This letter below comes from a good friend and brother in Christ from Eldoret, Kenya, which is in the northeastern part of Africa, within the 10/40 window.  Please read and respond as the Lord shows you how.

        Greetings from Kenya, East Africa in Jesus Name! This year is soon ending and inspite of all the challanges that the enemy brings we praise God for His salvation, grace and mercies. Christmas time is very near. When I visited the US and Canada in June I was so surprised to see food in plenty. Every time I ate I remembered the needy orphans in Africa.

       During Christmas many people spend lots of money on food and other items. Can you imagine there are very needy children here who may not be having anything to eat this Christmas, no good clothes, shoes or something to celebrate? You can make a difference this Christmas.

       On the 25th December we are planning to have a special treat for our children at the orphanage. We need your help. I am writing to you because you are a special friend of mine and this ministry. No gift is small in the eyes of God. Your support will enable us to buy food and gifts for the children this Christmas. On the afternoon of Christmas children from 5 other orphanages will be joining us for celebration whereby poems,songs,drama and testimonies will be shared. Please, do something today! I am counting on you.

       You can wire funds through paypal account on the website www.urgencytorise.com/worem or contact Jeremy Strang in New Mexico at urgencytorise@yahoo.com . Please, let me know when you do so. God bless you! We wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year 2010!

NB: Attached are photos for the children

Rev Sebastian Ombima, Director,

Jireh Orphanage/WOREM inc

Africa

     For the last month or so I have been thinking about how to present and introduce you to a new friend of mine.  He is a wonderful brother in the Lord and has a very powerful, wonderful, persecuted and much needed ministry in Africa.  The timing is an absolute must now!  The letter email below comes from Rev.  Sebastian Ombima, founder of World Revival Evangelistic Ministries, Eldoret, Kenya, East Africa.

“Dear Prayer partners,

    ”My orphanage administrator wrote me a message below stressing the overwhelming needs at the orphanage.  This comes at a time when we have many other needs for the Church and ministry.  Please, pray for us and as the Lord leads your support will be so helpful.  Blessings!

Rev Ombima”

“Praise Jesus, Rev.  Just wanted to inform you that the food stock has expired and if anything is not done, the children will be starving.  Yours, Jescah”  

Will you at least pray?

Please check out their website and respond as the Lord would have you do.  Prayer is always most crucial, true Spirit led prayer that is!  Pray that the Lord will open up the store houses upon the children and most importantly Christ will be shown to every man, woman and child.

To contact, support or send an encouraging word to Rev. Sebastian Ombima directly, email him at: rev_ombima@yahoo.co.uk 

Remember to sign up for our UrgencytoRise book give-a-way.

Click here.

       1 John is one of the greatest books of the bible in regards to assurance of salvation, regeneration and the love of God.  It is also a book that carries a double edged sword at the same time; John while pointing out assurance, clearly points out the unsaved as well.  John is well known for his love, this being of course God’s love in Him through Christ Jesus as he discusses in 1 John.  Below are just a few verses from 1 John about the idea of what we ought to be doing.

“Whoever says that he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” 1 John 2:6

“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.” 1 John 3:16

“Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought to love one another.” 1 John 4:11

Read what John Piper had to say about the word ought in these verses. “Don’t abstract certain sentences out of 1 John and turn glorious realization into mere imitation.  Don’t do that. He’s not saying, watch God love and copy Him.  He’s saying, watch God love you, and believe, and know it, and be changed by it, and then be swept through by it, and then be it. That is what he is saying. And of course it is a duty, but if you focus on the oughtabstracted from the transformation of the new birth and the indwelling of the Spirit and the empowering of God Almighty abiding in you, doing His own love through you… you won’ t have Christianity, you’ll have moralism.  Read the whole book and keep the sentences together.”  John Piper – “You Must Be Born Again” Series #12 The New Birth Produces Love. 

Join us as we begin to study the book of 1 John.  Test yourself to see if you indeed pass the test – is Christ in you? 2 Corinthians 13:5  If you would like to listen to the series by John Piper for free then click here. 

Help us to Call the ‘church’ in America and Europe back to the True Gospel.  Click here.

I recently had the privilage to write to a prisoner in an American Prison.  I am praying that he receives my letter and receives the Word of God unto Salvation. Here is the letter I sent. Pray that he receives it.  Feel free to use any part that you wish.

Dear Mr. ———-,

            My name is Jeremy Strang and I am a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. I greet you on behalf of myself and the ——— ———- Men’s Fellowship. The Lord has laid you upon our hearts and we want you to know that we are praying for you. I want you to know that I am specifically praying that the Lord invades your life and floods your heart with forgiveness, love, peace and true joy as He has done for me. 

            This May will be 8 years since Almighty God first convicted me of my great need for Him. Before this time I was a sinner to the fullest definition. I blasphemed God, hated people and hid 21 years of self-destructive depression deep in many dark areas of my life. I was a liar supreme, an adulterer, a thief, a bigot, a pervert, disrespectful to my parents, a drunkard and used profanity as my communication – all to what end? – a fulfillment of my selfish desires, pride and direct rebellion which ultimately left me more insecure and more depressed than the day previous.  But it did not have to be that way.

            Now I grew up in the ‘church’ but no one got in my face and told me the truth.  Many people gave me their opinions but no one gave me the Truth – I guess because few people have the Truth themselves.  What is this Truth? – Christ Jesus The Lord! Let me tell you what I was not told until May of 2001.

            ———, I want to tell you the truth and I will start at the pinnacle of the Christian faith, the Acropolis of the Christian Faith. I will start here because when you get out of prison you will notice that there are many professing ‘christians’ but very few true disciples of Christ. But do not let this hinder you from the true Gospel and from true Believers.  I believe you will understand much of the Gospel better than many who sit comfortable in ‘church’ today.

            What is the Acropolis of the Christian faith? God says that He hates those who do wicked things (Psalm 5:5, 11:5) and that the one who justifies the wicked is an abomination (Proverbs 17:15). The Bible also says that God is just (Deuteronomy 32:4). This being the case, how can a righteous and just God forgive the wicked? How can He forgive you and I? How is it that the Bible says that God justifies (Romans 8:33)?  How is it that John 3:16 says that “God so loved the world He gave is only Son that whoever shall believe in Him shall be saved.” How is it that His Son can save? Is this not a contradiction? No! Jesus Christ actually became your sin, bore your wrath that is due to be paid by you and became a curse (Deuteronomy 21:22-23 and Galatians 3:13) all while hanging upon the tree of Calvary, The Cross. The blood that He sacrificed and the cup of wrath that He drank down, that He received from the Father (Isaiah 53:10) is what paid your debt of sinfulness to the Almighty God. Your prison cell and your sentence can never pay back the sin for which you and I are from birth. We are sinners from the womb (Psalm 51:5). You and I are not different at all – we both need a Savior.

            Jesus Christ has bought all mankind by becoming our propitiation (big law term meaning a great high price was paid making one justified or in other words, free of the charges ). Jesus actually becomes the wrath bearer. This is how a just and righteous God can justify wicked and sinful man – blood payment by taking the full wrath of God’s righteous and holy anger was poured out on a scapegoat – Christ Jesus. This is what establishes Christianity and sets it apart from all other religions – Grace – a payment by another that you could never pay and a payment made that you never deserved. All other religions are based upon the works of a man and true Christianity is only upon the sacrificial love and obedience of Jesus Christ. His sacrifice is the ultimate display of true love.

            When I was at my worst in my deceptive and wicked life, God reached me by sending a man to tell me the Truth.  Let me share with you the very verse that God used to rock me with. “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

            If you get nothing else from this letter, hear me clearly on this: When you get out of prison, and even at this very moment, you need Christ in you. You must be born again (John Chapter 3). It is not enough to know about Christ but rather you have to know Him and in such a way that His conviction floods your heart that leads you towards true repentance (turning away from sin).  When you begin to fear God more than man (and even yourself) and you begin to live in the fear and discipline of the Lord (Hebrews 12:3-11) and love as He loves, you will then know Salvation. In turn this salvation, true salvation, will cause you to seek Christ right where you are, joyfully love His commandments and know true forgiveness. He is the only answer you need in your life! Everything you do will hinder around one thing, are you right with God? I cannot make this salvation happen, it is only of God (John 3 and John 6:60-65); therefore I will not lead you in some “sinners prayer” but I will leave you with His Truth and the words of the man who led me to Christ, “I’ll bet you will do the same thing I did… continue in sin.”  I now know the power of God unto salvation (Romans 1:16) – it is freeing, awesome and amazing! There are not words to describe it!

            Now take hope! The hope is that if you earnestly seek Him, you will find Him (Matthew 7:7-8). Christ can be found and can be known – He has risen (Mark 16:6, 16:14). He sees the heart (1 Samuel 16:7) and knows your true intentions. You cannot fake a Holy and Almighty God – trust me I’ve tried. It is true that Christ died for wicked men, but wicked men are not wicked because of their deeds but rather because of their rebellious hearts towards God. Sin is rebellion against God!

The second thing that I wish for you after prison is for you to have true fellowship of authentic Christian men. It is hard by your self.  The bible says, “Bad company ruins good morals.” (1 Corinthians 15:33) Know that we are here for you – but we cannot make it happen – I am sure you know this. Where you hang out is what you will become. It’s pretty simple really – this too I know all to well in my life.

            Last thing that I will say is this: To whom much is given much is required (Luke 12:48). Remember, God is not going to judge you so much as to what you have done against man but more so to what you have done to His Son.  Reject His Son – anger a Holy God. Refuse His Word – anger a Holy God.  Refuse the forgiveness that Christ has paid the price for – anger a Holy God. Mankind, you and me included, will be judged for disregarding the Son of God. Once again, take hope, He loves you more than any man, but know this, He will not be patient towards you past your death.  The decision is then final.

            Please accept my two books.  I encourage you to read Limiting God? first. Please remember this – in the eyes of the Lord we differ in only one way – I am completely drenched by the Blood of Jesus Christ. How does God see you? If you are not in and under His atoning Blood of Salvation, then seek His anointing, His freedom, and His Son – Christ Jesus the living Son of God.  May God show you Himself!

            Amen!

With all sincere love,

Jeremy Strang

Limiting God?

Urgency to Rise – a call to the American ‘church’

Help us to Call the ‘church’ in America and Europe back to the True Gospel.  Click here.

Condrad Mbewe will be at this years True Church Conference in Muscle Shoals, Alabama.  For more info click below.

http://www.gracelifeshoals.org/ / http://www.heartcrymissionary.com/

    As I come ito my final phases in my initial training as a Voice of the Martyrs area representative, I find that that the Lord has been encouraging me in my faith.  It is amazing, when you take the time to study the words persecution and witness in the bible what is being said.  To be a witness literally means, “Martyr.”  A witness for Jesus Christ will suffer persecution and is called to “deny themselves and give up their life” and then follow Christ.   Today there is an estimated 200 million Christians in the world who are receiving some sort of persecution for their faith.  Since the time of Jesus Christ ascending into Heaven, it is estimated that 75 million people have died as Christian Martyrs.  They died only because of their faith in Jesus Christ. 

    I urge you, if you have not signed up for Voice of the Martyrs free magazine, do so today.  It is free.  You can also get a free copy of Richard Wurmbrand’s, Tortured for Christ.  Read below more about Pastor Wurmbrand’s book.

    “Months of solitary confinement, years of periodic physical torture, constant suffering from hunger and cold, the anguish of brain washing and mental cruelty – these are the experiences of a Romanian pastor during his fourteen years in a Communist prisons.  His crime, like that of thousands of others, was his fervent belief in Jesus Christ and his public witness concerning that faith.  Meeting in homes, in basements, and in woods – sometimes daring to preach in public street corners – these faithful souls persisted in their Christian witness knowing full well the ultimate cost of their actions.  This is the story – a classic account of courage, tenacious faith, and unbelievable endurance.  This history of the Underground Church reflects the continuing struggle in many parts of the world today.”

back cover of Tortured for Christ

It’s time for you to jump in!  Time2Stand is starting the first, that we know of, World Wide Bible Study.  We are starting with the book of James and continuing into 1 John in a week or two.  Simply click on the James Online Bible Study link on the right side of the screen.  Read your Scripture, read our questions and the comments and leave a comment for us.  It is just that simple.  A new chapter will be posted every two to three days.  This give you plenty of time to read, study, pray and think about the passage.  Remember, the goal is not to teach others, but rather to examine yourself first (2 Corinthians 13:5 and 1 Corinthians 1131).  We want you to think, ponder, pray and even weep over how the Lord is Sanctifying your life in Christ Jesus – and then share it with us!

So come along and join the ride with us! Grow in Christ with us! Meet other believers from around the world with us! And pray for each other with us!

Also be sure to check out www.time2stand.net