Although Christians cannot cherish religious pluralism, they must tolerate it… By tolerance I mean allowing other people to hold and to defend their own religious convictions. Tolerance does not mean that everyone has to agree with everyone else. That would not be tolerance at all. The word tolerance itself assumes disagreement, that there is something that must be tolerated. Tolerance thus applies to persons, but not to their errors. It does not require me to endorse your worldview. If you are not a Christian, I do not endorse your worldview. In the context of a friendship I will even try to talk you out of it… Yet it carries out these arguments with humility and civility.
Philip Graham Ryken

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Praying Through the Window

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#1 · September 27, 2001, 8:53 am

Posted by: homenews <homenews@...>

Dear Hope Chest friends,

I received a message from George Kern of Pray Central Florida about the
5th annual "Praying Through the Window" month. The "10/40 Window" is the
section of the world located from latitude 10 to 40 north on the globe --
countries which are so spiritually needy. The web link he included at
the end will lead you to a prayer calendar which you can download. In
the past, we have used this prayer calendar as part of our morning Bible
time. One child locates the featured countries on the map, and reads a
little about it, and then we all pray. This is what I call practical
geography!

Facts about the 10/40 Window:

4 billion live inside the Window.
70% are under 35 years of age.
They may live and die without ever hearing the Gospel even once.
Child prostitution is rampant, malnutrition is on the increase, and
millions are without parental guidance.
87% are the poorest of the world’s poor.
95% are unevangelized.
Is the headquarters to every major non-Christian religion.
Life expectancy is as low as 46 in some countries.

OK, now on to George:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dear Fellow Prayer Warrior,

Greetings in the name of the Lord. It seems that every prayer or revival
newsletter has had much (sometimes too much) to say about the recent
terrorist attacks. This is somehow seen as a brand new thing when in fact
terrorism is on ongoing thing in many other countries of the world.
Certainly the loss of life and amount of damage caused was staggering and
we have all been affected by this tragedy. I don’t mean to minimize that
in any way. Many people have addressed questions such as “How could a
loving God allow…?” so I’ll leave those alone. Let me just say that I
don’t think God was caught by surprise. The question I want to ask is
“How should we be affected by this tragedy?” and I would add, “For how
long?” Ever since prayer was taken out of schools we have raised
generations whose pride leads them to believe they can run their lives
and this country just fine without God. This pride even extends to
thinking we have authority over life itself as we legalized the murder of
innocent babies. Part of our national response to this tragedy should be
measures to protect ourselves, but if we then trust in those measures for
our peace, we rebuild the wall of pride even stronger than it was before.
I am in favor of bringing the perpetrators to justice, but if there is
vengeance in our hearts then we become little different than they.
Whether you believe God caused, allowed, or was surprised by the attacks,
I believe the response He is looking for is repentance from pride. The
often used but still appropriate 2 Chron. 7:14 sums it up. We, God’s
people, must humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face and turn from
our wicked ways. Interesting how easy it was to get people to pray
immediately after the tragedy…when before that it was nearly impossible.
Yes, let’s pray for the victim’s families, our president, etc. But let’s
also pray that this blow to our national pride is not quickly forgotten.
Pray that sorrow or fear is not mistaken for repentance. Pray that when
new security measures are put in place we don’t trust IN them. Pray that
we "Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul;
but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell”
(Matt. 10:28). Pray that we walk in forgiveness and not allow the sin of
racism to gain a stronger hold on us than it already has. Pray that we
would see the open doors and reach out to those that are hurting and
confused, especially those of Middle-Eastern descent. Many see this as a
wake-up call. Let’s take it as such and this time, lets stay awake.

It has been said that the best defense is a good offense. In God’s
perfect timing He has given us a great offensive weapon. The month of
October is Praying Through the Window V – a month of prayer for the
countries of the 10/40 Window, the least evangelized part of the earth
including the Middle East and Far East. You can order (or download for
free) prayer calendars in several different formats, books, videos and
other resources at the web site http://www.win1040.com. They have
everything you need to turn your church or ministry or family into a
prayer furnace for the unreached and oppressed people in the 10/40
window.

George Kern mailto:[email protected]

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