Roundup-1/21/10

Mark Rogers writes of doing missions when death is on the line.


The kind of Christian who gets offended when a clerk at Target says “happy holidays” rather than “merry Christmas” when checking out, probably won’t consider moving to a city where Christians are gunned down on Christmas Eve or shot at a wedding. Yet that is exactly what needs to happen. Algeria is 99% Muslim and 99% of the ethnic Malay people are Muslim. Their constitution declares that to be a Malay you must be Muslim. If the Malay, or the Algerian, or the Yemeni, or the Moroccan people are going to believe, thousands of believers need to leave their culture and enter these places with the gospel. Those who go must be prepared to be slighted, to be looted, to be hated, and even to be killed.


I have often pondered how I would fare up under such circumstances. Christians around the world die daily for the cause of their faith. In fact, we are told we will be persecuted for our faith, it should not be a surprise to us. As Rogers points out, hearing "happy holidays" is not persecution. May God raise up people to preach his word throughout the globe.

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Michael Patton, in Parchment and Pen, provides an interesting contrast between the story of David and Goliath and the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. David had absolute faith that he would overcome Goliath; the 3 boys did not know the outcome, but trusted God anyway.

Patton writes, "Remember, God has made a lot of promises, but there are also a lot of promises that he has not made. Don’t read promises into Scripture. Try saying this next time Goliath is at your door, “If it be so, God can deliver me, but even if you strike me dead, I will not abandon my faith because I will not place my faith in something God has not promised. You may raise some eyebrows, but you will be representing truth much more faithfully."

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Another interesting Bible memorization website.

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Trevin Wax interacts with a commentator on his blog about proselytism. Basically, if we believe Christianity is objectively the only way to God, we should proselytize.

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John Acuff over at Stuff Christians Like wrote about Caring too much about Failure. He makes several great points, but his recommendations to learn to fail gloriously and "it's not about failure, it's about obedience" really struck a chord.