Exloring Life Eternal

On Friday, December 8, there will be a carol service at one of the churches for foreigners in the country we love. This is a time when people from many nationalities gather together for a time of singing traditional songs from their home countries. For many it is the only time in the year when they will enter a church building.

Pray that they will hear the message of Christmas and consider its place in their lives.

"Abraham believed God, & He creditted it to him as righteousness." - Genesis 15:6

PRAISE:
Praise the Lord for the successful cancer surgery for the mom of a tentmaker in our country.

PETITION:
Pray for the Arab Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula on holiday in Malaysia. Pray that they would have a divine appointment with one of the Arab evangelism teams in the city’s parks and recreation areas.

Pray for the opportunity a MBB+ has to travel to another Islamic country to minister with Muslim seekers. Pray for his visas to travel into the guest country and a return visa to his current service country.

Pray for the health of a tentmaker that left the field due to an ongoing battle with cancer. Pray that he would be able to endure the pain of his deteriorating condition.

Pray for the tentmakers taking special Arabic courses during the summer months so that they may be more effective in their contact evangelism and discipleship activities in the autumn.

Pray for the MBB that is struggling with her faith. She has been systematically enticed by her Muslim family to go back to Islam and a share of the family wealth. Pray that she would not let go of the only true Savior she will ever know.

TESTIMONY:
Ibrahim is a business executive in his country. He is fairly successful with his government job and does well with his private business that he runs with his family. He is middle aged, with at least one wife and several children in their 20’s and late teens. Over a year ago, he began a friendship with a foreign medical professional. They met for coffee every once in a while, talked about all aspects of life which of course included their faith in God. Ibrahim began to wrestle with his Islamic faith in light of the discussions with his Christian friend. After several months of discussions and mostly watching his Christian friend’s work, social and family life – he expressed his desire to follow Jesus. Together the two men studied the Bible, prayed together, grappled with application issues that affected his new life in Christ. Amazingly, shortly after Ibrahim was firmly rooted in his new faith, his Christian friend left his country. Instead of being alone however, God brought another Christian into his life – who “happened” to know his first Christian friend.

Today, Ibrahim is still growing in his faith, however, he is not meeting with the very few other Christians from his own country. He meets one-on-one with a few expatriate Christian men for discipleship and Bible study. Pray that others from his people group would come to faith and become the core of the first National church in this country.


* AP = Arabian Peninsula
+ MBB = Muslim Backround Believer

<>< <>< <>< <>< <><
Praying Thru the Arabian Peninsula
www.pray-ap.info
USA #: 800-376-5876 (Eastern Time)
Encouraging & equipping believers & churches everywhere to pray with a heart filled with the "Seed-of-Laughter" for those at the heart who know "God-Hears" so that biblical church planting movements will spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula and beyond for the Lord's glory.

====
To learn how you can support this & other work in the Middle East, visit: http://www.srginc.org

Or write MertH.: ptap@srginc.org

Or:
PTAP
c/o Strategic Resource Group
P.O. Box 1809
Easton, MD 21601
USA

Today I met some folks, who call themselves "Jehovah's Witnesses."

I had seen them trapsing through the apartment a few times, preying on single women, trying to "teach" them something. When they announced what was occuring within the apartment adjacent to mine.

Before I go any further, I have to admit something: I believe Jesus came to save sinners & that I am the worst, (In other words, I am a person who sins against the truth God has shown me.), but for that very reason, Christ came, so that in me, the worst, He might display _His_ limitless patience, to the honor of the only wise God, immortal, invisible, eternal, to our Father in Heaven be all dominion, authority & majesty forever & ever, Amen!

My neighbors have this in common with me then: we watch TV at times. Apparently this is a heinous crime. I suppose that I should report it to my supervisors at work. There is a TV at work & I have watched it for some number of minutes (which I cannot specify here due to a lack of ability to track such a statistic, I do after all have a job to do.) So, probably I am a worse sinner than my neighbor:

1. I sometimes look at the TV at work. Only God can forgive me of this sin, would say the Pharisees. (If you do not detect a hint of sarcasm, perhaps you should play a laugh track from a TV show.)

2. Though I at times desire to watch TV, I have not been able to afford the latest greatest model of TV from the local electronics store. Again, these "Jehovah Witnesses" would surely point out once again: that their Bible includes the term, Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Will Provide // God will See to It (A translation using a title for the Lord GOD who is my Savior & street / "common" language.)

3. I did not invite the two strange ladies wandering through the apartment building into my apartment. (Ladies, if you are offended by that & reading this, please understand: I do not desire for you to disturb the peace of my home. A. My wife was not at home. B. Don't bother my wife even if she is at home. You are not welcome in our apartment. I gave you a business card. It included this web address. You insisted that you could see, though you could not even read my name on the card, despite repeated attempts to justify yourself. If you need glasses to see, please wear them. I care about my own mother enough to ask her to wear glasses if she needs them to read, so when I am writing this, I am not saying anything I wouldn't say to my own mother: if you need glasses to read the Word of God & cannot afford them the Church of Ann Arbor is willing to help you purchase them. If you need medicine to heal the ailments, again, the Church is willing to hear your confession that Jesus is the Christ & that you, like all other humans (even us who know Jesus are in the church), make mistakes daily & moment by moment in need of God's grace ... please forgive me the "wrong" of caring enough about my own household to desire a safe apartment dwelling for my wife & any future children we might have, Lord willing. ... Please forgive me the wrong of seeking your own welfare & good health. It seems strange that you _claim_ to believe it Jehovah Rapha ... The Lord who Heals ... yet you do not obey His commands. He said, it is not the healthy who need a doctor / medicine / glasses, etc., it is the sick. In other words, if you insist that you know Him, listen to Him. He desires Mercy NOT a 1,000,000,000 year fast from TV before you can hear any of the Good News or be regarded as a civil human being. My neighbor has caused much less disturbance at the apartments than I have. There are others who party into late into the night at times & keep me & my wife awake & there are people out there killing, raping, committing arson, incest, & forms of perversion that I do not care to list on this site ... & you come into "our" space griping because 1 person watches TV. Please forgive me the wrong of saying wondering who you were in apartment. Is it wrong to say hello to a stranger in the State of Michigan, or does one have to be stamped, sealed, & certified with a certain JW code of ethics before you can smile with a pleasant layer of make up. BTW: None of the women in my family need make-up to be attractive or pleasant, & while they don't necessarily always put up a good front as you have been dutifully trained to do, my wife fears God & trusts in His Son: Jesus Christ, our Lord. I am not sure why you put on a Tammy-Faye-like masque. I am not sure who bewitched you into thinking like you do with odd ideas about God. [Does anyone know of anywhere that it states in the Bible that Hebrew as recorded in the Law, the Prophets, & the Writings, was the language of Adam & Eve in the Garden? That is a claim to knowledge which I do not see anywhere in the Bible. If it is true, it would seem imperative to me for all members of the Watchtower Society & all those who profess to go out as "Witnesses" on behalf of "Jehovah" to know Hebrew & repent of speaking "pagan" languages.) I have digressed, but I think you see where the line of legalistic reasoning gets a person: trapped & hopelessly bound in trying to perform little rituals such that you lose sight of eternity.

I asked them who they were, and they introduced themselves by what would be called a title. Later they asked me who I was, and I said, "Mert." I don't remember their names, quite honestly. I got little sleep last night & so am a little emotionally tense right now, as you perhaps notice from reading. It has been a much fuller day than expected.

I talked to a man in the group, who wore glasses. He didn't pretend to be able to see & then not see. He was honest enough to wear glasses. Praise the Lord! He can be healed! But those people that claim they are "doing good" & put on a cosmopolitan front, while in fact they don't know the One they speak of ... I have little patience for them. Praise God I have a wife who not only talks about Jesus, but cares enough to clothe & feed & keep a decent house when I am at the office or at the university.

I pity the man whose wife goes around all day "witnessing" for the Lord only to come home & condemn him because he watches a little news or is actually interested in watching a TV preacher tell him how to _know_ the Lord. I would rather eat no earthly food than talk to such a woman day after day. Again, Praise the Lord Jesus that He has shown favor by giving me a wife who is not fearful of eternal condemnation just because she glances at TV once in a while or of reading the Bible for herself, without the help of strangers. I am so thankful that she has listened to me as I sought to explain some passages of scripture to her, as we follow the One Teacher, the Lord.

(Again, I name no names here, I do not recall names & I merely list this out, because: A: time after time, this has been the pattern of Jehovah Witnesses: send out women to bother people at the gates of the city while the men cower in fretful worry in their ivory towers. It is also a pattern of some Muslims. It annoys me. When Jehovah Witnesses & Muslims must resort to shoving "fine young ladies" into public to defend God's name, it has already become obvious: they do not know God. These women know less than the men, because at least the men tend to discuss the writings in a rational way (I mean mere human reasoning, not the full reason of the Wisdom of God, but better human reasoning than human impulse for that is a sure road to hell.) So, as I think about it, probably, the lady was just doing what she was told to do by the bishop, boss, or whatever the head honchos of the Watchtower Society told them to to. So, perhaps in this way, she was doing the best she could. My apologies for any offense ma'am. I hope that one day you too will find peace in the Lord Jesus Christ)

ON THE OTHER HAND:
The friend I spoke with is so near to the kingdom I could hear it in his voice. God loves that man. The Lord Jesus heard him as he expressed a desire to "save" me. Praise God! The dude who held a Watchtower certified Bible cares about my eternal salvation enough to study the Scriptures with me. Praise the Lord. He apparently has better things to do with his time. He was kind enough to give me a business card. If it is God's will, we will meet, as the man said he wanted to. He was not ashamed to talk to me in broad daylight, which indicates that he is actually more bold than the women & more bold than nicodemus.

Two notes:
A. The title which rightfully due to Jesus as "the Firstborn over all creation" does NOT mean he is the first "created" being. There is a semantic trick that the devil plays on those who buy into this sort of pharisaical thinking ... namely: firstborn implies an actual "birth." This is to do what muslims call "associating" things with God. Jesus does not just say "I will associate with God" because he feels like & vaunts himself over all creation in a proud & arrogant way (actually, that is what satan did & tries to get us to do: to be "buddy-buddy" with God on our own terms). Nor does the Church "associate" Jesus with God, as in loose associations, i.e. a symptom of psychosis & other nervous disorders. No, that would be an impotent form of idolatry in reality, though it could also appear "as a from of godliness."

B. Jesus is the Firstborn over all creation. What this does mean is that He is the Heir. I.e. in hebrew & other cultures which practices primogeniture (primo = first; geniture = born) inheritance, the firstborn inherits the blessing & right to rule. This is how English Kings are typically selected, for instances. HOWEVER, in order to display His Mercy, God appointed Jacob as the firstborn heir of Isaac. Esau was physically stronger & physically exitted his mother's body first. However, what mattered in the end was: 1. God's decree which was revealed to his mother Rebekah before the two were born and 2. Jacob's faith-filled struggle to find favor with God & man in his actual day-to-day life. The reality of Jacob's faith was displayed in that he wrestled with God & was "wounded" walking with a permanent limp the rest of his life. ==> What do we see, struggle is NEVER evidence of a lack of faith, but may indeed be the greatest evidence of faith. For faith which is seen, is NOT faith. Faith is ALWAYS future oriented.

I. ==> ETERNITY WILL BE AN EVER INCREASING ENJOYMENT OF THE PRESENCE & LOVE OF GOD THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, RISEN & REIGNING FOR THOSE WHO BELIEVE.

II. ==> ETERNITY WILL BE AN EVER-AGONIZING TORMENT FOR THOSE WHO ARE CONTENT WITH THE ABSENCE OF GOD IN THIS LIFE.

III. HOW THEN DOES RECONCILIATION COME?

POINT I. ABOVE IMPLIES THAT DAILY DIFFICULTY IS ULTIMATELY SOURCED IN THE REALITY OF HUMAN SIN & THE RELENTLESS PURSUIT OF GOD'S GRACE

(WHICH SOME HAVE DESCRIBED AS A "DANCE,"
BUT IS MORE APTLY DESCRIBED AS -WRESTLING- SINCE WE MUST NOT ONLY PLEASE GOD, BUT HAVE OUR OWN SELVES & THE EVIL WITHIN CONQUERED! SOME WOULD SAY THAT THIS SOUNDS AWEFULLY ORTHODOX, THEY ARE CORRECT. BUT GOING TO A BUILDING WITH INCENSE, BELLS, WHISTLES, PAINTINGS, STATUES, SECURITY SYSTEMS, ETC. WILL NOT -INHERENTLY- GET YOU CLOSER TO GOD. TALK TO THE PEOPLE THERE ... LIKE A JANITOR.)

POINT II. ABOVE IMPIES THAT DAILY COMFORT & A LIFE OF EASE IS -NEVER- AN INDICATION OF FAVOR.

BOTTOM LINE: ALL WHO -CALL- ON THE NAME OF THE LORD & CRY OUT TO THE LORD JESUS FOR SALVATION WILL GET EXACTLY WHAT THEY ASK FOR: SALVATION,HOPE, ETERNAL LIFE, PEACE, JOY, RIGHTEOUSNESS & ALL OTHER GOOD FRUIT THAT START FROM A GOOD SPRING. A SPRING SOURCED IN THE TRUE & LIVING LORD, NOT MERE TEXTUAL ANALYSIS.

One North African country has a rich and ancient Christian heritage. Ruins of a significant number of large, ancient churches testify to a vibrant community in the early centuries after Christ's birth and historical records confirm the presence of a predominantly Christian community.

These significant roots have now died out to be replaced by the majority faith followed by virtually all the population. Recently a worker in country met a family who told him their whole extended family have kept the faith through the centuries and have quietly retained their belief all these years.

Praise for this reminder of our Lord's faithfulness in preserving a remnant of His people. Pray for this family and others like them that their faith may not become a matter of historical pride but a living reality.

_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

Someone asked a question recently about globalization & its impact on evangelization: if we can travel just about anywhere, then can we not also share the message of Christ in those same cities? All you have to do is hold down a decent job, live right, and tell others about Jesus, right?

I am answering this in terms of what it would take to maximize effectiveness in ministry ... and not necessarily the fact that all are called to be evidence of the Lord's presence:

It is possible to life as a follower of Christ in any land & get some sort of job most anywhere if your goal is simply to live there for a long time as a professing believer.

PTAP www.pray-ap.info is part of a network that seeks to connect people from various parts of the globe to live as Christians in the Arabian Peninsula for just this purpose: "to increase the salt content of those lands," if you know what I mean.

Having lived in various places & having sought to _make_disciples_ in those places, and having gotting just a _very_little_ acquainted with workers who are/were in the AP, I will offer a few caveats:

1. It takes time to make disciples (time to pray, study, seek, encourage, meet, travel.) For new life to occurr, life must be given. A reproduced life requires intimacy: first with God, then with the world. We are the seed. No time, no fruit. No fruit, no point. If the seed isn't in the soil, it will never bear produce. If the seed never dies to self-survival, it will remain alone.

2. Generally, successful missionaries (in terms of _making-disciples_) "work" no more than around 20 hours a week, if that, to maintain a presence in ltd access countries. I have found that there is roughly this same limit on how much time one can do non-mission
related activity if you hope to see fruit. No wise businessman who manages a thriving car business will spend 40 hours a week in the middle of the day, week in and week out fishing with his old buddies down at the creek behind his house.

3. In the Arabian Peninsula, the area where the most fruit harvest is taking place among the most needy peoples, there has been
a. the smallest number of expatriate Christians.
b. the fewest expatriate Christians who were holding "regular" jobs.
c. the most suffering among expatriate Christians: 3 martyrs.
d. the poorest of working conditions (ie. the economy is horrible for everyone.)
e. those Christians who were not focussed on _making_disciples_ had left (ie. those that did not really believe that the nations must follow Jesus if they are to be saved).

4. After Jesus called the disciples, he did not merely call them to believe, but to be "fishers-of-men." When they later tried to go back to fishing for fish, they were very ineffective. Why?
a. Jesus is Lord over the fish.
b. Jesus is Lord over the fishermen.
c. Jesus had given the fishermen a new assignment.
d. Jesus meant it & was training them through a long night of sleepless & fruitless labor.
e. Jesus is strong and loving: He showed his love by helping the fishermen get a big catch that probably paid their way back to Jerusalem & sustained them through until Pentecost. God worked a miracle so that his boys could get back to the real work.

BOTTOM LINE: I would not encourage people to pursue full-time work while professing to be a missionary, unless:
A. They are very single.
B. They are very willing to suffer.
C. They have a very portable skill.
D. They have a track record of _making_disciples_.

Simply believing in Jesus for yourself does not mean that you are making disciples. Making a comfortable living and making a lot of disciples are not always mutually compatible. Being content with Jesus & being contagious with the Gospel are.

Have a great day.

Kindly & calmly yours in Him,
Mert Hershberger
A migrant worker for the Miracle-Worker

PS: 2 boys I recently shared the gospel with were baptized yesterday! One plants, another harvests ... but God gets the increase!!

This will sound like heresy to some, I suppose.

A person who is urging & equipping others to pray intelligently doesn't "believe in prayer." Don't all Christians "believe in prayer"? This is how President Bush defines his faith as an evangelical.

However, you really cannot pray if you believe in prayer.

To do so is to reduce God to your words.

Our words, emotion charged thoughts, etc. are not the ultimate object of our worship. Just because we say some really nice flowery prayer or pray very directly, this is really beside the point. Ultimately, it is not about hiding in a closet where nobody can hear you or standing in front of a crowd.

In fact, prayer is not about you at all, and it is not about me.

Real prayer is not about what you want or what feel like you should get in the end. Though you may have to talk that over with the Lord.

I do believe God wants us to pray.

So why pray?

A. Because God is real. He is not a fiction character in an old work of art.

B. Because God is powerful. He can do what He wants, He can show mercy to whomever He wants, He can be gracious to whomever He wants, ... and he wants you to behave accordingly.

C. Because God is listening even when you are not. Sometimes it helps us if we get the load of guilt off our backs and load of pride out of our hearts before we are really able to rest in His arms of care.

D. Because God is our Father in Heaven. Any good father on earth will want to be respected. Ask any honest man, and he will tell you that he would like some respect, from someone, some time, somehow. Fathers would like respect from their wives ... and their kids. Like any good father who has little kids, God will discipline those he loves ... particularly when they do wrong / speak lies / or have some other character flaw. So REALITY CHECK: God does love you, you had better honor Him & at least say thanks for all the things He has done for you:
1. What relationships do you have that are good?
2. What accomplishments have you done that once seemed impossible?
3. When did you receive help that you did not expect?
4. What material things do you have? (Water, clothes, food, these are always a good place to start.)
5. What memories do you have of pleasant times?
6. How have you changed for the better?
7. When did you survive a difficulty that seemed extremely oppressive at the time?
... Take as long as you need, express to the Lord God, thanks, praise, and much appreciation for what the Creator has done. In each of these areas, I have some thoughts that could be expanded into volumes: water (from fountains, from faucet, through filters, not poisoned, not polutted, in rivers, from the sky, in my body, in fruits, in milk, ... the whole water cycle that God designed & yet He alone is able to trace every molecule of it every second of every day!!

E. God wants a big family. Have you ever gone out or seen a kid who brought home a stray dog, cat, mouse, squirrel, lightening bug, or even a little weed and insisted that they be able to take it home as a pet? People are made to share life with others. Some kids actually pray for more siblings more than their parents are ready to receive them. HOW MUCH MORE THEN, should God not look for & long for more people on whom He might show forth His love? ... This is why we intercede for the lost. God loves it when we grow up enough to say, "Our Father & our God, would you please adopt _______. You've done so much for me, and they need to know that you love them & that they don't have to live in darkness ..." This is mature praying. The only way a soul can pray this way is if they know about the cross of Christ & truly understand what the purpose of God is. Only by the power & direction of the Holy Spirit are such prayers effective!!

If we simply believe in praying, our prayers become drivel. Not merely wish lists for ourself. But they become hospital lists for others. They turn the Lord into a tribal God who will protect, save, & defend our troops, but would just as soon hurl the people we don't know into the flames of hell.

This is not the real faith. Real faith becomes real love. Real faith is founded on the real hope of eternal life.

Ask for more to be saved. Ask for God's name to be better understood. Ask for the church to unite in Christ, rather than merely in committees. Ask for the evil to be put underfoot. Ask for protection from trials. Ask, and keep asking. And when it seems that the heavens are silent, ask again with the promises of scripture. And if you see no answer, gather more to ask with you, many more. And if you still see no answer, humble yourself further improverish yourself of the love of the world and rid yourself from petty sins. And if you still see no answer, pray for something bigger, for more of God's glory to be seen, more of His grace, more of His mercy, more of His holiness, more of His truth.

But by all means, don't stop praying, don't lose heart, don't forget what you have already learned, don't give up.

Go on, let down you guard, put away your pride, cry if you must. Shout in the wilderness. Play the fool in the court of man, if only you might see the God of heaven smile. And when He laughs, then the nations WILL listen. And you will be able to laugh with him.

Hope deferred makes the heart sick,
but a promise fulfilled is a tree of life.

No wonder the promised Messiah came through a baby named Laughter: "Yitzak, Yitzak, Yitzak. Heb."

Do I believe in prayer? No.

Do I believe in God? Certainly!! Therefore, I pray, because I believe He will reward everyone who _earnestly_ seeks Him.

Peace,
Mert