Spiritual Warfare 101

Read this post about Spiritual Warfare.

Please Pray for John Keranen!

John is my father-in-law and was injured last Sunday when his horse, Banjo, began bucking wildly. John came crashing down on the horn of his saddle 4 or 5 times. As a result his pelvis was broken in half and he also incurred other injuries.

He had surgery to bolt his pelvis back together on Wednesday and he faces a long hard road to recovery. Pray that the LORD would glorify Himself in John's recovery to the point that those around him, including the medical staff, would marvel at the grace and power of John's LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.

Note: Just to let you know what a tough old cowboy my father-in-law is. After he had his pelvis broken he crawled out of the horse pen to his pick-up truck about 75 feet away and pulled himself inside so that he could use the horn to signal for help!!! This is a man's man if I ever met one.

Mark this day and Marvel at the Work of God

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By John Piper September 5, 2007

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I do not doubt that what happened on September 7, two hundred years ago, will be celebrated in heaven for its epochal significance in world history. The first Protestant missionary set foot on Chinese soil on September 7, 1807. His name was Robert Morrison. He was a Scottish Presbyterian, and except for one furlough, he spent the next 27 years in China.

Persevering against the hostility of official opposition and the resistance of foreign merchants, Morrison baptized the first Chinese Protestant Christian, Cai Gao, on July 16, 1814. After the baptism of Cai Gao, Morrison wrote prophetically in his journal, “May he be the first-fruits of a great harvest, one of millions who shall come and be saved on the day of wrath to come."

Last month The National Catholic Reporter carried an article by John Allen documenting the fulfillment of Morrison’s prayer. Here is what he wrote:

At the time of the Communist takeover in 1949, there were roughly 900,000 Protestants. Today, the Center for the Study of Global Christianity, which puts out the much-consulted World Christian Database, says there are 111 million Christians in China, roughly 90 percent Protestant and mostly Pentecostal. That would make China the third-largest Christian country on earth, following only the United States and Brazil.

The Center projects that by 2050, there will be 218 million Christians in China, 16 percent of the population, enough to make China the world's second-largest Christian nation. According to the Center, there are 10,000 conversions in China every day.

Admittedly, some estimate the numbers of Christians in China are as low as 40 million. Allen observes, “Even those conservative estimates, however, would mean that Protestantism in China experienced roughly 4,300 percent growth over the last half-century, most of it since the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s and 1970s.”

Other China-observers think that even the high estimates are understatements about what is about to happen. For example in the August 7, 2007, issue of Asia Times, Oswald Spengler wrote:

I suspect that even the most enthusiastic accounts err on the downside, and that Christianity will have become a Sino-centric religion two generations from now. China may be for the 21st century what Europe was during the 8th-11th centuries, and America has been during the past 200 years: the natural ground for mass evangelization. If this occurs, the world will change beyond our capacity to recognize it. Islam might defeat the western Europeans, simply by replacing their diminishing numbers with immigrants, but it will crumble beneath the challenge from the East.

John Allen comments on the dream we have been hearing about for some time concerning the aim of the Chinese church to evangelize the Muslim lands on their backdoor step.

The most audacious even dream of carrying the gospel beyond the borders of China, along the old Silk Road into the Muslim world, in a campaign known as “Back to Jerusalem.” As David Aikman explains in Jesus in Beijing, some Chinese Evangelicals and Pentecostals believe that the basic movement of the gospel for the last 2,000 years has been westward: from Jerusalem to Antioch, from Antioch to Europe, from Europe to America, and from America to China. Now, they believe, it’s their turn to complete the loop by carrying the gospel to Muslim lands, eventually arriving in Jerusalem. Once that happens, they believe, the gospel will have been preached to the entire world.

One of the lessons to draw from this anniversary of the arrival of Protestant Christianity in China is that we cannot measure the significance of our lives in our own lifetime. Robert Morrison could not see what we see. It is astonishing. May the Lord cause his word to run in China with great power. And may he keep us all faithful in our little sphere of influence. None of us is indispensable to the great cause of Christ. But if we will stand, and not give way under the pressures and pains of ministry, more good will come from our lives than we can know.

Here is a suggestion. A four-part video series issued in 2003, called “The Cross: Jesus in China” and produced by Chinese documentarian Yuan Zhiming, interviews many of the leaders of this revival. I have watched all four of these and recommend them for your awareness and inspiration. They are now available, amazingly, for free download at ChinaSoul.

Thank you, Father, for Robert Morrison and for the immeasurable fruit of his labor.

Pastor John

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Musings...

These days I have been thinking about closed doors and obstacles. My thoughts are focused on determining the difference between the two. I view closed doors as the LORD putting a stop to a direction I am seeking to go and an obstacle as man and/or the devil seeking to put a stop to a direction that God is leading me in.

In my current situation I seem to be dealing with obstacles. I would covet your prayers for me because my inclination is to blast through the obstacle I am currently facing. Sometimes blasting through is an appropriate way to deal with obstacles, but when the obstacle is a fellow follower of Jesus Christ blasting through is not an option.

The LORD planted Galatians 6:1 in my mind this morning: "Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Keep watch on yourself, lest you too be tempted."

I am seeking God's wisdom as to how to confront this brother in truth and love. Please pray for me so that I would honor Christ in this situation.

Soli Deo Gloria

Question?

What would you do differently regarding prayer if you truly believed that the success of your church plant/ministry/spiritual life depended on prayer?

Thoughts about Prayer

Facing the formidable and largely unexpected task of evangelizing the whole world for the Messiah, the early church went to prayer, waiting for Jesus to pour out his Spirit to empower them for this task. Only the very presence of the risen Lord could equip them to move outward in mission. And this movement could only be maintained through a continual dependence on him, receiving divine direction and encouragement in prayer...The outpouring of the Spirit permanently equipped the church for mission. Nevertheless, a vigorous missionary movement can only be maintained and expressed by unceasing prayer in the face of obstacles and persecution.

~ Richard F. Lovelace, Renewal

A Good Soilder

What is a Missional Church?

My Guide

"I know not where He leads, but well do I know my Guide."

~Martin Luther

Go to the land that I will show you!

YHWH spoke to Abraham and called him to leave his home and go to the land that he would show him. Abraham stepped out in faith and went. YHWH has spoken to me and called me to do a similar thing. He has released us from our call to Duluth and is leading us to plant a church in a land that he is in the process of showing us.

Gary Johnson (senior pastor) will stay in Duluth and continue the work of planting Faith Crossings Church and we will go out and plant. This news is not altogether surprising to us because we had intended to be a church that plant churches from the conception of the church. We wanted to be born pregnant!

What is surprising is the timing. We were thinking it my come a little further down the road. But God, not I, is the navigator of our journey and he is directing our path as we commit our work to him.

I want to ask you to join us in praying as we seek the LORD as to where he will lead us to plant a new church with the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We will be putting in our 58 day notice to vacate our apartment soon and will stop drawing a salary from Faith Crossings at the end of September.

Please intercede on our behalf that God will provide for and protect us in this time. We have experienced pretty much every emotion from sorrow and mourning to excitement and joy over the past few weeks and we are emotionally and physically exhausted.

I look forward to sharing more of how YHWH is moving and working in our lives as the adventure unfolds. Please join us in the journey! We need your prayer and support.

Soli Deo Gloria - To God Alone Be the Glory

Contextualization

Speaking Christianese

sXt

The Erickson's are off to sXt: Strategic Multiplication Training put on by the National Church Planting Director of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. We will be examining the X Factors for Church Multiplication found in the book of Acts.

Vision

"The vision is not merely to start one church but to be a vital part of a church planting movement. We don't merely want fruit but healthy fruit bearing trees!"

Global Church Advancement - Church Planter Training Manual

On any given day!

On any given day you may experience something that dramatically changes the course of your life! Thursday August 2nd may turn out to be one of those days for the Erickson family.