Zechariah’s Prophecy! Part-Two.

Luke 1:67-80.

The shepherds came and saw the light of the world and so did the Magi, but it would be thirty years before Israel would see their Savior and Messiah!

Prophecy is a great means to an end, but we see Isaiah and Daniel speak words that took over seventy years to come to reality!

Many believers are in the habit of making predictions like the mediums and charlatans and they lower the power of God in this age, while holding antisemitism, they wonder why God will not bring revival to their lands so look in the mirror of your mind and heart and see your filth?

Jesus came millions have believed and they continue to come while it is still the day light, because the darkness is coming much faster than ever and our fates are sealed!

Luke 11:35, Acts 26:18, Ephesians 6:12, Revelation 16:10.

Zechariah’s Prophecy! Part-One.

Luke 1:67-79.

We tend to over look this New Testament Prophecy, perhaps because it points to the Jewish race and to that of John, who would make a way for Jesus the Messiah to come!

But in these few verses is some invaluable lessons as to the events that were taking place in Jerusalem two thousand years ago and continue to this day in the form of anti-Semitism and even in Ekklesia by many who fail to understand what the Holy Bible is saying?

These human reactions prove that some who profess a faith, are not what they say they are, while others have been mislead into false or not fully understood teachings! Verses 69-71 sum up the connection of events past and present in the day of Jesus appearing and His role in redeeming the nation and all who believe in Him?

But those he came for rejected Him as much as many continue to so today!

Psalm 18:2-3, 132:17-18, Luke 1:32-33, Romans 9:4-5.

Gifts of the Holy Spirit!

What are they for?

A great debate rages in the Ekklesia today in relation to the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with many claiming that that time in the book of acts is over?

But if we take time and end our doctrinal blind spots we will take note that in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 4 we are told the essential reason, before hitting the juicy bits!

Gifts, service and activity are the essentials of being touched at His will by the Holy Spirit, one who will remain active and effective in the lives of all believers who remain in fellowship with God.

We cannot preach, teach, witness, share, talk about God without the Holy Spirit, we have to be touched and given each individually our gifting, so that we may serve, so that we will remain active no matter what Satan tries to use to draw us down?

Romans 15:17, 2 Corinthians 9:12, Ephesians 4:12, 2 Timothy 4:5, Hebrews 12:28, James 2:22, Revelation 2:19.

The Prodigal Son! Three.

Jealousy?

Infuriation might be a better word for the son who worked away and did not flout his fathers inheritance!

But like many Christians today in Ekklesia they miss the point when a prostitute or a big time criminal gets saved, it makes the place, reputation of good living look dirty?

Because their hearts were blinded to God’s love and mercy on the lost, just as this father took back his son and so we have a powerful evangelism tool with Luke 15 that can be applied in the community and worldwide today?

As believers we are always now with our father who through the good works of Jesus has bought us with blood and when we see the uncomfortable coming in let us rejoice for God has brought another home!

Luke 15:11-32, Romans 15:9-13, Ephesians 2:1-10.

Christian despair & Depression!

‘Not a bed of Roses?

The statement, ‘It is hard to be a believer, should not be under estimated, since many of us who are now long in the faith now the pain and costs that are involved as we progress in that race that the Apostle Paul encourages us with!

Ekklesia has much to answer to when it comes to depression, mental-illness and despair amongst believers? What was at one time referred to for missionaries is now widespread in the body, since many of us live in pluralistic societies that are hostile to Christians?

Nothing much has changed from the times of the pagan world of the early followers of the way to modern times, the world has turned back to the worship of nature and abandoned the God of the Holy Bible and many believers are starting to fall away, as we are told is to happen!

But we have a God who loves us and His son Jesus who died for us, we must run to Him and trust to endure and to press on? It is indeed very hard, but the price for us is too great to know give up or let go? Let us encourage one and another and help, pray, financials and a roof?

2 Corinthians 4:8-11, Psalm 56:2-3, Proverbs 8:10, 1 Peter 1:7, 4:12-14.

The continued Value of….

Preaching?

We tend in the west today to excuse the need to stand on a soap box and degrade our dignity on a street corner to tell dying society around us of the Good News of Jesus!

Christians have allowed the standards of the world to influence us and so in many places the faith is in decline? Some say it is different now with technology and the Internet, but one did not see much to qualify this during the pandemic in the British Isles so it is not true!

The world cannot see and does not want know, unless someone has the courage to speak and share Jesus and from this point to that of the pulpit, people need quality teaching and the altar call for people to believe that God loves them and gave to us His One and Only son, forgiving us of our pasts and promising to us the Eternal Life!

It is a simple message that needs to be got out and proclaimed by believers who will surrender all, not just the words of a hymn on a Sunday morning, but everyday?

Acts 2:26-31, 8:25, 14:6, 21, Romans 10:14, 1 Corinthians 15:1, 11, Galatians 4:13, Philippians 1:30, Colossians 1:23, 1 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 3:7, 15, 2 Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:9, 20:4.

Why are some verses Missing?

Even the KJV has it wrong when it comes to the Greek!

Our test is a series of passages found in the New Testament of the four Gospels in relation to an End time event in one being left behind. Many books and films have been made over the years for Christians in relation to the matter that is scary even for us believers?

In Luke 17:35-37, some modern translations have no verse 36 and this would correspond to the Greek text!

One did wonder why, but one reading it a couple of times, two illustrations are used for the same event one for men and the other for woman! This may upset many, but the truth is that the writer here was coming from a Jewish-Hebrew perspective and translating into Greek.

Matthew 24:23-41 (40-41), Mark 13:32-37.

‘Which Bible!

Translation is the Best or is Right?

Many of us who preach will use a modern version to get what we want to say out in modern language of today to people who do not have any understanding of anything to do with God? But when it comes to our own study we seek the basis of the King James version to get refences to Strong’s lexicon or something similar!

But a knowledge of the ability to read the Hebrew and Greek does not always make it as easy as many lay people think and this has been an ongoing problem for the last two thousand years? Since the Greek raises more options in the choice of words that can be used and many people do not fully understand this getting hot under the collar in relation to the KJV being so called adulterated when it is not!

What is more important is the application of the message that is being taught, preached or shared, by others or in our own reading and understanding of it for daily living?

Proverbs 3:2, Matthew 4:23, Mark 9:31, John 8:51, 1 Corinthians 11:23, 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 6:1-2, 2 John 1:9, Revelation 3:8.

The Interactive 2021.

Now we know that it is like to be a believer in a closed Nation?

Still many leaders are clinging to Church ideals that were established four hundred years ago, but this pandemic is proving that we have to change with the technology and the internet the Ekklesia is becoming more of an individual experience!

Meeting together in the years to come, may only be for limited reasons, the breaking of bread, baptism, marriages, child dedications and funerals?

This has been coming for some time, but traditionalism has ruled the day, the house Church movement was perhaps the first, while many Christian organizations are now online with devotional and daily readings, videos and other!

Matthew 18:20, John 4:23-24, Acts 2:42, 46, Hebrews 10:25, 1 John 4:6.

Preparing for Christmas!

A different kind of Year?

Many governments are still locking down places of worship and making it difficult for Christians, when pub, clubs, and shopping malls can be flooded with thousands of people? It reveals to us that in Britain and many other countries that our leaders are pagan in their idealism and hostile to the truth that points out their own failings!

Christmas and Easter are the large festivals for the Ekklesia, in relation to the birth of Jesus the Jewish Messiah and the Saviour of the world, while Eater marks that important death for the final atonement for sin and the promise through Jesus resurrection of eternal life.

We who preach, teach, witness and share have to be prepared well in advance for these holidays using traditional methods, but also allowing younger believers to use the latest in technology and the Internet?

Our mission field has expanded from the local community to the world and we must not be afraid, but rejoice in what God is doing in these last days!

Psalm 22:31, 71:17-18, Isaiah 3:9, 42:9, Matthew 10:7, Mark 16:15, Acts 26:23, Romans 4:17, Colossians 1:28, Titus 3:5, Hebrews 12:24, 1 John 1:5, Revelation 14:6.