Dear One,
This week we are sending four ambassadors of peace, peacemakers, to visit the president of one of the warring countries in Africa to tell him to stop the fighting. This is the same conflict where one of our school directors was senselessly murdered by one of the Congolese M23 rebels recently. But our peace initiative was already working before we heard of the murder as the Spirit of God had moved in our hearts. Please pray for our four guys, all strong, Spirit filled ones, and the president as they seek to impose the will of Heaven on the affairs of nations. Amen.
Love you! KRP
FIGHT! FIGHT!! FIGHT!!!
“We must through many tribulations (Grk. THLIPSIS) enter the kingdom of God.” Acts 14:22 NKJV
I was first attracted to biblical Christianity by the idea of a ‘more abundant life’ (Jn 10:10) as a very young man. I had been born again and was a nominal Christian as I was raised in the Roman Catholic traditions. I kept track of how many times I prayed the Rosary and had over three hundred fifty years off my time in ‘purgatory.’ I was once told by a Catholic priest that I could have gone to hell for eating a hotdog on Friday as a Cub Scout (true story!). I was an altar boy and learned the Latin Tridentine mass liturgy. I was zealous for God but not according to truth. So, when someone shared something from the Bible about the more abundant life, I wanted to know more. I didn’t realize I was getting into the fight of my life!
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world…Rom 12:1-2 NKJV
Why fight? If I know I have eternal life as a gift, if I know that I am NOT fighting for my salvation like in Roman Catholic orthodoxy, then why not just muddle along with everyone else? In a word – love. We love our brothers and sisters, so we get involved in their battles, and they get involved in ours…we fight. We love the unsaved, knowing that but for the grace of God we would be with them. We fight. We are IMPROVING in our ability to raise the dead. We are IMPROVING in our ability to alleviate suffering through healing, we are IMPROVING our ability to help the immediate and general condition of others, because we fight, and because we love.
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. Eph 6:13 NKJV
Our most basic fight is against the lethargy of conformity to the world. I was watching a basketball game the other night where the TV guys kept talking about the ‘gravity pull’ of certain offensive players who would draw off defenders as they moved on offense without the ball, opening opportunities for other players to score. The gravity pull of the influences of the world even through our own family members, friends and fellow workers can keep us conformed to the mediocrities of sin in the world. Sometimes you just have to stand alone!
Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Acts 8:14-15 NKJV
I see this even with pastors that I try to convince to get their people filled with the gifts of the Spirit. They get a look of horror on their faces, saying in effect, ‘We don’t want to upset the applecart! Apples may go flying in all different directions!’ Conformity is a powerful strategy of the enemy to paralyze Christians. See how it worked during the planned pandemic, as the world shut down over a minor respiratory virus…without one person on earth voting for the shutdowns!
…yet he has no root in himself but endures only for a while. For when tribulation (Grk. THLIPSIS) or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles (Grk. SKANDALIZO). Matt 13:21 NKJV
This was a rough week. One thing after another failed, or I was rejected, or things were cancelled. Finally last night I just went to the Lord and told Him about everything. Today I received encouraging words one after another even to the point, as I was running up and down a hill, of a total stranger pulling up next to me and telling me I was doing great and to ‘finish strong.’ Yeah, I received that! THLIPSIS is mental pressure that causes us to be scandalized or offended. The enemy organizes attacks to destroy our cohesion and love and limit our ability to walk outside the conformity of the world.
This you know, that all those in Asia have turned away from me, among whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes. 2 Tim 1:15-16 NKJV
This is what happened to Paul. Paul was in a fight. We think, “Gosh, if I could just have walked with the great apostle Paul, I would be his greatest disciple.” No…probably not. Paul was rejected by the very people he won to the Lord. What city was in Asia? Ephesus! The great Ephesian church under the leadership at least at one point of his great spiritual son Timothy had turned away from their spiritual father. This ended the influence of Pauline theology and opened the door for Jewish legal cults and mystic cults like the Gnostics, and later the Roman deity cults that led to the twelve hundred years of spiritual darkness we call the dark ages. Yeah, all that happened because the Church rejected Paul!
Decisions have consequences, and effects that extend far beyond your lifetime. This is why we fight for what is right, and we make our decisions, not based on money, or anything else, other than what is right, what is the best in the Lord’s sight. If you make decisions based on money – ‘we can’t tithe because we can’t afford to’ – you will usually be wrong. But if you base your decision on what is right with wisdom, money and all the attendant blessings will be there…abundantly.
…but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Rom 12:2 NKJV
What I’ve noticed is that if we treated our bodies like we treat our souls we would be as thin as sticks physically. Just an educated guess, but I would say that 95-98% of the mental, emotional and faith problems we have is because we don’t feed our souls with the word of God daily. Instead, we starve our souls. In other words, we could have happier lives, happier marriages, happier relationships in all categories of life if we would fill our souls with the word of God daily. I’m telling you, if you want to overcome THLIPSIS and not be offended or scandalized, this is the key right here.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly…Col 3:16 NKJV
Let me close with my friend C. H. Spurgeon and what he wrote in todays devotional that so touched my heart (as I try to teach my students, if you want people to be blessed by your words one hundred and fifty years from now, learn to speak, write and communicate by the spirit of God). Here is Spurgeon…
“We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.”
— Acts 14:22
God’s people have their trials. It was never designed by God, when He chose His people, that they should be an untried people. They were chosen in the furnace of affliction; they were never chosen to worldly peace and earthly joy. Freedom from sickness and the pains of mortality was never promised them; but when their Lord drew up the charter of privileges, He included chastisements amongst the things to which they should inevitably be heirs. Trials are a part of our lot; they were predestinated for us in Christ’s last legacy. So surely as the stars are fashioned by his hands, and their orbits fixed by Him, so surely are our trials allotted to us: He has ordained their season and their place, their intensity and the effect they shall have upon us. Good men must never expect to escape troubles; if they do, they will be disappointed, for none of their predecessors have been without them. Mark the patience of Job; remember Abraham, for he had his trials, and by his faith under them, he became the “Father of the faithful.” Note well the biographies of all the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and you shall discover none of those whom God made vessels of mercy, who were not made to pass through the fire of affliction. It is ordained of old that the cross of trouble should be engraved on every vessel of mercy, as the royal mark whereby the King’s vessels of honour are distinguished. But although tribulation is thus the path of God’s children, they have the comfort of knowing that their Master has traversed it before them; they have His presence and sympathy to cheer them, His grace to support them, and His example to teach them how to endure; and when they reach “the kingdom,” it will more than make amends for the “much tribulation” through which they passed to enter it.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Don’t quit. Don’t give in. As our wonderful President Trump said in Butler PA last July, as an assassin’s bullets tried to take his life – talk about THLIPSIS! – and did take the life of another, “Fight, fight, fight!” Amen? Love you!
Remember dear ones, we must be about our Father’s business…
LIGHTBEARERS FAMILY NEWS
11000+ STUDENTS GRADUATE IN 2024
Our apostolic council in Africa is busy this year planting schools of ministry all over that great continent. We are seeing huge numbers of dear ones taught the Word and filled with the Spirit in these six-month schools in Africa, Europe and Asia. We have a plan to plant schools in all one hundred ninety-five nations, all over the world, by the end of 2030. To help support that goal we are developing a chicken farm in Kenya to help fund the ministry by selling large volumes of eggs. We need $30K more dollars to fund that project. My question to you is this – what would the Lord have you do to help us take ‘the word over the world’ by the end of 2030?
You can donate through the portal below or if you are in Africa and want to send local money, please send it to Collins in Uganda at +256705457848. Thank you!