Good people without restraint do horrible things.  All have sinned and are fallen short of Godliness.  When we learn this, we can be saved by monitoring one another and by submitting ourselves to each other.  Whenever anyone is above the law, especially the law, we end up with horrors manifold and repetitive.

As a soldier I have seen people with guns and no control conceive and carry out horrible things.  If we do not submit ourselves one to another in the fear of God, we are horribly ignorant of our own fallen state.

Retired?  That word or idea is not biblical.  Elders are commanded to teach and we want to put the old in confinement (old folks homes).

Do you know someone looking for a missions opportunity for teachers? The Mission Society’s K through 12 school in Bolivia is looking for volunteer Christian teachers starting this fall. The surrounding community ranges from indigenous spiritual practices to atheism and materialism. Len Phillips with The Mission Society says the school is their ministry tool. “We really see the school as just a tremendous bridge into the Bolivian culture and society, and a great avenue for sharing the transforming power of Jesus Christ with our students and families.” You don’t have to speak Spanish to get involved. The only requirement is that you love teaching kids and have a heart for the Lord. Even if you can’t volunteer, your prayers are needed “for the spiritual atmosphere on our campus: that the Lord would be at work, and that He would continue to be opening up hearts and lives, just giving that spiritual vitality even to our teachers and staff as they minister to our students.”

http://www.bobbywatts.org/index.html

Maybe your prayers are not answered because Jesus said he would give to you based on your giving.  Give and it will be given pray and you will be answered.  Lift your eyes for the world harvest.

Religious freedom is hitting a new low in Uzbekistan. According to Forum 18 News, police raided one children’s camp and are trying to take the property of another–ironically called Camp Joy. Joel Griffith of Slavic Gospel Association says, “The state does not want to buy the land back…. Instead, they want to confiscate it. The intention then is to turn around and sell the land to somebody else.” Under Uzbek law, actions like this have to be done at the time of purchase. SGA-supported churches bought the Camp Joy property thirteen years ago. “Once this court hearing gets held on August 15, we’ll have a clearer idea of where things stand.” While Uzbekistan’s constitution guarantees religious freedom, Griffith says it’s basically non-existent in everyday life. Ask the Lord to protect Gospel workers. Pray also for justice in tomorrow’s court hearing. “Pray that the Lord would move in the hearts of the authorities to change the situation on the ground in Uzbekistan.”

http://www.bobbywatts.org/index.html

You would think that every church is involved. Sadly, many people are involved but involved in buying and using child prostitutes. Our nation teaches babies to have sex by planned parenthood and offers no moral restraints. Unfortunately, the church, deemed a solution, empowered by Jesus, does nothing. I belong to many churches and sadly have planted churches who choose to sing and dance rather than become involved in reality.

The United States FBI arrested 159 child traffickers in a three-day sting operation last month. 105 kids were rescued. Bill Blacquiere, President of Bethany Christian Services, says this is a wake-up call. “These arrests by the FBI I think have brought to people’s attention that child trafficking goes on here in the United States.” Bethany has a trauma and torture counseling center “to help children who have been victims of trafficking, and we refer to them as survivors.” They also sponsor kids at risk overseas. “Children can stay with their families and stay in school. Without that, parents sometimes are talked to about releasing their child for what the trafficker would say is to give them job training.” The Gospel message is Bethany’s driving force. “We demonstrate the love and compassion of Jesus Christ by providing them families, counseling, and showing them what it really means to be loved and cared for.”

If your church is not involved, maybe it is not a church but a place to hang out, sing and murmur and gossip, not a place to worship and work for God. I go and listen to sermons and there is nothing about the news and no call to commitment. There is a war going on but what you find is fun and fellowship (not with persecuted saints or those who give their lives for the Gospel).

Try. Listen, take notes and find out what you are expected to do. If the answer is fellowship and giving money, you are in the wrong place.

Change the names of the country to the USA and the areas to Atlanta or Detroit and you will see why the Muslim Brotherhood (notice I did not say all Muslims.) The brotherhood will kill you in the name of peace.  They believe that the only way to have peace is for everyone to bow to Islam and themselves as the law.

The news!!

Islamists menaced a Christian neighborhood in the south over the weekend. When the smoke cleared, 15 people were hurt, and several homes along with a church were burned. E3 Partners Middle East expert Tom Doyle says Muslim Brotherhood blame the Christians for their fall from grace. “They really can’t do anything to the military at this point, because the military is so strong. So they’re going after Christians. They’re unleashing their anger on Christians.” So far, Islamist vengeance hasn’t really been deterred. That reality is chilling, says Doyle. “God is their protector there because they cannot depend on the government.” Even though thousands are fleeing, you can interceed on their behalf.

Believe me, if you ever live in a closed country, I have for 11 years and be notified that they (whoever) are coming to get you (and they did) it is a very unsettling situation.  Many Christians in China, Vietnam, Egypt, … are in prison, for life or many years because they are Christian.

Relax and sleep and you will find yourself overrun by Islamists, communists, politicians or pushers.

http://www.bobbywatts.org/index.html

End of life conversations happen in families where kids and elderly live in community.  Today we separate ourselves from pain and frustrations and instead of facing life, we run.

Talking with most folks, you have to lie or just not talk to them.  If you hurt, you say you are OK.  If you are sad, you have to say “it’s OK.”

If you die now, have you said “Goodbye.” to everyone you should?

Are you living a lie?  If you are prepared to die and start doing things you wanted to do before you die, you can live.  Do something now that you always wanted to do and then you won’t have to die wishing you had.

My friends in Northern Nigeria die because they go to church.  Now, that’s dedication.

Die changing the world.

“What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty and democracy?”

Sun Tzu, early Chinese general and author of The Art of War

If I die today, I would be sad.  I have done so many things that I do not want to talk about with God.

I want to give the father something to make him proud but am such a failure.  Perhaps you can help me do something good, something noble, something to make life better for someone who has nothing to live for.

Perhaps.

Perhaps going home to be with the Father would be better than another day of mistakes.

For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

I am stupid.  Really, I am not kidding.  When I study I find myself learning something new and different each and every day.  I am amazed at the arrogance of Christians, especially here in the USA and more importantly, here in New York.

I am meeting many people from around the world and thought that ethnic arrogance was reserved for nations where a major people group suppresses indigenous.  The world is not made up of countries divided by lines, but people groups, tribes and nations.  Shocking though it seems, two people from the same nation, lines drawn by men, may not be able to speak because they are not from the same people group.

Fortunately, there are many who do know better and who travel to the ends of the earth.  People who do what Christ said and go to the ends of the earth, often find that people on one side of a mountain do not speak the same language or are the am ethos as those on the other side of the same mountain though man may have included them within the boundaries of one or another nation.  In China, there are many different groups of people, which are included in a homogeneous group, designated by man.  Hmong are actually many different peoples and though they are from the same mountainous area do not speak the same language, nor do they dress the same either.  When you go to the market in Sa Pa, the mountains of Vietnam, you are struck by the colors and languages of the people from the area.  They are of the same ethnos, people group and are often grouped for translation by governments and then, to their chagrin, find the people do not know what they were given, nor understand what is told them.

So, in order to speak the things of importance to a people, it behooves you to find out what language they use, how they talk to each other and if they understand you.  The Holy Spirit came upon the believers, as written in the book of Acts chapter 2, in the Bible: And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language. And they were all amazed and marveled, saying one to another, Behold, are not all these which speak Galilaeans? And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed, and were in doubt, saying one to another, What means this? Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

According to this account, God deemed it necessary to speak to the people in the language wherein they were born.  God did not seem to think that a general proclamation in the language of the day was sufficient but went to the languages of their hometowns.  Therefore, seeing that God deemed it necessary, perhaps we could use the same care when sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Today, we are blessed to have organizations that specialize in tongues of nations and have tried to reach people groups in their own language.  http://grnusa.net/ is a fine example of a place to go when you need to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with someone who you might think understands English or your native tongue.  You might be delightfully surprised that they have a language or idiom that needs a translation which speaks to their heart.

Read the following article for further illumination.

http://conversation.lausanne.org/en/resources/detail/11672