Numbers!

As I am currently banned from posting on Facebook, I share this video here. The speaker is Glen Scrivener, an Australian who works in the UK as Director of "Speak Life", an evangelistic charity involved in proclamation evangelism, training of leaders, equipping churches to witness and producing evangelistic resources.

Please feel free to share!

Death in Ethiopia.

Yesterday's reference to the famine in Ethiopia, in the mid-80s, in which many people died, leads me to share about a death that occurred, in that country, much more recently.  When I returned from our latest trip to France, the mail that awaited me included a regular update from Open Doors - one of the organisations that we support in its work amongst those disciples of Jesus who suffer great persecution because of their faith in Him.  This is just one such situation:

Lalisa Lergesa had only been married for six months when her husband was killed. A 30-year-old teacher, church planter, and pastor, Debela Mergesa was hacked to death by three Muslim extremists.

The church he had planted had grown into a strong, independent congregation.  Many villagers in the region had come to Christ. However, Debela's 'success' soon attracted opposition, and numerous death threats.

On 1 October 2012, Debela was going to the village.  Before he left his wife he told her, "We need to remain faithful in the face of threats against our faith."  A few hours later, he was dead - a martyr to his faith.

The suspects have been arrested but, for Lalisa, the pain and the grief are still obvious, and her psychological wounds are still raw.  "She is mourning, day and night." said her father-in-law. "I lost my son, but I am scared that I am also going to lose my daughter-in-law as a result of this grief.  Please pray for her."

Lalisa and her late husband were from a small town in Oromia, a region in western Ethiopia.  There was a time when this region had the second largest Christian population in the country, but a former regional state president resettled the area with thousands of Islamic families from eastern Ethiopia, resulting in the region becoming a Muslim-majority area.  It was the arrival of majority Islam that started the opposition that is experienced by Christian churches - especially those that are involved in outreach and evangelism.

These are the realities for so many disciples of Jesus in the world today.  If you would like to know more, and find out how you may best offer support, please use the links to some of the relevant organisations, that may be accessed by scrolling down this page, and clicking on one of the names in the right-hand-side column. 

Jesus - Name above all names!

In the days before the break-up of the Soviet Union - indeed, the days before the introduction of 'glasnost' and 'perestroika' - a Russian novelist was given permission to publish his new book on the condition that he had the Name of God printed in lower-case only!  When the book was later distributed outside the U.S.S.R., the author made the following comment in the preface:

'If we write the names of regional Party Leaders, and of the Secret Police, with capitals, why shouldn't we use capitals for the highest creative power in the universe?'

It was, and is, a good question!  It is unthinkable to many of us that we should 'downgrade' the Name of God in any way and, as I was pointing out in Coatbridge Baptist Church yesterday, we cringe when we hear, or see, that Name dishonoured.

Yet, even those of us who profess to be disciples of Jesus can be guilty of that very thing!  For example, the story is told of a prominent businessman who expressed the desire for reality in his life.  A friend asked, "How about God?  He is very real to some of us."  "Well," responded the businessman, "if He is, why don't you all begin to make Him real to the rest of us?  He can't be very precious to most Christians, or they wouldn't succeed so well in keeping Him out of their conversations!"

It is sad, but true, that for some who profess His Name, "God" is in small type!  Yet surely, every Christian should be able to sincerely echo those words of John Newton: "How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer's ear."

In these days, when many are praying for a reviving move of God the Holy Spirit in the U.K.; in Europe; in the world; it is not inappropriate to remember that the early Christians - the followers of the Way - 'gossiped the Gospel' - and saw the church grow.  They didn't all preach; they didn't all lead formal evangelistic campaigns; they didn't all plant fresh fellowships of believing people.  But they did talk Jesus, and live Jesus.

The lives of all who claim to be children of God (see John 1:12) should reveal the family characteristics (Gal.5:22-23).  The Psalmist said, "Ascribe to YHWH the glory due to His Name" (96:8).  By the words we speak, and the attitudes we manifest, we should always seek to magnify Him!

If we claim to be His, then in our lives, God should never appear in small type!