VCP – Liberia – Sad News

Awhile back, we requested prayer for Pastor Philemon who is a national pastor working in the country of Liberia. He works through AFBM (African Fundamental Baptist Missions) and VCP (Village Church Planters).

The pastor who heads up VCP is Sam Quapourlee. A few months back we requested prayer for his son, Vanni, who was involved in a motorcycle accident. I received word from Pastor Sam that his son passed away from complications and internal bleeding at 7:30pm (Liberia time) on December 19, 2009.

Vanni, who worked with his father in one of the churches, was 27. He had a wife and two little children (ages 4 & 6). Please pray that the Lord would give this family strength at this very difficult time, and that the Lord would be exalted and glorified in their lives. Vanni had placed his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, so the family is comforted knowing they will see him once again when they cross the border from life into eternity.

Ps. 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His saints.”

Deserving to Die – Terrorists or Victims?

On 9/11/2001, terrorists flew the passengers on their flights into eternity. During the approximately one hour between the fall of the twin towers that claimed almost 3,000 lives, around the world another 7,800 lives went out to meet their Maker. Over the next 24 hours while America and the West struggled to understand the loss of almost 3,000 lives, approximately 256,200 more individuals crossed the line from life unto death. Hebrews 9:27 says, “And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment.”

On November 5, 2009, Major Nidal Hasan, an officer in the US Army walked into a military service center, jumped on a table, yelled “Allah is great!” (in Arabic), pulled out semi-automatic pistols and pumped out more than 100 rounds and sent 13 more Americans into eternity. Each week since that event approximately 1.3 million have taken their last breath. This is a number 100,000 times more than the 13 who died in the service of their country.

Did any of those almost 3,000 people deserve to die on 9/11? Did the 13 people who were shot at Fort Hood, Texas deserve to die? Ask the majority of Americans and the general consensus will be, “Those terrorists deserved to die and face God!” They would continue, “Men like Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Nidal Hasan, and Osama bin Laden deserve to die. Let’s kill them all!”

However, there is a greater question we need to ask ourselves. Do men like Hitler, Hussein, Hasan, and bin Laden deserve to die more than those who perished at their hands? What made the people who died on 9/11/2001 or on 11/05/2009 in the terrorist attacks any less deserving than the 7,800 or the 256,200 or even the 1.3 million to go and face the eternal Son of God and be judged for their sins?

This is by no means to demean the sacrifice demanded of those who did not ask to be killed! Nor, is this a support of any terrorist group. Nor, is this intended in any way to demean the loss of life and the sorrow of those families who were left to pick up the pieces.

The purpose of my writing is because I have been doing some serious searching of my heart, and sadly I find I have not been meeting the criteria required of me as a true believer. Let me explain further.

As Americans, we are very patriotic, almost at times to an extreme. It is a trait that many nations of the world fail to understand about us. It is a large part of what binds us together in the face of a common enemy. In very short order, for example, after 9/11, the vast majority of Americans were ready to take on the enemies of our country by whatever means possible. Hatred and anger ran cold and deep in the veins of millions who were upset that our country had been assaulted. We were ready to hunt down the infidels and murder them all and make them pay for what they did to us! Even many who claim the name of Christ were standing side-by-side in the call to arms and had no issues with our government spending billions of dollars to bomb and attack two foreign countries.

However, I wonder how many of those same Christians were praying that God would bring sorrow and godly repentance to those who would inflict evil upon America. How many spent time agonizing over the true loss of life – 7,800 or the 256,200 or the 1.3 million? How many mourned the fact that the vast, overwhelming majority of those individuals perished with no hope of ever knowing or even hearing the name of Jesus Christ?

Do we stop to think that every year since 9/11, an unbelievable sum of approximately 95 million (the equivalent of almost 1/3rd of the US population) go into eternity? Who mourns their loss? Why are they any more deserving to face a God of wrath than those we know and love, or than those who live on our streets? In the 6,303 days since 9/11, almost 1 billion (956 million) have exited this world, a number equivalent to a little less than the entire population of India!

Yet, we actually rejoiced when we watched the evening news from the comfort of our sofas and armchairs, and we saw the countless thousands being swept into eternity for their part in attacking our country. Oh, we were happy! Justice was being meted out by our brave men and women, and the judgment that was pronounced and executed was in our minds – “FAIR!”

However, does this stack up with the commands of Scripture that we who claim the name of Christ are called to obey? We as Christians are commanded to love our enemies. We are to share the good news of the gospel with those who have never heard. The apostle Paul loved his fellow countrymen of Israel so greatly that if it were possible, he was willing to be eternally accursed from God if only all Israel would place their faith in the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ alone for their salvation!

During His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus Christ was asked what the greatest commandments were. He replied, “The first is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind. And, the second is very much like it – LOVE your neighbor as yourself.”

Do we bother to realize that only God can hate the wicked with the demand for perfect justice that hatred requires? Who are we to think that we can stand in the place of the Almighty and condemn others to eternity where they will be in the lake of fire forever? What hypocrisy that our churches are willing to spend millions on new edifices and on entertaining the sheep while 3 people every second go to stand in judgment before the Holy, Righteous God of the Universe! What hypocrisy and lack of true Christian character that we can say equally with the lost of America that we hate our enemies and wish their deaths in whatever manner it comes upon them!

How are we ANY different from those of the Islamic faith? They are willing to kill for the ideals of their faith so that they might enjoy eternity in the bliss of earthly pleasures. Yet, we are willing to kill simply because we hate what others have done to us. We hate and kill indiscriminately because they made our lives uncomfortable. We hate and demand death as they make our trips through airport security highly annoying at best. We hate because we somehow believe what is coming from our pulpits – our sins are not as bad as those of the terrorists. Here in America, we are civilized. We do not deserve death like they do. They deserve justice. They deserve the wrath of God to fall upon them. They deserve hell!

Wake up Christians before it is too late! The world should know us by our love for one another and by the fact that we are willing to sacrifice our very lives so that others will know the love of God, and more importantly, so they will know it is possible to escape from the wrath to come!

We want to ask God to bless America, yet we refuse to obey His commands. May God forgive us for our hatred! The Lord Jesus Christ said that hatred is the same as murder. May the Lord forgive us for our lack of compassion! May He help us to see that we ALL deserve to die, but for the grace of God – His mercy endures forever!

Heresy Exports to Africa!

Thanks to Phil Johnson for the heads up on this video. I know and have seen the true need in Africa for the pure, unadulterated gospel of Jesus Christ to be preached to those who have never heard. So, I am disgusted when I see the likes of Benny Hinn, Joyce Meyers, Kenneth Hagin and all the other false professors of Christ exporting the heresy of prosperity gospel to Africa. The poor people in this video have still not heard the truth, but they are mixing their own animistic religions with a veneer of “Christianity” with the hopes of becoming much better off.

I have personally watched charlatans like these seen in this video asking their audience to “give $100 US dollars in order to receive $100 blessings, $50 US dollars to receive $50 blessings, etc.” Yes, in America we have been blessed with much in the way of material wealth, but if all we are exporting is a false gospel, a few Africans will wind up wealthy, but they and their followers will only find themselves in hell forever.

The Prosperity Gospel from The Global Conversation on Vimeo.

Mining for Diamonds in Sierra Leone

I found a missionary video well worth watching. Stephen and Laura Holt are Baptist missionaries working in Sierra Leone. They are mining diamonds, but not the kind you wear on your fingers. The rough hewn characters being mined are the results of an 11 year civil war similar to the one that engulfed its neighbor, Liberia. The gospel message is going out and this family, whom I have never met or spoken to, are in need of prayers though as they face the forces of evil that do not want the message of Christ to penetrate this predominantly Muslim nation. As Christ is preached, precious jewels are coming forth being born anew by the Holy Spirit of God. Their sins are being forgiven and they are becoming new creations in Christ. Pray for Sierra Leone, West Africa!

Letter of thanks from Pastor Philemon

To all of our friends in God’s vineyard,

We greet you from the fields white unto harvest.  It is from Liberia we write where we are working to make sure that the work left with us is done properly till He come.  We send our hello.

I am Pastor Philemon Gwelikporlusohn, a Liberian serving in Liberia trying to accomplish the GREAT COMMISSON of our Lord. My family and I are involve with Church planting ministry.  We love the Lord and the job He give us. pray for us that we continue till Christ.

Philemon and family

I am a graduate of the Maranatha Bible Collage, Accra Ghana.  I am married to a young lady called Dylin for almost 20 years.  God has blessed our union with 6 girls.  She also serves as the foster mother of 3 other children who has been unfortunate due to the civil crises in our country.

We are right now pastoring a Church near Monrovia, it is called Highland Hills Baptist Church.  This is our fifth churchplant in Liberia.  The Lord is adding to the Church numerically, and we are trusting the Lord for spiritual growth and to work in our lives.  Discipleship is our focus.  Please pray with us as we plan for other areas which keep coming before our hearts and minds in order to start new mission stations.  We have recently started a new mission station at the St John, Bong Mine.  As the vision continues to grow, I will keep reminding you for more prayers.

We are very thankful to you for your prayers and monetary gifts to us in times like this especially after our house was robbed earlier this month.

Your gifts to us will continue to speak wherever I preach the good news in Liberia and beyond.  For your reminder, the Lord is not unjust that He cannot pay you for all you have and is doing because of Him.

Brothers, we greatly appreciate your gifts, thank you for remembering us.  Our fellow Christians are in our prayers from now on till we see our Christ come.

In His service,

Pastor Philemon

Quotes (612)

Jim Elliot You wonder why people choose fields away from the States when young people at home are drifting because no one wants to take time to listen to their problems. Ill tell you why I left. Because those Stateside young people have every opportunity to study, hear, and understand the Word of God in their own language, and these Indians have no opportunity whatsoever. I have had to make a cross of two logs, and lie down on it, to show the Indians what it means to crucify a man. When there is that much ignorance over here and so much knowledge and opportunity over there, I have no question in my mind why God sent me here. Those whimpering Stateside young people will wake up on the Day of Judgment condemned to worse fates than these demon-fearing Indians, because, having a Bible, they were bored with it—while these never heard of such a thing as writing.

– Jim Elliot

1927 – 1956

HT: Desert Pastor

Quotes (607)

hudson-taylor Would that God would make hell so real to us that we cannot rest; heaven so real that we must have men there, Christ so real that our supreme motive and aim shall be to make the Man of Sorrows the Man of Joy by the conversion to Him of many.

– Hudson Taylor

1832 – 1905

HT: The Desert Pastor

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“The urge comes on me at times to write in scathing terms articles for these piddling little magazines of ‘comfort and kind words for God’s little flock.’ Baloney! When are we going to rise like men and face the world squarely? This driveling nonsense which condones inactivity because of the apostasy of the day needs a little fire to show up the downright ungodliness it hides. We cuddle around the Lord’s table as though it were the last coal of God’s altar, and warm our hands, thinking that will appease the wrath of the indignant Christ when He charges us with the unmet, unchallenged, untaught generation of heathen now doing their Christmas shopping. It makes me boil when I think of the power we profess and utter impotency of our action. Believers who know one-tenth as much as we do are doing one hundred times more for God, with His blessing and our criticism. Oh if I could write it, preach it, say it, paint it, anything at all, if only God’s power would become known among us! ICHABOD!”

– Jim Elliott

1927 – 1956

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“Further, J. says, ‘The worship service is most satisfying to me as an individual.’ What in all eternity has that got to do with it? Have her personal likes and dislikes any right to dictate method in the holy church of God? It is this attitude that has brought hopeless confusion into our present order, for holy rolling, and snake-handling are most satisfying to some folks as individuals. Let God be true and every man a liar. Is it His way? Then let my personal likes be filed in the waste-can. Let me follow by afforded grace. It is neither J.s job nor mine to commend or condemn any system of gathering. It is the responsibility of both of us to search the Scriptural principles, find the all-important Thus saith the Lord.”

–Jim Elliott, 1927-1956

Quotes (578)

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American believers have sold their lives to the service of Mammon, and God has His rightful way of dealing with those who succumb to the spirit of Laodicea.

– Jim Elliot

1927 – 1956


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UPDATE on this post: According to Mark Driscoll’s Facebook page, the episode of Hour of Power will be airing August 23rd. That is probably when it will be available on the internet as well.

Quotes (575)

j_elliot

“I think there is nothing so startling in all the graces of God as His quietness. When men have raged untruths in His name, when they have used the assumed authority of the Son of God to put to death His real children, when they have with calloused art twisted the Scriptures into fables and lies, when they have explained the order of His creation in unfounded theories while boasting the support of rational science, when they have virtually talked Him right out of His universe, when they, using powers He grants them, calm universal autonomy and independence, He, this great Silent God, says nothing. His tolerance and love for His creature is such that, having spoken in Christ, in conscience, in code of law, He waits for men to leave off their bawling and turn for a moment to listen to His still, small voice of Spirit.

Now, after so long a time of restrained voice, bearing in Almighty meekness the blasphemies of His self-destroying creatures, now – how shall break upon the ears, consciousnesses, hearts, and minds of reprobate man the Voice of one so long silent? It shall thunder with the force of offended righteousness, strike with lightning bolts upon the seared consciences; roar as the long-crouched lion upon dallying prey; leap upon, batter, destroy and utterly consume the vain reasonings of proud human kind, ring as the battle shout of a strong, triumphant, victory-tasting warrior; strike terror and gravity to souls more forcefully than tortured screams in the dead of night. O God, what shall be the first tones of that voice again on earth? And what their effect? Wonder and fear, denizens of dust, for the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a battle cry, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet blast of God Himself, made more terrible, if that could be, by the longsuffering of His silence.”

Jim Elliott, 1950

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“You would have loved the communion service we had during that weekend…After a few opening remarks we began to pray and sing familiar hymns as different ones led. [Ed] McCully broke the bread and gave thanks for the cup. It took a long time for the single cup and plate to get around to 180 people, so we sang as it was passed, ‘Spirit of God Descend Upon My Heart,’ ‘When I Survey the Wondrous Cross,’ Amazing Grace,’ ‘O Love That Will Not Let Me Go,’ ‘Crown Him With Many Crowns,’ etc. Hardly a soul that wasn’t moved to worship. Oh, why cannot the Spirit lead us more often thus? How long shall we trust in man’s programming to accomplish the work of His Spirit in men’s souls?

–Jim Elliott, 1949

Islamic tolerance: Christian murdered over purchase of tea.

Tea

The “religion of peace” has struck again in Pakistan.

Witnesses claim the owner and 14 of his employees beat Ishtiaq with stones, iron rods and clubs, and stabbed him multiple times with kitchen knives as Ishtiaq pleaded for mercy.

Ishtiaq had not noticed the warning sign before ordering his tea, as he ordered with a group of his fellow passengers.

When Ishtiaq went to pay for his tea, the owner noticed that he was wearing a necklace with a cross and grabbed him, calling for his employees to bring anything available to beat him for violating a sign posted on the stall warning non-Muslims to declare their religion before being served.

Read more from Asian News and  from Worthy News.

Africa desperately needs help with combating cults.

I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock . . . – Acts 20:29

Source: Africa Center for Apologetics Research

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See related posts:

Charismania unrestrained: Africa’s witch children

The Hell-bound false prophetess Helen Ukpabio of Liberty Gospel Church in Nigeria

Sam and Esther: The least of these

Who they were then, and who they are now

The Message of the Missionary

From Steven J Lawson’s book entitled Famine in the Land he gives this quote:

Noah’s message from the steps going up to the Ark was not “Something good is going to happen to you!” Amos was not confronted by the high priest of Israel for proclaiming, “Confession is possession!” Jeremiah was not put into the pit for preaching, “I’m O.K., you’re O.K.” Daniel was not put into the lion’s den for telling people, “Possibility thinking will move mountains!” John the Baptist was not forced to preach in the wilderness and eventually beheaded because he preached, “Smile, God loves you!” The two prophets of the tribulation will not be killed for preaching, “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world!”

The message of the true God-sent missionary will be like the message of Noah – “Repent from your sins, for judgment is coming!” It will be like that of Jonah – “Repent from your sins, for judgment is coming!” It will be like that of John the Baptist – “Repent from your sins, for judgment is coming!”

The message of the true God-sent missionary will resemble none of the fluff found in many of today’s pulpits, but will be hard-hitting and will point out the truth that the gospel message is trans-cultural!

The message of the true God-sent missionary will not seek to provide health, wealth or prosperity. It will not provide for the stomachs or well-being of the heathen with no concern for their eternal destiny!