General

I’m in the last few days of an extensive trip to Asia. This morning I’m writing from a third floor apartment in the heart of Ulaanbaatar–the capital city of Mongolia.

If you’re having trouble picturing where Mongolia is located, think of China to the south and Russia to the north with Mongolia sandwiched in between. I’m actually only a couple hundred miles from the Russian border and Lake Baikal–the world’s biggest freshwater lake that contains one-quarter of the earth’s fresh water supplies.

Everything is big in this part of the world. Big sky; Biggest population in China; Largest land mass in Russia. Today I’m surrounded by rising apartment buildings and commercial structures, exploding across the landscape of a city that didn’t exist one hundred years ago.

Mongolia is on the front lines of change in the world. How do you change a nation from a land of poor nomads to the highest GDP on earth?

A Bit of History

I first came to this fascinating land in 1997, invited by my former pastor and his wife, Steve and Donna Watkins,  who were part of the first wave of Christian missionaries who came to serve in this land after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

What I found in 1997 was five cities that the Russians had created to help control the population after both the Bolshevik Revolution of the 1920s and the dividing up of the spoils of World War II in the late forties. In 1921, the Russians armed the Mongols to kick out the Chinese–their historic enemies. After the Second World War, China absorbed two-thirds of the Mongolian population into its borders–now nearly six million people in what is now called Inner Mongolia.

The rest of the Mongol population–now three million people–were left to Russian influences in the north. When I was in school, the nation was called Outer Mongolia. Today, Mongolia’s capital of Ulaanbaatar contains nearly half of the country’s population, a quarter live in the other cities, and a quarter live in the “countryside” where they still dwell in gers and herd sheep, goats, cattle, and horses.

When I first set foot in UB in 1997 (Mongol shorthand for Ulaanbaatar), the streets were empty of cars, the only colors were the paint of the Russian buildings, and taxis were dirt cheap and plentiful.

The people were very poor. At that time the average Mongol made $20 a month.

Actually, it’s amazing that Mongolia even existed in 1997. In 1904, some European journalists visited the nation and concluded that Mongolia would cease to exist  in twenty years.” Why? Because at that time they were extremely destitute, a Buddhist nation, and 40% of the Buddhist monks were homosexuals with rampant venereal diseases stalking the land and birthrates plummeting.

Then the Russians swooped in, destroyed most of the Buddhist temples, dismantled the monasteries, and created the first Mongol cities. They also installed communism as the new religion.

Due to that latter fact, when I arrived  in the late nineties, I often spoke against what the communists had done. Atrocities had been committed. But one day a Mongol pastor pulled me aside and told me that my perspective was too narrow. He believed that God had used the Russians to bring the people into cities and civilization where they could hear the Good News of Jesus Christ.

It’s hard to evangelize a nation of nomads.

So I humbled myself, did so more homework, and continued to serve in this nation that seemed to be rising from the dead.

Mongolia is going through vast changes as are many other developing nations around the world. How do you change a nation? Here are some of my observations.

Encourage Liberty

The first thing that changed in Mongolia was a birth of freedom–in government, economics, religion, family life and many other areas. It has not been an easy road, and for years the governing powers swung back and forth between the upstart “Democrats” and the “Reformed Communists.” But over twenty years now, the forces of freedom are becoming more and more established.

The current leaders of the nation are “Democrats.” Just last month, the people once again held elections and more freedom-loving people were elected to guide Mongolia into the future. There are many pitfalls ahead–and nations can always return to bondage. But Mongolia stands a chance of becoming a long-standing free and thriving nation.

Last week we transported two hundred kids to a camp in the mountains–a beautiful place called Shonkhor–a camp to which we had brought a team in 1997. The roads are so bad that you have to travel the final 10 kilometers by military truck, which nearly got stuck in the mud and swells. I told the kids that this final leg to the camp was a “10K Indiana Jones ride times ten for free!”

Fifteen years ago we were not able to share the Gospel openly at Shonkhor because the communists still controlled the facilities. In 2012, the general over all the camps welcomed me profusely and gladly took our money (!) to hold a totally open camp. We preached the Good News and young people gave their lives to Christ.

What a difference freedom makes.

Support Free Enterprise

Mongolia was very backward only thirty years ago. When freedom came, people began to start businesses and large corporations began to form. As in all entrepreneurial exercises, especially when you have no experience or history, there have been many false starts and steps forward and backward.

But twenty years into liberty, Mongolia is a changing nation. The colorful signs of free enterprise are everywhere and shops and malls and businesses have burst forth across the country. Today, many Mongols can rise out of poverty to live a prosperous life. Some are being left behind, but there is still hope to raise the entire nation out of economic misery into the blessings of freedom.

I have many friends here, who in the 1990s, had no water, heat, apartment, a refrigerator, or even the basics that we take for granted in the developed nations. That has now changed for many of them. It is unbelievable  how many apartments are being built and how many cars now clog the streets (another problem they need to solve ).

Right outside my apartment window sits a huge crane where another modern apartment building is going up. I think “cranes” are the greatest landmark in Ulaanbaatar right now! They are everywhere because a backward nation is moving into modern life.

Mongolia’s GDP in 2010 was an exceptional 6.4 percent. In 2011 it astonishingly rose to 17.3 percent and in the first quarter of 2012, it still stood at 16.7 percent–one of the highest in the world. Mining companies are now thriving in the nation where vast amounts of resources have always existed but were never used for the people. The couple I’m staying with have a daughter who will be given a piece of land by the government (which happens for all newborns here). They will use the land to build a summer house.

Mongolia could become a thriving industrial nation in the 21st century. Free enterprise can raise many boats in a nation that allows it to flourish.

The Growth of the Church

I know I’m biased, but the greatest engine of change in Mongolia is people coming into a living relationship with Christ which expands their faith, hope, love and character. In 1980 there were no followers of Jesus in the nation. Zero. Today, there are nearly 150,000 (five percent of the population) in hundreds of churches.

I spoke in the largest church in Mongolia last Sunday on the Fourth Wave of Missions–the great tsunami of love that God is bringing to the world. The Mongolians shouted out at the end of the message, “We are the Fourth Wave.” It was a beautiful sight.

The next week we took hundreds of kids to camp. Days later, a team left from the church to do missions work in the western side of the nation. The Mongolian Church has set a goal to grow to 10% of the population by 2020. After that, we are encouraging them to raise their vision to one-third of the population by 2050.

South Korea did it–and so can Mongolia.

Much of the growth is simply answered prayer. The Mongolians are a praying people. As I write, a group from the church is spending hours praying at a Korean retreat center. In 2012 the Mongol churches have committed to 24/7 prayer for the nation for the entire year. God will not disappoint them.

And they are catching a vision to share their faith in other nations. At our various events we hosted believers from other Central Asian countries including a team of fourteen from Inner Mongolia. They realize this is the first time in history they are a part of the global mission force. At the present time, Mongolia is in the top ten worldwide of missionary sending nations per capita. The Mongol Church is growing its world vision.

The followers of Christ are also doing a number of things that are crucial to changing a nation:

• They have a solid vision for discipleship. People are not just “saved” and left on their own to figure it out. In many churches they have good structures of follow-up, cell groups, and personal discipleship that help new believers grow in their faith.
• Family life is becoming more Christ-centered as they learn to apply the teachings of Jesus to every area–marriage, raising children, and ministering to extended families. Many people in Mongolia are alcoholics (left-over baggage from the communist era). Through the Church, people are finding freedom in Christ as family members point the way out of bondage.
• Most of the Mongol churches have experienced the power of the Holy Spirit which has created vibrant and culturally relevant worship forms, gifts of healing and other miracles, and a trust in God’s power. In many cases, the missionaries did not bring this emphasis to Mongolia. But the Holy Spirit did. A nation filled with shamans and demonic powers needed the power of God to overcome them. He is giving it in abundance.
• For the first time in their history, Mongol believers are learning to take their faith into all the arenas of life: government, education, business, the media, the arts and sports, and science and technology. They are understanding that the principles and ways of God bring blessing to all of life. For example, when you run a business with Christ-like integrity, honesty, and service, then that business can flourish more than one filled with corruption and greed. I know Mongol believers in sports, business, and industry that are rising to “disciple the nation.” This is one of the great hopes for Mongolia’s future.

I leave Mongolia in a few days, but I am excited about what lies ahead. Many people still live in poverty and despair compared to other nations on earth. The road before them will not be easy.

But nations can be changed when freedom comes through the Good News of Jesus.

Please pray for Mongolia to rise to greatness in Christ. And work to see the same results in the nation where God has placed you.

We live in a time of dense moral fog.  I spoke to a group of pastors yesterday about the need to preserve marriage in the state of Washington. Our legislature recently crammed down the throat of the WA electorate a bill that legalizes homosexual marriage.

We, the people, will challenge it in a fall referendum.

Re-define marriage?  That’s like re-defining “gravity.” Gravity is what it is. No word games can change its reality. Consequently, no re-definition can alter the fact that only a man and a woman can “join together” in marriage. It’s physically impossible to do otherwise. Marriage was designed by God to discourage immorality and provide nurture and care for children conceived via the union.

If you’d told me thirty years ago that the definition of marriage would be up for grabs in my lifetime, I would have said that you were crazy.

But that’s what we are–twisted, crazy, upside down. Our back-slidden Judeo-Christian culture has perilously lost its moorings–even over something as basic as marriage.

That’s not all. Now we have another crazy idea: we want Uncle Sam to pay for our sexual sin.

Let me introduce you to Sandra Fluke.

You’ve probably heard of her by now–the cute, sassy, “reproductive rights activist” and Georgetown University law student who was paraded before a Congressional Committee last week. She became an instant liberal media sensation by pleading for government paid contraception for those who are “hooking up” in between law classes at Georgetown.

First of all, let’s examine the politics behind Ms. Fluke’s appearance. According to anybody with a brain, it’s obvious that Sandra Fluke’s sob story was engineered by the Obama White House and its secular allies. They desperately needed to take attention away from the mountains of debt, miserable economy and rising gas prices that might cause Barack Obama to become a one-term president.

So somebody got creative. Enter Saul Alinsky Tactics 101:  Create a diversion so people are distracted from reality. George Stephanopoulos brings up the nobody-is-talking-about-it subject of contraception for fifteen distracting minutes in a Republican presidential debate; The press lulls Rick Santorum and other candidates into commenting–and viola!–all of a sudden there is a Republican “War on Women” and we must re-elect the president to make sure none of them die (or miss their pills…you get the idea).

Then, a slick pivot was made from creating a campaign issue for the president to changing God-given rights to government-proscribed rights. Of course, this started with Obamacare–which basically turned America on its head by saying that we all have a right to health care–and that the federal government will mandate it for us. That means force it on us whether we like it or not–and by the way–that health care will include free condoms and abortafacients (morning after pills that kill newly conceived babies).

Of course, your religious objections don’t matter.  We’re all secularists now (actually, that’s the progressive goal, the changing of the American worldview), so shut up and pay your taxes. For the past couple of months, and until the Obamacare mandate is struck down by the Supreme Court later this year, the Catholic Church and others have been fighting this historic denial of God-given religious freedoms.

Enter Sandra Fluke, the third distraction in this trinity of craziness. Not only did she take attention off the economy, and bury the truth about religious liberty, but she invented a new right of free condoms or pills for all (especially “poor” law students who are struggling). You could hear the orchestra of violins playing in the back of the Congressional chambers.

I’ve added some humor to this column to help you through it, but I’m deadly serious about how mind-numbingly twisted our American set of rights and values have become.

Ms. Fluke–President Obama–the Democratic Party–and the mainstream media–are demanding that we subsidize peoples’ personal sexual sins. Can you believe it?  Are we insane?

Yes–a portion of us are morally mad at this point in our history. It is up to the rest of us to expose this cloud of darkness and cast it from the shores of our beloved Republic.

I want to include a significant excerpt from Family Research Council on the Sandra Fluke affair. It was published on March 8, 2012:

“President Obama needed a diversion–and thanks to Sandra Fluke, he got one. Ever since her testimony about the hardships of buying $9 birth control, this Georgetown law student has become the contraception mandate’s standard bearer. After some unfortunate comments from Rush Limbaugh, the debate has shifted away from religious liberty to Ms. Fluke’s hurt feelings. It’s been convenient controversy for the White House, which may have been at its most vulnerable point in the last three years when it decided that the pursuit of sex is more important than the protection of conscience rights. Once backed into a corner by members from both parties, the Left finally found a victim to rally around–and the media has been all too happy to oblige.”

“But these distractions, as helpful as they may have been to the President’s cause, won’t last forever. At its core, this shows the administration’s pattern of trampling on religious freedom in its pursuit of a ‘fundamentally changed’ America. What Sandra Fluke has done, in part, is draw attention back to the dangers of ObamaCare, which threatens not only our physical health but our moral well-being. Essentially, the President is demanding that religious people sacrifice their beliefs to benefit someone else’s libido.”

Through this mandate, he suggests that unlimited sexual license is more important than faith. As Cathy Ruse explained, ‘Ms. Fluke’s crusade for reproductive justice is simply a demand that a Catholic institution pay for drugs that make it possible for her to have sex without getting pregnant… That doesn’t mean she has to have less sex’ Cathy points out, ‘only that she has to take financial responsibility for it herself.'”

“What’s so unreasonable about that? Intimacy, after all, is a choice. And God may have given us the right to make that choice, but He never gave us the right to force others to pay for it. That’s like asking people to ‘pay for [their] neighbor’s taxi rides because he likes to get drunk,’ Dr. Bob Moeller said. Like drinking, overeating, or smoking, promiscuity is an optional lifestyle habit–not a basic human need.”

“What liberals are advocating is essentially a sexual welfare program, where birth control and abortion drugs are the handout. As far as they’re concerned, people are as entitled to intimacy as they are to food and water. Unfortunately, that ideology comes not just at our expense but at society’s. FRC’s own research shows that the more people engage in sexual relations before marriage, the more harm it does to marriage. With each encounter, the risk of divorce–and all of its social consequences–goes up. So asking unmarried students to practice abstinence is not a life-threatening proposition, it’s life-affirming!”

As I contemplate the moral confusion of our era, the words of our wise and most beloved president, who also served during a morally decadent time, come to mind.

Abraham Lincoln, commenting on the evil of slavery, said these truthful words: No man has a right to do wrong. We can add to it in 2012: and have the audacity to ask the government to pay for it.

Let’s clear the moral fog that is confusing and hurting our nation and seek for moral renewal in our nation. That includes praying for people like Sandra Fluke and electing new leaders who will work to promote our God-given rights and responsibilities–not subsidize our sins.

This coming Sunday we celebrate the tenth anniversary of 9-11 when America was attacked by Muslim jihadists and three thousand innocent people died.

Like many of you, I  remember where I was when I heard the news. I spent the day glued to the television set–even watching in real-time the second plane hit the Twin Towers. I remember the Pentagon being rammed by a third errant aircraft, and the courageous decision of the passengers of Flight 93 to stop the fourth flight from raining more devastation down on Washington, D.C.

I remember people praying and turning to God during the months following the Al Qaida attack–especially the US Congress singing “God Bless America” on the steps of the Capitol.

This Sunday we will commemorate the event at Ground Zero in New York and in numerous services and ceremonies throughout the country. But I’m afraid there are two lessons we haven’t learned from the 9-11 tragedy.  And both conservatives and liberals are to blame.

First, let’s discuss contemporary conservatism and liberalism as practiced in the United States. The Republican Party is generally associated with conservative political positions and policies. The Democratic Party, especially in the current era of Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, and Barack Obama, is known as the party of liberalism.

I am a conservative because the conservative philosophy is historically wedded to the Christian view of  reality. Most conservatives believe in God or a Higher Power. They understand that we live in a fallen world that has been affected by sin. They believe in God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Conservatives understand the need for civil government, but due to man’s fallen nature, they believe this power should be limited.

Christian conservatives believe that Jesus transforming individual lives is the key to a moral and prosperous society. Christ’s power within produces self government or control that allow human laws and civil governments to be minimal and non-intrusive. As James Madison once declared, “We have staked the whole future of American civilization, not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”

Free enterprise or capitalism is a result of the Christian conservative view. Adam Smith, the father of modern capitalism (The Wealth of Nations), was a Christian conservative who studied to be a clergyman. When self-controlled people are at liberty to dream, create, and pursue their livelihoods in free societies, then the greatest advances, inventions and corresponding prosperity are possible.

Conservatives also believe in the importance of marriage and family as God-given bed-rocks of society. They believe that morality produces true freedom, and liberty allows people to soar.

According to conservatives, governments are ordained by God (Romans 13:1-8) to protect the citizenry from enemies, both within and without. Thus conservative governments are usually strong on national defense and all aspects of law enforcement.

America’s conservative movements were fueled by a number of religious revivals throughout our history.

On the other hand, political liberals generally have a different view of life. Though some are people of faith or espouse a form of spirituality, a significant percentage are either atheists, agnostics or secular folks. To most liberals, the Higher Power they acknowledge is an ever-expanding Government which re-distributes wealth, provides a safety net for the poor, and is the focus of man-directed “salvation” in society.

Liberals don’t like capitalism. They want governments to increasingly control the means of economic production and are generally in favor of increasing government regulations for the “good” of the people. For liberals, power is concentrated in an intellectual elite rather than in the sovereignty of the individual. Liberals promote democracy, but their worldview tends to produce socialism, fascism, and ultimately communism. All of these “isms” simply describe different degrees of control by the State.

The liberal worldview is very much in keeping with secular atheism. Because there is no God or certainty of moral truth, liberals tend to want to “progress” beyond Christian morals to complete licentiousness in personal lifestyles. They are usually pro-choice regarding abortion–it’s one of the “sexual freedoms” they won in the 1970s–and are in the forefront of wanting to change the definition of marriage.

Liberals are generally weak on national defense because they do not share the biblical view that man is fallen and that evil is a danger in the world. Liberals believe that people are inherently good and simply need to be educated or “enlightened.”

Modern liberalism was a product of the atheism-based Enlightenment of the 17th and 18th centuries which was re-born in the 20th under Woodrow Wilson and the “Progressive” movement.

Here’s a simple summary of conservatism and liberalism:

• Conservatives believe in God and want controls on morality and freedom in economics.
• Liberals believe in themselves and desire controls on business and freedom in morality.

America is currently in an all-out war between these competing worldviews.

Though I am conservative, I have to admit that both sides have a glaring weakness. This is a great concern as we face the lessons we should have learned since 9-11. These two weaknesses relate to the essence of the gospel message.

Jesus first words to the masses when he announced his ministry on earth are found in Mark 1:15. He said:

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the good news.”

Repent and believe.

This is the heart of the Christian worldview. We are sinful people who need to repent–to express sorrow for our sins, fear God, and turn away from them. We also need faith–to trust that God can forgive us, empower us, and help us overcome the world.

Conservatives should be strong in both repentance and faith. After all, our political worldview comes out of the Bible and its principles for living. I believe we are generally strong on the faith side of the ledger.

It’s the repentance aspect that conservatives have downplayed in the past thirty years. We don’t like to talk about sin anymore.

The churches are responsible for the shift. How many sermons on sin, hell, or repentance have you heard in the last decade? How many tear-stained altar rails have you recently visited?

Very few. Yet, the subjects of sin and repentance were forefront in America’s great religious revivals. During those seasons (e.g. The Great Awakening in the 1730-40s or the Great Revival in the 1860s) God revealed his holiness and justice, convicted people of their sins, and empowered them to cast off their chains of apathy, disobedience, and rebellion.

National disasters like war and economic problems were used then to bring people to repent–to change their hearts and lives.

That process began to happen after 9-11–but the conservative movement via the churches did not fan it into a 21st century revival.

Why? Because of a desire to be relevant and appear to be positive, many churches have stopped preaching and teaching the ugliness of sin and need to repent before God. Repentance has become old-fashioned and too narrow (too conservative?).

Because of this, conservatives tend to emphasize only the faith side of the equation. One form this takes is the conservative emphasis on American exceptionalism.

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh share on this subject the other day. He was referring to Shelby Steele’s excellent article that was recently published in the Wall Street Journal. It is entitled “Obama and the Burden of Exceptionalism.” You can read it here. I agree with everything Mr. Steele says.

It’s what conservatives don’t say that bothers me. They are not calling the nation to repent before God. They are emphasizing our unique heritage, our role in the world, and our values that made us great. That’s the exceptionalism part–or the faith part.

But we also have many sins that need to be abandoned. 

We haven’t repented of those sins since 9-11.

Liberals don’t really understand repentance because many of them don’t believe in God or sin. So it’s natural that they are not involved in this aspect of the gospel equation.

But liberals don’t have faith either. Like our current American president, they don’t seem to have great vision or hope for the future. They apologize for America around the world (I guess that’s their angle on repentance), believe we’ll be stuck at nine percent unemployment for years, and like Jimmy Carter opined thirty-five years ago, talk about an American “malaise” that is extremely crippling.

So the conservatives have forgotten repentance and the liberals are lacking faith.

This is what we’ve failed to learn since 9-11. Great individuals, families, and nations are built on the foundation of repentance from sin and faith toward God.

Ten years since 9-11, our greatest needs as a nation are repentance and faith. Start with yourself. I’ve been doing that recently in my own life.

Remember that “revival is God’s finger pointed at me.”