During the first week of October, I had the privilege of ministering in a country which is covered in spiritual darkness and controlled by a socialist military government. For thousands of years, the people of Myanmar have been blinded by religious deception with very little exposure to the light of the Gospel. As I observed the unredeemed mass of humanity (4 million people) in the city of Yangon, it gave me a better understanding of why Jesus exhorted His disciples with these words, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (Luke 10:2). May God raise up more laborers to work in these mission fields which are white for harvest!

After 33 hours of travel and the prayers of many saints, I arrived on Oct. 1 to prepare for the coming week of ministry. In one sense it was a homecoming for me because I lived there 50 years ago with my dad who was stationed there with the U.S. Army. Sunday morning I delivered a message of exhortation at a local Baptist Church and then taught the Sunday afternoon Chapel at Faith Baptist Theological Seminary. From Monday through Friday, I had the pleasure of teaching 82 students for four hours each day on subjects including: The History of the Church, Evangelism, Apologetics, Eschatology, Ecclesiology, Roman Catholicism and Christology. The students were hungry for God's Word and passionate in their worship to the risen Savior. Link.

Friday afternoon, I was invited to speak at the Myanmar Ecumenical Sharing Center which hosted a two-week conference for the Association for Theological Education in Myanmar. A graduate of The Master's Seminary and two friends of TMS were conducting the conference and persuading the attendees to be faithful to the Word of God and to seek only biblical unity in the Gospel. 

My uncle, who was a Catholic priest, spent 30 years in Myanmar converting the Burmese to Catholicism. So in the providence of God, I had the opportunity to share the Gospel with a couple of Roman Catholic priests who knew my uncle very well. They were both thrilled to meet me at first but then they realized why I had come to visit them. Sadly, they were both unwilling to believe the Word of God or the pure Gospel of grace because it did not agree with their Catholic tradition. I pray the power of God's Word, that I shared with them, will one day penetrate their stubborn hearts. 

October 31 marks the 494th anniversary of the spark that ignited the Reformation. The circumstances that brought about that great event were influenced by John Wycliffe of England, Martin Luther of Germany, John Knox of Scotland and John Calvin of Switzerland. The spark occurred when Martin Luther nailed his "95 Theses" (outlining truths from the Scripture) to the door of the Wittenburg Castle. Since then the Vatican has been trying to reverse the Reformation by calling all "separated brethren" back home to Rome. Tragically, many evangelicals are helping the cause by signing unity accords that declare Catholics to be our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The strategy of the Roman Catholic religion to unite all of Christianity is outlined in the DVD Catholics and Evangelicals - Reversing the Reformation. To order a copy visit our website.

At the Etzelsbach Marian shrine in Germany, Pope Benedict said that Mary helps us understand our purpose in life and shows us the path to authentic happiness. "'Understand,' she seems to say to us, that God, who is the source of all that is good and who never desires anything other than your true happiness, has the right to demand of you a life that yields unreservedly and joyfully to his will, striving at the same time that others may do likewise," he said. In his homily, Pope Benedict said that Christians throughout history have turned to Mary, "acting on the spontaneous conviction that Jesus cannot refuse his mother what she asks." We rely "on the unshakeable trust that Mary is also our mother-a mother who has experienced the greatest of all sorrows, who feels all our grief's with us and ponders in a maternal way how to overcome them." "How many people down the centuries have made pilgrimages to Mary, in order to find comfort and strength before the image of the Mother of Sorrows?" he asked. Pope Benedict explained that Marian devotion...helps modern man in his search for happiness. He said, "It is not self-fulfillment that truly enables people to flourish...rather it is an attitude of self-giving directed towards the heart of Mary and hence also towards the heart of the Redeemer." Read more.

If you entertain "trick or treaters" on Reformation Day evening, consider giving away this Gospel tract along with your treat. The tract asks a most important question, "Have You Ever Been Deceived?" We can be wrong about a lot of things in this life and still survive, but if we are wrong about what we are trusting for eternal life, we will pay for that mistake throughout all eternity. If your church is doing a fall festival, this tract would be a great way to share the Gospel with all who attend. The Gospel tract comes in packages of 50 and can be ordered here.