Voice Of Bragg | Bragg’s Writers Guild

Educating children is promoting the success of the society. And we know that GOD in Schools is still the main foundation of our Society.

Introduction

The situation in Bukavu has been quite moving in the last ten years. Years of war and Political Crisis have adversely affected the Educational System and the nation’s literacy rate.  School remains one of the efficient means to bring back hope to young people and teach them social values.

The Mission

This project was initiated by Nabintu Mujambere from the Democratic Republic of Congo, a graduate of the Pedagogical School of Mons, Belgium.

Our Mission is to develope infrastructure for the school system, beginning with Mushere Christian School in Bukavu. Our aim is to reform and modernize the current curriculum to meet the educational needs of Congolese Students of the twenty-first century.

 All these activities proposed are oriented to the contribution we can bring in the development of the town of Bukavu and to the Congo through education.http://www1.freewebs.com/mushere/

Popularity: 12% [?]

Who believes that if you spend quality time praying as a family that you will be closer to God and closer as a family?
Give me your thoughts.

Popularity: 35% [?]

The goal of all parents is to raise a child who is moral in many different aspects of their lives. As our children continue to develop, our responsibility as parents is to guide them into the way of a Christian centered life. Working towards the goal of our child’s moral excellence will bring both parents together to study the Bible for answers to these questions.

Knowing How

Telling a child what to do does not mean they automatically know how to do it. When a parent does not give the child moral guidance then the child will go blindly into that direction. During their young years the way we are as parents will tell our children what they are to expect in their years to come. When my son looks up at me with those loving eyes and sees everything I do; how I love on mom, how I treat my friends, how I treat my neighbors, this will show him how to live a moral life. In addition to showing moral behavior you have to instill moral’s into the child by explaining the “whys” and add it to their moral store house. For example:
“Steven, please do not run in the church foyer”.  Then little Steven stops, but then the following Sunday little Steven runs again. He already was told not to do it, so why is he disobeying?  It was not explained why. The moral reasoning was not inputted into the moral store house. Let’s look at it again. Steven is running in the foyer again. “Steven, we do not run in the foyer because you might run into someone and hurt them or yourself. Look at Mr. Lands, he has a hot cup of coffee and Mrs. Beverly has a baby in her arms. If you run into them you could be burned by hot coffee or make Mrs. Beverly drop her baby. It is not allowed to run in the foyer. Do you understand son?” “Yes sir, Dad.” The following week little Steven does not run because it was understood and added to his moral store house. There was a convention going on and an older gentleman (who walked with a cane) walked in to a packed house. There were no more places to sit but then one younger gentleman got up and gave up his seat. Out of the hundreds of people only one got up. That young mans parents added to his moral store house, that you respect elders. Most people do not instill that anymore. Morals build a healthy, respectable character.

Legalism And Parenting

Heading in this direction is very dangerous for children, especially while they are teens. They try to weigh the form of truth to the substance of truth. They must have room to grow in making individual decisions.  If I tell my son to never go in the street and one day a little baby strolls out in the road and a car comes, will he make the decision to get the baby out of the street, or will he be thinking of dad saying to him to stay out of the road? 

Asking Why

Here is this week’s homework, or at least the end of the week’s homework. When your child asks you why, find the reason he or she is asking the question. Does giving your answere to their question resolve their need for an answere? We will get to get together this weekend and discuss what happens with my son and your children.

Popularity: 30% [?]

This is the first of many articles I will be writing on the subject of parenting God’s way. Everyone who has children or wants them has the desire to be a good parent. How we raise them to grow in all the healthy ways is up to us as parents. Does God want us to spank our children? Does it say in the bible “Spare the rod spoil the child”? As parent’s, there are question’s  that we ask ourselves when it comes to raising our child in a Christ like environment.

Starting Points   

    The Bible gives us instructions for successfully giving our children a clear picture of a Christian moral life. Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction on the Lord (Ephesians 6:4). Training starts with mom and dad living a Christ like moral life. God made us in his image with the capacity to do good deeds. Sometimes when my son starts to act up in the stores I want to do some good deeds to his tail. The feeling of wanting to automatically scold him is a feeling I fight. God wants me to talk to him in such a way that does not show him an out of control father, but address him in a manner that best suites the situation.

Biblical Teaching

    Everyday should be spent raising our child under the roof of the salvation message. Children, obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord (Colossians 3:20). Go tell them this and it stays up there as long as their young minds can hold it. Living for one another for God shows a child the ways of Jesus Christ. We all want our children to obey us, how they obey us is the question. Do they obey us in fear or out of true love and devotion for the Lord?

Plan To Succeed

    Over the next couple of weeks I will be writing an article a day that will be based on studies that my wife and I have taken and are taking to help us be better parents under Gods supervision. We want to plan to succeed, not plan to fail. I do believe that Jesus is the one true living God; he died on the cross, raised three days later to conquer death for all who believe in him. One day we all will be going home (HEAVEN), I want for all of us to insure that we take our children with us.

Popularity: 26% [?]

      History traces Halloween to an ancient religious group known as the Celts.  The Celts worshiped over 300 different gods, each having their own area of control.  Their two main feast days was Beltane and  Samhain, the beginning and the end of summer.  They believed that during the night of Samhain the spirit world would “bleed into” the real world.  In order to fight this they would dress in masks of demons and ghosts in order to blend into the “spirits” that traveled that night.  During Samhain, the supreme night of demonic jubilation, frightened villagers would offer gifts of fruit and nuts to appease the evil, vengeful spirits on their front porch. 

      As Christianity spread to England the Popes of the church sought to include the local holiday of Samhain into the church in order to gain more converts.  Thus the creation of All Saints day  on the first day of November.  Although this was thought to be a good thing because it drew more folks into the church, all it really did was water down the message of hope and love that the Bible really teaches.  The Bible says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  There is no time that a “spirit” wanders in limbo.  If all we had to look forward to after this life was an endless wandering of this world unable to eat, drink, talk to, or enjoy the company of others would be nothing to look forward to.  In fact it would make life kind of pointless.  It is plain where our tradition of Halloween comes from.  There is much more information out there about this topic.  The only advice that can be given on what to do with your family during this holiday is to turn to the Word of God.

                Joshua 24:15  And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

                Colossians 3:2   Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Before we take anything for granted we must pray and seek the Father’s face.  For He and He alone is responsible to lead us down the path of righteousness.

-Pastor Al Weeks

Popularity: 21% [?]

When you become a Christian, you are a new person.  That doesn’t mean you have to be perfect in the eyes of others.  What it does mean is that you believe in your heart that Jesus died on the cross and rose again and that you want to put your trust in Him by giving Him control of your life.  You should have a desire to want to be like Him and to devote your life to serve Him.  Believe me, your life could not be more fulfilling.  Change only begins with honest repentance.  Then we need to get into God’s Word so that He can show us how He wants us to live.  We have to be willing to want to change.  The truth of God’s Word produces change only when it is allowed to penetrate deep into our hearts.  If we are busy looking at how others live their lives, then we are missing out on how God wants to improve our lives to better serve Him.  There are lots of people who “know” a lot about Jesus, (Bible knowledge), but their heart is not “filled” with Jesus.  There definitely is a difference.

      When we get married, we want to be the best we can be for our spouse.  We do all that we can to please the other person.  That is what keeps the love alive.  We have to make a decision that we will be true to this person in every way, forever.  That is what a commitment is….to love and honor forever.  A commitment to follow Christ requires a decision of the mind followed by an act of the will.  You can’t just say that is what you are going to do.  You have to make a decision and stick with it or it doesn’t mean a thing.  Commitment is never easy; it requires courageous perseverance.  Those committed to God find renewed strength.  When you say you devote yourself to a project or a job, you are dedicating with your heart to do the best you can.  If you are only doing your job half-heartedly then it didn’t mean much in the first place. 

      God wants our all……everything.  Everything we have and everything we are belongs to Him.  To give Him only a little is cheating.  He deserves better than that.  Jesus said, “Come follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.”  How committed are you?
-Anonymous

Popularity: 20% [?]

Love is in the air!  I have come to the conclusion that our limited English language can not really grasp the significance of real and true love.  We throw the word around so casually that we have come to believe that we can truly and completely love some one after only knowing them a short time.  We struggle under the Hollywood myth of love at first sight.  My father, the wisest man I have ever known, once said to me that True Love take years to develop.  Furthermore you know that you have finally arrived at true love when you wake next to your mate and despite the hair from the lowest pit of hell and the foulest smelling dragon breath the world has ever known, you still smile and reach to embrace.  As with any kind of truth to get the truth even in Love one must turn to the bible:           

 I Corinthians 13:4Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, 5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, 6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away.  -

-Pastor AL Weeks

Popularity: 15% [?]

The Ten Commandments was received  at Mount Sinai by Moses from God.  It happened like this.  After Moses and the Israelites fled the slavery of Egypt , they wandered the desert. God provided the travelers with food to eat (manna) and water to drink. After long months Moses brought his followers to the foot of a mountain called Sinai. Though the desert was dry and bare, the mountain was lush and green, covered with grass, flowers and trees. Moses and the Israelites set up camp at the base of the mountain.

On the third day of the Hebrew month of Sivan, Moses was commanded by God to prepare the Jewish people for God’s descent and visit. The Israelites washed and purified their clothes and their bodies. Three days later, on the sixth day of Sivan, the people were awakened by thunder and lightning. Thick, dark clouds hung over the mountain. The sounds of the Shofar, the ram’s horn, were heard echoing across the desert. The earth began to tremble and shake.

Then the Israelites heard a voice, God’s voice, as he spoke to them from out of the clouds.

And God gave them his Ten Commandments:

“I am the Lord your God, Who has taken you out of the land of Egypt , from the house of slavery”

“You shall have no other gods but me”“You shall not take the name of your Lord in vain”“You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy”“Honor your father and mother”“You shall not murder”

“You shall not commit adultery”

“You shall not steal”

“You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor”

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods. You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his bull, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”

Moses went up the mountain and returned with the Tablets that contained the Ten Commandments.

Through the centuries the Jewish people have celebrated this important event. It was at Mount Sinai that this band of worn and weary travelers would become the nation known as Israel .   How does this apply to us today?  The very foundation of our whole legal system is based on these ten laws of God.  The beginning of the Declaration of Independence brings forth the rights that every man is given by God.  Are we ready to take the laws that founded our nation and trash them and kick them to the curb like so much unwanted trash?  When will this insanity end? 

“The law given from Sinai was a civil and municipal as well as a moral and religious code… laws essential to the existence of men in society and most of which have been enacted by every nation which ever professed any code of laws.”
     -John Quincy Adams

-Rev. Al Weeks

Popularity: 13% [?]