It’s a great joy to share with you a testimony regarding one of the pastors we’ve been working with. Especially since about 90% of the pastors I’ve met here seem to be completely compromised. As I’ve written before most of them are not serving Christ but instead are serving mammon and are just as much idolaters as the Hindu’s they claim they want to reach. Unfortunately this seems to be the case in so many places across the globe and truly is a sign indicating the times we live in. But nothing, including apostasy, will hinder the Lord from accomplishing His will, in His time, and in His saints. So it’s a great joy to share with you about Brother Ishmail and what the Lord is doing in him. Brother Ishmail has been my translator for about four months now. He’s a convert from Islam and has been shepherding a small fellowship of about 50 people in his home town. He comes to our village each Monday through Friday to translate for me and work together as we preach in surrounding villages and in house meetings. He’s become more than just a translator, he’s become a dear friend and is a brother in Christ. Not only have we been able to preach together but have been able to spend time just going through the scriptures on many different topics. I can remember the first time we went village preaching together. In part of my message I had preached on Acts 17 where Paul is speaking in Athens and speaks to the people about their Idolatry and how God doesn’t dwell in temples made by hands of men. Ishmail was very uncomfortable as I preached through those verse and later explained he didn’t feel we should directly speak against the Hindu’s idolatry or temple worship. Not only that but when I had finished preaching he proceeded ask every one “who wants to receive Jesus? “ and then led them all in a sinners prayer. I almost reached over and took the mic out of his hand but it was too late. He had officially made everyone a “Christian” by one prayer. Needless to say this led us to discussing many different topics such as the nature of Salvation, what regeneration is and isn’t, what happens when someone has true saving faith, as well as what topics to preach to those who don’t know Christ. Through our time together the Lord really helped Ishmail receive light on so many different topics. Brother Ishmail has grown in his understanding of the Gospel as well as understanding the need to present the “full counsel of God“.
About a week ago I asked brother Ishmail what he preached in his local fellowship for the previous Sunday. His wife was with him and they just kinda looked at each other then told me he is no longer part of that fellowship. This was a surprise for me to hear. He said lately he’s been preaching on topics he usually doesn’t preach on. He’s been preaching on God’s attributes and character, talking about God’s Holiness, His Righteousness, preaching about the Judgment seat of Christ, eternal judgment, sin and repentance, in other words - topics you don’t normally hear preached on in most churches today. The elders of the church came together and said they, as well as the congregation, didn’t like the topics he was preaching on and wanted him to only preach on the love of God, the mercy of God, and the blessings of God. They only wanted to hear preaching on the scriptures that comforted their flesh (though theses also are topics that need to be preached on). Brother Ishmail said he would continue to preach on all the scriptures as that is what he is called to do. The elders didn’t like his answer and decided to kick him out of the church! Brother Ishmail had been a pastor there for a few years. He now knows he was mainly pastoring GOATS and not SHEEP.
Even before he was kicked out of the church Ishmail and his wife had been discipling three ladies who are converts from Islam. They now have a small home fellowship with these ladies and are nurturing them as new born babes in Christ. They meet during the week because the wives husbands have forbidden them to follow Jesus. Since their husbands are home on Sundays it makes it impossible for them to meet on Sundays. In fact, one of the ladies husbands found out recently that she was meeting with Ishmail and his wife. He beat his wife until she was blue in the face and threatened her with divorce. The wonderful thing is this new born believer remained faithful to Jesus and would not stop following Jesus due to the persecution by her husband. And though at this point the number of those in Ishmail’s home fellowship is less than those he was pastoring in the church, he knows he’s discipling true Sheep that belong to Jesus Christ. He believes the Lord has now called him to work specifically among the unreached Muslims and Hindu’s in his home town.
The greatest part of all of this is to see Brother Ishmail’s faith in God during this trying and transitional time in his life. When he was kicked out of the church he lost all income he was receiving from them. Now that I’m leaving he’s also losing the money I was giving him for all the time he was spending with me helping with translation. The denomination he is part of (AOG) is going to give him 500 rupees a month, about $10, for a couple years as he starts this new work. (Though he’s part of AOG their fellowships are all pretty independent). Ten dollars is hardly enough for Ishmail, his wife, and his two son’s to live on. However even with this, he realizes all that has happened to him is the will of God and believes the Lord will take care of his needs as he remains faithful to living and preaching the truth. It’s so encouraging to see a Pastor serve Christ instead of money! (Update: since I started writing this a couple days ago the Lord has provided for Ishmails financial needs to be covered for the next six months! God is faithful!)
I wanted to take time to share this for a couple reasons. One, to give glory to God for what He’s doing in our brother. And two, that you yourself would be encouraged to trust the Lord in all things and know that God will provide for you as you faithfully obey His word. Like Ishmail, when you decide to not compromise you could lose your job, your friends, your family, your reputation, you might be misunderstood by others..ect but you’ll gain Jesus Christ!
I pray you will follow our brothers example in following the Lord. That you will seek a life with no compromise no matter how great the cost may be for you and your loved ones. Know that as you do Christ will never leave you nor forsake you and will always be faithful to His word!
Please keep brother Ishmail and his family in prayer.
IN Christ,
Sean & Lisa Scott
Time to Move
The Lord has clearly confirmed that our time here in India has come to an end. Our family will be leaving India to return to the U.S. on Feb 3rd. With all the opportunities to preach, people being open to the Gospel, and being able to exhort some true brethren truly makes it difficult to leave. But again and again the Lord has confirmed that this is definitely His will and has even provided the means for all 6 of our family members to fly back to the U.S. at this time (we came here on one way tickets). We’ll be back in Dallas, Lord-willing, for few weeks to visit some brethren. We’ll also be meeting up with brother Josef and his wife Lina as they cross the border to renew their visa’s. After that we’ll be headed to another state or two, Lord-willing, to exhort and fellowship with some other brethren as well.
I know this is a surprise for some that we would be departing from India at this time. Especially with all the favor God has given us. But the Lord has clearly given us direction to warn and exhort some brethren as the days grow darker and the clouds of God’s coming judgment (specifically in the U.S.) continue to grow thicker and nearer with every passing day. We know that when we are faithful with what God has called us to do in returning He will show us, as He always does, the next step and direction for us. Through everything the Lord has led us through we have learned, and are still learning, to follow and be led by the Spirit of God and NOT our own human reasoning and understanding. It would be so easy to justify staying here in India but it would be against the will of God at this time (Mark 1:37,38). So brethren please keep us in prayer as we finish our work here and prepare to leave.
Preaching at Cancer Hospital
It has definitely been interesting time here in India. The Lord has given us many opportunities to share the Gospel with people willing to listen. In fact, last week I went with a man here to a cancer hospital to pray for and minister to his mother. Instead of just praying for his mother we ended up preaching to the entire floor of patients for about and hour! It was an amazing time as we directed their thoughts to the resurrected Christ who is not only able to heal their bodies but more importantly to forgive their sins and bring them to God. There were probably about 50 people there and most of them were Hindu’s and Muslims. It truly seemed as if the Lord was doing a work as some of patients were in tears and others praying under their breath to the Lord like Hannah. We were able to pray for them all and pass out new testaments to those who wanted them before we left. So many of our outreaches have been just like this. I am thankful that there are a couple brethren here who will be able to continue the work we started in these different area’s.
True Brethren and Apostasy
In fact, my greatest joy has been to see two true brothers in the Lord grow in their faith and walk with Lord. Though we were able to preach in many different areas, villages, house meetings, churches…ect.. it seems the Lord specifically had us here for these two brothers at this time in their lives to teach them and exhort them to stand up for the truth in the midst of apostasy. And without a doubt, the apostasy with in many Indian churches is just as great as in those we see in many American churches (though it sometimes manifest itself in different forms). I can’t tell you how many false brethren we’ve met since being here. Pastors who are greedy for financial gain and using the name of Christ to promote their own kingdoms and to exalt their own names. People truly do either serve God or mammon regardless if they live in a rich country like America or poorer country like India. But we praise God he enabled us to meet some true brethren to fellowship with, to exhort and to be mutually edified. We will definitely miss these brothers and will continue to stay in contact with them and uphold them in prayer.
Nothing is Hidden From God!
I have to share a testimony about God’s goodness and care towards us that happened a couple days ago. There has been a man who we’ve continually preached too since being here. At first he seemed like he was eager to help us do daily task, acted as if he wanted to hear the gospel and at times even brought others to hear the gospel at our house. But God gave Lisa a dream a while back that this man’s heart was totally hard and that he wanted nothing to do with Christ. Which over time truly turned out to be the case. He had stolen a couple things here and there but we continued to pray for him and preach to him as the opportunities arose. Well he came over to our house a couple days ago wanting to accompany us to Hyderabad to say good by. When he was here our house owner showed up and wanted to talk with me. I had already given him notice that we were going to be leaving so this was a special trip he was making to our house from the village that he lives in. I went outside to talk with him and he said someone came by his house telling them that he was to give them our house key on the day that we leave so he could “help” move all our stuff out of the house (fridge, beds, ect.. we’re leaving these to a few brethren here). I told him I had not told anyone to go by his house and that I was leaving the key with a friend of mine. Just then this man in my house walks out to see what we’re doing and my house owner says “That’s the man! He‘s the one who came to my house”. You should have seen this young mans face. He knew he was caught and was trying to back peddle his way out of the situation. My house owner started confronting him. I told him he need to leave and he practically ran from our place once he was outside of the gate! Apparently him and his friends were planning on cleaning our place out of everything while we were on the train headed towards Hyderabad! God totally exposed him AGAIN and kept us from losing anything. Hopefully the Lord will use this to confirm to him what we’ve spoken to him about the condition of his heart and lead him to repentance. We’re very thankful the Lord was watching over us and that our house items will go to the brethren instead of a thief.
We plan on spending our last few days here fellowshipping with some dear brethren and in prayer and preparation for leaving. (and possible going to the cancer hospital again). And by God’s grace our whole family is also recovering from being very sick which will make the travel much easier. Please keep us in prayer and feel free to write any time.
Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling,
and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory
with exceeding joy
To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty,
dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen
IN Christ,
Sean & Lisa Scott
preachingjesuschrist.com
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