Friday, July 27, 2012

Josef Tson: Courage in Christian Ministry

Josef Tson, a Romanian follower of Christ, suffered intensely for his faith at the hands of the Romanian government. Josef shared this powerful testimony at Desiring God in 2000.  He entitled this message Persecution and Christ-likeness. It is available to download for free from the Desiring God website.

This message is full of magnificent statements like, "If all of your enemies are God's instruments, why are you afraid?"

Let me encourage you not to deny yourself the tremendous blessing of listening to this excellent message.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Darkness & Light

My heart aches upon hearing the terrible news of the massacre at a Colorado movie theater.  At least 12 people dead, maybe three times that many injured, and an entire country left terrorized. 

A very sad fact is that this horrible incident is not an isolated one.  With the bus bombing in Bulgaria recently, the school shootings that we are becoming all too familiar with, and the daily assaults of news paper headlines of shootings in our cities, it is almost as if we live in a war zone.

This dark and evil destructiveness stands in stark contrast to the words of the most famous teacher in history, "Love each other as I have loved you" and "Love your neighbor as yourself."

I sit here stunned as the news of these terrorist attacks swirl around in the media.  Meanwhile the words of life hang in the atmosphere of my mind like a neon sign. 

The amazing thing about the great teacher's words is that while he told us to love as he loves, he knew all the while that he would face a horrible death.  He did not shy away from that terrible death specifically because of his great love for us and his powerful submission to the will of his Father.  Love each other so much that you would lay your lives down for one another... 

Another of his great quotes is this, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friend."  Not only did he teach this, he lived it, and then he died to show that it was not just words.

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.
- Jesus, John 13:34

For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: "You shall love your neighbor as yourself."
- Paul, Galations 5:14

What would the world look like if these words were taught in our schools and our churches, displayed in our courtrooms, placed in prominent places in our cities, and adhered to by our citizens?

In stead our country, which has pushed very hard to remove God from our society, looks much more like this:

And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
- Jesus, John 3:19

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Bold Truth - A Rare Combo Today

It is rare that I agree with much of anything that a Catholic Priest has to say.  However this is one of those very rare times.  May there be many more who boldly speak the truth like this!  God Bless America!