Sep
4
Focused prayer for Muslim world
Filed Under Around the Church, Blogging, Culture, Current Events, Evangelism, Islam, Missions, Prayer | Leave a Comment
In our prayer meeting during September we will spend a portion of time praying for the power of the Gospel to reach mightily into the Muslim world. 30-Days International (www.30-days.net) produces the “30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World” Christian prayer guide coinciding with Ramadan each year.
The origin of this international prayer network came about as a group of Christian leaders were praying during a meeting in the Middle East in April 1992. God put a burden on the hearts of these men and women to call as many Christians as possible to pray for the Muslim world. The annual, worldwide, 30-Days Muslim prayer focus gives Christians the opportunity to learn about Islam and pray for Muslims during Ramadan (Islam’s important annual month of fasting and religious observance). This year’s motto is: “Loving Muslims through Prayer.”
Each year a new prayer guide booklet is published in a number of languages and locations around the world. The booklet is illustrated and contains daily readings with prayer points and informative background articles focusing on the Muslim world. Printed copies of the prayer guide are sold out, but an online daily blog version is available here.
Aug
21
Sweet words from Sproul
Filed Under Apologetics, Christian Living, Evangelism | Leave a Comment
A sweet, pithy summary of the glory of the gospel from one of our best teachers, R.C. Sproul:
The glory of the gospel is this: The one from whom we need to be saved is the one who saved us.
Apr
8
Tops of the mountains of our guilt
Filed Under Christian Living, Evangelism, Holiness, Justification | Leave a Comment
“Standing at the foot of the cross, and beholding the Redeemer in his expiring agony, the Christian may indeed gather courage. When I think of my sin, it seems impossible that any atonement should ever be adequate; but when I think of Christ’s death it seems impossible, that any sin should ever be great enough to need such an atonement as that. There is in the death of Christ enough and more than enough. There is not only a sea in which to drown our sins, but the very tops of the mountains of our guilt are covered. Forty cubits upwards hath this red sea prevailed. There is not only enough to put our sins to death, but enough to bury them and hide them out of sight. I say it boldly and without a figure, — the eternal arm of God now nerved with strength, now released from the bondage in which justice held it, is able to save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Christ.”
From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled “The Believer’s Challenge,” delivered June 5, 1859
Mar
5
Prosperity gospel: John Piper’s assessment
Filed Under Blogging, Christian Living, Evangelism, Nota Bene, Tragedy | Leave a Comment
Gripping words from John Piper. The Sweet Dropper found this on Justin Taylor’s blog Between Two Worlds
Dec
4
AIDS and ministry in Ethiopia
Filed Under Culture, Current Events, Evangelism, Missions | 1 Comment
World AIDS Day was designated by someone somewhere as 1 December. The record will note that The Sweet Dropper is three days late in posting in this regard. But, here is a letter we received yesterday from our friend Andy Warren, who works in medical and church planting ministry with Mission to the World in Ethiopia. Andy and his wife Bev are dearly beloved among us here at FPC Kosciusko and were with us in October for our World Mission Conference. Below is the text of Andy’s letter:
Dear Friends,
December 1st is World AIDS Day. For me it is a day to think about the people I know personally that have been, and still are, being affected by this epidemic. In spite of being
thousands of miles from Ethiopia I still see their faces clearly in my mind, and the first ones I see are the children. They are the ones who regularly visit my office, show me
their report cards, beg for candy, scavenge in my desk drawers, and sit in my lap.
I cannot imagine anything in my life being more satisfying than helping these HIV+
children. While it still isn’t clear how long, or what kind of life these children will have,
it is thrilling to see them alive today and thrilling to see them well and going to school
and living normal lives.
We started out treating four children, Selam, Mikias, Leul and Estifo. Today we have at
least twenty children on treatment and another group that we monitor so that they can
start treatment when they are eligible.
Another satisfying part of work this last year was expanding into two new communities. Bole was the first new community and Danny, the manager for this new work, has done an amazing job. I met Danny eleven years ago when he was a 13-year-old boy. He has grown into a mature and talented young man. He recently sent me the story of one of the
new HIV+ women in the Bole community. Lemlem is a young woman who was idnapped as a young girl and held as a slave until she escaped and fled to Addis Ababa. he tells some of her story:
In Addis, I began to work in a grocery store as a cashier. While I as working there I had an affair with a man who was a driver. During he affair, I got pregnant but I aborted it after 7 months. I used traditional medicine to cause the abortion. The traditional medicine hurt me very much.
After this, I stopped working in the grocery because the owner transferred the store to another person as a contract. While I was there I had TB. Then I got a job at a draft house (bar). I still felt sick. I worked for 7 years at the draft house. Then, I got really sick and I wanted to stop working. I asked my boss to give me my salary but she would not give it to
me. I had no money and I was feeling very sick. I suffered a lot. When Selam, Mikias and Leul the grocery lady, who I had worked for before, heard, she called me and began to treat me. When my sickness got worse, Megenbesh, who is one of the project’s beneficiaries, told me to have my blood checked. I did and I found out I was HIV positive. When I heard that, I was shocked and I fainted. The doctors advised me to calm down and not be sad. I stopped working but refused to take any medicine. One day, I was very sick and someone knocked on the door. I was unable to stand up and open the door so I just said “get in.” It was the project staff (Danny).
Now I thank God because I am in a better position in life. I feel like I have been healed from the death. There are people who do not get the opportunity to experience this, but I do. So I am thankful. What matters for me now is my mom. I want to see my mother if she is alive. If she is not, I would like to see my brother. That has been my dream since my childhood.
On World AIDS day, I am thankful for the privilege of serving people like Lemlem,
Selam, Mikias, Leul, and Estifo. I am also thankful for the people who support us in the
many ways that make this possible.
Peace,
Andy Warren
AIDS Care and Treatment
Project Director
Nov
19
Baghdad Muslims seek Christian neighbors
Filed Under Apologetics, Current Events, Evangelism, Islam, Missions, The Church | Leave a Comment
According to an article that appeared in the April, 2003, issue of The Banner of Truth, Presbyterian missionaries began working in Iraq in 1836. Some five congregations belong to the Assembly of Evangelical Presbyterian Churches-Iraq. The oldest of these congregations dates to 1840 and is located in Mosul. The National Presbyterian Church in Basra dates to 1940. Other congregations are located in Kirkuk and Baghdad.
According to tradition, in the first century the apostle Thomas evangelized the region on his way to India. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an estimated 600,000 Christians lived in the country of 22 million people. By far the largest group is the Chaldean Catholic Church, followed by the Assyrian Church of the East (called the Nestorians), the Syrian Orthodox Church, and the Armenian Apostolic Church.
Informed accounts tell us that the Ba’ath party of Saddam Hussein tolerated the presence of Christians in Iraq. After the March, 2003, invasion and toppling of the Hussein government, radical Islamic forces felt free to harass Christian churches. As a result, it is believed that most Iraqi Christians fled to Jordan, Syria or the northernmost region of Iraq.
In an article by Michael Yon on his personal website last week, he tells the story of a 15 November church service held at St. John’s Church in Baghdad. The story includes some beautiful photographs. It was the first service held in St. John’s in years–since nearby St. George’s Church was destroyed and a number of clergy in the area were kidnapped and killed. Yon reports that a crowd of locals welcomed home the Roman Catholic bishop. “They were joined at the service by soldiers from the 2-12 infantry battalion, many of whom had fought hard to secure these neighborhood streets. Members of the hard-fighting Iraqi Army 3rd Division were also here for this special day.”
Many local Muslims were in attendance at the service (and yes, it was a Mass–and yes, there are huge theological issues with the Mass–just hold on that for a few minutes, OK?). The locals sent out a plea for their Christian neighbors to come home.
I’m not going to engage in analysis about the American news media or speculate about the significance of the presence of local Muslims at a Catholic mass in a Baghdad neighborhood. What is interesting is the “Y’all come home” plea to the Christians who have fled. Whatever relationships were like prior to 2003, whatever politics are in play, whatever kind of understanding these folk have or don’t have about the gospel, the local Muslim neighbors want their Christian neighbors to come back. That says a lot for the kind of people these Christians are. Could the same be said in your neighborhood if the Christian folk moved out?