Learning to sit at the feet of Jesus and have Him probe and examine our hearts often requires a little assistance.  This devotional on 1 John will take you on a 40 day journey with Jesus into the depths of your heart.  As you read through 1 John each day, Jesus will bring revelation of Himself and guide you into the experience of true Life.  Prepare yourself to enter His presence.

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Writing a devotional on first John, was the farthest thing from my mind when I started to memorize its first chapter. My goal was simply to hide these words deep within my heart and to inspire others to do it with me. Though not many people were interested in memorizing the book, several people were greatly encouraged by some thoughts that I wrote down as I was going through the first chapter. As a result, the idea to write a devotional as I memorized each chapter developed into this book you are now reading about.

The task of writing this book was broken up into five parts. Each part corresponded to one chapter in 1 John. When I started on each chapter, I first translated the chapter from the original language into English and then I memorized my personal translation. Once I had finished memorizing the translation, I began the slow process of converting my meditations into daily readings. This process often involved days or weeks of praying, comparing passages, and seeking help from others just to produce a single day’s devotional. Eventually, I finished writing on each part and passed along each section to others for proofreading and review. Several wonderful people, spent many hours going through each page combing out my mistakes and offering help to communicate these vital truths. Once the entire work on 1 John was completed, the book was made public for others to be built up into the image of Christ.

If you read this daily study of 1 John, I encourage you to be aware of two specific themes. John expresses the first theme when he uses words like light, fellowship, abiding, love, and life. Though at first glance it may appear that these words are unrelated, John is actually expressing a single reality. The summation of this reality can be described as personally knowing God. The second theme is trusting God. John is describing trusting God when he writes about obedience, victory, and love for others. These two themes are the essence of Christianity. All too often, believers break off on side tangents and fall away from the heart of God. The goal of this book is to help you find stability in your Christian life by teaching you how to daily walk in the reality of these two themes. Therefore, do not rush through this book, but take the needed time to meditate and ponder the things it expresses. As you walk in the two themes of 1 John you will find deeper fellowship with God and learn to become His disciple.

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~ Summary Index ~ 
1. Important Notice 
2. Godly Christian Music Updates 
3. Godly Christian eCards Updates 
4. Prayer Requests – St Louis Outreach

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1. ****IMPORTANT NOTICE****

Godly Christistian Ministries' websites are about to be moved to 
a new server in the next week or two.  There have already been several 
problems during the process of the transfer that has significantly 
slowed things down.  There may be some technical difficulties or 
problems over the course of the next two weeks, but I will be actively 
seeking to fix any problems.  If you experience anything that seems 
different or unusual, please contact me through one of the contact 
pages on the sites.  I appreciate your help and patience during the 
transfer. 
The move to the new server should ultimately result in some new 
features on the sites.  Some of which the average person will notice 
and others only the music artist will see.  Nevertheless, I hope the 
new company will be able to work well in providing you with good 
service.

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2. Godly Christian Music Updates

New Music: 
Susan Hawthorne (classical) – several more beautiful songs were 
added.

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3. Godly Christian eCards Updates

New Cards: 
Independence from Sin (Independence Day) 
http://www.godlychristianecards.com/cardView.aspx?card=56

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4. Prayer Requests

Today several people from the local church I am a part of will be 
traveling up to St. Louis, MO to pass out tracts and share the gospel 
with those who are attending the Independence Day festivities.  Please 
be praying for us that the Lord would grant us wisdom about who and 
how we should reach out to those there.  A tract was put together that 
we will be passing out.  You can see the tract by going to 
www.GodlyChristianMinistries.com/tract_july4th.pdf
Feel free to print out the tract if you like it and use it yourself. 
We will be getting there around 5pm Central Time and leaving after the 
fireworks around 10pm.  Please pray the Lord would open an effective 
door for us to reach out to this lost world!

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~ Summary Index ~ 
1. Godly Christian Music Updates 
2. Godly Christian eCards Updates 
3. Upcoming Projects 
4. Prayer Requests

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1. Godly Christian Music Updates

Upcoming: 
I set up the recording equipment on the 19th and 20th of this 
month to do some recording of the Berkemeyers.  Madison Berkemeyer 
already has a couple songs up on the site, but we just recorded two 
more by her (one of them is with the help of her sibling Andrew and 
Emily).  In addition, four songs were also recorded by Andrew 
Berkemeyer.  Their music is currently being mixed and will appear on 
the site in the near future.

New Artist / Music: 
Susan Hawthorne (classical) – 29 New Songs 
Don Shepherd (folk) – 16 New Songs 
Thomas Reinhardt (folk) – 8 New Songs 
Jeff Rice (folk-pop) – 1 New Song

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2. Godly Christian eCards Updates

Upcoming: 
Independence Day is looming on the horizon and a new card should 
be ready by the time it rolls around. On a different note, I have been 
experimenting with youtube over the last while and will likely begin 
converting cards to you tube videos as I put each one together.

New Cards: 
A Symbol (Flag Day) 
This Season (Summer) 
Becoming an Adult (Graduation) 
Gray Hair (Fathers Day)

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3. Upcoming Projects

Highlights: 
GodlyChristianMinistries.com is about to experience a total 
makeover.  After much deliberation and prayer, I will be converting 
this site to Joomla content management site.  The benefits that will 
result include: new multi-media (photo, audio, video) content will be 
regular added, Christian articles will be frequently posted from 
various authors, a news/blog will available, and there will be 
multiple RSS feeds to subscribe to.  There are a couple other ideas I 
am still praying about, but you can expect these things to be ready in 
the next month.  I just got a new program to help in the designing 
look and feel of the site and I am currently planning out how the site 
will be structured.

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4. Prayer Requests

Thank you for all who have been praying for the sites, those who 
come to the sites, and for me.  I have been considering putting 
together another site, but never really came to peace about it. 
However, the things I was planning on doing on a new site, I will be 
adding into the www.GodlyChristianMinistry.com site.  Please be 
praying for me as I make decision about how the Godly Christian 
Ministries site will look and function as it is about to undergo many 
changes.  This can often be a tedious process and if I don't plan 
things out well, it will cost me more time down the road. 
On a different note, I am currently learning how to play the piano. 
During the last couple months, I have been going through a DVD set to 
help me learn.  It has been a very nice way to take a break from 
working on the computer.  Please be praying for me as I am practicing 
and learning.  It is my hope that I will be able to use the piano to 
encourage and bless you.

Godly Christian Ministries is springing forward with the new season. After much time in prayer and a lot of work, the new sites are finally moving forward. Take a peak at some of the new things that are available to you by going to www.GodlyChristianMinsitries.com. Here you will find a book I recently wrote and published on 1 John. It is a daily devotional that takes you step by step through John's first letter. You can get the book in two different forms, either download the book for free or order a printed copy from Amazon.com. In addition to the book, you will also find another web project that I have been working on for over a year. The web address is: www.GodlyChristianEcards.com. This e-card website offers free e-cards like you have never seen before. Most e-cards don't amount to much more than some kind fluffy greeting, but these cards are designed for serious Christians...Christian who like the bible and who desire to see it change them. Just like www.GodlyChristianMusic.com, the new e-card website remains a growing work in progress. Each week I am working on new e-cards and if you have ideas you can submit them to me via the new christian e-card website. Similar to the music site, these e-cards are available free of charge. As God meets my needs it is blessing to freely share what God has given to me.

Please continue to pray for me in all these projects. Much of the time spent working has been filled with difficulties and trials. Please pray that the Lord would strengthen me and cause me to rise above discouragement. As a mother faces great pains before she rejoices over her new child, I too grown as this ministry is birthed. I need you to ask the Lord to give me clear discernment about what to work on each day and where to set my priorities and goals. Without clear direction, I end up having to backtrack and I loose a bunch of time. In addition, please pray that I would grow spiritually closer to our Father. The closer I draw to the Lord, the more effectively I will be able to serve you.

May we fix our eyes on Jesus laying aside the weights of this world as we seek first His kingdom and Glory!

Over the last couple weeks, Godly Christian Music has experienced a lot of down time. This was due to a hacker attacking my web hosting company. This attack ultimately caused all my servers to go down so that I did not have access to anything. The attack was not focused at Godly Christian Music directly, but rather at the company that hosts Godly Christian Music. I am sorry for any difficulties that you may have experienced over this last season. If the company I am currently working with continues to get compromised, I will move the site to a new company. Nevertheless, due to the nature of why they got attacked and the precautions they are taking to prevent such thing from happening in the future, I don’t think there should be further problems.

On a different note, I am restructuring some things with regard to how Godly Christian Music will be organized in the future. Instead of Godly Christian Music being a single service provided to the saints, it will become one outlet among many to bless others. A new website is being created called www.GodlyChristianMinistries.com. This new website will become the hub from which further sources of blessings will result. Godly Christian Ministries will be providing books, articles, audio messages, and much more. In addition, a new ecard site is also currently in the works. All this will become available over the course of the next year.

Finally, those who are Fire Fox users will enjoy having the mp3 player window no longer resize their browser every time they play a song. When I first made the mp3 player, I tested it out in Internet Explore. The intent was that the player would open in a new window and not a new tab. When it opened in a new window, the window resized to fit the player. It seemed like a good idea, but it only worked right for Internet Explore users. Nevertheless, the annoying resize should no longer be a problem.
Lord Bless…

Godly Christian Music continues to grow as new artist are regularly being added on, but the number of people accessing the site is continually growing as well. Internationals are downloading the music from around the world on a regular basis and the number of USA listener has been climbing. It is encouraging to my heart to see that people are being blessed by the work. Please continue to pray for the site as it was down a couple days earlier this month due to some server difficulties. In addition, the electricity has been out at my house for over a week now after an inland hurricane came through my area. Nevertheless, thanks to other believers in the area, the work has not slowed down too much as I have been able to stay in other's homes with electricity. The Lord has kept us safe and is providing our needs. Thank you, to all who have been praying! 

In addition, much work continues to go on in preparation for a new website. www.GodlyChristianEcards.com It is in some of the final stages of its initial release. Nevertheless, there remains much work ahead in creating the e-cards that people will be able to send out. If you have any ideas for good e-cards, go to the website and submit them as suggestions. 

Lord Bless...

For those of you who have read the previously posted article, you know that the administrator of this site is now working on a new project. You can begin to help in the creation of this project by bringing your suggestions. The administrator is creating an ecard website and you can now contribute your ideas for new ecards by going to www.GodlyChristianEcards.com.

Work has continued behind the scenes with the Internet, but on a new front. In November, the site administrator began to learn a new programing language and design environment. After reading and skimming nearly 1,700 pages of textbook material, the administrator felt like he had a handle on Action Script 3.0 and Flash. His first test project can now be seen whenever someone clicks on the listen icon next to a song. When someone clicks on this, a little music player pops up which the administrator designed and programmed from the ground up in order fix a problem that several people where having when they tried to play the music. This was merely a preparatory project for something much larger on the way and served to solidify the theories from several textbooks into a working model. 

Since that time, the administrator has begun taking steps to embark on the new project. Nevertheless, as steps have been taken, they have been met with great opposition. Almost immediately, the administrator got sick, coming down with a cold that he got from working with the sick children at his job. This started the process of a three week cycle of getting sick, recovering a little, and then getting sick again. Finally, after the cycle broke and health was reattained, the night time nature of the administrator's work started to effect his ability to sleep. Over the course of a five day stretch he was only able to average about three and half hours of sleep per each twenty four hour period. Once he was able to sleep again, he injured his wrist. Though this only slowed him down a little, his wrist has been in a brace for about a week now. Present, as the administrator types this article, his nose is running and his throat has been soar for the last two days. This started after an attempt to resolve a creosote problem with his wood stove resulting in his home getting smoked out. Despite all the difficulty, he presses on with the new project. 

What might you ask is this new project? For a long time the administrator has desired to start an e-card website with the intent of challenging people to walk in faith and obedience to God. Most Christian e-card websites are simply a lot of fluff with their self-help like inspirational quotes. Though some of these maybe encouraging and nice at times, they lack any real depth. These cards often leave the lukewarm Christian feeling a little more spiritual, while allowing them to continue in their dullness toward whole hearted obedient faith. It is the administrator's hope to create a new site where people can send e-cards which will challenge those who never knew God or are backsliden and equip those who are faithful, that they may become more mature. 

This new site is bringing with it many challenges and a lot of work. The administrator is the sole person working on this project and over the course of the next year or two he will be putting most of his spare time toward the graphic design, programing, and database work in order to get the site up and running. In addition to this task, he will also be creating the e-cards for everyone to send out. The amount of work to get this project going is quite daunting, but it was the same way for getting www.GodlyChristianMusic.com ready. With strength and wisdom from the Father and through your prayers the administrator is confident that this new site will be a rich source of blessing to you. 

Currently, the site is in the design phase where graphics are being created and planning on functionality is taking place. The structure of the site's database has largely been established and most navigational content has been worked out. As of January 14, the mock-up of the home page was completed and the overall look of site was determined. From here, the administrator will be working to create a bare bones mock up of the essential pages to make the site have its basic functionality. Once this is done, the database will be created and programing will commence. After this phase has been completed, the first round of e-card will start to be made. In the mean time, the administrator will be setting up a page for you to send your suggestions and ideas for e-cards to him. 

Keep your eyes open to this news page in the next couple months and the administrator will let you know when and where to go to bring your suggestions for e-cards. In addition, please be praying for the administrator and this project. It is probably the largest project that he has ever taken on and will most certainly face many trials in the process. Ask that he would have endurance and that in the mist of difficulty that he would come to know Christ more fully. In addition, the devil is always at work trying to slow or stop projects like this from going forward (as one can already see from the administrator's first month worth of work). Your prayer are more valuable than you might know and are capable making or breaking a project like this. Therefore, please devote yourself to prayer and pray also for this site's administrator that God would enable him to serve you.

There have been a couple new updates to Godly Christian Music recently. Nevertheless, the benefit to the average user will only come when the artists start taking advantage of what is available to them. One of the major updates is the addition of chords and lyrics for each song. Now you will be able to learn how to play and sing your favorite songs yourself. Simply search for the song or go to an artist's page and click on the lyrics or chords icon next to the listen and download icons. If there is a little circle with an cross through it on an icon that means the artist has not yet posted the chords or lyrics for that song yet. You can politely contact them and ask them to post their chords by going to their music page and click the link entitled, “Contact Artist”. 

Another new feature added to the website was the events section. The events section of the site allows artists to post events and listeners find out whether or not each artist is currently taking invitations for leading worship. When this update took place all the artist were set by default to inform others that they were not taking invitations. Nevertheless, this may not be true. An artist must log in their system before the invitation settings will get changed. Therefore use discretion in asking the artists about coming near you until they have a chance to login and get their preferences set. 

There are a few other features on the administrative side that have been automated to help streamline things too. One of these is for posting testimonies. If you have been blessed by Godly Christian Music please write in from the contact us page and tell us how you have been blessed. There is a high likelihood that your testimony will appear for others to be encouraged by too. 

Hopefully these new features will prove to be a blessing to you. Lord Bless...