Heart June July 2020

6 HEART Christian newspaper June / July 2020 adverts@heartpublications.co.uk August / September 2020 ADVERTS DEADLINE: 9 July 2020
Continued from page 5
prostitution don’t see themselves
as being involved in the
sex industry. They see themselves
as being raped on a daily
basis.”
After The Sunday Times’
revelations, Facebook and Instagram
suspended Adultwork
and Viva Street’s accounts, and
Twitter suspended Escort Scotland’s
account, but anti-trafficking
groups say more rigorous restrictions
are needed.
Visits to porn sites had reportedly
rocketed during the lockdown.
Bible teacher
David Pawson
dies
David Pawson: 1930-2020
It was only in our last issue that
HEART celebrated the ministry
of David Pawson on his 90th
birthday, but he ‘ascended’ to
be with his Lord and Saviour
on Ascension Day, 21 May.
After a long battle with bone
cancer and a form of Parkinson’s
disease, Rev Pawson
passed away peacefully, without
pain, at the nursing home
where he had spent the last few
years.
His website states: “David
has left a huge legacy with
many thousands finding the
Lord through his ministry. He
leaves us with a wealth of biblical
recorded wisdom… He was
an advocate that the solution to
every situation can be found by
reading the Scriptures.”
Dr David Landrum, director
of advocacy at Evangelical Alliance,
wrote on Twitter: “What
an extraordinary Bible teacher.
He had a huge impact on me
when I was saved 29 years ago.
Eternally grateful.”
Robin Lane of Christian
Friends of Israel UK shared
an anecdote from a preaching
seminar that David led in 2010,
aged 80: “He... completed the
day by preaching an evangelistic
sermon. His passion for
preaching was still so strong
that when he finished the sermon
his audience rose spontaneously
to give him a standing
ovation. It was a very special
occasion.”
PRAYER POINTS in a time of “plague”
ISRAEL
These Israeli families were filmed saying “Thank you” for money
that paid for food during the lockdown.
Most are Messianic or Arab believers, according to the Tel Aviv-based
Maoz ministry that handed out donations. “Some were not believers
but came to faith as a result of receiving the funds, and in one case
we helped an elderly Arab believer from being evicted by helping to
pay a debt,” says Brian Greenaway, Maoz’s UK spokesman.
Economy “devastated”
With tourism not restarting until
at least July, the threat to Israel’s
economy has been “devastating,”
according to Dr Mike
Evans of the Jerusalem Prayer
Team.
Cyber winter?
Israel’s national cyber chief,
Yigal Unna, officially acknowledged
on 28 May that the country
had thwarted a major cyber
attack against its water systems
in April, an assault widely attributed
to arch-enemy Iran,
calling it a “synchronised and
Renowned apologist Ravi Zacharias
died on 19 May from a rare
form of bone cancer, aged 74.
US Vice President Mike Pence,
who attended his memorial service
in Georgia on 29 May, said:
“He was the CS Lewis of our day.
Crisscrossed the globe to every
Mars Hill he could find to answer
sceptics, move obstacles of
unbelief, armed with intellect,
girded with truth and love.”
Passion City Church Pastor
Perhaps our other pages have already provoked prayer, but
here are more points for your thanksgiving and petitions
organised attack” aimed at
disrupting key national infrastructure.
He warned that “cyber
winter is coming”. (Source:
United with Israel)
Demand for New
Testaments
Christian Witness to Israel (CWI)
reports an increased demand for
New Testaments among Jewish
people. In Israel, a young man
named Aviad, the son of a wellknown
rabbi, told CWI that he
had come to the conclusion that
the Messianic prophecies were
indeed fulfilled in Jesus.
RAVI ZACHARIAS
Louie Giglio called Zacharias a
“gentle giant” and a “rare treasure”,
adding: “He never sought
to win an argument, he always
sought to win a person.”
Born in India in 1946, Zacharias
became a Christian aged 17
while recovering from a suicide
attempt. He founded Ravi Zacharias
International Ministries in
1984, with the mission of “helping
the thinker believe and the
believer think”.
Ravi Zacharias, 1946-2020, and his wife Margie, who survives him
RZIM
Timely end of lockdown
Evangelist David Hathaway
says: “Pray for the restoration
of our nation and that we can
come out of lockdown more
speedily. I am of the opinion
that the lockdown was too
drastic, created by man without
God! So the responsibility
is on us, believers, to pray our
way out, to pray for the restoration
of health and the national
economy!”
Pray that politicians will heed
wise counsel; former chancellor
Lord Lamont says that social
distancing at 2 metres makes
“large parts of manufacturing,
the hospitality industry and
public transport unviable”.
It seems that a business that
is “Covid secure” may not be financially
secure.
“Social distancing on a
semi-permanent basis is a delusion,”
said Lord Lamont.
Just as God used the Babylonian
empire to judge Judah,
but later judged Babylon for
going too far in its cruelty (Jeremiah
50:14-15, Zechariah 1:15),
pray that the enemy will not
take what God is doing further
than God intends by causing
restrictions to last longer than
necessary.
BRITAIN
THE CHURCH
A time of “sifting”
“God is sifting his people, removing
the egos, the personal
agendas. Despise nothing; be
only concerned that you are
in God’s designated place for
you.” From the Dorset prayer
group of HEART subscriber Diane
Golder.
Gospel
opportunities
Worldwide figures indicate a
resurgence in people engaging
with religion. Google searches
for the words ‘prayer’ and
‘Christianity’ are surging; five
million people tuned in to hear
the Archbishop of Canterbury’s
Mothering Sunday service.
An end to division
and fear
“God is using the virus to reveal
the spirits of fear and
manipulation across society,”
says prayer group leader
Diane Golder. “The virus is not
as destructive as the Spanish
flu of 100 years ago. Indeed, the
panic is worse than the virus!”
Jobs
One in four workers currently
furloughed might end up unemployed
by the end of summer.
More women than men are
thought likely to lose their
jobs; if this is part of God’s
pruning to allow women more
time with their families, pray
that single mothers and fathers
will be able to provide for their
children.
Families and
relationships
It was already estimated before
the lockdown that one in four
children will have witnessed
domestic abuse; since then,
domestic abuse helplines report
being overwhelmed, while
many church-run initiatives
were shut down.
Concerning trends
“Sermons and Sunday school
classes are forced online –
which means every one of our
words are being saved and
stored in the government’s huge
new data centre in Utah, which
is OK as long as we have a government
that accepts Christianity,”
warned Rev Danny Jones
of Northlake Baptist Church,
Georgia, in his 20 April sermon
which was viewed nearly two
million times.
He also warned that digital
currency will enable the flow of
money around the world to be
“monitored and controlled”.
This sermon detailed the players and
politics behind the declaration of a global
pandemic. Please contact the HEART office
if you would like his sermon notes
WORLD FAMINE
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned
that the world is facing extreme crisis due to the coronavirus
[ie lockdown]: “Hunger and famine of historic proportions, 60
million more people pushed into extreme poverty, up to half the
global workforce, 1.6 billion people, without livelihoods...” (Fox
News, 29 May).
Rev Mark Weeden of King’s Church, Arundel, says: “Pray for
desperate people worldwide to have food and basic necessities.
The UK’s concept of ‘austerity’ pales beside real global poverty.”
This is a shortened version of our prayer points; for a fuller, less
“sanitised” version, please send sae to the HEART office