Pray For Evangelists Around the World

Here is an excerpt from a letter from Jerry Thaprom, an evangelist we support from Round Lake Christian Church.

In recent months two major supporting churches have decided to discontinue their supports due to their budgets and this really hurts our ministries especially the Myanmar evangelistic and church planting work.

So my wife I have been contemplating what to do since we can no longer maintain the work in Myanmar with this situation so we have been praying a lot and are waiting for an answer from the Lord. So the good news from you for your continuous prayers and financial support is definitely the answer we have been waiting for.  So we praise the Lord that He has heard our prayers through you.

We have been delegating ten evangelist families to carry the work of evangelism and church planting in Yangon (formerly Rangoon) and one in Shan States and another one in north Burma. These evangelists are those we know personally and they are fully dedicated and love the Lord with their hearts and are trustworthy people. The know the language well and Burmese culture so as a result, nearly 500 people have turned to the Lord and were baptized within a period of five years since we have started the work.

These Christians scattered in ten different locations, or communities around Yangon proper, mostly at villages.  These evangelists have been so faithfully carrying the work around the clock.  In recent years unlike before the Burmese people have shown the unusual interest in Christianity because  the Lord has been touching  their stubborn hearts so that they may be saved, and also the political unrest and Buddhism can not offer them any hope. As they are in this situation they observed Christians around them and eventually they wanted to turn to the Lord, and this leads them to Christ. So it is the momentum for Myanmar for us to present to them the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Praise God!  Our giving for the sake of the Gospel bears fruit in the lives of men and women in places we have never seen.  Please pray for Jerry and his wife Boonporn as they continue in the work of the Gospel.  Also pray for these evangelists who are sharing the good news that for God's glory, Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected so we might move from death to life.  

What Is Satan Up to Anyway?

I saw this video earlier this week.  I can't get the tune and words out of my head.  I don't think that we as a church have given enough consideration to the attacks of Satan, especially in his subtle lies.  Check out what Scripture has to say about his work in the CHURCH!

II Corinthians 11:12-15, "And what I do I will continue to do, in order to undermine the claim of those who would like to claim that in their boasted mission they work on the same terms as we do. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds."

Look specifically at who are called the servants of Satan.  Not demons in this verse.  Not the world.  Satan's servants claim to be apostles of Christ!  Satan places his servants in the local church community to spread his lies and masquerade as men and women full of knowledge.  They intimidate and impress with their appearance of having something that everyone else is missing.  They place special demands on the body that only the "real" christians can understand.  These servants of Satan can call themselves preachers, apostles, house church leaders, prophets, misunderstood, devout, and all kinds of other terms. They could be leaders or they may just be a part of the visible community.  Listen to what Paul says to the church at Colossae in Colossians 2:16-19, 23:

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God.

These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh. 

How do we spot these servants of Satan?  Well are they connected to the head, that is Christ?  Do they spend more time talking about the fundamental elementary truths of the Gospel or more time giving convincing arguments and visions?  The subtlety of Satan is tremendous.  If we overlook it, we will be duped by it.  Don't ever think that just because someone leads a church, is in a church, or sounds spiritual means that they are.  Examine them thoroughly.  If they don't lead you to the truth of the Gospel, that for God's glory Jesus died for our sins and was resurrected, so we might move from death to life, then they are not from God.  And if they are not from God, they are certainly not neutral.

God's Glory Is His Power, Presence, and Praise

Glory is a strange word.  It has very little real significance in our every day usage.  I do not hear it very often in every day talk, so when I come to the scripture and see it everywhere it creates a conflict for me.  Several years ago in my personal study of John, I realized that Glory was more than an abstract concept, it was vital to understanding what Jesus was all about (John 1:14).  If we do not rightly understand the Glory of God we do not rightly understand Jesus or why He came.

Romans 1:23 informs us that the problem with man is that we have exchanged God's glory for images of man, birds, animals, and creeping things.  So at our core is a Glory problem, or as it is stated in Romans 3:23, "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God," (fall short = lack).  We do not possess what we should about God, namely His glory.  And our fallen nature stems from this lack of Glory.  But what is this Glory?  Well Romans 1:20 says that His eternal power and divine nature should have been clearly perceived.  Trace the word Glory in the OT and when it refers to God, it was either a display of His power in miraculous ways or a manifestation of His presence to the people.  God's Glory is His power and presence on display!

What makes this even more amazing is that Jesus, called the Glory of God, is also described as being the power and presence of God on display.  Colossians 1:15-20 tells us that the fullness of God dwells in Jesus and that all of Creation came about and is sustained through Him.  Look at Hebrews 1:3, "He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."  Jesus is the radiance of God's glory, the imprint of His nature, and upholds the universe by the word of His power!  Glory is Power and Presence on display!

But God's Glory revealed demands acknowledgment.  This is the other use of the word Glory.  We give glory to God when we recognize His Glory.  By glory we mean praise.  In giving praise to God we are not giving Him something that He does not already possess, like a Christmas present.  Rather we are recognizing a truth that already exists.  We are joining with all creation to declare the mighty deeds of God (Psalm 19:1).  In fact, the only saving response to our recognition of the revelation of God's is to give praise to Him (Ephesians 1:11-14).  The Glory of God on display in Jesus moves us to give Glory to Him.

Pray For Your Family!

Some of you know my family or are my family so you'll understand how powerful these words are.  This was written in a Wednesday email by my Aunt Pat who lives in Texas.  Please pray great prayers for your families today!

Good morning! "This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it"! Easy to say, very hard to do most of the time. We take on so much stuff of this world that we tend to forget that God is the Creator and Designer. He made all things and He is in control of all things. We hit rough spots and hard times and we try to take over because we don't like the way He is doing things, but we just have to step back and trust HIM. He knew you before you were even formed! He knows the number of hairs on your head! How awesome is that! He changes not! You must open your hands and empty yourself to Him! Give Him every detail of your life. As a parent, I know that is hard to do, but I can tell you that when I turned my children over to God and said "they are Yours, and I can not carry the burden any more", He took over and although there have been some rough spots from where I sit, I think my children have become pretty good adults. I know that Granny gave us to God on a daily basis. Both she and Daddy prayed for their family daily. I will never forget some of the sweetest things I ever heard from my sweet Daddy. Toward the end of his life, when I would call home, I would be talking to Mother and could hear Daddy in the background talking and saying names of family members. I asked her what he was talking about and she said, "oh, he's just praying." What a comfort. So, parents, pray for your children. Give them to God and trust Him!