Chinese Government To Christians: We Don’t Want Your Help

To those who ask me why I can’t be bothered about this year’s Olympics in Beijing and why I never say nice things about the Chinese government, let these news stories tell you why:

China Continues Crackdown On Christian Earthquake Relief Efforts, Christians Say

BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)– Chinese security forces continue to arrest Christians involved in helping survivors of the recent earthquake, which killed at least nearly 70,000 people in southwest China’s Sichuan province, with many thousands more missing and likely dead, representatives said Wednesday, June 4. Read more here

In other news, persecution of Christians is intensifying in the lead-up to the Olympics:

China Crackdown On Christians Ahead Of Olympics, Report Claims

BEIJING, CHINA (BosNewsLife)– With two months to go until the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, a major human rights group on Sunday, June 8, released a report detailing what it called a “current government crackdown on China’s unregistered Christians.” Read more here

Pray for our persecuted brethren and sisters in China.

Stressed about your wedding?

Do you know someone who’s getting married? Are they torn about the life-altering decision of whether to have lillies or daffodils in the bouquet? Is the bride losing sleep and waking up with night sweats about whether her dress should be white, off-white, cream, ivory, or eggshell? Will the groom go ballistic if the guests aren’t seated just right at the reception?

Then tell them to chill out. If their marriage lasts, no one is going to sit down with them in 20 years and say, “Your marriage has lasted so long. You must have had a perfect wedding!” In fact, 5 years from now–nah, 5 months from now–no one will even remember the wedding. It’s all just a bunch of fluff. I dare say, whatever happens at your wedding, it will not even compare to what happened to these friends of Richard Wurmbrand, that he writes about in Tortured For Christ:

One of our workers in the Underground Church was a young girl. The Communist police discovered that she secretly spread Gospels and taught children about Christ. They decided to arrest her. But to make the arrest as agonizing and painful as they could, they decided to delay her arrest a few weeks, until the day she was to be married. On her wedding day, the girl was dressed as a bride—the most wonderful, joyous day in a girl’s life! Suddenly, the door burst open and the secret police rushed in.

When the bride saw the secret police, she held out her arms toward them to be handcuffed. They roughly put the manacles on her wrists. She looked toward her beloved, then kissed the chains and said, “I thank my heavenly Bridegroom for this jewel He has presented to me on my marriage day. I thank Him that I am worthy to suffer for Him.” She was dragged off, with weeping Christians and a weeping bridegroom left be­hind. They knew what happens to young Chris­tian girls in the hands of Communist guards. Her bridegroom faithfully waited for her. After five years she was released—a destroyed, broken woman, looking thirty years older. She said it was the least she could do for her Christ.

So, still stressed over flowers and dresses?

Suffering Christianity vs Chipper Christianity.

When a society prospers and enjoys great security it’s inevitable that false ideas about life, death, truth, and God will flourish with little resistance. Conversely, when tragedy strikes, those same people no longer want what once tickled their ears but they want answers and truth.

Sadly this same axiom is true for the visible Church. As American Christians continue to gluttonously indulge themselves on the riches and excesses of life that the West has to offer, they tolerate and even welcome all sorts of twisted ideas about life, death, truth, and God.

Some segments of the Church will tell you that God wants you to be rich and healthy and that if you’re not, you must be lacking faith. Another segment of the church will tell you that no one can know anything for sure (e.g. Emergents). And yet another segment will sacrifice any inconvenient truths of Scripture for popularity and the ever increasing appeal to entertain their members.

However, when your child is diagnosed with leukemia how will Your Best Life Now sound? When your spouse is unexpectedly killed by a drunk driver how will your Purpose Driven Life feel then? When a global famine strikes or the stock market crashes will positive confession and naming it and claiming it still have its place in your life? When a deadly plague spreads from nation to nation killing millions and war breaks out killing even more, does the ambiguity and total lack of certainty about anything give you any hope and comfort?

Whether the suffering is personal or global, the world will want answers that most churches cannot provide and are utterly incapable of providing.

I want to share with you this passionate ten-minute audio clip from John Piper that he delivered to a group of pastors. I’ve entitled it The Suffering of John Bunyan vs Chipper Churches and in it Piper contrasts the suffering of Bunyan with that of the chipper churches of today. This only serves to reinforce why it is better to sit under the preaching of a pastor who has suffered great loss (whose sermons have the smell of Hell permeating about them) than it is to sit under the teaching of one who hasn’t (as you’re pressured to conform to the everything’s happy-clappy facade that he and the rest of the church are putting on).

These chipper churches are whitewashed tombs that can only offer a sick and dying world a counterfeit Christianity; a Christianity without a cross. True Christianity has always been marked by suffering. Jesus promised His disciples that they would suffer great hardships and that they’d be hated by the world. It’s only the modern cultural Christianity of ease, comfort, and luxury that has suggested otherwise.

I strongly encourage you to listen to the Piper audio clip and then ask yourself; when your lifeless child hangs in your arms on Friday, will you find truth, hope, and answers in the preaching from the pulpit of your current church on Sunday?

Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted (Matthew 5:4)

Australians Arrested for Preaching the Gospel

Two open-air preachers, on Australia’s Gold Coast, who have been preaching in the same location for two years were arrested last Sunday, April 13. I certainly don’t intend to liken their situation to Christians in other countries who are being martyred, or have no freedom, but for this to happen in a free country like Australia is shocking to me. The men responded in a manner I could only hope to if I was in the same situation–witnessing to the police and fellow prisoners.

You can see their story in their own words here: Operation 513 Battle Log

Whatever happened to holiness . . . in the Church?

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There’s no way around it. The current state of the church in America is lukewarm at best, and apostate at worst. The modern visible Church bears little resemblance to the Church of the first century or even the Church of a century ago. The modern Church has blended so much and so well with the world that no one can tell the two apart.

Today, we have a brand of “Christianity” for every taste, sin and vice imaginable. Churches have thrown out the preaching of the Gospel and are are now catering to those who have one foot in the Church and the other foot in the world. People who refuse to deny themselves and take up their crosses (Mark 8:34), crucify their old self (Romans 6:6 & Galatians 2:20), sever their friendships with the world (James 4:4 & 1 John 2:15), and separate themselves (2 Corinthians 6:17), can now have their cake and eat it too. They can have their Churchianity and feed their insatiable lusts of the flesh at the same time. Welcome to the “Christian” Vanity Fair.

Whether your vice is a love for the Beatles, Elvis, The Spice Girls, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks, heavy metal rock concerts, hip hop culture, rockabilly hot rods, clowns, poker, Las Vegas, bars, all things Gothic, homosexuality, pastors with “hot wives,” jokes with sexual innuendos, Hooters waitresses, an unhealthy fascination with earth worship environmentalism, narcissistic pastors who missed their callings to be video jockeys on MTV, making light of the Savior, Marijuana consumption, television, desire to be a rock star (but can’t make it big time), bathroom humor, psychics (and their magic soap), BMX stunt shows (and the gospel of bike safety), kick-boxing, belly dancing, aerobics, wrestling, Harry Potter, scantly clad dancers at Christian concerts, feminist goddes worship, get-rich-quick schemes, winning prizes, a 30-foot inflatable sex organ as a ministry tool, apostate sermon series’ entitled God Loves Sex, and all other sermons that have little to do with God and a lot to do with sex.

Now who wouldn’t want to attend churches and events like these if their Christianity consists of checking off “Church” on their list of things to do to be in good favor with God? If they have to sit through church they might as well be entertained.

Even this church boasts that they’re “fun, exciting, powerful, and relevant.” (They also happen to display a nuclear mushroom cloud on their website for some unknown reason). So, when did Christianity become all about YOU? When did the Church begin to cater to nothing but YOU?

Well, with all the frivolity happening in the Church today, I decided to illustrate the difference between what passes as Christianity today (as seen above) with Christianity from the past. The following excerpt from the Voice of the Martyr’s book, Jesus Freaks will serve as Exhibit A. Let this example speak for itself between now and then–what Christians live for now, compared to what they died for then.

The day of their victory dawned, and the martyrs went from the prison to the amphitheater as if they were on their way to heaven. Their faces were radiant. Perpetua followed at a gentle pace, as a great lady of Christ. The power of her gaze forced the spectators to lower their eyes. She sang a hymn of triumph.

At the beginning of the show, two of the men were attacked by a leopard and then mauled by a bear. A wild boar was then let loose on Saturus, but the boar turned on the one who unleashed him, goring him in the stomach. Saturus was only dragged on the sand. Then he was tied up on the bridge in front of a bear, but the bear refused to come out of his den. So for the second time Saturus was left unhurt.

Perpetua and a young woman named Felicitas were put in the arena with a bull. Felicitas fell, seriously wounded. Perpetua was tossed in the air, and her robe was torn. As soon as she got up, she ran to Felicitas and gently raised her from the ground. When the bull refused to attack them again, they were removed from the arena.

The show was almost over; Saturus was put in the arena one last time, the leopard was let loose, and with one bite, Saturus was mortally wounded.

Finally, those who were still alive were brought back in to be killed by gladiators. First, they gave one another the kiss of peace. Then all remained still and received the sword in silence. Perpetua was assigned a young, untried gladiator, who was not used to such scenes of violence. He stabbed her weakly several times between the ribs, but did not kill her, so Perpetua guided his wavering hand to her throat. (Pages 301-302)

The official song of Reformation Nation, At The Crossroads, should be an anthem for the Church today.

 

Book Review: “The Road to Reality” by K.P. Yohannan

road-to-reality.jpg After reading K. P. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions, I was really impressed on how he grasped the realities of the lukewarm Church in America.

I just finished reading his follow-up book to that one: The Road to Reality. If he hit a home run with the book Revolution in World Missions, then he hits a grand slam with this one!

In this book he provides a scathing indictment of the lukewarm church and calls the Christian to quit living the lukewarm life. The book flows well and is a page turner. K.P. knows how to communicate well and gets his points across that will certainly leave an impression on you.

Here’s an excerpt from chapter 21:

The streets of India–especially in our bloated, overpopulated cities like Bombay and Calcutta–are maddening to Western visitors. Millions of homeless people are born, live, and die in them. Part toilet, part barnyard, part roadway–they are also the bedroom, living room, and marketplace for the poorest of the world’s poor.

In summertime’s furnace heat, the dust of centuries rises from them to fill your eyes, choking your mouth and nose. In the monsoon rains, the streets turn into vast seas of mud and sewage. In winter, the freezing pavements bring disease and death to those who have nowhere else to rest their starving bodies.

It was one of these nightmarish streets of Bombay that I was surrounded by an army of begging children. Already late and on my way to an important meeting, I tried to ignore the pleading children as I waited for the light to turn green.

Suddenly from the sea of hungry faces I heard a voice so distinct from the rest that I was paralyzed. In crystal clear tones I heard her speaking in plaintive Hindi, “Sir, my father died three months ago of tuberculosis. My mother is too sick to beg anymore. My little brothers and sisters have not eaten for two days. Please, sir, they are hungry and crying. Can you please give me a few pennies so I can buy some bread?”

The light turned green. But I couldn’t move. I was arrested by the image of this little girl who must have been about 9 years old. Her face was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, perfectly shaped with big brown eyes and long black hair.

Through the tears on her cheeks, the dust and the sweat, I could see that in different circumstances this desperate little waif could easily have been a princess. Her filthy hair had obviously not been washed or combed for weeks. She was barefoot and dressed in rags. But I’m still sure she had the potential of being a winner in the Miss World beauty pageant.

Then something else happened. It was as if another face came before my eyes right beside hers. It was another child, about 8, also with big brown eyes. But she had long, clean hair and a shining face. Her clothes were fresh and colorful–and she wore nice socks and tennis shoes. I knew her. She was the best student in her class. Each night she said her prayers and read the Bible. Her parents loved her. She had a comfortable home, air-conditioned from the Texas summer and heated in the cold winter. She had a comfortable bed with clean sheets every week. I didn’t know the name of the dirty little beggar girl, but I did know the name of the girl beside her. It was Sarah, my own darling daughter.

Then I heard a supernatural voice beside me ask, “What is the value of this beggar girl? Is she of less value than your daughter, Sarah?”

To read more, you’ll have to get the book, and I highly recommend that you do. The book can be purchased at Gospel For Asia by clicking here.

Underground Reality: Vietnam.

underground.jpg I am disappointed to report that Voice of the Martyrs is no longer offering Underground Reality: Vietnam. However, I am pleased to announce that it is now available for rent here from Netflix.

I highly recommend this video. This is a must-see video and it should be shown in all youth groups.

The DVD describes itself as follows:

See what happens when eight ordinary teens set out on a mission to meet the underground church in Vietnam. Travel with The Voice of the Martyrs and a group of American and Australian teenagers as they journey through cities and jungles in order to witness the everyday life of the Vietnamese underground church.

These teens come from the nominal, lukewarm Christian churches so common in America, Europe, and Australia, but by the end of their journey (which includes smuggling Bibles) you see their lives transformed by the realization of what it truly means to be a Christian when your life and liberty are at stake.

The two hour DVD is broken into four half hour episodes and will keep the attention of even its younger viewers.


*** Update ***

The Voice of the Martyrs has made this video available again. You can order it here.

Book review: K.P. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions.

I recently finished reading K.P. Yohannan’s book Revolution in World Missions (1.5 million copies in print). I have to admit that, although I had seen in numerous times before, I had no intentions of reading it. But after my wife kept telling me about it as she read it, I picked it up when she was done and was very glad that I did.

This is a fantastic book, easy to read, and a page turner. Yohannan speaks of recent drastic changes in World Missions in light of today’s political and social climate, and he pulls no punches when it comes to the state of the Western Church. He steps on lots of toes in his examination of our comfortable Christianity in light of those truly suffering for the sake of Christ. And best of all, you can order this book absolutely free from the Gospel For Asia website.

Here’s an excerpt from the forward of the book by David and Karen Mains:
“. . . Those evangelists traveling into the unreached villages of Asia have more heart, more fervor, more passion to spread the Gospel of Christ than most of us who are surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of our Western world. We know because we have seen them and talked with them, and they have put us to shame.

Not a book for the satisfied with the status-quo, don’t-rock-the-boat, nominal professing Christians, but definitely a book for those who have a heart for God, a heart for the spreading of the Gospel, and a heart for their neighbor… even if that neighbor is on the other side of the world.

Gospel for Asia Christmas program for native missionaries.

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This Christmas I urge you to support our Christian brothers and sisters in the 10-40 Window who are in desperate need of our help with essential supplies to continue spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Click here to check out needed resources for native missionaries.

Click here to check out ministry gifts that help native missionaries.

Click here to check out church buildings, bikes and vehicles needed by native missionaries.

Click here to check out the animals you can help provide for native missionaries.

Remember, these are our brothers and sisters in Christ and they live in the poorest of the poor parts of the world. Please consider spending less on ourselves this Christmas and spending more on those who need the help.

Gospel For Asia sends 100% of the money you give to the mission field.

Book review: The Triumphant Church featuring Richard Wurmbrand, John Piper and Milton Martin.

triumphant-church.jpg This book, compiled and produced by the Voice of the Martyrs, is a three-part study from the writings of Richard Wurmbrand, John Piper and Milton Martin. An easy read, this book explores God’s perspective of the persecution of His Church. It not only offers first hand accounts of persecution and torture for the sake of Christ, but it also encourages Christians in how to face it. This book is only four dollars and can be ordered by clicking here .

China begins to monitor the web using cyber police.

web-police.jpg China will be using animated Cyber Police that will appear on internet user’s screens to warn them to stay away from illegal internet content. I find it interesting that this article came from Yahoo News because Yahoo has blood on its hands from past actions and it’s for this very reason I refuse to use the Yahoo search engine. If you are unfamiliar with Yahoo’s assistance with the Chinese government to turn in the identity of web users, then check out this article, or this article.

For those of you who are asking the question, “who cares about this, isn’t this all related to politics?” I submit for your consideration this link regarding what Christians endure in China. And if you’re still unconvinced, then here’s a whole list of links on news articles of Christian persecution in China.