Letters Letter from the Editor Letter from the Editor Welcome to volume 2.7 of Morning Star, our nineteenth issue. (Praise God!) This month's edition is a special "Testimony" issue dedicated to stories of people who have been delivered by the Lord from alcohol and substance abuse. Our Commentary, Interview, Book Review and Ministry Profile columns are also dedicated to this theme. It is the hope of all those on the staff that those of you who have friends or family struggling with substance abuse problems can make good use of the stories and articles we have assembled. As Christians, we should always be ready to point people to Jesus as the first and most important step to recovery. Although it might be possible to find some type of deliverance from substance abuse (or any other problem behavior) without the help of Jesus - why would anyone want to go that route? With Jesus at the helm, the counseling methods and materials that we can make use of are far more likely to achieve success. Please read this month's Commentary column closely as it deals with this issue. Anyone in need of more information or assistance, either for themselves or for a loved one who is struggling, please contact us here at Morning Star. We will keep all correspondence confidential and will provide assistance in whatever manner is appropriate. Here's my usual "Help Wanted" advertisement ... We are always in need of material for future themes. (I cannot stress this need enough.) Upcoming issues of Morning Star will be concerned with these topics: Volume 2.8 - Marriage and Family in the 90's Volume 2.9 - Prophecy: Past and Future Volume 2.10 - Revival: Personal, Local Church and National Volume 2.11 - Local Church Ministries (Choir, Bus Ministry, Sick & Prison Visitation etc.) Volume 2.12 - The Feasts Of and Promises To Israel Please help us keep this magazine going strong by sending us a short personal story or teaching article on one of these themes. We also need articles for our Testimony columns, Ministry Profile and Mission Field columns. We are currently working on making Morning Star available in a half dozen new countries in various parts of the world. Keep this in prayer! In HIS service, Toby Trudel Commentary Commentary CHRISTIANITY AND 12-STEP GROUPS By Pastor Geoff Kragen In this issue of Morning Star, we are going to consider issues related to recovery from alcohol and substance abuse. The responsibility to help individuals dealing with these problems continues to be of vital concern to the Christian community. Regardless of whether you believe substance addiction to be an illness, or a spiritual problem, clearly every church is faced with the problem. In dealing with substance abuse, each church also will be faced with "12 Step Programs." Pastors, counselors and therapists need to evaluate where they stand as Christians on the approach these programs use. In this editorial I will touch on some factors that make 12 step programs controversial within the Christian community. First, as a counselor, I don't believe the 12 step approach is appropriate for every type of emotional struggle. Today, 12 step groups are not limited to substance abuse problems. They are used for everything from eating disorders to support groups for adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. Their value is primarily limited to the context of addictive disorders. Certainly the substance abuser needs help. The addict may need to be in a closed recovery program. Once the physical addiction is broken, often therapy is still needed. For this type of individual, the support group is a vital part of the recovery process. When I counsel individuals who have been struggling with addiction, I require them to be in a support group. But is the 12 step program the best approach? The most well known 12 step program is Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). We are constantly told that it is acceptable to all people, regardless of their spiritual orientation. Is this true for a Christian? The roots of AA may be Christian, but it, as well as 12 step programs in general, have moved far from these roots. Remember, in the Bible we are told that which is not of God is of Satan. And teachings about God that are not Biblical are Satanic. This is a harsh statement. But consider the following quotes from "THE THIRD EDITION OF THE BIG BOOK, THE BASIC TEXT FOR ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS" (as titled on the cover), 1976, originally pub. in 1939. From page 12 ("Bill's Story") ... "Despite the living example of my friend, there remained in me the vestiges of my old prejudice. The word "God" still aroused a certain antipathy. When the thought was expressed that there might be a God personal to me, this feeling was intensified. I didn't like the idea. I could go for such conceptions as Creative Intelligence, Universal Mind or Spirit of Nature but I resisted the thought of a Czar of the Heavens, however loving His sway might be. I have since talked with scores of men who felt the same way." ... "My friend suggested what then seemed a novel idea. He said, "Why don't you choose your own conception of God?" ... "That statement hit me hard. It melted the icy intellectual mountain in whose shadow I had lived and shivered many years. I stood in the sunlight at last." ... "It was only a matter of being willing to believe in a Power greater than myself. Nothing more was requested of me to make my beginning. I saw that growth could start from this point." In other words to overcome a real problem in our lives, we are told that we can use an imaginary belief. It would be better not to speak of God at all, then to perpetuate the idea that each of us is entitled to our own view of Him. Because this approach (the 12 step program) is a "spiritual" one, it is entirely appropriate to criticize the underlying premise. Again quoting from the BIG BOOK, From page 25 ("There is a solution"): "The great fact is just this, and nothing less: That we have had deep and effective spiritual experiences which have revolutionized our whole attitude toward life, toward our fellows and toward God's universe. The central fact of our lives today is the absolute certainty that our Creator has entered into our hearts and lives in a way which is indeed miraculous. ..." To separate the program from Biblical Christianity and then make claims for relationship with "our Creator" is inaccurate at best, and dangerous at worst. It is dangerous because it can leave the participant with the idea that no matter what the view of God, one can have a relationship with Him. This approach may help deal with addictive behaviors and give freedom from an earthly Hell. Nevertheless, it also can condemn a person to an eternal one. The BIG BOOK makes it abundantly clear that its authors have no concern for any truth, only for their own program. From page 28 ("There is a solution"): "The distinguished American psychologist, William James, in his book 'Varieties of Religious Experience,' indicates a multitude of ways in which men have discovered God. We have no desire to convince anyone that there is only one way by which faith can be acquired. If what we have learned and felt and seen means anything at all, it means that all of us, whatever our race, creed, or color are the children of a living Creator with whom we may form a relationship upon simple and understandable terms as soon as we are willing and honest enough to try. Those having religious affiliations will find here nothing disturbing to their beliefs or ceremonies. There is no friction among us over such matters." This is the religion of the New Age, of Unity, of Bahai, a "feel good" religion that may motivate some to change but leads to Hell. So where does that leave us? There is no doubt that people need help to deal with addictive behaviors. There is no question that support groups in general and 12 step programs specifically have helped may people suffering from addictions. If we say that the 12 step programs are dangerous because of their very religiosity, then where does that leave the person who needs help? There are several choices available to us within the church to meet these needs. First, and probably best, is that which is already being done by some groups. They are taking the 12 step program and bringing it in line with Scripture. The 12 steps themselves have proven over time that they work. (Because something works, however, doesn't make it right.) Each step has been conformed to Scripture and uses appropriate Scripture to support it. For example, taking the couple of the steps we read in number 2: "Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity." This is changed to read, "We increasingly believe that Jesus Christ can restore us to spiritual, emotional and relational health" ... "for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Step 3 reads "Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him." and is changed as follows: "We make a decision to turn our lives over to God through Jesus Christ." "I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship" (Romans 12:1). Let us set up Biblically sound support groups that use the 12 step approach formula. Bring the support group into the church. Here people can be cared for by others with the same struggles. Additionally, they can be fed on the word, and loved by the congregation at large. Currently, I have no Christian groups available for clients. As a result, I will send them to AA to receive support from others struggling with addictive behavior. Then I will work with the client to help them see the place of the true God in their recovery process. This is not an ideal solution, but it can be made to work. Finally, whether speaking of the traditional AA, 12 step group, or a Biblically grounded support group, let us be careful not to make support group junkies. In many of these groups you will find people who have been there for years. The group has become the basis of their life and their protection from continued addictive behavior. As Christians, our responsibility is to direct people towards God as their life and solution to their addictions. They must mature. And as they mature, the need for a specialized support group should fade. They will instead learn to depend on the support and love of the whole body of Christ. The final answer for addiction is the love of God, the power of the Holy Spirit and the care and support of the local church. ____________________________________________________ Responsible comments and responses to this editorial should be sent to any of the addresses noted in the front of the magazine. The editors may choose to publish any material that we feel may benefit our readership at large. Staff List Staff List MORNING STAR STAFF EDITOR IN CHIEF Toby Trudel - Nashua, NH SENIOR EDITOR - Biblical Department Geoffrey Kragen - Roseville, CA SENIOR EDITOR - Christian Life Department Teresa Giordanengo - Canonsburg, PA SENIOR LITERARY EDITOR Al Murillo III - El Paso, TX ASSOCIATE EDITORS Jerry Johnson - Modesto, CA Clark Stephens - Huntington Beach, CA Dale Strand - Dublin, CA J.C. Trudel - Naples, FL Mike Wilkinson - Citrus Heights, CA Dr. Charles Wootten - Matoaca, VA SENIOR PUBLISHER - DOS and WINDOWS Editions Steve Paulovich - Pembroke, NH NETWORK DISTRIBUTION AMERICA ONLINE Network: Jerry White - Germantown, MD COMPUSERVE Network: Jorge Lopez - Lubbock, TX GENIE Network: Mike Wilkinson - Citrus Heights, CA DIRECTOR OF BBS DISTRIBUTION - USA Walter H. Bauer Jr. - Sugar Land, TX INTERNET DISTRIBUTION Stephen Price 304 Hubert St. Webster, TX 77598 Internet mail: steve@kn5f.jsc.nasa.gov MORNING STAR is available on Internet via: anonymous FTP at kn5f.jsc.nasa.gov INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION ISRAEL Sharon Sanders c/o Christian Friends of Israel P.O. Box 1813 - Jerusalem, 91015 Israel Tel: 972-2-894-172 / 894-187 FAX: 972-2-894-955 CANADA John Vickers PO Box 511 Ucluelet, British Columbia Canada V0R-3A0 INTERNET: john.vickers@f715.n351.z1fidonet.org FIDONET: 1:351/715 NORWAY Lars Storstrand Lion of Zion BBS: 011-475-293009 Voice: 011-475-290554 PHILIPPINES Roger J. Obe P.O. Box 191 Iloilo City, 5000 - Philippines FRANCE Peter Cunliffe 5 Allee A. Croizat F-77186 Noisel, France UNITED KINGDOM Ted Day 18 Denton Drive Wilford Hill, West Bridgeford Nottingham - NG2 7FS 602-234047 GERMANY Hans-Juergen Thiess Angermuender Str. 12 1000 Berlin 49, Germany 49-30-7457796 INTERNET: 75470.3261@cis JAPAN Deane Hibbarb PSC 80, Box 12416 APO AP 96367-2416 NEW ZEALAND Shane Haney BBS: 635-62058 AUSTRALIA Mark Smith 4 Third Ave, Macquarie Fields, NSW 2564 Cross Beat BBS: 61-2-605-9438 TAIWAN David Hupp Christian Service Center Chung Ching Road. Chung Mei Ln #87 Taichung, Taiwan 407, Republic of China INTERNET: david.hupp@p0.f886.n2000.z12.misgate.gmi.org OFFICE SYSTEMS TECHNICIAN Patrick Auriemma - Nashua, N.H. ------------------------------------------------------------------ MORNING STAR is produced and published monthly, by a staff of born again believers in Jesus, located across the United States of America. Correspondence to MORNING STAR may be sent via the U.S. Postal Service or one of several computer networks. POSTAL ADDRESS P.O. Box 7755 Nashua, NH - USA 03060-7755 Phone: (603) 883-4624 ELECTRONIC MAIL LINKS INTERNET: mstarmac@aol.com (Toby Trudel) AMERICA ONLINE: MStarDOS (Steve Paulovich) GENIE: M.Wilkinson1 (Mike Wilkinson) COMPUSERVE: 70743,603 (Jorge Lopez) FIDONET: 1:106/3118 (Walter Bauer) CHRISTIAN FAMILY NETWORK: 8:3003/5 (Walter Bauer) CHRISTIAN DISTRIBUTION NETWORK: 8:2013/1 (Walter Bauer) POLICENET: 150:402/53 (Walter Bauer) To receive a free copy of the MS DOOR program, which allows viewers to read the magazine onscreen, contact: Alan Graff P.O. Box 131 Wheelersburg, OH 45694 INTERNET: alangraff@aol.com FIDONET: 1:2260/50 Theme: Deliverance Testimony of John D. Vickers, Jr. Testimony of John D. Vickers, Jr. PERSONAL TESTIMONY OF JOHN D. VICKERS, JR. Ucluelet, B.C., Canada I was raised in a deeply Christian home and attended church every Sunday unless I was too sick to do so out of respect for my father who was before his recent passing an Anglican church minister. I am the youngest child in my family being some what of a miracle child in that my mother was 46 and my father 50 when I was born. And that mother had a very difficult pregnancy with me and was not expected to live beyond my birth. I'm very happy to say that she is still with us at age 85. During my teen years I rebelled against my upbringing, the establishment and just about anything and everything I could think of to rebel against. But most of all against the very idea, as silly as it was, that there could be even a remote chance that God was real. I got in trouble with the police on a variety of beefs from petty mischief and theft up to and including grand theft auto, breaking & entering, fencing stolen goods, and forgery. In one sense you could say I was lucky other than being picked up and questioned several times or generally hassled by the police (to whom incidentally I bear NO malice) I always managed to escape doing jail time. I put this down at the time to luck, however, today I know another reason it simply was not part of God's plan for my life. At the same time as I was rebelling in this way, I also was experimenting with alcohol and drugs. I was smoking too by age 15 3 - 4 packages of "Export A's" per day. I started out with soft drugs like marijuana and hash ... but gradually matured to a selection of harder drugs. And using drugs in combination with alcohol. By age 19 in 1972 I was an addict. I was experiencing spontaneous flashbacks to chemical hallucinations without using anything. I was a mess, partying all the time, getting in trouble and showing a complete disrespect for all my parents stood for or believed in. Even though through this whole period I lived at home, and if I was in town on Sunday I'd still attend my father's church. I'd most often be either drunk or stoned on drugs but I went pretty regularly. I was dealing as well, but not on the street ... I was involved in the wholesale end of the business. In the spring and summer of 1972 I was dating a really nice Christian girl from my father's church and generally chumming around with some of the church kids. I was just trying to improve my outward image so some of the mom's would allow their daughter's to date me. You see I had a reputation for being bad news, so most of the girls were really not allowed to even speak to me. Anyway some time during that summer one of the guys, a very squeaky clean young man named Duncan Naylor told me about a weekend that was coming up early that fall at Camp Columbia the Anglican Church camp on Thetis Island, in B.C. He said they'd all be going and they were going to have a good time would I like to go. My first and immediate reaction was No, I don't want to go away to a "church camp" for a weekend. But, God had other plans so that on Sept. 8th 1972 I found myself on a ferry ride without about 80 other fools going to a church camping weekend. The beginning of the end for me started on the ferry trip, with the same fellow Duncan coming over and striking up a conversation, well it was really more of a monologue. He told me how God had sent His only Son to the earth to live with us and teach us about God's kingdom. How, Jesus had willingly gone the cross and died for us so that we might be saved. He told me how Jesus's loved me ... wait a minute loved me, and he told me that he and all the other young people not only loved me but, that they had and were praying for me. I have to tell I was really bugged by this, I freaked as we used to say, like get away from me you raving lunatic. I thought the guy was queer or something, I went back to my car, locked the doors took some dope, lit up a smoke and turned on some loud rock music trying to escape. The whole rest of that weekend I tried one drug and alcohol combination after another, from my stash, to no avail. I could not get high, the effect was being blocked, I was absolutely terrified, I was out of control I had no idea what was happening to me. Things came to a head on Saturday evening late about 2:00 AM Sunday actually I was on the beach alone. I remember saying out loud to myself "OK, if, if mind you there is a God and He does love me and His Son did die for me just as Duncan told me, then I'll believe you are who you say you are if you prove yourself to me." There was immediately a profound sense of peace that came over me and sleepiness. I went to my cabin and slept the sleep of the dead until 1:30 PM on Sunday. I didn't know it but my time to decide for Jesus was just around the corner. It was raining out, I was chilled to the bone and damp. The only heated place in the camp is the main meeting room in the log Henage House. I went there and found the whole group about 80 people singing and dancing and clapping their hands and making fools of themselves. I didn't want to go in, but I had to get warm so I did enter the room. The only place to sit alone in the whole place was to the right of the fireplace in a window seat. So, I crept over there and set down and tried not to pay attention to what was happening with all these Jesus freaks all around me. You know after all the years of attending my father's church one thing I did know was what songs they new and sang. And I can say for a certainty that before this day I had never heard them sing the hymn "On a Hill Far Away Stood an Old Rugged Cross," but this day they did. And while they did that, I found myself looking out the window across the lawns across the Straight of Georgia at the mountains behind Ladysmith on Vancouver Island. And when I did the clouds on top of the mountain broke, the sun was pouring down onto just the crest of the mountain and there in the brilliant sunshine was a huge cross. This cross was also illuminated from the inside out so that it was radiant ... to my astonishment I realized that tears were streaming down my cheeks. Our Lord had broken me and brought me to my knees, I cried a long time I'm not certain for just how long. But after quite a while I arose and went forward an knelt down in front of the 2 ministers at the front and told them I wanted to dedicate my life to Christ. One of the ministers was my father. His joy was beyond description for in his words the prodigal son had returned. In that thinking of an eye, in the moment that I surrendered my life Jesus completely healed me and released me from the addictions to cigarettes, alcohol and drugs. I arose truly a new creature in Christ Jesus home and free at last. Thank God Almighty truly free at last! Today we live in Ucluelet, B.C., Canada I'm married and have twin boys. We attend a shared ministry Anglican United church. I am heavily involved in Lay Ministry, I am a Procurement Officer for the Canadian Federal Government. And I have just decided to seek ordination into the full time ministry of the Anglican Church. I continue to grow in my relationship with the risen Lord, my Lord, Saviour and Master the Lord Jesus Christ. Delivered from Cocaine & Baseball Bats Delivered from Cocaine & Baseball Bats DELIVERED FROM COCAINE AND BASEBALL BATS Testimony of Shiela Dennis From PRECIOUS TESTIMONIES P.O. Box 516, Jenison, MI 49429 Have you ever met someone who seems to get pleasure out of making life miserable for others? I used to be that way. I'm a woman, but there was a time in my life when I took great pleasure in beating up people with a baseball bat! That included men! Let me tell you a little of my up-bringing, so you can fully appreciate how God has set me free from hurting people, and has done a miracle in my life by putting a desire in my heart to love people, instead of beating on them with a Louisville Slugger. When I was born, my mother left me permanently at the hospital. She left my older brother and sister at my grandparents, and just took off without telling anyone. My grandparents raised me the best they knew how, but by the time I was 10 they were in their 70's, so you can understand the strain they were under. I attended a Lutheran school up until the fifth grade, but got kicked out due to my rebellion. From there I was placed in a public school. I skipped school frequently and had little interest in applying myself, so my grades suffered. By the time I was nearing 18, I was stealing a lot. I was in and out of jail often for getting caught stealing, and for not paying traffic tickets. A week before I turned 18 I moved out of my grandparent's house and moved in with a man. He and I moved into an apartment complex that had eight units. The occupants of those units either drank heavily or were taking drugs or selling them. I soon got involved in selling drugs too because it was big money and you could make it fast. But because there was so much drinking and fighting and selling drugs at the complex, one day the landlord came to me and asked, "How would you like a reduction in your rent?" "What would I have to do?" I asked. "Be a bouncer. Patrol this place to maintain some order." I took the job. Most of the people at the complex were men, and so for me to have an "equalizer," I stuck six aluminum baseball bats in the corner of my apartment. If anything came up that I couldn't handle myself, I'd get a baseball bat. So between selling drugs and beating up people with my baseball bats, I had a purpose in life. I grew to like beating on people and hurting them. If I didn't hurt them physically, I'd hurt them mentally. If someone was slow or mentally impaired, I'd rip them to shreds emotionally. I especially loved to do it to people like that. Once my landlord made me mad and I even shattered his elbow with a bat. Many a person went to the hospital to get patched up from me using them to hit home runs. I grew to where I hated people of all kinds, and I grew to hating being touched. If I didn't get to hurt someone at least once a day, I'd be miserable inside. I'd get mad because no one got me mad so I could hurt them. Here's a twist to all of this. I sold drugs for 14 years, but never took any. but if you hang around drugs long enough, thinking you'll never get suckered into taking them yourself, the devil finds you a special challenge. My sister got arrested for selling drugs, and they locked her up. I got custody of her three children. Suddenly I was the parent of a 16, 15 and 12 year old. I used the children as a reason for not being able to handle the stress, and you can guess what happened next. After seven months of using cocaine, I was up to a $900 a day habit. I was always the type that if I was going to do something, I wasn't going to dabble. I'd either do things up good, or not do things at all. That's a good quality to have if it's applied to a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, but it's a trap of the worst kind for those who are not living to please God. I got desperate enough for drug rehabilitation programs - four different times to be exact - but as soon as I was released from the programs, the very next day I'd be back on cocaine. If I went for a 28 day program, I was clean for 28 days. On the 29th day, I was right back to the same addiction I'd checked in for. I'd tell my friend who was coming to pick me up, "Be sure to bring along some cocaine." The last program I was released from, I was placed in an outpatient clinic. Bob was my counselor. We became good friends. I didn't realize he was a born-again Christian, until one day he brought up a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program called Western Michigan Teen Challenge. He gave me literature on it that interested me, until I came to the part where it said women had to wear dresses to worship services. I called him up the next day and said, "No thanks. I haven't worn a dress in 20 years and I'm not about to start now." God was stirring in my heart though, although I didn't recognize it as Him at the time, and a couple of days later something inside me prompted me to call Bob back up and tell him that I had reconsidered. In December of 1988, I checked into Western Michigan Teen Challenge. What did T get myself into? Sue Seals, the lady supervisor of the women's unit, was a very loving, hugging woman. I used to duck, hide, whatever I could do, because I could not stand to be touched. I still had that hatred and bitterness in me. I also found out what the CHRISTIAN meant when Bob had called this a Christian program. This program was 24-7-JESUS. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, you hear nothing but scripture from the Bible - learning how to apply it to your life to let the Holy Spirit use it to set you free. By God's grace alone I was able to stay with it, difficult as it was, and it was Christ's power that began to have His life-changing effect in me. Why 24-7-JESUS? Well, if Jesus Christ was God before He came to earth in the form of a man, and He left earth and went back into Heaven to function again as One of the three persons of the triune Godhead, why not 24-7-JESUS? Why settle for anything less than God Himself to set alcoholics and drug addicts and ballbat-smashers like me free from those bondages? But to have the power of Christ and the scriptures and the Holy Spirit working on my behalf, I had to purposely and willfully turn my life over to Jesus Christ. It had to be an act of my will. So I did that. Then I sought Jesus to baptize me into the fullness of the Holy Spirit, because scripture says that He is the Spirit baptizer (See Matthew 3:11; Acts 19:2). Once I did those two acts of obedience, the power of God began to flow through me; changing me; delivering me; healing me; remaking me into a lady I never dreamed I could be. It took about six weeks before I turned loose of the bitterness and hatred inside of me, which was what had me so miserable inside. Bitterness and hatred must have a release, and mine found its release in making others hurt. But once I chose to let it go, it just went! It's like chains dropped off me! After that, every once in awhile I'd knock on our supervisor's door and say, "Momma Sue, I need a hug." I'm on staff now at Western Michigan Teen Challenge (616-698-7927 for those who may wish to contact them). Before, I used to beat and hurt people, sending them to the hospital for bandages and stitches. Now the Lord has allowed me to put "spiritual bandages" on people coming into the program. When I came to the program, I needed to be accepted for who I was, not for what someone wanted out of me. And that's exactly what happened. And so now when people come in, strung out on drugs, shot up and cut up, by the grace and power of Christ flowing through me, I give them the same thing people gave me. The unconditional love of God through the power of Jesus Christ that has changed my life. He's the one who deserves all the credit. Eighteen Years Ago I Quit Eighteen Years Ago I Quit EIGHTEEN YEARS AGO I QUIT! by Ken McDade Washington, Pennsylvania Eighteen years ago my life went from an innocent and warm experience to one of decadence, deceit, rebellion and denial. I stole from my friends, family and neighbors. I lived from moment to moment, in an empty shell of a body. Those I chose to call my friends were as bad as I was and I enjoyed living like them. God's commandment to me to love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind was replaced by my new life style. I was a slave of ONE master and it was not Jesus, its' name was drugs and Satan was its' master. Drugs had become the tool of a new master to me. With his tool, Satan showed me what the material world was. He took me like he took Christ to the highest mountain top and promised me the world if only I would worship him. When I stopped to listen I was tempted into a new and cancerous lifestyle. The hole in my soul that was left when I turned from God was filled with drugs. When I could no longer afford to pay for my drugs with my own money, I turned to lying, stealing and to an extent of even prostitution to feed my habits. My world had become a miserable ruin and everyone close to me suffered my pain with me. The blindness of my disease kept me from seeing what was happening to the people that I love. My parents went without sleeping while I was out, and walked the floor worrying about their son. My wife and children suffered from my self-centered binges while I would use up all the food and rent money on my drugs and alcohol. When anyone mentioned that I may have a problem I would verbally attack them, blaming my problems on them or other things. Never would I blame myself or my habit for any of my problems, it was always someone else. One day when the landlord and the utility companies were threatening me and the bank started collection on a car loan that my father co-signed for me, something snapped inside my mind. I guess that God finally opened my eyes to my problem. I finally saw that my kids were going to school in rags and how we were beginning to get tired of eating soup for dinner and sometimes going to bed hungry. I finally took the first step to getting better. I admitted to my wife that I may have a problem. This was the first miracle in my life. God has always helped me throughout my life but I call my admission to my problem my first miracle because it completely changed my life. Although my spiritual life hadn't yet changed, I was still hedonistic. The Lord started molding me; like a great artist's hand he gently urged me through my hard times. A small pinch here, a stern rub there, slicing off a rough edge here and there, my new self began to take shape. Yet, I still hadn't accepted that it was the Lord who was working the clay and not me, his creation. It was the second step that opened my eyes to His workings and blessings. Anyone that is familiar with the "Twelve Step" programs of recovery knows that the first step deals with admittance that there is a problem and that our lives had become unmanageable. The second step is the first introduction that "maybe" someone higher up can restore us to sanity. Of all the reasons for an anonymous meeting to take place in a church basement, this one is the most important. Many of us, although we were brought up in the church, have not believed in God for so long that when we reach this step we are like sponges. Every pore of our body aches for knowledge of him. This is what happened to me one night after a meeting when a group of us went to a Dairy Queen for a late snack. I believe that it was there that God spoke to me in a way that He so often uses, through another person. Dave, a friend of mine, sat in the booth across from us holding a book. I don't even remember its title now, but it was that book that awakened my beliefs. When I asked him a question about the book he was holding, he told me that it was a book that his church men's fellowship was studying. When I questioned him about the fellowship, he began to witness to me about how Jesus saved him from the depths of his addiction problem. His message struck me in a way that I needed to hear at that time. It wasn't the idea of the book discussions that intrigued me, it was the FELLOWSHIP that I was looking for. When I was younger the church was someplace to go "to", not somewhere to meet people. I think that this was where the church failed me early in my life. At that time there was no true fellowship programs for young adults. It seemed that the church was a place for old people and children, not teenagers. Dave introduced me to the concept that the church is a place to learn about Christ's teachings and messages for me and my family. The next Sunday I was at Dave's church for services. It was the first time in over sixteen years that I went to church because "I" wanted to go. I began to meet people there that were friendly and sincere. I felt a little uneasy about the way the services were conducted, because I was raised Southern Baptist and this was an Episcopalian church, but I believed that it was only fair to give the church a chance. The feeling of fellowship didn't come over night but eventually I felt right at home. I slowly became an accepted member of the church. I made new friends and I finally realized what the fellowship that the bible speaks about means. A new enthusiasm about my recovery program started to take effect. I no longer had to use a "generic Higher Power" for my program. My God, as I understood him, was good to me and I wanted to share his joy with others. The only reservation that I had was that I could only witness to those who desired to hear about His word. I felt that I had to be careful that I didn't fall into a trap of discouragement that some people fall into when they witness to those that didn't solicit their message. What I found was that there were people that needed and wanted to hear my message because they were people who were hurting and desperate for God's love and grace like me. Many times before and after meetings I spoke to people about my faith and I was happy when they were receptive to my message. I would rejoice when they told about their experiences with God and how they too longed to learn more. I would ask them if they had a church to go to and if they didn't I would invite them to our church to worship together. I knew that many times people didn't go to church because they didn't know anyone there and they were afraid to be alone for the first time. By my offering to invite them they were given the opportunity to meet people on a more even ground. It's amazing to see how anxious people are to step in when doors are open for them. We have a saying in our program that fits our ministry well; "We can only keep what we have by giving it away." Every day I need to give a little of my experience, strength and hope to someone. Whether they are newcomers to the program or to the Good News, I need to show them by example that living the "Twelve Step" programs and in God's word can be a rewarding and life-changing experience. Someone told me these words early in the program that mean the world to me today; "In order to have a friend you must first be a friend." Of all the things we Christians need to be is a friend to anyone who is truly trying to believe. They, like a baby, need to be nurtured and weaned towards God's commandments. We must never allow ourselves to be judgmental or biased towards those that seek us out. Through my own experiences I have found that those that seem the most desperate are usually those that are the most dedicated and sincere individuals in service to Christ. I have grown greatly in my spiritual and physical being since I first came into my anonymous programs. Although this may rub some fundamentalist feathers somewhat, I believe that no one can truly relinquish the addiction problems with only the church's help. God is great in His saving grace and He has helped me many times but I needed to talk with other recovering individuals in order to stay clean for my four and a half years. I acknowledge the fact that there are some individuals that have overcome their problems through the church but their percentage is WELL below 1 percent. For a listing of the anonymous programs in your area I suggest that you look in your phone books for the program that you feel that you need. There are treatment centers for every addiction problem and they have a wide range of programs for every situation you may find yourself in. I have also found a Christ-based recovery group that can be started in your church. Unlike other types of "Twelve step" programs this one is not solely for the treatment of alcohol, drugs, sexual, overeating, obsessive/compulsive or gambling addictions but ALL of them through understanding God's word. Its' name is Overcomers Anonymous and I suggest it for anyone with an addiction problem of any type. Talk with your Pastor and ask him if there is one in your area. If there isn't one you can contact the Overcomers Anonymous Group in Omaha, Nebraska. So remember, Easy Does It and Give yourself a break! God Bless you and help you stay clean, humble, hopeful and good to yourself at least once a day, every day. Story of Two Defectors Story of Two Defectors STORY OF TWO DEFECTORS Testimony of Richard & Evelyn Sierra From PRECIOUS TESTIMONIES P.O. Box 516, Jenison, MI 49429 If you're a hero back from the war, many will want to hear your story. When a person turns his or her life over to Jesus Christ and wants to share their joy and excitement with others, many won't want to hear your story, but that's okay, because scripture says that all of heaven rejoices for this act of bravery (read Luke 15:7,10). My wife and I are not heroes. We were lost sinners who defected. We once were in Satan' s army and we defected to the army of Jesus Christ. Here's the brief details of our defection. Evelyn and I are from New York city. As I grew up in the south Bronx, I was exposed early to drugs. At age 15, on my first date, I came home to my father being arrested by the police. He had beaten my mother to a pulp - something he had done more than once. I also started using heroin at age 15, and I used it regularly along with alcohol and marijuana until Evelyn and I married. By our mid-twenties, we had our first child. Evelyn and I were what you would call weekend party warriors. We worked hard during the week at our jobs, and partied hard on the weekends. Alcohol was our source to get high, as was all our friends, "to make the going great." In time, I began to long for hard drugs again, and I started secretly shooting heroin on weekends while Evelyn drank alcohol. My craving increased. I started losing weight. I secretly started selling our possessions to support my habit. I would short-change Evelyn on the family budget to get extra money for heroin. There was a part of me that knew I was out of control and the addiction had control of me. So to bury that conflict, I'd do the only thing I knew to escape from reality get high again. The world could fall apart around me - who cared? But when I would come down off my highs, I knew I couldn't live forever like this. Neither could my family. I began to search for answers. From 1982 through 1987 I went away at least twice a year to dry-out centers to get cleaned up. My hope was in drug centers for my deliverance. On the home front, Evelyn began to put more pressure on me. "If you don't get off drugs and stay off, you're going out the door and staying out!" In Evelyn's struggle to cope with the hell I was putting her through, temptation began to tug on her heartstrings. "Why not go to the bar and get picked up? You need someone to appreciate you more than what Rich does," came the inner thoughts. Little did she know that on the very same night she was being tempted with adultery at the bar, I too was being tempted with adultery by a woman named "Lady Cocaine." As it turned out, Evelyn didn't score, but I did. After that I became hooked not only on heroin, but also cocaine. Meanwhile Evelyn began locking herself in her room days at a time. All our friends thought we had a good marriage. Little did anyone know Evelyn's heart was being torn apart. In desperation, after all the drug rehabilitation programs had not given me the necessary desire to stay off drugs, my wife began to cry out to God for help. "If there's a God up there, help me!" Evelyn's first marriage had crumbled, and now her second marriage was also in shambles. A few hours later a girl knocked on the door and told Evelyn that the Lord had impressed her to come. And upon the girl's invitation, Evelyn went to church that night, and invited Jesus Christ into her heart at the end of the service. Although my situation grew worse after that, the power of Jesus Christ working in Evelyn's life began to take hold. The day came when Evelyn didn't care anymore if the whole world knew our problems. She began asking anyone and everyone to pray for me. The power of concentrated prayer began to drive back the enemy. One person praying, the enemy can withstand more easily. Several people praying about the same issue - look out! (read Matthew 18-19-20). One day a stranger called our house. This man told Evelyn and I about a drug and alcohol treatment center called Teen Challenge. Up until that moment, we had never heard about Teen Challenge. He told us that the power of God through the application of God's Word, and the power of the Holy Spirit, would be the means to not only give me the desire to get off drugs and alcohol, but the power to get off and stay off. However, it would have to be my choice to accept it, and it would mean that I would have to let God have control of my life. I wanted free from addictions. Other drug rehab programs gave me no hope any longer. I was desperate. So was Evelyn and my mother. An opening was available at Western Michigan Teen Challenge and they were insistent I fly to Michigan. The three of us drove to the airport. I had three coats on and was still freezing cold. We missed the flight. The next flight out was 4 1/2 hours later. We had no choice but to wait. I needed a fix bad. I couldn't handle this torment any longer. Suddenly a thought came to mind! "We need to call Teen Challenge and let them know I missed the flight, and I'll be arriving later. I left the phone number at home. Let's go back home and get the number and call them." Evelyn was afraid that if we went back home, I'd never make it to Michigan. She knew the devil was using everything he could to keep me from going. First, the delay in our getting to the airport; now the phone number left at home. What could she do to keep me at the airport for only 4 1/2 more hours? Her mind raced! At that moment I pulled my hands out of my pockets and a piece of paper fell on the ground. Both of our eyes got big. There was the phone number! How did it get there?! Both of us knew we had left it at home. It had to be a miracle! At the center, I went through agonizing withdrawals for the next few days. But the people at the center were loving and patient with me, lifting me up in prayer and support. But there in the depths of hell inside my being, Jesus Christ was healing this drug addict. When I finally got up with nothing but skin and bones, that Sunday I gave my heart to Jesus Christ. I wanted to know who that man was I saw on the poster at age three in a Sunday school class my mother had taken me to - the man with a beard and a tranquil look on his face; with the little lamb on His shoulder - the One who had died for me. A year later, my family settled in Western Michigan. Today my family stands tall by the grace of God as we follow Jesus Christ daily, moment by moment. Sure, problems still come as they do with all people, Christian or non, but we've got the "equalizer" now helping us get through them. Some people call that a crutch. A soldier in the heat of the battle needs a weapon to help with the fight. My weapon is called JESUS CHRIST, and I see it as opportunity to give God glory when He helps win battles for us. It's all in how one views it, I guess. For those of you who do not have Jesus Christ as your Commander-In-Chief, we encourage you to step over the line. Your friends and family may or may not applaud you, but millions upon millions will in heaven! Today I'm OK Tokay I'm OK TODAY I'M OK Testimony of Janet Kelsay From HIGHWAY magazine, February 1993 I was born May 17,1970, to a 15 year old unwed mother and was taken home by my adoptive parents at three hours old. As I grew up, I can never remember a time of feeling complete or normal. I'm not even sure what normal is anymore. The sexual abuse began as a child. My drinking began at age six on my father's lap. He died when I was ten and I don't remember having a childhood after that. I don't think I even desired one. The drinking continued while I grew up, along with whatever "pill" I could get When I turned seventeen, I married my husband John. It was the first chance I ever had to be "normal". I slacked off my drug use for a while until two months into our marriage, I was raped. My drinking picked back up until I found out I was pregnant. Three weeks before our first anniversary, our daughter was born. It didn't take long until I was right back where I left off. The following year I became pregnant with John Jr. Our marriage was beginning to deteriorate as debts began to pile up, so John Sr. decided to start driving a truck. We both felt this would be the best. I tried everything I knew to help me feel normal, complete or special. Drugs, alcohol, sex, food, money, nothing seemed to work. My world was crumbling around me and there was nothing I could do about it. John was working more and more. He didn't want to be home to deal with me and I can't say I blame him. Something had taken control of me and it seemed that there was no way out. We moved, saw a marriage counselor, I got a job, then quit. Nothing was helping. During this time I was writing bad checks to finance my habits and life style. I knew it was only a matter of time before it was all going to end. In June of 1991 I decided to quit "cold turkey". I had no idea of the physical withdrawal I would go through. I ended up in a hospital psychiatric ward. God let me live! In July I was arrested. I was wanted in seven different counties on 121 counts of passing bad checks. While I was sitting in jail not knowing about my kids, husband or my future, two ladies came and told me about their "friend". They said, "Jesus was the answer to my problems." They gave me a Bible and I met their "friend" personally. He was everything I was looking for. With Him, I would never want for any good thing. With His Word and friendship, I marched through the next 3 1/2 months. On October 18,1991, I was released from jail. I had been facing ten years in prison and got only 3 1/2 months. Praise God! There was still a great deal of restoration needed. Jesus began by healing me physically from all of my harmful desires so I could be an active wife and mother. God then placed a love and patience within me for my children and that began their healing. Then I took a bold step and asked our church to pray for the healing of my marriage and that is exactly what He did. Today I enjoy a happy marriage, beautiful kids, financial prosperity and a real relationship with a "true friend", Jesus Christ. It's only been a year and the Lord has turned things around completely. I thank God for His mercy. Today I'm okay. The Night God Became Real The Night God Became Real THE NIGHT GOD BECAME REAL Testimony of Norm Rasmussen From PRECIOUS TESTIMONIES P.O. Box 516, Jenison, MI 49429 What a joy it is to know beyond all shadow of a doubt that there really is a God. Not just to believe there's a God and leave it at that, but to have personally experienced His presence in my room. That was the night my doubts about God and Jesus Christ changed forever! It is my hope that if you are somehow doubting God, my testimony will somehow change that. After all, to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is one thing, but to know by the Holy Spirit to the depths of your being that Jesus Christ is also GOD Himself - co-equal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit - One God in three distinct persons ... that's when Christianity takes on a whole new meaning. Then it's not so much what you believe that is important anymore, but who you are believing in that makes all the pieces of the puzzle start coming together. Early in my childhood, I accepted Christ as my Savior. With a child's mentality, I'm sure I did it to hopefully make God happy with me, and so I wouldn't go to hell. There was a lot of turbulence in my home-life through those years. Because of the turbulence, I was attracted to whatever would make me happy. Wherever alcohol was available, I sought after it. Drugs were not readily available like they are today, so drugs were not an option, thank goodness. After high school, I enlisted in the Army. Through little choice of my own, I was volunteered" to become a prisoner-of-war interrogator and was sent to Vietnam. In the name of "war" I tortured prisoners to get information. Before going to Vietnam, I got married. I came back from Vietnam twisted by the war hard-hearted and a heavy drinker. My marriage began to go downhill soon thereafter. Like many others, I began to think that an intimate relationship with another woman was what I needed. Adultery followed, and guilt ate at me constantly. To bury my guilt, I drank more alcohol. Through all those trying years, I still wondered if there really was a God. Part of me wanted to believe there was, yet there was another part of me that had difficulty believing unless I could "prove" there was a God. I was quick to find fault in Christians and organized religion as well; not aware of the devil's influence over mankind's thinking. After all, if there is no God, how can there be a devil or Satan? Fortunately though, there were people God used along life's way to influence me positively about God. An older sister was one of those people. Flora and her husband had become "born again", and their excitement about their relationship with Jesus Christ captured my attention. My youngest brother, Dale, the black sheep of the family as far as I was concerned, also had a powerful "born again" experience, and it was seeing the incredible change in his life for the better that began to make me take a more serious look at my comprehension of Christianity. When I would talk with Dale, all he would tell me-was to forget about my hangups about Christianity and organized religion, and just fall in love with Jesus Christ. He said the rest of it would all fall into place in due time. Alcoholism continued to take its ugly toll, as well as the other affects of sin in my life. At mid-life, I was told unexpectedly by a nurse that I was a walking time-bomb. My heart was ready to explode any minute due to extreme high blood pressure. I was sleeping very little, smoking 3 packs of cigarettes a day, and drinking close to three-quarters of a fifth of hard liquor a day, not to mention various amounts of beer and wine. When I was told that I had to quit smoking and drinking or else suffer a heart attack, part of me didn't care if I died. In a cowardly sort of way, it was a way out of my pain and misery with living. After all, it would be death through "natural causes." Who would ever know the real reason? Yet another part of me wanted what my sister and my younger brother had found: a peace with whom they believed to be the Creator of the universe; no substitutes, They weren't propagating a religion, a denomination, or a teacher. What they were propagating was relationship with the triune Gods God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and I liked the exciting fruits, or results you might say, they were getting. So at age 35, I was a wreck. I was facing death, and I wasn't convinced in my heart that I would go to heaven (if there was such a place). My marriage had fallen apart my life was in shambles. I had two precious children an emotionally trained wife who had neither a suitable father or husband. Despair descended upon me, and fear of dying began to plague my thoughts. My despair eventually turned to desperation. Everything culminated on a Friday night. I went to bed early that evening, and started crying out to Jesus Christ ... if there was a Jesus Christ who could hear me, or wanted to hear me. "Let me know you are real! I do want to serve the real God, but I've got to know you are real! I've got to know that what the Bible says about you is true! I've got to know if you really care for me!" I cried and agonized to God until the wee hours of dawn, but all there was silence. "God ... do you even hear me?" More silence. I finally gave up. What a fool I had been to cry out like this all night long. Thinking that maybe - just maybe - God would have compassion on me and somehow reveal His reality to me in a way that I wasn't so doubtful and confused. It was just starting to break day and then it happened! The bedroom instantly became about 30% brighter. I looked for a light to be on but none was! I thought maybe the sun was now up and I had fallen asleep and had wakened hours later, but the clock said differently. No - I wasn't imagining it nor was I dreaming it. The light was real! It was of equal intensity throughout the room. An invisible presence was in my room. The reason I know so was because an indescribable love was so strong in that room that it seemed there was not enough room to contain it all! I felt like I was being shoved back by a big hand into my bed, the love was so strong. And I knew don't ask me how I knew - I just knew that I knew that I knew - that it was the Spirit of Jesus Christ in my room! At that moment He spoke very powerfully to me. Not audibly, I don't think, but powerfully to my inner being. The intensity of it was so strong though that it might just have well of been audible. He told me what I had to do to make my relationship work with Him. Then instantly all the anguish and pain and misery and confusion and doubt of a lifetime was sucked out of me. And all that was left was peace. Sweet beautiful peace ... and knowing that God is real. Then the room instantly was dark again as before. And the presence of Christ was now gone. The whole thing didn't take more than a few brief moments to happen, but happen it did! I was now a believer. Moments later, I pulled the covers off me, sat on the side of the bed, and made a solemn vow to God "Thank you, Lord, for revealing yourself to me in a way that I can believe in you. I know I don't deserve what has just happened here, and I promise to serve you the rest of my life." I've done my best to keep that promise, even though I've made many mistakes since then. Yet I serve a forgiving and patient God. I hope you choose to serve Him as well. Thank you for taking the time to read my brief story. I wish there was room to share all that God has done since that time. There's pages more! Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me." (John 14:6). It took the Holy Spirit about a year later to break through my thick skull to reveal to me who Jesus Christ really is. Once you know, then you understand why relationship with Jesus Christ is EVERYTHING. I Claimed it for My Life! I Claimed it for My Life! I CLAIMED IT FOR MY LIFE! By Bob Kirkbride Manteca, CA My mother was a pregnant, unmarried alcoholic who left me when I was 3 years old. I only saw her about once every 3 years and I hated her. I couldn't understand why she treated me like she did. It was tough growing up without a mother or a father and I resented it and looked for ways to "pay them back" for not caring about me. I started dating at 13 and things were getting pretty hot and heavy when a concerned aunt told me I couldn't see this girl I was really beginning to care about, any more. When I asked her why, her answer threw me into an even deeper inner rage. "You can't see her anymore because her father is your dad"! I broke up with her and as far as I knew, she never knew she was my half sister. My uncles were all drunks but they were my idols. They taught me to drink and smoke and I did it up big as part of several gangs, until I turned 18. I met my wife to be at a high school dance in my hometown in Ohio. She was a freshman and I was a junior and from the moment I laid eyes on her I knew I would marry her. I told all my friends she would be my wife and they all laughed at me because they knew she had very high morals and didn't want anything to do with the likes of me. I did convince her to date me and even asked her to go steady. She was interested in another fellow but gave up on him to go with me. After I turned 18, I said my good-byes to her, joined the Navy and went to Viet Nam. Meanwhile she told me she was moving to California. Coincidentally (or was it God's special direction?) some time later, my ship wound up in Alameda, California. I searched for her, found her, asked her to marry me, and we became engaged. I got out of the service and we both moved back to Ohio and got married. All went well until I got back in my old neighborhood. Within 3 months, I was again drinking heavily. I went out every night with the guys and didn't care if I ever came home. I indulged in affairs and left my wife and new 8 month old baby at home, not even knowing where I was or whether I would ever come home. It was then she gave me an ultimatum. "Give up your drinking and running around, or lose me". When I chose drinking instead of her, she moved to California and stayed with her mother. We never saw each other for a year and a half. She contacted me and wanted to get back together but I wasn't interested. I was living with another woman and spending as much of her money as I could talk her out of and having what I thought was a great time. So, my wife gave up on me and started dating a California guy and talked about marrying him. Meanwhile, I was driving a bus for a living and continued to drink every day. I carried a thermos of wine with me on the job and downed as many refills as I could. I would leave the pool hall at 4 AM and start driving my bus at 5 AM every day. I had sold all the furniture. All I had left was a refrigerator. In it was 2 cases of beer, some wine, a bottle of whiskey and a package of baloney. As I stared at my bare surroundings, a light came on in my mind and I called my wife. Amazingly, we got back together and decided to try and work things out, even though she was still interested in this other guy. My wife's mother owned a restaurant and we spent a lot of time there together. A lady who often ate there witnessed to my wife and me constantly. I hated it. Then I met a guy who invited me to church. He didn't push me but just kind of enticed me to come "when I was ready". Two days later, my 2 year old daughter asked me to take her to church. I didn't want to just "send" her, so I took her. I'll never forget that place. It was called Victory Temple, in Oakland, California. After the morning service, I vowed I'd never go back. I thought the people were nuts getting that excited about God. And then I went back that evening. Somehow the love of those people just drew me. I kept going back and one night an evangelist spoke on deliverance. I had tried to quit drinking but I got the shakes so bad, I just couldn't bear it. My wife turned around and noticed I was not in the pew with her and she assumed that I had split. Imagine her surprise when she looked the other way and saw me walking down to the altar. I told God that I didn't know if He even existed but that if He did, that my drinking, smoking, cussing and carousing could never be a part of my life again. I prayed with everything that was in me and I was instantly delivered by the power of God! The desire for those things absolutely left me. Since that time we both have kept growing in the Lord and God has used us together to minister to other young married couples with their difficulties. We love each other more now than ever. We both thought it could never be possible. But all things ARE possible with Christ. He has given us strength to bear up under many difficult burdens. Our second daughter was born with Down's Syndrome. Doctors told us six different times that she could never live. She's also suffered with leukemia and many other related illnesses and learning difficulties. She'll be 21 years old in April! Again God has done what man said was impossible. And this beautiful child has taught us more about life and living God's way than any adult ever taught us. She has been an incredible blessing to our lives. Every day is a new adventure for us as we serve the Lord together. We work in the church. We sing in the choir. We head up the home ministries department. We memorize scripture and we share Jesus with everyone we meet. When I first read first Corinthians 5:17, I was thrilled because it told the story of my life in a nutshell: "If any man (that's me!) is in Christ, he is a new creation (I was!). Old things are passed away (they are!) and all things have become new (they have and are!). That is one scripture that has made such a powerful impact on me and my family. No wonder I have claimed it for my life! I just cannot thank and praise the Lord enough. He has truly made me a new creature in Him. And because of Him power in me, I'm sober today and will be every day that I live. No one can deliver like The Most High God! Book Review Book Review COUNSELING FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ADDICTION Stephen Van Cleave, M.D., Walter Byrd, M.D. and Kathy Revell, R.N. Volume 12 - Resources for Christian Counseling General Editor, Gary R. Collins, Ph.D. Word Books Waco TX, 1987 Dr. Collins ends his introduction to this book in the Resources for Christian Counseling, this way: "If you counsel with substance abusers or their families, this book will be helpful. If you want to understand one of the major social problems of our times, this book will be enlightening. If you have never knowingly met a substance abuser, this book will help you understand a problem that sooner or later you probably will encounter in your counseling ministry." 1 Even if you do not counsel, but are in ministry to people within the church or community, you should read this book. This is an accessible analysis of the problem and includes a list of resources available. As such, it should receive a wider reading that the series would lead one to expect. The book approaches the subject of substance abuse by giving an introduction to how one becomes addicted and then discusses the medical implications of the problem. Having discussed the individual's issues related to substance abuse, the authors move on to broader concerns. The abuse of controlled substances has reached epidemic proportions. The magnitude of this problem is examined. From the reasons why abuse is such a massive problem, the authors move into the area of what needs to be done. First, they identify how denial and guilt perpetuate the problem. This being the case, it becomes clear that addiction affects not only the addict, but his family as well. Consequently, the authors identify the importance of family involvement and tough love. It is the family that can help the abuser recognize of his abuse. The last chapters focus on counseling concerns. These include: dealing with getting out of addiction, plus anger and hurt within the abuser's family. An overview of treatment methods, such as inpatient, outpatient and residential programs, are provided. Specific counseling suggestions and a section of basic questions and answers about drug abuse are also included. The book closes with extensive appendixes. These include: Glossary of Terms, Drugs of Abuse: Slang Terms, resources, signs of teenage drug abuse, and other material. Again, the book is primarily for the Christian counselor. Nevertheless, I hope that it will receive a broader readership than this limited audience. 1. Van, Cleave, Stephen, Walter Byrd, Kathy Revell, COUNSELING FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ADDICTION, Word Books, Waco, TX, 1987, p. 9. THE CULT OF THE VIRGIN Catholic Mariology and the Apparitions of Mary Elliot Miller and Kenneth R. Samples Baker Book House Grand Rapids, MI, 1992 The authors of this work are both affiliated with Christian Research Institute (CRI), an evangelical investigative organization. This new book is published as part of a collection of studies from CRI. THE CULT OF THE VIRGIN is written in two parts and appendixes. The first, by Elliot Miller, examines Catholic doctrine related to Mary. The section traces the development of teachings on Mary from the Divine Maternity to Hyperveneration. (The first deals with Mary as the "mother of God." The last explains the prayerful devotion to Mary, that which is perceived by many as the worship of Mary.) The second section, by Kenneth R. Samples, discusses specific apparitions of the Virgin Mary. A definition of "apparition" is provided. Then the author provides a survey of the most well known Marian apparitions including: Guadalupe, Mexico; Lourdes, France; Fatima, Portugal; Beauraing and Banneux, Belgium and Bayside, New York. A whole chapter is given to the most recent apparition, the appearances at Medjugorje, Yugoslavia. The section on Mariology is a historic analysis. Each step in the development of this system is examined. These include: Divine Maternity, Perpetual Virginity, the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption, Spiritual Mother, Coedemptrix and Mediatrix, Queen of Heaven and Hyperveneration. Each is examined in terms of its historical development and theological foundation. Most importantly, the author examines how each specific teaching stands up against the teachings of Scripture. Mr. Miller tries to help the reader understand how each additional teaching on Mary has contradicted Scripture. He shows how the development of the system of Mariology has been progressive. With each new teaching there is further movement away from Biblical sources. This further undermines the unique role of Christ as the God-Man, the sole source of salvation, and the only mediator between God and man. It is in the context of the ever-expanding role of Mary in Catholic theology that her apparitions are found. Kenneth Samples speaks to these apparitions in the second section of the book. First he defines apparition and explains the methodology of the Catholic Church for "confirming" the authenticity of specific appearances. From the Protestant view that only Scripture is the basis for testing truth (Sola Scriptura), there can be no support for these apparitions. This is because in each case the apparition supports the non-Biblical Mariology. The next areas reviewed are a cursory description of the best know apparitions. Mr. Samples further discusses the appearances at Medjugorje, and how this and other appearances affect Catholic piety. Finally, he closes with a discussion of what should be the Protestant response to Medjugorje and other apparitions. In addition, the authors provide some appendixes including interviews with key individuals surrounding the appearances at Medjugorje. These interviews are with a few of the "visionaries," as well as the leading Bishop of the area. The Bishop rejects the validity of the appearances. Also provided is a response to the material by Father Mitchell Pacwa, S.J., a Scripture scholar from Loyola University at Chicago, and a response to the bishop by the authors. Who should read this book? First, it should be noted that this is a well-reasoned work, and not a diatribe against the Catholic Church. There is no attempt to attack Catholic doctrine. Though this may be a problem for some Protestants. The focus is strictly on the concerns over the non-Biblical teachings about Mary and the effect these teachings have on an understanding of Marian apparitions. Consequently, this book should be read by Protestants who desire to have a greater understanding of the controversy surrounding the Catholic excesses about Mary. It also should be read by Christian Catholics who are concerned about maintaining a Biblically sound basis of the preeminence of Christ, and do not desire to see His place taken by a false view of Mary. Also, it is hoped that, in the midst of this controversy, all Christians will remember that Mary was chosen by God to be the human mother of His Son's incarnation. Catholics are right in recognizing the blessing that God bestowed on Mary. Protestants should not ignore her in an overreaction to the abuses of Catholic Mariology. This book is highly recommended. People Profile People Profile In the issue of Morning Star our senior editor Geoff Kragen interviews Barbara Aragon, MSW (Master of Social Work). Ms. Aragon works for the American Indian Training Institute, Inc. (AITI) and is a member of the Laguna Tribe. She also teaches a class in social work at California State University at Sacramento. AITI provides programs and training in the area of alcohol and drug abuse for health care providers and tribal leadership within the American Indian community. Geoff: First, I would like to get some background for our readers. Can you tell us how you became a believer? Barbara: I think that people become believers in two type of ways. One is that they are raised in it. They have a model for it in their family. The other is people in crisis, who find that they can't handle it on their own. The Lord opens that door through that crisis for them to become believers. I think that for me it was a combination. I was raised in the Catholic Church, and so I had that teaching and also went to Catholic schools. This was an early part of my life, so there was an awareness of Jesus Christ. Once I quit going, I moved away from that. It was always in the back of my mind, not necessarily the church, but what Christ was in my life. As I grew older and went through a divorce, and the crisis I went through during that time, a person in the ministry was a support to me and brought me back to where my roots were. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord. Geoff: What made you chose a career in social work? Barbara: Well actually, my background is in history. I got my BA in History. I wanted to go to graduate school just to go to school. I wasn't real interested in a career. I applied to a couple of schools out here, (California). I applied to UC (University of California) Berkeley. My application was too late, and the person who called, who was the coordinator, said "We really can't accept your application this year, but I know that there is a need for Indian social work students over at Sacramento State. I know the person over there. Would you mind if we submitted it ? Or would you mind if I gave him a call." ... And so I ended coming out here for social work. I look back about how the Lord prepares you for whatever your purpose is, and the types of things that I do, the type of training I had in social work ... That was my path to prepare me for the things that I need for my ministry. Geoff: What kind of work do you do for AITI, as it relates to alcohol and substance abuse? Barbara: We do training and I do a lot of coordinating of the training. I talk to a lot of people that will provide the training. I take the requests for training. And so it is trying to link up the training requests and the instructors. Mainly it is a lot of brokering between the people that need training and the people that can deliver training. Geoff: Why is alcoholism and drug abuse so prevalent in the Indian community. Barbara: Well, Indian Health Services says that alcohol affects 99% of the Indian population. Not that 99% are using, but because the families and communities are so close so that alcoholism affects everyone through accident, abuse, neglect or unemployment and crime. The causes - there are three main theories: Biological, that is that Indians are genetically predisposed to alcoholism. Another one is psychological factor. The other is the social economic factor. And so I think there is some truth in each one of those. There isn't one cause. Besides, the rates really vary in different Indian populations. In some tribes, and depending on how closely they're connected to their traditions, we talking about alcohol abuse being actually lower than the overall U. S. population. Geoff: Is this generally the same situation for substance abuse as well? Barbara: Yes. Though there hasn't been documentation of the spiritual cause, which as a Christian I see as a major factor. Traditionally, Indian people had a spiritual base. One of the things that happened was that it was taken away. I think that is the reason why people who have kept their traditions have less of a problem with alcoholism. I think that is the reason that some of the programs that have a spiritual component have more success with treatment of alcohol and drugs. One of the things that happened when Christianity was brought to the Indian people was that it was brought by people who didn't practice Christianity. Look at some of the missionaries who came in. Some maybe had Indian slaves. They separated families, cut Indian children's hair and beat them for speaking their language. It has made it difficult for current day missionaries going out into Indian communities. Indians have such a history of pain in the name of Christianity that it is harder to reach many Indian people. You don't see a lot of churches flourishing. A lot of that has to do with unresolved grief over what happened in past generations, like post traumatic shock disorder for many Indians. When you talk about Christianity, it has very negative connotations. Geoff: The problem becomes making the distinction between legitimate culture and those practices, from a Biblical position, which may be harmful, even if they are part of that spiritual heritage. Barbara: But if spirituality is completely taken away, in the manner that the missionaries took it away, and it wasn't replaced with anything nurturing, and loving then it isn't any wonder that we have alcohol and drug problems. Geoff: It wasn't the missionaries responsibility to take the heritage away. They were to give out the word, and bring salvation. It was as the word was taught, that the Spirit could convict and the people could then give up the inappropriate behaviors themselves. The missionaries shouldn't have been making the cultural changes. But, what about the problem that there is a real easy tying of tradition with New Age mysticism? Barbara: When you talk about that movement, when you talk about the New Age, it comes from the emptiness of non-Indians. That is where the movement is of New Age, not necessarily with Indians. They're practicing what they have always done and Indian people are upset about the "new agers" use of traditional practices. The problem is that we're not reaching non-Indians who are so spiritually empty, and it is very romantic for them to be involved in "Indian practices." But I also think it says something about the church's failure to reach non-Indians. I think many white people have had problems with condemning, judgmental Christians too. When I look at what has happened with Indian people, I think that we are not sensitive enough. We don't practice Christianity when we are trying to meet someone's need. We don't practice Christ's love. Hurting people I worked with may do things and believe things that are completely separate from what I believe. But, how else will they want to seek Christ unless they have loving Christian role models. We learn about the Lord through our parents. We start out by being able to cry out in our crib and have someone that's larger or more powerful (our parents) than us respond to needs, that trust goes on and teaches us to trust God. We can believe that there is someone else who we cannot see that we can cry out to in our life that will respond to our needs. But if we didn't have that when we were babies, and our parent's wouldn't respond to us, how can we learn to trust? And that's a lot of the people I have worked with. They didn't have that basic care in their upbringing. So, a lot of what you have to do is to teach them to trust somebody. We say that the Lord meets you where you are. For some, where they are at, is needing someone to trust. They are not looking for the Word right then. They don't have an understanding of it. They need someone living the Word and not trying to shove it down their throat. Geoff: So for you it really boils down to developing relationships with people. This is the place where you start. Barbara: And one must be following Christ if you are trying to lead others to Him. There are so many people out there hurting for so many reasons. We have to be sensitive to their personal histories. A lot of emotional healing is needed. Geoff: So what is the bottom line though that you want to leave our readers with? Barbara: We have to be very aware of ourselves, to examine our words, actions and attitudes, if we work with people, We have to go in with a lot of prayer if we work with someone. We shouldn't say "Ok, I'm going to lead people to the Lord." First we have to work on ourselves. We have to go in and make sure the Holy Spirit is with us, that we're going in with the Spirit of the Lord instead of our own power. Otherwise we're going to blow it. Biblical Studies New In Christ New In Christ SEVEN WAYS TO AVOID GOD By Dick Hillis From THE SYSTEM BBS - Nashua, NH I think of myself as an average person. I don't hate God. As far as I know He has done me no harm. But I do find it difficult to avoid God. I am not an atheist. I am an agnostic. If there is a God I don't want to know Him. I prefer to live my own life. The last thing I want is for God to get in my way. So I have set out a personal seven-point plan to avoid Him. With Bibles on display in bookstores, and churches on almost every street corner, my task has not been easy. But here is my procedure: STEP ONE: I sleep Sunday mornings. I personally don't find "sleeping in" that easy. I have the bad habit of waking early, even on Sunday. But I have solved the problem. I told my doctor I was having a difficult time sleeping and he gave me some pills. About midnight on Saturday I swallow two pills and am good until eleven o'clock Sunday morning, which conveniently is too late to go to church. STEP TWO: As a traveling man I keep hotel and motel dresser drawers closed. In many hotels and motels today a Bible will jump out at you if you open a drawer. I enter my room, hang up my suitbag and leave my other things in my open suitcase. I carry an off-color paperback with me so if there is nothing to do in town at least I can read myself to sleep. By the way, I don't accept literature from strangers. When offered literature I politely tell people I am too busy to read it. STEP THREE: I carefully choose my radio stations. Many cities carry twenty-four-hour religious stations. Some of their music is good but you must be wary because they may be skillfully concealing a sharp hook. Right while enjoying a fine recording, some preacher breaks in to tell you that you are a sinner and need God. I am on to their tricks, so now I dial a station that is really rocking and rolling and feel reasonably safe. STEP FOUR: I avoid Christian businessmen. In fact, I am a church member. I seldom attend, but my membership has given me many good business contacts. But one must be careful. I have discovered a fanatical brand of businessmen who would rather talk to you about God then about gold. I don't question their sincerity, but it takes money to feed a family, and that is my first concern. When a Christian businessman invites me to church or for Bible study, I usually back cut with, "I have a splitting headache" (that sounds better than a hangover) "and just can't make it tonight." STEP FIVE: I create my own gods. I have a list of things I would like to do but never have time to get done. So Sunday I play around with the most attractive items on my list. I have come to feel that that is what Sunday is for. Every person should have a hobby and I use Sundays to spend time on my hobbies and to do my thing. STEP SIX: I see to it that I am "master of my fate." It is my privilege to choose to believe in God or to choose not to believe. I accept the old Roman idea that death ends everything. This makes the whole business of escaping God a lot easier. It allows one to sing with the freedom of a bird, "Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die." STEP SEVEN: I can always kill myself. This I call my desperate step. I don't really advocate it and frankly, I am chicken. But I know it happens many times a day. Self-destruction is a way of escape. However, it leaves me a little cold. Questions pop into my mind. Is it a copout from life? Is it really escape? Does one avoid God in this way or is death the solemn usher that leads me into the presence of God? Now that I have answered questions on what I can do to avoid God I find myself faced with an even greater question. If there is a Supreme Being who loves me, why should I try to avoid Him? Is my attempt to hide from God inconceivable conceit? Would I not be wiser and happier to accept His love? Is it not the fool who says in his heart "There is no God?" Why run from God? His invitation is pretty inviting for a man who is tired of running: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28) After running for so long I gave God my worries and accepted His rest. I found it so easy. I just said, "Jesus, You please take my sin and I will take Your salvation." God and I made the trade and I am no longer running, I am resting in His salvation. I have thrown my list away. If you will do what I did, you won't need your list either. "And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21). New Testament Study New Testament Study NEW TESTAMENT STUDY This issue features the seventh in a series on the Epistle of 1st John. Future studies will include Psalms, and books from both the Old and New Covenants. "LET YOUR CONSCIENCE BE YOUR GUIDE?" (1 John 3:19-24) When children are beaten and accused of being wicked, they believe the accusation. From the child's perspective, the accusation must be correct because the accuser is a parent. Children often carry the resulting guilt through the rest of their lives. When the daughter goes to the mother, telling of the abuse by mom's boy friend, she may be believed. But then mom tells her that she must have acted in some way to encourage the man's attack. And since the young woman is already feeling dirty and guilty, she accepts that it must be HER fault. She may carry a false view of her sexuality through the rest of her life. Accusations fly in family relationships. For one reason or another, recipients of accusations accept them as biblical. They struggle with false guilt for many years to come. The message from the pulpit is that a wife must accept anything her husband requires of her. So the woman in the pew feels guilty because she wants to get out of the house where she is being beaten. She either returns home out of guilt to face more abuse, or struggles with guilt for years to come over her failure to return. The parents hear the message that, if they obey the Lord in bringing up their children, they will be obedient and will turn out fine. But parents have just discovered their son has been using drugs. Obviously, it must be their fault and they feel guilty. Their guilt will follow their son's messed-up life. Those in the pew are told that, if they are being obedient to the Lord, they should be willing to give money to the church. This is true even if it means doing without some necessities of life. They find themselves feeling guilty. The guilt comes either from giving and seeing their family going without, or from not giving sacrificially. They begin to feel resentment towards the church, the Lord, and even their faith. The damage of this falsely perceived guilt will affect them for a long time. Misleading messages may fly through the church, and for one reason or another, recipients of messages accept them as biblical. They struggle with false guilt for many years to come. Is Conscience to be a guide for the believer's walk? John's readers were struggling under the attack of false prophets. Apparently these men were using attacks on the conscience to bring these believers around to their way of thinking. But, John, who apparently had seen the movie "Pinocchio," said, "Don't let your conscience be your guide." As seen in last month's article, John is concerned that, as believers, we learn to rely on the Lord to give us discernment. Believers are to test ALL they hear, read and see against the standard of Scripture. In this section, John informs us that even our own conscience isn't to be the final arbitrator of truth. vs. 19-20: There is much confusion among Christians about the place of conscience in their life. Some equate it with the voice of the Holy Spirit. If their conscience convicts them, then they must be in sin. The problem is that the conscience, or heart, fell along with humanity's fall. It can't be trusted. Conscience is NOT the voice of the Holy Spirit. Contextually, we can assume the false teachers were appealing to the "conscience" of these believers. They were apparently effective. This bunch must have been the politicians of their day. Anyway, they found these believers' hot buttons. Therefore, John had to warn his readers that their consciences were not the final voice of truth. John states this in verse 19 of Chapter 3. The believer's confidence must be in God, and not in the voice of conscience. We can be falsely convicted by our conscience. But as Paul said: "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Our conscience can tell us of guilt that we have already dealt with. This means that Satan can still use our heart to condemn us. "The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9). After all, Satan is called the accuser. "For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down" (Revelation 12:10). However, John says that our conscience can be at peace in the presence of God. We have the assurance that God is greater than the voice of our conscience. He will clearly let us know when we are in sin. He also will let us know when we falsely condemn ourselves. John says God is all knowing. Sometimes we seem to condemn ourselves correctly. But we don't always have all the facts. The truth, however is that our sins are forgiven. "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). vs. 21: A clear conscience is not based on the absence of sin in our lives. It is grounded on the knowledge that we are forgiven. We don't have peace because of who we are, but because of Who God is. "Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God" (2 Corinthians 3:4-5). He has paid the price of our sin. He has chosen not to remember our sin any longer. "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more" (Hebrews 8:12). vs. 22: The benefit that comes from confidence in the Lord is that we can ask whatever we desire and He will give it to us. Will God provide whatever we ask? Isn't that what this passage teaches? This is not an unconditional promise. The fulfillment is a product of the believer's obedience to God's commands and a desire to please Him. God's answers to our prayers are a product of those prayers being consistent with our desire to be obedient and to please the Father. This means, for example, although we have the right to pray for healing, our primary concern shouldn't be the healing itself. Instead, we should desire to live with our circumstances in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. We want the Lord to be glorified by His answer to our prayer, whether it is "yes," "no," or "wait." The heartbroken spouse can pray that God will intervene in the life of her husband. Her primary concern is to be the kind of wife the Lord desires, in spite of her husband's bad behavior. This is also true when the husband is doing the praying. Along with the message that how one lives isn't a factor of faith, the false prophets were proclaiming a "Name It and Claim It" gospel. This is a message of magic: if the right formula is used, God must answer the requests, or demands, of the one who is praying. There is nothing in Scripture that promises God will give us happiness, prosperity or comfortable circumstances. Remember that Paul said: "... I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:11-13). vs. 23-24: The real concern for individuals is whether or not they even have a relationship with the Lord. God's command is to believe in Jesus Christ. Just as the test for orthodoxy of teaching is the understanding of the incarnation, so it is for the basis of salvation. "That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved" (Romans 10:9). Of equal importance with a saving faith in Christ is the need to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord. These two go hand-in-hand. Considering the importance Christ, John and other New Covenant writers give to the expression of love within the church, it is surprising how little attention this is given. So much of people's pain is a result of inadequate relationship. It is only as we direct them to Christ that they can find the answer to meeting those needs. They must be saved, and then turn to the Lord for a fulfilling relationship. Therefore, abiding in Christ is a product of our obedience to Him, of loving God, and loving each other. Clearly, we can only experience the reality of our faith as we abide in relationship through obedience to the Lord. What is the role of the Holy Spirit in the confidence of our salvation? He is the source of our confidence. It doesn't come from a clear conscience, but from the Holy Spirit, the one true comforter. "And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you" (John 14:16-17). The final arbitrator of truth is not our conscience, but the Holy Spirit -- the Spirit of Truth. "But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come" (John 16:13). And as we saw in the previous article (Morning Star, Vol. 2, Issue 6), the Holy Spirit is to be the basis of testing not only our conscience, but what we hear, see and read. The Holy Spirit is the one Who gives us discernment. He aids us in discovering God's truth versus that of the spirits of antichrist. John makes two very important points in this section. First, as in everything else, we are to depend on the Lord for the wisdom to know what is right or wrong. When Satan came to Eve, he said, "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5). The problem, or maybe even the blessing, is that aside from the direction of Scripture and the Holy Spirit, we don't always know the difference. This means that we can get in trouble unintentionally, but (praise the Lord), we are forgiven. Again, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). This also means we need to take the guilt we carry to the Lord. We must depend on Him to either show us we need to repent of something, or that we are feeling wrongful guilt. Frequently, this type of guilt is applied from the outside, not from the inside. We feel guilty because someone says we should. Just as the abused children of our opening illustration, we can feel guilty because others have transferred their justified guilt to us. In this way they strive to be free by binding us. But "... if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed" (John 8:36). We do not need to be bound by either false guilt ... or guilt that has been dealt with. Because the other problem is, Satan will constantly bring back sins to our mind. These will be sins that have been forgiven. But we will sometimes accept the guilt back and struggle once again. The prophet said: "You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea" (Micah 7:19). I always liked the illustration that Corrie Ten Boom gave. Our sin is represented by the sounds of a large bell being rung. When we are forgiven, we stop ringing it. The problem is there are sometimes echoes of the ringing even after we've stopped. Unfortunately, we can confuse the echoes for the real sound. And Satan is happy to encourage that confusion. God assures us that we are forgiven. When we take our sin to the Lord, it is removed. And when false guilt is exposed to the light of truth, then the Lord will help us let go of it. We can turn to the Lord instead of our conscience as we abide in Him and experience His love. John's other point is the reality of God's love in our lives. We have experienced God's love as the basis for our salvation. In turn, it is that love that is to be the demonstration of God's presence in our lives. Our obedience to God can only be shown by how we love Him and others. The proof of God's presence in His body is our love for one another. All that we do, all our relationships, are to be lived out with the concern that we express God's love to others. Orthodoxy of theology is vital, but without God's love it is empty. James talks about works being the validation of our faith. Works done without love is Phariseeism. These are the works of the cults. Everyone who believes in salvation by faith has works. But only those who recognize that salvation is the gift of God's love will put forth fruit that includes love. Pray that as you interact with other believers, all you do and say will be motivated by God's love moving through you. Then you will have a peaceful heart, because you know that you to are loved and you can abide in Him. "... if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did." (1 John 2:6). Special Studies Special Studies GOD IS REVEALED THROUGH THE GENEALOGY OF JESUS CHRIST By Dr. Charles Wootten In harmony with the Jewish tradition, Matthew 1:1 starts with the genealogy of Jesus Christ. "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham." The primary reason for revealing the Son of God in this fashion was that the Jew set the greatest possible store on the purity of lineage. This was due to early Levitical law. "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy: for I am the LORD your God. And you shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctifies you" (Leviticus 20:7-8). Here God commanded them to be separate and holy from all other nations. Anyone who married into other nations, i.e., had strange wives, was declared apostate and was not in the body. "And Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, You have transgressed, and have taken pagan wives, adding to the guilt of Israel. Now therefore make confession to the LORD God of your fathers, and do His will; separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the pagan wives" (Ezra 10:10-11). Thus, the Jews, especially the Sanhedrin who kept the records, would be especially keen on Jesus' genealogy. It was hoped that the tracing of the genealogy of Jesus Christ would be all the more impressive if it were at least traced back to Abraham. In looking at the genealogy listings in both Matthew and Luke, we find that Jesus is forty-first in line from Abraham but, as in Luke, seventy-fourth from Adam. In any event, the genealogy of Jesus Christ is a pure unbroken line. Matthew's genealogy reveals Jesus Christ as God in a special way. Therein is listed the names not only of Mary, but also those of Tamar, Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba. The average Jewish genealogy does not list women despite the precedent of the inheritance for women (Numbers 27:1-11). These three were tainted with sin and one was a foreigner! The reason God wanted their names within the eternal genealogy was to show that He who came to "save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10) is "no respecter of persons" (Acts 10:34) thus not scorning such a descent. This is one of the Great Gospel Truths for it reveals the entire gracious character of the Christian message. The prophets Isaiah and Malachi foretold of the coming of the Messiah. They also stated that His arrival would be preceded by someone who would pave His way. A voice of one calling: "In the desert prepare the way for the LORD; make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low; the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. For the mouth of the LORD has spoken" (Isaiah 40:3-5); "See, I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come," says the LORD Almighty" (Malachi 3:1); "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that great and dreadful day of the LORD comes" (Malachi 4:5). This man is identified as John the Baptist by the synoptists. The Angel of the Lord visited Zechariah, which means "the Lord remembers." "Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense" (Luke 1:11). He gave him the name 'John,' which means "the Lord is gracious," or "the gracious gift of God." This in itself is a revelation of God Almighty. It is proof of His Word of the forerunner. Six months later the Angel of the Lord, Gabriel, dropped in to visit Mary. Now it is even more noteworthy that this young woman had a great faith and a wonderfully humble spirit. As with all who wish to enter a covenant with God, she had faith and obedience. The announcement to her was awesome. "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end" (Luke 1:31-33). All who read the Bible come to recognize one thing: that the Bible is God's revelation given to us through "our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways" (Hebrews 1:1 NIV). In previous articles we have seen the period from Adam to Samuel as "God's rule." God ruled directly over His people from David through the Babylonian captivity. We saw the "kings' rule," since God ruled His people through the kings; after the Babylonian captivity until the time of the Lord Jesus Christ. We examined the rule of the "prophets and priests." The truth here is of another Great Gospel Truth: that of God working progressively to redeem the soul and spirit of Man towards salvation. The foundation of this doctrinal Great Gospel Truth is based on the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. If this doctrine is lost, then the doctrines that are based on the revelation of the Bible are lost. The issue here is whether the revelation of the Word of God is reliable. We cannot reject the Holy Spirit's authoritative revelation of the extremely important matter of who Jesus Christ is, how He came, and the nature of His person and place. If we do, then there will be a dramatic crumbling the foundations of the reliability of the Scriptures. The Word of God declares that the Messiah must be of the seed of David, just as definitely as it declares that He must be born of a virgin. A close inspection of the messianic line reveals instances of the exercise of the grace of God. The line of Judah was carried on by his illegitimate son, Pharez (see Genesis 38). The Mosaic Law was very specific that illegitimacy removed one from the nation. "No one born of a forbidden marriage nor any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation" (Deuteronomy 23:2). It was for this reason that while Christ inherited the legal right to the throne of David from Joseph, (Matthew 1), he could not sit on it. Because of the sin of Jechonias (Jeremiah 22:24, 30) no descendent could sit on the throne. But Joseph wasn't Jesus' father. So it was through the line of Mary, that Christ was able to sit upon the throne. (Luke 3). For Mary like Joseph was a descendent of Judah, but her line by passed Jechonias. What is important to see in the Matthew genealogy is that God has included the name of two Gentile women, Rahab and Ruth, on a harlot, the other an idol worshiper, were redeemed and given a place in the lineage of Jesus Christ. The importance of this is the demonstration that Jesus came not to just Israel, but to the Gentile as well. So if Christ was of the line of Joseph, He could not sit on the throne of David. But Joseph was not the father. Christ was born of a virgin as prophesied (Isaiah 7:14 NIV: Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel) and is of the seed of David (cf. II Samuel 7). Christ could sit on David's throne. As the praise of angels and homage of shepherds to Him in the manger occurs (cf. Luke 2: 8-20), it causes reflection upon the mystery of incarnation. Jesus had not ceased to be God; He was no less God than before; but He had begun to be Man. He was not god minus some elements of His deity, but God plus all that he had made His own by taking manhood to Himself. He who made man was now learning what it felt like to be man. Next time we shall take a closer look of a unique revelation of God: that of "kenosis," the laying aside of glory for an acceptance of hardship for us. Messianic Studies Messianic Studies The Messianic Studies column explores the world of the Messianic Believer. Like the church at large, Messianic Judaism contains much diversity. It is made up of numerous views as to what it means to be a Messianic Jew, who we are, what we call ourselves and what we believe. This column will be used to explore this variety, giving the reader a broader perspective of Messianic Judaism than found elsewhere, exposing those of us who are Messianic Believers to the wide spectrum of practice found within the movement. Hopefully we will succeed in helping our Jewish brothers and sisters to understand why we follow Yeshua as our savior. We also hope that what is provided here will give our gentile readers both a better understanding of their Jewish brothers and sisters in Christ, as well as the Jewish roots of their own faith. RECOGNIZING THE LAMB By Tim Munger West Bloomfield, Ml From ISRAEL MY GLORY magazine The hymn writer said, "Tell me the story of Jesus, Write on my heart every word; Tell me the story most precious; Sweetest that ever was heard." This story is demonstrated in the Jewish feast of Passover and in the Church's observance of the Lord's table during a communion service. Through them, God tells the story of His redemption, as He urges us to believe Him for salvation. The following chart shows the anticipation of Christ in the first Passover (Exodus 12:1-42) and the accomplishment of Christ in the Lord's table (I Cor. 11:17-34). PASSOVER: Requires a physical search for evil: Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened ... shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel whether he be a sojourner or born in the land (Exodus 12:19). THE LORD'S TABLE: Requires a spiritual search for evil: Wherefore, whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat ... and drink ... (I Cor. 11:27-28). PASSOVER: Portrays a completed national redemption: That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the Lord's passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshiped (Exodus 12:27). THE LORD'S TABLE: Portrays a completed spiritual redemption: And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup ... saying, this cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ... in remembrance of me (I Cor. 11:24-25). PASSOVER: Anticipates a national restoration (traditional view): And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the very same day it came to pass that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt. It is a night to be much observed unto the LORD for bringing them out from the land of Egypt ... (Exodus 12:41-42). THE LORD'S TABLE: Anticipates a spiritual-physical resurrection: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come (I Cor. 11:26). PASSOVER: A yearly memorial: And it shall come to pass ... that ye shall keep this service. And it shall come to pass, when your children shall say unto you, What mean ye by this service? That ye shall say, It is the sacrifice of the LORD'S passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshiped (Exodus 12:25-27). THE LORD'S TABLE: As often as ye eat it: For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come (I Cor. 11:26). PASSOVER: Instituted by God for Israel: And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever (Exodus 12:14). THE LORD'S TABLE: Instituted by Christ for the Church: For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread (I Cor. 11:23). PASSOVER: Abuse brings severance: Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses; for whosoever eateth that which is leavened ... shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel whether he be a sojourner or born in the land (Exodus 12:19). THE LORD'S TABLE: Abuse brings sickness and death: For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord ... (I Cor. 11:30-32). PASSOVER: Kept by families: Then Moses called for all the elders of Israel and to them, Draw out and take you a lamb according to your families and kill the passover (Exodus 12:21). THE LORD'S TABLE: Kept by the Church of God: What? Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in? Or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not (I Cor. 11:22). PASSOVER: Remembers the death of a physical lamb: And they shall take of the blood, and strike it on the two side posts and on the upper door post of the houses, wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire; its head with its legs, and with the inward parts thereof (Exodus 12:7-9). THE LORD'S TABLE: Remembers the death of a personal Lamb: And when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, Take, eat; this is my body which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me (I Cor. 11:24-25). In light of this, two statements come alive with meaning: Abraham's statement that "God will provide himself a lamb" (Gen. 22:8) and John the Baptist's announcement, "Behold the lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world" (Jn. 1:29). In the Law we see the Lamb typified; in Isaiah 53 we see the Lamb personified; in the Gospels we see the Lamb identified; and in The Revelation we see the Lamb glorified. On the 14th of Nisan, when Jewish people partook of the sacrificial lamb on their Passover tables, Jesus became the Passover lamb on His Father's altar. Now we can say with Paul, "Purge out, therefore, the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ, our passover, is sacrificed for us" (1 Cor. 5:7). The WORD for Today The WORD for Today In Hebrews 10:25 we read "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another - and all the more as you see the Day approaching." The responsibility of all Christians is to encourage one another. This series is intended to help provide some guidelines in the process of encouragement. The book, ENCOURAGEMENT, THE KEY TO CARING, by Lawrence J. Crabb, Jr., and Dan B. Allender, is recommended reading with the series. Each message can be read in conjunction to the related chapter in the book. The series can be used as the basis of a group study in your church. Please let us know if you find the material helpful or if you have any questions or suggestions. The article presented here is the fourth of fourteen messages given by Pastor Geoff Kragen. They were presented at Foothill Bible Church in Lincoln, California. LETTING IT ALL HANG OUT "Encouragement is the kind of expression that helps someone want to be a better Christian, even when life is rough." * To encourage others, two factors have to be considered. The first is our personal involvement. We have seen in previous articles that factors which contribute to our effectiveness include: care in how we express ourselves, a non-judgmental attitude, and being trustworthy with shared information. We are to encourage out of love, in dependency on the Holy Spirit. He will give us discernment in when to keep our mouths shut and not give unwanted advice. He also will help us in expressing concerns about the lives of those we are encouraging. The second area of concern focuses on the general environment within the church. The church needs to be the place where believers are taught personal responsibility to minister. Additionally, we need to engender an open atmosphere. People will then be encouraged to share themselves, and no longer hide in fear. The church must be a safe place to admit sin and pain. We can't encourage if we don't know who needs encouragement. Let us never lose sight that, as believers within the church, we are a real family. Our relationship is one of blood, the blood of Christ. We are more closely related to each other than we are to nonbelieving family members. Our desire is to encourage sharing our lives. Of course we have to model this openness ourselves. We have seen in the previous articles the need for an open and caring environment. For us to encourage, people must be able to express need. I have often seen that when it is safe to share pain and concerns, emotional relief is found and spiritual growth occurs. Sharing pain and confessing sin, letting someone know how you are really hurting, provides the relief of having a great burden drop from your life. "Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16). -- "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" (Galatians 6:2). We fulfill the law by loving each other. But -- and isn't there always a but? -- we must look for balance. There are some serious dangers that must be avoided. We must prevent the open community from being more destructive than the closed community ever was. Part of encouraging and creating a safe environment requires balance and ministry being carried out in an orderly manner. Remember, we are concerned about specific issues related to when we encourage others as individuals. We also have to be concerned about general conditions within the local church. For each of us, much of our encouragement will be carried out within the body. And, as the Lord uses us all more effectively there can be dramatic effects within the community. The need for encouraging transparency dealt with two areas, personal and corporate. This is also true here. First, we have to give up the right to self-protection in order to care for others. Now, we must turn around and protect ourselves. As we encourage, we must always remember God's priorities for our lives. Then we will not be overwhelmed by striving to reach out to others. The second and corporate problem, arises when people start using the opportunity to share as an excuse for personal catharsis. Truth can run rampant. It can be used as a weapon for inflicting pain, instead of as an instrument for healing. First let's touch on the personal area. To serve the Lord, one must consider His priorities. As we look to scripture, the priorities appear as follows: First, we are to love God. "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters -- yes, even his own life -- he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:26). Jesus is saying that in comparison to our love of God, love of family can be compared to hatred. Remember: it is only as we love God that we can adequately love others. It is only as His Spirit empowers us to love Him that we can be empowered to love others. Loving God is different from performing ministry. As Paul speaks of the fact that it is better to stay single to serve more effectively, he identifies the second priority, family. Our responsibility is to care for our family, wife and children before any ministry. Eli, the high priest, fell into the same trap many do who are in "full-time ministry." He put the job ahead of his children, and as a result, his sons lived very self-centered lives. God had to finally judge them. Frequently, we see MK's and PK's (missionary's and pastor's kids) who are in rebellion because their fathers or mothers put "ministry" ahead of family. As we care for people, we will find more people needing to be cared for. We need to protect our time so our family doesn't get short-changed in the process. There are practical ways to do this. The important point is that in enjoying the satisfaction of helping others, we don't do so to the detriment of our wives/husbands and children. They come before ministry. We also have a responsibility to care for ourselves. To minister effectively, you must protect yourself. This protection isn't from the pain of exposing yourself. The protection needed here is to remain healthy, both physically and mentally. Don't take on more that you can do within your existing schedule. If you feel that the Lord is calling you to do something new, see if something else should be dropped. Don't wear yourself out physically. Second, stay close to God through prayer and study of the word. Don't spend so much on giving that you forget to receive. As you minister, you must be ministered to. You won't do yourself, family or those that you care for any good if you wear yourself out. Saying no may sometimes be the most responsible act you can perform. Your watch word must be balance, not just in truth, but in life as well. Even Jesus went away from people to spend time in recovery. "After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone" ( Matthew 14:23). By the way, I think that we can also demonstrate care by our awareness of this problem with our leaders. Take responsibility to make sure that those who care for us also are protected. We should look out for those who shepherd us and see that they are allowed to put their own families ahead of their ministry. Now the second area of danger occurs within the corporate body. As already noted in earlier articles, we can find significant relief in giving up hiding. We will notice that the people we care for are finding relief. This is one of the real rewards in caring for others. But, sometimes a person's focus can shift from moving towards God to preferring the experience of relief that comes with finally telling all. This is self-absorption. Larry Crabb expresses it this way: "I want to feel comfortable and free of fear. I admit that my layers don't solve the problem of fear anymore than aspirin cures a brain tumor. They merely numb the pain. I long for a relationship in which I can strip myself of layers and expose my deepest feelings without fear of rejection. I will therefore search for a person or group with whom I can be fearlessly open." ** I was given a very clear example of this danger. A church had been very involved in recovery group ministries. One specific group has been very helpful in providing support for the adult victims of childhood sexual abuse. Unfortunately, the focus shifted from moving towards the Lord to experiencing the catharsis of exposing pain. The members of the group are encouraged to express their pain. I suppose it's a lot like banging your head against a wall and then feeling great when you stop. They have become so focused on the problem that instead of seeing the Lord as relief, they find relief from feeling the pain. Relief of pain itself has become their purpose. As a result, they are also finding abuse under every bed post. One individual in the group has gone so far as to accuse a godly set of parents of abusing their child. The pattern has become one of admit, feel and be released, instead of turning to God and moving on in obedience to Him. And if you don't admit, or confess, or feel, it isn't because you don't have this problem, it is because you are "in denial." Relief from pain can become its own focus. This is the danger. "It felt so good to tell somebody what happened. So to get that sense of relief again, I'll tell everyone I can." The purpose of openness is not to receive relief from confession. Our desire in encouraging others is for their relationship with God to grow. It is the Lord that provides comfort in the midst of suffering. And relief doesn't depend on a change in circumstances. It depends on realizing our fulfillment in life is not dependent on changing circumstances. Fulfillment comes from an ever-deepening intimacy with God. Along with the catharsis from pouring forth one's pain comes what I call the ex-smoker syndrome. "If I have to quit smoking everyone else must." Or, "If I have to deal with truth for my growth, then everyone should hear truth for their benefit. And certainly, I have Biblical support for this view, after all didn't Paul say: "Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body" (Ephesians 4:25)." We can lose sight that truth is to be used to encourage, not beat someone over the head. Well, we can use truth the same way. I'm sure you've probably experienced someone who prides himself -- (and isn't that the real problem, pride?) -- with telling the truth. He, or she, for that matter, express himself in a way that is self-serving and tears you down. Truth for it's own sake isn't what God is discussing when He requires truthfulness. He wants truth to be used for His sake. From the same passage in Ephesians already seen Paul goes on to say: "Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen" (Ephesians 4:29). Truth is to be used to build up, not tear down. In both these situations, confession as a source of release, and truth for it's own sake, the problem is that love isn't the primary motivator of behavior. When someone we encourage is demanding freedom from pain, they are focusing on the wrong issue. When an individual uses truth to bludgeon someone, they are more concerned with building themselves up than moving someone towards God. In these situations, if you are encouraging with the desire of manifesting God's love towards them, you will always direct people towards the Lord. Can you think of some ways you can help the person who wants relief from pain learn there is a more important need in their life than release? They must remember that God loves them. They must trust that God knows what is best for them. "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). They must be helped to recognize that it is more important to be where God wants them to be, than it is to be comfortable. God doesn't make mistakes. As we strive to minister effectively for the Lord, we need to remember these key factors. First, all that we do is to be God directed. As we encourage, we are discipling. This means that we are to help one another move towards the Lord, who is the answer to all our pain. If the Lord is our focus and we do all in obedience to His commands to love Him and others, then we will always strive for balance. As we examine our own walk as encouragers and strive to make our church a place to carry out encouragement, then we will avoid the pitfalls and be aware when of the enemy attacks! * Crabb, Jr., Lawrence, J. and Allender, Dan B., ENCOURAGEMENT - KEY TO CARING, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, MI, 1984, p. 10. ** Ibid., p. 40. Prayer Guidelines Prayer Guidelines PRAYER AND POWER Article 14 of the "Prayer and ..." Series by Michael Wilkinson "Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit" (James 5:16-18). Do you believe in the power of prayer? Would you pray like Elijah prayed? I do not mean to ask if you would ask for no rain for several years. I am asking if there is any problem in your life so big that it takes too much faith to expect an answer. Yes, Elijah was an Old Testament prophet on a special mission from God. And his prayer for no rain was a prayer for God's judgment on a wicked kingdom. Yet the scripture above tells us that "Elijah was a man with a nature like ours." In other words, except for his calling, he was just like you or me. Elijah prayed earnestly. This is something any of us can do. He wanted to see God work. It was important for him to be heard by God. And he expected God's help. "The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much." And Elijah was a righteous man. This was not easy in his day when so many righteous men were killed that Elijah wondered if he was the only one left (see 1 Kings 19:14). Do you want to see the power of God in your life? Serve God in righteousness. The power of prayer is that God is powerful on our behalf. "For who is God, except the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, and sets me on my high places" (2 Samuel 22:32-34). The God who hears our prayers is the same God who created the heavens and the Earth. He is the same God who sent no rain for three and a half years when Elijah earnestly prayed. "Great is our Lord, and mighty in power. His understanding is infinite" (Psalms 147:5). This prayer that "avails much" should be used for God's glory. Elijah did not pray for the rain to stop just to see it happen. He wanted to further God's kingdom. He wanted the wicked to turn to God for their own benefit, that they might repent and learn to love God. He wanted God to get the glory. "Be exalted, O LORD, in Your own strength! We will sing and praise Your power" (Psalm 21:13). And we need to pray for ourselves, that we will have the power of God in our own lives as we try to be all that He wants us to be. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:10-13). Since God's power and wisdom are infinite, let us not put limits on the ability of God to help us. "Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen" (Ephesians 3:20-21). "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit" (Romans 15:13). SCUD Warnings SCUD Warnings S piritual C ounterfeits U ndermining D octrine W A R N I N G S By Jerry Johnson HORACE MEETS THE WHO or GOD'S MIDDLE NAME IS NOT GRINCH (In sincere appreciation of and apologiesto the late Theodore Geisel, Dr. Suess) This story's about Horace, a young Woofaloo, who was trained to do what all Woofaloos do. From the time they were tiny, just mere Woofaleets, they heard it proclaimed in the homes, in the streets: "The WHO is our master, it's Him we must please! So grovel, please grovel ... quick, get on your knees. For the WHO is almighty, all knowing and tense, That, please acknowledge, although you are dense. "The WHO made us all, made the world, made the sea, made the air, made the the birds and the shoopaloop tree. He gave them to us, to be kept in our care. But our ancestors messed up, so we all must beware. "For the WHO was not happy with the mistakes that they made and His wrath and His fury don't easily fade. So, first He set rules for our forbearers to follow, but they messed up bad, in their sin did they wallow. "So He sent his firstborn to hang on a tree. So you better feel guilty! Yes, you! and Yes, me! So Woofaloos do, to the best of your power, do the do's for the WHO lest He judge you this hour." So the Woofaloos grovel and brown-nose and groan, and they cry and repent, feel guilty and moan. And they cannot have fun ... it might make the WHO mad, So they walk around burdened, dejected and sad. Horace knew well, just like all Woofaloos, to be protected from wrath, you must do all the do's. And if you are perfect, do the do's without error, the WHO might just listen and answer a prayer. And if you do well, as the Woofaloos do, you might spend all time in the presence of WHO. But Horace, one night, to his parents' dismay said "I'm tired of doing these do's all the day "It's nonsense to me, as a reward for the do, to be stuck for all time in the presence of WHO, when He's mean and He's angry and spiteful and frumpy. Who wants to spend time with someone that grumpy?" The parents of Horace, stood back, deep in shock. "Get out of this house, get off of the block! You know very well that WHO hears every word, He'll punish you badly for what He just heard! "WHO's done, oh, so much for each Woofaloo that doing the do's the least we can do to pay the WHO back for the price of His son but, Oh, what you've said, and, oh, what you've done!" So Horace went out, into the dark night knowing that something he'd learned wasn't right. For what is the use of doing the chore when you really don't like who you're doing it for. "WHO, if you're out there" Horace said in his rage, "Answer my questions, if you're really so sage. Is life all about just doing the do, and if that is the truth, why do it for you?!" The voice that he heard was gentle and kind. It spoke to his heart and spoke to his mind. The words that he heard, they filled him with awe: "Don't call me the WHO, just call me Pa Pa. "It's true my son died, for all Woofaloos but not to feel guilty or focus on do's. I sent him on down so we might all be one, See, most of you missed it, I'm really quite fun. "The Woofaloo now, like the old Pharisee, got hooked on the do, not relating to me. The Pharisees did the do like an art, but they tended to leave me out of their heart. "I know for a fact your righteousness is whacked and that isn't a judgment, it's simply a fact. For all of your efforts and all of your sweat, there wasn't enough to pay off sin's debt. "The wages you've earned through sin's deadly fee had to be paid ... by the richest, that's me. I've covered the charge. All debts paid in full. You CAN'T pay me off and that ain't no bull. "This I now tell you and I tell you true, you can't earn Christ's cross by doing the do. What Woofaloos practice, can really oppress. I want them to love me and not settle for less. "So Horace, dear Horace, I'll free you right now: You won't please me most by making a vow, or doing the do until you drop dead. I want you to get to know me instead." Then Horace, who thought on these words for a while said, "Pa Pa, why love us if we're really so vile?" The WHO gently answered, loving but quick: "A father still loves a child who is sick. "And a child won't get well just by acting the part, the change starts inside ... must start with the heart. I've done all the hard parts, you just need to yield. Your acceptance is anchored, in Christ's blood it's sealed. "I understand why all the Woofaloos do all the Woofaloo things that the Woofaloos do. They've knocked themselves out to earn my great pleasure, when they've had it since Adam, beyond any measure. "Why else would I do all the things that I've done? I gave them the law, the prophets, my son. I've spent all my time, my power and heart to make sure we'll never again be apart." When Horace went home, would his thinking be changed? Would his thoughts about WHO be all rearranged? Horace would say, to all who would ask, "Serving the WHO's not really a task. "There's joy in abundance in serving the WHO, reaching out in His love, is then easy to do. This one thing I'll tell you; it's true, it's a cinch. The WHO's middle name is nothing like Grinch." This epic poem's over. It's come to an end I hope that it didn't bore you, my friend. Next month I expound on this topic for you: the title's REFORMATIONATOR, Part 2. Christian Life Anee M'Amin Anee M'Amin ANEE M'AMIN is Hebrew for "I believe". Each month this column presents the story of a Jewish believer in Yeshua (Jesus). WHY I BELIEVE Testimony of Shoshannah Weinisch From THE CHOSEN PEOPLE magazine A story like mine won't speak to a lot of people," says Shoshannah Weinisch "people who have it 'altogether,' who don't think they're miserable. A lot of people can go through this life without the Lord and be happy, because they don't think about the consequences of what comes after death. But a person who has really hurt and struggled, someone who knows what it is to be hurt, broken and miserable, these are people I can speak to from my experience. These are the people who know they don't have life like it was meant to be." It's difficult to see her today and think of her as being miserable. All her life, she wanted to be married and she is ... to a man devoted to her. All her life she wanted children ... she has two (two year old Melissa and six month old Jonathan). She has always enjoyed art ... last year her hand-designed wearable art, "Originals by Shoshannah," was featured in a promotion at Nordstroms, a fashionable department store. Always Pleasant To all outward appearances, her life has always been pleasant. She was the daughter of a middle-class Jewish family. After high school she moved to California where she worked while attending college. She held a high profile job for a computer related firm, where she was very successful. For many people, including Shoshannah, the pleasant life is a myth. She was a lonely child in a family where her parents constantly fought. "My parents never told me they loved me," she remembers, "Neither one ever told me they did. My great grandfather's house became a haven for me. I used to spend every summer at his house. His whole life revolved around synagogue and God. He'd get up in the morning and walk to shul, and then he'd come home and daven for hours-chanting and rocking. Then he'd eat and then pray some more. "At home, my parents fought all the time, and my mother eventually left my father with four kids. I took on the role of mom, but none of us were close. But at my great grandfather's, it was full of love. He couldn't even speak to me ... he spoke no English, and I spoke no Yiddish, but I knew he loved me and I knew God was in his home. I knew what was missing from my family." Spirituality, Knowledge and Philosophy After high school, Shoshannah went West to find herself. Like many teenagers in the early 1970's, she tried a combination of spirituality, knowledge, and philosophy. The spirituality was mostly eastern; time spent in an ashram. The knowledge was from college classes; majors in dance, art, music. The philosophy was primarily that of Mexican writer Carlos Castanada; he preached that life was a void which one must jump into. "Life never seemed to make sense, never seemed to come together. I was always an outsider. All the life philosophies, all the mystics, sounded great on paper, but I couldn't make it right for me. I just couldn't get there. And I got unhappier and unhappier. My life revolved around relationships that I'd try desperately to make work. It wasn't that I disliked myself. After all, I knew I was pushy at work, but that was okay, because I was also successful. I could justify my hurt in relationships because I was a nurturing person. "What I couldn't get over was that I was always very, very lonely. I felt this big empty hole in my inner being that nothing could fill. I kept trying to fill it with relationships but it was an emptiness that only God could fill. These relationships hurt me so badly that one time, I laid on the floor of my apartment for two days. I couldn't answer the phone or eat, I was so depressed, internally destroyed because of the pain of my relationships. Swallowed Alive "Eventually I tried everything I knew. Dancing, business, choreography. Looking at it now, I feel like I was being swallowed alive. You know, on the outside, people who saw me thought I had it all together. I looked busy and happy and successful. But I knew better. I knew I was dying. "In a class I was taking we had to discuss the meaning of life. I pondered the whole week end, and on Monday, I was the only one who came up with the answer the teacher was looking for: there is no purpose in life." "Eventually I tried everything I knew. Dancing, business, choreography. Looking at it now, I feel like I was being swallowed alive." About that time, in a series of subtle ways, a different spirituality entered Shoshannah's life when she picked up a Bible someone had left in her apartment and began to flip through it. "For the first time out of any of the things I had been studying, something made sense. It was totally different reading the Bible than anything else. And as I read, it began to permeate my life. I started to try to do what it talked about, about turning the other cheek or submitting and humbling myself in a situation instead of trying to beat people over the head. And it worked! I couldn't believe it. "When I did things the way that God says to do them it worked out for my benefit. It was real. It was working. Not only that, but it was bringing peace into my life. Power Struggle "From reading the Bible, I sensed that I was in the same situation as Jesus had been when he confronted the Jewish leaders: they owed their disbelief to a power and political struggle - the establishment versus the truth - rather than a spiritual truth. I realized my unwillingness to make any deeper commitment to Jesus was the same struggle: what I had been taught was right vs. what was the truth. "So one night I got on my knees in my bedroom and said, "God, if this is true - if Jesus is really the Messiah - You've got to prove it supernaturally. It goes against everything I've been taught and I can't do it on my own." Within 24 hours, Shoshannah's prayer was answered. She went to pay her rent, and her landlady invited her in for coffee, something she had never done, and even more astounding, the landlady initiated a conversation about the gospel. When Shoshannah left, twelve hours later, she was unable to sleep, so she went to a neighbor's. The neighbor had never talked about spiritual matters, until this day, when she felt compelled to share her beliefs that Jesus was Messiah. That same night, Shoshannah went to her waitressing job and overheard some of her customers talking about Jesus. "When they noticed me eavesdropping," Shoshannah remembers, "they asked me if I was a Christian. I said no, I was Jewish. They said it was possible to be both and asked if they could have a Jewish believer in Jesus call me." On her second visit with Martha Jacobs, the Jewish believer her customers had contacted, she knew what God wanted. "Martha asked me if I wanted a personal relationship with Yeshua and I knew I did want to. I wanted to please God. To belong to Him. To have a relationship with Him." Never Looked Back Since that time, Shoshannah Weinisch has never looked back. "God is always there, under your feet. If you can just remember what you're standing on, you don't fall. I know He's always there. I am very conscious that there's no one in the world who seemed further from God than me, but that God forgave me, loved me, saved me. God has filled the longings of my heart, He's given me a family and life filled with Himself, filled with love. For me, faith is a life-long dream I'm living every day." Ministry Profile Ministry Profile HIS PLACE MEETS ADDICTS HALFWAY By Tammy Gardner Opelika, Alabama "From the door of an orph'nage to the house of the king, No longer an outcast, a new song I sing. From rags unto riches, from the weak to the strong, I'm not worthy to be here, but praise God, I belong." "This is how I felt when I came here," said Ron, a 29-year-old former crack addict, pointing to the passage in a Bible study workbook. Ron, who grew up in Opelika, Alabama had his first taste of drugs as a fourth-grader. Ron is one of nine residents of His Place, the live-in program at the Christian Coffeehouse run by Opelika minister Rick Hagans. "Ron was a full-fledged crack addict. A lot of people prayed for him, but when he needed a place to stay, there was no room at the inn," Hagans said. The residents, all recovering addicts who now make their homes in a makeshift halfway house in the old Dr. Pepper Bottling Company warehouse on Second Avenue, have turned to His Place as a last resort. They are the dregs of society; the hopeless ones. They come with nothing left to lose. They've lost all they own to drugs and alcohol and their families have turned them out. Some want to end it all. Hagans tries to show them the way out of their misery through God. "We believe people are changed through an experience with Jesus," Hagans said. At His Place, they get food and a place to lay their heads. They also get another chance to start over. "The difference between us and the social welfare system is that you can feed, clothe and house someone, but if their heart's not changed, they'll go right back to where they were," Hagans said. The house rules are tough. Hagans says it's best to keep the men from any reminder of old habits that caused them to be there in the first place. There's no smoking, no snacking after 9 P.M, unless supervised; no watching television unless they have permission and are supervised. "That's mostly because of the beer commercials, and the sexual overtones," Hagans said. "They hear, 'Man you only go around once, so you better grab all the gusto you can'. They forget where the gusto left 'em before, in the hospital without their families." Five more men live in a trailer. They're in the first phase of the 13-month recovery program, which usually lasts three months. "When we take them in off the street, we try to get them through withdrawals," he said. The men are required to do classroom work and some work based on the 12-step recovery program, before they are moved on to the second phase. In the next eight to nine months, they get spiritual and vocational training. They can't date, curse, or talk about "the good old days." The staff must know of their whereabouts at all times. They must wear shirts outside of their sleeping or shower areas, and stay through church services to the end. The men stay busy, renovating their living quarters or helping with needed repairs on homes referred to them by the Department of Human Resources. In the afternoons, there is Bible study. "Get your highlighters out, fellas," Brother Larry Reese announces, standing behind a podium to lead a session. The group assembles, Bibles in hand, around a long table. Hagans talks quietly as the men listen to Brother Larry reading Scripture. He nods toward one man with a long blond braid, his face aged prematurely from years of cocaine use. "He's from Huntsville. He was a coke addict and he lost his business. His wife just visited recently - the Lord's fixing his marriage," Hagans said, and nods toward another man. "Steve was a hitchhiker. He was just going to stay a little while, and now he's been ... how long you been here, Steve? Two months? The Lord got a 'holt of you', didn't he?" The ministry, which is non-denominatinal, is trying to give the residents structure and teach them how to live again, Hagans said. The warehouse is the first place the ministry has owned since its founding 10 years ago. Inside the white-painted walls of the brick building, rows of folding chairs are arranged in a semi-circle, with a few old church pews in the back. There's no heat except one kerosene heater ... but every Friday and Saturday night nearly 100 people come to listen to Christian bands and enjoy the fellowship of other Christians. In the afternoons after school, children from a nearby housing project come in to play video games. Hagans wants to start a latchkey program. The children can play one hour of games in exchange for one hour of homework. He also plans to open a thrift shop which will provide job training and donations for residents, he said. The ministry will pay for some of the men to attend trade school and learn to reupholster furniture, for example. They can then put their skills to work at the store. The whole operation is supported by donations from individuals and churches. Hagans has asked for more support, but he said he gets turned down a lot. "There's 130 churches in Lee County. Four of them help us," he said, naming them: Lakeview Baptist Church, Auburn Assembly of God, Pepperell Baptist and Central Baptist. The other area churches say they don't have the money to help, but Hagans dismisses the response as an excuse. "I guess stained glass windows take precedence over drug addicts," he said. (EDITOR'S NOTE: The following is Rev. Rick Hagans' life story. Rev. Hagans is an Ordained Minister and founder of the Christian Coffeehouse. His testimony shows how a life dedicated to the Lord can touch so many others.) MINISTER FULFILLING BOYHOOD AMBITION By Tammy Gardner Opelika, Alabama When Rick Hagans was nine years old, he wanted to run away to Atlanta to preach to the hippies. He didn't go, but neither did the fire inside him. He wanted so badly to spread the word of God that a few years later, after months of hounding the former County School superintendent, he finally broke down and let him preach at one of the high schools. Hagans, now a licensed and ordained Baptist minister and founder of the Harvest Evangelism ministry, grins at the memory. "About 15 years later, I had a girl tell me, 'I became a Christian the day you preached at the high school'," he said. He was sidetracked when his family moved from the country to 'the wrong side of the tracks' in Opelika, he said. He took drugs, committed petty crimes, and became a general delinquent. Then he started a curriculum in social work at Auburn when he was 18, and decided it was time to give his life back to the Lord. He was partly helped by seeing his younger brother overdose on drugs, he said. The experience gave his father a heart attack, and gave Hagans a day of reckoning. He decided he was either going to serve God or die. He campaigned for a seat on the City Council that same year, and came in second out of five contenders. An elderly preacher who had worked on his campaign told him, "Rick, if you had won you could have helped clean up our neighborhoods and put in sewer lines, but you were called to God. You can help save our children instead." "The Lord got a 'holt of my life'," Hagans said. "I didn't want to go back. And I was concerned about my friends; the church couldn't handle them. The church is not even equipped to handle them. If you have long hair, you don't feel real comfortable in church." He wanted to make a place of worship where they would fit in. He began offering a combination of Bible study and social work in various homes, and the word got around. Once a family left their children with him and his wife for several weeks. That's when Hagans thought about creating the Christian Coffeehouse, a place for people to meet and discuss the Bible and worship. He wanted to focus on the people who were most in need of spiritual guidance: the poor and the addicted. Ten years later, the Coffeehouse has expanded to include His Place, a 13-month live-in program for drug-addicted or alcoholic men, or just those that have no place else to go. "Rick Hagans is ministering to the last, the least and the lost in a way no one else here is doing," the Rev. Al Jackson of Lakeview Baptist Church said. Hagans and his wife of 11 years, Kim, have worked together to create their ministry. Hagans recalls proposing to her in the Coffeehouse. They'd been working all day, and one recovering addict had urinated in a hallway. "I told her, I don't want to live in a house with a white picket fence," he said. "This is what I want to do." That's what she wanted too, she told him. It hasn't been easy through the years, he said, with winos and drug addicts staying in their home, but she's stuck with him. Some of their residents have been baby-sitters for their 5-year-old son, R.C. When R.C. was a baby, Hagans said he watched a man throwing a small tantrum in the street. Hagans took his child, only a few months old, to the man and asked if he wanted to hold him. The man did, and calmed down. People might think he's crazy for that, but he said he believes in demonstrating God's love to those that others turn sway from and pretend not to see. "They love to be trusted," he said. Hagans is especially interested in helping the community's youth. "But it's not easy to interest them in spiritual study when they've been spoiled by the church and their families," he said. "We ask them to come to our youth group, and they want to know how many times we go to Six Flags, are we going skiing over the Christmas holidays, or is there going to be pizza at the youth meeting?" he said, referring to such programs as baby-sitting for teenagers. "God didn't call me to entertain kids; he called me to teach." He's scared of waking up one day and becoming like so many other preachers he knows - dead. "Their calling becomes just a job," he said. "So many pastors, even in our community, lose touch with people. They preach one day a year on World Hunger Day about world hunger. When's the last time they were hungry, or the members of their congregation were hungry? They go home to their $40,000 homes and get up the next day and preach about something else." No danger of that, as long as he continues in his present lifestyle. He made $7,100 last year, and most of his time is spent at His Place, housed in an old warehouse the ministry recently purchased. The doors are covered with blankets to keep what little heat there is in the building. Old chairs, desks and beds with donated blankets fill two rooms; a clothing rack stands in the hallway, full of the men's clothes. "We don't have any closets," he said matter-of-factly. It's a Spartan operation, but Hagans feels that's the best for the men who are trying to put their lives back together. As far as he's concerned, that's the way he'll spend his life - helping those who've been turned away everywhere else. For Ricky Hagans, it's a calling from God. (The above articles were reprinted with permission from the Opelika-Auburn News where Ms. Gardner is a Staff writer.) Education Education HEATHER HAS TWO NON-READING PARENTS By Dale E. Strand So much attention recently, has been drawn (and rightly so) to the unbelievable push by homosexual and lesbian groups' placement of "their" books into our school system ("Heather has two mommies" and others). And while this is certainly a subject toward which Christian evangelicals stand firmly against, it is used in this opening only to illustrate an important point about priorities. Why are focus groups ignoring the REAL priorities in our school system - the most important of which is, WHY CAN'T OUR CHILDREN READ? Today, kids are graduating from high school and can't even read their diplomas! Teachers let them slide through, not wanting to "hold them back" or "interfere in their career plans", not stopping to realize that ignoring their non-reading abilities and turning them loose on the work force, will hurt them far worse than not releasing them until they can pass stringent reading tests. How can they fill out an application for work if they can't read? What kind of impression are they going to make in an interview when their sphere of knowledge appears so limited (because they haven't been exposed to a variety of subjects that only comes from a broad reading base) that an employer would be embarrassed to have them represent his company? Why haven't their parents INSISTED that they read, read, read? Maybe because THEY can barely read themselves? Maybe because no one ever impressed upon them how vital excelling in reading skills really is? How much have the parents been held back because they refused to work at developing their reading skills? And, if they can read, how is their comprehension and retention? I spoke to one parent who said he had to read a paragraph in a common book over at least a dozen times in order to gain any understanding as to what it was about. How very sad. And he was a teacher....... But the REAL purpose of this article is far broader than simply trying to smoke out whether the schools, the parents or the students themselves are the ones responsible for their lack of top reading skills. (By the way, I've always been a proponent of the axiom that, "if a student hasn't learned, the teacher hasn't taught"). What is one of the very prime areas of concern to Pastors throughout America, today? The fact that so few Christians and church goers ever read the Word. Every home has at least several Bibles. And wherever they may be located, they usually get used only rarely ("The preacher's coming - put the Bible on the coffee table!", yells the homemaker to her family ...). We all agree that reading, studying, memorizing and meditating in God's Word is absolutely vital to victorious Christian living. Those that fail to do so will show it by their life, by their ministry and by their relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we get the Bible out, brush the dust off, and refer to it only occasionally, what does that say about our intimacy with the Lord? Remember when you got a love letter in your courting days? You kept it in a special place and took it out several times a day to read and re-read every word over and over again. You visualized your loved one speaking the words to you. You dreamed about the next time you would be together again. You treasured it. You cherished it. You loved it. Shouldn't that also be true concerning God's love letter to us - His Word? The sad fact is that if people with high skills in reading simply do not read the Word, where does this leave those that have only grade school skills in reading? Even if they DESIRED to spend much quality time in the Word - they can't because they cannot read well enough, or comprehend what they are able to labor through on a word by word basis. Parents: Can YOU read? Well? Can your children? What are you doing about it or is it even important to you? Pastors: Have you, year after year, pled with your congregation to read the Word, and year after year, they only get what YOU present to them on Sunday? What are you doing about it or is it even important to you? Young people: Have you laughed at anyone who ever suggested to you that your reading skills were in need of improvement, thinking that reading would never be important to you? The key, of course is for the schools to crack down with a curriculum that emphasizes STRONG reading skills with HEAVY testing that prevents anyone from getting a diploma until they can demonstrate their reading skills in accordance with the most stringent requirements. To do less relegates us and our children to a position far less than where we could be, where we should be. Do you read me? P.S. On another "education" matter, why can't kids that graduate from high school reconcile a simple checking or savings account? Do you realize how many kids enter the work force and have to call the bank to see if they have enough money in their account to write a check? Perhaps we'll address this in a future article. Music Music MORE THAN I DESERVE Words & Music By Dale E. Strand If I got what I deserved, He'd turn His back on me, Withdraw His Spirit, leave me hopeless, lost and cursed. To eternity without Him, but instead He offered me, Mercy, love and pardon -- more than I deserve. More than I deserve, more than I deserve, He has blessed me so much more than I deserve. And I worship Him with all that is within me! He has blessed me so much more than I deserve. Wondrous joy, amazing grace and love beyond degree! He gives a brand new touch now daily through His Word. And I just can't help but lift my hands and voice to praise His Name, He has blessed me so much more than I deserve. More than I deserve, more than I deserve, He has blessed me so much more than I deserve. And I worship Him with all that is within me! He has blessed me so much more than I deserve. One day, as I began to dwell on just how incredibly much God had blessed me and my family, I thought about the human response I had many times at least thought, if not actually said - that people should "get what they deserve". The more I thought about it the more I realized that God's approach was exactly opposite. When I deserved His wrath, He gave me mercy. And when I didn't deserve His forgiveness, He gave me grace. And my eyes filled with tears as I realized how rich and full and free His love to me really is. In just a few minutes time, these words flowed from my pencil in March, 1980. And now 13 years later, He is still real; He keeps flowing His love and grace and mercy into my life; He keeps blessing me so much more than I deserve. O how I praise Him! MY SOUL CRIES OUT Words & Music by Dale E. Strand My soul cries out to praise and worship You, my Lord, Make me a vessel of your righteousness. For in my heart, I know I can't be satisfied; Without You, Lord, I've found there's no real happiness. My soul cries out to worship You, My consecration to renew. I want to take You, Lord, And make You, Lord of my life. I know I'm nothing, my Lord, without Your touch upon me, That's why, my soul cries out for more of You each day. My soul cries out to praise and worship You, my Lord. I long to walk beside You day by day. Drawing Your strength and power for every circumstance, Giving You glory, Lord, in all I do and say. My soul cries out to worship You, My consecration to renew. I want to take You, Lord, And make You, Lord of my life. I know I'm nothing, my Lord, without Your touch upon me, That's why, my soul cries out for more of You each day. In my times of worship, I always keep a paper and pencil handy and the Lord is always faithful to "drop a note of wisdom" or "grant a fresh enlightenment" from His Word. Somehow, I just wanted to express to Him how I felt deep inside. This song, first featured on the 400 plus radio station network, "Back To The Bible" broadcast, was the result. And even though it was written nearly 20 years ago, it still rings true today. Every day my soul STILL cries out to worship The Most High. Chef's Corner Chef's Corner PASSOVER CELEBRATION DISHES This month we are featuring a few of the Passover dishes prepared in a Jewish home during this celebration. The festival year begins with Passover, to be held at the beginning of Spring. God told the Jews to eat only the pure unleavened (without yeast) bread during the week following Passover. Leaven in the Bible symbolized sin and evil. On this day, because of the sacrifice of the lamb, the Hebrew nation was delivered from a life of bondage in Egypt. Today, the Christian is delivered from sin through Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, as the sacrificial Lamb of God. Surely, Passover is the feast of salvation! PASSOVER CHICKEN IN GRAPE WINE SAUCE ... Combine 2 Tbsp. matzo meal, pepper to taste and 1 tsp. salt. Roll 1 broiler-fryer (3-4 lb.) chicken, cut in serving pieces, in mixture. Fry chicken pieces in 1/4 cup peanut oil in skillet. Arrange in baking dish. Add 1 cup halved seedless white grapes and 2 Tbsp. orange peel slivers. Combine 1/2 cup dry white wine, 1/3 cup orange juice, and 2 Tbsp. honey. Pour over chicken. Sprinkle 1 Tbsp. chopped parsley on chicken. Bake uncovered in a 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) oven for 1 hour or until chicken is tender, basting every 15 minutes. Yield: 4 servings. CABBAGE-MATZO CASSEROLE ... Grate 1 1/2-2 lb. cabbage as for cole slaw. Place in colander and pour boiling water over cabbage 2 or 3 times to soften it. When drained, add the following ingredients to the cabbage in a large bowl: 3-4 eggs, 2 large onions, chopped and sauteed in 1/2 cup oil, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, dash MSG (Accent), and 1/2 cup matzo meal or matzo farfel, then mix well. Place in greased casserole and bake for about 50-60 minutes at 325 degrees (Fahrenheit) until golden brown. Yield: 6-8 servings. PASSOVER ORANGE CARROT SOUFFLE ... Mix 2 cups lightly packed raw carrots in large bowl with 2 Tbsp. matzo meal, 1/2 cup sugar, 4 egg yolks, 1/2 cup potato starch, 1 Tbsp. grated orange peel, and 3/4 cup fresh orange juice. Beat 4 egg whites in separate bowl until stiff, but not dry. Fold into carrot mixture. Turn into well greased 3 quart casserole. Bake in 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) oven 40 minutes or until a thin bladed knife inserted in center comes out clean. Yield: 6-8 servings. POTATO AND PARSNIP KUGEL ... Cook 3 lb. medium all-purpose potatoes, scrubbed and quartered, and 1 lb. parsnips, peeled and cut in 2 inch cubes (4 cups), in large pot with water to cover until tender (20-25 minutes). Drain and let stand until potatoes are cool enough to handle. Melt 3 Tbsp. chicken fat or margarine in large skillet. Add 3 cups coarsely chopped onions and cook over medium heat until very tender. Heat oven to 400 degrees (Fahrenheit). Grease shallow 3 quart baking dish with 1 Tbsp. chicken fat or margarine. Sprinkle with 3 Tbsp. matzo meal to coat. Peel the potatoes and mash with parsnips. Stir in onions, 3 large eggs, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. pepper, and 1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg. Pack evenly into prepared dish. Bake 45-60 minutes until top is golden brown. Yield: 8 servings. PASSOVER SALAD DRESSING ... Beat the following ingredients together in a bowl: 2/3 cup mayonnaise, 1/3 cup catsup, 3 hard boiled eggs, mashed fine, few drops Worcestershire sauce, pinch salt, 3 scallions, chopped fine, and juice of 1/4 lemon. Cover tightly at least 2 hours before serving. This dressing is excellent if tightly stored overnight. MATZO KUGEL ... Beat 5 eggs with 1 cup milk. Combine thoroughly with 1 lb. creamed cottage cheese, 1 tsp. salt, 1/4 cup sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon, and 3 Tbsp. melted butter. In greased 1 1/2 quart baking dish arrange 3 matzos broken into large pieces. Pour half of the cheese mixture over it. Repeat with another 3 matzos broken into large pieces and cheese mixture. Bake in a 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) oven 40 minutes or until set. Serve with sour cream if desired. Yield: 6 servings. MOCK NOODLE PUDDING ... Break 4 matzos into thin strips. Pour boiling water over them in a colander; drain, let cool. Stir in 3 eggs, well beaten, 1/2 tsp. salt, 3 Tbsp. sugar and 5 Tbsp. butter, melted. Pour half this mixture into a well greased casserole. Cover with 1 cup chopped walnuts and 3 apples, pared and sliced very thin. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. cinnamon and 1 Tbsp. sugar. Cover with remaining matzo mixture. Dot with butter. Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees (Fahrenheit), 1/2 hour. Serve plain or with desired fruit sauce. Yield: 6-8 servings. MATZO APPLE PUDDING ... Soak 3 matzos until soft. Press out as much of water as possible. Pare and cut 3 large apples in small pieces. Add apples, 1/2 cup currants, 3/4 cup raisins, 2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/4 tsp. salt, dash nutmeg (optional), grated rind of 1 lemon, 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, and 4 Tbsp. melted cooking fat. Mix well. Add 6 eggs, well beaten, mixing thoroughly. Pour into a greased casserole. Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees (Fahrenheit), about 45 minutes, or until apples are tender. Yield: 6-8 servings. PASSOVER MUFFINS ... Boil together 1 cup boiling water, 1/2 cup shortening, and 1/2 tsp. salt. Add scant cup of matzo meal and mix thoroughly. Remove from fire; add 1/3 cup potato starch. Add 4 eggs one by one and mix well. Grease muffin tins and fill half-way. Bake at 450 degrees (Fahrenheit) for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until dry. Yield: 18 muffins. PASSOVER CHOCOLATE SPONGE CAKE ... Beat 9 egg whites until stiff, but quit when still shiny. Add 3/4 cup sugar slowly while beating them. Beat the 9 egg yolks and add 4 Tbsp. potato starch, 7 Tbsp. cocoa, pinch of salt, another 3/4 cup sugar, and 1 cup ground walnuts. Be sure to add nuts last, and do not omit them, or the cake is ruined. Fold the whites into the yolk mixture. Bake in 10-inch tube pan, ungreased, for 30-45 minutes (depending on oven), at 350 degrees (Fahrenheit). Cool completely, then ease gently out of pan. PASSOVER WINE SPICE CAKE ... Beat 2 cups sugar and 9 large egg yolks until lemon colored. Add 1/2 cup sifted cake meal, 1/2 cup potato starch, and 1 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. ginger, and 3/4 cup chopped nuts. Then add 1/4 cup wine. Mix well. Fold in 9 stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in tube pan about 1 hour or until brown, in 350 degrees (Fahrenheit) oven. NUANT (NUT CANDY) ... A traditional ending to a Seder meal. Have cookie sheet or jelly roll pan ready. Put 1 cup honey and 1 Tbsp. lemon juice in large saucepan, and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Add 4 cups coarsely chopped walnuts and stir over medium heat for 10-12 minutes until mixture is thick and a rich brown. Remove from heat. Moisten cookie sheet with water. Pour mixture onto pan and spread 1/2 inch thick with the back of a wet wooden spatula. Break into bite size pieces. Store airtight with waxed paper between layers. Can be made up to 2 weeks ahead. Yield: 1 1/2 pounds. Praise and Prayer Praise and Prayer PRAISE AND PRAYER is our international prayer link column. Send your praise report or prayer request to MORNING STAR for publication in our next issue. Call on your brothers and sisters worldwide and together we will call on God! PRAISE REPORTS: MORNING STAR is now available on the INTERNET global network! The INTERNET is made up of over 8,000 networks, linking about 8 million users. Pray this turns out to be a major help in getting the magazine into more countries. Denise from Florida thanks the Lord for an amazing worship service at her church. "R" from Norman, Oklahoma thanks the Lord for concerts put on by groups like Petra and the Newsboys. Recently a thirteen year old girl, whose name is Rainbow, gave her heart to the Lord at one of these concerts. Harry from Illinois thanks the Lord for an advancement at his job. Tom Gray in Pennsylvania praises the Lord because his back surgery was a complete success and he went back to work within 2 weeks after surgery. Denise in Florida thanks God for helping her get her own heart right so that she now has a loving heart for their ex-pastor and his wife. Dale from Maryland thanks the Lord that his sister Carrie has successfully bid on a house - a moment she has dreamed of for 15 years. But she needs prayer for finances, to pull everything together. Mark in Kansas thanks the Lord that since his own unemployment a year ago, God has taken care of his family through it all. Mike from Mississippi reports that his sister had a healthy baby boy which they named Adam. No C-Section was needed. Dr. & Mrs. Doug Woods in Pennsylvania thank the Lord for helping Terri through her pregnancy. They have a beautiful 7 pound 2 ounce daughter, Lauren Elizabeth. Karen in Virginia is thankful that her husband is doing better on the job. Roxie from Mississippi praises the Lord for setting her free from painful memories of her youth. S.Z. from Kansas praises the Lord for a new job. Dale in Maryland praises the Lord for the increase in pay he received and the advanced position as Network Administrator. Thank the Lord for Dave Roever who is touring the United States public schools reaching teenagers and helping them with suicide, abuse, alcohol, and drug problems. Jeff from Atlanta thanks the Lord for delivering him when he became lost on a hiking trip in the mountains of Alabama. After wandering lost in the night for several hours, he cried out to the Lord in prayer, and within moments help arrived. PRAYER REQUESTS: CRITICAL PRAYER NEED! ... Pray for a 4 year old in California by the name of Michael. He continues to run a high fever which the doctors have been unable to break. Now his small intestine has collapsed. His other organs are also in danger because of the fever. He is facing death. Please be in prayer and pass this on to whomever can be in prayer for him. Donna in California asks for prayer for a new Christian friend named Charlotte. She is 6 months into her first pregnancy and has been diagnosed with diabetes. Pray also for Solica, a church counselor. She is slowly going blind, and there is nothing that can be done. Solica is in her late 40's. Pray for D. and her family in California. Her husband is an Ex-Pastor who has fallen away and deserted her. Remember Scott in prayer from Pennsylvania who hurt his back shoveling snow. Pray for Art and Dawn in Florida who want to go into counseling. They have four children and he is unemployed. Mark in Kansas asks that we pray for their Ex-Minister of Music whose name is Carl. Pray that the Lord will help him find another church quickly or restore him in the church where he resigned. Al from Texas has to appear in court due to a 7 year old car accident law suit. Pray that the Lord will give him the spirit of peace knowing that God is in control of all things. Pray for Roxanna who is very sick and needing the touch of the Lord to bring her healing. Dale from Maryland asks for prayer on behalf of his wife Mary Clare and her job situation. Pray for Dale's friend Larry who is in need of employment. Lyman in Mississippi asks prayer that the Lord intervenes in his job situation, either by improving the current situation or providing other employment. Micael from Mississippi asks prayer for his church as they vote on the situation concerning their pastor. Pray for Danny in Texas as he prepares for his thesis on "Evangelism on Computer Services". Pray that the Lord will provide all his needs. He also wants us to continue in prayer for the members of his church who are working together to bring people into the church. Pray that Geoff's church in California will bring him on staff. Also remember to pray for his client's son Adam, who has been very ill. Pray for Dale in Baltimore, Maryland and his work on the tax reform bill on Real Estate taxes. He is also trying to clear his financial status. Pray for Roger DeHann who is forming a multi-media group. Steve Paulovich, publisher of Morning Star asks prayer for his sister who lost her baby about 2 months into the pregnancy. Please pray for the Lord to comfort her and her family in dealing with the loss. Spencer in New York asks continued prayer for his job situation. He and his wife Rhonda also ask prayer for their current financial situation. Walter Bauer in Texas asks us to keep his wife Diane in prayer. She is suffering from allergies. John from California asks prayer for four co-workers concerning salvation. Remember Thelma and Murray Scott in Memphis, Tennessee. Thelma's mother went to be with the Lord on March 1st. Bruce from Texas asks for prayer for his church. Members are scheduled to go to Belize, Central America this week for a week long missions trip. Pray that God will really move there, and remember their music minister, Joel Walker. He will not be able to go unless his leg is better and his blood pressure changes. Lee from Rhode Island asks for prayer for a young man who is their foster child and victim of a neglectful mother. Pray for Susan, his mother, who is an alcoholic and needs the Lord to help her. Lyle in Connecticut asks for prayer concerning their search for a new Pastor in their church in Stamford, Connecticut. Michael in Long beach, MS asks for prayer for his church concerning a big business meeting while their Pastor is in Africa. Pray also for a friend, Bill Holder, who has been called to the ministry and is going overseas to Okinawa for three months. Michael asks for prayer for his sister Donna Grove in Baltimore, who is to have a C-section delivery of her child. Michael is also praying for a job when he meets with a Union soon. Laura in Florida asks for prayer for a friend - an excellent public servant in Miami - who is going through troublesome times. Pray for Dee as she is going through some tough times at work. She needs our prayers that the students in her school learn to respect human beings and that her school receives the assistance it needs. Eisbear also would like prayers as he is searching for a new career and is becoming discouraged. He is seeking the Lord's will for direction. He also asks prayer for his parents. Pray for John Kaufman, from Pennsylvania, who will be ministering to the people in Ethiopia. Pray for the new Adult Survivor of Childhood Sexual Abuse group starting in California. Also pray for the new Marriage Support group starting in the same area with a series on communication. This is an outreach program open to everyone in the community. Pray for Stan and Miryam in Ft.Worth, Texas. Their home was broken into and the whole ordeal was very traumatic. Pray for Weipje in New Jersey, who is having heart surgery. Pray for "D" who is having his testimony "Beyond Gay" published by his church. Pray for continued growth in his walk with the Lord and for protection against those who would oppose him. Pray for the schools in Texas. There was a terrible fight at a school and two "gangs" squared off. Weapons were used but thankfully no guns and no deaths. Pray for the Messianic Jewish choral group that will be singing in St. Petersburg, Russia soon. Sha'alu Shalom Yerushalayim! - Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem. (Psalm 122:6a) Potpourri Potpourri SO LITTLE Sometimes you say, "I have so little". But this I say to you, Your little can be much, in the hands of the Lord; And this I know is true. Just look at the loaves and fishes, In the hands of the Lord that day. The multitude had more than enough; And some left to carry away. We all have an abundance within us, If we would just put it to use, In a lifetime of work for God; Just think what we could produce. So don't say, "I have so little". Just start with what you've got. Put it in the hands of the Multiplier; And soon you'll have a lot. By Marge Molinaro Canonsburg, Pennsylvania -SONG OF SOLOMON 2:11-12 For, lo, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; The time of singing of birds is come ... There is room for only one at the top. His name is Jesus! Man's impossibilities are simple errands for God. It takes courage to walk into the future, because no one has ever been there before. Before evangelism is a Program, it is a Passion. All Satanic deception has an element of truth. There is no scale or chart on earth to measure what a true friend is worth. The giver is always in the heart of the receiver. It doesn't take a lot of muscle to give a heart a lift. Tact is making a point without making an enemy. It isn't our position that makes us happy, but rather our disposition. Sacrifice is the true measure of generosity. In every lonely place, God surrounds us with angels. A person who thinks too much of himself doesn't think enough of God. The riches of Heaven will more than compensate for the poverty of earth. If you would win some, you must be winsome. God's commission is a lifetime mission. God's awesome presence convicts the sinner and comforts the saint. No one is hopeless whose hope is in God. There are no shortcuts on the way to maturity. It's good to be a Christian and know it; It's better to be a Christian and show it. Born ONCE - die TWICE ... Born TWICE - die ONCE ... MAYBE!! International CFI Report CFI Report CFI REPORTS is our monthly column dedicated to the ministries of CHRISTIAN FRIENDS OF ISRAEL in Jerusalem. Our October 1991 issue of MORNING STAR (Volume 1.1) presented a summary of the various CFI ministries and explained the foundational principles and objectives of CFI. In this month's column we present both the quarterly report "A Christian Voice For Soviet Jewry" and the "Watchman's Prayer Letter" - both direct from Jerusalem. A CHRISTIAN VOICE FOR SOVIET JEWRY A Quarterly Report from Jerusalem FIRST QUARTER 1993 IMMIGRANTS FLEE FOR THEIR LIVES Mindlia arrived alone in Israel from war-torn Moldova, a former Soviet republic. "I walked out," she declared, her face etched with the lines of 82 years. The buses taking Jews to the airport would not enter her city of Bendera - it had become a war zone. The diminutive widow was finally picked up as she walked along the roadside. Mindlia represents the new face of the aliya. The first great wave has already passed, as the annual totals of immigration from the former Soviet Union show: 1989 - 12,932 1990 - 185,227 1991 - 147,839 1992 - 64,057 Those who wanted to come, have come once the gates were opened. Those remaining now are more uncertain, often leaving only when they are - like Mindlia - driven out by the ethnic conflicts which flare anew in the vacuum left by the collapse of Soviet rule. "We had no choice but to leave for Israel," said Ludmila, 42, a refugee from the Georgian civil war who turned to CFI's Jerusalem Distribution Center for dental help. "We had no food. No job. We were hungry. War was beginning. There were bodies in the streets." From the same town of Sukhomi came Igor, who told CFI volunteers of his brother dying in his arms from sniper fire two months before. "There are many enemies to Jews there," he said. "Bullets were flying around our home. One hit our refrigerator. The Israeli consul said to come to Israel. "Five times God helped me," Igor continued. "The last day before leaving I dodged a quarantine. We fled and left our home and possessions." With his hands he showed how the tanks surrounded the airport when he flew out. FISHERS AND HUNTERS This transition to a new, fear-driven aliya follows the pattern envisioned by the prophet Jeremiah when he wrote of the great exodus to come from the land of the north: -Behold, I will send for many fishermen,+ says the LORD, -and they shall fish them; and afterward I will send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain and every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.+ (Jeremiah 16:16) Many of the immigrants do feel hunted now - yet this has yielded only a moderate increase in their numbers in recent months. Between September 1992 and January 1993 the monthly average has been 6,572. This is up from the a low point of 3,361 in May 1992, but far from its high point of 35,629 in December 1990 . One reason for the lag in immigration: the civil unrest has to date affected only the outlying republics, home to but a tenth of the former union's 1.7 million Jews. The great mass of potential immigrants are concentrated in the central- and more stable - republics: Russia - 750,000 Ukraine - 575,000 Byelorussia - 120,000 Many of these still see a future for themselves there. Only a dramatic change of circumstances will prompt large numbers to emigrate to Israel. THE CHRISTIAN ROLE What is our part? Prayer, that the LORD will continue the ingathering according to his word, giving motivation to the Jews in the central republics. And also Practical support for those already fleeing the hunters, leaving all behind. Through CFI, believers give to these new arrivals both clothing and also vouchers for household items, furniture, schoolbooks, baby strollers, medical needs, dental care, and more. Donors may request to learn about the recipient of their gift, with the potential of building a relationship through the mail In the end it may be this personal contact which is most important to the immigrants. Mindlia, for instance, was told by her family that it was foolish to come to Israel alone at her age. "I told them there would be kind people there who would help me," she said. "But when I came I found they weren't so kind as I thought." Like many immigrants, Mindlia fell into a depression after her unenthusiastic welcome by Israeli society. Then she came into the Distribution Center. "You told me it was good that I had come, that you were glad to see me. Your kindness was very nice to my heart." She paused, eyes reddening. "Thanks to you, I began to live again." CHRISTIAN RESCUER BROUGHT TO ISRAEL SHE WOULDN'T COME to Israel without her. Yelena, who emigrated from St. Petersburg in October 1992, fought for and won the right to bring with her the Christian woman who'd saved her during the Holocaust. Yelena was a two-year-old Jewish child in Nazi-occupied Byelorussia when her father turned her over to a village priest and his wife for hiding. She'd never see her father, or some 60 other relatives, again. All perished at the hands of the Germans. The Russian Orthodox priest and his wife, Galina, took Yelena in as if she were their own. Everyone in the village knew the penalty for the family if they were discovered: death. The dreaded knock of the Nazi security forces finally came, and all were taken for questioning. Somehow - with the help of forged baptismal papers - they avoided detection. Yelena would live. NEARLY 50 YEARS later it was her turn to be the rescuer. The door to Israel was open, but Yelena wouldn't leave Galina, now a widow in a small room with a church pension no match for the runaway inflation. Yelena asked the Israel Interior Ministry if Galina was eligible to come. The reply: "NO." Yelena applied for a visa at the Moscow embassy, explaining: "I and my children's family are coming to Israel. Without Galina none of us would be there." She learned there was one avenue: if Galina was recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Authority as one of the Righteous Among the Nations for her wartime activity. Yelena gathered and submitted extensive documentation. Finally, after a two-year battle, Galina was confirmed as one of the Righteous, given Israeli citizenship, and even awarded a generous lifelong pension for risking her life to save Yelena. "Only God gave me strength and faith to do it," Galina said after arriving in Jerusalem. "It's his deed." The director of the Yad Vashem Department for the Righteous, Dr. Mordecai Paldiel, commented that a majority of the hundreds of rescuers he's studied were motivated by their Christian faith. The Church as an institution came out of the Holocaust besmirched, in his view, by its failure to take a stand. "But the small persons had a better grasp of what Christianity was than the hierarchy," he said. "As a religion of faith, love, and brotherhood, Christianity has shown itself capable of being a very potent force ... The Sermon on the Mount, the Good Samaritan - they were moved by it. It speaks in favor of the teachings of Christianity." A CHRISTIAN FRIEND OF ISRAEL: RAOUL WALLENBERG A new-immigrant sculptor, Mark Salman, recently returned to the Distribution Center to present a bas-relief plaque of one of the Jewish people's best-known Christian friends: Raoul Wallenberg. It was the fruit of an investment made nearly a year before, when Salman, 54, first arrived in the country. Although renowned in Moscow, he was unknown in Israel. Salman found himself an empty studio in a remote settlement in the mountains of Samaria, but had none of the tools needed to start his career once again. In keeping with CFI's policy of encouraging employment, Salman received assistance in purchasing a vital tool. He's now using it to complete a bronze bust of Wallenberg, commissioned by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Authority. Wallenberg, a Lutheran, used his posting as a Swedish diplomat in Budapest during World War II to save thousands of Jewish lives. It came at the cost of his own; he disappeared when the Red Army came and apparently died later in Soviet imprisonment. Many Israeli cities have a street named for Wallenberg. BULLETIN-BULLETIN Operation Exodus sailings from Odessa to Haifa will resume in April, even as Israel sits to remember its ancient exodus at the Passover seder. The believer-sponsored shipping line aims to bring to Israel - free of charge - 10,000 new immigrants from the former Soviet Union. This on the heels of three trial sailings a year ago which transported 1,390 immigrants at a cost of nearly one million dollars. The event provoked widespread interest in the Israeli media making it perhaps the most visible act of Christian assistance ever given to Israel. The cost of the next phase of 40 sailings is estimated to be six million dollars, one million of which has been raised to date. FOR INFORMATION: EBENEZER EMERGENCY FUND EBENEZER HOUSE 5A POOLE ROAD B0URNEMOUTH H2 5QJ U.K. TEL: 0202-294455 You can also contact Larry Baker in the United States via Internet e-mail at: 76570.671@cis ------------------------------------------------------------------- WATCHMAN'S PRAYER LETTER - MARCH 1993 "I will take my stand to watch, and station myself on the tower ..." (Habakkuk 2:1) Intercessors have a real and vital part in praying for the peace of Jerusalem (Psalm 122: 6) . and in being able to impart the burden of intercession and spiritual warfare for Israel to others in the Body of Messiah Yeshua. The most effective members of the Body desiring to be a blessing to the Jewish people are standing as a breakwater against the billows of evil aimed at this tiny nation. They are Godly intercessors with a mandate to pray. Their focus at this time should be for God to intervene in the peace negotiations to stop a God-given inheritance from being given away (i.e. a withdrawal from the Golan Heights). Meditate on Psalm 135 :12 . Also we need to pray for God's Spirit to "breathe" on the House of Israel who are returning to their own land as prophesied in Ezekiel 36. We are living in one of the most exciting periods of world-history witnessing God fulfilling His Word in Israel. May He help us to continue to pray under the direction of His Holy Spirit and give us fresh light concerning how to petition the Lord for His ancient covenant people and His Land. Two years after the Gulf War, the Middle East arms race is in full swing again as if nothing happened. Calls for arms control have vanished. France, Britain and the United States were locked this month against one another, in the battle for a $4 billion arms contract with the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.). This U.A.E. confederate could be a fulfillment of Psalm 83:3-5. Along with this move by these three countries, more than 350 weapons manufacturers from 34 countries turned up for the opening of the Gulf region's largest "arms bazaar" held in Abu Dhabi. * PRAY that Israel will not be complacent in the face of a grave danger to the nation. May she realize that she cannot fight the coming battles alone. God's own presence with His People in the time of danger is the only guarantee of their safety in the face of their enemies. May the prayer that Jehoshaphat prayed be our guide for prayer. Reading 11 Chronicles 20:3-12, let us pray that Israel's leaders will "seek the Lord" (verse 4) and that their eyes be "upon the Lord" (verse 12). "Let Israel hope in the Lord: for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption". (Psalm 130:7). * PETITION THE LORD to again be Israel's mighty defense in the troubling days ahead. "The Lord hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee." (Psalm 20:1). "Deliver me from mine enemies, O my God: defend me from them that rise up against me". (Psalm 59:1). * BESEECH THE LORD for Israel to be wise in her dealings in the "peace" negotiations. Pray for discernment of the words "peace process" when in fact the words sound like a hollow ring beside the clatter of hardware changing hands in Abu Dhabi. "The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart; his words were softer than oil, yet where they drawn swords". (Psalm 55:21). Those drawn swords are ready to kill. * BELIEVE IN PRAYER that the rapid expansion and revival of Islamic fundamentalism will be quenched by God Almighty and its spiritual deception exposed. Its aim is to liquidate Israel and wipe her out as a nation in a final holocaust to finish what Hitler began." They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance." (Psalm 83:4). * INTERCEDE for the negotiations with Damascus which are at a crossroads. Syria continues to arm herself while at the same time, remaining a part of the peace talks. "Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered: let them also that hate him flee before Him." (Psalm 68:1). * STAND FIRMLY in prayer for in the event of war, the civilian population will be potential targets from ground-to-ground missiles. May the inhabitants of the Land find that secret place in the Lord and His Messiah to abide under His shadow. "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty ... thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow (missiles? ) that flieth by day; ... nor for the pestilence (poisonous gases?) that walketh in darkness ...". (Psalm 91:1,5-6. INTERCEDE for major challenges which face the Jerusalem Police in cutting down the rash of car torchings in and around Jerusalem. 448 cars were torched in 1992 and 50 have been torched in 1993. It has become the "national sport" of some Palestinians who prepare wicked devices for destructive purposes. Please pray that police who help to keep law and order, will be given the wisdom to bring these torchings to a halt. Particular target areas which need special prayer covering are Abu Tor, Neve Ya'acov and East Talpiot. Chief of General Staff Lt.-General Ehud Barak of the Israel Defense Forces will soon review the current regulations on homosexuals in the I.D.F. to eliminate discrimination against them. The Jerusalem Post also reports that a significant number of religious in Israel practice homosexuality. * PRAY that Jewish leaders who trust in the Tenach's sacredness (the Old Testament) will stand against sanctioning this abomination to God. There is not a single piece of Jewish sacred literature written in the past 3,000 years that approves this wicked lifestyle of unnatural affection between two human beings. As we remember the words of Timothy, " This know also that in the last days ... men shall be ... unholy, without natural affection ...", (II Timothy 3:1-3) we should pray for God's mercy and truth to be revealed to those under this deception. 1992 saw 77, 000 new immigrants come to Israel. In spite of all of the problems it has been one of the most wonderful years for immigration for the House of Israel. * PRAY that God will stir up and call for Jewish people living in the Western nations to come home before anti-semitism explodes further. Pray that once they come home, that they will "root" and be planted in Israel to stay and not desire "greener pastures" elsewhere. "I will hiss for them; and gather them ... and they shall increase as they have increased." (Zechariah 10: 8) . "And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out ...". (Amos 9:15). * INTERCEDE for the Church to help in this prophetic time, that in Christ-like love, they will help Israel through intercession, financial giving and in encouraging the Jewish people to "come home" while there is still time. * BESEECH THE LORD in regard to the unemployment in Israel which still remains high (11.2%). May it see improvement in 1993 so that new immigrants may be able to work, make an honest living and be able to sit at their own tables and eat from the own labors. "For thou shalt eat the labor of thine hands ...". (Psalm 128:2). With all of the problems of this tiny nation, "awesome" (in the Biblical sense) was the word used recently in a story in the Jerusalem Post when thousands of Jerusalemites turned out on a cold wintry night to try and save the life of a total stranger in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant. Praise the Lord God of Israel that His People still know the meaning of "I am my brother's keeper". Sharon Sanders, Jerusalem Please copy and disseminate this prayer material as far and wide as possible to the Body of Christ for prayer purposes. For further information on building the Wall of Prayer, Write to CFI. NewsDesk NewsDesk MORNING STAR NEWSDESK - APRIL 1993 MESSIANIC BELIEVERS DENIED ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP The Israeli Supreme Court has upheld an earlier ruling which effectively bars Messianic Jews, who believe Jesus is the Messiah, from emigrating to Israel. Messianic Jews who arrived after December 25, 1989, could have their citizenship revoked as a result of the decision. The September 3 ruling concerned two American families and a married couple from southern Africa. The Supreme Court upheld a 1989 decision stating born-Jews who express belief in Jesus are not considered Jewish under the 1950 Immigration Act or Law of Return. The act states that people are eligible to emigrate to Israel if they are "born to a Jewish mother or have converted to Judaism, and do not belong to another religion." Non-Jews, including descendants of Jewish grandparents, can apply to remain in Israel as permanent residents under the 1952 Entrance to Israel Act. The 1989 ruling centered on Gary and Shirley Beresford Jewish by birth and married in an Orthodox synagogue, the couple- from Zimbabwe had applied to emigrate to Israel while visiting South African 1986. Their request for citizenship was turned down several months later. Shirley Beresford subsequently learned that one of her sons from a previous marriage, who did not agree with the couple's faith in Jesus, had informed South African Jewish officials that they were believers. In December 1986, the Beresford's moved to Israel and applied for citizenship from inside the country. By 1989, two American Messianic families who had applied for Israeli citizenship found their cases added to the Beresford's - Sidney and Linda Speakman and their daughter Dawn, from Oregon, and Richard and Rickie Kendall and their four children, from Pennsylvania. In a special mid- 1989 meeting, Israeli Messianic congregational leaders voted overwhelmingly to recommend that the plaintiffs drop their court cases. But all decided to carry on, seeing no other way to remain in Israel. On Christmas Day 1989, the Supreme Court released its verdict on the Beresford case. Citing a 1978 ruling involving American Messianic Jew Esther Dorflinger, the judges stated that born-Jews who express public faith in Jesus are no longer Jewish under the Law of Return. Thus, the court said the Interior Ministry h as every right to deny the Beresfords Israel citizenship. Ruling that the Kendalls an the Speakmans - as "self-professed believers in Jesus" and therefore not Jews-are not eligible to emigrate, the court said the children could apply for citizenship under the so-called "Grandfather Clause," which allows non-Jews with at least one proven Jewish grandparent to become Israelis. Both families are planning to follow this course. The Interior Ministry said the Beresfords and the two families, apart from an emigrating children, must leave, Israel by January 17. An Interior Ministry spokesperson told the Orthodox Yom Sheshe newspaper on September 18 that, based on the Supreme Court's latest ruling, the ministry plans to revoke the citizenship of Jewish believers who emigrated to Israel after December 25, 1989. However, many Messianic leaders say the ministry will have great trouble doing so. "Most believers who have moved here since 1989 are from the former Soviet Union," said one leader "Many Israelis especially new emigrants, will raise the roof if they start sending people back there!" (David Dolan, NEWS NETWORK INTERNATIONAL) THE NEW SPIRITUAL EUROPEAN IDENTITY The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. George Carey, recently met with the European Parliament's President, Dr. Egon Klepsch in Strasbourg. He also attended a meeting of the Committee on Civil Liberties and Internal Affairs and addressed a multi-denominational cross-section of members of the European Parliament. During his meetings Carey stated that the church had a crucial role to play in helping to foster a new spirit of generosity in Europe - the generosity to accept diversity. "We shall not strengthen and develop the new Europe on the basis of a spiritual void," he said. Civic and spiritual impoverishment was a recruiting ground for the fake gods of fundamentalist religion, nationalism and racism. Repeating the words of Jacques Delors, he said the game for Europe would be up if it failed to develop a sense of shared values with a spiritual dimension as an aspect of European identity. In conclusion he hoped for closer cooperation between the church and the European institutions so that the new Europe would be based on the values of toleration, peace and cooperation. To this end, the work of the European Parliament would remain in his thoughts and prayers. (EP - EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT NEWS) CENTRAL ASIAN UNITY The leaders of five former Soviet republics in Central Asia agreed to try to establish a common market and said they wanted to continue using the Russian ruble as their joint currency. The common market would apply to policies on taxation, customs controls, prices, investments, and exports in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. At the leaders' summit in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent, President Nursultan Nazarbayev of Kazakhstan said he favored cooperation with the 10 other former Soviet republics, especially Russia, the Interfax news agency reported. He also emphasized the need for banking union. The five leaders also decided to create a Central Asian newspaper and a common television and radio network, with programs to be broadcast from Tashkent. (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL) CHURCH ALIVE AND WELL IN CHINA For the first time in 40 years the Chinese government has released what is believed to be an accurate estimate of the size of the Christian church in China. The October 22 South China Morning Post cited a survey by the State Statistical Bureau which indicates the Chinese Protestant church has 63 million adherents. Previously the Chinese government's official position has been that there were only 10-12 million Christians. However, 1992 has been a year of widespread "crackdown" on religion. (THE WESLEYEN ADVOCATE) SIXTEEN ATTACKS IN ISRAEL IN 1993 Sixteen major attacks on Israelis have occurred in 1993. Eight of these took place in the past week (March 7-13). The attacks began after a month-long hiatus following the expulsion of 415 Islamic fundamentalists on December 17. Ten Israelis - seven civilians and three soldiers - have died, 21 have been wounded. Six attacks took place inside the Green Line, one in eastern Jerusalem, seven in Gaza and two in Hebron. Two attacks occurred in January, four in February, and 10 in the first two weeks of March. Four of the attacks can be attributed to Islamic fundamentalists, and two to Fatah. Political affiliation in the other attacks, if any, is not clear. * January 15: A Gazan, believed to be an Islamic Jihad supporter, is shot dead in Tel Aviv central bus station after he stabs four. * January 30: Hamas gunmen kill Sgt. Arik Arfi, 31, and a Bedouin tracker whose name was not released, and wound a third soldier near Khan Yunis in the Gaza District. * February 9: Gunmen kill Yehezkel Avraham, 50, near Khan Yunis. * February 14: A Kirvat Arba couple are wounded by shots near Hebron. * February 15: Yehezkel Mizrahi, 35, is stabbed to death, and a woman is seriously injured in East Talpiot, Jerusalem. * February 25: Two bullets hit a police van in Gaza. * March 1: Natan Azaria, 28, and Gregory Avramov, 27, are stabbed to death and nine others are injured in Tel Aviv by a member of Islamic Jihad. * March 2: Yehoshua Weissbrod, 44, is stoned and shot to death in Rafiah refugee camp in Gaza District. * March 8: Uri Megidish, 39, is stabbed to death by Fatah hawks in Gan-Or in southern Gaza District. * March 9: Shots fired at Egged bus in Gaza. * March 10: Army reservist David Libeskend, 23, stabbed in Nazareth. * March 11: Moshe Saguy, 49, stabbed by worker in Rehovot. * March 11: Assaf Dayan, 15 stabbed near Erez checkpoint of Gaza District. * March 12: Simha Levy, 45, axed to death near Khan Yunis. * March 12: Bullet-riddled body of soldier Yehoshua Freidberg, 24, found near Jerusalem. * March 12: Shots fired at IDF patrol in Hebron wounds two. In addition, police and IDF are investigating the deaths of three Arabs who were killed in unclear circumstances by Israeli civilians or undercover soldiers on March 2, 8 and 10, near Ma'aleh Adumim, Beit Lahiya in the Gaza District and a-Ram in Jerusalem. (JERUSALEM POST) IMPLANTED MICROCHIPS HELP RETRIEVE LOST PETS The tiny bronze-colored microchip on Dr. Tracy Cooley's Animal in Highland is no larger than a penny. But it's worth alot more when it's injected into the shoulder of a dog or cat. The Microchip has the capacity to identify lost pets when a hand-held scanner is passed over the animal and its registration number is transmitted through a low energy radio signal. "This is very new here", said Cooley, who has injected about 20 animals since he purchased a scanner in January. "It's big in southern California, and I was listening to a radio station in Salt Lake City when I was on vacation there recently and it said they were identifying one lost dog a day with it. That's really pretty good as far as finding a pet. I think it has great potential here, too, but pet owners have to realize it's out there. The people in Utah were raving about it, and that can happen here if we educate them". Dr. Lawrence McAfee of McAfee Animal Hospital in Valparaiso, Indiana, also has a scanner and installs microchips. McAfee said the hospital has injected about 60 so far. I'm pretty proud of this clinic as far as being in the forefront of veterinary medicine", he said. "In the past, tattooing has been one of the primary means of identification, as have collars. But if the dog gets lost, the collar could get stuck on a tree or fence post and it's gone. "The problem with tattooing is that it's done in different locations on the body and veterinarians use different tattoo numbers. There's no good national registry for the numbers, whereas there is one for the microchips. If a lost dog is found, they can it and have the owner. It can save a pet's life". The microchip, manufactured by American Veterinary Identification Devices in California, is surrounded by an unbreakable glass cover and costs about $35 to insert. Once injected, its protein casing attaches to connective tissue and it is almost impossible to retrieve, even with surgery. The computer memory in the microchip contains and identification number that can be read with the scanner and called in to the manufacturer. When contacted, the manufacturer will give the name of the veterinarian who injected the microchip, who can then be contacted for owner's information. (HIGH POINT ENTERPRISE - March 21, 1993) Ministry Information Ministry Information MORNING STAR DISTRIBUTION - ONLINE EDITIONS - APRIL 1993 The MORNING STAR BBS list contains those electronic Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) that are carrying MORNING STAR. They are either available as a compressed file for downloading or in some cases use a "Door" program that allows the viewers to read the magazine on screen. With the new MSDOOR program (available free from Alan Graff P.O. Box 131 Wheelersburg, Ohio 45694) callers can read or copy articles to their system while on line. Those BBS with the asterisk next to the name are using a door program to read MORNING STAR on line. The System Operator's names are posted where known. Is your local BBS carrying "Morning Star"? If not, send a message to the System Operator and upload it! Please let us know of any new BBS where MORNING STAR is being made available. ALABAMA 205 739-1469 Odyssey BBS- Jerry Woody * 205 457-5901 J&J OnLine - Cal Evans 205 744-0943 The Family Smorgas-Board - Randall Dickerson CALIFORNIA 209 576-1606 Root Connection - Larry Beyers * 209 675-3218 Hangar 7 - Dennis E. 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