NOTE FROM: MASTER POTTER MINISTRIES

Dear Steve,

This is an article from our July newsletter. If you find it appropriate please feel free to publish it on the List. We appreciate your ministry so much and want to thank you for the interest you have shown us in the past.

Blessings to you.
Madeline Watson for Jill Austin Master Potter Ministries

NOTE FROM JILL AUSTIN:

Dear Friends,

Not only is the revelation of the beauty of God being released with millions coming into the Kingdom, but hell is also vomiting out its murderous rage in unparalleled fury. God has told many of you that you are called to martyrdom. What can you do to prepare? What can you do to make a difference in these last days? With so many lost and dying people in the nations, my heart is stirred to take a fresh look at what may be ahead for many of us.

*************************************************************

MARTYRDOM -- THEIR BLOOD CRIES OUT By Jill Austin

They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Rev. 12:11

BEATEN AND RAPED FOR THE GOSPEL

In the summer of 1998, a young woman from Sudan, Africa, was attacked, severely beaten, and raped by Muslims simply because she was wearing a cross. When she tried to escape, her throat was slit and she was bayoneted in the back.

Her assailants ripped her dress off and proceeded to melt water bottles and pour the hot, liquid plastic onto her skin, leaving it in puddles and scarring her for life. She survived the brutal assault only to become pregnant by the horrible incident and is now raising her child.

600 MILLION SUFFERING PEOPLE

Seventy-five percent of the world's Christians live in third world nations-- nations that are predominantly Hindu, Buddhist, and Muslim. Persecution in many nations brings extortion, family division and separation, harassment, and discrimination in employment and education while over 600 million Christians live as second-class citizens in their societies.

PACIFYING THEOLOGY

In the Western church today, intimacy with Jesus has become a sweet and oft-heard phrase echoing in church halls as believers quote from Philippians 3:10: "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection." But many don't finish the verse: ". . . and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death."

This irony is a powerful revelation--- that intimacy comes THROUGH SUFFERING! That is why Holy Spirit chose to use Paul, not only to pen these words, but also to demonstrate them through his own life of suffering for the gospel.

The Western church has developed a pacifying theology of telling herself that suffering is not the will of God, but that it is Satan having his way in the life of a believer. Accusations rise up in our hearts against a sovereign God's inability to alleviate pain and suffering in our lives, preventing us from embracing the Cross.

READY OR NOT! --MARTYRDOM IS ON THE RISE!

Martyrdom and persecution are on the rise in America and the Western nations. Yet, many of us still believe that suffering means we aren't physically comfortable or that persecution means our family thinks we are just too radical when we refuse to watch a certain program on TV.

Jesus paints a different picture in Luke 9:23,24: If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it. Many will lose their lives and be martyred, but they will overcome their accuser by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, not having loved their lives to the death. (Rev. 12:11)

THE PASTOR SAID HE'D SEND HIS SONS AND DAUGHTERS -EVEN IF IT MEANT MARTYRDOM

I once saw a pastor standing in front of a large map of the world that was mounted on the wall of his church while Holy Spirit was brooding over the room. In tears, he told the Lord that he would send his sons and daughters from his church to the nations-- even if it meant that they would be martyred. Women of Destiny, release your life to the glorious cause of Christ. Learn to love Him so much that you, too, will join those who have not loved their lives to the death.

[Reprinted from the Women of Destiny Bible, (c) copyright 2000 by Thomas Nelson]