从暴政希望

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, 通过它们, blessing for all nations on earth. But when God’s chosen people strayed far from their promised commitment and threatened their own destruction, 神使用其他国家带来校正航向.

上帝如何绘制一个民族的关注自己.

追溯到亚伯拉罕和伊萨克, 上帝用非利士人的王亚比米勒带来修正自己躺在先祖. (Gen.20，26) 雅各的儿子们的苛刻和皮疹种族灭绝示剑当神的以色列计划几乎被打砸 (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. 然后, 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.

有生活的人, 不要把它轻轻.

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, 远离创造更大的恐惧和胆怯的基督徒在埃及, 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, 孟加拉国, 迪拜和吉隆坡它的似乎这么清楚，我认为资本主义的压力和经济发展造成致命一击的伊斯兰原教旨主义, marginalizing the extremist by increasing the quality of life. People who have something to live for, 即使它是材料的祝福, do not throw it away lightly. 当然, 随着经济的发展反对极端主义, it also creates a spiritual void. 但, 可能是神的中东战略的一部分? 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?

中国: 氛围的营造方便伟大复兴.

考虑中国在过去一个世纪中! After nearly 2000 多年的王朝暴政，它是共产主义扯下墙的封闭帝国, creating an atmosphere condusive to great revival. There are now millions of Chinese believers. 和, 现在，经济发展是共产主义的控制系统拆解, 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?

考虑KOREA - 南北!

现在首尔报道 40 对 50% Christian. Some feel the huge, affluent and educated church of Korea may be in danger of becoming self-absorbed and fat. 但, 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?

达到或REACHED的!

在神的计划中的事情，古巴只是需要磨砺自我放纵的美国教会的挑战? The church in Florida alone could take on the challenge of flooding, 传福音和发展古巴, 改变一个民族的命运.

和什么有关欧洲? As “Christian Europe” becomes an archaic phrase used mostly by humanist politicians to defend values for Europe that God could never tolerate, 神可能是准备给我们施加压力，以专注于他. 北非穆斯林到南部接壤, 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!“

这个角度看，应该给我们希望! 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, 他使​​用最不可能的, 如果不是不愿意权力, 为了完成他的意志.

教导美国祈祷.

其次, 这个角度看应该告诉我们如何祷告! 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, 在政府和法律的基督徒, 在教育和医疗保健的基督徒, 基督徒家庭治疗和发展, 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, 欧洲返回到其基督教根源, 这是在欧洲的基督徒.

你的一切是他,
兰大