November 28, 2011

 

SECURITY OR SIGNIFICANCE?

 

God’s word is very clear that we are to be exemplary in our family life: to provide for our household and to honor our father and mother. In view of these commands, how could anyone even consider risking their lives and those of their children in a Muslim country where a lot of bad things happen?

 

Let’s present this question to the Lord Jesus and the Apostle Paul. What do they have to say?

 

Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God (2 Tim 1:8 NASB)

 

Paul is in prison and he is worried. Not about prison and not about being executed! He is worried about Timothy being ashamed!

 

Or consider Acts 20:19-24. Remember, Acts is given to us to demonstrate what God has in mind for followers of the Lord Jesus.

I served the Lord with great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing by the plots of my Jewish opponents. You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. NIV

 

Here is how his friends in the churches responded (see Acts 21:12-14): “When we heard this, we, and the people there, pleaded with Paul not to go up to Jerusalem.”

 

Then Paul answered, "Why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be IN PRISON, but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."

 

Can you say that? If not, do you want to get to that level of perspective? Have you wrestled with our Lord’s startling words: “He who loves wife or children more than me, is not worthy of me”?

 

Paul’s response is not an isolated case in church history. Consider some of the other examples of God’s servants:

• In China, two Kashgar house church leaders were sentenced to life and six years hard labor. In the past, a high percentage of missionaries died from the diseases.
• In sub-Sahara Africa disease killed 6 out of 7.

 

In recent history, Afghanistan is not the only country where the Lord’s servants have been killed:

• Turkey-2 Turks and a German were killed in 2007
• Lebanon-Bonnie, a mother with OM, killed in 2002
• Yemen: 3 Baptist doctors killed in ______
• Somalia-Martin, from Switzerland, was shot in the head while his little son was sitting in the car next to him.
• Pastors in Iran: Mehdi & 6 others were arrested and hanged leaving children without a father.

 

Still, today, not very many of us will be murdered. . But, many will face prison or expulsion! In Algeria, there has been great breakthrough: Reportedly over 40 thousand Muslims have come to Christ; now comes the reaction! Churches locked up and the believers carted off to prison. The Bible says prison is a normal experience for Christians doing pioneer church planting, i.e. working in residence among a people who have no churches…this has always been reality. Whether in 1st century Palestine, Korea, South America, Burma, Japan, or Malaysia!

 

What happened to our brothers in Afghanistan, or the others mentioned above, is very difficult and it is very sad, but is our response what God wants?

 

In II Tim. 2:15 Paul is preparing Timothy for this kind of situation:

 

Don’t be ashamed of the Lord Jesus. He got himself crucified. (If you’ve seen the Passion film, you have somewhat of an understanding of how painful and shameful crucifixion was.

 

Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel. Following Christ to the Cross is not supposed to be easy. Even Christians will think you irresponsible or irrational. We won’t be heroes. Those murdered by the Auca Indians were thought at the time to be simply foolish!

 

Paul exhorted Timothy not to be ashamed of him. So don’t be ashamed of missionaries who go to the hardest places risking their lives and even sometimes their children. They know that to many they will be considered, as was Paul’s team: the “Scum of the earth”. (1 Cor.4:13) Even church leaders, in the countries where they fear retaliation from the Muslims, criticize us for stirring up trouble. They liken us to the 10 year old boy who is hitting a bees’ nest with a stick!

 

So, what are we to do, especially if we are considered unwise, even rebellious for going into harm’s way for the Name of the Lord Jesus?

 

First, think about THAT DAY when you will present yourself to the King of Kings. What will the Lord Jesus say to you and your children about you in front of “a multitude no man can number”?

 

If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."

 

On THAT DAY, right next to you, will be Chinese Christians who had to make the choice- either stop following Christ or take a beating or 10-15 years in prison leaving their families without provision. Or maybe standing next to you will be the hundreds of Koreans, British, and Africans, from an earlier generation, who laid down their lives…because of their loyalty to and witness of the Lord Jesus.

 

I once had a dream. The Lord was honoring me in Heaven for what? For leaving my family for a couple of weeks at a time to recruit more missionaries?!  Big deal...  The next person up for the Lord’s “well done” had been burned at the stake!

 

Or consider Samuel Zwemer whose daughters died the same week in the Arab Gulf. On their tombstone he inscribed: “worthy are You, Oh Lord, to receive riches.”

 

Ask God this week: “What am I on earth for?”

 

Today, if you’re a serious follower of the Lord Jesus, pray Paul’s commitment of 2 Tim 4:6-8:

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering; I will follow the Lord Jesus, and His servants who were ready to lay down their lives that others might have eternal life!

 

Tell the Father you want to also be able to say at the end of your time on earth:

 

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race; I ran to win the prize of the High calling in Christ Jesus. More than anything else, I want to see my Saviour smile, and say, “Well done, good and faithful servant. I accomplished everything I wanted to do through your life on earth” 2 Tim.4:7

 

Tell the Lord, as I did in the cornfields of Iowa when I was 19, “Oh, God, if you want to use a man…use me.”

 

Other Action Points:

• Go and talk to someone representing the lost sheep outside of the western world.
• Read literature about unreached peoples and pray over it, “asking God to show you His assignment.”
• Begin to pray about WHO you would like to team up with who has gifts that would complement yours.
• Become a faithful prayer partner and supporter of at least one missionary pioneering among a people without a church.
• Join a group of others praying for Unreached peoples

 

-Greg

 

 

November 28, 2011

 

“You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” 2 Corinthians 1:11

Did Paul actually believe the feeble, occasional, ‘God bless the missionary wherever s/he is’ prayers would HELP him be more fruitful?

 

Apparently so, as we read:

 

Romans 15:30 “Now I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, enabled by the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in your prayers to God for me that I might be rescued from the disobedient unbelievers and that my service in Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints there.”

 

Philemon 1:22 Prepare a lodging for me for I trust that through your prayers I shall be granted opportunity to visit you.

 

1 Peter 3:7 Husbands, dwell with your wife in an understanding manner, showing honour to your wife, as unto the weaker vessel, as heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Rejoice always; pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus”.

 

1 Thessalonians 5:25 Brethren, pray for us.

 

2 Thessalonians 3:1 Finally, (at the end of the day; i.e. after all is said and done) brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, (spread rapidly) and be honoured (taken seriously), even as it is with you:

 

1 Timothy 2:8 I desire, therefore, that men everywhere pray, lifting up holy hands, without anger or quarrelling.

 

Dwell on those words the next time you write a prayer letter.

 

Greg Livingstone

 

 

 

November 10, 2011

 

To God’s faithful apostles from across the Muslim world from the Southern Philippines to West Africa,

 

Grace to you and peace.

 

How we truly give thanks to God constantly for all of you, daily bringing you before our Father remembering your work of faith and labor of love, and perseverance in the hope and expectation that your labor will not be in vain…those fellowships of redeemed, Christ dwelt Muslims will indeed become a reality.

 

For we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God, that He has chosen you to serve on HIS team, to accomplish HIS purposes for HIS glory. We are a privileged people to be hand-picked by the Creator-Saviour to be HIS ambassadors.

Keep your eyes on THAT DAY when you will see our Beloved face to face. Look up and smile knowing you will someday hear “Well Done, good and faithful servant. Enter into the joy of Your Lord.”

 

You are the pioneers; you have a few opportunities to sow the seed, but most of the time you are still ‘clearing away the rocks’. We can be confident that you WILL reap, or as has happened most commonly in the history of the church, others will come after you who will reap where you have sown. As our Lord taught, “one sows and another reaps. Some of you will reap where you have not sown”. Some of you will sow, and another will reap where you have sown in tears with continual disappointment. (John 4:34-38) “So that sower and reaper may (eventually) rejoice together.”

 

So remind yourselves today: your labor is not in vain!

 

 

Amen?

Greg and Sally Livingstone Phil. 3:12

 

November 8th, 2011

 

Marty Phillips wrote, from Muslim Africa:

 

God is opening the way for truth to spread everywhere in a way that seems almost too unbelievable to be true.

 

Greg: This Sunday morning, before I go to a church in High Wycombe that hosted yesterday's conference on CP Among Pakistanis, attended by 180 people (including 16 MBBs), I am being quiet, pondering what is happening across the Muslim world?

 

In the words of Dickens: "It was the best of times; it was the worst of times".

 

We 'old timers' recall the 1978 Conference on Mus. Evangelism in Colorado at Nav's Glen Eyrie, when the mission execs collectively 'just knew': "Muslims, it’s their turn.”

 

I must bow to the Lord, and thank Him for Mazhar & Christine Mallouhi and their team who have laboured 'night and day' to produce and see distributed so many thousands of copies of the Word of God accompanied by the endorsements of influential Muslim leaders, well-articulated articles re: objections to the Christian faith, and the enterprise of Muslim business people who, perhaps unwittingly, have multiplied knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

How the Lord has kept Mazhar and Christine persevering to bring light to the Arabs (and beyond) despite the blizzard of criticism, and even the doubts, at times, of their friends (me included) is truly wonderful.

 

"You're a better man than me, Mazhar Mallouhi"

 

Greg Livingstone

 

What is the church planter’s relationship to be once a church has local leadership?

We are well familiar with the unfortunate, if well meaning, historically traditional pattern of the missionary controlling by presence and/or funds the churches he has founded. Few debate the need to appoint (or some would say, let the MBBs appoint) elders (whatever they might be titled). The daily leadership must be by local people, preferable men of the same people group as the church’s majority.

However, does that mean, the apostle/missionary/church planter is supposed to drop out of the picture? What do we mean if we say, “let them be led by the Holy Spirit”?

What can we learn from the Apostle Paul who often exhorted his readers to emulate his example?

• Where does it teach that the missionary no longer has a place to exhort the congregation he has spawned?
• Why was Paul monitoring, then both visiting and writing epistles to the churches in Galatia, Ephesus, Philippi, Colossae, Rome, Corinth, and Thessalonica?
• Why did God make sure those letters were passed on to us?
• Why did Paul send Timothy, Titus, and Apollos to visit the churches founded by Paul?
• Why did Paul raise funds from those churches to help the churches in Jerusalem?

Our Lord Jesus commanded us to “teach them TO OBEY everything I have commanded you”. (Matt.28:20) At what point can the church planter claim he has accomplished that? Is giving the new believers the Scriptures the end of our responsibility? Luke observed that the church in Berea was actually “examining the Scriptures DAILY to see if what they had been taught by Paul was true”! In which of the churches we have seen planted has someone with discernment observed the MBBs doing that?

With concern for the churches,

Greg Livingstone

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