Fra tyranni til Hope

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, gjennom dem, blessing for all nations on earth. But when God’s chosen people strayed far from their promised commitment and threatened their own destruction, Gud brukte andre nasjoner for å bringe kurskorrigering.

HVORDAN DRAW GUD en nasjons oppmerksomhet til seg selv.

Så langt tilbake som Abraham og Issac, Gud brukte Abimelek, filistrenes konge å bringe korreksjon til patriarkene for deres lyver. (Gen.20, 26) Når Guds plan for Israel var nesten forpurret av Jakobs sønner harde og utslett folkemord på sikemittene (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. Deretter, 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.

Folk som har noe å leve for, IKKE KASTES LETT.

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, langt fra å skape større frykt og engstelse for de kristne i Egypt, 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 og Kuala Lumpur det virket så klart for meg at trykket av kapitalismen og økonomisk utvikling er å håndtere en dødsstøtet til islamsk fundamentalisme, marginalizing the extremist by increasing the quality of life. People who have something to live for, selv om det er vesentlig velsignelse, do not throw it away lightly. Selvfølgelig, som økonomisk utvikling virker mot ekstremisme, it also creates a spiritual void. Men, kan det være en del av Guds strategi for Midtøsten? 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?

KINA: Skape en atmosfære condusive til stor vekkelse.

Tenk det siste århundret i Kina! After nearly 2000 år med dynastiske tyranni det er kommunismen som rev ned veggene i lukket imperium, creating an atmosphere condusive to great revival. There are now millions of Chinese believers. Og, nå at økonomisk utvikling er systematisk demontering kontroll av kommunismen, 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?

VURDERE KOREA - nord og sør!

Seoul er nå rapportert å være 40 til 50% Christian. Some feel the huge, affluent and educated church of Korea may be in danger of becoming self-absorbed and fat. Men, 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?

REACH ELLER BLIR NÅDD!

I Guds ordning av ting kunne Cuba være akkurat den utfordringen som trengs for å skjerpe en nytelsessyke kirke i Amerika? The church in Florida alone could take on the challenge of flooding, evangelisere og utvikle Cuba, endre skjebnen til en nasjon.

Og hva med Europa? As “Christian Europe” becomes an archaic phrase used mostly by humanist politicians to defend values for Europe that God could never tolerate, hva kan Gud være klar til å presse oss tilbake til å fokusere på Ham. Grenser til muslimske Nord-Afrika i sør, 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!"

Dette perspektivet bør gi oss håp! 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, Han bruker de mest usannsynlige, hvis ikke uvillig av krefter, for å gjennomføre sin vilje.

LÆRER OSS Å BE.

Dernest, dette perspektivet bør vise oss hvordan vi skal be! 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, Kristne i regjeringen og jus, Kristne i utdanning og helsestell, Kristne i familieterapi og utvikling, 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 bli returnert til sine kristne røtter, som er kristne i Europa.

Din for alt som er hans,
Landa