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Letter from Mike Clark

8/3/2020

Pastor, if you feel led maybe you would wish to share this with the brothers.
A storm hit Olanchito a few days ago. Leo had a small group outside of his
home to preach and have fellowship. While he was preaching a storm moved
in and lighting struck a few meters from where Leo was preaching. Let's be in
pray and consideration for this need. Here is his message below.

Yesterday I was preaching at home with my family and my wife's family. When
suddenly a Lightning bolt fell a few meters from where I was preaching, thank
God I am alive today to tell. The Lord has called us to preach his word. As of
today I will not be able to transmit the radio over the Internet because my two
computers were damaged, but we continue to trust the Lord, as is his family.

Thanks to all,

Michael

Testimony from Whit Bass

8/2/2020

On Thursday, July 23 I was invited to speak for the Richland Parish celebrate recovery service at first Baptist church in Rayville.
During the worship time I noticed that one of the songs was so rich with the gospel message that I felt led of the Holy Spirit to present the gospel before I ever got into my lesson.
Numerous people made eye contact with me as I gave an invitation for any who needed to profess Christ.
After the service was over I remembered that Robert Lindsay had given me somewhere around 10 or more Bibles. These were Bibles that Robert wanted to put in the hands of someone that would be thirsty and hungry for God‘s word.
There were many that came to the trunk of my car and began to look at the Bibles and pick out the one that most suited them. There was great pleasure in putting the word of God in the hands of hungry people. Thank you Robert Lindsay for your generosity and continuing to extend your legacy from generation to generation.

Whit

"Letter to American Pastors" part 4

8/1/2020

Letter to American Pastors

Know Thy Enemy

I dare say that many pastors have little idea of what they are facing ideologically speaking. This is not a criticism. It is, rather, an acknowledgement of the fact that it would be a very unusual pastor whose education included thorough examinations of Hegel’s dialectic, Marx’s Das Kapital, Lenin’s Bolshevik seizure of power, or Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

You must become acquainted with Marxist ideas and identity politics just as the Apostle John acquired a thoroughgoing knowledge of the Gnosticism of Cerinthus and St. Augustine become an expert in the teachings of the great heretic Pelagius. Marxism is a secular utopian anti-theology that replaces God with man while seeking to create heaven on earth. You must fight it. You must denounce it. You must expose it for the godless worldview that it is.

I have written about socialism extensively in the aforementioned book “The Grace Effect.” I have given a summary of it in this column. I will have a book out this October that also addresses the problem. Dinesh D’Souza has written about it. Eric Metaxas has written about it. So have many others. The point is, there are resources available to you. Get them. Read them. Understand the insidious nature of the evil permeating our culture. Staying “above politics” is simply not a valid option.

“Be Not Afraid.”

Something sat uneasily with me after a recent Q & A on this topic. Later that night as I lay awake in bed these words came like a lightning bolt to me: “Be not afraid.”

In that moment it occurred to me that at the bottom of every question I received that night was fear: fear for their future, their families, their livelihoods, being a target of the “cancel culture”--fear.

I’d like to think this little insight was the workings of the Holy Spirit. You see, the radical Left feeds off of fear the way a fire feeds off of oxygen. Without fear, they have nothing.

Your preaching must simultaneously move your congregations to action, yes, but it must also reassure them with the comforting reminder that they serve a sovereign God. No matter what the temporal outcome, in the end we win. Period. God still sits on his throne.

“Be Strong and Courageous”

“Trump is our only hope.” That refrain has appeared in numerous headlines and articles. Social media is full of it. I do not seek to diminish the importance of the role of the President of the United States when I say that he is not our only hope. Our hope is in the person of Jesus Christ.

And I put a great deal of hope in his use of you, pastors of America. Collectively, your voice is unmatched in its breadth and power. But you must use it. America does not need another capital campaign for yet another church building. In a generation (or less) they will be largely empty, and many will belong to someone else. And it does not need another irrelevant sermon.

America is on the brink of revolution and she is in want of a generation of ministers of the Gospel who are prepared to courageously fulfill their calling come what may. You must preach now with strict adherence to the Word with greater conviction, greater force, and greater urgency than ever before. And you have every reason to be optimistic of the outcome.

In addition to having God Almighty on your side, consider the data. According to Pew Forum, evangelicals alone number a whopping 26 percent of the U.S. population, while those calling themselves “Christian” account for an additional 50 percent of Americans. The American Church is a sleeping giant. However, its members need you to interpret the times, to give them strength and leadership, and to move them to action.

But you must act. In the words of our Lord, “We must work while it is day, for night is coming.”

"Letter to American Pastor" part 3

7/31/2020

Letter to American Pastors

America’s Original “Community Organizers”

In a recent address and subsequent article, I explained how the apparent anarchy we are witnessing in the subversive activities of Black Lives Matter and Antifa are the work of Marxist radical thinker Saul Alinsky who outlined a program for the destabilization and overthrow of existing power structures. To foment social unrest, Alinsky endorsed what he called “community organizers.” This was his grassroots army for social and political agitation.

Consciously or not, Alinsky stole and then perverted a Christian model. As demonstrated above, you, dear pastor, stand in the stream of a great tradition of ministers of the Gospel who transformed souls and, in so doing, transformed society. Just as today’s pastors and priests in many parts of the third world are much more than preachers, so it was for most of American history. You are, in other words, America’s original community organizers and her best hope for national renewal.

But as Schaeffer notes, something, somewhere went wrong in the American Church and with it the American soul. Jesus transformed an empire with twelve. Today we have throughout our country mega-churches with more churches planted every day. Yet their societal impact is negligible. Why? How is it possible?

As the above quotation suggests, Schaeffer attributes it to a poverty of preaching: “Spirituality to the evangelical leadership has often not included the Lordship of Christ over the whole spectrum of life.” Too often a sermon says true things, but not relevant things. There is a subtle but important distinction.

Martin Luther put the problem this way:

If I profess with the loudest voice and clearest exposition every portion of the Word of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Him. Where the battle rages there the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle front besides, is mere flight and disgrace if he flinches at that point.[2]

If we were to represent the totality of human existence with a pie chart, many pastors know very well, just as I know as a writer, which pieces of the pie they may attack “boldly” without really risking anything. He can safely pound the pulpit and call for the feeding of the poor and care for the widowed and orphaned. He can passionately preach a series of sermons on the Exodus, the life of Joseph, and the miracles of Jesus, and say a great many true things and suffer no recrimination whatsoever.

But unless he professes with the loudest voice and clearest exposition that point of the Word of God which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, he is forsaking his calling as a pastor.

Today that means boldly addressing the evils of abortion; the LGBTQI movement; Black Lives Matter; Antifa; the attacks on social, economic, and political order; and the radical Left. If you aren’t addressing these things, you are the salt that has lost its savor. (Matthew 5:13)

"Letter to American Pastors" part 2

7/30/2020

Letter to American Pastors

A Call to “Social Action”
I recognize Schaeffer’s call for “social action” will make some of you nervous. Perhaps you associate it with the modern phrase “social justice.” The term was alien to Schaeffer’s day, but the concept was not. The so-called “social justice warriors” we are seeing in our streets rioting, pillaging, and attacking America’s Judeo-Christian foundations are of the same ideological stripe as those he saw on American college campuses in the 1960s. Regardless, “social justice” as it is commonly understood today is not what Schaeffer had in mind when he spoke of social action. He simply meant that the Christian tree should bear fruit, and that fruit should have a demonstrable societal impact. It is what I have called “The Grace Effect.”

Schaeffer notes that it was the preaching of John Wesley and George Whitefield that not only gave birth to the Great Awakening and a wave of English reforms but also spared that country from the bloody revolution and Reign of Terror that gripped France for the last quarter of the 18th century.
It was the constant parliamentary harangues of abolitionists like William Wilberforce (who briefly considered a career as an Anglican priest) and the preaching of men like John Newton, a former slaver and co-author of the hymn Amazing Grace, that conquered the evil of slavery in Britain and throughout its empire.
It was the preaching of ministers like Jonathan Mayhew, James Caldwell, and John Witherspoon that sparked the American Revolution and gave it ideological teeth. (Not only were they instrumental in the pulpit, but Caldwell served in the Continental Army while Witherspoon served in the Continental Congress and was a signer of the Declaration of Independence.)
It was the preaching of men like Charles Finney that gave rise to the Second Great Awakening and the early anti-slavery movements in America that resulted in the eventual demise of that institution in the United States.
And it was the preaching of pastors like Martin Luther King, Jr. that would lead the reforms of the civil rights movement, extending equal rights to people of color.

"Letter to American Pastors" part 1

7/29/2020

Letter to American Pastors

America needs your leadership now more than ever. But there are a few things you must know and a few more you must expect.

A generation ago, pastor and theologian Francis Schaeffer issued a call-to-arms to the American Church in an explosive little book titled A Christian Manifesto (1981). Alarmed by the slaughter of the unborn in the wake of Roe v. Wade, Schaeffer called for social action in the form of civil disobedience. The problem as he saw it was a passive, inert, and ineffective church. Corpulent and self-satisfied, it had become the proverbial salt that had lost its savor.

According to Schaeffer, this was due to weak pastoral leadership:

As we turn to the evangelical leadership in the last decades, unhappily we must come to the conclusion that often it has not been of much help…. Spirituality to the evangelical leadership has often not included the Lordship of Christ over the whole spectrum of life…. The old revivals are spoken about so warmly by the evangelical leadership. Yet they seem to have forgotten what those revivals were. Yes, the old revivals in Great Britain, Scandinavia, and the old revivals in this country did call, and without any question and with tremendous clarity, for personal salvation. But they also called for a resulting social action. Every single one of them did this …

Schaeffer’s indictment of America’s pastors should not upset too many of you since, as old as it is, there are very few of that generation who remain in our pulpits. But were Schaeffer still alive, I fear the knicker-wearing theologian with the Van Dyke beard would be fiercer than ever in light of our current cultural predicament.[1]

But whatever Schaeffer’s criticisms about the quality of the work being accomplished in the church of his day (or ours), he saw the role of pastor, priest, and minister of paramount importance in the life of this country. I couldn’t agree more. As a nation’s pulpit goes, so goes the soul of that nation.

It Happened in April 2016

7/26/2020

Today James Morris gave me this testimony. This past Saturday night James got invited by one of my buddies who was having a hard time to go out and eat. Afterwards they went to an AA meeting. At the AA meeting a young lady setting across from James had a swollen face. During the meeting James asked her if she was in pain; she responded that she had an abscess tooth. God put it on James's heart to pray for her. After the meeting was over as everyone was going outside, a door opened and he took the opportunity to ask her if he could pray for her. He laid hands on her and prayed; the next day she contacted him and said that the swelling had gone down and there was no more pain. Praise our Lord Jesus!

It Happened on April 7, 2016

7/24/2020

This afternoon I received a call from Jerry Coley; he wanted to tell me about his experience that he had yesterday. He had a glorious experience of being baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. He was so excited he wanted to tell me! He thanked me for the many years I had discipled him and sown seeds into him about being filled with the Holy Spirit. He didn't know why it took long; he said that yesterday was his time. A lady in our city who is mighty in the Holy Spirit name Gloria Steele prayed for him.

Andy Magee called to let me know that he had an evaluation with another individual at Louisiana Baptist College and he received a high rating. He was overjoyed by this evaluation and greatly encouraged.

My great-nephew Nicholas Rainwater left today for Hawaii began his YWAM training and then on to South Korea. CLF is helping him financially in this mission.

Testimony from Mei Powers

7/23/2020

Here is a testimony. Mei’s mom and a friend of hers were asked to go to the police station for questioning. They go around evangelizing in different villages so that is why they were being called in. We got a report this morning. They questioned the other lady that would travel with Her first. She was scared and they questioned her for 3 hours. Mei’s mom went in after her. She was very bold and questioned the police telling them. I love my country and my people. The gospel is good news. God loves the people in Our country and he can deliver them from all the bad things like the gambling, drunkenness, and crime. You should be happy I’m telling the people this good news. It is good for our country. Why are you trying to ban this good thing. She said things like that. The police didn’t know what to say so they sent her home. Police usually try to use a scare tactic to control the people. Thank you to those that were able to pray.

July 21st, 2020

7/21/2020

A Poem by Robby Lindsay

Jesus, upon my heart anew,
Write Your words of love,
And move me from both church and pew,
With compassion from above.

Oh, stir my soul from deep within,
Cause my eyes to see,
Endangered souls ensnared by sin,
And freedom found in Thee.

Open my eyes, remove the scales,
And draw me to Thy tree,
Make my path that narrow trail,
Which leads to Calvary.

With my life, lived through by Thee,
Let me bring as Your reward,
Souls of men that You've set free,
Who'll bow and call You Lord.