When the servant of the man of God got up and went out early the next morning, an army with horses and chariots had surrounded the city. "Oh, my lord, what shall we do?" the servant asked.
"Don't be afraid," the prophet answered. "Those who are with us are more than those who are with them."
And Elisha prayed, "O LORD, open his eyes so he may see." Then the LORD opened the servant's eyes, and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha. (2 Kings 6:15-17)
Over the past weeks, I’ve experienced some of the same emotions as Elisha’s servant must have felt in being surrounded by the enemy. Each time I've begun to feel overwhelmed, the Holy Spirit has faithfully reminded me to lift my eyes heavenward for a fresh glimpse of the Father's wondrous glory. In the light of His glory, all of my fears are dispelled.
Though an army besiege me, my heart will not fear; though war break out against me, even then will I be confident. (Psalm 27:3)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Saturday, March 25, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
gentle power
See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power,
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:10,11)
I love these two verses in Isaiah 40 because they so beautifully illustrate how two seemingly incompatible characteristics, gentleness and power, are perfectly united in the Father's loving heart. Over the past months, the Father has gently gathered me in His arms and carried me close to His heart while manifesting His power in the midst of some very painful circumstances. In my weakness, His power has truly been perfected. As David said, "Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness makes me great." (Psalm 18:35)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
and his arm rules for him.
See, his reward is with him,
and his recompense accompanies him.
He tends his flock like a shepherd:
He gathers the lambs in his arms
and carries them close to his heart;
he gently leads those that have young. (Isaiah 40:10,11)
I love these two verses in Isaiah 40 because they so beautifully illustrate how two seemingly incompatible characteristics, gentleness and power, are perfectly united in the Father's loving heart. Over the past months, the Father has gently gathered me in His arms and carried me close to His heart while manifesting His power in the midst of some very painful circumstances. In my weakness, His power has truly been perfected. As David said, "Your right hand upholds me, and Your gentleness makes me great." (Psalm 18:35)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Tuesday, March 07, 2006
passion hunger desire
Excerpts from an email I sent to a friend this week -
At the beginning of last week, three words started resonating in my spirit - "Passion, hunger, desire!" As I sought the Lord, I sensed that these words represented His heart longings over His bride. I also sensed that just as we love because He first loved us, we have passion, hunger, and desire for Him because He first has these longings for us. When we see and receive these heart longings from Him, we will in turn have them towards Him.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
At the beginning of last week, three words started resonating in my spirit - "Passion, hunger, desire!" As I sought the Lord, I sensed that these words represented His heart longings over His bride. I also sensed that just as we love because He first loved us, we have passion, hunger, and desire for Him because He first has these longings for us. When we see and receive these heart longings from Him, we will in turn have them towards Him.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Tuesday, February 28, 2006
tender kiss
Jesus, your tender kiss
- has ravished me
- has captured my heart
- has changed everything
Fantasy and reality have become One!
ravish: to fill with delight
capture: to attract and hold
change: to make different
"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!" (Song of Solomon 1:2)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
- has ravished me
- has captured my heart
- has changed everything
Fantasy and reality have become One!
ravish: to fill with delight
capture: to attract and hold
change: to make different
"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!" (Song of Solomon 1:2)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Monday, February 27, 2006
exhilarated
"Exhilarated: feeling God’s affection brings pleasure and exhilaration to our hearts. The inheritance of every believer in Christ, includes being exhilarated by feeling God’s affection and pleasure for us and in feeling it back for Him. We were created to delight in the feeling of being loved by God. Our spirit craves this. God desires to release this to us. We are too often content with a Christianity that is devoid of feeling, or a Christianity that is mostly an intellectual exercise and not a heart experience. He wants our hearts ravished because His heart is ravished. He feels such intense feelings towards us and desires that we have intense feelings for Him. We do not base our experience on feeling, but they do enhance our experience of Jesus. God is glorified in us when we are exhilarated with Him (His emotions, wisdom and power)."
- Mike Bickle, "Beholding God's Beauty - Encountering God's Personality"
Live free! Live in Father's love!
- Mike Bickle, "Beholding God's Beauty - Encountering God's Personality"
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Monday, February 13, 2006
immeasurable
Excerpts from an email I sent to a friend today -
This thought keeps coming to me - "I don't even begin to grasp the full grandeur of who He is." I have a very dim glimpse. When He pulls back the veil of our human frailty and gives us the smallest little peek into who He is, we'll be blown away. He's just so enormous and expansive in who He is that He completely swallows up everything. We can't even begin to imagine because we have no reference point with which to adequately compare Him or measure Him.
And yet, this infinite, immeasurable God is my Father - the one who loves me intimately and delights in every part of me. I, Lindsay, am His constant joy and delight, and He is mine! This is simply too good to be true - it's the fantasy of all fantasies, the epic of all epics. Such knowledge is truly too great for me! And yet He continually confirms the reality of it all by the sweetness of His presence within.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
This thought keeps coming to me - "I don't even begin to grasp the full grandeur of who He is." I have a very dim glimpse. When He pulls back the veil of our human frailty and gives us the smallest little peek into who He is, we'll be blown away. He's just so enormous and expansive in who He is that He completely swallows up everything. We can't even begin to imagine because we have no reference point with which to adequately compare Him or measure Him.
And yet, this infinite, immeasurable God is my Father - the one who loves me intimately and delights in every part of me. I, Lindsay, am His constant joy and delight, and He is mine! This is simply too good to be true - it's the fantasy of all fantasies, the epic of all epics. Such knowledge is truly too great for me! And yet He continually confirms the reality of it all by the sweetness of His presence within.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Saturday, February 04, 2006
his hands
Excerpts from an email I sent to a friend today -
Your words really cause me to pause, reflect and look at my heart. The first thought that popped into my head was "Wow, this doesn't even feel like 'discipline' anymore!" As I think about that thought, I have to believe that the Holy Spirit has dropped "a gift of faith" into my heart that gives me the grace to see all of this from the Father's perspective. There are two overriding convictions that have continued to light my way over the past several weeks - 1. the Father is going to be glorified in a truly awesome way, 2. the path I am on is the result of the Father's intense love and delight in me.
I can't even begin to describe the joy and exhilaration I'm experiencing. Sometimes I almost begin to feel guilty about how good I feel inside, and then the Father gently encourages me not to underestimate the power of His love and comfort. Yes, there is still sadness when I think about the reality of a failed marriage and its potential impact on my children, but then the Father comes in and gently asks me to continue to trust Him and release it all into His loving hands.
Whatever "theology" I had before this all happened has been completely blown away by the events of the past seven months. It's almost as if I never really "knew" the Father as He truly is. Of course our knowledge of Him is unfolding and progressive, but I believe there are watershed events in our lives that take our understanding of Him to a completely different level. I don't know that there's anything we can "do" to make it happen. It's all about His timing and purpose.
I ultimately see the events of the past seven months (and my whole life, as well) as the result of His indescribable, unfailing love for me. I am not a victim of anyone or anything. The Father has a very specific and unique destiny for me, and each moment He is gently guiding me into its fulfillment. Nothing comes into my life that He doesn't work out in accordance with the dream and destiny He has for me. To "fight back" against anyone or anything would be to hinder His purpose.
"Staying under the knife" sounds kind of scary, but painful though it may be, the knife is ultimately an instrument of love in the hands of an incredibly skilled and gentle Physician. Pain has become my friend in the sense that it serves to open up my heart to receive a greater revelation of the Father's love, comfort, tenderness, and mercy.
As I look to the future, I am filled with tremendous hope and excitement. In some ways, I feel like I am just beginning to live. This moment-by-moment heart knowledge of the Father's love and delight in me simply changes everything. Life for me has become an incredible journey into the unfathomable depths of the Father's heart, filled with adventure at every turn! Knowing that He holds me gently in His hands releases me to run into His purpose with unbridled joy and wild abandon.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Your words really cause me to pause, reflect and look at my heart. The first thought that popped into my head was "Wow, this doesn't even feel like 'discipline' anymore!" As I think about that thought, I have to believe that the Holy Spirit has dropped "a gift of faith" into my heart that gives me the grace to see all of this from the Father's perspective. There are two overriding convictions that have continued to light my way over the past several weeks - 1. the Father is going to be glorified in a truly awesome way, 2. the path I am on is the result of the Father's intense love and delight in me.
I can't even begin to describe the joy and exhilaration I'm experiencing. Sometimes I almost begin to feel guilty about how good I feel inside, and then the Father gently encourages me not to underestimate the power of His love and comfort. Yes, there is still sadness when I think about the reality of a failed marriage and its potential impact on my children, but then the Father comes in and gently asks me to continue to trust Him and release it all into His loving hands.
Whatever "theology" I had before this all happened has been completely blown away by the events of the past seven months. It's almost as if I never really "knew" the Father as He truly is. Of course our knowledge of Him is unfolding and progressive, but I believe there are watershed events in our lives that take our understanding of Him to a completely different level. I don't know that there's anything we can "do" to make it happen. It's all about His timing and purpose.
I ultimately see the events of the past seven months (and my whole life, as well) as the result of His indescribable, unfailing love for me. I am not a victim of anyone or anything. The Father has a very specific and unique destiny for me, and each moment He is gently guiding me into its fulfillment. Nothing comes into my life that He doesn't work out in accordance with the dream and destiny He has for me. To "fight back" against anyone or anything would be to hinder His purpose.
"Staying under the knife" sounds kind of scary, but painful though it may be, the knife is ultimately an instrument of love in the hands of an incredibly skilled and gentle Physician. Pain has become my friend in the sense that it serves to open up my heart to receive a greater revelation of the Father's love, comfort, tenderness, and mercy.
As I look to the future, I am filled with tremendous hope and excitement. In some ways, I feel like I am just beginning to live. This moment-by-moment heart knowledge of the Father's love and delight in me simply changes everything. Life for me has become an incredible journey into the unfathomable depths of the Father's heart, filled with adventure at every turn! Knowing that He holds me gently in His hands releases me to run into His purpose with unbridled joy and wild abandon.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Thursday, January 19, 2006
my confession
Excerpts from an email I sent to a good friend today -
Your statement - "Life will be harder in the coming days" - was a good "heart check" for me. In the past, a statement like that would definitely have given rise to fear, apprehension, and speculation, but due in large part to what I've experienced over the past 6+ months, that statement is now cause for excitement, anticipation, and expectation over the wonderfully creative ways in which the Father will continue to reveal His infinite love to me. By the grace of my Daddy, the deepest, most devastating pain in my life has resulted in the deepest and most wonderful revelation of who He is and the depth of His feeling for me as His special child.
As a result of what I have been through thus far, I feel like I have a completely different relationship with my Daddy. I feel like I see His heart and feelings for me as never before. I have never experienced the degree of "inner freedom" that I am now experiencing thanks to the work of His Holy Spirit in me. The crushing, the breaking, the burning have all been by His hand - motivated by His deep love for me - so that I may truly know Him and His love for me in a fuller, richer, deeper way.
I know that great tests lie before me, but I am also more convinced than ever before that I am so securely in my Father's hands and that no one or no thing can snatch me away or separate me from His wondrous love. Strip everything in my life away, and I still have Him. And having Him, I am the richest, wealthiest man alive. Every other consideration pales in comparison to Him.
A year ago, a brother at Lancaster House of Prayer prophesied that I would be going through the refiner's fire in preparation for God's future purpose in my life. That word rang true then and it has certainly played out in my life over the past 12 months. I know there is more refining ahead, but having gone through the past 12 months and having seen and felt the Father's incredible gentleness, tenderness, mercy, compassion, and nearness, I have a different perspective.
Come what may, I know that I am in the Father and He is in me. Knowing the depth of His love for me and delight in me, I am not afraid of what the future holds, because I know who holds me. The coming fires, trials, challenges, and difficulties will only serve to bring me closer and nearer to the One whom I love the most and want the most - my loving Daddy.
So...in many ways, "harder is better" because it only serves to deepen the most wondrous love relationship I have ever experienced in my life. When I am weak, He truly is strong - STRONG in love, strong in compassion, strong in tenderness, strong in gentleness, strong in mercy, strong in passion, strong in comfort, strong in nearness. Wow! "I can only imagine...."
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Your statement - "Life will be harder in the coming days" - was a good "heart check" for me. In the past, a statement like that would definitely have given rise to fear, apprehension, and speculation, but due in large part to what I've experienced over the past 6+ months, that statement is now cause for excitement, anticipation, and expectation over the wonderfully creative ways in which the Father will continue to reveal His infinite love to me. By the grace of my Daddy, the deepest, most devastating pain in my life has resulted in the deepest and most wonderful revelation of who He is and the depth of His feeling for me as His special child.
As a result of what I have been through thus far, I feel like I have a completely different relationship with my Daddy. I feel like I see His heart and feelings for me as never before. I have never experienced the degree of "inner freedom" that I am now experiencing thanks to the work of His Holy Spirit in me. The crushing, the breaking, the burning have all been by His hand - motivated by His deep love for me - so that I may truly know Him and His love for me in a fuller, richer, deeper way.
I know that great tests lie before me, but I am also more convinced than ever before that I am so securely in my Father's hands and that no one or no thing can snatch me away or separate me from His wondrous love. Strip everything in my life away, and I still have Him. And having Him, I am the richest, wealthiest man alive. Every other consideration pales in comparison to Him.
A year ago, a brother at Lancaster House of Prayer prophesied that I would be going through the refiner's fire in preparation for God's future purpose in my life. That word rang true then and it has certainly played out in my life over the past 12 months. I know there is more refining ahead, but having gone through the past 12 months and having seen and felt the Father's incredible gentleness, tenderness, mercy, compassion, and nearness, I have a different perspective.
Come what may, I know that I am in the Father and He is in me. Knowing the depth of His love for me and delight in me, I am not afraid of what the future holds, because I know who holds me. The coming fires, trials, challenges, and difficulties will only serve to bring me closer and nearer to the One whom I love the most and want the most - my loving Daddy.
So...in many ways, "harder is better" because it only serves to deepen the most wondrous love relationship I have ever experienced in my life. When I am weak, He truly is strong - STRONG in love, strong in compassion, strong in tenderness, strong in gentleness, strong in mercy, strong in passion, strong in comfort, strong in nearness. Wow! "I can only imagine...."
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Tuesday, August 16, 2005
heartsoft
Here's a poem I wrote earlier this month that voices the continual cry of my heart over the past several weeks -
heartsoft
Keep my heart soft
Tender and warm
To live and feel
With a heart that's alive
To love and cherish
With a heart that's true
To hope and dream
With a heart that's full
Don't let the arrows
Harden and chill
Keep my heart soft
Tender and warm
- Lindsay
Live free! Live in Father's love!
heartsoft
Keep my heart soft
Tender and warm
To live and feel
With a heart that's alive
To love and cherish
With a heart that's true
To hope and dream
With a heart that's full
Don't let the arrows
Harden and chill
Keep my heart soft
Tender and warm
- Lindsay
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Tuesday, August 09, 2005
healing pain
Here's a poem I wrote last week that describes my spiritual journey over the past 40 days -
healing pain
The arrows pierced
To the core of my being
The pain struck
A distant part of my heart
The pain revealed
A darkened corner of my soul
The pain awakened
A desire long abandoned
The pain offered
A chance to feel again
The pain opened
A pathway to healing
The pain invited me
To love again
- Lindsay
Live free! Live in Father's love!
healing pain
The arrows pierced
To the core of my being
The pain struck
A distant part of my heart
The pain revealed
A darkened corner of my soul
The pain awakened
A desire long abandoned
The pain offered
A chance to feel again
The pain opened
A pathway to healing
The pain invited me
To love again
- Lindsay
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
intuition
"The older one becomes in the Lord the more intuitive one becomes. Everything is not cut and dry. With a clear word from God or supernatural sensation we advance with boldness, but when it is a still small voice or conscience or an impression or no guidance whatsoever, we will be less impulsive and more deliberate with each step. We will wait upon the Lord longer. We will be less confident in ourselves, and more dependent on the Lord. This dependency breeds humility. We eventually learn that we cannot reduce God to a formula, and we can never be certain where or how He may be speaking to us in a particular situation. We learn to look for faint traces of Spirit in common, ordinary vessels and in our daily lives, instead of the mighty rushing wind at the believer's meetings."
- Chip Brogden, Can You Hear What The Spirit Is Saying?
Live free! Live in Father's love!
- Chip Brogden, Can You Hear What The Spirit Is Saying?
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Saturday, March 12, 2005
entrusting
Over the past several weeks, my world has been rocked and my faith has been challenged in ways that I never could have imagined even three months ago. Issues related to family and faith have brought me to the end of myself and caused me to cry out to the Father for deliverance.
At times the inward pain has almost been unbearable, but in my darkest moments the Father's mercy and grace have shone brightly. One of His redemptive purposes in allowing me to go through the fire has been to reveal anew that His mercies are new every morning and that His grace is sufficient for me. Without His mercy and grace to sustain me, I'd be wasting away in hopelessness and despair.
I've been reminded of David's words in Psalm 51:17 - "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." As I've seen how my hardness of heart has affected my wife and children, I've been broken. In the midst of my brokenness, two portions of Scripture have been a tremendous source of peace and encouragement:
"while suffering, He (Jesus) uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:23)
"let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right" (1 Peter 4:19)
Even now, the Father continues to say, "Entrust yourself, your wife, and your children to Me. Release yourself and your family into My lovingkindness and faithfulness."
Live free! Live in Father's love!
At times the inward pain has almost been unbearable, but in my darkest moments the Father's mercy and grace have shone brightly. One of His redemptive purposes in allowing me to go through the fire has been to reveal anew that His mercies are new every morning and that His grace is sufficient for me. Without His mercy and grace to sustain me, I'd be wasting away in hopelessness and despair.
I've been reminded of David's words in Psalm 51:17 - "A broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise." As I've seen how my hardness of heart has affected my wife and children, I've been broken. In the midst of my brokenness, two portions of Scripture have been a tremendous source of peace and encouragement:
"while suffering, He (Jesus) uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously" (1 Peter 2:23)
"let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right" (1 Peter 4:19)
Even now, the Father continues to say, "Entrust yourself, your wife, and your children to Me. Release yourself and your family into My lovingkindness and faithfulness."
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
living loved
The freedom to live loved comes from a heart-felt appreciation of these realities:
* You have a Father who loves you more than any other human being on this planet ever has or ever will.
* Nothing you can do today will make God love you any more, and nothing you can do today will make God love you any less.
* God is not disillusioned with you because he had no illusions about you to begin with.
* Because shame, guilt and condemnation have no role in helping you live in God’s life, he has removed them in Christ and does not manage them for your growth.
* He wants to make himself known to you daily and teach you how to recognize and follow his voice.
- Wayne Jacobsen, Living Loved.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
* You have a Father who loves you more than any other human being on this planet ever has or ever will.
* Nothing you can do today will make God love you any more, and nothing you can do today will make God love you any less.
* God is not disillusioned with you because he had no illusions about you to begin with.
* Because shame, guilt and condemnation have no role in helping you live in God’s life, he has removed them in Christ and does not manage them for your growth.
* He wants to make himself known to you daily and teach you how to recognize and follow his voice.
- Wayne Jacobsen, Living Loved.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Saturday, March 05, 2005
the doorway
"The doorway into the Father's love begins at the cross. Seeing what Father and Son accomplished together in that climactic moment defines love in a way that you can only experience in him. This is the love that will allow you to feel perfectly safe in the Father's presence. It frees you to be exactly who you are, weaknesses and all, and never again have to pretend before him.
"Then you will discover that life in God rises out of your security in his love, not your insecurity that you don't love him enough."
- Wayne Jacobsen, He Loves Me!, p 89.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
"Then you will discover that life in God rises out of your security in his love, not your insecurity that you don't love him enough."
- Wayne Jacobsen, He Loves Me!, p 89.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Thursday, February 24, 2005
kiss me
Lord Jesus, I need your tender kiss.
"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine.
"Your oils have a pleasing fragrance,
Your name is like purified oil;
Therefore the maidens love you.
"Draw me after you and let us run together!
The king has brought me into his chambers."
- The Song of Solomon 1:2-4
Live free! Live in Father's love!
"May he kiss me with the kisses of his mouth!
For your love is better than wine.
"Your oils have a pleasing fragrance,
Your name is like purified oil;
Therefore the maidens love you.
"Draw me after you and let us run together!
The king has brought me into his chambers."
- The Song of Solomon 1:2-4
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Monday, January 24, 2005
father bursting
"This is the best of good news: God loves us for ourselves. He values our love more than He values galaxies of new created worlds. He remembers our frame and knows that we are dust.
"The God we love may sometimes chasten us, it is true. But even this He does with a smile - the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is.
"We should revel in the joy of believing that God is the sum of all patience and the true essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and believing that He understands everything - and loves us still."
- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p 29.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
"The God we love may sometimes chasten us, it is true. But even this He does with a smile - the proud, tender smile of a Father who is bursting with pleasure over an imperfect but promising son who is coming every day to look more and more like the One whose child he is.
"We should revel in the joy of believing that God is the sum of all patience and the true essence of kindly good will. We please Him most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms with all our imperfections and believing that He understands everything - and loves us still."
- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p 29.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Saturday, January 22, 2005
breathless adoration
"There is the point of reality where we begin our fellowship and friendship and communion with God. But where we stop no man has yet discovered, for there is in the mysterious depths of the Triune God neither limit nor end.
"When we come into this sweet relationship, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.
"You may never have realized it before, but all of those elements in our perception and consciousness of the divine Presence add up to what the Bible calls 'the fear of God.'
"What we need to plainly recognize is that the fear of God the Bible commends can never be induced by threats or punishment of any kind."
- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p 30.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
"When we come into this sweet relationship, we are beginning to learn astonished reverence, breathless adoration, awesome fascination, lofty admiration of the attributes of God and something of the breathless silence that we know when God is near.
"You may never have realized it before, but all of those elements in our perception and consciousness of the divine Presence add up to what the Bible calls 'the fear of God.'
"What we need to plainly recognize is that the fear of God the Bible commends can never be induced by threats or punishment of any kind."
- A.W. Tozer, Whatever Happened to Worship?, p 30.
Live free! Live in Father's love!
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
islam
"Since the horrendous events of September 11, 2001, anti-Muslim attitudes have increased among most Americans. Within the Christian community, prominent spokespersons have used inflammatory remarks to feed negativism toward Islam. One television evangelist has called Islam an 'evil religion.' Another of America's best-known evangelists has gone on record declaring Islam to be wicked.
"Christian missionaries serving in Islamic countries find themselves increasingly threatened by Muslims who react to such accusations by viewing these missionaries as people who despise them. It is no surprise that in some places, Muslim extremists have physically attacked and even killed missionaries.
"On simply pragmatic grounds, we have to ask what good we accomplish with such inflammatory rhetoric. And we have to ask if those outspoken Christian leaders who claim to be committed to winning Muslims to Christ have given any consideration to the possibility that their accusations might make Muslims even more resistant to the Christian gospel.
"At just about every missionary conference I attend, the speakers talk about the need to evangelize those who live within 'the 10/40 window.' This is a reference to that part of the world between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator, which covers North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
"What evangelicals have to recognize is that the majority of the people who live within that 10/40 window are Muslims. And if we really want to evangelize them, we had better find ways to show love to them rather than wage war against them. To that end, we must critique our rhetoric about Muslims, study who they are and what they believe, and seek out common ground for a creative dialogue in which we can tell them about Jesus and His salvation."
- Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind, pp 138-141.
...God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.... (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.... (Ephesians 6:12)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
"Christian missionaries serving in Islamic countries find themselves increasingly threatened by Muslims who react to such accusations by viewing these missionaries as people who despise them. It is no surprise that in some places, Muslim extremists have physically attacked and even killed missionaries.
"On simply pragmatic grounds, we have to ask what good we accomplish with such inflammatory rhetoric. And we have to ask if those outspoken Christian leaders who claim to be committed to winning Muslims to Christ have given any consideration to the possibility that their accusations might make Muslims even more resistant to the Christian gospel.
"At just about every missionary conference I attend, the speakers talk about the need to evangelize those who live within 'the 10/40 window.' This is a reference to that part of the world between 10 degrees and 40 degrees north of the equator, which covers North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.
"What evangelicals have to recognize is that the majority of the people who live within that 10/40 window are Muslims. And if we really want to evangelize them, we had better find ways to show love to them rather than wage war against them. To that end, we must critique our rhetoric about Muslims, study who they are and what they believe, and seek out common ground for a creative dialogue in which we can tell them about Jesus and His salvation."
- Tony Campolo, Speaking My Mind, pp 138-141.
...God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all.... (1 Timothy 2:3-6)
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood.... (Ephesians 6:12)
Live free! Live in Father's love!
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