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But the government also began to improve national health services – so that the taunts of Falun Gong promoters could be drained of truth: just like in the 1950s in Malaya when the British introduced improvements in Chinese “new villages”[5] in response to taunts by the Communist Party.[6]

Prayer … is our partnership with God, our chance to join forces with God’s power to confront suffering and evil head-on. … [is] a window into knowing the mind of God, whose kingdom is entrusted to all of us frail, selfish people on earth. [The book also details how,] in nations such as Romania and South Africa, … prayer has transformed hearts and permitted bloodless change.

How are we doing as disciples and disciple-makers? What’s the evidence in the world around us?

Today’s passage tells us what happens when the world identifies us with Jesus.

Luther called some of his enemies pigs[5] and told them to go eat shit. Bonhoeffer said we should derail tyrants and joined a plot to assassinate Hitler.[6] Solzhenitsyn said to always remember that the line between good and evil runs through every human heart.

If all we do are things like housing, feeding, clothing, and educating our neighbours … Why would we need an advocate or comforter?

I worry that what preachers are promising is comfort, heaven, escape. … I rarely hear about decay and decadence, about salt and sacrifice, about bitter toil.

But there’s another usage which we must also consider. The Romans, the colonial oppressors, also referred to themselves as shepherds. In fact, they constantly made false claims that they were good shepherds.

They were very sad. They felt they had invested so much of their lives in Jesus, for the sake of their nation, and got nothing in return.