URGENT PRAYERS/PETITIONS:
Same -Sex "Marriage"- PLEASE PRAY WITH ME (every day untill the decision is revealed around mid-June) THAT THE SUPREME COURT WILL VOTE TO UPHOLD THE 2 LAWS REVIEWED SUPPORTING A TRADITIONAL DEFINITION OF MARRIAGE.. PRAY that the Court will resist any pressure to MAKE new law based on "cultural trends." PRAY as though the very future of the institution of the family is at stake because it is. PRAY! - for the sake of possibly millions of children, and for our country if it is to continue to be shown any more favor by our Heavenly Father, who I promise you will be very displeased if homosexual marriage is legalized; "GOD IS NOT [TO BE] MOCKED..." - (Gal. 6:7) - Stan [Be sure to check out my brief essay at post #478.]
CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR PASTOR SAEED (Iranian-born AMERICAN pastor who just started an 8 year sentence for helping the underground churches in Iran) [See 3/25 update below!] If you have not already, please join over 500,000 (was recently250,000) who have signed the petition for Pastor Saeed's release and tell your friends about it. http://aclj.org/iran/save-american-pastor-from-iranian-prison-sentence
As the Lord leads, please pray: *For Pastor Abedini as he endures one of Iran’s most deadly prisons, potentially beaten and abused regularly, simply because of his Christian faith. *For the pastor’s wife and family and the Holy Spirit’s comfort upon them. * For God to visit his tormenters and all in his cell with him with supernatural dreams of the risen Christ, and use the pastor's actions and words to draw them to repent and turn to Christ; that God would use the pastor's time in that prison to spark a genuine spiritual revival that will bring scores of Iranians to Christ..*For the U.S. State Department to get involved in a significant way to obtain the pastor’s release.
April 9 - 1) It's been reported that even though Pastor Saeed has developed internal bleeding from months of beating by prison guards, he has been denied medical attention. (http://www.cbn.com/cbnnews/world/2013/April/Iran-Denies-Pastor-Saeed-Medical-Treatment/) PRAY that Pastor Saeed might finally receive the medical treatment he needs. 2) More than 550,000 people from 180 countries have signed the petition to Save Saeed. Your voice has moved the U.S., the European Union, and many others to call for his release. But as Pastor Saeed's May 7th 33rd birthday approaches, it's time to encourage him directly. At the ACLJ, they've obtained the address of Evin Prison, and their goal is to flood the prison with thousands of messages of encouragement for Pastor Saeed. Just write a letter (or simply sign your name to one proposed greeting) and they will be sure that its delivered. These messages will let Pastor Saeed know that we're praying for him and his release, as well as send a signal to the Iranian leaders that Americans will not give up standing up for him. Go to Save Saeed.org and add your name to those sending letters to him.
REMINDER: "Truth That Transforms" broadcast - (Cen. FL - Sun., 5 pm, ch. 55.1; Mon. 7 pm. ch. 52.2; www.truthinaction.org) As America notes 100 years of the Federal Income Tax, this week’s episode includes another special video about “Government Overreach.” Don’t miss another great broadcast!
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"Putting Our Strength at God's Disposal - The Legacy of Dietrich Bonhoeffer,"
Last July, at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, twelve young people were senselessly murdered by a gunman named James Holmes. Of all the things that have been said about this tragic event, what struck me most was that in three cases, young men died protecting their girlfriends from the madman's bullets.
What led them to risk their lives for these young women? And what does their sacrifice say about manhood?
In these three young men, we have a picture of strength expressed as love. They used their strength to protect those more vulnerable than themselves.
My newest book, Seven Men and the Secret of their Greatness, is about men who—like those three brave men in Aurora—understood that at the heart of what it is to be a man is selflessness. One of those men was German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who died 68 years ago tomorrow [4/9] at the age of 39. I first heard of Bonhoeffer the summer I turned twenty-five when a friend gave me a copy of his book, The Cost of Discipleship.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born in 1906 into a highly educated Lutheran family. His father, Karl, taught his children the importance of thinking clearly and logically, and the Bonhoeffer children were also taught to act on what they believed. As I write, “From an early age… Dietrich understood that ideas were never mere ideas but the foundations upon which one built one's actions and ultimately one's life. Ideas and beliefs must be tried and tested because one's life might depend on them.” While he applied this to his personal life, it was only after becoming a theologian that he had an epiphany that changed everything.
During a visit to the United States, he attended the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem. There, among the poor, black congregants, Bonhoeffer “witnessed something ...more palpable and visceral than anything he had seen in a church before.” The pastor “exhorted his hearers not just to have a genuine relationship with Jesus, but also to translate that into action in their lives,” such as caring for the poor and working for civil rights. “For perhaps the first time in his life, Bonhoeffer seemed to link the idea of having deep faith in Jesus with taking political and social action.”
It was this idea that led Bonhoeffer to publicly criticize the growing oppression of the Jews when he returned to Germany. It was this idea that led Bonhoeffer to try to awaken Christians to the danger of the Nazified state “church” established by Adolf Hitler. It was this idea that led him to leave the safety of America in 1939 in order to go back to Germany to be with his people through the dangers of war. And it was this idea that drew Bonhoeffer into a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler—an action that ultimately led to his death on the gallows just three weeks before the war ended in Europe. He went to his death with the peace of God, knowing that obeying God—even unto death—was the only way to live.
Today we’re witnessing increasing attacks on Christians for speaking out against another great social evil: so-called same-sex “marriage.” In order to understand the cost of such battles, we ought to heed the witness of those who’ve gone before us—especially of a young German theologian who put his heart and soul into fighting against the social evils of his day—at the cost of his life.
If you know young men who could benefit from examples of heroic manhood, I hope you'll consider giving them copies of my book, Seven Men and the Secret of their Greatness. You can find out how to get it at BreakPoint.org.Through the lives of these men, they'll learn that true manhood means putting one's greatest strength at God's disposal.
Further Reading and Information
Putting Our Strength at God's Disposal - Next StepsTrue courage is a virtue we admire, but it often comes with a cost. Loving the world enough to stand up to the social evils of the day, as Bonhoeffer did, demonstrates the courage we should exhibit in our own lives. The resources below will give you examples of how others have faced challenges in loving courageously.Be prepared and encouraged to stand in the gap for your family, your community, and your world, even when faced with hatred or rejection. As Jesus said in Matthew 5:10-12, we are to rejoice even when persecuted for righteousness’ sake.
Find out more about Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the other six men who’ve changed the world by buying Eric Metaxas’s book, "Seven Men and the Secret of Their Greatness" at the Colson Center Bookstore. You might consider reading the stories to your family, or even buying an extra copy for a friend.
Books: Seven Men and the Secret of Their Greatness-Eric Metaxas | Thomas Nelson | April 2013
Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy - Eric Metaxas | Thomas Nelson | August 2011The Cost of Discipleship - Dietrich Bonhoeffer, G. K. A. Bell | Touchstone Books | September 1995
Articles: Dark Knight Rises' shooting: Three heroes died in Aurora taking bullets for their girlfriends;Judith Crosson, Kerry Wills, Bill Hutchinson | New York Daily News | July 21, 2012; http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/aurora-shoohttp
Willing to Be Hated? - T. M. Moore | BreakPoint.org | March 25, 2013; ://www.breakpoint.org/the-center/columns/worldview/19461-willing-to-be-hated-ting-died-bullets-sweeties-article-1.1119395
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