December 8, 2011 Steps to Life Newsletter

WHAT'S NEW ON THE STL WEBSITE- www.steps.org.au

We keep adding to the STL web site as time permits.

• We have just added a section called Sermons Worth Sharing. A variety of sermon materials in text will be made freely available from a range of speakers on the basis that you can copy and use them as you wish to. The collection of sermon materials has been started by STL's October/November guest speaker, Jeff Wehr. His sermon titles to date are - Faith and the Holy Spirit. Fellowship With God, Christ Our Righteousness.
• We invite you to tell us by phone or by email the titles of Bible topics you would like us to post sermon materials on. We plan to add a section entitled Sermons Seldom Preached. When we have your request we will do our best to find sound, Bible based presentations on the topics requested.
• New articles added to the End Time Jigsaw Puzzle include - Are Our Children at Risk?, Vatican Calls for Central World Bank, Resurgent Paganism. What is Behind the Green Movement?.
• Steps to Life's Bible and Health Evangelism Course, conducted in September by Dwayne and Alexandra Lemon is now available and advertised on the web site. Over 40 hours of course preparation has been edited and is available as a DVD set. If you wanted to attend the training school and couldn't, you will want to obtain your set of the DVDs. You can view the testimonial DVD of the training course by going to the streaming page.
• Jeff Wehr's Surrounded But Don't Surrender DVD series is now also available from the STL online shop.
• Activated Charcoal and its Uses as a Remedy - (Free Brochure!) - Under the heading of Brochures you will find this informative brochure. It's yours for the copying.
• Just printed - Caffiend!! - is another free educational brochure that is available for copying. It's a summary of the impact of caffeine on society, its health effects, along with some helpful suggestions for replacing it in the diet and kicking the caffeine habit. A printed copy is included with this Newsletter.
• Now is the time to use the STL online Gift Vouchers. Give a gift voucher that will have lasting uplifting value for the receiver.

MARCH 2012 STL WEEKEND SEMINAR SERIES - IN HIS IMAGE - STL WELCOMES GUEST SPEAKERS, DANIEL & SILVIA PEL

Daniel is an international speaker who has travelled the world for the last 7 years speaking on relevant scriptural topics. He is director/speaker of Living Water ministry. Daniel was born in New Zealand to Dutch parents. He has spent most of his life in Europe, and now lives with his wife in Norway. Besides traveling and teaching they enjoy the outdoors.

The theme for the seminar is In His Image. We are shortening the seminar format, dropping the 9.30 am meeting and commencing Sabbath morning at 10.30 am. The seminar still starts on Friday evening but has one less presentation on Sabbath. The topics are: Friday evening - Where Do You Belong? Sabbath - Another Image, Standing On Holy Ground, One of Us, The Testimony of Jesus. Sunday evening - Finishing the Race. In describing the seminar Daniel says, the first thing we learn about mankind in the scriptures is that we are made in the image of God. In our broken world this image has been marred. And yet God's promise to us is that by beholding Him we will be changed into His image once again. But how do we see Him? We often look at people expecting to see God. We look at religions. We even look in the mirror. Inevitably we are disappointed. To see him we need to open our mind and heart to the crystal-clear image of God revealed in Jesus through the scriptures

REFURBISHMENT OF STL STDUIOS

The refurbishment from two studios into one has gone well and is now almost complete. We are relinquishing the lease on studio 2 and studio one has been redesigned to be a multi purpose studio. It accommodates filming, an in house Christian resources and health shop, seminar facility seating around 60 people and DVD production. It now boasts a mezzanine floor for stock and film set storage, a packing/dispatch area as well as a nicely sized kitchen to assist with catering for health seminars. We are now placed to move into 2012 and tackle a year that already is looking very full. Come and visit us to see our new home.

BEST WISHES FOR THE HOLIDAY SEASON

All of us at STL send our best wishes for the holiday period. We thank you for your prayer and financial support during 2011. We ask that you keep us in your prayers and planned giving as we move into 2012.

As we reflect over 2011 we can see a rapidly changing world. Moral and social barriers that were embedded in society have been under attack during the course of the year. During the year past, it became 'OK' to assassinate terrorists rather than capture and provide a fair trial. The USA is moving toward indeterminate detention for its own citizens without charges being placed. What happens in the USA often finds its way to Australia. Greed has carried the world's leading financiers into deepening disaster as even the so called wealthy nations now teeter on the brink of total financial collapse.

The wall of separation between church and state is looking like it will soon go the same way as the symbolic wall between the west and communism (Berlin Wall) did some years back - it disappeared over night. The wall of national sovereignty which enabled countries to establish their own laws and governmental procedures is crumbling with the impact of the jack hammers of unprecedented natural calamity, famine, social, political financial and religious disaster and tension, bringing about a call to establish a universal monetary system and international laws which override the right of countries to govern themselves. The so called 'Arab Spring' has produced instability and uprising in Islamic countries like never before.

In Australia there is an unprecedented lobby for so called 'gay rights' including the right for same sex partners to marry. Press comments on the matter provides an interesting insight into the attitudes of a country that up until a few years back described itself as being Christian, and there was an assumption underpinning our laws of Christian values, including that of the sanctity of marriage, being for one man and one woman for life - and their asking God's blessing on it. During the recent Labor Party Annual Congress the push for gay marriage at the national level was hotly debated, yet the issue took third, if not forth place in the press reporting, to sport, the 'Bali Boy and uranium sales to India. When reported, there was an almost universal acceptance of gay relationships. The contention was about whether civil recognition was sufficient and could not marriage be reserved for a man and a woman exclusively, because this was the original meaning of the term marriage. The morality issue was totally dead in the water in the reporting. Journalist are now predicting the flow-on effect that marriage recognition for gay couples will have if it becomes law through our national parliament in 2012. They are asking if marriage recognizes gay couples because they 'consent' why not gay or heterosexual triples or quadruples, etc, who also 'consent'. At least there are religious precedents in Islamic religion for polygamy!

The perilous times Paul writes to Timothy about are certainly with us. He writes in 2 Timothy 3: 1 to 5 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Paul's advise to Timothy is good for us as well as we try to come to terms with the tide of turmoil sweeping around us - 2 Timothy 3: 14 to 17 - But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

We find a huge encouragement in Jesus' prayer in John 17, for his followers, both of then, through time and now. John 17: 9 to 11, 15 - I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine. And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are. .. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.

Always remember, no matter what is happening, that Jesus, who is interceding right now on our behalf in the Most Holy Place, prayed for us - that we should be kept from evil. We can claim his prayer as a promise for ourselves and our loved ones. May the new year be one of a closer walk with Jesus and a deep knowledge of the blessed hope, for you and your family.

God's blessings to you and your family from Cherryl and the STL Team

Brian Way

Programs Coordinator