He was arrested in February 1945 for writing letters critical of Stalin and was sentenced to eight years at labor camps, which would provide the context of his future writings. While in prison he would thank God for what the prison had taught him, about life and about God.

Recently Chuck Colson has written again about Solzhenitsyn. I include some of his thoughts.

For example, describing the Western worldview as "rationalistic humanism," Solzhenitsyn decried the loss of "our concept of a Supreme Complete Entity which used to restrain our passions and our irresponsibility." Man has become "the master of this world . . . who bears no evil within himself," he announced. "So all the defects of life" are attributed to "wrong social systems."

Solzhenitsyn argued that this moral impoverishment had led to a debased definition of freedom, which makes no distinction between "freedoms for good" or "freedoms for evil." Our founders, he reminded us, would scarcely have countenanced "all this freedom with no purpose" but for the "satisfaction of one's whims;" they demanded freedom be granted conditionally upon the individual's constant exercise of his religious responsibilities.

Solzhenitsyn could hardly have imagined that, just 14 years later, the U.S. Supreme Court would enshrine this radical definition of freedom: "At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning of the universe, and of the mystery of human life."

Solzhenitsyn also foresaw the rise of political correctness. "Fashionable trends of thoughts and ideas," he said, "are fastidiously separated from those that are not fashionable." He predicted this would lead to "strong mass prejudices" with people being "hemmed in by the idols of the prevailing fad."

Could even Solzhenitsyn have imagined that sexual rights would in 30 years triumph over free expression, that academia would impose rigid speech codes, or that churches would be threatened with the loss of their tax-exempt status for opposing the homosexual agenda?

On that June day, 30 years ago, Solzhenistsyn predicted that, in time, we would become more concerned with the civil rights of terrorists than with our own national security. Could he have imagined that 30 years later to the week, the Supreme Court, in the case of Boumediene v. Bush, would uphold the civil rights of enemy combatants held at Guantanamo Bay?

Solzhenitsyn also charged the West with losing its "civic courage . . . particularly noticeable among the ruling and intellectual elites." After all, he said, with "unlimited freedom on the choice of pleasures," why should one risk one's precious life in defense of the common good?

Three decades after Solzhenitsyn's speech, Americans find themselves in the grip of violent and pornographic "entertainment," growing censorship of unfashionable ideas, a new wave of isolationism, and a spiritually exhausted citizenry.

The solution Solzhenitsyn offered at the Harvard commencement was for a "spiritual blaze." The question is, have we listened? Do we see signs of awakening? And is there still time to renew ourselves out of our "spiritual exhaustion"?

People who don't believe in missions have not read the New Testament. Right from the beginning Jesus said the field is the world. The early church took Him at His word and went East, West, North and South.

I have but one passion: It is He, it is He alone. The world is the field and the field is the world; and henceforth that country shall be my home where I can be most used in winning souls for Christ. -- Count Nicolaus Ludwn Zinzendorf

The Church exists for nothing else but to draw men into Christ, to make them little Christs. If they are not doing that, all the cathedrals, clergy, missions, sermons, even the Bible itself, are simply a waste of time. God became Man for no other purpose. --C. S. Lewis

The Great Commission is not an option to be considered; it is a command to be obeyed

It is the duty of every Christian to be Christ to his neighbor.

--Martin Luther

If your Gospel isn't touching others, it hasn't touched  you!
--Curry R. Blake

Some wish to live within the sound of a chapel bell; I wish to run a rescue mission within a yard of hell. -- C.T. Studd

I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than in a land flooded with light

We talk of the Second Coming; half the world has never heard of the first.

-- Oswald J. Smith

We Christians are debtors to all men at all times in all places, but we are so smug to the lostness of men. We've been "living in Laodicea ", lax, loose, lustful, and lazy. Why is there this criminal indifference to the lostness of men? Our condemnation is that we know how to live better than we are living. --Leonard Ravenhill

Someone asked Will the heathen who have never heard the Gospel be saved? It is more a question with me whether we -- who have the Gospel and fail to give it to those who have not -- can be saved.

We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God.

It is now possible to live a "christian life" without doing the things that Jesus commanded us to do. "We have hired people to go into all the world, to visit those in prison, to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to care for widows and orphans. The average Christian doesn't have to do it.

God is pursuing with omnipotent passion a worldwide purpose of gathering joyful worshippers for Himself from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has an inexhaustible enthusiasm for the supremacy of His name among the nations. Therefore, let us bring our affections into line with His, and, for the sake of His name, let us renounce the quest for worldly comforts and join His global purpose. -- John Piper

At Eltham, Liddell was an outstanding sportsman, being awarded the Blackheath Cup as the best athlete of his year, playing for the First XI and the First XV by the age of 15, later becoming captain of both the cricket and rugby union teams. His headmaster described

him as being 'entirely without. Eric Liddell became well-known for being the fastest runner in Scotland while at Eltham. Newspapers carried the stories of his successful track meets. Many articles stated that he was a potential Olympic winner, and no one from their country had ever won a gold medal before.

During the summer of 1924, the Olympics were hosted by the city of Paris. Liddell was a committed Christian and refused to run on Sunday (the Sabbath), with the consequence that he was forced to withdraw from the 100 metres race, his best event. The schedule had been published several months earlier, and his decision was made well before the Games began. Liddell spent the intervening months training for the 400 metres, an event in which he had previously excelled. Even so, his success in the 400m was largely unexpected. The day of 400 metres race came, and as Liddell went to the starting blocks, an American masseur slipped a piece of paper in his hand with a quotation from 1 Samuel 2:30, "Those who honor me I will honor." Liddell ran with that piece of paper in his hand. He not only won the race, but broke the existing world record with a time of 47.6 seconds. A few days earlier Liddell had competed in the 200 metre finals, for which he received the bronze medal behind Americans Jackson Scholz and Charles Paddock, beating Harold Abrahams, who finished in sixth place. (This was the second and last race in which these two runners met.)

Because of his birth and death in the country some of China's Olympic literature lists the Scotsman as China's first Olympic champion.

After the Olympics and his graduation, Liddell continued to compete. He returned to Northern China where he served as a missionary, like his parents, from 1925 to 1943 - first in Tianjin and later in Shaochang Liddell's first job as a missionary was as a teacher at an Anglo-Chinese College (grades 1-12) for wealthy Chinese students. It was believed that by teaching the children of the wealthy that they themselves would later become influential figures in China and promote Christian values. He used his athletic experience to train the boys in a number of different sports. One of his many responsibilities was that of superintendent of the Sunday school at Union Church where his father was pastor.

In 1941 life in China was becoming so dangerous that the British Government advised British nationals to leave. Florence and the children left for Canada to stay with her family when Liddell accepted a new position at a rural mission station in Shaochang, which gave service to the poor. He joined his brother, Rob, who was a doctor there. The station was severely short of help and the missionaries who served there were exhausted. There was a constant stream of local people who came at all hours to get medical treatment. Liddell arrived at the station in time to relieve his brother who was ill, needing to go on furlough. Liddell suffered many hardships himself at this mission station. Eric's daughter remembers that her father was still so fast at running that he caught a wild hare for dinner during war rationing.

In his last letter to his wife, written on the day he died, he talks about suffering a nervous breakdown in the camp due to overwork, but in actuality he was suffering from an inoperable brain tumour, to which being overworked and malnourished probably hastened his demise. He died on February 21, 1945, sadly five months before liberation.

Fifty-six years after the 1924 Paris Olympics, Scotsman Allan Wells won the 100 metre dash at the 1980 Moscow Olympics. When asked after the victory if he had run the race for Harold Abrahams, the last 100 metre Olympic winner from Britain (in 1924), Wells replied, "No, this one was for Eric Liddell."

You can learn more about this great Olympian for Christ by either reading one of his biographies or renting the DVD Chariots of Fire

China (MNN) ― The Beijing Olympics is reigniting national pride in young people. The 2008 Games' slogan of "One World, One Dream" points to a future where they will need to engage in a mosaic of languages and cultures.  

To many Chinese, the framework for a bigger picture is the ability to speak English fluently. Erik Burklin with China Partner was just in Sichuan Province teaching a two-week English camp.  

This year, he took a team from his home church in Colorado. The group arrived in Sichuan Province, China to teach the camp just two weeks before the Games began.

The team worked with Reverend Cai, who runs a Christian Humanitarian organization called Hua Mei International. He is also a

local pastor and has taught at a Bible school in Chengdu.

Why this partner? It all has to do with vision. "Hua" is a Chinese reference to China. "Mei" is the first letter of the Chinese word for "America." Hence, "Hua Mei" -- a China-America partnership between the churches. It's a remarkably good fit under the Olympic banner.

Burklin explains, "The purpose of this camp is to teach students conversational English. And what's excellent about this idea is that people who come over as teachers don't have to be professional teachers to be a part of this camp. In fact, it's better if they don't speak any Chinese whatsoever, because that forces the Chinese students to have to speak English." 

Teachers were encouraged to share their faith, but the opening for that came outside of the main course instruction. "We had basic official classes in the mornings, but in the afternoons we would have activities with the students. During those times is when students would come up to the teachers and get to know them better, and the conversation would turn to spiritual things. That's when we had the opportunity to share about our personal faith in Jesus Christ."

Hua Mei made available a Chinese-English Bible to any student who requested one. At the end of the camp, most of the Chinese students ordered a copy to study further the things they talked about with the team. Keep praying that the seeds of the Gospel will take root. Pray that believers cross these students' paths and that they will be ready with answers.

China (MNN) ― China is going all out in its opulent display of the Olympic Games. 

Gregg Harris with Far East Broadcasting Company says the enthusiasm carries over to what their team is doing through especially themed programs. FEBC currently airs more than 40 hours a day of special programs related to the Olympics.

Harris explains that "these programs for the Olympics are really designed to sort of draw listeners into the larger FEBC program so that they can first hear these programs that are very interesting to them--they're not specifically evangelistic. But then [we hope] they'll want to stay tuned and listen to the evangelistic programs. We sure hope they find Christ like so many thousands already have."

The team is working around Surmounting Summits, which concerns not only the challenges of athletes, but also spiritual struggles. 

Among the programs is a radio drama, Pure Gold. It's the biography of missionary Eric Liddell, the 1924 Olympic champion of the 400-meter dash. Another program, Never Mediocre, will be aired live from FEBC transmitters in the Philippines. Christian athletes such as Chinese tennis champion Michael Cheng are among the featured guests.

Harris says the government has forbidden foreign evangelism during the Games. FEBC did send a team to Beijing, and the security measures designed to protect both athletes and tourists will make their work challenging.

However, he notes: "We have always maintained a very positive relationship with the government. That's what allows us to broadcast so many hours a day of Christian programming without being

1 Thessalonians 5:19

The voice of the Spirit of God is as gentle as a summer breeze— so gentle that unless you are living in complete fellowship and oneness with God, you will never hear it. The sense of warning and restraint that the Spirit gives comes to us in the most amazingly gentle ways. And if you are not sensitive enough to detect His voice, you will quench it, and your spiritual life will be impaired. This sense of restraint will always come as a "still small voice" ( 1 Kings 19:12  ), so faint that no one except a saint of God will notice it.

Beware if in sharing your personal testimony you continually have to look back, saying, "Once, a number of years ago, I was saved." If you have put your "hand to the plow" and are walking in the light, there is no "looking back"— the past is instilled into the present wonder of fellowship and oneness with God ( Luke 9:62 ; also see 1 John 1:6-7 ). If you get out of the light, you become a sentimental Christian, and live only on your memories, and your testimony will have a hard metallic ring to it. Beware of trying to cover up your present refusal to "walk in the light" by recalling your past experiences when you did "walk in the light" ( 1 John 1:7  ). When-ever the Spirit gives you that sense of restraint, call a halt and make things right, or else you will go on quenching and grieving Him without even knowing it.

Suppose God brings you to a crisis and you almost endure it, but not completely. He will engineer the crisis again, but this time some of the intensity will be lost. You will have less discernment and more humiliation at having disobeyed. If you continue to grieve His Spirit, there will come a time when that crisis cannot be repeated, because you have totally quenched Him. But if you will go on through the crisis, your life will become a hymn of praise to God. Never become attached to anything that continues to hurt God. For you to be free of it, God must be allowed to hurt whatever it may be.

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Carlos Guerra, Christina Noriega, Sean Higgins, Leslie Lucero-Guiterrez, Michael Eidel, Jennifer Ringler, Gus Davis Jr. & Andrea Guidera Baptized at the Crossroads Picnic, July 13, 2008

Carlos Guerra, Christina Noriega, Leslie Lucero-Guiterrez, Michael Eidel, Gus Davis Jr. John & Andrea Guidera who were received into membership at Crossroads August 10, 2008