A fantastic brother in the Lord has just sent me his newsletter from Papua New Guinea and so I wanted to share it with you.
This is one seriously brave and ‘sold out for Jesus’ guy (That’s his name ‘Guy’)
This is his mission website Living Water Mission
This is his newsletter
Living Water Mission Newsletter
Blessings Webmaster
I like these comments from the John Piper website on why he is now Twittering and Internet media in general, right up my street!
I see two kinds of response to social Internet media like blogging, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and others.
One says: These media tend to shorten attention spans, weaken discursive reasoning, lure people away from Scripture and prayer, disembody relationships, feed the fires of narcissism, cater to the craving for attention, fill the world with drivel, shrink the soul’s capacity for greatness, and make us second-handers who comment on life when we ought to be living it. So boycott them and write books (not blogs) about the problem.
The other response says: Yes, there is truth in all of that, but instead of boycotting, try to fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness as you can.
Together with the team at Desiring God, I lean toward response #2. “Lean” is different from “leap.” We are aware that the medium tends to shape the message. This has been true, more or less, with every new medium that has come along—speech, drawing, handwriting, print, books, magazines, newspapers, tracts, 16mm home movies, flannel-graph, Cinerama, movies, Gospel Blimps, TV, radio, cassette tapes, 8-Tracks, blackboards, whiteboards, overhead projection, PowerPoint, skits, drama, banners, CDs, MP3s, sky-writing, video, texting, blogging, tweeting, Mina-Bird-training, etc.
Dangers, dangers everywhere. Yes. But it seems to us that aggressive efforts to saturate a media with the supremacy of God, the truth of Scripture, the glory of Christ, the joy of the gospel, the insanity of sin, and the radical nature of Christian living is a good choice for some Christians. Not all. Everyone should abstain from some of these media. For example, we don’t have a television.
That’s my general disposition toward media.
Now what about Twitter? I find Twitter to be a kind of taunt: “Okay, truth-lover, see what you can do with 140 characters! You say your mission is to spread a passion for the supremacy of God in all things! Well, this is one of those ‘all things.’ Can you magnify Christ with this thimble-full of letters?”
To which I respond:
The sovereign Lord of the earth and sky
Puts camels through a needle’s eye.
And if his wisdom see it mete,
He will put worlds inside a tweet.
So I am not inclined to tweet that at 10AM the cat pulled the curtains down. But it might remind me that the Lion of Judah will roll up the heavens like a garment, and blow out the sun like a candle, because he just turned the light on. That tweet might distract someone from pornography and make them look up.
I’ve been tweeting anonymously for a month mainly to test its spiritual and family effects on me. In spite of all the dangers, it seems like a risk worth taking. “All things were created through Christ and for Christ” (Colossians 1:16). The world does not know it, but that is why Twitter exists and that’s why I Tweet.
By his grace and for his glory,
Pastor John
…And if you want to particpate in an effort to….
fill these media with as much provocative, reasonable, Bible-saturated, prayerful, relational, Christ-exalting, truth-driven, serious, creative pointers to true greatness…..
Then get in contact with us to have a chat about your Internet presence!
Blessings Webmaster
Oh I like this article by Steve Levy. Spreading the good news can seem overwhelming and disheartening in the UK today and with all the bad news it is nice to cite something positive and hopeful and bring to remembrance that we serve an almighty God, capable of ANYTHING:-
My son loves to remind me of an incident once at the end of a family holiday. We had been staying at my sister’s home. We were late packing up and she was due back any moment. I was vacuuming and the bag suddenly exploded.
In my frustration I shouted, ‘Kids come here now and pick up the dust!’
As we look at the thousands outside the church we are hardly reaching the numbers promised to Abraham. It’s like picking up dust or sand from the seashore. It is wonderful in theory and even to sing about, but when we look outside at the millions of unreached, especially those from backgrounds so different to our own — well, they’re so lost.
I sit on my church steps and see thousands pass. People on their way to the post office to pick up their disability cheques and pensions, the accused, solicitors and magistrates from the courts, refugees, shoppers, policemen — and, at night, thousands moving from bars to nightclubs. Of the thousands that come past, very few show interest. Of those few, many leave as soon as they find out what we believe.
Reaching the vast majority of people, especially the so-called ‘working class’, seems hopeless or at best seems to need some new or clever initiative.
So what is God’s answer? The Bible is clear. He has set up an organisation to be a light in this dark world. He tells us how each organisation is to be set up and led and how it is to conduct itself practically (1 Timothy 3). It is described as the ‘pillar and ground of truth’ in a world of lies.
The organisation God has given for reaching the world is the church of the living God. Yes, that group you gather with on Sundays. He has gathered just the right people for the job. Hand picked by God before the foundation of the world to meet the exact needs of your locality right now.
When Paul wanted to reach the nations, he planted churches with all kinds of people from different backgrounds in them. Their weakness is their strength. I’m not to look for more than the people God the Father chose, Jesus redeemed and the Spirit lives in. The God who knows everything says this is the way.
My God is their God, his people are my people. By criticising our church and others we are destroying God’s method.
We are not allowed to say anything bad about conventions or Christian organisations, as helpful as they may be, but I have lost count of the times in these events when cheap shots are taken against Christ’s churches. This is just the devil’s way of disheartening us from doing the good works God has called us to do and only sows disunity. Someone said in an advert recently for a Christian event: ‘Church doesn’t scratch where I itch’. He needs to check out his rash and stop scratching!
There needs to be a radical shift away from thinking that we need gimmicks and organisations, while by reaching one group we exclude everyone else — a concept God hates. He wants all kinds of people to reflect the gospel.
People are dead in trespasses and sins. At best we are shaking corpses and at worst we are simply appeasing our desire to ‘do evangelism’. Only God raises the dead and he has set up one organisation for doing it — your church.
Our God is so great everyone should praise him. The whole Bible teaches this. Paul in Romans 15.4-13 quotes the law (Deuteronomy 32.43) the prophets (2 Samuel 22.50 and Isaiah 11.1&10) and the Psalms (Psalm 117.1) so that everyone might know that the whole Bible says God should be praised throughout the nations.
We need to remind ourselves that God is great. This is the motive that drives evangelism. We don’t just do evangelism. When we worship and praise God, evangelism is the inevitable consequence. The greatest way of praising God is telling someone who does not know him how great he is.
Paul sets the agenda. Let all the nations praise him. He is worth stopping someone in the street and telling how great he really is. He is worth knocking on a door for — or whatever it takes. He is worth looking a fool for.
Have a Christ-centred church, a church where people encourage each other and hate division, a church where people see that coming as a sinner to Jesus is the only way to belong.
Before Paul gets to the great climax of quoting Scripture in Romans 15, he says unity is the way we get there. We must learn to accept one anther so that we might bring praise to God (Romans 15.7). We must contend as one man (Philippians 1.27). No obedient Christ-ian is an embarrassment to evangelism. Unity is because of Christ. He has broken down division. Don’t build it back up. How many Bible passages emphasise this truth? We must not have events which are elitist and emphasise differences.
The Bible has vast amounts on how we should be helping and not excluding those in financial need who are part of our churches. People coming in should not see those inside excluded or treated as second class because they are not from the same financial background.
Many Christian organisations patronise the poor and often send out letters and emails that would make a Pharisee blush saying how great their good works are (Matthew 6.1-4). If we are to help needy people in our churches, and we must, it must be done in secret. We mustn’t encourage the concept that we are better people because we are helping poorer people. The good works we show are being ‘poor in spirit’ — it doesn’t matter what your financial state is, you still have nothing. It is by being ‘meek’ and ‘hungry’ that we can be salt and light in this dark world.
Preach the message as God proclaims it. Christians need to preach life, hope, removal of God’s wrath and the only place that is found is in Jesus. We must preach the Christ of the Bible, who went through God’s wrath and rose to heaven, the Christ who brings all kinds of men, women, boys and girls to God.
Make Christ and his word central to church life. He is the same yesterday, today and forever.
So often when people see us gathering and ask what we are doing, Jesus is not in the answer. If someone came in, would they see we are the church of the living God or do they see dead religion? In the preaching, singing, communion, the way decisions are made, is the living Christ central and seen to be central?
We must reform and ever be reforming. Smash down the idols if you want to reach people, whatever those idols are.
Stuart Olyott told me once of a man from Kenya who had only ever met people from his locality until he was 19. One day, without warning, he stumbled across a white man and he was so shocked it made him physically sick.
When we meet people from different social or racial backgrounds, how do we start?
Remember that every individual is made by Jesus for Jesus to look like Jesus. He says they are all worth more than the world. Each individual is fallen and in sin. There is no difference. The gospel offer is for them and they can become members of our church if they call on the name of the Lord. There is no difference (Romans 10.10-12).
There is little in the Bible on exact methods, but in our church we just tell people. In fact, we try and tell everyone we can.
Therefore, we do what we can. Our church hands out invitations outside the church in the day, and in the night when the clubs are open, knocks on doors offering Bible notes, and is planting a church in an area of Swansea where people wouldn’t normally hear the gospel. If you have a burden for God’s glory and a love for souls, you’ll find a way.
Practice hospitality. Are dry biscuits a reflection of the hospitality God commands? Are we really showing people we are glad to see them?
Pray that we as churches would overflow (Romans 15.13).
God has been gracious and has saved all kinds of sinners in the last few years. He really can gather the most unlikely people. Every one of them amazes me. But it is not because of anything we do, it is all because of kindness we do not deserve. We simply try to obey him and cry out for grace.
I thank God for everyone he has saved in our church. I am overwhelmed that we are part of his great purpose. Every one of them has shown that God really has set the exact times and places of their life and he is not far from any of them (Acts 17). Reaching everyone is not so impossible.
We need to wake up and see what a glorious opportunity the living God has given us in our churches.
If you want to reach the so-called ‘working class’ or any other group, throw yourself into your church. Pray the prayers the Bible has given you to pray for it, give to it, serve in it. It is the pillar and ground of truth in a world of lies.
Steve Levy,
pastor, Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, Swansea
Original Source Evangelicals Now
Small article from Religious Intelligence:-
Church leaders and politicians are to host a summit in London next month to flag up concerns about the increasing persecutions of Christians in the UK.
The Tory MP Dominic Grieve QC, along with fellow MPs Paul Goodman, Gary Streeter and Paul Rowen, and the Bishop of Manchester, the Rt Rev Nigel McCulloch (pictured), are hosting a consultation at the House of Commons in Westminster on July 3 on the ‘Persecution of Christians in the UK’.
Leading Human Rights Barrister, Paul Diamond, and Yaqub Masih, secretary general of the Asian Christian Fellowship, will address a guest list of senior clerics, politicians and Christians who claim they are ‘discriminated against’ by employers, the public sector and local and central government if, in conscience, they share their faith or live it out in the workplace.
The Consultation will also hear ‘evidence’ from Andrea Minichiello-Williams, Director of the Christian Legal Centre which has supported and provided legal counsel to a wide variety of high profile ‘Christian persecution/discrimination’ cases in the past three years. Christians who have been in the media spotlight in recent months will also share their story. Guests will also hear from Professor Peter Wagner from the USA as to how increasing secularism in the USA has impacted freedom of speech and association for Christians in a country believed to be ‘Christian’.
Canon Yaqub Masih said: “Christians in this country are being sidelined and discriminated and even some Pastors have been threatened and beaten, because of preaching the Gospel. I believe it is time for Christians to raise our voices and stand up for our rights and values, which are being sacrificed in the name of political correctness.
“The Asian Christian Fellowship has arranged this consultation to encourage Christians to stand for Christ and Christian Values in this multi-culture and multi-faith Society, and also to raise our concern to the government for what’s happening.”
There are so many things that I haven’t posted about recently (because it all seems a little depressing) and one of them is the upcoming elections. I know that this will not be popular but I feel so politically apathetic and have done for so many years. I’m not sure how involved and concerned with politics Christians should be.
I know I am out of sync with most Christians with this apathetic political view, I am just really disillusioned with it all. I see so much time spent by the Bishops commenting on politics and urging us not to vote for the BNP etc (who seem to be the only party who take the threat of fundamentalist Islam in this country seriously – how’s that for controversial), it reminds of the USA where the pulpit is used to express political views and where has it got them?
Having said all that I received an email this morning from our friends at Christian Concern for Our Nation and with the great work that they do on our behalf wanted to post this for them:-
For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.
Romans 13:1 (ESV)
With the European and local elections now less than 24 hours away it is crucial that all of us cast our vote wisely. CCFON urges all our supporters to seek the Lord about where to place our vote and to exercise biblical wisdom in our choice of party.
In times gone by a vote for one of the major parties was unexceptional for Christians. However the anti-discrimination legislation brought in by this Government and broadly supported by the other parties has had the effect of marginalising Christians and creating a climate where Christianity is being relegated to a minority faith. Under this Government every safeguard against the promotion of the practice of homosexuality to our children and more generally in society has been removed with the result that it is now Christians who face discrimination for defending the Biblical view on this subject. However more seriously the seeds for the complete breakdown of family life and sexual restraint have been sown with devastating consequences for future generations.
All the political parties appear to court the support of homosexuals with Mr Cameron now intending to participate in the Gay Pride March at the end of this month. He will be the first Conservative leader to do so.
Furthermore none of the political parties are willing to take a robust stand against extreme elements of Islam that seek to impose sharia law on society and so seriously infringe on the rights of women and those who wish to change their faith. While there is talk about the need for change none of the political parties are willing to embrace the root cause of our problem which is the rejection of our biblical heritage. Our leaders have forgotten that while righteousness exalts a nation, sin is a reproach to any people (Prov 14:34).
The European Union is increasing its control over nation states and its heart is secular and contrary to the Biblical heritage of this land. It is therefore important to be aware of the European policies of each party and their long term effect on this nation. There is an increasing number of measures that directly impact on our Christian heritage which emanate from Brussels.
In particular we urge you to consider voting for those who are standing on a platform of Christian values which is what this nation and the whole of Europe so desperately needs, for without a vision the people perish (Prov 29:18).
With the European and local elections now less than 24 hours away it is crucial that all of us cast our vote wisely. CCFON urges all our supporters to seek the Lord about where to place our vote and to exercise biblical wisdom in our choice of party.
Article below (LifeSiteNews) about Tony Blair’s so called ‘Faith Foundation’, please have look at a previous post about him and his organisation (which provoked a few comments) if you get a chance:-
Tony Blair and Barack Obama – Angels or Demons
LONDON, June 3, 2009 (LifeSiteNew.com) – Until today, the website of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation (TBFF) still carried a note saying that Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor was expected to join their Advisory Council. But today a statement from the organization has said that the Cardinal will not join the Blair Foundation after all.
Parna Taylor from the Foundation told LifeSiteNews.com via e-mail, “We can totally understand Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor wanting to review his commitments” since his retirement. Taylor said that the Foundation had “always valued the private advice” given by the Cardinal.
“While they support the broad aims of the Foundation,” Taylor continued, “we do not expect the Advisory Council members to agree with Tony Blair on every aspect of policy past or present. Their role is to provide advice and guidance, alongside many other senior religious figures who provide such insights on a less formal basis.”
The Tablet news magazine reports that since Blair launched his Foundation in 2008, “it had been intended that the cardinal would join the advisory council once he had stepped down as Archbishop of Westminster.”
It is unclear precisely why the Cardinal has reconsidered joining the Foundation. However, his plans to do so had been heavily criticised by many faithful Catholics and members of the life and family movement in Britain. Tony Blair, who was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal O’Connor in December 2007, has been described by John Smeaton, the director of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children, as the “principal architect” of the culture of death in Britain during his decade as Prime Minister, largely on account of his support for abortion and embryonic stem cell research.
But Blair’s stock with the Catholic Church seems to have fallen since the installation of Archbishop Vincent Nichols as the replacement of the long-serving Cardinal O’Connor. After Blair gave an interview to a homosexualist magazine in which he chastised Pope Benedict for refusing to change the Church’s teaching on homosexuality, Nichols commented that the former Prime Minister’s strong “political instincts” have not helped his understanding of his religion.
Nichols told the Times, “Maybe he lacks a bit of experience in Catholic life.”
The Blair Foundation states that its purpose is “to promote respect and understanding about the world’s major religions and show how faith is a powerful force for good in the modern world.” Blair himself has described the work of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation as encouraging “faiths” to come together, overcoming differences in “doctrine.” A large part of his work, he said, is to urge religious leaders to reinterpret “religious texts” metaphorically rather than literally. He said religious leaders need “to treat religious thought and even religious texts as themselves capable of evolution over time.”
But Blair has been dispraised even by many on the left for his lack of depth as a religious leader.
In May, the Guardian’s Hugh O’Shaughnessy wrote that the “wheels are coming off” Blair’s religious project. O’Shaughnessy quoted Dr. Ghada Karmi of Exeter University who called him “at best – a total irrelevancy.” O’Shaughnessy noted that having annoyed the Vatican, and given “the hostility – and ridicule – that the Blairs and their associates stir up” he is “increasingly unlikely to achieve his ambition of becoming president of the EU.”
Stephen Pound, a Catholic Labour MP said that Blair’s “hubris” is “extremely counterproductive.”
“Entrance to the Vatican is only gained through a series of iron-clad, hermetically sealed, heavily padlocked and bolted doors, and I can hear them creaking shut as we speak.”
Interesting article in The Christian Post today, the irony of course, is that I would never have read this if it had not been posted online.
Our younger generation are more likely to be on the web than watch telly now and so maybe it’s time for Christians to engage folks more online and not less!
Contact me if you want your own Christian web presence 
The web can be a hissing snake of temptation trying to get us, not only to bite the apple, but to keep chomping on it all day and night. It can be used by the underworld to undermine our ministry effectiveness and, no, I’m not talking about porn. I’m referring to the underestimated underbelly of the internet known as neverending web surfing and social networking…in other words: wasting massive amounts of time on the web.
Now before you react I want you to think with me for a moment about how much time you spend on the web doing nothing productive. I focus on the word nothing because many productive things can be done on the web. I think of my buddy Tim Schmoyer who cranks out productive tools and training for youth leaders. His video trainings and blogs erupt from his current experience as a youth leader in Minnesota. His training is practical and Biblical and run with the blessings of his pastor. From everything I can tell it has not taken away from his ministry effectiveness but actually enhanced it. Why? Because he not only gives training away on his site but receives ideas from youth leaders all across the nation that he himself can implement in his own youth ministry.
But I get the feeling that for many ministry leaders, what may have started as a foray into social networking and blogging so that connections could be maintained and some cyber ministry done, has turned into a gigantic waste of time. For many ministry leaders it is easier to hide behind our desks surfing the web than it is to actually go out and do hands on ministry. I wonder, I really wonder how many pastors and youth pastors are wasting hours a day on Facebook, youtube, surfing or blogging while ministry needs of real people around them remain unmet.
I don’t have stats to prove this, just intuition. Maybe it erupts from my own personal battle to keep my web time to an hour a day or less on average. Maybe it comes from the last blog entry of Mark Oestreicher on ysmarko.com. His was one of the few blogs I would read on a regular basis. But, last week Marko decided to call it quits. He writes,
i’ve been having a value stand-off, between what i say my values are and how i’m living my life. and it’s eroding (and threatening) my long-term happiness, and the life i really want.
let me get to the point:
1. i’m going to stop nurturing the whole “ysmarko” thing. which means, starting today, i’m going to stop using facebook (i’m planning on deleting my facebook account tomorrow), and stop twittering (i’m going to delete my twitter account tomorrow), and this is my last blog post on ysmarko (at least for the foreseeable future, though i’ll leave the blog sitting here for now).
Wow.
He goes on to write,
“i know this is going to be hard in many ways, and i’ll likely go through some form of withdrawal. but i’m also excited about the new focus, extra time, and relational presence i expect to experience in the coming months.
i’ve enjoyed the interaction i’ve had with so many of you through this blog, and pray god’s blessing on you, as i ask you to do for me.”
I respect Marko for making this decision so that he can focus more time on his family and his ministry responsibilities at Youth Specialties. And, while I’m sure that he wouldn’t expect everyone to make this same decision, it should, at the very least, make us pause and consider about our own ministry values and how they may or may not conflict with how much of our time is spent on all things cyber.
If I were the devil I would do everything I could to distract every Christian I could from the things that matter most. I would take something amoral like the world wide web and use it as a web to capture my prey. I would tangle their schedules in the sticky seduction of endless, mindless social networking. If I couldn’t poison their minds through online porn, I would, at the very minimum, keep them locked in my web world so that they would have less time to minister in the real world. And I would do it all while whispering the caveat that “everybody’s doing it” and “this is how ministry is done in the postmodern world.”
Again, I’m not saying that time on the web is sinful at all. But it, like anything, can transfrom from a tool into a temptation, from a nice addition to our lives into an addiction that consumes our lives. Let us use the web to accomplish our calling and not be used by it.
Greg Stier is the President and Founder of Dare 2 Share Ministries in Arvada, Colo., where he works with youth leaders and students, equipping them to be effective in sharing the gospel. With experience as a senior teaching pastor and in youth ministry for almost 20 years, Greg has a reputation of knowing and relating to today’s teens. He is widely viewed as an authority and expert teen spirituality. He is known for motivating, mobilizing and equipping teens for positive change. For more information on Dare 2 Share Ministries, and the Invicible 08/09 conference tour, please visit www.dare2share.org.
Because there has been so much in the news lately regarding Christians in the workplace, I wanted to provide the following document from ‘The Christian Institute’ entitled: ‘Religious Liberty In The Workplace – A Guide For Christian Employees’
Please click the below link to view the article in a PDF format:-
Religious Liberty In The Workplace – A Guide For Christian Employees
Thousands of Christians are losing out on promotions and being hassled at work because of their beliefs, according to a new poll.
More than half of the Christians surveyed on behalf of The Sunday Telegraph said they had suffered some form of persecution for being a Christian.
And five per cent said they had been reprimanded or cautioned for sharing their faith at work.
The poll follows successive cases in recent months where Christians have faced problems at work because of their beliefs.
Earlier this year a Christian nurse, Caroline Petrie, was suspended after offering to pray for a patient. She has now been reinstated.
Last month it emerged that another nurse had been sacked for suggesting during a training course that going to church could help a patient suffering with stress.
A Christian foster carer was struck off because she allowed a Muslim child in her care to convert to Christianity.
A teacher, Kwabena Peat, was suspended after he complained that a staff training day was used to marginalise those who disagreed with homosexual practice.
David Booker, a charity worker in Southampton, was suspended under ‘diversity’ rules after answering a colleague’s questions about his Christian beliefs on sexual ethics.
Duke Amachree, a council worker, was also suspended from his job for encouraging a terminally ill woman to turn to God. Bosses told him that even saying “God bless” was unacceptable.
Jennie Cain, a school receptionist, faced the sack after her daughter was scolded for telling another child about her Christian faith and a private email from Mrs Cain asking church friends to pray about the situation fell into the hands of the headteacher.
Lillian Ladele, a London registrar, was bullied and faced the sack after asking to be exempted from registering same-sex partnerships.
Despite evidence that Christians are being increasingly sidelined in the public sphere, Equalities Minister Harriet Harman last week dismissed calls for a Parliamentary debate on the issue.
Miss Harman said: “This is really just a matter of basic good practice and common sense. There is nothing in any law or guidance that requires people to act daft.”
An atheist group recently produced guidance for employers, using funding from the Government’s equality watchdog, in which it claimed that Christians who evangelise at work could be breaking the law.
The guidance, from the British Humanist Association (BHA), says: “In some religions it is considered acceptable for believers to evangelise or ‘spread the word’.”
It claims that attempts by religious believers to proselytise “are highly likely to amount to harassment of their colleagues”.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) gave the BHA £35,000 to pay for the project which gave rise to the guidance.
Legal experts have condemned the BHA’s claims as “nonsense”, and Christian groups have dubbed them “propaganda”.
This week’s ComRes poll found that three quarters of Christians believe there is less religious freedom in the UK now than 20 years ago.
Five per cent said their beliefs had got in the way of a promotion, and ten per cent said family members had rejected them because of their faith.
ComRes surveyed 512 Christians at the end of April, selected through both liberal and evangelical media.
Challenging article from Christian Today
The convener of the Global Day of Prayer London has delivered a tough call to Christians in the UK to wake up and take an uncompromising stand for their faith.
More than 10,000 Christians in London prayed in each of the capital’s 33 boroughs as part of the Global Day of Prayer held across 219 countries on Pentecost Sunday.
Speaking at the Newham prayer meeting in East London, Pastor Jonathan Oloyede said that it was time for Christians to pray and act. He warned in particular of the threat posed by ungodly legislation being passed by Parliament and plans to build a so-called mega mosque at the site of the London Olympics.
“I used to be a Muslim. The Muslims don’t just want to build a mosque. They want to take over. If you want to roll over and play dead while the legacy of your forefathers is thrown in the dust and you can’t stand up and say enough is enough then you are not fit to be a Christian,” he said.
Pastor Oloyede said Christians in the UK needed to “stop trying to be nice and cute” in the face of threats to their faith and the wellbeing of the nation.
“All that stuff about not offending anyone is nonsense. I used to try to be nice to everyone but God said to me: You cannot be my messenger by being nice to everybody. So are you going to just play nice or are you going to be a
follower of Christ?” he said.
He stressed that he was not asking Christians to be violent or unkind but rather to be bold and “true to the calling you have as a citizen of the Kingdom”. Pastor Oloyede went on to urge Christians to be true believers by living out their faith.
“Many Muslims behave better than us Christians. Don’t be compromised. Be a Christian or don’t be. Stay in your nightclubs or come to church. Either be for God or be against him. There is no in between,” he said.
He told Christians that the future of Christianity in the UK lay in their hands. God, he said, was telling Christians to plunge a stake in the ground where they were and take each part for Christ.
“Many Muslim leaders have told me that if the Christians in this country stood up for their faith they would back off. London, England, wake up! You choose which way this nation will go. Pray that this nation will wake up to its true calling and intercede until we see his glory.”
In a video message broadcast to the GDOP London prayer meetings, London Mayor Boris Johnson paid tribute to the many Christian-run projects he said were helping to build community cohesion across the capital.
“We need your prayers at this time,” he told them.
Christians spent the afternoon praying for God’s Kingdom to come and his will to be done. Time was also given to prayer sof believers working within government, education, the NHS and the police, as well as church and ministry leaders.
Elsewhere in the UK, thousands of Christians joined in Global Day of Prayer meetings in Beverley, Chester, Norwich and York cathedrals, with more events held in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
For the first time, GDOP meetings were preceded by youth prayer meetings.
