Grace and peace to you...

Phil. 1:2 - Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This morning I am reminded of how many, many times this same greeting or salutation is used in the New Testament writings of the original apostles. So let us not lose the significance of this message! Grace is the Supernatural Power from heaven, the Righteousness that comes from God, the Ability that comes directly from Him that enables us to actually obey the Gospel. Peace is the intimate Fellowship we have with the Lord. It produces unity and oneness between us and the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

So what more do we really need? Grace and peace to you!

Fully met in us...

Romans 8: 3-6 -

3 For what the law was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sinful nature, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful man to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in sinful man, 4 in order that the righteous requirements of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the sinful nature but according to the Spirit. 5 Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace;

I am perturbed by the regular statements that Christians make against the Law of God. They argue that we are no longer required to obey the Revelation that God has made to man through the Old Testament. How ridiculous! The Law is Spiritual, but we are carnal. The Law is Perfect, but we are unable to obey it due to the weakness of our flesh. Bottom line: The problem is not the Law but us.

But thanks be to God that our Lord Jesus Christ came and broke the pattern of sin! He lived as a Man, yet never once sinned. This One Man overcame the law of sin and death and replaced it with the Law of the Spirit of Life. Thus we no longer are under the sentence of death, but now the righteous requirements of the Law can be FULLY MET in us! Did you get that? The Law's requirements must be fully met in us! Please remember that God's will is not to make the standards or principles of the Law obsolete, but to FULFILL the Law in us by the power of the Holy Spirit. Grace replaces legalism, yet grace enables us to obey Him fully.

From Woody Barnette---Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets...

"Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!" (Numbers 11:29)

Word had come to Moses that there were "unauthorized" people "prophesying in the camp." Joshua said, "Moses my lord, forbid them!" There are those today who would like to quell "prophesying in the camp," translated, Let that to the big guys. This thinking is probably the reason that so little prophesying today has any affect on not only the religious community, but the global community as well. "Oh, that all the LORD's people were prophets and that the LORD would put His Spirit upon them!" But then how would all those "prophets" make all that money selling books?------------- but I digress.

Oswald Chambers once said, "The Bible does not only teach the way of salvation, but the way of spiritual sanity," i.e., living in "the mind of Christ." Too many religious people see the Bible as just revealing the "plan of salvation." They don't see in the Bible the way of salvation. Prophetic people do not see Biblical theology as isolated concepts, but rather as they relate to local, national, and global events, every aspect of global cultures. In other words, their thinking is being converted. Any other life style leads to spiritual insanity.

The Word of God shapes the "pure in heart" into the very image of Jesus Christ, "thinking" as Jesus Christ, living as Jesus Christ. "For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent Me," viz., "I think as My Father, I do as My Father." This is nothing less than, "the mind of Christ." And I do not receive the "mind of Christ" in serving, loving, worship, or giving, though these are integral to the Believer's walk. I receive the "mind of Christ" from the "Word of Christ," the Bible. "For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy."

Living in the prophetic is the call of every disciple of Jesus and is only possible by praying in the Holy Spirit, living in the Holy Spirit, and filling our minds with "the testimony of Jesus," His very Words. Reject that call, and society will simply ignore us. Embrace that call, and personal and societal transformation is then possible.

Father, in Jesus' Name, grant me "spiritual sanity." Amen.

Even the dogs...

...Even Zoe has "faith"...

Mark 7: 28-30 - "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

She sits there with overcoming "faith"! Now I'm talking about Zoe, our pet dog. You may think I'm being silly, but Zoe is a great example of the Scripture I have quoted above. Whenever we are eating, she sits quietly in front of us, completely focused on the food we are consuming, in "faith" that she will eventually get some "crumbs". And I must tell you, she makes it extremely difficult to ignore her "faith"! So she almost always gets what she is "believing" for.

Let us also have the kind of faith that moves the hand of God! Please remember that our Loving Heavenly Father will do for us infinitely more than we can ever do for our natural children---or our favorite pet. So keep seeking Him first today!

By David Servant---Other Than an Occasional Problem With Pride...

Other Than an Occasional Problem With Pride, I Believe I've Reached Perfection
by David Servant

Every once in a while I hear a report of some group who believes they've attained sinless perfection. It is somewhat amusing to imagine people entertaining that idea without them being lifted up in pride, which would, of course, immediately disqualify them from being perfect. You may have heard the story about the congregation that voted to determine who was the most humble person among them. They ultimately awarded an elderly saint with a "Most Humble" badge. But when he started wearing it, they voted to strip him of it!

It has been my observation that the people who think they are the most holy are often the least holy, and those who think they are the least holy are the most holy, if for no other reason than their painful awareness of their own shortcomings. Proud people are blind to their sin, whereas humble people still see their need to regularly pray the prayer that Jesus taught His followers---"Forgive me of my sins as I forgive those who sin against me."

Proud people, although blind to their own sin, are often quite good at finding faults in others. The pinnacle of blind pride is attained by those who condemn others for the very things of which they themselves are guilty. I've recently found myself corresponding with such a person. He considers himself one of America's foremost teachers of holiness, and maintains that a Christian who lusts instantly dies spiritually and forfeits the Holy Spirit and sonship in Christ. Because I don't agree with him, he's certain that I'm going to hell, and he has written some articles on his website condemning me for "giving Christians a license for immorality." Yet while reading his ministry's 990 Returns (forms required by the I.R.S. of all non-profit organizations other than churches, and which are public records), I discovered that he has been taking a large percentage of his ministry's annual income and investing it in mutual funds that hold stocks in companies that produce, promote and distribute pornography to millions of homes. When I confronted him about it, he called me a viper and a serpent. In fact, he called me "David Serpent"!

When I think of foremost preachers of holiness, I think of John the Baptist, a man who called multitudes to repentance. Jesus considered John to be the greatest man who had ever lived (Matt. 11:11). Yet John considered himself unworthy to baptize Jesus, telling Him, "I have need to be baptized by You" (Matt. 3:14). Note that John did not say those words based upon his knowledge that Jesus was the Messiah, because at that time he did not know Jesus was the Messiah (see John 1:31-32). John considered himself unworthy to baptize Jesus based on his knowledge of his Relative's personal holiness. He knew that, compared to Jesus, he had a lot of room for improvement. John serves as an example to all holy men and women of God. We all have a way to go before we reach the perfection of Christ.

But is this to say that none of us have the right to call others to repentance (which is, of course an essential element of the gospel), since none have reached perfection?

Obviously not, in light of Jesus' endorsement of John the Baptist. And you can be sure that John was not investing in the promotion of pornography on the side. Nor was he stealing what belonged to others, getting drunk on Saturday nights, or laying up treasures on earth. That is, John was a very holy man who lived by God's standards. Yet he wasn't perfect. You may recall, for example, that once he found himself in prison, he had doubts that Jesus was the Christ (see Matt. 11:3).

So we must be cautious that we don't err on one side or the other. Many say that true Christians may well be indistinguishable from non-Christians in regards to personal holiness. Others maintain that all true Christians demonstrate a degree of holiness that they personally reached only after twenty years of spiritual growth. The truth, however, is that all bona fide believers are holy to a degree, and they are, generally speaking, becoming holier, because that is their aspiration, and God is working in them to that end. "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:6).

The Minimum Standard

Any true Christian who takes a look at the minimum standards of righteousness found in Scripture is bound to feel good about him or herself. There is, of course, an initial cleansing from sin that God does in the life of all true believers that is followed by ongoing cleansing. The initial cleansing can be quite dramatic in the lives of those who, prior to coming to Christ, indulged heavily in the desires of the flesh. Paul offers us a summary of what God accomplishes in that initial cleansing:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God (1 Cor. 6:9-11).

Notice what is included in Paul's list that characterizes "the unrighteous" who "will not inherit the kingdom of God," and notice what is not included in that list. In his list are those who are sexually immoral, thieves, idolaters, the greedy/covetous, drunkards and dishonest profiteers. Not included in his list are those who occasionally fall asleep during sermons, who sometimes lose their patience with their spouses or kids, or who don't read their Bibles every day.

It feels good to read Paul's list and gain assurance that you are not among the unrighteous.

A somewhat similar list is found in the Old Testament where God described a righteous person through the prophet Ezekiel. I've quoted it below and interjected characteristics of the righteous that Paul also listed in order to point out the similarities:

"But i f a man is righteous and practices justice and righteousness, and does not eat at the mountain shrines or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel [not an idolater], or defile his neighbor’s wife [not an adulterer] or approach a woman during her menstrual period—if a man does not oppress anyone, but restores to the debtor his pledge [not greedy/covetous], does not commit robbery [not a thief], but gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with clothing, if he does not lend money on interest or take increase [not greedy/covetous], if he keeps his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between man and man, if he walks in My statutes and My ordinances so as to deal faithfully—he is righteous and will surely live,” declares the Lord God (Ezek. 18:5-9, emphasis added).

Any genuine Christian who reads that passage should find affirmation that he or she is righteous by God's definition. But the professing Christian who is more excited about his hobbies than Christ, who is having an affair or viewing pornography (as Jesus equated lust with adultery), who is cheating on his income tax or in some other way stealing from other people, or who is ignoring the pressing needs of the poor, should be greatly concerned. Such a person does not possess the evidence of God's initial cleansing.

The Upward Call of God

If you find affirmation in the above-quoted words of Paul and Ezekiel, should you rest on your laurels? No, not if God is "at work in you, both to will and to do His good pleasure" (Phil. 2:13). If God is in you, He is working, and you are thus obligated to "work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Phil. 2:12). Only those in heaven have salvation "in the bag." The rest of us are running a race for the finish line.

Paul was certainly running that race at one time. He was obviously living far above the sins he listed in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 that mark one as being unrighteous and disqualified from inheriting God's kingdom. But did he think he had attained sinless perfection? No, it was something he was still pursuing even after he had been a believer for at least twenty-five years. Around that time he wrote to the Philippian believers:

Not that I have already obtained it or have already become perfect, but I press on so that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus (Phil. 3:12-14).

Paul continued with some words addressed to those who apparently thought that they'd already "arrived":

Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you; however, let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained (Phil. 3:15-16).

The Lord has "laid hold" of us to make us holy. All true believers have heard "the upward call of God in Christ." We must, however, continue to respond by "reaching forward" and "pressing on toward the goal for the prize."

For What, Exactly, Shall We "Press on"?

While some seem to think that spiritual progress is measured by increasing material prosperity or the number of cryptic dreams one experiences each night, those who are truly making spiritual progress are growing in holiness, particularly in selfless love. Love is the very first fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:14). Without it, we are nothing (1 Cor. 13:1-3). Among the preeminent traits of hope, faith and love, love is the greatest (1 Cor. 13:13). Love is the key word found in the two greatest commandments (Matt. 22:36-40). The entire law is fulfilled in that single word (Gal. 5:14). "The one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him" (1 John 4:16).

God wants us to "increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people" (1 Thes. 3:12), but that increase won't happen without effort on our part. Love is something Scripture says we must pursue (1 Cor. 14:1). So it begins with a decision that says, "I am going to love more." It is a determination, every day, to "deny yourself" and "take up your cross" (Luke 9:23), because we all still possess a selfish nature that, left unrestrained, will make us less self-denying and more self-indulging. In short, those who are greater lovers are those who are more intentional about loving, because we all have the same Spirit. Yet within all of us there is also a spoiled brat who cares only for himself. Great lovers suppress their inner brat. But as long as we give ourselves some excuse---"It's my Irish blood, you know!"--- the brat rules.

To love more means more than passing out a few more handshakes during "greeting time" at church. Jesus said that the greatest among us is the servant (Luke 22:26). So we should strive, above all else, to serve others. That is love in action.

John wrote, "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" (1 John 3:16). Love involves sacrifice on behalf of others. And in the final analysis, there are only a few things that we have to sacrifice. It all comes down to time, talent and treasures---all gifts from God---bestowed upon us for our testing. The only ultimate difference between the sheep and goats (Matthew 25:31-46) is what they did and didn't do with those three things. Heaven is for lovers.

He has told you, O man, what is good;
And what does the Lord require of you
But to do justice, to love kindness,
And to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

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By Dick Brogden---The Land of Parable...

Greetings from the Land of Parable.

The Titanic of Humanity has sunk. Scattered in the frigid sea of sin, men and women slowly sink. The task is rescue. Christians launch out in lifeboats to pull as many from death as quickly as possible. The strength of the swimmers wanes, the cold creeps toward their eternal hearts, there is no time to waste.

As the lifeboats circle the sea, a debate rises among those who man and woman the oars. It is a debate birthed in compassion but guided by short sightedness.

"For the Love of God!", says one cohort, "Look at the chattering teeth, the pallid faces, and the ebbing strength. Let us hand out biscuits and hot chocolate to those in the water." These advocates even equate these time bound subsidies with rescue.

A second cohort says, "Let us first make every effort to get them into the boat that will safely take them to shore. Then let us wrap them in blankets, and fill them with warm drink and gruel."

Men and women perish daily in the dark, relentless sea of sin. For some, hypothermia has already set in, and they are annoyed that you imperiously want to drag them into some rickety boat, "How arrogant of you!" They say. "I don't need rescuing." Some sadly believe that other boats exist and vainly wait for them. "Friend," you call, "This is the only lifeboat coming! This is your only hope!"

Passing out hot chocolate and biscuits to those sinking at sea only delays by minutes their certain drowning. The cold sea is of such a deceitful and demanding nature, that even the lift of a life jacket only delays the inevitable. Sinkers must be pulled from the sea into the lifeboat. There they must be cared for, comforted, and secured. There is a priority in rescue.

Our priority must be informed by the perspective of vanishing time. We must meet the physical needs of mankind, but this help is only enduringly efficacious if administered after the lost are safe in the boat, rescued from the raging, unforgiving sea.

The gospel is not physical help to the lost - as important and necessary as that compassion be. By all means, let us aid those who suffer. This is the Common Grace of Christ acted out by His people. It is not the gospel. We must not confuse development, relief, or compassionate deeds with the Gospel.

God's Specific Grace, the Gospel, yanks mean and women, boys and girls, from the sea of sin. The Gospel secures them in the lifeboat first, and then warms them with blanket and mead. The Gospel tells of sin and an open armed Savior - even to those who don't want to hear it. Urgency informs civility when the Ship of Man has sunk, and sinkers are flailing.

Do we still hand out hot chocolate and biscuits to those who refuse the rescue of the life boat? Of course. But we do it with a heart of grief for what it means to the sinker; drowning and eternal death. We do it recognizing, for the sinker, it's ultimate fruitlessness. We do it for it declares the indiscriminate and prodigal – the wasteful- love of our King.

We never do it deluding ourselves it is the Gospel.

Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying.
Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave.
Weep oe'r the erring one, lift up the fallen
Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save.

Rescue the Perishing, Care for the Dying
Jesus is Merciful, Jesus will Save.

The Resilient Biosand Filter

By Chuck King
Madurai, India
November 4, 2009


The narrow, dirt roads of the small Indian village turned into slippery mud in the falling rain. You have to be a resilient missionary to go to such places! For it is here where you will find some of the poorest people on planet earth.

I was here to inspect several cement biosand filters that had been placed among the poor about four months ago. Stalin is our biosand filter project director in Madurai, India. He and one of John Vincely’s associate pastors accompanied me. Every one of the four homes we visited was very humble. But in the corner of one of the rooms in each of these dwellings was a cement biosand filter supplied by the Heaven’s Family Safe Water Fund.

I was quickly able to spot several problems with these filters: the drain tubes were too long, the sand was not at the proper level under the water, they were using open containers to collect the filtered water that appeared to be “unsanitary”, and the water flow rate from the filters was very slow, indeed. So I reviewed these things with the team that was along with me. I instructed them to return to make the corrections.

Yet in spite of what I just shared with you concerning the problems I discovered, the poor people using the filters simply could not say enough positive things to me about them! In fact, they argued a bit with me when I told them we had to make some slight adjustments. They were enjoying such good health from the filtered borehole water that they simply did not want to change anything! One by one, I asked them about their health, and it was unanimous; nobody was suffering any longer from sickness like they were before they had a filter.

Ramya and her sons are in the top photo above. I was moved with compassion as I stepped into their “house”. The walls were plastic tarps. The floor was dirt. And except for the metal roof over their heads, they had little protection from the elements. I simply had to give her a small amount of cash to help her! And she was so thankful for our visit, even wanting to give us some food.

So as I walked down that mud road back to the car that was waiting for us, I reflected upon what I had just experienced. Even though these poor people were using poorly functioning biosand filters, they were getting the safest drinking water they had ever had in their lives. No more sickness! Not one complaint! Then I also remembered how in Africa we had also seen less-than-properly-functioning biosand filters still improve the health of their users. So it is conclusive in my experience in both Africa and Asia; the resiliency of the biosand filter is amazing! And so are the people who are using them.

The Orphan Superintendent

Vivek (left) and Daniel


By Chuck King
Mumbai, India
October 31, 2009


What an awful experience it must be to be abandoned at age seven in an orphanage! Yet that is exactly what happened to Vivek Dindorkar as a child. But because of the Christian mentoring he received in the Junnar Boys Home, this orphan grew up as a committed Christian who has now become the district superintendent of the Maharashtra District of the Assembly of God denomination in western India.

Vivek warmly received me when he picked me up at my hotel to go to Junnar for our training conference. He did not know me. Yet this man of God trusted another faithful minister’s recommendation, Brother Rajmanoharan from Mumbai.

And we hit it off right from our first meeting! Vivek shared his testimony with me. He had to overcome great difficulties, even resisting his call into the ministry for a time. But the Lord confirmed his calling again and again, and finally Vivek yielded and completed his education at Southwestern India Bible College that shares the same campus where he grew up as an orphan. Now this brother demonstrates great zeal for the Kingdom of God as he serves the people of his district. He has a wonderful vision to help the poor and to reach the lost. The biosand and Sawyer filter training really impressed him! Now he is developing a strategy to reach many people with this safe water technology.

The orphan superintendent---what a great story of God’s love and grace! This is a true “rags to riches” testimony, and one that I personally plan to be part of in the future.

Orphans Serving Orphans

By Chuck King
Mumbai, India
October 31, 2009

He greeted me with a huge smile and a handshake that rattled my bones. Prakash Jadhav serves as the overseer of 15 young orphan boys at the Junnar Boys Home in Junnar, India. He also is the dining hall manager.

What impressed me the most about Prakash and other pastors and leaders I met at this conference was how many of them grew up in this very same orphanage that has been operated by the Assembly of God denomination since 1950! And there were several generations of orphaned men represented who eventually returned to this place to serve the younger orphans in full time ministry.

Yet nobody was more genuine and loving and hospitable to me than Prakash. Each morning he specially prepared hot tea for me (and sometimes cookies) when I arrived at the dining hall an hour or so before breakfast (jet lag makes me a very early riser). We laughed together often about silly things! Yet there is no doubt this man is dedicated to this work for the Lord and His people.

Prakash did not let me go away without a final smile and bone-jarring handshake (my right arm’s activity was limited temporarily due to my heart pacemaker that was inserted about a month earlier). I was impressed with what I saw in these men! And the boys were so sweet! Junnar Boys Home is an oasis in a troubled land for these dear little people without parents. Generations of them have been blessed to grow up in this Christian home in the midst of Hindu idolatry.

I am honored to have these people as part of my adopted family.

Only One Leg to Stand On...

By Chuck King
October 31, 2009
Mumbai, India

It was a very cool morning on the Junnar campus when I left the security of the AOG mission house to walk a short distance to the dining hall at 7 o’clock. I had been told about leopards that were often seen on or near the Southwestern India Bible College and Junnar Boys Home. I could not help but think about the leopards and the cobra that was chased from the door of my mission house the previous day!

My new friend, Prakash Jadhav, the overseer of the youngest orphan boys and also kitchen manager, was so gracious to provide hot tea for me each morning in the dining hall. As I sat there alone enjoying that morning and my hot tea, a brother entered the dining hall and approached me.

Vijay Kedari is a rural church pastor from the small town of about 3,000 people, Kangar, that is located about 60 kilometers from Junnar. He is a graduate of this Bible college. He told me his testimony about losing his left foot after slipping under a moving train when he was 20 years old. Yet he gave glory to God for calling him into the ministry and away from his first love as a young man---football. You see, when he was just a boy, his pastor told him about God’s calling upon his life. But he resisted.

In fact, Vijay was born with a heart defect that had to be repaired when he was very young. At that time, his Christian parents promised to dedicate him to God’s service if his life would be spared. The operation in Bombay was successful.

Yet as a young man, football replaced his zeal for God. Then the train accident changed everything for Vijay. As he spoke, his zeal for the Lord Jesus Christ and His ministry was so clear to me! He was content and rejoicing that he could serve the Lord and His people under such difficult circumstances.

Even though Vijay walks very well on his artificial foot, I was moved to tell his story. He was one of the most interested brothers who received the biosand and Sawyer filter training. He embraced the vision of going to his people with safe water and the Gospel! So I gave him a Sawyer filter. Now he has the tools and knowledge to use this filter to sell safe water to many people in order to raise funds to make biosand filters. What a simple plan!

After the last meeting of the conference had ended, the pastors left the compound one by one. I was sitting in the dining hall where we had just finished lunch together. As I looked across the field at these pastors walking down the dirt road away from the campus toward town, I observed them carrying their Sawyer filters. Just then, the Holy Spirit spoke to me, “There goes part of your inheritance.” I was nearly overcome with joy in that moment, no longer thinking about the leopard or the cobra.

Do you know anything about this?

From Bryan Purtle---Cleanse Our Eyes!

Cleanse Our Eyes! A Call to Consecration in the Area of Entertainment


“I have made a covenant with my eyes;
How then could I gaze at a virgin?
…. for that would be a fire that consumes….
and it would burn to the root all my increase.” -Job 31.1, 12

I understand that many would brand my faith antique and my convictions archaic for approaching this subject, but that is a minuscule risk for me to take. God is too glorious, His Gospel too precious, and the fate of our sons and daughters too much at stake for me to worry about the consequences that these themes bring. I am convinced that we have woefully underestimated the damage that is done to the world and to the Church, particularly with regard to the issue of so-called entertainment.

The Church is largely bored with the Scriptures, unwilling to sacrifice for eternal things, unacquainted with the Spirit of prayer, and is harboring such distorted views of God that it is often difficult to tell if the One she is proclaiming is the same Lord that the apostles and prophets set forth. There may be a litany of reasons for this decrease of majesty, but I believe that one of the greatest of these is that Hollywood has a stranglehold on the hearts and imaginations of God’s children.

The pornography epidemic could be driven home here, and to sound the trumpet against that demonic system will require the emergence of a true prophetic voice indeed. Almost 40% of American pastors admit to a current struggle with internet porn, and the numbers are even greater amongst men within our congregations. This is beyond tragic, and we are in need of a massive overhaul of repentance and mercy. Now more than ever are we in need of awakening, and if you are in this category there is deliverance and freedom from this deathtrap. The Gospel of Jesus sets us free “from all sin,” and He will give you grace to slam the door once and for all on this terribly besetting sin, when you repent and turn to Him with a whole heart, clinging to the Son of God.

Yet as horrific as the pornography phenomenon is, that is not the primary burden of my heart in this writing.

I am convinced that the Church of America, as a majority, has been removed from, or has never known, the kind of trepidation and tenderness of heart that Job was expressing when he declared, “I have made a covenant with my eyes….”

It was part and parcel with the faith of all the saints of old, that what they allowed to pass through the eye-gate, and what they permitted willingly to go into their ears, would taint their souls at best, and find residence in their lives at the worst. I am suspicious of modern “prophetic” men who commonly site movies and shows that contain illicit sex, profane lingo and themes, glorified violence, immoral innuendo, or other defiling examples as points in their messages. The only reason these points hit home with so many church members is that they themselves are given over to the same powers and influences.

Our hearts are too taken up with this world, saints, and there has never been a generation wherein the spirit of this age strikes the soul with such color, such special effects, and such mesmerizing power as the one we find ourselves in. Yet we are called to an ultimate holiness nonetheless, and it may be said that one of the distinguishing factors between those who will bear the testimony of Jesus at the end of the age and those who will take the mark of the beast during tribulational times will be this radical consecration of the eyes to God Himself.

In Eph. 5, Paul declares that there should not even be a “hint of immorality” in the lives of God’s people. Dear believer, I ask you pointedly, what constitutes a hint? How many of Hollywood’s characters, themes and plots can we drink in without receiving a “hint” of darkness?

There is something sleazy about many of our lives, charismatic or not, and while it might not be overtly recognized, I believe there is a residue of immorality resting upon those who have freely given themselves to morally compromised entertainment. There is something flimsy about our religion, and the bright burning of holiness that marked John the Baptist, the prophets of old, and Jesus Himself is conspicuously absent in the sanctuary, where His name is declared “holy” in verbal exercise, but the sense of His holiness has become foreign.

“…. it would burn to the root of all my increase.”

While we have boasted in “liberty,” and spoken poetically of our spiritual interpretations of Hollywood flicks (interpretations that Hollywood would largely reject and ridicule), we have too often condoned the spiritual pollution of our hearts.

Would the porn epidemic be so far-reaching and deeply-rooted if the Church hadn’t dropped the ball in areas of more subtle compromise? We have become arrogant in our boasting. And we wonder why our kids are prayerless and numb to eternal reality, buying into agnosticism and atheism when they graduate high-school and make it to their respective Universities. We wonder why thousands of “evangelical” teens are converting to Islam or diving headlong into the “party” life when they get out from under the wing of a youth group, and into the reality of college life. This may not be the only issue, but it is much more prevalent than we know. It’s a battle of ideologies, and hell has no greater method than to slowly dull our hearts to the God of righteousness through cute, subtle, and entertaining displays of hellish ideas. As a friend of mine so rightly wrote:

We have so saturated our minds and imaginations with man-created images that we are bound to those images and therefore subject to the agenda of the men creating them.

It has burned to the root of our “increase” in Christ. It has dulled and blurred the “inner-man” of the Church. We have lost the hunger and thirst for righteousness that Jesus encouraged, for we have given our hearts, minds, and pocketbooks to the broken cisterns of carnal entertainment.

It’s staggering to me that when the subject is raised to most believers, the tag of legalism is immediately raised. While there are legalistic souls who lack an understanding of mercy, and who often place heavy yokes upon others, the vehemence and rage of those who dish out accusations that men like myself are “legalistic” is far more widespread, at least in my own experience. I’ve never heard more warnings against “the religious spirit,” “self-righteousness,” and “legalism” than I have in the last few years.

In the area of entertainment they say, “Paul said we had liberty in Christ, and we’re walking in that freedom.” But these modern examples are usually employed in a context that is far different from the situation with the Judaizers in the churches of Galatia. There is not an iota of Scripture that would encourage me to set my eyes, ears and emotions on themes that make light of sin.

The apostles, quite contrary to the liberal ideas of today, addressed issues of righteousness with remarkable frequency and intensity in the New Testament, and I believe they would weep over the Church in our day, that we would be delivered from the murky waters that have tainted and dulled our spirits in the realm of entertainment. Gospel liberty is not license, but rather freedom from the death grip of this dying age. It is a liberty to come into the wonderful reality of communion with the Living God, and to taste of the “powers of the age to come.”

This is not about judging our movies based on their ratings. A thousand “PG” movies could be just as detrimental as one “R” movie. Addictions to political news or social networking must also be challenged if they burn up our time and keep us from the place of prayer and worship, diminish our passion for the Scriptures, and fog our awareness of the lostness of humanity. This is about a total consecration of our eyes and hearts unto Him, that we might gaze upon the beauty of the Lord, tremble before His majesty, remain in the loving counsel of His voice, and set Him forth in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

Our eyes have been too opened to the lying glimmers of this age. The time is here for an ultimate consecration of the eyes to the Lord, that we would see the increase of Christ Himself in our lives. We haven’t got room even for a “hint,” friends.

Let us return to Him with weeping and mourning, that so many of us have preferred the fading lights of this age to the glorious light of God Himself. We need not buy into the lie any longer. He longs to pour out mercy upon us, to purify us down to the marrow of our bones, to make us a tender-hearted people, enjoying deep communion with Him, and walking in meekness and holiness unto the day of His return.

Oh God, cleanse and purify our hearts with the fire of Your holiness and love. Catch us up in the Spirit of prayer and the glory of worship, quicken our souls to love the Scriptures, awaken us from fantasy and bring us into eternal reality. For Jesus’ sake.

© Bryan Purtle for Voice of Revolution, 2009.

Twelve minutes can change your life...

From Woody Barnette---Very Present...

From Woody Barnette...

"God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble." (Psalm 46)

As I read our text this past Saturday morning, it was as though the Blessed Trinity shouted in my heart-------- "VERY PRESENT." Such a familiar passage, yet so much is taken for granted, so much presumed.

"Very:" It is a translated Hebrew word, which, when used with other words, is "intensive, superlative." It is a word of "vehemence," i.e., "marked by forceful energy, intensely emotional." The Word of God is speaking to you and me today with great "forceful energy" and intense emotion, "God is...VERY PRESENT." The word, "very," is translated elsewhere as, "diligently, exceedingly, fast, good, greatly, louder, mightily, so much, utterly.....It is from an unused word meaning to rake together, a poker for turning or gathering embers."

"Present:" It means, "to come forth, to appear, exist, to meet, be present." Whenever an organization calls the roll of members, the response is usually, "present." That is what the Living Triune God is saying to a begging-for-His-Presence" Church today-- "PRESENT." I Am here; I never left; I Am, and I AM...VERY PRESENT." He cannot be any more, "present," than, "VERY present." He cannot be any more, "present," than, "intensely emotional, diligently, exceedingly, fast, good, greatly, louder, mightily, so much utterly"--------- "present."

Such richness in the original languages, so much energy, so much stirring of dying embers in a Believer. When the fire of hope, faith, and encouragement seem to be dying, the Holy Spirit, in the "God-Breathed" Word, our Lord Jesus, says to you and me what He said to Timothy so long ago, "fan into flame the gift of God which is in you." The Blessed Trinity is using a Divine "poker" right now, right there, to turn and stir those embers, which perhaps because of unanswered prayer, sickness, financial woes, family issues, are slowly dying. But,
"God...our refuge and strength is VERY PRESENT," God, revealed in Jesus, is, as the Psalm later declares, "The Commander of the armies of heaven." This is Jesus Who promised, "I will never, no never, positively never leave you nor forsake you." If there is any problem with "Presence" today, it is not in the Godhead; it is in the faith realm of the Church. "God is...VERY PRESENT help in trouble," in the good times and the "bad," in the meetings and in your home, in the times of "prophetic intercession" and in the office. Wherever you are, He Who Is, "I Am," is Also---------------------"VERY PRESENT."

Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You that You Are Whom You say You Are. Amen.

Please watch this...and repent...

Are U.S. Churchgoers Stingy?

Are U.S. Churchgoers Stingy?
Angela Abbamonte
Religion News Service


October 7, 2009

WASHINGTON (RNS) -- Are U.S. churchgoers stingy?

That's one possible conclusion from a newly updated report that shows if parishioners tithed the biblically recommended 10 percent of their income -- instead of their current 2.56 percent -- an extra $161 billion would be flowing to charity.

The report, published by Illinois-based research firm empty tomb, inc., also found that congregations continue to keep more money for their own needs instead of "benevolences" beyond the four walls of a church.

"Money is training wheels," said Sylvia Ronsvalle, executive vice president of empty tomb, inc., "If we're not faithful in giving, how will we see the church grow?"

Ronsvalle, along with her husband John, co-wrote the "State of Church Giving through 2007: What Are Our Christian Billionaires Thinking -- Or Are They?" The annual report, scheduled for release on Oct. 15, examines financial trends in Christian churches.

The Ronsvalles found some room for optimism: churchgoers, at 2.26 percent given to charity, outpaced the general population, which gave 1.8 percent. Nearly two-thirds of all U.S. charitable donations were funneled through churches or religious institutions.

Unlike other studies that focus on overall charitable giving, the Ronsvalles generally restrict their research to religious institutions.

Financial vitality, they say, is a key indicator of overall church health. Money given to the church is divided into two sub-categories for analysis: benevolences (such as international and local missions, denominational support and seminary support) and congregational finances (such as salaries, operating budgets and building costs).

Giving for benevolences in 2007 hit an all-time low, with an average of just 14 percent of member contributions going to needs beyond the church, down from a high of 21 percent 40 years ago. Ronsvalle said this may indicate churches believe that "maintenance is adequate" and are more concerned with being financially sound than contributing to missions.

"If you go to maintain your institution, you're going to find that your institution dies," she said.

The report compares the amount U.S. church members gave to international missions and the amount of "remittances," or money that is sent back home by foreigners living in the U.S. In 2007, $79 billion was sent abroad through remittances -- an average of about $2,076 per person. By contrast, U.S.-born church members gave an average of $70 to international ministries. If churches sent money overseas at the same rate as the foreign born, that would mean an additional $314 billion given for international needs, Ronsvalle estimates.

Ronsvalle said churches have become complacent -- "lukewarm" is the term the Bible uses -- and are no longer challenging themselves to do extraordinary things. There is a "lack of vision" and churchgoers have a hard time seeing how their contribution to missions can affect the world or its problems.

"One of the changes that seems to have happened to the church in the United States is that it has moved away from vision," she said. "It's not challenging itself to be great. Don't go to safety, go for faithfulness."

Example A: the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant body, which has set a goal of recruiting 2,800 missionaries to contact all "unreached" people groups, but has not laid out a financial roadmap, or price tag, for how to get there, she said.

One solution the report offers is through the idea of "wholesale billionaires" -- individuals with an ability to donate large sums of money -- and "retail billionaires" -- individuals whose small contributions, when combined with others, can add up for big impact.

The report suggests that if wholesale billionaires make a pledge to match the total amount given by retail billionaires, congregations will see the impact of their individual contributions, and be more inspired to give.

"This is possible even in (a) recession," Ronsvalle said, citing earlier empty tomb studies that found that between 1968 and 2005, church giving went up in three recessions and went down in three.

Copyright 2009 Religion News Service. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

From Woody Barnette...

From Woody Barnette...


"Then the LORD God said to the woman, 'What is this you have done?' The woman said, 'The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" (Genesis 3:13)

How many times we have read this passage and heard it referred to in teaching and preaching. Most people speak of the criminality of the deceiver, not the deceived. Just consider the last year in the whole "financial crisis" debate. The deceivers are the ones fined and sent to prison. Very little is said about the deceived. But one of the definitions of deception is, "failure to admit to oneself that something is true," or not true, whatever the case may be. The context of our text reveals that God pronounced judgment on both parties, the Deceiver and the deceived. Both parties were equally guilty.

Adam and Eve, just as you and I today, had a clear directive (command, if you will) from The Living Triune God. They did not believe the lie as much as they chose to yield to the lie. The lie is what they wanted. They were shown a way to, "be like God," and took it. They were the progenitors of what later generations would say, "'Let us break their chains,' they cry, 'and free ourselves from slavery to God.'"

This past year, not only in America, but around the world has shown that the same Deceiver Who found a willing ear in Adam and Eve has found the same in our contemporary world, even among religious people. What are you and I going to do about it? For me, the commitment to Jesus Christ, "The Word of God" as revealed in His written Word, is stronger than ever. Today's text and the Matthew 7 passage which I read just two days ago speak volumes. "Not every one who says..,but only he who does...." This will be the basis of all judgment at the end. I choose to make it the basis of all judgment in my life------------------now!

Father, in Jesus' Name, convict me any time saying rules over doing. Amen.

Put Your Money into the Message...

Put Your Money into the Message
Oswald J. Smith


We must decide whether we are going to put our money into the building, or into the message. For nearly 1,900 years now, the Church has been putting its money into the building; and, instead of getting out the message, we have been erecting magnificent and luxurious auditoriums in which to worship God.

Some false cults have been much wiser. They put their money into their erroneous message. They know that the message is more important than the building. Yet all over the United States of America and the Dominion of Canada we are still investing in bricks and mortar, whereas God wants us to invest in the message.

Not until the Church realizes that the message is more important than the building will we be able to evangelize the world. If for every 14 cents invested in the “printed page” we can win a soul for Christ, then by all means we should put our money into the message.

God did not tell us to build luxurious churches and invite the people to come in. He told us to go out with the message and preach the Gospel to the entire world. Let us put our money not into the Building, but into the Message.

Update on my pacemaker procedure...

First of all I want to thank everyone for your prayers and concerns about my health. Here is the whole story, now that it has been taken care of. In September at my regular six month visit to Dr. David Schwartzman at UPMC in Pittsburgh, my resting heart rate was only 38. He was quite concerned that such a low pulse could be triggering my bouts of Atrial Fibrillation that I have experienced numerous times over the years since I was 25 years old. He felt that the simple pacemaker could help control the A-Fib, as well as protect me from a more dangerous heart incident sometime during the night, for when A-Fib. happens to me, I almost always wake up with it during the night. So faced with the choice of having such a simple, potentially life-saving and extending procedure, I agreed to have it done. But I had to schedule it between my overseas trips! So that is why I chose to have it done now, just three weeks before I leave for India, and less than two weeks after I just returned from Africa.

It went very well for me at UPMC Presbyterian. I was put out for most of the procedure, except that they woke me up as they were finishing sewing the pacemaker into a pouch formed in my upper right chest muscle. I felt no pain, but it was strange feeling him suturing and blotting blood! The wound itself is simply held closed with special tape that will come off all by itself in time! I have to limit using my right arm for about a month to prevent pulling out the wire lead that was threaded into my heart that controls the pulse until it heals within my heart tissue. My pulse is now over 70 at rest.

They kept asking me about my pain, but I really have none! And the nurse who attended me before the actual procedure is a committed believer who does regular mission work in Africa among the poor. Guess what? She is desperate to find safe water for her contacts there in Africa! And another very interested person in water filters is a friend of hers who also works at UPMC, but she is a Muslim! I was able to give them books and tracts and newsletters!

So, back home now, I'll take it easy for a couple days before resuming my teaching/preaching ministry. Once again, those of you who prayed and wrote me are a great blessing to me! God is Good! His work must go on! So let's "keep pace" in our race for the prize!

From Daniel Kolenda for Voice of Revolution---“Blasphemy Day”...

A couple of days ago, atheists from around the country celebrated “Blasphemy Day”. As one website encouraged them to: “…admit to committing blasphemy against all gods. Religion is mythology. Gods are lies. Preachers are liars (yes, all of them), and anyone who believes in magic men in the sky are fools. Please take a moment to commit blasphemy today. Change your status message on Facebook or MySpace to something blasphemous. Wear an atheist pin. Come out of the closet a little more. Make it known… and make it loud.”

Whenever I witness to these blasphemous types (which I have done quite a bit recently), I can’t help but wonder if they will be able to retain their arrogant confidence when facing the rising fog of death as it draws them in to the darkness of an eternity without hope.

You see, death seems to have a way of bringing a solemn hush to the pretentious profanities of self-confident blasphemers. In those final hours and minutes of life, courage cannot be found in the fading flower of the mind and body. Excuses, justifications and intellectual arguments are all exposed as cheap covers, for a deep-seated fear of the grave, that cannot offer one ounce of consolation or power over it.

Thomas Paine was a blasphemous, smug deist. He was known to describe the Gospel as a “fabulous invention”. But his last words were “What a fool I have been. Oh God help me, for I cannot bear to be left alone!”

Voltaire was another deist, infamous for his contempt of the Bible. But on his death bed he exclaimed: “I am abandoned by God and man!”. “Oh Jesus Christ! Oh Jesus Christ!”

Robert Ingersoll’s Father was a Presbyterian preacher who had even filled the pulpit of Charles Finney. But Robert rejected the faith of his father and became a famous proponent of agnosticism and humanism. On his deathbed he cried, “God, if there be a God, save my soul, if I have a soul from Hell if there be a Hell.”

Sir Thomas Scott said upon his deathbed: “Until this moment I thought there was neither a God nor a hell. Now I know and feel that there are both, and I am doomed to perdition by the just judgment of the Almighty.”

Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, the French statesman, as he was dying, asked to be drugged, “that I may not think of eternity and what is to come”

Contrast these experiences with the last words of evangelist D.L. Moody. “Earth is receding, Heaven is descending, God is calling and I am going home. Is this death? Why it is not bad, it is glorious. This is my coronation day”.

Or the words of Stephen as he was being stoned: “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God…”

When a storm is approaching, many animals will nervously burrow and dig for shelter under the ground. But the eagle is not afraid. He simply spreads his wings, and effortlessly rides the thermals high above the storm. He looks down at it from above and laughs mockingly.

My friend, when a man has Christ, he has wings. He need not be afraid of death, for when it comes, he will sour above it and taunt it with the words of Paul the Apostle:

“O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:55-57)

© Daniel Kolenda for Voice of Revolution, 2009.

From GotQuestions.org---Managing/controlling emotions...

From GotQuestions.org---Managing/controlling emotions...

Question: "What does the Bible say about managing/controlling emotions?"

Answer: What would humans be like if we never became emotional? Perhaps we would be like “Mr. Spock” on Star Trek, as his responses to all situations seem to be purely logical, never emotional. But God created us in His image and God’s emotions are revealed in the Scriptures; therefore God created us emotional beings. We feel love, joy, happiness, guilt, anger, disappointment, and fear, and sometimes these can be “false” feelings if they are based upon false premises. For example, if we falsely believe that God is not in control of the circumstances of our lives, we may experience the emotions of fear or despair or anger based on that false belief. True or not, emotions are very powerful and real to the one feeling them.

The Bible has much to say about the emotions we experience. Our emotions, like our minds and bodies, are influenced greatly by the fall of man into sin. As such, they are tainted by our sin natures. For the Christian, however, the Spirit of God who resides within us is capable of controlling our emotions and not allowing them to control us (Romans 8:9-11). From within believers, He directs, guides, comforts, and influences us, as well as producing in us the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). The emotions we experience are then His emotions, produced in us so that we exhibit the benefits of His presence in our hearts—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Out-of-control emotions are the product of a heart which is not saturated with Scripture. The way to control our emotions is to control our minds, renewing them by the daily input of scriptural principles, the knowledge of God, and meditation on His attributes. Then the Holy Spirit, along with the Word of God, will bring about appropriate emotions based on truth. When we immerse ourselves in the only means of our sanctification—the Bible—we arm ourselves with the only effective weapon against out-of-control emotions. Then we can control our emotions instead of them controlling us. In themselves, emotions are not unbiblical, but they are indications of what is in our hearts (Luke 6:45).

Recommended Resource: How to Handle Your Emotions: Anger, Depression, Fear, Grief, Rejection, Self-Worth by June Hunt.

Burning Hot People & Crooked Patterns...

Filed under The Kingdom of God on September 30th, 2009 by Bryan Purtle
http://voiceofrevolution.askdrbrown.org/2009/09/30/burning-hot-people-crooked-patterns/


“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor; not lagging behind in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord….” -Rom. 12.10-11

From the nation of India decades ago, Amy Carmichael gives us this staggering story:

It was convention week in a hill station in India. The afternoon meeting was just over. A few Christian station-people, some English-speaking Indian friends and the sixty or seventy missionaries who had been listening to the Bible reading were hurrying out to get a cup of tea before the evening meeting. An Indian lady lingered in the empty hall, and the writer, seeing her alone and thinking perhaps she had no friend at hand and might be feeling lonely, sat down beside her. Conversation turned to Bible reading. The Indian lady’s face darkened and she said bitterly, “What is the use of such meetings? You missionaries say one thing and do another!’ It was easy to see she had been wounded and soured, but not knowing her history, I could only urge that meetings were held just because we recognized our need….

But this did not satisfy her, and in quick, eager sentences she began to explain herself. She said that her people had noticed that when a missionary first came out, he was usually warm and loving and keen to win souls. Then gradually, she said, it was noticed that he cooled.

“And who can say,” she concluded, with an intensity that went through the hearer, “…. who can say you missionaries live specially holy lives? We Indian Christians observe. We observe you not only when you are at work but when you are off work too. Is there anything remarkable about you? Are you burning-hot people? We look to you to show us patterns and you are showing us crooked patterns.”

The words scorched. Discount what we may because of some inward hurt or warp; and granted, thank God, that the picture painted thus is not wholly true, there was enough truth left to lay at least the one who listened low down in the dust.

I believe this story is intimately applicable to most American believers. We need to hear the questions of the little Indian woman:

“Do you lead specially holy lives?”

“Is there anything remarkable about you?”

“Are you burning-hot people?”

We sell the our lives short by reducing the faith to a cute and dainty religion that we practice a few times a week. We are supposed to be a burning-hot people, fervent in Spirit, serving the Lord! Our lives are supposed to be separate from the world in a manner sufficient to raise questions in the hearts of our neighbors and relatives, “What is it about those people? There’s a humility…. there’s a moral clarity…. there’s a joy…. there’s a no-nonsense mode of living…. there’s a wisdom…. there’s a reality in their eyes that I have found nowhere else, and their lives testify to it.”

Let us consider the tear-stained exhortation that Amy gives to follow up her story:

Comrades in this solemn fight- this awful conflict with awful powers- let us settle it as something that cannot be shaken: We are here to live holy, loving, lowly lives. We cannot do this unless we walk very, very close to the Lord Jesus. Anything that would hinder us from the closest walk that is possible to us till we see Him face to face is not for us. We need to be sensitive to the first approach of the hindering thing. For the sake of the souls that may be stumbled if we turn even ever so little aside, for the sake of our Master’s glory- dearer surely to us than all else- let us ask Him not to show us whether in anywise we have been showing “crooked patterns.”

Dear reader, what is the temperature of your life? Have you settled into a cool spirituality that is unconsecrated and casual? Have you more passion for entertainment than you have for the Scriptures? Has the Spirit of prayer become foreign to you? Have you left your “first love” and latched onto idols that now sap all of your affections for Christ, and leave you barren and numb at heart? We must return to Him with whole hearts, forsaking the “crooked patterns” that have too long marked the Church in our nation. Let us cry out from a place of brokenness, that He may have for Himself a people no longer “lagging behind in diligence.” A people who are “fervent in spirit, serving the Lord….”

He is faithful to respond to the heart that hungers and thirsts after Him! He will fill your heart with new life, and cause His heart to be expressed through you. He will kindle a flame in our hearts that all the schemes of hell cannot begin to quench. He will have for Himself a people.

A people leading specially holy lives, empowered by His Spirit. A remarkable people. A burning-hot people. Amen

Powerful testimony of resurrection from Kigali, Rwanda...

(Part 1 of 3 videos)


(Part 2 of 3 videos)


(part 3 of 3 videos)

The Sawyer filter is tested in D.R. Congo...

The Spilled Beans...

Sieving sand for plastic biosand filters in Goma, DRC...

Goma, D.R. Congo pastor's wife testifies about our ministry...

Rwanda-D.R. Congo Mission Report...

September 14 to 25, 2009 Rwanda-D.R. Congo Mission


I flew Monday and Tuesday from Pittsburgh to Newark to Amsterdam to Nairobi to Kigali. This was 18 hours flight time plus an additional nine hours in airport layovers. I arrived by midnight to the La Caverne Hotel in Kigali on Wednesday morning. My sleep was affected due to jetlag, and I woke up before 6 am. The morning was spent in a pastor conference in Kigali with about 30 pastors and leaders. I taught them about becoming self-sufficient by working hard to provide for their own needs and the needs of others. I also shared some global statistics with them concerning the rich and the poor church. Then I introduced the Sawyer water filter to them, assembling one filter in front of them. I encouraged them to use this filter and the plastic biosand filter to reach the poor with safe drinking water. I introduced my ministry model of having the filter recipient sell the safe water from the filter in order to pay us for it. This will enable the teams to produce more filters for others with these filter payments.

After this conference, we picked up Peter Kingoro at the airport. Then Justin Nkundabagenzi, Simeon Muhunga, Peter Kingoro, and I rode on a cramped bus for three hours to the border of D.R. Congo. We passed through immigration and customs and entered the country by nightfall. I stayed in Hotel Ishango in Goma.

Thursday was the first day of the four-day leader’s conference in Goma. I decided to teach them about both the Sawyer filter and the plastic biosand filter to give them two options. So we had to go looking in Goma for the materials to make the biosand filters. Justin and Peter took most of their day searching for this stuff and could not even find some of the things. I taught morning and afternoon to about 100 pastors and leaders. I taught them about becoming self-sufficient by working hard to provide for their own needs and the needs of others. Then I introduced the Sawyer water filter to them, assembling one filter in front of them. I encouraged them to use this filter and the plastic biosand filter to reach the poor with safe drinking water. I introduced my ministry model of having the filter recipient sell the safe water from the filter in order to pay us for it. This will enable the teams to produce more filters for others with these filter payments. We assembled several Sawyer filters and tested one for them. You should have seen their joy when they were permitted to come forward with their cups and drink this safe water! Several people committed to buying a filter immediately.

On Friday we began the conference with questions and answers. They were really interested in my teaching on tithes and offerings from the previous day. They wanted to know some practical advice about how to apply the tithing principle in their churches. The previous day, most of them had repented as leaders for not even tithing themselves! Now they realize how they can support many workers in the harvest if everyone uses their tithe to do so. And they also realize how important it is for each of them to lay up treasure in heaven by serving the poor with their offerings. I also taught them about the biblical church leadership standards as compared to the traditional church’s practice that more closely resembles the teaching of the early church fathers (the founders of the Roman Catholic Church) that came after the original apostles had died. Then I covered the statistics on global Christians, contrasting the rich and poor church around the world. After Peter and Justin had finally gathered up the materials for the plastic biosand filter, we taught about the biosand filter.
We assembled one plastic filter that will be installed in the AOG church kitchen where we held the conference. The sand and gravel will be processed on Monday, and then the filter can be installed. Many questions were asked and answered during Friday’s sessions. I preached many messages as I answered them!

Saturday morning we distributed emergency food supplies purchased with $2,000 from the Heaven’s Family Food Fund for100 widows and poor believers at the AOG church where we held the conference. Each family received about 30 pounds of rice and beans. This will feed even the largest family for over a week. They were very grateful! I spoke to them as a group and encouraged them to seek the Lord first in their lives and to walk in obedience to the Gospel. Several widows rededicated their lives to the Lord.

Then we visited a refugee camp outside of Goma. What a horrible situation! Due to tribal wars in the region, these people were forced off their land into this camp. Now they are afraid to return due to the ongoing, unstable situation. There is a huge UN and Red Cross presence there (they just seem to drive around and around in their special vehicles solving nothing), but who knows how to really solve this crisis?

On Sunday morning, after one and one half hours of praise and worship, I preached in the AOG church of over 200 people where we also held the conference. I spoke from Second Corinthians chapter five. After I encouraged them to get ready for the Judgment Seat of Christ, many came to the altar to repent. After a wonderful meal and fellowship with Simeon, his family, and some of his church members, we moved on to another home of a Christian banker in Goma who warmly received us for another great meal and fellowship. I did not get back to my room until 7 pm!

Monday morning we sifted the sand, washed the gravel, and loaded the first plastic biosand filter we made. I had them use the Sawyer filters to filter enough Kivu Lake water to wash the gravel with safe water. We did not wash the sand due to the scarcity of water, and because we used mosquito screen for the final sieve (the smaller screen is not available overseas and causes much more work in sifting and washing the finer sand). The flow rate of the 100-liter plastic filter is about 1.5 liters per minute. So we got a flow rate with unwashed sand of 1.5 liters per about 90 seconds---a bit slow, but still actually faster than the Sawyer filter. This should give us good quality water.

All day long we answered their questions and reviewed the process. Peter and Justin took the afternoon sessions to talk more about their own biosand project experience. I went shopping with Simeon to buy a metal drain nipple, water pipe, and elbows. We found exactly what we needed, so I also bought another 100-liter plastic container so we could assemble one more biosand filter before we leave Goma. Materials in both Rwanda and D.R. Congo are more expensive than Kenya. But we still used about $40 to put a plastic filter together in Goma. So with their labor, they may need to charge more than $50 per filter.

Tuesday was the final day of the conference. I had to empty the plastic biosand filter, because it leaked. The plastic pipe we used was inferior and not able to do the job. So after emptying the filter, we put the metal drainpipe on the container. When we put water inside to test the pipe, it leaked, too! So I sent out for some silicon sealer, which we always use, but I was cutting corners to get this filter together before we left. So the team will assemble both metal drain pipes I purchased with silicon sealer. Then they will allow the sealer to dry for a day before proceeding with completing both plastic biosand filters after we are gone. I also taught them for a long session on sanitation and hygiene and more details about how the filters work. They are ready to go! We received great expressions of thanks from those we trained.

We now have a team in Goma, D.R. Congo making and using both plastic biosand filters and the Sawyer filters. In just a little over one year from our first biosand project, we now have funded THIRTEEN safe water projects with biosand and Sawyer filters in Kenya (6), in Rwanda, in Peru (3), in Pakistan, in India, and D.R. Congo.

The poverty of Goma was shocking to me! These people need everything. So with great joy and anticipation of how the Lord is going to use our investment there, I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported us in prayer. Thank you! And to those who are sending offerings to permit us to keep going---thank you! Don’t forget that treasure in heaven is VERY REAL! Let’s keep sending it up there! God bless you!

Chuck King

Safe and sound in Kigali...

I arrived safe and sound at my hotel, La Caverne, about midnight (Wednesday) here in Kigali (6 pm in Ford City). No problems after about 18 hours in the air plus nine more hours waiting on flights! I will try to update this blog daily, if possible from Goma in the D.R. Congo. I have a morning pastor conference tomorrow before we drive to the border. Thanks for all the prayer support! God bless you!

From Gordon Conwell University research---global church statistics...

Christians by income:

58% rich (11% affluent, 37% well off, 10%
just coping)

42% poor (29% needy, 13% absolutely poor)

Church of the Rich: 1.1 billion members

Church of the Affluent: 208 million members

Church of the Poor: 793 million members

Church of the Absolutely Poor: 245 million members

Personal income of Christians (church members) $15.2 trillion
p.a.

Personal income per capita of Christians, $8,050

Average Christian family income $34,000

Stewardship: giving per church member per week $2.75

Church/agency income $270 billion a year

Churches' income $108 billion p.a.

Parachurch/institutional income $162 billion p.a.

$8 billion a year on new religious buildings (Christian)

Foreign missions giving per church member per week $0.15

Foreign missions $15 billion a year

Christian broadcasting (radio/TV) $5.8 billion p.a.

Excerpts from The Hole in Our Gospel

Excerpts from The Hole in Our Gospel

by Richard Stearns

It is important to put the American Church in perspective. Simply stated, it is the wealthiest community of Christians in the history of Christendom. How wealthy? The total income of American churchgoers is $5.2 trillion. (That’s more than five thousand billion dollars.) It would take just a little over 1 percent of the income of American Christians to lift the poorest one billion people in the world out of extreme poverty. Said another way, American Christians, who make up about 5 percent of the Church worldwide, control about half of global Christian wealth; a lack of money is not our problem.

I am heading off to Africa this morning...

This morning at 9 am I am leaving for the Pittsburgh airport to begin my mission trip to D.R. Congo via Nairobi, Kenya and Kigali, Rwanda. I'll arrive in Kigali about 11 pm Tuesday night (when still Tuesday afternoon in Pennsylvania). I'll overnight in Kigali, teach in a morning pastor's conference there on the 16th before driving about three hours to the border of D.R. Congo, cross the border, and settle into the hotel for the night in Goma. I'll spend the next seven days in Goma in pastor seminars, emergency food distributions, safe water training, and preaching in churches before driving back to Kigali Sept. 23rd. The 24th I return to Nairobi and back to the USA on Sept. 25th.

Your prayer support during this time overseas is much appreciated. Thanks!

Please take time to view all five parts of this marvelous presentation...