The Power of Love

Most people outside Christianity believe God is just angry with humanity and is waiting for them to step out of line so He can pounce on them and send them to Hell to burn forever. This is partly the fault of Satan influencing the world and people, and partly the preaching from our pulpits.
 
 
Much of it is just venomous spit hurled at people outside of Christianity. This is not how God meant for us to evangelize. He said we should be known by our love. This is most clear when it is demonstrated and not just spoken. Unfortunately, many think works is a bad thing, a show of pride. "Religion is a private matter" - wish I had a dime for every time I've heard that said to me. It's a lie. Religion is highly public; especially Christianity. To remove the intrinsic urgent evangelistic thrust of the gospel is to completely inoculate it, and render it utterly useless.
 
 
Other times people think social justice works are separate from the "real gospel" - i.e., Jesus and the cross. While the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus are central to the gospel, the example Christ left us to follow in his footsteps and do works of goodness and kindness are in fact just as valid a part of the gospel. We can't just focus on saving souls, and forget the body and the mind. Our approach must be holistic, because God made us holistic with a command to love him with all our mind, body, soul, and spirit - not just one part over the other.
 
 
Therefore demonstration of the gospel must work hand in hand with its proclamation. We must recover in our preaching both the humanity as well as the divinity of Jesus - 100% both! The mystery and reality of the incarnation is the greatest revelation to share with others to break down this misconception of a mean angry God. John 3:17 is even a greater revelation to me than John 3:16. The fact that God sent Jesus to save the world and not condemn it has been completely under communicated.
 
 
I am so tired of Satan spewing forward this lie that God is angry with humanity. We must dispel it and destroy it with the power of the truth of the gospel - God is crazy in love with us, not because of what we have done, but because of who made us. Only the Creator of something can determine it's worth and value. One aspect of Paul's teaching that resonates with Jesus is Romans - "nothing can separate us from the love of God." Preach that and watch God convict the hearts of people! Love is infinitely more powerful than judgment!

 

Welcome to the Jungle!

Most people don’t understand why I am so intense about my calling. I mean it’s only Italy right, how bad can it be? You get to sip cappuccino and admire the wonderful architecture. It’s not like you are going to the jungle or anything. Well, I wonder if demons prefer to gather more in jungles of leaves or jungles of people and ideas. I would think they would congregate at the intersection of human contemplation, endeavoring to influence people’s thoughts and steal their hearts from God.

Nevertheless, anything we do with God to help snatch people out of hell is risky. It doesn’t matter how beautiful the back drop scenery is when you are focused on the broken condition of human hearts. The work of God will always be intense and dramatic. After all, we are dealing with life and death. Maybe it’s easy for us to not take the words of Ephesians 6 seriously because we are not posing that much of a threat to hell. Ephesians 6:12 (NIV) says, "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.”

C.T. Studd, English missionary to China and the Congo in the later 19^th and early 20^th century nailed it when he said, “Some want to live within the sound of church or chapel bell; I want to run a rescue shop, within a yard of hell.” He lived with an intensity that most of us cannot even fathom. We want to say, “hey, dude tone it down a bit. Don’t you think you are taking yourself and this whole Christian thing a little too seriously?” But Studd didn’t let up. His desire was to please God so much that he made himself a threat to hell. He said too, “I want to live in such a way that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am no longer in the fight.”

No one else’s words seem to capture the seriousness and intensity which God has called me forward. So I say to all who will go bravely out into their spheres of influence with the cause of Jesus written on their hearts and boldly spoken from their lips, “Welcome to the jungle!”

Jesus is number F-O-U-R (4)?!

In a recent poll Italians were asked to whom they addressed prayer. Jesus was the # F-O-U-R (4)person on the list - (Jesus is Number 4 video)! It's for this reason that our hearts are committed now more than ever before to get to Italy to live out and teach the saving gospel of Jesus Christ! No matter what it takes to get there and get the work done, we will do it! No matter if anyone else follows us or believes we can do it, we HAVE to go, and WANT to go because God said to do it! He called us to wake up Italy and that's what we intend to do!

Because of what we've learned in the process of getting ready for our calling, we are not afraid of what can happen to us. We are living on the edge of our faith with our kids right there in the mix, and are having the time of our lives watching God work His plan out for us. Like Las Vegas gamblers, we have shoved in all our chips on Jesus, and bet everything that the call He spoke to us is true and is coming to pass even right now.

We have never stopped working to see the reality of waking up Italy to the truth of Jesus happen. Our colleagues are working, evangelizing and discipling and planting new churches. Our ministry partners are helping with their financial gifts and prayers each month. And we are finishing out with fundraising and school (graduating in October). We look forward to joining in the church planting work in Italy soon

Just to let you know where we are right now - I wanted to let you know that to date we have raised 63% of our monthly support budget. We have been increasing every month, and now only need just over $500 in monthly support to reach 70% of our support goal. At this point, we will be able to enter the last phase of our preparation - applying for our religious worker's visas for entrance into Italy!

We will be coming to Atlanta during the week of March Monday, March 25 - Friday, March 29 to meet with local pastors about joining our support team. We already have meetings scheduled, but if you have been praying about becoming a partner in waking up Italy to Jesus, now would be the time to contact us to set up a meeting - stephen@wakeupitaly.org. We would love to schedule a lunch or coffee meeting and tell you how you can be a part of a dynamic explosion of the gospel into the hearts and lives of those living in Italy! It's time to wake up Italy! Will you be a part of making Jesus # 1 again in the hearts of Italians?!