1. A Prayer and a Prayer: My friend John Starke compares two prayers, “The first prayer, “Lord, give me patience,” is a prayer that she has learned she ought to pray. But the second is something deeper than a request “give me,” but a lament.”

2. The 50 Countries It’s Most Dangerous to Follow Jesus in 2021: Open Doors’s new list includes North Korea, Afghanistan, followed by Somalia, Libya, Pakistan, Eritrea, Yemen, Iran, Nigeria, and India as the top ten. This Christianity Today report begins with the sobering news that, “Every day, 13 Christians worldwide are killed because of their faith. Every day, 12 churches or Christian buildings are attacked.”

3. Our Patriotic Idolatry: Danny Friederichsen with a timely warning, “Patriotolatry is dangerous because it flies under the radar for so many American Christians. After all, it can feel dangerously like faithfulness.”

4. The Blessing of Our Weariness: David Qaoud with a great reminder and encouragement, “weariness is a reminder that God created you to get stuff done for his glory (Ephesians 2:10). To use an N.D. Wilson expression, “Life is meant to be spent.” Workaholism is bad, but laziness is equally so…Weariness reminds us that idleness is sinful and that our lives are meant to be poured out for the glory of the triune God.”

5. Secret Sins Will Hurt Others: Greg Morse reminds us how significant our battle against sin is, “In this, Satan is a crafty spider, spinning a web of concealed threads sticking to those we never intended to harm.”

6. How to Respond to the News About Ravi Zacharias: Speaking of secret sins: this week a report was issued about an in-depth investigation of Ravi Zacharias which revealed a horrific history of sexual sin and cover-up. Randy Alcorn offers wisdom in how to consider such a devastating report.

The Courageous Multiplication of God’s Church in India

We just returned from our second trip to India and it was another unforgettable experience. I’ve been blessed to have been able to participate on quite a few mission trips over the year, but as powerful as each of those trips have been and as many God-glorifying organizations I’ve worked with, nothing compares with these trips to India.

Through a series of providential connections, New Life has connected with Mission Voice Network, an organization of indigenous church planters in Southern India, where fewer than 2% know Jesus. Mission Voice Network’s heart is to plant churches where 80% of India’s 1.2 billion people live: in the rural communities of India. This is needed because 80% of funding for church planting in India is being sent to India’s cities.

This vision is being carried out in a country with significant persecution. A month ago Open Doors released their latest ranking of the most persecuted countries for Christians and India ranked #10 with the additional designation of being the country in the world with the worst physical or mental abuse directed at Christians.

Mission Voice Network packs our time from morning to late in the evening, allowing us to visit many pastors and congregations. We attended pastors’ homes, evangelistic outreaches, baptism services, evangelism training services, church services, regional pastors’ gatherings, and Mission Voice Network’s Director’s conference. Every pastor has a different story, many converted from Hinduism, and many highlighted by God’s miraculous intervention. I shared a few of these stories last year.

One of the sweet blessings of a return trip is reconnecting with the many godly pastors and digging deeper relationally. We were also able to visit many new churches. One of those pastors, William, is one of the few second-generation Christians in the network. But that doesn’t mean William’s[i] life has been easy.