Lord my life is overrun with stress.

When I read about David crying out to you because he felt overwhelmed with life I can relate. Why does life have to be so difficult? I wonder how many of my problems are self inflicted? I’ve tried to follow you or at least I think so.

Have I really put your kingdom above mine? Have I put your heart before mine? I want to love you with all of my heart. I want to be so close to you that I feel your presence every moment. I want to be used by you and I want to be a pencil in your hand. Yet I sin against you way to much.

A life where I rejoice always and don’t worry about anything is far removed from the reality of my daily life. Is there hope? Will I ever be willing to give you everything I have and forget the past and strive ahead in the direction I believe you are calling me to go?

Lord help me not to do anything that would not honor you in my finances, in how I love people, and in loving you above my own life. Amen Lord. Let it be so.

I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. Paul had a number of people who were faithful ministers working along side him, yet he made this comment about Timothy.

That made me think about my life. Is that what people would say about me or do I put my interests above others? I’m afraid I know the answer and it’s not the one I had hoped for.

Jeremy Camp says “I want to be real. I want to lay it all down before the King. My desire is to be used by you. My desire is to do your will. To be used by you.”

I’ve seen what my life looks like when I put myself above God and I don’t like it. I pray that I may no longer put my desires above His. May I see through Jesus’s eyes.

In the Purpose Driven Life Rick Warren poses the question: What does God care about most? He goes on to answer it by saying that God cares about you and I the most. That is the reason he sent his son. His desire is that we will develop an intimate relationship with Him and he has gone to extreme measures to reach out to us.

Rick Warren also says that as we learn to love God we’ll become less interested in ourselves and more interested in God.

When you start to experience God’s working in your life you’ll become excited about the things of God. You’ll start to see things you never saw before. You’ll see God working in people’s lives and you’ll see ways that God will start using you.

It’s an exciting trip and it starts the day you say to God I want to follow you. Jesus said; You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’ But I say, wake up and look around. The fields are already ripe a for harvest.

Memory Cross creates fun tools that can be used to share God’s love with others. For more information go to www.memorycross.com

There is a growing trend among churches in the United States and it is finding plenty of children willing to participate.

Halloween continues to grow in popularity, spurred on mostly by manufacturers of Halloween costumes, decorations and candy companies.  Many Christians struggle with the issue of Halloween.  According to most accounts, the fall seasonal celebration we now call Halloween originated from Celtic and pagan beliefs.

It was believed that as the harvest season ended and winter approached, the spirits of the dead were most active, intent on mischief and mayhem toward the living. Bonfires and costumes were supposed to frighten away spirits, while treats were set out, and sometimes sacrifices offered to appease them.

St. Patrick brought Christianity to Ireland and the church eventually instituted All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1, and later All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2, in an attempt to Christianize the season. As Christianity grew in influence, the ancient pagan practices waned.

Many Christians still struggle over Halloween.  Some think that we should not celebrate it at all while a growing number are turning Halloween into a Christian event with Trunk or Treats and Hallelujah festivals.  These are bringing a large number of children and parents to the events.  At the Trunk or Treat or Hallelujah festivals kids receive candy, play games, eat and receive information about the church or the Gospel.

Jesus commanded us to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit and Trunk or Treat parties have become one way to do that.

One fun way to share the Gospel has been with Memory Cross’s “What could be better than free candy card”.   The message on the card reads “Free Candy!  That’s what Halloween is all about!  Just dress up in a costume, say, “Trick or Treat!” and get Free Candy!  What could be better than that?  God’s Love!  That’s the sweetest Gift of all!

When you put this card into the hands of kids they will be fascinated with it and read it over and over says Pastor Lambert.  The card is so unique that even people who do not believe agree that this card is a great way to get the message out.

If people want to know more they have put a link to a site called NeedHim.org.  This site gives them much more information about Christ and contains some videos designed for children.  The cards can also be ordered with a spot for a church to put in their information.

Church outreach. There are a million things that we could do. Jesus commanded us to go and make deciples but how do you do that? How do you reach todays tech savy but not church savy youth?

Go where they hang out. That is increasingly online in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace. Facebook is the fastest growing so I’ll use it as an example.

The first thing to do is set up an account. It’s painless and quick. Once you have your account set up start adding people to your friends list. Start by telling the youth you work with that you have an account and ask them to add you as their friend. Once you have friends you can go to their friends and add people you know.

Now that you have a few people you can start posting and reading posts. Post every day or two. That way people who don’t personally know you will come to know you by the posts you make. I recommend making personal posts and posts that are relevant to your kids. This could be a daily Scripture or something else that you want to pass along.

Spend time reading posts also. Kids put up personal information and you’ll be able to learn more about their life through Facebook. As you get to know them better you’ll be able to reach them.

If you’re the youth worker or have a small group you might want to consider adding your group to Facebook.

Facebook can be a great way to minister to your youth. If you have other ways that you are using Facebook let me know. I’m sure there are a lot of great ideas that I have not even thought of.

I was searching Google today and noticed how many people were typing in the search term “Christian Halloween”. That got me thinking and also gave me hope. A few years ago it seemed like most Christians did not want to participate in Halloween but now we are beginning to look at as an outreach opportunity.

And it is truely an ministry. Churches are having trunk-or-treat events and alternative Halloween parties and they are using these to reach out to their communities.

As a partner in Memory Cross we have felt that Halloween provided a number of opportunities to reach out. First for those communities that still trick or treat we have an opportunity to share the Gospel. The more facinating we can make the tract the more likely that it will get read.

For churches that are having Trunk-or-Treat events they can be a great outreach opportunity. Our church has done it for the last few years and we’ve had hundreds of kids from the community come out. They’ve enjoyed getting candy, eating hot dogs, playing games and riding on the hay ride. We’ve also provided information to each child and parent about our church.

Bill Gibson, one of the founders of Memory Cross said we’ll change Halloween to Hallelujah for the King.

Over the next few months we are going to be adding a number of new Memory Cross cards to help teach kids Bible stories. We need your help. Let us know what stories you would like to see produced.

Memory Cross has an affiliate program where you can make money by letting people know about Memory Cross. Affliate marketing was made popular by internet giants such as Amazon. This is the way it works.

You sign up for the program and pick a text link, banner, or other form of advertising.

You include the information in your emails or post it to your website

When people come and click on the link a cookie is placed on their computer that tells the store that the person was sent by you.

If they order you receive a percentage of the sale.

The Memory Cross affiliate program offers several other advantages.

1. The cookies that are placed on the person’s computer never expire. What this means is that if that person goes to our site but does not buy, but decides to buy a year later you will still receive your commissions. (The only exception is if they have cleared their cookies manually from their computer or they have purchased a new computer). You receive 10% of the sale excluding shipping and taxes.
2. If they decide to sign up for the affiliate program you will receive 10% of any sales that they make.

So potentially you can receive 10% commissions on sales you make and 10% commissions on sales that are made from people who decide to join as a result of your efforts.

That is basically how it works. The rest of this blog is dedicated to helping people make the affiliate program work for them. This is accomplished by sharing some basic strategy and talking about what works and does not work.

If you have any comments please feel free to post them here.

The message of the Gospel is timeless but the way that it is presented continues to evolve. What is your church doing to reach the next generation? What resources are available? We would like to  provide resources and links to help reach the next generation. One of the churches that is reaching young people is Mosaic. I would encourage you to check out what they are doing and even download their podcast.