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'...Leave...go to the land I will show you.' Genesis 12:1
Where you are matters! You can't grow bananas in Alaska, but you can grow
them in Jamaica. What's the point? Simply this: sometimes you need to
change your location in order to succeed in what God's called you to do.
Look at the life of Elijah. 'The word of the Lord came to him, saying, "Get
away from here and turn eastward, and hide by the Brook Cherith, which
flows into the Jordan. And it will be that you shall drink from the brook, and
I have commanded the ravens to feed you there"' (1 Kings 17:2-4 NKJV).
Ravens normally don't deliver food, they eat it. But when you do what God
tells you and go where He sends you, you move from the natural realm to the
supernatural one. God not only has a plan for your life, He has a place for it.
Yes, you must have the right strategy, but you must also be in the right spot.
'...I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs
you in the way you should go' (Isaiah 48:17 NIV). If your heart's desire is to
honour God in all things, He will show you the best location to succeed in.
Indeed, He will go ahead of you and rearrange circumstances to your ad-
vantage. He did it for Abraham. 'By faith Abraham, when called to go to a
place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even
though he did not know where he was going' (Hebrews 11:8 NIV).
Ask God, and He will show you where to go.
this issue
Leave and go ….P.1 Why are People leaving Church?
P.2 Invite Bill Hybels to your
groupP.4
10 insights about the Cross Pg 5-10
Forced to build their Church 5 times.
Pg 11-14
Why I don’t sing in Church anymore
Pg 14
Focus on Israel: Rocket War Update
Pg 15-16
God’s Dream, What Does It Look
Like? Pg 17 (Podcast)
What Is God Saying To You? Pg 17
(Podcast)
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New Christian Newsletter
June 2014
Edition 23 / Vol 2
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Seven Reasons Why People Leave The Church Frank Viola 1. The horrible, disgusting, nasty way that Christians treat one another
in-person and online.
I wrote about this in Warning: The World is Watching How We Christians
Treat One Another and The Art of Being a Jerk Online. But it’s also one of
the reasons why some Christians want nothing to do with following Jesus an-
ymore. It’s because of the sub-human way that so many of His professing fol-
lowers treat each other. Ways in which they themselves would never want to
be treated, breaking the cardinal commandment of Jesus Himself — which
fulfills the Law and the Prophets — in Matthew 7:12.
2. The canned superficial answers they had been given to complicated
questions.
Example: An 18 year old is brought up in a Christian home. She is taught that
God created the earth in seven literal days and that the earth is young. The 18
-year old enters college and she hears this idea ripped to shreds. She is con-
fused and finally concludes, “If that’s wrong, then I have to throw out every-
thing I’ve been taught in the Bible. Maybe it’s all myth.”
The fact is, this 18-year old has never been exposed to some of the best think-
ing on the subject. She’s never been exposed to the sophisticated answers to
modernity, to empiricism, to the problem of evil in the world. Nor has she
ever been taught that one can interpret Genesis a number of ways and none of
them means doubting the authority, reliability, or inspiration of Scripture.
The canned answers she received is all she knows and they are proving inade-
quate.
Greg Boyd’s excellent book, Benefit of the Doubt, goes into some of this
very well.
(Incidentally, to the fundamentalists who might read this post, I’ve not given my view on Genesis 1 and 2 here, so don’t assume it. I give my views on those passages in Jesus: A Theography. I find too many holes in macro-evolutionary theory (although there is clearly evolution within species, etc.) and I believe that Adam was a living, breathing mortal. However, I have many friends who take all of this figuratively and they are more faithful to Jesus Christ than some of my fundamentalist friends. So if N.T. Wright or C.S. Lewis reads Genesis 1 and 2 completely figuratively, that doesn’t make them apostates
From The Editor
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Seven Reasons Why People Leave The Church... The real test of whether or not you really know Je-sus Christ is if you love the brethren — 1 John — and walk in Matthew 7:12. Many so-called “Bible-believing Christians” do not; they are hateful and dishonest people who will be shocked when they face God one day.) 3. They met a God who didn’t meet their ex-pectations. It could be a tragedy they experienced. It could be a painful event. It could be something dark and horri-ble that they’ve prayed to be saved from for years and God doesn’t seem to care. It could be a “promise” in Scripture that they stood on in faith, but never saw materialize. I’ve talked at length about this problem and the so-lution for it in God’s Favourite Place on Earth. Thankfully, that book has helped scores of people who have read it. But unfortunately, I can’t make people who would benefit from reading a book to actually read it. One of the frustrations of being an author. (Countless contemporary Christians will only read a book if a movie is made for it or if it ap-pears on Fox News, The Today Show, or is heavily promoted by a mega-church pastor.) Anyways, this is a BIG reason why many abandon the Jesus ship. 4. The stupidity and ignorance of so many Christians. Regrettably, many Christians believe whatever they read or hear. Those who are wiser and smarter don’t want to be associated with that lot. So they start thinking, “If Jesus was the Saviour of the world, why are so many of His followers so stu-pid?” . . . “If Jesus is the head of the church, why is His church so dysfunctional and so toxic in so many cases?” So they start questioning the claims of the Lord Himself. 5. Failure to live up to the gospel of legalism. I’ve watched Christians leave the Lord because they were taught a gospel of legalism — namely, that God will be upset with them if they don’t live a per-fect life. Despite how hard they tried, they kept fail-ing to keep the standard in various areas of their lives.
They prayed, fasted, and sought victory over the problem with no results. Eventually, they got so weary that they concluded that it’s just not worth it to follow the Lord, so they left Him. 6. They loved the world more than Christ. Jesus wasn’t enough in their eyes to satisfy their heart’s desires — or what they thought were their real desires. They loved “the pleasures of sin” more than the pleasures of God. Paul said of Demas, a Christian worker who had abandoned him, that “he loved this present world.” 7. The cares of this life choked the (spiritual) life out of them. In His famous “parable of the sower,” Jesus talked about the seed of God’s word being choked to death because of the cares of this life. The daily grind of day-to-day life with all of its twists, turns, and problems can be a perpetual distraction to the spiritual person. So much so that it can easily choke the life out of them. The spiritual life, that is.
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10 Insights About the Cross (By Frank Viola) 1) A person cannot teach you how to recognize the cross in your life. God must show you. It’s a matter of spiritual instinct. 2) The ears of God’s people tend to be deaf to the cross. We don’t like to hear about it. 3) The cross is the easiest thing in the world to forget. So we need to be reminded of it. 4) You will never know the Lord you’re supposed to know outside of a head-on collision
with His cross. 5) Authentic body life never works the way you want it to. It’s a railroad track to the cross. 6) The instrument of the cross is very often our fellow brethren in Christ. 7) You cannot crucify yourself. You can drive one nail into one hand, but the other hand will be free. So the cross is God’s wonderful design. 8) God will create a tailor-made cross for you. Jesus is a carpenter, so He knows how to build them. And very often, the cross will be served to you freely by your brothers and sisters with whom you fellowship. 9) The more gifted you are, the more the cross is needed in your life to break your tendency to rely on yourself, to manipulate, and to exalt yourself in subtle ways. 10) In community, your blind spots will eventually get exposed. True body life is a house of mirrors. The Lord will not destroy the Lord within you, but He’ll seek to destroy everything else. This is especially true if He has called you to His work.
Lessons on the Cross from the Old Testament The Altar. In the tabernacle of Moses, the altar is
the first piece of furniture you came to before you got to God’s house. The altar is the place of death. It’s the place of sacrifice and the loss of a life. The altar always precedes the house.
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Therefore, in order for God’s house to be built, it re-quires someone who has known the cross in their ex-perience and died upon it. Everyone who builds God’s house in the New Testa-ment was a person who was shattered and devastated by the cross. For God’s house to be maintained, the living stones who make it up must also accept a steady diet of the cross. They must learn to deny themselves, to give them-selves to the exposing work of the Spirit to break and sift them, and to refuse to fight against it. Church splits take place because some aren’t willing to bear the cross. They will start maligning certain people when their feelings are hurt or they are of-fended. Thus the carnage produced by unbroken, self-centered vessels is great. The Temple of Solomon. Solomon’s temple was made up of stones. But there was no mortar to glue them together. Rather, the stones were held together by friction.
That meant that each stone had to be cut, chiseled, sanded, and shaped to fit the others perfectly. The words of Paul and Pe-ter about being “built to-gether” come to mind. Be-ing built together with oth-
er believers requires the chiseling and cutting work of the cross. Remember, Calvary preceded Pentecost. Calvary is the place of the cross; Pentecost is where the church is born. The cross precedes the church. And it’s maintained by the cross. Romans 6 is all about the cross. And it precedes Ro-mans 12, which is all about the church. So in the center of the ekklesia . . . in the dead middle of Christian community . . . there is a cross that bids each of us to die.
In community, after the honeymoon period ends, you will find the cross in spades. I’ve described body life many times as a wedding of glory and gore. The glory precedes the gore at first, then the gore precedes the greater glory. The cross has many corners. And it never comes in the package you want.
The Problem of Hurt Feelings Let me tell you the way that many Christians live their lives. When (not if) they get their feelings hurt, they make decisions . . . sometimes rash and self-serving decisions . . . based on their bruised feelings. They form their opinions, their reactions, and their attitudes around their feelings when those feelings have been injured. And so they run from the cross. What does this do? It delays their transformation on the one hand, and brings devastation to other people’s lives on the other. Hence, the most toxic people on the planet are those who will lash out against those who they be-lieve have hurt their feelings. (Insertion: See my post, Scratch a Christian and You’ll Find Out What They’re Made Of where I de-scribed this last year. Now back to the original mes-sage.)
We have ways of wig-gling out of the cross that would drive a bat-tery of mental profes-sionals nutty. But the Lord gains the most ground in us when we’re looking down from a cross. Cont...
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Mark it down: If there is ever a time in your life to de-ny yourself and lose, it’s when you feel someone has hurt your feelings. It’s when someone corrects you in Christ, but you don’t wish to receive the correction or don’t under-stand it. It’s when someone strongly disagrees with you. It’s when you correct someone in Christ, and they not only reject it, but they retaliate by trying to defame you. It’s when someone hates you out of jealousy, and with malice in their hearts, spreads vicious lies about you. It’s when someone doesn’t meet your expectations. Each case is when the cross seeks to do its deepest work in your life. Christians who take offense resist the cross. (Insertion: See my post from 2009 Living Without Offense and from 2012 The Forgotten Beatitude, where the case is made that those who are involved in ministry cannot afford the luxury of being offended. Now back to the original message.)
Christians who retal-iate to protect their own reputations and self interests, not caring about the damage they bring into the lives of oth-ers, know nothing of the cross. The reaction of the flesh is always to de-fend, to justify, to get angry, to lash out, to retaliate. Sometimes it’s done in passive aggressive ways. And it’s virtu-ally always justified by “religious talk”
under the cloak of “God told me.”
The flesh will never sacrifice itself or absorb the blows. It will instead be quick to sacrifice others on the altar of one’s feelings. The flesh always seeks to protect one’s ego and rep-utation in the eyes of others and at the expense of others. Those who do not know the cross cannot tolerate loss, suffering, or correction. They cannot remain silent, as the Lord Jesus was silent under pressure. They cannot wait on the Lord nor submit to His light. They will rather allow themselves to react in the flesh, and they will even call their reaction “being led by the Spirit.” But this is deception.
These reac-tions are the fruit of an un-broken per-son who has made them-selves the pri-ority, refusing to take the high road which is what the spirit of
the Lamb will always lead us to do.
Brethren, you can waste the Lord’s
transformation in your life by fighting
the cross.
The cross of Christ bids us to die, to lose, to surren-der. The flesh will do everything it can to stay alive and protect itself. To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should fol-low in his steps . . . When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate; when he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.
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According to Peter, following in Jesus’ footsteps means that when we are wrongly accused or rightly corrected, we will not insult, retaliate, or make threats. Instead, we will entrust the matter into the Lord’s hands. To make this personal . . . If you defend yourself, God will not defend you. If you justify yourself, God will not justify you. All those who know the Lord deeply understand these lessons. Jesus Christ cannot gain much ground in your life unless you are willing to lose. Whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. The fruit of such loss is less of you and more of Him. In addition, if you bail out of those relationships that you find difficult on your flesh, then the cross will follow you through someone else, somewhere else.
You can’t run away from it. It will find you out.
The eleven disciples ran at break-neck speed when they saw the cross emerging on that hill. They headed for the hills while the women stayed with Jesus. Our flesh seeks to do the same whenever the cross emerges in our lives.
A Temptation for Friends I’ve watched this all my life. When the Lord brings the cross into someone’s life, one of the temptations is for the undiscerning is to erect a ladder and try to pull the person down from the wood.
Others will climb on the cross and seek to put padding behind the person’s head and legs. When God has brought the cross into someone’s life, you must allow Him to do His deep work in their lives without interfering. I’m not talking about comforting a person who has truly been abused or victimized; I’m speak-ing of a person who is resisting the cross and justifying themselves at the expense of others. When friends seek to console a person who is trying to escape the cross, especially after they have been corrected in Christ, it only prolongs that person’s death-to-self and it usually ends up turning other people into “enemies.” The result is that God’s enemy has been given an open door to malign people and division and carnage as the result.
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(Insertion: I gave an example of this in my own life where I believed someone’s account who had played the victim. When I heard the other side of the story, I was embarrassed. I was in effect helping someone re-sist the cross and didn’t know it. The story is in Hear-ing One Side of Story from 2012. Now back to the message.)
What To Expect When You Bear the Cross You can expect that no one will throw roses on your grave. No one will pin a medal on your chest for how val-iantly you lost and died. In fact, few people will even notice. The angels will, however. And the Lord Jesus Christ said “pick up your cross daily and follow Me.” Whenever someone speaks on the cross like this, there’s usually someone who reacts saying, “Well, I’m being physically and verbally abused, does bearing the cross mean that God wants me to continue to be a door mat?” Absolutely not. That’s not what I’m speaking about. In fact, for you, the cross may very well mean separat-ing yourself from the abuser and perhaps (if it ap-plies) getting the authorities involved. The cross may also mean correcting someone who is hurting others or who has a blind spot that’s injurious to people. This often constitutes a cross because all lovers of Je-sus absolutely despise the task of correcting others. It comes at a heavy cost, because an unbroken person will retaliate when being corrected in Christ.
The Probing Voice of God The voice of the Lord not only probes our actions, but it also probes our attitudes and reactions. And the voice of the Lord often comes to us through members of His Body.
If you desire for God to use you in His work, He will deal ruthlessly with those areas of your life that you’re blind to but that other members of the body who know you can see clearly. And His voice will be uttered by your brothers and sisters. When it is, it finds us out. If you are in the flesh . . . you will react. If you are in the Spirit . . . you will not react. Instead, you will be like a sponge, asking ques-tions to understand what part of your life needs the blinding light of God to expose and trans-form. The way a person responds when they are cor-rected reveals volumes about their character. When a little pressure is applied, it exposes who were really are. At the slightest correction from another believer, the unbroken are quick to defend themselves and their actions. By contrast, a person who knows the cross will take all forms of correction to heart. They will ex-hibit a teachable spirit. It doesn’t break their jaw to admit they did wrong, and they will be very quick to repent and apologize at the slightest word of correction. Long lasting ministry comes out of being broken bread and poured-out wine. That’s written in the bloodstream of God’s universe. The good news is there is always a resurrection on the other side of every cross. However, you will not know the power of Christ’s resurrection until you’ve first licked the wood of the cross and known the fellowship of His sufferings
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If church history has taught us anything, it is this: If God has called you to build His house, then you must have an instinct for the cross. If not, He will remove His hand from your life (not of salvation, but of favor and anointing). You will go forth in your own energy and your own power to the detriment of His people and His king-dom. You will sacrifice others to try to save yourself, your work, and your reputation.
Closing Words I want to close this message by reading some pro-found words by Watchman Nee on the cross: What does it mean to go to the Cross to die to the self -life? When you can receive correction and reproof from one of less stature than yourself and can humbly submit inwardly as well as outwardly, finding no rebellion or resentment rising up within your heart, that is dying to self. When your good is evil spoken of, when your wishes are crossed, your advice disregarded, your opinion ridiculed, and you refuse to let anger rise in your heart, or even defend yourself, but take it all in pa-tient loving silence, that is dying to self. When you never care to refer to yourself in conver-sation, or to record your own good works, or itch after commendation, when you can truly love to be unknown, that is dying to self. When you are forgotten, or neglected, or purposely set at naught, and you don’t sting and hurt with the insult or the oversight, but your heart is happy, be-ing counted worthy to suffer for Christ, that is dy-ing to self. Are you dead yet?
'Choose...men...full...of the Spirit.' ACTS 6:3
Are You a 'Stephen'?
Stephen was also chosen for leadership in the New
Testament church because he was 'full of...the Ho-
ly Spirit' (v. 5 NIV). Why is that important? Be-
cause Jesus said to His disciples: '...You shall re-
ceive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusa-
lem (your home base), and in all Judea (those
within driving distance) and Samaria (places
where you won't necessarily be welcomed) and to
the end of the earth' (Acts 1:8 NKJV).
Paul writes, '...Be not drunk with wine, wherein is
excess; but be filled with the Spirit...' (Ephesians
5:18).
The story is told of a pastor who was seen drinking
a glass of wine at dinner. Seizing on Paul's words,
'Be not drunk with wine,' the deacon board called
for his immediate resignation. Whereupon the
pastor responded, 'Then let's all resign.
You say I failed the first half of the commandment,
"Be not drunk with wine." But you've all failed the
second half, "Be filled with the spirit".' Under-
stand this: you need to be continually filled with
God's Spirit. After all, you're not running your car
on the first tank of petrol you put in it, are you?
Remember the old ad for Brylcreem hair gel for
men? 'A little dab'll do ya!'
That doesn't work when it comes to leadership in
God's kingdom! You're either being led by the Ho-
ly Spirit-or your own spirit. 'But I have talent,' you
say. Yes, and God will use it. But when it comes to
building what He wants built, it's, 'Not by might,
nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the
Lord' (Zechariah 4:6 NKJV).
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Gospel for Asia women missionaries Champa and Bakul had been accused of a man’s death, chased out of the village and warned to never come back. For all that, a small group of believers continued to grow every day, and now, a temporary structure, built by the growing flock’s own hands stood as proof. The situation made some people angry enough to break bones and destroy the whole building. June 2014
Missionaries Pray for Paralyzed Man
The village’s fellowship started in 2001 with one paralyzed man named Tariq. When Champa and Bakul first visited his house, Tariq could feel nothing in his legs. But after the two women prayed for healing, his cold legs became hot, and he was able to shake them. The missionaries shared the Good News with Tariq and his family, and they began to visit every week, praying for Tariq’s full healing and teaching from the Bible. As they learned about Jesus Christ, the five members of the family, along with three of their neighbors, put their trust in Him. Shortly after, Tariq died. The untimely death caused an uproar in the village. As the newest people in Tariq’s life, Champa, Bakul and their God were denounced as the tragedy’s cause. The missionaries were chased out of the village. If Champa and Bakul came back, villagers warned them they would pay the consequences.
The missionaries continued to visit Tariq, and soon he and his family embraced Jesus. But when Tariq died, villagers blamed the missionaries.
( Cont..)
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Church Grows Despite Threats
With threats hanging over them, Champa and Bakul remained quiet for two weeks. But as the Lord placed courage in the believers’ hearts, the small fellowship began to meet again, and it started to grow. Ignoring the danger, new people joined the fellowship every day. Soon, the congregation was too large to meet in a house, so the believers decided to raise money for a tempo-rary church building. Although most of them earned meager wages as field laborers, they collected $400 in nearly a month. Villagers strongly warned the believers against constructing the church, but the believers were resolute. Two months after the house of worship was complete, the anti-Christians delivered the consequences. The group assaulted believers, destroyed the church building and began leveling false accusations against the Christians.
When the congregation grew too large to meet in homes, the believers collected money for a temporary church building. Two months after it was built, anti-Christians destroyed it. “Believers are visiting our houses and destroying the photos of our god and goddesses,” the group said. Soon, members of the community started believing it. Despite the opposition, the believers continued to meet in houses and welcome new members. Eventually, however, they gave in to their neighbors’ demands that they leave, and they rented land outside the village. Perhaps there, they thought, they could finally worship in peace.
Congregation Builds Outside Village
After collecting another $500, the believers built a simple structure on their rented piece of land, but their re-joicing was short-lived
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In 2005, two years after their first building was destroyed, an elephant trampled their new one. The anti-Christians laughed at the congregation’s predicament. “These people are not doing good work,” the villagers said. “They are destroying our forefathers’ culture and customs. Our god is not happy with them, and that is the reason this church building got destroyed by an ele-phant.” Despite the accusations and mockery they faced, the believers quickly rebuilt the church and continued with worship services. The next year, an official pastor, GFA missionary Ekanpreet, was able to come shepherd the flock. Over the next four years, the church grew. Even threats of banishment from the village didn’t stop new believ-ers. But in 2010, a great storm ripped through the area, and once again, the believers’ church became a casualty. For the fourth time in eight years, the congregation put itself to work, creating yet another place to worship their God. Like the other buildings, it would be flimsy and highly vulnerable to the elements, but the believers didn’t have any other options—unless someone offered them help.
The believers’ next two buildings were destroyed by an elephant and a large storm, causing the villagers to mock them.
Believers Sell Belongings for a Permanent Solution With their temporary sanctuary in place, the believers decided it was time to find a permanent solution to their problems. They didn’t have much money after all the buildings they had constructed, so they sold their personal belongings. But even that wasn’t enough. Fortunately, God had already provided for their need. When Pastor Ekanpreet requested help from his leaders, they sent the remaining funds for the land as well as funds for a big, beautiful church building. Made from sturdy materials, it wouldn’t be vulnerable to the elements the way their short-term structures were, and it was large enough to fit every member. Ten years after Champa and Bakul first came to the village, the be-lievers finally had a place to call home.
With help from supporters around the world, the congregation finally built a solid house of worship, able to stand up to storms, elephants and their anti-Christian neighbours. ( Cont..)
14
Today, 60 believers worship together in the church, which is one of the biggest in the area. And though some might be tempted to take that for grant-ed, Pastor Ekanpreet and the congregation know it was only granted by the grace of God.
As Christ’s love spreads across South Asia, hundreds of congregations are waiting for perma-nent places to meet and grow in. You can end their wait. Help Build a Church ►
Why I Don’t Sing in Church Anymore
College was an interesting time for me.
I was finally out from under my musically repressed home life and able to discover two decades of missed opportunity in the form
of Michael Jackson, Bon Jovi, and Dave Matthews. It was also the early days of Passion, David Crowder, and Shane Barnard.
And so, in my reckless innocence, one day I had the thought, “Hey, this Alive song by Pearl Jam would make a great tag in a wor-
ship set. ( Read More)
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ROCKET WAR UPDATE
Thank God for “Iron Dome.” How does Israel’s anti-
rocket defense system work?
(Washington, D.C.) — In just the past week alone, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza have fired over 1,ooo rockets
at Israeli civilians. In recent days, rockets have been fired at Israel from Lebanon and Syria, too. While there
have been some injuries, not a single Israeli has been killed by these attacks so far. How is this possible?
Thank God for the “Iron Dome.” So far, Israel’s seemingly-miraculous anti-rocket defense system has:
shot down more than 200 rockets, successfully destroying 90% of the targets it’s been fired at
saved countless Israeli lives in the process. bought time for Israeli leaders not to have to invade Gaza precipitously, but to be able to gather more and
better intelligence on the enemy, mobilize the army, train for a possible invasion, move to the Gaza border, and prepare for a major ground operation in a disciplined, patient, prudent way — and on the timetable of Israel’s civilian leaders, not that of the terrorists.
given Israeli citizens comfort and encouragement that despite this terrorist onslaught, their government is working hard — and effectively — to protect their lives.
allowed the world to see the evil of these Palestinian terrorists who just keep shooting at innocent Israeli civil-
ians with absolutely no prospect of military victory over Israel.
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To be clear, the Iron Dome system is not fired at every single incoming Palestinian rocket. It is only activated when the IDF’s super-fast computers calculate the incoming rocket would hit a home, office, factory, or other occupied building or populated place.
If the enemy rocket is determined to likely hit just a field or park or fall into the sea or hit some other “harmless” location, the Iron Dome doesn’t fire.
Among other things, this ingenious approach saves Israel a lot of money. Each Iron Dome rocket costs an es-timated $50,000.
The eighth Iron Dome battery just went operational. More are being built as quickly as possible.
The Israelis developed this unique technology of shooting down a rocket with a smaller, faster rocket with the help of U.S. taxpayer funding. Here are some recent articles, if you’d like to learn more:
How did Israeli engineers develop and deploy the Iron Dome system in just 30 months from when the order was given by Israel’s Defense Minister? An inside look. (Technion journal)
How does the Iron Dome work? The anti-missile system Iron Dome is the clear hero of Opera-tion Pillar of Defense. Here’s a look at the development of this extraordinary homemade rock-et swatter. (Haaretz)
Israel says Iron Dome scores 90 percent rocket interception rate (Reuters)
Let’s thank the Lord for those who built and those who run the Iron Dome system.
Let’s keep praying an invasion won’t be needed. Let’s pray all this conflict will end very soon, and keep pray-
ing for the Lord to show mercy to Israelis and Palestinians on both sides.
Thanks.
Joel Rosenberg
7 Reasons Why Most Church Outreach Programs Fail
One of my passions in life is to help churches move from becoming
inwardly focused to outwardly focused.
For rest of Story…. CLICK HERE
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Christ is All: Frank Viola Audio
God’s Dream: What Does It Look Like?
For A Podcast Message…. CLICK HERE
What Is God Trying to Say to You? (And What to Do About It)
The two essential questions we are asking others when we are leading them in huddle (a vehicle for discipling and training leaders) are:
a. What is God saying to you?
b. What are you going to do about it?
CLICK HERE
I Trust you have enjoyed reading The New Christian Newsletter this Month. If you have enjoyed the material and
been blessed and maybe challenged, please do forward to some of your friends for their encouragement God Bless
You Richly. Colin Bleakney (Editor)
