Witchdoctor is Healed

In the Maasai tribal area of Kenya called Loita, a witchdoctor named Olais was in critical condition with double pneumonia. CrossWorld doctor and missionary Dana Witmer treated him immediately and put him on a course of medication.

Olais began to improve and decided to go to the Kijabe mission hospital. While there, he asked Jesus Christ to rule in his life! He left word for his witchdoctor colleagues that they need not visit him again. Olais has since cut off all the spiritist amulets that he used to wear around his angles, neck and wrist.

Praise God that over 50% of the Maasai in Kenya's Rift Valley are now following Jesus.

(from CrossWorld, 80 Years of Missions, 2011 Calendar)

10 New Year's Resolutions to Get Along Better with People

1. Keep skid chains on your tongue; always say less than you think. Cultivate a low, persuasive voice. How you say it counts more than what you say.

2. Make promises sparingly, and keep them faithfully, no matter what it costs.

3. Never let an opportunity pass to say a kind and encouraging word to or about somebody. Praise good work, regardless of who did it. If criticism is needed, criticize helpfully, never spitefully.

4. Be interested in others, their pursuits, their work, their homes and families. Make merry with those who rejoice; with those who weep, mourn. Let everyone you meet, however humble, feel that you regard him as a person of importance.

5. Be cheerful. Don’t burden or depress those around you by dwelling on your minor aches and pains and small disappointments. Remember, everyone is carrying some kind of a load.

6. Keep an open mind. Discuss but don’t argue. It is a mark of a superior mind to be able to disagree without being disagreeable.

7. Let your virtues, if you have any, speak for themselves. Refuse to talk of another’s vices. Discourage gossip. It is a waste of valuable time and can be extremely destructive.

8. Be careful of another’s feelings. Wit and humour at the other person’s expense are rarely worth it and may hurt when least expected.

9. Pay no attention to ill-natured remarks about you. Remember, the person who carried the message may not be the most accurate reporter in the world. Simply live so that nobody will believe them. Disordered nerves and bad digestion are a common cause of back-biting.

10. Don’t be too anxious about the credit due you. Do your best, and be patient. Forget about yourself, and let others “remember.” Success is much sweeter that way.

(Ann Landers, Ten Commandments of Getting Along with People)

'Homosexuality is a sin’ street preacher wins £7k from British police

A street preacher wrongly arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin has won substantial damages as U.K. police chiefs issue new guidelines telling officers to be more thick-skinned.

(reported by Jonathan Petre, Daily Mail)

Dale Mcalpine was held for seven hours and charged with a public-order offence in April after telling a gay police community support officer (PCSO) that he believed homosexuals were acting against the word of God. He was accused of uttering ‘threatening, abusive or insulting’ words ‘to cause harassment, alarm or distress’ contrary to Section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986.

But the charges were dropped after the case was highlighted by The Mail on Sunday and now police in Cumbria have agreed to pay him £7,000 in compensation as well as his legal costs, potentially an extra £10,000.

The payout came as new national guidance was issued to police following growing criticism of their heavy-handed treatment of Christians expressing their religious views.

Keeping The Peace, published by the Association of Chief Police Officers, says officers must be aware that the right to free speech allows people to express unpopular views as long as ‘their conduct is reasonable or the actual or potential violence provoked in others is “wholly unreasonable” ’.

Pressure is mounting on the Government to reform the Public Order Act when it introduces its Freedom Bill in the New Year. Campaigners want the word ‘insulting’ removed from Section 5 of the Act because they believe it leaves street preachers and others vulnerable to arrest.

At a magistrates’ court hearing his trial date was set for September, but coverage of his treatment provoked a public outcry.

Mr Mcalpine said last night: ‘I am delighted the police are going to apologise. It is not about the money but about freedom of speech. I hope the police will in future do their duty defending freedom of speech.’

The Christian Institute, which backed his case, said: ‘We’re obviously pleased that Cumbria Police has seen common sense. But Mr Mcalpine should not have been arrested in the first place. Sadly, it’s not an isolated case. The Government needs to amend the Public Order Act as a matter of urgency.’

Earlier this month, street preacher Anthony Rollins, who was handcuffed and arrested for condemning homosexuality, was awarded £4,250 in damages following a court case against West Midlands Police. Even homosexual rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has called for reform of the law.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1339843/Homosexuality-sin-street-preacher-wins-7k-police

Please pray for persecuted believers in Columbia.



FARC Colombia - a group of armed rebels
against the government. They have been
known to be involved in kidnapping
and drug trafficking.


"Will will serve in the church as long as God allows. ... But the fear doesn't leave; like all humans, sometimes we worry."

(from a persecuted pastor in Columbia, Voice of the Martyrs,  2010)

The Physics of the Resurrection?

My friend Michael Turley asks:

Do I understand from a previous post that you are a Physicist? If so, I want to ask you your professional opinion about Dr Francis Tipler's Omega Point theory (tried to read physics of immortality and could only grasp it in a very elementary fashion) and also what do you think of Dr Russell Humphreys' White Hole Cosmology and the plausibility of that....I understand it has problems, and if it does have problems are they as great as the problems facing naturalist's Big Bang cosmology. Thanks!!! :)

My answer:

Tipler is not Biblical. His Omega Point theory is not much better than Eric Van Daniken, who went to town in his Chariots of the Gods with the strange spacecraft of Ezekiel Chapter 1, which he interprets as a detailed description of a landing alien spacecraft.

How would Tipler use his Omega Point theory to explain Jesus' Resurrection from the dead? He can't, since what he's talking about has no real reference to the God of the Bible. But Bible believers know that "Surely the Lord does nothing without revealing his secrets to his servants the prophets" (Amos 3:7). And God tells us that "on the third day, He will raise us up, that we may live before him" (Hosea 6:2).

The best book on resurrection that I've read is John W. Cooper, Body, Soul & Life Everlasting, Biblical Anthropology and the Monism-Dualism Debate, 1989, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids. 

Sorry, it does not try to deduce principles of the resurrection from fantastic models of physics.... Instead, Cooper goes to both the Old Testament and New and gives a very satisfying explanation of what awaits believers after death, in both the intermediate state before they receive their glorified bodies, and who they will be after judgment day.

Humphrey's White Hole Cosmology is really cool. I really like the way it starts with a huge ball of water. It also has a neat explanation of the uniformity of the background cosmic radiation field. Humphrey admits that his model is incomplete. It has been tweaked a little, but remains unfinished.

But the best physics explanation I've read so far of God's 6 day creation is Anisotropic Synchrony Convention—A Solution to the Distant Starlight Problem, by Jason Lisle. He demonstrates with some amazing relativistic equations that "starlight from the most distant galaxy can reach earth on the fourth day of the Creation Week when the correct relativistic synchrony convention is employed". I don't understand the math there yet, but I hope someday to write a blog entry on it.

~ Marko, M.S. Physics, M.Div Pastoral Ministry