"We Speak to Nations"

Miracles in Myanmar - Kalaymo Gospel Festival

How a Door Opened to Burma 

My six-year-old son Caleb just graduated from kindergarten at Victory Christian School. One of his classmates is a boy named Go. At a parent-teacher conference, I sat down next to Go’s father and discovered his name is Do. After chatting for awhile, Do found out that I am an evangelist. He invited me to share at the Zomi Baptist Church here in Tulsa. The Zomi people come from the nation of Myanmar (previously known as Burma). I thought there might be a few dozen people in attendance but when we arrived there were over four hundred. Do asked me to speak on the subject of healing. Right before I began, he leaned over and said, “Many of the church elders do not believe that God heals today but I still want you to preach on healing.” In that service, three people testified that they were miraculously healed by Jesus. When we went out for a meal after the service, another seven people texted Do to report they were also healed but had been hesitant to share their testimonies publicly.

Do invited me to visit Myanmar. His father, also named Go, is a pastor in the city of Kalaymo. He said, “We need to do a pastor’s conference to train our leaders and a Gospel Festival to tell people about the healing power of Jesus.

What Can Take Away My Sin?

On my first day in Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar, I had the opportunity to visit some of the local Buddhist pagodas. They look like big golden Hershey kisses surrounded by statues of Buddha sitting in a lotus position. Many barefoot Buddhist monks in orange robes walk around asking for alms by holding out a metal pot. In front of one pagoda, I saw a woman with a birdcage. Several hundred birds were flapping inside. A husband and wife came and bought a bird then set it free. There is a Buddhist belief that doing a good deed will wipe out a previous bad deed. The problem is that no matter how many good deeds one does, one can never wash away the stain of sin. Only Christ can do that.

Training Frontline Shepherds

When Do and I arrived in Kalaymo we were greeted by a large crowd outside the airport. Many of them were there to welcome Do who had been away from home for nine years. They put a scarf with traditional Zomi colors around my neck. This is a sign of great respect. Two hundred and fifty pastors gathered together for our leadership conference. We fed them three meals each day. They ate two cows, over sixty chickens, and twelve hundred pounds of rice. Our team spent six hours each day teaching on evangelism, leadership, and basic Bible principles.

Thousands Hear About Jesus

Each night at the Gospel Festival, thousands of people came together to hear about Jesus. In the crowd were many Buddhists, some skeptical about the message. But when the miracles started, they were amazed. Each night we witnessed tremendous miracles and when the altar call was given virtually the entire crowd prayed with us to make Jesus Lord of their lives. We also prayed for people to be set free from drug and alcohol addiction.

Opposition to the Gospel

On the final night of the festival, a group of gang members gathered outside the front gate of the Festival and attacked Go’s brother. Twenty of them viciously beat him with rocks. We do not know if the gang members were Buddhists that were angry we were preaching about Jesus or drug dealers furious we were preaching against drugs. We rescued the man and took him to the hospital. He had blood streaming from several cuts on his face and head and his back was bruised badly. He was forced to stay in the hospital for several days. A few days after I returned to the United States, the same gang burnt down the man’s house. At this Gospel Festival we saw God do great miracles and saw many salvations, but we also were attacked by the devil. I am thankful for your prayers during this outreach. We really need people like you praying when we visit the frontline of Gospel evangelism. Thank you! 

Soul Winners Alliance 2016 Promo

What Are You Worried About?

What are you worried about? Do you worry about money? Do you worry about the safety of your children? Do you worry about the economy?

Worry is putting your faith in the wrong thing. - Joel Osteen

Worry is a manifestation of pride...because what you are saying is “If I think about this long enough, I can solve this problem.”  - Joyce Meyer

WORRYING does not take away tomorrow's TROUBLES; it takes away today's PEACE.

Cast all your cares upon the Lord.

- Worry is a conscious decision not to trust God.

- Worry is the opposite of faith.

- Worry is prayer in reverse. 

Jesus said, “Don’t worry about anything.” Jesus said to look at the birds of the air and the flowers in the field. If God cares for the birds and the flowers, how much more will he care for you?

Don’t look at what you have lost, begin to anticipate what you are going to gain.

The thing about pity parties is that no one else wants to come.

If you are going through hell, don’t stop.

Stop looking in the rear view mirror. Don’t look back. Keep your eyes forward.

Work, don’t worry, since worry don’t work.

Worry gives a small thing a big shadow.

When the tide comes against you,

and overturns your boat.

Don’t let it worry you,

Just lay on your back and float.

The Magic is in the Story

Have you ever seen a bad magician? Recently I sat through a magic show that was absolutely horrendous. The magician stumbled from trick to trick, performing over thirty magic tricks in a twenty-five minute show. None of the tricks were bad in and of themselves, but put together in his show, they failed to entertain.

He made a mistake that is common among amateur magicians. Instead of focusing on being an entertainer, he concentrated on the mechanics of the trick.

Many preachers make a similar mistake. They get so caught up in the mechanics of theology that they forget to make the message captivating. They say things like:

- In the original Greek, this word means…

- Let me give you a list of twenty verses that prove this point…

My thesis is that every good message must be centered around a story. The magic is not in the content, the magic is in how you relate the content to real life.

When people discover truth in a story they do not argue with it because it is their discovery. 

Thoughts about Persecution

A missionary once said, “There are no closed doors, as long as you don’t care whether you come back.” A Mexican gang member pointed a gun at me and told me to never come back to his neighborhood. Rocks have been thrown at me while I preached. In Iquitos, Peru riots raged as I preached in the central plaza of the city. In Pakistan, everyone who came to our crusade had to go through a metal detector and the police posted sharp shooters on the rooftops. On the final night of one of our festivals in Pakistan a car full of angry Muslims chased us and fired a gun in our direction. In Goma, Congo the sound truck was shot at and the local military commander sent soldiers with machine guns and surface-to-air missiles to protect us. In Juba, Sudan I was nearly mauled by a crowd as we passed out coupons for free food. My mother and father work in *************  and they lived through a major gun battle between some members of a Terrorist group and local police that took place three houses away from their house. I have not suffered as much persecution as Paul and the early church, but the potential has been there as I have traveled around the world. I don’t want to die for Christ, but I am willing to. If I ever face a situation where my life would be required, I would hope that God would give me strength to endure.

* In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus says that some will fall away after suffering persecution. “When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away” (Matthew 13:22).

* Jesus promises that persecution will come to those who choose to leave family in order to serve him. They “will not fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life” (Mark 10:30).

* In Acts 1:8, Jesus tells the disciples to be witnesses in Jerusalem, Judah, Samaria, and to the uttermost ends of the earth. However, the early Christians stayed in Jerusalem for the first seven chapters of Acts. Not until Acts 8:1, when persecution breaks out, do the Christians start to scatter and preach the good news elsewhere. “On that day a great persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria” (Acts 8:1).

* The result of the scattering of the Christians because of persecution was a spread of God’s word. “Now those who had been scattered by the persecution that broke out when Stephen was killed traveled as far as Phoenicia, Cyprus and Antioch, spreading the word only among Jews” (Acts 11:19).

* Paul says that no form of hardship or persecution can separate the believer from the love of Christ. “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?” (Romans 8:35).

* Paul actually delighted in persecution. “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10).

* Paul was encouraged by the faith of other believers in the midst of his persecutions. “Therefore, brothers and sisters, in all our distress and persecution we were encouraged about you because of your faith” (1 Thess 3:7).

* Paul boasted about the persecutions that believers faced. “Therefore, among God’s churches we boast about your perseverance and faith in all the persecutions and trials you are enduring” (2 Thess. 1:4).

* Those who suffer persecution for God’s sake will receive a crown in heaven. John wrote, “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you life as your victor’s crown” (Rev. 2:10).

Persecution is always a risk for the believer. The god of this world will always hate Christians and stir up those who want to harm them. But, despite this persecution, God will sustain the believer. Ultimately, those who endure persecution and even martyrdom will be rewarded in heaven for their faithfulness.

7 Things a Traveling minister can do to enhance his relationship with a church.

1. Become an expert in some subject. Don’t be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.

2. Be clear about your mission and vision. The clearer you are, the more you offer. You will fit some churches, and not others. Do not try to please everybody. Your uniqueness will open doors and close doors for you.

3. Seek relationships, not just preaching opportunities.

4. Live a life above reproach.

5. Give value and you will receive value.

6. Respect the authority in the house. If you are given 30 minutes, don’t take 45. If you are asked to take up the offering a certain way, obey.

7. Be a sower. Go to a church to give, not to take.