Over the past couple weeks we have been taking our girls through the book of Esther and now Daniel and we have had a great time! They get excited each night knowing that an adventure awaits. Autumn at least can recognize the theme time and time again that when pride creeps in, destruction will follow; when God is not exalted, those exalting themselves will be abased: that when an enemy has a plan to destroy God's people that God will implement those that "for such a time as this" will stand up for righteousness and with faith jeopardize their own lives for their WORTHY KING. They have seen God get in the fire with them and protect them from even the smell of smoke, stop the mouths of lions, give them wisdom that makes the astrologers, soothsayers and magicians look as foolish as the gods of stone, wood and gold that they worship. To see the powerful king of the land put out to pasture with feathers and claws shows that God alone will be glorified and those attempting to rob that glory will be shortlived in their efforts.
The repeating theme that echoes throughout Scriptures is ONLY GOD - only God could orchestrate things in such a way, only God would manifest Himself in the flesh and die to redeem His creation that rebelled against Him. In so many other ways in our daily lives God proclaims through His actions and timing - ONLY ME!
God has once again proclaimed "Only Me" in our lives again this week. Time would fail me to list all such circumstances but only a few months ago the Lord orchestrated my departure from Kodak in such a way and in such timing that none other but God could get credit, and now in answer to the prayers of so many - He has done it again.
In the last week we had the privilege of seeing a soul come to Christ, being blessed by a servant of the Lord assisting us with our vehicle and now, in an answer to many, many prayers in the last many months - WE HAVE AN OFFER ON OUR HOME and we have accepted it!
By no means is this transaction finalized but it certainly is a reason to rejoice and trust with expectation that the Lord is once again saying - ONLY ME
The timing is outstanding as Lord willing we could close about the time that we head back south for most of the rest of the year. We have so much to be thankful for, our home has been a haven of rest and joy for our family for many years and we praise God for it. Tears will be shed when we hand over the keys to this place in which we have experienced some of our sweetest moments of joy - but truly this house is a temporal shelter (as our lives are) that should be given up happily for the work of building a home eternal in the heavens and bringing souls to Christ.
2Co 5:1-4
(1) For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved (our lives), we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
(2) For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
(3) If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.
(4) For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
The Lord is good - give Him glory - for ONLY GOD could do such amazing things!
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
May 09 Prayer Letter
Greetings in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ,
2Thes. 3:1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
We are rejoicing for the goodness of the Lord to us as we continue to present the ministry the Lord has called us to in the Philippines, preach His Word and endeavour to be a blessing to the churches that allow us the privilege to spend some time with them. As I sit down to write this prayer letter I am rejoicing that just yesterday the Lord allowed us to present and preach in a church and a young man came to the altar and was born again! What a privilege it is that God allows us to see His gospel work so powerfully in the lives of people. The Lord may or may not parter us with this church financially but the value of that one soul would make a trip to anywhere worthwhile, amen?!
Over the past month we have been encouraged to see multiple new partners in ministry in bringing the Gospel to the Philippines for which we are grateful. We have had opportunity to evangelize door to door, to minister on the streets of NYC and Stephanie just taught children’s church recently while I was preaching also. The Lord has kept us safe on the road with no breakdowns and recently blessed us with a faithful servant who ministered to the Lord in doing a good deal of repair and preventative service to our truck in preparation for our upcoming extended travel back down south.
As the Lord allows, we are scheduled for a number of conferences and meetings from NY to GA and back over the next month and then in Mid-June we will head to TX, MS and LA for an extended stretch. We appreciate beyond expressed words those that are praying for us. Our family is in good health but please continue to lift them up as their surroundings change so frequently and consistency in many areas gets challenged as a result. We would also ask that you continue to pray for the sale of our home to happen quickly and for the Lord to orchestrate every single meeting to be scheduled exactly where and when He would have it to be. Thank you for your faithful service to the Lord and please know that we are praying also for the recipients of this letter, for the individuals that we know by name and for the wonderful churches the Lord has allowed us to be associated with. May God be magnified in your lives and ministries.
Because He Lives,
Aaron & Stephanie Putney
Autumn, Anna, Sarah and Emma
2Thes. 3:1 Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you:
We are rejoicing for the goodness of the Lord to us as we continue to present the ministry the Lord has called us to in the Philippines, preach His Word and endeavour to be a blessing to the churches that allow us the privilege to spend some time with them. As I sit down to write this prayer letter I am rejoicing that just yesterday the Lord allowed us to present and preach in a church and a young man came to the altar and was born again! What a privilege it is that God allows us to see His gospel work so powerfully in the lives of people. The Lord may or may not parter us with this church financially but the value of that one soul would make a trip to anywhere worthwhile, amen?!
Over the past month we have been encouraged to see multiple new partners in ministry in bringing the Gospel to the Philippines for which we are grateful. We have had opportunity to evangelize door to door, to minister on the streets of NYC and Stephanie just taught children’s church recently while I was preaching also. The Lord has kept us safe on the road with no breakdowns and recently blessed us with a faithful servant who ministered to the Lord in doing a good deal of repair and preventative service to our truck in preparation for our upcoming extended travel back down south.
As the Lord allows, we are scheduled for a number of conferences and meetings from NY to GA and back over the next month and then in Mid-June we will head to TX, MS and LA for an extended stretch. We appreciate beyond expressed words those that are praying for us. Our family is in good health but please continue to lift them up as their surroundings change so frequently and consistency in many areas gets challenged as a result. We would also ask that you continue to pray for the sale of our home to happen quickly and for the Lord to orchestrate every single meeting to be scheduled exactly where and when He would have it to be. Thank you for your faithful service to the Lord and please know that we are praying also for the recipients of this letter, for the individuals that we know by name and for the wonderful churches the Lord has allowed us to be associated with. May God be magnified in your lives and ministries.
Because He Lives,
Aaron & Stephanie Putney
Autumn, Anna, Sarah and Emma
Friday, April 10, 2009
News article shows Satan's snare on catholic Filipinos
(2Ti 2:26) And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.
Satan has a stronghold of 80%+ catholics in the Philippines, some of them are so devoted and decieved that they reenact the crucifixion this week each year with real nails, scourges and crosses. My Pastor emailed me the following article from this site
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/04/10/09/faith-and-ritual-mix-good-friday-rp
Faith and ritual mix on Good Friday in RP
By Manny Mogato, Reuters 04/10/2009 4:25 PM
CUTUD, ANGELES CITY - Dozens of Catholic devotees were nailed to crosses, scores more whipped their backs and others chanted the Passion of Jesus Christ as Filipinos mixed faith and gory ritual on Good Friday.
Frowned on by church authorities, the voluntary crucifixions in villages north of the capital Manila are one of the most extreme displays of religious devotion in Asia's largest Roman Catholic state.
Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the church discourages such rituals because the penitents were expecting rewards for hurting themselves.
"We only encourage the faithfuls to fast, pray and confess their sins," Quitorio told Reuters. "We can't stop the practice. It is not necessary, but the church has no police power. These rituals challenge us to guide our flock on the true teachings of the Catholic church."
In the small village of Cutud in Angeles City in Pampanga, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Manila, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was re-enacted in a colorful street play with dozens of men carrying wooden crosses as heavy as 50 kg (110 pounds) and scores whipping their backs to a bloody pulp.
After walking barefoot for more than a kilometer around the village in scorching heat, the drama ended at a man-made hill where 11 men were nailed to crosses with three-inch nails driven into their hands and feet. Personal devotion
"I am not doing this for fame or money," said Ruben Inaje, 48, who has played the role of Jesus Christ at Cutud since 1986. "This is my own way of thanking the Lord. He has showered my family with so much blessings and has saved my life many times."
Inaje, a house painter, told Reuters he made a decision to have himself crucified after escaping death after a fall from a three-story building in the mid-1980s.
"I believed God was using me as an instrument to show the world the Filipinos' devotion to God," he said, showing his bandaged bands at a medical station after the crucifixion.
"I will never get tired doing this every year. This is my personal devotion and I will continue this until the Lord allows my body to endure the pain."
In the neighboring province of Bulacan, five people were nailed to wooden crosses, including an 18-year-old woman and an Australian, who said he was hoping his sacrifice would cure his cancer-stricken mother.
The crowd cheered John Michael, 33, as the nails were driven to his hands and feet. Minutes, later he gave a broad smile of relief as the nails were pulled out.
About 20 crucifixions were held in four other areas.
Thousands, many of them curious tourists from Australia, Europe and South Korea watched the spectacle in Cutud, which has grown from a village novelty started in 1955 to a media and tourist attraction copied in other parts of the country.
The atmosphere was festive, with hawkers selling bottled water, beer, ice-cream and souvenir whips. VIPs and some nuns watched from a specially elevated "viewing platform".
Some residents offered parking spaces for a fee and others charged 5 pesos (about 10 U.S. cents) for use of toilets. More enterprising people rented the balconies of their homes for television crew and photographers.
More than 80 percent of the Philippines' estimated 90 million population are Catholic.
Shouldn't the following scripture alone express that Christ is our one and only High Priest and and the only sacrifice needed for our sins. May God open the eyes of the blind that are so devoted to religion but are deceived from the truth of the gospel
Heb 7:23-28
(23) And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
(24) But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
(25) Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
(26) For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
(27) Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
(28) For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
Satan has a stronghold of 80%+ catholics in the Philippines, some of them are so devoted and decieved that they reenact the crucifixion this week each year with real nails, scourges and crosses. My Pastor emailed me the following article from this site
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/04/10/09/faith-and-ritual-mix-good-friday-rp
Faith and ritual mix on Good Friday in RP
By Manny Mogato, Reuters 04/10/2009 4:25 PM
CUTUD, ANGELES CITY - Dozens of Catholic devotees were nailed to crosses, scores more whipped their backs and others chanted the Passion of Jesus Christ as Filipinos mixed faith and gory ritual on Good Friday.
Frowned on by church authorities, the voluntary crucifixions in villages north of the capital Manila are one of the most extreme displays of religious devotion in Asia's largest Roman Catholic state.
Monsignor Pedro Quitorio, spokesman of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, said the church discourages such rituals because the penitents were expecting rewards for hurting themselves.
"We only encourage the faithfuls to fast, pray and confess their sins," Quitorio told Reuters. "We can't stop the practice. It is not necessary, but the church has no police power. These rituals challenge us to guide our flock on the true teachings of the Catholic church."
In the small village of Cutud in Angeles City in Pampanga, about 80 km (50 miles) north of Manila, the crucifixion of Jesus Christ was re-enacted in a colorful street play with dozens of men carrying wooden crosses as heavy as 50 kg (110 pounds) and scores whipping their backs to a bloody pulp.
After walking barefoot for more than a kilometer around the village in scorching heat, the drama ended at a man-made hill where 11 men were nailed to crosses with three-inch nails driven into their hands and feet. Personal devotion
"I am not doing this for fame or money," said Ruben Inaje, 48, who has played the role of Jesus Christ at Cutud since 1986. "This is my own way of thanking the Lord. He has showered my family with so much blessings and has saved my life many times."
Inaje, a house painter, told Reuters he made a decision to have himself crucified after escaping death after a fall from a three-story building in the mid-1980s.
"I believed God was using me as an instrument to show the world the Filipinos' devotion to God," he said, showing his bandaged bands at a medical station after the crucifixion.
"I will never get tired doing this every year. This is my personal devotion and I will continue this until the Lord allows my body to endure the pain."
In the neighboring province of Bulacan, five people were nailed to wooden crosses, including an 18-year-old woman and an Australian, who said he was hoping his sacrifice would cure his cancer-stricken mother.
The crowd cheered John Michael, 33, as the nails were driven to his hands and feet. Minutes, later he gave a broad smile of relief as the nails were pulled out.
About 20 crucifixions were held in four other areas.
Thousands, many of them curious tourists from Australia, Europe and South Korea watched the spectacle in Cutud, which has grown from a village novelty started in 1955 to a media and tourist attraction copied in other parts of the country.
The atmosphere was festive, with hawkers selling bottled water, beer, ice-cream and souvenir whips. VIPs and some nuns watched from a specially elevated "viewing platform".
Some residents offered parking spaces for a fee and others charged 5 pesos (about 10 U.S. cents) for use of toilets. More enterprising people rented the balconies of their homes for television crew and photographers.
More than 80 percent of the Philippines' estimated 90 million population are Catholic.
Shouldn't the following scripture alone express that Christ is our one and only High Priest and and the only sacrifice needed for our sins. May God open the eyes of the blind that are so devoted to religion but are deceived from the truth of the gospel
Heb 7:23-28
(23) And they truly were many priests, because they were not suffered to continue by reason of death:
(24) But this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood.
(25) Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.
(26) For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
(27) Who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's: for this he did once, when he offered up himself.
(28) For the law maketh men high priests which have infirmity; but the word of the oath, which was since the law, maketh the Son, who is consecrated for evermore.
Monday, April 6, 2009
Grace Baptist Church - Beaver Dams NY
We just finished the 2009 Missions conference at Grace Baptist and can truly say that our cup is full. Time would fail me to tell of the blessing that Pastor Maulucci and his family were to us. They truly put thought and investment into making sure that every detail was attended to. We had a week filled with sickness that went from myself to all the girls (except Stephanie - praise the Lord!) by the end of the week and they were wonderful to us through it all. They blessed our kids, they provided us with great lodging, they fed us in abundance and they put together a wonderful conference. We had the privilege of spending time not only with this faithful pastor and a young couple heading to India but also with a 20 year veteran missionary to Germany who preached one of the greatest messages I have ever heard and Missionary/Evangelist Cliff Taylor who the Lord has used for the establishing of dozens of churches in New Guinea, Kenya, Philippines, Ukraine and other places. This brother has seen God move in amazing ways on countless occasions. We were blessed all week to hear his heart for God, for souls and for the further spread of the gospel. What a joy it is to go week upon week to churches that lift up the Lord Jesus, love missions and by faith become active participants in God's redemptive plan is incredible. We praise the Lord that this church is partnering with us in bringing the gospel to the Philippines.
Naples Bible Church
Pastor Tom Street is a man I have looked up to for a number of years now. I had the privilege of traveling with him to Zambia in '05 where the Lord clarified my call to foreign missions and have had the blessing of teaching his kids in Jr. Church over the years also. We have been excited for some time about the Lord calling him to Pastor at this church in Naples and now to have been there and seen what God has been doing in peoples lives is exciting to say the least. The day started and ended with members of the church praying over me and then our whole family - this should tell you something. There is no doubt in my mind from the conversations I enjoyed over a great turkey dinner and fellowship with Pastor Street that this is a body of believers that understands the power of prayer. It is this reason alone that thrills us to know that they will be partnering with us in bringing the gospel to the Philippines. We are excited to see what God has in store for Naples and the surrounding communities through this great local church.
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