Pray for Nepal's Spiritual and Life Well-being

Photo "Please Pray for Us"_NepaliChristians.com

I wrote about Nepal over a year ago and Lorilyn Roberts' comment reminded me then and now to pray more for Nepal's spiritual life in Christ. People continue to visit my article, so there is continued interest.  

     It's time for a Nepal update. Lorilyn's comment urged prayers for orphans (she adopted two children from Indonesia and has nurtured them into  youth and young womanhood), pastors, and missionaries there. 

     To mention orphans is the response to the tug on my mind, to remember to pray for them and for widows, as well. Many missionaries and local pastors and families in Nepal give of themselves daily, sacrificially, to help others.

     If you visit Nepal as a tourist or on business, you might be interested to learn more about a Christian Guest House that I learned about in researching news of Nepal's Christian life. I have not stayed there, but if I ever visit Nepal I would likely investigate this place to stay with my husband or a visiting group. The website says that the guest house is 20 minutes on foot from Patan and 20 minutes by car to the airport and Kathmandu City. Also, there is Internet with Wifi, plus "en-suites and economy rooms with various rates...affordable for all missionaries, students, back packers and to tourists also special rates for long term guests."   

     There is another side of life for Nepali Christians that we, in other places, can remember in our prayers...specific problems with acceptance of Christians as peaceable (my interpretation).  

Since I was a child, I've been fascinated by places far from my North Carolina home (USA). Perhaps you were the same, and like me perhaps that appeal never faded. When our children were working in the U. S., my husband and I worked and traveled in other parts of the world. Now that we live again in the U.S., we know there is still much to see and many more brothers and sisters in Christ to meet. 

     Whether we meet face to face or via Internet or news, we are one in Christ. Today, I think of the churches in Nepal. Perhaps one day we can go there...   
     Meanwhile, I have learned of Nepali Christians new to the U. S. Read more here. Some of the U.S.-based churches are in the eastern side, in Pennsylvania and Maryland.       

Copyright (c) 2013 Opinari Writers.

Controversy on and after Resurrection Day

Washington, DC

This Easter Sunday, if the reports are true, a great preaching opportunity was overlooked in the nation's capital city. As it often happens, that fact has drawn many of us to think of what was not said inside the church known as "the church of presidents" and "the presidents' church."
     The presidents' church is a narrow, pale yellow building that dates way back. It sits on the corner of 16th Street, NW, a little north of the White House visible across the way.
     It is where people in the capital city go to pray at times of national emergency. People left offices to go into that church to pray for President Reagan after he was shot one sunny afternoon. People went there to pray on days after 9/11/01. 

This day, Easter Monday. The Washington Post and other news sources were full of reports again about the historic church. On the most joyful day of the Christian calendar, Resurrection Sunday, the good news was not preached. Harangue does not help the soul or exalt God, if that is what happened, as reports said. What a humbling privilege it would have been to have heard Christ exalted. President Obama and his family were there to hear. As professing Christians, they most likely expected to rejoice.
     Yet, mind and hearts were lowered as familiar critiques of society's failures were recited, a missed opportunity.
     I have been thinking today of another church, an English church, on a snowy evening. It was the scene of another kind of history. On that snowy night, only two people entered there: an old preacher and a young man. The young man stopped in mainly to get out of a hard snowfall.
     He had been raised in a Christian home. Personally, however, he felt very unsure, almost antagonistic, about what he believed for himself.
     The preacher kept to his calling and preached the gospel. The young man listened as he sat in that cold church. The words brought unexpected warmth to the young man's soul. His heart and mind responded as the preacher ended, proclaiming, "Look up! Look up!" As in the phrase that leads into "...for thy salvation draweth nigh."
     When the preaching ended, the young man went out of that church a changed man. He soon realized God's call to preach. He sought to "stay true to the gospel," not knowing that he was to become known around the world, prolific in preaching, writing, prayer, teaching, and establishing help for London's poorest. He preached to the poor and the great. He was heard by royalty, everyday people, and powerful government leaders. He was London's great 19th century proclaimer of Christ.
     He was once criticized by another pastor for laughing from the pulpit. He replied that maybe it was that joy that drew so many. He did not know. He admired Christ who, he said, preached when He spoke and preached when He was silent. Preached preached by the sea, in the synagogue... and from a cross of crucifixion. 
     The name of the preacher who cried out "Look up!" was never greatly known and today has faded; the effect of his faithful preaching remains through his listener that night and his books--Charles H. Spurgeon* and his life devoted to Christ. That unknown preacher, the vessel of the good news, did his work that snowy night. He not only showed up; his preaching played a role in the salvation of a young listener being called by God.
     There was a third person in that English church in the unseen, living Christ. He was in the Washington church across from the White House, too. And many thought of Him, the One deserving of utmost praise.    
     "The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed." One Cross stands over the world. It points to the crucified and risen Lord. Kings and kingdoms, nations and leaders, news and uproar come and go. Christ remains. He is here and now, present and eternal. Some who do not know Christ Jesus today will soon know Him through the joy of His salvation. Their minds, hearts, and lives will open to God, with love and joy following. The gospel summary of Resurrection Day and every day is that Jesus is alive. 

Christ has died.
Christ is risen.
Christ will come again.

This is the day the Lord has made. Let's rejoice and be glad in it! 

*The Mourner's Comforter, Morning by Morning, and many other books by C.H. Spurgeon.
Copyright (c) 2013 Opinari Writers and Jean Purcell

Children of God, Rejoice!

link: Joyous Easter!

Copyright (c) 2013 Opinari Writers.

Good Friday-When Darkness Precedes the Light of Victory

The Friday that Jesus was crucified is called good Friday. Why, when the skies grew dark, the earth trembled, and it seemed that Christ had been defeated? In the gloom of Golgotha, called The Place of the Skull  and Calvary, the Lord Jesus was lifted up, nailed onto a heavy cross as a failure and a mockery of hope.  

     The Lord of all creation had been stripped, beaten, and spat upon. Lifted up, he bled and his tongue ached with thirst as soldiers gambled for his robe, untouched by the struggle above them. People below Him watched the stark exhibition of the grip of darkness. Or so it seemed, as the Lord of lords, King of kings, Ruler of rulers, and Leader above all nations hung on display. 
     Others, obsessed by worldly matters, considered that Friday (if they noticed it at all) as good riddance of a growing and unsettling delusion. They thought it good that the Man would live no more to trouble anyone.   

  

The crucified ones would be pronounced dead before evening. Who knows how many crosses stood on the shadowy dung heap outside the city of Jerusalem? Considering three specific crosses, holy scripture tells that the Lord, the Center, hung below a sign nailed as an after-thought: "Behold, the King of the Jews." 

     At one side of Jesus hung a criminal who denounced Him in sinister rebuke.

     On the other side, a thief clung to a personal hope: "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom."

     The suffering Savior answered: "... this day you will be with Me in Paradise."  The willing, though dying, criminal would be redeemed, by faith in the Lamb slain for the sins of the world.

     
On Sunday, Resurrection Day, followers of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the living God, would rejoice in the light dawning upon them on that third day. Joyous Easter followed a dark and hopeless  "good Friday"; the victorious radiance of God in Christ had defeated death forever...for any who would believe on Him, Jesus. 
     When good appears to be defeated, believers scan gloomy skies for rays of hope that God will reveal in His timing. Thanks be to God! Believers have on any dark day a "good day." We live in the goodness of Christ on the Cross. 

    

   

Copyright (c) 2013 Opinari Writers- Jean Purcell

Vessels of Hope

Writers of themes about faith raise questions about belief and experience. Readers, too, search for meaning and want reliability: What is true? What or whom can I count on? These questions arise often in times of monumental decision or inescapable suffering. 
     My attention stopped upon hearing a Christian sum up the life of a friend that had recently died: "He was a vessel people could talk to." That gives pause for thoughts about what matters in life. 
     In tough times, we think more about God, and even those not sure what they believe hope that Someone is listening. God is, and he is the Potter of the vessels that are his people, people like clay (Jeremiah 18). God works with them to make them into strong vessels of grace. The divine Potter knows each piece of clay's weak and vulnerable places. He intends to strengthen, reinforce, and reshape it. 
     Beryl Adamsbaum's book, Seeking God's Face, mentions the Apostle Paul's suffering. and his prayers, which God answered this way:   

"My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." 

Apostle Paul is a giant of the church, a man of fierce questions and devotion to God, and Beryl said, "If God's grace was sufficient for Paul, it is also sufficient for you today.His power is still 'made perfect in weakness.' "Paul understood this, and it led him to utter that confident cry of victory and triumph:

'I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses,

so that Christ's power will rest on me....'"

The man I heard described as "a vessel  people could talk to" had suffered much over the death of his son. That earthly dad, a believer in Jesus Christ, allowed God to help him. God overcame sorrow's torments and made the man a consoler whom others could talk to in their afflictions. 

     In her book, Beryl spotlighted God's available strength for weak vessels threatened by the stresses of loss and pain, writing: "This same strength is available to you in your weakness. Can you echo these triumphant, victorious, confident, glorious words of the Apostle Paul? Is this same experience yours? If not, it can be."

Source of quoted passages: Adamsbaum, Beryl. Seeking God's Face, Chapter 10, "Spring Will Come." Link page in French and English.

Copyright (c) 2009-2013 Jean Purcell's Opinari ~think, reason, believe