Most Endangered Peoples in Poland

It’s a land of large cathedrals and prayer candles, statues of Mary and revered priests.  If being a Christian is based on culture or tradition, then Poland may be the most Christian culture in the world.  But if being a Christian is based on a heart choice to love God and follow Christ and His teaching, then Poland is one of the most forgotten nations of the world.  Almost 95% of all the municipalities in Poland do NOT HAVE EVEN A SINGLE evangelical church.

http://pioneerspoland.org/html/the_need.html 

 

With passion in her voice, one woman who is giving her life for the people of Poland comments, “If we are brave enough to allow Christ to show us the reality beyond the illusion of empty religion and prosperity, then we will be broken by His love for this country.”   

 

She continues, “For too long we have been deceived into thinking that those who show outward signs of religion and share a history similar to our own do not need to hear about Christ.  This misconception has led us into a blissful unawareness of the spiritual battle that rages throughout Europe. At first glance Poles look… deeply devoted to faith and family. Looking closer it becomes apparent that God’s presence is missing from their lives... Adherence to empty religion has no transforming power. It is only an illusion.” 

 

“Most Poles admit that they go to church because our culture tells them they have to,” tells one Polish man.  “When they do something wrong, they go to confession.  The priest offers forgiveness in exchange for acts of penance. Temporary forgiveness is theirs until the next time they mess up.  They end up stuck in an endless cycle, never experiencing the true grace or forgiveness.” 

 

One young Polish woman observes, “We are taught from a young age that we are defined by religious traditions whether or not we understand or agree with them.  Questioning the authority and teachings of the church is a sin.  As a result people are turning away from the church in search of the truth…”

There is no limit to what gifts and abilities can be used in Poland… only authentic relationship with Christ lived out in every day circumstances. 

You can be a part of shaping lives in Poland.  Will you help them experience the truth behind the illusion?

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Most Endangered Peoples

They are the most endangered peoples of the world.

 

http://dom.imb.org/the%20unfinished%20task.htm

Visit ‘The Unfinished Task’ link above. The figures change at an alarming rate – every 30 seconds another 43 people are born into people groups who currently have no access to the gospel.  Eighty-six people per minute!  The mathematics is frightening.  Peoples in danger – in danger of living and dying without Christ, endangered because they haven’t even had a chance to hear.  Frightening but not hopeless.

I think of Nazma and Rozi, Sudha's husband and Ruksana’s eldest brother. And little Anjali and the rapidly growing Nargiz.  I want to hang out with them forever!  I want them there, worshipping Jesus with us.  And worshipping Jesus now.

If it is true that Jesus is the one and only God, the only one worthy of being worshipped, if He is with us, giving us all authority to bring salvation to everyone who will believe, then what in the world are we doing about those who have never even heard of him?

“There can be no weary resignation, no cowardly retreat, and no merciless contentment among Christ’s people while he is disowned among thousands of unreached peoples.  Every Christian (who loves people and honours Christ) must care about this.” John Piper. 

He goes onto say, “any good-hearted goal, without the desire to give people eternal joy in God, is condemnation with a kind face.” 

Because if they don’t hear they are condemned, kind face or not, they are in danger.

The call has been given, the gauntlet thrown down.  Will we, the Church of Jesus Christ, rise up for the most endangered of the world?

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Prayer that Changed the History of a Family

God is moving today through the prayers of His people. 

I remember a time when God broke through in wonder and changed the history of a man – and a community – by extending His hand in healing.  A modern day version of Acts 4:30!

This man had been sick for some time with an open ulcer on his leg and eventually the infection became septic.  He was dying.  As he lay in bed, unable to eat or mobilise, the doctor told his family to say their goodbyes.  In desperation, his wife turned to a Christian friend.  “You’ll come and pray?” she begged.  “Of course,” my friend responded.  “Of course.” 

The hospital was far away but the two-room home (situated below a slum-school she and her husband ran) was nearby.  It was late morning and the heat already had the day in its grip.  Snaking through the traffic, horns beeping, cycles and buses, cars and auto rickshaws, all weaving around each other, two women prayed for God to save this man’s life. 

Joined by three other local woman, none of whom were believers, the women made their way to the school.  Initial greetings made, chai offered and drunk, the sick man’s wife urgently asked again, “You’ve come to pray, right?”  

“Yes, that’s why we’ve come.  When we have prayed before, we prayed in Jesus’ name.  We will do that again today.  We are not praying in the name of the gods found on these posters on the wall,” she said, pointing around her.  “We are praying in Jesus’ name alone, and our hearts need to be joined together in that.  Will you pray in Jesus’ name alone?” she asked.

“Yes, yes,” they all agreed.  And so they prayed.  They prayed that this woman’s dying husband would be healed, that he would live, that he would meet Jesus through it. 

The prayer complete, the two visiting women got up and soon left… no immediate response, at least not that they knew of.

The next day my friend received a phone call.  Gushing with joy, the sick man’s wife told her, “After you left I went to the hospital to visit my husband.  When I arrived he was sitting up and eating plate after plate of rice and dal.  He had even gone to the bathroom by himself!  He is healed!”

Two women, praying in the name of Jesus for Him to move in wonder.  It’s happened before.  It can happen again. 

Will you be a part of changing history?

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Prayer that Changes History

The greatest untapped resource that I know of is the prayer of God’s people, says Henry Blackaby. 

Andrew Murray writes, We must begin to believe that God, in the mystery of prayer, has entrusted us with a force that can move the Heavenly world, and can bring its power down to earth.

And Oswald Chambers states, The key to the missionary problem is not the key of common sense, nor the medical key, nor the key of civilisation or education or even evangelism.  The key is prayer.

How easily we forget. 

Throughout Scripture it is evident that the character and nature of God does not change, but His actions do.  How?  Through the prayer of His people. 

Remember when Abraham bargained with God over Sodom in Genesis 18:22ff?  The men turned away…but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Then Abraham approached him and said: “Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?“

So Abraham begged for 50 righteous men, and God changed His mind.  Then forty-five, forty, thirty, twenty, and finally ten.  Though the story does not end well for Sodom, God was prepared to alter the course of history because of Abraham’s request. 

And Moses’ conversation with God in Exodus 32.  The people of Israel, in their selfishness and fear, had melted down jewelry and created an idol in the image of a golden calf.  God, burning with righteous rage, says, “I have seen these people, and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them.”

But Moses went to bat for Israel, and, in vs.14 we see that God’s intended action changed… “the Lord relented and did not bring on his people the disaster he had threatened.”

The prayer of one man changed the history of a nation.

There are many similar stories in the Bible; stories of how God’s anticipated action was modified because of people who stood in the gap on behalf of others.  And the stories continue today, how lives and tribes, countries and communities are transformed because of how God moves when his people pray.  

We read that Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, interceding on our behalf.  If that’s how He’s spending His time, isn’t it worth joining Him?  Don’t you want to see history changed, whether it be the history of one person or that of a nation, because of the prayers you’ve been a part of?  I do!

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Surrender: Upside Down Living in Hard Places

I first met him several months ago, this cool guy with a shaved head.  Of all the places in the world a person can choose, he wants to go to probably the most war-torn place in the world. 

He writes, “I was thinking…if I’m going to save one person I guess I’d like to do it in a country where few Christians go… I said to God that I’d be happy to go to the Middle East.”

Not only that, he wants to go to perhaps one of the hardest regions in that country.  Writing about the decision-making process, he says, “I decided to focus on a region in … and the… region came to mind.  I always felt that I would love to go there, but thought that was more my own interest than God’s.  But as it kept coming up I realised that very, very few people want to live out in those mountains, but I really do. From this time of searching, I came out with a conviction that God was indeed calling me there specifically.”   

Some of you might be thinking, "Well, he’s special, he’s different, he’s one of ‘those’ people".  But it wasn’t an easy choice to make. 

Later, when battling with the idea of going he wrote, “I do not feel ready, I do not feel strong enough, I do not feel spiritual enough, I do not feel together enough… but I know He’s calling me.”

What drives him?  He knows that in a mountainous area of a war-torn country are a people who have not heard about Jesus.  “I feel it’s a great tragedy that they are still unreached,” he states, “and I’m passionate about changing that fact.” 

“And,” he adds, a smile on his face, “I can’t wait to fall in love with them.” 

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Surrender: Upside Down or Right Way Up?

I’ve been thinking about surrender a lot lately.  I watch in awe as people sell their homes to go to a different country and live Jesus out loud – in a way that can make all the difference in the world to those they go to.  I think about one couple who had just finished both of their medical specialties and abandoned the potential of a huge income to go to an area of the hills of South Asia where people haven’t heard about Jesus.  I think of other friends who finally, after years of infertility and hopeful, prayerful waiting, progressed to the top of the adoption waiting list in Australia, only to obey God’s call to go, which for them meant giving up any known possibility of having kids.  Crazy surrender!  Upside down choices.  Their way of thinking is counter-cultural.  It doesn't make sense.

But it does to God.

In fact, He came up with that kind of thinking; where millions and millions of the world’s population who have no chance of hearing about Jesus matter to Him, where the 200 people who died as you read these words and who have never heard about Jesus matter to Him, as do the 300 who were born in these minutes and who at this time in history have no hope of hearing. 

In his redchurch.org blog, ‘The Rise of the 2^nd Wave Prosperity Gospel’, Mark Sayers writes, “It offers self actualisation rather than self-denial. Social Justice without personal cost. Discipleship without responsibility.”

And I wonder, how will people hear without self-denial?  How will they receive justice and mercy without personal cost?  How will they be discipled unless someone takes the responsibility, seeing them as entrusted by God?

I wonder.

We talk about surrender, giving all for Jesus, but…

...we just need to do this first

...we’re not sure we could handle that

...we’ll surrender anything except [insert idol of choice here]. 

But true surrender knows no limits – or at least it acknowledges limits and asks God to invade and do His thing to change us.  Don’t we want to be like that?  People who will step out of our comfort zone, without dragging our feet or having a foot in both camps?  People who will be bold and brave, or even scared-to-death-but-willing?  Then maybe we’ll be reflecting some of those upside-down things that God holds dear to His heart and look much more like Him than like the world that tarnishes and erodes.

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Shema Video

Living Jesus Out Loud in Chad.  See it come alive in this video!

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