Egypt moves toward criminalising child marriage
13 Oct 2017
Rights advocates want to end Egypt’s long-tolerated child marriage tradition. Azza is in her early 20s and has given birth four times. When she was twelve her father decided it was time she got married. It mattered little to him that the groom was over twice Azza’s age and she had never met him. Azza and her sisters didn’t go to school; only their brothers were educated. In Egypt’s poor, rural communities, girls are deprived of education and become child brides at puberty, despite the legal age of marriage in Egypt being 18. But now the prosecution of an imam for marrying dozens of underage girls marks a shift in social attitudes. It also sends a message that the authorities are serious about enforcing the law. Maya Morsi of the National Council for Women (NCW) has urged parliament to raise the legal age of marriage to 21.
Nepal: still a disaster area
13 Oct 2017
In April 2015 the worst earthquake for eighty years hit Nepal, killing 8,891 people, injuring 22,300, and destroying or damaging over 893,000 homes, as well as schools, clinics and ancient buildings. 8.1 million people were affected. The rural areas (often remote and mountainous, and already poor) were hit hardest. After the earthquake the government published a vision for ‘well-planned resilient settlements and a prosperous society’. But it has fallen short of that goal because of poor coordination between government and donors, poor understanding of local concerns, and a lack of civic engagement. Two years on, barely 5% of destroyed houses have been rebuilt, and 800,000 families still have no homes. It is still a disaster area where people face another hard winter.
South Africa: Global Leadership Summit 2017
13 Oct 2017
The 2017 Global Leadership Summit (GLS) is a series of two-day leadership training events in October, expected to be attended by 13,000 SA leaders. A hallmark of the GLS has been its ability to deliver a unique blend of vision, inspiration and practical skills that attendees can immediately apply. There are 21 events in 18 cities and towns. This annual summit was founded 22 years ago out of a vision in the heart of Bill Hybels of Willow Creek Church in Chicago to bring the best leadership training to the local church. It has just kept on growing, consistently inspiring church, ministry, business and organisation leaders. During 2017 it will reach 1,375 venues in 128 countries, teaching civility and respect, building resilience, increasing people's creativity and uniqueness, and reinventing performance management and fearless leadership.
God, are you still listening?
12 Oct 2017
Does God really listen to our prayers? Does he really hear us when we cry out to him?
Sometimes we pray for a long time about big things, like a health issue or a prodigal child or a difficult work situation, and things don’t get better. We wonder if God’s been paying attention.
I prayed for my wife regarding a life-threatening disease for 27 long years. We prayed and prayed, but her condition only worsened. Why aren’t you answering, God? How could it be true that you have “heard my voice and my pleas for mercy” (Psalm 116:1)? It doesn’t feel like you have “attended to the voice of my prayer” (Psalm 66:19).
Perhaps my faith wasn’t strong enough. Maybe I wasn’t good enough. Such questions assaulted me like a tribunal of vicious accusers. They wore me down, leaving me doubting and discouraged.
Persist in Prayer
“How many of us can say we’ve prayed single-mindedly for something huge we were looking to God for?” Tweet Share on Facebook
I continued to look to God’s word for encouragement. There was certainly no shortage of it. For example, Jesus told the people “a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). This was the story of the persistent widow who only received an answer because she kept coming and asking — she refused to give up. Jesus then asked, “And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7).
Is that the sort of persistence in prayer that’s required? Many of us who have prayed for years for the same thing have sometimes lost heart amid the ups and downs of waiting for God. And then we’ve wondered how God could possibly answer our inconsistent prayers. This is how the accuser can use God’s word to discourage us.
Faith in Prayer
Jesus is also clear that faith in prayer is vital. He’s bold in his promises about what will happen when we pray in faith. Jesus said,
“If you have faith and do not doubt . . . if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.” (Matthew 21:21–22)
How many of us can say we’ve prayed that single-mindedly — without doubting — for something huge we were looking to God for? If we had, this passage tells us that we’d have seen the answer and been left rejoicing rather than discouraged due to our doubts and double-mindedness (James 1:6–8). Many of us likely feel like we’re lacking that kind of faith.
Never Good Enough
So what do we do when important passages like these leave us struggling with self-recrimination rather than encouraged amid lengthy battles in prayer? Will God only answer our prayers when we measure up to such impossible standards like praying day and night or having faith to move mountains? Such teachings might leave us thinking that we’re just not good enough.
But perhaps that’s exactly what Jesus wants us to realize. Perhaps the liberation we long for from that tribunal of accusers is that very admission: We are not good enough! Our prayers aren’t good enough. And there is nothing in our life with God for which we are good enough!
Boast in Your Weakness
Yes, God certainly looks for faith. Yes, we must persist. Yes, earnestly seek God to believe and endure. But even as we do, we recognize that we’ll always be deficient in faith and deficient in persistence on this side of heaven. Yet, this should not hinder us from embracing the reality that when “this poor man cried . . . the Lord heard him” (Psalm 34:6).
“Because Jesus has earned his Father’s ear, we can rest assured that God hears our every prayer.” Tweet Share on Facebook
We need God’s help to endure in faithful prayer when things are not going well. The most confident and steadfast saints put no trust in the level of faith they attain, but only trust that Jesus himself is “the founder and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). They know that “the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26). Prayerful saints trust Jesus to be our “advocate with the Father,” who covers our sinful inconsistency and unbelief with the very blood he shed for us (1 John 2:1–2).
Jesus Fills What We Lack
This gives us boldness as we persist in crying out to God, even though we know that our prayers are never good enough. God more than makes up for our inadequacies when our trust rests first in the person of Jesus, rather than first in our own disposition in prayer. Yes, the disposition matters. But the decisive factor is God’s riches of mercy and grace to meet us in our need.
And speaking of God’s mercy, God certainly did answer all those prayers for my wife, when in his perfect timing, she finally received a kidney transplant in 2015. We are daily grateful for God’s gift of life to us!
We aren’t good enough, but Jesus is. And because he has earned his Father’s ear, we can rest assured that God hears our every prayer.
By Ken Peters. Source: desiringGod.org
Ken Peters is a husband and father of three, and has been a pastor at Gateway Church in Winnipeg, Canada for twenty-five years.
7 Every day habits for a healthy spiritual heart
12 Oct 2017
I spend the majority of my investment helping people to live with an awakened and powerful heart. Unfortunately our busy and overloaded lives cause us to neglect the life of our spiritual hearts. We get so lost in “getting by” that we fail to keep in mind the most important aspect of life–the inner life of the heart.
Quite often when people come to me for help, their heart is either deeply immersed in their personal woundedness or highly shut down emotionally. Both arenas can come as a result of neglecting the life of the heart.
But I don’t want to overcomplicate it. Sometimes the most important things for our hearts are very simple, yet incredibly foundational. All it takes is a willingness to incorporate some healthy habits every day and you can cultivate a heart life that is conditioned to go the long haul.
Here are some simple habits you can implement to cultivate a spiritual heart that is awake and healthy. Practice them every day and you can be sure that over the long haul you will set yourself up for greater victory in life.
1. Feel
I know we are not supposed to let our feelings run our lives, but we’ve allowed this way of thinking to keep us from feeling at all. Over the years, too many believers downplay emotions as all evil, when we forget, we are designed to connect and experience from the heart. We are made to feel, not just compute.
So it’s important that we allow ourselves to feel the gamut of emotions that we need to process for spiritual and emotional health. It’s ok to rejoice and to mourn. It’s healthy to grieve and to celebrate. Anger is not always evil. We need to process when we are upset. Take time every single day laugh and celebrate. Be open to crying or connecting to pain.
Stop shutting down, stuffing down or living an unemotional life. It’s ok to feel. Your heart was made to connect and experience.
2. Let Go
There are many burdens and issues we carry in our hearts that we were not meant to carry. Every single day, we need to cast our cares upon God and enter into His rest. Casting your cares doesn’t lead you into denial, it just releases the pressure of it all upon God’s ability to work in our situations. Healthy people know how to release their cares, concerns and frustrations to God.
3. Forgive
Some of the healthiest people I know have cultivated the ability to forgive constantly. They don’t allow resentment or being offended lay around too long. They keep toxicity out of their life because they know to not keep accounts on people and overlook offenses that rise up in relationships.
I am astounded that people who have walked with God for decades forget that we need to forgive people every single day. Our forgiveness muscles need to continually grow as we release and let go of hurt and offenses that come our way all day long. The more we hold on to those bitter roots, the more contamination will build up in our hearts.
4. Say Thanks
I think it’s the best practice in the world to let your first thought and last thought of the day be gratitude. If you cultivate a heart of gratitude, then your focus throughout the day will be on all that you have, not on what you do not have. Your thoughts will hover around what is awesome about your life, not allowing discontentment to steal your joy. Every single day and all day long, take frequent stops to express gratitude in all areas of your life.
5. Rehearse Who You Are and Where You Are Headed
Every day, I spend time talking to myself. It’s a habit I have cultivate for decades and in many ways it has preserved my sanity in the toughest of storms. Sometimes all you got is you and God. So you need to be able to leverage your words to comfort, encourage and strengthen yourself.
We need to declare out loud who God says that we are, otherwise we will spend most of the day serving who we are not. We also need to use our words to declare where we are headed.
There is so much pressure on people’s hearts to go somewhere in life. We overwhelm ourselves with the need to achieve or manifest success, when in reality, life is a journey. You have each and every day to practice and rehearse who God says you are and where you are headed. Using our words every day to encourage and strengthen our identity and destiny can be the most fruitful daily habits for your heart.
6. Get Still
Most of our stresses and times of overwhelm come out of the lack of peace in our hearts. It’s important that every day, we set our compass for stillness; not just to pray, but to set the atmosphere in our hearts for peace. Stillness trains our hearts to lean into that peace all day long, so that we are not taken out by the busyness and pressure of modern living.
7. Face Your Fears and Stretch
Every day you need to do something that moves you out of your comfort zone. Millions of people are looking for great breakthrough without being inconveniences or made to feel uncomfortable. There is no blessing in the comfort zone. No breakthrough lives in the world of comfort. Everything you are looking for is outside the boat. The water is waiting for you to walk on it. You just have to face your fear and step out there.
To exercise the muscles of your spiritual heart, you need to learn to be stretched, every day. The moment I realized that I will always be challenged, always be growing and always facing new challenges is the moment I hit a stronger place, because I open myself to new challenges continually.
Practice these habits every day and see what begins to change in your life. Your heart will thank you for it.
Source: Mark Dejesus
One Thing for Churches
12 Oct 2017
‘One Thing’ is a three part teaching series on prayer produced by the Salvation Army but for use in any local church context. The second part is now available ‘One Thing for the church: Growing Prayer Together' and features 7 sessions on how we can grow in prayer together in communities of faith. Website gives free access to study guide as a downloadable PDF and you can view all 7 sessions of the videos.
https://www.salvationarmy.org.uk/one-thing-for-the-church
Repair & Restore National Prayer Conference
12 Oct 2017
More people are in slavery today than at any other point in history. Over 45 million men, women and children are locked in slavery as you read this email. But there is hope.
We're inviting you to join us in Saturday 4th November at St. Paul's Hammersmith London for our National Prayer Gathering as we seek to start the biggest move of prayer to end slavery that the UK has ever seen!
Hear Saroeun Sek tell his incredible story of leaving his job as a nightclub DJ to become Director of Legal at IJM when he witnessed the brutality of slavery, with worship from the amazing Christian singer songwriter Lucy Grimble.
We believe in the power of prayer so we're asking you to join us in petitioning our God of justice to act, to join us as we fight to bring light into some of the world's darkest places. God is calling us to rise up -to repair and rebuild what is broken, to bring restoration, and fight to see the end of slavery for good.
The end of slavery requires a move of God's people. That movement starts with us. So sign up, share and join the fight. Thank you for standing with us until all are free.
Heroism at Las Vegas shooting
06 Oct 2017
The USA and the world are still reeling from the horrific shooting that killed 59 people and wounded over 500 more on 1 October in Las Vegas. While we are all still grappling with this senseless act of violence and ‘pure evil,’ as President Trump termed it, there are also stories of courage and heroism which showcase the best aspects of the human spirit. Many people acted selflessly during the shooting. One couple attending the concert fled from the scene in their pickup truck, but returned to help transport the wounded to hospitals. Another story emerged of a husband who gave his life for his wife by shielding her with his body as bullets rained down on the crowd. Two friends at the concert heard the shots and hid under some tables, then a complete stranger came and shielded them.