martyred

Her name was Christianah Oluwatoyin Oluwasesin. She was stoned, beaten and burned to death on March 21, 2007 because she was said to have desecrated the Quran on account of the fact that she, a Christian, touched a Muslim student's bag that allegedly carried the book inside.

Nobody actually knows if the Quran was actually in the bag or not.

Please pray for our Nigerian brothers and sisters.

The former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo will step down at the end of May, and a new president, Umaru Yar'Adua will become the 13th president of Nigeria. While Obasanjo is known to be a committed Christian, Yar'Adua is Muslim. Yar'Adua was governor over Katsina state in northern Nigeria, and it was shortly after his election that Katsina state adopted Sharia, a legal system based on Islam. According to Wikipedia, "...the new Sharia courts in Nigeria have most often meant the re-introduction of harsh punishments without respecting the much tougher rules of evidence and testimony."

If Sharia is adopted on the federal level in Nigeria, we can certainly expect more injustice and more stories that end like Christianah's.

Here is the entire story.

look here

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/04/06/eveningnews/main2658448.shtml

god is my salvation

This is the meaning of the name "Joshua". And this is Joshua Zhi-Cheng Morton, born on April 24, 2007, on my 28th birthday to my brother and sister-in-law Daniel and Amanda. May he grow to be strong, honest and sharp. May he be a blessing to his family in his youth and to the world in his adulthood. May Christ grasp ahold of his life at a young age and never let him go. May he truly reflect the strength of character found in his namesake, who was strong and courageous and encouraged others to do the same.

Praise God!

notes from international justice mission

I attended a dinner tonight at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church where Larry Martin, Senior Vice President of Education at International Justice Mission spoke on "Seek Justice, Rescue the Oppressed: Can I Really Do That?" It exceeded my expecatations, and I'm certain that in the future, I will probably be expounding a little more on this. His talk was quite insightful, incisive, truthful and action-oriented. I journaled my thoughts during the entire presentation. What follows are my notes. I have copied them as is, without any editing except for extra blank lines in places. I realize they are disjointed, but hopefully in this format you may feel that you are there, listening to the presentation, and hearing Mr. Martin speak. Sometimes the points speak for themselves and don't need any embellishment. This is hard for me to get my mind around.

Thursday, April 26, 2007 - IJM
I'm sitting in a room with 40 tables. On the screen, they are showing a video montage about International Justice Mission and slavery and prostitution of children around the world. The words flash across the bottom of the screen, in the context of a Fox News Broadcast reading "APX 30 000 - 50 000 sex slaves in the United States at any given time." This is in our backyard. I hear the words "In Cambodia, the youngest sex slave found was five years old." 2 Peter 1:19 is written on a card on a steel stand on every table.

Matthew 5:14a, 16 is written on the screen. The idea of being the light of the world is overwhelming. The reason for our blessing is found in Ephesians 2:10. We are created to do good works.

1. Truly recieve your rescue
We have been saved, but are our works really good works? Or is it nervous energy created when we try to save ourselves. If we don't accept God's grace we will not be prepared.

2. Advance into the darkness.
We fear extinguishing the flame in the darkness, so we often huddle together. A light in a light room is hardly noticeable. The light will flood the darkness. The darkness will not extinguisht the light.

We will see the darkness
of deprivation
of alienation
of oppression (injustice)

But is injustice a throw-away term in the United State? Injustice is not taking fourteen items into the express lane at the supermarket. It is one human taking liberty, dignity, well being.

Nagaraj, on the screen now, was enslaved in a brick kiln for a debt of $80 dollars. In this country in South Asia, they believe there are 14-15 million slaves.

Elizabeth, a young girl was taken to Thailand to have her virginity auctioned off. Afterwards she was raped 8 to 20 times a day.

Irene, a widow from Zambia, lost all her land, over 80 acres. The government took her land.

3. Believe the promises of God, offer your obedience, and leave the miracles to God.

Why don't we?
-We underestimate the value of what God has given us.
-But we have resources.

-We underestimate the value of a single life.
-Irene couldn't afford a lawyer.
-61 cases in Zambia last year, not one case lost.
-Irene came back and gave a few melons, a case of bottled water, and 10 dollars worth of coins. 1/2 month salary for her.

-We underestimate God's determination to rescue us from a trivial existance.
-Elizabeth had written Psalm 27:1-3 on the brothel wall in her tribal tongue.
-Elizabeth would not read Psalm 27 after the brothel. Instead she read Psalm 34.

How?
-Have justice be about God's passion. This is doable. God provides for his people when they seek to bring justice.
-Pray for IJM. Go to the website and sign up to be a prayer partner.
-Pay for IJM. Pay for rescues of those who need rescuing to be rescued.
-Volunteer for IJM.
-Work for IJM.

The needs:
God's blessing.
Good people.
Good churches looking to influence international justice.
Money




IJM's website is at http://www.ijm.org/.

what is worship?

I love the Passion Conferences. In January, I had the privilege of being a "Phillips Arena Team" volunteer during the latest one. So many good things were done during the conference for so many good Christian causes, but my favorite part was the worship. David Crowder Band, Matt Redman, Chris Tomlin and Charlie Hall led the worship for the four days of the conference. Their music, combined with the voices of 24,000 college students, led to a very worshipful atmosphere. I have no doubt that God used that conference to inspire thousands, bless tens of thousands, and possibly spark a change for millions around the globe.

I was thinking about the conference this morning, and about the worship there. I still get goosebumps when I listen to the music played during the conference, remembering that I was there. It takes me back to sitting in the Delta box on the first night with my newfound friend Jon, and listening to Matt Redman and his band practicing in the lounge. They were singing "Take It to the Streets". There were probably only five other people in earshot.

Then I started to think about worship in general. As much as we enjoy conferences and retreats, it seems as though God takes no real stock in them. As powerful as the music may be, I think we usually substitute the enjoyment and the flash of emotional worship times for God Himself.

Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
Isaiah 1:14 (esv)

Could it be that in the American church we have falling in love with the idea of falling in love, as opposed to actually falling in love? People often get married over the idea of love rather than for love itself. Why shouldn't they? The culture makes it easy. Just listen to all of the music on the radio about love. At first pass, it sounds like there are two camps: those who love love, and those who hate love. I think there's only one camp, but they're experiencing the beginning and the ending of a misplaced salvation: hope and despair. And as a result, millions of people are mismatched and often divorced within a few short years. I think we do the same thing to God. In fact, I'll go so far as to say we relate to each other that way because that is exactly how we relate to God.

When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Isaiah 1:15 (esv)

We become like what we worship. Anarchists have no God, because there is no God to make laws, therefore, there are no laws. Fire and brimstone preachers raise up judgemental, sneering Christians. Seeker preachers raise up sensitive Christians with no backbone. Emotional writers inspire thousands to run faith on emotions. People who see God unclearly view things in a shade of gray. Those who believe they see God clearly see in black and white. A hypercalvinist may turn into a fatalist, and an extreme Arminian who rejects sovreignty may often turn to self-help in times of need. Obviously, there are different shades of this, and I am of course making sweeping generalizations to drive the point home, but in speaking to people who have an emotional or relational problem they're dealing with, the core of the issue usually comes down to how they relate to or view God.

When we view God as a peddler of good-time emotions, we turn him into our personal lackey, and misdirect the proper placement of glory. We start to worship ourselves and seek feelings as the ultimate goal of our relationship with God. We start viewing people who are "on fire" and "hard core" as being super-spiritual, while we view the quiet, humble believers as "needing discipleship". Those who can make the greatest impact on our emotions are those who we look up to the most: dynamic speakers, talented musicians, deep thinkers and inspiring writers. Our god, in short, becomes an emotional high.

So what is worship?

To worship God is to love God. Love is only love if it is love in the eyes of the person being loved. If I'm to love someone, I have to ask them how I can best love them. I can never assume to know. If someone tells me that they feel most loved when they receive gifts, it would be misguided for me to then offer the person a back-rub, but never offer a gift. I may prefer physical touch, but what I like doesn't define love. Love is defined by the object of affection. If we want to know how to love God, we need to look at his Word and read what he says.

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow's cause.
Isaiah 1:16-17 (esv)

This is what God views as love. The emotions may or may not come. They're fickle, and that's not even the point. They should be fickle. They're not God. Loving someone is not about what we can get, but rather about what we can give. Scripture says that to love God is to obey God.

Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.
- John 14:21 (esv)

There are many good things we can do, but the best thing we can do to show God we love Him is to obey Him. May we have the grace to obey, love and worship Him.

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:1-3 (esv)

hold on tight

Death always precedes resurrection.

caveats on being bothered

I went to go see the movie Amazing Grace last night, and have, of course, come to the conclusion that William Wilberforce was bothered. It comes as no surprise that an activist of any type would be bothered. People who change the world are bothered. People who are not bothered do not change the world. That being said, I immediately started feeling somewhat stirred up to begin being bothered again. Let's face it, we are people, and we are inconsistent. One day I may be overly passionate about something, but then I might go to bed that night and forget about the whole thing in the morning. This is normal. Not everyone is stirred up all the time. Not even people who feel compelled to change the world. We wax and wane. The sun is always shining and is always luminous. The moon is illuminated and is sometimes full and sometimes new. The moon is also the brightest body in the night sky. It's kind of funny that the brightest celestial body in the night sky in our eyes also happens to be the one celestial body in the night sky that has no light of it's own.

So back to the point. I'm stirred up. I got online and went to www.persecution.org, and printed a page of prayer requests from their website. I took them to church and handed them out to everyone in Bible study. This is how I am. I just can't sit still sometimes. It seems I'm only bothered about one thing consistently, and that's the fact that other people don't seem to be bothered. How bothersome. I stir myself up. And that may be the issue. So I was talking about this when my friend Adina said:

"Bothered or unbothered, only let us be content in God."

She said this because she knows my tendency to be stirred up about anything and everything. I will pick a cause faster than I pick out plastic containers of pineapple at the grocery store. I can be very quick and very emotional about things, and there's a huge danger there. This is why I feel that emotional appeals to college students regarding the decision to go into full-time missions work is unfounded, and quite frankly, wrong. While I think it's a great idea to stir people up into thinking about, and being open to, the option of career missions, a decision to enter into career missions at the ripe age of 21 may not be rooted in Scripture if it's following immediately on the tails of five Passion Conferences, a few Campus Crusade Winter Conferences, countless retreats and weekly Wednesday night parachurch organization meetings. I heard it said while I was in college "Everybody is called to the foreign mission field unless they recieve a specific calling from God not to go." While I'm sure those who said that were not malicious, I do believe it to be manipulative. A lifetime decision to do anything is not something that should be taken lightly. Why do you think there are so many marriages broken and career missionaries whose careers last 2 years and no longer? Life cannot be run on emotional passion. Ask any 23 year old high school teacher reconsidering her career decision. If you're running on passion alone, it's just a matter of time before the tank goes empty.

So without more delay here are my caveats:

1. Do not seek something to be bothered by. Please don't take this to mean that I am suggesting you stick your head in the sand and ignore the world around you. That isn't what I'm saying at all. I am saying that picking a cause to fight for before consulting God about it is dangerous, disobedient, and often harmful. This is especially true when those for whom the success is so crucial wrestle with resisting the hopelessness that tempts them when another bright-eyed fiery soul retreats.
2. Always be thankful. The discomfort and injustice of 70,000 Christians held in labor camps in North Korea should not cause you to be humanly angry. If you can't deal with anger properly, you have another problem. Be thankful for what God has given you here in the U.S. He knows he doesn't owe it to us to give us all this blessing, but he does anyways. This world is not about you and me, but is about God. Be thankful for, and enjoy his many blessings, as you may not always have them. Take nothing for granted.
3. Make sure your cause doesn't become your God. Doing good things for God is not nearly as important as knowing God. If you give away everything you have and voluntarily offer to be burned for your cause, but you have not love, you are nothing. (See 1 Corinthians 13:3). Remember that Christ will say "I never knew you." Remember Mary chose well. Remember the church in Ephesus in Revelation 2. Do not abandon your first love.
4. Don't feel you have to have a cause. Some people are called to very specific things. Some people are not. Only God knows what He has for you, and it may be much simpler than you think. Don't insult the God who created you for His purposes by being dissatisfied and discontent with the role that he has asked you to play for the time being. We are not all good oraters. Famous abolitionists make the news, but servant-hearted Sudanese missionaries raise up the disciples that raise up the disciples that make the news.
5. Check your pride. Are you doing this for your purposes, or are you doing this for God's? Pray that your motives might be in check.

Resist loving comfort. Be inconvenienced. Follow God.

He will reward you.

humility, undignity and worship

"I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the female servants of whom you have spoken, by them I shall be held in honor."
-King David (1 Samuel 6:22)

People used to fall flat on their faces in worship.

Have you ever thought about that? They fell flat on their faces. They licked the earth. They groveled in dust for the sake of worship. When was the last time you saw someone do that in the US? David said he would make himself more undignified to worship God. Are we willing to make ourselves undignified to worship? How much do we care for ourselves? How much do we care for God? For your reading pleasure, I present a breakneck Biblical refresher on the history of eating dust.

Genesis 24:26 - "Then the man bowed down and worshiped the Lord"

Genesis 24:48 - "and I bowed down and worshiped the Lord, I praised the Lord, the God of my master Abraham..."

Exodus 4:31 - "And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped."

Exodus 12:27 - "...Then the people bowed down and worshiped"

Exodus 20:5 - "You shall not bow down to them or worship them..."

Deuteronomy 4:9 - "...do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the Lord your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven"

Deuteronomy 11:16 - "Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them"

Joshua 5:14 - "And he said, "No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come." And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, "What does my lord say to his servant?""

2 Kings 21:21 - "He walked in all the ways of his father; he worshiped the idols his father had worshiped, and bowed down to them."

2 Chronicles 7:3 - "When all the Israelites saw the fire coming down and the glory of the LORD above the temple, they knelt on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave thanks to the LORD, saying, "He is good; his love endures forever.""

2 Chronicles 29:29 - "When the offerings were finished, the king and everyone present with him knelt down and worshiped."

Nehemiah 8:6 - "And Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and all the people answered, "Amen, Amen," lifting up their hands. And they bowed their heads and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground."

Job 1:20 - "Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped."

Psalm 95:6 - "Come, let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the LORD our Maker..."

Daniel Chapter 3 - The entire chapter is a controversy of what happened when three boys refused to bow down.

Isaiah 44:17 - "And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!""

Matthew 2:11 - "On coming to the house, they saw the child with his mother Mary, and they bowed down and worshiped him. Then they opened their treasures and presented him with gifts of gold and of incense and of myrrh."

Matthew 4:9 - ""All this I will give you," he said, "if you will bow down and worship me.""

Revelation 5:14 - "The four living creatures said, "Amen," and the elders fell down and worshiped."

Revelation 19:4 - "The twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God, who was seated on the throne. And they cried: "Amen, Hallelujah!""

What would you think if you saw someone today physically fall to the ground and worship?

I'd think that person believes in something greater than himself.

We claim to believe in something greater.

So why don't we bow?

He is risen!

"Now after the Sabbath, toward the dawn of the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone and sat on it. His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow. And for fear of him the guards trembled and became like dead men. But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has risen, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and behold, he is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him. See, I have told you." So they departed quickly from the tomb with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples. And behold, Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me."

-Matthew 28:1-10

He is with us now. No one compares. No, not one. Immanuel. God is with us.

home

I paid a deposit today.

Here's a picture.


I know. It's beautiful, isn't it?

to american christians

To American Christians who complain that the government and American society is unusually oppressive towards Christians; to those who believe they are "standing up" for truth by blasting society for disliking and marginalizing American Christians:

Be reminded of three things:

1. Christ said we would be persecuted. (John 16:33)
2. God is still sovereign and in control. (Romans 8:28)
3. We are over-blessed here in America.

So, next time you think you have it bad, ask yourself "Do I really?" It's not my goal to minimize the pain of believers seriously injured by the world's reaction to Christ. There is real persecution, and real trouble, even here in the U.S., but complaining of society's double standard when it comes to Christianity is not the proper way to deal with this. That makes us seem defensive, and it reveals our misstaken belief that God needs defending. God is not small. He can defend himself. We are called to love and speak the glorious truth about God, not complain about our situation and self-righteously proclaim that we're proclaiming truth. "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace." (Romans 8:6, esv).

So next time you are tempted to complain that someone doesn't like you because you're Christian, pray instead for those believers who are actually persecuted, and thank God for the bountiful blessing he's heaped on your head.

Read the article below. Open your horizons. Be bothered.

http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=500

sounds like this guy needs a mad board

http://www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/men/11536448/

this makes me mad

Recently I found an article on how to deal with anger. The article really misses the point, and it ticks me off!

http://www.crosswalk.com/spirituallife/11530851/