As you may know, I recently returned from 10 weeks in East Africa as a team leader with the ACTS school (Oct-Dec). My team was based in Tororo, Uganda, helping strengthen a house of prayer missions base that exists to train and send out native missionaries like fiery arrows from a furnace of prayer into the hardest places of North Africa. As a team, we spent most of our time keeping charge of the prayer room, leading sets, and joining with the local discipleship school students in evangelistic endeavors in strategic areas. Our team participated in four extended outreaches, concluding with two weeks in N.E. Kenya. Laboring in difficult and sometimes dangerous places, we saw over 200 people come to faith with local workers continuing to disciple and pastor the new flock.

While on outreach in N.E. Kenya, “The harvest is plentiful” began to have real faces and I began to have a greater understanding of what type of laborers are needed. One day as I went out evangelizing to different groups of Muslim men, I noticed how much attention they gave us, listening and dialoging with us through our translator. I felt the Holy Spirit guide me as I taught the storyline of the Old Testament promises concerning Messiah and the age to come, weaving in the divinity of Jesus, His atoning death, and the necessity of repentance in light of the fixed Day. Real connections were being made in their minds as I spoke. They were understanding the message, however they didn’t fully respond with repentance. The translator, who was a local pastor, was encouraged and afterward told us, “The Muslim young people are receptive to the gospel, they want to learn the true word of God, but they don’t have anyone to explain it to them.”

The story of Phillip being sent to explain the Scriptures to the Ethiopian eunuch came to mind (Acts 8). Surprisingly, here we were, near the border of Ethiopia, talking to some who were inevitably Ethiopians, as the Holy Spirit helped guide us in guiding them to a true understanding of the Scriptures. In these more hostile areas, conversion from Islam is much more costly, and as a local believer told us, “If they do not understand what they have gotten into, they will not stay in it.” The need is for laborers who “teach” and “explain” the true word of God in such a way that the recipient understands and responds unreservedly. Not in contrast to the power of the Holy Spirit, Paul’s ministry was also defined by this kind of “teaching” and “reasoning” (Acts 18:11, 19:8-10). Some call this “teacher-based-evangelism”, and I was made for it!

Lord of the harvest, thrust out laborers into Your harvest field who clearly proclaim the mystery of Christ, as they should (Col. 4:3-4).

For those who may not know, December 12th (12/12) is the “Global Day of Prayer for the Poor and Suffering”. For the second consecutive year, the International House of Prayer in Kansas City hosted this prayer event live from our prayer room. Having just returned from over two months in East Africa, this topic has been on my mind in an involuntarily vivid way. As I sat in the prayer room and prayed along with the intercessors, this specific prayer for the poor in America stuck out to me so much that I wanted to remember it… and share it with you:

“Lord, would you cause the Body of Christ in our nation, to be knit, as we are in our humanity, to the poorest of the poor. Lord, I ask that You would you cause those of us in the Body to have that solidarity to the poor, that ‘commonness’ that we are all but dust, formed and fashioned by Your hand, completely dependent upon You, with no life on our own and having no good thing apart from You, a dead branch apart from being connected to You, the Vine. Lord, I ask for that solidarity with the poor, that frailty and abject weakness, that we can bring nothing to the table. Lord, that in our own poverty of spirit and poverty of lives, You would cause a great welling up of compassion to flow out to the poor in our nation.”

Such a good reminder that in the complexity of poverty and destitution, we are not the answer. In fact, we are just as needy and destitute as anyone else. How so? Simply because every single thing we possess and the life that enables us to experience all these things has been completely and graciously given to us from the hand of the Lord. Though we may realize it or not, every eye is looking to Jesus to sustain their lives by His word and give them the food He has decided we need (Ps. 145:15-16, Heb. 1:3). Only from that place of utter dependance and hope in the Giver of life who provides us with all things to enjoy (1 Tim. 6:17) will a God-centered, God-produced compassion well up from within our hearts towards those who are just like us.

Because of our indisposition to treat others the way we like to be treated, the Lord has given us a model of conduct in Himself. And what a model it is! The only One who actually possesses life and immortality has laid down that life for those who possess none. The only One who deserves total honor and exaltation has drawn near to live in obscurity and wash our feet. The only One who actually has the gift has given it. The power to impact the poor of the earth does not lie in our ability to stand over the poor and analyze their condition, it lies in standing with the poor and realizing our condition. The power to love our needy neighbor is found in the recognition that we are also the needy ones for whom Jesus has shared in our flesh to become our neighbor, crossing the greatest gap possible to care for our well-being. Now, through whatever He has given to us, we can be like Him toward those who are just like us. Let us join in prayer, “Lord, open our eyes to see reality the way it truly is, that we might live the way we should.”

“Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus…” (Phil. 2:3-5)

“See that you also excel in this grace of giving… For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (2 Cor. 8:7-9)

For those who don’t know, I’ve spent the past 2 months in Uganda (and Kenya) helping lead a team of young missionaries through the ACTS school (Antioch Center for Training and Sending). Our desire is to help establish “prayer furnaces” of worship and intercession in strategic areas around and within the 10/40 window as the tip of the arrow in the evangelistic missions movement among unreached peoples. The Lord has been doing marvelous things in our midst that I believe can only be the result of prayer furthering the Great Commission (Mt. 9:37-38). We arrived October 4th and return December 11th. This trip has strengthened in me a resolve to follow the Holy Spirit in the context of praying, Word-saturated communities (Acts 2:42) as He leads us to deny self, embrace the Cross, and display Christ where His name is not named. If you’d like to read some stories from our experiences, I’ve written four blog updates throughout our time in Uganda that can be found at this link.

Grace From Our King,

Truman

I am currently in Uganda, Africa for over two months laboring to help strengthen the local church in a life of prayer as well as reaching the lost with the gospel of the kingdom. I recently spoke at a local church in Tororo, Uganda, inviting them to come to our “House of Prayer” conference. I spoke on Acts 1 and the restoration of all things, the role of the Holy Spirit to strengthen us in our hope and witness of that Day, and the necessity of prayer to receive more of the Holy Spirit. Below is the message I preached. It’s very raw and includes a Swahili translator but I felt the Lord stir my heart powerfully as I preached this Word. Enjoy!

Acts 1 Sermon in Tororo, Uganda

 “By an almost irresistible law of consumer culture, [our people] have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun.”

–John Piper[1]

Culture and Identity

Culture envelops us. The towering industries of business, entertainment, food, and sports all invite us to join in the dance. But it’s more than a dance. We are invited into an identity. Culture is not made in a vacuum. Who we are, this sense of identity, defines what we do. And ultimately it is this issue of identity that dictates how we relate to the culture. Who are we? We may be in the world, but are we of the world?

Over and over again, the apostolic letters appeal to our identity as the basis of conduct (1 Pet. 1:17, 1 Thess. 5:7-9, Eph. 5:3-10, Phil. 3:18-4:1, Col. 3:1-12). Naturally, this is how we live. And the war is ultimately here. The war over how we spend our money is here.

Identity and Story

We all have a worldview, an understanding of reality based on the origin and destiny of all things, from which we derive our identity. Worldview is essentially the great drama, the “metanarrative” by which we define and live our lives. It is by bringing humanity into a proper story that we bring humanity into proper conduct. John the Baptist preached, “Repent, for (because) the kingdom of God is near”. He preached from the prophetic story and it demanded a response of repentance. Our history (origin) and future (destiny) really do inform our identity and order our practice.

American or Christian?

“The glory of the gospel is that when the Church is absolutely different from the world, she invariably attracts it.”

–Martin Lloyd-Jones (Introduction to the Beatitudes)

If I look and focus my gaze on the cultural norms of entertainment, consumer spending, food, sports, and all the people who revel in these things, I will gradually find my sense of identity among them and will ever so gently whisper, “I belong here”, “I want that”, “I need that”, or “I deserve that”. It’s easy to be swept away. It’s just the way of life, the “American way”. And few long to be misfits.

A name is descriptive of identity. We who bear the name “Christian” (1 Pet. 4:16) identify ourselves with Christ by faith. As Christians, we must adamantly resist the law of consumer culture, as Piper calls it, by holding to a different law of culture, namely, the judgment seat of Christ. We are sent into the world, but we are not of the world (Jn. 17:14-18). We deny “worldly desires”, and live soberly by a different standard of righteousness, “looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:12-13). For true believers, it is the Day of the Lord that defines today. Because of this day, “we make it our ambition… to be pleasing to Him” (2 Cor. 5:9-10). It is our destiny as those who will stand before God and receive an everlasting inheritance from Him that informs our identity and dictates our cultural code including how we spend money.

A New Gaze

The only substantial answer I see for counteracting the American identity, the American story, the American dream, and the American way is to be wholly caught up in the Messianic identity[2], the Messianic story, the Messianic dream, and the Messianic way.

Without fighting a real fight of faith in regards to my identity (1 Tim. 6:11-12), I will seek the things the nations of the world eagerly seek after (Lk. 12:30), and in the desire for riches, I will “fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction” (1 Tim. 6:9).

It’s as simple as where we put our gaze. Jesus called it having a “clear eye” (Mt. 6:19-24). Paul spoke of setting your mind on things above (Col. 3:2), “looking for the blessed hope” (Tit. 2:13). It’s being those who “look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen” (2 Cor. 4:18), who “walk by faith, not by sight” (2 Cor. 5:7). Peter reiterates three times how we should be “looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God”, “looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells” and again, “you look for these things” (2 Pet. 3:12-14). It is a steady gaze on the Day of the Lord and our destiny in the resurrection and restoration of all things that defines us and is the primary compass for how we spend money.

So, what are we looking at?

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose.” -Jim Elliot

During this Monday’s 6am prayer meeting for marketplace believers, I prayed for a man who was going out to work. I made it my resolve to pray with Biblical language and, as the Scriptures command, with my hope completely fixed on that Day, “on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:13). I was also curious just to see how hope in THAT Day relates with hope for TODAY, observations that I will briefly mention after I lay out the prayer.

I prayed (to which you can pray with me),

“Lord, I ask that You would:

• Prepare his mind for action, keep him sober in spirit, fix his hope completely on the grace to be brought to him at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Pet. 1:13). That the hope of Day of the Lord and the coming Kingdom would become his foremost meditation and motivation today.
• That he would not love the world, love money, or be greedy for gain, but would be ready to share (1 Tim. 6:17-19), meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure, peaceful (Mt. 5:ff), conducting himself in fear along the narrow road of righteousness (1 Pet. 1:17, 2 Cor. 5:9-11, Mt. 7:13-14).
• Let men see his good works and glorify God because of them (Mt. 5:16). Let it be demonstrated by his excellent conduct among Gentiles at work (1 Pet. 2:12) that his hope is truly and fully fixed upon another age and that everything in his life is driven and explained by this Great Day when You will expose and judge the secrets of men through the Messiah and render to each person according to their deeds (Rom. 2:5-16), when the wicked will be cut off and the righteous will be lifted up to inherit the earth (Pss. 37, 75-76).
• In light of the great reversal of that day, give him grace to walk in loving meekness and goodness toward the wicked (Rom. 12:14-21), submitting to unloving government while, like Jesus, entrusting himself to Him who judges righteously (1 Pet. 2:13-23).
• Let his hope burn brightly and be contagious, that men would ask him to give an account for the hope that is in him and he would always be ready to warn men in light of that Day. That as he works in the marketplace, Messiah, not money or lust, would be set apart as Lord in his heart (1 Pet. 3:15) (A heart overflowing with the fairness of Jesus and the righteousness of His kingdom will adequately communicate this good theme to others –Ps. 45).

I then left him as someone else began praying for him.

Here is emphatic, biblical hope for the marketplace TODAY: Citizens of another age, sealed and chosen for the Kingdom of Messiah, who eagerly hope in Messiah, not themselves, and walk in such an excellence that points to His excellent Kingdom; a conduct of righteousness that points to that future “home of righteousness” (2 Pet. 3:13 NIV). While still sojourning in this present evil age (Gal. 1:4, Titus 2:12), knowing “the day is near”, we behave “as in the day” (Rom. 13:11-14), learning to walk in a way pleasing to the Lord (Eph. 5:8-10). The marketplace is a unique sphere of society wherein believers proclaim, not just a verbal witness to the Day of the Lord but also a living one.

A voice crying out in the marketplace, “Prepare the way of the Lord! Order your lives in light of His coming. Bear fruits in keeping with a repentant heart. Here’s how: Share with the one in need. Don’t be dishonest in your taxes, don’t steal money, don’t accuse falsely. Be content with your wages, because He’s coming to judge the world in righteousness and He will reward the righteous, but will throw the wicked into an unquenchable lake of fire!” (taken from Luke 3:3-18)

Randy Alcorn tweeted just after I prayed this on Monday, “To many of us, ‘hope’ sounds wishful and tentative, but biblical hope means to anticipate with trust, to expect a sure thing. Romans 8:34-35.”

The hope of the marketplace believer is no different than the hope of the clergy. There is “one hope of your calling” (Eph. 1:18, 4:4), bound up in the Day of His appearing. May we seek out that true, sure, blessed, biblical hope and may it become what it should be: the supreme object of fixation to which our hearts’ demanding search for hope finds its fulfillment as we walk in the marketplace, the home, or the cathedral.

(It’s about time I posted. And this is long. But I think you will like it.)

I love how kids are unafraid to ask the simplest questions of life that adults are sometimes too proud or too “smart” to ask. In the CEC (Children’s Equipping Center), as I was teaching a class on the Apostolic prayers in the New Testament, a seven-year-old boy named Spencer raised his hand and asked the question, “Uh, why do we pray?” I sought to answer that question in the class this Friday morning. I started by drawing a simple diagram on the board.

Here is reality according to the Bible (see diagram I put together based off a diagram from my friend, John Harrigan):

Because the Church (those people circled in the diagram: sealed with Holy Spirit, or “HS” [Eph. 1:13-14, 2 Cor. 1:22], and chosen to inherit the Kingdom [Mt. 25:34, 1 Cor. 6:9-11, Gal. 5:21, James 2:5, Rev. 21:7]) lives in this present evil age, “saved in hope” for the Messianic age (Gal. 1:3-5, Titus 2:12-13, Rom. 8:24-25), as wheat among the tares (Mt. 13:36-43, 1 Pet. 2:12ff), it conducts itself as a sojourning nation (1 Pet. 2:9-12), waiting, praying for, and preparing for the coming of the Messiah and His Kingdom (Mt. 6:10, Luke 18:1-8, 1 Pet. 1:13, 1 Cor. 1:7,  Phil. 3:20-21, 1 Thess. 1:9-10, Titus 2:13, James 5:7-10, Jude 20-21, Rev. 19:7). The tool that keeps us in this posture of repentant faith, so that we may inherit the promises of the age to come (Heb. 10:36-11:6), is the power, or grace, of God. As 1 Pet. 1:4-5 says, “to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you who are protected by the power (grace) of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

The grace of God through the Holy Spirit is given to the Church to strengthen us not only in our sojourning, but also in our witness (Acts 1:8) of God’s absolute sovereignty over the Heavens and the Earth. His absolute sovereignty is expressed presently in amnestic patience toward the wicked (Luke 6:35-36, Rom. 2:4ff) and subsequently in recompense when the Day of the Lord is executed at the hands of the Messiah (Mt. 16:27, Rom. 2:4ff, 2 Thess. 1:4-10, Rev. 22:12). The Holy Spirit is given as a “gift” (Acts 1:4) and a “helper” (Jn. 14:16), that the Church might remain faithful and perseverant in her calling.

I then gave two mental pictures of our relationship to the Lord according to the Bible:

1. A Betrothed Bride

“…for I betrothed you to one husband, so that to Christ I might present you as a pure virgin” -2 Cor. 11:2

As I was teaching the kids the basic contours of this age and the age to come and how we need the power of God to prepare us for that Day, the picture of an engagement ring came to mind. I’ve seen three of my sisters get engaged and then married. Watching the daily emotions and preparations that go into that transition is truly exciting. For a betrothed bride, or fiancée, her role is simply to keep herself in love (see Jude 21). The ring says it’s going to happen, but she just has to wait and get ready. What a tragedy it would be for a bride to get to her wedding day ill-acquainted with and indifferent to her groom as everyone realizes that she had spent her whole engagement period flirting with other men, totally unconcerned with this most important day of her life. As a betrothed bride, we should get up everyday, look at our finger, and concern ourselves with the most important day of our lives. The Holy Spirit is our pledge (2 Cor. 1:22, Eph. 1:14), our “ring”, so to speak, who daily reminds us of our Bridegroom’s faithfulness as He pours out His love within our hearts (Rom. 5:5-11), glorifying Jesus by reminding us of His words (Jn. 14:26, 16:13-14), so that on that day, “His bride has made herself ready” (Rev. 19:7). The metaphor of “bride” is chosen in Rev. 22:17 to describe the Spirit’s preparative work in producing longing love for the Bridegroom in the Church—”The Spirit and the Bride say ‘Come’ “. In this engagement period, “when the Bridegroom is taken away” (Mt. 9:15), perseverant longing is required (“Maranatha” of 1 Cor. 16:22-23). If we don’t order our life in this way, everything, even legitimate things, will choke out the remembrance of the words of our Beloved (his “love letters”) and distract us from the simplicity of devotion to Him (Mt. 13:18-23, 2 Cor. 11:2-3).

2. A Placed Orphan

“You have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God… having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we have been saved…” -Rom. 8:15-24

According to Romans 8:23, “we wait for our adoption, the redemption (or resurrection) of our bodies”. Though the Bible emphatically declares, “Beloved, NOW we are children of God” (1 Jn. 3:1-2) and the Spirit testifies to this (Rom. 8:16), there seems to be at times an ambiguous distinction between our present calling and its future realization. Like the picture of an engagement unto a wedding, there is a process in adoption. I gave this analogy to the kids to help solidify the often etherealized function of “the Spirit of Adoption”. My sister and brother-in-law, Rachel and Marcus Meier, are in the process adopting eight-year-old twin girls from Ethiopia. On March 31st, the girls will legally be theirs. They would have had to fly out to Ethiopia to do that legal transaction, but thankfully they don’t have to anymore (Regardless, what a picture that is of the First Coming of Jesus! I’m getting ahead of myself…). Even though they will legally have the girls on the 31st, they won’t be able to fly over to Ethiopia (Second Coming in the clouds!) to get the girls and actually “have them” for another four to six weeks because of legal processing. So, there is this period of waiting and preparing (“already/not yet”).

For a moment, imagine the excitement of these two girls. They are getting adopted! They found out someone wants them, and they have a new family. They may be thinking things like, “Wow, they are Americans, so I will become an American. I want to live like an American now. I wonder what my new parents like to do, what food they like to eat, what their house looks like. What will my bedroom look like?” Now imagine this: upon Marcus and Rachel’s first visit for the legal transfer, they give these twins a telephone so that the girls can talk to them during the waiting period. The girls are tired of the loneliness of orphanhood. They want to live in the family now. They like their new parents and they want to talk to their new family everyday.

Marcus and Rachel then call the girls on the phone and tell them, “We are so excited to welcome you into our home! We have your room ready. You are going to have a sweet bunk bed. We painted it for you. We’re going to give you this and this and this…” The girls express their gratitude and even call Rachel “Mom” and Marcus “Dad”. Then they ask questions about the family. Marcus replies, “Well, Isaiah, Zion, Rees, Hudson, they are all so excited too. Now, in our home, the family loves each other and shares with each other. Love and sharing in the home is something that’s rewarded. You can get ready by practicing sharing with each other, because those are the laws of this home. I know you may not be rewarded for those things in the Ethiopian orphanage, but you will here. You can get ready now so that it will be a smooth transition and entrance into our home. And if you show long-suffering love towards one another now, we will give you special privileges in the home, just like Isaiah has.” The girls resolve to share with each other right there on the phone and then end the conversation asking their new parents to come to Ethiopia soon. They repeat the conversation each day as anxious expectation grows for their new home and new family.

According to Romans 8:13-25, The Holy Spirit (“of Adoption”) presently works four things in us. He:

1. Orders our life to imitate our new Father; we are now under obligation to live according to Him [vs. 13] and follow His lead [vs. 14].

2. Testifies with our spirits to the acceptance of our new Father by crying out, “Abba! Father!” [vs. 15-16] He pours out the love of the God in our hearts, testifying to the present peace and reconciliation we have with the Father [5:1-11].

3. Testifies to the implications of our sonship, the future glory of being revealed as a co-heir with Christ on a restored earth [vs. 17-22].

4. Produces a groaning longing for that day of our adoption [vs. 23-25], when we get to be with Him, see Him, and freely receive all the things [looking to vs. 32] He’s prepared for us in our “new home”, that is, the restored home of the earth [see climax of Rev. 21:1-7].

Like the imagery of a telephone, the Holy Spirit is dialogical. He is a person. As He fellowships with me and I talk to Him in prayer and worship, I receive grace and strength in my inner man (Eph. 3:16) to persevere in the present age unto the day of my adoption and wedding. The grace that is imparted through the Holy Spirit (“Spirit of grace” Heb. 10:29) is what preserves me unto the Day of Christ (1 Cor. 1:3-9). Therefore, talking with Him and receiving grace from Him is my primary function in this age. This is why I pray.

A few weekends ago I took a trip with my sister, Grace Kim, to Roseville, CA. We made a great team as we led worship at the Rock of Roseville Church (Well, Grace led and I played backup keyboards and helped direct the church band in following Grace). It was a wonderful time of leading a congregation into the presence of the Lord. But I must say that the highlights of the trip were principally just getting closer to my stunning, 7th-month-expectant sister, and secondly, the plane rides. As to the latter, I love the absolute vulnerability of flying. There’s still something strange to me about a 45 ton piece of metal hurling through the atmosphere at 530 mph. On our first flight I opened my bible and flipped to one of my defaults (i.e. favorites), Psalm 36. After describing the posture of the wicked man in verses 1-4, David turns to look at the heavens, the clouds, the mountains, and the seas (all of which were clearly evident outside my own plane window) in verses 5-6 and how they envision the faithful mercies of God in preserving a humanity so bent on rebellion. In verse 7, David contrasts the response of the righteous toward God’s precious mercy compared with that of those who reject it: they “take refuge in the shadow of Your wings”. Every time the plane takes off or lands I feel that “taking refuge” most manifestly (especially on those rickety American Airlines landings!). But for a moment, ponder how precious this must be to God. For many, if the plane goes down, men curse God and die. But few thank Him for a lifetime of preserving mercy. How many men look out the window to see the clouds and admire “Mother Nature” (which in itself is such a statement of Evolutionist Naturalism… your mother is not Nature…) or see a great lake below and forget that God once flooded the earth with water and is hence preserving it from ever such a deluge (2 Peter 3:5-7)? Men look at Creation and volitionally suppress the truth of a Creator (Rom. 1:20); each stubborn denial “storing up wrath for the day of wrath” (Rom. 2:5). But then the plane safely lands again and again. And then it rains again. And again. And again. And again. God continues loving and preserving ungrateful and evil men (Luke 6:35-36). And it is mercy that preaches (Rom. 2:4). Indeed God is not leaving Himself without a witness (Acts 14:17) as every drop of rain silently preaches to the race of men, “God sent me! Don’t you see how kind He is? God sent me to refresh you, but you hate Him and refuse His right to rule over you! Know this now: I may come again as a Tsunami! But all I can do is testify of my Creator, He is both Power and Love (cf. Ps. 62:11-12). Repent of your rebellion and Believe in God!” But this witness will only last for a short while, and then comes the final judgment (Heb. 9:27). Do we not comprehend the fragility of our lives? It will not always be a safe landing. You will not always come home to a warm bed. Death is the great equalizer of us all and it fearfully coerces us to hope in Someone who is Living, who is Self-Existent. Our lives are in the hand of God (Ecc. 9). Take refuge there! He promises life and resurrection and pleasures forevermore.

“Your lovingkindness, O LORD, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness reaches to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; Your judgments are like a great deep. O LORD, You preserve man and beast. How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! And the children of men take refuge in the shadow of Your wings.” (Psalm 36:5-7)

There are an estimated 200,000 Sabians living in Iraq, that is, followers of John the Baptist (not Jesus). We must go tell them about Jesus!

“Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in Him who was coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying.” Acts 19:4-6

“The testimony of God to humanity, typified in the completion of the martyrdom of the saints, is the primary measuring rod of redemptive history. In other words, the completion of redemptive history happens in context to the completion of the testimony of God, which is typified through the completion of martyrdom.” -John Harrigan

See Mt. 24:9-14 and Rev. 6:9-11