The tongue is one of the most vital organs in the human body. It directs us in 2 of the most important things we can do for ourselves. 1. It is a primary tool for eating and 2. it's secondary function is speech. Food keeps us alive and speech can either keep our relationships alive or kill them all together. In James chapter 3 verses 5-10 the writer tells us:

"The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. ⁶The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.  ⁷All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and creatures of the sea are being tamed and have been tamed by man, ⁸but no man can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.  ⁹With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. ¹⁰Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be."

OUCH!

Though James was speaking in general to all Christians in first century AD, it is a lesson that still applies today. Many of the books of the new testament are letters written to a specific church or group of people, but this letter is written to all Christians alike. When people or situations get the best of us we must remember that we are all created in the God's image and our mouths should speak with words that edify, encourage and correct in love. This goes for gossip as well as speaking harsh words of slander and abuse. Gossip kills the spirit and makes us assume that what we hear is what it is. This is not always the case. We should not have a preconceived notion of a person, action or event when we have no business otherwise. This only leads to a judgmental spirit and that is not a characteristic of Jesus Christ. If we are to be like Him we need to follow His example. This is one of the hardest lessons I have ever had to learn and re-learn. I've found that taming the tongue is one of the most difficult things for myself as a Christian to do. We must not live in a self-righteous bubble like so many of the Pharisees had done. When we hold our tongue, we unify the body. Just try not to bite it, because that really hurts  

Vampires, werewolfes, superheroes, and large blue people (Avatar) are what's trending the big screens, google searches, twitter pages, and mobile devices. While these are all fun and exciting phenomenons beckoning young people to follow the fabulous life of Hollywood A-listers, they have done little or nothing to show the rare and extrordinary real life super hero we have in Jesus. You know I never really had a picture of Jesus as a superhero before I studied the book of Revelation. Did you know that when Jesus returns he will be riding on a white horse? And not just any white horse, I imagine for the whole world to see him, it would have to be a rather large horse, wouldn't you think? He is described as appearing radiant like the sun with eyes that blaze like fire and is wearing MANY crowns upon his head. While I have heard that description before I had never really stopped to ponder this image of Jesus which follows in Rev. 19: " He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God " And Isaiah 63 adds this to the image:

 " It is I, speaking  in righteousness, mighty to save."

"Why are your garments red, like those of one treading the winepress?"

 " I have trodden the winepress alone; from nations no one was with me...I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground."

Ok let's stop to think about this for a moment. Righteousness? Blood? Trampled? Those are pretty vivid adjectives surrounding Jesus' return. See when Jesus comes back one day it will be in ALL of his glory and slendor and righteousness. He is soaked in the blood of our enemies. He will make vengenance on those who have caused harm to us, followers of the antichrist who are unrepentant. Kind of sounds like a great script for the next oscar award winning movie. But in this case it's the real deal, a real life superhero who will save us from every offense and will be victorious forever and ever.

And they all lived happily ever after.

Tough times in your life? Consider the scorecard of the apostles:

1. Matthew
Suffered martyrdom in Ethiopia, killed by a sword wound.

2. Mark
Died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged by horses through the streets until he was dead.

3. Luke
Was hanged in Greece as a result of his tremendous preaching to the lost.

4. John
Faced martyrdom when he was boiled in huge basin of boiling oil during a wave of persecution in Rome. However, he was miraculously delivered from death. John was then sentenced to the mines on the prison island of Patmos. He wrote his prophetic Book of Revelation on Patmos. The apostle John was later freed and returned to serve as Bishop of Edessa in modern Turkey. He died as an old man, the only apostle to die peacefully.

5. Peter
He was crucified upside down on an x-shaped cross. According to church tradition it was because he told his tormentors that he felt unworthy to die in the same way that Jesus Christ had died.

6. James
The leader of the church in Jerusalem, was thrown over a hundred feet down from the southeast pinnacle of the Temple when he refused to deny his faith in Christ. When they discovered that he survived the fall, his enemies beat James to death with a fuller's club. * This was the same pinnacle where Satan had taken Jesus during the Temptation.

7. James the Great
Son of Zebedee, was a fisherman by trade when Jesus called him to a lifetime of ministry. As a strong leader of the church, James was ultimately beheaded at Jerusalem. The Roman officer who guarded James watched amazed as James defended his faith at his trial. Later, the officer who walked beside James to the place of execution, overcome by conviction, declared his new faith to the judge and knelt beside James to accept beheading as a Christian.

8. Bartholomew
Also known as Nathaniel was a missionary to Asia. He witnessed for our Lord in present day Turkey. Bartholomew was martyred for his preaching in Armenia where he was flayed to death by a whip.

9. Andrew
Was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Patras , Greece. After being whipped severely by seven soldiers they tied his body to the cross with cords to prolong his agony. His followers reported that, when he was led toward the cross, Andrew saluted it in these words: 'I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it.' He continued to preach to his tormentors for two days until he expired.

10. Thomas
Was stabbed with a spear in India during one of his missionary trips to establish the church in the sub-continent.

11. Jude
Was killed with arrows when he refused to deny his faith in Christ.

12. Matthias
The apostle chosen to replace the traitor Judas Iscariot, was stoned and then beheaded.

13.Paul
Was tortured and then beheaded by the evil Emperor Nero at Rome in A.D. 67. Paul endured a lengthy imprisonment, which allowed him to write his many epistles to the churches he had formed throughout the Roman Empire. These letters, which taught many of the foundational doctrines of Christianity, form a large portion of the New Testament.

As many of you know we have missionaries that we support as one of our 33 boots on the ground in Iraq. They are in the midst of an election re-count and a changing of the guard will be happening soon which could be the reason for some of the upheaval the citizens are experiencing. I urge you to pray for them and in particular our brothers and sisters in Christ who are surrounded by the constraints of Muslim Fundamentalism. Please see the article below to get a clear picture of the persecution there.--Toni

Wednesday, May 5, 2010

Iraq: Christians Under Siege

By Elizabeth Kendal
Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin (RLPB) 054
Special to ASSIST News Service

AUSTRALIA (ANS) -- Iraq's last official census (1987) counted 1.4 million indigenous Assyrian and Chaldean Christians. As Islamic zeal and Arab nationalism rose in the wake of Gulf War 1 (1991), Christians with means emigrated. By the time of the March 2003 US invasion, the Christian population of Iraq was estimated at between 1.2 million and 800,000. Today, after seven years of war, sectarian conflict and ethnic-religious cleansing, a remnant of some 400,000 Christians remains. The Shi'ite south has been virtually 'cleansed' of Christians and few remain in the Sunni-dominated centre. Christians now live mostly in the north: in the historic Assyrian homeland of the Nineveh Plains, a fault-line region between the Arabs (who invaded up from Arabia in the 7th Century) and the Kurds (who invaded down from Turkey in the 14th Century). Terrorism targeting Mosul's churches and Christians has escalated ever since the US 'surge' forced al-Qaeda elements out of the central provinces of Anbar, Baghdad and Diyala to reloc ate north. Christian families continue to flee Mosul in large numbers. Those still there report being intimidated and harassed with threatening phone calls and letters. Many Christian women have taken to wearing the hijab to hide their Christian identity.

Christians are so endangered in Northern Iraq that Christian students must travel to university in convoys with Iraqi military escorts. On Sunday morning 2 May two bombs ripped through a convoy of buses transporting Christian college students from the mainly Christian town of Hamdaniya, 40km east of Mosul in the Nineveh Plains region of Northern Iraq, to the University of Mosul. According to reports, once the first buses had passed through the Kokjali checkpoint (manned by US, Iraqi and Kurdish soldiers) a car bomb parked on the shoulder of the highway exploded in their path, followed moments later by a roadside bomb. A local shopkeeper was killed and more than 100 people were wounded (17 critically) including some 70 of the targeted Christian college students.

Jamil Salahuddin Jamil (25), a geography major on the first bus, told reporters one of his classmates lost her leg in the attack and two others were blinded. 'We were going for our education and they presented us with bombs,' he said. 'I still do not know what they wan t from Christians.' Of course Jamil knows exactly what the Islamic terrorists and the Muslim fundamentalists who support them want from Christians: he just can't bear to contemplate it let alone verbalise it. What they want is Christians to be driven out of Iraq and those remaining to be 'utterly subdued' (Qur'an, Sura 9:29).

Despite the desperate pleas of church leaders, Iraqi Christian refugees are reluctant to return. Speaking in Damascus, Syria, Christian refugee Toma Georgees told CNS (23 April 2010): 'It's . . . impossible to turn back to Iraq. Our problem is not with the Iraqi government. Our problem is with Iraqi people . . . who want to kill us, who want to kill all the Christians.' In the early 1950s Iraq's more than 120,000-strong ancient Jewish community -- which dated back to the Babylonian captivity and had come to comprise the elite of Baghdad -- was eradicated. Now it appears it is the turn of the indigenous Assyrian and Chaldean Christians.

When it erupts -- as it eventually will -- the battle f or fault-line Nineveh and oil-rich Kirkuk will engulf northern Iraq and draw in regional players. Meanwhile the dark smoke of sectarianism is rising again out of the volcano that is Baghdad. When ethnic and sectarian conflict resumes -- as it eventually will -- the Christians will lose the state protection they presently have. The future of Iraq is bleak indeed.

(Links and further details on the plight and future of Iraq's Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, as well as coverage of the March 2010 election results, can be found at Religious Liberty Monitoring, http://elizabethkendal.blogspot.com/ )

WE PRAY THAT OUR SOVEREIGN AND MERCIFUL GOD WILL:

• assist Christian families fleeing for refuge and protect those staying. 'Your way was through the sea, your path through the great waters; yet your footprints were unseen. You led your people like a flock . . . .' (Psalm 77:19,20a ESV.)

Lea d and protect your people again, O Lord our Saviour (Psalm 17:7), Good Shepherd (Psalm 23) and Rock (Psalm 18). 'Show the wonder of your great love, you who save by your right hand those who take refuge in you from their foes.' (Psalm 17:7 NIV.)

• open up places of refuge for Iraq's Assyrian-Chaldean Christians who have lost so much, including homeland and loved ones; may he mend their broken hearts, heal their pain and in his grace grant them peace, hope, friendships and bright futures amongst God's people in other lands.
• open the eyes and minds of many Iraqi Muslims to recognise the superiority of the Gospel and then open their hearts to receive it. 'For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.' (Ephesians 2:8,9 ESV.)

I guess Justin Beiber is the new kid on the block on the billboard charts this month. Poor kid, doesn't even know what "German" means. What does this say about the state of our country's education system? And English isn't even his 2nd language! Stop the madness!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DkKqihEUmH4&feature=player_embedded

It's night 4 of the telethon, or Family Week, if you prefer.  One of the subjects that staff always bring up here is "What are we up against tongiht?"  In other words, is there a popular show on tonight that will take viewers away from watching the telethon.  We regularly go up against American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, Lost, The Office, you name it.  Tonight we are going up against on of our biggest nemisesis for the Spring Telethon: Penguins playoff games.  Add to that the first ever primetime broadcast of The NFL Draft and it can be a cause for concern.  But it doesn't bother me.  We have a mission to accomplish, with our regualr programming and with telethon.  God will help us over come any obstacles, including Sidney Crosby. (But I hope he does great!)

It's 25 minutes until the next night of telethon. If you turned on the tv right now you'd think that we were already underway.  that's because we re-air each night's program on the following day. It works out well.  The annointing is still on a program even if it's not live.  so if you tune in now you'll see LaVerne Tripp.

We normally have a "talent" meeting at 6:15 but I think I missed it.  I was getting make-up. Ahh, the trials and tribulations of television ministry!  Actually i never liked the term "talent" when referring to on-air people; as if others are not talented.  But it an accepted industry term for those in front of the camera, so I let it go. You have to pcik your battles. Just as long as we all recognize that God gives "talents" to us all.  Hey, that sounds like a parable.