Looking for a cheap way to reach out to your friends this Easter?
Click on this link:

http://www.desiringgod.org/news_events/promos/2006_
easter_outreach.html

K.P. Yohannen is the president of Gospel for Asia. He is an Indian man who has given his life to see all the nations come in. Jesus has said clearly, “This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached as a testimony to all the nations AND THEN the end will come.” Let’s finish the task he left us!

K.P. in his book, “Revolutions in World Missions”

“85% of all Bibles printed today are in English for the nine percent of the world who read English. 80% of the world’s people have never owned a Bible while Americans have an average of four in every household. America has a full-time Christian leader for every 182 people when the “unreached peoples” have one missionary worker for every 78,000 people.

A friend in Dallas recently pointed out a new church building that cost $74 million. While this thought was still exploding in my mind, he pointed out another $7 million church building going up less than a minute away.

These extravagant buildings are insanity for a Two-Thirds World perspective. The $74 million spent on one building in the U.S. could build more than 7,000 average-sized churches in India. The same $74 million would be enough to guarantee the evangelization of a whole state- or even some of the smaller countries of Asia.

It amazes me though, that these buildings that have been constructed to worship Jesus who said, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matthew 18:20)

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Let’s provide a pillow for Christ in the Third World today! Why don’t we finish the great commission while we can? All it would take is for us rich Americans to start giving.

Christ's call

If you want to be challenged to have a God-centered worldview, watch this video by K.P. Yohannen
(founder of Gospel for Asia)

http://www.gfa.org/gfa/latestnewsarticle?wid=1395

It is definitely worth the 41 minutes!

Predestination
The following poem appeared in The Continental Journal on March 11, 1779. It was entitled “On Predestination.”



If all things succeed as already agreed,


And immutable impulses rule us;


To preach and to pray, is but time thrown away,


And our teachers do nothing but fool us.





If we’re driven by fate, either this way or that,


As the carman whips up his horses,


Then no man can stray --- all go the right way,


As the stars that are fix’d in their courses.





But if by free will, we can go or stand still,


As best suits the present occasion;


Then fill up the glass, and confirm him an ass


That depends upon Predestination.



Two weeks the same newspaper published an answer by another writer:



If an all perfect mind rules over mankind,


With infinite wisdom and power;


Sure he may decree, and yet the will be free,


The deeds and events of each hour.



If scripture affirms in the plainest of terms,


The doctrine of Predestination;


We ought to believe it, and humbly receive it,


As a truth of divine revelation.



If all things advance with the force of mere chance,


Or by human free will are directed;


To preach and to pray, will be time thrown away,


Our teachers may be well rejected.


If men are deprav’d, and to vice so enslav’d,


That the heart chuses nothing but evil;


Then who goes on still by his own corrupt will,


Is driving post haste to the devil.


Then let human pride and vain cavil subside,


It is plain to a full demonstration,


That he’s a wild ass, who over his glass,


Dares ridicule Predestination.



[Cited by Charles W. Akers, “Calvinism and the American Revolution,” in The Heritage of John Calvin: Lectures, ed. John H. Bratt (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1973), pp. 170-171. Thanks to this lecture by Sam Storms for the reference.]

Some fun culture in Japan : )

What ever happened during the winter before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, The Super Bowl and Valentine's Day were invented? You have heard of people getting out their Christmas lights even before Thanksgiving is over. Some people just do not want to give up their American privilege of having 2 full months of Christmas! I thought I had seen the worst of commercialized America when I moved to Japan. Sorry to say, we have been outdone! It started about January 15 when I noticed the Christmas lights at our apartment complex and neighboring houses STILL had not been taken down. When Jan. 20 came I realized that the 2 month mark had indeed been broken for the first time! (Is there any Guiness book records for this?) Did someone forget to tell these people that Christmas was over or was it just a neighborly prank? I made a friendly wager with Maki that all the lights would come down on the 24th or before. (The weekend had to spell the end of this, right? - Wrong!) Maki won the bet and I can finally, as of yesterday, say goodbye to my holiday season. Sad to see the holiday spirit finally go, but no worries, I will see them in another 9 months, right?! I think we may need to move.

Have you ever been told you have a big/long nose? It doesn't feel good does it! It took me awhile to figure out, until Maki explained this to me, that this is actually a compliment in Japan. It makes me feel good to know that not everyone really thinks my nose is tall, the majority of it may have just been flattery.

Suffering... part 2

Recently I read an article about William Tyndale, the man who is responsible for giving us our first English Bible and from whom 90% of King James Bible was taken from. The man was brilliant, but more so he was driven to get the Word of God into the average man's hands. He literally gave his life to do it. He was strangled and burned at the stake in 1536 in England. (For more please read this article:
http://www.desiringgod.org/library/biographies/2006_tyndale.html )
Here is a quote from this precious saint we owe so much to.

"If God promise riches, the way thereto is poverty. Whom he loveth he chasteneth, whom he exalteth, he casteth down, whom he saveth he damneth first, he bringeth no man to heaven except he send him to hell first. If he promise life he slayeth it first, when he buildeth, he casteth all down first. He is no patcher, he cannot build on another man’s foundation. He will not work until all be past remedy and brought unto such a case, that men may see how that his hand, his power, his mercy, his goodness and truth hath wrought all together. He will let no man be partaker with him of his praise and glory."

Here are some thoughts I've had recently about suffering...

#1 Suffering is something we all experience when following God!

"Beloved, don't be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, which comes upon you for your testing, as though something strange were happening to you" - 1 Peter 4:12

Maki told me about a drama on T.V. that she recently saw. The main actress had faced a horrible childhood. In the midst of it, she had prayed to God to help her out of her problems. Near the end there was a scene where the actress was in a Catholic church crying out to God, "Why didn't you help me!" "You said you would save me, but where were you?"

I think if some people were honest, they would say they had at least felt a little bit this way at one point or another. When we suffer, we wonder, where is God?

Listen to these words from Jesus (God in human flesh) :

"Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be satisfied. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Woe to you who are well-fed now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep."
Luke 6:21,25

Did you know that Christians, real Christians following the Lord, often weep and mourn more than non-Christians? At first glance, people see this and say, "Why would I want to be a Christian?" Most of them don't have the cool cars, the designer clothes or the expensive house with a servant. Most of them seem very weak and have struggles. Why would I want to be a Christian? Well, can I say, "Yes, if you are looking at the temporary things of this world, you will never be happy as a Christian." In fact it is impossible to become a Christian unless you give up your love for this world. You will never go to heaven unless you let go of this world. We must lose our pursuit of this world's pleasures and go after REAL eternal joy and pleasure in God's presence. This is what we were made for. Jesus, who is our Savior, is also our model for purposeful suffering. This is something the girl in the drama didn't think about. Jesus forsook this world and chose God's glory as His treasure. He chose suffering in this life. Hebrews 12:2 lets us peer into Jesus mind when it says, "looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God." Jesus hated the shame and the suffering. He was not a masochist, but He was looking for the reward and joy of being with God and helping others be with God. Through the pain he showed love and he showed God's worthiness. He knew the pain would not last forever, but joy with God does.

This world is only a testing ground. (1 Peter 4:12) Suffering, like it did for Job, tests our treasure. This is not your home. You cannot take what you own with you when you die. You will have nothing to take with you but what you did with God. You will either belong to heaven and your Father God or to your Father Satan and to His punishment in hell. This is not your home. You cannot stay here. Nor can you take any of your possessions with you where you are going very soon. Our sufferings are like a flashing red light that says, "This is not the way it supposed to be, but someday God's kingdom will come!" Instead of realizing this, most are slipping towards the end... they will soon be in hell, wishing they would have listened and acted on God's words. Suffering is a warning that says, "This is a taste of the eternal punishment that you need to avoid through Christ."