From: R & S Scarcella & Family [inbox@webpastor.com] Sent: Wednesday, 29 March 2000 9:40 AM To: inbox@webpastor.com Subject: CoGS Weekly Hits! 2000 Vol.3 No.5 YOUR CoGS WEEKLY HITS! - FREE NETMAGAZINE distributed by Rev. Rocco & Mrs. Susan Scarcella from Church of the Good Shepherd Bossley Park NSW Australia WEBSITE: www.webpastor.com ITEMS, JOKES ETC TO: hits@webpastor.com SUBSCRIBE: subscribe@webpastor.com UNSUBSCRIBE: unsubscribe@webpastor.com (Please write "no hits" in the subject frame) WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?: http://www.christianity.net.au +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Dear NetFamily, For those who were interested in the fate of the mangoes on our tree...one down and one to go! MMMM. It was nice too! If you can possibly help us to support the orphanage in Bali, please read the important information at the end of this email. You can help simply by being online and referring your friends! See below for details on how you can help these kids. READING FROM THE WORD OF GOD 29 Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there he advanced against the Ammonites. 30 And Jephthah made a vow to the LORD: "If you give the Ammonites into my hands, 31 whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering." 32 Then Jephthah went over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave them into his hands. 33 He devastated twenty towns from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel Keramim. Thus Israel subdued Ammon. 34 When Jephthah returned to his home in Mizpah, who should come out to meet him but his daughter, dancing to the sound of tambourines! She was an only child. Except for her he had neither son nor daughter. 35 When he saw her, he tore his clothes and cried, "Oh! My daughter! You have made me miserable and wretched, because I have made a vow to the LORD that I cannot break." 36 "My father," she replied, "you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me just as you promised, now that the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites. 37 But grant me this one request," she said. "Give me two months to roam the hills and weep with my friends, because I will never marry." 38 "You may go," he said. And he let her go for two months. She and the girls went into the hills and wept because she would never marry. 39 After the two months, she returned to her father and he did to her as he had vowed. And she was a virgin. --Judges 11:29-39 (NIV) In Exodus 20, we read the words of God to His people:"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name." Yet here is a man, who has been chosen by that same God to lead his people, who misuses the name of the one who sent him. He makes a pagan vow - to sacrifice whoever(the original Hebrew makes it seem certain that he meant to sacrifice a male human, possibly a slave) came out of his house to greet him. How easily the ways of the world creep into our values! And, what is worse, Jepthah appears to blame HIS DAUGHTER for his sorrow. He does not seem to want to take responsibility for his own foolishness. In all this, the girl is honourable. Like Isaac before Abraham, she is prepared to be sacrificed because she does not take God's name lightly. What would you have done in her circumstances? What would you have done in Jepthah's? Taken the easy option and wimped out of the vow? Or would you have taken responsibility for your actions, gone to the Lord and asked His forgiveness for having made such a stupid vow? Or... hang on a minute... might you have offered yourself in place of your daughter? Hmmm....now where have I heard of someone offering themselves in place of another who did not deserve it??? TESTIMONY 1 Sam.16:7 "Man looks at the outward appearance,but the Lord looks at the heart." I was 21, unmarried, pregnant and into drugs and alcohol. One day a friend asked me to go to church with her. I told her that the only dress that I had was a disco dress that was real short. She said that was OK because God doesn't look on the outside. The preaching was something that I had never heard before. I listened and by the end, my heart was pounding and the preacher was giving the call for sinners to come to the Lord. With no cares of how I was dressed I went to the altar and fell to my knees and began crying. Then I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life and cleanse me of my sins and make me whole. I felt a warmness and knew that Jesus had made me into a new creature." --Anon. PRAYER POINTS **Thank the Lord that He sent Jesus to die in our place, even though we did not deserve it. **Pray for preparations for the coming Easter outreaches and many "Fresh Start 2000 Missions" around Sydney. Our church (CoGS) has a week of mission activity planned, from May 20 - 28: Kids' Outreach Service; Guest speakers such as Steve Abbott, Paul Sampson & John Chapman; BBQ Lunch, a music & comedy night, Q&A Coffee & dessert nights and a dinner-dance! (God willing!) **Praise Him for looking at the heart, and not the outward appearance. **Violet F is fast approaching the end of her pregnancy. Pray for her and for the other ladies expecting: Gina L, Trish C and Cathy S. **Pray for Pat C and her husband who are still in the wars healthwise. Bill, Rose T's stepfather, is back in hospital with fluid on the lungs. His morale is not good and the family is feeling the strain. **Pray for Aida J, still suffering extreme pain from the accident. **Keep Patti in your prayers, for continued health improvment. **Remember Peter J. and the need to put some weight back on after recent surgery. **Vera G. continues to struggle with recurring leg problems. SOMETHING THAT DID NOT MAKE THE HEADLINES John Hernandez (a friend of ours at church) recently shared a testimony that is so remarkable, and credible, that we feel compelled to share it with a wider audience. John related that last week he talked with an Alaska Airlines pilot who is involved in the investigation of the horrific crash of Alaska Flight 261. The pilot has listened to the cockpit voice recorder from the downed plane and he reported that for the last 9 minutes of the flight, the wife of the pastor from Monroe, Washington can be heard sharing the Gospel with the passengers over the plane's intercom system. Just before the final dive into the Pacific Ocean, she can be heard leading the sinner's prayer for salvation. The pilot also told John that the flight data recorder from the plane indicates that there is no good explanation for how the plane was able to stay in the air for those final 9 minutes. But it did stay in the air until the pastor's wife had a chance to share the Gospel with the very attentive passengers and presumably lead many to salvation in Christ. --Submitted by PAMMI K. HAHAHA CORNER ** A consultant dies and finds himself being greeted at the Pearly Gates by a brass band. Saint Peter runs over, shakes his hand and says "Congratulations" . "Congratulations for what?" ask the consultant. "Congratulations for what?" says St Peter, why, we are celebrating the fact that you lived to be 160 years old!" "That can't be true" says the consultant "I only lived to be 40" "That's impossible", says St Peter, "we added up your timesheets!" --submitted by Anne Lilly **There was a Scottish tradesman, a painter called Jock -- of course- who was very interested in making a pound where he could ... so he often would thin down his paint to make it go a wee bit further. As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually the Presbyterian Church decided to do a big restoration job on the roof of one of their biggest churches. Jock put in a bid and because his price was so competitive, he got the job. And so he set to, with a right good will-erecting the trestles and putting up the planks, and buying the paint and ... yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with the turpentine. Well, Jock was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly done, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, and the sky opened and the rain poured down, washing the thin paint from all over the church and knocking Jock fair off the scaffold to land on the lawn, among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint. Jock was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he fell on his knees and cried: "Oh, God! Forgive me! What should I do?" And from the thunder, a Mighty Voice spoke: "Repaint! Repaint and thin no more!" --submitted by Jennie Graham. **A woman went to doctors office. She was seen by one of the new doctors, but after about 4 minutes in the examination room, she burst out, screaming as she ran down the hall. An older doctor stopped and asked her what the problem was, and she explained. He had her sit down and relax in another room. The older doctor marched back to the first and demanded, "What's the matter with you? Mrs. Terry is 63 years old, she has four grown children and seven grandchildren, and you told her she was pregnant?" The new doctor smiled smugly as he continued to write on his clipboard. "Cured her hiccups though,didn't it?" --submitted by Pat C. **In 1873, a team of German explorers and their three dogs decided to penetrate the heart of the South American jungle. After twelve years, they had set up a fort in an Incan town, the centerpiece of which was a large idol with a huge ruby for an eye. The German church had sent out their best man, Friar Wilhelm Werks three times to check on the progress of the fort, and each time the appearance of the idol had sent him into fits of screaming, complete with shouts, curses, and rending of garments. Each time, he screamed so loud that he sent the dogs running for cover. And each time, he left with a warning that the next time he visited, the idol had better be torn down. The commander of the fort, Hans Brickner, received a message that Friar Werks would be coming to visit again in a fortnight. He quickly called a meeting with his top commanders. All five agreed that the Friar would explode when he saw the idol still standing. "But," said Commander Brickner, "there's nothing to be done. If we take down the idol, we will anger the local tribe, and without their cooperation we're dead." His second-in-command, Herr Kommandant Wagner said, "In that case, we'd better make sure we put the dogs away." "Why?" "You know how scared the dogs get when Friar Werks goes off on the Fort of Jewel Eye." --submitted by Liam [Ed.: err yah!.. just say the last line again with a German accent! "Fire works goes off on the Fourth of July!] ============================ Rocco: "Sue, is it my imagination, or are the jokes getting "verse"... I mean "worse"?" Sue: Hmmm... how do I answer that one without getting into trouble? LOL! See you next week! And please keep send us your items, jokes etc! --Rocco and Sue ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ GET PAID TO SURF THE NET & ALSO SUPPORT THE ORPHANAGE! We've recently become members of AllAdvantage.com, an Internet company that literally pays you to surf the Web. They are paying members in US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and the US territories, too -- more countries coming soon. AllAdvantage is totally legit. It's also completely FREE and they are very serious about maintaining your privacy: there is no survey to fill out! It takes only minutes to join, download the FREE AllAdvantage.com Viewbar software, and start surfing the Web with the Viewbar on your screen. You can earn even more when you tell your friends about it! (Spamming is not allowed!) So here's how you can help yourself and us! When you sign up, please use our member ID (LCD613) when you are asked if you were referred by someone OR you can just CLICK ON this link to get started: http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=LCD613 . By joining and signing up through our member ID number (LCD613) YOU will be paid to surf the web AND also help us to support the Orphanage in Blimbingsari(Indonesia)every time you log on and activate the viewbar! It's that simple! And of course, the more who sign up through our link, the more we will raise to help the kids! Please consider joining us to help these needy kids through AllAdvantage.com today. For more info & pics of the orphanage kids you will be helping, just follow this link to our web site: http://www.webpastor.com/miss&supp.htm . Please don't hesitate to contact us for more details! Thank you so much! Happy surfing and God's blessings! Rocco & Sue Scarcella mailto:susan@webpastor.com AllAdvantage.com Member ID# LCD613 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++