Service at Good Shepherd

You may have seen that last Sunday I was scheduled to preach at Good Shepherd Fellowship in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota. This is a church that the church I attend in Hopkins is in fellowship with. They are a fine group of brothers and sisters who are in the process of searching for a pastor. Keep them in prayer during their search.

I spoke about our mission to the Somalis in Minneapolis and taught on the subject of the Godhead. I touched on the main points of the doctrine and confirmed their faith that the Trinity of three persons is not a biblical doctrine, even reading various biblical dictionaries and encyclopedias stating this fact. We had a blessed time in the Lord and truly felt his presence with us.

In Christ,

Jason

Amy’s Prayer – God’s Grace – My Healing

I have a testimony of God’s love, faithfulness and power. On Friday I started coming down with some kind of respiratory illness. It was just a real heavy congested feeling in my lungs that was beginning to make me cough. I was worried that I’d have to spend my wife’s special weekend at the cabin laid up sick.

I asked Amy (my wife) to lay hands on me and pray for me as we were driving in the car. I said amen and in my heart thanked the Lord for healing me. Then I forgot about it. I was laying in bed just about to fall asleep and thought, hey I don’t have that congested feeling in my lungs any more. I’m not sure exactly when it happened, but it must have been shortly after Amy prayed for me because I didn’t think of it again after that or even feel it the rest of the way up to the cabin.

I’m so thankful for the grace of God in healing me.

Son of Hamas Founder Interview

Written by Joel Rosenberg. Source

The following is an interview I did with Mosab Hassan Yousef, author of the new book, Son of Hamas. In emails last week and while spending several hours together at the NRB convention in Nashville on Monday, we talked about how the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has supernaturally changed him from being a Radical Muslim leader of the Hamas terrorist organization to a born again follower of Jesus Christ and a friend of both Israel and the Palestinian people. His words are powerful and I highly commend them to you.

Last night, CNN International ran Christiane Amanpour’s interview with Mosab, but for some reason CNN in the U.S. did not air the broadcast. Please keep praying for Mosab’s courage, wisdom and physical safety. And please pray that many are touched by his story of Christ’s love and forgiveness.

JOEL: How has your life changed since becoming a born again Christian? Specifically, how have your attitudes towards Israel changed since your dramatic conversion?

MOSAB: My conscience is not the same. This doesn’t mean that I became a perfect person but at least when I do a mistake I know how to fix it and avoid it in the future. Today, I am free from sin because I am the son of the King. When I first understood how religion is imperfect in general — and in Islam in particular — and allowed myself to accept Christ as my personal Savior and get out of the box of religion, not only did Israel look different to me, I started to see everything differently.

I remember one day walking in Jerusalem right after I studied the Scripture that says give to those who ask you. [Jesus said in Matthew 5:42, "Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."] There was a homeless Jew in the Jewish side of Jerusalem, and I answered the call of the Lord to share with him some of the change in my pocket. Then I sat down and cried because I had the chance to understand the unconditional love God has for everybody. It was shocking to me that I never felt sorry for a homeless Jew. Then gradually — through God’s grace and mercy, through the years — all humans became equal to me. My people see the sun every day but they never ask themselves why the sun shines on both east and west Jerusalem. The easiest thing to me was to hate my enemy but the real challenge was to love them. Later on I realized my enemy was not man anymore — not Israeli, not Palestinian — but sin and darkness within us.

JOEL: What can followers of Jesus do in real and practical ways to love the Palestinian people and reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ?

MOSAB: This is an excellent question, thank you. Christians have a huge duty to love his neighbor and his enemy. Every Christian needs to carry this heavy cross. Loving Muslims and Palestinians is our responsibility. And our duty as Christians to show God’s love toward Muslims is more important than governments, the United Nations and the international community. All of those don’t have a clue how to deal with the Islamic problem. We know as Christians that the conflict is spiritual and ideological. You can’t kill an idea. You have to replace it. Governments can send troops to change a regime or kill terrorists, but they don’t have the type of weapons that we have — love and hope and grace.

Today, I need from my Christian brothers and sisters to understand the sensitivity of our mission of hope, love and forgiveness. Without these values humans will self-destruct everything beautiful. Be proud of our God and take Him to the Muslims. How come Christians are ashamed of such a loving, forgiving God? Our God is sending a great message of hope through my experience with Him. He is telling the Israelis, my people and everyone who is involved in the Middle East conflict that unconditional love and unconditional forgiveness through the example of Jesus Christ in our lives is the only hope for peace in the Middle East and the entire world — peace with God, peace within, and peace with others.

Love is not an idea, it is a reality. Our Lord showed us His love through the shedding of His innocent blood. His love is a reality we live in everyday of our lives. We can’t be perfect, but if we show the world the minimum of our Lord’s love we will be able to change the entire world in few years. Get out of your churches! Remove the dust of religion and human traditions and go out to the world. Show humanity who we are in Christ and who our God is. Humanity is hurt and its wounds are bleeding. Let’s heal it with the cure of love, the love of Jesus!

JOEL: Are you worried for your safety as you release this book? And how can we be praying for you and your family as your book releases?

MOSAB: The One who saved my life in the past is able to save it in the present and in the future as well. Physical death is not the worst thing that can happen to a man. Spiritual death is much more dangerous. This is not the time to give up. Our goal is to liberate people and our weapon is love. They can hate us but we will still love them. They can torture us but we will pray for them and they will accuse us but we continue to forgive them as we were forgiven!

———————

As proof of how much God has changed him, Mosab risked his life to save the lives of Jewish Israelis as spy for Israel’s “Shin Bet” secret service agency. He also risked his life to save his own people in the West Bank and Gaza. Now he is not only willing but eager to share the good news of Jesus Christ’s love and forgiveness and transforming power to everyone he can, despite the fact that his family has publicly and painfully disowned him and that terrorists may want to hunt him down and kill him.

The more I learn about Mosab’s story, the more I find myself thinking about the words of the Apostle Paul. As Saul of Tarsus, he was a religious terrorist. But he had a supernatural encounter with Jesus Christ and was transformed into a man of great love, wisdom and influence for the Lord as a result. In Ephesians 2:8-15, the Apostle Paul — inspired by the Holy Spirit — wrote:

“For by grace [unmerited favor] you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh…remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.”

“A Believers’ Story” Are We Ready to Help?

This was sent to me in an email from brother Frank Prater. It blessed me so much. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever…” Heb. 13:8

Greetings Friends’,
The following is an event which happened on Sunday, February 7, 2010. This is a brother we worship with. He has not given me permission to use his name, however, his story is such a blessing, and I wanted to share it with you. The story is edited for the sake of space.

“As I was driving home I saw a man lying in the road and cars were driving around him. I stopped, ran to him and did all the inspections of a first responder. I found no pulse, and he wasn’t breathing. His skin was very cold and clammy and appeared to have been a heart attack. I prayed for the Lord to touch him. Several people stopped, and tried to get involved.
I laid him on his back to begin CPR. Miraculously his heart started beating, and he started breathing. I kept anyone from touching him until an ambulance arrived, (if his spine was hurt he could be paralyzed by the wrong movement). When the police arrived I told him all that had transpired.
With my children watching me in this and all the things that could have happened and if there was more for me to do has been running through my mind ever since. Thoughts keep coming to my mind. It really got me to thinking. On the spiritual;  we need to be prepared to help a brother/sister who may be lying beside the road. Would we be willing to stop to help, or would we just drive around them like everyone else.
Please keep this man in your prayers. He was still unconscious when put into the ambulance.”

May God bless us to be ready to help a fallen brother, or sister.
Luke 10: 30 – 37

Our Vacation to Colorado in September 2009

This is our photo album from our trip to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2036359&id=1069777082&l=4213371b51

You’re Worth 10,000 Worlds – Colorado Trip

This is a video (sorry that its somewhat unsteady) from our trip to Colorado. It’s my view on the deck when I was doing my devotions in the morning. We had a wonderful rejuvenating time. I’m so thankful that the Lord provided so that we could go. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights. I absolutely love the Rocky Mountains. Hopefully, if it is the Lord’s will, I will make my home there someday. If not in this age, in the age to come, right?

Brother Hannington Baliita from Uganda

Dear Bro.Jason,
Praise God! Since I started visiting this website, the good Lord has tremendiously blessed me spiritually through the ministry of Bro.Jason DeMars, his teaching on the Godhead, his passion for missions to carry this Message of grace and hope and Life to the far places, and the updates of the world end time envents.

To the sinner, it’s one of the ministries that can lead you to the true Christ of God, the vindicated Word for this day, dissolving all the doubts. To the believer, it’s one of the diversities of operations in the Body of Christ to help the true Church grow in the knowledge of the Word of God and to grow to the stature of the fulness of Christ.

I encourage every visitor to this website to support this ministry with our prayers and in every way as our God may lead. God bless you.
Bro.Hannington Baliita of Kaliro Town in Uganda.

Testimonies: God’s Healing and Direction

I am going to take this blog post to thank the Lord for His goodness and mercy to me. It’s important that we testify of the good things He does for us.

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Mark 16:17-18

This is a promise of our Lord to the disciples. Many laugh at this promise in that they see the people who purposely take up serpents and handle them to show they have faith. That is not what the verse is talking about. He is talking about being in the line of duty and coming across these situations and God will deliver them out of it to show forth the truth and power of the Gospel. That is what laying hands on the sick is all about as well.

I just want to give testimony to that. Last evening my wife and I were going through the bank drive-thru to make a deposit and all of a sudden a sharp pain came into her stomach and it continued to feel that way. So I laid my hand on her stomach and prayed claiming this promise in the Scripture and asking for the Lord’s mercy. Very shortly after I prayed the stomach pain went away and did not return. I do not say that brag, but simply to testify of God’s grace and power. It had nothing to do with me, just simply our faith in His promises and God’s goodness.

The next thing I am very excited about is a pastor from Turkey that I met recently that stands for and believes in the message of God to this generation. I won’t mention his name here, but this brother takes the message of the Gospel around Turkey, Armenia and Iran. The way I met him was through my website over at Present Truth Ministries. He came to it and sent me over an email. Now, I am aware of and involved in something God is doing that I had no idea even existed. I can pray for them and help them by the Holy Spirit and the word. It just lights my soul on fire to know believers out there that are putting their lives on the line for this word. I will do anything I can to help them in what they are doing.

I pray each of us begin to reach out, get involved in spreading the message of Christ far and wide and of course near too. If we don’t do it near we won’t do it far and wide either.