Our First Issue

We are really excited about this first issue of the Utmost Way magazine. It has been a long time coming and has several goals. Number one is to reach the world wide web community with the good news about our Lord Jesus Christ. We feel that there is a harvest of souls that do not yet know about what Jesus has done for them. In a true sense, these people have been cheated of eternal life that has been prepared for them before they were born. We hope to be one more avenue to learn about Him and His love for us. The Utmost Way magazine will always welcome feature articles from its readership. We hope to be a free magazine as long as we can afford to operate on the Web. In this sense, we are an avenue also for free speech.

Christian parents of five children, we began this magazine in late June of 1998. We made the decision around eight years ago to homeschool our children. This process has been very hard; however, the rewards have made it worthwhile. We decided that it was important to school our children using the Bible (the Word of God) as a foundation. We discovered that every subject that we want to teach comes from the Bible. Perhaps the most important subject from the Bible is Wisdom. Our aim is to raise our children mighty in Spirit, instead of simply filling their heads with worldly knowledge.

We plan to cover an unlimited amount of information in this magazine with topics that are of interest to our readership. Therefore, it will be important for our readership to write to us and tell us what interests them. Included in this first issue are articles about which the editor felt the reader should be informed. In addition, there will always be some more permanent sections. These permanent sections, accessible through our content page, are an area for "testimonials" to God's goodness, a pictorial tutorial about the "abundant life" that God has to offer all people, a "research library" that can be used by students (homeschool or others), and a "homemade catalog" that is intended to help people of meager income to advertise their homemade products free, while providing these products for sale to our readership.

The "testimonials" section is really special to me, in that, I had a good one to put in as the first (ice breaking) example. I promised the Lord, as the events took place in my testimonial, that if He answered our prayers, I would give Him the glory He so rightly deserved before men. He was so good that the testimony was a cinch and a delight to write. I just know that there are millions of testimonies out in cyberland to what good things God has done in the lives of individuals and families. I feel that these people would be remiss if they did not tell people about these things. So, as a ministry, once again, we wanted to provide an area for the testimonies that people write or e-mail to us. I sincerely hope our readership will participate in this. No one has to be a prolific writer; we have writers here to take care of that. The important thing is to just send them in to us right away. Your testimonial will touch someone's heart as they read it (someone who is right where you have been) and you will possibly be the one who brings them to a place of change for the better in their life. This gives glory to God and allows Him through the door to saving souls.

When I speak of saving souls, I think about the blessing I have received already from just putting together the permanent section of this first issue titled "abundant life." I have so wanted to tell people about the message of salvation and this section does this with some wonderful pictures. The presentation is borrowed from my days in the Evangelism Explosion (EE) program at a local church. This message is powerful on its own. I know, because I gave it to strangers in their homes and it always left an impression (no matter how nervous I was or how poorly I presented it). It is, of course, a message about a "free gift" that God offers. My teenage son joked that I could advertise saying, "Click here for a free gift." But, he soon realized how true that was. It is amazing to me that people are able to turn God's offer down, yet I know that God has to prepare their hearts before they are ready to come. I sincerely hope to see them all in heaven someday.

We hope that people will spread the word about the "homemade" section, so that we can grow the catalog and be a ministry to those who need a boost to their income. If our readers know of people who fit this bill (that is, know how to make a great homemade product, such as knitted or sewn items, crafts, and novelties, or just about anything), perhaps they will find it in their hearts to let them know we are providing this ministry. Some grandmothers make great items for the family, however, they don't realize the potential of a medium such as the Web. They only need to send a snap shot of their item(s), a short description, and the amount for which they would be willing to sell the item(s).

We worked really hard on the "Research Library" for the students. Honestly, the Web has become dangerous for children. Their souls are genuinely in the balance with the plethora of pornography online today. Unfortunately the courts are on the side of the offenders and think, somehow, that the children will be kept from it. Everyone knows this is wrong! Even the pornographers know that children will see it, but they continue. Greed really wars strong against the flesh; money seems to master these types. So, I felt that the best thing I could do is take the time to scout through the best resources for students on the Internet and put them in a library. This way, student could work through this safe haven to study and look up information without being in danger of seeing what is not even good for adults to see. I put a lot of time into this library and hope that it will be a blessing to parents as well.

We really hope that the Utmost Way magazine blesses our readership and brings them closer to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. We also have some good quality products to offer which we plan to include in the magazine as they are available.