C. T. Studd Cricketeer & Pioneer

A friend gave me an old book a few months ago on the life of C. T. Studd. It's been humbling to read about his life of faith and great trilas while serving Christ with Hudson Taylor in China, then on his own in India and finally in his latter years with poor health in the heart of Africa. Here's a quote from the book that I came across this morning. I think it's a good word for me. Hope it encourages you.

“C. T. Studd Cricketeer & Pioneer” By Norman Grubb

Published by The World Wide Revival prayer Movement 1937

Evangelical press, Harrisburg, PA

P. 177 Instructions to the African Christians converted from cannibalism before going out to preach the Gospel and start new churches.

1. “If you don’t desire to meet the devil during the day, meet Jesus before dawn.”

2. “ If you don’t want the devil to hit you, hit him first, and hit him with all your might, so that he may be too crippled to hit back. PREACH THE WORD is the rod the devil fears and hates.”

3. If you don’t want to fall, walk & walk straight and walk fast.”

4. “Three of the devil’s dogs with which he hunts us are: Swelled head, laziness, & cupidity.”

The Heavenly Man: True Story of brother Yun

Wow! You have got to read "The Heavenly Man" published by Monarch Books 2002. It's the story of Brother Yun's conversion written by him with the help of Paul Hattaway. I was impressed with Brother Yun's total surrender to knowing God & following Him even under brutal toture in prison time & time again for preaching the Gospel of Christ. I honestly wondered if the graphic descriptions of the toture were completely true until a young man on a plane last week verified what I had read. He saw my book and told me he had read it 3 times and personally knew Brother Yun. He said it is definately true.
His story begins at 16 years old in 1974 when he surrendered his life to Christ. His father was desperately sick but had been a captian in the nationalist army and known as a "fearsome" man. His mother heard Jesus call her one night and she gave her life to Christ. She called the family together and told them they needed to pray to Jesus. He was the only hope for their father. They laid hans on him and prayed, "Jesus, heal father!" he was healed and they found no trace of the cancer. The whole family believed and invited the people in the village to their home for it was forbidden to have ppublic gatherings as a church. People came believing that his fathered had died. They were surprized to find him healed and talking about Jesus. As they shared the Gospel with all in the house everyone knelt and placed their faith in Christ.
Yun wanted a Bible but there were few in China. If you did have one your life was in danger. He was told to pray for a Bible. He prayed 100 days and still no Bible. Three more months and God provided one in a miraculous way. He immediately started reading and memorizing it. In 28 days he memorized Matthew. He began preaching all over China and was hunted by the PSB ( Chinese police). While in prison he fasted & prayerd for 74 days while undergoing constant toture & questioning. All he had to do was tell them other people who were preaching the Gospel. He never did. Though married and away from his wife for many years in prison or running from the PSB, he still was faithful to follow the Lord above all. The stories of prisoners and people in the villages coming to Christ are unbelievable but real!
In the latter part of the book he comments on Christians who preach "if we follow the Lord we'll be safe & comfortable". This is contrary to the scripture. We tend to avoid the promise of God in 2 Timothy 3:12 " Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus WILL suffer persecution." NKJV He speaks about why God is not at work the same way in the west. " Multitudes of church members in the west are satisfied with giving their minimum to God, not their maximum." "All genuine revivals of the Lord result in believers responding with action & soul winning. When God truly moves in your heart you cannot remain silent. There will be fire in your bones, like jeremiah, who said, His Word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot!" Jeremiah 20:9 NKJV How true! How lacking am I myself! He closes saying, "The people who really suffer are those who never experience God's presence." All I can say is find & read the book. Let God get you out of the "stuff" of western Christianity and back to the simplicity of Christ working in our lives to impact others!

Simple Improvements for marriage

My wife & I just returned from the Festival of Marriage in Ocean City, MD. The theme was "BALANCE". Dr. David & Claudia Arp were the main conference speakers. The focus was learning to date your spouse. One thing that was clear to was dating is an "attitude". It's not what you do as much as the attitude in which you do it. For example they shared about one valentine day when they were shopping for the steak & accessories for dinner that night. While at the store he gave her a dozen yellow roses (her favorite). She gave him a box of Godiva Chocolates (his favorite). While in the card section they found some cards, gave them to each other, laughed & put them back on the shelve. while checking out she decided that she really didn't need the flowers since they were leaving on a trip in two days and couldn't care for them. He decided to put the chocolate back knowing they were not good for his health. They both were content, went home to a great dinner & fully enjoyed the evening. Attitude was the key.

The other simple discovery was the "ten second kiss". They challenged us to invest 20 seconds a day in our relationship by starting & ending the day with a ten second kiss. I've found it to me an amazing new bonding with my wife. Instead of the quick kiss "good bye & hello", we've committeed ourselves to at least ten seconds. Wow, what a difference. I highly encourage everyone to try it for a week & see for yourself.

Finally, I hope you've seen the movie "Fireproof". We saw it when it first came out and bought the book, "The Love Dare". It's a 40 day challenge to improve your marital relationship. It actually applies to any relationship, learning to love each other like God loves us. see the movie & get the book. Go to www.fireproofmymarriage.com to learn more.

Sharing Christ from your Home with ERC

Earlier this year in March the keystone Baptist Association of churches purchased airtime on TV & radio stations the week before Easter to encourage people to consider the forgiveness & hope for salvation in life that Jesus Christ offers everyone. The ads ended inviting people to call 1-888-JESUS2008 or visit www.thegoodnews.org . A training was held for about 20 people who wanted to be telephone or internet encouragers. I became an encourager & have found it very fulfilling to help people over the phone. One woman who called earlier this summer was in severe crisis. She was addicted to drugs, needed a liver transplant and had many more problems living alone. As I shared the Gospel of salvation in Christ she prayed & immediately found hope. It did not stop there. I got her permission to send her information to the Evangelistic Response Center (ERC) of the North american mission Board & a church in the area was contacted to follow up & try to meet her needs. My wife & I have since then received the training & certification to train telephone & internet encouragers. If you'd like to share your time to help others know the hope Christ can give, let me know. We're praying for 10,000 encouragers this year. Imagine 10,000 more people knowing Christ as Lord from these encouragers.

Peru Mission 2008

I just returned from a great time sharing the hope we have in Jesus Christ with the people in Trujillo & Lima. As always the people of the churches were very gracious and passionate about seeing other people come to a [ersonal relationship with Jesus Christ. Even as I flew down, I spoke with a professional ice skater who was very open to hearing how Christ can impact our lives. You learn not to judge people by their facial expressions too. One man, Jose, was a guard and looking very "sternly" at several of our team sharing the Gospel with locals. When I approached him, he was very open to what we were sharing and placed his faith is Jesus as Lord & saviour. Not everyone made decisions to follow Jesus, but many seriously considered Him. I'm always amazed by the irony of how people have little to nothing yet give sacrificially to help others in need. The crusade had over 700 attend outdoors and over 1300 people made decisions to put their faith in Christ alone for their salvation. If this wasn't enough, while at the airport our last night, a young girl from Canada, about 20 years old, became very interested in the relationship we spoke about with Jesus. Hopefully, she too will find hope in Christ.

Leaving a Legacy with Leaders

Several years ago Stan, a long time friend & co-worker, gave me John Maxwell's book, " The 21 Most Powerful Minutes in a Leader’s Day” . It's a devotional designed to be read in 21 weeks. It is packed with helpful insights & challenges to be the leader God has made us to be. I decided to begin this year with the book again and am just finishing my last week. This time Week 21 on Leaving a legacy has got a hold of me. As I consider the association of churches I work for, I have to wonder where they will be 20 years from now. I've had a bad habit most of my life of doing my best by myself instead of bringing others along side & helping them to do their best without me. Year by year I'm learning. John explains that it's good to develop leaders but even better to develop leaders who develop leaders and so on. I look back on my 34 years in the ministry & I don't see many leaders who continued on devloping other leaders for the ministry of Christ Jesus. Dave Thom was one of the few young men I had the privilege to lead to faith in Christ back in the late 70's while serving on the High School Staff of Campus Crusade for Christ. I said for years that I could die & feel at peace knowing he has far exceeded me in ministry all these years.Contact Dave at The Leadership Connection 28 Valley View Circle, Amherst, MA 01002 office: 413-259-2923 cell: 413-259-1083 or email CLM@admin.umass.edu or visit www.umass.edu/christian . Dave has had a major impact on the professors of the Ivy League Universities for years through this ministry he started. Now I desire to be an encourager to pastors & church leaders to fulfill what God has called them to do. We all know God's desire is to redeem the world through His body we call the church. May God use you to see Matthew 28:18-20 come to pass!

Prepare for Rain by Michael Catts

This past March my wife & I had the chance to go to Michael Catt's Refresh Conference at Pigeon Forge, TN. He started this several years ago to encourage pastors & people in the church who want to see God do the impossible in their lives & in their church. We had 19 of our pastor, lay leaders & their wives attend from the Keystone Baptist Association of churches in PA. I would encourage you to attend next March 2-4, 2009.

PREPARE FOR RAIN is about the story of God's work in Michael's life & ministry. Of course most people know him & Sherwood Baptist Church for the movie "Facing the Giants". There's much more to God's work.

The theme of book comes from the story of 2 farmers who desperately needed rain. Both were praying for rain, but only one worked the land and planted the crop so when the rain came it would do its work and make the crop grow. The question presented to the reader is “How do you prepare for rain?”

Pastor Michael Catt shares how he came to Sherwood Baptist Church and changes he led them to make to improve the deacon ministry, organization & worship. The deacons began to focus on serving as Acts 6 disciples. Many committees were eliminated and replaced with ministry teams. Worship became more blended and focused on “the heart” more than “the style.”

Don Miller came to lead a prayer workshop. He lost 800 people over several years due to changes in the church and sin. At another conference Michael was moved to challenge his church to be the church God wants. He asked them to affirm this by a Sunday night vote. It was unanimous. That’s when things began to happen. The people moved from legalism to spirit filled living.

Michael explains that it's impossible to have vision without leadership and teamwork. “All of us need people who will stretch us.” He was told in his early days of pasturing that “95% of your problems will be staff related.” The church doesn’t need superstars; it needs team players with a servant’s heart. We all have strengths and weaknesses, so build a team that supports each other.
In “Facing the Giants” coach Grant Taylor told the team, “If we win, we praise Him. If we lose, we praise Him. Either way, we give God our best.” This is the attitude the church needs. “When people are hard at work serving Jesus, they don’t have time to be critical, caustic or casual about their faith.”
I encourage you to read the entire book and let God encourage your heart! It's published by CLC Publications of Ft. Washington,PA 19034.