Friday, May 25th, in the year of our Lord 2018
By Jonathan Clark
An Iraqi Leader’s Intent to Support Christians
Chaldean Patriarch, Louis Sako, spoke to Iraqi Shiite leader Muqtada al-Sadr after his coalition won the most seats in Iraq’s parliamentary elections this month.
Sako said the coalition leader stated his intention to “support Christians.”
Sako now leads many of Iraq’s Christians as they seek to rebuild their lives after the Islamic State was defeated last year.
How God Used an Anglican for a Sudanese Ceasefire
Churches in South Sudan, Africa led peace talks between the government and rebel leaders, achieving a ceasefire agreement between the warring parties.
Anglican Archbishop Justin Badi Arama led the talks, saying, “We were able to offer ourselves and to engage with the different parties, pray with them [and] encourage them.”
Thousands have died in conflicts there since December 2013.
Please pray for our Sudanese brothers and sisters in Christ in this war-torn area.
Romans 8:35, 37 asks, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? . . . Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
Chinese Communists Might Celebrate “Be Fruitful and Multiply”
China may be scrapping all limits on how many children families can have as soon as this year, reports Bloomberg.
The original limit of one child per family went into effect in 1979. Officials changed the policy to two children in 2016. Government research shows that the policy has prevented about 400 million births.
Psalm 127:3 says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward.”
Trump Cancelled U.S.-North Korean Summit
In a letter yesterday, President Donald Trump cancelled the summit planned for next month with the North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Trump cited “tremendous anger and open hostility” in statements made by Pyongyang, making such a meeting “inappropriate at this time.”
South Korean and United Nations officials expressed concern about the summit’s cancellation.
Texas Lt. Governor: School Shootings Inspired by Video Game Violence?
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick appeared on ABC News this week to discuss the recent school shooting at the Santa Fe High School that took the lives of 10 people.
Patrick pointed out how America has devalued life.
“Should we be surprised in this nation? We have devalued life — whether it’s through abortion, whether it’s the breakup of families, through violent movies, and particularly violent video games which now outsell movies and music.
“Psychologists and psychiatrists will tell you that students are desensitized to violence, many have lost empathy for their victims by watching hours and hours of video violent games. 97% of teenagers watch video games; and 85% of those are violent games.”
Illinois High School Censors Jesus from Graduation Speech
Illinois West Prairie High School told 18-year-old valedictorian Sam Blackledge that he could not reference Jesus or his faith in his prepared graduation speech on Saturday.
Blackledge’s statements included, “The most important thing in your life is to find intimacy with God . . . As you search for goodness, justice, love and forgiveness, know that only God is big enough to provide that for you.”
The school may face a lawsuit as First Liberty Institute has taken the student’s case, saying the school violated his constitutional rights.
Reaction to Firing of Baptist Seminary President
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary President Albert Mohler warned of “a foretaste of the wrath of God poured out” as the seminary fired Paige Patterson, controversial former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
Patterson was criticized when remarks of his surfaced from 2000, reportedly suggesting women in abusive relationships should stay with their potentially violent husbands.
1 Peter 4:17 says, “For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?”
Sneak Peek: We Need to Reach the Unreached for Christ
At the International Day for the Unreached prayer event on Sunday, a Christian man shared how God used the Gospel of John to bring his tribe to Christ a century ago. Stay tuned for a World View Special Report directly after the newscast.
God Empowers Little Girl
And finally, six-year-old Australian Mackinlee Anderson is being called the “miracle girl.”
Doctors declared her 99 percent brain dead after she suffered a terrible car accident. Against all odds, Anderson regained consciousness, began speaking, and even walking again!
A message at the GoFundMe page for the girl’s medical expenses says she is here “by the miracles, powers and wonders of God.”
Closing Line
And that’s The World View in 5 Minutes on this Friday, May 25th in the year of our Lord 2018. Subscribe by iTunes or email to our unique Christian newscast at www.TheWorldView.com. I’m Adam McManus. Seize the day for Jesus Christ.
Special Report: How One Missionary Won Savage Tribe to Christ in 5 Days
Time now for a World View Special Report by Emily Swanson. I’m Adam McManus.
By Emily Swanson
At the International Day for the Unreached on Sunday, May 20th from Focus on the Family’s headquarters, one brother in Christ, John Pudaite (Poo-DIE-tee), president of Bibles for the World, shared a powerful story about how God used the Gospel of John to transform his tribe over 100 years ago from “headhunters to heart hunters.”
The day was to remind the body of Christ why it’s so important to reach those who still haven’t seen or read the Word of God.
Bibles for the World currently has been able to provide Bibles to over 120 nations according to their website, and The World View spoke to John about how God brought the gospel to his tribe through a missionary named Watkin Roberts.
“There was a missionary from Wales, a young man of only 22 years old, that came to India, cause he had heard about our tribe, as being one of the most savage headhunting tribes in the British empire. And he really felt the call to come and share the gospel with us.”
Pudaite explained that the Gospel of John was the only book of the Bible that was translated into a language that the tribes could speak.
“At that time the Gospel of John had just been translated into a neighboring language. So he bought copies of that and he sent one to the chief of each of the villages of our tribe. One of those copies of the Gospel of John came to my grandfather’s village. Now at that time, the people in the tribe couldn’t read and didn’t really know what it meant.”
He said that the tribe asked the missionary if he could come explain the book to them.
“So they sent the message back with the mail runner and said, ‘Sir will you please come and explain the meaning of this book.’ The young missionary, when he got that message, he felt like this was his Macedonian call, ‘Please come and share the Gospel with us.’ So, he went to the British authorities and tried to get permission to visit our village.”
Pudaite said the authorities did not want the missionary to reach out to his tribe because of the danger.
“They refused to let him go, because we were known as headhunters. And they said they couldn’t ensure his safety. So he snuck up into the hills, traveled more than a week through the jungle and made his way to our village. And he was able to stay there just five days. But in those five days the Holy Spirit spoke through him, and he was able to share the Gospel message with our people.”
Pudaite said this was the visit that God used to transform his grandfather into a follower of Jesus.
“And from that visit, that brief visit, five young men gave their lives to Christ, and my grandfather was one of those early Christians.”
Pudaite shared that the missionary wasn’t able to return, but this was the catalyst for something huge.
“The missionary left, saying that he would come back and teach us more about Jesus. But he went back to the British fort and they were very upset with him. They knew he had snuck up into the hills, and so they kicked him out of the district and eventually out of the state and out of India as he tried to stay in contact with us. But the seed of the gospel had been planted among our people, and those first young Christians; they started sharing the message of Jesus Christ with everyone in their village and then moved on from village to village to village.”
He testified that these young, newly converted missionaries were on fire for the Gospel, something the missionary would have never expected after he spent only five days with them.
“Along the way, they shared with other tribes, other people groups. It spread across our tribe and within 30 years, before World War II, before the Japanese invaded our part of India, every single village in our tribe had been evangelized. So it was really done by that first Gospel of John and the work of those early young Christians that it spread. We had very little contact in those early days with missionaries, with anybody. We only had the Gospel of John. We didn’t even have the New Testament in that neighboring language until 1938, 28 years later.”
Pudaite said his grandfather’s conversion and his entire tribe being evangelized is what motivates Bibles for the World to continue taking God’s Word to all corners of the world.
“And that’s what’s so amazing and that’s what inspires us and motivates us to get God’s Word out to remote villages, to the unreached people groups all over the world. We’ve been doing this in places like Nepal, other parts of India, China, Thailand. God has blessed us, and we’ve been able to work in 120 countries all over the world. It’s always with the same fervor, that we want to go out and just place God’s Word there, just plant the seed of God’s Word there. And who knows what’s going to happen from that?”
Pudaite reminded Christians that God’s Word never returns void, and his heritage is a strong reminder of God’s Word as living and active.
“We’ve seen the transformation of our tribe, and we know that God’s transforming power can do that all over again whether it is in Africa, or South America, or other parts of Asia. We know that, and we are just so blessed that God allows us to be a part of it, to play that role as sowers of the seed, the Good News of Jesus Christ.”
Isaiah 52:7 come to mind when thinking about how God sent that missionary over 100 years ago to John’s tribe. “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth.”
To learn more about the Bible distribution projects that Bibles for the World is involved in, go to www.BiblesForTheWorld.org.
This has been a World View Special Report. I’m Adam McManus.