Yesterday (Sat-Sun)

The INSTE leadership seminar went real well on Sat. with nine Pastors present. Pastor Israel Orellana, overseer of many churches, told me he felt INSTE was an answer to his prayer to get 1000 people trained. I hope he wasn’t just blowing smoke. We’re to get in touch for me to share in a monthly gathering with those men.

The worst part of the day was an hour and a half into the seminar we discovered that Pastor Jaime Velásquez’s car had been stolen right out from under our noses. We were sitting in my garage less than 5 yards from where he parked his car. Father, we pray for Jaime that another vehicle be provided him. In Jesus’ name.

2 Kings 6–7

A Biblical Worldview What would this story look like in the New York Times? Northern Israel was totally given over to Baal worship. They believed that Yahweh was somewhere up in heaven and had nothing to do with what happens on earth. The god of earth and prosperity was Baal. The Baal prosperity cult was the national religion of the northern tribes. So God in his mission to make Himself know to the nations stirred up Syria to attack northern Israel. But God would tell Elisha, His prophet, all the battle plans the king of Syria would make in his courts. Then Elisha would warn the king of Israel what Syria was going to do.

The king of Syria found out that it wasn’t a spy in his court, but God who was revealing his plans to Elisha. So he sent troops to kill Elisha. But God blinded the entire battalion when they got to him. Elisha led the entire blind battalion by the hand into the city of Samaria, and when they got there, he prayed and their sight was restored. Hello! New York Times! The king of Israel fed them and sent them home peacefully. You gotta be kidding!!

A few years later, because Israel was so far into sin, the Syrian army besieged Samaria again, and this time, when the famine was so bad that folks were cooking their kids and eating them (yuck!), God scared the Syrian army away with a noise that only they heard, and Israel was relieved.

Do you recon that God wants the nations to know that He’s in charge of what’s going on down here? Can anything be clearer than a prophet leading a battalion of blind soldiers by the hand? There were a few scattered individuals here and there (a remnant) who still worshiped Yahweh, but the great majority of northern Israel was not God’s people. He loved them just the same as He loves all nations and wanted them to know Him and worship Him, but northern Israel was not considered God’s people.

Chuck Colson says that God wants to redeem our culture establishing the biblical worldview in the minds of His people. Worldview is your answer to what is life and your place in it. Colson says that most Christians today don’t believe in absolute truth. His message given in March 2006, “Cross Currents: Do worldviews matter?” is a video worth watching. You can download it at www.breakpoint.org/article.asp?ID=5809 . In it you’ll get the background history of how radical Islam got to be what it is today and why every Christian needs to know—why he believes—what he believes.

Prayer Power…

Father, we thank You for your mission of love to the nations. May we know You, and may we be sensitive to letting You make Yourself known through us to the needy all around us. We praise you in Jesus!

Psalm 111 – “The works of the Lord are great, studied by all who have pleasure in them.”(NKJV). The study of God and His works (theology), is the most important study in life. As Papa Ken used to say, “Every high school graduate ought to spend a year or so in Bible College before going to University.” That’s one of the reasons INSTE is such an awesome tool today. It’s the best Bible discipleing tool I’ve ever seen.