Counting The Cost

Random thoughts on walking with Jesus in this turvy-topsy world

Prayer needed for Chinese believers

An urgent prayer need from the Voice of the Martyr’s website:

 

 

 

This afternoon (July 31, 2006) The Voice of the Martyrs in Canada learned from our partner, China Aid Association (CAA) that on the afternoon of July 29, a large house church building in Che Lu Wan Village, Dangshan Town, Xiaoshan District, Hangzhou City, Zhejiang Province was destroyed and many Christians were arrested and wounded during the confrontation.  According to CAA, eyewitness reported that the destruction of the church building started at 2:30 PM, July 29. Several thousand anti-riot police, military police and government workers along with three hundred military vehicles arrived and surrounded the church building while 10,000 House Church Christians were praying in the building. The church has been under construction since July 17, 2006 and was almost complete when it was destroyed.

 

According to CAA, eyewitnesses reported that the police used "electric shock batons and anti-riot shields to disperse thousands of Christians. Several hundred Christians were observed to be beaten and some were arrested and taken away by police while they attempted to protect their church building. According to a reliable source from the house church there, on July 28th, the Xiaoshan District government declared the church building 'illegal' because it was built without government permission and asked the Christians to voluntarily destroy it. This church building was on private land purchased by a local Christian couple."

 

Sources from both the government and the church told CAA that the local government has repeatedly denied the Christian believers' formal request to build a church, even though they have met all the requirements.

 

Please pray for those who were injured and arrested in the confrontation. The Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy reports that twenty people were hurt, including four who were seriously injured.  Pray for the release of those who were arrested.

 

 

posted by: Jrobbins at 19:24 | link | comments |
prayer needed for chinese believ

The Winding Path to Grace

A Sinner Saved by Grace

By Van Lott

 

I have been down many dark and winding roads

never caring about which way I should go.

Always thinking what I was doing was so much fun

just living my life for me and no other one.

Enjoying the pleasures of sin is so easy to do

at least that is what I thought until I met You.

It was only when I had come to the end of my road

and I was about to give up, carrying such an awful load.

It was my darkest hour without a friend in sight

You opened my eyes and I could see the light.

Then You lifted my burdens from me

and put me on the path of a new journey.

My heart is now opened and filled with love

when You reached down and touched me from above.

And now I know that after seeing Your face

that I am a sinner saved by grace.

posted by: Jrobbins at 12:48 | link | comments |
sinner saved by grace

The Outcome of Faith

Substituted and Liberated

WRITTEN BY Joe Boot

 

 

A story is told about a renowned preacher who lost his young wife.  In grief, his little daughter came to him and asked a question that completely silenced him.  She wanted to know why her mommy had to die if Jesus had already died for her.  Her father asked if he could have some time to think of an answer that would help her.  On the day of the

funeral, they were driving to the cemetery when a large tractor trailer drove beside them casting a massive shadow on the sidewalk.  The father looked at his daughter and asked, "Honey, if you had to be run over today, would you rather be run over by that truck or its shadow?"  She responded thoughtfully, "The shadow would be better because it wouldn't hurt as much."  He paused and answered her gently, "That is what Jesus did for

us when he died on the Cross.  The truck of God's judgment went over Him.

Only the shadow of death goes over us now."

 

 

The forgiveness of God is free but is not cheap.  It cost Jesus everything, and yet he freely offered his life to purchase our salvation. He took our place on the Cross and bridged the chasm between God and humanity.  Faith in him means not only believing the truth of his

message, his death, and resurrection, but also putting our whole trust in him--throwing ourselves upon his unshakable sacrifice.  Faith means putting all our confidence in Christ himself and recognizing that when we trust him he can bear all our weight--for indeed, he bore the weight of death.  Jesus never shrank back from disgrace or humiliation for you

and for me.  He bore the heavy burden of our sin and death so that we did not

have to.  As Peter put it, "For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18).

 

 

 

The good news about the Cross of Christ was designed by God to impact us and draw us back to Him.  Jesus promised that his death would draw people to himself.  The moral power of the Cross is overwhelming when truly understood--that the amazing kindness of God toward undeserving people would lead us to repentance, the love of God would move and humble us,

The unspeakable sacrifice of Christ would lead us to obey him, and we would find joy and peace beyond imagination in relationship to God.  Because Christ came as our substitute, we can be liberated from the fear of death or judgment and can experience life in every way that God intended (John 10:10).

 

 

 

God's love, generosity, and mercy are the basis of his atonement because mercy has always been the great principle of his government.  Blaise Pascal puts it beautifully: "Jesus is a God we can approach without pride and before whom we can humble ourselves without despair."  When we have humbled ourselves before him, the inner transformation that Christ wants

to work in our lives can begin.  True spiritual hope is now available.

 

 

 

Jesus points us to our true need, bringing us to see the great gulf between God and ourselves, leading us to an awareness of the problem and the devastating cost of sin.  And then he leads us to the Cross and shows us he has done what we cannot.  As it is written, "[H]e became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him" (Hebrews 5:9).

 

 

 

The only question that remains is: Will we throw down our arms?  After all Christ has done for us through his agony on the cross, will we accept the peace terms? 

Our substitute wants to be our liberator!

 

 

 

 

 

Adapted from Searching for Truth by Joe Boot, copyright 2002.  www.crossway.com.

 

Joe Boot is executive director of Ravi Zacharias International

Ministries in Canada.

posted by: Jrobbins at 12:50 | link | comments |
jesus is our substitute

The Risk of Faith

"Who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the enemy." HEBREWS 11:33,34

 

IS FAITH A RISK? Of course.

 

But failing to step out in faith is to risk missing real life.

 

To laugh is to risk appearing the fool.

 

To weep is to risk appearing sentimental.

 

To reach out for another is to risk involvement.

 

To place our ideas, our dreams, before a crowd,

is to risk their loss.

 

To love is to risk not being loved in return.

 

To live is to risk dying.

 

To hope is to risk despair.

 

To try is to risk failure.

 

RISKS must be taken because the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing. The person who risks nothing does nothing, has nothing, is nothing. He may avoid suffering and sorrow, but he simply cannot learn, feel, change, grow, love. . . live.

 

--Author unknown

posted by: Jrobbins at 14:14 | link | comments |
is faith a risk

The Test of Faith

“I would rather be hung than betray my Lord.”

 

--SALEEMA, a nineteen year old Christian in Pakistan who has been severely persecuted for her faith

 

Escape From Prison

Eritrean Christian Pays High Price For His Freedom

From Open Doors USA

 

SANTA ANA, CA (July 25, 2006) – Daniel (pseudonym) was proud to serve his country and willingly joined his allotted regiment when he received his conscription papers to join the Eritrean army. However, life delivered a sharp lesson as he quickly learned that wearing a smart uniform could never compensate for the loss of his freedom as a Christian.

 
Firstly, he was commanded to hand over his precious Bible to the army authorities. Next came a demand for his Christian books, tapes and CDs. Praying with other army personnel was also strictly forbidden and eventually Daniel found he had to make a choice – forget his relationship with Jesus or face a harsh jail sentence.

 
Giving up his faith had never been an option and now Daniel viewed his world through the bars of a military jail. Discipline was draconian and life became extremely difficult. His cell was small and he shared it with many other Christians. Eritrean authorities considered confining 15 or even 20 believers in a cell the size of an average American bathroom totally acceptable.

 
Prison food was scarce – and dreadful. One small meal at lunchtime had to suffice, even though Daniel and his cell-mates were forced to toil at heavy manual labor. Even worse, water was kept in short supply. In temperatures that could soar in the 100s, water rations were restricted to just one cup each day, leaving the men parched in the hot sun – and all through the long night. Even sleeping at the end of a tiring days’ labor was never easy. Cell members took turns to lie down in their confined cell space. Most just fell asleep where they slumped as exhaustion overcame their tired bodies.

 
Despite their harsh restrictions, Daniel and his friends took comfort in sharing prayer together. Although this was strictly forbidden by the prison authorities, they discreetly encouraged each other as they prayed in small groups.

 
Daniel was forced to endure frequent beatings, usually three or four each week. Sometimes prison staff savagely used their fists, attempting to break his spirit. On other occasions, large batons replaced fists, cutting deep into his flesh.

 
Finally, unable to bear further relentless mental and physical abuse, Daniel carefully planned his escape. One day, he seized his opportunity – taking his chances when the guards were distracted. Running for freedom, Daniel slipped away from the work party. The next four days were perhaps the hardest yet – a relentless trek through wild unyielding bush. Fighting hunger, thirst and the hot sun, a border crossing into Sudan ended Daniel’s trek and brought freedom.

 
But with freedom there came a high price. Following his escape, Daniel’s family received the unwelcome attentions of Eritrea’s authorities. Parents, siblings and other family members were rounded up and imprisoned. Daniel has no idea where they are – of if they are still alive. But he will never give up hope!

 
Background

Nearly 1,800 Christians, including 28 pastors and priests from both Protestant and Orthodox churches, are now under arrest in police stations, military camps and jails all across Eritrea because of their religious beliefs. An additional 70 Muslims have been jailed for the past two years for opposing the government’s appointment of the chief mufti. None have been brought to court on formal charges. Eritrea is ranked No. 14 on the Open Doors World Watch List released in March and has been designated one of eight “countries of particular concern” by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

posted by: Jrobbins at 12:49 | link | comments |
faith under fire

I Just Can't Save Myself

Not What My Hands Have Done

Words by Ho­ra­ti­us Bo­nar, 1861

 

 

 

Not what my hands have done can save my guilty soul;
Not what my toiling flesh has borne can make my spirit whole.
Not what I feel or do can give me peace with God;
Not all my prayers and sighs and tears can bear my awful load.

 

 

 

Your voice alone, O Lord, can speak to me of grace;
Your power alone, O Son of God, can all my sin erase.
No other work but Yours, no other blood will do;
No strength but that which is divine can bear me safely through.

 

 

 

Thy work alone, O Christ, can ease this weight of sin;
Thy blood alone, O Lamb of God, can give me peace within.
Thy love to me, O God, not mine, O Lord, to Thee,
Can rid me of this dark unrest, And set my spirit free.

 

 

 

 

I bless the Christ of God; I rest on love divine;
And with unfaltering lip and heart I call this Savior mine.
His cross dispels each doubt; I bury in His tomb
Each thought of unbelief and fear, each lingering shade of gloom.

 

 

 

I praise the God of grace; I trust His truth and might;
He calls me His, I call Him mine, My God, my joy and light.
’Tis He Who saveth me, and freely pardon gives;
I love because He loveth me, I live because He lives.

posted by: Jrobbins at 12:51 | link | comments |
i cant save myself

Say What?

Jesus Loves Porn Stars?

WRITTEN BY Matt Kaufman

 

The headline at the ABC News Web site wasn't the sort of thing you normally see there: "Does 'Jesus Loves Porn Stars' Bible Go Too Far?" It was certainly an attention-getter: You know you're going to read on after that.

 

The story zeroed in on Pastor Craig Gross, who heads a ministry to what some people might call "adult-entertainment professionals." Among his controversial tactics, he goes to porn conventions handing out copies of the biblical paraphrase The Message with covers proclaiming "Jesus Loves Porn Stars."

 

Gross says his approach is necessary: "We're trying to reach a new audience and we can't do things like our parents did, like the generation before us did." Critics like prominent Southern Baptist theologian Albert Mohler argue that the ministry has "crossed a line" that shouldn't be crossed. "I just have to wonder what people think when they see that cover," Mohler says. "In other words, are they expecting the Bible or are they expecting something else?"

 

All Christians should be able to agree on some things here. We should agree that Jesus loves everyone, "porn stars" included; that ministry to the lost is important; and that Gross's desire to reach to a particularly unappealing group is commendable. We might even agree that some things in such a ministry call for radically different approaches, at least in some respects: Just getting to be known and heard by the people you're trying to reach has to be a special challenge.

 

Still, I've got to count myself among those with concerns. Like Mohler, I wonder what message people are really hearing — regardless of the intent of the sender. And I wonder that not just about Gross's target audience but also about the larger culture.

 

We are, after all, living in an age when porn increasingly is being mainstreamed — ubiquitous on the Internet, portrayed as the norm (especially the male norm) on sitcoms at least since Friends came along. No one's supposed to be ashamed about it any more, and lots of people are downright brazen. (Maybe you've seen the "Porn Star" T-shirts in the mall.)

 

We're also living in an age where being "judgmental" is considered perhaps the worst offense. And the spirit behind today's definition of "judgmental" is worlds apart from the one held by Jesus, who unfailingly insisted on a standard of righteousness that applied to everyone across the board. Where He denounced those who were soft on their own sins by focusing on the sins of others, today's spirit simply despises the notion of sin, period — at least sin among "consenting adults."

 

We have to be aware that lots of folk have cherry-picked an image of a Jesus whose words ("Judge not lest ye be judged," etc.) reflect their own morally lax approach. They've had considerable success in popularizing the idea that sterner moral standards were corruptions of Christianity introduced by later parties, like Paul. The fact that it's biblically and historically false to the actual Jesus doesn't matter to people who are being told what they want to hear, and who don't study the Bible or history in any case.

 

In an age like this, you have to expect many if not most people to hear a phrase like "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" along these lines:

Jesus is a live-and-let-live kind of guy Who wants you to be able to do whatever you want (at least if you're a "consenting adult"). He wants everyone to be nice to each other and He can't stand the sort of people who condemn other people's "lifestyle choices."

 

Pastor Gross doesn't want to say that, of course: He has other goals in mind. "Whether it's a joke, whether it sits on the table and they make fun of the thing, I think if someone cracks this thing open, that's our prayer, that's our hope, then their lives will be changed," he says.

 

It's an understandable hope: Get people's attention and at least a few of them will delve deeper into Scripture. But in the process, most of the audience (especially the porn pros) will simply use this opportunity to picture a warm, fuzzy deity far different from the real, righteous Lord Who confronts us with our sin and calls us to repentance. Far from delving deeper, they'll settle for the divine hug conferred by the phrase "Jesus Loves Porn Stars" — and keep doing what they're doing. If it makes any impact on them, it may be to confer a sense of divine validation.

 

I don't mean to suggest that Gross himself never confronts the people to whom he's ministering with their sin. For that matter, I'm not attempting to evaluate his total body of work: I'm just focusing on the wisdom of some of his tactics. And the trouble with those attention-getting tactics remains this: Some words just unavoidably tend to overwhelm the rest of the message.

 

And that's something all Christians should bear in mind when witnessing to people. Most of us want to lead by talking about God's love, not God's Law. The trouble is that we can't really understand God's love without first understanding something about God's Law — including how thoroughly we've broken it.

 

Consider Acts 2, where Peter and the apostles address a crowd with God's Word by convicting them of their sin, culminating in the execution of Jesus. The result among their listeners comes in verse 37: "They were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what shall we do?'" Then and only then does the Gospel response come: "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins."

 

This isn't a template for every evangelism scenario. Many people, confronted with their sins, react with denial and anger, as Scripture warned they would. (That's part of the meaning of "God's Word will not return void.") And we don't always need to do the confronting ourselves. Some people already are convicted by the guilt of their own hearts by the time they encounter Christians, and those are people ready for the Gospel. The last thing they need is to be further crushed under the burden of the Law. They need to hear "your sins are forgiven."

 

However, no one was ever won to the faith without being "cut to the heart." C.S. Lewis, describing the process, noted: "The Christian religion is, in the long run, a thing of unspeakable comfort. But it does not begin in comfort. It begins in the dismay I have been describing, and it is no use at all trying to go on to that comfort without first going through that dismay."

 

That's not something we can put on the back burner till we've shown people a nice, affectionate Jesus. And however good our intentions, it does a disservice to Jesus to try. For it's in seeing the magnitude of our sin that we see the magnitude of God's love — the love of Him "Who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all" (Romans 8:32).

How Jesus dealt with this same issue:

But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?" They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her." Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"

"No one, sir," she said.
      "Then neither do I condemn you," Jesus declared. "Go now and leave your life of sin."  John 8:1-11

 

posted by: Jrobbins at 13:05 | link | comments |
say what

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