Brown's Daily Word & India update11-7-08

Good Morning,
Praise the Lord, for it Friday and that means Sunday is coming. Praise the Lord for the way the Lord calls us out of the world into His presence, to gather before His Throne of Mercy and Grace in worship and fellowship. Something wonderful and awesome happens in that Holy and divine encounter. It is not about ourselves. It is not what we do. It is, rather, what He does in our midst. He comes into the midst of our mundane. He somehow touches it and transforms it. In the presence of Jesus, the Risen One, we find release and freedom. In His presence we are infused with joy unspeakable. His joy is our strength. Jesus is the real joy- giver. In His presence there is the fullness of joy. I get excited about getting ready for Sunday, the Day of the Lord. It is a great honor to be there in His presence with other believers in praise and worship. Satan trembles when servants and saints declare the majesty of Jesus. It is Satan who keeps people away from the Lord and away from His fellowship and worship.
Did you know that in America nearly 98% of people say they believe in God? But only 49% of people who believe in the Christian God are regularly in worship! In other words, many of our brothers and sisters in Christ rarely come to family get-togethers! More than ½ of God’s family finds something else to do rather than come to worship, fellowship, or study! There are many reasons people don’t come to church. Rick Warren, pastor of Saddleback Church and author of several books (including The Purpose Driven Life) states there are four main reasons people give for not going to church: 1. “Church services are boring, especially the sermons.” 2. “Church members are unfriendly to visitors.” 3. “The church is more interested in money than in me.” 4. “We worry about the quality of the church’s child care.”Of these four reasons, you will notice that none of them have anything to do directly with God. When people are invited to God’s family gatherings, they rarely say, “I don’t believe in God.” Most excuses have to do with “church” – with the human institution and with how family members treat each other and those on the outside. These excuses that Rick Warren highlights have nothing to do with God and people’s relationships with God but everything to do with how we, the church family, present ourselves to others. In actuality, many Christians don’t present a joy-filled attitude in church or out of church.
In Luke 7, Jesus encountered a funeral procession. Funerals are not usually seen as joyful events in our lives, although there have been a handful of ones I have attended that truly were joyful. But this was not one of them. This funeral was for the only son of a widow, so it is no wonder that the mother wept. She had already buried her husband. Here she was burying her only son. This means that she was to be left as a woman who would need to rely on her extended family or the generosity of the community for her livelihood. This widow (and those others in the funeral procession) had every reason to be weeping. The tears were not just for the dead but, as it often is at a funeral, the tears were also for she who survived. I love the NIV translation of Luke 7:13, When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her, and he said, “Don’t cry.” Jesus saw the woman who was mourning the death of her son, who was worrying about the future and who would take care of her, and His heart went out to her so He said, “don’t cry.” It wasn’t a pat remark. These words are the words of Christ’s heart for her. And then He touched the coffin and said, “young man, I say to you, get up!” And he sat up and began talking. And everyone there was filled with awe and praised God. What joy filled their lives at this moment! Christ saw the hardship of the woman and his heart went out to her. Further, through Christ’s touch life was restored to her son and to her. Everyone (not just the mother and son) was filled with such awe that right then and there they began praising God. The awe and joy of this moment energized those who were there to go to their homes and to go throughout Judea spreading the news of Christ. Christ does the same for us. Christ sees the tears we cry and his heart goes out to us. Through Christ’s touch we are brought again to life. Through Christ’s touch we are restored. Through Christ WE have been brought back from the death of sin… and yet I say, where is our joy? Why do we feel like we have nothing to offer the world? We Christians have the greatest news of all time – the truth of Jesus Christ who once was dead, but now is alive, the truth of our faith through which we believe in the LIFE everlasting. This is the unquenchable joy that fills the life of every Christian. Yet, we go out of our way to not share it. We go out of our way to not invite others to come to the fountain of life-giving water. Why? Perhaps we are scared that the eternal spring of Living Water may not be eternal. What if we invite people into the joy of Christ only to find out there isn’t enough of Christ to go around? But, as the words of Paul remind us, Christ is able to do “immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine.” There is more than enough joy to spread throughout the world. There is more than enough God-inspired awe to fill each of God’s children in the world. The love, grace, mercy and joy of Christ is an ever-flowing stream of living water. Is that something to be excited about? Yes it is! More than just be excited about it, we need to share it! The widow and her son and all who were at the funeral procession were so filled with joy that they went and told others. They didn’t care what others might think. They didn’t force others to believe. They just shared the remarkable, immeasurable, unimaginable work that they experienced through Christ.That is what we are called to do. We are called to share the joy of Christ that is in our lives with others. That’s it. We are not called to “make others believe.” We are not responsible for the salvation of others. But we are obligated as witnesses to the glory of Christ in our lives to spread the good news to the world. We are commanded by Christ to be witnesses to the world, witnesses who speak the truth of salvation with their words and actions. We must be witnesses who proclaim the joy of Christ at work in our lives, witnesses who are strengthened through the power of the Holy Spirit to take Christ outside of these walls and proclaim him at home, at school, at work, in the line at the bank, wherever we are. Before we can go out and be witnesses to the unquenchable joy of Christ in our lives, we must first recognize the joy of Christ. Some of us may have a mountaintop experience or a deep valley experience where we experienced the heart of Christ and the hand of his salvation. Others of us may be traveling across the flat, even terrain. Regardless, there is much in our lives that can witness to the joy of Christ. God’s unquenchable joy flows in our lives every minute of every day – but we have to stop and recognize it. Christ desires to do great works in and through our lives – but we have to open ourselves to him. We cannot share God’s unquenchable joy with others when we ourselves are not joyful. Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., a member of the U.S. Supreme Court for 30 years, once explained his choice in career by saying, "I might have entered the ministry if certain clergymen I knew had not looked and acted so much like undertakers." It’s time we stop looking and acting like members of a funeral procession and begin living as God’s children – forgiven, loved and freed from the bondage of sin. This, my friends, is the joyful and good news of our Lord and Savior!

Please pray for Mrs. Anne Hill, a member of the First Presbyterian Church in Ipswich, MA, who recently was in a serious accident on the way to her son's wedding. She suffered a spinal column injury, broken limbs, and is currently in a coma. Her husband doesn't yet know the Lord. Her daughter is expecting a baby. In short, the entire family needs much prayer.
In Christ,
Brown

Report says 500 Christians Killed in Orissa in August-September
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation international team issues Fact-Finding Report on Kandhamal SituationA Communist Party of India [CPI (ML)] fact-finding team visited Orissa's Kandhamal District. The team visited affected villages and relief camps, after facing interrogation by the Orissa Police and the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). The team also met District Magistrate (DM) and various police officials of Kandhamal district. Below is a report by team member J P Minz.
1. The District Magistrate's (DM) Statement: The DM told us that Kandhamal had been peaceful for the preceding ten days. Whereas there used to be fifteen relief camps, now only seven were operational, having 12,641 people. According to him, breakfast, meals, supplementary food meant for children, and iron and calcium tablets for pregnant women are available in these camps; a doctor is available round the clock; books are available for children and there are regular reading sessions. Blankets, sarees, buckets and mugs and similar essentials have also been provided.
2. Conditions at the Relief Camps: Our team visited Phulbani, Tikabali, Ji Udaygiri and Rakiya relief camps and found that the inmates of the camp are living in extremely bad conditions. In the name of breakfast they get only fifty grams of chura (beaten rice) and rice-dal for meals, which is not enough to satisfy the needs of hunger and nutrition. In the name of supplementary food, the children are occasionally given biscuits. Bathing soaps have been distributed just once in the camps. The doctors do visit but patients are told that there is no medicine. There is no arrangement for pregnant women. The camp inmates sleep on plastic mats on the ground. They have to defecate in the open, which apart from being unhygienic also puts them in danger. One inmate of Ji Udaygiri camp, we were told, was killed when he had gone to defecate.
3. Role of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal: The victims in all the relief camps unanimously told the fact finding team that it is the VHP and Bajrang Dal cadres who have sowed the seeds of communal division in the villages. They used to organize meetings of the Kandha tribals and incite them to attack the Christian hamlets and also provided funds for doing this.
4. Role of the Police and Administration: The anti-Christian riots in Kandhamal started on the day of the bandh called by VHP after the murder of Swami Lakshmananad, and these riots continued for over a month. In the communal fire two hundred Christian villages and 127 Church and prayer halls were either destroyed or burnt. Apart from this, schools, hospitals, hostels and convents also have been damaged. The incidents of killings, rape and loot also were carried out in addition to former incidents. The shocking fact is that all these incidents took place in full view of police and the police remained mute spectators. The official figure for deaths has been reported to be 31, however, a senior government official on the condition of anonymity informed that he himself consigned two hundred dead bodies - found from the jungle - to flames after getting them collected in a tractor. As per his estimates based on the intensity and pace of killings the number of those killed is over five hundred.
5. Atmosphere of Terror: The Christians continue to experience great terror. The Sangh outfits are campaigning for sending back the CRPF and the Nikhil Utkal Kui community is threatening to launch an armed movement. Riot-victims are frightened to go back to their villages because they have been threatened that if they return they will be hacked into pieces. The rioters are also proclaiming that only Hindu converts will be allowed to return. On the other hand, those in charge of the relief camps are pressurizing the riot victims to return to their villages saying that the life has returned to normalcy and peace has returned.
Conclusions
1. This violence was a pre-planned anti-Christian communal assault, and in no way was it a 'clash' between adivasi (tribals) and dalits.
2. This violence which had full support from the Biju Janta Dal Government was planned and executed by VHP and Bajrang Dal.
3. The Sangh's propaganda about 'indiscriminate religious conversion' is a far cry from facts, as the Christian population of Orissa is only 2.5 per cent of the total population. It is to be noted that Christian missionaries began working in Orissa 150 years back.
4. Dalits have far less proportion of land in comparison to the Kandha tribals. In Kandhamal 90 per cent land is government land, 5.5 percent belongs to tribals and rest 4.5 per cent belongs to Dalits, OBC and Oriya (businessmen). There is not much difference in the economic conditions of the tribals and the dalits. The dalits are very slightly better off as they engage in small businesses.
Demands:
1. The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal (BD) should be banned.
2. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik responsible for the violence should tender his resignation immediately
3. The accused for the riots be immediately arrested.
4. The Orissa Govt. must reconstruct all houses, churches, schools, hostels, hospitals and other social-religious structures demolished during the violence and for other damages adequate compensation be granted after a proper survey
5. The relief camps be run for another six months and proper civic arrangements for food, medicine and sanitation be made in these camps.
6. Arrangements be made for registering First Information Reports (FIRs) related to the communal violence at all police stations.
7. Peace process is initiated and guarantees be made for reopening and running of schools, hospitals and other institutes run by the Christian missionaries.
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