Bibles for China – embracing China with the love of Christ!

Just 40 years ago the Bible was banned in China. Today…it is a best-seller. God has embraced China by preparing the way for His Word to penetrate hearts and bless the lives of thousands of Chinese men and women. Yet, many in China have never had a Bible of their own.

To date, the Amity Printing Press has printed more than 80 million Bibles for distribution in China. The United Bible Societies have made a commitment to raise $3,000,000 to cover the cost of the Bible paper for one year. Amazingly, the Amity printing facility can print 2,900 Bibles per hour!

Thank you for helping us to embrace China with the love of Christ. With your gifts, we can bless the people of China by sharing God’s life giving Word!



Sold a buffalo to pay for Bible School

HENAN: Yip’s sharing left a lasting impression on me. She is a young student around 20 years of age, currently studying to be a preacher at Henan Bible School. Her home is a mountainous village where proper roads and transportation are unheard of. She stays a distance away from the church and would have to walk 10km, climbing up and down the mountainous terrains, to attend Sunday service. Her church consists of older people forming almost 50% of the entire congregation.

For the elderly members, journeying to church is a daunting one, impossible to be completed within a day. The journey to church begins on the Saturday and their return trip is on the following Monday, since it would be too late to go home after the service on Sunday. Nevertheless, the elderly would faithfully brave the difficult walk week after week. Worshiping God has become more precious and meaningful. I am being reminded that true worship costs.

As there is no preacher in her church, God placed a burden in Yip to be the preacher. Most people especially the youths or young adults would shy away from this profession but not Yip. She was willing to offer herself for God’s use. She prayed about it and so did her father. I imagined that it would be hard for her father, like most Chinese fathers, to release his daughter to God for His service. But I believe it was her father’s faith and love for God that played a vital role in molding and shaping Yip’s love and heart for God. A way was finally opened for her to study full time at Henan Bible School.

To sell or not to sell: the family buffalo

She had to undergo many struggles before finally making her way to the Henan Bible School. At such young age, it was hard to be away from the family and her heart was heavily burdened for her family as she would want to care for them. Another big obstacle was finding enough financial means to support her studies. We were told that RMB 3,000 (about USD439) was required to support a student for a year’s tuition and living expenses — this is a large sum of money for Yip’s farming family to come up with. She cried for a few nights not knowing how to solve the problem. In the end, it was decided that the family would sell the one thing that is very dear and precious to any farmer; the buffalo.

Their livelihood one way or the other depended on the buffalo yet they were willing to part with this precious possession. By this action alone, they showed me how strong their faith was when they gave their best to God. I know her cries of anguish will one day be turned into songs of joy.

Throughout this trip, I was repeatedly encouraged by the strong faith that was lived out in the lives of the Chinese Christians. It is easy for us who have plenty to “announce” that we put our faith and trust in God since we know how and when our next meal is going to be. But not so for the Chinese Christians: they had so little to depend on for their lives, only a lot of faith in God, the one who would meet all their needs. I kept hearing from these Christians that God’s grace is sufficient for them. Truly it is God’s grace that keeps them strong and healthy. The true joy that I see in their faces sums it all up — that it is not what we have that counts, but rather it is God whom we have that makes a difference in our lives.

(Written by Mr Yan Chee Meng for UBS China Partnership)

Francis Chan to Critics: How is My Life Weird?

By Michelle A. Vu
Christian Post Reporter
Tue, Oct, 12 2010 02:57 AM PT

DULUTH, Ga. – With contagious passion, uncensored honesty, and rock-solid conviction, preacher and best-selling author Francis Chan took the stage at the Catalyst conference last week to “brag” about his relationship with God and to counter critics who say his recent ministry decision is “weird.”

Chan declared to an arena packed with 13,000 young Christian leaders that he wants his life to fit in the Bible and that there is nothing weird about believing in the Holy Spirit and following the calling of God.

“When I don’t think biblically, I go nuts. I just go, ‘This is crazy,’” said Chan, founding pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley, Calif., last Thursday evening. “But whenever I read this book (the Bible), I think my life fits perfectly.”

Critics have called Chan radical and questioned his theology after the Southern California preacher announced six months ago that he would step down from pastoring his megachurch to pursue a new adventure God is calling him to. Even fellow megachurch pastors have questioned Chan’s ministry decision to forsake everything to pursue a yet unclear calling.

Moreover, Chan shared Thursday during the nation’s largest gathering of young Christian leaders that his wife, Lisa, recently proposed to even sell their house before the family of six (four children) embark on their trip to Asia this week. The Crazy Love author noted that his family would not have a house to return to if they do come back to the United States.

While acknowledging that his life is crazy by most people’s standards today, Chan explained how un-radical his life really is by comparing it with the early disciples.

“If you put my life’s story in the book of Acts, chapter 12, [it would be] James killed, Peter imprisoned and Francis went to Asia,” said Chan to the laughter and applause of Catalyst attendees.

“Whoa, that is radical. He is so weird,” joked Chan, who says he’s been accused of subscribing to “poverty theology” because he gives away about 90 percent of his income and has donated all his book royalties to charities.

Continuing, the popular Christian speaker challenged those in the audience to compare their lives to the Bible and see if it also fits. He said it is more weird that some Christians change churches because of the service time, the music style, or the fight they got into with someone.

“Think biblically ’What is weird?' 'Who is weird?‘ based on the scripture and whether we fit in it,” Chan stressed. “So many things don’t make sense. I got to look at scripture and go ‘Does my life make sense?’ I want my life to fit in this book one day.”

Chan noted how his 14-year-old daughter, who he was the most nervous to break his decision to, ended up being the most supportive of his plan. She told him that she was proud of him for trying to be more like Jesus.

“The Bible says that 'if you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you lose your life for my (Jesus’) sake then you’ll find it,'” Chan stated. “It’s like my kids; if I try to keep them safe and try to make them happy, I’m going to lose them. But if you let go and start to pursue the things of God, then God says, ‘I’ll take care of them.’”

Chan, who spent 16 years building Cornerstone Church, plans to travel to Asia to witness what God is doing in the Christian body there. He said he might work at an orphanage, but has no clear plan for ministry yet. But he and his family are willing to do anything that the Spirit leads them to do, he shared.

“I don’t know how to defend everything. All I know is when I try to listen to what God is asking me to do, when I take some of these passages, when I made that turn in my life and said I want to just be like Jesus,” he said, “all I know is the more I pursue that the more God listens to my prayers.”

The Crazy Love author shared at the beginning of his talk how God has been answering all his prayers lately to the point he wonders if God has anything else to do but listen and respond to him.

He said that he wants to get up on stage and brag that he knows and understands the God of the universe, and he hopes those in the audience will also brag that they know God.

“I am pursuing this thing,” Chan stated. “I am just trying to walk by the Spirit and it has been amazing.”

Chan was one of about a dozen speakers at this year’s Catalyst conference, which drew young leaders in for a three-day experience aimed at exposing them to cutting-edge ideas from top leaders in business, education, non-profit, and the church. Since its founding in 1999, the annual event has been attended by more than 90,000 leaders.

Related
Pastors Question Francis Chan's Decision to Leave Megachurch

It's Faith - Not Feelings

By Greg Laurie
Gospel Herald Contributor
Thu, Feb, 24 2011 11:04 AM PT

For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "The just shall live by faith." - Romans 1:16–17

Why is it that someone could be radically converted (or seemingly so) and passionate about their new faith and then, without warning, just give up? They seemed to have had the most amazing conversion ever, but all of a sudden, they just bailed and walked away. How could that happen?

I would suggest that person never was converted to begin with. It is not about the emotion of a moment; it is about the test of time. If a person is a real Christian, he or she will continue on-though not flawlessly and not perfectly. It is even possible for a person who is a Christian to go astray for a time.

But if someone is a real believer, he or she always will come back. If they walk away and never return, they never were believers. As 1 John 2:19 says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us."

It may be that they built their faith on an emotional experience, and there can be emotion in conversion, though not always. But you can't build your life on emotion, because emotions come and go. A person who expects every day of the Christian life to be an emotional rush will be disappointed when they wake up some morning and feel nothing. That is when it is time to start growing up and walking by faith, not by feelings.

Romans 1:17 says, "The just shall live by faith." Yet some build their entire relationship with God on emotional experience, and when the emotions are not there, they give up. They built their life on the wrong foundation.

Copyright © 2011 by Harvest Ministries. All rights reserved. Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Bible text from the New King James Version is not to be reproduced in copies or otherwise by any means except as permitted in writing by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Attn: Bible Rights and Permissions, P.O. Box 141000, Nashville, TN 37214-1000 Used with Permission

Missionaries: Church Failing to Reach One-Fourth of the World

By Michelle A. Vu Christian Post Reporter The Gospel Herald
Fri, Oct, 22 2010 11:15 AM PT

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – More than 25 percent of the ethnic groups (unreached people groups) in the world, or about two billion people, are not represented at the Lausanne Conference.

An unreached people group means that cross-cultural mission is necessary for a person in the group to hear the Gospel because they cannot find people within their ethnic group to share with them the good news.

Mission leaders on Wednesday said the hardest obstacle to overcome in reaching unreached people groups is the obedience of the church. They spoke at the Lausanne multiplex session titled “M*ss*ng People: The Unserved One-Fourth World.”

A video shown at the beginning of the session highlighted that despite the fact that 86 percent of Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists do not personally know a Christ follower, 90 percent of missionaries go to “Christianized” regions, according to the World Christian Database.

“In my 14 years working with Muslims, mobilizing churches in Korea, I came to realized that Muslims haven’t been missing people to God, but to God’s people,” said Henry Lee, a mission leader based in Seoul, South Korea, and part of Ethne to Ethne (Greek for people to people), a global mission network focused on getting the gospel to unreached people groups.

Kent Park, president of U.S.-based Mission to Unreached Peoples, explained why churches do not share the Gospel with people groups that need to hear it.

“The Indonesian church, by its own confession, said we have ignored them (difficult unreached people groups in Indonesia) because we didn’t want to pay the price, we were afraid, we didn’t think it would work, we didn’t think they would change. That’s what it means to be unreached.”

Arychiluhm Beyene, who has worked in the mission field for the last 15 years, including six years with the most difficult people in Somalia, told a touching story of a “scary” looking Somali man who converted to Christianity from Islam.

After the Somali man converted, he told Beyene, “When you look at us from outside with the long beard, with the cap, and jalabiya (traditional loose fitting clothes worn by some Somali men), we look scary. But I just want to give you assurance, don’t stop telling the good news. Although we look scary from the outside, our inside is looking for the truth.”

During the missing people session, an African mission leader also spoke to the disconnect he sees between what African Christians are taught and how they live their lives.

Although Africa currently has the highest Christian growth rate in the world, it also has the highest levels of HIV, conflict, poverty, and corruption, said Peter Tantal, the South Africa regional director of Ethne to Ethne.

In 1900, there were 8 million Christians in Africa. Today, there are 500 million Christians in Africa and in some countries 90 percent or more of the population is Christian.

“The challenge before us is despite as a church having grown so much, we need to teach people what it means to live as people of God,” said Tantal.

The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, also known as Cape Town2010, has drawn more than 4,000 Christian leaders representing over 190 nations to Cape Town, South Africa.The conference was founded by American evangelist Billy Graham in 1974 in Lausanne, Switzerland,to bring together the global body of Christ for world evangelization.

"Christians Gather At Times Square To Repent and Pray"

Christians from many churches gathered for the third year in a row to repent and pray for the great city of New York and for the nation. In 1857 New York was the scene of one of the greatest awakenings in American history - The Third Great Awakening. This awakening was marked by massive prayer meetings all over the city. It spread all over the nation and the world. 2 Chronicles 7:14 states, "If My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray, seek My Face, and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from Heaven and heal their land." This event should be duplicated in every city in America! May God wake up the church and call her to prayer!

A Vision of the Final Great Awakening

"OLD WELLS, FALLEN MANTLES, NEW FOUNTAINS"
(A VISION OF THE FINAL GREAT AWAKENING)
by Michael Edds

I moved to a major U.S city in June 2000 to assume the position as Head of School for an interdenominational Christian High School. The school was new but had numerous problems, the most severe totally unknown to me. Prior to my arrival, a teacher had been arrested for involving a student in pornography. The teacher had been convicted and sentenced. Upon my arrival, the incident had become front-page news in the community. To say the least, I was shocked and stunned.

One night I could not sleep. I was very angry with the Lord for putting me into this greatly stressful mess. “Surely, I thought, I deserve better than this.” Around 2 am, I got up to sit on the couch and pout. In spite of my upset state, anger and disgust, the Presence of the Lord settled in the living room. God did not even pay attention to or address my complaint. Instead, His presence was so strong that I physically trembled. He spoke these words, “Old Wells, Fallen Mantles, and New Fountains.” He instructed me to get my Bible. By that time, I too had set aside my complaint. His Presence was so great that I did not know if I could survive it.

I opened my Bible to Isaiah 35: 3-7: “The eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb shall sing, for IN THE WILDERNESS SHALL WATER BREAK OUT and streams in the desert. AND THE PARCHED GROUND SHALL BECOME A POOL and the thirsty land SPRINGS OF WATER.” The Lord led me to Isaiah 41:17 -18, "The poor and needy seek water but there is none. Their tongues fail for thirst. I, the Lord, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in the desolate heights and fountains in the midst of valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of waters." Next came Isaiah 43:20, "I will give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen." I was directed to verse 19 of [Isaiah 43]: “Behold I WILL DO A NEW THING. Now it shall SPRING [BURST] FORTH. Shall ye not know it?”

The Lord was moving so quickly through the scriptures that I could hardly keep up. His presence was incredibly strong. I felt like I was floating.

Leaving Isaiah, the Lord took me to Joel 2:23: “He will cause to come down for you the rain, THE FORMER RAIN AND THE LATTER RAIN IN THE FIRST MONTH.” Then Joel 2:28 was given which states: “It shall come to pass afterwards that I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL FLESH. Your sons and daughters shall PROPHESY, YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS and your YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS.” Finally, Genesis 26:18 finished the scriptures that the Lord was rapidly giving me: “AND ISAAC DUG AGAIN the WELLS of water which they had DUG IN THE DAYS OF ABRAHAM HIS FATHER.”

The Lord revealed the meaning of this vision:

The Early Church experienced the fullness of God. They had the fullness, the gifts and revelation of the Holy Spirit. They were full of boldness, power and anointing. God turned the world upside down through them. The dead were raised, the blind received sight, the possessed were set free, the sick healed and the Gospel was preached to the poor. The anger of Hell was violently aroused. The more the devil persecuted and killed them, the more they multiplied and spread. So Satan changed his tactics. By 300 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Empire. What Satan could not do through persecution, he accomplished through promotion, position, power, prestige, acceptance and prosperity. They SOLD OUT! The Church backslid and humanity later fell into the brutality of the Dark Ages.

The purpose of each Great Awakening or the bursting forth of a spiritual well was to restore an element of truth that the Early Church possessed back to the church. Luther restored "the just shall live by faith." Wesley, Whitefield, Edwards and the First Great Awakening restored repentance, inward holiness and “Christ in you.” The Second Great Awakening with Barton Stone at Cane Ridge in the West and Francis Asbury in the East brought restoration in society through evangelism, missions, and great social renewal such as abolition, child labor laws, and suffrage movement. The Third Great Awakening of 1857 restored the power of prayer. Azusa Street Outpouring of 1905 restored the in filling and gifts of the Holy Spirit. The Lord stated that He was going to reopen all of the “old wells” of revival in order to restore TOTAL truth to His church.

Fallen mantles of ministry and anointing that rested upon the great men and women of God of old would be picked up and placed on godly men and women today to finish what was started long ago. They are the “Isaacs” that will revisit the old wells of revival and reopen them. The mantles of ministry did not die nor were they buried with Asbury, Wesley, Stone, Amanda Berry Smith and others. They have only been “on hold” until a generation would be born that could relate to them and pick them up. Isaiah 58:12 refers to them: “And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places, thou shall raise up the foundations of many generations, and thou shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of paths to dwell in.” The Lord said, “What once was shall be again.”

Malachi 4:5 prophecies that “I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And He shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” The Lord said this was not just a generational reconciliation between the old and the young. It is a restoration of His people to the Faith once delivered to the Saints, the Faith of our fathers. The Lord said He was tired of the apostasy, deadness, programs, personality cults, plans and politics that have nearly destroyed His church. He is going to restore HIS church by returning the “Faith of our Fathers to their children (descendants) and the children (descendants) to the Faith of our Fathers.”

The old wells will BURST forth and the fallen mantles will be picked up. This will be a “suddenly”. Isaiah speaks of it occurring in the desert places and on the barren heights. In other words, it will happen in the most unlikely of places.

The Lord continued His interpretation of the vision by explaining to me that “NEW FOUNTAINS” would gush or break forth also. Something that has never occurred in any Great Awakening or in any historic move of God will exploded upon the scene in our day.

Joel 2:23 speaks of God sending the former rain (the Old Wells of revival) and the latter rain (The New Fountains) in the SAME MONTH!!! In other words, all of the moves of God and fallen mantles from Pentecost until now will be reopened and picked up and combined with a totally new thing from God. It will literally shake the church and the world. HE WILL RESTORE A CHURCH WITHOUT SPOT OR WRINKLE! He will not allow the church to go out defeated. HE WILL ARISE FOR HIS OWN NAME’S SAKE!

God has been preparing a "Joseph Generation" that has been enrolled in the "School of Dung.” In this schooling, they have endured the pain of rejection, slander and isolation. The ‘Word of the Lord’ has tried them severely. They cry out, “God why? All I wanted to do is serve you. All seems to have ‘gone to hell in a hand basket’. It seems just the opposite of what You promised. I am lonely, the organized church thinks I am crazy, a fanatic, out on a limb. They have rejected me and hated me because of my love for you. WHY, OH LORD?”

God has been preparing and perfecting these "Josephs" in the darkness and in the prison houses of loneliness and isolation for a day and hour that they will be unleashed as a secret weapon on the kingdom of darkness. He has allowed all of these things to happen to them for their good. He has prepared a people whom He can trust with His power, gifts, and anointing. In holiness, humility and boldness they will fulfill His plans in our day. They will give HIM the glory. They will give HIM total control of the coming Great Awakening. The door of their prison house of utter loneliness and rejection is about to open. Their “word” is about to come. That word is “the King has need of thee.” In a moment, they will be ushered from prison to position. In a moment, they will fully understand their long and severe sufferings. In a moment, they will be brought out into the light of God’s divine destiny for them. God will greatly use them to lead the Coming Great Awakening.

Along with this final Great Awakening is coming Divine Judgment. Isaiah 35:4 declares, “Your God shall come with vengeance, even God with a recompense.” God is going to overthrow the abuse and control of man in His church. He’s going to take back the "ship" that has been turned into a luxury liner and restore her back to her original state: a ship of war. HE IS GOING TO TAKE BACK CONTROL OF HIS CHURCH!!! The Church is HIS bride, not someone else.

This nation is going to be greatly shaken. The First Great Awakening preceded the American Revolution. Before the Second Great Awakening began at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, a massive epidemic of Cholera occurred. In its early days, the Third Great Awakening saw every bank in the nation collapse. This awakening was followed by the greatest disaster in American History when the nation was ripped apart and 600,000 Americans perished in the horrific War Between The States. A great earthquake hit California at the same time as the Azusa Street Outpouring. He is going to shake the Church and this nation. Only that which is of Him will be left standing.

A great hunger for repentance, seeking God, seeking holiness and seeking truth has exploded within the "Joseph Generation." They have studied, researched and sought out the Old Wells of revival. They intensely hunger for God to do it again! They cry out, “Just one more time, oh Lord!” Programs, politics, personalities, manipulation, and plans in the church sicken them. THEY MUST HAVE GOD! They MUST be in His presence! They are meeting in the homes, in the fields, in the woods, in their prayer closets and any place that they can totally seek His face. Their despair has turned into an all-consuming hunger that says, “Give me God or let me die.” GOD HAS HEARD! He is about to reopen the old wells of revival, He is picking up the fallen mantles and placing them on men and women, and He is about to do a new thing!

Every Awakening has incurred the wrath and persecution of man. When the Presence and holiness of God confronts mankind, they must make a decision for or against Him. When they choose to reject Him, they lash out and fight against His messengers. In the mid-1700s, the Baptist in Colonial Virginia were beaten, imprisoned, and killed for preaching the Gospel. The Methodist circuit riders were jailed, tarred and feathered, beaten, abused and martyred for the message of God. The reason there is little persecution against the Church in America today is that there is so little of the Presence and Message of God to confront mankind. The world has heard how to get rich, how to prosper, how to have self-esteem, and to feel good. They have not heard the message, “Repent or perish.” They have not heard the anointed Word of God that demands a decision. Be forewarned, The Final Great Awakening will usher in a wave of persecution against the true Church of God.

Old Wells of Revival are on the threshold of being reopened. Fallen Mantles of ministry are being picked up. New Fountains are rumbling beneath the surface and about to burst forth. Frank Bartleman (chronicler of the Azusa Awakening) once said, “To understand what God is going to do, we must understand what He once did.” The most incredible move of God will suddenly explode upon the scene.

Judgment and a great shaking are coming to the land and to the church. Persecution of the Isaacs and Josephs, the true saints of God will occur. However, they will be covered with such zeal and boldness, they will be like the Fathers of old: “And they loved not their lives even until death.” (Rev 12:11) God will harvest a holy remnant from this generation. He will have a church that is without spot or wrinkle, a pure bride for His Son. Be encouraged. Lift up your heads. Your God has come! “The King has need of thee!”

The Future of the Middle East in Bible Prophecy

Beloved, there is still time, but it is running out quickly! Make things right between you and the Lord! This message written here is a warning from heaven. Do not neglect your relationship with the Lord any longer! I do not want to see you, dear reader, left behind.

The Holy Bible is the only “holy book” in existence that predicts the future with 100% accuracy. The prophetic writings in the Bible are extraordinary in both their breadth and detail. The most detailed prophecies concern the nations of the Middle East during the period known as “The Day of the Lord”. God takes time in lengthy passages of scripture to tell the judgments He will inflict on the nations that reject the nation of Israel in the very last period of time before the coming of Messiah to establish His 1000 year Kingdom on the earth.

Because there is so much confusion and contradiction in much of the teaching of Bible prophecy, I want to write a concise and brief summary of what the prophets of scripture say about the Middle East nations. These events are rapidly approaching and could be right on our doorsteps at any moment, should the Lord decide to lift His withholding grace and allow these judgments to come immediately.

There are three wars that will soon take place in the Middle East. Each one is progressive and becomes larger in scope, until the entire world and every nation participates in the last battle:

1. The first war involves the Arab nations immediately surrounding the nation of Israel. The Bible seems to indicate that these nations will be destroyed with weapons of mass destruction. This will involve the judgment of God against militant Islam directly surrounding Israel, which is referred to as the house of Esau in several places. According to the Bible, the nations directly surrounding Israel will be destroyed in such a way that they are uninhabitable. This war will result in an impassible ring of destroyed countries to the south and east of Israel. The nations destroyed are: Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, and part of Saudi Arabia. These areas of land will become totally impassible because of the use of nuclear weapons and/or biological and chemical weapons. The soil of these regions becomes so poisoned that nothing can live or grow there. The area of ancient Idumea (Edom) will be on fire like Kuwait was in the Gulf War of 1991.

2. The second war is described in detail in Ezekiel chapters 38-39 primarily, although there are other passages that refer to it also. In Ezekiel chapters 36-37, he foretells the rebirth of the nation of Israel. Then, before the Kingdom Age, when the Messiah Yeshua will reign in His magnificent temple in Jerusalem, this horrific battle is predicted in much detail. This was written 2,600 years ago. Ezekiel lists a confederacy of nations, which include Turkey, Iran, Libya, Ethiopia, parts of Eastern Europe, and other unnamed nations. Something strange appears immediately when you look this list. The prophet fails to mention the nations directly bordering Israel! These countries are Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, “Palestine” (not really a nation), and Syria.

The reason these nations are not mentioned is that they were all destroyed in the first war. The remaining nations invade Israel from the only possible way in this war: from the north. The destruction from this war is much greater in scope than the first. The destruction of the countries of the first war may be one reason for this second battle. Most likely, it is retaliation for it against Israel. Ezekiel identifies Russia as the chief antagonist against Israel in this war. Russia has a long history of hating and persecuting the Jewish people. With the pogroms starting in 1881, untold numbers of Jews died at the hands of the Russians. Russian Jews were the first to return to Israel in the 1880’s, leaving because of this horrible persecution.

This second war is often called the war of Gog and Magog. Gog is a title of the leader of Russia at this time, meaning “chief prince” or “president”. The geographic region is called “the land of the north”; the land of Magog, Meshech, and Tubal. This precisely identifies modern Russia through its’ ancient tribal ancestors as well as geographically. But, the nation of Russia is not alone in this invasion of the mountains of Israel from the north. Ezekiel identifies the confederation of nations that will join to attack Israel, as mentioned above.

Persia is the actual Biblical name for modern day Iran. That is the name the Bible gives as joining this attack. The bible refers to Ethiopia as the land south of Egypt. Today this would include the nations of the Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia. The Sudan and Somalia are both Islamic nations. Sudan is identified as a terrorist state and hates Israel. Ethiopia has a large Muslim population of about 30%. Sudan and Somalia are a natural fit in current events with Russia in a confederated Muslim attack. In the Bible, ancient Libya encompasses all the land west of Egypt. This would include the nations of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. ALL of these nations are Islamic.

Russia supplies Libya with weapons. Ezekiel identified Togarmah as a country north of Israel. This is modern-day Turkey, which is nearly 100% Muslim. For this to happen, Turkey must line up with Russia. Finally, the name Gomer is mentioned as taking part also. This is not as clearly defined. It could be Germany and/or some other nations in Eastern Europe. Currently, the United States is preventing such a war from happening. For this battle to happen, the United States has to be weakened or eliminated from the Middle East.

NATO has to be weakened by Turkey forming an alliance with Russia. Very recently, with the event of the Flotilla, Turkey became extremely cold in its’ diplomatic relations to Israel, and unanimously condemned Israel in its’ government. Could this be an precursor of their coming turn towards “the land of the north”? Russia becomes the dominant force in a vacuum created by the absence of America. For this war to happen, something distastrous needs to happen in the future to the United States. Even though the Soviet Union has collapsed, the Russian army is still large and well equipped. This confederation led by Russia is enormous, for the army will cover the land like a cloud. Perhaps all the remaining Islamic nations not mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel join in this attack.

According to scripture, God destroys this entire invasion miraculously. God reacts in His wrath with a combination of natural disasters with perfect timing to destroy this army. The Russian army invades and swarms over the mountains of Israel to the north. God waits until they actually come into the covenant land and totally wipes them out supernaturally on those very mountains. The whole world then witnesses the Holy God of Israel and is forced to recognize that He was the one who destroyed this army and not human effort. A great revival takes place in Israel, as they now begin to recognize Yeshua as the true Messiah and turn to Him in great numbers. All of this is predicted in the scriptures.

3. The third war involves every remaining nation on earth. It is called Armageddon. This is the final battle between God and evil before the coming of Yeshua the Messiah to rule and reign on the earth. In this battle, God supernaturally intervenes and destroys the largest fielded army in history. This battle ends man’s corrupt and sinful rule over the nations. Armageddon is the third and final attempt to destroy Israel and take Jerusalem. Armageddon means Mount Megiddo, which is about seventy miles north of Jerusalem. Mount Megiddo is at the southern edge of the Esdraelon Valley, also called the plain of Megiddo. This is a huge valley that runs from southeast to the northwest, right at Mount Megiddo in Israel. The valley is the center of the final battle.

The mountains of Israel start at the southern edge of this valley. The taking of Jerusalem is the objective of the final war. After the defeat of Russia and its confederation, the remaining nations converge on Israel. God uses Jerusalem as a lure, and the people in rebellion against Him literally come by several hundred million. All of man’s rebellion against God culminates in this battle over Jerusalem. During the previous battles, there is no indication from the scriptures that the armies overrun Jerusalem. In this final battle, a vast army invades the Middle East from Asia. All of Asia is at this battle, along with the other nations of the world. The apostle John states in the book of Revelation that this army from Asia numbers two hundred million. This army will cross the dried up Euphrates river, but before it does, it spreads into other nations and kills a third of mankind that is still alive at this time.

Like the previous battle of Magog, this army meets its doom on the mountains of Israel. The ring of fire is still around Israel, and the only way to attack is from the north. This massive army fills the Valley of Megiddo and then reaches all the way to Jerusalem. This army nearly destroys Israel and Jerusalem, but God stops it when it reaches Jerusalem. The Lord Yeshua the Messiah (Jesus Christ’s) direct intervention stops this army. This is the moment of His awesome second coming. He personally destroys the armies gathered for Armageddon and defends His covenant land and people. According to the prophet Zechariah, the Lord Yeshua stands in Jerusalem on the Mount of Olives.

There is an enormous earthquake that splits this mountain. He is in His full glory. It is the presence of the Messiah Yeshua in His glory that destroys this invading army. God’s glory affects human flesh like a neutron bomb. The nation of Israel receives and welcomes the only true Messiah Yeshua and turns to Him. Then it goes into deep mourning with true repentance. Israel is finally reunited with their one and only Messiah: Yeshua – Jesus. At this time, He begins His Messianic reign for 1,000 years of peace, joy, and perfection – heaven on earth!

This is a brief synopsis of coming wars on the earth that are centered in the Middle East as recorded in Bible prophecy. I pray that you, dear reader, will be ready - for He is coming soon to take His bride – the overcoming church - home to be with Him in heaven. You do not have to remain upon the earth during this terrible time of judgment – give your heart to the Lord Yeshua, repent and live for Him and not self and sin. Yeshua will first come to meet us in the air and take us to heaven in an event that “catches away” the believers all over the earth in one, sudden, micro-second of time. We will be gone! Then these terrible judgments will overtake the whole earth, as recorded in the prophets and the book of Revelation.

Beloved, there is still time, but it is running out quickly! Make things right between you and the Lord! This message written here is a warning from heaven. Do not neglect your relationship with the Lord any longer! I do not want to see you, dear reader, left behind.

Yeshua said:

“Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy TO ESCAPE ALL THESE THINGS that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.” (Luke 21:36)

“He that testifieth these things sayeth, Surely I come quickly.. Amen.
Even so, come Lord Yeshua.

The grace of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah be with you all. Amen.”

Love in our Messiah,
Maurice Sklar

NOTE: I want to acknowledge and commend John Mcternan for his prophetic study of the Middle East. I included much information that he provided in this teaching letter (from his book “As America Has Done to Israel”). I highly recommend reading it, as I believe he is accurate about end time prophecy, and especially the destiny of America as it relates to Israel.

Pastoral Ministry: A Shaky Foundation

Thus says the Lord: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me...." --Jeremiah 9:23-24

It is true that much church activity is thrown back upon a shaky foundation of psychology and natural talents. It is sad but true that many a mother-in-law is actually praying that her handsome son-in-law may be called to preach because "he would have such a marvelous pulpit presence."

We live in a day when charm is supposed to cover almost the entire multitude of sins. Charm has taken a great place in religious expression. I am convinced that our Lord expects us to be tough enough and cynical enough to recognize all of this that pleases the unthinking in our churches: the charm stuff, the stage presence in the pulpit, the golden qualities of voice....

I feel sorry for the church that decides to call a pastor because "his personality simply sparkles!" I have watched quite a few of those sparklers through the years. In reality, as every kid knows at Fourth of July time, sparklers can be an excitement in the neighborhood--but only for about one minute! Then you are left holding a hot stick that quickly cools off in your hand. Tragedy in the Church: The Missing Gifts, 32-33.

"Lord, confirm for each of us as pastors our divine call, that we might indeed build on a strong foundation. Then bring conviction and repentance to any in our congregations who are judging us with the wrong criteria. Amen."

Churches Find End Is Nigh

By SHELLY BANJO (Wall Street Journal)

The Number of Religious Facilities Unable to Pay Their Mortgage Is Surging

Across the U.S., churches are losing their sanctuaries because they can't pay their mortgage debt. Some borrowed too much or built too big during boom times and now are struggling as congregations - and collections - shrink.



ROSEVILLE, Calif.—Residential and commercial real-estate owners aren't the only ones losing their properties to foreclosure. The past few years have seen a rapid acceleration in the number of churches losing their sanctuaries because they can't pay the mortgage.

Just as homeowners borrowed too much or built too big during boom times, many churches did the same and now are struggling as their congregations shrink and collections fall owing to rising unemployment and a weak economy.

Since 2008, nearly 200 religious facilities have been foreclosed on by banks, up from eight during the previous two years and virtually none in the decade before that, according to real-estate services firm CoStar Group, Inc. Analysts and bankers say hundreds of additional churches face financial struggles so severe they could face foreclosure or bankruptcy in the near future.

"Churches are the next wave in this economic crisis," says Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr., president and founder of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, a non-profit civil-rights group, who works with pastors around the country to help churches negotiate better terms with their bankers.

Religious denominations of all kinds have suffered in recent years as donations have declined, with many Catholic parishes closing and synagogues merging their congregations. But the property-financing problems have been concentrated among independent churches, which while seeking to expand lack a governing body to serve as a backstop to financial hardship.

"Religious organizations may be subject to the laws of God but they are also subject to the laws of economics," said Chris Macke, senior real-estate strategist at CoStar. Many troubled churches, he said, are in states such as California, Florida, Georgia and Michigan, which also have some of the highest home-foreclosures rates in the country.

In many cases, churches ran into trouble after borrowing to build bigger houses of worship needed to accommodate growing congregations in once-booming housing markets.

Pastors Rich and Lindy Oliver decided their Family Christian Center needed more space after their congregation rose from a few hundred in the early 1990s to 650 by 2002. The church borrowed $4.2 million and began building a new 1,000-person sanctuary on 11 acres in Orangevale, Calif., including classrooms and a space for adult learning.

But when housing prices across California began tumbling in 2006, followed by a surge in unemployment and foreclosures, many congregants moved away, and those who were left reduced their tithing sharply. Meanwhile, the property, valued at $8.5 million in 2002 was appraised at just $2.5 million in 2008.

Stretched to the limit, the pastors stopped making payments. "I just told the bank to take it," Mr. Oliver said. "If you're a church with a piece of property upside down and no one will refinance the loan or lend you more money, there's not really another choice but to walk away."

Bankers and lenders typically are reluctant to "foreclose on God" and seek to work out deals with churches. But none proved possible in the Olivers' case.


These days, Mr. Oliver said his church, renamed The Family Church, was "doing what the rest of America is doing—we're cutting back and simplifying." In November, the Olivers raised $700,000—not nearly enough to rescue the previous church—from donations and personal loans from church members and used it to lease a former furniture store in a strip mall in Roseville, Calif.

Traditionally, lenders considered churches good risks because of the weekly cash flow generated by tithing, as well as the moral compulsion felt by most pastors to pay down debt.

Like many churches, Mr. Oliver used bond financing, not a straight mortgage, to fund construction. Historically, churches wanting to build turned to their governing bodies or to specialized lenders that originated fixed-rate 25-year to 30-year mortgages. During the real-estate boom, regional and community banks attracted churches with lower rates on shorter-term loans. At the same time, some bond underwriters began offering churches more money up front if they issued so-called compound-interest bonds. In such cases, churches often paid nothing until the bonds came due years later, but then had to pay both the principal and accrued interest, which often doubled the amount they owed.

Many such bonds come due in the next few years. But with property values down and cash in short supply, many churches won't have the funds to payand will have trouble refinancing. "In 2011 and the next couple of years, we're going to see a big maturity wall hitting these churches," said Scott Rolfs, head of Wisconsin-based investment bank Ziegler and Co.'s Religion and Education practice.

Many churches have also been upended by plain mortgages. Vineyard Christian Fellowship in Sacramento took out a $1.9 million mortgage to acquire a $2.3 million 18,000-square-foot property in 2004 that included a church and two retail spaces. Johnny Zapara, the pastor, had refinanced his own home for $400,000 to make a down payment and expected to pay most of the $17,000 monthly payment with income from retail tenants.

When one of the tenants went out of business and a new one couldn't be found, Vineyard subsidized the payments for two years. Eventually the church ran out of money. and couldn't refinance because the value of the property had fallen sharply.The lender foreclosed earlier this month.

"A building does not make a church. We will find a way to continue," Mr. Zapara said.

DISASTERS & THE WORDS of JESUS

by Andrew Strom.

When there seems to be one major catastrophe after another striking the nations of the world, people often ask, "Is this the Judgment of God?" Or just "natural" events? Or perhaps some combination of the two? How are Christians to view these things?

One of the most important insights into these questions was given by Jesus Himself in Luke 13. He said: "Those eighteen, upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were sinners above all that dwelt in Jerusalem? I tell you, No. But unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish." (v 4-5).

So if we apply these words to Christchurch, for instance, it is obvious that the people who died were not being "judged" for being "greater sinners" than other people in New Zealand. In fact, I dare-say that Christchurch was no more or less 'sinful' than any major city in the country. It was a terrible tragedy that occurred, and it should shake us all up. But they did not die because of their "greater sins". And clearly we are to have great compassion on everyone caught up in this terrible event.

The one area that I believe God IS speaking very strongly about in both the Christchurch earthquakes is the shaking of the CHURCH. In fact, the Church was the focus of my entire article a couple of weeks ago on this awful disaster. Some people thought it was about the city of Christchurch. My sincere apologies if you thought that. My focus was the CHURCH - not the city - and the sad inadequacy of the Christian response after the first quake - which did have consequences, I believe.

I am convinced that we have now entered the hour when "Judgment begins at the house of God". When we see the only major city that is called "Christchurch" in the Western world being hit by two massive earthquakes - and many of the buildings most damaged are church buildings - you have to ask the obvious questions. Is God speaking to the church in no uncertain terms about the "Shaking" that is now beginning in Christendom? Are we about to see this 'Shaking' grow much worse, even to the taking down of many major ministries and voices in the church? -I have to believe so.

It seems to me that the world has recently "turned a corner" where these kinds of catastrophes are suddenly much more common all around the world. Economic and political turmoil are likewise in the ascendant. Surely we have to conclude that these are some of the "birth pangs" described by Jesus - which are set to grow much worse before the end.

The HUMANISTIC RESPONSE

One of the things we need to watch out for as these things grow worse, is immersing ourselves too much in the "humanistic" viewpoint of the mass media. You will notice that now during these tragedies, the media is right there in people's faces, bringing as much of the trauma and grief of every tragic story home to the viewer in as lurid a way as they can. You can watch for hours as tragic stories play out one after the other in front of your eyes. But none of it is from God's point of view. It is all from the viewpoint of
man - in fact, "secular human" man. This is something to be careful of.

God looks at things from an "eternal" point of view. To Him the greatest disaster is for man to die in an unsaved state - totally unprepared for Judgment and eternity. God is even willing for there to be great shaking and turmoil in the earth, if it causes men to seek Him and find eternal salvation. There is none of this in "man's" media. It is just a total "human" trajedy and they have no interest in eternity at all.

As the very end approaches and the earth enters the actual Judgments found in the Book of Revelation, we see that this "humanistic" viewpoint comes even more to the fore. Instead of repenting as all these judgments and disasters are hitting the earth, it seems as though people will be literally shaking their fist at God, saying, "How dare you send such things upon us? How dare you be so destructive and demand that we repent?"

If all we consider is the "human" tragedy, then we can easily get caught in the same trap. We forget that the biggest disaster in the Universe is to die unsaved and unprepared for Eternity. That is the worst possible thing. We cannot immerse ourselves in "humanistic" media to the point that we only think of disasters in "human" terms. There are wider issues here - and we must make sure to take on God's point of view - not the view of "humanistic" man.

But to be sure, we must "weep with those who weep". When we see tragedies, like Jesus we must not close our hearts to the broken and the hurting. Jesus wept and so must we. Let us always keep Eternity's viewpoint uppermost, however.

Again, I send love and tears to our dear friends in Christchurch - and everyone else caught in recent disasters around the globe. As I have said, Christchurch to me was one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen, and we have lovely friends there that are very dear to us. May God be with you all at this devastating time.

Endtime Fulfillment - UN on Red Alert: Food Price Soaring!

Rev 6:1-17. Then I saw the lamb open the FIRST of the seven seals. I heard one of the four living creatures say with a voice like thunder, "Go!" Then I looked, and there was a WHITE horse! Its rider had a bow, and a victor's crown had been given to him. He went out as a conqueror to conquer. (DECEPTION IN THE CHURCH - RISE OF FALSE PROPHETS/TEACHERS/SHEPHERDS - ) When the lamb opened the SECOND seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Go!" A second horse went out. It was fiery RED, and its rider was given permission to take peace away from the earth and to make people slaughter one another. (WARS: NATION RISE UP AGAINST NATION, ETHNIC CLEANSING) So he was given a large sword. When the lamb opened the THIRD seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Go!" I looked, and there was a BLACK horse! Its rider held a scale in his hand. I heard what sounded like a voice from among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a denarius, or three quarts of barley for a denarius. But don't damage the olive oil or the wine!" (ECONOMIC WOES) When the lamb opened the FOURTH seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Go!" I looked, and there was a pale GREEN horse! Its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. They (many) were given authority over one-fourth of the earth to kill people using wars, famines, plagues, and the wild animals* of the earth. (THE CULMINATION OF THE FOUR HORSES: WARS, NATURAL DISASTER, PANDEMIC WOES, DECEPTION IN THE CHURCH) When the lamb opened the FIFTH seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slaughtered because of the word of God and the testimony they had given. (CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION. Luke 21) They cried out in a loud voice, "Holy and true Sovereign, how long will it be before you judge and take revenge on those living on the earth who shed our blood?" Each of them was given a white robe. They were told to rest a little longer until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers was completed, who would be killed as they themselves had been. Then I saw the lamb open the SIXTH seal. There was a powerful earthquake. The sun turned as black as sackcloth made of hair, and the full moon turned as red as blood. The stars in the sky fell to the earth like a fig tree drops its fruit when it is shaken by a strong wind. The sky vanished like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island was moved from its place. Then the kings of the earth, the important people, the generals, the rich, the powerful, and all the slaves and free people concealed themselves in caves and among the rocks in the mountains. They told the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to endure it?" (JUDGMENT - Vengeance is Mine! Isaiah 34:8; Romans 12:19; Luke 21:22; 2 Thess 1:5-6 )

1Cor 4:6 (ISV) Brothers, I have applied all this to Apollos and myself for your benefit, so that you may learn from us not to go beyond what the Scriptures say. Then you will stop boasting about one person at the expense of another.

Eze 34:1-12 A message came from the LORD for me, and it had this to say: "Son of Man, prophesy against Israel's shepherds. Tell those shepherds, 'This is what the Lord GOD says: "Woe to you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves and not the sheep. Shouldn't shepherds feed the sheep? You're eating the best parts, clothing yourselves with the wool, and slaughtering the home-grown sheep without having fed the sheep! You haven't strengthened the weak, treated the sick, set broken bones, regathered the scattered, or looked for the lost. Instead, you've dominated them with brutal force and ruthlessness. "Since they have no shepherd, they have been scattered around and have become prey for all sorts of wild animals. How scattered they are! My sheep have gone wandering on all of the mountains, on all of the hills, and throughout every high place in the whole world, with no one to look for them or go out in search of them. "Therefore listen to what the LORD says, you shepherds: 'As certainly as I'm alive and living, my sheep have truly become victims, food for all of the wild animals because there are no shepherds. My shepherds did not go searching for my flock. Instead, the shepherds fed themselves, and my flock they would not feed!'

"Therefore, you shepherds, listen to what the LORD says: 'This is what the Lord GOD says: "Watch out, I'm coming after you shepherds! I'm going to demand my sheep back from them and fire them as shepherds. The shepherds won't be shepherds anymore when I snatch my flock right out their mouths so they can't be eaten by them anymore."' "This is what the LORD says: 'Watch me! I'm going to search for my flock. I'll watch over them myself. Just as a shepherd looks after his flock during the day time while he is with them, so also I'm going to watch over my sheep, delivering them from every place where they've been scattered during the times of gloom and doom."I'm going to enter into a covenant with them, one of peace, and I'll eliminate wild beasts from the land so they can live securely in the wilderness and sleep in the forests.

Luke 21:34-36, "Constantly be on your guard so that your hearts will not be loaded down with self-indulgence, drunkenness, and the worries of this life, or that day will take you by surprise like a trap, because it will come on everyone who lives on the face of the earth. So be alert at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place and to take your stand in the presence of the Son of Man."

Mal 3:2 But who will survive the day when he comes? Or who can stand when he appears? For he's like a refiner's fire and a launderer's soap.

Mat 13:49-50 That is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will go out, cull out the evil people from among the righteous ones, and will throw them into a blazing furnace. In that place there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Mat 25:32 All the nations will be assembled in front of him, and he will cull them out, one from another, like a shepherd separates sheep from goats.

Eph 6:13-18 For this reason, take up the whole armor of God so that you may be able to take a stand whenever evil comes. And when you have done everything you could, you will be able to stand firm. Stand firm, therefore, having fastened the belt of truth around your waist, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and being firm-footed in the gospel of peace. In addition to having clothed yourselves with these things, having taken up the shield of faith, with which you will be able to put out all the flaming arrows of the evil one, also take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. Pray in the Spirit at all times with every kind of prayer and request. Likewise, be alert with your most diligent efforts and pray for all the saints.

UN agency on ‘red alert’ as soaring food prices threaten millions of world’s poorest

16 February 2011 – Record high food prices are putting added pressure on the United Nations agency that helps feed nearly 100 million of the world’s poorest people, with officials warning of a potential “perfect storm” combination of soaring costs, weather emergencies and political instability.
“We are on red alert and we are continually assessing needs and reassessing plans and stand ready to assist,” UN World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director Josette Sheeran told the UN News Centre, as her agency develops an action plan for early purchasing and setting up reserves and safety nets. “Rising food prices are a reality for the whole world, but they have the biggest impact on the poorest and most vulnerable populations.”

If prices continue to rise, due in part to adverse weather such as floods, droughts and fires, or even stay at the same high levels for the rest of the year, WFP will face a serious budget gap, forcing it to make the kinds of painful decisions it faced during the previous food price crisis of 2008: reduce rations, decrease beneficiaries, try to obtain additional resources.

The latest UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Food Price Index averaged 231 points in January, up 3.4 per cent from December and the highest level since it started in 1990. Another measure, the World Bank’s food price index, rose by 15 per cent between October and January and is now only 3 per cent below its 2008 peak. Whichever measure is used, the result is the same: 44 million more people thrown into extreme poverty.

“I feel we have now entered a danger zone,” World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala said. “National food security issues are becoming a global food security issue. This is a challenge for the world. Almost one billion people are going to bed hungry.”

Source here

RELATED:
Global food prices increase for eighth straight month, UN agency reports

Pastoral Ministry: Acquaintance, Not Hearsay

A W Tozer

And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?" -Luke 24:32

"It is one thing," said Henry Suso, "to hear for oneself a sweet lute, sweetly played, and quite another thing merely to hear about it."

And it is one thing, we may add, to hear truth inwardly for one's very self, and quite another thing merely to hear about it....

We are turning out from the Bible schools of this country year after year young men and women who know the theory of the Spirit-filled life but do not enjoy the experience. These go out into the churches to create in turn a generation of Christians who have never felt the power of the Spirit and who know nothing personally about the inner fire. The next generation will drop even the theory. That is actually the course some groups have taken over the past years.

One word from the lips of the man who has actually heard the lute play will have more effect than a score of sermons by the man who has only heard that it was played. Acquaintance is always better than hearsay. The Root of the Righteous, 99-100.

"Lord, as I wait upon You this morning I want to hear afresh the real sound of the lute. Deliver me from second-hand preaching and teaching. Fill me with a first-hand knowledge of You, so that my message might always be that of an alert eyewitness. Amen."

Pastoral Ministry: Faith Must Be Demonstrated

by A W Tozer

Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. - Hebrews 12:1

The lesson that comes to us through the many dramatic illustrations of faith in Hebrews 11 brings us back to my earlier statement: Faith in God is to be demonstrated, not defined. Just as God's church demonstrates Christian love, this demonstration of godly, humble faith is God's ideal for His church.

It is not enough for preachers in their pulpits to try to define love. The love that God has promised must be demonstrated in the lives of the believers in the pews. It must be practiced as well by the man who occupies the pulpit.

We should put the matter of faith in that same category. God wants His people, including the ministers, to demonstrate all of the outworking of faith in their daily lives and practices. Jesus, Author of Our Faith, 8.

"Lord, the pattern set forth in Hebrews 11 seems so unattainable! Strengthen me by Your Spirit to be able to demonstrate this type of unshakable faith. Amen."

STRENGTH FOR THE JOURNEY

by David Wilkerson (World Challenge)

No one on earth can place you in ministry. You may be given a diploma by a seminary, ordained by a bishop, or commissioned by a denomination. But the apostle Paul reveals the only source of any true call to ministry: “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry” (1 Timothy 1:12).

What does Paul mean here when he says Jesus enabled him and counted him faithful? Think back to the apostle’s conversion. Three days after that event, Christ placed Paul in the ministry—specifically, the ministry of suffering: “For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake” (Acts 9:16). This is the very ministry Paul refers to when he says, “Therefore seeing we have this ministry…” (2 Corinthians 4:1). He continues, adding, “…as we have received mercy, we faint not.” He’s talking about the ministry of suffering. And he makes clear it is a ministry that we all have.

Paul is telling us Jesus gave him a promise for this ministry. Christ pledged to remain faithful to him and enable him through all his trials. The Greek word for enabled means “a continual supply of strength.” Paul declares, “Jesus promised to give me more than sufficient strength for the journey. He enables
me to remain faithful in this ministry. Because of him, I won’t faint or give in. I’ll emerge with a testimony.”

A transfiguration is taking place in all our lives. The truth is, we’re being changed by what obsesses us. We’re becoming like the things that occupy our minds. Our character is being influenced and impacted by whatever has hold of our hearts.

I thank God for everyone who feeds his mind and soul with spiritual things. Such servants have fixed their eyes on what is pure and holy. They keep their gaze fixed on Christ, spending quality time worshipping him and building themselves up in faith. The Holy Spirit is at work in these saints, continually changing their character in Christ’s. These believers will be ready for the hard, explosive sufferings to come. Slothful, lazy, prayerless believers will suffer heart failure or breakdowns. They’ll be crushed by their fears, because they don’t have the Holy Spirit at work in them, transfiguring them.
When the hard times come, they simply won’t make it.

Here is Paul’s final word on the matter: “Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: but in all things approving ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in imprisonments…. As sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich” (2 Corinthians 6:3–5, 10). How do we “make many rich”? By out shining the hope of Christ in the midst of our sufferings. We offer true riches when we cause others to ask, “What’s his secret? Where does he find such peace?”

The SURRENDERED LIFE

by David Wilkerson.

“Surrender.” What does this word tell you? In literal terms, surrender means “to give up something to another person.” It also means to relinquish something granted to you. This could include your possessions, power, goals, even your life.

Christians today hear much about the surrendered life. But what does it mean, exactly? The surrendered life is the act of giving back to Jesus the life he granted you. It’s relinquishing control, rights, power, direction, all the things you do and say. It’s totally resigning your life over to his hands, to do with as he pleases.

Jesus himself lived a surrendered life: “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me” (John 6:38). “I seek not mine own glory” (8:50). Christ never did anything on his own. He made no move and spoke no word without being instructed by the Father. “I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things…. For I do always those things that please him” (8:28–29).

Jesus’ full surrender to the Father is an example of how we all should live. You may say, “Jesus was God in flesh. His life was surrendered before he even came to earth.” But the surrendered life is not imposed on anyone, including Jesus.

“Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again”
(John 10:17–18).

Jesus was telling us, “Make no mistake. The act of self-surrender is totally within my power to do. I’m choosing to lay down my life. And I’m not doing it because some man told me to. Nobody’s taking my life from me. My Father gave me the right and the privilege to lay down my life. He also gave me the choice to pass up this cup and avoid the cross. But I choose to do it, out of love and full surrender to him.”

Our heavenly Father has given all of us this same right: the privilege to choose a surrendered life. No one is forced to yield his life to God. Our Lord doesn’t make us sacrifice our will and give back our lives to him. He freely offers us a Promised Land, full of milk, honey and fruit. But we may choose not to enter that place of fullness.

The truth is, we can have as much of Christ as we want. We can go as deep in him as we choose, living fully by his word and direction.

THE PATH of SURRENDER

God begins the process of surrender by knocking us off our high horse. This literally happened to Paul. He was going his self-assured way, riding toward Damascus, when a blinding light came from heaven. Paul was knocked to the ground, trembling. Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, “Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me?” (Acts 9:4).

Paul knew something was missing in his life. He had a knowledge of God, but no firsthand revelation. Now on his knees, he heard these words from heaven: “I am Jesus whom thou persecutest” (9:5). The words turned Paul’s world upside down. Scripture says, “Trembling and astonished, [Paul] said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” (9:6). Paul’s conversion was a dramatic work of the Holy Spirit.

Paul was being led by the Holy Spirit into the surrendered life. He asked, “Lord, what would you have me to do?” and his heart was crying out, “Jesus, how can I serve you? How can I know you and please you? Nothing else matters. Everything I’ve done in my flesh is dung. You’re everything to me now.”

Paul had no other ambition, no other driving force in his life, than this: "That I may win Christ"
(Philippians 3:8). By today’s standards of success, Paul was a total failure. He didn’t construct any buildings. He didn’t have an organization. And the methods he used were despised by other leaders. In fact, the message Paul preached offended large numbers of his hearers. At times he was even stoned for preaching it. His subject? The cross.

When we stand before God at the judgment, we won’t be judged by our ministries, achievements or number of converts. There will be but one measure of success on that day: Were our hearts fully surrendered to God? Did we lay aside our own will and agenda and take up his? Did we succumb to peer pressure and follow the crowd, or did we seek him alone for direction? Did we run from seminar to seminar looking for purpose in life, or did we find our fulfillment in him?

I have but one ambition and that is to learn more and more to say only those things the Father gives me. Nothing I say or do of myself is worth anything. I want to be able to claim, “I know my Father is with me, because I do only his will.”

OPEN-AIR PRAYER in CHRISTCHURCH

by Andrew Strom

One of our readers, Nancy, wrote to me this week from Christchurch, the scene of the recent horrific earthquake, which has tragically affected so many lives. Here is what she wrote-

"Well Andrew, today in Christchurch many churches were forced out into the open to praise and worship God, and many people came along who would not normally go to church. There will also be more sense of unity as the churches that are not damaged are being opened up for other churches to use for services and for funerals. Prayer meetings are being organised for this week coming, to pray for the city.

"After reading Jenny Bolton's prophecy on your website it gave me hope that God is going to move in Christchurch if we humble ourselves and pray. Please continue to pray for us. There are many broken people who need the Lord."

Fox News described what happened this past weekend- "Parishioners came together Sunday in parks and on the lawns of churches broken in New Zealand's earthquake to pray for the dead and missing. They sought togetherness and an answer to the question on everyone's mind: Why?"

The AP News story continued: "The churches that dot the city felt some of the worst of the temblor's wrath. Spires toppled, stained glass windows exploded, walls cracked and masonry fell... Outdoor services also were held at other churches and at a library, where attendees arrived on bicycle or on foot and sat in folding chairs..."

As we wrote last year after the first quake, Christchurch has some of the most powerful prophecies of "Revival" of any city in New Zealand. It also has prophecies of a move of God in the "open air". Perhaps God is on the move in this tragedy in ways that we can only faintly grasp. All we can do is pray for a great move of His Spirit to bring true unity, love, hunger, truth and prayer back to a broken and desperate people. We hope and pray that it happens. Our love and prayers are with you all in that city.

God be with you,
Andrew Strom.

“Destined to Reign” book review by Dr Gordon Wong

by Blogpastor

I came across this review written by Dr Gordon Wong, Old Testament professor with Trinity Theological College. There is wisdom to be gained from reading and reflecting on what he has to say about Joseph Prince’s teaching in his book “Destined to Reign”.

I recently read the book Destined to Reign (2007) by Joseph Prince, the senior pastor of New Creation Church. When I conveyed some of my thoughts on the book, one of my pastoral colleagues thought it would be helpful if I shared them with more Methodists. Let me begin by saying that Pastor Prince’s emphasis on grace has been a great blessing from God to many. My nephew and cousin belong to New Creation church and have grown immensely in their relationship with God. My prayer is that God will use Prince’s gifts of preaching to even more blessed effect as he allows the Holy Spirit to convict him (graciously, as always) of areas that could be improved. I hope my comments below will be helpful towards that end.

1. Prince’s teaching on God’s Grace and Anger

His emphasis on grace has led some to accuse him of giving Christians a licence to sin. He vehemently rejects this criticism (e.g. p. 30) and explains that a person who has properly experienced grace is one who is inspired and empowered to turn away from sin.

What I like: the book’s stress on the power of God’s grace is correct. The grace of God in the Bible is meant to inspire holiness, and not allow sinfulness. The book’s strong emphasis on grace is true to the Bible. Self-condemnation and guilt are real problems that afflict many people today, and the message of God’s grace is truly good news.

What I had reservations about: In stressing grace, the book appears to suggest that God no longer gets angry with Christians. If this is what it really means to teach, then this is not biblical. On p. 41, read: “We do see God being angry in the Old Testament, and in the book of Revelation, where his anger is toward those who have rejected Jesus. But for you and me, believers in the new covenant, we are not part of the Old Testament and we will never be punished because we have already received Jesus. As believers, God is no longer angry with us because all His anger for our sins fell upon Jesus at the cross.”

I suspect (and hope) that what the book really means is that God’s anger is not the type that takes delight in condemning us and pointing out how horrible we are. Also, I think (and hope) that what the book means to say is that God’s anger and punishment on believers does not result in the loss of eternal salvation. But to say the above is very different from saying that God gets angry only with unbelievers and never with true believers (p. 41), or to insist that “the Holy Spirit never convicts you of sin” (p.134). Does the Bible really say that God never gets angry with believers anymore? In the Bible (both Old and New Testaments), God is presented as getting angry with believers. For example, the letters to the 7 churches (i.e. people who profess to be believers) in Revelation 2-3 include a lot of stinging rebuke and condemnation from Jesus himself, including the use of threats of punishment and judgement. (I find attempts to say that the “churches” in Revelation do not really refer to believers as far-fetched.) God Himself seems to punish two professing believers Ananias and Sapphira in Acts 5:1-11. Isn’t this an example of the Holy Spirit, through Peter, convicting Ananias and Sapphira of their sins? Or must we assume the (not so gracious) judgement that Ananias and Sapphira cannot have been true believers?? For argument’s sake, even if they were not true believers, they were certainly in the church assembly. So there is place still for Spirit-inspired preaching for the conviction of sin within church walls. There may be many “believers” like Ananias and Sapphira who need the Holy Spirit to convict us of sin and our need for grace. Perhaps the book could have made a clearer distinction between divine anger at Christians that results in the loss of eternal salvation (which is what he is most concerned to speak against) and divine anger at Christians that aims to correct and discipline (which he seems to reject). To be fair, Prince does accept the positive idea of child discipline or training (pp. 65-67), but he rejects any association of this discipline with the words “anger” or “punishment”.

God’s anger was, and can still be an expression of His love and grace, just like a loving mother who sometimes scolds her child. (Prince is, hopefully, only joking when he implies, p.37, that children will become schizophrenic if parents sometimes express happiness and at other times anger!) To say that God will never get angry or punish believers anymore may promote (unwittingly or mistakenly) a distortion of the Bible’s teaching about God’s grace. God’s anger is an expression of His love and grace towards his children. Prince would perhaps do better to speak of righteous anger (Ephesians 4:26) versus unrighteous anger. God never gets (unrighteously) angry with us, but loving grace demands a place for righteous anger as long as His beloved children still need discipline.

2. Prince’s teaching on Law

The book is very strong on rejecting the value of the Law in the OT as being of any positive help for Christians. For example, on p.120 there is a section entitled “The Ten Commandments Kill” and it says that these commandments are “the ministry of death”.

What I like: I think (and hope) that the book is trying to say two biblical things about the Law. Firstly, it may be warning us that the Ten Commandments can be used or preached in a condemning way that destroys the soul of people and makes them cringe in fear or turn away from God as a harsh Master. This is a good biblical warning. Secondly, the book’s description of the Law as a ministry of death rather than life correctly describes and reinforces the biblical view that obedience to the Law cannot lead us to receive salvation. It is correct and very good of Prince to speak against those who are “trying to use the Ten Commandments to remove their sins” (p.124). We are saved by grace, not by obedience to the Ten Commandments or the Law. If these two points represent what Prince teaches on the Law in the Bible, then this is good and biblical.

What I had reservations about: That the Law can be preached and understood in such a way as to promote soul-destroying guilt and deeper condemnation is certainly true. Prince is to be commended for eloquently highlighting this biblical warning about the danger of the Law, and stressing the wonderful grace of God that forgives us all through Christ. But while there are many who need this message of God’s grace-filled forgiveness to save them from their guilt and despair over sin, there are many others who need the message of God’s grace-filled discipline and rebuke to save them from presumption and indifference to sin. Prince’s emphasis on free and full forgiveness is very good at helping the former, but not so good for the latter. Does Prince believe that guilt is the only problem people have because of sin? If so, that would present an incomplete picture. Sin does not only imprison us in guilt; it also lulls us into indifference and presumption. The Bible addresses both these effects of sin. The book appears to suggest that there is no way of preaching the Law in a graceful manner in order to set us free from our sinful indifference and presumption.

Similarly, Prince is correct to stress that the Law cannot save or justify, but his writings give the impression that the Law has no other positive function except to prove that we cannot be saved by it. But the Law in the Bible is also presented as a positive expression of God’s grace in telling us what God desires. But because Prince contrasts Law and Grace in this manner, he gives the impression of implying that the Law has only the negative value of telling people that they cannot be saved by their attempts at obedience to the Law. The Law certainly does perform that valuable function, but it does much more as well. It helps us know what is good in God’s eyes. The book is weak on emphasising the ongoing value of the Law for both Christians and unbelievers.

To be fair to this book, there are certain parts of the Bible that also speak in similarly strong negative tones against the Law (e.g. most of Galatians and parts of the books of Romans and Hebrews). But this negative view is balanced out in other parts of the Bible that are very positive about the Law (e.g. Jesus in Matt 5:19-20; James 1:25; Psalm 119 etc.). In other words, the Law as a means of salvation is spoken of very negatively in the Bible, but the Law as a means of showing us God’s pleasure or desire for our lives is spoken of very positively. The book seems to emphasise only the negative picture of the Law. Doing so would fail to do justice to the biblical balance which speaks also of the ongoing positive value of the Law for Christians. Paul, himself, could sum up the Law very positively as teaching us to love one another (Gal 5:14; Rom 13:8,10).

3. Prince’s teaching on Healing

Healing is a big topic in the Bible, and it is not the main theme of Prince’s book. But from the little he says in his final full chapter “Good Things Happen” (pp. 287ff), Prince relates testimonies of people who were healed when they received the grace and forgiveness of God. He also states that “once you know that you have been forgiven of all your sins, past, present and future, the healing of all our diseases follows” (p.290).

What I like: I think Prince is correct to say that the Bible speaks of a God who heals our diseases, and this is a true expression of the forgiveness and grace of God. Physical healing is taught and prayed for and experienced in the Bible.

What I had reservations about: Whilst the book speaks of Bible passages where physical healing is expected and takes place, it says nothing about the passages that accept (without surprise or anguish) that miraculous physical healing did not take place e.g. 2 Tim 4:20; Philippians 2:25-27; 1 Tim 5:23; Gal 4:13-14. Incidentally, Galatians 4:13-14 tells us explicitly that Paul did have a bodily sickness which resulted in the greater good of the Gospel being preached contra Prince’s statement that “Paul did not suffer any sickness or disease” (p. 71). The problem is not so much with what Prince affirms viz. that healing is a blessing from a God who is full of grace; the problem is with what he omits to affirm viz. that physical illness without healing on earth can also fall within the gracious providence of God. The Bible teaches us both to pray for physical healing and to be prepared to endure illness with patient endurance. The victorious Christian life is one that remains faithful to God in both times of abundance and poverty, in sickness or in health, for richer or for poorer (cf. Philippians 4:12-13). I do not know the ministry of Prince well enough to be sure of what he really thinks about healing on earth. Perhaps if you listen long enough to his sermons, you may be able to make a fairer assessment. Does he preach to help Christians cope with the onslaught of poverty and illness, or does he speak only of removing sickness and suffering by effortless faith? We need both messages, because that is the balance we find in Scripture.

In general, most preachers are prone to partial teaching. We all tend to favour one side of the balance more than the other as a result of our personal experience of God’s dealings with us. The danger comes when we imply that the side we prefer is the only true side of biblical truth!

May God grant us wisdom and discernment as we seek to live in ways that befit those who have been saved by such a wonderful grace as that which our Lord Jesus has lavished on us.

Postscript: There are several places where I do not agree with Prince’s interpretation of the Bible verses (e.g. pp. 124f on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; p.263-65 on the cold, hot and lukewarm Laodiceans in Rev 3:15-16), but these are disagreements over the interpretation of specific phrases that can commonly be found amongst devout Bible teachers. My comments above focus on some major issues that discerning Christians should reflect on more carefully.

Related:
Caution: "Destined to Reign" by Joseph Prince
Can God's Love Fade?
Biblical Repentance - Must Read!