MJY Strategies
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Dec-15-2020 | MJY StrategiesA Perspective on Breakthrough
How do we get breakthrough in our circumstances?
There are scores of studies that link poverty to mindset and specifically to scarcity mindset and fatalism. But as Christians, how do we change our mindset when we are facing negative circumstances?
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Dec-06-2020 | MJY StrategiesGod Rescues Us for God-Sized Dreams
What inspired your first, “yes” to God?
Some of us came to God because we experienced or observed his love and goodness. It inspired us to worship him and follow him. Like Peter said to Jesus when he asked if they would leave him, “To who would we go? You have the words of eternal life!”
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Nov-29-2020 | MJY StrategiesWhy You Desperately Need a Reward
The biblical concept of giving has reward imbedded in it. The Trinity is an overflow of love. Agape love is not stagnant, it is flowing. Love gives. It begins with God giving us his love through the gift of life, of being born. Fearfully and wonderfully formed in our mother’s womb. But life here continues with the opportunity to say, “Yes!” to God and receive the gift of faith in him. At that moment, we inherit an eternal family. This relational gift of grace is huge but there is still more…
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Nov-22-2020 | MJY StrategiesNavigating our Tensions with Government
Is it okay to view politics from more than one side?
The early church both honored Rome’s leadership and saw Jesus’ kingship over the cosmos. How can you have two world rulers? “By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance’” (Isaiah 45:23). Paul paraphrases this in Philippians 2:9 to mean Jesus. In contrast to this, we are told to “honor the emperor” (1 Peter 2:17). It is a tension to determine what ruler we should honor.
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Nov-15-2020 | MJY StrategiesA Time For Violence?
If the church doesn’t understand the problem of violence, she won’t demonstrate the heart of God within the nations.
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Nov-08-2020 | MJY StrategiesConfronting Our Nation’s Impossibilities
It looked like it was all over — 30 leaders thrown in slave labor camp in a region of Myanmar. That was 2006, and I didn’t know what to do, especially considering those captured included all of our key leaders. Our work in the region was hanging by a slender thread, it was over but for God.
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Nov-01-2020 | MJY StrategiesRebuilding Walls
The Bible uses the picture of building walls frequently. It even refers to Jesus as a cornerstone. In Isaiah 58, it says that we will rebuild ancient walls, IF we “spend ourselves in behalf of the hungry, and satisfy the needs of the oppressed” (NIV). If we do this, then we will be a restorer of walls and a “restorer of homes” (NLT). The Bible places feeding the hungry and protecting the oppressed as a step toward restoration of culture and society.
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Oct-25-2020 | MJY StrategiesWho Is Your Enemy?
Christians in this area sometimes face persecution, and missionaries and businessmen have been the target of many kidnappings and executions (including beheadings). The region has been fraught with raids and massacres by militant groups.
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Oct-18-2020 | MJY StrategiesGifts, Character, Wisdom: Pick 2
It appears to me that much of the American church has divided over these two categories in its view of politics. It’s an ugly divorce as wisdom and character are meant to work together. On one side we have policy or platform, and in the other camp we see character.
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Oct-11-2020 | MJY StrategiesThe White Pony
My ancestors first set foot in Myanmar in the later part of the 19th century. William Marcus Young, my great grandfather, was one of the pioneering missionaries in Myanmar (Burma in those days).
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Oct-05-2020 | MJY StrategiesMy Family’s History
Social psychologist Geert Hofstede’s research indicates that values are formed and set into cultures by the rising generation – children. It takes 3 to 4 generations for a culture to really move from one place to another.
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Sep-27-2020 | MJY StrategiesHow to Vote
Would you die as a Christ follower for your political adversaries? Would you make sacrifices to love them? If not, you are disqualified as a Christian voter. You may be a citizen who is voting by legal right, but your vote doesn’t cut mustard in the heavenly realm. Zilch, zero. Stop lying to yourself about what is important! Without cross-Love (love as demonstrated in the cross) our efforts have no spiritual payload.
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Sep-20-2020 | MJY StrategiesLove Your Enemy
When Jesus asks us to love our enemies, it is from a position of authority on the topic. Jesus is the very embodiment of loving one’s enemy. He gave his life in love and service to the very people who took it, and he calls us to do the same.
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Sep-06-2020 | MJY StrategiesA Biblical Model for Our Work
This is why we have made working with children one of the centerpieces of our approach. Our focus on children is rooted in what I believe to be a model for transformation shared with us by Jesus himself.
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Aug-30-2020 | MJY StrategiesProtecting Children from Conflict
One of those difficult questions is whether or not it is best to keep children in the homes of their families. This is a question I get asked a lot, and it is certainly a question worth asking. Of course, the ideal situation for children is to be with their families. However, in the contexts in which our organization works, that may not always be the case.
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