Podcasts about indian christians

Today's Headlines2025 World Watch List released: India maintains 11th spotChristians respond as Malawi hosts influx of Mozambican refugeesAlawite religious group targeted in Syria by militants

With Prime Minister Modi's reelection, has continued on the path to more restrictions against Christian ministry and gospel work. Christian persecution has moved from the village or community level to the national-government level under Modi's direction. Because of these changes, earlier this year The Voice of the Martyrs changed how India is classified, from hostile area to restricted nation, a place where the government is the driver of persecution against Christians. Despite increasing persecution for Christians in India, our faithful brothers and sisters there serve the Lord—no matter the circumstances. Brother Vijay, a gospel worker from India, joins VOM Radio this week to share how Indian Christians are responding to stricter anti-conversion laws and other increasing persecution. Thousands of Christian ministries have been closed and/or had bank accounts frozen, forcing persecuted Christians to develop creative ways to continue ministry. By staying the course, they demonstrate, “Our ministry is not dependent on money, but on God.” Currently, at least 11 Indian states are enforcing strict anti-conversion laws. Some of those laws carry the threat of life sentences and hefty fines. Vijay will share stories of bold pastors persisting in their ministry after experiencing imprisonment — and one even after being thrown off a moving train! With all these pressures, Brother Vijay explains the preparation to prepare pastors should they end up in prison, and how learning the Bible is the greatest tool for Christians facing trials. Pray for Christians in India that they would be encouraged and remain hopeful amidst increasing persecution.

With Prime Minister Modi's reelection, India has continued on the path to more restrictions against Christian ministry and gospel work. Christian persecution has moved from the village or community level to the national-government level under Modi's direction. Because of these changes, earlier this year The Voice of the Martyrs changed how India is classified, from hostile area to restricted nation, a place where the government is the driver of persecution against Christians. Despite increasing persecution for Christians in India, our faithful brothers and sisters there serve the Lord—no matter the circumstances. Brother Vijay, a gospel worker from India, joins VOM Radio this week to share how Indian Christians are responding to stricter anti-conversion laws and other increasing persecution. Thousands of Christian ministries have been closed and/or had bank accounts frozen, forcing persecuted Christians to develop creative ways to continue ministry. By staying the course, they demonstrate, “Our ministry is not dependent on money, but on God.” Currently, at least 11 Indian states are enforcing strict anti-conversion laws. Some of those laws carry the threat of life sentences and hefty fines. Vijay will share stories of bold pastors persisting in their ministry after experiencing imprisonment — and one even after being thrown off a moving train! With all these pressures, Brother Vijay explains the preparation to prepare pastors should they end up in prison, and how learning the Bible is the greatest tool for Christians facing trials. Pray for Christians in India that they would be encouraged and remain hopeful amidst increasing persecution. Never miss an episode! Subscribe to the VOM Radio podcast or download the VOM App for your smartphone or tablet. You can also give online to support persecuted Christians through the work of The Voice of the Martyrs. COMING IN 2025: Subscribe now to Extreme Devotion, a new short, daily devotional podcast from The Voice of the Martyrs, which will begin on January 1. Subscribe now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Binu 'Ben' Varghese is a PhD student in religion and society at Princeton Theological Seminary. His research focuses on intersections of race, politics, and religion among Indian diasporas in transnational contexts. He draws his theoretical formulations from the colonial history of Dutch slavery in India and alternative readings of Indian American history and memories. In addition to his research project, Binu is also interested in religion and capitalism, and religious nationalisms in India and America. He is currently serving as the editorial assistant of the Journal of World Christianity. His upcoming research essay is titled “Liminality as Decoloniality: Decolonizing Indian American Christianity,” which will be published in The Routledge Handbook of Politics and Religion in Contemporary America. We also discuss “Indian Flag at the Capitol Insurrection and ANti blackness among Indian Christians” from the Berkeley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs. Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/luce-cohort-summer-2024

This Week: A controversial UN vote, pressure mounts for Israel to end the Gaza war; Indian Christians under siege. A new law bans prayers for healing; Steps to take this Easter for family & business success; A Jerusalem tour of significant Easter Week locations.

A controversial UN vote, pressure mounts for Israel to end the Gaza war; Indian Christians under siege. A new law bans prayers for healing; Steps to take for family & business success; A Jerusalem tour of significant Easter Week locations.

A controversial UN vote, pressure mounts for Israel to end the Gaza war; Indian Christians under siege. A new law bans prayers for healing; Steps to take for family & business success; A Jerusalem tour of significant Easter Week locations.

A controversial UN vote, pressure mounts for Israel to end the Gaza war; Indian Christians under siege. A new law bans prayers for healing; Steps to take for family & business success; A Jerusalem tour of significant Easter Week locations.

It's Thursday, January 11th, A.D. 2024. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. (Adam@TheWorldview.com) By Jonathan Clark Vietnam imprisoned or put on home detention 258 people International Christian Concern reports that Vietnamese Christians feature prominently in a recent report from Defend the Defenders. The report found that Vietnam has imprisoned or put on home detention 258 prisoners of conscience. Each of them faced harassment, arrest, and imprisonment for exercising free speech and religion. The targets for persecution include religious leaders.  One example is Mr. Trần Văn Bang. The Christian leader is serving four years in prison. He has opposed communism in Vietnam and openly shared his faith in Christ. Vietnam is ranked 25th on the Open Doors' World Watch List of nations where it is most difficult to be a Christian. Jesus said in Matthew 10:32, “Whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in Heaven.” Christians are leaving India for United Kingdom The Guardian reports that churches in the United Kingdom are getting a boost from Christians migrating from India.  Over the last decade, Christian identification has fallen from nearly 60% of the U.K. population to under 50%. Meanwhile, the number of Indian Christians in the country has surged from 135,000 to over 225,000.  Local pastors report Indian families also have large numbers of children who tend to show more interest in religion than British young people. Biden rolls back conscience protections Yesterday, the Biden administration continued to role back conscience protections for Americans. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a mandate forcing employers to pay for abortifacients in their health insurance plans. However, religious organizations were able to get exemptions after challenging the mandate in court. And the Trump administration expanded these exemptions to businesses.  The latest rule from Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra claims to balance respect for religious beliefs and a so-called “right” to contraception.  Tom McClusky with CatholicVote commented, “Is this a win for religious freedom? I'd say it could have been much worse. The onslaught of public protest prevented HHS from sending us back to 2011. But the rule definitely leaves Americans at the mercy of Becerra's whims – and whether he feels that the protections we do have are even worth enforcing.” U.S. House approves $1.6 trillion spending deal U.S. Congressional leaders agreed to a $1.6 trillion spending deal Sunday ahead of a potential government shutdown later this month. The agreement includes nearly $900 billion in defense spending and over $700 billion in non-defense discretionary spending. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and Democrat Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer negotiated the deal. The agreement accelerates $20 billion in cuts to funding for the Internal Revenue Service and rescinds $6 billion in unspent pandemic aid.  However, conservatives with the House Freedom Caucus  criticized the deal for too much spending, calling it a “total failure.” 20% of office space is vacant Moody's Analytics reports 20% of office space in big U.S. cities was unleased at the end of last year. It's the highest number on record for commercial buildings. Working from home has become more common since the COVID-19 pandemic. However, Moody's also noted the 1970s and 1980s saw overbuilding in the commercial space. Texas had the top three cities for office vacancy rates: Houston, Dallas, and Austin. Scientists confirm destruction of Biblical city of Gath And finally, scientists from several universities in Israel believe they have confirmed the destruction of a Biblical city as described in Second Kings. Chapter 12:17 says, “Then Hazael king of Syria went up, and fought against Gath, and took it: and Hazael set his face to go up to Jerusalem.” Researchers identified the city of Tell es-Safi as the Biblical city of Gath occupied by the Philistines. In fact, Goliath, the giant, was from Gath.  Previously, scientists believed bricks from a wall in the ancient city were kiln-fired before construction. But, thanks to the technology of thermal demagnetization, researchers discovered the bricks were most likely burned in a destructive event, aligning with the Biblical account.  Professor Aren Maeir at Bar-Ilan University said, “Our findings are important for determining the intensity of the fire and the scope of destruction in Gath — the largest and most powerful city in the land at the time — and also for understanding construction practices in the region.” Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Thursday, January 11th in the year of our Lord 2024. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

Today we're fascinated, repulsed and sent to our knees by the news: pastors being removed from the pulpit, Prince Charles becoming King Charles III, another horrific shooting at a Dallas mall, violence against Indian Christians and more. Follow The Common Good on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram Hosted by Aubrey Sampson and Brian From Produced by Laura Finch and Keith ConradSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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IN THIS PODCAST: As India celebrated its 73rd Republic Day, the Church celebrated the feast of St Titus who boldly professed his faith in a tyrannical Roman empire and readings of the liturgy spoke of God's offer of true freedom in Christ. In his reflection, Fr Sandeep connected these three themes and highlighted the many Indian Christians who fought for the independence of India. On this day, we are invited to acknowledge the fact that the truth made us free back in 1950 and only defending the truth will keep us free now. This homily was preached on the passage from Jn 8:31-42 by Rev.Fr.Sandeep Menezes, CSsR, on 26th Jan. 2022. Let us reflect and pray to the Lord

Maryanne J. George is a dynamic worship leader/songwriter/musician who is passionate about encountering the Lord through worship. Maryanne is a member of Maverick City Music - a collective of worshipers committed to deconstructing unspoken rules that exist in the CCM and Gospel world. In 2021, Maryanne released her first EP entitled “Not Just Stories”. It captures the essence of Maryanne's journey with the Lord, featuring a collection of deep-felt worship and uplifting praise songs. In this interview, Maryanne talks about: - Her introduction to God and her faith journey throughout her life - Her experience as an Indian Christian and the pressure of representing her culture - Her music journey - how she got into song-writing, joining Maverik City, and releasing her first EP “Not Just Stories” in 2021 Maryanne's Socials: Website: https://maryannejgeorge.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/maryannejgeorge/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4nMPNmeygaudrlnaoEjpf3 Grateful Living Info: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Bo0LHtRJJNJBUYIceg27w Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3Hn4ttttmbWfVqAhWh4Jhi Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/id1503185956 My Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aroy81547/?hl=en Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/gratefulliving4 Medium: https://gratefulliving4.medium.com/ Time Stamps: 0:00 Intro 0:57 Can you talk about your childhood and what you were like as a kid? 3:45 Was it a dream for you to be an internationally known singer as you are today? 7:01 What was your introduction to God and how did you maintain that relationship as you grew older? 13:23 Has being an Indian Christian been hard given Indian Christians are a minority? 16:24 Do you ever feel the pressure of representing Indian Christians? 23:53 You were sexually assaulted at 12. Can you speak about this experience? 35:16 As you look back at 18-22, any wisdom you wish you had? 44:00 What gave you the confidence to publicly publish your first cover? 47:14 What has your husband Jon meant to you in your life journey? 51:03 How did song-writing become a part of your life and how did you end up joining Maverik City? 59:30 How did you build confidence to sing in front of big crowds? 1:01:26 How do you balance loving the Lord versus viewing it as work and being a professional? 1:05:11 How has fame been? 1:09:30 How do you guys manage group dynamics in Mav? 1:14:08 What was it like winning a Billboard Award and a Grammy? 1:17:20 What was it like making the “Not Just Stories” EP? 1:19:00 How do you set goals in a healthy manner? 1:21:11 How was having a child in 2021 and be a mother? 1:24:30 Anything else we should be looking forward to?

It's Friday, August 5th, A.D. 2022. This is The Worldview in 5 Minutes heard at www.TheWorldview.com. I'm Adam McManus. By Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com) In 2021, 26,774 Indian Christians persecuted for their faith Open Doors recently finished compiling final numbers of persecution in India. Between January and December 2021, 26,774 Indian Christians faced physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual abuse for their faith. Twenty of those believers were murdered. On average, 73 Christians face some form of persecution a day in India. Nearly 70% of those abused Christians are women or children.  Between 2020 and 2021, the number of persecution incidents in the country increased by 54%. One Indian pastor told Open Doors, "I cannot stop serving God. I cannot live without God because I've surrendered my whole life to Him. I'll keep serving God till my last breath, even in happiness or sadness, even if I have to suffer greatly or slightly, even if I have to give my life for God." James 1:12 says, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.” Furious China fires missiles near Taiwan after Pelosi visit China deployed scores of planes and fired live missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its biggest drills in the Taiwan Strait, a day after U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a solidarity trip to the self-ruled island, reports Reuters. Responding to the Chinese drills, Taiwan's President, Tsai Ing-wen, said Taiwan would not provoke conflicts but would firmly defend its sovereignty and national security. The military activity followed Pelosi's unannounced visit of support to Taiwan in defiance of warnings from China. China, which has long said it reserves the right to take Taiwan by force, says its differences with the island are an internal affair. Jury awards Sandy Hook parents $4 million against Alex Jones On Thursday, an Austin jury decided Infowars host Alex Jones must pay at least $4.1 million to the family of a 6-year-old boy killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for the suffering that Jones caused by claiming the December 2012 massacre was a hoax, reports NBC News. Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, whose son Jesse was killed by Adam Lanza, alongside 19 of his classmates and six educators at the school in Newtown, Connecticut, spoke at the trial. Here's what Lewis said. LEWIS: “It seems so incredible to me that we have to do this, that we have to punish you to get you to stop lying, saying it's a hoax. It happened!  It's surreal what's going on in here.” She elaborated on the bizarre, provably false claims by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. LEWIS: “That Sandy Hook was a total hoax, that it was a false flag, that it never happened, that there were no children killed. And you know that's not true. You know that's not true. But when you say those things, there's a fringe of society that believe you, that are actually dangerous.” The father, Neil Heslin, was equally grieved by Alex Jones. HESLIN: “I can't even describe the last nine and a half years of the living hell that I and others have had to endure because of the negligence and recklessness of Alex Jones.” And yet, speaking of the recklessness of Jones, just this week, in the middle of the trial, he went on the radio to spin a new conspiracy altogether. He claimed that Neil Heslin, the Sandy Hook father in the case, is mentally challenged and being manipulated by bad people. JONES: “Let's just say: he's a nice man. It's not an act. He is being manipulated by some very bad people. But I'll just say, because I gotta be honest, he's slow. Okay? I mean, I think he looks and acts like somebody on the [autistic] spectrum.” DeSantis suspends Soros-backed state attorney Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis has earned a reputation as a man who is unafraid to take on the Leftist mob. He took on the woke executives at Walt Disney World. He cracked down on illegal aliens. And he's declared war on public schools that are teaching Critical Race Theory. And now – he's going after far-left prosecutors who are refusing to enforce Florida laws that ban abortion and child sex change surgeries, reports Christian talk show host Todd Starnes. DeSantis announced that he has suspended State Attorney Andrew Warren. The Florida governor said, “We are suspending Soros-backed 13th circuit state attorney Andrew Warren for neglecting his duties as he pledges not to uphold the laws of the state. We are not going to allow this pathogen of ignoring the law get a foothold in the state of Florida.” Football coach offers to adopt unwanted children of players And finally, University of Michigan head football coach Jim Harbaugh put his money where his mouth is in the debate over abortion by offering to adopt any child that was unwanted by his players and staff members, reports The Blaze. Listen to his remarks in a July 27th interview with ESPN, HARBAUGH: “If they have a pregnancy that wasn't planned, go through with it, go through with it. Let that unborn child be born, and if at that time, you don't feel like you can care for it, you don't have the means or the wherewithal, then Sarah and I will take that baby. Any player on our team, any female staff member, any staff member or anybody and in our family or that doesn't feel like, after they have a baby, that they can take care of for it. We've got a big house. We'll raise that baby.” In John 13:35, Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” Close And that's The Worldview in 5 Minutes on this Friday, August 5th, in the year of our Lord 2022. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldview.com. Or get the Generations app through Google Play or The App Store. I'm Adam McManus (Adam@TheWorldview.com). Seize the day for Jesus Christ.

An imam (Muslim leader) in Bangladesh was reading the Quran when he came across the name of a person he didn't know much about: Isa (Jesus). As a local mosque leader, he felt he should learn more about this person mentioned in the Quran, so he asked around his village for a book about Jesus. He was given a New Testament and began to read—and soon recognized that Isa is far more than a prophet. He's the Son of God and the only way of salvation! But following Jesus can be dangerous in a place where Christians are persecuted, as this now-former imam learned. That's just one of the stories you'll hear this week from Matthew Hanson, VOM's regional leader for South and Central Asia. Matthew will also share what Christians in India are facing in the face of a Hindu nationalist government and a nationwide network of radical Hindus infiltrating churches, persecuting pastors or instilling fear in the local people to persecute their own neighbors because of their faith. In spite of that persecution, though, he says Indian Christians—including children—are responding with grace and boldness to their persecutors. You'll also hear the story of a Nepali missionary working in a difficult place—and how God miraculously helped her learn the language in only six months! Matthew will equip listeners to pray for our brothers and sisters in South Asia who are being disowned and threatened by family members because of the gospel. One Christian woman whose entire family rejected her said, “Jesus has given me life. He is real. He is the only God.” Pray believers in South Asia will continue to hold their confidence in Christ.

An imam (Muslim leader) in Bangladesh was reading the Quran when he came across the name of a person he didn't know much about: Isa (Jesus). As a local mosque leader, he felt he should learn more about this person mentioned in the Quran, so he asked around his village for a book about Jesus. He was given a New Testament and began to read—and soon recognized that Isa is far more than a prophet. He's the Son of God and the only way of salvation! But following Jesus can be dangerous in a place where Christians are persecuted, as this now-former imam learned. That's just one of the stories you'll hear this week from Matthew Hanson, VOM's regional leader for South and Central Asia. Matthew will also share what Christians in India are facing in the face of a Hindu nationalist government and a nationwide network of radical Hindus infiltrating churches, persecuting pastors or instilling fear in the local people to persecute their own neighbors because of their faith. In spite of that persecution, though, he says Indian Christians—including children—are responding with grace and boldness to their persecutors. You'll also hear the story of a Nepali missionary working in a difficult place—and how God miraculously helped her learn the language in only six months! Matthew will equip listeners to pray for our brothers and sisters in South Asia who are being disowned and threatened by family members because of the gospel. One Christian woman whose entire family rejected her said, “Jesus has given me life. He is real. He is the only God.” Pray believers in South Asia will continue to hold their confidence in Christ. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe to the Podcast.

On this edition of Generations, Kevin Swanson and Bill Jack discuss the rise of inflation in the U.S.--This program includes---1. The World View in 5 Minutes with Adam McManus -Pharmacies limiting emergency contraceptive pills, McManus interviews pro-life CEO whose center was firebombed, Hindu radicals carry out 45 attacks-month on Indian Christians---2. Generations with Kevin Swanson

This week on the Global Impact Thread, hosts Mimi and Kim interview Dr. Aletta Bell about her lifelong medical work in North India.  They discuss the unique opportunities that allowed her to become one of four women in her medical school graduating class of 60, and her Arabia experiences that revealed the need for women to provide medical care to Muslim women. You will hear about how she established a hospital in North India, passed leadership onto Indian Christians of the newly formed Emmanuel Hospital Association, began a pioneering work of Community Health and Development to reach the root causes of disease in North India, and inspired others to follow in her footsteps.  Within the interview you will hear references to:   Emmanuel Hospital Association https://eha-health.org/   Vellore Christian Medical College https://www.cmch-vellore.edu/, and  Dr. Ida Scudder's Biography in Dr. Ida by Dorothy Clarke Wilson      Dr. Aletta Bell, a Canadian, has devoted her life to medical work in North India.  One of four women in her medical class of sixty, she identified a healthcare gap for Muslim women. In 1964 she established a women and children's hospital in rural North India, in an underserved Muslim population. Later she handed the hospital over to Emmanuel Hospital Association (EHA), where she continued to serve in leadership roles. Now, in her 80's, she is sharing her life stories, with a biography soon to be released.  Other Reading:  Listen to this podcast to more fully understand the health issues of women in “India: Public Health and Women's Equality in the Church” https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/audio/global-impact-public-health-and-womens-equality-church Read about other brave women doctors who overcame serious life obstacles to learn and serve others in “Our Heritage Part 4”: https://www.cbeinternational.org/resource/article/mutuality-blog-magazine/our-heritage-part-4 

Saint Thomas the Apostle was one of Jesus' twelve disciples. He is also known as "doubting Thomas", since he refused to believe that Jesus was resurrected until he saw Christ himself. Tradition holds that he later traveled east to spread the Gospel, establishing churches in the Middle East and finally in India, where he died as a martyr. For this reason, Saint Thomas is an especially important saint for Indian Christians.

On Sat, Dec 18, 2021 , from 3 - 4 pm on “IAN UNPLUGGED” on Indo American News Radio (www.IndoAmerican-news.com)., Jay M. talks with Alex Mathew and Ft Bend County Judge Juli Mathew on how Indian Christians Celebrate Christmas We are on 98.7 FM and you can also listen on the masalaradio app. Call in to 281-277-6874 to talk --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/indo-american-news-radio/support

What do you think of when you see the phrase “Asian American?” Do we think mostly about the children of East Asian immigrants? What about the children of immigrants from Indonesia? The Philippines? India? In this wide-ranging conversation, Pastor Steve Chang of the SOLA Network discusses the idea of Asian American-ness with Sam George, the catalyst for diasporas for India for the Lausanne movement. George has lived, studied, and taught all over the world, and his knowledge and experiences with interacting with Christians all over the world give us a powerful perspective on the unity provided by the Gospel and our Asian heritage. He also shared about the unique history and culture of Indian Christians, with fascinating insights for all Christians to learn about. We hope you enjoy their conversation and see the Gospel in a new, powerful, global way. Read the article: https://sola.network/article/journeys-of-the-asian-diaspora-and-indian-christians/ Watch the video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/ynydG4KCDAM Email us your questions or conversation topics: podcast@sola.network Links: Weekly Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/sola/tgif Monthly Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/sola/newsletter Facebook: https://facebook.com/thesolanetwork Instagram: https://instagram.com/thesolanetwork Twitter: https://twitter.com/thesolanetwork YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCqsoKbSYBbZZoovA24PhqAg Podcast: http://anchor.fm/solanetwork Website: https://sola.network

After nearly eight years, Pastor Al Dagel still remembers challenging Indian Christians in their walk with Christ, and today, he challenges us in the very same way.

After nearly eight years, Pastor Al Dagel still remembers challenging Indian Christians in their walk with Christ, and today, he challenges us in the very same way.

Would you like to learn more about faith? You've come to the right person. No, not me, Abraham. I'm Malcolm Cox and this is a daily devotional podcast called "Adventures in faith with Abraham". "... went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8 NIV11) Join me as we step out on a faith adventure with Abraham. Episode 1 How important is Abraham to you? He is mentioned by name 317 times in 286 verses of the Bible. More than most. On a visit to India I was requested to preach. When I asked what to preach on I was told "Abraham". "No problem", I said, "but why Abraham?" The reply surprised me, "Because many Indian Christians have never heard of him." On reflection, it made sense. So many come from a Hindu background and have never read the Bible. And of course, as was pointed out to me, we don't have to know about Abraham to become a Christian. I preached on Abraham that visit, and I hope I left a good impression of this amazing man of faith. Whilst it's not necessary to know about Abraham to become a Christian, I would suggest it is necessary to know about him to fully grow into all that we can become as Christians. Matthew includes Abraham in his genealogy of Jesus: “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:” (Matthew 1:1 NIV11) Luke records the prayer-song of Mary: “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”” (Luke 1:54–55 NIV11) Mark references Jesus mentioning Abraham in his debates with the Sadducees: “Have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” (Mark 12:26 NIV11) John captures a significant moment in the ministry of Jesus when he mentions Abraham 10 times in a few verses: John 8:33-58. If Jesus thought Abraham was important, shouldn't we? And we've not even touched on the preaching in Acts, the epistles of Paul and Peter, the letter to the Hebrews and others. We will get to those in the series. So, a simple question for today. Will you commit to taking Abraham seriously? More seriously than ever before? Pray and ask God to help you. That's my commitment to you in this podcast series, and I hope you will join me. If you have any questions or feedback please contact me: malcolm@malcolmcox.org. “He is the father of us all.” (Romans 4:16 NIV11) Let's allow him to be the father of Faith to you and me. Many thanks for listening today. See you tomorrow as we continue our adventure of faith with Abraham. Take care and God bless, Malcolm

Would you like to learn more about faith? You've come to the right person. No, not me, Abraham. I'm Malcolm Cox and this is a daily devotional podcast called "Adventures in faith with Abraham". "... went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8 NIV11) Join me as we step out on a faith adventure with Abraham. Episode 1 How important is Abraham to you? He is mentioned by name 317 times in 286 verses of the Bible. More than most. On a visit to India I was requested to preach. When I asked what to preach on I was told "Abraham". "No problem", I said, "but why Abraham?" The reply surprised me, "Because many Indian Christians have never heard of him." On reflection, it made sense. So many come from a Hindu background and have never read the Bible. And of course, as was pointed out to me, we don't have to know about Abraham to become a Christian. I preached on Abraham that visit, and I hope I left a good impression of this amazing man of faith. Whilst it's not necessary to know about Abraham to become a Christian, I would suggest it is necessary to know about him to fully grow into all that we can become as Christians. Matthew includes Abraham in his genealogy of Jesus: “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:” (Matthew 1:1 NIV11) Luke records the prayer-song of Mary: “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”” (Luke 1:54–55 NIV11) Mark references Jesus mentioning Abraham in his debates with the Sadducees: “Have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’?” (Mark 12:26 NIV11) John captures a significant moment in the ministry of Jesus when he mentions Abraham 10 times in a few verses: John 8:33-58. If Jesus thought Abraham was important, shouldn't we? And we've not even touched on the preaching in Acts, the epistles of Paul and Peter, the letter to the Hebrews and others. We will get to those in the series. So, a simple question for today. Will you commit to taking Abraham seriously? More seriously than ever before? Pray and ask God to help you. That's my commitment to you in this podcast series, and I hope you will join me. If you have any questions or feedback please contact me: malcolm@malcolmcox.org. “He is the father of us all.” (Romans 4:16 NIV11) Let's allow him to be the father of Faith to you and me. Many thanks for listening today. See you tomorrow as we continue our adventure of faith with Abraham. Take care and God bless, Malcolm

Would you like to learn more about faith? You've come to the right person. No, not me, Abraham. I'm Malcolm Cox and this is a daily devotional podcast called "Adventures in faith with Abraham". "... went, even though he did not know where he was going.” (Hebrews 11:8 NIV11) Join me as we step out on a faith adventure with Abraham. Episode 1 How important is Abraham to you? He is mentioned by name 317 times in 286 verses of the Bible. More than most. On a visit to India I was requested to preach. When I asked what to preach on I was told "Abraham". "No problem", I said, "but why Abraham?" The reply surprised me, "Because many Indian Christians have never heard of him." On reflection, it made sense. So many come from a Hindu background and have never read the Bible. And of course, as was pointed out to me, we don't have to know about Abraham to become a Christian. I preached on Abraham that visit, and I hope I left a good impression of this amazing man of faith. Whilst it's not necessary to know about Abraham to become a Christian, I would suggest it is necessary to know about him to fully grow into all that we can become as Christians. Matthew includes Abraham in his genealogy of Jesus: “This is the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah the son of David, the son of Abraham:” (Matthew 1:1 NIV11) Luke records the prayer-song of Mary: “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”” (Luke 1:54–55 NIV11) Mark references Jesus mentioning Abraham in his debates with the Sadducees: “Have you not read in the Book of Moses, in the account of the burning bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'?” (Mark 12:26 NIV11) John captures a significant moment in the ministry of Jesus when he mentions Abraham 10 times in a few verses: John 8:33-58. If Jesus thought Abraham was important, shouldn't we? And we've not even touched on the preaching in Acts, the epistles of Paul and Peter, the letter to the Hebrews and others. We will get to those in the series. So, a simple question for today. Will you commit to taking Abraham seriously? More seriously than ever before? Pray and ask God to help you. That's my commitment to you in this podcast series, and I hope you will join me. If you have any questions or feedback please contact me: malcolm@malcolmcox.org. “He is the father of us all.” (Romans 4:16 NIV11) Let's allow him to be the father of Faith to you and me. Many thanks for listening today. See you tomorrow as we continue our adventure of faith with Abraham. Take care and God bless, Malcolm

After the Rebellion of 1857, nationalist movements cropped up across the country. The idea of a free India became prevalent during this time. Indian National Congress (INC) Inspired by AO Hume, Dadabhai Naoroji and Surendranath Banerjee founded INC in 1885 It was the first time an organisation recognised India as a country The organisation initially did not have a well-formed ideology and was a debating society that met annually The idea was to let Britishers rule India while obtaining some kind of rights for the Indian citizens But it did not last long and the party was divided into two factions - Moderates and Extremists Moderates and Extremists Moderates were led by Dadabhai Naoroji, Gopal Krishna Gokhale who opposed the extremists led by Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai. The extremists were forced out of INC and the Tilak was later arrested, which led to INC losing its credibility. Aligarh University and the Muslim League In 1875, under Sir Syed Ahmed Khan, Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College at Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh was founded (renamed Aligarh Muslim University in 1920) Bengal was divided into two in 1906 - East Bengal and West Bengal The Muslim faction in the country did not feel INC is inclusive and they formed The Muslim League The Revolutionaries Jallianwala Bagh Massacre in 1919 was a turning point in the revolutionary movement The work of the revolutionaries including Khudiram Bose and Prafulla Chaki gained recognition Both of them tried to assassinate British officials and were captured and executed Jugantar was established in April 1906 by Aurobindo Ghosh, his brother Barin Ghosh, Bhupendranath Datta, Raja Subodh Mallik. They collected and manufactured arms and explosives for revolutionary activities. Ghadar Party and its movement to conduct a Pan-India rebellion in the British Indian Army. All India Conference of Indian Christians was founded in 1914 with KT Paul as its first president Find the affiliate links to the equipment and resources we use to make this podcast here. Find Writer & Geek's guide to podcasting here. Source: Indian National Congress Wikipedia Indian Independence Movement Wikipedia Timeline of Indian History from 1857 to 1947 10 Events That Led to Indian Independence Image courtesy Canva

Laxmikanth, M.. Indian Polity : Chap 2 = Making of Indian constitution Composition of The Constituent Assembly : The Constituent Assembly was constituted in November 1946 under the scheme formulated by the Cabinet Mission Plan. The features of the scheme were: 1. The total strength of the Constituent Assembly was to be 389. Of these, 296 seats were to be allotted to British India and 93 seats to the Princely States. Out of 296 seats allotted to the British India, 292 members were to be drawn from the eleven governors' provinces2 and four from the four chief commissioners' provinces3, one from each. 2. Each province and princely state (or group of states in case of small states) were to be allotted seats in proportion to their respective population. Roughly, one seat was to be allotted for every million population. 3. Seats allocated to each British province were to be divided among the three principal communities—Muslims, Sikhs and general (all except Muslims and Sikhs), in proportion to their population. 4. The representatives of each community were to be elected by members of that community in the provincial legislative assembly and voting was to be by the method of proportional representation by means of single transferable vote. 5. The representatives of princely states were to be nominated by the heads of the princely states. It is thus clear that the Constituent Assembly was to be a partly elected and partly nominated body. Moreover, the members were to be indirectly elected by the members of the provincial assemblies, who themselves were elected on a limited franchise4. The elections to the Constituent Assembly (for 296 seats allotted to the British Indian Provinces) were held in July–August 1946. The Indian National Congress won 208 seats, the Muslim League 73 seats, and the small groups and independents got the remaining 15 seats. However, the 93 seats allotted to the princely states were not filled as they decided to stay away from the Constituent Assembly. Although the Constituent Assembly was not directly elected by the people of India on the basis of adult franchise, the Assembly comprised representatives of all sections of Indian Society—Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Anglo–Indians, Indian Christians, SCs, STs including women of all these sections. The Assembly included all important personalities of India at that time, with the exception of Mahatma Gandhi. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

GOI Act 1919: 1. It relaxed the central control over the provinces by demarcating and separating the central and provincial subjects. The central and provincial legislatures were authorised to make laws on their respective list of subjects. However, the structure of government continued to be centralised and unitary. 2. It further divided the provincial subjects into two parts—transferred and reserved. The transferred subjects were to be administered by the governor with the aid of ministers responsible to the legislative Council. The reserved subjects, on the other hand, were to be administered by the governor and his executive council without being responsible to the legislative Council. This dual scheme of governance was known as ‘dyarchy'—a term derived from the Greek word diarche which means double rule. However, this experiment was largely unsuccessful. 3. It introduced, for the first time, bicameralism and direct elections in the country. Thus, the Indian Legislative Council was replaced by a bicameral legislature consisting of an Upper House (Council of State) and a Lower House (Legislative Assembly). The majority of members of both the Houses were chosen by direct election. 4. It required that the three of the six members of the Viceroy's executive Council (other than the commander-in-chief) were to be Indian. 5. It extended the principle of communal representation by providing separate electorates for Sikhs, Indian Christians, Anglo-Indians and Europeans. 6. It granted franchise to a limited number of people on the basis of property, tax or education. 7. It created a new office of the High Commissioner for India in London and transferred to him some of the functions hitherto performed by the Secretary of State for India. 8. It provided for the establishment of a public service commission. Hence, a Central Public Service Commission was set up in 1926 for recruiting civil servants. 9. It separated, for the first time, provincial budgets from the Central budget and authorised the provincial legislatures to enact their budgets. 10. It provided for the appointment of a statutory commission to inquire into and report on its working after ten years of its coming into force. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

An excellent hymn that came out of the Great Awakening, one of William Wiliams' finest. It lifts us up in worship and acknowledges our need and dependency on Jehovah in our life's journey. In these times of turmoil, let us renew our reliance on the Lord and look to Him as our strength. It is reported the choir that sings the hymn is a group of Indian Christians who had been threatened to be killed in India a few years ago. The grace of God was upon them and they never relented nor turned from their faith in God. Article taken from Then Sings My Soul, Volumes 1 & 2 by Robert J. Morgan. Copyright © 2003 by Robert J. Morgan. Used by permission of Thomas Nelson. www.thomasnelson.com

Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu-nationalist government put India on 21-day lockdown. Every Indian is impacted—Christian, Muslim and Hindu, high caste and low caste, rich and poor. “Brother Bennie” leads Alpha Ministries and he’s in direct contact with gospel workers all over India, as well as Myanmar and Nepal. Listen as he shares what life is like right now for everyone in India, especially Christian brothers and sisters facing both persecution and pandemic. In spite of government oppression and fear of Covid-19, Indian Christians are reaching out and sharing the love of Jesus Christ. The gospel is going forth. Bennie will equip listeners to pray for India, and to reach out to Hindus who live in Western nations. Brother Bennie is a regular speaker at VOM Advance Conferences. Find out when one of these free, one-day events will be in a city near you at www.VOMAdvance.com. Never miss an episode of VOM Radio! Subscribe on your favorite podcast app.

How Islam is destroying UK. The future of Europe. The importance of India and Hinduism as a force to counter the rise of terrorism and violence globally. How UK & India must collaborate. New ideas for Indian Christians to stop evangelism. Do check out our YouTube channel 'Rajiv Malhotra Official' and do follow us on Facebook '@RajivMalhotra.Official' and Twitter '@InfinityMessage' and '@RajivMessage'. To support this project: https://infinityfoundation.com/donate/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kurukshetra/support

Introduction So turn in your Bibles to James 2. We'll look this morning at verses 1-13. I'm sorry for my physical condition. I'm not feeling very well. Don't worry, I don't think it's the Coronavirus. When I was in California I saw tons of people with masks on and all that. I tried to stay away from them. I wonder if they had masks on so they would stay away from me. But just be praying for my voice, that it won't give out. And at the end of this message, I'm going to talk a little about those conditions, and the Lord's been pressing some of those things on my heart. Favoritism Throughout Church History I have a love for church history. I come from New England, and if you're up there in New England you can see everywhere, basically on every street corner, historic congregational churches. The Church was really the center of every community, congregational churches were the center of every community. And if you went into some of those, the older churches, you could see boxed pews. You could see pews with boxes and little doors next to them, and they would have plaques on them with ancestral family names engraved on those plaques. In my opinion, they represent a scandal in the history of the church because wealthy families were able to reserve the best seats in the house and pay for them by their tithes and offerings, and actually were able to bequeath those seats to their children, and then eventually to their grandchildren. So this would go on for generation after generation. And this reflected the aristocratic nature of colonial society in which those with the power and wealth could buy the best seats in the churches. You see the same thing if you've ever been to colonial Williamsburg. You can go into the Bruton Parish Church there, and you can see plaques where, "This was Thomas Jefferson's pew", or, "This was George Washington's pew", etcetera, same kinds of things. Now, these things were much more on display in the caste system, aristocratic England, and in Europe. One ancient document of the ecclesiastical laws for the Church of England had this statement, listen to this. "The parishioners have indeed a claim to be seated according to their rank and station, but the church wardens are not, in providing for these, to overlook the claims of all the parishioners to be seated if sittings can be afforded to them." Now listen, as a church historian you have to learn to read between the lines. Let me put that in simple language. Alright? "The wealthy powerful people should be seated in the best seats, and if there are any seats left over for the poor people, they can have them." Do you wonder if they actually even read the text we're about to look at today? I mean, it's such a clear violation of the spirit of what the Lord is saying in James 2:1-13. The problem of favoritism, of we could even use the word discrimination, in churches is not a new one. It's been going on for a long time, even going back to the very beginning of the Church. I. Favoritism is Forbidden in Christ’s Church (vs. 1-4) James Simply Forbids Favoritism So this is my first point in the outline, “Favoritism is Forbidden in Christ's Church, verses 1-4. Look at verse 1, "My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism." This is absolutely prohibited, forbidden in the life of the Church. Congregations of Christians must show the total equality of all human beings before the Law of God and before the cross of Christ. The Law of God and the cross of Christ are great levelers of human beings. And we see this throughout the New Testament. Colossians 3:11 says, "Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, Barbarian, Scythian, slave or free." The last is a socioeconomic division, "but Christ is all and is in all." What is Favoritism? So when we come to favoritism, as I mentioned, another translation might be “discrimination,” but the literal Greek word is the “lifting up of someone's face.” The lifting up of the face. So that means judging someone by external appearance, by their face, by their position, by their clothing, etcetera, by their wealth and social status, partiality, being a respecter of persons. James on Specific Incidents of Favoritism James gets very specific about the kind of favoritism that he means. Look at verses 2-4, "Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in, if you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes, and say, 'Here's a good seat for you', but say to the poor man, 'You stand there, or sit on the floor by my feet', Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" So in this case it specifically has to do with the rich. The case study is of the church assembled for worship to hear the word of God preached, to sing the praises of the Lord Jesus Christ. So two different men walk into the service. We don't know anything about them. James doesn't tell us anything about them in terms of their spiritual condition. Perhaps they're believers or unbelievers, he doesn't say. Perhaps members of the church or not. Again, he doesn't say. The only difference has to do with their clothing, their physical appearance and what that shows about their status, about their wealth. One man has a gold ring and fine clothes, literally shining clothes, radiant clothes, and they are perhaps shimmering with light, the highest quality clothing is this individual. So he's got a gold ring, he's got nice jewelry, and shining clothes, and the other man is wearing poor, shabby clothes. The Greek word implies the clothes are actually filthy. The King James version has the word, “vile.” So that's a clear translation. So perhaps they smell or they stink. So this is a key moment when these two individuals walk in, how they are treated. If you show special attention to the man wearing the gold ring and the fine clothes, the shining clothes, and you've got a reserved section for wealthy people, and you usher him right to the best seat in the house, say, "Here's an excellent seat for you", but then a moment later you treat the poor man in a very shabby way, shoving him off to the side or having him sit on the floor. By the way, I don't mean any disrespect for those of you that are sitting off to the side. I did clear it with some of you folks saying they're actually not bad seats, but we don't have any special section. We don't have a roped off section based on people's socioeconomic status. But if you treat that poor man in a shabby way you have violated the spirit of the text, you've violated the Law of God. That's what James is saying, that's exactly what he's talking about. And this doesn't seem to have been merely theoretical, it was actually happening. II. Favoritism is Contrary to Christ and to God (vs. 1) Look at verse 6, "You have insulted the poor." He's not saying, "If this should happen to happen." It was already happening. And he's saying, "This must stop." He gives an array of reasons why it must stop. Let's walk through them. This is outline point number two, “Favoritism is Contrary to Christ and to God.” Verse 1, "My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don't show favoritism." So Jesus is called here the Lord of glory. What a beautiful title for Jesus, the Lord of glory. In this text he talks about people being rich in faith. I want you all to be rich in faith. I want you to be richer in faith at the end of this sermon than you were before. By Faith We See His Glory Now, what is faith but the eyesight of the soul by which we see invisible spiritual realities past, present, and future? So see with me now a present spiritual reality. I'm not going to ask you to close your eyes, but if you could just imagine the glory of Jesus seated on a throne, high and exalted. Isaiah 6, "And the train of his robe fills the temple." Your eyes would be blinded by the glory. This is the glory of Jesus. And friends, if that doesn't have a leveling, humbling effect on you, I don't know what could. Who of us can stand in the presence of such glory? Who of us would not feel with Isaiah that we want to fall on our faces and say, "Woe is me, I'm ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of glory"? And so Jesus, His glory, His radiance, His person, just levels us all. And as believers in this Lord of glory, we can't see him with our eyes, we've never seen Him, but we can see Him now by the ministry of the Word, by the power of the Holy Spirit. “As believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, do not show favoritism.” Jesus Was Not a Respecter of Persons We also need to look at Jesus's example. In life, in the ministry, He was absolutely no respecter of persons. He couldn't care less what someone's socioeconomic status, or their political power was at all. It didn't mean anything to Him. He had literally no fear of man at all. He treated everyone the same, independent of their rank or their status or whether they were a Jew or a Gentile, a male or a female. It just didn't matter to Him at all. He dealt tenderly and clearly and respectfully with people who were repentant sinners, who came to Him humble. If you came to Jesus humble, if you were a spiritual beggar, he dealt with you that way. It didn't matter whether you were an outcast leper, or a rich young ruler, or an immoral prostitute, or a member of the Jewish ruling council, or if you were a Roman Centurion in charge of 100 Roman soldiers, or a Samaritan woman getting water from the well in the heat of the day, everyone was dealt with the same, and that is, "Do you recognize your own sinfulness? Are you a spiritual beggar?" And if so, He would deal with you very kindly. He was no respecter of faces or stations or power or prestige or money. None of that meant anything, because He knew very well where we're all heading. He knew where all of this is going, He knew that every single human being would someday would stand before Him in judgment stripped of all of those earthly trappings, like we're all wearing costumes. Like kids doing dress up. It's not who we really are, and it's all going to get stripped off. And so every single human being is going to stand before Jesus. When the Son of Man comes in His glory and all the angels with Him, He will sit on His throne in heavenly glory, and “all the nations will be gathered before Him and He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” And their socioeconomic status won't mean anything, their political power won't mean anything. None of it will mean anything at all. Christ is the Perfect Image of God Now, Christ's impartiality was so pronounced, and it was so clear, that His enemies even acknowledged it and tried to use it to trap Him. You remember? On the question about taxation? They come to Him with this fawning praise. They hated Jesus. Jesus knew they were hypocrites. But this is what they said, "Teacher, we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of truth in accordance with God's Word. You're not swayed by men since you pay no attention to who they are. Tell us, is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" So even Jesus's enemies acknowledged this about Him. He had literally no fear at all of people. And that's exactly how God is as well. Jesus is the perfect reflection of Almighty God. If I can just say to any of you that's tempted to be very arrogant and prideful about your earthly situation, God is not impressed with you. “All of the nations are like dust on the scales and like grasshoppers.” Whatever way you think you're better than another human being, it says nothing to Almighty God. Psalm 62:9 says, "Low-born men are but a breath, the high-born are but a lie." In other words, there's no difference between them to God. Together they are only a breath, if weighed on a balance, they are nothing. God, again and again, we're told in Scripture, does not show favoritism. It says this again and again in the Book of Romans. For example, Romans 2:9-11, "There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew then for the Gentile. But glory, honor and peace for everyone who does good, first for the Jew then for the Gentile, for God does not show favoritism." And again, Ephesians 6:9, "Masters, treat your slaves in the same way, do not threaten them since you know that He who is both their master and yours is in Heaven and there is no favoritism with Him.” In other words, on Judgment Day you're not going to be either master or slave, you're going to be human being. And God is going to evaluate you based on who you were, based on your faith and whether, at the end of the text, you showed mercy to others. Jesus’ Impartial Obedience So Jesus Christ perfectly followed His Father's complete indifference to rank and station of the poor sinners He came to save. All of them have sinned, all of them will die, all of them will face judgment, His judgment, and all of them need Him to save them from eternal condemnation. In that sense, they're absolutely equal before Him. Before the Law of God the ground is absolutely level. Everyone has violated it. Before the cross of Christ the ground is absolutely level. Everyone who repents and trusts in Christ will be saved by it, and churches should reflect that. Churches should give a strong sense of that leveling because it's necessary for our salvation. "Unless you are changed, [converted,] and become like little children, you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven." So there has to be this leveling work that goes on. And on Judgment Day money will make no difference whatsoever. First of all, you won't have any. What would a man give in exchange for his soul? Well, on Judgment Day there will be nothing you can give because you'll have nothing. But it says this, Proverbs 11:4, "Wealth is worthless in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death." And we know that that means, in the fuller explication of the Scripture, imputed righteousness that comes from Christ, perfect righteousness will deliver you from eternal death. But your wealth will not. It will not help you. So this is the character of God, and this is the character of his son, the Lord of glory, Jesus Christ, and it should be the character of Christ's Church. III. Favoritism Reveals an Evil Heart (vs. 4) Showing Favoritism Reflects an Evil Heart Outline point number three, “Favoritism Reveals an Evil Heart.” Look at verse 3 and 4. It says, "If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes, and say, 'Here's a good seat for you', but say to the poor man, 'You stand there, or sit on the floor by my feet', Have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" “Judges with evil thoughts.” Specifically, I think in the translation from the Greek we would say a worldly heart, a divided heart, a double-minded heart. The reason that you're showing favoritism to the rich man but shoving the poor man off to the side or onto the floor is simply this, the rich man can do things for you in this world that the poor man cannot. And if you care about that, you are divided in your mind, you're worldly in your perspective. The rich man can buy things. He can buy you clothing, he can buy you houses, he can get you a high-paying job. He has influence in this world and in society, and he can get you things. And if those are the things you want, and you don't care about people, then something's wrong with you. You have become a worldly-minded judge, a corrupted person. Because the poor man can do none of these things for you, and actually is going to probably cost you time, and energy, and money, and you know it. And you don't want to give, and you don't want to be invested in the poor person's life, and so you stay away from that suffering. You draw away from that, but you want to go toward the wealthy person because he can help you. But all of this is just evidence of worldliness. A Worldly Heart James is going to expose this worldliness more in chapter four. I'll just read a couple of verses, and we'll get to that, God willing, in due time. But he says, "When you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God?" So he's addressing these things, the issues of money and what it shows about the heart. Do you want to be that kind of worldly person, or can you be liberated from that? Well, so it is also in Christian churches today seeking finances and worldly influence from the rich and famous. I remember when I was involved in a campus ministry, we got especially excited if a varsity player who played some important sport was converted, like the starting quarterback or the point guard on the basketball team, because that meant more than if the equipment manager, or the janitor got saved. We get more excited about Kanye West than we do about somebody that's genuinely converted from a rescue mission. But if Kanye West is genuinely converted we should be thrilled, and give glory and praise to God, and the same if a person from the rescue mission is genuinely converted and begins to walk in a new life. We should give glory and praise to God, because God is rejoicing before the angels in Heaven over both of them. But we tend to be respecters of persons in this regard, and be more excited at the rich and famous being converted. And why? We argue because they have a greater platform. I don't know that. I don't know what God could do through that poor man or woman, and what ministry he could have through that person. God alone knows that. He raises up the lowest of people and does amazing things in and through those people. IV. Favoritism Ignores God’s Election (vs. 5) God Delights in Choosing the Poor Outline point number four, “Favoritism Ignores God's Election.” Verse five, "Listen, my dear brothers, has not God chosen", so that's the doctrine of election, "has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom He promised to those who love Him?" So this goes to the election of God. The Bible teaches election, that “God chose people before the foundation of the world, before they were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that His purpose in election might stand, not by works, but by Him who calls, God chooses, and He delights in choosing the poor.” Overwhelmingly, statistically, God chooses poor, not influential people, to be followers of Jesus Christ. This is true in every generation, and he made this abundantly clear in 1 Corinthians 1, which we went through a number of months ago. Remember how the Corinthian Christians were enamored with the great men, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates? And then they just transferred that over to the Christian great men, "I follow Paul, I follow Apollos, I follow Cephas." They have that same mentality. They were in love with human wisdom, they were in love with human power, human wealth. And so, Paul has to kind of lower them down, and he does it by getting them to look in the mirror. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, "Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise. Not many of you were influential. Not many of you were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise. God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of the world and the despised things, the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before Him." That's powerful, isn't it? When God was choosing His heavenly kickball team who did He want? The worst players. Not the best, the worst. Now praise God it doesn't say, "Not any of you were wise, not any of you were influential, not any noble birth." There's a big difference between not many and not any. There are some, but all over the world the ranks of the Christian church are filled with people that nobody wanted, people that nobody was attracted to. And this election happened before the foundation of the world. So, for those of you that believe in reformed theology, I agree with you in the doctrine of unconditional election, but I don't like the word, “unconditional.” God has His reasons. I prefer, “sovereign election.” God was actually looking and said, "I want a lot of poor people in Heaven." And so, the text is right there, He chose them because of their rejection by the world, so that He could shame the things that are by the things that are not. So therefore, favoritism to the rich and famous makes no sense at all, because that's not what God is doing, generally. Rich in Faith “He has chosen the poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith.” What a great expression that is. I love that expression. To be rich in faith. Their poverty enables them to go to God again and again to have their needs met. Like that poor widow that Elijah stayed with in Zarephath, you remember her? And God didn't give her some super abundant supply of flower and oil to last 10 years, He gave her enough for that day. You remember? And every day the vessels would replenish. And what do you think her faith was like at the end of that experience? Day, after day, after day, looking to God to meet the need. And so also Paul talks about the widow in need trusts God for her daily needs. She has no family to provide for her, but she's strong in faith. She's rich in faith because she knows that her real provider is invisible heavenly father. And so she is strong, she's rich in faith. I also like the word rich because it points to a commodity, alright? Rich people in this world go after various commodities, gold, silver, stocks, bonds, oil futures, different things like that. The only commodity you should want for eternity is faith. Faith in Jesus Christ is the only thing that you're going to want on Judgment Day. It's the only commodity that you want to be rich in. It says in 1 John 5:4, "Everyone born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith." There's one thing you want to get out of this present world age and that's faith in Christ. When you get that faith in Christ, you will survive this present world age, you'll survive Judgment Day, and you'll go on into eternity. So to be rich in faith, favoritism ignores God's election of poor people all over the world, the poorest of the poor in Cameroon, and in Haiti that I've seen with my own eyes. The Dalit or the untouchable caste in India. The overwhelming majority of Indian Christians come from the untouchable cast. Also, the Burakumin people in Japan, they were ancestrally, leather-workers and butchers and all that, despised in general by the aristocratic Japanese society, a very stratified society, and many Burakumin have come to faith in Christ. To the black slaves in the antebellum South, many of them were chosen by God to be rich in faith and to inherit the Kingdom. God has again and again worked faith and salvation in the hearts of the poor by his sovereign grace. V. Favoritism Forgets the Oppression by the Rich (vs. 6-7) Outline point number five, “Favoritism Forgets the Oppression by the Rich.” Look at verse 6 and 7. "But you have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of Him to whom you belong?" Now James later in chapter 5 is going to deal with rich oppressors. We should imagine that in this I don't think James is talking to the church, because the language is so horrible that I can't imagine anyone claiming to be a Christian and behaving like this. So I think he's just using his platform as a prophet to speak to rich oppressors around the world in every era. Listen to what he says in James chapter 5:1-6. "Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. Your wealth has rotted and moths have eaten your clothes, your gold and silver are corroded, their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Behold, the wages you fail to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty, you have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence, you have fattened yourself in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered innocent men who are not opposing you." James 5:1-6. So those are the kind of rich oppressors that he's dealing with. I think he doesn't go into such details here, but that's what he's dealing with. Most of the Rich are Unconverted Now worldwide, the overwhelming majority of the rich and powerful are unconverted. And they use their positions of power to crush and oppress the poor and needy, so they can stay in power and to hinder the spread of the Gospel. That's exactly what James says is going on here. He says, "The rich and powerful are exploiting you." The rich can jury-rig the system to take advantage of the poor. They can bribe judges. They can get certain people that they own established in positions of power and make them puppets. He says, "They're dragging you into court. They then can force you into court where you will lose. No advocate will speak for you. The bribed judge will throw the book at you. The judicial system will enforce the unjust ruling against you." And it says, “they blaspheme the noble name,” I love that, the beautiful name, “the noble name to which you belong,” that is, of Christ. They blaspheme Jesus. They don't have any respect for Jesus, they don't love Jesus. “Their god is their stomach, their glory is in their shame,” Satan is behind their temporary power that they're abusing, they have no respect for Christ and they blaspheme Him daily. So why would you insult the poor to favor the rich class? Look what's happening with rich oppressors. VI. Favoritism Violates the Law of Love (vs. 8-13) The Royal Law of Scripture Outline point number six, “Favoritism Violates the Law of Love.” Verses 8 and 9. It says, "If you really keep the royal law found in scripture, love your neighbor as yourself, you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as law breakers." So James's final point here has to do with the law. He calls it the Royal Law of Scripture, I love that, the Royal Law of Scripture, the kingly law. God the King is giving this to you, and it's a summation of the law, the second great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Paul said in Romans 13 that whatever horizontal commandments there may be, “such as do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, whatever commandments there may be are summed up in this one law, love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no harm to it's neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” Well, that's what James is quoting here. Favoritism, however, violates the law of love. It violates the second great commandment, love your neighbor as yourself. Now listen, you should not twist the second great commandment to say, " I need to love myself first, and then I can love my neighbor as I'm loving myself. I just have such trouble loving myself." Friend, you do not have any trouble loving yourself. You've been loving yourself from your first breath. All of you mothers that have nursing infants, you know exactly what I'm talking about. At three in the morning that child has no concern for you at all. We are fanatically committed to self-interest, been that way our whole lives. It is the very thing the gospel is trying to save us away from, it is what the flesh is all about. But there's just a natural, normal, appropriate love for self, there's nothing wrong with it. When you're hungry, you feed yourself. When you're thirsty, you give yourself a drink. If you're cold, you put on a jacket. If you have an itch between your shoulder blades, you'll break one arm to try to get to it and just make yourself suffer to alleviate your own suffering. You will do whatever it takes to get out of pain. You love yourself already. And so, what the second great commandment is saying is, “love others the way you love yourself,” and as Jesus put it, it's what generally known as the golden rule, do to others what you would have them do to you. So think about the scenario, the case study. Favoritism Breaks the Law of God If you were walking into a church service that you've never been in before, how would you want to be treated? How would you want to be treated? Would you want to be shoved off to the side? Or said, "Sit on the floor by my feet"? Or would you want to be treated well? Now, look, a rich person coming in who's a stranger, we want to treat that person well too. We don't want to say to the rich person, "Sit on the floor by my feet." We don't want to do that at all. What we want to do is treat people equally. And so for us then, you see somebody come in, you give up your seat and then you be the one to sit on the floor by somebody's feet. And that way nobody's putting you down, you're just serving. You're willing to make that person's church experience a sweet experience. That's what love is all about. But favoritism, James says, breaks the law. If you strip a person's dignity based on wealth, it's shameful and degrading. And a violation, James says, of one part of the law is a violation of all of it. Breaking One Law Still Makes You a Law-Breaker Look at verse 10 and 11, "Whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it. For he who said, 'Do not commit adultery', also said, 'Do not murder.' If you do not commit adultery, but you do commit murder, you become a law-breaker." So this is a vital plank in our witnessing strategy. As we share the Gospel with lost people, it's very common for people to make a list… the very thing we sang about, a list of things they don't do. Ways that they are morally superior to others. I will never forget, I used to do a street ministry in Boston. We'd go out in cold weather and we'd find people that were cold and we'd feed them and get them to shelters. And I remember there was this one particular man who abandoned his family in Pittsburgh, his wife and children, because he was addicted. But he said he wasn't as bad as another homeless guy that he met over on the other street last week who did X and Y, and Z. I said, "It's incredible what we sinners will do to feel good about ourselves." "Alright, it's true I do this, but I don't do any of these." And what James says here is so vital for us as witnesses, so vital, theologically. If you break one part of God's law you're guilty of violating all of it because the same God gave it all. It's a perfect set of righteousness, of motives and behavior, and God means all of it for all people for all time. That's what he's saying here. And so, this destroys that works of righteousness that you're going to hear again and again, which I heard from a Lyft driver when I was in California this week as I was sharing the Gospel with him, the same kind of thing. "Well, it's true, this and this, but I don't do this. And I'm hoping to be basically a good person, and to use my good works to pay for my bad." He didn't use that exact language, but that's what he was hoping for. But the same God that said you shall not murder also said you shall not commit adultery, and vice versa. Therefore the law is designed, as we've learned, to bring us to the cross. It's to crush you, it's to humble you, to strip you of self-righteousness and say, "It is true, maybe, that I've neither literally, physically murdered, nor physically committed adultery." Many people can meet those two criteria. But what about, “you shall not covet”? Has your heart ever been set on some advantage that another human being has had? And you were so burned up with jealousy over that? No one can survive that. And so that covetous heart, Jesus then took back to the law against murder and said, "Maybe you haven't physically murdered, but have you ever been angry in your heart towards somebody? Maybe you've never physically committed adultery, but have you ever lusted after somebody?" Jesus is just taking the law of covetousness, a heart law, and applying it to all of it. And what ends up happening is you realize none of us can survive, we have violated God's law, and according to what James says here, we've therefore violated all of it. The whole Book of the Law stands against us. Praise be that Jesus violated none of it. He wove together a perfect garment of righteousness, and He's just handing it to you as wedding clothing that you can put on to be part of the wedding banquet, just put it on by faith in Christ, just put it on and you'll be seen to be perfectly righteous. You'll actually be seen as though you have violated none of the precepts of God's law because you are in Christ’s righteousness. As it says, "God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God." Saved by Mercy to Show Mercy to Others Now, having been saved by that mercy, we are then commanded to show mercy to others. Look at verses 12 and 13, "Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom." So we are going to be evaluated by that law, and we have already been condemned by it and brought to the cross. Praise God, in that way we are judged by the law in time, that there's time for us to do something about it. We have been brought to the cross. "We speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment." Freedom Given by the Law Now, it's beautiful how he says the law gives freedom. And you're like, "Well, how does the law give freedom? All it does is condemn us. It kills us." Well, it kills you to bring you to the cross. And Christ's death becomes your death, and you realize you needed that. But then you're made alive by Christ's resurrection. Now, what? The Holy Spirit then brings you back to the perfect law and says, "Now fulfill this." He takes the perfect moral law and writes it on your heart. He transforms you from the inside, He writes His commandments, by His Spirit, in your heart, and you're transformed. You start to live a different kind of life. That's the very thing we're going to talk about, God willing, next week, the works that come from a justified life. Now this law sets us free, it's the perfect law that gives freedom. Freedom from sin, from those invisible chains of selfishness and corruption and wickedness that we all have. The law sets you free by bringing you to the cross and then bringing you back to the fulfillment of the law by the Spirit. And he says judgement without mercy will be meted out on Judgment Day for those who have lived merciless lives here on earth. So if you have been shown grace and mercy at the cross, you're under strong obligation to show grace and mercy to others, and you will. You will. If you're genuinely born again you will show mercy. You will not run away from the poor and needy individual, but you'll go toward them. We're going to talk about this next week, but if you've got clothes, daily food, and you see someone in need, you're actually going to do something about it. You're not going to hide away from the person who's going to be a drain on time, energy, money, you're going to go toward them, and you're going to show them mercy. And so, when the poor man comes to your church where he's humiliated everywhere else in life, but when he or she comes to your church, that person's lifted up and elevated and treated like a human being, and they hear the Gospel of freedom, and they're convicted that they also, poor as they are, are a law-breaker too, and they find salvation, and they are ennobled and they are shown that they are an heir of an eternal kingdom and all of their best things are yet to come. That's the kind of church that we want to be part of. VII. Applications Are You in the Faith? So what applications can we take? Well, first, let the law convict you and bring you to the cross. Has that ever happened? Do you know that you're a Christian? Did you walk in here today knowing that you're a Christian, you're born again, that you're trusting in Christ alone? If not, then I'm just asking you, let the law do its convicting work to bring you to the cross of Christ, and there you'll find, as the text says, mercy, mercy. God will show you mercy. The Rich and Poor in Light of Eternity Secondly, see all people, rich and poor alike, in light of eternity. Let's stop looking at the outward appearance. Let's realize the rich and powerful person has a soul that will spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. The poor, needy person has a soul that will spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. Stop looking at the outward appearance. It's like a costume, it's temporary, it doesn't last long. And don't see the poor person only in terms of his neediness, but in terms of the fact that he's created in the image of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ. Faith is True Wealth Thirdly, see faith as a true wealth. Get rich in faith. How do you do that? Well, have a quiet time, let's start there. Every single day feed your soul on the Word of God. Let your eyes, the eyes of your heart, be enlightened. Not your physical eyes, but to be able to see invisible spiritual realities, past, present, and future, be able to see Judgment Day and the world beyond, be able to see the world that we're going to in which everyone's free of sin and there's none of that socioeconomic division anymore, but there will be eternal glory will shine like the sun in the kingdom of our Father, that's the kingdom that we're heirs of, that James talks about here. See that. See the present reality, the Lord of glory, Jesus, seated on the throne. Be rich in faith. See the past, that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. The same God that brought the Jews through the Red Sea, he's just as powerful today. So just every day be feeding on the Word. Commune With God Daily I'm surprised as I go into counseling with people and I ask how are your quiet times going, and it's like, "Yeah, it's hit or miss." Can I just urge more “hit” than “miss”? Can we just start there? Let's just have more hit than miss, and then let's just hit all the time, every day. You feed yourself every day. Alright? Physically, feed yourself on the word of God, sit under good teaching, saturate your minds, listen to podcasts, do different things that saturate your mind, memorize scripture, be rich in faith and let the Word of God move us more and more to mercy ministry. I talked about this downstairs last week, on orphan care and widow care, and just we're going to keep talking about this. This is a major theme with James, of caring for people that are poor and needy and in distress. It's easy to shrink back, to pull back from them. The Coronavirus You know I was thinking about this Coronavirus. Many of you I'm sure are thinking about it, and we have friends that are serving the Lord overseas, and they've had to relocate very rapidly because of health concerns. It's not the first time that it's happened. You know that in the history of the Church, Christians made a name for themselves during the various times of plague during the Roman Empire where they cared for the sick and dying, not just of their own, but also of the pagans in the community where everyone is running for their lives and paganism was proved to be bankrupt, morally, here are the Christians going into sick houses, even going to pagan temples where all of the sick and dying were dragged because they were hoping to receive a benefit from the gods and goddesses. Christians would go in there and take them out of that place, carrying them with their own hands, and nursing them to health. And many of those Christians contracted the illness and died. And we're going to meet those heroes, those men and women that nursed sick people to health, we're going to meet them in Heaven. You're going to be honored to meet your sister and brother in Christ that died in a plague during the Black Death or during that Roman era, etcetera. Whatever You Do, Don’t Fear Death In 1527, Martin Luther wrote a treatise entitled, “Whether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague.” It's interesting, and it's amazingly relevant, and I would commend it to you. He's very balanced in his approach. You know, his answer is not a simple yes or no. But one thing he wanted to go after is you should not be afraid to die. You should not be afraid to die. Satan, the devil, feeds fears of death and makes us shrink back. It's why we generally don't care for the poor and needy, because we care too much about our earthly lives and our health and wealth. Now Luther was big on talking to the devil. I'm really not as big on talking to the devil. But this is what he said, and you can read this, this is public domain. He said, "The devil stirs up terrors of death that we do not care for our neighbors as we should. So you should say to the devil,” this is Luther talking, but I'm going to just read it. He also threw ink wells at the devil, he did a lot of things in reference to the devil. "Say to the devil, 'No, you shall not have the last word. If Christ shed his blood for me and died for me, why should I not expose myself to some small dangers for His sake and disregard this feeble plague? If you can terrorize, Christ can strengthen me. If you can kill, Christ can give me life. If you have poison in your fangs, Christ has far greater medicine. Should not Christ with his promises be more important to me than the devil with his threats?'" Prayer Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the promise of life in Christ. We thank you that we don't have to fear for our health. We don't have to fear for our pile of money. We don't have to fear for our time and our energy. Help us to do mercy ministry, to be drawn toward those people that are needy, toward those people that are broken, and not be characterized by favoritism or discrimination going after the rich and famous. Help us to treat all people as eternal souls that will soon be stripped of those temporary privileges, or temporary deficiencies, and will be souls, eternal souls either in Heaven or Hell. Help us to be the kind of church that is embracing and enticing, where we treat others the way we ourselves would want to be treated. In Jesus name. Amen.

Paul Ebenezer is a born-and-raised Indian. His mom, who is a Christian, was widowed when Paul was young but she forsook remarrying so she could focus on raising Paul Ebenezer in the Lord. In spite of her noble efforts, Paul initially wandered off into a life of heavy drinking. But his mom was vindicated when finally her prayers were answered and Paul Ebenezer decided to follow Jesus and to do so wholeheartedly. Following his conversion, he had the opportunity to work directly with the great Indian missionary, Moses Paulose, whose testimony reads like the Book of Acts: India. Podcast host, Justin Mayfield, had the opportunity to get to know Paul Ebenezer when Justin spent a season as a missionary in India as the two worked side-by-side servicing the ministry's tech needs. During this time, Justin, along with a few of his fellow missionaries, were used by the Lord to introduce Paul to his wife. Justin jokes that he "arranged" an Indian marriage and Paul Ebenezer often shares the testimony with his countrymen that some people came all the way to America to introduce him to his wife. Today, Paul Ebenezer is a pastor and he recently had the opportunity to travel to the United States. The reason he traveled all the way to the other side of the world is because he is raising funds to build humble church buildings for Indian Christians who have no place to meet. He is also raising funds for equipment to share the Gospel with unreached Indian tribes. Paul will regularly drive to remote villages where people have never heard of Jesus and show The Jesus Film with a mobile projector and sound system. Many people come into the Kingdom of God through efforts like these. In this episode, learn the genius of a simple life when it comes to following Jesus and maybe even gain a little insight into some of the dynamics behind why Indians have a less than 1% divorce rate! HIGHLIGHTS As a teenager, before he knew Christ, Paul Ebenezer drank whole bottles of hard alcohol in one sitting. Indian states speak different languages. Paul was able to communicate with his wife because he learned her language working with Moses Paulouse, who was from the same state. On his first flight to the U.S., Paul thought the flight attendants were trying to feed him like an animal, until he learned what "salad" was. His family and church don't spend much time recreating. They spend most of their free time in prayer and joyous worship.

How God is working through the Windrush generation and beyond. The number of churches continues to drop in the UK. As CT reported last month, there are only 39,000 congregations left in the country, a quarter drop from 20 years ago. But despite churches increasingly closing their doors and the number of people attending church falling, this bad news isn’t across the board. For Black Majority Churches, the numbers actually look a lot healthier. These congregations began in the wake of World War II, when immigrants began arriving in the UK from the Caribbean, sparking a generation that became known as the Windrush generation, named after the boat that the inaugural group took. “They came over to help the UK,” said Chine McDonald, the media, content, and PR lead at Christian Aid. McDonald’s family came over from Nigeria several decades later, though they didn’t always face a warm welcome from the local congregations. “I remember when we would go to predominantly white churches. We would arrive on a Sunday and were told, ‘What made you choose this church as opposed to a black church that was down the road?’” said McDonald. “...These white majority churches weren’t used to see black people in their congregations, weren’t used to having black friends or black neighbors.” Nigeria is actually responsible for one of the country’s most robust denominations, the Redeemed Christian Church of God, which has more than 800 churches in the UK. McDonald joined digital media producer Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss the growth of African and West Indian Christianity and how it is changing the UK.

Last week, Narendra Modi was sworn in for a second term as India's Prime Minister. His party, the BJP, won a resounding victory in parliamentary elections. As Indian pundits – a word that is, by the way, of Indian origin – will tell you, if Modi and the BJP were the obvious winners, their political rivals, the Congress Party, were the big losers. But there's another potential loser in these elections, one that should especially concern American Christians, and that's Indian Christians. To understand why, you need to understand Hindutva, which is the BJP's governing ideology. It literally means “Hinduness,” and defines what it means to be an Indian in religious—to be specific, Hindu—terms. Hindutva regards Christianity and Islam as foreign religions, and therefore any Indian who claims to be a Christian or a Muslim is less than truly Indian. According to this ideology, Hinduism is central to what it means to be an Indian. While most of the world mistakenly sees India as a land of Gandhi, gurus, and nonviolence, there's nothing peaceful or tolerant about Hindutva. For instance, the man who assassinated Gandhi was an adherent of Hindutva who felt Gandhi had betrayed the Hindu community. In the runup to the election, one BJP candidate called Ghandi's assassin “a patriot.” Though Modi denounced the comments, they are consistent with the principles of Hindutva. More concerning are the many examples of Hindutva-inspired persecution of Christians in India, especially in the five years since the BJP first came to power. In the weeks before the election, there were reports of “food deprivation, beatings, and jail” directed at Christian converts in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand. As Open Doors put it, “because radical Hindu nationalists view followers of Jesus as alien to the nation, all Christians in India are suffering persecution. Driven by a desire to cleanse their country from Islam and Christianity, nationalists do not shy away from using extensive violence to achieve their goals.” Part of their campaign to cleanse India of Christians involves anti-conversion laws. At least six Indian states effectively prohibit conversions to Christianity. I say “effectively,” because Hindu nationalists there have found a way around the freedom of religion guaranteed in the Indian constitution. Any conversion that results from “force, allurement or fraudulent means” is illegal. Given the vagueness of these terms, Indian law empowers ideologically-driven local officials to view all conversions as guilty until proven innocent. For all these reasons and more, India currently ranks tenth on Open Doors World Watch List—which is eleven spots higher than when the BJP first assumed power. All of this may come as a surprise given what we often hear or read about India in mainstream media outlets. For example, a recent discussion of the Indian election on a New York Times podcast explained the threat to Indian Muslims, but made no mention of the persecution of Indian Christians. To be fair, India does have the second-largest Muslim population in the world, and the most visible religious conflict there falls along Hindu-Muslim lines. Still, there are more than 30 million Christians in India, and there's some reason to believe that this number may be significantly understated. Muslims aren't the only targets of Hindu extremism. Indian Christians are rightly concerned about what Modi's triumph means for them. We should be concerned as well. After all, contrary to Hindutva ideology, Christianity is no European import. It existed in India before Paul reached Rome. Some churches in southern India even worship in an offshoot of Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. We must pray for our Indian brethren, asking God to preserve the faith in a subcontinent where it is every bit as native as that which seeks to drive it out.

Sam Kumar, leader of the India Center for Revival in southern India, shares a firsthand perspective on rising persecution in India, how Indian Christians are responding with prayers for revival, and what Western Christians can do to intercede for their Indian brothers and sisters in Christ.

This is a story about 15 violent attacks against Christians—and they all happened within 14 days. Download to learn more about the persecution Indian Christians are facing.

Brunson's Burden, Christian Miracles, Muslim Mobs attack, Indian Christians suffer, Nigerian Christian deaths, Globalism, Europe's ISIS, anti-Israel; Prophecy news | www.warn-usa.com | WIBR WARN Radio Steel the Darkness, A Christian Mystery Thriller; this is book one in a four book series. Learn more here: Steel the Darkness paperback http://amzn.to/2z4Kcpe Prophecy news scans the globe as the latest World events come into focus. Brunson's Burden is about Turkey's Erdogan and his oppression of Pastor Brunson among others in prison as the result of Turkey's obviously tainted crackdown on innocent Christians. Oppressed but not defeated, persecuted but still overcomers; we find Christian persecution ongoing. In Nigeria the oppression and danger to Christians continue, we have the latest. In India more attacks on Believers in Jesus Christ are being reported. In Nepal the latest on a Christian couple deported for violating the laws there. We look at the Miraculous miracles going on in the field, we have the latest report. In addition shocking coverage of Globalism killing America. Is Europe becoming an Islamic state, we have the warning. Anti-Israel bias and hate continues and there is a growing arena for this hate, stay tuned.

0036 Not Yoga But Jesus Christ: Why as an Indian Christians I don't follow Yoga

0036 Not Yoga But Jesus Christ: Why as an Indian Christians I don't follow Yoga

The first time “Brother Dan” travelled to India was on a mission trip 25 years ago. With one visit to this vast country, he was hooked! Six years ago, Dan moved to India full time, working to share the gospel and strengthen the church. Listen this week as Dan shares how God is at work in India, including performing miracles that show He is more powerful than any of the millions of gods Hindus follow. Dan will also share some of the challenges our Indian brothers and sisters are facing, and what persecution looks like for an Indian who leaves Hinduism to follow Jesus. Finally, he’ll equip each of us with ways we can pray for Indian Christians, and for their nation.

Indian Christians target of hate crime every other day in 2017, local officials in Egypt refuse Christians permission to meet, and more.

World Policy Institute — On today’s episode of World Policy On Air, Jas Singh discusses how the Bharatiya Janata Party’s landslide victory in the 2014 elections has precipitated a revival of Hindu nationalism in the world’s largest democracy. In the aftermath of the elections, Hindu extremists have directed hostilities toward Indian Christians and Muslims, among other minorities. He suggests the BJP and its affiliates could bring about drastic changes in a country that has long claimed to be pluralistic and inclusive.

Daniel Jeyaraj is an Indian theologian with deep interests in World Christianity. His teaching and research primarily deal with the dynamics of Christian missions and their interaction with native cultures. He is a leading authority on the study of the Royal Danish-Halle Mission (i.e., Tranquebar Mission), Pietism, and the emergence of Protestant churches in eighteenth century India.His pioneering research in several European libraries and archives has helped him recover and identify numerous paper and palm leaf manuscripts written in various languages including Tamil, Telugu, German, Danish, Portuguese, and English. These manuscripts written by Indian Christians and European missionaries contain important first-hand information on the South Indian church, society, and culture. He is the first Indian to receive the prestigious dissertation-based post-doctoral teaching degree “Dr. theol. habil” (= D.Th. + Dr. habil.) from the Faculty of Theology belonging to a university in Germany.Prof. Jeyaraj has translated two major monographs of Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg (1682-1719), the first Protestant missionary to South India, from German into English. Currently, he serves as the chief editor of Dharma Deepika, a biannual South Asian journal of missiological research. He joined the Andover Newton faculty in July 2003.

Endurance and Assurance for a Dangerous Journey Take your Bibles, if you would, and look in them with me at Romans Chapter 8. This is going to be our last sermon in Romans for a while, and that's kind of exciting when you stop and think about it. I won't tell you how many messages we've had in Romans, but it's a lot. It's about a third of the preaching I've done since I've been here. So, it's really a remarkable journey. And we've seen very clearly, I think, as we've moved through Romans, how the Gospel is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in these 8 chapters of Romans, we've been taken from being dead in our transgressions and sins right into the very presence of God in heaven. And so we who deserve nothing but wrath have been assured of salvation in Romans 8, in the most lavish way. And therefore, I think it's remarkable this Christian faith of ours. I think it's an incredible thing, because God promises absolutely everything to us through Christ, doesn't he? And then he demands everything from us in Christ as well. And we're going to see that in the verses that we're looking at today. Recently, I've had the privilege of reading one of the most exciting adventure stories I've ever read in my life, and I'm continuing to read it. I've read the children's version. Now, I'm going to read the adult's version, and it's about an expedition begun by Sir Ernest Shackleton, in August 8th, 1914, an expedition across the Antarctic. He was going to be, or attempting to be, the first man with his group to set out and to travel across the Antarctic. As he sailed from London on August 8th, 1914, what followed was the most extraordinary adventure, perhaps in history. The ship was trapped and then eventually, crushed by ice. The expedition was marooned first on the constantly shifting Antarctic ice pack, and then on a remote and uninhabited island. It took a daring open boat journey, a 22 footer with three sails, across 1000 miles of the most turbulent, dangerous, and frigid waters to rescue his group. Shackleton went out, a small expedition from the larger to bring back help. And the astounding thing about this incredible journey, this adventure, is that Shackleton lost not one single man committed to his care, but brought them all back safely. Now, I found out recently that this story is going to be depicted at an IMAX, in Raleigh, very soon. And so, all of you are going to want to go buy tickets. I know I want to go see it, but this is an incredible story. The thing that's amazing to me is that the name of the ship was The Endurance, and I believe that Romans Chapter 8 is given to us, because we are in the midst of an incredible journey, a dangerous journey even more dangerous spiritually, I think, than the physical dangers that faced Shackleton and his group. And what does this journey call for but endurance, perseverance through faith in Christ. What's also interesting to me is that August 1914 was the very month that armies began to march and World War I began. And so really, if you combine those two things, the moment you become a Christian, you are set to travel a perilous journey through a war-torn zone to accomplish a mission for God. And what does it take, but the kind of assurance that we are given in these final verses of Romans 8 that enable us with courage to set out on that journey. We are not going to be wafting up to heaven on flowery beds of ease, not at all. But rather, in the Book of Acts, Paul says it is through many hardships that we enter the kingdom of heaven. Americans almost need to be jarred awake to realize that. We are called to make a dangerous journey. And I've come to realize also that every single blessing in the Christian life is given to us because of God's love for us, that we may be blessed thereby, but also that we may turn around and be a blessing to others. And so, it is also true, in the matter of assurance of salvation. The very thing that God's been laboring to do in us, in Romans 8, he works in us an assurance of salvation, but always for a purpose. And I believe that purpose is that we may accomplish the advance of the kingdom of God, in this world, no longer worried about our own future, no longer worried about our own salvation, no longer worried about anything whatsoever. We are now fit to be vessels for God, poured out for his glory until he takes us home. And so, I think, behind the assurance given in Romans Chapter 8, is a mighty and incredible mission laid before the church, the mission of taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. Romans 10:14-15 says, "How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news!'" You all are the ones with the beautiful feet. You are the ones who are called to take the Gospel across mountains and rivers and oceans, even the Arctic Ocean if need be, to people who've never heard. The blessings that God has lavished on you, that he is lavishing on you, are not meant to accumulate in some kind of a backwater, but rather are meant to motivate you to turn around and be a blessing to the nations, and that's the very thing that God intends to do by giving you assurance of salvation. II. The Ultimate Question Posed Christianity truly is an astounding religion. It asks ultimate things of us. It promises ultimate things to us, and it answers the ultimate questions of life. What kind of questions do I mean? Well, for example, what will happen to me when I die? Or what does the future hold? What does the future hold? What is going to happen to me in my future life? These are the kind of questions that Paul is dealing with here at the end of Romans Chapter 8. The Christian version of it is, can anything separate me from the love of God in Christ? Look at that in Verse 35, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" We have therefore set before us the eternal, the sweet love of God in Jesus Christ, the sweetest gift that we've ever received. We are loved totally. We are loved unconditionally. Contrary to what we deserve are we loved and we have been loved before the foundation of the world. In Jeremiah 31, "I have loved you with an everlasting love and therefore in love and kindness, I have drawn you." Isn't that marvelous? What a lavish thing is the love of God in Christ, and yet it's also complicated as well, isn't it? It's a little bit difficult to understand, because the very ones that God loves mainly us, he also is willing to say, you're like sheep for the slaughter. We're going to talk more about that in a minute, he's willing to pour us out like a drink offering, and how can that be? We don't understand his love. Our love is based on constantly shifting emotions and value judgments and assessments. So our love is not a secure thing, but Christ's love is very different. It asks incredible things of us and gives incredible things to us contrary to what we deserve, and it's a difficult doctrine. Difficult Doctrine of God’s Love Recently, there was a book written by DA Carson entitled "The Difficult Doctrine of God's Love," and in it he goes through five different types of God's love. And I think if we don't understand that properly, you will get no assurance of salvation from Romans Chapter 8. You have to understand, God loves people in different ways. This morning, we received an example of God's love given indiscriminately to all people, righteous and unrighteous alike, namely the pouring rain. And we need the rain to live, without the water we cannot survive. And so, God causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous, indiscriminately loving all in that way. But the kind of love discussed here in Romans Chapter 8 is of a different kind. It's the love of God in Christ Jesus, for us, the very thing that we have talked about. Now, this is so important. Why do I say that? Because if we believe that God in the kind of a weak general way, loves everybody, but yet you might still end up in hell, what kind of assurance is that? God's loving me, but I might go to hell? That's a terrifying thing. I want to know what's going to happen to me when I die, I want to know. And that's why we need to understand Paul's question Paul's way. Who shall separate us from the kind of love I've been talking about here? The kind of love that transforms you, the kind of love that saves you, the kind of love that brings you to heaven. Can anything separate me from that love? And the answer is no, and therefore we have a full-blooded assurance of salvation. We must understand love that way. III. The Ultimate Question Weighed And so, Paul weighs the ultimate question, what does the future hold? Can I be separated? Can I be separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Now, this word separated comes up in many different contexts in the Bible. For example, in Matthew 19:6, talking about marriage, he says, "What God has joined together, let man not [what?] separate." So there's that idea there of a divorce. And the question we'd ask spiritually is, "Am I going to be together with Christ forever? Is there a possible separation between me and the one who love my soul? Is there a divorce in our future?" Or there's another kind of separation, separation that comes through departing, through leaving. We feel this, we're a very fluid society. We're together for a while and then people leave and we move on, there's a tearing and a ripping from that separation, when we're called to leave a place. In Acts 1:4, on one occasion, Jesus was eating with them and he gave them this command, "Do not depart from Jerusalem, don't separate yourselves from the city because a gift is coming to you from on high." Or even more poignantly speaking of the Holy Spirit, in 1st Samuel 16:14, "Now, the Spirit of the Lord had departed from Saul and an evil spirit tormented him." So there was a sense in which the Spirit had been taken from Saul, you know what I'm talking about? And so David cries out after his sin with Bathsheba in Psalm 51, he says, "Take not your Holy Spirit from me." He's yearning, he's concerned over this matter. And so we can ask the ultimate question, will I be asked to depart from my share in the heavenly Jerusalem? Or will the Spirit depart from me so that I'm separated from the Holy Spirit? Separation, can anything separate me? Or there's another kind of separation, separation that comes through holiness, holiness itself, there's a picture of separation. Separate unto the Lord, this kind of thing, like the holy vessels that are used in the temple, they're separate unto the Lord, they're holy to the Lord. So therefore, in the final analysis, there's going to be a separation of wicked from righteous. And my question is, will the holiness of God move him to separate himself from me? Talk about King Uzziah, 2 Chronicles 26:21. It said he had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in a separate house, leprous, and excluded from the temple of the Lord. You see that. And so, we want to ask, is the holiness of God finally in the end going to catch up with me, and I'm going to have to be separated from him forever? And so finally, there's a separation that comes on judgment day. He speaks of a separation of the wheat from the tares. He speaks of a separation of the good fish from the bad. Good fish are collected in baskets, the bad are thrown away. He speaks of the separation of the sheep from the goats. The sheep are on his right and the goats are on his left. And those on his left, he says to them, "depart from me, you who are cursed into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." There's a separation. I want to know, am I going to be wheat separated and brought into his barn or am I going to be chaff burned with eternal unquenchable fire? I want to know this. Can anything separate me from Christ? That's the question that Paul's seeking to answer here. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Now, here, we face the issue of what I call ostrich assurance, I've referred to this before. What I mean by that is, well, the ostrich is an amazing thing, isn't it? What does it do when danger comes? What does it do when trouble and hardship and persecute... What happens? What does the ostrich do? It sticks its head in the ground and hope it's going to go away. Does ostrich assurance bring any kind of assurance at all? The assurance of faith is to get your head out of the ground and look full on at what is coming at you and say, God is bigger than that. God is more powerful than that, and nothing can separate me from the love of God. And so, we have here, I think a red blooded assurance, something that's facing everything that could possibly happen to you and some of them will. That's the whole challenging thing. If you have an ostrich assurance, you're not going to be able to face, it won't measure into your theology, you won't be able to understand why is God doing this to me if you don't understand what's going on in these final verses in Romans Chapter 8. Possible Separators Named and Weighed And so, he goes through the various kinds of separators, the things that could come to separate you from Christ. And he weighs each one of them, he looks at them separately, and he looks at them and he weighs them and he sees, can this or that or the other separate us from God? And that's what he's doing here at the end in Romans Chapter 8. Tribulation The first thing he looks at is the issue of tribulation. In Verse 35 he says, shall trouble or a better translation is tribulation, it's a very common word, tribulation or troubled distress something difficult, and Jesus deals with this in John 16:33. He says that in this world, you will have trouble. It's the same Greek word. You're going to have it. Have you ever seen those little pocket books of promises from God? This is the promise, John 16:33, "In this world, you will have trouble." I didn't find it, I was flipping through, I didn't see it in there. I thought, "wow, it's not in there." I didn't own the book so I couldn't write it in there. John 16:33, "In this world you will have trouble." Or everyone who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. These are promises from God. But Paul is not giving us an ostrich assurance here, he wants us to face it. You're going to have trouble, but shall those troubles separate us from Christ? That's the question he's dealing with here. There's going to be tribulation. Actually no, they don't. If anything they make you stronger, they make you more powerful if you're truly a Christian. Now that's a big if, isn't it? That's been the issue all along in Romans Chapter 8. Assurance is given to true Christians. Those who have no assurance, those who are not true Christians should have no assurance, you should repent and trust Christ. You should not be comfortable and safe and easy in a position which you're not a Christian yet. Assurance isn't for you if you're not a Christian, it's for the Christian. There is therefore now no condemnation for who? For those that are in Christ Jesus. Those that are Christians. And so, he wants to give you assurance and if you are genuinely a Christian, tribulation or trials actually help you in your Christian life. We already covered that in Romans 5:3-4. Not only so, but we rejoice in our tribulations, our trials, we rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance. What's another word for perseverance? Shackleton will tell you, it's endurance. It produces endurance in you, the ability to stand fast. Suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces proven character, and proven character results in hope, and hope does not disappoint, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So those trials actually make you stronger, they give you a full-blooded hope, you go through these hard things, you say, I made it through, I'm still a Christian, I still love Jesus. I've survived. Now flipside, the trials, the tribulations also sift out the true from the false, don't they? When a time of persecution comes in the church, there's a sifting there, isn't there? And Jesus talked about that in Matthew 13:21. He talks about the seed that falls in various kinds of soils, the seed that falls on the rocky soil it says the one that received the seed that fell on the rocky places, is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy, he might even walk the aisle during that joy. No joke, it might be a time of excitement for him, and then immediate receiving of joy, but when trouble or tribulation or hardship comes because of the word what happens to him? He quickly falls away. And so, there is a sifting out, but tribulation or trial will not separate a true Christian from Jesus Christ. Distress Neither will distress, you look at the second word he says distress, the idea here is a very strong Greek word, the concept of being crushed on every side. Can you imagine like the walls coming in from both sides, just like this, and there's a sense of increasing pressure. Do you ever dive down into a pool or into the ocean and just keep diving deeper and deeper, and you feel that increasing pressure starting pushing on you. And that's what can happen when you're living a life of faithfulness and obedience to Christ, there can be times when there's just a pressure from every side pressing in on you. Apostle Paul knew about this in 2nd Corinthians 1:8, he says, "We were under great pressure far beyond our ability to endure so that we despaired even of life." There's a crushing that goes on, and he says this happened "so that we might not rely on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead." The pressure comes but it didn't separate Paul from Christ. Persecution Well, what about persecution? That's when you get a human being who uses all of their intellect and their abilities and their creativity and their power to make your life miserable. It's called persecution, and it happens at lots of different levels. People insult you, falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me, Jesus talked about that. That's persecution. People just saying things, people insulting you all the way up to people wanting to kill you. All of that's just the range of persecution and Jesus said "rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." So he goes through these things, and then he lists those things. Those first three things, I think are unique to Christians, it's the stuff that happens when you step out boldly to be a Christian. These other things can happen to anyone, but they're especially true of those that are boldly ministering for Christ. Famine, nakedness, danger, sword. Famine means you're stripped of food, nakedness means you're stripped of clothing, danger means you're stripped of your peace of mind, and sword ultimately you're stripped of life itself. But the amazing thing is none of those things can separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Nothing can separate you. Thank you. Amen. Famine Shall famine separate us from the love of God? No, you may run out of earthly food, but you will never run out of the bread of heaven, the bread of life. Nakedness What about nakedness? They may strip you of clothing, Paul lists that as something that happened to him in 2nd Corinthians 11. Without clothes. And so little moments in church history when ask about, but don't delve too deeply, but it happened. He was without clothes, he was stripped of clothes. But you're never going to be stripped of the righteousness, the cloak of righteousness that you will stand in on Judgment Day. That's the basis of your standing with God. Nothing can take that away from you. Danger What about danger? What is danger but potential evil that might happen in the future. It causes anxiety and fear. That way you don't move out. You're not witnessing to your neighbors, you're not witnessing to your boss. You're not witnessing to your family members. They might not like you. They might hurt you. They might oppose you. That is true. They might. Probably, they will actually. But danger, is danger going to separate us from the love of God in Christ? No. 2nd Corinthians 11:26, Paul says, "I've been in danger from rivers, I've been in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles, in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea, and in danger from false brothers." Most dangerous kind. And in all that danger, I was never separated from the love of God in Christ Jesus. Sword And what about the sword? Does the sword ever get unsheathed against a Christian? Ask James. In Acts, Chapter 12, his head was cut off by Herod, by the sword. Tradition has it the same thing happened to Paul. It was the sword that was waiting for Paul in the future. He wouldn't be crucified, he was a Roman citizen, so he was executed by the sword most likely. The sword was in Paul's future and he said, "It's not going to separate me. It might separate my head from my body, but it will not separate me from Jesus Christ. III. The Ultimate Question “Considered” Now he has weighed all of these different kinds of things, now he goes a little deeper. He considers why do these things come to us at all? I thought we were children of God? Is God not powerful enough to protect us? Why are these things coming to us? Why do we even have to discuss them? God Considers Us as Sheep to be Slaughtered Well, he discusses that in Verse 36. Look at it. "As it is written, for your sake, we face death all day long. We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered." That's another one of those skipped verses. You can't skip this verse. If you skip it, you don't understand the assurance of Paul's talking about. It's a powerful verse. And this, I think, is the key to understanding all the assurance he wants to give you. You're going to need this kind of assurance. You're going to need to be fully equipped with assurance if you understand this verse and move out accordingly. You're going to need this kind of assurance if you move out accordingly based on Verse 36. What does it mean? Well, we're considered, it says sheep for the slaughter. The word is reckoned. There's a reckoning. God has basically put you down in his accounting book as a sheep to be slaughtered. That's the way he thinks about your earthly life here on earth. The time you're left here on earth. In heaven, you are a child of God, nothing can touch that, but on earth you are considered, you are reckoned as a sheep for the slaughter. That's what I think it says. Now this word reckon has been very important in Romans, hasn't it? Romans 4:3, it says, "Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness." God put Abraham's faith down in his book as righteousness. Good for judgment day. And that's the way we get saved. We're reckoned righteous through faith in Jesus Christ. We're counted righteous that way. Furthermore in Romans Chapter 6, we are called to reckon or consider ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. It's the same word. And now here we are told that someone, somewhere, we are not told who, but we know, has reckoned us or considered us sheep for the slaughter. Well, who did that reckoning? It's got to be God. God considered it that way. He counts us as sheep for the slaughter. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was a martyr for Christ, the end of World War II, said this, "When Christ bids us follow, he bids us, come and die." And he did. He said take up your what? Your cross. Let's say you lived in Palestine in the first century and you saw a man walking down the road surrounded by Roman soldiers and carrying a cross. What would you think about him? Well, in the modern language, you'd say, "Dead man walking." "He's a dead man." Hadn't happened yet but that's where he's going, he's going to die. No question about it. Any hope for escape? Any hope for parole? Any phone call coming from the governor? No, no, and no. He's going to die. And so what do you think Jesus meant when he said, "Take up your cross daily and follow me." So he's calling for your sake. And this is the key, at the beginning of the verse, he gives us the key, for your sake, we face death all day long. What does that mean? For you, literally because of you, because of your name for your name's sake, he leads us in passive righteousness for his name's sake, for the advance of his kingdom. For his glory, because of him, we face death all day long. Because of him and for his glory, we're considered sheep to be slaughtered. Now Jesus, did he live out this principle? Yes, he did. He did. In Isaiah 53:7, "He was oppressed and afflicted yet he did not open his mouth. He was led like a lamb to the" what? "to the slaughter. And as a sheep before his shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth." Who led him? Who gave him over to death? Who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all. Who was it that did that? It was God the Father. Now let me ask you a question? He didn't spare his own son that... Do you think he's going to spare you? If the head of the house has been treated like that, how about the servants in the household? That's hard to hear, isn't it? But it's true. We're considered sheep to be... Considered his own son sheep for the slaughter, how much more we who are his servants? Has this principle been lived out by Christ's sheep? Yes, it has gloriously. For 2000 years, Christians have taken up their cross and have been willing to die for their savior. Why? So that the kingdom of God might advance. Brothers and sisters, we have a glorious heritage. We don't know the 10th of it. I can't wait to get to heaven and talk to the martyrs. I want to find out what motivated them. I want to know them even more. I want to know the Christ whose spirit imbued them and empowered them. Don't you want to know them? Don't you want to be like them? Why lead a small life? We're called to be more than conquerors? We're called the rise to conquer. Yes, this principle's been lived out by Christ's sheep. He taught it to his disciples. "I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it does what, produces many seeds." Think about that. What's that seed supposed to do? Fall into the ground and die, whereupon it produces what? Many seeds, which then are supposed to go fall into the ground and die. This is the way the kingdom advances. It's always been this way. Paul put it this way about himself in Acts 20, "And now compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city, the Holy Spirit warns me, that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me. If only I may finish my race and complete the task the Lord Jesus gave to me, the task of testifying to the Gospel of his grace." I consider my life worth nothing to me. I reckon, I account my life nothing to me. Paul's following his own savior and the way he thinks about his life. And then it says in Revelation 12:11 of the holy martyrs, "They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death." Has the church lived this out? Yes, it has. How do you think in a mere 200 years or so, the gospel of Jesus Christ conquered the Roman Empire. How did that happen? How did it happen? How did it happen that an empire which had Nero and Marcus Aurelius and all these terrible persecutors, one after the other, Caligula and all these other, how did it happen that eventually Constantine declared himself to be a Christian? Well, Tertullian said, "The blood of martyrs is seed for the church. The blood of martyrs is seed for the church." But what happened is centurions would take simple everyday common place people out and kill them, and the centurions would watch how they would die, and then they would get converted. There are many accounts of centurions who later, who had earlier executed Christians were later executed for their faith. And how did that happen? Because these folks didn't consider their lives worth anything to them. They're willing to die for Christ. It's a great story about Felicitas, a widow, a mother of seven sons, pagan priest denounced her. The authority’s brought her in to threaten her with death if she didn't renounce Christ and her courageous answer, I love it, rings through all of time. This man is standing threatening her with death, and this is what she says to him, "While I live, I shall defeat you. And if you kill me, I shall defeat you even more." Isn't that incredible? And then they brought in her seven sons, one after the other, and thought that they could get at her through them, no dice. Every one of them was ready to die for Jesus Christ. And they did die in different parts of the city. The emperor said they have to die in different parts of the city. And so there are testimony spread all over the city, and everybody got to see how they died. And God welcomed them into heaven. Why are we considered sheep for the slaughter? Well, first of all, we need to die. Don't we? We need it. Are we done being saved? Is your salvation complete? Are you perfect? Are you like Jesus? Then you need to die day after day, after day. You have to die to yourself, you have to die to your own desires. You have to die to what you want. You have to die to your own reputation, your own plans. You have to die, be willing to die, and we need that. But you know something? More than that, others need us to die. Don't they? Other people who haven't heard of Christ yet. The Example of John Frederickson So many examples of this. In 1900, John Fredrickson, was a missionary in India. He purposely went to a famine stricken region of India and rescued hundreds of starving children, transferring them to the care of other missionaries. Then he went back into the region and worked so hard day and night that he came down with dysentery. He died on September 5th, 1900, when one of the children that Fredrickson, whom they called Sahib, had saved, heard about his death. He exclaimed, "Two have died for us, Jesus and Sahib." And out of his life, and his death came countless Christians, Indian Christians, who live for Jesus Christ. 1900. The Example of Jesse and Evelyn Brand How about this one 1907, Jesse Brand went as a young missionary to serve in disease ridden Chat in India called the Mountain of Death. They could see fleas jumping from dead rats to live ones or even to other living things, even babies. It was a terribly disease ridden, infested area. And this man went just to bring the gospel and one year of medical training. That's all he had to offer. And he went in there and he served, and God preserved him for a while, went back to England and on furlough was talking about the needs, and a young woman listened to him speaking, Evelyn Harris, she was a wealthy London socialite. She committed herself to go to India as a missionary. Eventually, the two of them got hooked up and they got married. You know where they spent their honeymoon? Ministering in Shat to the people that they were called to minister to. Over the number of years that they ministered, 25,000 people were cared for in one year. Jesse preached over 4000 times in 90 villages, churches had sprung up in these villages. Tons of people led to Christ. And then Jesse, finally, 1928 came down with malaria and died. Just poured himself out for Christ. The Indian Christians buried him with the epitaph. He delivered up his life to the Lord in behalf of the people. Evelyn Brand continued to minister. She raised their son Paul. Paul Brand wrote a book with Phillip Yancy called Fearfully and Wonderfully Made. He became a missionary doctor ministering to lepers. Perhaps you've read the book, Fearfully and Wonderfully Made, and also In His image. That was his parents. Amazing. The Example of Jim and Elizabeth Elliot and Tona And we, two years ago, had Elizabeth Elliott here. Probably the most famous martyr story of the 20th century. What people don't know is that one of the six Auca Indians that killed her husband and the others came to faith in Christ and said, "We need to go up river to the warring Aucas." It's another faction of the Aucas that they've been warring with for years. "We need to go up river and witness to them. They went up river." This man, his name was Tona, went up river and he volunteered to go to share the gospel, and as he was sharing the gospel they attacked him with an axe and killed him. And as he was dying, he cried out, "I am not afraid, I will die and go to heaven." His attackers cried out, "We'll help you go." And they killed him and with his dying breath, Tona whispered, "I forgive you. I'm dying for your benefit." And many of those down river Auca Indians also came to faith in Christ. Unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it bears many seeds. We're in verse 36, "As it is written, 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.'" The fact of the matter is, our God is not our... He doesn't think about things the way we do. He's not trying to protect you in this world. He's actually trying to pour you out in this world, and he does it by giving you assurance. He's calling on you to be willing to be slaughtered. Your reputation in the world slaughtered. Your earthly comfort and ease slaughtered. Your superficial friendships with non-Christians slaughtered. That's the hardest of all, isn't it? I worked in a workplace and you have these superficial, easy kind of comfortable relationships with non-Christians, and you never share the Gospel. You never challenge yourself. You're never willing to go out on a limb, and then you leave that company. Those people never came to Christ. Never heard a word from you. And on it goes. Are you willing to die to that easy, comfortable relationship? Because if they don't come to Christ, it gets really weird, doesn't it? It gets awkward and difficult, and you have to be willing to pay that price. Superficial friendships with non-Christians slaughtered. Perhaps even your professional career slaughtered. And how long all day long we're considered that way, sheep for the slaughter. And why? For his name's sake. IV. The Ultimate Question Answered (verses 37-39) In the end, Paul answers the question, "Can anything separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?" No. Look at Verse 37, "No. In all these things, we are super conquerors." Isn't that marvelous? "More than conquers through him who loved us. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord." Is that not the answer to the ultimate question? No, nothing can. So why are you afraid? Why hold back? Why die with any resource not having been spent? Can death separate you from Christ? No. I am the resurrection, the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. What about life? Sometimes it's easier to die, isn't it? What about another 40 years of life in this place? Can that separate you from Christ? No. He will sustain you through all the twists and turns, persecutions, temptations. He'll get you there. Can an angel separate you from Christ? No. They're ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation. What about a demon? Let's includes Satan in that. Can he separate you from the love of God in Christ? Absolutely not. Because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. What about the present? Can anything going on right here and right now separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus? Answer, no. What about the great unknown? The Future? Oh, that's the one. I worry about that. What am I going to be in 20 Years? Don't underestimate the grace of God. He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. So nothing in the future is going to separate you from the love of God in Christ Jesus. In short, nothing in all creation shall be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. V. Application: Rise to Conquer! What is the application? Die for Christ. Take up your cross today. Be willing to say no to yourself. Be willing to walk as Jesus walked. Be willing to pour out your life. I want to close with this. The apostle Paul, the end of his life. He was in prison and he said, "I am already being poured out like a drink offering, and the time has come for my departure." What do you think Paul meant by departure? Death by execution. He was convinced he was going to die. It was over. But it's interesting what he said first, I am already being what? Poured out like a drink offering. Had not God been pouring Paul out for years? Pouring him out, pouring him out, pouring him out, day after day, pouring him out, and this is my picture of God at the end of Paul's life. He looks in the cup. Oh, there's a little more, a little more of Paul. Pours him out some more, until it's gone. That's the God we serve. And then what happened to Paul? For me to live as Christ and to die is gain. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death. And so somehow to attain to the resurrection from the dead. What are we afraid of? Let's rise to conquer as a people of God. Let's be super conquerors for Jesus. Let's leave nothing, no stone unturned, no resource that we have available to us unspent for Jesus Christ.