Here is a thought provoking post from Jason Engle, a close companion and brother in Jesus.

You up for the Challenge?

The following is a blog post from Brother Dave Black, my Greek professor and dear brother. Such concerns the immediate financial need of the Peniel Gospel Team in India for the building of a Christian School. The Peniel Gospel Team serves King Jesus through planting churches, training pastors and missionaries, operating free schools, operating a Missionary school, and an orphanage near the border of Bhutan, a "closed" country. Will you pray about supporting their endeavor to build a Christian school in NE India that is in desperate need of an ongoing gospel witness? Will you "Step Up to the Challenge to give?" You can access Dave's blog here.

9:10 AM Today's quote? "The work goes on."

As you know, God has appointed Becky and me to help the Peniel Gospel Team in the far northeast "neck" of India. This location is strategic. It is not in the southern region, where most believers reside, where most ministry investment is done, and where outreach has been done since (literally) the days of the Apostle Thomas.

No, the Peniel Gospel Team is working in a region that is untouched with the Gospel, and it is right next to the "closed" countries of Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh. This ministry was started by a pioneer, obedient man who left his comfortable home in south India. As the only believer in this region, he preached and preached and preached. Alone in the work for many years, God saw his faithfulness and has multiplied his work. Today the work of Peniel Gospel Team has 400 evangelists, 2 children's homes, a seminary, a low-income private school, and outreach to dozens of unreached mountain villages.

However, a big problem exists in the work: It is almost totally dependent upon gifts from USA. Why is this situation a problem?

• The government (Hindu-based) is suspicious of money coming from abroad
• The local community is suspicious of the work as being a "foreign" work
• The ministry budget is dependent upon the faithfulness and goodwill of Americans
• Fluctuating exchange rates, changing bank rules, and money transfer issues create challenges to financial stability.

God has appointed Becky and me to help the Peniel Gospel Team establish a large private (meaning, tuition-based) school that will generate the income needed to sustain this ministry for many decades to come.  There are many benefits to this plan:

• The community gains a benefit through education; this endears the work to them and opens their hearts to the Gospel
• The 2500 students coming daily to learn their A-B-Cs also have exposure to the Lord who loves them
• The ministry gains a stable income source for its outreaches; in fact, we expect that the vast majority of the needs for the evangelists, orphans, and seminary will be met through the school tuition income.

As we have been praying about this project (and it is a BIG project), God has brought a donor who is placing before our DBO readers and ministry partners a challenge to give to this need. Here are the facts about this challenge:

• For the first $10,000 given, there will be a 50% match. This means that if you give $500, the school will receive $750.
• For the next $10,000 given, there will be a 100% match. This means that if you give $1000, the school will receive $2,000.
• For the following $10,000 given, there will be a 150% match. This means that if you give $2,000, the school will receive $3,500.

The deadline for giving is Dec 31, 2013.

When you give, make your check payable to Bethel Hill Baptist Church, and write in the memo "India School Matching." Mail the check to Becky Black, 2691 White House Rd., Nelson, VA 24580. You will receive a tax-deductible receipt from Bethel Hill in Jan, 2014.

Caution: do not delay until we reach the 150% matching level; the need for funds is NOW.  If God is appointing you to help in this work, be among the first to "launch" the matching. The construction has already begun!

Resilience in the gospel

For a challenging and exhortative article on resilience in the Christian life that you will find most helpful go: here. The one who desires to live life to the glory of God, thus pleasing his/her Master, must be maintain a resilient heart.

James 1:27 & India

Here is an article post that describes how you and I can partner with the Peniel Gospel Team in relieving the fatherless and the widows in India for the furtherance of the gospel. Contact information as to how to invest in this gospel endeavor is in the article.

India Mission Endeavor

Here is a great article describing the mission endeavor of the Peniel Gospel Team in India. November 9th I, along with 5 others, will be traveling to India in order to serve side-by-side with them in the gospel. The Peniel Gospel Team is a church planting ministry which strives to be self-supporting in a low economy and Hinduistic culture. Would you pray about making a Kingdom investment detailed in this article? Would you pray about partnering with our team in November by supporting us financially or by beseeching God for His grace to be manifested through us while there?

If you wish to join the efforts to build a Christian school in a Hinduitstic culture, contact Dave and Becky Lynn Black @ dblack@sebts.edu

Overcoming SOME injustice through Adoption

            Kimberly and I have been convinced for nearly a year that adopting a child is one way to “Live out the Gospel” in a world that devalues life, primarily through abortion, but also through child neglect or abuse. Little prayer was needed in order to understand that believers must be involved in caring for the poor and the afflicted. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 140:12, “I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted and justice for the poor.” Children are amongst the most afflicted in our society as such pursues selfish endeavors by living out an individualistic, materialistic, and consumeristic philosophy of life. David Platt described our cultural landscape by stating that it is “marked by materialism, characterized by consumerism, and engulfed in individualism.” Abortion, Sex Trafficking, and Child abuse/neglect, among many, are injustices resulting from this ungodly philosophy of life. The love of Christ compels believers to wage war against such injustices that Christ might be magnified and glorified throughout the entire world.

            Such being said, followers of Jesus seek, like their Lord, to overcome the injustices of society by engaging in the warfare. As ambassadors of Christ and ministers of reconciliation, our dutiful pleasure involves participating in combating the injustices of the world through Gospel Living. How, you might ask, can we engage in this warfare? How can we take part, as the church, in overcoming the injustices of society? Prayer serves as our first line of defense; however, in praying, we must be willing to personally be engaged in the warfare. We must pursue Spirit led practical ways to combat the injustices. In doing so we represent the heart of our King by overcoming evil with good.

            One avenue of defense involves Christian families adopting abused and/or neglected children. James writes, “A religion that is pure and stainless in the sight of God the Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows in their suffering, and to keep oneself unstained by the world” (James 1:27). Adoption provides believers with an opportunity to manifest the beauty of the gospel as an “adoptive” gospel. The Scriptures describe children of God as being “predestined to adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5). God the Father adopted us into His family as an act of love and grace. Christian families adopting children reflect this God-like love and grace as they lavish their love on children who are not biologically their own.

            Kimberly and I, being convinced that adoption afforded us the opportunity to “Live out the Gospel,” thought it would be a few years before we began the adoption process; however, God in His sovereign plan knew otherwise. In recent days the opportunity has arisen for us to adopt two children ages five and two. Michael (5) and Abby (2) have lived in an unstable home since their birth. Knowing the circumstances, because we know the birth parents, we knew that the Father had provided us the opportunity to lavish our love upon them as He has lavished His love upon us. We understand there are financial, emotional, mental, and physical sacrifices that must be made to facilitate the adoption; however, we also understand that these are the demands of the gospel. Loving others in the manner that Christ has loved us is costly and sacrificial. Though we cannot adopt every abused or neglected child, we can participate in providing a stable, gospel-centered environment for Michael and Abby. The Father does not ask us to “Do It All,” but rather, willing participation in His kingdom work. His kingdom work involves seeking to overcome the injustices of the world. How are you engaging in the warfare between righteousness and unrighteousness? How are you actively participating in manifesting the glorious beauty of the gospel to the world? My prayer for the Bradsher family and you is that we would be actively involved, through sacrificial and costly love, in overcoming the injustices of the world. O that the gospel would rule us in such a manner that our very lives reflect its power and glory.

Your Fellow Servant in the gospel,

Joel Bradsher

           

           

Enjoying Freedom in the midst of Suffering

For to the just all the evils imposed on them by unjust rulers are not the punishment of crime, but the test of virtue. Therefore the good man, although he is a slave, is free; but the bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave, and that not of one man, but, what is far more grievous, of as many masters as he has vices; of which vices when the divine Scripture treats, it says, “For of whom any man is overcome, to the same he is also the bond-slave.”

Augustine of Hippo. (1887). The City of God M. Dods, Trans.). In P. Schaff (Ed.), A Select Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church, First Series, Volume II: St. Augustin’s City of God and Christian Doctrine (P. Schaff, Ed.) (66). Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Company.

St. Augustine made this statement in his famous City of God. Upon reading this statement I could not help but consider the life of the Apostle Paul. Though he was bound in chains often, he lived freely. Though seen as a prisoner in his culture, he was a free man. How could such be? How could he live "freely" while being "imprisoned?" The greatest imprisonment known to mankind is the imprisonment of sin - the bondage of sin. Sin renders man incapable of serving God freely and pleasureably. God created, designed man to live unto Him, thus only in "living for Him" are we free. Paul experienced freedom in the real sense, he experienced freedom from sin through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The gospel had set him free! The Truth (Jesus Christ) had set him free from the great bondage of sin; therefore, when he suffered persecution for righteousness sake, for doing good or being a good man (as Augustin said), he experienced true freedom while being bound. The soul set free from sin is FREE indeed regardless of the physical suffering or imprisonment one may experience. The righteous man, the one set free through the gospel, knows the punishment he faces is a "test of virtue" rather than punishment for sin. He who lives righteously resulting in persecution enjoys the greatest freedom and pleasure known to man, that of living to God. Paul experienced Freedom while in prison because he understood that true freedom, freedom from sin, was obtained and experienced in Christ and not in the lack of physical suffering. Want to live freely? Want to enjoy freedom and pleasure even in suffering? Such a life is only obtained through faith in the one who conquered death - the Lord Jesus Christ. "And you shall know the Truth (a person, not a mere proposition), and the Truth shall make you free." John 8:32 By the way, such is conditional upon our abiding in His Word - John 8:31.