The Christmas Truce

The Christmas Truce
This is a true story that will move you so much. Perfect to share for this time of the year.

It was December 25, 1914, only 5 months into World War I. German, British, and French soldiers, already sick and tired of the senseless killing, disobeyed their superiors and fraternized with "the enemy" along two-thirds of the Western Front (a crime punishable by death in times of war). German troops held Christmas trees up out of the trenches with signs, "Merry Christmas."

"You no shoot, we no shoot." Thousands of troops streamed across a no-man's land strewn with rotting corpses. They sang Christmas carols, exchanged photographs of loved ones back home, shared rations, played football, even roasted some pigs. Soldiers embraced men they had been trying to kill a few short hours before. They agreed to warn each other if the top brass forced them to fire their weapons, and to aim high.

A shudder ran through the high command on either side. Here was disaster in the making: soldiers declaring their brotherhood with each other and refusing to fight. Generals on both sides declared this spontaneous peacemaking to be treasonous and subject to court martial. By March 1915 the fraternization movement had been eradicated and the killing machine put back in full operation. By the time of the armistice in 1918, fifteen million would be slaughtered.

Not many people have heard the story of the Christmas Truce. On Christmas Day, 1988, a story in the Boston Globe mentioned that a local FM radio host played "Christmas in the Trenches," a ballad about the Christmas Truce, several times and was startled by the effect. The song became the most requested recording during the holidays in Boston on several FM stations. "Even more startling than the number of requests I get is the reaction to the ballad afterward by callers who hadn't heard it before," said the radio host. "They telephone me deeply moved, sometimes in tears, asking, `What the hell did I just hear?' "

I think I know why the callers were in tears. The Christmas Truce story goes against most of what we have been taught about people. It gives us a glimpse of the world as we wish it could be and says, "This really happened once." It reminds us of those thoughts we keep hidden away, out of range of the TV and newspaper stories that tell us how trivial and mean human life is. It is like hearing that our deepest wishes really are true: the world really could be different.

Age and Background should never be Hindrances to God's Work and Will

"Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years… He did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight and followed the example of his ancestor David. He did not turn away from doing what was right." 2 Kings 22:1-2

Josiah was eight years old when he became the king of Judah, and when he was sixteen, he gave his life to the Lord and led his people in a revival that changed the history of the nation.

There was nothing in his immediate family background that would ever lead you to conclude that he would lead a revival. He didn't have a line of preachers in his family. His grandfather was actually a murderer, the Adolf Hitler of the Old Testament; and his father, Amon, was no better! He was so wicked and vile that two years into his reign, his own servants assassinated him. God used a sixteen year old from this kind of a background to turn his nation around!

Here's a lesson: God can use people of any age and from any background in big ways if they're available and have a willing heart. Age is not the issue of being used by God.

Don't let your background put the brakes on how you think the Lord can use you. Josiah broke away from his past and didn't repeat the mistakes of the generations that preceded him. If you have a willing heart, God wants to use you! 

Following Jesus in spending time with the Father

“I saw more clearly than ever, that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was, to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not, how much I might serve the Lord, how I might glorify the Lord; but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished.”– George Müller

Thinking about the life of Jesus, you'll see that He spent time with Father:
1. Before times of blessings.
2. After times of blessings.
3. During trouble.
4. Before, during, and after temptation.
5. Before making decisions:
"One day soon afterward Jesus went to a mountain to pray, and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak he called together all of his disciples and chose twelve of them to be apostles." Luke 6:12-13a
6. For power:
"But Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. One day while Jesus was teaching. . . . the Lord's healing power was strongly with Jesus." Luke 5:16-17
Think about when you consult with Father in heaven. He wants to help you through.
May you sense the strong grace of Jesus throughout this day!

To be without a sense of need in our Christian life is a sure sign of spiritual decay. The Lord’s diagnosis of the church in Laodicea in Revelation 3:14-20 reveals that lukewarmness, pride, and self-sufficiency are all
directly related to a lack of spending time with the Lord.
The very nature of the Christian life requires that we spend time with the Lord, because the Christian life is a supplied life. It is a life that is supplied to us. It has nothing to do with our own resources or potential in
ourselves. It has everything to do with our opening up to The Need to Spend Time with the Lord another life and being supplied by that life from beginning to end. The Christian life is a life that has been prepared for us and then is furnished to us by God. He intends to continually supply Himself to us. It is for this reason that we need to spend time with the Lord—to receive the supply.

Every word that God has spoken in the Bible, whatever it is, whatever apparent demand it brings, God wants to supply that very thing into our being. It's not that we are expected to measure up, or come up with the ability to perform in ourselves. No, God intends to continually supply Himself to us. We must understand the Christian life in this way—it is a supplied life. From beginning to end, it is supplied to us. And this supply comes to us and is dispensed into us in a very special and enjoyable way—spending time with the Lord.

Spending time with the Lord not only supplies us to live our daily Christian life, but it is also the means for us to experience transformation. From the moment we receive Christ and are regenerated, we are ushered into
a life-long process of transformation. Second Corinthians 3:18, describing this process, shows that we are being transformed into the image of Christ Himself: “And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” By this process of transformation, our natural being undergoes a kind of metabolic change. This means that a new element is replacing the old. And just as our eating and drinking cause our physical body to undergo a process of metabolism in which new elements enter our body and replace the old, so also our beholding the Lord causes our natural being to undergo a process of spiritual metabolism. This means the faculties of our mind, emotion, and will receive the new element of Christ Himself and are
thereby transformed into His image. According to 2 Corinthians 3:18 this process takes place while we spend time beholding the glory of the Lord. By daily spending time with the Lord, we are putting ourselves in a position for transformation to take place. In eternity past, according to Romans 8:29, God’s purpose over our being was that we be “predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.” In creation, according to Genesis 1:26-27, God made man “in His own image.” In redemption, according to Colossians 1:13-15, we have been transferred into the kingdom in which Christ “is the image of the invisible God, Firstborn of all creation.” In our daily life, according to 2 Corinthians 3:18, we are existing to be transformed into the image of our glorified Lord. In resurrection, according to 1 Corinthians 15:49, we shall all one day “bear the image of the heavenly.” In eternity future, according to Revelation 22:4, we will be those who see His face and bear His image, even as it says, “His name shall be on their forehead.”  In light of God’s revealed purpose in eternity past, in creation, in redemption, in daily life, in resurrection, and in eternity future, should we not spend time with Him for the fulfillment of this all-encompassing purpose? If we truly see that we are presently under the process of God’s eternal purpose of transformation, we will be strongly motivated to spend time with the Lord for this to take place. We are transformed into His image not by selfeffort or by imitation, but by spending time genuinely beholding Him. This kind of beholding requires that we set aside specific blocks of time regularly in which we, like Mary (Luke 10:38-42), cease from all other activities and preoccupations to give our undivided attention to behold Him.

Without spending time with the Lord, there is no possibility for us to experience a solid transformation. And this time must be a private time with the Lord. The Lord makes this clear in Matthew 6. Beginning in verse
5 He says, “And when you pray, you shall not be as the hypocrites; for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners that they may appear to men.” The Lord points out here that the Pharisees were hypocrites because the motivation behind their kind of praying was to be seen of men. Then in verse 6 He says, “But you, when you pray, enter into your private room.” The Greek word for private room can also be translated “inner chamber.” The King James Version renders it “closet.” All these translations—the private room, the inner chamber, and the closet—signify a personal, private time in a private place. In verse 6 the Lord gives still further detailed instruction. After you enter your private room, “shut your door.” Shutting our door is a reinforcement of privacy, of aloneness with the Lord. And then He says, “pray to your Father who is in secret.”

“I never have seen a man or woman who spent fifteen or twenty minutes alone with God every day that didn’t have the dew all the while. I have never known one to backslide, either. You never get more than one day’s journey from Christ if you come to Him every morning. Shut the world out. Get closeted with God and you will learn His secrets. I like to get up at five o’clock in the morning and turn the key and be alone, and let God talk with me. – D.L. Moody

The secret of spending time with the Lord is to learn how to behold the glory of the Lord. The Apostle Paul
says in 2 Corinthians 3:18, “And we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.” Our
greatest need is this—to spend time with the Lord beholding His glory. God’s purpose of reproducing the
very image of Christ in us is fulfilled by beholding the Lord. Our being transformed and changed from within
is realized by beholding the Lord. Everything we need will be supplied to us from the Lord Spirit by beholding Him.

How to Behold the Lord
If as a believer you are discouraged with yourself and frustrated in going on with the Lord, let me encourage
you to lay aside everything and simply open to the Lord and say, “Lord, open my eyes and show me how to
behold You. This is my greatest need.” Indeed, the God ordained way to proceed in the Christian life is to be a person restricted and reduced to beholding the glory of the Lord. Therefore, we need to consider some practical points on how to behold the glory of the Lord. These points are like handles to take hold of in order to experientially behold Him. If we take hold of these handles it can spiritually revolutionize our entire being. 1) Take the initiative to spend time with the Lord, 2) Make and take time to be in His presence, 3) Position your heart. Let your heart be on things above, rather than things below. There are always ballgames, there is always dinners, there is always the stuff that goes on around us that we enjoy. You will never be in His presence positioned to receive if you don't do something about it.

“Receiving Christ and through Him united to God, there comes to us the stupendous blessing expressed in these words ‘that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Him may be in them.’ We become the objects of the very same love which the Father has for His Son. We are recognized as part of Him even as the bride is taken into her husband's family and loved even as her husband. This is, indeed, the mystery of mysteries: that we are permitted to share the intimate and exclusive affection of the eternal Father toward His only begotten Son. He loves us now, not for ourselves, nor in proportion to our personal claims upon His affection, but precisely as He loves Jesus Christ, with infinite complacency and unlimited measure.” – A. B. Simpson

Warning! The flood is coming!

“Water, water, every where,: And all the boards did shrink; Water, water, every where, Nor any drop to drink,” yes I still remember at least one line of poetry from high school. "Water, water everywhere" is the reality for lots of folks, they are along the Mississippi River and it is not poetry but reality right now. It's their town...their neighborhood...their house, their businesses and livelihood. The rivers are overflowing and backing up into every creek and stream they're connected to. It's a mess.

When my wife hears the word "flood," she feels something inside. Because the defining events for our house we rented while in missions in India. We were getting ready to go to our flight back to India but stopped to say hello to the renters of our home. The basement had two inches of water when we arrived. They didn’t know what to do. The hot water heater had gone out and the water was everywhere and in everything. It effects baseboards, carpets, pad, wallboard, studs and everything.

The saddest part of the story of these floods is the people who died. Because they didn't and don’t have to die. As the flood has been coming toward their towns, knowledge of the flood with warnings and orders of evacuation have been given, and rescuers came by in a boat to warn them and take them to safety. But they chose to ignore the warning. "We've been OK here for years. We're not leaving now." Their bodies may be found days later, miles away.

God grieves over people like that. Actually, I do, too, People who've been warned that there's danger - even death - coming. People who have a rescuer at their door and who think they can make it on their own. And they die. When they could have lived. Forever.

God pleads with us - "I have set before you life and death...choose life" (Deuteronomy 30:19 ). That "life" is a Person. His Son. "God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son" (1 John 5:11 ). The judgment of God for us hijacking our life from Him is racing our way - "God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing" (Ecclesiastes 12:14 ). But there's a rescuer at the door. Jesus.

He says, "I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in" (Revelation 3:20 ). He can take us to safety because He did all the dying for all of our sinning when He hung on that cross.

Maybe you've never realized that what Jesus did was for you. Or maybe you've heard His knocking more times than you can count. Either way, it's important - like eternally important - that you answer the door. And let Him save you. The Bible cries out, "Today, if your hear His voice, do not harden your heart" (Hebrews 4:7 ). The more times you've heard His voice - and done nothing - the harder your heart becomes. And that's the edge of an abyss no one should risk.

If you've never gotten into the boat with Jesus, I beg you to do that today. The flood is coming. You won't make it without Him.

Living as if it Were Your Last Day

My friend Ron McGatlin challenged me with this thought that can be asked about any situation that tragedy strikes. "What were the thousands of Japanese people who perished in the recent tsunami doing and thinking the day before the ocean rose up and carried them away?" So we could ask, I wonder what Osama bin Laden was thinking about the day before a bullet found its target ending his life? And what was going on in the lives of the hundreds of people in southern USA the day before a rash of tornadoes took them away? I wonder how different the day might have been for all these and many others if they had known that tomorrow would be the last day of their lives. You do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. ~ James

It’s almost a certainty that there will be a last day and a day before it for every one of us, including those we love the most. Life and relationships with others are very precious gifts. If we knew that today was our last day or the last day for someone we love, we would probably count every moment as very precious. We would seek to make every minute count to the fullest in loving one another. It would seem so terribly wasteful to use even one minute in worry, strife, or anger.

A day without love is a wasted day. A day without expressing love through praise to God and to the ones next to us is a wasted day. I have the most beautiful and wonderful wife in the world. I need to express that to her, to my wonderful children. A lifetime of days spent without expressing real love and sincere praise to God and then to those around us is a wasted life.

Kingdom of God living is experienced and fulfilled in the expression of real love through our actions that praise God and those around us. This is the most fundamental principle of the kingdom of God on earth. All order of kingdom life is rooted in this principle. Every aspect of life on earth is to be ordered (ruled) by the foundational principle of expressed love. God is love. The expression of God’s love from heaven is released into the earth realm through Christ in His people by the Holy Spirit.

All life in the kingdom emanates from love. All governance of life in the kingdom emanates from love. Love is from God. It is not possible to separate God from love. Without God there is no love, and without love there would be no manifestation of God on earth. God is love. Without real love there is no kingdom of God on earth, and without the Holy Spirit there is no real love on earth. 

• Love produces righteousness.
• Righteousness leads to peace.
• Peace brings joy.

The kingdom of God on earth is righteousness, peace, and joy, in the Holy Spirit. God in the Holy Spirit now abides in His humble people.  Thus, the full potential of the kingdom of God to transform the world into God’s heavenly order rests solidly and firmly within the people of God now on earth.

 All of the saints of God that have gone before have faithfully done their part and brought us to this time. However, they no longer have the potential to bring forth the kingdom on earth. Their time for that has passed. I cannot change the past in any way. I cannot reach the lost of past generations. I cannot think of the missionary need of that age. I only have potential of reaching, changing, winning, and loving today's generation that can change the future. But I cannot effect the future without participation today, right now.

 After our last day on earth, none of us will have the potential to bring forth the kingdom of heaven on earth. Only in the days in which we are alive and in this world do we have the potential to bring forth the kingdom of God on earth. Our time is now. Is there anything of greater importance and significance than fully doing our part to bring forth the kingdom of God in this world?

Our part is to be fully available for God to work in and through us to bring forth His love ruling His kingdom on earth. Two major things involved in our being available are that we are WILLING and that we BELIEVE. It is God by His Holy Spirit who is forming the Spirit of Christ in us to do the supernatural works of love, wisdom, and power to transform the world into the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.

A fresh outpouring of life is needed, a fresh surge of life is being poured out in the Spirit – exciting, powerful, and loving kingdom life rushing as a wind from heaven into the hearts and lives of His people.

We do not know how many days or years we have left to bring forth the exciting life of the kingdom of God on earth. Personally, I do not want to waste another one of them. My heart’s desire and passion is to be used of Him every day, including that last one whenever it comes, being fully alive in Him and with all that is within me imparting His love and His kingdom as much as possible to as many as possible.

The Smalling Down of Missions

Drs. Jim and Jeanne Lowell

with MA Students Georgetown, Guyana, So. America.

Smalling Down of Missions

As Director of Graduate Studies for Caribbean School of Theology it has been my joy to teach many groups of students in many areas of the world. Africa, Asia, Southern Asia, Europe, Caribbean, Central America etc. I started in Missions with the Assemblies of God in 1978 being appointed to a 10-40 Window nation while being a staff member of Renton Assembly of God in Renton, Washington. Pastor John Tappero was the Pastor. The greatness of Pastor Tappero was that he had a great, mighty, all-sufficient God. His view of God would lead him in his pastoral vision and purpose. He had started bus-ministry when others criticized him. He did Evangelism Explosion/ Discipleship Dynamics when others said it wouldn’t work. He said summer time is "Harvest Time" as a means to teach the people that, "you take your vacation" and then you come back to participate in Harvest. It worked. We take the people where we are going. The where we are going then is important.

Sunday night was the greatest service at Renton. It became part of the culture of the church. Missions and mission’s conventions were big and was a strong part of that culture. There was a belief that new missionaries selected by the Northwest District would be supported by Renton. God would supply and in faith they would support the missionaries that were selected by the District. Faith in God, his provision, God answering prayer was all part of the culture and belief of the people of Renton. They were working men and women who knew God by personal experience and were led by a man with a vital relationship with God and out of "upper room" prayer meetings in the old church was a dynamic of leadership. A man who hears from God is a powerful tool in His hand. Pastor Tappero was such a man.

When Jeanne and I came to Renton, it was God who brought us! Pastor Tappero wanted us to come. I explained we were called to missions and he felt very strongly that we were to come. That God would lead and guide us in this time of transition, "it may take two or three years" he had said. In six months we were interviewed, selected and asked to join the July group of candidates to participate with the Assemblies of God to go to India as missionaries.

The most wonderful thing about Renton was the way they loved you. Teachers, staff, deacons, families came and loved on us and blessed us to go. The "Women's Missionary Council" loved us and helped in the purchase of our appliances and adopted our children by sending out cake mixes and gifts for our children. It was beautiful. A young family called, willing, selected and preparing to go.

The church loved us and was taken by surprise as was Pastor Tappero. He had plans of his own as he was moving towards retirement and we were to be part of his plan. When God interrupted, Pastor was shocked, “I know you are called, I don’t want to lose you and the gifted ministry you bring to the church. We felt the same. When it was time to step into a plane, I really wanted to turn to the three hundred or so people at Sea-Tac and say, “I’m not going, I’m staying with you.”

The question is for me is that "who is it that calls" and as a result of calling are all who called then equal to the task of sending. Because we were going to India it was a field that people knew was going to be difficult, with living conditions that would be harsh, political climate that would be hard. All of this was true! Over the next several years there was a term that started surfacing and became a part of the missions teaching about the "10-40 Window."

As a result of living and ministering in India and other nations of the 10-40 Window I am well aware of the implications.

Missions statistics from the places of the 10/40 Window:

Center of population: Two-thirds of the world's population -- more than 4.4 billion people -- live in the 10/40 Window.

Unreached and unevangelized: 90% of the people living in the 10/40 Window are unevangelized. Many have never heard the Gospel message even once. There are either no Christians or not enough of a Christian movement in many cultures of the 10/40 Window to carry out vibrant near-neighbor evangelism.

Poverty: Eighty-five percent of those living in the 10/40 window are the poorest of the world's poor.

World religions: Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism are centered within the 10/40 Window.

Least evangelized cities: Half of the world's least evangelized cities are in this window.

865 million unreached Muslims or Islamic followers in 3330 cultural sub-groupings

550 million unreached Hindus in 1660 cultural sub-groups

150 million unreached Chinese in 830 groups

275 million unreached Buddhists in 900 groups

2550 unreached tribal groups (which are mainly animistic) with a total population of 140 million

Forming a smaller -- though important -- unreached group are the 17 million Jews scattered across 134 countries

Good news: Missions researcher David Barrett says the country with the most rapid Christian expansion ever is China where there are 10,000 new Christian converts every day.

After twenty-one years serving India, did I miss God to go to the West Indies, Caribbean, to Belize in Central America and Suriname and Guyana of Coastal South America? This region that has not been participating with God in missio Dei, are now being challenged by the Spirit to participate with Him in going to “all the world.” This is one of the mysteries of the “voice of God and his call.” It is important to note that our God doesn’t leave anybody out. Doesn’t leave out a nation, or people group, doesn’t leave out a color or characteristic of skin, He has specifically said that “none would perish” that “all come to repentance” and “all the world.” I am reminded about His Word, which has by the way supremacy over our small thoughts and ideas, visions and theories. It is He who said,

 “go into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature.”

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations…”

The Great Commission - A Personal Calling to All Disciples

In the Great Commission, Every believer must ask, “Where,” “Where do you want me to Go.” Jesus calls every Christian to step out in faith and spread the Good News. This is obedient faith in action! People who obey this command change their spiritual lives forever! It could be spreading the Good News to a neighbor or moving to another country to reach the people there. But, We are all asked to make disciples! The question is Where?

The “Smalling Down of Missions” is to limit where and what we do within this sphere. Is it a lack of faith, a faith that says, “He cannot save all the world” so let’s go to plan B and segment the world into the areas that are important and areas that are not important. I actually felt this way as a missionary in India. What we are doing is big, what they are doing in Panama or the DR is small. Great and mighty God talks about “all, nations, all people, and all languages when He talks about His vision and His work. We don’t understand the simultaneously at the same time because every nation is at a different entry point in His work, becoming His people- “nation of priests.” The simultaneously at the same time of Acts 1:8 and Luke 24:47 is God’s view not man. Men will say We have a plan to reach Haiti, or Romania, or Tanzania. God’s view is that all people everywhere know Him and worship Him. Our obedience is “about signing up with God” or signing up with man, his view, his plan and his thinking.

Great Commission verses

Gen. 1:26-28 Man created to rule God’s creation.

Gen. 10,11 God identifies, then scatters the nations into separate languages – (At Pentecost God “reverses” the confusion at Babel by enabling all the nations to understand “the wonderful works of God” in their own languages. (Acts 2:7-11)

Gen. 12:1-3 God’s covenant with Abram to “bless all the families of the earth.”  I will bless those who bless you, and those who curse you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Gen. 22:15-18 God repeats his promise to Abraham, “confirms it with an oath.” (Heb. 6:13-20)

Gen. 26: 3-5 God repeats His covenant with Abraham to Isaac.

Gen. 28: 3-4 God (through Isaac) repeats His covenant with Abraham to Jacob.

Ex. 19:5-6 God identifies Israel as his “special posession” among all nations, and as a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation” to represent his loving rule to the other nations.

Num. 14:21 God declares His purpose to “fill all the earth with His glory.”

Josh. 4:24 God tells Joshua and Israel to lay up stones of rememberance so “...that all the people of the earth might know the hand of the Lord.”

I Sam. 17:45-46 David informs Goliath that his demise was so “...that all the earth may know there is a God in Israel.”

I Kings 8:60 Solomon’s Temple Dedication prayer ‘ “That all the people of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is none other.”

I Chr. 14:17 God brought the fear of Him “upon all nations” through David.

I Chr. 16:16 David reminds Israel of this covenant with Abraham.

2 Chr. 16:9 God’s eyes roam the “whole earth” seeking to show Himself strong.

Esther 8:17 “…many of the peoples of the land became Jews, and the fear of the Jews fell upon them.”

Ps. 2:8 God says, “Ask of me and I shall give you the nations for your inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for your possessions.”

Ps. 22:27-28 “All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations will bow down before Him, for dominion belongs to the LORD and He rules over the nations.”

Ps. 47:8 “God rules over the nations … “

Ps. 57:8 “let your glory be over all the earth.”

Ps. 57:9, ii “ I will sing to you among the nations … let Your glory be over all the earth.”

Ps. 67 A prayer for blessing so God’s salvation can go “to all nations.”

Ps. 96:1-3 “Declare His glory among the nations, His wonders among all peoples.”

Ps. 98:4 “Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all the earth.”

Ps. 117:1 “Praise the LORD, all you nations, exalt Him all you peoples.”

Isa. 49:6 Israel to be a light to the nations that His salvation could go “to the ends of the earth.”

Isa.52:10 “… All the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God.”

Isa. 61:11 “… righteousness and praise will spring up among all the nations.”

Isa. 66:18 “…All nations and languages shall see my glory.”

Isa. 66:23 “… All mankind will come and bow down before me.”

Dan. 2:44 God’s Kingdom will crush all other kingdoms

Dan. 3:28-29 God’s judgment on every nation that denies the God of Shadrach, Mechach, and Abnednego.

Dan. 6:25 Darius decrees that “all peoples, nations, and men of every language” shall reverence the God of Daniel.

Joel 2:28 God promises to “fill the earth” with His glory.

Micah 4:1-2 In the last days “many nations” will worship the LORD.

Hab. 2:14 God promises to “fill the earth”with His glory.

Zech. 2:11 “… many nations shall be joined to the LORD …”

Zech. 9:10 God’s rule will be “to the ends of the earth”

Zech. 14:9 “… the LORD will be the King over all the earth.”

Matt. 21:43 The Kingdom shall be taken from Israel and given to a nation bringing forth its fruit.

Matt 24:14 The gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to every nation.

Matt. 28:18-20 The Great Commission The “Inclusive” Mandate- make disciples of all nations

Mk. 16:15 “ The “Exclusive” Mandate- preach the gospel to every creature

Lk. 24:47 “ The “Message” Mandate- repentance and remission of sins must be preached

Jn. 20:21 “ The “Jesus-Style” Mandate- even as the Father sent me, so send I you!

Acts 1:8 “ The “Geographical” Mandate – simultaneously at the same time to reach to win Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and uttermost parts of the earth.

Acts 3:25 Peter repeats God’s covenant with Abraham.

Acts 10:34 People from every nation are acceptable to God.

Acts 15:16-17 Peter interprets the rebuilding of the tabernacle of David to be the conversion of the nations.

Rom. 1:5 Paul’s call included “obedience to the faith among all nations.”

Rom. 10:18 Quoting Ps. 19:4, Paul declares the heavens declare God’s words “to the ends of the earth.”

Rom. 16:26 Paul declares God’s command to proclaim the “obedience of faith” to all nations.

2 Cor. 10:16 Paul’s intention to preach the gospel in “the regions beyond.”

Gal. 3:8 Paul repeats God’s covenant with Abraham to bless all the nations.

Gal. 3:29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.- The promise and participation in Abrahams Covenant.

Eph. 1:8-11, 3:6-11 Paul declares God’s “eternal purpose” was to preach the gospel among gentile nations.

Col. 1:25-27 Paul identifies the “mystery of the ages,” which is the inclusion of the Gentile nations into God’s blessing and promise to show His glory.

Heb. 6:13-20 God reminds us that he “swore” he would uphold His covenant with Abraham.

Rev. 5:9-10, 7:9 The redeemed are from “every tribe, language, people and nation” and are a “kingdom of priests” to fulfill God’s desire for a royal priesthood and holy nation (see Ex. 19:5-6, I Peter 2:5-9).

Rev. 22:2 “The leaves of the tree went for the healing of the nations.”

Missio Dei or Mission of God is so important in the church and in the thinking of leadership about Missions. God asks us to participate with Him in what is important with Him. He loves the whole world, He didn’t limit mission to a region, to or from a nation, but that His disciples would come after Him and follow Him to win a lost world. The problem with disciples is this, “you are a disciple making others disciples or you need to be made a disciple!”

Gypsy Ministry in India- Banjara

How to Pray for Missionaries

Missions has changed. Harsh realities in the modern world soon dispel the imagined glamour of pioneer missionary work. Team work and an ability to work with, and under, leaders of other nationalities make great demands. The missionary's personal walk with God is vital.

Today's missionaries need the support of intercessors. Pray for:

· Vital, supportive home fellowships of believers who are willing to pray the missionary out to the field and keep him there.

· The supply of financial need. Missionary ministries are more expensive to maintain than those at home. The problems of money exchange, export of currency, inflation, endemic bribery, etc., are constant points of concern.

· Adequate preparation for missionary work. Theological training, ministry experience, language learning, and adaptation to a new land may take years.

· Cultural adjustment. Culture shock is the subject of much humor, but is very real. Many prospective missionaries cannot make the adjustment to new foods, life styles, languages, value systems, and attitudes. Some return home disillusioned and with a sense of failure, others react wrongly on the field and hinder their fellowship and witness; yet others go too far in their adaptation and compromise their health and sometimes their faith. Balance and objectivity are needed.

· Protection from Satan's attacks. In many areas Satan's kingdom has never been challenged before. Missionaries need discernment and authority to resist attacks he makes through health, the mind, opponents of the Gospel, and even well-meaning Christian workers. They need the victorious faith that will "bind the strong man and spoil his goods."

· Family life. For some the missionary call may mean foregoing marriage for the sake of the Gospel. The loneliness of single workers can be a heavy burden to bear. For others, family life may be made difficult by living conditions, inadequate amenities, lack of finance, or be disrupted by long separations, many visitors, and overwork. Missionaries' children may have to be separated from their parents for long periods because of education, and can become resentful or rebellious in their teens. Pray that missionary families may be an effective witness and example of all that a Christian family should be.

· Commitment to God's will. The assurance that God has guided to a particular ministry is the only anchor to retain workers in difficult situations, misunderstandings, broken relationships, and "impossible" crises. Pray that none may leave a place of calling for a negative reason, but only because of a positive leading from God.

· Fruitfulness. All workers desire an effective ministry that bears fruit. They need clear objectives and time to achieve them. Too much time can be spent on survival and handling trivial interruptions, and too little on the real task. Only the Holy Spirit can give a worker that constraining love of Christ for sinners-human pity is inadequate.

· A sense of urgency. Expulsions, or enforced departure from the field, could suddenly terminate a ministry. The missionary needs to work hard to train his successors and help local believers to maturity.

· Homecoming for furlough, or for home ministry, which can be traumatic. Returning missionaries need the continued support of God's people for overcoming re-entry shock and establishment of an effective rapport with churches at home, and of an effective ministry.

Jim and Jeanne Lowell . . . . .until the whole world knows

Regions and areas where there is no Bible Schools we pray that God will help us to start new Bible schools and train a new generation of church planters for pioneering churches where there is no church.