Blog Diyiin Bi

All four blogs that we administer use the plugin “broken link checker” in order to flag links in articles and comments that do not work. When such a link is found, the plugin adds a tag to the link that tells the search engine robots (google, etc.) that the link is broken, and also prints the link with the strikethrough attribute for the benefit of human readers.

In the past few days, the Vision for Life Ministries cofounders, identical twin brothers Olu and Kay Taiwo, have posted a couple of articles on Christian Internet Resources. The articles are so good that I want to link to them from here.

Bro. Olu Taiwo posted this article about answering God’s call. It is well thought out, and is obviously the work of a real man of God who spends much time in prayer and Bible study. Kay Taiwo wrote an article about Nations. What was just said about Bro. Olu applies to Bro. Kay as well.

Christian Internet Resources and The Go Light get articles from Free Traffic System. FTS is a service for webmasters and bloggers that provides quality articles to the blogs in return for backlinks within the article to the author’s website. Bros. Olu and Kay have joined FTS and are providing articles; TGL and CIR get articles from FTS, and I may write some myself in order to get backlinks to one or more of the four blogs we have. So both of the articles under discussion might be posted to as many as 30 blogs, but with minor changes in order to not have exactly duplicated content, which the search engines are not too fond of!

I highly recommend both articles, and also recommend that you check out the Vision for Life website.

There were some minor technical problems with Bro. Olu’s article, which I was able to correct:

The two links Bro. Olu Taiwo had placed in his article were flagged as broken by broken link checker, and so were edited to correct them. Also, an additional link to the Vision for Life Ministries homepage was placed in the last paragraph of his excellent article; as originally posted by Mr. Taiwo, it was just text, not a clickable link. (FTS has a limit of two clickable links for articles submitted through them, but blog admins can add links as they see fit – so we did!) The same link was added to Bro. Kay’s article as well.

The references to Bible passages (for example, John 3:16, NOT the actual Bible text, “For God so loved the world…”, as may be quoted in the body of the article), were reformatted to work better with the Wordpress plugin “reftagger,” which, when the mouse cursor is held over a properly formatted Bible reference, pops up a window displaying the passage from bible.logos.com’s Bible search engine using the NKJV translation. (All articles and comments containing Bible references will have those references reformatted in a similar manner as we find time to do so – not just on CIR, but on all four blogs.) Blog Diyiin Bi does not get articles from the Free Traffic System, because not all articles are as good as these two.

We also added the tag “vision for life” to both articles, and will add the tag to any future articles posted by VFLM, whether through FTS or directly, in addition to any other tags that they may use themselves. You will be able to find any of their articles by clicking on the tag either in the tag cloud on CIR or at the end of any of their articles. (If any other authors use the same tag on CIR, we will change it unless the Taiwo brothers tell us that the authors using the tag are writing on behalf of Vision for Life Ministries.) We are contemplating adding another category on CIR just for articles by VFLM. We think their articles are that good.!

And, as we routinely do (as we find time) with articles posted through Free Traffic System, the generic link to FTS was replaced with a link to our FTS referral URL, which goes through our own website but ends up at the same place. (The magic of the “Pretty Links” plugin for Wordpress, our own private link cloaker!) That way, if you sign up as a member of FTS through a link in a post on one of our blogs, you will be in our FTS downline. If we didn’t make that minor change, you might be placed in some random member’s downline.

I also slightly reformatted the quotation from Genesis 11:1-9 in Bro. Kay’s article; on some of the verses, there was no space between the verse number and the text, so I added one. That makes it easier to read and does not change what it says.

Nothing else was changed in either article.

Thank you, both Bros. Taiwo, for such excellent articles!

Now, a few technical details for anyone who might want to write articles or comments using Bible references for any of our blogs…

…when citing Bible references on any of the blogs, do it this way: <cite class=”bibleref”>John 1:1</cite>. If citing two or more consecutive verses, use a dash, not a comma, like this: <cite class=”bibleref”>Gen 1:1-2</cite> NOT <cite class=”bibleref”>Gen 1:1,2</cite>. The reason is that reftagger will make one link with two verses for the reference using the dash, but two links with one verse each if the comma is used. (Of course, if that is what you want, then use the comma!) A future article on one of the blogs will have more details, but this is enough to get you pointed in the right direction. For instance, it is also possible to override the default NKJV with a properly-formatted reference, but that will need almost a full article by itself. I will place several pdf documents that have more detail about standardized Bible references on one of the blogs, and will put the links to those documents on all four blogs so you can download them, as well as links to the various websites that have some details about using standardized Bible references in web pages.

in His service,
Pastor Marv
blog administrator for:
Blog Diyiin Bi (diyiinbi.org)
Christian Internet Resources (nizhoninet.com)
The Go Light (diyiinbi.com)
John’s Joint (geofam.org)

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While looking for ideas for my next article, I came across this article by William Verch intended for republication on any website that wishes to use it. It is so good that I am reprinting it in its entirety, exactly as written by William Verch and copied from the website, “A Bunch of Articles.” I can also recommend his article How To Hear God Speak, which is one of the links at the end of this article.

I couldn’t decide whether this fit best in Apologetics or Faith and Practice, so it is listed in both categories. -Pastor Marv

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What is the difference between Christianity and every other religion?

Can you do it in 30 seconds or less?

Well, I would like for you to be able to do this.

Unfortunately, the answer is not good news. The answer is a truth that keeps so many from being willing to follow God. In fact, it is really distasteful.

But my job is not to please your ears. My job is to tell you the truth. And here it is:

The Answer

Except for Christianity, every other religion in the world is basically a set of instructions on how to be good enough for God. Christianity is the ONLY religion that says, “You can not be good enough for God.” It is the only religion with a Savior.

The world wants to believe that people are good, or that they can become good. The truth is that we are NOT good and that we can not become good. Period.

You simply can not EARN your way to God, and that is what all of the other religions of the world are desperately trying to teach you to do.

Scriptural Proof

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone. – Mark 10:18

Every one of them has turned aside; together they have become corrupt; There is no one who does good, not even one. – Psalm 53:3

All have turned aside, together they have become useless; there is none who does good, there is not even one. – Romans 3:12

Everyday Proof

Ask yourself these questions:

1.) Have you ever sinned?

If you are not sure, you can check yourself against the 10 Commandments. (Exodus 20:3-17). The Bible say that this is the whole reason WHY we were given the 10 commandments.

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin. Romans 3:20

If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. 1 John 1:8

2.) Have you even known anyone who has not sinned?

In fact, even if someone does not accept God or the Bible, you can ask them if they have their own set of rules to judge what is right and what is wrong.

They will say “yes”, at which point you can ask them “Have you ALWAYS and COMPLETELY followed your OWN set of rules of right and wrong?” If they are truthful, they will say “no.”

Scripture backs up this truth too in Romans 2:14-15.

We are not good and we cannot become good. This is a hard truth, but it is true nonetheless. It is the core of Christianity.

How Does Obedience Fit?

I will take a full look at obedience in the future, but for now, just know that even many Christians get off track because they try to be “worthy” of the fact that Jesus died for them.

Do not get me wrong, obedience is important, but it is important only because of a love response to God. Obedience tells God that you love Him.

Jesus replied, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. – John 14:23-24

This is love for God: to obey his commands.- 1 John 5:3

Sum It All Up

We are not good and we can not become good enough (on our own) to get to God. However, God decided to make a way, because He is perfectly loving and perfectly just. He did this by sacrificing His Son, Jesus.

If confronted about your faith by someone of a different faith simply ask them:

“Who or what pays for your sins?”

Other religions have a strong sense of justice. Where, then, is justice regarding their own sin?

We MUST have a Savior. Muhammad did not die for your sins, neither did Buddha nor Confucius. Jesus Christ is the only Savior the world has ever known. Other religions are counting on the mercy of God, but this denies justice.

It is the most incredible love story that God wanted you so badly that He made the sacrifice of His Son, so that you could be good enough – perfect, in fact.

The more I recognize my own sins, the more extraordinary this love story becomes. Not only that God accepts me, but that He has actually chosen me to be adopted into His family as His very own child! Amazing, beautiful and humbling.

May you be blessed.

Author Resource:-> Do you know how to hear God? William Verch is the author of a Special Report entitled How To Hear God Speak

For a limited time, enjoy a complimentary copy at TheWayGodWorks.com. You will be pleased with this unique resource for helping you to be able to know Gods voice.

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Article From A Bunch Of Articles

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We have added a new category, “Doctrine”, to Blog Diyiin Bi. Also, as subcategories under Doctrine, we currently have “Baptist”, “Lutheran”, and “Pentecostal”, with others to be added in the near future. (So if a subcategory for your denomination is not here yet, it soon will be!)

If you would like to write about your particular denomination’s doctrine, use the “Contact” page to let me know. But before you do, read the page “Write for us” (link is in the main menu, which is at the bottom left of the header photo) to find out what we want from our authors. If you (and your denomination) believe in orthodox Christianity as summarized in my brother’s blog post on John’s Joint, if your denomination is evangelical, and if you meet the other criteria listed on the “Write for us” page, then you have an excellent chance of being approved as an author for Blog Diyiin Bi. At some time in the future, we may publish articles about non-orthodox denominations and cults, but those articles will be by one of our approved authors or will be a one-time-only article written at my invitation by a member of that denomination. No person who is a member of a cult, a non-orthodox Christian denomination, or a non-evangelical Christian denomination will be approved as an author for Blog Diyiin Bi except for these one-off articles.

Now, for those of you who might want to contribute articles to the newest category, here’s what we specifically want in “Doctrine” and its subcategories…

…You should write a single article, or a series of articles, explaining what your denomination’s doctrine is. The purpose of these articles is to inform our readers what the different denominations believe. We do NOT want debate, but information. There probably will be more readers who disagree with your doctrine than readers who agree. Comments by readers might reflect this fact, so you just might need a thick skin. (I will delete comments that make personal attacks any person or group.) If you are not Pentecostal (and maybe if you are!), I will probably disagree with some of your doctrine…but when I write about doctrine, I will write about what I believe without pointing out where you and I may disagree. We here at Blog Diyiin Bi expect the same respect from all of our authors for one another. If some of our authors want to get into debates with each other, and if that debating can be done with Christian love, maybe we could set up one or more appropriate categories on John’s Joint specifically for that purpose, but NOT on Blog Diyiin Bi. Blog Diyiin Bi is a ministry blog, not an entertainment blog. We want to encourage Christians in their walk with God, and we want to encourage non-Christians to consider the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, hopefully with the result that they will accept Him as their Lord and Saviour.

Of course, if you are approved as an author for Blog Diyiin Bi, you can also write on any topic that we cover (and for our other three blogs as well), not just doctrine. If you wish to write about general doctrine that is common to all orthodox Christian evangelical denominations, that should probably be in the main “Doctrine” category, or we can set up a “General” subcategory under Doctrine for such articles. However, we prefer not to have our authors writing about the doctrine of denominations that they are not part of, unless they are writing about cults and other non-orthodox or non-evangelical beliefs.

There is no reason that we should limit articles in Doctrine and its subcategories to only one author for each, so if we get two or 20 authors, all who are of the same denomination and who want to write about their denomination’s doctrinal beliefs, that is OK.

So fire up your word processor and start writing! There’s a world out there that is hungry for God’s Truth!

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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In the Minister’s Conference worship service on Thursday night, evangelist Dan Hughes preached a great message. His text was 2 Timothy 3:1. He also read portions of Ezekial 22 and Romans 12, as well as other scripture. The theme of the Conference was “The Pursuit of Excellence,” and Rev. Hughes’ sermon set the tone for the remainder of the Minister’s Conference.

To illustrate what it takes to really pursue excellence, he used the inspiring article, “The Fellowship Committed to Doing Whatever it Takes.” After the worship service, I asked him for a copy of it. I have since found this, or variations of it, on about a dozen or so websites. (I went to Google and used part of the title as the search term.) I was trying to find out who the missionary was, but the best I could find was that the unnamed missionary was in western Africa for 20 years. Most of the websites that posted this article or portions of it used the attribution “author unknown.”

Here it is:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Upon the death of a missionary who had spent 20 years in Africa digging out a work for God, tacked on the wall of his mud hut was this note:

I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes. I have Holy Spirit power. The die has already been cast. I’ve stepped over the line. I’m out of the comfort zone. The decision has been made. I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I won’t look back, let up, slow down, or back away. My past is Redeemed, my present makes sense and my future is Secure.

I’m finished and done with low living, sight walking, small planning, smooth knees, colorless dreams, tame visions, mundane talking, chintzy giving, and dwarf goals. I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes.

I no longer need pre-eminence.
I no longer need position.
I no longer need promotions.
I no longer need popularity.
I don’t have to be Right!
I don’t have to be First!
I don’t have to be Tops!
I don’t have to be Recognized, Praised, Regarded, or Rewarded.

I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes. I now live by presence. I lead by faith. I love by patience. I lift by prayer. I labor by power. I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes. My face is set. My gait is fast. My goal is heaven. My road is narrow. My way is rough. My companions are few, but my guide is reliable. My mission is clear. I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, or lured away.

I cannot be turned back or diluted. I will not be delayed. I will not flinch in the face of sacrifice, or hesitate in the face of the adversary, or negotiate at the table of my enemies. I will not ponder at the pool of popularity or meander in the maze called mediocrity. I won’t give up, shut up, let up, or burn up until I’ve preached up, prayed up, paid up, stored up, and stayed up for the cause of the Jesus Christ. I’m a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes.

I’m a disciple of Jesus Christ. I must go until He comes. I must give until I drop. I must preach until all know. I must work until God stops and when He comes to get His own, He will have no problem recognizing me, because I’ve dedicated my life to being a part of the fellowship committed to doing whatever it takes.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

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The category “Pastor Marv Recommends” and all articles that were posted to it have been moved to Christian Internet Resources. (All links in this article will open in a new window.)

Blog Diyiin Bi is now a ministry-only blog. The only articles posted from now on that are not specifically ministry related will be those about the blog itself, such as this one. The only business-related articles that will be posted to Blog Diyiin Bi will be those about our Amazon associate store, which sells Christian books from Amazon.com, and Diyiin Bi, LLC’s Bible and Christian book store, when it goes online. Selling Christian books and Bibles is a small part of our ministry, and doing so will help keep Blog Diyiin Bi in operation. Such articles will be few and far between.

All of the links and advertising widgets that formerly adorned Blog Diyiin Bi were, of necessity, removed when the blog was migrated from b2evolution to Wordpress. Some, but not all, will be placed back, but only those that are specifically for the purpose of increasing traffic to the blog, such as the link exchange partners and webrings. Any widgets that were only ads for a business will not be added back, but will be placed on one or more of the other three blogs. When there is a review of something that will help in ministry, there will be a short article on Blog Diyiin Bi pointing to that article on Christian Internet Resources. An example of an article on CIR that will get mentioned on Blog Diyiin Bi is this link to the article about e-Sword resources that was just moved from Blog Diyiin Bi to CIR. There may also be an occasional article mentioning something on John’s Joint if there is an article there that is relevant to ministry. It is even possible that something on The Go Light will be mentioned as well. However, The Go Light is a business-only blog and so is not as likely to have articles relevant to ministry. All four blogs will have links to each other in their respective sidebar widget “Elsewhere on the Internet.” That widget displays a random selection of five links from the list of blogs and other websites from the blog’s links database. (Some of the other blogs listed there include those of my two daughters, so be sure to check out the photos they post of the cutest grandkids in the world…<grin!>)

You can find all of the “Pastor Marv Recommends” articles that used to be on Blog Diyiin Bi at http://nizhoninet.com/category/pastor-marv-recommends/. All links that each Blog Diyiin Bi article and category had before the move to Wordpress have been redirected to the new URIs on Christian Internet Resources, for those that were moved, or to the new URIs on Blog Diyiin Bi, for those that are still here. Any bookmarks you had before the migration to Wordpress will still work, but the rss feeds will need to be changed if you were subscribed to them.

Moving the “Pastor Marv Recommends” category and articles to Christian Internet Resources was the last major piece of housekeeping to be finished. All that remains is to add back some of the traffic-building links, which will be done over the next week or two.

So now, I can concentrate on writing more ministry articles. Look for more posts about our Minister’s Conference, more on apologetics, more practical Christian living articles, and more devotionals and Bible studies.

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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I had hoped to find a plugin for Wordpress that would place a search box for Amazon.com in the sidebar. Unfortunately, the only such plugin I was able to find has not been updated for over six months, and as of August 11, 2009, the API (Application Programming Interface) that allows an Amazon.com search box to work was radically changed by Amazon. So the plugin would not work.

I ended up doing what I thought I did not want to do…there is now a link in the menu (under the header photo) for Blog Diyiin Bi’s Amazon.com associate store. And I wrote another non-ministry article to let my readers know what is happening with the blog.

The store has been set up to list (mostly) Christian books. Some of the books you will be able to find in our store are not about protestant Christian topics, such as the book that is displayed on the bottom row of the first page (as of the writing of this article), which is a book about the Catholic doctrine of Mary worship. The list of books displayed on the store’s website will be refined as I find time to work on it. The store itself will also eventually be modified, so that it will display the header photo of Prayer Mountain as well as a menu to make it easier to navigate back to the blog. Until then, the link to the store will open in a new window so you can return to the blog by closing the store’s browser window. The Related Reading links will always open in a new browser window.

For now, the Related Reading list of books at the end of each article will stay, but I have reduced the display of those books to picture only and set them to display across rather than down. This results in less clutter, and will still show books that you can buy which are relevant to the tag words and phrases attached to the article. Any books you buy, whether from the Related Reading list or from the Bookstore, will help support Blog Diyiin Bi as long as you order from the links on the blog.

If you want books on topics other than Christianity, the other three blogs will have bookstores as well. As of this writing, The Go Light has one up-and-running that displays business-related books, computers, and office products. Christian Internet Resources (CIR) and John’s Joint will have bookstores within the next few days. John’s Joint and/or CIR will sell computers, electronics, music, and movies from Amazon.com as well as books.

There are links to the other blogs in the sidebar box labelled “Elsewhere on the Internet.” You might have to refresh the page a time or two to see all three of the other blogs listed since only five of the many links in Blog Diyiin Bi’s links list are displayed at one time. As the bookstores for John’s Joint and CIR are brought on-line, the links for them will appear in their respective menus, so check often.

The Go Light and Christian Internet Resources are owned and operated by Diyiin Bi, LLC, which is a business incorporated in the state of New Mexico and owned by Pastor Marv and Betsy. John’s Joint and Blog Diyiin Bi are owned and operated by Pastor Marv. Diyiin Bi, LLC, is a corporate sponsor of Blog Diyiin Bi and John’s Joint. We are looking for other sponsors, either corporate or otherwise.

Pastor Marv

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The annual Southwest Indian Ministry Minister’s Conference was held Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, September 3 – 5, 2009, at the Gallup Inn in Gallup, NM.

The theme of this year’s conference was “The Pursuit of Excellence.”

We had four excellent classes Friday – Pastoral Leadership Developement, taught by Pastor David Renfro; Pastoral Leadership for Small Congregations, taught by Pastor Scott Kazee; Pastoral Purity, taught by Pastor Randy Barr; and Practical Pastoral Leadership, taught by Pastor Samuel Salyer. Our Administrative Overseer, Bishop Douglas Cline, addressed the assembled pastors and evangelists on the topic of Pastors and District Overseer Relationship. Various Southwest Indian Ministry District Overseers and ministers opened each session with Bible reading and prayer, and closed each session with prayer.

Rev. Dan Hughes preached two of the best sermons I have ever heard for the Thursday and Friday night worship services, and also served communion for our closing service Saturday morning. Music for Praise and Worship on Thursday and Friday nights was provided by our very own Victory Gospel Singers. Special music was provided by Dillon Yazzie, the Thomas Brothers, Pastor Florence “Bunky” Barker, and others, all from the various churches of the Church of God Southwest Indian Ministry. The Victory Gospel Singers also provided the sound equipment for the conference, and recorded each session. Each attendee will get a set of CDs. T. J. Salyer, son of Pastor Samuel Salyer, took video and still photos of the services and classes.

All five of our guest speakers are Spirit-filled Men of God from Ohio. Overall, on a scale of one to ten, this year’s conference rated at least 18. All of us who attended were blessed beyond description and look forward to next year’s conference.

Over the coming weeks, I will post additional articles about highlights of the conference.

in His service,
Pastor Marv

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