Christian Fellowship Devotionals - January 1998 News

News Bytes from the staff of the Christian Fellowship Devotionals to our readers and guests to our site.
Evangelical and Devotional Information on the World Wide Web and via Email

Christian Fellowship   Devotionals Newsbytes Happy New Year! The New Look CF Devotionals honored        by Christianity.Net A Year of Counting Bits and Pieces In Closing... January 1998 News News Page Comments/Questions Email Us!

Happy New Year - 1998! As we all enter a new year, I hope this finds you with fresh memories of a happy holiday season. Christmas, while it may indeed be the wrong season of the year or the date has its roots in pagan traditions, is the time when we remember the birth of Jesus Christ. God Himself stepped into time and space and became one of us. It was the first step on the way to the cross of Calvary. It was also the death knell for the power of darkness over this world. Death itself would yield its power to the Creator.The enemy of our souls was condemned and defeated. The execution of his sentence has yet to be enforced, but the day draws near. As Tim reminded us, the holidays can be a very hard time for those who have lost loved ones, or suffer crippling illnesses. There are folks in 'retirement homes' who have children so elderly and infirm that these children can not travel to be with their parents. This can make the holidays lonely and sad. If you have the gift of hospitality, I hope you can go and sit with some of these folks for a bit. If you know a friend who has lost a parent, a spouse or child and the holidays remind them of their loss, help them remember the good memories. Christians have the certain hope of seeing their loved ones who know Jesus as Savior again. What a comfort that is. In short, be a cup of cold water to someone who needs it. The New Look If you have been around this website for a while, you will have noticed a bunch of changes going on. The bulk of these changes are now completed. Hopefully, we are settled again for a little while. We hope the new pages are easier to use and make it easier to find the things you are looking for in your devotions and study. If you find something that doesn't work, please let us know immediately. We may have missed something in the hundreds and thousands of individual changes that were made. If we don't know about it, it will not get fixed. Thanks. Your comments on anything from the speed of the pages to the content are always welcome. Constructive critique from our readers will only make the site easier to use and keep it functioning correctly. CF Devotionals Honored by Christianity.Net Two of the December 1997 CN Connections Newsletters carried a brief plug for our CF Devotionals website. It was completely out of the blue and quite a humbling moment. We are thankful for the recognition as it has attracted a rush of visitors and subscribers. All this honors our Lord, and that is why we are here. The article follows: Christian Fellowship Devotionals http://www.cfdevotionals.org/ What's better than receiving inspirational devotionals from one person? You're right, devotionals from many different sources! Read through the archives from each writer, and you'll be here for hours. There are some really interesting topics here including, "Defusing Anger," "Religion vs Rest," and others. Rating:<>< <>< <>< (on a four fish scale...no pun intended) A Year of Counting On December 17, 1996, we implemented a counter on the homepage of this tiny little corner of cyber-space the Lord has blessed us with. As of midnight December 17, 1997, we had seen 3,459 visitors. This does not include all the folks who hop right into the middle of a devotional page via a search engine or web crawler. We were so happy to see any activity at all in the first few months that we just about had a party when we saw our 100th guest two or three months after the counter was setup. It was only September when our 2,000th guest stopped by. The growing traffic is a blessing that leaves us speechless. When we started this experiment in April 1996, we didn't know if it would last to the end of the month. We felt a call to do the devotionals, and now that call is confirmed by the response and the wonderful notes we get back from readers from time to time. Would we still be here if the response was not here? Only God can answer that one. Writing has been a real channel for growth, maturity and humility. Not only is it humbling to see the things that God has stored up in His Word for us. But it is also humbling to see the things that I thought I knew be corrected as a devotional is prepared. Thankfully, God is very patient with us. The website itself came into being in mid-October 1996. It was a follow up to the email devotionals that had started April 4, 1996. The email devotionals were inherited from their founder, Angela, when she could no longer continue to do them. There are over 450 original devotionals on various topics referencing verses that span the Bible. The Lord has blessed us through all of this The article could also be called A Year and Counting since 1997 was our first full calendar year. It has been a wonderful mix of fellowship, blessing and some fun as we have worked to give you a little of what was on our hearts during that week. Please continue to pray for us as the new year opens in front of us all. Bits and Pieces Series News Rick and Mike are in the middle of long term devotional series. They are 20 and 19 parts, respectively, in length now. Rick's is the Comprehensive Study series and Mike's is The Cross Series. Rick has just completed a look at the promises that pointed to the coming of Jesus the first time. Mike has left the Upper Room and is now in the Garden of Gethsemane as the devotional/study moves on toward the cross. Jan has recently done a two-part devotional on Suffering that shared some deep insights from her heart. As one who has known suffering, she is uniquely qualified to apply scriptures to her experiences. Recommended reading. International Subscribers We have had several folks from outside the United States subscribe to the email portion of this ministry. Over the last few months we have had subscribers write from Malaysia and Russia. Please remember these folks in your prayers. They are in parts of the world that can be hostile to believers in Jesus. Please pray for the continued outreach to other nations via the Internet. In Closing... As ever, you who read are why we are here. If you have a question or comment, please don't hesitate to send us a note. We do try to answer anything sent to us as quickly as we possibly can. Sometimes we get busy with life, but we will get back to you. If you have an idea for a topic, we'd be happy to consider it too. Prayer request are welcome too. We do send out requests to the group at the request of a member in need of prayer. Welcome to all the newcomers! With the Christianity.Net referral we picked up a ton of new folks on the mailing list. We're glad to be able to send these offerings to you each day. Please know that your email address is completely confidential. We do not divulge the contents of our mailing list to anyone. Our 2nd anniversary is coming up in April on the 8th. God has blessed us immensely, beyond our expectations. Our desire is to maintain things as simply as possible, and reach as far as we can in the process. Our prayers go out to you as we all begin this new year. There will be ups and downs of all sorts, but as long as we walk with Jesus, we are never alone to face what this life doles out. Peace to you and yours, David, Geoff, Jan, Jen, Mike, Rick, Sandi and Tim January 10, 1998

This page is a personal outreach of Webservants Ministries. We are a group of individuals who want only to share the gospel with the lost and equip the body of Christ in growing and reaching a lost world for Jesus Christ. If we can do anything to further assist you, or you have a reference you would like to share, please feel free to drop us a line at Webservants@cfdevotionals.org. Peace.