My wife and I just got back from a three day winter retreat with our youth group from Grace Baptist. What a privilage to preach to them seven times. I graduated from that youth group 10 years ago. My life was changed while there. God is using Max Fernandez in a mighty way to shape young lives.

Below I’ve written the first sermon of the Kanisa Conference which took place last week in Middletown, OH. If you weren’t there…you just missed it. Tim, a missionary in Turkey, preached this soul-stirrer:

The Need for a Generation of Missionaries to Reverse Jihad in the Muslim World

Jihad lays at the very core of Islamic doctrine and culture

What most of the world knows about Jihad is only the tip of the iceberg

What is Jihad?
A struggle or striving. The Arabic word closely related to the verb jaahada which means “exerting one’s utmost power, effort, endeavors, or ability in contending with an object of disapproval.

From an Islamic theological, ideological, and historical perspective, jihad can be defined as taking advantage of every opportunity and resource to defend and spread the cause of Islam by all means and  until Islam is globally acknowledged as supreme

4 types of Jihad

1. Jihad against the soul – only exists where Muslims are a minority, they struggle within themselves
2. Jihad against Satan – Anything contrary to Islam
3. Jihad against injustice – combat, civil disobedience, activism, and public condemnation
4. Jihad against hypocrites/unbelievers – in the heart secretely, open debates, financial, fighting, and martyrdom (highest form of Jihad) Holy War

“Fight and slay the Pagans wherever you find them, and seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem” Surah 9:5

We are at war!

Ephesians 6:2 – We wrestle not against flesh and blood. We are fighting against spiritual darkness

We need a generation of heroes!

We need mighty men of God!

I Chronicles 11:10

1. They must have a strong, unwavering faith (11:11,20)

1. They must not be a deserter (12-14)
   1. In the face of hardships
   2. In the face of Pressure – eccuminical
   3. Hand clave to the sword
   4. Stay in the battle until it is won

      Read the rest of this entry »

–An organization that serves the persecuted church again has rated North Korea as the worst oppressor of Christians. It was the eighth consecutive year thatOpen Doors gave the Asian regime the top ranking, this time 25 points ahead of Iran, the No. 2-rated country.

Meanwhile, more than two-thirds of the world’s population live in countries with high restrictions on religion, according to a report by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life titled Global Restrictions on Religion.

Nearly 70 percent of the world’s 6.8 billion people reside in countries with high or very high restrictions on religion, the Pew Forum reported. Although only 64 of the 198 countries or territories studied have those levels of restrictions (32 percent), they contain the large majority of the world’s population.

In the government restrictions ratings, the countries that scored “very high,” or in the top 5 percent of the scores, were, in descending order, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Uzbekistan, China, Egypt, Burma, Maldives, Eritrea, Malaysia and Brunei.

The countries that ranked “very high” in social hostilities were, in descending order, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Somalia, Israel, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Saudi Arabia.

In rankings by region, the Middle East-North Africa had the highest scores in both government restrictions on and social hostilities toward religion, while the Americas were the least restrictive in both indexes.

Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India were the most restrictive among the world’s 25 most populous countries when both categories are considered. Meanwhile, the least restrictive of the 25 most populous countries were Brazil, Japan, the United States, Italy, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

“There is no other country in the world where Christians are persecuted in such a horrible and systematic manner,” Carl Moeller said in a Jan. 6 news release from Open Doors. “Three generations of a family are often thrown into prison when one member is incarcerated.”

The regime of dictator Kim Jong-Il has an estimated 200,000 political prisoners,including 40,000 to 60,000 Christians, according to Open Doors.

Despite the repression, “the number of Christians in North Korea has grown in the last 10 years,” Moeller said.

According to Open Doors, the 10 countries where persecution of Christians is worst, with scores in parentheses, are North Korea (90.5), Iran (65.5), Saudi Arabia (63.5), Somalia (62.5), Maldives (62.0), Afghanistan (61.5), Yemen (60.5), Mauritania (59.5), Laos (56.0) and Uzbekistan (56.0).

Tom Strode is the Washington bureau chief for Baptist Press.

First, I want to ask you to pray for my friend Jake in China whose wife underwent surgery yesterday.

I wanted to praise our God by reporting two great blessings in 2009:

1. My surgeon in Cincy told us in Oct. 2008 that I would need to have a procedure to widen my bronchial tube every three months for the rest of my life. We decided to go back to North Africa anyway. Now it has been 1 year and 3 months and I haven’t needed the procedure. Praise God.

2. I’ve had 5 bronchoscopies since the surgery in May 2008. Three in the US and two in Europe. I haven’t been charged a dime for any of them. I don’t know how to explain that except to say praise be to God.

Pray, then, on Friday as I have a procedure to widen my bronchial tube. Our prayer is that the doctor will find the bronchial tube as wide open as she saw it last time she checked it.

Some of you are aware of Wilbur Hallasi’s recent struggles with his wife and baby. His wife overcame pnuemonia when they didn’t this she’d made it. Just today his daughter who is only a few months old passed away. Check out this blog to read more and see how you can help.

This was the question that Bro. Cushman posed to a panel of missionaries to Muslim peoples last week during the first ever “Kanisa Conference” (Kanisa in Arabic means church so the meeting was about church planting in Muslim countries and people groups). Here are a few of the answers that were most common among the 30 or so who answered:

1. The lack of laborers

2. The apathy of the churches

3. The unpreparedness of the missionaries being sent to practice 1st century Christianity and apostleship(this was my answer)

To all of you who were there, Thank you! It was an awesome time. I heard reports from the Summit in Gatlinburg and the SGI in Detriot that some of you have dedicated your lives to reach Muslims. If this is the case with you, write me at sadiq@injeelmp3.com. I’d love to hear from you about how God did this work in your heart and what your plans are from here.

Over 50 adults attended The Kanisa Conference held in Middletown, OH over the last three days. Here are the statistics:

-14 different languages were represented (not including dialects of Arabic)

-Countries represented included Turkmenistan, Kazakstan, Turkey, Russia, Singapour, Senegal, Egypt, North Africa, and a few others.

-The focus was church planting.

more to come…