Keith Burnett Ministries

Equipping for Evangelism

Time Is Running Out!

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Israel

Israel Tour

The window of opportunity is closing! There is still time to save $ on our Journey With Jesus in Israel tour!

Why Israel?

Since we posted this event, several people have contacted me saying the same thing:

Going to Israel is on my bucket list!

Well, I know how they feel. It’s been on mine, too. When this opportunity came along, I was eager to grab it. The problem is, it’s only available if we do it together. The prices we have are not available to single travelers. To mark this off of our bucket lists, we have to do it together!

IsraelJust in case you need a little incentive, this may help. I have vivid memories of visiting Germany. We saw many places associated with the Protestant Reformation. In college and seminary, I studied events that happened in these places. We saw where those who had gone before us fought and died for their faith. I came home from Germany with a new depth of understanding and appreciation. And truthfully, those experiences changed my life. Every person I know who has been to Israel has had a similar, or deeper, experience.

Why John in Israel?

The Gospel of John is one of my favorite teaching/preaching spots. In fact, every time we start a new Israel - Journey With Jesussection of the Mathes Pastor Training School, our opening course is John. There are many reasons for that, not the least of which is 92% of the material in John’s Gospel is not found in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.

This is an opportunity to ‘go through’ John’s Gospel again, on site! It’s also an opportunity to share the lessons of John’s Gospel with the group. It really should be a week that marks all our lives for the better.

The Time Is Now

As you might guess, ticketing and reservation deadlines are set by others. If we could do it differently we would, but we can’t. Airlines and hotels require deposits in order to hold space. You know the drill. So, the only way to know for sure if we have an Israel tour or not is for everyone to get their deposits in. Hope that helps. Questions? Please call or write.

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Journey With Jesus in Israel

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Israel - Journey With Jesus

Israel Trip Info – Earlybird Discount!

Now is the time to reserve your place for the Journey With Jesus Israel tour! SOME of the most important details are listed below:

  • Time: The trip is scheduled for November 21-28
  • Airline: Air France
  • Departure: Price quoted is from Atlanta. Getting to Atlanta is each traveler’s responsibility/expense.
  • Deposit: $500.oo per traveler deposit is due with sign-up. Deposit is refundable until April 21, 2016.
  • Enrollment Period: Enrollment is open until April 22. If our booking requirements are met, all deposits become non-refundable April 22 and will be applied in full to traveler’s total trip costs. If we do not meet our booking requirements, all deposits will be refunded.
  • Trip Cost: This is a special pricing being offered for early sign-up. Participants who sign-up before March 15, 2016 will enjoy a $100.oo discount on the $3595.00 trip cost. Again, this is an early sign-up incentive. This earlybird bonus will disappear March 16! All anyone has to do to qualify is get the trip deposit (above) to Keith Burnett Ministries, PO 803, Scottsboro, AL – 35768 before March 15.
  • Included: Trip cost includes airfare, hotels, two meals daily in-country, and arranged tours of sites in Israel. The tour is put together with a focus on sites in the Gospel of John. Dr. Burnett and others will be leading devotional times with the group based on John’s Gospel. Other trip details will be published and itineraries will be sent to tour members upon receipt of deposits.
  • The Fine Print: Tour groups is not what we usually do! But this is a special circumstance so we are giving it a try. Supporters would be especially aware of that. The info above is meant to give you as much detail as we can right now and allow you to take advantage of a great opportunity. A great deal of work will go into making this one of the most memorable weeks any of us have ever spent.
Israel - Journey With Jesus

Sunset over Jerusalem

Please make this a matter of prayer. Please use this tour to your greatest advantage! Take a friend, take a family member, send your pastor, go with your spouse, or combine some of these things into one great week. The discount pricing is for a limited time. So share the trip info. And by all means, if you have questions, please give us the opportunity to help. The only bad question is the one that didn’t get asked.

***Trip Insurance is not included in the price quoted, BUT we can get that for you at very reasonable rates and do recommend that you get it.***

Soli Deo Gloria! 

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Israel Update

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Israel Update/Alert

Our Journey With Jesus in Israel is set for November 21-28. That will include the Thanksgiving holiday in order to minimize use of vacation time. It will also be a great opportunity to celebrate Thanksgiving there. We will have a special time for that on Thanksgiving Day in Israel.

Israel - Journey With JesusOur initial announcement was very general in nature. Later today, trip details will be emailed to ministry supports and website subscribers. The intent is for you to have the first opportunities to get on board. Later this week, we will make our Journey With Jesus in Israel opportunity available to everyone.

Here are some items for you to consider as ways to help. Do you have a pastor that has not been to Israel? Maybe you or your Bible study group would like send the pastor or help significantly with trip costs.

Do you have a family member that would like to go? One of the greatest things I get to see is parents and grandparents taking their children and/or grandchildren on mission. I can’t think of a better inventment in a child or grandchild than a week together walking where Jesus walked. That experience would last a lifetime!

For me, taking folks to Israel offers some stategic ministry opportunities. Please make that a matter of prayer. I have tagged this post as a Prayer Circle listing so it will stay on the front page of the website for a while – at least until we know if we have enough people to take advantage of this Israel opportunity.

Please pray. If you are a ministry supporter or subscriber, please keep an eye on your inbox. If you are not, that opprotunity is always open to anyone by clicking the Subscribe box on the right side of this page. And everyone can keep an eye out for the general public annoucement later this week!

Soli Deo Gloria!

 

Israel: Journey With Jesus

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Israel: A New Opportunity

Israel - Journey With JesusWe have a chance to make the visit of a lifetime. My goal is to seize this opportunity and make it a life-changing event for as many as possible. This post is our initial attempt to make people aware. It will not be our last!

Everyone, including you, can help turn possibility into reality. First, don’t stop reading or dismiss this as something you can’t engage in. You can. Going is not the only opportunity. With that said, let me ask you to begin to pray about our opportunity in Israel. And let me share a personal experience that should help anyone begin to see what can come of an opportunity like this.

Israel: Connecting Past, Present & Future

Israel - Journey with JesusIn the mid ’80s Debbie and I were blessed to be part of a mission effort in Europe. Most of our time was spent in Germany. The Reformation began there. We saw many monuments to those who gave their lives for faith in Christ. We stood in the church at Worms where Martin Luther was tried. Our time there was life-changing. I returned home with a totally new frame of reference. What was it?

I am a student of history. I knew the names and the places of the Reformation. I knew the Scripture references that led courageous people to take a stand. When I saw those places first hand, my cognitive knowledge was tranformed into an experiential understanding. For example, I could have told you before we left that Hebrews tells us to:

Run the race that is set before because we are surrounded with a great cloud of witnesses.

Until that trip, those words were somewhat academic to me. They were true and I believed them. But Israel - Journey With Jesuswhat I saw and experienced put those words into perspective. My Christian journey was certainly not the only one. I saw the stream of faith of which I was only a part. Others had run the race before me and others will run it after I have gone from the scene. That experience plays directly into what I do today. For me, there was life before we went to Germany and there has been life after that. I firmly believe time in Israel will be that kind of experience for me and all who go. Everyone who tells me of their time there verifies that.

Israel: Some Detail

We have a reservation block for the week of Thanksgiving. Travel is scheduled from Atlanta. The plan is to center our activities around the events in John’s Gospel. Look at it as  Journey with Jesus through the Gospel of John – in Israel.

More details will be coming out later this week. It would help me to know two things:

  1. That you will make this Israel opportunity a matter of prayer
  2. Whether or not you think you might like to make the trip

Please send me an email to verify either of the above items (or both!). It may help encourage someone else if you verify either item in the comments section below. More info soon – stay tuned.

Soli Deo Gloria!  

FYI – The first detailed info will go to ministry supporters and subscribers.

If that’s you, keep an eye on your inbox! 🙂 

How to Say, I Love You

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Journey Group Devotional, 11/11/15

A young lady returned to work after lunch one day to find flowers and a note on her desk. She opened the note and read, I love you, then promptly ripped the note in half and tossed it and the flowers in the trash can. She had just found out that her boyfriend was seeing someone else.

With the cross just hours away, Jesus announced to His disciples that He was leaving. Their responses to this announcement indicated a certain amount of devotion to Him.

  • Where are you going?
  • Why can’t I come with you?
  • How can we know the way?

His disciples obviously lacked a complete understanding of His purpose and plan. But you have to agree they wanted to be with Him. Peter, however, overstated the depth of his devotion when he declared, I will lay down my life for You. This may have been true in that moment. But Jesus informed him that his devotion would shortly be put to the test. Peter would fail the test (John 13:38). After His resurrection, Jesus would revisit Peter’s failure. Jesus asked Peter three times, Do you love Me?  And restating His original call, He said to Peter, Follow Me, (John 21:19).

Jesus reveals Himself as the way, the truth, and the life, which demands His Lordship over our lives. Believing is more than an intellectual assent. Jesus said believing in Him will result in doing His work, (John 14:12). In the same way, loving Him is more than just saying words. Jesus said, If you love Me you will keep My commands. (John 14:15). He then went further, saying that if we love Him and keep His commands we will enjoy a special and personal relationship with Him, (John 14:19-24).

John had walked with Jesus and his letters to the churches contain the recurring theme of love. In His letters, John defines love, tells us where it comes from, and how to love God. It isn’t as complicated as it might seem.  Notice:

For this is what love for God is: to keep His commands – 1 John 5:3

Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commands remains in Him, and He in him. And the way we know that He remains in us is from the Spirit He has given us – 1 John 3:23-24

The bottom line:  Don’t say, I love you, if your actions don’t match your words. We say, I love You, Jesus, when we keep His commands.

Journey GroupAlongside for the Journey!

Jeff

Misunderstood

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Way truth life

Journey Group Devotional, 11/10/15

Have you ever noticed how often Jesus was misunderstood? How many of His lessons were totally missed, even by His closest followers?

The lesson in John 14:1-7 is another example of how Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand what He was telling them. He spoke of going away, that they knew where He was going, and that they knew the way. Thomas spoke up and said, ‘Lord, we don’t even know where You are going, so how can we know the way?’  That’s when Jesus said, ‘I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me,’ (John 14:5-6).

Before we get too critical of Thomas and the other disciples, let’s consider ourselves and how we often misunderstand things. We misunderstand each other. We misunderstand circumstances and events. We often totally misunderstand God and what He is trying to say to us – just like the disciples.

In the verses immediately following, Jesus further explained Himself. He taught several things:

  • He is the only way to get to God the Father
  • He would be sending the Holy Spirit to live in the lives of those who believe in Him
  • Other important lessons for life

My point is, we CAN misunderstand what God is saying to us. So what do we do? We can do exactly what Thomas did. We can ask Him to explain things to us more clearly. When we are not certain what the Lord wants us to do, see, learn, or understand, we can ask, (John 14:14). It may be a particular scripture we don’t understand, it may be a situation that has come our way at home or work, it may be a sickness or a painful experience we are going through. But we can ask God to make it very clear what we are to learn, or what we should do. He does not want to hide His will from us. Rather, He desires us to depend on Him, to trust Him totally. Maybe He just wants you to get closer to Him.

Above all, please don’t misunderstand this: He wants our love.

He who loves Me will be loved my My Father, and I will love him, and show Myself to him,’ John 14:21.

Journey Group - RandyAlongside for the Journey!

Randy

In This Together

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Journey Group Devotional

Journey Group Devotional, 11/6/15

39 “Take away the stone,” he said. “But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.” 40 Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” 41 So they took away the stone.

Two very important things jump out at me in these verses from John 11. First, Jesus pointed out to Martha that if we believe we will see the glory of God. Does that mean that if we don’t believe that the glory of God won’t happen?

No, not at all. Here’s the deal: the glory of God is going on all around us, but when we don’t believe we just don’t see it.

Jesus wanted to reveal the blessings to Martha and the others that He had in store, but logic kicked in. Martha said, “Jesus, he’s been dead four days, he stinks by now.” How many of us won’t trust Jesus with out stinking situations. Our marriages, our jobs, our finances. . . .? Logic says “I’m broke, so I can’t afford to give money to the church or to the poor.” Jesus says to us, “Trust Me in your dead situation; I have it under control.”  Logic says, “My marriage is awful, I can’t be humble and love my husband today.” Jesus says, “Submit to him, show Me to him.”

Christ didn’t ask for a situation report or an autopsy. He asked for Martha to trust Him. He didn’t ask her what she thought about the situation. He merely asked for obedience to the will that He’d revealed (“Roll away the stone”). Why do we expect God to reveal anything else to us when we refuse to obey that which He has already revealed?

My second favorite part of this text is in the wording in verse 41. “So they. . . . ” Did you notice how Martha didn’t roll away the stone by herself? Jesus sometimes gives us challenging feats as Christians, but he also sends us help to live out his commands. It doesn’t say who helped Martha roll away the stone, only “they”. I choose to believe it was all the characters that were aforementioned: Mary, Martha, Jesus. . . . You see, Jesus gives us things to do that we are unable to do in our own strength. Then, He gives us the help to do them. That’s why Christianity in the context of community is so important. Part of that community is what we call a Journey Group. Whatever we call it, Jesus doesn’t mean for us to follow Him alone.

Jeremy Wilson Journey GroupAlongside for the Journey!

Jeremy

 

But Lord…

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Journey Group Devotional

Journey Group Devotional, 11/5/15

In John 11, Jesus arrived at the home of Mary and Martha after Lazarus had died. You know the story. Jesus stood before Lazarus’ tomb and commanded the stone be rolled away. Martha’s first response was protest, But Lord…

It would have looked so neat and clean if Martha had immediately and joyfully obeyed Jesus. But she protested. Do we do that? As a matter of fact, we do!

Anyone can easily put themselves into these events. Don’t see Lazarus as the brother of Martha and Mary. Your greatest tragedy (problem/difficulty) is behind the stone where Lazarus was. Maybe that’s your health and it’s dying. Maybe your career is deteriorating. Maybe your marriage is decaying. And between your problem and the One Who can change it is something you don’t want to move. In Mary and Martha’s case it was a stone. What is it for you?

What stands between your problem and Jesus could any number of things. The possibilities include:

  • Pride
  • Disobedience
  • Self Reliance
  • Prejudice
  • Love of money

Jesus says the same thing to you and me that He said to Martha, Roll the stone away. And like them, we often protest, But Lord…

  • I like my pride
  • Obedience would be too difficult
  • I really can handle this thing myself
  • People like them just can’t be helped
  • This will cost too much

Thankfully, there was more to the conversation. Notice Jesus’ reply to the protest:

Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”

So the question for Mary and Martha, and for you and me, is this:

Do you want to see what you can do, or do you want to see what only God can do?

I wish I could say I always choose to see what only God can do. Sometimes I stop at, But Lord… Other times I take a step of faith, remove the stone, and let Jesus get to the problem. When He gets to the problem, He acts in amazing, miraculous ways. And that always gives Him glory!

Keith Burnett MinistriesAlongside for the Journey!

Keith

 

Table For Two? Right This Way!

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Journey Group Devotional, 11/4/15

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany where Lazarus was, the one Jesus had raised from the dead. [2] So they gave a dinner for Him there; Martha was serving them, and Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. [3] Then Mary took a pound of fragrant oil — pure and expensive nard — anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped His feet with her hair. So the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.  –  John 12:1-3 

In our culture, going out to eat is a very common way to connect or reconnect with friends. When Jesus came to Bethany after Lazarus had been raised from the dead, hosting a dinner for Jesus probably seemed like the natural thing to do. A few days before, this might have been just some friends sharing a meal and enjoying each other’s company. But this meal was special. Lazarus, having been dead, was now alive. Jesus has proved beyond doubt that He is indeed the Resurrection and the Life. Perhaps we are allowed a brief look into this dinner with Jesus because there is something to be learned here.

The most obvious lesson is worship is a response of the recognition of who He is and what He’s done. Mary is remembered forever because she laid aside her pride, sacrificed a costly gift, and anointed the feet of Jesus. Then, exhibiting radical humility, she wiped His feet with her own hair. Although her act of worship may have seemed extreme, no one can question the fact that Jesus deserved the attention He received.

In her own way, Martha was worshiping Jesus, too. She is serving. On another occasion when Martha was serving, she complained to Jesus about not getting any help. There are no complaints this day. Having seen the glory of God at the tomb of Lazarus, serving Him probably seemed like a privilege.

Looking into this dinner scene, we see Lazarus, back from the other side, also seated at the table with Jesus. We could speculate about the conversation but it doesn’t matter. What we see is the lesson. They were together. Even though they’d been friends before, Lazarus would not have been able to see Jesus the same way. His relationship with the Messiah was the most important thing in the world.

Take a moment and think about how you should respond to Jesus. Knowing who He is and what He’s done for you, what does He deserve from you? While He certainly deserves our worship, don’t forget that He also desires our company. Set aside some time this week and spend some quality time with Jesus. Jesus has already made the reservations.

Your table is ready! Table for two?

Journey GroupAlongside for the Journey!

Jeff

If

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John 11

Journey Group Devotional, 11/3/15

IF…

In the familiar passage leading up to Lazarus being raised from the dead, we find Mary and Martha saying the same thing. ‘Lord, if You had been here my brother would still be alive’ (John 11:21, 32). They obviously had no way of knowing that Jesus was going to raise Lazarus. They were caught up in the painful reality of their brother’s death and the emotional regrets of “if”.

If You had been here… If You had healed him. If this sickness had never happened. If…

How many times do we find ourselves saying if, as we carry the emotional baggage of painful memories, deep sorrows and regrets? If I had not taken that job…. If I had not made that unwise decision…. If that I had never met that person…. If I had a better job… more money… a different family…. If….

Life can be filled with painful regrets and drag us down If we don’t have a proper perspective.

Mary and Martha were considering what could have been…. if only…  We’ve all had dreams that have been shattered by what could have been… if only…. Mary and Martha knew enough doctrine to believe in a future resurrection, but not enough faith to trust in the very One who is the ‘Resurrection and the Life’ (John 11:24-25). We may believe in heaven one day (in the sweet by and by), but totally miss the abundant life Jesus came to give us in the here and now. Mary and Martha were viewing the circumstances from a physical and emotional standpoint only. We do that when we do not take into consideration that our God is totally sovereign. Our God can take our past, present and even our future and work it for our good and His glory. Jesus said to them, ‘if you believe, you will see the glory of God,’ (John 11:40b).

Friends, please don’t let the ‘if’s’ of the past ruin your today and tomorrow. You really can trust Him as you wait on His perfect timing.

Here’s one final If.

‘If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness’ (I John 1:9)

Journey Group - RandyAlongside for the Journey!

Randy

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Keith Burnett Ministries
P.O. Box 803
Scottsboro, AL 35768
(256) 244-5453
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