Exloring Life Eternal

Good day M,

I haven't heard from you in a while and thought to myself if I don't receive an email I'm going to mail you. Just that morning I saw your mail came through. You got me worried for a while.
Thank you and keep well.
N.dT.

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Keep praying. I've had back trouble & am having to work twice as hard @ work because of my faith in Christ & testimony. But in the process, the place is cleaner & people are hearing the Good News. Despite some opposition, my boss did commend my work.

(I work part time in a state university cafeteria ... it is a field which is white unto harvest!)

- MJH

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My goodness, good to hear from you Mert. I thought you were doing this full time.

I remembered last night that I wanted to share something else with you also. There’s a man from our Church (In RSA and Africa we are His People Christian Church, but world-wide we are known as Every Nation)

Who is a missionary in China. I spend some time talking to him about mission work over there and also security issues. He says out of all the Countries China has the best Security in place to track down Christian emails etc. A few of their underground leaders are in prison, but he is very excited about what the Lord is doing.

There’s another thing he mentioned to me and that’s about the AP. There’s a country were some of the top officials are being discipled by some of our people and many other amazing doors that the Lord has opened.

The Lord bless you Mert. Someone at my work was murdered over last weekend, a young lady. I didn’t know what to say as she also lost her father and mother while she was younger, what the family must think.

Then it came to me how above all people in the world, the Lord loves them the most, He gave His Son for them and wants good to happen to them and not evil. The same for the AP, and the Lord knows how to work His plan.

Keep well,

N.dT.

After the cartoon thing cooled down, I heard about civil laws established after the war in Europe banning questioning the historical reality of the Holocaust of the Jews during WWII.

Is anyone familiar with any law in force banning the questioning the historicity of the crucifixion & the resurrection of Jesus?

[ I do not believe that is the way to spread the good news or even that such laws should be enacted. ]

The reality that Jesus lived, committed no sin, did wonders & healed the sick, died on a Roman cross under Pontius Pilate & rose again in a way that He could be touched & that He could prepare & eat food on the third day is a true fact that is historically evidenced by prophesy, fulfillment, and an movement (from which numerous heretical movements have daparted) that remembers His past ministry and anticipates His future return in a reliable collection of documents and customs which celebrate the freedom of Jesus' Lordship & the salvation found in His kingdom.

So, if there is no law banning the study of Jesus (& the odd/false ideas that abound), why should an honest / description of Muhammed be exempt? *

If there is no law banning the study of Jesus from the sourced documents (i.e. the Gospels, the Law, the Prophets, and Psalms), then why not study them for yourself? [Keeping in mind that studying the life of Christ is best done by putting into practice what he said to do.]

ON THE OTHER HAND, if there is a law preventing people from following Jesus, who is Life, then why are people permitted to follow Muhammed, Guatamma, and the various other historical and semi-historical figures that abound?

A serious examination of both the Bible & the historical context of the Biblically recorded events and subsequent history will show that prohibitting people from pursuing Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit freely is the surest way to bring about social & moral chaos, typically resulting in genocide and perversion.

On the other hand, when the civil state requires allegiance to Jesus, one does not foster genuine joy.

+ Notice:
A. The Gospels (Injil) give a much better description of Jesus than the Quran does of Muhammed.
B. The Quran & Islamic traditions describe Jesus as having much higher moral character than Muhammed.
==> Because of the inferior moral & theoretical quality of Muhammed's teachings & the fact that he does not qualify as a true biblical prophet, I am referring to Jesus as the Prophet, The Messiah. "The Prophethood of Muhammed" is perhaps a poetic way of stating that he had an impact on Arab cultures, but I do not endorse it as true.

Just a line or two to let you hear from us. We both are well and hope this finds you the same. My grandmother used to begin all of her letters to us with those sentences, to us, her family. To you, who are part of our Christian family, I write today.

Mr. came in late last week intent on sharing an event with me. He prefaced it with, “You have to tell them, they have to KNOW what their prayers are doing, how they are opening up hearts, SO here goes:

By Mr. (by Mrs.):
Friday I visited the offices of the water dept. I normally work closely with them on any number of projects. Through the head of this government dept we have made entry to many villages. She has always been very interested in what we have to share from the word when we visit and has even helped with interpreting and expounding on some trips. I wanted to discuss an upcoming project in the Wakhan with her and see about other things that may be needed. I took along a couple of calendars that I printed up for distribution from our office. Each includes a picture of some project or person that we know in common, along with the first three verses of I Cor. 13 in a national langauge. [Which is our motto for our office here.] We did talk about projects but most of the time was spent on explaining what I thought about the meaning of the verses. Several quotes to note from this include:

1. “I like to talk about spiritual things with you. Can we do this more?”
[Would you pray that we do have many opportunities to talk about spiritual things with her?]

2. “Every cabinet in my department needs one of these calendars because of the words on them.”

3. "Is it ok if I give one to the Governor and maybe other department heads?"
[Also pray that others will be struck to the heart by these verses.]

So I’m busy printing Before I left she shared this story.

“When God handed out land the Pamiri people were lazy and didn’t come for theirs until He had handed out everything. So He said that the only land left was part of His place and not really designed for humans. So that is how they got here and anyone who is allowed to come here and stay is special to God.”

[Mrs. writes:
To be honest, other than a general request for prayer some time ago for government leaders here, I don’t think I have requested specific prayer for this lady. We have been really drawn to her, I like her personally, and it has been always an enjoyable experience to work with her, partly as she has a great sense of humor. Last summer we were going to a village to begin a canal project, Mr. read from the Word to explain who we are and what we are about. She translated into their dialect and added some comments of her own, that they should PAY ATTENTION to this, God’s Word. On the way to the village we had been talking about times past and what it was like when we were all kids, us in the USA and them here.. It seems that the world around was watching Tarzan movies back in the early ‘60s. She said many boys here broke ankles and legs trying to swing and drop like Tarzan did. Anyway, on our way down the mountain we had to stop for an oncoming truck, as the road was so narrow. A good opportunity for leg stretching, I walked up the road and she walked down. We were a good bit away from one another, standing on the edge of the rough dirt road, the stillness of the sharp walled valley surrounding us, I cupped my hands around my mouth and shouted HELLOOOO! She looked back up at me and grinned, and thumped her fists to her chest and the Tarzan AAeAAeAA rang through the air!

I’m going to name her Deborah, she is not a judge but she does have position in the government, as head of our region’s water dept. and now a seat in the Senate as well. Deborah is married, and is in her early 50’s. Please pray that we do have many opportunites with Deborah, her husband, and their family as well.

1 Corinthians 13:1-3

If I speak in the tongues of humans and angels but have no love, I have become a reverberating gong or a clashing cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can understand all secrets and every form of knowledge, and if I have absolute faith so as to move mountains but have no love, I am nothing. Even if I give away all that I have and surrender my body so that I may boast but have no love, I get nothing out of it.

Blessings,

From South-Central Asia

LIGHT FORCE
A Stirring Account of the Church Caught in the Middle East Crossfire
Brother Andrew and Al Janssen
Fleming H. Revell, 2004, 319 pp.
ISBN 0-8007-1872-0

"My call was to strengthen the Church in the Middle East. Could I do it without getting caught in the cross fire of deeply held conviction? Was it possible for believers to rise above their differences and experience unity to stand against the evil darkness?" (25)

"The Church is also supposed to be a light in the darkness, but it’s hard to fulfill your mission when you are fighting for your very survival. ... I want to help Christians escapes their victim mentality. I wanted to see them trained, ready to advance and get on with the job of winning people to Jesus." (27)

From a meeting with Ayatollah Fadlallah, the fundamentalist spiritual leader of Hezbollah in Lebanon: "Brother Andrew, you Christians have a problem ... You Christians are not following the life of Jesus Christ anymore." ...
I asked him, "What do you think we should do about that?"
He said, "You must go back to the Book." (196)

- What kind of people does the Quran produce?
- What kind of people does the Bible produce? (197)

"The Hamas are reachable. Anyone could have gone to see those men at Marj al-Zohour. I did what Jesus did in His ministry—I met them at their point of need." (229)

A Palestinian Pastor: “I wish the Church would understand the struggles Palestinians have. We have to deal with Judaism. We have to deal with Islam. And we have to deal with who we are, with our nationalism. Plus we have to deal with Western Christianity.” (referring to organizations that automatically approve of any actions by Israel over any claims made by Palestinians) (312-13)

See full book notes & more at
www.davidmays.org

WORLD: NONSTOP BAD NEWS DISTORTS GLOBAL REALITY
from: BP News (http://www.bpnews.net) - January 26, 2006

By Erich Bridges, senior writer with the Southern Baptist International
Mission Board (http://www.imb.org)

Disasters, war, and violence dominated the news last year: the
tsunami and Katrina, Iraq, terrorist attacks worldwide, the Kashmir
earthquake.

These traumatic events led most of the top-story lists for 2005,
and rightly so. Hundreds of thousands died. Millions suffered
- and continue to suffer. Many Christians responded to human
and spiritual needs with sacrificial love and generosity.

But the accumulation of bad news, relentlessly covered by news
media, tends to distort our perceptions of the world.

...

The [full] Human Security Report (http://www.humansecurityreport.info),
released in October by the Human Security Centre at the University
of British Columbia in Canada, shows that mass political violence
- with the exception of terrorism - has declined rapidly since
the end of the Cold War. Ignorance of that reality “is compounded
by the fact that the global media give far more coverage to wars
that start than those that quietly end,” says Andrew Mack, director
of the centre and coordinator of the three-year project.

The study, published by Oxford University Press, includes these
findings:

• The number of armed conflicts has declined by more than 40
percent since 1992, primarily because of the end of colonialism
and proxy wars spawned by the Cold War. Wars also have killed
far fewer people in recent decades.

• Wars between countries now constitute less than five percent
of all armed conflicts.

• The period since World War II is the longest interval without
wars between major powers in hundreds of years.

• Most armed conflicts are occurring in Africa, but declined
even there from 41 to 35 between 2002 and 2003.

• Despite the horrific mass murders in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Sudan
over the past 15 years, the overall number of genocides perpetrated
worldwide fell 80 percent between 1989 and 2001.

• International terrorism is the only form of political violence
that is increasing; more than 650 “significant attacks” occurred
in 2004 alone. The death toll from terrorism, however, accounts
for only a small fraction of annual war-related deaths.

• Most current wars are low-intensity conflicts, often consisting
of skirmishes between government forces and internal rebels.

• Authoritarian regimes are responsible for higher levels of
violent internal repression and human rights abuses. But as democracy
has spread worldwide, the number of such regimes fell from 90
to 30 between the end of the 1970s and 2003.

... the report clearly demonstrates that the world is not descending into chaos, as the evening news sometimes implies. Total global violence has dropped, stability has increased, political freedom is on the rise, and economic growth is lifting millions out of poverty.

That’s good news for everyone. But it challenges the church to get on with the task of global evangelization. We lack the convenient excuse that large segments of the world remain off-limits to us because of war, chaos, and repression. Hundreds of people groups around the world remain unevangelized - not because they live in places too dangerous and violent to reach, but because we haven’t bothered to reach them.

I’ll never forget the shock I felt when I visited a country of more than 60 million people several years ago and discovered why there were so few believers there. It wasn’t because of violence, persecution, or hostility toward Christians, although those factors all existed to some degree.

It was because we, the followers of Christ, have yet to get serious about spreading the truth in that land.

“They haven’t rejected the gospel,” said a worker in the country. “They haven’t yet heard the gospel.”

Source (http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=22528).

Praise the Lord with us!

On 21 September we asked you to pray for a man who prayed: "Lord if you're real, please show me."

Praise the Lord he has now become a believer! Thank you for your prayers, and continue to pray for him, that he will be discipled and grow quickly in his new faith.

Pray for a dear friend who is in country this week, that his contacts will be ordained of God and lead to many open doors for ministry.

Please be in prayer for a worker who is preparing to return to her town of service next week. Pray with us that she will receive her visa and all the paper work will be done in order to be able to continue working in country. Pray that she will return to find open homes and hearts, ready to hear the Message of Hope that she carries with her. Pray for protection and wisdom in service.

Prayer Requests and Praises for November 9, 2005

1. Praise God for all the prayers that were lifted up over the last month and a half. During Ramadan, the whole Christian world was praying for Muslims around the world. And many chose during the month of October to take one week and fast specifically for the country of Tajikistan. To those who did, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. May you find your treasure in heaven!

2. Pray for seeds of good news sown in some remote areas recently to grow and bear fruit. Ask that God would open many hearts the the Truth through these seeds. Ask that God would also protect those doing the sowing and mature them as they seek Him in all their endeavors.

3. Pray that those working in Tajikistan would not be drug down by depression, discouragement, or despair; but would rather enter a fresh new season of Knowing God and Enjoying Him, being satisfied in God and enjoying His Presence. May this new wind be so appealing to others that they want it for themselves!

4. Praise God with us for nearly 250 pre-orders so far for the calendar. The final version has been sent to the printers and we will have them soon. Again if you want to get some, please don't hesitate to email HT@hopetajikistan.com. In regards to the already-printed Hope Tajikistan prayer guides, please order those by emailing PrayerGuides@hopetajikistan.com Thanks so much!!!!

5. There is currently an unprecedented freedom in this country to proclaim the truth. Pray that many will be called to take advantage of it while it last. There are signs that there are those who want to close the door, but it is not closing yet! Pray that this door of opportunity will be taken by many while it is still open!!!


Thanks for praying. May God bless you richly as you are blessing to the people of Tajikistan.

- HT Prayer Coordinator

1. Please pray for a new project we are trying to get launched - a full color wall calendar with pics from Tajikistan to spur on the prayers of those who have never seen Tajikistan in full color. You can do two things - 1) Pray that God will help get these done by October so we can get them out before the beginning of the year. 2) If you or your church or prayer group would like to pre-order some of the calendars, let us know by emailing HT@hopetajikistan.com This will allow us to make the ones we can use and not waste on printing extras. Don't delay, get in your pre-order this week!

2. For Local Tajik believers who are showing Jesus to their fellow Tajiks by serving them in practical, loving ways. Pray that they would not grow weary in the work (and they are working hard), but would remember to wait on (hope in ) the Lord for all things.

3. Pray against discouragement among all believers in Tajikistan. This is a major way that Satan disrupts the work (by creating feelings of discouragement in believers' hearts).

4. Pray for those working among prisoners to be empowered, anointed, and fruitful in their ministry.

5. Pray for those in Tajikistan who are trying to make sense of their own natural disasters. In the same way Americans are mourning Hurricane Katrina, almost every month in Tajikistan there are villagers mourning lost friends and family to earthquakes, mudslides, and/ or floods. We are not alone in this thing called human suffering, and we can use our own distresses to help us pray with more empathy for those around the world who are experiencing similar situations.

Mission Focus #398

PRAY FOR THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE SUFFERED FROM THE TRAGEDY OF HURRICANE KATRINA. PRAY FOR IRAQIS WHO ARE SUFFERING FROM THE STAMPEDE OF SHIITE MUSLIMS WHERE OVER A THOUSAND DIED.

“Pray!” “Pray for the people who are suffering from the tragic disaster of Hurricane Katrina!” From many places of the world people said these words when they heard about the terrible disaster that had hit the south coastal area of the U.S. One Christian woman from India expressed some of her thoughts: “In your country, every one will get a new chance to stat again. Not so in our country. However, there is such gratefulness shown when poor people receive help in India. The very poorest person in the world has the greatest treasure when he finally turns to God and knows His love. I pray that the people in America, especially those who are suffering from Hurricane Katrina will realize that God does not want people to suffer, but He wants them to give all of their hearts and lives to Him. May those who do not know the Lord receive Him through the giving hearts of believers in America who are helping the victims of this tragedy.”

Many of the people living in New Orleans have been participants in various forms of spirit worship, such as voodoo and other cultic practices that cause serious spiritual problems. PRAY that this disaster will draw hearts closer to the true God for comfort, hope and guidance. PRAY that the sovereignty of God’s loving rule will be known to many who are going through this tragic event. PRAY that those who have been caught in darkness, depression, fear and sadness will truly come to give their lives over to God and receive a new life. PRAY for wisdom in regards to all redevelopment from the damage of this disaster. PRAY that a health crisis due to diseases that could happen from this disaster will not happen.

PRAY FOR IRAQ. PRAY for the families who are in shock and who are mourning family members killed in the stampede. It occurred while people were walking to a religious service at a Shiite mosque in Baghdad. The people became fearful when hey received a false warning of a bomb threat. Over a thousand died. PRAY that many will turn to God.