GOOD NEWS AMONG THE GRIEVING: A LETTER FROM FRONTIER ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL

GOOD NEWS AMONG THE GRIEVING: A LETTER FROM FRONTIER ALLIANCE INTERNATIONAL

“Exalting the worth of Jesus Christ among the unreached and unengaged at the end of the age” preaches good. It lives hard. This vision statement has been and will remain the thing that put and keeps us on the field. The worth of Jesus compels us to lay foundations for the Gospel where there are none (as Paul put it in Romans 15:20).

But we’re just really beginning to feel the brutality of a world without the Gospel. The reality of a world without the One who will crush the head of the serpent and save us all from going the way of Cain forever is visceral. We feel it. Our friends in our adopted lands live in it every day. They don’t know anything else.”

This time of year not only marks the end of one and the approach of the next, but it also holds our anniversary as an organization and spiritual family (23 Dec 2011). Every year at this time, like many of you, we look back to look forward.

This year feels a little different. But the core remains the same: the beauty and supremacy of Jesus. He is worth being made known. And everyone everywhere deserves the dignity of an incarnate witness—especially the grieving.

A STRONG DELUSION

A STRONG DELUSION

But another phenomenon has also crept out of the Abyss and into the daylight: denial, equivocation, and even gleeful, public celebration of barbaric acts against Jews. These things haven't just come from the voices of Hamas, Hezbollah, and the ayatollahs in Iran. They have come from the streets of Istanbul, London, Paris, Berlin, Toronto, New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles. They have come from university campuses and city squares. Instead of a global outpouring of love and support, the global Jewish community is confronted with a renewed surge of antisemitic anger and violence that has targeted their shops, their homes, and their schools. Simply put, they have become the targets of a delusion.

TERRORISTS, RACISTS, & ANTISEMITES: AN OPEN LETTER ON BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING

TERRORISTS, RACISTS, & ANTISEMITES: AN OPEN LETTER ON BEING A DECENT HUMAN BEING

At the end of the day, social media doesn’t matter. It is here today and gone tomorrow. But “out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks,” and our feeds have become a proverbial reflection of our priorities. I wish I could say I am surprised to see the “social justice warriors” online silent in the aftermath of this terrorist attack. I wish I could say I am surprised that very few news outlets are willing to use appropriate language to call it what it is. I wish I could say I am surprised that any show of support or sympathy for Israel in these days is partitioned with qualifying caveats because “the Israel-Palestine situation is complex.”

Unfortunately, I am not surprised. As Joel Richardson quoted historian Robert Wistrich in The Great Rage, looking into the obscenity that is the Holocaust is like “staring into a black abyss, and hoping it doesn’t stare back.” But to our horror, that black abyss is not simply staring back. It is crawling out from the depths and coming to life through the hands and feet of entities like Hamas. Like Hezbollah. Like the Iranian regime. And in the same way the Nazis were opposed by too few, these monsters in our day are not facing even a fraction of the opposition they deserve.

It is not difficult to be a decent human being. The bar is getting lower and lower. This week is a golden opportunity to meet it.

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FLAMES OF GLORY

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FLAMES OF GLORY

Of all the elements He could’ve used, why did God choose fire? It’s a polarizing thing, it can destroy as suddenly as it can bring life. It can scald as easily as it can bring soothing comfort. Much like the Savior who warned us that His coming would be divisive in the world, fire can be terrifying or a great source of peace. His fire refines and sanctifies, it tests and reveals the quality of anything placed in it. Fire only burns that which isn’t holy. Put something holy in the fire, and it will come out as gold.

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THORNS AND THRESHOLDS

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THORNS AND THRESHOLDS

In the middle of an intense moment of battle and desperation, God commanded Joshua to debilitate his armies. Why is it that God made them weak, instead of simply making them victorious? It serves us well to find the areas where we’re resisting being made meek and lowly—these are the exact areas God wants to put His glory on display in our lives.

ALLIES, ADVERSARIES, AND THE ADVOCATE

ALLIES, ADVERSARIES, AND THE ADVOCATE

Missional landscapes can vary dramatically from place to place. We want to be prepared to bear witness to our marvelous God no matter where in the world we find ourselves. One of our mandates as an organization is to resource those who have the gospel and to reach those who don’t. It’s to that end that this predominately Middle East focused ministry is writing an article about the LGBT+ community in America.

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THE CENTRALITY OF JERUSALEM IN THE ETERNAL PURPOSES OF GOD

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THE CENTRALITY OF JERUSALEM IN THE ETERNAL PURPOSES OF GOD

The glory of the Gentiles brought into obedience to Jesus is to not only receive the mercy of salvation to call upon the name of the God of Israel, but to cultivate the mature faith of the Canaanite mother and burden of the apostolic father, that it we could find ourselves in this same reflection: “Behold, Jesus Christ still weeping over Jerusalem through the eyes of Paul.”

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TO WASH A TRAITOR'S FEET

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TO WASH A TRAITOR'S FEET

It’s no accident that Jesus introduced the commandment ‘to love each other as He loved us’ in the same moment He felt the sting of betrayal and denial from two of His dearest friends. If He could get on the floor and wash their feet knowing how deeply they’d wound Him, we can certainly set aside our offenses and forgive each other—for the sake of our own health, for the growth of the church, for the needs of the lost, and for the glory of God.