God guards His own

I used to write my spiritual thoughts etc on cards and keep them in a box. The other day I was reading through some of them and came across this account of God protecting His people, which an Indian friend told my husband and I in April 2007

Two missionary girls in India went to a village one day, but on the way home it got dark so they had to sleep in the forest. In that area there were Hindu fanatics so it really wasn't a safe place to sleep out in the open! As the girls slept some of the Hindus came to take the girls' lives but they saw fifteen guards surrounding them so they thought better of attacking them, and left. 

The following day when the girls got back home, somebody told them what had happened the previous night, that they were going to be attacked but the fanatics saw fifteen guards around them. The girls said they were alone and had no guards protecting them. All through the night fifteen people had been praying for them - the fifteen guards were angels sent by God to protect the girls as they slept. 

I remember hearing about a similar thing which happened in China in the 1940s as Mao's troops advanced on a village - they by passed it because they saw soldiers surrounding it. There were no soldiers, but again God sent His angels to guard and protect the villagers.

Back to India: Many had been delivered from demons:

One such example was a demonic priest who put curses on people - a man came to him and asked him to put a spell on a woman he had fallen in love with, but when he sent out the demons to curse her nothing happened, they couldn't affect her because she was a Christian. The priest had never had a curse fail until that point. He saw that there was one greater than the demons he had been serving so he converted to Christianity. 

It may have changed now, but 20 years ago the Church in India had all night prayer meetings or early morning ones, they had prayer chains of 24 or 48 hours. They encouraged new Christians to get involved with evangelism and social work, like medical ministries in slums* and villages etc

*slums are where the untouchables live. They are outside of the Caste system because they are the lowest of the low and according to the teaching of reincarnation, anybody who is really poor shouldn't be helped because they must have done something really bad in their previous life and this is their punishment, so by helping them they're not being punished as they should be. In Hebrews 9:27 it says 'And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment...'

Reincarnation is a cruel belief (unless you are high in the caste system). We die once, then after that God will judge. There is no reincarnation. Apparently (according to my Indian friends) there are many converts amongst the untouchables because of the love and care Christians show to them. Let us be like Christ and love the unlovely. 

A note on demons - in the West we don't tend to believe in demon possessions or think it was only in biblical times this happened, but in places like Haiti and Africa where there are witch Doctors and Voodoo - it's prevalent. 

Ephesians 6: For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Why Christianity?

Why is Christianity the one faith which is unique and stands out above all other faiths and religions? Please read the whole passages of Scripture quoted, for context.

A. Christianity changes people - not on the outside, but on the inside. A person can ritually clean themselves from top to bottom, can clean their clothes, every single moment of every day, but all that does is - clean your outside. When the Holy Spirit convicts somebody of their sin [falling short of God's standards as laid out in Scripture]  and they repent - He enters into their soul/heart [innermost being which is unseen] and cleanses them

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.

We become new creations - He gives us a new heart.

2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

No religion does that.

B. There were witnesses. The world's religions have some kind of book or script giving their adherents instructions, or people can read the history of the religions, but how many have witnesses?

In the Old Testament (the Jews call the TaNaKh - Torah [Teaching], Nevi'im [Prophets], Ketuvim [Writings]) the prophets had witnesses to their miracles, in the New Testament Jesus Christ had thousands of witnesses to His miracles and teachings. He had witnesses to His crucifixion - He even had the witnesses who were guarding His tomb, then 500 people after His resurrection. The apostles had witnesses to their miracles as well!

The feeding of the five thousand (read Matthew 14) - 5,000 MEN (that was without the women and children) witnessed this.

The casting out of the demons - (read Matthew 8)

The healing of the man with the withered hand (Mark 3)

The healing of the woman with the issue of blood (Matthew 9)

The healing of the lame man (Acts 3)

The rising of Eutychus (Acts 20)

C. God comes to dwell within His people (this is linked with point A)

John 14:17  ...for He [the Holy Spirit] dwells with you and will be in you.

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

D. It's vibrant, dynamic, living because we worship the living God (Read my post HERE)

Ephesians 2:1, 4, 5 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins... [in our natural state we are dead to God - we don't know Him, we can have our own ideas of who He is, but they are OUR ideas] ...But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved),

Colossians 2:13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses...

E. New eternal perspective (don't just live for this age)

As Christians our hope is in the future. We are pilgrims in the world, heading for a better place. Our perspective on the world changes because we have God dwelling in us. We now are friends with God, whereas before we were enemies (we may have believed in Him, but we didn't rest on His finished work in Christ)

F. All religions have humanity working for them - pray so many times a day, give this, do that, but Christianity is the ONLY faith which has God doing something for humanity.

Romans 5:6-8 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

G. Christianity doesn't exactly put forward an appealing message:

Matthew 10:22a And you will be hated by all for My name's sake...

Matthew 24:9 Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake.

John 15:18 If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you

Acts 14:21,22 And when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they turned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying, "we must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God."

If you're trying to recruit people to your way, surely giving a more appealing message is the way to go.

What a burden religions place on their adherents whereas God has said - My work is complete - you were once My enemies, but now you can freely come to Me and be My friends, My children (God is a Christian's Father) because Christ has paid the price YOU should have paid.