God Will Make A Way, Where There Seems To Be No Way, He Works In Ways We Cannot See, He Will Make A Way For Me, He Will Be My Guide, Hold Me Closely To His Side, With Love And Strength
For Each New Day, He Will Make A Way, He Will Make A Way - By A Roadway In The Wilderness
He'll Lead Me, And Rivers In The Desert Will I See, Heaven And Earth Will Fade, But His Word Will Still Remain, He Will Do Something New Today

Research and surveys show that many atheists, agnostics, and spiritual-seekers who lack religious affiliation are former Christians. But there was no research-based book that explained in depth why people were leaving, until Generation Ex-Christian. The recently released book by Drew Dyck, editorial manager of the ministry team at Christianity Today International, breaks down “leavers” into six categories: Post Modern Leavers, Recoilers, Modern Leavers, Neo-Pagans, Rebels, and Drifters.

Water baptism technically is when a believer is immersed in water in a public confession of his/her faith in Jesus Christ.  Water baptism is an act of obedience to His commands. Water baptism is a physical show of what spiritually happens in a person's life when he or she believes in Jesus.  The Bible states: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.”  II Corinthians 5:17.  Water Baptism is an act of obedience and an outward symbol of the internal change after accepting Jesus. 

Families are in need everywhere. Broken relationships, hurting individuals and families, painful pasts, irreconcilable difference, breakdown in communication, absence of intimacy, and marital conflicts and violence are destroying families all around us. Families are in crisis! There has been a sharp surge of family breakdown in our community in recent years. Divorce is growing at an alarming rate in our community and marital disharmony is common across cities and faith backgrounds. The lack of moral and spiritual values, changing gender roles, absence of adequate support systems in the adopted land, cultural differences, and poorer relational skills may be some of the causes of the fundamental breakdown of families in the Indian community.

Since this is the season for Valentine's Day, I have been thinking about the state of the institution of marriage in our nation and pondering why there are so many divorces. Several decades ago the divorce rate hovered around 10%. Now it is almost at 60%! Even the Body of Christ is not exempt from the staggering amount of marital failures! I truly believe there are several unique challenges married couples now face that previous generation did not. The following are some of the many reasons for these increasing challenges to marriage today.

There is a growing tendency in the Body of Christ among practitioners in kingdom societal transformation to bypass the local church in order for the reformation of society to take place. This is due to the frustration of many marketplace leaders with the slow pace, bureaucracy, myopic local view, and lack of high-level leadership found in many of this nation's congregations. As more of us receive greater light regarding the kingdom, and we rightly go from a church mindset to a kingdom mindset, I am afraid some will have a tendency to go too far and jettison the local church altogether!

There are certain seasons in my life when ministry and other responsibilities are so difficult and my schedule so demanding that I feel like I am doing violence to my soul. (It's as if I were taking a knife and intentionally sticking it into my body.) As I analyze what I do and how I feel during these seasons, I have come up with several ways I have done violence to my soul. (Whether or not these seasons can always be avoided is not the point of this article.) The following are ten ways I do violence to my soul. (By “soul” I am referring primarily to my emotions.)

One Way - Jesus - You're The Only One That I Could Live For - One Way - Jesus - You're The Only One That I Could Live For - You Are Always, Always There - Every How And Everywhere - Your Grace Abounds So Deeply Within Me - You Will Never Ever Change - Yesterday Today The Same - Forever Till Forever Meets No End - You Are The Way The Truth And The Life - We Live By Faith And Not By Sight For You - We're Living All For You

We need to educate our congregations to be effectively relational in our “global neighborhood.”  We need to try the new Somalian restaurant (for example) and then invite our friends there to expose them to the culture of our new neighbours.  It is important for Christians to build cultural awareness that will result to authentic relationships making them credible witnesses for Jesus Christ . . .  . We now have an unprecedented opportunity to introduce the Diasporas to Jesus Christ and invite them to become part of His Church.  With Lausanne Diasporas, we are proactively responding to this major global trend of Diasporas and the Diaspora issue will be addressed at Cape Town 2010.  Pray that Diaspora Missions will be embraced by the Whole Church.

The following is based on numerous personal conversations with Muslims, personal study, and intensive training I received from a missions organization in preparation for one month of outreach in a Muslim nation in 1979.
The astonishing thing about my conversations with Muslims is that most of them have the same moral values that Christians should have, and that this is one of the biggest stumbling blocks hindering them from believing that Christianity is true. (Most of them are very warm, friendly people. Some experts estimate that only about 7-10% of them are affiliated in some way with radical Islam, which is still about 100 million adherents globally.)

Eagles are the only birds that loves the storm. When all other birds try to flee from the storm and hide itself from the fierceness of it, eagles fly in to it and will use the wind of the strom to rise higher in a fraction of seconds. It uses the pressure of the storm to glide higher without using its own energy. It is able to do this because God has created it uniquely with an ability to lock its wings in a fixed position, in the midst of the fierce storm winds. After a certain period of experiencing storms face to face, the eagles love to play in the storms. As we face the stormy wind of afflictions in life, the Holy Spirit helps us lock our mind in a fixed position with the grace of God through faith in the finished work of the Cross, which helps us not to spend our energy but just stay in the storm and enjoy the lift and height of heavenly mindedness in a greater and greater altitude.

I had so many odds against me – I do not have any money, I do not have a passport or a valid birth certificate. I battled in my mind and thought for many days “Is it possible for me to go to Singapore with nothing in my hand and on a very short notice?” My father encouraged me with these words from the book of Romans “The Just Shall Live By Faith” and told me to read, meditate and pray these words over my life. I took a step of faith and immediately began the process of planning to go to the  School of Theology in Singapore.. .  . . I totally depended on God for everything – for finances, for a lap-top, for friends, for food, for travel and living arrangements. God gave me many good friends from many different countries of the  world, provided for my every need and even a lap-top for my personal use.

The contribution of Christians to the West is enormous.  Christians were the first the build hospitals.  Initially it was mainly for Christians, later it was for every one.  The beneficiaries were the Muslims who came to Christian lands to conquer them.  Christianity produced leaders like who served the poor and sick, which is unheard in other religions.  Christians have contributed to improve human life and reduce human suffering. . . . . . The author presents Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour and how Christianity could change a person's life in the last two chapters. It is a wonderful book that should be read by all Christian thinkers and use this book for evangelizing the intellectuals.  All Christian leaders, pastors, missionaries and professionals should read this book.