Here’s an incredible story from Open Doors ministry. A Iranian interrogator came to Christ through the witness of a Christian woman prisoner. Here’s the story from the Gospel Herald (Link NLA):

Noushin, a house church leader in the predominantly Muslim country, was arrested for her faith and forced into solitary confinement for three days.

“I wasn’t ready to go to prison,” she told Open Doors. “I knew it was a dirty place, a place where people are tortured and locked up in solitary confinement. I was afraid that I would be so fearful that I would give up all the names of the members of house church. I even feared that I would deny my faith if they tortured me.”

However, after three days of being locked in solitary confinement, Noushin began tentatively sharing the Gospel with her interrogator.

“We talked about Jesus for hours until finally the interrogator gave his heart to Jesus. We prayed together,” she recalled.

“It’s an honor for me to talk about Jesus,” Noushin told the guard. “You also need Jesus in your life. I cannot be indifferent toward you. I want you to experience the joy and blessing of salvation. I can’t keep silent about this.”

Response: Open Doors reports that the revival in Iran continues in spite of the recent crackdown and arrest of Christian leaders by the government authorities. 

Please remember to pray for our brothers and sisters in that land. As many as half a million are said to have come to Christ in the last 10 years. There is no way to get accurate stats out of there but most have come to Christ through rather miraculous means and are meeting in secret house churches.

            (Image via Wikipedia)

Europe is full of huge empty cathedrals and most people there think of Christianity as something from the past.

In strategizing over how to take Jesus back into that continent, Global Advance is trying to advance the faith through Marketplace ministry hoping to make the church relevant to young Europeans.

Here’s an article about their efforts in Germany:

“Global Advance Trains Germans for Marketplace Ministry”

According to Jonathan Shibley, president of Global Advance:

“We really felt like it was a sovereign time for the Lord to pull together people during an economic crisis, because that’s where our faith comes out and shines.”

“Three years ago, we were challenged at Global Advance to begin to look at Europe much like we would other developing countries: as an underserved region of the world, and almost an unreached region of the world to some extent.”

“People are hungry spiritually, but they don’t know what they’re hungry for. So the gospel’s got to be demonstrated in a fresh way. So many people associate religion with empty cathedrals. They haven’t made the connect with their faith and the relevance to their personal lives. Somehow the church has got to become relevant again.”

In talking about the recent conference Shibley concluded

“It was just a wonderful time to bring a wide variety of people from different denominations, different backgrounds, and also different industries together under one common cause—and that’s to see Christ lifted up through the workplace in Europe.”

Response: I believe that marketplace ministry is also part of God’s heart for transforming America and particularly the American church. For too long American Christians have lived separate lives dividing the sacred from the secular and profane. 

Most of us Christians spend a majority of our lives in the marketplace, in schools, jobs, or in businesses. Yet we mostly keep the most important things of our lives separate from that experience, our families and our faith.  For too long, American Christians have separated their working lives from their faith, viewing work as a necessary evil to pay the bills. Not really the ‘spiritual’ part of our lives but the secular.

You can see where this has gotten us when well known church-going evangelical business leaders end up in jail over corrupt business practices. One famous energy company in Texas comes to mind as an example. The CEO was a deacon in his church and now he’s in prison.

It wasn’t always that way in America nor was it that way in Europe. The protestant work ethic transformed the West. All thing were done as unto Christ. But it was in America that religion and business would go hand in hand to build up a new nation that would lead the world for an entire century. However, somewhere in the last 50 years or so, Christianity became something that primarily happened just in a church for one hour on Sunday or two if your Pentecostal or Charismatic.

Again, it wasn’t always that way. One of the greatest revivals in America happened in businesses in New York City in the 19th century just before the civil war. Over 50,000 businessmen were converted to Christ and they transformed the entire American economy for the next 50 years until America became a leading world economic power.

It is time once more for American Christians to put it all together and live our entire lives under the banner of Christ including the marketplaces where we spend most of our time and efforts. I believe that the marketplace is the key to the next major revival that will transform the American church and change it into a relevant and dynamic witness to a secular American culture which has abandoned God and the very foundation it was originally built upon.           

Here’s a link to the latest article by J. Lee Grady: “Has the Baton Been Passed to the Asian Church?”

Grady asks this question in a visit to Singapore and observes that the Asian Church is coming of age. For years, those of us in the West have looked upon the church in Asia as a mission area. Now I have heard many talking about how the Asian church might actually be found leading the way in the near future.

I have a cousin that travels to South Korea on business who mentioned to me 10 years ago that Korea was well on its way toward becoming a Christian nation. Then recently I have read about the expanding house church movement in China and have seen several forecasts that China could actually become a Christian nation within 20 –25 years at the current pace. Remarkable and exciting.

In his article, J. Lee Grady list 3 reasons why the Asian Church will be come a major factor globally in the future:

1. They are taking world evangelism seriously.

2. They understand the importance of the Holy Spirit’s power.

3. They are investing in the next generation.

It is really amazing what is transpiring in Asia but also in Africa and in South America too, along with a secret harvest going on in Muslim countries. A world wide harvest/revival is ongoing just about everywhere except in North America, Europe, and the West.

Asian churches are beginning to send missionaries into North Korea and the Middle East plus African churches are actually sponsoring new missions in the UK and Europe.

If the current trends do continue then Grady could be correct. What use to be the mission field and the tail is well on the way toward becoming the head.            

On Sunday VCC Pastor Mike Hudgins Told us something we all knew but really didn’t know the extent of. Over 70 folks have committed their lives to Christ in the last month at our services.

There are three worship services so most of us who attend just one are not always aware of everything that is going on in the congregation.

Pastor Mike has given invitations for salvation every week and at every service for years and I don’t think 70 have come to receive God’s free gift in a whole year to date much less in a month. Usually folks will come forward after the service to receive healing and further ministry but few in wealthy South Orange County California have come up front to receive God’s free gift. But all that has changed now and 7 more came up for salvation at the end of that 9 am service on Sunday.

As Pastor Mike was telling us about this development I saw a picture in my mind of a door just barely cracked open. Then the Holy Spirit clearly said to me that it wasn’t just here but all across America and North America for that matter—the door was cracking open.

What does that mean? And how should we respond? That’s what I asked the Lord.

First of all it is time to pray for all those children of ours and relatives who aren’t saved. Even the ones we have given up on. Remember also the friends and neighbors who have rejected the Gospel in the past.

It is a New Day in America and the Door is cracking open!

Jesus is standing at the door and knocking once more across this whole land. Pastors, Bible teachers, and leaders: Tell your church that it is a New Day!