“The nature of Christ’s salvation is woefully misrepresented by the present-day “evangelist.” He announces a Saviour from hell rather than a Saviour from sin. And that is why so many are fatally deceived, for there are multitudes who wish to escape the Lake of fire who have no desire to be delivered from their carnality and worldliness.”
A. W. Pink (1886-1952)
Gospel for Asia is a wonderful missionary organization that reaches many of the areas of Asia that desperately need to hear the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We in America just have no clue as to the persecution and distress Christians are under in many regions of the world. While we enjoy plush pews in mega churches and can freely carry our Bibles out in public our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are tortured, killed and harassed for even mentioning Christ’s name. They need our prayers. Not to be taken out of the situation but to endure and persevere through God’s grace and His power – for that is how the Church of Jesus Christ grows.
I encourage you to consider giving to Gospel for Asia. They are undoubtably the most gospel centered missionary organization I have ever encountered and their president’s passion for Christ is amazing. (Listen to a moving sermon by K.P. Yohannan, GFA’s president.)
The following article is from GFA’s web site and really gives us a brief insight into the condition in India. Please pray for this family and this pastor as they seek to bring glory and praise to the Lamb who was worthy to be slain!
The Choudhury family in Assam, India, is paying a heavy price to follow their new life in Christ. They have been forced to flee their home by the harassment and threats from other villagers, including their own relatives.
Lalit, Anjali and their three children chose to follow Jesus after hearing about His love from GFA-supported Pastor Samir Datta. When the couple recently made a bold proclamation of their new faith in the community, their relatives and others in the village reacted strongly. In fact, they launched an intense campaign of harassment to try and force the family to come back to the area’s traditional religion.
Because of the pressure, Lalit and Anjali realized they couldn’t stay in their own house. They took refuge in Pastor Samir’s home, but now some in the village are threatening him, saying they will beat him for “converting” the Choudhury family and giving them shelter.
In the area where the Choudhury’s and Samir live, there is the added tension of tribal-related conflict. Their state has witnessed much bloodshed and strife over the past several decades as political and ethnic groups—particularly differing tribes—have warred against each other. The situation has been quite volatile at times, and some have feared that the conflict could explode like it did in the early 1980s when more than 3,000 lives were lost.
In this environment, Christians live with both the tension of tribal conflict and the risk of persecution for their faith.
GFA leaders ask for prayer for the Lord’s divine protection for the Choudhury family and Pastor Samir as they suffer under threats and pressure from the local community. They also request prayer that those opposing the family for their faith will have their hearts changed toward the Gospel.
After four and a half years of vigilantly fighting breast cancer, Rachel Barkey, the 37 year old wife and mother of two was diagnosed with terminal cancer. But for Rachel the essence of life is found in her relationship with God through Jesus. And that’s why Rachel is convinced that death is not dying.
I encourage everyone to watch this video. Watch it together with your family and children. This is the power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the result of a changed, God glorifying life that is transformed and made into the image of Christ through the power of the glorious Gospel of God.
“Men evangelized cannot go to hell but over the bowels of God’s great mercies. They must wade to it through the blood of Christ.”
- John Duncan
By Dr. Kim Riddlebarger
When we use the term “grace alone,” what we mean is that our salvation from the wrath of God – our deliverance from hell – is because of something good in God, and not because of anything good in us. The Biblical conception of human nature after Adam and Eve’s fall into sin is not a pretty picture, and Amerians, who seem to have an unlimited confidence in human nature and human goodness, have a very difficult time accepting what the bible says about the human condition. In a democratic culture such as ours, we believe that our vote counts, and that by exercising our right to choose, we can actually and significantly change the world around us. We are all taught from our youth that we have it within ourselves to accomplish anything, if we simply put our minds to it and give it our best efforts. And when we become Christians we carry that optimism over into our theology. If God tells us to do something, it must be because we have the ability to do what he commands! Choice becomes everything. And thus we fall headlong into one of the greatest heresies in church history, the heresy of Pelagianism, a theme to which we will return at the end of this lecture. It is really quite simple; grace alone doesn’t make much sense to an American who doesn’t think that much is wrong with the human condition in the first place. For if people are basically good, why then, do we need grace in order to be saved.
But to those who understand what the bible teaches about the effects of sin, grace alone is our only hope of heaven. And thus when we speak of grace alone (sola gratia), we are speaking of the fact that God saves us, because of his mercy and graciousness toward us, and not because of something – indeed anything – in us that makes us desirable to God. We really cannot understand grace alone unless we understand what it is, exactly, that sin has wrought upon us.
Gospel for Asia missionary Ojas Ganj can only see out of one eye today. On February 19, four anti-Christian extremists beat him severely, inflicting multiple wounds including an eye injury. This was the second time fanatics attacked him this year, both times in his village in Orissa, India. For the past two years, Orissa has been India’s most dangerous state for Christians.
A Christian named Hruday Nayak was killed by anti-Christian fanatics two days ago,” wrote GFA’s correspondent in the area. “The “persecution in Orissa is still prevailing, and the Christians are not safe even today.”
Please pray for our brother and sisters in India and for the Lord to continue granting faith and repentance to those who walk in darkness!
An interview at a mall that leads to the presentation of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Please pray for John that he will come to a saving faith in Christ and turn from clinging to works.
“Do not flatter yourselves of being good enough, because you are morally so; because you go to church, say a prayer, or take sacraments, therefore you think no more is required. Alas, you are deceiving your own souls; and if God, in His free grace and mercy, does not show you your error, it will only be leading you a softer way to your eternal ruin. But God forbid that any of you, to whom I am now speaking, should imagine this; no, you must be abased, and God must be exalted, or you will never begin at the right end. You will never see Jesus with comfort or satisfaction, unless you go to Him only on the account of what He has done and suffered.”
- George Whitfield (1714-1769) from “The Folly and Danger of Parting With Christ”
This is Bob Jennings in such a wonderful presentation on purity of devotion to Christ in 2 Cor. 11:2. This is such a powerful message and delivered with such godly love.
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