​David Marshall Kealy
"I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me  because He considered me faithful, appointing me to (His) service." 
​1 Timothy 1:12
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Train up a child in the way he should go,                                                                                                                      Even when he is old he will not depart from it.“
                                                      Proverbs 22:6 NASB

Have you ever considered describing your personal faith journey as a Christian?

Often over the years I have quoted preachers and friends who have been an influence on my life. Perhaps it is about time I share something by one of our sons, Dwight. He writes about a personal journey. His personal faith journey as follows:
Recently I have come to think about my understanding of God as we think about colors.  The color spectrum is infinite—as is God—but we label the spectrum with different color names so that we can discuss the infinite.

I grew up in a committed Evangelical Christian home.  In kindergarten I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up.  I answered, “A Christian or an ambulance driver.”  My parents tried to explain that I could be both.  I was not convinced.  I knew Christianity like I knew the color blue.  Blue was a thick wax crayon that left its mark across the coloring books, papers, or on whichever wall I might drag it.  I knew blue.
I was looking at study abroad programs in high school and one day my dad asked me, “How would you like to study abroad and live at home?”  What did he mean?   How was this possible?  It turns out that my parents had always thought about being missionaries.  Six months later we were on a plane to Ecuador where I ended up graduating from high school.  In this experience I learned more about my faith like we learn more about the color blue.  There is blue before the dark storm clouds and blue in a clear sky at noon.  God loves us.  And God is good. 
There was a great pastor in Ecuador.  I learned much from him about the Bible.  I also learned through his daughter that he was a pastor in Ecuador because he had had an affair with the church secretary at his former congregation back in the Midwestern United States.  Evidently his wife decided it was a good time for the family to become missionaries in South America.  There is blue that is azure and aqua.  Closer to darkness there is cobalt and navy.  There is sin.  There is forgiveness.  And God has a plan.
I was a religious studies major at Westmont.  I did graduate work in Archaeology in Israel with Harvard and earned my Master’s Degree in Religion from Yale.  This is like becoming an expert in blue and spending all my time with people who know the difference between indigo and lapis lazuli.  One time we heard someone call the sky blue when we all knew it was really cerulean, and we laughed.  With education and experience it is easy—and common—to become increasingly critical in describing the world around us.  How else do we describe a blue except to distinguish it from other blues?  Certainly one blue must be better and one must be worse than the other, and by stating this, one can establish himself as the experienced, lonely, expert of blues.  At times we discussed God like serious wine-tasters describing wines.  We look at the hue.  We smell it.  We loudly sip it, swirl it in our mouths, hold it on our tongue for a moment…and then spit it out.  God is real and exists not just to be discussed or tasted, but to indwell in our bodies and change our lives.
I heard that there was no God.  It was like hearing there was no blue.  I checked.  I scooped up the blue sea in my hands.  It dripped through my fingers, clear.  I grabbed at the sky.  It slipped through my fingers without leaving a stain.  Doubts.  But even on cloudy days I know the sky is blue.  This faith comes from a history of trust.  As a child in church we would sing, “Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him, How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er…O for grace to trust Him more.”  I trust in God and he has proved that he is faithful over and over.
I learned an interesting thing about crayons.  There are only eight differed colors of wrappers.  You might get a set of 10 crayons, or a set of 50 or 100.  In all of these, there are only eight different colors of wrappers.  All the yellow hues will get a yellowish wrapper.  All of the blues will get a bluish wrapper, and so on.  Why don’t they have a matching wrapper for each crayon color? ​
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I heard that the reason is economic.  It takes too much time, money, and effort to make a wrapper for each color.  At some point we decide, for laziness or economy, that we understand the infinite well-enough.  We wrap a label around it and stop.


And so, I tell you now, “The sky is blue and God is faithful, just, and loves us.”  I know that sounds simple, but don’t laugh.  It’s true.  I have argued about the shade and saturation.  I have waited for clouds to pass and the dawn to come.  I have trusted in Jesus, and he has proved himself to me over and over again. ​
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The beginning of FALL happens one time each year.
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Today is a special day in the neighborhood where we live. 
​Our Postal ZIP Code is 92220;
and today is September 9, 2220;
commonly know as 92220;
How often can that happen you ask? Only one time and that is TODAY!

More important to us than this fact is the documented fact of Jesus' LOVE.

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How to Stay STRONG

Let’s be perfectly clear I am a Christian. I am not a racist, I am a Christian. So your question might be, “What is the Christian Life?” And you just might ask, “Where is the Christian Life?” And you might go on to ask, “Why does the Christian life exist?” These three questions are asked by my missionary / Pastor friend Bud Carlos McCord who lives and ministers in Brazil. He was our beloved pastor when we lived in Florida in the 1980’s.​

I am a Christian and I believe the Bible is the inspired word of God. It is my guide to help me to be more like Jesus. Why do I live to be more like Jesus? Because that is the answer to the first question above. Jesus is the Christian life!
“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 
If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love.
God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus."     I John 4:13-17
Jesus is the Christian life! And the Christian life is in me and this is more fully documented in the book of Colossians, chapter three (3).

In the same way my physical DNA in me makes me like my father and my mother, my spiritual DNA is like Jesus who indwells me.
Every believer in Jesus Christ enjoys a special relationship with God our creator. In the Epistle by Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians he writes;
“And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father."
This is the summation of the whole letter to the believers, the Christians in Colossae. In this letter to the church Paul makes the relationship we have in Jesus pretty clear. 
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Where is the Christian Life and Why does the Christian life exist? McCord answers; “it sets the stage to help us realize the Christian life in me is to expel my fear and to perfect my love.”
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Last month I mentioned I have lived in the best of days. Since then I have given this comment a lot of thought. My question, why do I feel this? Recall my DNA comment. My family was Christian, believers and followers of Jesus. This chart indicates the decline of religion in America started in 1962.
Blessed I am indeed that most of my parents and my wife’s parents and grandparents celebrated their 50th wedding anniversaries. Christian, yes spiritual DNA runs in our families. Commitment to marriage is an indication of stability and although during my youth there was social conflict in America, through the lens of my life, centered on the church and my focus on becoming more and more like Jesus, my hope was for resolve of divergent opinions and conflict in America. That is still my hope while remaining focused on being personally responsible for the relationship I have in Jesus. It is my desire that those I come in contact with come to know and accept Jesus Christ as Savior.

                       ​I stay STRONG by knowing I have Jesus, do you?
Perhaps the decline of religion in America is happening because of a breakdown of the family unit. The two statistically seem to go hand-in-hand.
We are thankful we have been able to share our faith in Jesus as our Savior in many different countries and cultures. We still are connected and support partner ministries through this ministry Reaching People far from God.
Spend some time on this site to see what God is doing as they share their faith in culturally effective ways . . meeting spiritual and physical needs.
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We hear a lot these days about staying STRONG. It is a phrase used in times of deep distress, especially to a community, a city, a group of people. A phrase of encouragement at a time where things seem to be falling apart.

a bit of History

A general contractor friend’s company was named PLUMBLINE. It is a perfect name for a construction company. It references the importance of things being straight. He helped me build a house that remains straight, plumb.
A plumb line or plumb-bob is said to have been invented by the Egyptians more than 4000 years ago. They used it to establish vertical references that were indispensable in the construction of their buildings, pyramids and canals.
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The Holy Bible has a reference to a plumb line. In Israel during the long reign of Jeroboam II 793-739 B.C. the prophet Amos lived in the time of material prosperity. He received five visions from God and the third was one of future judgement that would occur because God’s chosen people had turned away from honoring him as their God.
As reported in the Bible Knowledge Commentary, edited by Walvoord and Zuck we observe “the testing plumb line” as follows: “For the third time the prophet was shown a vision of judgement. This time the sentence was unalterable. In Amos 7:7-8 the LORD held in his hand a plumb line. A plumb line was a cord with a lead weight used by builders to make sure the walls were constructed straight up and down. A plumb line was also used to test the walls to see whether they had settled and tilted, needing to be torn down. God was setting a plumb line (possibly the covenant Law and its requirements) among His people Israel. The nation had been built ‘true to plumb,’ but now was out of line and needed to be torn down”.
“This is what he showed me: behold, the Lord was standing beside a wall built with a plumb line, with a plumb line in his hand. And the Lord said to me, “Amos, what do you see?” And I said, “A plumb line.” Then the Lord said, ‘Behold, I am setting a plumb line in the midst of my people Israel; I will never again pass by them; the high places of Isaac shall be made desolate, and the sanctuaries of Israel shall be laid waste, and I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword.’”  Amos 7:7-9
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So you ask why is this important? In chapters 3-6 Amos documented the reasons for God’s judgement against Israel. There was legal injustice, economic exploitation, religious hypocrisy, luxurious indulgence, and boastful complacency. These were violations of the covenant they had with God.

I see some of the same characteristics in our society and world today. For 15 years the post WWII America when I grew up was absolutely great. But things have changed. Is there now “legal injustice, economic exploitation, religious hypocrisy, luxurious indulgence, and boastful complacency?”
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Is there no turning back before disaster? I don’t know, but I have often said, “we have lived in the best of times!”

a bit about TODAY

On to something more current that consumes us every minute of every day in 2020 America where I live; actually Riverside County East of Los Angeles and things are terrible.
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COVID-19 pandemic is a global tragedy of huge proportions. Our ministry in April of this year realized the impact the virus was having on everyone we know, love . . . and ministries we support in a variety of ways. One is financial and the reserve fund we set up 10 years ago had never been touched. God led us to set aside money for such a time as this. We sent undesignated money to five ministries we support. The response was overwhelming. They used the money to provide food to those on their staff or those in the realm of their ministry outreach.
It was the right thing to do and we are blessed to have been prepared to help at such a time as this. Yet there is much more to do.​

Recently I heard Robert Woodson Sr. say, "in America we, spontaneously respond to need!” I like that and I see it all around me these days as people respond to those truly in need. 

You can help ~ Donate today

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Send Check to RPFFG P.O.Box 113 Banning CA 92220

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Help during a time of need.

Providing a helping hand in a real time of need is something, we with your help, are able to do.​

Your gifts are sent to support our Partner missions during this COVID-19 pandemic. We were able to support five different ministry mission partners in April and May and June for them to spend where needed most. And the need remains great as the pandemic continues. Their response was tremendous and heartwarming.

You give, ministries are blessed.

People are fed at a time when pastors are without work because they cannot go to work at the jobs they hold. Their churches are small and they work sometimes several jobs to make ends meet. Businesses are closed and they cannot feed their families.

Indonesia

"Praise the Lord. I am in tears reading your email. We just finish praying with staff to help 1,000 pastors who lost their income due to covid 19. Your email is the answer of many thousands. Pastors. Thank you very much for your heart to help."

Liberia

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“I need you to understand that you did not only provide food to these needy people, but you also gave HOPE at such a critical and uncertain time caused by the Coronavirus outbreak.  
 There were no extra funds in our budget to meet this unexpected need, as residents of this community called upon VOX Liberia, urgently asking for food assistance . . . . we are doing another batch of food supplies to families in need and also supporting those families of volunteers who help during our relief outreach. 

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​This would not have happened without the prayers, encouragement and instant financial support of friends like you.”
God bless you.

Here is what Pastor John K. Somu, one of the beneficiaries had to say: ’This is something I didn’t expect! I am very thankful to the (VOX Liberia Christian) radio station for this help. I now have what I need to feed my family for a couple of weeks. We as pastors are going to meet and commit ourselves to provide fuel for VOX Radio station every month.’
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agile, lithe, quick thinking, alert, alive

 the corona-19 virus requires ministries to be nimble.
What is it like to be focused on helping people in need? People need to know about Jesus, the hope for mankind. And the way to help them is to be focused on following the leading of the Holy Spirit during times like enduring a global pandemic. 
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We were prompted to send unrestricted money to five of our ministry partners. They were asked to use it where needed most. Here is what we heard. Pastors of small village churches receive very little pay, if any from the church. They work other jobs and due to the corona-19 virus the businesses where they work were closed. The urgent need was for food. In Liberia, VOX radio station 97.5 fm invited 30 local pastors and provided them with food to feed their families for two weeks. So 206 people in those families benefitted from your gifts to us.
VOX radio station provides food for local Pastors.
Rice is the staple food of more than half of the World's population.
Bags of rice delivered to a family house.
Rice is a basic staple for family mealtime.

Find a need and fill it

The blessing to us is to see the response of the 30 pastors who pledged support for the Christian station from their churches. They would provide money to pay for the fuel for the generator to keep the station on the air. Praise the LORD for their providing such a blessing to the station. They said, "because of the love you showed to us at our time of real need, we want to help the station".

When other donors heard about the need and the opportunity to help provide food, they opened up coffers and gave. Following the help provided to 30 pastors and their families the community attended and another 2,500 people in the radio listening audience received food.
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LIFELINE

~ a thing on which someone or something depends or which provides a means of escape from a difficult situation.
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Billions of people worldwide are affected by the social, economic and medical impact of the coronavirus. Whoever would have guessed life could actually stand still? Essential businesses stay open; all others closed. Quarantine, stay-at-home, wear a face mask, all new normals for us.

Your financial and prayerful support allow us to assist partner ministries and this is a time for a LIFELINE. Usually we provide financial assistance for designated projects for our Partner Ministries. However at a time like this we have sent money undesignated for their use to help in the areas most needy.

We need your help . . . . for them ! ! !

This pandemic is far from over. Reports indicate they have used the LIFELINE for food for pastors families, children and of course medical supplies. ​

WHERE?  Countries helped so far include Nepal, Indonesia, Liberia and a restricted access country.

HERE IS HOW YOU CAN GIVE

Use this button to make a donation.
Send Check to RPFFG
P.O.Box 113
Banning  CA  92220
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WE HAVE HOPE

HOPE is more than a feeling, yet feelings are important. Perhaps you have you heard these words or phrases; faith, endurance, desire, believe, keep-ones-fingers crossed, watch for, knock-on-wood, wish, concern, dream, expect, rely on, depend on, count on, pray, look-forward-to, await, foresee, suppose, surmise, anticipate, be prepared for, make plans for, aspire, look on the sunny side, anticipation, optimism, desire, expect. All are synonyms for HOPE. If you have thought of any of these things you are full of HOPE or think you are.
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The Bible references HOPE as well.
“For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.”  Jeremiah 29:11
“Why are you in despair, O my soul, and why have you become disturbed within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him for the help of His presence.” Psalm 42:11

Nice to know that God cares for us so much that he even has plans for us. Plans about our future. Plans for good and not for evil; all resulting in our having HOPE.
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“ . . . . we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.  And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.” Romans 5:3-5

During these days and weeks and months of social distancing due to the global coronavirus pandemic we need a dose of HOPE, a strong dose of HOPE.
Embrace HOPE to help us enjoy PEACE. It is good to be at PEACE even when we have say-at-home and wear a face mask requirements when we do go out. Jesus spoke to his disciples at one of the most stressful times of their lives. They had faithfully followed Him for three years and He is bidding them farewell.
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“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”​  John 16:33

Take heart knowing we are experiencing a stressful time and we can enjoy peace even during tribulation knowing that God provided a way for us to endure all things by providing His Son Jesus to bear the guilt of our sinful nature.
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St. Patricks Day

Do you ever wonder about the history of some of the holidays we celebrate. I certainly do. And now with GOOGLE it is easy, and quick to get the information we seek. The 0.65 second search for "St. Patrick's Day history", provided me with “About 92,900,000 results”. I chose ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA and here goes:
Saint Patrick’s Day, Feast day (March 17) of St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland. Born in Roman Britain in the late 4th century, he was kidnapped at the age of 16 and taken to Ireland as a slave. He escaped but returned about 432 to convert the Irish to Christianity. By the time of his death on March 17, 461, he had established monasteries, churches, and schools. Many legends grew up around him—for example, that he drove the snakes out of Ireland and used the shamrock to explain the Trinity.  Ireland came to celebrate his day with religious services and feasts.
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Banner at our entry 
this month
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St. Patrick's Cathedral
 Patron saint, saint to whose protection and intercession a person, a society, a church, or a place is dedicated. The choice is often made on the basis of some real or presumed relationship with the persons or places involved. St. Patrick, for example, is the patron saint of Ireland because he is credited with bringing Christianity to the Irish people.
About that three leaf clover: Trinity, in Christian doctrine, the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. The doctrine of the Trinity is considered to be one of the central Christian affirmations about God. It is rooted in the fact that God came to meet Christians in a threefold figure: (1) as Creator, Lord of the history of salvation, Father, and Judge, as revealed in the Old Testament; (2) as the Lord who, in the incarnated figure of Jesus Christ, lived among human beings and was present in their midst as the “Resurrected One”; and (3) as the Holy Spirit . . . 
​(101 of 620 words).

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You might want to include this information in your conversations this month.

SCRIPTURE:

Matthew 28:19
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
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John 14:26
But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.

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Communication with your team

Never forget that as the leader, your communication sets the tone for the interaction among your people. 
The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork.              John C. Maxwell
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John W. Gardner observed, “If I had to name a single all-purpose instrument of leadership, it would be communication.” If you cannot communicate, you will not lead others effectively.
    If you lead your team, give yourself three standards to live by as you communicate to your people.​

  • Be consistent- Nothing frustrates team members more than leaders who can’t make up their minds.
  • Be Clear- Your team cannot execute if they don’t know what you want. Don’t try to dazzle anyone with your intelligence; impress them with your simple straightforwardness.
  • Be Courteous- Everyone deserves to be shown respect, no matter what their position or what kind of history you might have with them. If you are courteous to your people, you set a tone for the entire organization.

Communicate:
“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”   Ephesians 4:29

An important component of communications is listening. The book of Proverbs is attested to the wisest man, King Solomon. Chapter five of that book reads, “My son, give attention to my wisdom, incline your ear to my understanding; that you may observe discretion, and your lips may reserve knowledge.”
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     During the era of the breakup of the USSR I was introduced to Sergei, a young man who became a good friend as well as a great translator for me. I recall traveling on a train in his country Ukraine, looking out the window at the countryside and he asked me about America. About what it looked like traveling on a train. He asked, “does it look like this?” Well it does across great stretches of our beautiful country, but in the urban areas it reveals the ugly industrial and poor areas. He was asking because he had been accepted as a student at a Seminary in Colorado, a beautiful state in America.

​     All this to share a story about listening. We were both in Colorado when he arrived for his studies and a conference call was scheduled so I could introduce him to many of the influential friends I knew who would be an encouragement to him while studying in America. In the half hour I introduced him and asked him some questions and asked other on the call for questions. I thought it went very well. Some weeks later my boss informed me in a conversation that one of the men on the call criticized me for talking too much.
  • Be Courteous-  I never knew the man’s agenda for making his comment to my boss, but he did, and it caused me to review the agenda and process of the call. His comments did help me to be careful about how others in a conversation or a conference call are connected to the discussion. We live and we learn, sometime by our mistakes.​
   
​                         Encourage your team:                
  • 2 Samuel 19:7   Now go out and encourage your men. I swear by the Lord that if you don’t go out, not a man will be left with you by nightfall. This will be worse for you than all the calamities that have come on you from your youth till now.”

  • Acts 20:1   "When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia." 

  • Acts 13:14-15  From Perga they went on to Pisidian Antioch. On the Sabbath they entered the synagogue and sat down.  After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the leaders of the synagogue sent word to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have a word of exhortation for the people, please speak.”
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1 Timothy 1:12 is a life verse that led to our creating Reaching People far from God
David M. Kealy

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