Da tirania para a esperança

Throughout the biblical history of Israel God used international forces to push the Jewish people towards righteousness and blessing. God’s covenant with the Jews was for blessing through obedience and, através deles, blessing for all nations on earth. But when God’s chosen people strayed far from their promised commitment and threatened their own destruction, Deus usou outras nações para trazer correção de curso.

COMO DEUS chamar a atenção do país para SE.

Já em Abraão e Issac, Deus usou a Abimeleque, rei dos filisteus, para trazer correção para os patriarcas de suas mentiras. (Gen.20, 26) Quando o plano de Deus para Israel quase foi impedido pelos filhos genocídio cruel e erupção de Jacob do siquemitas (Gen.34) It is Egypt that God used as a place of refuge and then correction for this infant nation. And as the great Israel of Soloman’s time begins a steep moral decline, God raised up the Assyrians to bring pressure to bear. As that decline continued God brought heavier judgment on Israel through invasion and finally exile to Babylon. Em seguida, it was the Babylonians who rebuilt and reestablished the Jews in their homeland in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. From the broadest perspective it seems that God has always used the unrighteous nations to judge the unrighteous in order to draw our attention back to Himself.

Pessoas que têm algo para viver, NÃO jogue fora LIGHTLY.

I have just returned from six weeks in the Middle East and Asia where I have had much time to ponder the ways of God in current events. I was in Egypt on 9/11/2001. As I returned last month, longe de criar maior medo ea timidez dos cristãos no Egito, radical Islam and the threat of terrorism is creating greater boldness among the believers and greater tolerance for Christians among the Muslim officials. In Egypt, Bangladesh, Dubai and Kuala Lumpur it seemed so clear to me that the pressure of capitalism and economic development is dealing a deathblow to Islamic fundamentalism, marginalizing the extremist by increasing the quality of life. People who have something to live for, even if it is material blessing, do not throw it away lightly. Claro, as economic development works against extremism, it also creates a spiritual void. Mas, could that be part of God’s strategy for the Middle East? Could a crushing blow to Islam through capitalism create the environment for sweeping evangelism? If so the Christians in Egypt and Malaysia are more prepared than ever. Egypt was a stronghold of the earliest church. Who is to say that we will not see that again?

CHINA: Criando um ambiente propício para fazer grande avivamento.

Considere o século passado na China! After nearly 2000 anos de tirania dinástica é o comunismo que derrubaram as paredes do império fechado, creating an atmosphere condusive to great revival. There are now millions of Chinese believers. E, agora que o desenvolvimento econômico é desmantelar sistematicamente o controle do comunismo, this mammoth Church is preparing to influence the world beginning with India and the Middle East. Was communism the political pressure God used to bring China to Himself? Could capitalism be God’s tool to diffuse Islam and bring a great freedom for His Spirit to reach these lost and barricaded nations?

CONSIDERAR KOREA - Norte e Sul!

Seul agora é relatado para ser 40 a 50% Christian. Some feel the huge, affluent and educated church of Korea may be in danger of becoming self-absorbed and fat. Contudo, North Korea is looming on the horizon. It cannot be long before the political tyranny there fails completely. Has God prepared a body of believers in the south for the challenge of reaching the lost in the north? And is the challenge of reaching North Korea the very thing that the church in South Korea needs to stay vital and Christ centered?

Alcançar ou SER ALCANÇADO!

No esquema das coisas de Deus, Cuba poderia ser apenas o desafio necessário para afiar uma igreja auto-indulgente na América? The church in Florida alone could take on the challenge of flooding, evangelizar e desenvolver Cuba, mudar o destino de uma nação.

E o que sobre a Europa? As “Christian Europe” becomes an archaic phrase used mostly by humanist politicians to defend values for Europe that God could never tolerate, que Deus poderia estar se preparando para pressioná-nos de volta a concentrar-se sobre ele. Rodeado pelo muçulmano do Norte de África para o sul, the Middle East to the southwest and Russia to the northwest it does not take a very active imagination to see the pressure God could bring to bear. It is “reach” or “be reached!"

This perspective should give us hope! God is not thwarted in the cacophony of global issues before us today. Quite the opposite, He is alive and well and doing what He has been doing in all of human history. He is using the unrighteous to bring pressure on the unrighteous. He is seeking to reach and teach the nations and there is no power great enough to stop Him. Quite the opposite, He uses the most unlikely, if not unwilling of powers, in order to accomplish His will.

TEACH US TO PRAY.

Em segundo lugar, this perspective should show us how to pray! Let us pray that the systems of men that control the peoples of the world be crushed by any means God deems necessary. Let us pray that the chaos that results not be wasted but the void filled with the life-giving message of Christ. Let us pray that a bound church be liberated through any means necessary and become again the bride worthy of the groom. Pray that even now Christian business people, Os cristãos no governo e direito, Cristãos na educação e saúde, Cristãos em terapia familiar e de desenvolvimento, evangelist and church planters in South Korea begin to prepare for a free North Korea. Pray that the economic development in the Middle East continue to keep ahead of the influence of terrorism. Pray that a vibrant wave of evangelism from Malaysia, China and Korea flow over the Middle East. Pray that by any and all means, Europa ser devolvidos às suas raízes cristãs, que são os cristãos na Europa.

Seu para tudo o que é seu,
Landa