Appointed to eternal life

Last night I taught again at CEBC on lessons on shepherding from the life of Moses in Deuteronomy.  By the grace of God, this message was also well received and it's exciting to see how people are responding to the exhortation of the Word.

A young man named Bakass from the Kurdish area of Turkey is working in Lebanon and was drawn by God to the fellowship last night.  "Ente MeseHieh? (Are you a Christian?)," I asked him.  "La, lakin biddi! (No, but I would like to be)" was his response.  Unfortunately, his Arabic was not much better than mine!  Elder Salim stayed after the meeting with the young man and explained the Way to him.  "I have read about Isa (Jesus)" in the book used by the Majority, Bakass said.  "His name in the Bible is Yesua," responded Salim, who explained to him more accurately the things concerning Jesus to him from the Scriptures.  "I would like to give all my heart and life to this Savior."  Salim prayed with the young man and then encouraged him to persevere in the faith.

Yesterday I also met with a pastor of large evangelical church.  He is an expositor and churchman who is likeminded in theology and ministry.  He discovered the ministry of John MacArthur by accident while he was working in the country of Bahrain.  We talked about a vision of training up Arab pastors and church planters in the Middle East.  Unfortunately, it appears churches here suffer from division and discord, often not strictly speaking on theological issues.  For the church to be most effective in winning the Majority, we must pray for true unity, based on personal humility and sound doctrine.

I was reflecting on this for a while and it occurred to me that much of Paul's ministry involved helping to resolve disputes and strengthen churches, even as he prepared for new ministries.   Please pray that the Spirit will move to heal divisions in the church!