Reason For God
Many unbelievers say our God doesn’t make sense and doesn’t match up with reason. But our God is a God of reason and wisdom. Jessica P.G. has gone through a spirtual journey that has led her to believe in God’s reason.
Hi, I’m Jessica P.G. from Jakarta, Indonesia. Despite living in the capital of the most populated Muslim country in the world, Christians in Jakarta are not necessarily persecuted (in a sense that it risks human lives), yet it gets kind of hard when it comes to politics. It seems that ministry in Jakarta is not as hard as in other countries, and it’s considerably safe. There also exists some Christian schools and universities (as well as seminaries) which seek to meet the people’s educational needs — even non-Christians are coming to those schools/universities since they are deemed considerably good.
Jessica’s need for community and knowledge led to her seeing a reason for God.
Despite being raised in a Christian family, I was an agnostic back then (though I retained my legal status as a Christian). Yet I still went to church despite my agnosticism (though my motive was only to find an English-speaking community; I go to a church with an English worship service). Since I wanted to not misrepresent Christians while debating them, I read Christian books, with most of my reading list being influenced by an evangelist who is in charge of the English service. As I read a certain book on my reading list (The Case for Christ, written by Lee Strobel), my jaw dropped. I was kind of reluctant, but I thought I have to receive God, at least intellectually at that moment. Another book that assures me of it is I Don’t Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Norm Geisler and Frank Turek. Thus I converted to Christianity after a struggle to assent what I had read.
Jessica sees her calling as one that uses facts and rational thinking to lead others to share a reason for God.
Unlike many (if not most) people here who want to serve as ministers or church leaders, I am interested to be a lay apologist. I think I am called to reason, to take every thought captive to God as my thoughts have been taken captive, while I work as a scientist (I think we all know how secularized is the scientific world). I hope, through apologetics, one may find a rational basis to believe in the Christian God. I found my family to be quite supportive of my choices to take natural sciences in high school, biotechnology in university (which is to come; I haven’t finished high school yet), and my vocation to reason for God’s sake.
CLI is growing her reason for God as well as her knowledge. Also CLI ensures that Jessica’s knowledge matches up with biblical teaching.
CLI helps me to find out whether I have understood what I believe properly, lest I argue for the wrong things. Please pray that more people may come to know God through the use of reason and that more believers may know what they believe and may be always prepared to give reasons with love and respect to those who need it.
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Great Faith From Great Affliction
Kidega Johnson Henry lives in a place where suffering is often happening, Kidega gained great faith from great affliction and became involved in ministry.
My name is Kidega Johnson Henry, a Ugandan by nationality and an Acholi by a tribe. Ever since I was born, we’ve never had real peace. We experienced the most traumatizing, prolonged period of conflict and human rights abuses (more than any other regions in Uganda). This has been because of the players involved with different intentions, missions and expectations and these players include:
• The National Resistant Armies whose aims were to tear down the existing government.
• The historical Karamojong cattle rustlers/ warriors whose interest was and is still cattle rustling, property looting with killing people and raping young girls and women.
• The Alice Lakwena spiritual and political rebellion against NRM Government, which swept the greater part of northern Uganda more especially the Acholi region and resulted in the loss of lives and properties.
• The Lord Resistant Armies spiritual and political rebellion against NRM Government which significantly affected the whole northern region of Uganda.
The affliction has left Uganda and many people there in a terrible situation and in need of God.
One of the leading effects of the armed conflict in the region is poverty and increased unemployment for all. Not only has the areas household wealth been looted and destroyed in different insurgencies, but also the population income base has been destroyed. The population has been deprived of its primary source of income and livelihood. Today in the areas the main source of revenue for the population is underpaid causal labour especially digging, brewing, etc. which are mainly women and youth activities. The responsibility of looking after families has fallen heavily on women and youths since most men died in the war.
Kidega through all the suffering is yet thankful because it led him to being saved. Thus he has gained great faith from great affliction in his life.
This is just to give a bit of where I came from. I slept in the bush, slept under a veranda, went without food for days, was in a displaced camp. The psalmist said, “before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey your word.” It was good for us to be afflicted so that we are saved. I gave my life to Jesus Christ because of the war on 02/06/2001.
I became an active member of Kit Gum Faith Mission Church, and in the church I was a praise and worship leader, an intercessor, a translator and a gospel preacher, by the grace of God. I saw the grace of God at work in my life since then. God started using me since 2001 up to this day. I saw many miracles, signs and wonders that God performed in people lives by his grace. As Jesus promised these signs will accompany those who believe, they will cast out demons in His name, they will speak in new tongues, they will place their hands upon the sick and the sick will recover, etc (Mark 16;15 – 18).
CLI is giving Kidega the opportunity to be more prepared for the dreams and position that God has given him.
I made a vow to the Lord while I was in trouble, with my lips I promised to serve the Lord all the days of my life. As long as life endures, I will fulfill my vow I made before I die. I know this training at CLI, if I completed successfully, will prepare me for the work God called me to do. Below are my dreams:
• I am dreaming to serve God as an international gospel preacher reaching out to lost souls through sharing the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ by the grace of God.
• To take good care of orphans, single mothers and widows by empowering them and training them with skills to earn a living. This would involve building a vocational training centre for them. I hate to see orphans, single mothers and widows suffering.
• To provide hospitality and care to servants of God by building Christian guest houses with international facilities for hosting international servants of God.
• I want to build a house of prayer and revival for all nations in my home town and several prayer centers in the northern part of Uganda.
Kidega great faith from great affliction has led him to be hopeful no matter the situation.
And I know that all my resolutions for days to come stands firm, my best days are still ahead of me. I will see the goodness of God Almighty in the land of the living. No eyes have seen; no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those that he loves, who are called according to his divine purpose.
Kidega also wants encouragement in his great faith from great affliction and his ministry.
All that I need you to do include:
• Pray for me.
• Help me with a full scholarship for Bible training. A man or woman of God should be well equipped for ministry. You can support me and even sponsor me. God will bless you.
• Support for building a prayer house, vocational training centre for equipping single mothers and widows, so that they can have better living and help their children.
Yours Sincerely,
KIDEGA JOHNSON HENRY
kimarajohnsonhenry@yahoo.com
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Passionate Calling – “Phoenix” Risen from the Ashes!
Sometimes you experience incredible obstacles and sadnesses in life. Some blame God. Some curse God and die. Others come to see God as their only hope. And when they find hope in God their lives are changed forever. Many who find hope in God will be given a passionate calling to change the world for God.
Alysha Wolf (now 22 years old) was born in a home where her father abused her mother. Her mother fled from the United States and escaped into Canada.
When I was young and still living at home I was raised as a Christian, to uphold the faith of God and always believe fully in Christ. When I was 5 years old my mother left my abusive father and literally fled from the U.S.A into B.C., Canada with me and my older sister of three years…it was only by the grace of God that we made it across the border that night.
Her mother divorced this abusive man. By the time Alysha was eight, her mother had remarried and moved to Quebec. From British Columbia, this new family ended up thousands of miles away in Quebec and then in Ontario. By age sixteen, Alysha left her home in Ontario and went to British Columbia. The first step in a passionate calling to serve Christ begins with trials. Alysha fills us in.
Years later in 2002 (I was 8) my mother moved us to Quebec, there she married my step father, I was always raised to go to church and I felt that I had a deep connection with Christ or so I thought. But by the time I turned 16, I left home from where my family was living in Ontario and I ran away to Vancouver, British Columbia.
I thought that I could handle myself on my own, and to me God was a thing of the past and I didn’t need him anymore. My deep love for God broke due to trials that I believed were his fault (I know now they have only made me stronger). I rebelled against everything I thought that I believed and I felt that I was finally free. I ended up getting pregnant when I left home. I was scared and didn’t know what to do, but I was too proud to go home. I had my baby, a beautiful baby girl. However, events happened where I learned the true nature of the father and the secret that he was hiding from me. These facts led me to allow my child to be adopted by a family that could provide so much more for her then I could (this was 2010). I hated God!
But God loved Alysha.
I believed that is was God who made it so that I had to give up my baby girl in order to keep her safe from her father. I got in with the wrong crowd, and I began doing drugs (finally gave in to peer pressure from my “friends” that this would take the pain away). Also, during this time I received a phone call from an officer in the States telling me that my birth father (the one my mother left when I was 5) had recently committed suicide and that my years of searching for him were over.
Alysha stopped blaming God for all the bad things that happened to her. And God was placing a passionate calling in her heart as He drew Alysha back to Him.
By the time I was 19, I began looking at my life and realized that every choice and every event that I had blamed on God, the situation that I was in was not his fault but my own. I took a hard look deep down and found that I was the one that needed his help and it was time to go home. After four years of never seeing my mother, it was time to go home! It was time to go home to God.
God opened new doors for Alysha as she found work and found the man of her dreams.
After I was home things turned around. I stayed home for a while and then found a job in Creston BC where I met my husband. We have been happy ever since! I am now 22 years old, married for almost a year now, and soon we will have the first addition to our family!
Alysha has a passionate calling into ministry. Her husband and family share her passionate calling.
The reason why CLI is something that I want so badly is because one day I want to be a Christian Youth Leader. This is my passionate calling into ministry. I want to help other youth not go down the same path that I did. I want them to feel the deep love for God. I want them to have a passionate calling to serve the Lord. But not just because their church or parents tell them to, but because they choose it. They can be shown what a personal walk with God is all about, and they can be on fire as I am! I want my child that is on the way to be brought up in the right way, knowing that God is the savior of all. No matter how hard the trials are, no matter how dark the path may be, God is right there beside you; all you have to do is call on him. I want the youth of this world, the next generation, to know that no matter what you have been through….You can always become a “phoenix” risen from the ashes!! Newborn in Christ!
Christian Leaders Institute is for those who need an opportunity to serve Christ but have no other way to get high-quality training. Sometimes you experience much disappointment, heartache and pain in life. God may be summoning you with a passionate calling to do something for Him. You are passionate because you know that only God can save you and everyone in this world.
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