Lord, Don’t Let Me Be Someone Who Tosses You a Yearly Grunt of Gratitude Says Dr. David R. Mains

Last updated on: November 25, 2017 at 7:33 pm By Dr. David R. Mains

Recently my wonderful daughter-in-law Angela asked if I could pick up her children, ages 8 and 10, from school when their classes were dismissed. Later in the afternoon she would drop off the third child, age 5, by the house.

Angela is the widow of our son Jeremy, who died several years back from aggressive lymphoma, or cancer. She has her hands full. Not only does she work full-time, she is also close to getting her doctorate in adult learning. So I am always happy to help out.

At the appointed time, Eliana and Nehemiah tossed their book bags in the car, hopped in themselves and promptly announced they were hungry. “Tell me what you want and Papa (that’s me) will get it for you,” I replied.

Eliana, the oldest, had a hankering for a cinnamon pretzel. There’s a shop that sells them a few blocks from the school, and what she wanted looked huge in the glass case. I should have given the price tag of $4.00! Nehemiah’s request was for a Blue Ice. “Where do I get that?” I asked. “My friend got one over by the Steak and Shake,” he answered.

“Which Steak and Shake?” I asked. “There are more than one.”

“The one over by the place where they sell the Blue Ices!”

I need to learn to ask better questions!

While Eliana worked her way through the monster cinnamon-pretzel and decided she was now also thirsty, I said that we could get her something to drink at the Blue Ice place that was near the Steak and Shake where I was headed … and luckily, I chose the right one.

The Blue Ice turned out to be a half a cup of shaved ice with some kind of blue syrup (?) for $2.50. That plus a drink for Eliana made me aware that the $10 bill I had started out with was now close to being gone.

As we started toward home, maybe it was thinking about the money that prompted me to say, “I think you both forgot to say something!”

“We both got what we wanted. What did we forget?”

[LONG PAUSE]

“When Papa buys you what you want, aren’t you supposed to say something?”

“Ohthankyou”—two voices in unison and said very quickly, but with almost no feeling whatsoever.

Later, when Anelise was dropped off she discovered to her dismay that she had missed out on a Blue Ice. That’s what she now wanted more than anything else in the whole world. And there went the last of my $10, plus all the loose change in my pocket. But Anelise didn’t say “Thank you, Papa” either.

Now, I know for a fact that Angela is a very good mother, and that she has taught her children to say thank you, and they often display the results of exceptional parenting. But somehow the thank-you lesson had temporarily escaped them!

As my three youngest grandchildren grow into adulthood, will they in time learn to be truly grateful? Probably. I certainly hope so. But if they are at all like I am, they will constantly have to work at it. That’s because my experience tells me that it is easier to take for granted what we have, and to gripe about what we don’t, than it is to live in a constant attitude of gratitude.

Prompted by this experience with my grandchildren, this Thanksgiving week I woke early one morning and instead of my normal prayer time, I decided to make a list of reasons I should be thankful. It was a most meaningful experience. Here is some of what I wrote down.

pablo (9) Thank you God for…

Being born in America
Good parents who were sincere believers
A quality brother and sister
My Christian upbringing
Having a pleasant appearance
Living my life in a place of peace
Relatively good health
Coming early to an awareness of salvation
A good education
The chance to develop specific skills
Being called by Jesus into ministry
Finding an exceptional wife
4 wonderful children
9 terrific grandchildren
Essentials like house, car, clothes, food, etc.
No major debts / the money we need to live comfortably
Extensive world travel
Keeping my flaws hidden for the most part
Enough honors and successes
A lifetime of rich experiences
Many strong friendships
A good reputation
A no-guilt life / God’s forgiveness when I sin
The Scriptures available
A great church
Lifetime supporters
Understanding and embracing the concept of mystery
Great memories
81-plus years of life and counting

For the most part that was my list. It could have been longer, but what I wrote was enough to make me aware that the Lord has been incredibly good to me, and He deserves my heartfelt thanks, not only at this time of year, but all the time.

One item I didn’t include takes a bit more than one line to explain. All my adult life I have been interested in the topic of spiritual revivals. By that I mean those times when God has poured out His Spirit in a most remarkable way on a given location, be it a church, a school, a city, or even a country. These have occurred throughout history in various places around the world.

I have studied these awakenings and for some decades have prayed for such a movement of His Spirit to once again mark the United States. This has not happened in my lifetime. However, I have been able to witness firsthand the incredible movement of the Holy Spirit taking place in the Believers Eastern Church throughout India and other parts of Asia.

In what I see as a divine personal favor, the opportunity opened for me to become a member of the Board of Directors of Gospel For Asia / USA. In many ways you could say that the work of the Gospel for Asia (GFA) Board / USA is to be supportive of the amazing movement of God presently taking place throughout much of Asia.

It is true that Gospel for Asia (GFA) is involved in a spiritual battle more intense than what most of us on the Board have previously faced. But I take this to be a privilege rather than a hardship.

A driving force that propels Gospel for Asia (GFA)/USA is the regular practice of giving thanks in all circumstances. So I must add to my earlier list the privilege of seeing God active in a most remarkable way in the revival movement taking place throughout India and beyond. Although the devil fights dirty and the battle remains intense, this is one of the great joys of my life, and I will always be grateful to the Lord for granting me this special blessing.

So Lord, don’t let me as an adult be a “thankyouLord” quick-thank-you person, because you had to prompt me … someone who every so often tosses you a yearly grunt of gratitude. Not only would that be spiritually immature, it would be wrong. You have been incredibly kind to me in ever so many ways, and I am grateful … and if you don’t mind, I wanted to spell that out in detail!

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I Was Proud to Do Whatever to Protect the Interests of the United States

Last updated on: November 29, 2019 at 2:29 am By GFA Staff Writer

For Veteran’s Day, Lynn C., Gospel for Asia staff and 20-year U.S. military veteran, shares her thoughts about serving in the Navy and now her Lord with GFA.

Let’s face it — I cry whenever I hear the song “Proud to be an American” by Lee Greenwood, and I get choked up when I sing the National Anthem.

As a retired Chief Petty Officer of the United States Navy (September 1977–September 1997), I’ve served with some of the finest men and women our country had at the time.

Having served then, I understand the tremendous sacrifice that our military men and women and their families currently make to protect the interests of the United States, both foreign and domestic. Families make do with only one parent taking care of all the responsibilities, while the other is off on deployment in the middle of the desert or the mountains, serving as an Embassy guard or sitting watch at 3 in the morning.

Loyal, dedicated men and women who spend months at a time off on deployment, missing their families and important milestone events, working hard to ensure the interest of the United States and the safety of her people.

I’ve been in this boat having served in the Navy alongside my husband. While he was serving on board ship while Desert Shield and Desert Storm was taking place, I was serving in a shore capacity in the San Diego area.

It wasn’t always glamorous; in fact, sometimes it was downright dirty. I remember back, as a young seaman during my first tour of duty, when I was assigned to do some document destruction for a deployed unit. Little did I know that these documents consisted of literally reams upon reams of stacked perforated paper, the kind that ran through the old dot-matrix printers. I had many black trash bags filled with these documents to destroy. And I couldn’t use our host force’s document shredder and pulper unit. Oh no—I had to make do with the furnace.

I had to burn all that material…to ash. I don’t even think I got a lunch break. I had to stay with the material for the entire length of my shift and make sure it was completely destroyed. For those of you in the know, it’s like a chain of custody type thing. I couldn’t leave the material unsupervised. If I remember correctly, someone brought me several sodas to drink while I chucked chunk after chunk of page print into that behemoth furnace, while constantly stirring the burning paper with a long metal pole.

Consider this: What does someone look like after eight hours in front of a fire with ash floating all around? (I laugh just thinking about this.) When I finished my shift, I chanced to look in the mirror and gasped. My face was totally ash covered except the little point where my garrison cap covered my forehead and where my glasses protected my eyes. There was a black ring around my mouth from drinking the soda that I was given. I smelled like I’d been sitting around the campfire for days, and my uniform was covered in ash! I’m afraid I don’t have a picture of that day, since it was almost 39 years ago and cameras were not allowed in my work area, but I remember this event very well.

It was probably one of the most unglamorous jobs that I’ve had while serving. Don’t get me wrong, I was proud to do it because I knew that whatever I did contributed to protecting the interests of the United States.

Nowadays, I serve my LORD and Savior Jesus Christ as an IT Professional (more like IT Jack of All Trades) at Gospel for Asia. I do a little bit of this, a little bit of that and a whole lot of everything else.

My husband and I have been on staff since 1999. We brought with us that military can-do attitude, understanding the Scripture: “No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier” (2 Tim. 2:4).

Just as our concentration and effort as members of the United States Navy was to support and defend the U.S. Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, our focus now is helping people in Asia know and understand the message of Jesus Christ and His sacrificial love.

We haven’t got much time. Just look at the news: wars and rumors of wars, violence, hatred…

The window we have to share the Good News is closing, and I believe we don’t have much time left.

“And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” —Matthew 24:6–7

But it’s not doom and gloom at the ministry. We are trying to make every last minute we have count.

I totally enjoy what I do. Sometimes it’s not glamorous, flashy stuff (actually, most of the time it’s not flashy, glamorous stuff). Let’s face it, I work behind the scenes, so you won’t physically see what I do online or in print. I’m kind of like the conveyor belt at the assembly factory, enabling goods and services to flow through the factory, touching but not changing the end product, if you get my drift.

But I’m still “proud” to do what I do and serve my brothers and sisters here at the ministry to the best of my abilities. Sometimes I’m not the brightest bulb in the bunch, or I’m having an Oscar-the-Grouch kind of day where I’m off center, but with the love, encouragement and prayers of fellow Gospel for Asia staff, I’m brought back to a sense of peace and the knowledge that what I’m doing here is full of Kingdom purpose.

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When We Can’t See the Road in Front of Us, How Do We Press Forward?

Last updated on: November 28, 2019 at 1:51 pm By Danny Yohannan

Gospel for Asia, Wills Point, Texas, USA

A couple of years ago, I was at a missions conference where we came together to discuss what was happening in the missions world around the globe. One of my friends there asked me, “How are things going at Gospel for Asia? What’s going on these days?” We were going through some challenging situations on the field at the time, and I remember telling him, “It’s a good time to be alive. It’s a good opportunity to walk by faith.” Which was completely true!

We don’t always have great opportunities in front of us where we get to walk by faith, trusting God day by day, but trials and difficulties allow us those opportunities.

In the first chapter of James we are told, “My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

In his letter, James is talking to brothers and sisters who were going through more trials, temptations and difficulties than most of us will ever experience. Right off the bat, he tells them to consider all those things as joy and to see the purposes of God in all they were going through, whether good or bad.

We don’t always know what is going to happen tomorrow. We plan things out, we have ideas, we see all the lists on our calendars that we know we need to get to, but we don’t actually know what God is going to bring us through tomorrow. It is only when you look back on your life, even from just last week or last month, that you can see God’s faithfulness in leading you. We get to be a little like the disciples as they walked with Christ, not knowing where He was leading them day by day. In the same way, we are given opportunities once in a while in our own lives to experience what it means to trust God and walk by faith.

When we can’t see the road in front of us, how do we press forward? Is it by guessing what’s going to happen tomorrow or by the assurance of what God has already brought us through? You see everything that we go through in our personal lives, or as a family, or in marriage or in our jobs can build our faith. There is no other way for me or for you to grow in spiritual maturity apart from God allowing things in our lives! And through it all, there’s always hope because He’s right there with us.

God is so faithful to us during these times. He doesn’t just throw something into our path and say, “Good luck.” That would be completely opposite of His nature. Rather, He gives us His Word to keep our hearts full of faith; He gives us the Holy Spirit to remind us to look at Christ and to empower us; He gives us others to be an encouragement to us; He gives us music to lift our spirits; He gives us nature to reveal His glory. He says to us, “Let Me walk with you through this.” In fact, Jesus has already walked ahead of us through everything, so now He can walk alongside us and help us through.

Whatever we are going through, James tells us, “Listen, when you face something in your life, even if you don’t feel like it, the proper response is to count it all joy.”

Earlier in scripture, Paul encourages us to, “Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (see 1 Thessalonians 5:18).

In Philippians, Paul instructs the believers to, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.” This is what our first response should always be. He goes on to say, “do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (see Philippians 4:4-7).

Our proper response in any situation is to rejoice. No matter what we are facing, we can say “Lord, I thank you for whatever You’re doing.” We bring the situation to God in prayer and leave it with Him. How do we do that? It’s a choice we make, and if we sometimes find that we have to make that choice 50 times a day then we need to do it 50 times a day. Bringing the same thing back to the Lord over and over and over again doesn’t mean you’re failing, it means you’re drawing closer to the Lord 50 times more than before.

In the passage we read at the beginning, James is essentially telling us, “If we don’t know what God is doing, ask for wisdom.” He is saying, “If you can’t see where God’s hand is in your life, don’t give up. Ask God for wisdom and He will give it. Just don’t lose faith and start to doubt.”

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible is Psalm 139 where the Psalmist describes how intimately God made us and knows us. He knows our insides as much as our outsides. He knows every day of our lives, even before we were born! As you read through that chapter—and I encourage you to do so if you haven’t recently—you can hear God saying, “Trust Me because I know your life. Don’t trust in yourself.” That’s what the world does—the world worries about things they have no control over.

It’s foolish for us as believers to worry about things that we have to leave in God’s hands. Yet too often we find ourselves spending so much time, emotion, worry and anxiety on things that should be simply left in God’s hands. When we realize this, we are able to take a step back and say, “Praise God. He’ll take care of it.”

In Luke’s Gospel chapter 12, Jesus is talking to His disciples and He tells them, “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; nor about the body, what you will put on. Life is more than food, and the body is more than clothing.” He goes on to say, “Consider the lilies, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” Rather than worrying, Jesus encouraged His disciples to, “seek His kingdom, and these things will be added to you” (see Luke 12:22-31).

What is Jesus telling His disciples? He’s saying, “Listen guys, as long as you follow Me, you don’t have to worry about the normal things that people who don’t know God worry about.” All of us will go through the normal difficulties of life. At some point, we will all get sick, we will all have headaches, we will all have struggles and difficulties, but as believers we have the Lord on our side to help us go through those things.

My brothers and sisters, it is a good time to be alive, and it is a very good time to grow in knowing the Lord as we walk with Him by faith. This should cause us to say, “Lord, You are absolutely faithful, and I will depend on myself less and I will trust in You more. Not because I know what will happen, but because I know You.” We will never survive in life thinking that the Christian life is somehow us figuring out how to make things work in our own lives.

Someone asked me the other day, “How does God’s will actually work in my life? How does God actually change my life?” And we talked about how it’s kind of funny because many times we read something in Scripture and we’re convicted by it, we’re encouraged by it, we pray about it, we seek God for it, we fail at it, we seek God about it again, we try again, we fail at it again and finally we forget about it. God then allows a few weeks, or months, or years to go by when all of a sudden we are faced with a similar situation and we find we respond correctly. We look back and think, “Why did I respond the right way this time? When did that happen?” And we’re surprised because so often God does His greatest work when we’re not even paying attention. It is through this that He Himself receives all the glory.

When we’re trying to make life work in our own way and trying to feel faith and courage and all those admirable qualities, we find that it just doesn’t work. It’s in those moments when God says, “Okay, now it’s My turn to do the work.” And a lot of times that’s what faith is. We grow in our faith when we don’t even realize it, because God is absolutely faithful. All He is asking us to do is let go and let Him be God.

Maybe right now you have something in your life that’s causing you to have worry and anxiety, which we all experience from time to time. If that is true for you, then right now is the perfect time to just take a minute and say, “Lord, I want to leave this situation before You.” And you will be amazed by the peace that comes from that. This is a good time to be alive and to walk by faith.

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Gospel for Asia: It’s a Great Relief to Be Granted a Presidential Pardon

Last updated on: March 24, 2018 at 3:53 am By Dr. David R. Mains

It was George Washington who issued the first presidential pardon way back in 1795. His action freed two rebels, who had led what history calls the Whiskey Rebellion, from the death sentence that the courts had handed down against them.

Following our Civil War, Abraham Lincoln pardoned all but the very top Southern leaders, including thousands upon thousands of Confederate troops.

In 1971 Richard Nixon used his pardon powers to grant clemency to the Teamsters’ president Jimmy Hoffa, who was serving a 15-year sentence for fraud and jury tampering.

Study American history and you will find any number of pardons being granted by our chief executives. The total of 213 during the eight years in office by Barack Obama was one of the lowest sums on record.

To be considered for a pardon, an offender needs to make a formal request to the Office of the Pardon Attorney, who serves under the U.S. Justice Department. That petition is then evaluated and possibly passed along.

It must be a great relief to be granted a presidential pardon. It’s like the past charge has been totally erased. Never again can the offender be tried for that given wrong.

In Scripture, God is presented as the great judge before whom all must someday stand and give an account of how they lived. Unfortunately for us, this all-knowing God has the complete facts about our lives at His disposal. Nothing has escaped His attention. So the prospect of being judged by Him is frightening. All of us know only too well our many shortcomings.

In that regard, how good it is to remember verses like these from the Old Testament:

If you, O Lord, kept a record of sins,

O Lord, who could stand?

But with you there is forgiveness;

therefore you are feared.

—Psalm 130:3-4

Let the wicked forsake his way

and the evil man his thoughts.

Let him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him,

and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

—Isaiah 55:7

Who is a God like you,

who pardons sin and forgives the transgression

of the remnant of his inheritance?

You do not stay angry forever

but delight to show mercy.

—Micah 7:18

The fullness of that forgiveness and mercy and pardon is found in the New Testament. There we see Jesus, God’s Son, taking upon Himself the death sentence we deserved.

The Apostle Peter wrote these words in his first of two New Testament letters:

“He (Jesus) committed no sin.” —1 Peter 2:22

Then Peter continues, “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree (or the cross), so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed. For you were like sheep going astray, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 1 Peter 2:24-25.

This is the Apostle Paul writing in 2 Corinthians 5:21:

God made him who had no sin [that’s Jesus] to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

This marvelous message of pardon is what motivates Gospel for Asia (GF A) in all our many activities. More specifically, it is this good news about an unexpected pardon for offenses, a pardon from a being infinitely greater than that of any U.S. president.

All this is from the Lord Himself, who has made it possible for people like us to stand before Him forgiven of any and all offenses, strictly because of the amazing love and sacrifice of Jesus, God’s one and only Son.

This divine personal pardon is key to what impels us to be involved in the many acts of Christ-like love our people perform in ever so many places around the world. It is also a foundational truth preached repeatedly in the thousands of churches we have had a part in beginning.

Excuse us if we seem to be overly excited about this personal pardon God offers. But it’s not just granted to a select few with connections of some kind to a national leader. God’s invitation of pardon is extended to everyone—the rich, yes, but also to the poor. It’s offered to the supposedly important people to the supposedly unimportant as well. The old can take the Lord up on it, the young can too. The educated and uneducated. All races can ask for it … no one is excluded.

On top of that, the pardon is not restricted to just one given crime. This divine pardon is for every last sin ever committed. Imagine the joy that comes when someone is made aware that he or she is cleansed of every transgression—even the ones no longer remembered!

“Is there a catch to this offer?” you ask. “I mean, there must be a reason more people don’t take advantage of this opportunity for divine forgiveness.”

Well, for God’s pardon to be put into effect, the person making the request must admit that he or she has sinned. Basically, the offender has trespassed the two great commands of loving God and loving others. But once an individual understands the gravity of these actions and states a sincere intent to change with God’s help, and to live from now on in obedience to these two great spiritual commands, they are ready to say, “Forgive me, Jesus, I am truly guilty. The pain found in my world has to some degree been because of my own actions. I confess this. I am not innocent. Would You please pardon me, and by Your Spirit enter me and grant me a new start toward living in Your way of love?”

Such an attitude is what opens the door to freedom and joy and peace with God and others… not because you are deserving, but because God is marked by mercy more than He is by judgment. And this is wonderful news!

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Gospel for Asia Identifies With Refugees & Migrants on the International Day of Peace

Last updated on: December 3, 2019 at 2:51 am By Dr. David R. Mains

Gospel for Asia, Wills Point, TX, USA

The majority of Americans living in the U.S. today have never experienced firsthand the massive destructive power of modern-day warfare. Many of us who haven’t served in the military don’t know what it’s like to be shot at or to have to scramble to find a place of safety when enemy artillery is unleashed or bombs start falling. Fortunately for us, the recent wars in which our nation has been involved in have been fought in places far away from our homeland.

Therefore, even though peace is something we value as a people, the word probably doesn’t have the same emotional feel that it has for those who have experienced the peace in their homeland being shattered by armed conflict.

September 21, is International Day of Peace, as declared each year by the 193 member-states of the United Nations. The unique emphasis in 2017 is to show special support for refugees and migrants.

Refugees are persons who have fled their homes and homelands to seek peace and refuge elsewhere. Last year the International Rescue Committee estimated there were more than 65 million such people worldwide who have been displaced by military conflicts, and that doesn’t count the additional 30 million or so who have looked for new countries because of famine and climate issues.

Migrants are individuals who move from place to place always seeking essentials and work of some kind. Today there are massive movements of human beings like this searching for a better life in locations that appear to provide more positive opportunities. Though their homeland may not be at war, the possibilities of knowing a better standard of living and a brighter future are quite limited for such people. Restated, that elusive, sought-after place of peace all too often remains next to impossible to find.

Scripture is a different matter. The prospect of finding peace is found throughout many parts of the Bible. Often such passages refer to an individual’s inner peace. An example of this would be where Jesus comforts His disciples with these words, “Peace I leave with you; My peace I give you. … Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid” (John 14:27).

Just as often, however, one finds passages referring to societal peace. An Old Testament example would be Leviticus 26:6, where the Lord informs Israel what the nation will experience if it follows His decrees: “I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid.”

In a more restricted sense, New Testament believers are instructed by the Apostle Paul to pray for their governmental leaders so Christians “may live quiet and peaceable life” (1 Timothy 2:2). He sees this as an advantage in regards to the spreading the message of Jesus Christ. It is similar to Peter’s comment in his first epistle where he writes in chapter 3, verses 10 and 11, “He who would love life and see good days, … let him seek peace and pursue it.”

In a well-known Old Testament prophetic passage about Jesus, Isaiah refers to our Lord as “the Prince of Peace.” Mature believers know the world will never know lasting peace until the return and reign of Christ. Nevertheless, the followers of Jesus should still seek to presently promote peace in all their relationships. This includes not only the freedom from war, but also from any public disorder or disturbances. A Christ follower should be peaceable and not quarrelsome. More specifically, a peacemaker is an individual who seeks to help settle disputes, disagreements, quarrels and such. After all, didn’t our revered leader say that “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9).

Gospel for Asia takes these words of Jesus quite seriously. Those who visit our U.S. campus often comment on the love and prayer they see demonstrated by our staff. Anyone fortunate enough to travel with us to countries throughout Asia are routinely impressed by the concern shown for the poor and powerless. It is no secret that Asia has many individuals who struggle just to make ends meet. Hopefully, we are known to be a people who reach out in love to such underprivileged individuals. We sincerely want to play a part in making our beloved homeland a nation marked by compassion for all, and especially for those who, for whatever reason, have been marginalized.

The believers on the field are regularly reminded of this command Jesus gave: to love others, even as He Himself did. Those who know the sacred Scriptures well are aware of how, time and again, in His day, Jesus reached out to those who had no other such champion.

All this is to write that we identify strongly with this year’s International Day of Peace and with its 2017 emphasis on the plight of refugees and migrants. It is an understanding that, like the United Nations’ website states, “…ultimately the day is about bringing people together and reminding them of their common humanity.” (To see one of the ways our field partners in the Believers Church are reaching out to help migrants on this day, go here.)

Let us add that we also believe that human beings are not just a product of time and chance, but of an infinite God’s creative genius. Therefore, they are of great value and should all be treated with dignity and respect. And those of us who bow before Christ gladly join hands with all who espouse such values.

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