ISEMA Newsletters
Taking our Cities for God: How to Break Spiritual Strongholds
John Dawson. Creation House Publishers.
John Dawson is the Los Angeles Director of Youth With a Mission. He organized the 1984 Olympic Outreach involving about 18,000 Christians from over 50 denominations. John has been a friend and advisor to many of us in street ministry. While many Christians long for a peaceful life far from city crowds, John notes that the story of mankind begins in a garden and ends in a city. 91% of Californians and over half of the world’s population lives in urban areas. By the year 2010, 75% of the world will live in cities. If we are to reach the world, we must reach our cities.
John has some important things to say in this book about our priorities as Christians. He writes, “I am committed to political and social action, but I realize that electing good people to office is not half as important as gaining victory over principalities through united prayer.
“The rightly prioritized agenda of a biblical believer should be personal repentance and holy living, leading to united prayer, to revival of the church, to awakening among the lost, to reformation of society and international missionary endeavor. This is the historic path of renewal. We must consciously move toward it in each generation” (p. 136).
John gives an extensive teaching in this book on how to discern the spiritual strongholds of the enemy in your city as well as the redemptive purposes of God in establishing the city. John also shows us how to develop a strategy for breaking spiritual strongholds in our cities and evangelizing them effectively. I strongly recommend this book to all those who take the Great Commission seriously.
Schools Opened to Bible Groups
by Linda Greenhouse, New York Times (June 5, 1990)
The Supreme Court yesterday upheld a 1984 federal law that requires public high schools to allow students’ religious and political clubs to meet on the same basis as other extracurricular activities….
A high school need not permit any student activities not related to the curriculum, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said in the opinion. But she said that if it does the school is bound by the Equal Access Act not to discriminate against any student group on the basis of its religious, philosophical or political viewpoint….
A group of Omaha high school students…successfully sued the school district in 1985 after being denied official recognition for a Christian Bible club….
“There are a lot of schools waiting for this decision,” said Virginia Roach, project director for the National Association of State Boards of Education.
By a vote of 8 to 1, the justices yesterday rejected arguments that the Equal Access Act breached the constitutionally required separation between church and state….
“There is a crucial difference between government speech endorsing religion, which the establishment clause forbids, and private speech endorsing religion, which the free speech and free exercise clauses protect,” O’Connor said. “Those three clauses are in the First Amendment to the Constitution.”
Editor’s Note: This case was argued by Christian attorney Jay Sekulow and is a landmark case for establishing the rights of Christian students in the public high schools to meet and proclaim the gospel. Almost every high school permits some student activities not related to the curriculum, so it must now permit Christian activities as well. What we need now is for Christian students to take advantage of this freedom and boldly proclaim the gospel in high schools throughout this nation.
Vietnam
by J. Doug Stringer, Turning Point Ministries
P O Box 925398, Houston TX 77292
Though I myself am not a veteran, I was invited by Roger Helle to go with Vets With a Mission into Thailand and Vietnam. Vets With a Mission, founded by William Kimball, is a group of Christian Vietnam Vets with a long term plan to minister in Vietnam. They are allowed in as a Christian humanitarian organization, so other ministry must be done covertly and by our living witness. The work has been able to assist and help hundreds of polio orphans, as well as other children’s centers….
One of the highlights for me was getting to meet and minister with many underground Christians….Only four of us were allowed to go on the first of many visits, so as not to draw attention….The people looked so hungry for the Gospel as we entered a room packed with over a hundred people snuggled tightly together like sardines. They informed us that they had been fasting and praying to God to bring a revival in Vietnam and that God would bring them a Word from the outside. They believed that God had sent us for this divine appointment.
Some people had come from as far as two hundred kilometers. They were so hungry that they wanted to meet with us every day and night. We moved to different locations each day and each time met with many wonderful saints of God. One of the leading underground church pastors set up a private meeting with me at a secluded restaurant where he explained to me the spiritual conditions of the church throughout Vietnam. Though he had been a Pastor of a church of over 3000 people, he had to go underground along with many other leaders and ministers because he said that he could not compromise the Word of God in accordance with government regulations….
The last service we ministered in, which lasted over six hours, we witnessed a water baptism….In amazement we watched the pastors remove some tile and a covering on the floor, which exposed a hidden baptismal build into the ground….
As we left, young people came to see us off at the airport….They arrived crying and giving us gifts that they had made, with little notes. This one young girl would not let go of me. She kept saying, “Please pray for Vietnam, please pray every day for revival, we pray for you everyday”…. I can never forget their faces. Each of us would feel like weeping each time we turned around to look at them….
Looking back I see that I have come home to America a different man than when I left. “I’ll be back Vietnam and I’m praying for revival!” (Doug is planning to try to get as many Bibles, educational materials, tracts and hymnals to take back to help a newly established underground Bible school.)
Coming Events
July 7-15 Jesus Loves You-New York. $300 incl. breakfast, lunch, housing. Contact Abounding Grace Ministries, c/o Living Word Christian Center, 62 Thomas St., New York, NY 10013, (212) 571-2641 (note new address).
Saturday July 21 and August 4. Outreach and Worship Rally. San Francisco, CA. Contact SOS Ministries, Box 27358, Oakland, CA 94602, (415) 531-5325.
July 20-August 5 Goodwill Games Outreach, Seattle, WA. Contact Forerunner Ministries, Box 4066, Big Bear Lake, CA 92315, (714) 886-1171 or Forward Edge, Box 65238, Vancouver, WA 98665.
August 1-5 Milwaukee Outreach. Contact Heart-fire Ministries, Box 14031, West Allis, WI 53214, (414) 785-1671.
August 5-11 Black Hills Motorcycle Classic, Sturgis, South Dakota. 500,000 bikers attend, including many Vietnam vets. Contact Alpha-Omega Motorcycle Club, Box 17, New Wilmington, PA 16142, (412) 652–8806.
August 17-25 SOS-San Francisco. 11th year. $45 incl. breakfast, lunch, housing. Contact SOS Ministries (address above).September 27-29 National Street Ministries Conference, Dallas, TX. Tommy Barnett, Winkie Pratney, Gary Greenwald and others. Contact S.H.O.M., Box 380306, Duncanville, TX 75138, (214) 331-6902.
Some Final Thoughts
“And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write:
These are the words of him who is the First and the Last, who died and came to life again. I know your afflictions and your poverty–yet you are rich!” Rev. 2:8.
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:
These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you either one or the other! so, because you are lukewarm–neither cold nor hot–I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. Those whom I love I rebuke and chasten. So be earnest, and repent” Rev.3:14-19.
What a contrast we see between the suffering church in Vietnam, where there is true revival, and the largely lukewarm church in America, where we have great freedom and opportunities to preach the gospel but care so little about the Great Commission. I am happy to hear that the Christians in Vietnam are praying for us, we need it. We are the ones who are truly in poverty. Pray for revival in America.
Our Tape of the Month is “The New Age Movement” by Brooks Alexander and Tal Brooke from the Spiritual Counterfeits Project. The New Age Movement is growing rapidly in the U.S. and around the world. We need to understand them in order to counter this deception and bring the gospel to those who are caught up in it. Tal is the author of seven books, including the current bestseller When the World Will be as One. He will be speaking at this year’s SOS-San Francisco outreach in August.
1990 is half over, so we are offering 1990 ISEMA memberships at half price until the end of the year–$10 for individuals and $17.50 for churches and ministries. For $5 extra you can have a Street Ministry Directory.
Yours in His love,
Larry Rosenbaum
