I was amazed to discover that according to the February 11, 1997 edition of the New York Times more Christians have been killed in the 20th century than in the 19 centuries before. Think about this: No religion except Christianity has a Foxes Book of Martyrs. Now think about this: In the early church what did God have to do to accomplish Acts 1:8? The command should have been challenge enough but it wasn’t. Acts 8:1 states that it took persecution to accomplish Acts 1:8. Compare those two texts and note the geographical similarity.
Os Guinness in his tremendous book, “Dining with the Devil” warns that the mega-church movement is flirting with modernity and loosing sight of our original purpose. The Bible, discipleship, expository preaching, prayer and living the Spirit filled life is being ignored for numbers, results, prestige and money.
I can say with the authority of Acts 1:8 and Acts 8:1 that God will allow pressure (perhaps persecution) to come to return us to God’s Acts 1:8 program. Militant Islam could very well be the tool God uses.
Dr. Erwin Lutzer recently said, “There is no example in history where Muslims have given Christians equal rights. All Muslims who take the Koran seriously believe that they should work toward the Muslim rule of the world.” The extreme liberals could very well gain control of the Congress in 2008. If that happens you can expect Freedom of Speech to be restricted (legislation such as the “Hate Crimes” bill & the “Fairness Doctrine”). Today’s evangelical passivity could actually close the door for evangelical radio!
In the meantime we should take the tests of Ephesians 5:20 to make sure 2 Peter 3:18 is happening:
giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
This text is a reminder that we can give thanks always because we know that nothing can happen to us without first passing through the Will of God. (Study Job 1:10) God allowed Satan to attack Job so that God could prove that Satan was wrong! Job survived because of his relationship with Divine Viewpoint:
“—I have esteemed the Word of His mouth more than my necessary food.” (Job 23:12)
In Ephesians 5:18 I read the command to “be filled with the Spirit”. In Colossians 3:16-17 we see the same results of being controlled by the Spirit that we have in Ephesians 5:19-21 but in Colossians we have the key:
“Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Col. 3:16)
The secretary for President Bush (41) came to faith in Christ when I was preaching at Word of Life. When she went to England with George Bush I told her to go to the weekly Bible Class of Martyn Lloyd-Jones. She wrote to tell me of his in depth bible teaching and the fact he spent several nights on the comma! Ephesians 5:18 gives the conjunction “But” as a key. In other words, if I am not controlled by the Spirit I am vulnerable. Case in point - the world call us to position, possessions, and pleasure (I John 2:16). But states Ephesians 5:18 - i.e. the only preventive is the filling of the Spirit technique. The church is flirting with modernity. Therefore in 2008 expect Acts 8:1 to bring us to Acts 1:8!
(Call and ask for the CD “A Time For Testing”. In this CD I give a detailed outline for living Biblically in 2008. This year could be a crisis year. Because of this we are making Prophecy and where we are on the Prophetic clock the theme of the Songtime USA Conference September 5-7. The same great team will be back and we are in the early stages of planning some exciting tours. One of the tours might be to the National Seashore Park. Last weekend in their theater I saw “Desperate Crossing - The Untold story of the Mayflower”. Then I toured First Encounter beach where the Pilgrims first landed. I think Larry Ford could sing and we can share a Bible text. You can expect a memorable time. Sign up now. We are having a great pre-registration. People are concerned about the days we are in. so let’s learn from the Bible what to expect. We will also want to deal with some election issues that we can’t do on the air!)