What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘worship’?

WORSHIP: Is it the service you go to Sundays, the music played and sung in Sunday ‘worship services’, the Christian music you may listen to at home or in your car? The kind of thing David did in Old Testament times alone with God and his harp? What you make an effort to do as part of those ‘quiet times’ you aim to have regularly with the Lord? All of the above?

Using words to describe spiritual concepts may be the thorniest use of them possible. But then as a Christian writer, I recall how God of course inspired all the words in our Bible, including the pivotal ‘in the beginning was the Word’ (John 1:1). So He clearly places high value on wrapping up the concepts He wants us to learn and digest in small-w words ... including to describe his own Son, the Word incarnate. 

With the word ‘worship’, however, we the Church—individually and corporately—toss it about so lightly it may be time to mull over the meaning lying beneath and within more carefully.

In the context of considering Christian music as ‘worship’, British songwriter and, yes, ‘worship leader’ Matt Redman gives a great illustrated sermon. 

Back in the 1990s, Redman and his church in England were gaining acclaim as they moved into the vanguard of this concept of modern worship: excellence of craft combined with the best of sound systems, projectors, lights, the whole production. But his preaching pastor had begun noticing a flatness creeping in. While everyone went through the motions and to outward appearances all seemed 'fine', the heart connection had loosened and seemed to be slipping away.

So the pastor did a radical thing.

“He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season,” explains Redman. “His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

The pastor challenged the congregation to be participants in worship, not consumers: to engage with God for themselves, from the heart, with their own voices. When the first few awkward gatherings passed, the church eventually launched into a whole new season of authentic adoration and praise.  

Redman’s now-famous song ‘The Heart of Worship’ describes what happened (you can also listen to it below): 

When the music fades,
All is stripped away.
And I simply come;
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth,
That will bless Your heart.
. . . .
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
when it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.

“After a while, the worship band and the sound system reappeared, but now it was different,” Redman explains in his book The Unquenchable Worshipper. “The songs of our hearts had caught up with the songs of our lips.”  

Ten Steps to Spiritual Maturity

Christians should ‘know better’, but we also know than only with God’s help can we be genuinely spiritually mature. Pastor Paul offers a few helps here, all not only possible but essential if we are to live in Christian maturity.

1. Stop trying to change others; focus instead on changing ourselves.
2. Accept others as they are.
3. Know that in your, mine and everyone’s point of view, we are all ‘right’.
4. Learn to let go.
5. Be able to drop expectations for a relationship; instead, give for the sake of giving.
6. Be understanding in whatever we do, doing all for peace and reconciliation, which glorifies the Name of our Lord.
7. Stop trying to prove to the world how intelligent we are.
8. Don’t seek approval from others.
9. Stop comparing ourselves with others.
10. Be at peace with, and within, ourselves.

Congratulations to Pastor Paul on his 45th spiritual birthday!

We are so full of thanks to God for the day, 45 years ago on October 10, that He rescued our dear Pastor Paul from a life of drugs, alcohol, and the darkness and deception of Islam. If you haven’t yet, you can read his dramatic, powerful testimony here.

Despite facing obstacles, persecutions and trials at almost every turn along his path, he has survived and continues to lead with strength, compassion and courage.

“Absolutely it is by our Lord’s grace alone,” he says, yet also acknowledges how the prayers of believers worldwide have been his fortress.

On this site alone, we have shared many stories of threats to him and other Bibles for Mideast workers and families, and numerous attempts on his life.

Perhaps the most widely-read was the horrific stoning in Bangladesh when he and many others were attacked while performing a baptismal service. Rushed to hospital, then to another for emergency brain surgery, the story only intensified.  

“The Islamic militants who had attacked us discovered I was undergoing treatment in that hospital, and plotted to kill me,” he explained. “So the believers shifted me from the hospital to Pastor Ayyoob’s house in a nearby forested area.”

Militants again discovered his whereabouts, which brought about our now-famous ‘when the lions rescued the Christians’ story (Stoned by terrorists, protected by a lion!). Still, months of difficulties and several brain surgeries ensued, and at one point he even had to be rescued from a hospital in India where militants, disguised as doctors, attempted to kill him and his wife.

While the world and the work have slowed down, even in this time of coronavirus we must ‘keep up the good fight’ … one of love, compassion and with the spiritual maturity Pastor Paul exemplifies so excellently.

Family saved from disastrous mudslide in India by the Voice of God

Maari*, a tea plantation worker with her husband Palani*, felt distinct unease in her spirit and couldn’t sleep as the rains pelted down and midnight approached. When she told her husband, he admitted to feeling the same.

Fairly new members of a local Bibles for Mideast underground church in Kerala, India, the couple were learning to listen to the promptings of God. So in spite of having worked hard the day before and knowing they would be expected to be back at it the next day, the young parents roused their three children, all under ten, and the family joined together in prayer.

“Get out now and run from the house!” they suddenly heard an authoritative Voice command them. Grabbing nothing but their bibles, they left the home and ran through the rain and darkness. Within seconds, heavy stones, mud and gushing water crashed down and the settlement vanished under the mess.

The family finally found their way through the torrential rains to another believer’s house, where they now stay. The horrific landslide completely obliterated the homes and properties of all of the plantation workers while they slept. Eleven injured people were taken to local hospitals. Everyone else died; many are still missing.

Houses in Kerala buried under mud and debris [GEORGEY MATHEWS]

Pastor Paul managed to make his way to where they were staying three days after the disaster.

“I asked our church to give them needed arrangements and prayed for them,” he says. “Our congregation is a small one with Hindu converts and laborers of the tea estate. All are very, very poor.”

They were already being harassed by other workers and local people, he says, so we must be careful to protect them. The ministry is doing what it can to help and provide for their necessities.

Each monsoon season brings fears of flooding, mudslides and other dangerous conditions that can devastate the lives of millions of people across South Asia. With these kinds of reports, many people forget that the monsoon also brings a positive, life-sustaining bounty. For millions of people around the world, the monsoon is critical to survival, playing a vital role in everything from food production to the economy.

A third of Bangladesh is considered already underwater from some of the heaviest rains in a decade [Munir Uz zaman/AFP]

Some however, like this one, prove devastating and we must pray for our brothers and sisters suffering so much this season.

“The COVID-19 pandemic and containment and prevention measures add an additional complication to the mix, as COVID-19 cases are accelerating in some of the affected areas,” says Jean Gough, UNICEF Regional Director for South Asia.

No doubt about it, these are trying times—yet how much more trying if we didn’t have the One who holds the world, and each one of us, more closely than a breath.  The enduring unfathomable mystery is that even after our last breath, we will find ourselves closer still, breathing more freely than we ever have of the rarefied air of heaven.

Please keep these believers, and the whole region and those yet to discover the Truth and salvation of Jesus, in your prayers.

If you feel led to support our work here and in many other restricted areas across south Asia and Africa, please click here.
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* Names changed for security reasons

Lockdown rules for Christians: Follow your government’s, but don’t forget the heavenly rules

🔹 Wash your heart, mind and life with Christ's blood (Psalm 73:1; 1 John 1:7).
🔹 Stay socially-distanced from evil (Job 28:28).
🔹 Don’t follow the advice of evil people, and steer clear of sin’s highway (Psalm 1:1).
🔹 Guard your mind from being infected by the sneezes of sin and hatred (Lev. 19:17,18).
🔹 Do not shake hands with filth or dishonesty (Deut. 25:16).
🔹 Do not hug or embrace hearsay and false teachings (2 Peter 2:1).
🔹 Stay safe so that you will be saved (Jer. 17:14).
🔹 Sanitize your life with the Word of God (Psalm 1:2; James 4:8; Ezekiel 36:25).
🔹 If and when you notice any symptoms of sin, call the helpline of Christ in PRAYER (Jer. 33:3).
🔹Always remember to boost your spiritual immunity with Faith and the Power of the Holy Spirit (Jude 1:20).

From the pulpit to the presidency: Lazarus rises in Malawi!

Malawi’s new president, Lazarus Chakwera, personifies the grace of God. Born to subsistence farmers in a village without running water or electricity, his two elder brothers, sadly, died in infancy. When their new baby was born, his father—also a preacher, evangelist and church planter—had a vision the boy would escape the fate of his two older brothers. So he named him Lazarus, after the biblical character raised from the dead.

As it turns out, young Lazarus would go far beyond simply surviving. He earned degrees in Philosophy and Theology, spent more than 20 years as the head of one of the country’s largest denominations, the Assemblies of God, became a respected professor in theology and studied in the US as well, graduating with a doctorate from Trinity International University in 2000.

But the challenges have been tremendous. The family had no electricity or running water, barely enough food, and young Lazarus seemed almost pathologically shy.  Educators had taken notice of his brilliance, however, and he ended up being chosen to go to a more prestigious secondary school. There, he learned his distinct American accent by mimicking a teacher, he says.

He initially had ambitions to be a doctor so he “wouldn’t have to talk to large numbers of people” (he talks more about that in the short video below). 

During his education he says he met God, and felt Him "began to redirect my life towards ministry.” Then, about a decade into leading the Assemblies of God, Dr. Chakwera sensed a new call. 

“God spoke to my heart. He said, ‘I am not pulling you out of ministry. Instead I am extending your ministry. I want you to get into politics.”

So, in 2013, Dr. Chakwera ran for office and became leader of the Malawi Congress Party. He spent the next six years serving in congress and in the presidential election held last month, after more than a year of political protests, Chakwera won with 58 percent of the vote. It was the first time in Africa that a court-overturned vote resulted in the defeat of an incumbent president.

His first presidential tweet

He officially took office on June 28, and his second week in, called on the African nation to join in three days of prayer and fasting against the spread of COVID-19.

The 85% Christian country has fared remarkably well against the virus so far, bringing in restrictions before even any cases were detected and staying on guard with both precautions and prayer. Still, the pandemic has taken a significant economic toll on one of the world’s poorest countries.

“With your help we will restore faith in having a government that serves, not a government that rules,” the new president pledged in his inauguration speech. “A government that inspires, not a government that infuriates; a government that listens, not a government that shouts; a government that fights for you and not against you.”

He is married to Monica, and the couple have four children. Please pray for him, his family and for Malawi; that the new government would lead wisely and justly, and shine the light of Jesus across the whole of Africa.