“Pray for revival in Europe- where faith has faded away and post-modernism has taken hold. Ask God in His Sovereignty to facilitate connections and bless relationships that lead to open doors and gospel conversations.”
This caption caught my eye as I flipped the calendar page to the month of November. I am praying through the International Mission Board’s IMPACTING LOSTNESS THROUGH PRAYER, an 18-Month Prayer Calendar to pray for the least reached. “Of the 800 million people living in Europe, only about one percent are evangelical Christians. With more than 4 million Ukrainian refugees seeking asylum, 90% women and children, the need is great.”
How do you pray for people you’ve never met with needs you can’t possibly imagine? What exactly is postmodernism anyway? Everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve talked to agrees that it’s notoriously difficult to define. So how am I supposed pray? Where do I even start? I start with Sovereign God.
““He is the God who made the world and everything in it.
Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs—for he has no needs.
He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need.
From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth.
He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries.
His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him—though he is not far from any one of us.
For in him we live and move and exist. As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’”
Acts of the Apostles 17:24-28 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.17.24-28.NLT
You believe the Bible is true because the Bible says it’s true.
You believe Jesus is the One Way, the One Truth, and the Only way to abundant and eternal Life with God in heaven.
You believe in the substitutionary death of Jesus on the cross and His resurrection on the third day.
You believe the virgin birth was literal.
You believe Jesus really walked on water.
You believe the Garden of Eden was a real place and the Ark of the Covenant was a real thing even though it’s never been found.
You believe Jonah lived in the belly of a big fish for three days and Daniel survived the Lion’s Den, that Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego lived through the fiery furnace, and that Noah survived a worldwide flood in an ark.
Really?
Why?
Post-modernism says:
•Question everything.
•Reality is fluid/flexible.
•Universal Truth does not exist.
•Constructs equal oppression. (Society, culture, language, gender… don’t label me)
•Arguments must be right because they sound complex.
•Inclusion means anyone and anything, except absolutes and anyone who believes in them.
•Emotions are the only real truth.
•Life has no purpose/meaning except what I choose.
So how do you argue with that?
You don’t.
You start at the beginning.
“So God created human beings in his own image.
In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 1:27 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/gen.1.27.NLT
You probably won’t convince anyone but we can at least agree that life has inherent value and treat others accordingly.
Keep it simple.
I’m not perfect. You’re not perfect. We’re the same.
We’re all in this together.
“As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous— not even one.”
Romans 3:10 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.3.10.NLT
“For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.”
Romans 3:23 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/rom.3.23.NLT
Jesus, who said “I am the gate for the sheep,” also said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 NLT)
https://bible.com/bible/116/jhn.14.6.NLT
Since we are all created in God’s image and we all fall short of God’s standard of perfection, we have no room for boasting. We can be kind to one another even when we disagree. My job and your job is to be a light in the darkness. I don’t need agreement, acceptance, acknowledgment, or acquiescence.
““You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy.
But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!
In that way, you will be acting as true children of your Father in heaven. For he gives his sunlight to both the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust alike.
If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that?
Even corrupt tax collectors do that much.
If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?
Even pagans do that.
But you are to be perfect, even as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
Matthew 5:43-48 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/mat.5.43-48.NLT
People have always been divided in their opinions about Jesus.
Don’t fear rejection.
Samuel knew it was a bad idea when Israel asked God for a king so they could be like all the nations around them, but God allowed it.
““Do everything they say to you,” the Lord replied, “for they are rejecting me, not you.
They don’t want me to be their king any longer.”
1 Samuel 8:7 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1sa.8.7.NLT
“So we can say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear.
What can mere people do to me?””
Hebrews 13:6 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/heb.13.6.NLT
After His resurrection and ascension, the apostles were performing miracles in Jesus’s name and many believed , but not even this convinced everyone.
“The apostles were performing many miraculous signs and wonders among the people. And all the believers were meeting regularly at the Temple in the area known as Solomon’s Colonnade.
But no one else dared to join them, even though all the people had high regard for them.
Yet more and more people believed and were brought to the Lord—crowds of both men and women.
As a result of the apostles’ work, sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that Peter’s shadow might fall across some of them as he went by.
Crowds came from the villages around Jerusalem, bringing their sick and those possessed by evil spirits, and they were all healed.
The high priest and his officials, who were Sadducees, were filled with jealousy.
They arrested the apostles and put them in the public jail. But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail, and brought them out. Then he told them, “Go to the Temple and give the people this message of life!”
So at daybreak the apostles entered the Temple, as they were told, and immediately began teaching.
When the high priest and his officials arrived, they convened the high council—the full assembly of the elders of Israel. Then they sent for the apostles to be brought from the jail for trial.
But when the Temple guards went to the jail, the men were gone. So they returned to the council and reported, “The jail was securely locked, with the guards standing outside, but when we opened the gates, no one was there!”
When the captain of the Temple guard and the leading priests heard this, they were perplexed, wondering where it would all end.
Then someone arrived with startling news: “The men you put in jail are standing in the Temple, teaching the people!” The captain went with his Temple guards and arrested the apostles, but without violence, for they were afraid the people would stone them.
Then they brought the apostles before the high council, where the high priest confronted them.
“We gave you strict orders never again to teach in this man’s name!” he said. “Instead, you have filled all Jerusalem with your teaching about him, and you want to make us responsible for his death!”
But Peter and the apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.
The God of our ancestors raised Jesus from the dead after you killed him by hanging him on a cross. Then God put him in the place of honor at his right hand as Prince and Savior.
He did this so the people of Israel would repent of their sins and be forgiven.
We are witnesses of these things and so is the Holy Spirit, who is given by God to those who obey him.”
When they heard this, the high council was furious and decided to kill them. But one member, a Pharisee named Gamaliel, who was an expert in religious law and respected by all the people, stood up and ordered that the men be sent outside the council chamber for a while.
Then he said to his colleagues, “Men of Israel, take care what you are planning to do to these men! Some time ago there was that fellow Theudas, who pretended to be someone great. About 400 others joined him, but he was killed, and all his followers went their various ways. The whole movement came to nothing.
After him, at the time of the census, there was Judas of Galilee. He got people to follow him, but he was killed, too, and all his followers were scattered.
“So my advice is, leave these men alone. Let them go.
If they are planning and doing these things merely on their own, it will soon be overthrown.
But if it is from God, you will not be able to overthrow them. You may even find yourselves fighting against God!”
The others accepted his advice.
They called in the apostles and had them flogged.
Then they ordered them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and they let them go.
The apostles left the high council rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer disgrace for the name of Jesus.
And every day, in the Temple and from house to house, they continued to teach and preach this message: “Jesus is the Messiah.””
Acts of the Apostles 5:12-42 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/act.5.12-42.NLT
Never quit! No matter what!
“Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires.
They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water.
Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.
And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire.
They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
But you must not forget this one thing, dear friends: A day is like a thousand years to the Lord, and a thousand years is like a day.
The Lord isn’t really being slow about his promise, as some people think.
No, he is being patient for your sake.
He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.
But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief.
Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will disappear in fire, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.
Since everything around us is going to be destroyed like this, what holy and godly lives you should live, looking forward to the day of God and hurrying it along.
On that day, he will set the heavens on fire, and the elements will melt away in the flames.
But we are looking forward to the new heavens and new earth he has promised, a world filled with God’s righteousness.
And so, dear friends, while you are waiting for these things to happen, make every effort to be found living peaceful lives that are pure and blameless in his sight.
And remember, our Lord’s patience gives people time to be saved.”
2 Peter 3:3-15 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/2pe.3.3-15.NLT
“Never stop praying.”
1 Thessalonians 5:17 NLT
https://bible.com/bible/116/1th.5.17.NLT
*Pictured Quotes from the following article:
A Fitting Reply 