Why Iraqi's ISIS Escapees Are Coming to Christ in Droves

By Greg Yoder

"Could this happen to us in America?" That was the question from Patrick Klein President of Vision Beyond Borders following his recent trip to Northern Iraq.
The refugee crisis in and around Iraq is mind-boggling. According to the United Nations High Commission on Refugees (UNHCR), there are more 250,000 refugees living in Iraq. There are another 426,000 refugees from Iraq. And, another 1.9 million internally displaced people (IDPs). That means there are 2.4 million people who have incredible needs in and around Iraq.
Klein just returned from visiting refugee camps in and around Dohuk. The stories he heard were heartbreaking. The testimonies of Christians were amazing. The needs of refugees: overwhelming.
President of VBB Patrick Klein says he visited Iraqi refugees forced from their homes in Mosul–many of them, Christians. "Most of them have lost hope, and they're just discouraged. They say, 'Where do we go? What do we do now? Maybe if we come to America or Europe, we can start a new life.' I don't want to see 300,000 Christians leave Iraq [with] no Christian witness left in Iraq."
Many of the refugees are college educated, middle class Iraqis who had good jobs and bank accounts to help support their families. That all changed with the Islamic State started taking over in June. "There were 52,000 security forces protecting Mosul and the surrounding area. There were 3,000 ISIS. They believe Maliki, the former president of Iraq, told the generals to lay down their arms and surrender, and they don't know why."
When that happened, ISIS started going from village to village forcing Christians to leave. "A lot of [the Christians] had Muslim neighbors they knew for 30 years. These Muslim neighbors said, 'Get out of Iraq. You don't belong here. We hate you Christians."

They were forced to either convert to Islam, leave, or die. "One man told us: 'I think God is chastising us because we forgot God. We stopped reading our Bibles. We stopped praying. Maybe God is using this.' He said, 'I want to tell you, my family and I we're having devotions together every night. We're praying together. We're reading the Bible together.' He said, 'We realize that all we have is Jesus.'"
According to Klein, this trip was the hardest trip he's ever made. It forced him to ask an important question. "I thought: 'Could this happen to us in America? Could we be forced with a decision? Are we going to follow Christ, or walk away from everything we own?' I pray that the church in America would love him passionately, that we would not lose our first love."
The spread of ISIS is also impacting nominal Muslims who are helping refugees. Klein says, "A lot of people–Muslims–are saying, 'If this is what Islam is, we don't want to be Muslims anymore,' and they're opening up to the Gospel."
VBB is working through local churches on the ground there to provide for the needs of refugees. They hope to fill a shipping container. "We're going to send hygiene supplies: shampoo, soap, washcloths, toothbrushes, toothpaste, basic toiletry supplies. And then, we're also going to send in some medical supplies: vitamins, Tylenol, bandaids, and Neosporin–things like that."
Klein says you can either send in cash so VBB can purchase the supplies, or you can collect them yourself and send them to VBB's Wyoming office. Click here for additional information about VBB and their work worldwide.           

The Surprise Visit

My Wife and I had an experience that was a “first” for us as Parents. On a beautiful Saturday, with nothing to do, we sat around relaxing from a busy week, when suddenly our doorbell rang. Not wanting to be disturbed by a solicitor, my wife peeked out the front window to see who had interrupted our peaceful solitude. Seeing no one, she came back to the den when the doorbell rang again. She went back and looked out of the window again, but the person was standing too close to the door to be seen. Just then her cell phone rang. She answered and heard a familiar voice say, “Mom! Come to the front door!”

With a shriek of joy, Martha ran to the door shouting, Laura’s home! Sure enough, there at the door was our precious Daughter. She had surprised us with her first visit home from college. We enjoyed a group hug and kisses.

We were thrilled, and yes, surprised. After a great day of family time, she returned to the University that night. But the excitement of her first surprise visit is something that we’ll always remember.

Thinking about the experience, I remembered the story that Jesus told about the prodigal son. Though the circumstances were different, we read in the story about a father whose son had left home. This father had no idea if he would ever see his son again. He didn’t know of the calamity his son had gotten into. He only knew that his son was gone, probably forever.

Then one day, one ordinary day when he least expected it, he saw the figure of a man in the distance walking his way. Like us, he couldn’t believe his eyes. His beloved son had come home!  In the Bible account of the story it says, “And they began to be merry” (Luke 15:24 KJV).

Why such rejoicing? We rejoice because of love, the love of a parent for a child. As I pondered those things in my heart, my thoughts turned to God, our Father. As great as our love is for our children, it cannot compare to the love our heavenly Father has for us, His children. He proved that by giving His only begotten Son, Jesus, as a sacrifice for us. He did it so that all of His children could one day come home.

“For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16 NLT).

He loves us so much…why… we ought to pay Him a surprise visit! How do we do that you say? On an ordinary day, not a Sunday morning or a regularly scheduled prayer time, pay Him a surprise visit in the Spirit.

Pray, and talk to him. Spend time in his Word. Praise and worship Him in a song. Do it at a different place and at an unusual time. He’ll love it, and you’ll be blessed as well. Like that old song says, “And the joy we share… when we gather there, none other… has ever… known.”

Pay your heavenly Father a surprise visit. He’ll love it!

 

Blueprints Revealed For The Third Jewish Temple

The Easter Evangelists

I was speaking with a lady Evangelist who was very sad and disappointed. A new Pastor at her home church forbid her or any woman from ministering at their church any longer. She expressed heartbreak as she has been at that church for her entire 60 years, and now she was silenced.  Even though I tried to encourage her, she felt defeated because her freedom to minister her love for Christ to her people was taken away, simply because she was a woman.

Thinking about this, I reflected on the many women in church history who have made its very existence possible. I have marveled, with maybe a little envy, at the pure love for Jesus that women of God seem to have. They appear to be more dedicated, holy, and true to the Lord Jesus than us guys. I have known many such women, like my Grandmother Lillie, my Mother Mary, and my Aunt Carol Rose. The woman whose life I have observed the closest is my own wife Martha, who has served the Lord with love and Devotion without fail for nearly four decades, and has taught our daughter that same unflinching Devotion.

When I was 12-years-old, Mary Ruth Eller led me in the sinner's prayer in Vacation Bible School, and her daughter Regina serves as a missionary in Israel today. My Sunday school teacher Gloria Dudley continues her faithful service of teaching and ministering to the church for more than 40 years.  Today there are women with national and international ministries such as Marilyn Hickey and Beth Moore. What would the church be without these treasures?

We learn from scripture of the women who followed the Lord Jesus and helped Him in His earthly ministry, just as these women do today. Women have a special place in the Lord’s heart because of the pure love and Devotion that they have for Him. 

As we remember that first Easter, we find the Lord’s Disciples, the guys, in hiding, cowering and grieving behind locked doors, gripped with fear and unbelief. But the women go to the tomb with boldness to serve the Lord, even in His death. The angel of the Lord revealed to them that Jesus had risen and showed them the empty tomb. As they hurried to tell the Disciples, Jesus Himself appeared to them and these women were the first to worship the risen Lord.

Jesus showed tenderness as He told them, through their praises, to go and tell His brothers, the Disciples, to meet Him in Galilee. These precious women of God, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, Joanna, and others were given the first commission to share the gospel!
Scripture tells us,

“So they rushed back from the tomb to tell his eleven disciples—and everyone else—what had happened” (Luke 24:9 NLT).

Jesus used devoted women of God to be the first Easter Evangelists and spread the Gospel. He is risen!

Sharing in the Solitude of Christ

Have you ever felt alone? How is it possible to feel lonely in a world with the most technologically advanced methods of communications, and social networks, in the history of the world, all at our fingertips?   

Walking down a crowded street, we might as well be in a desert. Some sit in Church with dozens of smiling faces all around, worshiping and serving the same Lord, yet they might as well be floating in a raft, adrift in a vast ocean. This doesn't seem right! It makes you want to scream, HEY!!!!! I'm here! It's me!

What is going on? How can God allow this? Well, did you ever think that just possibly God could fill your solitude? God gave Adam a woman, a helpmate, because it was not good that he be alone. And yet, there was a place in Adam that couldn't be filled by Eve. There is a place in us that can only be filled by the presence of the Lord.

Once we've known God's presence, nothing, no nothing else can satisfy or fulfill the longing and desire that exists deep down in our spirits for Him. While in His earth walk, our Lord Jesus suffered loneliness unmatched by the loneliness of anyone else.

“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed” (Luke 5:16 NIV).

At a critical point in His life, when arrested, even His closest friends left Him alone.

“Then all his disciples deserted him and ran away.” (Mark 14:50 NLT)

Imagine the shock to His system, just being on the earth in a human body restrained by the limitations of mankind. We can't comprehend His loneliness, yet as we become more aware of Christ in us, we become more aware of every feeling, experience, thought, and all that is Christ.

Homesick? Sure, Jesus was homesick for the glory and fellowship He shared with Father and the Holy Spirit in heaven. Yet He loved us so much that He suffered horrible loneliness for our sake.

 

So, what is it for us to suffer a measure of that loneliness? It is a small price to pay, to know Him in the fellowship of loneliness. To really know Him, it is a blessing to share in His suffering loneliness.

This, and all suffering is a part of our life on earth. One day, we will shed the cares of this life like a butterfly sheds its cocoon. But until then, we have the Holy Spirit to comfort us in our suffering. Loneliness in a crowded world seems incredulous, but it happens to many people, including believers.

Let us not resent God. Instead, let us embrace loneliness as a gift, used of God as a tool to draw us even closer to Him. Know that He is acutely aware of every fiber of our being in our entire spirit, soul, and body. Loneliness in this world is nothing compared to the glory of walking in the Spirit in fellowship with them, the Three.

Remember, “there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother” (Proverbs 18:24 NIV). Jesus is that friend. In Christ we will never truly be lonely again as we walk in the Spirit with Him.

The Blessing

 

 

Mr. Spock, of Star Trek fame, would raise his hand and say “Live long and prosper.”

This "Vulcan salute, " as it has come to be called, was invented on the set of Star Trek by actor Leonard Nimoy during the filming of the second-season opener, "Amok Time." What the people didn’t know was that the Vulcan greeting came from Leonard Nimoy’s real life Jewish heritage.

He took it from the ancient blessing the Jewish Priests would bestow upon the Israelites. The Bible says, “Tell Aaron and his sons to bless the people of Israel with this special blessing:

“May the Lord bless you and protect you.
May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace.”                                                                 “So they will put my name on the Israelites, and I will bless them” (Numbers 6:23-27 NLT).

The actual blessing is done with both arms held horizontally in front, at shoulder level, with hands touching, to form the Hebrew letter "shin." This stands for the Hebrew word for "Shaddai", meaning "Almighty [God]."

 

With the hand symbol, the priest was putting the name of God on the people, sealing it upon them.

This is a special blessing God wants all of us to receive. This blessing is so important because it covers us completely in every area of our life, spiritually and materially.

This blessing is so specific that God commanded the Priests to bless the people not using their own words, but rather using and exact formulation for the blessing, prefacing the instruction with the words: “Thus shall you bless.”

This reveals that the blessing comes from the LORD Himself; the priests were a means for transmitting His gracious will. Now that we have Jesus, our Messiah, our Savior, we know that He is The High Priest, and that His sacrifice has made it possible for us to enter boldly before God.

So today we can pray, petition, and speak blessings knowing that our voice will be heard, and our words will be fruitful before the Lord our Creator, because of Jesus.

As we continue to study the Priestly Blessing we learn that the people accepted the blessing and responded. So how do we receive and respond to a blessing from our Heavenly Father? We anticipate His blessing with a thankful heart, and declare that His Word is so. Here is the blessing that the priests recited, along with the response of the people.

PRIEST: May the LORD bless you and protect you.

PEOPLE: Yes, may it be His will.

PRIEST: May the LORD shine His face to you and be gracious to you.

PEOPLE: Yes, may it be His will.

PRIEST: May the LORD turn (or lift up) His face to you and give to you peace.

PEOPLE: Yes, may it be His will.

You may ask, what does a Jewish blessing have to do with me?

The Bible says, “And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you” (Galatians 3:29 NLT).

So that means that all of God’s blessings are for us to obtain, because Jesus paid the ultimate price. Everything he promised pertains to all of His children.

So let us expect the blessings God, and enjoy His goodness. Be thankful for the gift of His Son Jesus, which is His greatest blessing to us each day of our lives.