HALF THE WORLD LIVES ON LESS THAN $2 A DAY

ALBUQUERQUE-- Half the world lives on less than $2 a day.
Right now, that's more than three billion people, but new research suggests the population will hit the seven billion mark within the next two years.
A news release from Audio Bible Ministry Faith Comes by Hearing said that researchers with the Population Reference Bureau (PRB) also found that the least developed regions, like Africa, Asia and Latin America, are projected to double in population by 2050.
PRB, a well respected source for world population information, recently released these statistics in their 2009 World Population Data Sheet.
Morgan Jackson, Faith Comes By Hearing's international director, said in a news release that these new figures are troubling because billions of people may never hear the message of hope and truth in God's Word.
“Already, the world's poorest of the poor are cut off from the Bible,” Jackson said.
He added, “Half of the world's people are illiterate and too poor to afford a Bible. Five of six African believers will never own their own Bible. And when people don't have Scripture in a format they can use and understand, the results can be devastating to villages and whole countries.”
Jackson, referring to a recent article in Christianity Today, explained how children in Africa are abandoned and abused after being labeled as witches.
“In Africa, witchcraft is a huge problem,” the news release reported Jackson said. “When people (or children) are labeled as witches, they are beaten, thrown out of their villages, hunted down, sometimes killed, and left with nothing. And it stems from many believers not being established in the faith through the Word of God.”
He commented, “The situation in Africa is symptomatic of what happens in cultures where the Word of God has not penetrated hearts. That's what happens all over the world. People will hear and memorize one story or passage and build whole doctrines (or even denominations) on it, and leaders can mislead the people.”
The news release said Jackson added, “I'm reminded of a story from Ghana where a pastor was unable to read. He had two young men in the church read the Bible for the people, but these men made an agreement to never read any Scripture about adultery or fornication. They used their position to have relations with women, all the while explaining that this was a service to God.”
Jackson said, “When the Konkomba Audio Bible was heard in the church as a part of the Faith Comes By Hearing listening group they were immediately found out. One fled and one repented.”
The news release said that stories like these clearly illustrate both the need for God's Word in the heart language of the people, and in a format they can use.
“Small bits of Scripture may be the only truth they have. They just don't know any different,” the news release reported Jackson said.
He added, “But modern technology is helping overcome centuries-old barriers of poverty, distance, language, illiteracy, and culture. For the first time in history, we have the tools to reach every person in the world with the Word of God-no matter where they are.”
One of these tools is the Proclaimer, a self-powered audio player that can be used in the most remote and rugged locations.
According to the news release, the Proclaimer's embedded microchip is pre-loaded with the Audio Drama New Testament in the heart languages of the world. Indigenous believers take these Audio Bibles into their villages and towns and start listening groups. Villagers in groups up to 300 gather around to listen, and then discuss what they've heard. By interacting with the Word of God, people come to know and follow the God of the Bible.
Currently, New Testament recordings in more than 397 languages are being used in Bible listening programs in 150 countries.
According to the organization, Faith Comes By Hearing's free Audio Bibles are also being used by many well-known ministries for evangelism, discipleship, church planting and leadership development in villages, hospitals, orphanages, house churches and mega-churches.

EDITOR OF CHRISTIANMONEY.COM SUSPENDED FROM TWITTER

DAYTONA BEACH - James L. Paris, Editor-In-Chief of www.ChristianMoney.com, a conservative financial news site for Christians, has been suspended today from Twitter.
Paris blogged this week in support of Rush Limbaugh when he was dropped from the investor group negotiating to purchase the St. Louis Rams. "The article I wrote in support of Limbaugh was re-posted more than 150 times on Twitter. This was not done by me, but by those that read the blog and wanted to pass it along (called re-tweeting). Due to the dates in question, my suspension can only be due to the tweets posted in favor of Limbaugh", said Paris on Saturday evening.
Paris has posted his suspension notice from Twitter on his blog www.jameslparis.com. James L. Paris is the author of more than 20 books and hosts two live Internet podcasts each week.

LOVE SCAMMERS TARGET CHRISTIAN LONELY ONLINE FOR FRAUD

Have you had the blessed opportunity to comfort a stranger-turned-friend-turned-suitor online by shipping money to his (or her) bank account in, say, Nigeria?
Evidently, this is a big scam in Australia where the Brisbane Times reports that financial wolves masked in Christian lambs' lingo are raiding the bank accounts of lonely Christian women online.
In her story, headlined, "Thou shalt not fleece," (hat tip to CathNewsUSA for pointing me there) Amelia Bentley says fraud specialists estimate& Australians are sending $4.5 million a month to Nigeria "where romance scamming is a thriving cottage industry."
Police revealed two out of three victims of romance fraud are women, who scammers target on social networking pages, dating sites and Christian chat rooms.
Detective Superintendent Hay said a recent study of 200 victims of online fraud found 120 had fallen for romance-related scams and had collectively parted with more than $21.5 million.
And Queensland Police Commissioner Bob Atkinson told Bentley:
There is something particularly brutal and cruel about targeting someone who is lonely and vulnerable, looking for company or a partner in their life.
Do you worry that sharing your faith on dating or social networking online sites could attract people who treat your values as stepping stones to a scam -- financial or spiritual?

EXPERTS FIND RARE CRUSADER-ERA MURALS IN SYRIA

DAMASCUS, Syria — Archaeologists have discovered two Crusader-era murals depicting heaven and hell in a medieval church near Syria's coast — a rare find that could reveal new information about the Christian knights who battled Muslims for control of the Holy Land hundreds of years ago.
Experts are now renovating the 12th century paintings, which were discovered last year by a joint Syrian-Hungarian team excavating an old Crusader fortress on a hilltop near the Mediterranean Sea in the western province of Tartous.
The discovery was announced Saturday by Bassem Jamous, Syria's director general of antiquities and museums, who told the state-run Al-Thawra newspaper that the paintings could provide information about the traditions and beliefs of the Crusaders.
The murals, which measure about 8 feet (2.5 meters) high and 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) wide, were hanging on either side of the altar of a 12th century chapel inside the al-Marqab Citadel and had accumulated thick layers of dust and dirt, archaeologists said.
The panel depicting hell shows people being tortured inside a wheel covered with knives and others being hanged and burned, said Marwan Hassan, head of the Department of Antiquities in Tartous. The one portraying heaven includes saints surrounded by light colors.
Hassan said the Crusader murals are important because they are the first ones found in the Middle East depicting heaven and hell.
Authorities have restricted access to the paintings while archaeologists finish their excavation
"Crusaders did not stay in one place for a long time, and so it is very rare to find such paintings left behind by them," Michel Makdisi, head of excavations at Syria's Directorate General of Antiquities, told The Associated Press.
Pope Urban II ordered the First Crusade in 1095 to establish Christian control of the Holy Land. European Crusaders soon took Jerusalem, but they lost it in 1187 to the famed Muslim leader Saladin.
The al-Marqab Citadel is one of several imposing Crusader fortresses located in Syria. The country is also home to the famed Krak des Chevaliers — Castle of the Knights — that Lawrence of Arabia called the best in the world.

AN EVANGELIST EXTRAVAGANZA IN SOUTH AFRICA

The first one was in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 1974. The second was in Manila in 1989. The third will be in Cape Town in 2010.
I'm talking about the massive worldwide conferences on evangelism that began as the brainchild of evangelist Billy Graham, along with British Anglican theologian John Stott and Australian Anglican Bishop Jack Dain. They have since taken on a life of their own. One year from this week, the Third Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization will take place from Oct. 16-25 in South Africa.
Its Web site, www.lausanne.org, says the event will draw 4,000 people from more than 200 countries, an intriguing goal as there are only 195 official independent countries in the world. The event will be translated into Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swahili.
The United States is providing 400 delegates and Canada is contributing 50.
I first heard of the conference when I got word this spring that U.S. organizers were looking for candidates. Some 1,322 applied to go. What made things a bit tricky is that organizers wanted 50 percent of the delegates to be under 50 years old. No doubt this is frustrating for top-tier American church leaders - most of whom are well past 50 - who weren't invited to the Manila conference 20 years ago because they were considered too young.
Lausanne will be drawing the biggest names in the world of Christianity to its stage. Its advisory council members range from Ugandan Anglican Bishop Henry Orombi to Saddleback Church pastor Rick Warren, deliverer of the opening prayer at President Obama's inauguration.
However, Mr. Graham himself, now 90, is not expected to attend. Two of his more evangelistically minded children - Franklin Graham and Anne Graham Lotz - have schedule conflicts.
So the event clearly has moved beyond the Graham trademark. Although the African church is hosting this extravaganza, plenty of Americans are at the helm. Lausanne's executive chairman, Douglas Birdsall, is a former missionary to Japan. He is based at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary in South Hamilton, Mass. The congress director, Blair Carlson, is a Minneapolis-based clergyman with the Anglican Mission in America who worked 26 years with Mr. Graham.
Although the entire organizing committee is in Cape Town this week, I did glean some details of what's on the table. Hot topics include preaching truth to a post-modern and pluralistic world, responding to Islam, putting together a theology of suffering and reconciliation, responding to the "new atheism" and operating as a global religion.
Seven sites were considered for the congress, including China, where Christianity has arguably spread the fastest in the past 50 years. But security concerns for Chinese Christian leaders, who are still being jailed, prevented cities such as Hong Kong and Beijing from being serious contenders, an organizer told me.
Cape Town was chosen because of its high-tech convention center, the enormous growth of Christianity on the African continent and because of the ease of obtaining entry visas for the many Africans and Asians who will take part.
Let's hope they'll welcome lots of journalists as well.

BAPTIST CHURCH TO CELEBRATE HALLOWEEN BY BURNING BIBLES

CANTON —The Amazing Grace Baptist Church in Canton, N.C. will celebrate Halloween by burning Bibles that aren’t the King James Version, as well as music and books and anything else Pastor Marc Grizzard says is a satanic influence.
Among the authors whose books Grizzard plans to burn are well known ministers Rick Warren and Billy Graham because he says they have occasionally used Bibles other than the King James Version, which is the sole biblical source he considers infallible.
According to the church’s Web site, members will also burn “Satan's music such as country, rap, rock, pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel, contemporary Christian, jazz, soul (and) oldies.
“We will also be burning Satan's popular books written by heretics like Billy Graham, Rick Warren, Bill Hybels, John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll, John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham, Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa, The Pope, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning (and) William Young.
During the book burning, according to the Web site, barbecued chicken fried chicken and “all the sides” will be served.