4.18.10 NEWS SNIPPETS

some reading snippits..

ct, 4.10,p16..'the high profile group 'christian leaders for a nuclear-free iran' is demanding increased economic sanctions against the islamic regime'..i wonder how it will feel when other nations are demanding things of us..

p.17f..russ stendal, held hostage for months by narco-terrorists, now ministers in their midst in columbia..'one of the most recent assassinations occurred in the northern village of maranonal in september 2009, when three masked gunmen broke into the home of foursquare church pastor rafael velasquez and killed him in front of his wife and 6 church members. other pastors, missions leaders and churchgoers have received anonymous threats of death, rape and kidnapping for attending religious services, speaking out for peace, and criticizing terrorists or paramilitaries. nationwide the number of killings linked to the conflict has declined significantly each year since 2002. but in 2009, more than 13k died in the ongoing violence..stendal..is persuaded the gospel can succeed in bringing lasting peace..'politics as usual won't do it,' he says.

he believes colombia's violent quagmire will persist until the hearts of its people are changed thru genuine encounters with God.

to that end, his organization, colmbia para cristo, aims to reach all parties. throughout colombia's many conflict zones, he and indigenous ministry leaders hand out tens of thousands of bibles, christian books and solar-powered radios tuned to his radio stations: one that plays secular and christian music, the other teaching and preaching, much of it from stendal himself. local christians have distributed more than 100k fixed -band radios..

to deliver the message into hostile areas, stendal often attaches christian care packages..he dropes the packages onto guerrilla camps, coca fields and soccer fields from one of his 2 airplanes - a 600 lb ultralight and a pink 1953 cessna with the pink panther painted on its tail. this distinguishes the aircraft from those used by the military and drug dealers. when resources are available, he can distribute via parachute more the 10k truth packs each month.

in 1964, his father relocated the family from minnesota to take part in translating the bible into kogi, the mother tongue of an important pre-columbian tribe. his father was a pilot and taught him to fly. russ was troubled by the difficult lives of the campesinos. he offered to purchase locally caught fish and fly them to urban markets to fetch a better price.

but on august 14, 1983, one of his..trips to meet with local fishermen turned sour. farc rebels kidnapped him and demanded a ransom

stendal lived alongside farc guerrillas for 5 months of captivity, much of the time with a rope tied in a slipknot around his neck. he had time to reflect on why the poor were drawn to the unfulfilled promises of farc ideology. when campesinos join the armed guerrillas, the leaders control them with fear. dissent is not tolerated. the disobedient and would-be deserters are executed.

yet stendal shared the gospel with his captors and wrote out by hand in spanish his life story. he was amazed when farc commanders permitted his writing to circulate throughout the camp..it was published under the title of rescue the captors.

guerrillas and their leaders began approaching stendal with questions about life and faith. some started expressing doubts about the violent, godless ideology they were devoted to.

so moved was he by his experience that one day, ..'i told God that i was willing to do whatever He saw fit, that He could do anything He wanted with me and that i would trust Him competely'.

..he believes his prayer was answered when an anonymous donor paid his 55k ransom.

late in 2009, local leaders in curillo, a town in southwest colombia about 100 miles from the ecuador border, invited stendal to help lead a convention where evangelism, reconciliation and peacemaking were on the agenda.

curillo is a remote area where armed groups forced out western missionaries more than two decades ago. campesinos from miles away came to take part in the convention. organizers had the police, the army and the mayor's full cooperation. the guerrillas were open and curious; they eagerly took books,bibles and galcom radios.

stendal said colombians have an intense hunger for spiritual things and are looking for a new course. 'a larege number of people are becoming on fire for God. this is happening in seemingly strange and unlikely places like prisons, ghuerrilla camps and in remote, dangerous areas..only God can start a real movement'...

p.49..online enrollment now represents 25% of the 18.2 million students enrolled in higher education..

..in response to @ctmagazine's tweet, 'why it shouldn't surpise or alarm us that the church is not as friendly as a bar..'where everybody knows your name vs. where everybody has to wear a nametag'..

worldmag, 4.10.10, p87 william stead, editor of the pall mall gazette, comments on the welsh revival..'there is something there from the other world. you cannot say whence it came or whither it is going..you see men and women go down in sobbing agony before your eyes as the invisible Head clutches their hearts..if you are afraid of strong emotions, you'd better give the revival a wide berth..

(the one interviewing stead)..but is it all emotion? is there no teaching?

stead..'precious little. do you think that teaching is what people want in a revival? these people, all the people in a land like ours, are taught to death, preached to insensibility. they all know the essential truths. they know they are not living as they ought to live and no amout of teaching will add anything to that conviction. to hear some people talk you would imagine that the best way to get a sluggard out of bed is to send a tract on astronomy showing him that accorindg to the fixed and eternal law the sun will rise at a certain hour in the morning.

anticipating the predictable question of 'excesses', stead wrote..'the fact is, there has been so little handle given to the enemy, who ever is hungering for an occasion to blaspheme, that the revival, so far, lacks that one great testimony in its favor which all good causes have..woe to you, when all men shall speak well of you!'

is the revival a supernatural work or human charisma? stead..never was there a religious movement so little indebted to the guiding brain of its leaders. it seems to be going on its own..ministers, each in his own church, open the meetings. but when once they are started they 'obey the Spirit'.. there are no advertisements, no brass bands, no posters, no huge tents. all the paraphernalia of the got-up job are conspicuous by their absence..'

voice of the martys, 4.10, p2..the director of vom and his wife met with a group of christians in iran earlier this year..'when they stopped singing, ofelia and i asked them some questions. 'what does it mena for you to win?' i asked. 'i mean to win in life, what is a win?' it looke like many of their friends out in the (protesting) were losing.

smiling, the entire group, in a burst of sound, shouted one word - SALVATION!'

when asked about obstacles and difficulties, one lady told us, 'when they spit on me, i consider that my baptism from God'.

one iranian pastor, who suffered much for his christian witness, told me, 'prosperity without persecution is boring'.

excerpt quoted from martin luther king's letter from birmingham jail, april 16, 1963..'so the question is not whether we will be extremists, but what kind of extremist we will be. will we be extremists for hate or for love? ..whenever the early christians entered a town, the people in power became disturbed and immediately sought to convict the christians for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators'. but the christians pressed on, in the conviction that they were 'a colony on heaven' called to obey God rather than man. small in number, they were big in commitment. they were too God-intoxicated to be 'astronomically intimidated'....

as you take up your cross daily, your confession of Christ will reveal the door to eternity to those around you.

india..justice is proving more and more elusive to christians persecuted by hindus in india. though india is known as the world's largest democracy, freedom to worship the Lord..is eroding. a rash of laws prohibiting so-called forceful conversions is landing hundreds of christian pastors in jail...indian believers do not need anyone to tell them persecution is worsening ..they have expected it. God is working powerfully in india to bring many indians to Christ..people in rural areas are turning to Christ in record numbers because of courageous indian evangelists who spread the gospel despite persecution..

richard wumbrand, from proofs of God's existence p10..to the question 'is ther a God?' the atheist would reply, a reasonable man believes only what he sees'.

pressed for clarification, the atheist would no doubt qualify his assertion. obviously, he too believes in the sun when it does not shine, in love when he does not feel it, in his brain that he cannot see. he believes the assertions of scientists regarding galaxies or micro-particles, as well as the assertions of historians about pst events. he would correct himself: 'a reasonable man believes only what can be seen by himself or other men. few men, for example, have access to atomic installations or huge observatories, but some men have seen. therefore, i can believe.'

i know tibet exists, though i have not seen it. i know some men have great goodness though only from what others say. i believe God exists even if i personally have never seen Him.

how many testimonies do we have that hannibal or genghis khan existed? very few, but still we have no doubts. there are far more testimonies for the existence of God.

at night we see many stars in the sky. but when the sun rises, they disappear. can we claim, therefore, that during the day there are no stars in the sky? if we fail to see God, perhaps it is because we pass thru the night of ignorance in this matter. it is premature to claim he does not exist.

search yourself to see if there is some complex of antipathy that makes you deny god's existence. terrible things have been done in the name of God and great stupidities have been preached or written as His revelation. 'God' is truly a polluted human word. in His name statues of mnonsters have been declare to be holy. in his name religious wars, often the most bitter and intense, have been fough. in His name inquisitions were carried out. nazi soldiers had 'God with us' inscribed on their belts.

for this reason believers are called to the reality signified by the word 'God'. it is important to distinguish carefully between name and reality. let me emphasize that unless a person distingushes well, he cannot think well.