Farshid

My friend Farshid is currently in prison in Iran because of his faith in Jesus.  I was touched by a letter he sent a few days ago…

To the fathers and mothers who lost their precious children in the Connecticut tragedy,

I really don’t know what word in the world could comfort you, what relief could be helpful for your broken heart, and which hand could clean the tears which fall from your cheeks. I just want to say: I am so sorry and you are in my prayers.

I am sure these high walls cannot stop my prayers for you. Before this tragedy happened, I was thinking about my suffering that I’m going through because of my Lord Jesus Christ, especially being far from my lovely kids. But when I imagine how hard your pain is I forget my sufferings. Because I know by God’s grace I will see my kids at the latest in 2017 when I come out from prison. But unfortunately you have to wait a bit longer. So I would like to express my deepest sorrow for your loss.

I believe we will have enough time in heaven with our lovely children forever. There is no gun there, there is no prison, and there is no pain.

In the hope of that glorious day.

Your Brother in Christ from prison in Iran,

Farshid Fathi

17 December 2012

CHRISTMAS

Josh is a 20 year old guy that I serve with on Sunday afternoons. This past Sunday, he asked me to pray for an elderly, homeless woman he had befriended. She was attacked and beat up badly the night before. I saw a picture and couldn’t believe anyone would do that to a defenseless old lady! It’s disgusting! It is hard not to get angry when you see this kind of wickedness.

Josh went back to her that night to see if she would be willing to stay at his friend’s house. She didn’t feel comfortable going anywhere. So Josh decided to sleep on the sidewalk near her, to protect her. He has spent the past three nights sleeping on the streets to make sure nothing happens to her.

I get emotional when I imagine this scene. I am honored to serve alongside guys like him, whose lives paint a beautiful picture of Christianity, and Christmas.

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.” Philippians 2:5-7

Please Pray!

I’m so excited about this weekend.  At this point, we have about 100,000 people from 99 different countries who will be joining the live Multiply simulcast! We sensed that The Lord was stirring people towards actual disciple-making. This confirmed it. I’m looking forward to being encouraged by other believers who are trying to overcome their fears and tell the world of the greatest news on earth.

Pray that this time would be real and not contrived, Spirit-led and not based on human wisdom.  

MULTIPLY

Almost two years ago, my family and I were in Asia trying to figure out where the Lord wanted us to live and minister. While apartment hunting in Hong Kong, I had a strong sense that God wanted me to return to the US. There was more I was supposed to do in convincing Christians to make disciples.

It was all a bit overwhelming as I couldn’t fathom how I could change the mindset of the millions who believe that being “fishers of men” and making “disciples” is the pastor’s job. At the same time, I was excited about pursuing a vision that was too difficult for me. I told the Lord that I could not do this on my own, but also that I would not “recruit” anyone. I trusted that if He wanted me to do this, then He would bring people my way.

Right after I returned to the States, I spoke at the Passion conference. It was there that I met David Platt for the first time. We immediately hit it off, and when I asked him what he felt the Lord was leading him to do, I was shocked by his answer.

He spoke about how he believed that every believer needed to be a disciple maker. He shared about his desire to create material to train believers to disciple others. He wondered about ways to spread this message through books, videos, gatherings, etc. He considered new expressions of church where disciple making was central and every member understood their responsibility. In short, he expressed everything the Lord had been laying on my heart.

After several conversations and prayer, we decided there was no reason for us to do this separately. It made more sense to pursue this as a team. So after a year and a half of prayer, planning, and work, we are ready to launch “Multiply”.

You can learn more at our temporary website:

www.multiplymovement.com

Consider joining us at one of our free gatherings on Nov 9 or 10!

NO WAY!!!!!!!

Many of you have heard the story of what happened a year ago when we decided to do a conference here in San Francisco…  In short, we were going to have hundreds of people show up in the inner city to pass out thousands of meals to the poor and homeless.  A few days before the conference, the rescue mission staff had a meeting where the leader expressed concern because they had no meat and no money.  Two hours after the meeting, Trader Joe’s (the local market) called to tell us that their refrigerators had just shut down and they needed to give us all of their meat!  Shortly after, truckloads of meat came to our front door!

Well…  We are having our conference again this Friday.  We just had a staff meeting this morning and our kitchen manager expressed concern that we might not have enough food because of the amount of people coming this year.  Guess who called half an hour after our meeting.  Yes, you guessed it!  Trader Joe’s just had a power outage!!!  Are you kidding me???!!!

We are all here shaking our heads in disbelief, celebrating, and laughing!  So I just wanted to share it with the world…

 

Good News!

Shortly after writing my previous blog post, the Lord blessed me with a great opportunity to share with someone who actually loved hearing about Jesus.  15 minutes into the conversation, my friend Christian was so intrigued by it all that he began filming us. 

There are so many people like my friend Ricky who have heard the name “Jesus” but have no idea who He is.  This video is for those of you who don’t talk about Jesus because you feel like you don’t know enough about the Bible.  There are so many who just need someone to tell them the basics.

http://youtu.be/h6iom5JlSs8

Discipleship is NOT Sexy

It has been a long time since I have written anything.  I have spent most of my days developing new friendships and trying to explain to them their need for Jesus.  I wish I could tell you a bunch of stories of lives that have changed as a result.  I wish I could tell you that hundreds have repented and are now serving the Lord faithfully.  Instead, I’m pretty sad as very few of my new friends are ready to ditch their lives to follow Jesus.  Some are not convinced they need to repent.  Others are not convinced He is worth it.

The good news is that I regularly see God do supernatural things (too many stories to write out).  I expected these miracles to result in conversions, but now I understand what Jesus meant when He said, “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.” (Luke 16:31). 

Jesus never promised revival; in fact, He told us to expect the opposite (2 Tim. 4:3-4).  Even when people saw the supernatural, it usually didn’t lead to repentance (Luke 10:13).  What Jesus did promise was that we would have His presence with us as we made disciples (Matthew 28:20).  This I have definitely witnessed.  Supernatural answers to prayer never get old.

Like most speakers/pastors, I like to share about conversions and victories!  But by only sharing those stories, it may make people think that something is wrong if they don’t see a lot of fruit in their efforts.  Maybe this post is a strange word of encouragement for those who have been sharing Jesus and not seeing much result.  We may not often see repentance, but we do experience God being with us; and we do enjoy the peace knowing we tried.  And that makes it all worth it.

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.  1 Corinthians 15:58

My friend Daisy

Please pray for the Merrick family.  For those who don’t know Britt, he is one of the most effective Christian leaders in our nation and a dear friend.  

http://prayfordaisy.com/

Twenty Seven Million

My friend, Matt Redman, just released a song “Twenty Seven Million” where the hope is to shine as much light as possible on the problem of human trafficking.

I encourage you to download the song. Twenty Seven Million people in modern day slavery is an outrage! Be a voice for the voiceless.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/twenty-seven-million/id500399945?i=500399948

"The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.
Psalm 25:14"

We may be too quick to separate our fear of Him from our friendship with Him.