Rolland Baker, along with his wife, Heidi, have served on the mission field for the last 35 years, most of their time has been spent in Mozambique, Africa. Many people within the Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements are familiar with the ministry of the Bakers. Their ministry is known for its testimonies of miraculous provisions, healings, and miracles, things that most Christians would like to see in their churches and ministries. However, what may be less known are the challenges and difficulties they have faced. In the preface of the book, Elisha Baker, Rolland and Heidi’s son, chronicles a number of these less than desirable experiences. His list includes imprisonment, deportation, being falsely accused, being robbed, being beaten, numerous death threats, and some severe health challenges. This list of challenges reminds me of the apostle Paul’s list in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29. In the midst of all of these trials the Baker’s ministry has flourished.

In this book Rolland Baker writes about the five core values that have preserved and prospered Iris Global. The five core values are: Find God, Depend on Miracles, Go to the Least, Suffer for Him if Necessary, and Rejoice in the Lord.

In the introduction of the book the author gives the reader a brief look at the five core values. After this he devotes a full chapter to each, providing a more extensive look at each one. These five chapters contain some simple, yet profound, insights.

In August 2008, the Pneuma Foundation offered a link (on our legacy website page called “News & Current Links”) to a transcript of an Arabic TV [Al-Jazeerah] program: “Rare look at Islam: Muslims discuss the annual exodus of 6 million African Muslims to Christianity.” A few weeks later it was learned that this was deliberate misinformation on the part of the speaker, as pointed out in a report by Patrick Sookhdeo of the Barnabas Fund entitled “Exaggerated Convert Figures Could Cost Lives.” The Pneuma Foundation editorial committee asked Dr. Calvin Smith, editor of Evangelical Review of Society and Politics to comment on the situation of secret believers in Muslim dominated nations.

In an article published by the Barnabas Fund, a charity which raises awareness of and supports persecuted Christians, its leader Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, a Christian expert on Islam, warns against disseminating statistics of large-scale Muslim conversions to Christianity. Sookhdeo believes such figures are often inaccurate, sometimes even exaggerated by some Western Christian organizations “whose financial support depends on the enthusiasm of Christians in their home countries.” He highlights how Islamists, too, engage in deliberate disinformation for their own purposes, citing the following example:

A story that six million African Muslims are becoming Christians every year resulted from claims made by Sheikh Ahmad al Katani of Libya in a televised interview shown on Al-Jazeera. The sheikh’s aim appeared to be to alarm Muslim viewers with high figures of Muslims leaving their faith in order to persuade them to give more generously to Islamic missionary efforts in Africa.

Whether statistics are genuine, miscalculated or exaggerated, Sookhdeo’s point is clear: figures detailing widespread conversions to Christianity inflames Muslim sensibilities and can even cost lives.

It is a sobering warning. Indeed, Christians in many Muslim lands are already in a precarious position. That many Muslims might be converting to a downtrodden religious minority, to the deep alarm of Muslim leaders, makes it doubly so. Thus, in societies built upon a clan system and the need to protect family honour, so-called apostates are ruthlessly rooted out. Even here in the United Kingdom there have been several well-publicized reports of ex-Muslims being targeted for converting to Christianity. An former missionary in Arab North Africa told me of a well-known saying among missionaries to Muslim countries: “Islam follows a Christian convert to the grave”. Imprisonment and killings of even the most elderly Christians testify to this.

All this leaves evangelistically-motivated Western Christians (notably classical Pentecostals, whose pneumatology and eschatology drive their urgent evangelistic activity) with somewhat of a quandary. Repentance is a cause for Christian celebration, a reason to glorify God (Lk 15:10), which is why some Western Christian organizations publish conversion statistics. For them these figures translate into actual, real people who have discovered Jesus Christ as their personal saviour. Indeed, this is why the Pneuma Foundation recently published the statistics in question concerning Christian growth in Muslim lands.

“And do this, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep; for now our salvation is nearer than when we first believed. The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk properly, as in the day, not in revelry and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, not is strife and envy. But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to fulfill its lusts” ( Romans 13:11-14 NKJV)

Paul emphasizes to the believers at Rome that they must have a high standard of moral conduct. The reason: Jesus is coming soon. Paul lived with the view and hope of the soon return of the Lord. He challenges his readers to do the same.

I have been thinking about what Paul was saying to believers in AD 56, and asking myself what would he would be saying today, 1,944 years later? Here we are at the dawn of a new millenium. Christ’s coming is 1,944 years closer than it was in AD 56. I believe he would be looking at the spiritual sleepiness that is present in many believers and congregations, even many ministers of the gospel.

We need to cultivate an appropriate view of awakeness. The soldier who sleeps at his post will bring his own death. He could be court martialed, or if the enemy attacked while he was sleeping he would be killed. In ancient Rome, a soldier who slept on duty would be executed on the spot. We praise God that Jesus already took that judgement for us. We do not have to live in fear of failure. We are in a battle, however. If we desire to be effective, we must be spiritually awake.

The attack that seems to be the most severe for us is the attack that Satan makes on the mind. He wants to lure us asleep. When our mind gets dull then works of darkness will prey upon us. When we have not gotten the proper amount of rest, we become targets of giving into temptations.

So then, Paul gives us the antidote. “Let us cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12 NKJV). The way we dispel the darkness in a room is to turn the light switch on. The darkness disappears when the light comes on. Paul is saying to us, put on the “armor of light” to “cast off the works of darkness.” Putting on the armor is putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ will make us sensitive to guarding the appetites of the flesh. The command is not to make any provision for the flesh. If we are submitting to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, how are we going to be comfortable making provision (fostering sensual desires) for the flesh?