Martyrdom?

The ultimate cost of faith in Jesus!

There will not be many in western society who will die this season for their faith in God, but in the rest of the world this is a daily occurrence?

Many convert from Islam in the west do face being murdered by their families, but the media has been told not to report this since they want to portray Islam as a religion of peace and staying on good terms with Arab friends!

Stephen was the first Christian Martyr, he was a man who was killed by others who knew the truth but refused to believe or repent, since they were comfortable in their religion! This is the same today with the world they are blinded by fear and stupefied by what they think is enough?

Acts 6:5-7:59, 8:1, 11:19, 22:10, Romans 1:32, 2 Timothy 3:16, Revelation 17:6.

Believers Baptism?

A tough area of Contention!

Should a Born-Again believer be baptised or not?

Is it important to be baptised and do we have too be?

These and many more complex questions have been debated in Ekklesia over the last two-thousand years, and even today there is no clear understanding that is acceptable to all sides!

Many of the early Churches from three-hundred Ad to the time of the German Reformation of Martin Luther went with child baptism, since it was easier and pleased most? The Church from that time kept an exclusiveness on the Scriptures, through the clergy and the common man had to take the word or control as it was distributed with local superstitions and curses?

The most tremendous fact about baptism is that of the thief on the cross who entered heaven, without being baptised! This perhaps is the best clarification on the matter that are faith is on Jesus and focussed on how we are lead by Him and will follow Him doing, loving, caring and showing concern, while witnessing His truth to the dying world around us!

Luke 23:43. Romans 5:21, 1 Timothy 1:15, Hebrews 7:25, Revelation 2:7.

The Value of Preaching? Two.

The Altar Call?

At one time this was the essential of leading those who were ready to repent to faith in Jesus, despite the terminology it remained an effective tool in Evangelism to lead to the lost to Jesus!

The preaching of Jesus death and resurrection remains essential today in ever increasing hostile and anti-Christian world! Our societies are in a state of moral collapse and the world is justifying sin, since it sees the Church doing the same!

An active Church is one that is preaching and reaching, while also comforting and helping the needy of the believers conscience rather than some far flung government scheme! Prayer must not be used as an excuse not to talk to people and share our faith with them?

Colossians 2:12, 1 Timothy 2:1-7, 2 Peter 1:8, Revelation 1:4, 11, 20.

Sunday evening Services! Two.

Ekklesia is not like the Kosmon?

What is being lost in not having an Sunday evening service is that of fellowship of believers ahead of the working week! The world is very hostile most of the time to believers, we are attacked for what disagrees with their standards and ours are dismissed as archaic?

A two hour slot of praise, prayer and preaching with an after fellowship of just meeting and talking with folk is the varied ways of helping and leading others to God! When you have worked prior to going into ministry, you are more likely to see the needs in particular loneliness and despair!

God came to save sinners and the Ekklesia is a place for believers to meet together and be built up, its not a club or some unneeded tradition of religious observance! We need to help those who are seeking God and keep our flocks well watered and fed?

Acts 2:42, Romans 16:8, Philippians 2:1, Philemon 1:6, 1 John 1:6.

HELL?

Who will be There?

The Holy Bible says all who have refused to believe and wicked cruel people! But that definition of sinners has changed today, because not all sin is sin, like loving children and same sex relationships?

Society and some elements of the Church have accepted sin on this one level, which does now justify the right to kill, steal, lie, be dishonest and disobey God! But this is not Gods way and we will have to give an account of our actions in this life!

Hope in God being fair is not good enough, because He has no favorites and what He says remains because we are believers we know that He does not change. There is a separation from God and it is well listed wither some leaders believe it or not in the Bible that not everyone is going to be in heaven!

Darkness, fires, unquenchable pain and all mentioned along with the bottomless pit and the torment of the Devil for Eternity! We cannot afford as leaders, evangelists and Pastors to ignore these facts and lead others in to a false sense of security when this is the reality of all who will be lost!

Deuteronomy 32:22, Psalm 55:15, Proverbs 27:20, Isaiah 28:15, Ezekiel 31:16, Matthew 23:33, Mark 9:43-48, Luke 16:22-23, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, Ephesians 6:16, 2 Peter 2:4, Revelation 1:18, 21:8, 22:15.

DAY TWO!

The EASTER Story.

Much has been written about the events of Easter, the death of Jesus on the cross/stake/tree are the essentials of the power of our redemption and forgiveness of failures to the promise of the New Life or being Born-Again!

We also know of the much in connection to the resurrection of Jesus from the grave and again the fulness of the promise of Eternal Salvation, but the hours between these two tremendous events are hardly ever covered in detail?

We get but a glimpse of the burial of Jesus, the torn curtain in the Temple in Jerusalem and the lies that were put in place to dishonour these events! When Easter is over Pentecost is the next episode of the Christian Church, missing out the Ascension of Jesus!

Matthew 27:33-66, Mark 15:47- 16:1, Luke 23:55-56.

The Book of Revelation! Two.

Israel and the 144.000?

This is proof that God has not given up on the Jewish people or the restoration of them in the land that He gave them!

Anti-Semitism and anti-Israel are rife today in the European Christian scene, because the roots of the Nazi-German Holocaust lives on disguised as pro-Palestinian issues?

We are in great danger of loosing our salvation, when we allow the world to interfere with our faith in God and our claimed walk with Jesus? Some believers claim they are able to balance this out, but this is not true! One cannot be lukewarm with God, we are either with Him or not!

The Kingdom of Israel will be established and filled with the 144,000 chosen of God, this one thousand year reign on the Earth will be followed by the end!

Matthew 25:34, 26:29, John 3:3, 14-18, Acts 17:31, 1 Corinthians 1:20-21, 26-28, 2:12, 3:18-19, Galatians 6:14, Revelation 1:6, 5:10, 7:4, 11:15, 14:1, 3, 16:10, 17:17, 19:6, 22:5,

Our Choices?

Choosing right from Wrong!

Taking a look at the world today we hear and see nothing more than death through murder and terrorism, but also war and traffic incidents and also other accidents!

Making choices is a difficult subject to cover in one blog post, but we will at this time take a cover of the subject and later develop it into something much deeper.

Looking at the actions of Brenton Tarrant points to an heart full of hatred and evil and mixed up man? But it was he alone who made the choice to carry out these attacks on over one hundred people praying in two Mosques!

Was he demon possessed or did he do it of his own choice? Its tough to know, perhaps those who examine him will know better as to his motives, because the actions of the crazed are not always the work of the Devil!

Exodus 32:22, Numbers 14:37, 35:21, Psalm 94:6, Matthew 15:9, Luke 11:13, John 7:7, Romans 9:18, 12:9, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Colossians 1:21, James 2:4, 11, 1 Peter 3:9.

Adultery and Divorce!

A plague in modern Society?

Marriage today has become cheap, being not much more than a fad something to be experienced and then broken up and put aside?

No longer is marriage between and man and a woman, but now it is same sex running contrary to the teachings of the Holy Bible because its based on selfish motives and lust over that of love and forgiveness!

Christians are failing to speak out or to condemn evil practices in our nations and society! The fear of man now predominates the Church were ever it has got a foothold?

There does not seem to be a separation line between faith and the world, something to show that when we are born-again we have become a changed people? We have to live in the world, but the world must not live in us influencing us back to what we were before!

Believers need to show couples getting married in Churches the seriousness of what they are doing, the vows and promises they are making to God first and then to each other! The need to forgive when each will fail, to know that we have to forgive, since He first forgave us!

That same sex marriage is wrong and is an abomination to God, love here is not the question but rather lust which is evil and leads to many other sexual sins!

Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Psalm 81:12, Matthew 5:28, Mark 10:11-12, Luke 16:15, 18, Romans 1:27, 7:3, 1 Corinthians 6:9, 7:2-3, 11:12, Ephesians 4:32, Colossian 3:13, Hebrews 13:4, 2 Peter 2:10.