THE WANTED MAN NEWSLETTER:
January 29, 2003 Volume 2 No. 1
Newsletter of Rev. Derek L. Cromwell, Music Evangelist
Edited by Deborah Dixon (Derek Cromwell filling in this month)
editor@thewantedman.com
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Archived copies of previous newsletters can be found at:
http://www.thewantedman.com/newsletter_archive.htm
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Table Of Contents:
1. Letter From The Wanted Man
2. Featured Story - The Box
3. Featured Bible Study
4. Featured Interview - A Tribute to Commander Rick Husband
5. Feature from Family Matters - Forgetting and Moving Forward
6. God's Plan of Salvation
7. Conclusion
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1. Letter From The Wanted Man
Howdee All,
Today is January 5th, and once again I am late getting this written so Debbie can get it published. I am currently driving over 200 miles a day going back and forth to my day job. It's no wonder I can't get this (or anything else, it seems) done on time these days.
Well, joy has once again brightened the house of the Cromwell with the birth Robert Lee Cromwell on January 5th at 9:47 am, which makes him 1 month old today.
At birth he was 9 lbs 1 oz, and 21 inches long, and he has done nothing but grow since.
Pictures can be viewed at:
http://www.thewantedman.com/bobbylee
I have several more pictures that I hope to get on that page in the next couple of days, so if you have already been there and seen that page, please bear with me.
The title cut from my latest project, First Thing I Pray For, was just released as a single world-wide on Glory Train Records. Listen for it on your local Christian Radio Station, and if they are not playing it, please call them and request it by name.
As I write to you this month, we have just experienced the loss of the Columbia and her crew. I have sought for the words to write to convey my feelings. I have pre-empted this months interview for a tribute to STS-107's Commander, Rick Husband. Our prayers are with the families of all the Astronauts that were lost in this tragedy. My heart hurts for them, but also is full of joy and hope as I hear of the life and faith of Commander Husband.
I thank God for the words of President Bush... both on February 1st when he addressed the nation, and at the memorial service on February 4th. As a man of faith himself, the words he spoke from scripture were not just words to him, but words of life. Our prayers are also with him as he leads our nation into the uncertain future.
I have found special comfort in those words in a very personal way myself today. Just a couple of hours ago, I received word that my Momma has cancer in one of her kidneys. Tomorrow she is scheduled to see a surgeon to find out what her treament options are. I ask you all to pray for her as she goes through this trial, and pray for the doctors that God would direct them in their care of her. She has made a tremendous contribution to The Wanted Man website through her Bible Study section, and I pray that her time off from this work will be minimal, and that God will heal her in a mighty way.
If you would like to send a note of encouragement to her, you can send emails to:
jennie@thewantedman.com
As always, thanks for spreading the word about http://www.thewantedman.com, and this newsletter, and know that we appreciate your cards, letters, emails, and prayers as we continue in this growing ministry.
We pray that God will bless you, and many others, through our ministry efforts.
In HIS Service,
Rev. Derek L. Cromwell, Music Evangelist
The Wanted Man
Phone: 260-248-9791
Email: derek@thewantedman.com
WebSite: http://www.thewantedman.com
Derek Cromwell is a music evangelist with 19 years experience in the ministry and over 26 years in the music industry.
Originally from the hills of Kentucky, Derek resides in Buchanan Michigan with his wife Brenda, and their daughter Elizabeth.
Derek is the Staff Evangelist for the First Baptist Church at Berrien Springs, Michigan.
For booking Information, call 269-422-2029 or 260-248-9791,
or by email at bookings@thewantedman.com.
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2. Featured Story
The Box
The story goes that some time ago a mother punished her 5 year old daughter for wasting a roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight and she became even more upset when the child used the gold paper to decorate a box to put under the Christmas tree.
For the complete story:
http://www.thewantedman.com/Stories/Story.asp?title=The
Box
Or view our other online stories at:
http://www.thewantedman.com/Stories/Stories.asp
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3. Featured Bible Study
The Bible plainly tells us that there are many gifts given by God to His children and that we can have unity in diversity. 1 Corinthians 11:4-6 - 4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all.
Another important thing to remember is 1 Cor 11:3 ". . . no one can say that Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit."
One of the great gifts (opportunities) He gives us is the right to pray to Him (through the Holy Spirit). Hebrews 4:16 "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need." This gift is freely given to all who have experienced the regeneration (those who can genuinely call Jesus "Lord"). Believers should courageously approach God in prayer because His is a throne of grace, and our High Priest (Jesus) sits at His right hand interceding for us.
For the complete Bible study:
http://www.thewantedman.com/BibleStudies/BibleStudy.asp?title=I Am somebody
(Chapter 3) (Week 6)
Read other online Bible Studies here:
http://www.thewantedman.com/BibleStudies/BibleStudies.asp
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4. Featured Interview
This month, instead of having the normal interview, I feel like it is appropriate to include this to you instead. It is not often that someone can speak to us from beyond death, but for the Christian who has left a legacy of devoted Christian service, a little thing like death can't keep your message from being heard.
Being a father of two wonderful children myself, it struck me in a powerfully convicting way that before going up on STS-107, Commander Rick Husband videotaped daily devotionals for each of his children so that each morning while he was gone, they could still study the Bible and pray together.
Although his life was, by our reckoning, cut tragically short, he did more for the cause of Christ in the short time he had than most do when given a long life full of years and opportunities. It is almost as if, like Enoch, he, leading his brave crew, went for a walk with God and simply didn't come back.
What follows are his words of testimony as he spoke at his church just before his final mission.
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"I Want to Live a Life that Glorifies You"
Shortly before his flight, astronaut Rick Husband spoke of his faith & his career
Excerpts from videotaped remarks by deceased shuttle commander, Rick Husband, recorded at his church, Grace Community Church in Clear Lake, TX.
Leading up to the first interview [to become an astronaut] was a time when Evelyn and I both started into a period of spiritual growth and really learning what it's like to live your life as a Christian the way God would want you to live your life. So that was certainly a time of growth and stretching and conviction and I was fortunate enough to go and interview to be an astronaut in early 1992 but was not hired.
We went off to England for an exchange assignment with the Royal Air Force. During that time I had the opportunity to have a lot of quiet times. Only a couple years previous to that we had been going to a church that actually taught the Bible and taught what it meant to live your life as a Christian as far as trying to learn the word of God and memorizing Bible verses, having a quiet time, the idea of fellowship with small groups. And sitting there in the mornings when I'd have my quiet times, I had gotten a letter from a friend of mine who had gotten an assignment to go fly an airplane he had always wanted to go fly. He talked about Psalm 37:4, where it says, "Commit your way to the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart." So I got to looking at that and it was almost like God asked me, "Okay, so what really are the desires of your heart?" The first thing that I brought mind was, well, I want to be an astronaut. But then it's like God said, "No, no no. Think about for a little while and tell me what really is the desire of your heart." Because that was kind of an automatic response and had been up to that point. I got to thinking about it, and I thought, well, if I ended up at the end of my life having been an astronaut but having sacrificed my family along the way or living my life in a way that didn't glorify God, then I would look back on it with great regret, and having become an astronaut would not really have mattered all that much.
I finally came to realize that what really meant the most to me was to try and live my life the way God wanted me to, and to try and be a good husband to Evelyn and be a good father to my children and do everything that I possibly could to make sure that they knew who Jesus was, and that they had every opportunity to make a choice themselves for Jesus. It was like a light came on all of a sudden, where I finally realized that this thing about being an astronaut was not as important as I thought it was. I finally came to the point where I said, "Okay Lord, I don't care what I do, or where you send me. I just want to try and do those things. I want to live a life that glorifies you, and be a good husband and good father. And come what may the way the rest of it goes."
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This information was found on http://www.beliefnet.com. There were no Copyright notices associated with this article, but I acknowledge the source to be fair to them for their work.
Please continue to pray for the families of the Astronauts lost in this tragedy.
In December 1941, Pilot Officer John G. Magee, a 19-year-old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another airplane inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed his immortal sonnet "High Flight" a copy of which he fortunately mailed to his parents in the U.S.A.
President Reagan so eloquently quoted from "High Flight" at the time of the Challenger Disaster in 1986, and it is fitting to close this tribute with the full text of that poem now.
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high unsurpassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
-TWM
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5. Feature From Family Matters
Forgetting and Moving Forward
Isaiah 43:18-19: "Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?"
There is a hidden secret lurking about the hallways of our churches. It lies within the hearts of every believer. Its presence is boundless; it follows us into our homes and affects our roles as wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, teachers, and pastors. It threatens to snare us and disable our efforts for the Lord. It is the secret pain of our pasts.
For the complete Family Matters Article:
http://www.thewantedman.com/Family_Matters/Forgetting_and_Moving_Forward.htm
For more on our Family Matters:
http://www.thewantedman.com/Family_Matters/family_ministries.htm
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6. God's Plan of Salvation
Did you know God has a plan for you?
The plan He has is called Salvation, and it is a free gift from the God of Creation to YOU through the sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ!
Why You Need Salvation!
Romans 3:23 tells us that; ". . .all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God."
And 1John 1:8 says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
Do you believe in heaven and hell?
Matthew 25:31-34 and Matthew 25:41
"When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory. All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides [his] sheep from the goats. And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right hand, `Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:' Then He will also say to those on the left hand, `Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:'"
Did you know there's only one way to heaven?
John 14:6 "Jesus said to him, 'I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'"
1Tim 2:5 "For [there] [is] one God and one Mediator between God and men, [the] Man Christ Jesus."
So, how can I be sure I will go to heaven?
John 3:16-18 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
If you feel God is speaking to your heart right now, please pray this prayer
"Jesus, I believe You died on the Cross for me and that God raised You from the dead. I believe You took upon Yourself the punishment for my sins and my guilt. I know that You are the only Way to Heaven, and now I ask You to forgive me of every sin and come into my heart.
Jesus, I now make you LORD of my life...
I will love You, serve You, and obey You all the days of my life.
Thank You Jesus, for dying for me and giving me a new life in You.
AMEN"
If you have sincerely prayed this prayer for salvation in faith, believing that Jesus is the Living Son of GOD, the Bible promises that you now are a Child of God, and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
Please locate a local church and speak to a Pastor. Also, please email The Wanted Man at
testimony@thewantedman.com and tell me of your salvation experience. I want to rejoice with you and pray for you as you begin your walk with Christ.
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7. Conclusion
It has been a long time since I published this newsletter myself, but since I caused it to be late in the first place, it seemed only right that I do the work to fix it. Debbie will be back next issue.
I appreciate your patience, and even your comments when we are late publishing making sure that you are still on the list.
The number of people we are reaching is growing with each new issue, and I thank God that each of your are sharing this with your friends and family.
May God bless you in 2003, and if he tarries, we'll be back with you for the February edition.
Otherwise, I'll see you when the trumpet sounds.
In His Service,
Derek L. Cromwell
The Wanted Man
(c)2003 by Derek L. Cromwell
