Stats
•Population – 10,329,208
•Percentage of Evangelicals – 13.5%
•Total Number of People Groups – 158
•Number of Unreached People Groups – 117
•Language Spoken – French (official), Arabic (official), Sara (in south)
•Major Religion – Muslim (53.1%), Catholic, Protestant
•Human Development Rank – 175
•Persecution Index – N/A

Until 1960, Chad was a part of France’s African holdings. Once France granted independence, Chad faced three decades of civil warfare along with an invasion by Libya. Even after peace was established in 1990, Chad has faced corrupt elections, sporadic rebellions in northern Chad and along the western boarder with Sudan. Power in Chad resides in the hands of an ethnic minority. As recent as 2008, rebel forces have threatened to overthrow the capital. Chad is considered one of the poorest countries in the world, 175 out of 182 countries ranked by the United Nations. One of the major water sources for the country, Lake Chad, has been decreasing in size for years creating a shortage of water for many people, their livestock, and crops. Chad is also home to great lostness. According to the IMB, 117 people groups out of 158 are considered unreached with 86 of those people groups still with not gospel witness. Over 1.7 million people in Chad do not have any portion of Scripture in their own language. The need is great for basic physical necessities, for the gospel, and for the body of Christ who live in Chad. (sources: CIA World Factbook, IMB Global Research Department, United Nations Human Development Index 2009, Operation World, Window on the World)

•Chad is one of the poorest countries in the world. Ask God to provide for the Chadians so His name will be great among them.
•Pray for God to bless the efforts of those translating the Bible and working in other ways to spread the gospel of Christ.
•Ask God to strengthen our brothers and sisters in Christ.
•Pray for the believers in Chad to take the gospel to the vast amount of Chadians who do not know Christ.
•Pray for God to send laborers to the 86 people groups who do not have a gospel witness.

The greatest stumbling block for children in worship is that their parents do not cherish the hour. Children can feel the difference between duty and delight. Therefore, the first and most important job of a parent is to fall in love with the worship of God. You can’t impart what you don’t possess.

As I drove to church this morning through the slushy snow on the streets I began giving God thanks for the faithful men and women who have paid a significant price to worship over the centuries and for the missionaries who have carried the gospel at great costs to serve our Lord. Going to church to worship with the saints when it was a little cold and the travel not quite ideal seemed like a walk in the park in comparison.

There is no “merit based” thought positively or negatively in what I am writing about going to church in the snow.

In our desperation to live by the Spirit we have committed as a church family to avoid legalism, not settle for externals, believe in the gospel, recognize ourselves as those who have been mercied by God, pursue practical holiness, pursue demonstrations of love, and long for and live for the glory of God.

It is that longing for the glory of God that moved me to ask the Lord to help me not grow soft and flabby but rather to lead a church family to be strong and courageous for our Lord.

Earlier this week I read about the missionary David Livingstone. I hope these words encourage you to be strong and courageous.

David Livingstone was born March 19, 1813. He gave his life to serve Christ in the exploration of Africa for the sake of the access of the gospel.

On December 4, 1857, he spoke this sentence as one of the clearest applications of Jesus’ words in Mark 10:29-30. Jesus said,

Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

Here is what Livingstone said to the Cambridge students about his “leaving” the benefits of England:

For my own part, I have never ceased to rejoice that God has appointed me to such an office. People talk of the sacrifice I have made in spending so much of my life in Africa. . . . Is that a sacrifice which brings its own blest reward in healthful activity, the consciousness of doing good, peace of mind, and a bright hope of a glorious destiny hereafter? Away with the word in such a view, and with such a thought! It is emphatically no sacrifice. Say rather it is a privilege. Anxiety, sickness, suffering, or danger, now and then, with a foregoing of the common conveniences and charities of this life, may make us pause, and cause the spirit to waver, and the soul to sink; but let this only be for a moment. All these are nothing when compared with the glory which shall be revealed in and for us. I never made a sacrifice.

(Cited in Samuel Zwemer, “The Glory of the Impossible” in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement, Ralph Winter and Stephen Hawthorne, eds. [Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1981], p. 259. Emphasis added.)

March 12th, 2010

Dear church family or friend of Springs of Grace,

Grace and peace from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This past year has been one of the most significant in the life of our church. God has challenged us to depend on Him and His Spirit rather than ourselves. The Lord spoke to us from the gospel of John and from Exodus 33-34 that: we have been sent on a mission that’s way too big for us; we have a privilege of communing with Jesus in this mission that is too precious to forsake; we have a people the Father has given us to love (because He has given them) we dare not neglect and we have a God to infinitely great to not risk everything to trust Him.
I am so thankful for this church body and your faith and willingness to believe in the greatness and goodness of our God and, because of that, to take risks for His gospel and His glory.
Our neighbors, those living in the inner city, many of whom attend man-centered churches, and people around the world treat God as though He were a small thing – as though other treasures and achievements in this life were a bigger deal than knowing Him. Our summer ministry exists to help as many of them as possible to see the greatness of God.
One area where we have seen God honor your faith has been through our summer ministry. The investment we make in people’s lives through our intern ministry and our summer ministries is a key part of this vision. For the past couple of years we have taken an offering in the spring to seek God’s provision for the special ministry opportunities of the summer. After praying and seeking counsel from the advisory team, we believe we should once again ask the Lord to provide for these ministries through this special offering.
During the next few weeks we want to ask you to pray especially for two things:
First, Sunday, March 28th we will take a special offering that will go towards our summer ministry. We don’t do this often. We hope people will give willingly and joyfully and secretly as each one is led by the Lord. Ours is a day when many churches sell the gospel and other churches market themselves in a way that targets financially profitable groups. We believe the Bible exhorts us to give in secret and that trusting the Lord to supply the needs of His body ought to be our emphasis. We are thankful for the generous way the Lord has supplied our needs as a church body through the faithful giving of the saints – without us needing to make any emotional appeals.
We believe deeply in the value of training urban missionaries and modeling for them what a God-centered church that goes after the head AND the heart for the glory of the Lord looks like. We believe the giftings of the interns add greatly to our church body’s ability to demonstrate the beauty of Christ to this city and we believe God is equipping His church in other places through the training and experiences interns receive here and then take with them into future ministry opportunities. Each year the Lord has provided amazingly for this ministry and we look to Him to do so again through His people.
The Lord continues to give us wonderful opportunities for increased ministry. The number of young men and women expressing an interest in serving as interns this summer is again staggering. We want to walk faithfully in the ministries the Lord has opened the door so we are asking you to pray with us for $35,000 to support the summer ministry.
Frankly, that is a staggering amount for such a small group of saints, but we believe the Lord has placed these ministries before us and it seems right to pursue Him to supply the means to carry them out. It may well be that the Lord would not have you give to this special offering. That’s fine. We just want you to pray with us and give if and as the Lord enables you to give.
Secondly, over the next 9 months we are asking each family of our church to join us in a prayer for laborers to join the ministry at Springs of Grace Bible Church. We are very grateful to the Lord for the people and gifts He is using to build His church here and we trust His wise leadership. However, if the Lord has these ministries for us and if they are to expand in effectiveness, then we need a larger base of laborers. Some of you have prayed for laborers to join this ministry for several years and the Lord has brought others of you as answers to those prayers. Would you commit or renew your commitment to ask the Lord to enable you to reach at least one family or individual over the next 9 months who would come and join in the ministry here? One part of this would be making it a matter of regular prayer to ask the Lord to send more laborers to this ministry.
I think I have been guilty of thinking too small when it comes to God and what He might choose to do through us. Can you imagine what that Lord might do this summer and over the coming year? What would it be like if the Lord used each family or individual in this church to reach just three other families over the course of the next 9 months? What kind of potential impact could that have on those families? How many more kids could we successfully tutor? How many more students could attend the One Hope Academy? How many more of our neighbors could experience the love of God through demonstrations of love from our church body? How much more money could we send to needy brothers and sisters in Tanzania, Ukraine, China, India, Sudan, Bhutan, and Rwanda? How much progress could we make toward a rescue or recovery home for those rescued out of the sex slave or human trafficking? How many orphans could be helped or adopted out of the foster care program or from Haiti or …? How many preachers and urban missionaries could be trained and sent out? What impact could they have in other urban settings around the world? When you think of the glory and honor God could draw to His own name it is both staggering and immensely encouraging.
Paul said that the Lord is “able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we could ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20); and James said, “We don’t have because we don’t ask” (James 4:2); and Jesus said, “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do” (John 14:13). On Sunday, March 28th you’ll be given the opportunity to make or renew this commitment to pray regularly for laborers and to ask God to move powerfully through this church for His glory.
We could set our target at a type of ministry that would bring in more support and target more people – but that is not the pattern we see in the Lord Jesus – that is not the path to greatness in His kingdom that Jesus lays out in Luke 9:46-48. We certainly could aim at something smaller and more attainable in our own power but a small vision doesn’t seem to fit with the greatness we have seen in our God. So, we are asking you to join us in these two great prayers as we continue seeking to be a church that collectively puts on display the perfections of Christ.

To the praise of His glory,

Joe
for Pastors Joe Blankenship and Andrew Moss

Don’t forget to set your clocks forward 1 hour tonight so that you are not late to church tomorrow. Looking forward to worshipping our Lord together.

Stats
•Population – 7,204,687
•Percentage of Evangelicals – 2%
•Total Number of People Groups – 10
•Number of Unreached People Groups – 9
•Language Spoken – Bulgarian
•Major Religion – Bulgarian Orthodox (82.6%), Muslim (12.2%)
•Human Development Rank – 56
•Persecution Index – N/A

Bulgaria has a long history starting In the 7th century when the first Bulgarian state formed when the Bulgars, a Central Asian Turkic tribe, merged with the local Slavic inhabitants. By the end of the 14th century, the Ottoman Empire took over Bulgaria until 1908. Bulgaria then sided on the losing end of both world wars and fell under the Soviet sphere of influence after World War II. In 1946 Bulgaria became a People’s Republic. Communism ended in 1990. Bulgaria has since struggled through the process of moving toward political democracy and a market economy. For centuries, Bulgarian Orthodox Christianity was the state religion until 1946. Although there is currently religious freedom, Bulgarian Orthodox Church still maintains a lot of influence. Even though the Evangelical Christian population in Bulgaria is 2%, there is a great need for training of the church and its leaders. In addition, 9 of the 10 people groups in Bulgaria are considered unreached. (Source: CIA World Factbook, Operation World, IMB Global Research Department)

•Ask God to work in the hearts of the Eastern Orthodox Church leaders and members and draw them to the Gospel of Christ.
•Pray for our brothers and sisters in Bulgaria to stand firm in the faith and unite for the sake of the Gospel.
•Pray for God to use the Bulgarian church to minister to those in great physical and spiritual need.
•Ask God to soften the hearts of Bulgarians who have been hardened by Communism.

There’s something we often overlook in the midst of conflict: God’s glory.

“If we begin to get a glimpse of the vast glory of God, we will realize that many of our conflicts are like two ants arguing about which is taller while standing in front of Mount Everest.” –Chris Brauns
Next time you’re in a conflict, make your goal the glory of God. God’s glory is infinitely more important than being right, winning an argument, or getting someone to see our side.

Ask yourself, “What do I need to do to bring glory to God in this situation?”

1″Cry loudly, do not hold back; Raise your voice like a trumpet, And declare to My people their transgression And to the house of Jacob their sins. 2″Yet they seek Me day by day and delight to know My ways, As a nation that has one righteousness And has not forsaken the ordinance of their God They ask Me for just decisions, They delight in the nearness of God. 3′Why have we fasted and You do not see? Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?’ Behold, on the day of your fast you find your desire, And drive hard all your workers. 4″Behold, you fast for contention and strife and to strike with a wicked fist You do not fast like you do today to make your voice heard on high. 5″Is it a fast like this which I choose, a day for a man to humble himself? Is it for bowing one’s head like a reed And for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed? Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the LORD? 6″Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free
And break every yoke? 7″Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him;
And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8″Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. 9″Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; You will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am ‘ If you remove the yoke from your midst, The pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, 10And if you give yourself to the hungry And satisfy the desire of the afflicted, Then your light will rise in darkness And your gloom will become like midday. “And the LORD will continually guide you, And satisfy your desire in scorched places, And give strength to your bones; And you will be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water whose waters do not fail. “Those from among you will rebuild the ancient ruins; You will raise up the age-old foundations; And you will be called the repairer of the breach, The restorer of the streets in which to dwell.

John Calvin summarizes his thoughts on Isaiah 58 like this:

Uprightness and righteousness are divided into two parts; first, that we should injure nobody; and secondly, that we should bestow our wealth and abundance on the poor and needy. And these two ought to be joined together; for it is not enough to abstain from acts of injustice, if thou refuse thy assistance to the needy; nor will it be of much avail to render thine aid to the needy, if at the same time thou rob some of that which thou bestowest on others….These two parts, therefore, must be held together, provided only that we have our love of our neighbour approved and accepted by God (Commentary on Isaiah).

The implications of Isaiah 58 are straightforward: God’s people should hate oppression and love to help the poor.

Written by Stephen Altrogge

http://www.theblazingcenter.com/

Is your church healthy?
There are all kinds of ways to answer that question. Is the Word of God regularly preached? Is it gospel-centered? Does it affirm the historical truths of Christianity? All good, necessary questions.

But let me throw out a church health question that you might not think about? Is your church full of messy people?

When the gospel is truly preached, sinners get truly saved. Jesus saves drug addicts. Jesus saves homosexuals. Jesus saves wealthy, self-righteous entrepreneurs. Jesus saves struggling couples. Jesus invades the darkness and rescues helpless sinners.

When these folks get saved, they bring their struggles into the church. This makes the church messy. In fact, the church is full of people who are being transformed from sinful messes into the image of Christ.

If the church isn’t messy, it probably means one of two things. Either, the gospel is being preached and sinners aren’t being saved, or people aren’t being honest about their sin.

Because when the gospel is preached, things are going to get messy. Wonderfully messy.

“Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17)