What we signed up for?

Our agreement with God!

Many believers find after years of service that they get left behind by the next generation and we may at times feel why did struggle so much for?

In this last age of human history there has been some dramatic changes, motorised transport, the invention of television and now the Internet, Space travel, electric cars, hydrogen surpassing the burning of fossil fuels and nuclear power if not war?

We may have written our own tracts, preached and taught, while today people use apps, watch videos on their phones and tablets and share via the web, even with the continuing Pandemic ekklesia is moving in to virtual rather than physical!

What we need to do is accept and be glad that younger people are getting saved and that our experience of life may be of help to all who are struggling?

Matthew 20:9-11, Luke 15:31-32, Romans 3:23, 6:23.

How God see’s Us!

Embracing and Kissing?

Luke 15 found in the Gospels of the New Testament is not a chapter to be overlooked, since it is the story of salvation and a revelation of how God see’s us!

Sometimes in the Ekklesia we forget some essentials mentioned by Jesus, such as the one s in Luke 15:20-21 and the ministry of washing each others feet as maybe not literal, when they are?

This young man has squandered his inheritance and sees sense to go home, he thinks through what he must say to his father!

But his father sees him coming and is ready with love for the one who was lost, this theme is not new, we see it with Esau and Jacob love in practice!

We also see it with Absalom even though much was given to him, he chose to fail and oppose his father for the throne, that was not his to have!

Genesis 33:4, 2 Samuel 14:33, Acts 14:33.

We need each Other?

As Believers!

Meeting together is hard for many of us in closed countries, some religious others unbelieving by state control? But for others it is illness, forgotten in the numbers, rejection, being outcast for mistakes, mental-illness and other?

God only wants things for a time to teach people to try harder and not fall backwards, but get up say sorry to Him first and get moving again!

We should know that it is hard to be a ‘Christian, but its worth it, since we are a saved people with a eternal hope and purpose and we have been empowered by the Spirit of God to reach out to others and to see souls saved!

We are also a people of prayer, of communicating with our creator and knowing that He hears and answers our prayers, heals people, influences governments and leaders even without them being aware of their right actions with integrity and that our Lord is coming back for us at the end of the ages!

John 16:7-9, Ephesians 5:21, Jude 1:15, Revelation 6:9-10.

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.