Mar 14

Are you fasting for Lent? If so, are you doing it like this?

Feast vs. Fast this Lent:

• Fast from judging others; feast on the Christ dwelling in them.
• Fast from emphasis on differences; feast on the unity of life.
• Fast from apparent darkness; feast on the reality of light.
• Fast from thoughts of illness; feast on the healing power of God.
• Fast from words that pollute; feast on phrases that purify.
• Fast from discontent; feast on gratitude.
• Fast from anger; feast on patience.
• Fast from pessimism; feast on optimism.
• Fast from worry; feast on divine order.
• Fast from complaining; feast on appreciation.
• Fast from negatives; feast on affirmatives.
• Fast from unrelenting pressures; feast on unceasing prayer.
• Fast from hostility; feast on non-resistance.
• Fast from bitterness; feast on forgiveness.
• Fast from self-concern; feast on compassion for others.
• Fast from personal anxiety; feast on eternal truth.
• Fast from discouragements; feast on hope.
• Fast from facts that depress; feast on verities that uplift.
• Fast from lethargy; feast on enthusiasm.
• Fast from thoughts that weaken; feast on promises that inspire.
• Fast from shadows of sorrow; feast on the sunlight of serenity.
• Fast from idle gossip; feast on purposeful silence.
• Fast from problems that overwhelm; feast on prayer that undergirds

– William Arthur Ward (American author, teacher and pastor, 1921-1994)

Mar 12

5 Minute Challenge – Afghanistan

All Afghan Christians come from a Muslim background. Believers who are discovered face discrimination from family and community, Muslim clergy and local authorities. The government treats converts in a hostile manner, using any means possible to make them recant. The tiny Christian minority cannot meet in public; meetings in private homes are possible, but require great caution. Not a single official church building remains, not even for expatriate believers. In February, an Afghan Christian was released after spending nearly nine months in prison on charges of apostasy.

After intense diplomatic pressure, authorities released Afghani Christian Said Musa, who had been in prison for nearly nine months on charges of apostasy (leaving Islam), punishable by death under Islamic law. Another convert, however, remains in prison.

A source in Afghanistan said that Musa was released and had left the country, but the date of his release was not clear. Musa had written a series of letters from his prison cell, the last one dated Feb. 13. In that letter Musa, an amputee and a father of six, said that representatives of embassies in Kabul visited him and offered him asylum. After the representatives left, Musa was taken to another room where three Afghani officials tried to convince him to recant his faith. They promised to release him from prison within 24 hours if he would do so. He refused and was sent back to his cell.

“I told them I cannot follow Islam,” he wrote in his letter. “I am Jesus Christ’s servant. They pushed me much and much. I refused their demands.” Still in prison is Shoib Assadullah, an Afghani Christian who has been in a holding jail in a district of Mazar-e-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan since October. A recent letter from him suggests that his life is in danger.

Pray:

  • For courage and perseverance for individual Christians with so little fellowship
  • That Taliban threats against Christian relief organizations will come to nothing
  • For the church to grow despite the difficulties.

[from http://www.worldwatchlist.us/]

Mar 10

Invisible Children’s Real Achievement: There May Never Be Another Rwanda

[Title from Forbes article]

If you’ve been under a rock and haven’t seen or heard of #KONY2012, here’s a link. It’s a VERY powerful display of the power of social media. The video has been viewed millions of times in the past few days, when the original goal was only 500,000 views in the year 2012. There are controversies about the campaign and Invisible Children – the charity behind the video. I’ll leave you to google it and sort out your own opinions on that. This Forbes editorial suggests that the biggest result of this video may be in prevention of similar horrors in the future – that maybe the greatest result of this campaign will be to prohibit future Hitler’s or Kony’s from gaining power. Maybe?

My point is that social media and awareness is a powerful tool – and it’s FREE and AVAILABLE and we CAN spread the word. That message could be about human trafficking and atrocities that it brings. Social media is already the primary method of communication for the human trafficking fight. Local and global information can be sent to huge numbers of folks in a very short amount of time. How will we use this tool in the future? What could be done? What ideas do you have for getting the word out? Traffickers hide in the darkness and in the shadows, trying not to be exposed. What could we do – with twitter or a little video or Facebook or email – to point out that human trafficking IS modern-day slavery? Ideas? Anyone???

Just to be clear — I know that these same tools can and should be used to make Jesus famous. That’s cry of #KONY2012 video – to make Kony famous so that a critical mass of folks know about him – and the revolt of the public ‘should’ force governments to find him and bring him to justice. What if we were to create a campaign to make Jesus famous – to make Him known around the world – so that the world would realize that HE IS JUSTICE. How do you think the world would look and think and react if a critical mass of folks acknowledged Jesus as King? Just something to think about…

Mar 06

Update on Achu – Praise Him!

from Kimberly Smith Blog by Kimberly L Smith (Author and Co-founder and Co-President of Make Way Partners)
[first mention of Achu –  Wed, February 15, 2012 - Please pray for a young girl from the community named Achu.  A year ago Achu broke her leg and the bone is STILL sticking out of her leg and dying.  We offered to fly her to Juba to get it operated on – but her father is a drunk and her mother is dead and we are not sure that he will give us permission to fly her out to amputate her leg or if he will just let her die.  Please pray for Achu’s father to open his heart and for Achu to stay strong until we can fly her out for life-saving surgery.]
I was so excited to receive this fantastic report from Achu’s doctor that I decided to send it to you exactly as he wrote it to me.Dear Kimberly  –

My name is Dan Galat, the orthopedic surgeon supervising Achu’s overall care.  I am happy to report she is doing very well!  The large piece of dead and infected bone was removed leaving a big hole that will need to fill in with new healthy tissue.  This will take place very slowly over time.  She has been undergoing daily “whirlpool therapy” soaking her leg in a Jacuzzi-like tub filled with very dilute chlorine water to help clear up any remaining signs of infection.  I anticipate that in the next few days, we will be able to begin wound VAC therapy, using a sponge and suction to encourage the formation of what we call “granulation tissue” which will eventually fill this large defect.  We are also maximizing her caloric and protein intake so that this defect heals more quickly.  Our plan is to keep her, possibly up to a month or longer, using this wound VAC therapy and once the defect begins to fill with granulation tissue and she is able to manage dressing changes on her own (and with her family), she can go back home.  Amazingly, she has a large bridge of bone posteriorly that is healthy, new bone, and is thus still able to walk!  She is all smiles now when we see her outside in the courtyard and on daily AM rounds…she is a beautiful young girl!

Please pray that:      (1) the new bone continues to strengthen and remodel so that it is healthy.
(2) the defect would fill quickly with healthy granulation tissue.
(3) Her time at Tenwek would allow her to experience how much God loves her.

Serving with you,

Dan

Daniel Galat, MD
Orthopedic Surgeon
Tenwek Hospital
PO Box 39
Bomet, Kenya 20400

Mar 05

5 Minute Challenge – Saudi Arabia

There is no freedom of religion here. The legal system is based on Islamic law and conversion to another religion is punishable by death if the accused does not recant. Non-Muslim public worship is prohibited, and although the government recognizes the right of non-Muslims to worship privately, the religious police often do not. Worshippers risk imprisonment, deportation and torture. Most Christians are poorly paid foreign workers who are vulnerable to violence because of their faith.

 “My father used to beat me to make me pray because the Messenger said in the Hadith: 

 “Of Umar bin Shuaib, of his father, of his grandfather, who said: ‘The Messenger of God (Peace be upon him) said, “Order your children to pray when they are seven years old, and beat them if they do not do so when they are ten years old”, as was told by Ahmed and Abu Dawud” 

I began to pray the obligatory prayer and follow the Sunna, and I performed the night vigil prayer, this as a final attempt – and perhaps I would persevere. I became very depressed, and I was sure that I was of “the People of the Fire” and that I would not be saved from the torment of the grave. 

In the year 2009 I bought a computer and one day I searched in YouTube for an interview with Doctor Wifaa’ Sultan. At that time I didn’t know much about Doctor Wifaa’ Sultan, and I didn’t know that she was a former Muslim. I watched a series of interviews with she and other Christians. I became very disillusioned with Islam and its Messenger, and I discovered that I had been tricked, but I didn’t have the courage to say that out loud! {And this is the case for many Muslims}. The series broke my barrier of fear, and I confirmed that Islam was not the religion of Allah. And without hesitation, I submitted my life to the Lord Jesus because he is the God of love and peace. The true God looked upon my weakness and answered my prayer and guided me to his path. 

 

Pray:

  • Thank God for Christians showing a new boldness in sharing their faith
  • Praise Him that the number of Christian converts from Islam is increasing
  • For converts from Muslim backgrounds who risk being killed by their families.

 

WWL Ranking: 03
Leader: King Abdullah
Government: Monarchy
Main Religion: Islam
Population: 28 million (1.25 million Christians)

 

 

Mar 02

Isn’t this obsolete? or maybe I could sell it on Ebay???

OK, so really people…do any of you actually use a book to get a phone number? All I can think about is the waste in the production of this tome – and millions of others like it! First the trees and pollution and effort to generate the material that is out of date before it’s published, and the proof readers and the gas to deliver it to my door – and many other things that don’t come to mind immediately. What a waste! I think the last time I actually opened a phone book to look up a number was in the last century – seriously!

Feb 29

What is Leap Year?

Feb 27

5 Minute Challenge – Somalia

Somalia – civil war, life expectancy = 50 years, median age = 17 years, famine, pirates, hot climate, Sunni Muslim

 

No one is expected to be a Christian in Somalia, so there is no organized church. Muslim converts exist as individual secret believers, and can only know a few others to make a small underground group. The largest known group is composed of five believers. For parents, it is dangerous to raise their children as Christians for fear of being discovered and executed.

In September 2011, Islamic militants from al-Shabaab beheaded a 17-year-old Somali Christian near Mogadishu. The militants, who have vowed to rid Somalia of Christianity, killed Guled Jama Muktar on September 25 in his home near Deynile, about 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Mogadishu. The Islamic extremist group had been monitoring his family since the Christians arrived in Somalia from Kenya in 2008. The Islamic militants, who are fighting the transitional government for control of the country, knew from their observations of the family that they were Christians.

“I personally know this family as Christians who used to have secret Bible meetings in their house,” said one source. Based on talks with the boy’s parents and their neighbors, the source said al Shabaab members arrived at Muktar’s home at 6 a.m., when his parents were already at work at their retail space at the Hamarweyne market on the outskirts of Mogadishu.

Neighbors informed the parents of the murder, and they hurriedly returned home and buried their son’s body quickly, fearing the militants would kill them as well. They then fled to an unknown destination.

“When the incident happened, the parents called to tell me that their son had been killed and that they feared for their lives,” the source said. “Since then, I have not heard from them.”

 

Pray:

  • For an end to the chronic political instability of this war-torn country
  • That God will be with Christians who face attacks from the extremist group al-Shabaab
  • For freedom for believers to worship and grow in their faith.

 

 

Feb 24

Micah 6:8 – Freedom Fighter words

I don’t think anything moves the heart of the freedom fighter into knowing they are following God more than the words of Micah.

Do Justice.

Love Mercy.

Walk humbly with God.

So simple, yet so desperately needed in our broken and unjust world.

Am I willing to simplify my life into these three requirements.

What would my life look like if I really embraced the words of Micah. Stopped striving for all the wrong priorities and was willing to live out this calling. I know at that point we will be so fully in the will of God that even if the next steps are unclear, we can not doubt that our lives are making a difference.

Any words I would have to add to this devotion are really just noise. The scripture says enough. Micah 6:8 – read it.

I pray that we embody the justice, humility, and mercy that God requires of His people.

[from the blog It Was For Freedom]

Feb 21

I’m drinking only tap water during Lent so Ugandans can have safe water. Join me?

TAKE THE CHALLENGE!
40 Days of Water is being coordinated by blood:water mission February 22 – April 7, 2012. This is the season of Lent – the 40 days before Easter. My plan is to drink only tap water (NOT bottled water) for these 40 days. Collectively we track the money saved on soft drinks, coffee, tea, juices, etc… and give it to enable Ugandans to have clean water sources.