Thursday Evening Blog with Pastor Williams
Posted on June 7th, 2006 by TADCCBLOG
Pastor Williams will be active on this blog site THURSDAY from 8:30 to 9:30pm. Please suggest topics or questions for discussion.
Filed under: Live Blog on Thursday
10 Responses to “Thursday Evening Blog with Pastor Williams”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
TADCC Community,
Tonight begins a new chapter in dialogue and thoughts related to the Christian experience and challenges.
al-Zarqawi was killed and many are wondering what impact this will have on Iraq, the Middle East and its relationship to the Word of God. Proverbs 14:34 states that righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people. I believe that al-Zarqawi being killed is a direct response to the President saying that he is in favor of marriage between a man and a woman be added to the constitution as an amendment. This president had been wavering in his commitment to Christian values. He was the one that said that Christ Jesus was the most influential person in his life and then began to back away from this position after two very close elections.
The Heavenly Father through His Son Christ Jesus revealed to me during March of the last presidential election year that George W Bush would win. On the day of the election the Heavenly Father through His Son Christ Jesus also revealed that there would be problems with the polls being taken. I had my immediate family to pray that the enemy would not deceive. Glory be to God in the highest. Both events happened as God said they would. George Bush won and there was confusion with the polls. The next question I asked God was why did He want George Bush to win. His reply “He had to finish what he started”?
Pastor Williams,
You hear so clearly God’s voice in your daily life and hold on to the promises that He has given you. There are other believers who struggle with knowing His voice (although the Bible says that His sheep know His voice) and His promises for their lives. I know that the Bible says that we “must try the spirits to see if they be of God,” but how do you help a believer truly know and hold onto the promises of God for his/her life?
The amendment to the constitution that a marriage should be only between a man and a woman was 11 votes short of coming up for a senate vote. Conservatives in this country want their voice heard on this issue and pushed their senators and the president to bring this matter up for vote.
Homosexuality is a very despicable lifestyle and sin. But I believe we must understand what the Word of God says about this deviant lifestyle if we want to be effective witnesses for Christ. When Leviticus 18:22 says that it is an abomination for mankind to lie with mankind as with womankind, many do not properly teach what an abomination is and therefore give the enemy an unneeded opportunity to malign the Word of God.
They say there are also verses about a woman’s menstrual being an abomination and also the foods we eat.
The word abomination in its etymology means anything related to pagan practices. We will see this in Deuteronomy 7:26 where it states that thou shall not bring an abomination into thy house. Anything representative of or belonging to paganism or devil worship was not to be a part of Israel. Therefore homosexuality is a part of devil worship and paganism. Blood and unclean foods were also a part of devil worship and paganism and God did not want His people associating with devil worship. He commanded them to come out from among them as stated in 2 Corinthians 6:17. I Corinthians 10:20 say that all the pagan sacrifices were to devils. So when God told them not to participate in pagan worship He was telling them not to participate in devil’s worship which is what homosexuality is.
NO Christian can say that He is a child of God and participate in devil’s worship. The Didache, a first century document (on the website in its entirety) attributed to the apostles that followed Christ Jesus, in the second chapter says thou shalt not commit sodomy. Therefore we see the precendent for the first century church calling this lifestyle sinful.
Any time man, God’s greatest creation turns against that which is the most natural and fundamental thing God has given to man, it invokes the wrath of God. We see this with Sodom and Gomorrah. Reading Romans 1:24 very closely you see that homosexuality is a result of God giving a person up or turning them over to a reprobate lifestyle. In other words homosexuality is a result of God withdrawing Himself from that person, who then does the most despicable sins. Homosexual are people without God in their lives.
Anonymous,
Our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus said continue in my word and ye are my disciples indeed (John 8:31) It is through living the Word of God that We truly come to know Him as Lord and Saviour. Every person that comes to the Lord will be scourged. Hebrew 12:6 says that He who the Lord loves He scourgeth. The scourging was what was shown in The Passion that our and Lord and Saviour suffered. Every believer must give up the things that are dear to him if he wants to be a follower of Christ. It is the Word that gives us comfort as God breaks our will to conform to His will. For the Word gives us hope of a better life and a better promise. If your friend is truly sincere about serving God then He will want to obey and live His Word. Proverbs 24:16 state a just man falls seven times but gets back up. The reason he can get back up is because he has the Word of God giving him promises of forgiveness if he would turn to the Lord. That same Word that breaks us is also that same Word that heals us. I John 1:9, God is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins. Tell him to try and live the Word of God and He will hear the voice of God so clearly.
TADCC Community,
You may continue to respond to the statements or leave new questions. I will answer all questions. Thank you for the success of our first live blog. Join us again on Saturday from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm. The live blog will be available to answer any questions related to our radio broadcast on 1410 am from 1:30 – 2:00 pm.
Again I praise the Heavenly Father through His Son Christ Jesus our Lord for another successful evangelistic trip. The trip to India in March 2006 was a success as it was in 2001. The host pastor, Pastor Moses and I had corresponded online for about two years before I left in the spring of this year. My initial response to going to India was to send the money to India and let the local pastors and leaders distribute the money as needed. The church, TADCC, had been supportive of both international and local missions; therefore, I truly believed they would support any financial efforts in spreading the gospel in India. I knew from my previous trip to India that the people were very poor. The average salary is $300 a month and most of the people live in very rural areas without the basic things we take for granted such as indoor water and toilets. Rupee, the Indian currency, trades at about $43 rupees to one American dollar. Therefore, I believed the money spent on plane fare would go much further in the hands of the local people.
However, Pastor Moses was insistent that I come to India. His people and his church had been praying for me that I would come to the southern part of India and preach the gospel. He also wanted me to bring a team along with me. The Christian population in India is only 2.5% of the total population. Although there are more Christians congregated in the Southern part of India and one spot in the north called Nagaland, they are still a distinct minority in the country. Most of the conversions to Christianity are people from the lower caste. Although the government has gone on record as being against the caste system, it is engrained within the culture. Hinduism teaches that you are born into a lower caste system because of some wrong you committed in a previous life. If you live a good life as a low caste person, in your next life you will be re-incarnated as a higher caste person. Therefore those that are higher caste believe they are justified in keeping the culture as it is since they at one time may have been a lower caste person that had to work his way to a higher cast. This is one of the reasons there is persecution from extremist Hindu groups in India. They see their culture being destroyed by the message given in the Gospel of Christ Jesus where he declares all souls are one. This teaching eliminates the caste system which many the higher caste people, such as the Brahmans, want to see continued.
India is the second most populous country next to China. With over 1 billion people which represents one sixth of the world’s population and the largest population of people under the age of 25 in the world, it is imperative that this country be targeted with Gospel of Christ Jesus the Son of the Living God. However, Pastor Moses communicated to me that resources were scarce for teaching and reaching the people with the Gospel. This is why he implored me to come. There is a great need for teachers and preachers of the Word of God.
With much prayer to God and consultation with the church, the decision was made to go to India — alone. First, I needed to get visa approval. The nation is very resistant to Christians coming to the nation to preach and share the gospel. Pastor Moses instructed me to come on a tourist visa. These visas are limited to the amount of time you can spend in the country at one time and will not bring unneeded attention to our missionary efforts. After the visa was approved, we had to create a budget and raise the funds needed. This would present a challenge for us, because we are a young church with few members. This is one of the reasons that the decision was made for me to travel alone. It would save on the amount of money needed and plus, since I was going to a new area I did not want to put any one else ‘s life at risk from the hardship of the life we would be living or from extremist terrorist groups. I believe and knew that God would take care of me, but I did not want to take along someone who did not have the same assurance.
The church unanimously supported the trip to India and the funds needed to pay for my airfare and accommodations along with the expense incurred in India by Pastor Moses in setting up the crusades and conferences. Again, I needed to get shots for hepatitis and drugs for malaria. India has experienced deaths from bird flu, so there was a warning from the health department to be aware of this fatal disease. In addition, the State Department issued a warning due to terrorist attacks in certain parts of India.
The cheapest most direct flights I could get to India was from RDU to New York to Paris to Bombay to Hyderabad. The total commute time was approximately 23 hours, 17 hours in the air. Along with the long flight, the travel also meant experiencing the highs and lows of climate change. The weather was mild in New York, windy and freezing in Paris and temperatures approaching 100 degree Fahrenheit in India.
President Bush and his entourage had given a speech at Hyderabad the week before I arrived touting the city’s push towards electronics. Hyderabad appeared to have been spruced up compared to what India was like the first time I visited. My first visit to India, I arrived at the airport in Chennai. The first thing to greet me was the stench in the air. Hyderabad did not have the stench in the air, but you could tell from the airport that the city was a part of a developing country. It looked nice but it did not have the amenities of a place that a president would visit. There was also a little tension in the air in the city. A terrorist group had blown up one train the day before I arrived and the local police discovered parts to a bomb on another train while I was there in the city. Initially I was to take the train with the host pastor to our crusade location. Again, the Lord was watching over me. Pastor Moses, the host Pastor, decided it would be a better use of my time if we caught a cab instead. His home is 10 hours from the airport! Taking a train would have made the commute longer.
We spent the first night in Hyderabad in one of the rooms used by a local college that Pastor Moses son attends. I was able to meet his sons and a nephew who worked in Hyderabad for Dell Computer. The five of us took the long ride back to Nar Sapur, Pastor Moses home city. For 10 consecutive hours, we saw people. Whether they were herding animals such as goats and oxen, walking or riding motorized vehicles there were people to be seen for about the entire 10-hour journey. Along the way, we stopped at an outdoor restaurant. They waved us over by promising to give us fresh meat. India is predominately a country of vegetarians, therefore I assumed they noticed I was American and wanted to impress my host by offering fresh meat on the menu.
I noticed that there was no refrigeration, so I pondered as to how he was going to serve fresh meat. It was then we were told that they would catch the animal from the wilderness area behind us and slay the animal for us to eat. THAT IS FRESH. However we passed on the meat and ate the staple of most Asian countries. Rice.
The setting reminded me so much of the Bible days. I have a greater appreciation of our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus washing the feet of his disciples. In the remote part of India where I was, animals were all over the place. Which also meant dung was all over the place. There were few places that had indoor toilets, therefore the people also defecated and urinated in the open. This was the type of stuff that the people walked upon and I am sure it was similar to this during the time of our Savior Christ Jesus. Therefore, the feet our Lord told us to wash represented the most unclean part of a person’s body. That is why it is such a humbling thing to wash the feet of someone.
It was nightfall by time we reached Pastor Moses’ home. We had timed my arrival to that I would be busy either preaching or teaching the Word of God the entire time I was there. Moreover, this is indeed, what happened.
His home was very modern compared to the huts and other places we passed on the way to his home. The roof to his house is flat and this is where he holds services. As soon as I got there, I was put up to preach. Pastor Moses speaks good English but he had an interpreter for me. The literate people tend to speak English. By India being a former colony of Britain, English is the universal language. Each state has a different dialect or language, but English is universally spoken by the educated. My message was from the Book of Acts chapter 17:22-29.
Acts 17 is an account of the Apostle Paul addressing the attendees at Mars Hill. He referred to their pagan practice of serving idol gods and how God the Father had made from one man every nation of men. This message would be my theme throughout the week as I preached and taught the Word of God. As stated earlier India is predominantly a Hindu country. I believe that the Bible teaches that you are not to overlook any sin, no matter how much the sin is engrained in the culture or religious practices. It was incumbent upon me to address idolatry since it is so rampant in the country. There was also a need to address the culture that made one person superior to the other based on the caste system. In my first night of preaching, all of this was addressed.
After preaching and praying for those in attendance, I retired to the room prepared for me. Although the temperatures were in the high 90′s to low hundreds there was no air conditioning. I was told by Pastor Moses’ nephew, that during the summer, when temperatures reach 115 degrees to 120 degrees, that the power is shut off at night for hours at a time throughout the country. Therefore, even if you did have air conditioning it would do you no good when the temperatures are so hot. This is one of the reasons why I travel to India around February and March, which is before the hot season and after the rainy season.
The toilets were holes in the floor that you flushed by pouring water in the holes.
The first day of the Pastor conferences, between 150 to 200 hundred pastors attended. Many traveled from great distances to be a part of this event. One man had been gored by a bull telling others about the conference. Although he had problems walking, he wanted to be a part of the conference. Many were so poor that had to stay at the campsite because they could not afford to travel back home. They slept under the tent and on the rooftop. All the while having to contend with mosquitoes.
Part 2 Trip to India will be published next week.
Your trip to India was very interesting. What are some ways the individuals in the TADCC can help promote and support the mission work in India and elsewhere.
Shayala,
Thanks for your response. There are many needs that the ministry in India has. Now Pastor Moses need a motorcylce to visit the various churches. The cost is about $1,500. We could start a fund to raise monies for their specific needs. This could be something we can talk about during our business session next Tuesday.
Thanks for you interest. Stay tuned for part 2 of the trip to India.
Athough, I’ve heard these stories several times, it’s just as is interesting reading the 1st hand account…Very similar to the apostles when they would provide reports and updates from Asia, Rome, and even prison. God will bless you for the heart that you have for ministry. Are there any planned misisonary trips for the future?
I believe the Lord will continue to open doors for such trips. I am just a vessel willing to be led by Him. Thanks for your comments.
Pastor Williams