the gate

This Day In History
On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg church door.

Pastor Tim Keller wrote this article about gospel repentance, based on Luther’s first thesis.

All Of Life Is Repentance

The very first of the theses was: “Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ…willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance” . . . He was saying that repentance is the way we make progress in the Christian life. Indeed, pervasive, all-of-life-repentance is the best sign that we are growing deeply and rapidly into the character of Jesus.

It is important to consider how the gospel affects and transforms the act of repentance. In “religion” the purpose of repentance is basically to keep God happy so he will continue to bless you and answer your prayers. This means that “religious repentance” is a) selfish, b) self-righteous, c) and bitter all the way to the bottom. But in the gospel the purpose of repentance is to repeatedly tap into the joy of our union with Christ in order to weaken our need to do anything contrary to God’s heart.

“Religious” repentance is selfish
In religion we only are sorry for sin because of its consequences to us. It will bring us punishment -and we want to avoid that. So we repent. But the gospel tells us that sin can’t ultimately bring us into condemnation (Rom 8:1.) Its heinousness is therefore what it does to God—it displeases and dishonors him. Thus in religion, repentance is self-centered; the gospel makes it God-centered. In religion we are mainly sorry for the consequences of sin, but in the gospel we are sorry for the sin itself.

“Religious” repentance is self-righteous
Repentance can easily become a form of “atoning” for the sin. Religious repentance often becomes a form of self-flagellation in which we convince God (and ourselves) that we are so truly miserable and regretful that we deserve to be forgiven. In the gospel, however, we know that Jesus suffered and was miserable for our sin. We do not have to make ourselves suffer in order to merit forgiveness. We simply receive the forgiveness earned by Christ. 1 John 1:9 says that God forgives us because he is “just.” That is a remarkable statement. It would be unjust of God to ever deny us forgiveness, because Jesus earned our acceptance! In religion we earn our forgiveness with our repentance, but in the gospel we just receive it.

“Religious” repentance is bitter all the way down
In religion our only hope is to live a good enough life for God to bless us. Therefore every instance of sin and repentance is traumatic, unnatural, and horribly threatening. Only under great duress does a religious person admit they have sinned-because their only hope is their moral goodness. But in the gospel, the knowledge of our acceptance in Christ makes it easier to admit we are flawed (because we know we won‘t be cast off if we confess the true depths of our sinfulness.) Our hope is in Christ’s righteousness, not our own—so it is not so traumatic to admit our weaknesses and lapses. In religion we repent less and less often. But the more accepted and loved in the gospel we feel the more and more often we will be repenting. And though of course there is always some bitterness in any repentance, in the gospel there is ultimately a sweetness. This creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more you able you are to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions of your sin. The sin under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ.

The Disciplines of Gospel-Repentance
If you clearly understand these two different ways to go about repentance, then (and only then!) you can profit greatly from a regular and exacting discipline of self-examination and repentance. I’ve found that the practices of the 18th century Methodist leaders George Whitefield and John Wesley have been helpful to me here. In a January 9, 1738, letter to a friend, George Whitefield laid out an order for regular repentance. (He ordinarily did his inventory at night.) He wrote, “God give me a deep humility and a burning love, a well-guided zeal and a single eye, and then let men and devils do their worst!” Here is one way to use this order in gospel-grounded repentance.

Deep humility (vs. pride)
Have I looked down on anyone? Have I been too stung by criticism? Have I felt snubbed and ignored?

Repent like this: Consider the free grace of Jesus until I sense a) decreasing disdain (since I am a sinner too), b) decreasing pain over criticism (since I should not value human approval over God’s love). In light of his grace I can let go of the need to keep up a good image—it is too great a burden and now unnecessary. Consider free grace until I experience grateful, restful joy.

Burning love (vs. indifference)
Have I spoken or thought unkindly of anyone? Am I justifying myself by caricaturing (in my mind) someone else? Have I been impatient and irritable? Have I been self-absorbed and indifferent and inattentive to people?

Repent like this: Consider the free grace of Jesus until there is a) no coldness or unkindness (think of the sacrificial love of Christ for you), b) no impatience (think of his patience with you), and c) no indifference. Consider free grace until I show warmth and affection. God was infinitely patient and attentive to me, out of grace.

Wise courage (vs. anxiety)
Have I avoided people or tasks that I know I should face? Have I been anxious and worried? Have I failed to be circumspect or have I been rash and impulsive?

Repent like this: Consider the free grace of Jesus until there is a) no cowardly avoidance of hard things (since Jesus faced evil for me), b) no anxious or rash behavior (since Jesus’ death proves God cares and will watch over me). It takes pride to be anxious—I am not wise enough to know how my life should go. Consider free grace until I experience calm thoughtfulness and strategic boldness.

Godly motivations (a “single eye”)
Am I doing what I am doing for God’s glory and the good of others or am I being driven by fears, need for approval, love of comfort and ease, need for control, hunger for acclaim and power, or the “fear of man”? Am I looking at anyone with envy? Am I giving in to any of even the first motions of lust or gluttony? Am I spending my time on urgent things rather than important things because of these inordinate desires?

Repent like this: How does Jesus provide for me what I am looking for in these other things? Pray: “O Lord Jesus, make me happy enough in you to avoid sin and wise enough in you to avoid danger, that I may always do what is right in your sight, in your name I pray, Amen.”

(link to article)

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Yesterday one of the quotes I posted contained a quote from Francis Schaeffer. I went back to read the larger context, and, not surprisingly, found him speaking prophetically to us over thirty years ago. What he described is happening just as he said.

I believe the church today is in real danger. It is in for a rough day. We are facing present pressures and present and future manipulations which will be so overwhelming in the days to come that they will make the battles of the last forty years look like kindergarten child’s play.

The evangelical church seems to specialize in being behind . . . . Society is going to change. I believe that when my great-grandchildren grow to maturity, they will face a culture that has little similarity to ours. And the church today should be getting ready and talking about issues of tomorrow and not about issues of thirty and forty years ago, because the church is going to be squeezed in a wringer. If we have found it difficult in these last years, what are we going to do when we are faced with the real changes that are ahead?

We already are, of course, losing many of our young people, losing them on every side. It would be impossible to say how many have come to L’Abri from Christian backgrounds. And these young people have said, “You are our last hope.” Why? Because they are smart enough to know that they have been given no answers. They have simply been told to believe. Doctrines have been given them without relating them to the hard, hard problems which these young people are facing. Those who come to us and say something of the nature that we are their last hope usually then speak of two things which discouraged them. First, they have not been given reasonable answers to reasonable questions. Second, they have not seen beauty in the Christian group they were in. This matter of “beauty” is related to the orthodoxy of community we spoke about in a previous chapter. These things should make us ask questions. Where are we going? And what is our problem?

What Lies Ahead

Whether we live in the United States, Britain, Canada, Holland or other “Reformation countries,” it really does not matter. The historic Christian faith is in the minority. Most Christians, especially those of us who remember what the United States was like forty-five or fifty years ago, go on as if we were in the majority, as though the status quo belongs to us. It does not.

One of the greatest injustices we do to our young people is to ask them to be conservative. Christianity today is not conservative, but revolutionary. To be conservative today is to miss the whole point, for conservatism means standing in the flow of the status quo, and the status quo no longer belongs to us. Today we are a minority. If we want to be fair, we must teach the young to be revolutionaries, revolutionaries against the status quo.

Do you wonder why the young people leave home? Youngsters come to L’Abri from the richest families in the world, from the greatest luxury. Why? Because they are sick of their parents making gods of affluence and thinking that one adds enough meaning to life merely by adding one more automobile to an already crowded garage. These young people are not wrong in this. They may have the wrong solution, but they are right in their diagnosis. . . .

Here we are, then, the historic, Bible-believing Christian minority. If what was called the silent majority in the 1970s are not given the material affluence they consider their right, there will be much pressure to some form of establishment elite.

What about the church in this situation? Certainly, at least at first, an establishment elite will be less harsh on the church than a left-wing elite if that should come into power. But that is a danger. The church will tend to make peace with the establishment and identify itself with it. It will seem better at first, but not in the end. If the church is identified with the establishment in the minds of young people, in the minds of those who will be coming forth to be men and women in the next twenty years, I believe the church will be greatly hindered.

In the United States many churches display the American flag. The Christian flag is usually put on one side and the American flag on the other. Does having the two flags in your church mean that Christianity and the American establishment are equal? If it does, you are really in trouble. These are not two equal loyalties. The state is also under the norm of the Word of God. So if by having the American flag in your church you are indicating to your young people that there are two equal loyalties or two intertwined loyalties, you had better find some way out of it. The establishment may easily become the church’s enemy. Before the pressure comes, our young people (from kindergarten on), our older people, and our officers must understand this well: there are not two equal loyalties; Caesar is second to God. This must be preached and taught in sermons, Sunday school classes, and young people’s groups.

It must be taught that patriotic loyalty must not be identified with Christianity. As Christians we are responsible, under the Lordship of Christ in all of life, to carry the Christian principles into our relationship to the state. But we must not make our country and Christianity to be synonymous.

This has always been important, but should certainly be so today. If a pastor stands in the pulpit and preaches this way, and the people come in and hear him making plain that he is not confusing the two loyalties, then even if they differ on certain specific questions, at least the pastor has maintained credibility with them. But the really important thing is not our credibility with other men, but our rightness with God. Equating any other loyalty with our loyalty to God is sin. And we had better get our priorities straight now before the pressures in our society overwhelm both us and society as we have known it. If the pressures are great now, there is every reason to be sure they will get greater.

- The Church At The End Of The 20th Century, pp. 77-79

O God, help us see that we need an unpolluted, undivided, and unequaled loyalty to You. Make us revolutionaries!

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this is not a political blog, so i’ll spare you my sporadic thoughts on our upcoming presidential race.  instead, i will just nominate king solomon for president!

i’m not sure if you read in the paper yesterday that archaeologists found the ruins of a large copper smelting plant in “the biblical land of Edom” (i like that quote) that has forced them to adjust the dates that scientists/researchers believed solomon lived.  their timeline had previously contradicted the Biblical dates, but once again, the historicity of the Bible has been supported.  time and time again, we see scientists discovering things like this that support the truth that we find in the Scriptures.  praise God for our Scriptures, they are truth!!

anyways, last night during our young adult Bible study, we covered in large part why obama is a wack presidential choice (did i just type that?).  that wasn’t the Bible study, that was before.  but then we picked up the Scriptures to read about king solomon in 1 Kings. 

if you are unfamiliar with the story, solomon’s brother tries to steal the throne from him when king david is about to die.  in the first 2 chapters, he already begins to reveal himself as a man of deep wisdom.  our trip through the Proverbs at house church reveal it even more (parents, i HIGHLY recommend reading Proverbs over and over - it’s like a parenting book).  but in those first 2 chapters, the young king exercises a tremendous amount of restraint.  given the seat of all power, given the right and ability to do whatever he wanted to do with this brother that wanted to steal his throne as well as his co-

chapter 2 reveals a second attempt to take the throne, so solomon finally kills him.  and the guy that was banished and told not to return?  yeah, well that moron came back and he was killed too.

why do i bring this up?  why do i want to write in solomon for president?  because the wise leaders of ancient times have gone the way of the buffalo.  we have no equivalent to solomon, not even close.  in a week, i am going to go to the polls and cast my vote for the man that will lead this country.  the problem is that i don’t want to follow either of them!

november 4th, i will likely vote for who i believe to be the lesser of 2 evils.  but in my heart, i will continue to pray for a new king solomon, a man (or woman) of wisdom, strength and true commitment to the values of the Scriptures.

something tells me i’ll be praying for a LOOOOOONG time.

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UPDATE - Tuesday, Nov 25

They Won! (click here for story)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Vote for America’s “Got Milk?” Chief Health Officer

CLICK HERE and scroll down to Joel Hasemeyer’s video. Rate his video by clicking on the milk glasses — one glass being the lowest score and five glasses being the highest. Voting will be open until midnight on October 31, 2008. Vote as frequently as you’d like, but there is a limit of one vote per day.

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I was reading Dr. Kim Riddlebarger’s blog the other day and was truly saddened by how off base we Christians in America have become. Pastor Riddlebarger is not one of those who is off base. If you don’t know him, he is a co-host of the White Horse Inn radio program and pastor of Christ Reformed Church in Anaheim.

I won’t take the time to rehash his post. I just want to use it as a springboard to drive home a point.

He says:

There’s nothing worse than a politician in a pulpit or a preacher confusing the gospel with political activism. Its just as bad when Republicans do it as when the Democrats do it.

Christian worship is a divine service of word and sacrament. God comes to his people to visit us with salvation, to speak to us from his word, to strengthen our faith through the sacraments, to reaffirm his covenant promises. Christian worship is to be conducted by a minister of the gospel, called for that very purpose. Such worship is to be supervised by elders who are supposed to make sure the minister is fulfilling his calling.  When these elements are present (the word properly preached and sacraments properly administered), you can be sure that the kingdom of God is present.

No political pep rally and no amount of political activism will ever “bring about the kingdom” on this earth. This is a bad example of an over-realized eschatology and an all too secularized understanding of the kingdom. Didn’t Jesus say something about his kingdom being “not of this world?”

In the past, during the worship service, I’ve tried to instruct Christians to be good citizens — and active citizens; essentially to use voting and other civil activities as means of being salt and light in our society. I still believe now what I said then. However, I also believe Pastor Riddlebarger is right. I’ve witnessed too much of the problem he is addressing (I’ve even been part of the problem), and want to go on record as saying that I believe the church in America needs to heed his call.

I think his closing two paragraphs are particularly powerful.

Its painfully clear that those politicians who dare to motivate potential voters in a so-called “evangelical” church with the promises that the “kingdom might come” if they are elected to office, have accomplished nothing but demonstrating how little they truly know about the kingdom of God.

It is also painfully clear that any church which allows them to do this hasn’t got a clue about the biblical meaning of the “evangel” [gospel].  A church which lets a politician into their pulpit during worship is sowing to the flesh, not to the Spirit.

It’s not only churches. Many Christians and many Christian organizations don’t have a clue either. Furthermore, many pastors and Christian leaders are sowing to the flesh as much as any politician in a pulpit.

Thanks, Pastor Riddlebarger, for saying what needs to be said. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear.

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Pastor John Piper gives this answer:

It is not insignificant that what we do on Sunday mornings are called worship “services.” What do we mean, “services”? What is a “worship service”? And my point last week from Acts 17:25 and Mark 10:45 was that “God is not served by human hands as though he needed anything, but he himself gives to everyone life and breath and everything.” And, “Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Whatever else a worship “service” is, it must first and foremost be a being served by God.

This is simply a way of underlining the lesson from the week before. God is magnified when we cherish him as gain above all things, and come to him tell him that and to find more of him. God serves us by giving life and breath and everything about himself that goes to the deepest recesses of our hearts. We worship first and foremost by thirsting and hungering after God above all things. And that means that we worship first and foremost by being served by God. It is a worship service, because the service starts with God’s serving us what we so desperately need, namely, himself.

Rather than “Worship Service,” Lutherans use the term “Divine Service” to communicate that God is the main giver and main actor when the Church gathers for worship, not people. Worship is more about God’s activity than our activity.

In his article, What Is The Main Thing In Worship?, Dr. Richard P. Bucher describes the two most common views of worship this way:

View #1 sees Christian education as the main thing of the worship service. Christians in this group leave church saying things like, “That was an interesting sermon the Pastor gave today.” For them, church is a sort of holy school. Learning something from the sermon is the main reason they come to church; the rest of the service is seen as filler that doesn’t really interest them. View #2 sees the main thing as the worship we bring to God. Christians in this group come to church primarily to sing and say “thank you” to God for all His blessings. For them the main thing in the worship service is what we do for God.

In contrast to these views, he states, “The main thing happening in worship is God serving us! . . . We need to be restored in our belief that the main thing happening in our worship service is that Jesus Christ is present among us to serve us through the Gospel.”

I believe Dr. Piper’s and Dr. Bucher’s words serve as a much needed corrective to the Pelagian worship rampant in America today that is focused on our enjoyment, our entertainment, our education, our singing, our offering, or our sacrifice.

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KABUL, Afghanistan – Taliban gunmen killed a Christian aid worker in Kabul as she was walking to work on Monday, and the militant group said it targeted the woman because she was spreading her religion.

The dual South African-British national, who worked with handicapped Afghans, was shot to death by gunmen who drove by on a motorbike in western Kabul, said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemeri Bashary.

The Taliban claimed responsibility.

“This woman came to Afghanistan to teach Christianity to the people of Afghanistan,” militant spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told The Associated Press. “Our (leaders) issued a decree to kill this woman. This morning our people killed her in Kabul.”

The aid group SERVE — Serving Emergency Relief and Vocational Enterprises — identified the woman as 34-year-old Gayle Williams. A spokeswoman for the group in Kabul denied that its workers were proselytizing, which is prohibited by law in Afghanistan.

“It’s not the case that they preach, not at all,” said the spokeswoman, Rina van der Ende.

the possibility of death for our faith here in America?  almost none.

so why are we the wimps, the suckers who find such difficulty in the smallest test?  perhaps we should all learn to check ourselves and remind ourselves of reality.

R.I.P my Sister.

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we have been reading the pslams and the proverbs in house church the last few months.  it seems that we have had very similar conversations over and over because the themes in those books are very repetitive.  as we all know, when statements and/or ideas are repeated, we should take note because the author is trying to tell us something.

“but in the end”.  this is a phrase that has raced through my mind a lot since we began reading these books.  if i had to boil down the first 10 chapters of the psalms and the proverbs, it would be “but in the end”.

yes it feels good now…but in the end…….
yes there is sorrow now…but in the end……
yes they profit from sin now….but in the end……………

steve and i had a conversation over lunch the other day regarding living the gospel (among other things).  how do we help people to experience the Gospel in full and live godly lives, in that order?  i suspect that this may be one of the keys.

understanding and believing that God’s Word is not only truth, but GOOD is a necessity.  if we do not look at God’s Word as the guide not only for our salvation but for the best possible life we can have now (in a very non-osteen kind of way), we are missing a crucial element of His plan and His kingdom. 

and i am definitely not suggesting that His best life now = riches or comfort.  i am, however, suggesting that His best life now = experiencing the Gospel in full.  why were the apostles happy to experience persecution?  or what about Jesus?   why was the Father pleased to crush Jesus?  it was definitely not for the joy of the experience….but in the end………

we must begin to take God at His Word (literally).  when He says that we will experience joy abundantly, we must allow Him to supply that to us as He has promised, not seek one of the world’s poor substitutes.

take your pick:

a) choose a life of disobedience and/or mediocrity…………but in the end…….
b) follow Jesus into a life of persecution and sacrifice YET filled with joy………AND IN THE END…….  :)

the road is narrow and i expect most people to choose A.  but i hope and pray for you guys reading this blog, that you will earnestly seek option B and follow Jesus, regardless of what difficulties arise in this life, because in the end is a great reward.  in the end is a relief of those difficulties. and in the end, Lord willing, is a God that calls you a “good and faithful servant”.

The woman of folly is boisterous, she is naive and knows nothing.  and she sits at the doorway of her house, on a seat by the high places of the city, calling those who pass by, who are making their paths straight: “Whoever is naive, let him turn in here,” and to him who lacks understanding she says “stolen water is sweet; and bread eaten in secret is pleasant.”  but he does not know that the dead are there, that her guests are in the depths of sheol.  (proverbs 9: 13-18)

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If you search the Scriptures, and the history of the Church up until the early 1800s, you will not find such terminology as “prayed to receive Christ,” or “made a decision for Christ.” Neither will you find anyone offering an altar call. Have you ever looked for an altar call in the Bible? You can’t find one. Jesus didn’t use them. Neither Peter nor Paul used them. There are no altar calls in the Bible.

It is generally agreed that the Pelagian evangelist, Charles Finney, invented them in the early 1800s.

In 529, the Council of Orange declared Pelagius a heretic. In Canon 3, they stated:

If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle who says the same thing, “I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me” (Rom 10:20, quoting Isa. 65:1).

Basically what they’re saying is that salvation occurs before the prayer.

When we tell people that they have been saved after they have marked a card or raised their hand or walked to the front or prayed a prayer, we may well be misleading them. We don’t know if God has given them new life. All we know is that they have made some type of decision. This decision may be very sincere, but it does not necessarily indicate that the Spirit has regenerated the person. Charles Finney left in his wake thousands of people who showed no evidence of regeneration, much like many professing Christians today. What a brilliant deception by Satan — to have one human, who cannot know what is in someone else’s heart, tell another person he or she is saved. It is a grand illusion. Thousands have been given false hope and false assurance.

Dr. J. I. Packer writes these disturbing words:

“If one tells people that they are under obligation to receive Christ on the spot, and calls in God’s name for instant decision, some who are spiritually unprepared will come forward, accept directions, ‘go through the motions,’ and go away thinking they have received Christ, when in reality they have not done so because they were not yet able to do so. So a crop of false conversions result from these tactics in the nature of the case. Bullying for ‘decisions’ can actually impede and thwart the work of the Holy Spirit in human hearts. When the evangelist takes it on himself to try to pick the fruit before it is ripe, the result is regularly false conversions and hardenings. ‘Quick sake’ techniques in evangelism always tend to boomerang in this way; their long-term effect is regularly barrenness. . . . Finneyism, which seeks to break up the fallow ground, issues rather in a scorching of the earth, a state of diminished rather than enhanced responsiveness to the gospel.” (A Quest for Godliness, pp. 299-300)

James E. Adams compares the false idea of decisional regeneration with the false teaching known as baptismal regeneration. Baptismal regeneration declares that the act of baptism gives us new life in Christ (just baptize an unbeliever and he or she will be saved).

He says:

“But the twentieth century Church has, in ‘Decisional Regeneration,’ a more subtle falsehood to combat. ‘Decisional Regeneration’ differs from Baptismal Regeneration only in the fact that it attaches the certainty of the new birth to a different act. This doctrine, just as Baptismal Regeneration, sees the new birth as the result of a mechanical process that can be performed by man. What is here called ‘Decisional Regeneration’ has in its deceptive way permeated much of the Christian Church.”

The belief in decisional regeneration is semi-Pelagianism. Please, read James Adams’ excellent article entitled Decisional Regeneration (click this link).

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Our media scream — and whine — about our economic crisis. There is a greater crisis in India. Pastor Jeff Mooney posted this email he received.

We have never seen anything like this. We knew that Orissa was the most resistant and hostile State in India as far as the Gospel is concerned. And we brushed off the continuous threats and harassment we faced as we went about His work. But none of our staff imagined that they would see this kind of carnage…. And it seems to be totally under the radar of the Western Media …. Let me explain…. A militant Hindu priest and 4 of his attendants, who were zealously going around the villages of Orissa and ‘reconverting’ people back to Hinduism, were gunned down by unknown assailants in Central Orissa last weekend. Immediately the Christians were blamed. The cry rose up…’Kill the Christians!’ And the horror began…. In the past 4 days, we have first hand witness to hundreds of churches being blown up or burned and many, many dozens of Christian tribals have been slaughtered. For no other reason than they bear the name of Christ.

Night and day I have been in touch with our Good News India Directors spread across 14 Dream Centers in Orissa… they are right in the middle of all this chaos. In Tihidi, just after the police came to offer protection, a group of 70 blood-thirsty militants came to kill our staff and destroy the home. They were not allowed to get in, but they did a lot of damage to our Dream Center by throwing rocks and bricks and smashing our gate, etc. They have promised to come back and ‘finish the job.’ Our kids and staff are locked inside and have stayed that way with doors and windows shut for the past 3 days. It has been a time of desperately calling on the Lord in prayer. More police have come to offer protection. In Kalahandi, the police and some local sympathizers got to our dream center and gave our staff and kids about 3 minutes notice to vacate. No one had time to even grab a change of clothes or any personal belonging. As they fled, the blood thirsty mob came to kill everyone in the building. We would have had a mass funeral there, but for His grace. In Phulbani, the mob came looking for Christian homes and missions. The local Hindu people, our neighbors turned them away by saying that there were no Christians in this area. So they left. We had favor. The same thing happened in Balasore.

All our dream centers are under lock down with the kids and staff huddled inside and police outside. The fanatics are circling outside waiting for a chance to kill. Others were not so fortunate. In a nearby Catholic orphanage, the mob allowed the kids to leave and locked up a Priest and a computer teacher in house and burned them to death. Many believers have been killed and hacked into pieces and left on the road…. even women and children. At another orphanage run by another organization, when this began, the Director and his wife jumped on their motorbike and simply fled, leaving all the children and staff behind. Every one of our GNI directors that I have spoken to said: ‘We stay with our kids…. we live together or die together, but we will never abandon what God has called us to do.’ More than 5000 Christian families have had their homes burned or destroyed. They have fled into the jungles and are living i n great fear waiting for the authorities to bring about peace. But so far, no peace is foreseen. This will continue for another 10 days…. supposedly the 14 day mourning period f or the slain Hindu priest. Many more Christians will die and their houses destroyed. Many more churches will be smashed down.

The Federal government is trying to restore order and perhaps things will calm down. We ask for your prayers. Only the Hand of God can calm this storm. None of us know the meaning of persecution. But now our kids and staff know what that means. So many of our kids coming from Hindu backgrounds are confused and totally bewildered at what is happening around them. So many of their guardians have fled into the jungles and are unable to come and get them during these trying times. Through all this, I am more determined than ever to continue with our goal: the transformation of a community by transforming its children. Orissa will be saved… that is our heart’s cry. If we can take thes e thousands of throw-away children and help them to become disciples of Jesus, they will transform an entire region. It is a long term goal, but it is strategic thinking in terms of the Great Commission.

What can you do? First, please uphold all this in fervent prayer. Second, pass this e-mail on to as many friends as you can. We must get the word out and increase our prayer base for this is spiritual warfare at its most basic meaning. We are literally fighting the devil in order to live for His Kingdom. The next 10 days are crucial. We pray for peace and calm to pervade across Orissa. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Please pass it on and help us to get as many people to partner with us on this cutting edge effort to fulfill His mandate: Go and make disciples of all nations…. Prayer works!

[source]

Previous post on India

Alan Cross just returned from India. God is still very much at work!

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