Sat, Mar 17th - 1:54PM

LET US PRAY

UZBEKISTAN

• Church Raided; Literature Confiscated - VOM Sources
  VOM sources report police burst into a church in Qarshi ("Karshy") on February 25, 2007, confiscated literature and demanded to know who was funding the church. Police also brought video cameras to video tape the worship service. When police started to film, Pastor Sergei Shandyvayev did not panic, but simply continued the worship service. After the service finished, the officers shut the doors and began to question the believers gathered there, especially asking why they had become Christians. Pastor Shandyvayev's church is not registered with the Uzbek government. The Christians expected to be summoned to court for a hearing. Pray God gives Christians in this area wisdom and protection as they face persecution. Pray they might even have opportunities to witness to police and court officers as they are questioned.
• 1 Corinthians 13:6-7

• Update on Pastor Dmitry Shestakov - VOM Sources
  On March 1, 2007, the hearing of Pastor Shestakov's case continued in an Uzbek courthouse. He is still in prison awaiting sentencing. VOM sources reported, "The Uzbek judicial system tried to preclude David's defense attorney from the case, but he still took the case and is defending him in court." Shestakov was arrested in a raid on his registered Full Gospel Church during Sunday worship services on January 21. He was charged with operating an illegal religious organization, inciting religious hatred and distributing materials promoting religious extremism. Pray God protects and comforts Pastor Shestakov and his family while he is in prison. Ask for the charges against him to be dropped.
• Psalm 5:11-12
  
  
  
  CHINA

•  Update on Elderly Mother of House Church Leader - China Aid Association

On February 26, Beijing house-church leader Hui Huiqi's 77-year-old mother, Shuang Shuying, was sentenced to two years in prison by Beijing Chongwen District People's Court. She was charged with willfully damaging public and private property. In January, Hui Huiqi and his elderly mother were attacked by police officers while they were walking near a 2008 Olympic hotel site in Beijing, China. Shuang Shuying was arrested when she sought information from the Chongwen District Office about her son, who was arrested on January 26. Continue to pray for this family as both mother and son are in prison. Ask God to comfort and protect them.

I Peter 5:10-11


INDIA

Continued Persecution of Christians in India - VOM Sources

• Maharashtra: A local house-church pastor has been falsely accused of forcibly trying to convert a villager. A few months ago a villager asked the pastor to pray for her mentally handicapped daughter. For more than three months, the villager attended Sunday worship services conducted by the pastor and when the daughter's condition did not improve, she falsely accused the pastor of pressuring her to convert to Christianity. The pastor is living in fear of imminent arrest. Pray for wisdom and protection for this pastor, his family and believers in this area. Ask that these false charges do not result in the pastor's arrest.
• Isaiah 49:13
  
• Himachal Pradesh: It has been reported that more than 100 Christian converts have been forced to return to Hinduism under the new Himachal Pradesh Anti-Conversion Law passed on February 19, 2007. VOM sources report the law has emboldened Hindu radicals to launch an anti-Christian campaign. Christians are coerced and forced to renounce their Christianity and embrace Hinduism. Pray God's protection for believers in this area.
• Revelation 2:10

Wed, Mar 7th - 5:24PM

The Holy Alphabet

A lthough things are not perfect
B ecause of trial or pain
C ontinue in thanksgiving
D o not begin to blame
E ven when the times are hard
F ierce winds are bound to blow
G od is forever able
H old on to what you know
I magine life without His love
J oy would cease to be
Keep thanking Him for all the things
Love imparts to thee
M ove out of "Camp Complaining"
N o weapon that is known
O n earth can yield the power
P raise can do alone
Q uit looking at the future
R edeem the time at hand
S tart every day with worship
T o "thank" is a command
U ntil we see Him coming
V ictorious in the sky
W e'll run the race with gratitude
X alting God most high
Y es, there'll be good times and yes some will be bad, but...
Z ion waits in glory...where none are ever sad!

Sat, Mar 3rd - 6:16PM

Another lie of satan

Ever the showman, (why does this remind me of the impresario in another movie, "King Kong", whose hubris blinds him to the dangers of an angry and very large ape?) Cameron is holding a New York press conference on Monday at which he will reveal three coffins, supposedly those of Jesus of Nazareth, his mother Mary and Mary Magdalene.

Ironically, it's not the first time the imaginative director has tried to help us understand the Bible. A year earlier he produced a documentary that made big news in England:

The greatest story ever told has acquired a Hollywood twist. James Cameron, the director of Titanic, is the executive producer of a new documentary that claims to have uncovered fresh evidence confirming one of the most dramatic episodes in the Old Testament -- the parting of the Red Sea and the Jewish exodus from Egypt . . . Cameron believes the parting of the Red Sea may have been a tsunami that destroyed the pharaoh's army as it pursued the escaping Jews. The documentary claims the episode occurred not at the Red Sea but at the smaller Sea of Reeds, a marshy area at the northern end of the Gulf of Suez. An underwater earthquake may have released poisonous gases that turned the waters red.

So the opening of the Red Sea wasn't a spontaneous miracle of God. It was a well-timed earthquake and tsunami. Thanks, Mr. Cameraman, for framing that for us, and for putting the issue in focus.

Thanks also for digging up these bones and making Jesus Christ headline news once again. You have given us another springboard for the gospel.

So, is the Christian world shaking in its bones because of this "discovery"? Can we be sure that he is wrong?

I can only speak for myself when I say that there are a couple of things in life of which I am sure. The first is that the sun is hot. I may be wrong, but everything around me--my natural senses, my life's experience, science, etc., all come together to tell me that the sun is very hot. The second thing of which I am sure is that Jesus Christ is the Son of God--that He suffered and died for me, rose again on the third day and that "God has appointed Him to judge the quick and the dead." Of both these things I am sure, but only the second is a hill to die on.

The thought that someone has found the bones of Jesus doesn't even come up to being a very bad joke. It would be more credible for Mr. Cameron to produce a documentary telling us that the sun is made of ice. He could perhaps have it aired on the Comedy Channel.

Why am I so sure that Jesus Christ is the Son of God? Because He transformed my life. He made me a brand new person on the inside. The first time I was born, it was radical. I didn't exist, then I did. When I was "born again" (by the same Maker) it was just as radical.

To understand that, you have to look to the Law of Moses for a moment. It says, "You shall not commit adultery," but this Jesus of whom Mr. Cameron speaks, said, "But I say to you, whoever looks upon a woman to lust after her, has committed adultery already with her in his heart." That's the standard humanity will be judged by, and I don't know about you, but that would leave me guilty, and the Bible warns that it would put me in Hell for eternity. That's why I need a Savior--a substitute who took my punishment, and then rose from the dead to give me peace with God.

It is because of that cross that I am forgiven, and it was the ultimate happy day "when Jesus washed, when Jesus washed, Jesus washed my sins away." That's the only hill I will die on . . . and that's because One has already died on a hill for me.