Suffering for Christ

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the passage from Colossians that talked about as Christians we should expect to suffer for our faith. We talked about how we are most like Christ when we suffer for our faith and are persecuted for our faith.

I don't know what suffering is. Most of us in America don't. We don't suffer from a lack of the basic necessities of life (food, water, shelter, clothing), and we certainly don't know what it's like to be persecuted for our faith. To us, persecution happens when we are dismissed as irrelevant by society because of our faith in Christ. When someone laughs at us because we take the Bible literally....when someone smirks because we say Jesus is the only way to heaven....or when someone rejects us when we try to share the gospel with them. That's not really persecution is it? Maybe it's a mild form of it, but for lack of anything more harsh, that's what we know persecution to be.

When I think of Persecution I think of Paul, imprisoned for his steadfast insistence that Jesus was Lord. I think of people like Jim Eliot and those with him who were martyred by the Aucans for trying to take the gospel to that once unreached people group. But that doesn't happen any more, right? This is the modern era....the world is more civilized now, right?

WRONG!

Unfortunately, this still goes on, even today. Take this story for example. I get a weekly prayer update from Voice of the Martyrs , and this morning I received the following update:

CHINA- Prominent House Church Leader’s Sons Assaulted by Chinese Police – China Aid Association

On October 16, Zhang Jian, the elder son of Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan, was severely beaten by Public Security Bureau (PSB) officials in Beijing, China Aid Association (CAA) reported. Zhang Jian was at home with his mother, Xie Fenglan, when PSB officials entered their residence and secured the exits before severely beating him with iron bars for nearly half an hour. “As Zhang lay bleeding profusely, his mother called the ambulance, but the receptionist told her that a higher government authority gave a directive not to dispatch an ambulance to rescue Zhang because he is related to Pastor Bike,” CAA reported. “Xie Fenglan called her younger son, who rushed to the house and was also beaten by the same authorities,” CAA added. After some time a family friend took Zhang Jian to a local emergency room, where doctors said he was so severely beaten that he may lose sight in his right eye. The family has not been able to contact Pastor Bike, who was traveling at the time of the attack, and they fear he might have been detained by authorities. Pray for Zhang Jian and his younger brother’s quick recovery from the attack. Ask God to protect Pastor Bike and his entirely family during this challenging time. Praise God for this family’s faithfulness to risk their all for the sake of the gospel.

This happened in China, the day before my birthday...last Thursday. While I was getting ready to blow out 42 candles on my birthday cake, a brother in Christ was being beaten to within an inch of his life simply because he was a Christian, and simply because his father was a pastor of a church. THAT is persecution. And it happens every day in places all over the world like Sudan, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran, China, Myanmar, etc. Fellow brothers and sisters in Christ are being dragged out of their home and beaten, imprisoned, tortured, and in many cases murdered for their faith in Jesus Christ.

This drives me to two points of action. First of all prayer, and secondly, to live more boldly for Christ here in America.

The one thing that persecuted believers all over the world continue to ask for is prayer. They ask that we lift them up and pray for them....not to be delivered from persecution and not prayer for the poersecution to necessarily stop. They know better than we that throughout history, when the church is persecuted it becomes stronger and more committed and ultimately grows. What they ask is that we pray for them to be strong amidst the persecution. To be able to stand up under it and still keep the faith. They want us to pray that their faith would be stronger, and that they never give up. If you know the Lord, why not pause some time today and pray for your brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering for their faith right now.

Also, November 9th is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. Spend time specifically on that day, learning about and praying for persecuted Christians throughout the world. For more information on the persecuted church, checkout these sites:

• http://www.persecution.com/ - Voice of the Martyrs website; informaiton about persecuted Christians.




• http://www.opendoorsusa.org/ - Open Doors, a ministry of prayer and missions to persecuted Christians.



• http://www.operationworld.org/ - a site based on the prayer resource by Patick Johnstone, "Operation World" detailing prayer requests for every country on the planet.

The second thing that learning about the reality of modern-day persecution of Christians drives me to do is to be more bold about my faith. I'm not persecuted for my faith in America. I don't know what its like to suffer for my faith like these brothers and sisters in China and the Sudan do. I shouldn't take for granted the freedom I have to read my Bible in public, to share the gospel with my neighbor, and to pray outloud in a restaurant without fear of persecution. One of the best ways I can honor the Christians who have been martyred and the Christians who are being persecuted at this very moment all around the world, is to live out my faith more boldly.

Who knows...perhaps this day may be the last day we have with this kind of freedom. May we not take it for granted!

Glad to call myself a Biblical literalist

Since my last post was about Voddia Baucham's book, I thought I'd add this post as a transition.

The other day I saw this interview on YouTube with Dr. Baucham and Margaret Feinberg. I actually had nevre even heard of Feinberg before. Seems as though she's pretty high profile, especially in emergent hotbeds like Catalyst and Fusion, but that's probably why I've never heard of her (I must not be very relevant). I have no reason to doubt that she is a born again follower of Christ, or that her ministry is trying to do some real good things. In fact, if I met her, I'd probably like her alot. Still, I can't get over how she chimes in with Kyra Phillips (CNN anchor) to essentially ridicule Dr. Baucham as old-fashioned. Dr. Baucham consistently points back to scripture and stands on the text of God's Word and nothing else. Feinberg attempts to redefine screipture and make herself "relevent" to cultural feminism.

It all comes down to how we approach the Bible. Do we take the Bible (the whole Bible) as the inspired word of God, and seek to define our world and truth for our world based on what we find there (the Biblical literalist position), or do we take what the world says is true, and seek to define what the Bible means based on that (the Biblical moderates, or "the Feinberg position").

See the video here...


Is it controversial? Yep. Is it dealt with in scripture? Yep. Do we have the right to question God on how He sets things up? Nope!

Has the concept of Biblical manhood and womanhood been abused and misused throughout history? Unfortunatley so; however, does that mean we should no longer do things God's way just because there have been fallen men (and women) who have corrupted God's original design? No, we never have the right to redefine God...no matter how "un-contemporary" or "out of touch" His ways may seem in our post-Christian culture.

If anyone wants to investigate what the Bible has to say about men and women, I would advise actually reading the Bible. Here are some texts to begin with....
(Gen 1:26-27, 2:18; Gen 3:1-7, 12, 16; 1 Cor 11:2-16; 1 Cor 12:7-21; Eph 5:21-33; Col 3:18-19; 1 Tim 2:11-15; Tit 2:3-5; 1 Pet 3:1-12)

Additionally, The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood has a stellar reputation of respected scholarship and conservative theology. I would highly recommend visiting their site and doing some extended research.

Thanks,
Ken

Family-Driven Faith - book review

If you are a parent, and you don't want to be challenged in your parenting, then DO NOT read this book by Voddie Baucham. If, however; you are interested in learning how to be a BETTER mom or dad, then this book will provide good fodder for your consideration. But, I've warned you ahead of time! :)

I'm almost finished with this book, and it has kicked my patootie in many areas as a Dad. In fact, its been so challenging, and because I've found myself physically nodding my head in agreement on almost every page, I've decided to go back to the beginning with my wife (Susan), and read it with her. It has challenged us, but it has been such a blessing to consider together why we do things the way we do as a family.

The underlying method Baucham takes in this book is to take the prevailing worldview that many of us have bought into today in one hand, and then take the things we do as a family, and the ways we do them, and what we stand for as a family in the other hand. Then he challenges us to consider how we operate as a family through the lens of a Biblical worldview as opposed to the predominant humanistic, man-centered, me-first, pleasure-at-all-costs, entertainment-driven, leisure-focused, convenience-minded worldview that we hear from the culture around us in 21st century America. When you walk through that process with everything you do as a parent (i.e. how we do church, how we educate our kids, what we expect of our kids, how we disciple our kids, etc., etc.), then you'll end up with several new areas to rework. At least we did....the question for us is where to start.

Well, we've decided to start with family worship. We started this daily habit recently, and it has been such a joy. We read the Bible together, pray together, and sing together, all with a focus toward glorifying God together as a family. I've got four boys (one is a teenager), and it has been awesome to see how they look forward to this time, and participate in a way that demonstrates that they truly are worshipping God.

It has put a smile on my face (and Susan's) more than once, but most importantly, I believe God is smiling more in behalf of our family now too. If we get nothing else from the content of this book (I doubt that), this is enough for me to say "thank you Voddie Baucham!".

Mission Trip video - Check out the video that Tyler put together of our mission trip to Ghana. Great job Tyler!

Home again!

Wow!

I don't know where to begin to describe the last couple of weeks. This has been one of the most amazing experiences of my life. I saw God do some incredible things, and use us in ways I never thought He would. I'll be uploading pictures and videos, etc. from the trip soon, but this trip was not about pictures and videos, it was about our Lord Jesus Christ. It was God who divinely orchestrated this trip in the first place. I wanted to go to Bangladesh....I didn't have any interest in going to Africa. But God intervened, and clearly showed me this was where we needed to go.

In all, we shared the gospel and ministered to nearly 3,000 children. I had the opportunity to provide disciple-making training to 78 pastors and church leaders, from over 30 different churches in 3 different villages in the Volta Region of Ghana. Our team preached in four different churches during our time in country. And last but certainly not least, we were able to forge what we hope to be a long-term relationship with an amazing missionary family, Lloyd and Jan Chinn.

In the coming days, I will be sharing on here some of the lessons God taught me about Himself, about myself, about His heart for the nations, about our church, and about the state of the 21st century American church in general. Many lessons....I just hope God will give me the grace to learn them all and apply them all.

For those who helped send me and for those who prayed for us, I cannot begin to thank you for your support. Your were truly there with us. Know that your participation, however great or small, is pleasing to God.

For now, I think I need some more rest. Jet-lag, coupled with this residual African intestinal "thing" I've got is enough to bring down a water buffalo....and certainly me.

To Him be all glory!

Ghana Prayer Update - June 23-24

This is our final day in Ghana. Today we will travel from
Anomabo to Accra. We will have an hour or so to visit a
local market in Accra, have our last Ghanaian meal together
and then check in at the airport. We will be departing
Ghana at 10:35 PM back to England and then onward
to Atlanta arriving around 4:35 PM on June 24th.
Ask God to keep us safe in our travels, once again. Please
also lift up prayers of thanksgiving to the Lord for protecting
us, revealing His heart to us and ministering to
His Ghanaian people through us. Pray that each and
every member of the team will always remember what
God did within them on this mission trip. Lastly, pray
that the team would return to the U.S. full of stories
about how God spoke to us and worked through us on
this journey and that we share them with passion to encourage
other believers to “Go make disciples of all nations.”

“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the
name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the
Father through Him.” - Colossians 3:17

Ghana Prayer Update - June 21 - 22

These are travel days from Nkwanta to the Cape Coast
area where we will visit Kakum National Forest and visit
the Cape Coast Slave Castle. We will also be meeting together
as a team to reflect on how God has used us in
Ghana and to praise Him for His goodness toward us.
Pray that God will continue to help us grow spiritually as
we consider these things. Pray that our hearts will be full
of thanksgiving for the answered prayers and for the accomplishment
of the ministry we came to do. Thank
Him for his provision of safety and for the relationships
that were established in Ghana. Pray for a time of rest.

“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshippers
will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father
is seeking such people to worship him.” - John 4:23

Ghana Prayer Update - June 20

This is the last major day of ministry for us so please pray
that we are able to give ourselves entirely to this day, that
we have strength and good health. Today will be another
village outreach to children. Ask God to open their
hearts and eyes to the message of hope in Him.
Pastor Ken will again be training a new group of area pastors
in a different village. In the afternoon
we will have an opportunity to either rest (much
needed) or to visit the Kyabobo National Forest. Pray
that we make the wise choice about what to do.

“But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to
myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I
received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel
of the grace of God.”
- Acts 20:24

Ghana Prayer Update - June 19

We will continue today ministering to children with Pastor
Hope Ameyao with CEF. Pray that the children at
this school have hearts that have been made tender by the
Holy Spirit to the message we share with them. Continue
to pray for our well being so that we are all able to serve
the children today. During this time, Pastor Ken will be
training indigenous pastors in a neighboring village. Tonight
we will be participating in an open air outreach in a community
that is strangled by fetish priests. Pray the power of God
will be made known in this village tonight. Ask God to empower
us to withstand any evil waged against us. Pray that we will be able
to share the gospel in a relevant way and that it will be received
by the lost in this village.

“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

Ghana Prayer Update - June 18

It’s mid-week and we will be participating in the Pastors
Prayer Breakfast in Nkwanta. This is a time of prayer by
and for the local indigenous pastors. Pray that their
prayers will be heard and accepted by our Father. Pray
for Pastor Ken as he will be speaking at this event. We will
also be involved in a “surprise” Service Project today. Pray
that no matter what work we are tasked with we will do it
with the joy of the Lord in our hearts and we radiate the
very hope of Christ that we have come to share.

“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.”
- Romans 5:8

Ghana Prayer Update - June 17

Today we will be ministering to children in Kecheibi.
Please continue the prayers of yesterday for the children
of Kecheibi. Tonight we will be participating in an open
air outreach with the Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF)
director in Nkwanta, Pastor Hope Ameyao. Pray that
our testimonies will stir the hearts of the children here to
want to know Jesus Christ personally. Ask God to keep
our attitudes, our hearts and our message pure before
these people. Pray that all those we minister to today will
receive us as servants of the King of glory. Pray that they
would hear the spirit of God and ignore the spirit of the
world. Pray that they accept the free gift of life eternal
and not settle for death.

“For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal
life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
- Romans 6: 23

Ghana Prayer Update - June 16

Today is our first planned outreach in Ghana. Pray that
we would all be well rested and free of illness as we begin
this week. Today we will be ministering to kids at New
Life Preparatory School while Pastor Ken Rucker will be
teaching indigenous pastors in Kpassa. Pray that the Holy
Spirit will cause the children to be receptive to our ministry
and that the message is relevant in their culture. Pray
that God will use us to show them His love. Ask God to
use Ken’s teaching to the indigenous pastors to increase
their own ministry effectiveness to people that they minister
to. Pray that the Holy Spirit would open the pastors
understanding to the truths that Ken shares and that they
can apply those truths in their respective churches. Ask
the Lord to make His message heard. Pray for our safety
during travels today.

“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
- Romans 3:23

Ghana Prayer Update - June 15

Today, Sunday, the Lord’s Day, we will be worshipping in
a local church fellowship in Nkwanta. We will most likely
be asked to speak and share our testimony. Pray that our
testimonies will be pleasing to God and will encourage
the believers in this local church gathering. Pray that the
Holy Spirit will move among the worshippers to convict
any who are not saved that they may have life eternally.
Ask God to continue protecting us, giving us strength in
the days that are ahead and for all cultural barriers to be
broken down. Pray that we would continue to look to
Him when weariness is upon us.

“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not
have the Son of God does not have life.” - 1 John 5:11-12

Ghana Prayer Update - June 13 & 14

Today and tomorrow the team will be doing community
service projects. This means we will be partnering with local
Ghanaians and working side-by-side with them. Pray
that this work will be glorifying to God, that it will show
our servant hearts to the people and that because of our
willingness to work with them opportunities will be provided
to share Christ. Pray that during this time of work
we will remain focused on the mission and not discouraged
by the heat and conditions. Pray that God will protect
us from injury during our work.

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
But how are they to call on him in whom they have not believed?
And how are they to believe in him whom they have
never heard? And how are they to hear without someone
preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As
it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the
good news!” - Romans 10:13-15

Ghana Prayer Update - June 12

Today, Thursday, we will be traveling from the Baptist
Guest House in Accra to our area of ministry in
Nkwanta. Our travel time is approximately six hours.
Today pray that we will be well rested. Pray for God’s
protection of our team, our driver, our hosts, and the vehicle
we will be traveling in. The roads are not very good
and thus the ride will be slightly bumpy. Pray for our
safety and comfort. Pray that those with bad backs and
other aching parts will be free from pain and discomfort.
Pray that the Holy Spirit will strengthen our hearts for the
work ahead beginning tomorrow. Ask God to begin to
prepare the hearts of the people we will be ministering to.
Ask Him to remove any and all barriers to the truth
which we have come to proclaim in the name of Jesus
Christ.

“Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous
works among all the peoples!” - Psalm 96:3

Ghana Prayer Update - June 10 & 11

Today, our flight departs Atlanta at 6:35 PM in route to
London, England—Gatwick Airport. We will have a 6.5
hour layover and will have to leave Gatwick Airport and
travel to Heathrow Airport. We will have to enter into
customs, transfer airports and reenter through customs
again. Pray that God will keep us safe in our travels, that
the airport transfer with luggage and customs issues will
be without trouble. Once in the air again we will arrive in
Accra, Ghana’s capital, on June 11th at around 8:10 PM
local time. Ask God to renew our strength when we arrive
in Ghana and to provide us with joy during our entire
journey. Ask Him to help us adapt to the Ghanaian Culture,
to tenderize our hearts, so that we will have compassion
on the people of Ghana. Also ask Him to remove
any and all fear that we may receive from the initial culture
shock when we arrive. Finally, pray that each team
member would grow spiritually during this trip. The team
is: Chris Holloway, Hannah Holloway, Angie Sallee, Tim
Sherwood, Lea Ann Sherwood, Nicole Sherwood, Alex
Sherwood, Ken Rucker, Tyler Recker & Kevin Sanders.

Packed and ready to go to Africa!

Well, the suitcase is zipped up, and I'm sportin' a new even shorter hair cut, Can't imagine what else I need to do....except maybe go pack my Krispy Kreme frequent diner's card.

I'm Psyched, pumped, and ready for the adventure ahead. With your help, I'm also prayed-up!

I just heard today that I will also be preaching on Sunday in Ghana. That means about 5 or 6 speaking engagements on this trip. What a privilege! Please pray that the Lord gives me the right words at the right time, and that His Word does exactly what He intends for it to do.

I met with a wonderful Christian Ghanaian man today named, Michael. I was put in touch with him through one of the folks on my support team. Michael immigrated from Ghana along with his wife 3 years ago. He is still trying to iron out the paperwork issues in having his children come to the USA as well. He shared some spiritual insights from his homeland, and I believe that God will use them to help me reach the lost in Ghana, and encourage the believers. He said that some of the Christians there also worship other gods. Most of the villages have "fetish priests" where villagers can go offer a goat or some kind of "offering" in exchange for prayers and incantations to help meet their needs. Michael told me that even some Christians do this because sometimes they pray to God (the Lord Jesus Christ), and yet still have very little food, or no job, or whatever, so then they go to the fetish priest for help. It seems that they have trusted in Christ, but not fully. It remains to be seen whether those people are truly believers in Christ or not, but it struck me how similar this was to the American church.

We say we believe, and we give lip service to faith, but how many of us sometimes end up placing more trust in other "gods". Our gods may not be fetish-priests, but they are "other gods" nonetheless. They are things like money, influence, career, drugs, alcohol, relationships, or anything else that we end up running to instead of Jesus.

Maybe my experience as a Christian in 21st century America will have some carry-over to the culture of Ghana after all. Well, except for the lack of Krispy Kremes....I guess I'll leave that frequent diner's card at home after all.

Ghana Prayer Guide

If you are part of our support team, or if you have a heart for taking the gospel to the nations, then we would love for you to enter into a season of prayer for our efforts in Ghana. Our amazing team leader, Chris Holloway, has prepared a Prayer Guide that will tell you each day what we will be doing and how to pray specifically for the efforts and activities of that day. The daily prayer updates will be automatically posted on this blog each day, beginning on June 10th. Just visit this blog daily, or subscribe to the RSS feed to get the daily prayer needs. If you would rather download the entire PDF, you can go directly to the NBCC website, and click on "Document Downloads" to pull up the Ghana Prayer Guide". We will have very limited access to the internet while on this trip, so live updates from the field may be very limited at best.

The Need: As a team, we feel that it is a necessity for this trip to be covered in prayer. The ten of us have been praying continually for this trip for several months. As we know the importance and power of prayer, we are asking you to pray for us while we are in Ghana. The following pages will guide you in prayer for us, the Ghanaians we’ll be ministering to, and the overall outcome of our mission trip. Please consider giving God a small amount of your time each day for the two weeks we are in Ghana—June 10th—June 23rd to pray for these things. Thank you for your willingness and we’ll be praying for you too.

“Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving.
At the same time, pray for us, that God may open to us a door
for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ on account of which I
am in prison.” - Colossians 4:2-3

Ghana Missions - our team

We leave for our mission trip to Ghana a week from today. Man, am I excited! Its been crazy trying to get ready to go, but I can't wait now! Here is our team:

From the left: Ken Rucker (me), Hannah Holloway, Tyler Recker, Lea Ann Sherwood, Tim Sherwood, Alex Sherwood, Kevin Sanders, Nicole Sherwood, Chris Holloway, and Angie Sallee. Please pray for us as we make disciples in Ghana from June 10th through 25th.

Spiritual Boot Camp

Last month, we did a cool thing where we got together for 30 days straight, from 6:15 - 7:00am and had a Quiet Time together. The whole pourpose behind this was to develop the habit of a daily time with God. He's worth it, and we need it, so we committed to do this for 30 days straight to make it a habit. I taught for about 20 minutes, and then we broke and did about 20-30 minutes of quiet time on our own. It proved very helpful to me, and many others. I blogged for the first 19 of those days, and you can read through that teaching here.