Princeton Law Professor and author of Culture of Disbelief, Integrity, has now published a second gothic novel New England White. Sam Tannenhaus of the NY Times gives it an excellent review.

The novel deals with murder, politics, race and undoubtedly, faith.

“New Testament spirituality is still based on the fear of the Lord. Most of us have difficulty nurturing that living reverence, or respectful love, which is the fear of God. We have been raised by parents who have either spoiled or rejected us, or perhaps have done both. We project their inconsistency and ambivalence on our picture of God. But God is not an arbitrary and authoritarian parent. Love and Justice, mercy and anger are not struggling in his nature or flowing and erupting unpredictably. His justice is always controlled and directed by his love. He causes “all things to work together for good to those who love God” (Rom 8:28). Even sorrow and tragedy are not “accidents” or meaningless evils. They are strokes of discipline his love has designed to conform us more fully to the image of his Son (Phil 3:10; Heb 12:5-11).”

Richard Lovelace, Renewal As A Way of Life, Wipf & Stock Publishers (January 2002). Renewal is an applied version of Dynamics of Spiritual Life, a theology of personal and social spiritual renewal.

You may already be aware of Allelon (Greek for “other”), a “multi-generational network of missional church leaders, schools and parachurch organizations which envisions, inspires, engages, resources, trains and educates leaders for the church and its mission in our culture. Said simply, together we are a movement of missional leaders.”

They recently posted some new articles on Franke’s perspective on missional, which varies from my view, but has insights nonetheless.

Surehope is a partnership I helped launch between Gordon-Conwell Seminary, OMF International, and local churches in order to reach the Shan-Dai peoples for Christ. This partnership has resulted in scores of short-term teams to Southeast Asia where the gospel work of ethnographic research, evang****, orphan and children’s ministry, and chrch planting are being accomplished. All of this labor is to plant a passion for the worship of God through Christ-exalting witness, culture-engaging work, and body-uniting partnership for the joy of the Shan and surrounding peoples.

I share all of this to set the context for this post. Currently, there is a team in N. Thailand that is gathering data to produce a 30 day prayer booklet for the Shan-Dai. This team is facing considerable health and spiritual opposition. Please pray for their protection and effectiveness in producing this booklet. Just today I received an email from the team leader who wrote:

I read something written by a Shan woman today that was very sobering. I need to get the exact quote but She said something to the effect that she has two choices, to stay in M-nmar and be constantly raped by Bur*** soldiers or to escape to Thailand where she can be constantly raped for a few baht each time.

The oppression, corruption, and injustice in this part of the world is immense. Pray for gospel light to liberate these people from sexual, physical, emotional, and spiritual bondage. Pray for the rape to stop and the rejoicing to begin, rejoicing in a new life for these people.