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Tag: evangelism
The Insanity of God- free online movie
The Insanity of God
With dramatic changes in Afghanistan, thousands of Christians in prison in China and North Korea, murders across North Africa, is God worth it? This free movie explores those stories dramatically.
Free online movie: The Insanity of God
A true story of faith and persecution
Inspiring articles, discounted books, free PDFs
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The Insanity of God:
https://renewaljournal.com/2021/08/21/the-insanity-of-god-free-online-movie/
Renewal Journal – a chronicle of renewal and revival: www.renewaljournal.com
The Insanity of God – book link
The Insanity of God is the personal and lifelong journey of an ordinary couple from rural Kentucky who thought they were going on just your ordinary missionary pilgrimage, but discovered it would be anything but. After spending over six hard years doing relief work in Somalia, and experiencing life where it looked like God had turned away completely and He was clueless about the tragedies of life, the couple had a crisis of faith and left Africa asking God, “Does the gospel work anywhere when it is really a hard place?
Nik recalls that, “God had always been so real to me, to Ruth, and to our boys. But was He enough, for the utter weariness of soul I experienced at that time, in that place, under those circumstances?” It is a question that many have asked and one that, if answered, can lead us to a whole new world of faith.
How does faith survive, let alone flourish in a place like the Middle East? How can Good truly overcome such evil? How do you maintain hope when all is darkness around you? How can we say “greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world” when it may not be visibly true in that place at that time? How does anyone live an abundant, victorious Christian life in our world’s toughest places? Can Christianity even work outside of Western, dressed-up, ordered nations? If so, how?
The Insanity of God tells a story—a remarkable and unique story to be sure, yet at heart a very human story—of the Ripkens’ own spiritual and emotional odyssey. The gripping, narrative account of a personal pilgrimage into some of the toughest places on earth, combined with sobering and insightful stories of the remarkable people of faith Nik and Ruth encountered on their journeys, will serve as a powerful course of revelation, growth, and challenge for anyone who wants to know whether God truly is enough.
See also:
Christian missionary tortured in prison led 40 to Christ
North Korea: Cherishing the book he once feared
North Korean believers meet underground
North Korea: The blessing of forced solitude with God
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BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)
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Trialblazing the online church
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Evangelization in North Korea
“Pray for me as I leave for evangelization in North Korea”
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Evangelization in North Korea:
https://renewaljournal.com/2021/06/18/evangelization-in-north-korea/
Also:
Cherishing the book he once feared:
https://renewaljournal.com/2021/05/03/cherishing-the-book-he-once-feared/
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By Brother Joe* –
After 46 years of life in North Korea, I came to China unprepared for life there. I met a South Korean man and heard about God from him. He gave me a Bible and I read the Bible. And when I returned to North Korea, I took a copy of the Bible and kept it hidden and read it. One day, I was caught in possession of my Bible. Soon I was sentenced to a labor correction prison.
In prison, I was held in solitary confinement after being tortured and investigated again and again for possession of the Bible. There was no light there, and it (the cell) was soaked with a terrible odor, like the smell of a dead body.
One day I was singing the song, “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, and those who believe in Jesus will not perish, but will have eternal life.” Then I cried out, “God, if there is God, please save me.”
As a result of continued interrogation, I had become very thin and only skin was left on my bones. Due to malnutrition, my anus did not contract and the stool went down. Prison officials did not want another dead body, so they released me.
After being in prison for 15 years, the world I had known no longer existed. I received only cold looks from people that I knew. I had no choice but to leave my hometown to go to China and try to find a job there. But at that time, no one in China would employ an illegal North Korean migrant. I was at my wits’ end.
But in the early winter of November 2015, I met a missionary. He took me to his home. On August 7th, 2016, God told me while I was studying, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and teach them all that I command you to keep. I will always be with you. That very day I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I confessed my sins to God and accepted Jesus as my Savior with all of my heart.
As I learned the word of God, the words came alive, Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you and your house will be saved, and it rang in my heart. I grabbed this word, prayed, and started digging into the verses of the Bible.
God further showed me, You are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who is his possession, that you may proclaim the beautiful virtues of the one who called you out of darkness and brought you into his marvelous light. He made it clear to me who I am as a servant of Jesus Christ.
It is a dream that a sinner like me has grown up as a servant of God who can convey God’s Word and love. I must confess that what I have become today is God’s grace and love. As a servant of God, I am writing this, asking for the help of the Holy Spirit at this moment. On September 30th, 2017, God called me to go back home and share the Gospel. After two years of studying God’s Word, I was ordained and called to be sent as a missionary to North Korea.
As a servant of God and a person appointed as a missionary to evangelize North Korea, I proclaim the word of the Lord who is the life, truth, and path. I then committed: As a person, I will live a life as a servant like Jesus Christ who lived with meekness, humility, service, and obedience.
With the joy of giving thanks and greetings to the countless servants and missionaries of the Lord who have been working for God’s work to bring all the souls of North Korea so they will be back in the Lord. Our God is a great God. I confess that I cannot hide my true gratitude and tears of gratitude for the love you have given to me.
Leaving for the evangelization of the motherland,
The blessed servant of the Lord
*name changed for security reasons
The preceding letter was received by Cornerstone Ministries International before Covid shut down the border between China and North Korea. This brother has not been heard from since he went into North Korea. Pray for the Lord’s protection as he pours out his life for the sake of the Gospel. For more information about Cornerstone’s work in North Korea, go here
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GENERAL BLOGS INDEX
BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)
BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)
BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)
BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)
BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)
BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)
BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)
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Cherishing the book he once feared
Cherishing the book he once fearedShare good news – Share this page freely Also: Evangelization in North Korea |
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Cherishing the Book He Once Feared |
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| Before he escaped across the Yalu River into China, Park Chin-Mae was a border guard, tasked with keeping North Korea’s citizens locked inside their own country and keeping contraband — especially Bibles — out of the country.
“They know the Bible is the enemy,” Chin-Mae said of his fellow border guards. But once he fled to South Korea, Chin-Mae began attending Christian services at a resettlement center. He was tasked with laying out Bibles before the service began. As he did so, he realized he was safely holding in his hands the same book that could have gotten him killed on the other side of the border. He started to read the Bible and soon found himself drawn to follow the Christ he had encountered in its pages. “I didn’t just read it like any other book; I read it and I took every word of the Bible into my heart,” he said.
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| Chin-Mae is safely out of North Korea, but many followers of Christ are still trapped and suffering inside the secretive nation. And it’s not only North Korea where our Christian brothers and sisters suffer. Believers face persecution in more than 70 other nations.
For more than 50 years, The Voice of the Martyrs has helped Christians persecuted for their witness around the world. VOM founder Richard Wurmbrand said of this work, “Our duty is to give a piece of bread to the wives and families of persecuted and jailed believers.” That need still exists today. When Christians’ homes and churches are burned, or pastors and evangelists are beaten, imprisoned or killed, families are often left without financial support. VOM responds by helping persecuted Christians with living expenses, children’s educational needs, relocation within their nation, vocational training and other forms of assistance.
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GENERAL BLOGS INDEXBLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)BACK TO MAIN PAGEFree PDF books on the Main Page |
Those who sow in tears
Those who sow in tears
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*
An inspiring mission story.
*
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24
“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” Psalm 126:5
THOSE WHO SOW IN TEARS….
In 1921 David and Svea Flood went with their two-year-old son from Sweden to the heart of Africa, to what was then called the Belgian Congo. This missionary couple met up with the Ericksons, another young Scandinavian couple, and the four of them sought God for direction. In those days of much devotion and sacrifice, they felt led of the Lord to set out from the main mission station to take the gospel to the village of N’dolera, a remote area.
This was a huge step of faith.
There, they were rebuffed by the chief, who would not let them enter his town for fear of alienating the local gods. The two couples opted to build their own mud huts half a mile up the slope.
They prayed for a spiritual breakthrough, but there was none. Their only contact with the villagers was a young boy, who was allowed to sell them chickens and eggs twice a week.
Svea Flood—a tiny woman only four feet, eight inches tall—decided that if this was the only African she could talk to, she would try to lead the boy to Jesus. And she succeeded!
Meanwhile, malaria struck one member of the little missionary band after another. In time, the Ericksons decided they had had enough suffering and left to return to the central mission station.
David and Svea Flood remained near N’dolera to carry on alone.
Then, Svea found herself pregnant in the middle of the primitive wilderness. When the time came for her to give birth, the village chief softened enough to allow a midwife to help her. A little girl was born, whom they named Aina. The delivery was exhausting. Svea Flood was already weak from bouts of malaria so the birthing process was a heavy blow to her stamina. She died only 17 days after Aina was born.
Something snapped Inside David Flood at that moment. He dug a crude grave, buried his 27-year-old wife, and then went back down the mountain with his children to the mission station.
Giving baby Aina to the Ericksons, he snarled, “I’m going back to Sweden. I’ve lost my wife, and I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life!”
With that, he headed for the port, rejecting not only his calling, but God Himself.
Within eight months, both the Ericksons were stricken with a mysterious malady and died within days of each other. Baby Aina was then turned over to another American missionary family who changed her Swedish name to “Aggie”. Eventually they took her back to the United States at age three.
This family loved Aggie. Afraid that if they tried to return to Africa some legal obstacle might separate her from them, they decided to stay in their home country and switch from missionary work to pastoral ministry. That is how Aggie grew up in South Dakota.
As a young woman, she attended North Central Bible College in Minneapolis. There she met and married Dewey Hurst.
Years passed. The Hursts enjoyed a fruitful ministry. Aggie gave birth first to a daughter, then a son. In time, her husband became president of a Christian college in the Seattle area, and Aggie was intrigued to find so much Scandinavian heritage there.
One day she found a Swedish religious magazine in their mailbox. She had no idea who had sent it, and of course she couldn’t read the words, but as she turned the pages, a photo suddenly stopped her cold.
There, in a primitive setting, was a grave with a white cross—and on the cross were the words SVEA FLOOD.
Aggie got in her car and drove straight to a college faculty member whom she knew could translate the article.
“What does this article say?”
The teacher shared a summary of the story.
“It is about missionaries who went to N’dolera, Africa, long ago. A baby was born. The young mother died. One little African boy was led to Jesus before that. After the whites had all left, the boy all grown up finally persuaded the chief to let him build a school in the village. He gradually won all his students to Christ and the children led their parents to Him. Even the chief became a follower of Jesus! Today there are six hundred believers in that village, all because of the sacrifice of David and Svea Flood.”
Aggie was elated!
For the Hursts’ 25th wedding anniversary, the college presented them with the gift of a vacation to Sweden.
Aggie sought out her birth father.
David Flood was an old man now. He had remarried, fathered four more children, and generally dissipated his life with alcohol. He had recently suffered a stroke. Still bitter, he had one rule in his family: “Never mention the name of God! God took everything from me!”
After an emotional reunion with her half-brothers and half-sister, Aggie brought up the subject of her longing to see her father. They hesitated….
“You can talk to him, but he’s very ill now. You need to know that whenever he hears the name of God, he flies into a rage.”
Aggie walked into the squalid apartment, which had liquor bottles strewn everywhere, and slowly approached her 73-year-old father lying in a rumpled bed.
“Papa,” she said tentatively.
He turned and began to cry.
“Aina!”
“I never meant to give you away!”
“It’s all right, Papa,” she replied, taking him gently in her arms.
“God took good care of me.”
Her father instantly stiffened and his tears stopped.
“God forgot all of us. Our lives have been like this because of Him.”
He turned his face back to the wall.
Aggie stroked his face and then continued, undaunted.
“Papa, I’ve got a marvelous story to tell you!”
“You didn’t go to Africa in vain. Mama didn’t die in vain. The little boy you won to the Lord grew up to win that whole village to Jesus! The one seed you planted in his heart kept growing and growing! Today there are 600 people serving the Lord because you were faithful to the call of God in your life!”
“Papa, Jesus loves you. He has never hated you or abandoned us.”
The old father turned back to look into his daughter’s eyes. His body relaxed.
He slowly began to talk.
And by the end of the afternoon, he had come back to the God he had resented for so many years. Over the next few days, father and daughter enjoyed warm moments together. A few weeks after Aggie and her husband returned to America, David Flood died.
And a few years later….
Aggie and her husband were attending an evangelism conference in London, England, when a report was given from Zaire (the former Belgian Congo).
The superintendent of the national church, representing some 110,000 baptized believers, spoke eloquently of the Gospel’s spread in his nation.
Aggie could not help going to ask him afterward if he had ever heard of David and Svea Flood.
“Yes, madam,” the man replied in French, his words being translated into English.
“Svea Flood led me to Jesus Christ! I was the boy who brought food to your parents before you were born. In fact, to this day, your mother’s grave and her memory are honored by all of us.”
He embraced Aggie for a long time, sobbing.
“You must come to Zaire! Your mother is the most famous and honored person in our history.”
When Aggie and her husband went to N’dolera, they were welcomed by cheering throngs of villagers. Aggie even met the man who had been hired by her father to carry her down the mountain in a hammock-cradle.
Then the pastor escorted Aggie to see her mother’s tomb with a white cross bearing her name. She knelt in the soil to pray and give thanks to God.
Later that day, in the church, the boy turned pastor read….
“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.” John 12:24
“Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” Psalm 126:5.
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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)
BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)
BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)
BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)
BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)
BLOGS INDEX 6: CHAPTERS (BLOGS FROM BOOKS)
BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)
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Terrorist saved by JESUS Film
Terrorist saved by JESUS Film
He killed many but never heard of Jesus until he watched this film
Taweb* is a terrorist who killed many people, including more than a dozen children. As time went by, however, he felt a growing uneasiness about his role in the killings.
“For most fighters, it’s nothing to them, all the killing,” Taweb told the JESUS Film Project. The lack of peace caused him to leave his band of fighters for a break. After he arrived in his home village, he learned about a visiting team showing the JESUS film privately, house-to-house.
He was intrigued that the film was in his mother tongue. He wasn’t planning to watch the film, but God intervened, and Tawab found himself at one of the private screenings.
“By accident, I watched the JESUS film. I had never heard of Jesus before. I had never heard the message of peace.”
As he watched the story about the life of Jesus taken from the Book of Luke, the power of the Word and the Spirit touched his heart and he became a follower of Jesus. “Taweb found himself transformed by the Holy Spirit as he heard the Word of God, the gospel. The ‘worst of the worst,’ a murderer of innocent children, was forgiven, at peace, clothed in the righteousness of Jesus,” according to the JESUS Film Project report.
After Taweb accepted Christ, he asked the ministry team if they would show the film in his home. When they did, his entire family became followers of Jesus.
“The next night 45 families in his village gathered to watch and they all became believers – about 450 people in all – in this highly resistant area,” the report stated.
In the next four months, 75 of his fellow militants laid down their weapons and became followers of Jesus. “Today, each one of them leads a home church and they are passionately and boldly reaching the people around them, mostly by using ‘JESUS.’”
For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. (Romans 8:29)
If you want to know more about a personal relationship with God, go here
To learn more about the JESUS Film Project, go here
See also another Jesus film story:
Jesus appears as a bus driver to a Muslim pilgrim
See also
The JESUS Film
Radicals can’t stop the Jesus Film
West Africa: A terrorist accepts Jesus
Revival Blogs Links:
See also Revivals Index
See also Revival Blogs
See also Blogs Index 1: Revivals
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BLOGS INDEX 1: REVIVALS (BRIEFER THAN REVIVALS INDEX)
BLOGS INDEX 2: MISSION (INTERNATIONAL STORIES)
BLOGS INDEX 3: MIRACLES (SUPERNATURAL EVENTS)
BLOGS INDEX 4: DEVOTIONAL (INCLUDING TESTIMONIES)
BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)
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BLOGS INDEX 7: IMAGES (PHOTOS AND ALBUMS)
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Over 1 million respond to Good Friday service – Pulse
MORE THAN ONE MILLION PEOPLE RESPOND TO LIVE-STREAMED GOOD FRIDAY SERVICE – Pulse
The Good Friday Broadcast reached more than 200 million people.
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April 2021
The 2021 Worldwide Good Friday Broadcast reached more than 200 million people. This two-hour event was broadcast in 186 countries, 24 territories, and translated into 39 languages. They heard from more than 1.3 million people who reached out since the Good Friday event, a sign Nick Hall said that we’re living through “the most exciting evangelistic opportunity of our lifetime.”
While many Americans are still living life in a not-so-normal way, evangelism efforts haven’t slowed down; they’re just happening in new ways. That is certainly the case with Pulse, which brands itself as a “millennial-led evangelism movement.” The ministry’s founder, evangelist Nick Hall, hosted Pulse’s second annual Worldwide Good Friday Broadcast, which reached more than 200 million people. This year’s two-hour event, live-streamed on CBN News’ YouTube channel, was broadcast from the Museum of the Bible in Washington, D.C., where Hall said the Pulse vision is for the Good Friday service to become “an annual rallying cry for people to learn and talk about Jesus.” In total, the service was broadcast in 186 countries, 24 territories, and translated into 39 languages.
Pulse has heard from more than 1.3 million people who have reached out since the Good Friday event, a sign Hall said that we’re living through “the most exciting evangelistic opportunity of our lifetime.” “Truly, this is an Ephesians 3:20, ‘exceedingly, abundantly more,’ moment as we believe God is bringing in an unprecedented harvest during these trying days,” Hall said. “Our team is already working to build and translate our Move Closer app platform and digital response systems to keep up with what God is doing.” “Far from this being about Pulse,” he added, “this is about Jesus being lifted high through the global body of Christ, the church.” Move Closer is “a free app designed to help the next generation make disciples” and serves as a connection point for individual users, small groups, and churches, according to the Good Friday service.
Nick Hall is an evangelist, international speaker, and Founder of PULSE, a movement that seeks to empower the Church and awaken the culture to the reality of Jesus.
Source: Faithwire
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BLOGS INDEX 5: CHURCH (CHRISTIANITY IN ACTION)
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Siberia: The light of Christ in the darkness of winter
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West Africa: A seed planted by radio
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