Marilyn Hickey has turned 80—and she’s looking for a new beginning.

Hickey is the founder of Marilyn Hickey Ministries. In 1976, God gave
her a verse of Scripture that defined her mission: “The earth shall be
full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah
11:9, ESV). God called her to “cover the earth with is Word” and that’s just
what she’s been faithfully doing for the past 35 years.

“I feel like in my 80th year my best years are ahead. And I am not retiring … What would I do? I don’t play golf, I don’t like television, shopping is not that big a deal,” Hickey said on her daily broadcast. “I’m telling you, people, souls, healings, miracles, nations are a big deal … In my 70s I had my biggest meetings, so I am saying, what’s going to happen at 80? We have so many people to reach, so much to do. God is so good to me. I just want to reach people with His Word. And again, living the Word will unlock the miraculous all around the world.”

Kenneth Copeland and Jerry Savelle were featured in an opening segment of Today With Marilyn and Sarah, in a lighthearted exchange about Hickey hitting the 80-year mark.

“I shouldn’t be surprised, at all, because if there’s anybody gonna make 120 it’ll be Marilyn Hickey,” Copeland said. “Marilyn, all kidding aside, happy birthday, dear. You have ministered to all of us. You have fed the Word of God to us. You’ve been an example to us. You’ve lived and walked by faith and your family is an example family to what God can do if people would just believe Him and take Him at His Word.”

Hickey has had audiences with government leaders and heads of state all over the world. She is the first woman to join the board of directors of the largest church in the world, Dr. David Yonggi’s Church Growth International in South Korea. She has traveled to nearly 130 countries and is believing to visit many more in the years to come. She ministers alongside her daughter, Sara Bowling.

As part of the celebration, Christians in the social media world are honoring Hickey.

“My mom is 80 years old today and you’d never know it; she acts like she’s 50 but has the wisdom of over 30 years of Bible memorization,”  Bowling tweeted this morning.

Others in the Twitterverse were also celebrating this major milestone. Dannetta Lynn Rivers tweeted, “Happy 80th Birthday to Marilyn Hickey! Still going hard for God.” And Beverly Powell tweeted, “I am reminiscing on a word that Marilyn Hickey spoke N2 my life 26 yrs. It has come to pass. God is faithful!”

Meanwhile, Daniel and Jessica King, missionary evangelists, took to YouTube to wish Hickey a happy 80th birthday. And dozens of Hickey’s followers expressed their appreciation on her Facebook fan page. Linda Lynn Pereff wrote, “You were the one that started me on a daily reading through the Bible 35 years ago. I thank God for you!!!!!! Happy Happy blessed birthday precious lady!”

All Ruth Bell Graham could find was a package of Kleenex in her handbag.

It would have to do.

She was at Earls Court Arena in London, site of the 1966 Billy Graham Crusade, and someone had passed her a note from a girl named Wendy, who was asking for her help.

Ruth had first found Wendy, a heavy drug user, nearly unconscious by the stadium entrance and wanted to help.

Over the previous nights, Ruth had been talking to Wendy about committing her life to Christ, but Wendy was hesitant to make that decision. Crusade staff members decided to take Wendy home, but before they did, Ruth wanted to write her a message.

With only a Kleenex package to write on, she took out the cardboard backing and quickly wrote three lines of encouragement:

“God loves me.

Jesus died for me.

No matter what I’ve done, if I confess to Him, He will forgive me.”

Ruth then tucked the note into Wendy’s pocket just before she left.

A year later, Ruth met Wendy again in London and she told Ruth how that impromptu cardboard note had been her lifeline to God.

Wendy corresponded with Ruth and this memorabilia is just part of the display at the Billy Graham Library’s newest exhibit which opens July 1 and runs through Aug. 31.

The exhibit’s title: “Ruth Bell Graham: The Heart of a Missionary.”

Focusing on a side of Ruth that many may not know about, this exhibit displays her deep desire to share the love of Christ with the world, one person at a time.

“Ruth always dreamed that she would be a missionary to Tibet,” said Diane Wise, promotions manager for The Billy Graham Library. “Those plans were transformed when she met Billy Graham and realized God had a different call on her life.

“Her heart for serving others never faded though and the many lives she touched over the years are a testimony to that fact.”

Born in China to missionary parents, Ruth developed a strong heart for the Chinese people and an even greater love for the Lord, which was evident as she stood beside America’s most well-known evangelist for more than 60 years.

“Our team has spent hours looking through Ruth’s writings, photos and memorabilia to compile this exhibit,” said Debra Cordial, director of the library. “While we have a room in our Journey of Faith dedicated to Ruth, this new exhibit offers a great opportunity for visitors to see a different side of her remarkable life.”

One example of Ruth’s passion for all people was Velma Barfield, a convicted murderer who lived on death row for six years.

Velma accepted Christ shortly after her arrest and Ruth started writing her in prison and talking to her by phone. On display you’ll see a poem that Ruth dedicated to Velma in her book “Clouds Are The Dust of His Feet.”

Ruth’s love for others and passion to share Christ can be seen by visitors through handwritten personal journal entries, including one from a small book she jotted notes in during a London visit that included this brief itinerary:

Little boy with cancer (June 28)

Lunch at Buckingham Palace (June 29)

Other letters, newspaper clippings, awards and firsthand accounts of how she touched the lives of others can be found in the glass display cases, along with this hand-written poem she wrote on a card given to Billy in 1978:

“A dream fulfilled …
To walk with you
Through all these years,
Through every kind of weather,
And walk into
The setting sun
Still loving and … together.”

“The Heart of a Missionary” also details Ruth’s impact on building The Billy Graham Training Center (The Cove) near Asheville, which was built more than 20 years ago.

Ruth had prayed The Cove would be a place for retreat, rest, relaxation and renewal. She took a personal interest in many of the construction details, including the use of stone from that property for the outside of the Chatlos Memorial Chapel and the height of the steeple.

Used with permission of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Chinese authorities detained a member of one of Beijing’s largest unregistered churches on Monday and sent him to his hometown in Shandong Province, sources said.

Three officers from Beijing’s Dongsheng police station detained the Shouwang church member at about 5 p.m. while he was at a market to get a mobile phone fixed, they said. They handed him over to a Shandong office based in the capital, which sent him to his hometown that evening. He was the second member of the church to be expelled from the city since authorities allegedly compelled the owners of the church’s rented facility to stop leasing to the congregation in April, forcing them to meet outdoors the past three months.

The same Dongsheng police station in Beijing’s northwest Haidian district sent the first Shouwang member to be expelled from Beijing to his hometown in Hubei Province on May 8, sources said.

After Monday’s expulsion, the Shouwang member was forbidden to use his mobile phone, but at noon yesterday he was sent to his parents’ home and was able to send a text message to church members. He said his identity card was confiscated, and he was warned not to return to Beijing before July 1, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China. Authorities told local village officials to monitor him.

In the church’s weekly statement issued yesterday, Shouwang Church leaders said they had filed a protest against the expulsion.

“The forced expatriation by Dongsheng Police Station and Haidian Public Security Bureau has constituted a complete contempt for and a flagrant violation of the law, in effect depriving a citizen of any guarantee of the most basic of foundational existential rights,” the statement read.

The first expulsion of a Shouwang member came after the church held a fifth consecutive Sunday of outdoor worship. At least 15 people were taken to 10 police stations across Beijing on May 8. All were released within 24 hours, except one who was jailed at Dongsheng police station for 48 hours and then turned over to the Wuhan municipal governmental office in Beijing. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province, where the household of the detained Shouwang member was registered.

After previous detentions, he had already been forced to quit his job as an instructor at an international school for children under three years old. As he had lived at the school office, he also lost his lodging.

The church member on May 10 told a contact by phone that he had been sent to Wuhan’s Beijing office from the police station earlier that day. Police ordered the office to buy a train ticket for his return to Hubei, he said. Police confiscated his identity card, later telling him that they could not find it. They told him to go to Hubei to apply for a new one.

The detained Christian later told another church member by phone that he wanted to see his parents and his maternal grandmother, and that he also wanted to rest after being detained four times for having attended five Sunday outdoor worship services.

With a police officer from the Wuhan Public Security Bureau based in Beijing’s Wuhan office, he took a train to Hubei’s provincial capital on the evening of May 11. More than 20 Shouwang congregants went to the Beijing West Railway Station to see him off, praying hand-in-hand and singing a hymn in the waiting area of the station.

The Shouwang member and the police officer arrived in Wuhan the next morning, then went to his hometown in Hubei. After having lunch, the police officer returned to Wuhan. On May 16, two local police officers came to the church member’s home asking for basic information on his family. He returned to Beijing in mid-June and has continued to attend outdoor worship, being detained every Sunday since.

Hundreds of Shouwang parishioners have been detained or confined to their homes on Sundays as well as weekdays since April 10. Some church members have lost their jobs or rented homes, or both. They are mostly young professionals working at companies or universities.

Before April 10, the Shouwang congregation had gathered in a conference hall of the Old Story Club in the northern area of Beijing for more than a year. But according to Shouwang Church leaders, the owner of the rented venue was under mounting pressure from the government.

In March, Shouwang planned to rent a conference hall of a hotel in the northwest of the city, but the church said some government agencies again interfered and prevented it from renting the new premises.

Shouwang Church first started as a family Bible study group in 1993. By 2005, Shouwang, which means “keeping watch,” had more than 10 fellowships. At that time, the church decided to apply to register with the government. But in 2006, authorities rejected Shouwang’s application, asking it to join the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement church.

In late 2009, Shouwang paid about 27 million yuan (about $4 million) for the second floor of the Daheng Science and Technology Tower in northwest Beijing’s Zhongguancun area, known as “China’s Silicon Valley.” Funding came from the Shouwang congregation and other contributors for the purchase of a permanent worship place. Authorities once again interfered, according to church leaders, and the property developer refused to hand the key over to the church.

Shouwang Church had more than 1,000 worshippers each Sunday before the outdoor worship began in April. It still has dozens of family groups and fellowships.

In a related development, China Aid Association reported that two women from another Beijing house church, Shuangshu Church, were planning to join Shouwang’s outdoor worship service on Sunday, but police prevented them from leaving their home. Their landlord later came to pressure them to move out, according to CAA.

RELATED STORIES:
• China’s Official Church Members ‘Admonish’ Shouwang Group
• Chinese Christians Support Persecuted Churches
• Shouwang Showdown Leads to About Two Dozen Arrests
• Shouwang Church Faces Increased Persecution
• Beijing Churches Risk Open Air Worship
• Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released

In
a disturbing new development in the 12-week long Shouwang Church clash
with Chinese authorities, a church member who is employed by Christian humanitarian group World Vision is
facing dismissal for her participation in Shouwang’s outdoor worship
attempts, ChinaAid reports.

In the 12 weeks since Shouwang Church lost its meeting site and decided
to hold its Sunday worship services outdoors, Chinese authorities have
tried many different ways to try to get the church members to desist.
These have included police detention, house arrest, eviction, loss of
jobs, and being escorted out of Beijing and returned to one’s hometown.

The World Vision action was just one of at least four new cases in the
past week of persecution against a Shouwang Church member.

Police handed over detained Shouwang Church member Chuan Liang to
the Shandong Provincial Government, which has escorted him from Beijing
to his hometown in coastal Shandong province.

Another Shouwang member who has been a frequent participant in
Shouwang’s attempts to hold its Sunday worship services at an open-air
plaza has been under 24-hour surveillance since last week. His tails are
even following him the entire time that he is traveling to and from
work. Not only that, government officials have sought out his company
CEO and seriously defamed him and threatened the company. His managers
worriedly exhorted him to quickly leave Shouwang Church, otherwise his
contract would not be extended.

Two women from another Beijing house church, Shuangshu Church, were
planning on Sunday morning to head to northwest Beijing’s Zhongguancun
area to join the Shouwang outdoor worship service. But to their
surprise, police barred them from leaving their home. Soon thereafter,
their landlord came to pressure them to move out.

World Vision employee Xia Xiaoqiu has been detained in police
custody on many occasions for participating in Shouwang’s attempts to
hold outdoor Sunday worship services. Apparently under pressure from the
government, her employer, the Beijing office of the international
Christian group World Vision, has pressured Xia to quit.

Xia wrote on her Google Buzz on Sunday: “With regard to
the job, I’ve already had several rounds of talks with my boss. Each
side has already made clear what can be made clear. My boss said that
my activities cannot be allowed to impact the organization’s development
[in China], and those in the managerial level
are all in agreement about this. The only thing left now is to await
their decision. I’m thinking that no matter what, I must do my part to
the utmost, so even if I do have to leave, I’ll make sure there’s a
smooth transition to my successor.”

In response to the continuous violations of the lawful rights of its
members, Shouwang Church on May 12 released its “Statement on the
Infringement of the Rights of Citizens of Faith” in which it clearly states, “We will organize legal experts from
within our church and set up a legal small group that in the coming days
will start collecting the necessary evidence in the cases of citizens
of faith being forced to leave their jobs or being evicted because of
their religious belief.

“In order to promote the establishment of a
Chinese society ruled by law, we do not rule out the possibility, if the
circumstances require, of holding legally responsible for violating the
law the related individuals or departments who infringed upon the basic
rights of these citizens of faith … which will advance Chinese society
becoming a society ruled by law.”

Last week, Shouwang Church’s Governing Committee decided to have the
legal small group start its work, formally establishing the group to
help those brothers and sisters whose rights have been violated.
ChinaAid calls on all Christians and churches to watch these
developments closely and to pray on behalf of the Shouwang members.

RELATED STORIES:
• Chinese Authorities Expel Shouwang Church Member from Beijing
• China’s Official Church Members ‘Admonish’ Shouwang Group
• Chinese Christians Support Persecuted Churches
• Shouwang Showdown Leads to About Two Dozen Arrests
• Shouwang Church Faces Increased Persecution
• Beijing Churches Risk Open Air Worship
• Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released

When our Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776, they considered religious freedom one of Americans’ most fundamental rights.

Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, also wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. He considered these two of his most important accomplishments, along with founding the University of Virginia, and left instructions for them to be inscribed on his tombstone.

Today, our commitment to religious freedom has gone global, and it has become part of the fabric of our diplomacy. In 1998, Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act, and now the State Department issues an annual report on religious freedom.

The U.S. even has an Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom—Dr. Suzan Johnson Cook.

This commitment reflects the scope of the problem. At Bible League International, we have found that religious persecution has left its mark on many areas of the world:

•   In Albania, where communist purges “destroyed the human soul,” according to a government official, leaving the Church with many years of work to restore it

•   In China, where the government raids underground churches, arrests their leaders and destroys their property

•  In India, where Hindu Nationalists force Christians to convert to Hinduism and burn churches to the ground

•   In Laos, where Christian women have been raped and murdered in front of their families

•   In Nigeria, where an Islamic sect that believes Western ways are evil has killed pastors and church members and destroyed churches

•  In Pakistan, where Muslim radicals murdered a Christian government official for opposing the government’s blasphemy law.

Religious persecution is most common against Christians. A Vatican spokesman indicated this spring that 75 out of every 100 people killed because of religious hatred are Christian. Open Doors, a ministry that serves persecuted Christians, says that there are more than 100 million of them around the world.

News of extremists persecuting Christians floods our inbox at Bible League. In general, the Middle East is the least evangelized area of the world because of religious persecution. In the Muslim world, Christian worship takes place behind a veil of secrecy and fear.

But even where persecution takes place, God’s Word has a way of getting through. It would be easy for persecuted Christians in these nations to lose heart. But at Bible League, we have found that no heart is beyond God’s reach.

Witness a miracle that has taken place in Vietnam this year. In one of communism’s last strongholds, all activities are tightly controlled by the government, including religious practices. Most Christians choose to worship in underground house churches due to mandatory church registration.

Late last year, a Bible school in Ho Chi Minh City was bulldozed. Five hundred police, soldiers and firemen showed up at 7 a.m. and began demolishing the property. The pastor was beaten unconscious, and several members of his congregation were detained.

But 2011 has brought new hope—this year marks the 100th anniversary of the first Protestant church in Vietnam. To commemorate the occasion, the Vietnamese government, which tightly controls the printing and distribution of Bibles, has authorized the publication and distribution of up to 100,000 Bibles in 2011 by groups such as Bible League and the World Bible Translation Center.

This spring, as part of the anniversary, evangelist Luis Palau preached in a soccer stadium in Ho Chi Minh City, and thousands accepted Christ. The government later forced the cancellation of Easter events scheduled in Hanoi, but church leaders said they were encouraged by Palau’s visit.

Stories like this one are echoed everyday around the globe. Despite trials and persecution, millions of people have found that God’s Word brings peace and promotes freedom. This Fourth of July, that’s a good thing to remember.

Robert T. Frank is the CEO of Bible League International, a non-profit evangelical Christian ministry dedicated to making disciples and training Bible study leaders and church planters using the Word of God.

One of the four men who accused Bishop Eddie Long of sexual misconduct
was arrested this week in Florida on suspicion of being a drug dealer.

Jamal Parris, 24, was driving a white 2011 BMW in Miami Beach Tuesday evening, when a Florida Highway Patrol officer noticed that it had no
tags.

Sgt. Seth Dubinsky stopped the car. When he approached it, he smelled
marijuana, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday.

Dubinsky searched the car and said he found 181 grams of marijuana,
which is worth about $1,000 on the street. He said he also found 50
clear plastic baggies and a Taurus semiautomatic handgun. He said Parris
also was carrying $1,250 in cash.

The gear was “indicative of a drug dealer,” Dubinsky said. Parris was
arrested and jailed. He was charged with two felony counts: possession
of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of a firearm while
committing a felony. He also was charged with operating a motor vehicle
with no registration, a misdemeanor. It was unclear late Thursday
whether he was still in custody.

Click here to read the rest of this story in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.

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• Eddie Long’s Colleagues Speak Out on Scandal
• Bishop Rebukes Eddie Long
• Creflo Dollar Called to Carpet for Defending Eddie Long
• Eddie Long Denies Rumors Wife Left Him
• Eddie Long, Randy White Warned Before Scandals
• Eddie Long Settles Sexual Misconduct Claims

All Ruth Bell Graham could find was a package of Kleenex in her handbag.

It would have to do.

She
was at Earls Court Arena in London, site of the 1966 Billy Graham
Crusade, and someone had passed her a note from a girl named Wendy, who
was asking for her help.

Ruth had first found Wendy, a heavy drug user, nearly unconscious by the stadium entrance and wanted to help.

Over
the previous nights, Ruth had been talking to Wendy about committing
her life to Christ, but Wendy was hesitant to make that decision.
Crusade staff members decided to take Wendy home, but before they did,
Ruth wanted to write her a message.

With only a Kleenex package to write on, she took out the cardboard backing and quickly wrote three lines of encouragement:

“God loves me.

Jesus died for me.

No matter what I’ve done, if I confess to Him, He will forgive me.”

Ruth then tucked the note into Wendy’s pocket just before she left.

A year later, Ruth met Wendy again in London and she told Ruth how that impromptu cardboard note had been her lifeline to God.

Wendy
corresponded with Ruth and this memorabilia is just part of the display
at the Billy Graham Library’s newest exhibit which opens July 1 and
runs through Aug. 31.

The exhibit’s title: “Ruth Bell Graham: The Heart of a Missionary.”

Focusing
on a side of Ruth that many may not know about, this exhibit displays
her deep desire to share the love of Christ with the world, one person
at a time.

“Ruth always dreamed that she would be a missionary to
Tibet,” said Diane Wise, promotions manager for The Billy Graham
Library. “Those plans were transformed when she met Billy Graham and
realized God had a different call on her life.

“Her heart for serving others never faded though and the many lives she touched over the years are a testimony to that fact.”

Born
in China to missionary parents, Ruth developed a strong heart for the
Chinese people and an even greater love for the Lord, which was evident
as she stood beside America’s most well-known evangelist for more than
60 years.

“Our team has spent hours looking through Ruth’s
writings, photos and memorabilia to compile this exhibit,” said Debra
Cordial, director of the library. “While we have a room in our Journey
of Faith dedicated to Ruth, this new exhibit offers a great opportunity
for visitors to see a different side of her remarkable life.”

One example of Ruth’s passion for all people was Velma Barfield, a convicted murderer who lived on death row for six years.

Velma
accepted Christ shortly after her arrest and Ruth started writing her
in prison and talking to her by phone. On display you’ll see a poem that
Ruth dedicated to Velma in her book “Clouds Are The Dust of His Feet.”

Ruth’s
love for others and passion to share Christ can be seen by visitors
through handwritten personal journal entries, including one from a small
book she jotted notes in during a London visit that included this brief
itinerary:

Little boy with cancer (June 28)

Lunch at Buckingham Palace (June 29)

Other
letters, newspaper clippings, awards and firsthand accounts of how she
touched the lives of others can be found in the glass display cases,
along with this hand-written poem she wrote on a card given to Billy in
1978:

“A dream fulfilled …
To walk with you
Through all these years,
Through every kind of weather,
And walk into
The setting sun
Still loving and … together.”

“The
Heart of a Missionary” also details Ruth’s impact on building The Billy
Graham Training Center (The Cove) near Asheville, which was built more
than 20 years ago.

Ruth had prayed The Cove would be a place for
retreat, rest, relaxation and renewal. She took a personal interest in
many of the construction details, including the use of stone from that
property for the outside of the Chatlos Memorial Chapel and the height
of the steeple.

Used with permission of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.

Chinese authorities detained a
member of one of Beijing’s largest unregistered churches on Monday and sent him to his hometown in Shandong Province, sources
said.

Three officers from Beijing’s Dongsheng police
station detained the Shouwang church member at about 5 p.m. while he was
at a market to get a mobile phone fixed, they said. They handed him
over to a Shandong office based in the capital, which sent him to his
hometown that evening. He was the second member of the church to be
expelled from the city since authorities allegedly compelled the owners
of the church’s rented facility to stop leasing to the congregation in
April, forcing them to meet outdoors the past three months.

The
same Dongsheng police station in Beijing’s northwest Haidian district
sent the first Shouwang member to be expelled from Beijing to his
hometown in Hubei Province on May 8, sources said.

After
Monday’s expulsion, the Shouwang member was forbidden to use his mobile
phone, but at noon yesterday he was sent to his parents’ home and was
able to send a text message to church members. He said his identity card
was confiscated, and he was warned not to return to Beijing before July
1, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of
China. Authorities told local village officials to monitor him.

In the church’s weekly statement issued yesterday, Shouwang Church leaders said they had filed a protest against the expulsion.

“The
forced expatriation by Dongsheng Police Station and Haidian Public
Security Bureau has constituted a complete contempt for and a flagrant
violation of the law, in effect depriving a citizen of any guarantee of
the most basic of foundational existential rights,” the statement read.

The
first expulsion of a Shouwang member came after the church held a fifth
consecutive Sunday of outdoor worship. At least 15 people were taken to
10 police stations across Beijing on May 8. All were released within
24 hours, except one who was jailed at Dongsheng police station for 48
hours and then turned over to the Wuhan municipal governmental office in
Beijing. Wuhan is the capital of Hubei Province, where the household of
the detained Shouwang member was registered.

After
previous detentions, he had already been forced to quit his job as an
instructor at an international school for children under three years old. As
he had lived at the school office, he also lost his lodging.

The
church member on May 10 told a contact by phone that he had been sent
to Wuhan’s Beijing office from the police station earlier that day.
Police ordered the office to buy a train ticket for his return to Hubei,
he said. Police confiscated his identity card, later telling him that
they could not find it. They told him to go to Hubei to apply for a new
one.

The detained Christian later told another church
member by phone that he wanted to see his parents and his maternal
grandmother, and that he also wanted to rest after being detained four
times for having attended five Sunday outdoor worship services.

With
a police officer from the Wuhan Public Security Bureau based in
Beijing’s Wuhan office, he took a train to Hubei’s provincial capital on
the evening of May 11. More than 20 Shouwang congregants went to the
Beijing West Railway Station to see him off, praying hand-in-hand and
singing a hymn in the waiting area of the station.

The
Shouwang member and the police officer arrived in Wuhan the next
morning, then went to his hometown in Hubei. After having lunch, the
police officer returned to Wuhan. On May 16, two local police officers
came to the church member’s home asking for basic information on his
family. He returned to Beijing in mid-June and has continued to attend
outdoor worship, being detained every Sunday since.

Hundreds
of Shouwang parishioners have been detained or confined to their homes
on Sundays as well as weekdays since April 10. Some church members have
lost their jobs or rented homes, or both. They are mostly young
professionals working at companies or universities.

Before
April 10, the Shouwang congregation had gathered in a conference hall
of the Old Story Club in the northern area of Beijing for more than a
year. But according to Shouwang Church leaders, the owner of the rented
venue was under mounting pressure from the government.

In
March, Shouwang planned to rent a conference hall of a hotel in the
northwest of the city, but the church said some government agencies
again interfered and prevented it from renting the new premises.

Shouwang
Church first started as a family Bible study group in 1993. By 2005,
Shouwang, which means “keeping watch,” had more than 10 fellowships. At
that time, the church decided to apply to register with the government.
But in 2006, authorities rejected Shouwang’s application, asking it to
join the official Three-Self Patriotic Movement church.

In
late 2009, Shouwang paid about 27 million yuan (about $4 million)
for the second floor of the Daheng Science and Technology Tower in
northwest Beijing’s Zhongguancun area, known as “China’s Silicon
Valley.” Funding came from the Shouwang congregation and other
contributors for the purchase of a permanent worship place. Authorities
once again interfered, according to church leaders, and the property
developer refused to hand the key over to the church.

Shouwang
Church had more than 1,000 worshippers each Sunday before the outdoor
worship began in April. It still has dozens of family groups and
fellowships.

In a related development, China Aid
Association reported that two women from another Beijing
house church, Shuangshu Church, were planning to join Shouwang’s
outdoor worship service on Sunday, but police prevented
them from leaving their home. Their landlord later came to pressure them
to move out, according to CAA.

RELATED STORIES:
• China’s Official Church Members ‘Admonish’ Shouwang Group
• Chinese Christians Support Persecuted Churches
• Shouwang Showdown Leads to About Two Dozen Arrests
• Shouwang Church Faces Increased Persecution
• Beijing Churches Risk Open Air Worship
• Chinese Christian Rights Activist Gao Zhisheng Released

Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths; guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long. —Psalm 25:4-5

The Holy Spirit is impressing this upon people across the earth. He is taking what David saw in the heart of God, combining it with all that Jesus revealed about the Father’s heart in the New Testament, and causing an explosion of revelation about the emotions of God’s heart to come into the body of Christ. People are listening to this message and developing rock-solid resolve to be scholars of God’s emotions, as David was. This explains the deep, worldwide hunger people have to experience God in a way that goes beyond what many churches are accustomed to. We must fix it in mind that David was a man after God’s heart primarily because he sought to understand the emotions of God—and we must do the same.

{ PRAYER STARTER }

Father, I confess that I do not understand all that I should know about You and Your great purposes. Let me discover more about You daily; teach me Your ways, and show me Your path of righteousness.

Our attainment of mature love happens over months,
years, and decades, and the results will be
seen in due time as we bear fruit.

Is this not the fast that I have chosen? thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? —Isaiah 58:6, 7

This text is the foundation for our becoming one of God’s standard bearers. Too often the church has gone rushing into battle with dirty garments and soiled uniforms. Too often the church has tried to call the world to repent before she has left the night of sin. We need to come out of our deserts—soiled with past battles and sins—and be washed by living water.

In this text the Spirit of God admonishes us not to hide ourselves from our own flesh. We have been so busy playing the victim and blaming someone else for our failure to obey the commands of God that we have forgotten we were the ones who made the conscious decision to sin.

Before you can progress and rise to the rank of a mighty standard bearer in the kingdom of God you must first hear and respond to His primary call. God’s first trumpet call to raise up standard bearers in the church is not to battle but to repentance.

Before we can become clear, transparent, shining, bright as the sun, we must repent and convert so that when the refreshing, revival, and restoration of God comes, we can receive all God has for us as His standard-bearers.

Purify my heart, O God. Make me beautiful,
clean, and pure as the moon reflecting
Your light. Make me transparent,
shining, and bright as the sun.
Make my life a light shining
for Jesus. Amen.