Revival in Denmark

 

Four men, three youngsters and an old and wizened guy, came together in Silkeborg, Denmark to share about how God's people can reach out to minister to those who need the love, power and truth of Christ. On the left is Pastor Reuben of the Silkeborg Church. Next to him is Andy Niblock and then Danny Wilson from St. Thomas Church in Sheffield, England. I am on the right.

The St. Thomas Church has the most compelling and complex outreach program to the poor and needy that I have ever heard about. The church is a combination of Anglican, Baptist and House Church Movement and is very charismatic in experience. They set up "Missional Communities" in needy areas and encourage those groups to heard God's call to minister to the people they meet. Many homeless, immigrants,addicted and traumatized are coming to faith in Christ and getting their lives straightened out.

The congregation has over 3,000 members. If you are interested in Missional Movements, take a look at St. Thomas.

The Silkeborg Church along with Peder Poulsen and the Diakonea (Deaconing) Movement of personal ministry are cooperating to raise up hundreds of Missional Communities throughout Denmark. I spoke about how to reorganize a small group ministry to include an outreach ministry. I will post those ideas later.

Almost all of what God is doing to bring hope, healing and change in the world is hidden from view. The media rarely if ever report on the millions of human hours spent bringing the good news of grace and the good news of love to the hurting members of society. And that is not a bad thing. The Pearl of great price is hidden and only God really knows the depth of what the churches are doing.

Shalom,

Gary Sweeten

Innovative Christians

Fast Company is a magazine dedicated to promoting businesses that are "on the fast track" of innovation, growth and change. In the last issue they focused on HTC, a company in Taiwan they described this way:

Until recently, the name HTC meant little to consumers. Now the Taiwanese Google-phone maker is in the spotlight. Chairman and cofounder Cher Wang tells us about HTC's culture and her biblically infused thinking.

I hope you will read the article and take note of how a Christian can lead a company into one of the top spots of creativity in the world. In my view, we need many more like HTC and its Chair Cher Wang.

Do you know of any creative, innovative, cutting edge people and companies or not for profits?

Research on Love

Faith, Hope and Love but the greatest is love. I CO 13:

What does it mean to be the greatest?

Danes Place Obama Higher than Jesus

Here we go again. A Danish newspaper has printed a story that attempts to make Mr. Obama a contemporary Saint and Jesus a very common man. Will it work to cause Believers to rise up and protest? Will it work to get atheists and their friends stand up and shout because they think they have won the battle? Probably, but does it matter?

These kinds of things matter little to real spiritual life. It will not change when, and how many people find eternal life in Jesus Christ. Back in the Seventies when sex, drugs and rock music were rampant, many preachers practically mad ea living by preaching against all three plus beards and lack of bra's. But we saw the greatest revival in history fall from heaven despite the earthly appearances of widespread evil. Maybe we pray harder in hard times.

It is easy to think that God acts on what He reads in the papers and sees on TV. When a confessing Christian becomes President we all cheer and sing the National Anthem as though God was finally going to run the rascals out of Washington, D.C. But, it did not happen that way when George W. was in the Oval Office.

Today is the day of salvation. No need to wait for a better day. There has never been a better time to preach the good news, teach God's word and witness to God's love. We are in the days of great harvest. I know that the prophets of doom will disagree because they are often caught up in news headlines not God's headlights.

There are most Christians alive today than ever before. There are most Spirit filled Seasoned Believers who know God's word and have maturity and experience in leading than in all history. I wish I could live another 100 years.

I am not a Baptist, at least not formally, but I like the Baptist sign above. (My Baptist Church gave me the "left foot of fellowship" way back in 1969. I was too innovative back then too.) I am still an entrepreneur who wants to see new, exciting and cutting edge ideas prevail in the Kingdom of God. Why should Procter and Gamble have all the creativity?

Let's face it. Most churches and most of its leaders are stuck in a village church mentality that leads them to desire to be the best church in the first Reformation. They are still trying to be Luther and Calvin instead of God's leader in the current Reformation.

The model is that of professional football: 22 exhausted professional men who desperately need rest entertaining 20,000 non professional men who desperately need exercise.

See my web page sweetenlife.com for more exciting ideas about Christian growth and influence.

Stright Talk About Atheists

A Pagan With Nazi Tatoos

Over the last few weeks there has been some dust ups over signs placed in public places as well as government buildings over whether God exists or not. Atheists in Illinois have placed a very aggressive sign in the state capitol that attacks Nativity scenes, the birth of Jesus and the idea that God is real.

I am happy the atheists are finally coming out of the closet. They have been a hidden resource for far too long and used their influence through the shadow organizations to attack historic traditions of the USA through lawsuits, legal maneuverings and left wing judges. Now they are admitting their anti God and anti Christ and anti religious biases. Only when we flush out the real beliefs and ideas behind such groups can we get a true picture of who we are dealing with.

I have no doubt that Christianity will fare well in the public square of ideas if we get a chance to engage atheists honestly. As long as their aggressively promote their ideas as though they are from The US Constitution it is difficult to have a fair hearing. However, now they will need to be honest and open about their religious biases.

The atheist lobby has recently attacked Christianity, and all religious traditions, by suggestion that faith in God and organized religions have been and are responsible for most wars, oppressions and evil in the world. With the advent of radical Islam, the Crusades and other evil examples it is hard to debate their conclusions. However, when we and they must both stand in the full light of history and debate facts, the ideas of Judeo Christian thought are bright lights of liberty, justice and progression compared to pagan, Druid and atheist thought and behavior.

So, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, let us live daily with the truth that God sent His Son into the world to rid it of all sin, sickness and psychopathology. We Christians have often failed to live out the legacy of love and truth but all in all God's rule and reign are growing whoever the gospel has been preached. Without Judeo Christian thought we could not even judge a behavior such as war, rape, abuse and murder are good or bad. Even an atheist cannot argue for a position of superior morality and ethic without resorting to the Bible either overtly or covertly.

Worship God in Spirit and truth this week and celebrate the fact that when atheists take a stand we can better witness to God's love, power and healing.

Sin and Cold Weather Deaths

I have been posting on the topic of sin. I trust you will remember that my definition of "SIN" or the "Fallen Nature" includes all the traumatic issues that occur in nature. The tsunami a few years ago was the result of an earthquake that reminded us of just how fragile and broken "Mother Earth" really is. In my thought, this is evidence of the Fall. As scripture says, "Thorns and thistles cover the ground". When sin entered the earth the perfect, peaceful and life giving earth was changed into a place of trauma, death and destruction.

Here is the latest evidence.

In Ukraine 27 people have frozen to death since the thermometer dropped last week. Authorities in Romania said 11 people had succumbed to the chill, and in the Czech Republic the toll was 12.

In Russia and Ukraine and other Eastern European countries alcoholism is rampant. The ministry of our friends there does everything possible to take the gospel of Christ and His healing love to those nations and those people. Only the gospel widely preached and practiced will set them free from addictions.

Many of these deaths are the result of drunkenness. Sober people rarely fall into the cold snows and die from exposure. The people there were deeply wounded by Socialism and alcohol is a way to dull the pain. Pray for Liferoute.com and the team of courageous Christian's who are raisin g up an army of love, truth and power.

Jesus came to rid the world of sin. His birth reminds us that we can live free and enjoy His healing in our daily lives. Why live as though Jesus never came to earth to set us free? Accept your freedom and your place in the kingdom of God.

Jesus heals the broken hearted and sets the captives free."

Tiger Woods and the Big Ten

Almost every day when I watch TV I see advertisements that encourage me to violate the Ten Commandments. I rarely watch shows such as 2 1/2 men and Desperate Housewives but I can't miss their ads. I am sure Tiger watches some TV. In fact, he is on TV and a lot of the talk on TV encourages us to join them in violating the Big Ten Commandments.

I saw today that Accenture has cut its ties with Tiger as has Pepsi. They regularly beg us to forget the Big Ten and let our lusts rule. So why are they so tough on Tiger now? What is he doing that most TV, Newspapers and Radio programs don't do continually?

Tiger is simply a man of his era. It is an era that promotes greed, idolatry, free sex, parental disrespect and many gods. In fact, anyone that would say that there is only One God just as the Big Ten says, are ridiculed, mocked and harassed. So, when Tiger is very successful at greed, is he made into a semi god but when he violates one about sex he is vilified?

Seasoned Believers Discerning the Times

Revival Camp Meeting Time


I believe we are in a new zeitgeist but the politicians, religious leaders and corporate leaders are missing most of it. Mr. Obama and his brain trust seemed to have caught the wave and rode it to victory in last year's election but they have currently regressed back to an earlier time. It will crush them if they don't wise up.


Many religious leaders seem to also miss what is happening as well. They talk about personal relationships, small groups, seeker friendly churches and meeting with people in Starbucks and on Face book. But in reality, when they set up a church they tend to fall back on what my professors used to call, "Theory X Leadership" when the world is rushing headlong into "Theory Y Partnerships".

Theory X is leadership from ignorance, hierarchy and distance. It is fond of bureaucracy, top down decisions, one way communication, secrecy, big meetings, mass communication, impersonal mass emails and talking heads with no feedback.

Theory Y Partnerships assume that we are equals in person hood, different in gifts and talents and that everyone has a place at the decision and action table. It is non hierarchical and open in communication while yearning for information and feedback as well as feed forward information.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

We are in the Fourth Great Awakening with an overarching emphasis upon personal involvement in all affairs, mistrust of authority, hatred of fakes and a deep desire for spiritual involvement.

Great Awakenings begin with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that brings masses of people to faith in Christ. The next stage is marked by enormous enthusiasm for God, the Bible, worship and fellowship. Then people decide that they need to grow and learn how to follow Christ as His Disciples so study under a person, a church or institution is crucial. The next stage is that of involvement as a Disciple who serves God, usually in a religious setting.

After this stage the masses move from external religious emphasis to developing a deeper experience of the Spirit within. This leads them to seek ways to serve Go outside the church and religious realm so they turn to influencing family, society, community, politics and financial system.

In the late 1700's widespread revivals spread from town to town and village to village in the Colonies. This radically changed the face of the church situation from one dominated by Anglicans and Congregationalists, who were financially supported by taxes ala Great Britain, with a few Presbyterians thrown in to the rapid growth of two new groups. Baptists and Methodists.

The Baptists and Methodists wanted nothing to do with state support nor with seminary training. They relied on enthusiasm, individualism and God's personal leading to propel ministers on horseback and in house churches to preach, teach, baptize and support. After a few years these people dominated the life of the Colonies. They were generally anti-hierarchical, anti-organizational and defiantly independent.

In a few years these red blooded Colonialists started to preach that God had created all men equal and there was no such thing as "The Divine Rights of Kings". Until now such thoughts were foreign and unknown. Now they were openly preached, studied and believed by all but a few traditionalist Anglican Clergy and British Nobles.

Awakenings always focus on two issues: Political and Economic Freedom of choice. That was soon interpreted as "No taxation without representation" and "We have no God named King George". The Revolutionary War was a result of the First Great Revival that turned into the First Great Awakening.

Stay tuned for the second Great Awakening as well as the Third and today's Fourth Awakening.

Billy Graham Association's Leader Declines Pay

An article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy today tells about Franklin Graham giving up his salary for one year but he still makes a lot.


By Noelle Barton

A prominent charity executive who leads two big charities in North Carolina decided this month to stop receiving pay from one of the organizations.

The Rev. Franklin Graham, who serves as chief executive at the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, in Charlotte, as well as at Samaritan’s Purse, in Boone, will no longer receive compensation from the former.

Last year the Billy Graham association paid Mr. Graham $633,722, plus benefits of $36,060. Mr. Graham’s father, the Rev. Billy Graham, founded the charity in 1950, and Franklin Graham has been at the helm since 2001.

Also in 2008, Samaritan’s Purse paid Mr. Graham $308,206 and benefits of $174,547. He has served as that charity’s top executive since 1979.

“He just felt it was the best thing to do, given the current economic climate in the country,” said Mark DeMoss, spokesman for Mr. Graham and for both charities, in an e-mail message to The Chronicle. “He did not want his compensation to distract from the work of the two organizations.”

No Retirement Payments
Mr. Graham also directed both charities to suspend contributions to his retirement plans. That decision means the Billy Graham association will not contribute to his retirement in 2009 or 2010, and Samaritan’s Purse, which had already paid his 2009 contribution, will not make a contribution in 2010, Mr. DeMoss said.

“These are not necessarily permanent decisions and will likely be reviewed from year to year,” Mr. DeMoss said.

Both charities are listed on The Chronicle’s annual Philanthropy 400 list, just out this week, which ranks the top 400 charities in the country based on private donations.

Samaritan’s Purse, the larger of the two, ranked No. 59, and raised about $291-million in 2008, an increase of about 11 percent over 2007. Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, No. 258, raised about $83-million in 2008, which was down about 5 percent from 2007.



What do you think about this story?

International Partners for Wholeness

At the Equipping Ministries International banquet and homecoming it was announced that EMI is training Christians how to develop a "Lifetime of great relationships" in over 70 countries. Right now they are counting over 500,000 graduates of the training programs. It was great to catch up with the work of EMI.

My colleagues and I founded EMI as an outgrowth of the Teleios Center at College Hill Presbyterian Church. Larry Chrouch, Maurie Loomans, Pat Wray, Alice Petersen, Vivian Hayes, etc and I had a ball taking Teleios internationally.

After completing a Doctorate at University of Cincinnati in 1975 I started training Peer Helpers at CHPC. In 1976 we set up the Teleios Center to do what we could to facilitate "Wholeness" among our members. (Teleios means whole and complete.)

I took insights from my doctorate and used materials developed by Dr. Richard Walters to "Equip the members to do the work of the ministry". After a few years of great success ministers and counselors from other churches asked us to teach them how to do the same things at their churches. That was when I reorganized a 501 c3 not for profit called Christian Information Committee and folded our new ministry into it in 1979.

We developed a philosophy that said, "Freely you have received now freely give what you have to others". We decided to partner with ministers, missionaries, Christian counselors and educators to set up training centers around the USA and the world. We did not want to become a huge American organization but help others develop their own unique brand of Peer Helping, healing and Christian growth. That philosophy has been very successful.

Several friends and colleagues thought we were silly for taking that approach but the fact that EMI has now reached people in seventy nations is amazing and shows that the best way to expand a ministry is through establishing cells that could then multiply themselves. The process of acting like "dendrite cells" guided us from 1979to 1994 when I resigned as President.

EMI and the other groups we established after leaving EMI have been used by the Holy Spirit to bring God's truth, His fruit and His gifts to even more than is known. The reason is that I trained many missionary groups that took my materials and re branded them for use in their ministries.

YWAM has been especially open to learn and take our materials into the world. Larry and Ellen Chrouch have trained numerous YWAMMERS who in turn have trained numerous students to minister in numerous counseling centers all over the world. I applaud them for such fertile minds and reproductions.

Kirsten Callesen took our Listening materials and translated them for use in counseling people with Autism. It worked marvellously. Then she translated them into Nepalese. Kirsten is Danish and she translated our materials into Danish from English and then from Danish into Nepalese. With her materials she trained 50Believers from the persecuted churches in Nepal. Those fifty teachers and now teaching hundreds of their fellow countrymen and women.

Steve Griebling and I trained hundreds of ministers and cell groups leaders in Singapore and Taiwan who have taken the materials to the uttermost parts of Asia. The Holy Spirit revival in Asia is being followed by discipleship in love, care and healing.

The training centers in Russia set up by Galina Chentsova have multiplied into the entire former Soviet Bloc. Galina is healing families, addicts and Pastors by the hundreds.

Who knows? Maybe there are over 100 countries and one million people who have had their lives touched for the better through this First Century model of ministry expansion. Who says it will not work today?

Want to know more about

and how you can get involved?

Sweeten Life Systems

Celebration of Missionary Organization

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Photos from the October 2 Banquet and Ceremony to Honor Dr. Gary Sweeten and other pioneers who founded and developed the Teleios Center and Equipping Ministries Inernational over thirty years ago at College Hill Presbyterian Church.

Alcoholism in Russia

A great news story on Fox News today showed the devastating effects of smoking and drinking. Our ministry has trained a cadre of experts who are mobilizing churches and Christian leaders to reach the alcoholics and their families.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009
By Dana Lewis

Russia is grappling with a major public health crisis in which residents are essentially drinking and smoking themselves to death, according to the country’s public health officials.

About a million Russians die each year from alcohol- and smoking-related causes -- between 600,000 and 700,000 of those deaths are attributed to drinking alone, Andrei Demin, of Russia’s Public Health Association, told Fox News.

“It’s threatening the future of the country,” he said.

The problem? Unlike other countries, Russia has refused to levy hefty taxes on cigarettes and alcohol to discourage drinking and smoking.

The resulting statistics are staggering:

— The average Russian drinks 50 bottles of vodka a year.

— A bottle of beer can be purchased on the street for less than the cost of a bottle of water.

— Twelve million of Russia’s 141 million residents have died over the past 15 years due to alcohol-and smoking-related causes.

— A pack of cigarettes can be purchased for about 30 cents.

— The average Russian male lives to be 60 years old, dying 15 years earlier than his American counterpart. Russian women die 13 years earlier than American women.

Although the country has launched a series of television commercials encouraging Russians to choose healthier lifestyles, many critics say this is of little benefit.

So far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has refused recommendations to raise taxes on cigarettes and alcohol, with some health critics saying the Kremlin would the Russian public stay “pacified and anesthetized."


Support the Russian Ministry by donating to www.sweetenlife.com

Understanding Empathy

A good part of my doctoral dissertation focused on getting to the bottom of what is most powerful to bring about healing and growth in people seeking assistance. As a Counselor I called these folks, CLIENTS. However, in the world of change it is anyone seeking assistance to alter a behavior.

One of the most important aspects of healthy Helping is EMPATHY. Mr. Obama said he was looking for a judge who would be "Empathetic" with the poor and downtrodden. What did he mean?

Possibility 1. Empathy means to feel the pain of the poor. It means to identify with their plight and act to relieve it with favorable rulings.

Possibility 2. Empathy means to understand the poor and accurately describe it in a way that they know they are understood.

What think you? Did Obama want Ms. Sotomayor to actually "Feel the pain of the poor and try to relieve it with special rulings in their favor" or "Accurately understand their plight but apply the law with justice?

Gary Sweeten

The Best Layed Plans of Iran have Gone Away

Time Mag has printed an interesting article about how Iran's hard line actions are killing marriages and upsetting young people.

This is why it is impossible to predict the future.

Why is Mr. Obama Popular

Do you ever wonder why polls show President to be so popular despite his reckless, power hungry behavior? Maybe I have a partial answer. Many citizens of the United States are pretty ignorant about our history, values and traditions to say nothing of our laws.

For example, I was discussing the last election with a friend and mentioned that almost half the people in America pay no income tax. He called me a right wing liar. But it it true. I also told him that there is no money in the Social Security Trust Fund. He called me a right wing liar. It is also true.

A recent survey the 2008 Civic Literacy Report, write Patrick M. Ford, americancivicliteracy@mail2.isi.org, reveals that many Americans are unaware of the most basic aspects of our nations political system.

1. Nearly a third of the respondents failed to name two of America's enemies in World War Two; 22% of college graduates did not answer that question successfully.

2. Only 53% knew that congress retains the power to declare war. Nearly 40% believed this power belongs to the president--a finding with obvious perennial relevance.

3. 54% of respondents (and only 44% of 18- to 34-year-old) knew that Congress shares foreign policy power with the president; nearly a quarter (and almost a third of elected officials!) believed Congress shares such power with the United Nations.

4. Only 41% of Americans, and 53% of college graduates, could recognize that free enterprise or capitalism exists insofar as "individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and resources." 17% of respondents thought that free enterprise or capitalism is a system in which "government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers.

This reveals once again that our voters are woefully ignorant so no wonder they support the current policies. Write to Mr. Patrick M. Ford americancivicliteracy@mail2.isi.org to get the entire report.

Also see this report for information about the nation's laws.

Gary Sweeten

Quantum Physics and Spirituality?

Does the weird science found in quantum theory proves that God is real? Well, no, that is a matter of faith. However, quantum theory certainly destroys the notion that science rules God out of the question.

For example, Albert Einstein, perhaps the greatest scientist we had in the modern era, heard that some research studies had implied that two particles could instantly communicate with each other. But that is not the amazing part. It was true even if they were billions of miles apart.

That is when Einstein made the famous comment, "God doesn't play dice with the universe" and assumed he had closed the issue. However, the physicist Neils Bohr, a strong proponent of quantum uncertainty, replied, Einstein, "Stop telling God what to do."


Because of its bizarre implications, quantum theory has been used to investigate everything from free will and the paranormal to the enigma of consciousness. Several serious physicists have devoted their lives to the study of such ideas, including Bernard d'Espagnat. In March, the 87-year-old Frenchman won the prestigious $1.5 million Templeton Prize for years of work affirming "life's spiritual dimension."

I suggest that you read the Wall Street Journal's article and think it over for yourself.

Based on quantum behavior, Dr. d'Espagnat's big idea is that science can only probe so far into what is real, and there's a "veiled reality" that will always elude us.

Gary Sweeten

Jesus House Reunion

The Jesus House in Cincinnati held its reunion yesterday but I couldn't attend. Grand Kids here and that trumps everything else. Take a look at the blog put up by the Jesus House curator of memories, Terry Fisher to learn more.

The Jesus Revolution started in the late Sixties and expanded for about ten years as millions of people from all walks of life came to faith in Jesus. That was the beginning of The Fourth Great Awakening. According to Nobel Prize winning economist Robert Fogel, we are in the midst of a spiritual "Hinge of History" right now because the mature members of the Jesus Revolution are Seasoned Believer with the wisdom, wealth and wit to change the world. (See Fogel's book, The Fourth Great Awakening.)

It is God's timing for Seasoned Believers to rise up and make a difference in education, health care, business, art, music, foundations and politics. For example, my friends and I who were deeply touched by the Jesus Revolution have just begun a research study on ways to empower, support and educate parents of Special Needs Children.

This project has the potential to change the way we do health care. The system of health care is deeply flawed. Doctors, Mental Health Counselors and others in health care are hampered by Byzantine bureaucratic rules set down by local, state and Federal Governments as well as paranoid regulations by health insurance companies. For example, Doctors ignore the parents and extended families of sick children, and they are the experts in the care of such children.

Chairman Ow is dead set on nationalizing health care and infusing it with more bureaucracy and more rigid rules. We all know that the politicians who make these rules do not have to live under them because all Governmental Health Plans are exempt.

We who came to spiritual and emotional maturity in the Spirit must mobilize ourselves and be positive influences in our communities. Speak up!

Gary Sweeten

What is the Resurrection?

Have we been wrong all these years about the Resurrection and what it really means in scripture? NT Wright, the Bishop from England, says we are.

Bishop Wright goes on to suggest that it is tyrants and very secularistic, liberal theologians who love to plant seeds of wrong thinking about Resurrection in our minds. HMMMMMMMMMM! WOW!

You need to read the Bishop's interview in Christianity Today online.

Ministry for the Long Haul

While in Norway I was struck by the importance of continuing God's call for the long term. Maybe that is why Paul said that we ought not grow weary when we are doing good thing.

It takes a long time for the seeds to fall to the ground, get covered up, bloom and grow and then produce fruit of their own. It was over twenty years ago That I met Jens-Petter Jorgensen in Nairobi, Kenya. We became friends and he invited me to teach in Oslo at a Pastors' Conference in 1986.

Many of the people who came to our many teaching and equipping sessions have grown in maturity, insight and wisdom and God has placed them in positions of influence. They have grown and developed in new ways because of the Holy spirit not me. God brought healing and power to so many good people back in the Eighties that something good had to happen! It did because they are spread out all over the world doing good things for Jesus.

So, don't grow weary as you keep the flock of God covered with grace and power.

Gary Sweeten

Recession: What is God Up To?

Does God have a plan for the recession? I sure hope so because what I see coming from Washington, D.C. is not very comforting.

For most of the history of the world recession has been the constant and chronic situation. Well, not exactly recession but a full fledged DEPRESSION. It has only been in the recent past when Western Europe and the USA have been able to feed, clothe and house its citizens in a way that was safe, warm and adequate.

The Western or Christian World of Democracy is the first time in history that governments were concerned about providing a majority of its citizens with food, clothing and shelter. Slavery, poverty and rapacious leadership have been the order of the day. Thank God, with the rise of Christianity and Bible knowledge we have seen governments in the west act with some benevolence toward its citizens.

So, what is a godly plan now for our Western, Christianized leadership? I am not sure, but a the least we need to pray for our leaders and pray for Christians to respond to hurting folks in a compassionate and caring manner.

When we read the Bible it is clear that Christians lived under extremely difficult circumstances during those early days. It is also clear that other Christians, although in poverty themselves, sent financial relief to their brothers and sisters.

We in America are facing hard times but our brothers and sisters around the world are REALLY in trouble. So, what would God have us do? Step up our support for missions around the world. For example, Pastor Rich Femia just returned from Romania and I was in Russia last fall. Both countries had so very little even in prosperous times. Now the situation is critical. Older people are even starving.

Can we sit by in our beautiful houses and churches while brothers and sisters suffer? What should be our response