[2010 December Email:]
Dear Valued Friends and Peers,
Dr. Joseph Holden emphasized in his presentation, "When Islam Comes To Our Community," "Islam will be coming to your town, if it is not already here." This picture is a simple yet vivid portrayal of that statement.
 Pastor William M. Rench of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, on a hill overlooking his beautiful church facility to the right. |
Right in the heart of comfortable, Conservative, middle America suburbia.
This is Pastor William M. Rench of Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula. He is standing on a hill overlooking his beautiful church facility to the right.
In the middle is a halfway built cul-de-sac, and to the left, the vacant field where the ICTV mosque will be built.
Speaking in strictly spiritual terms, how audacious of the adversary in his offense: why right here? Satan knows Islam is a completely false and counterfeit belief system. He knows that it is leading countless souls to an eternity separated from the living God.
Yet, Islam is peculiarly well adapted to thrive in the post-modernist, multicultural, religiously plural culture that has evolved over the decades since the 60's, that the clash between truth and falsehood, darkness and light would manifest itself in such an overt way as this.
How will this church leadership now respond? How will the congregation now respond? Will this church continue to thrive and grow? Or will this Baptist congregation, symbol of the backbone of American Christianity for decades, withdraw from this challenge, replicating what happened in Sudan and Europe?
I have an incredible amount of empathy for Pastor Rench and his congregation. Still, the Lord in His sovereignty and foresight has appointed every member of this congregation for such a time as this.
May God strengthen and grant great grace and wisdom for this church's leadership. May they prostrate their hearts before our sovereign Lord and seek His wisdom and direction. May He work within this congregation mightily to advance His purposes in this area and model that which He hopes to accomplish, not only here, but nationally, as the Spirit-filled Church lives and models again what should be our top priority, a gracious yet courageous book of Acts proclamation of the Gospel; testimony to the only salvation in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
May Satan's purposes, to harass and intimidate these people with this blatant provocation, FAIL MISERABLY, as that which he planned for evil, the Lord uses for great good in the future. May these, "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." (Romans 12:21)
In Jesus' name....
"Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing: then said they among the heathen, The LORD hath done great things for them." Psalms 126:2
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