With Muslims in Tragedy

Posted on December 27, 2014 by Mark McMillion

Ten years ago this week was the beginning of perhaps the most heart-wrenching experience I’ve ever had in ministering to others. You may have read that around this time is the 10th anniversary of the Asian Tsunami disaster of late 2004. I’d been living in Jakarta, Indonesia for over a year and when the disaster happened, we quickly found that the worst hit area was Aceh Provence at the northwest tip of Indonesian.
Those of us who were working in Jakarta at the time knew almost immediately that some of us had to go the disaster area to do what we could. After much prayer, a team of four of us left for the capital of the province, Banda Aceh. The city had suffered the death of 155,000 people. Below I’ll add parts of a newsletter I sent to friends from Banda Aceh a few days after we arrived, 10 years ago this week.

From that time in Banda Aceh, I made a 30 minute video of my experiences there that week in those camps and in other parts of the city. One thought I came away with from that time was what the famous lines from the Bible say: “Love never fails.” In spite of ethnic, geographic and even religious differences, love, the Love of God in this instance, made it so that people could work together to help each other in such a devastating tragedy. It changed my life to be a part of that and to see the Love of God in such a miraculous way. Below is the video of that time.

Aliens and Astronauts

Posted on December 14, 2014 by Mark McMillion

I’m an astronaut but I am not an alien. Let me explain. In a sense the first Christians were called to be astronauts, other-worldly citizens of a world to come. Not aliens, but no longer really earthlings either.

But many Christians today just fly kites. Some fly little Cessna’s, a few fly airliners and can carry God’s people from one place to the other. Even fewer are in God’s army air corps, really fighters in the battles of the Lord. They fly military aircraft at 50,000 feet. And a very few actually get all the way into space; they escape the gravity of this planet and our world.

You can hear it in the way people talk. I know someone at church. I can tell she is a pilot. She has the demeanor of a millionaires’ wife. But she talks in the first personal and sincerely about persecution. How many American Christians can talk convincingly and passionately about suffering persecution? Usually it’s only a very few who somehow have the marks of Christ upon them; they have somehow stood up, stood out and suffered for His name personally.

This person I know is like that, that’s what made me first notice her. She has a good degree from a top university. But she struggles to find a job in a city where there is virtually no unemployment. She is personable and speaks several languages. What could be wrong? She is “over qualified”, they say.

But actually, it’s worse than that. She belongs to God. God is opening and closing doors. She is “in the world but not of it” (John 15:19). She is a child of the King, more than a child of this world. So God is somehow staying very involved in her life. At a time when she should be basking in all the glory of man, have a trophy husband, a SUV and a mansion by the lake, she struggles and has been struggling for a while now.

But she’s cheerful. She is keeping the faith and taking care of herself, expecting God to do a miracle when for a worldly woman, the doors of this present world would have already opened for her. But God is keeping them shut for her, it seems.

Like the verse says, “God having provided some better thing for us.” (Hebrews 11:40) Since she is not of the world, these normal things are more difficult, doubtless because God Himself is leading her by a way not known.

We are “strangers and pilgrims on the earth“. (Hebrews 11:13) It’s interesting to meet others who fly the friendly skies of God Himself, the heavenly realms, who rise above the mundane “course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2) and are willing to “suffer affliction with the people of God, rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season”. (Hebrews 11:25)

I hardly know this person. But I recognize in her a kindred spirit, a sister in the Lord and not only that, but a person who’s suffered for her commitment to Him and has suffered personal lose for her faith and discipleship. I was giving a talk in Sunday school recently about witnessing and I talked about passing out tracts. She was the only one in class who pulled a tract out of her purse. She keeps those there so she can pass them on to people she witnesses to.

It’s not a very big herd of folks like this, precious little and precious few. She and I are just passing acquaintances. But I recognize in her that she flies the skies of the Spirit and that a crown awaits her at the end of her flight and this life we live now.

Have you seen enough to know that “the course of this world” (Ephesians 2:2) is not for you? And you’re trying to get airborne? Trying to break out of the gravity of this old world? To get away from the pull of this planet and to rise into the heavenlies? You’ve got to start somewhere. “Go fly a kite”. “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” (Psalm 55:6)

It’s going to cost you. Maybe you already feel a little different from the norm. But if you aim for the heavens, many will really think you are strange. Maybe you won’t fit in, or even be able to find a job, like my friend. But you’ll know heights of knowledge, experience, otherworldliness and intimacy with the Lord that will be more than anything you’ve ever experienced before. There are not very many of us right now. But we can begin to recognize each other in a crowd after a while, just by the way we talk and how we talk about life. “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God.” (Romans 8:16)

Ultimately, “the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and His Christ”. (Revelation 11:15) A few of us are already getting ready for this. For people of this world, we can almost seem like aliens. But we’re not; we’re astronauts.

Blessed Is He That Considers The Poor

Posted on December 2, 2014 by Mark McMillion

I’d like to ask for your prayers for some dear friends who’ve been a tremendous help to me. I was praying for them today and got the verse from Psalm 41:1, “Blessed is he that considers the poor, the Lord will deliver him in time of trouble.”

I’ll explain. About 18 months ago a man I hardly knew at the time invited me to coffee. The result of that meeting was that he and his wife began to support me in my producing the prophecies of Daniel videos to the degree that I was able to work on them full time. Since then 6 videos have been done, 3 full length and 3 supplementary one. And there’s been a good start on getting these videos into several foreign languages. Also I’ve been able to post articles on my two web sites around once or twice a week during that time.

It’s been an incredible blessing to have their help in this way. And actually, if any of you have gotten something out of the videos or articles I’ve been doing, it’s this couple who’ve helped me to be able to have the support so I’d have the time to work on these.

It’s easy to have some type of stereotypical picture of the greedy, selfish, capitalist rich, gobbling up the poor and destroying the world. Maybe there are some like that. But my experience with these folks has been that they’ve been some of the more generous people I’ve ever known, concerned about others on an international scale and also on an individual scale. I’ll tell you one more testimony about them and then share my prayer request for them.

They’d been helping me for months to get the work done on the video series. Then one day my friend said, “You know a lot of missionaries, don’t you?” I paused and said that, yes, I did. So he said, “Well, do they need any help?” I paused again and again said yes, they did.

And it took me about a week for the idea to get through to me but my friend was wanting to share his prosperity with those on the mission field and he was asking if I’d be a conduit for that. The Lord one day almost had to prod or rebuke me for my slowness to catch on.

But since that time I’ve been able to be in contact with friends in many countries, mostly Sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe and a relatively large amount of mission gifts have gone out to folks. As a result, thousands of Bibles and 10’s of thousands of Gospels of John have been made available throughout those areas, as well as mission gifts to those doing seminars in Uganda and other things like this. These people are like what the Bible talks about “cheerful givers” (II Corinthians 9:7). In their eyes they have “freely received” and so they “freely give” (Matthew 10:8).

These friends of mine now need our prayers.

I don’t know how much you keep up with it but there have been some recent drastic upheavals in some sectors of the international business outlook. This new economic turbulence has had a major impact on their company. There’s actually a question mark over whether they will still be able to be a help to me at all and we’re going to meet together soon.

But I thought that the least I could do is to bring this dear couple before you and ask for your prayers. They themselves have done mission work and have been to some pretty risky places that I’ve never ventured to, where they were passing out tracts there in order to win souls. They are a brother and sister who’ve willingly shared their abundance to help the work I’ve been involved with and also to help missionaries and the poor in many countries.

You don’t really need to know their names or more details than this. They remind me of another article I wrote a while back, called “Texas People”, about people from Texas that most folks don’t know about. But this is a time of trouble for them. They have people they employ, they have a family and they’ve constantly been trying to give to others. Could you please support these dear ones in prayer at this time? Their industry is going through strong upheavals and they’re seeking to find a way through this storm that’s upon their company and their lives. Thanks so much.

And perhaps you could also pray for me at this time. I’ve been aiming to make a mission trip to Romania, to visit churches in Bulgaria and to be in Christian refugee camps in the Middle East in around 3 months. These new changes bring uncertainly over this possible trip. Thanks so much for your prayers for my dear friends and supporters and for my ministry as well at this time.

Your friend in Him, Mark

Weapons to Pakistan

Posted on September 29, 2014 by Mark McMillion

(Even before I tell what happened, let me say that this is in no way a negative article about anyone in the Subcontinent at all. I spent 18 happy months there in the 1980’s. It’s full of wonderful people and what I’m going to tell here could have happened in Burma, Bulgaria or Bolivia. The heart of man is the same the world over.)

In the late 1980’s I was in Delhi, the capital of India, for a few weeks. As my custom was, I decided to go personal witnessing one afternoon in an area where there were some high rise apartments. At one door I rang the bell to, the woman opened the door and I began my greeting and explanation, as I usually did.

She looked at me silently, long and hard, and then the first thing she said was, blurting it out,

I paused, shot up a quick prayer to the Lord and then told her with peace in my heart,

There was a brief silence as we looked at each other. Finally she smiled slightly and explained what she meant. And I answered that I understood what she had meant.

She recognized from my looks and accent that I was an American. At that time it was a very topical subject in the society as to how America seemed to be supporting Pakistan in its disputes with India and that it evidently was sending weapons to Pakistan. It was a very big subject in India and in Delhi at the time.

So when this woman saw me at her door, all she could think about was how, at an international level, my country seemed to be arming her country’s opponents. But of course the reality was that I personally had nothing to do with it at all. We ended up having a good talk there that afternoon.There was a little touch of humor to the experience and it somewhat brought us together as we talked.

And you might say, “So what?” For me, that experience was a perfect illustration of what so often goes on in human contact around the world which is damaging and wrong: stereotypes, prejudges, nationalism, racism, and the multitude of divisions and hatreds that plague and divide our world, wherever we go.

I’ve actually very seldom ever, in my 36 years outside the US, experienced anything approaching hatred toward me as an American or a white or a Christian. [And just to mention it, that woman in Delhi didn’t hate me; it was just a brief misunderstanding that cleared up right away.] I think it’s helped that I learned very early on to not bring with me the outward show of Americanisms and the mannerisms that some folks bring with them if they travel outside the USA. I went aboard, not to represent America but as a representative, God helping me, of Jesus Christ.

But to me, that woman’s initial judgment of me strictly along the lines of nationalism and secularism was a perfect example of human nature, worldwide: the sad, imperfect, divisive side of human nature.

“Chauvinism” is not a word in the Bible. But it means “an excessive or prejudiced loyalty or support for one’s own cause, group, or gender”. It’s a temptation for everyone, everywhere. But it’s opposed to the spirit of Christianity and the spirit of love.

Love doesn’t look at the outward appearance. That’s why God told Samuel, “Look not on his appearance, for God sees not as man sees. For man looks on the outward appearance but God looks on the heart.” (I Samuel 16:7) And doubtless He would have us to do the same.

It says in the New Testament that God has “broken down the middle wall of partition between us” (Ephesians 2:14), in this case speaking of the division between the Jews and the Greeks of those days, through the love of Christ. But God has been in the business of breaking down prejudices, hatreds and divisions for many centuries.

It says of Jesus, He “…will gather together in one the children of God that are scattered abroad.” (John 11:52) And to do this, He wants us to not look on the outward appearance, the nationality, the race, the age, the sex, the social status of ones we meet. He wants us to look at others they way He does, to look at the heart with love.

Hateful prejudices, chauvinism, nationalism, these are things that must grieve the heart of God. It says of Jesus, “He looked about with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their heart” (Mark 3:5). Jesus of Nazareth was not often recorded as being angry. But one time there it says He was angry at the hardness of hearts.

And just think how many people today, often people who consider themselves to be very Godly, are full of fear and hatred through the hardness of their hearts, encouraged by false shepherds to hate and fear others, to nourish division and hatred of those not of their faith, nation or culture. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was exactly the very opposite of that.

Happily that afternoon, the woman I met at the door and I were able to laugh at the thought that I’d sold weapons to Pakistan. May God help His people to realize their foolish labels and prejudices against so many are anathema to His loving Spirit and ways. And that they grieve and hinder His work in His people, unless they repent of them.

Acts 18 Live Class

Posted on September 28, 2014 by Mark McMillion

Our live class on Acts 18 actually went on longer than almost any of the other classes before that. Which is only fitting as Paul wrote more to the Corinthians than to any other church. And there’s just really a lot there, in Acts 18, in the books of Corinthians and in our live class. The audio recording of our Acts 18 live class can be heard here.

And it says Paul stayed there a year and a half, the longest he’d stayed in any one place till then. But it must have been a special time and place as the Lord did something He didn’t usually do, specifically instructed Paul to stay on there in Corinth. Act 18, verses 9 & 10 say, “Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, ‘Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.’”

One of the things we talked about for a while is where Paul said, “Your blood be upon you, I turn to the Gentiles” (Act 18:6). This It’s a very big and sober subject about our responsibility to “deliver our souls”, something that is never taught in church but is definitely in the Bible. Paul may have been thinking or referring to something that is found in Ezekiel 3:17-19, “His blood will I require at your hand.” Paul evidently felt he had that much responsibility to deliver his soul and to preach the whole council of God to those he met.

Another aspect of Christian discipleship that we talked about was how Paul, almost more than anyone else, was able to blast off from the “gravitational pull” of his own background, his own heritage and cultural and even his own religion, to truly follow God into a new “universe”, delivered from his old “planet” and way of life.

Jesus said “If you love father or mother more than me…”(Matthew 10:37), or even “your own land” (Matthew 19:29), then He said you are not worthy of Him. Not the kind of thing you’ll hear in church on Sunday, is it?

Paul on the road to Damascus

And we talked somewhat about some strange web sites and folks who will tell you that Paul “was not really an apostle of the Lord”. Why would they say that? Well, they figure that “Paul didn’t respect the laws of Moses enough”. “He went astray from the laws of Moses. So that Light he saw on the road to Damascus?? Well, …. Maybe… “

So it’s pretty far out and delusional what some folks get into in order to preserve the necessity of keeping the old Mosaic Law. Even to the extent of sowing doubt about the Godliness of the Apostle Paul. Like we said in our class, if Paul hadn’t followed the Lord into all the world, witnessing faithfully to the Gentiles, Christianity might have been just another sect of Judaism and would have perished with the crushing of Israel and the scattering of the Jews in 70 AD.

Aquila & Priscilla with Apollos

We talked about that and if (and how much) the Early Church leaders had really obeyed the Lord to “go into all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15). Obviously they were doing that some, as we can read about Peter witnessing to and converting the Gentiles in Acts 10. But the impression is that Paul took the whole thing much further and much more rapidly than had been happening up till that time.

And we read about Apollos in Acts 18 and how he “knew only the Baptism of John” (Act 18:25). We talked about how, when we witness, that sometimes we meet people who really love the Lord and are doing what they can to walk according to the light they have. But like Apollos in this case, they sometimes are missing some major pieces of the puzzle when it comes to the things of the Lord.

Teaching Apollos

So like the Aquila and Priscilla did here with Apollos, they built upon what was really a partial foundation in him and he became an even stronger Christian and worker for the Lord from it. It can happen that we run into similar situations in our witnessing and ministering to people.

In relation to this, I shared a personal story of a good friend of mine from 30 years ago who flew in to Moscow in the early 80’s, at a time when Russian Communism just couldn’t have been more serious, and he there just happened to met up with a strong young leader of a budding “Jesus people” movement in Moscow. My friend and this Russian hit it off completely and my friend told him and taught him everything he could in the days he was there. But this all was similar to how these ones in the book of Acts found Apollos who went on to be even much more a witness than he had been up until the time the early church brethren met him in Alexandria.

So, the Book of Acts. It’s an incredible study but many people really have almost never read it. What we see there of how the early Christians were powerfully led of the Lord, as they gave their lives to Him, should inspire us to do the same in our generation. The audio recording of our Acts 18 live class can be heard here.

Mighty Angels

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Mark McMillion

What I’m going to tell you here is the truth. But it might be hard to believe. I’m pretty sure this is the most supernatural experience I’ve ever had, at least when I was wide awake and on my feet.

In an earlier blog post I told you about “That’s not how to talk about Jesus.”, during a time in the early 70’s when I was witnessing daily at or near the University of California at Berkley campus. This is something that happened during that time there. My friends and I would daily take our “hippy bus” that we’d converted into something like a mobile coffee house and drive to a place near the Berkley campus.

We’d break up into teams of two, like when Jesus sent his disciples out “two by two” (Mark 6:7). Then everyone would be off with their guitars and Bibles, witnessing to the students as well as the thousands of drop-outs and travelers that were everywhere around there at that time.

Since I was already one of the “older ones” in the Lord, as well as already being into my 20’s, I was the one who stayed back with the bus to take care of it, as well as to pass out sandwiches to anyone who came up and asked for one.

So this “person” came up to me. He seemed to be around my age and size. He had long red hair and a red plaid shirt. So far, so good; right? No big deal. But next I’m going to have to do some explaining. Because things quickly got different from anything I ever experienced, before or after that.

First, let me give you a verse that is important. We are “sealed by the Holy Ghost” (Ephesians 1:13). Someone may attack us physically and even hurt us, if God allows that. The devil can tempt us mightily. But the plain spiritual truth is that we are now the Lord’s, if you are one of His. We belong to a mighty God and no one can enter into our spirits and souls, except of course the Lord Himself. Or one of His messengers.

I started talking with this “guy” and rather quickly things got very different. I’ll try to explain it but it may not be as clear as you’d like. Of course we were speaking English. But what happened was that this being, also speaking English, had such weight, depth and significance in what he said that it was like I was quickly being taken by an elevator up into much higher levels of spirituality. I would say something and then he would respond. But each time, what he said dwarfed what I had said, leading our conversation into depths of spirituality that are hard to describe.

I probably should have written down every single thing I could remember from the experience, immediately after it was over. Sadly I didn’t do that. But the impact of it all was so overwhelming that I might not have even been able to do that.

After our conversation went on for a little bit, basically it got to where it transcended language and English. I guess we were speaking English but our communication was on a higher, more heavenly level than normal English can transmit. And actually, this was all more than a little bit disconcerting. Basically I was facing a being that was much more powerful than me, which could get through any kind of defense or normal ways of man that I might throw up.

I had faced demon-possessed people before and I’d had some spiritual experiences of different kinds. So I was aware at the time that this was an extremely spiritual experience I was having there in the parking lot. There was some fear on my part. But at the same time I could tell and feel that this being was benign, not malevolent. And the fact that basically it was able to get past everything of me and to be speaking and interacting with my innermost soul and spirit was disturbing and a little scary. I guess if I’d wanted to, I could have run off. I was not forced to be there. But basically what ended up happening can only be described as some kind of energy transfer.

He didn’t look like this. But this is what he was.

This angel was very serious and sober. It’s a shame I don’t have anything I wrote down from that experience but back then I didn’t know I should do that. But my strongest remembrance of the experience was that it was like he reached out, gripped my soul and spirit and just sent a strong surge of spirit and energy into me.

The message, if there was one, was that I’d been shown and knew a lot. And that I was very accountable. That I should be very sober and should very much “walk worthy” (Ephesians 4:1) of all that had been shown me and done for me. It wasn’t that this angel was mad at me. But it was just an extremely sober, serious moment and the presence of the fear of God and the knowledge of how important all of this is was just immense.

In many ways, words kind of fail me to be able to describe this experience much more than this. It was in broad daylight in a parking lot near the Berkley campus. I felt like that “being” could have tossed me 100 feet in the air or struck me dead on the spot if that had been his will. Also, I guess it’s like another blog post I wrote “Fear God“, where I talked about the verse “the fear of the Lord is clean”. (Psalm 19:9)

I was afraid. But there was nothing destructive happening with this. If anything was destroyed, it was my shallowness, wavering or anything other than just utter commitment to serving the Lord. I guess I wasn’t thinking that I was shallow or wavering at that time. But the Lord wanted to really strongly impress upon me the imperative of commitment and focus to put Him and His will first.

Actually I was in the first weeks of getting ready to move abroad, to Europe to be a missionary there. So maybe this visitation was a strengthening and sobering message and experience from the Lord to prepare me for the times and battles to come as I left my home country to be a missionary abroad.

It was almost like an umbilical cord. This guy never touched me but he didn’t have to. His spirit and words got passed my mind and my own spirit and just infused me with a warning, with power, with spirit and with thoughts I can’t even put into English. It’s a little like it was pictured in the movie “Matrix” where the Keanu Reeves character, Neo, got a link into his neck and got a data transfer of knowledge. Except in this case, it was real, it was face to face and it was like the angel’s spirit infused my spirit and soul with things of the Lord that I can’t really explain as well as I would like.

And then he left. I was ok, very shaken up but all the better for it. I’ve never had an experience like that again. I’ve had one or two other angel experiences, I’ve shared some of those in these posts and I’ll try to tell about the others. I know, if I was someone reading this post, I might be tempted to think that guy is lying or just making this up. But I’m not.

Angels are out there. “The angel of the Lord camps round about them that fear Him and delivers them.” (Psalm 34:7) They’re there to keep us on the straight and narrow for the Lord. But it’s all not even really easy to write about as it just is above our normal experiences so much that the words used don’t seem equal to the experience.

Good news from the Middle East

Posted on September 14, 2014 by Mark McMillion

This is the first time I’ve made a news item the main substance of a blog post. But this article so struck me as good news, as well as an antidote to what I feel has been so much fear and terror that’s been spread on Christian web sites in response to recent events in the Middle East.

So this is a great article for the fear mongers and terror advocates. God’s not dead or even sick! It’s not all beheadings and terror in the Middle East. Here are Christians witnessing and singing, worshiping and bringing others to Him, even during their personal “great tribulation”!

For many Christians here in the West, they teach and believe that the Church will be waft away before the “great tribulation” (Mathew 24:21). But the Lord didn’t rapture out these suffering Middle Eastern Christians and we won’t be raptured out either, at least not the way many teach and believe.

This is a great article to show that “they that understand among the people shall instruct many.” “They shall be strong and do exploits”, (Daniel 11:32 & 33) even during great tribulation. I’d already been hearing this news from my missionary friends who have been in those places for decades. This article shows that there are those there who are standing up for Him, as more of us will be someday in similar circumstances.

This was found on the web site www.breakingchristiannews.com. I don’t know these folks and I don’t know what they believe. But it’s great that they are letting us know about these victories for Him as this Middle Eastern Christians stand strong for Him. Here’s the article:

Despite ISIS Grip, Holy Spirit is at Work: Tent Churches Emerge in Iraqi Refugee Camps

Christian Aid Staff: Sep 12, 2014: Christian Aid Mission

“They asked us if God even exists for this to be allowed to happen. It was very difficult, but the Lord has given us grace in their sight to represent Jesus and the love of the work, which was shown to be wonderfully accepted among the Yazidis. They asked us to come back and took all our Bibles ‘in secret.'”

In the Kurdish area of Iraq, where people of different beliefs fled atrocities of the Islamic State (ISIS), the Iraqi ministry team supported by Christian Aid Mission found people in need of water, food and medicine.

Fatima, an Iraqi woman who fled atrocities committed by the Islamic State, was drawn to the sound of singing in a tent in a refugee camp in Dohuk, in the Kurdish region of Iraq. She approached cautiously.

Though embarrassed when the Christians worshiping inside saw her, she came closer and asked if she could enter and listen to what they were saying. By the time the meeting finished at 4 AM, she was on her way to embracing Christ as Savior and asked if she could bring friends and family to the next meeting.

Fatima, her husband and three daughters put their trust in Jesus for their salvation, and within a few weeks her involvement led to another 60 families making the same commitment, according to an area ministry leader supported by Christian Aid Mission.

“Tent churches are going on everywhere,” said the ministry leader. “Last week we had 68 families openly surrender their lives to the Lord. With all their large needs and difficult situations that they are going through, they thank God for the indwelling of Christ in their hearts. Twelve of those families were Muslims.” In addition, 200 children who received Bibles and coloring materials prayed to accept Jesus into their hearts.

Broken Hearts
Near Amerli, which Islamic State fighters besieged for more than two months before Kurdish and Iraqi forces aided by US warplanes drove them out on Sept. 1, the ministry leader’s team encountered people in need of water, food and medicine. In a visit with a group of families able to escape before the ISIS siege, the team found opportunity to meet both spiritual and physical needs. “The Lord gave us many souls who believed in Christ there,” the team leader said.

In northern Erbil, the leader’s team met with displaced Yazidis, a predominantly Kurdish ethnic group practicing a mix of Zoroastrian, Islamic, and Christian rituals, who suffered the slaughter of an estimated 500 of their members at the hands of ISIS. Some 130,000 Yazidis of Sinjar had fled to Irbil or farther north to Dohuk. “Our ministry to them was filled with tears and broken hearts to hear scary stories about abducted children and women and the slaughter of men,” the team leader said.

The Iraqi ministry team has prepared 2,000 Bibles, including those for children, plus 2,500 New Testaments in Arabic, Aramaic and Kurdish, along with tracts and Bible-based coloring books.

“We have a lot more that is needed, such as gas, workers’ support, radios, clothing and miscellaneous ministry items,” the team leader said.

Christian Aid Mission is helping the ministry to provide two kinds of food to Iraq’s internally displaced people – one for those who have cooking facilities, and another for those who are homeless. A box containing eggs, salt, oil, rice, cheese, beef, tomato paste, powdered milk, macaroni and bread costs $25. For 300 tents for small families, the cost comes to $7,500.

The team provides 800 sandwiches a day to different areas and groups at a cost of $2 per sandwich, which amounts to a weekly cost of $11,200. The ministry has borrowed sleeping bags and mattresses from a local store with the hope of repaying the merchants at $20 per mattress. “Four hundred mattresses cost $8,000, and we are almost out,” the leader said.

The ministry team also provides medicines for blood pressure, diabetes, headaches and stomach ailments, along with personal hygiene items. “Our goal was to provide $10,000 worth. We are starting with only $2,000 now,” he said. “Thank you so much for your prayers and support.”

For more information on indigenous Iraqi ministries, visit ChristianAid.org or see #HelpLocalIraq on Twitter.

Looking back, and up ahead

Posted on September 7, 2014 by Mark McMillion

As some of you know, I had a birthday in the last few days. But there’s something happening at this time which is a bigger milestone than that. I’ve finally completed the present video I’ve been working on, the one about Daniel 9:27 and the last 7 year before the coming of the Lord.

If you’d told me, 25 years ago, that in the future I’d be able to make a video series like this which can be viewed quickly and simply by people around the world, I definitely would have been really happy to hear that. It’s not that I’ve completed all the videos to be done on the prophecies of Daniel. But this video that’s just now been finished is what could be considered the seminal video in the series that brings together the pith and essence of the message about the future contained in Daniel. This is the chapter and the verse that Jesus Himself referred to when He was asked about His return.

Possibly the next blog article I post after this one, probably later this week, will announce this video and make it available. And since I did the first filming on this Daniel project over 11 years ago, it’s a feeling of accomplished and satisfaction in the Lord to know that there are 6 full length videos and 3 supplementary ones that delve into the depths of the prophecies of Daniel, but which also are hopefully simple enough that folks without a lot of theology background can understand them and share them with others.

But, as many of us know, it can be a rather dangerous place if you get to where you are satisfied and feel you have come to the pinnacle and ultimate plateau of your work and life. Thankfully, I don’t feel that way at all. It is nice to realize that a dream in some ways has become reality. But there’s still so very much to do, seed to sow, fields to reap, worlds to be changed, lives to be touched, that there’s no room or place for complacency or a sense of having arrived.

Presently, my vision for the next months is not to immediately jump into the next chapter in Daniel, chapter 10, and to do a video about that. Months ago the Lord laid it on my heart to get these videos into other languages. Having lived in so many countries, I feel I know that there’s a vast hunger for teaching on the future that is Bible based, visual, somewhat brief and is simple enough that “normal folks” can understand it and grasp its significance.

Over the last few months I’ve started working with translators and audio dubbers in seven languages so far. My goal is to at least get the first two videos I’ve done in English over into these other languages. After that, I’ll aim to have those posted on a “Prophecies of Daniel” web site in those languages and to begin to do blog posts regularly there as I continue to get the next videos done into those languages and posted on those sites. It’s kind of a big vision. But also it’s very exciting and something that I feel, if it can happen, can really be a help to so many.

And there are other things coming up. It looks like I’ll be making a trip to Europe to visit my family in October. And my hope is to make another visit there early next year to talk with the translators and the ones doing the dubbing of the videos into some of the other languages. There’s a lot to look forward to.

Their own Gospel of John in their language, Zulu

Another thing that I haven’t mentioned is how my friends here in Austin have been helping towards missionary efforts of my friends abroad. A lot of this has been in the purchase of Bibles and especially Gospels of John. There are local pastors in Africa who don’t even have a Bible in their own language. So we’ve been working with ones on the field to purchase Bibles for ones like this.

“Holding forth the Word of life…” (Philippians 2:16)

Also there have been some large purchases of Gospels of John which have been distributed to members of congregations and also in schools. The brother who was the translator of my classes in Budapest, Hungary 20 years ago has been working in KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa for 11 years now. He does programs in high schools there and he is distributing thousands of gospels of John to the students in the local language, Zulu. It’s a thrill because those young folks will be able to take those booklets home to share with their parents, grandparents and larger family. Probably for most, it will be the first time they’ve had even a piece of the Bible in their home.

So, overall, it’s a happy time. Lots of good things have been happening and I feel there are still yet many more things within view up ahead that will keep me busy and active, fighting for something that I feel is worth fighting for. And that’s to feed His sheep, to try to publish “glad tidings” and just to live for Him and for others. It’s been a very good year, thank the Lord. I hope you’ve had the same.

Action? Or Stillness?

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Mark McMillion

I was having my morning devotions time and one of the things I read was from “Streams in the Desert” about stillness. The thought was how that it isn’t in all our efforts or straining that God’s will is accomplished but in being still.

So I really thought about that. Like so many things, there’s a lot of truth there. At the same time, there’s plenty of room also for coming to the wrong conclusion.

Of course it’s all very true: our own feverish efforts in our own spirit to accomplish God’s will is not what’s needed or what God wants. But on the other hand, if someone comes to the conclusion that His highest and best is to attain some monastic asceticism, then they really haven’t got the picture of what God is and what He wants. God is a moving God. He’s always changing, moving, flowing and affecting change in every sphere of His creation.

Jesus didn’t command His disciples in His last day on earth, “Go off into the desert, run from the devil and perfect your own holiness.” Nope. He told them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” (Mark 16:15)

Holiness is great. But what is it? Sitting around in mediation and stillness all day? There’s certainly, definitely a time and a need for meditation, stillness and coming into the presence of the Lord; we all desperately need that.

But then what? Well, a verse that’s always pierced my heart is “Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit, so shall you be My disciple.” (John 15:8) And of course some people don’t even know what the Lord is talking about there. Some people think Jesus is talking about “the fruit of the Spirit” that Paul talked about: love, joy, peace and things like that. Well in this case, Jesus was not talking about the fruit of the Spirit. He was talking about being fruitful the same way a tree is fruitful or a man and a woman are fruitful.

Apples are the fruit of an apple tree and other Christians are the fruit of a Christian. Did they tell you that in your church? Did you know that we are supposed to bear fruit in the form of other people that we bring to the Lord? And if we’re going to do that, then we aren’t going to be sitting around all day in stoic stillness, solitude and mediation.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m certainly not disagreeing with the admonition to get quiet before the Lord and to seek His face. It’s part of my life daily and I don’t do so well if I don’t have that time. Even Jesus had to get up before dawn and go out in nature and get alone with His Father, it says so in the Bible. “And Jesus, rising up a great while before dawn, went out into a solitary place, and there prayed.” (Mark 1:35) But He didn’t stay there all day. He was back with people, “going about everywhere, doing good“. (Acts 10:38)

I guess it’s like the verse that to me really covers a lot of things. “These ought you to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” (Matthew 23:23) Stillness? Quietness? Mediation? Sure. But then we are to come down off our mountain and to be about our Father’s business. And we will carry that serenity, that power and that blessing with us because we will be so full of Him, His love and His compassion for the lost that it won’t be self effort and our frantic frenzy in the flesh. It will be His Spirit in us, causing us to do the humanly impossible.

Paul said one time, “But by the grace of God I am what I am. And his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (I Corinthians 15:10) Paul said that he labored more than they all, but that it was still all only God’s grace.

If you are really coming before the Lord and receiving from Him, it will activated you and motivate you. Karl Marx said, “Religion is the opium of the people.” But true and real Christianity is anything but sleep inducing. Jesus wasn’t crucified for putting people into a drugged stupor.

So Lord help us all to “not leave the other undone”, to not overdo it in the direction of mediation and stillness, or to be so fervent in the direction of Christian action and our efforts to sow the seeds of His word and to win souls that we run outside His will and His power. “There’s a time for every purpose under heaven“. (Ecclesiastes 3:1) Lord help us to know when to do what.

Acts 16 live class audio

Posted on August 20, 2014 by Mark McMillion

In Acts 16, Paul was back out “on the road”, obeying what the Lord had told him would be his future and destiny, “to bear my [Jesus’] name before the Gentiles” (Acts 9:15). (You can listen to our live class on Acts 16 here.)

Paul and his companions, first Barnabus and then later Silas, had already experienced severe, violent persecution in our earlier chapters. But in Acts 16, at one point they seemed to have a new dilemma: struggling to find the direction God was leading.

They were back in the area they’d been in before, what is today modern Turkey, and they were visiting regions they had been in before. But then it says, “They were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia.” (Acts 16:6) OK, they might have said, “Let’s just head off this direction”. But then it says, “They attempted to go into Bithynia. But the Spirit did not allow them.” (Acts 16:7)

I don’t know about you but I think at this point they might have gotten confused or perhaps even angry or discouraged. “Jesus, we’re out here in virtual “enemy territory” and then everywhere we turn, your Holy Spirit keeps telling us no! What’s up, Jesus?”

Probably they didn’t exactly say that or react that way but maybe it was a temptation. But it all turns out to be an incredible lesson on following the leading of God and God’s direct revelations. It says next, “And a vision appeared to Paul in the night. A certain man of Macedonia stood, begging him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us!” (Acts 16:10)

That was it! That was why they weren’t supposed to go to those other places! So immediately they got going that new direction, on toward Macedonia and the beginning of Christianity on the continent of Europe.

God wanted them to go to the major cities and centers, rather than getting off somewhere in the boonies, which is what Bithynia, along the coast of the Black Sea, was in those days. He wanted them to win leaders and people He could raise up to reach their own people in their area. And that’s what happened.

The rest of the chapter is a classic example of the Lord opening doors for Paul and his friends as they “pioneer” a new city, Philippi. The Lord raised up new friends and converts who became disciples as well as hosts and helpers there for the disciples.

And it’s an example for modern missionaries of how you can find people at different levels of belief. It turns out that Paul and Silas met up with some women who came together by a riverside to worship. It says one woman in particular was touched by their witness, Lydia. This woman believed in God, but Paul and his friends were able to share with her the whole council of God. It’s a similar situation to the ones later in Acts 19:2, they knew the baptism of John but that’s all they knew and had heard about. In our Christian witnessing, quite often we find ones who know some about God, they believe some. But then the Lord brings you along so you can share with them truths from the Word and from the life of faith that they’ve never before seen or heard about.

And it seems that in nearly every chapter Paul and his companions are suffering one kind or another of physical persecution. Later in Acts 16, after casting out the spirit of divination from a young woman, her handlers were furious because their source of income had been ruined. So they caused a riot that made it so that Paul and Silas ended up in prison or jail again.

And a famous salvation verse is found in this chapter. Paul’s jailor came to him after an earthquake in the night had opened the prison doors, and the jailer asked Paul, “Sir, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30)

So Paul said, “Well first you have to get circumcised and keep the laws of Moses. You have to be accepted into a local synagogue and complete 50 years of training in the Talmud.”

Do you think Paul said that? Maybe he gave him a long lecture on his sins and a list of do’s and don’ts to keep? Nope. Here’s what Paul said to the man, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved, and your house.” (Acts 16:30)

Mark! It’s all too easy! Come on, anybody can do that! The bar is too low, Mark!

I didn’t write this, I just read it and believe it. And actually, maybe that’s the whole point. The bar is low, it is easy and anybody can do that.

But sadly so many don’t. Their pride, their intellect, their own understanding, their upbringing, their background and a 1000 other things keep people from simply doing what Paul said to that man right then: Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

So it’s another wonderful chapter and we had a really inspiring class as we discussed these and other aspects of all this. I hope, if you get a chance, you can listen to the live class audio on Acts 16 which can be heard here. God bless you and yours as you witness and win souls for Him, like the ones of the Early Church did.

Mark McMillion

Creeds and Deeds, Facts and Acts

Category Archives: Witnessing