don't know. But I can tell you this - God's calendar is His Own, and He'll return when He sees fit, and not before, and not after, but in His perfect time. I pray it will be today, and if not today, then tomorrow, and if not then, then whenever. Like the Good Book says, "No man knows the hour", but you can bank on this - it won't be according to any man-made calendar. Amen? Amen!

One thing we can know for sure, whether Our Lord returns tomorrow or a thousand years from tomorrow, the time is short. How short is the time? I'll tell you - we've just enough time to tell the world that "Jesus Loves YOU!" Have you told someone today that Jesus loves them? If so, then praise God, the angels may be singing right now because that person accepted Christ because you took a moment to share His Love. It's amazing, isn't it? It's amazing how the simple message that Jesus Loves You can change a sinner's life. You know, that's not by accident. It's not by accident that God's Word tells us that "God is Love" (1John, 4:16b) Let's think about this for a moment. Have you ever wondered how it is that mankind has always known there was a God? Man may not have always known the One True God, but man has always known God exists. How can this be? I'll tell you how. It's right there in 1John - "We love because He first loved us". See, when God gave us the ability to love, it was for a reason. We can love because God wanted us to always know that He is there. When we love, we aren't simply experiencing a primal emotion. Not at all. When we love we are experiencing God! When God in His Wisdom instilled in us the ability to love, He instilled in us the ability to know Him and to show Him to others. Brothers and Sisters, when we love we are using God's own proven method to allow our hearts to soar up to heaven, so that, though we be but sinners we can still reach out and touch the right hand of God. Oh, thank you, Jesus! So, you see, you're doing so much with just those few simple words to a stranger when you share this simple message, "Jesus Loves You". Take a moment each day to share this message with someone, won't you? Remember, "The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever." (1John, 2:17)

Mercy! Thank you for letting me share that with you, brothers and sisters, it's one of my favorite messages, from one of my favorite books of the Bible. Well, let's see, I've got some freebies to share with you today. If you'll remember last month I shared our church's very first screensaver, and I hope you've enjoyed using it on your computer. Well, Brother Lance has put his creative talents to work and created another screensaver for our church, and it's a bit fancier than the one I made because, well, Lance is a talented fellow. This one uses a variety and graphics and banners we've used for our church over the past 3 years, along with a bit of Christian poetry, and I think you'll like it. You can download our latest screensaver by clicking here. Brother Lance has also created a page with several screensavers for the Teddy Bear Monastery, and you can visit that page by clicking here. I also plan to be making some more screensavers for our church in the future, and will announce them in the newsletters and on the church bulletin board, so look for them there, and I'll soon be making a page for our church site with links to all the screensavers available.

Here's something else from our church I'd like to share with our members. See that little start button in the lower left corner of your screen? Wouldn't you rather have our church's own start button there? Sure you would! Who wouldn't? Well, now you can. First, grab the start button graphic from above and save it to your Windows System folder, but be sure and save it as a .bmp file and not a .gif file. Then, click here to download the small zipped program you'll need. Shouldn't take a minute or so to download. Then, unzip and install the program, and specify the church start button "startcoat.bmp" as your start button (remember where you put it, you'll need to find it). And Voila! Now you'll have our own church's start button instead of the dull, boring Windows start button. Pretty cool, eh?

Okay, I know many of our members just never seem to have enough space on their hard drive for everything they need, and could really use a good, free web-based harddrive. I also know that many of our members would like to support our church, especially if it only took a moment to do and they could do it for free. Well, now you can solve both problems! Our church has now signed up as an affiliate of X;drive. X:drive is a free, 25 MB web-based hard-drive that doesn't require any downloading, only takes a minute or two to sign up for, and best of all, for every member who signs up by clicking on the banner above, our church receives a dollar! That's right! You get a free hard-drive to store your graphics, html files, MP3 files, or whatever on, and our church gets a buck! It's a win-win situation for everybody. This is a super way to support our church, especially since you don't have to part with your hard-earned money to do so. Now, I need a certain number of people to sign up before the end of the month, so please, won't you take a minute or two to sign up? It will be a blessing to our church, and brother and sisters, it will be a blessing to me, that's the truth. And it doesn't matter what country you're in, if you're on the internet you can do this. I thank you for helping me and our church in this way. God bless you.

I have one more freebie I'd like to share with you today. This is a service I've found and tested, and it works very well. It's called DialPad, and it's a free telephony service that lets you make free long distance calls right over your computer. Now, I think it's limited to the U.S., but it may also be available for Canada. It's a java-based application, so you'll need a java enabled browser to use it, as well as a sound-card and a microphone. I don't even have a very good sound card, and this service works well for me, so I can recommend it for anyone interested.

Well, brothers and sisters, that's going to do it for this edition of the church newsletter. It's always a joy to write to you, and it's a joy to me when you read our newsletter. Do please take some time this month and visit our Church Bulletin Board and share fellowship with the other members there. Remember, you're not alone when you're a member of our church! Also be sure and visit our Church Prayer Request Page, where you can post prayer requests and our church members will pray on your requests, and you can also join our members in praying on the other prayer requests posted there. There's power in prayer, and when we join together to pray on the needs of our members, their famililies and their friends, we can make a difference. Hey, we have God's Promise on that! Well, until next time, please remember that each and every one of you are in my prayers at all times, and that I Love You!
Yours in Christ,
Brother Dave


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