You can buy a flat screen TV for around £300, it will last a few years before it will need replacing. This same amount covers the cost of a student in India going to Bible School for a whole year. King’s Church has sponsored students for a number of years and again this year we have sponsored five students on the Bible School that Chandrakant Chavda runs in Nadidad, in Gujarat State. Chandrakant is an Apostle, and shared at the recent World Watch Conference that many of us attended in September. It is our priviledge to use money from the church tithe to sow into the lives of these young men and women.

We have received fantastic reports from Chandrakant about how the students from last year are getting on. Pray for another amazing Kingdom return on this money invested into the nations!

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”
Matthew 6:19-21 ESV

Here is some of the testimonies for the students who graduated last year:

Sunil (left) – Bible School Principal and Rasu who was healed of lung cancer as a youth having been given only days to live. He now leads a church of 4000 in South Gujurat!

Ramsing – Since leaving Bible School, and as of Feb 08, he has started 4 churches

Tony and Prakash – Recent Bible School Graduate – recently prayed for a man in a coma for 2 years – completely healed!

Bharat with Chandrakant

• Father saved 7 years ago having been healed of TB and lung cancer – first believer in his area
• At that time Father and 3 sons were migrant labourers and starving, their small piece of land would only grow “thorns and thistles”. As they began to practice tithing and giving, the land became fruitful, to the point that now it supports 4 families. Large fruit.
• Bharat went to bible school and then returned home to evangelise. Today in that region there are over 500 believers in 42 villages.
• A believer of just 2 months prayed for a lady who had been bed-ridden for 2 years: instantly healed and got up to serve them (like Peter’s mother in law in the Bible).
• 7 year old boy paralysed for 5 years healed
• 18mth old girl raised from the dead – had been sent away from the hospital for burial, but they brought the body to some believers who prayed and she opened her eyes, 25 people saved instantly

Course Subjects for 2008/09

• Christian Foundations
• Bible Overview
• Kingdom Of God
• Covenant
• The World View
• The Church
• Evangelism
• Faith
• More Than A Conqueror
• Following The Pattern
• Ministries
• Spiritual Gifts
• Restoration
• Discipleship & Prayer Life
• Women In The Bible
• English & Computer skills

Mark Lawrence asks whether the current economic climate is a cause of concern for the Christian.

I’m sure like me you’ve noticed that the price of nearly everything you buy has increased dramatically in the last year. You name it – oil, gas, electricity, food and water, you are probably paying more for it today than you did a year ago.

Last week another round of increases in gas and electricity was announced which could see prices rise by another 20%. A recently released report by the Business and Enterprise Committee predicts that “gas and electricity bills for domestic consumers will rise significantly in the near future, over and above the increases already announced this year, with serious consequences for millions of households.”

Over the same period house prices have fallen as confidence and demand ebb away. “For Sale” signs are taking root like trees all over the country as Estate Agents struggle to attract buyers. For the first time on record house prices are falling in all areas of the country. The number of houses sold plummeted to just 62,000 in August, which is the lowest level since records began in 1959 and less than half the figure for a year ago, according to HM Revenue and Customs.

If that wasn’t bad enough the failure of a number of companies across the world has triggered a global financial crisis, with UK and US banks themselves now engulfed, this crisis takes on unprecedented proportions.

The result is perhaps the bleakest financial outlook in our lifetime. Edmund Conway, Economics Editor at The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph and telegraph.co.uk writes on his blog:

All eyes are on the financial system, and rightly so. If its collapse continues for much longer the very real risk is that the world faces an economic slump of the likes not seen since the 1930s, with all that entails… … the possibilities are so horrific it is painful even to write them.

Christians maybe recipients of power from on high yet the price of our electricity goes up just like everyone else’s, we are not immune from the effects of this crisis.

The sons of Issachar understood the times in which they lived and knew what Israel should do. So what should we do at this time of financial uncertainty?

Firstly let’s remind ourselves that although we are in the world, we are not of it. Put another way we live on earth but we live from heaven and the good news is that whilst there maybe a global financial crisis on earth, in heaven all is well.

That doesn’t negate the need for common sense or to use a Biblical word, wisdom. If you don’t have a budget, make one. If you do have a budget, review it so that you can quantify the impact of the increased cost of living and account for this in terms of your spending. Companies all over the world are doing this right now. Why? Because they know that balancing what’s going out against what’s coming in is important particularly in times of uncertainty. If budgeting is not something you are used to do doing ask someone to help you.

Remember that you are called to live by faith, faith in a God who provides for all your needs according to his riches. Don’t forget His provision isn’t limited to your pay packet; He is a God of supernatural provision. It’s possible for the people of God to prosper even in times of famine. In Genesis 26 we read the story of Isaac who sowed in a time of famine and reaped a hundredfold in the same year! Believe God to meet all your needs and more so that you can continue to help to meet the needs of others.

Don’t be afraid! Right now millions of people across this nation and the world are being gripped by fear as newspaper editors’ battle for the most sensational headline. Remember that newspapers and TV bulletins do not provide the ultimate commentary on the affairs of men, the Bible does. The Bible clearly shows us that everything that can be shaken will be shaken and this includes all the nations of the world, their financial systems and ideologies. But it also tells us that we are receiving a Kingdom that cannot be shaken. Let’s make this practical. There are millions of people across the world that are in fear of losing their job. Believe God that you won’t lose your job and even if you do, believe God that he will provide a better job. If you find that hard to believe read Maybin’s testimony on this website.

Finally, commit yourself to living according Biblical principles in terms of how you handle your money. The Bible tells us that tithing teaches us to fear God (not financial calamity). The man or woman who truly fears God doesn’t fear anything else. As you continue to tithe remind yourself that God is your provider, it is He who gives you the ability to make wealth. And then continue to sow. Sowing and reaping is a universal principle. God provides us with seed to sow and bread to eat. Sow the seed he gives you in faith believing that you will reap supernaturally even in time of famine.

Praise God we know that we have no need to live in fear in a time of recession.

And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:19

“The remarkable thing about fearing God is that when you fear God you fear nothing else, whereas if you do not fear God you fear everything else” – Oswald Chambers

The news is full of banks losing money on the stock market, house prices falling and general confidence in the financial systems of the world running pretty low. The media have called this a ‘credit crunch’. Things are moving very quickly in the financial markets of the world and we certainly need to pray for wisdom for the leaders of our nations in this time.

However, as a Christian – I know that the news, whether it comes from BBC or CNN, is not the truth and basis by which I live. I live by the truth of the living word of God found in the Bible. I place my life and the finances of my family in the hands of God, in the economy of heaven where there is no credit crunch, no cashflow crisis & no financial meltdown.

Yes, I see my gas & electric bills go up like everyone else. Petrol still costs the same whether you know Jesus Christ or not, but there is a truth and a vision beyond these costs that mean my financial status and foundation is radically different to everyone else who doesn’t know God.

I’ve blogged in the past on the whole issue of tithing. I totally believe in this biblical principle. The following verse in the Old Testament is a key verse to put into practice, especially when things are as they are in the financial dealings of the world around us.

“Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship…..Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God” – Deuteronomy 14:23 (NLT)

When we tithe, we show that we fear God. We place our life in His hands and choose to trust, obey and worship Him in all His glory, majesty and power. Tithing takes us to a place of peace, to a place of trust and to a place of seeing God provide for all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

Praise God, there is no credit crunch in the economy of heaven. When we fear God, there is no need to fear anything else, including the financial provision for our lives and families.

My testimony and that of my family is that when you put your life and finances into the hands of God, He will care for you, provide for you and prosper you. He is AMAZING!

On 7th June 2007 we departed the UK, bound for the island of Zanzibar, which united in 1964 with what was then Tanganyika, forming Tanzania. After a few days on Zanzibar we would take a bumpy ferry across to the mainland to visit some friends working short-term with Wycliffe Bible Translators a 13-hour bus ride away, before subjecting ourselves to another couple of long-distance bus journeys and heading out onto the Serengeti plains. Along with the malaria tablets and the sun-tan cream we also carried two Bibles in our luggage ready for Mission 193.

A week or two before we left Manchester, a friend who led the children’s work at a Christian conference that Tim attended as a child, who has travelled to Tanzania on several occasions, asked if we might be able to take out a holdall full of children’s toys and other items to a pastor working in Zanzibar, who she was due to visit a few weeks later for a Christian conference. We were met at the airport by the pastor so that we could give him the holdall and were invited to have lunch at his home. We were then invited back on several occasions to have lunch and dinner and got to know the pastor and his family quite well, who shared with us about the oppression they face from the majority Muslim population of the island. We were shocked to learn of how their son was kidnapped by some Muslims and later found in a mosque and how the school teachers fail their children because they are not Muslim.

On Sunday we attended the pastors church and both felt that we should present the pastor with the two Swahili Bibles. The pastor asked us to say a few words and we were able to pray for Tanzania together with the small but lively congregation. It was great to be able to visit the pastor a few days later and hear how he had given one Bible to a new Christian who has recently converted from Islam, and to another Christian who couldn’t afford their own Bible.

About a week later we met up with a UK friend who is working as a missionary in the capital Dar-Es-Salaam and spent some time together in prayer for the nation of Tanzania.