Pray BFF Letter #160
Monday, October 26, 2009
pdf printable version | New India Video on YouTube
Priority!
Dear Prayer Team,
The need to prioritize is a good problem. God has given us many good projects. Things are never slow around here at BFF! Each project is exciting, though a bit tedious at times. Let me share about some of these longer and shorter projects.
Obtencion de un Corazon Puro
Since my return from India, I have posted about 20 web pages. One group of web pages is a Spanish translation of one section (A Pure Heart) of The Godly Man series. A volunteer worked on them for us. Those 13 web pages were waiting to be 'webized' since June! Yikes. Thank the Lord I could finally prioritize this project and complete it. The few Spanish pages we have are often searched and read. So this makes a great addition.
1 Samuel web pages
Recently, I have been team teaching 1 Samuel at our Church's Sunday Training time. I took time to make and post the ten web pages including all the necessary links. This kind of web page is nothing new. I have been doing this since the beginning of Biblical Foundations for Freedom. If one looks at a huge project, it can get discouraging. But when one handles one small project at a time, the pages add up!
Here are a few more things that just 'came' up in a typical day of daily decisions. How does one prioritize them?
Printing pages
Yesterday, an older man asked about printing BFF materials. He asked about printing Bible material. I have numerous volumes all ready to ship out but nothing on a Bible book except Romans. He wanted to see what we had on Genesis. So I put them all in one long pdf and found out that we have 250 pages just on Genesis!
Reference question
Another man asked:
I should like to buy a book about "Old Testament Bible Chronological Chart."
I should like to know HOW to determine the birth year of Moses.
This was interesting. I don't have such a book! Why is he asking me this?
I have done work on the genealogies of Genesis 5 and 12 and developed some chronological charts but not a book! Should I answer him? I did take a few minutes. See below on how I answered him.
I do not have a book that addresses that issue but only charts.
As to how to determine his (Moses') birth year, this is actually a bit more tedious.
We know his ministry to be about 1500 bc.
if you want more info, check out the files below.
The main reason of the difficulty is that God started a new chronology of sorts when He started the Old Covenant through Moses. It gets a bit technical. Study in order.Exodus' Introduction and Moses' Life (Page 3)
Support or teaching pleas
Another letter (usually several emails like this a week) asks me to consider teaching and supporting their ministry financially. I usually cannot. But these are pastors, often very sincere. I praise God for the opportunity to see what God is doing all around the world. In this case, because I met this man before, I need to give him a more serious answer. I am also planning to return to Kenya, and so I just might be able to visit his area (though probably not). In any case, I will not be able to contribute to his mission. I pray that my heart would not become calloused toward the many genuine needs that come my way. It is hard to say no, no and no.
Each of these 'projects,' whether small or large, become challenges to my limited time. I have many other translations to post. I am spending some concentrated time doing final editing for two new books. I still have very little time to do the extra work to have such books printed into a book format. That would take about 1 extra week per book.
Do keep me and the ministry in your prayers. These are just some of the priority decisions in the ministry. These projects reflect BFF's priorities: creation, instruction and distribution. I will share about some major projects in a future letter.
Praise!
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God is changing people through BFF materials!
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We had the largest daily viewing of web pages recently! More than 13,000 in one day.
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Paul has been recently able to get more than twenty web pages up.
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Good progress on major editing of one book.
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Production of 3 ten minute Youtube thought provoking videos on Christian living. This is something new. (Search paulb3276 at youtube.com)
(1) Two Aspects of God's Calling
(2) Seeking God's Will
(3) The Deadly Cycle: Understanding Temptation's Power
Pray!
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May the Lord continue to work in the fast-growing Bengali church.
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Paul needs two kinds of priority wisdom: short term (weekly) plans and long term (yearly) plans.
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Preparation for an upcoming BFF board meeting.
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Flexibility and instant solutions for things that come up on a daily basis.
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God has given us insight into the discipleship process. We don't want to waste these ideas. We need wisdom and right opportunities to properly introduce these discipleship concepts and weave them into popular thinking.
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Several family members are sick with colds.
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Rev. Paul J. Bucknell Biblical Foundations for Freedom, President & Instructor
