Shot by Catherine Lainé of AIDG (flickr)

If you haven’t been in a cave, then you know of the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti six days ago, and the ensuing humanitarian crisis that’s developing now.  Over 200,000 are now estimated dead with many of the living in desperate need of food, water and medical care.  Christian and non-Christian alike are working hard to help mitigate and relieve some of the incredible suffering that’s now taking place.

For believers, we are called to be faithful stewards of God’s resources.  That means that we should be saving up funds to spend on others, and not just ourselves.  Jesus tells the story in Luke 16 of an unrighteous, worldly steward who knew enough to spend his master’s money in a way that would benefit his future.  And Jesus argues that if an unbeliever knows enough to do this, how much more should Christians be investing God’s money into things of eternal consequence!

With that in mind, I wanted to make you aware of a variety of solid, trustworthy and less-heard-of relief organizations that are now hard at work in Haiti:

• Churches Helping Churches – an effort launched by James MacDonald and Mark Driscoll to specifically help solid Haitian churches that have been flattened or otherwise destroyed by the earthquake.  Hospitals, schools and other major buildings get all the attention, but biblically solid churches need to exist in Haiti for them to truly thrive.
• Childrens’ Hunger Fund – this organization is primarily focused on bringing food and the hope of the gospel to kids.  Francis Chan (pastor of Cornerstone Church in Simi Valley) sits on the board and they have been operating in Haiti since before the earthquake.
• Missionary Flights International – they provide air support to missionaries working in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.  Since the earthquake, they have been shutting supplies there as often as the airport will let them land.  Here’s a report on MFI from our own Eric Verkouteren…

As the Lord would providentially have it, I’m sitting in the parking lot of Missionary Flights International in Fort Pierce Florida, awe struck of the mercy god supplies. As an established organization, MFI organizes and partnerships with missionaries in Haiti to be a support chain in the supply of personel and goods. In response to the recent earthquake, this operation has expanded it’s daily flights and services beyond what it can withhold. As I walk around the hanger I see over 200 volunteers packing and sorting supplies. In talking with the Vice President Larry Cambell, he acknowledges the donations of some 100,000 lbs of supplies just today! MFI normally operates three restored DC-3 aircraft, but the demand has quickly exceeded the capacity of the organization.

Supplies being loaded at MFI (by Eric V)

In talking with Mr. Campbell he explained, ” The need is beyond our limit. With the generous support of Hendrix Motorsports we have two corporate jets shuttling workers and personnel. But we are still overwhelmed. We have 100,000 lbs of supplies sitting on the hanger floor with no way to get it down to Haiti. We need a C-130 or other aircraft to acomplish the task.”
Surely the need will continue for the next few months. Acording to Mr. Campbell, the US military has taken over the airport in Haiti, the flights are leaving several times a day. As I write I’m watching the supplies be loaded, personnel making their last phone calls, and more supplies arriving by the pallet. I’m stirred and I hope you are too to seek the lords hand, and to reach out how He may lead. More than just a temperal need, there is a spiritual need beyond what we can imagine.
Let’s rally in Christ…
In Him,
Eric

I became convinced that I needed some sort of lists if I was really going to persevere in bringing the same requests before God long term.  A small stack of 3×5 cards has many advantages over a big sheet of requests.  I find it less overwhelming to look at just one category at a time.  A stack of 3×5 cards with a clip also travels well in a pocket.

Some people asked on Sunday night for some sample categories.  Mine are:

• Spiritual Formation – These are areas in my own life where I want God to change my heart.  I pray over specific verses that describe what I’m after
• Areas of Surrender -On this card I put all the areas of my life that tend to cause me anxiety.  When I pray over this card I am surrendering these areas over to God’s care.  I will sometimes do this flat on my back, arms stretched out with palms up as a physical display of my surrender.  TMI? 
• Weekly Goals – These are specific things I want the Spirit-empowered discipline to accomplish every week, including: reading, praying through the cards, time with each kid, exercise, etc.
• My Wife and Kids – each has a separate card with specific requests for each
• My Parents, Brothers, In-Laws, Nieces and Nephews – listed with specific requests
• Extended Family – listed with specific request
• A Few Close Friends – each have their own card
• Kaleo People - if you ask me to pray for you, you’re on it
• People I’m Currently Discipling/Counseling – each has their own card
• Our Church Elders/Pastors – listed with specific needs next to their names
• Pastors/Writers – listed on one card – some I know personally, others are big names I don’t know personally – if they have had an impact on me they are on here
• Kaleo Leadership - listed on one card with specific needs next to their names
• Kaleo – specific things we would like to see God do  with us
• Work – for patients, clients, office staff and colleagues
• Kingdom – persecuted church, revival, the poor, human trafficking, church planting, stewardship of the environment, unreached peoples, end to abortion
• President Obama - for him personally, his family, for wisdom and protection
• Salvation – a list of people that don’t know Jesus but I’m praying God will save
• Missions – a list of specific missionaries and missions agencies that God has put on my heart
• Our Neighbors – listed on one card with specific needs next to their names

Here are Paul Miller’s general guidelines for using his prayer cards (pp. 225-226, A Praying Life):

1. The card functions as a snapshot of the person’s life, so use short phrases to describe what you want.
2. When praying, I usually don’t linger over a card for more than a few seconds.  I just pick one or two key areas and pray for them.
3. I put the Word to work by writing a Scripture verse on the card that expresses my desire for that particular person or situation.
4. The card doesn’t change much.  Maybe once a year I will add another line.  These are just the ongoing areas of a person’s life that I am praying for.
5. I usually don’t write down answers.   They are obvious to me since I see the card almost every  day.
6. I will sometimes date a prayer request with the month and year.

Erick

Using cards has really helped me a lot.  The goal is to become the kind of people that keep bringing the same requests before God like Jesus taught us to.   And I majorly stink at this naturally.

It has also been awesome to see how many things God has already done in response to prayer – something I would not have noticed without these cards.

Hope this helps you to pray more each day

Filmed at the Worship God ‘09 Conference.

Erick

If you’d like to personally support what the Hurleys are doing in Uganda, visit SOS Ministries and make a donation.

Answer:

Peter

Biblical theologians have grappled with this  interesting question over the centuries.  But all are left with the same dilemma… Scripture seems to indicate that, in fact, there will be a renewed physical temple and a system for worship practiced in the millennial kingdom!

Scripture indicates that the millennium will be a time of special ministry by the Holy Spirit (Isaiah 32:15)  to not only the  church-age saints, but also Israel.  In fact, Scripture indicates worship will be at the center of millennial life! (Joel 2)  A large portion of the activities during the millennium are direct fulfillments of God’s promises to Israel, and those promises often center upon the complete and unfettered worship of  the  God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob!

So it stands to reason that God’s covenant relationship with Israel would include specific promises being fulfilled during this time. For example, Ezekiel 40-48  declares that a magnificent temple will be constructed and a system of  priestly and memorial sacrifices will be set up during this time.   It seems clear that the sacrifices are not for the removal of sin, as they were in the OT system, but rather now serve as a unique means of  memorial worship to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords for His “once for all” atoning sacrifice for His people!

While a complete answer to the question of the temple and sacrificial system remains somewhat confusing, the main point is clear:

In keeping with God’s promises to Israel, there will be an ordered system of worship once again in a renewed temple in Jerusalem.

In the  final verse of the 48th chapter of Ezekiel, a glorious purpose for the  renewing of Jerusalem and  construction of the magnificent millennial temple is given;

‘The city shall be 18,000 cubits round about; and the name of the city form that day shall be,  ’The Lord is there’ “(Ezek 48:35)

For a fuller discussion on this and other related topics regarding the millennium, I recommend the following article:

‘The Glorious Restoration of Israel in the Millennium”  by Dr.John Walvoord
this article can be accessed at bible.org

Answer:

Peter

Why? First off, because that was the singular view taught by the apostles.  :-)  Secondly, these early church fathers were faithful to pass on the teaching of the apostles. They fought hard to “defend the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

Many of them died as a result of the apostolic faith they proclaimed!  Church historians have  established that Polycarp was personally discipled by the apostle John – the Spirit-led, human writer of the book of the Revelation (who, we can rest assured, knew a few things about the end of the age and God’s plan for the future!).  Polycarp was later marytred for his faith.

So, that begs the question… When did premillenialism start? When and why did the church  develop differing views regarding end-times?  Let’s look at it…

When did premillennialism start? Way back in the OT!  God’s promises to Israel  regarding a future messiah-king  who would rule and reign forever are recorded throughout the OT canon (Isa 65:17-25; Ezk 37:21-28, Zec 8:1-7; Isa 11, 65:17-25; Ezk 38:33-38).  The NT  affirms and sheds further light on certain aspects of God’s plan for Israel, the church and the “end times” (Rom 11:1-33; Eph 2:11-3:21; 1 Thess 4:13-5:11).  An unbiased,  straight-forward grammatico-literal reading of the pertinent prophetic passages of the NT  naturally reveals the apostles taught premillennialism.

Church historians tell us that for the first 300-400 years of church history the predominate “end times” position was premillennial.  Why did this change? The primary cause was a increasing  lack of adherence to a literal interpretation of Scripture.  This was somewhat fueled by the advancing growth of the papacy.  The church hierarchy began using a form of interpretation known as allegory.  The allegorizing of the Bible (making it’s meaning symbolic rather than a straightforward, literal unfolding of  the author’s intent) began to introduce all kinds of mischief into Bible interpretation.  Sadly, one of the major proponents of this approach was the great theologian Augustine.  By the time of the Reformation (1520+ AD), premillennial teaching was nearly extinct.

The reformers were primarily “amillennial” due mainly to the developing theological system known as “covenant theology.”  A  main tenet of this system is applying the future promises that God made to Israel to the church, in light of Israel’s past rejection of the Messiah.  In this system, the church replaces Israel obviating the need for the millennial reign of Christ upon the Davidic throne!  (contra Rev 3:7, 5:5, 22:16).

The key to truly understanding the nature and timing of God’s final purpose for history is contained in openly and diligently seeking God’s intent within His Word.  That means not following a eschatological/theological system that requires conforming Scripture to that system.  Just take Scripture in its plain, literal sense and see what it teaches!

The reason there are many different positions is NOT because the Bible is confused or unclear.  It is because people are subject to error, and over the history of the church, the many approaches to understanding these things have become firmly entrenched.  We hold to a simple interpretive principle — use the plain principles of grammar and language to ascertain the plain, literal meaning of the text — assume that God chose to communicate clearly & plainly with us about these things, rather than shading meanings and leaving great mystery that requires the interpreter to come up with the meaning.  We  believe you can arrive at God’s intended meaning in Scripture if you just take it as it stands.   Now the dangerous part… are you willing to believe, trust and obey what God has said, no matter where His truth leads you?

We are all finite, fallen and in need of God’s grace every day! We just want to let the plain, literal sense of the bible speak for itself  …and when you do, you will naturally arrive at a pre-millennial view.   But listen… eschatology is not a cause for division or relational conflict, we love all those who are true followers of Christ, even though we may hold differing views on God’s plan for the future!

Answer:

Peter

Therefore, it is important to appreciate this principle for a couple of reasons.  Namely, to provide context and clarity because  1) a portion of the predictions are yet future (Dan 7:1-8 and Dan 11:36-45) .  And 2) to accurately understand “when” and “how” these events happened vs. those yet future we must use other validation methods like archaeology and recorded human history as well as the Bible.  This is where most of the confusion lies for believers (e.g., Dan 11:36-12:13).

To use Daniel as a means to demonstrate the supernatural  nature of the Bible to unbelievers can be a good tool.  It can be a useful means or segue to sharing the gospel because many today are troubled by the state of the world and mankind’s future on earth.  So… Getting to the gospel is the key!

Since the events described in Daniel  11 are verifiable in history, it does provide one support for the truthfulness of Scripture and the sovereignty of  it’s Author!  The majority of reputable textual scholars affirm that Daniel was written ca. 536-530BC.   The events predicted in Daniel 11 are cataloged in numerous history books by non-biblical historians (recently National Geographic Channel did a  historical retrospective on the  “History of  Babylon” which affirmed the four kingdoms predicted in Daniel 11).

The book of Daniel unfolds much of middle eastern history from 605 BC to 165 BC.  So precise are the 100 predictions found in Daniel that many skeptics have rejected them and claim that Daniel was written after the rise and fall of the kings and kingdoms predicted in chapter 11. However, that is not the testimony of archaeology and history.

Here are some key points to consider:

1. Secular historians don’t dispute the four kingdoms predicted in Daniel 11 came to pass because archaeology and ancient recorded history and historians confirm their existence, exactly as predicted by Daniel (ie, Herodotus ca 200 BC).
2. Those who claim Daniel was written retrospectively (ie, after the events predicted in Daniel) claim that Daniel was written ca. 165 BC.  This assertion was proven incorrect in light of the manuscript evidence found when the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1947-56.  These  ancient documents provide copy fragments of  the book of Daniel  dated over two hundred years before the supposed date given by the skeptics.  They show the predictions recorded in Daniel 11 already existed before 165BC!