DECEMBER 2014 EDITION

Dear Friends,

This newsletter will not follow the usual format. For one thing, it will be brief and, hopefully, to the point. I would like to thank each one of you for your friendship and support.  Many of you have stood with Net Work Ministries since its inception in 1992. Actually, some of you have been a partner in ministry with me since I began in 1976. Your friendship and partnership in ministry has been an incredible gift to me! It has been both a blessing and encouragement. It is a rare gift to have friends like you.

As we enter this Christmas Season, as I treasure your gift of friendship, my thoughts turn to the greatest gift of all. That gift is the gift of eternal life. It is a gift in the truest sense of the word. It costs us nothing but it cost our Heavenly Father everything. "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believe on Him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16. Those are not just words on a page,

but an actual reality. Those words are as true as "two plus two equals four."

There is, however, a catch. Like any gift, it is not complete until it is received and opened to be enjoyed by the person for whom it was meant.

In addition, it would be a good thing to do to thank the giver! What a concept! However, a present can be received and then put on a shelf unopened. Who would do that with a gift? Some of us may have, at one time in our lives, professed to have received the gift of eternal life through faith in Christ, but then we put it on a shelf in the back of our closet but got busy and forgot about it. Oh, occasionally, we see it back there and say to ourselves, "I have got to remember to do something about that gift. Oh well, I'll get to it later when I finish college or when my work slows down or when the kids are gone." Sometimes we pick it up and admire the wrapping paper and remember the Christmas we received it, but the we remember there was something we forgot to do that demands immediate attention and we put it back on the shelf.  In "The Parable of the Sower in Luke 8, it says, "The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature." The seed is the gift.

At this Christmas Season and into the New Year, let us remember the gift, truly appropriate its meaning, begin to enjoy it, fully in awe what it cost the Giver and begin a life of gratitude to the Giver of all good gifts.

Have a Christ-filled Christmas and a truly blessed 2015!

NOVEMBER 2014 EDITION

Every year, I take this time to enumerate the things I am thankful for in my life. It is my hope that this will spur you on to do the same thing. Pause from your busy life and take the time to jot down on paper the many things for which you are thankful. I think you will be surprised and uplifted when you do this. It may give you a different perspective on your life.

First and foremost, I thank my God for calling me to be His child on the night of April 29, 1975. This is my greatest blessing. (Galatians 4:6)

My greatest earthly blessing is Peggy, my bride of forty-seven and a half years. (Proverbs 31:10-31)

Major sources of blessing to me are my lovely daughters, Ashley and Hayden, their husbands and my seven grandchildren and my sister, Elinor. (III John: 4)

I am grateful to my parents who instilled upon me values in life that have served me well. They also instilled in me a love of nature, the arts, manners and a sense of civility.

I thank God for my calling to Net Work Ministries in 1992 and the men who affirmed that calling. I pray I may be worthy of that call. (Ephesians 4:1)

I am so very thankful for my friends who have stood by me "in the morning sun and the evening rain" (from Brennan Manning's "Ragamuffin Gospel") of my life. You have been a demonstration of Christ's unconditional love to me. (Proverbs 17:17 and 18:24)

Some of those same friends opened up a completely new world for me when, late in life, they introduced me to skeet shooting and bird hunting. I will be ever so grateful for them.

I know this may sound funny but I am so grateful for my dog, Missy, who came to us from the animal shelter years ago. She has been a wonderful source of joy and companionship. She is a gift from the Lord.

This list is not exhaustive but represents just a few of the things with which I feel that God has blessed me.

Net Work News and Needs

I try very hard not to mention the financial situation of Net Work Ministries. You have been so kind to support this ministry with your prayers, encouragement and financial resources. However, I feel it necessary to address our situation at this time to ask for your prayers. At the time of this writing, donations are at 46% of what is needed to sustain the ministry. Salaries are in arrears since July.

You need to know that I will not stop serving Net Work's men and their families for lack of funding. I firmly believe that God has called me to this ministry. I do not believe God will use money or the lack thereof to call me out of this ministry.

If I leave Net Work Ministries, it would be that I have been called to another ministry. At this time, I have had no such calling.

Thank you for hearing me out on this difficult issue.  I will make no further mention of it.

Our Friday Morning Men's Group has begun a new book. It is Andy Stanley's thought provoking book, "How To Be Rich" subtitled,

"It's Not What You Have. It's What You Do With What You Have."

One last thing as I close:

"I thank God in all of my remembrances of each one of you!"

NET WORK MINISTRIES, INC. EXISTS FOR THE PURPOSE OF BRINGING TOGETHER GOD’S PEOPLE AND HIS RESOURCES TO PRESENT THE HEALING MESSAGE OF CHRIST’S   UNCONDITIONAL LOVE, THROUGH WORD AND DEED, TO A HURTING AND LOST WORLD.

NET WORK MINISTRIES, INC.

2671 OLD HICKORY DRIVE, N.W.

MARIETTA, GA., 30064-1833

678-986-4814         

  E-mail address – buckreese41@yahoo.com

Website: www.networkministries.blogspot.com