GOD HEARS Prayer Letters

Long, long ago, "God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth". Noah's descendants decided instead to settle on a plain in Shinar and "build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 

I have read frequently that Muslims need to hear the Gospel many times before deciding to follow Jesus, and that even amazing dreams and visions do not necessarily result in or point toward a salvation experience.

Last week a subscriber sent me a link to the testimony of a devout Muslim evangelist who, while living within the rigid and violent Islamist environment of Gaza, left Islam to "[follow] in the footsteps of Jesus".

There are many instances in the Bible of God calling people by their names, for example, Hagar (Genesis 16:8), Abraham (Genesis 22:1), Jacob/Israel (Genesis 35:10, 46:2), Moses (Exodus 3:4), Samuel (1 Samuel 3:4), and Saul/Paul (Acts 9:4).

How does one compose a title for an email on giving to missions that compels people to read on instead of sending them to the delete button?

God sometimes speaks to us by repeatedly drawing our attention to something. We might notice something unusual three or four times over a few days or a week or more.

In the space of a week, I had conversations with two former refugees who've been living in Canada for more than five years. One used to be Muslim.

On Tuesday, September 21, at least two noteworthy things happened on the global stage. Sudan's transitional government foiled an attempted coup led by supporters of ousted Islamist President Omar al-Bashir, arresting the instigators.

While praying for Afghanistan in my weekly prayer group, I saw a picture in my mind's eye of a jet of water shooting upward like a fountain. It was coming out of what looked like the mouth of a bottle set into the ground in a barren place.

For a few years decades ago, I prayed with a national prayer team for the harvest in Canada. I grew frustrated when they seemed to pray more for the church than the harvest.