60th Anniversary of Human Rights Declaration

A compelling short video to encourage us to live out the call we find in Hebrews 13:3.

This Is What Can Happen When We Remember the Persecuted

This is the kind of thing that makes my day!  I received this e-mail today and wanted to share it as a testimony to show how God moved through the prayer and actions of believers around the globe who prayed and acted on behalf of a well known persecuted family in China.  This is a reminder to us that we can do something through God who strengthens us and hears our cries.  I am also very moved by the devotion this family has to God and to the work He is doing in China.  I hope you will be encouraged to begin or continue to pray and act on behalf of the persecuted Christians in the world.

PSB Pay Compensation for Zhang Jian’s Attack

“Maybe this is the only way to awaken the conscience of the world and for the Chinese to open their eyes that this is the religious freedom in China. I would like … if my life could be used as a wake-up call and could help Chinese brothers and sisters gain more freedom to worship the Lord freely.” – Zhang Jian

When Public Security Bureau (PSB) officers violently beat Zhang Jian for 25 minutes with iron bars in October, bones in his face were broken and doctors feared he would not regain sight in his right eye. PSB officers continued to harass Zhang Jian at the hospital. His parents were kidnapped by the police, and Zhang Jian’s wife and children, as well as his brother’s family, were also forced from their homes. As many of you responded to this family’s cry for help by praying, speaking out and sending support on their behalf, the situation of this family changed dramatically.

Authorities became fearful of the publicity and released Zhang Jian’s parents. In an unprecedented move, on January 5, Director of the Public Security Bureau branch office of Chaoyang district, Beijing, paid his father, Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan, 17,000 yuan to cover Zhang Jian’s medical bills, as well as the cost of the fine incurred for the early termination of the family’s apartment rental agreement.

This payment of 17,000 yuan was an indirect admission of guilt that the PSB were in the wrong in the attack against Pastor Bike’s family. When Pastor Bike was given the funds, PSB officers blamed him and his family for causing “extremely bad publicity” for them.

Thank you to all who caused this “extremely bad publicity” for the PSB! Currently, Zhang Jian is still dealing with the consequences of the attack. He has a purple scar around his eye and broken bones in his nose, however he has regained vision in his right eye. In a conversation with ChinaAid, Zhang Jian exulted, “I am very grateful for the care and love from our brothers and sisters. We have won more than victories by Christ Jesus. I am getting better because He has been healing me. May the grace and love of Jesus Christ always be with you.” Though Zhang Jian and his family continue to suffer persecution, they are encouraged and emboldened that others around the world are standing with them.

Let Zhang Jian know you are standing with him. Write an encouraging letter:

Mr. Zhang Jian
Apt. 601, 2nd Unite, 2nd Building,
Zaolin Kangtai –xiaoqu, Baihe-nan
Nanyang city, Henan province
CHINA 473400

From the Psalms This Morning

"Give us help from trouble, for vain is the help of man." (Psalm 60:11)

At the end of the day (and in the beginning), who are we putting our trust in and looking to?

"My soul finds rest in God alone, my salvation comes from Him." (Psalm 62:1 NIV)

The psalmist then goes on to write about the ways of wicked men and their attacks on those who put their trust in God.

"...Nevertheless, my soul, wait thou still upon God; for my hope is in Him." (Psalm 62:5 )

I appreciate that word "nevertheless" which I only found in the book of common prayer, because it helps us to contrast all those things that cause us harm and pain and say, regardless of all that, my hope is still in Him.

"I will praise as long as I live and in Your name I will lift up my hands.  My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, with singing lips my mouth will praise You." 

(Psalm 63:5-6)

What a beautiful metaphor for what it is like to praise God with our lips.  When you pour out your affections and rejoicing to the Lord does it seem to you that it is satisfying like that, as if you've just thoroughly enjoyed your favorite meal?  The psalmist pours himself  praise and yet experiences a filling up in his soul at the same time.  Do you ever have that experience when praising God?  I wonder if that's a good picture of what our times of worship (together or by ourselves) should be like.

May the God of salvation be the One that we hope in and look to, and may He work in our hearts in a way that makes His praise leave a sweet taste in our souls, that we would long to praise Him.    

Quotes from "The Divine Conspiracy"

I've been thoroughly enjoying Dallas Willard's book "The Divine Conspiracy" during my study time over the last couple weeks.  I'm about halfway through it now, and there's just so much I could share from it, but I'll try to stick to some of the ideas in the first few chapters so you get an idea of what he's trying to address where our spiritual life is concerned.  

Willard makes an analogy that compares human existence to a pilot doing high speed maneuvers who ends up flying upside down.  Eventually they do a high speed ascent only to go crashing into the ground, because they thought everything was fine and had no idea that they were flying upside down.  I feel like I observe that every day in our society and watch as we continue to crash in different ways, and sometimes even get stuck flying upside down myself.  The things we value, the paths we follow, the life we strive for are usually so upside down, so opposite from what God designed and desires for us.  

"Jesus offers Himself as the God's doorway into the life that is truly life," not just to give us a fire escape from hell.  He can teach us and enable us to fly right side up.  The problem is, much of Christianity today really doesn't look like people who are apprentices of Jesus in eternal living.  One reason is because the heart of the "christian" message has too often been about sin management.  This is my own take on the sin management message and what it results in, not Willard's words.  We have to accept that we're all sinners, then we realize that we deserve to go to hell, and then we find out that we can escape hell if we "invite Jesus into our heart" (instead of accepting Jesus invitation into the true life which will naturally result in eternal life after death).  From that point there's often a cycle of committing more sin, confess, feel sorry about it (not necessarily repent), re-commit our lives to Christ from time to time, and usually start to learn how to hide our sins from people too, or just feel good that ours isn't as bad as that other person's.  The overarching message is that Jesus took care of the payment for sin, and as long as we keep saying we believe then we'll be in the clear after we die.  A partial message like that is what leads people, including many Christians, to come to believe that "Jesus has no substantial impact on our "real lives.""  I think Willard put it even better in this statement.

"The sensed irrelevance of what God is doing to what makes up our lives is the foundational flaw in the existence of multitudes of professing Christians today. They have been led to believe that God for some unfathomable reason, just think it appropriate to transfer credit from Christ's merit account to ours, and to wipe out our sin debt, upon inspecting our mind and finding that we believe a particular theory of atonement to be true - even if we trust everything but God in all other matters that concern us."

We can see Willard's point when he says, "Life, our actual existence, is not included in what is now presented as the heart of the Christian message, or it is included only marginally."  This thought really helped me to get an even deeper understanding of why the Western Church still lives in and looks like the "the world" (instead of the Kingdom of God).

Another interesting issue which Willard brings up is that so many professing Christians buy into the perspective of the "intellectual community" if you will, and does not perceive Jesus as the smartest man that ever lived.  We don't view Him as our life teacher, nor do we care to learn from him.  Willard is even bold enough to say that some professing believers don't truly "respect" Jesus, and don't think His teachings are relevant for today.  "Strangely, we seem prepared to learn how to live from almost anyone but him."  Oprah, Dr. Phil, Joel Osteen, Barack Obama, hollywood celebrities, famous musicians, and the list goes on as I think about who I see our culture (including many in the church) modeling their lives after or who they look to for guidance and help.  "Where we spontaneously look for "information" on how to live shows how we truly feel and who we really have confidence in."  Sadly, it could be said that much of the church is not "spontaneously" looking to Jesus for how to live, which apparently means we have a lack of confidence in Him.  But He's worthy of all our confidence, so we need to help people see that.

Dallas Willard constantly refers to the Word, which I think is imperative to a book that is trying to help us learn from Jesus.  As the book continues he does a lot of work trying to undo wrong interpretations of some of Jesus' fundamental teachings which has certainly given me a new perspective.  The beatitudes teaching in particular is one that I didn't quite connect the dots in until I started reading this book.  I will probably post some more as I continue reading, but you might consider reading "The Divine Conspiracy" if you agree that we need to intentionally rework the "the heart of the message" where Jesus is concerned and help people to see Him as more than just a get out of hell free card, but as the only author, giver and teacher of life in this world and the world to come.