9.12.09 MUSLIM DAY PARADE

am busier than ever, in different ways, and so hope to kill three birds with one stone here.

FIRST, THANK YOU FOR PRAYING FOR US IN DEARBORN! it was an intense time but God was very real and present to me..and i would say, by observation and fellowship, to the group gathered there. in spite of some legal difficulty which denied us some free speech rights within the festival itself, God opened many doors for sharing the gospel for which we are thankful. since i'm wordy it would take too long to give a good picture but i went, was there and came home BLESSED OF GOD in spirit and am very aware that prayer was responsible. thank you..

SECOND, as many of you know that i was led to leave immanuel leidy church just before leaving for dearborn. this was extremely hard at first for: 1. i had no leading to any other specific church (and i never again plan to be 'out there' and separate from a body of believers) 2. i was leaving the church family which had surrounded me with love and kindness for nearly eight years. it was the FIRST church family i had EVER been actively involved in. it was the first, and virtually only, church family since my divorce eight and a half years ago and used of God in many ways to contribute to that ongoing healing process. during the time at leidy my relationship with God has been (and continues to be!!) radically transformed by things He has done and is doing in me, obedience He is progressively leading me into and the ever-growing THRILL of being such a wretched, undeserving sinner and yet being FORGIVEN AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..HE DOESN'T REMEMBER ONE OF MY MULTITUDINOUS DASTARDLY THOTS, WORDS OR DEEDS..AND ATTITUTES, and in the greatly intensified nature of my moment by moment relationship with Him. it's weird but leidy church has been, as best i can understand, only the setting of all this change rather than a realized (?) catalyst of it. albeit, leaving the setting of such wonderful change caused deep pain and a free-falling disorientation of sorts. but all that..of the first couple of months is beginning to fade and i sense a growing stability once again.. for i am thinking that God has led me, for however long to a new home.

i have visited a number of churches but 5 sundays ago i was led to mision evangelica on railroad avenue in souderton. the first week i could barely force myself to go thru the front door..filled with fear of the unknown, uncertainty and the fact that they were speaking a language i don't understand. i must say though that they welcomed me warmly. my very initial feeling (typical for me who am very emotional, impulsive, spontaneous) though unable to communicate, is of being ACCEPTED, BELOVED AND ENFOLDED!! time will probably record this as merely an initial experience yet it is very real right now. i guess the Lord knew that i would not stay otherwise...don't know. there are several who have reached out among the men and am staying a bit aloof from the women having been run through many hard lessons as a result of thinking a man can be just as friendly with a woman as with a man..Jesus appears to have done this but either it doesn't work for mere mortals or He hasn't taught me His way in this area yet. all in all it could be alot worse. they invited me to a birthday party after church in the basement, a picnic on labor day at peace valley park (i lied that i was busy and must confess that tomorrow to the brother who invited me..i'll blame it on the fear of being with a group for so long a time when you can't understand or talk to them..still sin..i should have gone) and actually asked me to lead (in english) in prayer one sunday before men's sunday school. (i love prayer time for the one 'leading' is at times drowned out by the others praying along..great! i love it!!) i was led one sunday to cast a lot for mision and it came up 'yes'. i had been led to do this every sunday as i prayed that God would lead me in His way step by step to the right church. well, unlike with the other churches, the weekly lot on mision came up yes-yes-yes. the fourth week i cast a lot on mision saying, 'Lord, i'm sensing this..do You want me to attend here for a while?' again 'yes'. i'm not sure where God's long term or big picture is for me but i am sometimes excited and sometimes lonely and thinking i'm crazy..but dv plan to be a part of this family for as long as God wants. so we'll see...right now am thinking at least till the end of 09. the 'here for a while' sunday they asked me if i would be around for a while and in response to my answer gave me the spanish sunday school quarterly to work on reading. i met someone today at the warminster murdering center who i am sensing may be a good spanish tutor and am praying that she will be open to swap for some paint work. so all you who have been praying for me for leading...WE'LL SEE.. but the leading is interesting for i have had an off-and-on, kind of low grade thot about being immersed in spanish (a single friend or contact of some sort was vaguely the thot) so that i could learn it and possibly one day use it to evangelize/encourage spanish-speaking people...and now God has led me into the midst of a number of spanish-speaking disciples. God may be bringing me out of a very deep and dry between-churches-valley. thank You Lord for Your faithful leading.

THIRD, and final, God has led me to join denny barger and some others (?) to share the love of Jesus with muslims at the muslim day parade in nyc on october 18th. it seems to have been hijacked by the radical muslim element in nyc, the most radicalized muslim area in the country. it goes down madison avenue, i think, and ends in a bazaar of sorts conducive to talking and socializing. SO I'M EXCITED to see what God is going to do there. dv i will also be attending BRIDGES a seven week course taught by denny barger of dreamsalive exploring various common ground areas from which we can launch relationships and from which foundation we can talk Jesus and share the gospel. this is in jersey, over the walt whitman bridge and starts wed pm october 7, i believe. so that should be very helpful and am praying for God to fill me with His love. would you join with me in prayer for bridges, oct. 18th and God's guidance in this area of things. as for dearborn, would you pray specifically for to have:
1) God's VISION of needs/opportunities jn.4.35-8
2) REST in Christ's finished work eph.2:4-6
3) the LOVE of Jesus! mt.9.36
4) an OPEN DOOR Icor.16.9
5) BOLDNESS eph.6.19
6) CLARITY col.4.4
7) STAND in the victory Christ has won IIcor.2.14-6
8) OPEN HEARTS acts16.14
9) GIVEAWAYS IIthess.3.1
10)HUNGER AND THIRST FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS matt.5.6
11)TEAM UNITY ps.133.1;phil.1.27
12)FAVOR luke2.52
13)SUBMISSION TO AUTHORITY rom.13.1-4
14)SAFETY ps.91
15)GOOD LOGISTICS/ORGANIZATION Icor.14.40
16)Holy Spirit-led FOLLOW UP matt.28.18-20
17)the Church of Christ GO OUT, INVITE, COMPEL matt.22.8-9;luke 14.23
18)ABUNDANT FRUIT THAT REMAINS jn. 15.5,16

last night i was invited by a brother to go to calvary chapel of philadelphia to hear a live interview with joel rosenberg (sp?) (jr) the author of 'inside the revolution' and a church planter in the middle east and the 'billy graham of iran', an iranian convert to Christ. it was a divine appointment and very helpful in giving me a better understanding of islam in general and of muslims in particular. most of what i share here is from jr. i was detained and so got there 5 minutes into the interview. at that time jr was sharing about the current showdown that looms large between israel and iran. it is interesting that the current iranian regime was outlawed by ayatollah (you'll have to forgive me but i'm going to 'wing it' on spellings) kohmeni in 1979 when he came out of exile to form the world's first islamic nation in iran as too radical. evidently they are suicidal and apocalyptic and are very ready to destroy israel and the united states no matter how many millions of deaths this involves. they see this as a precursor to the end-of-time coming of the islamic 'messiah'. much more very informative and helpful to understand was shared.

jr then outlined the three groups in islam. 1. the RADICALS. there are 1.3 billion muslims of which 7 % or 91 million are radical. that means that for them islam is the only option and jihad or holy war to the death against all non-muslims is the only means. they are of the suicide-bomber persuation. ( throughout i am just repeating whati understood to be expressed.) these are seeking nuclear power and desire an iranian-pakistan axis along this line. they seek to hasten the end of time and the bringing in of, i would suppose, eternal bliss. 2. the REFORMERS. these would be the vast majority. they believe islam is the answer but desire more rights, openness, jeffersonian democracy. for example, these people were out in large numbers when the recent iranian election was fixed to maintain the radical clique in their power position. 3. the REVIVALISTS. these are 'muslims' who do not think that islam or jihad is the answer but Jesus! they are a very rapidly expanding group, especially in the middle east. in recent years millions in the middle east have been seeing visions and having dreams of Jesus. it is as if Jesus said I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH in this area...even if I have to do it alone! in iran, the first islamic nation, it is as if the spirit is largely: we have seen islam for 30 years. islam is the problem. it is reported that 70 % are atheists, drug addiction is the highest in the world, and prostitution is rampant. the evangelist from iran predicted the addition of 100,000 new house churches in the next decade. people are needy and hungry and are coming to Christ in great numbers. in 1979, the year iran became an islamic republic, there were 500 christians. today 1 million. there are 100,000 christians in saudi arabia, 2.5 million in egypt, 5 million in sudan, etc. islam has not been able to stop satellite tv. for example bishop bostros (?), a believer, has a nightly audience of millions of people from the middle east. many are calling in to receive Christ..tv and internet are increasingly used for discipleship and to teach how to establish house churches.

the session ended with WHAT DO WE DO about all this? it was suggested that we, the church of Jesus Christ need to: 1. LEARN - there are many resources on joel rosenberg's (sp?) site insidetherevolution.org and his book by the same name which includes Bibles and (i'm assuming) evangelistic/discipleship materials, for muslims we may meet, in many languages. 2. PRAY -
-that God would break the spirit of fear in muslims contemplating Jesus Christ to be their savior and lord. they face harassment/ostracization from everyone closest to them.. at best and death at worst.
-that God would give us a heart to love rather than fear/hate muslims
-that we would seek and that God would open up opportunities to befriend muslims
-that God would give boldness and clarity in sharing the gospel with them and the grace to reach out to them by inviting them into our homes and by helping them with needs that come to our knowledge.
-that ' inside the revolution' might be translated into various middle eastern languages and then shared there via tv and internet
-that God would raise up muslim-cum-christians to disciple those who come to Christ via tv and internet
-that the persecuted church would grow in the grace, knowledge and boldness of Christ. the evangelist shared of being in a house church recently where during scripture memory time a 79 year old man, a mother in her 40s and a child, all recent converts, got up one-by-one and nailed acts 2, all 47 verses, word perfect.
3. LOVE - Jesus said for us to love our neighbor and our enemy therefore
-build friendships with them
-pray with them (they will let us!)
-don't argue with them
-see them as God sees them (ask God to take away fear/hate)
-THE MORE THEY ABUSE/ATTACK US THE GREATER THE OPPORTUNITY to be kind and loving in return. this is extremely important for allah is not at all associated with love, only with fear and hate. most muslims, other than by dreams and visions, are coming to Christ via contact with loving christians and by comparative theology (islam does not meet the needs of the human heart so they are hungry and seeking and thus open to investigating other spiritual-based beliefs)..love seen and experienced personally opens a door to investigate the love of Jesus Christ.
-realize that God loves them very much. in genesis when hagar was driven away by sarah and had thrown her son, ishmael (the father of many muslims in the world), under one of the shrubs and went a distance off so as not to see him die, God spoke to her. 'arise, lift up the lad and hold him in thine hand, for I will make him a great nation'.
-realize that Jesus has torn down the wall between people who are different (ephesians 2) and take for your motto I Shall Love All Muslims (all people!)

THEY ARE AT WAR. ARE WE? FOR WE WRESTLE NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD BUT AGAINST PRINCIPALITIES, AGAINST POWERS, AGAINST THE RULERS OF THE DARKNESS OF THIS WORLD, AGAINST SPIRITUAL WICKEDNESS IN HIGH PLACES...GREATER IS HE THAT IS IN YOU THAN HE THAT IS IN THE WORLD...