A letter to the Global Church from The Protestant Church of Smyrna

On April 18, five Muslims entered a Christian publishing company and killed three believers in the southeastern province of Malatya. Two of the victims were Turkish converts from Islam and the third man was a German citizen who had lived in Turkey for 10 years. News reports said four of the attackers admitted that the killings were motivated by both “nationalist and religious feelings.”

Below is link to a letter received by The Voice of the Martyrs from a church in Turkey. This letter contains a description of the torture suffered by the martyred believers, and the information is graphic in nature.

http://www.persecution.com/news/index.cfm?action=fullstory&newsID=511

Check This Out

This may be the best Christian bookstore that I know of:

http://www.wtsbooks.com/

It is really worth checking out.

Following Jesus and Practicing Yoga

I have had observed some interesting and widely varied Christian responses to the practice of yoga. I have met some who are devout practitioners of this ancient Eastern body wisdom, and I have also been with a Christian who would not walk into a store that sold yoga mats and DVDs because it was "Satanic."

Yoga, at its core, is a way of exercising and disciplining the body to prepare for long periods of meditation and prayer. Certainly it has its roots in Eastern religions, especially Hinduism, but might it provide benefits to Christians who would like to pray with less distraction and meditate on the things of Christ at greater length than they are presently able? I propose that it might indeed. I, myself, do not currently practice yoga with any regularity, but I have done it before, and I can see where it might be quite useful. But, before I go any further, let me take a paragraph or so to respond to the most often heard qualm about Christians practicing yoga.

The main objection I hear from Christians about the practice of yoga goes something like, "Christians shouldn't do yoga because it is part of the Hindu religion," or "Christians shouldn't do yoga because it is the equivalent of practicing another religion and could be inviting some dark spiritual elements into their life, and is therefore a sin." The best way I know to respond to these arguments against a Christian practice of yoga goes something like this:

Pagans, Muslims, and others have studied astronomy for centuries for spiritual reasons that are contrary to the teachings of Christianity, yet Christians have benefited tremendously from adopting these advancements in the study of the cosmos. Should Christians avoid astronomy because of some previous associations with other religions? Mathematics was studied by Muslims for centuries to show how Allah had created the world with order. Should Christians abandon certain fields of mathematics because of their historical association with Islam? Certain tribal groups use different plants for their "spiritual" value in healing certain ailments, and modern medicine has found that many of these tribal remedies are indeed helpful. Should Christians shun certain advancements in medicine because of their association with tribal religions and tribal spiritual beliefs? Coffee was originally used by Sufis to help them stay up late and concentrate during their night prayers. Should Christians stop drinking coffee because it was used in the prayer rituals of Sufis? A hearty "No!" to all of these questions. I could go on and on in this vein, but I think the point is made. Just because people of another faith, religion, or worldview find something useful for themselves, does not mean that it is off limits to the Christian. All things not sinful are ours in Christ. That is part of the redemption of all things. Where there is not prohibition in Scripture, there may be liberty of behavior as the conscience permits. (This is not a licence for loose living. Shame on you if you use the idea of "redeeming all things" as an opportunity for sin. Holiness is a principal teaching of Scripture, Jesus, and the Apostles.)

My conclusion then: if a Christian finds them self very easily distracted during times of prayer or meditation, developing a yoga practice may help to center the mind and enable the Christian to experience times of prayer and meditation with less interruption and with stronger focus. As long as the intention is directed Christward, I can hardly see how this would be harmful, wrong, or sinful. Certainly there is a way to practice yoga that is sinful, but there is also a way to drink orange juice that is sinful. Yoga is no more inherently sinful that astronomy, mathematics, medicine, or coffee. All things from Christ, and through Christ, and to Christ. To Him be glory forever more. Amen.

Timely Thoughts on Abortion

The following are some excerpts from John Piper's response to the Supreme Court's recent upholding of the ban on partial birth abortions. This issue is so important, and the following words so timely, I truly hope that you will read them all:

Let the Python Eat Its Tail. Amen. by John Piper

Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote the opinion of the Supreme Court in upholding the ban on partial birth abortions on April 18, 2007. It is astonishing to read the opinion (PDF). The detail with which abortion is discussed exceeded my expectation. Kennedy’s own descriptions of the various forms of abortion are explicit and extensive. Descriptions of the procedure of partial birth abortion (“intact dilation and extraction”) are given from both doctors’ and nurses’ perspectives.

For example, one nurse described the procedure on a twenty-six-week-old “fetus” as follows—and remember this is a quote from Justice Kennedy’s official Supreme Court decision:

"Dr. Haskell went in with forceps and grabbed the baby’s legs and pulled them down into the birth canal. Then he delivered the baby’s body and the arms—everything but the head. The doctor kept the head right inside the uterus. . . . The baby’s little fingers were clasping and unclasping, and his little feet were kicking. Then the doctor stuck the scissors in the back of his head, and the baby’s arms jerked out, like a startle reaction, like a flinch, like a baby does when he thinks he is going to fall. The doctor opened up the scissors, stuck a high-powered suction tube into the opening, and sucked the baby’s brains out. Now the baby went completely limp. . . . He cut the umbilical cord and delivered the placenta. He threw the baby in a pan, along with the placenta and the instruments he had just used." (p. 8)

This use of catch phrases is surely tired. “Right to choose.” “Equal rights for women.” The grandchildren of the sixties are waking up to the vagueness and danger of those phrases. Right to choose what? Anything? All laws that protect children limit the rights of moms (and dads) to choose. You can’t choose to starve them. You can’t choose to lock them in closets for three weeks. You can’t choose to abandon them. You can’t choose to strangle them five minutes after they are born.

And “equal rights for women”—equal with whom? Equal with the irresponsible dad. Dad has sex and bears no responsibility for the baby. Mom should be equally able to have sex and bear no responsibility for the baby. Young people are looking at this and saying: Something is wrong with this picture. Maybe our lives are as broken as they are because our parents have twisted their hearts and minds so deeply to justify equality in irresponsibility.

Hillary Clinton opposes the Supreme Court decision because “the rights and lives of women must be taken into account.” Yes. That is mainly what this forty-page opinion of the court does. Read it. And it will be interesting whether Senator Clinton will have any opinion about moms and dads who want to abort their little girls, but not their little boys. I think the younger generation may ask the senator: Should the life of little women be taken into account, or only big women?

I pray that ahead and behind of the delegalization of abortion will flow waves of inner repentance as we awaken to the outrage of assaulting God’s image-bearers in the very moment of his knitting them together in their mothers’ wombs (Psalm 139:13).

May the python, indeed, eat its tail. Amen and Amen. I hope and pray (not nearly with the tears that I should) that abortion will one day be just as abhorable and reprehensible as slavery.

The Warnings of Jesus

As I have been reading through the Gospels lately, I have noticed that very often Jesus will issue a warning to his followers. These warnings usually take the form of "woe to you...," or "beware...," or "be on your guard...," or "watch out...," or something of this nature. As I looked at these warnings more closely, I noticed that most all of them fall into one of three catagories:

--Warnings against a love or strong desire for money and material possessions (such as Luke 6:24 – 25, Luke 12:15, Matthew 23:25)

--Warnings against a love or strong desire for fame, reputation, honor, prestige, and the praise of man (such as Matthew 6:1, Luke 6:26, Luke 11:43, Luke 20:46-47)

--Warnings against forgetting those below you...those in poverty, widows, orphans, etc. (such as Luke 11:42, Matthew 25:34-46)

It seems to me that Jesus' repeated warnings about these things should land quite strongly on us Westerners today because these seem to be exactly the things that our culture and society offer to us as things worthy of pursuit. This deserves quite a bit more meditation by each of us.

Free Tibet Protest at Everest Base Camp

(AP) Three Americans and a Tibetan-American were detained on Mount Everest on Wednesday as they called for independence for Tibet and protested against the Beijing Olympics, an activist group said.

The protest was organized by Students for a Free Tibet, which said three people were taken away after holding up a banner at a base camp on the Tibetan side of the mountain that said "One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008." The fourth person detained by Chinese authorities was a cameraperson, said the group's executive director Lhadon Tethong. "One World, One Dream" is the slogan of the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The International Olympic Committee will announce the route for the 2008 Olympic torch relay in Beijing on Thursday. Chinese officials have said they want to take it to the top of the world's tallest mountain on the border between Nepal and Tibet. "The Chinese government hopes to use the 2008 Olympic Games to conceal the brutality of its occupation of Tibet," Tethong said from the Nepalese capital, Katmandu.

Tethong said more than 70 Chinese climbers were in the base camp preparing for a trial climb to see if it is possible to take a torch to the top of 8,850-meter (29,035-foot) Mount Everest. "One of the key points for the Chinese in their Olympic propaganda is to show happy Tibetans. They are very much using the Olympics, so we are also using it to call for an independent Tibet," Tethong said.

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say they were essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951 and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand. Taking the Olympic torch to the top of Mount Everest is seen by some as way for Beijing to underscore its claims to Tibet. "The International Olympic Committee has no business promoting the Chinese government's political agenda by allowing the torch to be run through Tibet," Tethong said.

Book Review: The Last Word by N.T. Wright

I must admit that I had nearly written The Last Word off before I even began it because of N.T. Wright's association with "The New Perspectives on Paul." Am I ever glad that I didn't. Though traces of the "New Perspctives" can be seen within the pages of this book, it has been one of the most thought provoking, eye opening, challenging, helpful, and pleasurable books I have read in a while. In fact, I declare it the best book that I have read this year.

Wright's intention with the book is to help reader's come to grips with what is meant by "the authority of scripture" and how disciples of Christ can live under this authority. Wright does a wonderful job of defending and defining this important piece of Christian life, and without giving too much away let me just say that he gives much more than the typical fundamentalist treatment of the subject. He finds a way that steers the dangerous course between fundamentalism and liberalism and actually gives us a doctrine of the authority of scripture that is robust, well thought out, helpful, and that makes use of Christian tradition. Also, Wright's understanding and analysis of contemporary and historical thought and its influence on culture is masterful. He may be the best cultural observer of our times who calls himself a follower of Jesus. If you only read one book about the Bible, read this one. If you read two, then add Eat This Book by Eugene Peterson. If you read three, then add Scripture Alone by R.C. Sproul.

Get it here.

To Some it Has Been Given

It is my opinion, that the following men are (in order) the best preachers/spiritual teachers of our generation (based on orthodoxy, orthopraxy, awareness of the culture and times, talent for public speaking, and giftedness in teaching) :

1. John Piper of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN.
2. Tim Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York, NY.
3. Matt Chandler or The Village Church near Dallas, TX.
4. Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seatle, WA.

If you are not familiar with these men, I commend them to you. They are a tremendous blessing to the church in America during this generation, and have been instrumental in my spiritual formation and growth.