Exloring Life Eternal

Living in Southeast Michigan, one cannot help but hear about the loss of jobs in the "big three" US automotive conglomerates.

It is resulting in plants closing. A Ford plant closed locally recently.

Delphi & others are cutting staff &/or going belly up. At least once a week this sort of thing is in the headlines with an interspersed note or two, maybe once a month, about progress in the auto & transport industry, usually tempered with bad news:
Hybrids are being released ... but the US makers are slower than others.
Rail traffic is up ... with Asian products on board.
A new R&D center is opening ... for a foreign owned company.
Overall use of busses is up ... with a possibility of some lines closing.

Etc., etc., etc.

Today, American Family Association sent out this:
"Ford 'Proves' Commitment To Homosexual Agenda"

What is at the root of this decline??

Here are my convictions as to why the USA is in decline & particularly the automotive industry:

1. A mistaken perspective on prosperity. The American dream is typically measured in property, nowadays, that often includes lots of gadgets & wireless whatnots & electronic thingamajigs. But, Jesus said, "Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions."

2. A thoughless approach to life. The American heritage of Thanksgiving has been replaced with "Turkey Day" instead of family gatherings, "Football" instead of faith, & "Complaining & Criticizing" the ways & works of God rather than consecrating ourselves to the Lord Jesus as the path of joy! Ignorance is bliss in this land. But Jesus said, "The Lord is one, and you will love the Lord your God with all your heart & with all your soul & with all your mind & with all your strenght."

3. A self-centered & self-motivated method of success. Auto-motive: moving ones-self. Autonomy (self-law) is the rule. Individualism NEVER works. ECONomy is the law of selfishness & selfcenteredness always results in depression & death. But Jesus said, "Give & it will be given to you: pressed down, shaken together, & running over!"

Over the last 50 years the USA has become increasingly selfish in its approach to giving internationally. The results:
a. increasing defensiveness (military, psychology, & house alarms).
b. more aggression (military, social violence, psychological trauma).
c. lack of saving (in families, in government, in churches).
d. hopelessness (suicides, drug-addictions, weird mentalities).

BUT there are signs of HOPE:

1. Realization that sin is real & that hope is needed.
2. Gospel in various media: books, film, mp3, etc.
3. Rising prayer movements: 24/7, 10/40 Window, community prayer summits, etc.
4. Grace based unity movements that believe the Bible is true & that the resurrection took place.
5. Muslims & various other works based religions are losing members & being exposed by both apologists & the public media.
6. Net # of jobs is actually on the increase, despite the pessimism by which the news media prospers.
7. Martyrs who died are testifying to God's grace.
8. More missionaries are being sent out via Bible-believing groups, not just on short-term trips, but long term trips.

Future needs for the Healing of the Land:

A. The Church (i.e. those who have had the name of the Lord Jesus called on them & who call on His Name, those who believe in one God: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.) to repent & prefer humility & discomfort to eternal, moral, & social disaster.

B. The Church to continue to stand against sexual immorality & to teach against immodesty & drunkenness & strong drink more clearly. That is, don't flirt with disaster & don't experiment with death.

C. The Church in America to cease identifying primarily "Americans" but to see ourselves as citizens of the Heavenly Kingdom -first- & -foremost- and citizens of the United States of America as a place where we serve, while we are here. In other words, let us not honor the USA more than Christ Jesus in churches. Let us pray for -all- leaders to be wise, both those we like & those we don't. Those who are kind & those who are cruel. Those who are righteous & those who are wicked.

BOTTOM LINE: Let America quit her love affair with the automobile & remember the True Image of God. Stop trading living people for dead things. Most of all, let us remember our First Love: Jesus Christ, for in Him, God has first loved us!!

BOOK - I THINK GOD WANTS ME TO BE A MISSIONARY
from: Emmaus Road International (http://www.eri.org)

"I Think God Wants Me to Be a Missionary"
By Neal Pirolo

Prompted by the high attrition rate of missionaries who do not
first ‘count the cost’ of cross-cultural ministry, Neal Pirolo
offers this book to help candidates look closely at scores of
issues that should be clarified long before they say goodbye.
In an easy-to-read dialogue style, four young people represent
thousands of others.

A happy-go-lucky guy about to graduate from high school.
A most proper young lady who has always been home-schooled.
Kyle "engaged" to another young lady ... but one Sunday evening ...

In "I Think God Wants Me to Be a Missionary," we enter the lives of these missionary-hopefuls, their pastors, and others, and become involved in the dialogue as these young people deal with scores of issues to consider before saying goodbye.

Ordering information:
San Diego, CA: Emmaus Road International, 2005, 288 pages.
US$8.95 plus shipping and handling
On the web: http://www.eri.org
By phone: 858-292-7020

www.asiaharvest.org
Asia Harvest

From Headhunters to Church Planters:
An Amazing Spiritual Awakening in Nagaland
By Paul Hattaway

Surely one of the greatest spiritual revivals in history happened
in a remote corner of northeast India from the 1950s to 1970s,
when more than one million Naga people came to Christ. For centuries
the Nagas were head-hunters and lived bound by dark demonic powers.
Paul Hattaway, the author of “The Heavenly Man” and “Back to
Jerusalem,” is a frequent visitor to Nagaland. He has interviewed
numerous eyewitnesses to the revivals, documenting how it came
about, the opposition and brutal persecution that followed, and
the astonishing miracles that accompanied it.

“Today, almost one million Christians live joyful lives in Nagaland.
We have been conquered by God’s overwhelming grace and love ...
I recommend ‘From Head-hunters to Church Planters’ as an accurate
and incisive account of what God has done among the Nagas. May
God be glorified thorugh this book, and may your own heart be
revived as you read the wonderful things that God has done in
Nagaland!” - Naga Pastor Gwayhunlo Khing

Waynesboro, GA: Authentic, 2006, 144 pages.
Available from Asia Harvest
On the Web: http://www.asiaharvest.org
Price US$13 (including postage anywhere in the world)
with discounts for bulk orders.

=====

MERT: Having read some of the accounts, I can honestly say that they have helped prepare me for where I am today & that they equipped me with greater ability to discern danger & do God's work with faith & joy.

The TentMaker Project
From Nate Wilson
http://www.tentmakerproject.org

Micro-enterprise development is a fast-growing trend in mission strategies today. By extending modest loans to stimulate the productivity of small businesses, micro-enterprise development agencies offer financial help to the poor while minimizing dependency upon foreign money.

The TentMaker Project offers a model of this kind of development, using the resources of local churches to make the process work with low overhead, high repayment rates, and constant opportunities for discipleship. It grew out of a short-term mission trip to Uganda taken by a pastor in Carbondale, IL, & has been enthusiastically endorsed by long-term missionaries as they have seen the model in action.

Learn more at the ministry’s web site:
http://www.TentMakerProject.org

HIGHLIGHTS:
Profiles of micro-loan recipients: http://www.carbondalepca.com/tentmaker/TentMakerProfiles.htm
[Photos, text, and video interviews - show how people's lives
have been impacted by small business financing loaned church-
to-church.]

Simulation of how it works:
http://www.carbondalepca.com/tentmaker/TMPsimulation.pdf
This document describes a simple group activity that can help Westerners begin to relate to the reality of poverty and the usefulness of micro-enterprise development. (in .PDF)

A Sample Policy Document:
http://www.carbondalepca.com/tentmaker/TMPUgandaPolicy.pdf
This policy statement produced by African leaders outlining the
logistics of church-based micro-loans. (in .PDF)

Nate Wilson is the servant-hearted man of God who led Missions-Catalyst (before it had that name) for ~ the first eight years.
To learn about their family:
http://www.NateWilsonFamily.Net

Visit the "Missions Catalyst" events calendar -http://www.calebproject.org/main.php/calendar

GAYA PEMBALAP BERBAGAI NEGARA
Gaya pembalap Italia
Gaya Pembalap Singapore
Gaya Pembalap Malaysia
Gaya Pembalap Jerman
Gaya Pembalap Hongkong
Gaya Pembalap Cina
Gaya Pembalap Korea
Gaya Pembalap Indonesia

United, weCare, to Bless the Nations:

"Untuk Injil inilah aku telah ditetapkan sebagai rasul dan sebagai
guru. Itulah sebabnya aku menderita semua ini, tetapi aku tidak malu;
karena aku tahu kepada siapa aku percaya dan aku yakin bahwa Dia
berkuasa memeliharakan apa yang telah dipercayakan-Nya kepadaku
hingga pada hari Tuhan."
2 Timothy 1:11-12

"And of this gospel I was appointed a herald and an apostle and a teacher. That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet I am not ashamed,
because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able
to guard what I have entrusted to Him for that day."
2 Timothy 1:11-12

=====
The preceding verses so that it is in context:

6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

8So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord, or ashamed of me his prisoner. But join with me in suffering for the gospel, by the power of God, 9who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 10but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.

A Christian friend wrote:
"Once he dared to think, he was killed.
Islam is against people thinking."

Western Politically-correctness and Islam both love non-thought.
Perhaps it is why they make such ready bedfellows.

Hindo-Buddhism in some lands is the same.

IF (as some political leaders maintained)
the example made of a man named "Servant of Mercy"
& who steadfastly looks to the Lord Jesus for hope,
is to kill him,
then what remains for those would attack compassion & faithfulness
which are the foundations of the throne of God?

"OH, King of Glory, intercede for Your name's sake!"

Christ alone is our redeemer.

Psalm 2


=====
Various Responses to the case of Abdul Rahman in Afghanistan:

http://www.catholic.org/international/international_story.php?id=19149

Many leaders show much less Political Correctness on this issue than on cartoons. Both Bush and Rice have spoken out quite clearly on the situation in the USA:
http://www.localnewsleader.com/kindred/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=162870


Australia, Germany and Italy have also all spoken against the trial.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,18574818-421,00.html).

Even CAIR, has come out against the trial:
http://www.muslimnews.co.uk/news/news.php?article=10811

BUT their web site hasn't spoken against the injustice:
http://www.cair-net.org/

In response to all this, the statements coming out of Afghanistan so
far are a bit defensive
http://tinyurl.com/r3m3d

An accusation of insanity can cover the face for a moment, but can the Muslim world face God by throwing around accusations of insanity?

Murder, riots, execution, etc. are simply not justified on the basis of disagreeing with the importance of a dead Arabian poet who never clearly claimed for himself the divine status which many Muslims seem to accord him.

For example, Bush has said,

"I'm troubled when I hear, deeply troubled when I hear, the fact that a person who converted away from Islam may be held to account."

[What about Saudi Arabia which has had & continues to have the same pattern of killing & imprisoning those who refuse to subject themselves to the irrationality of Islam??

When will they be free??]


From the New York Sun
"Intolerable Trial"
http://www.nysun.com/article/29616


"And now, on the heels of the cartoon controversy and the port deal,
comes perhaps the worst of it all: Afghanistan's trial of Abdul Rahman, who grew up as a Muslim in Afghanistan, but converted about 15 years ago while working with a Christian-run refugee aid group in Pakistan.

If you wanted to write a tale designed to get Americans furious with
the Muslim world as a whole and with the Afghani government in particular, you would be hard-pressed to come up with an outrage more effective than this."

Today I asked some folks where I work a simple question:

What is the simplest thing you have ever learned?

Some responses:
How to breathe.
How to walk.
Language.
How to love.
How to eat.

For me, the most important/simplest thing I have learned was:
The answer to this question:

"Whose ya Daddy?"

To know God as our Father is such a joy.

He gives us breath.
Fills us with love.
Enables to speak.
Feeds us with His Word.
& Has shown us how to walk.

http://www.leaderu.com/truth/1truth22.html
Truth Journal
Contemporary Scholarship and the Historical Evidence
for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ
by William Lane Craig
William Lane Craig is a leading apologist today in the USA.

============
http://www.xenos.org/classes/papers/doubt.htm
Historical Evidence for
the Resurrection of Christ:
by Christopher Louis Lang

============
http://www.wcg.org/lit/disc/11evidence.htm
Discipleship 101
a beginner's guide to Christianity
Evidence of Jesus' resurrection
by the Worldwide Church of God
(A group that returned to "salvation by grace through faith")

==========
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrection_of_Jesus
This text includes arguments for & against the resurrection.

==> Also, there are numerous links at the end to various Christian apologists. I think your magazine editors would find this part of the sight most helpful!

It is very much a pick & choose sight - discernment needed! The most
value is the links. One must note though that there are more reasons listed to believe the resurrection than to disbelieve & that they present an overall argument that is fully coherent, whereas many of the others are contradictory & mutually exclusive.

Hope that helps,
Mert Hershberger

Here is a summary of my response the the question of whether or not it is better for a saint to live & be called crazy or to die & be forgotten, editted slightly.

=====
I minister mostly among the "mentally ill" & the "disabled" & the poor. With a clear conscience, I can say that often God is most glorified among the weaker brethren. Paul the apostle wrote to the saints in Corinth, "Not many of you were strong, not many of you were wise ... yet God has chosen the weak of this world to confound the proud, the things which are not to confound the things which are."

Do not belittle the little! Remember where you yourself have come from! If Abdul's life continues, he has time to share the love of Jesus in word & deed, whereever he may be. Governments come & go. The public standards of sanity change. But love & life & light endure.

I have seen those who were poor far outgive the rich!
I have seen the faith of children accomplish far more than the learned!
I have seen the weak & infirm glorify God far more than the strong &
healthy!
I have seen the kindness & love of "sinners" far exceed the love of the pious!

I write that to my own shame: for in each of those instances, I was "the rich, the learned, the healthy, & the pious."

Even the mouths of pagans are shut when they see that the saints love the least & the little as well as the lost. But if the insane are living rationally & kindly with their neighbors, then what remains for the "sane" who kill each other? The mouth of the lion will be shut & the lyin' will one day cease altogether. When God's people are called "wretched" by the world, yet live holy by the power of the Lord then the Spirit vindicates Himself.

The argument about the "mentally ill & retarded" being the only ones who believe in the Truth is the same argument that people in Secular Academia use against the gospel & that Marxism uses. But why do we need to pretend that we are all powerful or all wise? God is far more glorified through the weak than the strong! Don't despise the day of small beginnings! Jesus did not come to break a bruised reed or put out a smoldering wick, but to strengthen & to fan into flame.

In one country where the good news is now going forward with power though there are & were _few_ Christians of any sort from the west, one of the key markers that indicated a harvest was about to come:

A young man was put out of his home because he was apostate. He had
been very badly mistreated. In time, a measure of reconciliation came. He would visit his family from time to time & stayed at his parent's house as long as possible. Finally, his father was annoyed & asked why he lingered there when he knew he was no longer a part of the family. The son then told about the young men at the house who had taken him in. They would pair off each night & tried to get him to do the same. The son did not believe this was right in God's sight nor his father's, but if he had to leave his father's house again that night, he would. His father could no longer hold back his compassion, he told his son to bring back home all his possessions. He could stay at the family home.

The worker who shared the story said, "While Chistians may not be as "good" as ordinary citizens, they are not as "bad" as homosexuals. So, that is progress."

Even in the Philipines, the end of Marcos' regime of terror came when elderly nuns, priests, and the lame & infirm were put in the first row against the line of tanks. The tanks could have plowed over them. The people were not strong and were not armed. Very different from the Greco-Roman hoplite phalanx. They were weak & dependent & retarded & disabled. But God used them to take back the Philipines. And that is merely a modern secular revolution, but it was a change of government that happened _peacefully_, unlike anything the world had known. The talking heads on radio & TV still don't understand the power of the Gospel. (Church planting & evangelism was & is going forward there & beyond.)

Yet, if you read the _minor_ prophets, you will remember that the Lord said that the lame & infirm would go up on Mount Zion. (Micah 4:1-7; Zephaniah 3:16-20). Mephibosheth (who had both a weak body & a shameful name) was welcomed at the table of David. This is like God's love.

Let the nations mock us.
Let the Lord vindicate.
We will honor the Lord,
& He will honor us.

With Christ as King,
Mert Hershberger

Serving with: International Fools for Christ
Proverbs 17:24; Zechariah 4:20; 2 Chronicles 16:8-10