HOW DO WE DISCERN THE CRY OF THE GENUINE AND THE FALSE FOR BIBLES?
During the past couple of weeks, my inbox has been crammed, bombarded with mail mostly generating out of West Africa, (well-known for the amount of 419 and other scams in various forms), this time with a "Christian" appeal and flavour to them. Below I have copied and pasted my reply to one of them which seems a little different from the other two I also copied and pasted for your review and feedback.
We do not want our Christian giving and duty as stewards of His finances, to be abused. Neither do we want to sow our seed in unfruitful ground. As stewards, the investment must bring forth fruit and interest for the Master and His Kingdom.
Was I rash? Am I judgemental? I think not. Wouldn't like to be classed as that? Was I wrong in sending the e-mail response like I did? Let me know what your take on this is and how would you have responded?
I would much rather have flown into Nigeria with boxes of Bibles, visited the different churches and seen that these precious Bibles were handed over directly to the recipients, not for the glory, but knowing that the donations of good people went to the actual person intended by the giver. Not being in the position to do that, I have to research and spend time in prayer for absolute guidance. Will you join me in praying for discernment and that G-d speak to me (us) through His Word and Spirit?
Here is my reply:
"Quote"
Dear Brother Godswill
I have received your e-mail with much joy, that you were able to discover my small blog amongst the billions of blogs on the Internet. I hear your appeal and my heart is greatly touched and moved by the cry for the Precious Word of God. Truly, we are living in the last days! Just as God spoke through the prophets of old that:
Dan 12:4 But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.
Amos 5:14 Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken.
Amo 5:15 Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph.
Amos 8:11 Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
Amo 8:12 And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.
The last days signal sinful, evil days. Days when Priest and Prophet imbibe in liquor and prophesy through strong drink (Liquor) and wine, but not out of the mouth of the Lord. People running to and fro as knowledge increases, just look on the Internet, yet the true Word of the Lord G-d is scarce. G-d sending a hunger and a thirsting after both the written and Spoken Word of the Lord without finding them.
I have empathy to your appeal and because I know that spiritual growth is dependant on getting the masses to read the Bible in their own languages but how do I discern who the true disciples and the false disciples are? My inbox has been flooded with requests for Bibles (mostly all in Giant Large Print for the elders and elderly folk), just as your appeal came to me. I have copied and pasted two other requests below so please read all the way through to the bottom of my reply.
What struck me was that in quite a few of the letters was that the content of the letters were the same or very similar and especially these two below, same address but the writers are different.
Where does this leave me? What are we to do about this? When we distribute Bibles, money, clothing and/or food to the destitute, the poor, the unemployed, those living in areas behind the Bamboo curtain and Middle East, we want to know that the seed is sowed in ground that will yield a harvest for the Kingdom of G-d. To sort through the genuine appeals and those of scammers becomes difficult. You may not believe it but even in this "free" democratic South Africa, we have many people both young and aged who have NEVER owned their own Bibles!
I personally have met many folk during our crusades and outreaches, who have asked me for a Bible of their own.
I am dismayed and appalled that there are people who will go to any lengths to scam churches, ministers and/or ministries for Bibles etc, for their own greed. I do not imply that you are crooked. If I have offended you, I apologize and ask forgiveness but you will have to convince me that my suspicions are ungrounded and you are the "Real Deal". I do not want a visitation from G-d to be misunderstood but I will definitely pray long and hard for an answer from Father about this.
I will post this in my blog and appeal to other Christian readers to pray with me that we can either know the truth and reach out in support of your cause or be warned by G-d to not allow the evil one to abuse the giving of well-meaning Christian brethren. Is this OK with you?
In His and to your service
Humbly I remain
Rodney
RODNEY G SPRAY (PASTOR)
Baroody Najwa Raja
Reply-To: useh600@9.cn
To: @jussieu.fr
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Dear Brethren in Christ,
I am very happy to write you this letter as I pray and hope you willanswer my writing for the holy bibles for myself and the christianlepers that are with me." I want to brief you little about myself. Sir i was born to the familyof a chief priest - a well known idol worshipping family, and marriedto the daughter of another such family. we had four children, andlived their idol worshipping life happily. Then everythingchanged.
My wife came back from the city where he had gone to buygoats for our annual festival. She came back to inform me of hisencounter with a man of GOD that told him about Jesus Christ and itwas the first time she was hearing of that name. she also told me theman of GOD said we should accept Jesus Christ as our only lord andpersonal saviour. We never really understand what it means to accept Jesus Christ asour only lord and personal saviour until two months later, April25,when my Wife encountered this man of GOD again and he accompany myWife back to the village, that he now taught us what it means to acceptChrist as our lord and saviour. On the 10th of May, 1994, we were baptized and started our home fellowship.
(READ THIS STORY AND COMPARE IT TO THE STORY BELOW - SAME STORY -DIFFERENT PASTOR?)
It was then that the troublestarted. The villagers including my Wife's dad abducted my Wife and sacrificed herto their gods, and that same night they came to our house in the middleof the night and set our house ablaze, and I lost my 2 sons and daughterto the inferno. It was only a miracle that I managed to escape that night with myonly surviving son, but by the time the villagers got to know aboutwhy we were running from our village, they too planned to use us forrituals, and they believed we are accursed for believing in JesusChrist. But God had a purpose for me in life, and made one of theelders in the village to have compassion on us and let us escapebefore the day we were to be used as sacrifices to their gods. We eventually settled in O. Leprosy Centre where we were receivedwith open arms. We were free from all the disturbance as the lepersare rejected people in our society back here. I was afraid to preachthe gospel again as I was afraid of death. But on October 27, 1999,God spoke to me in my dream that I should not be afraid of death, fordeath is the gateway to eternity in Heaven for we thebelievers...that HE preserved me and allowed all those persecutionsto happen to me so I can serve him.... by the next day when I woke up I realise for the 4 years I have been with the orphans, none of them haveever heard of the gospel, and none of them knew anything about our Lordand Saviour Jesus Christ. So I started to preach the gospel of Jesus tothem. Initially they refuse to listen as they believed nobody loves or careabout them and that Jesus I talk about is no different. But aftermuch preaching and praying for six months, I was able to convert 10 of them for Jesus Christ.
Today I am happy to say we are 163 innumber, and we now have a church that is called Ugbelilighe Leper Community Bible Church We have been serving and doing the work of GODdiligently even with all the hardship and untold neglect from the membersof the larger society. We don't even have a church building, and we useunder trees for our worship and services, but our major problem is theholy bible for 20 Elders in the Church and they are old and they can onlyread the GIANT PRINT BIBLES.Please do send us the Giant Print Bibles assoon as possible so that Souls will have God's Word to study. May God Bless you For the work you do for the cause of the kingdom In Christ.
Evangelist Baroody Najwa Raja
Ugbelilighe Leper Community Bible Church
19E Ugbelilighe Avenue GOP-Uje 8950 , Benin City, Edo State , Nigeria. LOOK AT THIS ADDRESS
_Maamoun Roueida Fouad
Reply-To: useh50@9.cn
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Dear Brethren in Christ,
I am very happy to write you this letter as I pray and hope you willanswer my writing for the holy bibles for myself and the christianlepers that are with me." I want to brief you little about myself. Sir i was born to the familyof a chief priest - a well known idol worshipping family, and marriedto the daughter of another such family. we had four children, andlived their idol worshipping life happily. Then everythingchanged.
(HERE AGAIN - THE SAME STORY AS THIS ONE ABOVE BUT DIFFERENT PASTORS? WHICH IS TRUTH AND WHICH IS THE LIE? ARE THESE BIBLES BEING SOLD FOR PROFIT? WHY THE GIANT PRINT BIBLE SPECIFICALLY?) Rodney
My wife came back from the city where he had gone to buygoats for our annual festival. She came back to inform me of hisencounter with a man of GOD that told him about Jesus Christ and itwas the first time she was hearing of that name. she also told me theman of GOD said we should accept Jesus Christ as our only lord andpersonal saviour. We never really understand what it means to accept Jesus Christ asour only lord and personal saviour until two months later, April25,when my Wife encountered this man of GOD again and he accompany myWife back to the village, that he now taught us what it means to acceptChrist as our lord and saviour. On the 10th of May, 1994, we were baptized and started our home fellowship.
It was then that the troublestarted. The villagers including my Wife's dad abducted my Wife and sacrificed herto their gods, and that same night they came to our house in the middleof the night and set our house ablaze, and I lost my 2 sons and daughterto the inferno. It was only a miracle that I managed to escape that night with myonly surviving son, but by the time the villagers got to know aboutwhy we were running from our village, they too planned to use us forrituals, and they believed we are accursed for believing in JesusChrist. But God had a purpose for me in life, and made one of theelders in the village to have compassion on us and let us escapebefore the day we were to be used as sacrifices to their gods. We eventually settled in O. Leprosy Centre where we were receivedwith open arms. We were free from all the disturbance as the lepersare rejected people in our society back here. I was afraid to preachthe gospel again as I was afraid of death. But on October 27, 1999,God spoke to me in my dream that I should not be afraid of death, fordeath is the gateway to eternity in Heaven for we thebelievers...that HE preserved me and allowed all those persecutionsto happen to me so I can serve him.... by the next day when I woke up I realise for the 4 years I have been with the orphans, none of them haveever heard of the gospel, and none of them knew anything about our Lordand Saviour Jesus Christ. So I started to preach the gospel of Jesus tothem. Initially they refuse to listen as they believed nobody loves or careabout them and that Jesus I talk about is no different. But aftermuch preaching and praying for six months, I was able to convert 10 of them for Jesus Christ.
Today I am happy to say we are 163 innumber, and we now have a church that is called Osesegheghie Leper Community Bible Church We have been serving and doing the work of GODdiligently even with all the hardship and untold neglect from the membersof the larger society. We don't even have a church building, and we useunder trees for our worship and services, but our major problem is theholy bible for 21 Elders in the Church and they are old and they can onlyread the GIANT PRINT BIBLES.Please do send us the Giant Print Bibles assoon as possible so that Souls will have God's Word to study. May God Bless you For the work you do for the cause of the kingdom In Christ.
Pastor Maamoun Roueida Fouad
Osesegheghie Leper Community Bible Church
19E Ugbelilighe Avenue GOP-Uje 8950 , Benin City, Edo State , Nigeria. SAME ADDRESS DIFFERENT PASTOR?
On 11/20/11, Godswill Ayazekor
Greetings in Jesus name,
May this letter finds you blessed in Christ. I am writing from West Africa and it is a blessing getting to you in the other part of the world. It is my prayer that you become a friend of me and the local church here. I got your email when I surfed into the web site and I know that it is God’s arrangement.
By His grace I am a Believer bought and washed by the Blood of Jesus Christ. I am married with three children. I am a pastor of a small local church non denominational or affiliated to anybody. The church was founded in 2006 and now has about 30 members. I gave my life to Christ in 1987 when I was still in the high school at Zaria. A campus fellowship student by name Femi was my roommate at school and his life of faithfulness unto Christ and his prayer and teaching me the Bible led me to Christ. This Brother told me then that he sensed that God was going to use me for His cause. I was never ready to hear that because my dream or thought was never in the ministry but to finish my studies and get a nice job. Five years after school and already working I started having the stronger urge and sensing that God was calling me but I kept on putting it off my heart because my job and life was sweet to me and I felt I needed nothing else.
One day a guest speaker was ministering in our church and he singled me out in a crowd of over a thousand and told me that God has called me to the ministry and cannot hide. After he left I told my pastor that I have accepted and my pastor and other elders of the church prayed with me. I immediately joined and headed the evangelical outreach of the church and I saw many coming to Christ in the outreach. I let go of my job in 2005 and returned to Edo my State. I joined a small local church and was assisting the pastor as the second pastor. In January 13th 2007 a pastor of a little church of about five families in my area walked up to me telling me that he is leaving the state to his home state where the Lord has asked him to go and start the work. He said he has been praying for over a month that the Lord has asked him to tell me to take over the little church he founded 2006. I have not had relationship with this pastor before now so it amazed me. He asked me to pray to ask the Lord. I did prayed and without wasting time I knew the Lord ask me to hold that little church and that was how I became the pastor of this church called Victory Chapel. The church is a growing church and we meet at a temporary rented building. We are earthly rich but rich in Christ, riches that will last for eternity.
2 Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth”. The reason why I am writing is to appeal for your assistance in the area of a Study Bible which will be of help to me in my research and study of the bible as well as lesson preparation as a pastor, and bibles for our aged members. These items are very scarce here. I need The Dakes Annotated Reference Bible. It is a very good study Bible for ministers of the gospel. A pastor friend here got his from www.christianbook.com where it was purchase for him by his cousin abroad. I checked the site and also found it there. Please help me for it. There are many in our local church who do not have bibles and cannot afford to buy. I want to specifically make a request for the elderly ones who cannot work and earn money to buy for themselves. There are 12 of such very old fathers and mothers in our church who read and understand English and they are very devoted. Please on their behalf I request that you send them 12 Bibles the very big letters which is the super giant print 18 point type would be preferable for them because of their sight. They also have this kind of bible at www.christianbook.com. We would also appreciate used bibles provided the pages are complete. Thank you for considering this request. And as you help to meet this kingdom need the Lord will bless you finance abundantly. If you send the bibles through post office a registered postage the bibles will get to us safely. I was told at the post office that EMS postage or insured mail is safer. My home and postal address is 498 Upper Mission Road-Glpo 5870, Oredo Local Government, Edo State, Nigeria.
(AGAIN THE PLEA FOR GIANT PRINT BIBLES FOR THE ELDERLY / AGED. WE KNOW OUR CHRISTIAN DUTY IS TO HELP WITH BIBLES AND LITERATURE BUT HOW DO WE DISCERN THE TRUTH FROM THE LIES?
Please write when you get my mail. I do not have full access to internet but I can check at least three times weekly especially after church on Sunday like today. Ecclesiastes 11:1 "Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days"
Continue to be obedient and the Lord will honour you in His time. Exodus 19:5, the Lord spoke to the children of Israel through Moses saying: "Now therefore, if you will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then you shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine:..." The Lord bless you and keep you in His perfect love.
In His Service,
Godswill Ayazeko
498 Upper Mission Road-Glpo 5870,
Oredo Local Government,
Edo State, Nigeria "Unquote"
G-d bless you for taking time to read this. We are duty-bound to spread the Gospel message about Salvation through the Sacrificial Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living G-d, but there are evil people out there who are robbing us of a real blessing because by doing things like this, they make us wary to support ministries and close our hands, hearts and pockets to the genuine brethren who are in dire straits. You may respond by e-mail, by clicking on my e-mail link or leave a comment in the box below.
Shalom / Peace
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