I was looking through the search terms that got me here, and it looks like I haven’t been doing my research, despite telling you to do yours. The search query was “yohannan fraud kp”, and someone had ended up clicking on a link here (the GFA/Worldserve cheerleader) instead of the expose he/she was looking for.
Well, now you have it. I did the search myself and ended up with this website, bearing the title you now see.
This article was posted back on 7/25 on the GFA website, but I was reminded of it when I read the last article they sent me.
And it made me think back to a class the adult group in church was having on euthanasia in bioethics. The “lecturer” proceeded to inform us about the Terri Schiavo case insomething like this:
Life is precious. [Therefore, we should seek to preserve all life.]
Seemed pretty secular to me. Firstly, no one is going to argue that life isn’t precious. Even the Extremist Muslims in the Middle East feel that life is precious. Unfortunately, they just have a different view of what that means for them on earth. To segue, secondly, Jesus’ idea of life was entirely different than the one secular humanism believes in.
Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
In any case, because this particular man was a doctor, I’m sure he thought (as I learned, through a heated discussion) that his experience in the field would thereby lend credibility to his case. But here were my questions: what about the will of God and the power of God?
Wouldn’t God have allowed Terri Schiavo to live if he so chose? Wouldn’t prayer and a sincere heart for God have worked a miracle? I doubt he would’ve answered yes.
Moreover, it is indicative of an increasing self-reliance vs. reliance on God.
“Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
Miracles are in no short supply! They just don’t tend to happen where people have little to no faith.
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/latestnewsarticle?wid=DnfnePbS0lVrA3ABz0HrmA
Pastor Darpan’s church is thriving.
“God is using Pastor Darpan vigorously and doing wondrous miracles as he ministers and prays for the sick and needy who approach him,” writes a GFA correspondent.
Dreams are an important part of our existence. Although clearly not as central a component to American culture today (Gone with the Wind) as compared to Japanese mass media (Princess Mononoke, Final Fantasy, Evangelion, et. al), dream – ethereal visages or personal ambitions – tell a lot about our sense of personal image and our main concerns.
They have major ramifications in terms of moral obligation and future endeavor.
It’s too bad we in the “civilized countries” don’t pay too much attention to them anymore.
http://www.gfa.org/gfa/newsupdate100306?motiv=WA6A-G1LP
At 8:00 one evening, Prasad lay down to sleep as usual. However, as he would soon find out, the evening would be anything but normal, as his sleep was interrupted by two bizarre dreams.
In both dreams, dark-clothed men surrounded Prasad, but a host of angels fought on Prasad’s behalf with bow-and-arrow, swords and other weapons. The angels won the battle, and the men of darkness fled.
This post will be serving as a complement to a future post I’ll be doing on the failure of foreign aid. That’s right. So if you think your almsgiving has been helping people, think again. It might just have been funnelled to a terrorist agency, who knows.
The point is, don’t give blindly. Look at the financial breakdown of agencies you’re prospectively giving to in order to avoid scams (see Steve Irwin scam). Also, especially for churches – if your church is planning on building a multimillion-dollar new structure to incorporate new bells and whistles, while the main complex has proven to be relatively structurally sound, don’t go building it. If you really want to renew your city and impact the world, start a homeless sponsorship program or support a native missionary!
(BTW for you non-Christian readers, I’m going to argue a thesis that sponsorship of native-missionaries is becoming more effective as a medium for positive social change than traditional means).
The purchasing power of the US dollar in undeveloped countries could mean the difference between your sponsorship of Bill Missionary on a 6-week term from the US vs. support of Rajasekhar, Khagendra, Shen, and 16 others like them full-time and year-round, willing to risk all for Jesus.
Which is the better “investment”?
Associated Press
Originally published September 24, 2006
KAMPUNG JAWA, Indonesia // The tsunami of 2004 triggered the biggest humanitarian response in history, feeding the hungry, heading off epidemics and engendering the hope that out of a calamity that took 216,000 lives, a better Indian Ocean rim would emerge.
But 18 months later recriminations are rife, with aid agencies standing accused of planning poorly, raising unrealistic expectations and simply being incompetent.
Fundamentalist Christianity 