The Backwards, Upsidedown, Powered-by-love Kingdom is Advancing

I have recently read a newsletter from a ministry that works with Muslims of a particular Middle Eastern country. I have been interested in this ministry for a while. From what I can tell, it is a very powerful ministry working in a very fertile field. I very much like reading their newsletter which is sent out bimonthly. It is filled with a large quantity of short blurbs of Muslim prayer needs and happenings. I find it refreshing because the newsletter presents large prayer requests like national events of this country down to little events like one person working with Muslims in an American city somewhere. It gives all these as important and offers a very Christian perspective of how each event should be prayed for.

After that long and informative (I hope) list of facts, here is the part that is referred to in the title. One of the stories given in the newsletter is a refreshing reminder of the power of the Kingdom of God. We so often hear of persecution and the advances of evil society and the decline of social conditions that we easily become discouraged and begin to think that the Kingdom and Good are being driven into the dirt, being conquered by evil and physical force. But, the story I am about to relate reminded me that the Kingdom of Love is still defeating evil.

For the safety of the Christians and missionaries mentioned by this newsletter, they ask that the information not be publicly displayed or sent to the Middle East. If you wish to have more info about the ministry, please email me at jkemouse@frontiernet.net

Prayer Item #23:

Every spring nearly 100,000 Muslims arrive by boat at a Greek Orthodox festival on an island in the sea near (the afore mentioned country) They have traditionally sought blessings from priests at the Greek church atop the island’s steep hill. In recent years, evangelical believers have distributed New Testaments to those making the climb to the church and have offered to pray for any needs they might have. “At this years’s event something was different,” a worker writes. “People kept stepping forward to be ministered to. They kept coming, and coming, and coming.” When the assistant mayor and police detectives tried to arrest the believers, the crowd prevented this. The police said, “This is a Muslim country,” and made threats. But the people weren’t afraid of them and kept standing in line to be prayed for. Women went forward with tears streaming down their cheeks, men received prayer in stoic silence, and children watched in wide-eyed wonder. A woman was overheard saying to her friend, ” I never used to believe in this, but now I do. You need to go forward and get help from God. Let them pray for you. You have to admit that Jesus has power.” One lady brought her spouse forward and said, “Last year you prayed for my husband who was sick, and now he is healed.” The Christians sensed God’s presence in a special way, and apparently many in the crowd did too. Some asked, “What energy is this? What’s this power?” Praise the Lord for this demonstration of His presence and love. Pray for the effective follow-up of those who expressed interest in the Gospel or professed faith in Christ. Give thanks for the believers who faithfully participate in this outreach year after year in spite of continued opposition.

The Kingdom is moving forward in the power of Its King and His Love. Hallelujah!!

My Rave Against the Liberals Mechanism of Social Change

Education. If we could just get the word out about safe sex, cancer prevention, the negatives of settling disputes with violence, the unhealthiness of certain foods, political correctness, gender discrimination, etc, etc. then we could make everything good and all live in blissful, happy, siblinghood.

The liberals (and many conservatives now) think that if we can just educate everyone they would see the good logic of their natural compulsions, control themselves, and act in proper ways. If we can just get everyone to understand they will choose avoid all the bad things.

What they fail to realize is that 1) Man is fallen and cannot easily control the evil urges that continually work to destroy society, 2) Few men have the desire to even rarely do what is best for all rather than what seems best or most comfortable to them alone, 3) Man frequently does not care what happens in the future as long as the present is satisfying.

The Liberals and public education proponents can teach all they want, but they will not fix the real problem of humans. If it is successful at all it will at best accomplish two things 1) It will cause people to turn their destructive behaviors to things that are less destructive or destructive in less widespread ways, and 2) Cause an action to stop or change, not a heart. You social educators, lecture all you want. Until you recognize the true condition of man which will become apparent with a brief study of human history, you will continue to manipulate a few peoples actions on the surface of an evil heart. Only true change comes from the heart. Only true change of the heart comes from Jesus.

Stretching

God really did know what He was doing when He had the Scripture writers talk about the value of being stretched. Being stretched or tested or tried or whatever you wish to call it does accomplish good things very often. It is a curious thing that happens in the Kingdom of God, evil is used to make good come about. James 1:3 says, “Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.” and Matthew 5 tells us to rejoice under persecution because great is our reward in heaven. We have no need to be down about persecution, because it will build our strength and because we are headed for a great reward. (I do not hold to the view that each time we are persecuted we get another jewel in our crown. Instead I believe this verse is saying that we should be glad under persecution because the greatness of our future reward far outweighs difficulty of the persecution here.)

I discovered that a fellow worker is a philosophy major and that he is a pragmatist and a follower of William James. I opened discussion with him about Truth, reality, God, Jesus, and whether or not we can know. He holds to absolute truth, but says that because we are not all knowing we cannot say that anyone else is wrong and that we are only right. We can only know from our experience. He agrees with Lewis’s three options about Jesus, that He was either a liar, a lunatic, or the Son of God; but says that because he was not there with Christ, he cannot be certain that Jesus was not one of the first two.

This throws me into a whirl of thinking and I am now enthused to throw myself into studying philosophy and the Scripture to find out how to answer this ‘every man’. This trying of my faith has caused me to realize more my need of God, His Spirit, and a continual diet of the Scripture. It has given me impetus to study difficult things and to reconsider my presuppositions. The testing and ‘persecution’ of the believer is very beneficial. God did know what He was doing when He inspired those words. We have a wonderful reward in the future and we need a little stretching to keep us strong until ‘That Day’ comes.

Why I am starting a blog:

I have been thinking for a long time about having a place to express the random and varied thoughts, feelings, and cognitions that come to me.  I have decided that the rate of flow is steady enough that I could support enought material for a blog.  So, here is my blog, the Music of My Life. I expect that I will post something new a time or so a week.  You will see more soon unless there is divine intervention or some lesser event.