IMPACT NEWSLETTER JAN 2007

THE LIGHT FOR TODAY JANUARY 2007
A Monthly Publication of IMPACT MINISTRIES Inc.
8611 Ryan Avenue, Pensacola, Florida 32534-3658 (850) 475-7020
Pastor Ed Anthony Missionary / Evangelist
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
We are praying for you to have the most profitable and fruitful year for the Lord Jesus ever. I have a couple of things that I do at the beginning of every new year. Everyone else gets excited at Christmas but I get excited at the new year. The New Year is Jesus’ gift to me, What I do with it is my gift to Him! So, the first thing I do is obey Psalm 105:1-5. “1. O give thanks unto the LORD; call upon his name: make known his deeds among the people. 2 Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works. 3 Glory ye in his holy name: let the heart of them rejoice that seek the LORD. 4 Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore. 5 Remember his marvelous works that he hath done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth;..”
Regardless of what the last year has brought “earnestly recall” the deeds of the Lord, “earnestly remember” the wonders He has preformed for past generations of Christians. - Meditate on His Mighty works and deeds He has done for His people in the past. HE WILL DO IT AGAIN! This always gets me excited, remembering what the Lord did last year, makes me hopeful about what He is going to do this year. There are so many things we feel that the Lord is leading us to in this coming year. Before I get into that, let me tell you of some of the wonderful things “WE” (You, the Lord, Miss Marie & I) have been able to do just this month. Because of your generosity we had a great Christmas to give one little boy and his mother, as well as a great deal of help to two other families. We saw one family rejoined for Christmas and possibly could be put back together again the way it should be. The India project is coming along fine, the lessons and other literature needed is being found and the courses are being laid out year by year. As of now, it looks like we will have a two year basic disciple/church worker course and a third year to offer on an over-view of the Old and New Testament. None of this is possible without your faithful monthly support and daily prayers. Some other good news, we have one church that in their last business meeting of the year, stepped out in faith by putting Impact Ministries in their budget at $100.00 per month. We are grateful to pastor Larry Galbreath and the sweet people at West Highland Baptist Church. Several other churches as well as some individuals have responded with such generosity. Thank you and may God bless you a hundred fold for your prayers and faithful monthly support. I am inclosing in this month’s newsletter a copy of a tract I wrote to the church over twenty-five years ago. It was the first tract I ever published. It deals with the problem of the church hording wealth and trusting in material goods rather than depending on the Lord to meet their needs.

ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE LAND
OF GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful land called the Land of Golden opportunity. There was much wealth in this land and the people were very kind and good to each other. Their hearts were warm and they wanted to be good neighbors. They were a strong and healthy people and being very industrious they worked hard.
Now the King of this land of Golden Opportunity wanted his subjects to do many and marvelous things; So in order to promote all of these activities, He made a decree that 10% of the citizen's income would be owed to the King. Now because the people loved their king and believed in Him, many gave more than 10%. Some even gave special gifts.
One day news reports carried the 'announcements that a terrible tragedy was taking place in other lands. An epidemic of the dreaded disease of “NO HOPE” was running rampant in all the world and many people were sick and dying. It seemed that young and old, rich and poor were being stricken with the terrible disease. And then the call came. Could the people of the land of golden opportunity help?
Now the King, Who was also the Great Physician, reminded His subjects that they were forever free from this terrible disease called “NO HOPE” because He had given THEM the remedy. The remedy was so powerful that just one injection was needed and it insured that never again would that person suffer from “NO HOPE.” But best of all, it was FREE and there was an abundance for everyone. Then the King announced that He was going on a journey, but that He would be back soon. Before He left, He opened the treasury where the remedy for “NO HOPE” was kept. He also announced that he would give them the keys so that they could help their neighbors and save them from dying with “NO HOPE.” The King gave them a “GO TELL” commission to go and heal all people of “NO HOPE.” The people were overjoyed that they would be able to help their neighbors. So immediately they set to work.
They decided the first thing to do was organize. With proper organization, and administration, one could be assured of success in any endeavor. So they appointed committees to organize the people. Of course, there were a lot of committees. After all, there had to be one to organize the men, one to organize the women, and one to organize the young people. As they continued it was obvious that other committees were needed. One to deal with transportation was vital. And of course there needed to be a committee responsible for seeing that fun and music were included in the program, how else would they be able to hold the interest of the people? On and on things went, until it became apparent that the people needed someone with a lot of training, possibly an executive type, to run such a huge organization. And they realized that they would have to pay him a large salary. Of course he would need a big office. So they built large buildings and filled them with plush carpet and large velvet chairs. After all, they asked themselves, wasn't it all for a very good cause?
The next project of the people of the land of golden opportunity was to construct buildings where many thousands could gather and get the very best, most up to date “CARE” for "NO HOPE." They would be told all about the disease “NO HOPE” -- How they got the disease -- How they could make themselves more comfortable with the disease -- How they could find ways to make the disease less noticeable and so on. We will use a “COME SEE” plan to reach the people they said.

Then one day along came someone and tried to point out that millions were sick and dying and that all they needed was one injection and that it was free! But the planners just thought he was trying to block their progress and get some attention and money for his own program. There continued to be news reports that many people were dying all around the land of Golden Opportunity. The reports made it clear that it was impossible to tell how many of those alive today would be alive tomorrow. Time was running out, the remedy had to be delivered soon. As powerful as the remedy was, it would not bring back to life those who died with “NO HOPE.” But the people of the land of Golden Opportunity would not hear the reports! They were too busy with their wonderful organization. They would meet every year and tell the world, look at us, look what we have done. Look at our Multimillion dollar program for our neighbors and just as soon as we get more money, we will make it even larger. They were so focused on their institutions and reputations. They applauded their own achievements.
And besides, there are still a few people out there who are actually distributing the remedy using that old fashioned “GO TELL” stuff.
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One day the King will return just like he said he would. Can you hear His questions and their answers?

"Why are the people of the world still dying of "No Hope"?"

Then they will say:

“Look at all of our fine buildings, plush offices and velvet chairs we have built in your name, Lord.”

“Look at all of our committees and boards organized and churning out tons of programs and paper work to impress people in your name Lord”

“Look at all of our fine executive types who have been educated, schooled, pampered and polished in your name Lord.”

“Look at the great salaries, pension plans, and travel allowances we have given them as they go about in their silver slippers to tell other executive types how to promote more of these plans, programs and allowances in your name LORD.”

And then He said, that He would say this…………

“Lord, Lord, have we not ………….in your name …” (vs. 22)
“And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Therefore, whosoever hearth these sayings of mine and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock: (Matthew 7: 22-24 KJV) IS YOUR WORK ESTABLISHED ON THE ROCK AND nothing but THE ROCK OF JESUS CHRIST?

KIND DOGS AND MEAN MEN

"And being in torments in hell, he lifted up his eyes...Then he cried out and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me...for I am tormented in this flame." (Luke 16: 23 & 24)

This is a contrast between “Kind dogs and Mean men,” or those who GOD has helped (Lazarus = “GOD is my help“) and those who helped themselves. (The anonymous rich man) There is a contrast of “Existence” between the two men. There is a contrast of “Endings” and a contrast of “Eternity’s.” We need to focus on these differences. And if this story is not true (nothing in the text says that it is a parable or just an illustration) then we have nothing to fear by continuing with a greed driven, "help myself to all I can" life style. On the other hand, if it is a true story, (and it is) we need to contrast our life with GOD'S Word to see how our actions, attitudes and way of life stack up spiritually. Jesus described this as a real account, of a real man sent to a real place, and He used it as a warning about the dangers of covetousness, greed and unbelief.

There are several SPIRITUAL lessons from this “sermon” by Jesus that we need to look at today. The first lesson is, "Hell is a real place of flame and torment!" There is a lot of talk going around churches today that, "GOD is love" therefore He really wouldn't send anybody to such a bad place. Therefore Hell must not exist. This is the foolish reasoning’s of a depraved society who has been taught to believe that they came from monkeys. Because they believe this lie about where they came from, they think they can act like animals and there will be no reprisals for their actions. There is a Holy GOD, and there will be a judgment day for everyone. Jesus teaches here that there is a place called HELL and that people will be aware of the sinful and selfish lives they lived. All the time that this man lived, he never thought anything was important except "what made him happy". HELL will be a place of unhappiness and a FIRE that will burn forever. If that is a lie, then Jesus told it and you really don't have anything to worry about, because everything else he said is in question as well. Did He lie, or is this the truth? Is there really a place like Jesus described here? If it's the truth, just how much trouble are we in?
The second lesson is, "Their prayers will not be answered there!" This
man had everything he wanted in this life, simply because he wanted it. Some of you think that if you could just have more money, another car, another house or another mate, that you would be happy. You also believe that because you want it, that you should have it. That's a very selfish way of thinking about this life. That was the problem with this man. That's why the contrast here that "EVEN THE DOGS WERE MORE KIND TO LAZARUS THAN HE WAS." In our world today, it is just as it has always been in this world, there are "GIVERS, TAKERS AND WASTERS". Everyone falls somewhere in one of those categories. This man was a "taker." We see nothing in the scriptures that tell us he ever did anything but take. We never read where Lazarus received those "crumbs" from the rich man's table. All that is recorded is that the dogs were kind and brought a measure of comfort to Lazarus. Much of the church is what the world calls "consumers". That is just another name for takers and wasters. Some are not just takers but are wasters as well. I have started churches in Ukraine and the entire church could "thrive" for a year on what most families waste in a couple of months on things that they would most likely be better off without anyway. So many people today never give anything back. They take and the only thing they leave behind is what is flowing in the sewers.

The third lesson is, "That once you are there, there will be no way out, you will know the truth that you have known all along.” But once you’re there, knowing the truth will NOT set you free. This is not a story of "good works" bringing about salvation. This is a story about "salvation" bringing about good works. As a matter of fact, one of the most horrible truths we have to face is that when Jesus used the phrase, “where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.” (Mark 9:44) He was telling us that people will remember every opportunity they had to receive and serve Christ. The phrase “their worm dieth not,” refers to their memory. They die, but their memory lives on in the next life. You will, for all eternity, remember the times you, knowingly ignored the voice of the Holy Spirit of GOD from something a preacher/teacher said, something you read in the scriptures or even what a friend shared with you. Truth “THERE” will do you no good.
The truth that you know "HERE" will not do you any good, "UNTIL YOU ACT ON IT AND LET IT CHANGE YOU". It's not that you don't KNOW that Jesus is the Son of GOD, and that He is the only way to the Father, you've just never let that information move on you and change you. One day, when it's too late, it's going to be "too late" forever. You will not have a way out and you will have to remember that you blew it.

The last spiritual lesson I want you to see is, "Your attitudes will be the same there for eternity that they were here on earth.” This man still thought that Lazarus existed to serve and wait on him. He still though of himself as better than Lazarus. The most freighting thing I can tell some of you is, "What you are growing into in this life, and what you are now, "IS WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE FOR ALL ETERNITY!" The rich man not only had to be tormented in flames for all eternity, but he also had to live with what he had become in this life. For some people, no punishment could surpass having to live with what they are right now, forever. Some of you keep promising your family, your friends and yourself that one day you are going to change. But you are only deceiving yourself. You're not going to change anything, you're going to keep putting it off, just like this man did, until it will be eternally too late. The truth is, YOU CAN'T CHANGE YOURSELF! You need supernatural help from Jesus. Until you act on those two pieces of knowledge, until you submit yourself to the LORD Jesus as your LORD, Master, Owner and SAVIOR, you will be just like you are now, forever. And that would be a shame, because now, in this life, you KNOW BETTER!

Statement Of Faith And Brief BIO

I.M.P.A.C.T. Ministries Inc.
(Our Name Is An Acronym) INDIVIDUAL MISSIONARY PARTICIPATION AND CHRISTIAN TRAINING
Statement of Faith
(What We Live By, Believe and Teach)
We believe the Bible to be the inspired, inerrant Word of GOD. It is authoritative and we seek to order our life thereby. We believe there is no salvation apart from the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We strongly believe that if one cannot clearly articulate the basic tenants of their faith and calling, it could be because they do not have either.

1. We believe in the one GOD Who created the universe; all in it; He is eternal and unchangeable. He is one GOD, co-existing in three persons, The Father, The Son (Jesus Christ) and the Holy Spirit.
2. We believe Jesus was GOD Who embodied human flesh, was born of a virgin, did many miracles and dwelt on earth just as it is recorded in Scripture.
3. We believe the ministry of the Holy Spirit to be to the world for the reproval of sin, righteousness and judgment. He empowers us to be world-visionary disciples who are able to reproduce other world-visionary disciples, who will be able to reproduce other world-visionary disciples, etc.
4. We believe salvation to be a free gift of grace from GOD through the finished work of Jesus on the cross acquired by faith alone in His substitutionary death. We are His servants! We further believe that all who are saved by GOD will endure to the end and will never be cast out.
5. We believe we are all that man in Romans chapter three; “We were dead under sin, vs.9; We were not righteous, vs.10; We did not understand, we did not seek after GOD, vs.11; We did no good, vs.12; We used deceit, there was poison under our lips, vs.13; Our mouth was full of cursing and bitterness, vs.14; We were involved in evil activity, vs. 15; Destruction and misery was our way, vs.16; We knew no peace, vs.17; We had no fear of GOD before our eyes, vs.18; We were guilty before GOD, fallen short of His Glory with no way to know Him when He came to us. vs.19 - 25.
6. We believe that we are all that man in Ephesians chapter two; “We were dead in our trespasses and sins and GOD in His rich mercy and by His precious grace made our spirit come alive; He gave us the faith to believe in Him unto salvation”, Ephesians 2:1-5. “His kindness and our salvation are a gift of grace through the work of the LORD Jesus and not by our works”, Ephesians 2:6 through 10.”
7. We believe that the elect are all the servants of GOD in Ephesians chapter one; “He is in control of all events and nothing has ever come to us except it passed by our Father’s Throne first”, vs.11; We can trust Him in control for our best. He knows even the fall of sparrows and the number of hairs on our head; Matthew 10:29 and 30.
8. We believe that we are all that one who GOD came looking for and saved by His grace. “He did not drag us kicking and screaming into the kingdom of GOD. Our GOD is not a supernatural mugger. “He loved us with an everlasting love and drew us with cords of loving kindness, Jeremiah 31:3, John 6:44”. “When we were lost, undone, dead in our sin and unable to help ourselves, He made our soul to thirst after Him, Psalm 42:1 & 2.”
9. We believe that we serve a GOD Who is Sovereign in ALL things. “He is Omnipotent, nothing is too hard for Him to do, Psalm 115:3, Genesis 18:14.” “He is Omniscient, He has always known everything, Romans 11:33, Psalm 147:4 - 6.” “He is Omnipresent, He is and always has been everywhere yet separate from all things, Psalm 139:7 - 13, Acts 17:24 - 28”.
10. We believe that because we are children of the GOD Who is Omnipotent, Omniscient and Omnipresent, He is also Immutable. “GOD has no need to change, He is, always has been, and always will be, perfect in all of His character. Any change would indicate a move toward more perfection, or away from perfection. Either change would mean less Holiness before or less Holiness afterwards, Malachi 3:6”.

Missionary / Evangelist
In 1983 Brother Ed Anthony was the originator of the Government Street Baptist Chapel in Pensacola, Fl. This was the first out reach by the SBC’s Pensacola Bay Baptist Association to the African-American community. From there Brother Anthony became the Singles Minister at West Pensacola Baptist Church. There he wrote his first book, “Single, Not my choice”. This was a self-help recovery workbook for those going through Death or Divorce. In September 1988, Brother Anthony was called as pastor to Corrydale Baptist Church by the twelve remaining members. In fifteen months the church was listed in the Florida Baptist Witness as the #10 church in the state for “member-to-baptism ratio” and the #10 church, state wide for “percentage-of-non-designated-gifts” given to the Cooperative program. (January 11, 1990 issue.) While at Corrydale, Brother Anthony developed contacts in the former Soviet Nations that would lead to his on going missions work there. From there Brother Anthony moved to Walton County to become the pastor of New Harmony Baptist Church. Here he established a radio ministry on several stations and could be heard every Saturday morning across much of south Alabama and northwest Florida. In September 1995, Brother Anthony resigned from New Harmony Baptist Church and organized IMPACT MINISTRIES Inc. to enter into full time mission work. Brother Anthony teaches at the Khmelnitskiy Regional Bible Institute, Ukraine which is accredited by the East European Seminary. He develops programs for planting churches, training teachers and church leaders and has conducted seminars on sermon preparation and delivery. He specializes in training “equippers” for the local church to be able to properly disciple their new converts. He has also preached crusades in small village churches as well as large regional churches in Ukraine. From 1995 - 2000 IMPACT MINISTRIES planted sixteen churches in the Khmelnitskiy Region. From those original churches there are now (as of 2005) 48 self supporting churches. They are all functioning with the IMPACT MINISTRIES “Jesus model of discipling technique”, planting churches, and teaching others this formula for church planting. IMPACT MINISTRIES Inc. operates under the principle that it is more cost efficient to train and equip nationals to reach and disciple their own people than to maintain a full time foreign missionary on the field. IMPACT MINISTRIES Inc. helps maintain full-time Nationals on the field through the Regional Bible Institute.

What we can do for you and your church
We build world-visionary disciple makers, who are able to produce other world-visionary disciples, who in turn will reproduce themselves in others, who will build others; and so on and on. We plant churches using this “Jesus Model” of discipling and teach those churches to disciple others as described in 2 Timothy 2:2. & Colossians 2:7. When invited, we will come in to teach this “Jesus method” of operating the local church. We train “equippers” for the local church and teach them how to establish their own program of involving their people in the mission of reaching people for Jesus Christ. We operate as a minister of education for the pastor and a resource for the church.

Our motto and founding verse of scripture is:
“To give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death …” Lk. 1:79

Rev. Ed Anthony

Answered Prayer

This beautiful story was written by a doctor who worked in South Africa. I don't remember how I came to have it, but it blesses my heart every time I read it. I pray that during this Christmas season, you will be inspired to believe more in the power and blessing of prayer. He does hear, He does answer.

“One night I had worked hard to help a mother in the labor ward; but in spite of all we could do, she died leaving us with a tiny premature baby and a crying two-year-old daughter. We would have difficulty keeping the baby alive; as we had no incubator (we had no electricity to run an incubator). We also had no special feeding facilities. Although we lived on the equator, nights were often chilly with treacherous drafts. One student midwife went for the box we had and another went to stoke up the fire and fill a hot water bottle. She came back shortly in distress to tell me that in filling the bottle, it had burst" And it is our last hot water bottle!" she exclaimed.
As in the West, it is no good crying over spilled milk, so in Central Africa it might be considered no good crying over burst water bottles. They do not grow on trees, and there are no drugstores down forest pathways. "All right," I said, "put the baby as near the fire as you safely can, and sleep between the baby and the door to keep it free from drafts. Your job is to keep the baby warm."
The following noon, as I did most days, I went to have prayers with any of the orphanage children who chose to gather with me. I gave the youngsters various suggestions of things to pray about and told them about the tiny baby. I explained our problem about keeping the baby warm enough, mentioning the hot water bottle, and that the baby could so easily die if it got chills. I also told them of the two-year-old sister, crying because her mother had died. During prayer time, one ten-year old girl, Ruth, prayed with the usual blunt conciseness of our African children. "Please, God" she prayed, "Send us a hot water bottle today. It'll be no good tomorrow, God, as the baby will be dead, so please send it this afternoon." While I gasped inwardly at the audacity of the prayer, she added, "And while You are about it, would You please send a dolly for the little girl so she'll know You really love her?" As often with children's prayers, I was put on the spot. Could I honestly say, "Amen?" I just did not believe that God could do this. Oh, yes, I know that He can do everything, the Bible says so. But there are limits, aren't there?
The only way God could answer this particular prayer would be by sending me a parcel from the homeland. I had been in Africa for almost four years at that time and I had never, ever, received a parcel from home. Anyway, if anyone did send me a parcel, who would put in a hot water bottle? I lived on the equator!
Halfway through the afternoon, while I was teaching in the nurses' training school, a message was sent that there was a car at my front door. By the time I reached home, the car had gone, but there, on the verandah, was a large twenty-two pound parcel. I felt tears pricking my eyes. I could not open the parcel alone, so I sent for the orphanage children. Together we pulled off the string, carefully undoing each knot. We folded the paper, taking care not to tear it unduly. Excitement was mounting.
Some thirty or forty pairs of eyes were focused on the large cardboard box. From the top, I lifted out brightly colored, knitted jerseys. Eyes sparkled as I gave them out. Then there were the knitted bandages for the leprosy patients, and the children looked a little bored. Then came a box of mixed raisins and sultanas - that would make a batch of buns for the weekend. Then, as I put my hand in again, I felt the.....could it really be? I grasped it and pulled it out yes, a brand new, rubber hot water bottle. I cried. I had not asked God to send it; I had not truly believed that He could. Little Ruth was in the front row of the children. She rushed forward, crying out, if God has sent the bottle, He must have sent the dolly too!" Rummaging down to the bottom of the box, she pulled out the small, beautifully dressed dolly. Her eyes shone! She had never doubted! “Can I go over with you and give this dolly to that little girl, so she'll know that Jesus really loves her?" Of course, I replied! That parcel had been on the way for five whole months. Packed up by my former Sunday school class, whose leader had heard and obeyed God's prompting to send a hot water bottle, even to the equator. And one of the girls had put in a dolly for an African child - five months before, in answer to the believing prayer of a ten-year-old to bring it "that afternoon.” "Before they call, I will answer" (Isaiah 65:24)
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Your Efforts For His Kingdom Are Important

Your Individual Efforts Are Important To Jesus and His Kingdom


"Keep about your work -- preach the Word, share your testimony, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry." "Do not flinch because the lion roars; do not stop to stone the devil’s dogs; don't even stop to bark back at the dogs; do not fool away your time chasing the world’s rabbits. Do your work. Let liars lie, let sectarians quarrel, let critics malign, let enemies lay blame on you, let the devil do his nastiest; but see to it nothing distract you from fulfilling, with joy, the work that God has selected for you. He has not commanded you to be admired or esteemed. He has not commanded you to get rich. He has never bidden you to defend your character. He has not set you at work to contradict falsehoods about yourself which Satan’s or God’s servants may start. He has not sent you to track down and correct every rumor that threatens your reputation. Don't develope an offended spirit. If you become occupied with these things, you will do nothing else; you will be at work for yourself and not for the Lord. Keep at your work. Let your aim be as steady as a rock. You may be assaulted, wronged, insulted, slandered, wounded and rejected, misunderstood, or assigned impure motives; you may be abused by foes, forsaken by friends, and despised and rejected of men. All of these things befell our LORD Jesus. But do as He did, see to it with steadfast determination, with unfaltering zeal, that you pursue the great purpose of your life and object of your being until at last you can say, “I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do."…...Ed
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