These Things

Matthew 6:31-33 says, “So don’t worry about having enough food or drink or clothing. Why be like the pagans who are so deeply concerned about these things? Your heavenly Father knows all your needs, and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern.”

Why then, if we are not suppose to seek after ‘these things,’ are we encouraged to do exactly that from many pulpits? This type of error in teaching serves only to create disillusionment in the hearts of the people of God. Instead of being happy with what God has blessed us with ‘from day to day’, we sit in discontentment blaming God for not fulfilling His so called promises. (These teaching state that it is God’s will for us to all to drive a Lexus or something comparable and to wear the best of clothes, etc.) We feel like failures for not having ‘enough faith’ to even be able to buy the same kind of suit that the ‘Man of God’ is wearing — though he has thousands of people throwing money in his bucket at every service and we hold a nine to five job.

Let’s look at what the apostle Paul taught Timothy. Timothy had the responsibility of rearing the young church in Ephesus and was instructed to teach these things as ‘foundations for a godly life’ because false teachers had come into the young church who saw religion as a way to get rich (vs. 2b-5)

1 Timothy 6:6-11 Yet true religion with contentment is great wealth. After all, we didn’t bring anything with us when we came into the world, and we certainly cannot carry anything with us when we die. So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content. But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is at the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows. But you, Timothy, belong to God; so run from all these evil things and follow what is right and good. Pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness.

So what are we to pursue? According to this scripture, we are to pursue a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance and gentleness. According to Matthew 6, this is summarized as the kingdom of God. It is clear that we are taught by both the apostle Paul and by our Lord Jesus to be content.

Dr. Hormoz Shariat is from Iran. He was a Muslim who became a believer in Jesus. This transformation took place in the United States. Becoming a Christian radically changed the course of his life. Not only did he become a new creation in Christ, his new found faith also changed his career. This volume contains a number of different types of information. Some of what the author has written is personal, some of it is biblical, and some of it is historical. He provides the reader with a glimpse into what God is doing among Iranian Muslims.

The book is divided into three parts. Part I is “My Journey Out of Islam,” Part II is “Iran Will Be a Christian Nation,” and Part III is “Iran is Just the Beginning.” In addition to the main text, in the back of the book readers will find “Questions For Reflection.” These are designed to help the reader engage with the material that was covered in the chapters.

Part III deals with some of the things that are happening among Muslims in Iran in contemporary times. One thing that is happening is that the Lord is appearing to Muslims in dreams and visions (page 178). Dr. Shariat says that the miraculous is taking place so frequently that it is considered normal (page 178). In this section he also says that in the future Iran is going to become a missionary sending nation (page 187)

There are things in this book that may surprise some readers. One is the growth rate of the church in Iran. Citing Operation World, the author points out that Iran has the most rapid rate of evangelical growth in the world (page 133). This is taking place even though there are very few church buildings open in Iran (page 137). And the languages used in the churches that are open cannot be understood by Iranians (page 137). There are underground churches but there are not many of them and they are dangerous to attend (page 137). Another surprising thing is that though the media shows videos of Iranians shouting “Death of America,” the average Iranian loves Americans (page 175). Dr. Shariat shares some interesting examples of this (pages 176-177).

If you are interested in Global Christianity, missions, the gospel in the Muslim world or similar topics I think you will enjoy this book. It is interesting to hear the author’s testimony and what God is doing in Iran. Dr. Shariat’s ministry, Iran Alive, is playing an important part in the sharing of the gospel in Iran and the strengthening of the faith of the believers there. Many Muslims are coming to faith in Christ. This is truly amazing because they are becoming believers in a land where the stakes are very high for being a Christian. God cannot be thwarted, He can build His church even in hostile circumstances: and He is!

Reviewed by John Lathrop

Preview Iran’s Great Awakening: https://www.google.com/books/edition/Iran_s_Great_Awakening/1uAMEAAAQBAJ

We are now in France and Spain for ministry where we have been for two weeks. Last week we had our Revival Europe Training Conference with about 700 Chinese from the whole of Europe and many from China. Among the speakers was Pastor Niko of Bethany Indonesia, who has 250,000 in his churches in Jakarta alone. He came with a team 35 people. Also, Lawrence Khong of Faith Community Baptist Church (10,000 strong) in Singapore, and of course, Brother Yun (Heavenly Man) and many others, including my son-in-law Samuel Law, daughter Sharon and myself. It was in conjunction with the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation beginning 31 October, and all the Chinese churches in Paris, about 29 in total, joined together and we had a united choir that sang “A Mighty Fortress is our God”, a Reformation song.

Next year the Revival Conference will be in Frankfort, Germany, and Heidi Baker has already promised to come. We might have up to 1,000 if we find a suitable meeting hall, which they are looking for now. We are also hoping to invite David Pawson, the renowned Spirit-filled Bible scholar from England. Chinese around the world know about him and his powerful teaching has helped so many people. But he is very old, 87, and not in good health. But since Germany is very close to England, we hope he can come.

I was in Spain where 300,000 Chinese live, and work with a ministry that produces many Bibles in many languages, and has provided us hundreds of thousands of Chinese Bibles. It is called Bibles par Internet, as they provide free Bibles in many languages when people contact them on the internet. It is under the direction of Alex Lukasik, a Swiss brother. They have a good website at http://www.bibles.ch/, but there is no English. They are French speaking people.

Also, I met with Gilbert Lindsay and team, who have a huge modern printing press in Belarus, Russia. They have, over the many decades, provided many millions of Bibles in many languages and recently have printed thousands of copies of the Abundant Life Study Bible (also known as the Fire Bible). His father and mother, Gordon and Freda Lindsay, were famous faith healing evangelists in the 20^th century and started Christ for the Nations Institute in Dallas.

On my trip to Spain, I met with a Chinese pastor whom I have known for a couple years, Pastor Xuan. He works primary among refugees, orphans, and handicapped people in Spain and is very active in ministry in Morocco. They must be very low-key, but by using social outreach they are able to bring the Gospel to many Muslims there.

You might be surprised to learn that there are 8,000 Chinese visitors to Morocco every month, and Pastor Xuan is developing a ministry to share the Gospel with them. It is difficult and even dangerous to bring Bibles or Christian literature in Arabic or French to Morocco, but absolutely no restrictions on Chinese Bibles and Chinese tracts.

I just shared the above for there is a lot happening here in Europe that you in the USA are most likely not aware of. It is both a great mission field in which most of the people in Europe and the Middle East don’t know the Lord, but also it is a base to bless Europe and other nations with the Word of God, and there are many people now involved in mission work here.

Thanks for all you have done to make the church worldwide aware of the working of the Holy Spirit.

God bless you,

Dennis Balcombe
包德寧牧師
November 11, 2017

Pastor Wes Shortridge presents a short history of the astounding revival that occurred on both sides of the American Civil War and how it impacted the nation for decades.

Introduction

America in 1861 presents a painful and complex chapter in history. God, however, had a plan for the American people, and God remained present during the painful chapter. God appears most in this period in the soldiers fighting the Civil War. Along the banks of the Rappahannock River in 1863, both armies faced one another in battle; however, both armies also faced a revival of religion. The paradox of revival in two armies facing one another presents an example of God’s ability to use revival to accomplish His purposes in spite of human conflict.

“Prayer in ‘Stonewall’ Jackson’s Camp” (1866).
Drawn by F. Kramer, Engraved by J. C. Buttre.

The Circumstances of the Revival

Pre 1861 America While many modern interpreters of the American situation before the Civil War view the war as a simple moral war in which one party supported slavery and the other party arose as a benevolent deliverer of an oppressed people, the actual situation in America proved much more complex. Americans, from both North and South, had sanctioned or at least ignored slavery for nearly a century. White men ruled the country, and obvious examples of misogyny and racism rarely arose as issues in a land that voiced the values of liberty and equality. The powerful elites from both North and South worked to protect the prominent position of the light-skinned and masculine. The first and second Great Awakenings had revived religion in America, but paternalistic racism remained unaddressed. Religion focused mostly on benevolence within the paternalistic system rather than valuing or empowering all humans.

Slavery in America found support in the hermeneutical principles of American religion in both the North and the South. Mark A. Noll describes the unique hermeneutic of America:

Americans held to a hermeneutic that was distinctly American. The reason they held it so implicitly was precisely that this hermeneutic—compounded of a distinctly Reformed approach to the scope of biblical authority (“every direction contained in its pages as applicable at all times to all men”) and a distinctly American intuition that privileged commonsense readings of scriptural texts (“a literal interpretation of the Bible”)—had functioned as the vehicle through which the Bible was unleashed in the creation of the American civilization.[1]

People around the world are aware of the upcoming U.S. Presidential election and how contentious the campaigns have been. Historian William De Arteaga tells us about an essay he has published on his blog, Anglican Pentecostal.

Many conservative Evangelical Christians are in torment with the thought of a new Clinton presidency. Certainly, the idea of having a liberal Supreme Court that would further the Pan-sexuality and radical secularization trends of the recent decades is something all Christians should be concerned about. But God will still be on his throne on November 8 and thereafter, and prayer will remain the potent instrument of change it has always been. Here is a historical perspective from the election of 1800 and words of encouragement from Dr. William De Arteaga.

“The Clinton Presidency and the Possibility of Revival“

In the fourth century after Christ, with the full deity of the Third Person of the Trinity at stake, St. Basil the Great comes firmly establishing a scriptural basis for the divinity of the Holy Spirit. This book review analyzes the theological underpinnings of St. Basil’s treatise On the Holy Spirit. In an age when Arian theology holds official sway over the people, St. Basil contends for the faith utilizing Holy Scripture and tradition as his guide. On the Holy Spirit was his magnum opus on the Spirit’s position in the Godhead of the Trinity. In this exposition, he set the theological foundation for the future of orthodox trinitarian theologia.

Basil of Caesarea was born in either 329 or 330 and died on either January 1 or 2, 379. Now known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers, he opposed heresies such as Arianism that threatened the survival of early Christian orthodoxy. Image: Icon of St. Basil the Great from the St. Sophia Cathedral of Kiev, via Wikimedia Commons.

St. Basil began his treatise addressing the accusation the Arians brought against him. He wrestled with the “hair-splitting”[1] that the Arians created as they speciously differentiated between the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Heretic Aëtius stated that “‘through whom’ is different than ‘from whom’; therefore, the Son is different from the Father.”[2] He asserted that St. Basil’s doxology “glory be to the Father, with the Son, together with the Holy Spirit” was unscriptural. However, St. Basil attributed such meticulous manipulation of prepositions by his opponents on their reliance of pagan philosophy. In the end, he accused his adversaries of striving to subordinate the Holy Spirit through their pagan distinctions.

St. Basil believed that the Scriptures affirmed both “through him’ and “from him.” He quoted the apostle Paul’s doxology in Romans 11:36 (NRSV) “for from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever. Amen.” Holy Scripture did not follow the pattern proposed by the Arians. Therefore, their exploitation of pagan fetishes became the epistemological springboard for St. Basil to commence his treatise on the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

The initial debate with St. Basil centered over his doxology. Specifically, the axis of the deliberation focused on the Holy Spirit. For St. Basil, the Holy Spirit was divine. Quoting Scriptures from Wisdom 1:7; Psalm 138:7 and Haggai 2:4-5, he asked several piercing questions about the divinity of the Holy Spirit.

What sort of nature should he be thought to have, who exists everywhere and co-exists with God? … Should we not exalt him who is divine in nature, unbounded in greatness, powerful in his energies, and good in his deeds? Should we not glorify him?[3]

The fundamental core of his questions affirmed that he unconditionally embraced the divine nature of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit lacks nothing less of God and his attributes were not characteristics of a created being.

This is a three part series that Dr. Eddie Hyatt presented at a “Revive America” weekend at Christian Life Assembly of God in Picayune, Mississippi. In this series, he documents the radical Christian character of the first immigrants to this land and shows how the nation was formed out of prayer and a great Spiritual awakening.

For the rest of the series:

• Reclaiming America’s Godly Christian Heritage (Part 1): “It Began with a Vision“
• Reclaiming America’s Godly Christian Heritage (Part 3): “A Nation Birthed in Prayer“

Rob Wilkerson resonates with a recent article.

Robin Williams as Mr. Keating in Dead Poets Society

Jeffrey Overstreet, “How I Got Dead Poets Society Wrong: And how a great professor changed my mind” ChristianityTodayOnline (September 16, 2014).

Overstreet’s article brought back memories. A lot of them, to be honest. To some degree, the feelings the movie evoked returned to me like I saw it yesterday.

First, there were the memories of how I felt as a high school graduate, the same year the movie was released. I remember identifying intensely with Keating, a mentor every kid wished was his dad. I remembered thinking how much of Neil was in me, both the joyous freedom to be me, mixed with the insanity of conformity to cultural norms and standards.

Second, there were memories of how I felt about rules and standards. Growing up on the legalistic side of Christianity, I could understand the concerns of Neil’s father and Keating’s administration. Rebellion is built into every fiber and DNA strand of every human being. This was probably true of me when I watched it. The movie was like a pinball inside my soul, thrashing around, ringing bells, sounding noises, while smacked by the paddles of my legalistic upbringing and the taste of free grace.

Third, there are memories of my parenting. I’m a father to four awesome kids. Too often I’ve parented like Neil’s father. At least, that’s what I fear. More often I’ve wanted to parent like Keating, loosening the ropes, the guides of culture (including Christian culture) from the fragile sapling of grace I saw growing inside my children. Overstreet said it best. “Looking back at authority figures who have inspired my respect, and at those who have been driven by ego and a desire to control, I’ve come to suspect that anyone who seeks to instill character in another person by force will produce an equal and opposite reaction.”

There is a root found in both men in this movie. It is fear. Plain and simple. Neil’s father was fearful that his son wouldn’t fit into his tiny little world, that his son would find a type of happiness that he had talked himself out of years earlier. He was fearful of freedom, so he couldn’t let his son enjoy it. Then there’s Keating. Overstreet believes that “Mr. Keating models a healthy balance of freedom and responsibility. He descends into that world of order, accepting the form of a servant, and makes all things new. He shows them what the imagination, taking the shape of love, makes possible.” Perhaps. Probably. But undoubtedly obvious in Keating, as well as in his real life character, was this tinge of immaturity.

Chances are you have heard of Phyllis Tickle. As the founder of the religion department of Publishers Weekly, the author of at least two dozen books, and a popular speaker on religion in America, Tickle’s latest work has been widely anticipated. The Great Emergence takes on the broad task of chronicling church history, arguing that Christianity changes just about every five hundred years. She outlines the stages of development leading up to the present transformation and then sets her sights on the future of the church. Her main concern is not with the so-called “Great Emergence” but rather with Christianity in North America and the implication of the insight that twenty-first-century Christians in North America are facing the church’s most recent giant rummage sale. The results of this event are three-fold: first, a new, and more vital form of Christianity emerges; second, the dominant organizational framework of Christianity is reconstituted into a more pure form; and third, the Christian faith spreads dramatically as a result of the transformation. This description essentially summarizes the argument of the book.

Tickle’s argument is not unusual. Major shifts and periodic events have been the subject of other writers. Consider, for example, the widely popular work of Thomas Kuhn on the nature of scientific revolutions, or the work of Philip Jenkins on the next Christendom. The Great Emergence lacks much of the depth of these and other works. Tickle offers no detailed dialogue with any historical period or theological argument, no footnotes, no bibliography, and shows little desire to justify her observations. The chief reason may be that she does not have to do so: the argument is correct. Tickle is right: The church is facing its own coming to be in yet another shape and form.

Tickle’s book is short and to the point. Highly readable, as all of her work, The Great Emergence can easily hold your interest throughout any of the seven chapters. The book consists of three major parts: (1) a description of the nature of the great emergence, (2) a historical account of its origins, and (3), a prospectus of the future of the great emergence. However, it seems that despite the descriptive nature of most of the chapters, the heart and soul of the book is not in the content but in the idea it seeks to present: a shift in the patterns that define the profile of the church. Essentially surrounded by four primary forces, conservatives, liturgicals, social justice Christians, and renewalists, the center of Christianity is constantly shifting, and the contours of a new emerging center are already forming. Tickle suggests that the most significant alteration to be expected is the emergence of Christianity as a movement that places all authority in the existing center in order to accommodate the massive changes in the church and in culture.

Paul King’s Moving Mountains is much more than ordinary hagiography. It is more like a practical textbook on living the life of faith. Make that living the life of faith with boldness. Add balance too, and you have the heart and soul of this book. Anyone who struggles with or has ever struggled with how to understand and apply the vibrant faith of the Bible in daily life without allowing it to degenerate into the fanatical faith so common in some Pentecostal and Charismatic circles will probably benefit from reading Moving Mountains. Church leaders, clergy, and laity alike will find it enjoyable, informative, and inspiring.

Paul L. King is ordained in the Christian and Missionary Alliance and a professor at Oral Roberts University. He has two doctorates, a Doctor of Ministry (ORU) and a Doctor of Theology (University of South Africa). He oversees the ORU Bible Institute Program and teaches seminars on healing and on ministry and leadership development internationally. His expertise in nineteenth and early-twentieth-century classic leaders of faith, healing, and holiness, shows significantly in this text. He is widely published in popular and academic journals, and has two previous books, Binding and Loosing: Exercising Authority over the Dark Powers and A Believer with Authority: The Life and Message of John A. MacMillan. He considers himself something of a bridge person between Charismatics and the broader Evangelical community. That dual perspective is certainly evident in this work. Moving Mountains is one of those books which is not explicitly academic in tone, having a strong devotional slant, but in which discerning readers will observe that careful research is nonetheless behind its writing. It is very readable but not at all shallow. King achieves this blend of depth and devotion by focusing on the biographies of some well-known Evangelical leaders from the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries while ferreting out of their respective lives clear and concise lessons for the contemporary walk of faith.