Will The United States Be Left Behind?

I enjoy writing ezine articles. Usually, I write an article for Ezine after I have read or heard an interesting subject that teases me to do some research. If I find that new data makes the story compelling, I write the article, partly because writing it feeds my desire to create, and partly because I simply like to share interesting subjects with others. On occasion, I encounter a subject that captivates me, a forceful subject that further research reveals to be attention-grabbing. Something happened today at my Christian Church.

This week, my church raises funds to support Lottie Moon missions. Web search her to read about this missionary who changed how American Christians perceive missionaries. We are also collecting essential goods to give to poor families in Appalachia. But, something special happened after a Christian Mission Leader from another state was given a chance to speak to the congregation. In twenty minutes, he told us how God is using the missionaries to accomplish his will. I knew the story of St. Patrick (web search), and how this kidnapped young man of a wealthy family grew to be a powerful Christian missionary who converted the people of the land of his kidnappers (Ireland) to Christianity. Even if you are not Irish, you must have heard of his effect since St. Patrick's Day is celebrated worldwide.

But, I had not heard how one of this gentleman's missionaries sent to a Middle Eastern country, attends Islamic religious services in a mosque. She is veiled and sits with the women, who are always apart from the men. She speaks fluent Arabic, and when the women pray, she prays to Jesus. She does not wear Christian symbols, and she prays quiet enough so that only those next to her hear. She has been doing this for years and never had an upset. Instead, what happens is individual women ask her about it, and she tells them she is Christian. By beginning a personal relationship with these women, she is invited to converse with them outside of the mosque. Genuine friendship leads many of them to convert to Christianity.

The speaker shared other instances in which one of the young missionaries goes to the town square of a town in a foreign land, and simply sits there. As the sun sets, a local person would come out to find out what the stranger wants, and the missionary describes how he is a Christian on pilgrimage. Invariably, the missionary is invited to share dinner and to have a place to sleep for the night. Inside the home of a generous man, he is invited to speak, and God blesses that family.

The speaker told us that the country that is undergoing the greatest Christian revival of our age is China. He said that China is now outpacing the United States in sending out Christian missionaries! The Chinese Christians want to give back what has been given to them over the centuries by European and American missionaries (like Lottie Moon), and they want to take the joyous message of Jesus to Jerusalem, to complete a worldwide circuit that was begun by Jesus' Great Commission. He told us that what we don't see on the TV news is that many of the Chinese technicians who are going to the Middle East and Africa are also bringing Christianity to the Gentiles there. Gentile is a Biblical term for a non-Jewish person. Missionaries in the Middle East are reporting this phenomenon. While this paragraph is certainly attention-grabbing, the conclusion of this article is explosive.

Remember, that God sent Jesus to the Jewish people. Jesus was the object of prophecy that had been given to the Jewish people for hundreds of years. But, only a small percentage of them could understand it, and even less believed it. After Jesus fulfilled his prophecy, he gave a great commission to his surviving disciples to go out into the world to share the Christian gospel with the Gentiles. That is still going on today, and mostly it is missionaries who do it. Yet, today, in 2017 it is the people of nations who have so much, who cannot see that God has blessed them, that go the opposite way, away from Jesus, to affront God. Our Church guest told us that even as Christian revivals are springing up in unprecedented numbers throughout the third world, the people of the United States continue to permanently shut the doors of their Christian churches faster than they open the doors to new churches. Overwhelming evidence suggests that the American people today make the same mistake that the Jewish people made 2000 years ago. We dishonor God when we turn our back on Jesus, his son, our path to God's grace, and the means of our salvation.

"Sharon Ann,"   https://www.amazon.com/Sharon-Ann-Tony-Grayson-ebook/dp/B00Q7F3BSK

Tony is a writer, an author of several published novels, and an independent publisher. In September 2012, he wrote and published the first of a three-book drama series, "A Voice from New Mill Creek: The Methodists," as an e-book. In April, 2013, he released his second e-book and first romance novel, "Goodnight Paige." In July, 2013, Tony released a guidebook titled "How Tony Wrote and Published Two Novels." In May 2014, he published "The Star of India, "the second novel in the Voice From New Mill Creek drama series.   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICK8qpv0a30


 By Tony A Grayson


Article Source: Will The United States Be Left Behind?