Justin Bieber leads 98.5 million in worship on Instagram
Superstar Singer/songwriter Justin Bieber has 98.5 million followers on Instagram, the photo and video-sharing social networking service owned by Facebook.
On April 8th he made another bold expression of his faith in Jesus by singing the worship song “Reckless Love” on the social media platform.
“Oh, the overwhelming, never-ending reckless love of God. Oh, it chases me down, fights till I’m found, leaves the 99…There’s no shadow you won’t light up, mountain you won’t climb up, running after me,” he sang.
The song was originally written by Corey Asbury, a worship pastor for Bethel Music.
In 2015, the pop sensation made a very public and stunning turnaround in his relationship with Christ, saying he had learned from the error of his ways, following run-ins with the law and an embarrassing slew of bad-boy antics.
“I actually feel better and more free now that I know what I can do and what I can’t do,” he told COMPLEX in 2015. “I’m gonna use my voice for a reason. I think that people, as soon as they start hearing me saying I’m a Christian, they’re like, “Whoa Justin, back up, take a step back.”
Bieber said then he wanted to pursue Christlikeness with increased focus – and he seems to be following through with that renewed purpose. “I do not want to shove this down anyone’s throat. I just wanna honestly live like Jesus. Not be Jesus—I could never—I don’t want that to come across weird. He created a pretty awesome template of how to love people and how to be gracious and kind. If you believe it, he died for our sins.”
“This is the latest example of how the singer has turned his large social media platform into a pulpit. A source close to him says his next album, which is expected to be released late this year or in early 2019, is going to focus on his faith,” CBN noted.
A source close to the singer told The Sun: “He has always been religious but the last two years have seen him grow closer to the Hillsong Church and it has changed his entire life. He has a totally different outlook now.”
“After he finished his last tour he really wasn’t interested in recording any music for a while,” the source also said.
“But his time with the church has revitalized him and although he is working with a lot of the same people who helped to make his last album, Purpose, he is reshaping his sound so it is more in line with the church’s values and beliefs,” the source was quoted as saying, “There are key themes of love and redemption in the tracks he has created so far. It will certainly surprise some fans.”
At Easter, he told his Instagram followers, “Jesus has changed my life.”
“Easter is not about a bunny, it’s a reminder that my Jesus died on the cross for my sins and then rose from the dead defeating death! I believe this happened and it changes everything! I am set free from bondage and shame. I am a child of the most high God and he loves me,” he wrote in an Instagram post.
Charged with being a spy, Czech missionary Petr Jasek endured a 14-month imprisonment in Sudan where he was tortured by fellow cellmates. But Jesus supernaturally imparted peace during his confinement and he became a bold witness, winning many to Christ.
In his role as the Africa regional director for Voice of the Martyrs (VOM), Jasek went to Sudan to document the persecution of Christians, which was happening in the Nubah Mountains in clashes between the government and rebels.
He was detained by the Sudanese police at Khartoum Airport in December 2015. It seems immigration staff found a duplicate passport Jasek carried for security purposes, which led to his immediate arrest and imprisonment.
Jasek interviewed by Todd Nettleton at VOM
“I arrived at this cell at about 1:30 am,” he told VOM. He found the cell overcrowded, with people covering the floor. “They had to squeeze a little bit so they would create some small room for me to lie down on the floor.”
The conditions were sparse. “I had no blanket…two extra T-shirts and one extra pants and a toothbrush, toothpaste and soap; that was all.”
Guards refused him blankets or a mattress, because he was from the Czech Republic and they told him they thought he should be used to cold weather.
At 5:30 am he was awakened by the Islamic call for prayer. All six of his cellmates began praying fervently. “They showed me a place behind them where I was supposed to stand while they were praying. The rule is that me as a Christian, I had to stay behind them so they would not look at me while they are praying.”
After the prayers, they identified themselves as DAESH, the Arabic acronym for ISIS. All his cellmates were ISIS fighters!
“Two days later they started to openly torture me and beat me…I was hit with their fists into my face many times. They called me ‘filthy pig’ or ‘filthy rat.’”
One of the ISIS fighters barked an order: “Filthy pig, come here.”
“I decided at first I would not respond to these rude names and when I did not respond I got hit with a wooden stick they unscrewed from the sweeper that was there to clean the floor.”
Jasek was hit on the head, shoulders and fingers or they kicked him in the stomach and back with their boots. “At that time I was really thinking about the Lord Jesus what He had to go through when He was arrested and they also were beating Him with a wooden stick and were ridiculing Him, slapping Him.
“I became like their slave,” he told VOM. “I was really [made] to wash their clothes, wash all the dishes, clean the toilet with my bare hands. They were just making fun of me. I did not resist.”
“I could clearly see the Lord Jesus and how He suffered for us.”
Then Jesus imparted something to him that was amazing and unexpected, considering the circumstances. “I received a wonderful peace at that time and surprisingly, when I was physically attacked I was experiencing the greatest peace in prison time ever, all these 14-1/2 months.
“I could even pray during these beatings for my family members, I could pray for other fellow prisoners and I was not moved to the point when I used to be before, because I had this peace from the Lord at this time of the physical attacks on my body.
When Jasek began to exalt and and glorify the Lord’s name during his beatings, this made them even more furious. “They decided to torture me even in much worse way.
“Eventually, they decided to do waterboarding to me. It’s a way of torture where a person lays on his back and they cover his mouth and pour water, which gives you the feeling that you are getting drowned.
The Sudanese guards had not intervened to stop Jasek’s torture, because they were intimidated by the ISIS fighters. “It is [thought] that if these Islamists get released they will get revenge on those guards.”
Jasek didn’t have access to a Bible during his captivity, so he meditated on Scriptures he memorized as a young person.
“I was literally asking the Lord that He will keep my mind sound and that I wouldn’t lose my mind through the situation,” Jasek said. “The Holy Spirit kept reminding me some of the verses that I had memorized. This was just enough for me, to give me enough strength everyday to pray,” he told VOM.
He also thought about Jesus’ teaching about loving enemies. He was startled when he heard his abusers weeping late at night when they could not sleep.
“They were crying. They were also missing their family members. They were also crying to God for help,” he recounted. “That allowed me to easily continue to pray for them. I was praying for those fellow prisoners, the interrogators, for the guards, for the prosecutors and for the judge, that the Lord would reveal Himself as the Lord, Savior and God.”
Remarkably, one of the guards intervened to prevent the waterboarding. Jasek said he felt the Lord used the guard to move him out of the cell.
“Later on I told the guard that he saved my life and we became close friends,” Jasek said. “I gave my email address and I started to share the Gospel with him. He was very passionate. I told him that if he ever makes it to Europe, he can stay at my house and we will take care of him.”
Then Jasek was moved to another prison where conditions were even worse.
“We were squeezed in a small room — 15 by 18 feet. There were sometimes 40 of us. That was the situation and I was able to lead 40 Eritrean refugees to Christ,” he said. “It was like new revelation for me. I started to be courageous and openly shared the Gospel with other fellow prisoners. Later on, that resulted in them putting me in solitary confinement again.”
Shortly after being placed in solitary confinement, Czech consular officers were able to bring him a Bible.
“I didn’t have to do anything else but read the Bible all day. I could not read the Bible all day because I could only read when there was enough light, which was about 8 [a.m.] … until 4:30 p.m. I had to stand reading on the bars so that I could have enough light. I was so hungry for Scripture. I read from Genesis to Revelation within three weeks.”
Jasek noted that he gained a profound “new understanding of Scripture.”
He was eventually removed from solitary confinement and moved to a larger prison that can hold about 10,000 people.
“I went from solitary to a cell where there were like 100 people in one cell,” he explained. “We were squeezed. There were 75 beds. Only 75 could have a bed and 25 had to stay on the floor.”
Amazingly, guards at the new prison allowed him and two incarcerated Sudanese pastors to hold worship services.
“The first day I came to the chapel to spend time in Scripture with the Lord. They asked me to preach. I would preach once a week, sometimes twice a week,” Jasek said. “Of course, they were monitoring us and they were reporting what we were teaching about. There were two other pastors from Sudan and we knew that nothing worse could happen to us.”
Preaching in prison allowed Jasek and the other pastors to witness to “people that were hopeless.”
“They were real criminals — murderers, rapists, thieves, drug dealers. It was such a wonderful time,” Jasek said. “They responded to our teaching. We were just teaching the Gospel. It was so wonderful to see the changed life of those who dedicated their lives to Christ.”
In February 2017, he was granted a presidential pardon and Sudanese President Umar al-Bashir ordered his immediate release. He returned to the Czech Republic on February 26, 2017.
During the time Jasek was interrogated by the jihadis in prison his wife was in a Bible study back home and the leader stopped the study to pray for the “situation that he is right now in.”
“They stopped reading and started to pray for the Lord’s presence over the situation,” Jasek said. “When I came home, I realized that was exactly the time when I was on my knees before the Islamists and they were beating me. But I was experiencing a supernatural peace.”
“I came for four days to Sudan. But I was there 445 days,” Jasek told VOM. “When you think about all the hardships and seeing what the Lord was able to do through us, then what else can we say but the Lord’s ways are much better than our ways.”
“We know from the words of apostle Paul that everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. I felt like I received my life back. I was first threatened to be sentenced to be executed. [Then] later on, life imprisonment. Then, my life was returned back to me. I told the Lord, ‘My life does not belong to me anymore. It belongs to the Lord.’”
She could not read or write but started 3 churches in 6 months and more discipleship groups.
When Faiza heard her pastor invite the members of his African congregation to attend a seminar to learn how to make disciples and plant churches, she knew instantly that this was exactly what she had been waiting for.
Ever since she had become a Christian, just two years before from a Muslim background, she knew that the Father had something very special in store for he life. She loved being an intercessor, and she could pray for hours, knowing that God Himself was responding to her prayers.
Faiza did not have the chance for the education she wanted, but that did not keep her from developing a shrewd business sense. She easily outsold every other palm oil merchant in the market. She knew how to judge the product, measure the competition, provide simple value-added elements, and win trust with customers, the result of which was an adequate income to meet her needs and share some with others.
Until this moment, she had never had any desire to leave town. But as she heard God speak, she headed directly to the pastor and told him that she wanted to participate in the disciple-making training.
‘Pastor Joseph had never seen her so happy.’
Pastor Joseph was hesitant though, as she didn’t know how to read and write. He told her to pray about it, and if God would tell her to take the training, to come and start.
When Pastor Joseph arrived early at the church for the training, he found Faiza waiting for someone to open the door. He had never seen her so happy. It turned out that God had given her great encouragement when she prayed, and He had even told her where her assignment would be when she finished her training.
Six weeks later she completed the training, and she could hardly wait to tell Pastor Joseph where she was headed – to Jumvulu. “What?” he cried when she told him. “You can’t go there! They will kill you.” But Faize was confident. “God would not lead me to a place that He doesn’t want me to go,” she said.
Joseph relented, and the church prayed for Faiza and dispatched her to Jumvulu, a place where Islam was mixed with a poisonous, unspeakable evil of demonic deeds. As the church said goodbye to Faiza, some people shed tears, for they were sure that they would never see her again due to the danger she faced.
Within two weeks, Faiza had found her place in a new market, making friends, selling palm oil, and looking for a person of peace. And within another two weeks, Faiza found that person of peace and started a Discovery Bible Study with ten people. Within three months of that, Faiza’s group had become a small church. After six months, there were three growing churches in Jumvulu and more Discovery Bible Studies happening. And at that point, Faiza knew that she had done what God had asked her to do. It was time to head for another challenging place.
‘Today people who are unable to read play a key role in the dramatic growth of the church.’
Joseph sent a team to follow up on the miraculous beachhead that had been established by Faiza’s courageous obedience to God. Today, there are 25 churches in that area, and the dark partnership has been broken between the secret orders and Islam; it has been publicly exposed and outlawed. Now other ministries that had been afraid to work in Jumvulu have also joined the efforts, and the gospel message is being spread even more rapidly.
Pastor Joseph realized that people who do not read should be welcomed and accommodated at every level of discipleship training and leadership development. Today people who are unable to read carry responsibility for a high percentage of the dramatic growth happening in more than a thousand churches throughout that ministry.
And Faiza? At 27, she became a national leader of intercessory prayer in her ministry and still sells palm oil and gives away the gospel.
The Book of Acts demonstrates that the work of ministry was largely done by nonprofessional Christians. Several of Jesus’ disciples were humble fishermen. Even Paul appears to have been primarily self-supporting as a tent maker. It is possible that one of the reaons why the Western church of the 21st century struggles to grow is that the DNA has been lost that made up the original disciple making movement, that of ordinary people achieving the impossible in the name of God. That DNA is being recaptured in today’s Disciple Making Movements that are based on empowering every member, regardless of background, as a disciple maker, taking very seriously the final instruction of Jesus to his disciples.
Source: Faiza and Joseph, interviewed by Jerry Trousdale for his book ‘Miraculous Movements’
“Die with Christ, rise with Christ. Holy Spirit, come, set her free and fill her up.” An outdoor baptism in the ocean forms the dynamic opening scene of the new movie ‘The Last Reformation: The Life’
This movie is the sequel to ‘The Last Reformation: The Beginning’ – featured in JNI 983 – that has inspired many people around the world. The first film received close to a million views on Youtube and has been featured on different TV stations around the world.
‘The Life’ is the second documentary of three about ordinary disciples of Jesus who have been inspired and activated by the Book of Acts. The film covers a phenomenon that has not been covered much in the mainstream media: thousands of ordinary Christians, without theological training, that go out on the streets, heal the sick, preach the Gospel and baptize people in bathtubs, lakes, rivers and oceans.
In this film we don’t see stereotypical street evangelists, trying to convert people by shouting the Gospel at them. Instead, we see non-assuming Christians in everyday life situations and on the road to new destinations, offering a relaxed and quick prayer for healing. People with various forms of injury and pain seem to receive instant relief. “Pain, go now, in Jesus’ name!” they say, immediately followed by the question: “Can you feel any difference?” And the surprising look on people’s faces: “Wow. Seriously, it doesn’t hurt anymore! I can move it!”
Danish evangelist and producer Torben Søndergaard says about his project with film director Leo Akatio:
“Just as with the first movie, we experienced how God led the whole process of filming and producing. While the first movie laid the foundation of the gospel of Jesus – how to become a new creation in Christ, this movie focuses on the daily walk of a disciple of Christ. It shows that following Jesus is difficult, but also rewarding. When we remain faithful to Jesus’ words, we will see victories.”
“This movie will inspire, convict and challenge you to become everything God created you to be,” says Søndergaard. “From the living room of a rockstar, to a homeless man on the streets in Brazil. You will experience the movement that is growing all around the world as people discover what it truly means to be disciples of Jesus. This film shows things that probably have never been captured on video before, such as the impressive moment when mambo musician Lou Bega and his entire household was overcome with the Holy Spirit and got baptized in water. This will remind you of stories from the book of Acts.”
Click to watch this interview with Torben Søndergaard.
Click to watch this interview with director Lebo Akatio
What you will see:
The movie features the collective conversion and baptism of a whole extended family in Germany, tourists visiting the tomb of Jesus in Jerusalem and experiencing the risen Christ on location, Torben Søndergaard and his team members teaching others ‘on the job’, a bedouin boy in the desert near the ancient city of Petra who receives instant healing and starts following Jesus, an honest assessment that not everyone the team meets receives healing or is receptive to the Gospel, the role of persecution in the life of Christians, and the transformational experience of a homeless man living on the streets in Brazil.
In 1999, German-born David Lubega (a.k.a. Lou Bega) took Perez Prado’s 1949 instrumental “Mambo No. 5” and recut it as an irresistible dance-pop jingle. It became an unlikely hit, topping charts around the world. This video clip is of the kid’s Disney version of his song. Today, instead of “a little of bit of Minnie in my life” Bega wants all of Jesus in his life. He says about his conversion: “It is way better than winning a Grammy nomination, or becoming a football world champion or whatever. This is just the real deal.”
About The Last Reformation
The Last Reformation is a network of Christians that started in 2011 with a book of the same name, and has grown into a group of thousands of believers who are committed to making disciples in their daily life. The network hosts training weekends called Kickstarts, in which ordinary people get equipped to live the uncomplicated and supernatural life Jesus and his disciples had. Additionally, the network has 5 full-time Pioneer Training Schools and 3 Jesus Cafés in different countries. The group believes in Bible-based teaching, hands-on discipleship training, and that everyone who believes in Jesus can follow his commands to heal the sick, cast out demons, and baptize others in His name.
Founder Torben Søndergaard is convinced the church needs a new reformation. “This new reformation is about rediscovering the Book of Acts.”
Source: Torben Søndergaard, The Last Reformation
Joel News International:# 1077 | April 14, 2018
Click to watch the full movie ‘The Last Reformation: The Life’
Messiah is an English-language oratorio composed in 1741 by George Friedrich Handel, with a scriptural text compiled by Charles Jennens from the King James Bible, and from the version of the Psalms included with the Book of Common Prayer. The music for Messiah was completed in 24 days of swift composition. His servants would often find him in tears as he composed. When he completed “Hallelujah,” he reportedly told his servant, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.” At the end of his manuscript, Handel wrote the letters “SDG”—Soli Deo Gloria, “To God alone the glory”.
In Part I the text begins with prophecies by Isaiah and others, and moves to the annunciation to the shepherds, the only “scene” taken from the Gospels. In Part II, Handel concentrates on the Passion and ends with the “Hallelujah” chorus. In Part III he covers the resurrection of the dead and Christ’s glorification in heaven. When King George II attended a royal performance of Messiah he stood up for the Hallelujah Chorus in honour of the King of kings. When the king stood everyone in his presence had to stand. So it became the tradition for the audience to stand up when the Hallelujah Chorus is sung, as millions of us have done in honour of the King of kings.
Chorus — Revelation 19:6, 11:15, 19:16 Hallelujah! for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. The Kingdom of this world is become the Kingdom of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. King of kings, and Lord of lords
and He shall reign for ever and ever. Hallelujah!
While writing the ‘Hallelujah’ chorus Handel’s servant discovered him with tears in his eyes, and he exclaimed, “I did think I did see all Heaven before me, and the great God Himself seated on His throne, with His company of Angels.”
Lyrics: Holy Bible, Authorised Version, 1611, arranged by Charles Jennens, 1741 Music: George Friedrich Handel, 1741
College Professor’s Near Death Experience – he saw two portals leading to heaven and hell
By Dr. Steven Long, edited by Ben Godwin —
Dr. Steven Long with his wife, Victoria
Only 12 percent of people who experience cardiac arrest outside a hospital live to tell about it. Miraculously, Dr. Steven Long was in that number. He and his wife Vicky are co-founders of Global Champions, an organization that teaches young people life skills and character development in schools and businesses in several countries.
Steven’s heart attack struck during a ministry trip to Taiwan. On May 1, 2014, the air was so humid Steven felt like he was inhaling hot water. He had just finished two exhausting weeks of speaking engagements, with sleepless nights, back-to-back meetings and a full agenda of ministry.
That fateful morning, when the heart attack began he fell to the bathroom floor and passed out. When he awakened, he took a nitroglycerin tablet hoping to prevent death and called 911. Somehow, he managed to open the apartment door to let paramedics in.
An ambulance rushed him to the nearest hospital, but his heart would not keep beating. It flat-lined six times in route, so the EMTs kept him alive by defibrillation.
The paramedics called the hospital’s top-rated heart surgeon to meet them at the ER. Though he was headed home after a long day at the hospital, he returned to treat Steven (surely an act of divine providence). God was in control of everything.
Steven was rushed into emergency, triple bypass, open heart surgery. His heart was defibrillated three more times during the operation, resulting in burns on his back from the electrodes.
Unaware of Steven’s heart attack, his wife, Vicky, boarded a pre-planned 12-hour flight from San Francisco to Taiwan to celebrate the 20th anniversary of Global Champions. A leadership team met her at the airport, informed her of Steven’s dire condition, and rushed her to see him in the ICU.
After she arrived, the doctor lowered the medication, so he could regain consciousness and to see if he could recognize her voice. Vicky’s tender voice awakened him, “Hi Steve, it’s Vicky. I love you. I am here now, and everything is going to be OK.”
He opened his eyes, recognized her and tried to speak, but with all the tubes in his mouth and nose, he couldn’t talk. He looked frightened and his only words sounded like “Die” and “Help me.”
During his 23-day hospitalization, Steven had several near-death and out-of-body experiences, which he documents in his book Evading Death’s Grip.
“Standing next to the bed, I saw two hateful-eyed, wicked, nasty, mean, malignant beings who strangely appeared to be human,” he recounts in the book. “They looked like hospital workers, but I knew instinctively they were death’s emissaries.
“One stood next to me glowering with bloody, red eyes. He looked like a Chinese man, dressed in a blue zippered jacket with five Chinese characters written on the back, 死亡的幽灵 (loose translation—“spirit of death”). Next to him was a seven-plus-foot-tall, skinny Asian woman dressed in black.
“Who were they? Were they real people trying to kill me, hallucinations or possibly actual demonic beings? Why were they allowed in the ICU and who let them in? All I knew was that they were in my hospital room and their intentions were evil.
“I thought to myself, Their eyes look like those of demons I’ve seen and even cast out in the past in the name of Jesus, but how could this be since they were also seemingly human?
“I quickly discovered that I could not simply speak and make them leave, as I had done in the past. Various tubes protruded from my mouth and nose, and I was not able to talk. I was convinced that there were people trying to kill me. Paranoid, I thought there was poison in the IVs and kept pulling them out from the back of my hands, arms, and even feet, while the staff kept finding new places to put fluids and medicine into my body.
“I was not able to physically fight them and seemed to be frozen and unable to move. I could feel the restraints on my arms and legs tying me down to the bed which kept me from resisting. Another reason I was restrained was I could not distinguish the doctors and nurses from these two uninvited and unwanted visitors and would strike out at the staff or doctors or kick them if they approached me.
“I remembered a statement I’d heard people say over the years, ‘When in trouble, call on the name of Jesus.’ So, I started weakly doing that; I would exhale a whisper, ‘Jesus’ and inhale, ‘Is my Lord’ with every breath. I had so little strength, but it was enough.
“Soon, supernatural strength filled me, and I could literally feel something like electricity flowing into my body. Somehow, I knew I needed to address the attackers. So, I stated, ‘In the name of Jesus, stop!’
“At the mention of the name of Jesus, they stopped, glared at me, turned and quickly left the room. The Bible instructs us to ‘resist the devil and he will flee from you’ (James 4:7) and it really worked!”
In another out-of-body experience while in the hospital, Steven saw a brilliant white room containing a window-like portal on the floor and the earth suspended in it. He watched as two paths shot out from the earth: one extended out into darkness that was so pitch black it could be felt, the other path stretched toward an amazingly brilliant light.
Curious, he put his foot on the path leading to darkness and was immediately overwhelmed by feelings of being completely lost. He felt loneliness and despair like never before in a blackness that kept intensifying and coming closer by the second. He could hear the terrifying groans and screams of lost people stumbling around in the dark, falling over one another. Other sounds were horrific beyond one’s imagination.
As this eerie darkness enveloped him, he removed his foot from that path and placed his other foot on the path leading toward the brilliant light. It contained a far greater spectrum of light than we have on earth. The dazzling colors were heavenly and standing way off in the distance at the end of the path, was a silhouette of a person.
He knew intuitively that it must be Jesus; His majestic white hair and beard and His fiery eyes were the same as he’d read about in the Bible (Rev. 1:13-15). A tidal wave of love washed over him. He was overwhelmed by the penetrating light and the purest love and knew that God was embracing him and welcoming him into heaven.
“God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1 Jn. 1:5-7, NKJV).
Steven was given a glimpse into both ends of the paths that our lives can follow. We all choose one path or the other.
Later, a physical therapist asked Steven, “Is it OK to wait until we get to the point of death to make the God-decision?”
“I believe I was given the vision/experience of the two paths to provide a greater understanding,” Steven replied. “We need to decide what path we will walk on before we enter death and our soul is separated from our body.”
“Paul urged his readers to decide to serve God without delay, ‘Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’” (2 Cor. 6:2, NKJV)
Dr. Steven Long fully recovered from his 2014 heart attack and surgery and has increased his ministry efforts. Since that pivotal point in his life, Dr. Long has researched over 1,500 sources of near-death and out-of-body experiences and has become an expert in this intriguing field of study.
Many of his findings are included in his book in which he cites several documented cases that prove there is indeed life after death. Steven personally walked through the portal of death and returned to tell the world about the path that truly leads to eternal life by faith in Jesus Christ. Steven is more than a cardiac arrest survivor—he’s a walking miracle and an eyewitness of the unseen spiritual realm that awaits us beyond time and into eternity.
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
Dr. Steven Long serves as an assistant professor of leadership and financial freedom via distance learning in two universities in Taiwan. His book is available at evadingdeathsgrip.com, deeperrevelationbooks.org, and amazon.com. He and his wife, Victoria, live in California.
The Great Praise ‑ Final Song This order of service for Passover is an attempt to be as true as possible to the historic one Jesus had with his disciples, with Christian explanations added.
Part 1: A Mysterious Month, gives the full eye-witness accounts of 12 resurrection appearances. The contents of RISEN – shorter version – now also included in this book,
Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection.
Part 2: Our Month in Israel, gives my reflections on walking where Jesus walked, with photos of those locations. Not included in Holy Week, Christian Passover & Resurrection.
Ten years ago, very few, if any, So people called on Jesus as Lord. That was largely because very few of them had ever heard the name of Jesus or the gospel message. The So, located in Laos, are hard to reach, not just spiritually, but geographically as well.
Times have changed. A key catalyst in the formation of a So church was the story of Tongsin, a village madman who experienced a dramatic conversion and became active in sharing his faith with others. Through a combination of miracles, intentional discipleship and testing through persecution, the first So church was established in 2013. Tongsin was (and continues to be) one of its leaders.
At first, the community of So believers did not know a lot of the Bible, but they knew enough to obey. They also knew the power of prayer and they saw God work in miraculous ways. Many people came to them for prayer for their various ailments. God answered and the So saw many healings.
The Christians who first began working among the So continued to disciple the new church’s leaders wherever they could – in the jungle, in boats, guesthouses or in town. They were discipled in the basics of following Christ. These new believers understood that they needed to meet weekly for worship, prayer, and studying the Word and they were faithful to do so. In these early stages, the Christians working with the So practiced the “Model, Assist, Watch, Leave” method (MAWL). Eventually, the leaders of the church were established by the laying on of hands and a formal commissioning by the national church.
Today among the 180,000 So in Southeast Asia, there are seven churches serving more than 260 believers.
The angel’s quote on the door of the Garden Tomb in Jerusalem
A Mysterious Month
Most people who were involved at the beginning of that mysterious month thought the unbelievable rumours were impossible and said so. Loudly.
Only a few, very few at first, thought it may have happened. Even after a month some still doubted that it actually happened: “Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshipped Him; but some doubted” (Matthew 28:16-17).
They saw the awful, brutal execution. Jesus had been severely flogged and tortured early that morning before his execution. The conquering Romans made sure their victims suffered maximum agony and humiliation on thousands of crosses, suffering publicly and slowly in excruciating pain to their last agonized breath. That’s how we got our English words excruciate (ex-crux – out of the cross) and agony from the Greek word agon (struggle or contest).
Romans crucified their victims along the main road just outside a town or village. They lopped trees and their victims carried the crossbar to the dreadful execution site where they were nailed to the crossbar and hoisted onto a tree trunk or stake. Peter later wrote that Jesus bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24). The execution place just outside Jerusalem’s city wall was called the place of the skull, with graves nearby. There are many tombs and graves just outside that city wall even today.
Eye-witnesses saw and heard the horrendous spectacle, a few like John from nearby. Spectators taunted the central victim: And the people stood by, watching; but the leaders scoffed at him, saying, ‘He saved others; let him save himself if he is the Messiah of God, his chosen one!’ The soldiers also mocked him, coming up and offering him sour wine, and saying, ‘If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself!’ (Luke 23:35-37)
The three struggling victims gasped out brief cries, one with angry accusations: One of the criminals hanged there kept deriding him and saying, ‘Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!’ (Luke 23:39).
Soldiers divided the victims’ clothes among themselves, gambling for some. Eventually, they smashed the legs of the two victims still alive so they died quickly, no longer able to push up from their spiked feet to gasp more breath. Religious leaders wanted them off the crosses before the Sabbath began at sunset.
But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. Instead, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once blood and water came out. (He who saw this has testified so that you also may believe. His testimony is true, and he knows that he tells the truth.)
And when all the crowds who had gathered there for this spectacle saw what had taken place, they returned home, beating their breasts. But all his acquaintances, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, stood at a distance, watching these things (John 19:33-35; Luke 23:48-49).
The mystery deepened rapidly. Matthew, the disciple who had been a despised tax collector for Rome, reported that the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people (Matthew 27:51-52).
Model of Jerusalem in Jesus’ time, Temple Mount left (east), Pool of Bethesda (sheep pool) and Antonia Fortress alongside, Herod’s Palace right (west), Golgotha just outside.
