Easter. Two.

The Resurrection!

Jesus in not dead like the heads of other religions past and present, He is alive with His Father in Heaven awaiting that great day of His return, when those who refused to believe in Him will see Him and hide!

The rising if Jesus from the grave is the essential factor for our salvation plan, since we rise with Him in believers baptism to the promised eternal life!

Jesus always hinted to His disciples the way that he was going to die and be raised on the third day!

Jesus spent forty days on earth appearing to over five hundred people, apart from His disciples and then in the Ascension he return t heaven?

In the resurrection we are freed from the curse of the law and we are free from the sting of death!

Mark 8:31, 9:30-31, Acts 2:31-33, Romans 6:5-11.

Christmas Approaches!

A really busy time for Ekklesia?

Each one of us has the challenge of pulling something new out of the story that by tradition seems to be fixed and at that it in its own right is a tremendous one, but there are many part to it that can be added depending on who one is preaching too?

When we look at this story we are seeing the fulfilment of Jewish history and we know that in that brief time of some thirty four years, his own people rejected Him, but since thirty three AD the way and the Ekklesia just keeps on growing and spreading out and now we live in an age that allows us to see it recovering older areas that have died lack to keep sharing Jesus?

Christmas is also a time when we see the dregs of society, the self-opinionated and the good people come to fellowship with us for plethora of reasons, sometimes guilt, other memory of childhood, others just like the atmosphere without the reality and others still in despair of life?

Numbers 24:17, Matthew 2:2, 9-10, 2 Peter 1:19.

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.

Stephen!

The cost for loving Jesus?

Most of us will never have to face death for our faith in God, but many do around the world and more so during Christmas and Easter from deceived and sick people who fail to grasp the truth even about their own religions or atheism!

Many of us do face some form of intimidation, insult and attack from the world daily and it is hard at times to love these idiotic nasty people?

We can be attacked even in fellowship by our so called brothers and sisters, out of spite and jealousy, arguments boil over nothing and can lead to bitter roots something we are warned not to allow in our selves!

Stephen loved Jesus and spoke truth’s that the world could not excuse or hide from, very much as the religious men of Israel denied their Messiah, because He did not meet their standard!

This is a warning to us, that we have to try to reach His standards, knowing that we will fail and that love is one of many elements that make up the character of the Godhead under grace?

Acts 7:1-8:1, Romans 3:25, 2 Corinthians 2:7, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13, 1 John 1:9.

We hope that you can enjoy the Christmas season, even if you are isolated and that you will have a peaceful New Year?

Harvest Time!

From the window box to the plains?

When serving in the inner cities we tend not to see the point of having a harvest festival and yet many members have allotments, gardens, window boxes to sow a few fruit and vegetables so they can count the pennies?

On the other hand the countryside and the small ports have their respective catches of grains and fish and have something to give God the thanks for!

Not many today see a value of the harvest festival, since they associate it only with the material, but Jesus referred to the Spiritual side of all of our callings to witness our faith, share our testimony, speak and pray and then the Angels will reap fields that are white for souls for Eternity?

There are many ways to do these services, giving thanks, involving children, young people and older folks, talking about experience or just a plain service?

The use of the community is important in the role of the food bank and also in growing the wrong crops such as narcotics, showing people a right way and asking them to consider Jesus!

Genesis 8:22, Exodus 23:16, 2 Chronicles 32:28, Matthew 6:26, 13:30, Galatians 6:9, James 3:18.

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.

The Prodigal Son! One.

The Fathers love for Us?

This story that Jesus told is about the young waster and his failure and his redemption being welcomed back into his family!

The illustration is a lovely one of Gods love for this lost world, the meaning of the story could be applied to each one of us, unless we came to know the Lord as a child?

In this series we will start with the last verse since it is the key of the message that we need to rejoice as we see New believers enter into the Ekklesia the family of God!

Luke 15:11-32, Isaiah 35:10, Hosea 14:9.