Exloring Life Eternal

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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.

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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.

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

Comments in response to notes that can be found @ http://www.DavidMays.org on the book "Lead Us Into Temptation."

“If you just play by a few rules you’ll have more things—if that’s what you want—than any generation before. What are these rules? Simple. Finish high school, get a job, don’t get pregnant or get someone pregnant before you finish high school, don’t become addicted to drugs, and you can make it in America.” (12-13)

“But watch out! Deviate from these rules by just a hair and you can fall over the edge. Drop out of school, do some jail time, stay unemployed in the inner-city, take a drug stronger than marijuana for longer than a week, or attempt to raise a child by yourself, and you will have the life of a peasant.” (14)
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Or care about those who do transgress in any of the above ways. What the Bible says about the poor essentially applies to all who seek to apply the teachings of Jesus. He never seemed to have given us a way to "financial freedom" other than a way to be free from finances. (Smile!)

This author's books make so clear what the choices are: God or Mammon. He makes the Lord's love so attractive. I suppose that in the old days the crosses of martyrs & the execution of criminals did the same thing. Now those gagging on gold accomplish the same thing despite all attempts to do otherwise.

Much grace,
Mert

_The Beak of the Finch_
by Jonathan Weiner
1994, Vintage Books.

The book is well-written, as the various critiques / reviews will attest. As far as real _new_ information, I found absolutely nothing ... other than a sort of travelogue fo modern science with particular attention to a very disciplined team on one particular island on the Galapagos cluster, namely, Daphne Major.

However, my own interest was to see if there is really anything new to be said about evolution [i.e. change over time in the biological orders.]. Within kinds of creatures, there are obviously changes ... as humans have observed since the days fo Jacob when he set apart the black, spotted & speckled from the more ordinary goats. Change happens. This is not news.

Jesus himself said that his Father was at work to the present day, and it seems to me that the Father's work certainly includes the management of the species & their variation. However, the Biblical record is pretty simple & clear when it says that creatures (plant, animal, whatever) would reproduce after their own kind: Finches have finches. Pine trees have pine trees. Bacteria have bacteria. Viruses beget viruses. People beget people. etc. As to diversity, it seems no surprising miracle which we have just discovered in the past 200 years that there is diversity, rather ... the miracle seems to be that there is a definite limit to that diversity. It is a limit which God has fixed & we may or may not ever fully know.

Perhaps the most interesting bit in the whole book was that the presence & ongoing observation by humans & attempts to intervene so as to preserve rare / near extinct species in fact only hastens the diversification. This actually seems to reinforce the "babel effect." That is, when people try to prove they are something when we are nothing ... the result is confusion ... & divergence/differsification.

A favorite proverb of mine is "The glory of kings is to search out a matter, it is the glory of God to hide a matter." So, what does this show me? God is glorious. Even when we attempt to prove something grand & glorious: God remains God, we remain human. Only when we humble ourselves _under_ His mighty hand ... only then do we receive the fullness of His grace.

The whole Babel effect seems something like Heidegger's uncertainty principle: We are limitted!! God is not. He knows both the species, when they will change, and what it will take to make what will happen happen. At times we yeild to His good, pleasing, & perfect will ... and at times we do not. God rewards us accordingly. How much better to follow the pattern God has layed out for us in Christ Jesus as revealed through the Scriptures than to try to make our own!

This is what my fundamental faith consists of, and nothing more.

Peace,
Mert

Hi David,

This book was one that you commented on more ... & the notes you gave also showed something I have noticed about most people: we tend to get our perspective messed with when we engage with another/our own culture for a long period of time. Many missionaries to Arab countries have a slightly more Palestinian perspective. I sometimes wonder, "Why can't we all just get along?" But then, I remember that this is really only possible at the foot of the cross of Jesus, when we realize that the Lord Jesus effected reconciliation for those who will receive it.

...
Peace in Christ Jesus,
Mert

-----Original Message ==>with comment-----
Book Notes by David Mays See more book notes at www.davidmays.org

UNDERSTANDING IRAQ: The Whole Sweep of Iraqi History
William R. Polk
HarperCollins, 2005, 219 pp., ISBN 0-06-06468-6

“Nationalization of the IPC (foreign petroleum conglomerate) was perhaps the most popular move Saddam ever made. It is difficult for foreigners, particularly modern Americans, to understand how bitter the Iraqis were about foreign domination.” (127)

==> My wife is from Indonesia. Aceh had long been a sore spot with Indonesians about USA interferance & "raiding" of oil. Indeed, most American men-Indonesian women couples that we know were involved with the oil trade. Dirty business & a means of spreading Islam in many instances, sad to say!

By God's tremendous grace the tsunami came. Since then Indonesians (including my wife) have come to see that not all those who hold American passports enter their land to steal resources. Which, of course, makes things a little more pleasant when we discuss matters of global politics (Happily, this is not as frequent now). She had also been moved to help raise funds for the region ... & God moved in the hearts of those we knew to give rather generously. I think that if we as the church were to really pray for the worst situations / conflicts, then even greater things would happen.

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In 1983 the U.S. identified with the Iraq cause. According to Polk, “To this end, the United States either supplied directly or arranged for others to supply conventional weapons, cluster bombs, anthrax, and other biological weapons materials as well as components for nuclear weapons and equipment to manufacture poison gas.” (132, footnote) [Polk cites a German newspaper article (footnote, p. 146). But I find it difficult to believe. dlm]

==> I do not see why it would be difficult to believe the factual basis for this. The greater question seems to be rather, why would God permit the USA to become so corrupt & yet still have such power? I can only think of one reason: there are still those who go out & spread the good news. Under Clinton, the USA could have had Osama bin-Laden & tried him for involvement with the earlier car bomb in the Twin Towers, but the US declines. ... then the USA reaped the consequences. The USA government is one more rod in the hands of God. But the question we must face is: will the church be willing to serve as the Lord's staff, gathering the flock to Himself? I googled "Iran Iraq USA 1983" and came up with a couple of interesting links rather quickly. Some of the conspiracy sort, yes. But that is essentially what most political books are about anyways.

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[That Saddam sold the food for arms, allowing his people to starve, is openly admitted but receives no condemnation here. dlm]

The facts speak for themselves. Saddam will one day have to report to a higher authority (God). However, my understanding is that Polk is a USA citizen ... he is therefore called upon to first call the USA to account. Why should he meddle with other nations before critiquing his own government?

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In a 2003 interview with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, he “cut me off, saying that ‘America has long since decided to attack Iraq and nothing Iraq could do would prevent it.’” (169) [Polk seems to have taken this statement at face value and judged all else by it. dlm]

==> I agree with you here. This is the key problem: listening to politicians too much. They can be sly foxes at times! They want to stay in power & that means "protecting" their own people (i.e. saying what will make them/us feel good = re-election / re-appointment).

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American ideologically-driven Neo-Conservatives “proclaimed that America had the right, indeed the obligation, to impose its way of life on the whole world. Iraq was an early step in what was to be a new ‘crusade,’ which would be accomplished by warfare, essentially unending and everywhere.” (186-87)
[Polk’s political bias is stated strongly here! dlm]

==> I am personally concerned about a seeming open acceptance / sometimes delight/comfort in war that is too readily received in the church. I believe we must remember to keep the Good News as our mission, not political aspirations or international expansion & "homeland security." The Methodist Church lost the advance of the Gospel after the Revolutionary war when they put politics ahead of an independent stand. During the Revolutionary War, they were the one church movement that grew. Why? Because they preached a Jesus who was Lord over both the USA & Britain (& the whole earth!) In time they lost view of the Lord's sovereign holiness as a movement & the Lord has shown himself to/through other movements more effectively in later times.

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"Those Iraqis who aspire to complete sovereignty are prepared to create complete insecurity." (193)

==> "complete sovereignty" that certainly sounds like a devilish way of putting it! This has the same meaning in English as the Hebrew idiom "knowing good & evil." I take it that this is an exact quote. Indeed, radical independence always tends towards chaos!