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UPDATE
September 29th, 2008
 Dear Saints:
Our close friend and revered
mentor who serves on ICM’s Board of Advisers, Dr Robert Coleman,
wrote in his book “The Master Plan of Discipleship” (Dr Coleman is
also the author of Book 3 of ICM’s training manuals “Fundamental
Truths of Evangelism”) as follows:
“Discipling men and women
is the priority around which our lives should be oriented.
Why do we say this? Because Jesus Christ Himself said it in His
final words before His Ascension into heaven. Matthew's account sums
it up: "Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I
commanded you . . ." (Matt. 28: 19,20).
Significantly, in the original text, "go," "baptizing," and
"teaching” are participles. This means that these responsibilities
derive their direction from the leading verb, "make disciples," or
as it might be translated, "make learners of Christ."
 It shouldn't seem strange that our Lord would place such a high
priority on discipling. After all, Jesus was simply asking His
followers to do what He had done with them. That is why they could
understand it. As they had freely received, now they were to
transmit what they had learned to other seekers of truth. The
mandate was the articulation of the rule by which Christ had
directed His ministry. Though slow, and not accomplished without
great sacrifice, He knew His way would succeed. For as individuals
learn of Him and follow the pattern of His life, they will
invariably become disciplers, and as their disciples in turn do the
same, someday through multiplication the world will come to know Him
whom to know aright is life everlasting”.
Dr Coleman voices the conviction of ICM that the “Great
Commission is not a special calling or a gift of
the Spirit; it is a command -an obligation incumbent upon the whole
community of faith. There are no exceptions.”
TRAINING IN CHINA
It is with this deep sense of call “to make disciples” that
Marguerite and I flew to a remote part of China and trained 55
pastors and evangelists who journeyed a long way from six provinces
spread over the length and breadth of the country. The intense
training which lasted a week saw them travailing before the Lord for
the lost and the sick. Their praise and worship and their
prayer-time accentuated their intimate relationship with their
Master.
THE DISTINCT VALUE SYSTEMS
 
We have traveled to China many times both as tourists and for
business. In my case, it has been at least 35 years of travel to and
within China. None of these times have we faced a more fervent,
passionate, endearing and yet formidable group of Christians. We
have such a bonding with them but as I write this Update, I am
particularly conscious of my readership who are largely western in
mindset which places ultimate value upon reason and the rational
process. The axiom "I think, therefore, I am" captures the
traditional western orientation. China, on the other hand, lays
stress upon man's correct place in society. “I belong, therefore, I
am" expresses the central Chinese value.
We begin to see the difference between east and west, a contrast
between two distinct value systems. One magnifies the individual,
the other the group. One glorifies man's mind and capacity to
reason, the other his ability to function harmoniously within his
various social roles. Individualism is the fruit of the western
system marked by independence of decision and action. In China, the
individual is subordinate to the family and most decisions reflect
group consensus.
TRANSITION TO CHRISTAINITY
In speaking to some of the students who are already in the ministry
most of their lives, I sense their deep and consuming passion to
bring the Truth to their family, their community, their village,
their province and finally their country. The unflinching commitment
to filial piety among the middle-aged Chinese sometimes impedes the
believer from executing his transition from his faith to
Christianity. Upsetting family tradition is taboo, particularly when
the new believer is put under a guilt condemnation to bury the head
of his household according to his faith.
GUTS and INTEGRITY by Marguerite Khoo
Marguerite spoke on “Guts and Integrity”, besides the curriculum
chapters of Module One. It was received with much self-pondering and
private times of confession. Prayerfully, it will start a small
avalanche of people who will desire to live by God’s Integrity.
Prayerfully, a small beginning with 55 Christian Leaders in a small,
insignificant and poor city of China, will move first the Chinese
Church and then a mighty nation towards a deep desire for God’s
Holiness and Righteousness. Prayerfully, including yours, it would
start this ripple towards integrity, towards God...
The Message:
Integrity and morality, the bedrock of stable family units and the
anchor of honest, well-run Governments and Corporations. Talk as
much as you want about it; give as many seminars and lectures on the
subject; dedicate as many curriculum hours on Ethics and Morality in
schools but individual lives and cohorts of civilization will NEVER
reach a standard of self-governance which will establish the purity
and honesty the world desires but never is able to attain. Perhaps,
no not perhaps but absolutely, definitely the reason is that we have
“thrown the baby out with the bath water”. We have thrown out the
very Author and Creator of the Creed Who can get us to that
seemingly impossible point of rightness (righteousness). Yes, we
have chosen to throw Him out of our very lives, family, business and
country and some whilst still ‘worshipping’ Him on Sunday in Church.
C.S. Lewis summarizes this in a beautiful way as he speaks about the
untamable appetites of lust, greed, lies and deception etc.
“Mere knowledge of right and wrong is powerless against a person’s
appetites. Rather, reason must rule the appetites by means of the
spirited element that is loyal to a transcendent Good (GOD) higher
than oneself.
Reason is likened to the head,
Appetite to the stomach and the
Spirited element to the chest.
Unfortunately we remove the organ and demand the function... we make
men without chests and expect of them virtue and enterprise; we
laugh at honor and are shocked to find betrayers in our midst.”
The fall of Lehman Brothers, Goldman Sachs, AIG and Merryl Lynch;
the milk powder morality (or immorality) of the Chinese
manufacturers following so closely after such an absolutely
spectacular display during the Olympics of the ‘Coming of Present
Age’ of China; the near collapse of Bear Stearns ALL have one common
malady. INTEGRITY...the lack of.
Several descriptives come to mind. Betrayal, immorality, infidelity,
untrustworthiness, the destruction of dependability, confidence and
assuredness. Only One Way to bring back a pure holy conviction and
the ability to separate what’s right from wrong. Only One Person who
can instill in ALL of us a faithfulness, a fidelity, a yearning to
know the Truth and to be directed in thought word and deed by the
Truth, and Who will give us a certainty, a permanence, that rest.
His name is Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Son of the Living God who is
“the Way, the Truth, and the Life” and no man goes to Father God in
Heaven except through Him. No other man...no other way.
So, what are we saying here! We can have a beautifully ‘borrowed’
creed as does Communism from the Bible and then strive very hard to
live by these tenets. But try as we/(they) might, we will ALWAYS
fail and fall short like the very men who ran these companies ... if
God is not in it and His Holy Spirit’s power not within us to live
out these honorable tenets.
~End of Message~
Please pray for China. “The church is growing at a rate nearly
unparalleled in the history of Christianity,” according to one
Chinese sources. Asia Link reports: “God is still forming their
character but there is a tremendous zeal and love of God… The
passion the Chinese Christians have for Jesus is not because they
are in some way intrinsically more Godly than the rest of us.
Rather, the passion and wholehearted commitment of the Chinese
believers has come abut as God has orchestrated events in China that
have brought about a tremendous revival and hunger for Him…”
Please pray and help us with a strong financial gift for our China
program. Please send your gift to us at P.O.Box 12512, Fort Worth,
Texas 76110-8512 or 126A Rangoon Road, Singapore 218404.
Please visit us at http://www.icmission.net. We love to hear from
you.
God Bless you.
David Vardy
Chairman
International Christian Mission
ICM Bible School in a Briefcase (UK)
E-Mail: david@davidvardy.com
Tel: (44) 1913-744-772
Cell: (44) 7774-131-171
Khoo Hin Hiong
President/Founder
International Christian Mission
E-Mail:
icm@pacific.net.sg
E-Mail:
icmglobal@gmail.com
Web-site:
www.icmission.net
Tel: (65) 6291-2477
Cell: (65) 81818-757
Fax: (65) 6292-0996
Edwin Marsden
Executive Vice President
International Christian Mission
E-Mail: icmklmsia@yahoo.com
E-Mail: edmarsden@gmail.com
Tel: (603) 2070-7790
Cell: (6012) 221-1662
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