Hey guys here is a really intense article I read on another blog and thought I'd post it here too. Comment with what you guys think.
Our Gospel Has No Teeth
(Excerpted from the book, How Saved Are We?)
By Dr. Michael L. Brown
Every year, more than ten thousand believers are being martyred. That’s right. More than 10,000 people who proclaim Jesus as Lord are being put to death every year. How can this possibly be? Even if we say that this figure is too high (some experts claim that it’s far too low!); even if it includes believers killed through indiscriminate terrorist attacks, as well as people who were murdered more for political reasons than spiritual reasons; even if there are only one thousand believers being martyred a year, this figure is still astounding to the American Christian mind.
Here in America, if one believer was martyred it would produce an outrage from coast to coast. It would shake up the people of God. It would make the headlines of every newspaper in the country. We’d probably even make a movie about it! It would be a national event.
Then what’s the difference between America and Iraq (where Muslims who convert can be killed on the spot), or between our country and Albania (where believers have been sealed in barrels and thrown out to sea)? Why is there virtually no persecution here? It is true that we are different than the Marxist and Islamic nations. Religious liberty for us is a constitutional right. We can evangelize and preach to our heart’s content. And we have some godly people in our government. But is the United States a “Christian” nation? Hardly!
We have the highest level of teenage drug abuse in any industrialized nation as well as the highest divorce rate. We are by far the world’s largest manufacturer of beer and the third greatest consumer of alcohol per capita. “Christian” America has some of the world’s most liberal abortion laws -- we have legally murdered twenty-five million little ones since 1973 [as of 1990; the number as of 2005 is forty-five million], now killing forty-two babies for every 100 live births. Organized, public prayer in our schools is against the law, our children’s textbooks honor Buddha and Mohammed, and many cynical, sarcastic professors provide our “higher education.” The liberal media gives our people the news, and now our grocery stores peddle smut. Magazines which would have been hard to come by a few decades ago because of their sexual content are now placed on check-out counters for our children to see! We are not a “Christian” nation!
We have annual parades celebrating homosexual and lesbian behavior, and not even AIDS has slowed us down. In fact, when one congressman was recently exposed by his male prostitute companion, Congress was hesitant to try to remove him. Why? Because too many other senators were guilty of similar perversions! And all this among the elected officials governing our land, this “one nation under God.”
Oh yes -- thank God for America! Our country is one of the greatest countries that has ever existed, and we have so much to give. But remember -- it is not so much Communism or Islam that stands against the gospel -- it is the world. And America is of the world.
Why is it then that God’s people suffer virtually no persecution here? Because our gospel has no teeth! It hardly exposes sin in the Body, let alone in the world. How are we shining the light? How are we confronting the world with the righteousness of God? How are we bringing a shaking to our society? Why do we hardly make anyone uncomfortable anymore?
The fact is, when we do poke the devil in the eye by protesting the murder of innocent babies, or by exposing the evils of pornography, the enemy rages and roars. We have dared to invade his guarded territory, and he doesn’t like it one bit. But this is the exception, not the rule. The devil is still sitting safe and secure. He sees how ineffectual most of our words and actions are. And he sees how almost all of our ministry endeavors are designed to build up our own lives, not touch the world. Are we merely fattening ourselves for slaughter?
As American believers we have corporately spent hundreds of millions of dollars on our own edification while foreign workers could have evangelized hundreds of millions of their own unreached countrymen with the financial crumbs that fall from our tables. And to add insult to injury, despite all our efforts, our ministry to ourselves has left us inactive, passive, and pathetically comfortable in a fallen, dying society. Is it any wonder that Satan is not afraid of our big talk? It hasn’t shaken the church. How can it shake the world?
The last few decades have seen a deluge of radio and television ministries. But according to every criterion of decency and morality, our national standard is down. What good has all our preaching done?
Lots of young people want “ministries.” They are looking for opportunities to share the Scriptures. Well, there are plenty of street corners throughout our cities in need of young preachers with a message! God knows -- we don’t need more ministers serving our connoisseur congregations the latest in gourmet Word! We need to get out where the action is. Then we’ll see some results. And then the sparks will fly.
Take an example from the secular world. In 1989, when the United States government began working with Columbia to apprehend and extradite Columbia’s big drug dealers, the repercussions were intense. The drug lords responded with wholesale violence -- blowing up planes, murdering newspaper reporters, kidnapping innocent civilians, and bombing police headquarters. Why? Because they were being brought to account; their lifestyle was being threatened.
It is the same with the gospel. When we tell people that they are sinners, and that there is a consequence to their actions; that one day they will be judged for their deeds; that without doubt, a guilty verdict will come -- people get enraged! But when all we say is “Only believe!” -- no repentance, no commitment, no change of life required -- why should there be any offense? How are we holding anyone accountable? How are we convicting them of their sin? We are simply not preaching the whole counsel of God. If we were, with so much media exposure, the American people would be people trembling in their boots!
What if Paul and Peter were alive today and ministering in the United States? Wouldn’t they be persecuted? Of course they would! Why? Because they would be a threat to the devil’s operation. They would be making trouble for the powers of darkness. And they would be disturbing the ungodly living in sin.
Look at the Book of Acts. The apostles were beaten and stoned by idolaters and imprisoned by hypocritical religious authorities. Why? Because their message was a menace to the kingdom of darkness. It had an adverse effect on business!
Persecution arises when the gospel is a threat to a degenerate, perverted society and a cold, formalistic religious leadership. Good business for the kingdom of God means bad business for the devil. Of this we can rest assured: if we were making real inroads into Satan’s empire, we would be feeling his heat. Instead we have become one with the world and one with the religious establishment. That’s why we receive virtually no persecution from either.
Paul’s message so effected the people of Ephesus that local idol sales dropped sharply. It led to a huge riot in the city because the silversmiths and craftsmen were afraid they would go bankrupt (Acts 19). But today in our great nation we have the strangest of occurrences: “idol sales” and Bible sales are both on the increase. Although lots of people are getting “saved”, there doesn’t seem to be much less sinning! Our lives are so intertwined with this corrupt world that we can bring no holy standard to it.
When the prophetic priest Girolamo Savonarola preached in Florence five hundred years ago, his message sent shock-waves through the whole city. “His sermons ‘caused such terror and alarm, such sobbing and tears that people passed through the streets without speaking, more dead than alive’ as he prophesied coming judgment on the church and the country” (Winkie Pratney, quoting Harold Fischer). And his only weapon was words.
“But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the Lord, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression, to Israel his sin” (Micah 3:8). It was not long before Savonarola was imprisoned, tortured, and executed -- but not until Italy was confronted with the truth. May God give us a whole generation of fire-tongued, brokenhearted, holy men and women of the Spirit, to shatter this world’s security by the power of the Word. Oh, for the sharp, piercing sword of truth!
When Stephen accused the religious leaders of his day of being stiff-necked and hardhearted, “they were furious and gnashed their teeth” (Acts 7:54). But today we are making no one mad. Our messages put people to sleep rather than make them weep; they are calculated to win men’s praise, not provoke their rage. Who are we confronting today? We have made our peace with the religious system.
We are really not much different than the “dead” church. We go to service on Sunday mornings, attend a mid-week Bible study or prayer meeting, and leave our religion inside the sanctuary doors (if we’re serious enough to bring it home with us, we keep it locked in our houses!). Who in the world would want to persecute us? We are too harmless and mild.
Listen to the fiery words uttered in England by Catherine Booth over one-hundred years ago:
* Opposition! It is a bad sign for the Christianity of this day that it provokes so little opposition. If there were no other evidence of it being wrong, I should know from that. When the Church and the world can jog along together comfortably, you may be sure there is something wrong. The world has not altered. Its spirit is exactly the same as it ever was, and if Christians were equally faithful and devoted to the Lord, and separated from the world, living so that their lives were a reproof to all ungodliness, the world would hate them as much as it ever did. It is the Church that has altered, not the world.
How can we argue with this? The Word is perfectly clear:
* Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted (2 Tim. 3:12).
* If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated Me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you: “No servant is greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will persecute you also (John 15:18-20).
There is no getting away from the plain sense of these verses: if we were living godly lives in the full sense of the biblical word, we would be persecuted. If we did not belong to the world, just as Jesus did not belong to the world, we would be hated as He was hated.
The people of the world today are still rejecting the Son of God. Why aren’t they rejecting us?
Saturday, December 03, 2005
Monday, November 07, 2005
Home again
Well I just got back from Millar college of the bible yesterday and today I have been figuring out education plans and stuff and just finding interesting sites on the internet. Here is a really good yet sad site
http://www.bound4life.com/
it is an activist site for people who are burdened by the millions of abortions every year in the world. Here is a really beautiful music video about that check it out.
http://www.nickcannonmusic.com/
You called, you cried, you shattered my deafness.
You sparkled, you blazed, you drove away my blindness.
You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath,
and I pant for you.
I tasted and I now hunger and thirst.
You touched me, and I now burn with longing for you.
--St. Augustine
Also here is another really neat site
http://www.internationalworship.net/
go to listen to music and listen to some of the student songs they are very beautiful and worshipful.
There has been a lot that I have been thinking about lately, like the simplicity of the christian faith. In Gospels class we started talking about the verse "no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he first becomes like a little child" in Matthew. Then we talked about what characteristics would jesus be talking about? it was really neat to think about that and maybe some of our role models ought to be children. Here are some that I remember
Humility - very often you don't get little kids who are prideful and think a lot of themselves or on the other side they don't put themselves down either. They just are who they are and that's that.
Joy - How easy is it to make a little kid laugh? They are always so quick to smile and enjoy the moment. They don't get concerned with what time it is or their surroundings.
Authenticity - there are so few hypocrites as kids, there is the pretend world and the real world and when they are pretending to be someone else they know it and make it obvious. They haven't learned to make masks for themselves for different situations, they just act however they feel like acting.
and then Energy, Idealistic, Stubborn, and Friendly. There are probably even more and also those are becoming less and less evident in children as they get corrupted earlier and earlier in life but still I think we can all remember instances of those. Something I want to strive for is to be more childlike in my faith. Just stubbornly following Jesus with the joy energy and humility of a child.
Haha I have heard a lot of Mennonite jokes at Millar. Also here is a new joke I heard this year
a guy walks into a bar with a piece of pavement under his arm. He orders two drinks and the bartender asks him why and he says "Oh one for me, and one for the road"
haha well have a great year all, God bless you guys.
http://www.bound4life.com/
it is an activist site for people who are burdened by the millions of abortions every year in the world. Here is a really beautiful music video about that check it out.
http://www.nickcannonmusic.com/
You called, you cried, you shattered my deafness.
You sparkled, you blazed, you drove away my blindness.
You shed your fragrance, and I drew in my breath,
and I pant for you.
I tasted and I now hunger and thirst.
You touched me, and I now burn with longing for you.
--St. Augustine
Also here is another really neat site
http://www.internationalworship.net/
go to listen to music and listen to some of the student songs they are very beautiful and worshipful.
There has been a lot that I have been thinking about lately, like the simplicity of the christian faith. In Gospels class we started talking about the verse "no one can enter the kingdom of heaven unless he first becomes like a little child" in Matthew. Then we talked about what characteristics would jesus be talking about? it was really neat to think about that and maybe some of our role models ought to be children. Here are some that I remember
Humility - very often you don't get little kids who are prideful and think a lot of themselves or on the other side they don't put themselves down either. They just are who they are and that's that.
Joy - How easy is it to make a little kid laugh? They are always so quick to smile and enjoy the moment. They don't get concerned with what time it is or their surroundings.
Authenticity - there are so few hypocrites as kids, there is the pretend world and the real world and when they are pretending to be someone else they know it and make it obvious. They haven't learned to make masks for themselves for different situations, they just act however they feel like acting.
and then Energy, Idealistic, Stubborn, and Friendly. There are probably even more and also those are becoming less and less evident in children as they get corrupted earlier and earlier in life but still I think we can all remember instances of those. Something I want to strive for is to be more childlike in my faith. Just stubbornly following Jesus with the joy energy and humility of a child.
Haha I have heard a lot of Mennonite jokes at Millar. Also here is a new joke I heard this year
a guy walks into a bar with a piece of pavement under his arm. He orders two drinks and the bartender asks him why and he says "Oh one for me, and one for the road"
haha well have a great year all, God bless you guys.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Ponderings
"I’ve learned that anytime my success depends on another person’s response, I will manipulate them.”
That's a really interesting quote, it got me thinking a lot and I think that it is almost always if not always true. It is probably one of the biggest flaws as well in the way we view evangelism. When we are concerned about numbers and how many people accept Christ instead of just faithfully presenting the gospel then we are manipulating and probably not preaching the full gospel. It reminds of one of the most convicting passages in the bible for me
Ezekiel 33
Ezekiel Is Israel's Watchman
1The word of the LORD came to me: 2"Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.
7"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
God has called us as Watchmen, we are to warn others of the coming wrath. This is serious stuff, it is all right if they don't listen. But the responsibility is on us to get the message out, otherwise their blood is on our hands. I don't know if we can take this as theologically accurate, but definitely as a stern warning. Here is a site that changed my life, and my opinion of missions
http://www.thetravelingteam.org/2000/resources/quotes.shtml
I heard an analogy of telling people about Jesus actually if you want to hear the sermon itself it is here
click here
But the guy was talking about if you are standing outside a forest on a snowy day and you have a shotgun in your hand and you see a wolf walking up behind a skinny defenseless man, and you watch as the wolf proceeds to eat that man. You do not even raise the shotgun but watch with Sadness. Would you say that you showed Love to that man? Maybe he had sensitive hearing and would have been offended by the blast of the shotgun. Surely then you were justified in not shooting the wolf or even yelling and telling him about it. Or imagine the gun is not yours but there is a man beside you who's gun it is and he is pleading with you to use his gun to shoot the wolf before it reaches the man. As you can probably tell Jesus is that man and he says
Mark 16:15
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
The gun is the gospel message and the wolf is the oncoming Godless eternity.
All of this is so important and has convicted me so much but it means nothing if I don't take what I've been learning and use it for the glory of God. I am such a timid guy sometimes, it is so frustrating because I know that God is offering me boldness if I will take it but I am too afraid to accept the boldness that he can give me because I know it will change who my friends are, what people think of me, and my future. I know it would be for the better but also it would be far more uncertain, far more dependant on God. And that is scary, so very scary, even though I know in my head that God is trustworthy and am learning more in my heart that he is.
That's a really interesting quote, it got me thinking a lot and I think that it is almost always if not always true. It is probably one of the biggest flaws as well in the way we view evangelism. When we are concerned about numbers and how many people accept Christ instead of just faithfully presenting the gospel then we are manipulating and probably not preaching the full gospel. It reminds of one of the most convicting passages in the bible for me
Ezekiel 33
Ezekiel Is Israel's Watchman
1The word of the LORD came to me: 2"Son of man, speak to your people and say to them, If I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and make him their watchman, 3and if he sees the sword coming upon the land and blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4then if anyone who hears the sound of the trumpet does not take warning, and the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be upon his own head. 5He heard the sound of the trumpet and did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But if he had taken warning, he would have saved his life. 6But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman's hand.
7"So you, son of man, I have made a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8If I say to the wicked, O wicked one, you shall surely die, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from his way, that wicked person shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 9But if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, that person shall die in his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.
God has called us as Watchmen, we are to warn others of the coming wrath. This is serious stuff, it is all right if they don't listen. But the responsibility is on us to get the message out, otherwise their blood is on our hands. I don't know if we can take this as theologically accurate, but definitely as a stern warning. Here is a site that changed my life, and my opinion of missions
http://www.thetravelingteam.org/2000/resources/quotes.shtml
I heard an analogy of telling people about Jesus actually if you want to hear the sermon itself it is here
click here
But the guy was talking about if you are standing outside a forest on a snowy day and you have a shotgun in your hand and you see a wolf walking up behind a skinny defenseless man, and you watch as the wolf proceeds to eat that man. You do not even raise the shotgun but watch with Sadness. Would you say that you showed Love to that man? Maybe he had sensitive hearing and would have been offended by the blast of the shotgun. Surely then you were justified in not shooting the wolf or even yelling and telling him about it. Or imagine the gun is not yours but there is a man beside you who's gun it is and he is pleading with you to use his gun to shoot the wolf before it reaches the man. As you can probably tell Jesus is that man and he says
Mark 16:15
He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
The gun is the gospel message and the wolf is the oncoming Godless eternity.
All of this is so important and has convicted me so much but it means nothing if I don't take what I've been learning and use it for the glory of God. I am such a timid guy sometimes, it is so frustrating because I know that God is offering me boldness if I will take it but I am too afraid to accept the boldness that he can give me because I know it will change who my friends are, what people think of me, and my future. I know it would be for the better but also it would be far more uncertain, far more dependant on God. And that is scary, so very scary, even though I know in my head that God is trustworthy and am learning more in my heart that he is.
Sunday, May 29, 2005
New stuff
Hello all,
that article that I just posted I thought was really neat, just to see what it's like for christians to have a bible and the holy spirit and not know anything of culture and church traditions. I find myself lately just kind of thinking about God and church and what it's all about. What is the most effective way to live for God? How much balance should there be between prayer and action? When is the time for acceptance and when is the time for drawing the line? I like Pastor Bill's bucket analogy.
I find myself appreciating more and more people who handle the scriptures well, who not only read it like it is the word of God, but know it like it's the most important book in the world. Both of which it is. I really want to get back hardcore into the word but with graduation and frisbee and all these other things piling up I just have so little time. But even the time that I do have I often put it off. Haha like right now, just writing this instead of getting into God's word.
We had a youth retreat out at Katepwa valley this weekend here are the pictures
http://photobucket.com/albums/y260/hillbap/
it was really fun but I am really tired now. Actually haha I think I will just get off now and follow my second paragraph's conviction. God bless you all! Oh yeah and if you have answers to my wonderings above I would be delighted to hear them. bye all. Oh yeah haha and you can visit this site by going to
http://www.davidhepting.tk/
bye for real now!
-david
1 Chronicles 16:25
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
that article that I just posted I thought was really neat, just to see what it's like for christians to have a bible and the holy spirit and not know anything of culture and church traditions. I find myself lately just kind of thinking about God and church and what it's all about. What is the most effective way to live for God? How much balance should there be between prayer and action? When is the time for acceptance and when is the time for drawing the line? I like Pastor Bill's bucket analogy.
I find myself appreciating more and more people who handle the scriptures well, who not only read it like it is the word of God, but know it like it's the most important book in the world. Both of which it is. I really want to get back hardcore into the word but with graduation and frisbee and all these other things piling up I just have so little time. But even the time that I do have I often put it off. Haha like right now, just writing this instead of getting into God's word.
We had a youth retreat out at Katepwa valley this weekend here are the pictures
http://photobucket.com/albums/y260/hillbap/
it was really fun but I am really tired now. Actually haha I think I will just get off now and follow my second paragraph's conviction. God bless you all! Oh yeah and if you have answers to my wonderings above I would be delighted to hear them. bye all. Oh yeah haha and you can visit this site by going to
http://www.davidhepting.tk/
bye for real now!
-david
1 Chronicles 16:25
For great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; he is to be feared above all gods.
REVIVAL IN THE ARTIC - RUSSIAN INUIT
The last week of August Bill, an evangelist from Ottawa, held a series of meetings in Gouverneur, New York. Gouverneur was a difficult or hard place when Charles Finney held meetings 160+ years ago. It is even a harder place today. He is known for a healing ministry but the meetings in August were definitely more like renewal meetings.
The reason I'm sharing this is that he spoke of the revival in Arctic Canada among the Eskimo (Inuit). Then last week we received the latest issue of Spread the Fire from TACF. In that issue was an article about the Eskimo revival. I thought I would share some other exciting news that Prankard shared concerning Arctic Russia.
He found out that there were Inuit in Arctic Russia as well and that these Russian Inuit were an "unreached people." It seems that in all the years of Russian control, not even the Russian Orthodox Church had had any contact with these people.
In 1994 he arranged an outreach to the Russian Arctic and took a team of nine Inuits with him. They found the Inuit people open to the Gospel and many, many were saved. The team had to take a helicopter to a village, share the Gospel and then leave to the next village. The Russian Inuit got saved, a prayer was said over them that the Holy Spirit would keep them, and they were given a Bible in their language. That was it.
Nine months later the team of Canadian Inuit returned with Bill. They were apprehensive about what they would find. The Russian Inuit hadn't really received any teaching. When the team arrived in Arctic Russia they found on-fire Christians. In one village 1100 of 1200 Inuit were saved (all adult men in the village were saved).
It seems that since the Russian Inuit had no teaching they were forced to rely on the Bible and the Holy Spirit for guidance--they just didn't know any better. :-) They did't know anything about church but they did discover that the Book of Acts wrote about church. In Acts, the believers met daily. So the Inuit met daily. In Acts, believers asked the Father for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and received. The Inuit asked the Father and received. Deliverance, healings, gifts of the Spirit were all freely available to the Inuit. They just didn't know any better-- they thought the Book of Acts and the New Testament letters described NORMAL church life!
All on their own, the Russian Inuit decided to send missionaries to villages which had not heard the Gospel. Yes, they are facing opposition and persecution as well. (I believe they weren't surprised, having read the New Testament. Probably thought that was normal too.)
Bill said that these people were so isolated that they had never heard of Canada or the United States. Of course they had also never heard of Toronto, Vineyard. But in their services they acted like they had. The Canadian team saw Inuit do crunches, laugh, shake, the whole Toronto blessing repertoire of manifestations. The Russian Inuit had the peculiar notion that this was all part of a normal, everyday church service. I guess they just didn't know any better.
We have a prayer meeting every other Friday night in our home. At our last meeting we decided that our standard operating procedure would be to ask ourselves, "What would a Russian Eskimo do in this situation?" I guess we just don't want to know any better.
from sendrevival.com
The reason I'm sharing this is that he spoke of the revival in Arctic Canada among the Eskimo (Inuit). Then last week we received the latest issue of Spread the Fire from TACF. In that issue was an article about the Eskimo revival. I thought I would share some other exciting news that Prankard shared concerning Arctic Russia.
He found out that there were Inuit in Arctic Russia as well and that these Russian Inuit were an "unreached people." It seems that in all the years of Russian control, not even the Russian Orthodox Church had had any contact with these people.
In 1994 he arranged an outreach to the Russian Arctic and took a team of nine Inuits with him. They found the Inuit people open to the Gospel and many, many were saved. The team had to take a helicopter to a village, share the Gospel and then leave to the next village. The Russian Inuit got saved, a prayer was said over them that the Holy Spirit would keep them, and they were given a Bible in their language. That was it.
Nine months later the team of Canadian Inuit returned with Bill. They were apprehensive about what they would find. The Russian Inuit hadn't really received any teaching. When the team arrived in Arctic Russia they found on-fire Christians. In one village 1100 of 1200 Inuit were saved (all adult men in the village were saved).
It seems that since the Russian Inuit had no teaching they were forced to rely on the Bible and the Holy Spirit for guidance--they just didn't know any better. :-) They did't know anything about church but they did discover that the Book of Acts wrote about church. In Acts, the believers met daily. So the Inuit met daily. In Acts, believers asked the Father for the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and received. The Inuit asked the Father and received. Deliverance, healings, gifts of the Spirit were all freely available to the Inuit. They just didn't know any better-- they thought the Book of Acts and the New Testament letters described NORMAL church life!
All on their own, the Russian Inuit decided to send missionaries to villages which had not heard the Gospel. Yes, they are facing opposition and persecution as well. (I believe they weren't surprised, having read the New Testament. Probably thought that was normal too.)
Bill said that these people were so isolated that they had never heard of Canada or the United States. Of course they had also never heard of Toronto, Vineyard. But in their services they acted like they had. The Canadian team saw Inuit do crunches, laugh, shake, the whole Toronto blessing repertoire of manifestations. The Russian Inuit had the peculiar notion that this was all part of a normal, everyday church service. I guess they just didn't know any better.
We have a prayer meeting every other Friday night in our home. At our last meeting we decided that our standard operating procedure would be to ask ourselves, "What would a Russian Eskimo do in this situation?" I guess we just don't want to know any better.
from sendrevival.com
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
My thoughts
Hey everybody,
well I just got back from the last bible quiz meet ever where i will be a quizzer. It was a really good time, but also sad. I'm going to miss everyone so much, being a coach or quizmaster or official won't be the same. I learned a lot too. Being supportive and an encouragement costs us so little and yet the difference it makes in the lives of others is just incredible. The worst that can happen is that somebody will totally reject us or the encouragement, but even then they will still probably deep down appreciate it. I know for myself I was encouraged so much there and learned better how to encourage. Ask God that he would make you an encouragement to those around you and I'm sure he will.
Man I also can't get over how much God has blessed me with so many cool little things that are so special to me in personal ways. Only God could have known how to make my day so well. I will name a few things that he has given me. Ever since I was like 2 years old 17 was my favourite number, whenever I had a chance to pick a number I would always pick 17 and still do. But anyways it was so neat because for the quiz meet my dad saw the list of the order that they pick people for Internationals. Every year they take the top ten quizzers out of almost 500 in our district to go to Internationals. Not only did I not have room in my summer or really want to go, but I also didn't study anywhere near enough to go. But my dad saw that my name was number 17 on that list, and that encouraged me so much. Haha God is so nice. Also they had all the quizzers stand on Sunday morning that were going to be involved in Missions of some kind this summer. This included summer camps, so I stood and when Steve asked people to tell where they were going I said Dallas Valley. Then in the lunch line one of the coolest nicest girls in quizzing introduced herself and it turns out she is going to be a wrangler at Dallas Valley this summer and doesn't really know anyone, so that was really cool to meet her and find that out.
Haha so much is going on in this week alone in my life, another cool thing happened when i got back from the quiz meet. I checked my email and a really nice girl from camp last summer invited me to be her escort at Grad. So that was exciting and will be a lot of fun. Then I read one of the most intense books ever, I got it for free from here
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/
It talks a lot about the way we deal with money and how much we have compared to christians all over the world and how it is our duty to be good stewards. It convicted me hardcore, instead of sponsoring a world vision or compassion international child where there is a slight slight chance they might become a christian through your love. Here you can sponsor a native missionary, they live with nothing to give everything to the people they are reaching. They do a phenomenal work and it costs them about $120-$180 a month for all their food, shelter, tracts, family, and transportation. That is so crazy, Almost none of the western missionaries are willing to live in those kind of conditions with that kind of passion for the people they are ministering to. I decided to sponsor two each month for $30 each a month, then pray for them each day. To think that we can be such a part of bringing people to christ in the most unreached parts of the world is so exciting. I can't wait to get the pictures of my missionaries and their testimonies in the mail. It almost makes me want to get a job before summer camp counselling to help support more, haha but I don't think I want to give up the last months of high school. Maybe later.
The more I rely on the holy spirit day to day the more amazing my life becomes. I've had so many more oppurtunities this year for Christ than ever before in my life simply because I'm praying more every morning. If before you had asked me if Prayer worked I would say "Absolutely!!" and then go on pray a few times a week, a few feeble and not bold prayers for things like safety and forgiveness. In my mind I believed it but I had never experienced God's power for myself. At street Invaders I started writing down a list of everything that God has clearly done in my life, but I think that there is no way I could keep that up anymore. and I am still such a wuss and pathetic when it comes to stepping out in faith or making sacrifices for God. The longest I have ever fasted in my life, like really fasted not 30 hour famine or anything. Was from going asleep one night to 8:00 the next night. Haha and that was really tough for me. I am so used to appeasing every desire. That deliberately saying No to my flesh, and saying that God is more important than food to me is just super tough.
But yeah, it was cool to write all this. I wonder if I will keep blogging. God bless you all!
-david
Habakkuk 3:2
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
well I just got back from the last bible quiz meet ever where i will be a quizzer. It was a really good time, but also sad. I'm going to miss everyone so much, being a coach or quizmaster or official won't be the same. I learned a lot too. Being supportive and an encouragement costs us so little and yet the difference it makes in the lives of others is just incredible. The worst that can happen is that somebody will totally reject us or the encouragement, but even then they will still probably deep down appreciate it. I know for myself I was encouraged so much there and learned better how to encourage. Ask God that he would make you an encouragement to those around you and I'm sure he will.
Man I also can't get over how much God has blessed me with so many cool little things that are so special to me in personal ways. Only God could have known how to make my day so well. I will name a few things that he has given me. Ever since I was like 2 years old 17 was my favourite number, whenever I had a chance to pick a number I would always pick 17 and still do. But anyways it was so neat because for the quiz meet my dad saw the list of the order that they pick people for Internationals. Every year they take the top ten quizzers out of almost 500 in our district to go to Internationals. Not only did I not have room in my summer or really want to go, but I also didn't study anywhere near enough to go. But my dad saw that my name was number 17 on that list, and that encouraged me so much. Haha God is so nice. Also they had all the quizzers stand on Sunday morning that were going to be involved in Missions of some kind this summer. This included summer camps, so I stood and when Steve asked people to tell where they were going I said Dallas Valley. Then in the lunch line one of the coolest nicest girls in quizzing introduced herself and it turns out she is going to be a wrangler at Dallas Valley this summer and doesn't really know anyone, so that was really cool to meet her and find that out.
Haha so much is going on in this week alone in my life, another cool thing happened when i got back from the quiz meet. I checked my email and a really nice girl from camp last summer invited me to be her escort at Grad. So that was exciting and will be a lot of fun. Then I read one of the most intense books ever, I got it for free from here
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/
It talks a lot about the way we deal with money and how much we have compared to christians all over the world and how it is our duty to be good stewards. It convicted me hardcore, instead of sponsoring a world vision or compassion international child where there is a slight slight chance they might become a christian through your love. Here you can sponsor a native missionary, they live with nothing to give everything to the people they are reaching. They do a phenomenal work and it costs them about $120-$180 a month for all their food, shelter, tracts, family, and transportation. That is so crazy, Almost none of the western missionaries are willing to live in those kind of conditions with that kind of passion for the people they are ministering to. I decided to sponsor two each month for $30 each a month, then pray for them each day. To think that we can be such a part of bringing people to christ in the most unreached parts of the world is so exciting. I can't wait to get the pictures of my missionaries and their testimonies in the mail. It almost makes me want to get a job before summer camp counselling to help support more, haha but I don't think I want to give up the last months of high school. Maybe later.
The more I rely on the holy spirit day to day the more amazing my life becomes. I've had so many more oppurtunities this year for Christ than ever before in my life simply because I'm praying more every morning. If before you had asked me if Prayer worked I would say "Absolutely!!" and then go on pray a few times a week, a few feeble and not bold prayers for things like safety and forgiveness. In my mind I believed it but I had never experienced God's power for myself. At street Invaders I started writing down a list of everything that God has clearly done in my life, but I think that there is no way I could keep that up anymore. and I am still such a wuss and pathetic when it comes to stepping out in faith or making sacrifices for God. The longest I have ever fasted in my life, like really fasted not 30 hour famine or anything. Was from going asleep one night to 8:00 the next night. Haha and that was really tough for me. I am so used to appeasing every desire. That deliberately saying No to my flesh, and saying that God is more important than food to me is just super tough.
But yeah, it was cool to write all this. I wonder if I will keep blogging. God bless you all!
-david
Habakkuk 3:2
LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.
thoughts
I read this on a different blog and heartily agree
I wish i could apologize to all females in the world on behalf of all males who have ever treated them badly.
Really.
I'm sorry. You deserve so much better than what "men" (boys) have given you.
To all of my Lady friends: I truly value and cherish your friendship and I pray that I never join the unfortunately long ranks of males who have hurt, used, abused, belittled, taken advantage of, or treated you as any less than the daughters of the true Living God that you are.
If human fathers can be protective of their daughters to the point of violence, then there's nothing scarier than messing with Gods daughter.
Please don't ever let one of us manipulate you or play with your emotions. Please have rediculously high standards for the men in your lives. It may be hard to find men that can meet those standards in this day and age, but the ones that do will hopefully make up for the ones that don't.
Please don't ever let the worldly, secular, fleshy, opinions of men about what you "should" look like affect your own opinion of yourself. Comparing yourself to others will always leave you finding some reason you not like something about yourself and there is nothing Godly about that. Don't worry about the opinions of men, but of God.
Remember who you are...
I wish i could apologize to all females in the world on behalf of all males who have ever treated them badly.
Really.
I'm sorry. You deserve so much better than what "men" (boys) have given you.
To all of my Lady friends: I truly value and cherish your friendship and I pray that I never join the unfortunately long ranks of males who have hurt, used, abused, belittled, taken advantage of, or treated you as any less than the daughters of the true Living God that you are.
If human fathers can be protective of their daughters to the point of violence, then there's nothing scarier than messing with Gods daughter.
Please don't ever let one of us manipulate you or play with your emotions. Please have rediculously high standards for the men in your lives. It may be hard to find men that can meet those standards in this day and age, but the ones that do will hopefully make up for the ones that don't.
Please don't ever let the worldly, secular, fleshy, opinions of men about what you "should" look like affect your own opinion of yourself. Comparing yourself to others will always leave you finding some reason you not like something about yourself and there is nothing Godly about that. Don't worry about the opinions of men, but of God.
Remember who you are...
Monday, March 28, 2005
a new start
well I tried livejournal for awhile but I think that I like this site better. Hooray for my first post!!
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