Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Ainda não Estamos em Casa

Steve Hearts
[Not Home Yet]

O Senhor, no Seu grande amor e cuidado por nós, é fiel em fazer as divisas caírem para nós em lugares agradáveis.[1] Esses “lugares agradáveis” podem ser desde a nossa moradia até o nosso local de trabalho, ministério, igreja, seja o que for. Com o passar do tempo, a tendência é nos acomodarmos, nos sentirmos confortáveis e ir deixando as raízes crescerem pouco a pouco. Por isso, quando a voz do Seu Espírito nos pede para “levantar acampamento” e seguir adiante, ficamos um pouco surpresos e até chocados.

Foi assim que eu me senti recentemente quando o Senhor pediu-me para deixar o meu campo de missão e antigo ministério para cuidar de situações de família. Apesar de ter certeza desse movimento do Seu Espírito, o processo de desligamento foi difícil, pois eu acreditava que permaneceria ainda muitos anos naquela situação e campo de missão. Depois que nos mudamos e me acomodei no novo local, muitas vezes eu me via pensando no lugar que deixara.

O outro dia, durante um desses momentos, fui praticamente dominado pela nostalgia. E então lembrei-me de uma das minhas canções favoritas, de Steven Curtis Chapman, “Ainda não Estamos em Casa.” Decidi ouvi-la. Sempre adorei a linda mensagem dessa canção, e o arranjo que eu considero muito original. Mas quando a ouvi uns dias atrás, foquei ainda mais na letra, que parece ter sido escrita justamente para mim neste momento:

Para todos os caminhantes
Peregrinos buscando um lar
De um que ao seu lado está a caminhar
Nesta jornada chamada vida
Deveras longa, sinuosa e garrida

De um que viu o panorama
E sonhou com as montanhas ao alto
De um que chorou como você
Querendo muito cair e morrer

Eu ofereço isto, e devemos nos lembrar
Que ainda não estamos em casa
Ainda não estamos em casa
Continue a olhar em frente
Não deixe seu coração esquecer
Nós ainda não estamos em casa.

Por muito tempo eu pensei que “tinha chegado” ao lugar na terra onde passaria o resto da vida, esquecendo que o crente e seguidor de Jesus está “à espera do ‘lar’ na nossa próxima vida”. Como diz o resto da canção:

Então feche seus olhos comigo
E ouça o Pai, dizendo: bem vindo ao lar
Vamos encontrar forças para continuar
contando com Suas promessas
Ele disse, vou preparar um lugar
... Vamos continuar a jornada.

Vai chegar o momento
Eu sei que haverá um lugar
Onde veremos nosso Salvador
E Seu abraço carinhoso vamos receber.
Então não vamos desfalecer
Que dirá nos acomodar
Porque ainda não estamos em casa
Nós ainda não estamos em casa
Ainda não estamos em casa
Ainda não estamos em casa.

O Senhor usou esta canção para me mostrar claramente que a jornada da minha vida ainda não terminou. Ainda há território a ser conquistado e terras a serem desbravadas para a glória e reino de Deus.

Eu precisava lembrar que o ponto de “chegada” será diante de Jesus, quando O verei face a face, e receberei Suas amorosas boas vindas, como diz a canção. Ainda assim, ao término da jornada desta vida, iniciaremos uma outra, igualmente emocionante — a da eternidade junto a Jesus, onde continuaremos aprendendo, crescendo e progredindo.

Lembrei-me de uma das muitas pérolas de sabedoria oferecidas por Paulo em Hebreus 13: “Pois não temos aqui nenhuma cidade permanente, mas buscamos a que há de vir.”[2]Pedro e Paulo deixam claro que a vida nesta terra é apenas uma peregrinação.[3]

O meu consolo é saber que existe um lar eterno reservado para mim, junto com Jesus, na próxima vida. Eu ainda não estou em casa, mas um dia estarei. Lembrar desta verdade torna mais fácil passar pelos períodos de mudanças e transição.

[1] Veja Salmo 16:6.
[2] Hebreus 13:14 NVI.
[3] Veja 1 Pedro 2:11 e Hebreus 11:13. http://anchor.tfionline.com/pt/post/ainda-nao-estamos-em-casa/

Came to my Rescue (Lyrics)

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Germans Will Be Asked to Stockpile Food and Water ‘in Case of a Catastrophe’

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Amanda Calvo, Time, Aug. 22, 2016

Germany is planning to urge its citizens to stockpile food, water and other supplies in the event of a catastrophe or armed attack.

According to a report by German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW), citing the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung newspaper, the move would be the first of its kind since the end of the Cold War.

The proposal is reportedly contained in a government civil-defense-strategy document, which says that people should stock 10 days worth of food and a sufficient supply of water, energy, money and medicine that would allow them to stay put long enough for the government to respond.

The mood in Germany has been unsettled recently following a number of horrific incidents. In the latest violence, on July 24, a Syrian Islamist suicide bomber injured 15 people at a music festival in the central German town of Ansbach. The same day, a Syrian refugee killed a woman and injured two others with a machete in Reutlingen. That attack was not linked to Islamism, but, just days previous, an ISIS-inspired attacker was shot dead after stabbing several people on a train in the south of the country.

The huge influx of refugees–Germany accepted more than a million last year–has sparked fears among many Germans that terrorists have entered the country under the guise of seeking asylum.

Um Coração Tranquilo

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peace-of-mind.html.

The Sunset of Our Lives

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A compilation
Audio length: 8:28
Download Audio 7.7MB

O the friends that now are waiting,
In the cloudless realms of day,
Who are calling me to follow
Where their steps have led the way;
They have laid aside their armor,
And their earthly course is run;
They have kept the faith with patience
And their crown of life is won.
They are calling, gently calling,
Sweetly calling me to come,
And I’m looking through the shadows
For the blessed lights of home.
—Fanny Crosby

*

I think maybe the Lord wants us to spend more time alone preparing to leave this earth and go to heaven. More time in communion with Him, thinking about our lives and taking account of what we’ve accomplished, thinking and praying a good deal about if we are doing our best for the Lord, and praying about what more we could do.

We watch the sunset and we think of the sunset of our life, and we watch the dawn and we think of the sunrise of tomorrow. Sometimes we wonder which will be our last one. Sometimes we wonder if this is the last one and wonder if we have done all we can do, and if He’ll say, “Well done, dear son!”

When you see the sunset, you wonder if you’ve done what you could today. And as you see the sun rise, you wonder if you’re going to do all you can tomorrow.

Sunrise tomorrow, sunrise tomorrow,
Sunrise in glory is waiting for me;
Sunrise tomorrow, sunrise tomorrow,
Sunrise with Jesus for eternity.
—Slim Whitman

There will be no more sorrow then, thank You, Lord! No more sickness or sorrow, pain or death! No more sunsets, only sunrise for us in heaven.

It really helps you to get your priorities straight and realize what’s important and what isn’t. I think it’s partly the Lord preparing us to die, because that’s something that everybody has to face, in a sense, alone with the Lord or one of His emissaries. Thank the Lord we don’t really face death alone. They used to sing an old song:

I won’t have to cross Jordan alone.
Jesus died for my sins to atone.
When the darkness I see,
He’ll be waiting for me.
I won’t have to cross Jordan alone.
—Thomas Ramsey

It’s good if the sunset of a life can be as beautiful as the sunsets of God’s creation. It would be wonderful if we could die as beautifully as the day. As beautifully and as gracefully and peacefully, with a few fond farewells, a few final words.—D. Brandt Berg

Gen. William Nelson, a Union general in the Civil War, was consumed with the battles in Kentucky when a brawl ended up with his being shot, mortally, in the chest. He had faced many battles, but the fatal blow came while he was relaxing with his men. As such, he was caught fully unprepared.

As men ran up the stairs to help him, the general had just one phrase, “Send for a clergyman; I wish to be baptized.” He never had time as an adolescent or young man. He never had time as a private or after he became a general. And his wound did not stop or slow down the war. Everything around him was left virtually unchanged except for the general’s priorities. With only minutes left before he entered eternity, the one thing he cared about was preparing for eternity. He wanted to be baptized. Thirty minutes later he was dead.1

When Corrie ten Boom of The Hiding Place fame was a little girl in Holland, her first realization of death came after a visit to the home of a neighbor who had died. It impressed her that someday her parents would also die. Corrie’s father comforted her with words of wisdom. “Corrie, when you and I go to Amsterdam, when do I give you your ticket?”

“Why, just before we get on the train,” she replied.

“Exactly,” her father said, “and our wise Father in heaven knows when we’re going to need things too. Don’t run ahead of Him, Corrie. When the time comes that some of us will have to die, you will look into your heart and find the strength you need, just in time.”2

A friend of mine visited Portugal some years ago on an evangelistic tour. He was delighted to find many believers who were “spiritual giants,” among them a missionary from Great Britain named Eric Barker. He had spent over 50 years in Portugal preaching the gospel, often under adverse conditions.

During World War II, the situation became so critical that Barker was advised to send his wife and eight children to England for safety. His sister and her three children were also evacuated on the same ship. Although his beloved relatives were forced to leave, he remained behind to carry on the work. On the Lord’s Day following their departure he stood before his congregation and said, “I’ve just received word that all my family have arrived safely home!” He then proceeded with the service as usual.

Later, the full meaning of his words became known to his people. Just before the meeting, he learned that a submarine had torpedoed the ship, and everyone on board had drowned. He knew that because all were believers they had reached a more “desired haven.”3 Although overwhelmed with grief, he was able to rise above the circumstances by the grace of God and keep on working for the Lord. The knowledge that his family was enjoying the bliss of heaven comforted his heart.—Henry G. Bosch

“Someday,” D. L. Moody used to say, “you will read in the papers that D. L. Moody of East Northfield is dead. Don’t believe a word of it! At that moment I shall be more alive than I am now!”4

Published on Anchor August 2016. Read by Gabriel Garcia Valdivieso.
Music by John Listen.

http://anchor.tfionline.com/post/sunset-our-lives/

1 Christianity Today, 1994.
2 Today in the Word.
3 Psalm 107:30.
4 The Wycliffe Handbook of Preaching and Preachers.

Jesus, Friend of Sinners

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Russia Asserts Its Military Might in Syria

Middle East Crisis, Putin, Russia, WW31 comment

By Andrew E. Kramer and Anne Barnard, NY Times, Aug. 19, 2016

MOSCOW–Russia flexed its muscles again over Syria on Friday, for the first time launching cruise missiles at targets from warships in the Mediterranean Sea days after beginning bombing runs from a base in Iran.

Taken together, the new military moves appeared to be a demonstration that Russia has the ability to strike from virtually all directions in a region where it has been reasserting its power–from Iran, from warships in the Caspian Sea, from its base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia and now from the Mediterranean.

The United States also asserted its military might in a new way, scrambling its aircraft to protect its forces, and those it is supporting, from Syrian government airstrikes. The Pentagon issued a blunt warning to the Syrian government after its warplanes struck a Kurdish-controlled region where American military personnel were on the ground.

“The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners,” said Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman.

Talks appear to have stalled between Russia and the United States on a proposal to carry out joint operations in Syria against militant groups both countries consider terrorist. Russian and Syrian government airstrikes have intensified lately, with no progress on the horizon for a political solution to end the war.

While both Russia and the United States say they share the goal of defeating the Islamic State group in Syria, they are waging parallel but separate wars against the militant group while simultaneously backing opposite sides in the conflict between Russia’s ally, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, and his other opponents, including rebels backed by the United States.

Russian air power, which entered the war last fall, has helped Mr. Assad hold on to power and make advances against rebels.

The war is also providing President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia a public proving ground–and a showcase to his adversaries–for new, sophisticated weaponry.

The Russian cruise missiles are not a game-changer in the war. But the long-range bombers flying from Iran, and the heavier payloads they can carry, pose a new threat to insurgents and civilians.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said Friday that two ships from the country’s Black Sea Fleet, the Zelyony Dol and the Serpukhov, fired three missiles from positions off the coast of Syria in the eastern Mediterranean.

The Kalibr missiles are a new addition to Russia’s arsenal, similar to American Tomahawk cruise missiles. And like Tomahawks, they are capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

But taken in the context of the dozens of strikes that Russia carries out daily, the three missile attacks were hardly significant. The ministry said the missiles hit a garrison, a command center and a weapons depot belonging to the Levant Conquest Front, until recently called the Nusra Front and officially affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Far more important militarily is the decision to fly the long-range bombers from Iran rather than from Moscow as it had before; if it continues, this could result in a more devastating air war over a long period of time.

The United States, too, engaged in saber-rattling on Friday.

The Pentagon said it had scrambled aircraft over northeastern Syria in a warning to the government after Syrian warplanes hit areas controlled by Kurdish fighters that are working with the American military to fight the Islamic State. The government and the Kurdish-led forces have had only occasional skirmishes, maintaining a kind of de facto truce, and the government airstrikes came amid their most serious clashes yet.

Scrambling the jets was the most robust American response yet to Syrian government airstrikes, although Syrian and Russian attacks have repeatedly hit predominantly Arab rebel groups backed by the United States, as well as hospitals, schools and civilian areas. The American move prompted grumbling from opponents of Mr. Assad, who said that the United States appeared ready to offer stronger protection to its Kurdish-led allies than to other rebel groups or civilians.

Two SU-24 bombers struck Thursday near the city of Hasakah in north-central Syria, said Captain Davis, the Pentagon spokesman. No members of the American military were harmed in the strikes, he said.

The episode prompted the United States to contact the Russian military, which indicated that its planes had not participated in the strikes, Captain Davis said. American officials urged the Russians to contact the Syrian government with a blunt message: “United States aircraft would defend troops on the ground if threatened,” Captain Davis said.

He said American forces on the ground in Syria also tried to contact the Syrian pilots directly using a standard ground-to-air frequency. “They did not answer,” he said.

Captain Davis declined to specify how many Americans were on the ground near where the Syrian strikes occurred, saying only that it was “a small number.” Over all, the United States has said there are about 300 members of the Special Forces operating in Syria to train, advise and assist their partners fighting on the ground.

Ben-Hur: The Story Behind the Movie

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By Jerry Newcombe, Christian Post, August 19, 2016

A remake of Ben-Hur movie is about to hit the movie screens. What’s fascinating to me is the story behind the book, which has also inspired two previous movies–the 1925 silent version and the 1959 movie-of-the-year, starring Charlton Heston. That version won 11 Oscars, more than any other movie before it and has only since been tied by Titanic (1997).

I have not yet seen the new Ben-Hur, but I look forward to it and am glad that it comes highly recommended by some Christian leaders.

Did you know that the subtitle of the best-selling 1880 book by Lew Wallace is: “A Tale of the Christ”? I own a copy, which was re-released in 1959 to coincide with the Charlton Heston movie. The book’s back cover reads: “Ben-Hur: nobleman, galley slave, chariot racer, follower of Christ.”

After the title page of the book and before the content begins is this quote from John Milton’s Christ’s Nativity: The Hymn:

But peaceful was the night
Wherein the Prince of Light
His reign of peace upon the earth began;
The winds with wonder whist
Smoothly the waters kiss,
Whispering new joys to the mild ocean –
Who now hath quite forgot to rave,
While birds of calm sit brooding on the charmed wave.

But what’s the story behind the book? According to writer E. A. Rowell, Ben-Hur was initiated as an attempt to demote Christianity.

In the latter half of the 19th century, one of America’s best known unbelievers, Robert Ingersoll, was talking with a friend, General Lew Wallace, about theology. They both agreed Christianity was nonsense.

Ingersoll encouraged Wallace, since he was a writer, to take up the pen and debunk Christianity once and for all by showing it rested on a weak foundation and by showing the fallibility of Jesus Himself. Wallace agreed to take up the challenge.

But his research into the historicity of Christianity led him to come to see that he and Ingersoll had been wrong and that indeed the Christian faith was based on solid historical fact. He wrote a book all right, but it wasn’t the kind he initially set out to write.

Dr. D. James Kennedy said of Wallace’s novel: “He wrote the book. It became a gigantic success … Ben Hur. It didn’t present Jesus as a mere man, but as the divine Son of God come from heaven to redeem mankind, including the general, General Lew Wallace, the skeptic turned believer.”

Understandably, the films play up the fast-paced, exciting chariot race scene. But there’s much more in the original book about Jesus.

Even in the 1959 movie, the death of Christ is the key to the resolution to one of the main conflicts in the story–how title character Judah Ben-Hur’s sister and mother are healed of leprosy because of the crucifixion. They had contacted leprosy while wasting away unjustly in a Roman prison.

In the novel, Wallace says this about the dread disease: “To be a leper was to be treated as dead–to be excluded from the city as a corpse … afraid to die, yet without hope except in death ….”

In the book, he places their healing on the original Palm Sunday, when Christ makes His triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The two leprous women see His public appearance as their only chance to reach Him for healing.

As Jesus is passing by, they cry out for His help. When the crowd sees these lepers, they in turn cry out, “Stone them! The accursed of God! Kill them!”

But Jesus stops to face the women, who say, “O Master, Master! Thou seest our need; thou canst make us clean. Have mercy upon us–mercy!”

They also say to Him, “Thou art he of whom the prophets spake–thou art the Messiah!”

And Jesus heals them.

Also in the book, one character says of Christ’s reign: “There is a kingdom on the earth, though it is not of it–a kingdom of wider bounds than the earth–wider than the sea and the earth, though they were rolled together as finest gold and spread by the beating of hammers. Its existence is a fact as our hearts are facts, and we journey through it from birth to death without seeing it; nor shall any man see it until he hath first known his own soul; for the kingdom is not for him, but for his soul. And in its dominion there is glory such as hath not entered imagination …”

Thus, Lew Wallace’s novel, Ben-Hur, glorifies Jesus Christ and is a far cry from Ingersoll’s original vision. As the book of Proverbs notes, “There is no wisdom, no insight, no plan that can succeed against the Lord.”

Fight for Your Faith

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Ainda não Estamos em Casa

Came to my Rescue (Lyrics)

Germans Will Be Asked to Stockpile Food and Water ‘in Case of a Catastrophe’

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Um Coração Tranquilo

The Sunset of Our Lives

Jesus, Friend of Sinners

The Brotherhood of the Bell - Glenn Ford

Monday, August 22, 2016

Friend of God

Russia Asserts Its Military Might in Syria

Ben-Hur: The Story Behind the Movie

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